“Who is it?”

Someone was on the island. He didn’t look too familiar. I couldn’t recall his name, but I think he was a high-intermediate rank hero who often appeared on variety shows.

“Wait…”

Could it be that all players on the highest difficulty shared the same sea? I never thought about that when I created my setting.

— O-Oi! Oiii!

The man also spotted me and waved as I sailed past. I had no intentions of letting him on board, but I didn’t mind giving him some food.

“Must be a green ticket.”

The man didn’t have anything, not even the basic weapon and food supply. Honestly, choosing the hardest difficulty with a green ticket was suicide. The system should’ve warned him, but he probably didn’t listen.

— Here! Here! Uhaha! Over here!

The man jumped excitedly as I took out a glossy seafish from my inventory. Then a dark shadow appeared underneath the island. I didn’t have time to think at all.

Puaaaa—

The giant fish’s mouth suddenly shot up from the water. It had 2 sharp fangs on each side of its jaws and promptly swallowed the entire island.

[You have spotted an island devourer.] Monster Encyclopedia [Island Devourer] [Tutorial-only Monster] — This monster hates those who only stay on one island. However, who it seeks depends solely on luck.

A system alert popped up.

“Whoa, whoa.”

I broke out into cold sweat. However, I didn’t have time to sit still. The shadow that swallowed an entire island crept up on me. I quickly began to paddle away. However, it only grew closer. I couldn’t do anything against it with a mere paddle, so I quickly opened my inventory.

[Inventory] [Random Dice x3]

I could keep a maximum of 5 random dice, so I saved them for emergencies since they could become anything I desired. I picked up the dice and thought hard.

Please become something that can save me from that thing. Something like an attachable engine to my boat…

Drrr— I rolled the dice while praying.

“What?”

However, it mercilessly betrayed me and became a strange mango. At first, I didn’t even notice it had turned into a mango. It just looked like a yellowish-orange fruit, but as big as a watermelon.

[Lv.3 Big and Juicy Mango]

I would’ve thought it was some kind of exotic fruit if it wasn’t for the status window.

“The hell is this?”

I checked the item description just in case.

[Lv.3 Big and Juicy Mango] — A big, juicy mango. A very precious fruit that can sometimes be used as medicine. Lv.2 Vitality Recovery, Lv.4 Satiability

A Lv.3 item! Most items in the tutorial were only Lv.0-Lv.2. This mango was certainly a good item, but it was useless in this situation. What would filling up my belly do when I was about to enter a belly myself?

—Drrk.

“Shit…”

The island devourer’s fin grazed my boat. I had a strong hunch it wanted to eat me. My heart violently thumped, but I had grown used to this by now. As a mercenary, I had lived through much more dangerous situations. I didn’t even have time to throw another dice and frantically racked my brain. Mango. A delicious, juicy mango. A lightbulb suddenly went off in my head.

“H-Hey! Eat this instead of me!”

I held the mango forward and wafted it back and forth. The shadow slowed down, at least that’s what it looked like.

“This is a precious food you can never taste in the tutorial.”

As I said, Lv.3 items couldn’t be found in the tutorial.

“So take it!”

I threw the mango as far away as I could. Whiiish— With Master Sharpshooter’s help, the mango drew a beautiful arc and landed 400-500 meters away.

Plop!

Water splashed on my face as the giant creature changed course and swam towards the mango.

“Whew.”

The giant shadow grew farther away. Thud. I fell on my butt without any energy left. I definitely never created such a creature in my tutorial.

“I knew this would happen.”

It didn’t surprise me. I often received comments about the original story like, Isn’t the highest difficulty too easy? I always gave the excuse, It’s not that the tutorial is easy, but Kim Suho’s gift is just broken.

“Haaa…”

I barely avoided death. The scene of an entire island being swallowed still lingered on my mind.

“Mango, mango, mango…”

I murmured the same word in a daze.

***

“Auu, I’m getting seasick.”

Six days had passed since then. Today, the waves became fiercer than usual. The past few days had been quite spectacular. I almost fell overboard from a sudden storm and an intermediate rank, grade 8 sea monster almost ate me. I barely managed to survive both using my red crystal weapons and the random dice.

[Lv.2 Sea Tiger’s Oil] — An oil that will drive away sea monsters. Lv.1 Low-intermediate rank or lower monster repellent, Lv.1 Shock absorbent, waterproof coating

[Lv.2 Magical Repair Ointment] — A mystical ointment that will work on items. Will restore the durability of items under Lv.1

These two items served me especially well on my journey.

“I want to be on land.”

I started to miss the land after being on a boat for 6 days.

[Your sailing technique has improved to Lv.2] — You can now sail across waters more easily. — Your sense of direction at sea has improved.

No, please just give me some land! I widened my eyes and peered into the distance. Then I caught sight of a small island.

“Nice.”

I paddled towards my new destination. Sploosh. The boat seemed faster than before perhaps because of my improved sailing technique.

I could finally see the island up close after about 20 minutes of paddling.

“Eh?”

I exclaimed in shock when I reached it and saw a familiar face.

“Boss!”

***

Yoo Yeonha chatted with Yoo Jinhyuk in Essence of the Strait’s team leader office.

[Why are you so curious about this?]

[I’m not curious. I just want to know the truth.]

Yoo Yeonha shared what she knew about the Kwang-Oh Incident. However, Yoo Jinhyuk still kept some matters secret, which Yoo Yeonha was now in the process of investigating. She assumed Kim Hajin was the survivor and wanted to know why Chae Joochul’s assassin didn’t kill him and who the assassin was.

[Honestly, I don’t know.]

“He’s lying again.”

Yoo Yeonha frowned.

[You’re lying.]

[No, I’m serious.]

[You said you saw him being admitted to the orphanage.]

As she typed, Yoo Yeonha suddenly wondered. What would Kim Hajin look like as a baby? She found it difficult to imagine it with his face.

[Yeah, some kid left him there.]

[Kid?]

[Yeah, 5-7 years old or 8 at most. Black hair… er, actually maybe that kid wore a hijab or something.]

[Do you have dementia?]

[Heh, I’m getting old. Time travel isn’t what it used to be.]

Having more information wasn’t always better since inaccurate information introduced needless bias.

[Anyways, it was a young girl.]

[Okay, thank you. Ah, by the way, have you thought about my offer?]

[No.]

“Tsk.”

Yoo Yeonha wanted Yoo Jinhyuk to join her information guild, Falling Blossom. He lazed around most of the time in his office.

[Think about it. I’m already being watched by Chae Joochul. What would he think if he sees you with me?]

[I get it.]

[Good, then send me some assault rifles.]

[What do you need those for?]

[I decided to form a small militia. You know how to go about it without being discovered, right?]

[Yeah, no.]

[What? Oi, niece, you—]

Yoo Yeonha left the chat and leaned against her chair. Ssss— Her eyes automatically closed.

“It feels amazing.”

She could only describe the sensation as leaning on an angel’s wings or sleeping peacefully in Noah’s Ark while the world crumbled. Her new chair was the best gift she’d ever received since she spent 16 hours a day in her office.

“Hnnng…”

Yoo Yeonha thought about many things while relaxing in her chair. Her guild members in the Tower of Wish, the high-intermediate rank monsters, the dungeons her guild planned to conquer, a cup ramen… hamburger… ssp. She began to drool.

***

Boss seemed skinnier since the last time I saw her. I wanted to give her a big hug, but we were both too dirty from staying in the wild for several days.

“It’s been a while.”

Boss leisurely smiled as she spoke. However, she didn’t seem to be in good shape.

“Boss, did you eat?”

“I did.”

She nodded, but I grew suspicious.

“What’s your vitality right now?”

“Vitality?”

“Yes.”

She blankly looked at the air, probably at her status window.

“… 90.”

“90?”

“Yes.”

Boss nodded.

“Are you sure it isn’t just 9?”

“Pft, as if.”

Her unnatural smirk confirmed it. Her vitality was definitely 9. In fact, it couldn’t be anything but 9. Boss’ stat restriction must be incredibly high. Kim Suho received an 80% stat restriction, so Boss should easily surpass 90%.

“It was hard at first, but I got used to it.”

“You’ve been here the whole time?”

“No, I went back and forth to find food.”

“Ah…”

Thankfully, the island devourer didn’t target her.

“Then let’s eat something first.”

“Okay.”

I took out a seafish from my inventory, but Boss left first.

“Follow me.”

She turned around with a smile and walked into the forest.

“Boss? Where are you going?”

“I thought this might happen, so I kept some emergency food supply.”

“Ah… okay.”

I followed her for now. Boss walked into the middle of the forest and stopped in front of a giant palm tree marked with an X. Then she removed the leaves underneath and took out the tutorial-only food bag.

“Here.”

Boss proudly opened the bag with all sorts of seafood inside: clams, sea pineapples, crabs, snails, and two small fish. It certainly seemed decent enough for a meal.

“Wow.”

I felt genuinely surprised since Boss’ main stat was magic power. This stat displayed exponential power as it grew, but only became more unless it surpassed a certain point. Boss must’ve caught all this food with only her physical abilities.

“There’s quite a lot.”

“Of course. I got to relive my old days of training thanks to this place.”

Boss proudly stuck out her chest. She clearly had good survival sense since she kept the food inside the tutorial bag instead of her inventory. The tutorial bag kept food fresh, unlike the inventory.

“You must be hungry since you paddled all the way here. Wait for a minute.”

Boss seemed to worry about me as she took out a pan and burner to cook. Tsss. I stared at her watching the food on the frying pan. After flipping it a couple of times, she turned the burner off and handed the pan to me.

“It’s done. You can eat now.”

“What about you, Boss?”

“Ehem, like I said, my vitality is 90.”

She meant she didn’t need it.

“…”

I suddenly felt something warm in my heart. Was this why she was the boss? Was this a boss’ duty? I couldn’t quite describe my emotions.

“Aren’t you going to…”

I took out a fish from my inventory.

“… eat?”

Boss’ eyes lost focus at the large glossy seafish. She glanced back and forth between the frying pan and my fish. She had only gathered tiny seafood together, but the glossy seafish couldn’t even fit in the frying pan.

Boss’ face turned red.

***

We ate all the glossy seafish in my inventory 30 minutes later.

[Cooperation is an important factor in climbing the tower.]

The system messaged me while I sat on the ground to digest my food.

“Alright, let’s start moving.”

“Moving?”

“Yes.”

The second tutorial’s performance-based points used an absolute and relative evaluation. You had to surpass a certain threshold to receive the reward even if you achieved first place.

“Let’s set sail. It’s dangerous to stay on the same island.”

“Sail?”

“Yes, there’s a monster called the island devourer. It’ll attack you if you stay on the same island for too long.”

“I don’t quite understand, but sure.”

Boss and I returned to my boat at the beach.

“Hmm.”

My boat seemed a bit too small now.

“We’re going to ride that thing?”

Boss seemed doubtful as well.

“Mm… hold on.”

I took out a random dice. It should be fine to use one since I saved up five.

“I don’t know if this will work though.”

I wished for a boat or materials to build a new one as I rolled the dice.

Tk. The dice became stuck in the sand without rolling. It seemed my wish was too much as the first dice simply turned into a wooden plank.

“Oh? What was that dice?”

“Uh… hold on.”

I rolled another one. Tk. It also got stuck in the sand again. However, the dice strangely shook this time. Then it grew in size.

“Oh?”

And transformed into a boat. It was only half the size of my sailboat, but it looked like an actual boat.

“What is this mysterious thing?”

“…”

“Newbie?’

“…”

Newbie?”

I couldn’t answer Boss. I only felt… betrayed. Why did I chop down trees, shave them, tie them together, and repeat all those tiring tasks? All I had to do was roll the dice a couple of times.

***

Boss and I set sail after I tied my old sailboat to the new one. Voyaging became more fun with someone to talk to. I obtained food from fishing while Boss focused on training her magic power.

“Ah, my magic power stat just rose by 0.3 points.”

Boss spoke with a bright face after about 6 hours of sailing.

“Wow, it’s increasing fast. When do you think you’ll be able to hunt sea monsters?”

“Now.”

“What is it at?”

“2.3”

“Let’s just eat.”

“Okay.”

I began to cook while Boss meditated. Today’s menu would be seafish sashimi. Sashimi didn’t have much calories, but eating it could increase your magic power. While I sliced up the fish…

Pssssh—

A large waterspout shot out from the ocean. The surface of the ocean split and a fish as big as a house emerged. It had fierce eyes that took up half its face and a mouth that sharply protruded. This ugly fish blocked our boat and stared at us.

[You have spotted a giant fish. Its information has been recorded in the player encyclopedia.]

Monster Encyclopedia [Giant Fish] [Intermediate rank, grade 9]

“Boss?”

“Don’t worry.”

Boss stood up and reached out towards the fish. Gueeee— It opened its mouth with a strange roar to swallow us, but trying to fight Boss at close range was foolish despite her stat restrictions.

— Pervading Shadow.

With a soft whisper, black magic power shot out from Boss’ fingers and entered the fish’s mouth. Soon, its body began to distort as though something dug inside of it.

Gueeee—

A different scream rang out. The pain didn’t last long as black thorns pierced out from inside its body.

“…”

Boss sat on the boat with a peaceful look. I pulled the giant corpse closer to check for any useful materials, but it had nothing.

***

[The second tutorial will end in 10 minutes.] [Good work surviving until now.]

A system alert notified us that the stage would end. Boss spoke from next to me.

“Looks like the tutorial is ending soon.”

“I heard.”

She smiled.

“Good job.”

“Thank you, but Boss is just dead weight here.”

“Dead weight… is a bit harsh. Didn’t I kill all the sea monsters?”

“That’s because I kept us fed. You starved every time you used your magic power.”

Boss narrowed her eyes. She glared at me, but I didn’t find it scary at all.

“I’m kidding. Good work.”

“You too, newbie.”

We smiled at each other.

[You have cleared the second tutorial.] [Player Extra7 has obtained 2008 performance points.] [You are currently ranked 1st out of the 78 players who cleared the hardest difficulty.] [You are the only player with over 2000 points and will receive the second tutorial’s reward of honor.] [You will be transferred to your waiting room in 3 minutes.]