[You've received 1000 credits, leather armour x1, knife x1, combat shoes x1, Universal points +1]

Jeemin excluded the other names that appeared in the system window from receiving the rewards.

Luckily I was assigned as the leader, so the people who accidentally went in with us won't receive any rewards.

"Where.. where am I?"

"What the hell is this place?"

"Isn't this what Dae Kyung-Sam called the next stage?"

There were seven people talking behind Jeemin's party.

Jeemin coldly turned back as he dragged the blunt sword behind him and approached them. A trail of line followed the blunt sword as he walked with a threatening glare.

"Explain to me why some of you started eating each other. Speak, otherwise," he gazed at each of them as he went closer.

No matter how he thought of it, it was strange that some of them resorted to cannibalism.

"Turn back!"

"Let's go!"

Two of them immediately turned away and ran as the rest followed.

Bang. Bang.

A sound akin to a person running into a door made of glass resounded as the two previously running guys fell into their butts.

Jeemin was momentarily stunned before chuckling menacingly. He went closer to them as he swung the rectangular sword aimed on one of the man's gut distracted by the sound. As the edge of the blunt sword hit the man's gut, he exerted a downward force.

The man fell on the ground as his eyes widened in shock.

Jeemin looked at the man coldly, as the man held his stomach from pain.

He raised the thick rectangular sword and rested it on his shoulder, "Are you injured? Do you want help?"

"This will be easier if you just answer me. You see I'm really, really, really pissed." Jeemin aimed the blunt rectangular sword on the guy's head as he spoke coldly, "In ten seconds, if no one answered my question, we'll witness how to crack a watermelon."

"10,9,8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, —" as he was about to swing down the rectangular sword, the man on the ground suddenly shouted.

"No, please! They ate the hound's meat. Dae Kyung-Sam told us not to tell anyone about this."

"So that's the case," Jeemin thought for moment and inquired, "How did you find us?"

"We spotted a bonfire. Dae Kyung-Sam's original plan was to wait at the entrance leading to the next zone." One of the guy who crashed on the invisible wall replied.

"What plan?" Jin Hyoon asked as she emerged behind Jeemin.

Seeing them hesitate, Jeemin lifted the sword again as one of them immediately spoke, "To steal foods! Dae Kyung-Sam said that the next stage will take longer and we need to have stocks of food to survive."

"Where did he get that kind of information?" Jeemin asked as he frowned.

"From killing a werewolf at the hall."

Seiji curiously walked beside Jeemin while clicking his tongue as he glanced at the sword Jeemin was holding and asked, "Werewolf?"

"Wait, you don't now? Are you the first set of people who left the hall?" A guy wearing a yellow t-shirt asked with a suprised expression.

"We're the one asking, not you," Jeemin coldly snorted. Inwardly he was feeling impressed of himself by acting like this.

He thought that the more he acted like this the more dependable he looks.

"If you're the first set who left the hall, then you probably didn't witness when the hell descended on that place. People were being torn apart by these monsters like piece of papers," the man explained with a terrified expression.

Jin Hyoon and Claire Williams glanced at each other with a relieved expression, while Dmitri, beside Li Jing who was twiddling with her fingers, was looking at something else, completely ignoring the interrogation happening.

"After that, when we left the hall, we suddenly felt hungrier as time goes by. We tried looking for food the entire day, but to no avail."

The guy who was lying on the ground said, "That was when we discovered Dae Kyung-Sam shouting that he'll offer us food if we help him. He was being beaten by several men when we saw him that time, looking like they were trying to steal his pouch."

"After we helped him, some of us ate the meat from the hounds we killed as Dae Kyung-Sam ran out of food to feed us. He said that the food he received from the hall ran out. And that was when a terrifying night ensued," he continued as he slowly crawled away from Jeemin, "People who ate the hound's meat started going mad and tried to eat us. And the people who got bitten also went mad."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The man who bumped on the invisible wall said with a pleading tone, "You see, man, we're having a hard time too. We're just doing it to survive. We saw food, we got greedy."

Claire spoke with an indifferent tone, "But you already harmed us."

"Yeah, I almost died." Jin Hyoon added.

Jeemin coughed as he coldly said, "I'll let you go if you give me all of your pouches, I don't care if it's empty."

The seven of them immediately rummaged through their pockets and handed it to Jeemin as he put back the rectangular sword on Claire's pouch and handed it back.

He then opened his pouch and put the pouches they handed to him inside it.

"If I notice anyone of you following us. I won't hesitate to kill," Jeemin coldly spoke as he turned around.

Looking at the surroundings before him, he discovered the thick tree he bumped into. Luckily, he didn't hit it with his blunt sword, or else he might've cripple his remaining arm.

His arm was throbbing in pain like it was suffering from severe delayed onset muscle soreness — the soreness one get after the next day of an intense work out.

He couldn't help but lament the lost of his left arm. The reason why he didn't beat the people who accidentally followed them, was because he didn't want to overexert his arm anymore.

Ordering his party to kill them isn't an option either, who knows how will they react if he suddenly ordered a slaughter.

Plus, every time he activate the natural Origin on his palm, his head would throb in pain, and several indistinct murmurings would reverberate in his head. Not only that, he couldn't help but feel nervous as he noticed his right arm was getting paler.

I remembered Mili saying it was feeding on my blood. Now I know why I felt a little light-headed.

Dmitri suddenly coldly spoke, "Captain, should we walk around the mountain?"

Jeemin was startled for moment before walking past him.

As he was about to nod his head...

--

[Three Terrains Survival]

Information: None

Task: Survive and pass each terrain.

Time limit: 6 hours every terrain.

Failure: Death

Rewards: Universal Points +1.

First Constraint: Test of Mark

Second Constraint: ?

Third Constraint: ?

--

The world turned black and rumbled. A dense and heavy pressure suddenly shrouded the tall mountain in front of them.

Jeemin and the rest stood on the shaking ground with difficulty.

Two thick walls made of black marble quickly emerged from left and right, completely blocking the path that allowed them to walk around the mountain.

As Jeemin checked the conditions of the party behind him, he saw the third thick wall that was about to emerge behind them.

He immediately ran instinctively as he pulled Claire and Hyoon towards him, then unsteadily ran towards Seiji as he pulled him away from the emerging thick walls

.

The seven people who was loitering around the invisible wall screamed in horror as the thick wall made from black marble carried them up.

One of them was courageous enough to immediately ran and jumped away from the top of the wall as it rose up quickly.

But his courageous spirit could only be described as stupidity as his body went mushed on the ground as he fell from the top of the wall, completely miscalculating the speed of the wall's ascent.

Seiji closed his eyes, Claire averted her gaze, Hyoon puke on the ground, Li Jing was unaffected, and Jeemin gulped from the gruesome state the guy turned into. While Dmitri, as usual, didn't care about what happened as he maintained his balance from the shaking ground.

When the earthquake subsided until it disappeared, the six people atop the wall immediately took a peek below.

One of the men's knees who took a peek below, buckled from fear as he only saw small dots on the ground. Even the ground was hardly visible.

They are so far above the ground that Jeemin and his party's figure was akin to ants.

Jeemin lifted his head up, turning away from the cracked watermelon, grey matter and scattered thick pink noodles, in front of him, to look up.

He was dumbstruck when he couldn't see the end of the wall.

Unclimbable wall.

For a moment he doubted his eyes, he assumed it was just because it suddenly went dark. But even when he narrowed his eyes, he still couldn't see the end of it.

He muttered gloomily as he turned around, "Walk around huh."

In front of him was a tall mountain shrouded in a mysterious dense aura, looking left and right, there was an unclimable wall made from black marbles blocking it aside from the trees around them.

He checked the state of the group and found out that no one was injured, but still asked out of concern, "Is everyone's okay?"

Hyoon turned her head towards him as Claire finished rubbing her back.

As she wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, she pointed at his left shoulder and said, "We should be the one asking that. Thank you for saving us."

She bit her lips as she looked at the arrow still lodged on his left shoulder.

"Nah, it's fine, I'm the one who brought all of you to danger, we could have stayed safe at the cave one more day, so this is the least I can do," he couldn't help but bashfully reply as he let out a hard cough as soon as he noticed his uncharacteristic reply.

Inwardly he was still guilty at the mess he caused at the cave, even though he can't remember most of it, he recalled making shameless excuses as he chose a dangerous passage.

They didn't even get any treasure, I'm the only one who benefited from that trip!

"When will you remove the arrow?" Jin Hyoon asked worriedly.

"If I had a special bandage, I would," Jeemin scratched his head as he replied.

No, I do wish they won't give me one, so that I can have an excuse to not remove it!

Feeling the burning pain every time he move his left shoulder, he couldn't help but imagine how painful it would be by removing it.

"Here, I have mine here," Jin Hyoon pulled a special bandage from her pouch.

"Captain, you can take mine, I have extra. Since you only had one, you should save it Jin Hyoon," Claire went to him and directly put the special bandage on his hand, causing him to be unable to reject it.

"But—"

Before Jin Hyoon could say she should be the one responsible for Jeemin's wound, Claire immediately spoke, "I still have extra special bandages, and we all are responsible for Captain getting injured. If it wasn't for us dragging him down, by trying to convince the people not to attack us by giving them food, we might have escaped much earlier."

"That's right Captain, I never thought they would attack us, if it weren't for your early warnings, I could have been killed," Seiji interjected, finding a chance to atone for his mistake when he said to leave Jeemin behind when they were being pursued by hounds after they left the hall.

But the recipient of their words payed no attention as Jeemin muttered all the names of gods he knew. While he hesitated to whether to pull the arrow or not.

As he abruptly pulled the arrow while gritting his teeth, he grunted from pain. Not only the pain worsen, the arrow didn't even budge!

Was it stuck at the joints? He asked himself in doubt.

Then, he immediately thanked the heavens when he recalled he didn't have a joint connecting his left arm from his shoulder anymore.

Maybe it was stuck between the clavicle and shoulder blade?

Upon noticing that he was having a hard time removing the arrow, Li Jing shyly asked him, "Could I?"

He nodded with difficulty. But still whispered, "Can't we just let the arrow stay there? I mean, it's not like I'm losing blood or anything right?"

Li Jing furrowed her brows and replied, "I know you don't want to waste time, but your wound would get infected if you let the arrow stay inside, especially when we have a special bandage to take care of the wound."

He sighed and said with firm voice, "Pull it."

Luckily, it's wasn't a broadhead arrow. The only reason he wasn't able to pull the arrow was because he was afraid of the pain.

He quickly slapped the special bandage on the wound as soon as the arrow was removed. He almost cried from pain as his eyes became moist.

When the pain subsided, he recalled the Universal Points he received from the reward.

"I advice you to not spend your Universal Points yet until we have sufficient information on how to spend it efficiently."

He bent down as soon as he was finished talking. He removed his shoes, put it inside his pouch, took out the new combat shoes, and wore it.

Looking at the tall mountain in front of him, he felt a sense of déjà vu.

In front of them was six paths divided by thick trees. Almost all of them were identical except the third one.

Looking at the third path, Jeemin could feel his skin crawl as chill went down his spine. It was the typical path on a horror film. The thick dangling vines from the tree, which Jeemin find strangely scary, and the brambles on the ground made it obvious to not choose that path.

So he picked the fifth one, the only path that gave him a sense of weird familiarity.

"We only have six hours to pass through this mountain, so let's start climbing."

"Hiking." Jin Hyoon softly spoke from behind.

"Pardon?"

Jin Hyoon walked past him as she said, "Nothing, let's go."