The Enraged Owlbeast
The numbers filled at a blazing pace.
Matching 2nd Floor Mission
Range: Global Server
27/100
36/100
43/100
Nyx’s voice rang inside my head.
“No, not a team. Everyone’s an enemy.”
The theme of the second-floor mission was survival.
Either survive for the allotted time.
Or crush every last person and become the final victor.
“You’re finally starting to get me.”
I let out a short laugh.
The counter kept climbing at top speed. The second floor was a fairly popular mission among players. If luck was on your side, you could clear it without a single fight, and the rewards stayed juicy even on repeat runs. Which meant most of the players I’d meet here had probably already cleared it multiple times.
A moment later the transfer completed.
Tower of Babel — 2nd Floor
Entered the Survival Zone
Mission — Survival
Survival
📍 Objective: Survive for 30 minutes. Or be the last player standing.
📍 Field: Lohein Plains
🎁 Note: Rewards increase with every player defeated.
A wide plain covered in green grass stretched out in every direction. Nine other players were already scattered across the open field.
“Damn it. Why the hell did it have to be the Lohein Plains?”
“No place to hide at all.”
A few wore bitter expressions. Others, however, were grinning as they readied their weapons.
“This mission’s going to end fast.”
“I’m walking out of here loaded.”
A plain offered almost no cover. Even with presence-hiding skills, staying concealed in this environment was nearly impossible.
“Hey, you a first-timer?” one of them called out.
I gave a small nod. The man smirked.
“Consider this your first taste of how bitter life can be. Everyone eats an early elimination on their first run.”
He laughed and finished preparing for battle.
Yeah. Go ahead and savor that bitterness yourself.
The 2nd Floor Mission Begins
We wish the players good fortune.
The blue membrane surrounding us vanished. At the same instant, the swordsman charged straight at me.
“Die—!”
Schlick.
My Sharp Claws raked across his throat. Blood sprayed from the gaping wound.
“Gurgh.”
The player whose vital point had been sliced collapsed. His body turned a dull gray, then crumbled into powder and disappeared exactly as if I had used Devour.
“They’re not actually dead.”
If you died during a mission, the Tower simply ejected you outside the terminal. Even though I’d torn his throat open, the pain he felt was probably no worse than a sting. The system forcibly intervened whenever the pain grew too great, dulling the shock. That mercy disappeared once synchronization rose high enough, of course.
“Besides, Devour doesn’t work on them even if they were real corpses.”
Before my regression, when the world was literally falling apart, I had tried it anyway. Back then the ground ran red with the blood of players slaughtered by monsters. Ethics were a luxury no one could afford. The attempt had failed miserably. The system simply told me the target was invalid.
A bitter smile tugged at my lips. Just remembering that time made my chest feel scraped raw. What a disgusting memory.
“W-what just happened?”
“A player went down!”
The others finally caught up and stared at me with wary eyes. In a survival mission, all one hundred participants were competitors. The more players you eliminated, the bigger the reward. I scanned the eight remaining fighters and crooked my finger.
“What are you waiting for? Come on.”
“Get him first!”
“Uwaaaaah!”
The eight who had been eyeing each other warily finally united and charged together. Good. No wasted time.
My claws drew sharp diagonal lines through the air. The moment I unleashed the Fierce Tiger Blood Claw, three bodies turned gray. I followed with the second form—Tiger Tail Claw. Like a tiger flicking its tail, my hands moved with fluid grace and tore out their throats.
When half of them had crumbled into gray dust, the rest backed away, faces tight with tension.
“Son of a bitch.”
“Why is a monster like him even on the second floor?”
“We can’t beat that thing.”
The remaining players exchanged quick glances, then spun and sprinted the opposite direction.
Not a bad call.
“Too bad you’ve already stepped into my range.”
Shadow Domination
Polar Night erupted from the ground beneath their feet and speared toward their exposed backs. Having just turned around, they had no way to react to the angle.
“Obviously. It’d be annoying if they scattered.”
Stab. Thrust.
The blades of darkness butchered the players who had turned their backs on me. I pulled up the mission window.
“Not much time.”
“I’ve got one specific goal in mind.”
The hidden rule of the second floor had not yet been discovered at this point in time. To satisfy the condition I would have to move without a single wasted second. The terrain had conveniently spawned as plains—perfect. Time to clear that hidden mission.
I activated Cloud Flow Steps and kicked off the ground.
Remaining Players: 65
Remaining Players: 47
The player count plummeted. The others quickly realized who the culprit was.
“Yu Jinho?”
“What the hell is that guy?!”
An overwhelming kill count. Not even two minutes had passed since the mission started, yet more than fifty players had been slaughtered by a single person.
“Isn’t that at least Iron rank?”
“Idiot. You can’t join lower-floor missions while doing a promotion match.”
“Oh… right.”
“Then how is he moving this fast?!”
The players looked around in panic. Soon after, bloodshot eyes appeared on the horizon.
“There you are.”
I swung my arm. Razor-sharp claws drew blue arcs through the air. Players fell without managing to block a single strike. Gray powder danced in my wake.
“Yu Jinho? Wait, is he the one who just broke the tutorial record…?”
“No way. Someone who cleared the tutorial a few days ago can’t possibly be this strong!”
“Same name or not, it doesn’t matter.”
“If we want to survive this mission, we have to team up and take him down first.”
A few players lowered the weapons they had pointed at one another. They had realized the ecosystem-disrupting monster called Yu Jinho had to be removed if any of them hoped to last until the end.
Unfortunately for them—
“Grouping up just makes it easier for me.”
I crushed their resistance without breaking stride. My hardened carapace easily deflected even the sharpest blades.
“Ow!”
The player who had swung at me screamed as the thorns covering my shell stabbed into his hand. Long spears and ranged attacks fared slightly better, but—
Shadow Domination
A bundle of tentacles forged from Polar Night read every trajectory and snatched the attacks out of the air. Nothing they tried worked. Every strike I made, however, was lethal.
“You’re… too fast.”
The player’s voice trembled with disbelief. The gap in raw specs was simply overwhelming. Pure stats alone put me on par with level-100 players. On top of that, although I wore no weapon or armor, the multiple necklaces and rings I had equipped—items difficult to obtain at my level—granted me equipment bonuses that closed any remaining gap.
“Damn it! Are all Korean players monsters?!”
An American player swung his sword in desperation. Sparks flew, but the blow failed to deliver even the slightest impact.
Remaining Players: 15
Remaining Time: 00:27:55
Every player who had rushed me was dead. The only ones left were those who had hidden from the beginning with the sole goal of lasting thirty minutes.
Stealth. Camouflage. Dig.
Some had burrowed into the ground or blended into the terrain.
“What’s the point of hiding in plain sight?”
I located every last one of them. The yellow aura overlaying my vision—Eagle’s Eye—made their emitted magic power glow like beacons. Another practical use of a detection skill. If you didn’t completely erase your presence, you could never escape it.
When only five players remained, including myself—
Rumble!
The entire plain began to shake.
“What the hell is this?!”
“I’ve never heard of an earthquake on the plains!”
“My stealth broke from the vibration!”
The surviving players screamed in panic.
Remaining Players — 5
Remaining Time — 00:27:05
Within 3 minutes of mission start, player count has dropped to 5 or fewer.
Hidden condition of the 2nd floor satisfied. Mission content will now change.
Enraged Owlbeast
The monster awakened by the scent of players’ blood.
The Enraged Owlbeast will hunt the remaining survivors to sate its hunger.
Escape the monster, or hunt it first.
🎁 Objective: Survive 30 minutes / Be the last survivor / Hunt the Enraged Owlbeast
An owl’s head sat atop a body that resembled a ferocious bear. The monster—Owlbeast—materialized at the center of the plains.
“Hoooooot!”
The Enraged Owlbeast’s cry thundered across the plains.
“Made it just in time.”
I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my right arm. The Enraged Owlbeast only appeared if the player count dropped to five or fewer within three minutes of the mission start. I had practically sprinted across the entire plain to force its appearance.
“It was extremely close.”
Two minutes and fifty-five seconds. Any longer hunting the hidden players and I would have missed the window. I could always retry the second floor tomorrow, but clearing it in one go was obviously better.
I took a long breath. The fatigue that had built up melted away. The Blessing of the Earth Mother Goddess activated the moment my feet touched the ground; simply steadying my breathing rapidly restored my stamina.
“If that thing starts hunting the others, it’ll be a pain.”
The mission objectives still included being the last survivor. Even after the Enraged Owlbeast appeared, if only one person remained it would automatically clear. I would still receive the hidden reward, but—
What I wanted wasn’t the mission reward. It was the Owlbeast’s essence.
I walked toward the center of the plains. Its round eyes tracked my every movement.
“Hoooooot!”
“Yeah. Happy to see some prey?”
“Hoooooot!”
Thud. Thud. The Enraged Owlbeast charged straight at me. Its enormous weight made the ground tremble with every step. It didn’t seem interested in the few remaining players. Good.
“Then I can fight with everything I have.”
I clenched my fist.