Chapter 44
Chapter 44
Boom—!
The asphalt of Mapo Boulevard screamed.
Every time Pig—Do Gi-cheol—swung the hand axes in both hands, abandoned cars crumpled like paper.
Was it just brute strength?
No.
I had assumed he was just a thug who barked orders from behind, but his movements were anything but ordinary.
Every time he took a step, his skin hardened black and then relaxed again.
Using that recoil, his leap was far faster than one would expect from such a huge body.
Slash—
His axe cleaved through empty air.
But Karambit was no longer there.
[Acceleration]
Karambit’s body left a blurred afterimage as he slipped to Pig’s flank.
Pig did the same.
Neither of them kept their abilities constantly active.
They triggered them only in the moment of attack or evasion.
Partial ability usage.
So this was the basic discipline of experts.
Well, I had been making good use of [Partial Disassembly] myself.
Clang!
Karambit’s twin blades cut into Pig’s side.
But instead of slicing flesh, sparks flew with a dull metallic sound.
It felt less like cutting a body and more like striking a steel pillar.
“You little rat. That tickles.”
Pig sneered and swung down at Karambit as if swatting a fly.
Karambit dodged by a hair’s breadth, his expression twisting.
A clash of spear and shield.
From the monitor, it looked evenly matched.
But Picker, who was analyzing Pig’s movements frame by frame, tilted his head.
[Boss, the data’s strange. When Pig uses Steel Skin, his muscle contraction is abnormal.]
Pig moved slower than Karambit, and his bulky muscles made observation easier.
[Contracting muscles at that speed? With the human nervous system, that’s physically impossible. And the even stranger thing is…]
Picker switched to thermal imaging.
[There’s almost no temperature change. With that much muscle activity, heat energy should spike. But both of them show no temperature increase at all. Not even a drop of sweat!]
Movement produces heat.
That was the law of entropy.
A basic rule of the universe.
If that rule was broken, there was only one answer.
“It’s the effect of awakened abilities.”
[Exactly! Ugh, this is driving me crazy! I feel like an old man with bad eyesight. Something’s flowing but I can’t see it! I need a lens upgrade!]
Picker suddenly began whining about his camera performance.
Since he shared Workshop knowledge, that complaint wasn’t just a tantrum.
It was a hint.
Energy flows invisible to conventional optics.
After thinking for a moment, I tapped Porter’s back.
“Open it.”
Porter’s back panel—the entrance to Storage—opened.
Inside, I retrieved a glowing [F-Rank Core].
One of the spoils from Hammer’s safe.
“Alright. Let’s make ourselves an expensive lens.”
In the middle of a battlefield where lives were on the line.
Because I had been researching optical lenses to film raiders and Karambit, I already possessed the blueprint for a [High-Precision Optical Lens].
[Manufacture]
But this time I didn’t stop there.
I pressed the F-Rank Core against the completed lens.
Overwriting the lens itself with the core’s energy.
[Imbue]
Would this work?
It might just waste a valuable core.
But I had several F-Rank cores now.
Investing in knowledge was never wasteful.
Fortunately, before I even finished thinking, the core dissolved into light and was absorbed into the lens.
The transparent glass began glowing with a brilliant blue hue.
Ding—
[Mana Resonance Lens]
Rank: E+
A special lens that visualizes the wavelengths of mana.
“…Success!”
I nearly cheered before clamping my mouth shut in surprise.
I had only tried it on a whim.
I didn’t expect it to actually work.
I attached the finished lens to Porter and applied [Enhancement].
“Show me your view.”
Unlike Picker—who possessed [Tactical Intuition]—Porter couldn’t freely collect and display multiple feeds from Honeybee drones.
Still, he could transmit what he saw through the status window HUD.
Static crackled.
On the HUD, Porter’s view appeared—showing me standing in front of him.
Soon the colorful battlefield inverted into black and white.
Over it, bright blue lines appeared like blood vessels.
“This is…”
I first looked down at my own body.
My semi-transparent figure.
At the center of my head, a small blue sphere glowed.
“Hm.”
I nudged Porter and pointed him at the two monsters fighting.
Pig and Karambit.
Sure enough, the same spheres existed inside them.
But the location differed.
Their blue light pulsed not in the head—
but in the heart.
‘Production types create cores in the brain, combat types in the heart?’
The size differed too.
Pig’s sphere was the largest.
Mine was next.
Karambit’s was the smallest.
Pig was C-rank, Karambit E-rank.
Then my core capacity must be roughly D-rank.
Did that mean Workshop Owner was D-rank?
Probably not.
The workshop could upgrade.
‘I’ll need to level up once and confirm.’
“Porter. Record data of my condition and theirs.”
[Yes, Boss.]
Resting my arm on Porter, I continued observing.
Boom!
When Pig stomped the ground—
the core in his heart pumped violently.
Massive energy spread outward like a wave.
The energy flowed along a mesh-like circuit embedded beneath the fat layer under his skin.
Flash—
The moment the blue mana filled the network, his flesh hardened into black steel.
Karambit was different.
Just before he kicked off the ground, energy from his heart surged through a straight circuit running from calf to thigh like high-voltage current.
That explosive flow forcibly contracted the muscles.
Producing physically impossible acceleration.
A shiver ran down my spine.
The vague mystery of awakening was being dissected before my eyes like engineering.
“Found it. That’s the essence of awakened abilities.”
Awakening wasn’t magic.
It was constructing a core (engine) inside the body and opening mana channels (wiring) that modified the body.
In other words—
awakening was the construction of an internal circuit system.
At that moment, a buzzing sound came near my ear.
—Boss! What is this?! Why does Porter get the fancy lens? I want one too! I’m getting dizzy here!
Picker had left a Honeybee drone in his place and flown over in jealousy.
I chuckled and took out another F-Rank Core from storage.
“Alright. I’ve got plenty of F-rank cores.”
A moment later, Picker’s main camera also received a Mana Resonance Lens.
He wriggled happily like a puppy.
—Do you see this beautiful flow of energy?! I’ll begin analysis immediately!
When Picker returned to the battlefield, his voice became sharper.
This was no longer observation.
It was anatomical analysis.
—Boss! I can see the outcome now!
With Picker’s analysis, their weaknesses became obvious.
Pig’s core output was powerful.
But the mana circuits forming Steel Skin on the surface were thinner than expected.
Like overstretched rubber bands.
Especially joints.
Or inside the armpits.
Places the circuits didn’t reach.
Mana didn’t flow there.
‘That explains why glancing hits still wound him.’
Karambit, the former PMC mercenary, knew those gaps instinctively.
“Die!”
Pig raised his axe high.
His armpit exposed.
Flash—
The straight circuit in Karambit’s legs glowed bright blue.
[Double Acceleration]
He instantly slipped inside Pig’s guard.
Slash!
A horrifying slicing sound.
Karambit’s twin blades severed the tendon inside Pig’s armpit where mana couldn’t reach.
“GRAAAAH!”
Pig’s scream echoed down Mapo Boulevard.
He managed to prevent full amputation by activating Steel Skin, but it was too late.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
Pig’s right arm dangled uselessly.
The battle was effectively over.
“Ghh…!”
Pig’s face turned pale.
The shock and blood loss were severe.
Even a C-rank awakener—the ruler of Mapo Boulevard—was just a human facing death.
He fumbled through his [Subspace Waist Pack] with his left hand.
Then pulled out a tube of green gel.
Without hesitation he poured it over the severed shoulder.
[Boss! Zooming in!]
Picker zoomed.
Through the Mana Resonance Lens, a strange phenomenon appeared.
Hiss—
The moment the green gel touched the wound—
the scattered mana suddenly aligned.
Like an invisible hand drawing patterns.
Geometric shapes covered the wound.
Triangles. Squares. Hexagons.
Artificial patterns never seen in nature.
As mana flowed along those shapes, blood vessels and muscles forcibly reconnected.
[Boss! Do you see that? The energy isn’t random! It’s a perfectly regular pattern like a printed circuit board!]
“I see it.”
[That ointment looks brand new. Must be a manufactured item!]
Picker’s analysis was correct.
[Lesser Regeneration Ointment]
Rank: D
“It’s definitely an item.”
Through the Mana Resonance Lens, the difference was obvious.
If an awakener’s body circuits were wiring, then the circuit embedded in the item resembled a printed circuit board.
“Don’t miss a single pattern. Save everything.”
—Yes! Recording frame by frame!
My eyes gleamed.
If I could analyze that circuit pattern—
I might be able to manufacture healing items in the workshop.
No—
I definitely could.
That was how my ability worked.
If I found raw materials with the same pattern and combined them, I could probably manufacture that ointment.
Pig now had one useless arm.
Not long after, the outcome became clear.
The E-rank Karambit pushed back the C-rank Pig.
It wasn’t a miracle.
It was the inevitable result of decades of killing technique from a former PMC mercenary.
‘So that’s the effort required to overcome rank differences.’
I glanced down at my hands.
Calloused, but not hands meant for killing like Karambit’s.
For ten years I carried cargo.
Yet the moment I awakened, I could produce objects more precisely than craftsmen with decades of experience.
“Total cheat.”
My ability truly was absurd.
An overwhelming efficiency that mocked the relationship between effort and talent.
‘The core in my brain seems about D-rank right now…’
But my ability output kept increasing.
If the workshop leveled up, would the core grow as well?
If so, one could estimate someone’s rank by core size alone.
‘I’ll need to test that.’
I would scan everyone I encountered during reconnaissance.
Especially the hunting squads from Mapo Shelter—
including Kim Cheolmin.
They would be a good benchmark.
Ideally I would install this lens on every Honeybee and Poison Bee drone…
But the issue was materials.
F-Rank Cores.
They were too rare.
Hunting named mutants had limits.
And hunting raiders constantly wasn’t realistic.
Everyone had hidden tricks.
‘I might have to buy cores with UP points.’
In a capitalist world, money solved everything.
I instructed Picker.
“Turn off the mana-circuit layer. Edit the footage normally in high resolution.”
—Huh? What for?
“Where else? UP.”
An E-rank beating a C-rank.
I wanted to see how people reacted.
[Mapo Bridge C-Rank vs E-Rank fight. E-Rank wins;;]
The reaction was instant.
[AwakenerHopeful: Fake? The stat difference should make the blade bounce.]
[Analyst: Wow… look at that movement. Only attacking joints. That’s not human—it’s a killing machine.]
[Anonymous: The king of Mapo getting wrecked? Pig bastard deserves it lol]
The views exploded.
The post climbed instantly to the trending board.
AP notifications rang nonstop.
With this much, I could easily access the premium information board.
Karambit approached the bleeding Pig.
He was sure of victory.
That certainty became the veteran mercenary’s only mistake.
“It’s over, you pig bastard.”
Karambit raised his blades for the finishing strike.
At that moment—
Pig’s eyes snapped open.
“Grrrr…!”
With a beastlike roar, Pig’s leg shot out like a spring.
Target—
Karambit’s abdomen.
BOOM!
Not a dull impact.
An explosion.
Karambit’s body launched like a cannon shell.
CRASH—
He smashed through a reinforced glass bus stop twenty meters away and continued flying until slamming into a metal storefront shutter.
The kind of force seen only in comics.
“…That’s insane.”
I swallowed dryly.
No technique could matter against that level of raw power.
If it grazed you, you’d die.
C-rank body enhancement.
Seeing that overwhelming physical strength gave me chills.
But Pig wasn’t fine either.
The regeneration ointment stopped the bleeding.
It didn’t restore the arm.
Instead of finishing Karambit—
Pig chose to flee.
Limping, he headed toward Gongdeok Station Exit 3.
The entrance to the underground dungeon filled with the monsters he had raised.
“I’ll kill them all… all of them…”
Pig disappeared into the darkness.
Moments later—
the rubble pile shifted.
Karambit crawled out.
“Cough!”
A mouthful of blood spilled out.
His internal organs were clearly ruptured.
Staggering, he pulled something from his pocket.
The same green tube Pig had used.
[Lesser Regeneration Ointment]
Without hesitation he consumed it.
I narrowed my eyes.
‘The exact same item.’
Pig and Karambit.
Leaders of two opposing forces—
yet both carried identical healing items.
That wasn’t coincidence.
Someone in Mapo District was supplying these in bulk.
Union Tech?
Or a third faction?
“Stop right there… you pig bastard!”
Unlike Pig, Karambit recovered completely.
Murderous intent burning in his eyes, he charged into the entrance of Gongdeok Station.