Above Your Head

The atmosphere in the room was bleak. Blood was splashed all over a wall, and the body resembled an ancient mummy. But Iron Mask, who had already seen the same scene countless times, casually strode towards the body and pulled out a notebook pressed against the body’s head.

This is the diary. I will give you a short summary since we don’t have much time. In a nutshell, the owner of the mansion, Count Alec, has gathered orphans to take care of them. But one of them, a child named Angelina, seems to be a little strange. That’s pretty much what it is about.

Pararak!

The pages were turned indifferently.

The trigger is to look through the diary. After you finish reading the diary, one of the corpse monsters that wanders around the structure is summoned at the end of the corridor over there.

He closed the diary and stepped outside while explaining.

Ah, for your information, the monster that is about to appear is called Thomas. The clue is in the diary. If you read it, there is a line that says ‘Thomas, the biggest orphan’. This is the clue as to which monster will appear. Also, if you look closely at the contents, you will notice it says ‘Thomas was running around again, so I scolded him. No matter how many times I teach him, he can’t look under his feet’. This is the monster’s weakness.

“That’s right. Come to think of it, I noticed that the big monster didn’t really look down once it started running. He would trip over things… But is that really a weakness that the general public can exploit?”

A warrior casually murmured while looking at the screen. Iron Mask continued as if to repel the man’s doubts.

In other words, this monster will become caught by a trap that aims for the legs.

Iron Mask – so I, continued to proceed through the stage smoothly. I used a trap targeting the player to deal with the enemy. The corpse monster’s movements were designed to avoid traps, but it was possible to lure the monster when it was charging forward.

While hiding in the main hall, I dropped a chandelier on the head of the wandering enemy. It was quite simple really, hitting a wire three fingers thick from a distance of about 7 meters.

I used the hidden perfume to hide my smell, then approached the hidden enemy. Placing the gun right inside his open mouth, I pulled the trigger. Then, I sprinted from one end of the hallway to the other, closing the gap between the enemy and myself. This particular monster applied a curse from a distance, so I shot a bullet in its head before the casting was over.

“Wow.”

Someone let out a sound of disbelief.

“This might actually be possible.”

When I turned my head towards the unexpected remark, I saw a familiar face. Kyung-eun was dressed lightly, which accentuated her slim figure, and had her hair tied up.

‘What? I didn’t even know she was here.’

Normally, she was like an idol in the Lee Family. She would garner people’s attention wherever she went. But today, she had been eating quietly amongst the crowd, so I had been unaware of her presence. Her clothes were still quite exposing, but it was much more demure than usual. It seemed that she was also concentrating on the stages as well.

“What? Miss, are you being serious right now? An ordinary person could achieve that?”

“At least it seems possible in terms of specifications, right?”

“But how could an ordinary person crawl through complete darkness to reach the shore of a monster? They won’t be able to see anything.”

Some people raised their doubts, but she continued explaining calmly. Her eyes were sparkling.

“The video explained the strategy in detail. Right, left, go straight, then left, left! All they need to do is memorize the way!”

“Well, even so…”

“It will still be terrifying.”

I received a plate of fried rice while watching the people sharing their doubts with each other.

“Ah, don’t cover the screen please.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

I apologized and sat down. I didn’t get mad despite their blunt tone.

“That’s amazing… I was in a hurry to clear the stage. I can’t believe someone can study a stage to such a degree.”

“They even bought a camcorder. That’s as expensive as some of the better weapons.”

People were immersed in the video. In fact, I had expected such a situation. The entire human race was facing a despair known as the stage. Its influence was so great, that it was fit to be called a huge social phenomenon.

Even if a culture became sensational and achieved global influence, it could only be called a local phenomenon in terms of its fame throughout the entire world.

Michael Jackson, The Beatles – they were global stars. But could we really guarantee that all humankind knew their names and their music? Perhaps some people would not be able to tell you if Michael Jackson was someone’s name, or the name of a song. If you had no interest in music, if you lived in a remote area, or if your personal environment and situation had no intersection with music, there was a high chance they could be ignorant.

World War I and World War II were described as engulfing the entire world, but in reality, it was something that only scratched a portion of the world. Considering the entire human race, there would have been more people who never heard a single gunshot during the wars compared to those who did.

But Project End was different.

It encompassed all humankind.

This was a reality that everyone was forced to face, without any exceptions. In such a situation, what would happen if there was a guidebook or a strategy to solve the problem?

I know many of you are hiding and waiting for the stage to end without actually clearing it.

Only the last room was left. Iron Mask walked towards the boss’ room.

To be exact, there are 1,848,551,511 of you. I understand. There are so many people who can’t even play horror games because they are scared.

Kiriririk!

However, keep this in mind. If you do not save yourselves.

Clunk!

The huge iron gate opened. Iron Mask spoke with a pistol in his hand.

One day, there will come a time when no one else will be able to save you either.

Dung! Dung! Dung! Dung!

A large bell resounded. A clock was located in the middle of the reception room, and it was pointing towards 12 o’clock. A large chair was placed in the middle of the room.

- Boss Alert.

- The One Seeped in Evil. Angelina.

Kieee~

A scream could be heard. When he looked up, he saw a girl sitting on top of the large clock.

”Wait, why is there no strategy for fighting the boss?”

“Is he going to face it head on?”

People were expressing their puzzlement, but there was no need for any more strategies. Befitting her status as a boss, Angelina possessed a power beyond level 3, but she had a fatal weakness to compensate for her strength.

In fact, there is a strategy made by the stage that is to be utilized. The clock up there debuffs Angelina every minute, so one could drag out the battle and beat her that way. However, if you use this strategy, you will have no choice but to suffer injuries. Angelina has the cognitive and physical abilities to avoid a bullet shot right in front of her face and nails that can tear apart flesh like nothing. You would have to fight desperately to tooth and nails to achieve victory.

Kyakyah!

Along with a loud thump, Angelina jumped in front of Iron Mask. She had a small body, gray skin, and a twisted smile that was unbefitting a child.

But Iron Mask spoke nonchalantly.

But if you look closely at the diary, it tells you something fascinating about Angelina. It tells you that ‘Angelina quickly loses interest in everything and gest distracted easily.’ This is a common characteristic of an imp, a small devil. If you can utilize this fact, then it is possible to clear the stage in a simple manner.

He raised his pistol. It was a dangerous weapon for Angelina as well, but she maintained a confident smile. Her cognitive abilities were beyond human beings, so she could avoid a bullet shot right in front of her eyes. Of course, she was only level four, which meant she could not dodge a bullet by tracking its movements. Instead, she monitored the human’s smallest movements to predict the projectile and to avoid it.

The solution is this. Look away and become distracted.

He raised the gun a little higher. Angelina postured herself to jump off the floor with a confident expression.

And then.

Huh?

Iron Mask looked to the left with an exaggerated, startled expression.

Kyah?

Angelina turned her head in the same direction as well.

Bang!

Kyahhk!?

Angelina rolled on the floor after being shot in the shoulder.

I hit her on the shoulder, but if you can shoot her right in the eyeball, she would be dead. As you have seen during my guide so far, I missed on purpose to show you that it is okay to miss.

Kyaaahh!!

Angelina lifted herself off the ground and rushed towards Iron Mask in anger. Then.

Huh?

Kyah?

Ultimate attack – look away and become distracted!!

Angelina once again turned her head with curiosity. At the same time, he aimed for her left shoulder.

Kyahhhhh!

Huh!??

…Kyah?

She fell for it once more. He was making a complete fool out of her.

Level 3, hard. We will end the guide here.

I reloaded my gun with a click.

Thank you for watching.

Bang!

Then the video ended.

“What…? What was that?”

“Look away and become distracted…?”

“What the hell…”

“…..”

I picked up the calamari while observing the people buzz.

Crunch!

It was so good. The kitchen lady was a bit unpleasant, but her cooking skills were the real deal.

“Wow. Who do you think that is?”

“He’s using Korean, so he must be from the Lee Family, right?”

“He could be a guard. Guards are human beings too, so they must be forced into the stages as well.”

“Well to be fair, what’s great about him is his style of play, not his abilities, right? He could be a soldier or some kind of professional gamer.”

I could hear people having serious discussions all over the place. But there was a word spoken that stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Guards?”

Come to think of it, I was somewhat familiar with the term. The Screener who came to read my talents, Yul, had spoken about them.

“The Great Wizard created two adjudicating organizations using his noble mana, endless knowledge, and the blessings of the Progenitor God.”

“That is correct. The Guards enforce the Great Wizard’s will to completely separate the parallel world from the surface world. The Selectors detect and classify all the talents of humanity that exist on Earth. These two forces have a completely separated role from the rest of the forces of Another Plane.”

Something along those lines.

‘I did find it a little strange though.’

It did not make sense that the existence of the parallel world was not revealed to the rest of the world, especially since there were more than 10 million ability users. Since the ability users from the Lee Family seemed to have treated the Ilsung Group pretty badly, it seemed that ability users could have some influence on the surface world, but at the very least, their presence could not be exposed to the outside world.

It seemed that the guards were responsible for maintaining the status.

‘They must be pretty strong. Most of them might be ranking higher than me in the stages.’

But even so, it was quite abnormal for me to be ranked only in the 6,000s.

‘Making guides is good, but I should raise my ranking first.’

I finished my meal and exited the noisy Gyeonghoeru. The sky had dimmed before I knew it. The time was 9 o’clock. There were 10 hours left before the second stage would begin.

‘Genie. How are we doing with the stockpiled food?’

A portion of the livestock brought over have been slaughtered, and others were placed into barns and breeding has commenced. Chickens are starting to lay eggs and smart farms have been completed to grow crops.

‘A smart farm is a plant factory or something, right? You can grow plants in the Unique World?’

The Unique World was a space that was subordinated to my coordinates, and it looked like a planet. However, it did not possess an environment where life could thrive or even be sustained.

It was an iron sphere completely made up of metal. Large buildings could be erected without much effort, but it was a difficult environment to farm in. Any organism could not grow easily.

The most crucial problem was the lack of water. Due to the nature of the Unique World, it was more difficult to transport nonliving things compared to any living organisms. Even water was subjected to the limits. IT was much more efficient to put in livestock rather than water.

It is a problem that can be solved with the technology of the Leondhardt Empire. We have blood from the livestock, fur, feathers, feces, and urine.

‘You mean the poop and pee? Hm, I guess that would certainly be useful in farming.’

I gave an affirming nod, and Genie responded in a confident manner.

Even the food swallowed by the livestock prior entered the Unique World without any problems. I am transporting them in after making sure they drink as much water as possible. Strangely, it does not work with any items that aren’t classified as food.

‘This feels like animal cruelty… Anyways, I’ll leave it to you. Even though I like meat, it’s a little hard to eat only meat every day.’

I headed towards the training ground. Using the ability to travel between the body between the real world and the Unique world freely, I trained while resting myself in the Unique World.

The next morning at seven in the morning.

- All death considerations have been cancelled!

- Congratulations! The stage has been completely cleared! Compensation will be given based on contribution.

- Your ranking is 5,005.

Level 3 stages have been cleared completely.

Of the 1,848,551,511 people who had given up previously, an additional 700 million people had passed the stage.

It was the beginning of global leveling.