HACKED 86

I don’t particularly have good memories of the central command room.

That stands to reason, considering the first time I came here… was I running away from Hwarang’s sniping? I was already bleeding from injuries all over the place, too.

I had rushed into the central command room and, before I could even catch my breath, I witnessed a shocking sight. There were two corpses in the middle of a room that had become a shambles, splattered with black blood.

One of those two corpses even personally performed the miracle of coming back to life the moment I entered.

‘That was San Gun…’

I remember it took less than three minutes for him to sense my presence and stand up. Even Jesus took three days to resurrect. It was truly a speed befitting a K-Incarnation.

‘Back then, I really thought I was being chased by some ghoul and was going to die without a chance.’

I stared straight ahead, soaked in a strange sense of nostalgia. Whir. The door opened with a smooth movement.

The scenery inside was no different from the last time I saw it. Black liquid was splattered haphazardly across the snow-white walls and floor. If you dropped a bucket full of paint in the middle of a room, would it look something like this?

“…Ugh.”

As the air that had been stagnant inside rushed out, a foul stench hit me. The smell was so intense that it felt closer to physical pain than a scent.

‘Right. I forgot that the smell here was truly, fucking terrible.’

Since a corpse had been neglected for a long time, it would naturally stink, but even though this was my second time experiencing it, I haven’t adjusted at all. I want to gouge out my nose entirely. The smell is so horrific that tears are actually welling up in my eyes.

“Please go in. Shall I lead the way?”

Nameless Star spoke nonchalantly, as if he couldn’t even sense the stench. Ja-myeong-go, however, covered his mouth with one sleeve and didn’t budge from his spot.

“…….”

Ja-myeong-go’s gaze was fixed on the corpse collapsed deep inside. With its head completely crushed and its entire body blackened and discolored, it looked like nothing more than a lump of filth or a pile of ash from a distance.

Even though the corpse had been left at room temperature for that long, it wasn’t crawling with maggots or growing mold. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen bugs like flies or mosquitoes in this Pantheon; is it in the same vein? It’s a space that feels subtly realistic yet unrealistic.

There is something I hadn’t thought of when I first encountered that corpse. When Incarnations die, they disappear as ‘fragments of narrative.’ The fact that a corpse remained like that means the person was not an Incarnation. And if you speak of a ‘being that is not an Incarnation’ in this Pantheon…

“You guys know, don’t you? Yeah… at least you, Nameless Star, would know.”

I turned back to him and asked.

“Is that corpse the ‘Fake Master’?”

While I was hacked and couldn’t access the game, was this the bastard who turned my Pantheon into total shit?

Nameless Star did not waver in the slightest. He replied with a stoic expression.

“There were those who believed he was fake, and there were those who believed he was real.”

“Which side were you on?”

“I was on the side where it didn’t matter whether he was fake or real. It is not a subordinate’s virtue to have useless curiosity about the one they serve.”

Finishing his sentence, he walked into the interior with the steady thud of his shoes. His dispassionate gaze scanned the corpse briefly.

“The hygienic condition is quite poor. We must do some cleaning. It will be uncomfortable for you to stay here at this rate.”

“With what face can you act so nonchalantly?”

Ja-myeong-go, who had been standing still the whole time, suddenly raised his voice. His voice was trembling unsteadily.

“When you were more passionately loyal to the Fake Master than anyone else. When you forced us to obey his nonsensical orders and, acting as his stooge, went around purging comrades while calling them ‘trash’!”

Nameless Star looked back with an expressionless face.

“I will never forget. My younger brother died because of you. If that child hadn’t sacrificed his life to save me, I would have died too. Just because he was a 3-star and therefore useless! Despite that, you change your attitude as soon as the Real Master returns, like flipping over the palm of your hand? How can you be so shameless…”

“Then what should I do? Since Mr. UserMyeong808 has returned, I must be loyal to him again now. Does that mean I should, what, boycott my work because I can’t forget my dead former boss?”

“…….”

“He isn’t now, but at that time, he was the Compiler of this Pantheon. I merely followed the orders he gave. Is it strange for an Incarnation to follow a Compiler’s orders? Is that not our duty?”

Ja-myeong-go took a sharp breath. His refined face contorted with anger and pain.

“It is not my concern whether the orders given to me are right or wrong. I am not interested in whether the superior is a good person or an evil person. I do not make any value judgments. If I am told to do something, I do it. That is all.”

A long silence followed the cold statement.

“I am an Incarnation originated from a tool rather than a living being, but…”

Ja-myeong-go, opening his mouth weakly, slowly closed and opened his eyes filled with sorrow.

“You are a person who is more like a tool than even me.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Nameless Star ended the conversation with a short remark and turned his back. Ja-myeong-go whispered to me while slightly covering his mouth with his sleeve.

“You must see clearly now, Master. That man is the one who was the first to step forward in upholding the Fake Master’s orders. You must not trust such a person who has neither faith nor loyalty.”

I just shrugged my shoulders instead of answering. To be honest, it wasn’t as if I particularly trusted Nameless Star, but I didn’t feel it was worth saying that. I just changed the subject appropriately.

“So, that bastard who is the Fake Master or whatever… let’s call him the ‘successor.’ Anyway, he is the guy who took the Compiler position after me.”

“A successor? He is someone who doesn’t even deserve to be called that.”

Ja-myeong-go furrowed his brows. However, I continued speaking regardless.

“To summarize, Nameless Star was the vanguard of the ‘Pro-Successor Faction,’ is that it?”

“If fulfilling one’s duty as an Incarnation and a subordinate can be called that.”

Nameless Star added his words without a change in his complexion. I was considerably—no, quite a lot—pissed off by that brazen behavior. But now is not the time to argue over every little thing.

“Then the vanguard of the ‘Anti-Successor Faction’ was…”

Ja-myeong-go and Nameless Star, who had been clashing over every little thing, shut their mouths at that moment as if they had made a promise. But it didn’t matter. I hadn’t brought it up to hear an answer from them.

“Was it Mountain Hero?”

A corpse with its head completely crushed. Blood splattered everywhere to a point that seemed a bit excessive. If a profiler saw this scene, wouldn’t they assume it was a ‘murder motivated by very deep resentment’?

And next to it, San Gun, who had been collapsed in a state almost no different from being dead, having lost an arm. Even looking only this far, it isn’t difficult to deduce what happened in this space.

How my game account happened to be hacked, how I ended up coming to this world, what happened in the Pantheon in the meantime. There are still too many things I don’t know. But very slowly… slowly but surely, it feels like the puzzle pieces are coming together.

I stared intently at Nameless Star and Ja-myeong-go, then turned my gaze toward the panel in front.

“You said we have to do the power-saving mode or whatever. Tell me how to do it.”

The string of tension that had been pulled taut loosened. Nameless Star immediately followed behind me.

“I will show you. You can operate the central panel.”

Nameless Star was so knowledgeable it made me wonder if he had memorized every option in the settings window. When I pressed a few buttons as he directed, the ‘Power-Saving Mode’ was immediately turned on. The bluish light emanating from the screens and panels dimmed significantly.

[Switching power system to power-saving mode.]

[Minimizes power consumption throughout the Pantheon; some functions will be restricted until power-saving mode is deactivated.]

‘I’ve put out the urgent fire for now. Next.’

It’s time for the house-cleaning I’ve been putting off. I approached the corpse.

“Master…”

Ja-myeong-go reached out a hand into the air as if to stop me, but I ignored him. Nameless Star stood still as if to see what I would do.

“…….”

I looked down at the corpse from a distance of one or two steps.

The head is gone entirely, and the body is in a state of severe decay. It looks like it’s wearing clothes, but they’ve blackened and stuck together with the skin. I can’t guess the gender or age. Honestly, I don’t even know if it’s human.

“Whew…”

I took one deep breath and flipped the corpse over with a kick.