Chapter 62 – Pain

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To enter the virtual world, you need a terminal.

When using a terminal, most of the senses in the original body are blocked, but you are still made to feel pain.

The reason is simple: to prevent people from using the terminal forcibly even when their body hurts, and to alert them to sudden abnormalities.

However, there is a terminal that *can* prevent you from feeling that pain.

It’s the [MDB] terminal that Arang is using.

Created for end-of-life patients in pain, the [MDB] blocks all bodily senses 24 hours a day, allowing them to die without feeling any pain.

But the [MDB] that Arang is using is in a different situation.

You might think the [MDB] is an omnipotent terminal, but it also has side effects.

If all bodily senses are blocked for 24 hours, those senses will inevitably atrophy, no matter how great the human brain is.

After Arang regained consciousness, she didn’t know why, but she also regained her health and didn’t feel any pain. So, she turned off all the blocking functions of the [MDB] and only allowed herself to feel pain.

This decision was made to reduce the side effects of the [MDB] and to facilitate rehabilitation training for her prosthetic arm and prosthetic leg.

With all the sensory blocking functions of the [MDB] turned off, Arang slid coolly and fell to the floor, experiencing pain she had never experienced before.

Pink Berry was flustered by Arang’s sudden collapse and used a rescue skill to pull Arang to safety.

The [Mindcontrolled Orc]’s axe slammed into the bare floor where Arang had been.

“Arang?”

Pink Berry sensed that something was wrong with Arang, who wasn’t responding.

Arang usually makes mistakes while playing LEORE, but she’s the type of person who quickly judges the situation and gets back on her feet, rather than freezing up because she made a mistake.

But Arang was limp in her arms, like a person whose soul had departed.

-Clatter.

The two daggers that Arang was holding fell weakly.

“Arang!”

Pink Berry hurriedly turned Arang’s body to check on her condition.

“Arang…!”

Empty eyes. Eyes devoid of vitality, that seemed to drag you into the Abyss just by making eye contact.

It was Arang in reality.

Arang is brighter than anyone else in LEORE and enjoys playing it. But *that* Arang was now the same as her real-world self.

Pink Berry, who knew all about Arang’s situation, realized that Arang’s current state was more serious than she thought.

[Uwooooo!!!]

‘Oh no…!’

Pink Berry was so focused on Arang’s condition that she forgot she was in a battle with the [Mindcontrolled Orc].

Before she knew it, the [Mindcontrolled Orc] had reached Pink Berry and was swinging its axe down.

==

Living as Arang, I had never felt like I was going to die.

Even when using my abilities, I only felt a slight headache? I had never really felt *pain*.

But with the sudden, genuine stomach pain, I momentarily lost control of my body.

The problem was what came next.

Falling to the floor was a problem that could be solved by getting up. But it was difficult to move my body because of the unexpected pain.

Having lived for so long without knowing the feeling of pain, it was difficult to come to my senses because I suddenly recognized that it hurt.

What is the difference between me and Arang?

It’s pain.

Arang lived in pain, suffering from a rare disease that no one knew about, even suffering the worst situation of terrible pain and having her arms and legs amputated.

Arang gave up everything—her life, her mind, her emotions—to escape that pain.

Then I entered the dead Arang.

My original mind and Arang’s mind harmoniously melted together, and I was recovering thanks to the warm attention and love of those around me.

But with the sudden, extreme pain, I felt the emotions of Arang, who had the disease, resurface.

Pink Berry pulled me to safety with her skill and shouted my name.

I can see Pink Berry’s face. And behind her, I can see the Orc’s axe.

The [Mindcontrolled Orc] is a field monster, but since it is being controlled by the final boss of the Raid, its strength is higher than other monsters.

No matter how well-equipped Pink Berry is with the latest gear, she’s still a Healer. She can’t take the [Mindcontrolled Orc]’s attack unscathed.

I immediately picked up the daggers that had fallen to the floor with both hands and got up from Pink Berry’s arms.

The Parrying I failed earlier…

With a body faster than usual, I entered the Orc’s attack range, and this time, instead of one dagger, I used both to strike the haft of the axe, where the killing power was the weakest, in a crisscross fashion.

Kaaaang!!!

A clean and cheerful sound.

It was a Perfect Parry.

Due to the effect of Perfect Parrying, the Orc was stunned, but I wasn’t.

An attack speed twice as fast as [Soma]’s, and the extreme multitasking of having to use skills with each of the two daggers, rather than using only one skill like [Soma]…

But now it felt easy.

I was already showing overwhelming performance in terms of Physical Skill, but now my abilities were being used to their maximum potential.

The feeling now is like normally using about 60-70% of my mind, and when I use my abilities, it goes over 100% and I feel a headache. But now it feels like I’ve erased all the unnecessary emotions from Arang’s emotions and I’m only using 10% of my mind, so my mental capacity is overwhelmingly lighter.

All the movements of the [Mindcontrolled Orc] came into view: the movement of its muscles, the direction of its gaze.

At the same time, I can feel everything in my body.

How to reduce the pre-delay and post-delay of skills, which skill to use now, and how to attack—everything flowed smoothly.

There was no hesitation or waste of even 0.01 seconds in switching from Essence to Reverse and from Reverse to Essence.

Before the Orc’s Stun wore off, I slashed its body with a crazy attack speed.

==

Arang suddenly got up from my arms and subdued the [Mindcontrolled Orc] in an instant.

I thought Arang had come back, but when I turned around after killing the [Mindcontrolled Orc], Arang was no different from what I had seen before.

Empty eyes. Eyes like a living corpse were staring at me.

“Arang, are you okay…!”

I quickly approached Arang.

“Is Older Sister okay more than me?”

“Ugh…!”

I got goosebumps all over my body at Arang’s voice.

It’s definitely Arang’s voice… but it’s not *Arang’s* voice. It wasn’t Arang, whose voice was cute and energetic, but a depressed, gloomy, and dark voice.

“I’m okay! Arang is the problem! Arang, are you really okay? Does it hurt anywhere? I’m worried about Arang’s condition right now…!”

If a normal person did this, I would just think they were putting on an act? But Arang is different.

She has a rare disease, and although her condition has improved, it’s a disease that suddenly appeared and suddenly got better. So, I was afraid that Arang’s disease had recurred because I didn’t know when it would recur.

‘Should I contact Anna Unnie right now…!’

“It hurts.”

“I, it hurts…!? W, where does it hurt! Does it hurt a lot!?”

“Yeah. It hurts a lot…”

“Log out right now! I’ll contact Anna Unnie and Doctor Unnie!”

“I feel like something is flowing down…”

I immediately sent an emergency call message to Anna Unnie and Hyesun Unnie, Arang’s doctor, and I was also going to log out and go to the hospital where Arang was.

But I felt something familiar with the words Arang said, covering her stomach with her hands.

“Flowing down…?”

“Yeah… it feels like my stomach is stabbing… it hurts…”

“Ah…”

The moment I heard that, I realized why Arang was hurting right now.

“Arang, log out right now, and Anna Unnie and Doctor Unnie will be here soon, okay? So, just wait in Arang’s room for a little bit. Okay?”

“Yeah…”

As soon as I saw Arang log out, I also logged out.

I immediately turned off the terminal and got out of bed. I immediately called Anna Unnie.

==

Hyesun, Arang’s doctor, was taking a break at home after handing over her work to her junior.

Arang spends most of her time in LEORE, and the rest of the time is spent sleeping, doing one hour of rehabilitation training, and taking a bath, but being in the hospital 24 hours a day is quite difficult.

So, Hyesun also entrusted it to her trustworthy junior one day a week and was resting at home.

But an alarm went off on her phone.

It wasn’t just a simple phone alarm; it was a warning alarm. And that alarm was only related to Arang.

Hyesun hurriedly turned on her phone.

There was an emergency call from Pink Berry Hayan, who spends almost all day with Arang in LEORE and checks on Arang’s condition there.

Emergency call number 1.

That meant Arang was feeling pain.

She had asked Hayan to take good care of Arang in case something happened, because she was turning off all the sensory blocking functions of [MDB] for rehabilitation training.

But this time, Hayan pressed the emergency call.

Hyesun immediately called her junior, who was in Arang’s building right now.

[Yes. Senior.]

“Is there a signal from [MDB] right now!?”

[Uh, uh? No, there isn’t. It’s just the level you always see when you’re fighting in LEORE.]

Her junior was flustered by Hyesun’s shout but quickly checked the signals of various medical devices connected to [MDB].

“Go directly to Arang right now and check Arang’s body condition first!”

[Yes!]

As soon as she finished the call, Hyesun immediately finished preparing to go out and got into her car, calling Hayan to check what was going on with Arang right now.

Az09xo