n

n

n

nIt happened then.

nShururururu…..

nSuddenly, the sandy ground next to him caved in and a deep pit formed there.

n“Huh? Uh, uh!”

nJin-Woo desperately ran away so he could avoid getting sucked in down there. The sandy pit grew wider and wider, and eventually, Jin-Woo had to crawl on all fours just to pull himself out.

n“Pant, pant, pant….”

nHe plopped down on his butt, panted heavily and stared at the bottom of the pit. Quite bizarrely, he could see that the sand at the bottom was ‘boiling’.

nRealising that just one misstep would have resulted in him falling in there sent shivers down his spine.

n“Hang on a minute….”

nJin-Woo’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

n“….It’s not actually boiling, is it?”

nWhen he took a closer look, he spotted ‘something’ pretty big wiggling down there.

nJin-Woo instinctively forced himself up. He was getting a really bad premonition right about now.

nSure enough, just as Jin-Woo took a step back, the sand within the pit suddenly exploded upwards.

nPhushu-!!

nThe falling sand emitted the roar of a waterfall.

nJin-Woo’s eyes went extra round in the meantime.

n“An… an insect?”

nThe identity of the thing that exploded out from the sand was a giant centipede.

nKiiiieeehhhk!!

nWhen fully revealed, the d*mn thing’s head almost reached the height equaling that of a five-story building.

nJin-Woo anxiously swallowed his saliva.

n‘This is unreal….’

nFor sure, the b*stard was unrealistically huge. He had never heard of a centipede this big existing in the world before. But the size of the centipede wasn’t the only thing that shocked Jin-Woo.

n“Why is there a… name floating on top of that monster?”

nWas he dreaming again?

nJin-Woo closed and opened his eyes again, yet nothing had changed. Even now, there were five red words floating on top of the monster’s head.

n….Just like a monster from a video game might have.

n‘The Poison-Fanged Giant Desert Centipede.’

nJust like its horrendous and bizarre appearance, its name too was something he’d like to avoid at all cost. What drew his attention the most was the two letters “poison” and “fanged”.

nHe spotted a pair of fangs as large as a child jutting out just below the b*stard’s jaw. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what might happen if he got stabbed by those fangs simply from its name alone.

nSeeing those large fangs and its jaw constantly opening and closing, it was as if….

n“It’s busy licking its lips, right?”

nIt was then, the sound went off in his head again.

nTti-ring.

nPenalty Quest: Survival

nGoal: Please survive until the end of the time limit.

nTime limit: 4 hours

nRemaining time: 4 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds

n‘Are you kidding me….?’

nHowever, as soon as the ‘remaining time’ changed to 3 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds, the centipede parted sand and rushed towards him as if it couldn’t wait any longer.

n*SFX for sand parting ways*

n“Wha-what the hell?!”

nJin-Woo hurriedly spun around and ran for his life.

nThere was no time to deliberate on things.

nIf he wanted to live, then he had to run!

nThat was the only thought racing in his head.

nHowever, even before he had taken several steps, another pillar of sand exploded upwards not too far from his position.

nBoom!!

n“Euh-ahhck?!”

nJin-Woo fell on his rear from the powerful shockwave. He rolled on the sandy ground before urgently getting back up. He swiped the sand off his face before his eyes shot open even wider.

nThis time, it wasn’t just one or two of them.

nBoom!!

nBooooom!!

nBefore he had even noticed it, there were seven sand centipedes jutting out from the sand and they were all glaring at him.

nKiiieeechhk!!

nKiieeek!!

nAs the centipedes issued shrill cries, Jin-Woo’s complexion changed for the worse. A lot worse.

n“God d*mn it….”

n***

nJin-Woo reappeared in the hospital room exactly four hours later.

nPlop.

nJin-Woo keeled over on the floor and painfully wheezed out.

n“Cough, cough!! Ptooi, ptooi!!”

nHis mouth felt full with this coarse, grainy taste. His eyes stung badly too, seemingly like sand particles got in there.

nJin-Woo whimpered and groaned for a long time, before powerlessly falling flat on his back. He didn’t have any energy left to lift even a finger.

n“Pant…. Pant…. Just…. What was that….?”

nJin-Woo continued to pant heavily when a new message appeared before him.

nTti-ring.

nYou’ve completed the ‘Penalty Quest.’

nJin-Woo’s expression crumpled into something unsightly.

nA ‘Penalty Quest’?

nDid he do something worthy of being punished?

nJin-Woo carefully retreaded his memories until he recalled the Daily Quest he abandoned mid-way yesterday.

n‘Could it be…?’

nNow that he thought about it, it definitely said that if the quest was not completed, he’d be hit with a corresponding penalty.

n“Pant, pant, that…. That was not a hallucination?!”

nIndeed, it was not a hallucination nor was it a dream.

nThere was no need to pinch his cheeks to confirm whether this was a dream or reality.

nWhen he was running around, the shortness of breath felt so suffocatingly harsh, and the pain he felt when he got grazed by the centipede’s leg still felt fresh in his mind.

nEverything happened for real.

nHe nearly died back there.

n“This is way too much…. Pant… pant….”

nThe so-called penalty turned out to be him being throwing into a d*mn execution ground!

nAt the same time, another ominous premonition rushed into his mind. If this event was indeed caused by the ‘Daily Quest’ thing, then without a doubt, this would not be the last time.

nSure enough, he got to hear yet another mechanical beep going off in his head.

nTti-ring.

nHe flinched in surprise, but thankfully, it was not about another quest or anything like that.

nRewards for completing the Penalty Quest is now available.

nWould you like to confirm the rewards? (Y

/N)

n‘Rewards….?’

nThe word ‘rewards’ jumped right out. Too bad, the problem was, he currently didn’t have any energy left whatsoever to confirm this and that.

nHis situation simply didn’t allow that.

n‘Never mind giving me rewards or not…. Let me take a break first….’

nHis sights gradually blurred.

nSoon, Jin-Woo fell into a deep slumber akin to a blackout.

n***

n“Oh my gosh?! What happened in here?”

nNext morning.

nA nurse entered Jin-Woo’s room, only for her eyes to open up wide in surprise.

nThe patient was lying sprawled on the floor, while sand was everywhere as far as she could see. Not only that, the patient too was full of sand as well.

nShe threw the medical chart on the bed and urgently pressed the emergency buzzer.

n“Please, someone get over here right away!”

n

nSoon, the doctor in charge rushed into the room.

n“What happened? What’s the matter with Mister Seong Jin-Woo?”

n“I don’t know. Everything was fine until last night, yet this morning….”

n“For now, let’s relocate him back on the bed. One, two!”

nTwo people lifted Jin-Woo off the floor and placed him back on the bed. During the process, the back of Jin-Woo’s hand got scratched by the edge of the medical chart left on the bed and his skin tore just a little, but no one noticed that.

n“Let’s take a look.”

nThe doctor then carefully examined Jin-Woo’s condition. However, he couldn’t find anything wrong with the youth.

n“What the heck…. Isn’t he just in a deep sleep?”

nThe doctor spat out a sigh of relief.

nThe Hunter’s Association had requested the hospital to pay a special attention to this particular patient. Understandably, the doctor was scared almost out of his wits while thinking that something bad had happened here.

n“For now, let’s let him be. Looks like he’s in a really deep slumber at the moment.”

nThe doctor in charge spoke to the nurse and was about to leave, but then, he took a look around the room and scratched the side of his head.

n“By the way, this room… might need a thorough cleaning. Miss Yu-Rah, please take care of tidying this place up.”

n“Yes. I shall, doctor.”

nThe doctor left the room and the nurse, Choi Yu-Rah, patted her chest down.

nWhat a relief that it turned out to be nothing to worry about.

nSure, they might not be the patient or the relatives of one themselves, but you wouldn’t find a doctor or a nurse who wished ill on those they were in charge of.

nThe Hunter’s hospital especially saw many heavily-injured patients every day. At the bare minimum, she’d like to never see another one of patients she was looking after get worse under her care.

n“Whew…”

nShe had calmed down a little now, and began worrying about where should she start tidying this room up, but then, her eyes spotted drops of blood on the floor.

n“Oh my?”

nThe blood droplets were coming from the tip of patient’s hand that fell outside the bed.

nShe got stunned by this and hurriedly searched for the wound on Jin-Woo’s hand, before flipping it around.

n“What’s going on here….?”

nThere definitely was a trace of flowing blood, but she could not find a single wound. She wiped the blood clean, yet the expected wound was not there.

n‘Wait…. Could his injury heal in that short time?’

nYu-Rah’s heart began beating faster as she cautiously studied Jin-Woo’s complexion.

nHe was still submerged in a deep, deep sleep even now.

nPart 7: Daily Quest

nTti-ring.

nDaily Quest is now available.

nJin-Woo’s eyes shot right open.

nHe quickly raised himself up and the first thing he did was to check the time. The needles of the clock just went past 16:30.

nMeaning, there was the leeway of seven hours and thirty minutes before midnight.

n‘Good.’

nJin-Woo opened the mailbox.

nTti-ring.

nDaily Quest: Preparations to become strong

nPress-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0

/100)

nSit-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0

/100)

nSquat, 100 times: Incomplete (0

/100)

nRunning, 10 km: Incomplete (0

/10)

n※Warning: Incompletion of Daily Quests will result in appropriate levels of punishment.

n“It’s the same thing, again?!”

nHe groaned out almost reflexively.

nNo, perhaps this was for the better. Rather than a quest with impossible or hard-to-understand goals, this was far more preferable, instead.

nWell, as long as he had enough time, he’d be able to complete this quest after all, although his body might suffer for a bit. Jin-Woo got down to the floor this time and began the press-up.

n“One.”

nObviously, he was not planning on being dragged to yet another suspicious place and get almost killed there.

n“Two.”

nHe got lucky the previous night and survived, but there was no guarantee that would happen tonight as well.

n“Three.”

nHe raised his head a little and confirmed the contents of the quest, and noticed that every time he performed a press-up, it was being recorded in real time as well.

nTti-ring.

nYou’ve completed one press-up.

nPress-up 100 times: Incomplete (7

/100)

nTti-ring.

nYou’ve completed one press-up.

nPress-up 100 times: Incomplete (8

/100)

nHe wanted to make sure, so he only went down half-way and got back up, but as expected, that didn’t count. Now he finally realised why the so-called press-ups of yesterday didn’t count. He had to perform the proper press-ups or it wouldn’t be counted at all.

n‘Huh…. Gimme a break.’

nJin-Woo was dumbfounded, but didn’t stop the exercise.

nHe still had 50 more press-ups to go.

nAfter that, sit-ups, squats and running were waiting for him.

n….And, three hours later.

nPress-up, 100 times: Complete (100

/100)

nSit-up, 100 times: Complete (100

/100)

nSquat, 100 times: Complete (100

/100)

nRunning, 10 km: Incomplete (9

/10)

n“Pant, pant, pant, pant…”

nJin-Woo lapped the outer perimeter of the hospital once and arrived back in front of his room. He was currently bent over and panting out heavily. His heart felt like it might explode at any second, but he couldn’t give up yet.

n‘I worked so crazy hard until now, so no way I would….’

nHe somehow managed to open the door and took a step forward.

nWhen he did that….

nTti-ring.

nTotal distance ran: 10 km.

nYou’ve completed Running, 10 km.

nIt was finally over.

n“Pant…. Pant…”

nJin-Woo fell down to his knees. His breath reeked of something sweet and bitter. His face and back were soaked in sweat.

n“Pant…. Pant….”

nAs Jin-Woo tried to regulate his heavy, rough breathing while thick sweat drops continuously dripped down, a familiar message popped up in front of his eyes.

nTti-ring.

nYou’ve completed ‘Daily Quest: Preparations to become strong’.

nCompletion rewards have arrived.

nWould you like to confirm? (Y

/N)

nJin-Woo momentarily thought about forgetting about everything and simply laying down in defeat, but quickly changed his mind. At least for now, he wanted to confirm what these reward things could actually be with his own eyes first.

n“Confirm.”

nTti-ring.

nThe following rewards are available.

nReward 1. Full recovery of the current physical condition

nReward 2. Three additional Stat points

nReward 3. One random box

nWould you like to collect them all?

n‘Why are there so many of them?’

nThat was the first thought to enter his dazed mind after he took a gander at the contents of his rewards.

nBut, when he thought about it a little deeper, one of those rewards seemed rather useful right now, and there was also one that made him curious about what it could actually mean.

nFor now, he urgently needed the first reward available. He was on the brink of collapsing here.

nSince there really was a penalty for failure, the odds of completion rewards being real were pretty d*mn high as well.

nWell, trying wouldn’t hurt anyways, right?

nSeriously, this ‘thing’ wouldn’t throw him back into the penalty zone again after it said it’d give him the rewards, now would it?

n< Chapter 10 > Fin.

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