Research (2)
Kim Da-bin sent a telepathic message in a tense tone.
"[Deputy Director Yang. Please connect us.]"
A moment of silence passed.
Then-
Vrrr-
Kim Da-bin's phone, which was sitting on the desk, started vibrating.
And on the screen-
[Deputy Director Yang Ji-ho]
010-1234-5678
Yang Ji-ho's number appeared.
Kim Da-bin pressed the call button and immediately switched it to speakerphone.
At that moment-
[Hello?]
Yang Ji-ho's voice came from the other end of the line.
"Wow!"
"It connected!"
"No way! It actually worked!"
Cheers of joy erupted all around.
[Hello? Can you hear me? You can hear me, right?]
The historic first call had been made.
Smiling, Kim Da-bin replied not with telepathy, but with her actual voice.
"Yes, Deputy Director Yang. I can hear you loud and clear."
[Oh, Director! Then... did it really work?]
"Looks like it did."
[Yes-!]
Cheers could also be heard from the other side following Kim Da-bin's confirmation.
It really worked.
As people's lives began to stabilize rapidly, the administration led by Kim Da-bin finally had some breathing room.
She directed her team's efforts toward restoring TV, internet, and communications-but there were many challenges.
As Kim Jae-hyun's influence expanded, most communication equipment and facilities were brought under control. However, there were very few experts left who had the knowledge to operate or repair them.
On top of that, the biggest problem was that the facilities in Busan were mostly relay stations. The core infrastructure was concentrated in Seoul.
There was no facility capable of serving as the main server.
That made the process of getting this far incredibly difficult.
But we did it somehow.
With a satisfied smile, Kim Da-bin used telepathy to report to Kim Jae-hyun.
[Mr. Jae-hyun, we've successfully restored the communication network.]
[Excellent work.]
Hearing Kim Jae-hyun's praise filled her with a deep sense of pride.
She wanted to share that feeling with her team, so she spoke up.
"You all did an incredible job."
"Thank you!!"
As they celebrated the successful restoration of the communication network, the team members began calling their loved ones.
"Hello? Mom? It's me!"
"Yeah, the phones should work now."
"Surprised, right? Hehe."
Thus began a chain of phone calls that showed no signs of stopping anytime
soon.
[The communication network has been restored. Phone calls are now possible, please take note.]
After hearing Kim Jae-hyun's voice, Kim Geon sat on a nearby rooftop and separated from Kkamang-i (Blackie).
He had known they were planning to restore the network, so he had charged and brought his phone in advance. After unlocking it and tapping the phone app, the familiar keypad appeared.
As he typed in 010, his family's numbers popped up at the top of the list.
"Hoo-"
Letting out a deep breath while looking at those numbers, Kim Geon, hands trembling, tapped the number saved as "Mom."
Her number appeared above the keypad, and with a hand shaking almost pitifully, he slowly pressed the call button.
And then-
Ring... ring...
The call tone began.
"!!"
Kim Geon's eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected outcome.
It didn't say the phone was turned off!
That meant the phone was powered on-implying someone had charged it.
And that could only mean one thing:
"Mom is alive!"
His nose began to sting, and his vision blurred with tears.
Wiping the tears that welled up without even realizing it, he kept his eyes on the phone screen.
Then-
[...Hello?]
A familiar yet distant voice came from the other end of the call.
"...Huh?"
Kim Geon's voice, which was about to call out to his mother, froze in place and didn't come out.
Because the voice he heard on the other end of the phone was unfamiliar.
It was a voice he couldn't possibly imagine being his mother's.
Suppressing the despair that came with that realization, Kim Geon slowly opened his mouth.
To confirm the voice once again.
"Hello?"
[Who are you, mister?]
That innocent, childlike voice broke Kim Geon's heart.
"...Ha."
With a sigh that escaped in helplessness, he was beginning to fall into despair-
[Ma'am! You've got a call!]
-when a faint glimmer of hope came from the other end of the receiver.
And then.
[Hello? Who is this?]
A slightly dazed, confused voice came through-yet it was a voice that was all too familiar to Kim Geon.
"Mom!"
The despair that had been drowning him receded like the tide, and as if a dam had burst, tears came pouring out.
"Mom, it's me! Geon!"
He clung to his phone, sobbing, hot tears streaming down both cheeks.
[What? Is it really, really you, Geon?]
"Yeah, yeah! It's me, it's really me!"
[Oh my... sob, sob... ]
For a while, the only sounds over the call were their shared sobs.
But for the two of them, that was more than enough.
That her son was alive, that his mother was alive-
That alone was more than they could ask for.
"Mom... sniff... What about Dad?"
[He's okay too. He's safe.]
"Whew... Where are you now? Where are you?"
[Here...? In a shelter...]
"I'm coming. I'll come right now, immediately."
Kim Geon's family wasn't the only one to confirm their survival through the phone call.
Many of the people who had been forcibly separated and scattered as the world fell apart were finally able to learn that their loved ones were still alive.
Seeing scenes like this unfold everywhere through the eyes of an Absolute Being, a smile naturally formed on my lips.
'Good thing I started providing free electricity a few days ago.'
The citizens currently within the domain could be roughly divided into two
groups.
Those who were aware of my abilities, and those who weren't.
There wasn't much to worry about with those who understood my powers.
They earned money on their own and bought what they needed from the shops.
But the group unaware of my powers didn't even know what kinds of goods. were in the shops.
Even when a shop was built near them, many didn't understand its purpose and viewed it with suspicion. Some who happened to step inside didn't even realize they could buy things like electricity, water, or gas.
So I took special measures.
I provided free electricity across the entire domain for several days.
'Thanks to all the solar generators I built, there's barely any cost anyway.'
I had steadily increased the number of solar power facilities, and there was a bit of a story behind that.
'Originally, I just wanted to deal with the garbage.'
As the domain expanded, monsters defeated by the system disappeared without leaving bodies behind.
But before that system was in full effect, the remains of monsters were left behind.
The corpses of monsters. The
of monsters. The corpses of people.
Broken-down cars abandoned on the roads, piles of trash scattered everywhere, buildings damaged or collapsed from battles.
The one thing that could clear all that in one go was construction.
Whether it was a gym, a shop, or a solar generator, building anything would make all the trash in the area disappear.
So I gathered all the problematic waste in one spot and just built something over it.
One by one, the number of facilities grew, and now, they were enough to power all of Busan.
'And Busan's population is only around 200,000 anyway.'
Thanks to Kkami's growth, the efficiency of the solar power facilities had increased tenfold.
The biggest weakness of solar generators—their low efficiency-was dramatically improved.
'Honestly, it's practically creation at this point.'
And the source of all this power-
Whoosh-
-was the black energy emanating from me.
'Power infused with divinity.'
I tried experimenting in various ways, but this black energy had only one function: pure destruction.
I held the black energy glowing on my index finger near an empty cola can I had just finished.
Fwoosh!
The black flame, guided by my will, consumed the can.
[141 won has been deposited into the Absolute Being's wallet.]
The way the trash vanished was no different than how monster corpses disappeared.
The whole process ended with a payout deposited into my wallet.
'The efficiency's not bad either.'
This power fundamentally consumed currency from the Absolute Being's wallet.
Burning that piece of trash cost around 30 won.
Which meant I made a net profit of 100 won.
It might seem like pocket change, but when dealing with larger waste, the total becomes quite meaningful.
'Thanks to this, road clearance will be much faster too.'
Before, people had to be mobilized to move all the cars abandoned on the roads one by one, but now, I could just incinerate them with this power.
Burning vehicles brought in a surprisingly decent profit.
"When a vehicle is scrapped, it's like duplicating money."
Discovering that troublesome garbage could be recycled in this way was a satisfying outcome.
"The only thing you can do using just the black energy is destruction."
But the settlement money obtained this way could be transformed into the power of creation through skills.
"Destruction and creation, huh."
"
Just by looking at the structure of that power, it seemed no different from the power of a god.
"Anyway, the real use of black energy lies not in waste disposal, but in combining it with skills."
When this destructive energy is applied to a skill, the skill becomes an entirely different level of powerful.
"It does cost a bit, though..."
Infusing a skill with black energy was like feeding a money-eating monster.
The effects were beyond expectation, but the price was enormous-requiring payments in the hundreds of millions.
"But the results are guaranteed. Still..."
I stared at the remaining skill point, lost in thought.
Lately, after experimenting with black energy in various ways, I'd been struggling with one particular impulse.
"Should I just go for it?"
It was the idea of investing that skill point into The Invisible Hand.
Currently, the skill that produced the most destructive result when infused with black energy was, without a doubt, The Invisible Hand.
That was because it could amplify the destructive nature inherent in the black
energy.
"Plus, thanks to the North Gate, the usefulness of The Invisible Hand has also increased."
The North Gate could be activated anywhere the Eye of the Absolute could be used.
If there were any of my retainers around, the gate could be opened at any time, and support could be sent through the open gate.
Which meant I could now utilize The Invisible Hand via the North Gate.
And then it happened.
[An unauthorized entity is attempting to enter.]
A notification appeared, accompanied by a faint pain.
"Huh?"
I immediately activated the Eye of the Absolute.
"That guy...?"
There stood a winged vampire.
It was a high-ranking vampire, one of the subordinates of the Progenitor.
But there was something strange-red energy was swirling from its hand.
"Something's off."
A disturbing sensation came from the high-ranking vampire.
At the same time, the transparent barrier swelled and then burst.
"!!"
[Clear Mirror, Still Water (BE) has been activated.]
Even amidst the sharp pain, my mind remained crystal clear.
As it entered the breached area, the vampire's entire body began to burn.
However, the red energy rising from her body seemed to be preventing her from disintegrating.
Her movements, full of intent, were directed toward the World Tree.
But then-
"East Gate, open."
The East Gate opened, and the woman appeared right in front of me.
"Kuh... You're...?"
Seeing her expression twist in recognition, I was certain.
She was undoubtedly a remnant of the Progenitor I had dealt with before.
"The Invisible Hand."
As I activated The Invisible Hand and infused it with black energy-
Fwoosh!
Black claws grew from the transparent hand.
And then-
Thud!
In an instant, it pierced the woman's heart.
Fwoooosh-!
Black flames erupted from her heart, incinerating the vampire's entire body without leaving a trace.
[T/L: Read extra chapters on my ko-fi page "Pokemon1920" : https://ko-fi.com/pokemon1920 ]