I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

[Summon ‘Herald of the Night’ and defeat it within 1 minute.]
“Again?!”
It was the same challenge as before, but this time, Rahee and the male teammate weren’t just shocked—they were plunged into despair.

Just from the looks on their faces, I could read their thoughts.
How are we supposed to fight that crow without a weapon?
He only won last time because of that sword...
But I was laughing on the inside.

It wasn’t intentional, but the situation had turned to my advantage.
I calmly walked up to the platform and pressed the red button without hesitation.
“O-Oppa?!”

Rahee raised her voice in surprise, but I ignored her and immediately positioned myself.
It should be around here...
CAAAAW!

Once again, the same spot in midair turned pitch black, and the crow monster’s head popped out.
This time, I moved first.
Since it spawned in the same location, I could strike faster.

I tapped twice on the area beside the now-empty sword sheath at my waist.
Tap tap.
Clack—!

Just like a scene from a movie, the sheath that had been completely empty suddenly glowed faintly—and the Return Blade regenerated inside it in an instant.
The item had truly lived up to its name.
Flash!
For some reason, the scoreboard lit up brightly at that moment.

Was it reacting to something?
I drew the sword again and, just like before, swung it with all my strength.
Shhhk—!
Slash!
Thud.

The second crow monster was decapitated before its full body had even emerged, unable to resist.
Complete silence filled the room.
“W-Wait, didn’t you sacrifice the sword on the altar earlier...?”
“O-Oppa?”

Rahee and the male teammate were speechless, mouths hanging open.
I too wore a slightly awkward expression as I slid the sword back into its sheath.
Just moments ago, Rahee had looked guilty for making me give up my sword.

I couldn’t look her in the eye.
It was... a little embarrassing.
[...Cha...llenge... Success...]
[Success: 6/10 | Failure: 1/10]

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly as I looked at the scoreboard, which had slowed down in its speech.
Normally, it would’ve displayed the success message right away—but this time, it blinked in silence for several seconds before finally updating the counter.
As if it couldn’t understand what just happened. As if it had encountered a system error.

It wasn’t like I’d tricked the scoreboard on purpose.
It just happened to overhear our conversation and got caught in its own trap.
“Oppa, that sword... where did it come from?”
“Well, it’s kind of a special item. It comes back once... just once.”

“...I see. That’s... amazing. I’m shocked...”
“Whew... you seriously scared me!”
The male teammate calmed his breathing, as if to settle his nerves.
Rahee looked relieved and startled at once, raising her voice for once in rare emotion.

I gave her a light apology and glanced at the scoreboard again.
Blink, blink.
Flash.

The scoreboard blinked erratically, unable to present the next challenge for a while.
What, are we getting another absurd task next?
Honestly, after the fourth challenge, I thought they’d start throwing impossible stuff at us.

Cutting off a finger was already bad—what next, gouging out an eye?
But then again, maybe not.
Was there some kind of pattern to this?

After that quiet lull, a new challenge finally appeared.
[Employee Kim Minjun must now leave the room alone.]
[Red Button: Accept Challenge / Blue Button: Forfeit]
Then, a narrow doorway appeared along one wall—just big enough for a single person to squeeze through.

It was like the system was begging me to leave.
It was the command to exit I’d been half-expecting.
“...”

“...Um. I guess we’re not supposed to leave?”
The male teammate glanced between the opening and me.
No sooner had he finished speaking than the doorway closed and became a smooth wall again.

It was clearly meant just for me.
“...Maybe we should let him go... He’s from a different team anyway...”
“Y-Yeah, Oppa, go ahead. If you leave, we only need three more successes...”
“...”

I looked at the scoreboard.
It was practically screaming at me to get out—
...Strange. I don’t want to leave.

I shook my head at the two of them.
“No. We all leave together.”
They both looked stunned.

“W-Why? It’s your chance to get out...”
“Ah...”
Honestly, I had plenty of reasons.
Even without being sent away, we could probably clear the remaining challenges and get out.

And we still had the last-resort option of destroying the scoreboard.
Most importantly—
The fact that this monster wanted me gone this badly gave me a certain conviction.

I’m a nuisance to it, aren’t I?
This was practically the monster’s offer to me.
Can’t you just leave already? Let’s call it a draw?

Thinking about it that way, I really didn’t want to leave.
Beep!
[You have forfeited the challenge.]

With the others’ agreement, I pressed the blue forfeit button—and the scoreboard spoke in a voice tinged with regret.
Then the next question appeared.
[Employee Kim Minjun must now immediately stab himself with the sword and commit suicide.]
[Red Button: Accept / Blue Button: Forfeit]

“Suddenly, it’s back to this kind of question...!”
“...Wait a minute!”
While the male teammate recoiled in panic, Rahee raised her hand, as if she’d just realized something.
“Didn’t the cut-off-your-finger challenge also come right after a forfeit?”
“R-Right! That’s true!”

The male teammate slapped his palm, reacting quickly.
Now that she said it—it really had happened ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) that way.
Last time, too, after we gave up on the regulation-related question, the next task had been cutting off a finger. We had no choice but to forfeit again, and it cost us a failure count.

There was a reason the scoreboard couldn’t keep giving us these malicious challenges.
It could only issue them after we forfeited something.
“Then if we forfeit this time, again, it’ll...”
“No, that won’t work. That’ll add another failure count—”

[You have forfeited the challenge.]
Naturally, we forfeited again and pressed the blue button.
That made two forfeits in a row, which counted as one failure—

[Success: 6/10 | Failure: 2/10]
A new question appeared.
[Can you determine whether there is a spy from another company in this room right now?]
[Red Button: Accept / Blue Button: Forfeit]

“See? It’s not another crazy question—wait, what?”
Rahee started speaking confidently, but froze when she read the prompt.
“...Spy?”

All three of us—me, Rahee, and the male teammate—looked at each other in confusion.
Why bring up spies out of nowhere?
What kind of trap was this?

At least it wasn’t another awful challenge involving self-harm or mutilation.
Instead—
“What kind of question even is this...?”

Is it asking whether a spy exists or not?
Technically, this might be the simplest question we’ve seen so far.
It’s either yes or no.

Even guessing blindly gave a 50% chance.
But—if a real spy did exist?
It was obvious that the goal here was to sow distrust among us.

The question might be nasty, but for increasing the success count, this was as good as it got.
“...There’s no way one of us is a spy. Right?”
Rahee said nervously, but no one could answer right away.

Honestly, with a megacorp like Dongto, it wasn’t unthinkable for a rival company to plant a spy.
And thinking back—there had been a few suspicious details.
The rare situation that happened when the elite exploration teams were away...

The stone slab that started giving easy problems and then went berserk after a string of wrong answers...
The experienced team leader and his teammate knocked out cold without warning...
And now this scoreboard suddenly bringing up the idea of a “spy.”

All those minor details started to connect into one ominous picture.
Could this have all been planned by a spy from the start?
“Should we just forfeit this one? It’s obviously meant to make us turn on each other.”

The male teammate spoke with unease in his voice, but Rahee and I shook our heads.
“We have to accept it.”
Thanks to Rahee, we had just discovered one important fact.

If you forfeit, the next question will be something insane.
Whether we accepted and got it wrong, or forfeited and got punished—either way was a loss.
“Accepting it is the right choice. But...”

“Ugh...!”
“...Team Leader?!”
From the two collapsed bodies on the floor, the middle-aged man—Team 12’s leader—groaned and slowly opened his eyes.
For a moment, he seemed dazed, unable to grasp the situation.

Then he saw the scoreboard question—and his face turned to stone.
“No...!”
He staggered to his feet, legs wobbling, clearly still dizzy—but his eyes were oddly sharp and focused.

And before we could stop him, he dashed up to the platform and slammed the red “Accept” button.
[Challenge accepted.]
“Team Leader! What are you doing?!”

The male teammate shouted in alarm, but the team leader cut him off.
Panting, he raised a trembling finger—and pointed it straight at the male teammate.
“Spy....!”

His voice was hoarse and cracked, but the meaning was unmistakable.
“It’s him! That bastard is the spy!”
“H-Huh? M-Me? T-Team Leader, what are you saying?! Get a hold of yourself!”

The accused man stumbled backward in shock, stammering in disbelief.
Rahee stared between the team leader and the male employee, expression frozen.
The male teammate made eye contact with me—then glanced at my sword, and began to tremble.

“N-No! It’s not true!”
“...?”
The team leader’s sudden awakening and accusation cast a suffocating tension over the room.

The scoreboard paused for a moment—then flashed as it declared the result.
[Challenge completed successfully.]
[Success: 7/10 | Failure: 2/10]