2 – Unexpected Visit (2)
“Everyone, hang in there a little longer. The sun has set, but can’t we still rest while feeling the dew?”
“I am worried. We may have driven away our pursuers, but we still don’t know where we are.”
“…It’s just an ordinary meadow.”
He clenched the rope he had been biting his lips on.
I could understand the tribe’s fear well enough. They had just left their homeland and come to a place unknown to them, unable to even properly build homes, and now they had to spend the night.
Chasing after them were rival tribes wanting to kill or sell them as slaves, along with beasts and monsters. For those who had fallen from grace, everything was a potential threat.
On top of that, the instinctual fear of darkness hung all around them. The meadow that had seemed peaceful and serene during the day now shimmered with the bright moonlight, eerie and ominous.
“For now, Father, please get some rest. You’ve pushed yourself too hard today.”
“You’re the one who pushed the hardest.”
Someone approached him with a concerned look on their face. It was his proud daughter, Rienna, who could melt even the sternest faces with a single smile.
Barun lowered his head at her words.
“Since Kai, who was the Chief Warrior, died, you are our tribe’s only warrior. Your shoulders will be heavy from now on… for a while.”
He smiled briefly as he looked at his daughter’s face. But when he thought about the burden lifted from her, he couldn’t bring himself to smile any longer.
The title of warrior they bestowed upon him wasn’t just for someone skilled in combat. It was for those who wielded mana, blessed with a special power, honing and training it to be able to fight against enemies stronger than mere mortals.
They called them warriors.
And now the only remaining warrior in his tribe is his only child, Riena. It was natural for his heart to ache as the tribe leader and her father.
“I’m fine.”
She noticed her father’s heart and nodded. It was true that she was also going through a difficult time, but if she showed any signs of struggle, the tribe, barely holding on, would crumble.
“Don’t worry too much, Chief. Luckily, there seem to be no monsters here.”
“We can handle weak monsters just fine.”
The tribe members by his side comforted Borun. They knew how dedicated he was to the tribe, and they all knew the pain he felt when he chose to leave his homeland behind.
“You’re right. We can only hope that this place is safe.”
He forced himself to appear composed in front of the tribe members’ comforting words.
As he looked around, he realized that this place they had arrived at after days of travel was an unknown frontier.
How could such a perfect place to live remain unclaimed?
“Huh?”
“Oh, Father!”
But at that moment.
He felt his body floating without any warning. Just like the terrified Borun, he widened his eyes and saw Riena reaching out towards him.
“Ah, ahhhhh!!!”
Borun screamed as he missed Riena’s hand.
A tremendous force grabbed his back and pulled him up towards the sky, his body unable to resist as it soared through the air.
“What on earth is this!?”
In the dizzying whirl of his vision, it was difficult for him to even open his eyes properly. All he could do was surrender his body and hold onto his sanity.
“Wow!”
With his eyes tightly shut, he suddenly found himself falling onto a soft grassy field. Compared to the strong force that had been pulling him around, the moment of release was gentle, and he quickly got up from the ground with a sigh and a shiver.
“Oh, this can’t be happening.”
Frantically looking around, he trembled in surprise. In the distance, he saw torches swiftly approaching this place. The flickering lights in the distance were undoubtedly the fires they had set.
In just a matter of seconds, he had flown all the way to this distant place in a single breath.
“Father.”
“I’m fine. Let’s quickly return to the shelter.”
As Baron hurriedly started to move, he soon met Leena, who had rushed over with a torch. He reassured his startled daughter, emphasizing that he was unharmed, but in truth, he was just as perplexed as she was.
The inexplicable phenomenon had come and gone like the wind.
***
“Hmm, it seems that I can manipulate things.”
I feel a bit sorry for them. Seeing the astonished expression on Leena’s face, especially when her father was kidnapped right before her eyes, I could clearly see how much of a shock my small clicking mistake had caused them.
At least Baron, who was caught off guard in midair, wasn’t killed or injured. It seemed that there was some kind of safety mechanism in place to prevent such accidents.
“Why on earth did they include this function? What was the purpose?”
Muttering to myself, I finally started manipulating other parts of the computer. After unknown people suddenly appeared on the desktop screen and a strange program called “Master Program” emerged and messed up my computer, I realized that I could still use its functions as they were.
The internet browser, messenger, and all my work programs were functioning perfectly.
And it seemed that these events didn’t interfere with the individuals living on the desktop. The residents, including Baron and Leena, simply went about their own business unless I took the mouse away from them.
“No way.”
As I searched for “Master Program on the internet” or “people appearing on the desktop,” I closed the screen after a while.
In truth, even now, I doubted whether this was a dream or reality. If these mysterious phenomena were happening to others as well, the world would surely be in chaos.
And that meant, in the end, I had to investigate the purpose or reason behind this phenomenon all by myself.
Certainly, observing them was more amusing than I had thought, but I never imagined that I would play pranks on the residents inside my desktop with a mouse.
[Glitch Level 1 Detected]
“What?”
However, at the moment I harbored such doubts, as if on cue, the master program activated, informing me of a change on my desktop.
“What’s that?”
Finding it wasn’t difficult. In the world inside my desktop, with a dark background corresponding to the time zone, ‘it’ appeared with a red outline, slowly approaching the residents.
Its appearance was like a caterpillar crawling on the ground. However, this caterpillar had a body entirely in deep black, covered with what seemed like a tough exoskeleton. It had pointed and sluggish tentacles attached to its back.
[Glitch Level 1]
[Possibility of evolving into a bug: 15%]
Casually dragging, the information about this creature came up. Glitch. If it’s the glitch I know, I can understand the reason for the error. The master program, that insane program, is undoubtedly the culprit.
[Glitch: Chimeric form before evolving into a bug. If left alone or provided with prey without hunting at the time of occurrence, it evolves into a bug.]
Right-clicking revealed more detailed information about it, rather than an enlarged observation. Honestly, even with the explanation, I didn’t really understand what it was. Moreover, it was unsettling that it was approaching the residents for no apparent reason. I tried to catch it by left-clicking.
“Oh, it doesn’t work?”
However, left-clicking did not work on it. Bewildered, I tried everything I could with the mouse, but the glitch continued to traverse the meadow, aiming its tentacles like spears at the residents who were now asleep.
“It’s dangerous.”
Tensing up, I bit my lip and urgently searched for the residents.
I didn’t know why I became so anxious. I wasn’t sure why I was so concerned about them, who I had met less than two hours ago. After all, they were strangers who happened to appear on my computer desktop.
Was it just because they looked similar to me? Out of curiosity or interest in the mysterious phenomenon? It certainly wasn’t that.
Come to think of it, from the moment I coincidentally first became aware of their existence, I had developed a deep interest in them.
“–?!”
As I scrolled the mouse wheel, I realized that I could zoom in and out. I enlarged the dwellings of the residents gathered in clusters, and discovered the alert figures standing as if on guard.
Riena, nodding off, was among them. To wake her up and warn them, I first left-clicked on Riena and lifted her into the sky.
“—!!!!!”
Naturally, she woke up in a panic. Caught in my mouse pointer, she flailed her limbs in the air, startled.
Her comical and adorable appearance left no room for admiration. I quickly moved her to the path where the Glitch was approaching.
As soon as she landed, she hastily drew a bow that resembled a traditional Korean bow and aimed an arrow at the sky, but upon seeing the Glitch approaching her, she recoiled in horror.
Why did I bring this delicate woman with me? The reason I chose her was that, contrary to her appearance, she was the only one in the tribe with the attribute of martial arts.
[The chief’s daughter Riena has identified the Glitch as an enemy]
[She is enraged]
But my concerns didn’t last long. Along with the message that she had identified the bizarre creature as an enemy, she aimed the bow at the Glitch.
There was no need to inform me of her anger. With a fierce glare, she shot an arrow that struck the Glitch’s body.
[The Glitch has been hit]
With the message of the impact, the Glitch extended its tentacles and convulsed. As if one arrow was not enough, it approached her at an even faster speed.
In the end, Riena, seeing the Glitch deflect the arrow with its tentacle, drew a sword from her waist.
At the same time, she leaped towards the Glitch, which was swinging its tentacles.
‘Huh.’
Her movements looked remarkable, like those of a protagonist in a hero or action story.
Leaping so deeply that the ground caved in, she closed the distance by more than ten steps in an instant. She skillfully evaded or cut through several tentacles attacking her, and with a swift strike, she cleaved the Glitch’s presumed head in half.
In the process, she was hit in the abdomen by a flailing severed tentacle and flew through the air, crashing onto the ground, but the Glitch’s head remained split in half and did not recover.
[Leena has sustained minor injuries]
From Noble mtl dot com
Seeing her writhing on the ground and retching, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. I wondered if there was anything I could do, but the best I could think of was to look around and try something.