The ruins were a tangled mass of collapsed buildings and rusted vehicles. From a distance, debris and dust drifted through the wind, creating a bleak atmosphere, but the people within were brimming with energy.
“Over there! Second rank, tighten your spacing! Do not give them any room!! Maintain the formation!!”
At Park Gilsu’s shout, the defensive-type Awakened guarding the narrow alley quickly filled the gaps created by the enemy’s relentless barrage.
“Hold the line! We win if we endure!”
“Strike Team! What are you doing?! If you cannot break through, we all die! Find a way through!!”
It was a fierce mock battle between two groups of fourteen, with the Reserve Squad excluded.
They had formed opposing units called the Defense Force and the Strike Team, then fought one another as violently as they would in a real battle.
It was supposedly only a mock battle, but the fighting was so intense that people were constantly bleeding or losing consciousness.
Close-range fighters clashed with other close-range fighters, while ranged fighters exchanged attacks with their counterparts. Through the fierce struggle, they gradually learned the fundamentals of combat.
Eventually, one side of the Defense Force under Park Gilsu’s command was breached.
At this stage, offensive skills were overwhelmingly more advantageous than defensive skills outside single combat.
In a duel, someone could endure a single blow and counterattack.
In a many-against-many battle, however, concentrated attacks occurred constantly.
The balance would reverse in the middle and later towers, but for now, the defenders were at a disadvantage.
“We broke through!! Concentrated Breakthrough!! I can see the line!”
WAAAAAAH!!
The instant one section of the seemingly impregnable defensive formation collapsed, the Strike Team united and persistently forced their way through the opening.
Their target was a long, straight line drawn across the ground.
A single flag stood beyond it, serving as a substitute for a Guardian Stone.
Since losing it would mean death in a real battle, everyone desperately prevented the Strike Team from crossing the line.
Park Gilsu had been commanding from the rearmost position so that he could survey the entire battlefield.
When he saw the formation rapidly collapsing, he immediately rushed forward.
“You are not getting past me!! Everyone, pull yourselves together!! This is not over yet!!”
Park Gilsu was still a bespectacled man whose body looked frail to the point of emaciation, but several battles and realizations had transformed him completely.
His body remained as thin as a sheet of paper, but he now understood how to compensate for his weaknesses.
He had deliberately sewn together several layers of clothing taken from the Raiders to make his frame appear larger.
More importantly, when viewed from the front, the Radioactive Shield and spear Lee Hojun had given him made him look considerably more imposing than expected.
“HRYAAAAH!!”
The first Awakened to charge toward him activated Body Reinforcement and hurled his newly bulked-up body forward.
BOOOOM!!
The resulting crash was far too loud to have come from a human body colliding with a shield.
‘The Leader was right. Planting the shield against the ground makes the impact much easier to withstand.’
Park Gilsu had successfully blocked the accelerated body slam.
He used the shield exactly as Leader Lee Hojun had taught him.
The moment he saw the enemy launching his body forward, Park Gilsu lowered one knee, planted the lower edge of the shield slightly into the ground, and received the attack perfectly.
Once Park Gilsu had dealt with the immediate danger, another ally quickly moved in from beside him and kicked the charging member of the Strike Team away.
“Damn it! Do not get close to that shield! It will drain your Vitality!”
Everyone already knew that fact after participating in several mock battles.
More than one person had experienced their strength draining away upon striking the shield, as though they had been afflicted with a Debuff.
The problem was that the shield affected not only its wielder, Park Gilsu, but also the allies defending beside him, gradually eroding the Vitality of everyone within the surrounding area.
That was why Park Gilsu retreated the moment the formation was restored and focused on commanding again.
“Injured person here! We have an injured person!”
“Move the injured to the rear! Medical Team!”
Someone who had been struck heavily in the head collapsed with foam spilling from his mouth.
He was moved to the rear, where several members of the Medical Team with healing abilities hurriedly examined him.
“His brain was probably shaken, but it is only a mild concussion. At this rate, it should heal naturally in about five minutes. The fractured arm is the more serious injury.”
Under ordinary circumstances, trauma to the brain would have been considered the more severe injury.
However, although the healers considered the possibility of a concussion, they dismissed it without much concern.
They had grown accustomed to the towers and the bodies of the Awakened. They now understood that an injury of this degree would not kill them.
Most wounds healed quickly because the Vitality Stat of an Awakened greatly increased their Natural Healing.
Fractures were actually more troublesome.
Unless someone possessed a Regeneration ability, broken bones were more serious.
They had discovered that a dislocated shoulder or a limb bent completely backward required at least a day for the bone to rejoin and two days to heal properly.
The problem was that if the bone healed incorrectly, they had to deliberately break it again and reset it.
That was why they prioritized fractures and treated them with healing abilities such as Healing Spring.
“What would we have done without Ms. Soyeong?”
“It is nothing. I never do anything except hide in the rear….”
Bae Soyeong’s Healing Spring created a spring at a location she designated.
Drinking the Healing Water produced by the spring rapidly healed most injuries, so the ability became increasingly valuable when used among a large group.
Its only drawback was that creating the spring and waiting for it to produce Healing Water required at least thirty minutes.
However, that was not a problem when they had established a fortified position and could prepare the water in advance, storing it in bottles.
Later, the water could become even more effective than the Recovery Potions sold in the Shop and could even remove poison-related Status Ailments.
“You have a beautiful face and speak just as beautifully. If only I had a grandson, I would introduce you to him immediately…!”
“Now, now, you old fool. Do not cut in line. I already promised to show her my grandson first!”
“Ahaha….”
Soyeong gave an awkward laugh and smiled.
She was extraordinarily beautiful.
Her appearance was innocent and delicate, yet not so unapproachable that others felt intimidated. Instead, she possessed a warm smile that made anyone feel comfortable approaching her.
If the people in the ruins held a popularity contest, she would undoubtedly place first or second.
Before long, the mock battles ended.
The final score was three to three.
The Strike Team and Defense Force had each claimed half the victories.
The battles had become this competitive largely because of Park Gilsu.
His command and the spectacular defensive plays he made whenever the situation became critical had prevented the Strike Team from achieving an overwhelming victory.
“Haah. That man’s bones must be made of dragon. He looks as though he would break from the slightest touch, but perhaps he has steel tendons hidden inside him. He is unbelievably tenacious.”
“Exactly. Well, I am glad that he is on our side.”
As the people rested after the mock battle, they each offered their opinions of Park Gilsu.
Even those who had merely watched felt an inexplicable sense of exhilaration from his performance.
Park Gilsu appeared weak to anyone who looked at him, but when his powerful Mental Strength and determination began to shine, no one could help admiring him.
Moreover, everyone remembered how weak he had been in the starting room.
Seeing how strong he had become gave them hope.
If he could do it, why could they not?
Naturally, everyone acknowledged that his equipment played a considerable role.
However, they had witnessed his refusal to surrender, so they respected him even after taking his equipment into account.
He had been designated as their final line of defense.
If he fell, the Guardian Stones—and therefore their lives—would be taken.
Because they understood that, the reliability he displayed became a source of faith.
“By the way, have the ranged fighters still not finished their mock battle?”
“No, they finished earlier.”
“Then why can I not see them?”
“They are over there, following Ms. Sujeong’s training method again.”
“Again? Ugh… Is that not practically torture?”
“Self-harm or not, they say it definitely makes them stronger. The Leader taught them, after all.”
“Well, the Leader has never been wrong.”
As they drank water and whispered among themselves, they looked toward a training area blocked off by temporary partitions.
Even though she should have been exhausted after the mock battle, Kang Sujeong regarded it as an opportunity and dragged her weary body into the training area.
The ranged Awakened following her looked miserable, but not one of them left.
They followed Kang Sujeong’s training half voluntarily and half because they felt pressured to do so.
“Urgh… Ngh.”
“Uuuurgh…!”
“Haaah- Haaah!”
The interior was filled with groans like an emergency room.
Everyone was pushing themselves to their absolute limit.
To someone unfamiliar with the training, they would have appeared perfectly ordinary, making it impossible to understand why they were suffering so much.
Each person sat facing a partner and did nothing but stare at them so intensely that their eyes seemed ready to burst.
Upon closer inspection, however, they had already spent Mana recklessly during the mock battle until they were nearly depleted.
Now they were gathered here, scraping at the very bottom of their remaining Mana reserves.
The Status Window displayed only the total amount of Mana someone could possess.
It did not reveal how much had been consumed or how much remained.
Moreover, each person possessed a different maximum Mana capacity.
Since the remaining Mana could not be quantified, the only way to discover their true limit was to squeeze out every last trace again and again.
If that were all, the training would not have been nearly this agonizing.
Their suffering came from driving themselves to the limit and then stabbing needles into their thighs.
Once there was no room left for additional needles, they gathered sharp shards of glass, nails, and similar objects and repeatedly stabbed them into any available part of their bodies.
“Uuuurgh…!!”
“E-Endorphins. The endorphins are coming!”
The faces of several ranged Awakened entering Hyperfocus flushed red with pleasure.
Self-harm and extreme concentration.
It was a method of achieving a degree of control beyond what their Stats ordinarily allowed.
The principle behind the training was simple.
They practiced gathering every last fragment of their fully depleted Mana and concentrating it into a single point.
Having another person present made concentration easier, which was why they sat facing someone and stared at them with murderous intensity.
Once they could no longer find even the slightest trace of Mana to draw upon and the mental agony became severe enough to make them lose consciousness, a phenomenon known as Mana Burn occurred.
They then used self-inflicted pain to forcibly overcome the Mana Burn.
Even though they could no longer extract additional Mana, they became capable of maintaining the Mana they had already gathered.
By repeatedly inflicting pain upon themselves and overcoming the Mana Burn state, they eventually entered a condition of extreme concentration.
Hyperfocus.
At that moment, the caster experienced pleasure beyond anything an ordinary drug could provide.
‘It closely resembles the pleasure you feel immediately before death. Experience it as often as possible beforehand. Then, even during the final moment before you die, your concentration will not collapse, and you will still be able to use your skill.’
Hyperawakening. Hyperfocus.
The phenomenon was known by many names, and the training method had been discovered solely by Lee Hojun through his countless experiences of death.
He had taught it to various people during different regressions, and it had consistently produced extraordinary results.
Moreover, the training was not useful only for ranged fighters.
It also provided excellent benefits to close-range fighters.
However, there was a reason he prioritized teaching it to ranged Awakened.
Within the lower towers, the body collapsed faster than the will.
No matter how far someone’s determination reached, a body with insufficient durability could no longer move.
Even if a close-range fighter maintained perfect Hyperfocus, it was useless if their body had already failed.
A ranged Awakened, however, could enter Hyperfocus even when they could not move so much as a finger and strike an unsuspecting enemy from behind.
In other words, this training method required both a willingness to sacrifice oneself for one’s allies and a fierce desire for revenge—
The determination to deliver one final, vicious blow even in death.