Damned System

Chapter 5. Beta Test (4)

‘Is this what they call information?’

The content was lengthy, but the amount of readable information was barely a speck.

I gritted my teeth, but wasting time venting wasn’t an option.

After subtly muttering a few curses, I continued to search for explanations about other elements.

About three pages later, I found the explanation of ranks.

The ranks were listed in order: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta.

Most of the text here was also garbled, but the description about Delta remained intact.

‘A candidate rank that can be promoted to the top three ranks…’

However, there was no explanation about the actual promotion.

There was no information on the method of promotion or the benefits it could bring.

‘I don’t even expect anything anymore.’

I almost felt a sense of enlightenment as I turned the page.

Simultaneously, I resumed running. There was still time left before my afternoon part-time job, so I decided to measure my physical limits while I had the chance.

Meanwhile, I crammed the manual’s contents into my head, trying to recall them without opening it.

Suddenly, by chance, I noticed a weed pushing through next to a telephone pole.

“Oh.”

I was lucky.

It was the end of winter, so there were more shriveled ones than fresh, green ones.

Moreover, it was harder to find them near my house since I had already cleared the area once.

Lowering my posture immediately, plucking the weed, and stomping on it was as natural as flowing water.

「0.02 Mana Absorbed.」

After finishing the mana absorption, I brought up my status window.

Player: Kang Hyunwoo (Beta Tester)
Mana: 88.42 (Attribute Mana: 8)
Affiliation: Earth
Race: Human (Player)
Rank: Delta
Attributes: –
Traits: ?????, adaptability, tenacity, Mana Manipulation (0.01%)

Thus, my mana was at 88.42.

Absorbing the mana from plants had once pushed it up to the 40s, and now it exceeded 80.

Catching all three lions in the second mission was significant.

‘Each gave more than 10.’

Recalling the moment tangled with the lions was dreadful.

But I couldn’t ignore what I experienced during that time.

There was a message related to mana that I couldn’t shake off.

The record of that moment was clearly left in the status window.

‘Mana Manipulation…’

I experienced the difference between just possessing mana and using it.

No matter how strong I became, I couldn’t resist the bite force of a lion.

But after the message about the mana operation appeared, it became possible.

‘Does it simply enhance strength?’

From that point on, I focused on this thing called Mana Manipulation.

I had to master it fully.

In the third stage, there would definitely be something more challenging than three lionesses to face.

‘How do you activate it?’

The moment I calmly asked that question.

“Sir, where’s mom?”

A voice passing by interrupted my thoughts.

Halting my run, I turned around.

I noticed a man in his 40s and a child around five or six years old passing by.

There was a sense of unease emanating from them.

A small unease that seemed insignificant if ignored.

Unable to shake it off, I fixed my gaze on the two.

When I focused, hoping to hear more of their conversation as they moved farther away.

Sssss.

Something sprouted within me, sharpening my senses.

「Mana Manipulation initiated.」

“Gasp!”

I thought my senses were already keen.

Yet, compared to what came next, it was nothing.

Information poured in from all directions.

I could vividly sense the intertwining sounds and smells.

Thanks to that, I quickly picked up on the conversation between the man and the child, even as they moved away.

“So, mom will come?”

“Yes, if you wait over there, mom will…”

The man looked back and met my gaze for a moment.

He nervously averted his eyes and pulled the child along.

“If we’re late, mom might leave. Let’s hurry.”

“Yes!”

The wide-open senses suddenly closed off again.

「Mana Manipulation deactivated.」

The shock was brief, and I acted swiftly.

Before I knew it, I was approaching the man and the child.

“Excuse me, just a moment.”

The man flinched, his shoulders trembled, and it was clear he heard me.

Yet, instead of stopping, he quickened his pace.

The sense of unease intensified.

“I said, please wait a moment.”

Rushing, I overtook the man, blocking his path.

“Wh-what do you want?”

The man immediately put his empty hand into his jacket pocket.

His suspicious movement made my muscles tense reflexively.

While remaining wary of the man, I glanced down.

The child looked up at me with innocent eyes.

“Kid, is this man your dad?”

“No.”

“Then why are you with him?”

“He said he’d take me to mom…”

“I-I know his parents!”

The man’s angry shout cut off the child’s words.

‘Why’s this thing speaking so rudely to a stranger on a first meeting?’

With a frown, I shot back.

“Prove it.”

“Wh-what?”

If the man’s words were true, I was simply misunderstanding.

But I couldn’t easily shake off the sense of unease.

So, I couldn’t help but step in.

“You can call them, right? Video call. You’d have their number if you know them.”

If it was just a misunderstanding on my part, it would end with an apology.

In the worst case, I could endure being cursed at or slapped a few times.

But if the man’s words were lies?

If this situation was what I thought it was?

In the worst case, someone could get hurt.

‘And that someone would be that child.’

I was thinking about how high the mortality rate is for child abduction cases.

At that moment, the man pulled his hand out of his jacket pocket.

As soon as my concentration spiked again.

「Mana Manipulation initiated.」

It felt like watching a video in slow motion.

Compared to the beasts that once charged at me, it was painfully slow.

So, I just grabbed him.

‘What do we have here?’

In the hand I caught, aimed at my chest, was a kitchen knife.

Memories tied to blades weren’t pleasant, so I frowned instinctively.

Suspicious conversations, a kitchen knife, a child.

Combining these fragmented pieces of information only led to one conclusion.

‘A real kidnapper?’

I was beyond amazed; I burst into a hollow laugh.

“Let, let go of me, you bastard!”

The man struggled to break free from my grasp, swinging his arm.

But, my strength had grown incomparably since the past.

The man couldn’t slip from my grip.

“Let go of me!”

“You let go.”

With a swift kick to his shin, the man lost his balance.

At the same moment, the hand holding the child’s hand loosened noticeably.

I quickly pulled the child away and pushed the man with my foot.

He toppled over without even a proper struggle.

My body, which had been tense after discovering the knife, suddenly relaxed, hissing as if cooling down.

「Mana Manipulation deactivated.」

As if responding to that, the message disappeared.

Merchants, alerted by the commotion, came out one by one from their shops.

I pointed at one of them and spoke.

“Hey, can you report this to the police? Seems like a kidnapper.”

While I clicked my tongue, the kidnapper jumped up.

“Why are you interfering in someone else’s business?!”

He adjusted the grip on his knife as if he intended to stab me.

I pushed the child aside, and the nearby store owner rushed out to take care of the child.

Simultaneously, the man swung his knife.

“Whoa.”

As I bent backward to dodge, he immediately followed up with a thrust.

Smack.

I raised my arm at a right angle and struck down the man’s wrist.

Even though his thrust was blocked, he used the recoil to charge again.

Every time the man attempted a thrust, I blocked it seamlessly.

My body moved perfectly without even a tiny error, following my intentions.

After several exchanges of attack and defense, the man, seemingly out of patience, closed the distance.

My thoughts and actions flowed simultaneously.

I pushed the man’s wrist aside with my arm, just like before, and dove into his chest.

Swiftly.

As I tightly secured his right elbow with my left hand, I struck his chest with my right.

“Gah!”

The man gasped for air and collapsed.

I kicked the knife he dropped, sending it out of reach, resolving the situation.

‘Did it really happen this easily…?’

I had just mimicked a technique from a knife training video I frantically searched for after the first tutorial ended.

It was a defensive move, not an offensive technique, so I hadn’t watched it till the end.

Yet, my body imitated the action without any proper training, based solely on having seen it.

I truly realized the transformation in my body.

The man’s movements were far too slow by my standards.

Thanks to that, I managed to restrain him without injury.

“Tch.”

I clicked my tongue as I sat on the still writhing body of the man on the ground.

“What about the police?”

“I-I called them!”

Answered the store owner, holding the child I pushed towards him.

I restrained the man until the police arrived while mulling over my mana once more.

Later at the police station, it took over two hours to give my statement, causing me to be late for my afternoon part-time job.

The operations manager scolded me, and throughout the work, I focused on mana-related matters.

The phenomenon the system described as Mana Manipulation.

I worked hard to replicate that phenomenon again.

My body worked continuously while my mind searched for the mana hidden somewhere inside.

By the time my shift ended, I managed to see that message again.

「Mana Manipulation initiated.」

For now, my focus was so fragile that even a slight distraction would deactivate Mana Manipulation.

It felt like guarding a flickering candle.

And so, on my way home, I diligently attempted it repeatedly, more than dozens of times.

This might be the thing that saves me in the next mission.

Was it a reward for my relentless perseverance?

As I entered a familiar alley near my home.

“This is unbelievable, really.”

I sighed deeply as I gazed at the red smoke swirling around my left hand.

I was brainstorming what I could do with it after managing to maintain Mana Manipulation to a certain degree of freedom.

I attempted channeling the mana spread all over my body into one place and spinning it rapidly.

Then I tried to force it out as if pushing through something.

As if the mana was burrowing outwards, this event unfolded.

“What kind of phenomenon is this…?”

Muttering with a furrowed brow, I suddenly realized something odd.

The mana emanating from my hand began to thin.

Then, suddenly, it was gone.

‘There’s still some mana left though…’

I quickly tried concentrating mana back into my hand.

And as if creating a hole, I made a way for it to flow out.

By focusing on the mana’s movement, I identified the issue.

Every time the red mist trickled out through the hole, the mana’s rotational speed within decreased rapidly.

Gripping harder to maintain the rotation speed, the red mist continued to emit.

Instead, my body’s mana started depleting rapidly.

Unlike simply circulating it within my body, I could feel the mana disappearing in real-time.

‘No, it’s being consumed.’

Like how fuel depletes as a car moves.

My mana wasn’t just staying in place; it was actively doing something.

As an experiment, I punched the nearby wall of a building with my fist clenched.

Thud! Crack.

There was a deep and heavy sound, and a crack formed on the wall.

I stood frozen in place.

Pebbles of cement drizzled from the crack that began at the point of impact.

Of course, I did put some force into it.

But for the wall to crack from a single punch?

Frozen at the shocking sight, I hurriedly withdrew my hand.

Mana Manipulation had already ended, and the red haze in my hand vanished.

However, the crack in the wall remained as it was.

Whoosh, whoosh.

I quickly checked the alley in both directions, in case there were any witnesses.

Fortunately, no one was around.

Hastily leaving the scene, my mind spun in chaos.

‘Should I report this?’

If left as is, and the building collapses due to the load.

What if someone gets hurt?

The hesitation wasn’t long. Eventually, I pulled out my phone.

It was already past office hours for government agencies.

I called the police, asking them to make a note for the agency managing facilities to check it out the next day.

I couldn’t bring myself to admit it was my doing, so I just said I discovered it.

‘Even if I confessed, I doubt they’d believe me.’

I arrived home with a complicated and unsettling feeling.

As I reached out to the door lock, I received a call from Yeonwoo.

Instead of answering, I just opened the door.

“Why are you calling…?”

“Orabang!”

“Hyung!”

And I faced my younger siblings rushing towards me.

“What’s with you guys?”

I asked nonchalantly while taking off my shoes.

Yeonwoo pointed fiercely at the TV and said,

“That’s you, orabang!”

“What is?”

Following Yeonwoo’s finger, I looked at the TV.

I stopped midway through taking off my shoes, frozen.

On the TV screen, there was a continuous playback of CCTV footage and a phone-recorded video.

Over it, I could hear the calm voice of a news anchor:
『…and Mr. Kim produced a knife. Despite the potential danger, Kang calmly protected the child by…』

“Oh…”

I was on the 9 o’clock news.

“Orabang, are you crazy?! What if you got hurt running at someone with a knife!”

Unlike me, who was at a loss for words, Yeonwoo shouted sharply.