Chapter 4
Chapter 4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Slaughter Sovereign (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Are you okay?”
“You must have had a rough time.”
Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung cautiously spoke up.
“What the hell are you guys? Idiots? Blockheads? You’re supposed to attack! If we die, you’re next!”
Oh Sung-hyuk spat out his resentment along with curses.
“We’re sorry. Our bodies wouldn’t move.”
“We’ll do better from now on, really hard.”
Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung bowed their heads with dejected expressions.
“You call that an apology? You think ‘sorry’ fixes everything!”
Oh Sung-hyuk kept spewing curses, berating Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung.
In between, he glared at Kang Hyun-soo with eyes full of venom.
But that was it.
Oh Sung-hyuk couldn’t utter a single harsh word toward Kang Hyun-soo.
“Hold on a moment.”
Song Ha-na stepped forward then.
“I understand you’re panicking and surprised. We were suddenly dragged to this weird place. But just standing around idly will only get you eliminated.”
“S-sorry...”
“That’s not what I said for an apology. I killed this monster and leveled up. And I got stronger.”
“I leveled up too.”
Oh Sung-hyuk added curtly, backing up Song Ha-na’s words.
“No one knows how long the tutorial will last. We might have to move together from now on, or we might get separated like in the first tutorial.”
“They’d probably die without doing a damn thing if they had to start the tutorial alone.”
At Song Ha-na’s words and Oh Sung-hyuk’s sneer, Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung’s faces paled.
“If you don’t kill monsters, level up, and get stronger, you might survive by luck for now, but you’ll die in the end. You have to pick up your weapons and fight the monsters, even if you’re scared.”
“I wonder if these guys have the guts for that.”
“And it’s not just monsters that are scary. In a world without laws, people can be even more threatening than monsters.”
As she said that, Song Ha-na looked at Oh Sung-hyuk.
“......”
Oh Sung-hyuk, who had been chiming in with Song Ha-na’s words, instantly shut up like he’d eaten honey.
“You have to get stronger on your own.”
Cold as it was, not a word of Song Ha-na’s was wrong.
The world unfolding ahead was different from the modern one.
A thorough world of the strong devouring the weak.
If you couldn’t prove your own worth?
You’d just be pitifully discarded.
At Song Ha-na’s words, Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung frowned.
It was clearly right.
But to the two who wanted to ignore reality, it was unwelcome advice.
“Maybe we can go back to the real world once the second tutorial ends?”
Choi Woo-seok muttered in a plaintive voice.
“Of course, that’s possible. But the odds are higher that we won’t.”
“How do you know that?”
Song Ha-na was momentarily speechless at Choi Woo-seok’s retort.
‘This guy’s done for.’
Hopeful thinking isn’t bad.
But spinning happy delusions without any contingency plan is never wise.
‘Even if you spin happy delusions, you have to prepare for the worst case.’
That way, you can handle it when those delusions shatter.
‘Anyway, I just need to look after Song Ha-na.’
Whether those burdens lived or died after the second tutorial didn’t concern Kang Hyun-soo.
Plus, if those two didn’t hunt monsters?
It meant more experience points for Kang Hyun-soo.
“Let’s move for now.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to Kang Hyun-soo at his words.
“We have to survive here for 3 days. You don’t want to sleep in an open field, right?”
3 days.
Short if short, long if long.
‘I need to find a decent cave and hole up inside.’
A spot exposed on all sides was dangerous.
At Kang Hyun-soo’s words, Song Ha-na quickly retrieved her arrows.
The quiver counted as one item.
But it only held ten arrows.
If she didn’t recover the ones she shot, the crossbow would become useless fast.
‘Quick situational awareness.’
Excluding Kang Hyun-soo, she had the sharpest survival instincts of anyone here.
‘I need to pick this up.’
Kang Hyun-soo grabbed the sword Oh Sung-hyuk had dropped.
Oh Sung-hyuk grimaced at the sight but couldn’t say a word.
“Let’s go.”
Kang Hyun-soo started moving.
The group trailed closely behind him.
Kyaaang!
Monsters attacked sporadically during the march.
Slash!
The group wanted to join in but had no chance.
Kang Hyun-soo severed the monsters’ necks with a single stroke.
Seeing Kang Hyun-soo like that, the tension slightly eased from Song Ha-na’s face.
Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung’s serious expressions relaxed into relief.
As long as Kang Hyun-soo was there, they figured they’d be safe.
On the other hand, Oh Sung-hyuk’s face grew stiffer as time passed.
‘Monster.’
Dozens of monsters assaulted them along the way.
Yet after dealing with that many, Kang Hyun-soo’s breathing wasn’t even ragged.
Instead, Oh Sung-hyuk’s own breath from just walking grew rough, like he’d fought a fierce battle.
He tried to contribute to snag some experience points.
But Kang Hyun-soo killed the monsters the instant they appeared, leaving no room to join.
‘What kind of hobbyist kendo practitioner is at that level?’
Even a world champion in kendo tournaments couldn’t show that.
‘Bastard.’
Oh Sung-hyuk ground his teeth inwardly.
Rage boiled at the fact that Kang Hyun-soo, with such skill, had let him face crisis.
‘He tried to let the monster kill me instead. Just you wait.’
Oh Sung-hyuk vowed revenge, sharpening his mental blade.
How far had they gone?
Kang Hyun-soo stopped.
“This looks good.”
The spot where Kang Hyun-soo halted was in front of a small cave.
A little stream ran beside it, perfect for quenching thirst.
Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung drank from the stream then hurried into the cave.
Song Ha-na and Oh Sung-hyuk followed after drinking.
“Rest here a bit.”
“Huh? Just us?”
“Where are you going?”
Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung asked, startled.
“Surviving 3 days means securing food too.”
Monster corpses couldn’t be eaten.
Regardless of taste or poison, they dissolved into residual mana.
“Can I come too?”
Song Ha-na asked cautiously then.
“Of course.”
“T-then me too.”
Choi Woo-seok shot to his feet.
Seeing that, Park Ji-myung stood as well.
“I plan to move faster than before. Can you two keep up?”
At Kang Hyun-soo’s words, Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung were struck dumb.
Even Song Ha-na and Oh Sung-hyuk, who had leveled up and allocated bonus stats, struggled with the forced march.
The two who hadn’t leveled up or gained stats were already exhausted just following Kang Hyun-soo here.
“Oh Sung-hyuk.”
“Yes!”
Oh Sung-hyuk responded energetically, like a fresh army recruit.
“Gather some branches for a fire. Look for edible mushrooms or fruit too. Setting a basket trap in the stream would be good. You can do that, right?”
“Yes, I can.”
Hearing Oh Sung-hyuk’s reply, Kang Hyun-soo turned to Song Ha-na.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Kang Hyun-soo and Song Ha-na vanished into the forest.
“Hey! You two!”
As the pair moved away, Oh Sung-hyuk scowled and called to Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung.
“Yes?”
“What?”
“Yes? What? Didn’t you hear that bastard? Move it, you slow-ass slugs!”
Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung bristled at Oh Sung-hyuk’s words.
“Why aren’t you moving?”
“You’ve got better stamina than us.”
“My right hand’s fucked up right now. Patients need rest.”
“Where does it say...”
“What? Got a problem?”
As Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung resisted, Oh Sung-hyuk scowled and raised his left hand.
Seeing the monster-bloodstained shield, they shut up and started bustling about.
* * *
“Will the others be okay?”
Song Ha-na asked Kang Hyun-soo worriedly.
“They’ll be fine. I cleared all the nearby monsters.”
“Not that—because of Oh Sung-hyuk.”
“Two of them can’t handle one injured guy?”
“I have a feeling they can’t.”
Choi Woo-seok and Park Ji-myung teaming up against Oh Sung-hyuk?
They’d submitted to him already—no way they’d rebel.
“That might happen. But there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“Huh?”
“I’m not a babysitter. I can’t watch over them every second. Protecting them for the rest of the tutorial is all I can do.”
Song Ha-na bit her lower lip slightly at Kang Hyun-soo’s words.
“Right. That makes sense.”
After a moment’s thought, Song Ha-na murmured in agreement.
Truth be told, the question she’d just asked Kang Hyun-soo was one she’d posed to herself.
‘I’ve done my duty.’
She’d given plenty of advice.
Whether they listened was up to them.
“How do we find food? No poisonous mushrooms, I hope?”
Song Ha-na asked with a curious expression.
“Honestly, I don’t know much about foraging either. We’ll just scout around and see what turns up.”
Kyaaang!
Then a Blood Wolf burst from the bushes, charging at Kang Hyun-soo.
Slash!
But it lost its life the moment it appeared.
‘Here it comes.’
A faint smile curled Kang Hyun-soo’s lips.
[You have achieved a remarkable feat.]
[The title One-Strike Kill has grown from B-Rank to A-Rank.]
[One-Strike Kill – A-Rank]
-You have hunted 50 monsters with one strike.
-All stats +30.
The title One-Strike Kill could only be obtained from the first hunt in the first tutorial.
But raising its rank was possible anytime after.
Kang Hyun-soo led the way, massacring monsters step by step.
[You have achieved a remarkable feat.]
[The title Blood Wolf Slayer A-Rank is granted.]
Soon after the new achievement, he hit level 10.
[You have reached level 10.]
[First job change conditions have been met.]
[Please select your job.]
Kang Hyun-soo checked the job list immediately.
[Common Job: Inspector – F-Rank]
[Common Job: Warrior – F-Rank]
[Common Job: Mage – D-Rank]
[Common Job: Magic Swordsman – E-Rank]
[Unique Job: One-Man Squad – F-Rank]
‘It’s here.’
A bright smile bloomed on Kang Hyun-soo’s face.
Truthfully, Mage had the highest rank.
But Mage was a job anyone could get, if a bit rare.
‘One-Man Squad is different.’
A hidden job that required special conditions.
And a one-of-a-kind job only one player could have.
‘The conditions are tricky, though.’
To get the unique job One-Man Squad at first job change, you had to solo-hunt monsters until then.
To meet that, he hadn’t joined when Oh Sung-hyuk and Song Ha-na hunted the Blood Wolf.
Afterward, he slaughtered monsters before anyone else could act.
As a result, he qualified to choose the unique job One-Man Squad.
‘It’s a squad now, but later it’ll be different.’
The player who had this job before regression had the title One-Man Army.
In real combat, he showed power befitting the title.
‘But that was it.’
Top-tier among top players, top three at best.
But not an untouchable absolute.
And his end was miserable.
‘But I’m different.’
Far in the future, he’d monopolize the jobs, skills, and items treasured by those who became top players.
The unique job One-Man Squad was just the beginning.
‘I’m fulfilling your wish.’
The player set to get One-Man Squad later.
Thanks to Kang Hyun-soo’s preemption, that player lost the unique job he’d cursed over before regression.
‘I’ll take this job. So live the warrior’s life you so desperately wanted.’
And.
‘Don’t die as miserably as before regression.’
With his resolve set, Kang Hyun-soo selected the job change to One-Man Squad.