Word spread fast in Haven's Rest.
Jinwoo didn't know how. He didn't tell anyone about what happened in the goblin cave. His companions didn't either—at least, he didn't think they did. But somehow, by the next morning, everyone seemed to know.
"Did you hear? There's a guy who can't kneel."
"Can't kneel? What does that even mean?"
"His rule. He literally cannot bow or kneel to anything. The goblin chief tried to make him submit and he just... stood there."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Or the most interesting."
Jinwoo heard the whispers as he walked through the village. People pointed at him. Some laughed. Others stared with curiosity. A few looked at him with something that might have been respect—or fear.
He hated it.
He had spent his entire life being invisible. The forgettable son. The unremarkable student. The convenience store worker nobody noticed. And now, suddenly, everyone was looking at him.
"You're famous," Park Eunji said cheerfully as they ate breakfast at the inn.
"I don't want to be famous."
"Too late." She grinned. "The guy who can't kneel. It's a good story. People love good stories."
"It's not a story. It's my life."
"Same thing, in this world."
Jinwoo groaned and put his head on the table.
The attention wasn't all bad.
Some people approached him with genuine curiosity, asking questions about his rule and how it worked. Others offered to help him train, seeing potential that Jinwoo himself couldn't see. A blacksmith even offered to make him a custom weapon—"Something for the man who won't bow," she said with a wink.
But not everyone was friendly.
Jinwoo was walking through the market square when someone grabbed his shoulder and spun him around.
"You're the kneeling guy, right?"
The man in front of him was big. Tall and muscular, with a shaved head and a scar running down his cheek. He wore leather armor and carried a sword at his hip. Behind him stood three others, all equally intimidating.
"I'm... yes," Jinwoo stammered. "I mean, I'm the guy who can't kneel. Not the kneeling guy. The opposite, actually—"
"Shut up."
Jinwoo shut up.
"I'm Kang Dohun," the man said. "Leader of the Iron Wolves. We're one of the top guilds in Haven's Rest." He leaned closer, his breath hot on Jinwoo's face. "And I don't like people who think they're special."
"I don't think I'm special—"
"I said shut up." Kang Dohun's hand tightened on Jinwoo's shoulder, squeezing hard enough to hurt. "Everyone's talking about you. The guy who faced down a goblin chief. The guy who can't be made to submit. They're saying you might be important."
He smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"I don't like important people. Important people cause problems. Important people upset the balance." He released Jinwoo's shoulder and stepped back. "So here's what's going to happen. You're going to stop drawing attention to yourself. You're going to stay quiet, stay small, and stay out of my way. Understand?"
Jinwoo's heart was pounding. His legs were shaking. Every instinct screamed at him to agree, to nod, to do whatever this man wanted.
But his mouth had other ideas.
"And if I don't?"
*Why did I say that?* he thought immediately. *Why did I say that why did I say that—*
Kang Dohun's eyes narrowed.
"Then we'll have a problem." He turned and walked away, his followers trailing behind him. "See you around, kneeling guy."
Jinwoo stood frozen in the market square, his heart threatening to explode out of his chest.
What did I just do?
He told the others about the encounter that night.
"Kang Dohun," Yoon Sora said grimly. "I've heard of him. He's dangerous."
"How dangerous?"
"Very. The Iron Wolves are one of the strongest guilds in Haven's Rest. They've been here for almost a year—one of the earliest waves of arrivals. They control most of the high-level hunting grounds around the village."
"Great," Jinwoo muttered. "So I've made an enemy of someone who could crush me like a bug."
"You didn't make an enemy," Sergeant Lee said. "He decided to be your enemy. There's a difference."
"Does the difference matter when he's beating me to death?"
"Fair point."
Yoon Sora tapped her fingers on the table, thinking. "We need to be careful. Kang Dohun won't attack you inside Haven's Rest—the System prevents violence here. But outside the safe zone..."
"I'm dead meat."
"Not necessarily." She looked at him. "You just need to get stronger. Fast."
"How? I'm level two. He's probably level... what, fifty? A hundred?"
"Twenty-seven, according to the guild records," Officer Hwang Minji said. She had done some research. "His rule gives him enhanced physical abilities. Strength, speed, durability. Nothing fancy, but very effective in combat."
"Twenty-seven," Jinwoo repeated. "I'm level two. He's level twenty-seven. That's a gap of twenty-five levels."
"Then we close the gap," Kim Taewoo said simply. "We train harder. We take more quests. We level you up."
"That could take months. Years."
"Then we'd better start now."
They trained.
Every day, from sunrise to sunset, they trained. Combat drills in the morning. Quests in the afternoon. Strategy sessions at night. Jinwoo pushed himself harder than he had ever pushed himself in his life.
His body screamed at him to stop. His muscles ached. His bones creaked. He fell down more times than he could count.
But he got up every time.
*I will not kneel,* he told himself. *I cannot kneel. So I have to keep standing.*
Slowly, painfully, he improved.
His club work became more precise. He learned to read enemy movements, to anticipate attacks, to position himself for maximum advantage. He learned when to fight and when to run. He learned that combat wasn't about strength—it was about survival.
[LEVEL UP!]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 3!]
A week passed.
[LEVEL UP!]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 4!]
Two weeks.
[LEVEL UP!]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 5!]
His stats were still terrible compared to his companions. But they were better than before. And more importantly, he was learning skills that couldn't be measured by numbers.
It was during the third week that he met the demon again.
Not the same demon from the temple—a different one. Smaller, weaker, but still terrifying. It appeared while they were hunting in the Eastern Forest, stepping out of the shadows like it had always been there.
"Well, well," it said, its voice like silk over broken glass. "What do we have here?"
[ALERT: CREATURE DETECTED]
[SPECIES: LESSER DEMON - SHADOW CLASS]
[THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE]
Sergeant Lee immediately summoned fire. "Stay back, demon!"
The demon laughed. "Relax, human. I'm not here to fight." Its red eyes scanned the group, stopping on Jinwoo. "I'm here to deliver a message."
"A message?" Yoon Sora asked warily. "From whom?"
"From my master. Lord Azaroth of the Burning Throne." The demon smiled, revealing rows of sharp teeth. "He has heard interesting rumors about a human who cannot kneel. He wishes to... meet this human."
Jinwoo's blood ran cold.
"Why?" he managed to ask.
"Because you are a curiosity, little human. A being who cannot submit. Lord Azaroth collects curiosities." The demon reached into the shadows and pulled out a scroll, sealed with black wax. "An invitation. To his domain. In three months' time."
It dropped the scroll at Jinwoo's feet.
"I suggest you accept," the demon continued. "Lord Azaroth is not known for his patience. Or his mercy."
And then it was gone, melting back into the shadows like it had never existed.
Jinwoo stared at the scroll.
"Don't touch it," Yoon Sora said quickly. "It could be cursed."
"What do I do?" Jinwoo asked. His voice was small, scared. "A demon lord wants to meet me. An actual demon lord. What am I supposed to do?"
Silence.
Then Kim Taewoo spoke.
"You get stronger," he said. "In three months, you get as strong as you possibly can. And then..."
"And then?"
"And then you figure out how to survive."
That night, Jinwoo couldn't sleep.
He lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the demon lord's invitation. Thinking about Kang Dohun's threats. Thinking about all the powerful beings in this world who seemed suddenly interested in him.
Why me? he thought. I'm nobody. I'm nothing. Why do they care about me?
The answer came to him slowly, painfully.
Because I can't kneel.
In a world where power meant everything, where demons and gods demanded submission, where the strong crushed the weak... he was an anomaly. A glitch. Something that shouldn't exist but did.
And anomalies attracted attention.
I didn't ask for this,he thought. I just wanted to survive. I just wanted to be left alone.
But that wasn't going to happen. He understood that now. The Silver Queen had warned him. The demon at the temple had warned him. And now a demon lord was summoning him.
He couldn't hide. He couldn't run. He couldn't escape.
The only option was to face it.
Three months, he thought. I have three months to become strong enough to survive a meeting with a demon lord.
It was impossible. He knew it was impossible. He was level five. He had terrible stats. He had no special abilities except a rule that made him unable to kneel.
But he had survived so far. Against all odds, against all logic, he had survived.
Maybe I can do the impossible, he thought. Maybe that's what I'm meant to do.
He closed his eyes.
Three months, he thought again. Starting tomorrow, everything changes.
And for the first time in weeks, Park Jinwoo slept peacefully.
[END OF CHAPTER 5]