Chapter 3. Beyond the system.
Di-ding, default system interface downloading.
The moment Suhyuk pressed the transparent button, his vision changed in a strange way.
Several strange transparent buttons could be seen on either sides of Suhyuk’s vision.
Suhyuk gazed at a tree that looked stronger than any object; next to it strange letters were written.
Dimensional force contaminated rubber tree
Suhyuk turned around, this time he stared at his shattered dimensional force neutralizing device.
2020 dimensional force neutralizing device fragment (impossible to repair)
“What the hell ….”
It was hard for Suhyuk to swallow this strange chain of events. The moment Suhyuk thought how uncomfortable his vision felt; all of a sudden an unfamiliar voice rang in his ears.
Di-ring, shut down the basic exploration functions?
Suhyuk instinctively nodded upon hearing the voice. In response, the letters obstructing his vision disappeared.
“huh….”
Everything was shocking. Suhyuk wanted to figure out what the heck was happening. The moment Suhyuk thought this, the strange voice rung his ears once again.
Di-Ring, would you like to review the transcendental system user tutorial?
Such a friendly voice… Suhyuk could do nothing but nod once again.
* * *
The unidentified voice guided Suhyuk of the various functions he could use with great detail.
But a simple tutorial was making Suhyuk dumbfounded.
To summarize the tutorial simply:
First, the features of the transcendence system can but used or shut down according to Suhyuk’s ‘thoughts.’
Second, the transcendence system can assist the user in a many number of ways. In particular, more help can be obtained once the dimensional level is raised.
Third, when the user’s security level is raised, the number of usable transcendental features increases.
And fourth, the current transcendence system basic energy is dimensional force, once enough dimensional force is collected dimensional level rises and this energy can be in turn used in various ways.
Suhyuk could only fully understand these four principles.
Suhyuk did not understand the rest, but he felt he could take his time to learn the rest.
‘Did I by chance awaken? It can’t be… If I awakened, I should have a mark appear somewhere on my body but I see no such thing.’
When Knights awaken, they obtain special powers and tattoo like markings related to their associated powers. The common places were the back, chest, arms, and legs. Once knights become stronger the tattoos evolve together. In that sense, Suhyuk understood his body has not awakened seeing there were no tattoos on his body.
‘Then what the hell is this transcendence system thing?’
Whenever Suhyuk wondered about this, he heard in his ears ‘security level is low and cannot be answered.’
Though he was curious, it was impossible to figure anything out at this moment and so he pushed the thoughts aside and followed the tutorial’s instructions and pressed the blue button located at the bottom right.
Di-Ring, status window will be displayed.
| NAME | KANG SUHYUK | AGE | 25-YEAR-OLD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level | 19 | Dimensional Power | 2172/4416 |
| Species | Human | Control System | Transcendental System X-4 |
| Basic Skill | N/A | Additional Skill 1 | N/A |
| Reserve items | Monster bullet (40shots) Lesser dimensional rifle(lost) steel jungle ax (…) | ||
| Security Rating | 99 | Archived Skill Core | Precision Shooting-D |
| Lasting effect is applied: (strengthens the physical body, the lowest grade) | |||
……
……
The status window appeared in front of Suhyuk, he skimmed through it quietly while nodding.
‘Is it similar to a game interface?’
Suhyuk was always surviving day by day and never played games before. But he has seen others play games time to time so he wasn’t totally clueless about these things.
‘I haven’t awakened but why am I seeing these cool things?’ His body was in a much better state than before too.
The transcendence system tutorial told Suhyuk he did not have to worry about dimensional radiation anymore.
Rather, he needed to collect dimensional force to fully utilize all his new found powers.
“Frankly, I don’t understand what is what but I’m free from dimensional radiation now so it’s a good thing.’ Suhyuk smirked while mumbling.
No matter how much Suhyuk lived without the fear of death, once he was face to face with death, his heart felt like crumbling.
‘It said it can assist me with many more things when I raise my level right? But…. how do I raise my level?’
Suddenly, Suhyuk broke free from his train of thought and realized he did not know how to raise his level.
‘Ah, there are too many things I don’t know.’
Although there was a clear tutorial for using the transcendence system, there are many more things he did not understand.
‘I’ll gradually build my knowledge as I go….. first let’s escape from this place.’
Suhyuk couldn’t continue standing here mindlessly all day long so he started searching for his lost trunk that flew off a moment ago.
Suhyuk found his trunk in a far forest area, but the items inside were mostly broken.
The dimensional dungeon navigation scanner, his last hope was shattered into many small pieces.
However thankfully, he had the ability of the transcendental system scanner to observe his surroundings.
Therefore, Suhyuk found it a piece of cake to escape the dungeon.
The transcendental system had scanned the interior of the dungeon while he was escaping and noted there wasn’t a drop of dimensional force left within it.
His neutralizer was destroyed before he could use it in this dungeon. But anyway, with this level of cleaning, it would not be a problem to accept the paycheck.
After escaping the dungeon, Suhyuk took out his only unbroken device- his smart-phone, and called Kim Yeongyu
[Huh? You’re done already?]
“Yes, I had an early start and ended things as fast as possible. After you confirm everything, I expect a deposit.”
[OK, after I confirm I’ll deposit the money within an hour]
“Roger. Ah…. do you know any people who are retiring from the cleaning business?”
[Huh? Why?]
“The dimensional force neutralizer broke. I wanted to find a cheap replacement from retiring dungeon cleaners.”
[Huh? What the heck? I guess it was pretty rough?]
“It was incredibly tough. This order brought me so much damages.”
[Hey now, you’re making me feel bad. Got it. I’ll ask around and tip you off when I find something good.]
“Okay, keep in touch.”
After Suhyuk hung up his conversation with Yeongyu, he began wondering whether the dungeon cleaning business was the right job for himself.
‘Could I have become a real knight? Impossible. There’s no way I’ve become a knight. Still, I feel I’ve obtained a unique skill but… do I have to continue cleaning dungeons?’
Truthfully, Suhyuk’s real dream was a monster hunter.
He doesn’t even dare to dream of defeating Rank 4 titans. Suhyuk hoped one day he could become a knight who could defeat Rank 1~3 lesser monsters.
If that wasn’t possible, he hoped he could be the helpers beside the knights to catch intermediate or advanced lesser monsters while attending to the tedious choirs of the group.
‘All I can do is dungeon cleaning for now… …. I have no idea how to collect dimensional force, all I can do is clean out dungeons while exposing myself to the dimensional radiation to hopefully collect some of it.’
Until he could completely understand the dimensional force collection process; he needed to use the indirect method of clearing out dungeons to raise his dimensional force level while hoping for the best.
‘First, I should familiarize myself with the transcendental system.’
He didn’t have the dimensional force neutralizer so dungeon cleaning was out of the question. He decided the best thing he could do was try and understand this mystical system that called itself the transcendental system.
* * *
The lower class dungeon cleaners were not allowed to live in the same colony as the general public. One needed something called ‘Colony registration certification’ to be allowed to live as a resident of a colony. Only those who could pay taxes faithfully would be allowed a registration.
Dungeon cleaners weren’t scraping by while living in poverty, but still dungeon cleaners were out right rejected from receiving colony registration certifications.
No matter how many monster engineers confirm the non-contagious nature of dimensional radiation from human to human, people would never change their prejudice nature.
For these reasons, Suhyuk built himself a house in an abandoned colony in the outskirts called Suwon Colony. Of course electricity and water has been long disconnected.
So, whenever Suhyuk needed electricity, he would build himself a small ‘mana generator.’ For water, he collected rain water in water tanks.
He lived in a harsh environment, but he did not mind so much.
In fact, there were many who lived in similar settings outside of the colony like Suhyuk. The Korean Colony Alliance ( KCA) announced roughly a million people lived within Korea and about 5 million people lived outside of the colony.
5 million is not an absolute low number.
Outsiders wished to live within the colonies but were kicked or chased out and had no hope.
Rarely, there were those who don’t want to live within colonies and defected to the outside.
Those living within colonies are called ‘citizens’ while those living outside were called ‘ghosts.’
Ghosts who live outside colonies lived in a lawless world, it was a dog eat dog world where you can only trust yourself with your life.
So, Suhyuk had numerous traps installed around his house and was always ready for raids from the outlaws.
It has been one week since Suhyuk lived in such a strong(?) house while studying the transcendental system.
Fortunately, Suhyuk was not stupid and flawlessly understood how to use the transcendental system functions.
‘Think of the coordinates here…..’
Di-Ring, transcendental navigation coordinates commencing.The top-right corner of Suhyuk’s field of vision was guiding Suhyuk to the place Suhyuk just thought of.
The transcendental system had most functions of his past equipments So he didn’t need to bother repurchasing most of his broken equipments. But this was not the transcendental system’s real strength.
‘Install skill core precision shooting-D!’
Suhyuk recalled another function straight away. Then the next function began.
di-ring, dimensional force has been consumed. Skill core precision shooting-D (all shooting accuracy is raised.) has been installed to an empty primary skill slot.When the skill core was installed, a proud smile spread on Suhyuk’s face.
Skill, it was such a great thing. Once Suhyuk had the skill core precision shooting installed, his accuracy rate increased incredibly. In particular, no matter what the circumstances whether he was moving or his body alignment would dishevel, the target would hit with precision.
It was a pity he only had one skill core, but even this much was very great.
If Suhyuk could obtain a variety of better skill cores, then the possibilities would be endless.
It takes a bit of dimensional force to install or uninstall skills onto the slots but for now he only had ‘precision shooting-D’ and the amount of dimensional force it consumed was an insignificant burden.
“I’ve finally gotten used to this.”
Suhyuk had been practicing the use of the transcendental system and quietly nodded while mumbling to himself.
With just a few practice sessions, he was able to fully comprehend the concept of skill and skill cores. He was unsure what would happen once his security rating increased but for now he was able to use the transcendental system with great efficiency.
‘First I need to increase my dimensional force to increase my level. Then my security rating will increase to access more functions.’
Suhyuk knew exactly what he had to do for his future.
Increase his dimensional force to raise his level. That was the first thing Suhyuk needed to work on.
Suhyuk hopped onto his old rusty bike to organize his thoughts while circling the outskirts of Suwon Colony.
The old bike originally moved with gasoline, a type of oil that is rarely used now. But it has been converted illegally and now runs on mana oil.
Up until 15 years ago, gasoline was human beings most important resource.
But 15 years ago a monster engineer extracted high density mana oil from a mana stone and people gradually turned away from gasoline.
0.1 liters of mana oil produces as much energy as 1 tons of gasoline energy. Additionally, mana oil didn’t cause environmental pollution. Of course it was easier to store AND use.
Mana oil was superior to gasoline in all aspects. Everything that ran on gasoline was converted to run on mana oil in this world.
5 years ago, the World Colony Alliance (WCA) made the use of gasoline within colonies illegal.
However, it didn’t mean gasoline was a completely useless resource. The petrochemistry industry still used gasoline. Although gasoline was not used for fuel, gasoline still had its uses.
So anyway, as long as you weren’t inside a colony it was not so difficult to obtain gasoline.
The reason Suhyuk rode the bike in the outskirts of the colony was simply. He was looking for the newly opened dimensional dungeons.
The dungeons that has not been dealt with were already sold out at a high price. When a rank 3 dungeons generates, the colonies who have ‘wide range dimensional detectors’ will output approximate coordinates and knights will preoccupy the place first.
But rank 1~2 dungeons released only a tiny amount of dimensional force from it’s doors and couldn’t be detected until the doors fully open. Therefore it is common to find people traveling in person with dimensional force detectors at hand.
On the lucky chance he could find a rank 2 dungeon, the income was high and he won’t have to clean another dungeon for the next month.
‘This is really comfortable.’
Suhyuk smiled while enjoying the view racing around the mountain on his motorcycle.
The transcendental system navigation system couldn’t be compared to Suhyuk’s old navigation device. The transcendental system navigation was just too good, once he set the investigation menu to search for dimensional force the navigation automatically marked even the slightest dimensional force to as far as his vision touched.
This level of investigative power far surpassed a basic knight’s ‘investigative goggles.’
‘Wow, if I focus harder, I can make out the dimensional force coming from the defeated dimensional dungeons. This is amazing.’
Suhyuk looked around the Yeonshin area while pulling the bike’s accelerator.
vroooom.
He continued riding for awhile when Suhyuk made out a distinctive characteristic on his travel.
warped dimensional force noted.
The transcendental system called this ‘warped dimensional force.’
Suhyuk’s original navigation device only displayed different colors according to dimensional level with no specific details to define what every aspect meant.
‘I wonder if this is a dimensional door that’s not fully open yet?’
Even when dimensional doors are closed, they continue to leak out a bit of dimensional force. In particular, the higher the dungeon rank, the more dimensional force it will leak out.
Kkkeee
Suhyuk parked his bike and took out his dimensional rifle.
Schklikt, klikt.
‘First I need to investigate so let’s go closer.’
It’s always been this way, there is no way to know the dangers outside of a colony. There’s no time to relax even for a second.
Suhyuk aimed his rifle towards the warped point. It felt like a waste of monster bullets, but there was no better way to check than this.
If this warped point was a closed off entrance to a dimensional dungeon, the monster bullet should bounce off. Dimensional dungeon entrances bounce off everything and it is impossible to destroy it in any way.
In the early days, people poured concrete or tried to block off the entrance with piles of steel but when the dungeon entrance opens, everything will be sucked in and all efforts would be wasted.
If the bullet bounces off, it will confirm everything.
Ta!
Suhyuk did not hesitate and pulled the trigger. But…. rather than bouncing off, the monster bullet was sucked into the warped dimensional point.
‘mmm.’
At that moment, Suhyuk figured out what this was.
‘Dimensional crack.’
These characteristics could only mean it is a dimensional crack.
Dimensional cracks were common place outside of colonies, but the dimensional force emissions were so insignificant it was impossible to find with a common navigation device.
Dimensional cracks were one of the reasons living outside of the colonies were so dangerous. Explained simply, dimensional cracks were dog holes to dimensional dungeons that has yet to open.
It was a small hole so greater monsters could not make it through but lesser monsters are able to crawl out to the world.
Lesser monsters regularly made their appearance through dimensional cracks so people living outside colonies were always ready to fight against monsters for their lives.
Colonies have ‘detailed dimensional explorer,’ which checks around the clock. So, even if a dungeon were to form everyone could evacuate during the early stages. However, managing every detail outside of colonies was impossible so colonies check for dungeons ranked 3 or higher.
‘How much was the reward for reporting this?’
Reporting dimensional cracks also had its rewards. But rewards for dimensional crack discoveries were little and were generally ignored.
The authorities managing these reports were ‘proximal knights’ and it was common for them to drop these trivial common reports.
‘Tsk, let’s just ignore it.’
Suhyuk shook his head as he changed his mind about reporting it. He didn’t want to go through complicated procedures to get into the colony to earn a pretty penny, it would be more profitable to continue his search elsewhere.
Normally, it is unthinkable to turn a blind eye to a dimensional crack but to ghosts living outside of colonies the dangers of lesser monsters was no different than wild beasts of nature.
If you wanted to live on as a ghost, having the skills to handle a lesser monster alone was a must.
So ghosts didn’t fear dimensional cracks so much. Rather, most ghosts made a living hunting the monsters that pop out of these dimensional cracks by selling the monster’s body parts.
These people are called ‘Monster Cleaners.’ When dungeon cleaners don’t have jobs, they will also go out and hunt for these monsters.
But, as soon as Suhyuk turned his back to the dimensional crack a new message window displayed in front of his eyes.
Warped dimensional force – (the crack is widening)
‘The crack is widening?’
When he saw the message, he quickly aimed the dimensional rifle on his hand.
zzziiiing!
As soon as Suhyuk aimed his rifle, a red light escaped the crack and something began to crawl out.
‘Monster!’
Suhyuk didn’t panic and quickly stepped back with his rifle at hand.
As he distanced himself, a monster appeared from the dimensional crack.
If a lesser or greater monster’s body was still inside the dimensional dungeon, everything would simply bounce off. So, it was important waiting to attack until they were fully out of the crack.
dog corpse (dimensional force 7/7)
One of the most common lesser monsters were dog corpses.
Once the dog corpse’s body fully exited through the crack, it didn’t hesitate and began rushing to Suhyuk.
GRAWW!
The dog corpse’s body length was about 3m, about as big as a over-sized lion. The dog’s teeth were incredibly long and sharp so just one bite could mean death.
Ta!
But to the veteran dungeon cleaner, Suhyuk, the dog corpse was nothing more than another catch game.
kiiiiiek!
One monster bullet pierced through the dog corpse’s skull.
Suhyuk took care of the monster simply.
But at that moment a new message window appeared and a familiar voice could be heard.
The dog corpse has been killed and its dimensional force (7) will be absorbed.
‘gasp!’
The sudden message window shocked Suhyuk. The direct method to collect the dimensional force…. after figuring it out of course he would be shocked.
‘It was this?’
Suhyuk nodded his head with understanding.
‘If I kill lesser or greater monsters the dimensional force inside of them will be absorbed by me. It was a very simple.
Such a simple and logical answer.
While Suhyuk was deep in thought, another monster escaped from the dimensional crack.
Of course Suhyuk sent its head flying and absorbed its dimensional force.
‘It’s impossible for me to kill greater monsters so I’ll have to kill the lesser monsters. Then I’ll have to find as many dungeon cleaning jobs as I can for now.’
Suhyuk nodded while taking out his smartphone to call the broker, YeonGyu.
[I was going to call you just now, perfect timing. I’ve got some of the items you’ve requested of me last time. A dungeon cleaner is liquidating his supply to retire. It’s a bit old, but it’s a fully functioning dimensional force neutralizer for 15 million won.
Yeongyu talked like he’s been waiting for Suhyuk all this time.
“You must have offered 10 million won.”
Suhyuk snickered and muttered upon hearing his story.
[Wha, what are you talking about? I felt really bad so I went out of my way to find this for you without bothering about my own cut in this deal.]
“Eat in moderation and be happy with a 2 million won cut.” I’ll give you 12 so bring it over to my house.
[hehe, shall I then?]
No matter how much you curse or threaten, Suhyuk’s trash like nature was all the same. If it was the olden days, Suhyuk’s temper would blow up and he would find another place to purchase the dimensional force neutralizer but that wasn’t important right now.
“Since you’ve got such a large cut, find me a lot of cleaning jobs for me. Rank does not matter. Rather than all-clear, normal clear is better. As long as it’s not such a small profit, I’ll take everything so get me as much as you can.”
[Eh? What’s up all of a sudden?]
Out of the dungeon cleaners Yeongyu knew, Suhyuk was one of the best but at the same time very picky with his orders so it wasn’t easy to fulfill.
But the sudden change of character in Suhyuk was shocking.
“I just want to clean to death ok?”
[ Woah woah, bro don’t be like this. For what reason are we struggling so much in the bottom like this, don’t waste your body in this way.]
“It was a joke. I need a lot of money in a hurry so get me as many orders as possible. You know how well I take care of all my jobs. I’ll clean to the point nobody can complain so don’t worry and get me the orders.”
[Hmmm, is that so? Got it. Then I’ll show you my real skills and get you a load.]
“Yes, please do. Please bring the neutralizing device right now. I’ll transfer the money as soon as I confirm the items.”
[OK! Then I’ll let you know as soon as I get the orders.]
Once Suhyuk ended his call with Yeongyu he watched the dimensional crack for some time and returned to his bike.
‘I’ll get ready for the cleaning jobs and wait for Yeongyu at home.’
Suhyuk thought, rather than mindlessly waiting for monsters to appear out of dimensional cracks it would be faster to clean a dungeon and kill many monsters at one time.
Chapter 3. Beyond the system.
Di-ding, default system interface downloading.
The moment Suhyuk pressed the transparent button, his vision changed in a strange way.
Several strange transparent buttons could be seen on either sides of Suhyuk’s vision.
Suhyuk gazed at a tree that looked stronger than any object; next to it strange letters were written.
Dimensional force contaminated rubber tree
Suhyuk turned around, this time he stared at his shattered dimensional force neutralizing device.
2020 dimensional force neutralizing device fragment (impossible to repair)
“What the hell ….”
It was hard for Suhyuk to swallow this strange chain of events. The moment Suhyuk thought how uncomfortable his vision felt; all of a sudden an unfamiliar voice rang in his ears.
Di-ring, shut down the basic exploration functions?
Suhyuk instinctively nodded upon hearing the voice. In response, the letters obstructing his vision disappeared.
“huh….”
Everything was shocking. Suhyuk wanted to figure out what the heck was happening. The moment Suhyuk thought this, the strange voice rung his ears once again.
Di-Ring, would you like to review the transcendental system user tutorial?
Such a friendly voice… Suhyuk could do nothing but nod once again.
* * *
The unidentified voice guided Suhyuk of the various functions he could use with great detail.
But a simple tutorial was making Suhyuk dumbfounded.
To summarize the tutorial simply:
First, the features of the transcendence system can but used or shut down according to Suhyuk’s ‘thoughts.’
Second, the transcendence system can assist the user in a many number of ways. In particular, more help can be obtained once the dimensional level is raised.
Third, when the user’s security level is raised, the number of usable transcendental features increases.
And fourth, the current transcendence system basic energy is dimensional force, once enough dimensional force is collected dimensional level rises and this energy can be in turn used in various ways.
Suhyuk could only fully understand these four principles.
Suhyuk did not understand the rest, but he felt he could take his time to learn the rest.
‘Did I by chance awaken? It can’t be… If I awakened, I should have a mark appear somewhere on my body but I see no such thing.’
When Knights awaken, they obtain special powers and tattoo like markings related to their associated powers. The common places were the back, chest, arms, and legs. Once knights become stronger the tattoos evolve together. In that sense, Suhyuk understood his body has not awakened seeing there were no tattoos on his body.
‘Then what the hell is this transcendence system thing?’
Whenever Suhyuk wondered about this, he heard in his ears ‘security level is low and cannot be answered.’
Though he was curious, it was impossible to figure anything out at this moment and so he pushed the thoughts aside and followed the tutorial’s instructions and pressed the blue button located at the bottom right.
Di-Ring, status window will be displayed.
| NAME | KANG SUHYUK | AGE | 25-YEAR-OLD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level | 19 | Dimensional Power | 2172/4416 |
| Species | Human | Control System | Transcendental System X-4 |
| Basic Skill | N/A | Additional Skill 1 | N/A |
| Reserve items | Monster bullet (40shots) Lesser dimensional rifle(lost) steel jungle ax (…) | ||
| Security Rating | 99 | Archived Skill Core | Precision Shooting-D |
| Lasting effect is applied: (strengthens the physical body, the lowest grade) | |||
……
……
The status window appeared in front of Suhyuk, he skimmed through it quietly while nodding.
‘Is it similar to a game interface?’
Suhyuk was always surviving day by day and never played games before. But he has seen others play games time to time so he wasn’t totally clueless about these things.
‘I haven’t awakened but why am I seeing these cool things?’ His body was in a much better state than before too.
The transcendence system tutorial told Suhyuk he did not have to worry about dimensional radiation anymore.
Rather, he needed to collect dimensional force to fully utilize all his new found powers.
“Frankly, I don’t understand what is what but I’m free from dimensional radiation now so it’s a good thing.’ Suhyuk smirked while mumbling.
No matter how much Suhyuk lived without the fear of death, once he was face to face with death, his heart felt like crumbling.
‘It said it can assist me with many more things when I raise my level right? But…. how do I raise my level?’
Suddenly, Suhyuk broke free from his train of thought and realized he did not know how to raise his level.
‘Ah, there are too many things I don’t know.’
Although there was a clear tutorial for using the transcendence system, there are many more things he did not understand.
‘I’ll gradually build my knowledge as I go….. first let’s escape from this place.’
Suhyuk couldn’t continue standing here mindlessly all day long so he started searching for his lost trunk that flew off a moment ago.
Suhyuk found his trunk in a far forest area, but the items inside were mostly broken.
The dimensional dungeon navigation scanner, his last hope was shattered into many small pieces.
However thankfully, he had the ability of the transcendental system scanner to observe his surroundings.
Therefore, Suhyuk found it a piece of cake to escape the dungeon.
The transcendental system had scanned the interior of the dungeon while he was escaping and noted there wasn’t a drop of dimensional force left within it.
His neutralizer was destroyed before he could use it in this dungeon. But anyway, with this level of cleaning, it would not be a problem to accept the paycheck.
After escaping the dungeon, Suhyuk took out his only unbroken device- his smart-phone, and called Kim Yeongyu
[Huh? You’re done already?]
“Yes, I had an early start and ended things as fast as possible. After you confirm everything, I expect a deposit.”
[OK, after I confirm I’ll deposit the money within an hour]
“Roger. Ah…. do you know any people who are retiring from the cleaning business?”
[Huh? Why?]
“The dimensional force neutralizer broke. I wanted to find a cheap replacement from retiring dungeon cleaners.”
[Huh? What the heck? I guess it was pretty rough?]
“It was incredibly tough. This order brought me so much damages.”
[Hey now, you’re making me feel bad. Got it. I’ll ask around and tip you off when I find something good.]
“Okay, keep in touch.”
After Suhyuk hung up his conversation with Yeongyu, he began wondering whether the dungeon cleaning business was the right job for himself.
‘Could I have become a real knight? Impossible. There’s no way I’ve become a knight. Still, I feel I’ve obtained a unique skill but… do I have to continue cleaning dungeons?’
Truthfully, Suhyuk’s real dream was a monster hunter.
He doesn’t even dare to dream of defeating Rank 4 titans. Suhyuk hoped one day he could become a knight who could defeat Rank 1~3 lesser monsters.
If that wasn’t possible, he hoped he could be the helpers beside the knights to catch intermediate or advanced lesser monsters while attending to the tedious choirs of the group.
‘All I can do is dungeon cleaning for now… …. I have no idea how to collect dimensional force, all I can do is clean out dungeons while exposing myself to the dimensional radiation to hopefully collect some of it.’
Until he could completely understand the dimensional force collection process; he needed to use the indirect method of clearing out dungeons to raise his dimensional force level while hoping for the best.
‘First, I should familiarize myself with the transcendental system.’
He didn’t have the dimensional force neutralizer so dungeon cleaning was out of the question. He decided the best thing he could do was try and understand this mystical system that called itself the transcendental system.
* * *
The lower class dungeon cleaners were not allowed to live in the same colony as the general public. One needed something called ‘Colony registration certification’ to be allowed to live as a resident of a colony. Only those who could pay taxes faithfully would be allowed a registration.
Dungeon cleaners weren’t scraping by while living in poverty, but still dungeon cleaners were out right rejected from receiving colony registration certifications.
No matter how many monster engineers confirm the non-contagious nature of dimensional radiation from human to human, people would never change their prejudice nature.
For these reasons, Suhyuk built himself a house in an abandoned colony in the outskirts called Suwon Colony. Of course electricity and water has been long disconnected.
So, whenever Suhyuk needed electricity, he would build himself a small ‘mana generator.’ For water, he collected rain water in water tanks.
He lived in a harsh environment, but he did not mind so much.
In fact, there were many who lived in similar settings outside of the colony like Suhyuk. The Korean Colony Alliance ( KCA) announced roughly a million people lived within Korea and about 5 million people lived outside of the colony.
5 million is not an absolute low number.
Outsiders wished to live within the colonies but were kicked or chased out and had no hope.
Rarely, there were those who don’t want to live within colonies and defected to the outside.
Those living within colonies are called ‘citizens’ while those living outside were called ‘ghosts.’
Ghosts who live outside colonies lived in a lawless world, it was a dog eat dog world where you can only trust yourself with your life.
So, Suhyuk had numerous traps installed around his house and was always ready for raids from the outlaws.
It has been one week since Suhyuk lived in such a strong(?) house while studying the transcendental system.
Fortunately, Suhyuk was not stupid and flawlessly understood how to use the transcendental system functions.
‘Think of the coordinates here…..’
Di-Ring, transcendental navigation coordinates commencing.The top-right corner of Suhyuk’s field of vision was guiding Suhyuk to the place Suhyuk just thought of.
The transcendental system had most functions of his past equipments So he didn’t need to bother repurchasing most of his broken equipments. But this was not the transcendental system’s real strength.
‘Install skill core precision shooting-D!’
Suhyuk recalled another function straight away. Then the next function began.
di-ring, dimensional force has been consumed. Skill core precision shooting-D (all shooting accuracy is raised.) has been installed to an empty primary skill slot.When the skill core was installed, a proud smile spread on Suhyuk’s face.
Skill, it was such a great thing. Once Suhyuk had the skill core precision shooting installed, his accuracy rate increased incredibly. In particular, no matter what the circumstances whether he was moving or his body alignment would dishevel, the target would hit with precision.
It was a pity he only had one skill core, but even this much was very great.
If Suhyuk could obtain a variety of better skill cores, then the possibilities would be endless.
It takes a bit of dimensional force to install or uninstall skills onto the slots but for now he only had ‘precision shooting-D’ and the amount of dimensional force it consumed was an insignificant burden.
“I’ve finally gotten used to this.”
Suhyuk had been practicing the use of the transcendental system and quietly nodded while mumbling to himself.
With just a few practice sessions, he was able to fully comprehend the concept of skill and skill cores. He was unsure what would happen once his security rating increased but for now he was able to use the transcendental system with great efficiency.
‘First I need to increase my dimensional force to increase my level. Then my security rating will increase to access more functions.’
Suhyuk knew exactly what he had to do for his future.
Increase his dimensional force to raise his level. That was the first thing Suhyuk needed to work on.
Suhyuk hopped onto his old rusty bike to organize his thoughts while circling the outskirts of Suwon Colony.
The old bike originally moved with gasoline, a type of oil that is rarely used now. But it has been converted illegally and now runs on mana oil.
Up until 15 years ago, gasoline was human beings most important resource.
But 15 years ago a monster engineer extracted high density mana oil from a mana stone and people gradually turned away from gasoline.
0.1 liters of mana oil produces as much energy as 1 tons of gasoline energy. Additionally, mana oil didn’t cause environmental pollution. Of course it was easier to store AND use.
Mana oil was superior to gasoline in all aspects. Everything that ran on gasoline was converted to run on mana oil in this world.
5 years ago, the World Colony Alliance (WCA) made the use of gasoline within colonies illegal.
However, it didn’t mean gasoline was a completely useless resource. The petrochemistry industry still used gasoline. Although gasoline was not used for fuel, gasoline still had its uses.
So anyway, as long as you weren’t inside a colony it was not so difficult to obtain gasoline.
The reason Suhyuk rode the bike in the outskirts of the colony was simply. He was looking for the newly opened dimensional dungeons.
The dungeons that has not been dealt with were already sold out at a high price. When a rank 3 dungeons generates, the colonies who have ‘wide range dimensional detectors’ will output approximate coordinates and knights will preoccupy the place first.
But rank 1~2 dungeons released only a tiny amount of dimensional force from it’s doors and couldn’t be detected until the doors fully open. Therefore it is common to find people traveling in person with dimensional force detectors at hand.
On the lucky chance he could find a rank 2 dungeon, the income was high and he won’t have to clean another dungeon for the next month.
‘This is really comfortable.’
Suhyuk smiled while enjoying the view racing around the mountain on his motorcycle.
The transcendental system navigation system couldn’t be compared to Suhyuk’s old navigation device. The transcendental system navigation was just too good, once he set the investigation menu to search for dimensional force the navigation automatically marked even the slightest dimensional force to as far as his vision touched.
This level of investigative power far surpassed a basic knight’s ‘investigative goggles.’
‘Wow, if I focus harder, I can make out the dimensional force coming from the defeated dimensional dungeons. This is amazing.’
Suhyuk looked around the Yeonshin area while pulling the bike’s accelerator.
vroooom.
He continued riding for awhile when Suhyuk made out a distinctive characteristic on his travel.
warped dimensional force noted.
The transcendental system called this ‘warped dimensional force.’
Suhyuk’s original navigation device only displayed different colors according to dimensional level with no specific details to define what every aspect meant.
‘I wonder if this is a dimensional door that’s not fully open yet?’
Even when dimensional doors are closed, they continue to leak out a bit of dimensional force. In particular, the higher the dungeon rank, the more dimensional force it will leak out.
Kkkeee
Suhyuk parked his bike and took out his dimensional rifle.
Schklikt, klikt.
‘First I need to investigate so let’s go closer.’
It’s always been this way, there is no way to know the dangers outside of a colony. There’s no time to relax even for a second.
Suhyuk aimed his rifle towards the warped point. It felt like a waste of monster bullets, but there was no better way to check than this.
If this warped point was a closed off entrance to a dimensional dungeon, the monster bullet should bounce off. Dimensional dungeon entrances bounce off everything and it is impossible to destroy it in any way.
In the early days, people poured concrete or tried to block off the entrance with piles of steel but when the dungeon entrance opens, everything will be sucked in and all efforts would be wasted.
If the bullet bounces off, it will confirm everything.
Ta!
Suhyuk did not hesitate and pulled the trigger. But…. rather than bouncing off, the monster bullet was sucked into the warped dimensional point.
‘mmm.’
At that moment, Suhyuk figured out what this was.
‘Dimensional crack.’
These characteristics could only mean it is a dimensional crack.
Dimensional cracks were common place outside of colonies, but the dimensional force emissions were so insignificant it was impossible to find with a common navigation device.
Dimensional cracks were one of the reasons living outside of the colonies were so dangerous. Explained simply, dimensional cracks were dog holes to dimensional dungeons that has yet to open.
It was a small hole so greater monsters could not make it through but lesser monsters are able to crawl out to the world.
Lesser monsters regularly made their appearance through dimensional cracks so people living outside colonies were always ready to fight against monsters for their lives.
Colonies have ‘detailed dimensional explorer,’ which checks around the clock. So, even if a dungeon were to form everyone could evacuate during the early stages. However, managing every detail outside of colonies was impossible so colonies check for dungeons ranked 3 or higher.
‘How much was the reward for reporting this?’
Reporting dimensional cracks also had its rewards. But rewards for dimensional crack discoveries were little and were generally ignored.
The authorities managing these reports were ‘proximal knights’ and it was common for them to drop these trivial common reports.
‘Tsk, let’s just ignore it.’
Suhyuk shook his head as he changed his mind about reporting it. He didn’t want to go through complicated procedures to get into the colony to earn a pretty penny, it would be more profitable to continue his search elsewhere.
Normally, it is unthinkable to turn a blind eye to a dimensional crack but to ghosts living outside of colonies the dangers of lesser monsters was no different than wild beasts of nature.
If you wanted to live on as a ghost, having the skills to handle a lesser monster alone was a must.
So ghosts didn’t fear dimensional cracks so much. Rather, most ghosts made a living hunting the monsters that pop out of these dimensional cracks by selling the monster’s body parts.
These people are called ‘Monster Cleaners.’ When dungeon cleaners don’t have jobs, they will also go out and hunt for these monsters.
But, as soon as Suhyuk turned his back to the dimensional crack a new message window displayed in front of his eyes.
Warped dimensional force – (the crack is widening)
‘The crack is widening?’
When he saw the message, he quickly aimed the dimensional rifle on his hand.
zzziiiing!
As soon as Suhyuk aimed his rifle, a red light escaped the crack and something began to crawl out.
‘Monster!’
Suhyuk didn’t panic and quickly stepped back with his rifle at hand.
As he distanced himself, a monster appeared from the dimensional crack.
If a lesser or greater monster’s body was still inside the dimensional dungeon, everything would simply bounce off. So, it was important waiting to attack until they were fully out of the crack.
dog corpse (dimensional force 7/7)
One of the most common lesser monsters were dog corpses.
Once the dog corpse’s body fully exited through the crack, it didn’t hesitate and began rushing to Suhyuk.
GRAWW!
The dog corpse’s body length was about 3m, about as big as a over-sized lion. The dog’s teeth were incredibly long and sharp so just one bite could mean death.
Ta!
But to the veteran dungeon cleaner, Suhyuk, the dog corpse was nothing more than another catch game.
kiiiiiek!
One monster bullet pierced through the dog corpse’s skull.
Suhyuk took care of the monster simply.
But at that moment a new message window appeared and a familiar voice could be heard.
The dog corpse has been killed and its dimensional force (7) will be absorbed.
‘gasp!’
The sudden message window shocked Suhyuk. The direct method to collect the dimensional force…. after figuring it out of course he would be shocked.
‘It was this?’
Suhyuk nodded his head with understanding.
‘If I kill lesser or greater monsters the dimensional force inside of them will be absorbed by me. It was a very simple.
Such a simple and logical answer.
While Suhyuk was deep in thought, another monster escaped from the dimensional crack.
Of course Suhyuk sent its head flying and absorbed its dimensional force.
‘It’s impossible for me to kill greater monsters so I’ll have to kill the lesser monsters. Then I’ll have to find as many dungeon cleaning jobs as I can for now.’
Suhyuk nodded while taking out his smartphone to call the broker, YeonGyu.
[I was going to call you just now, perfect timing. I’ve got some of the items you’ve requested of me last time. A dungeon cleaner is liquidating his supply to retire. It’s a bit old, but it’s a fully functioning dimensional force neutralizer for 15 million won.
Yeongyu talked like he’s been waiting for Suhyuk all this time.
“You must have offered 10 million won.”
Suhyuk snickered and muttered upon hearing his story.
[Wha, what are you talking about? I felt really bad so I went out of my way to find this for you without bothering about my own cut in this deal.]
“Eat in moderation and be happy with a 2 million won cut.” I’ll give you 12 so bring it over to my house.
[hehe, shall I then?]
No matter how much you curse or threaten, Suhyuk’s trash like nature was all the same. If it was the olden days, Suhyuk’s temper would blow up and he would find another place to purchase the dimensional force neutralizer but that wasn’t important right now.
“Since you’ve got such a large cut, find me a lot of cleaning jobs for me. Rank does not matter. Rather than all-clear, normal clear is better. As long as it’s not such a small profit, I’ll take everything so get me as much as you can.”
[Eh? What’s up all of a sudden?]
Out of the dungeon cleaners Yeongyu knew, Suhyuk was one of the best but at the same time very picky with his orders so it wasn’t easy to fulfill.
But the sudden change of character in Suhyuk was shocking.
“I just want to clean to death ok?”
[ Woah woah, bro don’t be like this. For what reason are we struggling so much in the bottom like this, don’t waste your body in this way.]
“It was a joke. I need a lot of money in a hurry so get me as many orders as possible. You know how well I take care of all my jobs. I’ll clean to the point nobody can complain so don’t worry and get me the orders.”
[Hmmm, is that so? Got it. Then I’ll show you my real skills and get you a load.]
“Yes, please do. Please bring the neutralizing device right now. I’ll transfer the money as soon as I confirm the items.”
[OK! Then I’ll let you know as soon as I get the orders.]
Once Suhyuk ended his call with Yeongyu he watched the dimensional crack for some time and returned to his bike.
‘I’ll get ready for the cleaning jobs and wait for Yeongyu at home.’
Suhyuk thought, rather than mindlessly waiting for monsters to appear out of dimensional cracks it would be faster to clean a dungeon and kill many monsters at one time.
