Became a Failed Experimental Subject Novel - Chapter 39

The Monster Era and Endless Appetites
Buildings in the monster era are constructed with destruction in mind, featuring modular designs that make reconstruction easy. However, even with this, some high-rise buildings and internal pillars still require concrete and rebar. The job of carrying cement up stairs for this purpose is called gombang.

“W-wow, Moo-han-ssi, you’re incredibly strong, aren’t you…? Faster than a construction drone!”

I arrived at the construction site for a day job as a laborer. After trying my hand at welding and burning holes in a few metal plates, I was instructed to do gombang (manual labor) instead. Welding, a delicate task, was difficult, but gombang was my calling. I quickly hauled cement as instructed and even had time left over. The foreman offered me another job, asking if I’d like to work at a neighboring site if I was feeling up to it.

“Is that even a person? How many kilograms is that?”
“Isn’t he a psychic?”
“Huh, he really must be a psychic. How can one person lift a ton like that?”
“Why would a psychic come to do gombang…?”

After carrying cement at three different sites, I was told, “You’re yarikkiri!” and left the construction site. Yarikkiri means that once you’ve finished your work, you can leave regardless of the time… it’s a truly beautiful custom.

“Moo-han-ssi! See you next time!”
“You said your name was Lee Moo-han, right? Come work again! Make sure to call!”

After getting paid, the place I headed to immediately was even more beautiful than yarikkiri.

There are so many beautiful words in the world: a heaped bowl of rice, extra large, super colossal, bulk, buy one get one free… but there’s one word that triumphs over them all. That is, the gloriously named all-you-can-eat.

“Customer, um… mealtime is over.”
“Hmm…?”

And so, I arrived at an all-you-can-eat pork belly restaurant near the construction site, and it was the moment I picked up my 30th plate. The person who appeared to be the owner somehow approached me and tried to put the mountain of meat piled on my plate back into the refrigerator.

“It’s only been an hour, hasn’t it?”
“Th-that, customer… well, you’re finished now.”
“Why? It said the mealtime was two hours.”
“N-no… I mean, what kind of human eats one plate every four minutes? And each plate has almost a kilogram on it.”
“It’s delicious.”
“Yes, yes! Thank you for enjoying it so much! I’m sorry, but please enjoy it up to this point! You’ve eaten a lot!”
“I don’t understand… I shouldn’t eat a lot? It said all-you-can-eat…”
“My wallet isn’t infinite, sir, please….”

It was strange… all-you-can-eat, but not infinite. Unfairly kicked out of the all-you-can-eat place, I then sought out and visited other all-you-can-eat restaurants.

“Please, please stop eating. I’ll give you your money back.”
“Sir, sir, please… this isn’t right….”
“Hey, you, you f*cker! Get out now! Don’t come, please don’t come in! Please!”

From that day, when I was kicked out of my fourth all-you-can-eat restaurant, my picture was posted in every all-you-can-eat place near the construction site. The paper, looking exactly like a villain wanted poster near a police station, had the words “Absolutely No Entry” written on it.

From that day on, I decided to change my name from Lee Moo-han to Lee Yu-han. All-you-can-eat, this beautiful word was actually a lie meant to deceive unsuspecting people.

“So you asked to be called Yu-han from today on? This person is really odd.”
“Such a sad story… that an all-you-can-eat restaurant isn’t all-you-can-eat.”
“Yes, yes, it’s a very, very sad story, indeed…”
“So that’s why Moo-han-ssi’s… no, Yu-han-ssi’s picture was posted in the all-you-can-eat place? You should’ve eaten in moderation.”
“I ate in moderation.”
“Eating enough to get kicked out is moderation…? If you eat until you’re full, then what, a murder will happen?”
“Huh, is that why he eats so much, and is so strong and tall?”
“That’s just because he’s a psychic… no, maybe it’s easier to awaken psychic powers if you really eat a lot? I don’t know, I haven’t learned anything.”

As I hauled cement at the gombang site and delivered the sad news that all-you-can-eat restaurants do not exist in this world, the construction workers chuckled, laughing at my tragedy. Who was it among the workers who said that tragedy seen from afar is comedy… it really seems to be true.

“But if you like eating so much, why don’t you try going to Black Bear Park in Sector 4?”
“Ah, there? I’ve been there too.”
“Black Bear Park?”

As I wondered what was there, the workers eagerly told me about Black Bear Park.

“There’s a free soup kitchen open every weekend lunchtime, and it’s the place with the largest portions among all the free soup kitchens in W City. And it’s the weekend today, right? Moo-han-ssi, you’ll yarikkiri early today too, won’t you?”
“The portions are large, and the taste is decent. It’s also a generous place where they don’t say anything even if you keep getting refills. Although there’s a sharp-witted young lady there, so if you do it too much, it gets a bit awkward.”
“For people like us, food is money, isn’t it? It’s a waste to spend the money we earn on food, so if we have business in Sector 4, we often fill our stomachs at Black Bear Park.”
“Free… soup kitchen…!”

Unbelievable, such a ridiculous thing exists in reality? Shocked by the unexpected string of words, I dropped the cement I was holding.

A heaped bowl of rice, extra large, hearty, all-you-can-eat… above these beautiful words that had held the highest place in my heart, the emperor named “free meal” began to reign.

And they kept giving food even after multiple servings. If the word “infinite” was attached to the emperor named “free,” then it would surpass even an emperor, truly reaching the seat of a god.

“Moo-han-ssi really loves to eat.”
“That body can’t possibly be satisfied with normal meals.”
“But how many servings can you get there before they say something?”
“I heard before that the young lady quietly watched someone who ate seven times, but wouldn’t about ten times be okay?”
“Huh, I’m suddenly curious how many times the limit is.”

That limit, I’ll find out myself. My mind already full of thoughts of going to Black Bear Park, I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth and hauled the cement. With this, my work on this building was also finished. I carefully counted the money I received from the foreman and put it in my pocket.

“Moo-han-ssi, why don’t we work together again next time? Give me your contact info.”
“No contact info.”
“Huh? Who doesn’t have a phone these days? If you’re going to refuse, at least refuse with a believable excuse, man.”
“I really don’t.”
“Huh…? I thought Moo-han-ssi was being loyal by refusing to give your number to someone from another construction site.”
“Those guys had no work-life balance.”
“You’re the first person I’ve ever seen talk about work-life balance while doing gombang, the very first.”

I have no intention of working under construction site villains who don’t even provide a single meal. Work and rice balance: after working, one must have time to eat, and work must go hand-in-hand with food. Whoever coined it, it’s a truly excellent concept.

“Then.”
“Right! Take care, and see you at the site again sometime!”
“Moo-han-ssi! Goodbye!”
“Thanks to you, my back feels great!”

With this, this site was also finished, and it was time to part ways with these workers. As I, who had finished yarikkiri first, prepared to leave the site, the workers who had previously given me the heaviest and most dangerous tasks waved goodbye with mixed feelings. That lasted only a moment. Again, WHIRRRRR! Leaving behind the workers who were mixing cement and working hard, I headed towards Sector 4.

The day my name would become “Free” was not far off.

Black Bear Park, Sector 4
Sector 4, where W City’s slums are concentrated. I heard that Sector 4 is also a slum in A City, B City, and so on. In the Monster Era, Sector 4, avoided because the number 4 is considered unlucky, was filled not only with government-insured buildings but also with temporary, pre-assembled structures illegally built by squatters. This was a sector where those who couldn’t afford to worry about the ill omen of a name resided.

The temporary structures, made of thin plates rather than modular exteriors, looked as if they would collapse if a human, not a monster, pushed them by hand. The occasional broken pavement sections on the asphalt roads indicated that this place was low on W City’s management priority list.

Despite this, there was a significant difference why Sector 4 was called a shantytown, not a slum, unlike Sector 9.

“Ahahaha! I’m Black Cat!”
“Then I’m Starlight!”
“I’m going to be Black Cat too!”

Children, dressed in black clothes that wouldn’t show dirt, played tag called “Black Cat Play,” running around the broken streets. People passing by carried shopping bags, each holding food.

“Kids! Don’t fall while running!”
“Okay~!”

An old but not dirty sector. Strangely, the public safety here was no different from other sectors. That’s why it was a shantytown, not a slum; simply a place where those who were unlucky enough to lose their homes repeatedly to monsters, or those who weren’t well-off, resided.

Though they lacked in their pockets, the people here still had generosity left in their hearts, and there was a resident gathering held every weekend. A free soup kitchen held at Black Bear Park every weekend, sponsored by the Starlight Foundation. For those who, aiming for a fresh start, often went hungry with just a slight misstep, this free meal was welfare for them, and a time to greet neighbors and check if they were doing well.

“Slurp, slurp, slurp!”

The residents of Sector 4, who had themselves experienced hunger, didn’t feel their share was being taken away even when they saw people from other areas coming to eat. They simply thought, “Someone who works hard is taking a break,” or “They must be taking a break,” and cheered them on, saying, “Eat well and be strong.” After all, with the Starlight Foundation’s sponsorship, there was always more than enough food prepared at the free soup kitchen.

“Gulp… gulp… gulp… whew….”

Perhaps the rumor had spread; sometimes, people from other sectors came and refilled their plates multiple times, filling their hungry stomachs. However, no one had ever seen one person eat this much.

“Amazing, all that fits?”
“Wow… isn’t the soup kitchen going to run out today?”

Just like the workers who came in dusty clothes, the man wasn’t satisfied with one bowl and refilled his plate many times. The Sector 4 residents greeted him, saying, “Oh, another hungry person has come,” and “Eat a lot, eat a lot.”

As this went on for several times, then dozens of times, all the residents began to pay attention to the man who had come to the free soup kitchen.

“He finished it again!”
“Woooaah!”
“Woooooaah!”

Next to the man, after confirming that the plate full of food was indeed empty, a man stood on a chair and raised the empty plate, eliciting cheers from children and adults alike. The man’s meal had already become an enjoyable show.

The only people who couldn’t laugh at this scene were the people from the Starlight Foundation.

“…What do we do about that?”
“It’s not a human, a pig has come….”
“Ha, damn… are we really going to have to cook again already…?”
“That one person ate an entire pig by himself just now.”
“He must be full now, right? That was really the last one, right? Aaaah…!”

Amidst the cheers, GULP, GULP. Beside the large man leisurely drinking cold water, young children tapped the man’s firm stomach and said,

“Are you going to eat more, mister? Can you really fit more?”
“Where did it all go?! It’s gone!”
“If you eat this much, you’ll poop a lot!”
“Don’t talk about poop while eating.”
“Ow! Hahahaha!”

The man, who had stroked the head of the boy who spoke childishly, stood up and approached the serving counter with his empty plate. Hee-e-e-e! As the volunteers’ faces darkened, the woman standing at the very front of the serving counter took the empty plate.

The woman’s mouth was smiling, but her eyes were not smiling at all.

“Twenty…third! time, isn’t it? Did you enjoy… your meal?”

One rule of this soup kitchen was that if you heard the greeting “Did you enjoy your meal?”, you would say “I ate well” and leave the plate. Thus, at the question of whether he had finished his meal, everyone’s gaze focused on one spot.

And the man, after looking around at the residents, said confidently,

“I am still… hungry.”

“Woooooaah!!”
“Oh, oh my~ My, you… you eat quite a lot, don’t you!”

Amidst the cheers, the smiling face of the woman holding the plate twisted.