Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others
The three new skills I received after clearing Animal Farm appeared before me the moment I returned.
You can act more stealthily.
The lower your heart rate, the more you slip from perception.
You become natural inside shadows. Your presence grows faint within them.
Stealth and Concealment already scream their limitations right there in the names. No matter how much I grind them, they’ll only make me slightly more transparent. But Shadow… maybe it could let me slip inside actual shadows, or attack using them?
“I’m using the skill reinforcement ticket on Shadow.”
You become natural inside darkness. Your presence grows faint within it. You can manipulate shadows.
It was still only six o’clock, but my studio apartment never got any direct sunlight, so it was already fairly dark. When I switched off the fluorescent light, the room plunged into real gloom, and I could actually feel the density of the darkness thickening. It wasn’t quite like being underwater, more like a pleasant, silky air brushing against my skin. The sensation felt… good. I had a feeling that once it got completely dark, I’d be perfectly comfortable.
“Even in this half-light, everything around me looks pretty sharp. If I’d intruded with this skill active, I would’ve seen every last twitch on those pig bastards’ faces.”
I turned on my phone’s flashlight and spread my hand against the wall to cast a shadow. Intuitively, I understood how to control it, but the result was pathetic—like trying to write with a numb left hand. All I could do was make the shadow twitch and jerk awkwardly.
Darkness Lv.1 → Lv.2
Consume 20 points?
…Spending twenty whole points just to raise it one level when all I could do right now was play shadow puppets seemed like a waste. What other skills did I get again?
You can fall asleep easily. Recovery speed increases.
The Lv.1 skills didn’t seem all that impressive anyway, so I wasn’t expecting much…
Good~ Morning~~
Good~ Morning~~
Ba-ba-ba-ba-bam-ba-ba-ba-ba-bam~~
Ba-ba-ba-bam-bam-ba-ba-ba-ba-bam-bam
Good~ Morning~~
“Guhk!!”
I had only meant to take a quick test nap, but morning arrived in the blink of an eye. And damn, I felt refreshed. This was the first time in my entire life I’d ever woken up without feeling tired or groggy.
“Maybe the Sound Sleep skill is the real treasure Masterpiece Intrusion gave me…”
I washed up out of habit, then ate the sausage and bread I’d stashed in my inventory back in the Animal Farm world. I’d been too busy during the intrusion to notice, but they were actually delicious. That woman I’d run into on the stairs must be one hell of a cook.
While waiting for the school bus, something I’d completely forgotten came back to me.
“I slept so well I slipped straight back into everyday life without even thinking about it.”
Currently Intruded: Animal Farm — George Orwell
Ending Confirmed
Available Intrusions: None
You can read more classics to update the bookshelf.
I wondered what kind of effect my assassination had on Animal Farm’s future…
Bang!!!
The night the animals found freedom. A gunshot rang out inside the peaceful barn where the pigs slept.
Squeeeeee!!!
While the pigs screamed in confusion, the assassin hidden in the darkness muttered something, then immediately bolted out of the barn.
“Catch that human!!”
The pure-white pig quickly regained its senses and barked orders. The animals shook off their panic and poured out of the barn, chasing the human.
Neighhh! Bark bark! Squeee! Moooo!!
Not just the pigs—every four-legged animal on the farm burst out of the barn, saw the commotion, and joined the chase. A massive stallion thundered forward and slammed into the human. The rest of the beasts quickly caught up, ramming, trampling, and biting.
The human fought heroically. Even as blood poured from his body, he used the brief pause between kicks to grab the horse’s mane and swing himself onto its back. But the roosters that leaped up right after clawed at his face. He was thrown off and died soon after.
“Good thing I escaped the moment the intrusion ended… If I’d run up to the two-story house to grab more stuff, that would’ve been my fate. So the rest of the story is the animals living peacefully on the farm?”
The animals gathered every morning to discuss things together, worked together during the day, and slept together at night. Strangely enough, a culture of posting one animal per barn as a night watchman took root.
The former farm owner and his men came back with clubs and guns to retake the farm, but the animals—who now had experience fighting humans—repelled them under the command of the white pig, Snowball, and protected their freedom.
Four legs good, two legs bad. All animals are equal.
The pigs, being smart, made the plans, and the other animals followed them. The pigs created the rules, and the animals obeyed. The pigs ate more fruit because they did important work. They drank more milk. The pigs took charge of educating the young.
Everything seemed to be going well, but at some point the other animals’ shares began to shrink in order to maintain the pigs’ privileges. The young animals raised under the pigs’ education became their personal guards. Animals who voiced complaints simply vanished without a trace. According to the pigs in charge of security, they had been kidnapped by human intruders.
The farm developed, but because there were so many pigs and guard dogs consuming resources, the other animals’ workload never decreased. All animals were equal, but the ones loyal to the pigs were more equal, and the pigs themselves were the most equal of all.
So equal, in fact, that the pigs eventually began walking on two legs and carrying whips in their front hooves. At some point they moved out of the barn and into the two-story house. Instead of driving away the humans who visited the farm, they started trading with them. The pigs explained that this was all for the animals’ benefit. Of course, the animals’ lives never improved.
Four legs good, two legs better. Some animals are more equal than others.
“Those fucking pig bastards!!!”