"Wha-what the hell?!" Jin-Woo quickly turned around and ran for his life.
There was no time to deliberate on things. If he wanted to live, then he had to run away! That was the only thought running through his head. However, even before he had taken several steps, another pillar of sand exploded upwards not far from his position. Jin-Woo fell backwards from the powerful shockwave.
He rolled on the sandy ground before urgently getting back up. He wiped the sand from his face before his eyes widened even more than before. This time, it wasn't just one or two of them. Before he knew it, there were seven sand centipedes sticking out of the sand, and they were all glaring at him.
As the centipedes let out shrill cries, Jin-Woo's complexion changed for the worse.
"God damn it..."
He started running again, being followed by the seven sand centipedes. Belial was not going to follow Jin-Woo at first, but for some reason he changed his mind, as if he was a little worried about the human's safety. Although the demon might be worried, he didn't help Jin-Woo, he just looked at him and never did anything to try to help him escape from the centipedes. This place was Jin-Woo's punishment for not completing the daily quest, so he must do his best by himself or else he wouldn't get stronger.
...
Exactly when the four hours passed, Jin-Woo reappeared at the hospital. He collapsed to the ground and gasped painfully, his mouth feeling full with this rough, grainy taste. His eyes were also very itchy, apparently as if particles of sand had entered them. Jin-Woo wheezed and groaned for a long time, before falling helplessly onto his back. He had no energy left to move even a finger.
"Just... What was that...?" Jin-Woo continued to pant heavily as a new message appeared before him.
You've completed the 'Penalty Quest.'
Jin-Woo's expression crumpled into something unsightly.
A 'Penalty Quest'? Did he do something worthy of being punished?
Suddenly, he remembered the words of that strange man, the things he said about not completing the daily quest. The reason why Jin-Woo was sent to that place was because he ignored the daily quest, if he listened from the beginning, he would never have to go to that kind of place.
"This is way too much..."
The so-called penalty turned out to be him being throwing into a damn execution ground! At the same time, another ominous premonition rushed into his mind. If this event was indeed caused by the 'Daily Quest' thing, then without a doubt, this would not be the last time.
"Hey... what's your name?" If Jin-Woo wanted to strike up a conversation with the handsome man, he needs to know that man's name first.
"Belial, the demon prince of Jinnestan. Commanding 80 legions of demons, ruling over the northern reaches of Jinnestan."
"Demon Prince?!" Jin-Woo repeated in surprise, not expecting that this man before his eyes was a demon, much less a prince.
"Why so surprised, in this world everything is possible. Even heavenly beings exist in this world." Belial bluntly confessed.
Jin-Woo didn't know what to say, he still found everything too hard to believe and wanted to avoid receiving another punishment. Just as he was beginning to relax a bit, he heard another mechanical beep sound in his head. Jin-Woo flinched in surprise, but luckily, it wasn't another quest or anything like that.
Rewards for completing the Penalty Quest is now available. Would you like to confirm the rewards?
The word 'rewards' jumped right out. Too bad, the problem was that he currently had no energy left to confirm this and that. His situation simply did not allow for that.
"It doesn't matter whether you give me rewards or not... Let me take a break first..." His vision gradually blurred, soon, Jin-Woo fell into a deep slumber similar to fainting.
Belial still wanted to explain things to Jin-Woo a little more, since he felt sorry for leaving the human without any explanation, but since he ended up falling asleep, Belial reconsidered his decision and decided not to explain anything more to the human.
...
On the morning of the next day, a nurse entered Jin-Woo's room, only for her eyes to widen in surprise.
"Oh my gosh?! What happened in here?"
The patient lay sprawled on the ground, while sand was everywhere as far as the eye could see. Not only that, but also the patient was full of sand. She tossed the medical records on the bed and urgently pressed the emergency buzzer.
"Please someone come here right now!"
Soon, the doctor in charge rushed into the room. "What happened? What's wrong with Mr. Sung Jin-Woo?"
"I don't know. Everything was fine until last night, but this morning..."
"For now, let's relocate him to the bed. One, two!"
Two people lifted Jin-Woo up from the floor and placed him back on the bed. During the process, the back of Jin-Woo's hand was scraped by the edge of the medical sheet left on the bed, and his skin was torn a little, but only Belial noticed.
"Harming my prey, how can humans be such idiotic creatures?" Belial hated when someone other than him hurt what belongs to him, if he was in the demon realm, then the doctor and nurse would already be dead.
Usually Belial never used his magic to heal anyone, but this time he healed Jin-Woo's wound even when it wasn't very big. He only did this to erase the proof that someone hurt what belongs to him, it gave him a sense of relief.
"Let's take a look." Then the doctor carefully examined Jin-Woo's condition. However, he couldn't find anything wrong with the young man.
"What the hell... isn't he just in a deep sleep?" The doctor heaved a sigh of relief.
The Hunter Association had requested the hospital to pay special attention to this particular patient. Understandably, the doctor was scared almost out of his wits as he thought that something bad had happened here.
"For now, let's leave him alone. It seems that he is in a very deep sleep at the moment." The doctor in charge talked to the nurse and was about to leave, but then, he looked around the room and scratched the side of his head.
"By the way, this room... could use a deep cleaning. Miss Yu-Rah, please take care of tidying up this place."
"Yes. I will, doctor." The doctor left the room and the nurse, Choi Yu-Rah, patted her chest. What a relief that it turned out to be nothing to worry about.
Sure, they may not be the patient or one's family members, but you won't find a doctor or nurse wishing ill on those they care for. Hunter's Hospital especially saw many seriously injured patients every day. At the bare minimum, she'd like to never see another one of the patients she was looking after get worse under her care.
She had calmed down a little now, and began worrying about where she should start tidying this room up, but then, her eyes spotted drops of blood on the floor.
"Oh my?"
The drops of blood came from the tip of the patient's hand that fell out of bed. She was stunned by this and quickly searched for the wound on Jin-Woo's hand, before turning it over.
"What's going on here...?"
There was definitely a trail of blood flowing out, but she couldn't find a single wound. The blood was wiped away, but the expected wound was not there.
"Wait... Could his wound heal in such a short time?" Yu-Rah's heart began to beat faster as she cautiously studied Jin-Woo's complexion. However, she didn't find anything wrong with him, so she cleaned up the room and left.
...
After a few hours, Jin-Woo was still in submerged in a deep sleep even now.
Part 7: Daily Quest. Daily Quest is now available.
Jin-Woo's eyes suddenly widened open when he heard the noise coming from the message. He quickly sat up and the first thing he did was check the time. The needles of the clock just went past 16:30. Meaning, there was the leeway of seven hours and thirty minutes before midnight.
Jin-Woo opened the mailbox.
Daily Quest: Preparations to become strong
Press-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Sit-up, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Squat, 100 times: Incomplete (0/100)
Running, 10 km: Incomplete (0/10)
※Warning: Incompletion of Daily Quests will result in appropriate levels of punishment.
"It's the same thing, again?!" Jin-Woo groaned almost reflexively.
No, maybe this was for the better. Rather than a quest with impossible or hard-to-understand targets, this was far more preferable, instead. Well, as long as he had enough time, he would be able to complete this quest after all, although his body might suffer a bit. Jin-Woo lowered himself to the floor this time and started doing push-ups.
"I'm surprised you decided to do the daily quest." Belial appeared out of nowhere, surprising Jin-Woo.
"You again, I thought you were gone forever."
"Staying here watching you sleep is boring, I just left for a while."
Jin-Woo didn't have time to talk to Belial right now, he needed to complete the daily quest. Obviously, he wasn't planning on being dragged off to another suspicious place and almost dying there. He was lucky last night and survived, but there was no guarantee that would happen tonight as well.
He slightly raised his head and confirmed the content of the quest, and noticed that every time he performed a push-up, it was also recorded in real time.
You've completed one press-up.
Press-up 100 times: Incomplete (7/100)
Tti-ring.
You've completed one press-up.
Press-up 100 times: Incomplete (8/100)
He just wanted to make sure, so he only went halfway down and back up, but unsurprisingly, that didn't count. Now he finally realized why yesterday's so-called push-ups didn't count. He had to perform the proper push-ups or it wouldn't count at all.
'Huh...give me a break.' Jinwoo was dumbfounded, but he didn't stop the exercise.
He still had 50 more push-ups to go. After that, sit-ups, squats and running awaited him.
....And, three hours later.
Press-up, 100 times: Complete (100/100)
Sit-up, 100 times: Complete (100/100)
Squat, 100 times: Complete (100/100)
Running, 10 km: Incomplete (9/10)
Jin-Woo circled the outer perimeter of the hospital once and arrived in front of his room again. By this time he was bent over and panting heavily. His heart felt like it was going to explode at any second, but he couldn't give up just yet.
"I've worked really hard up until now, so there's no way I would..." He somehow managed to open the door and took a step forward.
When he did that...
Total distance traveled: 10 km. You have completed Running, 10 km.
It was finally over.
Jin-Woo almost fell to his knees, but Belial grabbed his upper body. His breath stank of something sweet and sour, his face and back were drenched with sweat.
"You did a good job, I never expected you to be able to do it." Belial praised sincerely.
Jin-Woo couldn't reply or complain about the situation he was in, because he was trying to regulate his heavy and rough breathing as beads of thick sweat dripped continuously, as familiar message appeared in front of his eyes.
You've completed 'Daily Quest: Preparations to become strong'.
Completion rewards have arrived.
Would you like to confirm?
Jin-Woo momentarily thought about forgetting everything and just lay down in defeat, but he quickly changed his mind. At least for now, he first wanted to confirm what these reward things might be with his own eyes.
The following rewards are available.
Reward 1: Full recovery of the current physical condition.
Reward 2: Three additional Stat points.
Reward 3: One random box.
Would you like to collect them all?
"Why are there so many of them?" That was the first question he blurted out after taking a look at the content of the rewards.
This question was directed at Belial, who was still holding Jin-Woo, the young man didn't pay much attention to it as he couldn't focus on anything else besides the rewards. However, that changed when he raised his head, now his face being closer to Belial's made him remember the past events. Jin-Woo quickly walks away from Belial, and like before, his face heated up.
"There is no need to be shy, we are men, getting a little closer is nothing to be ashamed of." Belial teased, making Jin-Woo's face redder than before.
"Stop, I'm not interested in getting close to anyone, much less a man as cunning as you." Jin-Woo tried to convey his feelings, not wanting Belial to try to get close to him, because he would be wasting his time.
"Whatever, what you want is none of my business. I'll do what I want, I don't care about your opinion." Belial left Jin-Woo standing alone in front of his hospital room.
Jin-Woo couldn't comprehend the demon's intentions, nor could he understand why a prince like Belial would save someone weak who has nothing to give. For a while he thought about it, coming to the same conclusion: the demon must have fallen in love with me at first sight.
But as soon as Jin-Woo thought about it, he denied it. There was no way a demon prince would end up falling in love with a weak peasant like Jin-Woo, and to say that he fell in love with Jin-Woo's appearance would be nothing more than a dream. There must be something dark behind the reason why Belial saved him, so Jin-Woo will not rest until he finds out what that dark truth might be.