"Command points?" Han muttered as he stared at the interface floating in front of him.
『WORLD COMMAND SYSTEM』
『TIER ONE』
『COMMAND POINTS: 24』
After hours of staring at the ceiling, numb and empty, Han had finally moved. The fog had lifted just enough for him to process the one thing that couldn't possibly be real... and yet was.
A system.
A literal glowing interface.
A cheat ability.
Something straight out of a video game.
From the name alone—World Command System—it sounded like one of those broken powers overpowered protagonists got in wish-fulfillment web novels. Something that could reshape the world. Kill armies. Defy death. Win girls.
But if that were true… why did he feel so normal?
He squinted at the interface again. It had reappeared the moment he wished to see it. Just like before.
『COMMAND POINTS:
Is the value of which commands are used. CP regenerates at 1 CP per two hours. Further charges on CP depend on factors such as environment, mood, setting, strength of targets, and tier level of the system.』
Okay, so CP—Command Points—was the energy or currency that powered his abilities. Twenty-four points right now. It regenerated slowly, but apparently had other factors involved. Maybe adrenaline? Danger? Maybe killing ogres had charged it like a battery?
Han sat back against his pillow, ignoring the tight pain in his chest. "So I have 24 points, huh? Let's try something simple."
He pointed a trembling finger at the hospital room TV.
"Fly," he commanded.
Nothing happened.
He blinked. Tried again. "Uh. Make the TV disappear?"
Still nothing.
"...Glass shatter?"
He looked toward the water cup resting beside his bed. Not even a tremble. Han waited, watching with growing hope… and then growing embarrassment. The silence that followed made him feel like a lunatic talking to imaginary friends.
If someone walked in now, they'd assume he'd lost his damn mind.
But Han knew something had happened that night. The ogres—hundreds of them—dead. No one else nearby. No signs of combat. Just him and the system.
Why wasn't it working now?
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to recall every detail from that day. The dungeon break. The chaos. The fear. The screen. Then he remembered the notification he had received.
Temporary Access to Tier 20 Granted
He focused again and thought: Open Tier Information.
The interface changed.
『TIER ONE:
Is the first tier of the system and the weakest. One word commands are available. Context is needed. Physical contact with the target is required. All commands have a base CP cost of 20 on this tier.』
Han stared at the new text, rereading it three times.
"...Seriously!?"
*One-word commands. Context-dependent. Physical contact required. A whopping 20 CP per use? And we haven't even talked about the factors.*
He looked at his total again. Twenty-four CP. Barely enough to use one command.
This was Tier One? It might as well be Demo Mode.
"Who designs an all-powerful system and then locks it behind the world's stingiest energy meter?" Han muttered, shaking his head. "At this rate, I'd need two days just to get one command off again."
Han leaned his head back and let out a long breath.
His whole life, he'd been a zero. The powerless younger brother of a rising stars. A stain on the family name. Weak.
But now?
He had something no one else did.
Even if it was nerfed to hell and barely usable.
"Okay," he said, quietly this time. "So physical contact is needed. That means no remote commands for now. And the command needs context… which probably means shouting 'explode' while touching my nurse's pen isn't going to make anything fun happen."
He smirked. Just a little.
The system wasn't easy. It wasn't flashy.
And if Tier One was this limited… what the hell had he accessed when Tier Twenty unlocked?
He remembered the sensation. Not just power, but authority. Like the world itself had paused—waiting for his command.
He needed to get back to that.
Tier Twenty.
Or even beyond.
His eyes narrowed as he looked at the floating interface one more time.
『COMMAND POINTS: 24』
"Guess it's time to start saving up."
...
..
.
Arashi and Ari walked through the street, stepping over the scattered corpses of ogres. The sun was beginning to set, casting long shadows across the ruined pavement and the monstrous bodies. Blood, both dark and dried, stained the ground. Bits of ogre flesh still steamed in the cooler air. The place reeked.
They had been here all day, moving from scene to scene. Dead ogres across the entire city. It wasn't a battle—it was a slaughter. A one-sided massacre. But the big question still hung in the air:
Who—or what—had done this?
"We know the pattern," Arashi said, glancing down at a dead ogre sprawled near a burnt-out light pole. "They died in a wave. Starting from somewhere. It spread out like a ripple in a pond."
"That's why we're here," Ari said, brushing his red hair back from his forehead. His boots squelched as he stepped in something unpleasant. "Downtown. Where it started."
Arashi crouched next to a particular ogre near two crashed-in cars. The metal frames were crushed, the glass shattered. Something—or someone—had hit them hard. One of the car doors was smeared in a thin trail of blood.
Ari stepped closer, touching the blood with two fingers and frowning. "This is human blood."
Arashi nodded, placing two fingers on the ogre's temple.
His eyes went blank for a second.
Then: He was inside the ogre's mind.
Late at night. The ogre was lumbering through the street. It was chasing something. No—someone. A human. The human ran desperately. The ogre caught up. It grabbed him. Threw him. The boy's body slammed into the two cars.
Then, the ogre raised a rebar.
Darkness.
Arashi pulled away with a sharp inhale.
"Got something," he muttered. He turned and called over a nearby investigator. A young man in a white coat jogged over, notebook in hand.
"Sir?"
"Was anyone found here?" Arashi asked.
"Yes, sir. One boy. Badly injured. He was rushed to the hospital."
Arashi's voice sharpened. "Name?"
"We didn't get one, sir. Emergency evac—he was in critical condition."
Arashi stood up, eyes flashing. "We have a city-wide massacre of a monster species, and you're telling me no one bothered to take names!?"
The investigator flinched. "Apologies, sir. It was chaos. Paramedics just moved him to save his life."
Arashi exhaled through his nose. "Which hospital?"
"Healbetter hospital."
Arashi nodded once, then turned to Ari.
Ari raised a brow. "Well?"
Arashi crossed his arms. "The ogre chased a human. Threw him into the cars. That was the moment it died. Darkness after that."
"So, the death wave started here," Ari said, glancing around. "This spot. This human."
"Looks like it."
"What magic did he use, I wonder?" Ari asked, his expression serious. "I don't sense anything lingering. No burn traces. No enchantments. No elemental residue. Not even spiritual anything."
Arashi agreed. "It's like it didn't happen through magic at all."
Ari's senses were sharp—too sharp to miss anything. He wasn't just a combatant; he was a seer. He could perceive what others couldn't. Some said he could see ghosts with his bare eyes. And if he couldn't find a trace of magic… then something truly strange was at play.
Arashi looked down at the crushed vehicles again. "The kid must've been barely holding on. Ogre threw him like a ragdoll. No way he should've survived."
"But he did. And then every ogre in Vasra dropped dead," Ari said.
Both men stood in silence for a moment, letting that fact sink in.
Finally, Ari said, "We're paying our mystery man a visit. Tomorrow."
Arashi narrowed his eyes. "Let's see what he knows."