“F-fuck. As if this wasn’t a game...!”
There were three of them. They moved their scythe-sharp legs and closed the distance.
A weapon. He needed a weapon.
[Special Armament Crafting]. The blue particles that appeared over Kim Yi-hyeon’s hand whirled like a vortex. Soon, a long spear was formed and caught in his grip.
“Back the hell off! You sons of bitches!”
He thrust the spear out in front of him. He desperately suppressed the urge to swing it blindly. He was afraid he might pointlessly provoke their aggression.
Did the spearhead look threatening? Or perhaps they intended to test him. Whatever the reason, it was fine. For now, their approach slowed.
He had room to think.
‘Three Speeders means that, doesn’t it?’
He remembered the tutorial inside and out. After all, between his main account and his alt account, he had rerolled close to a hundred times. Whether he wanted to or not, it came to mind.
This was the tutorial’s first stage.
In the normal flow, it was the battle that occurred after the player woke up and returned to the platform.
But why now?
‘......Did I do something?’
At that moment, the script came to mind. The lines the operatives spoke right before the stage began.
— Are those the ones that were inside the station? This has become troublesome. We should have found the Professor and gotten out before drawing their attention.
— As if we would have known the Professor was in a place like that. Still, if it’s only this much, could we not call it fortunate instead? It looks perfect for confirming whether the Professor is still usable.
— ......Please do not speak that way. Professor, may I ask you to command us?
‘It was something along those lines.’
His brain filled in the details roughly. He had skipped it during rerolls, so he did not know every word by heart. Still, the context should be accurate.
The conclusion inferred from that was this.
‘So, basically, because I wandered around before the operatives came, I pulled aggro?’
It made sense. He could not guess any other cause.
He had never dreamed he would fall into a situation like this. He had planned to stay still and join up with them quietly.
‘......No, even if I’d expected this, I think I still would’ve acted the same.’
He could not simply sit stuck inside the car, hoping to be rescued. In the end, this meant it was bound to happen.
“Hoo, hoo!”
Kim Yi-hyeon’s hands trembled as he gripped the spear shaft. Even his widened eyes, glaring as if to threaten the Speeders, twitched without pause.
Stay calm.
He had to handle this calmly. Kim Yi-hyeon dragged his game-oriented thinking into reality. He struggled to judge the situation as objectively as possible.
‘It’s definitely the 0-1 Stage.’
The simplest stage.
Three operatives were given, but there was no need to use them all. It was the lowest-difficulty battle, one that caused no issue even if a person brought out only a single operative.
You could clear it with your feet.
You did not even need to press a skill. On top of that, the operatives did not have Special Armaments equipped. It was the tutorial to begin with, so gacha had not even opened yet.
The opponent was a trash mob that was only big.
Then, conversely, what card was he holding?
Kim Yi-hyeon lowered his gaze slightly and checked the spear. It was an unremarkable spear mixed with white and black. A weapon that always seemed to appear at least once after roughly fifty pulls.
[Mubyeong Spear].
It was a thing that users cursed in all sorts of ways. The fact that one of the 6-star weapons had a similar-looking spear made it all the more malicious.
Even so.
‘It’s not trash. You pay money to pull it.’
In truth, in-game, it was indeed trash. It had a screw-loose effect that increased “normal attack damage” up to three times per battle.
Once you hit trash mobs three times, that was it. It could not even become a toy for veteran players. Users did not mock it as the [Mubyeong Dumbass Spear] for nothing.
But right now.
‘It’s usable enough.’
He could do this. Special Armaments even came with stat corrections. The structure was such that if you handed a good weapon to a 3-star operative, they could rub shoulders with a 6-star.
Of course, it was much better to give it to a 6-star from the beginning. But that had nothing to do with Kim Yi-hyeon, who was 1-star.
“Hooo.”
The trembling subsided, if only a little.
Immediately after,
— SKREEEEEE!
The three rushed at him all at once.
A side path. A narrow passage. Even if two could pass through, all three could not cross at once.
They could not climb the walls either. With their sharp-tipped legs, they would not be able to support bodies that bloated. Nor did they have special abilities like shooting thread.
He had a chance.
“O-okay. Come at me, you motherfuckers!”
When he shouted, the Speeders thrashed even harder.
It was a desirable reaction. Their speed grew even slower as they shoved against one another. SCRAPE, SCRAPE! Their flailing legs scratched at the walls.
Kim Yi-hyeon drew the spear back under his armpit. And the instant he was certain they had entered his range.
He thrust the spear in a single breath.
SQUELCH—!
— SKREEEEEE!
The sensation of digging through flesh was vivid. It did not feel as thick as he had expected. It was like stabbing through several layered sheets of Styrofoam.
[Mubyeong Spear]’s special ability had 2 uses remaining.
SPLURT!
When he pulled the spear out, green body fluid sprayed forth. He did not even have time to dodge. Another Speeder climbed over the body of its own kind and crossed the entrance.
“Fuuuuuck!”
THWACK!
He swung the spear shaft and struck it. The Speeder, hit in the body while in an unstable posture, was knocked away. It was a shallow blow. It did not inflict a fatal wound.
1 use remaining.
— SKREEEEEE!
Even the last one entered the cavern.
It leaped up at once and lunged at Kim Yi-hyeon. Its jumping power itself was nothing impressive, but the legs it swung at him were threatening.
THUMP!
Kim Yi-hyeon threw himself down and rolled across the floor. He did not even think it looked disgraceful. This was far more certain than a half-baked dodge.
He immediately turned his gaze.
‘Huh. Did that work better than I thought?’
The Speeder he had struck with the spear shaft a moment ago still had not gotten up. He decided it was fine to exclude it for now.
He had to deal with the remaining one first.
Skitter-skitter-skitter!
The Speeder approached while stepping on the bits of stone scattered across the floor. The space had widened. There were no obstructions either. It was clearly faster than before.
Thump, thump!
His heart beat madly, carrying blood through his body. The balance of his five senses shifted like never before. The feeling in his arms seemed distant, and his sense of smell dulled.
On the other hand, his vision was bright. Even in the dim surroundings, he did not miss its swift movement. He could see any number of gaps to exploit.
The difference in reach. His weapon choice had been good.
— Kiiiii......!
The Speeder’s body was pierced mid-charge. Its motion stopped, and even its inertia vanished. Kim Yi-hyeon’s figure filled its red eyes.
With this, 3 uses.
He could physically feel that every use of the special ability had been consumed. A sensation of vitality draining away.
‘No wonder my body was moving so well.’
Kim Yi-hyeon immediately let go of [Mubyeong Spear]. When he dismissed the skill, the spear turned into those same particles and scattered into the air.
Next.
“Fine, one more!”
RIIIIING!
His ears rang, and his head throbbed. Just like when he had tried to create high-grade weapons without knowing anything. But this was not a failure.
A new [Mubyeong Spear] was crafted.
“Die, you fuuuuucking bastard!”
Kim Yi-hyeon set the spearhead forward and kicked off the ground with force, toward the Speeder that had somehow gotten itself under control and was approaching him.
Was it because of the excessive adrenaline pouring through him? At some point, his fear had vanished completely.
SQUELCH—!
The Speeder’s trembling traveled along the spear and reached his grip. It lasted only a moment. The blow, stabbed in more powerfully than the previous two, instantly stole the Speeder’s life.
The last one died.
Even after he was certain it was dead, he watched the Speeder for another dozen seconds or so just in case. Only then could Kim Yi-hyeon let go of the spear.
“Guh-huh, huffffff!”
He gasped for breath like a madman. So much blood had rushed to his head that his vision spun. The wretched fishy smell stabbed his nose.
“Uuurgh!”
He could not hold back the vomit.
The fact that he had killed a living creature. The nauseating smell. The vivid presence of monsters that could not even be compared to CG. The backlash from forcibly using his skill and the intense activity he had performed without warming up.
It would have been stranger not to vomit. He emptied his stomach for minutes on end. After the nausea had somewhat settled, he spat out phlegm.
So, to sum everything up.
“Haha, trash mob bastards.”
He felt like he could split from joy.
***
Amber light. And footsteps.
‘They sure came quickly.’
A shadow moved along the wall illuminated by the light. The elongated shadow gradually shrank, changing into the shape of a person.
This was outside the cavern. Kim Yi-hyeon was sitting where the rails ended, waiting for Leila.
‘Did it take about an hour? Damn it, I don’t have a watch.’
He thought about getting up to welcome them, then gave up. The battle from earlier had drained him. Quite a bit of time must have passed, but strength still had not properly returned to his body.
He simply waved one hand while seated.
“Over here, over here!”
Originally, he had intended to act politely. But after killing monsters, he felt as though one of his screws had come a little loose.
‘What does it matter?’
There were Speeder corpses in the cavern anyway. He had not moved them because they were disgusting to touch. The reason he had come outside was also because he could not stand the smell.
Though he had taken off his bloodstained coat, his shirt was also filthy. At this point, pretending to be a virtuous civilian would be difficult.
Tap.
The light disappeared. Unlike a moment ago, there were almost no footsteps, only a presence drawing closer.
FLASH!
The light turned on once more. At the intense beam shining from right in front of him, his eyes narrowed on their own.
Kim Yi-hyeon raised his arm to block the light. Through the gaps between his spread fingers,
“You are human. What are you doing in a place like this?”
He saw three familiar faces.
“Answer me.”
The man standing at the front urged him.
Pavl. A 4-star operative distributed for free. His distinctive sharp eyes had incredible force when seen in reality.
But this was no time to be moved.
‘Sh-shit. He’s pointing a gun at me right off the bat?’
The muzzle was aimed at Kim Yi-hyeon. It was a scene one could commonly see in movies and dramas. Once he became the person involved, cold sweat poured down him.
It was a weapon that blew everyone’s head off equally. A different kind of force from the monsters. There was a realistic fear to it.
Kim Yi-hyeon wet his dry throat with saliva. Honestly, it was not a development he had failed to anticipate.
Originally, he had planned to act pitiful. He had even prepared a scenario.
When he returned home, his younger sibling was gone. He searched for them and ended up flowing all the way here......
He scrapped it. At this point, he did not feel like bowing and scraping.
‘......Don’t be scared. I killed those monster bastards, didn’t I?’
To begin with, this was nothing more than a threat. They were not psychopaths who would fire a gun just because they did not know who he was.
Selvlogics Lab. Their disposition within Polaris was close to “absolute good.” It might differ from the perspectives of people in other factions, but still.
At least in the eyes of the user, they were good people.
“Can’t you lower the gun before we talk?”
“That depends on your answer.”
It seemed there were no issues with communication.
Kim Yi-hyeon spoke in Korean. It sounded that way to his own ears as well. Yet Pavl understood him just fine, and the language Pavl spoke also sounded like Korean.
‘Even his mouth movements match. What kind of principle is this?’
A major worry was lifted. Even if he could read, it would all be back to square one if he could not communicate. He had at least avoided ending up effectively deaf and mute.
“What was the question again? First, my name is Kim Yi-hyeon.”
“That is not a name used in Cadillac.”
Tulavia was an administrative district of a nation called Cadillac. This was a world that had not yet reached ruin. Not every country had collapsed.
He had roughly thought up Kim Yi-hyeon’s “setting.”
“My mother was an immigrant. I suppose she missed her homeland a lot, so she gave me a name from there.”
“Your bloodline is not my concern. Did you not hear the question? I will give you one more chance.”
Click.
The handgun’s hammer was pulled back.
“What were you doing in a place like this, where there is nothing?”
This crazy bastard. His eyes were fierce. Could he really be a psychopath? Perhaps this was revenge for leaving him at level 1 and throwing him into the mines.
Just as Kim Yi-hyeon began to feel a sense of danger,
“Mr. Pavl. You are being too sharp.”
A woman stepped forward from the rear. As she lowered Pavl’s gun, she added in a calm, yet firm voice.
“If you act that high-handed, I do not think even I would be able to answer nicely.”
Kim Yi-hyeon’s eyes turned toward the woman. He had already been concerned about her.
‘Leila.’
Her appearance made her look no older than a middle or high school student. Her build was also small. Near the arm of her loose jumper was the lab’s symbol.
Their eyes met in the air.
There was wariness in her gaze, but it did not reach hostility. Compared to Pavl, there was clearly warmth in her expression.
“Could you explain? Why you are left alone in a place like this. And......”
Leila glanced near Kim Yi-hyeon’s neck. Speeder blood that had not yet dried was thickly smeared on his shirt collar.
“Did you run into a monster?”
“They’re inside.”
“Inside......?”
Kim Yi-hyeon raised his index finger and pointed to the cavern entrance. Leila turned her head toward it, while Pavl kept his eyes fixed on Kim Yi-hyeon the whole time.
The remaining person.
The tall man also did not take his eyes off Kim Yi-hyeon. Because he wore a face mask, his expression could not be read. His hands were hidden inside his long sleeves.
“Mr. Ghost. Could you check?”
“I will.”
Only then did his gaze leave him.
The man began walking down the side path that led into the cavern. Kim Yi-hyeon watched the man’s back and inwardly marveled.
So that is Ghost.
‘He is cool, though.’
A character he had liked even in the game. He was a man, and not even an official playable character at that...... but most users probably felt favorably toward Ghost.
For one thing, Kim Yi-hyeon liked him more than mine slave No. 1 Pavl.