The Evil God Beyond the Smartphone - Chapter 3: Karma system - (2)
Chapter 3: Karma system – (2)
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—Once I had the skill, it was clear what I had to do.
I looked for targets worthy of attack in the immediate vicinity .
Despite the fact that there were indeed several characters nearby, when I looked for them again, I found no trace of them.
Perhaps it was the rugged terrain of the mountain range, but it was not easy to find the characters among similar color..
What I did find was a rabbit that had been eating grass.
Unlike the people, the small graphic perched in its original place.
It was the first time I had attempted to attack a target rather than a character.
“That one… could probably attack too.”
Having found the rabbit, I prepared my Lightning magic.
Rumble!Rumble!Clap!
After activating the target by pressing the button, I positioned the target over the rabbit.
I then activated the magic by touching the target again.
Caw!
A short bolt of lightning fell over the rabbit’s head .
>> Lightning >> was used.
The number -15 floated above the rabbit’s head with the message that magic had been used.
The attacked rabbit immediately collapsed, with its skeleton floating in the balloon.
The tiles around the area where the lightning struck also burnt black.
The rabbit on the floor never got up again.
A single shot of <Lightning> magic defeated the rabbit.
“That’s 15 damage, huh?”
The damage I landed on the rabbit with one Lightning magic was 15.
If you take into account that it only does 1 damage once I touch it with my finger, it is 15 times more powerful than a basic attack.
Of course, it’s not possible to fire it randomly indefinitely, as it drains a lot of magic power.
Still, the only thing that seemed certain was that my fingers would not hurt.
Having tried out Lightning magic, I looked around with disappointment.
“….”
I confirmed that magic can defeat a rabbit with a single blow against it.
However, I did not believe that it could also one-shot against a character.
I was inclined to use it once to target a character.
I moved the screen around and started looking for opponents to target .
Mountains over mountains, a small creek beyond.
And then the dense mountain forest that reappeared afterwards.
I searched for a while but did not see any characters.
It seems that the character I spotted earlier was the last one.
I continued to flip through the screen, carefully looking for traces of the characters.
As I did so, I hastily felt something and put down my smartphone.
“…My stomach hurts. I have to do it while eating ramen noodles.”
Heartburn came suddenly during the game.
The alcohol I drank yesterday had made its presence known.
With a solid sensation transmitted from my stomach, I unfortunately decided to turn my ramen into a hangover.
Letting go of my smartphone, I moved on to make my ramen.
It wasn’t until I was back in front of my smartphone again that I brought a pot of ramen to a simmering boil.
* * * * * *
“Why can’t I see a single person even though I had a bowl of ramen?”
I muttered to myself as I looked at the cleaned empty pot .
As it should be, I still seemed to be unable to find any trace of anyone.
Not only was it difficult to find traces of people, but even animals.
I thought it might be because my <Eye of the Observer> was not yet at a high enough level.
If this was going to happen, it might have been better to leave some characters behind instead of wiping out the entire village.
Because at least the position of the village is only fixed.
As I continued to scan the screen with disappointment, the long mountain range was about to come to an end.
The mountain range here was unnecessarily long and wide, as if it mirrored the mountain range in real life.
After flicking through the screen with a flurry of fingers, I finally found what I wanted.
The edge of the mountain range I arrived at after a long time crossing the screen.
There I spotted a group of moving characters.
“One woman. And five men, I guess.”
Visible from the edge of the mountain range were six characters moving in a hurry.
One woman fleeing from the frontmost.
And five men busily following her.
The men following the fleeing woman were holding bloody swords in their hands.
This was seen as a result of the interaction that took place between the characters.
A crying face balloon floated above the head of the woman who was moving ahead of them.
“Are you being chased?”
By all appearances, they did not look like a companions.
More likely to be chased by a group of bandits and thieves nearby.
As each AI was faithful to its role, even the robbery seemed to be carried out faithfully.
I watched their movements with an interesting look on my face .
The woman who was moving at the front of the pack was running with an emoji that kept crying, but she soon found a dead-end road and sat down in her seat.
Even after she sat down, the balloon over her head did not seem to disappear.
When the woman running from the front stopped, the bandits who had been chasing her also stopped nearby and began to surround the area.
(skeletons)
A person, believed to be the bandit chief, had a skeleton balloon on his head.
It was a emoji that had been output when the rabbit died.
However, the bandit with the balloon did not appear to be dead.
They seemed to be having a conversation with each other.
And if I had to guess from the current composition, the content of the conversation seemed to mean that they were going to kill her.
“Wow, are those guys threatening her?”
I can’t believe that this is a figure that even threatens each other, even though they are AI.
The more I looked at it, the more I felt that the game represented the humanity very well.
It may be a little disappointing in terms of graphics and payment structure, but the AI one was the only thing that I couldn’t help but admire.
The bandit who had threatened the woman in front of me immediately started moving forward with a bloodied sword.
The bush tiles on the floor cracked, which brought them closer together.
The moment when the distance between each other was reduced and before I knew it, there was only one tile square left.
I placed the magic target I had prepared on the bandit.
>> Lightning >> was used.
Clapppppp!
A bolt of lightning struck and the moving bandit stopped .
15 damage.
The same numerical damage output as when I attacked the rabbit.
A rotating star-shaped balloon floated above the bandit’s head.
Stopped character. And the contents of the balloon.
They appeared to be stunned by the way they looked.
<Lightning> Even though I couldn’t kill the character with a single shot with magic, it seemed possible to the extent that it interfered with their actions.
I pressed the button again and used the magic.
>> Lightning >> was used.
>> Lightning >> was used.
Rumble!Rumble!Clap!Clap!Clap!
Two more lightning strikes struck the bandit, who stopped at his original location.
15 damage. And another 15 damage.
The bandit, struck by two blasts, collapsed with his skeleton balloon floating
It was a lightning strike that brought the rabbit down with a single blow.
It seemed that no matter how tough he was, he couldn’t hold on after being lightning three times.
The bandit hit by the lightning turned to powder and disappeared, and a new message floated to the bottom of the screen.
>>> Karma increased by 1.
The new message that surfaced was that the karma had gone up.
It is the same style as when the village was obliterated.
I gained experience by defeating the bandits.
At the time I defeated the rabbit, I did not gain karma, but when I defeated the bandit, I gained karma.
What this fact meant was simple.
You can only gain karma when you defeat a character.
So the screen in front of me, where the characters were gathered, was nothing more than a hunting ground where experience was accumulated.
“…you are all very dead.”
I moved my finger across the screen .
It was truly hunting time.
* * * * * *
The girl rushed forward, her grey hair fluttering.
Behind the girl, men of solid build were chasing after her with weapons.
The weapons they were carrying were full of blood.
It was blood that had been cut up and buried with villagers who had blocked the road to protect her.
She bit her lip at the sight of the bandits coming after her.
(How did it come to this? ….)
Euthenia was the daughter of a baroness who lived on the frontier of the Empire.
Even though they were nobles, they were not of a great enough family to boast of their nobility.
Her family was not wealthy, but they were proud of the fact that they were still a happy family.
The village where Euthenia lived was also peaceful and quiet.
Vast wheat fields lined one corner of the village.
The smell of fragrant grass tickling the villagers’ noses.
The village, where everyone leads a relaxed life, was a place that Euthenia loved.
Until the knights of the ”cloud.” arrived under orders from the system.
(Baron Hylost, you are under arrest on suspicion of treason against the Crown.)
Her father was taken away by knights from the Islands .
Baron Hylost was arrested for political reasons.
Euthenia continued to insist that her father was innocent, but no one would listen to her.
Not many people listened to young baron, who ruled a provincial, rural town.
Instead, she only received rude requests for proposals from aristocrats who targeted her when she was alone.
The more letters with unpleasant contents piled up, the more distrust and dislike of people only built up in Euthenia’s heart.
(I can’t let the village my father loved to be ruined…)
Nevertheless, she moved hurriedly to replace her father’s vacant seat for the village.
It was Euthenia who, from an early age, followed her father and diligently learning all the work..
She knew the village better than anyone else.
The villagers had also known her for a long time, and they trusted and followed Euthenia, who was an honest young lady.
One day another knight might be sent to this small village, but the idea was that as long as she was there, she had to protect the place where her father would return to.
At least that’s what she thought until this morning.
That is, until the bandits who came to her village and slaughtered the villagers and chased after her.
“Hah, hah…”
Euthenia’s breathing became ragged as she ran forward.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she continued to push forward through the mountains .
It’s hard. And painful.
It was a day she would have loved to see her who was father locked away somewhere.
Still, she couldn’t stop because she could picture the faces of those who had sacrificed for her.
But no matter how many sacrifices were made, was it impossible to escape forever?
It was a sheer cliff that faced Euthenia, who was running forward.
She could not escape any further on such a road.
Facing the cliff in front of her, Euthenia sank to the floor.
“Aaah, aaah…”
Tears flowed from Euthenia’s eyes as she fell into a sitting position.
She had failed.
She failed to save her father, she failed to protect the place where he would return.
And finally, she even failed to escape from the avengers of her village.
Euthenia cried out at her inability to do anything right.
She had no more strength to move now.
She missed her father.
She also missed the villagers, who were now cold corpses and could not see them any more.
“Father… Aunt Ena…”
Now she was all alone .
She began to hate people.
She even felt disgusted by the idea of anyone approaching nearby.
Nevertheless, the pursuers who chased after Euthenia did not disappear.
Tuk.!Tuk.!
A human presence was felt behind Euthenia, who was sitting and crying.
“Is this the end of your escape?”
“….”
“What am I going to do with the waste, poor little noblewoman?”
Euthenia looked at the man in front of her with tear-stained eyes .
She saw a man with cuts on his face.
The leader of the bandits who had cruelly murdered the villagers.
That was the man’s identity.