SSG 265
by CristaeHe barely held back an explosion of curses. Overreacting here would only confirm things for the enemy—this one was definitely smart enough to notice.
Still, he couldn’t help but feel shaken.
‘How did it know?’
All he had done was shoot a few bullets, nothing more.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hades swung its huge arms left and right, making them enormous as it swept at Yuseong. He dodged frantically.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Still, whenever he saw an opening, he fired back.
Whooom!
A black beam shot out. Just like before, it erased everything along its path.
Thunk!
Dodging the beam, Yuseong’s bayonet was grazed.
‘Shit.’
A chunk of the bayonet had been gouged out. The weapon was damaged in a single blow. Relying on armor was clearly foolish.
‘Can just a part of the weapon get damaged? I thought if durability hit zero, the whole thing broke?’
[It seems the program’s been modified by the hacking.]
‘Nothing but bad news.’
As the fight dragged on, Hades changed tactics.
Pew-pew-pew-pew!
‘Shit.’
Instead of firing a single thick beam, it started spraying many fine rays. Yuseong dodged, but one caught his side.
Thwack!
“Gah!”
He groaned in pain. Luckily, the power seemed reduced by the beam’s spread, so his armor hadn’t been penetrated in a single shot.
‘As long as it didn’t go through, it’s fine.’
The durability was probably shot—he wouldn’t survive many more hits—but at least he’d blocked this one. He’d felt worse pain in battle before…
‘Wait!’
He pressed his side. There was throbbing pain.
‘Am I feeling pain in a game?’
Sure, Ark gave you a sensation—if you got hit, it tingled, but nothing you’d honestly call pain. Who’d play a game that actually hurt?
But his side was stinging, a deep real pain.
With startled eyes, Yuseong looked at Hades, and saw Willy and Mad Hammer flanking to attack with sword and hammer.
“Ah—!”
But it was too late to shout a warning. Their attempt at a sneak attack failed completely against Hades.
Whoom!
Hades swung its arm backward.
Thwack!
Mad Hammer was knocked flying. Hades then fired beams at Willy.
Thwack!
Mad Hammer’s earlier hit gave Willy a moment to brace, but the multi-beam was still impossible to dodge. Two shots floored Willy instantly.
‘Damn it!’
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yuseong fired in desperation, not knowing if it even hurt Hades, but unable to just watch.
Fortunately, Hades didn’t seem interested in the other two anymore, refocusing on Yuseong.
‘Are they alive?’
While dodging Hades, Yuseong kept an eye on where Willy and Mad Hammer had fallen.
‘If this thing’s attack really causes pain, they might panic.’
That would be fatal. No one could fight Hades in a panic—it would be a massacre, with no resistance or escape.
“What the hell, damn it!”
“Quick-witted, aren’t you?”
Grumbling, both picked themselves up. Luckily, neither seemed panicked.
“You okay?!”
Yuseong shouted.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”
“What, why are you fussing over nothing?”
They both looked puzzled by his concern—and neither seemed to have felt any pain.
‘So I’m the only one in pain?’
In that case, it was unique to him.
‘Hades and I are both connected from the same world. Is that it?’
It was the only explanation that came to mind—but it made sense.
‘Wait. Did Hades recognize I was human from its own experience of pain?’
If so, at least he could be certain his attacks worked on it.
Bang!
Yuseong dodged Hades’s strike and hurried over to Willy and Mad Hammer. There were no monsters nearby—they’d cleared them all.
‘If these two aren’t feeling pain…’
“Take the lead.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Why so surprised? Should I really go out front if I’m rear-guard?”
“…That’s true.”
Willy and Mad Hammer stepped forward, weapons raised. Their earlier ambush and current readiness showed they had shaken off their fear.
And knowing there was no risk of real death gave them courage—a huge factor in their resolve.
Still, most people would be cowed by the pressure of facing Hades, so it wasn’t fair to judge them harshly.
All three attacked Hades.
But it didn’t seem very effective—on the contrary, Hades pushed them back under a ferocious onslaught.
“What kind of boss is this?!”
Mad Hammer yelled, barely deflecting Hades’s arm. Willy frowned deeply, evidently irritated.
Yet they were both holding up surprisingly well.
Unlike Yuseong, whose game reality had been warped by the hacking, they were still protected by Ark’s basic system.
But that only let them hang on a while longer—it wouldn’t win the fight.
“Fall back!”
Yuseong shouted.
“Understood!”
“Damn! Damn! Damn it!”
They didn’t argue.
But retreating was no easy matter.
“Can we?”
Mad Hammer grunted—it seemed almost impossible to get out in one piece. Hades clearly had no intention of letting them escape.
“We have to try. We can’t just sit here and die.”
“Damn, even the great Willy’s talking defeat now.”
“What are you on about?”
Willy glanced at Yuseong. All pride shredded by their past experiences, he’d at least gained some flexibility.
“Like you’re any braver.”
“Hmph.”
Mad Hammer snorted, not willing to surrender his pride entirely—but no longer denying reality.
“Let’s draw back little by little. I’ll cover.”
“I’m counting on you.”
“Just don’t use being rear-guard as an excuse to run first.”
The three of them slowly started to retreat from Hades, fighting as they went.
Soon after, they failed to escape the mansion and were wiped out.
Yuseong opened his eyes inside the VR device. In the end, he hadn’t been able to withstand Hades’s assault and got a game over.
But that wasn’t even the immediate problem.
“Cough!”
He vomited blood. Wracked with pain, Yuseong clenched his teeth.
He pushed open the device and tumbled out—more accurately, collapsed outside of it.
“Ugh, ugh…”
Shaking, he forced his hand to buy a potion. He didn’t even have the strength to lift his head and had to spill the potion on the ground and lap it up like a dog.
After a moment, the pain faded. Lifting his head, he bought several more and drank them. Life returned to his body.
He got to his feet.
‘A mess.’
Blood he’d spilled had soaked the area around him. It trailed not just where he lay, but inside the VR device as well. There was even a small pool of blood on the base of the machine.
He looked down at his body.
Thanks to the potions, most of the injuries were healed, but healing couldn’t erase all traces of wounds. He ripped off his blood-soaked clothes to reveal holes punched clear through. Aching pain told him some bones were still not whole.
‘I was expecting this, but still…’
Seeing it for himself made him sigh.
He’d thought of it, after taking real pain from Hades’s attacks—even thinking wounds might appear on his real body.
The more he was struck during the fight, the more credible that idea became.
When his armor was destroyed and a black beam pierced his stomach, he instantly drank a potion. The wound healed, but the pain didn’t fade.
The more damaged he got, the more severe the phenomenon grew.
If he died in the game—could it mean death in reality, too?
It seemed possible.
His HP had been critical for a while. He wanted to run, but Hades never gave him a chance.
Willy and Mad Hammer had already been game-over’d, so he couldn’t even distract Hades.
Maybe he worried for nothing. Maybe he’d just wake up from VR like a normal game over.
But he couldn’t bet his life on that.
If there were no other options, he’d just accept it. But there was one.
Yuseong took an explosive potion crafted by Cooking Day from his inventory and threw it at his feet.
BOOM!
A huge explosion engulfed him. His armor was destroyed and HP almost gone, so that single blast gave him a game over.
At least he was able to avoid being killed by Hades.
‘I managed to survive, but I never expected things to go this way.’
He’d only gone to assess the hacking and look for a solution if possible—he’d never imagined a life-or-death fight inside the game.
Yuseong rubbed at the wounds—now almost vanished.
‘Good thing I kept my head protected.’
Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be here to think about it.
His body was healed. Yuseong stood up, sat on the sofa, and chewed on a piece of black bread as he thought.
‘What should I do? Just give up?’
If he kept investigating the hack, he’d probably face Hades again—and that meant risking his life.
‘But I still want to know.’
It wasn’t just for Messiah’s sake. The presence of Hades, and the world warping to resemble his own, convinced him the investigation mattered.
‘…Maybe I’ll use that method.’
A few days after Yuseong’s fight with Hades. He sat in a building in Mordin. As Mordin’s owner, he had several properties there; this was one of them.
Knock, knock!
Someone knocked at the door. When Yuseong opened it, two fully armored warriors stood outside.
“Come in.”
He let them in, and both quickly checked the area before removing their helmets.
Willy and Mad Hammer.
“You weren’t spotted?”
“Don’t worry. We double-checked to make sure we weren’t followed.”
“Damn, how did I end up like this…”
So many people were after them, disguise was a must anytime they walked around the city.
“Thanks for the trouble. Want to try one of Cooking Day’s potions?”
“You mean the ridiculously expensive potion made just to taste weird?”
“Honestly, I was a little curious.”
Willy and Mad Hammer looked intrigued.
Yuseong sat them at a table and handed over the potions.
“…Weird.”
“It’s not bad, but why bother?”
Just like everyone else, their review was the same.
Still, since it didn’t taste bad, they both drank every drop.
“All right, let’s have that information you promised.”
Yuseong spoke, and the real discussion began.