Level Up With the Gods
Chapter 9

Yuwon trudged into the safety zone.

“W-what the…?”

“You can kill them?”

“Wait, then...”

People looked back and forth between Yuwon and the remains of the earth worms he had just slaughtered.

If they could be killed, it changed the deaths of everyone who had been stuck outside.

“Yuwon...!”

When he looked back to see who called out, he saw Myeonghoon Kim walking toward him from the crowd.

“Where did you go? I was worried when you disappeared.”

To think that he was greeting someone he had tried to beat up the day before like nothing had happened in front of all these people.

He had probably concluded it would be beneficial for him to boast about his friendship with Yuwon right now.

Rather than responding to Myeonghoon, Yuwon looked around.

Everyone’s fear and anticipation was obvious.

Yuwon’s gaze then shifted toward the number written on the transparent wall at the edge of the safety zone.

[1,427 / 1,500]

“All that food you have—did you get it from there?” Yuwon asked, pointing first at the food and then the closest convenience store, which was well outside the safety zone.

“We didn’t have a choice. We don’t know when we’ll run out of food, and tutorial no.3 and no.4 will be more dangerous.”

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

Barely three minutes remained for tutorial no.2 at this point, so the fight they had earlier must have been about if they could do it in the remaining time.

“Are they the supply team?”

Yuwon looked at a group of people with relatively small physiques who were huddled together.

“They were pushed outside.”

Those people who were in the orange safety zone had almost died.

They were the people who supplied food and made it back to the safety zone.

“Is that why you pushed them back outside? So that they could supply more food?”

“They would’ve been dead anyway.”

He was right.

But that didn’t give him the right to decide whether people who might’ve survived could live or die.

“Since they would’ve died anyway, you think they should risk their lives to bring you food?” Yuwon asked, maintaining steady eye contact with Myeonghoon. “That doesn’t sound right, does it?”

Myeonghoon flinched at the look Yuwon was giving him. It felt like he wasn’t the Yuwon he used to know.

Myeonghoon looked away, quietly avoided Yuwon’s eyes, and spotted the group that had been backing him a minute ago. He found his courage.

Myeonghoon looked straight into Yuwon’s eyes again. “Looks like you haven’t adapted yet.”

“What?”

“Do you still think this is a soft and gentle world like before? Do you think this is a world with laws and morals?”

Myeonghoon looked around.

People started to nod in agreement one by one, clearly happy to have justification for their own actions.

They had no choice since the world had changed.

In order to survive, others must be sacrificed.

That very belief is what threw a minority of people outside the safety zone.

“Yuwon, you need to be a coward to survive. Be selfish and put yourself first. I’m giving you advice as a human, rather than as your senior.”

“Adapt...?” Yuwon scoffed.

He hadn’t expected to hear such words from a child like Myeonghoon Kim.

[Tutorial no.2 has ended.]

[All participants in the safety zone will obtain 500 points.]

[You obtained an inventory bag.]

[In case of death, your inventory bag will disappear.]

A small cross-body bag fell above everyone’s heads. Yuwon continued to speak as he picked up the bag that fell on the ground.

“If this is your survival method, keep it up. I have no intention of interfering. But...”

[Tutorial no.3 will begin.]

“Do not cross the line, whatever it may be.”

It was a vague warning, but he didn't have time to explain what he meant.

Yuwon shifted his gaze away from Myeonghoon so he could pay attention to the description of the next tutorial.

[Hunt the monsters within the area to obtain 50 mana essence.]

[The gate will be activated after 70 hours.]

[Once time is up, the area will be destroyed.]

[Time Remaining: 72 : 00 : 00]

In the middle of the road where the safety zone was laid, a half-transparent gate appeared far ahead.

A number was written on it, clearly tracking the number of slain monsters and awarded mana.

[0 / 50]

The half-transparent color indicated that the gate was yet to be activated.

“Is that... the gate?”

It was quite a simple mission, and many seemed to realize that.

“This is like a game...”

Hunt monsters and collect items—this was a quest that people who had played any video games would’ve encountered.

It would, of course, be different doing it in real life.

“L-look!”

“Zombies? Aren’t those zombies?”

They saw a few zombies in the middle of the road. They were back after they had all disappeared after tutorial no.1.

But they weren’t alone.

This time, there were huge spiders and even a pig with spiky hair. An arm-sized centipede was also crawling on one side of a building.

“Ugh, ughhh...”

“The world is...”

This world had become a dungeon.

Someone looked down at the ground and shouted, “The safety zone’s still safe!”

“H-he’s right!”

Yuwon clicked his tongue.

The people cheering probably wouldn’t survive, especially since the objective in tutorial no.3 was to hunt. Without the fifty mana essence, they wouldn’t be able to move forward. They couldn’t just stay in the safety zone.

Yuwon got up and began moving.

“Yuwon!” Myeonghoon Kim called after Yuwon.

Yuwon looked back with one foot raised above the line of the safety zone and didn’t bother to hide his annoyance.

“How about doing it together? Wouldn’t you be better off with a team?”

Myeonghoon Kim reached out his hand to Yuwon.

This was the second time he had asked. The first time was at the beginning of tutorial no.2, and now in tutorial no.3.

Yuwon stared at his hand. “It hasn’t even been a day. Did you already forget?” he asked finally.

“What?” Myeonghoon looked confused for a moment, but eventually, he remembered and grimaced.

“If you want to survive so badly, stop trying to depend on someone else and lie low in the safety zone. Quietly.”

“Looks like you do remember.” Yuwon turned around and started walking out of the safety zone.

Myeonghoon gritted his teeth and stared at Yuwon walking away.

“That bastard... What’s with the bravado...?”

Yuwon had already been wandering around outside the safety zone during tutorial no.2.

Although there were a bunch of monsters outside, he would probably be safe alone.

We’re supposed to kill them and collect something called mana essence?

Myeonghoon looked around at the monsters. Unlike other tutorials, he couldn’t survive in this one just by running away. He would have to do the mission.

“Fifty...?” The provided bag was clearly meant to help collect the essence.

Myeonghoon briefly alternated his gaze between the bag and the monsters outside before he smiled suddenly as an idea came to him.

“Everyone heard it, right?” Myeonghoon put away his smile and looked around.

After the mission was explained, some of the people seemed to be afraid to fight the monsters, while others seemed determined to fight.

“You probably all know what we need to do to survive from now on.” Myeonghoon pulled out his knife. “Good luck, everyone!”

***

Yuwon watched as Myeonghoon started gathering people again.

He keeps trying to stir up people.

But the way that the world had suddenly changed was enough to drive people mad.

People were bound to become cruel and selfish. Perhaps Myeonghoon’s change wasn’t too special.

His change is rather natural.

Yuwon didn’t intend to get in fights with people like Myeonghoon all the time. There were many options to survive, and he couldn’t interfere just because someone chose poorly.

I mean...

Yuwon walked down into the subway station.

I won’t see him once tutorial no.3 is over anyway.

Yuwon opened his backpack and held it upside down. The marbles dropped from the backpack into the inventory bag.

He estimated that there were at least a hundred of them, which was quickly confirmed when he found the counter that was connected to his new inventory bag.

[Mana Essence]

[132 / 50]

Yuwon threw away his backpack on the floor and put the inventory bag on his waist.

I was lucky to obtain mana essence from the earth worms during tutorial no.2.

Mana essence was an item required to pass tutorial no. 3.

Yuwon hunted fast.

The number of essences he’d obtained had already exceeded the requirement to pass this tutorial.

He could move on to tutorial no. 4 even if he stopped hunting now.

“But… I might be able to collect a thousand of them.”

Since tutorial no. 3 started, the subway station had turned into another form of dungeon.

In addition to the worms, there were also zombies, moss spiders, and ground snakes.

As he’d expected, the subway station was the biggest dungeon in the Hongdae area.

“There are a lot of them.”

“...Here we go again,” Yuwon murmured, looking at the monsters quickly gathering around him like a welcoming party.

Yuwon raised his hand. The mana in the environment began mixing with Yuwon’s mana and gathering above his palm.

He had thirty mana points and a proficiency for Lord of Mana at 0.5 percent. It wasn’t much of an increase compared to his stats when he first tried, but it seemed to be enough to help the ball of mana stabilize.

After concentrating for a while...

[You completed Mana Bomb.]

[Mana Bomb is registered as a skill.]

A perfectly shaped mana bomb was formed above Yuwon's hand.