Chapter 2: Tutorial 1

Hansoo's five senses, which had been frozen from the light, quickly started to recover.

'It succeeded, but is my head supposed to hurt this much?'

He knew.

He instinctively knew that he had really returned to the past.

Hansoo shook off his headache and checked his surroundings.

'What time have I come back to?'

He needed to know exactly when in the past he had come back to.

If he had come back too late, then the whole thing would be pointless.

Through his five senses, Hansoo realized that a chaotic situation was occurring.

"Goddammit! What is this? Is there a hidden camera?"

A hundred or so people were standing around and shouting frantically.

The surroundings resembled Gangnam train station, but it currently looked very different.

The Hyundae building was still standing high, but all the glass had shattered, and there were weird vines and trees growing everywhere.

The scene looked like a time 10 years after nuclear warfare.

It wasn't surprising that people fell into panic.

Some were even fighting with each other out of distress.

It was a really messed up situation.

From this, Hansoo knew exactly to what time he had come back.

'It's the first moment after we transported to the other dimension.'

The year of his birth had been rather peculiar.

That year, people started getting abducted from all over the world.

At first it was 100 at a time, and then the number continued to increase over time.

The year he turned 20, he also went missing in the real world.

Only then did Hansoo know where the missing people had gone.

<Otherworld>

A mid-way area that was created as the Abyss devoured the other dimension.

The terrain and buildings were like reality, but the contents of the world weren't.

This place had many beasts that roamed around due to the influence of the Abyss, and there were people with powers who had come here before them that roamed around.

5 years later, all the people from the real dimension would be transported to the Otherworld, and after that, the passage that linked the Otherworld and the Abyss would open, igniting the Great War between them and the inhabitants of the Abyss.

Basically, the 25 years before that were like a tutorial.

It was something that the people of the real world had to go through before entering the Abyss.

From a certain angle it looked like benevolence, but to Hansoo, it didn't seem that kindhearted.

It seemed like time had been given only because it would be boring if they died too easily.

'Whatever, it's good that I've returned to the beginning.'

He had earned 5 years of time before the Abyss had opened.

If it was at the moment it opened, he would've been in trouble and wouldn't have been able to do anything, but this was a very good situation.

Hansoo started checking his body's condition after he understood the current situation.

Because no one could move before a fairy came out and started the basic tutorial, it was good to have a warmup before then.

'As I expected.'

Tabula Rasa.

All the skills that he knew and the runes he filled his body with were all gone.

'Well, I can collect them all. Anyways, it should be here now.'

As Hansoo finished his thoughts, something fell from the sky.

'It's here.'

Hansoo stared at the creature that appeared.

The palm-sized fairy looked around at the surrounding people and said, in a sweet voice,

"Hello, everyone. I'm a helper, and I'm here to help you get off to a quick start.

'Tsk.'

Hansoo, who clearly knew what that satanic midget's 'quick start' meant, inwardly clicked his tongue.

'I see... it wants to see us fight already.'

As the fairy appeared and a weird aura spread over the people, the seemingly uncontrollable situation slowly died down.

The fairy was a very eye-catching existence, even in this abnormal place.

The smiling fairy looked around as the surroundings quieted down and opened its mouth.

"Firstly, I would like to welcome you all to the Otherworld. You've now all been granted a wonderful chance."

"Wait. Wait. What do you mean? What's the Otherworld?"

The fairy stared at the questioning man for a while, then ignored the man as it continued its story.

"In this place, you are all granted infinite freedom. No matter what you do here, nobody will punish you. All the rules you're used to following do not exist here."

"..."

"And that's not all. We can't call that a chance by itself. All you no longer have any of the physical limits of the past."

"What...?"

"You all can now become infinitely strong depending on what you do, like heroes from a movie."

As the fairy looked at the confused people, its smile didn't disappear as it opened its mouth again.

"I will show you a quick demonstration, since I came to hasten the progress."

The fairy pointed its finger at the man who had shouted out first.

From the feeble and delicate finger, a light beam shot out and penetrated directly through the man's heart.

Puuuk

"Ku...Kuuuk."

"I don't like people who talk a lot."

At that moment, everyone realized that the new environment was not entirely favorable towards them.

"uuuuhp... uhphup."

"Very good. Shall we continue?"

Then, the fairy flew towards the man's corpse.

Something weird happened.

Above the man's body, a translucent and shining symbol the size of a hand appeared.

The fairy grabbed the symbol and spoke.

"This is a <Rune>. Every living organism contains a rune, and if you kill it, the rune will come out like this. However, what comes out will be random."

The fairy, who disregarded the terrifying meaning of its words, casually looked around as it continued its speech.

"Let's see. This improves the strength of one's muscles. Who... should I give this to?"

Everyone hesitated.

If they acted out, they might get caught in the same situation as the corpse.

At that point, Hansoo raised his hand.

How much he liked the fairy was secondary.

One rune helped a tremendous amount in the beginning.

Plus, there was no risk involved.

There was no reason to not raise his hand.

The fairy looked at Hansoo and gave a content look.

"Very good. I like your determination. Put this on the top of your hand."

The rune was absorbed into his body.

From the outside, there was not much difference.

But the fairy looked at Hansoo with a smile.

"Isn't it amazing? These runes break the physical laws. Your muscles were only able to lift 117.1kg before, but it has been increased to 122.3kg."

"..."

As Hansoo gave a nonchalant face, the fairy felt a bit awkward and turned around to continue talking.

"The reaction was pretty bland. Anyways, there are a lot of different abilities one can raise, and there are a lot of runes to follow that. In those, there are special abilities that the science you played around with before cannot explain. Let's see... it'd be nice to show something one more time."

The fairy looked around.

Everyone got frightened and shriveled up from the fairy's expression of hunting for prey.

That expression was too accurate.

It wanted to kill another person as an experiment to get another rune.

The fairy shrugged its shoulders as it looked around.

"Let's stop. I like the number 100. Anyways, keep that in mind. There is nothing bad about any rune that raises any characteristic. If you want to be strong from now on, you need to collect a lot of runes. Your muscles won't improve no matter how many pushups you do."

At those words, everyone started to look around and slowly backed up.

If they were killed, a rune would come out and would strengthen someone else.

They could all imagine what would happen in the worst situation.

The fairy enjoyed the weird atmosphere as it smiled contently and opened its mouth.

"If you touch your right ear, you can see which runes you have. Humans seemed to like things in numbers, so we implemented this 15 years ago. You just need to know that the average human's stat is 10."

At these words, everyone started touching their ears.

[Kang Hansoo]

Strength: 11

Stamina: 9

'Strength was increased by 1.'

A simple and crappy configuration.

But everyone was like this at first.

It would be weird if normal people had mana.

As one hunted and collected runes, their mana, magic, physical defense and magic resistance would be added.

It didn't matter if the hunted were humans or beasts.

"Hmm... he would probably be around 17."

Hansoo mumbled, as he saw a muscular man in the distance.

A well-trained body.

At this point, he's a high ranker among these people.

11 and 17 were only different by about 1.5 times, but it was not that simple.

However, he would be in a superior situation in the beginning with that much strength.

It'd be a lot for a woman to have a 3 or 4.

The fairy smiled and spoke as it looked at the commotion.

"The starting line may be unfair... but where you used to live was like that too, right? Well, I will give you all a bonus, so don't be sad."

The fairy touched its butt as it spoke.

Everyone started touching their butts without thinking.

Something was there.

They saw what came out of their pockets, and their faces turned white.

A sharp dagger, which hadn't existed before they arrived, came out of each person's pocket.

Normally, this would have been very reassuring, but the thought of becoming prey for items and the fact that the person next to them also had a dagger was not pleasant at all

The fairy laughed as it watched,

"You'll at least need those to do something. Forget about the past and take the chance that was given to you. The tutorial I created will begin now, so good luck."

The fairy disappeared into a hole that had suddenly appeared.

As the fairy disappeared, people started to mumble.

"...A tutorial?"

Everybody was still tense from the words of a murderous being when a sound started from somewhere.

As everybody was on alert, they looked towards the origin of the noise.

Kyaaak!

Tiny green monsters with deformed looks appeared.

"...Goblins?"

As everyone recognized them from the movies, their faces twisted with fear.

The fairy had appeared and told them something.

It was a tutorial.

It seemed simple, but the words of the fairy could not be so simple.

There were more than 200 goblins

Although there were 100 people and the goblins were only half their size, it was impossible to stand still with a calm mind.

However, it seemed like the goblins had the same thoughts, as they only stared back at them fiercely but didn't approach them.

In this tense situation, somebody quietly spoke from the back.

"Don't irritate them, and slowly move backwards."

Everyone nodded at those words.

They all silently came to a consensus.

They saw it in the news.

No matter what you could do, always run away if the opponents had sharp objects in their hands.

They also had daggers, but who would want to fight sword to sword with those things?

However, Hansoo shook his head.

Those things were really evil-minded. How could they just throw in a few midgets and call it a tutorial?

"...Huh?"

As they walked back slowly, somebody stopped and moaned.

Somebody got frustrated and spoke out.

"What are you doing? Keep moving. We need to get away."

The man replied to those words.

"No... this is weird. Something is here. In mid-air."

"What?"

People started hurrying backwards at those words.

And then they shouted in frustration.

"Fuck! What is this? It's blocked!"

"Here too!"

People started hitting the wall as they shouted.

At that point, somebody pointed something out.

"Hey... this thing is slowly moving towards us."

"...What?"

People started leaning against the wall.

They all frowned.

The wall was slowly pushing them back.

Kiiiiiiik!

As they heard the cries from far away, they looked in that direction.

At that location, the goblins were also getting pushed towards them.

As the invisible wall kept pushing them, they grew frustrated and started hacking away at the void, but nothing happened.

Kaaaaaak!

"Fuck..."

As they saw the goblins staring at them, the people gripped their daggers more tightly.

At this point, they had to fight no matter what.

At that moment, somebody fell to the other side.

"Huh? What? How did you get there?"

"Uh... I don't know. It just happened to be over here?"

One person got through the clear wall.

And in the air where the man passed through, a number came up.

<49>

"...49?"

As people mumbled, somebody looked around and quickly ran towards that location.

The number changed.

<48>

At that point, everyone had realized the truth.

50 people could leave.

The remaining 50 had to fight with those things.

Suddenly, everyone started running towards the tiny gap.

"Get out of the fucking way!"

"I will go out!"

"Kyaaa!"

Hansoo shook his head at this scene.

If 100 people fought seriously, they could probably win.

Most might die, but at least 20 would survive.

But if this happened, the story changes.

In reality, as the goblins saw the people fighting with each other, their eyes shone and they started running towards the people.

When Hansoo had first come here, 40 of them had died to the goblins.

'First, clear up the situation. Then, move to the next stage.'

There were too many things to do.

As he made his decision, his whole body started wriggling around as his muscles tensed up.