Chapter 21: Glad I’m Tough

Time rewinds a few months earlier—“The Day of Catastrophe.”

The ground shook, and countless homes collapsed.

“Bwaaahh—! Thought I was a goner!!”

I pushed aside the rubble crushing me, checking for injuries.

“Nothing serious. Thanks to Gacha, my body’s tough as nails. Gacha, you’re a lifesaver.”

Looking around, I saw homes shattered everywhere.

“Earthquake…? Didn’t notice while I was asleep, but it must’ve been a major one…”

For now, I pulled my clothes out from under the debris and surveyed the scene. People were panicking, fleeing their homes. Others were buried under rubble, calling for help.

Using “Spatial Detection,” I scanned for survivors. I knew exactly where and how many people were alive.

“Yoink!”

With “Strength Augmentation” and “Invincible Might,” moving the rubble wasn’t much of a hassle.

“Are you okay?”

My neighbor. Don’t know her name, but I’ve seen her around before.

“Yeah, thanks… really glad you’re alright.”

After helping a few others, we headed toward the evacuation center together. The elementary school around here should be the designated shelter. I brought the rescued people there, then scouted for others still in need.

After walking a bit, I noticed something off.

“Hostility Sense” flared up—multiple times. Looking around, I saw people moving slowly toward me… like zombies.

“What the hell is that? Are they even human…!?!”

Hostility Sense screamed at me!

“Not human, that’s for sure! Then I’m not holding back!”

I raised my hand toward the monsters.

“Gravity Press!”

The monsters crumpled easily, stopped moving altogether. Probably always fragile—gravity press was devastating.

Something felt off, though I couldn’t put my finger on it. I activated “Stealth,” masked my presence, then took flight, circling the town to check things out.

Everywhere, houses were collapsed. Fires were spreading. Roads cracked and sank in places—but what struck me most… was this…

“…What the hell is that?”

Patchy, bluish earth was bulging up in spots. From nearby, figures like the zombies I’d just crushed were crawling out.

I landed slowly, crushing the advancing zombies one by one with gravity press.

Tried using “magic” too. I hurled wind magic at a few monsters—they blew apart instantly, scattered mid-air.

But I also ripped apart the nearby utility poles and house walls in the process.

Tried fire magic—target burned up instantly, dead. But the flames spread too fast, engulfing everything around me.

Panicked, I cast water magic to put it out—but now the water blast was too strong, shattered the concrete ground itself. Powerful, sure… but goddamn hard to control.

In contrast, “gravity manipulation” was easy to handle—could fine-tune the force. Super easy to manage… for now, gravity press was still the most effective. So I kept using it.

After a while, I felt something strange in my body.

“…What’s this? This weird sensation?”

I checked my status with “Assess.”

Unemployed Lv99

“Ah! Level’s up. And 99? Was it the ‘Growth Acceleration’ effect? Or… because I’m unemployed, it’s easier to level?”

Anyway, level’s maxed out… which means for sure, killing those monsters boosted my level.

“So that means…”

I opened the space I use as an item box and pulled out the "Profession Board."

"This means it's actually usable, right?"