Cleaner Association — Part 1
“Th-this is…”
Charon’s lips trembled from behind his gas mask.
His eyes, though obscured by his goggles, were clearly visible—wide with shock, his face twisted in disbelief.
He tried to say something, but no words followed.
Thud.
Finally, his head dropped.
“Huuuuaaaah…”
It was as if his soul had left his body.
The strength drained from my legs, and I collapsed to the ground as well.
Thump!
My knees slammed into something hard, sending sharp pain shooting through them.
“Ugh, cough!”
I hacked up blood, violently.
It was thick, black, and reeked of rot.
Not good.
I quickly switched my traits:
[Einherjar Cultivation Technique], [Regeneration], [Vigor]
[Mana Recovery], [Contamination Resistance], [Poison Resistance]
Taking a deep breath, I tried to regain my composure.
“Haaaa…”
The scent of blood filled my nose like a swarm of ants crawling inside.
Gripping my holy sword tightly, I took several long, deep breaths until I felt my mind start to clear.
“Grrr…”
“Grrrrr…”
Two groans echoed in the silence.
Of course, they were still here.
I stood up shakily, pulling my sword out of the corpse.
My head spun, and my vision blurred for a moment.
My internal injuries, poisoning, and contamination were all severe.
Using my holy sword as a crutch, I limped toward them.
The zombie shield-bearer and the skeletal gunman were still staring at me with their dim, flickering eyes.
“I’m so damn tired of this.”
Their master was dead, leaving them little more than mindless puppets.
I raised my sword and slashed down.
Thud!
I must’ve been more exhausted than I thought.
Though I struck the mana chip embedded in the zombie shield-bearer’s head, my sword barely penetrated halfway and got stuck.
Ugh… Focus.
“Huff, huff…”
I took a deep breath, gathered more mana, and tried again.
This time, the holy sword sliced clean through the skull and the mana chip.
Thud!
The zombie shield-bearer’s body collapsed sideways in slow motion.
I took care of the skeletal gunman in the same way.
With three corpses sprawled out on the ground, I finally felt like it was over.
“Ugh…”
The tension drained from my body.
My legs gave out, and I slumped back down, leaning against the wall.
I spent a long time catching my breath.
Then, using my cultivation technique, I gathered the poison in my body into my hands. Just like I had done back in Shinhwon Market, I made a small cut in my skin and expelled the poison onto the ground.
Instantly, I felt a wave of relief, a cool sensation spreading through my mana circuits.
[Purification] trait acquired.
Despite my foggy mind, I let out a faint chuckle.
‘I’m no holy knight, really.’
If I had gained [Holy Light] instead of [Black Flame], I’d be fully built like a paladin by now.
I cast Purification on myself repeatedly.
The subtle mutations in my body began to revert to normal.
Then I poured the rest of my recovered mana into my necklace to activate [Healing].
It took a few hours before my body had healed enough to move properly.
‘What a grind.’
I wasn’t fully recovered.
The internal injuries still hurt like hell.
What I really needed was a mana spring.
Resting in one for at least 24 hours would fully restore me.
“Heh…”
I chuckled, leaning back against the filthy wall.
Charon. That Charon.
A fully-fledged Level 3 superhuman, and the boss of this dungeon!
Normally, it would take a full party of well-equipped Level 2 superhumans to bring him down, and even at Level 3, soloing him without the right traits and gear would be near impossible.
But I took him down by myself.
How could I not laugh?
Clink.
I sheathed my holy sword at my waist and stood up.
First, I collected the mana cores from the zombie shield-bearer and skeletal gunman.
After a moment of thought, I also chopped off their heads and stuffed them into my golf bag.
I’d need evidence, after all.
Click, click.
I took pictures and gathered the mana chips.
Then, I scoured the area, collecting the mana chips from the wraiths as well.
They were broken in half and unusable, but they’d serve as evidence for the government officials, who would probably compensate me for them.
Finally, I approached Charon’s corpse.
‘He had that wrist guard and a ring, didn’t he?’
They were likely artifacts.
My heart raced with anticipation, like when opening a treasure chest.
It was unsettling how excited I was, standing in front of a blood-soaked corpse.
I must’ve become quite the psychopath over time.
Feeling a bit bitter about it, I removed the wrist guard and the ring.
‘The wrist guard…’
As expected, it was a lightweight version of a magic staff.
It was made of thick fabric infused with mana circuits and layered with special crystal bracelets sewn into the lining.
It could fetch a decent price, but that was it.
Losing interest, I tossed it into my golf bag.
Then I examined the ring, rolling it around in my fingers as if I were about to put it on.
‘Huh? What’s this?’
I felt nothing from it.
The ring was a plain gold band with no markings, and it didn’t give off any magical aura.
If it had any magic or traits, I should’ve felt something by now, something connected to its previous owner.
I frowned, fiddling with it for a bit.
Suddenly, the ring vibrated and started absorbing my mana.
Ah, I see.
It’s a mana storage ring.
An artifact that stores mana, like a battery, for later use.
Nowadays, people usually embed mana storage in their smartphones, helmets, belts, glasses, and protective gear. Charon must’ve had a thing for more old-fashioned gear.
‘No, wait. This thing has a huge capacity.’
As I funneled mana into it, I realized it could hold a lot more than I expected.
For a warrior-type superhuman like me, I have a fairly large mana pool, but even after pouring all my mana into the ring, it still wasn’t full.
If I were a full-fledged Level 3 superhuman, it could store as much as 1.5 times what I could hold.
For a tiny ring, it was a massive reservoir.
It’s much better than carrying around a bulky mana battery for my gear.
“Nice.”
I felt like I’d hit the jackpot with this one.
It would pair perfectly with my mana rifle later on.
Even with all my mana recovery traits, spamming a mana rifle always felt like too much of a burden.
Slice.
I decapitated Charon and tossed his head into the golf bag as well.
As expected from a named superhuman, these two items were all he had.
That’s just how it goes when a quest happens at Landfill Site 1.
By design, one of the three Directors of the Cleaner Association infiltrates the site with almost nothing and starts a riot there.
‘Things are going to get complicated.’
Depending on how the quest develops, an inevitable conflict with the Cleaner Association looms.
In this world, it won’t be any different.
If anything, being a fully real situation, it’ll be even more intense.
Nothing I can do about that.
I just have to survive.
I knew from the moment I resolved to keep fighting that this endless struggle was inevitable.
“Let’s just keep doing what I did today. Just like today.”
I really did well today.
I was pretty damn awesome, honestly.
Who would’ve thought to break through head-on in such a desperate moment?
If I hadn’t put in over 10,000 hours in Arcane Seoul, I wouldn’t have been able to pull that off.
With that thought, I encouraged myself and stood up.
The weight of the damaged guns and grenade launcher added up as I stuffed them into the golf bag.
Giiing.
I manually opened the exit and stepped outside.
The sun was beginning to set.
The red glow of the sunset bathed the scene.
It was well past office hours, yet the government officials were still there, anxiously waiting for me.
When they saw me, dirty and exhausted, their faces lit up in relief.
“Superhuman! You’ve finally finished, haven’t you?”
Manager Choi was with them as well.
“Superhuman! Are you alright? You were gone so long, we were worried something might’ve happened!”
“Well, something did happen.”
“Huh? But weren’t they just Level 2 mutants?”
If it had just been the mutants, it would’ve been easy.
I shuddered slightly and pointed to my filthy, battered body.
“I need a shower and purification first. I know you’re all eager to leave, but this is important, so please wait a bit longer.”
“Oh… of course, sure.”
“Right, we’ll wait.”
The officials exchanged puzzled glances.
It was nearing the end of June, meaning the sun wouldn’t fully set until after 7 p.m.
They were clearly wondering why they had to keep waiting after staying here this long.
Ignoring them, I headed to the shower.
‘There’s definitely a traitor among them.’
In a way, it was obvious.
Government officials here get paid like crap.
If someone offered them a nice bribe along with some generous hospitality, who wouldn’t take it?
In the game, the traitor’s actions and identity weren’t explicitly revealed.
It was only hinted at as part of the quest’s background.
I had no intention of figuring out the traitor’s identity myself.
That’s their business to handle.
I had enough on my plate just thinking about how to fight the Cleaner Association.
“Superhuman, everyone’s waiting for you.”
“Yes, I’m coming.”
The meeting room was in the management office of the contaminated facility.
The officials, led by the manager, were seated in a row.
One younger official glanced around nervously before addressing me.
“Superhuman, isn’t it all over now? You took care of the mutants, so we can handle the rest.”
His face screamed that he wanted to go home.
Sure, they were panicking and wringing their hands when they hadn’t heard from me, but now that I was back, they figured everything was settled.
I didn’t bother explaining.
Instead, I unzipped the golf bag.
The first thing I pulled out was the head of the zombie shield-bearer and placed it on the table.
Thud!
The table shook from the impact.
The officials jumped out of their seats, startled.
“Wait, what… what is that?”
“Why did you bring a human head…”
“No, wait! That’s not a human head! It’s a mutant!”
“A mutant?”
“If it’s a mutant, then why does it have mana circuits embedded in its skull?”
They still hadn’t fully grasped the situation.
I pulled out the head of the skeletal gunman and then laid out the mana cores and chips I had gathered.
If they still didn’t get it after all this, they had no right to call themselves citizens of this crazy world.
The officials’ faces grew increasingly grim.
“No way, this…”
“Yes, that’s right. These aren’t just regular mutants. They’re created mutants, modified mutants.”
“Does that mean…”
“Do any of you recognize this face?”
I pulled out Charon’s head next.
His face was pale, his tongue bitten, a twisted expression of pain etched into his features.
While the previous heads looked like monsters, this one was unmistakably human.
“Ugh!”
Several younger officials covered their mouths and bolted out of the room, rushing to the bathroom.
“Tsk, tsk.”
Manager Choi clicked his tongue.
“These young ones these days… Back in my day, we had to personally clean up after dozens of corpses. Right, Section Manager Ahn?”
“Indeed, sir. Just a few years ago, it was an absolute mess.”
“We should’ve cracked down on those Association bastards back then.”
“The Assembly members backed them up too much. The previous Chairman of the Association was too good at his job.”
“Well, it’s a good thing the Chairman’s changed now.”
“There are pros and cons to that.”
Judging by their tone, they had recognized Charon.
I pulled the mana chips out of my golf bag and spread them out on the table.
There were at least hundreds of them, all cracked and shattered.
The expression on Manager Choi’s face changed.
“Mana chips? If these are Charon’s mana chips… he wouldn’t have made zombies with them, so they must be wraiths?”
“That’s correct.”
“And you didn’t just loot these—you defeated the wraiths to get them.”
“That’s right.”
“Wow…”
Manager Choi gazed at me in awe.
“Taking down Charon and those mutants was impressive enough, but capturing all those wraiths as well… It seems we’ve seriously underestimated you.”
“I had a bit of luck, to be honest.”
“Luck is also a skill. I’m not a superhuman myself, but I know a lot about them. Charon might’ve been a scumbag, but his skills were the real deal. He must’ve been well-prepared for this, yet you still… Whew, it’s truly impressive. I assume you also dealt with the other mutants?”
“Of course.”
I presented the additional mana cores as proof.
The officials busied themselves taking photos and collecting samples.
They even brought out a magic storage case to store the three heads I had provided.
Manager Choi bowed deeply to me.
“Superhuman, you’ve saved us. To be honest, we had originally planned to hire a mercenary team, but if we had done that, this situation would’ve been a complete disaster.”
He knew what he was talking about.
That’s exactly how it played out in the game.
Charon, fully armed, as the final boss of the Landfill Site 1 dungeon.
The mercenary team, revived as modified mutants, as the mid-boss.
Clearing this dungeon once was the only way to gain access to the mineral-rich Landfill Site 1.
I had intervened before that whole mess could even begin.
“What are your plans moving forward?”
“We’re going to sue. We’ve been getting pushed around by those bastards for a while now, but this incident gives us the perfect reason to take action.”
“It won’t be easy.”
“Oh, come on. With all the evidence you’ve brought us, do you really think it’ll be that hard? Besides, the Assembly member backing the Cleaner Association just lost their seat, so those guys don’t have anyone to rely on anymore.”
The Cleaner Association wasn’t exactly a major player in Korea.
I could already imagine them falling apart.
The smiling Manager Choi suddenly stiffened.
“First of all, I’d like to apologize to you, Superhuman.”
“For what?”
“For putting you in danger because of our own negligence. If we had handled things properly from the start, none of this would’ve happened… And I really appreciate you staying and seeing the job through to the end instead of running away.”
At least he understood.
Manager Choi briefly stepped out of the room.
When he returned, he was holding two magic chests.
Two?
He opened one, revealing the reward I’d been expecting: a mana rifle, specifically Black Flame.
The second chest was more intriguing.
Inside, nestled among the starlight, was an old-fashioned crystal flask.
The other officials gasped in surprise, turning to stare at Manager Choi.
“Manager! That’s…”
“Isn’t this a bit much?”
“There’s only one of those in our entire facility!”
“What if something happens…”
“Enough. Don’t you all realize we owe our lives to Superhuman here? What do you think would’ve happened if we had let Charon run wild? Forget early retirement—we’d all be rotting in jail by now!”
He was right.
If Charon had stayed here, wreaking havoc, the birth of a colossal mutant or a massive explosion would’ve been inevitable.
Manager Choi handed me the mana rifle and the holy water flask with a respectful bow.
“This is the promised reward, as well as a personal gift from me. It’s not the highest grade, but it’s top-tier, and you never know when you might need it. Please accept it.”
“Thank you. I’ll gladly take it.”
It was something I’d been thinking about getting soon anyway.
I gratefully accepted the items, but then Manager Choi lowered his voice, his tone becoming more secretive.
“There is one small issue, though.”
“What issue?”
“Do you know much about the Chairman of the Cleaner Association?”
“I know a bit.”
“And his personality?”
“Yeah. He’s just a giant pain in the ass. Self-righteous, hypocritical, and thinks with his fists more than his brain.”
“You’ve got him pegged. He’ll probably hold a grudge against you now. I hate to say it, but… everything that happens here gets reported back to the Cleaner Association.”
Manager Choi shot a sharp glance at the other officials.
They didn’t seem to care.
That’s just the way this world works—bribery and information-selling are part of the daily routine.
“So I’d like to make a proposal. Would you consider signing a contract with us?”
“Huh? A contract?”
“A two-year exclusive contract to work with the Contaminated Facility Management Bureau. We’d welcome someone of your abilities with open arms. It wouldn’t be a problem to arrange a special recruitment. Just think of it as weathering the storm for two years. By then, the Cleaner Association will be gone. And if you like it here, you could stay on permanently. With your skills, you might even make it to the Superhuman Administration Bureau.”
I stared at Manager Choi for a long moment.
He was smiling warmly, just like when I’d first met him.
Also, just like the foreman from my original world who had scammed me out of my hard-earned wages.
“Uh… Superhuman?”
Manager Choi called out cautiously, half wanting to stop me, half not knowing what to do.
Become a government official?
It would be a safe way to avoid conflict with the Cleaner Association.
Not a bad choice.
As I mentioned earlier, the status of government officials in this world is leagues above what it was in my original world.
But…
Doing that would mean I wouldn’t survive the barrage of upcoming episodes.
If I became a public servant, coasting along with a steady paycheck and some bribes, how would I grow stronger?
I’d become a moderately powerful superhuman, only to get swept up in the tide and die later on.
“Thank you for the offer, but…”
And so, I could answer him firmly.
“I’ll have to decline.”
–TL Notes–
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