Silence held the village for a heartbeat before the first howl tore through the air. It was not a single voice.
A chorus of predators answered from every direction of the dark forest.
The trees began to shake as heavy bodies pushed through the underbrush.
Shadow wolves erged first.
Their forms were composed of dark smoke and solid muscle, their eyes glowing with a dull, predatory red.
Behind them ca the lycanthropes, standing on two legs with elongated muzzles and claws that scraped against the stone ground.
The thirty climbers on the podium drew their weapons.
Shields locked together.
Spells began to hum in the air.
Kang Min did not join the defensive circle.
He stepped off the podium and walked toward the edge of the square.
His blade was already out.
The first wave of shadow wolves hit the periter.
They moved with high speed, jumping over the front-line vanguards to reach the mages in the back.
The climbers shouted commands.
Swords clanged against claws.
The sll of wet fur and iron filled the streets.
Kang Min t the charge head-on.
He stepped into the path of a lunging lycanthrope and swung his blade in a horizontal arc.
The edge cut through the creature’s neck.
The head hit the ground while the body was still in the air.
He did not stop to watch it fall and spun, his boots crushing the stone, and drove his sword into the chest of a shadow wolf.
The creature dissipated into black mist.
He moved with a violent precision.
Every strike resulted in a kill.
He ducked under a swipe from a larger wolf and drove his elbow into its throat, crushing the windpipe.
While the monster gagged, he severed its hamstrings and moved to the next target.
The live stream chat was moving too fast to read, but the notification pings were constant.
Thousands of viewers watched the slaughter.
As he cut through the fifth wave of wolves, Kang Min’s mind went back to the Old World.
He rembered this trial.
’Back then...I was lucky enough to find a duo...two other players who were just as scared as I was.
The three of us were huddled in a corner of the village square, behind a pile of crates, praying for dawn to arrive...’
’We survived that night, but it was a hollow victory because the tir had run for hours.
The waves of wolves never stopped and by the ti the sun rose, twenty of the thirty players in that instance were dead or missing.’
The trial had taken an imnse amount of ti and ntal toll.
He realized then that the stated clear condition of survival was a trap designed to drain a player’s stamina and numbers.
He knew there was a hidden path.
The current climbers were struggling.
Two players had already been dragged into the shadows by the lycanthropes.
The screams of the dying mixed with the boy’s constant, high-pitched wailing.
"THE WOLVES! THEY’RE HERE! HELP US!" the boy scread from the center of the square.
Kang Min stopped fighting the wolves.
He looked at the sealed houses of the villagers.
The windows remained shut.
Not a single NPC had offered a weapon or a word of comfort to the players dying for their protection.
He turned away from the frontline.
He walked toward the nearest thatched-roof house.
The climbers behind him shouted in confusion.
"Singularity! What are you doing? The wolves are breaking the line!"
Kang Min did not answer.
He lifted his foot and kicked the wooden door.
The lock snapped and thw door flew off its hinges and crashed into the interior of the house.
Inside, a family of villagers sat around a dinner table.
They sat in the dark, their eyes blank and glassy.
Kang Min stepped inside and swung his blade.
The first villager’s head rolled across the table.
The other players who saw this through the open door gasped.
The chat went into a frenzy.
-WHAT IS HE DOING? -
-HE’S KILLING THE NPCs? -
-??? -
-HE’S GONE INSANE. -
Kang Min moved to the next house and smashed the window and climbed inside.
The sounds of wet impacts and breaking wood filled the street.
He slaughtered the villagers in the second house, then the third.
The other players stopped fighting the wolves for a mont.
They watched in horror as the man they had admired as a top ranker turned into a butcher of innocents.
"Stop him!"
A female mage scread.
"He’s lost his mind! He’s failing the trial for all of us!"
A group of five players broke away from the defense and ran toward the center of the village
They saw Kang Min erging from the fourth house, his clothes and blade covered in dark blood.
He was walking toward the boy.
The shepherd boy was backed against a stone well.
He was snorting tears, his small body shaking.
His eyes were wide and filled with a deep, primal fear.
He looked like a child facing a monster.
"Please!"
The boy sobbed.
"The wolves are out there! Why are you doing this?"
The five players ford a semi-circle around the boy, their weapons pointed at Kang Min.
"That’s enough, Singularity."
The lead vanguard said. His voice was shaking, but he held his shield steady.
"We won’t let you kill a child. We don’t care how high your rank is.
This is wrong. You’re becoming worse than the monsters in the woods."
The shadow wolves continued to howl in the forest, but they did not enter the square anymore.
Kang Min continued to walk forward and did not slow down.
He reached the line of players and stopped.
With a movent too fast for the vanguard to block, Kang Min reached out and grabbed the boy by the collar of his tunic.
He jerked the child off the ground, holding him aloft like a piece of luggage.
The boy scread and kicked his legs, his face turning red with effort and terror.
The players tightened their grip on their swords. The mages began to chant.
Kang Min looked at them.
He lifted his blade, the tip pointing directly at the throat of the vanguard who had spoken.
"Anyone who dares to stop will be treated no less than these monsters."
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