The 5th-floor mission was about to end.
Five minutes remained.
At this point, most people usually stopped hunting and rested.
It was the time when players let their guard down the most, but not everyone did.
“Kuh! Mr. Lim Deok-su! What is the meaning of this?!”
[Lim Deok-su’s Points: 320]
“The meaning? How I earn my points is my business.”
Looking down at the player who had collapsed, coughing up blood, I pulled my axe free.
The cold metal was stained with blood once again.
[You have killed a player.]
[You gain half of that player’s points.]
[Points: 320 → 380]
“Why hunt monsters like an idiot? You can just take what other guys have.”
380 points.
The average was between 100 and 200.
With this much, 1st place this round was definitely mine.
No, it had to be.
DING!
[The 5th-floor mission has ended.]
“Finally, it’s over. Hurry up and announce 1st place, System.”
I immediately checked the results window in front of me….
And I doubted my own eyes.
[1st Place: Anonymous: 1501 Points]
“…What?”
My mind went blank.
1501 points?
How does that even make sense?
Even that monster ranked 1st in the world had a best of 700 points.
And even that had been a number that shocked every player.
But the guy who took 1st this time had racked up more than twice that.
“Fuck, are you kidding me?!”
I shut the screen off in anger.
I tried to find out right away who the guy was, but the name was anonymized.
There was no way to know who it was.
‘This makes no sense by any common sense! It’s got to be an RP!’
In that instant, my view changed.
The Tower lobby.
A space where hundreds of players gathered.
“Did you see? The 1st-place score?”
“1501? Isn’t that a System error?”
“No way… a person can actually score that?”
The surroundings were filled with murmuring.
I wasn’t the only one who was shocked.
It seemed everyone had checked the results window.
The 1st-place winner had to be somewhere in the lobby.
‘Do you know how much I prepared for today?!’
Narrowing my eyes, I scanned the people.
My heart was pounding fast.
I don’t think I had ever been this furious in my life.
Bump—
“Huh?!”
My shoulder bumped into someone.
A man with a black hoodie pulled down deep.
His whole body was a wreck, and his left shoulder in particular was soaked with blood.
A state in which it wouldn’t be strange if he collapsed right now.
But.
“Hey, what’s with that look on your face?”
The guy’s expression was strange.
He didn’t look at me at all despite bumping into me, his gaze hollow, as if he were staring into another world.
Swish—
He even bumped into me and then just walked past without a single word of apology.
Snap—
In that instant, my blood rushed to my head.
‘That bastard dares to ignore me?’
THUP—
“Hey, you! If you bump into someone, you should at least apologize!”
I grabbed his shoulder.
The moment I clenched it tight and tried to forcibly turn him around.
“You want to d—”
Flinch—
“…Huh?”
Goosebumps rose all over my body.
What on earth had I just laid my hand on?
Something inexplicable pressed down on my entire body.
‘What the hell is this….’
It wasn’t mere killing intent.
An overwhelming aura.
That aura choked my breath and made goosebumps rise all over my body.
It felt like if this man made up his mind to, I would vanish from this very spot without leaving so much as a trace.
‘What the hell is this guy…!’
My body wasn’t my own.
My limbs trembled, and my hand loosened on its own.
‘This guy….’
And then my legs gave out.
I couldn’t even dare to think about running.
FLOP—
I collapsed right there on the spot.
‘Is he really human?’
Terror gnawed at my entire body.
Swish—
The man lowered his head slightly.
Very briefly. But it was a definite gesture.
“S-save m—”
“I apologize.”
A calm voice.
Leaving only those words, he turned around as if nothing had happened and walked toward the exit.
All I could do was stare blankly at his back.
My heart was still pounding like mad.
‘What did I just mess with?’
***
“Haa— Taking out my frustration for nothing at my age. I couldn’t even control my presence properly.”
Of course, my current age was 20, but in terms of mental age, I was at least several hundred years old.
“Whew—”
After finishing the 5th-floor mission, I reviewed my past battle for the first time in a long while.
I hadn’t done it since around my 50th run.
Because I hadn’t thought there was any need.
But this battle had held a lesson.
‘I’m still weak.’
I had been relieved to find myself stronger than in any past run, and I had grown arrogant.
If I failed in this attempt and died, I would have to repeat everything from the beginning again.
“It’s better that I realized it on the 5th floor, at least.”
[Status Window]
Seo Kang-yul. Lv.27
Unique Ability: Curse of Repose
Skills: Mana, Intermediate Regeneration, Pulverize, Hex of Rage
Strength: 20
Agility: 23
Vitality: 20
Mana: 50
Free Stats: 35
“Maybe because the experience bar’s gotten bigger, but leveling up is definitely slower.”
I had gained a lot on the 5th floor.
I had gained 7 levels, and with the mana stone dropped by the Death Knight, I could now create a new weapon.
My passive skill had also ranked up, becoming Intermediate Regeneration.
‘I was originally going to get treated at the Association, but with Intermediate Regeneration, it should all heal in 2 to 3 days.’
Lesser Regeneration was at the level of healing basic abrasions.
But with Intermediate Regeneration, even fractures healed quickly as long as they were treated properly.
“I should invest a bit more in Vitality for later.”
The Vitality stat governed not only cardiopulmonary endurance, but also the body’s durability and even its regenerative ability.
[Strength: 20 → 25]
[Vitality: 20 → 30]
[Mana: 50 → 70]
SQUEEEZE—
I felt a pressure as though my muscles were swelling.
It wasn’t simply that I had gotten bulkier; it was the sensation that anything I gripped once in my hand might be crushed.
My heart gave one big beat, and blood surged forcefully through my entire body.
As if my broken muscle fibers were rapidly regenerating, the throbbing pain slowly faded.
“Whew….”
My breathing deepened, and my vision became even clearer.
It felt as though not my body, but my very existence had been strengthened.
The wall that had been my limit until just yesterday seemed to have been pushed a little farther away.
“Stat distribution’s done. What matters is this….”
[Death Knight’s Mana Stone]
-Grade: Heroic
-A mana stone imbued with the lingering thoughts of a knight once called the strongest in the empire.
-It holds loyalty to the empire, and hatred toward the king.
‘I needed a new weapon anyway, so this works out well.’
FLOP—
I sat down cross-legged on the floor of my room.
A Heroic Grade mana stone.
I held it in my hand.
“I grant the Black Moon Engraving a new form.”
Zzziiing—
[Using the Heroic Grade Death Knight’s Mana Stone to form the Black Moon Engraving’s shape.]
The mana stone split apart, and dark red light mingled with the darkness of the Black Moon Engraving.
The mark on the back of my hand grew hot, as if burning.
Then Karhen’s last words came to mind.
<For the Empire…>
“Lingering thoughts? Sorry, but that’s not something I need.”
Power meant for protecting was not what I wanted.
I was not one who protected, but one who killed.
It had to hold not loyalty, but the hatred he felt when the king abandoned him.
WHOOOOSH—
The air sank heavily.
Unlike when I had made the spear, the form was rough this time.
Instead of delicacy, only overwhelming killing intent and aggression condensed.
CRACK—! CRRACK—!
As if the air were cracking, an invisible wall split, and pitch-black shards of iron scattered and gathered from the gap.
The shards collided as if alive and consumed one another.
The blade extended long, and pitch-black edges layered one over another, completing the form.
“Kheugh…!”
The pressure dug in from my fingertips to my heart.
A sensation that my mind might be polluted just by looking at it.
It wasn’t a mere weapon, but an instrument of slaughter that gnawed away at me.
Zzziiing—!!
At the very last moment, the form, once as long as a spear shaft, compressed as if crumpling, and a sharp blade was revealed.
Long, thin, but extraordinarily sharp.
The moment I gripped it, I had the illusion that I could cut through anything that could be cut.
THUMP—, THUMP—, THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
My heart beat irregularly.
The darkness spreading from the tip of the blade split the air and even cracked the floor.
“Haa—”
[A new form of the Black Moon Engraving has been registered.]
[Please set the weapon’s Command Word.]
The blade vibrated.
I slowly placed my hand on the sword’s grip.
“…Kaedes.”
[The Command Word has been set to ‘Kaedes’.]
[Consuming a slot of the Rare Grade Weapon Black Moon Engraving to register a new form.]
When the blade had fully taken shape, the air in the room sank heavily.
The blade had a black-iron hue, but a red light mingled over its surface, as if blood had seeped into it.
A color like darkness and blood congealed and flowing together.
When it caught the light, dark red ripples slowly flowed down it, pulsing like living veins.
“I pictured it in my head, but I didn’t think it would turn out this well.”
SHWAAAAK—!
When I swung it lightly, the sharply extended tip tore through the air as though endlessly thirsty.
A thin red line ran through the center of the blade like a pulse, and its end beat faintly, as if connected to my heart.
‘That would be good for my new Original Skill.’
***
“What am I really supposed to do?”
I swallowed a sigh in front of the monitor.
I scrolled the mouse back and forth, checking the footage, but I couldn’t bring myself to touch it at all.
It felt like I shouldn’t be cutting and splicing, but just releasing the whole thing as it was.
When I first got the recording file, I figured it would be 20 minutes long at most.
But from the moment I hit play until now, the footage had already been running for a whopping 54 minutes.
“If the video’s too long, viewers won’t really like it….”
Normally, clear videos didn’t go over 10 minutes, or 15 at most.
But in this, every scene from beginning to end was a climax.
The moment the Death Knight first appeared.
‘I got goosebumps all over.’
And that overwhelming presence could be felt even through the screen.
‘I can’t cut the entrance. Pass!’
The first clash, catching the greatsword, captivated viewers with the tension alone.
Normally, I would cut things here and there for pacing, but this scene absolutely couldn’t be left out.
Then came the storming battle with the long spear.
His focus, finding openings even while his body shook as if it would break.
This was the backbone of the video.
If I cut it, viewers would be furious instead.
‘Then should I at least shorten the Death Knight’s final moments?’
But that was even more absurd.
His final moments as a knight.
Just as the beginning and the end matter most in everything, this scene had to go in, no matter what.
“I’ll bleep out the names and….”
Click— Click—
I replayed the footage several times.
But it was one scene after another that couldn’t be cut.
After trimming and trimming, the running time came to 38 minutes.
Heavy and long, but that in itself was a story.
“Should I just upload it as an uncut version? I flew several drones, so I could match each one to the scenes….”
My finger paused.
Normally, it was a length viewers would find boring.
But this wasn’t an ordinary video.
“Exposition, rising action, crisis, climax, resolution. Every part is in there.”
Besides, it was Mr. Seo Kang-yul’s first video.
Cutting this in half might actually end up hiding his true worth.
‘Right, I can’t edit this.’
I made my decision.
It was most perfect exactly as it was now.
I couldn’t touch it any further.
“Still, blurring his face every single time is a lot of work. Should I ask him to wear a mask or something next time?”
Mr. Seo Kang-yul’s terms of the deal were as follows.
He would film the videos himself and send them to me from now on, and I would edit and upload them.
The split was 9 to 1, but….
It was better than getting arrested.
“Whew—, one last check, and then I’ll upload it.”
Zzzing—
It was footage I had already replayed dozens of times.
Even so, a final check was essential.
Whether any wrong subtitles had slipped in.
Whether there were any parts where the sound was out of sync.
Whether it had ended up less readable than the original.
“Whew— Nothing wrong.”
The moment I let out a sigh of relief, Mr. Seo Kang-yul’s face in the uncut footage came into close-up.
Even though he was soaked in fatigue and gasping for breath, his expression was composed.
Tightly pressed lips and sharp eyes.
A presence that strangely drew the eye, even in the middle of a rough battlefield.
“Anyway….”
An expression that held the resolve to survive, and the composure that broke through it.
The battle itself was making his charm even more complete.
As if he had been meant to become a hero from the very start.
“…He’s handsome.”