What the Hell Is Going On?

No way. Why is this only happening to me?

EP.9

The people left stranded on the first floor stared at the emergency exit Kim Siin had just dashed through, their faces frozen in no small amount of panic.

“W-where did that person suddenly go?”

“He’s coming back, right? He has to be, doesn’t he?”

The only person who had fought back against the monsters during the tutorial—and even managed to hunt them. It was no exaggeration to say the first floor was only holding together because of Kim Siin’s presence.

‘If you’re going to disappear like that, at least say something first.’

The one device barely keeping their crumbling sandcastle intact had vanished. His sudden absence left his companions just as shaken. But—

“He’ll be back soon.”

Park Jocheol told a well-meaning lie for the sake of the group. He had no idea why Kim Siin had acted that way, but allowing further unrest was the last thing they needed.

Even so, the people’s eyes continued to flicker with unease. To Koreans, the phrase “I’ll be back soon” was practically synonymous with the famous lie “I’m almost there.”

“Hey, you.”

At that moment, someone stepped forward and approached Park Jocheol with a firm tone. It was a middle-aged man with a protruding belly and a noticeably receding hairline.

“That employee, Kim Siin. You’re sure he’s coming back soon?”

He immediately started speaking down to Park Jocheol. His blatantly rude attitude made several people frown, but no one stepped up to intervene.

“Don’t tell me he ran off to save his own skin.”

Park Jocheol’s face twisted at the middle-aged man’s words. It was a ridiculous accusation. Yet the people, already rattled by Kim Siin’s abrupt departure, began siding with the man without even realizing what they were saying.

“H-he’s right! I heard he’s the one who took down that insane monster! He must’ve gotten a ton of rewards, but he hasn’t shared any of it!”

“Exactly! And even now! He should at least explain what’s going on and where he went…!”

In the blink of an eye, the first-floor lobby had turned into a chaotic marketplace. Fear was written all over every face.

But then one person pushed through the crowd.

“Ugh! Shut up already, it’s too loud!”

Han Gamin roughly swept back her bleached blonde hair and snapped at the group. Her sharp voice cut through the murmuring and echoed across the lobby.

Silence fell.

In that quiet, Han Gamin, who had been holding her tongue, walked right up to the middle-aged man and spoke.

“He said he was going to the bathroom. Happy now? So just wait. We’ve still got plenty of time left.”

“This little brat talking to an adult like—!”

“If you’re that curious, why don’t you follow him upstairs yourself? Huh?”

Low groans rose from various spots in the crowd. The mood had completely flipped, and the people fell silent. Everyone present knew her words were a lie. Yet they couldn’t open their mouths, because they also knew that no amount of complaining would change anything.

“Just wait a little longer. If he was going to run away alone, he wouldn’t have come down to the first floor in the first place.”

“…Damn it.”

At Han Gamin’s words, the middle-aged man grumbled something about “if he doesn’t come back, just wait and see” before turning away. Han Gamin gave him a quick, childish face before turning to Seo Seyeong.

“Sis, where did that ahjussi really go?”

“I don’t know either. But he looked really cool just now. If he were a guy, I might’ve fallen for him.”

Seo Seyeong gently squeezed Han Gamin’s trembling shoulder and offered a faint smile. For a twenty-year-old girl, the situation must have been overwhelming. Even so, Seo Seyeong wanted to applaud the remarkable wit and courage she had shown.

“Hmm. If he went that way, he definitely headed upstairs…”

“What do you think happened?”

At Park Jocheol’s question, Namgung Cheonho rested his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠chin on his hand and continued. They had all seen the look on Kim Siin’s face as he rushed past. It was the same tense expression he’d worn when he saved Seo Seyeong on the first floor.

They couldn’t accurately guess what he was feeling. But if his emotions were anything like back then, whatever had made him sprint upstairs probably wasn’t good news.

“He’ll be fine. Let’s trust in that and focus on what we can do.”

At Seo Seyeong’s words, the three of them nodded. The rest time permitted by the Helper was now down to less than three minutes. All they could do was prepare so that when Kim Siin returned from handling his business, the next mission would go smoothly.

‘This is insane.’

It had already been thirty seconds since the sudden mission alert appeared. I was sprinting toward the twentieth floor, bitterly regretting the few seconds I’d wasted reading the new notification.

“Huff, huff.”

My ragged breathing pounded in my ears. I was moving so fast it felt like I was half-flying. The world blurred before my eyes, but I had no time to steady myself.

‘Those crazy bastards…!’

I cursed furiously at the brazen “choice” written in the mission details. If I didn’t reach the twentieth floor within one minute, they would dispose of the entire building we were in. Just the part about seizing all my abilities was outrageous enough, but the word “disposal” was something I simply could not accept.

I maintained an absurd pace of roughly one floor every two seconds, racing up the stairs like a madman. I couldn’t help but marvel at how dramatically my body had been strengthened since awakening. But I ignored everything else and violently threw open the emergency exit door.

BANG!

It was the same familiar scene I had seen that morning. Of course, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Assistant Manager Oh Geumseok wasn’t there to scold me for coming up the stairs this time, and for the same reason, there was no Oh Geumseok to point me toward the auditorium.

‘Where was it again?’

That morning I had been so focused on not being late that I hadn’t paid attention to the auditorium’s exact location. After that, when the monsters appeared, I had simply followed the backs of the crowd. There was no way I would remember the route.

“Huu…”

I thought for a moment. Of course, thinking could waste precious ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time, but I didn’t care. After all, I had one cheat ability granted by those voyeuristic Constellations.

For a brief instant, my vision cleared. Only twenty seconds remained. Following my instincts, I began sprinting down the corridor that felt most familiar. Turn right here. Run straight after the corner, and when I see the chandelier…

‘There it is…!’

Ten seconds spent. The auditorium doors were visible not far ahead. The mission had instructed me to return to the tutorial’s starting point. My tutorial had begun in the twentieth-floor auditorium, and with only a razor-thin margin of time left, I grabbed the door handle.

Instead of a deep breath, I let out a short sigh. I had no idea what would happen inside. But having come this far, I had no choice but to open the door.

Creak!

I opened the auditorium door to survive. But the moment I did, what filled my vision was an endless, perfect void of nothingness.

“Huh?”

I blinked several times. I had definitely opened the auditorium door, yet the place I now stood was not the inside of any auditorium. It was a perfect white space.

“What the hell is…”

My voice was naturally silenced and echoed inside my head. The surroundings were deathly quiet. Just in case, I tried shouting, but some unknown force blocked my voice from reaching my own eardrums.

But then—

Vrrrr.

A familiar flame gently rose before my eyes. A blue flame slightly larger than a fist. Then the flame flickered, and as if it were the most natural thing in the world, a bipedal rabbit wearing a tuxedo appeared.

“Yo.”

The rabbit’s appearance was slightly different from the last time I had seen it. It had shrunk to a size a little larger than my palm. If it weren’t for the unpleasant smile it was giving me, I might not have realized it was the same being.

“Ranked number one player, you managed to arrive right on time… Ah, no, no. I believed you would arrive on time! Whew! Almost broke character there!”

The rabbit’s words were still full of playful teasing. I didn’t know where this space was, but it didn’t seem like a place where I could let my guard down.

I tried to speak to the rabbit, who was standing on empty air. But my voice still wouldn’t come out. The rabbit seemed to notice my intention and kindly continued its explanation.

“Ah, your voice won’t work here! This space wasn’t made for beings of such low Status like you in the first place.”

A perfect white space. With no walls, no ceiling, nothing at all, I simply ‘existed’ there, alone.

“Anyway, dear Constellations! We don’t have much time, so we should probably send this human away soon. Otherwise he might go insane or go boom! and explode!”

The rabbit spoke horrifying things as if they were nothing. But the moment he finished, I experienced an indescribable pressure crushing down on me.

Humans possess senses. They are usually divided into the five senses—taste, smell, touch, sight, and hearing. But the pressure I felt now existed in a realm beyond any of those; it was the domain of the sixth sense itself.

Some people say they can feel someone’s gaze when they are being watched. Others call it a spiritual sense, while some speculate it belongs to an unknown realm close to psychic ability. But right now, I felt like I could precisely define what a “gaze” truly was.

An energy thousands, tens of thousands of times greater than the overwhelming pressure one feels when facing the vastness of nature was bearing down on me.

“W-wait! Constellations! Just a moment!”

The rabbit, sensing something was wrong, waved its hands in the air and tried to mediate. The crushing sensation that had been weighing on me gradually faded, only to be replaced by a sickening wave of nausea that twisted my mind.

“Ugh, this is driving me crazy. No matter how curious you are, scanning all the way down to his soul? What are you trying to do?”

The rabbit clicked its tongue in brief annoyance and waved a cane that had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠appeared from nowhere. A moment later, the empty white space that had dominated my vision began to fade, slowly transforming back into the twentieth-floor auditorium.

“Cough!”

My chest suddenly felt tight, and I let out a heavy cough.

Drip, drip.

“Son of a…”

At the same time, a large quantity of blood soaked the floor. I had no idea what exactly those Constellations had done to me, but one thing was certain—they had torn me apart from the inside.

“Sigh…”

Because blood was even flowing from my eyes, the rabbit standing in front of me looked reddish. Even though it was only palm-sized, the way it looked down at me made me realize I had somehow ended up collapsed on the floor.

“Listen carefully. This kind of benefit doesn’t normally go to players. So consider yourself honored.”

After speaking, the rabbit slipped its tiny hand into the sleeve of its tuxedo and pulled out a potion bottle far more luxurious than the low-grade potion Park Jocheol had drunk.

Pop!

The rabbit tilted the opened bottle. A single stream of potion fell and refreshingly moistened my lips. I swallowed it with all my strength, driven by the instinct to survive.

Gulp… gulp…

As the potion traveled down my throat, my dizzy mind cleared and my overturned organs began functioning again. It was only about ten drops, yet the effect was incredible.

“Hmm, that should be enough… Wait, isn’t this too desperate? Stop drinking it already, you greedy bastard.”

Slurp, slurp!

Not a single drop could be wasted. Once I felt my stamina recovering instantly, I couldn’t possibly leave any behind.

Slurp slurp slurp!!

“Hey? W-wait! Stop! Stop drinking! Hey, you idiot!”

I consumed every last drop, even the portion that had spilled from my mouth onto the floor. Since I had no idea what would happen next, throwing away such a good medicine would only lead to regret later.

But—

The trait that had served as the foundation for Quick Understanding (D+). Just like that, I had obtained my second Potential.