HACKED 39

<Black Operation>. Naturally, I know this skill. Even though several months have passed since I quit the game, a skill like this can’t help but stay in my memory. The description and the effect are both unique, aren’t they?

Among the Incarnations of this game, where most of them are about “I mainly use such-and-such a weapon, and I’m going to beat the enemy like this to deal this much damage,” the Incarnation possessing the skill <Black Operation> was quite unique.

A spy-type unit specialized in information warfare and reconnaissance rather than attacking the enemy directly.

Handling an Incarnation like this is certainly not easy for a beginner. To put it simply, it is all or nothing. If you use it well, you can achieve a level of play so broken that people might ask if you are using cheats; if you use it poorly, it just becomes a nuisance that takes up a slot and eats up resources.

So, as for which side I was on….

“Myeong!”

San Gun screamed toward me. Whether he lacked the luxury to maintain his humanity or not, the howling of a beast and a human voice were mixed together. I could only understand because it was my name; if the words had been a bit longer, I might have just thought it was a roar.

Crunch. BOOM!

A sound so loud I thought my eardrums might burst rang out. My whole body was flipped, shaken, and it hurt as if every single joint were being shattered.

“Augh…!”

My consciousness cut out and then returned. My head felt like it would explode because of the tinnitus. I couldn’t even distinguish whether I was standing or lying down.

After a long time, my dark and blotchy vision slowly brightened.

The first thing that caught my eye was blood. Blood pooled in a circle like a puddle on the floor, spreading out from a single point.

My heart sank. The last thing I had seen was the collapsed Hwarang. What if the monster’s attack target had changed from San Gun to Hwarang due to the effect of <Black Operation>?

Because he had been dealing with that bizarrely shaped enemy alone, Hwarang was already incapacitated even before I arrived. A state of complete defenselessness where he couldn’t even regain consciousness due to a lethal wound. If he were attacked again on top of that….

“No.”

I couldn’t see clearly in front of me because of the smoke rising from the broken structures. All I could see was a bright red puddle of blood. That puddle grew larger moment by moment.

I flailed my hands clumsily through the air. I tried to move forward blindly without knowing which direction was which, but my body was caught. A snow-white arm wrapped around my waist. The Gumiho was still holding me.

“Husband, you must not go.”

He whispered. But I didn’t even pretend to hear him.

The smoke that had been blocking every direction gradually cleared. What could be over there? I wanted to check right this second, yet at the same time, I never wanted to check.

Finally, the silhouette beyond the smoke became distinct.

One figure collapsed on the floor, and one figure standing. The standing one was staggering so severely that it was visible even to me.

The moment the pale profile of the collapsed, unconscious Hwarang entered my sight, I felt relieved in spite of myself. He was still in a state of severe injury. But he hadn’t gotten worse than before.

Chirpy was sprawled out about a span away from Hwarang. It seems that fellow, Chirpy, tried to take care of my terminal that fell on the floor earlier. He is fainted and covered in dust, clutching the terminal—which is as big as his own body—with both wings spread wide.

And beside them, San Gun was standing, leaning on his sword like a cane after driving it vertically into the ground. From head to toe, there wasn’t a single spot that was intact because he had blocked the attack just now. It was just like when I first discovered him.

However, leaving aside the disheveled hair or the clothes torn and stained with blood in various places….

‘The leg….’

One of his legs was snapped off from below the knee. Blood poured incessantly from the cross-section, widening the bright red puddle at his feet moment by moment.

“That’s why, Myeong. I told you not to get anywhere near me.”

San Gun wiped his blood-stained mouth with the back of his hand. Even so, it didn’t help much since the back of his hand was also blotched with blood. Rather, the bloodstain spread along his mouth, making for an even more chilling appearance.

“…To call my husband’s name as you please despite your station. Disgusting….”

The Gumiho, seeing him, revealed his loathing in every detail. In his speech, a sound similar to the sound of scratching the throat just before a fox’s long howl was mixed in.

The Gumiho was also not whole. Whether he had blocked structural fragments or mucus flying toward me without my knowledge, his white sleeves were tattered with dust and blood. Still, he was much better off than San Gun, who had a leg cut off.

“……”

San Gun only raised his eyes from beneath his tangled bangs to glare at the Gumiho. Between the hair mixed with black and yellow, the yellow eyes of a beast glowed brilliantly.

The atmosphere turned chilly in an instant.

But there was no luxury to let the two of them fight, growling and barking, in this situation.

“Come out. You’re there, aren’t you?”

The opposite corridor. The place where the thick smoke had not yet cleared, and where a monster huge enough to fill the space from ceiling to floor was lurking. I shouted toward that spot.

“I know you’re all there.”

“……”

“According to the Incarnation list the system showed me, you are clearly alive, but I hadn’t seen you even once until now. I thought about all sorts of things… where you were hiding, if you were lying down because you were sick, if you had gone crazy because of a status ailment…. I never imagined you would stab me in the back like this.”

No response came back from the other side. San Gun and the Gumiho looked at me simultaneously as I talked to myself toward the empty air. I could feel their perplexed expressions even without looking back.

However, I frowned and spat out the words.

“You suit-wearing bastard, come out while I’m being nice. If you don’t come out, you’re really dead.”

“……”

“There are two 5-stars here. Do you think we can’t take you down?”

“……”

“That skill, you used it on the Gumiho first, didn’t you? After you used it and it didn’t work because of his mental resistance, you switched it to the comatose Hwarang.”

The notification sound rang twice in total. The first time, the Gumiho flinched. However, he didn’t react particularly much. He seemed to have an attitude of knowing instinctively that something bad almost happened to him, but not knowing exactly what it was.

And a little later, the second notification sound rang. This time, the skill worked properly. The monster abandoned San Gun, whom it had been fighting until now, and suddenly rushed toward Hwarang like a madman. Ignoring even the taunt effect of the <Changgwi> skill cast previously.

It is a characteristic of <Black Operation>. Even if this skill succeeds, the target and the subject do not perceive it. Even if it fails, it only leaves a vague sense of unpleasantness. A perfect concealment technique where the existence of the one who cast the skill is never revealed under any circumstances.

“I said come out. You’re not coming? Do you really want to die?”

I think I would have been less angry if that bastard had simply rushed at me to try and harm me. Like the Hwarang with 100 pollution or the other guys who had lost their minds.

But he targeted my retainers, not me. He caused even San Gun and the Gumiho to get caught in that attack and get hurt. I don’t know what that bastard’s mental state is currently, and I don’t want to know, but looking only at this situation, it was a chillingly cold strategy.

So, where was I earlier? As for whether I was on the side that used that fellow well or the side that used him poorly…. Was I that far?

Because I was.

“<Nameless Star>!”

I shouted as if screaming toward the corridor beyond where the smoke had not yet fully cleared.

I was one who utilized that Incarnation, <Nameless Star>, very well. If the one I used most usefully among the combat-type Incarnations of <No Lifer> was <Mountain Hero>, among the non-combat types, it was <Nameless Star>.

The giant monster, which should have poured out its next attack by now, is strangely quiet. As if it had received some intangible order from someone to shut its mouth and stay still. Was this also some trick that fellow played?

Thump, thump, thump.

From far away in the hazy corridor, a rhythmic sound began to be heard. The sound of solid shoe heels hitting the floor.

As the sound grew closer, the long, black silhouette gradually took a concrete shape. It was a tall man with black hair parted to the side, wearing a black suit.

Every part of his suit was black, except for the white dress shirt. The jacket and trousers, the shoes, the socks, the belt, the necktie, and the tie pin. Was he planning to go to a funeral wake?

When his long, horizontal eyes smiled at me, slight wrinkles formed at the corners of his eyes. I could tell he looked older than me, but I had no idea if he was in his late 30s, 40s, or older.

He was a man of a strange atmosphere. Even though his features themselves were perfectly handsome, strangely, a sense of wariness was felt.

The man was unarmed, except for holding a walkie-talkie in one hand and wearing an in-ear microphone in his ear. He didn’t even have a common combat knife or a single pistol.

“Is this the first command you are personally handing down? I shall follow it. I do not resist the commands of the higher-ups…. No matter what they are.”

With smooth, flowing movements, he raised both hands to confirm that he had no weapons. However, it didn’t particularly make me feel at ease. Because I already knew that his specialty was not something like fighting or shooting.

“Codename <Nameless Star>. I am a specter in the name of the national interest.”

The man showed a polite, mask-like smile.