Through the window inside the room, I can see two black voids.
As if it doesn’t care that this is the twenty-sixth floor, those black pupils stare straight at me.
The black pupils are… not separated, but stuck tightly together like a single structure.
But more than that, its outward appearance catches my eye.
Black pupils, covered by a transparent canopy.
A long, cone-like body in the center, with triangular wings attached to either side.
It hovers there in silence.
I have seen this form before. Back in the past, when I was still in the Republic of Korea.
“A VTOL fighter jet….”
The thing hovering silently in front of me is far too similar to a fighter jet, something utterly removed from living creatures.
Aside from the fact that instead of a pilot, it has a brain and eyes. And that for thrust, it uses mana rather than fuel.
My intuition is beginning to burn hot from the top of my head. An instinct close to survival itself.
At the very least, I do not think that bizarre creature will be of any help to me.
As a subtle tension hangs in the air.
…Tick.
A faint sound rings out.
Like something burning. No, to be precise….
“Mana is flowing…!”
Kwaaaang!!
The moment I entrust my body to my instincts and roll across the floor, a swarm of flames pours down.
As if firing a machine gun wildly, dozens of small clusters of light appear beneath its wings.
Kwaang! Kwaang!!
I rush out into the corridor, and the flames follow my path as I move frantically from side to side.
The sound of the explosions chasing behind me grows closer and closer.
‘At this rate, I’ll get caught! A corner, I need to find a corner.’
I am dodging by running back and forth down the straight corridor, but even that will soon become impossible.
Passing countless rooms like the wind, my gaze fixes on the corner up ahead.
‘If I can just get past that!’
Kwaang!
A mana bullet grazes past my ear.
It won’t be long before they start hitting me. But at the same time, the corner is only a few steps away.
Taat!
My footstep shoots forward as though I am leaping.
And a mana bullet passes by my side.
But now, behind the safety of the wall—
████
-Target locked
Behind the wall, what I see there is.
A black pupil.
“You son of a—”
Kwaang!!
A heavy explosion crashes into me. Though I hurriedly move mana into my hands, red flowers bloom across my skin.
The next moment.
Paang—!
A sudden sense of speed, emptiness, clusters of light scattering around me.
I am blasted out of the building.
“Kheup!”
I am falling, blindly toward the ground.
At this rate, without question, I will become minced meat.
No. If I die like this, it will all be meaningless.
In the brief moment as I begin to plummet.
Before I know it, my arm has drawn my sword in a reverse grip.
And that sword.
I drive it into the building.
Along with an intense resistance, the windows begin to pour down like a heavy rain.
If there is any fortune in misfortune, it is that at that moment, I feel no pain at all.
But… it is not enough.
My speed is decreasing, but the ground is approaching even faster.
“Please!!”
Clenching my molars, I concentrate as much mana as I can into my legs.
Soon, the impact comes crashing in.
Paang!!
“Kkeuheup….”
The shock feels as if my entire body has been struck by a giant hammer, and my body refuses to obey me.
I look fine on the outside, but… it seems several of my bones are broken.
I try somehow to swallow the pain, but a groan leaks out from the pain I cannot hold back.
I am almost completely unable to fight, but the aircraft that shoots rapidly out of the building remains perfectly intact.
In the brief opening while it comes outside and checks where I am.
I somehow move my body into a shadow where those things cannot see me.
Whoooong!!
I hear the sound of the fighter jet searching for me in the sky.
Unlike the fighter jet roaming through the sky as if it owns it, my body is gravely injured.
Blood drips from both my arms, and my left leg will not take any proper strength.
I try to control the pain with deep breaths, but the pain does not calm easily.
“Hoo….”
A faint, pain-filled breath leaks out.
At this rate, I will die before I can even properly get into the submersible.
Fortunately, perhaps, the sound of the fighter jet flying through the air is gradually growing distant.
At this moment, I have a choice.
First, somehow return to the submersible on my own.
Second, receive help from the Gallery.
Receiving help from the Gallery is easy.
If I simply ask, the fixed-nick will give me a gift for one reason or another.
The first option is dangerous no matter how I dress it up.
Putting growth aside, it will be difficult just to survive.
As if aware of my situation, the fixed-nick should also be leaving worried comments….
“…?”
Strange. Shouldn’t a comment have come up by now?
A subtle sense of wrongness I have felt ever since I encountered the fighter jet.
There is a cluster of light, but it does not rise.
My eyes read the cluster of light that has been there since the fighter jet appeared.
[At the request of Jin███, the Gallery has been closed. █ users of the Gallery, please write down any inconveniences and submit an inquiry to Jin███.]
What happened? Why has the Gallery been closed?
Why, of all times, did it have to close now—
“No… I don’t need it.”
The flow of negative thoughts cuts off. Negative thinking does not help me survive.
Right now, I need to think only about what I can do right now.
“Hoo….”
I take a deep breath. Slowly, carefully, I think.
Right now, my situation is very bad. Bad enough that even a Cyclops would be difficult to deal with.
Then what can I use to get to the submersible?
The sword… is difficult to use. As long as I cannot properly use my legs or arms, the sword does not seem like a very meaningful option.
So, another solution….
“…Magic.”
Magic. I am still inexperienced, but at the very least, it is a meaningful solution that is not restricted by the state of my body.
But how can I get to the submersible?
The stray thoughts recede, and my mind begins to turn in search of a solution.
‘First, the Cyclopes.’
Normally, Cyclopes are no threat at all, but right now, if I encounter them, I should assume I will die.
So I need to clear the Cyclopes out of the path I will take.
Diverting the Cyclopes’ attention is easy. If I throw a lump of mana, that should be enough to draw aggro.
‘Then next, the fighter jet.’
The fighter jet… I don’t know its exact criteria. If it detected mana, it would have found me immediately.
Then… it seems it sees with its eyes.
“Mana and the shape of a person…”
If I can satisfy those conditions, it should make a sufficient decoy.
The problem is….
“How do I manifest it…?”
I have to create clone magic. Within at least five minutes.
After five minutes, the chances of being caught by either Cyclopes or the fighter jet become too high.
Creating something new is… no good. The chances that I will collapse just like last time are too high.
So I need to imitate.
A clone, in the end, is another me split off from myself.
If I can imitate myself, it should definitely be possible.
I focus my mind. I feel the flow of mana moving within me.
A neat flow, one that feels perfect, without the slightest excess, like a machine.
I slowly imitate it.
From the head and heart, which are essential to life, I slowly extend the flow outward.
A pain like my skull is about to shatter comes over me. But it is different from before.
Because this is nothing more than an act of “imitation.”
Head, torso, arms, legs. I create a clone whose entire body is made of mana.
The moment I feel that it is complete and open my eyes.
There, in green light, I am.
Drip.
Red blood runs down my philtrum.
When I wipe the nosebleed with my finger, the “me” in front of me wipes its nose as well.
A “me” linked to me, and controllable by me.
“Me” runs without hesitation into the street filled with Cyclopes.
Chajajajak!!
The sound of a wave of slashes rings out, and my mana also begins to drain away in an instant.
Right now, I squeeze out every bit of strength I have and do not have, and walk out beyond the street.
Sssrk… sssrk….
Pain flows from the leg that drags because I cannot walk properly.
The mana that once seemed bottomless now feels, by instinct, as though its quantity is decreasing.
Sssrk… sssrk….
I pass the food factory.
Then.
Kwaang! Kwaang!!
The sound of the fighter jet’s bombardment echoes like a reverberation, and my mana consumption worsens drastically.
There is not much left now. Both the distance to the submersible and the life of the clone.
Sssrk… sssrk….
Sand begins to come into view.
Now, soon, the submersible will be right there.
At the thought that there is only a little farther to go, I push the pain aside and move my feet in larger steps.
Now, soon—
Whoooong….
The sound of wind flows in from behind.
The sound of mana wind coming from the fighter jet.
When I slowly turn my head, I see the fighter jet hovering behind and above me before I know it.
With its mana bullets gleaming.
Come to think of it, my mana had run out.
Ever since the sand began to come into view.
…If I had known this would happen, maybe I should have increased my mana more.
Though it is meaningless now.
The light of the mana bullet reflects in my empty pupils.
Soon, it will fire.
Piyung!!
When I close my eyes, a thin, high-pitched sound passes by.
How should I put it? It sounds closer to an arrow than a bullet.
…The sound is different.
Clearly different from the sound of a mana bullet.
At that sound, I slowly open my eyes.
Whoong! Whoooong—!!
Kwaak!
I see the fighter jet staggering as if it cannot control itself, then crashing down.
While my mind still cannot catch up with what just happened.
Wiiing!
A fierce engine sound rings out.
Listening to that familiar sound of caterpillar tracks, I close my eyes.
Time remaining until the Reaper’s zone shift: 3 days.