Chapter 99: CH 99

“Usually, experience points for participation are capped between one to five percent, meaning that guy gave at least 10,000 Spirits. It’s too bad I couldn’t get the last hit for a drop- huh?”

When the One-Horned Fire Snake’s body didn’t vanish, Merlin stopped this line of thought. Merlin noticed that the monsters south of the Noisy Belt didn’t disappear when they died, and due to this, it didn’t matter who got the last hit, as no drops would be distributed. The only problem was that Merlin’s Karma points would be reduced if he attacked or killed an enemy that didn’t have ‘ill will’ or aggression towards him. Similar to the level-up tests, Merlin couldn’t take items from a monster or NPC unless he gained prior authorization.

“Well, there’s nothing I can do. The only thing worthwhile from that snake is its inner qi core, but unless the eight-tailed fox is crazy, I won’t be able to get it.”

What about the snake’s skin? A One-Horned Fire Snake’s skin was indeed a great item, but Merlin didn’t have the skills or abilities to process it. Then, what about the horn? The horn was also outstanding, but what would Merlin do with a horn larger than his body?

The only valuable item for Merlin was the snake’s inner qi core, but since that was also seen as the most valuable part of the snake, there was no way Merlin could obtain it. While he did provide some assistance, Heavenly Flower was the one who ultimately defeated the One-Horned Fire Snake. The only thing Merlin did was pierce one of the snake’s eyes. If it wasn’t for the eight-tailed fox, he couldn’t have defeated that monster. Even if the One-Horned Fire Snake didn’t move and allowed Merlin to attack it unhindered, it would’ve taken Merlin a couple of weeks to kill it.

“I guess I’ll need to be satisfied with the experience points and leave quietly.”

“You’re going to leave quietly?”

“…?!”

Without sensing her approach, Heavenly Flower had arrived right next to Merlin and whispered in his ear. Quickly, Merlin reached with his right hand and grabbed the external gold core above his left shoulder. After launching three consecutive attacks, Merlin’s ten-year internal energy capacity was running low. If it was a long-ranged battle, Merlin could’ve possibly used his magic power, but since Heavenly Flower was so close, his magic power was rendered useless. So, Merlin decided to use his stored internal energy. However, Merlin soon felt a soft touch pulling on both his cheeks, making him lose control over his body.

“Oh, your wide-eyed surprised expression is cute. Such a cute thing launched such a ferocious attack earlier?”

Heavenly Flower had golden-blonde hair, but despite this, she looked more like someone from the east than the west. Moreover, her hair was as long as her body, making her easily recognizable from a distance. Merlin stood at 181 centimeters, so he wasn’t short; yet, she looked down when speaking to him. Heavenly Flower’s height was around 190 centimeters, but because of her well-balanced body, she didn’t seem tall. Instead, she appeared skinny and shapely.

“Who are y-you….”

“Hmm? You just helped me a moment ago, right?”

“… Eight-tailed fox?”

“Call me Heavenly Flower.”

Merlin was hovering above the sea as Heavenly Flower casually stood on the water’s surface.

“Shall we talk for a bit?”

“Hahaha…”

Though she was smiling, Merlin could tell he couldn’t refuse her request, and he laughed nervously.

***Phantom Monster Magic Islands***

/[Yongsan Direct. The Yongsan Direct line is arriving. All passengers must stand behind the safety line.]/

Hanma listened to the PA system announcement while standing still. With his tall stature of 192 centimeters, he also had a significant amount of muscle. His broad shoulders and robust body could easily be made out through the heavy winter coat that he wore.

“I’ve been playing games all day long, but my body doesn’t seem to be losing any muscle mass. Well, I guess it’s only been two weeks.”

It was January 15th, and DIO had been open for a little over two weeks. Having participated in the closed beta, Hanma expected that DIO would have an instant and widespread impact on the world, and based on the constant analysis and coverage by experts on television and radio, it seemed he was correct. Actually, it wasn’t so simple as an impact; it was a revolutionary change. The entire world was affected by the monumental switch and culture shock that the game brought.

Thump. Thump. Screech.

A train pulled in, making metallic grinding sounds, and Hanma silently boarded it. Fortunately, there were many open seats in his car.

Beep.

Knowing that it would take two hours to get to Yongsan, Hanma took out a PDA and started viewing the videos he’d downloaded. It was an episode from a news segment that had aired about one week ago.

/[Hello! I am Dynamic Island’s guide, Mari~!]/

No matter how often he saw Mari, Hanma couldn’t get over how pretty she was. She was tall, skinny, and had a sexy vibe mixed with youthful cheerfulness. With her hair put up in two ponytails, she smiled brightly for the camera.

/[MC: Wow. I’ve heard a lot about you, but you’re beautiful in person. Nice to meet you.]

[Mari: Oh, is this your first time seeing me?]

[MC: Huh? Ah, sorry. I haven’t started the game yet….]

[Mari: Wait, how could you not do some background research before interviewing me? Can you really call yourself Korea’s number one MC?]

[Crowd: Boo~! Get out of here!]

[MC: Hello, everyone. I’m the main MC for Entertaining Sunday…]/

Besides the MC who hadn’t started DIO, everyone else in the crowd seemed infatuated with Mari. This phenomenon couldn’t be helped. Though Mari acted and looked like a young girl, she emitted an intense aura. In addition, her facial expressions were lovable, and her voice was clear as a lark’s. With her lively yet smooth actions, it seemed as though she could become an international singing or dancing star overnight.

/[MC: Alright, let’s get to the mountain of questions. Ah, this is the most popular one. User Round Butt asks, ‘Is Mari truly just a programmed character? Or is she a real person who is logged on from some undisclosed location?’]

[Second MC: Ah, almost every user who logs onto DIO seems to have this question. I’m sure that there are more than a couple of healthy young men who have had many sleepless nights because of Mari.]

[Mari: Hahaha. I’d like to thank everyone for their constant support and love. However, unfortunately, I am just a programmed character. You saw the bodyguard carrying a briefcase earlier, right?]

[MC: Ah, the black briefcase?]

[Mari: Yes, the 007-style briefcase that was about this size (she gestures with her hands). I’m currently located within that briefcase.]

[MC: Huh?]

[Second MC: You’re in that briefcase?]

[Mari: To be more specific, I’m located within the external hard drive in the briefcase. I take up about ten terabytes of memory, so I can also be carried around in a mass-storage USB thumb drive.]

[Both MCs: …]/

The program was being conducted in a somewhat unorthodox fashion. The MCs and guests were all seated while an image of Mari was shown on a screen behind them. Surprisingly, it seemed that Mari could be stored in an external hard drive or USB and transported in that manner. She was much more mobile than any other NPC in the game.

“Hey, Hanma.”

“Hmm?”

As he heard his name unexpectedly, Hanma removed one of his earphones and looked up. Right in front of him was a college student who stood at no more than 165 centimeters, a full head shorter than Hanma.

“Yurim? Wow, how weird that we meet here of all places.”

“Yeah. Are you watching the program about Ms. Mari?”

“Ms. Mari? This Mari girl has only been around for a month. Also, based on her appearance, she’s much younger than you.”

When Hanma answered with an exasperated expression, Yurim replied in a somewhat embarrassed tone.

“Well, she has this ambiance about her, you know, a personal atmosphere.”

Yurim and Hanma were classmates who entered their university in the same year. Yurim was a sports fanatic, and she’d enrolled at a physical education university and majored in Kendo. Despite her major, she wasn’t too skilled in Kendo. She’d never participated in a world championship and had only placed second or third a few times in the national tournaments. Since she was born into a reasonably affluent family, she was just attending university for fun.

“Where are you going? No, wait, why were you in Chun-An, Yurim?”

“My maternal grandmother lives in Chun-An. Ah, more importantly, what’s your DIO username?”

Rather than asking Hanma if he played DIO or not, Yurim had asked him what his username was. Considering that DIO had launched just a couple of weeks ago, it was weird that Yurim would lead with this type of question, but Hanma just shrugged.

“Hanma.”

“Eh? You used your real name as your username?”

“It doesn’t matter, right? What about you?”

“Lalamia.”

“Ugh, it sounds old-fashioned.”

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“Hey! Old-fashioned! It rolls beautifully off the tongue!”

Yurim was up in arms, but Hanma didn’t pay her any attention, refocusing on his PDA. He was planning to watch the video, but then a question suddenly popped into his mind.

“… Huh?”

Hanma noticed someone sleeping in their seat. Of course, this alone wasn’t surprising, as many people nodded off while riding the train or, like Hanma, chose to watch videos or other media on their devices. Still, it was weird seeing everyone sleeping with their earphones on.

“Let’s log on as well. It’s better than watching a stupid television program, no? And it’s a superior use of our time anyway.”

“Log in? Where?”

“Huh? What do you mean where? Log into DIO. I thought you played the game?”

As she spoke, Yurim took out an electronic device the size of her hand. It was a CD player with a CD placed inside.

“That’s the DIO CD. Why are you carrying that around?”

“Isn’t it obvious? What’s needed to log into DIO?”

“A CD and earphones….”

After saying this, Hanma abruptly stopped speaking. Since he wasn’t dumb, he understood what Yurim was alluding to.

“We can log in at any time if we have a CD player, the DIO CD, and a pair of earphones?”

“Bingo~!”

After seeing her bright smile, Hanma looked at the sleeping passengers again. It wasn’t actually everyone who was sleeping with earphones, but an overwhelming majority of 80 percent. Considering that DIO had only gone live about two weeks ago, it was incredible that such a scene was happening.

DIO was inexpensive enough for even elementary school children to afford it. Furthermore, the game didn’t require the internet, so users could log in from any location. Additionally, DIO’s gameplay was so addictive that its popularity had spread explosively to all corners of the Earth within a short period.

“I didn’t notice all of these changes since I’ve been so focused on playing the game.”

“Well, I guess everyone’s in that position right now. I’m currently spending around 20 hours each day playing DIO. The more time I spent there, the more I feel like I’m actually gaining time.”

“Right. I can’t believe that only two weeks have passed since the grand opening.”

DIO had opened on January 1st, and it was currently the fifteenth. Though two weeks wasn’t long, as a university student, Hanma felt that his winter break was still far from over.

Hanma had easily experienced more than 150 days in this time.

When he was logged onto DIO, time passed 12 times quicker than it did in reality. If he had spent 24 hours in DIO, only two hours would’ve gone by in real life. DIO had been open for two weeks, and it set a maximum time for users to spend in-game before they’d have to log off for at least ten real minutes to deal with their physical needs. If a user spent as much time as possible in DIO during these past two weeks, they would’ve experienced 168 in-game days, an approximately six-month period in less than a month.

“A month in real life is about a year in-game. So, if we played for an entire year… we’d experience around 12 years.”

This was a monumental, revolutionary shift. With this, no one could logically argue against people logging onto DIO. Wasn’t it said that time is money? Of course, those who were employed had to work around their jobs, but university or high school students could spare a couple of hours to play the game, even if they were preparing for the university entrance exam. Hanma also recalled some chattering about setting up and operating studying facilities within DIO to serve this vast student population and take advantage of DIO’s time flow.

“I’ve even heard that there’s a Gangnam star instructor who’s become a mage that specializes in an Awakening spell. He’s using that spell to tutor his students more effectively.”

“Huh? Tutoring?”

“Yeah. I heard his Awakening spell allows users to memorize things five times quicker.”

“Wow, such a… genius.”

Hanma couldn’t help but click his tongue in astonishment at this application that he’d never considered. It truly seemed that novel ideas and approaches were being taken with more people logging into DIO. Moreover, since DIO had a robust currency exchange system, the platform would make it easier for intrepid entrepreneurs to make a lot of money.

“By the way, what level are you?”

“What about you?”

“I’m still on Level 4. The Level 5 test is so difficult. That dumb lizardman refuses to die! Ugh.”

Yurim made a crying motion to convey her sadness. In truth, the average person would find it challenging to enter Level 3, so being at Level 4 or 5 meant that the user was skilled and talented in a specific area. Furthermore, since the completion requirement was changed to make users win a one-on-one fighting test three times, users couldn’t cheat the system to gain levels.

“Hehehe.”

Hanma chuckled, clearly conveying his self-confidence.

“Hey! Are you laughing at me? What level are you? Level 5?”

“I’m a little hurt that you think so lowly of me.”

“Ack! Then, Level 6?”

“Higher.”

“A-are you… Level 7?”

“Hehehe.”

“Don’t lie! Are you… Level 8?”

“Hahaha!”

Though Hanma was laughing, it didn’t seem like he was lying, more like he was filled with supreme confidence and pride. He had recently reached Level 9, and by recently, he meant yesterday, but in DIO time, about ten days ago. Despite Hanma’s assurance in his physical skills and abilities, he had gone through tremendous hardship and training to reach this incredible level; it also helped that he got a few lucky breaks.

“No way! You’re Level 9?!”

Yurim gasped in disbelief. She was so surprised that her voice had trembled when she spoke. Moreover, the impact and effects of her words were instantly seen.

“What? Did she say Level 9?”

“Really? I heard that there are less than 100 users who’ve reached Level 9.”

“Huh? That face and build… isn’t that guy Hanma? I think I’ve seen him fight in a video. He’s a life force user.”

“Wow, a Level 9 life force user. He’s a top expert then, right? I heard a Level 9 expert has enough combat prowess to go into K1 right now and dominate the entire field.”

The remaining passengers who weren’t logged into DIO started talking. Hanma wondered if they wouldn’t believe in him and start cursing him for being a liar, but since DIO allowed screenshots and video recordings, it seemed his face and stature were relatively well known. One unique detail of DIO was that a user’s character and real-life face looked the same.

‘W-what’s with this atmosphere?’

Hanma was taken aback after noticing some stares filled with awe and idolization. This adoration was being given for something he accomplished in a game? A couple of weeks ago, this was unthinkable. No matter how high-level someone was, no one would care in real life. Previously, even if a person were rich and worked hard, if they were known to play games, others would say they had bad habits. This was the social norm.

“Wow, you’re great! I’m going to tell everyone!”

“Eh?! Why would you tell everyone?”

“What do you mean why? A Seoul University student stated on the internet that he reached Level 8 as a mage, so all the netizens are showering that student with praise. And you’re Level 9!”

“But that…”

“You’re the shining star amongst our university student body.”

“… A high-level gamer is a star for the entire student body?”

While shrugging, Hanma couldn’t help but be exasperated by Yurim’s words. However, Yurim’s response was natural, as it was nearly impossible for users to have reached such a high level during DIO’s short operation time of two weeks. Also, DIO wasn’t the type of game where people could just level up after investing time, as becoming a high-level user required developed skills and abilities. Since the game had just been released, people didn’t know how hard it would be to level up. Most users would undoubtedly hit an unbreakable ceiling as time passed. Thus, as more people were restricted to the lower levels, the higher-level users would naturally become idolized.

“Ah, more importantly….”

“More importantly?”

Hanma tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand what Yurim was about to say, but with both hands, she grabbed Hanma’s large hand and said, “Please carry me.”

“…”

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