Episode 25
Chapter 6 Player (5)
Fortunately, Gwanaksan Mountain was nearby, so it was easy to hide.
30 minutes after leaving the hiking trail and arriving at a place completely devoid of people.
I glared at the little boy who was on his knees with his hands raised.
‘driving me crazy.’
Originally, I had no intention of intervening so aggressively.
I was planning to just look at the situation after he was captured.
As various thoughts and situations interlocked, my body moved on its own.
So, in a word, it was like a car accident.
Shall we say that the child was almost hit by a car in front of me, so I reached out my hand without even realizing it?
It was close to a reflexive action outside the realm of thought.
But that didn’t change the fact that I hit the job.
‘What should I do after bringing him?’
It was when I sighed repeatedly and rubbed my face.
The little boy’s hand started to go down slowly.
“Do it right?”
“Yeah, but it’s so hard… … .”
Even if I wanted to be fooled by those words, I couldn’t.
Looking at the level felt through magic detection, the guy’s magic power is around 4 or 50.
This is the section where the changes in the body are the steepest, and the physical ability is better than those who have trained their bodies professionally.
Even if they were children, they would have excellent physical abilities that could not be compared to ordinary people.
It means that you can endure as long as you raise your hand and punish them.
“As soon as the tutu was over, what was the hardest thing about catching and killing a beast?”
I said a word to point out that.
The little boy got up at once and looked up at me with his eyes wide open.
“Yeah, too!”
I wrinkled my face wondering why this guy was doing this.
“Ah, you’re also a f-player, right?!”
At once, the little boy, who had walked on his knees with a face about to cry, clung to my leg.
Tears were already welling up in the boy’s eyes.
“Help me! Please save me!”
I took it out of the water, so you want me to give you the bundle?
The moment when I was about to shoot something because the fever suddenly rose.
The nape of the child’s neck came into view.
A scar as if torn flesh had reattached.
It looked similar to what was left on my side and knees.
After seeing that, I couldn’t bear to say anything harsh.
The things I went through during the tutorial passed quickly through my mind.
And Kj’s words started to float before my eyes.
First a normal large dog, then three hyenas, and finally a tiger.
I couldn’t get a sense of what this guy’s expression would look like in front of beasts several times his size.
My stomach was boiling.
‘This system bastard.’
I had to clench my teeth and suppress my anger so as not to make a loud noise.
It was only after such a long time had passed that he sighed and stood the little boy up.
The boy was already trembling with tears streaming down his face.
“What were you thinking doing this? Articles have already been published, and the police are investigating, so what are you going to do?”
I tried to restrain myself as much as I could, but my voice was harsh.
The little boy lowered his head and cried.
“Okay, wrong… … I did it because I was afraid… … .”
After muttering a few words, he even prayed with both hands.
“Huongheung, too, muh, scared, yeo, practice huhong, I want to practice, uhhhhh.”
Since then, there have been almost no seas of tears.
‘I’ll turn, really.’
Okay, what should I do now to check it out?
I already took this guy.
Even if you regret it, you can’t undo it.
For now, you need to put your regrets aside and find a solution.
I watched the kid with a stunned face, and eventually swallowed a sigh and reached out my hand.
As I picked up the little boy and sat him on my lap, a fairly old memory came to mind.
The time when I held and soothed the crying twins in the corner of my parents’ funeral home.
‘I feel dirty.’
I put my hand on the small back and patted him, just like I did that day.
The little boy really started to wail for the world to leave.
For a while, I just calmed the child without saying anything.
And only after the kid calmed down a bit did he ask a question.
His name is Im Nam-gyu, he is 12 years old, and he seems to have grown up in a single parent family.
Let’s hear a little more about it. The father is an alcoholic.
He said he rarely came home, so he didn’t run into him during the tutorial.
It was a story that weighed heavily on my heart, but that didn’t solve the situation.
‘I can’t take him.’
The things I was carrying right away were not easy to take responsibility for someone.
However, I didn’t dare to leave it like this.
‘This is why I shouldn’t meddle in other people’s affairs.’
I’m going to have to look at the solution since it’s already tied up.
Otherwise, I’m sure you’ll be tossing and turning all night.
‘Let’s think of a way.’
As long as I can’t take full responsibility for the child, the first thing that comes to mind is the consignment agency.
But soon I had to shake my head.
There were many problems to send the child to the consignment agency by raising his father’s problems.
The game is intertwined before considering whether it is realistic or not.
‘First of all, this guy is also a player.’
There is no guarantee that being forcibly summoned will not happen, so you have to adapt to this game in order to survive.
It means that this guy must go on a mission someday.
‘No ordinary consignment agency.’
It’s better if you know about this game, or somewhere that will condone it.
Among them, the former had a place to guess.
But Yung, that doesn’t sound like a good option.
I glanced north and lost in thought.
People carrying guns in alleyways.
– Don’t be fooled, find it!
– You couldn’t have gone far, move!
The child suddenly disappeared in front of my eyes, but their response was quick.
Although he may have been surprised, he was embarrassed and did not panic, but immediately started searching.
He regained his composure surprisingly quickly in an unrealistic situation.
Like people who have already been through it.
‘I’m assuming he knows.’
I don’t know what their identities are.
There are a few things I noticed about this game.
The problem was that they didn’t feel very friendly to the player.
“Tsk.”
To make matters worse, they saw the child.
How many hours do you need to search for nearby CCTVs or car black boxes?
Would it have been a little easier if they had brought the baby before they showed up?
I tapped my forehead and thought.
No, I was trying to sleep. I was going to do it because of the annoying system notification sound.
「The attribute ???? is activated.」
「The system will switch to the support type. Kang Hyeon-woo, the target player.”
“The search begins.”
「Progress 1%」
For a while, the accident settled down.
‘question mark?’
Even after the main server was active, I couldn’t figure out what the heck it was, so why is that trait here?
While I was frozen, the progress rose at a terrifying rate.
「Progress rate 100%」
「Patch for update is in progress.」
「Progress 1%」
The restarted update took only about 5 minutes.
「Progress rate 100%」
“The patch has been completed.”
「The Player Achievement Program is running.」
「The Player Assistant Program (Prestige and Title) is running.」
「The player status window function will be updated.」
「Title bounty hunter (preliminary) will be created.」
“Your first mission was successful! Fame will increase by 10.”
“I directly contributed to the closure of the hall! Fame will increase by 2.”
“For the first time, Mission 02 was successfully completed! Fame will increase by 20.”
“I directly contributed to the closure of the hall! Fame will increase by 4.”
“I directly contributed to the closure of the hall! Fame will increase by 4.”
… … .
When the third update of the system was completed like that.
HIDDEN MISSION
[Bounty Hunting (Korea-01)]
Eliminate a player who murdered their own people (0/1)
– You can check the location of the target through the map. (Check location)
– If the mission is not successful within the time limit, the target will be notified of the bounty hunter’s location.
[Success Reward]
• Fame 10
• Random Box (×1)
[limited time]
• 24:00:00
An eerie timer started ticking.
My expression twisted grotesquely.
* * *
The first thing I did after recovering my mind was to scan the community.
There was talk of an update, but there was no word that a mission had been received.
From nob le mt l dot com
Just in case, I sent a message to Kj and Ethan, and a simple but clear answer came back.
– Kj: There is no mission, just an update notification pops up!
– Ethan: No, the mission didn’t appear. There is only an update notification in the message window.
My brain was tangled in a mess.
‘What kind of bounty is this system all of a sudden?’
My head hurts just from the strange mission popping up, but that wasn’t the only problem bothering me.
The suddenly activated question mark trait seemed to scratch my insides.
‘Support type? quest?’
What the hell is this? I opened the status window.
There were new titles and reputation tags that didn’t exist before, and as you saw in the message, your reputation had risen to 40.
And next to the question mark property in question was the word activation.
As I gulp, swallow, and press the question mark attribute, something different happened.
[?????(activate)]
• Classification: Characteristics
• Description: You can receive support from the system.
Even when the main server was activated, nothing popped up, but this time a description window popped up.
‘support?’
What is system support?
I gritted my teeth and pondered what had just happened.
A message popped up saying that the trait was activated and that it was being searched for.
Then, the update proceeded, and after that update, a bounty mission appeared.
There was a memory that came to mind when I felt that something was wrong.
‘item… … .’
When I picked up loot and spears in missions, the system performed an item-related update.
As if he knew what had happened to me.
‘Are you looking at me?’
I got goosebumps. At the same time, it was as if a feeling of displeasure was covered all over her body.
‘This bastard… … Do you have voyeurism?’
It felt like bugs were crawling, so I had to rub my whole body.
Swish, swish, swish, I felt dirty while quickly scanning the empty surroundings.
“Ah, uncle… … ?”
Namgyu rolled his eyes as if he was uneasy at my actions.
I replied by pressing the boy’s head firmly.
“Wait a minute, gather your thoughts.”
“yes… … .”
I caught my breath and shook my head. Let’s go through them one by one, step by step.
‘The question mark attribute was not activated when the item was obtained.’
From nob le mt l dot com
Just after I picked up the item, the system started updating itself.
But why is it different this time?
Search, support, bounty, unorganized words floated around in my head.
Then, out of nowhere, an assumption popped up.
A message that the system did a search.
‘… … Did I explore something I didn’t know?’
Let’s assume that when the trait is inactive, this system will figure out what’s going on around me based on me.
Like having a monitor above my head or something like that.
The item was picked up by myself.
So, if the system was really looking at me, it would have been able to confirm right away.
Same for the second update.
I saw firsthand the mess going on in the community.
After that, an update was made to introduce the code name to the community.
Both times the question mark feature was disabled, but the update had a clear connection with the situation I had seen and experienced myself.
On the other hand, I didn’t know anything about this bounty mission or the player who said he killed his own people.
So, if it was necessary to search, it would fit.
Based on what I’ve been through, the last two updates could be considered to have supplemented the system’s needs.
‘So this update must have a similar point of view.’
What part did you want to improve on?
‘no way… … ?’
I lifted my head and looked north.
The direction he took Nam-gyu, the people he met in the alley, the NIS story Kj told him about, and the player who killed his own people.
‘Players who went to the NIS and died?’
Once we started to weave, events that had been far apart in different locations were linked together.
If those who went undercover today to catch Nam-gyu were NIS agents.
If it’s the same player who killed the player in the NIS.
“under!”
Laughter came out of the absurd situation.