Chapter 5

Jang Su-nam gazed up at the horizon.

Every few seconds, a transparent hexagonal barrier would appear in the sky, then vanish again.

It was a kind of warding system, designed to keep people from escaping the tutorial zone.

Unless the boss was defeated, it would never disappear.
In other words—an inescapable prison.

“That thing we killed was only a mid-boss…?”

“Then… is it even possible for us to take down the real boss?”

The hunters were drowning in despair, but in the crowd, Su-nam’s eyes caught sight of a certain NPC.

‘…Interesting.’

The figure wore a hood so deep that even their gender was impossible to tell.
And yet, despite the tension in the air, the NPC was busy proselytizing in a corner, as if finding a loophole in the chaos.

Judging from the animated conversation, their silver tongue was convincing enough—
even a hardened hunter with tattoos of skulls and serpents crawling across his shoulder looked intrigued.

‘A religious movement? Never seen that one before.’

On the hood gleamed an emblem shaped like a cogwheel seed.
Apparently, that was the symbol of their faith.

It was peculiar, but not worth his attention.
If it hadn’t appeared in his past runs, that meant it hadn’t been relevant.

‘Still… I’ll make a note of it. And besides… it’s almost time.’

While the others trembled with unease, Su-nam alone looked unconcerned.

After all, the tutorial boss was a slime.
And with just one bag of salt, anyone could kill it.

The problem was…

In the first run, even after hunters had discovered salt was the weakness, countless people still died at the boss’s hands.

Because its terror did not come from brute force.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The sudden sound of applause rang out.

“Impressive. Truly impressive.”

Su-nam turned his head.

Approaching him with a smile, clapping her hands, was none other than Aria.

<NPC> (F)
<Aria Lainsis>

As he looked at her, a familiar name tag floated above her head.

‘Heh.’

Su-nam smirked faintly.

“I knew you would succeed, Su-nam.”

She stepped closer, linking her arm naturally with his—
like a lover greeting her beloved.

“Now, all that’s left is preparing for the boss fight.”
“Exactly.”

But then, tugging gently at his arm, Aria leaned in.

“Before that… how about a private celebration party, just the two of us? I’ve found the perfect spot.”
“Isn’t a party supposed to have… more than two people?”
“Oh, don’t be so dense. When a woman says just the two of us… doesn’t that mean something else?”

Her gaze lifted to his with alluring charm.
The princess’s beauty was dazzling—enough to stir desires that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

“…Something else, huh.”

Suppressing his laughter, Su-nam pulled a water flask from his inventory.
He drank a mouthful, then offered it to her.

“Water?”
“Yeah. Though… if you mind sharing my lips, I can pull out a fresh one.”
“Oh no, of course not. Between us, something like that is nothing.”

She accepted the flask.

“Really?”
“Really.”

She raised it to her lips.

And then—

“By the way, that’s saltwater. Are you sure you want to drink it?”

“Hiik!!”

Aria flinched and immediately flung the flask away.

Clang!

It clattered across the ground, the metallic ringing drawing the attention of every nearby hunter.

“…Why the sudden panic? Something wrong?”
“I—I just dropped it by accident!”
“An accident, you say?”

Su-nam narrowed his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips.

He could no longer hold back his laughter.

Aria’s expression faltered. Unconsciously, she took a step back, sensing something dreadful from his gaze.

“Not an accident. You couldn’t drink it, could you?”

“W-what are you talking about…?”

Her eyes shook violently.

Su-nam raised his axe, pointing the blade straight at her.

“Because you’re not Aria. You’re the Mimic Slime.”

“““──!!!”””

Gasps rippled through the hunters like a shockwave.

The boss of the tutorial zone: the Mimic Slime.

A monster capable of transforming not only into other creatures, but even into humans.
It could freely change its mass, gender, race—making it the ultimate assassin.

Back in the first run, over 70% of all tutorial deaths had been caused by this one boss.

At least there was only one of them.

“…How did you know?”

Her form wavered, melting like wax.
Moments later, the beautiful Aria had vanished—
replaced by the visage of another hunter.

At the same time, her name tag flickered and changed.

<Mimic Slime (F+)>
<Boss>

“When a slime was spying on me in the sewers… of course I’d suspect something.”

The brief glimpse of “???” that had appeared on his Absolute Map—
its true identity had been this creature.

“So you doubted your lover just because of that?”

Her pride was wounded.
For a slime so confident in its disguise, being exposed was a humiliation.

“Of course. She wasn’t my lover in the first place. I just… let you think she was.”
“…What?”
“And you—secretly tailing me—fell for the bait. You even did things the real Aria would never do.”

“Damn it…!”

The Mimic Slime scanned its surroundings.

‘Too many hunters!’

Now that its weakness to salt had been exposed, a head-on fight would be nothing short of suicide.

So the Mimic Slime swiftly transformed into the shape of a cat and bolted.

“The Mimic Slime is running away!”

“Don’t let it escape! Kill it!”

“Salt! Throw salt on it!!”

“If you don’t have any, buy some! Hurry and get it!!”

Hunters charged in from every direction, trying to catch the boss disguised as a small cat.

But on a street crammed with parked cars on all sides, catching something that small was far from easy. The boss darted under the vehicles, weaving through the gaps, and within moments it had slipped off the road—heading straight toward the nearest alley it had memorized.

Just as it was about to escape—

“Just as Mr. Su-nam predicted… you really did run into the nearest alley.”

From the corner of the alley, the real Aria suddenly stepped out, holding something in her hands.

“Nyaa?!”

Shhhaaah—!!

Before the boss could even change direction, a 10-kilogram sack of salt was ripped open and flung over it.

“Kyaaaahhh?!!”

The salt poured down over the slime in cat form, and in an instant its entire body began to melt.

“Kyaaagh?! Krrkk?! From an NPC?! An NPCppp?!!”

As its body dissolved into water, a strangely shaped core was revealed. Aria glanced toward Jang Su-nam, who smirked and gave the order.

“Finish it.”

At that exact moment, Aria brought her foot down with all her strength.

Craaaack—!!!

With a sharp, satisfying sound, the boss’s core was shattered.

It was the first time across all of Su-nam’s many runs that an NPC had slain a boss. A plan that had failed back in the fourth cycle had, in this one, finally succeeded.

[The Tutorial Boss has been defeated.]

[Best Slayer: <NPC> Aria Rainsis]

[Tutorial cleared.]

[The barrier over the Tutorial Zone will soon be lifted.]

[Monsters will no longer respawn in this Tutorial Zone.]

[Except for uncleared Tutorial Zones, all regions are now open to challenge.]

[Reach the ending of the world you desire.]

As the system messages rang out, the boss-slayer’s face and name were broadcast to every hunter and NPC.

“Now, the people of the Rainsis Empire who worried about your safety will finally know you’re alive.”

“So that’s why… you yielded the boss to me.”

With eyes brimming with emotion, Aria bowed deeply in gratitude. Su-nam accepted her thanks with quiet composure.

‘Not that it was my only reason, but still…’

In truth, the outcome of a Tutorial Boss kill didn’t drastically affect one’s growth. In some cases, becoming known could even be a disadvantage. In fact, there were plenty of players who deliberately avoided killing the Tutorial Boss in order to pursue other strategies.

But letting Aria, an NPC, take the final blow carried no real downside. On the contrary, forging ties with NPCs could yield massive long-term benefits.

‘I’ve tried this countless times, but in the fourth and fifth cycles it never worked. In the end, the NPC’s own will had to align with mine.’

And if that NPC was Aria—the princess of Rainsis—her influence could ripple across every NPC tied to the empire.

Whether Su-nam’s gamble had paid off or not became clear at once.

[Hidden Achievement Unlocked – “Savior of Strangers.”]

[Hidden Achievement Unlocked – “Princess Aria’s Trust.”]

‘Success!’

For the first time, Su-nam smiled at the sight of two achievements he had never seen before. Checking the system menu, he found that each achievement had also granted him a new title.

[Titles]

<Savior of Strangers>
┗ Effect 1: 10% discount at NPC shops.
┗ Effect 2: NPC favor will never decrease.

<Princess Aria’s Trust>
┗ Effect 1: Gain access to secret shops run by NPCs friendly with Princess Aria.
┗ Effect 2: NPCs friendly with Princess Aria have their favor greatly increased.

‘These titles are insane!!’

Su-nam almost shouted in joy. The shop discount was valuable enough, but the real prize was the broken ability of never losing NPC favor.

‘It took me until the seventh cycle… but at last, the path to a happy ending is in sight.’

In the past, he’d believed that slaying the boss was the sole key to reaching an ending. But he had since learned that this was a trap.

The most important thing wasn’t the boss.

It was quests.

‘Up until now, lowered favor had locked me out of so many NPC quests. But now… I can finally clear them.’

This time, he would seek out the hidden quests linked to NPCs—quests he had once been forced to abandon, or never even discovered. By completing them, he could gain what he had once missed, and strengthen what he had already earned.

‘This time… I really can reach a happy ending.’

Su-nam stepped forward, toward the world beyond the dissolving barrier of the Tutorial—

—then stopped.

‘Oh, right. I still have to claim the Tutorial rewards.’

He turned back. There was one last task left in this zone: survive the next seventy days with the coins he had stockpiled, and claim the mail reward known as “Fortune.”