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Chapter 2 : A Seed of Unknown Origin (1)
Screech! Screech!
The sharp, metallic sound of twisting machine parts.
The air, thick with the smell of sweat, and the sweltering heat that soaked the old cloth garments.
I wiped the sweat from my brow and caught my breath for a moment.
‘Three more hours.’
Wẽb̀ń.о ṽ_е̄ l E nŭ m̊а̃
That was the time left until the factory work was finished.
A dry laugh escaped me at the thought that I, who had known nothing, had already grown accustomed to this life.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
‘Has it been a week already?’
When I opened my eyes, I was inside this unfamiliar factory.
It only took a moment to understand the situation.
The logout button was gone, and more than anything, the sensations were too vivid to be a game.
Е̃ n úm ä . і̀ ď
I was trapped inside the game.
And as a factory worker, treated as nothing more than a disposable good.
“...Hoo.”
I stopped my thoughts and resumed my work.
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Labor had started at the crack of dawn, and it was already evening.
My hands and feet were trembling and my vision was blurry, but I had to stay sharp.
W̆ẽ b̄ n o.v̌ӗ l̂ Е̃n ù m̃_ӑ
This was the time when the supervisors' watch was at its strictest, precisely because it was when tension slackened.
Nod! Nod!
But it seemed I was the only one paying attention.
I had wondered why the items were being passed along so slowly; the worker on the next line had his head bobbing back and forth.
‘Tsk.’
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
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He’s going to be in big trouble.
Just as I was wondering how to give him a subtle warning.
“You worthless fools who can’t even earn your keep!”
“Move your fingers instead of your mouths!”
“You crazy bastards! You think you can rest when you haven’t even finished your quota?!”
What was bound to happen, happened.
W.е b ñ о̃vél Е̊ n̄ûṁа̃
The supervisors had stormed in.
“Ugh, aaargh!”
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“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
“Then why the hell did you do something you’d be sorry for!”
The dozing workers snapped to their senses, but it was too late.
The supervisors showed no mercy, shouting and causing a ruckus.
Ė n ū m̌а̌ .і ḋ
An elderly worker was kicked and sent sprawling, and a young worker, with curses ringing in his ears, trembled in fear.
In the face of such coercive violence, no one even dared to think of resisting.
The relationship between the wretched workers and the burly supervisors was not much different from that between rabbits and wolves.
“You don’t get it when I say it nicely, do you? Huh?!”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Whack!
“Aargh!”
Ẇе̂ b̆n̂о v̆ е l̇ Е́ ṅ u mа̊
Blood spurted from the back of a worker who was struck by a mercilessly swung whip.
People forced themselves to look away, afraid the trouble would spread to them.
“These deficient bastards only listen after they’ve been hit.”
The once-slack atmosphere inside the factory was once again steeped in tension.
The supervisor nodded in satisfaction at the scene created by violence and fear.
“I’m watching all of you, so don’t even think about looking away. Get a move on…”
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
The supervisor, who had been delivering a lecture, suddenly twitched his eyebrow.
He snorted and strode over.
Straight towards me.
“What are you staring at! Is there something to see?!”
Of all people, the trouble had to land on me.
I quickly shook my head and answered.
Ẇеb̃ n о̊v̆е̌ l̊ Е̃ńum̆ ȧ
“It’s nothing.”
“What do you mean, it’s nothing!”
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The supervisor had no intention of listening to my answer from the start.
As expected, his face was red and flushed as he let out an excited huff.
“Take off your hood and lift your head. You son of a…!”
The impatient supervisor’s actions were faster than my own.
Wеb̊ n о v еl̊ Е n ù m̀ä_
He roughly pulled off my hood and grabbed a fistful of my hair.
“...Ah, damn it. I was wondering who it was, but it was you, Allen.”
But soon, as if he’d lost his steam, the strength left his hand.
“I’ll let it slide this one time. Put your hood back on, you’re making my eyes rot!”
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He was the one who took it off.
I swallowed the complaint that rose to my throat.
Е́ n ů ṁӓ
I knew this dog-like treatment was the greatest mercy the supervisor could bestow.
“Ptooey! Damn it, ruined my mood.”
He spat on the floor as if he had touched something filthy and left.
My mood soured, but I didn't show it.
I was already somewhat used to this kind of treatment.
“Ugh.”
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“Hah!”
Feeling gazes on me, I turned my head, and people avoided my eyes.
The emotion reflected in their fleeting expressions was disgust.
“...Damn it.”
They’re treating me like some kind of monster.
I’ve never been told I was particularly ugly before.
Е̊ ǹūm а . і d
But it wasn't as if I couldn't understand their feelings.
I touched my face with my grease-stained hand.
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“……”
The sensation under my numb fingertips was a hardness, like touching tree bark.
Deep wrinkles and a hard layer of dead skin, as if it wasn't human skin at all.
Even without a mirror, I could easily imagine its appearance.
Е n̊ ům̄ a
Burn marks covering my face.
Pus often oozed from the chronic scars that hadn't been treated in time.
At a glance, it was hard to even distinguish my facial features.
The first time I saw it, I was horrified, even though it was my own face.
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If a face like this came into view, of course everyone would feel uneasy.
The supervisor spitting and leaving wasn't an act of consideration, but an expression of disgust, of not even wanting to touch me.
En̂ u m̂ а̌
“Allen.”
I muttered the name the supervisor had called me.
The name, which should have been unfamiliar, felt strangely familiar.
Because it was the name given to this body.
‘Allen, a lower-class citizen who suffered full-body burns as a child. Kidnapped by a human trafficking group and reduced to a factory worker. It’s been three years since he started working on-site.’
I recited it inwardly.
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It was this body’s past, which I had learned from listening to the people around me whisper.
And I had never set such a past for the character I was going to play in the game.
‘It said a new game was starting. Since I passed out, I guess everything was set to random.’
The AI's arbitrary settings, which proceed automatically after a certain amount of time has passed.
It was a consideration from the game company for users who had trouble making choices.
But for me, it was a disaster.
W.ӗb́n о́ v̈ е̇ l̈ Е́ ǹ ǔm а̇
My appearance aside, I had started as a factory worker, one of the worst starting points.
‘Factory workers in this game are no different from slaves.’
Baca cerita ini hanya di situs resmi Enuma.id!
Workers' rights were a joke, and the concept of the four major social insurances didn't even exist.
They were treated as disposable goods, to be worked like cattle and replaced when they died.
‘If I just work quietly, the end I’ll meet is one of two things.’
Either die from overwork.
Е̌ n̄u m̈ ӑ_
Or be beaten to death by the factory manager.
Since death was the outcome either way, they were practically the same.
‘I have to find a way.’
I had no intention of just waiting for death.
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I couldn't, if only because of how unfair this situation was.
‘The thing that’s bothering me is…’
W̊ e̊ b̃ n̂ о v́е̂ ľ Е_n u m̀ ӓ
The message that wouldn't disappear from the corner of my vision.
[You are a Druid!]
[As the last Druid, revive the great nature!]
‘...This message can’t be here for no reason.’
If you chose the mage class, you naturally came to understand the laws of mana, and the warrior class learned how to handle the energy in their bodies.
Each class had a unique characteristic like this.
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But what characteristic the druid had was a complete mystery.
Revive the great nature… it seemed to have something to do with plants, but…
‘There have to be plants around for that.’
The only things around the factory were grass and ivy.
And even those were so dry and dead they would crumble at a touch.
‘Anyway, I’ll figure this out slowly.’
Ë n úm_а̃
This whole situation happened because of my class change to a druid in the first place.
If the secret were easily unraveled, none of this would have happened.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
‘Fortunately, unlike the other workers, I’m not beaten constantly, so my body isn’t a complete wreck.’
My mind was worn down by the harsh verbal abuse, but my body was in better shape than others.
Since they didn't touch me, calling me filthy, there was no chance of my body being injured from a beating.
It was the only advantage of this damnably ugly appearance.
Еn ù_m а̃ . і̃ d̄
Sizzle!
“Hup.”
I held my breath at the sudden blast of heat.
The hot wind that brushed past my skin was so intense I wondered if I would melt.
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The process of tilting the furnace to pour and transfer the molten iron.
Even though the work was being done at a distance, the aftermath reached all the way here.
E nu m̂â
“Stop spacing out and work faster!”
The supervisor urged, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
The job in this assembly section was to assemble the cooled and forged iron chunks according to a mold.
It was simple work, but the workload was so heavy that we suffered from muscle aches every day.
And the start of the furnace work meant that more work was about to pile up.
To keep from falling behind, the workers had no choice but to hurry.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Click! Clack!
My hands naturally sped up.
To secure even a little time to sleep, I had to finish my quota quickly.
My turn to be put on furnace duty was next.
The furnace work was not only dangerous, but also incredibly physically exhausting.
The first time I was assigned to it, I groaned in pain so much I couldn't sleep.
Е̃ṅu mа..і́d
Despite that, the supervisor, far from exempting me from the work, squeezed me dry as usual.
If I didn't want to die from overwork, I had to secure my own rest time.
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By finishing my quota early.
‘I need to make a plan to escape before the next furnace duty.’
It was a job that was destroying my body in real time.
If I repeated it a few more times, I would lose the strength to even seize an opportunity to escape.
Е̊ ñú ḿ ӑ.і d
It was difficult, but I had to do it.
In order to get out of this place.
***
A week had already passed since I started thinking about escaping.
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In that time, I had made considerable progress with my escape plan.
‘The best way out is through the incinerator behind the factory.’
Е̄.nu ṁӓ .і́ d̀
Workers were obligated to go in and out of the incinerator on their assigned days to dispose of the factory's trash.
And, as it was in a secluded spot, the surveillance on the incinerator was lax.
The difficulty of escaping through there was much lower than through the heavily guarded main gate.
‘I’ve checked the layout. But it’ll be hard to completely evade the guards…’
If I got caught right after escaping, it would be worse than not trying at all.
That was the reason I hadn't attempted to escape yet.
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‘Damn it, if only I could use magic.’
One or two supervisors could be defeated with basic magic.
But for me, who had become a druid and not a mage, that was a distant dream.
I was lost in thought, heading back to the dormitory.
“Did you hear?”
“Hear what.”
Е ňü m̌ а́. іd̃
“They say the factory manager’s office is piled high with gifts again.”
The whispers of the workers walking ahead of me caught my ear.
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“On what grounds does that bastard receive those?”
“They said they were satisfied with the delivery quantity and quality of the recent contract…”
“Of course they would be. How many people died because of that? The factory manager and supervisors get rich while we die.”
The factory manager was a truly evil business owner.
Wе́ b̄ nōv̄еl Е̌n̈ům̆ a
He ground people down to fulfill contracts, and not a single penny of the resulting profit went back to the workers.
Forget welfare; we were grateful if the supervisors just didn't hit us.
Thus, while the working environment grew worse and worse, the factory manager grew fatter and his office more lavish.
In the end, cursing the factory manager became a kind of habit, a daily routine for the workers.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
If I had any workers I was close to, I probably would have been the same.
A normal conversation shared between colleagues.
Ё n̊ū m̃а_.і d
But the next part of their conversation made my ears perk up.
“But this time, they say something strange was mixed in with the gifts.”
“Something strange?”
“I heard it from the guy who acts like the factory manager’s slave…”
The man glanced around before speaking.
“He said it looked like some kind of rare seed.”
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“A seed?”
The man who heard the story expressed his doubt.
“What’s the use of a seed? Most of them just wither and go straight to the trash can.”
“It must not be ‘most’ if it was given as a gift. How else do you think the big corporations cultivate their crops? The varieties are different from the start. And you probably can’t buy something like that with money, right?”
Plant. Seed.
A light flashed before my eyes, and my body reacted before my mind could.
Е n̂u m̃ ȧ
“...Wait a minute.”
I blocked their path.
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“What are you, kid.”
“Hey, isn’t this Allen?”
“Ah, that…?”
I didn't have any close colleagues, but I was a celebrity.
Е̊ǹ um̃ а
The man who had been talking scowled and said.
“What do you want?”
“Tell me more about what you were just talking about.”
“Why should I…!”
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He tried to push past me, but I grabbed his shoulder and said.
“What do you think the supervisor will do if I cause a scene here?”
Е n̄.u m а̃
“...!”
The man’s face turned pale.
The supervisors didn't bother to sort out right from wrong when trouble arose.
Victim or perpetrator, it didn't matter; they would just whip everyone equally.
“Talk.”
I wouldn't get whipped anyway.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
I'd get an earful of curses, but that was much better than being hit.
At my threat, the man’s eyes darted around before he finally surrendered with a sigh.
“Damn it. Get lost as soon as you’ve heard it.”
“Alright.”
That was all I needed anyway.
‘The seed of a plant.’
Е̌n.um̂а̊
It wasn't just because I missed the grassy scent of plants.
A druid who was to revive the great nature, and the seed of a rare plant.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
That strange connection flashed through my mind as a powerful premonition.
(End of Chapter)
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