Chapter 3: Enhancing Mental Strength

“Team Leader Park!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Ji-eun stretched out her hand but couldn’t reach him, her fingers hovering in midair.

[Time limit expired.]

“I-I’m inside, right? Right?”

After Team Leader Park’s words, an eerie silence settled over the safe zone.

It was exactly like a packed subway.

People trying their best to reduce the contact area despite being surrounded by others.

A man who had forced his way in only to get stuck in the door.

Blink.

“Ji-eun! I-I’m… inside! Aren’t I… safe?”

Team Leader Park’s voice kept breaking off.

Like a call with a poor signal.

“Grab… me! … Pull…!”

Thwack!

Pale as a sheet, Team Leader Park clung to Ji-eun’s wrist as if it were a lifeline.

[All personnel outside the safe zone will be eliminated.]

With all her strength, Ji-eun pulled him as if saving someone drowning.

— Thud!

Team Leader Park’s upper body was severed, and Ji-eun fell backward, clutching his torso.

The tug-of-war ended, and she couldn’t resist the momentum, falling backward.

“…!”

At first, there was silence.

“Kyaaaah!”

“Ugh, ughh! M-My body!”

Then screams rang out.

Team Leader Park’s waist was cleanly cut as if sliced by a laser.

A cross-section densely packed with pale bones and reddish muscles.

The surreal and unnatural sight was horrifying enough, but the thought that the cut surface looked like neatly sliced meat flashed through her mind.

As blood poured out, filling the air with the scent of iron, her head spun.

“Ugh, uuaaagh…!”

Oh no.

“Ji-eun! Are you okay?!”

“…Hic!”

Seeing Ji-eun hiccuping in shock, she finally came back to her senses.

Carefully laying down Team Leader Park’s half-body drenched in bright red blood, she checked on Ji-eun.

“Ji-eun, look at me! Can you stay conscious?”

Her arm still holding onto Team Leader Park’s, her whole body trembled.

Following her trembling gaze, the floor beneath her knees was a mess of blood spilled from the corpse.

“D-Dead…”

She pulled some tissue paper she’d brought from the restroom and wiped the blood off.

The clumped tissue stuck to her stockings here and there, but she had no time to care.

“Stay sharp, Ji-eun! Cold as it sounds, there’s no guarantee that won’t happen to us too.”

“I-I should have pulled him faster…”

“No, Team Leader Park was the one who came late from the start. Unfortunately, he died because he dawdled over disciplinary nonsense.”

Someone just died right before her eyes.

If there were time, she’d want to offer her condolences.

But this wasn’t a situation for condolences.

Right now, she was about to die in the exact same way.

And on top of that, she had to take care of someone whose mind was shattered from the shock.

[Mission complete. MS Tower, 1,073 people downsized. Survivors: 723.]

“Ji-eun, can you hear this announcement? Over a thousand people just disappeared. This is no joke!”

“…”

[Please select your mission reward.]

“Once you get the reward, the next mission will start right away. You need to stay focused!”

“…Hic.”

She shut her eyes tight and bit her lower lip.

‘Am I just naturally weak mentally?’

No.

Expecting a normal girl who just graduated college to behave like me was unreasonable.

She wasn’t a trained athlete with toughened nerves, nor had she ever witnessed her parents dying in a car accident sitting right behind them.

If you placed random women on the street in this situation, ninety-nine out of a hundred would react the same.

‘At this rate…’

Would it be better to drag Ji-eun along by force?

She might have to witness even worse scenes.

She might have to do even crueler things herself.

Then she’d have to hold on with sheer mental strength...

Wait.

One possibility flashed through her mind.

“Mission reward.”

[Please select your mission reward.]

She swallowed hard.

If it was possible.

“Can you… increase ‘Mental Strength’ as a mission reward?”

[Would you like to enhance ‘Mental Strength’ as a mission reward?]

…This is it!

Worried the system might misunderstand, she shouted, “Hold!” and shook Ji-eun’s shoulders vigorously.

“Ji-eun! You don’t have to get a grip on yourself. Just do exactly as I say.”

“Eunho…”

“You haven’t selected a mission reward yet, right?”

Ji-eun slowly nodded with dull eyes.

Thank goodness.

She was the kind to agonize over lunch choices, so probably she hadn’t selected any rewards either.

Then.

“Repeat after me. ‘Mission reward!’”

“…Yes?”

“Mission reward! Repeat it!”

Shaking her shoulder and making eye contact, she clearly spoke.

“…Mission… reward.”

“Did something pop up?”

Nod.

“Enhance mental strength as the reward.”

“Mental strength… enhancement.”

“One more time!”

“…Mental strength enhancement.”

…Did it work?

Watching with trembling eyes, Ji-eun raised her palm and covered her face.

“…Ji-eun?”

“…”

No response. Just a deep sigh.

Was it a failure?

“How do you feel?”

She was in no position to care about anyone else right now.

If it didn’t work…

Just as she was about to give up and stand, Ji-eun parted her cracked lips.

“Um…”

A firm expression.

Clearer eyes than usual, bright and sharp like top students.

“I’m going to take off my stockings.”

People grew serious.

How could they not after seeing someone get cut in half right in front of them?

Groups of three or five began huddling in corners, obviously not talking about work.

“Stamina’s the most important, right?”

“Strength must be useful, right? I’m aiming to improve both stamina and muscle evenly.”

“I think agility should be improved too.”

So far, they’d received rewards twice in total.

Mostly, they had increased stats shown on their status screens.

Someone used points to fix a limping leg; none seemed to have strengthened their mental state.

And no one was like me, checking the details.

“Is there any way to get an exemption from downsizing as a reward?”

[Not selectable.]

“What about weapons like guns or swords?”

[Not selectable.]

No, no again.

An ordinary person would get tired after a few questions, but I am Lee Eun-ho.

I had experience groveling in temp jobs, always busy and annoyed, begging the staff department.

I scoured public institutions’ ordinances and Q&A boards for disability support benefits, from community centers to the tax office.

“Then what about precognition? Or the ability to fly?”

[Not selectable at the current downsizing stage.]

‘…!’

“Is there another stage after this?”

[Cannot answer.]

“How do you move on to the next stage? Just surviving here is enough?”

[Cannot answer.]

I don’t know who or why this downsizing is happening, but it’s clear they don’t intend to stop at just fitting inside the circle.

[A mission will start shortly at exactly 2:00.]

[Mission reward has been granted.]

[70% recovery rate for limp.]

Current time, just before 2:05.

I hurriedly enhanced my right leg with the mission reward and ‘walked.’

— Shk, thwack. Shk, thwack.

A limping step.

But…

“Eunho, your leg…?”

Left foot, right foot. Left foot, right foot.

Alternating steps, gradually faster.

Like running in place.

“Is it all healed? How come all of a sudden…?”

“Not yet.”

One more step and I can regain my prime body.

A smile crept onto my lips despite myself.

[Measuring data needed for skill unlocking.]

At that moment, an unfamiliar message came through.

“Skill… data…?”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t a message pop up?”

Ji-eun shook her head in confusion.

“Skill.”

“Skill?”

Just in case, I muttered ‘skill’ like with ‘mission reward,’ but no reaction.

Maybe it appears only under certain conditions.

“No, wait at the stairs.”

Lacking information.

I wanted to focus on the mission first, but Ji-eun calmly said,

“…Eunho, I think I know what reward you want.”

She must have noticed. The change was obvious.

“I will survive.”

I smiled slightly, and Ji-eun silently nodded.

“We’ll survive. Together.”

[Mission started. Safe zone created.]

The nearest safe zone was Meeting Room 2 on the 15th floor.

“Looks small.”

“Twenty people would fill it completely.”

“What do we do? There are still so many people left…”

What else could I do?

I smiled and limped down the stairs.

“We have to run!”

Strengthening Ji-eun’s mental strength was an excellent choice.

“Th-That… right now…!”

“What the hell is that guy doing?! Is that allowed?”

With about seven minutes left, we reached Meeting Room 2 on the 15th floor.

When we arrived, the door had already been torn off, and people inside and outside were confronting each other.

‘Confronting’ hardly described it.

Blocked by a man armed with wooden boards, cement pots, dumbbells, and every conceivable weapon, no one could enter the safe zone.

“Ji-eun, do you see that sharp thing? What is it?”

“…Flint?”

The man was pretty well-armed.

A sparkling sharp weapon, maybe a shard from a ceramic pot, in his left hand.

A wooden board, likely a chair leg, in his right.

And stacked cement pots within reach.

Like someone who had prepared for a fight in advance.

“That’s a member of the Operations Support Team, right?”

“Yeah. Deputy Manager Kwak Dong-seok, 36 this year. He joined two years ago as a replacement for someone on leave. His contract’s probably ending soon. He didn’t get converted [to regular].”

So, he was in the same position as me.

I thought I’d seen him coming and going.

Despite his big build, he always seemed withdrawn and didn’t get along well with others.

He was a bit prickly, especially reactive during work issues.

“…I didn’t realize he was this prickly.”

— Thwack! Thwack!

“Everyone, get lost! Get lost!”

Deputy Manager Kwak’s bloodshot eyes swung at anyone approaching the green line.

The chair-leg-turned-wooden board was stained bright red with blood droplets.

“Hey, you bastard! There’s plenty of room!”

“Mind your own business! Don’t come closer!”

“Why is everyone so selfish?! We have to survive together!”

“You’re the selfish ones!”

Kwak seemed both angry and scared.

“Am I… scary? You ignored me so much…!”

And like he was enjoying it.

“Deputy Manager Kwak? What are you doing?!”

Deputy Manager Kwak’s superior, Director Oh of Operations Support, shouted.

Kwak froze for a moment but then spoke.

“…Director?”

“Can’t you just put that down?!”

Director Oh scolded in response, stepping into the safe zone.

“Look at what I did for this uneducated guy…”

— Thwack!

The words died in his throat.

“Look what you did, damn it.”

Director Oh’s skull was smashed.

The sound of a watermelon cracking, the smell of blood, and the sticky splatter filled the office.

Should I be shocked that Kwak hit his boss with all his might?

Or shocked that Ji-eun whispered in this chaos, “Strictly speaking, he wasn’t taken in. They just exploited him under the pretense of regularization, then discarded him.”

“I always knew… a day like this would come.”

He wasn’t a natural fighter, judging by his heavy breathing.

But with that level of preparation.

‘I’ve always thought about how to hurt people in the office.’

Kwak swung the pinkish something stuck to the wooden board away.

He glanced down at the people frozen in terror as if looking down on them.

「05:20」

Five minutes left.

Huh.

I sighed quietly and stepped forward.

“…Eunho!”

Ji-eun shook her head as if telling me not to go, but there was no stopping me.

I was desperate too.

“D-Deputy Manager Kwak?”