He didn’t expect to achieve meaningful results through such a crude method. Of course, it was him who persisted and him who pressed, but he thought the system couldn’t possibly be breached just by madly clicking like a child’s game, but the unexpected happened.
If it were 50 hours, he might barely admit it, but a mere 5 hours?
“How is it so sloppy?”
A voice filled with absurdity flowed out. On the system window displaying ‘Loading,’ a round gray bar was spinning round and round.
Don’t tell me it says it’s loading information, but it’s actually messing with me?
He worried if it would blow up the guild the moment the update finished, claiming it was a trap. Thinking he might have shown his pride for nothing, Sa-yoon spent time tapping the floor with his toes, engulfed in anxiety.
As the sound of the second hand on the wall clock ticking was heard, time passed.
1 minute.
2 minutes, then 3 minutes.
After 10 minutes passed like that, the endlessly spinning gray bar and the ‘Loading’ message finally disappeared.
Ding!
<Information will be updated.>
<Update Target: Category Disposition, Resister>
<Detailed activation conditions will be entered.>
.
.
.
<Entry complete.>
[Resister (?)]
Will you end your life as evil?
.
.
.
- Currently, additional information cannot be viewed.
<To activate the ‘Resister’ disposition or view related information, a person possessing at least one of the following dispositions is required.>
- One Who Defies the Flow
- I Alone Am High
“Ha.”
The exhalation contained various emotions.
Absurdity, joy, being overwhelmed, doubt.
It had been a while since he felt this many emotions in a short time.
Unlike what he expected, he couldn’t know what Resister was or what power it had, but still, there was progress. It meant he had finally obtained a hint related to the escape he had long searched for.
He had always wondered.
Why his system window was the only unique one, what the True Evil of Humanity was, if he could escape this life.
Trapped in the maze created by unanswered questions, he only repeated going in circles, but after a long search, it felt like he had finally discovered the location of the escape map.
Since awakened ones generally possessed only one disposition, circumstantially, there was a high probability that Resister was a disposition opposite to the True Evil of Humanity. Then, if Resister was activated, ‘True Evil of Humanity’ might be deactivated, or the power of the system that had oppressed and coerced him might weaken a bit compared to before.
It wasn’t certain, but it was enough to put forth as a hypothesis. He could cite as evidence the fact that the system blocked the activation of Resister and even cut off access to information.
After briefly savoring the excitement and anticipation that came after so long, Sa-yoon soon regained his composure and sank into thought as he gazed at the blue window.
Just because he found the end of the thread didn’t mean the tangle would unravel. This was just the beginning, so his pale hand tapped his elbow. His thought process rapidly accelerated.
“The problem is how to find that.”
The only way to check dispositions was to look at the status window.
It was a very obvious fact, but the crucial point was that there was no way for others to see someone else’s status window. Even if someone displayed their status window, it didn’t mean it was revealed to others as well. If it worked that way, others would be able to see his system window too.
The system itself was designed to be invisible to anyone other than the designated person, so it wasn’t surprising that the status window followed the system.
Why, out of so many things, did it have to be dispositions?
Among status window items, the one hunters found most awkward to disclose was their disposition.
Dispositions often revealed hidden natures that couldn’t be concealed, such as egoist or psychopath, so the prevailing opinion among hunters was to hide information like dispositions.
If a neatly dressed person extended their hand upon first meeting and said, “Hello, my disposition is psychopath,” wouldn’t anyone be wary?
Because of that, no matter how much information the Night Rats guild possessed, the most in the world, for dispositions, they only had hunter interview data that could be found with a bit of internet searching. Even that couldn’t be fully trusted, as there were cases of fabrication.
“Should I bring a hunter with a lie detection skill?”
No matter how he thought about it, that method seemed the most plausible. He could just bring people one by one in front of an awakened with detection abilities and ask, “By any chance, is your disposition I Alone Am High or One Who Defies the Flow?”
However, the lie detection skill holder in Night Rats had died in a gate 2 weeks ago. Even if he secretly kidnapped and interrogated hunters worldwide, the information that he was searching for specific disposition holders would eventually spread. He couldn’t ignore that fact either. Wherever he looked, there were only headache-inducing, difficult problems, making Sa-yoon frown.
At this point, should I just put out a huge bounty?
While it was the most ignorant and simple method, the effect would be definite. It was a way other guilds could intercept the disposition holders he sought, but if a guild dared to touch what was his, he could personally go and take care of them.
He had accumulated money like a mountain, so shouldn’t he splurge on something like this? As he was mulling it over, the status window pushed to the back caught his eye. Sa-yoon tapped his chin as he looked at the unopened skill section that drew his gaze like Resister.
Among the known items appearing in the status window, there was no unopened skill list. Since it was information that existed only in his status window, he was looking at it with interest when the phrase the system had told him suddenly came to mind.
‘The true evil of humanity does not view an ordinary status window.’
It fit his situation better than ever, so his gaze intensified. Sa-yoon inhaled and scanned the skill list.
It certainly wasn’t ordinary.
Unopened Skill List
‘Eyes of Catastrophe (L)’
It was actually L-rank. In this era where having more than two SS-rank skills meant you could enter the world rankings, L-rank.
A rank that no information had come in even within the Night Rats guild.
Sa-yoon, who calmed his heart that was pulsing as if about to burst, whether due to an awakened’s instinct or an information guild leader’s occupational disease, checked the unopened skill information.
[Eyes of Catastrophe (L)]
- Allows you to view the status window of others. Detailed information can be checked upon opening.
- In the unopened state, you can only check your own growth limit and unopened skills.
And he lost his words.
The sound of swallowing saliva was raw, and a small chuckle flowed out.
Not only could he see others’ status windows, but he could even check their unopened skills.
This was a jackpot.
As expected of L-rank, it was a dimension above the quite substantial amount of high-level skills Sa-yoon prided himself on possessing. To this degree, it wouldn’t lose out to even Jinhyeon’s ‘Martial Arts Reconstruction’ or Greyna’s ‘Future Vision.’
If given for free, he would gratefully accept it, but right now he happened to need to find specific disposition holders. Having a skill drop at the perfect timing when he needed to see status windows, he felt for the first time that the gods had bestowed a blessing upon him.
Because of that, Sa-yoon, who forgot that gifts from the system should be doubted 100 out of 100 times and pressed the skill acquisition button for Eyes of Catastrophe, instantly hardened his expression.
<Will you spend 1,000,000 karma to open the skill?( oᵔ▽ᵔ)o>
“…What?”
The number was entirely incongruous with the lively emoticon. The eyes that had been immersed in joy slowly lost their light.
One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand… Sa-yoon counted the number of 0’s one by one with his finger, tapping each digit. Thinking he might have counted wrong, he tried counting out loud a total of three times, but the result remained unchanged.
A million.
It was a million.
The amount of karma needed to open that skill.
Not even a hundred thousand, but a million. He didn’t know exactly what karma was, but it seemed he hadn’t saved up that much so far. Hadn’t he spent a lot despite earning a lot?
Feeling his insides churning, Sa-yoon checked the karma value at the bottom of his status window.
Karma: 999,789
Fortunately, the karma he had saved was around a million. 300 karma was an amount he could quickly gather, so he was less worried.
If there was one thing that bothered him, it was that after opening Eyes of Catastrophe, he would become a karma pauper.
Until now, he didn’t know what it was and had no use for it, so he didn’t pay attention, but now that he had a reason to use it, he was convinced it was good to have it for the time being. If he had known this would happen, he should have obediently listened when the system told him the true evil of humanity could control infamy values and lower infamy through good deeds.
So far, he had lived disregarding the fact that if his infamy was too high, his karma would be cut since he had nowhere to use karma, but that choice was now holding him back.
Was this what they meant by saying you reap unexpected benefits if you listen to the system?
Sa-yoon, who snorted at the fact he didn’t want to acknowledge, checked the information about karma that had brought him an unexpected variable.
[Karma]
A value based on the evil deeds committed. Various rewards can be obtained by accumulating karma.
- ‘Karma Shop’ can be opened by spending 10,000,000 karma.
It was intriguing until he read the part about obtaining various rewards, but after that, it was as expected. Sa-yoon quietly moved his hand and pressed the skill acquisition button for Eyes of Catastrophe.
1,000,000 karma.
Then he pressed karma again to check the information.
10,000,000 karma.
One more 0 was added.
Unless his eyes were mistaken, it was definitely added.
Sa-yoon, who counted again one by one with his finger in a manner unbefitting the title of Night Rats leader, frowned.
“F*cking system.”
No matter how he looked at it, the necessary condition to become a god was undoubtedly selling one’s conscience.
Otherwise, he couldn’t comprehend the reason for acting so thuggishly like this. Even the Voxido, a dark merchant guild, doesn’t act this dirty. Spewing the welling curses, Sa-yoon pressed his temples.
After acquiring Eyes of Catastrophe, he had to start again from the bottom, and his head already hurt thinking about when he would gather ten million karma again.