Chapter 279 - Tutorial 57th Floor (2)

It resembled modern Earth in many ways. Sturdy buildings soared into the sky, lined up neatly. Roads and sidewalks paved the way to different places.

Except for some minor differences, the style of clothing was also similar to Earth’s. I thought my armor would stand out, so I took a thick coat out of my inventory and put it on.

It was fortunate that the weather was a bit chilly. My coat was not much different from the coats these people wore, so I could wear it without standing out. Also, the armor was light and thin, so it was comfortable to wear a coat over it. The soul sword on my waist was mildly uncomfortable, but I decided to let it be.

I adjusted my clothes and looked around again. People were still looking at the black sphere that hovered in the sky. I had no idea what it was.

Occasionally, the sphere would squirm, and the people closely followed its movements. Like everyone else, I peered curiously at the black ball.

After convulsing for a long time, the black sphere finally flashed. It was only for an instant, but the people on the street who witnessed it held their hands together and prayed. I thought that they might be praying to a god in this world, but when I heard their prayers, I felt that it was not the case either.

I could make out a few words.

His sacrifice for us. Great. Peace. Heroic. End. Salvation.

It sounded more like nonsensical rambling and less like praise for God. A god wouldn’t sacrifice anything for humanity.

Then, a message popped up.

[The 57th floor begins]

Description: Two years ago, there was misfortune on the Arahabi planet, which was known for its unusually high frequency of superpowers, along with its high level of civilization. An asteroid and an alien species from outer space landed there, making the people face a death crisis.

Fortunately, a hero saved the planet. The superhuman sealed the entire asteroid along with their world in the sky, to prevent the alien species from causing more destruction. The seal has been intact for two years, but no one knows what’s going on inside it.

We want to investigate what’s going on inside the seal. The planet has officially rejected requests for vaccination, and we have sent you, a secret investigator, to the planet. There are new items in your inventory.

[Clear Condition]

– Death.

Hmm… What could I say? It was quite a silly stage mission. What did it want me to do? Waiting for me at the end of the lengthy description was the condition of death. What even was this?

Did it mean that once I died, I cleared the stage? It seemed unlikely. Maybe it was a stage where the second clear condition appeared only after your first death.

Oh, my. Now the system was telling me to die. First, I took out the newly received items from my inventory.

They were easy to find because they were all inside a bag that I hadn’t seen before. An ID card. Clothing and combat uniform. A watch. One pill and an ornament that looked like a bracelet.

My ID card appeared to be forged. My face and my frequently used alias were on it. It seemed that I’d be addressed as Ho here.

Information about the combat clothes was displayed in the explanation window. They were the clothes worn by the superhumans of this planet during combat. I hastily put them back into my inventory and made a note to change into them later. Roughly, I fastened the watch to my wrist.

The pill was said to be able to forge superpowers. As soon as I saw that the retention time was more than two months, I swallowed the pill.

Finally, I looked at the bracelet.

[Fluid escape assist]

[Description: An aiding device that helps you abandon your body in an emergency and let your spirit escape in the form of fluid. The soul will remain intact for two hours, even if the body is entirely dead or destroyed.]

I’d been given all sorts of strange items.

“What do you think?” I asked Ahboo.

[Well…] Ahbooboo didn’t give me a clear answer, but we continued to talk and hypothesize about this stage’s mission.

“I don’t know what it is that makes me say so, but I feel that there’s a high risk of dying or getting hurt during the investigation. That’s why I’ve been given these items. If I can, I’ll abandon my body and continue the investigation for two hours.”

[Yes, that sounds reasonable. If the mission states death, it would be better to collect as much information as possible before or after death than to keep preserving the body.]

Ahbooboo and I came to this conclusion, but I couldn’t help but dislike it. I couldn’t believe I was about to die. It was apparent what danger laid ahead from seeing the ominous message that seemed to foreshadow my death. If I were a normal creature, I wouldn’t be able to survive. As of now, I decided that I’d try my best not to die.

[Don’t worry too much. I’ll resuscitate you in the meantime.]

Thank you, but there’s no need. Ahbooboo, without a doubt, had the power to resuscitate me, but in the end, it was the God of Sky that bestowed Ahbooboo power. I didn’t want to owe anything to a god. It was too risky.

The watch on my wrist suddenly began to ring. When I lifted my wrist, there was an exclamation mark in the middle instead of the time. Wondering what to do, I raised my right hand and touched the exclamation mark.

<There are 40 minutes left until the next event.>

The wristwatch had sent a holographic message. I looked closely at the holograms, amazed by the function that I saw for the first time. I thought it was a civilization similar to Earth, but it seemed to be a little more advanced than Earth.

<Please convene at the Superpowers Association’s Office before the opening.

-The Way to Go>

I touched the holographic item, “The Way to Go”, with my hand, and it showed me the way from where I was standing to the association’s office.

It had navigation abilities.

[Wow. Let me make one of these.] Ahbooboo muttered in fascination. Ahbooboo would be able to create similar functions by magic and embed them into anyone. It was clear that navigation was a useful function, but Ahbooboo would already know the way, so it wasn’t of much help to him.

If we were going to convene somewhere, why did the mission start in the middle of a street? Haah, so annoying. All we could see at the beginning was the level of civilization and the bypassers on the roads. The level of civilization, architecture, and the style of clothing could also be seen in the script office. Then, what the stage wanted to show me would probably be the bypassers in the streets.

Were they praying to the black sphere? That black sphere was said to be the seal, consisting of an entire asteroid and a superhuman. The sphere and people’s prayers appeared to be related. What kind of hidden information about the faith was here?

“Hey, Ahbooboo, do you feel anything?” I asked Ahbooboo.

People seemed to be paying great attention to the sphere, so I asked him in my mind.

[Well, I don’t feel any divine power.]

Right?

The people were praying hard, but it didn’t give rise to any divine feeling.

It was a strange thing.

Right? Although the people were praying hard, it didn’t give rise to any divine feeling. It was a strange thing.

It was even more so because I remembered gathering the faiths of just a few people on the 56th floor and wielding divine power. Did the power of the source have such a significant effect? So much so that one can exert high strength even with just a little bit of divine power?

There were still many unsolved questions. One by one, they were being resolved, but more issues appeared in place of them. I wondered if the day would come when I’d find out all the secrets. I scratched my head for a moment and deeply sighed.

“Let’s go and do as I’ve been told for now.”

What else could I even do? I had no choice but to go.

* * * * * *

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* * * * * *

When I arrived at the office, people were gathered at the entrance. At first glance, every one of them seemed to have superpowers. Adorning the combat suit, I had previously received allowed me to blend in with them.

No matter how much I looked around, it felt as if I was wearing ordinary clothes, not combat clothes. I wondered if everyone would battle together.

There was a line in front of them. I, too, got swept up in the crowd and headed there. I didn’t know why we were brought here, but I would gladly welcome it if it were for a militant or dangerous purpose.

It looked like they were checking our belongings, so I asked Seregia to excuse us and put the sword in the inventory. Then there was an ID test, and finally, an x-ray machine of sorts. Every time a person passed the device, the level and ability of that person as a superhuman would be examined.

Beep-

Name: Ho

Certification number: 21400

Grade: B (1400)

After passing the examiner, my name on the ID card was marked. If you can get a name and a designated number with this machine, why bother checking the ID? I was tempted to complain, but I suppressed the urge and went ahead.

I continued to follow the crowd and walked down a seemingly endless corridor. In the end, a large hall came into sight. It was a conference room, but its size made it look more like an indoor football field. The people coming into the conference room looked at the hologram of their watches and went to their seats, so I followed suit.

Seat number: B112

Fortunately, I was able to find my seat quickly, and I sat down and looked around.

Perhaps it was because this was a conference room that could accommodate more than 10,000 people, that an endless number of people had been entering for a long time. I felt like I’d have to wait a while for something to start.

A tall man was sitting next to me. He turned and asked, in an amicable manner. “1,400?”

I thought for a moment about his question. Recalling that the number 1400 was attached to mind, I answered, “Uh, yes. One thousand four hundred.”

My reply was greeted with a big laugh. “Hey, there’s another person besides me who didn’t get an A grade because he’s 100 points short.”

He gave another hearty laugh. The ignorant-looking giant had a longer name than I thought, and I quickly gave up memorizing his name.

I asked how he knew I had 1,400 points.

“It looks like this is your first time in the conference room.”

The giant pointed to the seat, saying that one’s grade and score determined positions. Therefore, I could quickly know my score by sitting in the chair designated for grade B’s.

The giant seemed to feel a sense of homogeneity since I, like himself, had an ambiguous score of 1400. He was probably excited to meet an unfortunate comrade who narrowly fell from grade A and ended up in grade B. From the seating arrangement and the giant’s attitude, I could see that the rating meant a lot here.

“Well, even with the same grade, I would be much stronger.” the giant muttered

I turned my head to frown at the giant. ‘Much stronger’? That wasn’t a phrase I could overlook.

“What?” I questioned.

When the giant made eye contact with me, he smiled and asked, “What are you going to do?”