Ryu stood up slowly, his golden boots giving off a faint shine in the sunlight. He looked around—a long grassy field filled with greenery, hills stretching into the distance, and the soft sound of rivers flowing. Everything felt so real that his heart stopped for a moment. He touched the soil with his finger, and his face turned serious.
"Hmph… this isn't graphics… this is real."
A transparent screen floated in front of him—
[System Notice: You cannot log out until all world events are cleared… or you die.]
A slightly bitter, slightly arrogant smile appeared on Ryu's lips.
"Die? Me? At Level 9999? Lol… what a joke."
He checked his status—everything was exactly as he had left it. Infinite HP, infinite MP, and all those skills that people only whispered about in rumors. He took a deep breath and looked up at the sky.
"Alright then, Hardcore Mode… let's see how hardcore you really are."
He started walking slowly, the grass beneath his boots gently withering. There was no panic on his face, only the curiosity of a tourist—like he had just come to explore.
After walking a little distance, he saw a small team—three adventurers struggling against a goblin attack. A boy with a sword was trying to distract the goblin, a healer was crying while chanting spells, and the third, an archer, was firing useless arrows.
Ryu watched them with calm eyes and smiled softly.
"Noobs."
The goblin suddenly jumped on the sword-wielding boy and the healer screamed.
"Help!"
Ryu simply snapped his fingers. A small blue spark flashed near the goblin's head, and in the next moment, it flew back through the air and crashed into the ground, embedding itself.
The adventurers stared at him in shock.
"What… what was that?" the archer stammered.
Ryu slightly bowed his head and casually said,
"Oh, just a greeting. You guys enjoy—I don't want to disturb my sightseeing."
He adjusted his golden cloak and moved ahead as if nothing had happened.
"Was that… was that the legendary hero?" the healer whispered.
Ryu smiled softly and replied,
"Just a tourist… not a hero."
He kept walking without stopping. In the distance, a small village was visible, from where smoke was rising and people were running. Ryu showed a bit of interest in his eyes and murmured softly,
"Ah… now the sightseeing is getting spicy."
When he reached the village, everything was in chaos. Small monsters were causing destruction everywhere, and villagers were screaming as they ran. Ryu took a moment to look and raised his hand.
A soft golden wave emerged from his hand, and all the monsters froze in place as if time had stopped. Within seconds, they turned to dust and fell to the ground.
Villagers gathered around him, their eyes filled with both gratitude and fear.
"You… you saved us!" an old man bowed. "You must be a holy warrior, right?"
Ryu gave a sarcastic smile and said,
"Holy? No… just a tired tourist."
People looked at him with respectful eyes—some even bowed. Ryu simply looked at them and smiled softly.
"Relax… I didn't do anything special. And yeah… don't worship me. It gets boring."
A little girl clung quietly to him and softly asked,
"Big brother, where did you come from?"
Ryu messed up her hair gently and smiled,
"From far… very far away."
But right after he said that, a system window appeared before him—
[Warning: Unknown High-Level Entity Detected Nearby]
Ryu narrowed his eyes slightly and looked toward the sky. Far away, between the mountains, a dark smoke was rising, slowly approaching the village. His smile turned slightly sharp, and he said softly,
"Now it gets fun… sightseeing over, hunting begins."
---
— TO BE CONTINUED —