Alex looked around as the scream echoed through the dark theme park.
Not far from where they stood, a Wailing Shade emerged.
These spirits were born of deep regret and resentment from their past lives. Their cries and rage-filled howls directly attacked a person's spirit.
Alex glanced at his HP.
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HP: 99.5/100
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It was slowly decreasing—about 0.5 per second.
From what he'd figured out so far, his INT stat seemed to influence his spirit defense. Since his INT was 5, the ghost's attack had only minimal effect. If his stat was any higher—maybe 9 or 10—it probably wouldn't have even bypassed his defense.
"Tch. I don't like playing defensively… but I doubt physical attacks will work here." He turned. "Aiyana?"
"..."
"Huh? What are you just standing there for? Go mess that pale thing up!"
She didn't move.
Frowning, Alex stepped closer to see what was wrong—and that's when he noticed her arms trembling slightly.
He remembered how she was crying and running earlier.
His eyes widened. "Wait… don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts?"
"S-Shut u-u-up! D-D-Do y-you know w-who you're talking to!?"
'Right ~sigh~ I should have known this game who put me straight to hell level difficulty place can't give me a easy gaming life.'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Wailing Shade
Level: 7
Skill: Rage Cry
Threat Level: Green
Tip: Use magic or magical items to deal damage
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This time, he got more info—though the skill's effect was still locked due to his level.
"Magical item…?"
He turned toward Aiyana again. Surely, someone of her status should be carrying a magic sword, right?
Without hesitation, he stepped up to her. The close distance surprised her.
Reaching for her sword handle, he pulled it from its scabbard.
"Sorry, but I'll be borrowing this for a sec."
"W-WHAT!?"
Ignoring her shriek, he turned back toward the ghost.
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HP: 85/100
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That ghost's wail really was painful. But if he waited for it to use its skill, things could get worse.
As he held the sword, a new stat began to drop.
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Stamina: 21/30
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He hadn't noticed it earlier, but just walking seemed to consume stamina in this game. Meaning… if you go exploring without rest or caution, you'll be exhausted before the fight even begins.
A bit ashamed at his earlier carelessness, he shook off the thought and dashed toward the ghost—gripping the sword with both hands.
There were 10 meters between them. It took him five seconds to close the gap.
Swinging the sword horizontally, the ghost floated to the side, narrowly dodging it.
"Damn it. The weight of the sword's slowing me down."
The status window didn't show this kind of detail, but based on his real-life experience, covering 10 meters should take less than four seconds. Carrying a sword slowed him further.
He swung vertically, but the ghost dodged again.
It was faster than him—even when he wasn't carrying a weapon. But its low HP should be his advantage.
Still, the ghost kept dodging while his HP continued to decrease steadily.
But Alex wasn't just swinging randomly. He was observing.
Every swing created a 1-second delay before he could move again. If he tried to move during that window, he lost momentum and risked falling.
Also, the ghost only reacted when the sword entered within 1m of its body. Which made sense—the sword he held was a sword, about 52 cm (20.47 inches) long. He couldn't reach it properly unless he got in real close.
He also noticed that moving at full speed consumed 0.5 stamina per second.
After 20 sec of dodging and testing, his stamina had dropped sharply.
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Stamina: 6/30 (Fatigue)
Fatigue: All basic movements begin to decline
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Even with the debuff, he could still move—but now stamina was draining at 1 per second. Meaning... he only had 6 seconds left before total exhaustion.
'Alright… I'll do it. It's risky, but it's my only chance.'
Alex entered the 1m range and thrust his sword hard.
The Wailing Shade reacted—sliding to the right as expected.
Just then, Alex abruptly stopped his momentum, letting his balance collapse. His body tilted forward.
Using the fall, he twisted his waist sharply to the right, swinging the sword down vertically.
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Wailing Shade: 0/200
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The blade struck true.
With a joyful wail, multiple ghostly figures emerged from the Wailing Shade, rising and vanishing into the sky.
But Alex couldn't even see them.
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Stamina: 1/30 (Extreme Fatigue)
Extreme Fatigue: You begin to lose consciousness
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He had miscalculated—there was no "0 stamina" limit. Hitting 1 meant passing out was just seconds away.
"Shit… I didn't even get to see if it dropped any loot!"
And just as he thought it was Game Over—
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FIRST KILL
REWARD: Sword of Death (???)
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A glowing blue screen appeared, followed by another:
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LEVEL UP
Level 0 → Level 1
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A sudden surge of energy rushed through him. His vision cleared, and his body felt lighter.
He quickly opened his status window.
───────[ STATUS WINDOW ]───────
Name: Alex Grey
Level: 1
───────────────────────────────
To be continued…