Episode 5. Villain (4)
< Episode 5. Villain (4) >
[4,000 coins have been invested into 'Strength'.]
[Strength Lv.10 → Strength Lv.20]
[Your strength level have increased significantly!]
[Passing goblins will be scared away by your strength.]
First of all, my strength should be high.
[5,800 coins have been invested into 'Agility'.]
[Agility Lv.4 → Agility Lv.20]
[Your agility level have increased significantly!]
[Your agility will make even a passing elf look back.]
I have two left feet, so I'll use my high agility to dodge.
[3,800 coins have been invested into 'Physique'.]
[Physique Lv.4 → Physique Lv.15]
I need this much physique.
[1,800 coins have been invested into 'Magic Power'.]
[Magic Power Lv.4 → Magic Power Lv.10]
Luckily, Magic Power had a birth stat of 4, so I could save some coins.
[A total of 15,400 coins have been spent.]
[Coins Possessed: 1,700 C]
I was down to my last coin, but I had no regrets. You need to increase your stats early on.
It wasn't until I met Yoo Joonghyuk that I realized this.
I don't have any S-class skills, so when I meet a monster like Yoo Joonghyuk, I have to support
my body to withstand even one blow.
[You are the third incarnation of this scenario to break through Strength level 20.]
[300 coins have been acquired as a reward.]
[You are the third incarnation of this scenario to break through Agility level 20.]
[300 coins have been acquired as a reward.]
Despite hitting Strength and Agility level 20 so quickly, there was someone faster than me.
Probably other readers. What a great bunch of guys.
Grrrrr.
Soon, I began to hear the cries of the ground rats. We had finally entered a densely populated
area.
Kyung Sein and Dansoo ahjussi, who were beside me, started to move nervously.
"You two together!"
As if the two of them had just planned a formation, the tanker Kyung Sein stepped forward, and
Dansoo ahjussi followed behind her, sloppily drawing his sword.
Kyung Sein looked at me with a serious expression and asked.
"There's also the 'three together' formation!"
"That... you two look good together."
"In front! There are seven!"
Kyung Sein let out a roaring shout and ran forward, only to be gnawed to pieces.
A weak body would be split into two in an instant.
"Uaaak! It hurts! It hurts! help me!"
I wonder how much physique does she have. Despite being bitten here and there by the ground
rats, Kyung Sein was unharmed.
Then Dansoo ahjussi began do some strange movements.
"Hang in there, hee-job!"
Judging by the flashy movements, it was clear that if I left them to their own devices, they
wouldn't catch a single ground rat.
I pulled out the thorns I'd bought and lightly poked the nearest ground rat.
Its head exploded like a ripe tomato.
Indeed, Strength level 20 was something else. I started stabbing their heads one by one.
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
In no time at all, I had cleared out five of them, and when I turned around, Kyung Sein and
Dansoo ahjussi had barely cleared out one each. When Kyung Sein realized that there were no more ground rats around us, she looked at me in
disbelief and asked.
"Inho-ssi, were you actually strong?"
"Of course."
"I knew it, I knew it!"
[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' points his finger, saying you're too proud of
yourself for a power you gained from coins.]
I'm so excited because it's the first time I've used it.
After that, we encountered mischiefs of ground rats a few times, but with my strength and agility
exceeding 20, the ground rats were no longer an opponent for me.
"Wow, Inho-ssi, you're awesome."
"Heh, I feel strong."
This is how the protagonist feels.
As we were advancing, beating ground rats one by one, I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
[The constellation 'Monarch of the Small Fries' says this is the only time you can play like this.]
[The constellation 'Rice Cake-Eating Tiger' says that the early stages of growth are the most fun.]
[The constellation 'Abyssal Black Flame Dragon' agrees that it is.]
[The constellation 'Sneaking Schemer' blinks nostalgically.]
Missing it.... Well, I'm sure the other constellations grew up catching ground rats at first.
That thought reminded me of Kim Dokja again.
"Suddenly, I really respect Kim Dokja."
He must have crossed the same Yaksu Station tunnel as us.
At a much lower level than me.
He wasn't afraid, he didn't back down, and he believed in what he read.
Can I believe in what I write?
Kyung Sein asked.
"There will be no Kim Dokja on this world line, right?"
"Because this is 'Ways of Survival'."
As I answered, a memory flashed through my mind.
I remembered the Kim Dokja in my dream. One of which was really vague, and one of which
was just a kkoma....
Is there really no Kim Dokja in this world?
"But maybe he's looking at us from up there, just like we did."
The ceiling of the dark tunnel was as dark as a starless night sky.
Kyung Sein looked up for a moment, then suddenly waved her hand and called out.
"Kim Dokja! Kim Dokja!"
She shouted it several times.
Naturally, there was no answer from thin air, but Kyung Sein seemed much happier.
"Kim Dokja...."
If Kim Dokja is really seeing this world, our positions are now reversed.
I wondered if I could reach the end of the scenarios like him.
I wasn't sure. But there's Kyung Sein and Dansoo ahjussi.
There will be other readers.
It's hard for one person, but if we all work together, it might be possible.
If it's as Han Sooyoung said, they're also 'Kim Dokja's fragments'.
[The constellation 'Sneaking Schemer' nods.]
I wonder what form this 'filtering' takes for the constellations.
It was then that something like starlight flickered across the darkness.
"Huh?"
I rushed over to it and saw a flashlight on the floor. Someone had been here before.
And beside it.
"Over here."
We looked down into pitch black cave, which opened up beneath our feet.
"I think I found it."
It was the 'Edge of Darkness'.
*
We stepped into the darkness, hand in hand.
It was definitely a passage leading down, but the moment we entered it, gravity magically shifted
toward the wall.
It was as described in the Omniscient Reader.
In this space filled with black ether, light loses its meaning. In the darkness, you can't see a thing,
and you have to rely on your senses to move forward.
Leading the way was Dansoo ahjussi, who had [Diverse Communication].
"This way."
Dansoo ahjussi sounded encouraged, as if he finally realized he had an important role to play.
Kyung Sein spoke up as if bored.
"Ahjussi."
"Yes."
"How old are you?"
"I'll be 53 this year."
"You mean your original age?"
"Yes."
"You can talk to us comfortably[1]. Right, Inho-ssi?"
"Yes. Make yourself comfortable."
I could feel him shaking his head in the darkness.
"I'm comfortable with honorifics."
I don't think that's respectful of us to do.
Anyway, he was a very polite man.
"May I ask what you used to do for work?"
He seemed to think about my question for a moment.
"Before I came here, I was just unemployed."
I wondered if I shouldn't have asked, but he continued immediately.
"I was in the hospital."
Hospital. The moment he said the word, his hand in mine became strangely strong.
"Maybe that's why this world feels more like an opportunity to me."
Opportunity.
I knew what he meant, but I thought it would be rude to ask more.
This time, ahjussi asked.
"Why do you think we're here?"
It was the first question that anyone who came to this world would ask themselves.
Kyung Sein was the first to answer.
"Maybe we're here to experience it, too."
His tone was playful, but it was also a possibility that couldn't be ruled out.
"What do you think, Inho-ssi?"
I thought for a moment before answering.
"Maybe they need someone to complete this story."
"Oh... I hadn't thought of something that profound. So, was it 'Ways of Survival' that
summoned us?"
"I don't know about that."
"Maybe it was
"Yoo Joonghyuk, ahjussi."
I wonder who called us here.
I thought it was
I wonder if
reason.
"Could it be Han Sooyoung? She's Omniscient Reader's writer after all."
The moment I heard Kyung Sein's words, I felt a strange feeling.
As expected, readers also think that Han Sooyoung is the 'writer' of this world.
Even I felt a little miserable that I didn't have any objection to that fact. When I think about it, 'Omniscient Reader' was quite an unusual novel.
Originally, I had never thought of such a story before. But the story came to me one day out of
the blue.
It was as if someone had hit me in the back of the head.
Kyung Sein continued.
"Of course, our world line's former Omniscient Reader's writer is a different person...."
My palms suddenly felt sweaty. I was glad it was pitch black.
"I don't know what happened to our writer. Maybe he got possessed along with us, or maybe he's
already dead because he's always writing announcements saying that he's sick. I even sent him a
note on how to stretch the other day."
He's holding your hand right now.
"Shh. There's someone in front of us."
We shut up at ahjussi's words.
The black ether around us visibly decreased, and we gradually began to see a little further ahead.
It meant we were approaching the 'Dark Root', the core of the 'Edge of Darkness'.
"Someone's fighting."
We heard the faint sound of a weapon.
[You have entered the 'Ground Rat's Treasure Trove'.]
[Someone is performing a sub scenario.]
The bodies of a number of ground rats littered the floor. They were cut from head to stomach
with a single sword, so it's clear that this person was very good.
As I got closer, I saw a dark fire(暗火) burning in the darkness. A somber box under the light of
the dark fire.
It was the 'random item box' we were looking for.
Standing in front of it was, as expected, the Dark Keeper.
The battle was already well underway, and the enraged Dark Keeper was casting tentacle
patterns in a frenzy.
"Kallituu!"
There was a short person fighting the Dark Keeper.
Kyung Sein whispered.
"That's the one I saw earlier, on the bike."
A woman with a light blue bob and sunglasses was engaged in a breathtaking battle.
She was dodging the tentacles with uncanny fluidity, delivering blow after blow. It was as if
she'd typed in her fighting commands and then executed them.
Even more shocking was the blue-white ether that flowed faintly from her steel fist.
Dedicated Sword Force (罡氣功).
It sounded familiar.
Kyung Sein muttered under her breath.
"That's it, right?"
"I think so."
I looked again, sure enough.
She was using Kim Dokja's [Purest Sword Force].
I wondered who the hell had robbed that item, but it must have been her.
The Purest Sword Force is the Purest Sword Force, but I was surprised that she could fight like
that against the Dark Watcher. What on earth did she do to be able to grow so rapidly from the beginning?
I wondered who she was.
[The exclusive skill 'Character List' is activated!]
[The information of this person can't be read in 'Character List'.]
[This person is a 'character' but not a 'character'.]
That woman is definitely a 'reader'.
Maybe she's one of the 'pros' Kyung Sein mentioned.
[Using 'Readers' Comments List' in this person.]
I immediately checked the reader's information.
+
ID: ansgkrthsu64
Platform: Sirius
Total Comments: 0
Reader Level: 21
Number of Reads: 0 times
* This reader didn't write comments, so there are no comments to view.
+
I was dazed for a moment.
0 complete reads.
That means she've never read Omniscient Reader.
And yet she can fight like that?
[The reader has no record of having read 'Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint'.]
[Additional information about the target has been updated.]
[Some of the 'List Information' is corrected.]
When I checked again, some of the information had changed.
+
Number of Reads: 0 times (12.8 times)
+
Suddenly, I saw 12.8 times in parentheses. What the hell?
It was at that moment that I felt a cold sensation in the back of my head.
Something pointy touched the back of my neck.
"All three of you, don't move. If any of you move, I'll kill him."
I felt goosebumps. I didn't notice him at all.
"Drop your weapons to the ground and slowly put your hands over your heads."
Since I didn't know my opponent's strength level or skill information, it was best to do as I was
told.
If he was good enough at stealth to get behind us now, he could attack us at any moment.
Spot!
That's when the tide turned in the melee up ahead. The woman who had been dodging the
tentacles with her ghostly movements received a cut on her forearm for the first time.
I opened my mouth.
"We can help. We're not here to be enemies."
"We don't need help."
"Don't be greedy. You know you can't catch it on your own."
"We two are enough."
The man spoke to the woman in a calm voice.
"Yerin, don't panic, fight. The pattern is starting again."
The man's following words surprised me.
"The pattern starts at the upper right. After that, there will be one at the bottom, and then you'll
have to feed him a series of consecutive strikes."
This was clearly how Kim Dokja had beaten the 'Dark Keeper' in 'Omniscient Reader'.
He remembered it all?
"Cut off all the tentacles. Then finish it."
Blue-white ether surged from the woman's fist. It was meant to gather energy and end it in a
single blow.
But it was a clear mistake.
I didn't write about it in detail in Omniscient Reader, but the Dark Keeper had one final hidden
pattern.
The last pattern that Ji Eunyoo edited out because she thought the battle scene was getting too
long.
I sucked in a breath and shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Dodge! There's one more! Last one is from the floor!"
As soon as I finished speaking, a tentacle shot out from the floor.
She froze for a moment, but managed to dodge the tentacle before delivering the final blow.
Kuaaaaaah!
The now incapacitated Dark Keeper fell to his knees and slumped to the ground.
The woman who had just spotted us looked over. I couldn't see her eyes through her sunglasses,
but I could tell she was surprised.
A man's voice came from behind me.
"Turn around slowly."
We slowly turned around with our hands on our heads.
As soon as we turned around, we saw the man holding the 'Stone Hog's Pointed Thorn'.
He was obviously an extra because didn't look familiar, but I was impressed that he had a pretty
handsome face.
To put it in Ways of Survival terms, it was enough to maybe poke Yoo Joonghyuk's face with a
finger. I immediately activated my skill.
[Using 'Readers' Comments List' in this person.]
+
ID: killer_king
Platform: Sirius, Paper books
Total Comments: 491
Reader Level: 99
Number Reads: 99.8
* You can use coins to view the comments written by this reader.
* Number of comments currently available for free: 3.
+
I doubted my eyes.
99.8 complete reads.
This... Surely there wasn't an error?
The man glaring at me with a strange look in his eyes suddenly said something strange.
"7942."
Author's Note
In fact, we can see our reader's level.
[1] They mean casually, without honorifics.