After confirming the explosion of Meiling’s Inferno Orb, we continued our rush toward the center of Bottle Island.

Well—they ran. I was still being carried on Seo Yui’s back.

“Click.”

Meiling clicked her tongue, scowling.

“If you were going to fire anyway, why not just hit them? One direct shot and they’d all be down. Then we wouldn’t even need this survival trial—we’d win automatically.”

“Think about the level of the staff you’re holding,” I said, glancing at her hands.

She was gripping the rare-grade magic staff I’d made, level 53.

Up until yesterday she’d only been using the level 30 magic-grade staff HAUT provided, which made sparring possible.

If she had actually hit the other trainees with this one, there wouldn’t have been bodies left to find.

In that case, the footage broadcast wouldn’t have been our victorious interview—it would’ve been the scene of us being cuffed and hauled away by the peacekeepers.

And if even one of them ended up permanently crippled, that’d be a disaster in itself.

I fixed my gaze on her.

“When you have power, you’re also responsible for how you use it.”

“Hah. Then just crush anyone who tries to make you take responsibility and—”

She cut herself off mid-sentence, lips clamping shut.

Her expression twisted as if she’d bitten something sour.

Good. She’d realized it herself—that those words sounded like something out of the mouth of the person she hated most.

“What’s wrong? If you’ve got something to say, finish it.”

I smirked.

“Shut up. Just guide us properly. Are we even going the right way?”

Her attempt to change the subject was blatant.

“Yeah. Keep straight on.”

I turned my eyes forward.

In the distance, a cliff came into view.

The twenty HAUT candidates stood silent, staring at the gaping crater ahead.

Toby stepped closer to the edge.

It was wide enough to swallow an entire house—born from Meiling’s single Inferno Orb just moments ago.

They’re on another level.

A bitter feeling gnawed at him.

He’d thought he’d already seen their real strength in the group battle.

But the spell just now proved they’d been holding back even then.

If that attack had landed directly, they’d all have been reduced to ashes.

Rune walked up beside him.

“Toby. This is…”

“A warning.”

It hadn’t missed—it had been deliberately fired at a distance.

As fellow magic users, both Toby and Rune recognized it immediately.

Toby pressed his lips together and shifted his gaze to the direction Gwangcheon’s squad had gone.

They were headed straight into the forest.

“What do we do? Split up here and go every man for himself?” Rune asked.

“…They won’t actually kill us. If they did, they’d be disqualified.”

“I know that. But look at their faces.”

Rune pointed back.

Toby turned and saw the expressions of the other trainees—completely drained of will.

Of course.

This was exactly what Nam Yein had aimed for: burying them all under the despair of “there’s no way we can win.”

He drew in a deep breath, then raised his voice.

“Don’t stop here!”

The trainees’ eyes all turned toward him.

“They may overwhelm us in strength, but we’ve got the numbers. That means we can scout faster, gather more, and hunt more. Survival’s just getting started. We have to keep moving.”

“He’s right!”

Jin Cheongryong, standing near Aho, shouted loudly.

“Nothing’s over yet. The longer we stand still, the farther ahead Gwangcheon gets.”

Little by little, determination returned to their eyes.

“Everyone, gather up.”

They shuffled closer around Toby.

“Gwangcheon’s gone into the woods, toward the cliffs. Which means they’re probably heading to take out the Area 1 boss and push into the next zone. You can’t get proper food or water in Area 1 anyway.”

Bottle Island was divided into seven zones, radiating from the outer edge toward the center.

The deeper you went, the higher the monsters’ levels—and the higher the quality of materials you could harvest.

For survival, they had no choice but to head inward.

Food and water found near the outskirts always carried harmful toxins.

“The tasks from the committee will probably require us to work from Area 3 onward. That’s where monsters start hitting level 20.”

“Can’t we just trail Gwangcheon? They’ll clear every boss and open the way for us,” Zen suggested.

“Idiot. That way they’d claim all the boss kills and the point objectives too,” Rune snapped.

“Oh, right. Forgot.” Zen scratched his cheek sheepishly.

“Anyway, let’s concede Area 1. The rewards there are small—it won’t hurt letting Gwangcheon have them. Instead, we make sure we’re the ones to find and kill the Area 2 boss first. Unlike Area 1, that boss roams randomly. And like I said, numbers give us the advantage in searching.”

The others nodded.

“Then let’s move,” Toby said.

The twenty-strong alliance circled around the massive crater and raced after Gwangcheon’s trail.

Minutes later, they arrived at a cave carved into the cliffside.

“They’ve already gone through,” Aho observed.

The shimmering barrier that should’ve covered the entrance was gone.

It meant the Area 1 boss had been defeated.

The alliance entered the cave.

With only the magical light conjured by their casters to guide them, they made their way through until they stopped short.

Beyond the cliff stretched a forest, densely packed with trees.

A basin cloaked in greenery.

This was Area 2 of Bottle Island.

“Let’s divide the search zones here,” Toby said.

The five academies divided up their scouting ranges.

They agreed to signal with a burst of magic in the sky upon finding the boss, then split off.

“Rune, you think this’ll work out?” Zen asked as they hurried down the cliffside.

Magica Academy had chosen the area closest to the cave, given their low stamina aptitude.

“What do you mean?” Rune asked without looking back.

“Another academy might find the boss but keep quiet—just to hog the points.”

“Not yet.”

“Huh?”

“The Area 2 boss isn’t strong enough to need all of us working together. It’s weak enough we can take it down with just one team. That means its reward points are low. With Gwangcheon still looming ahead, betraying everyone else for a measly forty points would be stupid.”

“…Makes sense.”

“Then stop yapping and keep your eyes open.”

“Got it.”

About twenty minutes into their search of Area 2—

Boom!

The Magica team halted, looking up.

A red burst flared in the sky.

“That’s from Crystal’s sector! Move!” Rune shouted.

Minutes later, they reached the center of Area 2—where the Crystal team was waiting.

All around, the other academies’ candidates had already gathered.

“……”

Just by looking at them, Rune sensed something was wrong.

They stood silently, weapons lowered, faces dark.

Rune strode over to the leaders of each academy and asked bluntly,

“Did Gwangcheon take down the Area 2 boss too?”

Toby nodded and pointed ahead.

At the end of his finger was a burrow.

We had the advantage in searching, yet…

Rune’s face hardened.

“So Gwangcheon’s already moving into Area 3,” Rio muttered, peering into the tunnel.

“Both Area 1 and Area 2’s points stolen by Gwangcheon.” Taeil folded his arms with a scowl.

“Then we’d better hurry after them,” Toby said.

“From Area 3 onward, there are supply bases where food and water can be secured. We need to capture as many as we can. Once resources are harvested, it takes a full week before they regenerate.”

They plunged into the tunnel.

This one was narrower and far longer than the cave that had led to the basin before.

“This passage was made by the boss, right?” Rio asked, stooping beneath the low ceiling.

“Yeah. By the Drill Rabbit of Area 2,” Rune explained.

“It’s the only path into Area 3, so you have to beat it to move on.”

“Then how the hell did Gwangcheon find the Drill Rabbit faster than us—with only four members?”

No one answered.

“…Maybe it was just their luck,” Toby said at last. “Or maybe they know something we don’t.”

“But nothing like that was covered in Advanced Demonology about Bottle Island, right?” Zen chimed in.

“Can’t imagine Gwangcheon’s students know more than a doctorate holder in demon studies,” Jin Cheongryong muttered, hunched as low as Rio.

True… but.

Somehow, Toby couldn’t shake the thought that Nam Yein would know things even demonology scholars didn’t.

“I never knew you could lure monsters with bait until today,” Lumina said, plucking fruit from waist-high shrubs.

The red berries, each the size of a child’s fist, were one of the edible supplies found in Area 3.

“They cause confusion in people, so we can’t eat them—but Drill Rabbits love them.”

The moment we entered Area 2, I had our team head straight for a grove thick with these berries.

We squeezed out the juice, and soon enough, the Drill Rabbit had burrowed its way right to us.

“But how did you know that?” Meiling asked, blasting magic bolts at the treetops.

Hard brown pods rained down. Inside each was watery pulp—the only source of drinkable liquid in Area 3, which had no rivers.

“I picked it up by chance. A hunter I know used to come here often.”

“You know a pro hunter? First I’ve heard of that,” Meiling said, narrowing her eyes.

“Same here,” Seo Yui added.

Of course it was a lie.

This wasn’t something covered in any demonology or monsterology class, nor in HAUT’s prep materials.

It was information from a document found in one of the late-game dungeons.

Reading every bit of in-game text had been my habit, and I’d recognized it as a hidden HAUT hint.

When I later tested it with a new character, it had worked perfectly—the Drill Rabbit came straight out.

“Lumina, you hadn’t heard this before either, right?” Meiling turned to her.

“Uh—uh, well…” Lumina’s face stiffened.

Meiling’s brows shot up.

“What, so he told you but not us?”

“Ah, um…” Lumina looked at me with watery eyes.

“When Lumina and I went dungeon diving earlier in the term, I told her then. Guy went by ‘Hunter H.’ I don’t know his real name, but he liked sharing tips. Guess he just enjoyed teaching.”

I kept my tone casual.

“I wasn’t hiding it from you two. Just never came up.”

“…Fine.” Meiling answered flatly, as if she’d lost interest, and bent to gather more fruit.

If you’re going to brush it off like that, why grill me like a suspect first?

“Could we meet this Hunter H too?” Seo Yui asked.

“Doubt it. I haven’t seen him in ages myself.”

Truthfully, I’d give anything to meet him again—just to confirm what was happening to my real body back in my world.

If no one had found me, my corpse might already be crawling with maggots.

About an hour after the alliance arrived in Area 3—

“Wiped out here too!!” George from Dai shouted furiously.

“This makes no sense. We’ve checked five bases already and every single one was stripped bare!”

Jin Yuyeon from Martial God clutched his head in both hands, groaning.

“……”

Toby’s face hardened.

Nam Yein… so this is how you’re playing it.

(End of Chapter)