“Tanks, don’t block head-on! Deflect their attacks! If they grab your shield, just let go of it! Attackers, sever those legs!” Shin Jun shouted.

The Lucanids’ leg hooks dragged the One Tree clansmen into the Evaporating Poison Gas, and the clansmen focused on blocking the hooks.

“Weakeners! Holders! Stop their movements!” Jun ordered debuffs and binds.

[Activating Skill: Weakening Curse.]

[Activating Unique Skill: Influenza.]

[Activating Unique Skill: Cowboy Lasso.]

[Activating Unique Skill: Sticky Trap.]

The clansmen spammed their skills, dulling the Lucanids’ movements.

“Now! Spray all the repellent you have!” Jun shouted.

“Haaa!”

“Chaaa!”

The clansmen threw all the repellent. Black smoke mixed with the Evaporating Poison Gas, preventing the Lucanids from advancing further into Clan One Tree’s territory.

“Now! Secure the injured!” Jun ordered.

“But we can’t reach them!”

“Manipulators!” Jun shouted.

The manipulators activated skills to drag their drying comrades out of the gas. The lasso of the manipulation captain, Brandon, and Choi Hee-Gyeong’s yarn contributed the most to the effort.

[Activating Unique Skill: Lasso Rapid Fire.]

[Activating Unique Skill: Cat’s Cradle - Weaving.]

Some rescued clansmen convulsed as they rolled on the ground, while others writhed in pain as if they had been burned.

“Gurgh!”

“Argh!”

Nathaniel, the conjuration captain, rushed toward them as he shook his D Weapon, a shaker, and shouted, “Hold on!”

[Activating Unique Skill: Strawberry Supplement.]

Nathaniel’s health recovery skill, Strawberry Supplement, healed their injuries, but did not resolve the effects of Evaporating Poison Gas.

“Dammit! What should I—”

Seong-Hwi mumbled, interjecting Nathaniel, “A drying plant needs water to live.”

Nathaniel’s eyes shone, and he shouted, “All humans with water skills, this way! Use as much mana as possible and spray the skills on our comrades!”

The clansmen with water skills did as Nathaniel said and sprayed the skills on those suffering from the effects of Evaporating Poison Gas.

[Activating Unique Skill: Water Bomb.]

[Activating Unique Skill: Blue Maelstrom.]

[Activating Skill: Heavy Rain.]

The screams of those writhing and convulsing in pain were slightly reduced, but this was also merely a stopgap. The water inside them would eventually evaporate as long as the poison gas was still inside their system, and they would die.

“Keep spraying them! Keep them alive, no matter what!” Nathaniel desperately ordered.

The water element humans continued to squeeze out their mana.

“What do we... What should we do?” Jun endlessly mumbled.

The cogs in his brain turned rapidly to think of a solution, but he couldn’t think of anything that could turn the crisis around.

“I’ll be counting on you,” Seong-Hwi said as he approached Jun.

“Pardon? For what, Smith?” Jun asked.

“What do you mean, for what? You said you’d buy me enough time to approach Carrombus.”

Jun stared dumbfoundedly at the leisurely Seong-Hwi.

Seong-Hwi continued, “My mana can protect me from that poison gas, so I’ll count on you and your clan to draw its attention.”

“What do you... Can’t you see what’s happening?! We’re all about to die!”

“Not all of you. As I’d mentioned, around half will,” Seong-Hwi said with certainty, his cold voice stabbing Jun’s heart like a dagger. “Your mana can’t fully block that poison gas, but there is a solution.”

“There is? What is it? Please tell me!”

“That poison gas absorbs fluids from the human body. It will be saturated once it absorbs the fluids of around half the people here, at least enough for you and your clansmen to endure its effects. Once it’s saturated enough, charge to draw its attention, and I’ll finish it off.”

Jun’s eyes widened after hearing Seong-Hwi’s explanation. Seong-Hwi had told him to sacrifice half of his clansmen to saturate the poison gas.

“You call that a solution?! How could I sacrifice my comrades?!” Jun shouted.

“Then what do you suggest? At this rate, you will all die. Choose between complete annihilation and the survival of half,” Seong-Hwi replied, his eyes sunken deeply.

He asked inwardly, Now, how will you overcome this dilemma?

Jun grunted as he gritted his teeth and looked around. The morale of his clansmen was bottoming out, and the repellent’s effects were about to disappear.

“I’ll be ready, so I’m counting on you,” Seong-Hwi said as he disappeared, using Shadowless Plum Blossom Branch and Hermit’s Robe. His voice echoed, “A leader must always find the answer. Karma, cubes, a new rule on your D Weapon, a new plan, sacrifices, et cetera... Keep all options on the table.”

***

“Swing your mandibles!” Carrombus ordered.

The Lucanids swung their giant mandibles up and down. It looked silly, but it thinned the repellent’s black smoke.

There has to be a way! A solution that doesn’t involve sacrificing my comrades! Jun thought under immense pressure.

He felt like his brain was frying and his heart was being ripped out of his chest. However, every conclusion he came to was that Smith’s plan was correct. Sacrificing half of his clansmen would saturate the poison gas, and drawing Carrombus’s attention with the remaining clansmen would allow Smith to kill Carrombus.

But... But...

Leaders had to make choices with the resolve to take responsibility for the results that followed. There was no such thing as a leader who always made the correct choice. It was impossible to do so all the time.

What Seong-Hwi had said to him during the mandatory quest echoed in his head.

“Besides, there is no such thing as the best option in the Mirror World; only the worst and the less-worse options. If some succeed, others must fail. You might have been fine averting your eyes from that principle on Earth, but that’s impossible here.”

The best option is to kill Carrombus without sacrificing anyone. The worst option is to let everyone die without even killing Carrombus. The less-worse option is for half of the clansmen to die for the remaining half to kill Carrombus.

He had three choices, and all that remained was to choose between them. Option one was a full mark, option two was a zero, and option three was half a mark.

Dammit! Damn it all!

Jun’s expression crumpled as he stared at the Lucanids swinging their mandibles and Carrombus behind them.

“I will kill you all soon, damn intruders!” Carrombus shouted as it confidently clanged its mandibles together.

The grey smog was slowly expanding its territory.

If only I could... suck in that dirty gas!

Just then, Jun’s expression relaxed, and he blanked as if he had realized something.

Yeah, there is... one way. I have to establish a new rule!

Jun quickly summoned his D Weapon, a manhole cover. It had been imperative to his survival in the mandatory quest, but he abandoned it after reaching the Mirror World. Not only did he not have good memories of it, but countless items in the Mirror World could replace it. However, he needed his D Weapon to create a new skill by establishing a rule.

Seong-Hwi’s voice echoed in his head again.

“D Weapons are bound to have some form of connection to you from Earth. It could be part of your subconscious, trauma, wish, background, culture, family history, or more. You have to think about those.”

Seong-Hwi had developed Jun into the man he was today.

Jun stared at his D Weapon and thought, My... Trauma.

It was a circular heap of metal with a spider web pattern and small circular holes around it. The word Sewage was written in the middle. It was the entrance to hell that he had gotten sick of looking at every day.

***

Jun never thought his life was special until that day. He was the only child of a dual-earner family. He had a regular life with ordinary days until the fateful day in his second year of middle school.

His father passed away in the first week of the sweltering July. He was a laborer for Green Dredging, a subcontractor specializing in cleaning sewers.

Jun first heard about his father’s death from the news. His homeroom teacher believed they needed to be well-informed about current events, and turned on the news for ten minutes before every morning class. He remembered the articulate voice of the anchorwoman.

— Four laborers cleaning the sewers of Dalseo District in Daegu were reported dead. The cause of death appears to be asphyxiation from toxic fumes. This incident...

Jun’s heart fell when he heard the news.

No, it can’t be. It can’t be Dad, he thought.

He couldn’t focus on his math class at all.

Just then, the classroom door opened, and the head teacher of their year entered to ask, “Is Shin Jun in this class?”

Jun’s hopes were shattered at that moment.

D-dad...

***

The incident was updated after CCTV footage and witness testimonies were secured. Green Dredging, including Jun’s father, was subcontracted to clean the landfill sewer. Three people opened the manhole cover, and one set up a tripod and ensured safety.

Just then, screams echoed from inside the sewer. The one outside jumped in through the manhole without hesitation to save his partners, but no one returned. The man who jumped into the manhole was Jun’s father.

Moments before the incident, phosphine and hydrogen sulfide gas levels were twenty times higher than baseline. However, the city blamed Green Dredging for the incident, and Green Dredging washed its hands of the issue by claiming the laborers did not put on their safety gear properly. This was a kick in the stomach to the bereaved Jun and his mother, who were still grieving.

His mother closed her diner and picketed outside Green Dredging, sometimes outside city hall. Jun sometimes went with her.

“You can’t do this! You can’t do this to us! We save every penny we earn to pay our mortgage! I work hard every day at the diner we opened! What did we do to deserve this?!” she shouted in a way Jun had never heard before.

She continued, “Blame the laborers after you provide them with proper safety gear first! How dare you blame my husband after giving him terrible safety gear?! You will all go to hell!”

“Lady, you can’t be doing this outside the building. For fuck’s sake... How many days has it been?”

A young security guard cursed at Jun’s mother, his eyes filled with detest rather than sympathy. It was no different outside the city hall.

“Mayor, repent! Guarantee laborer safety! Bring my husband back, you sons of bitches!” she shouted.

Civil servants going to work at the government office building glanced at Jun’s mother as she screamed her lungs out in front of the building. Their eyes were only filled with irritation and contempt, not a hint of sympathy.

“Why is she doing this?”

“She’s here again?”

“For fuck’s sake, why is she causing such a ruckus so early in the morning?”

“I feel bad for her circumstances, but can she vent somewhere else?”

“What a nuisance.”

“She’s uneducated.”

Hurtful mumbles sometimes entered Jun’s and his mother’s ears. Ever since then, Jun began to smell a putrid stench. It was the stench of the various people—their detest, contempt, self-protection, evasion of responsibility, exploitation of others using plausible excuses, and more.

Jun wondered if the stench created from it all was more toxic than the fumes that killed his father.

***

Picketing was not free. The longer his mother kept her diner closed to go picketing, the worse their financial circumstances became. Unfortunately, entreating for change in the irrational system cost money. The endless cycle of life and the well-being of her only son forced Jun’s mother to stop picketing.

She returned to their diner, Daegu Daeguppoljjim[1], named by her punny husband. He thought it was funny because they sold daeguppoljjim in Daegu. Jun heard his mother agreed with it because it was cute.

His mother blankly prepared the codfish heads in the kitchen like a machine. Jun also helped with serving, cleaning, washing the dishes, and other chores. One less shoe was at the front door. One less set of cutlery was at the table. One less voice sounded at their home.

Jun entered puberty and began to detest everything—the city, Green Dredging, the security guard, the civil servants, and the countless gazes on her mother as if she were a nuisance. No, he detested humans.

It’s disgusting! I can’t bear it! This place... stinks too much! he shouted inwardly.

One day, the pestilitas virus began to spread globally. The pandemic, which seemed like it was about to end soon, continued. Ultimately, everyone was forced to wear hazmat suits and oxygen masks.

Seeing people wearing oxygen masks, Jun thought, Has everyone finally realized this putrid stench?

He was relieved that the world itself had become one giant sewer. As his resentment grew, he graduated from high school and became an adult. However, his mother collapsed at the diner from hypertension. She was carried to the hospital on an ambulance, but she never woke back up.

Her death was also on a sweltering day in July. The doctor said that the heat likely raised her blood pressure, but Jun knew that her mother had a blazing sorrow deep in her heart since her husband’s death. It had been remaining dormant inside her like a ticking time bomb and had detonated inside a brain blood vessel.

***

Jun did not sell the diner. He had been helping his mother for so long that he knew how to prepare the ingredients and could perfectly replicate her cooking. Most of all, Daegu Daeguppoljjim was the only thing he had left.

Jun cut off all his hair and prepared the codfish heads in the kitchen, where his mother had collapsed. Whenever he left through the back door to throw away the useless organs he placed in a bucket, he saw a food waste bin at the end of a narrow alley and a manhole cover labeled Sewage on the ground.

He couldn’t help but stare silently at the manhole cover whenever he threw away the food waste. Each time, he felt like a stench more putrid than the fish’s organs seeped into his soul. He felt nauseous and dizzy at the same time, and the manhole cover looked like the mouth of a monster that led to hell, the unknown abyss that devoured his parents.

Do it... Do it... Do it... Do it... Do it... Do it... Do it...

A voice in his head enticed him to enter the manhole, saying it would be no different from up on the surface where he was.

Makes sense. When would be a good time? If I were to go, summer would be best, Jun thought.

He cleaned up his home one day after making up his mind, and discovered his mother’s account book—no, it was closer to a journal. He read through the account book containing numbers of goddamn money. However, they conveyed his mother’s feelings, which she had kept hidden.

“Ah... Ahh... Ahhh!”

Jun shed tears as he read through the book. It was filled with words he had never expected to be inside.

My husband is a hero. He died saving others. I am his wife, the wife of a hero.

Don’t resent them. Don’t hate them. Forgive them. They’re no different from me. Everyone is just trying to survive each day.

I’m sorry to Jun. I’m sorry we’re not wealthy, but I want him to understand. Your father lived proudly, and I can swear I am not embarrassed about anything I have done.

Love this world and the people in it. Help others, as my husband did.

The account book also contained receipts for bean sprouts, radishes, onions, and such, with various letters from seniors who lived alone, single mothers, children, and many others.

Thank you very much. I can spend this winter warmly with this.

Thank you for sending us diapers. You’ve given us the strength to live on.

I’ve moved on from Beyer’s to Czerny’s compositions, Auntie! I love playing the piano and the sounds it makes with each key.

As he read each letter, Jun cried like a newborn baby. He had never cried this much in his life.

“Waaah! Ahhh! Waaah!”

He shed so many tears that he felt like all the water in his body was being extracted. His tears were like a downpour that washed away the putrid stench from the world.

***

Jun turned over a new leaf. He scraped off all the resentment, detest, grudge, and rage embedded deep inside him and threw them into a manhole. The blazing sorrow vanished beyond the manhole like the codfish organs dumped into the food waste bin. He created a manhole cover, covering a bottomless abyss that absorbed all negative emotions in his heart.

I will help others. I will love them first. I will not embarrass my parents.

If he lived life while detesting the world due to his hatred for humanity, he would be no different from the very people he hated, who avoided responsibility by blaming others.

My parents were heroes. I am the son of heroes.

Once his mindset changed, so did the world. The putrid stench was gone. Even if he sometimes smelled it, it was instantly sucked into the manhole in his heart.

Jun began to use the money he earned to help others, as his mother had done. Some would call him a fool, but he decided to see the word as a synonym for hero.

***

One day, Jun was Lost to the Mirror World, arriving in the Dark Forest, where he couldn’t easily trust anyone. He had talent; no, it was more apt to call it conviction, something so rare that it drew people toward it.

The first was Park Ho-Geun, then Ha Rin, Han Ye-Ji, Namgung Min-Jae, Yoo Hwa-Yeon, Na Seong-Tae, Nam Do-Hyun, Choi Hee-Gyeong... and countless members of Clan One Tree, with whom he decided to share the same fate.

I’m not alone anymore. I’m no longer the man who used to prepare codfish heads alone at a diner. I must take responsibility for them.

Jun wondered if this was what his parents felt toward him. He did not want to experience the despair he had tasted from Do-Hyun’s death. He needed a manhole that sucked in despair and impossibility.

“I establish a rule,” he said.

[Commencing rule establishment of Destiny Weapon: Manhole Cover.]

...

[Establishment complete.]

...

[Converting Destiny Weapon: Manhole Cover to Hero’s Manhole Cover.]

...

[Hero’s Manhole Cover (Destiny Weapon)

Rank: C(11)

Description: A manhole cover manifested from a man resolved to love the world. It absorbs all that is impure and eternally isolates them from the world.

Unique Skill: Open Manhole Cover.]

Cheon Seong-Hwi, you said there is no such thing as the best option in this world, right? But sometimes, very rarely, the best option tends to show itself, Jun said inwardly.

He found the full-mark answer.

***

God is love.

Leo Tolstoy, What Men Live By

1. Daeguppoljjim is braised codfish head. ☜