Chapter 20
1.
It was a coincidence that Sunming showed up there.
According to Akit and Areng, the Mushroom Factory is ridiculously huge, and the odds of the hotel elevator dropping people right where other people are are extremely slim.
Irasshaimase!!!!
It was inevitable that I pulled the trigger.
I told you earlier, didn't I?
When fixers meet another fixer in a Rift, there's nothing but a death match waiting.
On top of that, our hands were overflowing with loot.
We'd already had trouble outside.
Every condition was demanding that I pull the trigger.
Kheuk!
Then....
Fuck, that hurts, you mouse-dick bastard.
How was I supposed to explain Sunming, a Rank 7 I'd thought was nothing but a pushover, moving around just fine even after taking a bullet?
Was it a coincidence again? Had the bullet somehow gone out weakly?
"Ow, big brother. Sorry."
"What do you mean, bro... you piece of shit."
"Sometimes it just does this...!"
-Bang!
"It misfires!"
Kheuk!
Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger again, and hit him again.
"Well, aren't you a feisty bastard?"
But all it did was put a vicious, demon-faced scowl on Sunming's face; he was still perfectly fine.
As if he'd been hit by a fist, not a bullet.
"You fucking bastards! All of you are getting turned into mushroom fairies!"
"Brother Sunming! W-we were threatened too!"
"We have nothing to do with this bastard!"
What treacherous bastards!
Flames ignited from the hammer Sunming was holding.
It wasn't a simple hammer.
A rocket hammer that boosts its power by blasting propellant from the side opposite the striking head.
"Don't bullshit me!!!"
Sunming's body, turning that thrust into a dash, blurred like a mirage—then, in an instant, he smashed Areng with the hammer.
"Aaaagh!!!"
Areng, caught by the rocket hammer, went flying like a spring toy.
A speed even Laplace's Eye couldn't make sense of.
"B-Brother, please listen to me...!"
"Fuck off!"
As if he didn't even need the hammer, Sunming kicked him in the gut.
Akit was launched in the same direction Areng had flown.
It took Sunming less than three seconds to take out the two Rank 8s.
"You fucking bastards, do you know how much money I spent on Augmentation? Why the hell would trash like you be fit to sit at the same table with me?"
Sunming cracked his neck with a series of pops and threw me a murderous look.
"Hey, you're really acting up just because you trust that little thing?"
My flesh trembled under that heavy pressure, a pressure nothing like some extra could produce.
No way, Rank 7 is this strong?
Wait, at Rank 7, even a Sandevistan counts as a basic implant?
Then what does that make Akit and Areng, who were trembling because they didn't want to enter the Mushroom Factory even though they were Rank 8?
I had completely misunderstood.
Just one rank difference.
But the level is different.
A Rank 7 fixer wasn't the kind of opponent you could just blast to death with Hero.
"Now it’s just the two of us, huh?"
However he moved that massive body, Sunming's form blurred again.
I sharpened my focus.
My brain grew hot, and my vision changed.
Laplace's Eye started reading the laws of physics.
Sunming's body zigzagged as he charged at me.
I matched the timing and reflexively pulled the trigger.
-Ting!
But it only sparked in a corner of the factory and ricocheted away.
Even if I could roughly read his movements with Laplace's Eye, he was too fast to respond to.
It felt like a starving wild bear was charging at me.
I had two bullets left.
-Bang! Bang!
I calmly pulled the trigger twice.
Fuck.
Both shots missed.
Sunming had already closed to point-blank range, and from between his bared teeth, white steam-like breath poured out.
-Smack!
"Pase!"
"Kuhk!"
My head whipped around as if I'd been hit by a boulder.
What did he hit me with? A fist? Did he smash me with the hammer?
The pain of my neck bones being crushed and the numbness at the base of my tongue rang through my skull.
"What, you really were a total fucking idiot? What gave you the guts to come at me?"
When I came to, I was hanging in the air by my collar.
An immense force, as if I'd been lifted by heavy machinery.
It was the same situation as earlier in the hotel lobby.
The difference was that Sunming had hoisted me up like he was about to strangle me with my collar.
And there was no hotel staff here to stop him.
"You bastard, act up like you did before. Hm?"
Sunming's other hand drove into my dangling abdomen.
-Crunch
"Kkeek!"
Ah, wait.
I just heard something weird from my spine.
That hurts like hell.
It's a completely different pain from being cut down with a knife.
My breathing was forcibly cut off.
I only got hit in the stomach, but a horrifying pain, as if my entire body were being crushed, spread in a shiver all the way to my fingertips and toes.
"You were a weak little bastard acting tough? That’s hilarious. I told you to act tough like before."
Sunming sneered, shaking my limp body with one hand.
Even I'd laugh if I were him; it'd be too ridiculous.
What kind of idiot move was I even making?
I’d been going on about the law of the jungle, then acting all smug just because I got one gun.
After getting split in half twice by Samurai Bitch, I still hadn't learned a thing.
"Heh... heh-heh...."
"What’s so funny?"
"...Hit me."
"What?"
"H-h, hit me again. It tickles so much... I can’t even tell if you’re hitting me..."
My pronunciation had gone to shit.
Where my teeth used to be was empty, and instead my mouth was filled with hard little bone shards with a metallic taste.
The side of my face he'd hit had swollen up like a balloon, and I'd completely lost sight out of one eye.
"You fucking bastard...."
Maybe pissed off by the taunt, Sunming lifted me up again and smashed my stomach.
-Crack!
If my mistake had been a lack of metacognition.
Sunming's mistake was falling for my taunt so readily.
I felt the unmistakable crack of broken ribs... and a definite urge to vomit.
Uweeeeeek!!!!!
This time I didn't hold back the retch and threw everything up onto Sunming's face.
Aaaaagh!!!!!
Sunming, startled as vomit splashed across his face, flung me away.
"Y-you fucking psycho!!!"
"S-sorry. I didn’t know you were that strong..."
"I was going to let you die nicely, but not anymore."
Sunming, drenched in vomit, raised his hammer with murderous intent.
The veins bulging on his forehead made it clear he was seriously pissed.
"I'll grind you down slowly, from your fingers to your toes."
He probably had enough strength to do that.
I acknowledge you.
You're a man worthy of being called the Sun King.
I grinned before the Sun King, who had ruled an era with nothing but a single hammer.
"Split me? I... how scary... w-w-what... my, my pronunciation..."
His expression began twisting minute by minute.
The guy, who'd been stammering, collapsed to the ground as if his legs had given out.
"Tastes g-great, huh?"
Of course it does.
The vomit that soaked him wasn't ordinary vomit.
It was batter for poison-mushroom pancakes, made by chewing through every poisonous mushroom in this factory for nearly two hours.
"Kuhk! Kheuk! Kheh-heh-heh!"
Sunming's face, still clutching my throat, turned into a greenish bloated melon.
Unable to breathe properly, he wheezed like he was in labor and flailed around among the moss and mushrooms.
"Fuck... fuckkk! Kehek! Keheek! You... bastard... what... did you... do to me...!"
"Hahaha! Hahahahaha!!! Y-you idiot... cough! cough!"
Sunming crawled toward me with venom in his eyes, intent on killing me.
I scrambled backward, flailing my butt and arms as I fled.
The suffocating chase didn't last long.
"Kek! Grrrgh...."
Sunming died, coughing up blood like a dog that had gone down the wrong pipe.
:::Challenge Objectives(New!):::
- Kill a Rank 7 fixer +3pt
"Ah, fuck... it hurts like hell...."
I watched that sight and tried to stand up.
No, I meant to stand up.
But I couldn't.
"Kraaaagh!!!"
There wasn't a single intact bone in my body.
My spine looked like it could go straight into a Chuseok gift set....
I couldn't even stand, let alone walk on my own.
So this is the karma for bleeding House Montraven dry.
Haa... fuck... what a fucking shitty city.
This run's fucked.
And I don't think I can make it to the exit alone in this state....
I've already earned a decent number of points, so should I roll gacha?
No, that'd be stupid.
It's only the first day of Necropolis, after all.
If what I'm doing were a roguelite game, then my current condition is like having my stats wrecked on the first stage.
This is a reroll.
I was just unlucky.
I just got hit by Truck-kun.
Who would've known Sunming would show up?
Still.
It's not all bad.
I got a ton of challenge-objective points, and the evil-averting charm still has uses left.
When Sunming hit me, I spotted Hero flying off over there.
Rather than get eaten by mushrooms or turn into one....
Let's end this cleanly and happily.
Ugh... huh... ugh... shi-....
It was when I was crawling clumsily toward Hero.
"Brother Gatsu...?"
I saw the brothers Akit and Areng walking in from a corner of the factory, supporting each other.
You bastards! You were alive!
Areng didn't look terribly fine, but thankfully he looked better off than me.
At this rate, maybe I wouldn't have to move on to the next run....
Akit and Areng, trudging over, found the dead Sunming.
Then they looked at me, half broken to pieces.
......
......
In the sticky silence that stretched on, I...
saw their greed.
Hah.
Fuck.
That's the world for you.
Yeah, of course.
I know Akit is left-handed and has hemorrhoids, so he has to watch his posture whenever he sits.
I know Areng is Akit's younger brother, likes women with big asses, and follows his older brother around really well.
To me, Akit and Areng are comrades I've been through life and death with for over a week.
But no matter how much inner closeness I feel toward Akit and Areng, to them I'm just a mysterious man they've known for one day.
That same guy, who took over their office by force and dragged them into the Rift.
And that guy is dying with an appetizing artifact in his hands.
I'd probably make the same choice.
The two of them each drew their weapons from their waists.
Akit had a machete, and Areng had a hammer.
"Hey, don't do it."
I'm saying this for your own good.
Don't.
"Don’t what, you idiot! Die! Die!"
"Who the hell said you could talk to me casually, you fucking bastard? Hand over the artifact!"
The machete and hammer swung down over my body as I crawled on the floor.
Again and again.
A hammer buried itself in the back of my head, and my face was slammed into the moss and mushroom pile.
The sounds of bones breaking and flesh being crushed shook the ground and flowed back into my ears.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck....
I don't think I'll ever be able to eat nakji-tangtang-yi again.
I'd sympathize with it.
======
『 ED 2. Golden Goblin 』
You died clutching a single shining pebble to your chest.
Under your companion's sword and hammer, no less.
In Necropolis, trust is the most expensive luxury.
That foolishness of yours in not knowing that brought about the obvious end.
<Run Summary>
▶ Achievements Earned: None
▶ Acquired Title: 「Poison Mushroom Connoisseur」
▶ Challenge Objectives: +89 pt
※ Death penalty is active ※
[ Late Response ]
[ TS Beam ]
- You start in the body of a cute pretty girl.
- Permanently applied.
The 「Evil-Averting Charm」 prevents [ TS Beam ].
Uses remaining: 3.
At the end of arrogance and folly, may you reach transcendence.
======
2.
I drifted through the space of death, went through Late Response, and landed back in my Necropolis apartment.
As far as I'm concerned, I did nothing wrong.
No matter how I think about it, Late Response is the problem.
"This starting point is way too fucking hellish!!! Stop screwing me over!!!"
I'm not making excuses, okay?
If KakaoTalk had come out in America instead of Korea, it'd have been Instagram!
"Ha, fine... at least I wasn’t born as a pretty girl."
That was lucky, at least.
It was a huge relief.
My greatest advantage, my beastliness, comes entirely from my overwhelming testosterone levels.
And if I were reborn as a pretty girl in this city without the evil-averting charm?
I can't even imagine what kind of horrible things I'd be put through.
Anyway....
"Gotta do what I gotta do."
The start wasn't much different from the previous run.
First, I bought a coat with my remaining points and refilled Hero's ammo.
I roamed the slum alleys, robbing robbers to make seed money.
"Register as a Rank 9 fixer?"
"Yes."
"Name."
"......"
"I said tell me your name."
"Hold up, I’m thinking. Ah, I can just keep Gatsu."
"5,000 Bios."
"Here."
With that money, I registered as a Rank 9 fixer.
-BANG!
"I'M FUCKIN BACK!!!!"
"What the fuck is that!"
I entered the Get Money Office with a picture-perfect door breach.
-Bang! Bang!
Along with two gunshots, the playing cards burst apart like little fireworks.
Akit and Areng were Rank 8s, and Sunming wasn't some absurdly overpowered badass either.
Akit sprawled across the table with his neck snapped back, while Areng went flying off with the chair and all.
Crimson plum blossoms bloomed lavishly across the yellowed glass window.
"That’s what I told you. I said don’t do it."
In just one minute of door breaching, I became the owner of the Get Money Office.
"I’m kinda hungry."
After wrapping everything up in a flash, I was somehow incredibly hungry.
The last thing I ate was poisonous mushrooms, so the aftertaste still felt like it was lingering in my mouth.
When you're hungry, there's nothing like Chapaghetti.
I shoved Akit and Areng into a corner of the office and cooked up some Chapaghetti.
The pinnacle of chemical seasoning, created by Korea's top master's and PhD holders working together.
In a city where they boil up something scooped from the trash and pass it off as food, even the smell is lethal.
"Krr...! That’s the taste."
A savory umami that clings to the tip of my tongue.
If I could pile on some scallion kimchi and slurp it down, I'd have no more wishes.
Still, this is pretty good.
Every drop of sauce sinks right into my bones.
"Slurp, ah fuck, I burned my tongue."
In the quieter-than-ever Get Money Office, only the sound of noodles slurping echoed.
"Ah, I want to see Reverse-Bunny Arbel again...."
This fucking fourth life.
Solo run start.
======
:::Challenge Objectives(New!:::
- Kill a Rank 8 fixer. +2pt