Chapter 88

Between consciousness and unconsciousness.

There was something unidentifiable that seemed to be made up of all sorts of negative and evil things – madness, terror, disgust, hatred.

Yuseong was calmly observing something that eroded thoughts just by existing and contaminated the mind just by being perceived.

While an ordinary human would have gone mad several times by now, Yuseong, with his unique empathy ability, was able to maintain his sanity without being affected by this unidentifiable something.

‘Unless it directly pierces my brain or takes a complete form like that time, this level is nothing.’

At most, it only felt like the disgust of watching a writhing mass of insects.

The reward for observing this unidentifiable something while suppressing such emotions was great.

He was able to obtain the mysteries and truths, knowledge and information that this something contained.

Although their contents were patchy and only a tiny fraction, he could feel indescribable joy every time he learned secrets that ordinary humans couldn’t understand, nor should they understand.

How much time had passed like that?

Yuseong, who had been observing his inner self in a trance, had to return to reality due to an unexpected external shock.

Thump!

“Hmm.”

Just as he was about to close his eyes to enter back into observation, a familiar voice reached his ears.

-You’re finally awake! I was worried you might be sick since you were sleeping for so long. If you’d slept any longer, I was about to call someone!

“Please don’t do that. If people were to see you in your current form…”

“I apologize, sir. Due to current turbulence, the aircraft is experiencing some shaking…”

“…Ah.”

“…”

Silence fell over the cabin for a moment.

A full-grown adult man.

Moreover, a world-renowned hero having a conversation with a ball-jointed doll – the flight attendant who had momentarily frozen at this shocking scene quickly recovered with professional spirit and continued her explanation with a smile as if nothing had happened.

“Please fasten your seatbelt for safety.”

“…”

Watching the retreating figure of the flight attendant with blank eyes, Yuseong belatedly came to his senses and let out a deep sigh.

-…Should I go back inside?

“…It’s too late now. Just continue what you were doing.”

The ball-jointed doll, Alice, who seemed dejected for a moment, soon began moving energetically again.

As Yuseong watched Alice pressing laptop keys to search for various information, he turned his gaze toward the window and recalled what had happened a few days ago.

* * *

“America? What nonsense is this?”

Yuseong’s reaction was intense.

Right after receiving a meaningful message from made in usa, a text arrived from Kang Changseok asking if he would go to America.

Naturally, he couldn’t help but think the two had made some kind of agreement and were trying to manipulate him.

However, after hearing Kang Changseok’s explanation, Yuseong had to calm his anger.

“We received an official support request from America. They asked us to send Contractors because their situation isn’t favorable.”

“…You’re lying?”

“If I were going to lie, I’d come up with something more plausible. They didn’t just request support from Korea, but from other countries too.”

“That’s impossible.”

The world’s strongest country, America, requesting support?

Moreover, America was a country that possessed one of only ten users in the whole world.

No matter how he thought about it, it was unbelievable.

As if he had anticipated Yuseong’s reaction, Kang Changseok began explaining while holding out a tablet.

“While every country has issues, America’s damage is particularly severe. Given their large territory and low population density, it must have been difficult to completely block the monsters. When they block here, monsters break out there, when they block there, monsters break out here. Even when they thought they had cleared everything perfectly, monsters would suddenly emerge in masses from unexpected places, causing continuous accumulation of damage.”

The image of America on the tablet was largely stained red.

Though the color lightened slightly whenever military markers passed through, the speed at which it darkened was even greater.

“So they decided to form defense lines with a ‘give what needs to be given and protect what needs to be protected’ approach… But they seem to have judged that America’s Contractors alone couldn’t handle it, so they ended up requesting help from other countries.”

“Then just send other Contractors. Why involve me?”

“Because Contractors aren’t enough.”

Kang Changseok spoke with a self-deprecating expression.

“As you know, Contractors are artificial ability users that I created through certain methods. As such, they have clear limitations. While they certainly possess abilities that transcend human limits, they’re ambiguous to call true superhumans – in terms of user stats, they hover around the mid-hundreds at best. They’re suitable for dealing with weak monsters, but anything beyond that is difficult.”

Unlike users who grow continuously, a Contractor’s strength had set limits.

No matter how much they honed their abilities or obtained better equipment to become as strong as possible, Contractors could only deal with small fry.

Only users could face truly powerful and dangerous monsters.

Of course, while ordinary people didn’t know about these differences between users and Contractors, they did know that there were special individuals called heroes who far surpassed ordinary Contractors.

“America specifically requested you because they have monsters that are difficult to handle.”

“There are more famous and stronger users than me, right? Why did they come to me while leaving those people alone?”

“Of course, America made proposals to other users first. But they all refused. The users themselves didn’t want to go, and their governments refused to send them, worried they might defect to America – that’s how it came down to you.”

“Ha! You said other governments refused, so why is the Korean government willing to send me?”

“Our country seems to take sending heroes or Contractors to other countries less seriously, perhaps because we’ve had particularly little damage. Moreover, it’s a request from America of all countries, and they’ve offered substantial compensation like basic exoskeleton technology and food aid, so public opinion is generally in favor of sending help…”

“Makes me want to just defect to America while I’m there.”

“…You’re joking, right?”

Anyway, if it wasn’t coordinated between users, that changed things.

He needed to go to America anyway to exchange items with made in usa.

If they were offering a natural pretext to go to America without arousing anyone’s suspicion, he should rather be grateful.

“Fine. I’ll go.”

“Huh? R-really? Just like that?”

“Now then, shall we discuss compensation?”

“…”

Of course, he never said anything about going for free.

* * *

-Did something good happen? I’ve never seen you smile so brightly before, Mr. Yuseong!

“Something like that. By the way, how’s the body? Is it usable?”

-Hmm, to be honest, not really. Rather than moving a body, it feels more like moving a puppet on strings? The energy consumption is high and the flow is unstable – if you hadn’t been constantly stabilizing it with Eye of Truth, I probably wouldn’t have lasted even a few minutes.

“Can’t be helped since it’s a prototype.”

The doll that Alice inhabited was a vessel Yuseong had created to contain a soul.

After made in usa confirmed they would create a body, Yuseong began seriously researching methods to make Alice inhabit objects.

Of course, it wasn’t easy.

He only had an intuition close to certainty that it could be done; he had no idea specifically how to make it possible.

So Yuseong entered meditation to find the source of this intuition, and before long, he was able to find the answer.

The Forbidden Knowledge skill.

This bug skill, which he thought only increased wisdom and spirit stats, was actually providing unprocessed information in the form of inspiration and intuition from a corner of his mind.

On the day he realized this, Yuseong spent the entire day in meditation observing the Forbidden Knowledge skill.

And the results were surprising.

Name: Han Yuseong

Class: User

Level: 154

Title: One Who Makes the Impossible Possible

Strength: 349

Agility: 349

Wisdom: 775

Spirit: 789

Constitution: 349

Mana: 299

Internal Energy: 299

Skills: Forbidden Knowledge(??), Eye of Truth(A+), Mana Control(B-), Thunder Fist(B-), Vacuum Step(C+), Full Moon Cultivation Method(C+), Strong Digestive System(C+), Asura Perception Way(C), Shadow Moon Style 16(C), Snake Shadow Whip Technique(C)…

He checked his status window due to an inexplicable feeling.

Most of his stats were normal.

They maintained either 299 points, the limit provided by the karma shop, or 349 points, increased by 50 due to the Enhancement Procedure skill.

The issue was with wisdom and spirit.

‘I’m sure the last time I checked, wisdom was 757 points and spirit was 766 points? Am I misremembering?’

Even if he had misremembered, a difference of nearly 20 points was too large.

While pondering, Yuseong had a thought and opened his status window again after observing the Forbidden Knowledge skill, and only after confirming his slightly increased wisdom and spirit could he understand the truth.

The Forbidden Knowledge skill was both a treasury containing unknown knowledge and a shuttle that could extract stats as easily as eating cake.

After that day, Yuseong was able to grow his wisdom and spirit to the mid-800s by meditating whenever he had time, and through the knowledge gained in that process, he finally succeeded in creating an occult technique to make souls inhabit objects.

Of course, there were still many aspects that needed improvement.

-Ladies and gentlemen, this aircraft will soon be landing at Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport. Please make sure your seatbelts are fastened. Thank you.

The inside of the plane instantly became busy.

However, even after landing at the airport, no one approached the exit or tried to stand up.

The first person to disembark from this plane had already been determined.

‘Why do I have to get off first? Are they planning to take photos for the newspaper?’

Yuseong, who had been grumbling, was shocked the moment he stepped onto the stairs to disembark.

Majestic music that resonated in his chest and camera flashes that continuously flickered.

An endless red carpet and honor guards in elaborate uniforms lined up on both sides.

Yuseong, who had expected at most a crowd of reporters, couldn’t help but be flustered by this unexpected sight.

“We sincerely welcome you to America! Mr. Yu!”

“Uh, hello?”

“Oh! You can speak English!”

As he came down the stairs, more than a dozen people began approaching to speak and offer handshakes.

Though he couldn’t recognize their faces, they held positions straight out of movies – Secretary of State, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security – after frantically exchanging greetings and handshakes with these people and exiting the airport, an even more surprising sight unfolded.

Countless people had gathered, waving with smiling faces or cheering loud enough to shake the earth.

While most people would have been amazed by or purely enjoyed this grand welcome that was incomparable to when they left Korea, Yuseong was interpreting this situation from a completely different perspective.

‘Just how serious must the situation be for them to welcome me this grandly?’

Compared to other countries, Korea is relatively lackadaisical about benefits and protections for Contractors.

While there are various reasons, the biggest one is simply that the existence of Contractors isn’t that crucial.

Conversely, the reason America was giving such a grand welcome was because the existence of Contractors was that crucial to them.

Of course, the scale might have been larger because he, a hero rather than a simple Contractor, was included, and America’s characteristic fondness for heroes should be taken into account…

‘Even considering that, this is too much. If they’re giving me this level of welcome…’

It seemed he would need to reconsider defecting to America.