Above Your Head-Vol 2. Chapter 56: Global Levelling (1)

Vol 2. Chapter 56: Global Levelling (1)

- Stage will be open!

- Level 3. Difficulty is set to Intermediate.

- Eliminate the enemies (5 individuals) within 6 hours.

- Stage will begin in 10 seconds.

- 10. 9. 8. 7….

- 3. 2. 1. The battle has begun. 

The background changed and I arrived within a huge hall. I commented to myself, "It's beginning indoors, huh."

The development until Level 2 was always the same. I would start at the door of an abandoned building, go in to find and then kill zombie monsters. This time, however, it started within the building itself.

Clang clank! As I turned around and grabbed the front door of the hall, the door locked and wouldn't open. I couldn't even see anything resembling a window. Bang! I hit the door strongly, but the door wouldn't budge. I blinked and said, "If this happens, even giving up will be hard."

So far, people with no intentions of taking the test had not taken it simply by wasting their time on the outside of the building. They did not even open the doors of the abandoned house. Whether it was fear, or wanting to obtain information from others without dying for no reason on the first-round test, they decided to hold out. 

Whoooong---! The door cracked when the force of vibration was applied, but it still remained undestroyed. If I spent dozens of minutes on this door, I might be able to break it, but it would be easier to defeat five zombie monsters instead. "Hmm, even so, I'll try to destroy it as a test."

Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights.

Yellow.

Yellow was a principle that identified and implemented the inherent vibration of objects that touched the skin. It was also a skill that was classified for non-combat use as its cast time was too long. The beginning of Yellow was to obtain an approximate solution using the Resonance phenomenon of the body that was in contact with the object itself. And finally, once the inherent vibration was figured out, a forced vibration was created through the right hand that was in contact. 

Whoooong---! When an object was forced to vibrate, if the frequency of the disturbance and the inherent frequency of the vibration matched, the dynamic response would become infinitely larger. Then, over time, the object would become free to vibrate at the primary inherent frequency.

"It's done," I said, since the primary inherent vibration meant that the object was in the most malleable shape. 

Wiiiiiing-! The door moved in loud waves as if a stone was thrown into a lake. It distorted like a fluttering fabric in the strong winds and, of course, close to no materials could withstand such severe deformation. Spaaaaack! I roughly kicked the broken door and went out the door.

"Wow." I was surprised by my discovery. "It's huge." The mansion was enormous and resembled a building that didn’t strike me as a private mansion. It was about the size of a modern department store or a supermarket. Outside the mansion, there was a huge forest with no end in sight and, as if the space had been erased, the background after a certain distance could not be seen. 

"Ares." After taking out a lump of iron from the Unique World and calling for his name, the lump of iron melted like ice on a midsummer day. In a matter of seconds, it turned into a small robot that took on the form of the Spirit Ares, not the God-rank Gigas Ares. 

What is it?

"Please fly up to the sky and take a picture of this place."

These days, I'm really just doing small errands huh. 'Shyoooooooong', Ares flew up into the sky while grumbling. He held a camcorder which was as large as his body in his hands.

"Let's see, for starters, there are three floors. I think there's a basement too." I circled the abandoned building along the outskirts. There was not a single window in the abandoned building. The interior had an abnormal structure considering that it was a mansion inhabited by medieval aristocrats. "There's only one door too." I placed my hand on a wall on one side of the building that was directly opposite the front door. 

Brilliant Heaven Seven Lights.

Yellow.

Kwaaaangggg! I broke the wall that vibrated in waves and went inside. I couldn't sense any signs of life. "Is this space not used for the Intermediate-difficulty test…?" I moved while searching every room. I searched all the furniture I could see and opened all the drawers. And by that time, I was able to grasp the power of the skill. 

- You have obtained hard wheat bread!

- Energy of Luck has been activated. You have obtained hard wheat bread!

"Ohhhoo." I was not hungry yet, so I put the wheat bread into the Unique World.  It was the first time I had ever obtained food despite going through hundreds of tests, and that was not all… 

- You have obtained 3  9mm bullets!

- Energy of Luck has been activated! You have obtained 3 9mm bullets!

- You have obtained 1 9mm bullets!

- Energy of Luck has been activated! You have obtained 1 9mm bullets!

- You have obtained a pocket knife!

Energy of Luck had a more active role than I had thought. If I was going to use the Gunman characteristic, I would definitely have chosen the Energy of Luck. "The problem is that I don't have guns yet."

I went through all the rooms and eventually obtained 36 bullets, 6 breads, an axe, and a pocket knife. There was no chance of obtaining additional equipment, perhaps because Energy of Luck was an ability that only applied to consumables.

"Kruuooaaaar!!!!" However, just then, an eerie shriek resonated at a close distance, but still felt rather far away.

"Huh, I'm upstairs and it can still sense me?" I blinked in surprise. Above my head, I could hear 'Boom boom boom!' and the sound of something running. After waiting for a moment, 'Bang!', the door to the stairs was destroyed and the zombie monster appeared. 

Project End

Level 3

Advanced Squad Commander, Al

The zombie monster was bigger than the one I met during yesterday’s test. At a height of almost 2.5 meters, and its broad shoulders, it was a monster with an impressively muscular body. 

I pulled a gun out of the Unique World. Guns couldn't be used if there wasn't gunpowder, but making a pistol was entirely possible with just metal alone. There was no problem as long as there were bullets. Bang! The accurate shot struck the zombie monster on the forehead.

The bastard who was about to kick off the floor and charge forward staggered. "Kruuooaaaar!" It then fixed its posture while screaming eerily. Then, it staggered again. It tried to get back into position and run, but… Bang! Thuckkk! As I shot its eyes, its whole body trembled for a moment before collapsing.

"Isn't this a pretty good gun?" I smiled. It was quite encouraging to have defeated an enemy without any super-ability or superhuman-like combat capability. In other words, as long as the gun was used well, it signified the possibility for ordinary people to clear the stage too.

"I'll have to look for guns too." I started to search the building again. I searched the rooms, went back and forth between floors, then figured out the building’s structure. I then marked down the places where items were found to create some sort of a map. It was not that difficult of a task because I already looked at the overall shape from the outside of the building.

Project End

Level 3

Hunter, Hunt

"Ahh, what the hell is this?" I frowned at the sight of a zombie running up the wall like a cockroach. Bang! I blew its head off with a bullet. Since I did not have to purposely hit its eyeball to kill it, like the previous zombie, its endurance was lacking. However, just like a cockroach, it wouldn’t be easy for ordinary people to hit it due to its quick and abnormal movements.

Bang! I later shot the guy hiding next to the wardrobe and hit my mark. His title was Assassin and his name was Shane. His skin was completely dark, so I couldn’t properly see him when he hid in the shadows.

"Found it!" I  only discovered the pistol when I roughly got to my initial starting point. It was under a cracked wooden floor. 

Wow, how do they expect someone to find it if they put it here?

"I know, right? It's not as if they would suffer a big loss either." I shrugged. It wasn't even an open structure, so not many people would simply break it down just because it was cracked. I could find things because I could see the titles of objects, but such objects usually wouldn’t be so easily found.

"Kyaaaak!"

"Ahh, you're the last one." I smashed the limbs of the zombie monster who charged at me before roughly throwing it aside. Then, I finished searching the building. As a result, I was finally able to figure out the entire structure of the building. 

- Warning: 1,554,557,531 battles have not finished.

- 455,508,765 out of 6,181,756,999 examinees have passed. The remaining people have been dealt with Death Procession. 

450 million examinees had passed, and the number was slowly falling to dangerous levels. It was a 6 hour test if one played it normally, but if so many people were eliminated, then a large number of deaths could occur due to a failure to achieve a perfect clear.  

"Is it at least a fortunate thing that there are more than 1.5 billion people who gave up?" I commented. Since the second test remained, there was a possibility that even a part of it would be cleared.

But how can someone give up? This is the starting point but the enemy will come finding though? As Ares said, the zombie monsters in the mansion roamed the whole building. They would come for them even if the examinees that gave up did not walk around. Any unlucky person could possibly have five monsters rushing towards them at the same time. Basically, by staying still, you would face the worst possible situation.

"But it's not completely impossible. We can hide." I knew that as long as the zombie monsters didn’t find them, they wouldn’t have to fight. After all, there were many places to hide in, such as closets, wardrobes, big drawers, toilets… Zombie monsters wouldn’t scour the entire room, so it was possible for them to hold their breath and hide for six hours.

-Do you want to start the next battle?

"Start," I urged and restarted without hesitation. Unfortunately, the results were disappointing.

Captain, the bread I stored has been destroyed.

"Yeah, no axe, no pistol, no bullets, it's all gone… The consumables acquired on that stage must be used up within that stage itself." I thought I could use whatever I acquired all the time, upon finding them all, but it turned out that I couldn’t do it so comfortably. This time, I proceeded normally without breaking the door. I simply hunted enemies who appeared and acquired the consumables. I ate the bread as soon as I got it and shot with every bullet I found.

-Do you want to start the next battle?

"Start." As I restarted again, and again, and again, the map that Genie drew became increasingly detailed. I was able to grasp the new rules for Level 3 tests.

1. The equipment that can be found in the mansion are standard pistols, hand axes, and pocket knives.

2. The locations of all things found are randomly determined each time.

3. The quantity of consumables is also random. 10 to 20 bullets. 1 to 2 bread. 1 or 2 water bottles.

4. The zombie monsters have their own personalities and each has its own pros and cons. This is also random in every round, but it is determined within a total of 10 types.

Kwaaaangggg! I started a new stage and broke the cracked wooden floor. I didn't see a pistol. Thudd! As I broke the frame on the wall, a hidden space appeared and revealed a pistol.

"The pistol is usually near the starting point,” I commented. I noticed that the location randomly changed, but it didn't just appear anywhere. There were about five different possible locations.

-Do you want to start the next battle?

-Do you want to start the next battle?

-Do you want to start the next battle?

I cleared the stage in quick succession. The stage had grown in size, and I had been flipping through the entire house, so it was a time-consuming process. I then asked, "How many hours did I fight for?"

42 hours have just passed, including break time.

"There seems to be no time limit, though it won't actually be infinite."

You're within stopped time anyway. Except for the first time clear, it can be said that all of mankind was moving along their own timeline. Listening to Genie's answer, I started walking down the hall again. Now that the investigation was complete, instead of searching, I immediately searched for the zombie monsters and smashed their heads. I was too lazy to find a gun.

"Well, since we're on the topic." I cleared it for another five hours just like that. Suddenly, a question arose in my mind, "Why aren't I hungry?"