Into the Wastelands

“Phew~.”

After picking up the eyeball that had rolled across the floor, he dusted it off and put it back in his face.

With a creak, it clicked back into focus.

“I apologize for showing you such an unpleasant sight. In any case, we need to get our equipment before heading into the wastelands. Assistant Manager Kim is picking up the supplies now, so let’s wait in the lobby for a moment.”

I glanced at Lumina.

She took a step forward as if to say she was fine.

“Show us the way.”

“This way, please. There’s a vending machine for the living in the lounge, so feel free to use it.”

Lumina and I entered Endless Corporation’s lobby.

The scale of Endless’s headquarters was truly astounding.

A building so enormous it couldn’t be compared to a convenience store.

Of course, our convenience store was also about the size of a fairly large Daiso once you factored in the interior expansion magic and its actual scale, but.

‘Big corporations really are something else.’

The ceiling was high enough to span three floors, and perhaps to balance spatial efficiency with the lobby’s openness, an intermediate floor had been added and was being used for transparent glass-walled meeting rooms.

I could see undead busily holding meetings inside them, and.

When a ghost in a suit threw a stack of papers, the banshee inside flinched and shrank back.

It seemed something had gone wrong.

Honestly, even though it was a major corporation, I had expected a company run by undead to be filled with bones, entrails, and things like that.

But the inside looked little different from a modern corporate headquarters in the twenty-first century.

The only difference was that the people inside were undead.

“Hello, this is Endless Corporation. I’ll fax it under the name of the employee currently out of the office.”

A massive reception desk stood in the center.

Pale-skinned corpses and skeleton receptionists in neat uniforms were attending to visitors there.

Most of the undead passing in front of the desk were also dressed in immaculate business suits.

I couldn’t hear a single breath.

That was only natural, since they were all dead.

Some of the undead passing by appeared to be vampires.

Their faces were especially pale.

“Unlike your manager, they aren’t powerful vampires, so they have to work while wearing sunscreen. Apparently, their faces tan quickly otherwise.”

Lumina added an explanation, perhaps noticing where I was looking.

“They can walk around under the sun, at least.”

“Well, that’s thanks to Jinjo’s sacrifice.”

“The manager made a sacrifice? For the vampires?”

“Oh, Jinjo never told you?”

Lumina looked at me in surprise at my words.

“…No.”

“I let that slip……. I assumed Jinjo had told you, of course……. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”

“I have no idea what you mean. What did you say?”

“Heh, thanks.”

The manager’s sacrifice.

Come to think of it, the manager often remarked that they still looked like they had in their prime.

I had no idea what had happened in the past.

‘I should pretend I don’t know until I hear it from the manager directly.’

Manager Millelo, who was walking a few steps ahead of us, turned around.

“It’s over there. Please wait a moment. It’ll be over soon.”

Where Manager Millelo pointed, there was a black sofa, along with a bed, chairs, and a table.

Booklets filled the wall shelves, most of them self-help books.

-Eternal Self-Improvement for Those Who Haven’t Died.

-How to Pick Up a New Hobby When You’re Tired of Your Old One.

-The 100 Best Hobbies for Undead Who Have Retired from Work.

A strangely out-of-place machine stood beside the black leather sofa, emitting a conspicuously bright light.

[Premium Ground Coffee & Hot Chocolate for the Living]

It was a vending machine commonly seen on the streets of Taepyeong City.

I was about to take coins from my pocket, but when I saw the notice saying ‘Free’ on the machine, I immediately pressed the hot chocolate button.

Whirrr- Thunk.

“Would you like a cup too, Ms. Lumina?”

“I don’t have a head, so I can’t drink coffee for the living.”

“Ah……. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I make that mistake sometimes too. Anyway, the atmosphere here is pretty grim. This is why I don’t like coming to corporate headquarters. It’s suffocating.”

Lumina shook her head in disgust with her arms crossed.

I wondered if that was something a dullahan should be saying, but the air really was unusually heavy.

Maybe it was because it was a company for the dead.

“Assistant Manager Kim!! I’ve finished picking up the supplies!”

In the distance, a skeleton came running from the elevator at the back of the lobby, carrying two enormous military duffel bags, one in each hand.

His employee ID was dangling from his neck bone.

It was hard to tell from his appearance alone, but judging by his flustered fussing, he seemed to be the Assistant Manager Kim I had seen at the auction.

-Assistant Manager Kim Cheolsu.

-Endless Executive Division.

“Oh, good work. Did you get all the equipment?”

“Of course. They issued us several pieces of equipment! And I’ve got the car waiting, too.”

Assistant Manager Kim, who had run over to us, bowed deeply.

“It’s been a while. This is our first time seeing each other since the auction, right? I don’t think we got to say goodbye properly that day. I’ve been swamped with weekend work and late nights. Hahaha!”

Assistant Manager Kim scratched the back of his neck bone and took an energy drink out of a duffel bag.

Click.

With practiced ease, he popped the cap off the brown bottle and downed the drink in one go.

Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.

The yellow liquid that passed through his mouth(?) flowed straight through his empty jaw and between his ribs, pouring entirely onto the marble floor.

The cuffs of his suit pants and his shoes were soaked yellow, but Assistant Manager Kim clacked his jaw in satisfaction as he looked at the sticky puddle collecting on the floor.

“Mmm! Supplements are the best when you’re tired. I feel a little more alive after drinking that.”

“…What part of you?”

Manager Millelo, who had been silently watching the spectacle, asked incredulously.

“Pardon?”

“The drink you just had all leaked through your bones and dripped onto the floor. Which part of your body, exactly, do you think feels more alive?”

“Ah, Manager, come on. Don’t you know about the placebo effect? Office workers survive on vibes, you know. We need to get ourselves in the mood somehow if we’re going to make it through an all-nighter.”

“You don’t have a brain, so you can’t feel the placebo effect, either.”

“…Ah.”

Assistant Manager Kim’s empty jaw snapped shut.

“Manager, that one hit a little too close to the bone. That was harsh.”

“You’re nothing but bones, so of course your bones hurt. Stop saying useless things and borrow a mop to clean the floor. Unless you want Ms. Banshee from janitorial to beat you up again.”

“Oops! I’ll clean it right away!”

As we watched Assistant Manager Kim hurry toward a corner of the lobby, Manager Millelo let out a deep sigh.

“Haa, I’m sorry. For someone with the rank of assistant manager, Kim is awfully frivolous……. I should have managed Kim better…….”

“…No, it’s all right. You two seem close, which is nice.”

I forced the corners of my mouth up into a smile.

Lumina also gave a small, baffled shake of her helmet.

“Please try to understand. The people in the department haven’t slept while researching the head we recovered last time, so they’re not in their right minds. That fellow must be under a lot of stress, too.”

“You sleep……?”

“Ah, since we’re dead, we don’t require physiological sleep, but mental exhaustion still sets in. Even without a brain.”

Manager Millelo adjusted the tie and turned around.

“Then let’s depart as soon as Assistant Manager Kim finishes cleaning the floor. The company vehicle we’ll take into the wastelands is waiting by the main entrance.”

“But there’s something I want to ask.”

Lumina asked Manager Millelo, who was about to lead the way.

“Have you found out what that head actually was?”

“We haven’t found out yet. However……. As I told you last time, we are certain that it belonged to one of the demon king’s key officers.”

“So you haven’t learned anything.”

“Then let’s get moving.”

And so we left Endless Corporation’s headquarters.

The vehicle Manager Millelo had prepared was a large four-wheel-drive off-road vehicle.

Lumina had been debating whether to ride her bike, but when she saw the incredible-looking four-wheel-drive vehicle, she put the bike away.

Ssshhh.

When she pressed a button on the key, the parked bike vanished like a shadow and slipped into her vehicle key.

“Assistant Manager Kim will be driving. The two of you can relax in the back seat.”

“Leave it to me! I’ll give you first-class service!”

Manager Millelo climbed into the passenger seat, turned around, and began briefing us on the wastelands.

“There are quite a variety of mercenary groups in the wastelands—in other words, scavenger groups. Endless has entered into transit agreements with two of them, but not with the rest. There’s no particular need to.”

“So the remaining riffraff aren’t worth worrying about.”

“That’s right, except for one group. The scavengers who call themselves the ‘Army of the Dead’ are a bit troublesome.”

Manager Millelo’s brow furrowed.

Rotten flesh crumpled, forming grotesque wrinkles.

“They’re fairly large, and they have the ridiculous pride of having once been the knights of the old empire that existed before Taepyeong City was founded. They’re a headache and aren’t very amenable to negotiation.”

“They’re a pain. Maybe it’s because of their lousy old habits, but even when you complete a delivery job for them, they don’t like paying the delivery fee.”

Lumina sighed as though she knew them too.

A customer who doesn’t pay the delivery fee.

The worst.

They were even nastier than I had expected.

Well, that was probably why they resorted to banditry.

“Rather than becoming members of Taepyeong City, the Army of the Dead aims to establish its own independent city in the wastelands. Its leader, Max Leotar, claims to be the successor to the empire.”

“They’re building a city?”

“Yes. To build and maintain a city in the wastelands, an enormous amount of mana is essential for barriers and power sources. The magical power contained in the object believed to be Ms. Lumina’s head is more than enough to serve as its foundation.”

“……”

I recalled the contents of the USB that Lumina and I had examined yesterday.

It contained information on the scavengers’ movements, along with the location of a powerful object they had looted.

“Then does Endless believe they’re planning to build a city using Ms. Lumina’s head?”

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

“Their recent movements have become suspicious. We received intelligence confirming that the Army of the Dead, which used to actively loot objects and collect items with powerful magic, has not only become less active recently but is also trying to move the location of its base.”

Behavior different from usual.

A sudden relocation of their base.

There was more than one suspicious thing going on.

But was that really enough to be certain they had Lumina’s head?

Reading my expression, Manager Millelo continued.

“A short while ago, we detected that among the goods they looted from a merchant caravan was a powerful mass of magical energy believed to be a head. Its power was beyond what an ordinary artifact could produce. Furthermore, by tracing information about that caravan backward, we determined that it was highly likely to be someone’s head.”

Millelo briefed us without hesitation.

“So that’s why you called me.”

“Exactly. I don’t know whether Director Belarus told you, but we would like to establish a good relationship with Ms. Lumina. There is no one who can deliver objects as quickly as she can.”

“And someone like that gets fleeced for five billion won?”

“Isn’t that what corporations are all about—moving according to the logic of capital? Hahaha!”

Millelo’s eyeballs spun as he laughed awkwardly.

“Since we obtained such valuable information thanks to you, I suppose you could say it’s a win-win. That’s all I can say. I’m only an employee, after all.”

“…Right. What’s the point of arguing with a salaryman?”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

How far had we traveled?

We reached the farthest outskirts of Taepyeong City.

The buildings gradually shrank, then soon disappeared completely.

Now, we saw more forests and fields than buildings, while only the occasional old apartment hinted that we were at the edge of the city.

At the very edge stood a low wall and a checkpoint that looked like a tollgate.

A golem in a police uniform approached us.

The golems, with slightly rougher designs than the ones we had seen in the city, saluted us.

The driver’s-side window whirred as it rolled down.

-This is the Taepyeong City entry checkpoint. Roll down your window and prepare for identity verification.

The golem requested our identification in a dry voice.

“This is a company vehicle belonging to Endless Corporation. We’re heading into the wastelands on business.”

Manager Millelo took his employee ID and transit permit from the inner pocket of his suit and handed them over.

After checking the permit with a scanner, the guard’s gaze swept over Lumina and me in the back seat one at a time.

-The identities of the two passengers have been verified. Weather conditions and public safety in the wastelands are currently highly unstable. There are stretches with dense mana fog, so do not leave the designated route marked by flags, and be especially careful of ambushes by scavenger groups.

“Thank you for the warning.”

-The Taepyeong City guard takes no responsibility whatsoever for accidents or loss of life outside the city. We wish you safe travels.

A warning one might hear at a departure immigration checkpoint.

After confirming that the inspection was complete, I turned my gaze to the opposite lane.

An endless line of people waiting to enter Taepyeong City stretched as far as the eye could see.

Trucks covered in dust from the wastelands and merchants with tired faces guarding their cargo.

Merchant caravans escorted by armed mercenaries had modified their vehicles to look like armored personnel carriers.

Golem police opened the cargo compartments of incoming vehicles and meticulously inspected the goods, pushing mana detectors inside to check for dangerous magic or contraband.

It felt like I had come to an airport.

Or like I was a foreigner undergoing entry inspection and a citizen undergoing departure inspection.

It finally sank in that Taepyeong City’s inside and outside were divided at that wall.

-Whirrr! Clank!

At the golem’s signal, the barricade blocking the way opened to both sides.

As the gate arm lifted, Assistant Manager Kim clacked his jaw and pressed down on the accelerator.

“All right, hold on tight. The ride’s going to get pretty rough from here on out!”

Along with Assistant Manager Kim’s cheerful voice, the off-road vehicle jolted and bounced roughly as it crossed Taepyeong City’s boundary.

A harsh, sandy wind began blowing through the car window.

It was the wastelands.