◈ Episode 22. New Update
110 billion won.
No matter how many times I counted it again, it was certain.
That astronomical figure.
Apparently, if I simply submitted a deposit request, it would be transferred into my account…
For the first time in my life, I was beginning to fear money.
110 billion.
How many times would you have to win the lottery to get an amount like that!
But what was even scarier than that
was me, treating that astronomical amount of compensation
as if it were only natural.
A salary that hadn’t been bad for living alone.
Even so, the past where I’d bled tears over all sorts of living expenses.
Those sweltering and freezing days when I obsessed over how long to run the air conditioner or the boiler.
Let’s imagine that the me from back then had been given the enormous sum of 110 billion won.
For starters, one thing was certain: insomnia.
Every night, I’d have lain awake with useless worries. What if a burglar breaks into my house? What if I suddenly quit my job and my coworkers, my manager, figure it out? What if a bank employee embezzles it?
In that sense, it was fortunate.
『Born as the heir of a great family, he had tasted the very pinnacle of abundance.』
That extraordinary sense of money, I mean.
Was it thanks to that setting?
Far from going blank, my mind began to spin even faster.
“More urgent than anything is armament.”
Yes, it was urgent.
From level 55 to level 134.
More than anything, my level had risen by a lot, and rapidly at that.
To be honest, the equipment items I was currently using were practically useless.
In front of high-level monsters, they were no different from wearing a long coat.
‘I’ll have to use my head….’
But that was a problem in its own way.
Let’s say I got items to match my rapidly increased level.
What was I supposed to do at the next level-up?
Of course, there was no guarantee I’d be able to level up at such speed in the next Rift.
But let’s look at it objectively.
Even after rising, I was only level 134.
At my level, I could gain levels just by killing imps, low-grade demon-type monsters.
‘Is it really a good move to get items suited to my current level range?’
Spending tens of millions of won at least, and hundreds of millions at most?
Absolutely not.
Then, naturally, a question followed.
Does that mean I won’t get any items?
When I never know when I’ll have to enter another Rift and risk my life?
No, that was absolutely not it either.
I had it all thought out.
‘Items whose effects are the real value, rather than their specs.’
You know, items that have high value thanks to their effects,
rather than absolute stats like attack power or defense.
‘There are items with good effects regardless of level restrictions.’
What I needed at the current point in time was precisely that kind of item.
Among them—
‘If only my mana regeneration had held up even a little better….’
Items related to mana regeneration!
Through this Count Ascura Rift, I realized the importance of mana.
Even setting aside the moment when I’d been in danger from mana exhaustion, there had been several times when I’d regretted not having enough mana.
In that sense, if I could supplement my mana regeneration….
‘I might be able to hold out somehow.’
Until I could get together a set of plausible high-level equipment items, that is.
Naturally, they would be expensive… right?
Back when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
Mage-type classes were treated like nobility.
Leaving aside how cool they looked,
the amount of money invested in raising them was no joke, just like their fundamentally outstanding performance.
What was essential for such mages were items related to mana regeneration.
Now that Arcana had become reality,
their value must have risen even further….
I might literally be gasping “hundreds of millions” dozens of times.
Billions of won for a single item!
To think I’d be the one buying such an item, not selling it.
It was something I’d never even imagined,
but there was no agitation in my emotions.
Seated at the table.
A perfectly upright posture, pressed firmly against the backrest.
Even the occasional, leisurely tilt of the teacup.
Even if it were an item worth billions, no, more than that,
it couldn’t shake Granfell’s heart.
Whether I was about to receive 110 billion won,
or whether the entire world was focused on me,
there was no needless worrying.
Scratch, scratch—
I began filling the A4 sheet again.
─Train your weakened body. (Repeat) ▲
●Run 20 km (In progress)
●Push-ups 1,000 reps (Success)
●Pull-ups 500 reps (In progress)
●Burpee test 300 reps (Success)
Likewise, I continued filling out the repeat quest.
My actions, no different from usual, were proof of that.
Truly, it was an obstinate degree of going his own way.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me….
I was really like this in my second year of middle school?
But I soon folded away that thought.
Today’s shame had already been more than enough just from having my dark history dug up in front of my one and only niece, Arang.
*
Sometimes, there are things that are more valuable because they remain unrevealed.
“Just what on earth is his identity?”
Hoyeol’s current situation was exactly that.
The Count Ascura raid with Jesse Hainness.
However, the truth of that incident had not been precisely revealed.
Because Hoyeol and Jesse,
the parties involved, had shut their mouths as if they had made a promise.
“First, let’s watch the footage.”
Rumble!
From the stone pillars rising out of the ground
to the moving stone statue collapsing in front of Hoyeol.
There were more than a few people straining their eyes
to discover Hoyeol’s true identity,
or at least his class.
But it had to make some kind of sense.
The more they watched the footage, the stronger the sense of mystery around Hoyeol inevitably became.
“For starters, it’s definitely alchemy.”
“Alchemy, you say?”
“Yes. If you zoom in here…. You can see it clearly, right? The exact moment when the ruins’ debris changes into stone pillars. This is unmistakably alchemy…. But then again, that makes no sense either, considering how extreme the mana consumption for alchemy is…. Good grief, just how high is his mana…?”
“Um, expert?”
Former Arcana operators.
AAU was not much different.
AAU’s Korean branch.
Lately, Seong Hyeonjun felt as though calluses were forming on his ears.
Thud—
Sitting down at his office desk, he spoke to his senior.
“Senior, I’m seriously going to die.”
“Why now?”
“No matter where I go, it’s Lee Hoyeol. Lee Hoyeol. Everyone’s going absolutely crazy…!”
Friends, cousins, even his father and mother.
Questions about Lee Hoyeol were flooding in from every direction.
He could understand it.
How long had it been since a star player like this had appeared?
Since Gaon’s Nam Taemin, no one in South Korea had shown that level of activity.
After all, even when someone won an Olympic medal, talk of it filled the air for a while.
And Hoyeol wasn’t a medalist, but a true hero who had dealt with a collapsed Rift, that great catastrophe.
“Can’t be helped. When I go home, my kids make a fuss too. Dad, just tell me secretly. I won’t say anything to the kids at school.”
“That’s what’s driving me crazy.”
“Exactly. We’d have to know something to tell them!”
The two of them looked at Hoyeol on the monitor at the same time.
Just what was it?
That skill?
And what was with him taking down Count Ascura!
Even they, who had once been operators of Arcana, couldn’t guess Hoyeol’s level—no, not even his class.
Seong Hyeonjun shook his head.
“The bigger problem is that I think we’re going to keep being exhausted from now on.”
Would it kill him to answer kindly?
When one got down to it, the root of all evil was Hoyeol’s interview.
That prickly interview that was attracting just as much attention as Hoyeol’s exploits.
—Hahahahahaha his concept is insane
—Did you see his expression? He’s just overflowing with confidence
—It’s like he came to a runway, not a Rift
—No, you think that’s a concept? You think it makes sense to act out a concept in front of all those rankers gathered there?? That’s the real thing
“We’re dying of curiosity too. But it’s not like we can honestly say that….”
From their days as Arcana’s operators
to now, as employees of AAU,
their essential virtue had been confidentiality.
Pretend not to know even when you know, and pretend to know even when you don’t.
As the saying went, if you stayed still, you’d at least make it halfway.
It was to avoid causing confusion in society through unnecessary words and actions.
The one fortunate thing was—
“This is the first time I’ve ever looked forward to Thursday.”
Today was Thursday.
There might be a new update.
If the details of the new update were released, perhaps interest in Hoyeol would diminish a little.
Then maybe his hearing could be protected too.
Seong Hyeonjun couldn’t help but secretly hope.
“Come on. Come on…!”
Perhaps his desperate prayer had reached them.
A new update was announced on the Arcana homepage.
“It’s up!”
At that cry, the AAU employees checked the update details in perfect unison.
Seong Hyeonjun also checked the details and inwardly let out a sigh of relief.
‘…I know I shouldn’t be happy, but I have to survive too!’
Rifts were always time bombs.
But the sudden appearance of Hoyeol
was a catastrophe that had befallen his own hearing and mental health.
Scroll—
As Seong Hyeonjun turned the mouse wheel, he grinned.
It was long.
It wasn’t an update list with nothing but a Rift tossed in.
It was an update packed with substance.
‘With an update of this scale….’
Wouldn’t interest in Hoyeol cool off a little?
That was what Seong Hyeonjun thought.
Unfortunately, however, that was nothing more than a misconception.
At the same time.
The players also checked the new update details.
“W-wait. Is this for real? This really came up?!”
“…Then we’ll have no choice but to meet again.”
“Seriously, couldn’t he have just held back until this update?”
“Damn it. We’ve got one more competitor now.”
Competitor.
Naturally, they were talking about Hoyeol.
Because this update was a major update.
No, for those who had played Arcana in the past, it was undoubtedly an update that made their hearts race just by checking the details.
『A new region is coming to your side.
The new region, “Yusra Archipelago,” will be added….』
The Yusra Archipelago!
Back when Arcana had been a game,
it was an island from the countless rumors that had spread throughout Arcana.
Quests, treasure maps, and even NPCs.
They had all referred to the Yusra Archipelago as a “treasure island.”
Everything that was born and grew there was said to be on the level of treasure, so outstanding that it couldn’t be compared to things of the common world.
So players who obtained that information had searched every corner of the continent to find that treasure island.
However, until the day Arcana became reality, the Yusra Archipelago was never discovered.
So they had thought it was merely a phantom island passed down like a legend….
“Are they giving us the cure after giving us the disease?”
After Count Ascura.
That very Yusra Archipelago had been updated.
“Every monster out there is going to gather there. Seriously.”
Would rankers and other high-level players just leave such a treasure island alone?
Among them, the one who had stood out most recently was none other than Hoyeol.
In other words, interest in Hoyeol could grow if anything; it would never die down.
“This time, I’ll really observe proper formalities…!”
Whether in a good sense.
“Once is enough humiliation in a great nation’s unification of all under heaven.”
Or in a not-so-good sense.
The Yusra Archipelago.
Hoyeol was receiving as much attention as that treasure island.
However, as if all that interest and caution meant nothing to him,
Hoyeol was the same as always.
The Yusra Archipelago.
Even at the moment he checked the update details.
“……”
There was no change in that arrogant expression....
The Yusra Archipelago?
What was this place now?
I tilted my teacup as I checked the update details.
‘It’s something I’ve been feeling lately, but….’
A gap of ten years was definitely serious.
Why, even recently, it had happened.
That cone hat….
No, just like how I hadn’t recognized Jesse Hainness.
[Heavenly Punishment],
the skill that had turned Count Ascura into ash.
I had thought it was impressive when I saw the power of that skill.
But to think she was actually the fourth-ranked player.
‘And to someone like that, I told her to observe proper etiquette….’
That observing etiquette was a basic human duty.
I had abruptly lectured her like that.
And as if that weren’t enough, in the end I had received an extremely polite self-introduction from her….
That atrocity came back to me again,
yet shamelessly, I said,
“A new tea is not bad either.”
Of course you would.
After all, it’s a green tea bag worth a whole 200 won each!...
Enough.
Let’s stop thinking about it.
This personality wasn’t going to change no matter how much I worried about it anyway.
Even if I learned that Jesse was a ranker,
my attitude toward her wasn’t going to change.
Of course, the reason I could remain calm even after seeing the update details
wasn’t solely because of my personality.
A ten-year gap?
Such things could be overcome easily enough
with the convenience of civilization known as internet searches.
‘The Yusra Archipelago, huh.’
Judging by how much space it took up,
it was clearly the core of this update.
I immediately opened the green portal window and, in the search bar….
“?”
The moment I was about to type Yusra Archipelago,
I froze.
At the very bottom of the update details.
“…What is this?”
Because a single line of text had caught my eye.