All the animals fell silent, as if they'd glimpsed a demon—or maybe they really had.
Jinwoo's smile twisted into a cold curve as he scanned the crowd, hunting for the perfect prey. His gaze locked onto the alpha rabbit.
"Hey, bunny. Want to play tag again?"
The rabbit stepped forward, unnerved by the sudden invitation and Jinwoo's expression.
With every step, the rabbit blinked in a strange rhythm:
Step, close.
Step, open.
Step, close.
Step, op—
Suddenly, a massive fireball appeared in front of the rabbit—twice its size, thrice its arrogance.
The fireball hovered for a heartbeat, its heat distorting the air. The rabbit froze, eyes wide in disbelief. Then, with a desperate bound, it darted away—fast, but not fast enough.
Jinwoo's smile deepened. "You can run, but you can't hide."
He flicked his wrist, and the fireball split into several smaller orbs, each homing in on the fleeing rabbit like deadly missiles.
The forest held its breath.
Then—
A sharp crack, the sound of burning fur, and the alpha rabbit fell, twitching, defeated.
Jinwoo's eyes glinted with a dark amusement as he turned toward the shadows deeper in the woods.
"This forest's got monsters," he said softly, "but I'm the biggest one here."
Jinwoo's gaze sharpened as more creatures emerged from the shadows—wolves, hawks, even a pack of wild boars, all hunting him. His lips curled into a predator's grin.
"Come on then. Who wants to play next?"
With a casual flick of his hand, flames sparked along his fingers. He moved with lethal grace, a blur of motion as he struck down one beast after another. A wolf lunged—instantly engulfed in a ring of fire that didn't burn but immobilized it. A hawk dove—frozen midair by an invisible force.
But every time Jinwoo raised a hand to finish them off, a cold voice echoed in his mind.
[Stop. There's no need to kill, the mission was just survival.]
It was 35-b.
The sanity protocol was kicking in, trying to hold his instincts back. Jinwoo's eyes flickered with frustration but he nodded.
"No more death… for now."
One by one, the beasts were subdued, trapped or stunned, not killed. The forest held a tense silence, waiting for the real fight to come when the protocol finished.
---
"One, two, three.... seventy... Agh!! Shout out your numbers, you f*cking animals!" Jinwoo yelled, trying to hold back from grilling them.
[What the heck are you doing now?]
"Aren't you the one who said not to kill them?"
[No. I mean, why are you capturing them? They didn't even do anything to you.]
Haa!?? Anything to me? That guy's the rabbit's friend!," jinwoo replied as he pointed at a random raccon.
The raccon protested "but i am a raccon thou-"
"Shut up! Why can't raccons be friend with rabbits? Huh??! Are you discriminating them? You racist little f*ck! Come here!"
Jinwoo immediately started walking towards the raccon, almost punching the fur out of him, But was interrupted by 35-b.
[Stop. You have already completed the mission. Be patient and let me allocate the rewards.]
[...huh?]
>[Error! Error! You have received an incredible reward.] [Your achievement has exceeded the suggested criteria!]
[Reward: Get 1000 proficiency in any chosen skill or get to train with Lucain(debuffed x10000000 + under comic restrictions + glitched]
[Warning : after you chose one, you must share the other to someone else.]
"What the heck? Who's lucain? And why's he so heavily debuffed? One, two... Ten million times!?!!! Plus he's a glitched AND has cosmic restrictions?"
Jinwoo without a hesitation clicked on the first option.
"I'll Increase my martial arts proficiency. Why would I train with such a guy? If I consider it. A S-Ranker with such a debuff would be atom-level. That's a scam."
[Warning! You must chose a person to send the other reward to]
Jinwoo frowned, "What? Hell nah!"
[Give the proficiency back]
"Give me the options, dear sir" jinwoo hushed himself, there's no need to fight back for something like that.
Jinwoo sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll be a good little system user."
He scrolled through the names and stopped when he saw one.
[Hyunsoo - Current Location: Outskirts of Seoul - Status: Alive, Confused, Unaware of what's coming]
"…You know what? That guy's always dragging his feet anyway."
He tapped [Send Reward to Hyunsoo] without a second thought.
[Warning! You are about to give the Lucain (debuffed x10000000 + cosmic restriction + glitched) training reward to user: Hyunsoo.]
[Proceed?]
[Y/N]
Jinwoo smirked. "Absolutely. Let him deal with that cursed tutorial."
[Confirmed. Reward transferred.]
Somewhere in Seoul, Hyunsoo suddenly dropped his corn dog.
A blue screen popped in front of him.
[You have been chosen to receive advanced training with Lucain.]
[Training conditions: Debuffed clone, cosmic limitation, glitched restrictions.]
[Time Remaining: 5 seconds.]
[You cannot refuse.]
Hyunsoo blinked. "Wait, wait, wait—WHO THE HELL IS LUCAI—"
[Teleporting now.]
POOF. Gone.
Back in the forest, Jinwoo burst out laughing.
"hehehehehehe."
Even 35-b paused.
[That was… unnecessarily evil.]
"Oh come on, you said I had to share it."
[Fair enough.]
Jinwoo stretched and looked over the smoldering clearing. "Now then. Let's go find the next headache."
---
The forest had gone quiet again.
Not from fear.
But from respect.
A rumble echoed beneath Jinwoo's feet. The trees swayed, not with the wind—but with intention. Birds took flight. The ground cracked.
And then—it stepped out.
A towering beast made of bark, stone, and fury. Its horns were twisted tree branches, its shoulders armored with moss-covered boulders. Two glowing green eyes stared straight at Jinwoo like judgment itself.
[Name: Gravgor, King of the Wildwood]
[Level: ???]
[Trait: Nature's Wrath / Forest Domain]
"Of course," Jinwoo muttered, "the forest has a final boss."
Gravgor didn't roar. He didn't need to.
Instead, the forest moved with him.
Roots erupted from the ground like spears.
Jinwoo backflipped midair, snapping his fingers—igniting flames along his heel. The air behind him exploded, launching him higher.
The roots missed—but not by much.
Gravgor raised his hand, and the trees bent to his will. Dozens of sharpened branches launched at Jinwoo like arrows.
"Let's go aerial."
With a twist, Jinwoo swept his hand through the sky, conjuring a slicing wind arc that severed the incoming branches mid-flight. He landed on a high branch, but the moment he did—
The tree beneath him came alive, trying to swallow him whole.
"Oh, you sneaky log."
Jinwoo snapped his fingers again—setting the tree ablaze beneath him. Then, with his other hand, he shot a blast of water downward, instantly converting to steam. The pressure launched him skyward like a missile.
High above, he clenched both fists—combining fire and wind into a spiraling inferno spear.
"Burn, forest king!"
He hurled it down. The spear screamed as it tore through the air, lighting up the canopy like a comet.
Gravgor raised both arms—forming a dome of stone and branches to shield himself. The spear hit—and exploded.
BOOOOOM!!
Smoke and fire engulfed the clearing.
But Jinwoo's eyes narrowed. "Too easy."
As the smoke cleared, Gravgor stood tall—his wooden armor scorched, but still standing. Then, he slammed his fists into the earth.
A wave of razor-sharp vines erupted from every direction.
Jinwoo skated across the air using wind gusts beneath his feet, dodging one wave, two, three—but then a vine wrapped around his ankle.
"Damn—!"
He twisted midair and froze the vine with water, then shattered it with a heel kick.
But more were coming. Too many.
Thinking fast, he fired a stream of water at the ground, creating a slick path—and just before landing, he used wind to rocket-slide across it, dodging the incoming wave like a speeding bullet.
Gravgor tried to follow—but slipped on the same icy patch.
THUD.
Jinwoo grinned. "Oops."
He raised both hands. Fire in one. Wind in the other.
He clapped.
A shockwave of heat and pressure blasted forward, melting vines, uprooting trees, and hurling Gravgor into a massive stone.
The Forest King groaned, rising again, slow but angry.
[Warning: Boss enraged.]
Gravgor slammed his fists again—and this time, a massive tree-arm slammed down toward Jinwoo like a hammer.
Jinwoo ducked and rolled, then—
Shot a fireball into the tree-arm, then quickly doused it with water.
Steam again. But this time, he shaped the steam into a flash-cloud—blinding Gravgor.
Then he moved.
In one breath, he was behind Gravgor.
"Night-night, Groot ripoff."
Jinwoo raised a hand—and a long, thin flame pierced into the gap in Gravgor's armor at the back of his knee.
A hiss.
A roar.
Gravgor stumbled.
Jinwoo didn't stop. He combined fire and wind again, forming a spinning flaming disk and hurled it like a sawblade. It cut through the branches holding Gravgor together—until finally—
The beast collapsed.
Not dead. But done.
The forest rumbled once more. Then… quiet.
Jinwoo stood panting, arms smoking from the heat.
He grinned. "Next time, try picking on someone your own element."
---
[...Initializing...]
[...System Recalibrating...]
[...Analyzing...]
[...ANALYSIS FAILED.]
[ERROR: MENTAL INTEGRITY OF SUPPORT AI—COMPROMISED.]
Jinwoo stood in the center of the scorched clearing, wiping ash from his jacket like he'd just finished vacuuming his room, not downing a living forest deity.
"You okay in there, 35-b?" he asked, cocking his head.
Silence.
Then—
[WHAT... THE ACTUAL... HELL WAS THAT!?]
Jinwoo raised an eyebrow. "You mean my finishing move? Pretty cool, right?"
['PRETTY COOL'?! YOU JUST COMMITTED ELEMENTAL WARFARE ON A NATURE-GRADE ENTITY! YOU MADE STEAM ROCKETS AND FIRE SPINNERS! I THOUGHT THIS WAS A SURVIVAL TEST, NOT A MICHAEL BAY MOVIE!!]
"Hey, you told me not to kill the little guys. This one was clearly a boss," Jinwoo shrugged. "I'm just following your instructions."
[NO YOU'RE NOT! I SAID SURVIVE, NOT BAKE THE FOREST ALIVE!]
Jinwoo turned and looked over the battlefield: vines smoldering, steam still rising from patches of ice-slick ground, the once-proud Forest King twitching like a downed Wi-Fi router.
"…Pretty sure I survived," he muttered.
35-b paused.
[....I need a reboot. I need therapy. I need an off-switch.]
Then, the tone shifted—cold and mechanical again, trying desperately to hold onto protocol.
[Quest Complete: "Survive the Forest Domain"]
[Grade: Impossible]
[Completion Rating: 'You Shouldn't Be Alive']
[Ranking: Solo Clear - SSS]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[You have gained:
— +20000 EXP
— +1 Forest King's Core
— +300 Elemental Proficiency Points
— Trait Acquired: "Environmental Combatant" (You gain increased effectiveness when using the environment creatively in battle.)
— New Title: "Forest Annihilator"]
"…Annihilator?" Jinwoo repeated. "Bit much."
[You destroyed and entire forest, jinwoo. This isn't too much, this is too less. You literally burnt his friends alive]
Jinwoo shrugged. "Was kinda his fault for starting it. Also, his friends are alive."
35-b sputtered like a toaster in a bathtub.
[You now qualify for a Class Evaluation. Would you like to proceed to the next stage?]
Jinwoo stretched. "Hmm… nah."
[...Pardon?]
"I need a nap. And snacks. You got a snack function in there?"
[No.]
"Well, you should."
Jinwoo flopped onto a patch of grass that hadn't been incinerated and stared up at the sky, arms behind his head.
"Wake me up when the next apocalypse starts."
[...System has obtained permission to go for a cosmic therapy. Good night.]