## Chapter 61 – 061. Code: Xtk
061. Code: XTK
I tensed up as I entered the 190th floor.
‘He’s not here.’
There were no special agents. Or rather, they weren’t visible. The special agent’s mission was to guard the main system room. A highly trained special agent wouldn’t abandon their post and leave their assigned location on a whim.
‘…Damn it. Being invisible is more troublesome than I thought.’
I thought about the Illusiter again.
The Illusiter only hides appearances. It can’t hide mass, sound, or body temperature. If there’s a thermal imaging camera, they’d be caught instantly. Also, if the Illusiter moves roughly, the space around them appears to ripple.
‘I did prepare thermal imaging glasses in my inventory, just in case.’
But I didn’t use them. I was confident.
Not long ago, when I asked Jin Se-young in the real world how to deal with an invisible enemy, she said that even if you can’t see them, you can deal with them if you can feel them.
‘And she deliberately sparred with me while wearing a blindfold.’
The result was my defeat. Even though she was clearly wearing a blindfold, Jin Se-young had a perfect grasp of my movements.
‘Should I take out the thermal imaging glasses now? …No. I can do this.’
I widened my eyes and focused my mind. I didn’t close my eyes for no reason.
‘If he shoots, it’ll make a sound, so he’ll approach slowly and swing a knife to take me out for sure.’
I pictured him in my head. Since there’s an emergency staircase behind me, he’ll approach silently from the front.
‘Mass doesn’t disappear. It’s unlikely he’s a full-body cyborg, so he’ll be breathing.’
I focused and focused.
And as a result, I felt something. It was on the right side of my vision, centered on me. It was getting closer to me.
A presence.
As it got closer to me, the form of the presence became clearer.
‘He’s holding a knife in his right hand, in a reverse grip.’
I could feel it getting closer.
I finally realized belatedly. This was the sense of perception that Jin Se-young was talking about.
‘I thought the sense of perception used mana like a bat’s echolocation… It was this kind of concept.’
It’s hard to explain in words. You can only feel it.
‘The range I can feel is… about 1 meter? That’s a bit disappointing.’
I moved before he did.
[Using Acceleration. Duration: 10 minutes.]
Yeongcheon Style Practical Technique: Dawn.
At the same time as using the Acceleration skill, I used the fastest practical technique I could.
My sword became a flash of light, cutting through his body.
He reacted, but my blade was faster than his movements. From his right shoulder to his side. I cut through his chest, all the way to his heart. Even if his body was a machine, it was impossible for it to have the strength to block a plasma blade.
His body collapsed with a thud. His lower body was visible, but his upper body wasn’t. The Illusiter was still active, even in death.
‘…He’s amazing. Even as he was dying, he didn’t even scream, let alone leave a last word.’
Only recognized special agents could use the Illusiter. The special agent in front of me was more than worthy of being called an elite.
‘If he had fought me head-on, it might have been different.’
I squatted down on the floor. I fumbled around the invisible special agent’s upper body and removed the Illusiter wrapped around his left arm. Then, the special agent’s corpse was revealed. He was dead with his eyes open and his mouth tightly shut.
‘Got it. The Illusiter!’
The Illusiter looked like an ordinary black string. Letters were floating on the surface of the Illusiter.
〉Concealing. Remaining concealment time: 47 minutes 52 seconds.
When I grabbed both ends of the Illusiter and pulled, it stretched out like a rubber band.
‘It can stretch up to 70cm at maximum, they say.’
When I let go of one hand, it slowly began to shrink. I wrapped the Illusiter around my left arm, just like the special agent had. My body instantly became transparent. When I picked up the sword I had briefly placed on the floor, the sword also became transparent.
‘I can’t even see my own body.’
This was something I already knew. And considering the effects of the Illusiter, it was something I could fully accept. The problem was that I had to calculate the activation time of the Illusiter well.
‘Okay. Let’s get two more Illusiters and go back to reality right away!’
I was about to head straight for the emergency staircase when I stopped and looked at the main system room. If I went inside and killed all the technicians, wouldn’t the chaos last a little longer?
I swung my sword at the door of the main system room.
Clang!
The sword bounced off. There was a scratch on the door, but I couldn’t cut through it. As expected of the city hall’s main system room. It was protected by a door made of a material that even a plasma blade couldn’t cut.
‘…I can’t do it.’
The walls were probably made of the same material. I shook off my lingering feelings and ran towards the emergency staircase.
Wobble, wobble. The space around me rippled visibly as I moved roughly.
‘This isn’t good.’
When I slowed down my movement speed a little, the wobbling decreased.
‘…I wonder what it would be like if I used the Giunbo.’
Then, surprisingly, most of the wobbling disappeared. Even though I was moving at almost running speed.
‘Illusiter. It’s too compatible with the Yeongcheon Style.’
Heh, heh.
I kept laughing. I suppressed my emotions and went down the stairs. I encountered the special forces on the way, but they didn’t see me. I passed them by. There was no need to waste my energy killing them.
151st floor. I put on the thermal imaging glasses before the party hall. It seemed better to go the easy way after all.
150th floor.
I didn’t go straight into the party hall, but secretly peeked inside through the crack in the door.
The party hall was a mess. Tables and food were scattered on the floor. People were gathered in one place, using their smartwatches to light up the area.
‘…There are three special agents. This won’t work.’
Three special agents who had revealed themselves were guarding Seoul Mayor Won Cheon-soo.
‘They probably have thermal imaging implants. The moment I try to approach secretly, they’ll open fire.’
I turned around. The party hall wasn’t as chaotic as I had thought. And since Son Jeong-hoo wasn’t here, it seemed that he had already achieved his goal.
‘I’ll give up on three Illusiters.’
The conditions weren’t right. It seemed impossible to deal with them alone.
‘There’s a jewelry store on the 36th floor. Should I stop by for a bit?’
I was tempted for a moment, but decided to just move on. My goal was the Illusiter. I needed to get one more for backup.
I was going down the stairs on the 60th floor. I saw Yoo Han-soo collapsed on the floor, unconscious.
‘It looks like he fought with Son Jeong-hoo, just like in the original webtoon.’
Yoo Han-soo and Son Jeong-hoo would clash several times after this. It was a story that had nothing to do with me.
My goal was the 1st floor.
Special agent Park Shin-han was there.
I found out while hacking the main system. The special forces were using fake identities. Park Shin-han’s real identity was a special agent.
When I arrived on the 1st floor, I frowned. The special forces were all dead.
Just in case, I looked around and saw two people standing calmly at the front entrance. Hyun-ji and Yoo Geun-tae. Park Shin-han’s corpse was at their feet.
I frowned, quietly deactivated the Illusiter, and put it in my inventory along with the thermal imaging glasses. Then, I approached them, pretending to be calm.
“What are you doing there? It looks like you’ve secured an escape route, why aren’t you running?”
When I spoke naturally, Yoo Geun-tae turned to me and grinned. Then, he held out the Illusiter in his hand as if to show it off.
“Taker! Look! This is an Illusiter! I thought this guy was just a normal special forces guy, but it turns out he was a special agent! We hit the jackpot today!”
“Mister. The Illusiter is mine!”
“No. Hyun-ji! We worked together to catch him, right? Let’s just sell this on the black market! It’ll sell for billions! You know there are limitations to the Illusiter!”
“…Hmm. I guess. Since everyone and their dog is wearing thermal imaging lenses these days. Getting money for it isn’t a bad idea.”
They were being noisy.
When I looked down, Park Shin-han’s corpse was in pieces.
“Is it really an Illusiter? Let me see it!”
I strode towards them.
“Okay, okay. Just take a look. It’s a precious item, so… huh?”
I swung my sword. I instantly beheaded Hyun-ji. Hyun-ji’s head fell to the floor and her body collapsed.
“Ta, Taker?! You crazy!”
Yoo Geun-tae, who quickly grasped the situation, moved away from me and held out both hands. But I first cut off his mechanical arms and then plunged into his chest, stabbing his heart.
“Cough! Be, betrayal!”
“My original goal was the Illusiter. Farewell, mister.”
I slashed downwards. Blood and guts spilled out. I put the second Illusiter in my inventory.
Things were going smoothly according to my plan.
“Alright! Goal achieved! Hahahaha!”
I felt great. I spread my arms wide and ran out of the entrance.
“Kyahahahaha!”
I laughed like a madman.
Now that I was invisible, I could do all sorts of things. I was a bit scared to use it in the real world, where there were many monster-like hunters… but it was a different story in other games, including ‘Vampire Detective.’
“First, the women’s bathhouse! I’ll see the secrets of the women’s bathhouse with my own eyes….”
Bang!
A bullet fired from behind pierced my heart.
My body fell downwards. The intense pain in my chest left me speechless.
I was dying. Along with that thought, anger surged up.
Who was it? Who shot me?
I desperately turned my head back.
The culprit was Ulla. She had sniped me with a rifle from the 30th-floor window. The graceful sniper moved away from the window with a cold expression.
‘Shit! This pisses me off! Full recovery!’
My pierced heart and chest recovered instantly. The pain I felt in my chest disappeared as if it were a lie.
Ulla’s mistake was that she didn’t aim for my head. If she had destroyed my brain, I wouldn’t have been able to use full recovery and would have died instantly.
‘That bitch. She must have aimed for my heart because she knew I wasn’t a cyborg. That way, I could die regretting my betrayal.’
Ulla was a cruel woman even in the original story. Even though she could do a headshot, she deliberately aimed for the heart if the opponent was a normal person. She would mumble something about a reprieve from death with fancy words, but to me, she was just a chuunibyou psycho.
‘I’ll kill you! You bitch! You tried to stab me in the back?!’
I was a selfish hypocrite. It was okay for me to stab someone in the back, but it was not okay to be stabbed in the back myself.
With my sword in hand, I ran back into the Seoul City Hall.
I was furious.
‘Wait! Come to think of it, that bastard Son Jeong-hoo must have told Ulla to watch me!’
It was clear when he told me to take Ulla with me for dinner.
And the reason I was shot by Ulla wasn’t because I had betrayed them.
Ulla was on the 30th floor. That meant she couldn’t have seen my betrayal on the 1st floor.
Ulla killed me because she wanted to kill me.
Grind.
I clenched my teeth so hard that my gums bled. I was going up, but then I changed direction and went down to the basement.
Basement 22nd floor.
I headed to the 23rd floor, which didn’t exist on the blueprints, through a secret underground passage hidden in the bathroom.
Originally, this place appeared in the final part of the original story.
The last boss of the original story wasn’t Son Jeong-hoo, but the mayor of Seoul, Won Cheon-soo. He had the ambition to completely control Korea.
A huge door blocked my path. It was made of the same material as the door in the main system room.
‘This door is designed to be opened manually in case of hacking.’
I knew how to open the door because I knew the original story.
I pressed the button on the lower right side of the steel door. A clanking sound rang out. Then, I pressed the hidden button about 3 meters away on the left.
After pressing the four hidden buttons in order, I pushed the door with all my might.
The door opened with a grinding sound.
I ran through the passage and arrived at my destination.
“It’s huge!”
In front of me was a white sphere over 10 meters tall. The sphere was emitting a red light.
‘The Ecluss Nuclear Fusion Reactor. The starting point of Project: Heart of Korea.’
Mayor Won Cheon-soo had the ambition to control Korea’s energy with the Ecluss Nuclear Fusion Reactor. In this world, energy was more important than anything else, and the Ecluss Nuclear Fusion Reactor was an absurd object that could supply energy to the entire country of Korea and still have plenty left over.
At this point in time, ‘Project: Heart of Korea’ was a secret that no one knew about except for Mayor Won Cheon-soo.
‘It was in the original story! It’s extremely vulnerable to shock because it’s not yet complete!’
What would happen if I gave it a shock?
The answer was also in the original story.
The Ecluss Nuclear Fusion Reactor would explode. Not just any explosion, but an enormous explosion that would turn half of Korea, including Seoul, into dust.
I walked up to the nuclear fusion reactor and raised my sword high.
“Let’s all die together! You fucking bastards!!!”
I couldn’t see anything in front of me right now.
If I wanted to kill Son Jeong-hoo and Ulla at the same time, this was the most effective way. No, this was the only way I could think of with my eyes glazed over.
“Game over!”
I shouted and swung my sword. With this, I would safely return to reality….
…Huh?
A light with an enormous amount of heat enveloped me.
[You have died.]
[The game is terminated.]
[You have seen the ending of Code: XTK.]
[You cannot select the world of Code: XTK.]
[The ending is saved and can be viewed again at any time.]
[You have acquired 12 points as an ending bonus.]
[You have met a special condition.]
[You have achieved the ending achievement, ‘Anger Management Issues’.]
[You have acquired an Emotion Controller.]
[You have acquired 66 points.]
[Starting experience calculation.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased.]
[Your level has increased…….]
…….
Wow first death 💀