Chapter 21

“Stop right there. Move if you want a few more holes in your body.”

“B-but Commander…”

Bang!

“Argh! Y-you crazy bastard!”

“Didn’t I tell you not to move?”

Though Henry and the agent were startled by how he pulled the trigger without hesitation, Yuseong, thinking he’d never see these people again after the quest ended, simply acted as he pleased without worrying about consequences.

[You have cleared the quest ‘I Want to Make My Country and Comrades Proud’]

[Analyzing clear process, please wait a moment]

[Fate Change Rate 123.5%, Otherworld Skill Usage 12.4%, Otherworld Artifact Usage 0%]

[Final Evaluation SSS Rank]

[Amazing! Han Yuseong succeeded in not just achieving the goal but accomplishing even more! Rewards will be given!]

[Basic Clear Reward: 50,000 Karma, 1953 Armian Wine x3]

[Additional Condition Clear Reward: Brant Republic Research Lab #53 Prototype Close Combat Weapon x1]

[SSS Rank Clear Additional Reward: 700,000 Karma]

[Return to original world will begin shortly]

‘123.5%? So the change rate can exceed 100% if you achieve extra results?’

You can clear quests with high rank even while using some otherworld abilities and items.

A simple but invaluable piece of information that absolutely couldn’t be taken lightly.

“…What exactly happened? Are you really Philip? Are you really the Philip I know?”

Receiving Henry’s suspicious gaze, Yuseong staggered briefly before collapsing to the floor.

“W-what’s wrong?”

“…The wound from earlier.”

“Ah! Damn, that’s right, you bastard got shot! You should have said something earlier, you idiot!”

Though the adrenaline from combat could let him endure this level of pain, Yuseong closed his eyes pretending to lose consciousness simply because he didn’t want to talk.

-First the Commander, now even Senior… What am I supposed to do after you’ve caused all this?

‘Are you saying I should have just ignored the traitor and let it go?’

-T-that’s not what I meant.

‘Then what’s the problem? I fed you the food, do I need to chew and digest it for you too? Handle the aftermath yourself.’

-……

Feeling Philip’s silent scream of emotion, Yuseong’s lips curled into a slight smile.

The plasma weapon, a product of overtechnology transcending this civilization’s science by several levels.

The mystery of the elf and Out-of-Place Artifact appearing in a world that should only have humans.

Though he was terribly curious about everything, including how Philip would handle the aftermath of what he’d done, it was unfortunately time to return to his original world.

‘Let’s meet again if we get the chance.’

[Initiating Deus Ex Machina Program]

[Ariadne’s Thread tracking complete]

[Initiating spirit particle transfer]

* * *

The first words Yuseong uttered upon opening his eyes were:

“…What’s this? Was it always like this?”

Vines crawling up the walls and trees sprouting through the floor.

Checking his smartphone’s date with a pale face at the sudden thought, Yuseong could only tilt his head in confusion.

“March 16th? Only 5 days have passed?”

From his experience so far, it was clear there was a random time ratio between Earth and other worlds.

He thought decades might have passed on Earth while completing this quest since the time ratio seemed so extreme, but apparently not.

‘No, come to think of it, even 5 days passing in 1 hour is pretty extreme… Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.’

Boom!

An explosion sound from outside.

The moment he took a step to check what was happening, something strange occurred.

The vines embedded in the walls, the roots infesting the floor, and the trees scattered about began vibrating and extending tentacles toward Yuseong.

“Huh?”

Barely dodging a branch shot at his eyes by activating Asura Perception Way, Yuseong calmly analyzed the situation.

‘Plants moving on their own? Plant-type monsters? Or a separate monster that can control plants?’

Either way, getting out of this room had to come first.

The moment he deployed Flash Step to instantly move to the exit, Yuseong felt intense pain in his ankle and face-planted on the floor.

“Urgh?!”

Through blurry vision he saw vines tightly wrapped around his ankle.

Since Asura Perception Way only enhanced thought and reaction speed to the extreme, not developing the senses, it was powerless against attacks that couldn’t be detected through the five senses.

Seeing vines and branches reaching from all directions, Yuseong instinctively took out the item received as reward from this quest.

Crackle!

The Brant Republic Research Lab #53 Prototype Close Combat Weapon.

The plasma hatchet vaporized all plants in its path without leaving a trace.

—–!

His whole body broke out in goosebumps hearing the massive cry that couldn’t be expressed in any language.

‘Dangerous!’

The instincts honed through 999 deaths warned that staying still meant death.

A premonition of death that couldn’t be overcome with martial arts taught by Hae Cheongyeong or the all-cutting plasma hatchet.

In that moment, Yuseong almost instinctively activated one skill.

‘Thorny Vine.’

The thorny vine bursting out between his palms at terrifying speed instantly wrapped around Yuseong forming a large sphere.

BOOM!

Massive impacts from all directions accompanied by ear-deafening sound.

After rolling around inside the vines for a while, Yuseong noticed the surroundings had grown quiet and let out a relieved sigh.

“…Survived.”

Though he didn’t know what happened, even a moment’s delay in judgment would have meant death.

While considering whether to deactivate Thorny Vine and check outside, Yuseong decided to first check this quest’s rewards.

[Han Yuseong’s rank has increased from ‘Solver’ to ‘Skilled Solver’]

[‘Karma Shop’ has new items added]

[Current Karma: 790,000]

[Product List]

-Shadow Moon Style 16(C): 250,000

-Firearms Knowledge(D): 15,000

-Marksmanship(D): 10,000

-Stealth(D): 10,000

-Acting(D): 10,000

…

……

………

‘First, Shadow Moon Style 16 is a must-buy.’

Though it couldn’t shoot energy blades or air pressure, Shadow Moon Style 16’s forms were extremely simple yet flexible enough to be used in any situation, making it highly compatible with Asura Perception Way.

After choosing the first skill without hesitation, Yuseong froze seeing the list below.

Firearms Knowledge, Marksmanship, Stealth, Tracking, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Code Breaking – skills that wouldn’t hurt to learn but questionable whether they were worth spending points on.

‘Firearms Knowledge and Marksmanship. Not bad to have, but would I ever use guns when I could buy and learn martial arts or magic? No, can’t be hasty. Could get optical weapons like the plasma hatchet straight out of SF novels? But could gun knowledge from someone at a modern level handle future weapons? Stealth could be useful but Philip’s stealth is literally just hiding somewhere, not turning invisible, and Code Breaking? What’s that for?’

Though everything seemed ambiguous no matter how he thought about it, Yuseong soon made up his mind.

“Whatever, it’s not much total cost so let’s buy them all. Quests give hundreds of thousands of karma each time, should have plenty left even after buying everything.”

It was such an absurd decision that other users who knew how precious karma was and how difficult it was to clear quests with high rank would have spat blood hearing it, but Yuseong who had achieved SSS rank three times in a row didn’t think much of it.

The truth is, it wouldn’t have changed even if he knew.

Right now Yuseong was desperate enough to want even a crappy skill or shoddy item.

Saving karma for future A-rank skills or items was good, but you need to survive first to have a future, right?

Even seemingly useless or ambiguous skills were worth buying if they could lead to power increase.

‘New items added… Oho.’

-Strength Increase(E): 1,000

(Strength points increase by 1 each time this skill is purchased)

(Maximum strength limit from this skill is 99 points)

“Would you look at that?”

Starting with Strength Increase, other stat increase skills with different names.

With these he could instantly boost his weak stats.

‘Total stat points I can buy with remaining points is about 733. Adding the stats increased from the Great Restoration Pill…’

Name: Han Yuseong

Class: User

Level: 22

Title: One Who Makes the Impossible Possible

Strength: 99

Agility: 99

Wisdom: 99

Constitution: 99

Mana: 99

Skills: Eye of Truth(C+), Asura Perception Way(C), Shadow Moon Style 16(C), Snake Shadow Whip Technique(C), Flash Step(D), Pain Nullification(D)…

Physical abilities about twice that of Philip, a trained special agent, and mana exceeding Alice’s by over three times.

Not enough against real monsters but no longer pathetic enough to struggle against orcs.

Looking at the now barely acceptable status window with satisfaction, Yuseong decided to focus on reality.

‘I have two options now.’

One was starting a new quest in this state.

With unknown dangers outside, there was no safer escape than going to another world through a quest, and the time ratio difference meant problems might resolve while completing the quest.

But that was only assuming things went well.

‘Could end up like just now where an even bigger danger awaits after finishing the quest. That would be the end. With that explosion earlier, even if I emergency escape through a quest, I need to check the situation first. Then…’

He made a small hole in the vines and looked through but couldn’t see anything.

Nothing but pitch darkness without a speck of light.

After pondering briefly, Yuseong used Eye of Truth.

He tried it hoping Eye of Truth could pierce through darkness.

However, what he saw through Eye of Truth exceeded his imagination.

“…A forest?”

A brilliantly shining forest spread before Yuseong’s eyes.