The survivors stumbled into sunlight like corpses clawing from a grave. Noah shielded his eyes, raw from hours in the cave's bioluminescent gloom. The plain stretched endlessly—amber grasses swaying under a sapphire sky, the air sweet with pollen. It was a postcard. A lie.
"We need walls! Trenches! *Now!*"
The voice belonged to a barrel-chested man with [Leadership Lv. 2] glowing above his head. His name was Marcus, ex-military if the buzzcut and tactical barking were clues. A dozen survivors gravitated toward him, their Skills flashing like muted fireworks:
Noah crouched, fingers digging into the soil. It felt *wrong*—too soft, too uniform. Like fake fur.
"You!" Marcus jabbed a finger at a teen with a lean physique "Scout for materials. You—" A woman clutching a [Rusty Hatchet] flinched. "Perimeter patrol. Move!"
"Or what?" A gaunt man spat blood—the same one who'd gripped Noah's shoulder in the cave. His Status read *Jae-Hyun "You'll stab me with your *charisma*?"
The crowd fractured. A faction began felling saplings with [Stone Axes], others dug pit traps, but most wandered, dazed. Noah's Fireball icon pulsed—[MP: 18/30]. Useless.
Then the grass hissed.
**[System Alert: Administrator «ReZero» has spawned [Blood Serpent] x10,000.]**
The horizon rippled crimson.
They came in a wave—foot-long snakes, scales bleeding scarlet, eyes like smoldering coals. Their fangs dripped a viscous fluid that steamed where it struck the earth.
"Form ranks!" Marcus bellowed.
Too late.
A serpent launched itself at the lean physique teen ager throat. He screamed, batting at it, but three more coiled around his legs. His HP bar plummeted as [Status: Hemorrhage] flickered red.
Noah backpedaled, triggering [Calm Breath]. His mana ticked upward—+1, +1—but the snakes were faster. One struck his calf.
**[Venom: Bloodthirst (HP -0.5/sec for 5 sec. Attracts nearby serpents.)]**
"Shit—!" He ripped the creature free, its fangs snapping as he hurled it into the grass. Already, a dozen more slithered toward the scent of his blood.
Marcus's faction had formed a shield wall, but the serpents *climbed*. They wriggled through gaps in the wood, biting faces, eyes, throats. A man with [Shield Mastery Lv. 2] collapsed, his Skill useless against creatures that attacked from all angles.
Noah lobbed a Fireball. It caught three serpents mid-leap, crisping them to ash.
**[Blood Serpent x3 Eliminated. XP +15.]**
More came.
He stumbled toward a boulder, venom burning through his veins. Jae-Hyun was there, slashing with a [Serrated Dagger]. His blade moved methodically, severing heads, but his HP bar was a flickering 22/50.
"Someone burn the grass" he barked. "Flank left—burn the grass!"
Noah hesitated. "I'll run out of—"
"*Now!*"
He exhaled, unleashing a Fireball into the dry brush. Flames roared outward, creating a wall of smoke. Serpents writhed, retreating from the heat—but the fire didn't stop. It raced toward the survivors.
"You idiot!" A woman with [Hydromancy Lv. 1] summoned a feeble spray of water. Too late.
The fire hit a pit trap, igniting the spikes within. Screams erupted as humans burned alongside monsters.
**[Human #302 Eliminated.]**
**[Human #419 Eliminated.]**
**[Human x2 Eliminated. XP +80.]**
[Level 3 → 4. Status Points +3.]
Noah's vision swam. His MP hit zero as the system taunted him:
**[ReZero (Admin):]**
«Motivated yet? :)»
Jae-Hyun grabbed his arm. "Move. *Now.*"
They fled toward a rocky outcrop, serpents pooling in their wake. Behind them, Marcus's voice cut through the chaos one last time—"*Regroup!*"—before dissolving into wet, gurgling silence.
The survivors scattered like ants under a magnifying glass. Some climbed trees, only to find serpents nesting in the branches. Others dug burrows, but the snakes followed, suffocating them in soil.
At the outcrop, Noah counted six others: Jae-Hyun, the hydromancer, a boy with a fractured arm, and three strangers. Their combined Skills were a joke against 9,872 remaining serpents.
The boy whimpered. "We're gonna die here."
"Probably," Jae-Hyun said, wiping serpent guts from his dagger. "But not yet."
Noah's gaze snagged on the hydromancer's belt—vials of murky liquid. "What's that?"
"Venom," she said. "From the cave goblins. Why?"
He stared at the approaching crimson tide, then at his empty hands.
**[Skill Discovered: Improvised Alchemy (Lv. 1).]**