The tavern fell silent. All eyes were fixed on Lillian, waiting for his response.
But to everyone's disappointment, he didn't argue with Kibaou at all—he simply ignored him. This infuriated Kibaou so much that it looked like steam was about to rise from his spiky hair, his large nose twitching comically.
"Say something! What, did I hit the mark and leave you speechless? I'm telling you, as long as you—what?!"
Before he could finish, a PK request appeared in front of him.
It was from Lillian.
"Enough nonsense," Lillian said flatly. "If you want to fight, accept it."
Since this was a safe zone, combat could only occur through a formal PK request. Seeing it, not only was Kibaou stunned—every player watching was shocked as well. No one had expected Lillian to be this direct and aggressive.
All eyes turned to Kibaou. His equipment looked decent, though his weapon was lacking. His face twisted as he hesitated with his finger raised for a long moment before finally tapping "Reject."
"You think I'm stupid?!" he snarled. "You used insider info to get better gear—your stats are definitely way higher than mine! I'm not fighting you!"
"Then stop barking next to me," Lillian said, waving him off like a fly.
That dismissive gesture made Kibaou explode with humiliation. He spun around and shouted at the others, "Did you see that?! This is how beta testers treat regular players!"
"Yeah… that's pretty excessive…"
"This is a death game. Beta testers really should share their info."
"So selfish!"
Fueled by Kibaou's words, the crowd grew increasingly agitated. Lillian, however, remained ice-cold.
In the original storyline, just one month into the game, public-launch players had begun collectively ostracizing beta testers, blaming them for player deaths and even ganging up on them in the wild. That pressure forced beta testers to hide their identities and deny their past experience.
But in Lillian's eyes, that was completely unnecessary. Given his personality, if he were a beta tester facing that kind of targeting, he would have gathered all beta testers together into a mutual-aid group instead. Against a mob of rabble, what would there be to fear?
"Anyone who has a problem can come find me in the field," Lillian said, draining his cup and standing up. "Just don't beg me for mercy when you do."
With that, he walked straight out of the tavern. The players inside immediately erupted.
"What kind of attitude is that?!"
"So arrogant!"
"To the field it is!"
"…Maybe we should forget it."
Some players talked big, but when it came to actually chasing him into the wilderness, most didn't dare. They had no PK experience, while Lillian, as a supposed beta tester, was assumed to be highly experienced. His gear also looked excellent—and if they died out there, that would be real death.
A bunch of cowards.
Kibaou looked at the shrinking crowd with frustration. He had no choice but to storm out alone. Staring at Lillian's retreating figure, his hateful gaze followed him until he vanished at the end of the street.
---
Lillian didn't care much about this minor incident. Still, he understood the principle of despising enemies strategically while taking them seriously tactically. You could ignore clowns like that—but you had to stay on guard. Otherwise, you might end up capsizing in a ditch.
After all, the game offered plenty of underhanded methods. Weapons coated with paralysis poison could incapacitate targets on hit. Alchemists could brew special buff potions that rendered someone temporarily helpless. Even the strongest player could fall victim to such tricks if they weren't careful.
[Friend Argo has sent you a message]
A system notification appeared. Lillian opened it, and a message popped up.
{If you're exploring the labyrinth, you can sell the map data to me~}
{You buy maps? Aren't you already familiar with the terrain?} Lillian replied.
Only after sending it did he remember—Argo was planning to compile a Regional Strategy Guide, which she intended to distribute for free to all players.
{I know. But things can change a lot between beta and public launch. Like the first-floor boss you mentioned—when its HP drops to the last bar, its weapon changes from a wide-range curved blade to the fast, teleporting combo weapon Nodachi.}
Reading her message, Lillian thought for a moment, then asked directly:
{So you're planning to collect intel and make it public?}
{How could that be? I'm doing this to make money!}
"…"
{Alright, fine… tch, I didn't expect you to guess it." Argo's messages came in one after another. "Yeah, I do plan to put together a strategy guide.}
{You're surprisingly considerate toward public-launch players.}
{Hmph. I'm just afraid that if they all die, there'll be fewer people left to buy my intel, okay? Oh, right—your boss-related information will also be included in the guide.}
{What? Didn't you say you already sold it?}
{I only sold it for ten days. I made it clear with the buyer that after ten days, I'd make the information public.}
So that was how it was.
Lillian understood immediately. That gave the buyer time to use the information for their own raid attempts. As for ordinary players, there was no way they'd dare challenge the boss within ten days anyway, so there was no need to worry about people dying because of the intel. It was a very clever arrangement.
{Don't forget my map data.}
{Got it.}
After closing the communication window, Lillian focused on traveling. Before long, he arrived at the labyrinth once again.
After downing a bottle of anti-poison potion, he entered the labyrinth and deliberately chose a different route this time, carefully exploring inch by inch.
The monsters along these alternate paths were different as well. After only a few steps down the central route, two orc monsters wielding bows spawned. They immediately drew their bows and fired two arrows straight at him.
Whoosh—
The greatsword was drawn in a flash, its cold gleam intercepting the attack in front of Lillian.
Clang! Clang!
Two crisp sounds rang out as the arrows were blocked by the wide blade. Lillian then lunged forward two steps. Light flared along the greatsword as he charged for one and a half seconds, then leapt into the air and brought the blade down in a powerful arc!
This was the first sword skill unlocked after mastering the [One-Handed Sword] skill: [Deadly Strike]. It had a 10% chance to deal double damage, with the probability increasing as weapon proficiency rose. For every 100 points of proficiency, the chance increased by 3%.
Crack!
The blade split down onto one orc's head. It let out a shrill scream as its HP bar emptied at lightning speed, and in the next instant its body shattered into countless glass-like fragments that scattered everywhere.
"Not bad luck," Lillian muttered.
He then flipped the sword sideways and slammed the flat of the blade into the other orc, pinning it against the wall. Stepping on its stomach, he gripped the hilt with both hands and thrust straight into its chest.
A finishing move.
The overwhelming attack power instantly emptied its HP as well.
[Exp: 180]
[Col: 150]
[Items: 0]
He glanced at the monster data—it was level 8. No wonder it dropped so much experience and col. Doing a quick calculation, Lillian estimated that killing a little over two hundred of these orc archers would push him to level 10.
That wasn't particularly difficult. Still, even in a labyrinth, monsters didn't spawn endlessly all at once—only a few at a time per refresh. Leveling would require steady grinding. Besides, his current priority was exploration. Increasing map completion mattered more than rushing levels, so there was no need to hurry.
The brave youth sank into the abyss of monster hunting, and before he realized it, three hours had passed.
"52%. Not bad."
Resting in one of the labyrinth's safe rooms, Lillian looked at the exploration percentage and was reasonably satisfied. He had to admit—the labyrinth was absurdly convoluted, packed with branching paths. Toward the end, he'd been almost entirely focused on mapping, skipping most monster spawns altogether. Even so, with his speed, several hours of effort had only gotten him this far.
No wonder it took everyone over twenty days in the original story to find the boss room. The place was a nightmare to navigate. The complex terrain was one issue; the constant monster spawns interfering with progress were another. One mistake could easily lead to casualties.
"I've only got one anti-poison potion left. Can't mess around anymore."
Checking his inventory, Lillian saw that after several hours of grinding, he'd returned to five-figure wealth—earning another ten thousand col. Still, he decided it was time to head out and resupply, especially since he'd already encountered a poison-using monster earlier.
Because the boss of this floor was the "Kobold Lord," the monsters here were all varieties of kobolds. Some wielded swords, axes, spears, bows—none of those posed much of a threat. Only one type was particularly dangerous.
These kobolds were short, barely about 1.2 meters tall, and wielded small daggers coated with paralysis effects. Lillian had been nicked by one earlier, which gave him quite a scare. Only when he noticed the anti-poison buff icon above his head did he relax. That close call made him far more cautious—he no longer dared to explore without an active anti-poison buff.
After resting briefly, he left the safe room and retraced his steps. But after walking for a few minutes, he suddenly noticed strange patterns appearing on the wall beside the path.
He distinctly remembered that these markings hadn't been there when he came through earlier. Walking closer, he instinctively reached out and placed his hand on the wall.
Buzz—
The moment his palm made contact, the patterns lit up and rapidly spread across the entire wall. Then the wall turned transparent, revealing a treasure chest sitting squarely in the center of the room beyond.
"A treasure room?!"
Lillian frowned slightly. Almost immediately, suspicion set in. It looked like a treasure room… but could it be a trap room instead?
He clearly remembered something like this happening in the story—but that was on higher floors. Could the first floor really have such a nasty setup? Or was it simply a normal treasure chest?
Treasure rooms spawned randomly. If he chose not to enter now, the next time he came through, it would definitely be gone. In that case… maybe he should just leave it.
That was what Lillian thought—but his feet refused to turn away.
After a brief pause, he took a deep breath, gripped his sword tightly, and walked straight in.