Chapter 61: It seems like something is going on #3
The affinity points could only be obtained from people related to the blacklist. In other words, he wouldn’t get anything if he saved people not related to the blacklist.
Tae-hyuk had smashed the Death Circus and saved the lives of hundreds of people, but had only gotten 20 affinity points. In other words, those 20 points represented the number of victims Choi Sung-yeol and Kim Joon-young would’ve killed in the future.
They didn’t kill the participants directly; they only crafted extreme situations to make people kill each other. Most of the victims died at the hands of other participants, which why he didn’t get as much as he hoped after saving a lot of people.
However, this time he was sure. The culprit was an IED, a mass killer on the rampage with bombs.
Tae-hyuk clearly remembered from the blacklist. If he saved the victims of this case then he could gain a lot of affinity points.
Tae-hyuk remembered everything he could about the disaster at Atlantis. He was able to guess the situation to a certain extent because it had been blasted on the news every day. The water in the tanks completely filled up the third underground floor and slowly overflowed, eventually reaching the fourth floor.
Fortunately, it was just recently opened so most of the audience was gathered on the first and second basement floors. If the capacity of the tanks was slightly larger, than the damage would have been several times greater. There were perhaps around 30~40 people here, and he had to get them out as soon as possible.
“Kuoong.”
But it wasn’t as easy as he thought.
Tae-hyuk found someone hiding in the dining room and tried to persuade him.
“Staying here is dangerous! I know a way out.”
“There was definitely an announcement to stay where I am!”
‘Damn…’
Tae-hyuk clicked his tongue.
Someone had broadcasted a message that a small problem had occurred and that they were trying to recognize what it was. Therefore, don’t move and remain at your current position.
The one who made the announcement was probably Kim Tae-sung.
‘It turned out like this.’
Tae-hyuk bit his lip.
When a person received conflicting information, they would always choose the more reliable one. The announcement was more reliable than someone who looked like a gangster. In the end, he wouldn’t be able to save anyone here if they didn’t believe him.
Yoo Ha-yang was probably suffering for the same reason.
‘I need to confront authority with authority.’
Tae-hyuk headed to the broadcasting room in a corner of the 4B floor. The door lock was firmly locked. Tae-hyuk smiled and muttered,
“I’m sorry, but I have a key to open any lock.”
Tae-hyuk grabbed his iron pipe with both hands and swung it using all his strength.
Kang!
Iron hit iron and sparks emerged. He was able to confirm that the lock had loosened.
“Um. How about one more time? Well, I will keep going until it works!”
Tae-hyuk took advantage of his centrifugal force to open it. The attack that burst out had great destructive power, thanks to the Violence skill. In less than 10 seconds, the iron lock was shattered and Tae-hyuk was able to enter the broadcasting room. It was an unauthorized intrusion, but Tae-hyuk wasn’t going to worry about such things.
“Isn’t it enough if they don’t notice?”
Tae-hyuk entered the room and looked around.
“It is simple.”
There were several chairs and machinery for broadcasting. Tae-hyuk could make an announcement. But then he saw a strange device installed on the machine, a recorder connected to a clock that was attached to the timer switch of the broadcast device.
That only meant one thing.
“Crazy…”
Tae-hyuk quickly realized what it was supposed to do. It was the identity of the person who made the announcement.
“Shit. Who installed this?”
Tae-hyuk separated the recorder from the machine and pressed the power button. Then a voice was heard, mixed with some noises.
–This is the management.The park is currently experiencing a small trouble and we are investigating the cause of it.Although it is somewhat noisy now, please wait where you are.
The timer showed that it was broadcast exactly six minutes ago.
“In the end, people died because of this broadcast without even knowing it.”
Tae-hyuk sighed.
He didn’t like it. There was only one way to counter this. He manipulated the Demon Revealing Mirror at lightning speed to activate Voice Modulation.
[Voice Modulation has been used.]
-You can imitate the voice of Kim Tae-sung.
‘That bastard Kim Tae-sung…’
The identity behind the voice was Kim Tae-sung, and the timer device attached to the recorder was obviously something used for his IEDs as well.
‘Well, I will be releasing that firecracker soon.’
Tae-hyuk looked at his body. There were bruises on the area where he had rolled around less than one hour ago. Furthermore, he continuously used the Violence skill. All his muscles would be in hell tomorrow.
Tae-hyuk manipulated the broadcasting device and turned on the power. The practice he had in speaking would be useful.
Tae-hyuk coughed a few times to check that the voice was correct before speaking.
“This is the management. It has been confirmed that the cause of the disturbance is damage to the water tanks. All of the fourth floor will likely be submerged within 20 minutes. Please gather in the central plaza and evacuate in the manner provided by the guide.”
Tae-hyuk turned off the microphone. Now he no longer needed to argue with people to save them.
He checked the time and there were four minutes remaining. How many people could he save?
He would go to the places that he thought would have people. He could probably save seven or eight people. The only thing left was to see how many Yoo Ha-yang could secure.
“Anyway, let’s get another rise in agility today…!”
Tae-hyuk started running again beyond his limits.
@
In the end, Tae-hyuk headed to the central plaza with nine people. Those who listened to the broadcast followed Tae-hyuk obediently. Thus he could gather more people than he previously thought.
Yoo Ha-yang just needed to rescue one person for him to gain enough affinity points to have his plan succeed.
‘Isn’t it almost time?’
Tae-hyuk looked at the floor. Without realizing it, the water was up to his thighs.
Nevertheless, there were still people waiting for the next instructions. The water would gradually rise until they could no longer move. Most people were gathered in the same space so he could rescue nine people in four minutes.
No one sensed any danger as they followed him. Everyone else was quiet so they should do so as well. In addition, there was the broadcast. Even if it seemed a little dangerous, everything would be fine; it was that type of crowd psychology.
Kim Tae-sung used the bomb to exploit that.
A sound emerged from Tae-hyuk’s mouth as soon as he got to the central plaza.
“1-17?”
Yoo Ha-yang brought almost twice his number. Tae-hyuk cut through the people and said to Yoo Ha-yang.
“Noona. How did you collect so many people in four minutes?”
“Huh? It wasn’t four minutes. It was 10 minutes.”
“So… People followed you before the broadcast?”
Yoo Ha-yang was baffled.
“Ah, that broadcast was Tae-hyuk? But people just followed me because they wanted to go with me.”
“Eh?”
Tae-hyuk realized that the vast majority of people here were men. Yoo Ha-yang’s looks were pretty enough for her to become a celebrity right now. It was natural for men to not refuse to go with Ha-yang. He couldn’t help laughing. When he thought about it, he had been defeated by beauty.
Tae-hyuk imitated Kim Bum-soo’s voice using Voice Modulation. Then he shouted towards the people gathered.
“All of you were suddenly assembled here so I don’t think you understand the situation. However, this is a very urgent situation. Thank you for your understanding.”
Then a big man opened his mouth.
“Is this place really flooding?”
“That’s right. The proof is the water on the floor.”
“Hah.”
Sighs emerged here and there.
“Isn’t rescue coming?”
“The third underground floor is completely immersed in water. Perhaps the earliest time will be in one hour. However, we will be completely covered in water in 10 minutes.”
“T-Then we are going to die!”
“There is only one way to escape. It is through the vents in the ceiling.”
“But if we go to the wrong place and head to the third underground floor then we can’t go back.”
“That…”
Tae-hyuk paused for a moment, then continued in Kim Bum-soo’s distinctive charismatic voice.
“Fortunately, I know where the blueprints to this place is. I plan to check it for a safe route and then we will escape.”
“Oh!”
Exclamations popped out. Tae-hyuk took a deep breath.
‘Now give me the points! Don’t make me dizzy waiting!’
Obviously he should get affinity points for the people here. He fiddled with the Demon Revealing Mirror. Then he received the notification message he had been waiting for. Perhaps it was caught in a lag.
[26 affinity points have been acquired.]
[You can use the affinity points to enhance crime skills or activate hidden attributes.]
‘T-That’s great!’
Tae-hyuk inwardly cheered. Along with the one point from Oh Soo-ah, he had 27 points.
“Then wait a few minutes and I will bring back the blueprint.”
He couldn’t use Spying and Forgery with so many eyes on him. Just as Tae-hyuk was about to move, a man asked sharply.
“Ah, I am Yoo Tae-soo. By the way, if there is no time then why didn’t you get the blueprint in advance?”
Tae-hyuk smiled lightly as he replied,
“A few minutes is enough. I don’t think there will be any problems.”
“I am just wondering if we can all escape within the time limit. If you made a mistake by not getting the blueprint in advance, will you be responsible if someone else dies?”
Yoo Tae-soo felt like an enemy.
“If that situation comes up then I will be the last one to leave. So are there any problems?”
“……”
Yoo Tae-soo closed his mouth.
Tae-hyuk hurriedly moved to a place where he could avoid their eyes.
@
He first invested 10 affinity points into buying the new attribute for the Spying skill. Among the items, he selected the ‘Extend Range’ one and there was the sound effect of success.
[A new attribute has been given to the Spying skill.]
-The area that can be detected has increased.
Now he had 17 points remaining. Tae-hyuk boldly used 15 points to strengthen the Forgery skill.
‘Rapid Production.’
It was an attribute that increased his production speed.
“This isn’t the salary of a worker… By affinity points fell to two in an instant.”
Both of them boasted a tremendous performance so they cost a lot of points.
“Now, Spying!”
Tae-hyuk manipulated the Demon Revealing Mirror and activated Spying. At that time, it felt like pain like a hot iron was poking him in every nerve.
“Kuaah… Oof!”
Tae-hyuk hurriedly covered his mouth with both hands to block the scream that escaped. He wasn’t far from the place where everyone was gathered, so he couldn’t show them anything strange. His senses expanded by hundreds of times to cover all of Atlantis.
“W-What is this…?”
His brain was burning from the pain! It seemed as if his body couldn’t withstand the crime skill, but he had to hang in there.
Tae-hyuk gritted his teeth and shoved all the information in his head.
9%…
‘Crazy, it is only 9% done?’
Tae-hyuk watched the progress on the Demon Revealing Mirror. It was 10 seconds of hell. It might be because his stats had already exceeded the limit. His eyes turned bloodshot.
“Ah, I still have a step left!”
Now it was time to draw the blueprint using the Forgery skill. He used trembling fingers to manipulate the Demon Revealing Mirror and activate Forgery.
Then the world was accelerating. Time flowed in milliseconds. Then nanoseconds and so on…
As time flowed thousands of times faster, Tae-hyuk saw a hallucination where everything was broken into pieces. The two minutes felt like eternity.
“Cough…!”
Tae-hyuk puked up something black as soon as it finished. His intestines were clearly damaged, and therefore he knew that the skill he used now wasn’t possible with the body of a Commoner.
At the very least, Noble…
No, he had to be a King in order to use it effortlessly. However, he had used it with a Commoner’s body. And it was a success.
Tae-hyuk looked at the blueprint in front of him. Everything was perfectly contained in a 841mm by 594 mm piece of paper.
With this, they would be able to go anywhere. Everything needed for the escape from Atlantis was prepared.
Tae-hyuk wiped off the blood at his mouth with his sleeve and laughed. He repeated a line of dialogue from a famous artist.
“How is it? Simple, right?”
