The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor - Chapter 33

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

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

Chapter 33

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Firewood listed on the marketplace had been getting far too expensive lately. Since it was only for one season, he could just buy it, but the high price was not the only problem. There was barely any stock left now.

His Subspace was unaffected by the outside environment, but that only applied to areas under the state-maintenance effect.

A Shelter, which did not count toward residence time, was affected by the outside environment. The temperature, at least, definitely was.

‘I should go cut some trees and check on the Bears while I’m there.’

He had no intention of stopping the hunting, either.

He had several Avatars, so he could simply send one to that field.

But when he tried sending Vulcan first, there was a problem at the border between the two fields. His Multiple Viewpoints ability only worked within a single field.

‘I can send them over, but the overhead monitoring will cut off, and I’ll only have their individual viewpoints.’

His original plan had been to monitor both fields from above. But giving up that overhead view meant losing too much.

So he decided to leave the Northern Forest for a while and make an expedition there.

‘Three can log while two hunt? Or... hmm. I’ll check the situation once I get there and adjust.’

It was also a chance to see another field with his own eyes instead of through photos and videos.

He had heard the eastern forest had many treehouses built in the branches. He wanted to see those too.

“Let’s go.”

Two Avatars.

Two pets.

The rest entered Subspace.

The pets were unaffected by residence time, and the Avatars rested in the Shelter.

He had only brought two out because the Shelter was still too cramped for all five, and because turning the Tigers into mounts needed testing.

Grrr.

Grrrowl.

Two Tigers.

They had each evolved another stage after being bosses larger than ordinary Tigers, yet neither had changed from their original name, Sangun.

He could not even name them.

They were simply Sangun. Nothing more.

Seo Hajin looked at them.

“How could I not ride these?”

He had already equipped them with saddles.

He had made them bit by bit over time, trying them on, adjusting them whenever something seemed off, and refining them again and again.

The two Sanguns growled but lay calmly on the ground. Juggernaut and Vulcan climbed into the saddles, fixed their feet in the stirrups, and lightly gripped reins somewhat shorter than those used for horses.

“The test ride worked, but this is our first long-distance expedition.”

Juggernaut muttered that as he lightly shook the reins. Vulcan did the same.

The Tigers set off.

They began by strolling along, then gradually picked up speed. Soon, the two Avatars had to press their upper bodies tight against the Tigers’ backs.

‘Wow, it’s fucking cold.’

Even with his senses dulled, the cold against his exposed skin was no joke.

‘It wasn’t even this bad when I rode a bike in winter. Well, of course this should be worse.’

It was much colder than then.

And much faster.

Seo Hajin wrapped additional fur pelts around the Avatars, reducing the exposed areas further.

‘Frostbite would be a pain.’

He had already experienced it once.

Resting in the Shelter with the Mini Stove burning would heal it through his natural recovery, but it took time. He had also tried the medicine listed on the marketplace, but it was not as effective as resting in the Shelter.

‘The best option is not getting it in the first place.’

Sangun ran well.

It moved through the rough forest as though it were its home. In fact, it was.

And thanks to riding one, Wolves did not latch onto him. They instead scattered in every direction and opened a path.

‘Is this what driving an imported car feels like?’

Apparently, everyone got out of the way when an expensive car came through.

‘Though people would probably move aside even faster if I rode a Tiger down the road.’

They might stay far away, or they might come closer and point their phone cameras at him.

‘Hmm. Do I have enough room to think about random things now?’

There were no problems with riding. The saddles did not seem to need further adjustments yet.

He continued across the field.

‘I heard each field is roughly the size of Gangwon Province.’

The efforts users had put in over the past few months had finally paid off with the completion of the map.

Among the strange beasts flying over the Northern Forest, there had likely been pets belonging to people doing Cartography, not only those trying to spy on Juggernaut.

The map was complete now.

Everyone already knew roughly what lay in each direction, but the exact size and terrain had remained unclear.

Now, even those blank spaces had mostly been filled in. The approximate area of every field and the entire Area had also been calculated within a reasonable margin of error.

‘It’s bigger than South Korea.’

There were seven fields, each roughly the size of Gangwon Province.

Put together, they supposedly came close to seventy percent of the Korean Peninsula.

Larger than South Korea alone, but smaller if they counted North Korean territory as theirs too.

‘The number of users is definitely in the four digits, but this is why it’s hard to meet anyone outside Rabbit Field.’

The land was simply too vast.

Which made mounts all the more necessary.

‘But it’s really fucking cold.’

Maybe he had picked the wrong season.

He felt a hint of regret, but not enough to turn back.

‘At least I confirmed there aren’t any problems with riding. Let’s rotate now.’

He sent one Sangun back into Subspace and sent Vulcan to the Shelter as well.

One of the Avatars who had been lying down had to sit up, but it did not feel cramped yet.

“Would bunk beds be better?”

The thought briefly crossed his mind.

The first floor was a stone bed, so that was awkward, but if he built a wooden upper level, two people could lie there.

But after thinking it over, he realized that by the time he finished making it, the Shelter itself would probably be larger. There would be no need.

Grrrowl.

For now, he focused on running.

Sometimes, he stopped briefly to rotate out an exhausted Sangun. At other times, he switched Avatars. Reducing the time exposed to the cold lowered the risk of frostbite.

Unexpectedly, Sangun enjoyed it too.

They usually wandered around slowly, so he had expected them to dislike running for long periods. The opposite was true.

Of course, their stamina was still consumed, so he rotated them repeatedly, gave them plenty of room to rest in Subspace, and fed them well.

Maybe that was why they liked it.

Whether because they were connected to the system or because they shared part of the Avatars’ digestive abilities, their stomachs quickly emptied while they ran.

Normally, they would not digest food that quickly. Now, no matter how much they ate, running left them hungry again in no time.

‘The pleasure of eating isn’t something to ignore.’

There were things besides food to keep an eye on.

Sangun’s paws were tough, but they were not used to running for long periods. He had to check whether they had been injured or pierced by thorns.

Still, the Sanguns were fairly high level, so there had been no major problems yet. Whenever something seemed even slightly questionable, he immediately rotated them out and let them recover.

‘One more would be perfect.’

A two-shift rotation was a little awkward. With three, they could probably keep moving without stopping.

But he could not even attempt to tame Sangun with ordinary taming items. He needed one of the rarer, higher-grade items.

‘And naturally, they barely ever drop.’

As he traveled, Seo Hajin stopped Sangun for a while and sent it into Subspace. It was time for both Sanguns to rest at once.

“There’s plenty of meat...”

After checking the supplies stored in Subspace, he nodded slightly.

There was more than enough meat, piled up in heaps. There was also meat powder made in the Arc machine, enough to drink shakes for years.

The obvious reason he had kept so much meat was pet food.

Wolf Meat was stacked on one side. Rabbit meat he had stockpiled when it was cheap was on another. There was also meat from various small animals found in the Northern Forest.

He took several chunks of Wolf Meat into his inventory and moved them to the inventories connected to the Sanguns.

He did not need to place the meat directly in front of them. If he did that, the Sanguns could take it out and eat on their own.

They had struggled with it at first, but improved quickly as their levels rose.

‘It seems intelligence rises with level too.’

It was clear when he looked at Companion No. 1, Companion No. 2, and Black. Their vocabularies had grown as they leveled up.

“How much farther?”

After finishing the maintenance, he checked the map and his current location. If they maintained their speed, they could cross the field in roughly three or four hours.

‘My back hurts a little, but it’ll recover soon enough.’

While the Sanguns recovered, the Avatars recovered too.

The Shelter was too narrow for everyone to sprawl out at once, but they could still rest in relaxed positions.

‘Subspace expands by fifty Blocks per day on average... so I can widen this place by about one Block every two days.’

Five Blocks in ten days.

It was frustratingly little, but time would solve that eventually. It might become quite spacious later.

‘There was a time when all of Subspace was smaller than this room.’

He looked around.

Subspace had grown wider than a decent warehouse.

But expanding it that far had consumed a monstrous amount of Points.

‘Even if I expanded it for half the cost instead of all at once, it would still take one thousand Points for ten spaces.’

Six thousand Blocks meant six hundred thousand Points.

The cost was enough to make him laugh bitterly.

‘I couldn’t have expanded continuously if I hadn’t been in the Northern Forest.’

Several conditions had lined up.

He could increase his Avatars, and he could hunt endlessly.

He had spent most of the Points he earned expanding Subspace, but he did not consider it wasteful.

Thanks to that, he had a massive warehouse that preserved its state, something other people would struggle to obtain even if an entire Clan put their heads together.

‘And the safe resting area is a bonus.’

As he fed firewood into the Mini Stove, he wondered whether enclosing the current Shelter with walls would help.

The outside could not be seen unless he opened the entrance anyway, and it felt as though the temperature, and sometimes even the wind, seeped in from outside.

‘Would walls make it less cold?’

Maybe not, but there was no harm in trying.

He would have to accept that the interior space would shrink by the thickness of the walls.

‘Hmm... I’ll do it once it’s a little wider.’

As he rearranged the wood in the stove and wondered where the smoke even went, he opened the community and was quite surprised.

‘Why is it so noisy?’

Apparently, there was an issue in the southeastern Wasteland field.

People had only recently learned that despite the bitter cold, it was relatively warm there.

-They kept whining about barren ground, thorns everywhere, and no water, but it turns out they’ve been nice and cozy, living the good life among themselves.

ㄴfr, I searched Wasteland posts. They stopped talking about the weather completely a month ago.

-Those bastards. I kept wondering why the Hyena and Wild Boar meat on the marketplace wasn’t frozen.

ㄴFor real? It sold out too fast, so I had no idea.

ㄴYeah, it wasn’t frozen. I thought they were selling stored meat, but it was freshly hunted stuff.

-These guys are getting unfairly hated on so fucking hard.

ㄴWhat’s unfair about it?

ㄴWhen we were begging people to come, nobody even looked our way. Now you come here saying we’re living the sweet life and shit. Come here and enjoy that sweet life with us, assholes.

ㄴfr. You made expeditions and whatever, but only went to the Swamp. Nobody came here.

-But why is it only warm there?

ㄴNo idea. Nobody even knows why we have to be in a place like this to begin with.

ㄴAh.

-This is the Wasteland right now. You can hunt in a T-shirt lol. No snow at all. The ground’s bone-dry, so you can just lie down on it lol. Jealous, you guys wrapped in fur?

ㄴYou can really wear a T-shirt there? That’s insane.

ㄴIs that really from now? I don’t think so.

ㄴThat’s not the Wasteland. It’s Rabbit Field after the Rainy Season ended and the ground dried up.

ㄴWhat? Why are there Rabbits in the Wasteland?

ㄴObvious ragebait. I’m remembering your name.

-My party is seriously getting ready to cross over there, but getting there is the problem.

ㄴWhere are you?

ㄴHere? The lake.

ㄴThen you have to go from northwest to southeast.

ㄴYeah.

ㄴEither cut through the rocky mountain, or take the long way around.

ㄴGoing south means crossing the Swamp. The temperature there is insanely low. You’re fucked if you go in.

ㄴThen should we go north?

ㄴYou’re fucked there in a different way.

ㄴWhy?

ㄴHaven’t you seen Red Wolves? Those things the size of bulls travel in packs. Nobody but Juggernaut’s group could survive there.

ㄴAh. Then we have to go through the rocky mountain.

ㄴJust endure at the lake. I asked someone I know in the Wasteland. There’s no cold, but living there is still fucking hard.

ㄴThe cold is what’s going to kill us.

ㄴI’m telling you, you’ll die before you get there.

ㄴThat’s true.

Countless users were talking.

Seo Hajin decided there was nothing useful there besides the fact that the Wasteland was not cold, then closed the window.

‘It’s been known for a long time that the environment there is brutal. Saying they’re living the sweet life now is a little harsh.’

The saying that someone else’s rice cake always looked bigger seemed to remain true even as times changed.

He chuckled softly and shook his head before preparing to set out again with Juggernaut, who had rested enough.

One of the Sanguns, which had been resting after its saddle was removed, was ready too.

“It’s snowing again.”

Snow was falling when he emerged from Subspace.

It was not a blizzard yet, but he was certain it would become one soon.

“It always does.”

It was not a variable that would make him stop traveling.

There was no reason to hurry, either.

He simply crossed the forest of giant trees, the valleys between them, and the frozen streams at a pace that did not overwork Sangun.

Maybe he had started at an awkward time.

He could not cross the field before sunset.

“I should take it easy at night.”

Nights were already cold here, and winter made them much worse.

Rather than push himself, he entered Subspace, rested well until the next morning, and filled his stomach.

He also tried cooking with the Cooking skill instead of using the Mini Stove. The fake gochujang added a surprisingly decent flavor.

“At this level, it’d be the kind of restaurant you visit once and never return to.”

That might have been true back home, but here, even food like this was more than welcome.

He ate well and rested deeply.

* * *

The following afternoon.

He finally reached the border of the field.

‘It’s definitely different.’

He could see the difference between the two fields with his own eyes.

Even the color of the soil and the kinds of plants growing there were different.

Seeds from things like weeds had surely spread between the two sides, yet somehow their plant life remained different.

‘It almost feels artificially managed.’

Just as monsters and animals respawned after dying to maintain their numbers, perhaps plants worked the same way.

‘Both have giant trees, but they’re different kinds of trees on each side too.’

Unlike plants, animals seemed able to move naturally between fields despite being generated in different ones.

Wolves crossing to the other side had already become common, and animals from there could cross over as well.

The fact that he was riding Sangun across the border probably worked on the same principle.

“Oh.”

The moment he crossed, the air felt different.

It was still cold, but the temperature had changed.

‘It’s colder here.’

The Northern Forest had been less cold.

Would users say he had been living the sweet life if they found out?

‘I never stopped anyone from coming.’

Anyone who wanted to cross over could do so.

The question was how they would survive afterward.

“Hmm. Time to rotate again.”

He switched Sangun and changed to another Avatar as well.

He would certainly encounter other users here, whether Loggers or anyone else. That was why he intended to use an Avatar whose appearance was not known outside.

The one he chose was Typhoon.

His fourth Avatar had been made as the weather began to turn cold, and the coat covering his whole body kept his appearance mostly hidden.

Of course, anyone who saw him riding a Tiger would be able to tell where he came from and what group he belonged to...

‘I don’t want to walk around somewhere like this.’

If they recognized him, they recognized him.

He took the reins without thinking much of it.

And not long after, he really did find other users.

“...”

They noticed him too.

Before they could even greet him, they hurriedly ran away.

“Hmm.”

Was Sangun the problem after all?