Awakening (2)

There was no single correct answer in this situation. Plenty of skills would have been effective, and choosing among them came down to personal taste. To make a confession, though — the ability I wanted most of all was Brainwashing. I loved the concept so much that I'd already worked out a detailed plan: brainwash a taxi driver, ride into Seoul, and build myself a harem of celebrities, models, and idols, no exceptions.

"Kiiieeeeeek!"

But watching those zombie bastards charge at me — ignoring the one beside them getting skewered on my makeshift spear or not — it was clear that brainwashing wouldn't be much use right now. What was I supposed to do, freeze these bastards slack-jawed and then what? The ability that was both suited to this moment and something I'd actually wanted was, obviously, Telekinesis.

The moment the system message appeared, I understood how to use the skill, as naturally as if I'd always known. It was like being handed a third hand I'd never used before — and yet I had the feeling I could handle it like an old habit.

"Kiiieeeeeek!"

I used Telekinesis on the zombie that had closed to point-blank range. First, the resource required to power the skill — I felt a portion of the mana residing in my body drain away. Next, the target of the skill — a zombie leaping at me with ravenous eyes, launching itself in a great bound. And finally, the result. The zombie's body froze mid-lunge, frozen in its attacking posture. It had stopped mere centimeters from my nose, its teeth clicking together in what sounded like disappointment. I fixed my gaze on its throat, exposed and undefended.

Crrrck—

As the zombie's neck tore like wet paper, I hurriedly shifted to the next flight of stairs.

Kiiieeeeeeeek!—

A howl loud enough to rattle the entire corridor. Dealing with that many zombies one by one with Telekinesis was beyond me — my skill level and mana were both far too lacking. Efficiency. Efficiency was what mattered. I'd barely made it up to the next floor before the corridor was packed wall to wall with zombies. I felt like an idol at a fan-signing event — except instead of a chorus of girls' oriole-voiced screams, they greeted me with

"Kiiieeeeeeeek!"

wailing that made it unmistakably clear something had gone very wrong.

The tide of zombies surged at me again. This time I clamped down on the ones leading the charge all at once with Telekinesis — not trying to control the situation perfectly like before, just shoving them, applying the brakes around their legs.

Crash-bang—

The lead zombies collapsed, fouling the path of the zombie wave behind them. Stepping over the bodies as they toppled like dominoes, the horde kept pushing forward.

"Kiiieeeeeeeek!"

I drove the spear into the skulls of the bastards clawing up the stairs to grab my ankles, then immediately moved up to the next floor.

'How many have I killed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so far?'

'About eight, I'd say.'

Eight, from the first floor up to the third. I ran the numbers on the zombie horde visibly climbing after me again. Still a seething mass too numerous to take in with both eyes. 'At least fifty left.' Our building topped out at fifteen floors, so if I kept up this cycle, I had more than enough room to work with. As expected, RPGs were all about the grind. Shut up and hunt — grinding was the royal road.

Now, about skills…

'…Hold on a second.'

Had I gotten the first-achievement reward for skills?

"System! Why didn't I get the first-achievement reward for skills?!"

Staring at the silent system, I felt a shock like I'd been clubbed across the head. You have got to be fucking kidding me. Someone had apparently beaten me to the first achievement in the skill category.

'How?!'

I created a skill with the Skill Creation Ticket I'd earned from a first achievement — so how was I not the achiever of the skill-related first one? This made no sense. Rage — unbearable, scalding rage — sprinted through my entire body. I didn't know by what route, but in the time it had taken me to claim ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the stat and shop achievements, someone had snatched the skill-side reward out from under me, mana shortage and all.

"Who was it?! Which fucking son of a bitch! FUUUUUCK, my road to glory!"

"Kiiieeeeeeeek!"

Thud— Thud—

I hunted the zombies the same way as before, moved up another floor, and pulled up my skill window.

"Motherfuuuuuck! It costs a goddamn fortuuuuuune!"

Even for me — the guy who'd all but vacuumed up the early rewards — raising a single level had required emptying out my entire net worth. Only after looking at the skill did I realize that the stat reward I'd received earlier hadn't been small change either. Fuck it. Nothing to be done. I had no choice but to live by that immortal proverb: hoard too tight and it turns to shit.

"Enough with the 'unknown power' this and 'unknown power' that — stop flashing that shit, it's distracting!"

"I told you to show me the brief version earlier, didn't I? You're a status window, for God's sake — do you really have to narrate every last line like this? Huh?"

"Sore about it, are you? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Are you sore?! Fuck! If this is how it's going to be, why did I even need a Skill Creation Ticket?! And if it came out of a major achievement like 'First Kill', why isn't it unique? Explain that!"

"…So there were people who already had skills to begin with?"

"…Then why didn't I have a single one?"

Kiiieeeeek!

"Shut up! You bastards! I'm in the middle of something important here!"

I ran one more cycle on the ninth floor and moved up to the next, thinking it over. No — fine. Let's say I was just an inferior specimen among humans, with nothing you could call a skill. Then who in the hell got the first-achievement reward on the skill side? Weren't the Awakened all supposed to wake up at the same time? Why bother calling it an Awakening — why bother with any of this bullshit — if that's how it works?

"Answer me! You know everything I'm muttering in my head, don't you?!"

"Answer."

"ANSWEEEER, you little shit!"

So I was still out in front, in other words.

"Whew. You scared me for a second there."

My overheated head found its normal temperature in an instant. I had absolutely no intention of ceding my lead to anyone. Especially not while I was half-gorging myself on first achievements like this. This was my own private paradise, painstakingly found. And holding on to this paradise would take power.

There's a famous line from Spider-Man. 'With great power comes great responsibility.' No matter how I turned it over, it only ever sounded like horseshit to me. I thought differently. With great power comes great pleasure. Only with power could a man enjoy himself. It was just that, until this world arrived, that power had been money — and now, it was this System. Look at me: thanks to the stats and the skill I'd gotten from it, this kill-and-climb cycle was almost laughably easy.

The only thing that worried me was that the tape on my makeshift kitchen-knife spear, abused over a fairly short span, was beginning to fray. And since the blade had never been properly sharpened to begin with and I'd been wielding it with brute stupidity, I was starting to suspect I was no longer stabbing with an edge so much as boring holes in things with pure wrist strength.

'Exactly as I thought.'

The harder something was to raise, the bigger the payoff had to be when you did. By the time I reached the eleventh-floor landing, the drop in the zombie count was plain to see. Only a flock of just under ten remained, the stragglers who hadn't fallen behind in this long chase.

"Fuck, when you put it that way, I feel like Uehara Aira out here."

The problem was that when they caught you, it wasn't about getting screwed — it was about getting eaten.

I didn't need to press all the way to the top floor. I had the certainty that I could end it here. Drawing back my right hand with the spear, I hurled it with every ounce of force I could muster. A straight, single-flight staircase. A thrusting position from above, downward. A layout where even a throw aimed at the asshole would hit its mark.

Shwaaaaak—

With the whistle of cleaved air, the spear left my hand and shot out like a bolt of light.

Thwack—

As the spear buried itself dead center in a zombie's forehead, I focused Telekinesis on it again. Far less mana vanished than before, but I knew intuitively that I could interfere with the object far more strongly. The spear lodged in its skull sprang free of its own accord and buried itself precisely in the head of the zombie charging up right beside it. And then, spattering rotting blood, the spear burst out again and punched into the zombie behind that one — over and over in a repeating rhythm.

All I had to do was keep feeding Telekinesis into the spear and back away by exactly that much each time a zombie closed in.

Clatter—

When the kitchen-knife spear, having run out of targets to skewer, finally clattered to the ground, my first small-scale zombie wave came to an end. …Honestly, it hadn't exactly been a desperate fight. Partly thanks to the stats that had swept up all the first rewards, and the Lv.2 Telekinesis — but the biggest factor was that I'd fought where I wanted, in the manner I'd chosen. Reading the surplus mana I could now feel clearly, I figured about ten percent was left. If I'd run into those lunatic bastards in some wide-open space instead of a straight staircase like this… it would have been a completely different kind of battle.

The adhesive on the spear had given out entirely, the knife dangling loose, so I floated just the kitchen knife up with Telekinesis and hovered it at head height. That much performance was easily covered by the naturally regenerating mana. Holding the stripped tape-wrapped handle in my hand, I quietly surveyed the carnage I'd created. I had to be prepared for the possibility that a zombie I hadn't finished off perfectly might rise again. It was only after watching the zombies gout rotten blood from their punctured holes for a good minute that I finally felt certain they were dead.

"Hoo. You all died a perfect death — twice."

No way they're coming back a third time, right?

With a light sigh, my first hunt came to a close. And after a hunt, of course—

"Time for some happy farming, baby!"

—came the harvest.