The Soul-Harvesting Puppeteer - Chapter 10

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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 10
“Heh heh heh. Don’t be so startled. You’ll all experience this soon enough anyway. Oh, right. The 1st Corps has two cafeterias—one on the basement fourth level and another on the fiftieth floor at the top. The basement fourth level serves all three meals buffet-style. Lobster and king crab, all sorts of sushi and steak are standard fare, so you’ll have plenty to eat.”
“Wow!”
The newcomers were easily impressed.
“As for the top floor, it’s divided into Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Italian restaurants. For now, I’d recommend you stick to the basement fourth level buffet. The top floor restaurants have a lot of intense seniors around, and it might be awkward for you.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
The new employees answered in unison.
This senior seemed to enjoy teasing people, but his personality wasn’t bad overall. He’d given the newcomers a lot of practical information they’d need.
“Heh heh heh. So everyone go to your assigned rooms, unpack, and rest up. Starting tomorrow, training’s going to be so intense you’ll want to chew your own fingernails off, so tonight just empty your head and take it easy.”
With that, the senior left.
Han-eol and his cohort headed to their assigned rooms and unpacked their backpacks first.
The Employee ID Card hanging around his neck doubled as the room key.
‘Come to think of it, they said at the buffet restaurant all you need to do is tap your ID card on the terminal, right? This is really convenient.’
Han-eol was impressed by the benefits that Shinseong Group provided.
Especially since the room they provided was far more spacious and comfortable than he’d anticipated. Honestly, Han-eol couldn’t quite believe they called this a “room.”
An upscale living room.
A bedroom with an attached dressing room.
A bathroom complete with a marble whirlpool tub and dry sauna, plus a neat toilet.
Despite being on the basement third level, there was a bamboo garden visible through the window.
This was a luxury suite that Han-eol had never even dared dream of.
‘Training starts tomorrow, so I should get some real rest tonight.’
Han-eol took the senior’s advice, filling the tub with warm water, sank into it thoroughly, and then went straight to bed.
A plush mattress carried him off to dreamland.
Chapter 5
The next day, May 21st.
Ring-ring-ring!
The moment it hit six in the morning, a loud bell pierced the silence.
“Wash, eat breakfast, put on your Battle Uniform, and assemble at the main hall on the first floor by seven. I’ll say it again: wash, eat breakfast, put on your Battle Uniform, and assemble at the main hall on the first floor by seven.”
The announcement came from a speaker at the head of his bed.
“Ugh, is it starting already?”
Han-eol jumped out of bed, showered quickly, and bolted downstairs to the basement fourth level.
The buffet was crowded with his cohort lining up to enter.
Han-eol tapped his ID and went in, starting with vegetables. Then he devoured two garlic lobsters topped with cheese, grabbed some doenjang stew and rice from the Korean corner to fill the rest of his stomach, and finished with yogurt and fruit.
Before he knew it, it was already 7:40.
“Damn. Can’t be late on the first day.”
Han-eol hurried back to his room, brushed his teeth, and changed into his Battle Uniform.
‘Wait.’
Just as he was about to leave, something made him slip a Grade A Vest on underneath his Battle Uniform.
Not only that, but he also hung a necklace-style Healing Potion around his neck.
This potion was a miraculous elixir that could rapidly heal serious injuries—a treasure he’d received as a prize for being an Outstanding Intern.
According to what Lee Ruin had hinted to him, a single bottle of this potion was worth ten years of his salary.
‘The training might be harder than I can handle. Given the 1st Corps Commander’s personality, it doesn’t seem like he’d do anything ordinary.’
This was why Han-eol had brought the vest and potion.
By the time he was done, it was already 7:53.
‘Crap. I’m actually going to be late at this rate.’
Han-eol ran at full speed toward the main hall on the first floor.
Just as Han-eol arrived at the entrance, rows of regular employees lined up and began handing out new Backpacks to Han-eol and his cohort, one each.
The backpacks were packed solid and heavier than expected.
‘What’s inside? Training gear?’
Han-eol felt an inexplicable sense of dread.
Sure enough, the 1st Corps Commander inside the main hall began hurling words at the new employees like a lightning bolt from a clear sky.
“Isn’t the best training actual combat? So this 1st Corps Commander is going to give you greenhorns the best training there is.”
‘???’
The newcomers wore bewildered expressions.
The 1st Corps Commander twisted one corner of his mouth wickedly.
“Not following? I’m saying I’m going to put you through training that feels like real combat.”
‘??’
“What are you all standing around for? Move quickly! From now on, you’re going into Highland. Everything you need to survive is already packed in those backpacks, so don’t worry. Hoo hoo hoo hoo!”
The 1st Corps Commander laughed heartily.
‘This crazy bastard!’
Han-eol wanted to stitch the 1st Corps Commander’s mouth shut with a needle.
Han-eol and his cohort moved to Gangnam Station, which connected to the building’s basement, and boarded the Line 12 subway.
This Line 12 departed from Gangnam Station and traveled non-stop to a secret platform beneath the Han River north of Yeouido.
Line 12 had opened in Midland Seoul about fifteen years ago, or so they said.
Naturally, since Line 12’s purpose was to transport Shinseong Group’s Espers into Highland, ordinary citizens couldn’t ride it.
Han-eol was learning for the first time that Seoul’s subway system extended to Line 12.
As the subway carrying the new employees clattered and thundered along the dark rails, nobody spoke. They all gnawed at their lips with anxious expressions.
‘Please.’
Han-eol quietly closed his eyes and steadied the turmoil rising in his chest.
It took Han-eol’s group less than ten minutes to travel from Gangnam Station to the secret platform north of Yeouido.
“You’ve been through this before. Stop dawdling and get in.”
The 1st Corps Commander pressed the new employees with coercive urgency.
“We’ll enter now.”
Han-eol and his cohort forced down their grimaces and proceeded one by one into the Blue Mist.
In the meantime, the 1st Corps Commander offered the new employees some information that wouldn’t be of much help.
“The Guidance Watch issued to you will direct you to the 1st Base Camp on the 8th Continent. Upon arrival, use the watch hand as a compass and assemble at the 1st Base Camp. Understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
All forty new employees cried out in voices strained with dread and were completely swallowed by the Blue Mist.
Han-eol merely mouthed the words like he was lip-syncing, producing no actual sound.
It was his own quiet form of defiance.
In the midst of it all, a different worry suddenly crept into Han-eol’s mind.
‘Last time, I was the only one who failed the Guided Teleportation and ended up in the wrong place. What if the same thing happens again?’
When he’d been deployed to Highland before, his cohort had been transported to relatively safe zones.
But Han-eol had failed the Guided Teleportation and landed somewhere entirely different.
‘The probability of Guided Teleportation failing is supposedly quite low… Sigh. Surely I won’t have bad luck twice in a row? That can’t happen.’
Han-eol’s anxiety deepened.
A sharp whistle pierced the air.
A dizzying vertigo shook Han-eol’s brain.
Soon after, Han-eol appeared abruptly in the middle of a barren wasteland cracked like the bottom of a cauldron. A desolate wind swept across the lifeless ground.
Beneath Han-eol’s feet, the Blue Mist pooled like an oasis, shimmering faintly.
Han-eol immediately checked his Guidance Watch.
‘Damn it.’
Han-eol cursed under his breath.
The watch hand was spinning in circles, unable to find a direction.
Once again, Han-eol had failed the Guided Teleportation and landed in the wrong place—not at the 1st Base Camp on the 8th Continent.
‘Why does this keep happening? There must be some other reason.’
Han-eol wanted nothing more than to throw himself back into the Blue Mist and return to Midland Seoul immediately.
But if he did that, the 1st Corps Commander would surely raise hell with him.
‘Damn it. Let me at least find something here. If I collect even a kilogram of Mana Stones, the 1st Corps Commander won’t complain. It’s not my fault the Guided Teleportation failed anyway.’
Han-eol first buried his Transmitter at his current location.
This way, when he checked his Receiver later, it would be easier to locate where the Blue Mist was concentrated.
Then Han-eol tightened his Backpack straps and picked a direction.
In that direction, a mountain loomed faintly in the distance.
Chapter 6
Highland, they said, had a mountain of incomprehensible size at its center, with territories divided according to distance from that mountain.
Han-eol had learned this during his training sessions.
In any case, the mountain was so massive that it could be seen from anywhere in Highland—a detail that resembled Jeju Island.
On Jeju Island too, you could see Hallasan from any direction, east or west, north or south.
But comparing Highland and Jeju Island one-to-one was a stretch.
Even the combined area of Highland that humanity had explored over the past few decades exceeded five times the surface area of Earth, they said.
Yet humanity had confirmed only a few thousandths of Highland. Perhaps not even a few thousandths, but a few ten-thousandths—or a few hundred-millionths.
However, one truth had emerged from this process.
First, humanity designated the outermost doughnut-shaped continent, centered on Highland’s Central Mountain and farthest from it, as the 9th Continent.
To be more precise, humanity hadn’t even discovered on its own that the 9th Continent possessed a rounded doughnut shape.
This was because the territory humanity had finished exploring was genuinely trivial compared to the 9th Continent’s total area.
So how did humanity come to know the shape of the 9th Continent?
It was merely that some Esper long ago had read the memory of a flying-type Magical Beast and learned the rough form of the 9th Continent.
Moreover, according to what that Esper discovered, the 9th Continent was the safest region within Highland. The closer one got to the Central Mountain—the 8th Continent, 7th Continent, 6th Continent, and so on—the stronger the Magical Beasts became.
After that, each city in Midland focused on developing the 9th Continent.
When Shinseong Group first introduced interns to Highland previously, they had used Guided Teleportation to deploy them to a region that belonged to this 9th Continent.
The 8th Continent lay adjacent to the 9th Continent yet closer to the Central Mountain.
The 8th Continent remained uncharted territory for humanity.
Among Midland’s major cities, only a handful—fewer than five—had established Base Camps on the 8th Continent.
Midland Seoul was among them.
In truth, the Shinseong Group’s ability to subjugate the formidable Magical Beasts of the 8th Continent and establish their Base Camp was entirely Lee Hyeon’s doing. Without him, the Shinseong Group would never have dared to venture into the 8th Continent at all.
Dangerous as it was, the 8th Continent rewarded such risks with superior-quality Mana Stones, wondrous New Materials, and artifacts so powerful they could take one’s breath away.
After securing three Base Camp locations on the 8th Continent, the Shinseong Group deployed the 1st Corps, 2nd Corps, and 3rd Corps there—and that was why.
‘This should be the 9th Continent. Surely not the 8th?’
Han-eol’s anxiety deepened.
Fortunately, the wasteland was only brutally hot; no Magical Beasts appeared. Only the occasional dust storms that swept through proved troublesome.
After hours of walking without encountering a single Magical Beast, Han-eol found himself worrying about something else.
‘What if I don’t collect anything at all? What useful New Materials or medicinal herbs would exist in a wasteland like this? There probably isn’t even a Mana Stone mine. Damn it.’
Han-eol clenched his teeth.
The Puppeteer Who Harvests Souls
Author |
Jyunon
Publisher |
Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Editor-in-Chief |
Editorial Department
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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books
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7th Floor, Gwangseong Building, 28 Bongeunsaro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
UCI |
G720:N+A063-20260703071
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Submissions |
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No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. – Dream Books.

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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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