Crispy.
With each step he took, there was a sound as if dry leaves were breaking beneath his feet. However, Sihyun knew it wasn't leaves he was stepping on. Irregular things filled the ground beneath his feet.
They were dead trees.
"You might find yourselves alone in the virtual world, or in pairs, or groups of three or four. What matters isn't the number of you. It's about surviving and performing in any way possible to gather points."
The principal's words seemed to echo in his ears. Damn it, Sihyun ended up being dropped into this field all alone. And it was in a pitch-black, gloomy-looking forest.
Of course, he didn't land somewhere close in the forest, and even after walking for a while, there was no clear path in sight. How long had he walked like that? He glanced around at a sound that suddenly reached him.
"Kiiii."
He thought it might be a hallucination and tried to ignore it, but the strange sound echoed again. It sounded like a crying voice and also like the squeaking of stiff metal. One thing was for sure: it didn't bode well. Tense, Sihyun grabbed the staff.
The staff, who had become somewhat familiar over the past month, came into view. This unfriendly school seemed to at least offer some kindness by providing weapons within the virtual world.
"Kiiii."
At another instance of the sound, Sihyun's grip on the staff tightened. Being on high alert, he suddenly spotted a vague figure ahead. Sihyun quickly hid behind a tree. Until he figured out what it was, hiding was safer.
"Kiiii, kiiii."
The figure ahead continued making the crying sound. As it slowly approached, Sihyun, crouching in the darkness of the forest, rolled his eyes anxiously. The black figure wasn't easy to see in the dim forest.
A while passed, and the slowly moving black figure came closer to Sihyun. He widened his eyes as he got a clear view of its shape behind two trees and hastily covered his mouth with his hand.
"Nightmare."
It was a restraining-class irregular that plunged people into hallucinations.
If it was just hallucinations, it would have been fortunate. But this irregular not only put people into hallucinations but also knew how to manipulate those under the illusion through projections.
Those whose auditory and olfactory senses had degraded didn't respond to people. Instead, they only reacted to the movements and breaths of a person.
Why did he have to meet a nightmare as his first encounter with an irregular?
The effort he put into staying awake during theory class finally paid off here. Of course, facing a combat-type irregular in the mental realm when he specialized in physical combat made Sihyun frown; merely breathing could give away his position to the nightmare.
The nightmare's speed was quite slow, so dealing with one wasn't a problem. Just hold your breath and run, that's it. However, the problem was...
"Kiiii."
"Kiiii."
"Kiiii, kiiii."
They were irregulars that gathered in groups.
Counting the vaguely visible figures in his sight, there were over ten in total. As his hand, which had been covering his mouth, began to feel suffocated due to withholding breath, Sihyun furrowed his eyebrows. He had to endure for two nights and three days, and though he couldn't misuse his mana, he couldn't withstand the physiological strain.
With a sudden burst of breath, Sihyun lifted himself up.
He couldn't risk suffocating to death just to save mana.
After painstakingly establishing a stable position within the school, he had no intention of becoming gossip fodder for being chased out as a quadruple-class 'outcast.' Sihyun gritted his teeth. Even if it meant rolling in the mud, the top-tier in this world was better than the afterlife for the current him.
As the realization of suffocation set in, Sihyun eventually lowered the hand that had been covering his mouth. He exhaled instinctively, and the nightmare's heads all turned towards him.
"Kiiii!"
The nightmare closest to him rushed towards Sihyun. He immediately started gasping for air.
As he leaped to evade one nightmare, others ahead started charging towards him. Apparently, this forest of doom where he had landed seemed to be the habitat of nightmares, so Sihyun quickly ran to find a place with more trees.
Using a large tree as cover, he planned to hide his body and hold his breath again.
"Kiiii!"
Seeing no sign of Sihyun, the nightmares angrily shouted. Sensing a chilling sensation down his spine, Sihyun instinctively turned around and faced a nightmare with an open mouth.
"Ugh!"
It spat out a black mass towards him. Narrowing his eyebrows, Sihyun narrowly avoided the liquid by jumping behind another tree.
"Sizzle!"
The liquid hit the tree and was absorbed into its surface without leaving a trace. Confident it was what the nightmare had spat, Sihyun gritted his teeth and reluctantly formed a barrier around himself, trying not to use it too much.
A transparent shield enveloped Sihyun's body.
While the nightmares could jump around and hold their breath to avoid it, Sihyun believed that even while they jumped, they couldn't avoid all the nightmares' projected hallucinations. Therefore, it was a judgment he made.
"Kiiii!"
Despite his fear of breaking the barrier, one of the nightmares spat out a hallucination. However, the spewed hallucination was blocked by the translucent shield and dissipated. Taking advantage of this, Sihyun moved forward towards a spot where shrubs were densely packed. It was time for the terrestrial side of Kang Sihyun to shine.
Without looking back, Sihyun ran and concealed himself in the bushes. Despite his labored breaths, he forcefully held his breath due to the rising tension.
"Kiiii."
The Nightmares roamed around Sihyun, their cries echoing as they searched for their target. Sihyun held his breath, watching the black figures moving around, continuing to suppress his breath. It wasn't until a while later that the Nightmares seemed to give up and move away. Only then did Sihyun lower his hand, gasping for the air he'd been holding back.
"Haah, ha, haah..."
Of course, encountering Nightmares as the first Irregular!
Nightmares were impossible to overpower. With their formlessness, they couldn't be slashed with a sword or hit with a fist. As Irregulars only susceptible to lightning attribute attacks, dealing damage to them was no easy task.
Even if they were considered containment-level, this was too much.
Among the new students, there was no Lightning attribute Awakened individual. In other words, there was no one here capable of facing the Nightmares. Putting students in a place where such beings existed seemed absurd.
Even if it's a virtual world where dying doesn't mean actual death, the sensation remains. Sihyun found himself marveling at the school once more today.
*Rustle.*
A sound nearby made Sihyun tense. It wasn't the sound the Nightmares made; they couldn't tread on dead wood, having no legs.
So, the sound just heard was from another student or perhaps another Irregular.
Sihyun strained to recall skills that could be copied. The principal's telekinesis, one of Wisdom's skills called Ignition, the basic skills of the Inspectors, Haewoon's buffs, etc. Recalling all the skills he'd learned over the past month, as he looked toward the direction of the sound, a boy, shorter than him, emerged from the black bushes.
"...."
As they faced each other, they grimaced as if by mutual agreement.
"Darn it..."
The voice spewing coarse language was disturbingly familiar. Sihyun tightened his grip on the staff. Discomfort surged along with a sense of danger.
No matter how many times he thought about it, facing Kang Donghyuk seemed preferable to encountering an Irregular.
"Alone?"
"What's it to you?"
Without even glancing at him, Sihyun surveyed the area after Donghyuk casually asked about the number of people present. Perhaps worried the Nightmares might return. Ignoring Sihyun's dismissive attitude, Donghyuk's expression twisted.
"Damn, you're ignoring me again?"
"Then, should I greet you warmly?"
Our relationship wasn't that amicable. Sihyun's indifferent eyes met Donghyuk's. Seeing his clenched fist and the reddening veins, Sihyun let out a wry laugh.
"Why, planning to throw a knife again?"
Donghyuk had a record of going berserk with a knife before. Yet here he was, holding a knife again, showing neither remorse nor a capacity to learn.
His learning ability was severely lacking.
"Just stay quiet, Kang Donghyuk."
Regarding this place, both Donghyuk and himself were mostly clueless. As making a fuss in an unknown place to divert the attention of an Irregular was as foolish as it could get, Sihyun ignored him and was about to leave the bushes when—
"This is ridiculous."
Bang!
A loud noise erupted behind Sihyun. He widened his eyes, turning to see the deeply dented ground. There remained a mark resembling a knife strike made by Donghyuk.
"Are you crazy?"
Puzzled by Donghyuk's seemingly suicidal behavior, Sihyun questioned, and with a snort, Donghyuk replied. His lips, stubbornly set, were fiery. Looking at the hand holding the knife, Sihyun noticed the taut veins.
"Since no one's here to protect you today, are you scared?"
"Seems like not only your surroundings but your mind has gone haywire too?"
You think you can handle several Irregulars alone?
While Sihyun knew he had a barrier if an Irregular showed up, Donghyuk didn't. Watching him with a mix of bravery and ignorance, Donghyuk gnashed his teeth.
"You just need to be the one eliminated."
"Huh?"
"Since things turned out this way, let's graciously kick each other out and see who gets chased out as the culprit!"
Donghyuk, still holding the knife, lunged at me with malice. Clang! With both hands, he brought the knife down, and the barrier split open. Sihyun's eyes widened.
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