Chapter 5: Ground floor

How long have I been running?

I stopped my feet that were pounding away, gasping for breath.

“Running away won’t solve this.”

I leaned my back against the cave wall and breathed heavily.

Now it was the limit of my stamina.

I had to accept reality.

“A woman’s body has such weak stamina….”

Of course, that’s an excuse.

Even with my original body, the situation wouldn’t have been much different.

A life spent holed up in my room all day, tapping on the keyboard.

Lack of exercise would have been the same.

Keruk! Keruruk!

The unpleasant sounds the goblins made as they narrowed the encirclement echoed in the cave.

They seemed to know I was exhausted.

At this rate, I’ll die.

‘No, goblins mean violation. Maybe an end more horrific than death….’

Realizing that fact actually cooled my head.

I raised both hands.

One bullet uses one pinky finger.

Eight fingers left.

In theory, I can make eight more bullets.

The question is whether I can do it simultaneously.

Even making one required full concentration.

But several at once? Can I do it?

‘No, I have to.’

There was no choice.

I closed my eyes and focused all consciousness on the tips of both hands.

The sensation of eight fingers turning to sand at once.

I recall the divinity in my body.

The divinity’s form changes to that of bullets.

Infuse mana into each separated sand clump, compress, rotate.

It felt like my brain would explode.

Like playing eight different games simultaneously.

Drip. Nosebleed flowed down.

My head sends a danger signal. Concentrating more is dangerous.

“But, barely succeeded.”

Now no fingers left on both hands.

Instead, above my palms, eight black sand bullets floated in the air, slowly rotating.

“All die.”

With fingerless hands, I fanned the air like waving a fan.

Following my will, the eight bullets scattered like buckshot in all directions.

Whoosh whoosh-!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

I didn’t aim precisely.

The narrow cave was packed with goblins, so no need.

Screams and sounds of flesh bursting shook the cave.

A moment later, a deadly silence came with the stench of blood.

Before my eyes, only the remains of dismembered goblins were scattered.

And only then did a blue window appear before me.

[Congratulations on clearing 1st floor EXTREME difficulty.]

“Wow, f*ck… This is hell.”

I slumped down on the spot. All strength drained from my body.

As tension released, only then did I feel the alien sensation of missing fingers.

Since they just turned to sand, I can regenerate them.

Sure enough, approaching the goblins and manipulating mana, the sand bullets used became part of my body again.

After recovering my fingers, I sat on the floor for a while, blankly staring at the ceiling.

Then suddenly, realized the most important fact.

“Ah, need to take certification shots.”

I have to capture this gruesome scene. A photo standing in the middle of goblin corpse pile, making a victory V sign.

With just that one, straight to concept post in Hunter Gallery, of course, and all sorts of communities.

“Ah, might get blocked as gore? Need to think.”

However, before I could take out my phone, the surrounding scenery distorted again.

Blinking, I was back in the initial place, the cubic room surrounded by seamless white.

And before me, a huge scoreboard floated like a hologram.

[Tutorial Clear Record]

[Challenger: Unregistered]

[Selected Difficulty: EXTREME]

[Clear Time: 16 minutes 17 seconds]

[Acquired Score: 14,729 points]

[World ranking updated! (Previous 1st: 4,593 points)]

[Achieved World Ranking 1st!]

[Please enter a name to register in the ranking.]

[Name: ]

“I’m 1st?”

I doubted my eyes for a moment.

Surprise brief, the gallery addict’s instinct overtook reason.

I fumbled and took out my phone to capture the scoreboard before me.

Carefully thinking which photo would pull the most aggro when boasting in Hunter Gallery later.

“Good, got the certification shots….”

After finishing photos, only then did I look at the name input window.

World ranking 1st. Name to be recorded forever.

Only one nickname to use here.

No need to think.

Nothing else qualifies except the nickname that’s been with me half my life.

‘Nickname obviously ㅇㅇ.’

I’m a guy who doesn’t use fixed nicks.

Familiarly pressed keyboard to input ‘ㅇㅇ’.

[Name successfully registered.]

[1st Floor Ranking]

[1st: ㅇㅇ 14,729 points]

[2nd: DemiGoD 4,594 points]

[3rd: Team_China08 3,123 points]

The moment I input the name, the scoreboard disappeared and a new window appeared before me.

Three books floated side by side.

All dull brown color.

“Ah, these are the skill books you get when level up.”

Heard about it.

Climbing the tower accumulates exp, levels up, and at certain levels, chance to get skills.

Usually clear about 3 floors to get first skill.

Well, I killed ten goblins, so exp must be several times others.

“That aside, luck is sh*tty.”

I frowned. All brown, bronze grade.

From gallery posts, usually at least one silver grade appears?

Indeed, winners win whatever, losers lose whatever.

That moment.

[You are the first clearer of difficulty EXTREME!]

[First clear bonus applied!]

With a flash of light, the middle skill book’s color changed to silver.

“Oh…?”

Admiration slipped out.

But surprise didn’t end there.

[Ranking 1st bonus applied!]

System window flashed again.

“Didn’t think I’d say this….”

This time, the skill book that turned silver emitted dazzling gold light.

Laughter burst out naturally.

“Luck is good.”

Without a hint of hesitation, I reached for the golden skill book shining gold.

The moment my finger touched the book, the skill book became light dust and absorbed into my body.

At the same time, the surrounding white space swirled and began collapsing.

When I came to, I was standing before the tower entrance.

Before facing people, I hurriedly returned home.

*

Meanwhile, at that time, northernmost South Korea. Near the 38th parallel.

In one place, tense atmosphere flowed before an operation.

Dozens of monitors flashing, at the center of the building was a man.

Man with short sports hair and tracksuit.

Appearance totally mismatched with surrounding soldiers, sitting in chair, only looking at phone.

His name Kim Suho.

The only S-rank hunter in South Korea, wind attribute mage.

Even A-rank hunters don’t move for most things.

They’re in power struggle with government.

But S-rank hunter Kim Suho was exception.

He was the only high-rank hunter faithfully participating in government requests.

But today, his attention was elsewhere.

“Why not back yet…?”

What he waited for was the mage newbie met in gallery days ago.

Pushed back saying talent to chew hard difficulty, but no news, anxiety crept up.

Weeeeeng-!

Then, loud alarm echoed throughout the bunker.

“Large monster observed! Heading south from north airspace!”

“Size 12 meters! Code red issued!”

Commander’s urgent shout shook the bunker.

Large monster over 10 meters is disaster by existence.

Can’t scratch with normal firearms, opponent even decent A-rank risks life.

But now, none of them showed fear of death.

Because Kim Suho was beside them.

“Mr. Kim Suho! Please!”

All eyes on Kim Suho.

He sighed deeply and stood. Turned off phone screen, put in pocket.

Something bothering, but no choice.

‘This is what I have to do.’

Only he in South Korea can stop that.

Kim Suho went out of bunker.

Already huge shadow cast.

Wyvern, infamous for flying, high intelligence, very tricky to kill.

But Kim Suho just lightly raised hand.

“Heaven Break.”

Invisible wind blades instantly covered the sky.

Kwadududuk-!

Wyvern couldn’t even scream once.

Massive body shredded like fruit in blender instantly, became blood mist and scattered.

Situation where blood rain should fall.

Kim Suho manipulated wind to blow all blood smell to the sea.

All that took less than 10 seconds.

Commander rushed out of bunker to heap flattery-laced praise, but Kim Suho ignored and went back into bunker.

“Mr. Kim Suho today, seems in bad mood?”

“Yeah, usually takes jokes well…. Something wrong?”

People whispered.

Can’t help but care.

Kim Suho, always relaxed and kind, seemed unusually irritable today.

And S-rank’s mood was top priority for them.

Whatever, alone Kim Suho sat back in chair, turned on phone.

Habitually accessed Hunter Gallery, manually wrote dozens of comments starting with ‘Magic is open to everyone’.

Then entered his real playground, Mage Gallery.

As expected, other mages waiting for that newbie like him.

[Title: That One Dead? lol]

Author: p Pikachu

No way it takes this long. If died in tutorial, that’s f*cked lol.

ㄴ Refrigerator: No ominous talk

ㄴ Magic is Firepower: Still, mage die to goblins?

ㄴ p Pikachu: But this late is weird lol. No other case lol.

Bickering worry posts continued.

Moment Kim Suho about to comment something.

New post notification.

At top of gallery list, new post just up.

Newbie back.

[Title: Certification) Cleared Extreme Difficulty and Back.]

With news no one expected.