HACKED 16

Recovery room.

In <No Lifer>, this is the facility used to treat injured Incarnations.

Actually, the “recovery room” is a facility where an Incarnation’s HP will recover little by little just by leaving them inside. It is just that in its base state without any upgrades, the speed is slow enough to make one curse.

The Incarnation is recovering. Time until full recovery… 128:56:47

When you need to send them back out to battle immediately for leveling, and the double EXP event is almost over, seeing a message like that just makes you fly into a rage.

For the record, 128:56:47 means 128 hours, 56 minutes, and 47 seconds. With the temperament of a K-gamer, 128 hours? Absolutely intolerable.

Therefore, <No Lifer> users use various methods to increase recovery efficiency.

You can assign Incarnations with traits like “Scholar” or “Research” to the laboratory to carry out upgrade projects, or you can use materials piled up in the storage to perform expansion construction. Housing items with recovery speed increase options activate their effects just by being placed in the recovery room.

There is also the most simple and ignorant immediate method: pouring in stones—the paid currency—and pressing the [Immediate Full Recovery] button. This method is mainly chosen by “cash-mancers” who have no time, no patience, and no desire to use their brains, but have plenty of money.

The recovery room in my Pantheon used all those methods evenly. In terms of the overall upgrade progress, it was probably around 90%. That means it was fully equipped with almost every function. It was a wonderful space where even an Incarnation on the brink of death with a sliver of HP would be discharged healthy and energetic within a few hours of entering.

And yet…

Unlocking the recovery room door. Are you sure? [Yes / No]

Why, as soon as I entered…

“Why does it smell like the same rotten blood I smelled in the Central Command Room earlier?”

Once again, my stomach churned. No matter how many times I smell this stench, I can’t get used to it.

Just what should I do with this hopeless space? Isn’t there an all-over Pantheon sterilization function? Or do I really… have to get bleach and detergent and scrub the floors with a mop to do a massive cleaning? Like a professional specialized in cleaning crime scenes. The mere thought was horrific.

The inside of the recovery room was completely dark. Only the light seeping in from the 9th-floor hallway through the open door gathered dimly near the entrance. I instinctively reached my hand toward the light switch on the wall.

“……”

One step faster than me, a large, blood-stained hand intervened beneath mine. Because he was holding a long sword in that hand, there was a metallic clack.

“Wait.”

Leaving only those brief words, San Gun disappeared into the darkness. If it hadn’t been for that one sentence, I wouldn’t have even known he was gone. There was no sound of footsteps, not even the sound of fabric brushing against anything.

It was so dark that I couldn’t see an inch ahead, but it must be different for his vision. Because he wasn’t human.

I stood blankly in front of the door and waited. Chirpy was tucked inside the hood of the sweatshirt I was wearing. I wasn’t sure if Chirpy could be treated here too, but I couldn’t just leave him, so I brought him along for now. It was uncomfortable to keep him under my side, so I put him in the hood as a makeshift solution, though it probably looked a bit ridiculous to an outsider.

Eventually, the silhouette of a tall man appeared out of the darkness as if melting into view. Amidst the pitch black from head to toe, only his eyes flashed.

In bright light, his eyes were yellow with a hint of red. But seeing them now, they looked greenish-yellow at a glance. Because his pupils were smaller than a human’s, it looked like a small black dot was stamped in the center of the iris. A yellowish glow flickered dangerously in the dark.

In a word, it was truly, incredibly scary. I’m glad he’s on my side.

“How is it?”

“……”

Even considering that his disheveled hair was half-covering his face, it was difficult to read his expression. I couldn’t tell if it meant the inside was dangerous or safe.

He tapped the switch with the hand holding the sword and turned it on. The lights flooded the entire space, and everything became bright in an instant. I instinctively furrowed my brows.

After a moment of blindness, my vision returned.

In the recovery room, long pieces of furniture presumed to be beds were lined up in two facing rows. It felt like a multi-patient room in a university hospital, or a room containing hibernation capsules inside a spaceship from a sci-fi movie.

The dozens of beds were all empty. Except for exactly one.

It was easy to find the bed that wasn’t empty. It was because only that one was a different color. True to the hospital vibe, the pillows, sheets, and blankets of all the beds were pure white, but only one was a dark reddish-black.

And the person lying on it…

‘Their body… is split diagonally?’

It could only be described as literally split. A deep wound crossing from the left shoulder to the right side. Well, is it even right to describe this with a word as light as “wound”?

If they were to raise their upper body like this, the top and bottom wouldn’t just fall apart, would they? Whether it’s a human, an Incarnation, or a monster, can anyone stay alive in this state?

San Gun, standing right next to me, was also deeply injured. Since an entire arm had been blown off, a normal person might have died from excessive bleeding or shock. But he was at least conscious. He spoke to me and moved casually as if he couldn’t feel pain. Compared to the being in front of me…

“……”

Snap.

The person I was sure was dead opened their eyes. Because I happened to be leaning over to look at them, we made eye contact directly.

A corpse coming back to life as soon as I approach… I feel a sense of déjà vu. This was the second surprise, following the one from earlier.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“Wow, what a pair of lungs.”

San Gun replied listlessly without even blinking at my scream.

“Why is your liver so small? Did you sell it at the Dragon Palace?”

“Of course I’m surprised in a situation like this!”

“What kind of situation is ‘a situation like this’?”

“Do you know the number one thing you must never do at a funeral? It’s resurrection.”

“She didn’t die.”

“Um… Master.”

The person barely opened her eyes, looked at me with a hazy gaze, and whispered in a hoarse voice. I was surprised once more.

The person lying on the bed was a woman with a pallid complexion, as if all the blood had been drained from her body. Since she had suffered such a large wound and spilled enough blood to stain the whole bed, it was natural for her complexion to be poor. That aside.

“Who are you?”

So who are you, Ma’am? I’m sorry to ask while you’ve called me Master, but I really have no clue.

“……”

The woman moved her cracked lips with an expression like a princess of a fallen kingdom. I felt a sense of unearned guilt. I examined her intently.

First, long black hair and Oriental features. Well… characters like that are a dime a dozen on my account.

Outfit… I can tell it’s a traditional garment with wide sleeves and a long hem. But the damage is so severe and it’s torn to shreds, so I can’t see the details.

“Are you keeping that terminal to make soup with it, Myeong?”

San Gun nudged me. A beat late, I fumbled through my pocket and pulled out the terminal. While flipping through the Incarnation list, I finally found a photo that resembled the woman.

“…<The Drum that Sounds on its Own>.”

She was a 3-star healer and buffer I had pulled in the early days. Her utility was decent compared to her rarity, so I used her quite effectively in the beginning when every bit of combat power was precious. It had been quite a while since she was pushed out of the main deck as 4-star and 5-star Incarnations became more numerous.

As with all the Incarnations I had encountered so far, there was a significant difference between the thumbnail of <The Drum that Sounds on its Own> on the screen and her actual self.

The woman on the screen had her ebony hair half-pinned up and half-hanging down. Ornate earrings, and gold and jewel ornaments wrapped around her forehead. Ancient attire that would be somewhat unfamiliar to modern people used to the Hanbok of the Joseon Dynasty. One could feel an innate elegance from her.

In contrast, how wretched was this person before my eyes.

“I knew you would return.”

The woman managed to continue speaking. Something like a smile hung on her pale face.

She raised her right hand, which she had been resting on her chest. A white, thin arm with scattered blood stains. She was holding something tightly, her fist clenched so hard the blue veins on the back of her hand stood out.

“Please, take this…”

“Are you giving this to me?”

The woman nodded.

‘Surely it’s not a memento or something. She’s not going to just drop dead the moment I take it, is she?’

With an uneasy heart, I reached out my hand.

Several small objects were placed on my palm. A blood-stained silver ornamental dagger that still held her body heat as if she had been gripping it for a long time, and a few gems.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

As soon as I received them, loud notification sounds rang from the terminal. Without me even operating anything, a pop-up window appeared on the screen.

Crystal of Recovery (Special Grade)

― Upon use, 1 Incarnation’s HP is fully restored. Crystal of Recovery (Special Grade)

― Upon use, 1 Incarnation’s HP is fully restored. Crystal of Purification (Special Grade)

― Upon use, 1 Incarnation’s Corruption is fully purified.

…Why are three top-tier items appearing instead of just one?

Furthermore, items marked “Special Grade” cannot even be bought with money. They are wicked items given out as rewards at the very end of a limited-time event’s reward table, or given one by one if you hit the pity, after the pity, after the pity on a gacha with terrible cost-effectiveness.

“This is…”

“I thought you would need them when you returned, Master.”

“……”

“I held onto them tightly so they would never be stolen. As you can see, I have been in a state no different from death for a long time… Since no one paid me any attention, I was able to protect them.”

The woman’s words were incomprehensible. There wasn’t just one or two strange points.

“Who made you like this?”

Since monsters cannot invade this place… was it the other Incarnations who hit 100 Corruption and went crazy? Did the Incarnations have a massive bloody fight among themselves?

At my question, the woman lowered her gaze to the silver dagger in my hand. The dagger I had received in a daze was a mess, matted with blood and rusted. I didn’t even know if I could pull it out of its sheath in this state.

Keeping her eyes fixed there, the woman said in a murmuring voice.

“My younger brother did.”