Chapter 25: Survival Comes After a Meal (2)

Chapter 25

“Ugh.”

Kim Jinsung grimaced as he felt something sharp pierce the back of his neck.

However, he also realized that it wasn’t a fatal wound.

Had it been a little deeper, it could have been the end of him.

Nonetheless, Kim Jinsung’s body immediately responded.

‘Activating the skill One-Hit Kill.’

He swung his long sword from his waist behind him as if performing a drawing sword technique.

Slash!

“I got it!”

He was sure he heard the sound of flesh being cut, but that was all.

There was no one behind him when he looked, and the same was true all around.

The fact that he couldn’t smell any blood from the cut indicated that there was no one nearby.

‘Where did they run off to? …Ugh.’

While remaining on guard, Kim Jinsung felt the pain from the wound and touched it with his hand.

There was a deep cut on the back of his neck, deep enough to make an indentation. His hand was quickly covered in blood from the wound.

“Ugh… That was really close.”

A sense of relief washed over him, but another thought came to mind.

‘If I hadn’t gained that trait from the Ogre, I might be dead…’

The ‘Tough Skin of the Mutated Ogre’ trait he had obtained from killing the Twin-Headed Ogre at dawn.

If his skin defense hadn’t increased by 30, he would have been killed instantly by the surprise attack.

‘Indeed, it was the right choice to go through the trouble of defeating it back then.’

Praising his earlier decision, Kim Jinsung used the ‘Recovery’ skill to heal his wound.

‘Activating the user’s unique trait ‘Recovery’ using Beast Karma points.’

HP has been restored to 100%.

▶▶ Current remaining Beast Karma points: 245

‘I’ve used up more precious Beast Karma points.’

It was regrettable, but these points were saved for such emergencies.

After all, points can be accumulated by hunting monsters. And this forest is a veritable monster paradise, with more monsters than trees.

‘Still, I should hunt as far away from here as possible. I could be ambushed again around here…’

The attacker could still be hiding nearby. And since he hadn’t even seen the attacker’s face, he had to be extremely cautious.

‘But how did they approach without a trace? I didn’t sense anything…’

Kim Jinsung hadn’t climbed up this high branch for no reason.

He had chosen a place where he could easily notice if enemies were approaching.

But he hadn’t seen anyone approaching, nor had he felt the slightest rustle of leaves or any presence.

‘Truly, the Colosseum is full of monsters. I need to be more careful from now on.’

With a firm resolve, he put on his backpack and reached for the bag he had placed on the branch.

At the same time, he froze.

“Where’s the bag?”

The plastic bag had vanished without a trace. He looked down to see if it had fallen, but it wasn’t there either.

There was only one conclusion.

“Oh, no…!”

Kim Jinsung clenched his eyes shut, realizing he had been thoroughly outplayed.

[Ah, Kim Jinsung! He’s just realized what happened and his expression has hardened! He must not have expected his groceries to be stolen!]

[He let his guard down because he was up high. There’s no such thing as a safe place in the Colosseum.]

At that moment, the commentators continued their narrative, watching Kim Jinsung’s flustered reaction through the monitor.

The commentator continued.

[Still, isn’t it impressive that he survived? I thought he was dead when he was first ambushed.]

[Isn’t this the first time that the player Fade has failed an assassination?]

[Correct. Since the start of the preliminaries, he’s attempted eleven assassinations, and except for this time, he’s succeeded in killing his target on the first try.]

While the commentator explained, the vice president, Jang Seungwook, subtly asked Baek Jun.

“How about it? Isn’t my pick worthwhile?”

Baek Jun was looking at a profile he was holding in his hand.

Name: Fade (alias)

Age: 26

Height: 174cm

Status: Forced laborer

Special note: Former assassin of the ‘Red Moon’ assassination organization, responsible for a total of 34 contracted killings,

“…Not bad.”

After reading the entire profile, Baek Jun responded.

His dry response made Jang Seungwook chuckle.

“You’re not usually one to give high praise. Seems I’ve picked a good one, huh?”

Baek Jun didn’t reply.

He just thought to himself.

‘At this point, he’s much stronger than Kim Jinsung.’

Honestly, Kim Jinsung had been lucky just now. The scene where he completely exposed his back could have easily ended in his death.

Certainly, for now, Fade is stronger. That’s an undeniable fact.

‘But who knows what will happen in a week.’

With that thought, Baek Jun refocused on the TV screen.

[So, how must Fade be feeling after failing the assassination?]

Hearing the caster’s words, the control room’s PD pressed button number 6.

Then the image captured by camera 6, showing Fade, began to broadcast on TV.

Far from where Kim Jinsung had been, a young man in his mid-twenties wearing a black mask was hiding under a shadowy rock.

He was the player who had entered under the alias Fade.

“Damn it…!”

He grimaced, holding his side where his right palm was covered in blood.

He had been deeply cut by his target’s counterattack just moments before.

‘I have to use a potion already.’

It was a regrettable waste, but the wound was too severe for natural healing.

He took out a recovery potion from his backpack and cautiously began to pour it over the wound.

The wound healed quickly, and the potion level dropped just as fast.

Fade looked at the quarter of the potion left and scolded himself again.

“I got careless. I assumed it would be an easy assassination like the others.”

The situation when he targeted this opponent was no different from the others.

Using his unique skill, he had approached silently from behind and thrust his knife with all his might into the back of the target’s neck.

That had always been Fade’s pattern for a successful assassination.

But this time, he hadn’t pierced the neck, allowing his target to counterattack immediately.

‘Now that I think about it, it felt strange when I stabbed him.’

It wasn’t the usual sensation of piercing human flesh. It was more like stabbing the tough skin of a monster.

‘Did he have a trait related to his skin?’

In the assassination industry, he had encountered all sorts of awakened abilities.

Some had unusually tough and resilient skin.

These types are hard to kill in one hit. From an assassin’s perspective like Fade, they are one of the most troublesome targets.

‘I should keep as far away from him as possible.’

A target that has survived one assassination attempt should not be targeted again immediately.

Honestly, if he couldn’t kill him when he was off guard, it’s even less likely now that he’s on high alert.

‘Let’s be more careful from now on. This is the Colosseum, swarming with monsters.’

Soon, Fade’s figure vanished from his hiding spot as if it had never been there, holding the plastic bag of groceries he had stolen from Kim Jinsung.

[Ah, once again Fade has disappeared without a trace! He used his unique skill ‘Stealth’ again!]

[It’s always such an impressive skill.]

[In a survival program like this, it’s considered a tier-1 skill, isn’t it?]

[Right. It’s highly valued in the real world, too.]

The skill ‘Stealth’ makes the user invisible to others.

Just possessing this skill is enough for assassination agencies to offer blank checks to recruit someone.

Not just for assassination, but also for reconnaissance, exploration, and many other fields, it’s an indisputable tier-1 skill.

And Fade possessed that ‘Stealth.’

[But where did he go? Did he go back to Kim Jinsung?]

[It’s unlikely. I saw the direction he turned at the last moment. It was completely opposite to where Kim Jinsung was.]

[Is that so? …Ah! You’re right.]

The caster quickly agreed after looking at the TV screen.

The PD had captured the direction in which Fade had used his stealth just before and displayed it on the monitor.

[Then it seems unlikely that the two will encounter each other for a while. Personally, I find it a bit disappointing that the paths of the two most anticipated participants of the preliminaries are diverging like this.]

[Hahaha. There’s still more than a week left, isn’t there? I have a feeling that this won’t be the last time they meet.]

[Let’s trust the commentator’s intuition. With that, the first encounter between Kim Jinsung and Fade ends with Fade’s victory, having stolen the bag of groceries.]

***

“Grrr…”

Another Dark Wolf collapsed powerlessly, its throat slashed more than halfway through.

The notification window popped up in front of Kim Jinsung as usual.

You have defeated a monster.

You have gained 15 Beast Karma points.

・You have already acquired the monster’s trait ‘Expert of the Night Hunt.’

“Ah, isn’t it almost sunset?”

Kim Jinsung looked up after seeing the notification.

The sun was already reaching the western horizon of the forest.

It had become darker in the woods, and time had passed until the evening.

‘I should start looking for a suitable place to camp for the night.’

If he didn’t start looking now, he would struggle in the dark forest once the sun had completely set.

But there was no rush.

▷ Expert of the Night Hunt: You can see your surroundings even in dark spaces without light. Agility increases by 10% when fighting in dark spaces.

Thanks to the trait he had acquired from the recently killed Dark Wolf, visibility at night wouldn’t be a big issue.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t let his guard down.

‘I could be ambushed by that guy again if I wander around at night.’

The near-death experience earlier had heightened Kim Jinsung’s vigilance.

In fact, since then, he had moved much more cautiously and hadn’t traveled as far as he had from the start of the preliminaries until noon.

The distance he had covered after that was probably less than half.

But this was the right decision. It’s better than dying a dog’s death from one moment of carelessness.

‘At this pace, reaching the mountain summit within a week shouldn’t be a problem.’

Estimating the distance to the distant mountain, Kim Jinsung began looking for a suitable place to camp.

That’s when it happened.

Woooaahhh!

A loud roar, unmistakably from a colossal monster, echoed from afar.

Kim Jinsung’s ears perked up.

‘thats a roar I’ve never heard before’

It was similar in depth to the Twin-Headed Ogre’s, but the timbre and articulation were distinctly different.

It was a monster he had never encountered before!

Just as Kim Jinsung was about to move towards the source of the roar,

“Kyaaah!! Please save me!!”

A woman’s scream followed from the direction of the roar.