episode_0085

City (3) ― Anyangcheon Soccer Field, a special base in Guro-gu, Seoul

Tdddeudeudeudeuk!

Steroid, who was looking at me closely, stuck his large arm into the ground.

I hurriedly stretched out my arms towards the guy, but naturally I knew.

I couldn’t restrict its movements with my current telekinesis.

Its muscles were twitching and continuing to knead the lump of dirt.

‘… ‘I’m thinking of throwing it.’

It didn’t charge at me because my mana was limited.

‘Are you saying you’re going to attack me while protecting the brat behind you?’

I could clearly see its insides.

I can tell, but I couldn’t fight it with my fighting style so far.

Creak drudge-

It felt like I was being forced to clear a blocked path.

A feeling as if the river flowing proudly was falling, smaller than a stream.

The only thing that the telekinesis that could barely control was the clumps of dirt that seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

The number was also much smaller than before.

“covered with blood… .”

I smiled as I thought about the mural again.

Okay, system. Is this what you think is my weakness?

Skill limitations.

Maybe I thought I had hit the nail on the head, but my pride was a little hurt.

My eyes moved dizzyingly from side to side, predicting the possibility of victory.

When I took my first achievement with Cleaver Spear, did I have telekinesis?

Was my very essence telekinetic?

I don’t think so.

I lightly clenched my fists and measured my current body.

No matter how weak it is, it has an elastic body that can make movements that ordinary people cannot even imagine.

“Bwaaeaeaeaeak―!”

Krraaa!

An enemy that cannot be reached, but must be reached.

Keying! Keying!

Although they break apart thanks to the sudden force of telekinesis, they are still lumps of earth that serve as support.

Naturally, someone came to mind.

The ink-colored awakened person stuffed into the mural with me.

I bounced around thinking about the weapon lying dormant in my inventory.

The dagger, soaked in sunlight for the first time in a long time, flashed with pride.

Steroids, who is holding a lump of dirt that looks solid at a glance, looks at me and smiles his signature smile.

I also responded and laughed at him.

“The baby is scared.”

bang-!

In an instant, a lump of burning dirt appeared where I was, signaling the start of the battle.

I charged diagonally and threw a dagger at the guy.

Tung-!

The chest muscles that collided with the dagger wriggled with a harsh sound.

As I caught a glimpse of the dagger sticking into the floor, I gave strength to the tips of my toes and kicked the ground.

bang-!

A scorching throw again at the location where I was.

“Crraaa—!”

Steroid was so angry that he roared and slammed his hands into the ground.

“kkieeek―!”

A howling sound while approaching the steroid whose movement was restricted.

Half of the regular zombies that came out late surrounded the goal post.

The other half shook their upper bodies wildly and narrowed the siege.

A move with the purpose of filling the preparation time for the steroid throw.

‘okay. ‘It’s a special ordeal, right?’

The sprint that had been running in a straight line turned again into a diagonal line.

He stepped on the steroids scattered in the small pit and soared into the air.

As a check, I threw a dagger at the guy’s head and pointed my left hand downward.

A lump of dirt that had been floating helplessly below slowly rose.

Sooo!

The clod of dirt thrown by the steroid intersected with the dagger I threw.

Whoa whoa!

The lump of dirt floating with me was broken into pieces by the stronger lump of dirt.

Steroid blocked the dagger with his free forearm and pulled back the other hand that was holding the lump of dirt.

Incredible strength can be seen in the twitching muscles.

“Bwaaeaeaeaeak―!”

The telekinetic power that had been floating was jarred by the strange sound that suddenly rang out.

I stretched out both hands towards the helplessly crumbling lumps of earth.

All of the telekinesis that had been invested in my flight was consumed by the cost of maintaining the dirt clod.

Gravity took over and pulled my body, which had lost its holding power.

I stepped on a lump of dirt that barely held its shape and put both hands forward.

I, who was standing on a slowly moving dirt clump, leaped again.

Whoa whoa!

Clumps of dirt moving forward in the air were shattered.

The strong wind in the sky made the priest’s uniform flutter.

Steroid, who had thrown all the dirt, had another thrown object in his hands.

The guy was holding a large rock and pulling his arms behind his head, his face torn as if he was laughing at me.

As I fell to the ground again, I looked down.

There were no more lumps of dirt floating with me.

It was completely not me, but a floating lump of dirt, intercepting my useful means of transportation.

“Crraaa—!”

A gray meteor flew towards me with a roar that seemed to explode.

I threw one of the daggers in both hands as a check.

Ting—!

Of the two objects that collided quickly, my dagger bounced off and I screamed.

Steroid smiled as he watched the throw hit in a straight line without any problems.

Unlike a zombie, the sharpness of the blade was hidden until the end.

However, it was not sharper than Seo Joo-won.

As if imitating the movements in his memory, he kicked away the dagger in his other hand.

Sooo!

Gray light soars through the sky without losing its power.

“Kkisss—!”

The zombies roared with joy as if they were waiting for me to fall soon.

The dagger that had been thrown as a check on the zombies reaching out was spinning around.

I focused all my nerves on my eyesight and balance.

The right foot, which had been measuring the timing until the end, finally landed on the blade, the wide part of the dagger.

Knock knock!

Steroid eyes collided with me, who was crouching down.

“Crraaa—!”

He clenched his fists and pulled his arms in preparation for me approaching.

I also took the final leap, holding a dagger in both hands.

Same approach as Seo Joo-won.

There is only one thing that has changed.

The guy was soaring, but I hit him down.

Sooo!

Cutting through the wind, he and I intersect.

The guy who was protecting his head with one hand and raising his arms was embarrassed.

I was not in the path of the fist.

I was assaulting a different target on a slightly higher path.

Just as he hid his target, I also continued to hide my target.

A loophole that was created because I had never once passed by the guy and responded to him directly.

“Bwaaeaeaeak―!”

The target roared, but I was free.

What surrounds me now is not an ability.

Kwaaaang!

The dagger stretched out in a straight line and plunged into the creature’s toothless maw.

And following the upward gesture, it penetrated through the roof of the mouth.

“Gagging―!”

The roar stopped and mana circulated throughout the body again.

The zombies guarding the goalpost and the steroids that had been toyed with by the target rushed at me.

[You have defeated the mutant.]

[Faith cannot be obtained here.]

[No knowledge about variants was obtained.]

What, failure?

I frowned at the knowledge acquisition failure message that first appeared.

Oh right.

That’s a probability type acquisition.

So, I remembered swearing that it was ‘fun to know’.

I put aside my first misfortune and focused my mind.

Kiiing—!

After the refreshing sounds of operation, silence fell.

I dodged the zombies that stopped just as they were running at me and reached for the blue gem next to the goal post.

[Touchdown!]

A simple message was printed, and the zombies that had been stopped by telekinesis slowly melted away.

While I was watching them disintegrate into particles, a message came to mind.

[You have solved the theme of ‘Anyangcheon Soccer Field’, a special base in Guro-gu!]

[The Awakened’s Guro-gu dominance rate is rising rapidly!]

[72.5% -> 77.5%]

Bampa la la-!

As I opened my eyes wide at the unfamiliar sound of congratulations, one message after another came to mind.

[Rewards from special bases are strengthened by passing the ‘special trial’!]

[The conditions for ‘Stone of Radiance’ are becoming more relaxed!]

I carefully held the blue gem in my hand, which did not melt when I touched it.

[Stone of Copy]

[The awakened person can copy one ‘object’ of his/her choice.]

“… … It is an item.”

He looked around at the blue light emitted by the jewel and spoke in a voice filled with emotion.

For the first time, I got a truly decent item.

Plus a simple explanation of copying an object.

“The simpler the effect, the more destructive it is.”

I knew this because I often played card games since I was young.

The destructive power of a simple sentence was greater than that of a long and difficult sentence.

‘Stone of copying’.

This was no different from the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, which was said to turn stones into gold.

“System! Can I copy this myself?”

There was no response from the system despite my joyful voice.

I tried tapping the chest with a jewel and rolling it around just in case, but nothing worked.

Tsk. If there were two of us, the crisis situation like before wouldn’t have been a crisis at all.

As I was sighing with regret, I suddenly had a strange thought.

‘Wait a minute, what if I was copied… If that copied guy fucks Lee Ji-woo… Is that Netora?’

For a moment, I felt a surge of discomfort in my heart.

“Wow! Good thing I didn’t copy! System, thank you!”

Fuck, if I had copied myself I would have been in big trouble.

I took a deep breath and assessed my body condition.

Rather, thanks to the limited mana, I have plenty of remaining mana.

I reached out my hand and put the daggers and acolyte stones scattered on the floor into my inventory and looked south.

I was planning to go straight to the second special base.

***

[You have entered the Guro-gu special base ‘Sindorim Techno Neighborhood Park’.]

[The theme of ‘Sindorim Techno Neighborhood Park’ is ‘Anguish.’]

Along with the information message, the walking trails and greenery of the nearby park disappeared.

My body, which had come down to the special base from below, was also standing in a new position, similar to other special bases.

Hwii-ing-

It was a desert.

The wind filled with sand shook my hair.

In the middle of the desert, where there was nothing but sand and wind, a new message came to mind.

[Inventory, stores, and skills cannot be used until the theme is resolved.]

“… … Huh?”

I even read it again because I thought I might have read it wrong.

And he burst out laughing as he pondered over the meaning that had not changed at all.

I was very determined, I was determined.

To make sure, I reached out my hand and imagined a dagger.

Even after a few seconds, my hands are still empty.

The shop window and skills were no different.

Uh, I don’t have any abilities, so if I get a skill locked, I’m just an ordinary person.

I felt that all the powerful power that had made me a superhuman had disappeared.

When I thought about it, I realized that even if I had the ability, the system would have locked it.

“You don’t mean to fight zombies like this?!”

Then give me a weapon!

He shouted loudly as if to make the system listen and was alert to his surroundings.

Whiiing!

Well, fortunately, it seemed like I didn’t have to worry about that.

Nothing, let alone zombies, existed in the desert.

Think, let’s think.

My weakened body was briefly swayed by a fairly strong wind.

I laid my butt down on the sand and stroked my chin.

‘Let’s put together the clues I’ve gotten so far.’

In particular, the murals that were hidden pieces.

Just a moment ago, I was in the situation depicted in the third mural.

Jewels coming down from a bright pillar of light.

The monsters spewed out by that jewel.

The only thing that was different was that it didn’t roar while covered in blood.

Well, I think this is at my discretion, and the situation roughly fits.

So, does the mural have a very high probability of talking about the themes of the special base?

The third mural is ‘Anyangcheon Soccer Field’.

The fourth mural is…

I slowly went back through my memories and thought about the fourth mural.

A snake curled up next to a man lying down.

“The man is lying down… .”

And there is a snake in front?

Well, is it like a metaphor for some situation?

Or is it really okay to just lie down?

“Wow!”

With the sound of grass rustling, I laid my head on the soft sand.

“… … .”

Even if I lay down, nothing happened.

There was still only sand and wind in the desert.

I lay there and continued thinking.

‘It’s a snake…’ ‘Is it really a snake?’

What, are you asking me to raid a scary snake from mythology without any abilities?

That’s because the base’s theme is ‘agony’… … .

Is this related to combat?

‘The man is lying down.’

Why are you lying down?

Because it’s hard?

To what?

A snake coiled in front of it.

Is it a real snake?

Or is it a metaphor?

What is a metaphor?

I didn’t know at all.

The situation felt familiar without me knowing why.

The image became clearer little by little, but the more I focused my mind, the more it stopped.

“Phew― Let’s summarize. Let’s summarize.”

There is a snake in front of a man who is struggling with something.

If it’s just a snake, then there’s literally a snake.

If it is meant figuratively, snakes usually have a bad meaning.

“… Cowardice, evil.”

Evil.

Evil in front of a man who is having a hard time.

“… … Huh?”

At that moment, a flash of light flashed in my head.