Airen stood in the middle of the forest, surrounded by torn corpses of wolves. The ground was soaked with blood, the stench thick enough to make most men vomit. But Airen? He just stood there, chest rising and falling, before letting out a deep breath.
"Haaa…"
His body was shredded, bite marks covering his legs and arms. But strangely, the pain was faint, almost distant. He raised an eyebrow. "Huh…? It doesn't even hurt that much."
System:[As you level up, your body hardens. The higher your level, the less fragile you become. ]
Airen smirked. "So I really am becoming a monster too, huh?"
He sat down heavily on the dirt, corpses of wolves around him like trophies. Opening his inventory, he stored away his crimson-handled sword, then pulled out a one-liter juice bottle he had brought from Earth.
He tilted his head back and gulped it down in just four swigs.
"Ahhhhhh." He wiped his mouth, grinning. "Now this… no one in this world can match this taste."
But then a thought hit him. "System, you told me this planet is ten billion times bigger than Earth. So… what's the name of this planet?"
[ This planet's name… is Earth. ]
Airen froze. "What? The same name?"
[ Correct. ]
"Mm." He muttered, shaking his head. "Weird…"
Rising to his feet again, he walked toward the massive corpse of the Elite Wolf and pulled his katana from its skull. As he did, his gaze drifted toward the mangled human corpses the wolves had been feasting on earlier.
His face twisted. Their clothes… they were the same as the knights he'd seen before.
"System… these guys must've been part of that group. The dragon probably killed them, and the wolves just… feasted on the leftovers."
[ Correct. The readings confirm: one of them was 2-star. The other two… 1-star initial stage. ]
Airen's nose wrinkled in disgust. Their bodies were so brutally eaten apart that searching them for treasure was pointless. Some didn't even have whole limbs left.
But then—
THUNK!
A sword slammed into the dirt right beside him, burying itself deep like a spear falling from the sky.
Airen instantly spun around, katana raised. His eyes darted through the canopy, but all he saw were the tall trees, their shadows blocking the sunlight.
Cautiously, he pulled the weapon free. A simple sword.
"…The hell?" He looked up again, but nothing. Silence. Only leaves swaying.
"System… why only one sword? And come to think of it, I didn't see weapons with those corpses earlier either. Why?"
[ …How the hell am I supposed to know? ]
Airen scowled. "I thought you knew everything."
[ I only know important things. ]
"Tch." He turned the sword in his hand. Just a plain blade. Nothing special. He tossed it into his inventory. "Fine. I'll keep it. But I'll stick with my katana for now."
He gripped his katana tightly instead of storing it. "Danger could come anytime. Better hold this."
His eyes shifted back to the piles of wolf corpses. "What do I even do with these? In games, you'd sell them or something…"
[ You can store them in your inventory. In villages or cities, monster corpses are sold for money. ]
Airen's lips curled into a smirk. "Knew it."
[ Since you asked… I'll explain. This continent has guilds and noble families that hunt monsters for profit. And there are also lone hunters—people call them Vagrants. ]
"Vagrants, huh? Sounds badass."
[ It sounds cool, but don't misunderstand. Vagrants are rare. It's dangerous to hunt alone, and if you're weak, people will mock you. You'd need at least 7 stars before anyone takes the title seriously. ]
Airen shrugged. "I don't give a fuck what people say. I'll be a Vagrant."
He stored all the wolf corpses—ten normal wolves, one Elite.
Noticing something odd, he asked, "System, why aren't these wolf corpses cubic?"
[ Why are you so obsessed with cubic? …But fine. Some monsters are cubic-shaped, some are like Earth's animals. These just happen to be the latter. ]
Airen nodded. "Ohhh. Got it."
He began walking deeper into the forest, katana in hand. The silence stretched on, until—
Rustling.
A few hundred meters ahead, he spotted a pack of twenty normal wolves wandering. Their eyes glowed faintly in the shadows, their bodies restless.
Airen's grin spread. "System, you think they're looking for food?"
[ …Most likely. ]
"Can I kill them all?"
[ Yes. At your current power, it's possible— ]
The System suddenly cut off.
Airen was laughing. A greedy, hungry laugh. His eyes gleamed with madness.
"Hehehehehe… my lovely EXPs… I'm coming for you."
This time, unlike before, he didn't flinch at the sight of the wolves. Confidence radiated from his stance, his grin wide and unhinged.
The hunt was on again.
The twenty wolves froze the moment Airen stepped into the clearing. Their glowing eyes all turned to him at once, low growls echoing through the thin forest. The air was tense, their claws scraping against dirt as they readied to pounce.
Airen's grin widened, teeth flashing red with dried blood. His katana hummed faintly as he tightened his grip.
"Come then… my EXPs."
The wolves charged as one, their snarls shaking the branches.
Airen moved first.
One slash.
The katana whistled through the air.
SHRRK!
Three wolves split in half at once, their bodies spraying blood across the forest floor.
"Too slow."
A fourth wolf lunged for his throat—Airen's fist shot out, smashing its skull midair. The body flew several meters, slamming into a tree so hard the trunk cracked, groaned… then toppled over with a thunderous crash.
The rest of the pack howled in fury, their chorus shaking the leaves above. They swarmed him from all directions.
Airen didn't step back. He charged forward.
His katana danced, each swing carving flesh, splitting spines, tearing through fur like paper. Wolves fell one after another, their bodies hitting the dirt before they even realized they were dead.
One tried to sink its fangs into his arm. Airen twisted, caught it by the throat, and slammed it into the ground. The earth split from the impact, the wolf's cries ending in a wet crunch.
Another tried to flee, tail between its legs, whimpering as it darted into the brush.
Airen's eyes burned. "Where the fuck do you think you're going?"
He blurred forward, overtaking it in seconds. With one hand, he grabbed its tail, yanked it back mid-run, and swung it like a hammer into a tree. The wolf's body exploded on impact, blood and fur sticking to the bark.
The survivors hesitated now, their glowing eyes wide, ears pinned back. They howled—not in rage, but in panic.
Airen laughed. A sound raw, cruel, and manic.
"Don't stop now! Weren't you hungry before?!"
He dashed forward, cutting another two down in a single slash. Another tried to leap over him; he kicked upward, his boot colliding with its ribs. CRACK! The wolf shot into the sky like a broken arrow before crashing back down, unmoving.
Soon, the clearing was painted red. The forest floor soaked with blood, broken trees, and mangled bodies. The last wolf whimpered, backing away, ears flat against its skull.
Airen's shadow loomed over it, his grin monstrous.
"EXP."
SLASH!
The katana carved through it, and silence fell.
Not a single wolf remained standing.
The low-dense forest that had been alive with snarls and howls moments ago was now silent, save for Airen's ragged breathing.
[ Exp: 220,000 ]
[ Points: 2,200,000 ]
[ Level Up! Current Level: 25 ]
Airen's eyes widened. Then he laughed—deep, unhinged, echoing through the broken forest.
"Ha… ha ha ha ha! Level 25 already?!"
His shoulders shook, katana dripping red. His expression was twisted, manic with joy.
"Good… this is good grinding. Just like back on Earth… grinding EXP all night in games."
His laughter grew darker, echoing through the forest like the cry of a predator who had finally claimed his territory.
Airen stood amidst twenty corpses, the forest bowing to his slaughter.
The hunt was no longer survival.
It was domination.