TOP 11. The Real Game Begins
After finishing a light stretch following a yawn, Seoun briefly stepped outside to see how high the sun had risen.
"I didn't sleep for long."
He looked around the area, and upon sensing no signs of life, he returned to the cabin and began channeling his energy.
'I need to build up my inner strength as much as possible.'
With that thought in mind, he started energy cultivation.
There were a few reasons why he could afford to focus on energy cultivation so freely in broad daylight.
First, the number of players had significantly decreased relative to the massive size of the map. Second, his current location was in the mountains—an area with little strategic value—so he figured no one would bother coming here.
But when does life ever go as planned?
While deeply focused on his cultivation, a faint sound reached Seoun's ears, causing him to abruptly stop and strain to listen, his body tensed in alert.
'That's definitely the sound of footsteps.'
While most players were fighting in towns and cities near the center of the safe zone, someone had wandered into this forested area on the outskirts. Cursing the intruder under his breath, Seoun loaded a bolt into his crossbow—just as the cabin door was blown off with a loud crash.
A fierce gust of wind followed, ruffling his hair as it passed. Seoun gulped involuntarily.
"Nobody? I felt like this place wasn't empty…"
Hearing another player's voice clearly, Seoun quietly raised his crossbow, aiming carefully.
He had hidden himself beside the doorway, staying completely still, waiting for the intruder to come inside.
'A damn mage.'
The footsteps drew closer, and the moment he saw the shadow and foot of the enemy stepping in, Seoun fired the crossbow and threw a hidden dagger at the same time.
Thunk! Ting! Ting!
As he expected, both attacks were blocked. Seoun tossed aside the crossbow and, without hesitation, charged the clearly startled mage, drawing and hurling two more hidden daggers.
Ting!
They bounced off as well, but Seoun didn't care. He tackled the mage—small-framed as he was—with a move often seen in martial arts, using his weight to bring the enemy down.
Though it was his first time attempting such a takedown—grabbing the opponent's legs with both arms and using his shoulder to push them over backward—it worked perfectly.
"A-Ascro… kugh!"
The mage couldn't even finish his spell.
A sharp longsword pierced through the barrier and his throat, ending his life with only a choking gurgle.
"Huff… huff…"
Though it wasn't a particularly difficult fight, Seoun found himself out of breath—perhaps from how tense he had been.
Still gripping the bloodied sword in reverse grip, he finally snapped out of it.
"Ah! I can't waste time standing here."
As the corpse began to fade away, Seoun quickly shut his eyes and focused on the dying mage's vital energy.
As expected, the fading lifeforce of a human could still be sensed.
Was it warm? Or cold?
The sensation varied depending on perception, but just as he began to feel it, the lifeforce, about to dissipate, reacted to him and was sucked straight into his mouth.
At the same time, Seoun's eyes flared red for a brief moment before returning to normal.
The energy that entered through the Absorption Gate circled throughout his body before settling into his dantian (energy core) in no time.
When he opened his eyes again, only a pool of blood and a square wooden box remained in front of him.
"Phew. That was a massive amount."
The amount of inner energy he gained now was far more than what he could've cultivated in over a hundred days.
'Just a few more like this…'
The thought of greed began to rise.
But Seoun shook his head and opened his mouth.
"Survivor!"
–Ding!
-23/100
…
…
Jin Seoun -> Andrew (Critical hit with longsword.)
"There are still 23 people left. Take out me and that terrifying old man, and that's 21. It's not time yet."
Indeed, it wasn't the right time to reveal himself and play aggressively.
He needed to gather and conserve more strength, even if just a little.
"Still, if he's a wizard, he should have something useful…"
Trailing off, he opened a wooden box, and the first thing that caught his eye was a green potion-like liquid in a glass bottle.
As he lifted the potion, an item description popped up.
–Ding! You have obtained Refined Troll Blood.
A rare potion that offers a year of healthy life to those suffering from incurable diseases.
"This item is…"
Seoun's hand trembled as he held the rare potion.
"What a piece of trash!"
Just as he was about to throw the potion to the ground, he barely stopped himself, took a deep breath, and stored it in his subspace inventory.
"Of all things to give me, it's something completely useless… Must be a personal belonging."
His guess was spot on. This Troll Blood wasn't a game-issued item but a personal item the wizard carried around.
"But I wonder… if an item looted here would still exist in the real world?"
That thought crossed his mind briefly, but with more pressing worries at hand, Seoun shrugged it off and looked through the rest of the items.
He carefully touched each article of clothing the wizard had been wearing, tossing aside anything that didn't trigger a system alert.
He was hoping—perhaps even expecting—to find a magical item among them.
–Ding! You have obtained the Bracelet of Oath. Increases the wearer's magic success rate significantly.
"Eh."
Seoun, who didn't really use magic, didn't find it particularly useful.
Still, he stashed the bracelet in his subspace anyway.
He resumed rummaging, but aside from a bit of jerky, there were no notable items.
"Broke."
He had to admit, it was unrealistic to expect anything valuable from a wizard who, like him, had been skirting the edges instead of farming in the center.
He decided to be satisfied just with stealing the wizard's vitality.
"21 people left…"
It was an awkward number.
With the safe zone still wide, it wasn't a major issue yet—but if that many players remained later, it would pose a serious problem for Seoun.
There were bound to be monsters among them, and if those monsters had also looted powerful items, Seoun would stand no chance.
"They'll end up tearing each other apart. The safe zone will keep shrinking, after all."
With that thought, Seoun checked the map, scouted his next farming location, and exited the cabin.
A week passed like that. Without acquiring anything particularly useful, Seoun entered the 12th day and realized how lucky he'd been with item farming in the early days.
He had continued looting huts in the mountains and small warehouses in the outskirts, but all he found were spells, bolts, and jerky.
'In the end, there's a reason people flock to big towns and cities.'
Even in the rogue-likes Seoun used to play, players tended to gather in high-reward areas eventually.
Still, he had no intention of changing his playstyle now.
There were still 88 days left in the game.
He needed to play the long game.
Besides, Seoun had confidence.
"Survivor!"
–Ding!
-18/100
…
…
Nam Sa-gwang -> Joo Jeon-nam (Critical hit with sword technique.)
"As expected!"
"One more person had disappeared since yesterday.
Sometimes it was one person every few days, and other times, two in a single day.
That guy, Namsagwang, for some reason, had recently been reducing the number of players indiscriminately. All the recent disappearances had been at his hands, so it was clear that Namsagwang was actively hunting down players.
'And considering he kills regardless of whether they're martial artists or not, he must have obtained something.'
Out of curiosity, I combed through the entire list of game-over survivors, but Namsagwang only started going wild five days ago.
Until then, he'd been quietly surviving. There must be a reason why he suddenly started killing players.
Seoun's guess was that Namsagwang had acquired a very powerful item.
"He's probably going crazy because if he got it, others can too. He must be desperate for the game to end as soon as possible."
Thinking that way, Seoun had no choice but to move even further out, to places where no one would likely go.
And during the remaining time, he hoped Namsagwang would reduce the number of players as much as possible.
"Let's make sure we don't run into each other."
Muttering his wish like a prayer, he lightly stepped forward.
Eight more days passed with nothing but meager looting.
Seoun was now hiding in the bushes, deeply troubled.
'Hmm. What should I do…?'
While looting near the shrinking safe zone, the center of the zone unfortunately shifted toward a large village.
Naturally, not only were the mountains off-limits now, even finding a forest like this one was becoming difficult.
By tomorrow, this forest would probably be pushed out of the safe zone too.
So, he had to decide whether to dash toward the center of the safe zone now and stake out a spot, or continue circling the outskirts until the end.
'Unlike mountainous terrain, open areas like this make it easy to get spotted by those already positioned there…'
What troubled him more than anything else was the current number of remaining players.
'Survivors!'
Ting!11/100
.
.
.
Namsagwang → Pyung Woo Yeondeok (Killed with Sword Force).
Looking at the recent logs, Namsagwang had been the one eliminating all the players.
'If he was going to kill anyway, he could've just taken out one more. Why leave exactly one alive? And I don't know what item he got, but lately this lunatic hasn't just been using Sword Aura — he's been using Sword Force to kill.'
He had clearly obtained some tremendous martial art or elixir here.
As the thought of an elixir crossed his mind, Seoun's eyes were drawn to a mansion visible in the distance.
It looked like a grand noble's house — so large that it was impossible to tell how many rooms it had. The urge to run over there immediately surged in him.
'Stay calm. Stay calm. There's no way a house that big hasn't already been looted. If I die from greed here, it'd be too unfair.'
Rewards started from the Top 10, and dying in 11th place would make all his effort meaningless.
And the biggest problem was that he had no clue where the remaining players were hiding.
The safe zone had narrowed significantly — now encompassing only one large city, a few villages, some plains, and a few mansions.
Right behind the bush Seoun was hiding in, the safe zone's edge was already brushing up against his rear.
'From what I can tell, everyone's probably hiding from Namsagwang. 80 days remain. The current safe zone is less than half the size of when the game started. Come to think of it, the shrinking of the safe zone doesn't exactly match the remaining game time. At this rate, it'll eventually be limited to just a small village…'
Raising his head, Seoun alternated his gaze between the sun still hanging in the sky and the distant mansion, calming his racing heart.
Suppressing his overwhelming urge to rush to that massive mansion, he sat down, crossing his legs in a meditation posture.
'Let's focus on cultivation.'
Determined to calm himself and kill some time, he began cultivating his inner energy. As he filled his dantian, the sun eventually set, and darkness spread across the land.
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