NOVEL NEXT chapter 17
17 – 1st Floor, Battle for the Course Registration Ticket.
Kim Min-sung was summoned to an unfamiliar space with his girlfriend Lee Soo-jung.
A pure white room.
A bizarre place that made one naturally think of a mental hospital.
─ Welcome, players.
They saw a fairy.
It was a familiar scene.
‘No way.’
At first, the fairy spoke with a smile, but then it wore a grim expression.
It made an example of one rebellious person.
‘Uh, uhh…!’
This is not a novel.
I have never read a novel like this.
But there were many prologues of similar style.
He comforted Lee Soo-jung.
The Tower of Struggle, Tutorial, Soul System.
Thanks to the peace of mind, he felt more relaxed.
─ aaah! Aah!
That didn’t mean he could win in the Tower of Struggle.
The problem started when he seriously challenged the test.
He barely cleared it, but he didn’t have the courage to attempt a second challenge.
He knew in his head that he had to do more.
His instincts told him that there would be something good if he passed all the tests.
But he couldn’t challenge it.
Everyone was about to give up.
He wasn’t that brave.
‘…That’s not courage, it’s recklessness.’
He regretted and regretted again.
─ The erroneous player received a solo clear bonus in the tutorial.
The administrator’s words.
It was impossible to choose the option of stepping back after hearing that.
So he jumped into the competition for the course ticket.
He risked his life and acted recklessly.
His girlfriend Lee Soo-jung absolutely didn’t want to do it, but….
He couldn’t deny Kim Min-sung’s words in his head, so he lent a hand in the life-risking gamble.
‘If I had known we would scatter like this, I wouldn’t have done it.’
Kim Min-sung trembled as he moved forward.
He was thinking of somehow reuniting with Lee Soo-jung.
‘Crazy.’
He was lucky.
On a whim, I invested the tutorial first clear bonus in luck.
I found a course ticket, gained a skill, and met an error person to propose a deal.
‘If I move with this person, it should be enough….’
I can survive the course ticket battle.
Is that all?
I could even gain some benefits.
“No.”
No matter how you look at it.
Does it make sense to defeat five dog-headed beastmen alone?
Kim Min-seong couldn’t believe the back of the error person standing proudly.
He couldn’t believe it even after seeing it.
* * *
Every time I clashed fists with the beastmen, my life force decreased by 1.
Thud-.
I felt nothing, but the opponent lost their life.
The exchange rate itself didn’t make sense.
If an alchemist who advocated equivalent exchange were here, they would have denied reality while coughing up blood.
The battle structure was one-sided.
As long as the Iron Armor Three was maintained, it was virtually invincible.
‘…Maybe not.’
Is there a need to doubt it after seeing it with my own eyes?
Isn’t it too much?
‘Not at all. This is a necessary doubt.’
Doubt is important.
At least it’s much better than being careless.
The beastmen might actually be strong.
Just barely surpassing my durability, enough to deal 1 damage.
I need to know how the damage is calculated.
Looking at the beastmen sprawled out, I fell into deep thought.
‘I don’t know.’
I couldn’t come up with an answer on my own.
‘I’ll have to experiment.’
After dealing with the beastmen, I had a moment of respite.
“Minseong.”
“Yes.”
“Come here for a moment.”
I called out to Kim Minseong, who was rummaging through the beastmen’s corpses and collecting the course tickets.
I held out my forearm to him and said,
“Hit me once.”
“Me, me?”
“I think we need to be sure.”
I didn’t want to die stupidly like the rogue warriors or the beastmen with dog heads.
At my request, Kim Minseong extended his fist with a reluctant expression.
【137】
At the end of the fierce battle with the beastmen.
My vitality was 138.
But when I was hit by Kim Minseong’s punch, my vitality decreased by 1.
I experiment several times.
As a result, I confirmed that whether he hit hard or lightly, it decreased by 1.
‘What if the Iron Armor Technique is deactivated?’
Remaining vitality: 125.
“One last time.”
“…Are you sure it’s okay?”
Kim Minseong examined my expression.
He seemed worried that he might be annoying me by hitting me repeatedly.
“It’s okay. One hard hit, one light hit, please.”
Kim Minseong’s attack power was 10.
My durability, influenced by my stamina, was 15.
Thud-!
A hard hit.
【120】
Tok-.
A weak hit.
【115】
I understood the feeling.
When I shared the experiment results, Kim Min-seong nodded and said,
“The attack power reduces durability.”
It matches my thoughts exactly.
‘Then what if the attack power increases here?’
Solving one question brings up another.
“Min-seong.”
I handed the longsword to Kim Min-seong.
“This, this isn’t right.”
Kim Min-seong refused with disgust.
In a situation where we’re rummaging through corpses, what’s there to complain about?
“I’m not asking you to stab with it. Just hold it up. I can’t do it to myself.”
“It’s like saying a gunshot doesn’t hurt if it’s gentle. I absolutely can’t do it.”
While he was okay with punching others, he still had a reluctance to wield a sword.
“Let’s figure it out quickly and move on?”
“This is really over the top. I roughly understand the damage formula, why go this far…”
“Then just hold it. You can do that much, right?”
“I, I don’t want to.”
A face full of fear.
I realized he misunderstood something.
“Oh. I’m not saying we should test it on your body, Min-seong.”
“…?”
Kim Min-seong laughed awkwardly as if he understood.
He took the longsword I handed him.
“…Even so, stabbing you, Oh Ryoo-in, is a bit much.”
“Then stay still. I’ll get stabbed.”
Even if you say it stings, it’s just a light touch of the finger.
“How did it go?”
“……”
The blade cut me.
A drop of blood oozed out.
【115】
“…My life force didn’t decrease?”
“Really? Is that possible?”
In terms of wound severity, it’s similar to the scratch I got from that dog-headed beastman earlier.
But my life force didn’t decrease.
‘What’s the difference?’
At that moment, Kim Min-seong clapped his hands.
“I figured out why!”
Saying that, Kim Min-seong brought the blade to my finger.
【106】
“…This time, my life force decreased.”
“Will. The attacker’s will is important.”
Kim Min-seong spoke with a confident voice.
“The soul system provided by the Tower of Struggle. I felt it from the beginning, but it’s structured similarly to a game.”
“……”
“Why doesn’t the damage go through? The system makes the judgment. An attack without the player’s will isn’t considered an attack. Just like in a game.”
“This time, you stabbed with that intention?”
“…I had no choice but to prove what I was thinking…”
Still, thanks to that, I understood.
‘What about the opposite?’
What if I intended to kill when attacking, but changed my mind just before hitting?
My head is spinning.
Is he looking into my mind?
Kim Min-seong said.
“Just think simply. If you think of the system as a separate physical law, it’s not that difficult.”
“…….”
“Just because quantum mechanics has surpassed classical physics and become the foundation of modern physics, it doesn’t mean classical physics has disappeared.”
“…….”
“You know the law of universal gravitation, right? An apple falls from an apple tree. But one day, a new law was discovered. The law that apples falling from a certain height lose their sweetness.”
“…….”
“It’s bizarre, but anyway. Just because that law was added, it doesn’t mean gravity disappeared, right? The soul system feels like that.”
“…….”
I looked at Kim Min-sung, who was excitedly chattering, and kept my mouth shut.
Kim Min-sung, realizing belatedly that I was silent, glanced at me.
“…….”
Only then did I glance at my forearm.
A baseball jacket.
Also known as a varsity jacket.
I took it off and checked the back.
‘Seoul National University.’
My mind went blank.
* * *
“Min-sung.”
“Yes, hyung.”
Right after confirming that Kim Min-sung was a freshman at Seoul National University.
We dropped the formalities.
‘I didn’t ask his age with the rotten intention of trying to win over him by age.’
I barely got into Busan National University after retaking the entrance exam.
If I tried to press him with age, it would only make me look more pathetic.
“Let’s move quickly. We need to complete the course registration.”
“Yes.”
Kim Min-sung took the lead.
Maybe because the course registration battle was reaching its climax.
It wasn’t easy to find the box.
‘It seems like the players are seriously starting to wield their knives.’
Not to create a course ticket, but to absorb souls and become stronger.
Whether the former or the latter, it was equally vicious.
Kaaak-!
“These Earthlings look delicious!”
Kerek, Kerek!
I didn’t stop the ones coming.
I welcomed them with open arms.
“Kim Min-sung, who only boasts about Seoul National University, step back.”
“…Wh-when did I ever boast…?”
“It’s not my responsibility if you get ground up by my new technique.”
I held a sword and a longsword, taken from a martial artist, in each hand.
Dual-wielding.
In that state, I activated Cheolpo Samgong and then spun.
Whirlwind.
Chwaaak-!
Each weapon was imbued with a powerful strike.
The moment they touched, goblins couldn’t even breathe and died.
[Absorbing the soul of Gorosh (Goblin).]
[Agility increases by 0.01.]
[Absorbing the soul of Godur (Goblin).]
[Agility increases by 0.01.]
[Absorbing the soul of Gojaro (Goblin)…]
How much time had passed?
「Time’s up! The course ticket battle is over! Good job, everyone!」
In the blink of an eye, I returned to the waiting room.
It wasn’t the auditorium-like waiting room from before the course ticket battle.
It was a small waiting room, just right for gathering with teammates.
“…Seoryeong, what on earth is this…!”
There, I met Eun Seoryeong, whose arm had been cut off.
She wasn’t spurting blood, perhaps because she had stopped the bleeding, but she looked seriously injured at a glance.
“Ah, Great Hero. Baeksong Dojang. You’re safe, I see?”
But the expression is strange.
Shanks has become, yet he’s smiling broadly?
“Did you perhaps gain enlightenment?”
Baeksong asked in surprise.
Eun Seoryeong replied with his characteristic gentle smile.
“I’m still lacking in many ways. But I was able to leap over the wall that was blocking me.”
“…….”
“Interestingly, the Soul System also raises my stats. Thanks to that, I was able to survive.”
“…What?”
Wait a minute.
What did you say?