Chapter 41

Chapter 41

There were two vehicles. One was the military vehicle Leila’s group had brought with them. The other was Roscoe’s pickup truck, which he had purchased.

The move took quite a while. For Kim, it’s been an enjoyable journey.

Astericke almost crashed his car into a sign when he said he would switch if he was tired. Or Chelsea’s withdrawal symptoms after being forced to stop gambling…….

Somewhere along the way, this came up.

“I hope Chelsea travels well.”

“What are you talking about, all of a sudden.”

“Why, yes.”

Asterike brought up the chapter, and she looked out the car window with a glint of superiority in her eye.

“We didn’t have it this good back then,” he says, “three of us taking turns sleeping on the floor, sharing a single piece of jerky, and a monster coming out at every opportunity.”

“So what do you want me to do…?”

“No, just. It reminds me of old times.”

It was ridiculous, but Kim agreed.

“I was once like that. How’s it going now? You’re still eating the same jerky, but you’ve got your own food. Someone else takes care of the monsters. I still can’t wash, but I’m still a drive, drive.”

“What’s the bottom line, are you saying I should be grateful to you or something?”

“You don’t have to do that, just take a break from driving and don’t act like it’s hard.”

“That’s right, he’s the boss and he shouldn’t be driving.”

“Siibal…….”

Chelsea did most of the driving. This made the trip comfortable.

It’s a far cry from the days of heading to the city with a million credits in my pocket, and I’ve certainly gotten a lot out of Kilikia.

“Well, you know what?”

“Huh?”

“Were those the three people Hyun was talking about when we first met?”

What did you say?

Kim searched his memory. It had been about half a year ago, and it took her a while to remember.

I remembered. ‘I’ve only met three good people in all my time here’. There was a time when I had referred to Leila’s group in that way.

“Good job remembering.”

“I’m not as dumb as Hyun thinks I am.”

“The last time I thought I had a bad hair day was… hmmm.”

It’s hard to say that I didn’t, in fact, at first I looked at Asterike and thought. Are all women that stupid…….

“That was a long time ago.”

Kim turned her head toward the window, the piercing stare from behind her thankfully blocked by the seat.

“Hmmm.”

Asterique let out a small snort, her relaxed demeanor suggesting she didn’t mind as long as she was being listened to, but her pouty lips were showing her displeasure.

What an idiot… That’s shocking as it is, but that’s another story.

“You weren’t the first to see me.

She knows that Kim cares about her, but she wonders if she could have met him before Leila, if he would have made her feel more special than she does now.

It’s a shame, she said, shaking the thought from her mind.

“I’m excited. I wonder if they’re all like Leila?”

“How about that.”

Kim doesn’t give a blanket affirmation. There’s no question that labs are a force for good for users.

But at the end of the day, we are a group of humans. Chapters are going to be everywhere.

‘They’re not all as badass as Leila.

You’ll see things that aren’t even in the game. While the organization itself, the Celbromics Lab, is trusted… whether or not that trust extends to the individual agents, I don’t know.

Labs aren’t exactly a utopia either.

* * *

The western part of the continent. A land that thrived for centuries has long since been ravaged.

Collapsed buildings, overgrown moss. Humid air and an unidentifiable fishy odor. All that’s left is the vestiges of civilization.

On the plague-swept land, Shalem was no more. Seven plagues in five years brought the nation to its doom.

Shalem’s miserable words were expressed in a very simple sentence.

‘I was unlucky’.

“This is interesting.”

Chelsea stuck her tongue out as she followed the car in front of her.

In a corner of the ruins was the entrance to the lab. A downward slope of steel plates, resembling a giant conveyor belt. At the end of the descent was a tightly closed iron gate.

After a few moments of waiting in traffic, the doors opened by themselves. Shortly after entering, I was in the parking lot.

“You’ve traveled a long way to get here, and you’re only just past the doorway, but how are you feeling now that you’re here?”

Leila, who got off first, asked. Kim wasn’t surprised because she already knew, but Leila seemed to be expecting a reaction.

“What can I say, it’s the opposite of Kilikia.”

Kilikia had a thriving surface and a dangerous, dark underground, but only the underground remained intact.

“I thought it was a lab, so of course it would be in a city.”

“It used to be,” he says, “although I’ve only seen pictures of what it used to look like.”

A bitter smile tugged at the corners of Leila’s mouth, then quickly disappeared.

“You should probably get settled in and freshen up, and I’ll show you to the room you’ll be using during your stay at the lab.”

* * *

Private room on the fifth floor of the basement.

Kim washed herself in the bathroom attached to her room and changed into the clothes provided. As she dried her wet hair, she scanned the room with a fresh eye.

The white bedspreads were clean and hygienic at first glance.

“Not bad.

The setting is familiar because it’s often used in games. Not only the room, but every corner of the lab felt very familiar.

Even the agents you run into in passing.

“Who else is there at this point?

Episode 3 hasn’t even started. There are many agents who haven’t joined yet. It’s almost the beginning of the game’s service.

“But there are some good ones.

The Lab’s elite agents, including Ghosts, some of whom may be lowly now but will become elite later. It’s a goldmine of talent.

“I suppose I could steal one or two of them.

Just as long as it doesn’t interfere with the professor’s future. I don’t plan to take away any of the main characters who appear frequently in the story.

But if it’s just an extra……?

Kim was in the middle of a heinous crime.

Smart.

There was a knock on the door, followed by Pablo’s voice.

“Hyun, are you finished unpacking?”

“Uh, I don’t have many personal items.”

I left my phone in Kilikia, and it doesn’t work outside the city anyway. It’s just a watch with a glowing screen.

“Come out then. Our warden’s out of town for a bit. I’m supposed to show you around the facility until he gets back. Well, if it bothers you, I don’t mind waiting.”

“No, please.”

You straighten your clothes and leave the room. Pablo and I take a moment to look around the hallway. The group has reassembled, cleaned up and organized.

And so the rap tour began.

“First of all, the fifth and sixth floors are used for the agents’ quarters, and the seventh floor below is a training facility, which you are welcome to use.”

“Hey, why is there a training ground in the lab?”

There was a moment of silence at Asterike’s question. It was a new question, but a natural one.

Kim with his knowledge of the game, Leila and the rest of the lab, and Asterique and Chelsea as outsiders. There was a big difference in perception.

Before I could get too annoying, Kim made a quick grab.

“It’s a tough world out there.”

“I see.”

“That explanation made sense to you?”

Chelsea grabs the pod and Asterique kicks him in the mouth like he’s not cool.

“Where else has Chelsea been besides Kilikia?”

“What? I’m from Kilikia and nowhere else.”

“So, yeah. You should know the world.”

In the end, Chelsea kept their mouths shut.

She had always had a certain favor for Asterike… but lately, it’s been hard to get along. Ever since she was suddenly forced to act like a senior.

You follow Leila into the elevator. An underground facility with the eighth floor being the lowest. Even though it was one floor short, it couldn’t help but remind me of MetroCity.

Soon, the elevator doors opened.

Four floors underground. Asterique let out a small gasp at the view of the exposed interior.

“Please move this to ……. This is in room B506….”

“Terratonium? …there’s not enough of it to…….”

“…I’ll be up all night, too. How many days already.”

“Just hold on for today, soon…….”

A hallway flanked by countless rooms. Researchers in white lab coats, the same color as the walls, bustled about.

The smell of disinfectant and coffee wafted through the air. Even the researchers’ grimy demeanor seemed somehow intelligent to Asterike.

The researchers also found Leila’s group. From a distance, they greeted them with light gestures, and some who were nearby came up to talk to them.

“Ms. Leila. When did you get back?”

“I’m just getting back in, you all look busy, is there a problem?”

“Oh… that’s not a problem, the director has suddenly gotten a lot more customers, and we’re getting a lot of requests for equipment.”

“I see. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No, no, no. This is our job, and I don’t know why they’re in such a hurry, because I’m going to sleep like a baby.”

We’ll have a quick chat and then get back to work. Leila explained, making eye contact with each researcher in the hallway.

“They work on things like the inhibitor that Mr. Asterike is using, which is something that requires a lot of expertise, so they’re in charge of production.”

There was a setting for that.

They’re not highlighted in the game, so it’s easy to forget about them. However, researchers were more important than agents in some ways.

“I’m looking at this crazy black company.

A research position that doubled as a production job was more than a person could handle. The more powerful the lab grew, the more work they would have to do.

“Cheer up.

I gave myself a little cheer.

There were many other facilities. Power plants to supply electricity and greenhouses to grow crops. Passageways to underground mines, and so on.

The lab was completely self-sufficient. And, of course, it took a lot of hard work from its members to keep it that way.

‘There’s a lot of slaves in the mines.

In the game, you’re also tasked with maintaining and expanding your labs. Send them to mine, or even send them to the surface to pick up useful items…….

The guide says something like this

– The lab is running out of power, and I need terratonium to run the generator. I need to get some ore from the mine that contains terratonium, who should I ask…….

– What is everyone doing? Ha, I can’t help it.

– Mr. Pablo is stepping up to the plate! Let’s send a 24-hour mining mission!

– Along the way, you may reach your fatigue limit, but don’t worry, you can use Fatigue Recovery to mitigate it.

It’s a bit disorienting to read. It’s so different from Leila’s character in the tutorial.

Even though it’s a system guide, I feel like it was necessary to do this. There are even users who jokingly and half-seriously say that this is Leila’s nature.

It had nothing to do with Kim. He’s no longer the evil professor who fed Pablo blood-restoring drugs and forced him to work seven days a week.

“……Ah, right.”

“What’s wrong, Mr. Hyun?”

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen the professor yet.”

I had forgotten that one of the purposes of coming to the lab was to check on my professor.

“Well, it looks like the professor is out of town.”

“You must have a problem with the warden.”

I was about to nod my head.

“Uh, no. They say you’ve been dispatched to the mines.”

“And, mine?”

I stuttered at the unexpected answer. Why would a professor go there?

“It takes a lot of resources to keep the lab’s facilities up and running, so we’re taking over when the guys aren’t out on operations.”

We already know that. That’s not the point.

“The professor is pickaxing?”

“Oh… I was originally concerned about your physical fitness, so I told you to focus on rehabilitation, but it seems like you’ve been neglecting your work lately.”

Leila laughed, as if she couldn’t help it.

“I think he thinks he’s the only one who’s comfortable,” she says, “but other people are considerate of the professor and give him less physically demanding jobs like pushing carts.”

“……Yes.”

Kim Yi-hyun pressed his thumb to his forehead. I want to share the burden of the agents…. The intentions were good, but to him, it felt ridiculous.

“There’s all these crappy players.

I glanced to the side and saw that Ghost was also shaking. This was clearly a problem. The professor seemed to be firmly in the wrong role.

“Hold on a second.”

After a moment, Leila fumbles with her jumper. I pull out my walkie-talkie and exchange a few words in Moorish. She says she understands and ends the communication.

“The warden has arrived.”