The burning black wall.
The road toward it wasn’t smooth either.
“Maybe because it’s warm around here, there are lots of monsters.”
If you approach the wall of heat, it becomes uninhabitable because of the heat.
Conversely, the area near it was very warm even in this winter.
Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be strange for people fleeing winter to settle here.
The problem was—
“Monsters are affected by the environment too.”
The harsh winter must have affected the monsters as well;
quite a lot of them had gathered nearby.
Thanks to that, it had become a downright dangerous environment for ordinary humans to settle.
“Last time I dragged a whole crowd of soldiers along, so things got handled at their level and there wasn’t any issue.”
Now that I’d come with only a few,
things I hadn’t spared a thought on back then were only now coming into view.
Still—
no matter how small our number—
“Good thing it’s us, at least.”
Everyone gathered here was squad-leader level.
It was just a little more hassle.
There was no crisis, and we could stand before the wall of fire.
“So this is the wall.”
“I’ve heard about it, but seeing it in person is really unreal.”
High-level Awakened who were only a little behind me across the board.
Unlike the soldiers who’d come last time,
even standing right in front of the wall, they could endure the heat to a degree.
“Then, let’s begin.”
And
one of those squad leaders—
“These are equipment with [High-Grade Flame Resistance] applied.”
Squad Leader Lee Sanga
handed me an armful of gear.
To cross that wall of fire,
the production crews had poured their souls into making this equipment.
“I thought it’d be best to layer as much as possible, so besides the uniform there’s a field jacket, a padded liner, thermals. Honestly I wasn’t sure this would matter but... I even made underwear.”
“Good grief. Underwear?”
“Well, you never know.”
A short while ago,
she’d yanked their technical level sky-high using the technical books that came out of that [Underground Mine],
and she’d reached the point where she could make items with the tremendous [High-Grade] resistance trait at will.
“I asked Grandpa Park to make weapons with resistance too, but... honestly I don’t know if they’ll hold. Since they’re not armor, we couldn’t imbue them with extremely high resistance.”
“If they hold, great; if not, I can just buy a chef’s knife from the [Point Shop] and use that instead.”
“Can’t be helped. Still, additional research is ongoing, so if we get some time we might be able to make better gear.”
Originally, the plan was to make a box that could cross the wall itself
and put my equipment inside it.
But with too little time, that was difficult for now.
“I’ll pass along the next batch of equipment the moment it’s ready... so please, don’t die and hold out safely until then!”
“Ha ha. I’ll do my best.”
That’s what I’m good at:
surviving filthy, ugly, and long.
“It’d be nice if Guild Message works, but we have to assume it won’t.”
After Squad Leader Lee Sanga stepped back,
the next to come was Sergeant Lee Minjae.
“I looked for ways on several fronts, even considered how to make a radio, but that failed too. I can revive a radio itself with my power, but making one that can cross that wall—that’s hard, they say.”
“It’s not just any device; it’s that complex.”
If communication through [Guild Message] were possible, all the better,
but that wall was probably something that belonged to the same domain as the [System].
Whether the Guild Message provided by that System would still be valid beyond the wall—we had no way to know.
We had to prepare for the worst.
“Sending comms from that side to us will be hard. But as far as we’ve figured, the radio our unit is broadcasting should definitely reach that side. It’ll be one-way comms we can only send from this side, but...”
Arms crossed,
Sergeant Lee Minjae continued, looking distinctly worried.
“You memorized the cipher system I taught you, right?”
“Honestly, I felt like my head would explode... but somehow.”
“Even I think it was a bit much to memorize all of a sudden. But it’ll help.”
Then,
after I’d geared up completely with what Squad Leader Lee Sanga had prepared,
right before I crossed the wall—
“Okay. I’ll proceed as per the operation.”
“Right. I’m counting on you.”
Lance Corporal Seo Suhyeok picked up one [revived radio with comms capability]
and began moving far to the rear.
For one reason:
“You said you only see it when you get close to the wall, right?”
“Mm. I don’t know the exact kilometers, but that’s what they say.”
When we planned the operation to send me across,
Lance Corporal Seo Suhyeok had said this:
“At that distance, I think I might be able to see beyond the wall.”
“Huh?”
The burning wall only becomes visible when you get near.
Of course, the threshold for “near” is pretty large,
so normally you couldn’t possibly see the other side before you saw the wall.
“Lance Corporal Seo Suhyeok is the unit’s top marksman.”
As a marksman he already had various traits and skills related to vision,
and after eating Shin Youngjun’s cooking, those senses had become far keener.
“It’s only possible if I deploy all sorts of gear, though.”
Using binoculars and various devices together,
he could see the other side from a distance where the wall of fire hadn’t yet manifested.
We’d checked this before actually coming here.
He couldn’t see very far,
but—
“It was ordinary ground.”
“Good.”
He could at least see that beyond the wall was ordinary land.
However,
he’d added this as well:
“One thing bothers me...”
“Mm?”
“I thought I saw a light dusting of snow on the fringe, but when I tried to get closer the black wall appeared, so I couldn’t make out details.”
Snow, huh.
It’s winter, so that’s not strange,
but the snow across this area had all melted away under the wall’s heat.
“Maybe over there the wall doesn’t radiate heat, or something like that?”
Anyway,
we’d only know by crossing.
“If you pass over and collapse even for a moment, we’re going all out to extract you.”
This was why Lance Corporal Seo Suhyeok had tried to see beyond the wall, no matter what.
To confirm whether I’d succeeded in crossing safely.
And if I appeared to have failed,
then no matter the damage incurred,
to bring me back.
“Phew.”
And I—
for the final step to push into that place.
Well...
considering my class, it was only natural.
[Zesty Magmanir Leaves]
[Gelatin Shell of Flame-Skin Gundar]
I started to cook.
Unlike last time, when I made do with combat rations,
this time I’d have to put my whole body in, not just my arms.
A true full-course banquet, all-out.
No less than—
[A course meal has been completed!]
[Theme — Fight Fire with Fire]
a proper course meal composed by mixing four dishes.
[The effects of the dishes are applied.]
[Thanks to the effect of the trait — Absolute Palate (Enhanced), the effects of all dishes are amplified!]
[Active dish effects — 5]
[Spicy Magmanir Salad — Trait: High-Grade Flame Resistance]
[Eight-Delicacies of Multi-Attribute Monsters — Trait: High-Grade Attribute Resistance]
[Chilled Samiran Cold Dish — Trait: High-Grade Cold Skin]
[Stir-Fried Gundar Shell — Trait: High-Grade Heat-Resistant Skin]
[Course Meal, Fight Fire with Fire — Trait: Blazing Heart]
“Grrk...”
Five stacked buffs, including the course-meal effect.
Even with only four buffs stacked, I felt my joints creak.
And I’d added one more on top of that.
The pain was tremendous.
Fortunately, unlike usual when I ate buffs for aggressive action like combat—
“I can at least move... somehow.”
All I had to do now
was walk across that wall.
“All right.”
If I’d bought resistance that would let me stroll inside lava
at the price of tremendous pain,
it wasn’t a bad trade.
“I’m going.”
“...Yes! Come back safe!”
So,
right before crossing that black wall,
I heard Gwangil’s send-off.
I paused, turned my head,
and looked at the squad leaders.
“...?”
“No, I think I said it wrong.”
They were looking at me.
In that case,
what I should say to them wasn’t ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) “I’m going.”
“I’ll be back.”
I wasn’t leaving this unit.
I was just going out for a bit and coming back.
“Hold the unit well.”
“...Yes! We’ll see you again soon!”
“Pfft. Travel safe, Youngjun.”
“Don’t get hurt—come back safe.”
Leaving the squad leaders who saw me off,
I popped a small bead-like thing into my mouth,
and hurled my body beyond the wall.
[Shaman: Come back.]
At the last moment,
reading the message that appeared before my eyes,
the very instant my body touched
the wall blasting out tremendous heat—
FWOOSH!
‘!@$!@$(!?!!!’
Even wrapped in unprecedented levels of resistance,
a hideous pain that made me feel like my mind would fly apart flooded my body.
Among all deaths, the one that inflicts the greatest pain—
one of those is said to be burning to death.
If it were the old me, it wouldn’t be strange if I’d blacked out immediately from a pain like this surging through my whole body.
The only fortunate point,
no—whether this counted as fortunate—
“I’ve already experienced pain to the point of death, twice...!”
The Chef of Dasmur, whose body was bitten in two by a Sacred Beast’s fangs.
Morzan, who had his entire body chewed by One Who Eats Gods.
In the memories of those two beings,
I had felt pain up to the threshold of death.
The pain I felt now was in no way inferior,
and yet—
not once, but twice,
I’d experienced it.
“Military life... is about clenching your teeth and enduring.”
In reality it must have been very short,
but subjectively it was an agonizing time close to eternity.
I endured that time on sheer grit.
[Warning!]
[Inter-region travel by breaking through the wall is not possible.]
Before my eyes—
I felt like a system window like that popped up,
but—
[‘15’ of Divine power—]
only for a moment.
Soon after,
perhaps I was imagining it,
but I began to feel
a slightly cool sensation.
****
SPLAT.
“Kh—hurk...!”
When I came to,
I was sprawled on dirt.
Crackle...
The flame-resistant uniform Squad Leader Lee Sanga had made with everything she had—
everything but a single pair of underwear flaked off, charred black.
“Ha ha, hell. Good thing she made underwear too.”
If not for even that, who knows what I would’ve looked like.
The pain of my whole body burning had definitely not been a hallucination.
There were even patches where severe burns had turned my skin black.
Sssrrr...
Fortunately,
according to my vassal, my body had become effectively forty-nine percent vampire.
As that regeneration began to restore the scorched skin,
I felt the heat from the burns gradually diminish.
“...Wait a second.”
Thinking that,
I muttered as a sense of wrongness hit me.
“It’s not the burns healing that made the heat go down.”
After the wounds had regenerated to some extent,
I pushed myself up from where I lay
and lifted my head to look around.
“...”
And
what spread out before my eyes was... how to put it—
“Does this make any sense?”
To me,
it was the sort of thing I couldn’t understand.
No,
of course it was.
I’d been operating in Gangwon Province,
the coldest region in the Republic of Korea.
From there, I’d come down to Gyeonggi Province, supposedly the warmer region—
“What is this, the Arctic...?”
[Warning! Warning! Warning!]
[You have illegally crossed the boundary between sub-regions!!!]
[Origin Region — ROK.17]
[Current Location — ROK.3]
[You are advised to quickly return to your designated region!]
[If you arbitrarily remain outside your origin region for a long time, restrictions may be imposed!]
What I saw before my eyes—
a field of pure-white snow filling my vision,
a raging blizzard,
and—
[This is an abnormal phenomenon that was deemed impossible and thus never considered.]
[A clear, bug-like play that makes the impossible possible.]
[A hastily prepared penalty is imposed for the abuse of a severe bug!]
“Damn it.”
All I got for making the impossible possible
were penalty lines.
[You have forcibly invaded a ‘restricted movement zone’ and departed from your affiliated region!]
[Affiliated Region — ROK.17]
[Current Region — ROK.3]
[This is a clear abuse of a bug exploiting a loophole in the System.]
[A penalty will be imposed for bug-like play.]
[Assigning penalty....]
[This is an abnormal phenomenon deemed impossible and not considered!]
[No existing, pre-calculated penalty exists.]
Seeing those messages,
I realized afresh how nonsensical what I’d done was.
“So crossing that wall was something the System had judged impossible from the start.”
I’d crossed that boundary
by mobilizing everything: my class, a chef specialized in fire resistance;
the help of production crews who gained enlightenment from alien technology;
and even the skill [Absolute Palate (Enhanced)], which lets me forcibly stack buffs—
“a play close to a bug that even the System couldn’t imagine.”
[Penalty being drafted......]
[Drafting......]
Thanks to that,
because there had been no penalty for such a case in the first place,
the System was hurriedly inventing one.
[A ‘set of 3’ penalties will be imposed for the first confirmed bug-like play.]
[1. A restriction is imposed on Guild systems judged to have greatly affected regional movement.]
[‘Guild Message’ is blocked.]
First,
Guild Message was blocked.
“That part I’d more or less expected.”
I’d assumed from the start that the wall would prevent Guild Messages,
but apparently that wasn’t originally the case.
If not for this penalty, I suppose I would have operated while contacting home base by Guild Message; it’s a pity that won’t work.
Still, this much wasn’t a problem.
It was within expectations.
The problem would be—
[2. A restriction is imposed on traits judged to have greatly affected regional movement.]
[The enhancement effect of ‘Absolute Palate (Enhanced)’ will not activate while you are outside your region.]
“...That one stings.”
I opened my status window.
[Absolute Palate (Enhanced)]
->
[Absolute Palate] (New!)
[For certain reasons, part of the effect has been removed.]
Among my abilities, the trait that exerts the most important influence on my combat performance—
Absolute Palate’s effect had been weakened.
The skill Absolute Palate itself remained,
but only the enhancement effect had disappeared.
Meaning—
“Buff stacking is no longer possible.”
The enhancement effect centered on increased amplification of dish buffs via Absolute Palate,
and the ability to stack dish buffs.
Especially the latter.
“The reason I could make an impact in combat, even though I’m not a combat class, even in limited circumstances.”
A busted skill that let a rear-echelon supporter show combat performance on par with squad-leader-grade fighters, even if only for a while.
That effect had been weakened.
Even so—
levels and stats are thugs.
“Right now I’m maybe about mid-tier among our unit’s warriors.”
It was a pity.
No matter how much effort I put into a dish,
there’s a limit to what a single dish effect can do.
At least while this penalty exists, showing the sort of combat ability that even made Gwangil gape would be impossible.
“So this really is a beginner-protection wall, huh.”
I didn’t know what the average power here would be,
but given that crossing the wall had been treated as a [bug],
my ability with all Absolute Palate buffs up must have been judged abnormal.
Normally I might’ve rampaged around on the strength gained from eating dishes,
but they weren’t going to allow that.
“It stings, but...”
Even so,
I shook my head and thought:
“If this is all, it’s actually a relief.”
Except—
[3. A restriction is imposed on content judged likely to have a major impact on the destination region.]
“...?”
That wasn’t all.
[Since the fact that you came from your prior region — ROK.17 could cause major confusion if leaked,]
[if the fact of inter-regional movement becomes known to humans in the destination region,]
[a penalty will be imposed.]
“...”
[Penalty]
[Death]
The fact that I crossed the wall from another region—
I had to hide that.
“Which means I have to hide that I’m from the Legion...”
It’s not like I crossed to do something bad.
I did it to help others, in my own way.
And this level of penalty?
“This is... a bit much, no?”
The only saving grace—
as if it heard my complaint—
[However.]
[As the first report of bug-like play and a miracle that made the impossible possible,]
[this can be considered one of the greatest achievements a human can accomplish.]
[A quest is granted for the great achievement.]
[Return to your origin region, or survive until regional protection ends. (0/1)]
“...There we go.”
[Reward: Scaled according to the influence you exert in the destination region.]
At least this much—
now I felt like working.
