Surviving Among the Anomalies - Chapter 60

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 60: Karma Consulting

──────

『...』

-Hello? Hello? Affliction Demon? Can you hear me?

The conductor dropped the phone in despair.

『...This is all your fault.』

I thought he had completely broken down in despair, but he unleashed his fury on me.

『If it hadn't been for an insect like you, none of this would've happened!』

“I don't know all the details, but from what I heard, aren't you the one who committed a serious offense?”

At least, that was what I'd heard.

“Hell became so busy that it requested help from the Desire Realm. This train was meant to be a Temporary Hell that would quickly process those with minor sins and ease Hell's workload. But instead of conducting proper judgments, you treated humans like insects and sentenced them based on personal feelings...”

『Shut up!』

The conductor's black silhouette grew larger.

『No matter what happens to me, you at least...』

At that moment.

『!?』

The flames in the furnace went out. Darkness settled over the engine room.

『Ah, ah...』

My enhanced body let me make out objects even in the dark, and I could clearly see the conductor trembling in fear.

『Please...』

Darkness descended once again. It was as though even the earlier darkness had been too bright. This new darkness was impenetrable, even with my current body.

『Have mercy...』

My body couldn't see it, but my right eye activated and showed me the world beyond my sight.

‘Ah.’

Beyond the pitch-black darkness was space. Beyond the universe stretching past planets, stars, and galaxies lay a world darker than this place, where universes were scattered like beads.

『O Heavenly King of Freely Enjoying Others’ Emanations!』

There were infinitely many universes there. I didn't know how I had counted them or how my mind had understood them, but that was what I felt.

『O Demonic Host!』

A serpent made of black flames coiled around those infinite universes as though protecting its eggs. It had three thousand heads, all asleep with their eyes closed.

『O Demon King!』

『O Sixth Heaven Demon King!』

『O Mara!』

『O Papiyas!』

『O Preventer of Liberation!』

『O Heavenly Demon!』

At the conductor's cries, one of the serpent's heads slowly opened its eyes. Darkness that even my right eye could not pierce lurked beneath its eyelid.

The moment it closed its eye again, the conductor vanished.

『Please! Have mercy on me just once...』

I had seen it. I had simply seen something human language could not describe.

Still, if I had to make a close comparison, the conductor had been ‘torn’ out of this world.

‘Terrifying.’

Not just his body. His very existence.

That was the closest description I could give of what had just happened.

“Whew.”

Perhaps the serpent had no interest in me. It soon disappeared, and the darkness beyond darkness lifted as the world brightened again. The flames returned to the furnace, and aside from the conductor's disappearance, everything was the same.

-Hello? Is it over now?

“Yes, it's over.”

I picked up the phone lying there and resumed the call.

-It seems the Heavenly King of Freely Enjoying Others’ Emanations paid a visit. You probably couldn't see anything, but darkness fell, didn't it? That means they visited.

“I see.”

-We sincerely apologize for the trouble caused by one of our subcontractors.

Over the phone, King Chogang explained the situation.

-The number of sentient beings increased dramatically, and our workload became overwhelming. In modern times, not only have their numbers increased, but the sins they commit have increased greatly too.

So Hell came up with several measures and put them into practice.

-First, we abandoned our former harsh-punishment policy and shifted toward rehabilitation and reconciliation. Rather than applying strict legal principles as before, we added far more flexibility. Even so, there were still too many sinners, so we asked the Desire Realm for help.

“So this train was made by the Desire Realm.”

-Yes. It's a Temporary Hell that finds sinners with minor offenses, judges them, and quickly sends them on to reincarnation. Of course, we were wary of incorrect judgments, so we planned to send inspectors every year, but...

The hell train had first begun operating this June.

That was when the world had changed into Surviving Among the Anomalies. Not even a year had passed yet, so no inspection had taken place.

-I never imagined he would start making arbitrary judgments from the very beginning! And not of the dead, but the living! If it hadn't been for your good karma, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon, we wouldn't have known until the next inspection! Even then, Affliction Demon would probably have found some way to deceive us! We sincerely apologize for getting you caught up in this!

“No, it's fine. I saved everyone who needed saving, and I'm alive too.”

Everyone who had been burning as fuel in the furnace returned to where they had been abducted from.

‘There were people who had been abducted with me among those burning inside, right?’

Even the passengers who had failed to reach the engine room and died at the judges' hands had somehow been used as fuel in the furnace. It was safe to say that I had gotten every abducted passenger out.

-Anyway, the Heavenly King of Freely Enjoying Others’ Emanations will probably punish Affliction Demon until the universe completes a single cycle. That's usually how they punish people.

“What kind of punishment?”

-Well, I don't know the details either, but it'll probably be a terrible one. Now then, shall we return to our original work and finish what we were discussing earlier?

“You mean my karma?”

-Yes. While the Heavenly King of Freely Enjoying Others’ Emanations was visiting, I examined your karma in detail, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon. You have very unusual karma.

My karma was unusual? I was genuinely interested in how.

“I'd welcome that.”

I couldn't let an opportunity like this pass by.

＊＊＊

-First, your current good karma includes the 26.72 million points I mentioned earlier, plus 210,000 points accumulated before that. The 26.72 million points came from saving sentient beings suffering in Hell, while the 210,000 points were for ‘giving those suffering through life the opportunity for a new life.’ That's 1,000 points per case, so you saved 210 people.

The former was for saving the passengers from the furnace. The latter seemed to be the effect of the Otherworld Transfer Book.

-Next, you have 155,500 points of bad karma accrued through Finger Karma. There are no major offenses, but minor ones have built up over a long period, leading to this total.

“But I've never done anything bad in an online community.”

-Yes, I read the detailed logs for that part. You certainly made posts in communities with no ill intent, hoping to engage in sincere discussions, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon. But everyone hated them, didn't they?

Unfortunately, bad karma in online communities wasn't automatically excused just because I had posted with good intentions.

-You kept posting despite everyone disliking it, so the system judged it intentional. You were caught harassing others regardless of your intent, and bad karma accumulated. Please remember that even if you don't intend evil, it is still bad karma if victims continue to appear.

I was about to protest, but then a tragic woman from history came to mind.

‘Typhoid Mary.’

Back when typhoid was called “epidemic disease” and had a very high mortality rate, there was a woman named Mary living in America.

‘She was an asymptomatic carrier who had typhoid bacteria but showed no symptoms.’

Unfortunately, she was a cook, and countless people caught typhoid through her food and died.

‘They eventually discovered that she was a carrier and banned her from cooking, but she continued because she was struggling to make a living.’

She concealed her identity and worked as a cook, but people died every time. Eventually, she was caught and had to live in a hospital until her death, never able to cook again.

‘She hadn't had bad intentions either.’

But there had been victims, and they had all died.

‘Am I the same?’

I knew people disliked my posts. I just thought it was a harmful result of deep-rooted problems in modern society and kept trying anyway. Did they consider even that bad karma?

“How sad.”

-I'll tell you an alternative. Repeating that behavior in someone else's community is bad karma, but doing so in your own community is considered an act within your own space. As long as there is no intent, bad karma won't accumulate even if repeated acts create victims.

“Oh, thank you so much!”

-Don't mention it. This is consulting, after all.

That was good advice.

-So, you have a total of 156,500 points of bad karma, but it has all been deducted from your 26.93 million points of good karma. You now have no bad karma, only good karma. Wow! Congratulations! If you keep living this way, you'll be able to go to Paradise!

“Thank you. But I have a few questions.”

-What are they?

“I've saved the world a few times. Doesn't that count as good karma?”

-What? Hmm, let me check the logs again.

After a moment, she spoke.

-It doesn't appear in the logs. In cases like this, there are two possibilities. Either you're mistaken, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon, or it was good karma involving the intervention of a transcendent being.

“You mean a transcendent being?”

-Sometimes, people who see the future through the power of transcendent beings try to accumulate good karma that way. In those cases, it is considered the transcendent being's power rather than their own, so good karma does not accumulate.

“Ah, I understand.”

The world I had saved after seeing the future with the right eye Blue Moon had given me didn't count as good karma.

-There had been cases detected where people tried to abuse the system that offsets bad karma and good karma. They freely wielded transcendent beings' power to accumulate bad karma, then tried to use that same power later to accumulate good karma separately and erase it. That's why the law was created.

“I understand. There's one last thing I'm curious about. May I ask?”

-Anything!

There was one thing I had really wanted to know.

“I understand there is more than one hell in this world. How is it decided where someone goes after death?”

-I knew you were no ordinary person, but you even know that much? As for that...

King Chogang said with a laugh.

-That's confidential company information, so we're prohibited from disclosing it to outsiders!

＊＊＊

Unfortunately, I couldn't find out where I would go after death.

[If you promise to work at our Hell after death, I could tell you right now! If you keep living like this, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon, you will definitely go to Paradise, but there are many choices available once you get there! One of them is becoming one of the Ten Kings!]

It was a Buddhist hell, but like Lucifer Company, it was modern. Unlike Lucifer Company, it wasn't a private corporation.

[Hell is a public enterprise, so unless you cause a particularly major incident, it is a job for life!]

I ended the call after she asked me to activate the Karma Call Center again if I ever became interested.

“Whew.”

I wanted to sleep immediately, but I hadn't finished my work yet.

“Sarang-i, let's return to reality. Please get us moving.”

『Yes, understood.』

I hacked the furnace through Sarang-i, then leaned against it during the return trip.

『Twenty minutes remain until arrival.』

“Okay. I'll get some sleep.”

『I will share the destination with the Foundation through the saved contacts.』

“Yeah, thanks.”