Chapter 10. Tutorial (8)

"Yul."

A person stepped forward.

He appeared to be the leader among them.

He had a sturdy build and a handsome face. A swordsman who carried a large sword at his waist.

Yul twisted the corner of his mouth as he looked at them.

"What? Is there still something left to talk about between us?"

"How... how did you...?"

"How did I get out? You don't need to know that, do you?"

"..."

The man tightly shut his mouth.

His eyes were full of confusion.

A team member he had left behind in the middle of the boss room, thinking they were no longer necessary, had come back alive.

How could he explain this?

Yul didn't hide his hostility towards them. However, he didn't foolishly reveal any murderous intent.

Even if his insides were boiling, this was a world where strength was everything.

Yul didn't have the power to take revenge on them right now.

Ignoring them was the best course of action.

"I don't know what you want to say, but get lost. You must find me annoying, and I find you disgusting. Let's pretend we don't know each other until the tutorial ends. As you know, I don't have the power to do anything to you anyway."

But even after saying this, the four people just stood there, hesitating.

They had no intention of leaving Yul's side.

Instead, they were busy exchanging glances with each other.

"What are you doing, all of you?"

Yul's patience seemed to have run out, and he frowned deeply.

Finally, the leader, receiving glares from the other three, bit his lower lip and suddenly bowed deeply.

"Let's put the past behind us and apologize."

Yul's expression twisted.

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

"Instead, I have one request."

"Request?"

"Please keep what happened here a secret."

"What?"

"We're going to... well, it's hard to explain, but please don't talk about what happened between us. I'm begging you."

The other three also bowed their heads.

"I'm begging you."

"Yul, please."

"Please, for the sake of our past relationship."

Yul tightly shut his mouth.

Looking at the people who had bowed deeply, the events of that time came flooding back.

The boss room he had barely managed to pass over several days. Himself, used as bait because he was no longer considered useful.

He had cried out in anguish, but they had left without a backward glance, coldly continuing on their way.

At first, when he met them in the waiting room of Area A, he thought he had met some really good teammates.

They were all polite and quite skilled.

Although he had been warned by the elders of his family about the dangers of the tower, these people had made him believe he would be different.

But those expectations were shattered.

"I don't know what you're babbling about, but get lost. I don't want to see your faces anymore."

With that, Yul turned his back on them.

The leader's expression turned complicated, and he bit his lower lip.

'This can't go on. If I leave Yul alone, the opportunity we've finally grasped will fly away.'

The leader, Kaen, was conflicted.

When they first escaped from Area A, they thought their hellish life was finally over.

Although it bothered him a little that they had used Yul as bait to catch the copper puppet, he had convinced himself it was a necessary sacrifice to save more lives.

Most importantly, Yul's ability was just to read the flow of magic.

It didn't help much in the strategy, so his absence wouldn't significantly affect the team's strength.

He believed that by using Yul's sacrifice as a stepping stone, they could save more people in danger.

So, Kaen led his teammates to find someone in the waiting room of Area B.

Build.

A player who had tried to recruit them before the tutorial began.

"We are called Arangdan. Your eyes really caught our attention. People with eyes like yours usually cause a big stir. Join us. We'll be in the waiting room of Area B, so come whenever you're ready."

At first, he thought it was just some weird guy.

But he later learned how big a name Arangdan was.

They were the top organization that had long dominated the tutorial.

There were rumors that they had some connection with the tower.

Arangdan was like a vigilante group formed to prevent chaos in the tutorial.

They created a stage where players could compete fairly based on their skills and tried to prevent all kinds of dirty tricks and deceit.

Naturally, they were very thorough in selecting their members.

They checked if the volunteers had engaged in any bad behavior.

If they had bullied or tried to rob ordinary people.

They were meticulous and thorough in their investigations.

So, for Kaen and his group, Yul's sudden survival was like a bolt from the blue.

'Damn it. If this guy starts talking...!'

He was supposed to meet Build in the evening.

Kaen and his group had already told Build that Yul had 'voluntarily' sacrificed himself to save them.

But if they messed this up?

It would all be over.

'There are rumors that Arangdan is directly affiliated with a major guild inside the tower. If we get on their bad side, it could be a big problem.'

There were such rumors.

Arangdan was rumored to be a special place set up by a clan inside the tower to select clan members.

Kaen didn't want to miss this opportunity.

But despite their apologies, Yul wasn't listening at all.

He had even turned his back, as if he couldn't bear to look at them.

'Rather...'

Kaen gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with malice.

It was hard to throw someone away once, but it wasn't hard to do it twice.

Kaen subtly signaled to his other teammates.

He wanted them to cover him so that this wouldn't be exposed.

Fortunately, they were in a secluded spot, and no one was watching them.

'It's easy to dispose of the body. Build doesn't even know what Yul looks like. We can just pretend he died in the boss room.'

His teammates looked bewildered, wondering if they really needed to go this far, but they reluctantly moved as Kaen kept giving them signals.

And.

Kaen cautiously moved his hand toward the hilt of his sword.

He intended to finish this quickly.

But.

"There's a direct organization of Qinghuadao called Arangdan in the tutorial, which selects newbies. But Qinghuadao is very picky and hates getting dirty, even though they can't avoid it themselves."

"What... Ahh!"

Kaen was startled by the sudden voice from behind and tried to draw his sword, but he screamed in pain.

A terrible pain shot through his arm.

His right hand had fallen to the ground, gushing blood.

"My hand! My hannd!"

Kaen clutched his right wrist and screamed.

Yul finally noticed something was wrong and quickly turned around.

The other teammates, bewildered, drew their swords and pointed them behind them.

There, Yeonwoo stood.

He casually shook the blood off his greatsword.

"If you have the malice to stab someone in the back, you should be prepared to lose a limb, shouldn't you?"

* * *

Under the mask.

Yeonwoo slightly frowned.

'Having to deal with this. It's disgusting.'

He should have just ignored it and moved on to Area B.

But for some reason, his feet wouldn't move.

It was because Yul's figure lingered in his mind.

No, more accurately, it was because the image of Yul, betrayed by his teammates, lingered in his mind.

'Betrayal.'

Yul's figure overlapped with someone else's, someone he didn't even realize.

A younger brother who had been stabbed in the back by his teammates.

Yul was in the same situation. And the people who had betrayed him once had come back to him.

What did this mean?

Usually, people don't leave their dirty secrets behind.

Yeonwoo knew this all too well.

So, he had just watched to see what they would do.

What a dirty sight.

He felt like washing his eyes in running water.

"My hand! My hannd! You, you! How dare you cut off my hannd!"

Kaen, clutching his severed right hand, screamed and then his face twisted. He glared at Yeonwoo with a murderous look.

"I'll kill you!"

The other teammates also pointed their swords at Yeonwoo.

But they didn't dare rush in.

Until Kaen's wrist was severed, no one had noticed what was happening.

'An expert!'

Cold sweat trickled down their backs.

They knew Yeonwoo had saved Yul, but they had thought he was just a passerby who had helped out.

No, they had thought that even if Yeonwoo helped Yul, they could still handle him.

But they were wrong.

Yeonwoo looked at them coldly and laughed.

"Who do you think you are?"

"You, really!"

Kaen, with his eyes bulging, lunged forward, drawing his sword with his left hand and swinging it at Yeonwoo's neck.

"Kaen!"

His teammates were startled and called out to him.

They weren't sure how strong Yeonwoo was, and a confrontation here could ruin their chance to join Arangdan.

But Kaen didn't hear them.

He was only thinking about revenge.

Yeonwoo stepped forward.

What should he do with people like this?

People who could stab others in the back but couldn't take it when it happened to them.

It was really disgusting.

Swish!

Yeonwoo dodged the sword aimed at his head and moved behind the man, extending his arm to grab his armpit.

Then he gently pulled the man's arm back.

Crack.

The left arm twisted at an unnatural angle.

"Ahh!"

Regardless of whether the man screamed or not.

Yeonwoo, with the arm still bent, jumped onto the man's shoulder like a cat.

He then forcefully twisted the arm and stepped on the base of the neck where it connects to the spine.

He was threatening to crush it if they approached any further.

"Grrr..."

Kaen's eyes were bloodshot, as if they would pop out.

"Try it. I'll make sure this guy can never walk again."

Under the mask.

Yeonwoo's eyes glinted coldly.