71 – New Teams

28F, Khun's private residence

In the Dua avatar, I travelled with Hwa Ryun to meet Team S and Khun. After Khun woke up and recovered, he led Team S to his own team's residence to check what happened, discovering the death of one teammate and the crippling of the other, while Rachel and the two FUG infiltrators were missing.

First, we greeted Wangnan, Yihwa, and co.

Then, Hwa Ryun went up to the roof to find and persuade Khun to lead Team S in the bet against Team FUG during the Workshop Battle.

I went to check on Khun's two teammates.

I walked with Yihwa and Wangnan to the first room, and on the bed unconscious lay Dan, the speedster Scout who was the last to join Khun's team.

Upon my entry, Yihwa explained that she'd been using the Yeon acupuncture on him for the past few days, though the tools had been put away.

"The doctor Khun hired said he won't be able to walk for a month," said Yihwa. "And even after, his legs won't be as good as before. I heard he was famed as one of the fastest Regulars in the E-Rank. It must be hard for Khun to see his teammates like this."

I examined his body and injuries myself. His legs would make a full recovery on their own, but he'd have to retrain them to get back to their former power.

It was exactly the issue which had been the focus of my 31st Floor Seeker Challenge.

"It's not that bad. He's alive, and not crippled. After getting enough rest, it should heal on its own, and then he'll be able to train himself back to full strength eventually if he has the will for it," I said, after retracting my hand from his leg. "I'm going to have a look at the one that died. Where is he?"

"Still in his room, he hasn't been moved yet. It's right down the hall," said Wangnan.

Next I went to see the humanoid chicken, Gyetang. One of Rachel's people, the quack doctor on their team, had poisoned him to make it look like he had bird flu, which was one of the reasons Khun had to split his team, leaving behind some to take care of Gyetang and Rachel, who had still been faking being crippled.

After lifting the sheet that covered his body, a Structural Grasp showed that much of his body had already entered the post-death changes, like rigor mortis, decay, necrosis, etc.

If I'd had the water stone with me, it would still be possible to fully heal the body back to a living vegetable and remove all signs of death in a matter of minutes.

As it stood, the water stone was with my main body so I had to test out my own skills.

My Restoration spell was not nearly good enough for this, but turning a dead corpse into a familiar was a basic skill of Fate magi. There were certain advantages of using a corpse, like remnant spiritual energy and the thoughts of the deceased being present, though in most cases they would use an animal body instead, and combine it with the spiritual energy of deceased humans.

To create a high quality Canjon-class puppet fit for combat would mean many days of work and reagents invested, even if it was my main body handling the spellcraft.

A fresher corpse would also be better for the resulting quality, especially to preserve the spiritual residue and Shinsoo flows.

On the other hand, a corpse which had been decayed for a while, like this one, had less resistance to my mana.

I restored the bare minimum of the major muscle groups, got rid of some of the more disgusting smells, just enough to move around a bit. Then continued to inject mana until I could make it respond to my control.

A temporary familiar that would last no more than ten minutes under control, slow to respond, imprecise, and exacerbated by the direct connection coming from the Dua avatar, as it was simply too far to connect via a direct route to my main body with this basic magecraft.

Still, I was pleased that it worked as the corpse slowly stood up and took a step. Good enough as a demonstration, and a little prank.

There was a small commotion, and my Reinforced ears overheard Khun rushing into Dan's room because he'd woken guy started retelling his sob story to Khun, about why he stopped climbing the Tower after all his teammates died and he cowardly ran away alone.

He asked Khun to join the Workshop Battle because Rachel left him alive on purpose, to see what he would do with his crippled legs.

I shook my head listening to it, his legs weren't crippled as I'd assessed earlier and they would heal just like Rachel's did, so it was really just some drama to make Rachel look like a sadistic villain and stir up audience hate.

I thought it was a perfectly reasonable way to disable an enemy whose main strength was in their legs, without killing them, since Rachel didn't quite have the heart to do that yet. He had even provoked her with insults at the time when Rachel had offered for him to join her, so it was well deserved.

In canon, the guy did heal pretty fast, participated in the Workshop Battle, and was completely normal again in a year.

That was why I didn't bother to heal him after my diagnosis. The drama lord could just suffer through the punishment Rachel gave him, unless there was something in it for me.

But from that sob story, Khun found his resolve, and ran over to where Team S was gathered with Hwa Ryun.

"Hwa Ryun! I'll accept your offer!"

Then he made a speech introducing himself, asking them to make a team with him.

"Frankly speaking, the chance that we'll win is…" Wangnan started saying.

"100%. I can't lose to a lame Slayer candidate or Zahard's googly eyes," said Khun. "I'll make the perfect strategy. I'll do anything nasty and dirty to win. In the end, they'll all kneel before me, begging me for mercy. Well, even though I said that, don't feel pressured. I'm just saying we should try it right? We're just meeting our friend."

He seemed to impress the team a bit, and then Wangnan shook hands with him, agreeing to make a team.

Just then, I entered the room, having snuck over to the door while Khun was talking.

Team S members all looked at me. Khun noticed this, and began turning around.

"Nice speech Khun. I'm glad to see you haven't lost any of your confidence," I said with a smirk and crossed arms, leaning against the wall beside the door.

"You…do I know you…?" Khun said confusedly. "That arrogant posture and tone…it's reminding me of someone but…"

"Long time no see, kid," Derflinger answered after Decompressing and floating in the air beside me. "It's me, the old voice in your head. You're going crazy again. It's probably the explosion knocking something loose up there, you gotta get that checked out."

Khun's face finally changed.

"You…! The talking sword! It can't be…Axion?!" Khun asked in a shout.

I laughed, then slicked back my hair and took off my glasses, changing my eyes, hair color, and face at the same time.

"T-the Crystal Knight?" Wangnan exclaimed.

"What the hell are you doing here?! What's with that disguise? Are you part of FUG now too?" Khun asked. "I knew there was something fishy about you!"

Behind Khun, the team was whispering and asking Yihwa if she knew all along that Dr. Dua was Axion, and she could only nod helplessly.

"I am working with some people in FUG, like Hwa Ryun, though I wouldn't call myself a member," I said. "I had nothing to do with the Arlene's Hand operation, if that's what you were wondering."

The team was shocked again when Khun stormed up to me angrily and grabbed my cuff. "What about on the test floor, huh?! You were Rachel's teammate weren't you? Did you know all along that she betrayed Baam?!"

"I did," I said.

"Then Androssi, too?! You damn traitors! I should tell Leesoo right now!" His Lighthouse Cubes lit up around us suddenly, and I felt a strange Shinsoo flow coming from him. It almost reminded me of Yihwa's fire, but felt cold. Was that his Shinsoo Quality already developing?

"You could, but are you sure Rachel betrayed Baam?" I asked. With the Avatar Body, I couldn't match his Cubes, so I instead just made the circuit lines of Reinforcement show up visibly on my face. This wouldn't happen anymore with my refined control unless I Reinforced the outer skin too, but I had done it enough for the aesthetics while climbing with Androssi that it was thought to be 'Axion serious mode' to those who paid attention to us on the public networks.

"What? Of course she did, she tried to kill him!"

"The RED from the Zahard Empire is the one who actually tried to kill Baam, but Androssi and I defeated him, so he could only send the Bull. Rachel pushed Baam into the wineglass, and Zahard Empire thinks he's dead," I said. "But he survived, didn't he? Hwa Ryun went to save him and bring him to FUG for training."

"That's…that's bullshit! Are you trying to say that Rachel was just helping to fake his death?!" Khun asked.

"I can't speak on Rachel's behalf or why she did it, but that was why I agreed to the plan. Hwa Ryun was my Guide, so I just followed the path she laid out. Baam already exposed the fact that he was an Irregular in front of everybody, so there was no other choice. What would you have expected me to do? I didn't know the Tower's politics, so I just relied on Hwa Ryun who did."

He let go of me roughly while pointing to Hwa Ryun. "Then tell me how she was already your Guide back then, unless you were already a part of FUG from the beginning?!"

"No, that was Headon's arrangement, and it was personal, nothing to do with FUG."

"Headon? And why would he do that?"

"I don't know his motives, but think about this for a moment. Remember what Lero Ro told us? Baam made a deal with the Guardian, not the Ranker test administrators—if he died, the rest of us would pass. But he didn't actually die, and the Guardian in charge of the test certainly knew that even if the Rankers couldn't find him, so why were we still allowed to pass?"

There was a moment of silence while Khun processed the words.

"…you're saying the Guardian planned it that way. Together with Headon. Because everything that happens on a Floor is by the Guardians' permission."

"Yes. So if you want somebody to blame, blame that evil rabbit. He's the one who orchestrated everything. He tricked Baam into going up the Tower, made a deal with Rachel, and then tasked me to help her. The Guardians' test, the Rankers' interference, FUG, all of it was orchestrated by Headon and the Guardian of the 2nd Floor."

"It was all one big test…all three of you were Irregulars…" said Khun.

"As for Androssi, she wasn't part of it, but I told her about it after. She's definitely not to blame for any of it, so if you accuse her in front of the team, all you'll accomplish is hurt everyone for no reason, since she'll be too proud to admit that she was ever depressed like everyone else because she actually thought he died."

Khun clenched his fists so hard that he bled.

"…I can't…I can't just accept this…for the last eight years, I've been thinking about what happened back then everyday…about how I would get revenge for Baam…and now you're telling me…it was all pointless?! That it was necessary?! And what about Gyetang? Or Dan's legs? Rachel, that bitch killed Gyetang and crippled Dan, after pretending that she couldn't use her own legs for years, taking advantage of everyone's guilt about Baam's death! There's no way I can believe that she did any of it for anyone but herself!"

"I'm not telling you to forgive her. I don't know what motivates her either. I'm just saying that if you keep lashing out at everyone because you want somebody to blame, you might regret it later. At least right now, Hwa Ryun and I are not your enemies, we're here to help."

"Damn it…damn it all!" Khun was just shaking now, head down.

Wangnan put a shoulder on Khun. "Listen, Khun, I have no idea what the hell you guys are talking about…but Axion's been helping us, helping Viole—or Baam—for the last two years as Dr. Dua. Hwa Ryun too. We were all suspicious of FUG at first, just like we were suspicious of Viole himself, but it turned out they aren't bad people. And we're going to have a hard enough time with the Workshop Battle as it is, So maybe…we should just work together to get Viole back?"

"And Mr. Dan isn't crippled, Khun! Dr. Dua looked at him earlier and said he would make a full recovery," said Yihwa. "We're all on the same side and just making the best of things!"

"They are right, Mr. Khun. Turning down Axion's help would be very unwise for the wager," said Hwa Ryun.

After a while, Khun huffed. "Fine. You're right. I'm not done with either of you," he said, glaring at both me and Hwa Ryun, who merely smiled. "But I can work with you for Baam's sake. So you're going to join this team?"

"Not exactly. We don't want the other faction to know I'm helping, so I can only do it indirectly. Officially, I'll be with Leesoo's team as Axion. Unofficially though…" I gestured to the door.

Suddenly a humanoid chicken came through with stiff movements and a fixed smile.

Khun's eyes bugged out. "Gyetang?! You're alive?"

"No, unfortunately not, I'm just reanimating his corpse," I said. "Well, technically, some of the cells are alive again, but the soul isn't there."

Everyone in the room looked freaked out, except Yihwa who already knew I could do such things, and Hwa Ryun, who looked curiously at the walking corpse.

"What…the fuck?!" Khun shouted. "What are you doing with that? We should let him rest in peace!"

"Because I can restore his body to a technically alive state, Gyetang can be qualified to enter the Workshop Battle with you guys like this, and they won't be able to easily tell that it's me. I'll need to spend some time modifying and healing his body to a fighting shape, then I'll be able to channel some of my powers through this body," I said.

"Didn't you say you would do anything nasty and dirty to win? This way, we can surprise them. If he participates as either Axion or Dua in this team, the other FUG team will definitely get additional assistance from their side," said Hwa Ryun.

"Grrr…I don't like this, but fine. I should disguise myself as well, it'll be easier to move if everyone still thinks I'm dead," said Khun.

Then his expression turned sharp. "But there's another important question. Who's going to be the leader?"

"Uh…" Wangnan said hesitantly. "I don't mind if one of you take the lead."

But Khun and I weren't looking at him. We were looking at each other.

It was suddenly a tense atmosphere again as Team Sweet and Sour looked back and forth between Khun and me.

Then I laughed lightly. "Why so tense? It's not a big deal, right? You can be the leader, just like old times, Khun. I also can't be a Lightbearer using Gyetang's body, and I'll be too busy to coordinate."

"Alright," said Khun. "By the way, they called you Doctor Dua…are you supposed to be some kind of healer now too, you can work on living people, not just the dead?"

"I am," I said, nodding.

Khun looked at Gyetang again, and back to me. "You said you'd bring Gyetang back into fighting shape. Isn't there anything you can do for Dan?"

"As Yihwa said, I already looked at him. He'll recover fine on his own, and then he just needs to train again to build back the power in his legs," I said. "It might take a few years but there's nothing holding him back except his own motivation."

"I heard earlier. But what I mean is, he wants to participate in the Workshop Battle. Is there not a way to speed up Dan's recovery, get some of his strength back before the Battle?" Khun asked. "If you can do it for a dead body…"

"It's a little different for Gyetang because I'm going to be modifying the body. But I'll have another look at Dan and see what I can do," I said.

"Please. It would mean a lot to him, and to me."

Well, well, if doing it might buy some goodwill and a future favor, then helping Dan wasn't out of the question.

…

I made a show of using a Cube to scan Dan's legs this time, instead of just Structural Grasp.

It wasn't really necessary, but it wasn't entirely superfluous either, because this time the issue was the matter of Shinsoo flows, which the Lighthouse was better suited to analyzing.

It was just that I didn't have any way of fixing his Shinsoo flows, so nothing would come of it.

Although I had absorbed and mastered the Shinsoo pattern from Blood Fusion Flower Pill already, that only worked to restore my own personal Shinsoo flows, and I couldn't even transfer the flows to anybody outside of my main body, not even my avatars.

But I gave the issue a little more thought, as a learning exercise, while glancing at the data displayed on my Lighthouse screen.

"The injury inflicted was both widespread and targeted, at the most important tendons. There was nothing special about the weapon or attack used, which is why this has a good chance of healing normally and making a full recovery with the proper rest and therapies, of which the Yeon acupuncture is very suitable," I said, stating my diagnosis aloud. "The issue with injuries like these for Regulars, is that the 'power' that was built up from hard training doesn't recover on its own. The good news is that the destruction here was limited, so the Shinsoo flows that comprise that power are not all gone, they've merely been disrupted and damaged."

"So then…" Khun started, face hopeful.

"I don't have any way to directly restore that power. However, what I can do is speed up the healing of the physical damage so that he can begin training sooner, and that will naturally restore those flows. It will certainly go faster than training from scratch, but it's hard to say how much can be achieved in two months. I'll get him back on his feet by tomorrow, and then if Yihwa applies the Yeon acupuncture three times a week, that would be ideal. He'll have to keep to very light exercise for the first week, and I'll need to do a few follow up treatments, but it should at least allow a month of more intensive training before the Workshop Battle."

"Tomorrow? Seriously? That expensive professional I hired said it would be a month before he could walk," said Khun, incredulous.

"Don't doubt Dr. Dua, he's way better than any normal doctor," said Yihwa.

Actually, I could've healed him even faster, practically on the spot. Healing some tendons and muscle on a body that was still fully alive and had its own healing factor was far simpler than restoring Gyetang, but I didn't need to reveal the extent of my capabilities here. Plus, it would give me an excuse to spend more time adding some other surprises.

"Of course, with my special techniques he'll recover in no time. It's just too bad I can't do any more," I said.

"That's already much better than I ever hoped…thank you Dr. Dua," said Dan.

"I'm not in disguise right now, you guys can just call me Axion."

"Well then, thank you, Dr. Axion," said Khun.

O O O

The next day, I finished the first part of my treatment plan for Dan, and was back on the roof with Khun.

"Thanks for helping Dan, seriously. And I'm sorry about yesterday."

"You haven't changed a bit, Khun. But that's fine," I said.

"Neither have you, you damn jack of all trades. Why are you so good at everything? Did you manage to become an actual Wave Controller too?"

"A bit. I became a better Anima than a Wave Controller though," I said.

"You're too hardworking. Don't you know geniuses are supposed to be lazy?"

"No way, maybe it's just you, Khun," I said.

"Hey, I work plenty hard. I was talking about Laure," said Khun. "But I'm flattered that you think I'm a genius."

"Oh, right. I almost forgot about that sleep obsessed guy. Androssi never mentions him. But Viole's going to give him a run for his money if they meet in the Workshop Battle. He's been working really hard too."

"I still can't believe it. I just can't put that innocent face together with the cruel and powerful Slayer candidate. He was the weakest of us, and now…how strong has he become? Is he stronger than you now?"

"I don't know. On the face of it, I think I'm still stronger. But you know Baam's crazy talent. If we actually fought, he'd probably learn all my moves really quick. In terms of our record, I've got three Ranker fights to his two, but he also fought Urek Mazino, who's way stronger than any Ranker. Have you fought any Rankers yet, Khun?"

"What? I'm not insane! Did you and Androssi just go around picking fights with every test admin? And what's this about Urek Mazino? When did that happen?"

Behind us, spying on us with their heads around the door to the roof, the rest of the team whispered.

"They really are old friends, huh?" Wangnan observed.

"Their argument was so scary yesterday…I thought they were going to fight," said Goseng.

"It's true what they say about friends bickering…" said Akraptor.

"I wish I had friends like that…" said Yihwa.

"What? Aren't we your friends?" asked Prince.

"Who's friends with you idiots!"

"Hi guys, I'm alive again," said Gyetang, coming between them with a crazed smile and a glowing yellow aura, controlled by Derflinger. "Nice to meet you, Khun's new team."

"Waaah!" Team Sweet and Sour scrambled away.

Dan laughed from behind Gyetang, walking again. "Come on, give them some privacy, let them catch up on their own."

O O O

35F Train City, Station B

The private train we were on came slowly to a stop, and the loudspeakers blasted. "Welcome to Train City, Regulars! If you are coming here for the first time, please visit the Central Station for more information about the special D-Rank Train, the Hell Train Express, that will be arriving in two months. If you're looking for the Regular Floor Test, then please visit the Test Administration Area. At Train City, there are many smaller trains to get anywhere you want to go, feel free to take a complementary map on your way out! Good luck and safe travels!"

I stepped out onto the arrival platform after Team Darul filed out.

"Where shall we go now, lady Sasha?" Darul asked.

"First, we need a temporary base of operations. We'll head towards Central and set up there since that's where most of the ticketers should be going. Have your guys scout around for information on potential targets," I said.

"Understood. The guys that attacked us earlier seemed to have found out about my ticket from this app called Emily," Darul said. "I'm not sure how it's getting this information, but we might be able to use it. It's some sort of chat app."

"Yes, I know about it. Emily can find other ticketers for us. Feel free to use it, but be careful, anything you tell Emily could also be shared with her other chat partners," I said.

Emily, the Living Ignition Weapon that had been melted back down and had no body, powering a network of devices offering chat services to lonely people, while simultaneously running an information network.

The device had become quite popular and widely distributed all over the Tower by a merchant group FUG dealt with, but the users were most concentrated around the late E-Rank and early D-Rank Floors.

It was also the centerpiece of Rachel's future plans. After convincing Emily to help her and FUG to let her have Emily, she had mentioned it to me briefly the last time she called my Pocket and suggested that I buy one of the devices to try it out.

She hadn't informed me of most of her plans yet, so I was just drawing on canon knowledge. She simply called to say that she had escaped Khun's team and was gathering new teammates, asking how far I'd climbed and if I'd be interested in joining her.

I congratulated her on getting away from Khun, and told her I could join her a bit later above the 30th Floor, but was currently occupied, without any specifics.

Indeed, I expected to join her by the time the canonical Hell Train events started, but that was still a year off.

For now, some of our plans would intersect at the Workshop Battle, but there was no need to directly coordinate yet.

O O O