I spoke to Muninn’s egg while I waited inside the elevator. I just told it fun folktales like the story about the tortoise and the hare and the three little piglets. I knew it would hatch soon since it periodically shook.

Ding— [You have arrived on the 2nd floor.]

The elevator stopped exactly 4 hours later. I wore my mask and hood and checked the Desert Eagle. It took 0.5 seconds to load and 1.5 seconds to transform with aether.

Shooong—

The elevator opened with a futuristic sound and a vast forest appeared. Warm sunlight shone and the air felt hot. I stepped onto the grass and surveyed around with my thousand-mile eyes. Thankfully, Luke wasn’t too far away. The second wave of players still seemed to be in their waiting rooms judging from the empty plaza.

First, I climbed a tree. Then I jumped from one to the next for a place to view the entire plaza.

“Hmm.”

I finally found a spot with a full view by a cliff with little chance of getting ambushed. Then I sat on a branch and waited for Jin Sahyuk.

Time passed from 10 minutes to 30, 90, then 3 hours.

“I can wait. I like staying hidden. It’s fun. It feels great.”

I self-hypnotized myself with the [Lv.6 Demon’s Cunning Speech] and no longer felt bored or tired. It worked extremely well and I could even wait 6 more hours, or 12, or 24. The extreme heat turned into extreme cold as day turned to night.

Finally, the players appeared in the plaza. Close to 2000 instantaneously arrived with a burst of light that almost blinded me.

— W-Where are we?

— This must be the 2nd floor.

— Shh, don’t reveal any information.

Some looked confused, while others already knew about the 2nd floor. The former should be ordinary people, independent djinns, or those from small guilds. The latter came from large guilds and djinn groups. I scanned the crowd for my target.

— Wow, look. It’s Kim Suho.

— Tsk, why did he have to come? He could’ve stayed outside and become the world’s youngest high-intermediate rank hero.

Kim Suho stood out even among a crowd of 2000. His handsome face shone like gold. I felt happy to see him, but my gaze flew past him. Soon, I found my target.

Jin Sahyuk stood with her arms crossed like an iron-blooded general. I tightened my grip on the Desert Eagle. Players had to start over from the tutorial once they died. Furthermore, they would lose all the skills they had acquired. It wasn’t a coincidence that players had 7 lives and could have a maximum of 7 skills (except for the black ticket).

I planned to kill Jin Sahyuk at least twice. I wanted to ambush her right away, but I had to wait with Luke nearby. Even the 2nd floor’s administrator was far stronger than me in the real world. As such, I had to fight Jin Sahyuk away from him.

***

“As you can see, the 2nd floor is quite chaotic. It is filled with all sorts of frightening aspects of nature.”

“Yaawn.”

Players carefully listened to the administrator’s speech as Jin Sahyuk yawned. A few players even glared at her.

“Your goal is simple. Travel through this chaotic nature filled with traps and monsters to find the elevators that lead to the 3rd floor.”

Luke gave the second wave of players the same speech. Jin Sahyuk felt bored. Even without an explanation, she could steamroll through anything.

“Each elevator can carry 50 individuals, which is quite a lot. Unfortunately, they move very slowly and take 8 hours to travel back and forth. An elevator will not return for the next 8 hours once it departs.”

Jin Sahyuk only needed to hear up to that part. She listened to the rest half-heartedly and began to walk away.

“Be careful. Hunters other than monsters may prey on you.”

The administrator gave one last warning. Jin Sahyuk stopped to look back at the administrator. This particular sentence bothered her for some reason and he seemed to be staring at her.

“Some players who remained on the 2nd floor or returned from an upper floor may attack and steal from newer players. You will need to watch out for these newbie hunters. They know you have at least 1000 TP and are at your weakest.”

The crowd stirred as guild members heard about this for the first time. They had forgotten about other players with ill intentions since they only focused on quickly climbing the tower.

“Now, go out and find an elevator.”

With that, the administrator sat under a tree and began to read a book. The majority of players, including Jin Sahyuk, headed off. Some lightly bowed to the administrator before going their way. Only one group stayed and approached the administrator. Unsurprisingly, it was Kim Suho and his companions.

“Being nosy again. Tsk, tsk.”

Jin Sahyuk sneered at them and headed north. She moved alone, unlike the others. In her eyes, newbie hunters would only provide more money and food. She didn’t fear them the slightest.

“Come and get me.”

She walked with confidence as a thin current of magic power shot up with every step. After 30 minutes of walking like that, a boar attracted to her magic power appeared.

[Lv.2 Blackblood Boar]

— Kueeek! The large boar charged as Jin Sahyuk shot a bolt of magic power. Kueek— Then its internal organs blew up and it instantly died.

Jin Sahyuk approached the corpse and carefully emitted her magic power to dismantle it. She took only the most delicious meat and the thickest leather according to the information she received from outside the tower.

“How easy.”

Jin Sahyuk continued forward. Contrary to her expectations, no newbie hunters challenged her and only unintelligent monsters appeared. Even the weakest humans recognized a predator as Jin Sahyuk sighed in disappointment.

Whiish—

Suddenly, an unnatural wind blew and a strange spiral stormed past her. Immediately, an alarm rang in her head and she instinctively twisted while cladding herself in qi reinforcement. A beam of light pierced her shoulder as blood spurted and an intense pain struck her. The strength instantly left her body and her legs gave out as she fell back. However, she quickly picked herself up and stitched her wound with magic power.

She made up for the blood loss by circulating her blood faster with magic power. At the same time, she calculated where the attack came from and threw a bolt of magic power. Her attack shot forward like an arrow and destroyed every tree in its path.

“Come out.”

Jin Sahyuk spoke in a low tone, but her voice resounded far and wide with magic power. The attacker reacted with another bullet. This time, she didn’t let it reach her. The bullet touched the magic barrier she quickly created. It shattered, but managed to slightly change the bullet’s course. That was enough for Jin Sahyuk to twist her body and dodge.

She had already learned from the initial attack. Now, the sniping would no longer work. She didn’t know who dared to attack, but he had lost the moment he couldn’t kill her with the first hit. However, the attacker shot another bullet. It seemed he hadn’t learned yet. Jin Sahyuk grinned and unleashed a barrier.

“…?”

The bullet suddenly curved and flew towards her blind spot. She couldn’t dodge and hastily calculated the point of impact to concentrate her magic power there.

“…!”

This time, it struck her thigh. She managed to prevent her leg from being blown off, but an unbearable pain coursed through her.

Psssh—

A man jumped down from a tree as the leaves rustled. He wore a mask and a hood. However, he took them off to reveal his face and walked towards her. Jin Sahyuk carefully observed him.

“You.”

She knew exactly who he was.

***

“Huu.”

I deactivated the sniper rifle mode after firing 3 bullets. Then I jumped down from the tree. I thought about infusing stigma’s magic power into a bullet to kill her in one blow, but decided not to. If she dodged it, I would’ve wasted my ultimate attack. Even if it hit, she would only lose 1 life from it. To take at least 3 lives, I had to blow her head off with a shotgun. That was the only way, so I approached her.

“It’s been a while, eh?”

“…”

Jin Sahyuk glared at me. I thought she had fallen, but already got back up. Dozens of magic power weapons undulated behind her. Her magic power capacity surpassed even Chae Nayun and her magic power control and adaptability couldn’t be matched. Her gift, Magic Arms, was a simple yet devastating ability that could create thousands of magic weapons. The current Jin Sahyuk shouldn’t be capable of handling that. I furrowed my brows.

“You obtained a hidden secret, didn’t you?”

“…”

Jin Sahyuk didn’t reply, but I felt confident in my guess. I didn’t know exactly how she found it, but she must have chosen to remove 10% of her stat restriction as a reward.

“Oi.”

Jin Sahyuk, who glared at me, finally spoke.

“What.”

“Did you come down to get killed?”

I smirked. It seemed she wondered why I didn’t just kill her from the tree. Of course, I could have killed her without her ever knowing my identity, but I had a reason for coming down.

“I wanted to kill you thoroughly.”

“You!”

That lit her fuse as dozens of weapons, arrows, and harpoons shot towards me. However, they all seemed like toothpicks. I transformed the Desert Eagle into an assault rifle as her weapons moved like turtles in bullet time.

First, I needed to test how many bullets it took to strike down one weapon. I fired 2 bullets. The first caused her magic weapon to waver and the second made it disappear. Then I began shooting her weapons down, starting from the ones closest to me. The lighter arrows only took one bullet while the rest took two. However, Jin Sahyuk’s barrage never ceased. Her magic power capacity seemed endless, so I spaced out my usage of bullet time. Kwang—! I deactivated bullet time after a round of bullets and the world instantly hastened.

“You!”

Jin Sahyuk’s mouth moved as I scanned my targets. Then I reactivated bullet time. Like this, I conserved as much time as possible. Eventually, Jin Sahyuk should run out of magic power. On the other hand…

[Assault rifle bullets x 119]

I wouldn’t run out any time soon. Kwang, Kwang, Kwang! Magic power continually clashed with bullets. Dust and wind swirled in the air. I grew confident that I would win as this exchange dragged on.

“…”

Jin Sahyuk must’ve felt the same as her magic power dwindled. I couldn’t help but wonder what she must’ve thought.

“Mmm.”

I decided to stop wasting bullets once her attacks became weaker. I set my gun down and activated my skill.

[Lv.3 Extraction and Permanent Materialization]

It could be used for both offense and defense. Jin Sahyuk’s magic power condensed into crystals and fell before me.

[Lv.2 Jin Sahyuk’s Mana Crystal] [Lv.1 Jin Sahyuk’s Mana Crystal]

Tk, tk, tk, tk… They fell like tiny droplets of rain. Jin Sahyuk stopped attacking by the time 26 crystals fell. She glared at me with tearful eyes.

“…”

I didn’t know whether it was from anger or resentment, but I knew it wasn’t from fear or sadness.

“You crying?”

I sneered as I approached. She shouldn’t be able to move a finger after squeezing out every drop of magic power. I walked up to her and transformed the assault rifle into a shotgun. Jin Sahyuk clenched her teeth.

“I’ll admit it. Right now… you are stronger,” Jin Sahyuk muttered.

“But ask yourself this.”

She glared with hatred and continued, “Will you be able to kill me 7 times?”

However, it wasn’t even a question worth answering. Seven times? I only needed to kill her three times. I kicked her knee.

“Uk!”

Then I pointed the shotgun at her head after forcing her to kneel. I grinned while looking down at her. Before she went back to the tutorial…

“See you later.”

I hoped these words would instill fear in her and pulled the trigger. A slug with stigma’s magic power shot out.

KWANG!

Soon, a deep silence descended. No blood spurted from her instant death. Her body dispersed into blue particles of light. Whiissh— The wind carried it away.

“Huu…”

I sighed in relief at my first kill of Jin Sahyuk. It turned out so easy I felt stupid for worrying. Honestly, I simply couldn’t lose in here. My Lv.4 armor would’ve protected me even if her magic weapons directly struck. Should I have let her hit me a few times?

I stretched in satisfaction. Wiiing— My smartwatch rang.

[You have won a duel with a target!] [Target Kim Hajin has acquired the following victory reward!]

“Hah?”

An incomprehensible alert popped up.

***

Boss, Jain, and Cheok Jungyeong stood in front of a crystal stele in the 4th floor’s final area.

“I think I’ll have to go outside.”

Reaching the crystal stele meant they had cleared the 4th floor. They had to defeat the 8 undead kings in all 8 compass directions. To advance to the 5th floor, you only needed to defeat one of the eight kings and find the crystal stele in its palace.

“Outside? To Earth? Why?”

“It’s starting to get fun, Boss. Why don’t you wait until we clear the 5th floor?”

Jain and Cheok Jungyeong tried to persuade her.

“No, I don’t think I can wait any longer.”

However, Boss could no longer ignore the doubt and suspicion in her heart. She wasn’t sure whether the magnifying glass malfunctioned or if Kim Hajin was mistaken, but she couldn’t sleep without knowing why he felt that way.

Jain calmly watched her and stepped up.

“Move aside, Jungyeong.”

“What? Why is it always me…”

“Move it. You’ve been exiled before in your past life, right?”

“What does that have to do with any—”

Jain walked up to Boss after sending Cheok Jungyeong away.

“Something’s been bothering you, right? Tell me,” she whispered into Boss’ ear.

“I can’t tell you yet.”

However, Boss remained silent. She couldn’t be certain of anything and didn’t want to cause any discord among members.

“Mn?”

“Just wait.”

I’ll find out the truth no matter what it takes. Jain didn’t dig any further after seeing Boss’ determination.

“If you say so…”

“Alright, I’ll see you two later then.”

“Don’t hurt yourself, okay?”

Boss nodded and looked through the player shop for the necessary tickets while Jain and Cheok Jungyeong walked up to the crystal stele. After about 5 minutes…

“Are we going up right away? Do you have enough potions?”

“I’m always ready.”

“Okay, then let’s go.”

Boss slowly approached them as they excitedly spoke.

“… Jain.”

“Boss? You still haven’t left?” Jain widened her eyes and tilted her head. Boss stared at her for a moment before mumbling.

“… Lend me some money.”

“Hm?”

“I, I need to buy a return ticket and re-entrance ticket, but I’m short 300 TP.”

Jain stared at her and blinked in surprise. Boss quickly made an excuse.

“I ended up spending too much.”

Jain immediately furrowed her brows.

“Boss, you donated to those authors again? I told you not to do it!”

She didn’t donate to just novel authors. She even donated to manhwa authors and artists. Even if she liked art, it wasn’t like she came from the House of Medici.

“…”

Boss swallowed her saliva.

“Sorry, that’s been my only source of entertainment recently. I’ll try to curb my habits when I return. My sense of money has been muddled—”

“Ah, this is all Hajin’s fault! It’s because he spoils you that you can’t think rationally.”

Jain began to nag her. Boss almost warned her to be more respectful, but swallowed her words. She knew Jain became terrifying with anything related to money.