Smile (1)
The thought core I’d picked up glowed wickedly beneath the red light.
It was about two finger-widths across, a dark, blood-red lump.
Since it even had the name “Marionette” tacked on after it, I figured there had to be more things like this out there.
Either way, this was still a material. What could I make with it?
It was too small to be much of anything, maybe an arrowhead at best.
“If it’s a gem, you slot it into something. That’s just common sense.”
Yeah, standard gear-item rule.
I’d figure out the effect once I tried it.
I didn’t have a socket, but who the hell was I? I could just drill one.
Let’s see... Since it might be weird, maybe I should stick it into a part I can ditch if things go wrong?
I took off the left vambrace and bored a tiny hole into the back of my hand.
When I pushed the thought core in, it surprisingly slid in as neatly as if it had been fitted there from the start.
“You like it? So what exactly are you, anyway?”
Armour of the Marionette (E): Minor Regeneration, Marionette
Nothing changed except that the Marionette effect had been added to the armor status window.
What, that’s it? I thought it’d at least go up a rank, but it stayed the same?
So what the hell did the puppet effect even do?
I was disappointed, sure, but it was probably still useful somewhere, just like regeneration, so I got to my feet for now.
Time to farm materials.
That mannequin centipede-thing, now turned into a boss, had far better durability than the ones before it.
I could just use this to make a new suit of armor.
“But when the hell am I supposed to dismantle all this...”
I sighed at the monstrous size of the thing filling the escalator, grabbed one of its arms, and was just about to hammer it apart when my left hand suddenly flashed.
Then, starting with the arm I was holding, the huge body seemed to crumble into dust and gather toward the glowing thought core, where it was absorbed!
“Oh. O-oh?”
Armour of the Marionette (D): Minor Regeneration, Marionette
The mannequin centipede boss had bumped my armor up a grade and then vanished without leaving a trace!
Was it absorbing the byproducts of other aberrations too?
Either way, the fact that my gear got stronger without me lifting a finger was a great thing.
I’d thought I’d have to grind my ass off for days.
In that case, I might as well absorb the rest of the materials too.
Not just the part I’d been holding, but the arms and chunks of torso that had torn off during the fight were scattered all over the place.
If I ate all that too, maybe I’d get even stronger.
So I reached toward an arm lying a little ways off, and this time something else sprouted from my left hand!
What the hell, what is this, why is my hand getting longer?!
“Haa- shit, it’s not my hand... Jesus, that scared the hell out of me.”
Only then did I realize my arm wasn’t actually stretching. Another arm had grown out from the left vambrace I’d extended.
The arm that picked up the material then slid back in with a smooth, sucking motion.
This was starting to remind me of somebody from One Piece...
I tried testing it by reaching for something farther away this time.
Just like before, another arm grew out, and from its palm, yet another arm sprouted to grab the material.
“Holy crap... it works.”
So, if I sorted it out-
The thought core was basically like a fruit with a special ability, right?
Probably not from an ordinary aberration, but something boss-tier.
That’s insanely good, isn’t it?
Thrilled by the unexpected haul, I tucked the rolling head under my arm and headed for the forum.
Amused by the startled reaction from the gallery, I described the thing I’d fought and how it behaved.
No, it’s different. This is an armor ability.
If you want to get technical, it’s more like an Iron Man nanosuit.
Just smoother. And flesh-colored.
No, I wasn’t saying to actually eat the aberration... or was I?
They seemed to think I was some kind of full-on psycho, so I tried to argue my case in the gallery, but-
Wait, they actually blocked me?!
Stunned and hurt, I stared at the screen for a while before just switching the power off.
“Still, the Earth turns.”
Like Galileo standing trial for heliocentrism, I had received an unjust verdict, and in that moment I felt the loneliness of a pioneer in my bones.
Hmph. It’s not like I’d die just because I couldn’t use the gallery for a day.
...It was a joke, right? They’ve probably unblocked me by now.
Woooo- click, click, woooo...
“Bastards.”
Feeling the emptiness of life all over again, I got up and picked up the mannequin boss’s head.
Luckily, it hadn’t been absorbed, probably because I’d decided I wanted to make something else out of the head.
I can’t resist a full set.
Thinking I’d make a helmet for the relatively bare head, I flipped the mannequin skull over and started cutting down around the neck.
It was huge, probably because of the centipede form.
Hollowing it out was a pain, but once I propped up the mannequin fingers I’d made and used them to hammer and carve, it started to look halfway decent.
I even punched out the eye holes, and since it seemed usable enough, I tried it on-
“Holy shit, hey... even for me, this is a bit much.”
The damage done by my reflection was incredible.
I just looked like some gigantic mannequin person.
The way it moved freely brought to mind the most profoundly unsettling kind of uncanny valley.
And for some reason, I felt weird.
Like I was the mannequin aberration myself, or something.
“This is too damn suffocating.”
I yanked the helmet off, irritated, though I was a little disappointed too.
I’d busted my ass carving this thing, after all.
Looking at the time, the store was almost ready to open, which meant I’d been at this for over six hours.
In regret, I put off absorbing it for a bit and parked it beside the register before cracking open an energy bar and some coconut water.
Soon after, the shopping mall returned with its music and yellowish lights.
I was exhausted from a day that had turned out far more brutal than I’d expected.
Let’s sleep first. If the mannequins get replenished after I wake up, I’ll just smash the whole lot. Doing this twice would be a nightmare.
If they turned back into centipedes and came at me again, that’d be a problem.
If the memories from today remained, maybe they wouldn’t fall for the same trap either.
...But I’ve gotten stronger, right? My armor’s better, and even though I’m still clumsy, I can make more left arms now.
No. I’d already almost died once today because I got carried away like that.
At least wait until I’m more used to the ability.
Then I could try again.
* * *
“Come on, fight me again, you bastard. You think you can set traps? Then let’s settle this head-on!”
When I woke up, I was still pissed about getting utterly humiliated yesterday.
But just as I was about to issue a formal declaration of war to the mannequins, I froze at the sight of the empty store.
What the hell? It’s business hours. Where’d they go?
“Where the hell are you? Yeo-eun! Miss Kim!”
There were no mannequins.
Had they already turned into bosses?
But I searched the ceiling, the dark corners, and every other store, and still couldn’t find a single one of those bastards.
Wait, don’t tell me it’s over because I killed the boss? Did I clear it?
The thought core might be what created the mannequins.
That core that controls the dolls and creates them at will.
Just as I was starting to think that the idea of thought itself might be the true body of an aberration, the closing music began to play.
Don’t let your guard down.
Beneath the reddening lights, I gripped my hammer and watched the surroundings carefully, but if it really was over, then there was no sound and no movement anywhere.
“Ah... the supply’s run dry.”
My materials had disappeared.
I’d been planning to absorb more and get stronger with them, too.
What a shame...
No, wait, this is a good thing. Are you insane?
In other words, there were no more aberrations here.
I still needed to keep an eye on it, but even so.
It meant the gallery had become the complete safe zone they all wanted.
Fuck yeah. Once the block lifts, I’m bragging about this immediately.
Even if I got blocked again for it, I had things to do.
I was grinning to myself and half-collapsed into a chair when-
Click.
All the lights went out at once.
That had never happened before.
Startled shitless, I grabbed my hammer first and then formed an arm with my left hand, bracing for something I couldn’t even see.
And then, in that instant.
A bright light appeared on the wall.
The smiling face emoji I’d seen countless times online.
It had simply appeared and begun to glow.
At the sight of that eerie shape, I remembered something I’d heard while pestering JamminKid with questions about this and that.