Insomniac Player

Damien had barely steadied himself when another notification appeared before every Player.

Beep.

➤[Tutorial Notice]

➤[Death Penalty Exception Active. ]

➤[Level One Participants shall not lose Experience upon death.]

➤[This exception applies only to Tutorial Level Two.]

➤[Future deaths may result in Experience loss, Item loss, or additional penalties depending on location and circumstances.]

The message disappeared.

Nobody spoke.

The Players still fighting gave the notification a tentative look.

Damien’s face slowly turned pale.

"So..." He swallowed. "That means..."

John smashed another goblin into a tree before looking over. "What?"

Damien looked at him and continued. "Reviving costs experience."

John frowned. "...Looks like it."

Damien stared into empty space. His head wasn’t hurting anymore.

The wound had gone, and his body was perfectly healthy. But his mind... his mind still remembered everything.

The stone blade. The sound of his skull cracking. The warmth of blood running down his face. The moment everything became dark.

Death wasn’t painful, but it was the scariest thing he had experienced, and he never wanted to experience it again.

Not once, not ever.

His hands shivered.

For a brief moment, he considered running.

Running had worked before. Well... it had worked until it didn’t.

Another goblin noticed him; its crimson eyes burned with madness. It sprinted straight toward him.

Damien’s heartbeat accelerated, his breathing became uneven, and his legs instinctively wanted to flee.

Then another memory surfaced. A stone sword splitting open his head.

No. Running wasn’t safer; running only meant dying tired.

Something inside Damien quietly snapped.

The hesitation he’d clung to since the Tutorial began simply... disappeared.

Pacifism had served him well on Earth; the goblins clearly hadn’t received the memo.

"If you want me dead." Damien tightened his grip on the First Blood Dagger. "Then I’m going to make this difficult."

The goblin lunged. This time... Damien didn’t move backwards; he stepped forward.

The monster raised its stone blade. Damien ducked underneath the swing.

Pure instinct.

Pure panic.

His dagger flashed upward. The Epic dagger sliced through flesh as though it weren’t there.

SHNK!

The goblin was stunned, and its head slowly slid from its shoulders.

Then, with a thudding sound, its body collapsed.

Damien remained frozen. "I..."

He looked in disbelief. "I actually did that."

Beep.

➤[Goblin Lv.3 Eliminated.]

➤[Experience +10]

Damien’s eyes widened. "Ten?"

His gaze immediately shifted toward the battlefield. "The old goblins gave two."

These gave ten, five times more.

Now it made sense: the stronger monsters weren’t merely stronger.

They were worth more. Which meant... the Tutorial wasn’t becoming harder just to torture them.

It was expected that they would grow stronger at the same pace.

Assuming they survived, another notification quietly appeared.

➤[Experience: 24 / 100]

"So that’s how it works..."

His fear hadn’t disappeared.

His hands were still shaking, and his breathing remained uneven. Yet something had changed.

The second kill felt less impossible. Not easier, just possible.

A wolf’s howl resounded through the clearing.

Damien’s smile disappeared instantly. "Oh. I said that too early."

The bushes exploded apart. Dark shapes burst from every direction.

Night Blood Wolves, larger than before.

Their fur looked darker, their fangs longer. However, they were not much different from previous ones in terms of behaviour.

Above each floated glowing text.

➤[Night Blood Wolf Lv.4]

"...Of course," Damien mumbled.

The Tutorial apparently believed in constant escalation.

The wolves charged. Players immediately formed defensive lines.

Several who had been confidently slaughtering goblins only moments earlier suddenly found themselves retreating.

One wolf tackled a swordsman to the ground.

Another bit through a wooden shield in a single snap.

John met the first wolf head-on. His mace swung in a brutal arc.

BOOM

The beast crashed into a tree, and it stood back up.

John blinked. "Huh, it survived."

The wolf clearly regretted that decision; the second swing corrected the mistake, sending the wolf into eternal slumber.

Damien watched carefully. John didn’t waste movements.

Every attack had an aim, and every step placed him away from being surrounded.

It looked less like fighting and more like experience, real experience.

Damien hurried over, narrowly avoiding another wolf. "John!"

The giant looked back while smashing a goblin. "Yeah?"

"I need to level up," Damien uttered loudly.

John lifted an eyebrow. "You finally figured that out?"

"I died if you remember."

"Haha, give thanks up to the lord."

"I don’t want to die again."

John nodded once. The grinning vanished from his face.

For the first time since they’d entered the Tutorial, he looked completely serious.

"Stay close to me."

Damien immediately obeyed.

John pointed toward the battlefield. "You finish anything I knock down."

"What?"

"You heard me." The giant uncle smirked.

Another wolf leapt. John sidestepped; the mace slammed into its ribs.

CRACK!

The beast tumbled across the ground, unable to stand.

"Now!" John yelled.

Damien ran; his legs still felt weak.

His stomach still twisted, the wounded wolf growled.

He hesitated, only for a heartbeat. Then drove the dagger into its throat. The wolf convulsed.

Beep.

➤[Night Blood Wolf Lv.4 Eliminated.]

➤[Experience +35]

Damien inhaled sharply. "Thirty-five?" His eyes practically sparkled.

John laughed. "No need to thank me."

The older man pointed toward another goblin. "Go."

Another. "And that one."

Another wolf. "Finish it."

For the next several minutes, an unusual partnership emerged.

John became the hammer; Damien became the executioner.

John broke bones; Damien collected experience.

Neither of them had planned it, nor had either complained.

Around them, the battle raged on. Steel clashed. Wolves howled. Goblins shrieked.

Players fought desperately to survive.

Yet amidst the chaos, Damien found himself changing.

Not becoming fearless, never fearless. Every monster still terrified him.

Every swing still made him flinch. But fear no longer stopped him from moving.

He moved despite it. And perhaps... that was what courage actually looked like.

High above the battlefield... Unseen by every Player...

A line of crimson text flickered for less than a second.

➤[Warning...]

➤[Host behavioural deviation detected.]

➤[Nightwalker Fragment synchronisation: 0.3%]

The message vanished before even the System itself seemed to notice.

Far below... Damien drove his dagger into another fallen goblin.

Another notification chimed. Another handful of experience. Another tiny step forward.

For the first time since the Tutorial began... He wasn’t merely surviving; he was learning how to fight.