novelraw Chapter 3 : The World I Created (3)
Chapter 3 : The World I Created (3)
Chapter 3 - The World I Created (3)
The first thing he had to do upon waking was already set. He would thoroughly investigate the new status window he had obtained.
When it came to games, he was a hardcore veteran who had mastered them all, regardless of genre. In his prime, he had really made a name for himself.
'Developers always leave at least one path to survival in every challenge.'
The reward that comes after a player cleverly overcomes a crisis—that is the very essence of a game's fun.
Only then did a smile return to Lee Taebaek's face. With this change in attitude, his mind felt clear and refreshed.
“Especially if it's the game I created.”
Recons is a sandbox-style open-world RPG.
It was meticulously designed so that any obstacle could be overcome by making full use of the terrain, the player's wits, and the character's stats.
'First, the objects placed on the map.'
Lee Taebaek scanned his surroundings, his eyes eventually landing on the food slot in the door. A purple soup was rotting inside. Foam was bubbling on its surface, and he had no idea what it was made of.
“That looks worse than the electric chair.”
Right. Let's just skip this meal.
He sat down formally, cross-legged. In that position, he pictured himself sitting in the electric chair. The fine hairs on his arms stood on end.
“I have no intention of dying.”
Lee Taebaek shook off the chill that crawled up his spine. As they say, even a miserable life is better than no life at all.
I will survive, no matter what.
However, it seemed difficult to find a way out in this empty cell. If he had a metal spoon it might be a different story, but with this plastic spoon, even scooping the soup was a challenge.
“I wasn't hoping to be born with a silver spoon. But to not even get a bronze one, just plastic... I guess it's fitting for a world overflowing with cyber-chrome and plastic.”
Lee Taebaek sighed self-deprecatingly.
But it was too soon to give up hope! Moving only his lips, he said the words "Operator Mode."
[Name: Lee Taebaek]
Level: 1
Life: 5 Spirit: 5 Strength: 5
Agility: 5 Magic: 5 Faith: 5
Trait: Operator Mode Active
Authority (Temporary): Buff, Nerf
He squinted one eye, then both shot wide open. As if showing off, the Buff and Nerf authorities flickered before his naked eyes. He had finally figured out the trigger for the status window. A magnificent feat!
“Now I can finally breathe a little.”
He wiped away the sweat pooled in the creases of his palm. Then, he went back to staring intently at the status window. He focused so hard it felt as if his gaze would pierce right through it.
“So the buff raises two stats by about 10 for 5 minutes.”
All my stats are a uniform 5.
Add 10 to that, and it becomes 15. An Agility of 10 is as fast as a track athlete. A score of 20 is the gateway to being superhuman, allowing one to perform superhuman physical feats.
In short, a stat of 15 is right in the middle, on the borderline between a normal person and a superhuman... It's a rather ambiguous value. It would be a different story if it were over 20, the entry point for superhumans. Dodging a bullet with an Agility of 15 was impossible.
“Even if I were to find a loophole in the Neuro-prison or a gap in its security.”
Even if I got lucky and broke through their perimeter, I'd just be turned into a beehive by stray bullets. If this was a prison shoddy enough to be escaped with mere agility, wouldn't the very fact that there has only ever been one escapee be strange?
It was too much to ask to break through the Neuro-prison's security with physical ability alone.
Let's change the approach to a game-like one, Lee Taebaek.
Agility was out for the reasons mentioned above. Spirit was a stat that really only shined in situations of mental distress, so it wasn't particularly valuable right now either...
Lee Taebaek continued his deductions, eliminating the stats one by one from Life, Spirit, Strength, Agility, Magic, and Faith.
...After a long while, he closed his eyes and then slowly opened them halfway. Without hesitation, Lee Taebaek buffed his Strength.
[The caster has buffed Strength.]
The change was immediate.
Power surged, and muscles writhed beneath his skin. Veins bulged across his entire body.
'Let's try it.'
He spread his arms wide. The chain connecting his cuffs pulled taut. His lungs inflated fully. Veins stood out on his forehead as he savagely ground his teeth.
'Grrrrrrrrrrrk!'
Blood trickled down the chain like thistle thorns, forming a droplet at its lowest point. Each time the iron chain shivered in the air, a drop of blood fell to the floor.
“Hah, hah.”
The chain sagged, forming a parabola in the air. Just as he'd thought, the iron chain was unharmed.
“Shit… I thought my wrists were going to get torn off...”
Lee Taebaek rubbed his stinging, painful wrists one after the other. As he suspected, breaking the chain with brute force was difficult.
'This is the Neuro-prison; of course they wouldn't use ordinary cuffs.'
They were undoubtedly special-made manacles forged with cutting-edge science. They're so fucking sturdy, goddammit.
Grin.
Still, one corner of his mouth crept upward. At any rate, this attempt allowed him to experience the effects of the buff firsthand.
“If my Strength were just about 3 points higher, I could have broken these shackles.”
However, despite the positive feeling, he had to assess the situation coolly. He estimated that trying to break this chunk of metal with a Strength of 15 would take an entire week.
And that was assuming he got lucky. In other words, it was just wishful thinking.
The guards at the Neuro-prison are top-notch, without exception. They are sensitive to the smallest of changes and would notice anything suspicious in an instant.
Even if he managed to break the chains, there was a much bigger problem.
As Lee Taebaek turned his head, a gnat happened to land gently on the bars of his cell. It was the exact moment the hovering insect and the iron bar were about to meet.
Fzzt!
The gnat instantly vaporized. An unpleasant, scorched smell lingered in the air like the ephemeral trace of a departed soul.
“As expected of a prison with 'Neuro' in its name, that's some serious voltage. I don't know what kind of asshole came up with it, but it's a truly cruel idea.”
Lee Taebaek nodded gravely.
The scene served as a fresh reminder. Passing through these bars was impossible.
...Wait, why had he forgotten? To think he'd overlooked it, even as it shimmered right in front of his face.
[Nerf (Temporary Authority)]
Description: Greatly weakens all stats of any being who makes physical contact with the caster for 120 seconds. (......)
Taebaek focused on the word 'being'.
In the dictionary sense, a 'being' or 'existence' refers to all physically real matter. By that logic, wouldn't electricity also fall into the category of 'being'?
If it works... if he could lower the electricity's power and then buff his Life and Faith to raise his health and self-regeneration, a showdown with the electric chair might just be possible.
But even so.
Even with Life and Faith at 15, the time limit he could endure was five minutes. Even if he stubbornly withstood the electric chair, escaping on his own power was ultimately impossible.
In the end, external intervention or help was essential. Come to think of it, even the sole escapee hadn't escaped on his own; he was able to get out of the Neuro-prison because he had backers.
'The Resistance.'
As the name suggested, they were the kind of resistance group that pops up everywhere.
However, unlike in other games where resistance factions are often treated as shabby, in Recons, their power was immense. It was to the point that even gangs with scar-covered faces would tread lightly around the Resistance.
It made sense; they were the main enemy designated by the city government. If they were weak, the government's prestige would fall along with them.
But that was all irrelevant. Lee Taebaek was utterly alone, not even an orphan with a tragic backstory.
Basic connections like blood, region, or school? My ass. To think the only people he knew were the guard bastards who'd be coming back to beat him later.
Come to think of it, it's almost time for my beating...
“Ha, haha, hahahaha!”
Laugh. Just laugh, dammit.
It was then, as Lee Taebaek let out a resigned, booming laugh. He felt a gaze prickling his skin.
Cold sweat beaded on his temples. Right up until he woke, he hadn't sensed a single presence.
'That means the other person was intentionally erasing their presence.'
In this world, concealing one's presence is a skill exclusive to the absolute strongest.
That alone meant all their stats had to be over 30. As he'd thought before, if 20 was the gateway to superhuman, 30 was just a monster. Normally, that would be a powerhouse of at least the 5th tier, or the equivalent of a 5th-circle Archmage.
It meant a monster like that was staring at him. ...Was I too loud?
Lee Taebaek stiffly turned his gaze past the bars. Their eyes met, clashing fiercely in the air.
“......!”
The next moment, his eyes shot wide open in bewilderment. He was so surprised he almost let out a cry of shock.
“I was trying to conceal my presence, but it seems I let it down for a moment while I was watching you. You were just too interesting. My apologies, if I disturbed you on your way to the great beyond.”
The owner of the gaze broke the silence. He had cinnamon-toned skin and an imposing build. He looked exactly like the intimidating character Lee Taebaek himself had designed.
“If I had to make an excuse, I'd say it's because I've never seen a death row inmate seething with such righteous fury before. It was fascinating.”
The man smiled dangerously, revealing a canine tooth. A feral quality oozed from the corners of his mouth.
“And that lively look in your eyes... It's as if you're planning to escape this Neuro-prison.”
He couldn't hear a thing. All he felt was an indescribable sense of relief and joy flooding his chest.
'It's him.'
The Neuro-prison's sole escapee. He speaks.
“If you don't mind, I'd be happy to be your conversation partner until you take a seat in the electric chair. Ah, but before that, I almost forgot to introduce myself.”
Lee Taebaek already had an idea of how the man would introduce himself.
“The name's Yamamoto. My comrades just call me Yama, but you can call me whatever you want. I can't be cruel to a man who's about to leave this world, hahaha!”
Yamamoto was an alias.
The man only revealed his real name to those he acknowledged.
He was an eccentric romantic in this dystopia, one who valued a warrior's spirit, and a monster with enough strength to back up his own principles.
On top of that, he was a legend of the Resistance, the first to escape the Neuro-prison and spread their renown far and wide. One couldn't afford to be servile with this man.
[The caster has buffed Spirit.]
Lee Taebaek, who had squeezed his eyes shut, opened them. Impatience, tension, anxiety—all his negative emotions crumbled like sugar.
“...Saying you can't be cruel, yet giving a fake name. What kind of situation is that?”
He began to speak quietly, lifting his chin ever so slightly.
“Battalion Commander Kang Hyunseong, of the Resistance's 9th Special Forces. Did you really think I wouldn't recognize you?”
“......”
“Well, I'm sure you have your reasons.”
Even as the other man's face instantly creased into a frown, Lee Taebaek was confident he could win him over with words.
“...You. Do you have any idea what you're saying right now? You must be dying to meet your end.”
“Asking a man on death row if he's dying to meet his end. That's a pretty funny joke, Kang Hyunseong. It was a nice warm-up before I have to deal with the guards. Anyway, we've talked long enough.”
Who was the creator that molded Kang Hyunseong?
It was none other than Lee Taebaek.
“It's a pleasure to meet you.”
That last part was from the heart, Hyunseong.