Half a step.

I Twisted my body as I took a step forward—

Swish!

The arrow sliced through the air, missing me by a hair’s breadth.

As if it was never meant to hit me in the first place.

It was close, but I wasn’t afraid.

Because I knew it wouldn’t touch me.

‘This size is more of a hassle than anything.’

The motion left a lingering trace, soft curves rippling like waves.

I wanted to stop the vibration.

Squish.

My two small hands grasped my swaying chest.

After the laws of physics settled.

Srrk.

I activated Stealth, and my presence blurred.

All the traps turned useless and at the same time I recalled the structure of the brain I had just seen.

That dazzling circuitry.

‘Due to left-brain damage, most logical language processing functions deteriorated, but pattern recognition, spatial reasoning, and geometric computation in the right brain were abnormally enhanced.’

Arkeus had lost part of his left brain, but in return, he had gained knowledge of mathematics.

He lacked social functions, and his brain was in a constant state of overload.

Thus, Arkeus read the world in numbers.

The world flowed as equations, and everything was reduced to functions.

Movement was dissected into vectors, and meaning was converted into calculations.

Because he interpreted everything through patterns.

If one were to name it, they would call it an algorithm.

Prediction, optimization, an infinitely repeating feedback loop.

‘In other words, he is autistic. That’s probably why he couldn’t get a perfect score on the written entrance exam.’

His brain excelled in storing vast amounts of information and analyzing it with precision, but he had a fatal weakness when it came to subjects requiring linguistic or contextual interpretation.

Reading comprehension questions on classical essays.

Questions requiring an understanding of historical atmosphere, cultural and social contexts.

Inferring hidden meanings within a passage.

Metaphors, implications, word frequency, logical structure, conjunctions, he struggled with unstructured data.

What ordinary humans intuitively grasped, a savant lacked.

Extracting the ‘intended answer’ from the examiner was an enormous challenge for him.

Thus, he wasn’t perfect.

He must have missed problems that others solved easily.

‘Even so, he still ranked second. That must have taken immense effort.’

To reach that level, one had to possess such a brain.

And that very brain had led to his Light Absorption Magic: Abyss Cradle.

Could I use it?

‘No. Knowing doesn’t mean being able to do it. Plus I have no reason to deploy Abyss Cradle right now.’

I had seen the spell’s blueprint and I had acquired the information.

But understanding and execution were separate matters.

After all, I was just a high school graduate.

And from a special education school at that.

I never had a proper learning environment, I lived by tracing words with her fingers.

Even if my eyes could now see everything I lacked the skills to calculate and cast such a spell.

But. What if I could absorb that very talent?

‘Haah…’

Focus.

Discard the weaknesses.

Retain only the strengths.

I delved deeper into Ideation.

Recalling that overly open upper dantian, I observed the neural network.

Occipital lobe, temporal lobe, frontal lobe, delicate fiber bundles, entwined neurons and brain tissue.

Defying natural order, I rewired the neural pathways, forcing Neuroplasticity.

Regulating Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, maximizing synaptic connections between neurons.

By harnessing neuroplasticity, I pushed parallel computation to its limit.

Neuronal firing rate surged, betraying the natural speed imposed by biology.

‘Is this Reversal of the Heavens too?’

In that instant, my body underwent rapid change.

My Heavenly Demon’s Body responded.

Like an unshackled beast, It broke free, rampaging.

‘…It’s uncontrollable.’

Yet, strangely, I wasn’t afraid.

Just as I have Ideation, even magic has a will of its own.

Like a drought-stricken land finally quenched by torrential rain.

Like a fortress gate shattering after years of pressure.

The energy surged forward like the roar of a Thunder Tiger.

My Heavenly Demon’s Body laughed.

In that ecstasy, the suppressed Qi was liberated, surging through the Ren Meridian and Du Meridian.

My nervous system tangled like burning golden threads, and within that entanglement, something entirely new was being conceived.

Cough!

There was no pain, but I spat blood. Black blood.

Had some lingering impurity remained?

Sweat poured endlessly from my body.

Yet, gradually, a mysterious energy surfaced in my eyes.

‘Last time, during my rebirth, I reached a limit and was forced to stop.’

This time, there was no stopping, the Ren Meridian and Du Meridian extended all the way to the Baihui Acupoint.

The magic had completely settled, And with it a boundless flow of compressed time engulfed me.

As if all the time in the universe had been condensed into a single moment.

A massive mechanism churned within my mind.

‘No. Time isn’t slowing down.’

My brain was accelerating at an unimaginable speed.

Neural pathways were explosively reorganizing.

The center of my forehead burned, igniting Heavenly Fire.

My Ideation focused there, and the Baihui Acupoint expanded.

It felt as if my skull had turned transparent as I exhaled a heated breath.

‘Hah. It’s hot.’

My brain boiled, as if multiple minds were thinking simultaneously.

A level of overload that would crush an ordinary human.

But my Heavenly Demon’s Body could endure it all.

The frontal lobe overheated, causing an explosive increase in thought speed.

The temporal lobe expanded, synchronizing information acquisition and pattern interpretation.

The occipital lobe opened, surpassing standard information processing speeds.

I could feel it, Change was coming.

The Upper Dantian had opened.

Flash.

My eyes snapped open and Inside my mind, information unfolded and closed all at once.

Like an infinitely vast library appearing in an instant.

If I thought of a single word, all related concepts expanded outward like a web.

It was not conscious thought, it was an automatic response.

Yet, there was no confusion, everything arranged itself naturally.

I saw things I had never seen before.

‘So this is how the world looks.’

This was the way Arkeus had constructed his magic.

His logic.

His structure.

His essence.

I understood it all.

At that moment, the air vibrated, and a Circle materialized.

Through the Circle, the laws of the world shifted.

My Ideation unfolded within a magical formula.

Three-Circle magic.

I restructured Abyss Cradle into a One-Circle design.

I converted surrounding mana into particle form.

I created a filter to trap its properties.

There were many options.

‘Shall I infuse it with fire?’

Guided by the sense of controlling my own mana, fire-attribute mana condensed within the filter.

The shape?

A sniper could only create one thing.

Buzz!

‘This is a Magic Bullet. No more worries about ammunition.’

Time to test it.

I loaded the Magic Bullet into Asadia.

My greedy personalized weapon adjusted the caliber on its own.

Flattening myself against the ground, my soft curves touched down first.

Squish.

My chest acted like a cushion, a shock absorber between my body and the cold earth.

‘Who would’ve thought this would be useful?’

A surprising benefit.

My lowered center of gravity added stability.

My posture locked in naturally, ensuring the barrel remained steady.

MY breath felt slightly constricted, but it was manageable.

Now, all that remained… was pulling the trigger.

Bang!!

The Magic Bullet fired.

Thanks to a sufficiently stacked Exaltation effect, its power was amplified by 200%.

The recoil struck my shoulder hard and the impact ricocheted through my body.

Despite absorbing some of the force, I couldn’t completely negate it.

The reverberation surged through my upper body, enveloping her in the lingering force of the explosion.

Whoosh.

I slid backward across the ground.

‘What the hell?! That recoil is insane!’

It was too late, my palms scraped the dirt.

I tried to stop, but my weight was too light to counter the slide.

My body flipped. rolling helplessly.

Meanwhile, a heavy rumble echoed from the far end of the battlefield.

Boom!

Something massive collapsed.

A thick cloud of dust surged upward.

“Cough. Ugh. So much dust.”

The air was rough and dry, my throat felt parched, my lungs filled with debris.

The entire area was marked by destruction and chaos.

The battlefield was in ruins.

A wide-area attack.

–-------------------------------------------------------------

[You have cleared the Dungeon of Prosperity.]

[Triple Kill!]

[You have obtained Treasure Chests No. 7, 100, and 821.]

[You have obtained an Equipment Item.]
[You have obtained a Skill Enhancement Scroll.]
[You have obtained a Recovery Potion.]

[You have cleared the Dungeon of Despair.]

[You have obtained a Skill Enhancement Scroll.]

–-------------------------------------------------------------

The Friday Dungeon collapsed and the Saturday Dungeon was also wiped out.

Treasure chests burst open in a multi-kill spree.

The monster waves were no longer a threat to me.

‘Especially Saturday’s Dungeon. The waves used to be a hassle to handle one by one, but with Magic Bullets, clearing it became so much easier.’

My sniper had gained a wide-area attack.

In the past, I only ever targeted a single enemy through a scope.

But Magic Bullets were different.

A single shot became a spell, consuming the space itself and sweeping everything away.

Now, I could aim at space itself.

That alone was satisfying.

‘Still, opening treasure chests just to get an energy drink feels like a scam.’

From the opened chest came no extravagant treasure, no rare skills.

Just an energy drink.

I grumbled, shaking the bottle, the liquid inside sloshed softly.

I scoffed.

‘I guess I’ll save this for exam season.’

But Still, there were other rewards to check.

First, a mask.

Its surface was smooth, yet, it was unnervingly cold.

Something about it radiated an eerie presence.

It was still unappraised, but by activating Clairvoyance—

“Holy shit This is incredible.”

A unique item.

–-------------------------------------------------------------

[Infinity Mask]

[Grade: Unique]
[Type: Face Accessory]
[Durability: 1,000/1,000]

[Description: A relic infused with the desire and cost of ‘becoming another being.’ In the depths of complete transformation, people often forget their original selves. The World Boss, ‘Shell Beyond Essence,’ is rumored to be searching desperately for this item.]

[Effects: Grants ‘Perfect Disguise,’ ‘Shattered Mirror,’ and ‘Dimensional Echo’ while equipped.]

[Perfect Disguise: Allows the wearer to alter their appearance, voice, gender, age, physique, and skin tone for 24 hours.]

[Shattered Mirror: Each transformation leaves a minor crack on the mask’s surface. Once 1,000 cracks form, the Infinity Mask will be permanently destroyed.]

[Dimensional Echo: Wearing the Infinity Mask has a 0.1% chance to summon a ‘World Boss.’]

–-------------------------------------------------------------

I read through the description and realized the true worth of this item.

A simple disguise?

No.

It was far more than that.

For 24 hours, I could become whoever I wanted.

I ran my fingers across the mask.

For a brief moment, its mirror-like surface rippled, as if it was about to consume my face.

“A perfect transformation with a perfect limit.”

All power came with a price and this mask was no different.

1,000 times.

After that, it would vanish.

The durability was a flaw, but, depending on how I used it, the possibilities were limitless.

And then, ‘Dimensional Echo’.

A World Boss could appear at random.

It was a massive risk.

‘At a 0.1% probability, it’s bound to show up eventually.’

A World Boss, huh?

Achilles had a clear weakness.

By sheer luck, he was ultimately beatable.

However, a true World Boss was not like that.

Before I was even born a catastrophe was recorded in history.

[Source of All Evil].

When it appeared in New York, The United States, once the world’s greatest Hunter superpower, was left in ruins.

The footage still existed. Flames cutting through the city, skyscrapers crumbling.

Hunters exploding mid-air in a desperate struggle.

But It never stopped.

That single entity ended America’s reign.

If… If that World Boss had never emerged in the heart of the U.S., The world today would be different.

South Korea would never have risen to its current dominance.

Its status would be nowhere near what it was now.

But then again, who am I?

The genius of sight.

My eyes even pierced through probability.

If a World Boss was about to appear, I just wouldn’t use the mask.

No risk, only reward, the usefulness was as good as mine.

I grinned.

“Perfect. I love it.”

Being trapped in a 12-year-old’s body came with its share of inconveniences.

Now, all of that would be resolved.

I tucked the mask into my chest and turned to my next reward.

The Skill Enhancement Scrolls.

Adding in the one from last week’s Saturday Dungeon, I had three in total.

I analyzed the probability, I had three scrolls at 50% success rate each.

Only one was fated to succeed.

Ridiculous.

Three attempts at 50%, yet only one would work?

“Wow, my luck is absolute trash.”

I pouted as I unfolded the scrolls.

Lower success rates yielded stronger effects.

The rarer the success, the greater the power bestowed.

Each skill and item had a set number of upgrade attempts.

What should I enhance? I made my decision without hesitation.

S-rank skill, [Negation of Existence].

That would be saved for an even stronger scroll.

‘I’ll enhance [Composure].’

I opened the skill window and placed the scroll over it.

Slowly, I raised my hand and inhaled deeply.

“Enhance.”

Fwoosh—

Light rippled, and two choices appeared before me.