Inside the shattered armor,
I picked up the faintly glowing Enhancement Stone.
—-
[Enhancement Stone (D)]
Attribute: Electricity
Options: [Penetration], [Electric Shock]
—-
Once again, a simple description without much detail.
The only difference was that the attribute was electricity, and instead of [Ignition], the option was [Electric Shock].
Unlike the skeleton knight, Gawain, whom I had encountered earlier, this one died instantly after being hit by a few bowling balls.
The same 16-pound bowling ball.
The Shipping Speed hadn’t changed either.
If there was any difference…
‘…I just enhanced it.’
Now that I thought about it, there was that one option attached.
[Penetration]
The word itself meant exactly what it implied: piercing through.
It’s not a complicated term, but unlike [Ignition] or [Electric Shock], I couldn’t clearly understand its exact function.
But if…
‘…this is a way to penetrate their defenses?’
The word [Penetration] wasn’t just decorative.
If it was true, the Enhancement Stone would undoubtedly become the most crucial means to eliminate higher-level entities impervious to modern firearms.
‘Let’s wait and see.’
I could verify its effects gradually.
Especially since I had just acquired a second Enhancement Stone.
Of course, it wasn’t just Enhancement Stones that I had gained.
I also acquired two large Mana Stones, each worth 100 regular ones.
A total of 200 Mana Stones were now added to my stash.
I dusted off the dirt.
“Alright then…”
I had somehow managed to defeat the skeleton knight.
Now, it was time to leave, but… that wasn’t going to be easy either.
Kim Sol, who had endured hardships within the castle walls for the past few days, testified.
“I tried to leave several times. But… there’s no exit door here in the first place.”
It was an ancient-looking castle.
One would naturally think of heavy doors suspended by iron chains.
But no matter how much I looked around, there was no sign of a large front gate.
All that existed was a small entrance connected to the inner castle wall.
That was more of an entrance leading to another place rather than an exit.
But for us, it was an unnecessary worry.
After all, I had a helicopter stored in the Subspace.
[UH-60, Black Hawk, Price not set.]
Clunk!
The helicopter emerged from the portal.
With each use of my ability, Kim Sol wore a genuinely stunned expression.
“Now you’ve even summoned a helicopter…”
Though escaping was a good thing, she seemed inwardly frustrated.
Kim Sol had never lost to me in any game her entire life.
Whirr-!
Whether it understood her feelings or not, the helicopter indifferently spun its blades violently.
Feeling the wind blow through my hair, I tossed my little sister into the portal.
Since Kim Sol’s weapon was her fists, she didn’t have much use in aerial combat.
Above our heads was the blue sky, surrounded by dull castle walls.
That was the path we needed to break through.
However…
Whirr-!
Only a few minutes after the helicopter took to the skies, an anomaly occurred.
“……?”
It was a sky that had been wide open.
Rumble, rumble…
Suddenly, as if a giant cauldron lid was closing over us, pitch-black darkness rapidly descended toward us.
Rumble…
In the face of the massive sound of a closing door, the helicopter was as helpless as a fly trapped in a jar.
And then…
Kagagagagak!
The bats we had encountered when entering the castle wall attacked once again.
It was a repeat of the same situation.
It wasn’t easy shaking them off either, but…
‘…we can’t even escape.’
Even without the bats, escape wasn’t possible.
The vast sky that had been open above had suddenly disappeared, obscured by a mysterious enormous roof.
Ratatatatat!
The helicopter windows were completely covered with bats.
Bang!
Bang!
I shot the enhanced bowling ball repeatedly at the ceiling and the castle walls…
But the giant fortress didn’t even get a scratch.
I didn’t bother to think further.
I exchanged a glance with Lee Yong-su and silently nodded.
Then, without hesitation, I thrust myself into the Subspace Portal.
Wobble.
The scene of the now empty cockpit and the shaking helicopter.
This was the second Black Hawk Down.
.
.
.
The view from inside the Subspace was nothing but a blank, black canvas.
The sky had been covered, completely cutting off external light.
In a city where even the power had been fully cut, there was nothing to see but impenetrable darkness.
The situation outside was as clear as day.
Once again, the Black Hawk had been shot down.
Skeletons and zombie dogs were surely prowling around nearby.
And now, even the crazed swarm of bats that had attacked us.
From this, I was able to confirm two things.
One, the obvious fact that we were trapped here.
And second…
Kim Sol was on the verge of exhaustion.
“……”
The little sister who I had always thought was unbreakable had fallen into a deep sleep.
She lay on a mattress that had been carelessly tossed in one corner of the Fulfillment Center.
It was the place where we had been nursing Han Kyung-ho, the communications battalion leader.
It seemed that once she judged this Subspace to be safe, all the tension from the past few days had finally released, and she had drifted into sleep.
It was an unfamiliar sight.
I had grown up seeing only Kim Sol’s strong, resilient side my entire life.
But no matter how tough she was, the weight of a world in ruins was too much for anyone to bear.
“For now…”
I decided to take a breather.
Beyond the portal,
the city, cloaked in an early night, shimmered like a wave.
As our short rest came to an end.
-!
I woke to the sound of murmuring.
When I came to my senses, Kim Sol, who I had moved to the break room bed, was nowhere to be found.
“…Where did she go?”
I soon found her.
The moment I reached the picking station, there she was, cradling a box in her arms, her eyes still bleary with sleep.
A large box, nestled tightly in her embrace.
PAX had belatedly confirmed the order list.
[PlayStation 5 Disc Edition, CFI-1218A01, Price: 618,090 won.]
My little sister looked at me and said.
“Kim Jeong-gyeom, I love you.”
“……”
Even in this apocalyptic situation, this gaming maniac was still chasing her dopamine.
I asked her.
“You’re not planning to play it right now, are you…?”
“…That’s why I’m feeling depressed.”
She scratched her head in frustration but didn’t actually open the box.
Somehow, Lee Yoo-jung, Lee Yong-su’s daughter, who had gotten close to her in the meantime, approached Kim Sol affectionately.
As Kim Sol patted Yoo-jung, she said,
“Yoo-jung, inside this box… is a whole world.”
I gently pulled Yoo-jung away and handed her over to Lee Yong-su, who was hovering nearby.
There was no ruder intrusion than this, especially upon first meeting someone.
With all the fuss dispelled and my drowsiness fully shaken off,
“Hey! You’re awake?”
Our older sister called to us from the stairs.
Following her up to the second floor, sure enough, Oh Ji-soo, Lee Yong-su’s wife, was waiting for us in the employee cafeteria.
It seemed our older sister had been helping her out with some tasks.
But regardless, Oh Ji-soo had a complaint to lodge with me.
“…Why aren’t you all eating properly? I go through the trouble of cooking, but it gets cold, and I have to throw it away… There’s already a mountain of food in the freezer.”
“Ah…”
We had been so focused on the situation outside that we’d hardly had proper meals.
Looking back on how we had been subsisting on processed food while the fresh products in the Fresh Center went untouched… maybe we had been pretending to survive the apocalypse all along.
I said.
“…Should I register the leftovers as products to prevent spoilage?”
“How heartless… That’s not what I meant…”
The mention of heartlessness stung a bit.
In the end, her point was simple.
“Eat properly before heading out. That way, you’ll have the strength to find the rest of your family.”
Behind her, there was a steaming, vibrant, multi-colored spread of dishes laid out.
Food is a powerful source of strength for the spirit.
All of us succumbed to that powerful force, grabbing our spoons and chopsticks like we were preparing for battle.
And just like that,
The chopsticks flew into the air like fighter jets.
But…
‘…What should I eat first?’
I couldn’t decide where to strike first.
Grilled eel, generously coated in a sweet sauce.
Pan-fried zucchini and meat pancakes, perfectly cooked.
Moist braised beef ribs and bellflower root salad, sprinkled with sesame seeds on top of a tangy gochujang sauce.
It was an impressive lineup, but…
Despite all that, we all began the same way.
With a steaming bowl of soybean paste soup, filled with tender mallow leaves.
The soft mallow blanketed my tongue like a warm quilt, and the savory broth seeped through the fibers, filling my mouth.
It felt like I was drinking pure energy.
Like the exhaustion itself was being washed away.
There was no other way to describe the comforting warmth.
The city was shrouded in darkness.
The only way out, the sky, had been blocked.
‘I’ve got to find a way out…’
At first, I considered putting the entire castle into Subspace.
After all, I had already reached Level 3.
No matter what this strange castle was, I could escape instantly.
But…
‘The risk is too great.’
A castle that grows by itself.
Why it was growing, and why the lid had suddenly closed—I knew nothing about this place.
If I carelessly absorbed it, it could even affect the Fulfillment Center.
‘…And it’d be a waste of my ability.’
The Subspace ability can only be used once per level.
If it was an unavoidable situation, it would be better to absorb something more useful.
Not something like this massive monstrosity.
With that thought in mind, I realized there was only one option left.
Kim Sol spoke up.
“We have to go inside the castle. Since it’s connected to the walls, if we explore inside, we’ll eventually find a way out.”
But the problem was…
Lee Yong-su chimed in.
“Do you think we’ll make it to the entrance safely? With all those bats…”
When the helicopter had reached the shadow of the castle walls, and when we were completely plunged into darkness, like just now…
The bats had relentlessly swarmed toward us.
From what we could gather, it seemed their instinct was to stay in dark places.
We could shoot them down with rifles, but…
“They’re too small… and there are just too many of them.”
It was nearly impossible to take out every one of them as they approached.
Even using flaming bowling balls, daggers through , or didn’t solve the problem.
Even if I fired weapons at a rate of four per second, the bats were too numerous and dense, and there were bound to be gaps.
My older sister offered an opinion.
“How about using the lights from the Fulfillment Center? The strongest ones we have.”
It was a great suggestion, befitting a healer with a light attribute.
But…
“We’d have to carry all the lights and batteries with us…”
It seemed impractical.
Not only would our hands be tied up with equipment, but there would also be blind spots every time we moved.
After pondering for a moment, I called PAX.
An idea for an experiment had popped into my head.
.
.
.
[Cost: 250]
◈ Subspace Laboratory (New!)
-Installs a laboratory that allows for the combination, classification, and modification of products registered in the Subspace.
There are various products registered in Subspace.
From the miscellaneous items at the PAX Fulfillment Center to communication equipment, firearms, ammunition, and vehicles from the National Logistics Center.
I couldn’t easily grasp what it truly meant to be able to combine and modify those items.
PAX added a simple explanation.
[First, when you use combination, you can ignore physical limitations and merge two or more objects together.]
[For example, you could combine two bowling balls into a snowman shape.]
Previously, I had used small tricks, like loading bullets into a magazine and registering it as an item, or registering a grenade with the safety pin and clip removed.
But this time, it wasn’t just a simple manipulation—it felt like I could completely merge items into any form I wanted.
Next was ‘classification and adjustment.’
[When you use classification and adjustment, you can separate parts of a registered item, or increase or decrease its quantity when shipping.]
[For example, you could remove the PET material from a 2-liter water bottle and ship just the 50 liters of water.]
Hearing the explanation, I roughly understood.
By using the Combination function, I could combine an axe and a knife to design some kind of bizarre weapon. And using Classification and Adjustment, I could dump dozens of liters of fuel at once.
Since it seemed like it could be useful in the current situation, I immediately paid the cost.
[250 Mana Stones have been received.]
[You have 37 Mana Stones remaining.]
PAX responded.
It was me, Lee Yong-su, and my two sisters.
The four of us got into a military Korando Sports vehicle.
The scenery outside was black.
Soon, once Lee Yong-su stepped on the accelerator, the silver Korando would plunge into the darkness.
The vehicle was no different from any other, but there was one unique aspect.
“This thing’s incredibly sturdy now.”
Lee Yong-su said, his voice filled with excitement.
On the outside, it looked like an armored vehicle.
Using Classification and Adjustment in the Subspace Laboratory, I had removed the handles from several frying pans.
I attached the round steel plates from those frying pans to the vehicle’s weaker parts, including the windows.
The car had gotten a bit heavier, but it was more than enough to fend off the small attacks from the bats.
Whirr.
The Korando’s shell was now fortified with dozens of frying pans.
Since they had completely merged into one object, not a single clanging sound could be heard, even with the vibrations of the vehicle.
Vroom!
And so, we exited through the portal.
Screech!
Screeech!
As always, the bats swooped down at us, but…
This time, the situation was different.
Click!
I flipped the switch that hung from the ceiling of the passenger seat, and brilliant light burst out from the vehicle’s header in all directions.
It wasn’t just frying pans that I had combined with the vehicle.
The power was being supplied by a camping power bank loaded into the trunk.
Massive square lights, like the kind you’d find in a photography studio, were attached around the vehicle’s header, providing 360-degree illumination.
The lights, now spherical in form, didn’t allow even a speck of shadow, mimicking the fullness of the sun in the sky.
And…
The light did more than just drive away the bats.
“…They’re straight-up burning to death.”
Screeech!
The bats that had tormented us so relentlessly were swallowed by flames.
And then…
Thud.
Thud.
As they vanished without a trace, Mana Stones began raining down beneath their remains.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
It was like a sudden change in weather.
The Mana Stones that fell like hail bounced off the frying pans, ringing out like the sounds of victory.
Of course, I swiftly absorbed all of those spoils using .
The fortress was still shrouded in darkness.
We slowly set off to find the exit.
Like a lone firefly in the night.
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