Chapter 47
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 47
Late night, after orientation had ended.
I was sprawled spread-eagle on the training ground floor.
[Mana stat increased by 0.025.]
[You have acquired purer mana than before.]
[The quality of your mana has increased slightly.]
After my first encounter with the Demonkin, I had trained for five straight hours and completely exhausted myself.
But I couldn't just keep lying there.
Because I lived on a different clock from everyone else.
[Remaining Time: 25 days 10 hours 51 minutes]
"Heave-ho."
After checking the time, I pushed my upper body up.
Out of habit, I brought up my status window and gazed at it leisurely, as if appreciating a piece of art.
▷ Strength: 4.9
▷ Stamina: 4.3
▷ Agility: 4.6
▷ Senses: 4.3
▷ Intelligence: 5.1
▷ Mana: 4.575
▷ Luck: 3
As expected.
Maybe because my foundation was so low, even basic physical conditioning was steadily raising my overall stats.
They were still nothing impressive, but compared to the time invested, the results were remarkable.
I closed the status window in satisfaction.
With my morale recharged, I moved straight to the next step, pulled out a strand of Cheonjam Thread, and laid it on the floor.
I had gained a new ability, so I was planning to try something with it.
"Hm."
I folded my arms and stared at it for a moment. I already had a specific direction for the Enhancement in mind, so I activated Manifestation.
The goal was to raise the Cheonjam Thread's cutting power to the level of a special-grade Armament.
If it could be strengthened as intended, the value of the Cheonjam Thread would be....... What was that thing called.
Right, the Ruyi Jingu Bang.
It would be roughly a lower-tier version of a mythic-grade Armament that existed only in the setting somewhere in this world.
On top of its already unique length-adjusting function, it would gain the attack power of a special-grade Armament.
"Let's do it."
I straightened my posture and poured my will into it. The message responded immediately.
[Attempting to enhance the Cheonjam Thread's cutting power to special-grade Armament level.]
[Calculating required SP based on the resulting influence and plausibility-infringement factors.]
[This will take a moment.]
.
.
I stared into empty space, feeling more nervous than I had expected. Under 100 SP would be perfect.......
[Calculation complete.]
[Required SP: 400]
[Insufficient SP. Enhancement cannot be performed.]
But the result was truly astonishing.
"Seriously, 400 SP? You say that like it's nothing."
A flash of irritation surged up, but I swallowed it back down. Getting angry wouldn't change anything.
Fine. Asking for special-grade had been too much.
So I magnanimously lowered my sights and tried again.
[Attempting to enhance the Cheonjam Thread's cutting power to rare-grade Armament level.]
.
.
[Calculation complete.]
[Required SP: 280]
[Insufficient SP. Enhancement cannot be performed.]
But the result wasn't much different.
The price was still so far out of reach that I couldn't even find words.
"......."
Why was there such a difference?
Compared with Portrait of a Girl, the asking price was absurdly high, so I reviewed the system messages.
-A set amount of SP must be paid as the price, and the cost varies depending on the degree of plausibility infringement.
Then the phrase came back into view.
"Degree of plausibility infringement......."
That part seemed to be the problem.
A painting, even if it became a masterpiece, was still just a painting. But the Cheonjam Thread was an Armament.
The system seemed to judge that Enhancement would have a much greater impact on an Armament, causing the SP cost to spike.
"Cutting-power Enhancement is out, then."
I waved my hand to scatter the messages, then looked for a next-best option.
The second alternative that came to mind was making the Cheonjam Thread completely invisible.
It was already nearly transparent, so anyone below Tier 5 probably wouldn't notice it. But the gap between "nearly" and "completely" was considerable.
It was a gap I couldn't close no matter what....... Ah, then there was no point trying.
I couldn't continue the thought and gave up right away.
With my current SP, it was obviously out of reach.
"Then what am I supposed to enhance?"
I stroked my chin and deliberated.
The situation was too vague to brainstorm blindly, so I narrowed the scope.
Rather than the past, I thought about what lay ahead—the battle I would have to fight against Roberto.
That bastard's trait was truly bizarre, so the key was to avoid entering his "field of vision" if at all possible.......
As I kept narrowing my thoughts, a flash of light suddenly blazed before my eyes.
"Distance."
Right, distance was the key.
More precisely, I needed the ability to intercept him from beyond his "field of vision."
And that was directly tied to the length of the Cheonjam Thread.
What was the current maximum length of the Cheonjam Thread, about 50 meters?
It was long, sure, but if I could extend it three or four times—
On the surface, I would only be changing an ordinary one-dimensional property. But with Manifestation, I could control the thread at will, which changed everything.
It would enable long-range sniping and be a major advantage when using sorcery.
My fighting style worked better the more distance I had from my opponent.
Through the one-dimensional change of "length," I could diversify its applications.
"This is it."
I activated Manifestation again and began another Enhancement.
First, three times the length—starting from a maximum of 150 meters.
[Attempting to triple the Cheonjam Thread's length.]
[Required SP: 30]
The result was as expected.
The cost dropped sharply, putting it within what I could afford.
But tripling it still did not give me enough range.
So I tried increasing it step by step.
[Attempting to quadruple the Cheonjam Thread's length.]
[Attempting to quintuple the Cheonjam Thread's length.]
.
The results showed that quadrupling it cost 50 SP, quintupling it cost 70 SP, and increasing it sixfold cost 90 SP.
After weighing the options, I chose the sixfold version, which gave it a maximum length of 300 meters.
Because I judged that this much distance needed to be secured for there to be a meaningful change.
[90 SP will be deducted.]
[SP remaining: 30]
[Beginning Enhancement.]
A moment later, a bright light burst from the Cheonjam Thread and then faded.
Since there was no other visible change, I reached out and touched it.
[Cheonjam Thread] + [Range Enhancement]
[Grade: Rare (Upper)]
[Description: Thread extracted from the Cheonjam, a rare Monster believed to be extinct. Known as one of the strongest fibers in the world.]
[Effect: When mana is infused, it becomes nearly transparent. Length can be freely adjusted (+ up to a maximum of 300 m).]
Could I ask for a better bargain?
It was a shame to see my SP—once climbing toward my target of 200—drop so sharply, but the new line still made me grin.
"I can just save up SP again."
The result made achievements feel more important than ever, and I sprang to my feet.
I accessed the training system to test the upgraded Cheonjam Thread.
I was about to summon a training dummy.
But then a flashing promotional message at the bottom of the hologram caught my eye.
The first-half "Virtual Reality Mission Tournament" has begun.
Any Taehak student may participate.
Take on the challenge right now and become the winner of the 50 million won prize.
* * *
The Virtual Reality Mission Tournament.
It was a famous two-week Taehak competition that combined training and competition.
Most Taehak students joined half for fun and half in the hope of winning something. The format was simple.
All you had to do was click the application button, create a nickname, and clear the assigned mission.
Then scores were given in terms of time, technique, and stability, and the results were displayed in real time to all participants.
It was structured like an online game to stir up the students' interest and competitive spirit.
This had also been covered in the original work, so it was a tournament I knew well.
I remembered that the back-and-forth record battle between Seol Yoon-gi and Baek Sa-young had been the fun part.
"Should I give it a shot?"
It was an opportunity that had come at just the right time, so I was planning to dip my toes in too.
The mission itself was the perfect type for testing the strengthened Cheonjam Thread.
And who knew?
If I got a good result, maybe I'd even earn an achievement.
"Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained."
I pressed the participation button with a flicker of anticipation. The screen changed, and a message appeared.
Please enter a nickname.
A nickname, huh.
I was only trying it casually, and anonymity was strictly guaranteed, so I said the first thing that came to mind.
"Buhansi..."
Your nickname is 'Buhansi'.
It was just "sihanbu" said backwards.
Would you like to hear a detailed explanation about the tournament?
I answered "No" and clicked [2nd-Year Real-Time Rankings].
Then the participants' nicknames appeared in a long list, sorted by score.
It was only the first day of the tournament, but the number of participants had already soared past 200.
1st place Ildoyangdan [291 points]
2nd place 10CircleMageLOL [290 points]
3rd place IAmLegend [287 points]
4th place chlrkdals02 [282 points]
5th place Macho's Pure Love [278 points]
.
.
For starters, everyone in the top five—the prize-winning range—was someone I knew.
1st place Ildoyangdan was Seol Yoon-gi.
2nd, 3rd, and 4th places were top-ranked students from other departments—named characters I would face later in the inter-department competition—and 5th place Macho's Pure Love was Lee Dae-ho.
But since it was literally real time, the rankings kept changing.
Baek Sa-young would probably show up around tomorrow and smash the top record, and Cheon Seo-yoon would climb the rankings before long too.
And Joo A-rin had a busy schedule for a while because of her direct team interview.......
"......Hold on. If it's around now."
When my thoughts reached that point, I checked my phone.
Sure enough.
There was a text from an unfamiliar number.
[Hello everyone, how was today's lecture? This is Roberto. The world's best......]
It was him.
The Demonkin who had infiltrated the art club.
He had sent a group text under the pretext of the special lecture that would run for a month.
He would probably keep pretending to be a friendly artist like this, then reveal his true colors before long.
He would ask people to model for his new work and lure them in one by one.
And in the end, he would target Joo A-rin as his sixth subject.
So there was nothing for me to do right now.
He was taking a slow-burn approach, so I could afford to watch and wait as well.
While also preparing for any possible distortion of the plot.
"First, the mission."
I shook off my idle thoughts and took a deep breath.
I loosened up briefly and pressed the mission start button.
Rumble.
The space shifted with a faint vibration.
Not only that, but a grand BGM began playing, stirring up a somewhat abrupt sense of immersion.
This virtual mission tournament uses a Boss Elimination format.
Break through dozens of guards and defeat the boss.
I looked at the system reciting the instructions in a rather solemn voice and let out a small laugh.
Sorry, but I had neither the stamina nor the intention to break through dozens of guards.
I was simply going to exploit the enhanced Cheonjam Thread from a distance and target the boss alone.
Wasn't that exactly the right strategy for the task?