Hiding a Logistics Center in the Apocalypse - Episode 32
(New Technology (1))
After dealing with Legion Commander Kim Bong-su, I stepped back out through the portal.
The desolate 1st Legion command headquarters.
The smoke rising from everywhere was now shooting straight up into the sky, following nature's course.
Gwaek!
Kegh!
I finished off the remaining stragglers.
Perhaps thanks to having dealt with the legion commander, no more fees were being charged.
He had been the bastard at the center of the network.
With this, their bizarre multi-level system must have also come to an end.
As if to prove this, the other-dimensional entity ‘Tonatiuh’ that had been floating amidst the smoke had also vanished without a trace.
"That takes care of the cleanup..."
Now it was time to free the people trapped in the internment camps one by one.
Crack!
Clang!
Clatter-clatter!
I broke the locks on the camps arranged in rows and moved while sprinkling dozens of potions on the people pouring out.
"Government troops will come to rescue you soon. You may leave this headquarters, but if you need help, don't stray too far."
Their gazes were mixed with suspicion and anxiety.
They had already experienced the 1st Legion once.
But when I placed hundreds of protein bars and bottled water before them, they finally nodded their heads.
"Thank you..."
"...Thank you."
The people offered their greetings, but they couldn't be entirely happy.
'Well, of course...'
That was the human reaction.
Even if I survived, a person was someone who could not smile knowing others had not.
Whether it was guilt or a meager pretense of virtue.
I merely had to find meaning in the fact that it was a reaction befitting a human.
And so, everyone trapped in the camps was liberated.
On the other hand, I still had work left to do.
Huuuk!
Huuuuk!
I summoned ten specters.
Then,
"Check if there are any useful items around. Especially places like the legion commander's office."
I issued the order.
The specters scattered at high speed, and they would soon tell me what spoils I could claim.
Of course, the most important spoils were already in my hands.
The legion commander's dimensional account.
It contained a whopping thirteen thousand magic stones.
An amount that would leave three thousand remaining even after hitting Subspace Level 4.
Combined with the magic stones I already had and those obtained from slaying goblins in the meantime, it amounted to a whopping over fifteen thousand.
Naturally, the top priority was leveling up.
Before that, I asked Pax one last thing.
"Pax, is there anything left at Level 3 that I haven't unlocked yet?"
[You have not yet unlocked the 'Subspace Life Support System.']
[The unlock cost is 250 magic stones.]
"Ah, right."
An ability that delays decay, corruption, and aging in the subspace, and grants a weak healing effect.
It was useful, but since it wasn't an ability that helped with immediate combat power, I had been postponing unlocking it.
But with over ten thousand magic stones accumulated, it wasn't such a burdensome price.
"Yeah, unlock it."
[Understood.]
[Received 250 magic stones.]
[Remaining magic stones: 14,823.]
"Raise it to Level 4 too."
[Are you sure?]
[At Subspace Level 4, the power maintenance cost is adjusted to 30 magic stones per 24 hours.]
[The combined water/gas cost is likewise the same.]
It had jumped threefold, but it no longer felt so burdensome.
"Yeah, go ahead. From now on, just automatically deduct three days' worth at a time... And use the remaining maintenance fees I paid this time together with it too."
[Understood.]
[I will cover part of the Level 4 maintenance fees with the remaining maintenance fees, and additionally process payment for 3 days' worth.]
[Received 10,180 magic stones required for leveling up and 3 days of maintenance fees.]
[Remaining magic stones: 4,643.]
[Leveling up in progress...]
"Come to think of it, this is the first time I'm leveling up outside the subspace."
Inside the subspace, a red light must have covered the sky for a moment.
But to me, Pax simply returned without showing any particular signs after finishing the level up.
[Level up complete.]
[You may proceed with additional enhancements for shipping skills and subspace abilities.]
"Yeah. Can you show me the new enhancement options available this time?"
[Understood.]
Ding!
----[Unlockable Options]----
[Cost: 1,000]
◈ Simultaneous Shipping (3)
-You can ship up to eight products simultaneously.
◈ Subspace Laboratory (2)
-You can preview result information from enhancements or product combinations in advance.
-You can run mock simulations for enhancements or product combinations.
◈ Category Product Registration (2)
-You can establish new categories to be included in the logistics center. (Max 2 times)
(However, establishing categories consumes additional costs.)
-------------------------
There were no completely new abilities.
But unlike the now-familiar effect of
Additional abilities had been granted to the laboratory, and the category registration that I had been putting to good use now gained the ability to directly establish entirely new categories.
Abilities to absorb even more diverse things and utilize them in new ways.
It was a time when the utilization methods for the things contained in the subspace were gradually becoming more diverse.
Huuuuk!
While examining various abilities, the specters had returned before I knew it.
There were no surprises.
I followed them to the legion commander's office and secured useful spoils from the desk drawers.
Flutter.
Several A4-sized
And hundreds of entity registration applications for goblins were discovered.
Finally...
Rattle.
I found an enhancement stone rolling around inside the drawer.
It was an enhancement stone like any other, but this one was somehow peculiar.
----
[Enhancement Stone (D)]
Attribute: None
Option: [Endurance]
----
"...No Pierce?"
Just one simple option called [Endurance].
There was only one thing I could infer.
"It's meant for armor."
Without [Pierce], it couldn't be used for offensive weapons.
After all, enhancement stones had been used specifically targeting the [Pierce] effect until now.
Nevertheless, there was no doubt it was a useful option.
As mentioned, I could use it to enhance armor, or alternatively, transportation like the Korando or Black Hawk.
And...
"Maybe it could be used in such a way..."
A new application method flashed through my mind as I moved toward the subspace.
***
"Kim Jeong-gyeom, you brat... What on earth did you do...?"
As soon as I entered the subspace, my two older sisters rushed at me.
I wondered what was going on, but my younger sister Kim Sol poked my cheek and said:
"...My acne scars disappeared cleanly..."
"The blackheads on my nose are gone too..."
My older sister added.
I asked.
"Did you guys receive some healing or something?"
"If we had, would we be asking you?"
The two chattered on about trivial things—how their aching knees were strangely fine today, how their usually stuffy noses were completely clear at this hour.
I wondered why they were so carefree in front of someone who had just returned from battle, but apparently Lancelot, who had entered first, had told the family the news of my victory.
They said he had praised me so much and gone on at such length that all their worry had drained away.
Kim Sol clicked her tongue.
"We sing your praises. Our great comrade Kim Jeong-gyeom, who seized the enemy commander's topknot..."
"......"
My two sisters simultaneously folded mischievous creases around their eyes.
'Well... it's better that they don't know.'
It was fortunate I hadn't gone with my sisters.
The horrors at the 1st Legion would remain as anything but good memories.
The fact that there had been victims.
I could tell them that fact gradually.
It was then.
"...My liege!"
Lancelot prostrated himself urgently before me.
Lancelot, who had always been solemn and loyal.
It was the first time he had spoken in such an urgent, piteous voice.
"What's the matter?"
"I feel as though I shall go mad. My entire body itches and stings..."
Where Lancelot gestured wildly stood Bedivere.
He was in no different a state than Lancelot.
He tucked his bent single arm inside his armor and scratched his body mercilessly.
"Why are you all like this...?"
I stood blankly for a moment before finally recalling the origin of this whole incident.
The short phrase written beneath it.
-Slightly regenerates damage to life.
Damage to life.
If you thought about it, the knights of Camelot were damage itself.
They were undead made of skeletons, after all.
In other words...
"It is unbearably itchy! My liege...!"
It meant new flesh was sprouting on those bones.
And at a very slow speed at that.
Might the skeleton knights regain their former living appearances?
But there was no time to ponder such things when they looked so miserable right now.
They were rolling around on the floor, bellies exposed like excited puppies.
"Damn it, follow me."
There was only one solution that came to mind right now.
. . .
The place I reached was the motel... no, Camelot Castle, located beside the guard post.
I had only used this Camelot to command specters and summon knights.
What remained was the despicable human sacrifice function called [Blood Offering], but there was one notable phrase.
[Blood Offering]
-The life force contained within can be 'ripened' or 'exploited' to produce enhancement stones (random).
Camelot could create enhancement stones using life force as material.
There were two ways to supply this material.
Ripening or exploitation.
The method the King of Knights used was undoubtedly ripening.
He had devoted his own time and effort unstintingly to procure delicious life force, bestowing upon me this dark kimchi pot.
But exploitation was different.
Less efficient than ripening, but it continuously siphoned off life force bit by bit.
In other words...
"...Now I feel I shall live, my liege!"
"As expected of our liege!"
Lancelot and Bedivere sprawled across Camelot's first-floor lobby, professing their loyalty.
The new flesh that was slowly beginning to rot again.
They had been suffering due to the subspace's healing ability.
There could be no better environment than this.
"Hoo!"
The fellows breathed in cool breaths repeatedly.
They were like musty men on a humid, sweltering summer day who had entered a motel room where the air conditioner had been blasting at full power all day.
Whirrr...
Camelot, activated after a truly long time, shuddered.
Then like a drum washing machine beginning its spin cycle, it slowly started draining the skeleton knights' life force.
And finally.
Clink!
A familiar pebble struck Lancelot's helmet.
Only then did Lancelot come to his senses, pick up the fallen object, and bring it to me standing outside.
A bluish-hued stone.
[Enhancement Stone (D)]
Attribute: Electric
Options: [Pierce], [Electrocution]
It was an enhancement stone.
"......"
I had once thought this.
Unlike the logistics center or the National Distribution Corporation, Camelot's role as a
The ability to command specters and summon knights was certainly useful, but it wasn't something that meshed perfectly with this subspace ability.
But...
I hadn't realized it then.
That the subspace's life support system and Camelot's life force exploitation would create a fantastical harmony.
There is an expression for times like this.
Namely...
"Perpetual motion."
That had been established in the subspace.