Taboo (2): The Worth of the Dead

Stepping through the sticky pools of blood wasn't exactly pleasant.

But I suppressed my emotions.

"…"

First, I gathered all the bags they were carrying in one spot, then started rummaging through the corpses. The greatsword and armor gripped by the man. The staff and blue robe clutched in the mage's hand. The small leather pouches pulled from the woman's bosom.

I took everything without leaving a single thing behind. I roughly wiped off the blood from the gear, lined it up on the table, and emptied out all the contents of the bags. Then I turned on the hologram camera and snapped a photo of all the items together.

And then I picked up each one individually for close-up shots.

As soon as the photos went up, reactions poured in.

Reading the gallery's excited comments, my own anticipation swelled inside.

'A party that made it this far up the tower... they must have decent gear.'

But everyone's hype crashed soon after.

A moment later, a new post from SSS Item Puller appeared at the top of the gallery main board.

"……"

Nothing special, huh.

Or maybe Demon Army standards are just high.

They get hundreds of gold coins just for chilling every month, and shop full of items hard to buy even with that. Guess folks used to that.

"……"

Kill 'em with these hands then pray for their souls? That's disgusting. More like desecration than a funeral.

Even if the gear's worthless, once I kill 'em, everything gets used.

That's the only way I can give it all value.

I slipped the bracelet on my wrist and swept the rest—weapons, armor, junk—into my inventory. Farming done.

I moved away from the rolling corpses.

And the moment I reopened the gallery.

Some disagreement brewing.

Was there actually good stuff in the items?

Corpses?

A chill ran down my spine at the ominous vibe.

As the gallery buzzed over the fluid nick calling corpses "material items," a fixed nick who always left gentle replies on my posts showed up.

"……"

I didn't know exactly, but I was starting to get the gist.

I stared at the scattered corpses on the floor.

"Didn't plan to go that far..."

I'd make everything valuable, but using the corpses themselves as materials? Whole other level.

"Just store 'em for now..."

"If the system allows..."

I reached out with trembling hand, placed it on the blood-soaked human swordsman's torso, and activated inventory.

Swoosh—

The massive corpse vanished into the hologram window before my eyes.

"This is insane, for real."

Eyes squeezed shut, I swept the limbs, the swordsman's skull—everything—into inventory.

60F was clean now. I plopped into the folding chair and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sighed.

As if waiting for me to finish, a post updated at the top of the gallery main board.

"Emergency?"

Everything's always an emergency, so it didn't hit hard.

I clicked in without much thought.

But seeing the poster's floor and first line made my heart drop.