Chapter 108 - The Tenant II

3

As everyone knows, walking through Inunaki Tunnel is an exceptionally complicated undertaking. Even I, a regressor, had barely managed to conquer it over five runs, throwing away hundreds of lives in the process.

That gave me a thought.

'... Isn't this the ultimate security facility?'

A true change in perspective.

For an intruder, Inunaki Tunnel was monstrously difficult to conquer. For a defender, however, there was no more reassuring, impregnable fortress.

What's more, this ironclad security applied only to intruders. For anyone who already knew the walkthrough, Inunaki Tunnel was merely a somewhat tricky walking trail.

Thus, starting in run 197, I stopped making the full tunnel walkthrough public on SG Net.

Instead, I plastered it with warnings: 'A tunnel where entering recklessly guarantees death,' 'No entry,' 'Even the most experienced void explorers cannot escape instant death,' and so on. A guilty conscience? Not at all. None of it was a lie.

After subjugating Inunaki alone, I established my guild hideout in the undersea tunnel. Then I sent 'invitations' only to a small number of trustworthy acquaintances.

Naturally, each invitation helpfully explained how to walk through Inunaki Tunnel.

Now, no one could visit my café hideout without an invitation.

"Seriously, a business that only admits invited customers? What is this, a VIP golf club...?"

Noh Doha turned the invitation over and over, looking thoroughly disgusted.

"The insane idea of appropriating an anomaly for private use isn't particularly surprising, if I regard it as more sewage leaking out of your brain... But doesn't this mean you have no intention of serving ordinary people in the first place...?"

She waved the invitation back and forth.

"Well, well. Our awakened Undertaker has become quite the aristocrat. A little longer and you'll be trying to make yourself king, won't you? Shall I hand over command of the National Road Management Corps? Ahh, how convenient. I've been wanting to quit this fucking job as soon as possible anyway. Allow me to offer my congratulations in advance, Your Majesty..."

"Ah, you needn't worry too much about that. Commander, do you see the number at the very top of your invitation?"

"Hmm...?"

Noh Doha examined it again.

[Invitation - Café Hideout]

[Depth 1200m]

She tilted her head.

"Depth? Twelve hundred meters? What is this...?"

"The invitation's grade."

"Graade...?"

"Yes. I've prepared invitations for different sections: one hundred meters, two hundred, three hundred, and so on. A hundred-meter invitation, for instance, contains just enough of the walkthrough to get you safely through the first hundred meters after entering Inunaki Tunnel."

"Hmmmm...?"

"Twelve hundred meters is the highest grade. In short, that invitation contains one hundred percent of the Inunaki Tunnel walkthrough. One hundred meters is the lowest. And I'll be publishing the entire hundred-meter invitation on SG Net."

I took Noh Doha into Inunaki Tunnel to show her an example in person.

"Here we are. The hundred-meter mark."

"Oh...?"

She looked around.

"This is... a café."

She was absolutely right.

Please imagine every description that follows delivered in the gentlest possible home-shopping host's voice.

Where water trickling through cracks in the walls had once kept damp mold perpetually growing, miniature artificial waterfalls now burbled away, serving as eye-catching accents to the décor.

The patches once overgrown with moss had been replaced by colorful aquatic plants. These were no ordinary plants, but vegetation transformed in the void, so they thrived without sunlight.

Antique-style sofas and chairs were arranged here and there among the artificial waterfalls and potted plants.

Chairs designed for comfort above all else. Tables set at precisely the right height for seated guests. Small lamps on the tabletops added atmosphere.

I had restrained myself to a bare minimum of nineteenth-century Victorian tables, designing the rest to showcase the natural character of solid wood.

The lighting was indirect, of course. Though the whole space was wrapped in a cozy darkness, the faint outlines of tables and elegant shapes of chairs lent even the shadows an edge.

A truly realized space begins with sight and finds completion in sound.

The soft murmur of the artificial waterfalls flowed from here into the darkness beyond. If sunlight is a mirror for the eyes, darkness is a mirror for the ears. The sound of water flowing beyond the shadows completed this space as the pinnacle of Baroque aesthetics.

Should you venture through the darkness to inspect the tunnel walls, why, what a surprise.

Graffiti entirely at odds with the café décor spread across the concrete. By avoiding the stale choice of framed paintings, hadn't I added a uniquely intriguing touch?

Touch, in the comfort of the chairs and the smooth wooden tables. Sound, in the Baroque space. And sight, in the hidden pictures.

Add the aroma of fine old-fashioned coffee to caress smell and taste—and there you have it: a café satisfying all five senses, complete.

Even the fact that this unusual scene lay in the middle of an undersea tunnel stimulated customers' imaginations.

I, Undertaker, was proud to declare that even without the apocalypse, this café could easily vie for the number-one spot in South Korea.

End of home-shopping broadcast.

"... There's no natural light at all, but the space doesn't feel stifling."

Noh Doha ran a hand over a table.

She seemed quite shocked.

"This really was an anomaly that devoured hundreds of people...?"

"Heh heh."

"Even that idiotic regressor laugh sounds a little different now. I'm surprised. To think you had a talent like this, awakened Undertaker..."

Given her personality, that was praise of the highest order. But it was too early to be amazed.

"Commander Noh Doha."

"Ah, yes...?"

"If you look beside this bookshelf, you'll see some thin strings. They're puppet strings running all the way to the deepest part of the tunnel. I asked Hayul to install them. You give one a gentle pull like this..."

TWANG

The puppet string vibrated pleasantly, like a cello string.

"Simply channel aura into it, and the vibration travels to my private room at the deepest point of the tunnel."

"Oh..."

"Then I know a customer has arrived and can attend to them immediately. It's a fair distance from here to the deepest section, but I can cover it in a flash."

"I see. This is certainly..."

"The hundred-meter and two-hundred-meter grades don't receive identical treatment. The deeper you go, the more the décor will change and the more extensive the menu will become. In other words..."

"Yees. A small thing, perhaps, but it could motivate the awakened. It's not as though there's much entertainment in the world these days... Hmm. Being cut off from the outside might actually be a good thing. If people can briefly forget that the world outside is fucked and relax over a cup of coffee..."

"Precisely. Which brings me to a proposal, Commander Noh Doha."

"Hmm? What is it...?"

"As you can see, running a proper café will require a considerable supply of coffee beans. My stockpile will run out soon, too. So I'm thinking of asking that old Sword Marquis to establish a coffee plantation and tread over it..."

"..."

"Could we make that happen?"

Concern clouded Noh Doha's face.

After all, the Sword Marquis was an awakened essential to farming in the present day. He was busy enough treading over land used to grow food.

I was proposing that some of that precious land be devoted to a luxury like coffee. Naturally, Noh Doha, pragmatism incarnate, had to think it over.

Of course, I could have persuaded the Sword Marquis to grow coffee without her consent. But then I would have found myself facing her resignation letter.

"But with farmland already so desperately scarce, can we afford to plant coffee trees...?"

"The world needs luxuries, too," I whispered.

"Think about it. Adding another attraction to Busan would raise the National Road Management Corps' standing relative to the major guilds in other regions..."

"Still, isn't the Korean Peninsula unsuitable for growing coffee? It strikes me as inefficient...?"

"You needn't worry about that, either. I'll plant different varieties of coffee trees in the void and eventually develop a cultivar suited to the peninsula's climate. I'm a void expert, aren't I?"

"Hmm..."

"There's also the question of security. Wouldn't you feel much safer having me manage the undersea tunnel than leaving it unattended?"

"Hmmmmm..."

"Above all, Workshop Master Noh Doha, you'll be able to wake yourself up with a cup of coffee every morning. Corps headquarters is practically next door, isn't it? Imagine taking a thirty-minute walk each dawn."

"..."

"It would also improve the Corps members' morale and welfare."

"..."

Deliberation. Contemplation. Anguish. Torment.

At last, Noh Doha mumbled in a voice as faint as an ant's footsteps.

"... Well, if it's only a small garden plot..."

"A wise decision, Commander! I knew we could see eye to eye. Anyway, now that you've agreed, I can build the café with peace of mind starting next run."

"..."

"Don't worry. You'll never regret this choice. Honestly, Commander. You grumble all the time, but whenever I ask you for something in earnest, you always come through in the end, don't you? I'm fully aware of how deeply you care about m—"

"Shut your fucking mouth."

"Yes."

Café Hideout: grand opening successful!

4

Naturally, Café Hideout received a wildly enthusiastic response.

Despite the unsettling prospect of personally stepping into the maw of a Continent-class anomaly, there was no end to the brave souls willing to take the challenge for a delicious cup of caffeine.

Above all, the access levels divided into one hundred meters, two hundred meters, and so forth sparked a curious competitive streak among the awakened.

-Anonymous: (300m) At 100 meters you can only get espresso and Americanos, but here we get café lattes too lol

-Anonymous: (400m) Iced-coffee-or-die people need to get at least this far. The manager said iced coffee is available starting at 400 meters.

└Anonymous: But I like espresso?

└Anonymous: (400m) Sure, whatever, hundred-meter scrub lmao

└Anonymous: Espresso is for refined palates, you fucking brat. Quit running your mouth.

└CookingQueen: (100m) Everyone, please don't fight over this. Shouldn't we be happy just to have a café?

-dolLHoUse: Pathetic.

-Anonymous: (100m) But I heard Hundred Flowers Girls’ High School guild members start at 200 meters by default. Is that true? If it is, isn't that special treatment?

└HighSchoolFifthYear: (1200m) 🖕 >_<);;

Various pop-culture settings assign awakened grades like A-rank and S-rank, but no such system actually existed on the Korean Peninsula.

In fact, I found it hard to agree with the labels S-rank and A-rank at all. Just how much stronger was an S-rank than an A-rank, anyway?

Wouldn't an evaluation standard based on precise numbers be far more intuitive than that alphabet game?

That was why the awakened so readily regarded the invitations I issued as a kind of 'rank' or 'level.'

-[Three Thousand]WitchTrialJudge: The deep sea at 1,200 meters. The voices of waves reaching us through the tunnel walls. In an age when nature has been reduced to nothing more than a danger, a moment to appreciate the preciousness of 'nature to be admired.'

(Proof photo. A shot of a coffee cup, with an invitation reading 'Depth 1200m' placed on the table so it casually shows in the frame.)

The overwhelming majority of awakened were assigned 'Depth 100m,' and only those who proved themselves in both ability and character gradually increased their depth.

The grading criteria were based entirely on my personal judgment.

Yet even personal judgment, accumulated over hundreds of runs and thousands of years, becomes more than adequate to pass as objective data.

I was proud to consider this 'Depth' system more reliable than any other standard.

-Goryeojang: (1000m) Cute watching these broke-ass losers argue over who's the tallest dwarf lol

-Goryeojang: (1000m) Tried this thing called affogato for the first time. Why the hell would you put ice cream on coffee? You guys can have all that kiddie food lol

-Goryeojang: (1000m) Apparently the hundred-depth scrubs can only use the café once a week. Honestly, respect... No matter how harsh a world they end up in, they'd probably survive by wriggling around like earthworms. Me, I'd rather kill myself than go without my daily coffee, yep...

Hmm.

Let's ignore a few exceptions.

Sim Aryeon regularly whined for me to raise her grade from one thousand meters to twelve hundred—or at least eleven hundred—but I firmly refused.

It wasn't because I discriminated against her. A mountaineer's soul wriggled in her heart. Give her an inch, and she'd mistake you for Mount Everest and climb all over you endlessly.

I'll discuss the stories surrounding these 'awakened ranks' separately in the episode after next.

Anyway, once the café's operations seemed reasonably settled, I sent the Saintess an invitation message through Constellation Talk.

["An... invitation?"]

"Yes, Saintess. Remember how I asked you never to observe the scenery at Depth 1200m with Clairvoyance, no matter what?"

["Ah, yes. So I've avoided all information related to that place."]

"I've kept it secret because I wanted to show you in person. You're always at your home in Yongsan, aren't you? Think of it as a little outing and come along."

She fell silent for a moment. In that silence, I strongly detected INTJ wavelengths of chronic shut-in syndrome.

["... But isn't Busan too far from my house? We could get there quickly if you carried me on your back, Mr. Undertaker, but that's a little..."]

"Ah, it's fine. I've opened a tunnel over there, too."

["What?"]

This, too, was a change in perspective.

As was well known, Inunaki had gobbled up the Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel even though it was merely an imaginary structure.

In that case, couldn't I likewise 'artificially' create an imaginary tunnel and have Inunaki infect it?

The result of that idea stood at the southern end of Jamsu Bridge on the Han River. I took the Saintess there.

"... Goodness."

Bundled in a white coat, the Saintess parted her lips slightly.

"Why is there a tunnel here...?"

Indeed.

Beyond the ruins of the convenience store where we had first met, a small tunnel led down into the waters of the Han River.

Behold: the 'Han River Underwater Tunnel.'

"I'll lead the way. Please follow me."

"... Wait, Mr. Undertaker. Did you artificially create an anomaly?"

"No. There were already several tunnels beneath the Han River. Some had only been planned and never completed. I simply overlapped several of them and 'asked' Inunaki Tunnel to infect them."

"Asked...?"

"It's a friend I can communicate with quite well. Still, this is a sort of loophole, so I couldn't keep adding 'portals' indiscriminately. Creating emergency entrances at just three locations was the limit."

One was here in Gangnam. Another was at a coffee farm in Kyushu, Japan. I'll mention where I used the third in another episode later.

The Saintess looked incredulous at my explanation.

"The limit? Isn't that remarkable enough on its own?"

We entered the underwater tunnel.

All Inunaki Tunnels were connected.

However, moving from the 'Han River Underwater Tunnel' to the 'Japan–Korea Undersea Tunnel' required performing several particular procedures precisely.

For security reasons, I won't describe them in detail, but for the Saintess, it was an easy five-minute stroll.

And when we emerged from that walk...

"..."

She stopped short.

"... This place."

"Depth 1200m. The deepest heart of my hideout and café. Come in, Saintess. Welcome."

An undersea tunnel stretched before us.

But its walls were glass, not concrete.

The tunnel was a full four hundred meters long. From Depth 1200m to 1600m, the entire stretch was an aquarium-style undersea tunnel.

Fish of every color flicked their tails through the vivid blue seawater.

"..."

The Saintess's eyes widened. Dazed, she gazed at the glass tunnel without end.

Watery shadows gently flicked their tails across her hair.

Keeping fish in an aquarium had always been her hobby. To her eyes, this place must now look like El Dorado.

"Mr. Undertaker, how on earth...?"

"Inunaki Tunnel is also connected to the River of Three Crossings. The concept of water flowing through the afterlife, through the underworld. That's why you drown if you walk through it incorrectly. It's also why it fits so well with undersea and underwater tunnels. It was a little tricky, but as you can see, I was able to manifest it in the form of an aquarium's undersea tunnel, too."

"..."

Run 117.

While subjugating Gapless, a God of Alienation-class anomaly, I had come face-to-face with the Saintess. Though she had been only an illusion.

From the silver moon in the night sky, she had looked down at Earth and said:

["Just one layer beneath that planet, everything has been made into hell. Every last bit."]

Those words had remained in a corner of my heart like a smudge of charcoal soot.

And now, in run 197—the Saintess was looking up at the sea from the deep waters 'one layer' beneath Earth's surface.

Starlight jellyfish drifted outside the tunnel. They were creatures of the void, making the deep sea look just like the Milky Way.

A universe turned upside down.

"What do you think?"

I asked her impressions of this landscape of hell.

"Do you like it?"

"..."

The Saintess was silent.

Every fish tank was a lonely structure.

But a glass tunnel crossing an ocean—wasn't that the only aquarium where you could watch fish without imprisoning them?

To make a home in the world and still remain free.

Well. I don't know whether my metaphor reached the Saintess without words.

Still, when she finally nodded after keeping her lips closed for so long, I wanted to believe the meaning of this aquarium-tunnel had reached her in full.

"... Yes. Very much."

"I'm glad."

"Thank you, Mr. Undertaker. ... I probably won't forget this view for the rest of my life."

I smiled.

"Neither will I."

There are countless stories about this place, 'Café Hideout.'

Today, however, I'd like to end the tale here, without an epilogue.

Let me add only that, from that day onward, the Saintess's morning walking route gained one more stop.

- The Tenant. End.