Chapter 6 District Forty-Nine Charlie (2)
***
A yellow light radiated from above, lighting up the underground city's infrastructure.
It came from the artificial sun which was also a mana core crystal.
Residue of mana garnered around the core producing immensely striking prismatic aura pressure.
The blue sky covered the rest of the ceiling.
"It's amazing."
Truly it is, despite humanity falling to rock bottom.
I lowered my eyes.
In the surface, tall high-rise buildings were placed up together near the road. Shorter small-rise buildings stood next to them.
Big LED's covered the skycrapers from top to bottom.
While the smaller residential buildings laid a large sign to the top of their upper floors.
Vroom!
Vrrr!
Vehicle engines roaring filled my ears.
Exhaust smoke from the vehicles penetrated its way to my nose. It smelled quite terrible.
The roads were filled with mana-powered trucks, vans, suv, and other vehicles.
Asphalt covered the roads surface.
The traffic lights were positioned in the corner of the roadway.
It kept alternating every thirty-seconds sometimes changing into green or red.
The streets and the sidewalks bustled with activity as countless people strolled across them.
The outfit people wore were a variety of casual clothings to formal ones. Different from outside the city's gate.
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The sound of advertisement echoed along the roads.
"Lower, they say…"
In reality, it's a trap. I've done it once in the game.
That's why I won't do it.
'This just feels like my previous world.'
A direct replica in fact. Except mana were the main the energy source they used here.
Bam!
"Hey, watch where you're going jerk."
While I was walking around the streets, I accidently stumbled onto someone.
The man in front of me wore a a black jacket and jeans.
Wanting no trouble to befall, I did what I had to do.
"I'm sorry about that."
I bowed my head down while replying.
"Tsk…"
He let out an irritated sigh.
"Don't do it again."
"Okay…"
He scurried away along the crowds before disappearing out of my sight.
I took his words sincerely and moved on.
'Well, that was quite lucky.'
For a moment, I thought I'd done something real bad.
Growl~
My stomach grumbled.
"Hah…"
"Is there no other way?"
I turned my head towards an alley.
My eyes felt dizzy.
And my hands kept trembling.
I couldn't even think clearly.
'It's been a day without food and water.'
'I might really die.'
It's a miracle this body was able to survive this long. Maybe because it was a hero's body.
'Not for long.'
I could feel it, that anytime soon, I might die.
'I have no choice, if I want to survive, rummaging through garbage bins might not be that bad.'
"This is the worst."
Well, considering the situation.
I can't afford to be picky.
I steered my legs forward.
Towards the alley way.
———
——
—
-
"Really…? Is this all there is to it…?"
After searching through many times from along many garbage bins.
All I found was, a half-left eaten chicken wrapped across a paper packaging.
And a bottle of expired soda.
I placed them gently in the ground with my hands
And feebly sat my back against the walls.
A cold breath escaped out of my mouth.
The rancid stench from the garbage bins heaped in the air.
Along with it, the brick walls were shrouded with dark green moss.
It was also pitch-dark here, the light not even reaching once.
"I…don't want this."
I clenched my fist tightly and swung it in frustration.
"Why...do I have to live like this...?"
I rubbed my teeth against itself in exasperation.
The thought of having to live like this makes my heart shudder.
'Ahaha…'
As I stared at the food in front of me, tears swelled up in my eyes.
Tears poured down from my face.
They flowed downwards across my chest.
Is this just a dream? Or a terrible nightmare?
'No.'
An answer that I didn't want to hear.
The sensations I felt were too realistic to be called a dream.
Can this be called life?
"Is this time to be crying?"
"Pull yourself together Kim Taesung!"
I said aloudly.
A sudden jolt of headache hit my head.
"…Ugh."
My eyes stopped swelling and my tears ceased up.
And I slowly regained composure.
"…"
I lowered my head down.
My gaze was fixed into the food I laid on the ground.
I pulled my face forward grabbing the chicken with my right hand.
And teared out the paper wrapping of it.
I bit down on the flesh and chewed on it.
"Bleugh..!"
A disgusting flavor filled my tongue.
Gulp.
I forced myself to swallow it.
Then I took another bite.
"Mmng!"
It was still as disgusting.
Tap—! Tap—!
The faint sound of footsteps.
"…?"
I diverted my eyes away from the food.
And glanced at which direction the noise came.
"Hmph! Why do I have to wash the dishes?"
"Can't they just do it themselves…?"
It was a girl's voice that resonated.
'Shit…'
I don't want anyone to notice me, especially not in this state.
Being looked down as miserable hobo is the worst feeling I could possibly receive.
The humiliation I'd get, simply thinking about it makes my blood boil.
'I need to run away…'
I hauled my legs upwards. Then pulled my arms together.
A jolt of energy pulsated through my legs.
"…Hey!"
Then I dashed forward with my feet.
"Hey…! Wait a second…"
I could feel it, that I gradually increased the distance.
Then suddenly, my legs stopped. As if it was turned off by a switch.
My chest fell forward. My head face-planted to the ground.
"Hey…!"
"Are you okay… Oppa?"
At that moment, I felt something touching my back. It was a hand to be exact.
When I rolled my head over.
Pinkish hair fluttered atop of my face. Blue-azure eyes was reflected back into my retina.
It was a pink-haired girl.
Her gaze met mine and her eyes darkened.
She looked concerned.
"Oppa…?"
Then bit by bit my sight became blurry and darker.
"Hey…"
I had lost consciousness by then.
***
I opened my eyes.
"Where am I?"
I found my body lying on a white floor. I raised myself up and looked around.
Up, down, left, and right.
Everywhere I tried to scuttled my eyes.
I was met with an endless white horizon.
"Hello?"
Then I pinched my cheek with my hand. To confirm something.
"Ouch…!"
It stung me, the sensation of pain was still there.
I clasped my fist tightly together.
The sensation of touch wasn't gone either.
"What is this place? A dream?"
No… It's too vivid to be called a dream.
What is it then?
«Hero…»
'Hero? It's the same voice as back then…'
I turned around.
Nothing.
All I saw was an empty white room that seemed to stretched endlessly.
«Look around…»
"Yeah… Yeah there's nothing around here."
"What do you mean look around? Is there something to see here?"
Then suddenly, a voice resounded.
"!ИOIЯO"
"!ƎVAӘ UOY ƎƧIMOЯꟼ ƎHT TƎӘЯOꟻ T'ИOႧ"
I looked behind.
A sleek rectangular bluish table materialized out of nowhere.
There were ten glossy blue seats elegantly laid out to the table.
A hologram hovered at the center of the table.
Two figures were seated randomly across the chairs.
The two figure were shroudded in a fog, making it hard to discern any details by myself.
One was a fuzzy blue silhouette outline, while the other one was red itself.
"!T⅃UAꟻ ЯUOY ⅃⅃A Ƨ'TI"
They seemed to speak in an incomprehensible language that I couldn't understand.
I don't know what they're talking about.
I continued observing over.
"?T⅃UAꟻ YM Ǝ𐐒 TI Ⴇ⅃UOƆ WOH ?ƎM"
Though it was vague, I could see faint traces of their gesture.
Moreover they kept pointing their fingers at each other.
'If there's ten chairs, where are the others?'
It's definitely weird, but I didn't have a clear answer behind it.
I could only speculate there were more of them.
I continued to scour around, circling around the table endlessly.
"Hey."
When I muttered a word, they didn't seem to react.
"Then, how about this?"
I stretched one of my arms forward to touch.
"W-wait…!"
When I did.
I tripped my feet and fell forward.
My body seemed to phased through the figures, the chair and the table itself.
"Ugh…"
I stumbled to my back.
Then, I rose my legs back up.
I straighted my posture.
And then I leaned forward to the center of the table.
I pulled my eyes to the hologram.
"!ﻼƆUꟻ"
While the two figures kept talking, I lowered my head and examined the hologram .
It was showing a battlefield.
The battlefield itself was devastated.
The surface was layered with blood. A single corpse was left alone.
The corpse itself was beyond recognizable. It could be seen as a lump of flesh that protruded out from the ground.
It was situated in the center alone. It lied its back facing the sky.
A dazzling yellow light floated above it.
A glimmering shiny sword was stuck through its body.
"Ezekiel?"
An image flashed to my mind.
I knew what it was.
Ezekiel was the holy sword of the hero in the game "Hero's Fate".
"But why?"
What was the meaning? Why was it shown from the hologram?
"!ƧIHT ƎVƎI⅃Ǝ𐐒 T'ИAƆ I"
'Hah… I don't get it.'
I'm not supposed to be some detective here, am I?
«It's time to go…»
"What?"
It's time to go? I don't get it.
Then all of a sudden.
My eyes felt heavy. My vision slowly darkened.
I glimpsed my eyes one more time.
Everything rapidly degraded in the white room.
A pitch-black fissure began to spread anywhere rapidly.
Everything quickly fell off one by one like a tile.
The table, the chairs and the figure became hazy and darker to see.
A shroud of darkness filled my eyes.
Then, I passed out.
***
"Hah..!"
My head suddenly jolted upward.
A white ceiling filled my eyes.
I rolled my head down.
A grey blanket covered my legs.
"Is this…?"