7. Someone to Resent (2)
Sitting still was boring.
Even after waiting about an hour, no one came this way.
You'd think at least one person would pass by. Why isn't anyone coming? Is it because I turned this whole area into a field of corpses?
Around the time that thought crossed my mind, a man appeared.
A guy in his mid-twenties. Pretty big, too.
Even looking at the dead bodies, his expression wasn't scared or fearful. He was smiling.
The man walked past as if intrigued. At the same time, he glanced around.
There was blood on his clothes. No matter how I looked at it, it didn't seem to be his own.
And the guy had his left hand in his pocket. It looked pretty unnatural, but he didn't take his hand out.
Seeing that, I could roughly figure it out. That bastard must have a skill too.
The condition must be putting his hand in his pocket. That's why he walks around like that. Like a fucking idiot.
Shadows are everywhere. The sun hadn't set yet, so that guy had a shadow too.
So I moved the shadow. The shadow rose from the ground and stabbed straight through the man's heart with a thunk.
The guy stared at the shadow protruding from his own chest as if he couldn't believe it.
Then he collapsed to the ground with a thud.
[You have acquired 22 Coins. To use Coins, say 'Use Coins'. ]
I was slightly startled seeing the message window pop up. 22 Coins? Not 1?
What this meant was clear. It meant all the Coins that bastard had came to me.
Ha. So you'd killed 22 people, had you? Was that why you were strutting around so full of yourself?
Pathetic. This was no time to go around swaggering. You had to play weak and keep your head down as though you were already dead.
That's why I rated the Invisible Man Skill so highly. With it, wouldn't I be able to move around as quietly as a mouse?
Anyway, it's nice that some unexpected good news came up.
That was my biggest worry about learning the Invisible Man Skill. When would I ever collect Coins by killing people one by one?
But if I can take all the Coins someone has like this?
Then there's no need to kill small fry. I can just move around secretly and take out only the ones who look like they're loaded with Coins.
The one thing I'd considered a drawback had been resolved. There couldn't be a better situation than this.
So I need to quickly make a human who resents me. I hope a decent woman shows up soon.
A while later, a man came out of an alley, looking around cautiously.
A scrawny man who looked to be in his forties. He was on high alert, staring in one direction.
There was a convenience store where he was looking. That must be his destination. Did he come out to scavenge food or something?
I moved the shadow. I stabbed his chest and throat at the same time.
Stabbing the throat too wasn't for any other reason. It was so that man wouldn't scream.
The man died instantly. Unfortunately, it was only 1 Coin.
But, it's funny. I killed a person and then felt disappointed that only 1 Coin came out. I'm out of my mind.
I waited again. But I realized I'd been stupid.
There's no need to specifically look for a woman. The condition itself doesn't say woman. Resentment can be received from a man too.
I was stupid. What a waste.
Once I make one person who resents me and can use the skill, I can become an invisible man and then go find a woman.
I'm glad I thought of it now.
Probably the longer I'd wasted time on pointless shit, the worse my self-loathing would have gotten. It's not that late yet.
I waited for anyone to be spotted. Then I saw something approaching from far away.
A motorcycle. It was weaving between the roads, about to pass in front of the building I was in.
Shadows can be controlled freely. And shadows that can move like that also have physical force.
A shadow suddenly shot up from the ground and pounced on the man riding the motorcycle.
Like wrapping a body in cloth, so he wouldn't accidentally die.
Since it only snatched the person, the motorcycle kept going on its own and slammed into a parked car with a crash, toppling over.
And the man wrapped in shadow thrashed about, but it was no use.
The shadow had completely restrained the man and even gagged his mouth shut.
The important word was 'freely.' It meant I could make the shadows do whatever I imagined. Literally whatever I wanted.
That's why this kind of thing is possible. Capturing a person is nothing. It's so simple. I didn't even lift a finger.
The problem starts now. I can't leave this spot.
Probably the moment my ass leaves the ground, all the shadows restraining that bastard will disappear.
I need to bring him here.
First, I looked around for something I could use to tie him up, using a shadow other than the one holding him.
The problem is the distance is a bit far? So it's hard to find something to tie the man with?
More than anything, even if I tie that man up, the question is how to bring him all the way here.
I don't want to expose myself. There was just a commotion, so someone might be watching this place.
I'd rather die than expose myself in a spot like that.
After thinking for a moment, I realized I was being an idiot again.
No. Why the hell would I go out? I could just haul that bastard over here while keeping him bound in shadow. Idiot.
I'd already moved the bodies earlier, so what the hell was I doing? Seriously, this is why it pays to use your brain and save your body the trouble.
But there's another problem. Moving the shadow to bring that bastard here shouldn't be hard.
I can just stretch the shadow's length. Shadows can move freely anyway.
But if I do that, I'll be exposed. I don't really want that. I don't want to reveal that I'm here.
Thinking again.
Then a decent idea came to mind.
There's no limit to handling shadows anyway. So this method will probably work.
I completely covered the man with shadow. Then the man just looked like a person-sized cocoon wrapped in black cloth.
In that state, I made a whole bunch of identical ones with shadow. Then I made all those cocoons fly simultaneously into the windows of nearby buildings.
Black cocoons suddenly scattering in all directions as if exploding.
And among them, the cocoon containing the man broke through the window right next to the one I was looking out of and came inside.
This should work.
Even if someone is watching, if I do this, they won't be able to pinpoint my location just from that movement a moment ago.
The man ended up in front of me. Even while bound by shadow, his eyes met mine, and then he quickly turned his head away.
So I grabbed the man's neck with shadow and made him look at me.
The man trembled violently as he looked at me, and his eyes and face were filled with terror toward me.
"Don't turn your head. You have to look at me. You have to get a good look at my face. And you have to resent me."
I don't know how to make someone resent me. I've never done anything like that before.
But I can figure that out as I go. Humans are learning animals, after all.
"Now. Look at me properly. First, I'm going to make your left hand and left foot useless. Then you'll want to kill me. Every time you limp, every time you feel that dangling left hand, your resentment toward me will grow."
The fact that someone has to resent me means the human resenting me must not die.
So this man must not die. At the very least, he has to keep living, not forget me, and keep resenting me.
I'll probably have to make a whole bunch of humans like this.
That way, there won't be a situation where I'm using the skill and poof, the skill effect suddenly disappears.
I severed the tendons in the man's left hand and left foot.
Probably, if someone had told me to pick up a knife and do it myself, I wouldn't have been able to.
But shadows could move freely, and turning sharp to cut tendons was something they could do easily.
Now. I've made one human who resents me.
But it seems a little early to give up the skill just because of that. Just in case, it'd be better to make a few more as spares.
So for now, while the man was still bound by shadow, I found bandages and tied up his arm and leg.
If I lift my ass for even a second while doing this, it's a total disaster. So I carefully covered his eyes and mouth too.
Now. That's done.
I watched the outside again.
Boring waiting. The man squirming over there. A street full of nothing but corpses. The motorcycle that had now stopped.
I was strangely tired. Probably because there were a lot of tense moments today.
Maybe I should take a quick nap? The thought crossed my mind. It wasn't too late for an afternoon nap.
Blink. Blink.
I dozed off, woke up, checked the street below through the window, saw nothing worth noticing, then dozed off again.
The man I'd captured lay face-down without moving.
Since no message about acquiring Coins had appeared yet, he probably wasn't dead.
So I didn't worry about him.
I'm indifferent, but I won't ignore it.
Until my safety is fully secured, I'll keep doing whatever it takes.
Since the days were long, it was still bright outside even though it was past 6.
But there was still no one around. I wish there were one more of these guys. More would be fine too.
Hmm. It's getting toward evening, so won't they come out?
There are definitely plenty of people with nothing to eat right now. So they have to come out if they don't want to starve to death.
The only question is whether those people are here. If they're not, it's meaningless.
Fortunately, someone appeared before it got any later.
Three men. All three looked like college students.
Why are there no women? Of course, in this kind of situation, a woman walking around makes no sense.
But at this early stage, when people were still less wary, I would've thought it was perfectly possible...
Anyway, I captured the three men too. And like before, I sent shadows out in multiple directions.
I sent the three of them to the room I was in.
Since explaining again was a pain, I just severed their arm and leg tendons first.
I also wrapped them up tightly in bandages so they couldn't move.
Done. That's done.
Now, time to try out the Invisible Man Skill.
How broken is it going to be? I'm already curious.