Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Guardian of the Third Tutorial
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Twenty players dwindled to ten, then ten to five.
“Ha, I surrender!”
“Spare us!”
The five enemies dropped their weapons and surrendered.
It had taken less than a minute to subdue more than twenty players.
The leader of the enemy players still refused to give up, continuing to attack Song Hana.
‘He’s got some skill, I guess.’
But nothing compared to Song Hana.
On top of that, all his subordinate players who had fought alongside him were dead.
Clang! Clang!
Her opponent was busy just defending against Song Hana’s attacks.
‘It’ll be over soon.’
A moment later.
Kang Hyun-soo’s prediction proved spot on.
Slash!
Song Hana’s sword severed the right arm of her spear-wielding foe.
“Argh!”
Her opponent screamed and dropped his weapon.
He shook off the pain late and hurriedly tried to grab the spear with his left hand, but Song Hana was faster.
Whoosh!
Song Hana’s sword cleanly sliced through her opponent’s neck.
Thud!
The headless body crumpled powerlessly.
“Woooah!”
At that moment, a massive cheer erupted.
It came from the players who had tried to flee.
“Ha.”
Hearing the cheer, Kang Hyun-soo was dumbfounded.
‘What the hell have these guys even done to be cheering?’
All they’d done was run away and come back.
Yet they were rejoicing as if they’d won the fight themselves.
“You seemed to know them. Explain the situation.”
Kang Hyun-soo asked the leader of the players who had tried to flee.
“Yes! Of course! Actually, a few days ago…”
The leader explained everything in detail.
The story was simple.
Originally, their group had numbered over thirty.
In that state, three players carrying a decent amount of food had requested to join, and they’d accepted.
But it turned out those three were part of a Murderer group.
The newcomers had let the Murderers in late at night.
Caught in the Murderers’ surprise attack, they’d suffered devastating losses, with two-thirds of their group wiped out.
“I was gathering the survivors and fleeing from their pursuit.”
“And that’s when you ran into us?”
“Yes, exactly.”
It made sense why they’d turned hostile the moment they saw Kang Hyun-soo and Song Hana.
‘You thought we were players from the Murderer group?’
Having been burned once already, suspicion was inevitable.
‘It’s been about fifty days, so things are starting to heat up, huh?’
The time when Murderer groups began multiplying rapidly.
‘Well, it’s only natural.’
There’s a saying: if you want to test someone’s character, give them power.
‘But here, it’s not just simple power you can gain.’
A world with no laws, only the law of the jungle.
The place where human nature is laid bare most starkly.
‘And killing makes you stronger easily. Who knows when these guys will turn?’
They hadn’t twisted yet.
But how long that would last, no one knew.
Hunger from food shortages.
Fear of death.
Anxiety at being left behind.
The survival instinct to live.
Those thoughts become vicious poisons that eat away at their minds.
Day by day, modern people’s personalities warp and change.
‘In the end, they’ll become killers too.’
Whether Murderer or Murderer hunter.
A killer was a killer either way.
The third tutorial, from the start.
Was a place you couldn’t pass without becoming a killer.
“Hyun-soo, what should we do with these people?”
Song Hana approached Kang Hyun-soo, glancing at the five surrendered prisoners.
“I’ll handle it.”
Whoosh!
Kang Hyun-soo swung his sword.
Two of the five who had dropped their weapons and surrendered had their heads fly off simultaneously.
“Eek!”
“Spare us! Please, spare us!”
Two of the three survivors begged Kang Hyun-soo desperately for their lives.
But the choice of the remaining one was different.
“Hoon, save me!”
He yanked off his helmet and rushed to Jeong-hun, the leader of the fleeing players he’d just been talking to.
“Ki-cheol?”
“How is Ki-cheol here?”
The players were shocked upon seeing the man’s face revealed by removing his helmet.
“You betrayed us!”
“Joining those killers!”
Accusations flew.
“I had no choice to survive! They said if I wanted to live, I had to join their group no matter what! I was waiting for a chance to come back here! I swear!”
The player named Ki-cheol screamed his innocence at the top of his lungs.
‘He was originally with this group but got captured in the raid and joined the Murderers?’
That happened often.
When it’s life or death, what wouldn’t you do?
“How can we believe you? What if you were a spy from the start?”
“What are you saying? Ki-cheol oppa has been with us since the second tutorial. He joined this group right after. If he’s a spy, does that mean we are too?”
“Couldn’t that be possible?”
“What do you mean? We lost a comrade from the second tutorial in the last raid too!”
“You call them comrades after knowing them such a short time?”
“You done talking?”
“What if I am!”
The group split into two factions, arguing fiercely.
“What do you think, Hoon?”
“You trust Ki-cheol oppa, right, Hoon?”
The bickering group’s eyes turned to Jeong-hun, their leader.
“Uh, well…”
Jeong-hun, the group leader, was flustered by the sudden situation and didn’t know what to do.
Slash!
At that moment, the sound of flesh and bone parting rang out.
Thud!
The head and body of one prisoner separated.
Kang Hyun-soo had ended one of the prisoners.
“Hoon, please save me! I’m not a Murderer!”
Ki-cheol pleaded desperately with Jeong-hun in terror.
“Um, this guy was originally part of our group. Seems like he has his reasons, so let’s sort out the truth first before deciding his fate.”
Kang Hyun-soo was baffled by Jeong-hun’s words.
“Why are you the one deciding that?”
“Pardon?”
“Whether to kill, spare, or judge them—why do you get to decide? Did you capture them?”
“Th-that…”
Jeong-hun was once again speechless at Kang Hyun-soo’s words.
“Hoon, save me! I’m not a killer! I’m innocent!”
Ki-cheol clung to Jeong-hun, protesting his innocence nonstop.
“Innocent my ass.”
Kang Hyun-soo was exasperated.
He pointed his sword tip at the sole surviving Murderer player.
“Do you really think that guy’s innocent?”
At Kang Hyun-soo’s question, the trembling Murderer player’s eyes gleamed.
“If I tell the truth, you won’t kill me?”
The Murderer player asked with eyes full of hope.
“Deal.”
Kang Hyun-soo readily accepted the Murderer player’s request.
“That guy’s just like us!”
“Got proof?”
“Yeah! There’s a required procedure to join the group!”
“Shut your mouth!”
Ki-cheol lunged excitedly at the Murderer player.
Whoosh!
But he froze as Kang Hyun-soo’s sword instantly appeared at his throat.
“What’s that procedure?”
“Killing a prisoner! He earned our trust by killing his own surviving comrades!”
‘Yeah, I figured.’
The classic way criminal groups recruit.
Make the target commit a crime so they can’t go back to their original group.
“We didn’t even force him first! He asked how to join us!”
Probably driven by the desire to live.
But that didn’t excuse it.
‘If you try to kill others, be prepared to die yourself.’
Slash!
Kang Hyun-soo swung his sword, cleanly severing Ki-cheol’s neck.
“Y-you’ll spare me, right?”
The Murderer player asked in a trembling voice.
“Yeah. I keep my promises. I won’t kill you.”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
The Murderer player bowed repeatedly to Kang Hyun-soo with a bright face.
“But I don’t know if my comrade will let you live?”
“Pardon? What do you—”
Shing.
At that moment, the hitherto silent Song Hana drew her sword.
“You son of a bitch! That’s breaking the deal!”
“What are you talking about? I said I wouldn’t kill you. I never promised to protect you.”
“You bastard!”
As the Murderer player spat curses and tried to flee.
Slash!
Song Hana swung her sword, decapitating the Murderer player.
Thud!
The headless body rolled across the ground, trailing red blood.
‘Clean work.’
Kang Hyun-soo and Song Hana had wiped out the Murderer player group that targeted their lives, leaving not a single one alive.
‘Tired.’
Now he really needed some rest.
But first, there was business.
Kang Hyun-soo collected the items from the dead Murderers.
“I’ll help!”
Jeong-hun quickly stepped up to assist with the loot.
The others, quick on the uptake, joined in gathering the items.
It wasn’t really necessary.
Thanks to the corpses dissipating from residual mana, “collecting items” just meant picking up what had fallen on the ground.
“Hana, let’s go.”
“Yes, Hyun-soo.”
Kang Hyun-soo and Song Hana gathered the spoils and prepared to leave.
“Um.”
Jeong-hun cautiously spoke up.
“What?”
“Why not join forces with us? We’ll handle food, bedding, night watches. And we’ll give you all the items from our hunts.”
“No.”
Kang Hyun-soo gave a curt reply and started walking.
“We’re offering this much, and you’re really going to be like that? Isn’t this the time we should band together more?”
Jeong-hun shouted loudly at Kang Hyun-soo’s back.
Stop.
Kang Hyun-soo halted and turned.
Shing!
His sword was instantly at Jeong-hun’s nape.
“You wanna die?”
“Pardon?”
Jeong-hun’s face, which had been raised in anger, drained of color in an instant.
“You attacked us first. I didn’t kill you. Hell, I saved you from near death.”
It was true.
If Kang Hyun-soo and Song Hana hadn’t shown mercy?
They’d be cold corpses with heads separated from bodies, rolling on the ground like the Murderers.
Then they’d vanish without a trace.
“The type I hate most are the ones who bite the hand that pulls them from the water. Got it?”
“Y-yes. Yes.”
Jeong-hun trembled as he forced out the words.
Red blood trickled from his nape, slowly soaking his body.
Flick!
Kang Hyun-soo sheathed his sword and resumed walking.
Jeong-hun didn’t dare stop Kang Hyun-soo and Song Hana again.
Soon after they vanished into the darkness.
The arguing started immediately.
“That bastard Ki-cheol was a traitor! Good riddance! Damn right!”
“What are you saying? You’re actually believing that killer?”
“Then what reason do I have not to?”
“You done talking?”
“What if I am?”
“What do you think, Hoon?”
“Why ask that guy? We almost died multiple times because of his screw-ups!”
“Yeah, he didn’t even squeak when Ki-cheol oppa died.”
“And that negotiation was a total mess, pissing them off. If he’d handled it right, they might’ve let us join.”
“Right? If we’d just quietly followed without all that talk, they probably would’ve ignored us.”
“It’s all his fault.”
“Maybe we should follow them now?”
The split into two voices.
Became three, then four.
Soon after.
The vocal split.
“We can’t follow a dumbass like that as leader. Let’s pick a new one.”
“Hoon did his best. If you hate him so much, just split off!”
“Yeah, let’s split!”
“I’m going after them now.”
Led to a real division.