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Kim Hajun had a grim expression on his face, but it had nothing to do with the ant guts and blood covering his new suit. It didn’t have anything to do with the two, bloody, swordlike ant mandibles he was holding in his hands either. An ant the size of a dog screeched at Kim Hajun and rushed him with its mandibles wide open. Instead of avoiding the ant, Kim Hajun braced himself and waited. When the ant was less than two meters away, he leapt forward, his arms aiming the mandibles he was holding at the incoming ant’s head. His waist bent inwards, and his legs pointed straight ahead midjump.

The ant didn’t have time to avoid Kim Hajun’s strike, not when it was so close. All it could do was attempt to bite down, but the soles of Kim Hajun’s shoes struck the ant’s mandibles, one for each, and kept them spread apart near their base. The ant let out a shriek and wiggled its head, but Kim Hajun didn’t show any mercy. He yanked his right arm back, retrieving his weapon from the ant’s body, and thrust it down, stabbing the mandible through the ant’s head. Like a puppet with its strings cut, the ant immediately stopped moving and collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Despite his opponent lying dead by his feet, Kim Hajun’s grim expression didn’t disappear. Kim Hajun’s calloused hands gripped the ant mandibles he was holding, and little rivulets of flesh and blood ran past his fingers before dripping to the ground. Kim Hajun took in a deep breath and stepped over the ant. An excited shout from the tunnel to the side caught his entrance, but his gaze didn’t waver, his face continuing to stare straight ahead. Gathering a jar of honey wasn’t difficult, even for ordinary people. The ants were only the size of large dogs; anyone with coordinated limbs could kill one. Since so many people were traveling through the ant tunnels to obtain honey, the ants’ main source of strength, their numbers, wasn’t brutally concentrated on any one person.

Of course, obtaining a jar of honey was only accomplishing the bare minimum. Kim Hajun took in a deep breath as he made his way down the tunnel. The path to the hidden piece was exactly how he remembered it: guarded by a trio of specialized defender ants. Unlike the other ants, the defender ants remained in place upon seeing Kim Hajun. They might not have been aggressive, but they were much more intimidating than the regular ants considering they were the size of adult bears instead of dogs. A regular person would avoid this ominous route guarded by three mini-bosses, but the tower was known for separating the regular from the irregular.

Kim Hajun frowned as he stared at the ants. If he had obtained Hyeonhu Yeol’s Heart of Fire earlier, then the ants in front of him wouldn’t be a problem. Thinking back on it, Kim Hajun’s frown deepened even further. Although Yeol was still titled as Gaegukja in this period of time instead of Hyeonhu, her overall personality and charm hadn’t changed one bit. That being the case, he should’ve obtained the Heart of Fire, but who could’ve predicted three variables would appear? He had been warned about the butterfly effect, but he hadn’t expected it to kick in so early. Weren’t the timelines deviating too soon? All he had done was grow his finances, hone his body, and eliminate the other prospective talents the eagle was supposed to bring to the tower. Those things, especially the elimination, might’ve brought about a few drastic changes, but nothing should’ve happened to the rabbit guide since it was unrelated to his actions, so why was the rabbit an undead being now?

Kim Hajun shook away the thoughts clouding his head. He had climbed the tower once before, reaching the rank of explorer. Although his body was pitifully weak compared to his heyday, his knowledge and skills trained over years of hardship were still those of veteran. Even without Yeol’s Heart of Fire, Kim Hajun had no plans of letting three ants block his path—especially not when the administrator, Yeol, could see everything he was doing. He brandished the mandibles in his hands and approached the ants with confident steps. “Alright, you oversized insects. Let’s dance.”

***

Gaegukja Yeol sat above sunlike orb floating in the center of the dome. It was hot and bright, but as a member of the fire spirit race, she wasn’t bothered by either aspect. Floating in front of her, there was a black screen made from the tower’s ambient mana. Anyone with administrative authority could mess with the settings on the screen; making the tutorial easier or harder, it was up to the administrator’s discretion, but Gaegukja Yeol had no intention of doing that. There was more to life than micromanaging everything; things would happen, and sometimes, it was best to let nature run its course.

Even when the half-naked man—who, for some reason, reminded Gaegukja Yeol of her father—picked up the storage cube and denied half the people taking the exam a chance at entering the tower, Gaegukja Yeol didn’t interfere. It might’ve been an unusual incident when compared to other admission exams, but it was a perfectly natural outcome when someone strong showed up to enter the tower.

Gaegukja Yeol flicked through the black screen and pressed on an option that appeared. Multiple screens appeared around her, showing her moving images of the different test takers traveling through the ant tunnels. From what she saw, most of them were ungifted individuals, showing no ability to manipulate the world around them except through physical means. The well-dressed man that had caught her eye earlier caught her eye once more. He was wielding two ant mandibles to fend off three tank ants. If she recruited him, with a few external aids and resources, it wouldn’t be a problem to raise him into a proper soldier for the clan—one of the main reasons Gaegukja Yeol had bought the role of administrator this time around.

An explosion of white light on another screen drew Gaegukja Yeol’s attention away. Her gaze landed on the half-naked man on the screen, who still had wisps of white light leaking from his mouth. In front of him, there were only traces and remnant parts of ant limbs lying on the path ahead. Gaegukja Yeol swallowed, her red eyes growing bright. If she could bring this man’s group into the clan…. A smile that could only be described as sinister split Gaegukja Yeol’s face. Cackles rang out of her mouth, but they were drowned out by the roaring of the sunlike orb beneath her.

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