Chapter 156 – Sammosa Jo (3)
We headed to the abandoned mine to deal with the toxic gas, the main factor that caused Landfill to decline, and encountered a completely unexpected presence. It was a gigantic beast that ate human corpses and expelled magic stones and poisonous gas. I was taken aback by the monster’s attack for a while, but at the last moment I stepped in and finished off the monster, and the toxic gas problem was solved.
The gas-generating monster is dead, and soon there will be no need to wear a gas mask on the streets in Landfill. And by dealing with toxic fumes, we now face a problem we had been ignoring.
“The reason Landfill has been able to survive without collapsing is because there were wealthy customers who took advantage of the poor environment where toxic gases vibrated to make illegal trades. But now that the gas is gone, they have no reason to look for Landfill. No. The reason they used this place was because of the harsh environment that made it difficult for law enforcement to enter the city due to toxic fumes.”
“But first of all, Landfill is an independent place where other countries have given up their sovereignty, and customers will not leave right away because it is a place where there is no proper system yet.”
“Yes. But you can’t hold them for long. Landfill was a place where people couldn’t live because of the poisonous gas, and the scarce food and daily necessities were obtained in exchange for arranging a safe trading place for illegal traders. But really. That’s not a big problem.”
“Yes?”
I sighed and kindly explained to Esk, who was puzzled as if he couldn’t understand what I was saying.
“I told you. The reason why this landfill was abandoned is because of the barren terrain that is difficult to restore and the toxic gas that makes daily life difficult. But now that the gas in question has been dealt with…”
“…Does that mean that those who gave up and neglected to harvest Landfill could now covet this place?”
“In the first place, this landfill was a small mining town that supplied magic stones called magylite to the magical kingdom of Magistos. Although the magic stone mine was completely destroyed, there are still resources buried underground in this landfill. There will be. Even if it isn’t… Those who haven’t dared to enter here because of the dangerous environment of toxic gas may want to occupy this narrow and desolate land and act as lords.”
“Landfill is still an abandoned city, and it is the last place where abandoned people from each country and city reach the end.”
“Now you see why I was trying to get the support of the people of this city before I dealt with the toxic gas problem, right?”
As Landfill gradually develops and becomes a livable city, more and more people will come to occupy this city. And in order to fully protect this city and transform it into a place where people can live properly, we need a strong ally to protect us until then.
“But, who the hell will help us? The outside perception of landfill is really low. Landfill is a place where people who have failed in their lives, or disgusting criminals who don’t even want to deal with, gather in landfill, but who the hell is going to step out? Are you trying to help here?”
“If helping us is costly, it’s better to make it worse by not helping us.”
“Yes?”
Leaving the puzzled Esk behind, I turned my head and looked at the magic stones and the monster’s corpse. The monster that died after being cut in half by my final blow, had a… Unusual pattern engraved on its tongue.
A staff with wings, and two snakes coiling around the staff.
Caduceus.
A symbol of life that connects heaven and earth, a symbol that means the cycle of birth and death, disease and healing. And in this world, Atipia, there is one representative country that uses this Caduceus as its representative symbol.
Magic Kingdom Magistos.
“I don’t know exactly what happened. But, something definitely happened.”
The small mining town that periodically supplied magic stones to Magistos collapsed one day with an earthquake and was eventually abandoned and neglected due to poisonous gas rising from inside the mine. However, the toxic gas did not come out naturally, but was emitted artificially by a monster who lived in the deepest part of the abandoned mine, and the monster’s tongue was engraved with the pattern of Caduceus, which is used as a symbol in Magistos. Is this really a coincidence? No, it can’t be.
The decline of Landfill was not an accident that could not be helped. There was some kind of incident caused by someone, and the result was an earthquake that happened in Landfill, and that monster that lived in this abandoned mine is proof.
Eleista was not the head of Magistos at that time, so he cannot hold him accountable for this incident. However, it is an inseparable fact that the Magistos Kingdom was entangled in that incident.
I do not intend to publicize this fact extensively. If you let them know that the cause of Landfill’s decline is in the Magistos Kingdom, you can deal a blow to them, but that only adds to the number of enemies. However, I have no intention of just skipping over it. In any case, the fact that so many people live and suffer in this city is the result of someone in Magistos in the past.
Landfeel today is a fragile sandcastle that will disappear without a trace once the waves sweep it away. And I will be promised by Elestar to protect Landfill in exchange for not revealing this incident until Landfill becomes a strong castle that will withstand an external invasion. As the head of Magistos, he will not want to reveal the terrible incidents in his country, and I need an ally to protect us from outside attacks until we change this city.
As of now, with nothing to give as a fair price for Magistos’ protection, this is the only way to protect Landfill with their strength.
“Now the question that remains is… Is it Eldland after all?”
Eldland, the country of gold. The most affluent country in the world, the word capitalism’s monster can’t be better. The king of that place, Bilgames, is the only two of the representatives of the seven cities, the old man… That is to say, he lived in this world before strangers from another world appeared in Atipia. While other countries collapsed in the flow of time and disappeared into history, that golden country that accumulated so much wealth that no other country dared to respond head-on because it could not continue to be maintained did not dare with the power of the abandoned and ruined Landfill. It is a powerful country that is difficult even to compete with.
Even if Landfill was reborn as a proper city, it could not take a hostile attitude towards Eldland. There is a saying that there is no gold that does not pass through Eldland, because the kingdom of gold has a great influence on the world’s economy. I don’t know if the king of that kingdom, Bilgames, is doing this because he has a grudge against me, but dealing with him with all the power of the city is like hitting a rock with an egg.
“Ha, I really don’t want to go.”
So, even if I don’t like it, I have no choice but to go myself.
What Vilgames wants is me. Once I get there on my own, there’s no reason to go into this abandoned city anymore. If I pretended to hate it for no reason, it would only make Landfill’s situation worse.
Landfill does not have advanced technology like Magistos, the magical kingdom, or Metaverse City, the city of science and innovation.
There is no special barrier to protect the city from external attacks like the phantom archipelago of Maboroshima or the ancient underground city of Shambhalon.
It’s not because there is no one with overwhelming force like Moorim’s Cheonma or Desperado’s Siwoo Jeong, who can’t be defeated with capital, and is worthy of being called a one-man corps.
Ha, that’s why it’s hard for people who have something to protect. If you have something to protect, the actions you can take in order not to lose it are greatly limited.
After leaving the abandoned mine, the monster’s corpse and the monster’s magic stone were entrusted to the U.F boss Mayer to preserve them. The carcasses of the monsters engraved with the Caduceus pattern are an important material for future alliance agreements with Magistos, and Magistos is the only place that can buy those mountain-like magic stones at the highest price. I ordered Esk and the gang members to shut down and return to their usual duties, and I was on my way back to the place where Mono was waiting.
“Teacher!”
“Yes?”
I turn my head to see if someone hastily called me to stop me, and a familiar face I haven’t seen in a long time is calling me.
“Whoa, whoa. I finally found it. Sensei, now you’re a celebrity in Landfill? In just a few days, there will be no one in my hometown who doesn’t know you, what the hell have you been doing?”
“Then why are you here, Jean Sen?”
Jean Sen.
A guard who served in Skylon, and a person with abilities that I awakened a second time after coming to this world. Its ability is [Distortion Acrobatics]. It is a powerful ability that distorts all physical laws that affect objects thrown by one’s hand, and moves as one wishes. It is very useful and I am using it well. By the way, I wondered why this person was here, but now that I think about it, this person’s hometown is Landfill, right?
“I came back to my hometown after a long time because of the work the prison warden ordered me to do, and it has changed a lot here as well.
“There are so many talented people, right?”
“I see. How the hell do you control this amount of people? If these landfill people are the way I know, they would have had an accident in the first place…”
Landfill is a place where losers, failures, and flawed people gather. The defect includes not only the body, but also the mental part. For example, there are not many extreme guys like a criminal who lusts after a small child who is less than half of his body or a pleasure killer who brutally kills countless people, but it is not nonexistent. But why don’t those troubled guys ever have an accident? Simple.
“Well, everyone knows their subject matter well.”
Otherwise, it’ll end up in my hands.
Even after Karun’s taking her hostage and the ‘punishment’ I inflicted on her in front of everyone, the things that I couldn’t tell the difference between what I could do and what I couldn’t do and ran amok as if it were my own world were all over. Anyway, at the point of awakening their ability, those guys have already used up their usefulness. What’s important to me is not what kind of ability people develop, but how many people awaken what kind of ability.
“By the way, the director of Breakwing prison ordered you to do it?”
“Eh. He asked me to deliver these letters while he was away on vacation after a long time.”
“Yes, thank you for your hard work.”
I put the letter from Sen Zhang in her pocket.
“By the way, Zhang Sen-san, your abilities have grown a lot while I couldn’t see you.”
“Huh? How do you know that without seeing it?”
“Didn’t I awaken that ability in the first place?”
The strength of those who have been awakened through me can be taken as an example of a well.
The water under the well is the ‘power of the mind’ of the person, the desire of the person for the bucket to hold the water, and the rope that pulls the bucket is the seed that I swallowed.
The more desperate and intense the desire you harbor, the greater the amount of power you pump out at once. And now, it can be seen that Jean Sen’s bucket is about 50 percent larger than the last time I saw it. If this is enough…
“Chang Sen. If it’s your level, I’m sure I’ll be able to move on to the next step.”
“The next step?”
Flowering, full bloom, and liberation and erosion.
The state of awakening the ability through me is blooming. It is the time when the flowers are just blooming.
When the awakened ability exceeds a certain level, it can go to the stage of ‘full bloom’. And what can be done at the stage of ten thousand…
“Black Knight, remember?”
“Of course. The image of him wearing a pitch-dark armor and throwing his whole body to protect his precious woman. The people who were there at that time will never forget it.”
“The black knight at that time is in full bloom.”
When entering the stage of full bloom, the abilities handled in the stage of flowering do not simply exert physical force, but actually take on physical form. The black knight’s armor is the physical form of the desire he had at the time… ‘To protect someone important to him’.
The present Zhang Sen, like the Black Knight, has all the conditions to enter the stage of full bloom. And if Zhang Sen, who has entered the stage of full bloom, accompanies me, I can safely visit Eldland.
No matter how many people aim at me, it’s meaningless against a single talented person who has reached the stage of ‘Full Bloom’.
“…Uh, sir. Can I ask you one question?”
“What is it?”
“That, full bloom… Is it more painful than blooming?”
I smiled silently. Seeing this, Zhang Sen’s face became contemplative, and I grabbed his shoulder the moment he was about to run away.
“Uh huh, where are you going. I’m sorry if you refuse to give me a chance to become stronger.”
“Hey, let go of this! I’m not interested in full bloom or anything, so help me!”
“Haha, whoever hears will know I’m trying to kill you?”
Do not worry. People don’t die that easily.
