Build your karma.
Those words stuck in my mind like a stake and seemed to define the path I should take.
I opened my mouth, but no voice came out.
I couldn't speak, so I looked at him and asked.
‘What happens when I accumulate karma?’
The starlight was silent.
Instead, the sky behind me changed.
The sky to my right turned a clear, cool bluish color while the sky to my left burned an intense, brilliant golden color.
The sun and moon were rising in a sky full of stars.
[If you do that.][You can handle our power.]
At the same time, a dazzling celestial glow enveloped the world.
I awoke and looked around.
I was in my room.
Outside the window, the first rays of sunlight were streaming in.
"Wow."
Now that the game is real, I get to experience all of these strange things.
*
Ronan had recommended that I visit Tirna's 35th district.
The 35th district is where most inventors and engineers live.
That's why I saw a lot of strange things on the street.
Steam engines that emit cool compressed steam, tiny mechanical dolls that move by themselves when you wind them up, alloy pipes that allow more compressed steam to be distributed, and a giant mechanical clock that turns like a water wheel.
-Bang! Bang!
Technicians with greasy hands and spanners in one hand sweat as they tighten bolts and nuts.
In the other, they test the machines they've built to make sure they're rolling properly.
The streets were filled with the sound of pounding iron, shouts of straightening, and the roar of steam.
Making things, fixing things that broke.
It's not like a factory full of workers, it's full of life, a heat that goes beyond that.
As I walked down the street, my attention was drawn to a strange sight off to one side.
In the middle of the street, a gruff-looking man with a grin on his face was having his arm repaired by a mechanic. His arm was made of machinery.
‘A mechanical arm? That's what the world has become.’
The repairman looked at the mechanical arm through a magnifying glass, making fine adjustments with screwdrivers and assemblers.
The arm was clenching and unclenching its fist in a way that I couldn't believe was mechanical.
I looked at it and marveled.
‘A mechanical arm this sophisticated. Nowadays, people will not have to live their whole lives without being able to work even if their arms or legs are cut off.’
I suddenly pictured myself with a prosthetic arm and shook my head.
There's something romantic about a prosthetic arm, but for whatever reason, I'm happy with the body I have now.
‘This isn't important right now.’
I had come to the 35th district to make an ID card that would serve as a passport, not to see something like that.
‘It's a lot more complicated than that.’
I was handed a map, but it was hard to find my way around with all the different metal items around me.
I'm not a very good navigator, but this street was too complicated even for that.
That's when I thought I'd just walk.
-Boom!
A wooden chair flew right in front of me and shattered just where I would have been if I had taken a few more steps.
When I turned my head to see what was going on, I saw a commotion coming from the area where a man had his prosthetic hand adjusted.
"You son of a bitch, you know how much this arm costs, it's scratched!"
The prosthetic man retorted, pointing to the tiny scratches on his mechanical forearm.
I was puzzled.
Besides the gouges on his forearm, his prosthetic hand had a lot of scratches here and there from rough rolling, but who cares?
Still, the way he shouted so brazenly, he must have something up his sleeve.
"Enough, I want the money for the repairs. Ten million rennes. I'll let it go."
Ah. He's trying to get out of paying for the repair.
The fallen technician didn't seem to notice and glared at the man with the mechanical arm.
"You asshole. I'm willing to fix your crappy prosthetic hand, and now you're trying to rip me off?"
"What, a cheap prosthetic hand, you tinkerer?"
The man with the prosthetic arm clenched his mechanical arm fist.
It was the moment when he was about to throw his arm out to drive an iron fist into the technician's face because he didn't listen.
"I need directions."
I stepped between the two men and held the steel fist with one arm.
*
Holding the steel prosthetic lightly in his other hand, Osian realized it wasn't as strong as he'd thought.
With this strength alone, he could easily break a brick with his fist but it was nowhere near the strength of his knight's body.
‘Or maybe this prosthetic hand itself is weak.’
Osian asked the technician on the ground.
"Do you happen to know where Harvey's workshop is located here?"
The technician, his face nearly crushed, stared up at Osian.
The onlookers around him widened their eyes.
Grabbing a steel prosthetic hand with his bare hands?
No matter how cheap a prosthetic hand is, the destructive power of a steel military prosthetic hand is unparalleled.
It can crush a person's skull with the slightest swing, but Osian caught it with his bare hands.
That's not all, he was overwhelming it.
The shivering prosthetic hand's inability to push Osian's hand away was proof of that.
"Who the fuck are you, are you in cahoots with these assholes?"
The man whose arm was grabbed tried to force Osian's hand away, but surprisingly, his steel arm did not budge.
"Yi, let go of me, you crazy bastard, you know how much this is worth!"
"Do I need to know how much?"
Ossian tightened his grip on the mechanical arm.
With a clank, the army surgeon's fist curled.
"Uh, huh?"
The onlookers and the prosthetic man widened their eyes at the unbelievable sight.
The man's bare hands were crumpling the steel prosthetic like paper with pure brute force.
It was an unbelievable sight to behold.
Osian released his grip and the man stepped back.
The steel prosthetic hand was completely distorted, and there wasn't even a hand left.
It was as if he had been put into a press and his hands had been squeezed into a circle.
"Hic!"
The prosthetic man stumbled backwards and fell on his ass.
Osian smirked at the man.
"I didn't put much force on it, and it broke, so it must be cheap. Next time, get something more expensive and sturdy."
Under Osian's gaze, the prosthetic man didn't look back and continued on his way.
The craftsmen from the nearby workshop laughed at the sight and whistled at the same time.
Osian shrugged his shoulders and gently helped the fallen technician to his feet.
"Thank you for your help. You didn't have to do this."
Osian shrugged.
The technician was right, Osian had gone out of his way to help, nothing more, nothing less but he had a reason to do it.
‘They said to build karma.’
What exactly that means, Osian still doesn't know.
In a game, it would translate into experience points, but this wasn't a game.
What he does know is that he's been having dreams lately that he didn't have the first few days.
‘I fought against Carl Jackson, and I fought that warlock girl, so if there's a connection, it's that one.’
Karma could be a set of accomplishments you have to earn as a knight.
Of course, there was a chance it wasn't but it couldn't hurt to try.
So he saved a techie in trouble and as a bonus, he chased away a criminal with a prosthetic hand.
‘I don't feel like I'm getting any karma.’
Maybe the opponent is too weak to accumulate karma or maybe it's because I didn't draw my sword.
Whatever the case may be, I've already taken some trial and error into account.
"So, do you know where Harvey's workshop is?"
"Yes? Yes."
The technician nodded, looking confused.
"Well, then I'll need some directions, because I'm not sure how to get around here."
It's a very unassuming thing to say, coming from a man who crushed a prosthetic hand with his bare hands.
The old engineer couldn't help but smile.
"Yes, sir."
*
Escorted to Harvey's workshop, Osian stood in front of it and stared at it wordlessly.
"Hmm."
It was good to be here, but despite the name, Harvey's workshop looked more like a general store than a workshop.
Other places have shutters up and a large space with people milling around and tinkering with machines, but there was none of that here.
It's not full of loud noises, nor is it open.
In fact, the neighborhood was strangely quiet.
Still, Ronan had recommended the place, so Osian entered the workshop, trusting that he wouldn't have any problems.
"I've never seen you in this place before."
There was an old man sitting at a stall inside, wearing strange looking goggles over his eyes.
Osian asked.
"Are you Harvey?"
"I'm Harvey, the owner of this workshop. Who are you, and how did you get here?"
"Osian. Ronan recommended you."
At the mention of Ronan's name, the old man, who was about to lose his temper, nodded grimly.
"I see."
That name held so much meaning.
Harvey scanned Osian's body and frowned at the sword at his side.
"What's that thing at your side?"
"A sword. Have you never seen one before?"
"......Do you think I'm asking because I've never seen a sword in my life?"
Harvey frowned and shook his head.
"No, never mind. I shouldn't have said anything to the guy Ronan sent. Well, if you've come all this way, I know what you want. You want some identification, I assume?"
"Yeah."
"How much? You seem pretty new, I'm guessing three million......."
"Fifty million."
At the mention of 50 million, the old man pushed the goggles he was wearing over his eyes up onto his forehead.
"You can't make fun of this old man."
Hearing Harvey's disbelief in his voice, Osian didn't bother trying to convince him.
Instead, he slapped the money he'd brought onto his stall.
"Huh?"
Harvey's eyes widened at the amount of money, which was not a small amount, even for him.
"......It's real."
"Does this prove it?"
"I'd be an idiot to have doubts about money like this."
Harvey held out a piece of paper to Osian.
"It's an application. Fill it out."
"I thought there was no such thing."
"Don't you know that for fifty million, you need one? At this level, even government officials take notice. You can't skimp."
That's right.
Osian was convinced and put his name on the application.
Harvey shook his head, wondering if he should stop him or not, as he watched Osian write "Knight" in the occupation section.
There was no point in bothering him, he could make his own corrections.
"Anyway, that's the gist of it, come find me in three days."
With that, Harvey disappeared into the workshop, and Osian stepped out.
With the ID business out of the way, Osian decided to see more of the 35th district.
"Hey, look, that's him!"
That's when he heard a familiar voice.
He turned to see what it was and a huge hulk of a man stood menacingly in front of him.
"Is that you, the one who molded my brother's arm into this shape?"
Naturally, Osian's gaze shifted to the hulk's side.
There was the man whose prosthetic arm was completely shredded by Osian.