The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor - Chapter 31

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

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◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈

Chapter 31

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The watchtower always felt unreliable.

The young man rubbed at his rough stubble and looked at the senior beside him, who was lighting a cigarette.

“I don't think this thing will last much longer.”

“What won't?”

“This. The watchtower.”

He lightly tapped the floor with his foot.

Even that was enough to make the watchtower creak and shriek, leaving him to desperately pray it would hold together for just one more day whenever he climbed up.

“They say they'll repair it.”

“When?”

“Who knows.”

“It'd probably be faster to build a new one.”

“Could be.”

Harsh cigarette smoke drifted through the air.

It was not even tobacco. Some people had found grass with a similar scent and flavor and used it as a substitute for cigarettes.

The senior was one of them.

Perhaps because it was so harsh, hardly anyone inhaled the smoke deeply. Even with one between their lips, most only settled for what was essentially secondhand smoke.

“Winter's coming soon.”

“Yeah. Never thought we'd go through all four seasons here too.”

“Our Clan told everyone to prepare for the extreme cold. What about yours?”

“Same for everyone. We all live in the same neighborhood, after all.”

The view below the watchtower stretched out before them.

After the flooding during the Rainy Season, the fence had been extensively rebuilt. It now looked almost like a city wall.

The amount of logs put into it must have been enormous.

He had heard that the loggers in the eastern forest had made a fortune. At first, they had tried cutting trees along the outskirts of the Northern Forest, but gave up because there were too many Wolves, and they were too vicious.

“We'll need a lot of wood, right?”

“Of course. Firewood's essential. We'll need blankets and sleeping bags too. And fur pelts to line them.”

“Good thing rabbit pelts are common.”

“Still, you have to take those off when you fight.”

Both men wore coats made of rabbit fur. But as the senior said, those were only suitable for safe places like this. One fight would be enough to ruin them completely.

“I should look for something fur-lined. They're uncomfortable to wear normally, though.”

“They'll be fine in the dead of winter.”

Even as they chatted, nothing changed outside the watchtower.

The field was covered in frost from the night before. Countless rabbits wandered over it, while packs of Feral Dogs prowled farther away.

Groups of people could be seen scattered throughout the field, likely already out hunting.

“Do you think mobs will still spawn in winter?”

“It'd be a disaster if they didn't.”

Rabbit meat was the protein they could get nearby. There might be other kinds of meat, but rabbit was at least edible.

“Did you hear how the communal warehouse is coming along?”

“Not sure. Sounds like they can't settle on a price with the craftsmen.”

“Everyone should compromise a little.”

Item Storage Boxes.

The idea of building a warehouse using that technology had been around for a month or two already.

But it required a massive amount of materials, special components, and the labor costs of craftsmen with the necessary skills. The final price was frightening.

When the proposal first came up, the conclusion had been that there was no need to go that far.

Back then, though, no one was sure this place even had winter.

Now they all knew.

This place had winter too. They needed somewhere to stockpile supplies in bulk.

“If they can't work it out, I heard they'll just build a warehouse without the preservation effect.”

“Don't we already have one?”

“The current one lets wind through everywhere. Not exactly good for storing food.”

Many people lived inside the same fence while belonging to different Clans.

They had pooled their money and manpower since construction began on the fence. During that process, those whose temperaments did not mesh had already left.

So it was common here for people from different Clans to work together, like the two men currently guarding the watchtower.

To them, a Clan was only about as meaningful as a guild in an online game.

“Ah. Did you hear?”

“About what?”

“The expedition force.”

“The Swamp?”

“Yeah. They're saying it'll pass through the Swamp and go all the way to the Wasteland.”

“I heard something about it.”

“Aren't you going?”

“Who knows. I doubt there'll be anything amazing to get there. Winter's better spent resting somewhere warm.”

The expedition force.

It was a group being formed to hunt boss mobs in other fields. Apparently, quite a few people had already joined.

But neither the young man nor the senior with the cigarette cared much about it.

There was somewhere else they were curious about.

“Do you think he'll kill it again today?”

“No way.”

“But it's already been five days in a row.”

“Hmm.”

Juggernaut.

The master of the Northern Forest.

No one knew when that nickname had begun, but people no longer found it strange to describe him that way.

After the Tiger that had supposedly been the boss there was killed, several people, filled with either courage or recklessness, had set out for the Northern Forest again.

Few returned alive.

Juggernaut was not alone.

And everyone said that each person beside him was strong as well.

- They've grown too much.

- We can't stop them anymore.

People said things like that.

If anyone wanted to attack them now, it would take a serious number of people.

On top of that, anyone entering the Northern Forest had to deal not only with Juggernaut's group but with the Wolves there.

Fighting never stopped during the journey. Some people returned without ever even finding Juggernaut.

“His level must be high too, right?”

“Definitely. A small group is monopolizing the boss mobs.”

The senior flicked ash from his cigarette.

“They're nearly monopolizing the field mobs too.”

“They haven't taken over the whole field, though.”

“Anyone can hunt there. You can still enter if you want. But…”

The senior shook his head.

“Even that's getting difficult now.”

The Northern Forest he had experienced during the Rainy Season, when Pull Hunting had become popular, felt completely different from the one he had visited recently.

The Wolves had grown larger. Yet they had become faster, tougher, and stronger than before.

Every individual mob had changed like that, and their numbers had increased as well. There were more Wolf packs too.

“There aren't any gaps in that forest. They say there's nowhere to hide, even if you have stealth-type skills.”

“Ah.”

“Traveling through the trees is supposedly better, but then there are Leopards or something wandering around up there.”

“How do they even survive there?”

“They must've found a way. Maybe they have special skills.”

Quite a few Users said that if Juggernaut's group could do it, there was no reason they could not.

But those who had actually experienced the Northern Forest did not say such things.

And in that situation, the boss of the Northern Forest had been killed for five straight days.

The system did not announce who had killed a boss, but no one would fail to guess who had done it.

“Was it about a week ago?”

“Hm?”

“It wasn't us. I think a big expedition force from another settlement went there.”

“To the Northern Forest? I don't remember seeing anything about that on the community boards.”

“They moved quietly, then kept quiet afterward too. Because they got completely wrecked.”

“Ah.”

“Still, of course he'd be annoyed.”

If someone kept coming around to provoke you when you had done nothing wrong, anyone would get angry.

The senior suspected that the boss hunts over the last five days were Juggernaut's group flexing their strength.

“If the Field Level there rises another five levels, no one will be able to enter anymore.”

“It might end up higher than our field's level.”

“It will soon, if my guess is right.”

Five successful raids in a row.

That meant they had been capable of doing it before, but had simply chosen not to. Why?

Only Juggernaut's group would know.

“By the way.”

“Yeah?”

“If people that strong decided to invade us, how would we stop them?”

“We'd run. Why would we try to stop them?”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? If it got to that point, someone here must've done something seriously wrong.”

Their group was centered around someone who had never once left the Northern Forest.

If they came out, it would mean either they had a pressing reason or someone had drawn some truly massive aggro.

“I wish they'd sell some Keys, at least.”

“Yeah. I need to unlock something too.”

“Your level capped?”

“No. Bunbun. I need to evolve them.”

“What a waste of Keys.”

“I heard evolved pets can talk.”

“Only a word or two.”

“I heard that if you keep raising them, their intelligence increases, and their vocabulary grows too.”

“…Well, having a pet would be nice.”

“Don't you want one?”

“Who knows. There's a rumor Juggernaut walks around with a Tiger. That'd be pretty cool.”

“A Tiger… that would be awesome.”

But it was only a rumor.

Few people believed he had actually tamed a boss mob. They assumed it was simply a story that had grown out of his title as master of the Northern Forest.

[The Giant Tiger “Sangun,” lurking in the deepest part of the Forest and River in Area 1, has been defeated.]

[The region's level increases by 1.]

“Speak of the devil.”

A system notification suddenly appeared.

The senior chuckled and flicked away his cigarette ash.

“Six days in a row. So now…”

“Level 17. Three levels above us.”

It was not something that could be dismissed as a difference of only three levels.

The types and strength of mobs there were completely different from those here.

“Still, when the Field Level rises, mob experience goes up too.”

“That part's good. As long as I don't die.”

“Hmm.”

The Northern Forest.

It would be great if someone could survive there while hunting comfortably, but those who rushed in with that thought soon returned, shaking their heads.

Now, everyone had given up even on tricks like herding mobs over to Crocodiles. They would be torn apart during the herding process.

“If someone leaves this place…”

“Hm?”

“He'd be the first, right?”

“Hmm… Probably. He'd be the strongest.”

Perhaps that was why more people had been looking for him on the message boards lately.

Polite posts inviting him to Clans were common, as were requests for him to lend a hand in clearing Area Bosses in other regions.

But after exchanging a few comments on the marketplace early on, Juggernaut had barely participated in the community.

A quiet warrior.

Naturally, people thought he would be terrifying when angry.

“He's built his image well.”

The senior said that regardless of what kind of person he actually was, at least his Avatar had firmly established itself.

“Though he should watch out for internal conflict.”

“Internal conflict?”

“His companions. Their names are gradually getting out. There are people trying to make a play for them instead.”

“Ah.”

Juggernaut's companions.

Everyone had desires. Trying to win them over instead of Juggernaut himself was not a bad approach.

“I heard his companions are strong too.”

Internal conflict.

The young man understood what those people were thinking, but he could not picture things going that way at all.

“Ugh, it's cold.”

“Yeah. The extreme cold was what I hated most in the military too.”

“Every day there was just the worst.”

“That's true too.”

Fortunately, the watchtower did not collapse.

A few hours later, they switched shifts with people who were looking up at the watchtower with similar expressions.

* * *

“Okay. That's exactly enough.”

He suddenly had many places to use Keys.

There were fragments dropped through daily hunting, but collecting enough to make them would take forever.

So he had kept killing bosses for several days.

It was not as though he had failed to kill them before. He simply had not needed to, so there had been no real problem.

“Area Level 17.”

It had only been a little over 10 a week ago.

Compared to then, the mobs must have become much stronger again. Of course, the gap between now and the original state was already enormous.

For one thing, the Wolves were different colors.

More precisely, Wolves with different fur colors had mixed into the packs. Until recently, they had made up just under 50 percent. Now they might have surpassed that.

‘They were called Red Wolves.’

Wolves with red fur that did not suit this forest.

They were nearly the size of bulls and just as tough.

They were not slow, either. Their destructive power was considerable too. If he had to compare them to something, they were roughly on the level of the Tiger he had hunted at the beginning.

‘Their health has five stacks. Should I consider them even stronger than that Tiger was?’

Of course, they were still ordinary mobs to him now.

Seo Hajin moved Juggernaut and added more firewood to the Mini Stove.

“Nice.”

He had not made or placed the stove inside the waterfall cave.

It was currently inside his Subspace, specifically in a narrow area at its farthest corner.

‘Even if it's narrow, it's over 60 Blocks now.’

That was one-hundredth of the total Subspace.

In other words, his Subspace had surpassed 6,000 Blocks.

It was only natural.

Several months had already passed.

‘These days, it expands by around 50 Blocks per day on average. The problem is that I can't rest if I want to keep supplying Points.’

The maximum stay time had already reached around seven hours.

But the reason he could openly settle inside was something else.

[Within a designated portion of total Subspace, stay time is unlimited.]

He remembered that option being added when his Subspace exceeded 3,000 Blocks.

However, the maximum area he could designate was one-hundredth of the total space, so it had only been around 30 Blocks at the time.

As the total Subspace expanded, he gradually made this area larger too, until it reached its current size.

“It'd be cramped if everyone came in, but it's still good for taking turns resting.”

The space was roughly five meters wide, four meters long, and three meters high. It contained a Mini Stove, a bed, a table, and chairs.

The bed was a stone bed he had made himself. Some of the stove's heat could be directed toward it.

“This must be what traditional heated flooring feels like.”

He had never experienced it himself, but he imagined it was something like this.

Lying on the bed, with blankets and fur pelts spread over the heated stone slab, he muttered to himself.

Of course, Juggernaut was only relaxing because it was his rest period. His other Avatars were still hunting intensely.

“Now I have enough Keys too.”

He suddenly needed a lot of Keys because several things had happened at once.

A new Avatar added through the enhancement of his Unique Ability, a newly tamed Wolf, and the Tigers.

It would take too long to handle them one at a time according to priority.

“I thought things would get easier later if I raised them properly now.”

He had pushed himself a little to create enough room to take one Avatar out of the hunting rotation.

[Awakener: Seo Hajin]

[Unique Ability: Multiple Viewpoints]

[Soul Resonance]

[Avatar List]

1. Juggernaut

2. Vulcan

3. Stone

4. Typhoon

5. Brown

He had been surprised when Stone was added, but now he had gained not one, but two more.

Including Brown, the most recently added Avatar, he now had five Avatars.

Naturally, his mental strength had improved enough to control every one of them in real time.

“Am I even human anymore?”

He sometimes wondered whether this counted as multitasking.

Other times, he wondered whether he would end up with ADHD at this rate.

Still, one thing was certain.

Even as the Field Level rose and mobs grew stronger, he could continue surviving.

In fact, he was becoming strong enough to crush them.

“And I have more pets now.”

There had once been a minor debate on the message boards about what tamed monsters should be called.

People who had tamed rabbits naturally called them companions, pets, or pet animals. But people with ferocious beasts argued that those terms made no sense.

- How is a beast a companion?

└ That's where you draw the line?

└ No? She's my wife.

└ Get out of here.

└ Let me out. I want out too.

It was noisy, but only because people had nothing else to entertain themselves with. No one took the debate seriously.

In the end, it faded out with everyone agreeing to call them whatever they wanted.

Still, “pet” became the common term.

And currently, he owned five pets.

Two Wolves.

One Leopard.

Two Tigers.