Shanon wanted to curse some more, but he knew that Yeon-woo wouldn’t listen to him, anyway, so he sighed and asked another question. He still didn’t understand something. 「How are you going to build a boat with these materials you’re gathering?」

「Yes, I’ve never heard about a Specter Tree being used for a top-quality boat. It wasn’t on Charon’s list of materials, either.」

The two were curious because they had passed through the twenty-seventh floor a long time ago, and the difficulty of clearing the floors up to the thirtieth remained in their memories. However, Yeon-woo just grinned at them. “What do I need a ferryman to build a boat for? What I need is a shipwright.”

Shanon and Hanryeong were confused. Yeon-woo seemed to be saying that someone on the island other than Charon could build a boat. However, Yeon-woo didn’t explain further and continued to cut down the Specter Trees and put them inside Intrenian. Yeon-woo paused for a moment. How deep inside the forest were they now? His gaze moved to focus on a distant spot. “They’re here.”

Shanon and Hanryeong turned to look and cocked their heads to the side in confusion. They could only see grass and long shadows, but then they suddenly saw someone approaching them cautiously. He was an ordinary human with strange tattoos on his face and neck, and he had a kukri strapped to his leg. He was followed by about a couple of dozen more of his fellow jungle inhabitants. They approached like hunters, moving above the trees and running low along the grass.

「Cannibal Monster Humans?」 Shanon muttered to himself in surprise when he realized who they were. Any player who had been to the twenty-seventh floor knew of them. They weren’t simple monsters although they bothered the players. They lived in a village and had enough intelligence to form a society, but most of the players saw them as monsters because they were cannibals. They enjoyed killing and eating players, and it was no surprise that players were hostile to them. They often surrounded players who had been separated from the others, and it was clear they had chosen Yeon-woo as their target.

「You know, I’ve been wondering for a long time: why do so many people get the urge to commit suicide around you? There are so many ways to kill yourself, why do this?」 Shanon clucked his tongue because he could see the futures of the Cannibal Monster Humans. He was already thinking of how happy the Guai would be. 「But are they the shipwrights?」

The Cannibal Monster Humans around Yeon-woo began to move so quickly that an observer would believe that they were appearing from the shadows. Some of them were blowing into bamboo blow dart guns, and dozens of poisoned darts fell on Yeon-woo like rain. It was hard to see them clearly because it was so dark, and each dart had enough poison to paralyze an elephant.

The Cannibal Monster Humans were all skilled enough to hunt ordinary players even without the darts, but the poison kept their prey frozen until the Cannibal Monster Humans killed them.

Yeon-woo stretched his hand out towards the direction that the needles were coming from. The mana around him whirled, and all the needles fell into his hand. He waved his arm, and they all shot back towards their source. Puk! Puk! Puk!

“Aaack!’

“Ugh!”

[Cannibal Monster Human 72 has died.]

[Cannibal Monster Human 142 has died.]

……

The Cannibal Monster Humans pitched face-forward, their heads cracking as they hit the ground. It sounded like watermelons being crushed.

[Cannibal Monster Human 168 has died.]

The Cannibal Monster Humans realized that Yeon-woo wasn’t a lost player but someone who was skilled enough to hold his own. However, it was too late for them. Those who survived the barrage of darts were trapped by a long shadow. They couldn’t even fight back.

“Urgh! Urrgh! Urrgh!” As if they refused to give in, they shouted at him, their bloodshot eyes full of murderous rage.

After he looked at them for a while, Yeon-woo said, “If you answer my questions, I’ll let you live.” Although his words had an accent, he managed to make the fricative sounds of their language. The eyes of the Cannibal Monster Human widened.

“How did you…learn to speak our tongue, player?!” The Tower’s system automatically provided translation services to players since they came from different dimensions and worlds. However, this didn’t include monsters, and no one knew the reason why. Whenever monsters wanted to communicate something, they had to try to imitate the language of the players. However, this time, it was Yeon-woo trying to communicate with them.

“That doesn’t concern you. Just answer the question.”

“No! I don’t have anything to say to a…!”

Yeon-woo sliced the throat of the Cannibal Monster Human without any hesitation.

[Cannibal Monster Human 91 has died.]

「Oof. Things won’t go well if he kills all of them.」

Yeon-woo ignored Shanon’s mumbling and approached the Cannibal Monster Human behind the dead one. He looked at his friend’s corpse with red eyes.

“Where is your village?”

“Hmph! Kill me if you want! It’ll be a disaster for…!”

[Cannibal Human Monster 238 has died.]

“The location?”

“I don’t…urk!”

[Cannibal Human Monster 111 has died.]

Yeon-woo cut their throats each time they refused to answer or resisted him. The corpses piled up one by one and their blood began to stain the ground red. Soon, the corpses melted into the ground and a black fog rose up. As this continued, Shanon began to worry. 「Hey, isn’t it dangerous to kill so many?」

The danger was what came after the deaths of so many Cannibal Monster Humans.

[25 Cannibal Monster Humans have died on the island.]

[The chief is furious at this discovery. The lower-ranked priests have begun to mutter prayers on his orders.]

[The difficulty of the trial is increasing.]

[The ‘Cannibal Demonic Humans’ are coming!]

All players on the island received the same message.

“The fuck?”

“Which son of a bitch is doing this?! Aack!”

Screams rose all around the island when the players saw the words “Cannibal Demonic Humans”. The trial of the twenty-seventh floor required them to escape the island, not fight the dangers on it. All they had to do was avoid danger and gather materials to build a boat.

Cannibal Monster Humans weren’t classified as a Superior species or ordinary humans because of a special skill they possessed.

The strength of their shared bloodline meant that the more Cannibal Monster Humans were killed, they more powerful they would become. Cannibal Demonic Humans were an evolved form of Cannibal Monster Humans. The power of those who died gathered to create them.

Most players already had a hard time dealing with the Cannibal Monster Humans, of course they would be frustrated to learn that Cannibal Demonic Humans were appearing as well.

「He’s probably doing it on purpose.」 Since Yeon-woo planned his every move, Hanryeong was sure that he’d done the same thing this time, as well. However, a single Cannibal Demonic Human had the strength of twenty-five Cannibal Monster Humans. Things could get messy very quickly. Regardless, Yeon-woo decapitated the last Cannibal Monster Human as if he didn’t care.

[The difficulty of the trial is increasing.]

[More ‘Cannibal Monster Humans’ are arriving.]

[The ‘Cannibal Demonic Humans’ are coming!]

The messages warned players that both Cannibal Monster Humans and Cannibal Demonic Humans were about to show up. The Cannibal Demonic Humans were at the same level as the commanders of the twenty-sixth floor, and the island would be thrown into panic in an instant.

“Their village is past this forest.” Yeon-woo shook the blood off his sword and sheathed it once more

「Are you saying the shipwright you’re looking for is there?」

“He’ll be arriving soon.”

Shanon and Hanryeong realized what Yeon-woo was planning.

「It’s the chief!」

「Does the Cannibal Monster King have a hidden piece like that?」

Yeon-woo nodded.

Cannibal Monster Humans grow stronger through their blood, and the difficulty of the island increases correspondingly. My comrades and I wondered what would happen if all the Cannibal Monster Humans on the island died, and we discovered that it would help create the Cannibal Monster King.

Of course, we almost died doing this.

The boat that Charon built could cross the River of Souls, but the Cannibal Monster King’s boat had many other functions. It was especially adept at finding hidden paths, and Jeong-woo had taken advantage of this to find someone. ‘His second teacher, Lana.’

Yeon-woo licked his lips thinking of the teacher who came after Galliard. ‘It would be nice if I could meet her.’ It would be hard because she was a free spirit, but he wanted to invite her into his clan, just as he had with Galliard. Even if that didn’t work out, at least he would meet someone his brother had been close to. He needed to create a Cannibal Monster King. Another thought occurred to him. ‘Jeong-woo said that he almost died fighting the Cannibal Monster King even with his third step of the awakening. I hope he’s better than Aphophis’s exuviae.’

He remembered the disappointing hidden piece on the twenty-sixth floor and hoped that the hidden boss of this floor would be better. His shadow spread, and the Guai scattered throughout the island. Since he knew where the Cannibal Monster King was coming from, he would get rid of all the Cannibal Monster Humans quickly first.

[The difficulty of the trial is increasing.]

[The ‘Cannibal Monster Demons’ are arriving!]

「A lot of people will die. Tsk!」 Shanon thought of the players of the Ninety-Second Squad. He suddenly felt like he understood why the gods and demons related to death liked his master so much.