Chapter 4: Awakened, but…(1)

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling.

‘…Am I on a boat?’

I could hear the sound of waves, and there was a rancid oil smell unique to old ships.

Feeling the distinct, strong vibrations of the motor engine, I sat up.

Or, more accurately, I tried to sit up.

‘I can’t move my arms and legs…’

Alaune’s paralyzing poison was still in full effect.

I couldn’t muster any strength in my body.

It was difficult to even turn my head to look around while lying down, let alone sit up.

As if the poison alone wasn’t enough, they had tied my wrists and ankles tightly with ropes.

Seeing the skin around the ropes swollen and red, I figured it would hurt quite a bit once I untied them later.

‘Ugh, my head.’

Perhaps because my ear was pressed against the floor, the rough sound of the boat’s motor engine echoed in my ears like an auditory hallucination.

My head throbbed as if I had been drinking the day before, probably from seasickness.

Calming my stomach, which churned as if I would throw up at any moment, I forced my eyes shut.

My physical condition seemed poor in many ways.

‘…I’m thirsty.’

Perhaps because I was constantly sweating, I felt a strong thirst.

I didn’t realize it when I couldn’t feel anything, but once I realized I needed water, a burning pain washed over me.

“Um… cough, is anyone there?

Water, some water…”

Because I had kept my mouth shut for so long, my voice came out very hoarse.

Nevertheless, whether my message got across properly, a young girl came into the room carrying a canteen.

“Open your mouth.”

“…What?”

“You can’t drink water by yourself, can you?

I’ll feed it to you, so open your mouth.”

She poured water from the canteen into a bowl and took out a spoon.

“You must be extremely thirsty.

Most of the anesthetics or paralyzing poisons we use cause mild fever and sweating.

Alaune’s poison is especially potent.”

The spoon filled with water from the bowl stopped in front of my mouth.

“Ah~”

“Ah…”

It felt uneasy, but thinking that a child this young wouldn’t deceive someone, I obediently opened my mouth.

Then the water from the spoon flowed into my mouth.

Feeling the painful thirst in my mouth relieved, I desperately drank the water the child offered.

…Hot!”

Only after the thirst had subsided somewhat did I realize what I had done.

To be cared for in this way by a young girl who looked like she should be in elementary school, much younger than me.

Before I knew it, the child’s hand, which had put down the spoon, was stroking my hair.

Filled with an unknown sense of shame and guilt, I blushed and said,

“Um, could you stop stroking my hair now?”

“Okay.

If you don’t want it, I can’t help it.”

The child withdrew her hand without hesitation and got up.

“We’ll arrive at the mainland market in thirty minutes.

Wait there.”

Leaving only those words, she went out the door.

And so, I was left alone again in a dark, windowless room.

…A market, could it be the s*ave market I’m thinking of?

Am I really going to be sold off like this, so helplessly?

The chance of escape was close to zero, I couldn’t even move my arms and legs because of the poison, and my physical condition was at its worst.

Negative situations kept piling up one after another, so even if I tried to think positively, I couldn’t find a solution.

“…Status window.”

With a sigh of resignation, I summoned the status window without much expectation.

[Status window loading complete.]

Welcome back, [PpulgjapgoAgimandeulgi] Adventurer!

-Receives 100% of the stats of the existing character.

-You can use skills that have invested skill points.

-Level limit is released.

-Stat correction value is applied.

“…Huh.”

Is this a dream?

I tried to pinch my arm, but realizing it was impossible because of the paralyzing poison, I lifted my head, which was the only thing I could move, and slammed it against the floor.

It hurt.

I could feel the pain.

In other words, it wasn’t a dream.

As I blankly examined the floating messages, I suddenly came to my senses.

According to the status window’s messages, it meant that I could finally apply my character’s stats to this body.

I was glad that I wouldn’t have to suffer from minor illnesses anymore, that I wouldn’t have to experience the humiliating ordeal of not being able to lift a 1.5-liter bottle of water due to lack of strength, and above all, that I wouldn’t have to live a life where I was constantly looked down upon by others.

Who would dare to ignore a user who was among the top three mages in the entire user base?

Unless they were a moron who wanted to be impaled by an ice pick, no one would.

Lost in the imagination of many people chanting my name, I recalled the contents of the notification window that appeared before my eyes with a look of deep emotion.

Stat liberation, application of correction values, skill usability, level-up limit release, and so on…

I decided to ignore the nickname that I couldn’t possibly show to others.

I hope this nickname isn’t visible to other people, right?

“Haha, I am invincible now.

The user is a god.”

My body, affected by the Ilaune poison, still couldn’t move even a little, but I had dozens of useful skills for such situations.

Among them, there were also skills that removed debuffs like poison or illness.

However, I had no intention of detoxifying the poison right now.

‘It wouldn’t be fun to just end the detoxification like this.’

I was planning to give a proper lesson to the kidnappers outside who had made me suffer.

To do that, I couldn’t detoxify right now.

If I showed them a threatening appearance, they might run away.

I was quite stressed right now, and each of those kidnappers was a valuable outlet for my anger.

I would carefully lure them to let their guard down and then take them all down at once with weak attack magic or binding magic.

After that, all that would remain were experiments to adjust the magical firepower.

When I thought about what they would go through in the future, I felt a pang of sympathy, but that slight sympathy disappeared when I remembered that most of the other race users who were sold through human trafficking would undergo unauthorized human experimentation.

After all, these humans would have kidnapped innocent users like me to make money.

They probably never even considered the pain that those users would receive after being sold to the laboratory.

“Hey, I heard the woman woke up?”

“Who said that?”

“Rose.

She said she was thirsty, so she gave her some water.”

The voices of the kidnappers were heard from outside.

Judging by the number of voices, it seemed like there were accomplices besides the two who had directly kidnapped me.

Criminals from a human trafficking organization that used poison that was difficult for ordinary people to obtain, moved as a group, and even had a building to openly store kidnap victims.

Considering the various circumstances, even if I didn’t kill them, most injuries would be recognized as justifiable self-defense in court.

It was a good opportunity to legally experiment with the power of the skill.

‘I was kidnapped, so I used magic to protect myself.’

Even I thought it was a perfect excuse.

-Squeak.

The door opened with a strange sound, and four thugs came into the room.

Happy that they had successfully committed the crime, they looked down at me and smiled gleefully.

The shortest of them said,

“Hello, little girl.

Are you curious about what’s happening to you now?”

“Hey, look at her, she’s so scared she can’t even speak properly.

It’s nice to see her face so pale.”

My skin was originally pale, so that’s why it looked that way, but I didn’t feel the need to argue about such trivial matters.

I obediently listened to them talking, then opened my mouth.

“What will happen to me now?”

“What will happen?

You’ll be taken to the market in mainland China and sold to fat tycoons for their entertainment, or dragged to secret laboratories in various countries for human experimentation.

Are you a little scared now?”

The man’s face, listing the things that I would have experienced if I hadn’t awakened, was filled with glee as he grinned.

All the users in a similar situation to me would have met the same fate as the man described.

“If you’re scared and afraid of being treated like that… there’s also the option of coming to our side and serving.

We’ll hand you over to a place where you’ll be treated fairly well and used appropriately.

How about it?”

The gazes of the four men, filled with unspoken desires, scanned my entire body.

Looking at where their eyes were directed, I saw that they were looking at the bare skin inside the hoodie and shirt that had been stretched out during the struggle.

I met their gazes and retorted sharply,

“Disgusting.”

“What?”

“I said you’re disgusting, you guys.

It’s not even worth calling you ‘people.’

You trash.”

“…What did you just say?

Are you out of your mind?”

The man asked back with a dumbfounded expression at my curse.

There were four men in this room.

The types of voices I had overheard earlier while lying down feeling thirsty were also four in total.

Probably these men and the girl from before were the entire group.

It bothered me a little that one young girl was missing, but it didn’t seem like I would get another chance for a complete takedown like this.

I looked at the target and chanted the magic as I had seen in the game.

“It’s going to hurt a little.”

Low-grade magic – [Ice Bolt.]

Before the man could properly assess the situation, I quickly cast the magic.

Ice Bolt.

One of my character’s poke skills and the most basic magic commonly used among ice-type skills.

Of course, even if it was a basic magic used for poking, it could deal tremendous damage if my character’s magic stat was applied.

Roughly estimating the power, it was clear that it could easily pierce through the leg of an ordinary person.

In the game, it had the power to take down golems made entirely of stone in one shot.

Perhaps it wouldn’t just pierce through the leg, but cut it off entirely.

I smiled, imagining the man clutching his leg and screaming in pain.