I quietly observed Yoo Sangcheol. He let out a long, lazy yawn.
"You look tired."
Yoo Sangcheol made an "Huh?" sound, then wiped the corner of his mouth as he replied.
"I just got back from a damn business trip."
"A business trip?"
"Yeah. There was a collaboration with an EU NGO. Thanks to that, a few months went straight down the drain."
Organizations that respond to contaminated zones differ slightly by country.
In Korea, Stigma Manifesters are collectively managed by the state under the name of sanitation workers, but Europe is different.
European Stigma Manifesters operate under NGOs. While they do receive some level of state support, they have far more freedom in their activities, and each NGO pursues different goals.
"A business trip, you say."
"Yeah. And the moment I get back, I have to manage you little chicks. It's absolutely killing me."
As he said that, Yoo Sangcheol sucked noisily on a children's drink filled with pink liquid.
While your tragedy was unfolding, this man was not in Korea.
Was that enough? I fell into brief contemplation. Not being in Korea was understandable enough.
"Was it related to a contaminated zone in Europe? If so, there wouldn't really be a reason to dispatch Korean sanitation workers…"
Yoo Sangcheol snorted when he heard my words.
"Rookie, contaminated zones don't have a concept of national borders."
Some contaminated zones cause transnational damage. In those cases, Stigma Manifesters from multiple countries work together.
At that moment, the phones of the four of us, including me, vibrated simultaneously. Yoo Sangcheol immediately twisted his face into a scowl.
[Suwon City, Godong-dong, Godong-ro 59beon-gil 72, Suwon Girls' High School. Contaminated zone detected. Move to the rooftop of your current location.]
"Starting off with this bullshit already. What a damn shitty workplace."
"This is… what is it? Grade 7 sanitation worker Yoo Sangcheol."
Yoo Sangcheol answered Oh Minhyuk's question.
"Call me senior. And what do you think it is? They're telling us to work."
Yoo Sangcheol stood up and quickly slipped on his coat.
"What are you doing? Move it, you bastards! Run!"
At Yoo Sangcheol's shout, we all sprang up and ran for the rooftop.
The rooftop door was locked, but Yoo Sangcheol casually kicked it.
With a crunching sound, the steel door was torn open.
— Sanitation workers are being deployed. We ask for the cooperation of all citizens.
From the sky, a recorded voice boomed through loudspeakers along with the sound of helicopter rotors.
At the same time, a rope ladder slid down from the helicopter.
"Grab the ladder and climb!"
Without anyone needing to say it, we grabbed the ladder and scrambled up.
"I will verify your identification."
The moment we boarded the helicopter, an armed soldier checked our identities. When we handed over our IDs, he scanned them with his equipment.
"Sanitation worker Yoo Sangcheol and three others confirmed. Moving to the site."
The helicopter immediately took off. The speed of the process was dizzying.
"Hey, soldier. Give me a situation report."
"A contaminated zone has occurred at Suwon Girls' High School. Time of occurrence was 2:12 PM."
I immediately checked my wristwatch. Today was a weekday. That meant…
"They would have been in class."
"Good observation. You've got a fast brain."
Yoo Sangcheol nodded slightly at my words, then asked the soldier.
"Contamination level?"
"Estimated to be low."
"Got it."
After nodding again, Yoo Sangcheol looked back at us.
"Once we enter the contaminated zone, I'll secure a safe area and wait. During cleanup, if you confirm any survivors inside, send them my way."
At those words, Oh Minhyuk flinched.
"You won't be accompanying us?"
"You idiot. What, want to bring kimbap and a picnic mat too? Think this is a field trip?"
Yoo Sangcheol snapped coldly. We would be the ones doing the cleanup. Yoo Sangcheol would move only if the situation exceeded what we could handle.
"But we haven't received any training yet…"
"Do you think Korea has so many sanitation workers rotting around that we can train you nicely before deployment? Cleanup work is like a shitty game. No tutorial and brutally unfriendly. And you've only got one life."
Learn on site. At Yoo Sangcheol's declaration, everyone fell silent for a moment. Carefully, Han Sehee opened her mouth this time.
"If there aren't many sanitation workers, then shouldn't training be even more thorough before deployment…"
"So while we train you, the citizens can all drop dead and we just leave the contaminated zone alone?"
Silence again. But there was something I had to say.
"Senior Yoo Sangcheol."
"Ah, damn it. What now, you too?"
I calmly pulled a magazine out of my inventory and showed it to him. Yoo Sangcheol immediately nodded.
"I've already received the relevant report. Just focus on the cleanup."
So he knew. Well, it would be stranger if he didn't. Han Sehee and Oh Minhyuk, who had been listening to our exchange, looked utterly confused.
"Report? What report?"
"Mind your business. You're not at the level to know yet."
That was all Yoo Sangcheol said coldly in response to Han Sehee's question.
Soon after, he handed each of us an in-ear device. Once we put them on, Yoo Sangcheol's voice came through.
— Testing, testing. Can you hear me?
We all nodded at his words.
— Why are you nodding like idiots? Press the button and say something. We need to confirm comms.
We immediately spoke up. After confirming there were no issues with communication, Yoo Sangcheol spoke again.
"Get your heads straight. If you die as trainees without even getting your first paycheck, you'll be too pissed to leave this world."
I knew that the monthly salary excluding activity expenses was 8 million won, along with housing, a vehicle, and other benefits.
"Communication with the outside is impossible inside a contaminated zone. These in-ears are just for communication among us."
Yoo Sangcheol continued speaking to us.
"A lot of trainees die on their first cleanup. Contaminated zones are full of unreasonable, absurd deaths. Stay tense, watch your surroundings, and use both logic and intuition to grasp the situation."
It really was sudden. I thought we would just meet, exchange greetings, maybe swap phone numbers, and disperse. Instead, straight into cleanup.
"We have arrived near the contaminated zone."
The ladder dropped from the helicopter again and struck the ground. We descended using it.
The area around the contaminated zone had already been sealed off by the Korean military.
"Are you sanitation workers?"
Since we had disembarked from the helicopter, the soldiers approached without much suspicion and quickly verified our identities.
"Yes. We'll enter immediately after reporting."
"Understood."
As soon as a soldier spoke into his radio, the soldiers blocking the road cleared the obstacles.
"…A dome?"
Something like a pitch-black wall stood there in the form of a massive dome. This should have been where Suwon Girls' High School was.
So that was the contaminated zone. A place you couldn't enter unless you were a Stigma Manifester, and couldn't leave once inside.
The original sin imposed upon humanity after it made its industrial foundation dependent on mana.
And the cause of your death. When that thought reached me, it felt like lava was flowing through my veins.
We arrived right in front of the massive black dome. Up close, it looked less like a dome and more like an enormous wall.
"Enter on my signal. One… two…"
The word "three" left Yoo Sangcheol's mouth. I immediately stepped forward.
"Huh?"
It seemed I was the only one brave enough to do so. Throwing yourself at that enormous black wall must have required tremendous courage.
Of course, what drove me wasn't courage but hatred. As I looked at the two who were frozen in place, I was swallowed into the black wall.
"…They'll come eventually."
The sensation of being pulled in ended.
When I opened my eyes again, a horrific otherworld formed from the residue left behind by the use of mana spread out before me.
A membranous layer oozing yellowish pus-like mucus. Bulging tumors growing atop it. Dark red, pulsating veins covering everything.
All of it had engulfed the school building.
"…."
Before that massive, violent sign of threat, I was momentarily struck speechless. The hatred that had been racing like lava through my veins with every heartbeat faltered for an instant.
"So you saw it too."
Perhaps he had seen the same sight. I pulled a gun and a magazine from my inventory and quickly assembled them. The scene was so horrific it made the hairs on my body stand on end.
You fell into this hellscape without any power or equipment to fight back.
Heat surged inside me again. The cold fear that had momentarily seized my body was expelled with my breath.
"Ugh… ahh…"
From behind me came the suppressed groans of Oh Minhyuk and Han Sehee.
"Get a grip, you bastards!"
Right after, Yoo Sangcheol appeared, muttering as he did. It seemed he had forced them in.
"You're here?"
"Don't see many who walk in on their own two feet."
Yoo Sangcheol said that to me. At that moment, Han Sehee shouted while pointing at the school covered in all manner of things.
"Th-that…!"
With the sound of shattering glass, suspicious lumps splashed down onto the ground.
Have you ever seen the filter of a bathroom drain that hasn't been cleaned for about half a year? A mixture of hair, grime, and sticky mucus of unknown origin all tangled together.
Soft, squelching masses like something pulled out of that came toward us with wet, slapping sounds.
"Cleanup starts now. Don't forget. Secure any survivors and bring them to me."
At Yoo Sangcheol's order, I clenched my teeth.
"Disgusting bastards."
I aimed and pulled the trigger. With a flash, gunfire poured out bullets. The rounds embedded in the moving mucus masses and exploded, blowing them to pieces.
Military-standard equipment was powerful. Those sticky lumps burst like water balloons. It was absurdly easy.
Aim and pull the trigger, and grayish mucus bursts apart. Anger, exhilaration, and confidence intertwined and heated my body.
"…Huh?"
And not long after, nothing fired even when I pulled the trigger.
I had already emptied a magazine.
"Damn it."
I smacked my own head hard. Save your ammo. If I kept firing like this, the bullets I brought would run out in no time.
I attached a new magazine to the rifle. I conserved bullets and counted how many shots I used in my head.
I started hunting again. What did I need to do?
"The contamination source."
To deal with a contaminated zone, the contamination source had to be eliminated. Otherwise, the zone would not disappear.
My head burned. I wanted to erase this disgusting, horrific scene from my sight as soon as possible.
I kept moving forward. I advanced while blasting apart the revolting masses of hair and mucus with gunfire.
It took three or four bullets to deal with one mucus mass. One magazine could handle up to ten of them.
Calculate. Calculate. Keep thinking. There was nothing outside the school, so the contamination source had to be inside.
And if there were survivors, they would be inside the school as well.
So we had to enter. Enter, wipe out these disgusting masses, find the contamination source, and destroy it.
"You two, join up quickly!"
Only then did I think of Han Sehee and Oh Minhyuk and call them over.
"Ah, ah… yes!"
As if they had finally snapped out of it, Han Sehee and Oh Minhyuk joined me.
"Calm down. It's not as bad as it looks. We can deal with it easily."
First, I had to instill confidence and courage in these two. It would be more helpful to eliminate the contamination source together than to go in alone.
"Sorry for acting on my own."
"No, it's fine! You just… weren't scared, unlike us, right?"
"You're way better than us."
The two of them managed to steady themselves in their own way.
"The contamination source should be inside the school building."
"Right. There's nothing particularly suspicious outside the building."
The entrance into the school interior was tightly blocked by tangled masses of flesh and veins.
We could destroy it easily by pouring in explosive rounds, but… that would waste too much ammunition.