Heart of Akasha
Chapter 1: Press Start to Die
It was still there. Ji-Han had thought that maybe he had been half-asleep and thus was seeing things, but refreshing his face in the bathroom had done nothing to make the strange writings go away.
[-The Gamer-
LV 3 Han, Ji-Han]
Those words were still floating above his head. Usually in such a situation one is generally expected to assume they were dreaming or hallucinating. And granted, he had still not thrown those options off the table. However, it felt way too realistic to be a dream. He even did the old trick of pinching himself and felt pain, so it being a dream was really unlikely. And as for hallucination… okay, maybe this was a hallucination. Still, a hallucination that showed one's name and some random video game mechanics when one looked into the mirror? That was crazily specific. Add to that his weird dream talking about how he had some special power and just he couldn't help but wonder about what if this wasn't a hallucination? What if this was real? Though just the words alone would be pretty crappy for some great power, so maybe if he connected them with the dream? Like, for example, could he summon the sword from the dreams?
Not having anything to lose, Ji-Han held out his hand and imagined the sword appearing in his hand. But nothing happened. Maybe he had to do shout some catchphrase? But there were literally thousands of possible phrases, how was he summonsed to know, which one to use?!
"Sword… appear?" He tried out, yet again nothing happened.
"Dream Sword, appear? Dream Sword, come to me?"
Still nothing. So, he couldn't just will it to appear. He needed the catchphrase, the password so to speak. Huh, maybe he should try out things he might use as a password.
"Jee7-amho7-han7."
"Password."
"Swordfish."
"Open says me."
"By the power of Grayskull!"
Okay, that wasn't working. He was just going to assume that if he wasn't hallucinating, there would be some hints later. For now he would just ignore it. Not too difficult since he only ever saw the words when looking into a mirror.
"Ji-Han, are you awake yet?!" A female voice sounded from below. His mother, Han Jung-Sook, who was getting, not exactly worried, but conscious of the fact that he wasn't down yet and might get too late to school.
"I'm coming!" he shouted and quickly got ready.
The table had already been set when he finally made his way downstairs and promptly stopped in the entrance to the kitchen. Not because of the breakfast, no, that was just standard rice, grilled tofu, cold cucumber soup, radish strip kimchi and seasoned kelp. What made him freeze were the words above his mother's head:
[-ˀ?ˀ-
Lv? Han Jung-Sook]
Okay, now he really hoped he wasn't hallucinating, because if those words appeared above every single person they would become a lot more difficult to ignore.
"Don't just stand there", his mother chastised him, pulling him out of his stupor.
Right. He'd deal with all of this later. For now he's just focus on not getting too late for school.
As it turned out, figuring out whether or not he was hallucinating would actually pretty easy. He'd just had to ask a random person on the street "excuse me, but is your name Hyang So-Wal?" Since the whatever-it-was had decided to literally place the name of every person above them in blue letters, even those that he didn't know, a hallucination could be easily exposed.
He just didn't do it because of two reasons. First, confirming the name of random people on the street was weird, no matter whether he was right or wrong. Second, there was the other information the whatever-it-was gave him. Every person showed up with their level and sometimes something like a title. Everyone, except for his mother. His mother, the person he should know the most about, only had question marks at the place for level and title. And then there was his childhood friend Shin Sun-Il.
Sun-Il was a guy his age with green spiky hair, which fell over his right eye in multiple bangs. He usually gave a relaxed impression with his closed eyes and laid-back smile. His body was lean and athletic, reminding Ji-Han of the Korean Martial Arts his friend did. Which was also something that his Level of 25 told about. Generally the people in his class had levels from 2 to 6 with Sun-Il being the only exception and even from the adults he had seen so far, the highest level had been their English and homeroom teacher Do Gi-Hyun with 15.
Yet while the level could be explained, there was something else that couldn't: [-Chunbumoon's Heir-]. Sun-Il had never mentioned anything about something like "Chunbumoon" Adding his mother's question marks and he felt like there was some secret conspiracy going around that he had no idea of. Which was why he didn't just come out and asked them about it. Not that he didn't trust them, but what if their secret organizations were the likes of "I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you"? Even if they wanted to help him, their higher-ups might not. And for now he didn't want to put them on the spot like that. If things got worse, he'd have to take the leap of faith and eventually meet a doctor if it turned out he actually was hallucinating. But for now he'd just wait and see where it went.
The ring of the bell signaled the end of the lesson and Ji-Han let out a sigh. Finally. Concentrating on the lesson was quite difficult when your head was full with thoughts on hallucinations and secret organizations. And that was only the first lesson of the day. He still had to go through the rest. Not to mention that not even history was finished for the day as his teacher called out into the room:
"And for next week you are going to do page 57, number 1 and 2."
Ji-Han let out a groan in response to the prospect of homework, only to choke on his own spit when suddenly a ringing tone resounded and in the air in front him appeared a transparent rectangular panel of blue color. In each of the upper corners was a circle in a darker blue filled with a question mark in the case of the left one and an "X" in the case of the right one. There was also a greenish triangle in the lower right-hand corner. And in the center were the words
{A quest has been created.}
That not enough, above his teacher were now not only his name and level, but also a yellow question mark.
Dumbfounded Ji-Han switched between looking at the screen and his teacher. The heck?! The whatever-it-was came with a Quest-system?!
Nervously he looked around to see if no one was paying attention to him and his eyes met the ones of his friend Sun-Il who came over from his seat to do small talk. Which Ji-Han indulged in, too, doing his best to ignore the panel. And, to his surprise, it actually vanished shortly after appearing. So at last it wouldn't clutter his field of vision forever. That was a relief.
"Is there something wrong?" Sun-Il inquired, noticing him spacing out.
"No, nothing", Ji-Han quickly replied. He really should stop letting his mind wander. If that happened in class and the teacher noticed, he'd be in for a world of pain. With some teachers more literally than with others. So he pulled himself together and concentrated on other the other things.
At first it was difficult, but after some time it became easier. Without any more panels popping up, the labels were just there, like a part of the scenery. By the time lunch break rolled in, he finally wasn't getting distracted anymore, whether it was in the lesson or the conversation with his friend. It was in the lunch break when things started to become crazy again.
He had just been sitting down with Sun-Il on a bench outside, when suddenly his smartphone was vibrating. Taking it out, he couldn't help but open his eyes in surprise as he saw who was calling him: His mother. Why would she call him during his lunch break? Wasn't she currently busy at work?
"Mom?" He greeted as he accepted the call. "Is everything alright?"
"That depends", came her voice through the phone. "Did something unusual happen today?"
Unusual? Oh, she had no idea… didn't she? Unusual could mean many things. Eating something different at breakfast, taking a different route to school, meeting people at a place you normally don't see them or, just hypothetically, seeing names of people floating above their head.
His mother was the only person who had question marks instead of her name. So, if there were something going on more than a simple hallucination, his mother would be the most likely to find out.
"How unusual are we talking about?" He thus asked Jung-Sook who sighed in response.
"The you-wouldn't-believe-me-if-I-told-you-unusual. You know, the kind you normally don't talk about."
"There is indeed something like that…" He began and promptly got interrupted by his mom.
"Okay, that's enough. I just needed confirmation at this point. Listen, don't tell anybody about whatever it is. And I mean nobody. I have to leave for a few days because of stuff that had come up but once I am back I'll tell you everything you want to know, alright?"
"…sure."
"Until later then. And remember, don't tell anyone."
With that she ended the call, making him do the same in return.
Okay. It seemed like he wasn't hallucinating, after all. And there was indeed a secret conspiracy going around that his mother was part of. And soon, hopefully would he… but how did she know that something unusual went on? Secret conspiracies didn't stay secret because someone talks about it without reason. And she sounded so sure that she knew what he was talking about. Is seeing people's names above their head like some magical bloodline skill? Maybe he's actually a wizard!
"Is everything alright? What was the call about?" Inquired Sun-Il, making Ji-Han remember he wasn't on his own.
Shin Sun-Il. Chunbumoon's Heir. Lv 25 If the conspiracy was real than so was probably the information about him, the crazy level and title. That means he was probably part of some conspiracy, too.
He was tempted to just go ahead and ask Sun-Il what this was all about but he didn't. Not because his mother had told him to tell no one. No, it was because he still had no idea whether they were even part of the same conspiracy less if they were on the same side. Setting his friend against his mother really wasn't something he wanted to do, especially before he figured out what was even going on. And maybe he was a bit petty but to think that his best friend would keep a secret like this from him…
"It was just my mother telling me she'll be out for a while" he thus just told him. "Nothing to worry about."
"Really?" Inquired Sun-Il and his voice took on a teasing tone. "Are you sure you are going to be alright on your own? It's you we are talking about, after all!"
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Inquired Ji-Han narrowing his eyes and Sun-Il chuckled.
"Oh, nothing special", he replied, "just that a video game addict like you will probably forget all about homework and waste the whole day playing if there is no one around to remind you."
"That one time…"
"One time? I can remember three on top of my head…"
"Screw you", was all the defense Ji-Han could muster before his smartphone vibrated again. One look at the display and... His mother. Again?
"Mom? What's the matter?!" Considering she had just called him because of some sort of conspiracy, he felt right in worrying that something had happened. His mother noticed as much as she quickly called him down.
"Nothing happened", she told him. "I just remembered I also should tell you it would be better not to let anyone in at home until I am back, too."
"Home?"
"That's right. Okay, that was everything. Bye."
"…bye", responded Ji-Han but she had already disconnected.
"Trouble at home?" Asked Sun-Il, concern clear in his voice. Ji-Han's heart skipped a beat at that, as he finally realized that keeping what happened a secret from Sun-Il might be difficult if he was talking about it in front of him, even with only one half of the conversation.
Not that it was actually necessary to keep all these secrets. He might just later tell Sun-Il, "Hey, I am now part of the conspiracy, too" but for now he'd listen to his mother. If only so she wouldn't give him a hard time later. He was still curious on what the heck happened at home. Really curious. This would drive him crazy the whole day. Wasn't there a way he could check right now?
"Actually my mother forgot to lock our house", Ji-Han quickly spun a tale out of what Sun-Il had heard of the conversation. "Can you tell the teacher I'll be late? I've gotta go and lock it up."
"Sure. Don't take too long."
"Right."
"Arggh! What's that about?!"
When he first had gotten home, nothing there seemed to be out of the ordinary. The hallway? Nothing. The living room? The kitchen? Nothing. The storeroom? Nothing. The bathroom? Nothing. It was only when he went into his own room that he saw something out of the ordinary.
First, there were all these packaged boxes of different sizes that were scattered all over his bed and desk. From what the first glances told him, they seemed to be full of different kind of clothing, hastily crammed in. But any further speculation on them was cut short for the moment because of the second thing that was unusual: His cupboard being completely sealed with wooden planks and some literal seal-like drawings plastered all over it with a big {Do not Open}-label. It looked like some evil spirit had made that place their home and some exorcist had wanted to make sure it never came out again.
Which was a hell of a problem if he couldn't get any of his stuff… wait a moment.
He took a look at the boxes and indeed, all his stuff had been moved out of the cupboard and into the boxes. Did his mother pack it all before she went away? Hadn't she been in a hurry? Did she thought he would open it if she didn't empty it? Was the thing inside his cupboard really that important?
Damn, now he was really curious. Hopefully his mother would come back soon. If she didn't, it was only a matter of time before he went too curious and opened it up, no matter how much of a bad idea he knew that was.
But for now he was able to keep his curiosity in check. He left the room, the house and made extra-sure to look the door because after that excuse forgetting to do so would just be embarrassing. Then he went back to school. If he was quick he might only miss art class. Not that he actually felt like going to school but his mother did tell him not to let anyone in. Which would happen if Sun-Il were to bring him the materials of missed classes.
In the end he did manage to make it in time. Even if he was more than glad once math was finally over, signaling the end of the day. Only missing art class did make it so that he didn't really had anything to read up on. Unfortunately their math teacher still gave them homework.
PING!
Even though it happened the last time a teacher had assigned homework, Ji-Han still had gotten surprised when a yellow question mark appeared above the teacher's head and the light-blue panel appeared in front of his face with the exact same words:
{A quest has been created.}
Was that going to appear every time now when he got homework? The last time he had ignored the message but if that was going to happen all the time, he might as well see how deep the rabbit hole went.
Discreetly he tipped on the triangle in the lower right corner and instantly the panel vanished, only for another to appear:
{Quest Alert
Homework: Does Everybody Hate Math?
Homework is an ever-present fact in your school life, whether you like it or not.
Give your finished math homework to your math teacher before the start of the next lesson.
Completion Award: EXP 50.
No punishment for missing homework.
Completion Failure:
Decreased reputation with the teaching staff.
Increased reputation with the troublemakers.}
And, below that but still on the panel were two rectangles resembling the buttons in a computer program labeled {YES} and {NO}.
That was when he had a revelation. Names and levels above people, quest alerts on tasks, gaining experience upon completing, it appeared as if his life somehow had turned into a video game. This. Is. Amazing! He couldn't wait to see what else this "game" had to offer!
He quickly tipped at the {YES}, making the panel disappear, together with the question mark above his teacher's head. Oh, how exciting! He couldn't wait to finish his homework… did he really just think that?! Maybe he should cut down on the enthusiasm a bit. Even if it was in a game, it was still homework. Being a game shouldn't be enough to make it any more bearable.
As it turned out, looking forward to the end did help him get through it, if only a bit. Unfortunately the quest only finished upon handing in the homework. Which meant he still had a lot of time to kill until he finally got to see what happened upon completing a quest. And then he also had to call Sun-Il to ask him about the history homework thanks to the game-thing making him forget to note them down.
Which promptly made Sun-Il tease him about how his mother hadn't even be gone for a day and he'd already trouble keeping up with schoolwork. Ji-Han quickly pointed out how that was before he even heard about his mother's leave so it couldn't be connected. Unfortunately he hadn't won the argument yet, as Sun-Il proclaimed that he'd probably forgot about it because of a game. Naturally he instantly denied that claim, because even if his friend was technically right, he couldn't exactly shut it off, so it didn't count!
Interestingly, he got a new quest notification when Sun-Il finally gave him the homework. He wondered that, if he hadn't forgotten to write the tasks down, he would have permanently missed the chance for EXP from his History homework when he ignored the quest notification the first time.
Speaking of, the quest was practically the same, only with a different subject:
{Quest Alert
Homework: Written by the Victors
Homework is an ever-present fact in your school life, whether you like it or not.
Give your finished History homework to your History teacher before the start of the next lesson.
Completion Award: EXP 50.
No punishment for missing homework.
Completion Failure:
Decreased reputation with the teaching staff.
Increased reputation with the troublemakers.}
As he accepted the quest, he wondered what happened if the homework was due to not the next lesson but the lesson after it, maybe even a long-term assignment. But for now he'd just finish the homework he already got. That was going to be difficult enough as it is.
Another day and another batch of homework. However, this time only one of them gave him a new quest: {Homework: EXP Equals MC Screwed}. While he actually had gotten some homework for English, it just had been to learn their new vocabulary. If he had to guess, he probably hadn't gotten an actual quest because it wasn't something to hand in. That didn't mean it wouldn't screw him over if he forgot to do it, but he wouldn't get EXP for it all the same.
Which, naturally, made him even more reluctant to actually study it. He'd already not gotten to see what happened upon a finished quest because the first homework was only due to the next day, he'd gotten home later than the day before and he still had to make dinner because his mother wasn't home. So, all in all the motivation for any homework was at an all-time low. You'd think having your life turned into a video game would make everything more exciting but that was not the case. Just one day and he was already getting bored of it. Maybe if there were actually monsters to fight or epic adventures to be had, it would be more interesting. But so far it was all the same as always. Waking up, going to school, doing homework, going to sleep.
In the end, all he did was the Physics homework and English was left for another day. Instead he sat down at the computer to play actual games. Until he got hungry at last. Then he went down to make dinner.
The day before he had just ordered take-out but if his mother came back and asked him what he had eaten in the time she had been gone, he'd get an earful if all he could say would have been take-out. Thus he actually went into their kitchen and cooked.
But since he didn't have the motivation for something big, he only made rolled omelet with some spinach and rice. In fact, he made enough to eat it the next day for breakfast, too. Yes, his motivation was that low.
Funnily enough, that was when something interesting happened. He had just finished the omelet as another PING resounded through the kitchen. Ji-Han was dumbfounded as he wondered, just what kind of quest could be created when he made food. But the blue panel was not for a quest-notification but for something completely different:
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
And right after he had read it, the panel vanished and another appeared:
{A skill to craft consumable items, [Food Preparation], has been created.}
And again, another panel appeared. But this time it was of a magenta color and only covering the other panel partly instead of outright dismissing it.
{[Food Preparation (active) Lv1 EXP: 10.0%]
A crafting technique to create consumable items
out of other consumable items.
Eating is one of the most basic human needs,
but mankind has long turned it into an art.
Registered recipes: 1
Chance to fail when crafting: Rank * 50%}
Moreover, next to the Rolled Omelets, one more panel, this time again in blue, also showed up:
{Registered Recipe: [Han-Style Korean Rolled Egg Omelet]
Variant: 1; Rank: Normal
Ingredients: egg; scallion, ham, salt, vegetable oil
Tools: chopping knife, bowl, frying pan, spatula
Preparations: [Details]}
Ji-Han would have drowned in the mass of notifications if they weren't so exciting! Forget the quests, this was where the fun in the game was! He could just make skills and then level up these, independent from his actual level. And while he didn't know what specific skills he could create, cooking – or as it was called here, [Food Preparation] – alone already promised to be quite multi-layered.
Now with that newfound motivation, Ji-Han quickly began making more food. In the end, Ji-Han ended up making seven more different dishes: [Seasoned Spinach], [Seaweed Soup], [Fermented Napa Cabbage], [Fermented Scallions], [Cooked White Rice] and two versions of [Han-Style Kimchi Fried Rice].
That was when his cooking leveled up. Which surprised him a bit. Hadn't the EXP of the skill been at 10 percent? Shouldn't he still need to do another dish before he'd be getting a Level-Up? Could it be that his failures had given him EXP, too? That seemed like the logical explanation. If that was the case, he definitively didn't mind it. He had messed up the seasoning for the Spinach alone three times and once for the Scallions. And then he overcooked the rice once. Really, when the skill had said it had a failure rate of 50%, it wasn't kidding.
And that was whether or not he used the autopilot function, where his body went automatically through the steps on a selected recipe. But as the Spinach had showed, he could still mess up either way… even if the result of a failure on autopilot was a lot more… spectacular than a failure outside of it. Still, it was funny how he could just space out and then a PING would alert him of a finished recipe. He could use that time for something else, as long as it wasn't something he needed his hands for. He was already getting some ideas on how to abuse this system.
Nevertheless, for now he'd first had to stock up on ingredients, before he could try out more cooking. He used up quite a lot in his previous attempts…
The next day Ji-Han finally got to finish his first quest. And it was pretty underwhelming. All he got were notification with {You have completed the quest [Homework: Does Everybody Hate Math?]} and {+50EXP}. Maybe once he'd finished enough quests to Level-Up something interesting would happen. But for now he'd just use his free time focusing on getting new skills. He did get some more ingredients for cooking, but he didn't want to use up all their money while his mother was away.
But what other skills could there be? [Food Preparation] had been a crafting-type skill so he could probably make other ones. But things like [Forging] would be difficult to do at home and things like [Drawing] didn't seem to be worth the effort.
He could try out some form of martial arts but for that he should just consult Sun-Il. And he was still waiting for his mother's explanation before doing that. Maybe he should try something with languages. He still had to learn the new vocabulary list so that would be like hitting two birds with one stone.
So he took out his English textbook and studied the vocabulary. He studied and studied, then he studied some more. And in the end…
"This isn't working!" Exclaimed Ji-Han in frustration. No matter how hard he tried, he didn't get a skill for the English language. Did he do something wrong? Or aren't there any skills for languages? There were just too many things he didn't know.
"Sigh."
Maybe he should try and see if he could learn under the autopilot function of the [Food Preparation]. He had wanted to see if that could work, didn't he? And he might as well do it trying to cram in the translations. Unfortunately, the autopilot only worked for recipes that he had already registered. So which one should he make… let's go with [Cooked White Rice]. He could combine that with many other dishes so he could add some new recipes afterwards.
He went down to the kitchen, put his textbook on the counter and weighted the pages with some cutlery so they wouldn't turn over by itself. Then he put the ingredients and necessary tools on the counter and called out:
"[Food Preparation]!"
Now a light brown panel appeared in front of him. It was made out of three rows of five tiles in a darker shade of brown. Down below them where two triangles as arrows to the left and right, as well a field for {Portions} with triangles for up and down and a button labeled with {Cancel}. Some of the tiles were filled with pictures of dishes, specifically the dishes he had prepared the day before.
Ji-Han kept the Portions at the original {1}, tipped at one of the pictures and promptly a blue panel opened up in front of the brown one asking:
{Craft 1 portion of [Cooked White Rice]?}
{YES} {NO}
Ji-Han tipped {YES} and his body went through the motions while his mind tried to study. Which was actually easier than he first thought. Even though his body in general was in lock-down, he could still move his head without messing up anything. In fact, he didn't even need to look down to prepare the food. So he had no trouble rehearsing the vocabulary while making the [Cooked White Rice]. The only real problem was sometimes to keep his eyes on the book when his body went through a specific motion but that was a minor issue.
When he was finished, he had one successful [Cooked White Rice] and the pride from managing to exploit the game mechanics to do two things at the same time. Even if he didn't get a skill for English, he now at last could do something for school and play this game at the same time!
PING
Eagerly Ji-Han looked at the panel that had opened. Did he get the language skill, after all?!
{Due to your habit of making intelligent
decisions, you gained 1 WIS.}
"No way…" He breathed out. His stats increased outside of levels?! Then what was the EXP for? Wait. Maybe they increased also outside of levels… damn, he really hoped they did. Otherwise it would be way too difficult to raise his stats… thinking about it, would raising his stats have any effect in the first place? Even if this was a game, this was still Real Life, after all. Seeing the name of people above their heads was one thing but getting stronger by raising a number? That was completely different.
…maybe he should just try it out and see what happens? He had some dumbbells. So, if the stats increased in a somewhat logical manner, working out using those should increase his Strength. He had the next day off so he could try it out all-day long. For now he'd do some more cooking while learning.
When the day ended he had added three more recipes, [Soybean Sprout Soup], [Han-Style Korean Pan-Fried Fish] and [Han-Style Kimchi Fried Rice], to the [Food Preparation]. And while he didn't level up his skill, his studying gave him a different message:
{Diligent studying causes
your INT to go up by 1.}
So all the English vocabulary rehearsal was good for something else, too. This game was getting better and better!
When Ji-Han woke up the next day, he was in good spirits. He had no school today, which meant that he could use the full day – minus homework – to spend experimenting with the game.
So, after a breakfast consisting out of shrink-wrapped sandwiches since he didn't want to use up all the money for cooking-attempts before his mother came back, he went out to the shed. Today he wanted to try out, whether or not an increase in STR would actually make him stronger. But for that he'd first have to find out, how much "strength" he actually had at the moment. But since he didn't own any Strength-measuring devices, he had to improvise.
Which was why he was in the shed, filling a box with random stuff and tried lifting it. Then, if he managed to do it, he'd put more stuff in it, otherwise he'd take things out, until he got something he barely could not lift. Then he would work out to raise his STR and afterwards see if he could lift it then.
Which took a lot more time than he expected. He thought it would be done in half an hour but now it was lunch time and he had still not found the right combination of objects. The things he had were all just so different that putting in just enough to make it just barely too heavy to lift was a lot more difficult than just using a number of metal blocks or actual weights.
Sighing, Ji-Han went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. Maybe a short break would be good for him…
Suddenly Ji-Han heard the doorbell ring. Confused he looked up from the ingredients. Someone was coming? Who could that be? His mother would just get in without ringing the doorbell and Sun-Il would have called before.
He went to the intercom and pushed the "connect"-button.
"Yes?" he asked. "How can I help you?"
"Oh, someone does live here. Interesting."
Say what?
"Why wouldn't there anyone living here? And, who are you for that matter?!"
"Forgive me. I always get like this when I find something intriguing. It comes with my job as researcher. I am like… a 'Speed Wagon' is the mundane term I believe. Although personally I prefer to be called the 'Truth Wagon'. I am a Seeker of Truth, after all."
Just what was with this guy?!
"And what is a 'Seeker of Truth' doing at my house?" Ji-Han inquired skeptically.
"As the name implies, I am always looking for the truth. And now a rare opportunity has presented itself: The heart, or rather, the door to the heart, the keyhole, previously hidden in the most secret location, has now appeared in such a mundane environment. I cannot… 'Pass this up' is what I believe kids nowadays would say."
"The heart? Keyhole?" Ji-Han repeated what the visitor had said. He had no idea what that guy was referring to. Which the Seeker of Truth seemed to notice immediately.
"You do not know of it? Interesting", he commented. "While the keyhole is not something that is considered common knowledge, I would expect different from someone who is practically living on top of it… unless… they are the reason for the change of its location in the first place! Did you recently, no, in the last four days, develop a special ability?"
Ji-Han was completely taken aback.
"Wha- how- ", he tried to form a response but he couldn't. Just how did he know about that?! Just what the hell was the keyhole?!
"So you did!" Truth Wagon exclaimed excitedly. "Still, you are not the first Natural Ability User, nor will you be the last. So why would the keyhole appear with you? What makes you so special compared to the others? Interesting, very interesting. I'll come in."
"What?!" Ji-Han exclaimed in shock but no response came. Instead the hallway became dark as if the day had suddenly turned into night. In panic Ji-Han flipped the light switch over and over but there seemed to be no electricity.
Then suddenly a light appeared next to him and he let out a startled yelp. The light came from sort of futuristic-looking visor, which was like a horizontal bar on a white cloth that completely covered the face of a figure otherwise shrouded in a dark hooded cloak.
"Oh, you are here, too?" Noted the newcomer. "This is just one surprise after another. I should have been the only one in this Illusion Barrier yet here you are. Did you intrude here on purpose or accidentally?"
Ji-Han just stared blankly at the figure in front of him. Was that the guy he had talked to the whole time? And did he just teleport into his house?
"From your lack of reaction I assume the second."
Suddenly literal cracks in space appeared around them, letting light shine through. Then all the darkness shattered and the surroundings returned to how they were before but the newcomer was still there. And then Ji-Han got another shock when above the Seeker of Truth there was no label or level floating there. That never happened before. Just what was that guy?!
"Interesting. But I should not forget what I came here for in the first place. I can always study you while I am breaking any seals in place."
Study him? Ji-Han didn't like the sound of that. But for now the Truth Wagon passed him and… went upstairs? Ji-Han followed him. Which wasn't exactly a smart decision considering that he had no idea who that guy was but he was too confused by everything that happened to think straight.
Without any hesitation, as if he knew the layout of the house, the Seeker of Truth went towards Ji-Han's bedroom, directing his attention towards the closet cupboard for just a second, before walking towards the chair at his desk and sitting down on it. He then span around facing the hesitant Ji-Han.
"Now then", the Seeker of Truth spoke. "Would you mind telling me about that ability of yours?"
That was when Ji-Han was reminded of his mother telling him to not do precisely that. And this guy… he was just too surreal. Walking in this place like he owned it, treating things Ji-Han had no idea of like common knowledge and spoke to him in a friendly manner yet hiding behind a mask, not to mention having no labels above their head. Ji-Han was at a complete loss as to what to do.
"Is something the matter?" The Seeker of Truth inquired through his silence. "Do you not want to tell me about your ability?"
"… I don't know?" Ji-Han replied unsure but it seemed to be the right answer as the Seeker of Truth suddenly perked up.
"You don't know?" He repeated. "You are a Natural Ability User so maybe… tell me, young friend, is this perhaps the first time you have come into contact with someone from the Abyss?"
"The abyss?!"
"So it is. This is unfortunate. But if you do not even know the most fundamental information, you will have difficulties to answer any of my questions. Since we have a lot of time until the seal breaks, you might as well use this time to expand your knowledge. I would be elated if I were to become your senior in searching for the truth, so go ahead and ask questions to fill those gaps!"
Wait? Really? He was going to tell him what was going on?
"Then…" Began Ji-Han. "What exactly is a… 'Natural Ability User'?"
"Ah, yes, this serves well as our first question", acknowledged Truth Wagon. "Opposite to most people, who have to expend effort to gain their abilities, Natural Ability Users are granted a special ability from the world itself. However, the details of the ability are generally not decided by the world and instead take the form of something most important to the user.
For example, someone who had nearly burned to death might get the ability to control the very element that nearly claimed his life. Someone who had been imprisoned all their life might get the ability to teleport or turn intangible if they wish to get free or invulnerability if they are too afraid to go outside. This is why I can't stop studying Natural Ability Users, how they came about and how they develop, especially Late Bloomers."
"Late Bloomers?"
"There are two types of Natural Ability Users. Those that are powerful from the moment they gain their abilities and those that start weak but have the potential to grow without limit if they are allowed to do so. As such those so-called Late Bloomers can potentially develop more and more aspects of their own power, which makes them interesting to study."
"…and I am such an Ability User?" exclaimed Ji-Han aghast and Truth Wagon nodded.
"Indeed. Or at last, so I believe. For only someone so important to the world to be given a Natural Ability could influence the keyhole to be moved to their place."
There was that word again. Just what was the 'keyhole' and what had it to do with the world? Wait.
"The world gives out abilities?!" Ji-Han nearly shouted as he thought back on what the guy had said. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"What this means? Nothing much except what I said. The world gives out abilities… oh, I see. You do not yet know of the Gaia Theory."
"Actually", Ji-Han interjected, "I know of the Gaia Theory. It describes the earth as a single organism with its own will… wait. The Gaia Theory is real?!"
"Indeed. This world, Gaia, has its own will. A will, which it enforces merciless. And before you ask another question, I should point out what you should not do to avoid making it kill you."
What the hell?! The world also kills people?!
"The world does generally not involve itself into the affairs of people", continued Truth Wagon without noticing or ignoring Ji-Han freaking out. "But it wants to keep the Abyss contained to itself. This means that any blatant use of supernatural abilities in front of the public eye results in the death of the offender, generally through a form of bad luck. What exactly is an affront to this so-called 'Interference Law' is not always clear but it has proven that as long as people without knowledge about the Abyss can't tell one is using supernatural abilities, it does not bring down the wrath of Gaia. Which is why the people of the Abyss act within Illusion Barriers."
"Illusion Barriers?"
"Illusion Barriers come in many variants depending on the creator's skill but generally they are all pocket dimensions separate from the real world with only those inside that the caster allowed in or who broke their way in forcefully. No matter how many actions one takes inside one, no matter how much they change the environment, it does not affect the real world. It is within those that anyone of the Abyss uses their abilities so to not bring down Gaia's wrath upon them.
In fact, the creation of an Illusion Barrier is one of the most basic abilities found in the Abyss as well as one of the easiest to initiate because Gaia itself supports their creation as well as their maintenance. However, currently you should not attempt to create one as even empty Illusion Barriers are at this moment filled with Heartless and as you have awakened your ability just recently, you would most likely not be able to fend them off. So you should avoid creating Illusion Barriers for now, especially now that I am trying to access the keyhole."
Okay. Now he just had to know what the keyhole was. It came up so often it had to be important. And when he inquired about it, the Seeker of Truth was just as willing to address it:
"As we have already established, the world has its own will upon which it acts. Just like a living being. But every living being has a 'brain', a 'core' from which all its actions are directed from. The world is no different. Whether it is capable of actual conscious thought or just acts on it instincts has yet to be determined, but this core, generally referred to as the 'Heart of the World' does indeed exist. And the keyhole is its only connection to the outside."
"And something like that is around here?" Spoke Ji-Han aghast and the Seeker of Truth nodded.
"Exactly!" He confirmed enthusiastically. "For the keyhole to be in such a mundane environment, it has to be more important than the world tree! And the only element special enough around here to warrant this, is you, the new Natural Ability User! Can you now understand my excitement about your ability?!"
Ji-Han supposed the Truth Wagon had a point. However….
"But my ability doesn't seem to be anything special so far…"
"If your ability does appear weak, it is only because you have not yet found the true depths of it", the cloaked man refuted. "There is no ability given by Gaia that is weak! You have had your ability for four days. It is natural that you yet don't know all of its aspects. Why don't you tell me how much you already know? I already expressed my interest in it and I am willing to use my knowledge to give you some ideas in exchange."
"Okay", responded Ji-Han, eager to see what the Seeker of Truth could tell him. "So far I am able to see names above the heads of most people, as well as a something like a power level and a title. My homework comes in quests, which give me Experience Points when I finish them but I have yet to see what those do. I've got a cooking skill that takes over my body and cooks on its own as long as I have all the ingredients and tools prepared. And just yesterday I received a message telling me my INT raised by one. But like the Experience Points, I have yet to see what that does."
Having said all that, Ji-Han looked at Truth Wagon with expectation, wondering whether or not he could help him. The Seeker of Truth only took a moment to analyze the information, then he spoke in all seriousness:
"You sound like the character in a video game."
"I am… actually a bit surprised someone who is called 'Seeker of Truth' knows what a video game is", Ji-Han admitted. "But, yes, I also think that this power is supposed to be like a video game. I just don't know all the rules."
"You do not become a Seeker of Truth by disregarding any new developments, even if they are related to entertainment", Truth Wagon explained. "Now then, let us dissect everything you have mentioned one piece at a time:
First, you mentioned you can see the names of most people. That means there are exceptions. Who have you met that is one of those exceptions?"
Ji-Han hesitated.
"…you?" He finally admitted, making his conversation partner freeze for a moment.
"Interesting", he finally proclaimed. "Yes, that is one way to discern the true nature. As only people have their names shown above their head, someone who is not a person to begin with, would not have this. Just like the puppet through which I am acting."
"A puppet?!"
"Ah, yes, this figure you see before you is just a construct I created. However, since I am directly controlling it, addressing it is just like addressing me. Thus this should not impact our conversation at all.
Coming back to your ability, besides people's names it also shows other general information. It is possible that after fulfilling certain conditions it might – 'unlock' I believe is the gaming term – new information.
The second mentioned aspect of your ability are the quests. Can you describe them in more detail? When is one created and what happens when one is finished?"
Ji-Han paused for a moment as he thought on exactly what happened when he got a quest.
"I get homework and then above the teacher appears a question mark. Then in front of me there comes this notification {A quest has been created.} When I ignore it, it goes away on its own but if I don't, it expends with a name, tasks, completion award, completion failure, as in what happens when I fail the quest, and then asks me if I want to do the quest. Then it vanishes until I finish the quest, where I get a notification, and gives me the EXP, I mean the award that's specified. But I haven't yet got enough EXP to level up so I don't know what will happen once I do. Oh, and I have so far not failed any quest… though I also have only finished one come to think of it, the others are still ongoing…"
"This makes sense", noted Truth Wagon. "In games quests are just tasks given to the player with clearing condition, as well as rewards for completion and punishment for failure. Homework in general fits this concept really well. What is the punishment for failure of one such homework?"
"Ehm… pretty much just 'decreased reputation' with the teachers and 'increased reputation' with the 'troublemakers'."
"Hm. So nothing you would not have received if you were not a Natural Ability User. I wonder if that holds true for all 'quests' or if that is just because of the mundane nature of the task. It is something I want to try out but for now let us focus on the third aspect: The Cooking skill.
The most special aspect about this skill is the fact that you have no control over your body once it starts and that it goes through all required motions on its own. Have you ever been interrupted while trying to cook something using the skill?"
"…not yet."
"I see. This is definitively something worth trying. However, cooking alone is too specialized as an ability to fit in with the other facts, being able to see people's names and gaining quests. It stands to reason, your video game ability should also give you other skills to use. How exactly did you gain the Cooking-skill?"
"When I was cooking, I suddenly got a message saying I've got a skill called [Food Preparation] as well as my first recipe [Han-Style Korean Rolled Egg Omelet]. It came in a notification that explained that it was a crafting-type skill to make food items out of food items and that it had a failure rate of 50% multiplied with the rank of the dish. Now, whenever I make a new dish, I get a recipe for it, no matter if I had success or not. Then I can say [Food Preparation] and chose the recipe from a panel and my body goes through the autopilot option. Oh, and I couldn't find any difference in the success rate when I did the dish normally without the autopilot. But the result of a failure does change from bad to inedible when I use the autopilot."
"I see", spoke the Seeker of Truth, "since trying to cook has gained you the skill [Food Preparation], have you tried out to see whether other actions will give you other skills?"
"Not much", admitted Ji-Han. "I've tried to get the English skill by learning vocabulary but I haven't had any luck so far. And I don't really know any martial arts and I don't know how much magic is actually real?!"
"So either you cannot gain different skills, languages do not count as skills or learning words is not enough to develop a language skill. As you received [Food Preparation] by actually going through the process of cooking, you should also use in English in an actual conversation before dismissing the language as a possible skill. So for the sake of this experiment, we will now continue this conversation in English."
Wait. What?!
"Wait-"
"Speak in English. This is the most efficient way to see whether or not this theory holds true."
"Ah, okay", Ji-Han conceded. "But then you have to talk slower. I might had English since Elementary School but I am still not used to fast English."
"If it bears no fruit after a while, we shall switch back to Korean. But for now this shall suffice.
That said, let us move on to the last element on your list: The raising of INT. INT itself, as you have probably already deduced from the use of all-capital letters, probably refers to one of the most common gaming statistics "Intelligence" as the other uses of 'INT' do not make sense in this context. How exactly did it rise?"
"I was studying English vocabulary and then I got a message saying that those studies raised my INT by one. But, like I said, I do not know what it means. Does it mean my real Intelligence?"
"It stands to reason that it speaks of your real intelligence. The real question is, whether it just depicts your current statistics in a video game-like manner or if the increase of your statistics increases your actual physical and mental capabilities. For that I want to come back to the second point, the EXP. In games enough EXP generally results in a Level-Up and a Level-Up often increases the parameters. Yet you already have a method for increasing parameters: repeated actions. As these are how someone outside a game increases their physical and mental capabilities, if a Level-Up increases your parameters, too, it would prove that the game statistics increase your real capabilities instead of the other way around.
However, this only holds true if a Level-Up increases the statistics. In some games a Level-Up does this not. Instead it gives out special skills or other 'Perks' once the specific amount of EXP has been reached. But until your first Level Up", PING! "this is something you will not be able to figure out. Did something happen?"
Even though the Seeker of Truth did not hear the sound of a new panel appearing, he noticed Ji-Han flinching and his eyes flickering towards the specific place in space.
"I-"
"Language."
"I got a new skill", Ji-Han explained enthusiastically and then began to read the content of the notification loud out:
"A skill to listen to a new language, [English Listening], has been created. [English Listening]. Passive. Level 1. EXP, 14%. The ability to write in the English language and alphabet. To better communicate with their peers, humans created languages. Finding the correct meaning to a sentence takes an average of 0.5 seconds for every INT-Check."
"So you are capable of creating more skills than just [Food Preparation]", noted Truth Wagon satisfied. "It is just a matter of the depth you are using the ability with."
"Holy Shit."
"Language."
"Sorry", responded Ji-Han sheepishly, "but I just looked at the EXP, and it increases fast when you are talking. It is now at 39 %."
"In this case, notify me of the exact time when it reaches 100 % and what happens when it does. As for now, I want to bring attention to the fact that the skill only includes the 'listening'-part of the English language. With which it stands to reason that you gain more than one skill for the English language or to…" Ping! "…That was indeed fast. What is the difference to before?"
Staring intensively at the notification, Ji-Han had raised his arm instantly, the EXP got to 100%, even before the actual Level Up-Notification came.
"I got a message saying the skill leveled up. It is now at Lv 2 with 0 % EXP. And the time for every INT-check takes now 0.495 seconds."
"And now?"
"The same only with the EXP being 1.9 %."
"As expected. Skills level up independent of the EXP gained from quests and the boons, as well as the requirements for higher levels, increase with every level. As expected from a game. But coming back to what I wanted to explain earlier, I assume every language will have four different skills associated with it. Your ability separates the written and spoken parts of a language as well as understanding and using it. But to save time we will not try to 'fill the set', I believe, is what youngster nowadays would say and instead continue in Korean."
"O-okay…"
"Back to the matter of game statistics and their influences on your body. As I had previously stated, we currently do not possess the means to verify those. However, there is something else we can try."
"What is…" Shiiiing! "Argh!"
Biting pain appeared on his right cheek and he instantly lifted his hand towards it. At the same time an orange floating number appeared in his field of vision with a "Ding" saying {-5}.
"What the-" Ji-Han quickly turned towards the mirror to inspect his face but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"What did you do?" He asked the Truth Wagon after turning back to face him. That was, when he noticed a thin metal ring with sharpened edge and purple grip floating next to him.
"It is quite simple", proclaimed the researcher. "Physical and mental capabilities expressed as statistic values is actually not the most common feature of video games. That would be the 'game over'-mechanic. In nearly every game it is possible to lose. However, opposite to real life, where you only have one chance, video games often include a mechanic that allows one to continue even if one makes mistakes. This is generally expressed through either extra-lives or a health bar or something similar that quantifies the damage taken. It is difficult to test the former without actually killing you, but the second only takes an instant. So, tell me, did anything happen when I cut you?"
Ji-Han just stared at his opponent blankly. He had cut him. He had attacked him because he wanted to see what it did. Without asking for his opinion. What's more, Ji-Han hadn't even noticed it until it happened.
For the first time since the appearance of the newcomer, he felt dread. The Seeker of Truth was way out of his league and if he wanted to kill Ji-Han for one second, all it took for the chakram to aim just a bit to the left and he'd be dead! No question asked, no second chance. One move and it was his end.
It took all his efforts to calm down and not run away screaming. If the Truth Wagon hadn't been so civil the whole time earlier, he probably would have regardless. But for now he could hold on. The researcher had already expressed his great interest in him and was too interested in him to kill him. He had to believe that, at last.
"I actually got a notification of {-5} when you cut me", he thus continued the conversation, trying his best to erase all thoughts on danger and death. "But what kind of magic was that? I couldn't see any wound."
"Ah, so you've noticed the second effect being a video game character had on your body, too. Not only can we conclude you indeed have something similar to a health bar. But it also appears that, as a video character, you cannot be permanently damaged as video game characters do not show visible wounds. Additionally, having the body of a virtual character to such a degree, it strongly hints to the video game statistics in fact enhancing your physical and mental capabilities and not the other way around. Moreover, I am also confident, that any changes of those will not affect your appearance. It is even possible you will not age or grow hungry anymore. The implications are fascinating! It is unfortunate, we will have to cut any experiments short. I hope that when we meet the next time, you will have explored many more facets of your ability."
"You are going?" Asked Ji-Han confused and the Seeker of Truth nodded.
CRACK!
"I have finally broken through the seal", he explained as fissures appeared in the wood blocking Ji-Han's cupboard. "I shall now undertake what I came here for in the first place: Reaching the Heart of the World!
CRASH!
The wooden planks burst apart and the doors slammed open. But where Ji-Han expected to see compartments, there were none. Instead, in the center of the wooden back was a literal keyhole. It was of simple design, just a circle above a triangle, but large enough to nearly fill the whole cupboard. Its outline was also glowing while the inside was completely black, so black in fact, that it seemed like an abyss ready to swallow anyone.
"Ah, so that is it!" Exclaimed the Seeker of Truth in excitement. But before he could say anymore, in one instant, dark blue shadowy winds burst forth from the inside of the keyhole, throwing Ji-Han back against the wall and taking away his consciousness, never to see the fate of his companion.
When Ji-Han regained consciousness, he first heard violent winds storming all around him. The sound instantly washed away any tiredness he might have had and in haste he opened his eyes, staring directly at the asphalt below him. He quickly picked himself up from the ground to take a better look at his surroundings but froze halfway in a crouching-position. The reason for that was the asphalt that was broken off two yards away from him. Or, to be precise, the giant dark abyss that extended beyond it. Like in a trance Ji-Han stood up, until a bursting sound to his right caught his attention.
As he spun around, he caught side of a damaged building where parts of it broke off to fly upwards. As his eyes followed them, they soon widened in shock as he caught sight of where exactly they were heading to: A giant floating ball of dark energy with parts of broken architecture all orbiting around it.
The parts of the building hit something like pieces of a gate, pushing it out of alignment and into the giant orb. Ji-Han gulped and took a good look around. And what he saw, was the end of the world: A single, maybe twenty-yard large island of urban streets and buildings, surrounded by a sea of storm clouds and nothingness with a giant black hole above it.
"No way", muttered Ji-Han numbly. Everything… and everyone… was gone. Was… was that their doing? Did that happen because the Seeker of Truth had opened the keyhole? And he, too fascinated with his cool new ability, had not tried to stop him?! Could he have even stopped him? Maybe he should have cooked him something.
Damn it! Why did the world give him such a useless ability?! And why did she even have to move the keyhole in the first place?! Wasn't that just asking for it?! How the hell was he supposed to stop the destruction of the world when the world itself was just so stupid?!
And the best part? He was actually still alive. So now he got to sit down and watch while the world got assimilated by a black hole piece by piece. Maybe he should just jump into the abyss now and end it all.
Ji-Han looked down the edge of the rest of the world and came face to face with two glowing yellow eyes.
With a yelp he stumbled backwards and fell onto his behind as from beyond the broken street rose a dark figure, a black giant with bulky arms, tentacle-hair and a large hole in the shape of a heart in its chest.
'What the- that's the guy from my dream!' Ji-Han realized as the monstrosity raised its right leg and set it on top of the asphalt, before using it to lift himself up, dragging the left leg up with it, to also put it on the little island. Then it stared at Ji-Han intensively with its yellow eyes, before pulling its hand backwards.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Shouted Ji-Han as he stumbled to pick himself up and run out of the way of the dark pool that emerged when the giant monster punched the ground.
As soon as he heard the fist meeting the asphalt, he turned around and, sure enough, small black shadows with yellow eyes started to rise from the pool of darkness. Those little humanoids with big feet claws and antenna looked like the ones from his dream, too. However, unlike his dream, he didn't even have a weapon to defend himself with.
"Don't come this way!" Ji-Han shouted as he ran away but naturally the little buggers didn't listen to him. Instead, they hopped or turned flat to slide over the ground towards him. Not to mention that there literally was nowhere to run to. Just a bunch of steps and Ji-Han found himself on the opposite end of their little island.
Dread filled him as he looked down the abyss and when he turned around, this only intensified in the face of the half a dozen creatures gunning for him.
"Damn it!" He cursed and took a fighting stance, or rather, what he imagined a fighting stance to look like. "Alright. If the dream wasn't just bullshit and I actually can get a sword, then now would be a really good time!"
To his surprise, it actually worked. A ring of ever-changing digitals and capital letters appeared around his wrist. Then the ring moved down his hand and continued in the same direction even after it had reached the finger tips. Additionally, in the space that the ring had passed, piece by piece an object materialized. The object, however, was not the sword from his dream as he had expected. Instead it was a giant metal key with a golden handle and a silver shaft, whose teeth were like a trapezium where someone had cut out a stylistic crown. At the end of the grip there was a chain attached to it with a golden globe.
The little monsters actually stopped for a moment as the key appeared and from inside his mind a word began to form.
[Keyblade…], it resounded. [Keyblade…]
"Keyblade?" Voiced Ji-Han in surprise as he studied the object in his hands. He got the "key" part, but where was the "blade"? It looked more like a pipe… woah!
He couldn't observe the Keyblade anymore as the monsters had started to move again and were now jumping directly upon him. And while it wasn't his idea of a weapon, the Keyblade was at last something to defend himself with. And it was closely shaped to a crowbar, which he knew to be a good melee weapon. Even if he had to wonder why the key had appeared so that the teeth were on the top, the side, he wasn't blocking and attacking with. But nothing of that actually mattered in face of the horde attacking him.
Like in frenzy, he swung around his Keyblade, knocking the little monsters away to give himself some space, only for a sphere of darkness to fly through the air towards him. It seemed that once, again, his dream was a tad bit different, as the big guy did not continue to use one attack until he hit its hand and instead, just went with homing balls of energy while Ji-Han was pinned down by his minions.
Not with him!
Ji-Han ran forward, ignoring the little minions and went straight for the big guy, while the orbs of darkness went over his head. He soon reached the big guy who was still on his knees shooting the projectiles from his chest with his arms by his side. Which, thinking back to his dream, Ji-Han started attacking at once.
Unlike his dream, Ji-Han could actually feel the weight of the object in his hands, the force of each individual strike and the resistance of the monster's body as the Keyblade went through it. Which was actually pretty small considering the bulging muscles of the giant and the fact that his weapon didn't have a cutting edge. But opposite to the rules of physics, the key went through the complete hand and did not damage it beyond some dark particles that broke away from the giant where the Keyblade entered and exited.
{-25}
Pain seared through his back and a message in front of him told him about the damage he had taken.
So he quickly turned around, swatting away the minion that had stuck up behind him, dissolving it in the process.
{+12 EXP}, another message told him, but he was too focused on the other five approaching enemies to care. He took a step forwards; and promptly slipped on some sort of loose stone under his foot, he didn't know had been there.
As he fell forwards, he did so directly onto a minion and, thinking quickly, put the tip of the Keyblade to the front, impaling the monster and supporting himself at the same time. At last, he tried to. But while the first one actually did work, resulting in one more dissolved creature and {+11 EXP}, the key was too short and at a wrong angle to stop him from sprawling onto the ground.
Even so, Ji-Han had already noticed from the last time he fought those guys that standing still was a bad idea and thus he ignored the pain and rolled over the ground to the side, before picking himself up at the new location to, again, face off against the remaining monsters. Only to throw himself to the ground as one of the arms of the big guy came swinging, nearly hitting him.
"Damn it", he berated himself for forgetting the main problem but then the small ones were already upon him again and he had to deal with them first. But for that he had to get far enough from the big guy to see his attacks coming. Thus he ran away to get more distance between him and the monsters and then deal with one threat at the same time.
To his dismay, the boss monster hit the ground again, recreating the pool of darkness to summon more minions. But as the fight up until now had showed, trying to fight both of them at the same time would only overwhelm him. He just had to kill the minions faster than they could be summoned!
Gripping the Keyblade tightly, he smacked the monsters jumping him, ignoring the once sliding on the ground because he couldn't damage them in the first place, before stepping in a turn to the side as to not get blindsided by the ones that had snuck behind him. Then those were struck down by multiple quick strikes from his weapon.
{+3 EXP}{+7 EXP}{+2 EXP}{+4 EXP}, and then he was finally able to deal with the new minions.
PING!
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
{A skill to utilize blunt weapons freely, [Blunt Weapon Mastery], has been created.}
{[Blunt Weapon Mastery (passive) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Allows the user to freely handle blunt weapons.
10% increase in attack damage with blunt weapons.
5% increase in attack speed with blunt weapons.}
PING!
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
{A skill to wield the powers of the Keyblade,
[Keyblade Mastery], has been created.}
{[Keyblade Mastery (passive) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Allows the user to handle the different techniques of a Keyblade.
1% increase in attack damage of skills used with the Keyblade.}
Of course, now he had to get all those messages. Now, when he was in a battle of life and death. He quickly waved them away and ran towards the new batch of enemies. This time there were only three as the big boss had switched gears earlier. Luckily, he took some time whenever he changed between attacks and so there was a good chance he'd be able to finish of the minions before the start of the attack!
This revelation filled Ji-Han with new vigor and he took down the three with little trouble, netting him {+5 EXP}, {+12 EXP} and {+5 EXP}. Then, to his surprise, where he had destroyed the third minion, a piece of a gray-colored yet transparent crystal lay on the ground. It was something he had never seen before. Thus, his Gamer-Instinct were telling him to pick it up, before he turned to face the boss. The monster in question was kneeling on the ground, supporting itself with its right hand, the head down low and the left up to the shoulder in the ground, as if it was just a large bag that he needed to reach the bottom of instead of the solid asphalt he knew it was.
PING!
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
{A skill to find the target's information,
[Observe], has been created.}
{[Observe (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Allows the user to see information about the target.
Shows the Name, Level, Title and Class of characters.
Shows the Name, Level, Type and general information of monsters.
Shows the Name of Items.}
"Observe?" Repeated Ji-Han out loud and at once a giant transparent panel of brown color appeared next to the monster saying:
{Darkside Lv10
Type: Pureblood-Heartless
Enormous Heartless that can open gates for lesser Pureblood Heartless.}
The first thought that went through Ji-Han's head was 'Yeah, I noticed', referring to its ability to summon minions. The second was 'Oh, shit, this thing's three times as strong as me!' But unlike the Truth Wagon, where he could not even begin to see the difference in power, here he could see its movements and take down its minions! He would not give up!
Meanwhile the Darkside finally lifted its hand out of the ground, holding an orb of darkness inside of it, one with a red core opposite to the purple ones that he had used before. Then it went to support the left wrist with its right hand and the orb fluctuated, creating a shockwave while it did so. The shockwave, however, was so small that only being directly near it would actually affect him, at all. After that the boss slowly stood up, lifting the orb with its hands like that until it was over its head. There it separated the hands from the orb, holding the hands up like a prayer. Then it completely ignored the orb, which continued to float in the air while the giant directed its attention towards Ji-Han.
The Darkside swung its right arm at Ji-Han, or rather as if Ji-Han was inside its reach but this was only to produce an orb of darkness in its hand, which it, once again, proceeded to slam onto the ground, its hand a fist on top of a sea of darkness.
"Come at me!" Ji-Han shouted as he stayed at the edge of the circle, not wanting to expose his back again to the minions that spawned from the dark pool. And when his eyes met those of a little guy, he got the idea to use [Observe] on it.
{Shadow Lv3
Type: Pureblood-Heartless.
A Heartless that emerges from various places. It is completely
untouchable while hiding within the darkness.}
PING!
{[Observe]'s Level has risen by 1.}
And with that message, the brown panel changed slightly, adding another line:
{Shadow Lv3
HP: 39
Type: Pureblood-Heartless.
A Heartless that emerges from various places. It is completely
untouchable while hiding within the darkness.}
Whoa. Did he actually get the ability to see his enemy's HP?! Holy shit, that was great! That was exactly what he had been missing in the fight against the Darkside in his dream! That meant he could finally tell how effective his attacks were to his enemies! Even if an actual HP-bar would have been better, this was at last something.
With new vigor, he attacked the minion, only to realize that the value for HP did not go down at all. Yet he could also tell that his attacks were doing something, since the Shadow vanished with the second hit, followed by {+10 EXP}.
Did that mean he could only see its maximum HP?! Aaargh! What a stupid ability! He had to level up [Observe] some more for that information, didn't he? Damn, his ability was picky!
"[Observe]", Ji-Han shouted as he took a look at the next Shadow, a measly {Lv1} with {HP: 10}, only for a small explosion to occur behind him.
Instinctively Ji-Han spun around but couldn't see anything. Cursing for falling for something like a feint, he turned back in haste and dispatched one of the attacking Shadow {+1 EXP}. That was when he saw a small orb of darkness with a violet core impact on the ground, resulting in the explosion he had heard before. Confused Ji-Han looked up. There was the orb of darkness with a red core that the Darkside has sent into the air before. But now it was producing these little ones that flew all over the place.
"Shit, shit, shit", cursed Ji-Han as he ran away from the epicenter while little explosions occurred all around him.
This allowed the Darkside to summon three more Shadows in sequence, without Ji-Han there to destroy them before they could make a group. But there was no way he could fight against the minions while evading a rain of bombs from above. He could only look in one direction!
That was why Ji-Han ended up at the edge of the island, as he waited for the minions to come to him. Having nothing better to do, Ji-Han used [Observe] on the sphere in the sky, as well as all three Shadows. But while the first didn't work at all and the Shadows were as expected, the constant use of the skill allowed it to level-up again, changing the HP of the Shadow from {HP: 21} to {HP: 21/21}. In other words, he could now see the actual HP.
But before he could try it out on the big boss, he first had to mess up its minions. Which was easier said than done, considering he stood in between an abyss and deadly rain from above. Too many steps in either direction would or at last could be deadly. Considering the slow motions of the boss, Ji-Han felt more threatened now than when he had stood next to it. Even if he was currently stopping the summoning to already prepared another attack.
Ji-Han grit his teeth and took {+7 EXP} down {+3 EXP} the Shadows {+9EXP}, before using [Observe] on the boss.
{Darkside Lv15
HP: 322/350
Type: Pureblood-Heartless
Enormous Heartless that can open gates for lesser Pureblood Heartless.}
{322}. That was the goal. And from the looks of it, his earlier attacks had already damaged the boss monster. Which meant, he could win this!
…if he hit him, like, 100 more times? Damn, he had his work cut out for him. For now the rain of bombs had stopped and the Darkside had knelt down with its hands by its side, darkness gathering in the hole at its chest. Okay, it's homing missiles again. Now he had to watch out for their trajectories… but if he continued to only watch and avoid, he'd never defeat this enemy. It would only be a matter of time until his HP reached 0! He had to attack!
Ji-Han ran forward, keeping his eyes on the chest. From what he had observed, pun intended, the spheres flew straight for a moment until they homed in on him. In that case it should be possible to see them coming, if he just attacked the hand from behind!
A plan forming, Ji-Han continued forward. He didn't manage to reach the hand, before he could hear the sound of a projectile being fired above his head, but at last he managed to slash at the hand while he was jumping towards its backside. There he positioned himself so that he could watch the trajectory while smacking the hand as if his life depended on it, which it did.
Ji-Han managed to get three more hits in until a second sphere was shot out and the first flew too high for Ji-Han to continue to observe it while doing more to the hand than just some scratches on the surface. Making a quick decision, Ji-Han focused on the hand for one more hit, before looking back into the air, searching for the first sphere. Which wasn't too hard to find, since it now came back down towards him. Ji-Han quickly got another two hits in for good measure, before getting away. Now came the dodging phase, again.
Watching the orb coming down, he waited until it was closer, before taking some steps back, letting it crush harmlessly on the ground. Then, he fixated on the next one and repeated the processes. Luckily those were just as slow-going as their creator, allowing him to do such maneuvers without too much of a danger to himself, a far cry from the hectic of the earlier madness.
One, two, three, four, five; and the Darkside stopped shooting, leaving two more spheres in the air, while the monster switched patterns. Ji-Han made sure to bring even more distance between him and it, less it suddenly went for a crazy close-quarter area-of-effect kind of attack. That was, when an ominous CRACK behind him brought his attention.
Spinning around he was just in time to see a piece of asphalt separating itself from his little island and flying into the sky above. Damn it, he had forgotten about that one. Would he still die, even if he defeated the monster? Falling into the abyss when the last part of the world vanished? Or was perhaps the Darkside at fault and everything would reset if he just defeated it? He could only hope. After all, there was nothing else left.
Suddenly his attention was brought to a small object that fell down from the floating piece, not getting sucked into the black hole like everything else. It hit a broken wall, jumped off it, landed on the ground and rolled all the way over to the Darkside's right feet. As Ji-Han's eyes followed it, he noticed multiple things at once:
First, the little object resembled the gray crystal he had seen earlier. Second, the Darkside was kneeling on the ground, its behind postured toward him with its right arm supporting him while its left moved to dive into the ground. Third, a sphere of Darkness was way too close for comfort.
"Yelp!" With a startled cry Ji-Han let himself fall to the side, so that the homing attack, he had forgotten about, would impact the ground. Then he picked himself up again and ran towards the enemy. When he had seen the Darkside's head so close to the ground, he had remembered that in a lot of video games, the head of a monster was its weak spot. Especially, if it was as hard to reach as this one. And while that didn't need to be the case here, he didn't have anything to lose by trying, right?
Picking up the gray crystal since it was on the way, Ji-Han quickly went through the legs towards the head. And then, using the Keyblade like a bat, he smacked it into the side of the monster's head.
{Critical!}, appeared in letters next to the impact area and Ji-Han could swear, he had never liked any notification more than this one. And there came another one right away:
{A skill has been created through a specific action.}
{A skill to deliver a strong blow,
[Power Strike], has been created.}
{[Power Strike (active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]
Cost: 15 MP
Strikes the target with strong force.
10% increase in critical rate.
50% increase in attack damage.}
"Yes!" shouted Ji-Han enthusiastically and reached back, preparing another [Power Strike] to the head. He would have liked to see with [Observe] how much damage he had actually done to the guy already, but he had to get as much hits in as possible, before that guy recovered.
"[Power Strike]!" He called out, slamming down the Keyblade. And again: "[Power-] ugh!"
Ji-Han was interrupted in his attack when a dark hand came from below the ground, snatching him up and squeezed his body together with its fingers. {-10} Ji-Han felt as if his life {-10} was wringed out of him and he {-10} literally heard his HP going down {-10}, accompanied by constant messages. {-10} Yet, he couldn't do anything {-10}, as he was completely restrained {-10} and no amount of struggle {-10} could get him out of this vice grip. {-10}
Ji-Han felt weak and helpless.
Was that the end? {-10} Would he die just like that? {-10} After all he had done to defeat the monster {-10}, he could now do nothing more than to await the end? {-10}
{Warning! HP reached critical 20 %.}
He didn't want to die!
CRACK!
Suddenly the whole island split in the middle and the whole right side was pulled upwards towards the black hole in the sky. Now it just so happened that the split was right in between the Darkside's legs. So when one side moved up and the other didn't, the monster lost its balance, falling backwards. During which it loosed the grip on Ji-Han and, with the impact on the ground, send him flying out of its hand, rolling over the floor and crashing against the remains of a wall.
For a moment Ji-Han was completely stunned, not being able to comprehend what happened. In fact, he still hadn't figured it out when his eyes fell upon the Darkside laying on its back. But seeing its head presented just like that, he stopped thinking about that. Picking himself up, he ran over to the monster as fast as he could, only one thought on his mind: To end it before it could get back up.
"[Power Strike]!" He shouted as he jumped into the air and brought the Keyblade with a golden glow. Then he brought the weapon down with all his might onto the skull of his adversary.
{Critical}, arrived the letters and, with an explosion of black smoke, the Darkside disintegrated, giving him the notification of {+10 000 EXP}.
Ji-Han let out a sight of a relief, only for another notification to appear with a PING:
{Your level went up by 2.}
Seriously? Not only did he survive, he also leveled up?! This was great!
Then an actual panel opened up, but it was different from any panel he had seen before. It was of the same brown color as an [Observe]-panel but the contents were not those of a monster, but of him himself:
{Name: Han, Ji-Han
Class: The Gamer
Title: none
Level: Lv5
Status: Unaffected
HP: 140/300
MP: 105/150
STR: 11 (10+1) ← (+0) →
VIT: 9 ← (+0) →
DEX: 11 ← (+0) →
INT: 9 ← (+0) →
WIS: 7 ← (+0) →
LUK: 9 ← (+0) →
Points: 10
Money: ₩ 3000}
The arrows next to the stats… did that mean he could increase them with the points he had?! Then he just knew what he should do:
"Strength, strength for men!" He decided as he pressed the button to the right of the Strength-Stat, only to freeze suddenly. Wait. Didn't something like that happen before? Yes, he remembered, in his dream he had thought the same thing, choosing the sword without thinking. Whether it was actually a good choice didn't matter, it had been a choice he couldn't take back. So, maybe he should think more about which stats to increase.
PING!
{By learning from your past mistakes,
your WIS has increased by 1.}
And indeed, where before had been a {7} right next to his WIS-Stat, now there was an {8}. Was that his ability telling him, he was making a good decision? Still, he couldn't just wait with distributing his points since he had no idea, when the next time would be that he got a level-up.
So, what should he choose? After how close he came to death in the last battle, he really wanted to upgrade his defense. But would that have helped? The real problem had been getting caught in the first place. So he just had to be faster instead! Faster, and stronger so that he could take down his enemies more easily… maybe he should actually increase his luck? What saved him in the fight against Darkside had been the CRITs. And with [Power Strike], an attack that increased the hit-rate of them, combined with a high LUK… could be a game changer.
In the end Ji-Han decided on 5 DEX, 3 LUK and 2 STR, bringing them up to 16, 12 and 13 respectively. Then he closed the panel, assumingly accepting the changes since there wasn't an {Okay}-Button. Now, without something in his field of vision, he noticed the objects on the ground behind the former location of the panel: Two more of those gray crystals and a red liquid in a round hand-sized glass bottle.
It was the latter that made Ji-Han shout out:
"Oh. My. God. Is that what I think it is? [Observe]!"
{[Recovery Potion]
A health-recovery potion that instantly heals 500 HP.
Tastes like strawberry.}
Oh. My. God. It was. A potion, a freaking [Recovery Potion]. He had now the ability to once regenerate his HP in battle. He actually could heal all the damage he had received in the battle with the Darkside. On the other hand, this was exactly why he hesitated to use it right now. He had 300 Max-HP and his current HP was around the half-way mark. Using up his only [Recovery Potion] who could heal 500 HP for around 150 seemed like such a waste. For all he knew, his HP would have all generated back to full by the time the next enemy showed up. Yeah, let's just use the potion if another enemy showed up and keep it for later if not.
Satisfied with this decision he pocketed the potion and did the same with the crystals. But then he realized, he still had no idea what these crystals were and took out one again to use [Observe] on it:
{[Lucid Shard]
A gem fragment filled with essence of Void.}
A Lucid Shard, filled with the essence of Void? What was that supposed to mean? What was he supposed to do with it… wait. A drop item with a description that said nothing? He could probably use it in crafting or something. So while he had no use for it for now, he just had to wait until he got a crafting skill that could use them.
Alright. Now that that was cleared up…
Ji-Han looked around.
…what was he supposed to do now?! He took down the monster, the Heartless, shouldn't the world get restored?!
CRASH!
As if it had waited for his comment, the whole island broke asunder, the ground under his feet no exception. The pieces broke apart, tilted under him and flew up towards the black hole in the air faster than any time before, leaving him to fall down backwards and into the abyss below.
"UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Shouted Ji-Han as gravity lost its grip on him and he was going down, down and down, until he suddenly stopped.
The surprise made him lose his voice and he tried turn around to see what exactly had made him stop falling. But there wasn't anything. He was still just suspended in mid-air. Just what was holding him?!
It was then that he realize in horror that there was a source of gravity near him: The giant black hole. And, after it had absorbed all the landscape, it came now after him.
"No, no, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Shouted Ji-Han to no avail as he collided with it and darkness took him.
A/N:
Hi, guys and gals.
And here we've got the first days of Ji-Han using The Gamer, followed by the end of the world. In canon we don't actually get to see the first few days. The story actually starts some time after, when Ji-Han got already bored with the meager aspects his ability showed, thinking that that was all there was to it. So, when it seems to go slow in the beginning; that is because it is. Ji-Han never showed much initiative until he first got involved with the abyss, not only realizing more aspects of his power, but also that the supernatural existed.
Thanks to the keyhole, this happened quite a lot earlier here. The fact that the keyhole changes the location depending on what the most important thing to that world is, is something I added partly because it makes sense, but mostly because how is Ji-Han supposed to be at the location of the keyhole and still meet the canon characters of a world every time? Thus the changing location and with it the earlier introduction to the Abyss, as well as the Seeker of Truth.
Also, a fun fact at the end, I actually use a randomizer for quite a lot of things of chance in this story. For example, the success rate of skills, the activation of effects and item drops, practically everything where there is a "%" added to it. I do this by using a random number generator to give me numbers between 0 and 999 and, if the generated number is lower than the possibility of the effect in a tenth of a percent plus Ji-Han's LUK-Stat, it is successful.
So when I made Ji-Han try to make [Seasoned Spinach], I rolled three times in a row over 508, making it only successful on the fourth try, where I rolled a 479. Now the real funny part comes with the monster drops. Especially with the Shadow who drops a Lucid Shard when I roll a number under 60 (69 with Ji-Han's LUK at that point). And literally the first time Ji-Han took down a Shadow, he got a 5! Meaning he got such a critical success on one of the most basic drop items from the easiest enemy the first time he took one down. I found that fact funny enough that I decided to do something with it. Which is where the "stone" that Ji-Han tripped on came from, as well as the second Lucid Shard that he picked up. Besides the funny aspect, it also showed one of the troubles of a life with video game mechanics: Random item drops that lie around hazardously.
With that said, the next chapter we've got Traverse Town where, in my opinion, the fun is actually starting.
Gashadokuro Amanojaku
