Chapter 33
The clear condition for the emergency mission is an overwhelming victory.
There was no way to know what level that standard was at.
All I could think about was getting the most out of my body and putting the basketball in the basket.
"Karis nim!"
A three-point shot was made nonstop after receiving a pass from Yoo Min-ha.
"Rebound, rebound! "
"I absolutely can't do it because of Karis hyung-nim!"
A rebound is the act of catching a ball that has bounced off a ring.
"Can you let me pass just once? It's embarrassing, bro."
"Unfortunately, that would be difficult."
Even blocking Kang Si-yoon's dribble breakthrough with a simple body check was done so naturally.
Even before this, Karis von Walden's body had shown outstanding ability in this kind of close combat.
But in this situation, where my abnormal condition was on fire, that ability seemed to be amplified even more.
It was a novel experience.
Decisions made in the brain are immediately transmitted to the muscles.
The body goes out before I even recognize it with my eyes.
I took a deep breath after easily making another three-pointer.
'I've never felt this way, even in a game.'
I'd like to wrap up all these events related to the emergency mission, but I need to finish this match first.
The score was almost 20 points higher, but the 'Existence from Another World' status effect was still not lifted.
So I just kept on shooting without any time to think about it.
"I won't do it."
"I, I, I'm scared, I can't do it! "
About 10 minutes later.
Kang Si-yoon and Heo Yu-bin, who had completely lost their fighting spirit, sat down on the floor, sweating profusely.
"It's only been 15 minutes since the match started?"
"Min-ha, do you want to hold out against that guy for 15 minutes? "
"aha."
Yoo Minha, who was passing a basketball over his index finger, looked at me once and smiled brightly.
"I understood it immediately! "
"Seriously, don't be foolish. No, you should allow us to shoot like humans. He stops every 3-point shot, and he even blocks my layup attempts. Is this a regular person?"
"Siyoon hyung, how would I feel? Imagine if you jumped down from under that goal at the same time as Karis hyung nim."
"I'm sorry about that."
"Why on earth did you put me through this ordeal!"
While everyone was venting their frustrations at me, I quietly brought up the system window again.
To be honest, it would not be an exaggeration to say that this is a devastating victory, rather than an overwhelming one.
[You have met the Emergent Mission clear conditions. The abnormal status will be removed.]
Fortunately, the mission clear message greeted me.
The 'Existence from Another World' that was blinking at the bottom of the status window has returned to normal.
Then the heat that had been boiling in my body disappeared in an instant.
My head also became clearer, and the slight headache I had from the memories of my rampage disappeared.
"Phew...."
I breathed a sigh of relief.
I sat down on the bench for a moment and tried to sort out the situation so far.
'The spirit of this body's original owner, Karis von Walden, may awaken at any moment. The warning symptoms I felt today were a sudden memory overload and a momentary headache from
I clenched and unclenched my fist repeatedly, recalling the hot sensation from earlier.
'When an abnormal status occurs, Karis von Walden's physical abilities increase abnormally. It's as if I've entered a game.'
I repeated the situation in my head a couple of times.
The things that can be grasped at this point have been roughly organized.
However, there were other things that were on my mind.
'There is absolutely no information about when, where, or at what point this status abnormality occurs. All I know is that it occurs when the Crown Prince's mind awakens, and it didn't tell me anything about the trigger factor. And most of all....'
I looked at Kang Si-yoon and Heo Yu-bin, who were cooling off with their clothes fluttering.
'No matter how hard I tried to break the urgent mission, something felt different. It was as if a hotter desire was rising inside me.'
It's a heat that I've definitely experienced somewhere.
The final chapter of
The excitement of battle that had engulfed me as I slew countless of the Demon King's followers came to mind for some reason.
I stared at my still-clenched fist.
Droplets of blood were added to the transparently white skin in my imagination.
'... If this suspicion is correct, then the Crown Prince's mind will affect not only my body but also my thoughts if I suffer from an abnormal condition.'
In
In such a situation, the self of the crown prince who survived may suddenly come back.
Even if that moment is on stage, communicating with fans, or during an interview,.
I suddenly got goosebumps all over my body.
My legs were shaking at the thought that something truly absurd could happen.
'Relax. It's a device that comes from the system, so there's bound to be a way to fix it.'
I shook my head a few times, trying to regain my cool.
Yes, the system given to me is the same type of system that the god of
That means there will definitely be opportunities to remove abnormal status effects through items or quests.
There is no need to panic or be impatient.
"How is it, Min-ha? Do you think you got your revenge? "
"It feels like I've lost my main role, but I'm still satisfied! My shots are going well! "
"I'm glad you're satisfied. I'm so exhausted right now that I don't think I can run twice."
"Oh, that's too bad. I was confident in one-on-ones, so I wanted to try it with Siyoon hyung."
The guys who were catching their breath were chatting while drinking water.
Originally, it was a game that came to fruition because of Yoo Minha's will to seek revenge, but for a moment, I wondered if I had gone too far.
But I think I often passed the ball to Yoo Minha.
And well, to be honest, Yoo Minha didn't show that high of an attack success rate.
A friend who just likes basketball and comics, but isn't very athletic.
There wasn't much difference in appearance when tearing off the name tag.
"So, what's next on the agenda? "
"I worked hard, so now I need to rest! How about going to a comic book cafe? It would be really fun and great if we could go and look at my life's works together—!"
"I think I know why you wanted to be friends with Karis."
Kang Si-yoon and I met eyes exactly.
"Hmm. One of you is a web novel fanatic, and the other is a comic book fanatic."
"That's right! To be honest, I was really surprised when Karis nim said he liked webtoons and web novels."
"It was even more surprising because it was someone who didn't seem like they would ever do that."
"That's exactly right! Yubin also has knowledge in this field, so I feel like I have a lot to talk about. Right, Yubin? "
Heo Yu-bin, whose face already looked completely exhausted, was startled when his name was called.
The bottle of water in his hand fell vertically onto the coat.
"Oh, oh? Oh, right."
"So I thought going to a comic book cafe and taking a break would be the best option. Today, I decided to binge watch SXXK for the first time in a while! After watching the last match scene, tears just came to my eyes... ."
Everyone noticed that once Yoo Minha started, there was no way to stop.
Heo Yu-bin was half asleep and just said, "Yeah, yeah." Kang Si-yoon laughed heartily as if he found something so funny and tapped my back.
"I guess you have to take responsibility."
"... My eardrums won't be healthy today either."
* * *
Before I knew it, the sky had become dark.
"How much have we eaten? "
"I never imagined I would be able to eat fried chicken at that comic book cafe."
"I definitely have to skip dinner..."
I was at the comic cafe for almost 4 hours.
As announced, Yoo Minha's favorite comic book binge-watching journey was underway, and I was the lucky member who went on that journey with him.
I thought the character settings were wrong, but when I actually read it, it was more interesting than I thought, so I ended up getting sucked into it too.
Heo Yu-bin, who was the most curious, showed amazing concentration as soon as he started reading a comic book, lying down comfortably as if he were at his own home.
Kang Si-yoon ate three bowls of fried chicken by himself while focusing more on food than comics.
"If you're not going to eat dinner, what are we going to do now? "
"I don't know about anything else, but for now, I think we should escape to a place where there aren't many people."
"I agree."
As Kang Si-yoon said, as evening came, the area around the downtown area began to become incredibly crowded.
Even though we were wearing masks and hats, we were easily visible when the crowds grew.
Moreover, in this crowd, the possibility of our identity being revealed increases because of these items.
Those who have been fangirling might know that
"Then shall we call it a day here? "
"Okay, let's meet up again later and hang out."
"That, that was fun."
"Oh oh!"
The three of us all turned our heads towards Heo Yu-bin.
As the attention poured in, Heo Yu-bin was caught in buffering again.
"Ahhh."
"Yubin spoke to me informally first! I'm so touched now! "
"He, he's a friend, so it'd be weird to use formal language...."
It was truly a great leap forward.
I patted Heo Yu-bin on the shoulder and checked his status window.
There was no significant change in the abnormal state of 'hikikomori'.
'If Heo Yu-bin interacts with more peers like this, his timid personality will naturally improve.'
After spending a day with him, I felt that my hunch about Yoo Minha was not wrong.
Although he is a talkative and overly passionate person, he is not fundamentally a bad person.
This has made me even more curious about Baek Si-hwa's comments.
"Oh right."
Kang Si-yoon, who was checking the calendar on his phone, snapped his fingers.
"You all know that episode 3 is coming out this Friday, right? It contains the team battle content. Let's watch that too."
"I like watching it together! "
"Excuse me, can I really watch it with you? We've only been talking for a day."
"Hey, why are you so upset? To borrow Karis's words, we've already been physically together before."
"What if you say that with your own mouth? "
Even the most sane-looking guy is just as abnormal as everyone else.
Looking at Kang Si-yoon's sparkling pupils, I instinctively had a rough idea of where this conversation was headed.
"When you say let's watch together, you don't mean we should go to the auditorium in the dorms and watch together, right? "
"Of course!"
"Siyoon, Yubin, and Minha have all come out to see their parents, so there won't be any space."
"Yes?"
"That means we have no choice but to gather in the only empty space."
I smiled as I took out my phone.
"I'll send you an address, so you can find it easily."
—