Everything Felt
All of it came flooding in.
The distant and the near, the moving and the still, even the faintest whispers.
One piece of information transformed into multiple sensations, slamming straight into my brain.
Violent sensations.
If I hadn't trained to filter them out, I wouldn't have lasted a second.
I focused immediately on the info relevant to the fight.
Boom!
The grenade I'd bounced away earlier exploded outside the building.
I fired through the window and dropped one guy.
Was it the massive info overload?
I knew the outcome before I even pulled the trigger.
Pfft!
"Ugh!"
He went down in one shot, just like I'd predicted.
The body armor those North Korean hunters wore was useless.
No proper ballistic plates—just cheap filler material.
Lucky if it even stopped shrapnel.
"Second floor!"
Their return fire came flying, but I'd already left the window.
I left the second floor to Kim Yu-na and dove out another window.
The protruding roof on the villa's first floor creaked as it caught me.
"Breach..."
Pfft!
"Gahhh!"
Another one dropped to gunfire from a completely different angle.
For military guys, their training seemed half-assed.
Or maybe they were just panicking in real combat.
Rat-tat-tat!
They fired back right away... but couldn't aim for shit.
Those beat-up AKs had trash accuracy.
Should be grateful the bullets even fired.
Even if they hit, my vest would've stopped them.
"Pin 'em down! Those bastards aren't as many as we thought!"
The officer reached for me while shouting that.
Not his rotten rifle—he was going for a skill.
I could already see what skill it was.
Fireball?
Rat-tat-tat!
The officer turned into Swiss cheese.
I emptied one mag, then swapped for a fresh one from my subspace pocket.
Click!
Couldn't stay outside too long or they'd surround me again. I headed back inside.
Through the front door—no booby traps there.
The others saw it and rushed in... right into the trap.
Kaboom!
A Claymore I'd looted from the fifth floor.
Way faster and deadlier than grenades.
Took out four with that. Now it was 2 vs. 5.
Still overwhelmingly outnumbered.
Yet some inexplicable euphoria was taking over my body.
Ting!
I chucked smoke grenades everywhere, filling the first floor.
They charged in thinking it was their chance... but I saw everything clear as day.
Pfft, pfft!
The guy still behind the door.
But the rotten wooden door didn't block bullets completely.
Soon they were blindly spraying into the smoke.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
"Yu-na!"
Flash!
Yu-na, waiting on the second floor, teleported me out.
"Four left."
"What? For real?"
I'm no pro gunfighter, but...
I'd learned the basics of combat from Tower Escape.
Showing your face in the same spot twice is for idiots.
When outnumbered, keep switching positions and firing.
Rat-tat-tat!
"Argh, don't shoot!"
One of their own got hit in the crossfire.
Unfortunately, he survived.
I thought that and flinched.
Disappointed a guy didn't die?
Even I found it ridiculous.
But the outside world's morals don't help much in the Tower.
Kaboom!
They kept popping the few grenades they had left, tightening the noose.
I teleported back to the first floor with Kim Yu-na.
Flash!
Caught 'em from behind and nailed another one.
Pfft!
"Agh..."
"He's behind us!"
"B-but we checked..."
"Fuck this... I can't do it anymore!"
The guy with the arm wound finally broke and ran.
I didn't bother shooting.
Monsters drawn by the explosions were swarming nearby.
"Aaaah!"
Down to two.
They froze at the stairs to the second floor.
"Damn, why's it so quiet..."
"Th-there!"
Rat-tat-tat!
They emptied their mags into shadows in the smoke.
What the hell are these guys?
They said North Korea had 200,000 special forces...
If they really had that many, could you even call 'em special?
Didn't look like it from this mess.
Whatever—worked in our favor.
Pfft!
I shot the one reaching for a fresh mag.
The last guy tried drawing his pistol but dropped it.
"U-urgh..."
Completely lost the will to fight.
I pressed my gun to his head and approached slowly.
"Hands up."
"Y-yes, sir! Just don't shoot..."
"Shut up."
I had an important question for him.
Something even Transcendence couldn't make sense of.
"You guys passed by here earlier. Why'd you come back?"
I knew they needed a safe hideout.
But a place already occupied by other hunters isn't safe.
Hell, I'd even given them a warning shot.
He trembled but explained carefully.
"A-at first, the shots sounded weird, like a silencer. When you didn't gun us down right away, we figured you hunters had shit to protect. I said let's go, but the others insisted on filling their quota no matter what."
Ridiculous.
They thought we had stuff to lose because I didn't shoot immediately?
That's the Tower for you.
I felt it anew as I hooked my finger on the trigger.
"Wait! I told you everything honest!"
"Yeah, so I'm being honest back."
One mistake can be fatal.
Can't make the same one twice.
Pfft!
With a pathetic pop, his head lolled forward.
Only then did I release the skill.
Shhh...
Perfect Sense, disengaged.
I nearly collapsed right there.
Perfect Sense skill level has risen to 6.
Regeneration Skill level has risen to 8.
Transcendence skill level has risen to 2.
Right—basic skills level up too.
"Kang Hyun!"
Kim Yu-na teleported me to a second-floor bedroom.
She laid me on the bed and fed me her recovery potion.
"You okay?"
"Gonna... need some rest."
I couldn't even twitch a finger.
Felt like everything inside me had been drained.
It read the near future, so of course it took a toll.
"B-but... even after using it way longer than in training... your condition's better?"
"Oh yeah? Guess I'm the real-combat type. Water?"
"Thanks."
Kim Yu-na fed me water while shoving her camera in my face, as usual.
"Everyone's gonna freak when they see what our team newbie just did. Can't show corpses, but bloodstains and building damage? Spoils too!"
Deep in a corpse-filled house, and she's fine with it.
Her mental game's rock solid, at least.
"I'll grab the loot and keep watch."
"Sure."
We'd made a ton of noise—monsters okay?
They usually don't come inside buildings, but...
We fought too loud to be sure.
My Perfect Sense wasn't working right now anyway.
Slight overload.
Made me super uneasy.
"Urgh..."
As I writhed on the bed, distant gunshots rang out.
Pop, pfft!
Quiet enough to miss if you weren't listening.
Sounded like a submachine gun.
Muffled by the suppressor, but weirdly familiar.
They're here.
I waited a bit longer, and finally Go Ji-ho and the team showed up.
All perfectly fine.
"...Hey, Kim Yu-na. Why's Kang Hyun passed out? What'd you do?"
"Nothing! Kang Hyun took out all those guys inside and out by himself."
"What? Nine of 'em? You didn't Transcendence your Perfect Sense, did you?"
"Yeah..."
Go Ji-ho grabbed Kim Yu-na and heard the full story since we split.
Then pondered and decided.
"From now on, Kang Hyun's our vice captain. If something happens to me, he takes command."
"...Huh?"
Han Ju-won was the vice captain before, right?
Can you just swap like that on the spot?
Han Ju-won didn't seem to mind.
Looked relieved, even.
Kim Yu-na, sorting loot, jumped in surprise—more shocked than opposed.
"What? Kang Hyun as vice captain for real?"
"When have we ever cared about age or experience? Speak now if you've got beef."
"...None here."
"Me neither."
Han Ju-won and Sang Ha-jun chimed in.
Even in the land of Eastern etiquette?
These guys too open-minded?
I spoke up as the opposition rep.
"Uh, I actually object."
"Newbie acting cocky?"
"..."
You just said age and experience don't matter.
Go Ji-ho explained.
"Ha-jun and Yu-na would never take team leader. Ju-won..."
"I'm not capable."
Han Ju-won humbly cut in; Go Ji-ho corrected.
"Position issue. Usually handles flanking or suppressive fire."
Come to think of it, he was the one flanking in the third-floor morgue fight.
"Kang Hyun's got good skills and quick judgment. You're vice captain."
"Urgh... if you insist, fine."
"Good. Now, loot time. Nothing special, probably."
I hadn't expected much from North Korean gear.
Weapons and armor were garbage.
At least we got some consumables like grenades.
But Kim Yu-na came back from searching bodies, hyped.
"Check this—Mist Pill!"
"What? These guys raided Fog Village?"
Rare loot only from Fog Village.
Permanently boosts stats for the user.
Sell it at shop for 10k gold, easy.
But only the first one works—extras do nothing.
"They grabbed this and bailed when the rocket hit?"
"Boosts Dexterity, right?"
"Who gets it?"
Team assumed we'd eat it, not sell.
10k gold? We could make that anytime.
Fit for Korea's top team.
Go Ji-ho decided as leader.
"Yu-na and I ate one each before. Give it to Kang Hyun."
"Agreed."
"Sure."
So I got the pill.
Mist Pill effect: Dexterity permanently increased.
Go Ji-ho sat by the bedhead.
"Selling what we've got already nets 40k gold. Rest till morning, skip fourth floor."
"Sounds good."
We fought too loud—position's blown.
Anything more on fourth floor's risky.
"Roughly loot the abandoned hospital on third and wrap up."
"What if we gotta fight there like last time?"
"We can handle one more scrap. Our team's combat power's objectively top-tier."
Skill-activated Go Ji-ho's basically a human tank.
In tight spots like the hospital, no match.
"Hang loose till you're recovered, Kang Hyun."
"Yeah..."
Weird.
Body felt empty, but... peaceful.
Perfect Sense off helped, but... something satisfied.
This must be what Go Ji-ho meant.
Clearing out anyone who opposes you, taking it all.
This is it.
"...You get it too, huh?"
He smirked.
Guessed from my face alone.
"But, Captain."
"What now?"
"Any way to upgrade basic skill ranks?"
A B-rank hunter like Go Ji-ho felt like a waste.
Wasn't in Tower Escape, but...
Vets might know secrets.
Go Ji-ho fed me water quietly.
"Heard there's items that upgrade basic skill ranks... but only US and China know details."
"Oh?"
"Can't go past S-rank, though."
Means up to A-rank possible.
Drowsiness hit as I kept asking.
"Oh, and Yu-na spends 10 million won a month on living expenses..."
"10 mil? Bullshit. That's a lie."
"Gasp!"
A lie?
She stonewalled me?
As betrayal sank in, Go Ji-ho said:
"Probably 20 mil."
"Ah..."
Not stonewall—humility.
Trembling in awe and terror, I passed out.
We headed to the third floor next morning.