[Welcome to the 14th Floor’s waiting room.]
[Round 15, Day 30, 04:15]
I said goodbye to Kiri Kiri and moved to the waiting room. As usual, I felt empty.
I wish I could sleep longer at the field and chat with Kiri Kiri while eating all sorts of things.
However, I have too many things to do now.
At minimum, I need to check everything I gained so far before the tournament starts.
First...
[Talaria’s Wings]
I tried summoning the Talaria’s Wings.
Talaria’s Wings used to look like just crystal sculptures. Now, the wings had changed, starting with the exterior.
First of all, now the pair really looked like wings.
The wings were still made of beautiful crystals. However, how should I describe them... Them look a little smoother and flexible?
Also, the color was changing constantly.
From red to yellow, to green, to blue... to purple...
Including black and white, the wings even a.s.sumed semi-transparent tint.
Because of the wings mysterious beauty, I looked into the wings for a moment.
The description definitely said the caster could set the wings’ color.
It seemed that the wings were changing the color constantly because I didn’t choose one yet.
Instead of picking a color, I think leaving the wings be like this will look prettier.
Wow...
I’m incredibly satisfied with seeing the color changes like this?
[G.o.d of Adventure is proud.]
Now, let’s check out the wings’ performance side.
[You temporarily acquired flight ability.]
[Stamina and mana recovery rates increased.]
[Combat abilities increased.]
[Great Magic Resistance Skill’s effectiveness increased.]
[The skill makes the enemies around you shrivel. Enemies that are weak against Holy Power will shrivel in fear even more.]
[Power increased.]
[You acquired the t.i.tle, ‘The Man Who May Become the Apostle of Ditzy G.o.d.’]
Wha....
What...
[G.o.d of Slowness is clicking tongue while looking at a certain someone with no manners.]
As I thought, this is no joke.
Isn’t this a serious over balance?
I’m surprised that there are no limitations. The skill does not spend any power either.
Even the Blink Emblem had the five-times use limitation.
However, the Talaria’s Wings had no limitation. I could have it on for 24 hours, for 365 days, even though the skill had several incredible effects.
The skill did come with a strange t.i.tle for me, but I couldn’t care less about that.
I feel like I just hit the jackpot on the lottery.
It’s the best, G.o.d of Adventure!
I always knew that the G.o.d of Adventure will achieve something great one day. I believed in it since a long time?
As I thought, G.o.d of Adventure is a true talent who is destined to greatness through steady steps!
[G.o.d of Adventure is flexing the ego.]
[G.o.d of Slowness is throwing the pillow at certain someone.]
[G.o.d of Slowness is yelling ‘get out’ to certain someone.]
It is incredible that the Talaria’s Wings have so many features, but the bigger interest was in the details of the effects themselves.
Let’s see how much the combat abilities, Great Magic Resistance, and stamina and mana recovery rate had increased.
Also, I should check out the flight ability too! d.a.m.n it! There are no enemies around me, so I won’t be able to test out the shrivel ability.
I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep before I check out all of these.
Let’s check them all out quickly.
Quickly...
Eating the sandwich that I made with bread, canned tuna and cabbage that I purchased from the store, I checked out the performance of the Talaria’s Wings abilities again.
The performance verification, which took several hours, gifted me with great satisfaction.
In Perseverance Skill, the one that I received from G.o.d of Adventure, there is a description like this.
Your combat ability increases by ‘a small’ margin.
The margin was ‘small’ because the skill’s level was still only at one.
However, the Talaria’s Wings had Max level. There were no descriptions about the margins either.
What I found out through the performance verifications was that the margin of improvement constantly changed.
To be precise, it depended on how accustomed I was to the skill. Also, the margin of improvement changed depending on my strength.
In other words, the boost effects included in the wings are the type that grows in proportion to my specs.
This is the best.
I swallowed the sandwich I had in my mouth and got up.
I jumped, tightened the fists and mimicked a celebratory pose of a famous soccer player.
Wow!
[G.o.d of Adventure is amused.]
[G.o.d of Adventure is happy.]
[Round 16, Day 0, 00:00]
[The tournament will start.]
[Please enter.]
[Time left until the mandatory summoning: 4 minutes 59 seconds]
-Park Jung-ah’s perspective-
[You cleared 42nd Floor of the Tutorial in Easy Difficulty.]
[Welcome to the 43rd Floor’s waiting room.]
[Round 15, Day 25, 17:30]
That was close.
If I was even just a little late, I would not have had enough time to take care of work.
“Everyone, thank you all for your hard work. The tournament will start in five days, so rest until then.”
Although the members were dismissed like that, it was not like everyone could rest easy.
I went to a corner of the waiting room and brought out a desk, a chair and a stack of papers from the inventory.
It is time for me to do some work.
Just like me, other members of the Order who had paperwork to push looked like they were about to die as they brought out desks and chairs like I had.
There is a mountain of paperwork I need to take care of before the tournament commences.
I was never a diligent person like this...
Tsk.
“Excuse me... Commander?”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Would you like me to brew a cup of tea for you?”
“It’s fine. I’ll brew a cup myself later.”
It was Lee Yuu-jung, a member of the Order and my party member.
She is two years older than me.
She was with me at the waiting room during the Round One. She had been with me before the Order of Vigilance was established.
She is also my closest friend.
She is always kind and hard working.
It was just that... She didn’t understand at all as to why I don’t want to show close friendship with any members of the Order in public.
Perhaps she was not even trying.
I also don’t intend to try to make her understand either.
There aren’t many genuinely pure hearted people like Lee Yuu-jung.
I don’t want to explain in verbose detail as to why we can’t act close in front of other people.
I was about to read the paperwork, but Lee Yuu-jung came next to me and told me a news that I could not ignore.
“Mr. Kim Chul-min, a Normal Difficulty player at 24th Floor, died.”
“What about other party members?”
“They are all safe.”
My head is getting convoluted with all sorts of thoughts.
At times like these, I need to organize one thing at a time.
First, I sent a message to Kim Min-hyuk.
It was to report to him about Kim Chul-min’s death and ask him to investigate the circ.u.mstance of his death.
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: ... About to die.]
[Park Jung-ah, 42nd Floor: No. I’m telling you. He is already dead. Did you understand me correctly?]
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: No, I’m saying I’m about to die.]
He was whining about serious work load as always, saying things were too difficult for him.
How could he be in position to complain when he is sitting comfortably at the residential area and focusing only on administrative work? Unlike him, I have to worry about my image to the people and carry out the tasks of clearing stages and administrative work.
I ignored Kim Min-hyuk’s further messages and went back to focusing on organizing my thoughts again.
“Who is the sub tanker in the 3rd division?”
[Note:Tanker means an online RPG video game character type who has exceptionally high defensive capability. A tanker usually draws the enemies’ attention and shield the rest of the party members from enemies’ attacks.]
“3rd division... It’s Park Su-hyun. He is a Normal Difficulty player at 22nd Floor.”
“When this round... No. When the tournament ends, let’s issue the Idrean’s Shield to him. It would be better if we could send him a higher-level shield, but...”
“We don’t have enough spare points.”
“Probably. Let’s ask him to hold out with that for now. The 3rd Division members will have it hard for a while.”
Kim Chul-min was a member of the Order’s Strike Division. The division was not related to clearing stages.
He was the main tanker of the 3rd Division.
The Order’s Strike Division was formed with the goal of having the division step in first and neutralize unexpected situations in large-scale events like the day of the great harmony or the tournament.
The members of the Strike Division were required to step in as a party or an individual when unexpected situations occur in residential areas or waiting rooms.
Such situations didn’t happen all the time, but I must be always prepared.
When unexpected problems come crashing down, the behavior of the unprepared is far off from the prepared.
Also, that difference in actions taken will decide the survival and the future.
Right now, this Order of Vigilance and myself are the proof of this.
I am currently alive like this and taking care of administrative work for the Order, and this is the result of a man who were prepared when the very first day of the great harmony happened.
He was determined to see his plan through even if it meant attacking others and beating the c.r.a.p out of them to bend their will.
Also, to make that possible, he had secured enough power for that goal.
Thanks to his kindness, I am now...
I suddenly remembered what happened during the day of the great harmony last time.
There was the issue of my att.i.tude toward him which was brought up to my attention.
Also, requests were made, asking me to relax my att.i.tude toward him.
Also... Ah... Uu... Why did I act like that?
I just had to take it easy and greet him casually in none-honorary terms. That would had been the end of it.
Even a kindergartener could do that.
However, back then... I stuttered and totally panicked.
I am certain I even blushed.
I probably looked ridiculous. I am certain about this.
Also, while I was talking like that, even the pitch of my voice was all out of wack.
Uuuuaaa!
I suddenly felt the urge to get up and scream.
I hurriedly buried my head on the desk and pushed down the urge.
Uuuuuuu...
I felt a presence from the side, so I lifted my head. Lee Yuu-jung was staring at me, wondering why I was doing that.
Ugh... Let’s just get back to work.
[Round 15, Day 29, 03:20]
[Dangerous Individuals a.s.sessment Report]
Can you make a more official sounding t.i.tle for the report?
While I complained about a trivial matter, Lee Yuu-jung poked at my waist from the side.
“Here, drink this tea.”
“Thank you, Big Sis.”
So that others could not hear me, I expressed my grat.i.tude to her as if I was whispering. I looked around myself.
Other members of the Order, who were pushing the papers around me, all dozed off.
If they were being lazy, I would have shaken them, awaken them and yelled at them.
Although we were at the waiting room where the body was recovered automatically, focusing on paperwork for a long time naturally made our mind tired and lead us to sleep.
We have not figured out the cause of this exactly yet. However, the prevailing theory at the moment was that the brain is not able to recognize the waiting room’s recovery effect and it is forcing the body to sleep regardless.
I do not know what is causing it.
I think it might be a simple matter of differences in mental strength. I think it might be a matter of will as well.
Anyway, everyone around me, who were obviously dozing off, had fallen asleep after working hard to their limits.
I decided not to wake them up.
We had taken care of most of the paperwork in the past four days, so...
Let’s just focus on my own work.
List
Detailed Description
Counter Measure
Like the t.i.tle, the sub-t.i.tles were made haphazardly as well.
Just who wrote this report?
[Writer: Lee Ho-jae]
Ah...
Um... Let’s get back to work.
First, I looked over the list.
Lee Gi-min: Danger level 1
Lee Gi-chul: Danger level 1
Jung Jin-uu: Danger level 2
Lee Gi-jun: Danger level 2
Lee Jun-suk: Danger level 3
Lee Hyung-suk: Danger level 5
Lee Chan-yong: Danger level 6
The Order had been making a list of dangerous individuals like these people and managing them.
We had been since the Order was established.
Most of the people who made it to the list had been living quietly without causing much trouble.
However, many of the criminals who were executed for having caused troubles were those who got their names listed in the Dangerous Individuals List.
Because of this, the Order of Vigilance never stopped making the list.
Instead, we had been making the list proactively.
At each round, we changed the observer and continued to make new lists and watched the people who had their names on the list.
It was not a pleasant kind of work.
Sometimes, the work involved watching someone by a.s.suming that the person might be a dangerous one when that person actually had been living peacefully.
To make an excuse to say this was not a bad thing, we were just keeping them under surveillance and nothing further.
We didn’t interfere with their lives. We didn’t cause them troubles either.
We just kept them under surveillance and carried out the arrests and punishments when they were found to be committing crime.
I tried making an excuse, but I didn’t feel like this was all right.
I think I’ll just have to acknowledge it.
It is not all right.
However, it is necessary.
I checked the detailed descriptions about the people on the list and flipped a page over.
What would be the counter measures that he came up with?
Counter Measures: Follow Kim Min-hyuk’s plan.
... Um.
[Park Jung-ah, 42nd Floor: What is that plan?]
[Kim Min-hyuk, 30th Floor: What plan? I don’t know.]
... Um.
He must have written it like this because he had a good reason.
Let’s just ask him later.
I organized the Dangerous Individual Report and set it aside. I brought out booklet of paperwork from the inventory.
It was information about the past crimes in Tutorial and the involved criminals.
All this time, I have read them over and over, so the booklet became tattered already.
I think I should make a copy soon.
Although they are things from the past, they are also records of things that we should never forget.
We must remember what happened in the past and prepare so that something like these will never repeat in the future.
To that end, we need to keep the memories of what happened in the past in our head.
The circ.u.mstances that lead to the incidents.
The perpetrators’ motives and characteristics.
How the incidents ended and the counter measures.
We need to continue to a.n.a.lyze such information and think hard about crime prevention, response and punishment.
First Incident
Time: Tutorial Round Two, Day 0 ~ First day of the great Harmony
Rebel Leader: Lee Chang-suk
Summary: On Round Two, Day 0, Lee Chang-suk, the Representative Federation’s Commander...
I read this record over a hundred times already. However, I could feel my head cooling down cold as soon as I started reading the first incident.
With that cooled head, I continued to read the record.
[The tournament will commence.]
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