"Wow, what an amazing situation!"

Of course, it was a sarcastic response to stop any swear words from bubbling up. If Loki or Mr. Guy from earlier was in front of him right now, Yu-Seong might have punched them without much thought.

"There's no point in monitoring my condition for a week." Yu-Seong thought he was in a situation similar to a patient. He next checked the main message, which had the contents of the promotion evaluation.

《Catch the Thief! Difficulty level ++ version

A very bad and nasty thief stole half your soul and hid.

Find the thief and retrieve your soul!

You only get two chances to choose the door! If you're lucky, you might find a hint somewhere.

Special ★

Part of the penalty can be mitigated by defeating the thieves' minions scattered in each room.

Currently, the player Choi Yu-Seong's condition is 30%.》

Mr. Guy said that the thief had stolen Choi Yu-Seong's very precious thing. He certainly didn't seem to be wrong about that.

‘Half of my soul? I don't know how they did such a thing, but wouldn't I die quickly without it?’

The message from the system answered Yu-Seong’s questions by suddenly turning red.

《Special ★

Some of the penalties can be mitigated by defeating the thieves' minions scattered in each room.

Hurry up! With half of your soul gone, your condition deteriorates quickly over time. The current condition of player Choi Yu-Seong is 29%.

When the condition reaches 0%, player Choi Yu-Seong dies.》

“Even better!" Yu-Seong once again magnified his praise. Instead of sighing, he immediately made a move, since he clearly knew what he had to do next.

‘Let's clean up the wicked thief's subordinates first. Raising my condition is undoubtedly my first priority.’ 

Yu-Seong didn't have to think about where the minions would be.

'There’s probably gonna be a whole crowd of them if I open the door.’ 

Yu-Seong first opened the Sun room, which was the center one of the three doors—the sun, the moon, and the stars.

‘It said I had two chances to make a choice.’ 

In other words, out of the three rooms, one had the thief who stole his soul. The probability of finding the right room was about 33.3%. But why would Yu-Seong choose the Sun room as his first choice?

"A man should only go forward."

The door rattled. Then, the big door opened easily.

***

After opening the large door, Yu-Seong encountered a wide plain, damp cave, or harsh natural environment such as a stormy cliff. He muttered, "...It’s just like a mansion’s hallway."

Yu-Seong was literally trapped in a large mansion’s room until just now. In the room, he found a couple of special things. There were colorful windows with large paintings that remind him of Catholicism, complete silence, and cleaning tools that had been randomly tossed around.

‘The cleaning tools became trash too.’

Yu-Seong wasn’t at all curious about who lived in the mansion and what its purpose was.

‘It’s just a test site anyway. There must be monsters somewhere, and if I’m lucky, I might get a hint.'

Yu-Seong walked out of the hallway without hesitation. He felt depressed from how heavy his body felt, but he swept his sharp gaze across his surroundings.

‘There must be something…’

While he walked around with a thoughtful expression, the thrown-away broom started to shake and slowly rose into the air. Yu-Seong was ignorant of the quiet movement, and before he knew it, the broom approached his back and swung greatly.

"Ouch-!" After getting hit in the head, Yu-Seong turned around screaming. He quickly grabbed and broke the broom that attacked once again. He was hit in the head, but he didn’t feel too much pain since it was just an ordinary broom. If anything, he was surprised.

‘What the?’

Yu-Seong wondered to himself.

《Special ★

The player Choi Yu-Seong’s current condition drops to 27% due to the attack.

When his condition reaches 0%, the player Choi Yu-Seong dies.》

After checking the message that flashed in front of him and the cleaning tools that were between the corridors, Yu-Seong quickly changed the Pharaoh’s Caprice into a suit and once again spat out an encouraging statement, “Wow, this should certainly be the level of so-called ‘the Korean difficulty’. Extremely excited!"

If his words were translated directly, it would be a string of aggressive swear words.

***

The fierce battle, which was short but never easy, had finally ended. The floor was completely littered with cleaning tools that were split in half or broken in vain and scattered in all directions. What was surprising was the mansion’s interior; only a part of the wallpaper was torn from such a battle.

However, Yu-Seong focused more on knocking down the many cleaning tools. Despite feeling heavier than usual, he moved fluidly and did not allow himself to receive any more attacks.

‘As expected, I'm glad that I did my training consistently.’ 

Even though his mind was blurred and his movement was dull compared to his usual condition, Yu-Seong could rely on his muscle memory and reflexes. If not for that, he would have already died or had to declare abandonment from the cleaning tools’ attacks.

《Special ★

Displaying the current state of the player Choi Yu-Seong: 32%》

‘Now my condition has improved for sure. 2% higher compared to the start.'

There were approximately fifty cleaning tools that had been knocked down.

‘Is it +1% per 10 tools?’

It didn’t seem to be very efficient, but anyway, Yu-Seong could recover his condition by simply knocking down the strangely moving cleaning tools like this. Above all, he realized one definite piece of information from the first battle.

‘I shouldn’t just walk by without thinking.’ 

Since even the cleaning tools could move and attack, it was highly likely that each item placed in the mansion was a potential threat. Feeling alert and vigilant, Yu-Seong carefully crossed the hallway, and thanks to this, he was able to defeat quite a few cleaning tools, frames, or flying sedentary toilets without repeating the first mistake.

‘It's strange. It doesn't feel like I'm fighting with a monster, but…’

Most importantly, Yu-Seong’s condition rose to a surprising 48% by the time he reached the end of the hallway. He recovered close to half of his usual condition. It wasn’t a bad result compared to the first situation, which was considered the worst.

‘This is the end of the hallway. And do these stairs go downstairs?' 

There was no option to go upstairs. Yu-Seong carefully went down the stairs that continued leading him forward like the open hallway from earlier on. Fortunately, the stairs were not that long, and there were no perils… However, by the time he reached the first floor, he felt chills and fear when he saw a huge armored knight that was over three meters tall in the center of the spacious living room.

"Would that also move?"

The armored knight held onto a shield that was as big as Yu-Seong. The giant sword on its shoulder was also twice Yu-Seong’s size. It was natural that Yu-Seong did not want to fight such a huge armored monster in his current condition. However, as always, he didn’t always get what he wanted.

Screeeech-!

The huge iron-armored knight turned toward Yu-Seong while throwing up the sound of rusty iron.

"Ah... Damn it," Yu-Seong couldn’t help but curse. With nothing else to say, he flew from the top of the stairs and quickly climbed up the armored knight. He stabbed a spear into the visor, which was the only gap he could see.

Yu-Seong did it just in case he might feel anything in his hand, but it was empty. Instead, red flames burst out of the dark black space to form pupils. Yu-Seong smiled awkwardly and greeted it, "Hello?"

Booooom!

The response was replaced by a huge tremor. Choi Yu-Seong could feel it intuitively.

‘I won’t be able to beat him in my current state.’

Yu-Seong didn't even think about trying to fight. Didn't Yu-Ri say the same thing?

‘It's the stupidest thing to die during the promotion evaluation.’ 

Therefore, when Yu-Seong saw the armored knight letting go of the huge shield, he reached out toward it and jumped up the stairs using the Wind Control without hesitation.

Whoo-!

The giant armored knight’s hand passed through the place where Yu-Seong was standing just now in vain.

‘Fortunately, his moves aren't that fast.’

If so, there was only one way for Choi Yu-Seong to proceed. He said, “I give up on you. I'll see you later if I can.”

Without hesitation, Yu-Seong climbed the stairs he had passed. He then passed the hallway, and returned to the large room where he first opened his eyes. The result was not bad.

‘He doesn't follow me to the second floor.’ 

To some extent, things went according to Yu-Seong’s expectations. In addition, he also confirmed that the Sun door was not closed once it was opened.

‘Maybe that armored knight is the thief or a guy with a hint.’ 

It would be enough to designate the armored knight as the boss of this promotion evaluation.

"Let’s get back to him later. Now my current condition is... 46 percent."

Certainly, as time went by, the rate of decline in his condition was accelerating.

‘There's no time for hesitation.’ 

The remaining rooms were the Moon room and the Star room. This time, Yu-Seong opened the Star room’s door and encountered a long hallway again. The only difference this time was that the only thing he could see in the hallway were wooden nutcracker dolls instead of cleaning tools.

‘Perfect opponent to recover my condition.’

Since it was large, the nutcracker dolls were easier to deal with than the cleaning tools. In a flash, Yu-Seong's spear cut the wooden dolls. Then, he encountered the stairs to the first floor again.

"And downstairs..."

There it was. Yu-Seong quickly returned to his original room after spotting the armored knight and checked his condition again. He said, “66%.”

Of course, it was not the best. Even the rate of decline was getting faster.

‘I've already opened two doors.’ 

Yu-Seong returned to the first room that had three doors. Then, he sat at the center of the room, rubbed his chin, and pondered.

‘Let me think objectively. Can I win the armored knight if my condition is at 100%?’

Because Yu-Seong was holding a spear with one hand, the effect of skill Cool-headed E continued naturally. Thanks to this, even in such an urgent situation, he remained calm and wasn’t too shaken.

Although somewhat slow, Yu-Seong calmly compared and analyzed his power against the armored knight. He finally could draw a conclusion—that it was impossible. He believed that the armored knight was not a monster that was here for the player to catch in the first place.

‘This is why they called it an extreme difficulty level and plus.’

Complaints such as whether it would have been easier without Loki's intervention or not had long since been forgotten. Rather than crying over spilled milk, Yu-Seong had to produce clear results now.