Although the quality of rewards couldn’t be compared to the ones the Awakened got on the Last Stage, the Stage of Rest, Act One was a generous stage. Prior to the Trial Tests, compensation boxes were only given to the Awakened who had completed a quest or achieved particular accomplishments for the first or second time. Now all ninety-nine Awakened were receiving reward boxes along with points in Stage One.
Seon-Hu’s face was covered with disgusting blood, flesh, and hair while silver boxes poured in front of the other Awakened. The flaming sword on his hand turned back into a red cape and settled onto his shoulders, and gold boxes opened continuously in front of him. When he finished checking the contents, a message from the spirit popped up.
[You have completed the quest already! I’m so impressed by your swiftness and good decision-making skills.]
Seon-Hu ignored the message and began rummaging through the monster corpses. He was looking for a tiny black fragment.
Why were the monsters Kciphos of all things?
He had no choice but to grumble. Large monsters like the Baclan Corps had gigantic mana stones, but Act One, Stage One was being held in the territory of the Kciphos. The mana stones that Kciphos held inside their bodies were as tiny as the objects Seon-Hu was looking for, and their textures were the same. In other words, he had to search through every single body to find the fragment he wanted.
Fortunately, the monsters that had been sliced by the Sun Sword were burnt, so it wasn’t a hassle to check the insides of their bodies. However, Seon-Hu needed to use his hands and fumble inside the corpses of those who had been killed with lower-class skills. It was taking him longer to rummage through than it did to kill them all and destroy their summoning nest!
Finally!
[Fragments of Time and Space (Hidden item)
This piece fell off when the Stage of Advent was created.]
“Did you eat it?” Seon-Hu asked a small body that didn’t have a face left. Now that he had found it, he could head to the puddle he had seen on his way there. The hairs stuck to his entire body felt more unpleasant than the copious blood stains. There were so many that he could even chew them. After cleaning off all the hair, Seon-Hu moved on in case he could complete another ‘Wave’ quest in advance. However, all of these tricks were blocked by the System. The areas were separated, making it impossible to access the regions where subsequent waves would be held.
***
[You have completed the quest already! I’m so impressed by your swiftness and good decision-making skills.]
They had not even completed the formation and distributed combat resources yet.
“Let’s calm down!” Kyu-Bum shouted at the people who were panicking. It annoyed him that this chaos occurred every time the spirit appeared as he thought it shouldn’t be happening anymore.
He continued impatiently, “If it was going to kill us, it would have done so already. There must be something it wants from us. Please calm down and follow our instructions!”
His loud voice wasn’t what ended up settling people down. Instead, people quieted down when they saw the unbelievable rays of light that burst out from the boxes. Kyu-Bum had received a skill, but the one he wanted had been given to another civilian man as his reward for awakening. It was a skill that caught the attention of monsters and strengthened certain parts of the body, and Kyu-Bum believed that was what he needed now.
He had to plan their future strategy at the small table behind him. If at least one of his colleagues from the reconnaissance battalion had entered the stage with him, then the situation would have been better. However, having leadership in the field was necessary. He shouldn’t have been afraid of engaging with the enemy on the front line, and that was why he wanted skills that were available and useful on the battlefield.
However, Kyu-Bum’s expectations were brutally dashed as he received something that a person in the medical corps would use. He plucked up his courage and asked the little devil who made people tremble, “Can we exchange skills? Actually, could you make that happen?”
[You want to revise the System?]
The spirit flew toward Kyu-Bum, and he swallowed his saliva as he gazed at the detailed and mysterious face of the spirit. Most people would have instinctively relaxed after looking at the spirit, but the corpse that the spirit had killed was still left in the middle of the road.
[However, I don’t have the authority to do that.]
“Then, who has the control?” he asked.
[Challenger.]
“Who is the challenger?”
[You can be the challenger if you achieve the conditions.]
“What conditions?”
[To know the conditions, you have to accomplish conditions for that first.]
“What are those conditions then?”
[Do you guys see this? You all must learn from this person’s enthusiastic attitude. I would like to give him a challenger box, but it’s tragic that I am not allowed to do that either. (๑´╹‸╹`๑) ]
The message and emoji sent by the spirit sounded friendly, but Kyu-Bum couldn’t allow himself to let down his guard as he constantly remembered that the devil had exploded a human head moments earlier. He asked about the conditions again.
[I was also touched by you completing the quest before the given time had ended. That’s right. I was so amazed by the positive deed that I involuntarily told you about the pre-conditions. It’s a secret that you will have to figure out on your own. I might get punished. Well, I haven’t heard anything yet, so that’s fine… But, are you going to keep causing me trouble like this?]
Everyone got the unspoken message, so they were looking anxiously at Kyu-Bum and the spirit.
Kyu-Bum replied, “I’m sorry. Are we done with quests then?”
[You guys have completed fantastically. Congratulations.]
“Then, Act One, Stage Two will begin soon. How many acts and stages are there?”
Crush-
The spirit’s face instantly crumpled in rage. Its blue hue turned into a blood color, and the angry spirit’s face filled Kyu-Bum’s view.
[Who says that Act One, Stage Two is starting? You have done better than I expected by completing the quest within the given time. Therefore, I decided to live up to it. I will meet you again after the preparation time. Take some rest until then.]
“…”
[Oh! Come to think of it, there’s a lot of time left. You must be bored, right? I’ll make you a quest, so enjoy it. Cheers! ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ]
Kyu-Bum’s face contorted when he checked the quest.
***
A barricade was set up on the road that led to the village. They had been built using the stones that had been gathered by destroying the outer wall of the building, and two soldiers were guarding it. Both of them looked uneasy. They were staying in their positions as instructed by the lieutenant, but they were concerned that they couldn’t attend the ongoing meeting in the village.
Suddenly, the two of them stopped talking as they waited for Seon-Hu to walk out of the darkness. Seon-Hu smelt strongly of blood. His hair was dry, but the clothes were stuck to his skin with blood stains.
“You must have been waiting for me,” Seon-Hu commented.
The two looked at him with wide eyes and hesitated to answer at first. Then, one of them yelled, “Hey… hey! Stop! Stop where you are!”
The other apologetically said, “I’m sorry, sir. Please follow the military’s protocol. You should stay there still until we get the lieutenant, okay?”
Seon-Hu didn’t expect them to act any differently than they were, so he nodded. He could have entered the village through the sides of the barricade as it didn’t completely block the entry, but he followed their instructions.
A few minutes later, Kyu-Bum appeared. He went over the barricade himself without beckoning Seon-Hu to come.
“You must have received the same message and quest, right?” Kyu-Bum asked.
Seon-Hu nodded.
“Did you finish the ‘Wave’ quest?”
“Yes.”
“Could you please explain it to me?”
Seon-Hu bluntly replied, “We didn’t need the time to prepare since I knew I could do it myself without sacrificing anyone.”
Although Kyu-Bum was specially trained, he had never even thought about going beyond the darkness. However, the young man in front of him had entered the darkness without even hesitating and had returned after completing the quest. Kyu-Bum could also assume that Seon-Hu had a fairly intense battle as blood was splattered all over him.
How could he be that calm?
Furthermore, Kyu-Bum was amazed by the fact that Seon-Hu already knew how to complete the quest without even preparing himself during the given time. No matter how much Kyu-Bum thought about it, he could only think of one organization: the World Awakened Association. They were the only ones who had foreseen the Stage of Advent.
“I’m confident that you are a member of the World’s Awakened Association. Am I right?”
“Yes, but listen carefully, Sergeant Lee Kyu-Bum.”
“Wait, I’m a lieutenant now, so I hope you will call me that.”
Seon-Hu simply stared at Kyu-Bum.
***
The situation was different from what he had experienced in the past. The person who had led Act One, Stage One at that time was a female entrepreneur and politician who was quite famous, and everyone fell for her lies and deceit. She knew what people wanted to hear, and was good at instigating as her decisions had dramatic effects in a short term. She was a master of controlling people’s emotions like any other socially successful person.
Also, she was excellent at avoiding responsibility for her own wrongdoings. In the past, Seon-Hu always needed to stay alert in order not to lose her trust. She was scarier than the monsters themselves. He had planned to intervene against her this time if she was in the group again, but things had changed.
The people in the first stage were not the same people that he had been grouped with in his previous life, and an active-duty soldier named Lee Kyu-Bum was the one who had gathered people to form an organization, not her.
Seon-Hu said, “Lieutenant Lee. I don’t care what rules you create or how you run the group. I just hope you lead well. What I mean is that as long as you don’t try to control me, then I won’t violate your rules.”
“…Why are you drawing a line?”
You drew it first.
Seon-Hu pointed at the barricade with his chin while giving him a look.
Kyu-Bum grimaced slightly. “I understand what you mean, but you… Ah, I don’t want to keep calling you without a name. What do you want me to call you? I’m a lieutenant, and you are?”
Seon-Hu grunted, “Just call me ‘you.’ We won’t talk that much anyway.”
“By the way, how are you going to take responsibility for what you have done?” Kyu-Bum asked.
Seon-Hu raised an eyebrow. “What have I done?”
“This is not what I wanted. Consider it as a group opinion. We appreciate you completing the quest, but it happened too quickly. You must have seen the guide’s most recent message.”
“To drop out one person?”
“It’s murder, not just dropping them out.”
Seon-Hu shrugged. “You better get used to it. It will do whatever it wants whenever it feels like.”
“…Are you going to enter the village? I hope you don’t…at least for your own sake until things are sorted out.”
“Why?”
“The majority thinks you should be the one responsible for it. The guide wants to sacrifice one life within the given time. Since you completed the first quest, people believe you should take care of the second one with your own life. That’s the majority’s opinion.”
“They must have no idea how many lives I saved earlier. Nah, I don’t think so.”
Seon-Hu was neither disappointed nor angry by what was going on. It was more of a discouragement.
Seon-Hu continued, “Lieutenant Lee, you should be the one who ultimately decides how the victim will be selected, so you shouldn’t be swayed by other people’s thoughts. Then, you will have to take responsibility for your choice. Also, don’t make the terrible mistake of choosing me.”
At that moment, Kyu-Bum felt like the look in Seon-Hu’s eyes were creepier than the Spirit’s contorted face.
“Let me give you some advice. Continue preparing for the wave.”
“Didn’t you complete the quest earlier?”
Kyu-Bum had wanted to nitpick Seon-Hu by claiming that everything had happened because he had finished things too early, but he swallowed the words down. The more he talked to the young man, the more he felt it was important not to provoke him. Moreover, he had noticed Seon-Hu was someone he would desperately need in the future. Kyu-Bum had finally realized that he was now in a different world from reality.
Seon-Hu said, “I think I can complete up to the fourth wave on my own. But starting from the fifth one, you guys will have to fight together.”