Prologue. Death, and—
[You have died!
Cause of death: Asphyxiation by compression of the neck.
What a pathetic, miserable life.
You were abandoned at birth and couldn't fit in anywhere. You weren't stupid, and you managed to get into a prestigious university, but even that didn't change your circumstances.
Your enormous size and unfortunate upbringing were bad enough, but the crowning glory was your severe mental illness.
Unable to find love from anyone, and unable to get along with anyone, you chose suicide at the age of 27.
A sad, pathetic thing. If you'd known there was an afterlife, you would never have chosen this option...
But rejoice!
Unlike ordinary people, who must shut up and be dragged off to the underworld, you—one in ten thousand, blessed with talent—have been given a new chance.
If you, a person of talent, enter the labyrinth and defeat the enemies invading your world, you may be able not only to undo the death that came for you, but also to transcend fate and become a transcendent being.
But hurry.
If you fail to complete your first mission in time and prove your [qualification], and the labyrinth judges you to be an [ordinary] being, the death you postponed will come for you. Your physical body in reality will die, and you will become a labyrinth dweller, wandering the labyrinth.
Also, be careful.
If you die from overreaching in your greed, what awaits you will not be applause for your life-risking determination, but simple death.
If you don't want to become a dead soul—not even a labyrinth dweller—and regret this moment forever, then when you realize there's no way you can complete your mission in time, it may be better to think of life in the labyrinth as a second life and take care of yourself.
That's all the explanation. There isn't even time to think.
Hurry.
Time limit: 10000 seconds.]
The man opened his eyes. The text that had been visible even with his eyes closed shrank and moved to one side of his field of vision, allowing the surrounding scenery to come into view.
He was in a forest.
When he turned his head, he saw unfamiliar varieties of grass and flowers. There were also strange kinds of trees he'd never even seen on television. Thick fog covered the entire forest, making it impossible to see anything more than a dozen or so meters away.
"What is this... I definitely hanged myself..."
As the man hurriedly got to his feet, he finally noticed the pressure squeezing his body.
His loose T-shirt and shorts were nowhere to be seen. Instead, he was wearing brown armor.
It was made from the hide of some unknown beast, and looked oddly worn, as if it wasn't new. The leather armor was made of several layers of different kinds of hide and consisted of pieces for the head, torso, arms, legs, hands, and feet. It protected his body firmly, almost as if it had been custom-made for him.
That wasn't all.
Once he came to his senses, he noticed a leather shield about 30 centimeters in diameter in his left hand. Leather straps ran around its edges, and the back had a grip and a leather strap that kept it secure on his arm. In his right hand was a sword about 60 centimeters long, with a sharpened edge on both sides, making it suitable for both slashing and thrusting.
As soon as he took in all his equipment, new text appeared before his eyes.
[Confirmed target is an ability-less human male. 'Beginner Set-Sword & Shield (Superior)' has been provided!]
['Synchronization' has been completed automatically.]
[Hurry! If you fail to complete your mission before the time limit, death will be certain!]
It was a terrifying threat, but naturally, the man wasn't scared. That was only natural, since by his reckoning, he'd tried to kill himself just a dozen or so seconds ago.
Some people regretted their choice at the very moment they attempted suicide, but at least he wasn't one of them.
That didn't mean he was about to try again just because he'd found himself in this abnormal situation, though.
"This is ridiculous. I died, and now I'm alive again?"
The man looked utterly ridiculous as he held a shield and sword he'd never seen before and fumbled at the awkward leather armor.
His belly stuck out, and his double chin folded in two layers. His limbs were scrawny compared to his heavy torso.
Even though he was huge and covered from head to toe in leather armor, his build didn't make him look like a soldier.
If you had to guess based on his outfit, maybe he was some third-rate mercenary with no skill who did nothing but drink every day.
But even that wasn't who he was.
His name was Bae Jaeseok.
He was 27 years old, 193 centimeters tall, and weighed 140 kilograms.
As his weight suggested, he wasn't someone who liked to move his body. He'd lived a life as far removed from fighting as possible.
But now—
He had been thrown into some unknown forest, armed with a sword and shield.
"I don't get it. Resurrection and a labyrinth?"
As he stood there thinking, new text appeared before him.
[Scenario generation—Tutorial.]
Complete one of the following objectives before the time limit expires.
1. Level 1 normal monsters (0/30).
2. Level 1 elite monsters (0/5).
3. Level 1 boss monster (0/1).
4. Find the entrance to the second floor (0/1).
Tutorial.
The word and objectives were so game-like that Jaeseok finally began to grasp the situation.
"I've seen something like this in a novel. The kind where you level up by killing orcs and goblins in a dungeon."
Some people might have been terrified, while others might have been excited with anticipation, but Jaeseok simply stood there, dazed.
He was suicidal.
After a great deal of agonizing, he'd chosen to die of his own accord... and now he'd been resurrected without even asking?
If not for the feel of the leather armor squeezing his whole body, the heavy leather shield in his left hand, and the sword in his right, he would have thought all of this was a dream he'd had before dying.
[10 minutes have passed since the mission began.]
[Hurry! If you fail to complete your mission before the time limit, death will be certain!]
Jaeseok stared blankly at the text for a moment, then scrolled up the log to reread the explanation he'd seen at the very beginning.
At the very bottom of the text that began with [You have died!], it said:
[Time limit: 9357 seconds.]
"Death, huh."
Jaeseok looked at the phrase that might have terrified someone else with an uncertain gaze. Before long, though, he started walking, sword and shield in hand.
After moving about 50 meters, driven more by curiosity than fear, a fork in the path came into view.
Text appeared above each of the three paths.
[Options change each time you enter.]
[Highest floor reached: Floor 1.]
1. Path of Barbarism.
Greenskin monsters appear.
2. Path of Pleasure.
Incubus realm monsters appear.
3. Path of Death.
Undead monsters appear.
"...What the hell is this?"
Jaeseok's eyes widened. The Path of Barbarism and the Path of Death didn't really matter. Goblins and skeletons were among the first things people usually thought of when they heard the word "dungeon."
But the Path of Pleasure was different.
"Incubus... does that mean succubi?"
Jaeseok had committed suicide.
Because of women.
'No, to be precise, not because of women. It was because of lust. More specifically, because of the mental illness that stirred up that lust.'
When he was young, Jaeseok had found something strange in the mountains.
A gigantic—
light-green right arm.
'It still sounds ridiculous when I think about it. An entire arm falling from the sky.'
When he was in elementary school, he'd seen something fall from the sky and peok into a huge boulder. Naturally, he'd thought it was a meteorite. But when he went closer, he found that the thing was the right arm of some being.
It was obviously no ordinary arm.
The arm was bigger than Jaeseok, who was already a fairly large kid for his age. And though it had a shape similar to a human arm, it was covered all over in thick light-green hair so alien that it hardly seemed to belong to a living creature.
When Jaeseok absentmindedly touched it, the arm turned into smoke and was absorbed into his body.
And after that, hell began.
-I'm hungry. So hungry...
-You bitch. I'll fuck you and kill you today.
-My daughter. My young, innocent daughter... I couldn't protect you...
-Ah, fuck, I ate again. I'm getting so damn fat, and all I do is eat all day...
-That fucking Assistant Manager Park is so damn annoying! Why the hell does she act so high and mighty just for doing her job?
-Why is my salary lower than that bastard's?? How the hell does that make any sense??
Yeah, from around that time on, Jaeseok began hearing the voices of people he didn't know. Whether he was eating, studying, working, or even asleep, their voices never stopped.
The sounds themselves were so alien and faint that they weren't loud enough to be confused with real-world sounds.
The problem was that the [desires] inside those voices affected Jaeseok.
'Their' voices, and the desires they carried, were so powerful that even Jaeseok, born with great mental fortitude, could barely withstand them. If it had been an ordinary person suffering from those voices instead of Jaeseok, they would've committed rape more than once by now.
There had been several occasions when he'd come close.
"Yesterday, I almost really did it. I held out for a long time, but I couldn't be sure I could keep holding out, so I chose suicide."
But now—
The option [Incubus] had appeared before him.
And as monsters he had to hunt and kill.
'If they're monsters I have to kill anyway... then it shouldn't matter if I rape them first, right?'
As he mulled it over, the text urged him on again.
[20 minutes have passed since the mission began.]
[Hurry! If you fail to complete your mission before the time limit, death will be certain!]
"Fuck it. Whatever."
[You have chosen the Path of Pleasure!]
[The Path of Pleasure is a special route. Floors reached are judged separately, and suitable equipment and runes may differ.]
After a moment's hesitation, Jaeseok finally started walking.
A new explorer had been born.