Chapter 5

As soon as the Diamond Mark guy jumped into the hole, the Gold Mark look at the people with him and nervously said, "Ummm, hi?"

The only Silver Mark in their little group only spared the Gold Mark a glance and silently left the auditorium seemingly headed towards the school building.

The Thicc girl on the other hand glared at the Silver Mark and then looked at the Gold Mark and introduced herself, "Hello there Mr. Gold Mark. My name is Shin Sang-Ah, what's yours?"

Seeing the now known Shin Sang-Ah take the initiative, the two siblings then introduced themselves, "Hi Oppa! My name is Yi Sungjin-"-and I'm Yi Seol-Ah!"

The Gold Mark guy then smiled nervously at them and then introduced himself, "Hello there, my name is Seol Jihu. What are you guys going to do now that the monster left?"

The siblings and Shin Sang-Ah glanced at each other and then gave the other a silent nod of confirmation and simultaneously said, "We would like to cooperate with you Jihu-Oppa/Seol Jihu."

Seol Jihu looked at them in surprise and asked, "Me? Why me?"

Shin Sang-Ah deadpanned at him and said, "Cause you're the only Gold Mark inside the auditorium before everything went to flames."

Seol Jihu then looked at the siblings and Shin Sang-Ah before contemplating and looked at his phone. His eyes widened at what he read and quickly looked at the hole beside them.

'Is this the hole mentioned in the diary?' He then looks at the siblings' and Shin Sang-Ah's expectant gazes and sighed, 'Well, why not?'

Seol Jihu then turned towards the hole and said to them, "If you guys want to form a team with me then follow me." Not minding the confused faces of the people behind him, Seol Jihu then jumped into the hole.

Seeing them being left behind, Yi Sungjin, Yi Seol-Ah, and Shin Sang-Ah looked at each other in confusion but then shrugged their shoulders and followed Seol Jihu into the hole.

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Adan looked at the people in front of him in confusion. Why are the people here different than the ones that were supposed to survive? Was it because of his actions? This is the butterfly effect, isn't it?

Adan then shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and thought, 'Meh, I can deal with this. I'm already too OP for Paradise anyway so what could go wrong?'

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"I raised a flag, didn't I? Yep, I'm pretty sure I did. Ah, fuck it! I don't care about flags anymore! Come at me Paradise! do your worst! Maybe that could make my journey more enjoyable!"

The survivors around Adan looked at him weirdly but ultimately decided to ignore him. Maybe he finally went crazy because of what's happening around them?

Oh, how far can their assumptions be from the truth?

After a few more seconds of ranting, Adan finally calmed down and decided to lay down on the floor and relax. He is going to need it more so when the Tutorial is done.

As Adan closed his eyes, Hyun Sangmin looked at the only barrier that was left untouched in surprise. A group of four people was walking towards them.

The group in question were Seol Jihu, Shin Sang-Ah, Yi Seol-Ah, and Yi Sungjin. They didn't look like they came out of a battlefield like the rest of the group that survived except for Hyun Sangmin himself and of course Adan.

When Seol Jihu passed through the barrier, spikes immediately jutted off the ground and prevented Shin Sang-Ah and the Yi siblings to follow him.

Seol Jihu and his group were surprised at this development and turned to Hyun Sangmin and his group for help.

Seeing them like that, Hyun Sangmin's brilliant mind immediately went overdrive as soon as he saw Seol Jihu's bag and his questioning look. He quickly walked over to Seol Jihu and stretched out his hand while saying, "The name's Hyun Sangmin, nice to meet you."

Seol Jihu nodded his head and shook Hyun Sangmin's hand as he said, "Seol Jihu, nice to meet you too. So how can my companions get inside?"

Hyun Sangmin just smiled at him and gestured towards the big red button with his head and said, "Just push that thing over there and they'll be fine."

Seol Jihu then nodded his head in gratitude and walked towards the button. While he was walking, he was looking at all the people that made it out alive and he was quite surprised.

The family of three, a guy wearing a cap, the Silver Mark girl they were with earlier, the other Silver Mark, and the guy who scared away the monster. Not to forget Hyun Sangmin he met earlier.

'So these are the only people who survived the monster, huh?'

Seol Jihu decided to push those thoughts away at the moment as it seems that his companions still needs to enter the safe zone of sorts.

When Seol Jihu finally opened the 'gate' Shin Sang-Ah and the Yi siblings quickly entered as the 'gate' immediately closed as soon as it felt them enter.

After Seol Jihu's group huddled together, Adan's right eye suddenly opened as he said, "So you guys made it out alive, eh? Thought that one or two of you guys would die but it seems that only one abandoned ship."

Hearing him talk, the Yi siblings immediately zoned in on Adan relaxing on what looked like a very comfortable couch, and ran towards him.

When they were finally close, they immediately said, "Thank you so much for saving us in the auditorium. If it weren't for you scaring of the monster then we would have surely died at that moment."

Adan's right eye then glanced at them for a split second before closing itself as he said, "Yeah, yeah don't mention it. That phantom monster was just a small fry anyway."

Yi Seol-Ah pouted a little at his words as she seemed like she wanted to say something but was stopped by her brother who covered her mouth and dragged her off towards Seol Jihu and Shin Sang-Ah.

Even though the other people heard what Yi Seol-Ah said, they were either in denial at her words and confused by them. Hyun Sangmin's eyes on the other hand widened in shock as his brain went into hyperdrive.

A few minutes since Seol Jihu's group arrived, their phones suddenly rang as there was a message given to them;

[The first Tutorial mission, 'Escape from the Assembly Hall', has concluded. Number of remaining survivors: 12]

[A new message from the Guide has arrived.]

[The second mission of the Tutorial, 'Breaking Through Traps' has begun.]

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[Sender: the Guide]

[1. Enter the classroom "3-1" on the fourth floor of the main building via the annex's third floor before time runs out.]

[Remaining time: 01:59:56]

"Ahhhh, where are they? I've been here like a minute ago and they're still not here!" Adan could be seen complaining inside Classroom 3-1 with nothing to do.

He has already moved 3 desks together and laid down onto it as he stared at the ceiling while thinking, 'Why couldn't the girls just teleport me into Paradise with the pretense of me being a Paradisian?'

He then quickly got off the desks and exclaimed, "Wait! What if this isn't Classroom 3-1? I don't think I heard the system say [Mission Complete] or anything!"

As he was about to go out of the room. he decided against it and laid down on the desks again whilst saying, "Nah, I couldn't have gone into the wrong room. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention that I didn't hear it?"

When Adan was about to complain more, the door finally opened revealing a group of 5 people. It was Seol Jihu's group plus a tag-along called Hyun Sangmin.

Seeing them by the door, Adan quickly got off the desks and stood straight as he greeted them, "HEEYYYYY!!!!! I was waiting for you guys! I've been quite bored here that I was about to lose my mind!"

Shin Sang-Ah's right eye was twitching when she heard what Adan said, 'It only took us 9 minutes to walk to this very room while following the path of destruction you left in your wake and you have the gall to complain!? I don't even think we could have gotten that short of a time if it weren't for you even.'

As if knowing what Shin Sang-Ah was thinking about, Adan quickly looked at her and exclaimed, "Oi! I was just bored, okay? I think it only took me seconds to get here while you guys need around 10 minutes just to get here! And I even left a path that had no more traps for you guys to follow!"

While Shin Sang-Ah was getting ready to strangle Adan and the Yi siblings were holding her off, Seol Jihu and Han Sangmin had similar thoughts while they were looking at Adan, 'He's acting all goofy and cheery so that the others won't realize exactly what he did!'

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While Adan was piling all the coins he collected when he was waiting for all the other survivors, Han the guide was looking at him in shock as he thought, 'Where in the world did this guy find all those coins!? Those are only supposed to appear when the [Third Mission] starts!'

The 11 other people in the room were looking at Adan in confusion, curiosity, and indifference and then looked back at the guide who was in front of them.

Seeing that the 'students' were impatiently waiting for him to start talking, Han quickly said, "Congrats on making it to the 4th floor! Were the 1st and 2nd classes fun?"

Said students were glaring at him as he said those words. Fun? Fun!? These two classes of yours almost made us die!

Adan completely ignored what was happening around him as he continued to count all the coins he found.

"Here's some good news. There's only one tutorial left."

Now that got the attention of everyone in the room. Well, mostly everyone as Adan still kept on counting all the coins he found.

"This last mission is going to be easy and even fun for you guys! As long as you guys follow the rules-"

After a couple more minutes of counting, Adan's brown eyes shined in delight as he was finally done. All the coins he found amounted to 11,690 coins! That was almost quadruple the number of coins that appeared in the original novel!

As he was finally done counting, Adan finally started to try and listen to what Han was saying, "-heard of scavenger hunting? That's what you guys are going to do. There are coins spread all over the 4th and 5th floors and you all will have to collect as many coins as possible tonight."

Han's eyes shined as he said, "They will be used for the toll fee and for the roulette."

The wife of the fat man then asked, "Roulette? And what's for the toll fee?"

Han smiled at her and said, "I'm glad you asked! The toll fee will be for the 6th-floor ~! The entrance to Paradise opens there and you will need the toll fee to enter."

The people in the room, bar Adan and the Silver Marks widened their eyes in surprise.

Han's smile widened as he said, "Nobody gets free lunch though as the toll fee is 100 coins and-" the delight in Han's eyes dimmed when he looked over at Adan who was flipping a coin at him while showing off all the coins he found.

But it seemed to regain its light when he saw how possessive Adan became when he saw Yi Seol-Ah try to take one coin from him, "There are 3000 coins out there- 100 coins is easy enough to get. Especially if you're one of the map-holders."

The people around Adan were kind of relieved when they heard what Han said but turned curious when Han said something about map-holders.

"The roulette machine is on the 5th-floor library. If you've gathered a lot of coins, please use that machine. You will be able to obtain stuff that helps you out in that."

Shin Sang-Ah was curious at his words and asked, "What can we expect?"

Han smiled and said, "From food and everyday utilities and if you're lucky, some protection gears, weapons, and magic balls. Maybe even something that can bring back the dead?"

Adan shooked his head at Han's words as there wasn't someone in the room who has a loved one who died. He then tuned out anything that Han says next as he knew what was going to happen.

He silently put all the coins in his bag and closed his eyes as he relaxed on his chair. The scavenger hunt will start 30 minutes after Han's explanation so he'll wait it out.