Chapter 2: One-Man Army

Necromancer (2)

In the aftermath of the Catastrophe, public order crumbled and crime ran rampant. It was a good time for Necromancers who needed souls.

Comet, having left Yeouido, took out a Soul orb from her pocket. Using her sleeve, she wiped the dust off the small orb, then roused her Spiritual Power to attract a soul. A soul flew in under the moonlight and was sucked into the orb.

It seemed someone had just died nearby. To obtain a soul right from the start, today was off to a good start. Comet walked in the direction the soul had come from.

Comet arrived at an officetel complex with light steps. She couldn't pinpoint the exact location of the crime, so she looked around, but there were no particular traces or signs. She waited for a while, but neither the criminal nor the soul appeared. It was a pity.

Comet circled around the officetel area for a while before giving up and walking aimlessly. It wasn't long before she had some luck. In front of a shuttered convenience store, she saw a man who looked like a criminal cutting a lock.

She was strangely glad.

"Wow. Hello."

The man stopped tightening the cutter and turned around.

"What the fuck."

At the rough response, Comet scratched her cheek. She wondered if she should have greeted him.

The man took out a hammer from his bag and approached. Comet blinked, then took out a knife from her pocket. The man stopped walking, and silence fell.

"...Are you an Awakened?"

"I guess I am."

"Then mind your own business and get lost!"

The man frowned and spat out a curse, then turned back to the shutter and picked up the cutter.

Comet held up the Soul orb to see if anyone had died nearby, then sat on the stairs near the convenience store.

Soon, the lock was cut, and the shutter went up. The glass-fronted convenience store was revealed. The man raised his hammer.

"Doing bad things will get you punished."

The glass window shattered, and the man grabbed his bag and went inside. The security company alarm beeped loudly. Comet stepped on the broken glass and followed him inside. Cigarettes were being stuffed into the bag.

"Do you have enough to eat?"

"Mind your own business and get lost!"

The man had a foul mouth.

Comet walked around the convenience store, looking at the products, then examined the surveillance camera. It was broken, as if someone had thrown a rock at it. It was a common sight.

"Wouldn't you be ashamed if you went to jail for stealing cigarettes?"

"If those bastards had done their job, I wouldn't be doing this!"

Comet silently nodded and put on her gloves. The knife was in her hand. As she roused her Spiritual Power, an ominous energy flowed through the Magic knife.

"The police seem to be busy. At the national level, there are priorities, so minor crimes seem to be put on hold. From what I've experienced, even simple murder is okay."

"What?"

As Comet approached and raised her knife, the terrified man tried to evade. Comet deliberately swung the knife half a beat slower, adjusting the path to match his evasive movements.

Incantation omitted.

Soul Severance.

As the blade grazed his upper body, a black wound appeared. Instead of blood, souls gushed out. The man staggered and grabbed the wound, but it was no use trying to stop it with his hands.

Comet took a few steps back and watched the man's reaction, then took out the Soul orb from her pocket. It didn't take long for the uninjured body to turn into a corpse.

Comet retrieved the soul, turned the man's bag upside down, took out the cigarettes, and kindly put them back in their original place. The types and order were mixed up, but she didn't care about that.

As she was washing her face in the staff sink, she heard the sound of a car, which stopped in front of the convenience store. She heard the sound of someone stepping on broken glass and a man's voice calling out a name. It seemed it wasn't a solo crime.

Comet was about to turn off the faucet when she heard the footsteps stop, so she crouched down. The wall separating the staff area from the customer area was broken, and a steel pipe popped out. How fiery.

The steel pipe was about to pass over Comet's head. Comet put her hands on the floor, gave strength, and kicked out the steel pipe with her legs. The steel pipe, which had its path twisted by the kick, was retrieved by the power of grip.

He didn't seem to be a Ranker, so he seemed to be an Awakened who had built a character focused on Strength.

Comet did a somersault and landed. As she wondered whether to make a preemptive strike with the knife or counterattack, the man frowned as he identified her.

"You fucking bitch, it's Comet!"

"Yes. I was a Necromancer."

"Fucking hell."

The man ran a hand over his face.

"I don't know why you have such a foul mouth."

"Hoo. Comet-nim, I don't know what's going on, but did my friend attack you?"

"Oh..."

Comet relaxed her posture and twisted her side hair. After a moment, Comet opened her mouth.

"I was just passing by and happened to witness the scene. When I watched to see what was going on, the person lying there came at me with a hammer."

The man cursed his friend for not even recognizing a Ranker. Comet waited while the man cursed his friend and punched the wall.

"There's no need to blame your friend too much. After all, I'm the one who killed him."

The man looked down at his friend's corpse, sweating profusely. He seemed to be wavering in his heart whether to take revenge or run away. Comet, to help him choose, put her hands behind her back as if there was no point in being hostile and moved away.

The second hand ticked, and the minute hand moved a few times. It was around that time that strength entered the hand holding the steel pipe and the man's eyes came alive.

Comet smiled with satisfaction and gripped her knife again.

The man, shouting, rushed in and swung the steel pipe. The steel pipe, swung while scraping the wall, missed. Comet, who had closed the distance, stabbed the knife into his heart. The blade, moved with restrained skill, pierced the heart without resistance.

A sound of air escaping came from the man. A drop of blood flowed down the knife. The steel pipe fell powerlessly, hitting the floor.

Comet supported the falling man and leaned him against the wall.

Glory to a death without shame.

#

Comet spent a fulfilling few days doing nighttime activities.

It wasn't enough souls to raise the Assimilation rate, which was only 10%, but she was able to collect an appropriate amount to modify the Magic knife.

Comet visited the assemblywoman's office around dinner time to ask for help from the Alchemist.

"Are you busy?"

"Comet? Come in! I was just about to take a break."

It didn't seem to be just a polite remark, as the assemblywoman and her aides were pouring water into cup noodles. It seemed they were planning to quickly eat in the assemblywoman's office instead of using the cafeteria.

"I'm embarrassed that only I'm free."

"Well, you're a citizen, so you're free, and we're public officials, so we're busy."

The assemblywoman laughed as she stirred her cup noodles and covered the lid with a notebook.

"So, what brings you here?"

"I need Liquid Mana. Mallang-nim is the only Alchemist I know in Yeouido, so I had no choice but to come here."

"Are you going to draw a magic circle?"

"Yes, for knife modification."

"Faster than I expected?"

"Is that so?"

The assemblywoman gestured to call an aide and exchanged words in a whisper. Comet was suddenly left out, but she waited quietly.

"There's no way that Comet would be preparing for a large-scale battle from the start, so I thought she would come soon, but it's fast. Is she going around killing people?"

Comet flinched, then belatedly realized that it was a joke that Necromancers heard from other classes during the game and laughed.

"It's a bad time, so it's easy for a Necromancer."

The assemblywoman rummaged through the drawers of her desk. A tumbler containing Liquid Mana was taken out.

"Well, you've been going out at night often, so you must have worked hard."

"Ah. You've been checking steadily?"

Comet twisted her side hair.

"Here."

"Wow, thank you."

"It's nothing. If you need anything, don't go to other places uncomfortably and come here comfortably."

"Thank you."

The assemblywoman removed the notebook that was pressing down on the cup noodles and picked up her chopsticks. Comet bowed her head and stood up.

"Ah, but."

"Yes?"

The assemblywoman said lightly while eating noodles with her chopsticks.

"If you're really free, how about stopping by the committee later? As an authority on Necromantic Arts, I think there might be something you can advise us on. It's not a difficult task, just lightly."

"Uh... Yes, I will."

She left the assemblywoman's office, leaving behind the sound of eating ramen. Comet twisted her side hair, pondered, and then roughly brushed it off. Good things were good.

She returned to the assigned room, moved the furniture, and made space in the center. Comet opened the tumbler and put Liquid Mana on her finger. She drew a line on the floor, put Mana on it, and repeated drawing the line again, completing the magic circle.

Comet placed the Magic knife and Soul orb in the center of the magic circle and roused her Spiritual Power. The knife floated in the air, then its shape distorted and returned to its original form as a soul. Souls popped out of the Soul orb and were trapped in the magic circle, mixing with the knife's soul.

Comet concentrated her mind, crushed, divided, and shaped the souls. She balanced the center of gravity, refined the sharpness of the blade, and even engraved simple patterns.

"Good. This should be usable for the time being."

Comet roughly erased the magic circle with her foot and restored the furniture to its original state. Comet lay down on the bed, then realized that she had to visit the committee and got up again.

#

The Disaster Response Committee, which she arrived at after asking around, was bustling with many people even though it was past dinner and close to night. Still, some people seemed to be finishing up their work, as if they weren't planning to work until dawn.

Comet looked around and spotted a familiar face and approached. A Healer was checking printed documents.

"Huh? Comet-ssi?"

"Hello. Um..."

Comet was about to say that she had come at the recommendation of the assemblywoman, but she hesitated because she couldn't remember the assemblywoman's name.

"Um, Mallang-nim said that if I came here, there would be something to do."

Comet scratched her cheek.

"Chairwoman?"

The Healer countered, looking around the Chairwoman's office. The semi-transparent office was empty; as Comet had mentioned, the assemblywoman seemed to be in her own office.

The Healer blinked, then organized the documents and moved the pile.

"I see. You were a Necromancer Ranker, right?"

"Yes."

"Then this must be it."

A filing cabinet opened, and a stack of documents was taken out.

"The committee has agreed to respond specifically to Awakened crimes involving Semi-Rankers or higher."

"…Specifically?"

Comet peered at the stack of documents being taken out. She felt a strange sense of unease.

The Healer shuffled through the stack, pulling out a few sheets.

"This is it."

Comet took the documents and examined them. It was a summary of several murders, with the opinion that they appeared to be the work of a Necromancer. The locations were familiar.

Comet felt a chill in the air.

"…It seems like the police force is stretched thin. Isn't it too much to handle even these kinds of cases?"

"Where did you hear that?"

The Healer looked up.

"Oh, well, you know, you just get a sense of it as you go about your day."

The Healer sighed, tapped the desk, and pondered for a moment before speaking.

"To be honest, the police force is indeed short-handed due to the high number of casualties caused by Monsters."

"Then why this…?"

Comet asked with some impatience.

"Originally, we were going to deal with these kinds of cases later."

The Healer searched for and pulled out additional documents. A familiar convenience store appeared.

"The way the scene was damaged was unsettling, so we checked the victim's identity and found that one of them was a Semi-Ranker. The murderer is believed to be a Semi-Ranker or higher-level Necromancer, so we decided to respond specifically according to this agreement."

"Wow…"

Comet's voice trembled.

"We would be grateful if you, Comet, could assist us as a civilian external helper in this case."

The Healer bowed her head.

"I see! Of course, I should help."

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