-------------------------------------------------
Then, the monster with blood smeared all over its mouth turned its head. As I met the monster's black eyes, which seemed unable to focus, I instinctively took a step back, feeling a strange eeriness.
"You son of a bitch!"
Just then, Jin-ho hyung slammed the monster clinging to his back onto the ground with a shoulder throw.
"Wheeze."
The monster, thrown to the ground with a loud thud, made a sound like air escaping, and then immediately writhed to get back up.
Seeing this, I quickly kicked its arm to knock it down again and forcefully stomped on its chest to subdue it.
Crunch─
But as the monster moved to get up, I ended up stepping on its neck instead of its chest. Because I stepped on it with all my might, carrying my weight, the sound of bones breaking was clearly audible.
Naturally, I was startled and stepped back. Even though it was a monster, its silhouette resembled a human, and I couldn't help but be instinctively shocked by the feeling of breaking bones for the first time.
'Oh no. Jin-ho hyung!'
But the shock was only momentary. Right now, the monster's life or death wasn't important.
I came to my senses and approached Jin-ho hyung, who was crouching on the ground at the same time as I slammed the zombie to the ground.
"Hyung!"
"119, 119, please..."
"Ah, I'll call them right now!"
Only then did I remember that I had to call an ambulance, so I took out my phone and dialed 119. But all I heard was the call waiting tone, and no one answered. It was the same no matter how many times I tried again.
"Damn it, why aren't they answering..."
Jin-ho hyung's complexion, his upper body soaked with blood flowing from his deeply indented neck, was turning pale in real time. Both the injury site and the amount of bleeding were clearly fatal at a glance.
But there was nothing I could do. I could only helplessly stare, clutching my phone that wouldn't connect.
Thud─
"Hyung!"
Eventually, Jin-ho hyung collapsed to the side, having reached his limit.
'I can't save him.'
I instinctively sensed it. That Jin-ho hyung was on the verge of death.
"Ah..."
Sure enough, Jin-ho hyung's breath gradually became thinner and eventually stopped.
It was the sudden death of my hyung, who was more like family to me than blood relatives.
Suddenly, fog fell over the world, and everything from Jin-ho hyung being ambushed by a monster to his death all happened in less than 5 minutes after leaving the house. It didn't feel real at all.
"Aaaah!"
"Mom! Kyaaak!"
Even in the midst of this, screams were heard from all directions.
In my head, I knew I had to quickly escape back home because I didn't know when more monsters would appear, but I couldn't bring myself to leave Jin-ho hyung's side.
It was then.
『Kang Woori』
Skill: 「Hacking」
Trait: 「Cold-Blooded (lv.2)」/「Social Phobia (lv.1)」
Semi-transparent letters appeared before my eyes.
'A status window?'
I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. From the fact that it had my name on it to the skills and traits written on it, it looked exactly like the status windows I had seen countless times in games and web novels.
"I was just starting to feel better, and now the world is turning into a game, what the hell."
It didn't simplify people with stats like strength and agility, but even so, I didn't like the fact that it described me in just a few words. I also felt frustrated that Jin-ho hyung had to die to turn the world into this.
Perhaps because the status window received my curse, it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
Thanks to it, I guess, I knew what I had to do right away, since my mind was briefly distracted by the status window.
First of all, I had to go back home. If the movie had become a reality, this place near the Han River was dangerous.
"Hyung, I'm sorry."
I was still hesitant to leave Jin-ho hyung lying on the street like this, but I couldn't clean up the body right now, so I had no choice.
As soon as I returned to my officetel and locked the door, I immediately sat down in front of the computer and accessed a portal site.
The news page of the portal site was covered with breaking news announcing a state of emergency, and each article was filled with comments asking for help.
However, the articles only contained the obvious statement that monsters had appeared, and there was no information on how to deal with them, which was what I really needed.
Rather, I found out more information when I entered a community after waiting for an announcement on the news page for a while.
【D-7 was D-Day (81)】
【It's so scary.
Will it be taken care of before it comes to Jecheon?】
└What is this? Does this make sense?
└It didn't make sense from the start that it was on every site. It was a warning from God.
└Holy shit, the person throwing fire was real?
└Is the only thing left to do now to become an S-class hunter?
└Are you crazy?
└Do monsters not appear in Jecheon?
└There's fog, but it doesn't seem like monsters have appeared yet.
└Holy shit, there's a monster in 102 of Building 1 of the Piaate in Seongsu-dong. Please help me.
From what I could see, it seemed that the monsters hadn't reached the inland areas yet, but places facing rivers or the sea were all in chaos. I could clearly feel the panic in the empty posts and the comments filled with typos.
【Anyone ever catch a monster? Am I the only one who got a status window? (1022)】
【I was smoking when I saw a monster eating someone right below me, so I picked up a flowerpot next to me and threw it.
I used to be a high school baseball player.
The monster got a headshot right away and died.
But then I got a status window.】
└Are you a real loser? People are really dying right now, how can you joke around?
└It's real. I got my name and skills when I killed a monster.
└Really?
└Really, but the skill name is 「Stone Head」 lol
└I guess you can headbutt monsters.
└You're bullshitting. I didn't get that.
└It seems to depend? I got it, but my friend who killed a zombie with me didn't.
Then I came across a post related to the status window.
After reading it, I realized why I had gotten a status window. It was because I had accidentally killed a monster, which activated the status window.
I tried to bring up the status window again. Perhaps because I had activated it once, semi-transparent letters appeared before my eyes as soon as I thought about bringing it up.
『Kang Woori』
Skill: 「Hacking」
Trait: 「Cold-Blooded (lv.2)」/「Social Phobia (lv.1)」
「Hacking」
▷Can access entity characteristic data
▷Current packet: 0.05p
▷Storage (0/5): -
「Cold-Blooded (lv.2)」[Personality]
☐ Mental interference effect -4.5%
☒ Skill 「Deny」 created when lv.10 is reached
(「Deny」: Removes all mental interference effects on oneself. Cooldown 30 minutes.)
▶Level change: 2p
▶Transfer to storage: 2p
「Social Phobia (lv.1)」[Personality]
☐ Trait effect +2.25% when alone
☐ Trait effect -1.125% when not alone
☒ Skill 「Engross」 created when lv.10 is reached
(「Engross」: Concentration is extremely enhanced, blocking all surrounding stimuli unrelated to the task at hand. Cooldown 12 hours.)
▶Level change: 1p
▶Transfer to storage: 1p
Unlike before when I turned it off in a fit of anger, when I focused on the status window, detailed information about each skill and trait appeared below the status window.
'Is this what I'm like?'
I ignored the numbers for now. I couldn't tell if they were good or bad.
However, I had doubts about the traits themselves.
I sometimes shed tears while watching movies, and although I was a homebody, I went to convenience stores and restaurants near my officetel just fine. I couldn't deny that there was some truth to it, but I couldn't agree that I was only described as 'cold-blooded' and 'social phobic.'
But I had no choice but to put up with how I felt about the traits. There was no way whoever created this world and showed me the status window would listen to me if I complained, and I didn't even know if there was such a person.
'Anyway, what's 「Hacking」? What does it mean to be able to access entity characteristic data?'
Then I suddenly remembered that someone in the comments had written that their name and skills had appeared.
I immediately scanned through the 1,000+ comments. But among them, there were many people talking about skills, but not a single person talking about traits.
"Ah."
At that moment, I realized. The bold letters in the status window that I was seeing were what appeared because of 「Hacking」.
「Hacking」 was, as the name suggested, a skill that allowed me to access hidden traits and information about traits that were hidden from other people, and even change some of the contents of the traits.
Of course, I couldn't change them as I pleased. I seemed to only be able to 'change levels' and 'transfer to storage', and it seemed like I needed packet points to do so. Since the current packet was 0.05p, it seemed like I had to kill monsters to earn points.
'To collect 1p, I have to kill 20 monsters?'
The monster was weak enough that even I, who had lived my life avoiding exercise, could kill it. Seeing how easily Jin-ho hyung threw it with a shoulder throw, its physical abilities didn't seem that great.
I needed to be careful of the biting power it had to dig into people's necks, but as long as I didn't get bitten, it wasn't impossible to fight and kill it.
But I didn't know how many monsters were outside, and even the outside was covered in thick fog with a visibility of 10m. Going out to hunt monsters to collect points was nothing short of a suicidal act.
'What kind of shitty skill is this? You should give me a skill that can kill monsters with a click, like in 'D-7'.'
It seems like a red light has been turned on for my survival.
Comments
Post a Comment