Chapter 2

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13 hidden traits!

"Useless slave brats! Can't you walk faster?"

Swish!

I came to my senses with a sharp pain.

But my body, unable to regain its balance, rolled on the ground, and only when my head hit the sand did I realize something was wrong.

'What's going on right now?'

I lost consciousness while watching the game intro.

And when I came to, this was the situation.

It's a very confusing situation, but my mind remained surprisingly calm.

'This isn't my body.'

Thick hands. Muscles that would make a fitness trainer weep, vividly present.

This isn't my body, but it feels as real as if it were.

Moreover, judging from my tightly bound hands and the current situation, I am being dragged along.

When I lifted my head, I saw hundreds of men also being dragged in a line.

Combining the fact that I was whipped with the current situation, the answer became clear.

'War slaves.'

They are defeated soldiers, captured as slaves after losing a war.

But what was even more astonishing was the large monster leading the way.

'Hydragon!'

The monster with nine heads and the lower body of a dragon is very familiar.

Although it's a monster I've never seen before, I recognized it immediately.

Hydragon.

A creature that every player of the game inevitably encounters, the first major obstacle!

A graphics blob has materialized in front of me.

Having raised and defeated nearly a thousand characters, I couldn't help but be familiar with it, but it was still abnormal to recognize a game monster so quickly.

'I need to get up.'

There's no time to be lost in thought.

If I stay down, I'll die.

As soon as I stood up, a whip flew at me.

The intense pain made my hair stand on end, but I forced myself to suppress a groan.

"If you fall again, I'll throw you to the Hydragon."

... So it must be the Hydragon.

Now everything is clear.

'Pangaea. Did I enter the game?'

An incomprehensible situation.

I should be confused, but surprisingly, I remain calm.

I grasped and adapted to the situation in an instant.

'All senses, including touch, are no different from reality... Then...'

It's a game, but it's not a game. It's extremely realistic, but I remember rolling the dice at the end.

All random.

Didn't I roll everything randomly?

If this is the result, there's something I need to confirm.

"Status window."

At that moment.

Swish. A rolled parchment appeared before my eyes and slowly unfolded.

<Stats>

Level: 1

Strength: 12 Health: 12 Agility: 12

Intelligence: 12 Magic: 12

<Talents>

【Health】【Constitution】【Intelligence】【Senses】

【Swordsmanship】【Shield Mastery】【Spear Mastery】【Axe Mastery】【Dagger Mastery】【Archery】

【Light】【Darkness】【Fire】【Water】【Earth】【Wind】【Air】

【Void】

【Art】【Scholarship】【Leadership】【Observation】

...

<Activated Hidden Traits>

【Void】

【Handiness】

【All Master】

【Weapon Master】

【Giant's Magic Resistance】

【Druid's Nature Affinity】

【Iron-Blooded Ruler's Heart】

【Beast Lord】

【Grace of Gold】

【Heavenly (天上)】

【Mutant】

【Gourmet】

【Great Sage】

...

<Time until Pangaea's collapse: 6.12%>

<<As the collapse progresses, the boundary between reality and Pangaea will break down.>>

<<When the collapse reaches 10%, the first crack will occur.>>

'Insane.'

I suppressed the urge to swear as soon as I saw it.

The status window did appear, but the contents were absurd.

First, the stats.

Originally, stats are determined within a range of 1 to 10 based on talents. But they exceed that, starting uniformly at 12.

A golden start I've never seen in five years of playing Pangaea.

Not only that.

'How many talents are marked?'

The parchment keeps scrolling down. Over 200 talents are marked, and more than 10 hidden traits are activated.

Just one hidden trait can make you a supreme being with the strength to move mountains and the spirit to overshadow the world. I have exactly 13 of them.

'Thirteen hidden traits.'

Even named NPCs who have eaten stars and transcended, or the strongest beings in the game's lore, don't have 13 hidden traits. At most, they have five.

Unprecedented.

One of them stood out.

'Iron-Blooded Ruler's Heart!'

A hidden trait and a linked trait that appears when all physical talents are marked.

It roughly has the function of 'not tiring easily, not being surprised by ordinary things, and quickly adapting to situations.'

Additionally, it increases 'Stamina' and 'Honor' not visible in the stats window, grants better quests, and bestows the 'Qualities of a Ruler.'

To have 13 of these.

After taking in all the hidden traits, I moved on to the next content.

'Pangaea's collapse. Boundary with reality? I don't understand what this means.'

I don't understand. What's clear is that things happening to me far exceed normal comprehension.

However, I can't afford to be lost in thought forever.

"Hey."

I called out to the man in front of me.

A man with his right middle and index fingers cut off weakly turned his head to look at me.

"Why?"

"Where are we?"

"......? It's the Kalzmann Desert, of course."

He turned away, his eyes suggesting I had lost my mind from the heat, and I asked again.

"Kalzmann Desert? Surely we're not heading to Faisalmere, are we?"

The Kalzmann Desert, located in the southeastern part of the continent, is a notorious land inhabited by three major tribes.

All three tribes are madmen who make a living from slave hunting and constant warfare.

And Faisalmere is a middle city where captured slaves are sold.

"Right. So give up on going back alive."

The lack of light in the slaves' eyes was for that reason.

Slaves captured and taken to Faisalmere never return alive.

'A starting point that should never be designated. If you're dropped in the Kalzmann Desert, it's better to delete your character and start over.'

It's a notorious desert from the start.

I once tried starting here out of curiosity but gave up.

Since then, I've never chosen the Kalzmann Desert as a starting point.

'Damn.'

It's my mistake for setting the starting point randomly. Who can I blame?

I asked my last question.

"Did the Kalzmann tribes always handle slaves in such large numbers?"

Even the largest slave traders usually handle only a few dozen slaves, but this procession looked to be over 300.

The man frowned.

"How would I know?"

"Why are we being dragged along?"

"Our reason for being captured? Well, we're stragglers from an expedition, right?"

"Expedition? What expedition?"

"Ha... An expedition to the Demon World led by the Eight Heroes. We were captured while fleeing after our defeat. Are you heat-stroked or something?"

Eight Heroes? Demon World expedition?

'Ah!'

... It's my story.

Or rather, it's the story of the character I played right before creating this one.

I gathered the eight strongest characters and the eight unique-grade items to form an expedition.

And I messed it up spectacularly.

We made it to near the Temple of the Demon God in the Demon World but couldn't open the final door, leading to a game over.

It seems this is known as the Eight Heroes and the Demon World Expedition.

"Damn. If it weren't for the internal conflict, the expedition would have succeeded...!"

Internal conflict?

What internal conflict?

I was about to ask, but at that moment, the ground shook.

At the same time.

《Main Quest 1: Survive!》

《Reward: Varies based on performance》

《Failure: Death - Both the game and real-world bodies will die.》

A quest appeared before my eyes.

Survive? In this situation?

What's even more shocking is the penalty for failure. Could the real-world body be my actual body?

The intro scene came to mind. Pangaea and Earth colliding.

Rumble! Rumble!

But there was no time to think further.

A massive creature was approaching from a distance with a rough sound.

"Three Hydragons!"

"Form ranks! Prepare for the attack!"

The slave traders, who were also skilled soldiers, drew their weapons and braced themselves.

The enemies, who had brought three Hydragons, began to slaughter the slave traders without mercy.

"Snake Princess! Snake Princess!"

"Snake Princess! Have you forgotten the non-aggression pact?"

"Aaah!"

Screams filled the air.

They were engaged in a slaughter, disregarding any agreements or rules.

Yes, it was a one-sided slaughter.

'If I stay here, I'll die!'

My instincts were screaming.

They showed no hesitation in killing slaves.

It seemed their goal was to wipe out everyone.

I took the key ring from the dead slave trader who had whipped me.

After freeing my handcuffs, I picked up a scimitar and prepared for the attack.

"Me, me too!"

"Free me too!"

The soldiers from the expedition saw the key ring and shouted.

They were soldiers who had set out on the Demon World expedition, after all.

I could expect them to fight alongside me, but they were all broken in some way.

【Lv. 1】

【Lv. 2】

As evidence, all the soldiers' levels were between 1 and 2.

Their levels had dropped due to physical and mental damage.

But even so, their levels were too low. For the expedition to be worse than a militia?

Thud!

"Me, me first!"

"Ouch! Get out of the way!"

I threw the key ring, and a fight broke out.

It means to figure it out on their own. I had no time to free them one by one.

Meanwhile, the slaughter continued.

Chaos. If there's hell, it must be like this.

'I need to survive.'