Chapter 23: Life is a Trait Away

Chapter 23

“Phew….”

Kim Jinsung let out a weary sigh.

Outwardly, there seemed to be no problem. He hadn’t been hit even once by the flailing Ogre.

The only issue was his severe lack of mana.

He had used the ‘One-Hit Kill’ skill nearly twenty times up to now.

Considering his maximum MP was just over 500, it was like wringing out a dry towel – he had pushed himself to the limit.

‘If it weren’t for the ‘Indomitable Will’ skill, I wouldn’t have made it this far.’

Indomitable Will, a trait he acquired after killing his peer Park Sungtae at the Fight Club.

Without this skill, which increased all recovery speeds by 50% for 10 minutes, and thus significantly sped up his mana recovery…

Kuwooooaah!

…he wouldn’t have been able to inflict such a deep wound on the chest of the Twin-Headed Ogre.

‘It’s almost over. I’ve scraped away the thick outer skin…’

Looking closely at the Ogre’s chest, the thick outer skin was gone, revealing the red inner flesh.

Thud.

Kim Jinsung threw a broken chair leg towards the Ogre’s right side.

The blind Ogre immediately reacted to the sound, swinging its fists wildly in that direction.

Kim Jinsung took advantage of this distraction to land another blow on the Ogre’s wounded area.

Slash!

‘Good!’

Kim Jinsung inwardly rejoiced at the sound of the deep cut.

The Ogre’s inner flesh was indeed weaker. Even without using the One-Hit Kill, his blade cut quite deeply with a single slash.

Kuwooooaah!

The Ogre flailed its fists around in pain once more.

But Kim Jinsung had already retreated to a safe distance, waiting for another opportunity.

His gaze naturally returned to the wound,

‘Is that the heart?’

Kim Jinsung clearly saw something red moving at regular intervals within the wound.

‘Then I must use the One-Hit Kill I’ve been saving.’

Kim Jinsung checked his current mana.

48.

With this amount, he could use One-Hit Kill again in a few seconds.

‘I hope this ends it.’

Kim Jinsung slowly moved sideways, looking for another opening.

Kuwooooaah!

Boom! Crash!

The Ogre continued to pound its massive fists wherever it heard a sound.

A normal animal would have fled by now, or at least tried to cover its wound with a hand, but the Ogre in front of him did none of that.

‘Monsters really are different from regular animals.’

Even facing death, it seemed driven to kill the human before it, relentlessly aggressive, which is why monsters are such objects of fear to humans.

‘But thanks to that, I’ve made it this far…’

In this situation, where he was at a disadvantage in every aspect, if the Ogre had tried to protect its vulnerability, Kim Jinsung would have had no hope.

However, the Ogre kept exposing its weakness, leading to the current situation.

‘Haah!’

Kim Jinsung leaped into the air, focusing all his strength into the grip of his sword.

His decisive strike, empowered by the One-Hit Kill skill, struck right at the Ogre’s heart.

Thud!

Kuwaah~!

The Ogre’s reaction was more pained than ever before.

Clearly, its behavior had changed. It stopped swinging its fists and began to slow down.

This was the typical behavior of a creature on the verge of death.

Having seen over a hundred boys die, Kim Jinsung was certain.

‘I did it!’

The Ogre, now weakly staggering, finally knelt on both knees and slowly fell forward.

After a while, a notification window finally appeared before Kim Jinsung.

You have defeated a monster.

・You have gained 50 points of Beast Karma .

You have acquired the trait ‘Mutated Ogre’s Strength’ from the defeated monster.

→ Mutated Ogre’s Strength: Permanently increases strength by 75.

‘Your strength has increased by 75 due to the trait Mutated Ogre’s Strength.’

→ You can acquire the trait ‘Mutated Ogre’s Tough Skin’ from the defeated monster.

→ Mutated Ogre’s Tough Skin: Permanently increases skin defense by 30.

‘Your skin defense has increased by 30 due to the trait Mutated Ogre’s Tough Skin.’

“Muwaaah!”

Kim Jinsung couldn’t help but let out a cheer, his eyes wide with excitement.

The hard-fought battle had been worth it.

Meanwhile, the Colosseum Broadcasting Station was in an uproar.

[The Ogre has fallen! Kim Jinsung has defeated the Ogre! It’s a sight I can hardly believe even with my own eyes.]

[Hehehe… That’s truly amazing. Kim Jinsung, this is like David defeating Goliath.]

The commentators, as well as the chat, were filled with cheers.

– Wow!

– He really caught the Ogre, amazing lololol

– Kim Jinsung! Kim Jinsung! Kim Jinsung! Kim Jinsung!

– From today, Kim Jinsung is my top pick

– Wow, a major dark horse has appeared lololol

– Not just catching it, but he really dramatically took it down lololol

– Even the control room was filled with cheers.

“Wow!”

“He really caught it!”

“Just cutting this battle and uploading it to YouTube would be a hit!”

“I see at least 3 million views.”

After a tense battle that kept viewers on the edge of their seats for nearly 20 minutes, an 18-year-old boy finally brought down the Ogre!

For the program’s producers, this was the best possible outcome.

“Now that I see him, he’s quite handsome, isn’t he? Good proportions too.”

“If he survives, he’ll have a cloud of female fans following him.”

“If he makes it past the preliminaries, he could be the biggest star of this season, right?”

The PDs and writers were making such comments with bright expressions.

Baek Jun and the vice president, Jang Seungwook, watching from behind, also had bright expressions.

“Director’s intuition was right. I thought it would be tough…”

Jang Seungwook’s comment made Baek Jun chuckle. His eyes were firmly fixed on Kim Jinsung on the monitor.

Currently, Kim Jinsung was checking his own stats that appeared before his eyes.

Name: Kim Jinsung

HP: 750/750

MP: 7/580

Strength: 158

Intelligence: 58

Stamina: 75

Agility: 77

Skin Defense: 35

Owned Skills: Indomitable Will, Entangle, One-Hit Kill

Beast Karma Points: 114

“Wow, this is crazy.”

Kim Jinsung’s gaze was fixed on the strength stat in the ability window.

His strength had more than doubled just by defeating one monster!

“With this much strength, I could even take on that two-headed guy in a strength contest.”

Kim Jinsung felt a surge of confidence, eager to test his newfound strength right away.

But he didn’t get carried away.

“First, I’m out of mana, so I should avoid fighting for a while. I’ll meet plenty of monsters on my way to the mountain summit anyway.”

‘Monster’ is one of the key words representing the Colosseum Survival program.

Throughout its 11 seasons, there hasn’t been a single season without the appearance of monsters in the preliminaries, revival rounds, main competition, and so on.

Once, the island used for the preliminaries was filled with nothing but monsters, which Kim Jinsung remembers as Season 8.

‘I should check once more if I’ve left anything behind…’

Thinking this, Kim Jinsung went back inside the house.

After looking around the completely destroyed building once more, he came out with the backpack he had dropped on the second floor.

“Let’s go!”

He started walking straight towards the direction of the mountain summit.

The forest path leading to the mountain summit was extremely rough.

First of all, there were way too many monsters.

The most common were medium-sized monsters that moved in packs, like Ghouls, Dark Wolves, and Orcs.

But these were no problem at all.

Swoosh!

With a single swing of his sword, at least three of them were cut in half and rolled on the ground.

And that was without even using mana.

Indeed, Kim Jinsung, having acquired the ‘Mutated Ogre’s Strength’ trait, had become incomparably stronger than before.

Even then…

Kuwooooaah!

Even when he encountered the same Twin-Headed Ogre, there was no problem.

Once, he tried blocking the swinging fist with his long sword without dodging,

Clang!

‘Huh?’

He blocked it easily without feeling much resistance.

Gaining confidence, Kim Jinsung also counterattacked without using the ‘One-Hit Kill’ skill.

But then,

Slash!

He inflicted a wound so deep that blood gushed out.

‘Isn’t this too much of a difference?’

Thus, without using the One-Hit Kill skill, Kim Jinsung was able to defeat the Twin-Headed Ogre.

It took him just 1 minute to behead it.

‘Did it really take me 20 minutes to beat one before?’

Kim Jinsung felt a sense of anticlimax, and at the same time, he realized once again.

My awakening ability is really overpowered.

Then a familiar notification window popped up before his eyes.

You have defeated a monster.

You have gained 50 Beast Karma points.

You have already acquired the trait ‘Mutated Ogre’s Strength’ from the defeated monster.

‘Tch. Can’t get the same trait twice.’

He had hoped otherwise when similar notifications appeared as he defeated other monsters on his way here, but now it was clear.

Once acquired, a trait cannot be obtained again.

‘It’s a bit disappointing.’

If it were possible to acquire the same trait multiple times, by the time he passed the first round of the preliminaries, he might have become a monster with strength comparable to an S-class hunter.

‘But at least I can keep getting Beast Karma points.’

His combat power was mostly due to the skill ‘Magi,’ and ‘Recovery,’ which was always useful in moments of crisis.

For those two skills, it was better to collect as many Beast Karma points as possible.

‘I’ll have to keep defeating any monsters I see.’

With that resolve, Kim Jinsung continued on his way, a complete 180 from other participants who avoided monsters.

Thus, Kim Jinsung easily defeated large monsters as he moved.

But the forest wasn’t just filled with easily visible bipedal monsters. Otherwise, the forest path wouldn’t have been described as treacherous.

And then,

‘No way, another plant?’

Getting his feet caught by roots that sprouted from the ground was nothing compared to what came next.

Kyaaaah!

“Ugh! Was that tree actually a monster?”

He had a close call with a monster disguised as a tree that nearly made his heart drop.

The stream he found midway was also filled with dangers.

‘Wow, look at those fish teeth…’

Giant fish monsters, at least 2 meters long, swimming around.

Looking at their sharp fangs, he felt that a single mistake and falling in would leave him boneless in less than a minute.

‘But I still need to collect water.’

Kim Jinsung took out a water bottle from his backpack and dipped it into the stream with his left hand.

At the same time, he used his long sword in his right hand to slice up the approaching fish.

Initially, he was prepared to kill them all, but after catching a few, he realized it wasn’t necessary.

‘These creatures are eating their own dead.’

The fish were so busy devouring their own kind killed by Kim Jinsung that they didn’t even pay attention to him until he had collected all the water he needed.

After drinking the cool stream water, Kim Jinsung resumed his journey.

‘With this level of difficulty, I should be able to reach the mountain ridge without any trouble, right?’

While the entire forest was indeed treacherous, he hadn’t felt life-threatening danger since his first encounter with the Twin-Headed Ogre.

‘I’ve become stronger by defeating many monsters…’

To Kim Jinsung, monsters were nothing more than sources of traits and Beast Karma points.

In fact, all his physical stats had increased by at least 20 points while coming this far.

He had also accumulated over 300 Beast Karma points.

It was a bit disappointing that he hadn’t encountered any other monsters with skills besides the vine plant, but it was just a minor regret.

‘Now that I’ve got water, and I’ve got a sleeping bag from the two-story house at the beginning…’

Gurgle~.

His empty stomach immediately answered what he was lacking.

There was no food.