0th Floor (1)
Kang Junhyeok arrived.
At the location of the 0th Floor Quest.
It was a medieval village. Dozens of crudely built houses were scattered in every direction.
And Kang Junhyeok was not the only one there.
Around a hundred people were scattered throughout the village.
‘It’s the same.’
The 0th Floor Quest, commonly called the tutorial, was not undertaken alone. Groups of around a hundred people went through it together. Kang Junhyeok checked his position.
He stood somewhere between the center of the village and its outskirts.
It was the same position as in his previous life.
‘Same position. Same progression. Can I assume the basic framework is similar to my previous life?’
While Kang Junhyeok coolly assessed the situation, the others also began to understand the position they were in.
“Ah, aaaa.......”
“Aah! No. No!”
Despairing moans erupted from every direction. The beginning of the Tower's invitation. The survival rate of the 0th Floor Quest was only 50%.
They had been thrown into a situation where there was a 50% chance they would die, so fear and despair were inevitable.
But not everyone reacted that way.
“Ha, hahahaha!”
“Finally! My chance has finally come!”
A small number of people cheered with great excitement on their faces.
The Tower was certainly a place one had to risk one's life to climb.
But those who survived could gain tremendous power. It was not strange for four or five people among the hundred to want power badly enough to risk their lives for it.
“G-grr.”
“I’ll survive. I’ll make it back.”
Even those who had despaired gritted their teeth. They steeled themselves, and the atmosphere gradually settled.
“......So what are we supposed to do here?”
Someone's words spoke for them all.
They were latecomers.
In percentile terms, they belonged to the final 10%. 90% of Earth's population had already cleared the 0th Floor Quest.
Naturally, the forerunners were generally unable to provide information to the latecomers. As a result, no one knew anything about the 0th Floor Quest.
No one except a single person.
Kang Junhyeok slowly began walking.
“Huh?”
As they looked around the village, the others belatedly discovered something.
“......What is that?”
“A monster?”
At the exact center of the village. In the square.
Something resembling a mantis stood there.
The differences between it and an ordinary mantis were that it was twice the size of a person and had vicious blades attached to its forelegs.
That mantis stood as still as a doll. It felt utterly devoid of life, as though it had been stuffed.
“What are we supposed to do with that?”
The people looked puzzled.
At that moment, the quest appeared.
[0th Floor Quest.]
[Respond to three monsters.]
[Time remaining : 3 minutes.]
The quest appeared.
With it came the clicking sound of a button being pressed. The world turned red.
[KAAAAK!]
[KIEEEEK!]
The motionless mantises began moving. Their sharp forelegs swept out violently. In an instant, three nearby people were cut to pieces.
If they had done anything wrong, it was simply that they had been terribly unlucky.
SPLATTER—!
Blood sprayed in every direction, staining the village. For a moment, the people failed to understand and stood frozen.
[KIEEEEK!]
The mantises moved swiftly and launched themselves forward. They charged with the speed of wild beasts and killed three more people.
“......Aaaaagh!”
“Aaaaaagh!”
Only then did the others grasp the situation and flee screaming. The mantises charged after them and drove their forelegs into the backs of the fleeing people.
“......!”
Only then did they realize what the 0th Floor Quest was.
Tag.
For three minutes, they had to run from the monsters with everything they had.
“Eeeeeek!”
“Aaaagh!”
The people fled desperately, but the mantises were faster. They rapidly caught and killed the fleeing people one by one.
At that moment, those who were quicker on the uptake realized something else.
The face of a man being chased by a mantis instantly went cold. He reached out as he ran.
“Uagh!”
He grabbed the person running ahead by the scruff of the neck and hurled them backward.
The person who fell hurriedly rose and looked at the man who had thrown them down.
“You son of a.......”
They could not finish. The mantis that had approached before they knew it sent their head flying.
What was the best way to survive when a beast was chasing you?
It was extremely simple.
Make someone else the prey instead of you.
The behavior spread through the crowd like a contagion. Those in front kicked those lagging behind, while those behind grabbed the people ahead by the scruff of the neck.
They began struggling to survive by sacrificing one another.
Kang Junhyeok had not been much different from them in his previous life.
He had not taken the initiative in using others as bait, but whenever someone tried to grab and throw him, he had shaken off their grip and shoved them away instead.
He survived on the sacrifices of others, and after returning to Earth, he could barely eat for an entire week.
It had been an extremely long time, but the memory of his previous life was still vivid.
If he did the same this time, he could survive without any trouble.
But this time, he had no intention of using such a method. There was a better way.
Kang Junhyeok stepped forward.
He neither fled backward nor advanced ahead.
He entered a nearby house.
When he opened the door and looked inside, it was an utterly ordinary medieval home. A single dagger lay within.
“It’s really here.”
Kang Junhyeok murmured in wonder as he gripped the dagger.
With the dagger in hand, he left the house and advanced.
“Move! Move!”
A red-faced man being chased by a monster ran toward him. The man flinched just as he was about to grab Kang Junhyeok and throw him.
Kang Junhyeok was not running away.
He was approaching the monster instead.
‘I-is he a crazy bastard?’
The man quickly made his decision. There was no need to touch a crazy bastard who was walking to his death. He ran past Kang Junhyeok, who continued forward.
[KAAAAK.]
The mantis also noticed that Kang Junhyeok was walking toward it. Perhaps displeased that its prey showed no fear, it cast aside the corpse it had been mangling and charged in an instant.
[KIEEEEEK!]
A foreleg shot out to pierce Kang Junhyeok's head.
And at that moment.
Kang Junhyeok moved lightly and evaded it. His hand went to his waist. He gripped the hilt, drew the dagger, and stabbed the mantis in the neck.
***
The dagger slid smoothly through the mantis's neck.
[K-KEEK!]
The mantis thrashed its forelegs as though convulsing, but he lowered his stance and avoided them. He dragged the blade embedded in its neck all the way down its body in one swift motion.
[KAAAAAAK!]
A horrific scream rang out. It staggered and tried to swing its forelegs, but it no longer had the strength. After flailing for a moment, it collapsed to the ground.
[System locked. It will be unlocked upon completion.]
“What? There was something like this? So they’re not going to make it easy for me?”
Kang Junhyeok narrowed his eyes at the system window before him.
[Kieeek.......]
The mantis had let out a wretched scream as it died. At the sound, the fleeing people glanced back.
“......Huh?”
“H-huh?”
And so they saw it.
The mantis that had brutally slaughtered people lay on the ground in a gruesome state.
And a man stood before it.
[KAAAAAK!]
[KIEEEEEK!]
One of their own had died. Realizing that, the mantises cried out. One mantis, its eyes rolling in fury, charged to kill Kang Junhyeok.
Kang Junhyeok did not run. He merely measured the distance, then took one step back.
[KIEEEEEK!]
The blade swept out with a sharp whistle as it cut through the air. If it touched him, his body would be severed on the spot.
But that did not matter. It only had to miss.
The 0th Floor Quest.
The beginning of everything. A horrific hell with a 50% survival rate.
Because it marked the beginning, people continued to discuss it even after everyone had received an invitation to the Tower. Then, at some point, someone spoke up.
-Could the mantises in the 0th Floor Quest be killed?
At first, everyone dismissed it as nonsense. But the more they discussed it, the more pieces of evidence supporting that claim began to emerge.
First.
The mantises were not as fast as people thought.
Their strength was certainly enough to butcher a person, but their actual speed was on the slow side. Their attack motions were also quite large, so if one responded calmly, they were not impossible to evade.
Second.
They had believed the houses to be meaningless decorations. Hiding inside one did no good because a mantis would simply slice the entire house apart.
But inside each house, there was one weapon.
Swords, axes, clubs, bows, and more. Weapons designed to kill something.
And the final, decisive evidence was the wording of the quest.
[0th Floor Quest.]
[Respond to three monsters.]
[Time remaining : 3 minutes.]
It said to respond.
It did not say to survive or flee.
The mantises could be killed.
They had merely mistaken the mantises for monsters they could not resist and been too preoccupied with running away.
People had regretted that so many died because they failed to realize something so simple.
And now Kang Junhyeok knew the truth.
CRUNCH—.
After avoiding the attack, Kang Junhyeok pierced its neck with the dagger and slit open its abdomen. As he severed its limbs in an instant, he thought.
‘I was lucky.’
If the house had contained something like a bow or club, things would have become difficult. He was fortunate to find a dagger that was perfect for the task.
CLICK.
[KIEEEEEK!]
One of the mantises collapsed with a scream.
[System locked. It will be unlocked upon completion.]
‘Then.’
Kang Junhyeok's eyes grew serious. He had killed two without any trouble. Everything had gone according to plan so far.
But one mantis still remained.
The mantis whose two companions had died would not lower its guard. It glared at Kang Junhyeok with the clear gaze of one facing an enemy.
[KIEEEEK!]
The mantis released a furious screech. But its foreleg cut futilely through empty air. Kang Junhyeok had thrown himself backward.
[KIEEEEEK!]
CRACK—.
The mantis charged. The distance between them rapidly narrowed. Kang Junhyeok swiftly made his assessment.
The creature looked like a mantis. The structure of its forelegs was the same. And so he dropped his stance as low as possible and slid across the ground toward the mantis.
[KAAAAAK!]
Perhaps it had not expected him to charge in return. The mantis hurriedly pulled back its foreleg and struck down. But its foreleg embedded itself in the ground.
SCRAAAAAPE—!
The mantis scraped the ground as it forcibly pulled its foreleg free, but the resistance slowed it considerably. Enough that it could not reach Kang Junhyeok.
STAB—.
Taking advantage of the opening, Kang Junhyeok reached the underside of the mantis, drove in his dagger, and pulled.
SLAAASH—.
Its abdomen split open, and its entrails spilled to the ground.
[KAAAAAAK!]
Kang Junhyeok rose and dusted himself off. He walked leisurely to the fallen mantis and drove his dagger into its head. The mantis flailed its forelegs in a last struggle, but they only cut helplessly through empty air.
[KIIIIIIK.......]
The mantis collapsed with a scream.
[System locked. It will be unlocked upon completion.]
[0th Floor Quest cleared.]
[Time remaining : 1 minute 25 seconds.]
[MVP : Kang Junhyeok.]
[Thank you for your efforts.]