Regarding those who had made a contract with the goddess, we called ourselves “Heroes.”
Terms like player, contractor, or user could have been attached to us as well.
But the goddess had always wanted us to defeat the Demon King, and whenever we showed ourselves fulfilling our duty as Heroes—from the goddess’s point of view—she granted us benefits.
Those were Goddess Points.
As for what they could be used for, I needed to calmly think—
“Hey, Yu Siwoo!! Are you insane?!”
There was no time.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing—ugh?!”
Kim Gwangyun, the class representative, grabbed my shoulder and tried to yank me around.
At his action, I unconsciously seized his wrist first and twisted it.
“Aaaaagh!”
There was a brief crack.
My hand had moved on its own without my realizing it, but fortunately, I managed to come to my senses and stop.
If I’d left it at that, who knew what my body might have done while keeping him twisted, the way it had killed countless demons?
I might have torn out his neck from behind, or smashed the back of his head, or, if I had a blade, stabbed it from the back of his neck through to the front so he’d die with as little blood splashing onto me as possible.
“Aaaaagh!”
“H-Hyung!”
“Kyaaah?!”
Screams rang out from all over.
The gazes directed at me began to fill with terror and shock.
‘Well, I’m screwed.’
My first impression had been branded as the worst from the very start.
But according to the plan I’d briefly thought of while regressing, while recalling my memories, this was a situation I could call “all the better.”
“Hey, Kim Gwangyun.”
I didn’t let go.
I didn’t loosen my grip.
If I did, he’d think—by his own standards—that he’d been humiliated in front of everyone, and he’d immediately free his hand and throw a punch.
“It’s easier if you just accept it. That we’re dead.”
“Wh-what did you say...?!”
“We died, and that angel said that with the help of a divine being, she’d prepare a way for us to go on living. Then there’s no reason to refuse, is there?”
“You, you...!”
“What if it’s a fraudulent contract?”
While I was still twisting Kim Gwangyun’s arm, a familiar woman approached.
“You are...?”
“Assistant class rep, Kim Minji.”
“...Ah, right. That was your name.”
I remembered.
From her perspective, we had met before, but after returning to school, she was a junior I was meeting for the first time.
“But I’ve already made the contract.”
“That contract is exactly—”
“Whether it was a scam or whether I get dragged down into the abyss, now that I’ve made the contract, I’ll simply carry it out according to its terms.”
I wasn’t speaking to Kim Minji.
“Angel. What am I supposed to do from now on?”
I was speaking to the angel in charge of our area.
I didn’t know if the goddess was directly watching this place, but the angel Estiel would write about me in the report she submitted to the goddess.
[I will tell you that after everyone’s contracts have been completed.]
There was no wariness or hostility in the way she looked at me.
Rather, she was benevolence itself, like an insurance salesperson looking at someone who had stamped their seal on a very good policy without asking a single question.
‘It’ll be troublesome if the other guys’ contracts get delayed and we lose time.’
...There were things I wanted to say, but there was no need to ask for no reason and invite suspicion.
“Understood. Then.”
After obediently letting Kim Gwangyun go for now, I distanced myself from the others.
“Sunbae, are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Ugh, where did that bastard learn something like this...?”
A group approached Kim Gwangyun, and the people near the place I retreated to avoided me.
If I considered survival in the tutorial dungeon to come, this was the worst possible start—but that was only if I formed a team and played together.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
It wasn’t as if the other Heroes’ favorability affected my growth.
If it had, I would have acted the way I did in the first round, but I knew better than anyone that there was no need for that.
A world where there was no need to go out of your way to be kind to those who weren’t on your side.
Unlike modern Earth, a world where we’d have to risk our lives was approaching... No, precisely because of that, I had to act self-centeredly.
‘While I’m waiting, I should draw up the board.’
Faces I knew.
Faces that had only passed me by.
By combining all of them, I had to earn the maximum score possible in this tutorial “factory.”
* * *
“Damn it, what the hell is with that bastard...?”
“I know, right. I don’t think that hyung was like that before he returned to school.”
The group of students, including Kim Gwangyun, stood at the edge of the white space, grinding their teeth as they watched Yu Siwoo, who had his arms crossed and seemed lost in thought as if he were simply waiting for time to pass.
“Did he maybe learn judo before coming back? I don’t think I ever heard anything like that.”
“I heard someone saw him working part-time at a convenience store. I don’t know if it was judo or self-defense, but... I thought I heard he wasn’t in a position to afford lessons....”
“Damn it, I know that too. That bastard’s body is definitely one that’s been trained....”
Kim Gwangyun was enraged by the fact that the gazes of several female freshmen, including the assistant class rep Kim Minji, were directed toward Yu Siwoo.
Was it simply because he was drawing the women’s attention?
To be honest, even that alone was enough to irritate him.
At the freshman orientation camp, not only the freshmen, but even the juniors who were seeing Yu Siwoo for the first time after his return from military service had subtly shown interest in him.
Up to that point was fine.
Showing favor toward Yu Siwoo was like a natural disaster.
The real problem was that, because of what had just happened, the eyes that had been directed toward Yu Siwoo and then toward him had changed.
He’d been wiped.
Their ranks had clearly been divided.
Whether he was the class representative or lived under parents who owned a home in Seoul, none of that mattered. For now, only the result remained: he had been “folded” by Yu Siwoo.
“We’re... really dead, aren’t we...?”
“If our memories aren’t wrong. You, when the stairs collapsed, you met my eyes, didn’t you?”
“Yes. The ceiling collapsed over you, sunbae, and then....”
“Looks like we really are dead. Then... ha. Does that mean there’s nothing we can use except these bodies?”
As they began to acknowledge and accept death one by one, and as they recognized that there was a “next,” their thoughts visibly began to change.
“I-I’ve seen this in old web novels. Now we’re going to be summoned to some weird place and told to hunt goblins.”
“Really? Tell me about that in detail.”
“W-well, the thing is....”
“Web novels, my ass. You moron! This is reality!”
“Hey, you shut up for a second!”
Some racked their brains, trying to think of what situation this resembled.
“Hyung. I don’t know what’s going on, but... should we gather up with the club members first?”
“Yeah. Let’s stick together for now. Once all the contracts are done, they might make us play Squid Game.”
“Squid Game with reincarnation on the line instead of 45.6 billion won....”
“The most important thing is physical ability. You know that, right? You saw Kim Gwangyun’s wrist get twisted.”
“Of course.”
“...Fuck.”
Among those already spreading the wings of imagination and seeking survival strategies in their own ways—
“Um, Angel-nim. The contract....”
[Here it is.]
“M-may I take a look at the contents first?”
“Sunbae! The contract is...!”
“I know! I have to know before deciding whether not to sign it!”
About five minutes had passed since Yu Siwoo made his contract.
One by one, they began to show interest in the contract, and the angel Estiel started displaying the contract directly to each person.
As if—
“Staaatus wiiindow!!”
“.......”
“Cha-character window...? C! P!! View information!!”
[Those are functions that open once you make the contract.]
“...Ah!!”
Like a status window one might see in a virtual reality game.
“...Fuck.”
Kim Gwangyun also received a contract and slowly examined its contents.
And the moment he saw the full contents of the contract, he suddenly felt as if his blood were flowing backward.
“That son of a....”
Dumb luck.
There wasn’t a single toxic clause anywhere in the contract.
Rather, it was the opposite.
With the condition that “if you do not make the contract, all your memories will be erased and you will be reborn in another world,” the goddess was providing the prospective Heroes with benefits so extraordinary it made one wonder if this was even allowed.
“Is this... really okay...?”
“I don’t know, damn it. Hey! So what happens after that? After the goblin attack?”
“O-once the tutorial ends, they get summoned to that fantasy otherworld, and there they fight monsters and stuff....”
There was only one risk to the contract.
That they would have to risk their lives fighting monsters.
“...Shit.”
Anyone who didn’t stamp it was an idiot.
In that atmosphere, Kim Gwangyun glared at Yu Siwoo and signed his name on the contract.
* * *
While people were making contracts one by one.
I gained time to calmly think about how to use the Goddess Point I had been given.
‘After the contract, once the mission ends and the private room opens, I can use it then. Right now is a bit difficult.’
Angel Estiel was still going around collecting the others’ contracts.
I couldn’t very well approach that angel and say, “I seem to have acquired something called a Goddess Point...”
So the best time would be soon, after this space became a factory for Heroes, and I called her separately in the private room.
‘How should I use it?’
It was only one point, but there were countless ways to use it.
And as long as that use was “a method that would help eliminate the Demon King’s Army” in any way, if it was a miracle within the system of another world where the goddess’s miracles could occur, then it could cause any kind of miracle.
To put it in game terms.
‘[Unbreakable Faith], [Divine Descent], [Clone]—those would all be good.’
In other words, it was possible to obtain a special unique skill from the very beginning.
To do that, I first had to not die in the situation that would soon unfold.
[With this, the last one is done. All 108 contracts have been completed.]
Angel Estiel flew up into the sky.
[In order to determine whether you have the aptitude to become Heroes, and to guide you regarding the “enemy” you will fight from now on, we will begin the tutorial, as some of you mentioned. Ah, please rest assured.]
The angel’s voice, speaking like a civil servant, was merely soft and gentle.
[In the tutorial, it is all right even if you die up to three times.]
But if one thought about it even a little, the statement that came out was chilling.
“Wh-what...?”
“It’s okay... if we die...?”
“You crazy bitch! That means situations where we die are going to happen!!”
[We will begin.]
Snap.
The moment Estiel snapped her fingers, the space changed.
A dense forest.
Sheer, towering trees that could not possibly be imagined as belonging to Earth.
Survival backpacks given in front of each person.
And.
[Tutorial Mission 01. Survive in the Goblin Forest.]
#In 15 minutes, the goblins will begin to move.
#Upon death, 1 life will be deducted. (3/3)
#Upon reaching 0 lives, you will be out of the tutorial.
An extremely simple mission.
“Th-this is...!”
The moment people fell into confusion.
“E-everyone, gather together! For now, if we stick together, we’ll live! Um, Yu Siwoo sunbae-nim—”
They would die.
“H-huh?!”
I immediately grabbed the survival backpack, and without even checking the weapon inside, I ran straight into the forest.
‘As if I’d let you make me team leader.’
Something a man in his twenties who had completed military service and been transferred as a group to another world had to keep in mind.
Don’t become a squad leader even in another world.
And what he had to do.
‘Find a woman who’ll repay kindness with her body.’
I didn’t know about anything else, but that was something I absolutely had to do.