HACKED 43

Power system activation progress… 61%

A total mess.

<Mountain Hero> Rarity: ★★★★★ Level: 99 Contamination: 48/100 Health: 12/100

A massive mess.

<Hwarang of Half-Human Half-Ghost> Rarity: ★★★★☆ Level: 99 Contamination: 31/100 Health: (Deadly!)/100

It is a mess to the point where I want to knock myself out by hitting the back of my own head.

If you think I’ve been using the word “mess” quite often lately, you are correct. It is because things are, in fact, a mess.

“I guess this is what they call a pyrrhic victory.”

I buried my face in my palms in frustration. Chirpy, who had regained consciousness at some point and was now full of energy, flapped its wings beside me.

“A pyrrhic victory! It was a perfect victory, a glorious victory, a proud victory! Even under such poor conditions, we defeated the vicious opponent who tried to backstab us…”

“That’s right. Hey, Chirpy.”

Hearing those words, the anger I had been suppressing exploded. I jumped up and grabbed the fellow.

“Ye-e-e-ek?”

“You scammed me. You tricked me with that innocent face? You’re the vicious one, you pomodoro bastard.”

“Just what, what did I trick… and what even is a pomodoro? Not a single syllable is right… ugh, u-b-b-b.”

I trapped the fellow between both palms. Then, I squeezed it like I was kneading a stress ball. Its agonized screams echoed out.

“I thought the power system was just something I charged by pouring my energy into it. But why does the reverse also apply? Why do I take internal damage every time the system gets damaged? I almost died, you bastard! Every time a crack appeared on the wall, I saw the afterlife!”

Even while being shaken by my violent touch, Chirpy stubbornly said what it had to say.

“I-I thought you obviously knew…”

“What?”

Of course, my anger grew even larger instead of subsiding.

“You sound like a financial salesman who sold a product without explaining the terms and conditions in detail!”

“Huaak! It’s not like I sold anything to Mister Myeong…”

“Do you want to die?”

“I feel wronged too! I clearly told you. The Pantheon runs on the energy of the Compiler, and this entire space is no different from the Compiler’s alter ego! So I thought you would naturally know that if the Pantheon is damaged, harm would come to Mister Myeong…”

“You should have said that part properly! So I have to be synchronized with this entire dimension and play the role of a living battery being sucked dry for the rest of my life?”

“That is exactly the mission and the raison d’être of the Compiler…”

“This is driving me crazy. Tell me straight. You’re not actually a helper fairy, are you?”

“Pardon? How could that be!”

“You’re a fairy, but a different kind of fairy, right? An evil demon bastard who says things like ‘Make a contract with me and become a magical girl!’, right?”

“A magical girl? I don’t know what that is, but absolutely not… and in the first place, Mister Myeong isn’t a girl…”

“I’m going to put you in a shredder and grind you up, seriously!”

I bullied Chirpy while fuming with rage. No matter how much I scolded it, it wasn’t enough. From behind me, a weak voice drifted over.

“Hey, Boss… I’m sorry to interrupt while you’re acting like a villainous boss… but please be quiet. My head is throbbing.”

“Villainous boss?”

I gritted my teeth and whipped around. Then, I immediately became solemn.

Hwarang, whose entire body was tattered, was lying stretched out on the sofa bed. He was still wearing his blood-soaked and torn clothes. He hadn’t even been able to wipe away the bloodstains dried onto his skin. He looked like a patient who had just been rushed into the emergency room.

“You… well. I’m sorry.”

The wounds that were torn and cut, bleeding, were the better ones. The areas hit by the toxic mucus spat out by the large monster were truly horrific. The skin was festering and melting away, leaving the internal tissues visible. It was painful just to look at.

“…”

With his eyes closed, he quietly frowned. He repeatedly clenched and released his fist with his wound-covered hand.

Incarnations usually do not show that they are in pain. Since battle is their daily life, getting injured is as common as eating a meal. Despite that, for him to be in such agony… the pain he is feeling right now must be beyond imagination. It wouldn’t be strange if a normal human had gone mad or died of shock long ago.

It wasn’t just Hwarang. There was another guy who was severely injured over on the other side.

That one had even had one leg cleanly blown off from below the knee. On top of that, while dealing the final blow to the monster, his entire body had been covered in venom. To think he still has 12 health left instead of being ‘Deadly’—I suppose that’s what makes him a 5-star.

“Leave him be. He looks full of energy, which is good.”

A nonchalant response came from San Gun. It was absurd. Are those words a person whose leg was cut off should say? Then again, since our first meeting, he had been making silly jokes to me even while missing an arm.

My few allies were in a disastrous state. Aside from the loss of combat power, they looked so miserable that I wanted to treat them immediately somehow. But right now, I have no items like ‘Crystals of Recovery’.

This is why I muttered words like “pyrrhic victory.” Winning is all well and good. But what’s the use of winning? Everyone is a critical patient.

This is why an all-out base trade is bad. I mean, a fight where the one who charges in and takes the opponent’s head first wins, regardless of what happens to their own damage. Since there are many cases where my own base becomes tattered even if I win, it leaves a bitter taste.

‘But… do I really need an item to heal them?’

Of course, that wasn’t the case. But the resources in the recovery room here are…

“Resources!”

At the idea that flashed into my mind, a loud voice came out involuntarily. Hwarang appealed with a voice that sounded like he was dying.

“I told you to be quiet…”

“I’m really sorry.”

Apologizing to him again, I fell into thought.

‘There must be resources that crossed over here from <IsItPresbyopiaCrap>’s Pantheon. Then I can run the recovery room!’

It’s not that an Incarnation recovers just by being put in the recovery room. If that were the case, Ja-myeong-go, who had been lying there for a long time, would have had full health long ago.

All facilities in the Pantheon, including the recovery room, operate only when resources are put in. Just like putting firewood in a fireplace or fueling a car. Of course, the amount of resources required varies greatly depending on the number of Incarnations in the facility, their levels, and their rarity.

‘There’s a reason why there’s advice for beginners to put aside 5-star Incarnations even if they pull them, and start by raising 3-star or 4-star ones.’

The resource consumption relative to an Incarnation’s combat power takes the form of a steep exponential function graph. Let’s use a simple numerical analogy. If it takes 9 resources to grow from 1 to 10, then from 10 to 100… it’s not 90, but about 900. From 100 to 1,000? It might not be 900 or 9,000, but perhaps around 90,000.

A 5-star Incarnation at the top of the tier list sucks up resources like a black hole in all aspects, including recovery, growth, and enhancement. The efficiency is also terrible. Of course, they are extremely powerful once fully raised, but it means your wallet melts away on the way there.

There are cases not uncommonly found in the community where newbies who were lucky enough to pull a 5-star get excited and dump all their resources into that Incarnation, only to go broke. To the newbies crying and asking for advice, the veterans say this:

“Oh dear, why did you do that? To a newbie, a 5-star is just a decorative figure that looks nice.”

But now, I also have resources extorted from another house. Since the reward settlement isn’t over yet, I don’t know exactly how much those resources amount to, but for a veteran like <IsItPresbyopiaCrap>, it won’t be small.

“We have a recovery room. Let’s run the recovery room right now, Chirpy. Throw all of them in there.”

“It is clearly a very altruistic and humanitarian order, but it sounds like you’re telling me to throw them in a prison cell. Is it just my imagination?”

“Yeah, it’s your imagination.”

“You were so angry until just now, snif. To Mister Myeong, am I someone you only look for when you need something? Even so, I thought Mister Myeong and I had built up comradeship while sharing joys and sorrows. How can you be so cold…”

“Comradeship my foot. Be quiet and hurry up.”

“You are really too much… and there’s one thing I haven’t been able to tell you yet.”

“What now?”

“The thing is, the recovery room… unfortunately took some damage from the battle earlier… I don’t think it can be operated until it’s repaired.”

“Why are you only telling me that now!”

I jumped up from my seat. Hwarang only glared at me, as if he didn’t even have the strength to chide me to be quiet anymore.

“You, you didn’t give me a chance to speak…”

“The recovery room is damaged? To what extent? What about Ja-myeong-go? He can’t even move because he’s hurt.”

In a short amount of time, all sorts of negative imaginations flashed through my mind. No way. No way, it can’t be.