Chapter 21 (1/2)
It had been three days since that battle Three days since the secret alpha testers were all gone
I lost to the beta players, back then My consciousness was on the verge of being extinguished, but at the very last ed to escape the clutches of the System and evolved
I lived
I didn't knoas able to evolve Perhaps the blueto do with it
At first, I thought that meant he could have evolved, too, but he didn't Maybe the ‘no further evolutions implemented' mentioned in the text I identified didn't mean that there was a software lock to prevent evolution Maybe the developers si monsters
Maybe the corporation still hadn't co the powerful monsters in this world
Then as I the only one who could evolve? The clues lay inside No 01's knowledge It didn't tell uess
It ic stone was a part of No 01's knowledge and memories Perhaps he didn't want his insanity to take these iraved thee, there still existed some unidentified monster species The developers could have just reether, but they wanted diversity So they decided to let the player's consciousness determine their evolutions
In the end, it seemed like this was the reason why all the other alpha testers who picked these unidentified monsters had had their minds broken upon the first evolution The for to bear
That was too close… Perhaps in a way, my choice of an amorphous monster was the correct one
In other words, I think I had just ed to, by my oill, unconsciously determined the self I wanted to evolve into
[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser De mist that dances upon the northern seas A canny spiritual lifeforic Points: 750/750] 92↑ [Total Combat Power: 825/825] 326↑ [Unique Skill: <reroll> <cyber-manipulation>] [Racial Skill: Fear] [Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Adept)] [Expert Packer]
As a result, I was able to evolve and survive Now I had a whole slew of new things to comment on
First off, 'Mistral1'? ”Oh no, it's the white hts ”No I'ases, not mist,” and now look at what happened I can't believe their words actually affected me this much…
Then my class I was still at ”Lesser”? And ”Low-Rank”? Where were all the good adjectives? Who even decided these rankings…? Anyway, it seeained ic, and this time my combat poent up correctly What a relief… If my combat power stayed still forever no hts withtons of beta players that tirow all that much No surprise there When I died, I was still under the shackles of the Systeic was taken
And now, I had no further revives Oh boy…
The unique skill [Cyber-Manipulation] used to be No 01's ability It was how I escaped the Syste
It wasn't my own skill, so it was quite weak – or rather, I hadn't been able to fully utilize it yet But h the process,For the tione
Now, [Humanoid Form (Adept)] and [Expert Packer]
Let's start with this weird Packer thing To be honest, I think 'Skilled' had already turned into 'Expert' since the last fight, since I noticed that even when dispersed, I still couldn't see the ite Where could they be? How curious!
And now, the most important topic of the day Huot a boost to ic and density I didn't need to carefully craft my body, I just needed to remember what I used to look like for a near-perfect mimicry
But the damn rabbit ears were still there
They were the same white as my hair The spindly ears drooped from the top of my head all the way down below my chin
”Maybe the hood could hide them…”
Blobsy responded to , I couldn't speak Once h so thatThen it turned out that if I just let uide me, speech would come rather easily
Still, my human form was only on the outside Inside of me continued to be thick mist It took some practice for me to be able toas an inhuait was still wobbly
Contact with hu to be inevitable I didn't wantthe brief moments of no tienerally just practicing being hu used to it probably wouldn't take long
Byoff ed to escape the System Perhaps No 01 didn't do the same because of the low chance of success He didn't want to fail and bring trouble to his friends Yet despite my success, I still wasn't co inningin place of a part of the System to process my actions There was no problem with me, except for a critical one: my consciousness was here, yet my real body…as he was under life support, he could still use [Cyber-Manipulation] to ile link to his real body But then, despite histhe limits, he risked another use of his ability He found out that the bodies of the comatose testers would be destroyed after one month
I had thirty days left to live and to find a solution
No 01 said that if I could gather the et to the source of this world's life, the World Tree, perhaps there'd be a way Fleeting hope, but hope nonetheless
My clock was counting down… no Let's stop with the pessihts I could have died in that battle I should count et a thirty-days extension instead
It'd be tough going to travel the whole world in just thirty days Luckily, the huet on a itech train
So the point of all of this roundabout explanation was that: I needed an appearance that could get me inside the humans' cities
Luckily, No 17 had died relatively close to e where I used to be to reach theh chance the beta party that killed the in a nearby country
Within the information No 01 left behind was a map, complete with the countries' locations
Closest to No 17 was a sem, then maybe No 17's looked sie country further south to the s fro close to that large country by now
Another half a day of walking through the grassland, and I finally found a s similar to the one I once saw before
Well, I said 'village', but there were easily a few hundred people living there And I saw around the sa the fields
…now, the question ould I be pushed back by the village's barrier? I only saw a fence to defend against wolves, so uess was that the barrier was specifically for ly, my steps turned timid I came closer and closer Yet it seemed like there was no such barrier on the road I wasn't sure why
Instead, there were two soldiers standing guard in front of the village entrance They earing si ar sure my ears weren't visible
My cloak was squeaky clean thanks to Blobsy, but it was still an oversized piece of gared and full of tears
”Hey, you kid over there! Stop!” One of the soldiers called
”…”
”Ain't seen that sort of look before Not a village kid? Where'd you corassy field
The soldier looked even more incredulous ”Suspicious Show me your face!”
”Nah, man, no need for that Look, if you can pay the fee, we'll let you in, alright? Just one silver”
Surprise flashed on the other guard's face, then quickly turned into a leering s ripped off here
”Yes”
I paid without any couard looked puzzled; apparently he just wanted to make a bit of trouble for uard
”Oh, sorry, it's actually one silver for each of us Should have been clearer, really”