The Bracelet of the Snake

I stepped a short distance away from the camp and stood in the forest. Then I bowed toward the direction where I sensed the cat was.

This was something I had to do.

“Cat. Thank you, truly. Thanks to you, I was able to overcome several major crises.”

This was sincere. Even without the cat’s gift, I might have cleared Stage 3. But the outcome would have been vastly different. In that future, Bangsil-i and Nareun-i might not have existed. The odds of Boots surviving after losing three arms were extremely low. Most importantly, Baengnae would never have returned.

She didn’t raise the difficulty? Throw away that pathetic excuse. Raising the difficulty was something I agreed to as well. Shifting the blame onto the cat for the consequences was nothing but the cowardly thinking of a loser.

“I am truly grateful to you.”

The cat fell silent, perhaps feeling embarrassed. I suddenly found myself smiling at her reaction.

In reality—on Earth—words like these were the kind you weren’t supposed to say lightly. An apology became a weakness, and gratitude meant getting hooked by the nose and dragged around by the other party. A life more savage than the wild itself. There, a single word could become a sharper threat than any blade, pressing down on your very existence.

Yet this mighty being answered my gratitude with an apology. It felt deeply ironic.

‘I always thought I had no luck with people…’

Only after the world ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠flipped upside down did I find those who brought peace to my heart. I wanted to protect these beings. And to do that, I needed to become even stronger. Strong enough not to be endangered by mere dwarves. Strong enough not to be swayed by other patrons.

I lifted my head and gazed at the sky beyond where the cat resided. To achieve that kind of growth, I had to be even more thorough.

“That’s why I won’t accept the offer we discussed. I’m sorry. You’ll have to wait a bit longer for the snacks.”

The cat was genuinely surprised.

‘No… what kind of logic leads to that conclusion?’

I explained why I wanted to delay the sponsorship.

“No. Stage 4 has special artifacts, doesn’t it? I plan to gather as many as possible first, grow stronger, and then raise the difficulty. I’m still too weak.”

“Why?”

It was a tempting offer. ‘But how much should I raise it?’

Increasing the difficulty would certainly expand my growth ceiling. But there was such a thing as too much of a good thing. Stage 3 had already caused that much chaos—if I got greedy and raised it too high only to die, it would mean nothing. I had to think carefully.

Major crises almost always resulted in the loss of troops. Excessive casualties inevitably led to elimination. Weren’t there already countless examples of that scattered throughout the community?

At that moment, the cat muttered to herself.

“What’s wrong?”

‘Highest difficulty… I’ve had enough of that kind of experience.’

“What item is it?”

“How could I forget?”

‘It tells me the location of special artifacts?!’

This was huge. The whole reason I was going through the trouble of gathering and training monkeys was for the artifacts. With that bracelet, I could skip all that annoying work. No—it wasn’t just about convenience. Beyond that, it meant I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could acquire every single artifact in the maze.

Most importantly…

This was the reward I received for perfectly clearing the dwarves’ city. The Energy Storage was an item exclusive to Stage 4, equivalent to the tools from Stage 3. Defeating maze creatures would accumulate life energy in the storage, which could then be used to obtain special rewards from artifacts. And Type-X was the highest-performance storage device ever seen—at least according to community information, it was the first of its kind.

Not long ago, a high-ranker had revealed his secret to success. He was a super rookie who had stayed in Stage 4 for a long time before suddenly exploding in growth and clearing Stages 5 and 6. He claimed he had obtained something called Type-V as a Stage 3 reward and had remained in Stage 4 for an extended period to find artifacts. Using that high-performance storage and the artifacts as a foundation, he boasted about mass-producing high-grade summons like a factory. I didn’t know what difficulty he had raised it to, but with just a single Type-V, he had achieved the kind of growth that instantly made him a high-ranker.

And what I possessed was Type-X. Something even better than what the community users had.

‘If I add the cat’s bracelet on top of this…?’

I swallowed dryly. After the Altos incident, I had been planning for safe growth. But this was too sweet. Refusing it would be something only a fool would do.

“Huu… Cat.”

“No. I’ll do it.”

I had already overcome something on the level of Stage 3’s anomaly. What was Stage 4 in comparison? Raising the difficulty by twelve levels was nothing. That much could be endured by tightening my core and relying on steel-like willpower.

Sss— sss— A wind blew, rustling the trees. The sky seemed to lower slightly.

‘What? Stage 3 was only +12.’

Unlike my flustered reaction, the cat let out a cry of joy.

Clang— clang— A bracelet and a stone fell from the air. The bracelet was the item for finding artifacts, and the stone was probably the item that manipulated the ‘proof.’ But right now, I needed the cat’s explanation more than the sweet rewards.

“Cat! Wait a second, just a second!”

There was no reply. She had already been lured away by the high-grade snacks.

‘Hmm… is this okay…?’

For some reason, it felt like I had opened the path to my own suffering.

It had been a month since the ‘Returnee’ last posted. Surprisingly, a new post from him had just gone up. As if he didn’t care about public opinion at all, his latest post had its location information set to private. Even so, the Returnee’s post instantly gained popularity and reached global best rank #1.

[-Image attached-]

I suddenly remembered some newbie showing off with a Type-V the other day and decided to post this. Haha, posting a V-grade as something to brag about? Is that for real? If it were me, I’d delete the post and reflect for a month lol

An aggro-filled, provocative post with no information or content. Yet the reaction was explosive. Supporters of the Returnee began sharing the post, calling it proof of his identity. It started with arguments from a few users. Then it grew. Eventually, the [Returnee Support Group] and [Returnee Anti Club] began pouring in firepower, and fights broke out even in threads unrelated to the Returnee, lasting all day.

And that debate led to the logic that always emerged whenever a fight broke out in the community.

‘So what stage are you on?’

Usually, when someone pulled out “What stage are you on?”, all logic was shut down. Because the higher-stage person’s words were simply considered correct. But this time it was a little different. The people who came to pour firepower were all users beyond Stage 6. So “What stage are you on?” was slightly twisted in application.

‘So what did you do in Stage 4?’

Since their current progress was the same, it meant they wanted to compete based on past achievements. Thus, the “Stage 4 Certification Challenge” began. A contest to see who had achieved greater growth by the time they escaped the Maze of Evolution. This challenge swept across servers worldwide and created an enormous craze. Even users who had no interest in the Returnee began participating. The reason was that showing one’s current stage was burdensome in many ways, but revealing a bit of Stage 4’s power was just the right amount of entertainment. Moreover, with many rankers already certifying, mid-tier users who wanted to feel like they had beaten rankers in Stage 4 flooded in.

As the issue grew, even patrons joined in. An anonymous patron pledged to reward the summoner with the most outstanding results. They also announced they would organize an actual competition so the challenge wouldn’t end on the community alone.

The way to participate in the challenge was as follows: Choose one of your summons at the moment of completing Stage 4 and register it on the newly opened board. Even deceased summons were allowed. Then, based on the records, the summons would be replicated for battles. It was the opening of a Stage 4 tournament open to anyone.

The patron generously gave an opportunity even to those currently in Stage 4. They provided a one-month grace period for summon registration. The implication was to push through the stages and participate during that time.

Accordingly, everyone’s attention focused on one user. The Returnee. The one who had bragged about Type-X—what kind of summon would he submit to the challenge? And Baek Suhan, who had been quietly watching all of this from behind the screen, scratched his head with a troubled expression.

“Huh… things got bigger than I thought.”

Honestly, he had been enjoying the Returnee roleplay quite a bit. Especially when the high-ranker Han Yua spoke to him with extreme formality—it was very entertaining. Furthermore, it was true that he felt a strange sense of satisfaction when community users fought over him. But if he didn’t submit something this time, he would lose all of it. He would become a cowardly deserter. Yet submitting just anything and losing would also be a significant problem.

‘Ugh… why did it come to this…’

The time limit was one month. Fire had been lit under the Zombie Summoner’s feet. And the anonymous patron who had offered the challenge reward watched his appearance and chuckled to herself. Everything was in the palm of her hand.