Waiting Room (1)
The moment I heard the word recapture, I instantly understood the concept of the third tutorial. ‘This time, we’re the ones breaking through.’
If the second tutorial had been about holding off waves of goblins from inside the village, the third was the exact opposite: we had to go out and take back the territory that had been stolen from us.
“As you can see from the footage, your objective is to recapture the territory occupied by the evil orc, Kucharak.”
Along with Luniel’s explanation, footage of what an orc looked like began playing.
- Hu… man… Grk!
Just like the goblins, the orcs looked pretty much how I’d imagined them. Massive builds, muscular bodies, potbellies that jutted out, and huge protruding tusks. They weren’t all that different from the typical depiction of orcs. The only surprise was that these weren’t just mindless mobs—they could actually communicate with humans.
“There is only one thing you must be careful of. Never, under any circumstances, face an orc alone. At your current level, an orc is still too much for any of you.”
“Then who’s going to deal with all those orcs? Don’t we have to kill them to complete the recapture?”
“As you’ll see in the footage, you will have allies fighting alongside you this time. They will primarily handle the orcs. If four or five of you work together, you should be able to take down a single orc.”
The news that they’d have allies brought a visible wave of relief across everyone’s faces. Having tasted bitter defeat in the second tutorial, they seemed reassured by the presence of powerful figures who could hold the orcs at bay. Moreover, the footage shown this time depicted a much more even fight, unlike the second tutorial which had only shown people getting slaughtered.
The knight leading the charge in particular looked overwhelmingly dominant. The orcs couldn’t even put up a proper fight against his sword. It didn’t seem all that difficult.
But something felt off.
‘Why aren’t they showing the full video?’
The footage had clearly started with a boss-like orc—the one Luniel had called Kucharak—but after a certain point, he disappeared entirely. Surely the knight would have to defeat that orc for the third tutorial to end, yet that scene was suspiciously omitted.
“That is all I have to tell you. You all worked hard in the second tutorial. I will see you again in twelve hours.”
With those words, Luniel vanished without a trace.
The tension that had been holding everyone together seemed to snap the moment she disappeared. People slumped down where they stood. Seeing that, I figured I should head upstairs and rest too, but—
“Senior.”
Song Dayeong’s voice calling my name stopped me in my tracks.
“…Where did you go at the end?”
Her tone was calm, but the way her pupils trembled faintly told me the shock of her suicide still lingered.
“I got kicked out for farming too hard.”
There was no reason to hide it, so I just told her the truth.
“Are you seriously saying that right now? Were you hiding on purpose so you could let us all die and hog all the points?!”
Im Dokeon butting in so suddenly made irritation flare up inside me.
“You fucking idiot, Im Dokeon. Do you really think the tutorial would’ve failed if I’d been there? If I was gonna hog everything, I would’ve done it from the start. Why the hell would I only do it at the end?”
“Who knows? Maybe we all died and you slipped up while fighting and got yourself killed too.”
“Me?”
I snorted in disbelief and glared at him. Im Dokeon flinched and quickly looked away.
‘What a fucking moron.’
He didn’t know a single thing properly, yet he kept jumping to conclusions and running his mouth. The second you pushed back hard, he shut up immediately. I really should’ve beaten that bastard half to death back then.
More than the fact that I hadn’t earned any points in the second tutorial, I was starting to regret leaving that piece of shit behind.
“You don’t believe me either?”
“No, I believe you.”
“Then that’s that. Go rest.”
“Wait!”
“What now.”
I was about to head up, thinking we were done, but Song Dayeong stopped me again. I let out a deep sigh.
“Um…”
She glanced around once before whispering so only I could hear.
“You have to take me with you… to the room.”
“Why? You horny?”
“Keep your voice down! And you know that’s not what I mean.”
“Well, I do know, but I don’t remember our contract including anything like that.”
“Huh…?”
When she looked up at me with the face of someone who’d just lost her country, I chuckled and handed her the key.
“It’s the room next door. Use it as you like.”
“Wow! I knew I could trust you, Senior!”
Song Dayeong snatched the key and jumped up and down with joy. If she was going to scream like that, why had she whispered in the first place? It was ridiculous, but whatever.
Anyway, once everyone went up to the second floor and entered their rooms, they’d all find out. It didn’t really matter. A lot of them already knew.
Quite a few people had seen the two of us sticking together during the tutorial. Some of the dropouts had even gotten into arguments with us, calling her a whore and everything. So most people could probably guess what our relationship was.
I was curious how they’d treat Song Dayeong now that she’d claimed one of the best rooms, but at the same time, I figured nothing much would happen. We only had twelve hours left. Everyone was exhausted and busy trying to sleep. There wasn’t enough time for them to cause any real trouble.
Kwon Soyeon, sitting quietly in a corner of the plaza, watched the two of them head up to the second floor.
Song Dayeong looked like she couldn’t stop smiling, thrilled at the prospect of spreading her legs and sleeping in a nice room. Yoon Iseo seemed annoyed by her excitement and shoved her aside before entering the room himself.
Click.
The moment the two disappeared from sight, Kwon Soyeon pulled her knees tightly to her chest and buried her face in them.
She had witnessed the two of them that day and had agonized over it countless times since. Was it really right to survive by going that far? Couldn’t she do it alone?
She had thought about it endlessly, but in the end, she had decided to try getting through the second tutorial by herself.
Ironically, the person who had led her to that decision was Yoon Iseo. Once he killed the goblins, she realized it wasn’t actually that hard to take them down herself. If things continued like that, she thought she could survive the third tutorial just fine.
But the problem had come during the final fifth wave.
No matter how long she waited, Yoon Iseo never showed up. Eventually, the house where she was hiding got broken into by goblins. She held out as long as she could, clinging to the slightest hope, but it was impossible. Just as she was debating whether to kill herself before the goblins could do something far worse to her, she had opened her eyes back in the waiting room.
Before she could even feel relief at having survived, Luniel had secretly told her why she had been returned without dying. At the same time, she learned that her count had dropped to one.
‘She sent me back because waiting for me to die was a waste of time.’
She wasn’t sure if she should call that good luck or not. Still, thanks to it, she had avoided the worst.
“Fuck… Song Dayeong, that bitch. I’m so fucking jealous. Should I just go beg him to let me use the room too if I spread my legs for him?”
“You think that face of yours would work? You’d be lucky if Senior doesn’t stab you with a knife instead.”
It hadn’t been that long since they’d all gone through that nightmare, yet they were already cracking sexual jokes and giggling like it was nothing. Their condition seemed to have recovered remarkably fast. Watching them act like the previous events had been nothing more than a bad dream made Kwon Soyeon wonder if she was the only one who couldn’t adapt. It only made her thoughts heavier.
And the biggest source of her worries was, of course, Yoon Iseo.
‘I’ve already been excluded once. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?’
She didn’t believe everything he said, but since there didn’t seem to be any reason for him to lie, she chose to trust him for now.
‘But if I trust him…’
That meant the same thing could happen again in the third tutorial.
“Haa…”
Kwon Soyeon let out a heavy sigh. The fact that she had no choice but to rely on someone in this situation weighed on her terribly. She had even considered swallowing her pride, ignoring the whore rumors, and going to Yoon Iseo. But the last shred of her self-respect wouldn’t allow it.
If she was going to do this, she needed to steel her heart and push forward stubbornly. But the continuous crises kept chipping away at her confidence.
While Kwon Soyeon sat alone, consumed by all sorts of thoughts that gnawed away at her—
Creak!
Song Dayeong walked out of the room with a towel wrapped around her head and strode confidently toward the shop.
Other people might not know, but Kwon Soyeon knew there was a shop inside that room. She understood exactly what this display meant.
It was a blatant show of superiority. You all have to huddle together smelling like sweat because you can’t even wash, while I get to bathe alone and live comfortably.
Of course, everyone else recognized it as showing off. But since they didn’t know about the shop inside the room, they couldn’t fully grasp just how deliberately provocative Song Dayeong’s actions were.
Everyone gathered in the plaza glared at her with disbelief, but Song Dayeong paid them no mind. She bought some food from the shop and leisurely returned to the second floor.
Most people felt their blood boil watching her, but a few couldn’t help feeling envious.
“Fuck, I wish I could at least take a bath.”
No one had properly washed in days. They were all drenched in sweat, and their clothes hadn’t been properly cleaned either. The entire plaza reeked of body odor, though everyone had grown so used to the smell that they barely noticed it anymore.
With so many different people in the plaza, all sorts of thoughts and emotions swirled through the air.
When Yoon Iseo woke up from his nap and came down to the plaza, what he saw was—
“Did you sleep well, Senior?”
“I did, but…”
“Ah, these guys? They’re my friends.”
Song Dayeong, now surrounded by a crowd of new friends.