A Journey of a Thousand Li
With exquisite care—
the way a cat steals a treat when its owner isn’t looking—
Lee Sia edged slowly toward the Sulfur Deer grazing alone at its leisure.
…Something feels off.
She rubbed her eyes. Was her depth perception broken? Even with quite a bit of distance still left, the deer looked abnormally massive.
Ah—
Only after blinking a few times and checking her surroundings did she understand.
It was just huge!
Were deer normally that big? Or was it because this one was a monster? The only word that came to mind was colossal.
Even its presence felt different up close than it had from afar. Its antlers seethed as if wreathed in flame, and a constant stream of bright-yellow smoke poured from its nostrils.
Sulfur stench.
So that was why it was called a Sulfur Deer. That yellow haze was definitely sulfur gas.
Ugh!
She clamped down on her breath against the foul reek.
I can’t get any closer.
The closer she drew, the thicker the stench became. She was still about twenty meters from the Sulfur Deer, but anything nearer felt impossible.
I’ll just lure it from here.
She could have shouted to draw its attention, but Sia chose another method—worried she might also aggro the ones on the other side.
Think I can hit it?
She picked up a few stones from the ground. Dealing real damage to the Sulfur Deer was out of the question, but she ought to be able to make it look her way at least—assuming she actually hit it.
“Hoo—”
Stone in hand, she took a deep breath and focused. A skill or item for ranged attacks would have been nicer, but…
The sword’s not bad either.
Sia had drawn her blade only twice: once when she first met that strange lunatic, and once when she attacked the man swinging an axe at Park Ji-hoo and herself. And yet it already felt as if she had been using it for decades—so natural that she half wondered if she had trained in kendo as a child.
She hadn’t, of course.
Without thinking, she stroked the hilt of Crimson Lotus [E], and the tension in her chest eased.
“Hoo—”
Another deep breath. She drew her arm back. The heavy stone in her fist cut through the air in a sharp arc.
Whap—!
It had felt almost too heavy to reach, but to her astonishment the stone struck the solitary Sulfur Deer’s antler dead-on. She hadn’t expected to hit it on the first try; her whole body locked up.
Slowly, the Sulfur Deer’s head rose—straight toward where Sia stood.
“Eeek!”
Blood-red sclera. Three pupils. The moment those grotesque eyes met hers, her heart seemed to shrink in her chest.
Run!
If she hesitated even a second, those malice-laden antlers would punch straight through her torso. Sia spun and bolted.
Pruh-ruh-ruh-ruh-ruk—!
The Sulfur Deer watching her back exploded into a mad sprint of its own.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—!
True to its massive size, the ground itself shook; the vibration climbed up through the soles of her feet.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Sia glanced back, screamed, and poured on more speed.
T-too fast!
They had started roughly twenty meters apart. In the span of a few blinks, the Sulfur Deer had closed it to ten. At this rate it would catch her in an instant—and that would not end with “a little pain.” At minimum it would feel like getting hit by a one-ton truck. Flooring it.
A Level 1 body like Sia’s would be pulverized and then some.
“N-now!”
Ashen-faced, Sia cried out in something close to a scream.
At the same moment—
“Waaaaaah!”
—her companions burst from the undergrowth and threw themselves between her and the Sulfur Deer, loosing shouts that might have been battle cries or pure terror.
KRAAAASH—!
The man with the shield took the lead and caught the Sulfur Deer’s charge head-on.
“Urgh—!”
His eyes flew wide under the unimaginable impact. A thin thread of blood seeped from between his lips; he must have bitten his tongue.
“I stopped it!”
The shield-bearer roared in adrenaline-soaked triumph. Against all odds, he had halted the Sulfur Deer’s monstrous charge.
“A-attack!”
Confirming it, Sia spun without even time to catch her breath, drawing Crimson Lotus [E] as she turned.
The first to move was the man with the spear. With its long reach, he had jabbed from a little farther back—no finesse, just pure thrust.
Thuk—!
The spearhead punched through the Sulfur Deer’s hide.
It went in!
She had worried the attacks might do nothing at all. This was no ordinary beast—it was a monster. She had not been confident that Level 1 players, armed with Tutorial Floor gear, could deal real damage. But it had gone in. Not deep, but the fact that it had pierced that tough-looking hide was enough. If weapons worked, they could kill it!
“Ji-hoo!”
“Y-yes!”
As she lunged toward the Sulfur Deer and called his name, Park Ji-hoo launched himself as if he had been waiting for exactly that. The timid, fragile boy from moments ago was gone. In his place surged pure battle-lust, ready to beat the enemy into a pulp.
THWOOOM—!
A massive metal gauntlet smashed into the Sulfur Deer’s jaw with a ringing metallic crack.
Yes!
Unlike most players’ gear, Ji-hoo’s gauntlet was of a distinctly high grade. Didascalia himself had given it to him on the Tutorial Floor—its quality needed no further explanation. The Sulfur Deer’s jaw shattered. Broken bone tore through flesh and jutted free; the sheer force of the blow was obvious at a glance. An agonized scream ripped from the creature’s mouth.
“Everyone, clear out!”
Last was Sia. Her faintly reddish blade, Crimson Lotus [E], fell toward the Sulfur Deer’s skull—a perfect straight line, as if drawn with a ruler. A sword path so beautiful only a lifelong master of the blade could produce it.
The sensation of forcibly parting the air. That feeling, transmitted through the sword into her fingertips, filled Sia’s mind with pure exhilaration and release.
And then—
CHWAAANG—!
The edge tore through tough hide, shattered a skull far harder still, and sheared the brain in two. A perfect sword stroke no one would believe belonged to a Level 1 player with no skills at all. Crimson Lotus [E] entered at the crown, exited through the ruined jaw, and buried itself in the dirt.
“Hah— hah—!”
Sia and the others watched the Sulfur Deer with taut faces, terrified it might still rise and attack. But no third-rate horror-movie twist arrived.
Thuuud—!
The Sulfur Deer, streaming blood and brain matter, simply toppled over.
Sia’s eyes went wide as she stared at the wondrous result her sword had wrought. She had taken down a monster. It was far more electric, far more thrilling, than killing the man who had been swinging an axe inside the city.
You have won the battle against the normal monster: Sulfur Deer.
LEVEL UP
She had even leveled up and unlocked an achievement—and the reward was a skill! It was only F-rank, but the difference between having one and not having one would be enormous.
Sia and the others burst into excited shouts.
“We did it!”
“W-we killed a monster!”
“Hahaha! Aren’t we the first players to pull this off?”
“We might be. Honestly, I don’t think any of the others are starting to hunt yet.”
Their exhilaration was plain. Sia felt the same. She was only Level 2 now, but compared to a moment ago she felt several times stronger. How could she not be thrilled?
“The difficulty’s easier than I expected. At this rate, we’ll clear all the way to the top floor in no time.”
“A hundred floors, right? At this pace we could finish it in a month.”
“There’s a reason Korea’s a gaming powerhouse. Nobody keeps up with us at this kind of thing.”
All the tension that had been wound tight finally loosened and drained away.
“Let’s try two this time. With teamwork like this, we should manage just fine.”
The shield-bearer, riding the high, floated the idea.
“Sounds good!”
“I’m in!”
“M-me too.”
No one disagreed. One or two—it hardly mattered. They felt certain they could handle either.
“Hm?”
Yujin lifted his head and scanned the area.
“Thought I heard something.”
He strained his ears. The only sounds that reached them, however, were the groans of Red Goblins.
“Must’ve imagined it.”
Finding nothing of note, Yujin promptly lost interest. Nothing around here could threaten him anyway. Even the Floor 1 boss, the Earth Dragon, had ended up as sashimi under his hands—ordinary monsters could come by the dump truck and he wouldn’t flinch.
“Back to work.”
He shrugged and looked down at the Red Goblin dangling from his fist by the scruff. However many beatings it had taken, its face had lost all shape, and its life hung by a thread.
“Hey.”
Yujin waved a hand to rouse the unconscious Red Goblin.
“U-uuuugh—”
As awareness returned, it thrashed under the mind-breaking pain in its face. Yujin leaned in close, as if he had been waiting for exactly that, and whispered:
“Hey. I’m going to let you live, so go fetch your parents. Got it? I won’t move a single step from here, so make sure you bring them.”
Red Goblins were monsters capable of limited conversation with humans. Understanding Yujin’s words—threat or favor, hard to say—the Red Goblin nodded frantically, terrified of another beating.
“Good. Off you go.”
He released the scruff. The creature crawled away from him on all fours.
“Why aren’t you running? Keep me waiting too long and we start over.”
Flinch—!
Only then did it force its barely functioning body upright and break into a desperate run. Yujin watched the Red Goblin’s retreating back with a crooked smile.
“Normally, this is one of those things you should never do—but not for me.”
If even a single Red Goblin escaped during a hunt, you had to return to Terra at once. The reason was simple: catastrophe would descend on the area. A disaster big enough to devour even Level 30 players in an instant, never mind Level 10s.
Yujin saw it differently. The catastrophe wasn’t the Red Goblins. It was him.
“Hurry up. Waiting’s boring.”
His eyes, fixed on the dwindling Red Goblin, gleamed with greed.