8. Someone to Resent (3)
From what I'd seen so far, skill conditions were completely arbitrary.
Impossible to define. No pattern whatsoever.
So even with these bastards locked up like this, I couldn't let my guard down.
I had no idea what conditions they might satisfy, or how, to attack me.
Skills could let someone escape even with their eyes covered.
So I had to stay alert at all times. Even compulsively.
Anyway, I'd made people who resented me. Four of them, no less.
So now I'd change my skill.
I hoped the Invisible Man Skill would turn out to be what I wanted...
[Replace your existing skill with the new skill?]
A message window with that written on it. I pressed Yes right away.
One can completely conceal one's presence and appearance, if one wears a hat, if someone resents one.
The changed skill window. So I tried it out immediately.
I put on a hat that had been lying among the corpses still at the end of the hallway.
Then, in front of the mirror, I imagined myself turning invisible.
And just like that, my reflection vanished from the mirror. Completely.
A smile spread across my face. But the mirror couldn't catch that smile of mine. Because I was invisible.
I could see myself, but the mirror couldn't see me.
Which meant it was the same for everyone else besides me. They wouldn't be able to see me either.
I thought about releasing the invisibility. And it released immediately.
I liked that I didn't have to say anything out loud. As long as I was wearing a hat, I could use it instantly in any situation.
I tried taking the hat off while invisible. Naturally, the invisibility released.
This time I tried pulling up the hood attached to my clothes instead of a hat. And I turned invisible.
It counts a hood as a hat too? Pretty generous, huh?
Anyway, it worked. The visual aspect was satisfying for now.
So next was performance. If it only made me invisible, I wouldn't have expected this much.
Concealing my presence too. That was the important part.
So I walked, invisible, toward where the bastards I'd tied up were.
Footsteps, the rustle of clothes, the popping sounds from my joints.... Things like that.
People make quite a lot of noise when they move. I could hear it in my own ears right now.
But those sounds wouldn't be heard, right? How great is that?
Even though I came close, all four of the bound men showed no reaction.
But it was hard to gauge their reactions from this alone. I wanted to confirm for certain that these bastards couldn't perceive me.
I went back outside. There was something else I wanted to check.
I went to the pantry, picked up a kitchen knife, and went back to the mirror.
A kitchen knife floating in midair. Just as expected.
Picking up an object while invisible didn't make the object invisible too.
I released the invisibility and activated it again. This time the knife also became invisible in the mirror.
Right. Same as clothes. Things touching my body turn invisible with me, huh?
Hmm. I need a mirror I can carry around. Is there one anywhere?
Something came to mind, so I went inside. The pantry next to the injection room. The wardrobe there.
I opened it and found nurses' clothes and bags. I rummaged through them and found a hand mirror.
Holding the hand mirror, I released the invisibility and activated it again. Now the mirror turned invisible too.
I set it down. The mirror became visible again.
I picked the mirror back up, released the invisibility, and activated it. Then I went to where the captured bastards were.
Then, leaving the mirror on the ground, I touched one finger to one of their bodies.
And released the invisibility and activated it again.
Unfortunately, the one I touched didn't turn invisible.
Hmm. Right. That makes sense. The skill says it works on the user, doesn't it? If it worked on other people too, it'd be completely broken.
Anyway, I'd checked what I needed to. Now the most important test remained.
I brought a chair and sat one of them down. Then I stood behind him and peeled off the tape over his eyes.
The blindfold was gone, but seeing no one in front of him, the bastard turned his head left and right.
And when there was still no one, he twisted his body as far as he could to look behind him.
But he couldn't turn all the way around. Still, if he'd known I was there, he would've at least reacted like he'd seen me.
But the bastard couldn't see me. So he looked bewildered.
He must be wondering what this was. He'd suddenly been sat in a chair and the tape over his eyes had come off, but no one was there.
So he looked around. And the bastard didn't notice me.
I hadn't been careful at all, so he definitely must have heard plenty of noise. And yet.
Confusion and suspicion flickered through the bastard's eyes at the same time.
This bastard didn't know my ability was the Invisible Man Skill. He'd been caught by something like a shadow, so he probably thought that was my skill.
So this bastard wasn't acting right now. He was really like this because he couldn't find me.
I clenched my fist. Then I thrust it toward the bastard's head and stopped.
My fist flew to within a few centimeters of his face, and he didn't react at all.
Right. Erasing presence is really something incredible.
It's not even comparable to simple invisibility.
I slapped the bastard's cheek. The one who got hit genuinely startled and looked around again.
This seemed good enough. Honestly, there was no way this was acting. So I stopped doubting.
Conclusion. The skill I got this time is absolutely broken. Ridiculous.
If survival is the priority rather than killing people, there's no better skill than this. Definitely.
The bastard who got slapped didn't thrash or struggle. He just watched warily, trembling with vague fear.
Now. The problem starts here.
The Invisibility Skill is broken, sure. But killing people with it is hard.
Of course, I can target a perfect opening, but that's all.
Unlike flying nails or a shadow that moves freely, I have to kill with my own hands. And in one strike, at that.
Was there a way to kill quietly?
If there are multiple people, and if they're bastards with unknown skills, I have to kill them quietly and silently.
Who knows what skill might get me, or how? Invisibility probably doesn't block skills too.
I stepped out of the room for a moment and looked around.
There was an IV pole, so I took off the top and bottom parts and picked it up.
It was a bit thin, but getting hit with this would hurt. Hit in the head or somewhere, it might even kill.
Well, killing in one hit seemed hard, though.
Anyway, I picked it up, released the invisibility, and activated it again.
Then I went back inside, swinging it around this way and that.
The stainless steel pipe cutting through the air made a sharp whooshing sound.
Anyone would probably flinch hearing it. But the one sitting in the chair looked like he couldn't hear it.
So I gripped it with both hands and swung it down hard.
The blow landed with a loud crack, but the bastard hadn't sensed it coming until just before the impact.
Only after the pipe struck his head did he startle and squeeze his eyes shut.
A groan. With his mouth gagged, that was all he could manage.
Fortunately, even objects I held and swung lost their presence. Well, it's no different from clothes, I guess.
So this was only natural.
But would he have heard the sound of the pipe hitting his head just now? I can't know that.
So a question came to mind. What would happen if I fired a gun in this state?
Gunshots are a huge drawback. But if that condition of erasing all presence reduced even the gunshot?
Then everything would be solved. No one survives a gunshot at close range.
Well, there might be some protected by skills.
My next task was decided. I had to get a gun.
The easiest place to get a gun would be a police station. Well, with the Invisibility Skill, getting there wouldn't be a problem.
So that was settled. Everything I needed to do was decided. So now it was time to clean up here.
First, I had to kill this one in front of me. Since he knew what my skill was.
I swung the pipe. Hitting the bound bastard's head wasn't hard. It just hurt my hand.
The vibration in my hand. The sensation of someone's life going out.
And the result was Coins. Human life was converted into Coins.
[You have acquired 37 Coins. To use Coins, please say "Use Coins."]
As expected, he wasn't an ordinary one. Right. The ones out roaming around now must have something to rely on.
37 Coins. Thanks. Catching bastards like this really is better. Better than catching them one by one.
I tossed the pipe aside. The moment it left my hand, the pipe became visible and clattered to the floor.
Now. What do I do with the rest of these bastards? I'm torn.
Originally I'd planned to let them go. To make them survive desperately with resentment toward me, so they'd become the condition for activating my skill.
But now that I was about to do it, it felt wrong.
It didn't fit my principles. Letting go of people who could kill me?
I think I'd overlooked skills too much. I'd crippled one hand and one foot on each of them, but who knew what skills they might have.
Maybe there was a skill that could heal something like this right away.
And I didn't know how much people with that kind of vengeance could grow.
And if they came looking for me later? If that led to me dying a dog's death?
I didn't mind dying. But I couldn't stand the thought of these bastards killing me and savoring the thrill of revenge.
No. That's not happening. Even dying would feel unfair. I can't stand the sight of that.
So I decided not to release them. It seemed better to leave them as they were and let them die slowly.
Let's see. How long can a human survive on water alone? Still, they'd live quite a while, wouldn't they?
About a week? At least that long. In that time, I could make plenty of other spares.
So I tied them up again.
Then I put one in pediatrics, one in ophthalmology, and one in dentistry, and made sure they couldn't leave.
Then I put a 1.5-liter PET bottle of water in each of their bound hands and uncovered their mouths.
This should be enough. They still couldn't move, and they wouldn't die of dehydration for a while.
This place wasn't somewhere people could easily enter anyway, so leaving them like this, no one would come.
In their condition, they wouldn't be able to call out for rescue, either.
If anyone found them, they wouldn't rescue them—they'd kill them right away. They were nothing but easy prey for Coins.
Now. Done, right? Then I should go to the police station.
I needed to get my hands on a weapon first. That would put me a little more at ease. My hands felt oddly empty right now.