2026-02-01 00:30:41Leo opened his phone and, when he saw that the sender was indeed Sandara, he wanted to keep reading the message in fear.
Just then, a silent crack appeared in the space behind Leo, and from within that rift, a constantly shape-shifting, 2049-themed cube emerged into the air.
While Leo, completely unaware of what was happening, was staring at his phone, he saw the luck tubes inside his body manifest outside his control.
At first, he assumed this was either an unlucky or a lucky encounter, but suddenly the test tubes containing luck flipped upside down and the liquid inside them spilled out.
Because Leo couldn't make sense of what was happening, the first thing he wondered was how he was supposed to overcome misfortune at this level. Maybe his luck energy could balance out part of the bad luck. It was a theory Leo had thought of before, but never tried.
However, things only got more complicated.
The liquid spilled from the test tubes didn't shoot into his body like before, but instead changed direction midair, rushing past his neck at a terrifying speed and shooting behind him.
When Leo turned around in shock, he saw that the good and bad luck energies were being pulled into a cube floating in the air.
As the cube rapidly absorbed the luck energy, it began to transform even faster than before.
One second it became a cube, the next it turned into a sphere, and a second later it shifted into a triangular prism.
At the same time, the good luck energy being drawn into the cube was completely depleted, and only the bad luck energy began to be injected into it.
And so the cube's constant state of evolution took on an even more terrifying form.
The dark red bad luck energy being absorbed slowly immobilized the cube.
As if the cube had lost its throne, it began to be slowly tainted by the red color.
At least, that's what Leo thought. The cube itself had no such idea; the only thing it needed—whether good or bad—was that energy. Only by using that energy could it stabilize itself and eliminate its existential flaw.
After a while, the bad luck energy was completely absorbed as well, and the cube's form finally stabilized.
Once the absorption ended, the two test tubes—now without a target—moved back toward Leo's body.
Throughout all of this, Leo had still been trying to understand what he was seeing, and reflexively backed up all the way to the room's door, peeking through it to watch what was happening.
At the same time, he was grumbling about how he should've finished that damned w*****n before coming to this world.
As Leo reached out his hand so the luck-collecting test tubes flying toward him could enter his body faster, the cube suspended in midair suddenly shot forward at teleportation-like speed and slammed into the two tubes.
Right after, the tubes sank into the cube as if they had hit a slime.
At that moment, Leo realized this damned thing was trying to steal his cheat, and he wanted to rush forward, but the 2049 theme scared him so much that, like a clever supporting character, he decided to stay quiet and just watch the show.
After merging with the test tubes, the cube's front face now looked as if two test tubes had been implanted into it.
In the next moment, the cube, thinking it had gotten what it wanted, tore open a small space crack and prepared to leave.
But when it tried to move, it realized it couldn't.
The test tubes began to emit black and white energy. These energies swirled around each other in the air like yin and yang, and were connected directly to Leo's heart.
When Leo suddenly saw himself shifting from third-person to first-person, he tried to sever the bond between him and his cheat with his own hands.
After all, even if you called this a cheat, it wasn't turning Leo into an actual superhero, and he still had to deal with bad luck.
Leo imagined he would probably become the top scorer in the university exams and decided he could live well even without a cheat in the future. Life was what mattered, right?
Even if you had a cheat, what difference did it make if you didn't have a life to use it?
Unfortunately, not even the strange cube floating in the air could sever this bond. And despite exerting a universe-shaking force in a way that defied physics, the cube couldn't move even a single centimeter, as if Leo were firmly anchored to the entire universe.
Before the cube could analyze what was happening, the power of the test tubes suddenly increased even more, and the cube—still connected to the tubes—was slammed straight into Leo's chest.
With the impact, Leo was thrown against the wall behind him, hurting himself as he lost consciousness.
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Chapter 146
Leo was about to thank him and close the door.He stopped.The delivery guy had taken a few steps but his pace had slowed. He had drifted off again just like before, walking like a zombie with no particular destination in mind.He had nearly come to a complete stop in the middle of the corridor, head slightly drooping forward.Leo thought to himself.An ordinary world. That was how he had seen it in the webcomic he had read, at least. People here could zone out, could be tired, could have their minds somewhere else entirely. That didn't require any special explanation.He turned back inside with the food bag in hand.Nadia was standing in front of the window.Right in front of it, completely still, her hands hanging loose at her sides. Her head was turned toward the glass and her gaze was locked on a single point. Leo calculated the angle of the window to work out what that point was.The library.Something tightened inside Leo.He didn't lower the food bag, just kept holding it, and t
Chapter 145
Leo closed his eyes.The delivery guy was still in the corridor. The footsteps were steady, slightly heavy, the rhythm of someone carrying something. Just by listening, Leo could map out exactly where in the corridor the guy was. He had started from the far end, was now approaching the middle, and would be at the door in a few seconds.Leo noticed this and stopped.Just by listening.He could hear Nadia's heartbeat through the wall on the other side. He could track the delivery guy's exact position in the corridor. He could potentially distinguish sounds coming from other floors of the building.But strangely, there were no other sounds in the building at all. Apart from the hum of a few machines like refrigerators, that is.Leo furrowed his brow.Normally the campus was noisy at this hour. Students moved through corridors, the elevator ran, music seeped in from somewhere distant, someone's laughter could be heard. But now there was only Nadia's heartbeat, the delivery guy's footsteps
Chapter 144: ARC foundation IV
When the screen came into focus, everyone froze.Over the campus of Seoul National University, in the hyperspectral camera feed, there was an enormous light. Square-shaped, with clean edges, it occupied roughly one city block between the buildings. Everything around it was dark. It was dense enough to nearly fill the screen.Nobody spoke.Everyone thought the same thing.Anomaly 0004...The anomaly cells were producing a massive response to 34 kHz. There was no other explanation for a flare this intense. Leo was there, and the sound frequency had done this to him.Layla looked at the screen and an image formed in her mind without her permission.A figure in the middle of a crowd, face contorted against this invisible sound coming from every direction, mouth open, a scream coming from somewhere inside but nobody able to hear it.Layla blinked and pushed the image out.Rafael had furrowed his brow."One second."He moved to the keyboard, fingers moving quickly. The camera zoomed in, the
Chapter 143: ARC Foundation III
The countdown was still running.Everyone around Layla was watching the large screen. Eyes waiting to see what the radars would show, fingers trembling over hands. Some of the researchers were standing, some were seated, but every single gaze was locked in the same direction.Everyone was asking themselves the same question. How many more anomalies were out there in the world beyond what they had already found.Perhaps the world was very different from what any of them had imagined.Nobody was looking at Layla.Layla stood in front of the central glass enclosure, watching the iron fragment inside it. Distracted, but not empty. Quite the opposite, her eyes were very active, very curious, just pointed somewhere else.When the 34 kHz had been projected, that fragment had moved.It was a small thing, a matter of a few millimeters, more like a vibration than anything else. And it had made a sound, close to a creak, like metal against metal. Some of the researchers in the laboratory had hea
Chapter 142: ARC II
Ms. 02 finished reading.She lowered the tablet."I want to see it."The researcher turned and gave a signal.The team moved immediately. Devices were prepared, connections checked, the frequency generator activated. The small speakers positioned around the central glass enclosure came online. Everyone turned to their tablets and computer screens, which displayed radar imagery in green and black, flat and waiting.34 kHz.The sound frequency was projected into the enclosure. It couldn't be heard with the ear, but it could be felt, a pressure at the center of the chest, almost nothing and yet present. The device emitting the frequency was powerful enough to make itself known even through silence.Then the radars changed.First a small spark appeared in the left corner, nearly nothing. Then it expanded. Then the iron fragment inside the enclosure appeared on the radar screens as a bright, sharp, vibrating point of light. And it wasn't only the radar anymore. What made it even more signi
Chapter 141: ARC I
ARC - One hour before Leo entered the simulationARC laboratories were more alive than usual today.The laboratory ceiling was high, the lighting white and distributed evenly to every corner, the kind that left no shadows. Metal shelving ran along the walls, holding labeled boxes, sealed sample containers, and folded documents. The floor was polished white ceramic, giving off a faint echo with every step.Scientists moved through the space.But today was different. Normally, people in these corridors walked slowly, stopped to read their tablets, gazed at data on the walls while sipping their coffee. Today, nobody was stopping. White-coated figures carrying documents or tablets were moving through the laboratory faster than usual, as though they were chasing something but had been forced to walk because running wasn't appropriate.At the center of the room sat a glass enclosure.It wasn't large, perhaps two square meters, but more space had been left around it than around anything else
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