Did It Glitch?

The distance with the Brain Eater was rapidly closing.

Yuseong snatched up two pieces of debris from the ground and threw them at the Brain Eater.

The debris thrown using pure strength instantly stopped when it entered a certain range of the Brain Eater.

However, unlike the first throw, the one imbued with internal energy penetrated deep through the telekinetic shield.

Yuseong continuously threw debris enveloped in blood-red internal energy toward the Brain Eater.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

One of the Brain Eater’s eyes looked at his way.

Eyes like those watching prey walking willingly into its jaws.

Meeting the Brain Eater’s gaze, Yuseong gave a cold smile and activated Infinite Origin Force.

The spirit power welling up from deep within his body transformed into internal energy through Infinite Origin Force’s ability, then changed into blood-red internal energy following the Crimson Blood Divine Art’s principles.

“And finally…”

When he used the amplification skill, the Blood Energy wrapping his arms instantly spread throughout his entire body.

With Blood Energy enveloping his whole body, Yuseong could tear through the Brain Eater’s telekinetic shield and enter inside with surprising ease.

Woong!

The Brain Eater let out an incomprehensible cry and fired an invisible wave.

Using the debris he had thrown at the telekinetic shield earlier as foothold, Yuseong changed direction, flowing like water to dodge the wave while grabbing the clothes of the woman held by telekinesis and throwing her backward.

Woong woong woong!

Perhaps angered at losing its captured prey?

When the Brain Eater wailed in a high pitch, Yuseong’s body slowed as if submerged in water before completely freezing in mid-air like the others.

Though it was truly a life-or-death situation, Yuseong didn’t lose his composure.

‘I’m frozen in mid-air but that doesn’t mean I can’t move my body.’

This much he could definitely resist.

After assessing the situation, Yuseong crossed his arms in an X to defend his head which the Brain Eater’s legs were targeting.

He thought he could block it quite comfortably at this level.

However, Yuseong had overlooked one crucial fact.

-Hey, you crazy bastard! What are you doing?!

Whack!

Until now, Yuseong had fought without being overwhelmed against opponents who had overwhelming size and weight or superior specs – monsters several meters tall, serpents dozens of meters long, users wielding infinite energy, and so on.

There was only one reason such absurd feats were possible.

It was because he had 3,000 strength stat and Tyrant’s arms that reduced impact by 99%.

However, right now Yuseong wasn’t wearing Tyrant’s arms or any other items.

A collision between a giant monster over 100 meters tall and a human not even 2 meters tall.

The result was as predictable as fire being hot.

Crack!

The moment his arms collided with the Brain Eater’s leg, Yuseong realized something was terribly wrong.

His arms dangled limply as if the bones were completely shattered, his whole body tingling as if electrocuted.

A burning sensation rising from deep in his stomach and the metallic taste of blood spreading in his mouth.

His instincts screamed warnings that staying like this was dangerous.

Sensing the pain about to strike, Yuseong instinctively activated Pain Nullification.

“Kuhurk?!”

A horrific agony he had never felt in his life!

It felt like boiling water was flowing through his veins instead of blood and every cell in his body was being torn apart.

If it had been moderate pain he would have died from shock, but paradoxically the pain was so intense it kept his mind sharper than ever.

Through vision blurred by involuntarily flowing tears, Yuseong spotted a mass of tentacles approaching and activated Asura Perception Way to buy time to think.

‘This doesn’t work either? What actually works?’

Seeing the tentacles approaching at unchanged speed, Yuseong ground his teeth.

‘Is this really such a pathetic end? Not even 5 minutes since starting the quest?’

Slurp.

The tentacles wrapping his entire body soon began burrowing into his nostrils.

As he shuddered at the indescribably horrific sensation, Yuseong recalled something and hurriedly drew up internal energy.

Though he failed several times unable to use Eye of Truth, he managed to cast Infiltration Path just before the tentacles could burrow into his brain.

Infiltration Path.

A technique that bypasses the opponent’s defense to deliver internal damage.

Though the telekinetic shield blocked all types of attacks, it couldn’t stop the internal force transmitted through the tentacles.

Kiiiiiiik!

Taking Infiltration Path specialized in internal destruction head-on, the Brain Eater let out a piercing shriek and began thrashing wildly.

The impact must have been quite severe as part of its brain turned black and transparent brain fluid leaked from various spots.

Naturally its telekinetic control became unstable as well, and the captured Yuseong naturally fell downward.

“Got you!”

Fortunately someone caught Yuseong’s body just before he hit the ground.

Though he wanted to say something, he couldn’t move a finger due to the extreme pain.

Closing his eyes, Yuseong prayed that when he opened them again the scene before him wouldn’t be somewhere familiar.

* * *

Opening his eyes revealed a gray ceiling.

Blankly staring at the cracked ceiling covered in cobwebs, Yuseong spoke the words he had always wanted to say.

“An unfamiliar ceiling.”

-What nonsense are you spouting right after waking up?

“It’s a thing.”

Trying to sit up, Yuseong frowned at the pain he felt.

Just moving slightly made his whole body feel like it was being torn apart and burning.

Though not as bad as when he collided with the Brain Eater’s arm, it wasn’t pain that could be endured with human tolerance.

Relaxing his body, Yuseong lowered his head slightly to look down at himself.

Bandages wrapping his entire body and an IV drip in his arm.

Confirming his limbs were still properly attached, Yuseong gave a bitter smile.

‘Impressive I survived in that state.’

-…You were one step away from death. If I wasn’t a physical enhancement esper, and if the healing espers hadn’t worked through the night, you really would have died.

‘How long was I unconscious?’

-About a week.

‘A week huh. Damn, that’s quite long.’

Having a calm conversation with Kim Ganghyeon, Yuseong suddenly felt something odd and tilted his head.

‘Why are you suddenly like this? Did you eat something wrong?’

-What do you mean?

‘I mean, just when fighting the Brain Eater you were ignoring what I said talking about mental attacks and whatnot. Why are you suddenly having a proper conversation?’

-Because I’m convinced it’s not a mental attack. No calamity, not even the Brain Eater, can maintain a mental attack for a week.

After a brief pause, Kim Ganghyeon continued speaking.

-If it’s not a mental attack, then there are two possibilities. Either I actually had a split personality, or as you said when we first met, you’re someone who came to help me.

‘So which do you think it is?’

-Common sense would suggest the former, but even a split personality couldn’t use techniques I don’t know. I think the latter is more likely.

‘Correct.’

-Suddenly entering my body and moving it as you please to help… Just what are you? A psychic esper like Doctor Harrison from America who can use mental resonance?

‘Not physics – I’m someone who crosses dimensions to help people in trouble.’

-……

After a moment of silence, Kim Ganghyeon spoke.

-I see.

‘…I know it’s weird for me to be the one to say this but, isn’t it too easy for you to believe me?’

-A giant brain from space that sucks out human brains, dozens of kilometers tall monsters that cause earthquakes just by walking and are devastating continents – in this world, it’s perfectly plausible someone could come to help me.

“Just what exactly is happening in this world?”

Kim Ganghyeon let out a deep sigh and began explaining step by step.

Several years ago, one day, suddenly, pitch black darkness without a single star covered the sky, powerful earthquakes shook the entire Earth, and monsters appeared.

Monsters that shouldn’t exist anywhere on Earth, like something out of games or movies, began attacking humanity indiscriminately.

-At first we blocked them without much difficulty. Far from being scared, everyone was happy thinking we could pioneer new markets with monster materials or revitalize the economy.

But that happiness didn’t last long.

Stronger monsters appeared in greater numbers all around the world, and humanity began getting pushed back.

Feeling the danger, humanity used even nuclear weapons to stop the monsters and managed to maintain superiority for a while.

However, that’s when they appeared.

The “real monsters” with power and abilities on a completely different dimension from the monsters until then.

-The first one to appear was the Brain Eater. It suddenly appeared above a Chinese city and devoured tens of thousands of people living there.

The Chinese government immediately launched nuclear missiles at the Brain Eater.

And the result was shocking.

The Brain Eater didn’t die even after being hit by nuclear missiles.

The shocked Chinese government launched nuclear missiles one after another, but the Brain Eater remained unharmed.

A monster that couldn’t be killed even by humanity’s ultimate weapon, nuclear weapons.

Humanity saw these monsters as unstoppable natural disasters and named them calamities, and could only pray that the calamities wouldn’t visit where they lived.

But those prayers went unanswered.

-More calamities appeared.

The Mad Magician.

Leviathan.

The Magical Girl of Death.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The number of calamities kept increasing, and inversely proportional to that, humanity rapidly declined.

-Thinking there was no hope at this rate, we gathered all remaining forces to set up a trap for the Brain Eater and waited. You know well what happened next, right?

“…Don’t tell me I ruined the operation?”

-No, this operation was like throwing eggs at a rock from the start. It was an operation planned with the feeling of making a final struggle before dying anyway. If you hadn’t come, everyone there would have died.

Yuseong let out a sigh of relief.

Thankfully he hadn’t trolled.

After that they exchanged late introductions and had a brief conversation about things they were curious about, then Yuseong closed his eyes and fell into thought.

At the time he had glossed over it due to the urgent situation, but thinking about it now, everything was strange.

‘Why can’t I use items?’

The first possibility that came to mind was that system usage was partially restricted due to increased difficulty.

And that possibility was quickly denied.

According to information gathered through Kang Changseok, Sophia, and Kasim, quests had no restrictions based on difficulty.

Whether an E-rank quest or S-rank quest, as long as you could handle the low clear rank and massive karma point cost, you could summon and use anything from treasures to magic engines to space battleships.

‘If item usage was restricted in the first place, the inventory system shouldn’t work at all or items shouldn’t be able to be taken out. But the inventory works fine and karma points were even deducted.’

Meaning system usage wasn’t restricted.

The next thought that came to mind was quite plausible.

“Don’t tell me it glitched?”