Chapter 7
"Hey."
"Ah, it's fucking cold. What?"
A potbellied, bald middle-aged man approached a young man in his twenties and whispered.
"That bastard's annoying, isn't he?"
"Yeah, he is. But what can we do? He says he's going to use his own stuff however he wants."
"How about this? We gang up on him together and split his equipment?"
The young man glanced over at Kang Minjun.
Kang Minjun was dressed in perfectly prepared cold-weather gear, with a stuffed backpack of unknown contents and a sleeping bag rolled up on top of it….
Those things were certainly tempting.
If he had them, he felt he could get through the trials ahead much more easily than everyone else.
"…The two of us?"
"No, something like this has to be done by everyone. Everyone has to be in on it, or they'll take it to the grave."
"Sounds good. When do we do it?"
"Let's wait for a chance after we've taken down both foxes."
***
Now that my hand had loosened up, I immediately threw the axe at the next fox.
Thud.
Nice, the second one.
[You have passed the trial.]
[Would you like to finish the tutorial and move on to the next region?]
Once you complete the assigned trial, you can move on to the next region. Someone who knew nothing would happily move on, but I was an exception.
[You have declined.]
[However, since you have completed the trial, you may move on to the next region at any time. Check the quest window.]
+
<Quest>
Stage : First Trial
Objective : Defeat two foxes. (2/2)
[To the next region]
+
A small [To the next region] button had been activated beneath the quest.
It meant I could press it whenever I wanted to move on.
Of course, I wouldn't need that button for a while.
Whoosh—thud!
'At last, I'm getting the hang of it. It's been a whole year since I last held a hand axe, but thankfully, the feel is still there.'
I threw the axe and hit my mark.
Then I approached and delivered the finishing blow.
As I kept doing that, not only my accuracy but also my work speed began to improve.
'Okay. Another gain.'
<Item>
Name : Snowfield Ring
Grade : Common
Description : Increases magic defense by 8.
Snowfield accessories mattered because of their magic defense.
Aside from the tutorial, no magic resistance items appeared in the early trials.
-Ah, shit! Why did the difficulty suddenly jump so much?
-This is way too much!
Those would be the lines spoken by people who passed through the tutorial without knowing anything.
'At least the ones who can complain are better off.'
The rest would either become cold corpses and a monster's daily meal or, if they were even unluckier, have their arms and legs cut off and become monsters' masturbatory toys as they vented their lust.
-Please kill me, please….
Anyway, hunting was going smoothly.
My work speed was faster than I'd planned.
'There's another one.'
That was what I was thinking when I was just about to throw the axe.
'Hm?'
As if they had been waiting for it, someone grabbed the axe embedded in the fox. At the same time, the sound of soft footsteps approached from every direction.
When I raised my head, the people who had been hunting with me in the snow mountain were approaching.
'Well, well?'
"What is it?"
"Fuck, I was too flustered earlier to say anything and let it slide, but the more I think about it, the more pissed off I get. If you don't want to lend it, fine, but why are you glaring at me like that?"
"I wasn't glaring at you."
A man in his twenties started picking a fight with me from the front.
Meanwhile, three other young men circled around to my left, right, and rear, approaching through my blind spots.
The women standing behind those men shouted.
"Wow, look at this little punk mouthing off to his elders. Teach him a painful lesson!"
"It's cold, so let's finish this quickly!"
The greedy eyes fixed on me and my backpack said it all. I didn't need to hear any further explanation.
"Earlier you called me less than a beast, but are you trying to do something even worse yourselves?"
They flinched.
"S-shut up!"
That guilty flinch meant they had a conscience, at least.
"But here's what I don't get."
"What?"
"That bald guy just runs his mouth from the back, and the women aren't doing anything except yapping either. But are we splitting the loot evenly?"
"That's…."
"Right? We'd be getting ripped off. It's not like this is some quota system or free-rider arrangement."
As soon as I pointed that out, objections burst from behind the men.
"How dare a little punk slander me! When did I ever just run my mouth from behind?! I'm gripping this axe tightly, aren't I!"
"R-right! We were going to help too, you know?"
Oh, is that so?
They were only moving their mouths, so I thought they were just goofing off.
But from now on, they should step forward in more than just words.
Trials didn't discriminate between men and women or young and old.
Those who took an active part would survive, while those who held back and kept out of harm's way would suffer terrible things.
That was the kind of world we lived in.
"Hey! Why is everyone just standing there?"
The young men, whose enthusiasm had been dampened, didn't move.
The middle-aged man, his nose red from the cold, raised his voice and urged them on.
"Hey, friends! It's cold, so let's wrap this up and hurry on to the next region!"
"…Why should we be the ones to stick our necks out?"
"Is it because what that bastard said got under your skin? Is that it? How pathetic! Listen carefully. He's just running his mouth to turn this situation around!"
Baldy was sharp. Guess he hadn't gotten this old for nothing.
Even so, the men didn't move. Anyone with any common sense knew there was no reason to.
The bald middle-aged man then spoke as if he were doing them a favor.
"Fine. Once the job's done, the four of you can take 50%. I'll even let you choose the items first. How about it?"
"What? What kind of bullshit is that!"
"Has this old man lost his mind? Who gave you the right to decide that?"
The women protested.
"Then are you ladies going to step up?"
The women frowned as if annoyed and kicked at the snow on the ground.
"How about it? The three of you take 50%. It's cold, so let's get this over with."
Tsk, it looked like this wouldn't be resolved so easily after all.
As expected, the three men pondered the middle-aged man's honeyed words for a moment, then looked at one another and nodded.
Judging by how they strode toward me, my possessions must have looked quite attractive.
'What a shame. As fellow men, I felt sorry for them being used, so I tried to warn them.'
The moment I saw them clench their fists, I also rolled my right shoulder.
"Are you guys really going to do this?"
"Fuck, you should've lent us some of your stuff from the start. This is a disaster you brought on yourself by being greedy."
"Oh, really?"
It didn't look like talking would get us anywhere, so I had no choice. I clenched my left hand and yanked with all my might.
Fwap! The axe instantly returned to my grasp.
"Huh?"
The four men surrounding me wore bewildered expressions as they looked between the axe in my hand and the bald middle-aged man who had been holding it just moments ago.
"Hey! What were you doing letting him take it?!"
"N-no, that's…. I was definitely holding on tight. But…."
My current strength stat was a whopping 18.
That was roughly twice that of an average adult man.
If I pulled with all my strength, it was more than an ordinary middle-aged man could handle.
"Th-that guy's freakishly strong! Look at me! I tried to hold on and ended up falling flat on my face."
"God, you're useless! Why didn't you untie the tether beforehand?!"
"Th-that…."
I gripped the axe in my right hand and said:
"So, are we done talking? Can I start the fight now?"
As I tossed the axe up and caught it with a grin, the middle-aged man shouted:
"D-don't be scared! He's still a person—surely he won't swing it at another person!"
Whoosh.
The axe I hurled flew through the air and lodged precisely in the middle-aged man's knee.
Crack!
With a somewhat gruesome sound, the middle-aged man toppled over and rolled across the ground.
"Sorry. I'm a human worse than a beast."
"H-huh?"
Ssshhk!
Red blood sprayed across the pure white snow, and the fallen middle-aged man opened his eyes wide.
"Aaaaargh!"
"Eeeek!"
"Oh, my God!"
Startled by the screams and blood, the people stumbled backward.
"B-blood? He actually swung the axe?!"
"Crazy murderous bastard! Fuck, that guy's a psychopath!"
The people began making a fuss and running away.
After all, how often did anyone see blood while living in modern society?
"I'll finish the tutorial and move on, so let me through! Let me through, you bastard!"
People frantically jabbed their fingers into the empty air.
The women who had hidden behind the men and egged them on were the first to flee to the next region.
"Hurry! Hurry!"
The bald middle-aged man then frantically tapped the air and vanished from sight like a mirage.
Even though his knee was shattered and must have hurt like hell, he moved quickly.
'They're all top-notch when it comes to running away.'
In the now-quiet snow mountain, I looked toward the place where they had disappeared and shook my head.
'Still, I didn't think they could be this clueless. At the very least, they should've assessed their opponent's ability before picking a fight. Tsk, tsk. It's obvious none of them are going to live long.'
In any case, I didn't recognize a single one of the nine faces.
That meant they would all become monster food somewhere before long.
'Well, their lives are their own business. I don't need to worry about them, do I?'
I retrieved the axe, approached the fox I'd caught earlier, and delivered the finishing blow.
Thud!
"Huh? Where is this?"
"The tutorial?"
Once the people disappeared, new people began appearing one by one.
This tutorial area had a limit of ten people.
I didn't know how many spaces like this existed, but whenever a spot opened up, it was immediately filled by someone new arriving from Earth.
'If this were a game, would it be something like channels?'
The hunting ground was filled with newcomers.
People who had no idea why one corner of the snowfield was bright red.