Chapter 2
Hyeon-jun’s mouth fell open.
“C-Copy?”
It could copy objects?
Did an ability like that even exist?
“No. More importantly, does this even make sense? My Trait changed?”
His amazement lasted only for a moment.
Then an even greater sense of confusion crashed over him like a wave.
Hyeon-jun had been interested in Other Spaces and Awakeners since he was young.
Because of that, he possessed more knowledge about the industry than many people who actually worked in it.
And he immediately understood that what had just happened to him was anything but normal.
“A Trait can’t change. There hasn’t been a single case like this before.”
Thirty years of Awakening history.
Not once had a case like his been recorded.
He was the first.
Yet rather than fear, curiosity kept growing inside him.
“How is this possible? Why did it happen exactly when I turned twenty-five? What were those System messages in the first place? Soul? Engraving? Pact? And why is my new Trait called Primordial Eye? Trait names are usually much more straightforward.”
Question after question appeared.
He couldn’t even begin to guess at the answers.
After muttering to himself for quite some time, Hyeon-jun let out a deep sigh.
“This is frustrating. I can’t figure out a single thing.”
Since he had no clue where to even begin looking for answers, his curiosity gradually settled down.
His attention returned to the Copy skill he had just obtained.
“Copy...”
Judging only from the description, he still couldn’t tell how incredible it was.
However, it certainly seemed more useful than something like:
[Your physical abilities increase while fighting birds.]
“I should test it.”
Hyeon-jun looked around.
Just then, his stomach growled.
Grrr.
His gaze naturally moved toward the cake sitting on the desk.
“Should I use it on this?”
One slice of cake wasn’t enough to fill him anyway.
“Will it really copy it?”
Half doubtful, Hyeon-jun activated the skill.
[Select the target to copy.]
A blue glow appeared in both of his eyes.
At the same time, a blue outline began shimmering around the cake.
“Copy.”
The moment he spoke softly, a message appeared saying that the chocolate cake had been copied.
A second cake appeared beside it.
“...My God.”
Hyeon-jun stared at it in shock.
It looked exactly like the first one.
As if someone had copied and pasted it on a computer.
Sniff, sniff.
Still suspicious, Hyeon-jun picked up the copied cake and smelled it.
“Even the smell is identical.”
Could the taste really be the same too?
Hyeon-jun carefully took a bite.
Rich chocolate spread across his tongue.
His eyes widened.
“...”
Without saying anything, he also took a bite from the original cake.
Appearance.
Texture.
Taste.
Smell.
Feel.
Every single detail was identical.
He couldn’t tell which was the original and which was the copy.
“This is seriously ridiculous.”
There were countless different abilities in the world.
But Hyeon-jun had never heard of anything like this.
Just like his changing Trait, the skill itself was unprecedented.
“Is this enough to turn my life around?”
Hmm.
Maybe, if the skill had no restrictions.
But the twenty-four-hour limit was a serious problem.
He would need to test the skill in more ways before reaching a conclusion.
Grrr.
“...First, I should fill my stomach.”
Hyeon-jun devoured both slices of chocolate cake right there.
“Buuurp.”
He belched in satisfaction.
His hunger had eased somewhat.
“Hmm. Still not quite enough.”
Maybe he should have copied another one.
Enjoying the lingering chocolate taste on his tongue, Hyeon-jun began thinking about how to use his new ability.
“How should I use this skill?”
Hyeon-jun’s highest priority was money.
So naturally, his thoughts immediately turned toward ways to earn it.
“The first thing that comes to mind is a short-term rental business.”
He could copy expensive items, such as luxury goods, and rent them out for money.
The copies only lasted twenty-four hours, but that problem could be solved by dividing the rental periods into shorter time slots.
“The biggest problem is that I’d have to keep finding the originals...”
Did the original necessarily have to be physically present?
Hyeon-jun opened the internet and searched for a luxury watch.
[Select the target to copy.]
He activated the skill.
However, no blue outline appeared around the picture of the watch on the screen.
“So that doesn’t work.”
The original had to be physically present.
The rental business idea was put aside for now.
The next thing that came to mind was tickets.
“If I get one concert or event ticket, copy it, and sell the copies... that’s just fraud.”
Rejected.
What could he rent or sell without causing trouble?
One idea led to another.
Many possibilities came to mind, but none felt right.
“It would be nice if I could use it to become stronger as a Hunter.”
Money naturally followed powerful Hunters.
But becoming stronger through the Copy skill seemed difficult.
“Even if I copied a Rune, it would disappear after twenty-four hours.”
Runes were the source of an Awakener’s strength.
There was no reason Copy wouldn’t work on them, but once again the time limit became a wall.
“I could become stronger by ten Runes for twenty-four hours...”
But even that wouldn’t dramatically change his income.
Absorbing ten Runes would still leave him at F-rank.
“I guess I could become the ace of construction sites.”
The time limit.
That single restriction was far too great.
“It would be amazing if it weren’t for that...”
Then Hyeon-jun suddenly remembered the cake he had eaten.
“Come to think of it, what happens to the copied cake?”
The cake should also disappear after twenty-four hours.
But he had already eaten it.
“Does only the cake disappear from inside my body?”
That sounded strange.
There was an easy way to test it.
According to the description, copied items could be manually removed before twenty-four hours passed.
“I just need to think of it as deleting the copy.”
Hyeon-jun thought about removing the cake he had copied.
[The copied object no longer exists. Removal is impossible.]
“...It doesn’t work?”
The message said it couldn’t be removed because the copied object no longer “existed.”
Which meant...
If the copied item lost its physical form, it could no longer disappear.
“Wait.”
Hyeon-jun’s eyes widened.
“Wouldn’t that work with Runes too?”
Runes were absorbed into the body and engraved into the Soul Circuit.
In other words, just like the cake, their physical form disappeared.
“...”
Silence filled the basement room.
Cold air drifted through it.
Slowly, excitement began spreading across Hyeon-jun’s face.
“Copy a Rune, absorb it... then copy it again and absorb it again...”
By absorbing enough Runes, he could grow his Soul Circuit.
And when his Soul Circuit grew, his Trait Skill would grow as well.
“Then the grade restriction should increase too.”
F-rank could become E-rank.
E-rank could become D-rank.
Normally, the enormous number of Runes required would make that incredibly difficult.
But if Copy worked on Runes...
