In a room as grand and luxurious as the one belonging to the top survivor of the Tutorial, two women are observing through screens that display various images of the entire Neutral Zone and the people currently in it. 

Some screens show places other than the Neutral Zone, but these locations belong to the special zones where survivors are transported when they take on missions from the mission board. 

In other words, this room is practically a control room where all survivors and their activities can be monitored. 

The two women present are Taciana Cinzia, the current manager of the Neutral Zone, and her right-hand woman, Claire Agnes. 

"So, what do you think of the rookie champion? Did you meet him? Is he promising?" asked Taciana Cinzia to her assistant Claire Agnes. 

"I had a chance to speak with him, but I was bothered by his behavior and took the first opportunity to leave," replied Claire Agnes, clearly annoyed by the incident. 

"Oh! So he managed to bother you? That's strange, normally you can withstand the annoyance of fools without it affecting your work activities. What did he do to exceed your limit?" asked Taciana Cinzia, half amused and half curious. 

"It's not that he did something surprising, he simply behaved flirtatiously, but that wasn't what bothered me. I can handle that without it affecting me in the slightest, but his gaze was different. His eyes did not look at me with lust or desire as one would expect if they were in line with his flirtatious behavior. Instead, he looked at me with some affection and mischief, as if he knew me and just wanted to have a little fun teasing me. I'm sure we had never met before, so his gaze simply disconcerted me and made me very uncomfortable. I couldn't stand it, and that is why I left at the first opportunity," said Claire Agnes, frustrated. 

The main screen changed and focused on the person they were talking about, Seol Jihu. 

"From what we could find out from Han and María, the guy clearly showed an extraordinary performance in the Tutorial. He killed the Gaekwi effortlessly with his sword from the start, breezed through the second test as if it were a walk in the park and breaking the best record by far, and for the third test, he tamed all the survivors," said Taciana Cinzia, clearly impressed, then asked, "Have you found out anything about him outside of the Tutorial?"

"There is actually a lot of information. He is the son of wealthy parents and is a successful multimillionaire businessman himself. He was outstanding in his studies from school to high school, but he did not continue to university and instead dedicated himself to trivial activities until he founded his own company. He trained in different martial arts at various gyms and is known to be very popular in his country. He is considered one of the most sought-after men despite publicly having two girlfriends and it is speculated that he dates several more girls," replied Claire Agnes quite professionally. 

"We have quite a history there, at least that explains a bit of his capabilities. If he trained in different martial arts, that explains a bit of his performance, but it still does not explain everything. He must be hiding something. We've brought in highly trained people in the past and none have shown such performance, and the fact that he's from that place doesn't please me," said Taciana Cinzia, clearly annoyed. 

"Do you think he has any connection with The Shadow and that deity?" asked Claire Agnes, now more interested. 

"Look at you girl, I just mention something related to that guy and you lose your composure. That is why they say being the parent of a daughter is like working for others; you raise her and she goes off with a boyfriend," said Taciana Cinzia, a bit amused. 

"I am not your daughter, Don Cinzia, nor am I the girlfriend of the god of death," said Claire Agnes, blushing and annoyed. 

"Heh, I never mentioned whose girlfriend you were; you were the one who mentioned specific people, not me," said Taciana, now laughing and very amused to see her trusted subordinate completely embarrassed. 

"But seriously, it's disappointing to see this guy; he is clearly surprising and exceptional. But he has been completely wasting time. First he toured the place a bit with Maria, then went to sleep in his room, then went to eat, and finally wastes hours and hours watching the people around the mission board... "

"It seems like he is afraid to take on missions by himself and is waiting to see the results of others to make sure it's safe. While that is a valid strategy for the incompetent, someone outstanding like him is expected not to be a coward and to try for himself, climbing from the bottom up.

The only really notable thing he has done so far is buy 'Special Competencies', but if he doesn't use them or trains, then it's a complete waste," said Taciana Cinzia disappointed. 

On the screen, you can see that Seol Jihu is just sitting and observing the few people around the mission board, and from the conversation between the two women, it can be concluded that he has been doing this for several hours. 

The screen shows that the last people who were looking at the mission board are finally leaving to do something else, most likely looking for a place to spend the night since it is quite late. With the last people leaving the mission board, you can see Seol Jihu also standing up and heading to the upper floor to go to his room. 

"I guess that's it for today; it's not like I really expected anything remotely surprising from the rookies on the first day, but for a moment I had expectations that this guy would prove me wrong, but it was just a disappointment. I hope he does something good tomorrow, or I will lose all interest. Well, I guess it's better to sleep, it's not worth wasting more time watching these rookies," said Taciana Cinzia, quite disappointed and tired. 

"I'm going to sleep too, Don Cinzia. If you need anything just let me know, I'll bring you breakfast at 7:00 am," said Claire Agnes as she headed for the exit of the room whose screens were now turned off by Taciana Cinzia. 

And so both women went to sleep certain that nothing surprising could happen for the rest of the night, but what awaited them the next morning could only make them completely regret their actions tonight. 

~~~~

** Seol Jihu POV **

It is almost 12:00 at night, and finally, the last people at the mission board have left. I waited a couple more minutes to see if anyone else would come, but luckily that was not the case. I got up from my seat where I have been waiting for the last few hours for everyone to leave, and now I'm heading to my room on the upper floors. The reason is simple, I'm going to the bathroom. I've been here too long, and nature has called me. I'll go to the bathroom and then return to do the missions calmly. 

After taking care of my needs, I returned to the plaza and saw the announcement board that is still empty, so I sighed with relief and checked the surroundings, there's no one, it seems that by this time everyone has gone to sleep, which is great for me. I approached the board and focused directly on the mission with the highest reward in the very difficult category. 

[Advance (remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

-Objective: Break through the attacks of the spirits, cross the bridge, and conquer the enemy's strategic position!

-Difficulty: Very difficult

-Reward if successful: +60,000 PS

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful 

-Possible cooperation: up to 6 people]

My first idea was to tear off all the mission tags to ensure that no one else could take any to waste them, but when I tried to take them all, no matter how much force I applied, I was unable to take them. Then I tried one by one, but after taking the first one, it would not let me take any more, so it seems someone had already done that in the past and they surely corrected it so it's not possible to do it now. 

Well, it was just a fleeting thought, I already imagined it was not possible, so I stuck to the plan to complete as many as I could tonight. I broke the mission talisman and was transported to the mission area. 

I'm in a forest and a little far away there is a large cliff that is connected to another cliff by a large stone bridge. The bridge looks quite extensive, maybe about 2km long and about 5 meters wide. I walked towards the bridge and it took no time to get there, it was actually quite close. 

Now the problem is that on the other side of the bridge there is a camp of what appear to be fairies about 1 meter tall carrying arrows, javelins, and clearly using magic. It seems that if I start to cross the bridge, they will attack me and the mission is to cross the bridge and take that camp. 

From the beginning, I have had the [Nine Eyes] activated and from what I could see, everything is in Green, which means that unless I let them hurt me, they won't be able to. I activated [Mana Cloaking] and [Physical Reinforcement] to the maximum without hurting myself, and ran. 

A distance of 2 km was covered in 21 seconds. As soon as they saw me, the spirits attacked me with everything they had but I moved so fast that only a few attacks reached me and those attacks were deflected by my sword or simply ignored and neutralized by my [Mana Cloaking]. Although the attacks were powerful, they were just not strong enough to break my [Mana Cloaking]. 

I tried to threaten the spirits to make them leave, but it seems they have no reasoning or are programmed to attack until the end. After all, all the beings that appear in the mission zones are false projections of real beings. 

But I remember that in the novel some showed quite realistic reactions to some things, so I tried to check it with these, but it does not seem to be the case here and I shrugged and killed them all. 

I am really out of their league. Their attacks can't hurt me because of my [Mana Cloaking] and my toy sword which is also enhanced by [Mana Cloaking] is a lethal weapon that cuts through their defenses as if it were cutting through butter... Actually, this combination of thin blade and [Mana Cloaking] is very good. I have not found anything yet that poses a very strong resistance to being cut. 

In total, it only took me 2 minutes to complete the mission. When I killed the last spirit I was immediately transported back to the square in front of the mission board. I looked around to make sure there was no one, and seeing it clear, I took the same mission again and repeated. By the time about 20 minutes had passed, I had completed all the attempts and easily won 600,000 Survival Points. 

Then I moved on to the next mission, but the next mission with the best reward requires being there for a full hour, so I will leave it for last. Instead, I just went to the next one. 

[Extermination (Remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

-Objective: Eliminate all enemies in the area!

-Difficulty: Very difficult

-Reward if successful: +40,000 PS

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful 

-Possible cooperation: up to 6 people]

I tore the scroll and was transported to the area. Unlike before, which was a forest, now I am in what seems to be a room in a building. There are no enemies in this room, but when I opened the door, I found a hallway that has several doors connected to more rooms and in the hallway there are 3 enemies. They are well-armed skeletons; one is a sorcerer, another an archer, and the last a knight, well that is if their clothing serves to identify them. 

Immediately after I opened the door they noticed me and began to prepare to attack, but I did not give them the opportunity, I charged at them and cut them down without giving them time to react. 

Then I opened the first door and as I thought, it gives access to a room where there are more armed skeletons, but they are weaker than the spirits and their position does not give them the advantage, so killing them was easy. The only problem I found was moving between the hallway and the rooms. The spirits were in the open field and it was easy to get to them. Here, I have to move through hallways and rooms and that takes more time than killing enemies in the open field. 

Finally, it seems that I killed them all and was transported back to the mission board. In total, it took me just over 3 minutes to finish the mission. 

Then I repeated it. As the structure of hallways and rooms, even the number of enemies and location was the same, the following attempts were easier and faster because I memorized everything and just went straight to kill. In the end, I was able to finish the remaining 9 attempts in just under 18 minutes. 

I moved on to the next mission on the board. 

[Sabotage (Remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

-Objective: Destroy the enemy's food, weapons, and armor warehouses!

-Difficulty: Very difficult

-Reward if successful: +30,000 PS

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful 

-Possible cooperation: up to 6 people]

I tore the scroll and was transported again to a forest, but in front of me, there is an enemy camp. I climbed to the top of a tree and studied the camp, it is formed of 8 tents surrounded by a wooden fence, 4 of the 8 tents are the size of a small house, of the remaining 4, 1 is larger and clearly more luxurious than the others. I assume it is from the camp leader or someone of high status. 

And the remaining 3 are surely the warehouses, they are together and have more security than the other tents. The camp is not very large but it is quite secured by several patrols of creatures similar to ratmen. But they are clearly weaker and have fewer numbers than the previous 2 missions, so it is noticeable that the difficulty level of this mission has dropped quite a bit as well as the reward. 

Seeing what I had to see, I got down from the tree and simply attacked head-on, I killed any enemy that stood in my way and reached the 3 warehouses. The best way to finish a warehouse is by setting it on fire, even if I don't have tools to start a fire that doesn't matter much. 

I had said before, that although I don't like elemental manipulation magic that much, it is not like I can't use it. I quickly created several fireballs in my hands and began to throw them at everything I considered flammable in the warehouses, the fire is taking longer than I expected to destroy the warehouses, so I kept throwing and throwing fireballs everywhere until they caught fire quickly and the warehouses were destroyed. 

The ratmen from all over the camp began to arrive and attack me but I ignored them, their attacks cannot overcome my [Mana Cloaking] and I simply continued burning the warehouses. Despite all my effort, it took 5 minutes to finish the mission. 

I really could not find a faster method to destroy the damned warehouses and it took me almost 1 hour to complete that mission 10 times. 

I attempted to break things with my sword and it turned out to be faster, but that only applied to the weapons and armor; the food didn't count unless I incinerated it, and that was why I had no choice but to lose at least 5 minutes per attempt. Even killing all the enemies in the camp did not count. It was just a matter of destroying the warehouses, no matter what. 

Frustrated by the time lost, I moved on to the next mission. 

[Reach the destination within a silent environment (remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

-Objective: Silently traverse the path until you reach the designated destination!

-Difficulty: Very difficult

-Reward if successful: +20,000 PS

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful 

-Possible cooperation: up to 6 people]

I took the mission and was transported to a place that is in complete darkness, but thanks to my [Sensory Perception], I can perfectly perceive my surroundings within 20 meters around me without activating [Physical Reinforcement]. With [Physical Reinforcement] active however, that range increases with each level of reinforcement. With my reinforcement increased five times, I can perceive everything within 100 meters around me perfectly, and unlike the Byakugan, my perception is flawless, with no blind spots. This ability is like a Byakugan in Naruto but superior in some aspects because I can perceive changes in the dimension around me, such as when I sense a disturbance in space a few seconds before someone teleports. 

My ability does not rely exclusively on my sight but on the refinement and sharpening of all my senses to the limit and the great capacity of my brain to process all the information it receives. Thanks to this ability, I know I am surrounded by enemies, and I can clearly perceive everything in the environment that falls within my [Sensory Perception], even if there is no light at all. Despite appearing out of nowhere, they did not react to my appearance. 

From what I can perceive, I am in a long, very dark corridor, full of enemies that apparently cannot see, which is one of the reasons why they do not react to my presence. 

Now I understand why the mission says to reach the destination in silence; the goal is surely to cross the corridor without making noise. If they are blind, they must have other senses, such as hearing, much more developed, and they will hear me at the slightest noise. It is theoretically an infiltration mission. 

Well, I will try to see if I can simply brute force my way through this. I don't want to waste any more time on these missions, and if I can pass by brute force, I will finish quickly. 

With my [Physical Reinforcement] and [Mana Cloaking], I began to run through the corridor quickly. The enemies reacted as soon as I took the first step and it echoed throughout the place, but they could not keep up with my pace. I am clearly faster and I easily crossed the corridor, which at the end connected to another corridor in the same conditions as the previous one. So I kept moving forward, and after 1 minute of running through several corridors, I reached the end of it all, a room with a magic circle on the floor. I stood there and was transported to the area in front of the mission board and received the announcement of completing the mission. It was easy and fast. 

In less than 10 minutes, I had finished the remaining 9 attempts of this mission and moved on to the next one. 

[Ambush (Remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

-Objective: Ambush and annihilate the group of Bugs that pass through the mountain path!

-Difficulty: Very difficult

-Reward if successful: +10,000 PS

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful 

-Possible cooperation: up to 6 people]

I tore the scroll and was transported to a mountain. In front of me, there is a large stone road that crosses the entire mountain. From here, I can see a group resembling 6 giant cockroaches coming down the road. At the pace they are moving, it will take about 2 minutes for them to reach my position. 

But I don't have time to waste waiting for them to arrive. I ran at top speed and exterminated them before they could even react. It is clear that they are much weaker than any previous enemy. 

However, the mission was not completed. I assume there must be more groups, so I kept running down the road and found several more groups. In the end, I exterminated 6 groups before the mission ended, and it took me almost 3 minutes to finish. The road was long, and the groups were quite separated. It seems like a mission that gives time to prepare traps and action plans against unsuspecting enemies, just as the name suggests, ambush. But in my case, it was unnecessary because enemies of that level are no threat at all. 

It took me almost 30 minutes to finish the remaining attempts, but I completed them. Now, the only mission left is the one that asks to defend for 1 hour for each attempt. 

I looked at my phone, and it's 2:11 am, so if I start now, I can probably do it only 4 times before the other survivors begin to appear. The problem is that seeing all the very difficult missions are not there, they will surely think they are not so dangerous, and I will lose the other attempts. But there's not much I can do about it. I will enter to complete the mission and see if there is any way to reduce that time. 

[Defense (Remaining number of attempts: 10/10)

-Objective: Defend the magic circle and survive the enemy assault for one hour! 

-Difficulty: Very difficult 

-Reward if successful: +50,000 SP 

-Penalty: Death if unsuccessful 

-Possible cooperation: up to 6 people]

I took the scroll, tore it, and was transported. This time I appeared in a small room with a magic circle in the center. Besides that, there was nothing else. The small room measures approximately 10x10m, and there is only one open door in the room that connects to what seems like a large hallway. From the hallway, a large group of enemies is running towards here; they seem to be humans, all equipped with weapons and armor and shouting things like "Kill the demon," "Stop the invocation," it seems that was the theme of the mission. I didn't stop to wait for them to get here. Seeing that it was the only entrance, I did not bother staying to wait for them and simply ran towards them. I left the room and entered their hallway, where I began to kill them all and continued advancing and killing all the others in the way. 

The hallway led me to another room, and to my surprise, there is another magic circle on the floor. The enemy humans are coming out of this circle, so I started killing them and thought it was worth the risk to destroy their magic circle to see if I can finish the test quickly. So I did that and began to destroy the floor where the magic circle is, and it worked, it turned off. 

But I was not transported, and the mission was not completed, which made me angry. I will have to wait 1 hour for this to end. I was about to sit down to meditate and train when I perceived a new circle forming on the ceiling, and from there, humans began to emerge again. I killed them and destroyed the new circle and part of the ceiling. Shortly after, another one formed on a wall, and I repeated the process. In the end, 3 more were formed on the remaining 3 walls of this room, and when I destroyed them, no other was formed, and I was transported to the mission board. The whole process took about 10 minutes, but that's much better than the original hour. 

I repeated the process and in almost 2 hours managed to finish all the attempts. I looked at the clock, and it was already 4:06 AM. Seeing that I finished everything I had intended and checking my Survival Points, which went from 3,500 to 2,103,500, I went satisfied to my room to rest. The truth is that I'm not completely tired; I can maintain maximum performance with all my abilities active for about 6 hours straight, and here I was only for 4 hours, so although I'm tired, it's not completely. 

I could still endure 2 more hours, but there is nothing left to do. Since I finished my goal and for the moment, I am not going to train seriously. I will just go relax in my room a little, maybe meditate and train lightly for a while, and if I get bored, I will come back and take a basic mission until it's daytime. At 9:00 AM, I agreed to meet up with the others.