Human fear originates from ignorance. Simply put, we fear what we don''t understand. I once read online that it''s an instinct ingrained in our genes from primitive times, when "if you don''t know, you die" was the rule rather than "if you don''t know, you get hurt."


    That''s why humans began to uncover and organize the unknown, building a tower of knowledge and learning. Thunder and lightning, once seen as the wrath of sky gods in primitive times, are now understood as electrical discharges between negatively and positively charged areas within clouds. Most unknowns have been transformed into knowns.


    This logic applied not only to the modern society I lived in, but also to Earth 4 where Han Se-ah was, and even to the fantasy world of the virtual reality game.


    "It''s already known that dead monsters return to mana and become mana stones. Even if the corpse is damaged, it doesn''t affect the mana stone. But this is our first time with such a huge monster, so we should verify it again, shouldn''t we?"


    "Um, calm down for a moment..."


    The issue was that she wanted to dig into the ogre''s belly.


    Her cheeks were flushed with excitement, and her tired eyes, lined with dark circles, sparkled with vitality. The hysterical-looking beautiful woman reminded me of the term ''gap moe'' - like a romantic girl, thanks to her ★-enhanced beauty. Even her excited bouncing around looked oddly charming for a grown woman.


    If only the words coming out of her mouth were a bit more toned down.


    "After subduing it, we''ll cut off its limbs and throw it into the safe zone- no, first we need to check if the mana stones of named monsters are different colors... but for that, we''d need more test subjects..."


    Manaashi, who had broken both of the ogre''s arms after a long struggle, was hissing with laughter, saying the Temple Knights'' muscle training methods had definitely helped. Lukius was joking that it would take not ten, but a hundred hits to bring down a named ogre.


    In front of the ogre, its arms broken and leg tendons cut, now only able to thrash its thick torso with core strength, stood a mage with a gleam in her eyes more frightening than the monster''s.


    Her name was Maelis Borange, the third daughter of the Borange family who chose to dedicate herself to the Magic Tower instead of a political marriage... Wait, I''ve heard this setting before. Well, in this world, it''s a choice between political marriage, the temple, or the Magic Tower, so I guess everyone lives similarly.


    What mattered was why Maelis was reacting this way.


    "Maybe if we cut the waist, it could survive- no, that would make it hard to determine the cause of death..."


    "Um, Maelis...?"


    She was a graduate student who had her thesis rejected just before graduation.


    The dark circles under her eyes, her muttering curses under her breath, her irritable attitude that even intimidated Han Se-ah, and her maniacal obsession with the ogre - all could be explained by this one fact.


    To be precise, her ongoing gate-related research in her lab had been fundamentally invalidated by the appearance of fake safe zones, not just rejected but requiring a complete restart.


    Anyway, the two mages walked around behind, lamenting to the stream camera, but few viewers really understood.


    Just as serious juvenile offenders go to juvenile detention, graduate school is where college students who''ve made really big mistakes go. Everyone knows the jokes, but few know the reality. If they don''t know much about graduate school, they''d know even less about the Magic Tower, which is similar to graduate school.


    But one thing was clear: the madness Maelis displayed wasn''t fake, but real.


    "Hey, we should do what she says, right? Seeing her act like this, we either need to let her experiment or knock her out and drag her along. We''re heading to a safe zone anyway, so we might as well let her do what she wants under the guise of quest progression."


    -Her scared look is so fresh lol Is it really that scary?


    -No lol When you look closely, her eyes are really bloodshot. So that''s what it means when they say eyes turn red


    -??? So you''re saying there''s a graduate student sister whose thesis got completely trashed because of Han Se-ah right next to her? But why is she still alive?


    -lol Be careful when you sleep. You might log out and wake up to find you''ve gone back a day


    ...Well, to be more precise, there were some horny guys who even liked that, so I should say "not everyone" liked it.


    "Phew, what do we do with this now? Do we carry it all the way, or put it down here and stick those weird magical devices in it?"


    "Don''t we need to examine the center of the safe zone first, so we should put it down?"


    "Ah, that''s right."


    Though we''d enhanced our bodies with mana, the ogre''s problem wasn''t its size but its volume. That''s why Roland, Katie, McDonagh, and Lukius shared carrying the limbs, while Manaashi dragged the huge body by a rope around its neck.


    With its limbs cut off, we could only tie the rope around its neck, making it look like we were executing a hanging. But even in this state, the giant race''s unique tenacity seemed to shine through.


    As a result, the ogre and its former parts were sprawled out on the prairie a bit away from the safe zone. Even though we''d frozen it to prevent bloodshed, everyone shuddered uncomfortably, shaking their bodies.


    After that, well... the mages did what mages do.


    "First of all, this is a fake safe zone."


    "Can you hand me the magical device? Ah, better take it out from outside the safe zone, just in case."


    "Put this here, and that over there..."


    Maelis isolated Han Se-ah far away, worried that her inventory magic or minimap magic might negatively affect the experiment, and freely used McDonagh and Lukius.


    She planted stakes, arranged mana stones, sprinkled strange powders from her bosom, drew something on the ground, cut grass, turned over soil... She moved about busily, doing so many things it made me wonder what it was all for.


    Meanwhile, the cut-off ogre limbs were moved in and out of the safe zone, which was amusing. And the fact that I was the one moving them was not so amusing.


    Anyway, after doing all sorts of things with mana stones, mana stone powder, various magical devices, and the freshly cut ogre limbs, Maelis, with a happy face and a broad smile, made her final request to me and Manaashi.


    "Alright, now let''s put the living ogre into the safe zone."


    "...Is it still alive?"


    "It hasn''t turned into a mana stone yet, so it must be."


    At Maelis''s words, ignoring the ogre''s limbs abandoned in a corner of the safe zone, we dragged the ogre, still unconscious from oxygen deprivation, back again.


    The safe zone showed no reaction to the limbs but a strong reaction to the body. I had thought it was all nonsense since it wasn''t even a real safe zone but a fake one, but something was happening. Still, I lowered my stance, tensing up at the ominous mana waves, but--


    "What happened?"


    "I don''t know, I can''t see anything."


    There was no change in the empty space where the ogre had disappeared.


    "Mana stone? Where''s the mana stone?!"


    And the named-level mana stone that should have been converted into a rare enhancement stone was gone too.