Chapter 16

Chapter 16. Designated Request (3)

“Haa... I’m damn tired.”

My clothes were torn to shreds, and dust hung thick in the air.

Ignoring the mud and smeared blood, I simply lay down.

―Splat.

The lukewarm liquid against my back felt extremely unpleasant...

But right now, getting even a little relief from the heavy fatigue mattered more than something like that.

<​Mr. Gang-sik! Are you all right?! If you can hear me, please answer!! Mr. Gang-sik!!>

At that moment, Kim Young-hee’s urgent voice rang through the ear cuff.

Looks like she got out safely.

<​Mr. Gang-sik―>

“―You’re going to blow out my eardrums. I’m alive, so don’t worry.”

<​Ah!! Thank goodness! A moment ago, above the factory, something that looked like a mana aura...>

“Yes, a scholar showed up.”

<​A scholar...!! So that really was a mana aura!>

Then I heard her draw in a breath as though steeling herself.

<​...The team has finished reorganizing! We’ll provide cover, so use that time to get out of here, Mr. Gang-sik!>

“What are you planning to do after sending only me out? You don’t even have a Haechi. Are you planning to fight a scholar?”

<​What we asked of you, Mr. Gang-sik, was strictly to serve as backup in this operation.>

A light breath, followed by a serious voice.

<​The mere fact that a scholar intervened means the situation has already gone far beyond the scope of the request. From here on, this is something our police department must handle.>

“...”

<​So while we draw the scholar’s attention, evacuate quickly!>

They were wearing fairly sturdy equipment.

But unless they had freakish raw specs like Kim Cheol-su, it was only the difference between one sheet of paper and ten.

‘I appreciate their resolve to somehow send me back safely since they were the ones who dragged me into this.’

But leaving people I’d gone out of my way to save to walk willingly to their deaths while I ran away alone...

Would leave a really bad taste in my mouth.

Besides.

<​Mr. Gang-sik, can you hear me? Please evacuate―>

“―You don’t need to.”

<​What? What do you mean, we don’t need to...>

“What was it again? Eighth junior rank, Frost something?”

I turned my head slightly.

Looking at the lump of blood that had already been reduced to mush, I continued.

“I just put a nice big hole through his chest, so he probably can’t move.”

<​...What?!>

“Just hurry up and collect the evidence, then withdraw. Try contacting Cheol-su too. Haven’t heard anything from him since the explosion.”

<​Wait, hold on! How did you beat a scholar barehanded...!>

Ignoring Kim Young-hee’s urgent question, I ended the communication.

“Judging by how he kept talking about some lowest-class butcher, that scholar bastard’s target seems to have been me in the first place.”

“...I was told I only had to deal with some lowest-class butcher.”

He definitely said that.

In other words, cleaning up the prototype was only a bonus.

He had specifically come looking for me.

“But not many people know I’m tracking Heaven’s Door.”

The Police Department’s Special Suppression Team under Kim Cheol-su.

Ma Cheol-sik and Maria of Saetani.

And the low-level Inrang researcher I killed at the reagent factory.

“There’s no way the first two sold my information to a Family, so that leaves Inrang.”

Did that bastard communicate with his superiors before he died?

Then that would mean the scholar came looking for me because Inrang asked him to clean things up.

...Does that make any sense?

“Inrang and Dohwa, bitter enemies for so long even street vagrants know about it, formed an alliance?”

The megacorporation Inrang, which uses money and technology to manufacture Awakened to its liking...

And the Dohwa Foundation, a Family made entirely of Awakened who preach pure mana supremacy?

No matter how much freedom the game had, this was something I never could have seen back when it was a game.

“...There’s too little information to conclude anything yet. I’ll go back, collect my payment, and get some res―”

The moment I got up while grumbling.

“―B-butcher bastaaaaaard!!!”

“?!”

The scholar bastard, whose heart I had definitely crushed completely, staggered to his feet.

Mana aura scattered in every direction as he charged at me.

“Yeeeeee!! Grrrkk!!”

His eyes had rolled back until only the whites showed.

Black blood poured from his nose, mouth, and ears.

Even the veins all over his body were swollen enough to be visible from the outside.

‘Heaven’s Door runaway symptoms!’

Exactly like the description in the game.

No, that’s not the important part. He’s too close for me to counter from here―

―Pshk.

“Ghk...”

As I tried to somehow steady myself, something pierced straight through the scholar’s neck.

―Baaang.

Then, half a beat later, came the faint, heavy gunshot.

Along with that sound, he collapsed right in front of me.

“...Huh?”

While I was still trying to process the situation, the ear cuff in my ear rang.

<​As you said, severing the connection between the brain and spinal cord renders them helpless.>

An indifferent voice devoid of emotion, just like always.

“...Maria?”

<​Yes, this is Maria.>

I collapsed onto the ground with a hollow laugh.

“Ha, I couldn’t see you nearby. How far away did you shoot from?”

<​From the rooftop of a high-rise building at the rendezvous point.>

That’s at least a kilometer away in a straight line.

But her voice continued calmly as though that were nothing.

<​An unanticipated mana aura was detected, so I provided backup. Was the interference unnecessary?>

“No. Perfect timing. I’m seriously exhausted and starving to death right now.”

Saying that, I walked over to a hole in a nearby rooftop.

Then pushed the scholar’s corpse into the still-burning factory below.

―Fwoosh.

The bloodstained white robe slowly caught fire.

Soon the flames spread across his entire body.

<​Confirmed situation resolved. Returning to standby at the rendezvous point.>

“Yeah. See you in a bit.”

I ended the communication and looked toward the rising flames.

“It was disgusting meeting you. Please, let’s never get involved again.”

Putting that small wish into it.

I raised my middle finger as high as I could toward the burning ashes.

____________

After the fight with that scholar at the factory.

I returned to the safe house, stuffed every piece of scrap metal I had stored into my mouth.

―Ding. Ding.

Then, overwhelmed by a level of exhaustion and fatigue I’d never felt before, I collapsed and fell asleep.

―Ding. Ding.

I’m sure that was my last memory.

―Ding. Ding.

“...What’s that noise been going on about? So loud.”

A noisy sound kept ringing somewhere beyond my hazy consciousness.

―Ding. Ding.

It took a little longer before I realized it was my phone notification.

“Tss, damn it. I’m hungry.”

The moment I sat up to look for my phone.

An enormous hunger hit me and irritation surged up.

―Ding...

And when I finally found my phone.

The battery died and the power shut off.

“Goddamn it, rotten luck.”

Well, if it’s urgent, they’ll contact me again.

Thinking that, I roughly plugged the phone into the charger.

Then opened the box where I had stored scrap metal.

Handgun parts, throwing knives, broken armor plate fragments, and so on.

I scraped together every kind of metal and ate it all.

[You have consumed crude material.]

[This material can no longer strengthen your body.]

[You can no longer gain proficiency from this material.]

[Your hunger has decreased slightly.]

“So now this stuff really can only fill my stomach.”

If I mixed in some higher-grade metal and made it like bibimbap, it’d taste better and raise proficiency too―

“...Hah, scrap-metal bibimbap. My brain really is starting to rot.”

I’ve been living on metal scraps as my staple food for almost three months now, so maybe it’s only natural.

With a dry laugh, I closed my eyes and brought up my status window for the first time in a while.

“Let’s see, I definitely heard the rank-up message after eating Thunder.”

As though proving it.

Bulgasari’s information had been updated.

【Bulgasari (The Unkillable)】

[Type]: Unique (D), Enhancement-Type

...

(Current Rank Proficiency: 0.1%)

[Effects]

...

―While this trait remains active, anything that can be consumed may be swallowed and regurgitated again at any time. (NEW!)

...

The rank had finally risen to D-rank.

And the proficiency value had finally gained a decimal point.

That probably means the upper limit has increased exponentially compared to before.

Even so, it was definitely there.

A new trait effect.

“What kind of effect is that? I can throw up what I ate?”

By something that can be consumed...

It probably means anything that falls within the scope of my Picky Eater Karma.

If I swallow those, I can spit them back out at any time?

“Wait... Don’t tell me!?”

I immediately swallowed a few nearby bullets whole without chewing.

Then.

With a ding.

【Stomach Inventory】

[.500 S&W Magnum (12.7x41mmSR) Bullet x 4 (NEW!)]

Those words appeared at one edge of my vision before slowly fading away.

“This really is an inventory!”

Yeah, I was sick of cramming chunks of metal into backpacks and pockets every time.

“It’s a shame I can only store things affected by Picky Eater...”

But now, unlike back at the old unmanned motel.

I could basically assume there would never again be a situation where I had nothing to eat in an emergency and Bulgasari weakened or deactivated.

“My survivability just got even bett―”

―Ding.

A new notification rang at the same time.

[“Unique Trait: Bulgasari” has reached a certain rank.]

[A derivative trait of “Bulgasari” has been added.]

[You have acquired the derivative trait “Flame Resistance (B).”]

“A derivative trait?!”

In R.O.K.A, when you acquired certain traits, there were traits you automatically learned alongside them as if they were a set.

Usually because you first obtained a higher-level trait and acquired them automatically.

Or because they referred to integrated subordinate traits.

Those were what you called ‘derivative traits.’

That should have been the case.

“And it’s B-rank even though it’s only a derivative trait? Bulgasari, just how high is your growth ceiling?”

Unable to hide my excitement.

I quickly opened the information window for the new trait.

【Flame Resistance】

[Type]: Heroic (B), Enhancement-Type

[Origin]: Folklore, Miscellaneous Records of Songnam

“Weak flames cannot burn it to death.”

Fire is now your friend.

[Effects]

―While “Trait: Bulgasari” remains active, all flame damage of fifth tier or lower is completely ignored, and Karma is partially alleviated.

As befitting a derivative trait of Bulgasari, it had the same origin.

And its effect was likewise a passive applied while Bulgasari remained active.

“It completely ignores all flame damage of fifth tier or lower?”

Then from now on, whether I meet a scholar, a free mage, or an anomaly...

“That means I can completely ignore most fire attacks?”

Most mages in R.O.K.A were elemental mages.

And the basic major categories of those elements were...

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.

The Five Elements.

Metal was already my food to begin with.

“Now I can deal with two of the five elements barehanded.”

Though it came with the condition of fifth tier or lower.

In these lower districts, meeting a mana Awakened at all was rare, much less a fifth-tier one.

There were probably only three or four mages of that level even in the middle districts.

And since it’s enhancement-type, I’ll probably be able to block even higher tiers later, right?

“As expected of a Unique Trait. When it gives, it really gives.”

Just as the original Bulgasari was a monster that absolutely could not be killed, maybe this trait was specialized entirely around survival too.

I’ll have to slowly research what it means by Karma being alleviated―

“Wait, Karma... alleviated?”

I was about to brush past it, but it was so unbelievable that I repeated it again.

‘No way... No way!’

Ever since I fell into this damn world.

This was the most exciting moment yet.

I gently closed my eyes and switched to the status screen displaying Karma.

Then.

[ID]: Lee Gang-sik

[Status]: Extreme Hunger

[Traits]: 【Bulgasari (D)】, 【Mental Barrier (E)】, 【Flame Resistance (B)】

[Karma]: 【Endless Hunger】, 【Picky Eater (Metal & Fire)】(NEW!)

“...Right. I’m the idiot for getting my hopes up even for a moment.”

You give me the illness and the cure at the same time?

You’ll make me immune to fire damage, so now I’m supposed to put on a fire-eating show?

If I could hit it, I’d love to punch it once.

“Phew... Still, I’ve survived this goddamn city this long because of this damned trait.”

At this point, maybe I should call it a love-hate relationship.

My gratitude and anger keep swinging back and forth like a roller coaster.

―Knock knock, knock knock, knock knock.

At that moment, someone knocked continuously at a perfectly mechanical rhythm.

This was Saetani’s safe house, so there was only one person likely to knock on the door.

“―I’m not dead. Sounds like an excuse, but my phone battery literally just died.”

I opened the door as I spoke.

Standing there was the bodyguard in her usual suit.

Maria, wearing her usual indifferent expression.

“That’s fortunate. I won’t have to dispose of your corpse.”

“I said I’m sorry... How long was I asleep?”

“As of this moment, seventy-nine hours, twenty-six minutes, and thirty-four seconds.”

“I slept for more than three days? Crazy.”

No wonder it felt like my stomach was stuck to my spine.

“So what’s going on? You didn’t come all the way here because you were really worried about cleaning up my corpse.”

“...”

For just a moment, Maria looked dumbfounded, then continued with a small sigh.

“The Police Department says they intend to provide additional compensation for the unforeseen circumstances, so they need your confirmation. Would you prefer goods or money?”

“Do I have to decide right now?”

“No. The brokerage fee has already been paid, so you can contact them directly and negotiate the rest yourself.”

Then her eyes glowed as though checking some data before she continued.

“There are also summons from the manager and Ms. Seol Myeong-ji. The Association also contacted us regarding an investigation into the circumstances.”

“I’ve become pretty popular before I knew it.”

“If you’re still not feeling well, would you like to rest more?”

“No, I’ll wash up quickly and head out.”

“Understood. I’ll wait in the parking lot.”

As I watched Maria turn away and was about to close the door, her indifferent voice came back.

“You’re still wearing the same clothes from three days ago, so change as well. I placed spare clothes on the shelf outside the bathroom.”

“Huh? Yeah, thanks.”

“Then.”

As though she had said everything she needed to say, Maria turned and walked away without hesitation.

Only after I closed the door and came back inside did I finally look over my body...

The clothes I was wearing were perfectly intact, not the blood-soaked garments riddled with holes they should have been.

The clothes she said she had placed on the shelf were also similar in style to what I usually wore.

“It’s not like I wore this style because I especially liked it.”

The clothes I’d been wearing up to now were ones I got while wandering the back alleys.

One by one, kindly donated after heartfelt conversations with friendly gangsters.

“I’ve made quite a bit of money now. I should go shopping for clothes sometime.”

Leisurely clothes shopping.

Compared to my life in the back alleys, where I was busy just surviving every day, I’ve really moved up in the world.

With that thought, I put on my coat, grabbed my phone, and left through the door.

I Became an Immortal Who Chews on Steel

Author |

Mwiu

Publisher |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.

Managing Editor |

Editorial Department

Published by |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dream Books

Address |

Rooms 806-810, Kolon Science Valley I, 187-10 Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul

ISBN |

G720:N+A063-20261006118

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blog.naver.com/dreambookss

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