The system didn't wait long to punish me.
I'd been walking off-path for maybe ten minutes when the notification appeared, different from the others. Red border instead of blue, pulsing with urgency.
---
[EMERGENCY QUEST ASSIGNED]
[Quest: Lost in the Woods]
You have strayed from the recommended path and become lost. Find your way back to civilization before nightfall.
Objective: Reach any settlement (0/1)
Time Limit: 4 hours, 15 minutes
Reward: 200 EXP, [Traveler's Boots]
Failure: Exposure, hypothermia, death
[This quest cannot be abandoned]
---
I stopped walking and stared at the notification.
"Cannot be abandoned," I read aloud. "Cute."
This wasn't a quest. This was a course correction. The system had detected my deviation and was now forcing me back on track with the threat of death.
Except I wasn't actually lost. My minimap still worked. I could see the general direction of the cabin, and presumably the village was somewhere to the east. I had a waterskin, dried meat, and four hours of daylight left.
The system was lying.
Or more accurately, it was creating a narrative to justify railroading me back to the intended path.
I looked around the forest. Nothing had changed physically—same trees, same grass, same too-perfect lighting. But now the system had declared this area "dangerous" simply because I wasn't supposed to be here.
"Okay," I said. "Let's see what you've got."
I kept walking deeper into the woods.
For about thirty seconds, nothing happened.
Then the temperature dropped.
Not gradually—instantly. One moment it was a pleasant spring afternoon, the next my breath was misting in the air and frost was forming on the leaves around me.
---
[Environmental Hazard: Unnatural Cold]
[HP drain: -2 per minute]
[Status Effect: Chilled - Movement Speed -20%]
---
"Oh, come on," I muttered, watching my HP tick down. "That's not even subtle."
The system was literally changing the weather to force me back. This wasn't game design—this was active intervention.
I pulled up my status. 118/120 HP and dropping. At this rate, I had about an hour before the cold killed me.
Unless I went back to the village.
Unless I played along.
I clenched my fists and kept walking.
The cold intensified. My fingers went numb. The HP drain increased to -3 per minute. The system really wanted me to turn around.
Then I heard the howl.
It came from behind me, distant but getting closer. Deep and resonant, nothing like the wolves from before.
I turned slowly.
Through the trees, I could see movement. Something big. Something that definitely hadn't been there five minutes ago.
---
[WARNING: Boss Enemy Detected]
[Frost Dire Wolf - Level 15]
[Recommended Action: FLEE]
---
Level fifteen.
I was level two.
The system had literally spawned a boss monster to kill me for going off-script.
"Wow," I said, genuinely impressed by the audacity. "You really don't want me here, do you?"
The Frost Dire Wolf emerged from the tree line. It was massive—easily twice the size of the dire wolf from the tutorial fight—with fur that seemed to shimmer with ice crystals. Its eyes glowed blue, and its breath created clouds of freezing mist.
It looked directly at me.
And it smiled.
Not a wolf expression. A human expression. Like it knew exactly what it was doing.
Like it was as much a prop as the trees.
---
[EMERGENCY QUEST UPDATE]
[Quest: Lost in the Woods]
New Objective: Survive the Frost Dire Wolf (0/1)
OR
Objective: Flee to safety (Recommended)
---
Two options. Fight an enemy thirteen levels higher than me and die, or run back to the village like a good little protagonist.
The wolf began stalking toward me, slow and deliberate. Giving me time to make the "right" choice.
I pulled out my iron dagger.
The wolf stopped, head tilting. Almost like it was confused.
"Yeah," I said. "I know this is stupid. I know I'm supposed to run. But here's the thing—if you're just a script, a punishment for not following the path, then you're not actually trying to kill me. You're trying to scare me."
I took a step forward.
"So let's test that theory."
The wolf's eyes narrowed. Then it lunged.
The attack was blindingly fast—faster than anything I could react to. I tried to dodge, but the wolf's claws raked across my chest before I could move.
---
[Critical Hit!]
[You have taken 78 damage]
[HP: 40/120]
[Status Effect: Bleeding - HP drain -5 per minute]
---
I hit the ground hard, pain exploding through my torso. Blood soaked through my shirt—real blood, real pain. The wolf loomed over me, frost gathering around its jaws.
This wasn't a script.
This was real.
I was going to die.
Again.
The wolf's mouth opened, revealing teeth like daggers. Its breath washed over me, so cold it burned.
Then it stopped.
Froze mid-attack, jaws inches from my throat.
---
[SYSTEM INTERVENTION]
[Player Death Imminent]
[Emergency Tutorial Assistance Activated]
---
The wolf stepped back, and I watched in disbelief as my HP bar started refilling. Not from a potion or skill—just refilling, like someone had decided I'd been punished enough.
---
[HP Restored: 40/120 → 90/120]
[Bleeding Status Removed]
[Temporary Buff Applied: Guardian's Protection]
Effect: Damage reduced by 90% for 30 seconds
---
The wolf sat down.
Sat. Down.
Like a dog waiting for a command.
I pushed myself up on my elbows, staring at the creature. "Are you serious right now?"
The wolf just watched me with those too-intelligent eyes.
The system had literally stopped the fight mid-attack because I was about to die. Not because it cared about me—because I was the protagonist, and the protagonist dying in chapter four to a punishment encounter would be bad storytelling.
I started laughing. Couldn't help it. The absurdity of it all just hit me at once.
"You can't even let me die wrong," I said between laughs. "You need me to die at the right time, in the right way, for the right audience."
The wolf tilted its head again.
"This whole thing is a performance," I continued, getting to my feet. My chest still ached where the claws had hit, but the wounds had sealed themselves. "And you can't have the main character die in act one. That's bad dramatic structure."
I walked toward the wolf. It watched me approach but didn't move.
"So here's what's going to happen," I said, stopping a few feet away. "I'm going to keep walking in this direction. And you're going to let me. Because killing me now would break the story."
The wolf's eyes flickered—not physically, but I swear I saw the light in them glitch, like a video artifact.
Then a new notification appeared.
---
[ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE]
[Quest "Lost in the Woods" CANCELLED]
[Frost Dire Wolf DESPAWNED]
[Player Directive: Continue Tutorial]
---
The wolf dissolved into light particles, exactly like the forest wolves had. One moment a massive boss monster, the next just sparkles in the air.
I stood there in the suddenly warm forest—the unnatural cold had vanished with the wolf—and realized what had just happened.
An Administrator had intervened directly.
Someone watching the show had decided this encounter wasn't working and had literally deleted it.
A new quest notification popped up.
---
[QUEST ASSIGNED]
[Quest: The Road to Brighthollow]
You've had enough wandering. Time to reach civilization and begin your journey properly.
Objective: Reach Brighthollow Village (0/1)
Reward: 300 EXP, Introduction to Guild System
Note: The tutorial area will become increasingly hostile until this quest is completed.
---
There it was. The velvet glove removed, showing the iron fist underneath.
Do what we want, or we'll make your life hell.
I pulled up my status screen and checked something I'd been curious about.
---
[STATUS]
Name: Kim Jinhyuk
Level: 2
[SYSTEM FLAGS]
- Anomalous Behavior: Active
- Administrator Watch: Active
- Deviation Counter: 3/10
- Tutorial Completion: 15%
---
Deviation Counter. Three out of ten.
So I had seven more "wrong" choices before... what? Permanent death? Deletion? Being written out of the story?
The system was keeping score.
And it was warning me that I was running out of chances to comply.
I thought about Rika, walking to the village alone, probably waiting for me at the Guild. I thought about the cabin, the perfectly stocked supplies, the convenient shelter. I thought about every tutorial I'd ever played, every story I'd ever read where the protagonist followed the breadcrumbs to their destiny.
I thought about my death on Earth, slumped at a desk, forgotten and alone.
Then I thought about Player_0847 and Player_1203, sitting somewhere beyond this world, betting on my choices like I was a horse race.
I started walking.
Not toward the village.
Perpendicular to it.
---
[WARNING: Deviation Detected]
[Deviation Counter: 4/10]
[Tutorial Hostility: Increasing]
---
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered. "I can read."
The forest around me began to change. The lighting dimmed, shadows lengthening despite the sun's position. The birdsong stopped. In the distance, I heard growls.
The system was spawning more monsters.
Good.
Let it waste resources on me. Let the Administrators scramble to figure out what I was doing. Let them rewrite their scripts and adjust their bets.
I was done being a good protagonist.
My minimap pinged. A red dot had appeared at the edge of my range, moving toward me. Then another. Then three more.
Five enemies, converging on my position.
I checked my HP: 90/120. My MP: 140/140. My skills: Desperate Strike (which only worked when I was low HP) and Identify (which was useless in combat).
I had an iron dagger and absolutely no business fighting five monsters at once.
I grinned.
"Alright," I said, drawing the dagger. "Let's see how much you're willing to break your own rules to keep me on track."
The first monster emerged from the trees—a forest wolf, level 4. Then two more, level 3 and 5. Then something new: a [Corrupted Slime - Level 6], its body pulsing with dark energy.
And finally, trailing behind them all, something that made my blood run cold.
---
[Shade Stalker - Level 8]
Type: Undead
Status: Hunting
Special: Ignores 50% of armor
---
An undead. In a beginner zone.
The system was really pulling out all the stops.
The monsters formed a loose circle around me, not attacking yet. Waiting. Like they were giving me one last chance to run.
"Here's the thing you don't understand," I said to them, to the system, to whatever Administrators were watching. "I already died once. I've already lost everything. You think threatening me with death is going to work?"
I raised my dagger.
"I've got nothing to lose and an entire game to break."
The Shade Stalker hissed, and the wolves charged.
And I realized, with a kind of fatalistic certainty, that I was absolutely going to die here.
But at least it would be my choice.
The first wolf lunged for my throat. I dodged left—barely—and its jaws snapped shut on empty air. The slime launched a globule of acid that I rolled under, feeling it sizzle against a tree behind me.
The second wolf came from my blind spot. I spun, slashing wildly, and got lucky—the dagger caught it across the snout. It yelped and backed off.
---
[You have dealt 12 damage to Forest Wolf]
---
Twelve damage. The wolf had at least 80 HP.
I was so screwed.
The third wolf tackled me from behind. I went down hard, the dagger flying from my hand. Teeth sank into my shoulder.
---
[You have taken 34 damage]
[HP: 56/120]
---
I screamed and drove my elbow into the wolf's eye socket. It released me with a yelp. I scrambled for the dagger, fingers closing around the hilt just as the slime oozed toward me.
The Shade Stalker hadn't moved yet. It just watched, like it was waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Probably was. Dramatic timing and all that.
My HP was dropping into the yellow zone. One more good hit and I'd be dead.
And then what? Would the system save me again? Or would it let me die this time, make an example out of me for the other players—if there even were other players?
The wolves circled, preparing for another coordinated attack.
I struggled to my feet, dagger raised in shaking hands.
"Come on then," I said. "Let's get this over with."
That's when I heard the voice.
"[Wind Blade]!"
A crescent of compressed air sliced through the clearing, hitting two of the wolves and sending them tumbling. They dissolved into light particles before they hit the ground.
I spun around.
Rika stood at the edge of the clearing, sword drawn, eyes fierce.
"I told you the forest was dangerous," she said. Then she charged.