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Chapter 3
“Are you sure this is safe? You swear I won’t die, right?”
The flickering light cast eerie shadows along the damp sewer walls.
Aria clung nervously to a cracked section of stone, her face tense with fear.
“You’ve been tricked all your life or something? I told you, it’s fine.”
The only reason she was dangling from that wall was because of a deal she made with Jang Sun-nam.
For a whole month, he promised her a fixed job in exchange for coins.
Since NPCs had no way of earning coins without transactions with Hunters, his proposal was an irresistible temptation.
A guaranteed income for an entire month.
Unable to refuse, Aria accepted the deal. But now, she was starting to regret it.
And with good reason—because Jang Sun-nam’s proposal was this:
“The monster’s here!”
Aria herself was to serve as bait.
「Screeech!」
A slime spawned in the distance. Beneath her feet, Jang Sun-nam leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, a faint grin curling his lips.
“Alright. Do it just like I taught you.”
“…elp me…”
“A starving turtle could cry louder than that. Louder!”
“Ugh! Somebody help me! I don’t want to die like this!”
Aria’s face flushed red with embarrassment as her desperate pleas echoed throughout the sewer tunnels.
It was exactly like that day—the first time Jang Sun-nam had seen her.
And the reason was simple.
「「「Kreeeeh!」」」
Rumble—!
Recreating the exact same environment caused the same event to repeat: slimes swarming toward her.
“Eeeek! They’re really coming!”
“That’s the whole point.”
Jang Sun-nam tapped the haft of his axe against his shoulder as he eyed the horde closing in.
Monsters behaved according to fixed instincts.
Some respawned to patrol the same routes again and again.
Others respawned to attack the same fixed point endlessly.
And slimes that targeted Aria… would always go for her, as long as she lived.
This is the very essence of kiting monsters.
「「「Squeee!」」」
Soon, slimes poured in from every entrance to the sewer, numbering in the hundreds.
Jang Sun-nam bared his teeth in a grin and charged forward.
Swish—Slash!
「Screeech!」
Each swing of his axe shattered a slime’s core.
When he’d first entered this place, he had taken heavy blows, bleeding from multiple wounds.
But after battling hundreds upon hundreds of them, his body had adapted.
Now, every movement he made was sharp, efficient, and devastating.
‘He’s incredible… Was he perhaps a warrior before all this?’
Dangling from the wall, Aria once again found herself awed by Jang Sun-nam’s natural battle sense.
His strikes flowed like water, seamless and graceful, almost like a deadly dance.
Not a single wasted motion.
It reminded her of the finest knights of her fallen kingdom.
And yet—
Slip! Splash!
Every so often, he would stumble for no reason, or his strike would veer wide.
Aria, unaware of the nature of his Extremes Skill, could only assume it had some hidden effect.
But what truly astonished her was not the occasional mistake—it was that, despite constant brushes with death, he never stopped fighting.
To deliberately court danger and confront it head-on… that alone felt like madness.
And yet—
Amazing…
She could only feel respect, admiration, and even awe at his indomitable spirit and strength.
A month later.
By the time Aria had grown accustomed to the stench of the sewers, and the cracked wall felt almost like a second home—
“That’s enough. We’re done with slime farming.”
“Finally—it’s over!”
The profits had been immense.
Jang Sun-nam had given Aria a full 20% of the hunting income.
Considering all she had done was hang from the wall and scream for help, it was absurdly high pay for the effort.
On average, they hunted over ten hours a day, bringing in nearly 1,000 coins daily.
After a month of repetition, even after paying Aria’s cut, Jang Sun-nam’s net earnings came to a staggering 24,000 coins.
When Hunters out there risk their lives for just 2–3 coins a day… this amount was beyond imagination.
‘If I made this much in just thirty days, then I could spend the next seventy just taking it easy and still be ahead.’
Of course, he had plans for that money later.
And during the month of trial and error, he had also come to understand his Extremes Skill a little better.
Fortune and misfortune never came in succession.
They alternated—bad luck followed good luck, and good luck followed bad luck.
The timing, however, was utterly random, impossible to predict.
This was a worthwhile month. The best start I’ve had in any run so far.
Satisfied, Jang Sun-nam turned toward Aria.
“Aria. I’m going to enhance my skills and equipment. Open the system.”
He upgraded his map, summoning skill, and equipment, each by one tier.
All of it required enhancement stones, sold only by NPCs.
Even when he timed his purchases with good luck, the number of stones never increased—slightly disappointing, but not critical.
No need to rush. For now, this much is plenty.
His upgraded Absolute Map skill now displayed two distinct options:
[Absolute Map +1]
Range: 100 meters
-
Displays monsters
-
Displays Hunters
When he pulled up the upgraded map, he could see nearby aberrations moving across it.
At the moment, the only exploration tool he owned was the shabby [F-Rank Scanner] he had bought from Aria. That meant it could only display targets ranked F or lower.
As he leveled up his map skill and obtained higher-grade scanners, it would one day allow him to track even the gods themselves. But for now, this had to do.
Then it happened.
Something marked as “???” slid across the map.
That symbol meant the presence was just one rank higher than what could be detected. Anything beyond that wouldn’t show up at all.
And right now, the fact that a ??? appeared meant it was within a mere 10-meter radius.
In other words, an unmeasured F+ entity had just passed beyond the sewer wall.
“It really is a blessing to know about dangers in advance.”
With electronic devices unusable and all communication severed, what everyone lacked most was information.
In such times, the Map Skill possessed overwhelming value.
“If only the Illusion Summon weren’t so damned tricky…”
Jang Sunam cast a bitter glance at his summoning skill.
Illusion Summon was, at its core, a high-risk, high-reward gamble.
As long as the entity was within the grade of the summoning equipment, he could call forth anything from his memory—monster, human, robot, even objects.
The only condition was that the same person had to be dead before they could be summoned. That meant, theoretically, even Aria, whom he had just met, could be called forth.
And the cooldown was a mere one minute.
At first glance, it sounded absurdly powerful. But the truth was cruel—
The chance of success was 0.01%.
And when it failed, a monster of the same rank as the intended summon would burst forth and attack indiscriminately.
He had once hoped the Extreme Luck Effect from his EX rank would tilt the odds, but since the skill was ranked only EX and not EX+, there was no such benefit.
Of course, there were ways to mitigate this later on… but for now, that was a distant dream.
“Still, as long as I break through that slim chance, it’s a jackpot. I can’t just abandon the skill.”
So after work each day, he summoned every time the cooldown ended.
Whenever the red flash of failure signaled and a monster appeared, he would kill it on the spot and try again.
Over and over.
Again and again.
For thirty days straight.
Not once did he succeed.
The cruel 99.99% failure rate proved unshakable.
“Shouldn’t there at least be a pity system? I’ve rolled this thousands of times already… damn it.”
He tried to brush off the frustration, but in the end, he was human. A sigh slipped out.
“…Are you alright?”
He turned toward the voice. Aria was watching him with concern.
It was rare for an NPC to be kind enough to console someone, and it caught him off guard.
If he had known this, he might have saved her in the previous round too.
And then—
“…Wait a second.”
A plan struck him.
Aria wasn’t just some passerby. She was an imperial princess, a named NPC.
What he had once abandoned as a reckless scheme… with Aria, it might actually succeed.
“…Let’s do it. I wasn’t planning to fight this round’s boss anyway. Nothing to lose.”
With that, Jang Sunam straightened and grinned.
“Let’s head to where the boss spawns.”
“…To hunt it?”
“No. I won’t be the one hunting.”
He flashed Aria a sharp smile.
“The one to slay the boss… will be you.”
Meanwhile, on the surface, in a narrow alleyway—
A group of hunters sat around a fire, roasting beef with joyous expressions.
“Ahh~ beef for the first time in a month!”
“Good thing sealed food doesn’t spoil, even after all this time.”
When purchased with coins, sealed goods would automatically unseal. Until then, they never rotted.
Thanks to that, even after a month, they could savor fresh meat.
“At least the hunt paid off.”
“Paid off? Risking our lives for two or three coins is ‘paying off’?”
“Hey, as long as we don’t die, it’s worth it!”
“They say magic and psychic powers sell for insane amounts…”
“Forget it. If you want to live, keep your mouth shut and settle for scraps.”
In the beginning, it had taken several of them working together just to kill a single slime, sometimes even at the cost of a life. Some had lost all their lives outright.
But now, they had grown used to it. They could hunt with little danger and even enjoy the luxury of a decent meal.
That was when—
Glooop…
A grotesque sound filled the air. A massive shadow loomed over them.
“…Huh?”
Still distracted by the sizzling meat, the hunters turned their heads too late.
And there it was.
The slime shifted grotesquely, morphing its body at alarming speed.
“Wh-what the—”
It rose onto two legs, its flesh contorting into a towering bull-headed beast.
The slime had transformed into a Minotaur.
The monster sneered, and then—it spoke.
“Is the beef… delicious? I too… would like to know the taste of human flesh.”
The hunters dropped their meat in shock.
They fumbled for weapons, but by then it was far too late.
The massive Minotaur had already descended upon them.
““Aaarghhh!!””
Shhhrrkkk—!
The alley rang with a cruel symphony of screams, accompanied by the wet tearing of flesh.
The butchery continued until the hunters’ final lives flickered out.
When silence finally returned to the alley, the Minotaur stood soaked in blood.
“As I thought… hunting humans is the most fun.”
With a chuckle, the creature warped and shifted once again, vanishing into the darkness.
When he pulled up the upgraded map, he could see nearby aberrations moving across it.
At the moment, the only exploration tool he owned was the shabby [F-Rank Scanner] he had bought from Aria. That meant it could only display targets ranked F or lower.
As he leveled up his map skill and obtained higher-grade scanners, it would one day allow him to track even the gods themselves. But for now, this had to do.
Then it happened.
Something marked as “???” slid across the map.
That symbol meant the presence was just one rank higher than what could be detected. Anything beyond that wouldn’t show up at all.
And right now, the fact that a ??? appeared meant it was within a mere 10-meter radius.
In other words, an unmeasured F+ entity had just passed beyond the sewer wall.
“It really is a blessing to know about dangers in advance.”
With electronic devices unusable and all communication severed, what everyone lacked most was information.
In such times, the Map Skill possessed overwhelming value.
“If only the Illusion Summon weren’t so damned tricky…”
Jang Sunam cast a bitter glance at his summoning skill.
Illusion Summon was, at its core, a high-risk, high-reward gamble.
As long as the entity was within the grade of the summoning equipment, he could call forth anything from his memory—monster, human, robot, even objects.
The only condition was that the same person had to be dead before they could be summoned. That meant, theoretically, even Aria, whom he had just met, could be called forth.
And the cooldown was a mere one minute.
At first glance, it sounded absurdly powerful. But the truth was cruel—
The chance of success was 0.01%.
And when it failed, a monster of the same rank as the intended summon would burst forth and attack indiscriminately.
He had once hoped the Extreme Luck Effect from his EX rank would tilt the odds, but since the skill was ranked only EX and not EX+, there was no such benefit.
Of course, there were ways to mitigate this later on… but for now, that was a distant dream.
“Still, as long as I break through that slim chance, it’s a jackpot. I can’t just abandon the skill.”
So after work each day, he summoned every time the cooldown ended.
Whenever the red flash of failure signaled and a monster appeared, he would kill it on the spot and try again.
Over and over.
Again and again.
For thirty days straight.
Not once did he succeed.
The cruel 99.99% failure rate proved unshakable.
“Shouldn’t there at least be a pity system? I’ve rolled this thousands of times already… damn it.”
He tried to brush off the frustration, but in the end, he was human. A sigh slipped out.
“…Are you alright?”
He turned toward the voice. Aria was watching him with concern.
It was rare for an NPC to be kind enough to console someone, and it caught him off guard.
If he had known this, he might have saved her in the previous round too.
And then—
“…Wait a second.”
A plan struck him.
Aria wasn’t just some passerby. She was an imperial princess, a named NPC.
What he had once abandoned as a reckless scheme… with Aria, it might actually succeed.
“…Let’s do it. I wasn’t planning to fight this round’s boss anyway. Nothing to lose.”
With that, Jang Sunam straightened and grinned.
“Let’s head to where the boss spawns.”
“…To hunt it?”
“No. I won’t be the one hunting.”
He flashed Aria a sharp smile.
“The one to slay the boss… will be you.”
Meanwhile, on the surface, in a narrow alleyway—
A group of hunters sat around a fire, roasting beef with joyous expressions.
“Ahh~ beef for the first time in a month!”
“Good thing sealed food doesn’t spoil, even after all this time.”
When purchased with coins, sealed goods would automatically unseal. Until then, they never rotted.
Thanks to that, even after a month, they could savor fresh meat.
“At least the hunt paid off.”
“Paid off? Risking our lives for two or three coins is ‘paying off’?”
“Hey, as long as we don’t die, it’s worth it!”
“They say magic and psychic powers sell for insane amounts…”
“Forget it. If you want to live, keep your mouth shut and settle for scraps.”
In the beginning, it had taken several of them working together just to kill a single slime, sometimes even at the cost of a life. Some had lost all their lives outright.
But now, they had grown used to it. They could hunt with little danger and even enjoy the luxury of a decent meal.
That was when—
Glooop…
A grotesque sound filled the air. A massive shadow loomed over them.
“…Huh?”
Still distracted by the sizzling meat, the hunters turned their heads too late.
And there it was.
The slime shifted grotesquely, morphing its body at alarming speed.
“Wh-what the—”
It rose onto two legs, its flesh contorting into a towering bull-headed beast.
The slime had transformed into a Minotaur.
The monster sneered, and then—it spoke.
“Is the beef… delicious? I too… would like to know the taste of human flesh.”
The hunters dropped their meat in shock.
They fumbled for weapons, but by then it was far too late.
The massive Minotaur had already descended upon them.
““Aaarghhh!!””
Shhhrrkkk—!
The alley rang with a cruel symphony of screams, accompanied by the wet tearing of flesh.
The butchery continued until the hunters’ final lives flickered out.
When silence finally returned to the alley, the Minotaur stood soaked in blood.
“As I thought… hunting humans is the most fun.”
With a chuckle, the creature warped and shifted once again, vanishing into the darkness.
