Chapter 30 – Scavenger (4)

“Arrrgh!”

As Sun-woo screamed and collapsed to the floor, the other party members soon followed, clutching their heads and falling down.

Only Nan-seol was freed from Hayden’s telekinesis and approached Sun-woo, who had been shot.

Nan-seol tilted her head seeing that Sun-woo showed no movement at all, as if he had already stopped breathing.

“Sun-woo, why did Michael attack the contamination source? At first, he was aiming his weapon at you. Did he regain his senses?”

“No. Michael thought I was the contamination source.”

Sun-woo answered from behind her.

The corpse that had been shot wasn’t Sun-woo but the hairy man. In the end, what had been shot wasn’t Sun-woo but the contamination source.

The moment Michael aimed his gun at Sun-woo, Sun-woo had succeeded in using illusion arts on Michael to make him perceive the contamination source as himself.

Sun-woo’s internal energy had barely moved, allowing him to barely succeed in deceiving only Michael with his insufficient internal energy.

“That was close. I think we took this mission too lightly this time.”

At Sun-woo’s words, Nan-seol nodded. It seemed the group was becoming less cautious as they grew accustomed to missions. They would need to be more careful from now on.

“Unexpected things keep happening. People living underground in the city, people who changed strangely, and even underground people fighting against contamination sources. There’s too much we don’t know.”

Sun-woo had no choice but to agree with Nan-seol’s words. It was something Sun-woo had already felt when he went to Nan-seol’s world.

“But we have someone to ask.”

Sun-woo pointed to Stein, who still hadn’t regained consciousness.

“He’s lived here for a long time, so he should know something.”

Nan-seol nodded at Sun-woo’s words but soon looked worriedly at the party members who hadn’t regained consciousness.

“I wonder if everyone will be alright.”

“They’ll be fine. Since it didn’t destroy their minds or anything like that, they’ll probably regain consciousness once the shock subsides.”

Sun-woo remembered the pain he had felt moments ago but shook his head to dismiss the thoughts. Other matters were more important now.

While the party regained consciousness, Sun-woo examined the dead contamination source.

“It’s as you said, Nan-seol. There really are unexpected items in this place.”

Sun-woo, who had been examining the corpse, found a small medicine bottle inside the old clothes.

“A medicine bottle with English writing in this place…”

He opened the cap and took out the pill inside.

“As expected, it’s the same medicine.”

Sun-woo held the pill up toward the ceiling. His eyes also looked up where the pill was, but his gaze wasn’t directed at the pill but at the plaza ceiling beyond it.

“And we even have a guest.”

Sun-woo clenched his hand holding the pill, and the spirits of the earth that had taken control of the entire plaza brought down the stone ceiling.

“Kyaa!”

Part of the ceiling collapsed, and a person fell along with the stones from the ceiling.

Splash!

A woman in ordinary leather clothing fell into the central pond along with the stones.

“Got her. Huh?”

Sun-woo, who had been checking the woman floundering in the water, made a puzzled sound upon seeing her face, and the woman frowned and immediately pointed both hands forward.

Instantly, a black circle formed in front of her, and her body was sucked into the black circle along with some of the sewage.

“Damn, I really didn’t expect this.”

“Could it be someone you know?”

At Nan-seol’s question, Sun-woo sighed.

“Not someone I know, but someone I spied on a few days ago.”

Perhaps because of the strange expression, Nan-seol’s expression changed oddly.

Sun-woo had no choice but to quickly explain the situation.

The woman who had just disappeared before Sun-woo and Nan-seol was definitely the Latin beauty who had taken away the sword-wielding man from the factory.

Back then she wore jeans and a knit top, but now she was dressed in this world’s clothing and had been spying on the party.

“Back then I definitely thought she was from our world, but I never expected to see her in this dimension.”

“It’s probably because of her spatial movement ability. There are stories that the greatest ability users can even cross dimensions, and that might not be just an exaggeration.”

It was Hayden, who had barely regained consciousness, who answered Sun-woo’s question.

The party members were finally getting up groggily.

“Wow, what the hell happened? Really terrible.”

Michael put his hand on his head and frowned deeply. It was the same for the others.

Fortunately, no lasting damage seemed to remain, but the pain appeared unforgotten.

“But an ability user who can even control people – I’ve never heard of such a story.”

Hayden shook his head as if he couldn’t understand, and Sun-woo warned with a serious expression.

“Well, it seems abilities go berserk when contaminated. We’ll be more careful from now on.”

Everyone agreed with Sun-woo’s words.

When the contamination source died, all the murky colors around returned to normal, and Stein had a puzzled expression about what had happened.

But the party was more curious.

“Do you know the scavengers who faced the giant rats earlier?”

At Daniel’s question, Stein seemed to ponder for a moment before finally speaking.

“I haven’t seen them directly, but I’ve heard stories. Stories about mutants and free people gathering to live in the deep underground.”

According to him, beneath these sewers were deep underground caves that scavengers had dug over a long time, and properly organized ability users and mutants were gathered there.

At his words, Hayden’s expression became serious.

“Are anti-establishment forces building power inside here?”

At Hayden’s muttering, Stein’s eyes sharpened.

“You’re not thinking of reporting this to the Empire, are you?”

“Of course not, there’s no one to trust. I’m not in a position to speak either.”

As a summoned person, Hayden couldn’t expose what he had done as a summoned to the outside, so he had no choice but to keep it to himself.

“Heh heh. Looking at you, it seems you don’t want to speak rather than can’t. You’re quite the rebel too. Amazing that such a guy attends such a school.”

Michael teased such Hayden, but Hayden no longer paid attention to Michael’s words.

“If what they said about luring the contamination source is true, then the place where the contamination source originated wasn’t here but deep underground where they are. Could they possibly know about contamination?”

At Nan-seol’s question, Daniel tilted his head.

“Then why didn’t the Summoners above know about it?”

“They’re not gods. If it’s deep underground or there are various interferences, they can’t notice. That’s why humans are needed.”

The answer to Daniel’s question came from elsewhere.

At some point, Caroline and two subordinates had revealed themselves.

“It seems you’re exclusive now. I see your face every time. It’s been a while, Nan-seol. Nice to meet the others for the first time. I’m Caroline from the cleanup team.”

Caroline greeted the entire party as soon as she appeared.

“Ooh! She’s really a beauty!”

Michael immediately whistled, and Daniel also bowed his head with a stiff expression. But Hayden looked puzzled.

“An Imperial?”

Caroline recognized Hayden’s uniform visible through his cloak and sent a somewhat nostalgic smile.

“You’re a junior.”

“Were you from this world?”

This was what Sun-woo had been puzzled about after seeing the spatial ability user earlier. Caroline had definitely acted as if she knew her when they saw her at the factory.

But Caroline was definitely living in Sun-woo’s world.

“I’ll explain when you visit the association.”

Caroline winked as the story seemed like it would get long. And Nan-seol’s eyes slightly rose seeing that.

“So it’s only one person this time too.”

Caroline said looking at the bewildered Stein, and Sun-woo shook his head at her words.

“Things are quite complicated.”

When Sun-woo explained the situation, Caroline’s expression hardened.

“The medicine story needs to be discussed with the association. It seems to be a problem across dimensions. The Summoners will know about this story now too, but since we’re the ones who handle it in the end, I need to inform the association’s higher-ups.”

She intentionally didn’t mention the woman they encountered later.

“And the underground scavengers might have known about contamination. Since the Summoner’s eyes don’t reach that far down, they would have devised their own processing methods. Perhaps all the contamination sources discovered in the sewers were sent up by them…”

Having said this much, Caroline gestured to her subordinates, and one of them approached Stein.

“What?”

Stein looked at the approaching man with wary eyes, but when the suited man snapped his fingers in front of his eyes, he soon changed to a blank expression.

“That’s the scariest thing. Neutralizing even ability users in one shot.”

Michael muttered with a hardened expression seeing that.

“Ah, it’s an ability enhanced with points. It doesn’t work on summoned anyway, and it doesn’t work well when the opponent is hostile.”

The other man answered his comment. While he was explaining, the memory manipulation was completed.

“It was a bit ambiguous, but we made him remember you all as some kind of investigation team. Since there was a maintenance worker who came to investigate this water treatment plant anyway, we slightly overlaid it on that memory. He’ll think it was a rampage by a scavenger who went crazy from being underground too long.”

At the subordinate’s story, Caroline nodded, and she waved to Sun-woo one last time before leaving.

“See you at the association then.”

With that farewell, she and her subordinates disappeared from the plaza, and a voice was heard in the party’s ears.

[Contamination source grade is being upgraded. Reclassified as Grade 3. Party member Min Sun-woo made great contributions to contamination source elimination. 400 points awarded.]

The grade was readjusted this time too. It seemed the grades initially announced by the Summoners would be hard to trust from now on.

Following that, a translucent window appeared before their eyes.

[Min Sun-woo: 4 Star. Achievement Rate 32%]

[Additional Inventory 500p]

[Additional Skill Slot 700p]

[Additional Basic Recovery Potion 100p]

[Additional Basic Water 1p]

[Additional Basic Hard Bread 2p]

[Item Enhancement Stone 100p]

[Item Transformation Stone 1000p]

[100,000 won per point]

[Types increase as character level rises.]

[Current Points: 490p]

Thanks to the failed factory mission, he had 490 points combining the 50 points earned and the existing 40 points.

Unfortunately, there weren’t enough points to expand skill slots.

The other party members also seemed satisfied receiving their respective rewards. Especially Michael was grinning, perhaps having received a reward for killing the contamination source with his gun.

Soon it was time for all the party members to return. Everyone exchanged farewells with each other, but Nan-seol slightly skipped Sun-woo’s greeting. She was probably displeased with Caroline and Sun-woo’s interaction earlier.

Shortly after, the party disappeared from the underground plaza, leaving only the blank-faced Stein. And after some time, Stein regained consciousness and looked around with a bewildered expression.

“Tsk. Did they all just leave? Interesting? They kept their promise. But something feels a bit strange?”

Stein frowned. His memory was a bit confused.

That’s when someone placed a hand on the back of Stein’s head.

“Your memory was sealed, causing conflicts with your original memories. Wait just a moment.”

The woman who placed her hand on Stein’s head was the scavenger who had fled when Sun-woo’s party appeared.