Chapter 8: Kim Su-hyeon Begins the Rite of Passage |
The Preparation Room. It had been a long time since I’d last seen this place. To an uninformed observer, the Preparation Room looked so much like a room from Earth that it could be mistaken for a cozy personal chamber.
It occurred to me then that the angels were considerate in the most useless ways. I remembered, when I first came here, the environment was so similar to Earth that I had tried to open the front door and leave. Of course, the door wouldn't open, and I recalled floundering in the despair that followed. A sudden thought struck me: perhaps the angels had intended for that to happen.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Time remaining until entry into the Rite of Passage: 03 minutes 27 seconds
“3 minutes and 27 seconds. I'd better hurry.”
I walked over to a large box sitting alone in the center of the room. After sitting down in a corner and opening it, I found various items needed for the Rite of Passage. Nostalgia, my ass. There was none of that. My immediate concern was getting dressed quickly. Seraph was one thing, but if I were sent into the Rite of Passage practically naked, I wouldn't be able to shake the label of a pervert from the very beginning.
Looking through the items, I could tell at a glance that the tight, form-fitting suit had the best performance. However, I couldn't bring myself to wear it. After picking up and examining various items for a while, I just chose some simple clothes. The outfit I selected consisted of underwear, socks, shoes, a top, and pants—all of them perfectly ordinary. I did, however, choose a dark color scheme because I didn't want to deal with stains.
Honestly, at my current level, I could clear the Rite of Passage bare-handed in less than a day. No, if I really wanted to, I could obliterate everything in my path without breaking a sweat. But I had no intention of going all out right from the start. One of the main reasons I had survived for ten years in the Hall Plain was that I always operated while concealing thirty percent of my true strength. Except for when my life was truly on the line, I made a concerted effort not to reveal my full self.
‘What weapon should I choose...’
As I gripped the bundle of bolts and looked up at the empty air, I saw the remaining time converge to exactly 0.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
The time in the Preparation Room has expired. Summoning Player Kim Su-hyeon to the space for the Rite of Passage.
“Okay. Am I the last one?”
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
That is correct. In any case, we wish Player Kim Su-hyeon the best of luck. We will now begin the transfer.
It was then.
Vwoom!
The moment I felt a summoning spell unfold in the air, a sharp tug pulled at my navel. The summoning had begun.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
Transfer complete. The Rite of Passage is a test to determine if you are qualified to enter the Hall Plain. You will pass if you survive for 7 days or reach the central warp gate within 7 days. We wish all players the best of luck.
The transfer was over. Breathing in the fresh air that filled my nostrils, I surveyed my surroundings. At that moment, I felt a subtle shift in the air around me. From the grass, trees, and soil, it seemed I was in a clearing in the middle of a forest. Being a forest, the air was fresh and the breeze was cool, but an unidentifiable, unpleasant stickiness saturated the area.
‘First, shall I see which players I'm starting with?’
I considered the Rite of Passage to be extremely important. The Hall Plain was a place where one could never survive alone. At the very least, you needed companions to work with, even if you were just using them.
The Rite of Passage is the first time modern people, used to their daily routines, experience something extraordinary. And here, the condition of ‘survival’ is attached. One of the core aspects of the Rite of Passage was for these clueless modern people to join forces to meet that condition. (Let's set aside my case in this second playthrough as a special exception for now.) As such, companions who survived the Rite of Passage together often formed strong bonds even after entering the Hall Plain. And so, I planned to scout for companions to build relationships with during this Rite of Passage.
‘Of course, I can't just accept anyone as a companion.’
The place where I had been summoned was a kind of starting point that marked the beginning of the Rite of Passage. In other words, a starting point. Now, ten years later, I could talk about it calmly, but the first time I entered the Rite of Passage without knowing anything, it was a nightmare. It was so bad that I developed trauma that persisted even after I entered the Hall Plain.
I calmly composed myself and began to observe my surroundings. As expected, I wasn't the only player who had been transferred. Centered around the clearing, I saw people sitting sporadically, their faces etched with anxiety. I could even hear them whispering about me.
“Oppa... did you see that person just get transferred here?”
“Sol. Be quiet.”
“What do we do... It looks like we're not the only ones...”
“Just stay still. That person seems to be in the same boat as us.”
Listening to their conversation, they seemed to be siblings. I walked over to where the people were gathered. The atmosphere in the clearing was quiet and subdued. It made sense; if you were suddenly thrown into a Rite of Passage and told to survive on your own, it would cause chaos, but everyone here must have heard some explanation from the angels. I had, too.
‘This is the starting point. Since I've returned to the past, it means I met these players in the first round too... What happened to them afterward...’
I counted the people in the clearing and saw a total of eight sitting there. Could these eight people work together to survive the next seven days of the Rite of Passage? I could confidently answer, "No."
A conflict arose in my mind. This wasn't the Hall Plain yet, just a space I would never return to once I passed through it. With the power I possessed now, saving everyone here would be a piece of cake. But honestly, I didn't want to, and I had no intention of doing so.
Flaunting my abilities in front of these people to save them was something I absolutely had to avoid. Fame, or becoming known, spreads most effectively through word of mouth. The players of the Hall Plain were already at the forefront of protecting their vested interests. A player who used magic before even passing the Rite of Passage or defeated monsters with overwhelming prowess? If such a rumor spread, it would not only lead to a host of troublesome issues, but I might also find myself mysteriously murdered by ‘Vagrants’ that very day.
And I was no saint. While living in the Hall Plain, I had done good deeds, but I had also committed bad ones without hesitation when necessary. Robbery, plunder, rape, even murder. Of course, in a world like the Hall Plain, such things were considered normal, so no one would blame me for them.
In any case, the most important thing here was that I needed to be selective. If I found someone worth making a companion, I would have to act as their nanny, whether they knew it or not, for at least a year until they could function as a proper player.
My first plan after entering the Hall Plain was to gather companions. The Rite of Passage was a very suitable place for this plan. I set three criteria for selecting companions. First, stats and potential. Second, alignment. Third, connection. I could elaborate, but the gist was that if they were worth making a companion by my standards, I would save them. If not, I planned to not care whether they lived or died.
‘Well then, shall I start using The Third Eye?’
In the clearing, aside from the siblings who were sticking together, everyone else was keeping their distance from one another. I chose a suitable spot to sit and decided to observe the people calmly. If I was really lucky, I might even see a familiar face.
The first player to catch my eye was a woman in a bank teller's uniform. Her overall impression was ordinary, but her round eyes were trembling, and her lips were quivering, suggesting she still hadn't accepted reality. I could sympathize with her feelings, but I decided to activate The Third Eye anyway. For now, just picking out the necessary details...
⚔ PLAYER STATUS ⚔
Name:
Lee Bo-rim (Year 0)
Sex:
Female (27)
Height · Weight:
164.7cm · 58.3kg
Alignment:
Neutral · Chaos
⚡ Strength: 5
💨 Agility: 11
✨ Magic Power: 9
💪 Stamina: 7
🍀 Luck: 11
🛡️ Endurance: 8
(Remaining stat points: 0)
‘Seriously.’
I let out a dry laugh and immediately closed her status window. Initial stats are influenced by one's physical body, but more importantly, they are multiplied by the player's latent potential. In other words, just because someone is female doesn't mean her physical stats will be lower than a male's.
But this woman, Lee Bo-rim, had potential that was far too low. Even if I saved a player like her and brought her to the Hall Plain, she would be completely useless by my standards.
As a brief aside, when you start training after entering the Hall Plain, your stats increase really quickly at first. My body has already hit its limit, so it's difficult for me to raise my stats through training, but players starting normally don't have such restrictions, do they? In any case, even considering that, players destined to reach a certain level of mastery show promise from the start. But this woman... what on earth...
Clicking my tongue, I immediately turned my gaze to someone else. My next targets were the siblings sitting close together. The male had a youthful air, but his furrowed brow gave him a sharp, on-edge appearance. He looked younger than me, and his slouching posture hinted at a bit of a delinquent attitude, as if he was one of those so-called cool kids. On the ground near the siblings lay a longsword and a shield. A decent choice.
The female next to him was clinging tightly to her brother, a sight that would make any single person cringe... ah, right, they were siblings. Anyway, her head was bowed low, so I couldn't see her face clearly, but she seemed much calmer than her brother.
⚔ PLAYER STATUS ⚔
Name:
An Hyeon (Year 0)
Sex:
Male (22)
Height · Weight:
178.8cm · 73.2kg
Alignment:
True · Neutral
⚡ Strength: 48
💨 Agility: 52
✨ Magic Power: 35
💪 Stamina: 51
🍀 Luck: 56
🛡️ Endurance: 47
(Remaining stat points: 0)
⚔ PLAYER STATUS ⚔
Name:
An Sol (Year 0)
Sex:
Female (19)
Height · Weight:
160.1cm · 45.2kg
Alignment:
Lawful · Good
⚡ Strength: 8
💨 Agility: 15
✨ Magic Power: 75
💪 Stamina: 21
🍀 Luck: 100
🛡️ Endurance: 17
(Remaining stat points: 0)
‘Crazy, what the hell is this? 75 Magic Power from the start? 100 Luck?’
Stats that defied common sense. For a moment, I almost gasped out loud, but I managed to prevent a scene by tightly sealing my lips.
Strictly speaking, An Hyeon was a talent. Assuming he didn't run into any unusual situations, he could easily pass the Rite of Passage. And he possessed enough potential to survive in the Hall Plain. It was a slightly bitter truth, but his starting stats could be considered higher than mine.
In any case, An Hyeon's stats were respectable, something I could accept with a thought of 'it's possible.'
The real reason I was shocked was because I saw the stats of the woman named An Sol. That was just absurd. Her Strength, Endurance, Agility, and Stamina were nothing to look at. But having 75 points in Magic Power and 100 points in Luck from the very beginning was something that truly defied all logic in the Hall Plain. I calmly searched my memories.
‘I don't remember hearing about An Hyeon... But An Sol... Wait, An Sol? Sol?’
The moment I recalled the name Sol, the Secret Class I saw when choosing my job perk flashed through my mind.
In my first life, a Secret Class called the Brilliance Priest appeared in the Hall Plain. Was its nickname the 'final boss' of the Priest class? At the time, a player named 'Sol' had obtained that class, and I remembered she was later recruited by the Odin Clan, where the top players gathered.
An Sol, and Sol. The names were the same, but just looking at An Sol's current stats, the possibility seemed high enough. And if they were siblings, I'd likely have to save them both. In any case, their stats were incomparable to the bank teller, Lee Bo-rim, making them more than qualified to be my companions.
The impact of the first two had been incredibly strong, so this time I decided to look around counter-clockwise. The next people caught by my Third Eye were two men.
The man sitting on the left had a decent build but was short and looked older. A slightly crooked nose and bumpy skin made his impression all the more vile. And, from the way he kept darting his eyes in various directions, it seemed he was trying his best to grasp the situation.
Next, the man on the right was a student in a school uniform. A small beauty mark under his eye and his fair skin stood out, giving him a very young impression. He looked timid on the outside, and the way he trembled while hugging his knees with both arms made him look a little pitiful.
‘I don't remember them... Shall I check their status?’
⚔ PLAYER STATUS ⚔
Name:
Park Dong-geol (Year 0)
Sex:
Male (39)
Height · Weight:
173.4cm · 73.2kg
Alignment:
Devil · Chaos
⚡ Strength: 31
💨 Agility: 39
✨ Magic Power: 29
💪 Stamina: 29
🍀 Luck: 7
🛡️ Endurance: 26
(Remaining stat points: 0)
⚔ PLAYER STATUS ⚔
Name:
Lee Shin-woo (Year 0)
Sex:
Male (18)
Height · Weight:
170.7cm · 58.4kg
Alignment:
Lawful · Good
⚡ Strength: 25
💨 Agility: 21
✨ Magic Power: 35
💪 Stamina: 27
🍀 Luck: 57
🛡️ Endurance: 23
(Remaining stat points: 0)
An Hyeon and An Sol were so surprising that Park Dong-geol's and Lee Shin-woo's stats weren't that bad in comparison. (Though that's not to say they were good.)
Park Dong-geol's base stats were just enough to survive the Rite of Passage. However, his alignment was a concern. The combination of Devil and Chaos was rare. For these to appear together strongly suggested that Park Dong-geol was a criminal in the modern world, and it was synonymous with a high probability of him becoming a ‘Vagrant’ in the Hall Plain.
In contrast, Lee Shin-woo's stats were slightly insufficient to pass the Rite of Passage, but his Magic Power was decent. His Luck stat also showed high potential, considering he was just starting out. The combination of Lawful and Good was also rare, suggesting he was likely good-natured.
Right now, except for me and the man named Park Dong-geol, everyone else was too preoccupied with themselves or the person next to them. An unpleasant desire flickered in Park Dong-geol's eyes. His greedy gaze darted around, mostly fixated on the women. I'd seen that kind of gaze thousands of times, and there was a time I, too, had those eyes. I felt like I could roughly guess the nature of that desire. And though it was just speculation, if Park Dong-geol was a criminal, I thought I knew what kind of crime he had committed.
Seeing him lick his lips while staring at An Sol, who was clinging to An Hyeon, solidified my thoughts. I had no grounds to judge him now, but I couldn't help but find him pathetic.
Clicking my tongue, I was about to activate The Third Eye on the two remaining women.
“Ah, shit.”
At that moment, Park Dong-geol's coarse voice echoed loudly across the clearing.