Chapter 9: 9

Located in Neo Pyongyang was a nursery called House of Flowers.

 

I was currently staying at such a place. Like its name suggested, the place was actually a beautiful place full of all kinds of flowers.

 

In this fairytale-like landscape, children could be seen running around innocently all day long.

 

I had been living well here for more than a month without any disturbance.

 

To become a hero, managing my image was a must.

 

At present, I had an understanding to some degree of the structure of this nursery.

 

Just how I had imagined, it was a fun place.

 

According to my observations, it could be seen that children living here were largely divided into three groups.

 

The first of them were those bright and innocent fellows who play tag in the garden every day.

 

I call these little children ‘flowers.’

 

The reason was because they were actually the main commodity at House of Flowers and served as the face of the nursery.

 

And overall, most of the fellows in this group either have some characteristics that would interest sponsors, or they had genius talents in certain areas.

 

As such, children in the ‘flower’ group lived comfortably with various benefits even by a nursery’s standards.

 

Next were the ‘workers.’

 

Unlike the flower group, the bulk of the children were in the worker group.

 

They usually took on various chores that needed to be handled in the nursery, or they were responsible for going out and earning money through panhandling.

 

“Hey! Bushy hair, bring this tray and get me my food from over there.”

 

“…Me?”

 

And the damn elf who just shouted at me was like the leader among the workers.

 

His primary job was to collect the money other children earned from panhandling. He also acts like a class monitor who reports the students’ behavior to the teacher.

 

To put it simply, it was easy to understand if you just thought of him as a landlord who oversaw the tenants.

 

I looked at the bastard in front of me.

 

An annoying voice that was just going through puberty and a round body 1.5 bigger than my own.

 

And the kind of face that looked as if it was stained with dirt.

 

Did he say his name was Gwak Chungsik?

 

Although he looked as young as a middle school student, in fact, he was an adult who was 21 years old in terms of the number of years he had lived.

 

Because of the special immigration law or whatnot, the criteria for minors of his race were applied differently than those of humans.

 

Thus, even at his age he could stay and live in this nursery.

 

“What are you staring at? If you don’t want to be dragged away and beaten up, go and get me some rice now!”

 

“…”

 

Oh, the third and final group could be said to be those who were alienated in this nursery.

 

Powerless children who had fallen out of the herd due to unclear origin or had a physical disability.

 

I named this group ‘manure.’

 

Why did I call them manure?

 

This was because after coming to this nursery, I would often notice people in this group would disappear somewhere.

 

Officially, they were said to have been moved to another facility, but in fact, among the children in the nursery, rumors had circulated that they might have been sold for money. 

 

Perhaps they had become experimental subjects of suspicious black mages or were working like slaves in blind spots of human rights.

 

The manures’ other job was to coax other kids like me from outside to join the nursery.

 

It was one of the tasks that Gwak Chungsik and his crew were in charge of.

 

***

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[ Translator – Yasi ]

[ Proofreader – Karane ]

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***

 

Anyway…

 

From the looks of Gwak Chungsik’s attitude, it seemed I had been chosen as manure.

 

This was becoming difficult.

 

Ever since I had come here, I was trying to stay as lowkey as possible with the thought that it wouldn’t be so bad to be adopted or sponsored.

 

However, my grand plan was being disrupted because of this damn elf.

 

“Haa…”

 

“Oh? It seems this punk has never received home education. Did you just sigh in front of me?”

 

Pak–

 

My head that was hit by the boy momentarily spun. Honestly, I didn’t feel much because of the stat difference, but it was still an unpleasant feeling.

 

The hero thing, do I have to do it?

 

I thought about killing him and going back to Guangcheng District.

 

But it would be such a waste of effort I had made so far towards the quest if I did that. I had already endured this for a month.

 

If I had a skill like ‘Multiply Bacteria,’ I could easily disguise it as a natural death, but unfortunately, all the skills and items I had at the moment were too flashy.

 

No, what if it was that…?

 

I wasn’t certain, but I came up with a pretty likely way. Like I thought, I should kill him.

 

After making my decision, I reached out to Gwak Chungsik.

 

“Hey, give me your tray.”

 

“Punk! You should have done that from the start. Don’t make me beat you to death next time, okay?”

 

I obediently put the side dishes on the tray as he had ordered me to. I smiled and handed the tray to him.

 

“Eat a lot.”

 

“O-oh? Okay. You should eat a lot too.”

 

Eat a lot so there would be enough meat for me to devour.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

Break of dawn when everyone was still asleep. I slowly opened my eyes.

 

That fellow must be asleep right now.

 

I quietly headed to the bathroom so that the people sleeping around me weren’t woken up.

 

The lights from the cameras in the hallway were blinking.

 

Entering the bathroom, I immediately locked the door of the toilet stall and took off my clothes. However, I hesitated when I actually thought of going through with this.

 

Hu…I hate getting mucky.

 

But for now this was the only way to kill him naturally.

 

I sighed briefly before activating my skill.

 

< Phase Change > 

*Liquid.

 

After turning into a liquid, I slowly slid down into the drain on the bathroom floor.

 

The second floor was where workers usually occupied.

 

And the room where Gwak Chungsik was staying was also on the second floor.

 

I came out of the bathroom drain on the second floor after slipping through the dirty pipes. Fortunately, no one was in the bathroom.

 

There must be cameras in this hallway too…It would be good to stick flat on the floor like water.

 

I closed the drainage hole on the bathroom floor before turning on all the faucets.

 

Soon after, the water that had accumulated on the floor began to flow into the hallway.

 

This should work now.

 

Mixed in between the water, I crawled through the hallway and entered the room with Gwak Chungsik’s name on it.

 

Finding him wasn’t difficult. He was sleeping in the bed closest to the entrance.

 

“…Mama.”

 

Seeing that he was even talking in his sleep, he seemed to be asleep without a care in the world. I crept closer to his bed.

 

Hmm…But will this work?

 

In fact, it was my first time using this skill, so I wasn’t exactly sure how it would work.

 

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I opened my status window and checked the skill I had recently acquired from the random box.

 

< Gene Awakening > 

Classification: Special

Grade: A

Description: Awaken the dormant genes.

Genes:

(1) Human: 90.6% 

(2) Elf: 3.1%. (Inactive) 

(3) Beast: 2.5% (Inactive) 

(4) Dwarf: 2% (Inactive)  

(5) Unknown: 1.7% (Inactive) 

(6) Unknown: 0.1% (Inactive)

*This skill cannot be strengthened or used in synthesis.

*Value will increase if you consume the same gene. (However, please be careful because the vitality of the absorbed object will permanently be reduced.)

 

Even in the previous round, skills classified as Special weren’t easily seen.

 

On top of that, this was A-Grade.

 

But, to be honest, I felt more disappointed than happy when I got this skill.

 

How the hell do I use this skill?

 

The explanation was too vague. There were various genes marked, perhaps because they were dormant in my blood.

 

If so, did that mean I had blood from other races and was of mixed race?

 

The time before the inhabitants from other worlds came to Earth, according to the findings at the time, white and black people shared the same ancestry.

 

But compared to that, this was terrible.

 

Whether it was from my mother’s side or my father’s side, I thought my ancestors were quite the open minded people.

 

Anyway, although I wasn’t sure about the exact mechanics of this skill at the moment,  there was another part I was paying attention to.

 

[However, please be careful because the vitality of the absorbed object will permanently be reduced.]

 

After reading the additional information, I thought the reverse would work too.

 

Besides, I had no experience absorbing genes, so I decided to use my life drain skill for now.

 

In any case, vitality was probably the source of life itself.

 

To be honest, I didn’t know if it would work or not…but I decided to give it a try first.

 

I absorbed Gwak Chungsik’s vitality with the skill output as weak as possible.

 

< Vampiric Touch > 

*Drain Life

 

And…

 

[ Discovered genetic information that can be absorbed. Do you want to absorb the gene? ]

 

It worked.

 

Fortunately, the skill worked without a problem like I had guessed. I stuck to him for a while and used my skill.

 

[ Elf Genetic value has increased. ]

[ Elf Genetic value has increased. ] 

[ Elf Genetic value has increased. ]

.

.

.

 

Soon, his expression was distorted. There were no abnormalities at first, but as time went on, he began to let out painful groans.

 

“Keuh…Keuuuh!”

 

Cold sweats were flowing down like rain when I looked at his forehead. It seemed his body would enter shock if I continued a little bit more.

 

Hmm, I guess it was a burden to absorb a lot at once.

 

After I stopped my skill, he fell asleep again with a comfortable look. Somehow, his face looked slightly thinner than before.

 

I better stop here for today.

 

It would be troublesome if he died like this. Even if there was no physical evidence, sudden death was bound to raise suspicion.

 

Leaving him like that, I returned to my room and closed my eyes.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

A dirty back alley hidden behind a colorful neon sign. There was an abandoned building where vagrants often gathered.

 

Security wasn’t good on normal days, so it was a place where ordinary people didn’t come and go often.

 

But by chance, two people dressed in clean new clothes appeared here today.

 

One was an older middle-aged man, and the one next to him was a boy with pointed ears who looked to be a middle school student.

 

The vagrants cast a vigilant gaze at the two new people. Smiling, the middle-aged man took a chocolate out of his pocket and shook it gently.

 

“Are you hungry?”

 

Among the vagrants who were sizing them up, the youngest child asked.

 

“…That, can I have it?”

 

“Sure. Here you go.”

 

The little boy approached the man carefully and took the chocolate he held in his hand as if he were snatching it.

 

“Haha, you don’t have to be so scared. Mister isn’t a bad guy.”

 

“Don’t lie! I heard that’s something bad people would say!”

 

The eldest child among the vagrants yelled. The man waved his hand with an awkward look.

 

“Aye…are you scared because I’m an old man? Then, it’ll be okay if I throw it from afar, right?”

 

The man said and took out as many chocolates from his pocket as there were children and threw them.

 

When the chocolates fell to the ground, the vagrants pushed each other and hurriedly picked it up.

 

The eldest child, who had shouted at the man, saw his friends eating and eventually grabbed a chocolate.

 

Staring at the sight, the man gave a friendly smile.

 

“You know, mister’s…job is to take care of hungry children like you. Have you heard of House of Flowers?”

 

The first child to receive the chocolate raised his hand and shouted.

 

“Me! Me! I know! I saw it on TV!”

 

“Oh, that’s a relief. The place where mister works is the House of Flowers. Speaking of which…If you guys don’t mind, how about you guys come stay at our facility?”

 

“If I go there…Can I eat a lot?”

 

“Yes! If you go there, you can eat sausages too, and you can eat the chocolate you are eating now every day.”

 

The eyes of the vagrants shook when they heard it. And after a while, the children moved their feet towards the man.

 

However, the eldest child suddenly stopped everyone and asked. 

 

“But how can we believe what you said is true?”

 

The child gave a suspicious look, but the man simply smiled.

 

“Since you don’t believe me, then how about listening to another friend currently living in our facility?”

 

Saying so, he beckoned to the child standing behind him.

 

“Chungsik, can you come here and explain how nice the facility is?”

 

“…Yes.”

 

Gwak Chungsik replied in a somewhat weak voice. He trudged up to the children while dragging his feet. Like so, the eldest child asked Gwak Chungsik.

 

“Hey! Don’t lie and tell me! Is everything the old man said true?”

 

“…Yes. It’s true. If you go there…you can eat a lot of food…you can play games all day long.”

 

“Lie! If that’s true, why do you look so weak? Isn’t he starving you?”

 

“Oh, no…It’s just that I’m strangely tired today.”

 

The man who was watching Gwak Chungsik scolded him with a stern voice.

 

“Hey, Chungsik! Stop joking around and tell these friends…”

 

Right at that moment, Gwak Chungsik faltered and collapsed on the spot.

 

The eldest boy and everyone who saw it screamed loudly.

 

“Lie! I knew you were a bad person! Guys, run away!”

 

“W-wait a minute!”

 

The man reached out to the children, but they ran away, scattered between the alleys.

 

Curses leaked out of the man’s mouth.

 

“Damn it! Punk, what’s wrong with you today?”

 

Looking at Gwak Chungsik who was lying on the ground, he had no choice but to let out a long sigh.

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