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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 9: Undeadog (7)
Click—
The emergency exit for VIPs swung open.
Baek Ho looked around.
Blinding neon lights lit up his eyes, and the pounding bass of ad videos rang in his ears.
They were now on the rooftop of a building two blocks away from the Venus Club.
“Phew…”
Baek Ho stepped out and rubbed at the lipstick stain on his cheek with a scowl.
He glanced to the side—Frank was grinning ear to ear.
His face and neck were covered in kiss marks, and business card holoscreens were plastered all over his shirt.
“Are you having fun?”
“Frank very popular… hehe…”
Devin was the last to step out, dazed and unsteady.
He might’ve looked the same as when he went in—but he definitely wasn’t.
His mind was still reeling from everything he’d just witnessed for the first time in his life.
Baek Ho peered over the rooftop railing, scanning the area.
A massive megabuilding stood right in front of them, completely blocking the view.
The sides were more open, but plastered with neon signage and giant hologram displays.
This was truly a place hidden in plain sight.
As a designated VIP evac point, it was perfect for laying low.
Baek Ho checked the floating time display in his field of vision.
‘Still a little time left before the scheduled meet.’
Rather than rush, it made more sense to lay low here for now.
“Let’s rest here for a bit.”
“Yessir…”
Devin sank to the ground and leaned back against the wall.
Letting out a long breath, he turned to Baek Ho.
“Um… Mister Necromancer…”
“What.”
“Thanks… for doing all this for me…”
“No need for that. Save your breath and rest.”
“Okay…”
Devin pulled a photo of his daughter from his jacket.
Sniffling softly, he traced the image with his fingers.
“Her birthday’s coming up soon…”
Just as the sadness started welling up again, Baek Ho’s calm voice cut through the moment.
“You’ll see her again. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Thank you… so much…”
As Devin’s eyes began to glisten, Baek Ho casually waved off the sentiment.
It didn’t take long before Devin, finally letting his guard down, began to doze with his head drooping forward.
“Hehe… Frank very popular…”
Baek Ho looked over. Frank was gathering up the business cards stuck to his shirt and inspecting them closely, with a level of seriousness usually reserved for choosing a weekend dinner spot.
“…What are you doing?”
“Picking number one. Gonna eat pizza with number one.”
“…Focus on recovering your mana. Your necroshell’s about to shut down.”
“Got it. I’m tired anyway.”
Frank flopped onto the rooftop floor, spreading out his arms and legs and closing his eyes.
“Begin.”
It takes time for a Reaper to recover mana.
Much like humans need sleep, the undead enter a temporary coma state to regenerate mana.
{Would you like to put the bound entity ‘Buddy’ into Coma Mode?}
{Administrator settings require the entity’s consent.}
“Hey, Baek Ho.”
“What.”
“Sophia… what even ‘is’ she? She was ridiculously strong.”
“......”
Baek Ho’s brow twitched.
That Oni had sliced the space itself.
And Sophia had taken it down with her bare hands.
The memory of that moment replayed in his mind—and with it, an overwhelming sense of discomfort.
“If it weren’t for her… I might be dead.”
That weakness—
That sense of helplessness—
It felt like it had etched itself between the folds of his brain.
“…Sorry.”
Frank muttered, voice low and heavy.
It was a subordinate’s duty to protect their commander.
But more than that—he was upset that he couldn’t protect him as a friend.
“Bullshit. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve died back at the Awakened Academy.”
“I’ll give you that one.”
Frank held up a massive fist.
Baek Ho gave a faint smile and lightly bumped it with his own.
“Let’s get stronger.”
Baek Ho said, leaning back against the wall.
Frank closed his eyes and gave a quiet nod.
“Got it. But to do that, we’ll need a ton of money. NecroShells don’t come cheap.”
“Then get to it. Anyway, rest. Just thirty minutes.”
Baek Ho tapped through his SmartCore and set Frank into a coma state.
Frank accepted it without resistance.
Everything shut down, save for his life-support functions.
“Haaah…”
Baek Ho rubbed the back of his neck.
How many hours had he been awake now?
In UnderHeaven, where night ruled, maintaining a consistent sleep cycle was crucial.
But today was completely off. Too much had happened. And the fatigue hit harder than usual.
Slowly, he closed his eyes.
.
.
.
Tap—
Who knew how much time had passed?
Tap—
He felt something hard poke his forehead.
Baek Ho opened his eyes—and saw a pig.
No, a man in a pig mask, nudging his forehead with the barrel of a gun.
“......”
Baek Ho wasn’t surprised.
His eyes calmly shifted around.
A pig, a cow, and a chicken.
Three people in animal masks were pointing guns at the unconscious Devin and the comatose Frank.
Tap—
The pig mask jabbed Baek Ho again.
“…So what?”
In response, the pig mask pulled a stun gun from his coat.
Baek Ho’s brows furrowed sharply at the sight.
“Seriously? You don’t have anything a little softer? You're gonna regret th—”
BZZZZT—
＊ ＊ ＊
“No!”
Devin bolted upright, clutching his neck.
He shuddered at the memory of the man in the bull mask knocking him out.
‘…Where am I?’
He looked around. A dark, cramped room. No windows, no furniture—just a single door and a thin blanket spread out on the floor.
“Ah…”
Devin exhaled.
‘So the Department of Awakened Affairs got me. That’s it, then. My life as a human is over.’
A wave of emotions surged up his throat.
Grief tangled with rage, twisting into pain.
He didn’t care about his own life anymore.
What burned him alive was the thought that he might forget the faces of his beloved wife and daughter.
Then, the room tilted. Devin lost his balance and slammed into the wall.
This wasn’t a building. He was inside something that was moving.
‘What’s going to happen to me now…? Maybe I should beg them—just once—to let me see my family. If I offer to fight like a dog for the rest of my life, would they let me?’
As Devin sat in despair, voices came from the other side of the door.
Two men talking.
-This is turning into a mess…
-Exactly. Would’ve been nice to get a heads-up, at least…
The voices were getting closer.
Devin backed away from the door, fists clenched.
If this was the end, he wanted to go out fighting.
He didn’t know how to properly use mana yet, but he’d find a way to throw himself at them.
The door opened.
And Devin charged, screaming like a madman.
“Raaaagh!”
He swung wildly.
The masked man dodged with a slight tilt of his head.
Devin stumbled past and collapsed to the floor.
But he didn’t give up. Eyes bloodshot, he shouted—
“Please!”
He crawled forward on his knees and grabbed the man’s leg.
Head bowed, voice cracking, he screamed—
“Let me see my family! I’ll do whatever you say—anything you want!”
“…Good grief.”
The man sighed and gently patted Devin’s back, helping him up.
“Take it easy.”
“H-hhk… ngh…”
“That must’ve been terrifying for you.”
The man led the sobbing Devin out of the room.
They walked down a narrow passageway, weaving between old machines and tangled wires.
By the time Devin realized they were inside a transport hovercar, a window appeared on the right-side wall.
He stopped walking and stared through it.
His eyes narrowed, and his mouth hung open in disbelief.
“This is…”
Light.
Warm and gentle—something soft and comforting brushed against Devin’s skin through the window.
As if drawn by a spell, he stepped up to it.
He opened his palm and let the light pour into it.
It seeped into his skin, radiating a warmth that reached down to his very bones.
He looked up.
A glowing sphere hung in the sky—so bright, he couldn’t look at it directly.
Squinting from the unfamiliar pain, he lowered his gaze—and saw a world unlike anything neon signs could offer.
A clear blue sky without a single cloud.
Rolling green fields covered in plants he couldn’t name.
And scattered across the land, broken remnants of grey concrete structures, their shapes long lost to time.
It was a place he’d only seen in paintings and photos.
‘Outside.’
“…Ah.”
“You’ve never been outside the city before, have you, Devin?”
It was nothing like UnderHeaven.
Nothing like the artificial ecological parks he’d paid two months’ wages to visit.
This wasn’t synthetic nature—it was real.
And for the first time, he understood.
Understood why Necromancers and Reapers risked everything to reclaim the world beyond.
Why they fought to return ‘outside’ to humankind.
“…Hhkk… h-hhkk…”
“Oh no, why are you crying like that?”
This view—this miracle.
He wanted his wife and daughter to see it too.
“Come on, this way.”
With help from the two men, Devin started walking again.
At the end of the narrow corridor, a steel door slid downward.
A breeze rushed in from the outside.
Fresh air swept across his cheeks and neck.
He squinted against the sudden sunlight, and ahead, he saw a crowd waiting beneath the open door.
‘…Awakened? Reapers?’
He couldn’t tell. They looked nothing like the Necromancers and Reapers he’d seen before.
No dull black coats. No gleaming Necroshells.
Most of them looked… ordinary. If not for the weapons strapped to their bodies, they could’ve passed for laborers from UnderHeaven.
“Hello!”
A woman stepped out from the crowd.
Light-dyed hair, a skin-tight bodysuit under a loose jacket. Strikingly beautiful.
And on her forearm—a white fox mask was strapped in place.
“Really glad to meet you!”
She seized Devin’s hand and shook it forcefully.
“I’m Elise, commander of this shelter and member of the Liberation Front.”
“Liberation Front…? What’s that?”
“You haven’t been told yet?”
Elise tilted her head and looked past Devin.
One of the men who’d escorted him flinched under her gaze, quickly shoving a pig mask deeper into his pocket.
“Ahh, poor guy must be rattled. I suppose almost killing someone qualifies as an ‘oops,’ huh?”
She turned back to Devin and beamed.
“Let me officially introduce us. We’re Awakened who’ve come together to fight for freedom.
We call ourselves the Liberation Front. Back in the day, people used to know us as the Hunter Association.”
“…What?”
“Put simply, we’re an armed group—rebels, if you like.”
Devin’s eyes trembled.
‘Rebels.’
He’d heard that word countless times in the news—always tied to terror incidents.
“Why would rebels—no, why would the Liberation Front want ‘me’…?”
And then he heard it.
The hum of a hovercar engine overhead.
Wuuuuung—
He looked up.
Beneath the sun that lit up the world—A hovercar even older than the one he’d ridden in was descending.
It landed, and the door opened.
Two people stepped out.
A woman with tears streaming down her face, and a child holding a white puppy plush toy.
It was Devin’s wife and daughter.
“…Ah—ahh!”
Devin’s pupils dilated.
He screamed and ran toward them.
Tripping over a rock but scrambling back to his feet.
“Sweetheart!”
“Daddy!”
They ran too, just the same.
Like it was the last sprint of their lives.
Under the bright sky, in a place warmed by the sun, the three of them clung to each other.
They ran their hands over one another’s faces and backs, sobbing in joy—not on a cold, damp concrete floor, but on soft, green earth—reconfirming each other’s presence.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
Devin wept as he shouted.
Turning toward the Liberation Army that had saved him—and his family—from despair.
Wiping away a tear from her cheek, Elise smiled and replied.
“Don’t thank us. You should thank Ba—D, instead!”
＊ ＊ ＊
Baek Ho lay on the rooftop, staring up at the night sky.
A moon, crafted through illusion magic. Stars, engineered by arcane technology.
A collaborative work of astronomers and artists, this man-made sky shone brilliantly tonight—A beautiful night. Or rather, day disguised as night.
-[Knock knock~ (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑]
A translucent message window popped up in front of Baek Ho’s eyes.
It was a text from Elise.
[Who is this?]
-[It’s me, Elise~ (•̀ω•́)b]
[Elise… wait, don’t tell me—you're that psycho who electrocuted an ally?]
-[Just hear me out once! (*´⌒`*)]
[You know, I had no idea a taser could hurt that bad.]
-[I’ll kill that guy for you! (｀Д´)]
[Not sure that’s enough. I think I’ve developed trauma. Can’t even eat pork anymore.]
-[Trauma!? (;°Д°)]
-[Whoa! Isn’t trauma a good thing for a Necromancer though?]
[You’re getting blocked.]
-[I’m sorry! (`Д´)]
[Bye.]
-[I’ll grant you any wish later, no matter what!]
[Nope.]
-[Yo! Baek Ho! Please forgive me!]
[No.]
-[Then I have no choice!]
-[Hya! ╰(⁰ ਊ ⁰ )━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ]
-[You’ve been cursed by the ultra-gorgeous Elise to unconditionally forgive her!]
“…Ridiculous.”
Baek Ho snorted and closed his eyes, amused.
Childish—but if he was being honest, this whole mess had started because of a favor ‘he’ had asked Elise.
He’d contacted the Liberation Army, told them there was a rogue Awakened out there, and said he’d help bring them in.
But things hadn’t gone to plan. They were ambushed mid-operation, and everything went off the rails.
Somehow, Baek Ho ended up getting hit with a taser by the very people he’d called for backup.
Bzzzt—Bzzzt—
Vibrations buzzed on the back of his hand again.
When he opened his eyes, several new message windows were stacked on top of each other.
-[Wish-granting time!]
-[Body and soul, totally ready!]
-[(⸝⸝ᴗ͈ ̫ ᴗ͈⸝⸝)]
Baek Ho quickly typed a reply.
[Then tell me who your leader is.]
-[Can’t do that.]
‘Just as expected. Of course they wouldn’t just give up the identity of someone classified as a top-tier criminal that easily.’
-[Ask for something else instead.]
[Then just like you said earlier—next time I ask for help, you help me no matter what. No pay, obviously.]
-[Really? ('◡')]
[Yeah.]
-[You don’t want anything else?]
-[I’m ready for anything! ('◡')]
[That’s enough. What about Devin?]
-[Still on his way! ('◡')]
[His wife and daughter?]
-[Just got out! ('◡')]
[Okay.]
-[Baek Ho! Stop dodging the topic and tell me what you want already! I’ll head over right now—]
He ignored the text and was about to close the SmartCore window when he noticed a missed message.
It had come from Sophia while he was unconscious.
-[That must’ve been quite the scare. Apparently, there was a system error that flagged D as a high-risk criminal. It’s been resolved now, so nothing like that should happen again.]
‘Does she take me for a fool?’
He would’ve preferred if she had just admitted it—
That they’d come after him to shake up his father.
That she stayed nearby just in case things got dangerous.
-[And I saw how you wrapped up that mission. The Liberation Front, really? That’s a risky move.]
“......”
He was dumbfounded.
‘Was she watching from afar the whole time?’
-[If I may say one thing out of concern: Don’t get involved with cowardly traitors like them. They’re people who turned their backs on humanity’s cause and betrayed the duty of the Awakened for their own selfish gain. While we drown in the blood of monsters in hell, they go wandering around looking for paradise. They’re not worth your time. Losers—that’s what the Liberation Front really is.]
He could understand Sophia’s anger.
As a Reaper fighting on the frontlines and hunting monsters, she’d have no sympathy for Awakened who ran from that responsibility and rejected the path of a Reaper.
-[Also…]
The messages kept going.
Packed with useless chatter.
Make sure to eat properly.
Exercise regularly.
Use less magic.
Consider becoming a Commander, etc.
The only part Baek Ho actually cared about came at the very end.
-[…The remaining payment will be deposited tomorrow. Compensation for the damaged vehicle during the mission will be included.]
‘Now ‘that’ is good news.’
-[If we ever get the chance, I hope we meet again. Until then, take care of yourself.]
He replied with a short message to her long-winded one.
[Sure.]
It didn’t go through.
Looked like she’d blocked SmartCore communication on her end.
"Wonder how much she’s paying…”
Baek Ho stood up, heart full of anticipation.
He shook Frank awake, who was still in a coma.
“Nooo!”
Frank suddenly jolted upright and screamed, eyes wide as if he’d just been yanked out of a nightmare.
He looked around, dazed, then blurted out—
“No! I’m not going on a date with second place!”
Baek Ho stared at him for a moment.
“…This lunatic.”
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Hestia
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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