[Purification is an Alpha (A) exclusive trait.]
It seems I understand why Alphas are the highest grade.
“No need for purification.”
Purification is essential to kill monsters and absorb mana, but Alphas can purify their own contaminated mana without the need for a purifying agent.
From this information, I could infer the limitations of lower grades.
In lower grades, there’s a high possibility of needing a separate purifying agent.
“There’s a shop function, so I might be able to get it there, but…”
Certainly, there will be a price to pay.
I sorted my thoughts up to that point and then lost interest.
How lower grades obtain purifying agents is none of my concern.
I’ve been promoted to Alpha. What I need to figure out is how to utilize the trait of purification.
“Purification.”
I said it out loud, but the system remained silent.
“Trait, purification.”
I tried changing my words several times, but the system responded only with silence.
I recall when the first tutorial ended.
Back then, I did some meaningless things with mana just to try it out.
But unlike then, I wasn’t angry now.
I was in a more lenient state due to the reward of ten million won.
So, instead of getting angry, I could just let it go.
“The system is unfriendly, to say the least.”
It’s better to find a solution than to get angry.
I closed my eyes and focused on mana.
Shortly after, I involuntarily twitched; my body trembled.
Using mana was several times easier than before.
I could operate mana before the promotion test, but now something had changed.
If I were to express it, before it felt like forcibly grabbing and moving mana, but now, would it be more accurate to say that mana followed my gesture with a single movement?
There was a noticeable difference in the control of mana.
I felt satisfied as I nodded my head.
“I should take care of my own bowl, after all.”
I concentrated on mana again with a satisfied mind.
When I circulated mana throughout my body, I vividly felt the thorns embedded in my body.
Scarily, as I focused on that area, the smoothly flowing mana suddenly stopped.
Then, each thorn began to attach itself.
It was an instinctive realization.
These thorns were the impurities that came with mana.
And these thorns, while stuck in my body, were contaminating my mind.
The system described it as contaminated mana.
So, if I were to remove these thorns from me…
“Only the absorbed mana remains, and the impurities disappear.”
Now that I understood what to do, all that was left was to execute it.
Swoosh, hook.
Of course, as always, it wasn’t easy.
Moving mana near the thorns was dozens of times more difficult.
It felt like an unseen force was moving my mana in the opposite direction.
Purification felt like moving muscles I had never used before in my life.
More precisely, it was like using muscles I didn’t even know existed.
With a creaking sound, the thorns slowly retreated as if an inchworm was moving.
[The trait ‘Purification’ is activated.]
“Ugh.”
As I checked the system message, a mix of exhilaration and anger overwhelmed me.
Finally, I was glad to have figured out the purification method.
But the method was so difficult that it was worthy of curses.
Even with all my effort, I could barely remove one.
Thinking about the amount absorbed right after killing a monster, the difficult path ahead became clear.
“Anyway, there’s nothing easy about this damn game.”
I muttered a quiet curse and refocused on purification.
Since I started, I might as well finish it.
It took a whopping two hours to reduce the chaotic value of about 5% to zero.
Truly an unpleasant game.
***
I went through the discharge process right after dinner.
There were noticeable wounds, and I didn’t want my younger siblings to worry by leaving my seat for too long.
Since Jaehyuk insisted on driving, I decided to go along with it.
That’s how the journey back home unfolded.
I found myself lost in thoughts as I prepared excuses to give my siblings.
Before the discharge, I had already coordinated with Jonghoon.
“I got injured from a gust of wind rolling down the stairs, and just to be safe, I underwent a thorough examination.”
Fortunately, Jonghoon didn’t inquire about the extent of my injuries, leaving room for me to obscure the details.
“No need to worry unnecessarily,” I reassured him.
Especially with the entrance ceremony next week.
I didn’t want to complicate things with unnecessary concerns.
As I sat quietly, contemplating the lies I would tell my siblings, Jaehyuk spoke up.
“Are you really okay? I saw it earlier.”
He had been watching my injuries in real-time for half a day.
There was still pain, but I could move without much difficulty.
Impressed, I chose to think positively.
“The chances of dying have decreased, after all.”
As I stared straight ahead, I felt a hesitant gaze.
“…What are you thinking?”
Jaehyuk’s voice became more cautious.
He seemed genuinely concerned about me.
I answered, burying myself in the passenger seat.
“Why did this happen to me?”
Jaehyuk remained silent.
I mumbled to myself, staring at the number displayed on the community page.
“Community.”
“What?”
“I was talking to myself.”
Even as I responded to Jaehyuk’s question, my eyes were busy.
Just before leaving the hospital, I had remembered something.
The community function that was unavailable during the tutorial, just like the shops.
Perhaps it was due to the message announcing the activation of the community that the window appeared without any issues.
There were already over half a dozen posts, with comments far outnumbering them.
However, what I was looking at wasn’t posts from other players.
“Player 98.”
Staring at the number at the top of the community, my teeth clenched involuntarily.
It was a number missing only the 2 from 100.
The same number as the count of names crossed out in the promotion test mission.
“It was written as 100 in the player selection message.”
Two of them had died.
The image of the corpses I had seen flashed before my eyes again.
I suppressed the urge to vomit and focused my gaze.
“98…”
Staring at the number, something felt off.
“The safe zone.”
The white space where the tutorial took place.
And the forest where the monster appeared.
The only difference between the two was the presence of a safe zone.
“If you failed in the tutorial, did you not die?”
My guess was correct.
[Title: All Clear.]
The short post title contained information related to what I was thinking.
[Content: Those who cleared it all might not be human. How did they kill the lions? I was too busy tearing my limbs apart. If the failure notification didn’t come, I would have died for sure.]
– I think killing a polar bear is more impressive than a lion.
⌎Yeah, I got hit once and passed out. When I woke up, the failure notification was there.
⌎Didn’t a spear come out for the bear? If you lure it to stab with its weight, you can catch it. Lions are more impressive. There were three of them.
⌎So, did you manage to kill the bear? You’re a funny guy.
– I’m curious about how you cleared stages 2 and 3, but I’m more curious about what you’re doing now.
⌎What did you get from the mission? It must have been something good. The system was fixated on grades.
⌎I don’t know about that.
⌎You must have gotten special benefits. The system didn’t fixate on grades for no reason. When I caught it, I ranked 5th. Top performers get additional rewards. Among those who cleared all the missions, the top players, they probably got one more of everything.
⌎Envious.
– Are bold comments from the author?
⌎Yeah, it’s me.
– I’m relieved I didn’t clear it all. The number of players decreased, right? The rest must have waited in the safe zone. There’s no reason for the number to decrease. Two definitely died during the all-clear.
⌎Nonsense. After the mission, injuries are supposed to heal, right?
⌎It was a tutorial. The term ‘safe zone’ was mentioned.
⌎After the tutorial, won’t they heal you?
⌎That’s common in games. Characters don’t get damaged during the tutorial.
– Those bastards.
⌎Looks like they got a good beating from a polar bear. Hahaha.
Failing in the tutorial doesn’t mean death. It’s a safe zone.
I didn’t know because I didn’t fail, but players who did were already aware.
For a brief moment, I got angry thinking about the hardships during the tutorial.
But it had been a long time since the timing to get angry had passed.
With an almost detached mindset, I sighed and read through each comment.
‘It seems automatic translation works in the community.’
There seems to be an automatic translation function for players of different nationalities.
While there were awkward contexts here and there, I had no difficulty understanding the content.
The problem was that there was no useful information among the comments.
Eventually, I decided to return to the main page to check other posts.
“Huh?”
However, I couldn’t click on other posts and was taken aback.
A new post had been uploaded that wasn’t there just before.
[Title: K, I have something to say.]
All posts on the community were anonymous.
Both the post and the comments didn’t reveal the identity of the author.
In such a place, a word related to me was mentioned.
‘K… That’s my code name.’
If that really meant my code name, it implied that someone had seen the allocation table.
In conclusion, except for me, among the six, or rather, four who took the promotion test mission together, two had died.
Someone among them is looking for me.
‘Why?’
Despite hesitating after seeing the title, I decided to check the content of the post.
It wouldn’t be a big problem to see that.
[I have something I want to tell you. Would you understand if I say I want to repay my life? If you’re K, leave a secret comment. It will be helpful.]
Upon reading the content, I had a sense of who might have written this.
‘It seems like Ethan, judging by the talk of repaying life.’
While I was contemplating with the window open, comments started appearing rapidly.
Watching them, I entered a short sentence in the comment box.
As Ethan mentioned, the comments indeed had a secret function.
That’s good. There’s no need to publicly disclose the content of the conversation to others.
-(Secret Comment) Are you Ethan?
Whether they were waiting for my comment or not, a reply came immediately.
⌎(Secret Comment) Do you remember where I first got injured?
⌎(Secret Comment) How about clearly revealing your identity?
⌎(Secret Comment) I don’t like it if I don’t know who you are.
Being meticulous.
I responded briefly, sticking out my tongue.
⌎(Secret Comment) I think my tongue went numb from being bitten.
⌎(Secret Comment) It’s really you. I’m sorry for being sensitive. Because your real name was written in the code name, I thought you might be someone else. I couldn’t say goodbye when the mission was over because I was unconscious… Thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, I would have died.
⌎(Secret Comment) Don’t you also need to prove that you’re Ethan?
⌎(Secret Comment) Can you just tell me your physical features? Brown hair, blue eyes, height over 6.2ft. You were Asian, that’s all I know… Oh, I kept being carried by you because I got injured.
‘6.2ft is… a little over 190cm?’
According to my unit conversion standards, Ethan’s height was similar.
The moment I recalled Ethan’s face, who was striding around with his large build.
‘Just by the mentioned details, it seems like it’s Ethan.’
There was no doubt when it was mentioned that he had carried me.
Since then, I hadn’t encountered other players while being with him.
Confirming that the Original Poster (OP) was Ethan, I started to have some doubts.
***
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