"Huh? Huuhh?"
Sangjin made a shocked face as he saw the chocolate bar in his hand burn down to nothing.
One of the few things he took before coming out.
When he quickly checked, the contents of his bag and his pockets were disappearing at a fast pace.
Sangjin urgently looked at Hansoo and shouted.
"How did this happen?"
And then Hansoo shrugged his shoulders.
"Even if I have psychic powers, how would I know of something like that?"
"Ah..."
Sangjin looked at the emergency food in his hands that had turned into dust and made a resentful face but then realized something.
'Is it possible that the other's food also...'
As Sangjin quickly looked at the outside of the 2nd floor of the cafe that he used to be at, he heard shouts from all around.
"What is this! Which bitch planned this out!"
"Goddamnit! Some guy took everything that was piled here! It's all gone!"
"I'll kill you!"
A deserted city at a single glance.
A place that seemed very hard to obtain food at.
Everyone had obtained food from the store on the 2nd floor but logically speaking no one would have thought of going down to the even more dangerous 2nd floor after getting through the first floor which was filled with Green Worms.
Without Hansoo they would have probably had to starve for another 2-3 days.
And when the food disappeared in such a situation the anxiousness of the people had exploded.
And even rage.
"Ehh..."
As Sangjin groaned at the chaos afar, Hansoo smiled bitterly.
'It's really a god-forsaken world'
Not a single moment will be left in peace.
Firstly, because of that , all the foods that one had in possession will burn down and disappear.
Which meant that it was impossible to stock up on foods and then nibble away at it.
'That's why I told them to not take them all. Tsk'
If you leave it in the convenience store that it does not count as being in one's possession so it remains.
The reason why he had buried it was to share it with the seven after climbing back up with them.
The residents of the Otherworld must scavenge food everyday.
No matter if you search for every food within the corners.
No matter if you kill a beast, find a way to get rid of the toxicity and then eat it.
'If only it ended there'
And soon another change occurred.
White light started to come off from people's bodies.
As if they were shrouded with moonlight.
"huh?"
Sangjin panicked as he saw his chance and then looked around.
And then he drooled.
They could see where every single one of the 100 were.
No matter if they were blocked by a wall.
The moonlight was showing each other's locations and was sharing them.
When he turned around, Mihee and Hansoo's body had moonlight coming off of them also.
'Ah...'
From the feeling of being naked, Sangjin and Mihee clenched their teeth.
There was no way that their location being exposed would feel good.
'Goddamit'
Hansoo, who had been looking at the two, stood up.
Since the moon has risen, it was time to move.
"Where are you going?"
As the two asked anxiously, Hansoo shrugged his shoulders.
"Gotta do work."
It was a reward that could only be gained on the first night of the Tutorial and only when you clear the mission while the Moon was up.
The requirements were rather simple.
The problem was that it was on the first night.
Most people will figure out their situation after the first night and then will zealously hunt for food. Beasts will naturally come into their views and naturally they will get their carcasses to cook them around the second day but a situation where one cooks the toxic beast within the first day to eat it was rare.
The Jar that you obtain after all this is rather simple.
It hid the food away from the eyesight of the Moon and always kept the food inside fresh.
The name was a jar but it was in the form of a small pouch.
'And the storage amount is important'
The storage amount was five times the amount of food you eat within 6 hours.
1 person's worth meant 5 people's worth of space, 10 people's worth of food eaten meant that you could store 50 people's worth of food.
The fact that you could store food was very advantageous in this situation where that damnable was up.
He had to eat as much as possible.
'But...I should cook things thoroughly'
It was rather simple but to do that a lot of preparation was needed.
Since you need to get rid of the toxins within the carcass.
'Cooking huh. It's been a while.'
Cooking was one of Hansoo's hobbies.
Since it was one of the things that made the tongue happy as well as being one of the small moments of happiness.
And it was one of the basics of the basics in order to survive within the Abyss where the Moon came up.
Bubble Bubble
Hansoo leisurely boiled goblin blood as he was lost in thoughts.
'The current amount of carcasses in possession are four kinds'
Goblin. Green Worm. Land Mermaid. Barb Snake.
And out of the four, if you cross out the Land Mermaid that you cannot eat even after you cook it, it leaves him with three kinds.
And out of those the Green Worm's carcass was rather difficult to detoxify with the materials you could obtain.
'The main ingredients will become Goblin and Barb snake.'
In the Abyss or the Otherworld, if you can cook the beasts well then their meat becomes amazing.
One of the friends told him that so it's likely that it's true.
Bubble Bubble Bubble
Whilst he was boiling the blood to get rid of the toxins within the meat, Hansoo pulled out the kitchen knife embedded on the Barb snake, sharpened it and then started to chop the Barb snake up.
The Barb snake has no toxins so you can even eat it right away by making sashimi.
The only problem was that it was hard to catch and that there wasn't much to eat because it was mostly hard muscle.
"Mmm"
He took a slice, chewed on it, and then made a content smile as he gulped it down.
'It's rather good'
The chewy taste was rather good.
The seasoning was a little disappointing but the texture itself gave satisfaction.
Sangjin looked at Hansoo with a priceless expression.
'Isn't this guy just insane?'
He was eating the monster meat in such a leisurely way.
If somebody saw they might've mistaken him for eating sashimi by the seaside.
But whilst Sangjin was cursing Hansoo off, Mihee had a slightly different thought.
"... Is that something you have to do too?"
"What are you talking about?"
The one who had answered Mihee's insensitive question was Sangjin.
Mihee replied at that.
"He could just move away and hunt but he's doing that instead."
Hansoo had never done anything unnecessary.
Hansoo who had continuously reminded them of hunting was cooking like that which meant it was a necessary action.
There was only reason why Mihee thought like that.
She didn't know what Hansoo's psychic powers were exactly she could guess somewhat.
He knew what to do in order to achieve rewards.
Hansoo looked at that Mihee contently.
'Good'
She was growing up well.
But Sangjin wasn't really happy at Mihee's words.
"He would probably just eat it by himself this time anyways."
At those words Hansoo looked at Sangjin and then answered.
"You guess correctly."
"... Huh?"
Sangjin was instead flustered by Hansoo's confident words.
.........
"Goddamnit! What do we do!"
Jisun, who was grabbing onto Gangtae anxiously, yelled at Taesoon.
Shouts were coming from afar.
"Didn't the ones who went to the store first do some tricks on the food?"
"Let's first catch those guys! Their food might be different!"
"I can see them over there!"
The reason why they didn't invade was because they both had something to eat.
Since there was no reason to fight unless they were desperate.
But the situation was now much different.
If their food disappeared like this every night, and they had to find new food every time then they had no time to idle around.
They could starve to death at a moment's notice.
And that problem becomes worse as the size of the group becomes larger.
Taesoon looked at the ones running towards him from afar and clenched his teeth.
There was no way to hide either, since that damnable moonlight was showing every living existence below it.
And then Taesoon realized what that moon had wanted from them.
'It wants us to kill each other since the board was set huh.'
They could not face that amount of people.
Maybe if their numbers were eight or seven but with just five they had no way of beating them.
The reason why Taesoon was at ease was because they would have thought that there were eight of them and wouldn't rush in thoughtlessly.
And since because they were calm even when it became night like his expectations.
But the fact that there were 5 of them would be discovered at this point.
Whilst Taesoon was clenching his teeth, the girl who was standing quietly in the corner, Sunmi shouted.
"Instead of staying here, let's go to Hansoo!"
"What?"
Taesoon momentarily burst into anger and then gazed at Sunmi.
Sunmi was slightly scared by that expression but then shouted.
"Then what do you want us to do! Are you going to fight them with only five of us?"
"..."
Taesoon clenched his teeth at those words.
'He only has strong confidence'
Sunmi clicked her tongue inwardly but didn't show it.
Every person had a limit and if they went past Taesoon's limits in a disadvantageous situation like this then they couldn't expect what would happen.
Whatever happened, the strongest of the five was Taesoon.
Sunmi organized her thoughts and then spoke cautiously as if she was soothing Taesoon down.
"Instead of this let's cooperate. We aren't going to Hansoo, we're just combining our strength. If we become eight then they can't look down on us. After we buy time we can explain that our food has also disappeared."
"Hoo..."
Taesoon calmed down at Sunmi's words of combining their strength and not going to Hansoo for help.
'Yeah. We aren't going out to find that guy for help. We're just combining our strength.'
No matter if it was Hansoo, it would be hard to handle the enraged mob.
He definitely cannot ignore the strength of the five of them.
Taesoon, who had organized his thoughts, stood up and spoke.
"Yeah. We need to help him. Let's go."
'Retard. He seems to still think that this is a world where his father exists.'
Sunmi belittled Taesoon who was holding up his confidence even in a situation like this but didn't really add extra comments.
Since there was no reason to make enemies.
'Damn. I stayed here only because of the food but it was a blow. I should've noticed when that bitch Mihee stuck onto him'
Sunmi clicked her tongue.
She didn't follow that group because she didn't want to be pushed back by Mihee.
In this group, without Mihee here, her beauty was at the top and then she could probably control the two men with ease.
And there was no problem since she usually acted as the leader of the three who were here.
But it had led to this situation.
'I have to grab onto a new opportunity.'
Sunmi, who looked at Taesoon who was wheezing out pitifully, thought of Hansoo and ran as she bit her lips.
But at that moment something flew in from behind with a very fast speed.
"Uwaak!"
Splash
As the mysterious object latched onto his ankles, Taesoon's ankles were entangled and he fell just like that.
"Uhh? Uh?"
Taesoon tried to untie the yellow thing that had bound his legs but that thing on his ankles just got tighter and tighter.
'Fuck. It's a skill!'
Taesoon panicked and shouted while looking at this friends.
"Hey! Hey! Carry me and run please!"
But Jisun, Sunmi and others who were looking at that Taesoon, hesitated for a moment but then abandoned him as they ran.
Taesoon roared in rage as he saw his friends act like that.
"You bitches!"
"Hey now. Why is such a young friend like you cursing like that."
Taesoon spun his head as he heard the footsteps and the voice from behind.
Dozens of people who had red eyes due to being angry were walking towards him.
These people were extremely agitated from the fact that all their food had suddenly disappeared as well as the danger they felt from their positions being exposed.
While Taesoon felt the chills on his back from the eyes of the gang that could beat him at a moment's notice, the man who had been standing in the very front spoke as he laughed:
"How is it? It's called Orun's adhesive. While you guys were doing things we were also working. Since our numbers were high things like this dropped."
"..."
"But why is there only five of you? Where did the other three go?"
He thought that were eight of them but even if he added the ones running away there were only five in total.
Taesoon rapidly answered at those words.
"I'll say everything I know!"
He knew a lot of things about Hansoo's group.
If they hear about that they will be tempted.
And he was rather skilled too.
It wasn't impossible to join that gang.
At those words the leader of the gang who was standing in the front, Giltae, smiled as he spoke.
"Such a young guy, I like that you catch on quickly. I'll take you in. But after we take care of something."
And then somebody came out from behind.
'Fuck...'
As Taesoon saw the guy who he had beaten up to slip intel while coming out of the station checking him out like a snake, he gritted his teeth.
"You shouldn't beat somebody up because you feel like it. Since we're going to be together from now on let's settle things here first"
As soon as Giltae's words ended, an unbiased violence started.
Puuk!
'Uuk. Uuuuk!'
He had a skill too but maybe due to the enemy having raised his stats for quite a while or maybe because he wasn't on guard, it felt like his intestines were being twisted and turned.
But Taesoon held back his screams forcefully.
If he screamed then they will enjoy it more and he will become more pitiful.
'I'll kill them all.'
Hansoo who had turned him like this, and the four who had abandoned him, he would kill them all.
Taesoon grinded his teeth at the four lights running and the three lights at the end as he was getting beat up.
.........
Hansoo mumbled as he saw the lights running towards him from afar.
'They're coming.'
To be honest this mission had a higher chance of being selected out of the missions.
After seeing the statistics it seemed that this mission had boasted a much higher percentage than the others.
But he hadn't seen many people who had obtained this.
The method of obtaining it was simple.
Eat as much food as you can while the moon is up.
But there was a condition.
That you needed to be selfish.
And that it was only given to the one person who had eaten the most.
Since it was a Selfish Wealthy Man's Food Jar.
He could not share anything he cooked himself.
While he couldn't hide himself anywhere.
While everybody was going crazy from the disappearance of food.
If you can get through this situation and selfishly hide and eat the food, only then the Jar will show off it's powers.
As if it meant that you need to at least do that much to hide the food from the Moon.
'Anyways, the guy who had selected the mission really had an evil hobby.'
Hansoo laughed at Sangjin and Mihee.
"If you don't like it then you can leave. It seems like there will be a lot of guests for the meal.
First night of the tutorial.
The experience and the situation of the tutorial from the people of the Final Brigade had different but where was a common point.
That nobody went through it with ease.
Something always blew up on the first night.
'Perhaps I will be able to complete a lot of missions tonight.'
Hansoo started to warm up his body slowly as he chewed on the Barb Snake's meat.
Translator's note