episode_0040

040.

“What? No contact from Mateo and his group?”

Seong Yura’s office.

Her expression darkened considerably.

It was due to the unexpected report she received from her servant.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

The servant stammered unexpectedly.

Quietly, Seong Yura observed the situation.

If she were to get angry, it wouldn’t just end with a reprimand.

Her cruel nature was enough to make even villains tremble.

“Not only is there no regular contact, but the emergency contact network is also unreachable.”

“Does the lack of contact mean it’s not a normal situation, or that they’re dead?”

“It seems likely.”

“Sigh.”

Seong Yura let out a light sigh.

Why couldn’t they reach Mateo?

Rocksanu and Kim Deok-oh wouldn’t pose a threat to Mateo.

Furthermore, she had added two more subordinates just in case.

Although they weren’t a formidable force, they could have adequately covered Mateo’s weaknesses.

She had thought that even if monstrous creatures emerged from the forest, Mateo’s group would be able to handle it.

“…They wouldn’t run away, right?”

No, no.

That wouldn’t make sense.

There was no reason for them to choose to flee in the first place.

So, what could have happened?

Did an unexpected variable arise?

“The possibility of Rocksanu and Kim Deok-oh incapacitating Mateo’s group is very low?”

“Very low.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Seong Yura nodded without any further comments.

Mateo could easily take down two people, and even if they managed to incapacitate Mateo’s group, the lack of contact until now was strange.

Mateo could have easily escaped, and Rocksanu wouldn’t kill even if he was a villain.

“Ugh, annoying. Release the men and search the mountain.”

“Yes.”

“Forget about Rocksanu…send the men to Kim Deok-oh first and interrogate him.”

“Understood.”

Finally, when Seong Yura gestured with her chin, the servant bowed once and slowly walked away.

An unexpected event had caused her irritation to rise.

“Surely they haven’t really died, have they?”

It would be a shame to lose them here.

“A monster, a monster…it’s too strange to think they were attacked by a monster in the forest.”

Is there another reason?

Could it be someone who helped Rocksanu?

If so, she wouldn’t let it go.

Never.

***

“Wow, it was worth the trouble. A spatial ring, it’s amazing, isn’t it?”

I gleamed with excitement.

Look at this dazzling ring.

A spatial ring.

I cherished the spatial ring as if it were made of gold and precious stones.

“The Item Encyclopedia mentioned that it can open a different space to store items, but…it definitely feels different when you actually use it.”

I looked up at the empty space.

Just above my eyes, a slightly separated empty space.

Black gold shimmered and split in the air.

It looked like a single line of gold split in a transparent glass.

When I threw a pen into it, it went in smoothly.

It was sucked into the spatial void.

“In the game, it was just an inventory expansion feature, but in reality, it’s implemented like this.”

The difference between the game and reality.

In the game, it was just a way to slightly expand the inventory, but it was different in reality.

Opening a space like this to store various items.

I didn’t realize how versatile it would be.

“Not bad.”

With this ring, the user can open a spatial void around them.

As if the space was splitting, the space opened almost in a straight line, and it was free to put in and take out desired items through the gap.

“It’s really nice that you can just think of the item you want and take it out.”

If I think about taking out the pen I put in earlier, wouldn’t the pen just pop out through the gap in the split space?

It can be said that it is a very convenient function.

“Also, you can open a pocket dimension anywhere within a radius of 6 meters.”

A radius of 6 meters.

If the wearer of the ring has a radius of 6 meters, they can open a pocket dimension.

Anywhere.

“Well, the speed of opening the entrance to the pocket dimension was a bit slow, but… it could be used for attack purposes, right?”

For example, if you open the entrance of the pocket dimension on the ceiling and pour out the desired items into your head, you could use it as a mass weapon, couldn’t you?

Oh, of course, the monster won’t even flinch if you drop something from 6m high, but humans don’t know.

Imagine getting hit by a bowling ball.

It won’t just be a little painful, right?

Oh, of course, heroes, villains, and superhumans like them won’t die.

But still, if you get hit right in the forehead, you might faint, right?

“Based on the experiments conducted so far… living organisms cannot be completely put in, time does not seem to pass inside the pocket dimension, the ejection speed of items is quite slow, the capacity of the pocket dimension is still unknown… hmmm.”

It was a short time, so I couldn’t experiment with many things, but overall, it was satisfactory.

Above all, I wanted to give a very high score for being able to carry a lot of items that I couldn’t carry around before.

With just this pocket dimension ring, you can bring in dangerous (?) items into the academy.

Considering the villains who might cause chaos inside the academy in the future, it was somewhat fortunate.

“Now then….”

I slowly turned my gaze in another direction.

“Should I try leveling up now?”

Finally, I separated the artifact attached to the hilt of the sword, the Tears of the Moon.

Then, I dropped it into the mixture I had prepared in advance.

This mixture was made up of the items I had asked Yuseolhyun to deliver. It was a mixture of the powder of the spirit that was delivered today, the water of life, the blessing of the moon, and so on.

It was one of the settings in the game, but by doing this, the Tears of the Moon would emit a green light in the mixture, allowing it to enter a kind of enhanced state and fully unleash its original performance….

“Oh, it’s really shining?”

The Tears of the Moon, which began to scatter clusters of green light in the mixture.

In this state, it was noted in the item encyclopedia that if you swallow the Tears of the Moon, it would be directly attached to the body.

In the game, it would have been roughly enhanced and equipped, but this was not reality.

“But can I really swallow this…?”

Now that the situation had come to this, I was a bit worried.

Seeing the gem sparkling as I knew it, I was somewhat reassured, but apart from that, there was an inevitable fear.

The fear of what would happen if I swallowed it wrong.

I hesitated for a moment, but then I resolved myself and slowly took out the gem from the mixture.

I needed to get a little stronger for what was to come.

According to the original setting, the Tears of the Moon was meant to be attached to the body and used directly on the body, rather than attached to other items.

If you wear it directly on your body like this, you should be able to unleash its original power.

Probably.

“Ah, I don’t know, am I going to die or something?”

Muttering the top-ranked man’s last words, I swallowed the artifact of the moon.

And….

“Ugh, ugh.”

In an instant, a wave of nausea swept over me, making me want to vomit out whatever was inside, but soon after, I could feel an unknown energy swirling in my stomach.

The slowly undulating energy passed through my body and quietly settled down.

“Huh? Wait, did something good just happen?”

Feeling this unknown energy, I cautiously summoned my magic power, enough to use Moon’s Tears.

And to my surprise, the pure magic power gathered at my fingertips.

“Oh, it’s much easier to control the magic power than usual, isn’t it?”

I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a small knife.

As I infused magic power into it, a sharp and clear blade formed with a swish.

I gazed at the shimmering blue magic power for a moment.

The blade looked much clearer and sharper than usual.

In the past, my magic power control was not good enough to create such a blade.

But thanks to Moon’s Tears, it seemed like my magic efficiency had significantly improved.

Although I wasn’t a swordsman, being able to use such a clear blade indicated that focusing magic power on the arrowhead would also improve.

“Can I do something like a Blade Master by attaching artifacts to the blade?”

A Blade Master, a dream-like skill for ordinary swordsmen.

It required extreme training in magic power concentration, acceleration, and release.

But with the help of artifacts attached to the blade, I could mimic it.

And since I had directly attached it to my body this time, I thought I could use it in the same way.

“Should I give it a try?”

I slyly placed a cutting board against the wall.

Then, I cautiously summoned a small amount of magic power.

Thinking it would be enough, I swiftly sent it flying…

Oh? Wow, it actually worked?

Clang!

A small blade flew and split the cutting board in half.

And the wall behind it cracked.

“Now, even if I use other weapons, can I release and control magic power like this?”

I seemed to have become a master who could use Blade Master!

Well, of course, I couldn’t do swordsmanship, only relying on artifacts to use Blade Master.

But who cares.

To become stronger, weaklings like me need to actively use artifacts.

This isn’t a game, it’s reality.

In a place where leveling up is impossible, using items to get stronger quickly is the best option.

“My stamina consumption… seems to have decreased more than before?”

Indeed, my stamina consumption had significantly decreased.

A few months ago, I would pant heavily after using artifacts just once or twice.

I had struggled so hard not to gasp for breath when using Blade Master in front of villains.

Although I only used it lightly this time, I could see a drastic reduction in stamina consumption.

“And with Moon’s Tears directly attached like this, I could survive even after being hit by magic several times, right?”

I should be able to absorb a few hits.

Sure, I couldn’t absorb supernatural abilities, but magic should be absorbable, right?

Isn’t that so?

“I’m quite satisfied with this. It was worth all the hard work.”

I chuckled and sat back in my chair, gazing up at the ceiling for a moment.

“Come to think of it, in the past few months, I’ve been dealing with the Academy’s long-armed monkeys, exploring Yeongdeung Mountain dungeon, getting close to Yuseolhyun, and farming items at Yookseongsan… I’ve done quite a lot.”

After enrolling in the Academy, I had tirelessly used my game knowledge to gain many benefits.

However, with each of my hasty actions, I couldn’t help but worry that they might come back to haunt me in the future.

They say there’s a butterfly effect, right?

Perhaps my actions have already changed many things.

“Many things have changed, huh…”

I had been moving cautiously, ensuring that my actions didn’t disrupt the important flow of the game’s story.

Why? Because I was wary of the story taking a direction I didn’t know.

The only advantage I have is information.

If the story deviates and the information I know becomes useless, it could lead to too many variables.

Dealing with it would become increasingly difficult.

That would be fatal for me.

“I haven’t interfered much in important storylines, but many things have already changed.”

Whether it’s for better or worse.

Many things would have gone awry and changed.

This is not a passive game, but a dynamic reality.

“Oh, I wonder if that incident is about to happen soon?”

One of the story events, Jin Soyeon’s ‘stalker incident.’

According to the game’s content, it’s an event where a stalker who has a crush on Jin Soyeon causes an incident, and the male protagonist resolves it in one way or another, gaining favor.

“If the incident occurs, then I…”

I pondered for a moment, bowing my head.

It wouldn’t be great for me to intervene directly, and the male protagonist, Lee Siwoon, is likely to handle it well on his own.

Therefore, it was better for me not to intervene if I wanted to increase intimacy with Soyeon and Siwoon.

But.

“Thinking about Soyeon suffering because of the stalker makes me feel a bit uneasy.”

Imagining Soyeon suffering made a corner of my heart ache.

After all, Soyeon was my childhood friend.

I don’t want to see her suffer if I can help it.

“Oh, right. Maybe I should secretly resolve it or help Siwoon. If I pass the credit for solving the stalker to Siwoon, that should work, right?”

I nodded to myself, breaking free from my thoughts.

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m tired today, so I’ll think about it more tomorrow after cleaning up and resting a bit.”

After roughly tidying up the suddenly messy living room, I walked wearily towards the bedroom.

But then, I saw the black Moonlight Tear that had been separated.

Oh, a sword…

It’s quite a famous sword, but I’m not a swordsman.

Honestly, it’s nice to have it, but it’s not essential.

“Should I just give it to Soyeon as a gift?”

I feel like I haven’t been attentive enough to Soyeon, and since she’s a swordsman, she’ll probably handle the sword much better than me.

I can always find another sword that I can use later.

“Okay, I’ll give it to Soyeon as a gift.”

With that thought in mind, I swiftly threw the sword into the void.

Then, yawning, I lay down on the bed.

***

Somewhere in Seoul.

“What? Wait, what’s going on?”

Villante blinked his eyes.

He couldn’t even locate the sword.

No, why all of a sudden?

“Damn, I was training the mutt towards Chungnam earlier, and now I can’t even detect it?”

Villante’s expression turned gloomy.

With this sword, I can’t even accurately know the distance.

Why can’t I detect it all of a sudden?

I’ve come this far just to retrieve the sword…