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[Two Days Later, Two and A Half Weeks From The Opening of the "Tower"]

"Hoh! You\'re motivated today, aren\'t you?!"

Korain smiled, though it was a pressed expression as he was forced to block the incoming, swift strikes from the young man\'s pair of wooden daggers.

They were in the abandoned warehouse just a block from the hotel, filled only by the noises of their boots squeaking against the concrete flooring while they danced in the mock battle.

"Something like that," he replied between breaths.

Even though they used wooden weapons for training, it was still taken seriously. For one, there wouldn\'t be much of a point in the exercise if it was taken with a grain of salt, and another was–

"Yow!"

Korain winced, rearing his hand back as the fingers that wrapped around the handle of his wood-made claymore were smacked.

It was unsurprisingly painful to be smacked by wood that was being swung at superhuman levels of strength.

"Gotcha!" He celebrated, jumping back before his training partner could retaliate.

The tall, burly man with black-and-white, long hair stood still for a moment, breathing against his reddened pinky to try and dull the pain before shaking it.

"...That you did, that you did–I\'ll give you that one!" Korain smiled, holding his claymore up again as he pointed it directly at him, "--It\'s time you learned why they called me "The Demon" back in university!"

"The Demon"!? He thought.

An intense aura exuded from the man\'s position as he suddenly rushed forward without any further warning, rearing his blade back.

Korain\'s [Equip] had been changed, as after his fight with Radueriel, he discovered he needed more power.

The muscle-built man now wore a uniform of snow-white, bulky armor forged of seraphic steel, designed with azure stripes and hexagonal designs. Most apparent were the new gauntlets he wore, that were inlaid with mystical gems that took to an enchanting glow when he prepared for a powerful strike.

From the sheer explosive speed the linebacker possessed, he found himself pressed to dodge as he evaded with a quick pivot to the right.

During training, while they used [Equip], they didn\'t use any skills–limiting his options against his physically superior training opponent as it became a game of finesse and reflex for him.

Though he pivoted away from Korain\'s rush, the man did exactly the same–exploding towards him again with his powerful legs shooting him after him at an alarming speed.

Crap…he\'s fast! He thought.

Realizing he\'d be caught without being able to use his swift assassin-class skills forged for such situations, he instead reversed his direction–going towards his opponent in a surprising turn.

Wha–? Korain thought in surprise.

Just as the muscle-bound man swung his wooden claymore in a vertical swipe towards the red-haired assassin\'s chest–it missed.

He faked Korain out, ducked down at the last moment as he countered with a flurry of strikes with his wooden daggers.

"Grghh–! Damn, that stings!" Korain let out.

After hopping away to avoid a nasty retaliation, he couldn\'t help but smile as he caught his breath, seeing Korain shake the sting away from his body.

Korain slapped himself on the chest, unleashing a rejuvenating breath as he smirked, "Damn! You\'ve gotten good, lad! You\'re not using that Sage crap on me, are you?"

He shook his head, "No…I think this is just my natural proficiency rising."

"Well," Korain exhaled, blowing his low-hanging fringes away from his face as sweat clung to his skin, "It\'s pretty impressive, I\'ll say. In terms of skill alone, you\'re catching up quickly. Gonna leave poor, old me in the dust soon enough. Still…there\'s one thing you\'re missing."

As Korain gave his impromptu lecture, unplanned and from the heart, the man smiled, pointing his wooden blade at the adolescent.

"Yeah?"

Just then, without any sound or warning, Korain reared his training sword back in an unnatural way before throwing it like a spear directly at him, "--Experience!"

"Gah–!"

Before he could react to the sudden cheap attack, the tip of the wooden claymore hit him directly on the bridge of his nose.

Though it hurt, it didn\'t do any damage to his body, thanks to the augmentation of the Angel System that shifted his physiology–health points were only lost when taking dangerous damage.

"What the hell…? That was cheap!"

He stood there, rubbing his now reddened, aching nose as the tall, boisterous man laughed in triumph.

"Enemies don\'t play fair, lad. I\'m sure you\'ve already figured that out yourself. In a real battle, honor and all that crap is thrown out of the window–what really matters is winning, no matter what or how," Korain instructed him, picking up his wooden weapon and resting it against his shoulder as he wiped the sweat from his face.

As the man wiped the layer of sweat from his chin, he sat down on one of the crates with a satisfied smirk, seeing the annoyance on his expression.

"...I know that already. Obviously I\'m not expecting cheap crap like that while we\'re training!...And what if it doesn\'t matter?" He asked.

"What if what?" Korain looked at him.

"What if there\'s no more fighting after we reach the Tower?"

"Jeong-Hui," Korain looked at him with an exasperated expression.

He couldn\'t cling to that thought process either, letting out a sigh, "...I know. Just a pipe dream, isn\'t it?"

"It\'s all just theories anyway, but we might as well prepare for the worst," Korain assured him, standing up as he wiped himself off with a towel, tossing him one as well, "I\'m heading out–you\'ve got noon patrol, right? You should probably head out soon."

"Yeah, I know," he caught the towel, watching as Korain headed out while he drank from a water bottle.

They had been training since the break of dawn, and it seemed to be encroaching on noon now. This routine of training was more for building personal experience outside of the system, but it did seem to slowly but surely raise his proficiency.

[Tactical Proficiency: +1 | Level 4/9999]

It was a recent development, but he realized that there were a multitude of "proficiencies" that his Sage System was raising, but it only displayed to him the two most important aspects he focused on most of the time: [Assassin] and [Taekwondo].

I had to personally talk to the Sage System to get it to show me every proficiency I was raising–even my cooking is part of the system! System, display my cooking proficiency, he thought.

[Culinary Proficiency: 10/9999]

He shuddered just imagining what a max proficiency chef entailed.

Picking himself up from the crate he sat on in the dust-layered warehouse, he crumpled up and tossed the water bottle aside before heading out.

"...Another day, another patrol…" He yawned out while stretching his arms above his head.

Going onto the streets of Samseong-Dong, the chilly nature of the morning still held onto the air around him as he kept himself tucked into the black-and-silver coat of his.

It was usually quiet along the streets; there was a lot of ground to cover for patrol, and not many members of Gangcheori–only fifteen in total, and half had other jobs to take care of, resulting in his walks being lonely most of the time.

It\'s not really expected I\'ll run into anything. I\'m kind of just like the "sweeper"--if anything somehow got past the walls, then it\'s my job to find it and exterminate it. I\'ve only ever found a single Defect, and it was a complete pushover anyway, he thought.

Going block-from-block, he wound up by one of the famous parks of Samseong-Dong, however, as there was nobody to maintain it any longer, the luscious, verdant grass had withered away to a decrepit, light-brown.

It was surprisingly set beside a large, behemoth of a mall: the CONEXUS Mall, which still had all of its exuberant, digital lights flashing even in the abandoned state of the world.

The park itself was neighbored by a captivating place itself, located at the heart of the fallen metropolis: Bongeunsa Temple, a buddhist temple that still remained untouched by the erosion of Armageddon.

…It\'s been so long since I actually went in, he thought.

Looking around, he decided to venture through the main gate, which was manifested in a tall archway, entered through scarlet-designed doors.

A walkway paved of pale-gray stone followed, next to a verdant, silent garden in which faint trails of water still traveled through, providing sustenance to the curved trees of the old temple.

Finding his way into the main area, overlooked by a hanging sea of red balloons, he passed by the seles which were inscribed with buddhist texts.

It was a surreal feeling–walking through the silent temple in which many used to walk its domain, and many who built and maintained it.

"--"

He breathed out slowly, taking in the sight and the tranquil silence before suddenly–a dense aura birthed itself into his senses.

[Notification to all [Players] of the Armageddon Game]

Huh…? He thought.

It was the monotone voice of the System, speaking directly to his mind, unprompted.

[Congratulations for surviving this far into the game. Your efforts are commendable. However, with the opening of the Tower nearing, it is time to enter the final phase of this game\'s beginning.]

Final phase…? Wait–"game\'s beginning"--then…is this all really just the warm-up before the Tower? He thought.

[As the Earth has been weakened, shattered, and left fractured, the seals of divinity that have prevented the forces of evil from seeping into the realm of humans have weakened. Now, those seals have completely collapsed.]

"Seals…?" He whispered to himself.

–

It wasn\'t just him–everybody within Gangcheori was receiving the same, widespread notification from the System\'s origin.

"The hell is goin\' on?" Yeong-Un barked, clad in sweat from practicing sword swings in his room.

–

"Hoh…Interesting," Baek-Hyeon held an unwavering, confident smile at this news.

–

Sitting in his office, Dae-Seong remained silent, listening in on this announcement with a resolved, honed gaze.

–

[As of right now, the forces of Hell, the Underworld, Naraka…Whatever you know the realm of evil, of sin to be…it\'s gates are now intertwined with that of Earth. As such, enemies of a different magnitude will now surface–with the intent of chaos and destruction.]

[Good luck, Players. There is approximately [16 days, 17 hours, 35 minutes, and 40 seconds] until the Tower opens]

[Let the [Last Culling] Begin.]