Cheat

The group immediately accepted Yuseong’s opinion that they needed to track down and eliminate the Brain Eater.

Since its first appearance, the calamity that had never taken damage from any method was now visibly wounded, screaming and fleeing.

Naturally, morale soared and there were calls to hunt down the Brain Eater dozens of times a day.

They had only been waiting because Yuseong, the only one who could damage the Brain Eater, was unconscious. From the moment he regained consciousness, the subjugation force was already being prepared.

“Uncle, please think about it one more time. You haven’t even fully recovered yet. Rest a bit longer.”

“The Brain Eater is in the same situation. Even at this moment, it’s rapidly recovering. We need to end this before it fully recovers.”

“Even so, we should at least form a plan first! Taking just a few ability users for a frontal assault – what kind of plan is that? Are you crazy?!”

“I can catch it, so don’t worry. Let’s talk after it’s done.”

“Uncle! Uncle!”

-Ahem, don’t you think you’re being too cold? You could be a bit kinder.

Yuseong coldly brushed off Soyeon’s attempts to stop him and boarded the helicopter.

Though Kim Ganghyeon pleaded for him to be kind to his only remaining family member, Yuseong let the words go in one ear and out the other.

He could feel his affinity dropping with Soyeon after saving her and having various conversations, but he didn’t care.

It wasn’t because he had already obtained all the information he needed, or because there wasn’t much left until quest completion.

If his assumptions were correct, building relationships with anyone in this world was meaningless.

‘Though I’d like to try the second method right now, there’s still that small possibility…’

Yuseong, who had been looking down at his hand with faintly glowing eyes, stood up when he heard they were almost at their destination.

The Brain Eater could be seen floating above the distant city.

When it had just been hit by Infiltration Path, parts of its brain were discolored and brain fluid was leaking, but it seemed to have recovered quite a bit after earnestly devouring humans during that time.

Woong!

Though the Brain Eater’s distinctive brass instrument-like cry was heard, no one worried about ranged attacks.

The Brain Eater possessed telekinesis powerful enough to instantly break thousands of people down to the atomic level, but it had a habit of only using just enough force to subdue enemies in order to preserve its food – human brains – intact.

‘At least it’s the Brain Eater.’

If his opponent had been another calamity, he wouldn’t have even dared to challenge it.

Yuseong shuddered slightly thinking of the Mad Magician who used bizarre techniques and the Magical Girl of Death who would kill any noticed target by any means necessary, then jumped down as soon as the helicopter entered the city.

Landing lightly on a building rooftop using divine movement techniques, Yuseong carefully began approaching while avoiding the Brain Eater’s notice.

‘This must be the limit.’

Perhaps because it saw him jump off midway, the Brain Eater was thoroughly scanning the surroundings using several eyes.

Going any closer would get him noticed.

Yuseong hid behind a building and activated Eye of Truth.

Flash!

As both eyes turned a brilliant golden color, the world began transforming into characters and numbers.

Though it was a dizzyingly chaotic sight that would make one’s head spin just from looking briefly, Yuseong maintained his composure, having grown accustomed through past experience, and observed what he could see.

Though the characters and numbers were completely unfamiliar, he could naturally interpret them thanks to the Primal Language, Babel skill.

‘This world is a virtual world.’

The world he saw through Eye of Truth was entirely composed of characters and numbers.

Though it was an absurd situation, Yuseong from Earth was able to quickly grasp the situation thanks to seeing a similar scene in an old SF movie.

“…Wasn’t this how the protagonist saw the world in The Matrix?”

A movie with a story about humanity being trapped in a virtual world created by machines and reduced to batteries.

This was exactly how the protagonist in that movie saw the virtual world after awakening.

A world made of characters, numbers, symbols and shapes.

Based on that memory, Yuseong speculated that this world wasn’t the real world but a virtual one.

“If this is a virtual world, it makes sense that mental and spatial abilities can’t be used.”

This virtual world is similar enough to reality that martial arts, magic, and physic power that actually exist can be used naturally.

But no matter how similar it is to reality, it’s ultimately fake.

The reason inventory and subspace can’t be used?

Because real objects from reality can’t be brought into the virtual world.

The same goes for Asura Perception Way and Pain Nullification.

Mental abilities naturally wouldn’t work properly when inside a virtual world.

Of course, he couldn’t be 100% certain.

Dimensions exist infinitely, and there was no rule saying there couldn’t be a strange dimension made of characters, numbers and programs instead of reality’s four fundamental interactions.

Though the probability was extremely low, there was a possibility this world was real and mental and spatial abilities were unusable due to bugs.

So Yuseong decided to try catching the Brain Eater first.

“Phew.”

Yuseong took a deep breath and focused.

The first thing Yuseong tried after realizing this world was made of programs was ‘cheats’.

He thought that since he could see the truth of this world with Eye of Truth and interpret that truth with Babel’s power, he should be able to modify it as well.

However, the cheat plan soon hit a wall.

“…It’s too complex.”

With his wisdom stat that had surpassed 3,000 points, he would have been able to interpret and modify this world’s laws without much difficulty.

But with Kim Ganghyeon’s wisdom stat of 328 points, merely one-tenth of his original, it was impossible.

Yet he couldn’t give up.

Without using even cheats, catching the calamity would be impossible.

Yuseong spent a week trying to interpret the world’s laws, and as a result was able to achieve a small success.

Swish.

Yuseong, who had been staring at the complex array of characters and numbers making up his body, placed his hand on part of them.

Soon after, the content of the characters and numbers began to change.

“Good.”

-What’s good about suddenly saying that while standing still?

“You’ll see.”

Yuseong nodded with a satisfied smile and stood up, walking out of the building.

Woong! Woong! Woong!

Perhaps it remembered Yuseong’s face.

The Brain Eater that discovered Yuseong let out an intense cry.

Swaaak!

The Brain Eater ignored the other ability users and swung its leg toward Yuseong.

“Can’t fall for that again.”

Yuseong quickly jumped into the air to dodge the Brain Eater’s leg.

About to immediately swing its leg at the airborne Yuseong, the Brain Eater hesitated momentarily.

Because Yuseong’s form had split into two, above and below.

The Brain Eater swung two legs to cut down both forms.

Woong.

Both forms were fake.

Looking at the dispersing smoke in confusion, the Brain Eater spotted Yuseong through an eye looking elsewhere and immediately unleashed telekinesis.

The ground was gouged out and buildings collapsed.

Barely escaping the range of the telekinesis, Yuseong looked back and whistled lightly.

Though it was said to rarely use powerful force, it seemed quite angry at him.

“Shall I make it angrier?”

Yuseong employed the Crimson Blood Divine Art with a bright smile.

Wrapping his whole body in Blood Energy, Yuseong threw a punch at the Brain Eater.

WHAM!

The energy bullet fired by separating force exploded, shaking the telekinetic shield.

Recalling being badly beaten by Yuseong last time, the Brain Eater didn’t rashly attack and focused on defense by increasing its telekinetic shield’s output.

Woong.

The Brain Eater faintly smiled at the endless explosions.

Unless one was a transcendent, the energy a single human could possess was obvious.

Attacks powerful enough to shake its telekinetic shield must consume tremendous energy.

Just by enduring like this, that human would collapse from exhaustion.

The Brain Eater rolled its eyes thinking this was an efficient method.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

For a human, he possessed quite a lot of energy.

That was what the Brain Eater thought when the explosions continued for over 5 minutes.

This amount of energy was equivalent to a hundred humans using physic power.

Since humans had large variations in individual abilities, it accepted that such humans could exist.

Bang! Boom! Bam!

When the explosions passed 30 minutes, the Brain Eater thought something was strange.

This amount of energy was comparable to a juvenile of its race, the ‘Great Intellects’.

The Brain Eater briefly wondered if he might be a transcendent but soon erased that possibility from its mind.

Though the energy amount exceeded human limits, the attacks were too weak to be a transcendent.

Thinking he must be using life force energy, the Brain Eater decided to endure a bit longer.

Bang! Bang! Boom!

When the explosions passed an hour, the Brain Eater decided to give up defense.

It thought this was too strange even by any measure.

Clearing away the thick dust that had risen, the Brain Eater unleashed powerful psychic waves toward where Yuseong was.

It held nothing back.

It had realized Yuseong wasn’t mere prey.

Swish.

Everything in the Brain Eater’s line of sight began turning to dust and scattering, unable to withstand the powerful telekinesis.

However, Yuseong had long since escaped outside the Brain Eater’s sight using Flash Step.

“So you aim with your eyes?”

Dense fog began spreading around Yuseong.

Though the Brain Eater unleashed telekinesis, the Cloud Mist made of energy merely shook slightly without dispersing, remaining in place.

Yuseong, who had deployed Nine Phases Manifestation to deceive its vision, scattered Cloud Mist earnestly while circling around the Brain Eater, and before long the surroundings were completely covered in thick fog.

Bang! Bang! Baaaang!

Woong! Woong! Woong!

Now attacks were pouring in from all directions.

The Brain Eater’s eyes trembled.

If these had been normal physical attacks, its telekinetic shield wouldn’t have been damaged even if hit for not just an hour but a day or week.

But this human’s attacks were different.

The concentrated special energy that couldn’t occur in nature could clearly damage the telekinetic shield.

Seeing the Brain Eater panicking in the fog, Yuseong raised the corners of his mouth and muttered:

“Infinite energy. Not bad.”