Chapter 81: Perhaps, a Crisis for the Program

Episode 81

Seol Daun, flung to the edge of the subspace, landed on the ground. He struggled to get up, his face a picture of shock, something he hadn’t shown since the second preliminary round began.

‘Why can’t I sense the mana around the magic circle…?’

He clutched his aching jaw, confused. It wasn’t just the mana around the magic circle. He couldn’t sense any mana outside the subspace.

‘…Ah!’

As he looked around, his eyes fell on the subspace barrier. He finally understood. The mana composing the barrier was different. Unlike before, it was a disturbing, sticky black mana. It was the same type of mana as the dark energy waves pulsating on the ground.

‘The external mana can’t penetrate this black barrier…!’

Understanding the situation, Seol Daun’s eyes flickered. He was now trapped within Kim Jinsung’s perfect home ground, forced to fight.

“Is it getting more interesting now?”

At that moment, Kim Jinsung echoed Seol Daun’s words.

Seol Daun turned to look at him. Kim Jinsung’s expression remained unchanged, as calm and confident as when they first met. It was a stark contrast to Seol Daun, whose confident smile had vanished.

‘He could transform the subspace skill into dark energy too.’

Kim Jinsung, using his ‘Demonic Constitution’ trait, had tried to transform the subspace skill into dark energy, just like he had with other skills.

The result was a resounding success. It seemed easier to succeed in a place dominated by dark energy.

“Let’s see if you can still maintain the same attack power without the help of external mana.”

At Kim Jinsung’s words, Seol Daun forced a smile and shouted.

“Ha, hahaha! Even though it’s a subspace, it’s still full of mana!”

Seol Daun quickly extended both palms towards Kim Jinsung.

**Whirr~!**

A massive firestorm erupted again, engulfing Kim Jinsung. Kim Jinsung, as if expecting it, summoned a dark energy shield, easily blocking the attack. The shield seemed to be much stronger, thanks to the doubled stats inside the subspace.

‘Damn it! If that’s the case, I’ll summon an ice storm too…!’

Seol Daun was about to use another elemental range attack.

But then, something happened. The firestorm’s range began to shrink significantly.

‘What, what? What’s happening?!’

Seol Daun was bewildered as the firestorm shrank to the size of a human being. He tried to gather all the surrounding mana and inject it into the firestorm. But the mana wouldn’t gather.

‘Why isn’t the mana… Wait a minute.’

Seol Daun finally realized that the air around him was different. It wasn’t just different; it was as if it didn’t exist at all. He also realized, at that moment, that he couldn’t breathe.

‘Why can’t I… Could it be?!’

Seol Daun’s eyes widened in realization.

Seeing Seol Daun’s confusion, Kim Jinsung spoke nonchalantly.

“You’ve finally realized it’s a vacuum.”

A notification appeared before him.

—

▶ The ‘Subspace Magic Circle Creation’ skill has been fused with the ‘Human Vacuum Cleaner’ skill.

▶ You have acquired the fused skill ‘Vacuum Subspace Magic Circle Creation.’

– Injects mana into the ground to create a vast subspace magic circle.

– Allies inside the magic circle have their stats increased fourfold, while enemies have their stats reduced to less than 1/4. Users can designate allies and enemies.

– The user can create a vacuum inside the subspace. The user and allies are unaffected by the vacuum.

▶ The ‘Subspace Magic Circle Creation’ and ‘Human Vacuum Cleaner’ skills have disappeared.

▶ The ‘Vacuum Subspace Magic Circle Creation’ skill is registered as a permanently stored skill.

▶ 5,000 Beast Karma points have been used for the skill fusion.

—

Kim Jinsung dismissed the notification and continued talking to Seol Daun.

“I read online that mana can be obtained from the air. Is that right? So, if it’s a vacuum, it means there’s no mana at all?”

“……!”

“Thanks. Your overconfidence in your abilities helped me think of a solution.”

Kim Jinsung’s words were sincere. If Seol Daun hadn’t bragged about his ability to control mana, Kim Jinsung wouldn’t have come up with this solution.

“Shall we continue?”

Kim Jinsung slowly walked towards Seol Daun.

Despite Kim Jinsung’s approach, Seol Daun couldn’t react. He was panicking beyond confusion.

‘This is impossible! How can someone create a space with no mana using their own power…?’

Seol Daun, who had lived his entire life with mana, had never been in a space without mana. He was a ‘natural genius’ who controlled surrounding mana, but in an environment without mana, he was just an ordinary young man with a strong physique.

Whack!

“Ugh!”

Seol Daun was punched again, flying backward.

Because of the vacuum, he couldn’t stop and flew until he hit the dark energy wall, finally stopping.

Looking up, he saw Kim Jinsung walking towards him.

‘Wait, stop! Please! Stop for a moment!’

Seol Daun begged, raising his hands and kneeling. Even though his voice was muffled by the vacuum, his actions were desperate.

‘I don’t want to die! Please, just give me a chance! Jinsung, right? We sat together on the plane. Right? So, please…’

Pfoo!

But Kim Jinsung’s sharp dagger pierced Seol Daun’s forehead. As he withdrew the dagger, Seol Daun collapsed, eyes open, lifeless. Kim Jinsung spoke in a dry voice.

“This is Colosseum Survival.”

* * *

– Wow!

– Kim Jinsung won!

– That’s it!

– I knew you could do it, Kim Jinsung! I knew you could do it, Kim Jinsung! I knew you could do it, Kim Jinsung! I knew you could do it, Kim Jinsung!

– This is bullshit

– Why the hell is he fighting Kim Jinsung?

– Damn it! I bet all my savings on Seol Daun…

– You bastard, Seol Daun, give me my money back! You goddamn…

As soon as Kim Jinsung eliminated Seol Daun, the chat room exploded with cheers and harsh comments filled with automatic censorship.

The staff in the monitoring room also cheered.

“Kim Jinsung won!”

“Nice! Thank goodness. Seol Daun wasn’t a strong enough character to replace Kim Jinsung’s popularity…”

“And Seol Daun had a lot of haters. He never went to the training room, and he made insulting comments about other participants, calling them ‘weaklings’.”

“Make sure to edit the final scene of Seol Daun getting beaten up repeatedly. Got it?”

Jang Seungwook and Baek Jun, watching from behind, exchanged words with a slightly brighter expression.

“As expected, a lazy genius can’t beat a hardworking genius.”

“He was too complacent. Mana control isn’t invincible.”

“That’s right.”

In reality, the New Continent, Sselepoh, was filled with people who could control surrounding mana. His ability only seemed impressive here, but in Sselepoh, where the strongest gathered, it wouldn’t even be a match.

“Most importantly, Seol Daun didn’t know that the subspace magic circle was the ultimate counter to his ability. Even though he was facing Kim Jinsung.”

“Mm.”

If Seol Daun had known that the subspace magic circle was the ultimate counter to his ability,

And if he had been aware that his opponent, Kim Jinsung, was capable of manipulating the subspace’s properties,

If he hadn’t foolishly entered the subspace and had escaped, the ending wouldn’t have been so pathetic.

In short, the outcome of this battle could be summed up as ‘Seol Daun’s carelessness.’

“What about Kim Jinsung? If he absorbs Seol Daun’s abilities, he’ll become a monster in the literal sense.”

“……”

“At this point, he’s probably strong enough to escape even if all the Colosseum staff equipped with full armor attacked him.”

Baek Jun didn’t answer Jang Seungwook. But his serious expression showed that he shared the same concerns.

‘…I need to contact the Hunter Bureau and request more support after the second round ends. It’s not just Kim Jinsung; there are too many monsters this season who are exceeding my expectations.’

Baek Jun could already see the face of Minister Tak Namgyu in the future, complaining about his request for a massive amount of S-class magic stones. But there was no other choice.

If they didn’t increase security, there was a high chance that the ‘forced laborers’ who survived would escape, leading to a terrible disaster.

Woooong-.

At that moment, his smartphone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and checked the caller ID.

‘…Minister Tak Namgyu?’

The caller was Minister Tak Namgyu, the head of the Hunter Bureau.

* * *

Kim Jinsung, the person who had caused Baek Jun’s worries, was sitting on a flat rock near Seol Daun’s body, reading the notification that had appeared before him.

—

▶ You have acquired the composite trait ‘Fluffy Ability User.’

▷ Fluffy Ability User: Grants the following traits and permanently stored skills:

– Become Smoke: Transforms into smoke, becoming immune to physical attacks. Can fly while in smoke form.

– Smoke Magic Circle: Creates a magic circle by releasing a large amount of smoke instantly. The magic circle obscures the vision of enemies within it.

– Optimized for Heavenly Punishment: When transformed into smoke, you can freely use electric attacks, doubling their effects and reducing MP consumption by half.

▷ Zeus Impersonation: You can convert mana into electric properties.

– Permanently increases agility by 40.

—

The top notification had appeared as soon as he killed Pung Bitgaram.

‘These are decent traits, but compared to the ones below…’

Kim Jinsung’s gaze went to the notification below, the traits he had acquired from killing Seol Daun.

—

▷ Mana Controller: You can freely use mana within a wide range around you. You can use all mana-based skills without MP consumption until all surrounding mana is depleted.

▷ Mana Delay: Doubles the power of all mana-based skills and reduces MP consumption by half.

—

‘…These are insanely overpowered traits. They make Pung Bitgaram’s look pathetic.’

Considering that mana can be obtained from the air and that the Earth is full of air, this trait was a cheat among cheats. Now he understood why Seol Daun had been so confident.

‘I was right not to go directly to the main castle.’

Kim Jinsung hadn’t considered directly assassinating Seol Daun in the main castle because of the pressure of 200 people, but also because Seol Daun was among them.

Seeing this ability, he realized he would have been in serious trouble if he had gone to the main castle to assassinate him.

‘If I can combine this with dark energy…’

‘Demonic Constitution’ was already considered overpowered, but what if he could combine it with the ‘Mana Delay’ trait?

‘Then I could double the Warp Hole distance… Wait a minute.’

Thinking about the possibility of increasing the Warp Hole distance to over 100 km, Kim Jinsung unconsciously turned his head.

Beyond the island, the vast ocean stretched out. Kim Jinsung could feel, even without looking, a thick mana shield separating the ocean and the island.

‘With this ability, I could break through the mana shield and escape, right?’

Suddenly, the thought of escaping began to sprout in Kim Jinsung’s mind.

—