The Player Who Can't Level Up

Gi-Gyu planned on delivering a swift blow to the giant zombie’s head, so he kicked the ground to jump. Maybe it was because his stomp wasn’t strong enough or something else, but he didn’t reach the giant zombie’s head. 

“Dammit,” Gi-Gyu swore. His initial plan was a bust, but he still wanted to use the remaining momentum to deliver all the damage he could. So, Gi-Gyu drove Lou into the giant zombie’s shoulder before falling to the ground. 

Crack!

The gash Lou made began spreading as the monster screamed in pain, “Grrrrraaaa!!!”

“Now!” Ha Song-Su yelled, and the remaining members attacked the monster together in response. Even Song Byung-Hoon was now brandishing a sword and rending the giant zombie’s leg. 

Fwooosh!

Blaze!

Now that the giant zombie was at its last leg, one of Ha Song-Su’s fire arrows finally succeeded in setting the giant zombie on fire. The players felt encouraged by the sight and attacked with greater vigor. 

***

Once the giant zombie fell, only the main boss remained between them and a successful clear. The group decided it was best to rest up as much as possible before going forward. 

“Ugh, never imagined I would share my dinner table with maggots one day,” Song Byung-Ho murmured as he chewed on a piece of jerky. It had been quite a while since the group first entered the gate. This was a perfect time to eat and replenish their energy before hunting the boss monster. 

“But thanks to you, Gi-Gyu, we were able to finish it quickly. After we clear this gate, would you let me join your group?” Song Byung-Hoon begged. Gi-Gyu tried his best to look nonchalantly, but he couldn't help disliking Song Byung-Hoon and Choi Dae-Oh. 

‘Why would he say something like that in front of this group’s leader?’ 

At this point, it wasn’t even about lacking proper manners. The duo was obviously trying to disrespect Ha Song-Su. Had they been genuinely interested in working with Gi-Gyu, they would’ve waited until they were alone with Gi-Gyu. 

‘I guess he’s just ignoring them.’

Their antics actually made Gi-Gyu see Ha Song-Su in a positive light; his leadership and thoroughness were commendable, to say the least. He was also an excellent strategist and could put the right man in the right place. Ha Song-Su was still a low-level player, but if he joined one of the major guilds or became a ranker, Gi-Gyu had no doubt Song-Su would make a name for himself. 

“I think we’ll be able to clear the gate much faster thanks to you, Gi-Gyu,” another player complimented. 

“Totally,” agreed someone else.

“Not at all,” Gi-Gyu shook his head humbly, but he knew they were right. They were certainly making good time because he was making short work of everything that stood in their way. At this rate…

‘I guess I can use the extra time for some extra hunting. It should be okay, right?’

Whenever the main goal of a gate hunt was to catch the boss monster, the hunting group always took the shortest possible route. Being late was never an option because the gate schedule was always jam-packed. However, if you were left with some free time that you’ve already paid for, it wasn’t uncommon for players to use that for some extra monster hunting. 

‘Will the zombie blood enhance any of Lou’s abilities?’

Perhaps Lou hadn’t absorbed enough zombie blood so far because Gi-Gyu hadn’t heard any announcement from the system yet. But if he continued to hunt zombies, Lou was bound to gain something. Zombies only appeared in the gates, so this was Gi-Gyu’s only chance to kill as many of them as possible. Had Gi-Gyu belonged to a guild or a hunting group, he could’ve made somewhat regular trips to the different gates. 

-Ughhhh… Disgusting!

‘You can taste too?’

-The zombie blood is bitter… So bitter.

Pfft! 

Lou's complaint made Gi-Gyu laugh. The zombie blood must’ve tasted horrible. 

“Now! We just have the boss monster left. Please don’t let your guard down,” announced Ha Song-Su. Sadly, it failed to get a response from his teammates, especially Song Byung-Hoon and Choi Dae-Oh. 

“Yes!” Gi-Gyu made a point of answering loudly; in the end, the two rude men quietly answered as well. 

***

“Whaa…” one player groaned. 

“Wow,” another exclaimed in awe. The group stood in front of a giant metal fence that had to be at least five-story tall. It was also very thick, thicker than even a utility pole. 

“This is the boss’ room,” Ha Song-Su announced, and the group stopped in its tracks. 

‘Talon...’

This gate’s boss was Talon, a giant ghoul, and only this fence stood between them. 

“By the way, was this metal fence built to keep Talon inside? I wonder how these sustained gates really work,” Choi Dae-Oh said as he approached Gi-Gyu.

“Hmm…” Gi-Gyu, in turn, gave an offhanded reply and continued to stare at the fence. 

He had heard Talon was huge, but even then it was, at most, three humans stacked together big. That was certainly big, but not big enough to warrant such a fence. 

‘The Tower or the gates aren’t like the dungeons in games. Every little thing here has to have a reason and a purpose.’

This was what Gi-Gyu believed. This was real life—everything, no matter how huge or tiny, served a definite purpose. He believed that figuring out that purpose was the key to understanding the Tower’s secrets.  

Choi Dae-Oh asked Gi-Gyu, “Aren’t you going to check your equipment?”

“I’m on it,” Gi-Gyu replied. He had been staring at the fence quietly all this while; after the reminder, he finally looked away. Then again, for Gi-Gyu, “checking equipment” meant asking Lou a simple question. 

‘How’s your condition?’

-Excellent!

Gi-Gyu was having a small conversation with Lou when Ha Song-Su gathered the players around. He explained, “Okay, listen up. I’m about to share the hunting strategy for Talon—”

“We already know. Did you really think we won’t even check something like that before entering a sustained gate?” 

Song Byung-Hoon’s interruption was straight up rude and offensive, but Ha Song-Su continued patiently, “You still need to listen. A slight mistake on anyone’s part can ruin our entire gate trip. And that’s not even the worst-case: a mistake here can cost everyone their lives.” 

“Tsk. So annoying!” Song Byung-Hoon grumbled. Obviously, he failed to notice how tense the atmosphere in the group was. The female player even seemed ready to jump forward, but she flinched and calmed down after Song-Su gave her a look. Gi-Gyu was probably the only one who noticed their strange interaction. 

‘That was really weird just now.’

Ha Song-Su’s companion, the female player, didn’t even reveal her name during their entire trip. Her reaction just now was definitely odd, but Gi-Gyu decided not to think too much about it. 

Ha Song-Su took a deep breath and continued, “This gate’s gatekeeper and boss monster, Talon, has only one specialty: it can change its attack pattern. Other than that, Talon is a keeper-level monster with rather basic strengths. The greatest advantages it has are its size, speed, and power.”

This much everyone in the group knew; what Ha Song-Su said next was their key to clinch victory. 

“What you need to remember is what happens when Talon changes its pattern. Once we deliver enough damage, Talon would crouch and try to change its pattern. If it’s successful in that, hunting it will become much harder since it will target the distant players first.”

One strategy was to attack while Talon was partway through this change, but its defense increased three-fold during this change. 

Ha Song-Su added, “The close combat dealer and the tanker’s aggro will be the key to killing this monster.”

“We understand,” everyone except Song Byung-Hoon answered. 

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Song Byung-Hoon replied in frustration; by this time, the other players were already busy crossing the metal fence.

***

“Hush…”

Ahead of them, Talon was sitting with its back toward the group. The giant monster gave off an unusually intimidating aura. 

‘This is my first time seeing a boss monster.’

Gi-Gyu had seen a guardian or two before, but not a gate boss. A gatekeeper, also called a boss monster, was known to be almost as strong as the guardians. Gi-Gyu was feeling wonderstruck when Ha Song-Su said to him, “I’m about to shoot.”

This was Ha Song-Su’s way of asking someone to focus. Ha Song-Su pulled out a special-looking arrow and nocked it on his bow. 

‘It's an explosive arrow.’

Gi-Gyu knew what it was. When the Tower and the gates appeared, various countries made great efforts to create weapons using the crystals. Unfortunately, regular people couldn’t use them because the power within the crystals was too strong. After many failed experiments, humans were only left with several flops, and this explosive arrow was one of them. 

The idea was to refine the energy within the crystal to cause an explosion. This idea failed because the explosive power contained within the crystal wasn’t significant. But it was certainly powerful enough to act as an arrowhead.

Whoosh!

The explosive arrow flew at a blinding speed and struck the middle of Talon’s back. 

“Kyeee!!!” Talon screamed in pain and anger; before it could do anything, a loud noise filled the area.

Kaboom!

The arrow had just exploded. 

“Close combat dealer!” Ha Song-Su yelled.

“Okay! Haaaaaa!” Song Byung-Hoon roared and dashed forward. Gi-Gyu followed close after and said, “I’m going!”

Talon seemed to have received significant damage from the internal explosion. However, when was a single explosion ever enough to slow down a boss ghoul?  

“Haaaaaaaaaaaa!” Song Byung-Hoon roared again, making it turn toward him.

Wham!

Talon slammed its fist onto Song Byung-Hoon’s shield. With a loud bang, Song Byung-Hoon was thrown into the air.

‘Please do your best!’

-I got this!

They were currently facing a boss monster; it would’ve been foolish not to use all of his strength. This was the time to give everything he had. Suddenly, Gi-Gyu’s speed increased, and he was near Talon the very next second. 

Slash!

Gi-Gyu swung Lou elegantly and sliced off Talon’s right hand. All this while, Ha Song-Su never once seemed impressed by Gi-Gyu; now, even he exclaimed, “Wow!” Slashing the boss monster’s hand with a single slash was, no doubt, a praiseworthy accomplishment. But, Gi-Gyu didn’t stop there. He unleashed a barrage of slashes onto Talon, leaving Song-Su’s arrows and Choi Dae-Oh’s sword strikes as mere extras. The female player’s magic attacks also continued to cause damage to the monster. 

Song Byung-Hoon was surprised by Gi-Gyu’s movements. Gi-Gyu was clearly stronger than the team leader; Byung-Hoon’s eyes sparkled at that thought. 

“The pattern change is starting!” Ha Song-Su yelled. Talon must have suffered significant wounds because it ran to the back and crouched on the ground. Song-Su suggested, “Gi-Gyu, how would you like to take this chance to attack it?” 

“Well…” Gi-Gyu contemplated. It certainly wasn’t a bad idea. The monster’s defense went up during the pattern change, but Gi-Gyu was now strong enough to cause significant damage. So perhaps this was worth a try.

Gi-Gyu replied, “Alright.”

Gi-Gyu held Lou tightly and approached the crouched talon. 

‘Gotta aim for the neck.’

Injuring any other area was going to be meaningless. Beheading it with a single swing was going to be his best bet. It was a critical juncture; Gi-Gyu’s hands began to sweat. 

[Lou’s assimilation level is increasing.]

[You can now use Lou’s powers more efficiently.]

-Huh?

‘What?’

Suddenly, Gi-Gyu felt a rush of energy inside him.

‘Was I not tapping into Lou’s full power till now? That’s gotta be it.’  

After the rush, Gi-Gyu felt his chances of finishing this fight were higher than ever. Then, he swung Lou across Talon’s neck with all of his strength.

[You have slain the gatekeeper, Talon.]

[You have gained experience points.]

[You have successfully killed the gatekeeper with a single attack.]

[You have gained extra experience points.]

[Lou is absorbing Talon’s blood.]

[Lou’s ability increased slightly from Talon’s blood.]

[You have obtained a new skill—Cannibalism.]

[Cannibalism: You can prey on corpses to regain your stamina.]

“What the hell?!!!” one of the players swore.

“No way!” another player exclaimed. 

“...” Ha Song-Su remained silent.

***

Gi-Gyu had just beheaded Talon with a single swing of his sword. Let alone others, even Gi-Gyu himself was surprised. So, the other members gaping in confusion and shock was actually quite natural. They had suspected Gi-Gyu was no ordinary player; still, the most they expected from him was dealing some minor damage to Talon. 

But straight-up beheading?

“Gi-Gyu! You need to give me your phone number,” Song Byung-Hoon begged. 

“M-me too!” Choi Dae-Oh yelled hurriedly. 

Ha Song-Su remained quiet. 

Song Byung-Hoon and Choi Dae-Oh continued to act overly friendly with Gi-Gyu. The two sneaky men glanced at Ha Song-Su and smiled secretly. 

Ha Song-Su announced, “I think we should first decide who gets the equipment item.” To everyone’s surprise, the group gained an equipment item after killing Talon. Such an item was very rare to come by. Because this was separate from the rewards that came with clearing a gate, the group needed to decide who got it. Of course, the contract everyone signed already stated how to do this. All they had left to do was roll a dice. 

“Umm… Ummm, wait! Can we do this after I go to the washroom?” Song Byung-Hoon suddenly asked. 

“What?” Ha Song-Su frowned but still nodded. Song Byung-Hoon smiled in satisfaction and asked Gi-Gyu, “Gi-Gyu, come with me to the washroom. I’m only a tanker, so I’m scared to go alone.”

‘Only a tanker? Scared? Something’s wrong with him.’ 

“...” Gi-Gyu remained quiet because he didn’t know how to respond.

“I wanna go too!” Choi Dae-Oh yelled. But Song Byung-Hoon shook his head and ordered, “You just stay here and protect the equipment!”

Song Byung-Hoon must’ve feared Ha Song-Su or the female player might steal the item and run if Choi Dae-Oh wasn’t here to watch them. 

In the end, Gi-Gyu and Song Byung-Hoon moved to a quiet area. 

“Gi-Gyu.”

“Aren’t you going to pee?” Gi-Gyu asked.

“You’re strong, but you’re not very smart, Gi-Gyu,” Song Byung-Hoon teased. 

“Pardon?”

Song Byung-Hoon claimed he needed to relieve himself, but he was now saying something completely different. 

‘I think I know what’s going on here.’

Gi-Gyu could guess what Song Byung-Hoon was thinking. Although he had never left the tutorial floors, Gi-Gyu had met countless players as a guide. He prided himself on being a good judge of a character. And it seemed that Gi-Gyu was right about Song Byung-Hoon.

“Gi-Gyu, would you like to have that equipment item?”