Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: The Second Act Begins
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"Se-woon, this is……."
"It's exactly what it says. Time to leave this place."
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Tutorial Second Act – Movement] You must travel along the plains to reach the destination. Time remaining until destination arrival: 167 hours 59 minutes The Tutorial's second act had begun.
The content was simple: head to the destination.
There were 168 hours remaining. In other words, they had to arrive within a week.
The phrasing "travel along the plains" might seem vague, but an arrow-shaped icon hovered above it. So even after the plains ended, they just had to follow the arrow.
Compared to the monster waves, it looked like a straightforward task with no real challenges, but people's reactions weren't positive.
"Leave?"
"I thought we were finally settling in……."
"The monster waves just ended, and I was hoping for a break."
The theme of the Tutorial's first act had been "adaptation."
True to that purpose, people had thoroughly adapted to this place—despite daily monster attacks and the lack of any proper facilities in this wilderness.
Moving meant a new adaptation, so it was natural for people to feel troubled.
'How should I put this?'
Seeing people fail to calm down for quite a while, even Yoo Seo-ah seemed a bit flustered.
Se-woon had known about this situation beforehand, but with his pre-regression memories off-limits, he couldn't think of a way to lead them right now.
In this atmosphere, two completely unexpected figures began to shift the mood.
"Waaah! My buildings! The fences! I worked so hard on them!"
"They were mostly destroyed in the last wave anyway, right? Isn't it more fun to build new ones from scratch?"
Constellation, 'Black Bird,' nods, saying construction here has its limits. Constellation, 'Giant Bird,' hopes its contractor moves to a wider space, saying this place is too cramped. "You're right!"
The twin sisters. They had handled construction and contributed the most to turning the camp into a proper settlement.
Now that they had to abandon it and leave, they should have been the most heartbroken of all.
Yet those two were radiating positivity and leading everyone along.
"I wonder where we're going? Oh, maybe we'll find a village?"
"Ooh! If we get to a village, I wanna take a hot bath first thing!"
"But what if monsters show up on the way……."
"Pfft, so what? We've handled everything so well up to now."
The two bantered back and forth like they were performing a comedy skit.
With the mood sunk by news of the Tutorial's second act, their voices carried across the entire camp.
People naturally started paying attention to their conversation.
And finally.
"Right? What do you think, big brothers?"
"Y-yeah!"
"I mean, we've made it through this insane situation already. What's a little more?"
They began pulling people into their upbeat vibe.
With the twins—who should've been hit the hardest—taking the initiative, everyone else got swept up in the positivity too.
In the midst of it all, Se-woon caught sight of something.
Wink!
The twin sisters shooting him clumsy winks.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Thanks to the twins' efforts, the situation calmed down quickly.
Some people were still worried, but most accepted the new Tutorial and started getting ready to move.
They skinned the hunted monsters and handed them to Go Chang-seok, filleted the meat for the cooks. Weapons brought by the red monkeys, monster bones, and more all went to Go Chang-seok too.
The sheer number of monsters from the tenth wave had given Go Chang-seok and the cooks quite the workload.
Fortunately.
"I'll help too!"
"Thanks! Could you carry those meats over there? We're gonna smoke 'em for long-term storage."
"Elder, anything I can do?"
"Heh heh, much obliged. If you've got time, mind dismantling those monkey weapons? They're crudely made, so it shouldn't be too tough."
Everyone was pitching in eagerly.
Until now, free time was spent resting or training to fight monsters, so with the waves gone, they suddenly had nothing to do.
Watching the camp bustle, Se-woon approached the broken fences.
The twins stood there, gazing at them with wistful eyes.
They'd put on a brave face in front of everyone, but this was their true feeling.
They were so focused that they only turned around after Se-woon cleared his throat softly from right behind them.
"Oh? It's Blood Wolf!"
"Whoa, Blood Wolf!"
Blood Wolf, huh.
Se-woon felt a sudden headache coming on.
'At this rate, it'll stick as my epithet.'
This wasn't just some casual nickname people tossed around.
An epithet was a fragment of legend built from a player's deeds since the Tutorial, officially recognized by the system.
Since the system acknowledged it, epithets often directly influenced a player's path forward.
Some players planned ahead to shape their legends artificially, but almost none succeeded in crafting exactly the legend or epithet they wanted.
This case was different, though.
If he was called by an epithet from the Tutorial's starting point and acted accordingly, the system had no choice but to nod along.
'Not a bad one anyway.'
Unlike "Black-Clothed Beggar" or "Dirty Face"—epithets so embarrassing some players wanted to hide them.
"What brings you here?"
"Here to play with us?"
The twins approached, perfectly masking their earlier wistfulness as they eyed the fences they'd soon leave behind.
Se-woon averted his gaze awkwardly and murmured softly.
"Thanks."
"Huh?"
"Eh?"
They both looked shocked, as if it was the last response they expected. But they quickly caught on and grinned brightly.
"Aw, c'mon, it's nothing!"
"We were leaving anyway. Better to ditch the attachments quick, right?"
"That system thing spits out monsters like candy. Who knows what happens if we ignore it!"
"Plus, it's payback for all that wood you chopped for us before?"
"Hehe!"
The twins brushed off Se-woon's thanks like it was no big deal.
They'd probably framed it as "payback" to keep him from feeling burdened.
Smiling at their thoughtfulness, Se-woon changed the subject.
"Need anything?"
"Need something…… Oh! We do have one worry. Will you hear us out?"
"Huh? We had a worry?"
"You know, that thing!"
"Oh, that!"
Se-woon tilted his head at "that."
He'd only asked to move the conversation along; he had no idea what the two might need now that they were leaving camp.
"This way!"
"Follow us!"
The twins grabbed his wrists from both sides and dragged him off.
Suddenly shackled by both hands, Se-woon let himself be pulled to a corner of the camp.
"This!"
"……Hides?"
"Hides? These are sleeping bags! Made from monster pelts!"
"Right, Blood Wolf oppa always slept somewhere else."
The spot was piled high with leather sleeping bags.
Not just those—woven grass-and-branch cups, carved wooden utensils, all sorts of daily necessities.
'Makes sense. I always slept on the opposite side.'
Getting too close dulled cold judgment. Plus, his aloof actions so far made some people uncomfortable around him.
So he'd kept his distance subtly until now.
He knew they'd adapted well, but Se-woon hadn't expected this level.
"But why these?"
"That's not all. The smith's tools, people's gear, emergency rations…… Even leaving camp, we've got tons to carry!"
"It's only been a few days, right?"
"We thought of bundling hides like sacks……."
"But lugging that around would suck if monsters showed up!"
Se-woon pondered their words seriously.
They were spot on. In his pre-regression life, survivors were few, morale low, and they'd left without a proper plan.
'Leading to that hellish march.'
Of course, the Tutorial's second act wasn't just simple travel.
As the twins predicted, monster ambushes happened, and right after the plains came treacherous terrain.
Nights dropped cold, ruining everyone's condition.
Travel slowed, nearly missing the deadline.
"So we tried making a cart……."
"But nothing to pull it with!"
"Han-cheol oppa might manage, but……."
"Pushing together would just slow us down!"
The twins’ faces turned serious. This wasn’t idle chatter—they were genuinely troubled.
Seeing that made Se-woon feel good.
He'd been agonizing alone over leading the camp, but without realizing, people had stepped up to share the burden.
"You've thought this through a lot."
"Hehe, pretty good, huh?"
"But sis said they're all too heavy……."
"Argh, shush! The mood was perfect!"
With things this far, he couldn't let them down.
Something to pull a cart.
A perfect idea flashed in Se-woon's mind.
"You two make the cart first."
"Huh? How?"
"No way you're pulling it yourself? Even you couldn't drag a cart for a whole week."
"Of course not. I've got a way. Just build the cart."
"But……."
"Sis, quit worrying! If oppa says so, he's got a plan."
"Right? We'll trust you then, oppa!"
"We'll make it sturdy, so look forward to it!"
Constellation, 'Black Bird,' glares at you, warning it won't forgive you if you disappoint its contractor. Constellation, 'Giant Bird,' hurriedly covers 'Black Bird' with its broad wings and starts making excuses to the Demon God. Constellation, 'Raven with Bowed Head,' anticipates your actions. Se-woon moved to a new spot.
People were busy there, preparing smoked meat.
'Not many options, really. Just two.'
First: tame a monster. With his 2-circle mana, Se-woon could manage it.
Mammon's treasure vault even had collars for beast taming.
The issue? No monsters left around.
The first act ended, waves stopped, and wolves, hill boars—all cleared.
That left option two.
Swoosh.
Se-woon raised his hand.
Toward the monster bones left after skinning and filleting.
Then he casually opened Mammon's treasure vault.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ Treasure Vault of Greed has been opened. ⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ [Raise Skeleton] A representative spell of the Black Tower's Necromancers, infusing mana to raise bones.
Clatter!
Beneath Se-woon's hand, the monster corpses began to stir.