chapter1 · 002-ep2

Episode 2: A World-First Reward Will Be Granted

The black sphere got creepier the closer I got to it.

Seen from far off, it had rated about a "weird object floating in the sky" from me — but now that I'd actually rounded the corner past the houses and was standing in front of the park, there was no pretending it was anything that harmless.

First off, it was way bigger than I'd pictured.

And what bothered me even more than that was how strangely quiet it was.

How should I put it — like a hole had gaped open right in the middle of the park.

A hole in a sphere — what's that even supposed to mean? Believe me, I wondered the same thing. But that's genuinely the only way it looks, so nothing to be done.

Like the space right there, and only there, had been gouged clean out of the world.

It's black, but not the painted-over kind of black — and staring at it, it oddly drags your gaze in.

"...Ugh, creepy."

Muttering before I could stop myself, I looked around.

It wasn't like there were no restrictions at all — yellow caution tape was strung around the park.

Keep away. Danger. No entry.

Lettering like that was visible too.

Though if you asked whether it was strict, the answer was no, not at all.

Rubberneckers were out in force, people holding up their phones and everything. A little way off, a few people were chattering away freely while they watched the Gate.

There was one uniformed cop, but all he was doing was repeating "please keep your distance" into a megaphone.

Even his voice had a feeling-around-in-the-dark quality to it.

Well, fair enough.

Their side had just had this thing show up out of nowhere too. No way they'd know how to handle it.

"...Am I seriously going in?"

Now that I was actually standing in front of it, my feet did stop.

No answer came.

Of course not.

If a partner fairy or a system guide turned up at a time like this and threw me a "You'll be fine!", that would make life easy — but sadly, this world apparently isn't that accommodating.

Out of options, I opened my phone.

Social media was still scrolling with return reports and exploration reports.

And of course, plenty of posts saying "don't go in" or "you'll die" too.

But there were guys who'd actually gone in and come back, too.

"...Alright."

One breath out, and I regripped the bat.

Marching in through the park's front entrance would stand out way too much, so I circled around the outer edge instead.

Around behind the hedges, there happened to be a spot where the fence broke off. The caution tape was strung half-heartedly there too, and compared to the front, far fewer eyes.

"Well, guess nobody's expecting anyone to actually go in."

Normal people don't go in.

Of course not.

Even I didn't think what I was about to do was sane.

But having come all this way, I couldn't work up the will to turn back either.

I stepped over the caution tape and reached my hand out toward the black sphere.

There was no sensation of touching anything.

No slickness. No zap.

I'd simply stretched my hand out — and in the very next instant, the whole scenery had changed.

"...Whoa."

The sound slipped out before I could stop it.

Stepping inside the Gate, my first thought was: this is more put-together than I expected.

I'd been picturing something more like a space painted in impossible colors, or some squelchy otherworld — but what lay in front of me was a plain stone corridor.

Gray stone walls and floor ran on into the distance, and the ceiling was higher than I'd imagined, too. There were even things like light sources embedded here and there in the walls, so it wasn't dark enough to make seeing my surroundings a problem.

I'd seen this in games more times than I could count.

That's what they call a dungeon, all right.

"This is actual reality, huh..."

Thinking it over again like that, it's creepy after all.

Looks-wise, it's a game through and through — and yet it is, obviously, not one.

The air carries a faintly damp smell, and every step I take, my footsteps echo off the stone walls. The weight of the bat in my hand hasn't changed one bit from a minute ago.

Trip in here and it hurts, plain and simple. Get hit by something and it hurts even more.

Screw up badly enough, and you die.

Actually being inside made those obvious little facts suddenly feel real.

"I really did come in here..."

I peered down the corridor — for the moment, no sign of anything.

I moved forward little by little, checking my surroundings as I went.

Every step rang out loud, and even though it was my own noise, it bugged me every single time.

Partway along, I tried touching the wall too.

Cold. Plain old cold.

The surface was rough, and when I pushed on it, it didn't budge — obviously.

Not a dream, and not a game.

Seemed I'd really and truly come to somewhere unknown.

So right there, I pulled up my Status window at the edge of my vision.

Level 1.

No Skills.

No Items.

And the achievement list was still there, safe and sound.

Looking at it in a place like this, all over again: every single one of these conditions is insane.

Normally, I figure what you'd think about first is stuff like beating monsters to raise your level, or finding weapons and items.

I understood the logic, sure.

I got it. I did.

But where my eyes kept going was the achievements.

That's when it happened.

From deep down the corridor came a sound like something hard being dragged.

"...!"

My head snapped up.

From beyond the stone wall, a small shadow slid into view.

Humanoid.

Humanoid, yes.

Yes, but there was no way this thing was human.

Alien-ish, if you had to call it something — but not quite the stock SF-design look either.

Its face was like someone had mashed human and alien together carelessly and then nudged the whole thing toward the grosser end.

The eyes were bizarrely bigger than a human's, and the nose sat a little wrong. The grayish skin looked slimy, and from a mouth that split sideways, something like murky breath was even leaking out.

And despite looking like that, it was gripping something like a knife in its hand, good and proper.

"Whoa... scary."

That just came right out of my mouth.

I mean, come on, this thing's scary.

It's not some enemy on the far side of a game screen.

It's staring right at me, and there's no reading that face as friendly. None.

"So, uh... what are you?"

Naturally, I had no idea what it was called.

And checking my Status, there didn't seem to be any handy feature that displayed an enemy's name on its own.

In that case, looks will have to do.

"...A grey alien fishman?"

No, something about that's off.

But nothing better was coming to me this late either.

Fine.

From today on, you're Greyfish.

The instant that unilateral naming ceremony wrapped up in my head, Greyfish made a weird sound in its throat.

And then it closed the distance in one burst.

"Fast!"

Way faster than I'd expected.

On reflex I brought the bat up and swung it sideways.

There was no form to speak of.

Pure instinct.

GANK — a metallic ring echoed down the corridor.

"Whoa!?"

Greyfish's knife caught the bat, and the impact ran all the way into both my hands.

My wrists went numb.

But it seemed my weapon was the heavier one.

The knife flew out of its hand and skittered away across the stone floor with a clatter.

"Yes!"

It dropped its weapon.

That alone made things a lot better.

...Or so I thought, but Greyfish didn't slow down one bit.

"You're still coming?!"

It pressed right in, swinging a hand shaped in some unpleasant not-quite-fist, not-quite-claw way.

I tried to dodge and didn't make it — it caught me square in the side.

"...!"

A dull shock ran through me.

It just hurts.

Obvious as that is, it really does hurt.

Just, not as much as I'd feared.

I'd been badly rattled the instant it landed, but my breath didn't cut out, and nothing felt like cracked ribs.

"...Wait."

Taking a step back, I looked down at my side.

Could this be an effect of becoming an Awakener?

If an ordinary high schooler's body had taken that, I had a feeling things would've gone a little worse.

It hurts, obviously, and I'd rather not take several more.

But one hit wasn't going to be the end of me.

Just knowing that made me feel a whole lot lighter than a moment ago.

Greyfish came at me again.

This time I was calm enough to actually watch how it moved.

When it steps in, the foot leads.

Then the shoulder opens, and right before it swings, even its eyes shift a fraction.

"...Oh."

I might be able to read this.

Not all of it.

But clearly more of it than at the start.

When the second strike came flying, I slipped back half a step, and Greyfish's arm swept past right in front of my eyes.

Into that opening, I swung the bat.

A dull, solid impact came back through my hands.

That landed.

That one went in pretty clean, I think.

"I can do this."

I'd been seriously terrified until a moment ago, and all it took was one clean hit for my mouth to loosen right up.

Humans are cheap that way.

Hell, I was even starting to have a little fun.

And right there, for just a moment, I opened the achievements field at the edge of my vision.

【Punch the same monster 100 times in a row using only your non-dominant hand】

The Greyfish in front of me wasn't holding a weapon anymore.

I was getting a read on its movements, little by little, too.

Done carefully, this... could actually work, couldn't it?

Looked like an insane hassle, though.

"...Let's do it."

I dropped the bat in my hands onto the floor.

A clang rang out.

"Well — bare hands for this one, obviously."

The condition: a hundred punches with the non-dominant hand only.

There's a chance holding the bat in my left and hitting with it would still count, but I didn't want to test that now and blow it.

In that case, plain fists were fine.

Greyfish tensed up slightly.

Fair enough, honestly.

The guy it was fighting had a weapon until a minute ago, and then suddenly chucked it.

You've got no idea what's going on either, huh.

Same here.

I put my left hand out in front.

Naturally, it felt nothing like squaring up with my right.

"Ugh, this is so awkward."

I don't get into fistfights as a general rule, and on top of that, it's my off hand.

Of course it's awkward.

Even so — I decided to do it, so I'm doing it.

Greyfish charged again, and as I dodged its attack, I touched my left fist to its body.

Light.

No weight behind it at all.

But it connected.

"One."

Greyfish swung back around and came at me again.

This time too, after slipping its attack, I sank a left into its open flank.

"Two."

...Am I sane?

Probably not.

But I'd made it to two — now I wanted to see it through.

For the first several, it was everything I could manage just to dodge the attacks and get a left fist onto whatever opening there was.

The head's a small target, and punching it wrong stood to hurt my own hand — that scared me too.

So I aimed for the broad stuff — shoulders, arms, sides, thighs.

These weren't blows meant to bring it down.

Just stacking them one at a time to meet the condition, nothing more.

"Seven."

Greyfish let out something like a frustrated shriek.

My own left arm was already going a little dead, too.

"Thirteen."

There was no dodging every single one of its attacks.

Taking a few along the way, I still answered with a left every time I found an opening.

"Twenty-six."

It was scary, it was exhausting, and every hit that got through genuinely hurt.

And yet, layered on top of all of it, little by little, was a strange kind of fun.

Close to that moment in a game when you stumble onto some obviously tedious hidden condition.

Normally, you'd pass.

Probably nobody wants to do it.

Which is exactly why, the second you think you might be able to get it, you want to.

"Forty-two."

Greyfish's breathing had gone pretty ragged too.

Not that I had any margin to spare myself.

My left arm was already stuffed to bursting, and a plain old urge to use my right hand was creeping in.

It'd be so much easier with the right.

Probably over fast, too.

...No.

After coming this far? Not happening.

If the count reset the instant I used my right, I'd regret it forever.

"Sixty-one!"

Oh man.

This might be past "a little fun."

This is a lot of fun.

No — "fun" feels somehow off, though.

But some part of my brain had already gone all the way there.

Greyfish's movements were visibly duller than at the start, too.

Its stepping foot was starting to tangle, and the gaps between attacks were stretching out.

I was in rough shape myself, mind you, but it couldn't keep moving forever either.

Makes sense.

Anyone who takes sixty-plus punches and stays composed is the weird one.

"Seventy-eight!"

I can do this.

This really does go all the way to one hundred.

"Haha...!"

Once that thought landed, the laughs came out on their own.

I'm scared, I'm in pain, and I never want to raise my left arm again.

And yet my head alone is weirdly clear.

Greyfish came lunging in like it had nothing left to lose.

But it didn't look the way it did at the start anymore.

Which foot it enters on. How the shoulder moves. Where the attack comes from.

Dozens of rounds against the same opponent — like it or not, I knew.

"Eighty-nine!"

This. This is it.

That moment when a condition nobody else would touch might really, actually be cleared by my own hands.

It feels incredible.

Like some weird juice is gushing out of the back of my brain.

Anyone would laugh at this.

"Ninety-seven!"

Three more.

My left arm's just about at its limit, but that stopped mattering once I got this far.

Greyfish hurled itself in, like it was wringing out the last of its strength.

I slipped half a step sideways.

Its fist cut empty air, and its whole posture spilled forward.

Into that, a left.

"Ninety-eight!"

Before Greyfish could turn around, I put another fist into its body.

"Ninety-nine!"

One more.

Don't miss now.

One last time, I swung my left fist.

"One hundred!"

It connected.

But shallow.

Greyfish rocked hard — and still didn't go down.

But.

The edge of my vision flashed.

【Achievement Unlocked】

【D: Punch the same monster 100 times in a row using only your non-dominant hand】

"YESSSS!!"

It came.

It seriously came.

My first achievement.

Unreal.

This feels way better than I ever imagined.

That sense of accomplishment from dragging some tedious thing all the way to the end really is its own thing, huh.

Pointless at a glance, and inefficient, too.

Sensible people don't do this, probably.

But that's exactly why it's good.

I'd found a condition nobody else would touch, and cleared it, for real, with my own hands.

This feeling, man. Nothing beats it.

【World-First Reward will be granted】

"...Huh?"

A new display had appeared.

A World-First Reward?

Not just the achievement — there's still more?

【Passive Skill Acquired: Off-Hand Strike】

"...What?"

What is this.

Rewards come with Skills attached?

I wanted to check the description.

No — I was absolutely going to check it.

But before that, I noticed something off about my own left hand.

"...What is this?"

Not some obvious change, like strength suddenly shooting up.

Something way stranger.

Until a moment ago that left hand had been nothing but awkward to use — now it sits oddly well in my body.

How to plant my feet when I strike from the left.

How to turn my hips so the power loads into the fist.

Nobody ever taught me any of that, and yet my body alone knows it.

"...Ohh."

Greyfish raised its arm in something like a last act of resistance.

The instant I saw it, my body moved, practically ahead of thinking.

Left foot planting, hip through shoulder linking naturally, and my left fist just ran forward from there.

Clearly different from the punching I'd been doing all this time.

The next instant, my fist sank into Greyfish's face.

A dull crack rang out, and its head snapped back hard.

Lifted clean off the ground by that momentum, Greyfish burst into something like specks of light before it could even hit the floor — and was gone.

"...This seriously IS a game."

In the abruptly silent corridor, my own ragged breathing sounded absurdly loud.

My left hand is still plain old throbbing.

But that clumsiness from a hundred punches was gone like it had never been.

A Skill.

Clear an achievement first in the world, and you get things like this too?

No, wait.

If that's how it works, then—

Right as I got that far, the window in my vision flashed again.

【You have leveled up】

"...Ohh."

From deep in the back of my head, a small, dry sound rang out.