Chapter 107: A New Method of Torture
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 107: A New Method of Torture
In Zombie Apocalypse, stats were essentially just a numerical representation of a user's physical abilities.
Just because you raised your stats in a realistic game didn't mean you could exert superhuman strength, smash through steel, or leap ten stories high.
It wasn't quite to that extent, but reaching Level 10 did allow you to perform at a level somewhat beyond human limits.
That was the exact limit allowed by the game, and reaching that point took an incredibly long time.
Since it required a significant amount of effort in real-time, it was a given that it would take several years in in-game time.
Naturally, now that this system had been implemented in reality as a multi-server, the growth method remained the same.
An increase in stats meant an improvement in the user's physical capabilities: Strength represented muscle power, Agility represented flexibility or mobility, and Stamina represented endurance.
Your stats increased in proportion to the effort you put in.
In reality, however, it wasn't easy for people to notice a major difference even when their stats went up.
Unless your stats jumped by five or six levels at once due to Base Invincibility like mine did, there was no way to feel like you had suddenly become incredibly strong just because a stat increased by one.
In other words, while the display made it look like you gained one level at a time based on the number of stars, in reality, experience points accumulated continuously within each level—50%, 51%, 52%, and so on—making it hard to perceive the change.
Your strength simply grew continuously alongside that rising experience, and you naturally grew accustomed to it.
Because of this, when stats were lost instead of gained, it surprisingly came with immense pain.
This was something anyone who had played Zombie Apocalypse would know from experience.
Since they played in VR, they didn't feel direct physical pain, but if their stats suddenly dropped, they would often suffer injuries from the shock and find themselves unable to function normally for days.
The principle behind it was simpler than one might think.
If a level's worth of Strength, Agility, or Stamina suddenly vanished, it meant that much strain was placed on the body. Since the game couldn't just chop off an arm or sever a body part, it inflicted a corresponding amount of pain to leave behind aftereffects equal to the lost stats.
Usually, for stats to drop suddenly, it meant the character had fallen ill or suffered physical damage, making it difficult to exert their full strength.
In those cases, not only did their combat capabilities plummet, but they also suffered the aftereffects of the stat reduction. Consequently, the character would often remain paralyzed for months in in-game time, usually ending in death.
If their base was safe and they had plenty of food stockpiled, they might be able to rehabilitate, but most people just pressed the Happiness Button and restarted.
Keeping that in mind, I decided to run an experiment.
Would it be the same in reality?
There was no reason for it to be different. Indeed, Jo Hun-jae writhed in the chair he was tied to, screaming from the pain of his declining stats.
"Aaaaargh! Graaaah!"
There were various kinds of pain.
Some pain was short and intense.
Other times, it was a long, dull penalty that dragged on.
Unfortunately, I couldn't choose which type would manifest, but in a way, this was actually better.
The psychological torment of not knowing what kind of pain was coming next could break a person just as easily.
"P-please... stop..."
This wasn't an artificial pain inflicted by external stimuli; it was an agony wrung out from deep within his own body.
The depth of that pain was likely beyond words.
Well, even I had never experienced that exact pain firsthand, so I couldn't say for sure.
"Now, shouldn't you pray? The success rate is 20%. If you beat the 20% odds, you won't have to hurt. If you fail, you get the same pain you just felt, okay?"
"W-wait... not yet... Aaaaargh!"
The pain wasn't a one-time thing.
There was no telling when it would end.
Even if it hit hard, it didn't always stop after one or two bursts. Permanent stat reduction was a catastrophic accident that players had to avoid at all costs.
Yet here, I could trigger that very accident on purpose.
"Next one, okay?"
I hadn't planned on it, but since he was suffering so beautifully without me even trying, I had no reason to hold back.
[Predation has failed.]
[This mode cannot be preyed upon for 30 days.]
[Jo Hun-jae's Agility has permanently decreased by ★.]
"...!"
Jo Hun-jae's body began to shudder violently.
This time, he couldn't even scream.
Tied to the chair, his entire body convulsed like a leaf in the wind, then paused for a moment.
Then he shuddered violently again, before stopping once more.
He kept going through this five-minute cycle, and then finally seemed to get a brief moment of respite.
"Are you dead?"
This is a much more brutal torture than I thought.
If I had carelessly done this to Jeon Ye-sol, she probably wouldn't have survived.
Not that I had any reason to go easy on her just because she was a kid, but seeing how I raised Predation to Level 7 and tried twice at a 20% success rate without a single success, low probabilities really were hard to trigger.
"Ah, you're alive."
Froth bubbled from his mouth.
Jo Hun-jae's eyes had already rolled back.
"Stop... please... I beg you..."
"Why are you like this already? You still have plenty of modes left."
"...Please... just kill me..."
"Why do you want to die? What a waste of a life."
Now that I had tested this new information, his usefulness was practically exhausted. But seeing his reaction made me want to keep going just a little longer.
He hadn't looked like he was going to talk, but looking at him now, it seemed he might change his mind.
"Shall we try one more time?"
Without asking for Jo Hun-jae's consent, I used Predation.
Even before the skill was activated, his body trembled from conditioned terror.
[Predation has succeeded.]
"Ah, too bad."
The 20% chance succeeded on the third try.
Wasn't that pretty lucky?
Relief washed over Jo Hun-jae's face.
Was he finally free from the pain?
Unfortunately for him, this was my favorite kind of moment.
[Predation has failed.]
"...!"
"Getting two in a row is tough."
What was the most important thing when it came to torture?
I wasn't exactly the type to enjoy torture, but since I had tried almost every playstyle imaginable in Zombie Apocalypse, I had dabbled in it to some extent.
Since it wasn't my specialty, I mostly just copied methods I found on the Gallery.
But through experience, I realized that you must never give the victim any hope of an end.
No matter what kind of pain you inflicted, whether intense or mild.
You had to maintain a constant, steady tempo.
From the victim's perspective, they were trying to endure. If they could guess when it would end, they would grit their teeth and bear even the most excruciating agony just to reach that moment.
But if you made it impossible to predict when it would stop, their hope would turn to despair, and their mind would gradually shatter.
To achieve this, you had to remain calm.
You couldn't be impatient.
You shouldn't enjoy the pain, nor should you get angry at their suffering.
You had to act as if it were just another daily routine.
Continuously.
As if you would just drop by and do it whenever it crossed your mind.
If they still held out, the next step was to play with hope and despair.
Giving them a glimmer of an end, only to drag them back in.
It couldn't feel artificial.
It had to feel natural.
You must not give them any clues, yet it had to be a clue the victim desperately figured out on their own.
I had already given him that clue.
The number of modes.
Since each mode brought a wave of pain, he would think that once all his modes had either succeeded or failed in Predation, it would finally be over.
Jo Hun-jae would hold on with that thought in mind.
Even if it was a false assumption, he had no choice but to cling to that single hope right now, so he would grit his teeth and endure.
And in fact, it wasn't a false assumption.
After calmly failing Predation all the way down to his very last mode,
I stepped away for a moment.
"Man, I'm hungry."
I went home, grabbed a Special Meal of cold buckwheat noodles and pork cutlet from my Thermal Pouch, and brought it back to eat in the warehouse where Jo Hun-jae was.
"Mmm, delicious."
I ate while blatantly giving off the vibe that I had nothing left to do but was lingering around, hoping he might finally tell me what I wanted to know.
After staring at him for a long time, Jo Hun-jae finally laughed.
Like a madman.
As if he had won in the end.
Jo Hun-jae had triumphed in his own delusion.
I hadn't said a word, but through the silent torture, I had given him all the reactions he wanted to see.
So now, it was my turn.
"What are you smirking at? Now that you've rested, let's start again."
"...?"
His eyes filled with confusion.
Yet, his self-mocking smile remained.
What are you going to do?
Your torture is already over.
That was the look in his eyes.
A confidence born from the certainty that no physical torture could possibly be worse than what he had just endured.
He probably felt this way because when Predation failed, the target received a similar system message.
But I had another trick up my sleeve.
"I have plenty of garbage modes to give you. Let's take our time and enjoy each other's company."
"...!"
[Infusing Jo Hun-jae with "Shoulder Bash (★)".]
Giving a mode to someone else carried no risk.
Jo Hun-jae received a positive mode from me and was absolutely thrilled.
"Mmmph! Mmmgh!"
I had gagged him to keep him quiet and prevent him from biting his tongue, and he looked like he was dying of joy.
Since doing it one by one was a hassle, I loaded about five modes into him at once.
"Your balance has been topped up by 5 Coins, valued customer~ Oh, and one of them is the one you gave me earlier, so you don't have to thank me."
I smiled brightly and used Predation on the modes once again.
Another period of agony ensued.
After five rounds of pain, I removed his gag.
"I'll talk... I said I'll talk... fuck..."
"Oh, really? You should've said so earlier. We just wasted all this time."
"You... gagged me... fuck... cough..."
"Exactly. Why didn't you just talk sooner instead of making me gag you? It's exhausting for both of us."
Only after all of his stats had plummeted to the level of a Level 1 Zombie inside a Safe Base did Jo Hun-jae finally spill all the information I wanted.