NOVEL NEXT chapter 4
4. Heart Rate Addiction
I never imagined I’d be hunted by a heroine intent on killing her stalker.
But… given that this guy, Locke, is a veritable soap opera of melodrama, nothing he experiences is surprising.
Pleased with himself for publicly stalking and causing nuisance, he was already disgusted with himself.
“This is my fate.”
However, what can I do? I’m the one who decided to play from Locke’s perspective and sent the email.
If I had known it would be like this, I should have treated it as spam.
Sighing deeply, I left through the gate leading to the Galerus mountain range.
Like the mountain range wherein monsters reside, lush greenery and dense trees spread like they were welcoming me, the cool mountain wind tickling my forehead.
There were signs of human activity – footprints, benches, and remnants of a base camp.
My combat suit offered me a map along with the locations of man-eating rabbits and goblins.
“Shall I go for a run?”
Nothing beats running when trying to boost stamina and stats, so I start to run.
——
◆Your body gradually adapts to the optimum running pattern through your condition, Muwoljiche (無越肢體).
——
The status window informed me of the exceptional benefits of Muwoljiche (無越肢體).
A refreshing start that made me forget everything else.
As the status window predicted, my running posture subtly changed each time I ran.
Unfortunately, due to my endurance and speed stats being a mere 5,
“Heugh, heugh… this damned body.”
I almost died gasping like a fish out of water on the mountain range, even before fighting with the man-eating rabbit.
As I hunched over gasping, sweat trickling onto the underbrush,
Fortunately, I wasn’t too uncomfortable due to the temperature and humidity control, as well as cleanliness function of the combat suit I was wearing.
But my wretched stamina was driving me mad.
Just as I thought I was about to collapse…
——
Your heart rate has increased, activating the trait {Heart Rate Addiction}.
*This status will not reappear.
——
The pounding of my heart naturally got my body back up.
Just like how, when addicted to a game, you crawl back to your computer to boot up, no matter how tired you are.
Finding the rapid heartbeat during a run joyful, my legs started to move on their own.
‘Heart Rate Addiction was literal addiction!?’
As startled as I was, I continued my mountain run as if hypnotized by the pounding of my heart.
I was allegedly granted Heart Rate Addiction for diverse gameplay…
But, I stopped caring about that, enjoying the exhilarating and liberating feeling of running.
How it’ll affect me in the future, I don’t know, but for now, I focus on running.
“Heugh- Hoo.”
With a sudden realization that reckless running might actually kill me, I took a deep breath in through my nose and let it out.
I felt something faintly circulating from my navel, beneath my heart, and inside my forehead.
Centered around the lower, middle, and upper core, also known as Core,
A string-like something warm flowed through my body like a thin stream of water.
Typically, only the lower core is open, but this crazy Locke had everything open from the start, despite being a stalker.
——
◆Through your condition, Muwoljiche (無越肢體), you start to comprehend how to use the unique stat ‘Energy’.
——
Contrary to the status window’s notification of comprehending something I felt I shouldn’t, my body began to feel increasingly lighter.
Gradually, gradually, something could be felt from the muscles maintaining a stable running posture…no, from every part of the body.
Heat seeped ambiguously from the areas circulating around the body, melting warmly in certain places.
There was a sensation of liberation and exhilaration as if setting down a heavy object.
And for some unknown reason, a sense of subtlety and warmth surged out, regulating the vitalities while granting the inexplicable sensation that I could control them.
As a possibility, I slightly tightened the grip on the vitality.
Within my body, the sporadic stream of energy sped up like a fast-flowing current and my heavy panting grew lighter.
——
◆While maneuvering vigor using Muwoljiche (無越肢體), all things that can grow will be progressively cultivated.
——
Although minuscule, the steadily recuperating body that once felt like garbage was improving.
Was this the result of jamming in available and unavailable ingredients and leveling up?
“The timing is good for this, isn’t it?” At that moment, for some unknown reason, I felt like running even faster.
Perhaps, due to my body adapting to the current running speed, my pulse rate had decreased?
I wanted to feel my heart beating faster and faster, and wanted to feel that palpitation throughout my whole body.
“Alright, nothing escalates faster than pushing to the limit…!”
At the end of the run, while slowly increasing my speed, I said.
“Is it here?”
I had arrived at a location where, around a 20m distance, there were said to be nine man-eating rabbits habitat.
While progressively slowing my running speed in the mountainside…
As expected of the game world, the effect of the Colorless Abyss (無色深淵) engraving, which was understood immediately upon acquisition, was activated.
Since activation only required a mere thought of mine.
——
◆The effect of the Colorless Abyss (無色深淵) engraving enables you to summon the best weapon that you can currently use.
*An additional 5% vigor will be consumed while maintaining the summoned weapon.
——
To experience a real-life test with this momentum…
Thanks to using available and unavailable ingredients, the consumption rate of vigor had significantly reduced when using Colorless Abyss (無色深淵).
Then, a warm thread-like energy flowing inside my body pooled into my right hand.
Thin energies clumped and piled up, and I could feel them transforming into the shape of a sword.
“Ha…! Incredible!”
In my right hand, along with the touch of a cool grip, I now held a sword called ‘Pukdochilseong’ – one that shone brightly and could be used regardless of ability level.
The pure sword, later capable of being used for absolute defense due to having no concept of durability, had a superb grip sensation.
It was quite sharp and was a sword that could be useable even at a later stage, with its power proportional to the user’s ability.
To acquire this sword early on, one would have to roll a lot, but now it was perfectly gripped in my hand.
And then there was the…
“Kiiii-!!”
“Kiiiiiiik!!”
“Kiiiiik! Kik!!”
…warning sound of the man-eating rabbits.
White rabbits, as high as a human’s waist, had red eyes and sharp teeth that resembled those of a ferocious predator.
The sound of them rushing to eat me echoed around.
As this was the mountainside, the terrain was complicated with trees and rocks.
While the nimble man-eating rabbits, compared to my clearly diminishing physical abilities, had the superior advantage, they didn’t know the specific terrain from where the combat could break out, so considering this would be a waste of time.
Like the morning, when I took out the pornographic posters of the heroines stuck to the ceiling without hesitation…
Concentrating my vision on the surroundings, in an instant, things that seemed like spider webs shimmering in crimson and purple emerged.
The surrounding environment and the figures of the nine approaching rabbits reflected and overlapped in my vision.
At that moment, a rabbit with a body near a kangaroo’s size and fangs like those of a ferocious beast, who had been running in the lead, sprang.
“Kiyaaa!”
Our eyes met; mine and those of the cannibalistic rabbit, whose frenzy reached a level of roaring like a wild beast.
For an instant, such a ferocity sent chills running down my spine, making the fur on my entire body stand up instinctively.
It was due to the ‘killer instinct’ of an opponent stronger than me, as in the main work, given that my physical abilities were weaker than the cannibalistic rabbit.
My entire body vibrated faintly as I was overwhelmed by ‘fear’.
My heart, intoxicated by fear, began to beat even faster.
The appearance of a monster that could kill me at any moment made my heart palpitate crazily, and my pulse rate soared drastically.
It was like the tingling sensation of one’s gums when they ride a roller coaster for the first time, a natural smile spread across my lips.
——
◆Thanks to ‘Moo’uljiche'(無越肢體), all movements are gradually adjusted to proceed towards endless limits.
——
Without a shred of hesitation, I charged at the cannibalistic rabbit with my sword aimed at it.
No matter how hard one tries foolishly, if the path is wrong or the posture is incorrect it will hinder the achievement.
However, thanks to ‘Moo’uljiche'(無越肢體), I naturally understood that it was okay to move on like this.
The battle that put my life at risk against a monster for the first time ever, because of the addiction to the pulsation….
….made me involuntarily break into a malicious smile.
“Kyaaak!!!”
The red fangs of the cannibal rabbit, sharp enough to easily pierce a human’s skull, were flying at me like a dagger, and at that moment,
I tried to take advantage of the creature’s momentum to strike downwards directly.
The structure made of blue silk threads… showed the future, the figure of the cannibal rabbit charging towards me.
It rushed towards my throat.
And when the blue silk threads flowing in all directions were visible, I intuitively realized they could be stopped or slowed.
But I had gotten this far to increase my abilities through my actual experience.
I wasn’t planning on using time stop or acceleration yet.
The purpose of training originally is to strengthen the foundations.
I plan to save it till I can’t really beat the enemy.
So, let’s focus on this fleeting moment.
A sensation as if time was slowing down, which I’d experienced at least once, overtook me.
As if when riding a bicycle, when you tumble and the world seems to move slow.
The cannibal rabbit, levitating in mid-air, followed the future shown by the blue silk thread and charged towards me,
while I was swinging my sword with a slowed motion.
To my eyes,
Purple and crimson spider webs appeared to indicate the weak points of the cannibal rabbit.
I felt like I: knew how to move my body, how to swing my sword, at which timing and where to thrust.
“Hup-!”
As I launched a natural yell, the upper vertical slice seemed to slide in front of me in an instant.
A thin stream of water passed through the center of the cannibal rabbit that had run up to my nose, and a white flash whizzed by.
With the sensation of cutting something and severing it, I passed by the bright white cannibal rabbit due to inertia.
“Keeek…?!”
Immediately, a crashing sound resounded, followed by a faint vibration spreading from the ground as the body fell flat on the floor.
The structure composed of crimson and deep pink colors that was displayed all around me showed a cannibal rabbit face split, fallen behind me.
The hunt count on the collar of my garment increased by 1.
It wasn’t enough to perfectly cleave it in half, but it was enough to hunt them.
“Kyaaa!!!”
“Keeek-!!”
As if indicating the beginning, the cannibal rabbits rushed at me crazily.
There were tens of thousands of them, just like before, and the killer instincts of those stronger than me instinctively made my body succumb to fear and my heart beat even faster.
“Hehh….”
I took a deep breath.
Immersing my body in the more thrilling and tingling sensation brought about by the pulse addiction.
“Hup-!”
Every time he let out a spirited shout, he relentlessly slaughtered each of the carnivorous rabbits, one by one.
Only when the grounds were littered with the bodies of the rabbits,
“Huff…. Huff…! Ahh…”
He thrusted his broadsword into the ground, exhausted throughout his body,
He mustered the strength to collapse onto a nearby stone.
Even though he hadn’t used his time-chronicle abilities, his vision felt slow,
The more he moved his body in this state, the more it took strength, making his heart race like crazy.
Thanks to that, he was able to hunt all nine carnivorous rabbits.
Affected with the addictiveness of the heart rate, his body did not freeze, rather, he could jump around due to the thrilling sensation.
But heaving like this and dropping his heart rate, he felt regret, as if he had quit the game midway through leveling up.
“Whew, I managed that surprisingly well…”
I swallowed my regret, since the outcome was good, and smiled.
Even though the various statistics that showed on my screen magnified my combat strength,
Even if I rerolled, I could only start with the phase breaker or core opened halfway.
But this one had all three phase breakers open from the start, allowing me to enjoy combat to this extent.
“How I’ve been using this body to do those things all this time….”
I suddenly scoffed at the pathetic sight of Lonxer, who had this amazing body and had been stalking.
“Right, I’ve told you countless times. Stop stalking and focus on training.”
“Right… Wait, what???”
The voice of the black-haired red-eyed girl—who’d been chasing right to the men’s bathroom—echoed around me out of nowhere.
A cold can of aluminum startling me as it was pressed to my face,
I was so surprised that I almost jumped up, my heart rate shooting up instantly.
“Why is a jerk, who eats teleportation like it’s his daily bread, behaving like this now?”
Looking at the unnamed heroine who offered me the cold can with a silly look, my heart fluttered.
It felt exactly like stumbling onto an intensely intriguing game content.
Even though I had no interest in the heroine,
“Hey, why aren’t you taking it? It’s hurting my hand.”
I naturally longed for this lovely girl, who was tapping the cold can, so she could startle me once more, raising my heart rate.
Could it be, they assigned me with this heart rate addiction for the sake of offering a range of plays? Trying to intricately tie the heroine and me somehow?
Enjoying the process of pushing for growth, but with a penalty like this.
“Why did you follow me!?”
Swallowing the smile coming up because of the increasing heart rate, I asked her the reason she followed.
“Huh? Why did I follow you? Did you forget the promise we made when we were young… Hah.”
Looking at me with those unreadable red eyes, she snorted.
Even though she looked disgusted,
She seemed like a nice girl, still handing me the cold can.
Knowing nothing about what promise they were talking about, seeing that she kept up with Lonxer’s stalking and kept the promise, she seemed quite nice.
The problem was that they seemed to have made such an important promise,
Yet I couldn’t even imagine such a thing happened, I was frozen.
The cold glint in the heroine’s eyes, which seemed to turn more sinister looking at me, caused my heart rate to rise higher and higher.
“Hey, did you forget? Even when you blatantly stalked other girls, I kept the promise. Did you forget? You want to die?”
I wanted to risk scratching at something I clearly shouldn’t, out of curiosity.
Thinking that it would further anger her, increasing my heart rate…. Those freaking game developers…
So this is why they assigned me the {Heart Rate Addiction}? Adhering me to the heroines’ intriguing gameplays despite I haven’t a single thought of tying up with them?
The name of the original work being ‘Heart Pounding Rank Holder Academy’ and it was because of those Heart Pounding Yandere Heroines.
My heart fluttered in response to the dead-red eyes of the black-haired heroine, who seemed to have some sort of connection with Lonxer.
It was more terrifying as such gaze came from such a beautiful face, pushing me to the edge, questioning my wish for death.
“…You haven’t really forgotten, have you?”
The woman who didn’t notice my approach glared at me as if ready to kill, causing my heart to palpitate.
I heard even that black-haired red-eyed heroine was an intense Yandere.
Receiving that kind of gaze from a yandere, which is one of the things I fear the most.
Contrary to the electrifying sensation I felt during battle, akin to riding a roller coaster.
My body was shivering uncontrollably from a sensibly wild and irresistible allure.
——
◆ Whenever the mental-related things are stimulated from what you feared originally, they will be enhanced due to Wumoeljiche (無越肢體).
——
That strange sensation faintly spread throughout my body, clinging to me addictively as if I was becoming refreshed like the scent of mint.
In midst of that, as per the notification in the visible status window, my mind became slightly clearer.