5. Massacre
Before going outside, I looked back through the clinics where I had killed people.
The dead. The people I had killed.
Corpses. Clearly, as recently as this morning, I had been someone unaccustomed to sights like this.
Corpses. No matter how strong your stomach is, no one can look at a corpse without feeling uneasy. I was the same way.
But not now. Now, even standing among the dead like this, I didn't feel the slightest bit bothered.
Why had I become like this? Was it because of this message window?
Had this message window made me this way? Violent? Radical?
The pediatric injection room. A woman dead and naked.
I had raped this woman. And then killed her.
So the corpse of the woman lying there naked was somehow grotesque.
I put my cock inside her and shook my body earlier?
Suddenly, the woman's words came back to me. She had said that even after seeing the message, she never thought about killing people.
So she must have been going about her business without a care. Same for the woman outside and the doctors.
Why were they going about their business? Weren't they worried?
Did they think that message window was just some passing incident?
Even with something this absurd happening, did they think people would keep law and order and not cause chaos?
I can't understand it at all. There's no way that could work.
I took out my phone. The internet worked fine, of course. Without any problem.
So I went straight into an online community. Information is fastest in places like this.
Sure enough, everyone was in an uproar. But not to the degree I had expected.
It was true that everyone was excited about this game-like situation. But they didn't seem to be going around killing people recklessly.
There were quite a few posts saying they would wait and see. There were also posts saying how could you just kill people when you don't even know exactly what this is.
After looking for a while, I got a rough sense of things.
There were surprisingly many people still watching the situation.
They were half in doubt. They still couldn't be certain.
If the world had ended because of this message, if things were really hurtling toward ruin, they would have killed people without hesitation to get Coins.
But the world is still fine. The news still runs and the internet still works.
Clearly, a lot of killing had already happened. But that didn't mean people were blindly jumping on board.
I just closed my phone. Because they looked pathetic. Because they were laughable.
I even thought they were stupid. No. Why? Why can't they grasp the situation like that?
The world, society, will collapse soon. This isn't something you can delay with some paltry sense of morality.
With just a few bastards like me, indiscriminate slaughter would happen in an instant, wouldn't it.
Police? Military? Meaningless. They'll all become Coins. They'll become corpses.
Having thought that far, I realized why.
They're acting like that because they don't know about the skills you can get with Coins.
If they knew about skills, they wouldn't be saying such leisurely nonsense. Because that's no different from saying they have no brains.
So what should I do?
Get ahead. I've already committed murder.
So I needed to stop wasting time on that wait-and-see nonsense and start killing more people immediately.
Suddenly I got intensely hungry. I checked the clock and it was a little past one. Which meant mealtime had passed.
Right. First, I should eat. I need to eat to move.
Should I go downstairs... I thought, but then decided that wasn't a good idea.
No matter how many people are waiting and watching, there's no way bastards like me don't exist.
And maybe I could die in the blink of an eye. Because I killed people that way too.
How could anyone imagine a nail suddenly flying in and piercing their throat? They absolutely couldn't.
Come to think of it, I'm funny too. Why pierce the throat? Wouldn't aiming for the heart be more certain?
I thought that and let out a bitter laugh.
God. Here I am, thinking about which way of killing is more certain.
I really can't get used to this. Damn.
Anyway, going downstairs recklessly didn't sit right, so first I looked for something to eat here.
The pediatric clinic naturally had a break room, and there was a refrigerator in it. There were also plenty of snacks and drinks.
And on top of that, there were three packed lunches, probably brought by the staff.
Lunch boxes that looked homemade. Cold rice and side dishes.
That was good enough, so I heated the rice in the microwave. While doing that, I looked out the window.
Just then, I saw people. People hurrying somewhere.
Cars passed by and buses passed by. They were still going about their business. Even in this situation.
I don't understand it. Really.
Am I the abnormal one? Or are those people morons?
I don't know. Anyway, I checked whether any of the clinic windows opened.
Fortunately, there was a window that opened about a handspan, so I threw the nail through it.
And the nail floated up and flew—shweek!—in the direction I was looking.
The nail pierced through a bus window and stitched through the inside as if sewing.
This is the third floor, so I couldn't properly see the situation inside.
But the message window kept popping up, so I could tell for certain that people inside had died.
I knew where the driver's seat was, so the driver obviously died. And then the nail flew to the driver's seat of a car waiting at a red light.
A perfectly normal, moral driver died like that.
Maybe his foot slipped off the brake as he died, because the car crept forward, and a car that had been moving through a left turn honked and swerved around it.
The nail chased that car too and struck the driver's seat.
Another message popped up. And the car plowed into the sidewalk.
After the nail moved a few more times like that, the road was quickly a mess. To the point where cars couldn't pass.
It seemed about five minutes had passed, so I brought the nail back. Then I set it on the windowsill for a moment and took the rice out of the microwave.
Ah. I'll have to do it again in five minutes, so I should start a stopwatch or something. Right now, earning Coins like this is the priority.
Five minutes passed by the time I had eaten about half the rice. So I stopped eating for a moment, went back to the window, and moved the nail.
The nail became death and flew through the chaotic street.
The humans who had stayed behind, knowing nothing, died indiscriminately, and the message window kept popping up.
I opened it briefly and saw 168 Coins. In other words, I had killed that many people.
I don't even feel anything anymore. Even after killing this many people.
All I thought was, I can draw a 100-Coin skill now? And that I should hurry up and finish eating.
After five minutes, I let the nail rest again. And I finished my meal.
Then I went to a corner that looked safe and opened the skill window.
The skill I had drawn earlier.
If I am sitting on the floor, I can move shadows freely. If there is blood on my hands.
I hesitated for a moment. Right now I had 252 Coins.
Which meant I could do several more draws.
I could also do a 100-Coin draw.
Clearly, a 100-Coin draw would reduce the conditions by two. So that meant the restrictions would be reduced by that much.
The question was whether this draw could get me another skill that allowed such convenient hunting.
The skill I currently had. A skill that let me move objects smaller than my palm freely.
Would something better than this come up? Would I end up regretting changing skills and suffering for nothing?
Choices. Choices are always hard.
But sometimes you have to make a bold decision.
I'll do it. So I pressed Yes on the message window that said [Replace existing skill with new skill?].
And just like that, my skill changed.
If I am sitting on the floor, I can move shadows freely. If there is blood on my hands.
I had a wound on my hand, so I scratched it open again.
Blood beaded up. So now I sat on the floor. And then I tried moving the shadows.
The hospital lights were on bright, but that didn't mean there were no shadows.
So I looked at those shadows and imagined them moving.
And the shadows moved as I imagined. As if they were alive.
The shadows had physical force. Which meant they could grab or move things.
Shadows that moved like hands. Those shadows became my hands and picked up any object.
I didn't feel any texture. And there didn't seem to be any weight limit either.
They lifted anything and touched anything. And they could turn sharp and stab—thunk.
It was a decent skill. Quite versatile. First of all, it seemed like it could kill people.
It pierced a concrete wall, so it wouldn't fail to pierce a person.
But the restrictions were too severe. Getting blood on my hands was no big deal. What's so hard about that.
The problem was 'sitting on the floor.' Absurdly, sitting on a chair or desk didn't work.
I had to sit somewhere recognized as the floor. How inconvenient.
So I couldn't do anything outside. When I sat on the floor, I couldn't see out the window. At least here, I couldn't do anything.
And lying down or lying face-down didn't work either. I had to be sitting on the floor.
A needlessly strict condition. If it weren't for this, it would have been pretty good.
A place where I can sit on the 'floor' and see outside. If there's a place like that, I could commit mass slaughter with this skill.
There's no time limit, so it should be fully possible. It definitely will be.
But there was another restriction. I had to remain seated, so I couldn't move around while using the skill.
Not being able to move is a very bad restriction.
If danger comes and I have to sit on the floor to use the skill, then this can never be considered a good skill.
What if I used a vehicle or something? I thought, but a car wouldn't work either.
Because I have to sit on the 'floor.' If I sit on a car seat, the condition wouldn't be met.
So I just gave up on it decisively.
At least I learned one good thing, right? No matter how good the ability is, if the conditions are shit, it's an unusable skill.
So I decided to draw the next skill right away. This time I'd use 100 Coins.
At least it'll be better than this.
Of course, I can't be sure.