The Second Coming of Gluttony - Chapter 28

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 28. Breaking Through the Dojo (2)

The Plaza buzzed with activity even at dawn. The arrival of Occupations had made Mission completion far easier than before, and survival rates had skyrocketed as a result.
In the past, they couldn’t even attempt “Normal” Missions, but now they could clear them without much trouble if they assembled a team suited to their Classes. There were even rumors that some teams of skilled survivors had succeeded at “Difficult” Missions.
The motivations that drove survivors forward were three in number.
Complete more Missions, earn more Survival Points, and acquire better abilities or equipment. As they felt themselves growing stronger with each point spent, their eyes gleamed with hunger, and they threw themselves back into Missions with renewed fervor.
In other words, a Möbius strip. Chin Si’a’s calculation had struck home.
“Yaaaawn.”
A man sitting in the first-floor Lounge stretched his mouth impossibly wide. He worked his jaw and scanned the surroundings—the posture of someone waiting for another.
Footsteps echoed in succession. His head turned. His eyes widened slightly as they lifted toward the stairwell. But only for a moment. He settled his chin in his palm and fixed an apathetic gaze on the figure descending.
A young man carrying a spear. The observer knew who he was: the top survivor of the Neutral Territory, once celebrated for solo completion of “Difficult” Missions.
The key word was *once*. Two months had passed, and he was no longer regarded as anything special.
Strange, if anything. He’d stopped taking Missions entirely, instead grinding basic training day and night with no rewards to show for it. It was hard not to think it peculiar.
Plenty of theories circulated about the young man’s behavior, but interest had waned just as quickly. He wasn’t causing anyone harm, he had plenty of Survival Points, so there was no reason to dwell on it. That’s all anyone thought anymore, and they’d stopped paying attention.
‘What’s so fun about running… Wait?’
The man, who’d been tracking the young man with his eyes, suddenly noticed a small irregularity.
Normally he’d arrive, tear off the paper with the running Mission, and vanish. Today, though, he stood before the bulletin board for quite some time. And now that he thought about it, his position seemed subtly different.
Soon he peeled off a single sheet and carefully tore it in half. The young man was gone.
‘The running Mission wouldn’t be there…’
Could it be? The man sprang from his chair. Without breaking his gaze from where the young man had stood, he flew across the space.
‘That’s it.’
He pulled down the paper from the second row from the bottom, far right.

[Surviving the Ape Dogs (Remaining Attempts 2/30)]
Fight and survive three Ape Dogs in the Jungle!
Difficulty: Slightly Easy
Success: Survival Points +40
Failure: Death
*Cooperation allowed (Maximum 2 people)

The man’s brow furrowed as he read the Mission.

The location he materialized in was a Jungle where ancient trees blocked out the sky and thick vines coiled everywhere.
Seol pulled a small pouch from his pack. He shook it into the air, and a pale pink mist billowed forth.
The pouch he’d just used was called the Meat Scent. It was a product sold at the shop that lured monsters toward the user. Agnes had been the one to recommend its purchase.
For instance, in a Mission like “Survive the Mountain,” it was faster to kill every beast outright than spend two hours evading them.
Seol intended to attempt every Mission at least once, except for those without combat like “Path Finding” or “Escape the Maze.” For that reason, the Meat Scent was an essential item for swift progress.
While he waited, Seol drank down Competence. He’d finished everything from the VIP shop, so he’d bought more from the general store. Better four times the efficiency than nothing, he’d reasoned.
The Ape Dogs possessed acute olfactory senses. They would come rushing over the moment they caught the scent.
Before long, rustling sounds tickled his ears.
From the side. Seol hurled the bottle and gripped his spear. In the next moment, the dense brush stirred several times before two Ape Dogs ambled into view.
The black monsters, encased entirely in jet-black fur, cut an imposing figure. Their four legs and torso alike rippled with muscular bulk—almost like gorillas, if not for the canine heads grafted onto them.
Of the two that appeared, one faced Seol head-on. The other circled slowly, deliberately, counterclockwise—as if to say *look at me*.
Seol tracked them with sidelong glances, swallowing hard. His throat kept drying, sweat beading on his forehead. This was the same man who’d stood unafraid surrounded by dozens of skeletal creatures, yet he was tense over two mere dogs. A far cry from two months prior.
In the grip of suffocating tension, Seol’s mind raced. Mana flowed in tandem, flooding into his spear to produce an eerie vibration.
‘Should I wait?’
No, he couldn’t do that. If he let the two line up with each other, he’d be caught between them. Better to—
‘Strike first, victory assured.’
The moment his spear aimed forward, the Ape Dog that had been circling languidly froze.
Just before the clash, Seol steadied his breathing.
Had a single step ever been this difficult?
He didn’t ask for a magnificent duel like in dreams.
Just to execute what he’d practiced.
‘Let’s do this.’
His stance was already set. His eyes hardened with resolve.
The moment he committed, his left foot kicked off the earth and his arm extended. In response, the Ape Dog suddenly veered sideways before surging forward viciously. It too had recognized the threat of the spear.
If he thrust now, he’d miss—that much was obvious. But Seol wasn’t idle. The instant he saw it dodge, he shifted the force of his attack.
From thrust to slash.
The spear, driven forward in a steep arc, sliced cleanly through the ape dog’s neck. The blade cut through like a knife through firm tofu and passed through. The moment blood sprayed from the wound, she leaped backward. In that instant, claws raked past her ribs with a whisper.
The ape dog, its attack narrowly thwarted, drifted sideways and carved a long furrow in the earth before turning. But even as it wheeled around at an angle, something sharp was already boring into the space between its eyes. The ape dog, its brain pierced clean through, trembled violently and collapsed.
In the blink of an eye, two lay dead. But it wasn’t over.
Seol retrieved her spear, which dripped blood, and spun her body like a windmill, sweeping the weapon through the air in a vicious arc.
Clang.
Bang!
The head lunging at her back erupted in a fountain of blood mid-air. It spun for several complete rotations before slamming into the ground. As the ape dog convulsed like a worm and then went still, Seol’s face went blank with astonishment.
She’d known one was hiding. It was written on the paper that there were three, so she could have easily deduced as much.
What surprised her was only the unexpected force behind her strikes.
For all her tension going in, the fight had ended far too easily, too simply. She felt ridiculous for all the mental preparation she’d done.
‘They didn’t even look that strong.’
The landscape had shifted.
Though it was barely worth calling a victory, Seol felt no joy. The fight had been an overwhelming success, yet something nagged at her.
‘Did I really need to fall back and stab? Was that necessary?’
Instead, she replayed the recent combat in her mind.
‘When I shifted from Yield to Thrust… I could have taken both of them down at once.’
Agnes had said missions were a form of training too. There were things that couldn’t be learned from basic drills alone—it was time now to accumulate diverse combat experience. Survival Points were merely a bonus, after all.
‘One more try.’
Seol pulled out the final mission slip and tore the paper in half with an animated expression.
She was finally warmed up.

In the Neutral Territory, the survivor wielding the greatest influence was undoubtedly Odelet Delphin. Not only was she a mage, but her Survival Points—over 7,500—had given her considerable advantage within her class.
After her Awakening and purchases of various abilities and equipment, Delphin had swiftly risen to become the most sought-after survivor. Yet instead of joining an existing group, she’d chosen to build the finest team around herself.
Salvatore Riorda from the same Area and Hao Win from Area 7 had joined her team at her invitation. It was no exaggeration to call this the strongest team in the Neutral Territory as of March.
“Who?”
“That man. The top-ranked one.”
Delphin regarded the unusually agitated Riorda with interest. What could possibly have flustered this cold-blooded archer?
“Oh—was it yesterday? I heard he’d started missions again.”
“That’s the thing though.”
“Well, that’s fortunate.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’ve been expecting him to start soon, so… I’ll make direct contact myself. He was actually my top recruitment priority.”
Riorda grew frustrated with the naïve girl’s future calculations, made without understanding the gravity of the situation.
“That’s not the problem.”
“Then what is?”
“Two days ago, every mission in the Very Easy and Easy difficulty tiers simply vanished. He attempted them all and succeeded.”
“Hmm… weren’t there hardly any missions in those two difficulties to begin with?”
Hao Win, smoking a cigarette with his feet propped on the table, murmured the comment without much concern. His tone suggested there was nothing worth making a fuss over.
The bulletin board missions were divided into nine total difficulty levels.
Basic.
Very Easy, Easy, Slightly Easy.
Normal.
Slightly Difficult, Difficult, Very Difficult.
Impossible.
Among these, the “Very Easy,” “Easy,” and “Slightly Easy” missions had virtually none remaining. During the first month, survivors had concentrated their efforts on these tiers. And the system had assigned few Remaining Attempts to begin with.
After Awakening, the focus had shifted to “Normal” and “Slightly Difficult” missions, but since the Remaining Attempts for these two tiers had increased substantially, it made little difference.
From the next tier onward, availability dropped sharply again, though teams attempting the “Difficult” missions remained extremely few.
The problem was.
“As of yesterday evening, a third of the Normal difficulty missions have disappeared.”
“…What?”
Delphin’s eyes widened. Yesterday evening—wasn’t that when her team had been attempting the Difficult missions?
“That’s not all. I just checked the board myself… the Slightly Difficult missions are vanishing at an alarming rate.”
“What did you say?”
Hao Win brought his feet down and straightened in his seat.
“Didn’t I mention it? The Plaza is in chaos right now.”
“Let’s go.”
“Let’s take a look.”
Both of them rose simultaneously.
Hurrying down to the first floor, Delphin was confronted by a scene she could scarcely comprehend.
Dozens of survivors were gathered in a tight circle around someone, their voices rising in an indistinct murmur.
In the center of the plaza, Seol was tearing up papers.
“What in the….”
Watching Seol vanish, Odelet Delphin found herself bewildered. Just as she was pushing through the crowd toward the bulletin board, she stopped dead in her tracks.
“Wait….”
When Seol appeared again moments later, the girl could only gape in astonishment.
One minute? It hadn’t even been two minutes, surely… The sight of him walking back with an expressionless face to tear up another paper felt almost frightening.
‘What did he just do?’
As Seol vanished again, Odelet checked the bulletin board.

[Survival Against Wendigo (Remaining Attempts 14/60)]
Survive a battle against the Wendigo in the Forest Region!
Difficulty: Moderately Hard
Success: Survival Points +450
Failure: Death
*Cooperation available (maximum 4 people)

“This is already the sixth one he’s done right now.”
Salvatore Riorda approached quietly, letting out a hollow laugh and shaking his head.
Odelet began counting slowly to herself. One, two, three, four… By the time she’d counted exactly fifty-seven seconds, Seol had reappeared in the Plaza, and only then did he move on to the next Mission.
He almost never did just one and moved on. Usually he’d repeat it two or three times, and some Missions he’d done more than five times over.
Before she knew it, Odelet had become one of the spectators. During the twenty minutes that passed, she heard the sound of papers being torn—twelve sheets in all. Every one of them combat-related Missions. The speed was truly terrifying.
The two men watching from the Lounge whistled in disbelief.
“Wow… is that even possible?”
“No idea. Look, he succeeded again.”
“Lucky. Gold mark.”
“Yeah, I’ve been wondering why he hasn’t been doing this all along. Pure winning streak, pure winning streak.”
Gold mark? Pure winning streak?
Agnes, standing in the corner, scoffed quietly.
‘Nonsense.’
They would never understand, not even if they died and came back. While they were engrossed in Missions under Chin Si’a’s spell, he had endured grueling training alone, tears and blood mixed together.
Wouldn’t Seol have wanted to do Missions? No. He desperately wanted to. He simply endured.
Everything he had accumulated, holding it back with clenched fists over the past two months, was now finally beginning to bear fruit.
Seol appeared and vanished repeatedly, as if he harbored some deep grudge against the Missions themselves.
Agnes smiled quietly to herself.

[Survival in Encirclement (Remaining Attempts 11/15)]
Survive surrounded by hordes of skeletal creatures!
Difficulty: Hard
Success: Survival Points +1,000
Failure: Death
*Cooperation available (maximum 6 people)

‘Finally.’
Having cleared every Moderately Hard Mission in just four days, Seol had begun a Hard Mission. He didn’t even hesitate before choosing his first attempt.
The location he arrived at resembled the hollow interior of a Cavern. The low ceiling stirred an odd sense of déjà vu in him.
“Long time no see.”
Dozens of skeletal creatures stared him down. Seol grinned and settled into a serious stance.
The space was cramped with no escape route. Here, retreat wasn’t the answer—advancement was.
The moment he saw the helmeted skull in the back open its jaws, Seol rushed forward like a flash of lightning.
He swung his spear with force at the densely packed area, and dull sounds rang out in succession as bones shattered. A sword thrust came from the side; he parried it upward and drove his spear into the exposed gap. The helmeted skeleton’s skull was pierced through; it rocked back and forth before collapsing.
Having secured space through this aggressive opening, he began swiftly eliminating them one by one before they could swarm from all sides.
Seol’s combat style was simple yet precise.
He blocked incoming attacks, then crushed skulls with thrusts. When attacks came simultaneously, he’d swiftly retreat, and the moment their weapons crossed, he’d strike at the vital point. He aimed exclusively at skulls.
The transitions between blocks and thrusts flowed as naturally as water, and as he worked without pause, his speed increased further still.
The combat experience accumulated through hundreds of Missions had made Seol grow once more.
The front ranks fell in an instant; the second line began to falter, and then—exactly as expected.
Grraaaaahhh!
A terrible shriek erupted from the rear—the helmeted skull commanding them. It hefted its massive axe and charged forward with tremendous force.
In that split second, Seol’s heart thundered within his chest.
It had been so long.
How long had she waited for this day.
How many times had she yearned for this moment.
She’d run through the simulation in her mind more than fifty times. There could be no margin for error.
Brushing aside the enemy’s attack, she retreated several paces. At the same instant, the skeleton burst upward from the ground with violent force. As the massive axe descended toward her head, Set’s eyes flashed.
‘Deflect.’
The falling axe and the rising shaft of her spear collided with brutal force.
Clang!
The shriek of metal tore through the air.
The axe could descend no further, and the spear could not be driven back. Yet something had changed from before.
Screech, screech-screech-screech!
Sparks erupted where blade met shaft. Set held firm against the skeleton’s assault, and for a heartbeat, a true test of strength unfolded.
A deep hum.
The raw force granted by the falling weight faded quickly, but Set’s mana surged like an endless spring, bolstering her strength anew.
“Hnngh!”
Having just managed to thrust the axe aside, Set seized the opening without hesitation. A sweeping attack left wide gaps when it failed—that was a law of combat.
As the skeleton tumbled off-balance, she drove her spear through its eye socket like a ray of light. The horned helm crashed against the spear’s tip and flew backward.
The skeleton’s half-shattered frame tottered and collapsed like a grotesque dance.
“Yes!”
Set let out a rare cry of triumph.
Deflect and thrust. What she had only imagined, she had now made real.
As she gazed down at the fallen skeleton, undisguised joy welled up within her. Victory thrummed through her veins—a sensation so electric that she could feel it a hundred times and never tire of it.
‘Wait.’
Part of her wondered: what if she’d responded differently? If she’d known the skeleton would launch a jumping attack, couldn’t she have won more efficiently without bothering to parry and strike?
Various possibilities bloomed in her mind, then faded. She would only know by trying.
‘Once more!’
Eager to test herself again, Set swung her spear with delight toward the remaining soldiers.

Even after successfully completing the “Difficult” mission, Set did not stop the repeated attempts. She’d generously left other missions for the other survivors, but this one she would not surrender. Each victory over the horned skeleton seemed to strip away the subtle pressure that had weighed on her body, as if her chest opened to the sky.
But soon she ran into a problem she could not avoid: caught up in the thrill of it, her Remaining Attempts had depleted far too quickly.
Given that she’d started with only twelve left, it was inevitable—yet unsatisfying. She felt as though she needed at least fifty more to truly sate herself.
Deliberating, Set committed an audacious act: she saved one final attempt and did something extraordinary.
She beat every skeleton soldier down as fast as possible, then left only one—the one that appeared to be the commander.
She’d had countless chances to kill it, but Set deliberately refrained from dealing a finishing blow.
“Get up, you.”
Gripping a spear in one hand and an axe in the other, Set looked down at the skeleton with unconcealed dissatisfaction. Not liking how it simply lay sprawled there, she prodded its pelvis with the shaft of her spear.
“Stand properly, skeleton.”
She kicked it hard with her foot, and the skeleton tumbled with a clatter. Its horned helm was gone—lost some time ago. From the dislocated ribs and shattered sternum, one could easily imagine what ordeal it had endured.
The skeleton stirred slightly at last. Its brittle bones scraped against the ground as it rose, but it swayed precariously.
Only then did Set toss the axe back to it and put distance between them. Clearly unimpressed, she watched the tottering skeleton with cold indifference, as though it might collapse at any moment.
A one-on-one duel was Set’s own inspired idea. Without being limited by attempt counts, she could fight as much as she wished.
Through thirty consecutive bouts, it still seemed willing enough to play along. But past fifty, the skeleton’s resistance began to feel genuinely desperate, and by sixty, its will visibly flagged.
She’d accidentally shattered a few bones during the battles through careless strength control, but that wasn’t the real disappointment.
“Do the jumping attack for me, would you? The jump. You understand?”
As the skeleton struggled to lift its axe with indifferent effort, its thin shoulder bone suddenly snapped clean off. It had finally succumbed to the accumulated trauma.
The skeleton froze, then slowly raised its eye sockets to look at Set.
“…Well, you still have your right arm, at least.”
Click-click-click-click.
It gnashed its teeth listlessly. Whatever the sound meant, it felt strangely like a plea.
“Fight. Now.”
At last it managed to grasp the axe again, creaking as it did so. There was something almost dignified in that motion. For a skeleton, anyway.
“Good. Come at me. Don’t the undead bear mindless hatred for all living things?”
Set flicked her spear.
“Let’s make it exactly twenty more rounds, and then we’re done.”
Did its spine just shudder, or was that her imagination?
It was then. The skeleton, which had stood motionless for a time, began to move. It raised its axe and charged.
Gone was the jumping attack, the fierce momentum of before. Only pathos remained. Set’s lips curled as she readied her deflection.
The skeleton came limping forward, and as it raised its right arm—
More precisely: as Set moved to parry the axe with her deflection—
Crash!
The skeleton simply opened its grip and let the axe fall.
The moment Seol’s gaze was drawn to the axe tumbling through the air behind him, he seized the skeletal spear shaft with both hands in a desperate grip. Then, pouring every last ounce of strength into it, he drove his head forward.
Crack—as the pierced crown of the skull shattered, the skeleton finally collapsed with a dull thud. Lying prone on the ground looked impossibly peaceful.
It all happened in an instant.

[‘Difficult’ Mission successfully completed.]
[Survival Points 1,000 awarded.]
[Survival Points: 85,280 SP]

Seol blinked.
“…Huh.”

(To be continued in the next part)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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