How to Live as an Immortal Chapter 120

Chapter 120

This Piece of Trash

Raphaela’s public title was the director of Garden Orphanage. However, she had another business card as well.

She was the president of the newly established RYZ Company.

The RYZ Company under her managent was both a ghost company established under the concept of generating profit by utilizing holess orphans and an affiliated organization under Ryungyeong, one of the Four Great Underworld factions.

It made no sense for a subcontractor not to recognize soone from the main organization.

“Now tell . What is it that you want?”

Raphaela asked as if urging him on while facing the man with an electronic cigarette hanging from his mouth. Hoo— the man deeply exhaled smoke before finally speaking a beat later.

“There are bastards targeting this place right now.”

“That’s common in the underworld. Did you perhaps co here to warn about that?”

“You’d better stay alert. Those bastards aren’t targeting Ryungyeong, they’re targeting you.”

Raphaela’s expression instantly stiffened.

She herself held no particular value. She rely wielded absolute authority within the orphanage. It wasn’t as though she possessed any especially outstanding qualities either.

No, if she had to ntion one thing, there was exactly one.

The point that differentiated her from ordinary humans.

“There’s no need to hide it, ta-human.”

“How do you know that…….”

“Is that really so surprising? In the first place, Ryungyeong established ghost companies here and there in order to collaborate with your kind.”

By now, that original purpose had beco little more than a formality.

Within Ryungyeong itself, only executives of senior rank even knew about it anymore.

Yet this man even knew such confidential secrets.

Raphaela couldn’t even begin to imagine how high his position must be. However, her admiration lasted only briefly.

Danger was approaching.

First, she needed to rise from her seat and prepare for the coming war.

“What are you doing?”

“You said uninvited guests are coming, didn’t you? I need to deal with them.”

“Ha, know your place. If you beco overconfident, all that awaits behind it is an unmarked grave. If they were opponents that trash like you could defeat, would I be wasting my breath talking like this?”

The man resting his chin on his hand looked down at her arrogantly.

Behind his contemptuous expression followed a sigh mixed with concern.

“You’re making it sound like you intend to help.”

“I already prepared a stage. Lure those bastards there. Well, this isn’t exactly bad news for you either. Baek Gi— or rather, Freddy to you. He’s involved in this matter as well.”

At that na, moisture naturally gathered around her eyes.

Freddy.

He was Raphaela’s lover.

She had been worried because she had lost contact with him at so point, yet she ended up hearing news about him from soone she never could have expected.

“Do you know sothing?”

“There’s no need to drag it out. He was killed by those bastards.”

“…….”

The fleeting hope she felt shattered into pieces.

She couldn’t even rebuke him for taking the joke too far.

This was a man who casually revealed even the secrets hidden by Ryungyeong. If he declared it with certainty, then it was true.

Shaking her head, Raphaela escaped from her emotions and clenched her molars.

“How many people should I mobilize?”

“Don’t try to fill the gap with numbers. Fill it with one certainty.”

“In that case, there’s nothing to think about.”

We left Garden Orphanage and walked down the street.

Perhaps because the area had been abandoned before it could be developed into an industrial district, the surroundings were filled with gray ash-colored scenery.

The environnt was so run-down that it was hard to believe this was the 24th century.

Only the flickering neon signs erected here and there like streetlights represented the traces of vitality that had yet to fade away.

“This is troubleso.”

“The trail got cut off midway?”

“Yes. We received satellite imagery just monts ago, but Raphaela couldn’t be seen anywhere.”

“What about asking Baek Gi directly?”

“Well, I doubt he’d open his mouth after becoming a pile of ashes.”

“Ah, right.”

Jin Geon had already been shouting about the “absolute eradication of ta-humans” anyway.

As Ga-on sent him a gaze that seed to say, So that’s why you understand, Jin Geon revealed an aggrieved expression.

“Most infected are unable to reveal important information. You could say they’re placed under such restrictions through supernatural abilities before they’re even released into the outside world.”

“Controlling information is the most basic of basics. Since those bastards operate in a cellular structure, they would’ve prepared thoroughly for that aspect. There’s no point asking about sothing so obvious.”

In the first place—

“There’s no need to make excuses. I think I know where they went.”

“You have sowhere in mind?”

“Yeah. I rembered that the orphanage floor had sunk by about 18 milliters.”

“That level of displacent could just be a minor margin of error.”

“It curved gently inward from the outside. That’s proof there’s sothing underground. It wasn’t dug out by individuals. The scale and size are on a completely different level.”

It would be more accurate to say they made use of sothing already there.

For example—

‘A Hyperloop.’

Of course, Hyperloops didn’t operate in District 39.

The Board had made the decision so ordinary civilians wouldn’t accidentally enter an area that had turned into the underworld.

However, because it was more of a follow-up administrative asure, there were at least five sites prepared in advance for expansion work.

And crossing between those sites were dozens of underground tunnels.

The construction may never have been completed, but they were still large enough for people to move through.

“Check whether there’s an underground passage leading through the abandoned factory. Since they avoided satellite detection, they probably escaped through there.”

Jin Geon imdiately downloaded the relevant map and compared it to the site before letting out an exclamation.

Just as Ga-on expected, one massive branch extended beneath Garden Orphanage and stretched far into the distance.

Perhaps “stagnant” was the right word for it.

There was even a massive cavity where the tunnels connected together.

Where Raphaela had hidden herself with Peter Pan was now perfectly obvious.

“Yes, I found it.”

***

Finding the entrance leading underground wasn’t difficult.

As if proving the construction had truly been abandoned midway, a gigantic door the size of a house had rely been loosely wrapped with chains.

A padlock indicated entry was prohibited, but it was a aningless asure.

Ga-on crushed and destroyed it with his bare hands before imdiately throwing himself into the darkness.

The space secured as a Hyperloop stop was desolate and gloomy.

As though it had once been used several tis as a secret eting place, cigarette butts and liquor bottles were scattered around.

However, the deeper we stepped into the underground, even those traces disappeared.

A region where not a single ray of light entered.

Air that grew endlessly colder.

And the screams emitted by the resonance of the enclosed space.

The surroundings were filled with elents that stimulated humanity’s primal fear.

“Looks like we ca to the right place.”

Jin Geon bent one knee and brushed the floor with his index finger.

At the sa ti, the difference between areas covered in dust and areas that weren’t beca clearly visible.

Who exactly had fearlessly appeared within this abandoned cavity, stripped of both purpose and function?

Just as I heightened my senses, feeling we were getting closer and closer to Raphaela—

[I won’t accept complaints]

—a ssage with that title arrived.

The sender was Noah.

It said the analysis of the android girl’s drive had been completed. A task that was supposed to take four Sol had been finished in three Sol, aning she had worked hard in her own way.

After replying with complints I had scraped together from the internet, I reviewed the analysis results.

The movent path Gideon rembered through the android girl was completely chaotic.

Judging by it, whenever he didn’t have a particular mission, he seed to go around installing ergency generators.

It suited his ability.

Once he stored electricity, it didn’t disappear even over ti.

In ergencies, it could beco a lifeline for ta-humans.

Then one of the routes caught my attention.

I wondered why it felt so familiar, only to realize it perfectly matched the path we were currently walking.

Gideon—

A ta-human had already passed through here once.

The only thing I felt was a bad premonition, and just as I was about to stop Jin Geon—

“Stop! Don’t moveee!”

Hoo, huuk— a desperate shout mixed with ragged breathing echoed out.

The person blocking the fork in the road was a middle-aged man Ga-on knew very well.

In other words—

“Mr. Paohu.”

“It’s Guo Hong!”

Dark stubble covered his face, and his hair had grown wildly unkempt. His bloodshot eyes looked as though blood might start pouring from them at any mont.

“You fucking bastard, son of a bitch, damn brat! What the hell did I do to deserve ending up this miserableee! Just because you’re Royal Family, does that make you king!”

Guo Hong learned sothing for the first ti.

That the position of Sheriff could be one where you were fired this quickly and this brutally.

District 39—particularly the Western District—had once been his stomping grounds where he strutted around proudly, but now he was nothing more than a kite with a severed string.

Falling hurts.

And if the place you fall into is a swamp, it becos downright miserable.

With no future left ahead of him, it was only natural that he no longer cared about making extre choices.

Without even focusing his wildly rolling eyes properly, Guo Hong raised a detonator high for them to see.

“There are bombs planted all around this area. If you don’t want to die, you’ll do exactly as I say.”

“Wouldn’t it just beco a murder-suicide if they explode anyway?”

“Who gives a shit! Shut up and drop your weapons!”

Ga-on pretended to lower Qiongqi in accordance with Guo Hong’s demand, then suddenly twisted his arm and pulled the trigger.

Jin Geon also responded without hesitation.

Though it was an impromptu cooperation made without prior discussion, the bullet and slug fired in that instant pierced through Guo Hong’s left and right arms as though perfectly coordinated beforehand.

“Kkeuuugh……!”

Just before the detonator slipped from Guo Hong’s hand, Ga-on arrived in front of it and kicked it up with the tip of his foot before recovering it.

The mont Ga-on looked down at the device now in his hand, his eyebrows twisted viciously.

“You worthless piece of trash.”

The strangely sloppy finishing.

And the absurdly light weight.

It was obviously fake.

He didn’t know who had handed Guo Hong an opportunity far beyond his station, but one thing was clear—their intentions were sinister.

From the very beginning, Guo Hong had rely been a distraction.

Everything had been done to lure Ga-on and Jin Geon into the blast radius.

The mont the hairs on his body stood on end, the world burst into blinding flas.

The combustion wave that pushed away all sound soon brought the shockwave crashing in.

By the ti he confird it with his own eyes, it was already too late.

Once ignited, the flas showed no signs of dying out.

Kuwaaang!

***

“Cough, cough.”

Even after coughing repeatedly, it refused to settle down.

Naturally so.

A boulder weighing hundreds of kilograms—no, several tons—was pressing down on his back.

Only after planting both arms against the ground and forcing the fallen rocks away with strength from his waist did Ga-on truly regain his freedom.

When he raised his head toward the ceiling, the separated fault line beca even more visible.

It was impossible to tell how many more ters they had fallen.

With an explosion of this magnitude, Guo Hong was most likely dead.

“Hoo.”

As he steadied his breathing and cald himself, the mories that had been interrupted midway slowly began returning one by one.

Just before the explosion reached him, Ga-on had rotated using every joint in his body as an axis.

He had transford himself into a miniature typhoon in an attempt to disperse the blast’s power.

Fortunately, the strategy seed to have worked, allowing him to survive without major injuries.

Of course, even if it disappeared, he could simply replenish it again, but there was currently one troubleso companion beside him.

“Mr. Geon?”

Only empty echoes reverberated back.

No answer ca.

Still, it wasn’t entirely without effect.

Far in the distance, a blurry figure could be seen slowly walking toward him.

“Mr. Geon……?”

Unfortunately, the one responding to the call was not Jin Geon.

“I am Hans! Giant Hans!”

The man carried a 15mm Gatling machine gun slung around him.

The ammunition bag hanging from his back bulged to the point of bursting, packed with an enormous amount of rounds.

Neither the weapon nor the bag was small, yet in the man’s hands, they looked no different from toys.

“Let’s play! Let’s play hide-and-seek! I’ll be ‘it’ first!”

“Then I’ll choose killing instead.”