9. The Pinnacle of Modern Civilization (1)
I headed outside.
I was invisible now. And I didn't even give off a presence.
Absolute security. The confidence that no one will detect me.
Of course, this state doesn't mean I'm safe.
Physical force will still apply, and I could get caught up in something like a blind skill.
But I can't go around worrying about every single one of those things. If I did, I couldn't go anywhere.
So I kept my nerve.
Boldly. I moved like nothing was wrong. Time mattered more than Coins right now.
The sun was starting to set around me.
It had been a long day. It felt like months had passed since this phenomenon began, yet not even a day had gone by.
Am I just good at adapting? Why does this world feel so familiar to me?
And why is it enjoyable?
Once I got away from the place where I'd created a scene of slaughter, the world was surprisingly intact.
Of course, no one was out walking around. But I did see corpses from time to time.
A corpse split in half as if sliced by something. A corpse with its limbs scattered about... and so on.
What on earth happened? Why was that corpse mangled like that?
Was it a skill with cutting force? That would explain why it ended up like that, right?
The corpses were definitely horrifying. Seeing things like guts spilling out didn't sit well with me.
Anyone would feel that way. If you could look at a sight like this and be fine, you'd have to be a person missing a whole lot of something.
I just didn't look away out of necessity.
What can commit murder like that is a skill. I don't know how many skills there are, but it'd be good to know what kinds exist.
That way I won't do something stupid at a critical moment.
Getting hit when you knew better is something I can't stand. Even in games it's like that.
If it was a situation where you could've popped your survival skill by just pressing Shift and held on, but you died because you were a split second late—there's nothing more infuriating than that.
But if that happened to me in real life? That'd be horrifying. I absolutely never want that.
Anyway, the world looks fine on the surface.
Phones still worked. So did the internet. Map apps too, of course.
I searched for the nearest police station. There were police boxes and district stations, so I weighed my options and headed for a district station.
District stations are bigger, right? So they'll definitely have pistols. And a fair amount of ammunition too.
When I arrived at the district station, the place was pretty chaotic.
It wasn't a place that had been attacked or was full of corpses.
On the surface, it looked normal.
Except the police were all on edge and had set up a defensive posture.
Police cars leaving with sirens blaring, loud radio chatter, a crowd of civilians packed together, police trying to control them.
Interesting. They came to a police station because something like this happened? To ask for protection?
That's a way of thinking I don't understand. If this were an ordinary incident or accident, they'd be right.
But this is beyond the range of what humans can do. So coming here is meaningless.
If anything, it's more dangerous.
If I still had that first skill I got, I would've said jackpot and killed every human here.
Since they're all gathered in one place, nice and easy to kill.
So in my opinion, those people are irresponsible.
Everyone was clearly given a chance. It's just that it's a hard choice to make.
So the people over there are people who dodged the choice given to them and are just trying to depend on others.
I don't want to kill people. But I do want to live.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just a twisted person.
But that's what I thought. So they don't look good to me. They just look pathetic.
Anyway, getting in there doesn't look easy. No, I shouldn't even attempt to go in.
So I'll have to find another way. Standing around here is a waste of time.
Should I try a small police box? But would it be any different from here? It'd probably be a similar situation.
Since I didn't anticipate this situation, I don't really know what to do or how to do it. I don't know what the best move is either.
So I just watched. Those people don't look like they'll stay here forever.
It's still the first day, after all. Once it gets dark, the situation will change a bit.
I went somewhere with no people and checked my phone.
In the meantime, something like a safety alert had come in. Looking at the contents, it wasn't anything worth taking seriously.
Blah blah about the abnormal situation, blah blah stay home for your safety.
Online communities and portal news were the same. Nothing but empty noise.
Well, who among them could clearly explain this situation? Everyone's in the same boat.
So there's no need to listen to what people are saying online right now.
If anything, I'd just get contaminated by useless information. Right now it's better to trust only the certain information I've figured out myself.
Then I spotted a female officer.
Maybe because of the situation, the female officer was also carrying a pistol. Well, they wouldn't discriminate by gender when issuing firearms.
What kind of bullshit would that be?
Anyway, seeing that female officer made me feel a little tempted.
The thought crossed my mind: I could probably rob someone like her.
Honestly, that's how it was. That woman might have excellent physical abilities. I mean, she could've been hired through some special recruitment or something.
But I'm an invisible man with no presence and no visible form. So snatching a pistol from that woman doesn't look that hard.
So first, I need to create some chaos, right?
I have skills, so creating chaos isn't hard. If I couldn't even do that, I'd be proving I'm a fucking idiot.
So I looked around, and since there happened to be a sushi place, I headed over there.
A raw fish restaurant with a sign saying closed today, probably because of the situation.
I looked around, then smashed the glass door. There was no way a security company would respond in this situation. Even if they did, what could they do?
I went inside like that and immediately looked for a sashimi knife.
A well-sharpened sashimi knife. The sharpest object I could get my hands on around here.
I released Invisibility and reapplied it. Now this sashimi knife had become an invisible knife.
It was already dangerous enough to swing around, and now it would be even harder to block.
Carrying the sashimi knife, I went back to the district station.
Even though it had gotten fairly dark, people were still there.
I thought they'd go home once the sun set, but it looked like they were planning to stay. Honestly, no matter how I thought about it, I couldn't understand these people.
I approached. I'd never stabbed anyone with a knife before, but... surely I could manage it.
So I plunged the knife into a potbellied man's stomach. He jerked in shock with a strangled grunt.
Like that, the blade with no presence at all stabbed into the man's belly without resistance and pulled right back out.
The man collapsed on the spot, touching his bleeding belly with an expression of disbelief.
Still unable to make a loud sound, just opening and closing his mouth.
And then a middle-aged woman next to him finally let out a tearing scream.
"Kyaaaaak!"
At that scream, the people around hurriedly looked that way.
Seeing the man bleeding from his belly and the woman screaming, they recoiled in shock.
But that wasn't enough to cause chaos. To the people nearby, it was still 'someone else's problem.'
They didn't think it could happen to them too. Everyone was on edge because they couldn't tell what was going on.
So I decided to make it into something that 'could happen to anyone.'
This time it was an older woman. I stabbed her in the belly too, then immediately backed away.
I wasn't trying to kill anyone. I was trying to create chaos, and this actually worked better.
Well, part of it is also that I'm not confident about stabbing people with a knife.
The second time was different from the first. The people nearby who saw the woman descended into pandemonium.
Some screamed and ran off, while others screamed and rushed in a swarm toward the district station entrance.
Growing chaos. Screams and terror.
Watching it felt satisfying. Because having things go the way I intend is enjoyable.
As expected, the police hurriedly drew their pistols and scanned the surroundings.
The female officer did the same. Still, it was commendable that she hadn't run away crying, 'What do I do?!'
Well, not every female officer is a moron. There could be female officers with a sense of duty.
Anyway, the situation got messy.
Police checking on the man and woman who'd been stabbed, the family next to them, confused civilians, police trying to control them.
That seemed like enough. So I went over to the female officer and stabbed her in the belly with the sashimi knife.
The female officer gasped and collapsed. Because the surroundings were so chaotic, no one paid attention to her at that moment. That's how it looked.
So I snatched the pistol from the collapsing female officer's hand.
Even while falling, she apparently hadn't forgotten that she must not let her gun be taken.
She tried to scream, but the wound in her belly was deep. She just opened and closed her mouth.
On top of that, the surrounding police only now noticed her and rushed over to support her and shout, so her words couldn't even be heard properly.
Holding the gun I'd taken like that, I immediately backed off.
Since it had gotten dark, no one would have seen the gun floating along.
Carrying the gun like that, I rounded the corner of the district station and immediately released Invisibility, then reapplied it.
Ah. Even snatching one gun is this much of a pain? What a hassle.
But it's done now. This one gun is enough. I won't need to go through this kind of trouble anymore.
Wasn't the first round supposed to be a blank? How do I open this thing?
I don't know. I'll figure it out once I shoot. It's not like anyone will know I fired anyway.
Aiming the gun, this time I went over to a male officer holding a gun.
And right in front of him, I chambered a round and fired.
A click. What the hell. A misfire? I thought, then remembered hearing somewhere that Korean police deliberately leave one chamber empty.
So I chambered another round and fired. This time, with a bang, the male officer clutched his chest.
But he didn't die. Ah. This must be a blank. I think I heard about this too.
So I chambered another round and fired. With a bang that only I could hear, the officer collapsed, bleeding from his chest.
And a message appeared saying I'd obtained 1 Coin. In other words, he was completely dead.
The surrounding chaos grew even worse. And now even the police were terrified and all trying to get inside the district station.
Well, doesn't matter. I got another gun anyway.
But this is annoying. Having to release and reapply Invisibility every time is pretty irritating.
Still, to enjoy this overwhelming convenience, I'll have to put up with this much.