Chapter 8: Kim Soohyun Begins the Rite of Passage
Chapter 8: Kim Soohyun Begins the Rite of Passage
The Preparation Room. It had been a long time since I’d last seen this place. To someone unaware of the circumstances, the Preparation Room looked so much like a room on Earth that they might mistake it for a cozy, private chamber.
It occurred to me then that the angels were considerate in the most useless ways. I remembered how, when I first arrived here, the familiar environment made me try to open the front door and leave. Of course, the door hadn't opened, and I recalled floundering in the despair that followed. A sudden thought struck me: what if the angels had planned that on purpose?
『Time remaining until entry into the Rite of Passage: 03 minutes 27 seconds』
“3 minutes and 27 seconds, huh? I’d better hurry.”
I walked over to a large box sitting alone in the center of the room. I sat down in a corner and opened it, revealing various items needed for the Rite of Passage. Nostalgia, my ass. I felt none of it. My immediate concern was getting dressed as quickly as possible. Seraph was one thing, but if I were transported into the Rite of Passage in my current, nearly naked state, I’d be branded a pervert from the very beginning.
As I looked through the items, I could tell at a glance that the skintight suit offered the best performance. However, I just couldn't bring myself to wear it. After picking up and putting down a few things, I settled on a simple outfit. The clothes I chose—underwear, socks, shoes, a top, and pants—were all perfectly ordinary. I just picked a dark color scheme because I didn't want them to get dirty.
Honestly, in my current state, I could pass the Rite of Passage in less than a day even if I went in bare-handed. No, if I put my mind to it, destroying everything would be a piece of cake. But I had no intention of going all out from the start. One of the biggest reasons I’d managed to survive for ten years in the Hall Plain was that I always operated while hiding thirty percent of my true strength. Except for when my life was truly on the line, I made a thorough effort not to reveal my full self.
What weapon should I choose…?
I hesitated for a moment while choosing a weapon. Even with my bare fists, I could beat the Rite of Passage’s boss monster while eating a meal, but it was better to have at least one weapon for convenience. Besides, I had a plan for this Rite of Passage. Just in case, I took one longsword and a detachable crossbow. After grabbing a full quiver of crossbow bolts, I closed the box.
As I stood with the bolts in hand and looked up at the empty air, I saw the remaining time tick down to exactly zero.
『The time in the Preparation Room has expired. User Kim Soohyun will now be summoned to the Rite of Passage.』
“Okay. Was I the last one?”
『That is correct. In any case, we wish User Kim Soohyun the best in his endeavors. We will now begin the transfer.』
Just then.
Vwoom!
The moment I felt the summoning spell unfold in the air, a sharp tugging sensation pulled at my navel. The summoning had begun.
*
『Transfer complete. The Rite of Passage is a test to determine whether you are qualified to enter the Hall Plain. You will pass if you survive for seven days or reach the central Warp Gate within seven days. We wish all Users the best of luck.』
The transfer ended. I breathed in the fresh air and looked around. At once, I sensed something subtly different in the atmosphere. From the grass, trees, and soil, I appeared to be standing in a clearing at the center of a forest. The air was fresh and the breeze cool, yet an inexplicable, unpleasant clamminess hung over the surroundings.
First, should I see what kind of Users I’m starting with?
I considered the Rite of Passage extremely important. The Hall Plain was not a place anyone could survive alone. Even if I only intended to use them, I still needed comrades to act alongside me.
The Rite of Passage was where modern people accustomed to ordinary life first encountered the extraordinary, with their very survival at stake. One of its central purposes was to make people who knew nothing work together to satisfy that condition. (My second run was a special case, so I set it aside for the moment.) As a result, comrades who survived the Rite of Passage together often formed lasting bonds even after entering the Hall Plain. I intended to use this Rite of Passage to find people with whom I could build such ties.
Of course, I can’t just accept anyone as a comrade.
The place I’d been summoned to was a kind of starting point that marked the beginning of the Rite of Passage. In other words, the Starting Point. Ten years later, I could talk about it without feeling anything, but the first time I entered the Rite of Passage, knowing nothing, it was a nightmare. It was so bad that it left me with trauma even after I entered the Hall Plain.
I calmly collected myself and began to survey my surroundings. As expected, I wasn't the only User who had been transferred. Around the clearing, I saw people sitting here and there, their faces etched with anxiety. I could also hear them whispering as they looked at me.
“Oppa… Did you see that person just get transferred here?”
“Sol. Be quiet.”
“What do we do…? It looks like we’re not the only ones…”
“Just stay still. That person seems to be in the same boat as us.”
Listening to their conversation, they seemed to be siblings. I walked toward the area where the people were gathered. The atmosphere in the clearing was quiet and subdued. Of course, if they were just thrown into the Rite of Passage and told to survive on their own, it would be chaos, but everyone here must have heard some explanation from the angels. I had, too.
This is the starting point. Since I’ve returned to the past, it means I met these same Users in my first playthrough… What happened to them after this…?
I counted the people in the clearing; there were a total of eight people sitting there. Could these eight people work together to survive the next seven days of the Rite of Passage? I could confidently answer, “No.”
A conflict arose within me. This place wasn't the Hall Plain yet, but a space that, once passed, could never be revisited. With the power I currently possessed, saving everyone here would be a trivial matter. But honestly, I didn't want to, and I had no intention of doing so.
I had to avoid displaying my abilities at will and carrying these people through the trial at all costs. The most effective way for fame—or notoriety—to spread was by word of mouth. The established Users of the Hall Plain were already fiercely protective of their interests. If word spread that someone had used Magic Power or overwhelmed monsters before even completing the Rite of Passage, endless trouble would follow; the ‘Vagabonds’ might even arrange that User’s mysterious death the very same day.
Besides, I was not a good person. I had done good deeds while living in the Hall Plain, but I had also committed bad ones without hesitation when necessary. Robbery, plunder, rape, even murder. Of course, in a world like the Hall Plain, where such acts were treated as ordinary, no one would particularly condemn me for them.
In any case, the most important thing here was that I needed to choose. If I met someone worth making a comrade, I would have to act as their nanny(?) in one way or another for at least a year until they could function as a proper User.
My first plan after entering the Hall Plain was to gather comrades, and the Rite of Passage was ideal for it. I established three criteria. First, stats and potential. Second, disposition. Third, personal ties. After all that explanation, the point was simple: if someone met my standards for a comrade, I would save them. Otherwise, I wouldn't care whether they lived or died.
Shall I use Third Eye now?
In the clearing, apart from the siblings who were sticking together, everyone else was keeping their distance. I also chose a suitable spot to sit and decided to calmly observe the people. If I was really lucky, I might even see a familiar face.
The first User that caught my eye was a woman dressed in a banker's uniform. Her overall impression was ordinary, but her round eyes were trembling and her lips were quivering, as if she still couldn't accept reality. I could understand how she felt, but I decided to activate Third Eye. For now, I’d just pick out what I needed…
〈Player Status〉
1. Name: Lee Borim (Year 0 User)
2. Sex: Female (27)
3. Height · Weight: 164.7cm · 58.3kg
4. Alignment: Neutral · Chaos
[Strength 5] [Durability 8] [Agility 11] [Stamina 7] [Magic Power 9] [Luck 11]
(Remaining stat points: 0)
Huh.
I let out a dry laugh and immediately closed her status window. Initial stats were influenced by the physical body, but more importantly, the User’s innate potential acted as a multiplier. In other words, being female didn’t automatically mean having lower physical stats than a man.
But this woman, Lee Borim, had potential that was far too low. Even if I saved a User like her and brought her to the Hall Plain, she would be completely useless by my standards.
As an aside, once Users entered the Hall Plain and began training, their stats rose rapidly at first. My body had already reached its limit, so improving my stats through training was a distant prospect, but ordinary new Users faced no such restriction. Even accounting for that, those destined to reach a certain level later usually showed signs of their potential from the beginning. But this woman—what on earth…
I clicked my tongue and immediately turned my gaze to someone else. My next targets were the siblings sitting close together. The man had a youthful air, but his furrowed brow gave him a sharp, on-edge look. He seemed younger than me, and his cocky attitude suggested he was one of those popular types. On the ground near the siblings lay a longsword and a shield. A decent choice.
The woman next to him was clinging to his side, an irritating sight for any single person… Ah, right. They were siblings. Her head was bowed low, so I couldn't see her face clearly, but she seemed much more timid than her brother.
〈Player Status〉
1. Name: Ahn Hyun (Year 0 User)
2. Sex: Male (22)
3. Height · Weight: 178.8cm · 73.2kg
4. Alignment: True · Neutral
[Strength 48] [Durability 47] [Agility 52] [Stamina 51] [Magic Power 35] [Luck 56]
(Remaining stat points: 0)
〈Player Status〉
1. Name: Ahn Sol (Year 0 User)
2. Sex: Female (19)
3. Height · Weight: 160.1cm · 45.2kg
4. Alignment: Lawful · Good
[Strength 8] [Durability 17] [Agility 15] [Stamina 21] [Magic Power 75] [Luck 100]
(Remaining stat points: 0)
What the hell? What’s with her? 75 Magic Power from the start? 100 Luck?
Stats that defied common sense. For a moment, I nearly cried out, but I clamped my lips shut before the sound could escape.
Strictly speaking, Ahn Hyun was talented. Barring anything unusual, he could pass the Rite of Passage with ease, and he had enough potential to survive in the Hall Plain afterward. It was a slightly bitter fact, but his starting stats were higher than mine had been.
In any case, Ahn Hyun’s stats were respectable—well within the range where I could simply think, ‘That’s possible.’
The real reason I was shocked was Ahn Sol’s stats. They were simply bizarre. Her Strength, Durability, Agility, and Stamina were nothing to look at. But to have 75 points in Magic Power and 100 points in Luck from the very beginning was something that truly defied the common sense of the Hall Plain. I calmly searched my memories.
I don’t remember hearing about an Ahn Hyun… But Ahn Sol… Wait, Ahn Sol? Sol?
The moment I thought of the name Sol, the Secret Class I had seen while choosing my Class privilege flashed through my mind.
In the first playthrough, a Secret Class called the Priestess of Radiance had appeared in the Hall Plain. Wasn’t it known as the ultimate Priest Class? I remembered that a User named ‘Sol’ had obtained that class and was later recruited by the Odin Clan, where the top Users gathered.
Ahn Sol and the User named ‘Sol.’ The names matched, and Ahn Sol’s current stats made the possibility convincing. Since the two were siblings, I would probably have to save them both anyway. In any case, their stats were incomparable to those of Lee Borim, the bank employee, and they were more than qualified to become my comrades.
The first two had made such a strong impression that I decided to continue counterclockwise. Third Eye next settled on two men.
The man sitting on the left had a decent build but was short and looked older. A slightly crooked nose and bumpy skin gave him a vile appearance. He seemed to be trying to grasp the situation, as he kept darting his eyes in various directions.
Next, the man on the right was a student in a school uniform. A small beauty mark under his eye and his pale skin stood out, giving him a very young impression. He looked timid on the outside, and the way he trembled while hugging his knees with both arms made him look a bit pitiful.
No memory of them… Shall I check their status?
〈Player Status〉
1. Name: Park Donggeol (Year 0 User)
2. Sex: Male (39)
3. Height · Weight: 173.4cm · 73.2kg
4. Alignment: Evil · Chaos
[Strength 31] [Durability 26] [Agility 39] [Stamina 29] [Magic Power 29] [Luck 7]
(Remaining stat points: 0)
〈Player Status〉
1. Name: Lee Shinwoo (Year 0 User)
2. Sex: Male (18)
3. Height · Weight: 170.7cm · 58.4kg
4. Alignment: Lawful · Good
[Strength 25] [Durability 23] [Agility 21] [Stamina 27] [Magic Power 35] [Luck 57]
(Remaining stat points: 0)
Ahn Hyun and Ahn Sol had been so surprising that, by comparison, Park Donggeol and Lee Shinwoo's stats weren't bad. (Not that I’m saying they were good, either.)
Park Donggeol's basic stats were just enough to survive the Rite of Passage. His disposition, however, was a problem. The combination of Evil and Chaos rarely appeared together. That it did meant there was a high probability that Park Donggeol was a criminal in the modern world, and therefore strongly suggested that he would become a ‘Vagabond’ in the Hall Plain.
In contrast, Lee Shinwoo's stats were slightly lacking for passing the Rite of Passage, but his Magic Power was decent. And considering he had just started, his Luck stat showed high potential. Lawful and Good also rarely appeared together; he was probably good-natured to the core.
Right now, everyone except me and the man named Park Donggeol was too preoccupied with themselves or the person next to them. An unpleasant desire flickered in Park Donggeol's eyes. His gaze, full of greed, darted around and was mostly fixed on the women. I had seen that kind of gaze thousands of times, and I had worn it myself once. I could roughly guess the nature of his desire. And though it was just a guess, if Park Donggeol was a criminal, I thought I knew what kind of crime he would have committed.
My suspicion was confirmed when I saw him licking his lips while looking at Ahn Sol, who was clinging to Ahn Hyun. I wasn't in a position to judge him now, but I couldn't help but find him pathetic.
I clicked my tongue and was about to activate Third Eye on the remaining two women.
“Ah, fuck.”
At that moment, Park Donggeol's rough voice echoed loudly across the clearing.