Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Promotion Exam (4)
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When I fell onto the hard stone floor instead of crashing into the wall.
A new mission window appeared.
HIDDEN MISSION
[Mana Secured (Beta Test)]
Eliminate the enemies. (0/32)
[Rewards]
• Attribute Mana 10
• Random Box (×1)
My head had smacked the ground, leaving me dizzy for a moment, but it didn't take long to recover.
The first thing that caught my eye was "Mana Secured."
The next was the number.
"Thirty... two?"
Before I could even be startled by the suddenly inflated number, a monster's screech echoed from beyond the wall.
"Kieek! Kyaak! Kyaaak!"
Incredibly, the cry carried a hint of impatience. Or maybe anxiety.
The funny thing was, I wasn't much different.
Ethan was the one left behind the wall with the monster.
He was barely clinging to consciousness and hadn't been able to walk on his own for the past few minutes.
"Damn it!"
I rushed to the wall.
Touching it sent a chill through my hand.
It felt exactly like that pure white space from the tutorial.
It was obvious the System had created this wall.
I groped along it, but there was no way out.
Anger surged straight to the top of my head in an instant.
"Shit!"
As I spat the curse and kicked the white wall, my body froze.
'Again.'
I just couldn't get used to these emotional shifts.
Every time I felt the violence surging, alarm bells rang in my mind.
I started deep breathing to try to calm my rage.
'Chaos Value is at 48 right now.'
A new mission when I was this close to 50.
Remembering the 32 from earlier, I immediately shoved a purification pill into my mouth.
Facing double-digit monsters in this emotional state was too dangerous.
As the thorns embedded in my body began pulling out, my Chaos Value dropped to 13.
The fury that had shaken me subsided.
In the meantime, the monster beyond the wall had gone quiet. It felt like the calm before the storm.
"Damn..."
Would that thing leave Ethan alive?
It was silent now, but I could almost hear his screams any second.
Gritting my teeth, I turned my body anyway.
'No time to stand around. Let's move.'
I had to clear this new mission first.
Only then could I get out of here and at least recover his body.
I picked up the longsword rolling on the stone floor.
With each careful step, the side the monster had kicked earlier throbbed.
'Feels like something's broken.'
No way to treat it right now. Driving me insane.
Holding back a sigh, I headed deeper in.
Just as I'd guessed from outside, beyond the white wall was definitely a cave.
'32.'
Probably the number of monsters inside this cave.
'If they swarm me at once, that could be trouble.'
Coldly assessing, I could handle two or three at most simultaneously.
Imagining them swarming made cold sweat slick my palms.
But for some reason, not a single monster shadow in sight.
A fork appeared soon enough.
I took the right path and quickly reached a dead end.
"What the hell..."
The sight that greeted me left me speechless for a moment.
Huddled in a cluster at the dead end, tiny monsters wriggled about.
"Nng, kiing."
Monsters that couldn't even stand on two legs, just crawling.
Even if they did stand, they wouldn't reach my knee.
"Ha!"
That was when I understood the big monster's behavior outside the wall.
This was the nest. A nest full of monster offspring too weak to resist.
The System was telling me to slaughter them all and absorb their mana.
* * *
「Congratulations! You have successfully completed the HIDDEN MISSION - Mana Secured (Beta Test).」
「Attribute Mana 10 has been provided as a success reward.」
「Random Box (×1) has been provided as a success reward.」
There was no hesitation in killing the baby monsters.
I'd seen the adult one outside, unable to enter the cave.
It had clearly dragged a human corpse all the way to the entrance.
Now that this was confirmed as the nest, its purpose was obvious.
Food for the offspring.
No reason to hold back just because these hadn't grown up yet.
If I hadn't come, these little ones would have torn into that corpse.
I methodically killed the monster babies.
Each gave around early 30s in mana, though it varied.
With every breath, my body changed.
I couldn't control the suddenly surging strength—the spear shaft pierced the floor and wouldn't come loose.
The changes were so steep that even steadying myself was a struggle.
But there was no chance to carefully inspect and adapt to the shifts in my body.
I'd nearly finished off the babies when the adult monster burst in.
'It must have come from that fork.'
By the time the fight ended, I was a total wreck.
"Ptoo."
I couldn't tell if what I spat was saliva or blood.
Unlike before, this was a chaotic melee where dodging injuries was impossible.
Especially the tear on my back and the stab to my ribs—they were bad.
Hot blood streamed down steadily.
Maybe my lungs were hit; every breath brought agony.
My throat bore a dark bruise from being choked, and my arms and legs weren't unscathed either.
"Ugh..."
A chunk of thigh flesh was ripped clean off, exposing bone.
Yet strangely, my body felt lighter.
Probably because my mana had surpassed a thousand during the fight.
Every cell felt awake.
Unfortunately, in this situation, it wasn't purely a good thing.
All my senses sharpened to the point where they stabbed at me like knives—everything registered as pain.
I could distinguish each strand of air brushing my skin.
Thud, thud—the footsteps drilled into my ears, churning my brain.
Drip, drip—the falling blood felt like it was scraping my skin.
I pressed my torn chest with my hand, then hastily released.
I'd only pressed normally, like before, but nearly crushed my own ribs.
It was my body, yet it didn't feel like mine anymore. Too different.
With a careful exhale, I gingerly pressed the bleeding spot.
Exhausted to death, and now I had to baby every move.
'I want to rest.'
Even after two all-nighters working part-time, it hadn't felt this bad.
I wanted to flop down right now.
But even in this bone-tired state, I dragged my feet forward.
It didn't take long to backtrack to the entrance.
The white wall was already gone.
In the wide-open entrance lay the corpse of some furry beast and a unfamiliar white man's body, perfectly intact, with a spear dropped beside them.
"Haa..."
I'd definitely purified my corrupted mana before leaving.
Still one purification pill left just in case—my Chaos Value was only 5%.
Yet seeing the corpses made something hot bubble up inside me.
The distinct stench of the dead assaulted my nose, invading my brain.
So vivid and revolting it nearly made me puke.
Clenching my teeth, I headed out of the cave.
To at least check Ethan's body.
I'd spent about ten minutes in the cave.
Not a long time.
But I doubted Ethan was still alive.
The scene outside, though, defied my expectations.
Something rustled—I checked and saw a black man standing beside Ethan, spear raised high.
Poised to plunge it down any second.
Seeing that, my actions outpaced my thoughts.
"Hey!"
Roaring, I drew my dagger and hurled it at the unknown player.
With my movement, blood splattered, soaking the ground.
Crack.
The dagger whistled through the air with a gruesome sound before embedding in the tree next to the nameless player.
I'd thrown it hard, but even I was shocked by the destructive power.
The guy jolted back in fright and turned to me.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Black blood trickled from his crookedly tilted head at that perfect moment.
Blood from the adult monster fight.
I limped toward him, gripping the spear.
He retreated, but I saw him desperately readjust his grip on his own.
I tore my gaze from him and looked down.
Ethan lay on the ground, his chest rising and falling, however faintly.
Beside him slumped a monster with a punctured gut and a broken arm.
Definitely the one I'd been fighting.
A longsword was buried deep in the monster's chest.
"Ha."
Looks like I'd underestimated Ethan too much.
This black guy hadn't killed the monster.
If he had, Ethan wouldn't still be breathing by now.
'He'd have died at the monster's hands long ago.'
So Ethan must have killed it, then this player arrived and found him unconscious.
'A half-corpse lying there—perfect for killing and absorbing mana.'
The System had drilled it into players from the tutorial: kill to absorb mana.
That was probably why the black guy tried to finish Ethan off.
"Huu..."
Just then, a faint groan escaped Ethan.
I watched him steadily, then looked up.
Our eyes met, and the black guy started yelling.
"———, ——!"
No clue what he was saying.
Scowling, I readjusted my spear and swung.
The shaft struck his head dead-on.
He tried to block, but his move was pathetically slow.
The man flew off like paper and face-planted.
Once with the shaft, once with the ground.
Consecutive blows to the head left him twitching on the dirt.
I looked down at him coldly.
'Makes my skin crawl.'
I got it—once this game started, mana was vital for players.
I'd pulled up plants everywhere to gather it myself.
Of course, I had no intention of killing humans or hunting animals.
But I wasn't about to impose my standards on others.
If another player wanted mana bad enough to kill for it, that was their call.
The guilt or societal fallout afterward? Their problem.
Still, the reason I'd stopped him from killing Ethan was simple.
'Because I went through hell to keep him alive.'
I hadn't lugged that nameless guy around to fertilize someone else.
At least for this mission today, I didn't want to see Ethan die.
"Scram."
I kicked the new player away, sending him flying far off.
Then I yanked the dagger from the tree, clicked my tongue, and crouched beside Ethan.
Fresh wounds marred his abdomen and shoulder—ones I didn't recognize.
Probably from killing the monster.
I glanced at the dead beast.
'Not a complete pushover, huh.'
I'd broken one arm and gutted it for him—failing that would've been pathetic.
But Ethan was a full-clear tutorial player too.
Apparently enough to defend himself on death's door.
"Hey."
I tapped his cheek.
No response; eyes stayed shut.
But he was definitely alive.
'Feels like 45, 50 minutes have passed...'
Subjectively, about an hour since the mission started.
'Can you normally survive this long?'
Even with pressure applied, the bleeding should've continued.
Still hanging on in that state.
Abnormal vitality.
Since the game began, everything felt less and less normal.
"Hoo."
With a long sigh, I reached to hoist Ethan.
He was holding for now, but dragging this out seemed unwise.
Mission counter at 12/13.
'One left.'
If I wanted to save him, move fast.
Just as I steeled myself to hunt the last monster.
「MISSION - Promotion Exam (Beta Test) completion conditions have been met.」
「Scores are being tallied.」
Someone got the last one.
「Score tally complete.」
「Allocation imposed for Hole closure. Please designate code name.」
I laid Ethan back down and frowned.
'Code name?'
What was the System up to now?
'Hole closure, huh...'
Come to think of it, when I first dropped into this forest, the System mentioned the same word.
Entered the Hole.
No idea what a Hole was, but now it wanted to close it.
'And what's allocation?'
Info was consistently shitty from start to finish.
Clicking my tongue, I entered an English initial.
'K.'
No special reason. Just because my last name was Kang.
Thought about spelling it full but everything felt like too much hassle, so one letter.
About a minute later, a new window popped up.
[Closure Allocation]
- K(36) : 201
- Human(4) : 45
- John(2) : 22
- Lily(2) : 22
- Ethan Lembron(1) : 10
- Maxim Mikhalich(0) : 0
- Shota Hisaku(0) : 0
Two names crossed out.
One evoked Japan.
Realizing what that meant, I clenched my fist tight.
I'd vaguely suspected. Even seen the corpses right there at the cave mouth.
Still, the confirmation someone died here hit harder than expected.
But I'd survived, and I had no plans to die anytime soon.
So I focused on the number by my code name.
36 and 201.
36 was easy: matched my kill count exactly.
The problem was the 201.
'Allocation...'
I recalled the various stats the System showed as numbers.
Dread crept up from my feet.
No way.
"Hup."
The thought hit, and dread became reality.
「Mana is being collected.」
Mana began draining from my body in a steady pull.
Allocation meant mana.
My mind blanked white for an instant, then blazed hot.
All the hell I'd gone through to gather this!
"Grk!"
Teeth grinding, body curled—then the draining mana halted.
That's when the tug-of-war began.
「Mana is being collected.」
The System pulled.
「Mana is being collected.」
I held on.
Felt like gripping a thread-fine string with everything I had.
Couldn't pull harder—not knowing when it'd snap.
Couldn't let go either.
All I could do was hold.
Every sense zeroed in on that spot.
I couldn't let the System take my mana like this.
This mana was the fruit of my blood, sweat, and tears.
Hadn't gotten into the hidden mission thanks to the ????? trait?
That itself came from rolling in the dirt with dogs in the first tutorial phase.
Now the System tried to steal it all under "allocation."
"You think I'll just hand it over?!"
This mana is mine!
My enraged roar echoed the instant mana flared hot and burrowed deep inside me.
「Mana Operation proficiency has increased!」
「Trait Assimilation effect applied!」
「Trait Tenacity effect applied!」
「Mana Operation proficiency increased by 10.52%!」
The notifications vanished, and the pulling force released.
「System assists with allocation amount.」
「Barrier deactivated.」
「Closing Hole.」
「Congratulations! You have successfully completed MISSION - Promotion Exam (Beta Test).」
「Attribute Mana 10 provided as success reward.」
「Promoted to Alpha based on score. Alpha-exclusive Trait Purification (Growth Type) generated.」
「Attribute Stone (High-Grade) provided based on score.」
「Currency (₩10,000,000) provided based on score.」
「Tutorial (Beta Test) ended.」
「Community activated.」
「Main Server (Earth) stabilization beginning.」
「Main Server (Earth) stabilization 0.001%」
A flood of messages followed.
"Haa."
Exhaling raggedly, I opened my eyes to familiar wallpaper and red afterimages.
Blood clots plopped onto the vinyl sheet spread over my bed.
"Ugh..."
Shoulder, ribs, leg, neck—
Pain lingered everywhere.
The implication was clear: even back in my room after the mission, the wounds hadn't healed.
I'd been uneasy since seeing it wasn't a safe zone.
Looks like injury recovery only lasted through the tutorial.
Still pissed about nearly losing my mana.
But no time to rage right now.
My hand snatched the phone by the bed in haste.
Damn System