Chapter 142
“What If Samgyeopsal Fell from the Sky?”
An unproductive, pointless fantasy.
But it was becoming reality.
“Kieeeek!”
The wave erupted, and grotesque pig fiends recklessly charged out from beyond the rift.
“Kueek?”
And then they simply went into free fall.
It was no different from bungee jumping without a cord.
Of course, things might have been different if the pig fiends had cautiously climbed out of the rift.
“Fiends don't know how to do that.”
When a wave erupted, fiends generally became excited and violent.
Thanks to that, the moment they emerged from the rift, they fell straight down.
Moreover, even from a height that might cause severe bodily harm to a human, fiends were different.
The fall caused little external damage, but internal injuries occurred.
“Kieeeek!”
Occasionally, a pig fiend survived with serious injuries, but that wasn't a problem.
[Title: The Sense of Omnipotence Is Fucking Insane, Seriously lolol]
(GIF of a pig fiend violently resisting after its fall)
(GIF of someone approaching with a riot shield and confirming the kill with a pistol)
I got a job on the recovery crew, and was granted Head Mod's permission to use grand magic.
Wow, this is seriously fucking insane lolol.
With one twitch of my finger, a huge fiend died instantly. I seriously felt like a god.
[Upvotes 1921] [Downvotes 201]
- ? What the hell?
- Was the wave always this easy?
- It kind of looks like a gigantic slaughterhouse;
- And they pay you for doing that? This is literally a god-given job.
Someone with the physical strength to move the fallen pig fiends.
At the same time, we checked their gallery logs to assess their personalities and prevent malicious use of firearms.
I handed pistols to the few who passed all of that.
They dealt with the living fiends and harvested the ones that had been driven out to the outskirts.
“Of course, it wasn't easy.”
The grotesque appearance of the pig fiends, and the scene awash with blood and chunks of flesh.
And for an ordinary person, the act of shooting something to death and dragging it away would be enough to cause trauma.
But this was the medieval world after its destruction.
- Ah, fuck, what a cushy gig
- Why don't jobs like that ever come to me...
- If you're going to flex, hand out Market hamburgers while you're at it.
ㄴ Oh
ㄴ I'm in line
ㄴ Author) Hehe;
Blood and flesh didn't faze them.
Here, even PTSD and trauma were luxuries reserved for the rich.
Immediate hunger and cold were far more frightening.
Applicants numbered in the thousands, regardless of age or sex, all saying they were willing to do it.
On top of that, this was performance-based pay.
[Title: Ah lol, These Low-HP Fuckers Are Pissing Me Off]
(GIF of a middle-aged woman spitting as she curses)
(GIF of an old man trying to take the pig fiend corpse allotted to the poster)
I'm on the monster-meat corpse recovery crew.
There are so fucking many people who keep trying to take the pig fiends without waiting their turn lol.
The first one or two times, I let it slide since everyone was hungry and broke, but fuck, there's a limit.
How much is the per-job bonus? Do you people have no shame?
Aren't we all doing this just to make a living?
(GIF of an older man grabbing someone by the collar and refusing to let go)
I'm seriously starting to hate humanity, ah lol.
[Upvotes 4021] [Downvotes 102]
- Disgusting, for real.
- Still, those low-HP bastards are assholes lol. Can't you do it?
- Wow, look at that old lady's eyes rolling back lol.
- But I kind of understand.
ㄴ ?
ㄴ Honestly, how many chances do you get in life to do something like this?
ㄴ Still, you have to keep your conscience.
ㄴ You're getting 30 gyeongdan per job, yet you're working while keeping your conscience intact?
When the recovery crew delivered the corpses to the harvesting crew, the cooks extracted the monster meat and gyeongdan.
Introducing performance-based pay created competition, and the speed was incredible.
They were so absorbed in stripping the meat from the bones that I got goosebumps myself.
“It kind of looks like zombies.”
I wasn't being sarcastic. It really looked that way.
The cold, frequent wars, and hunger had desperately transformed people.
But it seemed I looked no different in the eyes of the gallery users.
[Title: But Honestly, This Freaked Me Out a Little]
(GIF of fiends falling from the sky)
(GIF of someone efficiently harvesting only meat and gyeongdan)
Those gross-ass fiends dying without getting a chance to do anything was nice, but...
Watching this, it's kinda... something, y'know.
How can someone even think of doing this?
Sometimes I imagine what would've happened if Head Mod had been on the outsiders' side instead of humanity's.
Then wouldn't it be us falling from up there instead of fiends?
[Upvotes 694] [Downvotes 3921]
- You fucking bastard, keep that to your imagination.
- Thank god he's on our side, you fucking bastard...
- lol, it's because Head Mod always smiles, but he really is fucking scary.
- Humanity x Elves o
ㄴ Ugh, elf simp.
ㄴ You really want to point that out even now?
- Honestly, Head Mod probably doesn't care much about the Great War, does he?
ㄴ For real, he'd take no hit whether we won or lost.
“That's not it.”
If humanity lost in the Great War, it would hurt me too.
There'd be nowhere left for points to come in, and my favorite gallery would be finished too.
Browsing the gallery was my reason for existing.
But to the gallery users, I apparently looked like an entity that created something from nothing.
[40 gyeongdan has been delivered!]
[38 gyeongdan has been delivered!]
[31 gyeongdan has been delivered!]
.
.
Of course, even as that was happening, the mob tower's performance kept proving itself.
Pig fiends couldn't exactly be called an excellent source of gyeongdan.
But the mob tower's ability to supply corpses infinitely made that irrelevant.
An average of 100 gyeongdan per pig fiend.
I took 30% of that as a fee.
“Aren't I taking too much?”
I had worried about that once.
Even though I'd built a mob tower, if the fee was too high, many people might try to evade it.
It would be understandable for them to become dissatisfied.
But astonishingly, not a single person tried to evade the fee or complained.
[Title: lol, I'm Skimming the Fee and Getting Away with It]
Posted by: The Secret of a Liberal-Arts Ghost
(GIF of a cat staring straight ahead)
You guys should skim it too lol. It's fucking sweet.
[Upvotes 0] [Downvotes 53]
- Are you an idiot?
- lol, are you trying to get permanently banned from the gallery?
- Don't you feel sorry for Head Mod, who only takes 30%?
- You do nothing but harvest monster meat, yet you're that reluctant to pay 30%?
- Author) Thanks for the replies, everyone. I'm not actually a worker; I was just curious why nobody was skimming it.
ㄴ ?
ㄴ Wow lol
ㄴ Crazy bastard, are you a genius?
“Ah, so that's why no one was taking it.”
They were more afraid of a gallery ban than the immediate fee.
Moreover, 30% apparently wasn't all that high a figure.
“At this rate, I'd break even with just a little more.”
By the time the mob tower had been running for barely a day, I was already nearing break-even.
Besides, the rift was so large that it looked like there would be plenty more waves before long.
This made me realize that the mob tower itself was a successful source of gyeongdan.
“We can just run the factory whenever a big rift erupts.”
It was effective in that it also provided relief for the surrounding area and created jobs.
[Notice: Rift Reports Wanted]
Posted by: Head Mod*
I'm the boss, yeah.
From now on, if you find a rift similar to or larger than this one, report it to me.
Regardless of species, if the terrain checks out, it's mob-tower time.
[Upvotes 9999+] [Downvotes 0]
- Is this possible?
ㄴ (GIF of a rift in the corner of a bathroom)
ㄴ You think that'll work, you son of a bitch?
- Wow, so the bigger the rift when it erupts, the bigger the jackpot now, right?
ㄴ For real lol. Basically like hitting a Market gacha jackpot.
ㄴ Fuck, please let a huge rift erupt, even if my house gets blown away...
- Oh, brothers, there's one in our mine too.
ㄴ Head Mod*) Okay. Send me some pictures.
Rifts, which had been a nuisance, gradually began to be seen as something like winning the lottery or getting selected in a housing lottery.
“Of course, there were plenty of problems this could cause too.”
If they prepared for it from inside, like the sandworms, or if corpses piled up too quickly, it would become a problem.
But I didn't think that was something to worry about yet.
As I checked the flood of rift reports, a question suddenly occurred to me.
“But why are the elves being so quiet?”
As far as I knew, there had been quite a few rift problems in Ellad.
Yet, strangely, not a single report from an elf appeared in the rift-report posts.
Puzzled, I opened the latest-posts list and found that the elves' posting activity itself had slowed.
Even searching keywords like elf, Ellad, elf-simp, and pointy-ears, the number of posts itself had decreased.
“Hadn't they solved the mana problem last time too?”
I thought they'd solved the mana problem before through a deal with the Golden Dragon and Malang-i.
Of course, I could simply assume they'd become less active on the gallery itself.
“But what kind of race were the elves?”
- Cute elf photos, please [3]
- Reasons Ellad Is the Greatest Land in the World...jpg [5]
- The All-Purpose Elves: The World Will Be Ruled by Elves! [1]
Weren't they the race that posted about Ellad and bragged about elves whenever they had the time?
A large share of the images flooding the gallery were elves.
“Something's strange.”
I felt that something was wrong.
But rather than feeling like an incident had happened, it felt more like they were deliberately hiding something.
Whenever an incident occurred, the elves were the first to summon me.
As it happened, I had a slave elf—or rather, an elf Sub-Mod.
Head Mod*: Hey.
Full-HP Elf: Why'd you call me?
Head Mod*: What are the elves up to? Their gallery activity's been low lately, and there hasn't been any chat either.
Head Mod*: Feels like they're hiding something, yeah.
Full-HP Elf: Ah.
“Ah? Caught you red-handed.”
There had to be something going on.
However, Full-HP Elf didn't seem to be participating, and only knew the broad strokes.
Full-HP Elf: I don't know much, but
Full-HP Elf: I only know that they're doing something behind Head Mod's back.
Head Mod*: Behind my back?
Head Mod*: Is it illegal?
If they were killing people or planning a war, that would be a serious problem.
Full-HP Elf: Not that, but...
Full-HP Elf: I'll look into it properly and tell you again.
Head Mod*: Okay, thanks, thanks.
Fortunately, Full-HP Elf had a lot of complaints about Ellad's internal Council of Elders.
Full-HP Elf seemed somewhat more favorable toward the gallery and me than toward Ellad, so I could trust them.
And about a day passed.
Full-HP Elf: I found out, but it's about cooking.
Head Mod*: ?
Full-HP Elf: It seems they're hiding somewhere and eating something behind Head Mod's back.
Head Mod*: Huh?
It was merely an issue of eating.
But they were cutting back on their gallery activity, getting their stories straight, and even hiding somewhere to eat so they wouldn't get caught by me?
Hearing it put that way, I couldn't even begin to guess what was going on.
Head Mod*: Do you have any pictures or something?
Full-HP Elf: Of course I do.
Full-HP Elf: (GIF of elves gathered around a table inside a dark building with white cloths over their heads)
Full-HP Elf: (GIF of elves cautiously eating while hiding and covering a large amount of something)
The elves were eating something in a gloomy place with their faces covered by white cloths.
It was a dining scene that looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
“...Ortolan?”
The finest delicacy, the greatest food in the world.
But because its preparation was so cruel, it was a dish eaten while hiding from God.
Ortolan was the first thing that came to mind.
But why were they eating it behind my back?