Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: 0. Tutorial
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The old man raised his arm, glaring with eyes wide open as if he were about to fire a beam. The man, seeing the brief windows that appeared next to the people, spoke in admiration.
"Impressive. To think someone already has a skill right from the start."
"Skills are fairly common. The issue is that its rank is high."
Chang-seok had Command (B) and Lowest Martial Arts; Mi-na had Low Swordsmanship; Pil-seop had Intimidation (E); Sung-hoon had Concentration (C). Countless people had entered the world of 'The Mission'. Among them, those with B-rank skills or higher were extremely rare. Despite the assault from the evil spirit possessor with its Fear skill, hadn't Chang-seok stepping forward allowed the others to snap out of their confusion and start moving?
"Will these people be the first to complete the tutorial?"
"Who knows. Even if you know all the paths and methods, escaping takes at least four hours, and a massacre would take even longer. It'll depend on how quickly the other teams act."
"Can't you at least joke that they might? Jeez..."
The man shook his head even at the old man's grumbling.
He knew how great and powerful the old man before him was, so he understood the complaints were just for show. In any case, the man was keeping an eye on this team. Especially Kim Chang-seok—he seemed like he had the potential to become quite a big shot.
As he thought that and moved to rewind the screen, the man unwittingly froze.
And before he knew it, his mouth hung open. He knew it was terribly undignified, but fortunately, the old man beside him was doing the exact same thing, so it wasn't too bad.
"......"
"...Hoo?"
These two beings had lived for spans of time unimaginable to humans, and naturally, they had experienced every kind of event. Yet even so, they had never witnessed a scene as shocking—no, as utterly beyond imagination—as the one unfolding before them now.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Thud! Thud!
Thankfully, this monster's entire strategy was just mindless charging. Chang-seok, who had amateur-level boxing skills—not pro, but decent—could maintain a standoff simply by twisting his body slightly and throwing punches. Of course, they lacked lethality and couldn't kill it, but if the three behind him grabbed anything and joined in, they could finish it off easily enough.
Crunch!
A breaking sound came from behind, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from the monster in front of him even for a second. It wasn't that dangerous, but it wasn't harmless enough to look away from either. Especially seeing the blood drooling from its mouth—it seemed to favor biting attacks, and who knew what would happen if it got a hold even once.
"Th-this bastard, what... Guk!"
"Kyaaaaaaaah!"
Even as groans and screams echoed, he couldn't turn his head. They were probably panicking from the monster's presence.
It wasn't all that surprising. He felt like he could fall into panic himself any second. But wasn't it a problem if all three of them panicked?
After shaking its head with a series of jabs, Chang-seok gritted his teeth, clenched his fist, and smashed the monster's jaw. Even though it took a direct hit to the chin, it seemed its brain rattled, as it staggered back and collapsed. Seizing the opening, he toppled the nearby bookshelf, naturally pinning the monster beneath it. It wriggled a bit, struggling, but it probably couldn't escape on its own.
Having single-handedly taken down one monster, Chang-seok suppressed the curses rising in his throat and calmed his emotions.
Getting angry won't help. In this situation, it'll just lead to a vicious cycle. For now, this quest window is the priority.
"Hah, hah... F-first, we've passed the danger... Guk!"
Shunk!
"Kkeoeoeoeoe!"
Chang-seok couldn't speak, only letting out a long groan. There was one reason.
He could see the wooden shard embedded in his abdomen—and Sung-hoon gripping it with a strange expression on his face. Pain wasn't something you could easily endure. Chang-seok, whose worst injury in life had been a mere sprained ankle, couldn't muster any reaction amid the sudden excruciating agony.
And as Chang-seok trembled, emitting only groans, Sung-hoon unhesitatingly yanked the shard free and jammed it into his neck.
Spurt!
It stabbed in at an angle, but that was more than enough to incapacitate a human. Sung-hoon kicked the staggering Chang-seok—who was clutching the shard beside his neck—sending him toppling backward. He swept his hair back and said,
"Thanks. But what choice did I have?"
"Grrruk, gruk."
Did he have something he wanted to say?
With eyes bulging, Chang-seok glared at Sung-hoon before his body began to tremble violently. Probably shock setting in. When he barely managed to pull out the shard with shaking hands, things grew even worse. Blood gushed out like a fountain, and soon enough, Chang-seok stopped moving entirely.
"Kyaaaaaaaah! Kyaaaaaaaak!"
Mi-na could only squeeze her eyes shut and scream endlessly.
None of it felt real. This gloomy room instead of her small, familiar one; unheard-of people; a monster appearing out of nowhere. Something had felt off from the start. How could this be reality?
"Th-this is a nightmare, a nightmare, a nightmare, a nightmare..."
Mi-na buried her head between her knees, curled up, muttering "nightmare" over and over. Beside her, Pil-seop lay collapsed with his eyes closed. Sung-hoon watched them for a moment, then snatched the wooden shard from Chang-seok's hand and began approaching Mi-na.
"Nightmare, nightmare, nightmare... Guk!"
"Sorry, but..."
It was one strike.
He plunged the shard unhesitatingly into her fully exposed nape, and Mi-na collapsed limply without any resistance. All that remained was the unconscious Pil-seop. Sung-hoon tried to pull the shard from Mi-na's neck, but it was lodged deep, and after a few attempts, a thorn pricked his hand. Frowning, he stepped back.
"Ugh, damn that hurts."
It was a pretty sizable thorn.
But for the man who had just killed two people right in front of him to complain about a mere thorn in his hand—what could be more ridiculous? Yet Sung-hoon, the person in question, seemed serious as he scanned the surroundings and soon found a suitable wooden shard with a sharp, broken end.
He picked it up and approached the last survivor, Pil-seop, stabbing down repeatedly.
Stab! Stab! Stab!
Pil-seop twitched a few times before going cold.
Bathed in spurting blood, Sung-hoon soon staggered and collapsed backward. His hands trembled as if in panic, his pupils shaking. If someone hostile appeared now, he'd lose his life in an instant.
Fortunately, however, several windows appeared before Sung-hoon's eyes again.
"Impressive."
"Heh, heh heh, that guy's got some guts."
After Sung-hoon vanished in a flash of white light, all that remained in the room were three corpses and the wriggling bookshelf. Staring blankly at the scene, the old man wiped the incredulous look from his face and spoke.
"His name was Yoo Sung-hoon, right? What's the completion time?"
"Using Shin Pil-seop's wakeup as the benchmark: 21 minutes 11 seconds. Using Yoo Sung-hoon's wakeup: 4 minutes 4 seconds. From the Tutorial Quest start time: 1 minute 45 seconds."
"The tutorial rewards additional payouts based on completion time, right? He must've raked in a fortune."
"It's not the rewards—it's that human's actions that are more shocking."
The reason they were stunned watching the footage was precisely because of Sung-hoon's behavior. They had assumed that while Chang-seok held off the enemy, the other three would grab weapons and join in to subdue it.
With Command—a B-rank ability at that—the quest itself seemed easy enough.
But while Chang-seok kept the foe at bay and Mi-na and Pil-seop searched for weapons, Sung-hoon had stood dazed for a moment. Then he gave a slight nod, picked up a chair in the corner, and smashed it into the back of Pil-seop's head—he had his back turned.
Naturally, seeing Pil-seop collapse, Mi-na fell into panic and screamed. Sung-hoon grabbed a splinter from the broken chair, and after Chang-seok felled the evil spirit possessor and grew fatigued, he approached and simply killed him.
Then he finished off Mi-na and Pil-seop as well.
"What do you think? Isn't it fun that there's someone who defies expectations like this?"
They had thought that with Chang-seok's Command, the four could survive safely or even escape. Even in the worst case, Mi-na—with her Low Swordsmanship—could make it out alive.
Pil-seop, who had woken first and secretly grasped the system, might even pull out a trump card.
However, the one who caused the upheaval was none other than Yoo Sung-hoon.
Regardless of what impact Sung-hoon's actions had delivered, the two stared at the scene for a long while.