Chapter 68. Nightmare (3)
[Congratulations!]
[You have defeated all the Dream Demons!]
[The nightmare has receded.]
[You are freed from fear and hallucinations.]
It was finally over. The elixir’s effect had faded, but the nightmare’s influence returned for only a few seconds. Yet, even a few seconds of feeling that heavy, lifeless leg was far from light.
Ji-Eun and Jae-Hyuk supported him by the arms. Eun-Ho straightened himself and nodded in gratitude, before standing on his own two feet again.
“What is this, Hyungnim?” Jae-Hyuk asked, pointing to the fallen item.
“I have no idea... Was it just for me?”
“Oooh! That must’ve been the boss monster!”
“Congratulations, Eun-Ho!” Ji-Eun cheered.
Even if they hadn’t delivered the final blow, the other two had fought hard,
Feeling it would be awkward to hoard the reward silently, he added with a small bow, “I guess there’s only one... It would’ve been nice if we each got one.”
“Come on, we only survived thanks to you! Go on, check it out!”
Eun-Ho then picked up the orb that had dropped from the Dream Demon. Its smooth surface felt strange, as if a glass had been rolled into a perfect sphere.
[Orb of Phantasms]
- Casts a hallucination on a chosen target.
- The content of the hallucination can be anything the user desires. The duration is approximately 1 minute. Affected by the target's mental resilience.
Only one minute? No, wait. This is insane.
He paused. Showing any hallucination he wanted, whenever he wanted, would make him invincible in battle. Moreover, he could also create decoys for ambushes, or escape certain death by distracting enemies. It was the ultimate escape and misdirection tool!
This one needs to be saved for an emergency.
Then, a welcome chime rang out.
[You have completed the Nightmare trial!]
[Please check your trial rewards!]
The tension along his spine finally eased, and the icy grip on his skin lifted. One by one, the survivors raised their heads. Eyes that had been staring into nowhere, trapped in their own horrors, finally returned to the present.
“Holy shit! You’re alive?!”
“Of course.”
“Ha... I thought I was the only one left...”
They were back in reality, but not all the way.
“Kuk!”
The sensations had returned, but their mistakes in the dream hadn’t vanished.
“Kyaaaah!”
A spear held by a trembling man had run through another man’s torso.
“You bastard!”
“Hyung?! Why...?!”
They likely thought each other was a Dream Demon, not the man who had always protected him.
“Keugh! Don’t move... It’ll hurt worse...”
“W-wait! Just a second! Where’s the bandage!” The man dropped the spear as if it burned him, shouting frantically, “Shop! Shop!”
A bandage appeared from the system, and his hands trembled as he wrapped it desperately around the wound. Every inch of gauze carried his raw plea for forgiveness and survival.
The man with the pierced side finally exhaled in relief.
“You okay, bro?!”
“You idiot... What if I really died?”
He seemed more relieved that his brother hadn’t killed him than about surviving the wound. If he had died, his brother would’ve carried that weight forever, destroying himself with guilt.
“Ah... If he was a little slower, he might have—” Ji-Eun muttered.
“Right? That was close!” Jae-Hyuk said, clutching his chest.
Ji-Eun mirrored his gesture, both of them exhaling in relief. However, it had been the same for the couple from Namsan Tower, who had nearly killed each other.
“Kyaaa! Let go of me!”
“... Who are you?!” The boyfriend jolted awake, horror dawning on his face. No wonder, because his hand was gripping the wrist of a stranger, not his girlfriend. “Soo-Jung! Where are you, Soo-Jung?!”
He shoved through the crowd in a panic until he found her sitting on the ground in shock, right in front of the Dream Demon Eun-Ho had slain.
“Hic!”
“Soo-Jung! Are you okay?!”
“I-I almost died...”
The man said nothing and only gathered her into his arms. Had Eun-Ho been a little late, the man would’ve been cradling a corpse. After a tearful reunion, they approached Eun-Ho together, their hands locked as if they would never let go again.
“Um... Thank you for saving my girlfriend!”
“Thank you,” the pale woman whispered, trembling.
“And we’re sorry about yesterday.”
“Huh?”
“At first, I was frustrated. It felt like you were accusing someone innocent for no reason and pressuring us without evidence...”
Someone innocent...
However, he understood. From their perspective, they had simply been taking a walk and then were accused as attempted murderers.
“It’s fine. I understand,” Eun-Ho replied.
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t know. Now, I see that you’re not that kind of person.”
The couple apologized several more times before leaving, probably expressing their gratitude for survival through apology. Eun-Ho hadn’t been angry to begin with. Meanwhile, there were even more injured.
“A lot of people died...” Ji-Eun said quietly.
“At least fifty of them,” Eun-Ho replied.
Before the trial, there had been roughly two hundred survivors in the Yongsan District. Now, barely one hundred and fifty remained.
If they hadn’t killed the Dream Demons, they would’ve been trapped in an endless nightmare, tearing each other apart until no one was left. Even under the blazing midday sun, Eun-Ho shivered at the thought and rubbed his arms.
His companions approached, relief and concern mixing on their faces.
“Sol-Ah! Are you okay?!” Ji-Eun cried out and rushed ahead to the girl, who had gone pale as a sheet and slumped to the ground.
“Haaah...”
The cleaning lady hurried over, thrusting a small, round vial of blue liquid into Sol-Ah’s hands. “Student! Drink this!”
Eun-Ho recognized immediately that it was the Watered-Down Fatigue Recovery Potion.
The cleaning lady pressed another one into his hands. “Here! Young Man, you too!”
“Me as well?” Eun-Ho asked.
“Of course! You worked so hard to protect us!”
“Huh?”
“Honestly... You’re so softhearted. How are you going to survive in a world like this?”
Eun-Ho hadn’t done it for praise. Killing Dream Demons had simply been part of surviving the trial. Still, the earnest gesture and words stirred an odd, almost embarrassing warmth in his chest.
“Well, I guess...”
“What do you mean, I guess! Look at you, you’re soaked in sweat!”
Dragging his stiff legs around and fighting for his life in that nightmare had drenched him. Truly, it was a nightmare in every sense.
“Thank you,” he said, finally accepting the bottle.
Her hands clutched it so firmly that refusal would’ve felt like an insult. Sol-Ah stared silently at the vial in her own hands.
“You’re having a lot of medicine today,” she murmured softly.
“That’s just how adults get by,” Eun-Ho replied.
“Isn’t it just you?”
“Nah, everyone does,” he said simply.
With that, both Eun-Ho and Sol-Ah drank, feeling the light warmth of recovery return to them.
[Attention, all survivors in the Yongsan District.]
The long-awaited system announcement rang out like fireworks above their heads.
[Congratulations!]
[The Entrance Exam has concluded!]
“Wow... It’s finally over?”
“I guess Character Evaluation was the last step!”
From the Shadow Path trial in the tunnel to the Nightmare trial, the Entrance Exam had been grueling.
“Aaah... It really does feel like finishing a school exam.”
“You never study, and yet you always live for the last day of exams.”
“What? Yoon Sol-Ah, do you want to die?”
Now that the test was over, there was only one thing left: getting their results back.
[Combining results from the Aptitude Assessment and Character Evaluation to calculate the final Entrance Exam grade.]
[Your final score is being calculated.]
“Gah! We get graded for this?!”
“Getting graded is good. That means extra rewards,” Eun-Ho explained calmly.
The Swear-Master cursed and clawed at his hair. “Easy for you to say! You’re obviously getting an S again! I’m doomed!”
Eun-Ho knew better than to tease him, who’d never once received bonus rewards before.
[The evaluation results will now be announced.]
Eun-Ho couldn’t help but feel a flicker of expectation. Both previous evaluations had been S and S+. Naturally, he found himself hoping for at least S again, maybe even S+.
If it’s S+, I’ll get more education points too. And the Welfare Points should be substantial.
He had earned enough to make a serious haul at the intermediate-tier shop. Eun-Ho was already thinking about weapons and armor to get when the notification landed like a hammer.
[Your final evaluation grade is X.]
Huh? X?
***
“You’ve done great Lady Harona!”
“Hah...”
Harona exhaled the breath she’d been holding as Seung ran up to hand her a bottle of water.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
She wet her throat and finally let the sandpile of tension collapse. “Haaah... My heart is still racing...”
Even someone as famously blunt as Harona had struggled with this report, especially after the unexpected complications at the very end.
“I nearly ruined everything right at the finish line.”
“Exactly. Of all times, it had to be when all the executives were present, talking about trial interference, penalties and whatnot...”
“Right? I was really worried they might change their decision after hearing all that. We were lucky.”
“Lucky” was the word she used, though her face remained tight.
“Are you sure we were lucky?” Seung asked.
The penalty wasn’t the only surprise.
“The Director...” Seung lowered his voice, glancing around nervously.
He nearly voiced the unthinkable: What was he thinking, giving such an order? Of course, a mere rookie employee had no place to judge whether something their leader personally ordered was right or wrong.
Noticing his hesitation, Harona responded, “He’s testing the subject’s capacity.”
It sounded more like a muttered thought than an answer.
Harona was thinking that the Director was testing the measure of the candidate, as well as testing her own judgment in choosing him.
“As brilliant as he is, can he satisfy the Director?” Seung asked.
“For the time being, all we can do is watch.”
“Are you not worried?”
Harona’s eyes glinted with a strange mix of tension and excitement. “I am... But I’m also looking forward to it.”
It was a mix of worry of sharing his fate, along with the thrill of wondering what he would do next. Based on how her black eyes gleamed like a gourmet about to taste a rare delicacy, it was obvious which feeling was stronger.
“Let’s begin.”
***
Of all letters, it had to be X. The same monogram the woman Eun-Ho’d killed the other day used. His head throbbed, but his companions were blissfully unaware.
“Woohoo! I got an A!”
“Congrats, Jae-Hyuk!”
“Awesome! What did you get, Noonim?”
“I also got an A! I guess killing those Dream Demons really boosted my score.”
Jae-Hyuk turned to Eun-Ho with absolute confidence. “Hyungim, you got an S, right?”
However, Eun-Ho remained silent.
“Uh? What’s wrong?”
Their attention shifted as he remained silent for a while.
“They said I got an X.”
“Huh?”
“Just an X?”
“What the hell is an X?”
As expected, no one had a clue.
Sol-Ah even tilted her head and muttered, “X is an unknown variable.”
Right. It’s unknown. It’s not necessarily good or bad. It’s a mystery. And they won’t even tell me the rewards or Welfare Points...
He then opened his status screen.
[Lee Eun-Ho]
- Affiliation: Sector 13, ROK-SEO-107 District, MS Tower
- Rank: Candidate (S+) → Selector (X)
- Stats: Stamina (17), Strength (14), Intelligence (10), Judgment (15), Agility (15) Endurance (31), Resistance (1,544)
- Traits: Rebel
- Skills: Acceleration(Lv. 4), Petrify(Lv. 12), Basic Swordsmanship(Lv. 3), Blade Wind(Lv. 1), Revive (Lv. -)
- Trait-exclusive Skills: Counterattack(Lv. 1), Defier of Orders (Lv.-)
Eun-Ho combed through it, wondering if he had missed anything, when another system message appeared.
[Congratulations!]
[An additional trial has been arranged to determine your final grade.]
“An additional trial? For me alone?” Eun-Ho muttered.
“Huh?” Ji-Eun appeared confused, confirming it was only in his ears.
Apparently, completing the Entrance Exam wasn’t enough, and he had to undergo a special trial just to be assigned a proper grade.
[The additional trial is optional. Success will grant double the standard rewards and a special bonus.]
That got his attention.
“What if I refuse?” Eun-Ho replied.
[Refusal carries no penalty. Your existing rewards will remain.]
It was comforting to hear that there was no penalty for saying no.
[Note: Additional trials are opportunities granted only to exceptional subjects who demonstrated outstanding results!]
Exceptional subjects, outstanding results, and opportunities... The system is basically laying it on thick.
[Do you accept the challenge?]
Hmm... What should I do?