HALF: Dead nor Alive

“What is this place, this looks totally different from the Western and Eastern Nations,” Archie talked to himself as he looked at the operating tall buildings and trains above the roads. “How did they get all the energy to turn the city with this much electricity?” he continued as he looked at the city lights and the people walking on the sidewalk.

Archie kept walking and was fascinated by the views that everything looked so peaceful that everyone could walk around the city like that. He watched restaurants on the side and people were eating something that he had never seen before, everyone looked so happy.

“Hey, you!” A black-haired guy with a bun leaned on the wall and called Archie. “You look strong, want some easy money?” He asked as he looked at Archie from top to bottom.

“Easy money?” Archie asked as he looked at him.

“Yeah, do you need some money? By the look of the swords on your back, you’re a rich guy, huh?” He asked back.

“Not really, someone made it for me,” Archie answered.

“Hmm, so? Do you need some money or not?” The guy asked again.

“Sure,” Archie replied since he didn’t have money on him and the Eastern Nation didn’t even have a money system so everyone used a trading system.

“Hah! I knew that I’m going to find the right person for this job,” The guy said as he stood straight and offered his hand for a handshake. “My name is Ivan, nice to meet you,” he continued.

“Archie,” Archie said as he shook Ivan’s hand.

“Huh? I see that you’re not from around here,” Ivan said as he looked at Archie’s face. “Anyway, come on, I will show you what kind of job that you have to do,” he said as he waved his hand and walked into the dark alley behind him.

Archie followed Ivan from behind and looked at all the neon lights on the walls or in front of the doors. “So, how do you guys get electricity?”

Ivan turned around and looked at Archie weirdly. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Yeah, I’m being serious, how did you get all this electricity?” Archie asked as he pointed at the neon lights. “I mean, I know that we can get electricity from the sun, wind, and river, but that won’t be enough to light everything in this city if you guys just using that,” he continued as he looked back at the city.

“What are you talking about, Archie? We don’t use those anymore, we found a way to get electricity faster than those. All those methods that you said, we didn’t use them anymore since, I don’t know, five years maybe?” Ivan replied as he looked dumbfounded by Archie’s words.

“I see, sorry, I just got here so I don’t know and it surprised me how things have changed,” Archie explained while he looked at Ivan.

“Huh? What are you? A caveman? Where do you come from then if you don’t know that things have changed?” Ivan asked while he kept staring at Archie weirdly.

“Eastern Nation,” Archie answered.

Ivan stared at him for quite a while and then snicker and then bursted out laughing. “You’re fucking with me, right? There’s no way you came from the Eastern Nation!” he said while kept laughing.

Archie just stared at him with a straight face and then Ivan cleared his throat and looked at him with a serious expression. “You’re being serious? How did you get here? Don’t you lose access to the bridge a long time ago?” he asked.

“We use ships to get here, we docked at the abandoned port far in the northeast,” Archie answered.

“Holy shit! You’re not joking, right? Did you guys encounter that thing?” Ivan asked with curiosity written all over his face.

“What thing?” Archie asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

“This thing,” Ivan said as he grabbed something from his pocket that looked like a phone. “Here, look at this, they discovered this like the moment before the bridge collapsed,” Ivan said as he showed footage of the king that he fought wrapping his body on the bridge and then crushing it.

“Oh, that, yeah we did fight with it. I killed it,” Archie answered with a straight face.

Ivan bursted out laughing again. “You’re so funny, Archie, I like your sense of humor!”

“I’m not joking, you can see the corpse on the shore at Saint Lawrence Island,” Archie answered.

Ivan stopped laughing and gulped while staring at Archie. “Shit, what the fuck is happening right now?” he asked while scratching his nape. “So, are you like, superhuman or something? I mean, you must be an Axis Human if you can deal with that, but, are you some kind like a warrior that specifically hunts parasites?” he continued as he looked at Archie with confusion.

“What are you talking about, I’m just a normal Axis Human, like any other Axis Human,” Archie answered.

“But, you’re from the Easter Nation, right? You must be living in hell since you’re isolated by waters and three fucking Fallen Continents!” Ivan said while staring at Archie with disbelief. “Anyway! Let’s just go and you’re perfect for this job then,” Ivan continued as he waved at Archie and started walking.

Ivan brought Archie to the basement and he looked around where people walked past him with multiple sacks that they carried in a wheelbarrow. He looked so confused why there were so many people who brought those heavy-looking sacks with an unpleasant smell from it.

“You were asking me how we got all this electricity, right? The answer is in those sacks,” Ivan said while pointing at the sacks in front of him.

“What’s inside those sacks?” Archie asked with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Feces,” Ivan answered without hesitation.

“Feces? That’s really interesting. How does it work?” Archie asked as he looked at those feces.

“You know that feces produced unpleasant smells, right? That’s because of methane, and we discovered that we can used feces to produce electricity from that. Isn’t that awesome?!” Ivan answered with his arms open wide.

“I see, so you want me to collect feces?” Archie looked at Ivan with disbelief.

“Oh, no, that spot is already full since it’s the easiest job here. You’re going to do the hardest job here,” Ivan answered. “You know that human feces is not enough to run a whole city, right? So we also use feces from different things,” he continued while grimacing.

Archie hummed with understanding because he had been suspicious about sense he felt ever since he came down there. He felt dozens of parasites inside the building and they all seemed to be in a same place.

“You use parasites feces,” Archie said before Ivan could say it.

“Wow, you’re so smart and not to mention you’re not even surprised by it,” Ivan said while grinning at Archie.

“So what do you want me to do?” Archie asked as they both entered a room.

“Well, do you see that parasite over there?” Ivan asked as he pointed at something in the dark behind the see through glass wall.

Archie hummed and saw a big parasite that had been glaring at them ever since they entered the room.

“You see, we had someone for this job, but an accident happened. You know the answer by the shoe that you see in there, he got eaten by that parasite and ever since that day, this parasite didn’t leave his spot at all and we can’t get his feces,” Ivan explained while scratching his eyebrow. “So, do you think you can do it? We will pay you plentifully,” he asked.

“Sure, just get me in there,” Archie answered without hesitation.

“Uhh you just go up the stairs, and you can see the flat surface once you reached the top. In the middle, you will see a hatch that you can open and it will lead you into that room,” Ivan explained with his fingers pointed at the entrance on the ceiling. “To be honest, we don’t really need that parasite anymore since we already got a new one that can produce more feces than this guy,” he continued while looking at Archie.

“So you want me to kill it?” Archie asked.

“If you can, sure, but that guy is massive and we have been sending at least a dozen of Axis Humans in there but the results are always the same,” Ivan answered.

“That won’t be a problem,” Archie said as he climbed the ladder and then went inside the room with the parasite through the hatch.

Archie stared at the parasite and the parasite immediately stood up and walked towards him. He looked at the parasite and then swung his sword at the it, he cut the parasite in half and it made Ivan shocked.

“Holy shit! This guy is the real deal!” Ivan said to himself as he watched Archie climbed up the hatch.