Chapter 89
"Hey, did you really just treat it with spit...?"
@^#%.
When I asked, still looking dazed, the elf answered.
Beside us, the goblin listened to the elf's language through the trumpet and stepped in to translate.
"Goodness, Conductor. That's not what happened. The elf put herbs and mana stone fragments in their mouth, chewed them together to make a makeshift healing potion, and applied it."
"You chewed herbs in your mouth? Together with mana stone fragments?"
I was a little puzzled.
Was there really any reason to chew them up to make a makeshift healing potion?
If a healing potion could be made that way, wouldn't it have been better to prepare one in advance...?
The goblin answered that question as well.
"There weren't nearly enough herbs to prepare them in advance, and it required at least a low-grade mana stone to have any effect, so they couldn't waste them recklessly. Since the Conductor's wound wasn't as deep as it looked, this makeshift ointment was enough to heal it without leaving a scar."
No sooner had the goblin finished translating than the elf took a white handkerchief from their sleeve, covered their mouth, and carefully spat something out with a "ptui."
On the handkerchief lay a green-juice-like residue of mana stone and herbs mixed together.
When I stared blankly at it, the elf quickly hid the handkerchief as though embarrassed.
"Ah."
It was the moment my illusion shattered, but regardless, the elf was my benefactor for stopping my bleeding.
"You saved my life."
@#%%$!
When I gave an awkward smile and bowed my head, the elf wiped around their mouth again and responded with a gentle smile as though nothing had happened.
At the same time, the goblin handling the translation took the trumpet away from their ear.
"...This person talks a lot."
Even that brief exchange left them complaining of fatigue.
Once the treatment was more or less finished, we immediately began cleaning up the area swept by the battle.
The dwarf approached while clearing away the remains of the destroyed barricade and clicked their tongue as they looked at the traces of the dullahan, now reduced to ash.
"Our town sure has terrible luck."
"Huh?"
In response to me, the dwarf rested their heavy hammer on their shoulder and shook their head.
"The fact that we managed to stop it was a miracle. That dullahan... even ordinary incarnations have trouble with it. If an incarnation goes swaggering into a dungeon, that thing is the one that teaches them a lesson."
The system messages filling one corner of my vision proved that the dwarf's assessment was no exaggeration.
[Constellation, The Eye That Gazes Down Upon the World, is impressed by your martial prowess in defeating the headless knight.]
[Constellation, Survivor of Mechanical Civilization, covets the golem.]
[Constellation, One-Horned Demon, is curious about the source of that power.]
[Several Constellations sponsor you.]
"Ah, no. Stop."
I remembered the sponsored items that had rained down like a downpour last time.
At that moment, as if on cue, a system window appeared in midair.
[You have unlocked an achievement by meeting specific conditions!]
[You have received sponsorship from 30 or more Constellations.]
[The hold sponsorship and claim all functions have been unlocked.]
"...Right now!"
Without a moment's hesitation, I immediately activated the function.
[As of this moment, all Constellation sponsorship items will be stored on hold. You may claim them all at once whenever you wish.]
"Phew, I'm saved."
I felt relieved knowing that I wouldn't have to watch boxes or heavy objects suddenly drop around me or onto my head.
I could simply claim the sponsored items later in the safety of a secure warehouse.
"We should start by blocking the hole in the wall."
At the dwarf's words, the goblin and Mimic got to work.
Mimic put another junked car into its mouth and made a barricade.
The others handled the remaining cleanup.
I rolled up my sleeves.
"No! We'll do it!"
"Right, you all fought the monsters, so let us handle the cleanup..."
At that moment, the survivors who had been watching from a distance began moving in perfect coordination.
Perhaps they were grateful to us, because the people who had stayed out of the battle took the work right out of our hands and diligently cleaned up for us.
Thanks to them, I had rolled up my sleeves for nothing; there was nothing left for me to do.
"...All right, come over here."
Whirr.
So I simply used my repair skill on the drones and golem.
***
"Let's make dinner a grand affair. We stopped a dullahan without any major casualties. Shouldn't we eat and drink to celebrate?"
"Shall we?"
"Good timing, since the food crates have arrived..."
"I'll bring the alcohol."
Once the barricade repairs and cleanup were more or less finished, a drinking party to celebrate their survival broke out in Demi-Human Town.
Naturally, I was the source of the alcohol.
Even after selling so much of it to Constellations and human users through the Gallery trade board, the second car still had boxes of liquor piled in one corner—far more than we could ever drink.
The snacks and food came from the food crates Yeouido had handed over this time.
We had secured enough food to fill one side of the bank's warehouse, so there was no problem with eating and drinking our fill for one evening to celebrate the joy of surviving.
"For Demi-Human Town! Cheers!"
""Cheers!""
Following the old dwarf's booming toast, the survivors all clinked their glasses together.
After briefly returning the toast amid the cheers raining down on me, I left the noisy plaza and quietly returned to the train.
The quiet inside the train suited my temperament better than drinking amid a crowd.
Besides, Sua, Jiwoo, and Ha-seon were here.
Sua and Jiwoo, along with Ha-seon, were having a cozy dinner inside the train.
"Oh, you're back? It was incredibly noisy outside."
Ha-seon welcomed me, holding out a warm meal.
It looked like she had tried making napa cabbage and kimchi pancakes this time.
They tasted good.
The children also seemed to eat the pancakes without any reluctance.
Tap, tap!
At that moment, the golem approached from the cockpit and desperately tugged at my sleeve with its pincers.
In the direction of its gaze, I saw Dongguli waddling around in one corner of the train.
"All right, you played a big part today."
Unable to withstand the golem's pleading, I took a nutritional supplement from the warehouse and put it into the tank where Dongguli lived.
What was marimo nutrition supposed to be, anyway?
Whether it was my imagination or not, when I added this supplement, its color definitely seemed a little greener by the next day, and it also seemed to have grown a bit.
After adding the supplement, I left the golem waving its pincers excitedly as it watched, sat leaning against the dining table, took out my smartphone, and opened the Survivor Gallery.
The moment I turned on the screen, deep furrows formed between my brows.
Huge changes were erupting all over the world, no less significant than the dullahan's attack on Demi-Human Town.
Just when the chaos had barely settled down and large safe zones like Yeouido were increasing, making it seem as if people could finally breathe...
---
[Title: Wow, the map is screwed lol]
(Photo)
All the pins marked on the map are red;
Well, our safe zone suddenly had a mole monster burst out through the ground too, so we're in serious trouble right now.
I even saw someone get kidnapped by a mole right in front of me.
[Comments]
Incheon Diamond Hands: For real, our area suddenly got covered in blood-red mist, and the monsters doubled in size.
ㅇㅇ: Fuck, fist-sized hail was falling where I was. All the windows shattered, and it was chaos.
ㅇㅇ: Maybe it's just me, but don't you think there are fewer boxes too? I used to find about three if I searched for around two hours.
Ice Mage: Looking at meat and vegetable prices rising on the exchange, they really do seem to have become harder to find, huh?
---
"Are the boxes decreasing too?"
There had been users saying they were hungry, but no one had gone hungry because of the foodstuffs found in boxes hidden throughout the cities and the exchange.
But now people were saying that those boxes might be decreasing.
That might not matter in a safe zone like Yeouido that had prepared for this situation, but for smaller safe zones, that alone could lead to a fatal crisis.
I ran my fingers through my disheveled hair as I read through the Gallery users' conversation.
The difficulty of monsters and dungeons was rising, and the variable known as incarnations had appeared.
I had been injured this time as well.
I became certain that I couldn't afford to rest on my current strength.
I happened to meet Jiwoo's eyes, so I smiled for no reason and nodded at him.
'Skills.'
I needed to start increasing my skills.
I took action immediately.
After finishing the meal and being seen off by the people, I left Demi-Human Town.
When I opened the Gallery map, it showed that there was a vending machine in a ruined shopping district not far from town.
It was nearby, so I arrived after driving along the tracks for about ten minutes.
"Go take a look first."
According to the user who had marked the location, it should have been crawling with monsters, but through the drone's feed, I could see quite a few survivors.
Those survivors must have dealt with the monsters.
However, the closer the drone got, the stranger things seemed.
"...This isn't a safe zone, though..."
There were too many people.
This wasn't even a safe zone.
With both curiosity and vigilance, I put on my windbreaker and got off the train.
The area around the destination was a desolate ruin where the buildings looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Yet in the middle of it, dozens of people were lined up in front of a golden vending machine as if they were waiting at a popular restaurant.
It was an orderly yet strange sight.
Although the people in line were extremely wary of one another, they couldn't leave their places because they were waiting for their turns at the vending machine.
I approached a middle-aged man in a worn-out jacket standing near the end of the line and spoke to him.
"Why is everyone lining up here?"
The man flinched at my sudden question and tightened his grip on his weapon, but after confirming that I was a woman, he relaxed slightly and answered.
"These days, those bastard Constellations have been scattering credits across the trade board like mad while looking for incarnations. Thanks to that, credits are overflowing, but this is the only vending machine left where we can actually spend them, so that's why it's such a mess."
"You mean this is the only vending machine left? The map shows several more nearby."
The man clicked his tongue at my question.
"Someone's deliberately looking at the map and going around smashing every vending machine nearby that appears on it. I hear it's some kind of group. Seems they're trying to leave only the vending machines in their own territory and destroy all the rest. I've even heard that they'll be coming here soon too."
The moment I heard the man's words, my thoughts began racing.
A vending machine monopoly.
'Are they planning to monopolize one vending machine and charge a toll or usage fee? Or—'
Whether the people waiting in line knew about this news as well, they kept looking around and eyeing one another warily.
I joined the line, fidgeting with the shaft of my spear.
A drone was already in the sky, and the golem was beside me.
'They go around smashing vending machines...? I can't let them do that.'
The man stole a glance at me and the golem and muttered.
"Ah, shit, where have I seen that before..."
The man looked at the golem as though something about it bothered him, while the golem calmly let him stare.