EP.3 — Difficulty Selection

Is the status window out of its mind?

I stared at the status window with a dumbfounded expression. Huh. That's a new trick.

I hadn't touched a single thing, and it just up and decided my name for me? If it were at least a normal nickname, fine.

But FoxGod? Seriously?

Yeah, it's my class name — but to anyone who didn't know that, I'd look like a textbook case of chuunibyou. Just imagining someone addressing me that way gave me goosebumps. Absolute. Not. Happening…!

I jabbed frantically at every corner of the window, but nothing responded except the confirm button — as if to say, your nickname is already set, so stop struggling. I tried a few more workarounds after that, all equally useless.

It's not like I can throw a tantrum on the floor like Danbi does.

So accepting it was the only option. I couldn't exactly forgo the community entirely, and thinking about it rationally, just using the thing was the sensible call. Just you wait…! One day I'll become a super-powered FoxGod and get my revenge.

Watch yourself, status window.

With a sour face, I pressed the confirm button, and the screen flipped over in an instant, jingle and all.

This is the place…!

At long last, I had breached the community.

The UI's surprisingly familiar, actually.

Honestly, it wasn't much different from Hunter Gallery. More like someone took the internet and stuffed it inside a status window, really.

First, I read the community description pinned at the very top.

So it's called the Status Window Gallery….

I guess people shortened it to StatusGallery. Hmm, a surprisingly plain name.

The atmosphere matched the plain name — just your average community vibe. I'd expected something a little more serious, given that it was packed with active Hunters. Well, yeah. When has a community ever had a dignified atmosphere? If it did, who'd bother using the status window? Everyone would just go hang out on Hunter Gallery instead.

Guess I'll read the pinned notice first.

I clicked the notice sitting at the very top of the board. …Hmm, kind of a letdown?

I'd hoped for something juicy, but it was basically just "mind your manners and post responsibly." Apparently, as long as you did that, there were no other restrictions at all. So that's why the vibe's so free around here.

Though honestly, crossing the line in this crowd would make you a lunatic anyway.

This was a place where only active Hunters gathered. Pick a pointless fight and your opponent turns out to be a high-rank Hunter? A member of a famous guild? Congratulations — you chased a hit of dopamine straight into ending your own life. Viewed that way, being stuck with the nickname FoxGod might not be so bad after all?

My identity would be nearly impossible to pin down. Even if someone got tangled up in something with me and tried digging into my background, strictly speaking, Japan would draw more suspicion than Korea. Fox gods are bigger over there, after all.

Korea had its own kumiho mythology, sure, but nothing comparable to Japan's.

Looking at it that way… yeah, it's honestly not bad.

Hmph. I'll let it slide this once. But if this happens again, I'm really going to sulk.

So… now what?

The community was more nutrient-free than I'd expected. Unless I posted a question myself, getting anything useful out of it looked like a slog. Then there's nothing for it — I'll just ask directly.

Whoa.

The response was hotter than I'd imagined. Well, to be fair, newbies are beloved prey on any community. And StatusGallery was used simultaneously by people all over the world — of course both the readers and the commenters would be plentiful.

…Hmm, but what is with these replies….

I finally work up the nerve to ask a question, and everyone pretends to help while just doing their own thing. Honestly, this might be worse than Hunter Gallery….

Might as well just go bonk my head against the Tower itself.

Seeing is believing, as they say. I hit the back button and, without a moment's hesitation, pressed the Tower button.

Whoa…!

The next instant, a vast grassland unfurled before my eyes. It was hard to believe I'd been inside an apartment mere seconds ago.

Along with the message announcing my entry to the Tower. So I really had arrived safely.

But what happens now?

I closed the status window and looked around, but there was nothing nearby except grass. Was I supposed to do something myself? It didn't feel like that kind of setup….

Wait, don't I have to pick a difficulty first?

Right around the time that thought crossed my mind, the status window — which I had definitely turned off — popped up in front of my face all on its own.

It pops up automatically, then. So I really did have to choose a difficulty.

Hmm, what do I do…?

The window warned that picking wrong meant climbing all the way back up from Floor 1. Ah, so it's telling me to choose carefully early on.

If I went too easy and ended up with skimpy rewards, I'd feel cheated. And climbing up a bunch of floors only to be sent back down would sting too. Easy… feels way too easy, though.

I'm an EX-rank class, for crying out loud. Easy would just be embarrassing. I mean, I might lack attack skills, but I have Foxfire.

Normal?

Too wishy-washy. Grind my heart out just to get pocket-change rewards? The world runs on high risk, high return, doesn't it? To get strong fast, obviously I have to challenge the higher difficulties. Which leaves Hard or Insane….

Hmph. Tough call. Not knowing exactly what I'm getting into makes it even harder to choose. When in doubt, rely on the wisdom of crowds.

I pulled up StatusGallery right away and started writing a new post.

The comments were unanimously chanting the same thing: do not pick Insane. Hard, whatever, fine — just avoid Insane?

Human beings are creatures of defiance, aren't they? Tell them not to and they want to more; tell them to and they don't want to. I was exactly that right now.

And it's not like I can't change the difficulty later anyway.

As long as I escape before I die, I'm golden, right?

Agh, screw it, I can't stand this…!

Insane, let's gooo!

Who am I?

The world's one and only EX-rank apartment near-massacrer (allegedly).

Steeled with resolve, I clicked the Insane difficulty. Huh?

Apart from the status window vanishing the moment I pressed it, the grassland remained perfectly peaceful.

What gives?

Actually, this made me even more anxious. If something jumped out, I could at least figure out how to handle it, roughly. The layout's probably similar to the other difficulties, right?

According to the posts I'd read on StatusGallery, Floors 1 through 5 were essentially a tutorial — a period for checking whether you had the bare minimum monster-slaying capability, I suppose. Thanks to that, the clear condition was simple monster extermination rather than any convoluted quest. And the monsters that spawn there, from what I remember….

Easy had plain goblins, Normal had hobgoblins — nothing too challenging. Like I said a moment ago, it's just a tutorial. But from Hard onward, the situation changes. Out of nowhere, you get ogres, or a goblin lord. Word was you needed to be at least around a C-rank Hunter to clear it comfortably. But Insane….

So few people picked it, and so few cleared it, that there was barely any information about it at all. Recommended specs, monster spawn tables, nothing. Even the famous verified users who'd beaten it seemed to avoid discussing it. Well, fair enough. At that level, information itself is a commodity.

In the end, after digging through half the community, I managed to find a single relevant post. Not that it offered anything actually useful — nothing but eyewitness accounts of some absolutely massive thing appearing. A giant, huh. Real reassuring….

Should've looked into it more before pressing the button. Now I was nervous all of a sudden….

That was when it happened.

Thud—

Something the size of a human palm — a rock, maybe — came plummeting out of the sky.

What the heck is that?

Don't tell me that's the monster?

It wasn't huge. It didn't look scary. But just as I was carefully edging closer to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the rock—

Kugugung.

The rock suddenly rumbled and began to shake. Wh-what is it doing?

A few seconds later, the rock was transforming into a limb-bearing golem. It steadily grew as well, swelling to my height (140cm, mind you), then kept going until I had to tilt my head back just to see its face.

It's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠still growing?!

How nice it would have been if it stopped there. Huh?

The thing clearly had no conscience, because it kept ballooning without end. It was already well past ten ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠times my size. You're going all-out even against an elementary schooler?!

What a shamelessly underhanded creature. A Rock Golem?

I'd seen it on the news once. The monster that had driven dozens of Hunters to their deaths during the Busan Gate Break. After that incident, the Hunter Association had officially rated the Rock Golem's danger level as A-rank. Who on earth put something like this on Floor 1?!

I never expected to regret things this quickly. Now I understood why everyone warned against Insane. This was not a difficulty built for newbies to clear. How is a freshly awakened person supposed to kill an A-rank monster?!

I should've listened to the others….

Before long, the golem seemed to finally reclaim its true form, and it slowly began moving its limbs. Its gray-toned body base gave off a faint blue glow — it looked like something out of an ancient age. …Wait, is that what golems are supposed to look like? In the time it took me to have that pointless thought, the creature was already advancing toward me without a shred of hesitation.

The moment it caught me like this, I'd be crushed under that hand — one three times bigger than my whole body. It's too late to give up now.

You draw the sword, you swing it — something like that, right? I took a deep breath and summoned my Foxfire. Huh. More manageable than I thought.

…After all, no matter how big that thing gets, it'll never be bigger than our apartment building. And I'm the person who very nearly blew that apartment sky-high. Who do you think you are, fooling around like that, golem?!