To eat or not to eat. That is the question.
He briefly lifted a necklace made of pure gold to examine it, then carefully tucked it into his subspace.
After sorting out the recovery scrolls from the useless items, a book caught his eye.
[Ding! You have obtained the spellbook: Ice Lance.]
He had seen the power of that spell firsthand when a mage used it, so it would be great to learn it—if only he could. But instinctively, he already knew.
[Ding! Only mages of Circle 4 or higher can learn this spell.]
I knew it. Now that I think about it, it might be good to eat some high-circle stones.
But since they wouldn't show up, he couldn't consume them.
Come to think of it, even the dropped spellbooks are pretty random, huh.
It reminded him of an old online game he used to enjoy.
It was a brutally difficult game where dying meant randomly dropping spells or items, but that unpredictability had its charm, and he had fond memories of playing it.
As long as he didn't drop anything, item drops from other players were some of the most entertaining things in the world.
[Ding! You have obtained Toka's Ring.]
"Whoa!"
As he picked up the ring and heard the familiar name, he couldn't help but gasp.
This precious thing!
Almost reflexively, he slipped the ring onto his finger and checked its magic resistance.
– Magic Resistance +30.
A stat that had tripled instantly.
Last time, when he wore two of Toka's Rings, his magic resistance reached a whopping 90.
In game terms, wearing a pair of these meant you could tank most spells with your body—it was a rare item among rares.
If I could just raise my Circle, my resistance would really jump.
With that thought, he moved toward the remaining leather pouches left behind after the distant monsters had vanished.
He picked up the closest pouch and opened it. As expected, it contained jerky.
Tch. Figures. What were those guys even doing hunting monsters like this?
He couldn't understand it at first glance. Food was important, yes—but with just a bit of looting, you could find enough to avoid starving to death.
Still, he wasn't wealthy enough to leave free food lying around, so Seowoon trudged along, picking up every leather pouch on the ground and stashing them in his subspace.
Just as he picked up the last leather pouch, he felt something different about it compared to the others.
"?"
[Ding! You have obtained the Tear of Lamia.]
Tear?
Curious, he opened the pouch. A jewel glimmered under the moonlight, revealing its radiant form.
He pulled it out—it was a gem the size of a 500-won coin, sparkling like a diamond.
"A… a diamond?"
[Tear of Lamia. The crystallized tear of a Lamia about to give birth. Used as a material in various magical experiments or items. Rare and often traded at high prices.]
"Tch."
Though it was said to be valuable, it wasn't particularly useful on Earth.
And even here, where people from three worlds were locked in a survival battle, it wasn't exactly practical either.
In the end, it's a junk item—worse than jerky. At least jerky fills your stomach.
Even so, he subtly slid the item into his subspace and looked out at the quaint little village standing behind him.
Night had fallen. He'd cleared a whole team here. All the houses were his now.
Of course, there might still be people sneaking around at night…
But in a map this large, the chances of running into another enemy on the first day were slim.
As expected, he didn't encounter anyone else while he looted.
Just in case, he never turned off his lantern, and he made sure to lock the doors of every house he finished looting.
He also left behind useless trash items like extra arrows, making it unclear whether the house had been looted or not.
Even after looting every house, he had only managed to find one decent item.
[Tairune's Necklace. Increases the wearer's agility by 20%.]
He didn't yet fully understand what the "Agility" stat entailed, but thanks to the previous game, he had a general idea.
"The ability to absorb more information in a fleeting moment and make quick decisions… probably."
That was enough.
He felt it again in this game—when it came to life-or-death battles, it was often not individual skill but those split-second decisions and mistakes that determined the outcome.
"That's why ambushes are so effective."
If your opponent is completely unprepared while you've laid careful groundwork, then of course, the one launching the ambush has a much higher chance of winning.
"Map."
After hanging the black leather-strapped necklace around his neck, he pulled up the map.
"I can't get a good read on this valley."
At the center of the map was a massive valley. According to the map, all it showed was a vast canyon flanked by red stone cliffs and a river flowing through it, fed by a waterfall.
"Aside from its unnatural size, nothing really stands out…"
He began to reconsider whether to enter that central valley or stick with looting villages.
There was new information he hadn't known last time.
Now that he had intel on monsters, he couldn't help but be concerned.
Especially the existence of boss monsters and buff monsters that supposedly dropped special items—it gave him a strong hunch that they might be game-changers.
He had played enough games to be called a no-lifer.
He had tried all kinds of genres, and because of that, he understood well that this survival game was heavily influenced by Earth's games.
"Buff monsters… they might be powerful enough to tip the balance entirely."
If they were modeled after buff monsters from AOS games, then that seemed very likely.
"If there are important monsters, they're probably inside that valley."
He had no solid basis for that assumption.
The only evidence was the name of the map and the fact that grotesque Lamias started appearing as he approached the valley.
But anyone who had played enough games would feel the same hunch from just that.
"The question is whether they're monsters I can handle… and how many other players are thinking the same thing. Those are the two factors."
After sorting out his thoughts, he sat down cross-legged.
He wasn't trying to practice breathing techniques or spiritual energy cultivation. That might've made sense on Earth, but here, killing even one more player was more helpful than struggling with energy training.
Still, there was nothing better than energy circulation to wash away fatigue and help the body recover.
Chronic fatigue—the common affliction of modern people—also applied to young Seowoon.
Staying up all night gaming and living irregularly with bad posture made it hard to ever wake up feeling refreshed, no matter how much he slept.
But through energy circulation, he could resolve all of that.
Even with less sleep, he felt no physical exhaustion, which was crucial in a long-haul survival game like this. Skipping energy circulation was not an option.
"If you get tired, you lose."
Tiring out first, breaking the rhythm, getting shaken up—those things inevitably lowered your chances of survival.
Once he finished circulating his energy, he lay on the ground and closed his eyes for a bit.
When Seowoon awoke in the still-dark hours before dawn, he rose feeling refreshed and checked the route he had planned the day before before leaving the village.
Since the terrain had no trees, moving carelessly could easily lead to an ambush from enemies already in motion. He needed to cross into the rocky hills quickly before sunrise.
Using up a good amount of his internal energy, he ran fast and spoke.
"Survivors."
-139/200
…
-Gyle Saber → Ju Wangsan (Killed with a longsword.)
"So just because they're knights from another world doesn't mean they're weaker than martial artists."
Over 60 people had died in a single day. Of those, he had killed eight—decent performance for day one.
"Gotta claim as many kill rewards as I can."
Coins could only be used after the game ended. Since they couldn't be spent whenever, they were incredibly valuable.
Being short just one coin could mean missing out on a crucial item.
And that meant he wouldn't just lose that item for this game—there was no guarantee he'd ever get it again in future games.
So he had to go after every possible source of coin rewards.
After spending a lot of energy sprinting, he reached a landscape of many stony hills.
Just then, the sun began to rise, and as its light hit the already red terrain, the world around him lit up in a fiery red glow.
Naturally, he sat in the shade cast by a hill and looked back at the land he had just run across. On that blazing red land, where there was not a speck of shadow, a dark silhouette wavered into view.
"…Huh?"
Instinctively, his gaze followed the shadow upward.
"…Ah."
A black wooden box, shrouded in a translucent film like a soap bubble, was gently descending from the sky.
All around the box, intense red light pulsed and flashed in every direction.
"…No way."
He hurriedly kicked off the ground and climbed up the hill behind him, scanning the area around him nonstop.
Lying flat on the hill and turning his gaze around in search of any signs of people, his heart pounded fiercely.
"Damn it!"
In this hilly terrain, it was impossible to spot enemies deliberately hiding with the naked eye.
A strong light of hesitation flickered in his eyes.
When he looked back, the wooden crate had already landed on the ground.
"Even if it kills me, I'm going for it!"
As soon as he made up his mind, he exploded forward with all his strength channeled into his legs.
His heart thundered, blood vessels tightening from excitement as the rush consumed him completely.
In a flash, he reached the black wooden crate, and just as his hand touched it, a notification sound rang out.
[Ding! Would you like to open Cloyd's supply crate? Once opened, the powerful seal will break, and a pillar of light will shoot into the sky.]
"What?!"
The crate had already been flashing red as it descended, screaming to the world that it was here.
And now, just opening it would launch a red beam into the sky? There was no way he could stay hidden.
But Seowoon didn't hesitate. He yanked the crate open.
He'd already come this far, and the curiosity about what item might be inside this black box made it impossible to walk away.
-Whooosh.
A red beam shot into the sky. Momentarily blinded by the dazzling light, Seowoon winced and closed his eyes.
Even through his shut eyes, the red light pierced the darkness. When it finally faded, he cracked them open and quickly reached for the items inside.
[Ding! This is Cloyd's supply item. If used, your location will be revealed in red light every 30 minutes for 6 hours. Do you still wish to claim it?]
"Oh, come on…!"
There was no way to hold back a curse.
Just opening the crate had already put him at risk, but using the item would expose his location for six whole hours? That wasn't a supply item—it was a death sentence.
This was a risk on a completely different level.
"This is insane."
He froze, staring down at the item with a flicker of doubt in his eyes.
A pitch-black cloak lay neatly in front of him.
It was a Cloak of Invisibility.
Beside it lay a circle stone and a wooden capsule.
Clearly, those were elixirs.
He also spotted a spellbook and a martial arts manual.
"You expect me to walk away from all this?"
How many players would actually turn their back on these kinds of items?
He'd rather die than leave them behind.
"No time to hesitate."
That's right. He didn't even have time to think.
Swallowing hard, he made his decision.
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