The head of a dog burst open as Noah’s axe passed through it. Brain matter had already stained the curved blade, dying it a pink hue. Resting his sore arms, the unpleasant liquid flowed down the axe's handle before dripping down onto the road.

Layla appeared in his line of sight, stepping over a dog’s corpse as she exited an alley. The knife in her hands was shaking, but her gaze contained a ruthless that it previously lacked.

“What are your contribution points at?” he asked her, using his dirty jacket to wipe his forehead and axe. Due to the midday sun, he had long taken it off. Even then, his white shirt was plastered to his back.

Layla pursed her lips before replying. “With this, I just hit fifty-nine.”

Noah scratched his chin. “I guess it’s about time we head back. It’s been three days and we both have enough points for some decent upgrades. A proper meal would be nice as well.”

Saying so, Noah lifted himself up to a standing position. Carefully watching his step, he walked around the dog corpses that surrounded him. Furry limbs were torn and thrown asunder, the road appeared to be paved with flesh and blood instead of asphalt.

Layla held her breath as they walked past the hell, prompting a light chuckle out of Noah. Though he had to admit, her improvement was outstanding.

The first day that they went out hunting, the morning after he bought his axe and Layla her knife, she had been sick the entire time. The impact of the smell, gore, and death was too much for her. She didn’t eat that day.

The second day is when she adapted. After being unable to sleep the entire night, perhaps it was due to stress or simply an inborn talent, she remained indifferent to the carnage. Noah couldn't help but look at her differently after that.

“I will never get used to the smell,” Layla complained, half-groaning.

“I’m sure you will, there will be many days ahead of us with scenes like these,” Noah chuckled.

Layla scoffed and ran ahead, wanting to get out of the unpleasant area they were in. Noah quickly followed her, strapping his axe onto his back.

“Hmm?” Noah furrowed his eyebrows before shouting, “Stop, Layla!”

She didn’t hesitate to stop, and just in time at that as a slim dagger pierced the road where she would have been.

“God damn it!” a female voice echoed from an indistinguishable location. Yet despite her vulgarity, she didn’t sound upset in the slightest. Layla was already at Noah’s side, alertly surveying their surroundings.

“Relax Layla, I’ll take care of them,” Noah said calmly. Layla looked at him skeptically, but he paid her no mind. Instead, he cycled mana into his eyes, allowing him to view the souls of living beings.

As if a god were pouring paint into a fish tank, the world was dyed purple. Noah swiveled his eyes around, searching for the culprit of this poor attempt of banditry.

“Oh, a woman with some sort of invisibility core,” he was thought, surprised to find a female figure squatting on the edge of a nearby rooftop. Ending his self-coined soul-sight, he looked at the rooftop once again to find that he couldn't see the woman.

“Be careful, Layla. She can turn invisible. Right now she’s on top of that house,” he pointed at the building in question.

Under the view of his soul-sight, Noah saw the woman flinch and jump off of the roof, leaving his vision. He could only sigh at this. Normally, he wouldn’t have given her a chance to escape, but he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance of killing her.

Soul-sight, while allowing Noah to ignore most types of invisibility and disguise, didn’t allow him to see through any sort of non-living object no matter how thin. Since he didn’t have any abilities that blocked movement, he had no way of trapping her.

“Did she leave?” Layla asked, noticing Noah’s disappointment.

“That’s right. It’s a pity though, given her skills she must have quite a fortune of stolen points on her,” he sighed.

In these recent days, most of the inner city had been cleared of beasts. However, with this development, many new discoveries were made. One of them was the blacksmith shop and, more importantly, the system that killing a participant nets you half their contribution points.

This discovery was leaked by Noah, as he was confident in clearing the tutorial alone. Fewer people meant more points for him, and in turn, a higher final score.

A thin smile tore apart Noah’s lips, revealing his white teeth. Besides hunting, he had spent his time pondering the question of how to maximize his performance.

It was yesterday that that answer appeared in front of him.

Back then, the sun had been setting, casting an orange glow over the monotone landscape of the city. He and Layla had spent the day hunting the large population of dogs that made up most of the city’s beast population. Just like today, a bandit attempted to kill them.

He was a hulking man, carrying an axe half the length but double the weight of Noah’s. Naturally, the bandit ended up headless, his body expelling its life force like an open dam.

At the time, Noah was almost sick of killing. Hundreds of bodies lay in his wake, and the monotony of adding another repulsed him.

It was too boring, too bland.

“How come there are so many people trying to steal our points?” Layla asked him, her voice still quivering. “Shouldn’t they know by now that they can’t beat us?”

Noah exhaled, staring at the ugly corpse. “Humans die for wealth just like birds die for food. It’s impossible to sate the greed of everyone, no matter how much…” He trailed off, his brain rapidly putting the fragmented pieces of a puzzle together, a feeling of enlightenment taking hold of him.

A cheerful laugh escaped his mouth, causing Layla to flinch away from him. Noah clutched his sides, dropping his axe in the process. How could he have not realized, how could he have been so near-sighted? What he was best at was fighting. For Noah to get the best possible score in the tutorial, what achievement was better for him than being the tutorial’s lone survivor?

The distance between people was still small, it wasn't like he could wipe out everyone with a single slash. Being the lone survivor would be difficult, but it was within his ability. Other ways to distinguish himself, such as preventing death or clearing out all of the beasts in the maze, required a group effort. Noah wasn't confident in his leadership skills; he was better suited to working alone.

Noah rubbed his eyes, clearing the wetness that encased them.

Layla released a sigh of relief seeing Noah stop his strange laugh.

“Let’s go back,” he grinned. “We’ve spent enough time hunting these dogs.”

Layla nodded, thinking the way he tone was quite strange. The duo then left, leaving behind nothing but dog corpses.

Hearing Layla calling him, Noah came out of his thoughts to find a pouting expression on her face.

“What happened,” he asked, not noticing anything wrong as they walked back to their hotel.

“You were zoning out again, what would happen if we were attacked? We would've been killed,” she remarked, worry creeping into her voice.

Noah shook his head, “I wouldn’t do something so stupid as zoning out. I was just thinking about something. My instinct isn’t so poor that a low-level ambush would catch me off-guard.”

“How come you can say that,” Layla grumbled, downcast. “You’re not even that much older than me and yet no one is better at fighting than you.”

“Talent,” Noah replied emotionlessly. “Everything in the universe is dictated by talent. Hard work will only get you so far. Compared to absolute talent, it’s nothing but dog shit.”

He patted her head. “I might be a bit more talented than you, but don’t discredit yourself. Your mana core is probably peerless in this world, or at least at its peak. In regards to fighting, it's much better than mine.”

Layla grinned to herself.

“However!” he interrupted her moment of hubris, “A person’s mana core is just a small part of their talent, there are many other factors and some of them are considered even more important than the type of core a person has. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Yeah yeah,” she muttered. “I shouldn’t be complacent just because I’m super talented and smart and beautiful.”

“You still got plenty of years before you can talk about beauty,” Noah chuckled, and seeing Layla’s upset face, laughed even louder.

She clicked her tongue and ignored him the rest of the way back.

* * *

“That’s them.”

“The ones who've killed hundreds of dogs?”

“Yeah, I heard that they’ve killed a lot of people as well.”

Listening to the surrounding conversations, Noah remained indifferent while Layla frowned. He said nothing to her about his, she would learn in time that defamation meant nothing as long as one possessed power.

Leaving the street and entering their hotel’s elevator, the duo soon arrived at the top floor. After heading down the bright hallway, they entered their room.

Throwing off her dirty shoes, Layla flopped down onto her bed, her palms facing the sky.

“I’ll take a shower first, don’t open the door for anyone,” Noah reminded her. She didn’t respond.

Entering the large bathroom, Noah stripped of his dirty clothes and placed them in one of the two sinks. Stepping into the marble shower, he didn’t hesitate to turn the water to its coldest temperature. Opening his eyes, Noah's curly, brown hair reached for the floor as he looked up to the raised ceiling.

“A primordial core.”

Exiting the bathroom in a fresh change of clothes, Noah found Layla sitting cross-legged on her bed. He didn’t disturb her training and instead laid down on his own bed. Putting his arms behind his back, exhaustion washed over him

Knowing he would be busy tonight, Noah let himself relax. He closed his eyes and slept.

As if there were an alarm waking him up, Noah opened his eyes at midnight. Getting out of bed, he put on a previously-prepared black hoodie and grabbed his saber before leaving the room. He didn’t wake up Layla, as this was something no one could know about.

The streets were quiet as Noah jogged down them, keeping to the shadows and alleys. No one was outside as the days were hot and exhausting, even those who didn’t hunt were tired from building barricades or tending to the wounded.

By now the original group of just over a thousand had been reduced to eight hundred. Fighting dogs was the main cause, while banditry came in as a close second.

It didn’t take long for Noah to reach his destination; a magnificent hotel placed right next to the park. Gold statues lined its embellished entrance. Pulling out a stolen key, Noah unlocked a side door and snuck in.

Although the tutorial contained basic electrical necessities, computerized machines like security cameras or alarms didn’t exist, allowing Noah to make his way to the top floor inhibited.

A lone guard stood there, patrolling the carpeted hallway. Hearing the ding of the elevator, he rushed to it, only to find a sword penetrating his chest as he turned the corner. A faint cry escaped him as he slumped to the ground. However, his final warning didn’t alert anyone as the walls of the hotel were thick.

Besides clothes, most products had to be bought with contribution points. A hotel like this, with luxurious furnishings, a nutritious breakfast, and hot water would cost a minimum of ten points a night.

“This is it,” Noah grinned, standing in front of a door labeled “499”. Fluidly, as if he had done it a hundred times before, Noah pulled out a paper-thin file and slipped it between the dot and its frame. The file glowed a bright red, its hot surface burning through the door's lock like a knife through butter.

Silently, Noah opened the door and entered the dark room.

He pulled out his saber, the cloth sheath preventing any noise from waking the room's inhabitants. A large bed took up most of its center; Noah could see his targets sleeping soundly on it. Walking up to the side of the mattress, he held his sword with both hands, one on the hilt and the other on the blade, and dragged it across the throat of the sleeping man.

A burst of blood welled up from the thin line and rolled down onto the white pillow below the man’s head. The man’s eyes opened, shock and fear painting them in the darkness. It didn’t make a difference, however, and he died.

Walking to the other side of the bed, Noah could see the silhouette of a charming woman. He chuckled and just like with the man, slit her throat.

Now that his work was done, Noah whispered, “contribution points” and seeing the number that came up, he whistled.

“Wealthy!”

His points had increased by ten percent!

While this might not seem like much, Noah currently had the highest number of points in this tutorial. From the beginning, he had been fighting more than anyone. For two people to have ten percent of his total already put them at the top of the participants.

Truthfully, Noah had to thank Layla for giving him this idea. Perhaps he would, before killing her. He shook his head. Greed was getting to him. Points were good, but they weren’t the reason he was going through all this trouble.

Returning to his calm self, he wiped his blade on the bedsheets and left the room. No trace of him was left behind; the assassination went smoothly and quickly. It had been less than five minutes since Noah entered the hotel.

Noah exited the building and headed towards his next target's location. Unlike those sleeping peacefully, his night was just beginning.