[The Climb: Blue Boxes and Burning Lungs]
The slope of the mountain was getting steeper. The air filling my lungs had shifted from the cool morning breeze to a sticky, scorching heat. My legs were trembling. With every step, it felt like needles were piercing my calves. I was gasping for air, my only desire being to sit on a rock and pass out.
But my mind was busier than my body. The transparent blue box floating in front of my eyes made it impossible to focus on the fatigue.
[Role: Main Protagonist]
I fixed my eyes on Arthur, who was bounding up the path ahead of me like a mountain goat. 'Okay,' I thought, trying to regulate my breathing. 'The box calls him the Hero. Do the data points match?'
I analyzed him. Sunlight hit his golden hair, making it shine against his sweaty forehead. I remembered how the village girls, and even that noblewoman who passed through last year, had whispered, "That boy will be a heartbreaker when he grows up." 'Appearance: Check. Handsome, charismatic, natural leader vibes. Loves swinging swords (sticks). stupidtly strong. Courageous.'
I nodded slightly. 'Maybe it's true. Maybe he really is the Chosen One from the stories.'
Just then, Arthur tripped over a root. "WHOA!" His arms wheeled around like a windmill. He performed a bizarre, flailing dance to regain his balance, barely avoiding face-planting into the mud. He finally steadied himself and grinned back at us with that goofy smile. "Just testing my reflexes! How was it?"
My face fell. My shoulders slumped. '...Or maybe not. What is this? A hero should know how to walk. This box is definitely broken. Maybe it meant "Main Problem" instead of "Main Protagonist"?'
As Arthur continued ahead, swinging his stick at imaginary monsters and shouting "Hiyah! Take that!", the tiny sliver of hope inside me vanished. Saving the world with this idiot? It was mathematically impossible.
[Breakpoint: Violation of Physics]
"Watch out for the bushes!" Arthur shouted with the authority of a general. "Enemies are everywhere! Elena, stay behind me!"
Elena rolled her eyes, though she didn't stop staring admiringly at Arthur's back. "Oh, what enemies... It's just grass, Arthur."
Arthur seemed annoyed by Elena's lack of interest. Determined to prove himself, he lunged toward a thick, thorny vine blocking our path—and the gray rock directly behind it.
"Out of my way!"
Arthur swung the stick. At that moment, I was thinking, "I wish this blue box had an off button, it's giving me a headache." My eyes were half-closed, staring at the ground.
I only heard the sound. "VWUUUM!"
That wasn't the sound of wind. That was the sharp, high-pitched whistle of a guillotine blade dropping—a sound that a heavy axe couldn't even make, let alone a stick.
When I looked up, Arthur had already cleared the obstacle and turned to Elena with a grin. "See? I smashed it!"
I looked at the vine as I passed by. It wasn't smashed. It was severed cleanly, without even fraying the fibers. As if an invisible razor had passed through it. But what froze my blood was the rock behind the vine.
There was a gash on the rock, about as deep as my pinky finger. I touched it. The surface of the stone was smooth. I looked at the wooden stick in Arthur's hand. There wasn't a single scratch on it.
'Wait a minute...' The blue screen in front of my eyes flickered.
[Potential: ⚠️ ERROR ⚠️]
Elena was looking at Arthur like, "Good job, you beat a plant." Arthur was gloating, "Did you see how I cut that?" I was the only one who saw the cut on the stone.
'He didn't hit it with the stick...' I thought. I couldn't make sense of it, but the feeling was terrifying. 'When he swung the stick, he used the wind... no, he used something else. Without even realizing it.'
The look of disappointment on my face vanished, replaced by shock and a slight shiver. 'The box... might not be broken. This kid... This kid is actually a monster.'
[The Anomaly: Silence and Purple]
When we reached the plateau, Arthur suddenly stopped. He lowered his stick. His goofy demeanor vanished instantly. His back went rigid.
"The air..." Arthur whispered. "Why did it get cold?"
I looked up. The sun was high, but the heat was gone. The sound of the world had been muted. The birds stopped singing. The deadly silence from my dream... It was back.
We saw him.
On top of a large, moss-covered boulder, a man was floating in the air, defying the laws of gravity.
His robes were a deep imperial purple, swirling not from the wind, but as if they were made of living smoke. Jet-black hair, closed eyes... He didn't look like a human. He looked like a timeless statue that had descended upon us.
My stomach twisted. This man... He didn't belong here. I immediately focused on the System. "Analyze!" I commanded internally. "Who is this? What is his level?"
The blue screen flickered. It filled with static. And then, it flashed a blood-red warning.
[Target Analyzing...] [Name: ???] [Level: ???] [Threat: ???] [WARNING: Target's existence exceeds database parameters. Analysis Failed.]
My breath hitched. 'Question marks? Even the System doesn't know?'
Arthur, despite his trembling legs, stepped in front of Elena. He pointed his stick at the man. "T-This is our mountain! Get out of here!"
The man opened his eyes. There were no pupils. Only a deep, swirling vortex of purple. His gaze wasn't angry. It was the way a human looks at ants crawling on a picnic blanket. Pure, crushing indifference.
"Noise..."
His lips didn't move, but the voice exploded directly inside our skulls. My teeth ached. The System screen glitched out in front of my eyes.
[System Alert: High-Level Mental Pressure Detected.]
[Eraser and Paper]
The stranger gracefully raised his hand. Purple and black lightning crackled silently at his fingertips. "You have seen what you should not have," the man said. His voice echoed with a metallic tang. "To clean your minds... would be a mercy."
I recognized that blackness. The Sea of Ink from my dream. 'It wasn't a dream...' my mind screamed. 'It was real. And now, he's going to erase us.'
The man snapped his fingers. The black energy shot out like an arrow, aiming directly at me (even though I was standing at the back, as if it locked onto something inside me).
I couldn't move. The System was flashing red warnings. [WARNING: Critical Danger!] [Evasion Probability: 0%] [Fatal Damage Imminent...]
I closed my eyes. It was over.
[Intervention: ???]
The moment the magic touched me, time stopped. The man's magic entered my mind. But it didn't hit a wall. It encountered an Error.
[System Notification] [External Interference Detected.] ['???' Defense Mechanism Activated.]
The man's purple eyes widened in shock. His own magic had been swallowed by the "Thing" inside me (that even I didn't know about). And through that connection, the Thing inside me looked back at him.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
The man found himself not on the mountain, but in a sticky, infinite, absolute void. And from that darkness, Eyes opened. Planet-sized, lidless eyes.
The man's noble, invincible, god-like smile froze. All the blood drained from his face. In that moment, no magic, no rank, no arrogance could save him. His brain, faced with that terror, could only produce one word, one primal command:
(RUN!)
[Conclusion: Loot and a Smile]
We didn't see the cosmic horror. We only saw the man's face turn as white as a sheet, his body trembling.
To keep his sanity, the man transformed his body into pure energy in a split second. He became a vortex of dark purple and black mist.
VWUUUMP!
With a dull, tearing sound, he shot into the sky and vanished. The panic was so great that two glinting objects fell from him as he dematerialized. CLACK. (A Button). POOF. (A Shoe).
Arthur stood there, mouth agape. "W-What was that?"
Then, shaking off the shock, Arthur puffed out his chest. "Hah! Of course he ran! The moment I raised my stick, he saw my power and turned into smoke out of fear!"
Elena started laughing nervously. I... I collapsed to the ground, clutching my heart. I opened the System screen. My hands were shaking.
(System...) I asked mentally. (What was that? Did you scare him off? Did you activate that defense?)
The blue screen's answer was cold and clear:
[Answer: No.] [This unit does not possess 'Offensive' or 'Absolute Defense' capabilities.]
My blood ran cold. (Then... What does '???' Defense mean? Who did that?)
[Answer: Unknown.] [A power independent of the System, source untraceable, intervened.]
I looked up at the sky where the man had fled. Then I looked at my own hands. Inside me... lay a Monster that even the System was unaware of, that it couldn't define. And that monster had just made a "God-like Man" tremble in fear.
'Great...' I thought, letting out a dry, hysterical laugh. 'I don't just have to deal with monsters outside, but also with the unknown inside me. My life is a minefield.'
My eyes drifted to the shiny items on the ground. 'Well... At least there's loot in the minefield.'
I stood up, walked over, and picked up the Mithril Button. The System window popped up immediately.
[Item: Mithril Button (Legendary Grade)] [Market Value Estimate: ~1,000 Gold Coins]
My breath stopped. My heart missed a beat. I did the math instantly in my head.
'In this village, we use bronze. 1,000 bronze makes a silver. You can buy a nice house here for 10 silver.' '100 Silver makes a Gold Coin. A Gold Coin buys a house in the city.'
My hands started to tremble. '1,000 Gold... That's... That's 100,000 Silver. That's 100,000,000 Bronze.'
I looked at the small button in my hand. 'This isn't a button. This is ten villages. This is a small kingdom. I am holding the GDP of this entire region in my sweaty palm.'
My fear evaporated instantly. A twisted, greedy smile—my "Scum Smile"—spread across my face. 'Jackpot.'
I looked over at Arthur. He had picked up the other item—the Void Silk Shoe. But instead of looking at it with curiosity, he held it high above his head like a legendary sword or the severed head of a dragon.
He puffed out his chest, striking a pose against the setting sun.
"BEHOLD!" Arthur bellowed, his voice cracking slightly but full of pride. "Let this be the proof of my might! I, King Arthur, Savior of the Mountains, have claimed my first tribute from the forces of evil!"
He looked at the shoe with immense satisfaction, completely unaware that he was holding a single, slightly burnt loafer worth probably five times more than my button.
"This," he declared solemnly, "will go down in history."
I shook my head, shoving the 1,000 Gold button deep into my pocket. 'Yeah, history... Just don't drop it, you idiot.'