Chapter 5 …
Jang Sunam gazed at the sky beyond the horizon.
Every few seconds, a transparent hexagonal barrier would appear and disappear.
It was a kind of boundary system, a cage designed to keep people from leaving the tutorial zone. Unless the boss was defeated, it was like a prison that would never vanish.
“So that was just a mid-boss….”
“Do you really think we can defeat the boss?”
As the hunters despaired, Jang Sunam noticed an unusual NPC among the crowd.
‘That one’s strange.’
The NPC wore a hood pulled so low it was impossible to tell their gender, and in the midst of this chaos, they were quietly proselytizing in the corner as if exploiting a loophole.
Their silver tongue seemed effective—one hunter with tattoos of skulls, numbers, and a snake crawling across his shoulder was showing great interest.
‘Religious activity? First time I’ve seen that….’
On the hood was an emblem shaped like a toothed seed. That must be the symbol of the faith.
It was peculiar, but not worth paying too much attention to.
If it wasn’t in his memory, that meant it hadn’t had much impact in previous runs.
‘Still, I should remember it. And… it’s about time.’
The hunters around him were restless with anxiety, but Sunam showed no sign of worry.
After all, the tutorial boss was also a slime. With just a bag of salt, anyone could take it down easily.
The problem was…
In the first run, even after they’d discovered that salt was the slime’s weakness, countless deaths still followed.
That was because its real terror wasn’t brute strength.
Clap, clap, clap.
Applause echoed.
“Truly impressive.”
Turning his head, Sunam saw Aria approaching, clapping her hands.
<NPC>(F)
<Aria Linesis>
As he focused on her, a familiar marker appeared above her head.
‘Heh…’
Seeing that, Sunam smirked.
“I knew you could do it, Mr. Sunam.”
Aria came closer and naturally looped her arm through his, as if they were lovers.
“Now we just need to prepare for the boss fight.”
“Right.”
Aria tugged him gently, trying to lead him somewhere.
“Before that, how about we celebrate with a private party? I found a good place.”
“Isn’t a party something you do with more people?”
“Oh, come on… don’t you get it? Just the two of us has another meaning, doesn’t it?”
Aria looked up at him with a seductive gaze. Her stunning beauty as a princess could easily awaken desires that weren’t there before.
“Another meaning, huh….”
Suppressing a laugh, Sunam pulled a water flask from his inventory and took a sip. Then he held it out to her.
“Water?”
“Yeah. I drank from it, so if you don’t like that, I’ll give you a fresh one.”
“No, no. Between us, that’s nothing.”
Aria accepted the flask.
“Really?”
“Of course.”
She brought it to her lips, about to drink—
“That’s saltwater. Still okay with it?”
Sunam said with a grin.
“Eek!!”
Aria flinched and hurled the flask away.
Clang!
The flask clattered loudly across the ground, drawing everyone’s attention.
“What’s wrong? Something troubling you?”
“I-I dropped it by mistake.”
“A mistake?”
Sunam narrowed his eyes, smiling. He could no longer suppress his amusement.
Seeing that expression, Aria felt a chill and instinctively stepped back.
“It’s not a mistake. You just can’t drink it, can you?”
“W-what do you mean by that?”
Aria’s eyes trembled. Sunam slowly raised his axe and pointed it at her.
“Because you’re a Mimic Slime.”
“““──!!!”””
The hunters all recoiled in shock.
The tutorial zone’s boss: the Mimic Slime.
A slime that could transform not only into monsters but also into people—regardless of size, gender, or race. An aberration optimized for assassination.
In the first run, over 70% of all tutorial deaths had been the work of this one boss.
Fortunately, there was only a single one.
“…How did you know?”
Aria’s form melted and reshaped into another hunter. At the same time, the marker that had identified her as Aria changed to its true form.
<Mimic Slime (F+)>
<Boss>
“When I noticed a slime watching me from the sewers, of course I was suspicious.”
The moment he first obtained the Absolute Map, he had seen a brief “???” marker.
That had been this creature.
“You suspected even your own lover with just that?”
Perhaps because its disguise was its pride, having its identity revealed clearly stung.
“Of course. She was never my lover. You just made it look that way.”
“What?”
“And you, spying on me, took the bait perfectly—doing something Aria would never do.”
“Damn it…!”
The Mimic Slime scanned the surroundings.
Too many hunters!
With its weakness already known, fighting head-on was suicide.
So it transformed into a cat and bolted.
“The Mimic Slime is running!”
“Don’t let it get away! Kill it!”
“Salt! Throw salt!”
“If you don’t have any, buy it now and scatter it!”
Hunters charged from all sides, trying to catch the cat-shaped boss.
But on a road packed with abandoned cars, capturing a small cat was anything but easy.
Darting under vehicles, the boss quickly broke free and dashed toward the nearest alley.
Just as it was about to escape—
“Just as you said, Mr. Sunam—it’s heading for the nearest alley.”
The real Aria suddenly jumped out from the corner, holding something in her hands.
“Meow?!”
Shhhhk!
Before the slime could change direction, a ten-kilogram bag of salt was dumped over it.
“Kyaaaak?!!”
The salt smothered the cat-shaped slime, and its body began to dissolve.
“Kaagh?! Ack?! By an NPC?! An NPC?!!”
As its body melted into water, a strange-looking core was exposed.
Aria looked toward Sunam, who grinned and gave the order.
“Finish it.”
She stomped down hard.
Crunch!
With a satisfying crack, the boss’s core shattered.
For the first time across all his runs, an NPC had slain a boss.
The plan that had failed in the fourth run had finally succeeded in this one.
[Tutorial Boss has been defeated.]
[Best Slayer: <NPC> Aria Linesis]
[Tutorial Cleared.]
[The barrier around the tutorial zone will be lifted shortly.]
[Monsters will no longer respawn in cleared tutorial zones.]
[You may freely challenge other zones except for uncleared tutorials.]
[Reach the ending of the world you desire.]
As the system messages rang out, the boss slayer’s identity—Aria Linesis—was broadcast to both hunters and NPCs alike.
“Now the people of the Linesis Empire who worried about you will hear the news.”
“So that’s why… you let me have the kill.”
Aria bowed deeply, her face moved with gratitude. Sunam accepted it calmly.
‘Not that it’s the only reason.’
The truth was, clearing the tutorial boss didn’t have much effect on growth. In fact, having one’s identity revealed could even be a disadvantage.
Plenty of others in different zones had deliberately avoided killing their tutorial boss for strategic reasons.
So letting Aria take the kill wasn’t a loss. On the contrary, the benefits of forging strong ties with an NPC were immense.
‘I tried this many times, but it never worked in the fourth or fifth runs. After all, it depends on the NPC’s own will.’
And if the NPC was Princess Aria of Linesis, she could influence every NPC under her banner.
Whether Sunam’s gamble had succeeded or failed soon became clear.
[Hidden Achievement – “Savior of Strangers” unlocked.]
[Hidden Achievement – “Princess Aria’s Trust” unlocked.]
‘It worked!’
Sunam grinned at the two never-before-seen achievements.
Checking the system menu, he saw the two new titles that came with them.
[Title]
- <Savior of Strangers> ┗ Effect 1: 10% discount at NPC shops. ┗ Effect 2: NPC affection never decreases.
<Princess Aria’s Trust>
┗ Effect 1: Unlock secret shops of NPCs friendly with Princess Aria.
┗ Effect 2: Affection with Aria and allied NPCs greatly increases.
‘These titles are insane!!’
He almost shouted in triumph.
The shop discount was good, but the real treasure was the broken ability: NPC affection would never decrease.
‘At last, by the seventh run, I can see the path to a happy ending.’
He used to believe that killing the boss was the key to reaching the ending of the world.
But that had been a trap.
The real key was quests.
‘Up till now, I couldn’t complete countless NPC quests because their affection dropped.’
But now he could.
He could finally tackle the hidden quests tied to NPCs that he’d either missed or had been forced to abandon.
By gaining what he’d never gotten before, and strengthening what he already had—
‘This time, I’ll finally reach the happy ending.’
With resolve in his steps, Sunam strode toward the edge of the tutorial where the barrier was vanishing—
‘Oh, right. I still need to collect the tutorial rewards.’
He stopped, turning back.
There was still one last task to finish in the tutorial zone:
Survive for seventy days using the coins he’d stockpiled and claim the mail reward—the fortuitous encounter.
