[You can identify vital points and structural weaknesses of targets. You can view detailed anatomical information on living creatures. Attacks on critical points deal significantly increased damage.]
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Ten years of medical training. Anatomy, physiology, pathology. Thousands of hours studying the human body. Learning where every nerve ran, where every artery branched, where one wrong cut could kill.
All of it had been converted into this.
A weapon.
'Ironic.'
I'd taken an oath. Primum non nocere. First, do no harm.
And now the system had given me an ability designed specifically to harm efficiently.
But I'd think about medical ethics later.
Right now, I needed to focus on—
[Tutorial begins in 5 minutes. Prepare yourselves. Only the worthy will see Earth again.]
Five minutes.
The chamber erupted in noise again.
"Five minutes?!"
"We need weapons—"
"I don't know how to fight—"
I moved toward the weapon racks before the crowd could swarm them.
My hands were steady now. The initial shock had worn off, replaced by cold calculation. The same mindset I used during emergency surgeries. Panic doesn't help. Clear thinking does.
I picked up a short sword.
Tested the weight. Light. Poorly balanced. The edge was dull, the metal looked cheap.
But it didn't matter.
With Surgical Precision, I didn't need a sharp blade.
I just needed to hit the right spots.
"Excuse me—"
I turned.
A young guy, early twenties, clean-cut, still wearing a university hoodie. He was looking at my hospital badge.
"You're a doctor?"
"Resident."
"Same thing, right?" He tried to smile. Failed. "Do you... do you think this is real?"
I looked at him.
Really looked.
Scared. But holding it together. Asking rational questions instead of screaming.
'He might survive.'
"Real or not," I said, "we treat it like it is. That's how we stay alive."
He swallowed. Nodded.
"What's your name?"
"Kim Jun-ho. I'm a student at Korea University—"
"Stick close to me, Jun-ho. When the fighting starts, stay behind me."
"You know how to fight?"
"No."
His face fell.
"But I know anatomy," I continued. "I know where to cut."
[Tutorial beginning in 60 seconds.]
Around us, people were grabbing weapons. A middle-aged man had taken a shield and sword. The woman in the business suit had a bow but looked like she'd never touched one before.
The kid in the school uniform was just sitting against the wall, knees pulled up, face blank.
'Shock.'
He wouldn't last long.
I checked my status window one more time.
Park Min-jae. 28. A doctor who'd spent his entire adult life learning to save lives.
About to learn how to take them.
The chamber rumbled.
Deep. Earthquake-level vibration that rattled my bones.
At the far end of the room, a massive stone door started grinding open. The sound of stone on stone, ancient mechanisms groaning to life.
Darkness poured out.
And a smell.
Rot. Decay. Death.
[Welcome to Tutorial Stage 1: Forsaken Catacombs.]
[Objective: Reach the exit.]
[Enemies: Corrupted Ghouls.]
[Difficulty: Tutorial.]
[Players: 32]
Then I saw them.
Shapes in the darkness.
Shambling. Wrong.
They emerged into the dim light, and my medical training catalogued the details automatically:
Humanoid. Severe tissue necrosis. Exposed bone in multiple locations. Probable rigor mortis but still mobile—impossible. Joints moving at anatomically incorrect angles. Skin sloughing off. Eye sockets empty or filled with milky white—
'Stop analyzing. They're not patients.'
They were enemies.
A dozen of them. Maybe more in the darkness behind.
Ghouls.
The monsters the system had mentioned.
Jun-ho made a strangled noise beside me.
"Oh god—"
"Don't run," I said quietly.
"What?!"
"The exit is behind them. Running won't help."
I gripped my sword.
And then Surgical Precision activated.
I didn't consciously trigger it. The attribute just... engaged.
Glowing points appeared on each ghoul. Cervical spine C1-C2. Cranium—temple, occiput. Sternum. Femoral artery. Knee joints—lateral and medial.
Every critical weakness illuminated in my vision like a 3D medical textbook.
'Oh.'
Oh.
This was going to work.
"RUN!" someone screamed behind me.
The crowd panicked. People scattered. Some ran for the walls. Others just stood frozen.
The ghouls lurched forward.
The first one came at me.
I stepped into its range—closer than felt safe—and drove my blade up through the soft tissue under its jaw. The angle I'd practiced a thousand times doing neck dissections. Through the floor of the mouth, up into the cranial cavity, severing the brainstem.
It collapsed.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
[Experience gained: 10]
The notification flashed across my vision.
I barely registered it.
Eleven more coming.
"STAY BEHIND ME!" I shouted to Jun-ho. To anyone who'd listen. "Form up! Don't scatter!"
I didn't know if they'd listen.
Didn't matter.
The second ghoul was already on me.
I sidestepped—it was slow, uncoordinated—and brought my blade down on the back of its neck. C7 vertebra. Spinal cord severance.
It dropped.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
[Experience gained: 10]
My blade cut through rotting flesh and bone like I was performing an autopsy.
Clean. Precise. Efficient.
No wasted movement.
A scream to my left.
One of the ghouls had caught someone—the middle-aged man with the shield. He was on the ground, the creature on top of him, teeth at his throat—
I moved.
Three steps. Blade through the ghoul's temple. Temporal bone, straight into the brain.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
[Experience gained: 10]
The man scrambled backward, gasping.
"Get up!" I snapped. "Use that shield!"
He stared at me like I was insane.
Maybe I was.
Because I was smiling.
'When did I start smiling?'
I didn't know.
But for the first time in years—maybe since medical school—I felt something other than exhaustion.
I felt alive.
Another ghoul. This one faster than the others.
I tracked its movement. Predicted the lunge. Stepped inside its guard and drove my blade through its eye socket. Straight into the frontal lobe.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
[Experience gained: 10]
"Jun-ho! On your left!"
He spun. Swung his sword wildly.
Missed.
The ghoul grabbed his arm.
I was already moving. Blade through its neck. Carotid, jugular, trachea—everything vital in one cut.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
[Experience gained: 10]
Jun-ho fell on his ass, breathing hard.
"Thanks—"
"Don't thank me. Get up and fight."
My voice came out cold.
Detached.
Like I was in the OR again, instructing an intern.
'Focus. Five more.'
The remaining ghouls were spreading out. Some attacking other players. Some still coming for me.
A woman screamed. Died. One of the ghouls tearing into her throat.
[Players remaining: 30/32]
The notification was clinical. Cold.
Two dead already.
'Not my problem.'
I couldn't save everyone.
Triage. That's what this was. Save who you can. Accept who you can't.
The next ghoul came at me from the right.
I pivoted. Blade through its neck.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
Then another from the left.
Chest thrust. Straight into where the heart should be. If it even had a heart.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
Two more.
I was breathing hard now. Adrenaline burning through me.
But my hands were steady.
Surgeon's hands.
The second-to-last ghoul lunged.
I sidestepped. Too slow.
Its claws raked across my arm.
Pain.
Sharp. Immediate.
I looked down.
Three gashes. Shallow. Bleeding but not arterial.
'Superficial lacerations. No major damage.'
The diagnosis came automatically.
The ghoul lunged again.
I brought my blade up. Straight through its open mouth, up into the skull.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
[Experience gained: 10]
One left.
The last ghoul was cornering the kid in the school uniform. The one who'd been sitting against the wall.
He wasn't moving. Just staring.
Complete psychological shutdown.
'He's going to die.'
I ran.
The ghoul's hands were around the kid's throat.
I drove my blade through the back of its skull. Occipital bone. Into the cerebellum.
[You have defeated Corrupted Ghoul Lv.1]
[Experience gained: 10]
It collapsed on top of the kid.
I kicked it off.
The kid didn't react. Just stared at nothing.
'Catatonic.'
He wasn't going to make it.
[Tutorial Stage 1: Forsaken Catacombs - Complete]
[Players remaining: 28/32]
[Time elapsed: 4 minutes 17 seconds]
[Personal Performance: Excellent]
[Eliminations: 9]
[Preparing Stage 2...]
I looked around the chamber.
Four bodies. Players who hadn't made it.
The survivors were in various states of shock. Some crying. Some vomiting. Jun-ho was sitting on the ground, holding his sword like it was the only real thing left in the world.
The middle-aged man I'd saved was staring at his hands. They were covered in blood—ghoul blood, dark and viscous.
And me?
I was checking my arm. The gashes were already clotting. Superficial. I'd clean them later.
I felt... fine.
Better than fine.
'What's wrong with me?'
I'd just killed nine creatures. Cut them down like I was performing surgery.
And I'd enjoyed it.
The realization should've disturbed me.
It didn't.
[Stage 2 will begin in 10 minutes. Use this time to rest and prepare.]
I sat down against the wall.
Closed my eyes.
Ten minutes.
Then we'd do it again.
'I can survive this.'
I didn't know if that was confidence or delusion.
But I knew one thing for certain:
I wasn't going back to that hospital.
Not to those sixteen-hour shifts. Not to being someone's verbal punching bag. Not to a life where I was just another exhausted resident doctor in a system that didn't give a shit about me.
This place was insane.
Dangerous.
Probably going to kill me.
But at least here, I was in control.
At least here, my skills mattered.
I opened my status window.
[Level Up!]
[You are now Level 2]
[Stat points available: 5]
I smiled.
This was going to be a long night.
But for the first time in years?
I was looking forward to it.