Brain Eater

It was too large and too alien to be called a brain.

No living creature’s brain could be over a hundred meters in diameter.

No living creature’s brain could exist bare, without the protection of skin and skull.

No living creature’s brain could have dozens of eyes and two scythe-like legs.

A being that deserved the term monster rather than brain.

[B-Brain Eater…]

‘Brain Eater?’

The moment Yuseong’s gaze met one of the Brain Eater’s eyes, he used all his strength to get up and dash forward.

Boom!

The deafening explosion and powerful impact that followed sent Yuseong flying off the rooftop.

In this life-or-death moment, instead of screaming or flailing, Yuseong spread his body as wide as possible to slow his fall.

Though it might be meaningless considering the building’s height, Yuseong desperately tried to delay his falling time even by 0.1 seconds.

And just as Yuseong’s body passed the middle of the building, the awaited message appeared.

[Synchronization with ‘Kim Ganghyeon’ is complete]

[You can now use ‘Kim Ganghyeon’s’ skills]

No time to check the status window.

Yuseong quickly opened his inventory and took out an item.

[Spending 3,000,000 karma points to withdraw Gravity Shoes(A)]

[Insufficient karma points]

[Receiving penalties is possible if karma points go negative. Still want to withdraw the item?]

He couldn’t die right as things began.

Yuseong ignored the warning message and tried to withdraw Gravity Shoes.

“…Huh?”

He definitely selected ‘yes’ but nothing appeared.

Not much time left until impact with the ground.

Instead of withdrawing items, Yuseong used nearby falling building debris as foothold to slow his fall.

Swoosh!

A piercing sound from behind.

No need to look back to know what it was.

Yuseong reflexively deployed Iron Plate Bridge.

The moment his back was about to touch the ground, invisible energy grazed past his nose, paper-thin distance away.

Boom!

No time to rest.

Yuseong used Nine Phases Manifestation to send a clone forward while throwing himself between collapsing building debris.

The clone didn’t even last a second.

A powerful wave invisible to the eye swept through everywhere, instantly blowing away both the clone and dust clouds.

Yuseong who was about to move positions quickly stopped in his tracks.

Boom!

Missiles trailing flames shot up into the air from all around the city.

That wasn’t all.

People appeared wielding various weapons like swords, guns, bows, and staves, and began unleashing attacks toward the monster in the sky.

Seeing the Brain Eater’s gaze turn elsewhere, Yuseong let out a relieved sigh and called out to Kim Ganghyeon.

-Wake up, wake up, wake up.

“Kim Ganghyeon. You’re not dreaming right now and you’re not hallucinating. This is reality. Get a hold of yourself.”

-Wh-what are you? Just what are you to be talking to me? Why is my body moving on its own?

“To put it simply, I’m someone who came to help you. I’ll explain the details later, so first tell me what’s going on here.”

-Th-they said not to talk to hallucinations when under mental attacks…

Having been through this kind of situation several times before, Yuseong gave up on conversing with Kim Ganghyeon.

It takes a long time to persuade clients who are unwilling to talk for whatever reason.

Since he could roughly guess the situation from the word ‘operation’ heard earlier and the people fighting the Brain Eater, instead of wasting time trying to persuade Kim Ganghyeon, Yuseong immediately opened the status window.

Name: Kim Ganghyeon

Class: Esper

Level: 691

Title: One Who Faces Calamity

Strength: 852

Agility: 651

Wisdom: 328

Constitution: 660

Magic Power: 82

Spirit Power: 752

Skills: Reinforced Body(A+), Overheat(A-), Powerful Strike(B), Physical Enhancement(B), Increased Recovery(B), Rapid Acceleration(B-), Elemental Resistance(B-)…

Better stats and skills than expected.

However, instead of being pleased, Yuseong frowned and opened his inventory.

‘Gone.’

The Gravity Shoes icon wasn’t visible.

It wasn’t his imagination.

He had definitely withdrawn Gravity Shoes from his inventory.

‘Did I miss it?’

Since he was falling, maybe the Gravity Shoes appeared somewhere else and he just missed it.

Clicking his tongue, Yuseong clicked on the glove-shaped icon next to the empty slot.

[Spending 20,000,000 karma points to withdraw Thousand Hands(S+)]

[Insufficient karma points]

[Receiving penalties is possible if karma points go negative. Still want to withdraw the item?]

Tyrant’s Arms, Holy Avenger, Dragon’s Claw.

Though massive karma in the tens of millions was needed to withdraw Thousand Hands that had grown to S+ rank after storing those three items, there was no choice when proceeding with an A-rank quest.

Yuseong selected ‘yes’ like before.

“…”

Nothing appeared.

He waited about 10 seconds just in case and looked around, but not only was there no Thousand Hands, nothing even glove-like was visible.

About to reach for another icon with half-crazed eyes, Yuseong quickly stopped his hand upon seeing the negative 23 million karma points written at the bottom of the inventory.

“…A bug?”

Karma points are deducted but items don’t appear.

Though bewildering, Yuseong wasn’t foolish enough to try again and increase his debt.

After pondering briefly, this time Yuseong tried opening his subspace.

But the subspace wouldn’t open.

No, beyond not opening, there was no change at all.

‘What’s going on? Is it really a bug? Or are items restricted in S-rank quests? Could they be blocking high-rank items to prevent clearing it too easily? Could that Brain Eater monster have done something?’

He tried touching the lowest D+ rank Experimental Nano Clothing in his inventory, but again only karma points decreased with nothing appearing.

Though he couldn’t understand exactly what was happening, having concluded that using items was impossible for now, Yuseong closed his eyes and focused consciousness inward.

‘Skills can be used.’

The magic power awakened by stimulation from the White Tower’s Mana Training Method was transformed into Crimson Blood Divine Art’s internal energy by Infinite Origin Force.

Having concluded he’d have to somehow manage with just this for now, Yuseong raised his head to look up.

The Brain Eater that had been floating high in the sky had now descended near the skyscrapers and was fighting people.

‘Why did it come down?’

The Brain Eater was capable of ranged attacks.

While pondering why the Brain Eater came down to disadvantageous territory when it could just float in the sky shooting waves, Yuseong soon realized the reason.

“Ah, no! Help! Someone please save me!”

A man who had been flying around the Brain Eater distracting its gaze suddenly screamed as if caught by something and stopped in midair.

The Brain Eater pulled the man close with invisible force and swung its sharp leg, ignoring the people desperately charging in.

Slash!

With a chilling cutting sound, the top of his head was precisely sliced off, exposing the gray and white brain matter.

Then the Brain Eater extracted tentacle bundles from its body to wrap around the man’s brain and instantly absorbed it.

Finally understanding why that brain-shaped monster was called Brain Eater, Yuseong rubbed his goosebump-covered arms while observing the situation.

-What are you doing not helping? Quickly join in!

‘Charge recklessly at a brain-sucking monster? I need to at least know its characteristics before helping or not.’

An S-rank quest with no retries possible and for some reason items couldn’t be used.

Rushing in thoughtlessly would be nothing short of suicide.

He needed to gather as much information as possible while waiting for the decisive moment.

Yuseong activated Eye of Truth and looked at the Brain Eater.

“Huh?”

Yuseong let out a dumb sound with round eyes.

That’s how shocking the sight before him was.

He wasn’t surprised by the waves or energy flow the Brain Eater was emitting.

What surprised Yuseong wasn’t that he saw something, but that he couldn’t properly see anything at all.

“What in the…”

He was so shocked the thought escaped his mouth.

Eye of Truth that had never once betrayed expectations since first obtaining it.

The Eye of Truth that had analyzed everything from skills of any rank, any phenomenon, even the thoughts of Outer Gods and Lucifer’s halo and horns, and even the mysterious goggles, failed to work properly for the first time.

Sometimes the Brain Eater was visible, sometimes an opaque membrane-like thing was visible, sometimes energy flows were visible, sometimes numbers or letters were visible.

Feeling dizzy from the constantly changing vision, Yuseong staggered while holding his head.

‘Is Eye of Truth sealed too?’

Right now Eye of Truth was only getting in the way.

Yuseong deactivated Eye of Truth and operated Infinite Origin Force at full power.

Though far inferior to Eye of Truth which could visualize energy, there was a method of spreading energy sense to detect energy.

‘Is this the world others live in?’

Not being able to see energy and having to feel it.

As Yuseong was frowning at this unfamiliar discomfort, Kim Ganghyeon’s voice rang in his head.

-Damn it! Hurry up and help! Everyone’s going to die at this rate!

“Information.”

-Kuh!

After hesitating, Kim Ganghyeon finally opened his mouth.

Even if under mental attack, there should be no problem sharing information about the Brain Eater that wasn’t classified and everyone already knew.

-That thing’s name is Brain Eater. It’s a giant brain-shaped monster and uses scythe-like legs and telekinesis as weapons.

‘Telekinesis? How strong is it?’

-At full power it can completely break apart concrete buildings or military equipment made of alloys. Maximum range can sweep away everything within hundreds of meters radius.

‘Then shouldn’t we be running away right now instead of doing this?’

-Brain Eater rarely uses full power. It knows that powerful attacks would destroy not just humans but also the brains it wants to eat.

‘…What a plausible reason.’

-Other things to watch out for…

Kim Ganghyeon’s words sped up seeing the Brain Eater’s attacks growing fiercer and people gradually being pushed back.

-Brain Eater has a powerful telekinetic shield, so if you carelessly approach, you’ll end up like prey caught in a spider web like earlier. So throw debris to draw attention, and when other physics create a hole in the telekinetic shield… No! Soyeon!

A scream-like shout.

Feeling the desperation within, Yuseong stepped on collapsed buildings and launched himself toward the woman held in midair.