Surviving Among the Entities

『……』
-Hello? Hey there? Vexation Demon? Are you listening to me?

The conductor dejectedly dropped the phone.

『……This is all your fault.』

I thought he had lost his mind due to dejection, but instead he poured out his rage at me.

『If not for you, you filthy insect! This would never have happened!』
“From what little I understand, it seems you were the one who committed a major transgression.”

At least, this is what I had heard.

“Hell became too overwhelmed, so they requested assistance from the Desire Realm. This train was established as an abbreviated hell to swiftly process those with minor sins, lightening hell’s workload. But instead of proper judgement, you treated humans as insects, passing judgement based on personal feelings……”
『Shut up!』

The conductor’s black silhouette grew larger.

『No matter what happened, an insect like you at least……』

At that moment.

『!?』

The furnace’s flames went out. Darkness descended upon the engine room.

『Ah, aah……』

My enhanced body granted the ability to perceive objects even in darkness, clearly spotting the trembling conductor.

『Please……』

And once more, deeper darkness fell. As if the previous darkness had been too bright, this newly descended gloom could not be penetrated even by my current body.

『Have mercy……』

Though my body could not see, my right eye activated, allowing me to witness unseen realms.

‘Ah.’

Beyond the pitch-black darkness was the cosmos. Planets, stars, galaxies, and beyond – an even darker realm where such universes were scattered like marbles.

『Transformation Lord!』

There, universes were infinite in number. I could not comprehend how I counted or conceived it with my mind, but that was the feeling.

『Demon Armies!』

Those infinite universes were coiled and guarded by a serpent of black flames, like a mother tending her eggs. The serpent had three thousand heads, all with closed eyes as if slumbering.

『Demon King!』
『Sixth Demon King!』
『Evil Namuche!』
『Papiyan!』
『Unloosed!』
『Son of Heaven Demon!』

At the conductor’s cries, one of the serpent’s heads slowly opened its eyes. A darkness impenetrable even to my right eye lurked beneath those eyelids, and the moment it closed them again the conductor vanished.

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

I witnessed it. Just something inexpressible in human language.
Yes, if I must offer a close analogy, the conductor was ‘plucked’ from this world.

‘Dreadful.’

Surpassing the physical, his very existence.
This was the most concrete description I could give of what had just occurred.

“Whew.”

The serpent, having no interest in me, soon disappeared. As the darkness upon darkness lifted, the world grew bright again. The furnace’s flames returned, and aside from the conductor’s disappearance everything was the same as before.

-Hey there? Is it all over?
“Yes, it’s over.”

I picked up the discarded phone and continued the call.

-It seems the Transformation Lord must have visited. Though you couldn’t see it, that descending darkness signifies their presence.
“I see.”
-On behalf of our subcontracted agency, I sincerely apologize for causing this incident.

Beyond the receiver, Sho-ko-dai-o explained the situation to me.

-The truth is, ever since the number of sentient beings increased drastically, our workload also became overwhelmed. In modern times, not only did the number of beings increase but the sins they committed also multiplied greatly.

So hell devised a few countermeasures and implemented them.

-First, we abandoned the previous hardline punitive approach and adopted a reformative and conciliatory policy instead. Instead of strictly applying the old laws, we added much more flexibility. But with sinners still too numerous, we also requested assistance from the Desire Realm.
“So the train I’m on was created by the Desire Realm.”
-Yes, it’s an abbreviated hell to judge and swiftly reincarnate those with minor sins. Of course, we were wary of improper judgements so we planned to send inspectors annually…….

The hell train’s initial operation commenced this June.
This was the same time the world changed to surviving the entities, but it hadn’t even been a year so no inspections had occurred yet.

-Who could have expected it to go rogue with arbitrary judgements right from the start? And not just on the dead, but the living too! If not for your positive karma, Seung-hoon, we would have remained oblivious until the next inspection! The Vexation Demon would likely have resorted to trickery to deceive us during the inspection too! I sincerely apologize for embroiling you in this incident!
“No, everyone has been saved and I’m still alive, so it’s alright.”

All the people burning as fuel in the furnace have returned to the places they were originally abducted from.

‘Included among those burning inside were also people abducted along with me, right?’

The passengers who died at the hands of the judging entities before reaching the engine room were also likely used as furnace fuel through some mechanism, so I managed to free all the abducted passengers.

-In any case, the Vexation Demon will likely be punished by the Transformation Lord until the end of this cosmic cycle. That’s usually how punishments are meted out.
“What kind of punishment?”
-Not sure. I don’t know the details, but it will probably be a dreadful penalty. Anyway, shall we return to the actual work and continue the discussion from earlier?
“You mean about my karmic record?”
-Yes, while the Transformation Lord was present I examined your karmic record in detail, and you really have quite a unique one.

That my karmic record is unique – I’m truly intrigued to know how exactly.

“I welcome it.”

This is an opportunity I cannot miss.

-To start, your current positive karma is the 2,672,000 points from rescuing those suffering in hell that I mentioned earlier, plus 210,000 points of prior positive karma. The 2,672,000 points are from rescuing beings suffering in hell, and the 210,000 points are for ‘giving new life opportunities to those whose lives were full of suffering’, at 1,000 points per rescue – so you saved 210 people?

The former was from rescuing the passengers from the furnace, while the latter seemed related to the effects of the Other World Transfer Book.

-Next is 155,500 points of negative karma accumulated from finger karma over a long period, nothing major but countless minor cases built up to this amount.
“But I have never committed any misdeeds in online communities.”
-Yes, I read through the detailed log for that part. It’s clear you wrote community posts with the sincere intention of having earnest discussions, Seung-hoon. But everyone disliked it, didn’t they?

Unfortunately, negative karma from online communities is not automatically excused just because I had good intentions for my writing.

-Despite everyone’s dislike, you kept writing posts which led the system to judge it as intentional, so regardless of your intent it was flagged as harassment resulting in negative karma accumulation. No matter how unintentional, if consistent victims occur then it is still negative karma – please keep that in mind.

I wanted to object to her words, but suddenly the tragic historic figure of Typhoid Mary came to mind.

‘Typhoid Mary.’

In an era when typhoid, known then as the filth disease due to its high mortality rate, was prevalent in America, there lived a woman named Mary.

‘She was an asymptomatic carrier of the typhoid bacteria.’

Yet by chance, her profession was a cook, and many people became infected with typhoid and died from her cooking.

‘Eventually when it was discovered she was a carrier, she was barred from cooking, but struggling to make ends meet she continued cooking in secret.’

Hiding her identity, she worked as a cook, but each time more deaths occurred until she was finally apprehended and confined to a hospital for the rest of her life, never to cook again.

‘She too had no malicious intent.’

But there were still victims, and they all died.

‘Am I the same?’

I know people dislike my writing. But I had only continued trying because I thought it stemmed from chronic societal issues, yet they still judged it as negative karma.

“How truly sad.”
-Let me suggest an alternative. Repeatedly doing such acts in others’ communities is negative karma, but doing so in your own community is considered acting within your own space, so as long as there is no intention then even if repeated acts cause victims, no negative karma will accrue.
“Oh, thank you so much!”
-What, this is just consulting.

A good piece of advice.

-Well, in the end you have a total of 155,500 points of negative karma, but it’s all offset by the 2,693,000 points of positive karma leaving you with only positive karma remaining. Wow! Congratulations! If you just keep living like this, you’ll definitely reach the Pure Lands!
“Thank you. But I have a few lingering questions.”
-What are they?
“I have saved the world a few times, but does that not count as positive karma?”
-Hm? Let me check the log again.

After a moment, she spoke.

-There’s no record of it in the log. In cases like this, there are two possibilities – either you’re mistaken, Seung-hoon, or it involved the intervention of a transcendent being which is why it’s not recorded as your positive karma.
“A transcendent being, you say?”
-Sometimes those who rely on transcendent beings’ powers to glimpse the future attempt to accumulate positive karma that way, but since it’s not their own power but that of the transcendent being, no positive karma is recorded.
“Ah, I see.”

So the worlds I saved by foreseeing the future with the right eye granted by the Blue Moon did not count as positive karma.

-There have been cases of abusing this positive/negative karma offsetting system, you know. Where they freely accumulate negative karma, then later try to negate it by separately racking up positive karma utilizing a transcendent being’s power – such attempts have been detected before. This regulation was created because of that.
“I understand. One final question, if I may ask?”
-Please, anything!

Something I was truly curious about.

“I understand there is not just a single hell in this world. So how is one’s afterlife destination decided?”
-I had a feeling you were an extraordinary individual, but you even know that much? Regarding that matter……

Sho-ko-dai-o smiled as she spoke.

-It’s confidential company information, so it cannot be disclosed to outsiders!

Unfortunately, I could not find out how one’s afterlife destination is decided.

[If you promise to join our hell company in the afterlife, I could tell you now! If you just keep living as you are, Seung-hoon, you’re definitely headed for the Pure Lands. And once there, there are various choices available to you! One of them is becoming a Yama King!]

While a Buddhist hell, like Lucifer Company they too were modern but not a private company.

[Hell is a public corporation, so unless you commit some major transgression, it’s a job for life!]

I ended the call by asking them to reactivate the Karma Call Center if I had any further inquiries in the future.

“Whew.”

I feel like I could fall asleep right this instant. But I haven’t finished my work yet.

“Sarang, let’s return to reality. Could you operate the transit?”
『Understood.』

Through Sarang’s hacking of the furnace, I leaned against it as we transited back.

『20 minutes until arrival.』
“Alright, I’ll rest my eyes for a bit.”
『I will share our destination with the Foundation using the saved contact information.』
“Yeah, thanks.”

As I closed my eyes, the image of the enormous serpent I had witnessed came to mind.

‘There’s probably no way to fight and defeat an existence like that through force.’

No matter how much stronger I become, the prospect of overpowering such a being did not seem plausible.

‘In any case.’

With a long sigh, I took a brief nap.

‘Truly a difficult world to survive in.’