< 3 : Karma System (2) >
After getting the skill, what I had to do was obvious.
I immediately looked for a target that I could attack nearby.
Despite the fact that there were some characters around, when I looked again, they were nowhere to be seen.
Maybe it was because of the rugged terrain of the mountain range, but it was not easy to find the characters in the tiles of similar colors.
The only thing I found was a rabbit that was grazing on the grass.
Unlike humans, its small graphic was standing still in its place.
It was the first time I tried to attack something that was not a character.
“Maybe… I can attack that too.”
I prepared the lightning magic when I found the rabbit.
Press.
I activated the target by pressing the button, and then placed the target on top of the rabbit.
Then I cast the magic by touching the target again.
Crack!
A short lightning struck above the rabbit’s head.
-You used <Lightning>.
With the message that I used magic, a number -15 popped up above the rabbit’s head.
The rabbit that was attacked fell down with a skull in its speech bubble.
The tiles around where the lightning fell were also charred black.
The rabbit that fell down did not get up again.
I knocked down the rabbit with one shot of <Lightning> magic.
“The damage is 15.”
The damage I inflicted on the rabbit with one lightning magic was 15.
Considering that I had to touch it once with my finger to inflict 1 damage, it was 15 times stronger than the basic attack.
Of course, I couldn’t spam it indefinitely because of the high magic consumption.
But it seemed certain that my fingers would hurt less.
I tried out the lightning magic and felt sorry for myself, so I looked around.
“…”
I confirmed that <Lightning> magic could knock down a rabbit in one shot.
But I didn’t think I could send a character away in one shot either.
I felt like trying it on a character as a target once.
I started looking for a suitable target by moving the screen.
The mountain beyond the mountain.
The small stream beyond that.
And then the dense forest that appeared again behind it.
I couldn’t see any characters even after looking for a long time.
It seemed like the characters I found earlier were the last ones.
I kept flipping through the screen and looked for traces of characters carefully.
Then I felt something suddenly and put down my smartphone.
“…My stomach hurts. I should eat ramen while doing this.”
A sudden stomachache while playing the game.
It was the alcohol I drank yesterday that showed its presence.
Feeling a heavy sensation from my stomach, I decided to sober up with ramen reluctantly.
I left my smartphone alone and moved to boil ramen.
I came back to my smartphone after bringing a pot of boiling ramen.
*****
“How can there be no one until I finish a bowl of ramen?”
I muttered to myself as I looked at the empty pot.
It was natural, because I still couldn’t find any traces of people.
Not even animals, let alone people’s traces.
Maybe it was because <Eye of Observation> was still low level, I thought.
If this was going to happen, maybe it would have been better to leave some characters alive instead of wiping out the village.
At least the location of the village would be fixed, right?
With regret, I kept flipping through the screen and then saw the end of the long mountain range slowly coming into view.
As if trying to reflect the real mountain range, this mountain range was unnecessarily long and wide.
Swipe. Swipe.
As I moved my finger busily to flip through the screen, I finally found what I wanted.
At the end of the mountain range where I arrived after a long time flipping through screens.
I saw a group of characters moving around there.
“One woman. And five men.”
What I saw at the end of the mountain range were six characters moving busily.
One woman running ahead of them all,
And five men following her closely behind them.
The men who were chasing after her had blood-stained knives in their hands.
It looked like a result of an interaction between characters.
A crying face speech bubble popped up above the woman’s head who was moving ahead.
“Is she being chased?”
They didn’t look like they were traveling together no matter how you looked at them.
It seemed like she was being chased by bandits or thieves who were nearby.
They were faithful to their roles as AI’s, even doing robbery faithfully.
I watched their movements with an interested face.
The woman who was leading them ran while crying, and soon found a dead end and sat down.
Even after sitting down, the speech bubble above her head did not disappear.
When the woman who was running ahead stopped, the thieves who were chasing her also stopped nearby and started to surround her.
-(Skull)
The figure who looked like the leader of the thieves raised a skull speech bubble above his head.
It was the same emoticon that was output when the rabbit died.
But the thief who raised the speech bubble didn’t look like he was dead.
It looked like they were having a conversation with each other.
And judging by the situation, the meaning of the conversation seemed to be that they would kill the other person.
“Wow, they even threaten each other?”
They were AI’s, but they even threatened each other.
The more I looked at it, the more I thought it was a game that well represented human nature.
It might be a bit disappointing in terms of graphics or payment structure, but AI was one thing that I didn’t regret praising.
The thief who was threatening the woman in front of him soon raised his blood-stained knife and walked forward.
The bush tile on the ground split as the distance between the two narrowed.
When the distance between them narrowed to leave only one tile left.
I placed the target of the magic I had prepared on top of the thief.
-You used <Lightning>.
Crash!
The lightning struck and the thief who was moving stopped.
15 damage.
The same amount of damage as when I attacked the rabbit was output.
A spinning star-shaped speech bubble appeared above the thief’s head.
A stationary character.
And the content of the speech bubble.
No matter how you looked at it, it looked like he was stunned.
It seemed that <Lightning> magic could interfere with his actions to some extent, even if it couldn’t kill him in one shot.
I clicked the button again and used magic.
-You used <Lightning>.
-You used <Lightning>.
Crack! Crash!
I attacked the thief who was standing still with two more lightning strikes.
15 damage.
And then 15 damage again.
The thief who was hit by two more shocks fell down with a skull in his speech bubble.
The shock that knocked down the rabbit in one shot.
No matter how tough he was, he couldn’t withstand being hit by lightning three times.
-Your karma increased by 1.
The new message was about the increase of karma.
It was the same format as when I wiped out the village.
I knocked down the thief and gained experience.
I didn’t get any karma when I knocked down the rabbit, but I got karma when I knocked down the thief.
This fact meant something simple.
I could only get karma by knocking down characters.
The screen in front of me where the characters were gathered was nothing but a hunting ground full of experience.
“…You’re all dead.”
I snapped my fingers and looked at the screen.
It was time for hunting.
*****
With her ash-gray hair fluttering in the wind, the girl ran away as fast as she could.
Behind her, there were muscular men with weapons chasing after her.
The weapons they were holding were stained with blood.
It was blood that they had spilled by cutting down the villagers who had blocked their way to protect her.
She felt the presence of the thieves behind her and bit her lip.
‘How did this happen…’
Eutania was a daughter of a baron who lived on the outskirts of the empire.
Her family was not a great one to boast about to others, even though they were nobles.
Her house was not wealthy, but the fact that they had a happy family was something to be proud of to others.
The village where Eutania lived was also a peaceful and quiet place.
A vast wheat field stretching out in one corner of the village.
And the fragrant grass scent that tickled the noses of the villagers.
Everyone was living a relaxed life in the village that Eutania loved.
Until the knights from ‘Cloud’ who came down with orders from the system came to visit.
‘Baron Highlost. You are arrested for treason against the royal family.’
Her father was taken away by the knights who came from the system.
Baron Highlost was arrested for political reasons.
Eutania kept insisting on her father’s innocence, but no one listened to her story.
There were not many people who would listen to a young lady who ruled a rural village in the countryside.
Rather, only rude marriage proposals from nobles who preyed on her alone came in.
As more letters with unpleasant contents piled up, Eutania’s heart was filled with distrust and hatred for humans.
‘I can’t ruin the village that my father loved.’
Still, she took over her father’s empty seat and worked hard for the village.
Eutania had been following Baron Highlost since she was young and peeked at his work over his shoulder.
She knew better than anyone else about the village’s affairs.
The villagers also trusted and followed Eutania, who had been a sincere lady for a long time.
Maybe someday another knight would be assigned to this small village, but she thought she had to protect the place where her father would return while she was there.
At least until this morning, she had that thought.
Until the thieves who came to the village slaughtered the villagers and chased after her.
“Haa, haa…”
Eutania’s breath became rough as she ran towards the front.
She saw tears in her eyes as she crossed over the mountain.
It hurts. And it’s painful.
It was a day when she missed her father who was locked up somewhere.
Still, she couldn’t stop her footsteps because she remembered the faces of those who sacrificed themselves for her.
But no matter how many sacrifices she carried, it was impossible to run away forever?
What faced Eutania who ran ahead and looked ahead was a cliff that stretched out as if it had been cut off.
She couldn’t run away any further on this road.
She saw a cliff in front of her and sat down on the ground.
“Ah, ah…”
Tears flowed from Eutania’s eyes as she sat down.
She failed.
She failed to save her father, to protect the place where her father would return.
And in the end, she even failed to escape from the enemy of the village.
She hated herself for not being able to do anything right.
Now she had no more strength to move.
She missed her father.
She also missed the villagers who had become cold corpses and could no longer see.
“Dad… Mrs. Ena…”
Now she was alone.
She hated people.
She even hated someone coming near her.
But there was no end to those who chased after Eutania,
Thud. Thud.
She felt someone approaching from behind as she sat down and cried.
“Is this the end of your escape?”
“…”
“What a waste, poor noble lady?”
Eutania looked at the man in front of her with tearful eyes.
The face of a man with a knife mark on his face came into her sight.
The leader of the bandits who had mercilessly killed the villagers.
That was who the man was.
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