Modification

The second orc jammed the bone back into its mouth the instant Sion turned his head. Schlup, schlup. The first ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠watched that bone with naked envy.

"There, there! Biomass is in, so we can open this now!"

Redi bounced up with a pop from the little screen on the warehouse wall.

A window unfolded before Sion's eyes.

Sion pressed the meat boxes in the component slot. He pressed the first orc among the targets. In the last slot, without a moment's hesitation, he pressed Intelligence.

"Ah, priority isn't a lock-in~ It's probability!"

...Another gacha. Summons were gacha. Enhancements were gacha. The fact that he himself was supposed to have made this game felt doubtful all over again, and for a moment he was genuinely afraid the thing might crack open into real-money purchases next.

"...This doesn't have micro— forget it. This isn't even a CN server."

"I have no idea what you're talking about! Our game doesn't have anything like that!"

Redi spun in a bright little circle.

"...Not yet!"

Not yet.

That single phrase was far more frightening than we don't. Sion decided not to think about it any further and pressed the button.

The four meat boxes on the warehouse ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠floor were swallowed in red light, then melted away as if they had never been there. The bone the second orc had been sucking dropped with a clack.

"Kku, kkurreuk...!"

"Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun..."

Redi supplied the sound effect with her own mouth. In the center of the window, red letters spun round and round. Strength, Speed, Intelligence, Strength, Speed, Intelligence.

Sion glared at them.

Intelligence. Intelligence. Intelligence.

The letters slowed. They seemed to hitch, just once, over Intelligence—and then rolled one slot further.

"...Ta-da!"

"..."

The first orc's body twitched. Its shoulders swelled. The forearms that hung all the way to its knees thickened by a full handspan, veins bulging up like snakes, and its chest split wide as the muscles of its back heaved into lumps beneath the gray-green skin.

The creature's bean-sized eyes grew. Just a little.

It looked down at its own arms. Clenched. Opened. Looked down again. Then it raised both arms overhead and flexed its biceps hard.

"Kkurreuk!!"

"Wooow~! So cool!"

The second orc, watching from the side, had its eyes grow a little too. Then it lifted both arms in imitation. It hadn't been enhanced at all, and still it sucked its gut in and puffed its chest out.

"Kku, kkurreuk!"

Not to be outdone, the first orc changed its pose—twisted at the waist, thrust a flank forward, and clamped one forearm tight across its chest. Flex. The second orc copied it. Flex. In place of muscle, belly fat jiggled.

"Kkurreuk! Kkurreuk!"

"Kkurreuk!"

In the middle of the warehouse, the two hulks took turns striking bodybuilding poses.

A thin line set itself across the lower half of Sion's face.

His teeth ground.

"...Four boxes of meat."

"Hm...?"

"They scarf down four whole boxes of meat, and this is the mug I have to look at."

"I-it's probability, I said! But they did get stronger~ Look, look, they're loving it!"

The first orc turned its back on Sion, spread both arms, and flared its back muscles wide. Only its head came around, glancing this way with the face of something waiting to be praised.

"Kkurreuk?"

...The arms got thick instead of the head.

Bought him a gym membership, and he came back having done nothing but inhale protein.

Sion beckoned the first orc with one finger.

"Come here."

Thud. Thud. It came. With every step the iron floor rang a beat deeper than before.

"Sit."

The day it was first summoned, that word had dropped the creature flat on its belly. The orc cocked its head. And then—

Thoom.

It sat. Rump on the floor, both hands resting on its knees. Properly seated.

"...Oh."

It sat.

...It sat.

That was all it was. And yet, strangely, something in a corner of his chest gave the faintest stir.

...Is this what raising a kid feels like.

"...Stand."

The orc stood. The iron plate where it had been sitting was dented inward in the exact shape of its backside.

"Ah, you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠know fixing that takes Materials too, right~?"

"...Hah."

Whatever had been climbing toward the corner of his mouth slipped back out as a sigh.

...Right. Of course.

Sion jerked his chin at the half pig on the floor.

"Pick it up."

The first orc seized the slab in one hand.

Crunch.

Thick fingers drove straight into the raw flesh. Ribs snapped inside its grip, and mashed meat squeezed out between them.

"Kkurreuk?"

The creature stared down at the ground meat in its palm as if it were a marvel. Beside it, the second orc gaped its mouth wide toward that hand.

...If that were a person, they'd be crushed, bones and all.

What he dragged in next would not be a slab of meat. It would be a person. Breaking them was work for inside the dungeon. Pulp them on the way, and there would be nothing left to wring out.

"People."

Sion bit the words off one at a time.

"Gently."

"...Kkurreuk."

Whether it had understood was still impossible to say. The creature was stuffing the meat-turned-mince into the second orc's mouth. Both of them were still flexing their forearms.

Sion left the warehouse and returned to the Command Room. The two hulks thudded along at his back.

"The dungeon."

"Ah, that..."

Redi poked only her head out from the corner of the screen.

"Materials... did come in, just a teeny bit! The butcher shop's back door, a handle, stuff like that. But it's nowhere near enough to fix a dungeon~"

She floated a number up on one side of the window, then folded it away at once, as if embarrassed.

"Oh, and did you know? The more the monsters smash a site, the more Materials come in! Tear off one door, you get one door. Bring a whole shop down, you get a whole shop's worth!"

"...So."

"So from now on, it'd be great if they went a little wilder~ That's all I'm saying!"

Sion glanced toward a corner of the Command Room. The one that had ripped the handle off the butcher shop's back door and flung it. The one that had thrown a staff dinner in somebody else's walk-in freezer.

...Going wild is the one thing I don't have to worry about.

The trouble was that the Public Disturbance Level climbed right along with the rampage. Stay quiet, and you earned little. Get loud, and you earned a lot. What Redi had told him on the first sortie was only now landing as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠numbers.

"I know."

...For now I'll use it broken. Not like I have a choice.

He had bounced between mold-specked monthly rentals for seven years running. A dungeon was hardly something he couldn't use. It would be repaired in the end anyway, so it was hard to even call it a problem.

When he shifted his gaze, a small number in the corner of the console caught his eye.

"...?"

It was the number that had always sat nailed at 0.00. Only after a long march of zeros past the decimal did a single 1 manage to cling on at the end.

He had taken a captive, wrung her dry, looted the butcher shop, and pulled one more subordinate. After all of that, what had risen was this. One of these.

"...This went up?"

"It went up! 0.001! Congrats~!"

"You call this going up."

"Corruption Rate doesn't climb easily to begin with~ Finish the tutorial—practice, in other words—and once you start moving for real, you'll be able to push it up in no time."

"In no time?"

"Mm... hard to say? Depends how hard you work, doesn't it?"

Even so, 0.01... A single day's interest on seven years of savings would stick on more than this.

Sion took his eyes off the number. He was used to Redi's habit of waving things off by now.

He set the thought aside and drew the map back toward him. The front of the station, the shopping streets, the residential blocks beyond. For seven years he had heard Park Hyejin's routine from across the store counter until he was sick of it—the izakaya after work, the clubs on weekends, and the place she stopped at every time before clocking in.

Second floor of the commercial building across from the station. The Nail Shop with the pink sign.

The nail bragging always came right before her shift.

"Next time, I go in during the day."

"During the day? Isn't that when you sleep, Sion-nim?"

"Before her shift."

"Ooh, so diligent~! Then we stop here for today—hurry up and go sleep!"

Sion rose from the worn leather chair. Squeak. The casters cried out, the way they always did.

In the corner of the Command Room, the two hulks were still comparing forearms.

The next day, two in the afternoon. Because of the job he had run before dawn, the gap between connections ran longer than usual. According to Redi, that gap would shrink later on.

Kwon Sion opened his eyes before the alarm went off. Light from outside struck the wall of the neighboring building and came in faint. There was still a little time before his shift.

He washed his face and sat straight down at the desk.

A boast he had heard dozens of times from the far side of the counter. Nobody had asked, and still she held her nails up to the fluorescent lights and did it again and again.

Today's Thursday.

The useless chatter he had picked up at the store was finally growing a use.

Click.

The air in the Command Room was no different from the night. Only the three-dimensional map on the round dais had changed. People swarmed every street, and cars lined up at every light.

It was daytime.

"Whoa, there are so many people! First daytime abduction, right? Watch the Public Disturbance Level!"

"I know."

Sion drew the map in. The commercial building across from the station, second floor. Beyond the plate glass under the pink sign, brown wavy hair sat in a customer's chair.

Park Hyejin.

All ten nails spread wide, she was filming on her phone as the nail tech stuck new charms on one by one. The corners of her mouth had lifted in satisfaction.

...Getting them done all over again.

In the Other World, those nails had come off one by one against the iron floor. And she did not remember it.

Behind the building lay a narrow parking lot, the place Nail Shop customers left their cars. Park Hyejin's little white compact was parked there too. The lot's mouth sat flush against the main road—people waiting on the light, the terrace of the first-floor café, delivery scooters sliding past.

"Administrator, are you really sure? Daytime eyes are a whole different level from night!"

I know.

An abduction in broad daylight was bound to be loud. The more eyes, the harder the Public Disturbance Level would spike. But at night Park Hyejin was at the store, and until closing he was chained there too. If not these few hours before her shift, there was no gap in which to take her.

I'll take the noise. In exchange, keep it short.

When she comes out—there.

Sion looked back at the corner of the Command Room. The one with the thickened forearms was stroking its own biceps, and the other was glaring at those forearms with envy while poking its belly fat, jab after jab.

The second orc sneakily picked up the bone that had fallen to the floor.

"Leave it."

"...Kkurreuk."

The bone sank slowly back to the floor, reluctant.

"Bring her. Quietly. Gently."

"Kkurreuk!"

"Kkurreuk."