Chapter 3 Missions
Yuelian
“If you still pretend to be asleep after 5 minutes, I will touch somewhere more stimulating than your hair.” I had noticed that Miyong was awake a few minutes ago, but for some reason, she pretended to be asleep.
“You can touch, but be prepared to get kicked in the balls after.” Her eyes suddenly opened, staring up at me like some fierce animal. She purposely stuck out her chest. For such a tomboy, she is weirdly blessed with her feminine assets.
“I am winning that trade.” I jokingly reach out my hand towards her chest, expecting her to jump away. However, her eyes stayed fixed on mine and her body remained in my embrace. I saw something in her eyes, a hunger, a dare for me to make the move. Our gaze stayed connected for a few moments, I knew what was about to happen if I proceeded. Frustrated with myself, this was the wrong time to do this, as much as I wanted to. But this fierce animal would not take rejection lightly.
We have been flirting and fighting since puberty. Neither of us has ever had a lover. In my case, I am not a super handsome guy, and my family’s training took up most of my life. As for Miyong, that girl was extremely popular but she would beat up every guy that tried to touch her. As we grew older, the guys grew too big and strong for her to beat, she then turned to verbal abuse. Needless to say, she doesn't have a lot of suitors these days, despite her blossoming beauty.
Two romantically dysfunctional teenagers, if we go down this route, we wouldn't be able to get anything done. Frustratingly, I can't touch her right now.
I gave her a soft kiss on her forehead. Her eyes went wide but I could still see a little bit of anger in her eyes.
“We don't have time. I need to talk to you about what we have to do next. It's urgent. Please sit up.” I could feel the heat on my face.
“Coward” Her smug face was so annoying that I wanted to flip her over and spank her until she apologized. Thankfully, she took my words seriously and sat up quickly.
“OK, please listen to my story”
—-------------------------
“So I understand about the system screen or whatever and your concerns, but something is bothering me,” Miyong said after listening to my explanation and suggestions to awaken her mana veins. “How did you awaken your mana veins?”
“I am not sure, but my guess would be exposure to concentrated levels of mana.” I looked towards the mana sea and thought back to when my mana veins were awakened. “It was on this roof when I breathed in a large amount of mana that had dispersed into the air. It's possible that all humans already had mana veins inside their bodies and only required an external stimulus to awaken.”
“So what? I just need to breathe in these mana mists to awaken?” Miyong looked at the mana sea with shining eyes.
“Wait a minute, maybe we should test this on a test subject before we do it on you.” I am worried that she might have a bad reaction to being awakened.
“What? Are you going to test it on rats or something? What if it turns into something like that giant eel? We can't handle that.” Miyong motion in the direction of the sea of mana.
“I am not using you as an experiment,” I said firmly
“It's not your choice to make.” I know that look. She is stubborn when she is like this, no use in trying to argue. A sly smile appeared on her face. “Besides, magic powers seem convenient. What can you do? Can you make the broom sweep the floor by itself? Because I want that!”
“You were disinterested just a while ago. Now you look like you are having fun. What an easygoing girl you are.” I took her hands. “I am going to slowly infuse mana into your body, starting with your hand. Tell me if it's painful. If you feel anything is wrong then tell me immediately. Don't endure it and don't try to act tough. Try to relax your muscles and don't try to resist.” I am using my internal mana and slowly press it against her hand, controlling the mana to disperse it into her body slowly. I kept checking her expression and her body, to make sure nothing bad was happening.
“Shut the hell up and just do it! I know you are worried but I am not some fragile doll. Why are you doing that? Just fucking push it in!” She roughly pushed my hand. I freaked out and tried to pull back the mana as much as I could, but it was too late. The concentrated ball of mana went inside her hand and Miyong looked a bit confused. Nothing happened?
She is not screaming in pain, so that's a good thing. I felt relieved. I would have gone crazy if I lost the last person I love in this world.
She suddenly started shaking uncontrollably
“Miyong! Tell me what's wrong? Are you hurt? Where does it hurt?” I was standing over her and shaking her shoulder. Her body felt hot.
“Fuck” she said only one word before pushing me away. She couldn't move my enhanced body before, but now she could push me across the roof.
Tumbling backward, I punch my fist into the ground, stopping my body from falling off the building and anchoring myself.
As I looked back at Miyong, she was vomiting black blood.
—-----------------
A few moments later
“I told you to be careful. If you do something like that again, I will lock you up in a room somewhere for your safety.” Miyong is getting changed into my gym clothes, using the entrance door and the giant fauna as a modesty screen. Her clothes were soaked with the black-slimy substance that smelled like iron. Thinking back to a similar experience that I had, it seems like I had awakened my mana veins at that time. However, the system message did not appear until after the flood happened.
“I completely understand why you were concerned,” Miyong said as she walked towards me. “This feels like a drug.”
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“You say that like you have done drugs before” I took her hands and closed my eyes.
“This is what I think drugs feel like. What are you doing?” I could hear the voice of dissatisfaction.
“I am trying to feel if your mana veins were similar to my own. When the mana veins awakened, I became able to feel all mana nearby, including the mana in another living thing, like those mutated flowers for example.” I could feel the mana moving inside her body. It had successfully awakened.
“That's cool. That's what those tingling feelings are? Mana?” When I opened my eyes, I could see mana moving around her body. She was already learning to control mana.
“Do you see a transparent screen?”
“No?”
“What could be different between my awakening and yours?” I thought back to the moment I saw that message 3 days ago. “Maybe you need to interact with the sea of mana? Try to breathe a little bit of it in. I will get it for you.” I tried to move the mana for her but Miyong held up her hand to stop me.
“I can already feel it.” There was a blue glow in the eyes. Is that what I look like when I use mana? So her mana veins were activated, but she didn't see the system screen. This is another mystery we need to solve.
Miyong waves her hand and wisps of mana from the mana sea smoothly coil around her hands. It was an impressive level of control. I learned to control mana for 3 days and I couldn't control mana like that.
“You are amazing. You are already better than me.” I sincerely felt proud of her. She is so talented in mana control. I should have expected something like this. She was always athletically gifted, perhaps mana control is similar to body coordination.
“This is cool. I can enhance my entire body and even my eyes. I don't need those binoculars anymore” Each part of her body lights up in a blue glow one by one, and then her eyes lit up with intense blue flames. This girl’s talent is insane. Finally, she took the ball of mana from the mana sea and breathed it in.
“So? Anything change?” I tried to enhance my eyes like she did, but it was difficult. It seems I don't have the talent.
“I can see it.” Miyong smiles like a child who found a new toy. Now that I think about it, this girl’s favorite genre of video games is RPGs.
“Let's compare if our system message and missions are the same.”
“Ok”
—---------------------------
Miyong
Mana is amazing. I could feel everything. I can hear the girls on the lower floors talking. I can hear Yue’s heartbeat and feel his body heat. I can see much further than the binoculars. I haven't had the chance to test myself yet, but I could feel it. I am extremely strong. I could destroy this entire building if I wanted to. Yue was right to be cautious about who we give this power to. This is beyond just enhancement or evolution. This power is greater than that. It's almost as if I have the power of Mother Nature in my body.
[Tutorial]
The world has changed forever. Learn to survive in the new world.
[Awaken mana veins - Complete]
[Learn a skill - Complete]
[Unlock a stat - Complete]
[Kill a monster - Incomplete]
[Defeat another player - Incomplete]
Reward - level up
Next invasion 26 days
“The mission descriptions are the same, but the actual missions are different? That is bad” Yue has an ugly expression on his face. I don't know what he has realized but it must be something important if he is making that face. He was always smart, but I never realized how smart he was until all of this happened.
“What do you mean?”
“If the missions are different, then it's possible that people will have missions that contradict each other. In the worst-case scenario, someone could have missions that direct them to kill other people. Your last mission is proof of this. In your case, you only have to Defeat another player. We can assume the system refers to us as players by the phrasing. Other players will have more sinister missions. We still don't know if these missions are random or specifically tailored to the player.” Yue is pacing around the roof while ranting about his ideas. “I don't know what is more dangerous. The system gives violent people violent missions and in turn gives them more power by committing violence. Or, a completely normal person being guided by the system to commit violence to gain power. The most dangerous thing is the fact that we have no way of knowing what the mission of other people is. People could lie about their missions. I also think we should never tell other people our missions.”
“You are talking a lot, and I don't understand most of what you said. So basically……before even fighting monsters, our first enemies are other people.” A bitter feeling wells up in my chest. “I am starting to realize what type of world we are living in now.”
“Wait. Did you say that you completed missions 2 and 3?” Yue suddenly stopped pacing around. He looked a bit scared. “How? What did you learn?”
“I don't know. The first time I saw the system message, the first three missions were already completed.” I wondered if that was the reason I could control mana in this way. “Maybe I need to open a character status screen like in a game,” I said lightly, but it appeared. I let out an involuntary yelp.
“What happened?” Yue immediately dash to my side and covers me with his body. If he had acted like this more, I would have already gotten pregnant.
“The system screen came up.”
[Kim Miyong]
Control : 10
Skill : Infusion
“Easy to understand. I guess this stat is the reason I am so good at controlling mana.” I told Yue about my stats. He seemed lost in thought. “But I am not sure what this Infusion skill does.” When I thought about the skill, another screen popped up.
Infusion
Infused target with mana.
“I don't know if this description is easy or hard to understand” I couldn't help but laugh at my skill which is both simple and complicated at the same time.
“We got lucky. I don't know what kinds of skills other people may have unlocked, but the synergy between your skill and stat seems to be good.” Yue held my hand for some reason. This guy has gotten more cocky recently, but I will let it slide since it's cute. “You didn't do anything special to unlock the skill. I am going to assume that skills and stats can either be unlocked naturally if the person has the talent or it must be unlocked manually by some other way.” He was pacing around again.
“You haven't unlocked anything yet?” Yue was never athletic, but I thought he would unlock some type of intellect-related skill. “You are so talented. I thought you would naturally unlock something.”
“No, but this is a good thing. Since you have already unlocked your abilities, the smart move is for me to try to unlock a set of abilities that complement yours.” Yue stopped pacing. “Enough about that for now, we should not rush things. Now that you understand what type of power this is, we need to discuss our next move. Do we awaken other people in our group or not?”
“Before we talk about that, didn't you forget to consider something? You were too occupied in the last 3 days and didn't check on all the people in our group.” This guy was always living in his world, he never cared much about other people except for the people he loves. That's probably why he didn't even consider this. “Some people in our group might be hiding their awakening, and if they are, what are their missions?”
—--------------------------
?????
This world is amazing. I was rotting away in the old world and god sent a flood to wash away the unclean masses. The old books were true after all. I was even given magical powers like heroes of old. Soon, I will follow God's guidance and do his bidding. I will become a legend. God’s prophet in the new world. I will spread God’s will in the new world.
God was watching me. He knew that I loved video games more than anything else. That's why he gave me something like this.
[Tutorial]
The world has changed forever. Learn to survive in the new world.
[Awaken mana veins - Complete]
[Learn a skill - Complete]
[Unlock a stat - Complete]
[Punish the wicked - Complete]
[Kill 6 players - 1/6]
Reward - level up
Next invasion 26 days
God is telling me to punish those bastards. I knew they deserved death for what they did to God's servants all these years.
God will protect me and punish the wicked.