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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 38: 4 Billion (3)
Amid the dense Spell Smog, a man stood still, wearing a gas mask.
Harsh breathing echoed from the purifier, quickly drowned out by the blaring music.
“Chef.”
A man in a full hazmat suit approached him.
“Three unidentified Reapers passed through the eastern checkpoint about an hour ago.”
“Their objective?”
“Looks like they’re here on a Resolver assignment.”
"......"
“Apologies, sir. It’s just—those Reapers ended up killing one of our suppliers.”
“You didn’t come into my kitchen just to tell me that, did you?”
“That guy… he used to work under me. His numbers were solid too…”
“Go back and do the job I gave you.”
“…Yes, understood.”
The Chef turned his gaze forward again.
Through the black smoke that filled the space, people in full hazmat suits sat at workbenches, focused on manufacturing something.
Slicing, grinding, boiling—the more they worked, the more the Spell Smog billowed out, slowly consuming the room.
＊ ＊ ＊
BOOM—!
An explosion rang out not far off.
It was quickly followed by gut-wrenching screams and the rattling of gunfire.
When they moved toward the commotion, flames were already rising behind a building across the street.
Cold, glimmering neon signs were being swallowed by the blaze one after another.
“So pretty…”
Nana lowered her mask’s visor and squirmed with delight.
The sparks lighting up the night sky, drifting like flower petals in the air—it was as if the entire city had bloomed into a massive bouquet just for her.
“So romantic…”
Only after her eyes had soaked in enough of the firelight did she turn her gaze.
She looked ahead, where Baek Ho walked in front of her.
He was moving his left hand busily as they walked—in and out of his pocket, over and over.
With each motion, bills the size of his palm fluttered to the ground.
Physical credits—left behind by the dead Reaper.
“Money!”
“Outta the way!”
“That one’s mine!”
Vagrants hurled themselves at the bills.
Most of them were damaged undead, their bodies showing signs of past battles and trauma.
“Our Lord is just too adorable sometimes.”
Nana smiled sweetly as she approached one of the vagrants, snatched a bill from his hand, and hurried back over to Baek Ho.
“You dropped this.”
Nana waved the bill in front of Baek Ho’s face. His brow immediately furrowed.
“…That’s not mine. Who even uses paper credits anymore?”
“They still do in the slums. What, you didn’t know?”
"......"
“Hey, you remember I grew up in a slum orphanage, right?”
“Vaguely.”
“Back then, begging was our daily grind. Wanna know what the seasoned beggars always warned us about?”
“…Let me guess. Stay away from necromancers?”
“Well, yeah—also that. But I’m talking about something else.”
Nana gave his pocket a playful tap.
“Never pick up cash off the street.”
“…Why?”
“Because it draws way too much attention.”
She turned him around to show him exactly what she meant.
The path he walked.
The beggars were tangled together, throwing punches at each other.
A fight so violent that their damaged cybernetic bodies were on the verge of falling apart.
The only person untouched was the undead beggar Nana had taken the bill from.
Baek Ho was speechless.
The deafening explosions and the scent of gunpowder mixed with the scene behind the building, turning it into a hellscape.
“Everyone’s so cruel, not even appreciating my Lord’s kind heart. It’s frustrating, isn’t it?”
"......"
“If you really want to do this kind of thing, would you want to take over the kind of charity I used
to run?”
“…Where did you do it?”
“At orphanages and the Church of Light. Even the Widow Helpers. Around 1 billion credits a month, I think?”
"......"
“Anyway, let’s move on now.”
Nana grabbed Baek Ho’s arm and pulled him along.
At just the right moment, Frank came out of the nearby convenience store, holding an ice cream.
The turret at the convenience store followed his movements.
It was a standard installation for any shop in the slums.
“Frank’s buying ice cream.”
“Wait, what? Ice cream? Why did you get mint chocolate?”
“You said you liked it in an interview once.”
“I did not! When did I ever say that?”
“When ‘Your Favorite’ was number one for four weeks, you mentioned it in the follow-up interview.”
“…So what, should I start cursing on camera now?”
“Honestly, I think you would.”
“Yeah, damn right! I’ll buy my own ice cream!”
Nana grumbled and slipped her hand into Baek Ho’s coat pocket, pulling out the cash.
She took it all and walked into the convenience store.
“Baek Ho…”
Frank looked at the spot where Nana had disappeared with a distant gaze.
“Do you really have no intention of bringing her back to how she was before?”
“That is how she is, though.”
“Ugh…”
He shoved the ice cream into his mouth.
“An idol… turned into a mess….”
Baek Ho sighed as Frank shed a tear.
Looking at the ice cream in Frank's hand, Baek Ho saw the cover, with four members of I_Vu smiling brightly.
Maybe that was part of the reason for his irritation.
“It’s good... I want another one… I wish someone who doesn’t eat sweets would give it to me…”
Baek Ho handed the ice cream back to Frank.
“Why’d you give it to me if you know I wouldn’t eat it?”
“I just wanted to feel a bit better...”
“But didn’t they discontinue this?”
“Yeah, but there’s tons of them here.”
When it was revealed that Nana was undead, all the products she had been advertising were discontinued.
But here, they were still selling them.
The corporations had poured them into this area to minimize their losses.
The slums were originally intended for this kind of use.
It was the place where UnderHeaven dumped its trash, and where trash flowed in to survive.
In other words, it was the city’s garbage dump.
Boom—!
This time, the flames rose from a bit farther away.
The sound of gunfire followed, but instead of screams, there was shouting.
Freedom, equality, liberation, rest.
It was the cry of the undead rights activists.
“Why go that far? What difference does it make if they keep doing that?”
“True.”
Despite his calm exterior, Baek Ho’s mind was troubled.
The violence that had been added to the rights activists’ protests was partially his fault, too.
Baek Ho had used Edelin Nana’s voice to send a message to the city.
Undead are people, too.
They deserve to be treated equally.
Thanks to that, the undead-haters had become more cautious, but unexpectedly, the rights activists had turned into a force of recklessness.
Meanwhile, the upper sectors, where change was most needed, remained quiet.
Baek Ho had thought that the entrenched class society would be difficult to bring down, but he hadn’t expected it to be this sturdy.
"Mm?"
At that moment, a red cloth fluttered through the air above Frank's head.
"What’s this?"
He grabbed it and examined it closely.
A flag, half-burned by fire.
It had the word "Freedom" and a picture of a beautiful woman on it.
"......"
"......"
Both Baek Ho and Frank were speechless at the sight.
The woman depicted on the flag was none other than Edelin Nana.
"Why... Why is this happening?"
Baek Ho began using his SmartCore.
He searched for undead rights activists through the cyber network.
But due to censorship and control, nothing came up.
"Dammit…"
Next, he contacted Elise from the Liberation Army.
He asked her to hack the corporate cyber network and find pictures of the activists' protests.
It was as if she was already prepared, as the pictures arrived almost instantly.
The images showed activists shaking red cloths that were tied to flagpoles.
On each flag, Edelin Nana’s face was printed in black and white.
–[Congratulations! (❛ ڡ ❛)]
–[You’ve now got the Undead Goddess as your ally!]
At that moment, Nana burst out of the convenience store, kicking the door open.
"Dammit! There’s so many of them!"
She had large boxes slung over both shoulders.
Inside, there were piles of ice cream and chocolate.
All the products featured I_Vu models.
"Master! Wait up!"
Nana approached the crowd of mixed-up vagrants, carrying the boxes.
She threw the bags of ice cream and chocolates into the crowd.
The vagrants, who had been fighting each other, froze in surprise, stepping back from each other before quickly scrambling to pick up the sugar that had spilled onto the ground.
They shoved it into their mouths and clothes.
Watching them, Nana giggled like a little girl feeding pigeons at the park.
"There's plenty, so don’t fight~ Be friendly with your friends~."
Baek Ho felt a deep sense of despair.
It was because she showed no emotional disturbance at all over such strange behavior.
Has she already adapted to this?
Has she already come to understand her eccentric personality?
With a heavy heart, Baek Ho sent a reply to Elise.
[Do you need a Reaper? They’d fit perfectly with your cause.]
–[Nah~ we’ll pass~ ('◡')]
＊ ＊ ＊
The estimated population of UnderHeaven is twenty million.
Every day, tens of thousands of tons of waste are produced, all of which head toward the incinerators located in Sector 36.
"Sector 36 used to be an uninhabitable place. Because of that, people from the lowest strata of society, or those with complicated pasts, naturally started drifting in."
Thieves, con artists, murderers.
Awakened individuals who refused to become Reapers.
Undead who had fled the battlefield, among others.
As people with different backgrounds gathered, formed groups, and expanded their size, Sector 36 became overcrowded.
"They say the population density was several times that of the upper sectors back then. People couldn't stand it anymore. They were desperate to widen their living space."
Afterward, new sectors that hadn't been part of the urban plan began to form.
Sector 37, built on rotten water.
Sector 38, constructed next to the sealed prison.
Sector 39, built on the very edge of UnderHeaven, against the "Wall."
A massive slum was born.
"As people gathered like this, naturally, many problems arose, right?"
The taxi driver's chatter continued.
Even though none of Baek Ho’s group were paying attention, he didn't stop talking.
"Individuals came together to form a society. Conflicts arose as interests became entangled, and money began to flow in attempts to resolve them. People formed organizations to earn more money. And that's how the gangs were formed."
"...How much longer?"
"Almost there."
The gangs of the slums did anything related to money.
Dirty money, disgusting money, horrific money.
They gathered all sorts of corrupt wealth that would have been impossible under the Seven Corporations and the central government.
"Thanks to that, the gangs developed immensely, and within the slums, they gained power on par with the Seven Corporations."
Under the gang’s leadership, the size of the slums continued to grow.
But since UnderHeaven had the shape of a long diamond, there was no more space to expand sideways or backwards.
The only remaining option was to encroach upon the upper sectors.
Like a cancer cell slowly spreading, the slums had started eating away at Sector 35, eventually reaching Sector 31.
"This story is already over 20 years old."
The expansion of the slums halted there.
It was as if the Seven Corporations had allowed the slums to expand only as far as that.
"I used to be a well-known history teacher, you know? If only I hadn't been drinking and grabbed the wheel back then..."
"Stop here."
"We’re almost there though…."
"Just stop."
"Alright! Thanks to someone like you who finds a manual taxi, I’m able to feed my wife and kids. Long live the Reapers, and may today bring nothing but good things~"
Baek Ho and his group swiftly got out of the taxi.
Baek Ho got out from the front seat, and Frank, carrying Nana, who was in a coma, got out from the back seat.
If they hadn’t done that, Nana would not have let the taxi driver off easily.
"Do you really have to wake her up? She’s so peaceful right now. Just let her be."
"...She's already awake."
"Ah."
"Dammit!"
"Ugh, you're pulling my hair!"
Baek Ho's group crossed the road and entered a narrow alley.
The old 10-story villas lined both sides, and they entered one of them.
Room 404.
This was Mujin’s home.
They pressed the doorbell.
When there was no response, they knocked with their fists.
Still, no answer. Nana signaled to Frank.
Thuck—!
With a flick of Frank's hand, the front door opened smoothly, like an automatic door.
Inside, Baek Ho frowned.
There was nothing.
It was literally empty.
The only things that could be found were a single automatic cooking machine and a small refrigerator.
It didn’t feel like a place where anyone actually lived.
"What is this? Did we come to the wrong place?"
"This is the right place."
Baek Ho pointed a finger toward one of the walls.
On a nail crudely hammered into the wall, two old headphones were hanging.
These days, the only person seen wearing such outdated models was Mujin.
"Even if he doesn’t come home often... this is too much."
Baek Ho opened the only door in the place.
Inside was just a thin mattress.
He had expected someone who worked so tirelessly to at least have something decent, like a gold-plated toad or something.
But all that was left was dust.
"What did he even spend all his money on?"
"Donations."
Nana replied, her expression full of disdain.
"I heard from the church that he gives all his earnings to the orphanage."
"......"
"You don’t believe it? I didn't either when I first heard. I thought, who in their right mind would do that?"
"Why...?"
"He said he gives it to the children of the Reapers he killed."
"Wait, he killed them?"
"Didn't you know? He was an executioner. Back in the Legion days, he was pretty well-known."
Only then did Baek Ho start to understand the vacant expression on Mujin’s face.
An executioner was someone who hunted down Reapers that had committed crimes on the battlefield or hidden their Mad Eater transformations.
Since they were tasked with killing people, they had their emotions removed when they were implanted with a Vessel.
"Ugh... Now what?"
Nana sighed, crouching on the floor.
"Do you think I’ll ever get my money back?"
That was why Baek Ho’s group had come to find Mujin.
It was to recover the bank module inside the smart bone Mujin had taken when Nana escaped the stadium, along with her left hand.
When Edelin Nana was officially declared dead, all her assets were seized by the central government.
But they couldn’t touch the credits she had saved up personally.
40 billion credits, hidden for donations.
Nana had confessed this to Baek Ho, saying—I belong to you, Lord, so take all my money too.
"Did he run off with it?"
Frank’s words made Nana scoff.
"Run off with it? He’s not the type to leave the orphanage kids behind and just run off. He’s a complete idiot."
"Then we should go to that orphanage."
"Should we? It's right next door. I used to sponsor the Church of Light there, so I know the place well. We might even see something from here."
Nana opened the window and pointed toward something in the distance.
"There... Huh? Why is there smoke coming out?"
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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