Punishment Game

"Brother! You're awake!"

Jinah spoke as soon as she entered the room. Despite her mature expression and collected posture, Jinwoo could feel the worry inside her slowly dissipating.

"Hey Jinah, I'm awake and alive"

His awkward smile made Jinah smile slightly before a frown replaced her happier expression. It was time. Time for a lecture on his safety.

After the long lecture about how he should be more careful, Jinah threatened to drop out of school if Jinwoo made anymore trips to the emergency unit at the hospital. 

'This girl, she really is Mums daughter...'

His tender smile caught Jinahs notice, as she grabbed her bag, ready to leave.

"Take it easy okay? I have some school work to do, so I will head home, my friend has been waiting way too long"

Jinwoo smiled before telling her goodbye.

No matter the situation, seeing his sister always had a calming effect for him. As though everything will be alright as long as he protected her.

With his mind more positive, Jinwoo decided it was time to approach the elephant in the room. 

"Even Jinah couldn't see it. There's no doubt. This is the panel from before. The one that called me a 'Player' just before that demon turned out the lights."

The use of gaming terminology struck him as odd, after all, everything to do with the dungeons was from a different world. A world where technology was inferior to the magical properties of everything in the dungeon. 

Using a few phrases he had asked Jinah about, Jinwoo managed to open his inbox, causing several screens to appear before him.

'ALERT'

'Players growth will be assisted by the system'

'ALERT'

Penalties will be imposed upon player upon quest failure'

'ALERT'

'Quest completion: Rewards have been received'

'ALERT'

'New Quest issued'

A flurry of windows appeared before his eyes, causing Jinwoo to lean back slightly. He noticed that while the panels were not affected by physical touch, they would respond to his thoughts. This allowed him to close the panels with just a thought.

'Thank god... I would look like a real weirdo if I suddenly started tapping thin air... A mime hunter...'

A slightly disturbing thought crossed his mind before he focused on the new quest notification. As he did, a new larger panel appeared.

'Quest Details'

'Daily Quest - Training to be Powerful'

[INCOMPLETE] PUSH UPS [0/100]

[INCOMPLETE] SIT UPS [0/100]

[INCOMPLETE] CURL UPS [0/100]

[INCOMPLETE] SQUATS [0/100]

[INCOMPLETE] RUNNING [0/10km]

'WARNING - FAILURE TO COMPLETE QUEST RESULTS IN PUNISHMENT'

"A new quest? It says daily, so does this mean its a repeatable quest then?"

Judging by what the panel told him, it seems to be a form of daily quest with a punishment attached.

'A punishment? Well I am hospitalised, even though my injuries are healed, my head is tired, I just want to sleep'

He thought to himself.

"Well since its a daily quest, I doubt I will get too bad of a punishment. That's if it can even punish me"

His statement may have seemed arrogant, but realistically, Jinwoo had yet to truly feel any tangible effects of this player stuff. Those around him couldn't see the panels, and he had never heard of these sort of happenstance from any sort of dungeon.

As a result, Jinwoo decided to prioritise resting his worn soul before getting back into the action.

He laid himself down, and let the soft embrace of the hospital bed carry him to sleep.

Hours past as the clock slowly crept closer to the next day. To be exact, it was 2 minutes before 12am, the hour which welcomes a fresh day.

Alas, this was not a nomal night.

"What's going on?"

Jinwoo awoke from his slumber as a violent shaking rocked his entire hospital room.

"An earthquake? There wasn't any sort of warning though?"

Jinwoo quickly grabbed his phone and saw no emergency alert. 

'Somethings wrong...'

Whether it be an earthquake or dungeon break, an alert was sent en masse to those in the affected areas. Yet he saw neither, especially for something so violent.

His eyes focused on the time on his phone, managing to catch the second 11:59pm transitioned to 00:00am.

"Huh?"

The small gasp left his mouth before Jinwoo found himself face first in a bed of sand. The smouldering hot sand stung his cheeks as he lifted himself up, completely confused.

"What is this place? A dream - no, the sand hurts, this can't be a dream"

He assessed the situation as he looked around. As expected for a desert, there was nothing except sandy dunes.

Sweat very quickly gathered atop his forehead as the blasting sun shone down.

Breaking his confused state, a familiar panel appeared before his eyes. Except the blue panel from before, was now a deep red.

'ALERT'

'Daily Quest Failure'

'Player has been sent to the penalty zone, the player cannot leave until the set objective is completed or the player dies.'

'OBJECTIVE: Survive 4 hours in the penalty zone'

'03:00:59'

His eyes widened as he processed the meaning of the panel before him.

Surviving in a desert was something that even those who were well equipped and prepared approached with extreme caution and forward planning. Yet Jinwoo was expected to survive 4 hours here?

"This is too much for a daily quest failure... At the very least I can just wait out the 4 hours and try not to die of thirst"

His satirical comment flew into the wind.

It was no more than a second later before Jinwoo felt a familiar feeling, the ground rumbling.

"Oh give me a break"

He stood up, and watched around him. If the ground opens up and sand starts rushing, he was toast.

Unfortunately, the world wasn't so kind.

The cause of the rumbling soon revealed its terrifying fangs.

A shiver shook Jinwoos body as he the beast revealed itself.

Had it not been for his previous encounter in the Cartenon temple, Jinwoo would be having nightmares about the beast before him. Unfortunately for him, his nightmares were plagued by a single smirking face.

A large crimson centipede stood tall as it peered down at Jinwoo, its mandibles clacked loudly.

Its hunger was as clear as day.

Every fiber of Jinwoos body screamed for him to run, to escape the imposing death towering above him.

Yet he remained firm, unmoving...

'THEY WON'T MOVE! MY LEGS!'

It was not courage or bravery, rather it was fear that kept the boy rooted to his position. 

The Poison Toothed Giant Desert Centipede took the opportunity to rush its prey, ready for an easy meal.

Jinwoo watched in slow motion as this killer beast approached him without hesitation.

"I HAVE TO MOVE!"

He screamed as he threw himself to the side, letting his body roll down the sandy hill.

His face crashed into the sand, causing his world to turn black.

The fear within him grew larger, the longer Jinwoo speak in that darkness. Clinging to him, forcing his harsh reality upon him over and over again.

'I can't beat that thing! I can't touch that thing!'

As a sense of self loathing poked at him, the face of Jinah, his beloved little sister intruded upon his thoughts.

Lightning ran through his body.

'I can't leave her alone, I swore to never leave her alone!'

During the double dungeon event, Jinwoo had accepted death, accepted leaving Jinah alone. This was his one regret for that time, he nearly had let go of what was most important to him.

"Never again!"

With tears in his eyes and his heart beating like crazy, Jinwoo started sprinting along the sandy ground. His footing was unsteady, but his sheer determination stopped him from tumbling.

An earth shattering screech sounded from the giant centipede before it started following Jinwoo.

It was fast, much faster than Jinwoo, however the sand hills carried Jinwoo with a momentum that allowed him to just barely dodge the lunges of the centipede.

His body screamed as it pushed far beyond it limits, desperate to survive the catastrophe.

He ran, constantly changing directions, never looking behind him, instead choosing to try and predict the centipedes attack patterns.

Luckily for Jinwoo, its intelligence was not that high, it's attacks were quite linear despite the flexibility of its body. However, a single wrong prediction and Jinwoos body would be torn to shreds by its legs of teeth.

The timer ticked down as he ran, every time he checked, the hand of despair slapped him with reality. Proving he had been running for much less time than he had thought.

Eventually, his body collapsed. A large figure appeared before his eyes.

'Fatigue: 78/100'

Ignoring the fact that he had a fatigue counter, Jinwoo started rolling sideways causing a large blade-like leg to narrowly miss his cheek.

A thin cut burst open on his arm as he continued rolling.

Not caring for appearances, Jinwoo screamed out from the pain, but his eyes remained focused on the beast above him.

He had finally been cornered.

Determination shone in his eyes as he looked up, its body was within touching range. 

Biting his lip, Jinwoo yelled out a warrior cry before unleashing the remainder of his strength into a single punch.

"I won't die here!"

His punch connected, striking the centipede directly onto the body.

Alas, it meant nothing.

The centipede didn't flinch, rather it did not acknowledge the action as an attack.

Surpprisingly, a scream was heard a few seconds later. A human scream, coming from Jinwoo. A cry of pain left his lips as he looked at his fist.

A mangled fist hung limply from his wrist. The bones were very clearly shattered.

'It shattered my fist, without even defending!'

His heavy breathing hastened as he realised more than ever, the distance in strength between them.

Perhaps enraged at the amount of time it took to catch its prey, the centipede rose up high before plunging down towards Jinwoo, its mouth wide open, ready to devour.

'00:02'

'00:01'

'00:00:

'ALERT'

'PENALTY QUEST COMPLETION'

'Player has completed the designated objective. The player will be returned to their former location.'

With that panel appearing before him, Jinwoo instantly felt his consciousness slip, before it quickly recovered once more.

Yet, there was no desert, no sand and certainly no killer centipede. 

Instead, he was alone in his hospital room with the sound of the blood from his wounds dripping to the cold floor.

A wave of relief swept across Jinwoo as he fainted, his body crashing onto the ground.

Moments later, the door slammed open as a pair of nurses rushed in. Their faces full of panic, which quickly transformed into concern when they saw Jinwoos condition.

"Quickly, grab a doctor, preferably a healing hunter! His injuries are severe!"

The senior nurse yelled to the junior as she assessed Jinwoos condition.

'On top of a shattered hand, he has gashes all over his body? What on earth happened here? He disappeared and now has all of these gashes?"

That evening, Jinwoos condition was closely monitored and investigated, however, no explanation was found. Eventually it was put down to delayed effects from his prior dungeon run.