Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Beta Test (3)
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I found a way to absorb mana, but there were more restrictions than I thought.
Killing animals was too risky.
I could get reported for violating animal protection laws.
I also felt a strong aversion to indiscriminately taking a life.
At least for me, struggling for survival and pointless slaughter were different things.
That didn't mean I could just sit back and do nothing.
I compromised between my conscience and survival.
I'd skip animals and pull up plants instead.
'I have to survive first.'
I wasn't noble enough to worry about the grass I ate every day.
Unfortunately, I couldn't touch big plants like trees.
Breaking off branches had no effect.
I had to uproot them completely to kill them for the mana to absorb.
In the end, all the trees scattered across the hills behind my place became mere pie in the sky.
Instead, I trampled every weed I could see.
It was winter, so there weren't that many, but still.
Through that insane grind, I managed to gather a little more mana.
Even so, sensing or using mana remained a distant dream.
On top of that, I decided to prepare realistically.
That's why I couldn't put down my phone even as night deepened.
Animal hunting, how to kill beasts, knife hunting.
I feverishly typed in search terms, but nothing satisfactory came up.
'They're all about guns.'
This is driving me crazy. In frustration, I hurled my phone onto the bed beside me.
But not long after, I picked it up again.
I couldn't forget what happened that morning.
The horrific pain and the screams filled with rage.
My body remembered that moment vividly.
Recalling the unfamiliar agony and terror made my muscles tense and my heart race.
Each time, I took long breaths to calm my emotions and maintain composure.
Afterward, I spent another couple of hours searching.
And right before falling asleep, after a brief hesitation, I entered another search term.
'Large dog breeds.'
I wondered if I could find the one that bit me.
Fortunately, I soon spotted an identical dog.
"Kangal..."
The Turkish national dog, Kangal—a breed with jaw strength rivaling that of predators.
'This is just stage 1.'
What I was going through felt like a game.
And in most games, the difficulty ramps up gradually.
Three stages total, and this was just the first one.
If beasts appeared for the remaining two, they'd be at least more dangerous than the Kangal.
Sweat beaded on my hand gripping the phone.
Even so, I gritted my teeth and forced myself to sleep.
* * *
My mana had increased by 7.4 to 42.4.
On the other hand, using mana was still out of reach.
Yet on the fifth day since the first mission ended.
The sound I never wanted to hear again struck my eardrums.
Ding.
「A new test will commence soon.」
I bolted upright in bed after finishing work and sleeping at home.
The pure white space from before unfolded before my eyes.
I roughly shook my head to chase away the sleep.
'Storage.'
I immediately opened the storage, but my face crumpled.
Four out of the five square slots were empty.
With no idea when the second mission would start.
I'd kept my prepared items in storage at all times.
Baseball bat, kitchen knife, protective gear, painkillers, hemostatic agents—I'd packed everything meticulously.
But the only thing left in storage was the dagger provided by the system.
All that remained with it was the clothes I'd worn to bed.
Black t-shirt, cargo pants, and military boots from the store.
That's all that was left of my preparations.
「A new weapon, the longsword, has been provided.」
As I ground my teeth in frustration.
Clang. A long sword about the length of my arm dropped down.
As I picked it up, the mission window appeared.
MISSION
[Tutorial (Beta Test 2/3)]
Eliminate the target.
Time limit: 00:10:00
Start timer: 00:01:00
A twitch ran across my cheek.
"You fucking..."
Beyond the mission window, the beast was a female lion.
Its size seemed similar to the Kangal I'd seen before.
But there were three of them.
Terror and rage mixed, making my head spin for a moment.
Even amid that, the timer steadily ticked down.
Soon it hit zero, and as the lions charged, I bellowed.
"Come at me!"
I had to shout to drive out the fear.
The one charging straight at me was the fastest.
I thrust forward the longsword gripped in both hands.
Lucky. It plunged straight into the lion's gaping maw.
Its heavy weight shoved me back, but I braced and held firm.
Thanks to that, I avoided tumbling over.
The one impaled on the longsword convulsed.
I'd taken one down at the start, but there was no time to celebrate.
"Huuh!"
Another leaped over the dangling lion on my sword and lunged at me, jaws wide.
I desperately released the sword and grabbed the loose skin beside its jaw with my hand.
This time, I couldn't withstand the charging force, and my body was pushed back.
I fell to the ground.
「Target eliminated. 11 mana absorbed.」
In that meantime, mana flowed in from the dead one.
An amount incomparable to what I'd absorbed from plants.
The influx crawled into my body, ravaging me.
But I had no luxury to focus on that.
"Urk!"
Snap, snap snap!
Right before my eyes, the lion's jaws snapped open and shut threateningly.
I had to fend it off while enduring the mad sensations.
As I held its fleshy hide and pushed to keep it from getting closer.
A horrific pain shot through my left leg.
Crack.
The alien sound echoed like thunder.
"Gaaah!"
My desperate scream offered no help.
Sizzle. Flesh and muscle tore, and everything below my knee came clean off.
Blood sprayed like a fountain.
The white space had long been painted red.
The other one had bitten off my leg.
"Hup, gulp...!"
Tears and saliva streamed down.
I'd lived 25 years.
But the brink of life and death was instant, and the terror of death absolute.
I was scared. I felt like they'd tear me apart like this.
If I was going to die, I prayed to go painlessly.
And I regretted it.
'I should've known I'd kick the bucket here!'
The moment you give up, it's over.
I had today's life because I didn't give up back when even wetting my mouth was impossible.
Instead of crumbling to fear, the moment I steeled myself harder.
Something alien stirred and welled up inside me.
「Mana operation has begun.」
「Trait: Mana Operation has been generated.」
I had no time to scrutinize the text that appeared.
I jammed my palm into the lion's upper fangs and grabbed its lower jaw with the other hand.
My forearm muscles bulged, and then the lion's jaws began to pry apart.
Soon, as I roared in fury.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
The lion's jaws tore open beyond their joint limits.
Splatter.
Red blood rained down on my face.
Kek, keh.
Pushing aside the collapsing lion with its eerie noises, I glared wide-eyed and shouted.
"Storage!"
A solid grip formed in my hand.
One left!
Clutching the dagger, I yelled.
"Come on, you bastard!"
* * *
After the mission ended, something began crawling into my body again.
I endured the sensation while mentally at my limit.
It felt exactly like torture.
As soon as I escaped the white space, I vomited everything inside me.
"Uuek!"
The last one didn't go down easy.
My condition was just too poor.
Maybe from losing too much blood, my vision blurred, and my hands slipped often.
As a result, I saw my intestines spilling from my gut. I heard it chewing my flesh.
In the end, it nearly choked me by biting my throat.
Even so, I finally slashed open the last lion's belly.
Thanks to that, I survived.
"Hic, sniff!"
I wanted to scream why this was happening to me.
Hadn't my life been tough enough already?
Why pile on this shitty situation!
I vividly remembered the pain of the lion tearing into my leg.
The fear and despair as its teeth sank into my throat—I could never forget.
Draped in those horrific memories, I poured out suppressed sobs for a while.
「Congratulations! MISSION - Tutorial (Beta Test 2/3) completed successfully.」
「Success reward: 10 mana provided. All injuries healed.」
「Performance tally completed.」
「Congratulations! Player Kang Hyun-woo eliminated the target in 00:08:51.」
「Ranked reward based on performance: 3 Attribute Mana provided.」
The following messages didn't register.
The relief of surviving now was overshadowed by terror of what came next.
Resentment with nowhere to go filled me.
* * *
A day passed, and I had to forcibly pull myself together.
No matter how much I wailed, time marched on.
This wasn't the time to collapse in tears; it was time to stand and run.
That's why I decided to take a break from night shifts for a while.
Preparing for the mission was now my top priority.
The first mission ended around 10:30.
The second around 10:10.
Accounting for time in the white space, it likely started at 10:00.
The first one took time to stabilize, probably.
'Both happened back-to-back at the same time.'
The next wouldn't differ much.
I needed to sleep at night and maintain condition.
Better than waking to beasts tearing into me.
I couldn't even dream of heading to work casually.
Of course, even while off work, I didn't rest.
I wanted to check my body, which had changed dramatically after the second mission.
Early morning, I ran for a long stretch.
Arriving near home, I stopped, gasping ragged breaths.
"This is insane..."
The app's remaining record was shocking.
I'd run at 20 km/h nonstop for 2 hours.
Yet my legs didn't buckle, and I didn't feel like collapsing.
Just winded and tired.
If I pushed, I could go another hour.
Stamina that would shame most marathon runners.
"Huu..."
They say people unleash superhuman strength in life-or-death crises, but this was beyond that.
Tearing a lion's jaws apart, lifting a 100kg fridge alone.
Even leaping two meters farther than an Olympic champion in one bound.
The biggest change was in my senses—vision and hearing.
Far sharper and clearer than before.
I felt like I was leaving human territory behind.
The irrational changes brought unease.
'What the hell is happening...'
Missions starting out of nowhere.
Reality turning into a game.
Near-death crises and unfamiliar scars.
The anxiety and fear were vivid.
But I couldn't let it hold me back.
I had to accept the situation.
The game had begun, and I had to survive.
'I need to adapt.'
Otherwise, I'd die playing this mad game.
That simple conclusion helped organize what I needed to do.
To adapt to this game, I needed information.
If I hadn't pondered mana after the first mission.
If I hadn't realized it was the power all lifeforms inherently had.
I never would've thought to uproot plants for mana.
'That could've been even more dangerous.'
What if the minimum for mana operation was 50?
I'd have lost to the second lion.
I might've really died.
So like this time, I had to keep thinking, worrying, and figuring out the system.
Even if wrong, don't stop. Even if tough, don't quit.
"Huu."
Calming my mind with deep breaths, I called up the manual.
With the file corrupted, I had to infer from what's written.
Actually, this game was slightly different from typical ones.
No levels or stats.
The status window had only sparse words.
Mana, affiliation, race, rank, attribute, trait.
'Of these, the manual mentions four.'
Mana, rank, attribute, trait.
I scanned the manual carefully.
I'd read it once, but didn't memorize everything.
Planning to reread sequentially.
Slowly reading, I found words matching the status window.
[Trait]
Refers to the player's personal abilities, and in some traits' cases @#(! ◎¡!# ◎ː&△** ^&ㅉㅃ(=......
[Attribute]
#◎!*ㅉ $^! Refers to natural inclinations that can be used, ▲ ◎〗※ː¿¿#!*ㅃ&^¿■■■ possible. Also......
"Huu."
This is infuriating.
Damn system.