Vroom...!

A bus bounced off the road as if it were running late. The rough ride had the passengers tightly gripping the handles.

Today's the last day of my bus ride to school.

For the past three years, ever since Yongno entered high school, he had been commuting to school by bus. Of course, that was nothing unusual. Although he spent about an hour and twenty minutes on the bus every day, it was still relatively normal since some students even wasted more than three hours commuting to school on a daily basis. 

However, despite that, there was something extraordinary about him.

Vroom...!

The boy in his late teens wore a school uniform with a neat hairstyle. One of his hands held onto his bag, while the other one grabbed the handle. 

He had been taking this bus to school for the past three years. However, one day, he felt bored. He had enough of the repetition. 

Swish.

He released the handle he was holding onto. The driver was speeding and steering the vehicle jerkily, yet it didn't matter to Yongno. In fact, he had been looking forward to it. He wanted to try to keep his balance on the shaking bus without holding anything. 

Actually, it was quite a silly

stunt. 

Anyone could attempt to balance themselves on the bus with their hands in the air. When the bus goes around the corner or suddenly speeds up or slows down, most of the standing passengers would stand firmly with both feet by instinct, finding the most stable way to withstand the risk of losing balance. 

But, such a stunt should only happen once or twice. It wasn’t funny if one continuously did it on public transport; although it might be a different story if one seldom rode a bus. Regardless, it was a silly action that ought to be stopped before reaching adolescence. 

However, Yongno has already been doing this meaningless act for three years. 

At first, he lowered the center of gravity to maintain his posture. Since he was in a public space, he wasn't able to lower his body too much, so he had ended up rolling on the bus floor humiliatingly. However, he managed to adjust his stance and successfully kept his balance within two days. Still, it was meaningless. Anyone can lower their posture and keep their balance. Besides, the pose attracted too many eyes. 

Next, he used his joints to disperse the kinetic movements in his body. He lightly shook his ankles, knees, and waist sequentially to keep his balance. It took almost half a year for him to perform this skillfully and smoothly. This technique helped him maintain his balance without catching the attention of others, but unfortunately, doing this only allowed him to endure slight shakes. The bumpier the ride, the larger the inertia. He would fall, eventually.

“This is it!”

Vroom––

The moment Yongno had been waiting for—a sharp curve on the bus route to and from school. He cautiously stood, and even his big toes and heels were firmly attached to the floor, just like a human bowling pin. However, he didn’t do this to maintain his balance. 

Swoosh.

The bodies of those seated swayed all of a sudden; the standing passengers tried to resist the rapid swerve by holding onto the poles or grab handles. However, at that moment, Yongno was standing stiff. He didn't move a single inch—as seen by the naked eye, but his physical body was working, his cells moving with precision. 

Shifting his center of gravity, Yongno slightly relaxed his muscles, but his body tilted to the side. That was when his right foot started to move. It was too late! If he had kept his feet wide apart from the beginning, he might still have retained his balance. Yet, he had stood at attention which affected his center of gravity to keep his balance in check. Now, even if he managed to grab onto the handle, he would still sway unglamorously in accordance with the bus' motions.

"Eh...?"

Staring at Yongno’s back view, a passenger on the back seat groaned as Yongno’s upright body leaned forward at a 45 degrees angle... Yongno wasn’t just swaying with the bus' motions, he was almost at an angle that he would stumble on the floor. Unless Yongno performed a break-fall, he would roll all the way to the driver's seat. However, the moment his right foot landed on the floor...

Thok.

His tottering body stopped; the boy stood still as if nothing had happened.

Eh? What was that? Am I seeing things?

Having let out a subconscious groan, the passenger suddenly noticed the glances shooting his way. He waved his hand as a gesture to dismiss the situation but felt as though he was seeing “

things

.”

 What he just witnessed looked that unreal. 

Oh, maybe I dozed off for a second. Probably feeling tired these days.

As an office worker living in our real world, the passenger tried to derive logical reasoning to the weird scenario that had just taken place. However, Yongno cluelessly clenched his fist.

"Success.” The boy quietly exclaimed as a smile of satisfaction appeared on his face. 

All he did was take a step forward––barely stretching out his right foot twenty centimeters forward––but he made that achievement and found enlightenment after three years of effort. 

He uttered, "Thank god, I succeeded before my graduation. I should name this move 'No Change in One Step.’ Awesome."

At last, the bus arrived at the destination. Yongno got off the vehicle with a big grin. 

FUUU...!

In the blowing wind, a man with gray hair stood atop a tall building while a gentleman in his mid-to-late forties looked down at the ground with a calm gaze.

He clicked his tongue, "No internal energy... Neither does he have magical powers..." 

The other man spoke, his voice couldn’t hide his surprise, "A person who has no idea about chakra or aether... an ordinary human, an ungifted kid... yet he was born with the Spirit Vein?"

"It's quite similar to the God's Step that only a limited number of Warriors in Black

[1]

were able to use. It also reminds me of Saulabi Warrior's Short and Quick Steps. But, of course, there's a huge difference in its logic..."

"What do you mean?"

"... It’s great that there’s a huge difference, but what shocks me is that his high standard was a testimony of that large gap."

The empty background was pushed away like a piece of wrinkled fabric and revealed a boy. Pulling a big baseball cap over his eyes, the boy in his early teens dropped his gaze at the ground nonchalantly from a precipitous height.

He commented, "Amazing. He literally grasped the flow of energy and ignored the law of physics. Well, in our case, we’ve understood the 'reason' of the world, so we're able to notice it, but the other talented people won't even get the fundamentals despite it being so obvious. Overall, he doesn't seem to have learned the gifts, but... unbelievable. How can he use only his 'sense' to accomplish that much-advanced level of power dynamics?"

After living a thousand years, he had come across so many people but never found or heard about someone like this ridiculous Yongno. Yongno was, of course, too fragile right now. He could easily kill Yongno if he wanted to. However, Yongno was...

"That boy is such an unpolished diamond. Even the word 'genius' is an understatement. When you told me there's dazzling kiddo, I was wondering who he was, how great his skills were, but his brilliance is beyond expectations."

He knew that Yongno would not have fallen to the floor even if the bus had crashed into another one. That one step Yongno took was perfectly assimilated with the flow of the world. 

"What do you think?"

"I'll follow your call."

At the same time, their surroundings changed. More precisely, it wasn’t their surroundings that had changed, it was them landing on the ground...

"Holy moly?!"

Yongno was on his way home when he came to a surprising halt. A middle-aged man and a boy, who looked like an elementary school kid, had suddenly appeared out of the blue at the originally empty spot before him. 

"Hello? Nice to meet you," the kid greeted first, out of respect.

Yongno replied, "Uh, hi, what's up?"

"Congratulations! You won a prize in the event~!"

"What?" 

ask

ed Yongno. He appeared dumbfounded by the sudden remark. 

What kind of crap is this? 

The old man responded, "It's sort of a game. We're looking for the beta testers."

"Is that why you called out to me on my way home? What’re the criteria?"

"You don't need to know."

The man's attitude was far from encouraging participation in a beta testing event. There was no amicability; it seemed as though he was giving an order. Besides, they were spouting such nonsense randomly on the streets. Yongno looked around in bewilderment, but he soon realized that there was no one around them.

"... What? Where did all the people go...?"

Yongno

 was disconcerted as he clearly remembered that there had been many people walking along the streets. However, regardless of Yongno's reaction, the middle-aged man continued with nonchalance.

"You'll receive a package in a few days. The game CD and the connecting device will be inside."

Yongno asked in surprise, "A package? You don't even know my address, do you? How are you gonna send it to me then?"

The man wasn’t bothered the slightest about Yongno's question. He continued, "The test will begin this 15th at 10 pm. Install and run the game."

"Hey, Mister..." 

Yongno

 wasn’t sure if he should flare up at them or just ignore them and leave. While he was in a state of confusion, the man tossed a question.

"It's what we call 'virtual reality.' Aren't you interested?"

"Virtual reality...?"

Yongno looked perplexed. They were almost like those religious evangelists on the street who would randomly grab people around and ask if they believed in the “

Way.”

"Excuse me, Mister, I think you've read too many sci-fi novels. The cars are still running on the road, and not in the skies. Our technology isn't developed to that level," added Yongno.

He let out a chuckle and turned around; in the end, he had made the decision to walk away. Although the two were out of their minds, they didn’t seem like the type that would resort to violence, but at that moment...

"Dell."

The boy with a baseball cap replied casually, "Yes. Come out, Alice."

A blonde girl showed up in the empty sky. As if a glass screen was in front, a human silhouette, tinted with hues, came to view. Yongno had seen this in a game before.

He stammered, "... Cloaking...?"

"We call it de-visualization or transparentization."

A drop-dead gorgeous girl entered Yongno's sight. She had waist-length blonde hair, blue eyes, and a slender body while standing at more than 170 centimeters tall. Her only flaw was her expressionless face. Other than that, her appearance was more stunning than that of any other celebrity. 

"Did you call for me?" asked the beauty.

Her voice sounded calm, but her appearance was unusual. She had a pair of black metal wings on her back. Her legs were also covered with steel boots, the same material as her wings. And above all...

"Is she... floating...?"

Yes, she was. Although it was just about thirty centimeters above the ground, the beauty was hovering in the air. 

"Alice, bring out any of your weapons."

Alice replied, "As per your command."

Alice, the beauty, raised her right hand. Her arms were exposed through the vest-like top, which looked cold for the weather. Her skin was as white as snow, then at that moment...

Zoom––!

Her right arm began to deform with a motor spinning sound. Like a transforming robot in a blockbuster film, her silky smooth arm started turning into metal. 

Krrrrr!

And in the blink of an eye, she finished arming her arm. 

"Haha... hahaha..." Staring at the huge firearm in front of him, Yongno couldn’t help but laugh absentmindedly.

The kid in the baseball cap 

ask

ed, "What do you think? Do you now trust that we have technical skills to create virtual reality?"

"Huh? Oh, yes... yes, sir." Yongno instinctively used honorifics with the little boy. He was 

that

 nervous. 

The scene in front of him wasn’t fake or a scam. Unless someone had secretly fed him drugs, the beautiful girl hovering before him was made with advanced technology transcending common sense.

"It's a closed beta test, but we aren't gonna reset it or do something like that, so have fun with it, growing the characters. As I mentioned earlier, the package will be delivered to your house, so use the CD and interface adaptor to play the game," said the old man. He sounded indeed like a boss rather than a member of staff from their PR team. 

The middle-aged man and the kid with the baseball cap turned around, then––

"Eh??"

Yongno stood bewitched, glancing at the crowd of people walking past him.

"What the heck is going on?"