Ch.7171. Humans and Snacks

While Amon forced the elevator to stop, creating a confined space, the security chief began his story.

George Bread

He was from the back alleys.

Born to a father plagued by domestic violence and alcoholism, and a drug-addicted prostitute mother, he ran away from home at the age of 15.

With his disabled younger sister.

He knew her condition made running away dangerous, but when his parents’ eyes toward his sister changed to those of someone looking at a piggy bank, he had no choice.

Unlike his wretched parents, his sister was his only blood relation.

After running away, George did various jobs in the back alleys to keep himself and his sister alive.

But his sister’s condition worsened day by day.

She kept falling asleep to the point where maintaining a normal life was impossible.

Until now, he hadn’t trusted hospitals enough to take her there, but now he had no choice.

And at the hospital, they confronted him with reality he had been postponing, along with a diagnosis.

Diagnosis: <Congenital central nervous system underdevelopment, epilepsy, dissociative identity disorder, etc.>

According to the doctor.

His sister had congenital brain problems that prevented her from controlling her sleep.

As an extension of that, she suffered from various brain diseases.

In this state, she could fall into eternal sleep.

At first George denied reality, but soon he accepted it.

He did whatever it took to pay for his sister’s life support.

Starting as a mercenary, when he came to his senses, George had become an employee in a corporate security department.

He was lucky.

His body was fairly compatible with mechanical augmentation procedures, enough to enter the security department.

But his luck ended there.

His talent only reached the lowest level of the security department.

With an entry-level salary, covering his sister’s hospital bills left him severely short on living expenses.

But he couldn’t give up on his sister.

Not only because she was his only blood relation, but because he saw hope.

A precarious, barely-there hope.

If it had been completely impossible, he might have given up, but if George sacrificed his daily life, it was possible.

That mediocrity actually made it impossible for him to abandon his sister.

It was a situation where the saying “mediocre talent is a curse” fit perfectly.

So George destroyed his own life, kept his sister alive, and continued going to work as a security department member.

Then came a certain day.

It was the day he was assigned to escort a vehicle carrying <unfortunate jam bread humans>.

Jam bread humans were close to human except their blood was jam, and since other entities often viewed them as human, they were sent to other companies as human sacrifice materials.

George’s mission was to successfully deliver these humans to the client company.

It wasn’t even a difficult job.

The frightening aspect of jam bread humans was their ability to blend into crowds for assassinations, not their direct confrontation abilities.

It was actually a popular assignment among team members because entity-related work came with danger pay.

That’s why George had volunteered, and he had no doubt the mission would proceed smoothly.

But there was one fact George had forgotten.

That humans can become infinitely vile in the face of money, and that vileness surpasses even entities.

“Sorry, George.”

“S-supervisor… how could you…”

It was betrayal he had feared might happen.

The reason was compensation and performance.

In entity-related work, if accidents occur due to management failure, the team members receive additional compensation.

The supervisor who was with George aimed for this.

By killing all team members except himself and reporting it as a jam human management failure, he would receive additional compensation and improve his performance by resolving the incident.

He seemed to have prepared for this for quite some time.

He perfectly fabricated the evidence and made the murders look like they were committed by jam bread humans.

George was slowly dying while witnessing the supervisor’s perfect crime.

But the supervisor’s dream didn’t come true.

Bang!

With a single gunshot, George’s consciousness resurfaced to the present world.

“Huh?”

He could see the supervisor touching the hole in his chest with a stupid look.

The supervisor collapsed in dismay, his heart gone.

George strained to turn his head toward the source of the gunshot.

Finding the shooter wasn’t difficult.

He was right above George.

‘Me?’

It was a man who looked exactly like him, holding a rifle registered with George’s fingerprints.

Seeing that figure, he couldn’t help but curse.

‘Damn it…’

Who would have thought his jam bread human would be riding in the escort vehicle.

Thinking about the jam bread human who would take his place after he died filled him with disgust and worry.

Worried that this jam bread human might harm his sister.

But there was nothing George could do.

As his consciousness faded, George slowly closed his eyes while looking up at the approaching jam bread human.

*

Surprisingly, George was able to open his eyes again.

Not in the afterlife, but in this world.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a clinic center.

He looked around to assess the situation.

His jam bread human was sitting next to the bed.

George realized that the jam bread human had saved him.

But despite knowing this, he couldn’t understand.

Why?

The jam bread human answered that question.

“Because I am you.”

“What?”

“What would happen to your sister if you died?”

“Ah…”

Only then did George understand the situation.

Jam bread humans perfectly copy the original.

Not just memories, but beliefs too.

The only difference is knowing they’re destined to be consumed, and being unfortunate from the moment they’re created.

But George’s bread was different.

To him, his sister’s life was more important than his own.

He would endure any hardship, even death, for her.

George’s jam bread human felt the same way.

Although he knew he wasn’t the real one, his love for the sister in his memories was real.

That’s why he couldn’t kill the original.

Jam bread humans only mimic appearance, not abilities.

Even if he succeeded in killing George, the jam bread human’s abilities wouldn’t be enough to fulfill the security department member role, and consequently, the sister would die.

Knowing this, the jam bread human fought to save the original rather than kill him.

And when the original woke up, he was already prepared to die.

“Kill me now.”

That would bring additional compensation.

The jam bread human told him to buy something delicious for his sister with it.

But George couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t consider this being who cared for his sister as much as he did a stranger.

So instead of killing the jam bread human, George chose symbiosis.

“Let’s start by giving you a name.”

George gave the jam bread human the name Mage.

Mage Bread.

Creating an identity for Mage wasn’t difficult.

America doesn’t have resident registration numbers anyway, and it wasn’t uncommon for twins who weren’t in the database to suddenly appear.

Rather, it was common among those from slums.

Thanks to this, Mage Bread suddenly appeared in the world as George’s twin.

After explaining the situation to his sister, Mage became a new family member and started working to earn money for her treatment, just like George.

During this time, Mage discovered something.

Unlike the original, he had no limits when it came to mechanical augmentation procedures.

He didn’t know why.

But unlike George, Mage had such high compatibility that he could replace his entire body with machinery.

Maybe it was because as a gingerbread human he had high mental endurance, or because his blood was jam.

He didn’t know the reason, but that’s how it was.

Upon discovering this fact, the original and the jam bread human came up with a plan.

Jam bread human Mage would go to the security department as George,

While original George would take care of his sister.

So the two switched identities.

Afterward, Mage replaced everything below his neck with machinery, becoming a powerful asset for the company, and as a result, he was able to rise to the position of security chief.

Security Chief George Bread.

His real name was Mage Bread.

*

Mage Bread’s story ended.

He shrugged his mechanical shoulders and said.

“You probably don’t understand, but that’s how it is. Of course, I know I’m strange myself.”

George isn’t the only person with such a desperate story in this company.

But there are never cases of symbiosis like George and Mage.

Normally, jam bread humans harbor intense jealousy toward their originals from the moment they’re born.

The company confirmed this through tens of thousands of cases, and it was an absolute rule.

It wasn’t for nothing that the company readily believed Mage and George were twins.

In that sense, Mage’s very existence violated the rules.

In Mage’s opinion, the reason was…

“I think I might be like a cancer cell among jam bread humans.”

At least that’s what he thought.

George, no, jam bread human Mage looked at Amon.

“So what do you plan to do with me?”

Mage met Amon’s eyes.

Like a criminal awaiting judgment, Mage waited for Amon’s words.

Then Amon spoke.

“So that’s what happened. That’s touching.”

“…?”

Mage was bewildered by Amon’s response.

“Wait, is that all?”

“What kind of reaction were you expecting?”

“I thought you’d at least be wary of me…”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a jam bread human!”

“And why is that a problem?”

“Of course it’s a problem! I hate to say it myself, but jam bread humans harm humans!”

“But aren’t you human before being a jam bread human?”

“!!!”

Mage’s eyes widened at Amon’s statement.

Human?

Me?

Reading his expression, Amon said.

“Yes. Human. In my view, Mr. Mage, you are human. A slightly special human with strawberry jam for blood.”

That statement was very surprising to Mage.

He had never thought of himself as human.

Of course he aspired to a human life, but that remained just an aspiration.

But Amon saw Mage as human.

Amon had no intention of bringing in philosophical concepts.

If you’re humane, you’re human.

His standard was simple.

In that sense, Mage was human.

“You’re more human than the supervisor who tried to kill George.”

Especially for Amon, who had seen those who didn’t even deserve to be called beasts, Mage was infinitely human.

There was no religious problem either.

‘He’s a creation of the Goddess anyway.’

As long as they weren’t from some outside dimension, all entities were creations of the Goddess.

Born through a system set by the Goddess, using divine power as an energy source.

That’s why Amon saw Mage as human.

‘I’m just a human who uses divine power too.’

There was no reason not to consider Mage human.

“I’ll tell you again and again. You’re a slightly special human with strawberry jam flowing through you.”

That statement must have been shocking, as Mage was still in a daze.

Amon joked to the still stunned security chief.

“Ah, I apologize if it’s grape jam.”

Finally coming to his senses, the security chief.

He smiled and said.

“It’s blackberry jam.”

“Wow.”

*

Afterward, Amon released the elevator stop button and headed toward the baker.

The jam bread humans blocking the way were quickly dealt with.

The Amon and security chief duo reached the baker, the culprit behind this incident.

The two successfully concluded this case by stopping the baker’s rampage.

As soon as they succeeded in stopping the baker, Amon immediately took out the prophecy box from his pocket.

‘She said to open it when the situation is resolved, right?’

Amon unfolded the second paper.

<Sometimes, free things are heavier than anything else.>

Amon understood Kathy’s intention.

It meant don’t waste words in front of the president and just return, rather than losing everything.

Having confirmed what to do, the paper burned in Amon’s hand.

He headed to the president’s office with the security chief for reporting.

To summarize the report content:

“Jam bread human elimination complete.”

Even to the president, it was a perfect mission completion.

The president offered several proposals as a token of gratitude.

But Amon declined those proposals, saying:

“I came as a representative of Requetio Corporation. Please discuss compensation with our company.”

Faced with Amon’s firm attitude, the president had no choice but to share the related content with Requetio.

Afterward, Amon left <Lloyd & Life>.

He headed to the airport to return to Requetio.

The security chief saw him off.

On the way, now comfortable with Amon, the security chief asked:

“Were there no other jam bread humans besides me?”

“No. Mr. Mage, you are special.”

“I see.”

Pleased with the word “special,” the security chief smiled with satisfaction.

Leaving the happily smiling security chief, Amon took out the last box.

‘Before leaving. She definitely said to open it then.’

Amon took out the last prophecy box.

The last prophecy was short and concise.

<You can bring him.>

Seeing that, Amon couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

‘She’s too much…’

Having received confirmation from Kathy, Amon moved immediately.

He asked the security chief:

“If there was a way to treat your sister, would you believe it?”