The 5th Floor Waiting Room of the Tower of the Republic of Korea.
Even the 5th Floor Waiting Room, which would normally have been quiet, was packed with people.
It was because the blessing, Bounty of the Swamp, had only a little over a day remaining.
Avoiding the crowds in one corner of the Waiting Room, Park Jin-seong silently checked the condition of his sword and shield as he prepared for the imminent attempt to clear the 5th Floor .
Kim Min-ju sat beside him, swinging her legs as she looked at her phone.
Then she suddenly let out a snort of laughter.
“What’s with this guy?”
“What is it?”
“Here, take a look at this, oppa.”
Kim Min-ju slid the screen over for Park Jin-seong to see.
It displayed a post from ‘The Lobby’, an anonymous community for Awakened.
【General】I’m the Bounty Lord. Ask me anything
“It’s an impostor. Mr. Si-hyeon would never write a post like this.”
“Exactly.”
The two were already half-convinced that Si-hyeon was the Bounty Lord who had caused such a stir.
The details of the clear were one thing, but the timing was far too perfect.
“But do you think it really was Mr. Si-hyeon?”
“Come on, don’t you remember? The universal announcement appeared less than a minute after we escaped the swamp.”
Park Jin-seong nodded at that.
“True. Considering that even we received an A Grade… If the clear was EX, it couldn’t have been anyone but Mr. Si-hyeon.”
Even as the two once again solidified their conjecture into accepted fact, the impostor enjoyed everyone’s attention while making all manner of grandiose boasts.
Anonymous 1: Bullshit, lol. If you’re the Bounty Lord, then I’m Shin Yu-seong.
└ Anonymous (OP): lol, believe it or not.
‘The Lobby’ was infamous for being the most vicious of the Awakened communities, so most of the responses were like this.
But even among them, there were bound to be people so kind that they seemed foolishly trusting.
Anonymous 8: Are you really the Bounty Lord? Please share some tips on how you cleared the swamp boss.
└ Anonymous (OP): What tips are there to give? Everyone overcomplicates it, but the key was managing aggro. That was all.
One Tank keeps the boss’s attention locked down while the other damage dealers unload on it. People make it much harder than it is.
Of course, I dealt almost all the damage, lol.
Kim Min-ju’s eyebrow twitched as she read the comment.
The overwhelming might of a massive creature unlike anything she had ever seen in her life.
The perilous moments when she had truly thought she would die there, each instant like walking along the edge of a blade.
The scene was still vivid in her mind. Even the swamp’s fishy stench remained clear.
‘This fraud never even got close to the place, so what do they know?!’
Every one of the four people there had risked their lives.
Even Si-hyeon, whose performance during the clear had been overwhelmingly superior, had practically offered up half his life to face the enemy.
‘There’s a limit to how shameless someone can be. How dare they try to take someone else’s achievement for free?’
A spiteful urge rose within her.
Here she was, keeping quiet despite knowing the Bounty Lord’s identity for fear of causing him trouble, yet some ignorant bastard was not merely pretending to know what had happened but actually impersonating him.
Kim Min-ju narrowed her eyes and glared at the screen for a moment. A mischievous smile soon curved across her lips.
Reading something in her expression, Park Jin-seong smiled faintly and asked,
“Why? Are you going to do something?”
“Heh-heh. Just wait.”
Then her two fingers began moving busily.
Anonymous 10: Wow, you cleared it that easily with a straightforward approach?!
As expected, Bounty Lord, you really are in a class of your own!
But a friend of mine said they had been to the swamp, and the ground was so muddy that progressing was impossible without something like specially crafted magic boots.
May I ask how you crossed it?
Kim Min-ju smiled in satisfaction.
The magic boots were bait.
If the poster was a fraud, they would undoubtedly boast that they had possessed an even more impressive item or Skill.
The fraud would never imagine that the crude Swamp Snowshoes made from tree bark and torn clothing had been the key to clearing the swamp.
No one except those who had stood there themselves could possibly know that.
Sure enough, a notification sounded before long, and the impostor’s reply appeared beneath Kim Min-ju’s question.
Anonymous (OP): Magic boots? Relying on things like that is why you can’t clear it.
We went straight to the boss and melted it with burst damage.
The key to an EX-Grade clear isn’t dealing with minor mechanics like that. It’s steamrolling straight through with overwhelming firepower. Got it?
That comment was the problem.
Until then, the impostor had skillfully walked a tightrope and maintained a plausible act. This was the moment they slipped clean off.
That single remark irritated the Awakened who had previously dismissed the post with, ‘Come on, this is just cheap bait,’ and barely given it a glance.
Anonymous 11: Pfft, lol. You ignored the swamp mechanic? In a kidnapping event where you got dragged in without any preparation? LOL, what, did you fly? LOL.
Anonymous 12: I checked out at ‘went straight to the boss.’
└ Anonymous 11: For real. I heard from the survivors that finding the way was brutal.
└ Anonymous 13: Oh, right. Apparently, he entered the destination into his GPS, lol.
Anonymous 3: Real veterans don’t say embarrassing crap like ‘overwhelming firepower.’ Maybe ‘it was manageable,’ but that’s about it. The impostor’s particular brand of swagger is far too obvious. They’re probably not even Awakened.
Anonymous 4: Conclusion: This bastard has never even reached the swamp section, let alone been kidnapped. GG.
The original poster came under concentrated fire in an instant.
Having achieved her goal, Kim Min-ju laughed triumphantly.
“Heh-heh, serves you right!”
Park Jin-seong had quietly watched her. He smiled faintly and said,
“There really are some characters out there. Impersonating someone else, of all things. Fame really is frightening.”
“It sure is.”
Whether she had lost interest or decided her work was done, Kim Min-ju nodded and turned off her phone’s screen.
Park Jin-seong’s remark about ‘characters’ suddenly brought someone to mind.
“I wonder where that real ‘character’ is and what he’s doing right now?”
Park Jin-seong immediately knew whom Kim Min-ju meant.
“Who knows? He’s impossible to predict. I’m sure he’s doing something extraordinary even now. Something we couldn’t even imagine.”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
Her gaze traveled beyond the Waiting Room to the portal leading to the next Floor.
She felt an inexplicable certainty.
If it was him—if it was Si-hyeon—then even at this very moment, he would be doing something no one could imagine.
***
A horde ofHobgoblins emerged through the yellow dust rising in the distance.
Even at a glance, there were easily more than ten.
‘Fifteen… no, around twenty.’
No wonder this was called a trial, and no wonder the objective was survival.
It was a level of insane difficulty that almost made it insulting to compare this with the existing 2nd Floor, where there had been only oneHobgoblin and three ordinaryGoblins.
I had talked big, but this did not seem right.
‘They’re allHobgoblins. Hmm… This is outside anything I expected.’
I was curious what reward I would receive for annihilating the enemies in a survival trial, but not curious enough to risk my life.
‘Survival really is the right call here.’
That left me with two choices.
The first was to trust Covert Movement, hide among the rocks in the wasteland, and play hide-and-seek.
‘The other is to trust my legs and run for dear life….’
Neither option was appealing.
‘Covert Movement isn’t omnipotent.’
The objective was to ‘survive.’ Therefore, those bastards had come here to catch and kill me.
They were not going to sit around sucking their thumbs just because they could not see me.
Even if they wandered around for a while at first, they would undoubtedly tighten the net around me somehow.
‘Trust Covert Movement, lie flat, and hope 15 minutes pass quietly?’
That would be no different from simply hoping for a stroke of luck.
But should I bet on blindly running away and enduring for 15 minutes instead?
That would be no different from setting out a bowl of water and praying that those bastards were slower than me and had less stamina.
‘If I don’t like either option….’
There was no helping it. I had to redraw the board myself.
But how? The kidnapping event had taken place in a swamp, so at least there had been plenty in my surroundings to use.
All I could see around me now was the wasteland and a few rocks that looked as though they had been planted there solely to keep the scenery from becoming too boring.
‘…Wait, the rocks?’
A reckless idea suddenly flashed through my mind.
It seemed I had found a way.
‘If it goes according to plan… I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t work?’
Even I thought it was dangerous.
At the same time, it was the only move that could overturn this numerical disadvantage.
‘…The more I think about it, the more this could work.’
I immediately surveyed my surroundings.
I was searching for the perfect stage on which to execute this operation.
Unfortunately, there was nothing suitable nearby.
‘Is there nothing…? Oh!’
When I extended my gaze into the far distance, somewhere I would never reach while carrying out the ordinary 2nd Floor mission, I saw exactly what I needed.
‘That’s it!’
A strangely shaped rock stood precariously with a narrow base and a disproportionately broad top.
It resembled a giant mushroom.
‘Perfect. That’ll work.’
The possibility became absolute certainty.
I immediately put the plan into action.
Maintaining Covert Movement, I carefully began walking.
My destination was the strangely shaped rock I had spotted.
‘It’ll be easier if Covert Movement buys me some time….’
It would not last long.
Even trusting Covert Movement 100% and staying hidden might not have worked in the first place, and I was now walking through a wasteland without any cover or concealment.
“SKREEK! KRRK!”
Sure enough, I was discovered before even a minute had passed.
“Of course.”
TheGoblins pointed at me and screamed at the top of their lungs.
Now that I had been caught, this was no longer hide-and-seek. From here on, it was a game of tag.
“Hey! Yes, I’m over here!”
“KRRK! SKRREEEE!”
I wagged my tail, and they gleefully came running.
After that, I did not need to do anything else. They diligently pumped their short legs and followed me with ease.
With twentyHobgoblins trailing behind me, I felt like the Pied Piper.
“Huff, huff! You bastards. Why are you so fast forGoblins?!”
If I had mindlessly chosen to flee without a plan, I truly would have been in danger.
Before long, our march brought the entire company ofGoblins and me to my destination.
“Whew… I thought I was going to die, you lot.”
TheGoblins clustered beneath the strangely shaped rock, driven by the single-minded desire to tear me apart.
When the last of them finally entered the rock’s shadow, I made my move in earnest.
They had caught up, so now I was it.
SHING─.
‘Now!’
The instant I drew my sword, I unleashed Flash without hesitation.
The technique had been born from imitating Flash Cleave, but a flash of light no longer followed it.
The New Moon Iron of Nocturne’s ink-black blade devoured the light, erasing it.
SLASH!
Only the sound of severing remained.
The sword strike cut diagonally through the giant rock’s base at the crack that looked most precarious, leaving a thin line across the stone.
“Krrrk?”
The creatures did not even understand what I had done.
That was understandable.
To them, I must have looked like a crazy bastard who suddenly drew his sword and struck a rock with it.
But there was no need for me to explain or prove what I had done.
RRRRRUMBLE—!
The result followed a moment later.
The rock had looked precarious from the outset. When I gave it a slight push from behind, it began to collapse as if it had been waiting.
“SKRREEK!”
“SKREEEE!”
A rockfall from a clear sky!
Only then did the creatures grasp the severity of the situation and scatter in panic.
Whether they could escape was another matter.
RRRUMBLE!
The collapsing rock poured down everything from stone dust to boulders the size of people, indiscriminately burying theHobgoblin horde.
All around, I heard the repeated THUD, THUD of watermelons bursting.
That made the plan half a success.
But it was not over.
One enormous fragment of the collapsed rock was falling directly toward my head.
‘Yes, I knew it. There’s no way it would miss only me.’
The shadow of death hurtled terrifyingly toward me, filling my entire field of vision.
There was no time, space, or even thought left for evasion.
I squeezed out every last drop of my remaining Mana and poured it into my sword.
My target was the enormous fragment hurtling straight toward my head.
‘It’s coming…!’
SLASH!
Just before the collision, the Flash I unleashed with all my strength split the massive rock apart.
For an instant, blue sky appeared where my view had been suffocatingly blocked.
‘…!’
THUD! THUD—!
Two ground-shaking booms erupted, and a fierce blast of air grazed my cheek.
A thick cloud of dust rose.
“…Whew, I’m alive.”
The two neatly divided halves of the boulder were embedded in the ground, one on either side of me.
As the enervation from Mana depletion washed over me and the tension drained away, I panted heavily.
CRUMBLE.
I heard something crumbling within the pile of rocks.
‘…Something survived that?’
Following the sound, I found one creature completely buried among the rocks and barely clinging to life.
“S-SKREEE…!”
“Ah, right. It was you.”
The thing even had a decent-looking sword and shield, as well as armor and a helmet.
Its companions had been practically naked, while it alone was fully equipped. It was probably their leader.
“Looking at you now, I think you’re a little taller than the others too.”
If Gaze's Trial had gone as the Tower intended, it would have been an extremely troublesome opponent.
But it had met the wrong opponent today.
“What can you do? This is how it turned out.”
Only its head peeked out between the rocks, and it could not move an inch.
I did not know what condition its crushed body was in below, but even if it was alive, it could hardly be called living.
I put it out of its misery.
CRUNCH!
The blade squeezed through a narrow gap in its helmet.
The creature’s struggling soon ceased.
“Is it really over now?”
As I pulled out the sword and flicked the blood from it, a reward message appeared before me.
[Special Mission, ‘Gaze's Trial,’ completed.]
[Clear Evaluation: EX]
[Special Mission completion rewards will be issued.]
⋮
⋮
⋮
“Ah, whatever. Whatever. Auto-Storage.”
The rewards were great, but first, I needed a moment to catch my breath.
My head felt as though it would split open from Mana depletion.