## Chapter 230 – 230. Tutorial Floor (2)
#230. Tutorial Floor (2)
Surviving for one week.
It might seem like nothing at first glance, but surviving in a forest teeming with monsters is a challenge even for seasoned hunters.
No matter how many unique traits and skills they were given, most of the people in that clearing were ordinary civilians.
For an ordinary person with no combat experience to face monsters in the forest is more difficult than one can imagine.
Limited visibility due to trees and bushes, and an environment that disrupts hearing and sense of smell.
Even skilled hunters are reluctant to hunt monsters in the forest.
Moreover, monsters weren’t the only danger.
Spiders and snakes presumed to be venomous, and poisonous plants scattered everywhere, made securing food difficult.
For ordinary people to survive for a week in this forest, which was a D-class gate environment at minimum, was virtually impossible.
Indeed, not long after people scattered, screams began to echo throughout the forest.
The stench of blood permeated the air, and quite a few corpses had already been discovered.
At this rate, only a handful would survive after a week.
For the record, I have no intention of helping them. I’m not interested in free service.
“P, please save me…”
“Hmm?”
I glanced over.
My eyes met those of a man sprawled on the ground, covered in blood.
Ah, don’t get me wrong. I’m the one who did that to him.
“Sorry, but that’s going to be difficult. I can’t just let an armed robber go.”
“P, please…! I’ll do anything you ask…!!”
That man gathered his companions and attacked me. They didn’t come to play, so they must have been trying to rob me.
Well, I can understand why.
It’s been half a day since the tutorial started, and it’s about time to get hungry.
But there are very few things to eat in this forest. If you eat grass, you’re likely to foam at the mouth and die, and the area near the river is frequented by monsters, making it difficult to hunt fish.
Of course, that doesn’t mean there’s no way at all.
Surprisingly, you can get food by spending WP.
5 WP for a meal.
As someone who has learned some of the Tower’s common sense from the system, I was dumbfounded. No tourist spot in the world would rip you off like this.
For reference, goblins are 1 WP each, and orcs are 10 WP each.
It seems very generous at first glance, but goblins are difficult monsters to deal with in this kind of forest.
They’re small and wield rusty blades, so even an adult man can be taken down in one hit if he’s not careful.
Of course, there are other ways to acquire WP besides hunting monsters.
That’s human hunting.
It gives you 10 WP per person, plus any WP the other person has.
“Well, I can see why. They must have thought that if they combined their strength, they could easily take down just one person.”
For the record, according to Lucifer, the WP given for human hunting is limited to the tutorial floor.
The same goes for monster hunting. In other places, you won’t get WP even if you catch goblins all day long. Orcs are only worth about 1 WP.
“I, I think I was out of my mind for a moment! If you forgive me just this once, I’ll turn over a new leaf and live a good life-“
“No can do.”
Thwack-
The cold tip of the sword pierced the man’s neck.
“Guh…?!”
“If I only spare you, your dead friends will feel wronged.”
Because his vocal cords were pierced, the man couldn’t even scream.
「You have hunted a member of your own race.」
「+10WP」
I got a total of 100 WP for dealing with the armed robber, which means I eliminated one-tenth of the player candidates with my own hands.
But I didn’t feel much.
They were the ones who tried to kill me first.
Ding-
「’Dancing Destroyer’ sponsors 1,000WP.」
「”Kyahahaha! Excellent answer, excellent!! Kill more of your own kind! Destroy!”」
Getting a sponsorship from a constellation is overwhelmingly more profitable than killing ten people.
Dancing Destroyer.
I don’t know its real name. It suddenly appeared when I was dealing with ten orcs with my bare hands.
For the record, I was practicing fighting orcs with my bare hands in preparation for the Berserk skill’s mission.
Lucifer frowned at my antics, though.
For the record, I asked Lucifer about the Dancing Destroyer, but she blatantly avoided answering.
She probably thought it wasn’t a good place to talk about it.
「’Dweller in the Swamp’ is pleased with the smell of blood.」
「’Dweller in the Swamp’ sponsors 1,000WP.」
「’Saintess of Uruk’ praises your martial prowess.」
「’Saintess of Uruk’ sponsors 1,000WP.」
Besides the Dancing Destroyer, there were two other constellations that started paying attention to me.
I don’t know who the Dweller in the Swamp is, but I know about the Saintess of Uruk.
I once read the Epic of Gilgamesh.
‘Ishtar.’
A goddess born between Anu, the god of the sky and king of the gods, and Ningal, the goddess of the reeds, she is classified as a top-tier god in Mesopotamian mythology.
I don’t know why she suddenly started paying attention to me, but since it’s not like I’m watching for free, I welcomed it.
Of course, Lucifer didn’t seem to like it.
Well, I can see why.
In a situation where she has to hide her identity as much as possible, the attention of a top-tier god is bound to make her uneasy.
But once you enter the Tower, the attention of the constellations is something you have to endure.
The only saving grace is that the system guarantees that there will be no problems as long as you’re not associated with a top-tier constellation belonging to Eden?
Lucifer didn’t seem happy, but she didn’t say anything else.
She must trust what the system says.
“Is it over?”
Lucifer, who had been away for a while, returned just in time.
Her cold expression as she shook the blood off her sword suited her quite well.
“As you can see.”
For a while, we had been hunting monsters separately for efficient WP acquisition.
On the surface, the tutorial floor is a hell that drives helpless people to their deaths, but that’s not the reality.
According to Lucifer, players on the lower floors always want to return to the tutorial floor.
For them, this place is not hell but a land of opportunity where even goblins spit out WP.
Even orcs are worth 10 WP, and dire bears are worth 20 WP.
In fact, the tutorial floor was the most reliable place to acquire WP in the lower floors. Therefore, our goal was to collect as much WP as possible in one week.
“How much did you collect?”
“684WP.”
“…That’s ambiguous.”
Lucifer frowned as if she didn’t like my lukewarm reaction.
“You’re the first person to receive that much sponsorship on the tutorial floor.”
As she said, thanks to the constellation’s sponsorship, the WP I had was on a different level.
5,321WP.
Probably all the player candidates combined, excluding me, wouldn’t even have 1,000 WP.
“It’s all thanks to meeting such generous constellations.”
「’Dancing Destroyer’ acknowledges.」
「’Dweller in the Swamp’ wants more carnage.」
「’Saintess of Uruk’ crosses her smooth legs.」
Along with the screen obscuring my vision, the back of my head tingled.
Sensing a subtle murderous intent, I quickly hid the smile that had spread across my lips.
‘Of course, you know that you’re my only constellation, right?’
As I whispered to her telepathically, Lucifer glared at me as if she would kill me, and then went somewhere.
She’s a constellation with a lot of jealousy and shyness.
「’Saintess of Uruk’ is interested in the primal lovers’ quarrel.」
Lovers’ quarrel, huh.
If Lucifer heard that, a knife might come into my neck.
“Shall we follow her soon?”
Stroking my chilled nape, I moved my feet.
If I followed her right away, she would get angry, and if I followed her too late, she would sulk, so it was important to adjust the pace.
Others might think she has a troublesome personality, but at least to me, it was one of her charms.
-Kyaaak!!
But I had no choice but to stop when a woman’s scream echoed at a perfectly timed moment.
After hesitating for a moment, I turned my body in the opposite direction.
I don’t want to do free service, but I’m not so cold-hearted as to be cruel to women.
***
A singer is a star.
Because they shine most beautifully in everyone’s longing.
It was a dream she had cherished since she was a child, and fortunately, she had talent.
Looks that would be loved by everyone, a voice that would touch the hearts of the public, and the talent to sublimate imagination into songs.
But reality was not as sweet as dreams.
[Shock! Genius artist Lee Serin is in love?! The partner is the president of a large entertainment company!]
[Lee Serin is also on the list of female celebrities who offered sexual favors!]
[Lee Serin embroiled in plagiarism controversy over new song!]
·
·
·
Raw malice became a dagger of criticism and stabbed her wildly.
Even when she cried out in pain, someone threw a stone.
The fact that her suffering had been reduced to a spectacle for others made her no longer enjoy singing.
Depression, panic disorder, stage fright.
Misfortunes continued to pile up.
One day, as she was living without being able to die in the darkness where even a glimmer of hope could not be seen.
A small rabbit doll appeared in front of her eyes.
The doll said to her, who had become a terrible sight.
-I will grant your wish.
The longing for the dream that she had forgotten for a while enveloped her once again.
She grabbed the doll’s hand with an irresistible impulse, and when she opened her eyes, she was standing in the middle of a clearing in the forest.
This was the past that she had forgotten for a while.
“Haa, haa, haa…!”
At first, she thought it was a movie shoot.
It was common for her memory to be erratic due to the medication.
But in front of the sight of someone’s head exploding, she realized that this was a terrible reality.
She ran until her breath reached the tip of her chin.
When she came to her senses, she was wandering alone in the forest.
The first thing that came to her mind when fresh air was supplied to her brain was fear.
“Haa, haa, heu…! Please… please anyone…!”
The screams of people echoing from all over the place and the unpleasant fishy smell that brushed past her nose.
She wanted to get out of here somehow.
She kept walking for hours.
But the forest did not end.
When she was getting thirsty, she was lucky enough to find a river.
But that place was another hell.
“Please… heu, heuek… please save me!!”
“Kihihik!”
“Kehet!”
“Kikkik!!”
Her eyes met the corpses of people scattered everywhere and the green-skinned creatures eating them.
The monsters immediately started chasing her with small blades.
Her mind turned completely white in an instant.
She dragged her legs, which felt like they would give way at any moment, and ran with all her might.
Even if she was scratched by branches and her whole body was covered in sweat, she never stopped.
Even if her throat was about to break, she shouted for help.
But help did not come.
She was starting to lose strength.
At that moment, she remembered the people who had collapsed by the river. They were being eaten by monsters with eyes that had no warmth.
‘Scary, scary, scary, scary, scary…!’
She ran while biting her tongue.
No matter how miserable her life was, she didn’t want to meet such an end.
She wanted to die as a singer, at least.
She wanted to close her eyes on stage, receiving the love of a fan who believed in her, even if it was just one person.
She didn’t want to end her life alone in a place where no one was around and remain just another singer who would be forgotten in everyone’s memory over time.
At the moment when the sensation in her legs was fading.
“Ah…!”
She saw a figure beyond the bushes.
A smile spread across her lips. She reached out her hand, wanting to grab the lifeline that had appeared before her eyes.
At that moment, she realized.
Even though she had been hurt by false articles and malicious comments and was living without being able to die, she wanted to live so much.
She ran towards it with the last of her strength.
To grab onto a glimmer of hope.
“P, please save m… huh?”
But reality was not like a fairy tale.
The prince doesn’t appear in a moment of crisis to save her.
The more desperate you are, the greater the despair.
“Krrr.”
It wasn’t a human shadow.
It was another monster with green skin and a huge club.
The moment her eyes met the monster’s, she felt as if time was flowing slowly.
The monster swung the club it was holding at her, who was standing there unable to do anything.
‘…It’s going to hurt if I get hit.’
She was sure to die.
If that happened, she would become a meal for the monster like those people.
‘…I don’t want to.’
She hadn’t lived so hard to meet such an end.
There were still many instruments she wanted to learn and many songs she wanted to write.
She also wanted to date a wonderful man.
So please.
‘Help me…!’
She finally sat down and closed her eyes tightly. But even after waiting for a long time, the pain did not come.
Instead, it became as quiet as a mouse.
‘…Could it be that I’m already in the afterlife?’
She swallowed hard and carefully opened her eyes.
It wasn’t the afterlife.
There was just a man standing there.
