For a moment, no one moved.
All four of them stood frozen inside their glass barriers, staring at the floating numbers above the pedestal.
1 / 564
"…Who threw that?" Kim asked, spinning in place and looking from Seo-yeon to Hyun-wu and then to Seung-hoo.
Hyun-wu raised both hands. "Not me."
Seo-yeon blinked. "I didn't even touch anything yet—"
Before anyone could argue further, the mechanical voice echoed through the chamber once again, cutting off their confusion.
"Game officially started. Time limit set. Thirty seconds."
A low hum vibrated through the cave as more glowing balls began to rise from inside the barrel, lining up in the air like ammunition waiting to be fired.
"Wait—what? Thirty seconds?!" Kim shouted.
No one had time to question it.
Balls launched outward automatically, hovering in front of each player's barrier, ready to be thrown.
"Just throw!" Hyun-wu yelled. "We don't have time!"
Everyone began moving at once.
Kim grabbed the first glowing ball and hurled it with all his strength. It flew in a bright arc toward one of the distant baskets… but struck the rim and bounced off, clattering uselessly against the stone floor.
"Tch—missed!"
Hyun-wu copied him, throwing his ball with brute force. It shot straight and fast, but overshot the basket entirely, smashing into a jagged cave wall and dissolving into light.
"Why is this so hard?!" he growled.
Seo-yeon, however, moved differently.
She narrowed her eyes, adjusted her stance, and flicked her wrist.
Her ball slipped cleanly through a rotating basket.
Player 4: +1 point
Another ball appeared in front of her almost instantly. She didn't hesitate. Another throw. Another clean hit.
Player 4: +2 points
Kim stared. "Are you kidding me?!"
Seo-yeon smirked. "It's just aim and timing."
She threw again.
+3 points.
Seung-hoo hadn't moved yet.
Instead of throwing, he was watching.
His eyes flicked from the scoreboard to each player's barrier. Then back to the floating numbers. Then to Seo-yeon's steadily rising count.
That was when he noticed it.
The first point.
Seo-yeon was the only one with a score.
So she must have thrown the very first ball.
Seung-hoo tightened his grip around the glowing ball hovering in front of him, but didn't throw it. His gaze drifted instead toward the barrel and the endless stream of balls emerging from it.
"…These things just keep coming," he muttered.
Kim missed again.
Hyun-wu missed again.
Seo-yeon landed another perfect shot.
Player 4: 6 points.
"Unbelievable," Kim said, panting. "How are you doing that so easily?"
Seo-yeon didn't answer. Her focus was razor sharp, eyes tracking the movement of the baskets as she timed every throw.
Seung-hoo finally looked down at the glowing slot in front of him where balls kept appearing.
"…Item Box," he whispered.
A faint shimmer appeared beside his hand as the familiar invisible storage space opened.
Instead of grabbing the ball and throwing it, he placed his Item Box directly in front of the slot.
The next glowing ball slid straight into it.
Then another.
And another.
The Item Box pulsed faintly, as if swallowing them whole.
Kim noticed first. "Wait… what are you doing?"
Hyun-wu glanced over. "Is your skill… eating the balls?"
Seung-hoo didn't answer. His eyes widened slightly as the Item Box continued absorbing them, one after another, faster and faster. The glow inside it grew brighter, like a container filling with light.
Balls that should have been floating in front of him vanished instantly into storage.
Ten.
Twenty.
Fifty.
Hundreds.
Seo-yeon paused mid-throw and stared. "Seung-hoo… what are you planning?"
The Item Box finally stopped pulling in balls. It hovered in front of him, faintly vibrating, as if overloaded.
Seung-hoo grabbed it with both hands.
"…If this works," he murmured.
He took a step forward and hurled the Item Box toward the nearest basket.
It passed cleanly through the glowing ring.
For a split second, nothing happened.
Then Seung-hoo shouted, "Release?"
Everyone stared at him like he had gone crazy.
"…Release what?" Kim asked.
The Item Box burst open midair.
A torrent of glowing balls exploded outward like a waterfall of light, pouring straight down through the basket in a continuous stream.
+10 points.
+25 points.
+50 points.
The numbers above Seung-hoo's barrier began spinning wildly.
Player 1: 0 → 47 → 103 → 176 → 234
The cave filled with the sound of rapid chiming as point after point was added in seconds.
Seo-yeon froze with a ball in her hand. "What…?"
Hyun-wu's jaw dropped. "That's cheating."
Kim pointed at the scoreboard. "He just jumped to two hundred thirty-four!"
The mechanical voice spoke again, this time with something close to amusement.
"…Impressive. A participant has discovered an efficient method of scoring."
The glowing numbers slowed.
234 / 564
Seung-hoo exhaled sharply, staring at the scoreboard in disbelief.
"It worked…"
The remaining balls continued floating in front of the others, but now all eyes were on him.
Seo-yeon narrowed her eyes. "So that's your trick."
Hyun-wu clenched his fists. "Then we need to hurry. If he keeps doing that—"
Kim looked up at the timer floating faintly above the pedestal.
Only a few seconds remained.
The mechanical voice echoed once more, sounding far too pleased.
A sharp chime echoed through the chamber, cutting through the chaos of glowing balls and spinning baskets.
The air suddenly went still.
All motion stopped at once.
The floating balls froze in midair, the baskets dimmed, and the humming light inside the pedestal faded into silence.
Then the mechanical voice rang out again, clear and emotionless.
"Halt, players. The thirty seconds are over. Displaying results now."
The glowing numbers above the pedestal shifted, rearranging themselves into neat lines of text.
A massive projection appeared in the air between them, bright enough to illuminate the jagged cave walls.
Player 1 – Seung-hoo: 234 points
Player 4 – Seo-yeon: 198 points
Player 2 – Kim Bak-un: 78 points
Player 3 – Hyun-wu: 54 points
For a moment, no one spoke.
Hyun-wu blinked at the list. "…I lost. Badly."
Kim rubbed the back of his neck. "I knew my aim was bad, but not that bad."
Seo-yeon stared at the numbers beside her name, her lips pressed into a thin line. "I was so close…"
Seung-hoo looked up at his own score, still feeling the faint vibration of the Item Box in his chest slot. He hadn't expected it to work that well. Even now, the number 234 looked unreal.
The mechanical voice continued.
"Congratulations, Player 1. You have successfully won the first game."
A soft golden light briefly shone around Seung-hoo's glass barrier.
Before he could react, Seo-yeon shouted, "Wait—first game?"
She spun toward the floating pedestal. "What do you mean first game?!"
"Yes," the mechanical voice replied calmly. "There are two games in total. You must complete all two to obtain the final reward."
Kim's eyes widened. "Two… games?"
Hyun-wu groaned loudly. "You're kidding. My arms already hurt from throwing."
Seung-hoo felt a chill run down his spine. Three games. That meant the punishment rule still applied.
"The losing individuals will have one skill blocked," he muttered under his breath.
Seo-yeon crossed her arms. "So if you lose again, you lose a skill?"
"Correct," the mechanical voice answered instantly, as if it had been listening to his thoughts. "Each round carries consequences. Each round increases difficulty."
The glowing projection shifted again, and new symbols appeared beneath the scoreboard.
"Preparing Game Two."
The glass barriers around them shimmered faintly, their surfaces rippling like water.
Kim took a step back inside his circle. "I don't like the sound of that."
Hyun-wu looked around the chamber. "What kind of game is next? Another throwing one?"
No response came immediately.
Instead, the pedestal in the center of the room began to move.
Stone plates slid apart with a grinding sound, revealing a deeper hollow beneath. Strange mechanisms rotated inside, glowing lines of mana forming unfamiliar shapes.
The cave trembled lightly as if something heavy was shifting beneath their feet.
Seo-yeon narrowed her eyes. "Why do I feel like this one won't be as simple as throwing balls?"
Seung-hoo stared at the pedestal, his thoughts racing.
Three games.
A hidden objective.
A system that punished the losers.
This wasn't just a trial.
It felt like a test designed to force them into competition.
The mechanical voice spoke again, slower this time.
"Game Two will measure adaptability and cooperation."
Hyun-wu frowned. "That already sounds worse."
Kim glanced at Seung-hoo. "You're not planning to pull that trick of you'res again, are you?"
Seung-hoo didn't answer right away. His eyes were fixed on the changing mechanisms inside the pedestal.
"…I don't think it'll be that easy this time," he said quietly.
Above them, the glowing numbers faded, replaced by a new countdown forming in the air.
The chamber grew darker, and the light from the pedestal intensified, casting long shadows of their figures across the jagged cave walls.
"Players," the mechanical voice announced, "please prepare."
The glass barriers pulsed once more, and the air inside each circle felt heavier, as if the room itself was bracing for what came next.
Seo-yeon tightened her grip on her daggers.
Kim steadied his staff.
Hyun-wu planted his feet firmly on the stone floor.
Seung-hoo took a slow breath, his gaze never leaving the pedestal as the next phase of the trial began to take shape.