The Evil God Beyond the Smartphone - Chapter 6

— Enforcement agency, ‘Cloud.’

Belonging to the great Imperial Emperor and with jurisdiction over the entire Empire, Cloud agents uniformly boasted superior military prowess.

All kinds of violent criminals lurk in the deep darkness of the Empire.

It was only natural that the Cloud agents who had to deal with them should have a high level of military prowess.

This was no exception with ‘Rick Weil’, a third-level Cloud agent patrolling a small town on the imperial frontier.

Rick Weil, The eyes of the investigator with a sharp impression scanned the empty town.

A brazier still warm.

Food rolling on the floor.

Even the wet cloths hanging in the windows.

The whole village still had a sense of life.

It certainly meant that people had been living there until recently.

However, contrary to such an appearance, there was not a single person visible in the village.

Rick, who was looking at the village where people had disappeared, spoke to a guide who was nearby.

“You mean, this happened overnight.”

“Yes, that’s right! The entire villagers disappeared in just one day.”

“Is it possible that they moved somewhere as a group?”

“No, it can’t be. My friend Jack… is a crippled guy.”

The guide brought by Rick was someone who had a friend in the village.

He has a friend with a person with a disability and has difficulty moving around.

If he’s saying this much, surely he couldn’t have moved anywhere else.

Rick said as he walked towards the village .

“I can certainly sense a sense of life… Yet, not a single person in sight….”

Feeling uncomfortable, Rick started to open doors one by one as he went around the village.

Kiik.

The old gate made of wood appeared to open easily and without resistance.

However, he could not find a human figure anywhere in the buildings he opened and entered as such.

Traces of people were present, but regarding the subject, there was no trace of them.

Unless the people of the village had moved en masse. It was as if the entire population of the village had disappeared into thin air.

“Do you have any guesses as to what happened?”

“Oh, I heard a rumour that bandits appeared in this vicinity the other day! Could it be that those guys did it?”

“Bandits…”

Rick’s gaze once again peered into the deserted village.

If a battle had taken place, surely they should have been traces of a battle.

However, nowhere in the village could he find any trace of human blood.

If there was one peculiarity, it was that black soot had formed here and there in the village.

It was a somewhat unusual mark to have resulted from a fire.

“If bandits appeared, they would have left traces of resistance.”

“Then…”

“Looks like there’s a wizard nearby.”

The ability to wipe out an entire village without leaving a trace.

And black soot appearing all over the town.

All of this combined, Rick Weil could only come to one conclusion: there is a wizard nearby.

A wizard so powerful that he leaves no trace.

“A wizard…!”

The guide was astonished when he heard Rick’s story.

The existence of wizards was not so unusual for the Empire.

Some of the Cloud’s agents were also wizards who used magic.

However, fear of evil wizards has long been deeply rooted in people’s minds.

There are people who misuse magic on the list of wanted criminals that Cloud is chasing, so it was a factor that was enough to be feared in the position of a guide.

“Don’t be too loud. They might still be hiding nearby.”

“Oh, okay.”

“And by the way, how do you know there’s a bandits nearby and are you sure of it?”

“I’m not sure either, but there are rumours that sometimes there are bandits seen around.”

Rick looked troubled when he heard the story against the bandits.

“Isn’t it too dangerous to send you alone?”

“There is a secret pathway near here that only I know about. If you go through there, you won’t meet the bandits.”

“I see. Then go back now. I’ll look into this further on my own.”

The guide bowed and retreated at Rick’s order.

An unidentified wizard and a bunch of bandits.

It is hard to say which is more dangerous.

And the guide who had led Rick to the village gave more weight to the former.

After a short greeting, the guide left the village, leaving Rick behind.

In the desolate village where only one person remained, Rick looked up at the sky in a daze .

“It’s been a while since I’ve taken on a complicated job”

* * *

– Karma increased by 1.

– Karma increased by 1.

– You have reached level 3.

I gave Euthenia a dagger and a cloak, and before I knew it, two days had passed.

So far I tracked down five more villages and destroyed three of them.

One of the destroyed villages was full of bandits who had chased after Euthenia.

Of course they met their end by <Lightning> magic, just like the bandits I had met before.

The karma gained from destroying three of the villages in this way was a number close to 30.

Karma 30.

That’s enough for a new level up.

Naturally, I reached level 3 through the karma I gained this time.

“Level 3… My magic power has gone up lot.”

The first and biggest change that occurred at level 3 was an increase in magic power.

As the level increased, the amount of magic doubled compared to the previous level.

If with the existing amount of magic power he could use <Lightning> ten times, he could now use <Lightning> twenty times continuously.

It was indeed an extraordinary increase in ability value.

Assuming that the magic would increase by a factor of two each time the level was raised, by the time level 10 was achieved, I probably could use <Lightning> more than 1,000 times in a row.

– <Eye of the Observer (Lv. 2)> grows.

– <Eye of the Observer (Lv.3)>. You will be able to observe the continent with a clearer gaze than before.

These are the changes that have occurred in the <Eye of the Observer> skill.

As my <Eye of the Observer> skill level increased, I could see the graphics more clearly than before.

If previously the characters I could see were dot graphics, they are now at a lovely 3D graphic level.

The game’s graphics evolve the higher the level goes.

It was a strange system by any measure.

And the Euthania, I was looking at in the new and changed graphics was even prettier than I thought.

“And when you do this, it feels like I’ really developing a character.”

A small gray-haired character is chewing on a piece of black bread in her hand.

It feels like watching a squirrel eating an acorn.

She was still eating food, but with various speech bubbles floating on her head .

Seeing that their contents had not changed, it appeared that the 3-level Eye of the Observer had no effect on the speech bubbles.

After watching Euthenia for a while, I turned my gaze away again to see the next change.

– Warning: karma that is excessively biased in one direction is likely to cause a <Causal Correction>.

The next message was a warning sent by the <Karma Balance> skill.

It stated that if karma is biased in one direction, a <Causality Correction> is likely to occur.

However, I don’t know what can be done to prevent karma from being biased in one direction or the other.

That said, I would be forced to level up in a game where I had paid 50,000 won in settlement.

I decided to ignore the message for good.

“I don’t know what this is, so I’ll pass. And the next one is ummm…. This is here again.”

Scrolling down to the next one, I looked at the message with an disappointed smile.

The next skill that evolved had a very familiar name.

Not surprisingly, the shop skill had taken its place.

– <Paid Goods Shop (Lv. MAX)> Skill expanded.

– You have acquired <Paid Goods Shop (Lv. MAX+1)>.

– You can now purchase the contents of the shop using paid goods.

The <Paid Goods Shop> skill has evolved.

And even more unusual was the fact that the level description of the <Paid Goods Shop> skill was dubious.

How could it be that the skill level was Max+1?

If it’s max level, that’s it, how can there be a max+1 level?

But the fact that the shop evolved just because the level increased was not the point of the story.

I sighed, grabbing my forehead at the increasingly rough game.

“If the shop had evolved, what about, maybe they’d be selling a better craps or something.”

Despite the snide remarks in my mouth, I still couldn’t help but be curious about the contents of the shop.

I was not trying to buy goods again.

I just thought I would go and have a little look at the contents to see what kind of goods they had.

Gulp.

I clicked on the shop button in the right-hand corner of the screen and went in.

As soon as I entered the shop, a welcome message greeted me.

– Welcome to the <Paid Goods Store>.

– The <Paid Goods Store> sells a variety of items to ensure smooth play.

I quickly shifted my gaze to the sales list, ignoring the message that appeared.

The items in the shop were much the same as before.

Ten draws that were much better.

That was all that was left of the items in the shop.

If there was a difference from the product that was there before, it was that it had the qualifier ‘better’ in front of it.

And the price of the 10 draw tickets was 69,900 won. 20,000 won more than before.

“Wow… It’s a scam totally.”

Extremely, the 50,000 won note that used to be there has long since disappeared without a trace.

To play the gacha, you have to unconditionally pay 70,000 won.

I can’t believe that this is a shop where the higher the level, the higher the purchasing cost.

The more I looked at it, the more astonished and sighing I naturally felt at the mysterious game.

And I was the user playing that game.

Marveling at myself, enjoying such a game, I brought my finger to the back button.

“Who’s going to buy this? I’m never going to buy it.”

I would never come back to this shop again.

Just as I was about to press the button to go back with that thought.

I looked at my finger, feeling uncomfortable.

My finger, which was aimed at the button to go to the back, was moving in a strange direction.

“What, what, what… Wait a minute, what’s wrong with this!”

A strong force was generated somewhere on the screen and was pulling my finger.

My fingers were moving regardless of my will.

I made every effort to shake off the force on my fingers, but the mysterious force was stronger than I had expected.

In no time at all, my moving finger was suctioned in at ten pull out button.

Click-!.

As such, my finger pressed the pull button ten times.

“Haaaa…”

The smartphone screen flashed and the gacha page began to appear.

I looked at the items output one by one with an emptiness on my face.

Ring.

It was a bonus that the card company’s mobile email surfaced at the top of the screen.