I'm a Young God, so Please Raise Me - Chapter 33

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Chapter 33
I stared at the system window announcing the closure.
Then I slowly turned my gaze and surveyed my surroundings.
There was no one.
Lee Se-eon, who had shed tears of black blood, and Tak Ju-chul and Paeng Sang-do, who had wailed like a choir, had vanished without a trace.
‘I didn’t even get to say goodbye properly.’
Smiley, who had transformed into an item before my eyes, came to mind.
As this similar event repeated itself for the second time, I felt a peculiar sense of emptiness.
Even though I knew they were merely NPCs, while I was in the Trial, such thoughts rarely surfaced.
Because they moved and lived right before my eyes, I constantly forgot they were beings destined to disappear, and instead harbored vague notions that I could meet them anytime.
Regardless of my feelings, the system window diligently displayed a clamorous notification.
◆【Han Go-yo】 Epic Quest: Close 3 Trials within one month.
*Trials Currently Closed (1/3)
(Warning! Failure to complete this Quest will result in amputation of all limbs! Success maintains your limbs.)
‘Han Go-yo’ has made a name for himself in Akasha!
■■ ■■■ is taking notice of you.
Current Recognition: 0.05%
I shook off the melancholy and read the system window.
‘Wow, recognition.’
Last time it only increased by 0.01%.
This time it rose by a full 0.03%—the increase was quite generous.
Though I still have no idea what this is actually used for.
‘And I have no clue what it means that the black block is taking notice.’
I shifted my gaze to the cassette tape player I held in my hand.
Then the system window appeared once more.
You feel compelled to listen to this music.
It was similar in nature to when I had received the Happy Smile Candy before.
I had already planned to check it out anyway.
I was curious why the contents had changed, and I wanted to hear the music contained within.
‘I should ask Samra to listen to it.’
Since it seemed dangerous, I planned to ask Samra, who would likely experience no ill effects from listening to the music, to do so in my stead.
The Trial 【Dead Zone Delivery】 has ended.
The Trial will be permanently closed in 80 seconds.
You are the greatest contributor to 【Dead Zone Delivery】.
You may take ‘2’ items with you.
As expected, the top contributor notification appeared.
I had already decided on one of the items to take. It was the portable cassette tape player.
The second item was what troubled me.
I wanted to ask the Captains if there were any items the Sidaecheong needed, but since they weren’t beside me, I had to choose alone.
Yet there was no need to deliberate.
“…Oh.”
Item selection has been completed.
I could no longer choose additional items.
It seemed the system recognized the cassette player and the tape inside it as separate entities, counting them as two selections.
‘Can’t I change it?’
I regretted my choice as I found myself about to leave with nothing but the cassette player in hand.
But there was no cancel button in sight.
“Cancel. Change. Deselect…?”
Swallowing my embarrassment, I tried various commands, but the system remained silent.
It seemed I would have to become someone who loved music dearly.
‘Since I found it in the Trial, it might contain music that doesn’t exist in human history.’
Perhaps it could even bring about remarkable developments in the music world.
Hoping for that, I picked up the cassette player.
And eighty seconds later, the world crumpled into a kaleidoscope of colors.
I emerged from the Trial.

***
It felt like returning after an eternity.
In reality, perhaps five or six days had passed.
Before I could even open my eyes on the cold Research Facility floor, my entire body ached.
“Ugh….”
A groan escaped involuntarily. I swallowed the pain while lying prone.
All the thread and bandages I had used to treat my wounds inside DeZomDeal had vanished.
As the price for being the greatest contributor, I remained curled up and immobilized for some time.
‘It didn’t hurt this badly inside DeZomDeal.’
The painkillers and other medications seemed to have disappeared as well.
After groaning for a while, I barely managed to lift my head and survey my surroundings.
Gwak Han-muk and Mo Hae-in caught my eye first. They still appeared unconscious.
Since I had been alone at the end, I had worried about this, but fortunately it was fine.
‘What about Major Je?’
There was no need to worry about him, but I looked for him while checking on the captains.
Je Hyeon-o was huddled in the farthest corner.
From the way he sat with his back against the wall, he appeared to have already regained consciousness.
His outfit was identical to what he wore inside the Trial.
Goggles and gas mask, hoodie jacket and combat uniform.
The way his metal hand hung limply made him look like some massive toy robot with its power switched off.
Of course, he was absolutely not the sort of being to whom one could attach such cute descriptors as a toy robot….
Something felt strange.
I had witnessed everything Je Hyeon-o did inside the Trial.
The vivid memory of him slaughtering zombies before my eyes, reveling in it, remained sharp and clear.
Yet upon returning to reality, he seemed devoid of any will or motivation.
I called out to him softly as he sat motionless.
“Colonel Je.”
The face that had been fixed downward moved with agonizing slowness.
My reflection flickered across his goggles.
“Huh….”
I had called him, but found myself at a loss for words. I settled on a neutral topic.
“Nothing unusual happened? I wasn’t there when you cleared it….”
Still prone, speaking with only my head raised, I flinched in surprise.
Je Hyeon-o suddenly sprang to his feet.
Light flickered across his goggles.
*^ ^*
Symbols appeared on either side of the smiling emoticon displayed on the goggles.
Je Hyeon-o swapped both his metal hands for raven gloves and walked toward me.
He crouched directly in front of me and tapped me repeatedly with his hands.
The gesture seemed to be checking whether I was truly alive, and I responded in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I’m alive….”
The dead could not speak, after all. Je Hyeon-o withdrew his hands.
“Colonel Je.”
? ?
“Are you satisfied now?”
I didn’t know what he wanted from me, but when he told me not to die, I crawled back alive even from the bowels of a boss monster.
‘Isn’t this enough?’
Going forward, I wanted to focus solely on clearing Trials within a peaceful team atmosphere.
‘Please.’
I looked up at Je Hyeon-o with desperate longing.
“Yeah.”
Je Hyeon-o answered softly, moving his leather-gloved fingers like a pianist.
Since they were not metal hands, no metallic sound accompanied the gesture.
He gazed down at me and spoke.
“Han Go-yo, live long.”
“….”
He threw me at a boss monster without hesitation before, and now he tells me to live long.
But I reminded myself once more that this was Je Hyeon-o, and I quickly resigned myself to the situation.
‘At least he’s not telling me to die.’
Either way, having heard the command to live long, it seemed I need not worry about my life from here on.
It felt as though I had properly undergone an initiation rite.
Je Hyeon-o pressed the earpiece lodged in my ear.
Immediately, Samra’s voice came through.
– Han Go-yo.
I reported to him.
“I’ve closed DeZomDeal. The entire Special Task Force will return to Sidaecheong.”
No sound came through the earset.
Just as I wondered if the connection had been severed, a response came back.
– Yes, Han Go-yo. I’ll be waiting.
It might have been an expression unbecoming of an android, but I sensed joy in his voice.
Samra announced our success to me in a gentle tone.
– Special Task Force first mission complete.

***
The moment I returned to Sidaecheong, I underwent emergency treatment.
The wound I’d stitched inside DeZomDeal had reopened and begun bleeding again—I’d lost so much blood that it nearly became dangerous.
Mo Hae-in and Gwak Han-muk also remained unconscious for some time due to the aftereffects of their zombification progression.
Mo Hae-in, in particular, had been completely transformed into a zombie at one point, so her period of unconsciousness was somewhat longer.
Fortunately, aside from that, there were no major complications.
Je Hyeon-o was dispatched to a Trial that could be completed briefly before the next Special Task Force mission, immediately upon returning to Sidaecheong.
It was nominally a punishment for attacking a team member.
He’d likely wanted to enter the Trial anyway, and since his schedule would be arranged to ensure his return before the next Special Task Force mission, I wasn’t particularly worried.
And after receiving treatment, I—who had remained unconscious far longer than the captains—awoke to find myself.
“…?”
The moment I opened my eyes, I was experiencing something strange.
Snip snip.
Snip snip snip.
Someone was cutting my fingernails with small scissors….
I was so startled that I couldn’t even show any sign of waking and simply stared at the scene.
The person who had been so deeply focused on trimming my nails belatedly felt my gaze and lifted her head.
“Ahhhhh!”
And she screamed.
I wondered if I should be the one screaming here, but I decided to calmly assess the situation first.
“Who are you?”
The round-cheeked woman wore large circular glasses and a white coat—she looked more like a researcher than a doctor.
The way she looked at me was similar to how Lee Ga-on had looked at me when she realized I was the cure.
“Ah, hello…. I’m, um, from Division 2….”
“You mean the Research Analysis Headquarters?”
“Yes, yes.”
The woman suddenly bowed repeatedly in greeting.
Throughout this, she clutched the sample tube containing my fingernails very carefully.
She introduced herself in a very small voice.
“My name is Ham Ji-wol…. I’m the director…!”
The moment I heard her name, I quickly clenched my fist and hid my fingernails.
Ham Ji-wol let out a gasp, her eyes and mouth opening wide in surprise.
It seemed she hadn’t yet collected as many of my fingernails as she desired.
‘Thank goodness… or is it unfortunate?’
Ham Ji-wol, head of the Research Analysis Headquarters.
She was someone I rarely encountered while playing the Archive’s game.
And for good reason—meeting Ham Ji-wol carried a 100% probability of…
‘A bad ending.’
The only outcome was one where the player was dragged away as an experimental subject in the Research Facility, subjected to horrific ordeals.
Knowing firsthand how cruel her human experiments were, I couldn’t help but feel terror.
I was trembling inwardly when, mercifully, a hand of salvation appeared.
“Han Go-yo. You’re awake?”
The one entering through the hospital ward door was Samra. I had never been more relieved to see him.
“Yes! I’m perfectly fine. I can be discharged right away.”
“Ah, ah…!”
Ham Ji-wol bounced anxiously in front of me, but I desperately pretended not to notice.
Meanwhile, I cast a pleading look toward Samra.
Only after Samra had spent sufficient time collecting my vital responses did he come to my rescue.
“Director Ham Ji-wol. Would you mind stepping aside? I need to discuss the next mission with Han Go-yo.”
“Ah… Samra, I… I’ve only collected 0.06 grams of fingernails so far… and other samples…”
“The sample data collection is already sufficient. Anything more would be Director Ham Ji-wol’s personal indulgence.”
“…That’s…”
Ham Ji-wol could say nothing further and closed her lips, while Samra skillfully ushered her out of the hospital ward.
“Thank you.”
“You’re aware of Director Ham Ji-wol’s nature, then.”
“Not much, really.”
Samra stood beside the hospital bed, looking down at me. It wasn’t easy looking up at such a tall android.
As I tilted my head back as far as I could, Samra considerately sat down in a chair.
“Are the captains doing well?”
“Captain Gwak Han-muk and Captain Mo Hae-in are currently attending to their original team’s duties.”
Fortunately, they seemed to be fine. As relief washed over me, Samra informed me of the next mission.
“It’s still under discussion, but the Special Task Force’s second mission appears to be 【Clean! Clean! Clean!】.”
We were scheduled to enter a week from now, and he said to let him know if I wanted to adjust the entry timing.
But time was pressing on my end.
‘Limb amputation…’
I replied that there was no need for that.
Honestly, for something like Clean Clean Clean, entering a week later was fine. It was a trial considerably easier than DeZomDeal.
Instead, I made a different request.
“There’s an item I’d like to acquire before the mission.”
“I’ll submit a request to the Asset Management Division.”
“The thing is, Sidaecheong doesn’t have the item… and as far as I know, there’s only one in Korea, owned by the Cheon Gang Chairman.”
The moment I spoke, Samra immediately recognized what item I was referring to.
“‘Flawless Visage’, correct?”
“Yes. With that item, it would be a tremendous help in clearing. Do you think we could ask the Chairman for his cooperation?”
“It’s possible.”
“…!”
Seeing Samra give such a definitive answer, it truly seemed feasible.
But before I could even rejoice, Samra added something unexpected.
“However, you must meet with Cheon Gang Chairman directly and persuade him yourself.”
“Pardon?”
“Cheon Gang Chairman will not hand over the item to anyone but you.”
I couldn’t understand. For persuasion, it would surely be far better if someone of higher rank from Sidaecheong went instead.
I had never even seen Cheon Gang Chairman’s face from a distance….
‘Wait, hold on.’
Had I… actually seen him before?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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