The Fighting Dog of a Ruined Organization

I had one precious friend.

It was a girl, too. She might have been my first female friend.

Was it because my mind followed my body? In reality, she was much younger than me, but we still got along well.

After my birth parents died, when there was no one beside me except Fuyuka. She was my only companion during that time.

But her parents had debts to some organization, I don’t know which, and soon my friend went missing.

I was scared.

For me, who was vaguely trying to distance myself from organizations, my friend’s disappearance was a trigger. It was the cause that made me distance myself from organizations even more certainly.

And out of fear, I pretended not to know the friend I had known for 3 years. As if I had no feelings, as if she was just a creation, I buried her in the memories beyond.

Because this isn’t really the world I live in.

…Really?

Is it really not the world I live in?

Is this place just a creation, and are the people living here just creations?

No. That was just an illusion I had been harboring until now. Maybe I’ve been living in a fantasy because I’ve been living too comfortably.

I felt that for sure this time.

“If it weren’t for our Carpe Diem, this PC bang would’ve been ruined, right? Right?”

Ten days have passed since Chunsik massacred customers in the PC bang. What I felt during that month was that it only takes ten days for a perfectly fine PC bang to be taken over by an organization.

“If you’re grateful, just cook some free ramen. It’s raining nicely today, how delicious would it be?”

What Carpe Diem did for ten days wasn’t anything grand.

Chunsik disappeared, saying he would be punished according to Carpe Diem’s internal regulations, and instead, the organization members who followed Chunsik frequented the PC bang as customers.

But a single mass massacre doesn’t disappear from customers’ minds. Who would use a PC bang if they might die while using it?

The number of customers rapidly decreased, and at some point, the only customers using the PC bang were Carpe Diem’s organization members.

“Hey! Be grateful. It’s because of us that other thugs can’t come, right? So pay the protection fee.”

Isn’t it ridiculous?

Since the only customers are Carpe Diem organization members, the only money we can earn is Carpe Diem’s money.

And they’re telling us to pay that money back as a protection fee. In the end, we won’t be able to maintain the building and will have to sell it.

It’s not even a rental, it’s a building mom owns, but we have to sell it. Because we can’t maintain the electricity and water bills.

Then, what benefit does Carpe Diem get from us giving up the PC bang like this?

The next procedure is obvious, isn’t it?

They’ll tell us to hand over the building at a dirt-cheap price if we want to live, and we’ll hand it over.

Then, starting with this building, Carpe Diem will button up their first button in the southern district. It’s a good thing for them since they didn’t have territory in the southern district because they were wary of the Phoenix Guild.

Surely Chunsik, who first proposed this strategy, will be promoted to a high rank within Carpe Diem. Maybe he’ll even become the center of the southern district occupation project.

Still, honestly, losing the building doesn’t hurt at all. What’s so bad about losing a base? If we grit our teeth and live on, we might rise again.

But, mom’s lost heart can’t be recovered.

“Because of me… How many people died…”

Mom was a kind and soft-hearted person. In front of such a mom, Chunsik killed customers just because the ramen didn’t taste good.

After that incident, mom’s eyes became empty. They became vacant. Her eyes, which used to be like a warm winter, lost their warmth and died coldly.

It means she can no longer return to her former self.

And among mom’s changed words and actions, what saddens me the most is,

“Son, I’m sorry… Mom is so incompetent that I can’t do anything… In my head, I keep hearing the screams of dying customers, I’m sorry, son, I’m sorry…”

Mom has completely forgotten the years she spent raising me, and is apologizing to me for not being able to do anything now.

There was nothing I could do in this situation.

In the end, we sold the building to Carpe Diem at a dirt-cheap price, and the PC bang where I had built memories with mom for many years closed down.

This is all because of me.

Generally, there are almost no business owners who helplessly lose their buildings to Carpe Diem. Many business owners pay protection fees to Murim Alliance and receive actual protection.

Not receiving protection from Murim Alliance because I didn’t want to be involved with organizations is truly only because of me.

It was a sin to mistakenly think that if you have no relation to any organization, you can live peacefully. It was the price of arrogance for viewing this world as just a creation and people as mere creations.

If I had known it would end up like this, I should have received protection from Murim Alliance.

No, I should have joined Murim Alliance’s North Sea Ice Palace.

Then we wouldn’t have lost it. Even if we had lost it, we could have taken revenge.

Even if I had joined Fantasia when Eris asked a month ago, and raised it to some extent.

If I had done that, things might have been different.

Looking at the firmly closed door after selling the building, my feelings are complicated. I never thought I’d live to regret not joining a ruined organization.

“…It’s not appearing today either.”

Even the hologram window asking if I want to become Fantasia’s fighting dog hasn’t appeared since my birth parents’ death anniversary. I don’t even know where Eris is, so it’s impossible to join Fantasia now to take revenge.

If only I could join even Fantasia, somehow earn money and grow power, I could take revenge. I could reclaim what was taken.

“I could even bring back the light that disappeared from mom’s eyes.”

In this world, there’s even a drug that erases memories. It’s a drug that can pinpoint and erase only the desired parts of memory, and if we had that, restoring mom to her original state would be no problem.

So why aren’t we doing it? Because it’s damn expensive.

Although it was at a dirt-cheap price, we got money from selling the building to Carpe Diem, but it’s so expensive that we can’t buy it even if we use all that money.

Isn’t there a saying that forgetfulness is a blessing given by God? It’s truly as they say. The memories you want to forget the most are the ones you absolutely can’t forget.

“In the end, as I am now, I can’t do anything…”

It’s frustrating that the hologram window that appeared so well when I didn’t want it doesn’t appear when I need it. It felt like the great flow of the world’s fate existed to torment me.

But, I also had this thought.

What if I’m really the protagonist of a possession story?
If I exist as a proper protagonist of a creation?

What if this is the crisis before the real start, and I might encounter some fateful event in the future?

Such a thought that’s nothing more than a fantasy.

“Oh… Is the PC bang closed?”

And then I heard that fantasy voice.

“N-Noona?”

I turned my head in disbelief, and there was Eris. She seemed much more emaciated than when I last saw her, but still, she appeared before me like this, looking radiant.

“Hyeonwoo, did you close the PC bang?”

But there was no light in Eris’s eyes. What on earth happened during those 40 days, a month and ten days?

I don’t know exactly, but she clearly went through some tough times. I continued the conversation in a soft voice to avoid stimulating her tired mind as much as possible.

“Yeah, it ended up closing somehow.”

“Really? I wanted to play one game of LeOri before I die…”

What? Die?

Did I hear that wrong just now?

“D-Die? Why are you dying?”

“Because Fantasia will be dissolved tomorrow…”

They said the organization would be dissolved by the state because there need to be at least 3 members, but there are only 2, right? It’s incomprehensible that they couldn’t find one member in 40 days, it’s not like it’s a school club.

More incomprehensible than that is the talk about dying.

“Why would you die just because the organization is dissolved? If the organization is dissolved, you can just wash your hands of it and live a normal life, right?”

“It’s too late for that. The reason I’ve lived this sewer-like life was because of my sense of duty to protect Fantasia.”

“Sewer-like life…?”

Of course, she seemed to be living in poverty. But isn’t it going too far to describe it as sewer-like?

The moment I thought that, I was shocked by Eris’s following words.

“Shizu is working three part-time jobs to buy me magi addiction treatment. But it’s getting harder and harder for her to work three jobs. Shizu’s physical strength is reaching its limit. So Shizu is even considering prostitution to buy my treatment… Because she can earn money more easily that way.”

It really is a sewer-like life. I have to admit it. For Eris, Shizu must be like what mom is to me.

It’s painful to watch someone you love sacrifice themselves for you.

“I have no intention of maintaining my life with money earned by Shizu selling her body, when I couldn’t even protect Fantasia. So I was planning to die today. It’s okay to play one game of LeOri before I die, right…”

Eris didn’t seem to have any intention of asking me for help. Perhaps from the moment Eris lost so much composure that I disappeared from her mind, that’s when the hologram window stopped appearing to me.

How ruined must the organization be to not be able to find one member in 40 days? I don’t know, but it’s exactly the organization I need right now.

Rather than huge organizations like Murim Alliance, Carpe Diem, or Esper Hunter that might be plotting something, an organization that’s so ruined it has nothing left is safer.

“Noona, you must have felt the same way when I was going through hard times.”

“Huh? Hyeonwoo, you were having a hard time too?”

“Yeah, it was hard. Because of Chunsik that you brought, we ended up losing this building to Carpe Diem.”

“Wh-What?!”

Eris’s eyes wavered. She seemed to be in pain from the fact that she had caused harm to others until the very end.

But I didn’t say this to torment Eris. I’m just saying it indirectly because I’m embarrassed about refusing last time, rather than stating the main point directly.

“So I have nowhere to go now. Don’t die irresponsibly, take responsibility.”

“Th-That means…”

Light slowly began to return to Eris’s eyes. And the hologram window I had been longing to see appeared in front of me.

『Better than the top 3 organizations! This Eris will accept you for free. Only Woo Hyeon-woo. Become the Fighting Dog of a Ruined Organization』

“Y-You want to join Fantasia as an official member?”

“That’s right. Noona… No, Boss.”

I grinned and accepted the hologram message.

“Welcome to Fantasia! And if possible, call me Hyungnim instead of Boss. Hehe.”

“Really? Then how about I call you Hyungnim Agasshi?”

“Wow! That’s quite nice too!”

The moment I accepted the hologram message, the next message appeared.

『You have become the Fighting Dog of a Ruined Organization!』
『Title Granted – ‘Fighting Dog of Fantasia (Ruined)’』
『Your ability, Title Collector, grants power to the word ‘Fighting Dog’.』

The moment I opened the granted ability, I made a decision.

– 

Title: Fighting Dog of Fantasia (Ruined)

Rarity: EX

Description: As the fighting dog of a ruined organization, you are a dog crazy about fighting.

Ability: The more you fight, the stronger you become. There is no limit.

※ From now on, the ability of the equipped title will be applied even if you don’t reveal the title.

– 

Someday, when I become strong enough, I’ll rip out that bastard Chunsik’s tongue.