Leveling Up By Surviving Alone - L.U.B.S.A Chapter 5

“…What was that? Did I just hear some kind of alert?”

 

Ji Yeonwoo had half-heard alerts in his sleep before, but this was the first time he’d actually taken notice while awake. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though: a darkness so complete it blotted out every last trace of light closed in on him. It was a perfect blackness, separating sky from ground, the first natural phenomenon of its kind he’d ever experienced.

 

He stood frozen in place, unable to do anything in the face of this suffocating darkness. Then, another alert rang in his ears:

 

—

– The black energy, suppressed by the moon, is now unleashed. 

– The black energy engulfs you. 

– While exposed to the black energy, all of your stats double. 

– While exposed to the black energy, your recovery rate doubles.

—

 

“Ugh…!” 

 

Suddenly, his body brimmed with vigor. At first, it felt hot, like plunging into a steaming bath, but then that heat softened into a surge of vitality throughout his body. That was all *he* felt—simple, pleasant warmth.

 

But there was yet another alert that *everyone else* received except Ji Yeonwoo:

 

—

– While exposed to the black energy, you are afflicted by the status condition “Irresistible Frenzy.”

—

 

Because Ji Yeonwoo wasn’t affected by that frenzy, the final alert never reached his ears.

 

“My stats… just shot up? Out of the blue?” 

 

He felt no particular joy, just confusion.

 

*Whoooosh—!* 

 

Suddenly, the gentle breeze escalated into a gale strong enough to stagger him. Something flew by and struck his head. Reflexively grabbing at it, Ji Yeonwoo realized in alarm that it was his star “vegetable squad” member—the green onion he’d been growing!

 

*Save me, Master!*

 

“No way!”

 

He immediately turned on his lantern. Over by where his banana was planted, the wind caused it to sway precariously. He dashed over and covered it with a cooking pot. Then he carefully replanted the uprooted green onion and placed another pot over that spot. He used bowls and any other containers he could find as little “bunkers” around his other crops, hoping to shield them from the wind.

 

But the wind was only the beginning.

 

The sky beyond the horizon flashed with lightning, followed by thunder echoing across the shore.

 

*BOOM! BOOM!* 

*Rumble… Rumble…* 

*Flash, flash!* 

*Rumble-rumble-rumble!*

 

Then came a torrential downpour.

 

“Wait, is that… rain?”

 

He opened his mouth to taste it.

 

*Gulp.*

 

It was good water—fresh, maybe even a bit sweet. That meant it was safe to drink, and he could bathe, too.

 

He had to collect as much of it as possible. The wind, rain, thunder, and lightning were all threatening, but this rain was a godsend. Getting his hands on it could make the difference between life and death.

 

Sure, the typhoon and lightning were terrifying, but the rain was an opportunity.

 

“Right, let’s do this!”

 

He first ran to his “magic wells” (the solar stills) and tore off their plastic covers. He cleaned off the accumulated salt so it wouldn’t mix in with the water. By the time this storm ended, those pits would be brimming with drinkable water.

 

Next, he grabbed one of the remaining two 40L garbage bags from his tent. He wanted to catch as much of this rain as possible. Without a handy place to secure the bag, he considered digging a new hole—then remembered the pit he’d started excavating earlier. Perfect.

 

He rushed over there, relieved that although he’d dug it deeper, its width was still manageable. He lined it with the garbage bag and stuck a pair of chopsticks deep into the ground to pin it down. He also half-buried a spare cooking pot to catch more water.

 

If all these containers filled up…

 

“I’ll be swimming in water for a while!”

 

One last thing remained: repositioning the tent itself. He yanked up the tent stakes and dragged the tent so it stood between the howling wind and his fruits and vegetables. That was no easy job, especially in these fierce gusts, but he found himself surprisingly strong, likely thanks to his temporarily doubled stats. The bigger challenge was to keep the tent from tearing; if it hadn’t been crafted from C-rank ghost-bat membrane, it would’ve been shredded to ribbons already.

 

He silently thanked his lucky stars for buying a tent that cost three million won even after a 30% discount.

 

“Ungh…!”

 

Eventually, Ji Yeonwoo managed to anchor the tent as a makeshift windbreak for his crops. 

 

Green onion, garlic, banana, and more—they were now sheltered from the gusts, and even the ground around them was still. Satisfied that he’d done all he could, he turned to his own condition. He was drenched like a drowned rat.

 

Yet, oddly enough, he didn’t mind. Thinking it through:

 

“This is… basically the perfect chance to take a shower!”

 

Without hesitation, he stripped off his grimy undershirt and shorts. The pounding rain became his personal showerhead. The exhilarating sensation of the downpour on his skin was the best he’d felt in days. A grin spread across his face.

 

All that built-up tension and stress washed away with the rain.

 

Feeling refreshed, Ji Yeonwoo retreated into his tent and pulled out a fancy hotel-style 40-thread-count towel he’d originally planned to use in the Taebaek Mountains.

 

“Guess I’m inaugurating this thing here in the rift, huh?”

 

He dried himself thoroughly, then took a deep breath. He’d done everything he could possibly do.

 

“How is there suddenly a typhoon…?”

 

He slumped inside the tent, staring out through the transparent window. Despite the blackness of night, occasional forks of lightning illuminated the beach as brightly as midday. Where the once-calm horizon had stretched in a straight line, towering storm waves now rose up like jagged cliffs. That tranquil seascape from just half an hour ago was nowhere to be seen.

 

And then there were those bizarre alert messages. Ji Yeonwoo had only ever known one alert in his life—*You have awakened!*—so all this was new and frightening.

 

“Nothing… bad will happen, right?”

 

He was already on his third day here, and he hadn’t encountered a single monster yet. Naturally, monsters must exist in the rift, but this part of it seemed remote, or so he believed. His newfound sense of safety explained why he’d been able to wander around collecting water and even take a shower without concern.

 

Now the thunder, lightning, and wind raged on, but inside the tent, Ji Yeonwoo felt oddly secure. The pounding rain and howling storm sounded almost like relaxing ASMR to him.

 

‘It’s like I’m in some “safe zone” in a game, right?’

 

Though he’d never even entered an F-rank rift back on Earth, he knew that higher-level rifts often came with their own unique “rules.” Given the presence of a sun, moon, ocean, and everything else here, he guessed it was far beyond F-rank. That knowledge cast a dark shadow over his future—he’d eventually have to *clear* this rift—but at least this eerie seaside felt safe *for now.*

 

That peace of mind didn’t last long, however. A horrendous screech tore through the thunderclouds on the horizon.

 

*Ki-aaaAAAAAAK!*

 

Something burst from within the swirling clouds, accompanied by a booming roar. It looked like a gigantic bird carved out of ice.

 

“A-are you kidding me? Is that some legendary Poké— mon, monster…?”

 

Ji Yeonwoo lifted his palm to block its silhouette. The creature was so massive that, even from a great distance, his entire hand just barely covered it. With each flap of its wings, clouds parted and the wind raged harder, as though the storm itself were a direct result of its flight.

 

*Khhhrrr!*

 

As if things weren’t intense enough, another monster of roughly the same size appeared among the clouds. It looked like… a tiger?

 

Bolts of lightning converged into the shape of a giant tiger, which then flashed through the air and clamped its jaws around the bird’s neck.

 

*KRIII-AAAAK!*

 

Their titanic shrieks flashed white-hot across the sky.

 

“So it’s not that lightning is striking them… that *is* the lightning, attacking the bird?”

 

A battle between two monstrous beasts, unleashing a colossal natural cataclysm. He couldn’t even guess their rank. This ice bird alone seemed more intimidating than that so-called “Unbreakable Dragon” from the S-rank rift in the US.

 

*KAaaaah!* 

*GRrraaang!*

 

They bit and tore at each other, both roaring in fury. A high-pitched shockwave tore outward, making every hair on Ji Yeonwoo’s body stand on end. Fear seized up his muscles, and he collapsed onto the floor of his tent.

 

Shortly after, from behind his tent came the howling of countless other monsters.

 

*Grrrr…!* 

*Keeek—!* 

*Screech, screech, screech!*

 

“U-ugh…!” 

 

Teeth chattering, Ji Yeonwoo climbed into his lightning goose sleeping bag and clenched his jaw to keep from crying out, trying to quell the terror and anxiety flooding his mind. One thought repeated over and over:

 

*I have to survive. Somehow… survive!*

 

*THUD!*

 

A massive impact echoed in the distance.

 

*What was that?*

 

But Ji Yeonwoo didn’t dare check. He knew stepping outside would be suicide.

 

*Kiak… kyaaa… kyaa…* 

 

He heard a monstrous groan, then silence behind the tent. His heart pounded anxiously. Thunder crashed, lightning flashed, monsters roared in the distance… The chaos made it impossible for him to sleep. He *shouldn’t* sleep, either.

 

His eyes snapped open as a new alert sounded:

 

—

– You have successfully survived the third day (3/7)

—

 

“Survived? Third day?”

 

It implied there’d been a first and second time too. Had these messages been showing up while he slept?

 

His mind whirled, his body trembling. At some point, exhausted, he drifted off.

 

A giant sun rose, marking the end of the hellish, moonless night.

 

—

 

They say even if you wring a chicken’s neck, the morning still comes. With sunlight beaming through the tent, Ji Yeonwoo stirred awake.

 

“When did I fall asleep…? I’m… still alive?”

 

He half-expected never to open his eyes again, but here he was. And strangely, he felt no stiffness in his body, only an uncanny freshness—like the darkness had somehow benefited him physically.

 

But that was enough marveling for now. He had urgent things to check.

 

He unzipped the tent and inspected the “vegetable squad” and “fruit squad.” 

 

First, his green onion—ripped from the ground by the wind—was now spread open like a proud flag, alive and well. The garlic and orange seeds seemed undisturbed. The banana, still half-buried, hadn’t shifted.

 

A smile spread across his face. Nothing had sprouted or grown, but at least nothing had died.

 

Next, he checked the bamboo shoot—no, it was too tall now to call it just a shoot. 

 

“You made it, too!”

 

He’d worried the storm might tear it out by the roots, but it must have flexed and bent in the wind, standing tall like before, perhaps even a bit taller. Everything survived.

 

Satisfied, Ji Yeonwoo stepped outside, heading for the “magic wells” he’d uncovered last night.

 

“Please, let all three be completely full!”

 

He walked toward the beach… and nearly tripped over something.

 

“What the—?!”

 

He spun around and gasped in horror.

 

“Wha—?! Hiiiik!”

 

There’s a Korean saying that disasters strike “like bamboo shoots after a rain,” meaning they pop up suddenly and all at once, chaotically. Here it was happening literally: around the original bamboo shoot, brand-new ones were sprouting everywhere, thick and tall.

 

“Is it because of the rain…? That’s insane.”

 

The growth was astounding. When that first shoot had emerged, it was less than 15 centimeters tall, but these newcomers ranged from half a meter to a full meter in height.

 

He counted them.

 

“Twenty-seven…? Seriously?”

 

Added to the original, that made twenty-eight. Soon, they would all mature into full-fledged bamboo. It was enough to craft anything he could dream of—plus a surplus.

 

With that realization, Ji Yeonwoo’s mouth watered slightly. He quickly set to work.

 

*Crack. Crack!* 

*Snap!*

 

He harvested three of the fresh bamboo shoots. Each was as thick as his forearm and longer than fifty centimeters. They snapped so satisfyingly in his hands that it gave him chills. For now, he set them aside near his tent. He needed water to prep them for eating, and he was on his way to collect just that.

 

But as Ji Yeonwoo moved closer to the beach, he froze once again.

 

Getting enough water was critical, but something else had seized his attention—something far more amazing.

 

He stared blankly for a moment, then his face brightened with excitement.

 

“A night without a moon… turned out to be a good thing!”