Adam looked at his hand, then at the sea of heads filling the underground walkway.
The salaryman was just the beginning.
In the anime, these people were just background characters waiting to be trapped by the veil. They were victims.
But to Adam, right now, they looked like free experience points.
"I need more," Adam muttered.
He didn't have time to be polite. The clock was ticking down. Every second wasted was a step closer to death.
He tightened his shoelaces and took a deep breath.
Then, he sprinted.
Adam didn't run away from the crowd. He ran directly into it.
He extended both arms to the sides, his fingers spread wide. He looked like a child playing airplane, but his expression was dead serious.
Slap.
His hand brushed against a high school student's arm.
Ding!
[Target Tagged: Student.]
[Stats Shared: +10% Agility.]
[Cursed Energy Acquired: 15%.]
Adam didn't stop. He kept moving.
Bump.
He grazed the shoulder of an elderly woman.
Tap.
He touched the backpack of a tourist.
The system notifications flashed in the corner of his eye like a broken slot machine.
[Target Tagged: Civilian.]
[Target Tagged: Civilian.]
[Target Tagged: Office Worker.]
"Hey! Watch it!" a man shouted.
Adam ignored him. He was already five meters away.
Usually, moving through Shibuya Station was a nightmare. The sheer density of people made it impossible to walk fast. But as Adam tagged more people, something changed.
His legs felt lighter.
His reflexes sharpened.
The first ten tags gave him a burst of energy. The first fifty made him feel like an athlete.
By the time he hit one hundred tags, the world seemed to slow down.
Adam swerved around a group of laughing girls. He didn't just dodge them; he deliberately tapped each of their shoulders in a blur of motion.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
"Eek!" one girl squeaked. "Did you feel that wind?"
Adam was moving faster now. His agility was stacking.
10% from one person was negligible. But 10% from hundreds of people? It was monstrous.
He wasn't just running anymore. He was gliding.
The fatigue he should have felt from sprinting was non-existent. The shared stamina kept him fresh. The shared strength made his steps explosive.
He became a human avalanche, sweeping through the underground corridor.
People didn't even have time to get angry. They just felt a blur of motion and a sudden touch.
"What was that?"
"A ghost?"
"Someone is running in the station!"
Adam gritted his teeth. The crowd was thick ahead near the ticket gates.
Perfect.
He dove into the mass of bodies. He didn't push them; he flowed through the gaps, his hands brushing against jackets, shirts, and bags.
[Target Tagged: Civilian.]
[Target Tagged: Civilian.]
[Target Tagged: Civilian.]
The blue text scrolled so fast it was unreadable.
Adam's speed increased exponentially. He had to skid to turn corners because his momentum was too high. The friction of his sneakers against the tile floor made a screeching sound.
Screech!
He banked around a pillar, tagging three salarymen and a security guard in a single motion.
[Target Tagged: Security Guard.]
[Stats Shared: +10% Strength, +10% Endurance.]
He felt a surge of power in his muscles.
800 tags.
900 tags.
The station lights blurred into streaks. Adam felt invincible. The fear of the upcoming incident was replaced by the intoxication of speed.
He saw the escalator leading up to the ground floor. It was packed with people standing still.
Adam didn't wait. He vaulted over the handrail and ran up the narrow metal median between the two escalators.
His hands trailed along the people on both sides.
Zip.
He was a blur of movement ascending toward the exit.
[Target Tagged: Civilian.]
...
[Target Tagged: Civilian.]
Ding!
[Total Tags: 1000.]
Adam reached the top of the stairs and burst out of the lower platform area.
He skid to a halt near a vending machine, his sneakers leaving black marks on the floor. The rush of wind caught up to him a second later, ruffling his hair.
He wasn't out of breath. He didn't even break a sweat.
Adam looked back at the stairs. The chaotic noise of the confused crowd echoed from below.
He quickly checked the system timer.
[Time until Incident: 8 Minutes.]
He had escaped the basement trap.