“Quest ban, huh.”
“Let’s go.”
[System]: The survival quest, <Reaper’s Scythe>, will begin shortly.
Amid the players’ cheers, the announcement window popped up again. The quest playing out wasn’t the one I remembered in the sequence. The survival quest that should’ve taken place this round was <Reaper’s Scythe>.
‘No wonder it felt off.’
I’d been puzzled that the prerequisite quest, which usually preceded survival quests, hadn’t appeared—turns out an unexpected variable had intervened.
[Survival Quest: <Reaper’s Scythe>
The Reaper, who has arrived at the Shadow Castle, will claim the lives of five players. Do your best not to be one of the chosen targets!
Hint
—The Reaper likes odd numbers.
—The Reaper likes women.
—The Reaper likes animals.]
<Reaper’s Scythe> might sound grand, but in reality, it was just a glorified tax collection mission. This world is sustained by death. Which means that “fresh deaths” are a highly valuable resource. The Shadow Castle had fallen short of its death tax quota, so the Desert Administration Department had come in person to collect the shortfall.
‘There are definitely more players now than during the previous alpha quest.’
Because there had been fewer death energy sources, less tax had been paid—hence the early arrival of this quest.
Hint
—The Reaper likes odd numbers.
—The Reaper likes women.
—The Reaper likes animals.
While skimming through the additional hints, Bori noona muttered,
“If he likes you, maybe he’ll let you live?”
No. If he likes you, that means he’ll take you. In short, if you’re in an odd-numbered group, if you’re female, or if you’re an animal, your chances of dying go way up.
Since I’m male, as long as I keep a low profile alone, there’s a good chance I’ll be spared.
‘Back on the last test map, the Reaper preferred loners and bald players.’
It seemed each game’s Reaper had its own set of user preferences.
[Relationship Panel]: You have turned off the location-sharing service.
First, made sure my boyfriend couldn’t stalk me… I was about to slip out of Bori noona’s arms to go transform.
“You can’t go alone today, Fox. The Reaper likes animals.”
“She’s right. You only just got into that car accident—what if you get eaten? Where’s your owner, that Kessler guy or whatever?”
‘Let me go!!’
The more I squirmed, the tighter they bound me.
Chaos was breaking out in the plaza.
Several players, after listening to a lecture titled ‘Avoid what the Reaper likes,’ sprinted into the General Goods Apothecary.
Moments later, they emerged hauling loads of supplies and started laying them out.
“Ladies, over here! Attention please! The Reaper apparently likes women, right? Well, we’ve got fake beard bundles and black beanies for sale—disguise yourself as a man! With these, you too can become male!”
“How much for a beard?”
“50,000 won!”
“You bastard, these are like 3,000 won at most! You messing with us? Might as well just buy it from the shop.”
Bori noona and the others grumbled as they headed to the store, but the fake beards were already sold out.
“They’ve seriously lost it. Totally monopolized.”
“This is insane. Hey, where’s the murderer?”
“Mister Killer, are you watching this? Please murder this scumbag vendor.”
The women united. They declared a collective boycott, but some female players, prioritizing survival over principle, discreetly paid their male friends to purchase the disguises for them.
“Fox, can you buy one for me?”
Bori noona, for instance. She tucked a fifty-thousand won bill under my front leg and whispered sweetly. I nodded and trotted over to the vendor.
‘Selling a 3,000 won item for 50,000? That’s seriously messed up…’
I stood in front of the peddler, pawed at a beard, and stared at him.
“Well, if it isn’t the little fox.”
[System]: The Baby Arctic Fox wants to make a purchase. Activating the Cuteness Haggling feature.
This vendor had always been nice to me, often giving me pudding whenever we crossed paths.
“You want this, do you? That’s right… weren’t you a female?”
He teased, then gently stuck the beard beneath my nose—one of the ones going for fifty thousand—and even handed over a fox-friendly pudding.
Nyang.
I fished out two 500-won coins from under my tail and handed them over. The vendor patted my head proudly.
[System]: Successful haggling! +49,000 won
Polished off the pudding in a flash, spat the fake mustache out from my butt like a sneaky little gift, and returned to Bori noona. Mission complete.
I kept the remaining 49,000 won for myself—let’s call it a courier’s commission.
I was just about to start plotting my own survival strategy when Bori noona, overcome with emotion at my successful errand, scooped me up.
“Baby fox, you’re amazing! How can you be this smart? Are you a genius or what?”
No, genius or not, I seriously needed to leave now.
[System]: The survival quest <Reaper’s Scythe> will begin shortly.
Time remaining: 00:08:45
Less than 10 minutes left. I barely escaped Bori noona’s grasp with a frantic wriggle, but I hadn’t even taken a few steps before I was caught by Kessler.
“Oh—Kessler!”
“We’re at an odd number right now, need one more. Want to join?”
“Kessler! Come with us! The fox can come too!”
A few players who assumed Kessler was a regular user tried to act all generous by inviting us into their group.
“But wait—does the fox even count as a number?”
“Well, considering the Reaper likes animals, I’d say he probably does count?”
“Isn’t it player-only though? We should probably exclude animals when we calculate.”
While the girls chatted and speculated, Kessler calmly wiped my snout. I’d made a mess from scarfing down that pudding.
“Ah, can I come too?”
Bori noona started following us from behind. She’d paid a fortune for that fake mustache, and now that a boycott mood had formed in the women’s group, it’d be awkward to rejoin while wearing it.
“Kessler, your fox bought my beard, you know?”
“Don’t sponge off my fox.”
“I didn’t sponge! I paid him!”
“Don’t make my fox run your errands.”
“…Okay, sorry. But come on, isn’t he amazing? Honestly, he’s the smartest fox I’ve ever met.”
Kessler set me down at the fox-exclusive crosswalk in front of the intersection. I mean seriously—there’s no stroller lane, no bike lane, but there’s a fox crosswalk?
And considering I was the only fox living in the castle, it felt like a ridiculously over-the-top luxury.
“Whoa, the fox is actually walking across the fox crosswalk.”
“This is insane. So cool.”
“Hey, film it.”
Moments later, the green light came on, showing a fox icon lit up on the signal.
[System]: The Baby Arctic Fox is crossing the crosswalk.
People on the sidewalks paused to watch. A photographer snapped shots of me.
“This is how you cross.”
When I completed my first demonstration crossing in the designated Fox Safety Zone, a round of applause broke out from all around.
‘Sticking with Kessler might actually be a good idea.’
My plan was to either move around solo and observe things or tag along with Kessler from the start.
Sure, hiding in some tiny sealed-off room in Snake Rim and cleaning out my inventory sounded appealing, but maybe I’d postpone that and take a cozy nap in Kessler’s arms instead.
Kessler and Bori noona followed me closely. We settled into a corner room on the first floor, furnished with a cupboard, to wait out the quest.
[The Reaper is selecting victims.
Time remaining until the end: 04:53:33
—This quest may end early.]
Bori noona pulled her beanie down and stuck the mustache he’d bought onto her upper lip, presenting her own take on a male disguise.
“Kessler, how do I look?”
“Not impressive.”
Kessler replied flatly.
Given that he either completely ignored people or spoke in that aloof outcast tone, the fact that he replied at all meant Bori noona had earned at least some goodwill.
It helped that she was always kind to me—definitely a plus in his eyes. That’s probably why he hadn’t rejected teaming up with her.
That’s when it happened.
“KYAAAAAH!!”
A scream rang out from the hallway.
[The Reaper has harvested a shadow. (1/5)]
“That was definitely a woman screaming just now. Right? I mean… they did say he targets women and animals…”
“Whoever he kills, it’s up to him.”
Kessler’s indifferent tone seemed to ease Bori noona’s tense expression a bit. And since I was grinning happily beside her, her sense of crisis began to fade.
“Attacks don’t work on the Reaper! Just run!”
Panic-ridden voices tumbled over one another outside. Moments later, came the metallic scrape of steel against stone— shhk, shhk, shhk—the sound of the Reaper dragging his scythe.
“Gasp—”
Bori noona clamped her hands over her mouth, as if even breathing too loudly might give away their presence. Like making a single sound would alert him that someone was in the room.
I wasn’t especially worried. As long as Kessler was with us, the Reaper wouldn’t open this door.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, the locked doorknob began to rattle violently. Bori noona’s pupils trembled with every jolt.
The frenzied grasping stopped. A suffocating silence descended.
“…Did he leave?”
Just as she whispered under her breath—
CRAAANG!
The Reaper’s scythe—said to pierce through anything—ripped the doorknob straight out of the door.
Beyond the thick shadow-smoke curling from his body, the curved blade shimmered like fish scales in the dark. Even with his black hood pulled low, his overwhelming presence radiated like a black hole.
The Reaper. The Reaper himself—Reaper.
