I've emphasized this several times before, but my greatest strength as a Professor lies in my diligent and methodical approach to inquiry.

Purpose-driven experimentation—and the recording of those results—is what ultimately earned me the Golden Fleece now stored in my cabinet.

I confirmed two things during the last battle.

One: monsters and their minions do not recognize me.

Two: my body absorbs, in some undefined form, the luminous particles generated during a monster's disintegration.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that absorption translates to any internal strengthening.

Subsequent tests on strength, sensory acuity, and mild psychic response showed no notable changes in Park Gyu as an individual.

Therefore, this act of absorption appears to resemble hunger, as Gu Jung-sa described.

In other words, it's merely a way to acquire the energy needed to sustain biological activity.

However, during the absorption process, I felt as if part of the tangled thread sealed in my mind for the past several months was starting to unravel.

Not that it means I understood anything—just a vague sensation of something loosening.

“So you’re saying... you live by feeding on monsters?”

I told only Cheon Young-jae.

He’s the closest person to me and the one I trust the most.

“Something like that. It’d be nice if I bulked up by eating them, but that’s not the case.”

“Then... doesn’t that mean you’ll have to hunt monsters regularly?”

“!”

Humans truly are social animals.

Two heads are better than one.

While I’d been obsessing over the changes to my body, Cheon Young-jae casually brought up a completely unexpected yet critical angle.

He was right.

If my body now experiences a recurring hunger like Gu Jung-sa’s, that implies [N O V E L I G H T] I’ve been saddled with a recurring task—to hunt monsters at regular intervals.

Regular monster hunting.

Easy to say.

And admittedly, now that monsters can’t perceive me, the act itself has become far easier than in the past.

But hunting monsters still consumes resources.

Hunter weapons, recoilless guns, explosives, bullets—you name it.

The cruder the weapon, the higher the risk I have to bear.

And I still don’t know what pattern monsters follow when they're attacked but not defeated.

They may very well retaliate.

Or perhaps the data from their encounters is transmitted back to the Rift in real time.

In any case, I now have homework.

I need a new weapon.

The requirements:

1. Must have destructive power comparable to a Hunter weapon—enough to kill or at least seriously injure a monster in a single strike.

2. Must be reusable.

3. Must be cost-effective. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

That’s a total of three conditions.

You could argue the second is included in the third, but I separated them to give the creator as much conceptual freedom as possible.

Sure, I could requisition a Hunter weapon from the government arsenal right now—but if negotiations with Kang Han-min fall through and I end up back in my bunker surviving alone, I’ll need a replacement weapon no matter what.

First thing that comes to mind is a melee weapon.

My beloved twin axes have taken down countless monsters with almost no cost.

They remain my last resort.

But melee combat by nature is dangerous.

Unexpected variables, fluctuating condition day to day, injury, changes in monster patterns—these are all things I can't control but must endure.

And the cost of enduring those variables is paid in flesh—or life.

Most of all, my axes can’t kill in one strike.

That’s the limit of me—Park Gyu—and by extension, the human species.

Even if a man born with the most blessed genes trains purely for strength and sets world records, he still wouldn’t stand a chance against a yellow mutt chewing grass behind a hill.

Same logic applies to other melee weapons—they can’t satisfy the first condition.

Because the limits of melee weapons are also the limits of human capability.

The second option is to stockpile cheap, mass-produced Hunter weapons like Monster Killers.

That’s more realistic.

After the Nemesis War, the Seoul government shifted production toward cheap, efficient Hunter weapons instead of shells and missiles.

But stockpiling a large number of them also means they’ll take up a lot of space.

And even if they're disassembled rounds, they're still explosives.

I remember an unlucky guy from early Viva! Apocalypse! who filled his house with explosives only to blow up along with some raiders in the end.

This Park Gyu too will meet his end someday—but I'd rather it not be in a fiery explosion.

So naturally, the conclusion leads to a third option.

Creating a new weapon.

There's an engineer named Seven who once helped me during the Nemesis War.

“Oh. Captain Park Gyu.”

Sadly, despite his efforts and sacrifices during that time, his circumstances haven’t improved much.

He still scrapes by in a shabby workshop, earning scraps of salary and rations.

If the rest of society weren’t even worse off than him, he probably would’ve abandoned the shop long ago.

Anyway, I plan to ask him to develop my new weapon.

“Hm. So you want something different from the Rocket Axe.”

No Rocket Axe.

Once was enough.

Maybe the Japanese would love it, but I’m not Japanese—and I don’t care much for Japanese-style aesthetics either.

“That won’t be easy. A weapon that can take down a monster in one strike and still be reusable...”

Seven looked troubled.

Understandable.

Even I, who knows monsters better than anyone, can’t picture a weapon like that—so asking someone else to do it is kind of shameless.

Still, it seemed wise to set up the project now and lock in a schedule.

I promised appropriate compensation and paid the deposit.

“Are you sure you want to give me this much credit?”

Money might be diluted these days, but it still works magic.

I saw Seven’s face brighten for the first time in a while and left the workshop.

We’ll probably refine the design together over time as ideas come to mind.

That’s what I was thinking when I walked into Room 803.

Cheon Young-jae was looking at his phone and chuckling.

Seems he’s been livestreaming El-Miris broadcasts to a handful of viewers—even when sometimes that number is literally zero—ever since Viva! Apocalypse! essentially collapsed.

I took a seat and asked,

“How many are watching today?”

Cheon Young-jae looked up.

“Oh, hey, senior.”

His voice sounded different than usual.

He showed me his phone screen.

“What’s this?”

It was a familiar, yet unfamiliar landing page.

[ VIVA! FOX! ]

[ Welcome to VIVA FOX (beta) ]

Foxgames had launched a new forum.

*

As the "beta" label suggested, it was a soft launch.

“M9 told me about it.”

Before the official rollout, Foxgames shared his nickname-stamped forum with a few friends.

True to his ambitious nature, the site had entrances leading to various genre-specific content.

For example, the “Fox Game Zone.”

Clicking it yielded no response—guess it’s not linked yet.

There were also massive blank spaces, clearly designed with future expansion in mind rather than just placeholders.

For now, only the forum was functional.

It didn’t take long to realize that Foxgames had taken clear inspiration from PaleNet.

The segmentation by interest rather than language, the “Fox Hit!” section aggregating popular posts, the ability to create new boards on demand...

What stood out most was the messenger feature.

Foxgames had developed a separate chat program linked to the forum, available for download within the site.

There was also something called “Fox Code ver 2.0” for developers, though I didn’t care for Fox Code to begin with—so not my concern.

From a brief overview, the forum seemed about 98% complete.

If the servers held up, it could go live tomorrow.

But there was a big banner at the top of the forum:

[ Tell me what to improve. I feel like something’s missing, but I can’t quite figure out what :) — foxgod (A.K.A foxgames) ]

“...Bullshit.”

Cheon Young-jae looked over.

“What’s with you all of a sudden?”

“No, nothing.”

Let’s chalk it up to a visceral reaction.

Honestly, I don’t like the guy.

And I doubt he likes me either.

Still—“foxgod”? Seriously?

What kind of delusional confidence makes you call yourself that?

Is he referring to mugwort or something?

Suppressing my irritation, I entered the chatroom Foxgames had launched.

Not the forum—just the live chatroom.

There were 9 users online.

A handful at best.

Probably people who personally know him.

True to its “beta” label, the chatroom was bare-bones.

There was a nickname input box.

I typed:

[ SKELTON ]

As I was entering it, the messages kept rolling in.

Fox13: Copying PaleNet is fine, but can the Necropolis environment even support something like this?

Park Penguin: We’d love to use it if it works. We don’t have much to live on, but we also have nothing to enjoy.

berkut_break: Didn’t the government assign devs to this? With a framework like this, shouldn’t it be easy to launch?

tntn_Orthopedics: From what I see, it looks technically complete. What’s the issue?

Seemed like a fairly constructive discussion was happening.

And then—

Fox_God: Huh? Skelton?

Foxgames had spotted me.

Even monsters can’t perceive me, but not Foxgames, apparently.

Fox_God: Is that really you?

mmmmmmmmm: Probably him.

Fox_God: Yeah?

mmmmmmmmm: I told El-Miris.

Denis_Oldman: El-Miris?

mmmmmmmmm: Skelton’s junior. Sitting next to him.

Fox_God: That so? Let’s check then.

Fox_God: Skelton? That really you?

I quietly nodded as I watched the familiar flow of banter.

Not that anyone could see me nod.

“...”

tap tap tap

SKELTON: (Skelton affirmative)

I replied.

mmmmmmmmm: It’s Skelton.

Denis_Oldman: Yep, that’s him.

Park Penguin: Looks like the real Skelton.

Anonymous424: Welcome, Skelton.

tntn_Orthopedics: Let’s hear what the legend has to say.

...

...

Sometimes, the unchanging gives us unexpected resonance.

Like now.

I felt a sudden swell in my chest.

A part of my hollowed-out interior felt momentarily full again.

I’d distanced myself from the internet.

So far that I’d almost abandoned Skelton altogether.

But no—I'm going to live as Skelton again.

After all, even the forums have come back to life.

Fox_God: So, got any thoughts? :)

Fox_God: Any ideas, Skelton?

As irritating as he is, if I can help, I will.

So I offered an idea befitting a legendary name.

SKELTON: (Skelton suggestion) How about hosting a contest?

mmmmmmmmm: A contest?

SKELTON: A beatbox competition.

Dead serious.

But this is Foxgames we’re talking about.

Fox_God: Haaah... (sigh)

SKELTON: ?

Fox_God: Got anything else?

SKELTON: Why are you dismissing beatboxing?

Fox_God: Then host the damn contest yourself. You can make a beatbox board if you want.

As expected—Foxgames.

No matter how I look at it, I don’t think I’ll ever like him.

It’s not about good or bad—it’s just a clash of chemistry.

“Still, beatboxing is kind of...”

Even Cheon Young-jae muttered disapprovingly, but hey—nobody’s perfect.

I kept watching the chat, nursing a minor grudge.

Anonymous424: What about something like Live! Apocalypse!?

berkut_break: Maybe revive the humanities? Seems like the end of an era.

mmmmmmmmm: A dating app? That one’s guaranteed to work.

tntn_Orthopedics: Maybe a board for local herbs and how to prepare them. All our textbooks are foreign. We could make one suited for Korea.

Everyone offered ideas.

Nothing particularly sharp.

We’re users, not creators.

And above all, Foxgames didn’t seem interested in any of them.

Fox_God: Thanks, everyone. I really appreciate it, I do—but they’re not quite what I’m looking for.

Fox_God: How do I put it... Honestly, the forum could go live right now. I even got it cleared by a government IT official. But if I launch it as-is, I feel like I’ll regret it.

What’s he hesitating for?

Wants a badge next to his username?

SKELTON: What is it that you want?

I couldn’t help but ask.

Fox_God: Not sure.

SKELTON: We’ve run forums as long as you have—but we’re not mind readers.

SKELTON: If you want help, you need to be specific about the help you want.

Even if it upsets him, I stand by it.

There’s a basic etiquette to asking others for help.

Foxgames hasn’t even told us what he wants from us—he’s just sulking alone.

This won’t solve anything.

Fox_God: Hm. Yeah.

Surprisingly, he took the criticism well.

Fox_God: You might be right.

Let’s wait and see.

If it’s something we can help with, we will. If not, we’ll at least cheer him on.

Fox_God: The forum’s finished. It’s ready to launch. But you know what? It just... feels empty.

Fox_God: I can’t explain it exactly.

Fox_God: I don’t even know if this is really for me.

Fox_God: It should be—it is. Technically, ownership passed to the government. In exchange, I got transferred to a safe bunker.

Fox_God: But somehow... it’s not enough.

Fox_God: It doesn’t feel like the old days.

Foxgames.

I think I get what he’s trying to say.

He created something.

A would-be masterpiece that could ensure his survival.

It’s practically complete—but it’s missing the final element that would make it his.

Like my weapon, still waiting to be tempered.

“...”

Maybe, just maybe, I can find inspiration from Foxgames.