Damned System

Chapter 3. Beta Test (2)

As I burned the blood-stained blankets, sheets, and clothes, my whole body trembled violently.

“What if there’s a fire report? What if someone sees this blood?”

All sorts of thoughts ran through my mind, and I felt I might go crazy with anxiety.

Yet, I couldn’t show any signs of distress in front of my younger siblings; they were still so young.

I didn’t want to burden my twin siblings with unnecessary worries.

So I gritted my teeth and held on somehow.

But as soon as I dropped them off at the library, my legs gave out.

“Haah.”

I felt utterly drained. I sat crouched outside the library, staring vacantly at the ground for quite a while.

In a feeble voice, I mumbled to myself.

“System user manual…”

A file spanning 35 pages opened before me.

However, the content was not intact.

Like the initial notification, the manual was damaged in various places.

“Is this also due to some kind of virus…?”

Fortunate amidst the misfortune, some instructions on how to use a few functions remained relatively detailed.

“Status window.”

Player: Kang Hyunwoo (Beta Tester)

Mana: 35 (Attribute Mana: 5)

Affiliation: Earth

Race: Human (Player)

Rank: Delta

Attribute: –

Trait: ?????, adaptability, tenacity

Before I finished reading the words before me, I spoke again.

“Shop.”

「The shop service is not available during the tutorial.」

“Community.”

「The community service is not available during the tutorial.」

“Mission window.”

「There are no current missions in progress.」

「There are no missions available to proceed with.」

“Mission record.”

「MISSION – Tutorial (Beta Test 1/3)」

My gaze fixed on a part of the system window packed with warning-like messages.

‘1/3.’

This implicitly meant that 2/3 and 3/3 existed as well.

Just thinking about that was enough to drive me insane, and the remaining content in the message window only exacerbated my anxiety.

「Upon successful completion, 10 mana will be awarded. All injuries will be healed.」

My eyes stared fiercely at the sentence displayed.

Clearly, success rewards and injury recovery were grouped under the same category.

Having seen this, a significant task loomed over solving the immediate question.

I had to succeed at the 2/3 stage when it arrived.

If I failed, I might end up in the emergency room.

‘If injury recovery is part of the success reward.’

Failing the mission could mean that my wounds would remain.

I couldn’t help but ponder what follows.

What if my siblings saw me like this? What if I died before reaching the emergency room?

A chilling sound escaped between my tightly clenched teeth.

“Damn…”

I forced strength into my trembling legs and stood up.

My pace quickened as I walked away from the library, back hunched.

I first emptied a local pharmacy, then secured a kitchen knife and baseball bat, and finally obtained some protective gear used for dog training.

As I carried everything back home, my mind grew more confused.

With so many items, I should have felt some weight.

But it wasn’t heavy. It felt like I was carrying an empty paper bag.

“What is this?”

My strength seemed immeasurably greater than before.

Even if I was somewhat trained from working in package unloading, this was different.

The change felt unbelievable, occurring overnight.

My strides home gradually turned into a sprint.

Despite the added confusion, I felt I could run even more after having sprinted for a while.

As soon as I reached home, I tossed aside the goods I had brought.

Then, panting heavily, I rushed into the bathroom.

Standing in front of the mirror with my shirt off, I finally saw it.

Things I hadn’t noticed when washing off the blood earlier started catching my attention one by one.

“Unbelievable…”

I had considerable muscle mass due to my active lifestyle.

But I swore it hadn’t been this prominent.

It wasn’t as though I had secretly worked out; my body had become considerably more toned.

My faint six-pack had become defined like a washboard, so it wasn’t a mere illusion.

I had the kind of body that people achieved after long periods of exercise.

To add to the strangeness, there were scars on my side and hip area that I had never seen before.

They were bumpy, as if the skin had been torn and then healed back.

I seemed to see again the blood that had soaked my body this morning.

‘Blood…’

When I awoke, there were no wounds on me.

But the blood had been undeniably present.

The scars, along with the blood, were proof that I had been injured and then healed.

‘The system only heals injuries.’

It didn’t clean up the aftermath.

The holes in my clothes, the scars, the blood—all remained.

As if to assert that this was reality.

‘Should I cover the bed with plastic?’

I couldn’t believe there would come a day when I had to sleep with plastic rather than a blanket over my bed.

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue and exited the bathroom.

I then proceeded to the living room and reached out my hand.

“Hup!”

I successfully lifted the cheap sofa over my head, shocking me into confusion.

‘More than I thought…’

It wasn’t heavy.

When I attempted to hold the sofa up with one arm, I was truly astonished.

“Hah!

While my muscles ached, it wasn’t something I couldn’t achieve.

It was something ordinary people would struggle to mimic.

“Hoo…”

Exhaling a deep sigh, I cautiously set the sofa down.

“What on earth is going on?”

For some time, I paced around the living room, pondering.

And before long, I found a clue.

“Message window.”

Mumbling softly, I checked the remaining sentences in the message window.

「Upon successful completion, 10 mana will be awarded. All injuries will be healed.」

‘Mana…’

It was an utterly unfamiliar term.

Yet, oddly enough, I felt I knew what it was.

The thing that had crawled into my body at the end of the mission.

‘Is that it?’

My body had changed because of it? It seemed like a plausible guess.

‘They’re rewarding mana for successful completion.’

In most games, rewards are means to grow stronger.

As games progress, difficulty levels rise, and the structure usually involves clearing new stages by utilizing rewards from previous ones.

In that case, this mana becomes important for succeeding in the next mission.

‘If this mana truly is what’s changing my body, I need a lot of it.’

There’s no guarantee that the two remaining missions will be the end.

The three-stage mission was clearly marked as a tutorial.

Typically, this would be classified as a practice stage before officially entering a game.

Moreover, what I was doing now was a Beta test.

‘Once this ends, the official service may commence.’

Just the thought of this miserable situation continuing made my body tremble.

‘What if it continues beyond the second and third missions?’

The more mana I had, the higher my chances of survival would become.

I sat back on the sofa and opened the status window again.

My eyes fixed on the section labeled ‘Mana’.

‘Do you only get mana by succeeding in missions?’

No, I had seen a message about absorbing mana when I killed the creature.

‘Eliminating targets or succeeding in missions.’

Both scenarios allowed me to increase my mana.

‘And they’re giving more based on performance.’

I received 5 when I had top scores.

Is it given to those in the ranks? Up to what rank?

If mana is distributed based on rank…

‘Up to the 5th rank?’

If the reward is given in tiers, the numbers suggest that up to the 5th rank might receive it.

Maintaining the top rank would therefore be advantageous.

But is it possible?

‘Considering I don’t even know how to use mana?’

I carefully reviewed the user manual again, but there was no mention of how to use mana.

‘Does it merely influence physical enhancement?’

Is it not something I can use separately?

I pondered over it again while glancing at the status window.

‘But… there are two types.’

Just mana and attribute mana—I didn’t know their differences but there were clearly two types.

Could they end with just enhancing physical abilities?

“That’s unlikely.”

If it were, there would be no point in differentiating the types.

Mana could undoubtedly be used somehow.

A method that would help in clearing missions.

It was just that I didn’t know how to use it yet.

“In most games, it’s consumed when using skills.”

While I was brainstorming, staring at the status window, I clenched my eyes shut.

Mana had undoubtedly crawled into my body. So it had to be somewhere inside.

I endeavored to sense the thoroughly unfamiliar mana within.

I tried every conceivable thing.

“Hoo.”

First, like in martial arts stories, I attempted a cross-legged position.

“Hyaaap!”

I tried filling my whole body with strength while shouting energetically.

“Fireball…”

With absurd embarrassment, I muttered skill names I had seen in cartoons and movies.

However, effort doesn’t always equate to success.

Even after several hours, there were no results.

“Damn it!”

What kind of game was this that it was so unkind?

How could you ask someone to play without providing basic information?

It was akin to telling me to charge ahead blindly—what on earth was I supposed to do?!

“Aaaaagh!”

I let out a scream, trying to vent my rising frustration.

After going through the process of effort, failure, and anger, I reached a state of enlightenment.

‘I don’t even know what traits like ‘adaptability’ and ‘tenacity’ are.’

I tried clicking on the words in the status window just in case, but nothing popped up.

Lying sprawled on the sofa, I blankly stared at the status window.

Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

“Could it be that I can’t feel it because there’s too little mana?”

In that case, should I just wait for the next mission without doing anything?

But what if the next mission required me to use mana to succeed?

Then there was nothing I could do right now. The prospect was daunting.

A feeling of helplessness began to consume me for the first time in a long time.

How much time had passed this way?

“8, 10, 5…?”

While alternating between the status window and the message window, I noticed something peculiar.

Even if I summed up all the mana rewards I had received, it totaled only 23.

“But the total is 35?”

Before chewing over the conflicting numbers, I summoned the damaged user manual.

「Mana」

■△※!!【Lifeforce’s Root ▲〗ː¿#!*Wㅆ&^¿■◆•≫%(*$…

Though the content was lengthy, I could only read a limited portion.

“Lifeforce’s root…”

It was an abrupt and abstract term.

Yet, upon seeing it, I seemed to understand what the missing 12 represented.

“Perhaps the mana I naturally possessed as a living being.”

If this assumption were correct, there might be a way to increase mana before the next mission commenced.

Upon realizing this, my hands excitedly rummaged through the message window.

Before long, I found the sentence I was looking for.

「Player Development Program (Absorption and Purification) is being executed.」

「The target has perished. 8 mana absorbed.」

“Absorption…”

What if this game was structured for one to grow stronger by draining the mana of entities they kill, based on that absorbed power?

My eyes, once blankly staring into space, turned toward the veranda.

Beyond the glass pane, a few flowerpots that Yeonwoo cherished were visible.

When they were younger, Yeonwoo had lamented about wanting a pet, but I insisted against it. So instead, Yeonwoo had raised those plants.

I found myself moving as if under a spell, heading to the veranda.

I picked up the smallest plant. The system remained silent.

But it was too early to give up.

Swallowing nervously, I began crushing the plant under my slipper.

When the greenery had been thoroughly crushed under me…

「0.08 mana absorbed.」

“It worked!”

The excitement that surged suddenly came along with an instinctive reluctance.

I felt the mana, no matter how minuscule, inch into my body.

“Ugh!”

Thankfully, the amount was so small, it was over quickly.

For some time, I remained planted there, trying only to catch my breath.

When my excitement had subsided a bit, I attempted to sense the mana again but failed.

I was sure it had entered my body, but I couldn’t locate it whatsoever.

But I was alright with that. The helplessness that had once felt pervasive was gone without a trace.

“If it’s truly that I can’t sense it because there’s too little.”

I’d merely have to gather until I could sense that mana.

After clearing the mushy plant remnants and the now-empty flowerpot, I ran to the storage room.

As I gathered some tools and a shovel, my eyes burned with determination.

Damned System