Chapter 50 - Chapter 50 (1/2)

Jin-Woo doubted his own hearing just then.

'….Penalty Zone?!'

Ah!

He then remembered it; he didn't do the daily quest for today.

He was planning on confirming the results of his constant levelling up, and to help him decide whether he was ready to tackle the Demon's Castle or not.

Who could've guessed that things might unfold in this manner?

RUUUUMBLE-!!

Just like back in the hospital, everything began to violently shake.

Plop.

Plop.

The knights piling on top of Jin-Woo turned into figures of sand one by one.

The world surrounding him was changing.

'Ha.... hahaha.....'

Jin-Woo soundlessly laughed to himself.

For some reason, the words the System spoke to him before the beginning of the quest circled around inside his head.

[I wish you the best of luck.]

Was it trying to imply that the quest itself was unimaginably hard, to the point that he needed luck to complete it?

Or, was it implying that it'd cheer him on, as he resorted to borrowing the power of luck and earn a ton of advancement points that way?

Luck, coincidence, whatever it was called, he didn't care. No matter what it was, his chance had come.

The important thing was how he'd go about utilising that.

RUMBLE-!!

The tremor was getting worse.

Rather than wasting time trying to stabilise himself Jin-Woo entrusted his body to the tremor and closed his eyes.

'Let's not get agitated here....'

When he did that, he felt airborne and weightless, and all sound vanished from his hearing.

When he reopened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of the endless sea of sand.

Jin-Woo plopped down, face first.

"Ker-heo-eok.... Pant, pant, pant..."

His fingers dug into the desert sand as the held-up breaths exploded out of his mouth. Fresh air entered and flowed into every corner of his body via his lungs.

Finally...

"....I feel alive."

The sense of relief wrapped Jin-Woo up tightly, as he rolled onto his back.

He could see the black sky above with nothing in it. The endless expanse of the pitch-black ceiling was the only thing his eyes could capture.

This place looked exactly the same as the penalty zone from his memories.

'Wait, I shouldn't be wasting time like this.'

He had forgotten that this place was not a safe zone either, since he just made a miraculous escape from a comparably far worse area.

But, Jin-Woo couldn't be ar*ed into standing up any time soon, so while lying on his back, he summoned the Status Window.

[HP: 104/10270]

[MP: 202/850]

[Tiredness: 91]

He was wondering why it was so difficult to move his body, but as it turned out, the d*mn 'Tiredness' Stat was over 90.

'This is probably my first time that Stat has gone past 90, right?'

He really didn't want to even lift a finger here.

His health was one thing, but he figured that lowering his fatigue took priority.

"Store."

Tti-ring.

Two words, 'Buy' and 'Sell' popped up in the air.

Although the layout of this Store imparted not one hint of sincerity, no matter how kind he looked at it, he found it such a welcoming sight right now.

He picked out the most expensive healing potion on sale.

As soon as he confirmed the purchase...

Shurururu...

A glass bottle containing red liquid appeared on his wide-open palm.

Jin-Woo laboriously popped the cork open and poured the potion down his mouth.

Gulp, gulp.

The red liquid travelled down his throat and entered deep into his body.

[Your fatigue is recovering.]

[Your fatigue is recovering.]

[Your fatigue is recovering.]

Maybe because it was the most expensive potion, just one bottle was enough to lower the Tiredness value at a visible rate.

However, for some reason, his HP value didn't change at all.

[HP: 106/10270]

[MP: 204/850]

[Tiredness: 0]

Even after he finished the whole bottle, his HP didn't recover. It was such a noticeable contrast to his Tiredness Stat hitting 0.

'Why is it doing this?'

Only after he completely drained the bottle did he finally get to understand the reason for this anomaly.

Tti-ring.

[When your remaining HP is less than 10%, it is impossible to heal yourself with healing potions.]

What a simple reason, that – his remaining HP was too low.

'Of course....'

Even healing magic had its limitations.

It was not a foreign concept to him.

Just as a Healer's ranking determined the scope of their healing capabilities, potions too couldn't heal past a certain limit.

'And that limit is 10%, huh....'

He learned something important today. He might have landed in really hot water during a critical moment by believing potions could solve everything.

This was why experiencing it first hand was important.

Well, there was an old saying, wasn't there?

Things that couldn't kill him would make him stronger?

That perfectly illustrated the usefulness of personal experience.

And thankfully, Jin-Woo possessed experience regarding the Penalty Zone.

'I'm sure they should pop up right about now....'

And just as he expected...

He sensed the presence of lifeforms beneath the surface.

Jin-Woo tightly shrunk his body for a second, before springing up to his feet.

His entire body felt as light as feather. His strength had returned in full, thanks to the potion.

Standing straight on his feet, Jin-Woo turned around and took a look.

Just as he expected, the spot he was lying on a second ago began caving in and a crater formed there.

'Back then, I thought I'd die if I slipped and fell in there.'

But now, he had so much leeway that he was actually spectating on the whole process with some leisure.

At the very bottom of the sandy crater, the ground began to 'boil' and tremble about, before....

Pushuiiii-!!

The sand exploded up like a pillar and the huge centipede revealed itself.

"Kiieeehhhk!!"

Everything matched up to his memories so far.

'And I found this thing so terrifying to look at back then, too....'

But now, he couldn't help feeling like he was looking at some video footage being played in slow-motion.

Jin-Woo raised his eyes a bit higher.

And he got to clearly confirm those red letters floating above the centipede's head.

[Poison-Fanged Giant Desert Centipede]

Its name was in red letters, the same colour as the Cerberus from the Demon's Castle.

It was then, the quest message appeared before his eyes.

Tti-ring!

[Penalty Quest: Survival]

Goal: Please survive until the end of the time limit.

Time limit: 4 hours

Remaining time: 4 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds

Confirming the details of the message, Jin-Woo clenched his fist tightly.

'I can buy myself time with this.'

Since he hadn't used the immediate return stone to escape from the dungeon, he still had a shot here.

'I'm pretty sure that, as soon as the Penalty Quest is over, I will be sent back to that place.'

What if time spent inside the Penalty Zone was acknowledged as the time he endured during the quest? His advancement points tally would be enormous.

He couldn't even imagine just what kind of an impact that would have.

'However....'

However, when he thought back to how the System affected him every day, he was sure of this becoming something absolutely huge.

'Four hours!'

He couldn't even endure ten minutes and tried to use the immediate return stone, yet simply by transferring into the penalty zone, he now got himself four hours for free.

There was one issue he still had to resolve first, however.

And that would be whether he could get out of this place unscathed with only 100 or so HP remaining.

As it was impossible to heal himself using potions, he had to do his best to cautiously kill these centipedes until he levelled up.

It was kind of like a new mission for him.

'….Let's do this.'

Jin-Woo summoned the Poison Fang of Kasaka.

And then...

[Remaining time: 03:59:59]

….Then, as soon as the penalty quest began, he dashed forward, even before the centipede had the chance to move.

Jin-Woo closed the distance in the blink of an eye and lightly leapt up right in front of the centipede.

Paht!

He landed on one of the legs near the midpoint of the centipede and, as he made his way up, Jin-Woo proceeded to inflict several injuries on the body of the monster.

Stab! Staaab! Stab!

On all the spots the reverse-gripped Poison Fang of Kasaka brushed past, flesh split open and bodily fluid poured out.

Kiieeehhkk!!

The centipede roared out and thrashed about as if each wound inflicted was too painful to bear.

'Dash!'

Jin-Woo's sprinting legs became even faster.

Step, step, step, step!

Jin-Woo deftly treaded on the centipede's body and arrived at the top of its head only a second later. He gripped the dagger with both of his hands and raised it up high.

And then...

'Vital Points Targetting!'

He used his skill and stabbed down on the centipede's head with every ounce of his power.

The downward pointing blade dug deep into the flesh of the centipede's head.

Crack!!

['Skill: Vital Points Targetting' has levelled up!]

'Niiice!'