Surviving Restructuring

[2] Unity

- Gather the scattered will of the people and claim it.

- The stronger the loyal hearts you gather, the stronger you shall become.

The special order, which had nearly ended with a loyalty score of just fifty-seven percent, had been pushed all the way to ninety-nine percent. Eun-Ho had gathered more than enough support.

Now, the question was how that support would translate into strength, and the system was about to give its answer.

[Your results have exceeded the simulation range.]

[Unable to determine an appropriate reward level.]

Hmm?

Exceeding expectations is one thing, but unable to determine a reward?

Just as he suspected a scam, a straight, transparent bar appeared in the blue system window. The bar slowly began filling with white.

[Simulation is restarting.]

[1%, 2%, 3%...]

[Through the gaps in the empty laws, the foresight of an unknown god intervenes.]

For 0.000001 seconds, the world stopped.

[Reward structure is being reorganized.]

Thooom—

Then, a heavy vibration echoed through his head.

[Reorganization has been completed!]

“Haa...”

Eun-Ho finally released the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. Still in a daze, he stared wide-eyed at the next message window.

[A Unique Skill Out of Standard(Lv. 1) has been created.]

“Out of standard?”

A Unique Skill, something entirely new, was unlocked from memories engraved in both body and soul. The system had once described it as being similar to customization.

Since when were there standards to begin with? Eun-Ho thought.

[Collecting data...]

He didn’t blink as he waited. The system window finally stopped flickering, delivering its gift.

[Congratulations!]

[Based on the soul of a pathfinder who carried everything, the path once walked by a loyal retainer, and the memory of devotion so sincere it would even offer up its life, a Unique Skill has been created!]

Ding!

[You have unlocked a Unique Skill Out of Standard - Righteous Bond!]

Righteous Bond?

The phrase meant that there had to be loyalty and righteousness between ruler and subject.

That’s a skill? Eun-Ho thought in disbelief.

Frowning, he quickly read the description and his jaw dropped.

[Righteous Bond(Lv. - )]

- Converts the loyalty of a loyal retainer into stat points.

- However, the relationship must be one of absolute loyalty, and once consumed, the loyalty can never be restored.

It had an utterly insane effect and an equally insane cost.

“What kind of skill is this?”

If one percent of loyalty converted into one stat point, the exchange rate was absurd. Until now, completing trials had only granted one or two stat points at a time. Compared to that, this was astronomical.

It’s definitely a customization effect, Eun-Ho thought.

It was practically a skill tailored specifically for him. After all, everyone else had been too busy worrying about themselves. Moreover, among his team members, he was the only one who had actively raised loyalty using Leadership.

Even across the whole company, there probably aren’t many people like that.

Still, one line bothered him.

- Once consumed, the loyalty can never be restored.

The system message before the skill appeared also lingered in his mind.

[Through the gaps in the empty laws, the foresight of an unknown god intervenes.]

Does that mean my own power alone won’t be enough?

A chill ran down his spine. Would a day like that really come? A moment when even his own strength wasn’t enough, and he would have to burn the relationships he had built as fuel to keep fighting.

“Eun-Ho?”

“Is something wrong, Hyungnim?” Jae-Hyuk asked.

Would there have to be a moment when he would have to set these worried companions’ feelings ablaze like firewood?

“Didn’t you use too much power earlier?” Ji-Eun asked with concern. “That thing, the Death Hand or whatever, you said you’re still not used to it.”

“Huh? You said that?” Jae-Hyuk said in surprise. “It looked totally natural to me!”

“He did use it really well,” Ji-Eun’s teammate added. “But side effects can show up later.”

Ji-Eun leaned closer, examining his face carefully. H

“I think your complexion looks a little pale...” she murmured while inspecting his eyes, nose, and mouth from different angles. “Should we call Sol-Ah?”

Her face was suddenly very close. Her large, clear brown eyes reflected his own image. Her skin was pale and flawless. Also, a faint scent of shampoo brushed past the tip of his nose.

“Um... You’re a little too close,” Eun-Ho said.

“Ah! I didn’t realize!” Ji-Eun quickly stepped back, flustered. “I’m sorry!”

“It’s fine,” Eun-Ho replied calmly.

Somehow, the distance between them had grown this small without him even noticing.

“I’ll go get some fresh air,” Eun-Ho said at last.

***

It was 11:00 PM. The night air was cold. Eun-Ho walked along the quiet forest path, trying to sort through his tangled thoughts.

Whoosh—!

Whooosh—!

Or at least, he had been trying to.

“Monster!” one of the twin Ghosts shrieked.

“Monsteeer!” another echoed.

Two ghosts dressed in white burial robes were spinning around him in full circles, flying through the air as if they had discovered the joy of motion for the first time. His already complicated thoughts ended up knotting themselves even tighter.

“Wings!”

“He flew!”

“Let’s fly too!”

“We’re faster!”

“Enough,” Eun-Ho muttered under his breath.

Ghosts not sleeping at night was one thing, but what’s up with this many people?

“We’ll level the ground! Mister over there, watch your step!” Bo-Ra shouted.

“Hey, Mr. Kim! Come over here! I’ll suck up those wooden boards and scraps of paper!”

Eun-Ho stared in disbelief. Who in the world did construction work in the middle of the night like this?

“Sol-Ah, thanks for the healing! I’ll get right back to it!”

“Okay!” Sol-Ah replied brightly.

The forest that had been trampled by one hundred fifty thousand protesters was being restored at remarkable speed.

Bo-Ra would scrape up chunks of earth like a living excavator. Then, the cleaning lady would vacuum away the debris. Whenever people started to look tired, Sol-Ah would step in and restore their Stamina with Mass Heal.

“Sol-Ah,” Eun-Ho called.

Sol-Ah turned toward him. “Oh, Mister! I didn’t know you were here!”

“Yeah, but why are those people picking up trash over there?”

Apparently, some of the protesters had stayed behind out of guilt and were now helping with the cleanup.

“Should I ask them to leave if it bothers you?” Sol-Ah asked.

Bother me? If anything, free labor should be used as efficiently as possible.

“No, just write down their names and give them priority the next time we run a union event.”

Sol-Ah tilted her head. “Because you want to thank them for helping?”

“Um, not exactly.” He glanced toward the group again. “They’re either people with a strong sense of responsibility, or people who care about maintaining a good public image. Either way, they’ll help spread the union’s influence.”

“Ah.”

In other words, they were something like a VIP customer list. For any new venture, it was important to secure early adopters who were both interested and influential enough to spread the word.

“Where’s Yeo-Jin?” Eun-Ho asked.

He had been thinking about asking her to plan a union event while he was at it.

“She’s in her room, but probably sleeping.”

“Tell her to come straight to the office when she wakes up tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“And you should go to bed soon you. You need to sleep early to grow taller.”

Sol-Ah blinked in confusion. “I’m already five six. Do I still need to be taller?”

Eun-Ho was about to reply that sleeping well was a job in itself when Bo-Ra suddenly grabbed his arm.

“Oppa! Oppa! Wait a second!” she exclaimed.

“Young man! Sleep ain’t the important thing right now!” the cleaning lady added urgently.

“What?” Eun-Ho said, startled.

The cleaning lady dragged him over to a nearby patch of earth. “Come look at this!”

There, he found something completely unexpected. “What is all this?”

Various shades of green filled the ground: deep green, grayish brown, pale blue. There were tiny sprouts no larger than fingernails, and thick stalks nearly the size of his forearm.

They appeared like ordinary weeds to Eun-Ho. If the cleaning lady hadn’t pointed them out, he would never have noticed them.

“Well, you see, that Bo-Ra student was flipping the ground over like a bulldozer. Then I noticed these things stuck in the dirt here and there, so I thought—”

“So let me get this straight,” Eun-Ho said slowly. “We cleaned the forest and found medicinal herbs?”

“Exactly!” the cleaning lady exclaimed. “You remember when we gathered herbs on Night Island before? We found tons of them including Flemingia roots!”

Eun-Ho remembered that those herbs had grown inside a high-density energy barrier. When boiled and consumed, they had significantly increased the group’s Strength and Stamina.

[Blue Spirit Herb]

- A plant said to sprout after a spirit of the blue sea loses its way in the forest and dies.

- Dissolves only in water containing salt and minerals.

- When consumed, Stamina increases by three, removes bodily toxins, strengthens lung capacity, and temporarily allows underwater breathing.

[Venom Needle Grass]

- A medicinal herb rooted in mineral-rich soil that stimulates physical activity, removes abnormal conditions, and strengthens internal organs such as the heart.

- Contains trace amounts of deadly poison. Caution required when consuming.

- When consumed, Stamina decreases by three, Strength increases by three, and Intelligence increases by three.

“Wait!” Eun-Ho exclaimed.

“There are some poisonous ones mixed in, but even without those, there’s a huge amount!” Bo-Ra said quickly.

She wasn’t exaggerating. The effects alone were impressive, but the quantity was staggering.

Seeing Eun-Ho’s wide eyes, Bo-Ra and the cleaning lady beamed proudly.

“These herbs are way stronger than the ones from before!”

“Of course they are!” the cleaning lady said proudly. “But did you eat those back then too?”

“Yes!” Bo-Ra replied. “We boiled them in water and it boosted our Stamina like crazy!”

Strictly speaking, it hadn’t even been a proper medicine but just herbal water, but the effect had still been remarkable. If a professional alchemist were to combine multiple herbs and add ingredients that amplified their effects, the result would be unimaginable.

Just then, Eun-Ho’s mind snapped awake.

We have to harvest these.

“Acutally, labor really is the best way to clear your head.”

“Huh?” the cleaning lady blinked.

“I’ll lead the way with a torch. Bo-Ra, keep bringing up the soil. Everyone else, search through it with me.”

“Search through it?”

Eun-Ho raised his hand dramatically. “I’m activating Focused Work Hours.”

“Right now?” Sol-Ah asked incredulously. “You’re not going to sleep?”

She shot him a teasing look, which was unusual for her.

“You just told me to sleep early so I could grow taller,” she pointed out. “And didn’t someone just say sleeping well is part of the job?”

Her tone clearly carried playful intent, but Eun-Ho simply shrugged. “You can sleep plenty once you’re dead.”

“Huh?”

“Activate Focused Work Hours,” he declared.

***

A chilling gale swept across the Garden of Enlightenment, a place that was usually calm and silent.

The bleak weather seemed to mirror the chairman’s foul mood. The atmosphere was so tense that the employees of the secretariat treaded carefully, even muffling the sound of their footsteps.

For the chairman’s personal secretary, who had to enter his office directly, the pressure was far worse.

I got promoted at a time like this?!

It had only been yesterday that he was appointed to the position of chief secretary, the seat left vacant after the previous chief disappeared. Originally, the deputy chief had been scheduled to take the role. However, after losing in court to Eun-Ho, he was removed.

The chief of the chairman’s secretariat oversaw nearly all of the company’s major affairs. Under normal circumstances, it would have been an incredible honor. However, this was not a normal time.

One after another, the heads of his predecessors had been metaphorically and sometimes literally rolling. What guarantee did he have that he would be any safer?

Just don’t make any mistakes. You can do this!

The secretary slowly inhaled and exhaled, steadying himself. Then, he cautiously opened the door.

Creeeak—

The moment the door opened, a chilling cold pressed against his lungs.

The floor-to-ceiling windows of the chairman’s office had been fully repaired, sealed shut without a single opening. Yet the cold filling the vast office did not fade, no matter how much the heating system ran.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The old gentleman’s cane struck the floor. Before it, several people knelt trembling. The blood dripping down their chins was so cold it was beginning to freeze into crimson icicles.

“Chairman...”

It was a sight that should not be seen, even if it stood directly before one’s eyes.

The quick-witted secretary immediately bent at the waist in a perfect ninety-degree bow. “Mr. Mu Ah is safe, sir.”

“Incompetent fool,” the chairman muttered, clicking his tongue.

Should I raise my head? Was I allowed to?

While the secretary hesitated, the cane at the edge of his vision began to vibrate.

Bzzzz—

Splaaat—!

It sounded like a watermelon smashing after falling from a rooftop. The secretary’s eyes widened. One of the secretariat staff members who had been dispatched to the protest had just disappeared.

“Reveal the financial statements, is that it?” the chairman said coldly.

Warm blood splashed across the secretary’s side and he had no time to dodge. His face and his newly purchased suit were instantly soaked. The metallic smell of blood, thick and sticky, overwhelmed his senses. However, strangely enough, that was almost a relief.

“A five-day workweek, you say.”

Splaaat.

“You want allowances as well?”

Splaaat—!

If he had to hear those wet explosions without the smell of blood dulling his senses, he would have lost his mind.

“And what was that? Salary negotiations?”

Splaaat—!

“How dare you.”

After bursting the head of the last remaining protester, the chairman calmly wiped the blood from his cane with a dry cloth. He clicked his tongue again. The bloodstain wouldn’t come off easily. It reminded him of that man, Eun-Ho.

Personnel Bureau director, Audit Bureau director, and the Operations Bureau director had been taken down by Eun-Ho.

“I had intended to keep things gentle,” the chairman murmured darkly.

However, far too many employees had been completely taken in by that man’s honeyed words. This could no longer be ignored.

“Vermin.”

Creatures who forgot the grace of being fed and sheltered.

“When’s the next restructuring scheduled?” the chairman asked.

“In ten years, sir,” the secretary replied.

“Give them one month. Move it forward.”

“Yes, sir.”

If it were up to him, he would replace the entire workforce immediately, but everything had its proper order.

“Also, make a blacklist.”

The secretary stiffened.

“Everyone who joined the union. And those who defended them as well. I want every name.”

“Understood, Chairman.”

Once this crisis ends, they will all be dealt with. Anyone who had offered even a single grain of loyalty to Eun-Ho and even their families would vanish like dew beneath the executioner’s blade.

He included the very center of this chaos and the core of this corruption. “And the Labor-Management Cooperation Team, those seeds of evil...”

“C-Chairman! That order is—gulp.”

The command that followed swept through the room like a storm, colder than dawn frost.