CRACKLE!
A bright blue current struck the Ash Wolf’s body directly. Its bristling fur shuddered.
The instant its movement stopped, Kim Yi-hyeon kicked off the ground.
SQUELCH—!
He drove [Mubyeong Spear] into its open mouth. As soon as it pierced the soft inside, he felt resistance. Bone. It lacked the power to crush it.
There was no need to break it. Like Speeders, Ash Wolves counted as trash mobs. They were not tenacious enough to keep moving after their heads were pierced.
THUD.
Kim Yi-hyeon pulled out the spear and looked back. His eyes met Leila’s. He gave her a look of thanks for covering him.
‘She’s better than in the game, isn’t she?’
Leila was a mage-type character who fired electric currents with her normal attack. It was simply a ranged attack that dealt magic damage. There was no paralysis effect.
This must be a part that changed because it was reality.
‘I still can’t get a feel for it.’
The boundary between reality and the game was vague. He had yet to find a point of compromise. Thanks to that, he was fighting without being too terrified, but.
‘......Maybe not really?’
The hand holding the spear was trembling. His stomach was churning too. A wolf monster had a stronger sense of “reality” than a Speeder. All kinds of emotions were mixed together like a cocktail.
“Hyeon. What is wrong? Were you injured?”
Ghost, who had approached at some point, asked. A kukri hung down outside his sleeve. The blade was drenched in murky blood.
“No, I’m fine. More importantly......”
Kim Yi-hyeon checked behind Ghost. Eight Ash Wolf corpses. That many had piled up while he had dealt with a single one?
“You’re amazing. No wonder you’re qualified to backseat.”
“This is my work.”
Ghost had not used any flashy techniques. He simply dodged and cut. He was only fast and sharp.
Within that simplicity, there were likely dozens, even hundreds, of principles a novice would not know.
Pavl had also dealt with three by himself. Leila had protected the Professor while providing excellent support.
They were not 4-star operatives for nothing.
‘If I had come out alone, I would’ve been in serious trouble.’
This was the surface.
They had escaped the subway station a little while ago. There had been one battle then as well. This was the second battle carried out after joining the group.
In other words, they had cleared 0-3 Stage. Ghost’s death was drawing closer.
The operative who was two steps away from dying spoke.
“Is a spear the only weapon you can make with your Spell?”
“Not exactly. It’s just comfortable for now, so I’m using it. I also want to get used to it.”
Kim Yi-hyeon was openly using his skill. He could not bring himself to fight barehanded. Nor did he feel like strenuously hiding it from friendly people.
‘Bluntly speaking, if I went around barehanded, how would I be any different from the Professor? I’d just be baggage that can walk on its own.’
Not that he knew why she was just sitting still over there.
Grumbling inwardly, he released the skill. [Mubyeong Spear] became particles of light and scattered.
There were a few things he had learned about his skill. One of them was its duration.
If he let go of it, it disappeared after roughly ten minutes. But when he was holding it, it lasted longer.
It worked in a way that produced backlash if he kept it out for too long. He also suffered a headache if he crafted the same armament consecutively.
He could endure it, but... during battle, it was taxing. Would twice be the limit at most?
“That is a good judgment. If you have the chance, it would be better to keep daggers and swords in mind as well.”
“Don’t people usually dig into just one?”
“Yes, usually. But you are different, are you not? It would be a waste to let an ability that allows you to switch according to your taste during battle go unused. Everything has its own strengths and weaknesses.”
He had intended to use a variety from the beginning. Each weapon had a different special ability assigned to it.
However, he had not thought deeply about the advantages of the “types” themselves. The spear is long, so it is perfect—that was about it.
“Once you get a feel for it, you should be able to cover both close and mid-range. Do you know how to handle firearms?”
“I know how to shoot, at least.”
Originally, he was a twenty-six-year-old office worker. He had completed his military service.
“But making one would be a bit difficult.”
Polaris’s Special Armaments ranged from 1-star to 6-star. Since the grades were divided in various ways, the number of armaments corresponding to each grade was on the lower side.
Among 1-stars, there were no firearms.
“In that case, you can simply carry one pistol. Training is important, but skill does not improve overnight. Even if each method is shallow, having many means prepared will help you.”
“Where do I get a gun?”
“Come to Selvlogics Lab.”
“You’ll even give me a gun? What kind of lab job is that?”
“......Is that so? Well, this is the world we live in.”
While that conversation continued,
“Those two got close already.”
“Ahaha. Mr. Ghost was an instructor for the Harenhal Guard, after all. He must find it hard to simply watch a promising sprout and leave it alone. You learn from him now and then too, don’t you, Mr. Pavl?”
“What I’m saying is... have some wariness. There is being meddlesome, and then there is this.”
“Are you still suspicious of Mr. Hyeon?”
“I have no choice but to be.”
Pavl said this while kneading his shoulder.
“What did he say again? That he was exploring the area looking for junk? Then how did he get to the station with his body intact?”
That was not all.
“And the cavern where the Professor was found. To find that place, you have to follow the tracks all the way in. Would a vagrant really go out of his way to check a place like that, which seemed to have nothing?”
“Hmm. I did not think much of it. The Mr. Hyeon I saw seemed like a capricious person. It may have caught his interest. And if the monsters are few, he has the ability to handle them.”
“......That is true.”
There was no need to fight just because one encountered monsters. Even more so if one was acting alone. If he was a person from this area, he would know safe points too.
“What do you think, Professor?”
Leila shifted the topic. Originally, she had intended to ask the Professor for combat command. To help her build up even a little experience again.
However, the situation was now ambiguous.
Kim Yi-hyeon had been included in their fighting strength. His combat ability had not been fully grasped, and most of all, there was a large concern that he might not follow orders.
This was not bad in its own way. In that it placed no burden on the Professor. Ghost also seemed to be paying attention to Kim Yi-hyeon in a good sense.
“I... don’t really know. About how to fight, especially.”
“It’s all right. Combat is Mr. Ghost’s specialty. I was only asking what impression Mr. Hyeon gives you, Professor, when you look at him.”
“To my eyes, Hyeon looks strong too, but....”
Her lightly colored eyes turned toward Kim Yi-hyeon. Kim Yi-hyeon was in the middle of talking with Ghost, wearing an expression that said he was not entirely sure.
“As Ghost pointed out, I don’t think he feels accustomed to it. Putting combat aside, his gait when he moves, the way he looks around... things like that.”
This time, she looked at Leila and Pavl.
“You are cautious, but you have no unnecessary movements. But Hyeon is cautious to the point of excess. Perhaps... situations like this are unfamiliar to him. He does not seem as lighthearted as he appears.”
Cough, cough.
Perhaps because she had spoken at length, the Professor coughed. After handing the Professor a water bottle, Leila turned her eyes toward Kim Yi-hyeon.
“......Yes. I’m sure that is the case.”
Just because someone was a vagrant, did that mean their heart had to be rough? There were plenty of tender people.
It was only that a harsh environment gradually scraped something away.
***
Night.
They judged it would be difficult to move any farther, so they stopped. There was no need to sleep outdoors. Abandoned houses were scattered all around them.
The development was still stopped at the point where 0-3 Stage had been cleared. On the way, they had merely encountered one or two monsters.
“Ha, I’m dying.”
Kim Yi-hyeon threw himself onto a bed.
The mattress was thick with dust, and all its stuffing was spilling out. It was terribly unsanitary, but he did not particularly care.
His body and mind were exhausted. The cushioning of the mattress felt too good for him to complain.
There was no one else inside the room.
Fortunately, the house was fairly large. Leila’s group would also rest after dividing up personnel in their own way, so he left them alone.
For no particular reason, he rolled onto his side. Shards of broken glass were scattered across the floor.
Yesterday, a narrow studio apartment. Today, a spacious house in a wretched state. What an extreme gap.
‘Still, I’m alive.’
The feeling of killing monsters remained in his hands. It was an unpleasantness difficult to express fully in words. He would end up tasting it again and again in the future.
It was not to the point that he could not do it.
‘The food went down smoothly too.’
Leila had shared food with him. Dried foods, such as jerky. The water tasted a little fishy. That, too, was not to the point that he could not eat or drink it.
He could do this. He could endure this.
‘I do wonder whether I was always this adaptable, though.’
Earlier, he had practically fried up a sloppy pancake of vomit and even screamed like a madman. But at this point, was he not adapting quickly?
He thought it was enough to praise himself and say he had done well. The concern that made his head whirl lay elsewhere.
“Should I save that guy or not?”
The future that would soon arrive.
A mighty enemy appeared, and through Ghost’s death, the Professor realized the cold cruelty of reality. That was how the scenario began in earnest.
‘Honestly, even that was hard for users to get immersed in. The tutorial is way too rushed from beginning to end.’
Was that not true? Some guy who briefly appeared in the tutorial died. Were you supposed to be sad? Was it supposed to be heartbreaking?
In other words, he was a narrative device. A character consumed in order to make users understand, “Ah, this is what kind of world this is.”
‘Even if Ghost dies... I’ll be able to survive. I just have to follow the story.’
The hurdle had passed.
As he had said, he had also finished adapting in his own way. If he focused only on survival and stayed quiet, he was confident he could survive until the middle part.
However.
‘Is it a good thing for everything to flow according to plan?’
Ghost definitely died extremely early. A twist? Something like he was actually alive, or his brain was transplanted into a machine with advanced technology?
He could say with certainty that there was absolutely no such thing.
In this game, a dead guy was simply dead.
Even so, there was a reason users liked Ghost, who exited early. It was because he did appear afterward.
In flashback scenes, that is.
‘Polaris is... how should I put it? The developers are vicious.’
The gacha system was nauseating. The heavy dependence on armaments. Even though there was no pity ceiling, every pickup came in double or triple layers.
‘If that were all, I wouldn’t even say anything.’
The treatment of the characters was harsh.
These bastards killed the characters first. Then they inserted flashback scenes and made you grow attached after the fact.
They showed scenes of them being active in the past...... and afterward, they used lines like these.
— Damn it, damn it! If only Ghost, if only that man had been alive, it wouldn’t have turned out like this...!
— It’s all... my fault. I should have died instead. Why did I survive back then? Trash like me, why......?
— Professor. You are still doing well. The reason the operatives are dissatisfied is not because you are lacking.
— Yes, I admit you are someone others cannot replace. But Professor, Ghost died trying to save you. Just as you have your own role, Ghost had a role that no one else could replace!
By that point, “Lord Ghost” came out naturally. It made one wonder how strong his influence had been for the operatives to give the player that much grief.
There was even a scene where the Professor, after being gaslit like mad, monologued.
After the war ended, in ruins filled with corpses, she said, “If you had been here, would something have been different?”
In short.
If things went according to their proper course, all sorts of tragedies would happen. He was not sure how much the life or death of a single operative would affect a war, but still.
‘If I save him, things should get a little better.’
Above all, the being who drove Ghost to his death. That bastard was a boss who later swallowed an entire main episode whole.
Promising operatives dropped dead at his hands one after another. He became the trigger that made Selvlogics Lab, which had been growing stronger through the Professor’s efforts, begin to creak.
‘If I can deal with him here......’
It would not end at the level of the scenario being distorted. One entire main episode would disintegrate into thin air.
In any work, episodes were bound to be connected organically. From that point on, it would become difficult to predict the development.
Even accounting for all of that.
‘It’ll definitely flow in a good direction.’
Ghost was the operatives’ spiritual pillar. He also had connections with other factions. Would he not become a reliable presence for the Professor, the player, as well?
‘Since discord won’t arise between the Professor and the operatives, the Lab’s growth will be faster too.’
The genre would clearly become milder, from deep dark fantasy. Its distinctive spicy flavor had been exactly to his taste, but... that was when he was watching from beyond a screen.
‘In reality, mild flavor is the best.’
He had decided.
He would try saving Ghost.
‘Sorry about this.’
If there were those who lived, there had to be those who died. “Shaeboong” would have to make an early exit.