BXBX NOVEL Chapter 6
“Huh?”
Kang Hyeon’s brain momentarily froze at the unexpected message.
“What’s this all about…?”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“It says I can’t use it because the tutorial is still in progress?”
“Haha!”
Kang A-hyun burst out laughing, as if the room was about to blow away.
“Are you laughing right now?!”
“Ah, sorry. Then do you have to clear the entire tutorial?”
“I’ve already prepared for that… Wouldn’t it be safer to use my abilities properly as soon as possible?”
Now that the reality has started to change, I didn’t know what would happen. Although the difference wasn’t huge, if I could use my slightly enhanced abilities, I could be a little more at ease.
“But it seems to have been applied to some extent already?”
“What?”
Kang Hyeon frowned at Kang A-hyun mysterious words.
“Look at your body. Within a few days, you’ve gone from a scrawny anchovy to a normal person. No, wait a minute. Are you a bit muscular?”
Kang A-hyun fussed over Kang Hyeon’s body.
“Ah, why is this so disgusting?”
Kang Hyeon pushed Kang A-hyun away in disgust, but he was secretly pleased.
‘It’s true that something has changed. I’ve gained some weight and my muscles are quite alive.’
It wasn’t a completely muscular and handsome physique, but it was now quite decent for an ordinary person. I didn’t weigh myself, but I think I’ve gained around 10 kg.
“My body has really improved a lot! I was so focused on the goblins that I didn’t even notice.”
“Since it’s turned out this way, do your best. Everyone else failed at the 2nd or 3rd stage of the tutorial, but you’ve cleared up to the 8th stage alone. Wouldn’t that make a difference?”
Kang A-hyun was speaking in the most positive way for Kang Hyeon’s sake.
“You’re right. Alright! I’ll get through it somehow.”
However, Kang Hyeon had no intention of slowly and steadily completing the tutorial.
‘I don’t know when a crisis will come, so simply working hard won’t do. I need to clear the tutorial as quickly as possible and gain full abilities.’
My abilities may have already been applied, but it’s not certain. Kang Hyeon was determined to get through the tutorial as quickly as possible.
“I’m taking a day off from work again today.”
Kang A-hyun took a break again today. Just like the day the tutorial started, the outside was in chaos and she didn’t know what would happen.
A dungeon appeared in the middle of the road, paralyzing the traffic, and the police and soldiers were wandering around the streets. In this situation, she had no intention of stubbornly going to work for a few measly coins.
“Good call. Let’s eat first.”
“Okay.”
A simple meal. Kang Hyeon felt like the food was just going down without him really registering it.
“Whew, I’m full.”
“Yeah.”
“…”
After clearing the table, they didn’t know what to do next. Kang Hyeon broke the heavy silence.
“Let’s check the internet first.”
The internet was in an uproar, as expected.
-Isn’t it necessary to quickly clear the dungeon and level up before 5 years pass?
-I heard the dungeon will open in about a month, so we have to clear it quickly.
-Hurry up and put those ability users in. Regular people can’t get in, right?
-Do they think something will be there just because they go in?
-Those bastards who will kill living people.
There were already a lot of talk about having to put ability users in quickly, or that it’s life-threatening.
“Hmm…”
All ability users have cleared the 1st stage. That means they’ve at least gone through the 2nd stage and faced monsters. From the tutorial, such monsters have emerged and died, but no one knows what kind of monsters will appear in the main game.
Moreover, this is reality. If you die, it’s the end.
-I heard that about half of the tutorial participants have cleared the 1st stage, and less than half of that have cleared the 2nd stage.
-Ah, here’s another unfounded claim.
-But looking around my area, the previous comment doesn’t seem to be completely wrong. Out of ten people, there are only one or two who have cleared up to the 2nd stage.
-My friend cleared up to the 4th stage!
-Bullshit. They haven’t even cleared the 3rd stage.
Kang Hyeon sighed as he browsed the portal site to gather information.
“Geez. There’s not a single helpful post.”
“Yeah.”
Kang A-hyun nodded in agreement.
“But it seems the number of people who have cleared the 2nd stage is really low. You’ve failed 5 times, but you still cleared it, right?”
“6 times.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“There’s nothing I can’t do for my brother.”
***
Ippotranslation
***
After digesting the information to some extent, Kang Hyeon began to lightly stretch his body.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to exercise.”
“Exercise all of a sudden?”
“Do you think this body will just come out like this?”
“Tsk, it doesn’t seem that great, but the fuss is unnecessary.”
Ignoring Kang A-hyun’s grumbling, Kang Hyeon launched into serious exercise.
200 push-ups
200 jumping jacks
500 arm swings
There wasn’t much he could do for exercise at home. Moreover, Kang Hyeon was originally a person far from exercise.
So he just kept repeating the few exercises he knew.
“Ugh, huff!”
The first set was still manageable. But as he went into the second and third sets, his body became increasingly exhausted.
The exercise that started right after lunch continued until 6 o’clock in the evening.
“You’re going to die like this.”
“Hae, huff.”
Kang Hyeon couldn’t even respond to Kang A-hyun’s words, just panting.
“You were scrawny just a while ago, but why are you exercising so mindlessly?”
“Haa, phew…”
“Can’t you hear me?”
“If you fail a few times too… Phew! Your thinking will change!”
It is often said that a person grows when they overcome a life-or-death situation. If you go through the battlefield of life and death a few times, you can be called a veteran.
However, Kang Hyeon had not only crossed the line of life and death, but had actually died.
“Exercising like this, if it just means avoiding one more punch, that’s enough.”
“You crazy bastard…”
“What? Is it already this late?”
Kang Hyeon checked the time and immediately headed to the shower.
“I need to get ready immediately after dinner..”
***
Ippotranslation
***
[Welcome to Kang Hyeon’s tutorial]
[You have completed tutorial stage 2 so far]
[Would you like to enter stage 3?]
“Yes.”
[May your courage save the Earth]
As the familiar message appeared, the surroundings suddenly went dark and he felt his body start to levitate.
[Stage 3]
[Prove your perseverance and patience that can withstand any situation]
[Clear condition: Defeat the Kurka chieftain]
[Failure condition: Death]
[Tip: If you wait, an opportunity will eventually come]
As the message ended, Kang Hyeon’s vision brightened. At the same time, the area around him became noisy.
‘What is this?’
Kang Hyeon realized that he was lying down and covered by something.
‘This is grass?’
All kinds of grass and weeds were covering his entire body.
Kang Hyeon immediately recognized what this was.
‘Ghillie suit.’
It was a camouflage clothing commonly used by snipers to hide.
After roughly understanding the situation, Kang Hyeon carefully looked around.
“Kurr-ruk, Kuok!”
A quite noisy sound came from not too far away. Looking in that direction, he saw strange monsters roaming around.
[Kurka Villager]
[Kurka Warrior]
They were about 150cm tall, with brown skin and muscular builds.
Even just the ones visible, there seemed to be dozens of them, most of them being villagers.
‘They told me to defeat the Kurka chieftain. So the chieftain must be deep inside somewhere.’
The villagers had huge fangs of a large beast hung around their necks. The warriors occasionally seen had two of such fangs, seemingly indicating their rank.
‘They’re smaller than goblins but more muscular. And there are so many of them.’
The theme of this stage was perseverance and patience. The clear condition was to defeat the chieftain, so he didn’t have to fight all of them.
‘Let’s just wait and see.’
After that, Kang Hyeon lay down motionless, waiting for an opportunity.
“…”
He kept waiting and waiting for an opportunity.
‘Is just enduring this really all I have to do?’
At first, it was bearable. Unlike before, there was no terrifying hell, and he didn’t have to fight the monsters with a sword immediately.
However, that thought changed in less than three hours.
‘I’m going crazy from the boredom!‘
Staying completely still was far more tiring and stressful than Kang Hyeon had expected. Moreover, when the Kurkas occasionally passed by, he had to tremble in fear of their axes swinging down on his head.
‘In this state, if I get discovered, I’ll just die without being able to do anything.’
He thought he had gotten used to dying a few times, but this was a different form of torture. He even started to think that it might be better to just grab a sword and confront them directly.
‘No… Even if I clear one stage per day, there are still 5 stages left, at least 5 more days. I need to be cautious if I don’t want to fall behind.’
The thought of his worried younger sister at home came to mind. He couldn’t keep clinging to the tutorial indefinitely, not knowing what might happen.
‘I need to clear this as quickly as possible, grow stronger, and fully master my abilities.’
Reassuring himself, the time of patience passed… And finally, it grew dark.
During that time, Kang Hyeon learned a few things about the Kurkas:
They have a primitive but hierarchical society, numbering over 50.
The Kurkas living in the forest clearing, gather food through hunting and foraging.
The chieftain, an elderly and frail-looking Kurka, lives in a large tent at the center of the clearing.
The key point was the second one.
He still didn’t know exactly what the ‘opportunity’ mentioned in the tip was, but Kang Hyeon thought the most suitable opportunity would be when the powerful warriors went out for a hunt.
‘Even if there are still many inside, the chances would be much higher than fighting them all. If necessary, I can just ignore them and stab the chieftain.’
While thinking, Kang Hyeon played with the dagger in his hand.
‘But it seems they won’t be going hunting now that it’s dark…’
-Grumble
Kang Hyeon’s stomach alarm went off in the middle of his thoughts.
‘I’m so hungry, and my body is aching terribly.’
He had been motionless for half a day already. The hunger was a problem, but the feeling of his entire body stiffening up was making him feel like he would die if he didn’t stretch soon.
-Sniff, sniff
From a distance, the crude smell of the Kurkas’ cooking lured Kang Hyeon.
‘If I go out now, all the waiting will be for nothing. I have to at least wait until night…’
Desperately trying to keep his mind focused, Kang Hyeon’s eyes slowly started to close.
***
Ippotranslation
***
“Kuruk, Kuruk!”
“Kuruk! Kuruk!”
The sudden sounds around him made Kang Hyeon snap his eyes open.
‘Fuck! Could it be that I fell asleep?’
In Kang Hyeon’s vision, crouched down, all he could see were dozens of shabby legs. It seems he was caught tossing and turning in his sleep by those creatures.
‘Damn it. Damn it!’
As the crisis unfolded, Kang Hyeon’s head started spinning furiously.
“Ahem, guys… How about we solve this through dialogue?”
“…”
“You primitive people also have a kind of civilized life, don’t you? Haha!”
The result of the spinning was not very good.
‘What the hell is he talking about?!’
Anyway, the milk has already been spilled.
Kang Hyeon slowly got up from his seat and raised both hands to express his surrender.
“Let’s be gentlemanly first…”
-Thud
Kang Hyeon, who continued to ramble, saw the giant axe flying towards his forehead and gave up. That was Kang Hyeon’s last memory.
***
Ippotranslation
***
“Yaaaah!”
Kang Hyeon, who had woken up, roughly waved his hands and hit his own head.
“Yaaaaaaah!”
“Shut up! Why are you shouting and ranting this early in the morning?”
“I! I was lying on the floor for hours! Aaaah!”
Kang Hyeon ran around the room like a person haunted by regret for never being able to move.
“There’s a complaint from downstairs, so stop it, you bastard!”
“Ugh!”
The riot continued until he was kicked to the floor by Kang A-hyun.
“So you just lay still all day and died?”
“Yes.”
After a while, Kang A-hyun, who heard Kang Hyeon’s story, began to giggle.
“Hehehe…”
“Are you laughing because your brother died? Are you crazy?”
“No, he’s perfectly alive here, who died? It’s just so… Hehe, no, I’m sorry.”
She quickly left the room, covering her mouth with her hand.
“Where are you going.”
“To eat breakfast. I’m taking the day off from work today, so let’s think about it together.”
***
Ippotranslation
***
After thinking hard all day, the two of them came up with two options.
First: Charge in when the warriors are out hunting.
There are still many Kurkas left in the tribe, but most of them are women or children.
If done well, he might be able to break through and stab the chieftain in his hut.
Second: Wait until it’s completely dark.
This method seemed the most realistic, but at the same time the most unrealistic.
“How can a person endure for more than ten hours without moving?”
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