CHAPTER 249: PENALTY

[You have not completed today’s Daily Quest]

[Daily Quest will end in 1 minute]

[Failure to complete will result in a Penalty]

I froze.

The system’s warning hit like a cold slap, dragging me back into reality.

How the hell did I forget?

I had started the quest—the first one: a 3-kilometer sprint.

When I went into the cave to make our graveyard.

But then, from there, everything spiraled.

First, nearly getting strangled to death by Lord Drugar’s manifestation. Then came naming the clan, retrieving Zivra, and—yeah—sleeping with Zarah.

One chaotic event after another. No breathing room in between.

And somewhere in all that madness, the quest just slipped my mind.

And now I was staring down a ticking clock with less than sixty seconds left.

I knew I was screwd.

Unbelievable.

"Idiot," I muttered under my breath, rubbing my face in frustration. Not even the dramatic kind of frustration—just quiet, tired shame. This wasn’t the first time either.

I looked around the room without much enthusiasm, scanning for anything, anything, I could do in less than a minute to meet the quota, but it was useless.

I just sat there, defeated.

And waited.

[Daily Quest ending in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1][Daily Quest failed][You will now be penalized][You will now be transported to a penalty zone to receive punishment][Brace yourself]

I shut my eyes just as the message blinked away, and a crushing pressure yanked me downward.

I didn’t resist or struggle, I just let it take me.

Falling became weightless, silent—until it wasn’t.

I hit the ground hard, sand exploding outward in every direction from the force of impact, coating my boots and cloak in dust. I gritted my teeth, exhaled slowly, and pushed myself upright.

The sky above me was the same cracked-brownish orange hue I remembered, with two pale moons suspended like unblinking eyes. It was unmistakable.

I was back again.

The penalty zone.

I muttered it under my breath, just to make it real.

But something was different.

This time, I didn’t hear the usual groaning or the slow shuffle of decay underneath the sand.

No, this time... they were already there.

I felt their presence before I even saw them.

Eyes—too many to count—glowed faintly in the dark dunes ahead, all locked on me.

I lowered my gaze and took a step back.

Dozens of undead goblins stood in place, not emerging from the sand like last time... just waiting.

Waiting for me.

Ding!

[Penalty: Survive the horde of undead goblins]

[Time: 2:00:00]

[During this trial, all of your skills have been locked]

[Good luck]

The notification barely faded when the first wave moved.

No hesitation. No warning. Just the sound of bones scraping sand as the undead goblins surged forward like a dam had broken. Dozens of them, maybe more. I didn’t stop to count.

I turned immediately and bolted, instincts kicking in without delay.

"Shit—!"

Their growls erupted behind me in waves—wet, gurgling snarls that lit a fire under my heels. Each one was like a javelin to the spine, pushing me faster, harder.

I didn’t need to think about what would happen if they caught me.

I didn’t want to.

The desert stretched before me, vast and unforgiving, with no real place to hide, no terrain to exploit. Just sand. Sand that dragged against my feet with every step, slowing me just enough to keep the fear alive.

Still, I wasn’t panicking. Not like last time.

My breath came steady as I ran, not ragged. I controlled it, regulated it, measured my pace so I wouldn’t burn out early. That alone was proof—I wasn’t the same guy who first stumbled into this death trap.

I was faster now. Stronger. My stamina had grown by leaps and bounds, and I could feel it with every stride.

Two hours?

I could outrun them for two hours.

And that made me even calmer.

But as the minutes dragged on and the landscape kept stretching into the same endless orange wasteland, I began to notice something odd.

No matter how fast I moved—no matter how hard I pushed my body—they were still behind me. Always behind me.

The sound of their footsteps never faded. The growls never lessened. The pressure never dropped.

It was like they were glued to my pace.

"That doesn’t make sense..." I muttered under my breath, slowing just enough to glance back over my shoulder.

The horde was still there—snarling, clawing, lurching—but moving far too cleanly for a bunch of rotting corpses. Their coordination was tight. Too tight. And their speed...

"No way."

I snapped my eyes forward, focused for a second, and activated [Analyze], just for confirmation—then immediately regretted it.

[Undead Goblin - Level 40]

I blinked, jaw clenched.

Yep. They’d been adjusted.

Just like everything else the system did to screw with me, it had scaled them right up to match my current level, 43. They weren’t the weak level 15 zombies I’d fought when I first entered this hellhole.

They’d evolved with me.

So this was still the same punishment as last time—only now it came wrapped in stronger bones and faster limbs.

The system was making it clear. It was trying to break me for being an idiot.

I was going to run until my energy hit zero.

Was there anything I could do about that? No. Not a damn thing. I just had to keep moving, one foot in front of the other, lungs burning, legs growing heavier with every passing minute.

Fighting was pointless—I had no skills to rely on, and even if I did, I wasn’t foolish enough to think I could take down a wave of level 40 undead bare-handed and win.

So what was the plan?

Simple.

Keep running.

*

After two hours of nonstop running through the dust-blasted wasteland, my legs were jelly, my breath was shallow, and my vision swam from the heat and exhaustion. Sweat soaked through my armor, stinging my eyes, and my throat felt like I’d swallowed sandpaper.

But still, I ran.

And finally—finally—I got the sound I’d been dying to hear.

Ding!

[Penalty Quest: Survive the horde of undead goblins – Complete]

I fell to the ground.

But I didn’t...