HACKED 35

He had been quiet the entire time since being assigned as my guard. After changing into his formal uniform—the first time I’d seen him in something other than comfortable clothes—he simply stood near the entrance, sword at his hip, looming like a statue.

It was unexpected. Until just a moment ago, he had been spouting annoying, nonsensical things like, “Myeong, are you a total weakling?” or “As expected, I’m the only one you can count on, right?” It made me think my chronic low blood pressure was finally being cured. I expected him to keep bothering me with a mix of nagging and bizarre jokes, but…

I could somewhat grasp the characters of Chirpy and the other Incarnations after a few exchanges, but I still really don’t understand this one.

“……”

San Gun looked at me as if seeking an answer. Our eyes met directly. It seemed I had been staring at him intently without even realizing it.

“……”

Fine, that part is okay. It happens.

“……”

But why… why is he just staring back blankly with a poker face, without turning his eyes away or saying a word? Is he trying to have a staring contest with me right now?

Just as I was starting to feel a bit tense.

“…Pfft.”

The silence was broken instantly. San Gun’s cold expression vanished as he burst out laughing.

“Your eyes are going to get bloodshot, Myeong. They’re already hollow enough; what if they get bloodshot too?”

“To use such a cowardly tactic as attacking someone’s appearance complex. The honor of the martial world has truly fallen to the ground, Great Hero.”

“I don’t know what that is, but I can tell you’re deathly sensitive about the pigmentation around your eyes.”

Somehow, the topic of conversation shifted to my dark circles. While we exchanged trivial talk, the tension in my shoulders gradually eased.

“It feels like I’m going to suffer a Qi deviation, so please stop.”

“What’s wrong with having a little darkness under your eyes? You’re pretty, so it’s fine.”

“Darkness under the eyes… are you hitting a person with words?”

Teasing me for my looks, and a congenital part of me I can’t even change through effort? I should scold him with a ‘behave!’

“And I’ve always been like this. I have the kind of constitution where dark circles don’t go away even if I sleep for three days straight.”

“Why would you sleep for three days and nights in the first place? What are you, a hibernating animal? Huh? When the sun is up, a person should tidy their bed and get up to do their work. Because you lie down all day, you end up with a complexion like someone who hasn’t seen the sun or had a decent meal.”

He is the very definition of an old-fashioned nagger, so intensely familiar to me. Was it my imagination that he felt unlike himself because he was so quiet? Anyway, I didn’t want to hear it, so I roughly changed the subject.

“Then what is so funny to you, Mister San Gun?”

“It’s funny, of course. How could it not be? Seeing the babies putting their heads together and having a serious meeting.”

“Babies…”

That’s a title I’ll never get used to, no matter how many times I hear it.

“I suppose the twins can be classified as babies based on their appearance, but why am I a baby too?”

“Anyone who hasn’t lived at least five hundred years is just a newborn to me.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Babies, go play patty-cake or something.”

“……”

“Great!”

“Let’s play, let’s play.”

“Patty-cake, and hopscotch.”

“Jackstones too.”

“And jump rope!”

The twins giggled happily and ran out. The room, which had been full of children’s chatter, became silent again. Amidst that, only Chirpy prattled on excitedly.

“Wow, anyway, it turned out well! So, is it all over once we deal with the Damnatio Memoriae that crossed over to our side? The situation is going much more easily than expected, isn’t it?”

San Gun had already wiped away his mischievous smile and was staring intently past the closed door. He spoke with his arms crossed.

“The situation is turning very dangerous.”

“I thought it was strange, but is it to the point of being dangerous?”

I was also feeling that something was off. It wasn’t the time to celebrate handling the enemy without lifting a finger. If things aren’t going according to my plan… it means an unexpected variable has appeared.

“Eeeh? What? St-strange? And even dangerous? Us, right now? Why? Wasn’t everything going well? I thought it was a case of achieving the goal without any effort…”

I’m sorry, but I don’t have the luxury to answer Chirpy right now. Because right now, the external enemy isn’t the problem—the “opponent on our side,” who is supposedly strong, is the source of the unstable situation.

San Gun strode up behind me as I sat on the sofa. This Incarnation is peculiar; whenever he has something to say or initiates physical contact, he approaches from the side or behind rather than coming at me head-on. I don’t know if it’s because his nature is that of a predator or if that’s just his personality.

An arm wrapped in a black, loose sleeve suddenly reached out from behind. He abruptly leaned his upper body forward and gripped the area between my knee and thigh with his large hand.

“Turn on the terminal.”

He said, looking down at me diagonally. His hand was still pressing firmly on my leg. It was a motion somewhere between kneading and pressing.

Press. Press. Press.

“…Ah.”

What on earth is this? He probably isn’t trying to give me a sudden massage. It seemed like a motion that came out habitually without him even thinking about it.

What was it, this? It’s exactly like…

‘Kneading?’

What did I just think? I gave myself goosebumps just thinking it. Where would I even apply such a cute and tiny word like that?

“Hurry. The terminal.”

It was so absurd I couldn’t even feel offended. I was just blank. I pulled out the terminal as if possessed.

I turned on the screen. There was nothing particularly new. The messages I exchanged with <IsItPresbyopiaCrap> hadn’t been updated since the last one I sent a while ago, and no more system notifications had arrived.

“There’s nothing.”

“That’s why it’s dangerous.”

“Pardon?”

“Think about it, Myeong. I’m staying by your side, but the rest of them went out to fight.”

“True.”

“Those two babies just came to report that they did a full sweep but found nothing except for the corpses of the intruders.”

“Yes.”

“Then what do you think that insolent Hwarang brat is doing?”

Let’s ignore the verbal abuse San Gun pours out toward Hwarang as naturally as breathing for a moment. It’s the same the other way around, after all.

“……”

In any case, the moment I heard that, I understood. I understood the root of the uneasy and strange feeling I had been having.

The two of us maintained a heavy silence. In the middle of it, Chirpy’s eyes went wide. This guy still hasn’t grasped the situation.

“Are you talking about Mister <Hwarang of Half-Human Half-Ghost>? Wouldn’t he naturally be beating down the Damnatio Memoriae? Since the <Twin Longswords of the Salvation of the Nation> said they didn’t see any enemies at all. If you think logically by process of elimination… they must have all gone the other way…”

“No, Chirpy.”

I kindly held up the terminal to show the empty notification window.

“Isn’t something missing that should be there?”

“What is it?”

“The notification that experience points have been received.”

“Oh! Huh? Oh, come to think of it…”

In <No Lifer>, even if an Incarnation reaches the maximum level, experience points continue to accumulate. I don’t know the exact reason. Some say it’s to allow accumulated excess experience to be exchanged for other goods or items, while others say it’s to update a limit-break or awakening system later. Either way, only the developers know the truth.

Regardless, the important thing now is that experience points haven’t been received even once.

Currently, there are a total of two dimensions colliding with our dimension. The dimension where <IsItPresbyopiaCrap>’s Pantheon is located, and the dimension named ‘Abandoned Michuhol-gu Neural Network Transplant Research Building Area C-113.’

The twins just confirmed that the Incarnations dispatched from the former were annihilated. Then, the monsters that crawled out of the latter… I naturally thought Hwarang would be taking care of them.

‘Abandoned Michuhol-gu Neural Network Transplant Research Building Area C-113’ is an early-game map in the main story. In terms of user abbreviations, it’s about 2-3. It means the monsters are quite weak.

If it’s 2-3… an Incarnation like Hwarang is more than capable of sweeping through it alone. Since he doesn’t have a tanker, it would be impossible to avoid injuries entirely, but if he accepts some damage, he could kill all the minor mobs and even the map boss.

The twins took floors 1 through 5, and Hwarang took floors 6 through 10. Unlike the twins, who were too far away to feel anything, I felt a few impacts from the floor immediately below. I naturally assumed that was due to the battle with the Damnatio Memoriae from ‘Abandoned Michuhol-gu Neural Network Transplant Research Building Area C-113.’

If that were the case, there would be at least one dead monster, and therefore at least 1 experience point should have accumulated. Why is the terminal so quiet? Was this why San Gun had been looking serious all by himself?

“There are probably two possibilities.”

San Gun slowly straightened his upper body, which had been leaning toward me. Then he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist.

The way he wore his sword was the opposite of Japanese samurai or Western knights. He wore it so the hilt faced backward and the scabbard hung forward. That is, the sword hilt went behind his back.

With his palm resting on the end of the hilt, he turned the direction of the sword with a skillful movement. Along with that movement, the tassel tied to the hilt swayed lightly.

“Either he hasn’t encountered the enemies yet. Or…”

The hand that had been resting naturally on the sword gripped the hilt tightly. As if he were about to draw it at any moment.

Boom!

Simultaneously, a massive impact struck the entire space.

“He is ‘not winning’.”

Before he could even finish his sentence, a familiar mechanical sound was heard. The terminal, which had been silent all along, finally spat out a notification. But there was no time to react to it.

Ding!

[Warning!]

[An impact has been detected in the power system.]

[The power system has been damaged.]

Power system activation progress… 96%