“Please prepare number 301.”
At that mont, inside the arena, Roy was getting ready for his turn.
While waiting, he watched the competitors tackle the challenge in every absurd way imaginable.
Soone climbing the rock wall fell and was carried off on a stretcher.
Soone bounced off the wall by their own power, then was carried off on a stretcher.
Soone damaged the rock, got buried under a pile of stones, and was carried off on a stretcher.
There was only one ending for powerless participants. A stretcher ending amid swirling dust.
‘This is a disaster.’
Seeing the atmosphere, even Roy—who’d never really worried about anything in his life—couldn’t help but panic this ti.
He’d thought maybe he could god-slight the hawk, but... well.
But then he saw contestant 280 shriek at the hawk to scare it, get pooped on, and be carried off on a stretcher, and his resolve wavered.
‘What the hell am I going to do?’
Roy clutched his head and writhed in anguish.
“Number 301, please enter. Once you’re ready, wave your hand and start the test imdiately.”
The mont to step onto the platform had arrived, and Roy still had no solution.
He was facing the rock wall, but it felt like nothing was there at all.
‘I wonder if the hyungs are doing okay?’
Roy thought of Taeeon and Yeonwoo’s faces—and of Hojin waiting for him outside the arena.
Unaware that the parachute duo had thrown Sector 10 into chaos, he gazed dreamily in that direction.
Then, as if steeling himself, he looked up at the rock wall with a resolute expression.
‘I’m S-rank—how could I not climb a single rock wall?’
All he could trust was his strength.
Before coming to the Wilderness, he’d even tried climbing on a variety show back in Shooting Star.
‘Up close it’s not even that tall. I could climb this blindfolded.’
Roy placed his hand on his chest and hypnotized himself.
At that mont, his status window popped up and a skill activated.
【Casting skill ‘Godslighting’.】
Success with self-godslighting banished all hesitation. Confidence surged inexplicably, and his body moved on its own.
Roy approached the rock wall, reached out, and gripped a crack in the stone firmly.
He pressed his toes onto a narrow ledge and hauled himself up with all his strength.
Step by step. Movents that had been awkward soon fell into a rhythm and speed picked up.
Before anyone knew it, he’d passed the midpoint of the wall—and Sector 2 was stunned. Everyone in the area couldn’t take their eyes off this brute-force marvel.
Whenever Roy’s foot slipped and he wobbled,
“Uh—!”
a collective ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) gasp rose, and tension gripped the entire sector.
Of course, the most surprised was Roy himself.
“Ack!”
Wow, shit. I almost died...!
Clinging to the rock to catch his breath, Roy glanced down.
He spotted a staff mber tiny below and the tir ticking with about three minutes left.
By rough estimate, he was two-thirds of the way up.
Thanks to godslighting, he wasn’t terrified. He even felt like jumping off wouldn’t hurt much.
But that aside, there was no ti to relax. Roy tightened his grip and continued climbing.
Several tis he narrowly avoided a stretcher ending, but in the end he reached the top.
“Waaaaa!”
The mont his raw, flesh-covered hands touched the summit, applause and cheers erupted across Sector 2.
Many had attempted freehand climbing, but none had succeeded until now.
Not everyone viewed Roy favorably, though.
‘Should I call that brave or just stupid...?’
Climbing 40 ters barehanded without equipnt was impressive, but the preliminary task was to fetch the flag and bring it back.
When Roy plucked the flag, just over thirty seconds remained.
Watching the tir slip into the 20-second range, the staff exchanged skeptical glances.
Unless he jumped down from there, it was impossible to descend and finish on ti.
Moreover, Roy had long been regarded as D-rank or below among them—most who chose barehanded climbing ended up at that rank.
Yet now the impossible was unfolding.
“No!”
“Stop!”
Panicked staff and safety personnel crossed their arms overhead and shouted for him to halt imdiately.
[00:00:20]
Twenty seconds left.
Roy paid no heed to the staff’s protests in his sight.
Grasping the flag, he flung himself off the rock as though there’d never been any other choice.
“Aaagh!”
Roy himself was eerily quiet as he descended, but the watching staff scread and clutched the safety officer’s collar.
“Do sothing!”
“We have to let go of this!”
[00:00:11]
Eleven seconds left.
The safety officer and staff had tried to deploy the rescue air mattress, but the golden ti was already lost.
The mont everyone watching Sector 2 realized it was over,
쿠웅!
Roy collided with the ground, sending dust billowing like an explosion.
“Ah...”
“That was reckless.”
The dust thickly blanketed the area, obscuring Roy’s figure.
Silence descended over Sector 2.
Even as everything seed frozen, the tir on the scoreboard continued its rapid countdown.
[00:00:05]
Five seconds until the preliminaries end.
No one dared move, bracing for the dreadful sight that would erge once the dust cleared—
처억!
A hand pierced the haze and grabbed a staffer’s ankle.
“Cough... cough... Huff, here’s the flag...!”
[00:00:01]
With one second remaining, it was a dramatic rescue.
✧
Stepping outside the arena, Roy scratched his head in embarrassnt.
It was great that he passed the preliminaries. But the problem was he’d lost track of Taeeon and Yeonwoo.
If he’d known this would happen, he would’ve arranged a eting spot outside.
He hadn’t realized that participants had to exit the arena after prelims for smooth operations.
His phone was dead, too—signal couldn’t penetrate the crowds.
“This is bad.”
He force-closed and reopened the ssenger app several tis, but nothing changed.
Of course—not even calls were going through, so data wouldn’t work.
After a mont’s thought, Roy headed for the exit nearest Sector 10. Maybe he’d run into the hyungs coming out of prelims there.
As he approached the opposite side of the arena, Sector 5 was unusually chaotic.
‘What’s going on?’
Everyone was clinging to the railing, looking down.
Roy couldn’t resist and moved closer. He saw police tape, officers, and Awakener Managent Departnt staff.
The police were busy dispersing the crowd, and a uniford departnt man was talking to soone presud to be an Awakened.
Roy tried to eavesdrop, but the noise drowned it out. Instead, he overheard a small group nearby.
“They say he died?”
“If a normal person bled that much, there’s no chance of survival.”
“I heard sirens earlier—that was from this. Because of a blood fiend?”
The words blood fiend, normal person, and man combined to fill Roy with dread.
Thud.
Thud.
His heart pounded in his ears. What if the victim they were talking about was Hojin?
His mind went blank. Roy grabbed the railing and leapt over.
쿠웅!
“Aaah!”
Roy landed in a flowerbed, leaving a deep crater and clear footprints.
The departnt staff taking witness statents, the police dispersing onlookers, and the citizens murmuring as they left—all stared at Roy in shock.
Roy felt their gazes but had no ti to care. His thoughts were consud with worry for Hojin.
Before anyone realized, he dashed off, pulled out his phone, and called Hojin.
The ringtone played.
‘It works...!’
But that was it. Hojin didn’t pick up.
Roy then called Bi, but got the sa result.
As he failed to reach anyone, his anxiety grew. Especially since Taeeon and Yeonwoo might have been attacked by a blood fiend.
‘I shouldn’t have told them to co out. I should’ve told them to stay ho.’
If anything happened to Hojin, it would be all his fault.
Once sown, anxiety grew unchecked and devoured his reason.
“Hyung! Hojin hyung!”
Tears welled in Roy’s eyes as he called for Hojin and wandered aimlessly.
Though he’d grown attached to his new family, they didn’t compare to the hyungs.
In this strange land, the only people he could truly rely on were still them....
As Roy looked around as if about to cry, he heard Bi’s voice from behind.
“Lee Roi?”
He turned to see a zombie standing there—his friend, face and arms scratched, clothes torn rags.
He’d heard Bi’s group had also been injured.
Pale as death, Roy could barely move his lips.
“You... why do you look like that?”
He wanted to ask where Hojin was, but couldn’t speak.
Bi, too, looked pained, then finally managed,
“You crying?”
Provocative.
“Heh.”
Bi snorted with laughter, nostrils flaring.
“Did you fail prelims? Pfft! Sorry—I’m more surprised you’d pass.”
Then Bi’s gaze turned fierce as if ready to rip Roy apart. Confronted by S-rank fury, Bi instinctively recoiled.
“No, I thought you looked sad and wanted to cheer you up....”
As his pitiful excuse fell flat, Bi resorted to the last option:
He bolted.
“Damn it.”
Bi instinctively knew only Hojin could save him now.
When Bi darted off in the opposite direction, Roy sprinted after him.
“Stop right there!”
“Why would I stop?! You flunked prelims and now you’re giving shit!”
As Bi ran toward the parking lot, he spotted Hojin’s back in the distance and shouted his na.
“Ahh! Hyung! Soone stop this guy!”
“...Huh? Roy?”
In a relatively quiet spot, Hojin was squatting by the curb, tending to sothing.
“Miya!”
“Miyaong!”
A starving mother cat and her kittens.
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