"…W-what, what is this?"
Jin Seong-hak, the head of internal medicine department, opened his mouth wide.
It was because an utterly unbelievable sight was unfolding before him.
Kim Jeong-gyeom and his group who had shown up last night.
At first, he hadn't thought much of it.
He assumed it would be easy to manipulate and dominate them by using food and other awakened individuals as leverage.
But the guy had kicked his proposal.
Because of the fact that he was the younger brother of Nurse Kim Joo-yeon, who had consistently defied him, Jin Seong-hak's anxiety grew.
In his panic, he tried to brainwash the dumb-looking driver guy.
There had been cases of people falling under his control in their sleep, even without the use of drugs.
The result was half a success.
The brainwashing wasn't complete, but just as the effect was about to manifest in the driver…
[A connection with your subordinate has been severed.]
A message from the status window delivered the bad news.
"…Who is it? What's going on, whose brainwashing was undone?"
He couldn't verify which subordinate's brainwashing had been undone.
Then, not even ten minutes later, he saw a second message…
[A connection with your subordinate has been severed.]
"…!"
Jin Seong-hak lost the last thread of rationality he had been holding onto.
He didn't know what method they had used, but they were breaking the brainwashing.
At that moment, he thought:
"I have to… kill them."
That's why.
He had suddenly issued an expulsion order to Kim Jeong-gyeom.
If Jeong-gyeom resisted, he planned to accuse him of failing to fulfill his duties and label him a public enemy. If he agreed, he intended to follow and kill him.
But as he watched Kim Jeong-gyeom walk out voluntarily, Jin Seong-hak quickly moved as well.
He hurriedly gathered the brainwashed awakened and set off to chase Kim Jeong-gyeom…
"…What kind of ability is that?"
Now, he was witnessing the result with his own two eyes.
Out of a portal that had appeared in mid-air, one of the brainwashed awakened, Song Hyun-gu, had emerged.
Next came the other thirty awakened individuals.
They entered and exited the portal like people walking through a revolving door, and each time they emerged, they shot disdainful looks at Jin Seong-hak.
Meanwhile, Jin Seong-hak was practically foaming at the mouth as messages continued to appear.
[A connection with your subordinate has been severed.]
[A connection with your subordinate has been severed.]
[A connection with your…
Message after message.
He knew exactly what they meant.
It was then.
Song Hyun-gu, the last one to come out, strode toward him and, in a low, cavernous voice, spoke.
"…Jeong-gyeom-ssi is asking you to come in."
Thump.
His heart sank.
"Fuck, why would I go in there?"
It was truly a den of evil.
The awakened ones he had painstakingly brainwashed became that guy's subordinates as soon as they passed through that door.
To him now, Kim Jeong-gyeom's portal was the very essence of fear.
It was like the deep abyss of the ocean, filled with unknowns.
And Jin Seong-hak was a man of quick actions.
Whoosh.
He spun around and began running toward the hospital with all his might.
The director of the pharmaceutical department, who was beside him, called out in a panicked voice.
"Wh-where are you going? Hey, hey!"
Jin Seong-hak didn't look back.
***
Whoooosh!
Thud!
Song Hyun-gu dragged the director of the pharmaceutical department into the portal.
Although the director was also an awakened individual, there was no way he could escape from Song Hyun-gu, who boasted overwhelming strength.
Leaving the subdued director behind, I briefly stepped out of the portal.
I saw Jin Seong-hak far in the distance, running away at full speed.
Judging by the direction, it seemed he intended to hide in the hospital.
"That won't do."
I immediately activated my
A red crosshair appeared in my vision.
The distance between me and my target was displayed in real time.
[41m 19cm…]
[43m 56cm…]
[44m…]
The maximum range of my shipping skill was 50 meters.
I had to act fast before he got out of range.
"Ship."
Swiiiish!
What flew forward was neither an axe nor a dagger.
It was none other than the director of the pharmaceutical department, Koo Min-cheol, whom Song Hyun-gu had subdued.
He shot out like a lightning-fast flying squirrel, at a speed that was hard to believe…
Boom!
And he immediately slammed into the fleeing Jin Seong-hak's back.
Thud! Taang!
The two people flew about ten meters together as if they were tied together, crashing into a nearby shop window, shattering the glass.
It made me think of the saying, "Two heads are better than one".
"That was a perfect hit."
Lee Yong-su added from the side, praising me with a "Nice shot, boss."
It was an attack that utilized the ability to expel people from the subspace with
Of course, it would rarely be used in actual combat…
That's when a thought occurred to me.
If
And if that's the case, there's something I'd like to test.
Step, step.
Song Hyun-gu was returning, carrying the two fallen men over his shoulders.
Thud!
He dropped them to the ground and let out a small laugh.
"He was still trying to brainwash even in that state. He's quite a piece of work."
"Thank you for your effort. Well then…"
I asked him to toss the two men back into the portal.
Then, I aimed my
From a different perspective,
My portal could be seen as a magic mirror that made people good.
After all, the thirty awakened individuals who had passed through the portal had regained their sanity.
Who knows?
Maybe these two would regain their good nature after going through the portal dozens of times.
Hoping for the best, I chanted the command.
"Ship."
Whoooosh!
Jin Seong-hak and the director of the pharmaceutical department sliced through the air at high speed…
Boom!
They crashed violently into the concrete wall of the building.
And then…
"Item Retrieval."
Whoooosh!
Just like that, they were pulled back into the portal, almost as if by telekinesis.
And so, the 'personality test' using the portal was repeated several times.
Thud!
Whoosh!
Thud!
Whooosh!
Thanks to that, the building wall I was using as the target point was shattered…
But so were Jin Seong-hak and the pharmaceutical department director.
However, despite everything, the two never became good people.
Their bitter demise was just tragic.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, the discovery that I could pull people in with Item Retrieval was something new.
"…Now even people are treated as items."
From the moment I put the logistics center into my subspace, it was clear that all my skills were designed from the perspective of the cold, emotionless AI of PAX.
Of course, that didn't mean there weren't some differences.
[However, humans cannot be copied.]
[Like mana stones, they contain energy that cannot be replicated.]
That was a relief, in a way.
I certainly didn't want to see a cloned version of Lee Yong-su.
Anyway, what mattered was the usefulness of this discovery.
Even just thinking about it briefly, the potential applications were endless.
The most obvious one…
"…I could use it to escape, couldn't I?"
[Correct.]
Both my eldest sister and Lee Yong-su were awakened, but their combat abilities were nothing to brag about.
While they might be safe inside the subspace, outside, they could find themselves in danger at any time.
And that goes for me, too.
But by using Item Retrieval, I could instantly rescue them from danger, and at the same time, I could escape any critical situation myself.
In conclusion…
"Isn't this overpowered?"
[That's correct.]
Wow… at this point, I didn't even know what to say.
My safe, personal subspace.
It just got even safer.
***
Surprisingly, it seemed that Jin Seong-hak had taken my suggestion to 'make a bet' seriously.
Song Hyun-gu told me.
"By now, they should have put out the food at the promised location. It wouldn't be the first time they've pretended to newly acquire food that they already had. It was all for show."
I followed the awakened individuals to what they referred to as the 'agreed location,' and…
Thud.
I came face to face with Park Jong-hyun, the head of the nutrition team, who was dropping a box of canned goods.
There were still about ten brainwashed awakened ones around him, but…
"…What's going on?"
After passing through the magic revolving door, everyone regained their senses.
Park Jong-hyun fell to his knees.
"So… that is…"
He confessed everything that had happened.
Why he had controlled the food supply, and how they were able to brainwash people.
He claimed he had no idea that Jin Seong-hak and the pharmaceutical department head were planning to kill me.
In his panicked state, he even revealed the location where Jin Seong-hak had been storing the mana stones.
After everything was sorted out, he asked me.
"…Do I really have to go?"
I answered.
"Do you think you can stay at the hospital after everything you've done?"
He glanced at the awakened individuals surrounding me with a blank stare.
Then, with a sigh, he lowered his head.
He knew it himself.
That it wasn't possible.
As he began walking away, I shipped an item to him.
[Orion Choco Pie, box of 12, 468g, priced at 4,320 won.]
It was the payment for telling me the location of the mana stones.
He once controlled all the food in the hospital.
Now, receiving the light Choco Pie box in his hands, he let out a hollow laugh with a dumbfounded expression.
Trudge trudge.
Then he slowly walked off, disappearing into the heart of the dangerous city.
He was an exile.
One who was once at the core of the system.
***
"…!"
The hospital lobby became noisy all at once.
Those waiting to see the outcome of the bet were left speechless at the vast amount of food I had brought back.
I was the victor, and Jin Seong-hak, the loser, had not returned.
But that wasn't all.
The awakened individuals who had been under Jin Seong-hak's brainwashing.
Most of them were someone's family, like Song Hyun-gu.
"Dad!"
"…Honey!"
While their families reunited with those who had regained their senses, I exposed everything that Jin Seong-hak's group had done until now.
Clatter.
Meanwhile, I opened a small storage room at the end of a hallway in the hospital's basement.
It was the location Park Jong-hyun had told me about.
Creeeeak…
I opened the inner fuse box.
Click.
Inside, I found a pouch filled with mana stones.
Through PAX, I counted them — there were 227 in total.
Combined with the nearly 400 mana stones I had collected from the Gwacheon Government Complex and on the way here, I now had more than 600 mana stones in my possession.
"…How should I use them?"
When I first arrived at this hospital, I had thought about something.
To put this Gangnam Severance Hospital within my subspace.
If I went hunting nearby and gathered 1,000 mana stones, it wouldn't be impossible.
But this place housed as many as 800 people.
No matter how much I prioritized myself and my family, I wasn't so shameless as to just swallow up an entire hospital.
Besides…
"There's no need for that."
Even if someone got hurt, I could always use my eldest sister's healing ability.
Rather than going out of my way to acquire the hospital, it made more sense to use the mana stones to help my eldest sister level up.
In the end, I decided to think more about what to put in level 3 later.
I hadn't gathered enough mana stones yet, anyway.
Once I had finished my thoughts, I headed back to the hospital lobby.
Lee Yong-su was checking the condition of the vehicle we had arrived in, and my eldest sister was busy gathering any useful medicines from the pharmaceutical department.
While the fulfillment center had emergency kits, the quality was definitely lower than the ones used in a real hospital.
Sunlight still streamed into the hospital lobby.
It was currently 3 PM.
Considering we had arrived last night, at least we hadn't stayed for an entire day.
Next, it was time to head for Euljiro.
As I was getting ready to depart quickly, someone called out to me.
It was Song Hyun-gu.
"Jeong-gyeom-ssi, I heard you're heading to Euljiro. I thought I should let you know something important."
Now that I thought about it, I remembered that he had escaped from Euljiro.
Given how urgently he had come to find me, there must be something significant happening there.
And indeed, it was quite a surprising story.
"…A wall is being built around Euljiro. A very tall one, at that."
*****
Hello everyone, I'm Miso, and I'll be translating this novel. For now, I plan to release 5 chapters every week.
I've also set up a Patreon (patreon.com/misoinapocalypse) where I'll be posting early chapters with 10 chapters already posted. If you'd like to support me in translating this novel, I would greatly appreciate it.
Enjoy!