{ Trial Grounds – Jungle Interior | 00:04 Minutes Elapsed }
The jungle breathed around him.
Moss-slicked trees towered overhead, their canopy so dense that sunlight arrived in fractured beams. Jin-Seok stood motionless in a small clearing, his masked face tilted slightly as shadows moved through the undergrowth.
Five figures emerged from the foliage like ghosts materializing from nightmares. Crude weapons gleamed in their white-knuckled grips—rusted blades, makeshift spears, a club wrapped in barbed wire. They fanned out in a practiced formation, desperation carved into every line of their bodies.
"Why are you here?"
Jin-Seok's voice cut through the humid air—not angry, just curious. As if he'd stumbled across something mildly interesting.
"Instead of hunting monsters and earning tokens... why waste your time chasing me?"
The leader stepped forward. Broad shoulders, scarred arms, eyes that had seen too much too young. When he spoke, his voice trembled—not with fear, but with the kind of fury that came from having nothing left to lose.
"What's the point of earning tokens?"
He spat the words like poison.
"You people... the Golden Generation... you showed up like gods crashing a mortal feast. Ten of you. All at once. Every single one more terrifying than the last."
Another voice screamed from the circle—raw and breaking:
"You overshadowed all of us the moment you appeared! Why now? Why during our Trial?!"
Jin-Seok studied them. Their backs were hunched, shoulders trembling, eyes glassy with unshed tears. But there was no fear in their stance. Just burning, desperate pride.
The leader's jaw clenched as he raised his weapon.
"You're not the only one. Every member of your so-called Golden Generation is our target. We solo climbers... we've already made our decision."
His chin lifted in defiance.
"We know we don't stand a chance one-on-one... so we formed teams. Hunt the closest one. Eliminate at least one of you before we're eliminated ourselves."
The one with the barbed club smiled—a broken, shaking thing.
"And it looks like fate played a cruel joke... we got you."
Silence stretched between them like a held breath.
The leader drew his blade with steady hands.
"We know we're weak. But we're not backing down. Not now."
They moved into combat stance—breathing fast, weapons raised. Not hoping for victory. Just aiming to prove they'd tried.
Jin-Seok exhaled slowly. The breeze caught his coat, making it flutter like dark wings.
"I admire your courage."
His voice dropped to winter-cold.
"But courage without power... is just suicide."
Then he vanished.
No flash. No sound. Just—gone.
*CRACK.*
A thunderclap of force slammed into the first attacker, lifting him off his feet and hurling him into a tree trunk with a sickening thud. By the time the others could blink—
*CRACK. CRACK. THUD. THWACK.*
They were airborne, crashing through foliage, unconscious before they hit the ground. Jin-Seok stood behind them now, perfectly balanced, his coat settling in the aftershock.
He walked forward with measured steps. Knelt beside each fallen form. Took nine tokens from each attacker.
Left them with one.
---
One climber groaned—barely conscious, hand twitching as his eyes flickered open.
"Why..." The word came out cracked. "Why leave us with one token? You... you could've taken everything..."
Jin-Seok didn't turn around.
"I just gave you another chance."
He paused, gaze distant.
"How you use it... is entirely up to you."
The survivor blinked through the haze of pain, stunned.
"This is a survival trial." Jin-Seok's voice carried no emotion. "You don't have to win. You don't have to be strong. You just have to survive."
He turned his head slightly.
"As long as you're alive... the Tower will still be there tomorrow."
"But the tokens..."
"I can take them from others."
The survivor trembled as Jin-Seok began walking away. Desperation gave him strength to call out once more.
"So we're nothing but ants to you?" he murmured.
Jin-Seok paused, glanced over his shoulder.
"No."
"You're pebbles on the path. You only get stepped on if you stand in the way."
Then he was gone—swallowed by the jungle shadows like he'd never been there at all.
---
## { Jungle Interior – Deep Zone | 00:10-00:20 Minutes Elapsed }
The jungle thickened around him like a living maze.
Ancient trees stretched impossibly high, their roots twisted into cathedral arches. The undergrowth pulsed with sounds—snarls, rustles, echoing screeches that spoke of hunger and violence. But none of it slowed Jin-Seok down.
He moved like a phantom given flesh.
Blades of compressed air sliced out with each step. Jungle wolves collapsed before they could howl. Carnivorous apes fell silent mid-roar. Even a mantis the size of a city bus crumpled like paper, its razor limbs folding uselessly.
*Slice. Step. Silence.*
He didn't stop to collect the tokens from monster corpses. Most barely had any to begin with. His target lay deeper in the maze—where the real hunters would gather.
One massive ape charged from his blind spot—a Tower Beast with moss-covered hide and crimson eyes that burned like embers.
"You're in the way."
Jin-Seok's voice was barely a whisper.
*BOOM.*
A wave of pure pressure erupted as he swept his hand through the air. The ape exploded backward, its massive body smashing through three ancient trees before hitting the ground with a wet thud.
Jin-Seok kept walking.
*I need to reach the inner zone before the collapse starts,* he thought, studying fresh claw marks carved deep into bark. *That's where the real prey will gather.*
His eyes narrowed behind the mask.
*And maybe... someone interesting will come looking for me.*
---
{ Colosseum Broadcast Center | 00:10 Minutes Elapsed }
Explosions of color flashed across the floating projection screens above the arena. The crowd's roar was deafening as VOX's amplified voice cut through the chaos.
"Twenty minutes since trial start and just LOOK at how the battlefield's evolving! We've got bloodshed, ambushes, and some serious power moves across all zones!"
A dramatic pause as the screens flickered.
"And now... the latest leaderboard update is IN!"
---
🏆 **LEADERBOARD UPDATE – 00:10 MINUTES** 🏆
| **Rank** | **Name** | **Tokens** | **Status** |
|----------|----------|------------|------------|
| 1 | Kaleon Vass | 90 | Active |
| 2 | Zephyr Karshem | 89 | Active |
| 3 | Lady Evara Umbrea | 85 | Active |
| 4 | Dante Dragunov | 84 | Active |
| 5 | Noah Varnok | 82 | Active |
| 6 | Zayna Malik | 80 | Active |
| 7 | Rokhan Zokhul | 78 | Active |
| 8 | Elina Vel | 78 | Active |
| 9 | ??? (Joshua) | 77 | Active |
| 10 | Ryu Jin-Seok | 75 | Active |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
| — | Lucien Arkwright | 10 | Active |
---
VOX's voice crackled with excitement.
"Ten minutes in and the jungle's become a battlefield of legends! But just LOOK at this leaderboard!"
"Kaleon Vass, the Merchant Prince himself, claims the top with 90 tokens!" A chuckle. "Of course, those in the know saw him tossing around Tower gems like candy earlier. Buying tokens from climbers too terrified to face the Golden Generation!"
A hologram flickered to life—three trembling figures handing over their tokens as Kaleon casually flipped a walnut-sized gem into their shaking hands.
"Ah, capitalism at its finest."
VOX's tone shifted, building momentum.
"Right behind him—Zephyr Karshem with 89 and Lady Evara Umbrea at 85! The North and East are putting in serious work!"
"Dante, Noah, Zayna, Rokhan, Elina—the board is flooded with monsters wearing human faces!"
Then—a dramatic gasp.
"But who's this mystery in ninth place—Joshua?! A total unknown! No noble family, no sponsor visibility, and he's already at 77 tokens?! Where did this another dark horse came from?"
The screen showed a silhouette moving through collapsing terrain, five climbers falling in perfect unison behind him.
VOX's voice dropped to a whisper.
"And finally... the biggest anomaly of all..."
The projection focused on a masked figure sprinting through dense foliage—silent, relentless, unstoppable.
"Ryu Jin-Seok, the phantom who stole the show during the ceremony... now at 75 tokens."
"He started slow, they said. Methodical. But now? With monsters and climbers alike hunting him... he's still climbing."
The camera panned down the leaderboard—down, down, until—
"Wait... what?! Is this a glitch?!"
VOX burst into laughter.
"Nope! Bottom of the board—Lucien Arkwright, one of the most anticipated rookies of the year..."
The screen cut to a young man lounging under a tree, twirling a blade of grass while sipping from a silver flask.
"...with 10 tokens. Looks like our golden boy hasn't even started yet!"
---
{ Jungle – Jin-Seok's Position }
A soft pulse of light rippled through the canopy—the token system syncing. The updated leaderboard shimmered briefly in the sky like a distant constellation.
Jin-Seok glanced up, reading his name in tenth place.
No reaction. No frustration.
Just a faint smile beneath the mask.
"Ninety, huh?"
His eyes narrowed, catching the light like steel.
"Guess I'll just have to take more."
The jungle seemed to shiver as he disappeared once again into the shadows, leaving only silence in his wake.
*The real hunt was just beginning.*