The Strongest in Murim Through Gacha — Episode 2
2. Pulled, But…
The system of Martial Soul wasn't all that different from the countless other mobile games out there.
You defeated enemies that appeared and moved on to the next stage.
Naturally, as the story progressed, the enemies grew stronger, and to secure victory, you had to continuously raise your allies' combat power.
There were basically two ways to strengthen your combat power.
Either grow the user's avatar character, or invest in heroes that could be recruited as companions.
And the menu for that was this gacha system.
[Hero Gacha] [Treasure Gacha]
They floated up semi-transparently as if telling him to choose one of the two, but there was only one choice he could make right now.
‘Why does this one seem deactivated?’
The Hero Gacha slot was painted a dark color, as if it couldn't be selected yet.
Hoping against hope, he tried pressing it, but nothing happened.
‘Is there some kind of problem? Hmm… Then in the end, Treasure Gacha is the only option.’
When he selected Treasure Gacha, the window changed and the choices increased to three.
[Heaven-grade Treasure Chest—10 Cheonggang Stones]
[Earth-grade Treasure Chest—100 Gold]
[Man-grade Treasure Chest—1,000 Silver]
"…Huh?"
The treasure chests were divided into three types: Heaven, Earth, and Man.
But the currencies required to purchase them were all different.
He had obtained silver from the login reward, but it was still unknown whether gold and Cheonggang Stones were obtained the same way, or if there was another means.
Besides, since he only had 400 silver, he ultimately couldn't purchase the so-called Man-grade treasure chest right now.
‘Don't they usually give the first pull for free as a tutorial? They don't consider new users at all—this is a complete trash game!’
Since nothing would change even if he voiced his complaints, he smacked his lips and closed the window.
‘If I had known the situation would turn out like this, I would have broken my savings account to whale.’
Just like all these common-as-dirt mobile games, if he could have thrown a few million won in cash?
He wondered if he wouldn't have become a reasonably outstanding expert, if not the strongest.
‘Well, I came straight over from the intro, so I didn't even have time to make a payment.’
Clinging to what couldn't be done would only harm himself.
Thus, he recalled the Man-grade treasure chest, which was marked as available for purchase at 1,000 silver—the only thing he could remotely connect with.
‘So if I want to try pulling, do I need to gather a thousand silver first?’
Since it was called a daily login reward, he should be able to receive something once every day.
In the end, there was no choice but to wait if he wanted to try using this gacha.
‘Then do I need to receive rewards for two more days before I can use the gacha? Ah! No. Since a roulette-like thing spun at first and said I won, the reward doesn't seem to be fixed at 400 silver.’
In any case, he would only know what was what after time passed until he received the next reward.
Lastly, he tried selecting the window labeled Information.
A full-body portrait rose up, as if taken with a camera.
‘This is… my current body? Something like character info?’
Not yet used to it, he wondered who it was, but it was the face of Sojongcheon himself.
When he pressed the portrait, the window unfolded and various items were listed in a row.
[Name: Sojongcheon]
[Alias: None]
[Talent]
[Intellect 6.43]
[Physique 5.02]
[Sense 8.80]
[Internal Energy 1.36]
[Martial Arts]
[Cheongmyeong Tonapgong—8 Stars]
[Chuyeonggwon—8 Stars]
It was a status window commonly seen in many games, displaying stats and skill lists.
‘The name is obviously the same. Is the alias a title you get once you become famous? It's only natural for a brat who entered the academy at fifteen after training in household martial arts to not have one.’
The stats were divided into four categories, and he could roughly guess what each ability was by recalling the meaning of the words.
‘Intellect seems to be an intelligence-related ability, and Physique must be a physical ability. Sense is a bit ambiguous… Is it related to the development of the five senses? Internal energy is literally internal energy.’
The Sense stat was the highest, the Internal Energy stat was the lowest, and Intellect and Physique were somewhere in the middle of the other two.
Since there was nothing to compare them to separately, he couldn't tell if these stats were high or low.
‘No, the chances are much higher that they're on the lower side, right? If this body had high stats, my entrance exam results would have been good too.’
As he looked at the stats, the noticeably low Internal Energy value compared to the others was quite displeasing.
Wasn't internal energy one of the major criteria that determined the superiority of martial arts in most martial arts novels?
‘I somehow feel like it's a bit shoddy…’
With a dissatisfied expression, he lowered his gaze and the Martial Arts section caught his eye.
This side was even more sparse, with only two entries: Cheongmyeong Tonapgong and Chuyeonggwon.
He recalled that these were household martial arts passed down through his family.
‘These probably aren't particularly amazing martial arts either.’
Having checked everything there was to see, Sojongcheon closed the window and fell into thought.
It seemed like he could grow through the gacha, but since he couldn't use it right away, for now he would have to do the same activities as the other students.
‘First, I should examine this body's memories more closely so I don't make mistakes in life here.’
He closed his eyes and gathered information by rewinding the time that the person called fifteen-year-old Sojongcheon had lived.
Unbeknownst to himself, the others in the room were all looking at Sojongcheon with sour faces at his bizarre appearance—constantly muttering to himself and changing his expression every moment.
‘Well, he's quite an unusual fellow.’
‘I really got a bad assignment. He seems like a crazy guy, and I have to share a room with him for a whole year.’
‘….’
Without even realizing that he was ruining his first impression, Sojongcheon focused on sifting through the memories left in his physical body.
* * *
[Daily login reward issued.]
"Hup!?"
Sojongcheon opened his eyes, feeling the words floating up in his mind.
The unfamiliar scenery of the room entered his vision.
He had tossed and turned for quite a while in the uncomfortable bed of this changed reality, but it seemed he had fallen asleep at some point.
‘A dream… no it isn't. Right. I was examining memories and gathering information about Murim before going to bed.’
As Sojongcheon steadied his breath, the roulette he had seen yesterday appeared before his eyes.
[Reward: 600 silver won!]
‘Oh?’
The reward was higher than yesterday's.
He still didn't know if the reward level increased every day, or if he had simply gotten luckier.
‘More importantly, what matters now is that I've gathered 1,000 silver.’
He had thought he would roughly have to wait about two more days, but the currency for pulling had been gathered sooner than expected.
He called up the Treasure Gacha window and displayed the treasure chest list.
[Man-grade Treasure Chest—1,000 silver]
‘If I press this like this…’
[Open 1 Man-grade Treasure Chest?]
‘Yes.’
The moment he thought of pressing the purchase option, 1,000 silver disappeared and the roulette appeared once more.
‘Another roulette?’
Unlike the login reward roulette, it was divided into numerous sections in a slightly different form.
Most of them were colorless sections that gave off no light at all.
And mixed in here and there were copper-colored sections, and extremely tiny silver-colored sections.
The sections were divided into a total of three types.
"This is a no-brainer."
Anyone could predict that the most valuable treasure would come from the silver section.
Since it was only natural to want to get something good if possible, he wished for the needle to land on silver.
[Colorless Spirit Pill won!]
"Fuck."
As if mocking him, it landed on the colorless section.
‘Anyway, just by looking at the number and size of the sections, the probability for colorless was the highest, so it's not like I'm particularly unlucky.’
The moment he swallowed his disappointment and was about to check what item he had acquired, an additional notification popped up.
[Shop has been unlocked.]
‘The shop?’
When he shifted his eyes, he saw a section labeled Shop added beside the existing options.
Since he presumed it was a function to buy or sell things with currency, he decided to first check what this Colorless Spirit Pill was.
When he opened his inventory, he saw an opaque sphere engraved with a question mark symbol.
‘What am I supposed to do with this?’
Using his imagination, he touched the sphere with a virtual hand, and a notification popped up.
[Only items that have been appraised can be used.]
"Ah…."
He had a bad feeling.
Opening the newly created shop window with a stiff expression, sure enough, it was selling an item called an Appraisal Scroll.
The selling price was 100 silver.
"What a trash game."
He had pulled the gacha, but he couldn't use it.
While he was feeling hollow, someone's voice was heard.
"Hey there, friend So. What are you muttering to yourself again the moment you opened your eyes?"
When he turned his head, he saw the figure of Jangjagun, said to be from the Jeomchang Sect.
Perhaps he had just washed his face, as his face was damp.
"The sun is rising, so you should start getting ready soon? You don't plan on showing a negligent attitude from the first day, do you?"
"I was planning on getting up anyway."
Since he had run out of currency and couldn't buy the appraisal scroll, he wouldn't be able to do anything more through the game system today anyway.
Sojongcheon, having tidied his bedding, checked the schedule posted in the dormitory.
‘Classes start at Sonshi, was it? It's incredibly inconvenient without a clock.’
There seemed to be a bell tower that tolled every hour to tell the time, but having lived in a world where he could check the time down to the second whenever he wanted, it was incredibly stifling.
‘Still, I thought becoming an academy student would mean living a tight, hectic life, but it seems like a more relaxed place than I expected.’
Except for a few subjects that were mandatory, most classes allowed the students to decide attendance at their own discretion.
Basically, everyone had about ten years of martial arts training under their belts, and the best training facilities were everywhere, so they would only attend lectures they wanted to and spend the rest of the time training as they wished.
They could even skip non-mandatory classes entirely and focus intensively on areas they felt lacking in, or wanted to polish further.
Of course, it was also their freedom to be lazy.
However, while attending lectures and training was their own choice, if they received a failing grade on the comprehensive evaluation held every half-year, they would have to bear the resulting disadvantages themselves.
‘It feels a bit like university. Hmm… Anyway, attendance was mandatory on the first day, right?’
There was still time before class, so he headed to the dining hall for breakfast first.
Since this wasn't a place with developed material distribution like Earth, it wasn't an easy world where one could eat every meal regularly.
Therefore, the fact that they provided three balanced meals a day was, in its own way, an advantage of this place if there ever was one.
There were quite a lot of people in the dining hall, so he had to wait in line for food.
‘There are over 200 students, so it's bustling. Huh? That guy?’
After receiving food on a wooden tray and looking around for a place to sit, a face that seemed familiar caught his eye.
A handsome appearance that would make even men admire him.
A dignified atmosphere that felt different from the other fifteen-year-olds.
So this is what it feels like to be the descendant of a famous clan.
‘Why does he look familiar? Is he someone the original owner of this body knew? No, but the memories don't particularly… Ah!’
Bothered by it for some reason, as he was thinking it over, a memory suddenly surfaced.
Changcheon Sword Saint, Namgung Geon.
He was one of the impressive heroes who had appeared in the intro video when the game was launched.