Chapter 125

“Um…”

In the basement of the warehouse, Oliver was grappling with Pinkman’s body.

He went into the work with the idea of practicing before receiving the bodies of the doctor and Warlock ordered from the black market, but it took more work than he thought.

“Um…”

After cutting the belly of Pinkman’s body with a scalpel, he opened the stomach with the tool he bought in the black market the other day.

A huge amount of blood gushed out, but fortunately, it didn’t smell bad.

The body swallowed by Big Mouth was not rotten and was surprisingly well preserved.

Oliver took out the gut using tongs. It was soft and slippery, so he thought he would drop it, but after a few times, he got used to it.

THUD

The respiratory, digestive, and detoxification organs that Oliver had just removed were placed in a glutton bag as he had heard that people bought such organs on the black market.

He heard that it was for black magic items or ingredients to make drugs.

He can’t make that much money with these, but he was planning to save money by selling these things when he saw the money disappear more easily than he thought last time.

The 400 million he earned by risking his life disappeared in an instant, which made Oliver feel the need to save more money.

After removing everything that was on the inside of the body, Oliver went on to the next task.

He took a handful of white powder that absorbs blood and moisture to prevent decay and applied it inside.

The official name of the white powder was [Coarse powder].

It was written in the diary of Puppeteer Glyph that it was much more efficient to go through this process before the full-fledged corpse doll-making process.

Puppet said he didn’t even remember Glyph, but surprisingly, his talent and passion for the Corpse dolls were great.

Seeing the diary’s contents and notes indirectly gave Oliver a sense of it.

Aside from that, he was a great person when it came to his passions, such as saving up money and going into Black Hand on his own.

Oliver suddenly felt that he had made a mistake.

He thought after killing Glyph, he should have found a way to keep the lab, not just leave it unattended.

Then he could have saved a lot of money by using the materials there to make an assistant-corpse doll now.

“Um… I’ll be careful next time.”

Oliver said so and picked up a metal tool.

The name of this tool, which looked like a wide hook, was a spatula.

It was used to scratch and remove the coarse powder that was applied to the body and clumped together.

Oliver looked at the body before scratching out the coarse powder he had applied to the stomach.

The coarse powder was quite dry, and the body also felt a little dry.

“All right, that’s right….”

Oliver moved on to the next step while muttering and looking at the diary.

He grabbed the body with one hand and lifted the spatula with the other to scratch the inside.

The coarse powder on the inner wall was carefully scratched so as not to cause any damage as much as possible.

A stiff lump was removed to some extent and the residue left like gum was removed one by one using a cloth and a cleaning agent, and then the body was lifted and placed in the non corrosive steel tank.

Moving the body was a lot of work for Oliver.

“Ha… I need to make an assistant corpse doll quickly. Or I should build up my strength.”

After struggling to move the body to a large tank, Oliver repeated the work two more times.

Thanks to this, three bodies were piled up in layers in the tank.

Oliver wondered if it was okay to do this, but the diary said there was no problem processing the body in this way when there was no time, during mass production, and if it was not a very important corpse doll.

Oliver wiped his sweaty body with a towel and wore special gloves, aprons, and masks.

Then he brought one of the five preservative liquid bottles that he had left on one side of the warehouse.

Oliver opened the lid and emptied the whole container, which contained a liquid for mummification.

BUBBLE.

The transparent but slightly viscous liquid slowly filled the tank and swallowed the body.

When the tank was filled, the body was pressed down with heavy objects to sink completely.

Oliver set the alarm clock and took a break.

He had to take it out and dry it again after soaking it for two hours, and soak it again for another two hours.

Only after repeating this three times, it was possible for the bodies to be reborn as corpse dolls with durability and flexibility, and one that cannot decay.

All this for foundation work? Oliver couldn’t believe it.

“I understand why there should be two or three assistants.”

Oliver said so and searched the clothes he had taken off and took out the cigarette pack.

It was not a real cigarette, but a cigarette pack with Pilgaret, and of course, it was Pilgaret [Gift] made by Marie and others.

Oliver took it out and looked at it, just in case.

It was not much different from what he received from Nina in the past.

There was an exquisite mixture of anger and motherly love, two emotions that somewhat contradicted each other.

Oliver pondered for a moment, then held it in his mouth and lit it.

This was his second time smoking a Pilgaret.

However, unfortunately, it did not impress Oliver much.

It felt like… it didn’t suit his taste. 

When he first smoked, the one with the emotions of Joseph, his Master, he could feel something tremendous.

What was surprising was that he could feel all the emotions and memories that Joseph had accumulated in his life, not pieces of fragmentary emotions.

Oliver did not know what principle it was, but he could enjoy Joseph’s rough life and the intense emotions he felt, the aspirations he had, and the goals, indirectly like silhouettes.

At that moment, Oliver could understand Joseph.

The intense wave of emotions in his body gave Oliver an indescribable shock and joy.

It’s as if he was truly alive….

But Oliver couldn’t feel anything like that in this Pilgaret.

The manufacturing method was not an issue. It was just the material.

Soon, Oliver’s eyes turned to his coat.

Inside it were two Pilgarets made with the beautiful light extracted from Duncan.

He thought about it for a moment, whether he should smoke it now or not.

There were as many as two, so he thought maybe it won’t be bad if he just smoked one.

“…….”

Oliver remained silent for a while as if he was lost in his thoughts. 

But, soon after he moved his hands toward the coat as if he was determined, and at that moment…….

BEEP BEEP BEEP! 

The alarm clock went off.

The sharp, high alarm woke Oliver’s buried consciousness.

“…!”

The small hammer on the top of the alarm clock hit the huge bells on both sides. 

Oliver, who had come to his senses, rubbed between his eyes.

He had a lot to do after finishing Edith Rock’s job, so he wasn’t sleeping well and seemed tired.

BEE–

Oliver turned off the alarm, put on the gloves and masks again, and took out the body submerged in preservative fluid.

After taking out the body without stamping it with a hook with a handle, it was spread out on a tarpaulin that was laid on the floor in advance.

All three of the corpses were laid down.

Oliver examined the corpses while holding the diary.

There was no place where the preservative did not permeate, and there was no blood or residue left.

When he poked it with his finger, it also had the firmness that was mentioned in the diary. 

The process went quite smoothly.

After drying, Oliver picked up the body again and carefully placed it in the tank.

Then he looked at the coat with Duncan-Pilgaret for a moment and pushed aside the crazy temptation.

“Yes, let’s hang in there a little longer. There will be a better time.”

After hours of dissecting the corpses, Oliver changed into his ordinary everyday clothes instead of his suit and came out.

It wasn’t because he wasn’t going to work, but because he was going to a place where wearing a suit would make him stand out.

The destination was none other than a gym located inside District X.

He was able to identify the gym when he got close to the location, as Joe mentioned.

The building, which had a low ceiling and a warehouse-like look, was shabby and filled with miscellaneous items.

Inside, scary people could be seen exercising in shorts.

Most of them were muscular and fit, and they had an atmosphere that said they do violence as their business.

Joe asked Oliver to meet him here, and he thought that it was a place that fit quite well with Joe.

“Hey, who are you? I don’t think you’re a person who belongs here.”

Someone talked to Oliver. When he turned his head in the direction from where he heard the sound, he saw a bald man.

He was short enough for Oliver to look down, his shoulders were very wide and his body was thick, especially, the arms looked as hard as stone.

He stared at Oliver with eyes that looked as hard as his arms.

“Hey, who are you?”

“Hello. My name is Dave. I’m here to meet someone.”

“Huh. Look at this, we have a well-mannered guy here. I don’t know when this place became a meeting place for lovers.”

“I’m sorry, Joe asked me to meet him here.”

At those words, the man’s expression changed. He looked a little surprised.

“Joe? Is it the guy that always wears knuckles when he kills people, the one with thick hair?”

“Um…. Probably right. His nickname is Knuckle Joe.”

“Then that’s right!……but what’s your relationship with Joe? You don’t look like one of Joe’s friends. By any chance, are you two dating?”

The bald man said with a grin.

“Um. . . . . Are you joking now?”

“Yeah, I’m just kidding. You’re not a coward. Good, good. Follow me, I’ll guide you.”

The man smiled showing all his front teeth and entered the gym while gesturing for Oliver to follow him.

Oliver followed him into the gym.

When he went inside, the place was filled with sweat.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”!

“You idiot! Listen up! You loser!!”

“One, two, five.”

“Get the numbers right, you punk…”

“Don’t rest, keep hitting, you idiot! If you lose again, I’ll just break you up and sell you.”

Everywhere, the sound of iron hitting, the sound of cutting wind, and the sound of hitting sandbags could be heard.

Countless people exercised violently in the midst of spitting swear words.

Oliver was stunned by the lively sight he had never seen before.

” Everyone’s full of energy, right!? Hahahaha.”

Some of the exercisers turned their heads and greeted the bald man.

“Oh, hello, Instructor. Isn’t today your day off?”

“Yes, but my babies can’t stand a day off.”

The bald man replied, kissing his biceps.

“By the way, who is that, Instructor?”

“I don’t know exactly because I just met him earlier. I heard he promised to meet Joe.”

“Joe? He graduated from the game a long time ago, right?”

“I don’t know… Hey, here he is.”

The bald man pointed to Joe, who was punching a sandbag in the corner of the gym.

The sound of something exploding resounded with each punch from Joe.

Ta-ang-pong! Ta-ang-pong! Ta-ang!

Pure physical strength without black magic.

As Oliver felt, he was strong enough without using black magic.

Joe took a unique step and hit the sandbag with all his might.

DAANG!

With a loud sound ringing inside the gym, a hole was formed in the sandbag, and sand poured down through it.

Some smiled admiringly.

The bald man called Joe, judging that the exercise was almost over.

“Joe!”

Joe, who sweated while taking off his top, turned his head.

“You should pay for it!”

“Yes.”

“And there’s a guest looking for you.”

Guest. At that word, Joe finally saw Oliver next to the bald man.

He looked surprised and checked his watch, ran over, and asked.

“Why are you here already….. Sir. Oliver?”

“You told me to come when I’m done with my urgent business, that’s why I came.”

Joe spoke with a cautious attitude compared to Oliver who spoke with a calm attitude. 

Even more awkward was Joe using honorifics while speaking to Oliver.

It seemed to be quite a shock to the people in the place, but they were more surprised by what happened next.

“You don’t have to use honorifics.”

“But we have to make a distinction between who’s on the top and who’s at the bottom…”

“I’m just teaching you for a while. Nothing more, nothing less….. Oh, Mister. Thank you for your help.”

Oliver leaned slightly down and said, keeping some eye level with the bald man.

The bald man asked, looking at Joe with a surprised face.

“Hey Joe, where did you find this weirdo?”