[HP: 977/2015]

[MP: (Deactivated)]

[Stats of Kang Joo-yeon]

[Agility: 60 +15]

[Vitality: 60 +15]

[Endurance: 60 +15]

[Strength: 60 +15]

[Wisdom: 32 +15]

[The ‘Berserk Mode’ skill is activated.]

[Countdown until deactivation: 4mins 55sec]

(*) “Im…impossible! How did she move like that?!”

Ah. I killed someone. A human…

“F-rank Slayers are the lowest in the strength hierarchy! Unless she's…”

Even if that unknown man didn't force me to, I would've chosen to kill them.

“A Hidden Ranker?! That explains a lot!”

After all, why should I let them live? When they're gonna do the same thing the next time after killing me here… I'm outnumbered…

“Everyone, never mind about her fake rank! Isn't she…supposed to be dead by now?”

I can't even subdue them.

“Huh?”

Ah… I hate myself for choosing this cowardly choice, but I’m not an S-rank now.

“I thought a healer would die if they ever killed a fellow human.”

That's a fact that I’ve to live with now.

“That's the law of nature for Slayers!”

That's why if “survival of the strongest” is the only law I've to obey in this world, then becoming stronger is the only choice I’ve to make!

“Look! She's still stan…”

My body feels light yet my heart feels empty as I slash another of Mr Seo's minions. His head drops like a bloody-stained rock from the edge of a rocky cliff. Many of the other traitors scream at the sight of his headless body falling down backwards. I still calmly and coldly focus on what's happening behind the Guideline's screen though I'm aware that it's keeping scores.

[Number of Kang Joo-yeon's enemies slayed: 2/7]

“You bitch!”

One man starts to run and about to swing his longsword towards me, and yet I manage to dodge his straightforward attack in another split second; my rondel burns and cleanly cuts the front side of his stomach which spills a huge part of his guts.

[Number of Kang Joo-yeon's enemies slayed: 3/7]

My focus becomes more vivid because my mind doesn't think of anything emotional besides the cold rage that's getting colder once I face three familiar-looking faces now - the male teenager, the ponytailed woman, and her brawny partner. As expected, the teenage kid has an edgy bravado when he makes a meaningless warcry at me.

But, his “middle school syndrome” act has its purpose as he manages to use great control with his magnetic gauntlet in his right hand. It catches Talos' Thermal Rondel that was once held in my right hand. His grin doesn't last long as I see my dagger’s handle burn right through his gauntlet, reaching to his skin. A notification pops up in front of his face which looks more confusingly horrified while he says these words aloud.

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“What the heck? I'm… an identified stealer? The Immolation effect will be effective…Arghhh!!!”

The dagger’s self-heating effect turned on automatically is what makes its handle unbearable to hold but anyone except me, the owner. The teenager screams in agony, dropping my weapon as he clutches his burnt hand. The orihalcum-made gauntlet becomes a badly-shaped plasticine. I proceed to dash towards him, bypassing the couple who try to kill me with their careless slashes. I quickly grab back my dagger from the ground and proceed to slash his legs.

He lets out frightening screams once he realises he’s legless that he’ll never have a chance to run away from this place. For the first time in my life, I earnestly believe he deserves feeling the pain as payback for what he did to his younger brother. I saw his memories via the 'Memory Reader' skill randomly activated the moment he held my hand when I nearly fell down while heading towards the doomed chamber; his memories when he wasn't able to do well like his younger brother.

It's the usual so-called tragic backstory where the older sibling who feels inferior to the younger one achieving the best results that their parents unknowingly did favouritism for the latter. As a result, the older one didn't feel any regrets after purposely pushing the younger one on a busy construction site. The younger one lost his mobility all down to the waist when many steel bars fell down from a badly-made rope. This teenage kid is the one with such backstory. He gave in to his beastly side, always smiling whenever he watched his younger brother struggling to move his wheelchair at home.

“Take this, you psycho!”

The brawny henchman slams his huge axe, making a huge crack on the ground. The crack heads straight to my feet below, but he has made a useless attack as I managed to jump high enough and avoid the many stalagmites. I jump one more time, falling down towards him to slash his arm that's holding his axe. The slashed arm still has his hand holding it. Huge amount of blood gushes out and some of it stains my shorts. He too screams in agony, and he too deserves feeling the pain because I also saw his memories when he gave me ingenuine consoling words during this trapful journey. He placed his hand on my shoulder, and my Memory Reader skill was randomly activated.

He was a newlywed man, and yet he chose to commit adultery with the ponytailed woman, his current lover in this Labyrinth. His pregnant wife found out about it when she caught them on the day he thought she would stay at her family’s hometown. She tried to call the police to report this disgusting act, but he killed her as he grabbed sharp scissors placed on a nearby table. He stabbed her neck so deep that she bled nonstop. She fell down sideways, desperately trying to catch her breath while pressing her bloody neck with her left hand. And that was when the image of the ponytailed woman standing in front of a burning house started to make sense to me. That both of them murdered a pregnant loyal woman with no regrets.

“You bitch!”

The ponytailed woman makes many slashes at me, but I'm able to avoid them thanks to my ongoing activation of the ‘Berserk Mode’ skill. My dagger’s Immolation effect slices her katana so smooth that the terrified look on her face indirectly says her blade is made out of paper instead of metal. I proceed to stab her neck, letting her remember to feel the pain from the burning effect for several moments that even her soul would still remember after her death.

[Countdown until deactivation: 2mins 59sec]

A second later sees me beheading her head before sprouting any more hypocrisy coming out of her mouth. I shut up her brawny partner too when I head over him another second, and behead him. Their bloody lifeless heads feel like they're part of the decorations for a Shakespeare tragic play. Finally, I turn around to face the teenage kid; his body trembling more than ever, especially his eyes looking wider than ever.

“It can't…be…She's the healer…who can kill…anyone…Please…have mer…”

I behead him without any hesitation existing in my numb heart. It's almost unbelievable to think this unpleasant skill helped me kill six humans in under five minutes.

[Number of Kang Joo-yeon's enemies slayed: 6/7]

[Countdown until deactivation: 1mins 59sec]

“You're the only one left, Mr Seo Tae-ho,” I coldly say to him, who has a terrified face right now. My glare feels colder the longer I see him trying to stand properly with trembling legs.

“No…no way…All this time…you're a Hidden Ranker?! If that's true, I won't let myself be killed by the likes of you, Kang Joo-yeon!”

He takes out three blue glass bottles with a unique design looking medieval. He hurls them on the ground right in front of his feet. Reddish smoke comes out of the broken bottles. Then, I see solid lava-like bodies materialised into a well-known lower C-rank Beasts - Fire Golems. The three fiery golems let out an intimidating roar to me. Their roars shake the area where us three humans are staying alive at; the remaining large rocks almost crack apart.

Like the Bulgasari except they're not hallucinating at all, they charge at me with all their might. It's unfortunate that these creatures couldn't make themselves useful to that cruel businessman once I did the same fast movements and several immolated slashes at them. Their fiery bodies drop like used charcoal all around me. Mr Seo falls backwards. His shocked face is looking more obvious after falsely believing three Fire Golems were enough to slay me even though I'm unable to slay the Bulgasari all by myself.

“Don’t…kill me, Kang Joo-yeon! I'll grant you anything you want! Do you want more money given to you?...”

“How does it feel, Mr Seo?”

“What?”

“Your victims genuinely begged you not to kill them. Telling you they've got a dream to fulfil or a loved one to get back to…”

“...”

“Did you ever let them go to live their life of never taking advantage of others? I don't believe you did, Mr Seo. After all, they're just profits to you.”

He suddenly takes a pebble nearby, throwing it towards my face. I block it with my left arm, and the next moment I see him, he's holding a dagger that looks familiar. I'm aware of it being a life-draining dagger I used at the Painting Labyrinth for the first and last time. It doesn't matter if the user is able to channel mana output for it to be useful. It's already useful when you can stab someone and drain their life energy at a slow pace along with making bleeding wounds.

That's what he thinks when he assumes my heart has been stabbed by that dagger of his. His smile fades immediately after seeing I grab the blade on time; my blood drips downwards from my left hand which is still gripping it. I thrust my self-heating rondel into his chest. He lets out shocked gasps while his eyes turn redder than ever.

I pull out my blade, coldly watching him clench his bleeding chest that emits white smoke. He grabs my left wrist, and once more, my Memory Reader skill gets activated on its own. This time, I'm seeing his memory of him calling his daughter who looks like a very young child in there. My eyes widen in slight shock that this man loves his daughter like any loving father would do.

(*) “Please…don't kill…my daughter…my little J..”

He passes away as his lifeless body lets go of my arm, plopping downwards and his blood oozes out of him. The bottom of my right sneaker gets stained with his blood. I say nothing until the Guideline's notification has appeared for the final time of today.

[Number of Kang Joo-yeon's enemies slayed: 7/7]

[Countdown until deactivation: 36sec]

[You have completed the Moderator's Special Mission - Slay Your Enemies.]

[You have earned the Reflection Skill as your reward for completing within the time limit.]

[Please continue to level up and survive until the end of this program, Kang Joo-yeon.]

The last sentence feels like sadistic advice, and I know who exactly it is despite not knowing his name at all. The feeling of weariness has come to cloud my mind and I let out a tired laughter. My mind still remembers what Mr Seo's last words meant to me.

“Still a loving father till the end, huh, Seo Tae-ho?”

With the Labyrinth starting to crumble down, indicating that it's gonna close completely along with the entrance gate, I store back my bloodied weapon in the storage. Then, I piggyback Slayer Ban; the cold look still worn on my face and never looking back at the people I just killed in cold blood.