World of Masks

Chapter 8

Translator: Seven

Editor: Ana_Banana

Jin-suk was resting under a tree so wide that it would not be enough even if three people tried to wrap their arms around it.

As he did, he threw around an orb about the size of a fist. The short sword that was stuck in the ground in front him was covered in blood was evidence that he’d just hunted.

Jin-suk, who stretched and yawned loudly, pulled out the short sword from the ground. It had actually been stabbed into a red lump in front of him.

The short sword stuck came out of the lump with a soft ‘puk’ after Jin-suk pulled it out without hesitation.

From the spot where the sword had been stuck, murky liquid and undigested pieces flowed out, splashing onto the grass.

Jin-suk stood to his feet. Then he walked toward the reddish lump that was leaking onto the grass.

A splash was heard as his footsteps caused ripples in the pool of blood.

“Hmm. This is awesome.”

Jin-suk poked around at the ball of flesh that had once been a rabbit that was now torn, mutilated and completely dismembered.

It hadn’t been long since he caught it, but inside the rabbit’s steaming intestines, the food that the rabbit had eaten and was digesting could be clearly seen.

After his stabbing, the undigested pieces of grass protruded from the stomach and from the intestines, brown pieces of stool were visible.

‘The guy who made this world. He’s either someone who was really chasing extreme realism, or he’s a complete psycho like me.’

As he had this thought, Jin-suk played with the broken body of the rabbit that was laying in a pool of its own blood as if it was a ball.

The contents splashing from inside. The feeling coming from under his feet was pleasant.

Jin-suk looked at the rabbit in the pool of blood before going back to his spot and sitting down once again.

About 10 minutes passed.

Suddenly the ground began making an ominous sound around the body of the rabbit.

As if it was quicksand in the desert, the ground beneath the rabbit’s corpse began pulling it down bit by bit.

After a while only green grass was left, swaying gently in the wind.

‘Is this how the garbage is disposed of?’

It was completely different from the other games where the bodies became specks of light and disappeared.

Jin-suk, who had been staring at the ground in front of him, finally turned his eyes away.

A vast stretch of grassland, with trees growing here and there, stretched as far as he could see.

The flashes of white that he saw were rabbits similar to the one he’d just caught.

It was the appetizer before the main dish.

With a slight lick of the blood that had been splattered on his face, Jin-suk began to move toward the meadow, the short sword held tightly in his hand.

It may have been a setting of the game, but the rabbits were not afraid of people.

Even as Jin-suk approached, they continued grazing on the grass without showing any unusual behavior.

It was impossible for him to cut with the blunt short sword. So Jin-suk crept up stealthily behind the rabbit, holding the short sword steadily, before striking vigorously down on its head.

Kwajik.

The feeling of penetrating the skin, muscles, bones and brains all at once was truly the best feeling.

The rabbit, who hadn’t been given the chance to resist at all, collapsed onto the ground, its body twitching intermittently.

Jin-suk, who had successfully killed another one, let out a comfortable sigh while wiping his sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

The hunt had looked easy, but in fact Jin-suk was pretty nervous.

When he had first started hunting, Jin-suk had thought that they were only rabbits, but these guys were actually pretty fast.

Attacks with the short sword often missed, and since the short sword was very blunt, it could only be used to stab instead of cutting.

He had no choice but to stab them, but stabbing was also easy to miss since they were very small. And when they managed to bite his hand or foot with their front teeth it was surprisingly very painful.

In fact, red blood was still dripping from the wounds where his flesh had been torn off by a rabbit.

They weren’t difficult per se, but they definitely weren’t easy either.

And when a little bastard had tried to jump and bite his groin, Jin-suk couldn’t help but grow deathly pale. He’d luckily managed to smash it away with his quick reflexes, but the shock of it all was unlikely to go away.

Since then, Jin-suk had changed his hunting method. He would sneak behind the rabbit and stab them in the head.

It seemed like a weak method to use against a rabbit, but Jin-suk had no intentions of changing it.

At least he wouldn’t think of it until he had armor that could protect his groin.

He approached the body of the rabbit, his body slightly tense as he remembered his near horrifying experience, and put the Bead of Life on the rabbit’s body.

Following a rumbling sound, the body of the rabbit began to dry up and the Bead of Life began to give off a red glow.

After a while, all that remained was the soft red colored bead and the body of the rabbit, which had become like a mummy.

Jin-suk inspected the bead in his hand. The number 8 could be seen clearly. So far, Jin-suk had managed to hunt 4 rabbits. Each one gave him 2 vitality.

‘How should I distribute the experience?’

Jin-suk pondered for a very long time. After a moment, a red light poured out of the bead and entered his body.

Surprised, he found that the number on the bead had returned to 0. Jin-suk hastily opened his character window.

LV : 1             EXP : 8/42

hour : 744,599 : 43 : 57 (744,599 : 43 : 57)

(Max consume hour / Per Skill – 1hour)

str : 13           dex : 14           int : 12

His experience had gone up.

This meant that the bead responded to the player’s will. Jin-suk mumbled under his breath, feeling like this was truly a comfortable game.

After he’d caught a few more rabbits, Jin-suk returned to the village, carrying the mummified corpse of the rabbits that had had their vitality absorbed.

After passing through the simple tree branch fence, Jin-suk headed to the grocery store. Even in this small town there was a store.

‘This is really a game,’ Jin-suk couldn’t help but think.

“Can I sell this?”

The owner of the grocery store frowned as he looked at the mummified corpses of the rabbits on his counter.

“Hey. Brother. If you were in my place, would you buy something like this?”

No. Not at all. Jin-suk was a bit embarrassed by the question he was asked.

It was truly amazing. No matter how realistic the game was, he had never expected that the NPCs would be able to say such things.

It seemed that he had to be careful when dealing with NPCs in this game.

“Brother. Are you a traveler? It seems like you don’t know anything. Have you just arrived here?”

“…a traveler?”

“That’s right. The people from a different world with a weird sense of fashion who like to wear masks that don’t look cool.”

Ahh. The players. Only then did Jin-suk learn what the NPCs called the players.

“Yeah. I arrived today.”

“Oh, that’s why you don’t know anything. Look, brother. The prey that you use the Bead of Life on, they become dry like these ones. The way they are. You’d probably starve to death eating things that had been sucked of all their vitality. I’m sorry, but these are worthless. Skin, meat, bones. If you want to get these things from your hunt, then you can’t use the Bead of Life.”

‘It seems I can’t get the materials.’

It seemed that players who hunted their prey were given two options. Experience, or materials.

“Well, since there’s a traveler in the town then I don’t have to worry about meat anymore. If you get it, I’ll buy it from you at a reasonable price.”

“…aren’t there rabbits outside?”

“Ah, those? Those things are scary. They’re so fast that we can’t catch them unless we set traps. It’s not like everyone in the village can go trapping. And barely anyone can face it and survive too.”

“You don’t run away? It might be hard to face it head-on by yourself, but is it still a problem with 3-4 people?”

“That’s only for you. I don’t know what kind of grudges you travellers have, but be it animal or monster, you don’t hesitate to rush to your deaths. Well, the smart ones run away from the danger.”

‘What else don’t I know of?’

Jin-suk looked at the owner and recalled the information he was just given.

The game was illegal. So of course there was no internet forum. And so far the game was very different from other games and wasn’t very friendly to the players.

‘I need to learn the rest of the information by myself.’

With that in mind, Jin-suk left the grocery store.