Episode 5. The Man from Nowhere X (2)
Junior Balrog.
A level 300 boss monster.
Monsters classified as
That was why even Ted could not kill it in one blow. Just as it had taken him forty hours to hunt the Haeryong Three Gods in the past.
Bang—bang—bang—bang—bang!
Junior Balrog, with 155,000 HP and high defense!
Ted, with 8,512 attack power, needed over twenty bullets to take it down.
And even that, he could not fire in rapid succession.
Feeling threatened by Ted's attacks, the creature spammed all sorts of skills at him.
Floating twenty meters in the air, it unleashed devastating long-range skills. From a distance of roughly forty meters, the skills it fired—
‘Gasp! If even one of those hits me, I'm dead for sure!’
His attack power already surpassed that of his previous playthrough.
But his body had not.
Strictly speaking, Ted's HP and defense were lower than those of a level 99 Musketeer of the same rank.
Because he hadn't done any item farming whatsoever!
Ted desperately utilized
However, because he had invested heavily into the Sight stat, his body did not obey him well when he tried to dodge.
So he kept barely avoiding attacks while counterattacking, but eventually, one of the claws the creature fired grazed Ted.
"Kuh!"
Even though it was a glancing blow, its power instantly drained nearly 50% of Ted's HP!
And the poison the creature had fired was coated with a black liquid.
Specter Poison was not actually a very potent poison.
It merely caused pale specters to continuously shriek and sprout from your body.
But in a long-range battle like this, that was fatal. Ted's position, hidden among the bushes while firing his gun, was exposed.
‘Hoo. But this much is fine.
Ted used the mosquito bullet to hit a monster that hadn't managed to flee. But the stupid mosquito flew wherever it pleased and hit another user again.
Ted's HP surged.
‘Again. Carefully. It's already been hit by over fifteen shots.’
Bangbangbangbang—!
In the end, before he could fire five more shots, he was grazed by an attack again, but thanks to the HP he had filled with the Wayward Mosquito Bullet, he did not die.
It wasn't a difficult opponent to begin with.
Ted had experience hunting Junior Balrog several times in his past playthrough.
It was simply that his body wasn't properly obeying his will, which had caused him to struggle.
Soon, the creature whose HP had been completely depleted died, scattering black smoke into the sky.
His level rose by six in an instant. Normally, one would have to hunt over a hundred Sector 2 monsters per level, but he had gained the experience of several hundred at once.
‘Great! Items dropped too!’
Ted, who had been hiding this whole time, ran into the middle of the plain for the first time.
Forget trash mob items… wasn't this the death of a whopping level 300 boss monster? There was bound to be something good.
‘210 gold. And potions and stuff, Magic and Rare items! Wow, not bad.’
210 gold. That was 2.1 million won in real money.
Joy rose in Ted's eyes as he checked the additional rare item.
Minimum Level Restriction: 220
Durability: 325 / 325
Defense: 78
—Additional Options—
Vitality: +27
Ted happily put it in his inventory.
‘Once I hit level 220 soon, I'll equip it after my second job advancement.’
Defense as high as a fairly decent helmet of the same grade. Plus vitality, which directly affected HP. For Ted, who had a terribly fragile body, it was truly an excellent belt.
The consumable item that appeared to be a potion was the
Specters leap out from the poisoned person's body for 5 minutes.
—Remaining Uses: 10
There were also a few Magic items. But they were things like swords, shields, and shabby muskets.
‘If I sell these too, I can get at least 90 gold.’
Magic equipment items traded for around a hundred thousand won each.
Moreover, Rare items went for around a million won each. Precisely because they were that rare.
When he calculated it all, the total value was roughly 5 million won. His first haul since starting the game was quite good.
‘Besides that…’
Excited, Ted hopped about among the remains of users who had been logged out nearby.
On the corpses of users who had died after Balrog mercilessly fired Demonic Light Bullets at them, trash items were strewn everywhere. In the distance, he saw several users who had the same thought running toward the plain.
‘In your dreams. It's all mine!’
Bang—! Bangbang—!
Ted fired his musket at the users.
He wasn't particularly interested in the money, but the thought of someone else picking up what he considered his made him sick to his stomach.
His crime value was already sky-high anyway.
There was nothing to hold him back.
A value exceeding 5,000. He had already reached a level where he could not use government offices, shops, regular academies, and the like. But it didn't matter.
‘I've played this game for ten years… There's a way around everything. But maybe I should rein it in a bit.’
However, going over 10,000 was a bit different. The moment it exceeded 10,000, a bounty would be placed on him.
‘Not bad.’
He gathered all the dropped trash items and roughly estimated their value; it amounted to 2 million won as well.
‘Oh, that emblem.’
Suddenly, Ted discovered a BJ's epaulet among the dropped items.
The emblem he had checked before was on it.
‘Those rude BJs.’
The guys who had been beaten to death by him.
But they had come back again. And this time, carrying a demon realm bundle worth thousands of gold.
If they had simply returned, he would have thought nothing of it… but would there be any reason to deliberately unpack that expensive demon realm bundle in a place known to have strong people?
‘What are those bastards up to?’
He needed to find out.
Feeling puzzled, Ted logged out.
* * *
Cheon Gyeongu brought up a hologram display and searched for the symbol he had seen.
Soon, the guild name
‘So there are guys like this too.’
Cheon Gyeongu had been a Paprika BJ.
But he had absolutely no interest in other people's broadcasts.
So it was an organization he was seeing for the first time.
He continued searching, but there was no useful information. It was simply filled with reports of their violent activities.
‘They were quite the bunch, doing all sorts of bizarre things… huh?’
But Cheon Gyeongu's eyes widened when he saw the organizational relationship information.
In Face Chronicle, there was a
It signified an extremely hostile relationship between guilds, and among the guilds in a sworn enemy relationship with the Paprika Commando, he saw a familiar guild name.
In Cheon Gyeongu's household, everyone from the parents to the children enjoyed games.
To the point that both sons and the daughter had grown up to become pro gamers.
Guild
It was the guild led by Cheon Gyeongu's older brother, Cheon Siu, as the guild master.
Cheon Gyeongu pressed and entered Cheon Siu's number on the display one by one.
And then he paused for a moment before pressing the call button.
‘…….’
Cheon Gyeongu had grown up extremely bitter, caught between his older brother and younger sister.
When he was young, Cheon Gyeongu's parents gave everything to his older brother, Cheon Siu.
And they did the same for his younger sister, the adorable baby of the family, Cheon Jiyun.
Strangely, in the midst of all that, Cheon Gyeongu had been unable to receive any attention.
It was the common sorrow of the second child, and it had remained as a scar in young Cheon Gyeongu's heart.
The three genius gamer siblings had all naturally debuted as pro gamers.
The problem began when Cheon Gyeongu was nineteen, tasting bitter defeat at every major tournament.
His parents eventually suggested to Cheon Gyeongu, who had striven for many years only to fail, that there would be "other good things you can do," advising him to quit gaming. And Cheon Gyeongu, who had suffered nightmares every day recalling his tournament defeats, left home right then and there.
He even got into a collar-grabbing fight with his brother who tried to stop him.
The family felt sorry toward Cheon Gyeongu.
If you thought about it, Cheon Gyeongu hadn't done anything right either.
But the narrow-minded Cheon Gyeongu kept that day's events buried in his heart and lived on until now, at twenty-nine.
So even now, at a point where a phone call was necessary, he hesitated.
‘…I don't really want to call, but… I should check on how he's doing.’
It happened to be around lunchtime.
Cheon Gyeongu pressed the call button. Soon, a charismatic voice was heard.
—Gyeongu. Long time no see.
"Yeah. Hyung. How have you been?"
—Our Gyeongu! Things have been going well for you these days. Mom and Dad are pleased.
"Ah. Yeah. Great. I'm glad they're happy with me."
Cheon Gyeongu smoothly said things he didn't mean.
Of course, Cheon Siu probably knew too.
—But what's the occasion? It seemed like you suddenly quit Paprika too. Did something happen?
"…."
Feeling uncomfortable, Cheon Gyeongu immediately got to the main point.
He asked about the Paprika Commando skulking around the Count's domain hunting grounds.
—Paprika Commando?
"Yeah. Sorry for bringing this up right after calling you after so long. Do you know anything?"
—Of course! I am the leader of a ranker guild, after all… But why do you need that kind of information? There's no way my little brother got roughed up by those guys.
"Sorry. It's a situation where it's difficult to tell you the details."
—Hmm, okay. I'll tell you. You probably know already, but don't tell anyone.
Soon, unexpected words popped out of Cheon Siu's mouth.
Information that the Paprika Commando guild was preparing for a siege war. That they were preparing for something in a big way.
He didn't know anything more detailed than that, but with that brief information, Cheon Gyeongu could roughly understand the BJs' situation.
‘Those BJs must be following guild orders to wreak havoc on Count Saulon's domain.’
If so, whatever they were doing wouldn't really interfere with his leveling.
Siege war—that is, in all territory wars, user participation was voluntary.
If things blew up, he could just take what he could while leveling up, and if the situation got serious, he could leave Count Saulon's domain. Since dual class was possible from level 200 anyway, he could think about it slowly.
Cheon Gyeongu wrapped up the conversation.
"Thanks. Take care."
—Yeah. I'm glad you called after so long. I'd like to see your face. Mom, Dad, and Jiyun want to see you too, so come by when you have time.
"…Yeah. If I get the chance someday. Take care, Hyung."
Feeling uncomfortable, Cheon Gyeongu hung up and immediately went into his capsule.
* * *
Having shaken off his thoughts, Ted soon entered Sector 3.
Sector 3 of the Saulon Plains was where monsters from early level 100 to around level 150 appeared.
He wanted to go to Sector 4 immediately, but the problem was Ted's HP.
‘Status window.’
< Ted > Level: 106 (Rebirth 1)
Class: Musketeer / Race: Human
Title: Six Desires Constellation
Achievement: Wayward Sniper
Stats:
— HP: 814 / Mana: 160 —
Strength: 45 / Agility: 160
Vitality: 85 / Intelligence: 20
Sight: 250
‘Hmm….’
Stats could generally be raised in two ways.
1. Leveling up.
2. Achievement awards.
Ted's stats were on the lower side for his level. Because he had only obtained one achievement as a side effect of his rapid level-up.
Five stat points were given per level.
Ted had invested most of his stats, except for Sight, into Agility.
Right now, sniping worked thanks to the terrain, but the musket Ted was raising would fight at mid-range. In other words, mobility would be the core.
Therefore… his Vitality, which directly affected stamina, defense, HP, and so on, was not very high.
‘If I recklessly went to Sector 4 and got hit by a blind attack…’
If he was unlucky and got hit wrong two or three times, he could die.
In that case, Ted, having exceeded level 100, would be unable to play the game for a week.
‘And it's not like I can afford to take a
A potion that reduced the death penalty to 1/10.
It was the potion Ted had used when he committed suicide as an experiment while afflicted by Rangwa's curse previously. Thanks to that, Ted had been able to resurrect in just three days.
But the problem was the price.
One cost a whopping 100 million won in cash.
There was no way he could spend the 200 million won he currently had on something like that.
Rather than that, it would be better to raise his stats more solidly and play with stability.
‘Sector 3 doesn't have that kind of problem. Besides, you can also obtain Indomitable there.’
Ted smiled in satisfaction.
There were two very special things in Sector 3.
One was the skill
The other was
Saulon Coins that could be used to purchase rare Skill Cores at the
‘If I work hard in Sector 3 and exchange just ten Saulon Coins, I should be able to buy a decent D-rank exclusive Skill Core. It'd be nice if things like
Every skill Ted thought of was one with tremendous effects among D-rank exclusive Skill Cores.
If he attached that to his Six Desires Constellation and evolved it?
Truly game-breaking skills would be created.
Indomitable, D-rank exclusive Skill Core, level up.
Hoping to catch three rabbits at once, Ted entered Sector 3.