Vol 2. Chapter 54: Doomsday Online (4)

Clunk! Clunk! Kuuuung! Kuuuung! The Unique World, no different from a world full of magnetic sand, was going through a drastic change every day. It had recently turned into a huge city. 

"W-Where is this?! Teleport? Or is it a temporary channel?" Jae-seok was fl.u.s.tered at the sight of the world he was suddenly dragged into. 

Genie approached Jae-seok and greeted, I welcome your visit. Bae Jae-seok-nim.

"Oh, h.e.l.lo. I am."

Let me check your measurements for a moment. 

"What? What do you mean measurements... Whoa, whoa, whoa!" He was dragged around by Genie with a dumbfounded expression. The man who had the face of a bandit was dyed red.

"But then again, that"s completely possible when one simply looked at Genie." Genie, who had beautifully tanned skin and profound features, was dressed in shocking clothes that seemingly resembled the outfit of desert dancers. It was expected for someone who met her for the first time to be fl.u.s.tered. Of course, she was not really wearing a raunchy outfit. Her body was a Metal Body made of a special metal, and her appearance was just a character image disguised on top of it.

"Hey, what"s this situation? Who"s that noona? Where are we?" Jae-seok approached and asked after having his measurements taken.

I replied in a nonchalant manner, "She"s my secretary. This is my subs.p.a.ce."

"What the... Does such a big subs.p.a.ce exist in the world? Moreover, can living creatures just come in like this?"

Rather than that, the problem was that it was difficult to enter unless it was a living creature. However, I roughly skipped the explanation because there was no need for it. "You can think of it as a special subs.p.a.ce. Genie! Are you done with the adjustments?"

Of course, Captain-nim. This way.

I walked with Jae-seok according to Genie"s guidance, since we were currently in the steel castle which could be said to be the center as well as the largest place in the Unique World.

"Where is this? It looks like some sort of outlet."

"The internal structure is like that," I responded, while wondering if Jae-seok knew that, here, there was an enormous defense facility that could melt a million troops that invaded from the outside. It wasn"t as if someone wanted to invade the Unique World, but a tremendous amount of facilities and buildings were built around that it was a fortress city. 

"Hmm? What are these?" Jae-seok, who was walking for a while, asked upon seeing weapons that hung along the aisle.

As if they were on display, the weapons were some sort of metal test pieces I obtained from the stage. I had obtained 90 kilograms of iron ore during the Low-difficulty level 1 test, but only managed to get 11 kilograms of pure iron by smelting them and burning the impurities. The amount was so little that there were none left after making the two or three clubs that I currently used. However, the iron ore I gained during the Intermediate-difficulty level 1 test amounted to as much as a ton, so I got more than 150 kilograms of pure iron. Therefore, it was only natural to try to produce other things.

"It"s a weapon."

"Uwaa... Wow. Can I swing this for a second?"

"Hmmm? Of course." At my answer, Jae-seok took the knife out of the rack and swung it like he was possessed. The crackling of the wind resonated sharply. 

"Oh, Jae-seok, you"ve got a pretty good posture."

"It was a problem when I had no spiritual ability, but I have always been training in martial arts and it has been quite a while now. This is a really excellent blade… Did you perhaps make it?"

I shook my head at the sight of the bloke whose eyes were shining. "What do you mean by an ‘excellent blade’? It"s an industrial product made by laser cutting rolled steel plates, processing with computer numerical control, and finally polishing with belt sanders."

"You"re saying this is an industrial product? I"ve never seen a sword with such a perfect center of gravity though..." Jae-seok exclaimed with undeniable admiration in his voice.

Still, I knew it was just the excellence of the blueprints stored in the Albatross ship. The weapon’s perfect center of gravity was not something that necessarily required an expert"s ability to reproduce. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "The only good thing about it is its st.u.r.diness and sharpness, so calling it perfect is…” The sword, so to speak, had no special effect because it was a ma.s.s-produced product. Therefore, I only thought of it as st.u.r.dy and sharp. Those two advantages only exceeded one"s imagination because they were produced by futuristic facilities of a tremendous scale.

"The knife was made as a trial product anyway, so you keep it. But knives aren"t a good choice to catch zombies," I said and showed Jae-seok several other items which all belonged to two types: a club and a hammer.

"Catching zombies? Don"t tell me, this weapon is..."

"Yeah, it"s made of iron ore bought from the gacha machines. I made it as an experiment, but fortunately I could bring it in."

"...!" Jae-seok"s eyes, which were looking at the items in a slightly dazed state, turned sharp. "How much do you have?"

"Not much. I only had 150 kilograms of iron, so I used them to make five clubs and five hammers," I commented. The steel club measured only 40 centimeters long and weighed 2 kilograms. The battle hammer had a head length (the length of the hammer"s top) of 17 centimeters and a head width (the width of the hammer"s top) of 7 centimeters, and it weighed 7 kilograms. 

"Hmm, but if you only made five, you would have some iron left."

"That"s only expected.” I walked up to the wall on one side while saying so. Wiiiiingggg! The wall opened up to reveal a body of armor.

Like the knife Jae-seok admired earlier, it was formed and shaped by laser cutting rolled steel plates and then processing with computer numerical control. It was not a full-plate armor that covered the entire body with steel plates, but it was a metal plate and a pair of steel boots that protected part of the upper and lower body. It was basically a simple plate armor made of a gauntlet reduced in size with maximum compression. Virtually only the upper and lower body pieces were made st.u.r.dy, so it was no exaggeration to say that all efforts had gone into the steel boots and gauntlet.

"Wow." Jae-seok"s eyes sparkled at the sight of the shiny plate. 

"Hmm." I looked at Jae-seok for a moment. In fact, the armor was made for my usage, but it became useless once the stage attack became a speedrun where defensive power was meaningless. "But it will be different for Jae-seok." I recalled that he got hurt while proceeding with the stage, so the value of the armor equipment was priceless. Looking at him, who was admiring the plate again, I called for Genie, "Genie, put that on before you hang it."

Yes, Captain-nim.

"Huh? I understand if it"s for wearing, but what do you mean by hanging it... Heok! Noona?  Wait a minute! I"m...  No… Ackkkk?!" Jae-seok rebelled against the sudden clothes change, but he couldn"t overcome the power of a Metal Body that had a high power output. He was barely able to handle Genie’s Life Energy.

"Let"s just say that I"m selling the armor and club hammer to you. The payment is... Okay. I"d rather have livestocks such as cattle, chickens and pigs than money. The more the merrier."

"No, wait! What are you trying to do right now? Huh??" Jae-seok floated up along with Genie"s hand gesture. He arrived at a metallic structure that was shaped like a horseshoe. It was 15 meters high and it was more than 5 meters wide, so it looked like a greatly enlarged tuning fork. 

"It"s great at first glance, but I still have to do what I am supposed to do."

"What do you mean what you are supposed to do? Didn"t you say you learned the training method?"

"Yeah. The name of the training method is Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights. The seven colors that will startle the sky."

Jae-seok, who floated up into the air, was spread wide open and an invincible soul energy restrained his body to keep him afloat. "N-No, wait! What kind of training method is this? Are you trying to tell me this is training?" 

I explained to Jae-seok who was fl.u.s.tered, "To be precise, this is a pre-training preparation. Awakening Life Energy isn"t all there is to it. To learn the Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights, you have to give the body the characteristics to accept vibrations." I then hit the giant horseshoe.

Thump! The vibration that contained my power was sucked into the tuning fork and began to resonate. Whooooong---! Whoong--!

"Uwacckkkkk!! What the h.e.l.l is this?! Uwacckkkkk!!" As Jae-seok floated in the middle of the tuning fork, he screamed at the resonating vibrations. Watching him, I found a spot nearby and sat down.

Genie set one large plate down after another, as if she had been waiting. It"s tenderloin steak and fried shrimp salad.

"Thank you for everything." I shoved a few shrimps into my mouth and checked the time. Before I knew it, it was already 5 o"clock. I then wondered what sort of results would come from the second-round test, "We have two hours until the test."

***

Although the world was in chaos, I didn"t feel much as I remained within Gyeongbokgung Palace. However, the governments of many countries had declared martial law to control the people, and all the hospitals were in a disoriented state from being overwhelmed by an overflowing number of patients. If there was a good thing to say about it...

-30 minutes left until the second-round test! We hope that you, the people, will take the test in the safest places you can think of! Also take the distributed emergency care kits next to them!

-1,855 emergency medical centers and medical supplies have been deployed across the entire country...

-Injured people, please head to a nearby school or community office...

Surprisingly, governments of every country were coping with the situation quickly. As if a manual had long been prepared, the TF was set up and the Doomsday Special Act was quickly put in place to prepare for chaotic situations like panic buying. Medical supplies were prepared in such large quant.i.ties that it was unknowable where and how they managed to stockpile before releasing them to the public. Then, an announcement which included a combination of all the updated information began. 

"No, what"s going on here? It doesn"t feel like the h.e.l.l Joseon that I used to know."

"What is this? Why is the National a.s.sembly doing such a good job?"

"The president hasn"t slept for 20 hours and has been in command on-site."

"The opposition party is not active even though the government"s approval rating is rising so much."

It wasn"t just Korea. Of course, many countries, especially China, were experiencing tremendous chaos to the point of shambles, but most advanced countries with a st.u.r.dy social structure were minimizing the confusion among their people unexpectedly fast. And was it because of that? The second-round test was cleared without any problems.

-Death Procession has all been cancelled. 

-Congratulations! The stage has been cleared perfectly! Rewards are given based on contribution.

- Your ranking is 9,091.

"Ah, my ranking isn"t rising at all..." I was baffled that I remained at 9,000 placing even though I went around smashing the zombies’ heads like I was in a speedrun. I proactively took advantage of my ability to see the t.i.tles, broke past doors, and ran towards the zombies’ heads as soon as the test started. Yet, despite my lack of redundant actions, I was still considered slow?

-You earned 1,605 points as a clear reward.

-Point is a means of transaction and you can purchase Awakening Potion, Experience Potion, Equipment, Tools, and Materials.

- You have purchased 1,605 kilograms of iron ore!

-The stage has ended. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

The background instantly changed and I was back at a cafe in Gyeongh.o.e.ru Pavilion before I knew it.

"Hmm. It"s over." The barista ahjusshi, who was cleaning the cup, began to clean it again without much reaction. It was a very dull response, considering that I was smashing the heads of zombies just a few seconds ago. 

"Is that ahjusshi perhaps one of the 9,000 people on top of me?" I wondered. It felt like I was putting on airs, but I thought I did a pretty good job. Naturally, I was dissatisfied with my rubbish 9,091st place. Then, I thought, "Isn"t the difficulty too low? It stated that it was the Doomsday though."

Since there were people who naturally failed the test itself, there were also people who took on additional challenges like me. Regardless of those differences, however, everyone had to compete by doing a speedrun whether they pa.s.sed the test or not.

"Is this really the Doomsday?" I couldn"t sense it properly at that time, but the term Level 1 referred to the cruelty of the fact that the entire human race was being forced to partic.i.p.ate in the test.

- Stage will be open!

- Level 1. Difficulty is set to High.

The third-round test was held on the evenings of Sunday, Monday, and then Tuesday at 7. The stage got bigger and bigger. Traps were formed, and a Level 2 Boss came into being.

-Stage will be open!

- Level 2. Difficulty is set to Low.

Wednesday at 7 p.m.,Level 2 Low-difficulty;

Thursday at 7 p.m., Level 2 Intermediate-difficulty;

Friday at 7 p.m., Level 2 High-difficulty.

The results were an All-Perfect Clear. 

Surprisingly, there were no tests on Sat.u.r.day, which seemingly indicated that everyone would get a weekly day off. Then, Sunday at 7 p.m. came about.

-Stage will be open!

-Level 3.  Difficulty is set to Low.

Thump! A muscular zombie monster over two meters tall collapsed on the floor. The zombie monster, dressed in a rag and covered in enormous muscles, had an ignorantly Herculean-ish power that sent tremors through the ground with a simple punch.

"Wow. This." Just last week, on the same day, I was in this spot fighting against a little zombie that had the height of a toddler. She was too weak an enemy that only had the physical ability of a middle school girl who could be beaten with ease. Yet, against such an enemy, half of humanity had died. However, what about the current enemy?

"It"s going to be quite difficult for ordinary people though?" Having knocked down the muscular zombie monster, I looked at its fallen body with a serious look on my face.

Project End

Level 3

Angry, Brown

The zombie monster was still an easy opponent for me, but I was an exception. Objectively, it had enough fighting power to win against a savage beast. This week’s enemy was a tiger when last week’s enemy was a mere kindergartener, so what would happen next week?

The stat limit was now at 130 points, which was too high. It had been a long time since the majority of humanity was lacking in stats. Of course, the 10 million ability users who had been through chaos in  the parallel world were still fighting with ease, and that was the case for me too. With 200 points in all-stats, the higher the stat limit, the easier the battle became.

But what about the others? What about the ordinary people who numbered over 6 billion? Of course, like Jae-seok, who was an ordinary person, humans could experience growth and get used to battle. However, could humans, on a universal scale, experience growth that matched the pace of this update?

"The update is too fast,” I eventually realized that the current update was too fast, and the fact that mankind would never be able to keep up with this speed.