Chapter 3: The Feast Begins

In the eastern sea of the Kingdom of Karbon, in the Dead Sea,

Somewhere out here, Monster Island exists.

Even among these fearsome seas teeming with all sorts of monsters, this was an island infamous for being more of a terrifying rumor passed around like an old ghost story.

No one could say when it first appeared.

No one officially knew what lived within.

The ecosystem of this vast island, roughly the size of half of Jeju Island, was actually quite simple.

As you drew closer to the center of this volcanic island, not only did the elevation increase, but so did the strength of the monsters.

Deep in the mountainous center,

Ogres roamed, thunderbirds nested between the steep cliffs, and every once in a while, an enormous cyclops supposedly emerged from its lair to hurl boulders at their nests.

Closer to the edges,

Goblins foraged along the coasts and through the brush, constantly searching for food.

And in between,

Gnoll packs, orc tribes, thunderbirds—each living in the terrain best suited for their survival.

It’s not just monsters, either.

Near the beaches and small patches of grassland,

Rabbits, deer, mice, and small predators like foxes or wildcats.

Around the densely forested valleys:

Wild boars, bears, even tigers stalked their prey, keeping a delicate balance with the monsters—hunting and being hunted.

From that perspective—

“Kii?!”
“Quek!”
“Kkiiit? Kkiit!”

—The goblins currently on the move were, in a way, the monsters who best maintained the lower-tier ecosystem on the island.

Their strength let them hunt animals like rabbits and deer, yet when it came to gnoll packs or orc tribes, they were just as likely to be hunted themselves.

To survive at this fragile spot in the food chain,

The goblins’ most developed trait was their ability to sense danger.

They moved under the moonlight,

Always sticking to the smallest, most efficient groups for hunting,

And positioned their most agile members as scouts.

“Kkik?!”

Right now, that goblin scout was behaving strangely.

“Kkikikikik!”

It frantically signaled to the chieftain at the back of the horde.

But the group pushed back.

“Kik!?”
“Kkik! Kkikikikik!”
“Krei! Kreii!”
“Kiiiiik!”

A wounded fox appeared behind the scout.

The fox hobbled toward a large rock, bleeding.

With a fresh, limping prey in sight, the other goblins questioned why everyone was hesitating,

And they slowly crept through the brush, drawing closer.

“Kiiik! Kiiiiik!”

The scout waved and gestured, trying desperately to warn them.

“Kukik? Kkikik! Kiiiiiiii! Kuii, Kuiiiii! Kkikikikiiiii!”

Don’t you remember what happened not long ago?

That strange entity with a scent new to the island, the one who ran off with our food?

The being, neither gnoll nor orc, who’s been seen by other goblin groups killing our kind in this area lately?

That thing might be waiting.

So stop for a second!

But the warning went unheard.

“Kkik! Kkikikikikikiii!”

Yeah right, are you just trying to hog all the good parts for yourself?

Starting with a goblin behind the group gesturing at the wounded fox and the rocks, the rest of the goblins rushed toward the scout.

“Kukik!”
“Kii!”
“Kikikik!”

As they bared their yellow teeth in hungry grins and brushed past the scout’s shoulder—

Thwack!

The lead goblin’s head stopped in midair,

Then, with all its sprinting momentum, its whole body was hurled upward before crashing to the ground.

The rest of the goblins stared at their fallen, smashed-faced comrade,

And when they looked up again—

“One.”
“Kwek!”
“One-two.”
“Kinang!”

With a sudden, savage assault from behind the boulder,

Two more goblins toppled, clutching at their faces as green blood spattered everywhere.

The remaining goblins instantly brandished their dagger-like weapons.

“Kiiii!”
“Kkirik!”
“Kukik!”
“Kwikik!”

It’s that guy!

The monster that’s been showing up around here recently!

Kill him!

Don’t be afraid!

He’s the one who ran from us before!

He looks delicious!

Drooling, yellow eyes blazing, the goblins surged forward.

A monster.

Or, more precisely,

A human body, packed with bulging muscle, glaring bloody murder from its eyes, quietly muttered,

“……..Come on, then.”

“KIEEEEAAAAAH!”

The final goblin crashed into a tree and fell limp.

Its guts ruptured from a back kick, green blood trickling out through its jaws.

The dagger it had wielded clattered to the ground—battle over.

Rippling pools of blood.

A heap of goblin corpses, tossed like trash.

Sitting in the middle, I wiped the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand.

“Whew.”

With a long exhale came the taste of iron.

My nose was bleeding.

I blew my nose and flicked the blood away.

Looking over my whole body,

I saw not just my nose, but little scratches across my arms, shoulders, even my abdomen, each beading with blood.

“Hah. This is insane.”

I grimaced.

Not because I couldn’t feel my fists.

Throwing punches, I felt my muscles working, and every blow, every spinning elbow that dug into a goblin’s gut, sent adrenaline surging through me.

But—

“I’ve still got a long way to go…”

Just being able to wipe out goblins isn’t enough.

This was my first time taking out a whole horde at once, but goblins weren’t particularly dangerous as far as monsters go in this story.

Considering threat level, think of facing a gang of middle school punks waving boxcutters.

Goblins are at the absolute bottom of Monster Island’s pecking order.

I needed to be able to take them all down without a scratch if I wanted to fight my way up the food chain.

“Hoo…”

Sighing, I looked at my reflection in the bloody pool.

My pecs, slick with blood and sweat, shoulders like cannonballs, muscular arms lined with bulging veins.

I looked like a fighter juiced to the limit on banned substances,

But even that was just the limit of what a ‘human’ could be.

Not enough.

“Forget about ‘ascension.’”

If I remember right, the author once commented—

If you survive and ascend, you can return to your original world.

Ascension was something that occasionally came up in ‘Yeong-gwan-dok’ too.

In this world, it was the realm that only a few mages or swordsmen could reach by pushing their limits to the utmost—breaking free of human constraints.

For someone who enjoyed wuxia literature,

It called to mind the legendary state where heroes transcend their humanity.

In this world, with sword aura and all,

It wasn’t some nonsense.

But, having just wiped out a goblin horde,

It hit me how mind-bogglingly hard that would be.

“First things first… I just need to survive.”

Practice and protein have enhanced my freakish body over the past few weeks,

But it’s still way too slow.

I needed to get stronger much, much faster.

Scavenging for food, skulking around the island’s coast,

I’d realized just how horrifyingly hard survival here really was.

To the swamps—there are gnolls with hyena jaws.

To the plains—a tribe of orcs reeking of filth.

These things made goblins look like nothing.

Before I grew stronger, I’d narrowly dodged a deadly spear throw from a gnoll sentry once while fleeing a goblin pack.

Just circling the island,

I’d spot different tribes everywhere, crossing paths practically every time.

And if that was all—

—Shreeeek!

Overhead, I’d first hear a sound like a plane,

And then, watching from a distance,

Some goblin horde would get pulped—brush and all—by something in the sky.

—Thud! Thud! Thud!

Beyond the cave, I’d catch sight of a massive head,

Moments before an entire orc barricade exploded into pieces, orc flesh flying everywhere.

Thunderbird and ogre.

– Haha! Oh, and I took care of thunderbirds and ogres, too!

The sub-male lead boasted at the ball early in ‘Yeong-gwan-dok.’

But those monsters, judging by the descriptions,

Were practically natural disasters—ordinary soldiers couldn’t take them down even en masse.

There was something else, too.

A predator some considered even more fearsome than either of those monsters.

– Ah! And don’t forget the cyclops! Absolutely massive and bizarre.

Cyclops.

Rumored to live in the central valleys, occasionally flinging boulders the size of houses across the island for fun.

To sum up,

The goblin horde I just took down, even at the cost of several wounds, was nothing.

Those insane monsters could tear through orc tribes single-handedly.

Getting this monstrous body was not reason to rejoice yet.

At this rate, I wouldn’t escape the island before its collapse—I’d probably get killed by one of the apex predators first.

I realized again just how fcked up this situation really is.

Suddenly, all my strength seemed to drain away.

Despair, frustration, rushed panic—all mixing inside and dragging me down.

“…Overcome!”

Smack!

I slapped both cheeks with my hands.

The stinging pain popped my mind back into focus, coppery blood bursting on my lips.

“Son of a bch, you think I’ll just die here?”

No way.

I’m surviving.

Shoving aside all distractions, I refocused on my survival plan.

The most important threat now were the tentacled monsters offshore.

According to the novel, some of them might be as strong as the cyclops.

No one knows where their roots are, but they can crush a full-sized ship with a single swing.

Which means—

“I need to become a monster far beyond what I am.”

I’ve got to grow strong enough to go toe-to-toe with the cyclops,

Toss boulders bigger than houses to pulp those tentacles one by one,

Then build a raft and get off this damn island.

I remembered the line the sub-male lead bragged about in ‘Yeong-gwan-dok’—

– The gem in the cyclops’s forehead is worth enough to buy a palace. The meat of monsters like that fetches a fortune with knights and mages, but I only did it for the people’s safety. I didn’t need anything else.

Right.

Purified monster’s flesh and blood is nutritious for people who handle aura and mana.

I glanced down at the still-warm heap of goblin corpses.

The stench of almost black, thick green blood assaulted my ultra-sensitive nose.

Grimacing, I slowly dropped to one knee.

Now that the excitement had cooled, my body was crying out in pain—all the muscles I’d tightly flexed now giving little screams.

‘Sht.’

If I consume monster nutrients now,

My body’s super-recovery ability will show far greater effects than ever before.

In the novel, normally monster nutrients could only be used if they’d been properly purified, but…

[ Poison Resistance ]
[ Infection Resistance ]

…Thanks to the experiments, my body had no such problems.

‘…Guess there’s no choice, huh?’

With eyes squeezed shut, I slowly grabbed a dead goblin’s body.

I could carry all these back to the lab and roast them one by one,

But lighting a fire far from home, not knowing what might jump me, didn’t sound wise.

Besides, I’d surely meet even stronger monsters soon.

If I was ever going to get over the disgust, might as well do it now.

Bracing myself, I opened my mouth wide.

Snap.

‘Yeah.’

This was still just the human realm.

From now on, I’ll step into the realm beyond humanity.

‘Think of it as eating yukhoe… raw meat.’

I remember hearing that properly cooked orc tastes like pork.

Yeah, just imagine you’re eating raw beef.

Anyway, don’t monsters eat each other, too?

I shoved a chunk of goblin flesh in my mouth and bit down.

Gush.

Instantly, I gagged.

“Wueeaaagh!”

The indescribably vile taste of raw goblin sent a reflex all through my body.

Saliva poured from my mouth as I fought back vomit,

Eyes watering, I spat curses.

“Fck! Dmn! Sht!”

In that moment,

A surge of rage and injustice rose from the bottom of my heart.

The question screamed inside—

‘Why? Why me? Why am I doing this?’

Such a fundamental question.

Forget all the rest.

Wasn’t this world supposed to be a romance fantasy overflowing with dreams and hope?

Every single chapter of the novel

Had at least one page of sweet banter and people flirting?

Even the ball where the sub-male lead’s monster island exploit was mentioned

Was just a party packed with cute antics and playful dancing.

All those scenes of young ladies pouting over someone snatching the best slice of cake,

And gentlemen soothing them with teasing sword-dances.

That’s the kind of world this was supposed to be.

Even the strongest monsters’ meat was always nicely processed,

Served like regular chicken or pork.

“Why……. just me?”

Covered in black and green blood,

Those words slipped out of my mouth.

What did I do wrong?

All I did was correct some author fcker’s pathetic workout descriptions.

So why?

Why the hell do I have to endure this living hell to survive?

Thud.

I slumped down into the pool of blood.

Deep within me—

“…………..I’ll kill you.”

A slow, burning rage rose up.

“…………..When I get back, the first place I’m going is straight to that fcking publisher.”

And that airhead author, too—

No matter what, whether I ascend or whatever, by any means possible,

I’ll make them pay for this hell!

With that thought—

…………..Crunch.

Fueled by hot vengeance, I tore into the monster’s corpse.

…………..Gulp.

Somewhere inside this cursed body—

Rumble!

Something began to surge.