Chapter 5
Chapter 5
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Beta Test (4)
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‘This is supposed to be information?’
The content went on for a while, but there was barely a speck of actually readable info.
My teeth ground together, but I couldn’t afford to waste time venting my anger.
After muttering a quick curse under my breath, I searched for explanations on other elements.
About three pages later, I found the section on ranks.
They were listed in order: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta.
Most of the text was still garbled here too, but the Delta description had survived intact.
‘The candidate rank that allows promotion to the top three ranks...’
But there wasn’t a single word on promotions themselves.
No info on methods or benefits.
‘I’m not even expecting anything anymore.’
I flipped the pages with an almost enlightened mindset.
All the while, I started running again.
I still had time before my afternoon shift, so I figured I’d test my physical limits while I was out.
As a bonus, I crammed the manual’s contents into my head.
Enough that I could recall them without opening it.
That’s when I spotted some weeds poking out from beside a utility pole.
“Oh.”
Lucky break.
It was the tail end of winter, so there were more dried-up ones than fresh green sprouts.
And I’d already scoured the area around my house once, making it harder to find any.
Dropping into a crouch and yanking out the weeds to crush them underfoot flowed as naturally as water.
「0.02 Mana is absorbed.」
I finished absorbing the mana and pulled up my status window.
Player Kang Hyun-woo (Beta Tester)
Mana: 88.42 (Attribute Mana: 8)
Affiliation: Earth
Race: Human (Player)
Rank: Delta
Attribute: -
Traits: ?????, Assimilation, Tenacity, Mana Operation (0.01%)
My mana now sat at 88.42.
It had climbed into the 40s from absorbing plant mana, but now it was over 80.
Catching all three lions in the second mission had made the biggest difference.
‘Each one gave me over 10.’
Remembering the moment I’d tangled with those lions was horrifying.
But I couldn’t ignore what had happened then.
Messages related to mana had kept popping up, ones I couldn’t shake off.
The status window clearly recorded that moment too.
‘Mana Operation...’
I’d experienced firsthand the difference between just having mana and using it.
No matter how strong my body had gotten, it wasn’t enough to resist a lion’s bite.
But after the Mana Operation message appeared, it became possible.
‘Is it just boosting strength?’
From that point, I focused on Mana Operation.
I needed to wield it freely.
The third stage would surely pit me against something tougher than three female lions.
‘How do I activate it?’
The moment I calmly posed the question to myself.
“Mister, what about Mommy?”
A voice brushed past me.
My train of thought snapped.
I stopped running and turned around.
A man in his forties and a kid who looked about five or six had just passed by.
What hit me from them was a sense of wrongness.
The kind of minor unease you could ignore.
But I couldn’t shake it, so I fixed my gaze on the pair.
I focused to catch more of their fading conversation.
Something stirred inside me, sharpening my senses to a razor’s edge.
「Mana Operation begins.」
“Gasp!”
I’d thought my senses were already heightened.
But that was child’s play.
Information flooded in from all directions.
I could vividly pick apart tangled sounds and smells.
Thanks to that, I caught the man and child’s words even as they moved away.
“So Mommy’s coming?”
“Yeah, if you wait over there, Mommy will...”
The man glanced back right then, and our eyes met.
He whipped his gaze away and yanked the kid’s hand.
“If we’re late, Mommy might leave. Hurry.”
“Okay!”
Whoosh.
My fully opened senses slammed shut.
「Mana Operation ends.」
The shock was brief, my reaction swift.
Before I knew it, I was closing in on the man and child.
“Hey, hold up a second.”
His shoulders flinched—he’d clearly heard me.
But instead of stopping, he quickened his pace.
The wrongness swelled.
“I said wait!”
I overtook him in a rush and blocked his path.
“Wh-what the hell, you!”
The man shoved his empty hand into his puffer jacket pocket.
His suspicious move tensed my muscles on instinct.
Keeping him in my sights, I glanced down.
The kid stared up at me blankly, and our eyes met.
“Kid, is that guy your dad?”
“No?”
“Then why’re you with him?”
“The mister said he’d take me to Mommy...”
“I-I know the kid’s parents!”
The man bellowed, cutting off the child.
‘No, but why’s this stranger bantering with me like we’re buddies?’
I scowled and shot back.
“Prove it.”
“Wh-what?”
If the man was telling the truth, it was just my misunderstanding.
But the unease wouldn’t fade.
So I stepped in.
“Call them. Video call. You know them, so you’ve got their number.”
If it was my overactive imagination, I’d apologize and call it even.
Worst case, I’d eat some curses or a few slaps.
But if the man was lying?
If my suspicions were right?
Someone could get hurt in the worst case.
‘And it’d be the kid.’
I was thinking about child abduction fatality rates.
That’s when the man pulled his hand from his pocket.
My focus spiked again.
「Mana Operation begins.」
It was like slo-mo footage.
Compared to the beasts charging at me, he was agonizingly slow.
So I just grabbed him.
‘This bastard...’
He’d lunged for my chest, but his seized hand held a kitchen knife.
Bad memories with blades soured my expression automatically.
Suspicious talk, kitchen knife, kid.
Piecing it together led to one conclusion.
‘Real kidnapper?’
I let out an incredulous chuckle.
“Sh-shit, let go?!”
The man flailed to break free.
But my grip was leagues beyond my old self.
He couldn’t escape.
“Let go!”
“You first.”
I kicked his shin. His balance crumbled.
I saw his grip loosen on the kid’s hand.
I yanked the child toward me and shoved the man with my foot.
He hit the ground without a proper fight.
Tension held since spotting the knife eased with a sigh.
「Mana Operation ends.」
The message responded in kind.
Store owners nearby, alerted by the commotion, started coming out.
I pointed at one.
“You, boss—call the cops. Looks like a kidnapper.”
As I clicked my tongue, the kidnapper sprang up.
“Damn it... Why’re you sticking your nose in?!”
He regripped the knife like he’d stab me any second.
I shoved the kid aside. A nearby shop owner rushed out and grabbed the child.
The man swung.
“Whoa.”
I leaned back to dodge, and a thrust followed.
Thwack.
I raised my arm at a right angle, smacking his wrist.
Even blocked, he used the momentum to charge again.
Every thrust he tried, I parried perfectly.
My body followed my will without a millimeter of error.
After three or four exchanges, patience spent, he closed in.
Thought and action synced.
Like before, I shoved his wrist with my arm while burrowing into his guard.
Whoosh.
My left hand clamped his right elbow tight as my right smashed his chest.
“Gurk!”
He crumpled, gasping.
I kicked the dropped knife away, ending it.
‘This is that easy...?’
I’d just replicated a technique from a knife defense video I’d hunted down post-tutorial.
One I hadn’t even finished, since it was defensive.
Yet my untrained body executed it flawlessly from sight alone.
It really hit home how changed I was.
The man moved too slow by my standards.
Let me subdue him without injury.
“Tch.”
I clicked my tongue and straddled the still-writhing man on the ground.
“Cops?”
“R-reported it!”
The shop owner holding my shoved kid answered.
I kept him pinned until police arrived, then pondered mana again.
Two-plus hours later at the station for statements, I was late for my shift.
After the boss’s scolding, I focused on mana the whole job.
The phenomenon the system called Mana Operation.
I strained to recreate it.
Body working, mind probing for mana somewhere inside.
By shift’s end, I saw the message again.
「Mana Operation begins.」
Now, the slightest focus break ended it.
Like guarding a flickering candle.
On the way home, I repeated it dozens of times.
It might save me next mission.
Was that tenacity rewarded?
Turning into a familiar alley near home.
“...Unbelievable, seriously.”
I sighed at the red mist swirling from my left hand.
I’d just gained some control over Mana Operation, wondering what I could do.
So I gathered my body’s diffused mana into one spot and spun it fast.
Feeling stuffy, I shoved it outward blindly.
Mana felt like it squeezed through something, and this happened.
“What the hell is this...?”
Muttering with a frown, I noticed something off.
The leaking mana was fading.
Then snip—it cut off.
‘Mana’s still there...’
I reconcentrated it in my hand and spun fast.
I carved an exit like punching a hole.
Focusing on the flow revealed the issue.
Each puff of red mist escaping weakened the mana’s spin inside.
Gritting to maintain speed, red mist kept flowing.
But my body’s mana drained fast.
Unlike just spinning internally, I felt it vanish live.
‘No, it’s being consumed.’
Like gas in a car.
My mana wasn’t idle—it was doing something.
Testing, I clenched my fist and punched the building wall beside me.
Boom—crack.
A deep thud, and the wall cracked.
I froze.
Crumbled cement rained from fissures starting at my fist mark.
I’d put some force in, sure.
But a single punch cracking a wall?
Snapping from shock, I pulled back.
Mana Operation had ended; the red haze on my hand gone.
The crack remained.
Whish, whish.
I quickly checked the alley fore and aft for witnesses.
None around, luckily.
Hurrying off, my mind spun chaotically.
‘Sh-should I report it?’
Left alone, it might collapse under load.
Hurt someone.
No long hesitation. I pulled out my phone.
City office closed.
Called cops, asked them to contact facilities management tomorrow.
Couldn’t admit I did it—said I found it.
‘Doubt they’d believe the truth anyway.’
Mind a mess of worry and panic, I reached home.
Reaching for the door lock, Yeon-woo called.
I opened the door instead of answering.
“Why’d you...”
“Oppa!”
“Hyung!”
My siblings barreled toward me.
“What? What’s up?”
Kicking off my shoes casually.
Yeon-woo jabbed at the TV with a fierce glare.
“That’s you, Oppa!”
“Huh?”
I followed her finger to the TV.
Mid-shoe removal, I froze.
CCTV and phone footage played back-to-back on screen.
Calm news anchor voice overlaid.
『...Mr. Kim pulls a knife. Despite the life-or-death tension, young Mr. Kang protects the child with calm response...』
“Uh...”
I was on the 9 PM news.
“Oppa, you idiot! What if you got hurt charging a knife guy?!”
While I stood speechless, Yeon-woo shrieked.
Damn System