Breathing Life into Real Dolls

1.

I had tried to discern the intent of ‘Goddess Hestia’, who unexpectedly introduced a new system called the Rank Window.

There wasn’t much I could conclude from the few clues at hand, but one thing was certain.

It was Hestia’s desire to eliminate ‘Asimone’s minions’.

And Asimone’s minions were the mutant zombies. In other words, beings that sought to annihilate humanity.

From this perspective, rankers who occupied the top spots in the Rank Window were all individuals who diligently acted in accordance with Hestia’s intentions.

In fact, thanks to them sealing the rifts, many survivors, unaware of their actions, escaped from perilous situations.

In this respect, I had a favorable view of the rankers.

It might be an arrogant thought, but the reason I wanted to collaborate in sealing the first B-Class rift was to allow rankers to accumulate experience.

In any case, it was a complacent notion.

Ultimately, rather than sealing the rift with just Serena and Ciel, it meant I was taking on the risk of exposing my abilities.

I wasn’t sure if this was the right judgment.

I simply made a choice.

2.

Probably after sealing the rift, the fact that Serena and Ciel were subordinate to me would be revealed through the contribution calculations.

It wasn’t like this was a life-threatening secret, but still, the fewer who knew, the better.

What I hoped for, in a nutshell, was ‘to keep each other’s abilities a secret’.

I planned to set out excluding those who opposed this.

However, for now, I just lightly floated the idea with a nuance, suggesting it might not matter either way.

If I said from the start that I’d exclude them, someone might hide their intentions initially and later expose them.

As a result…

Fortunately, everyone unanimously agreed.

The middle-aged gentleman, who was among the trio from the sword dojo that included Ryu Sein, who ranked 3rd, was the first to nod in agreement.

“I agree. We’ve come together to do good; there’s no need for us to openly reveal our abilities.”

Following the gentleman’s statement, Ryu Sein and another man from the same sword dojo also nodded.

Others chimed in one by one.

“I’m in favor as well.”

“I don’t really mind.”

“I agree.”

“I’m for it.”

In this way, everyone expressed their agreement.

Of course, there was no guarantee that this promise would be kept.

In reality, even if someone broke the promise, there was no way to know who it was, nor was there any means of imposing sanctions.

However, the confirmation that we did not want our abilities disclosed was satisfactory enough.

Then, ranked 36th, Hyun Seohee raised her hand.

“If everyone’s opinion aligns, how about we write a pledge? Something along the lines of, ‘Not to disclose externally any abilities we learn of each other through sealing the rifts.’”

“……”

“Well, sure.”

“If that’s more comfortable, let’s do it.”

The reaction was rather hesitant from everyone, and I felt the same.

After all, whether it was a verbal promise or a written pledge, wasn’t it the same?

Ultimately, if it was impossible to impose sanctions on someone who broke the promise, the matter boiled down to personal integrity.

However, when Hyun Seohee took out a fountain pen from her possession, the faces of several people, including mine, turned pale.

‘Could it be…?’

I wasn’t sure exactly what Hyun Seohee’s ability was.

All we witnessed was that when she wrote the word ‘heal’ on Kwon Seokhyeon’s belly, his body began to heal.

But what if her ability wasn’t just healing, but she could imbue any word she wrote with magical power?

Why, then, did she insist on ‘writing’ a ‘pledge’?

Looking around at everyone, Hyun Seohee said with a smile:

“Some of you seem to have already guessed my ability, haven’t you? Have we all agreed to write the pledge?”

3.

As I suspected, Hyun Seohee’s ability was indeed ‘imbuing words with magic.’

According to her explanation, if she wrote a pledge and then someone willingly signed it, that pledge carried an obligatory force powered by magic.

Holding her fountain pen, she wrote the pledge as if she were an inkjet printer and distributed it to all of us.

Reading through the pledge slowly, most of it precisely documented our earlier discussion.

However, something in it stood out.

It was the penalty clause.

[If one fails to uphold the above promise, they will lose all their magical powers and be rendered incapable of using their abilities.]

Upon reading the pledge, Bae Seongjun, ranked 97th, hesitated and then asked:

“This penalty… will it genuinely occur through your ability?”

Nodding, Hyun Seohee replied:

“Of course! You’re essentially swearing on your own magical power when you sign. If you break the terms of the pledge, your magic will automatically dissipate.”

“……”

“Why? I thought we all agreed?”

Most of the people had uneasy expressions on their faces.

Of course, they had agreed in principle, but given the severe nature of the penalty, it’s no wonder they felt uneasy.

I felt the need to step forward and change the mood.

“Of course, I agree.”

Without hesitation, I signed the pledge.

However, Serena, who was watching me sign from the side, whispered in my ear.

“Master, I don’t have a signature. What should I do?”

“…Me neither.”

Serena and Ciel looked up at me with troubled expressions.

“You can just make one up on the spot or just write your name. That’s fine.”

“Um… In that case…”

“Understood.”

Serena tried to mimic my signature and scribbled her own name, while Ciel simply wrote her name in block letters.

“I’m done!”

“Me too.”

“Good.”

I presented the pledges signed by the three of us to Hyun Seohee.

“We’ve all signed.”

She waved her hand with a smile.

“There’s no need to hand them to me. The moment you read, understand and sign, my ability automatically activates. Just keep your pledges.”

“Oh, I see.”

It was truly an intriguing ability.

Following our lead, the man from the kendo dojo who had been the first to agree also started signing.

“Well, I had no intention of breaking the promise anyway…”

In the end, all 10 people present signed the pledge.

While it was initially a matter left to individual conscience, now it became a promise that had to be kept if one didn’t want to lose their abilities.

In the end, the situation turned out very favorably for me.

Then, there was a knock on the conference room door.

Knock, knock.

“Come in.”

“Excuse me. I’ve brought one of our employees now…”

The ones who entered were Director Seon Jongyoon and a man in his 30s dressed in the nuclear power plant staff uniform.

I remembered seeing the man a few days ago.

He was a D-class superhuman who had been in the same room as me, dealing with the non-cooperating E-class and F-class superhumans.

Was his name… Kang Mingi?

Now that I thought about it, Director Seon Jongyoon did mention that he would be helpful in sealing the rift and asked him to come along.

I had forgotten about that.

I spoke to Hyun Seohee.

“Could you write one more pledge?”

4.

After all 11 of us had signed our pledges, we took turns introducing our abilities.

Even if we didn’t explain in detail, it was a necessary process to ensure we didn’t hinder one another.

And now, we were all standing around a B-class rift.

“…..”

Everyone seemed tense, their expressions grave.

It was understandable. This was our first attempt at a B-class rift.

I clapped my hands to lighten the mood.

“Hey, hey. Don’t worry too much. We have the top-ranked person here, don’t we?”

People looked at me.

I patted Serena’s shoulder and said,

“You all saw my girlfriend fighting earlier, right? If you all falter, we’ll clean everything up, get the contribution, and leave. If you want to maintain your rank, look out for yourself.”

Serena blinked at my words and then nodded enthusiastically.

“…Kim Doha’s girlfriend is really adorable.”

“Thank you.”

Thanks to Hyun Seohee’s compliment towards Serena, we avoided the awkwardness of no one responding.

“Now, let’s go. To seal the rift.”

“Let’s do it.”

With the response of the Kendo dojo master, we all reached out toward the rift.

The inevitable system message appeared.

Beep-!

[You’ve discovered a B-class Ashimone’s rift.]

[If the rift isn’t sealed within a certain period, the minions of Ashimone inside will emerge outside.]

[Time left till rift activation: 3d 6h 28m]

[Would you like to enter the rift?]

[Accept / Decline]

As promised, everyone had their fingers over ‘Accept’ and began counting.

“Three…, two…, one!”

Everyone tapped ‘Accept.’

The deep red whirlwind from inside the rift engulfed us, but as expected from Rankers, who have sealed numerous rifts before, no one was flustered.

Soon after, the interior landscape of the rift was revealed.

We were standing inside the Haneul 3rd Nuclear Reactor building.

And… all around us, amid the red-tinted facilities, we were surrounded by hundreds of zombies.

I shouted immediately,

“Ciel!”

“Heavenly Blessing!”

The battle began with the white light emanating from Ciel permeating our bodies.

Woooaaaaaaaah—

Woooaaaaaaaah—

Woooaaaah—

5.

I had given Serena a prior warning.

‘Fight if necessary, but as much as possible, don’t use your ability. Unless our allies are in danger, don’t interfere.’

Having not seen the other Rankers fight, I thought it was wise to first assess the situation.

‘Where…’

With zombies lunging at us from every direction in an instant crisis, Ahn Jiwoo reached out toward the ground and shouted,

“Gnome!”

A stone golem rose from the ground, and the entire terrain we were standing on surged upwards.

Wooooaaaaaah—

The attacking zombies flailed their arms as we suddenly distanced ourselves, and with the ground shaking, we were taken aback.

“Woah!”

“Don’t panic! It’s my ability!”

Ranked 21st, Ahn Jiwoo. He had introduced himself as a Spirit Caller who controlled the four elements.

‘So, being a Spirit Caller meant having this ability.’

Controlling the four elements meant not just the gnome but also the spirits of the other three elements.

It was a cheat-like ability that would probably make Lee Jinah, who only knew earth magic, quite envious.

His being ranked 21 wasn’t just for show.

And with each passing moment, the anticipation for the abilities of others continued to grow.

‘Where… Let’s see what’s going on.’