Chapter 8: Episode 2 _ Enhancent is All About the Location (1)
1.
“What, what is this?”
—"Excuse ?”
He had no ti to spare for Jeong Seolah. This was no ti to be srized by her ear-tickling voice.
“Just a mont. I’ll call you back in a bit.”
—"Mr. Simin...?”
He cut the connection without another word and stared at the system ssages. The ssage about an impossible probability and the word he never wanted to hear: balance. The job and rewards he received after that didn’t even register. Nothing else mattered.
“N-no way.”
The mont he was nerfed, or the mont sothing went wrong with his ability, his life in Fantastic World would be over. He had naively thought it would be fine as long as other players didn’t find out!
‘Betago is insane. Is its AI really this advanced?’
A groan escaped him. In hindsight, it was strange that he hadn’t anticipated this. It was a preconception, perhaps. He knew that AI had already surpassed humans in computation and was active in various fields, yet he had subconsciously thought of the AIs he usually encountered in gas and paid it no mind.
‘Ah. I should have failed a few tis on purpose.’
That was his mistake. There was no way the AI Betago could have detected his ability. It was a spiritual power from the real world that even he couldn’t understand. The strange poses he made during enhancent would have been judged by the information-gathering AI as a player’s personal good-luck charm.
But the results were different. He had far surpassed what was statistically probable. From his very first enhancent to
10, and then his next one also succeeding from
10 to
12 in one go. If you calculated the odds of succeeding consecutively like that, it was far lower than the success rate of a single
15 enhancent. And he had pulled it off.
It wasn’t strange for the AI to take such asures. Betago was the creator and operator of Fantastic World. It must have judged that he had committed an act that severely damaged the ga’s balance. If he could mass-produce
15 items at will, regardless of the conditions, the ga would be labeled a failure right after its launch, and they might even have to shut down the servers.
“Haah.”
The problem was what ca next. He couldn’t undo what had already been done. As a re player, Han Simin didn’t have the power to do so. Perhaps he should just be grateful that his account hadn’t been deleted. It was like a card counter at a casino; even if it was their individual ability, from the casino’s perspective, it was an unacceptable logic.
“Please...”
He was afraid to check his character information. Forget the Legendary job; the pressure of knowing that Betago had noticed his ability and placed so kind of restriction on him was imnse. Whatever it was, one thing was certain: things would be different from when he could succeed at enhancents without any conditions.
“Character information.”
He cautiously summoned the hologram. The only small comfort was that Betago had deed it ‘un-analyzable’ and chosen an ‘alternative asure.’
[Character Information]
* Na: Simin
* Job: Ultimate Legendary Enhancent Master
* Sub-job: X
* Titles: 2
* Level: 2 (Required EXP
200%)
* Stats (5): STR (10 15) AGI (10 15) VIT (10 15) LUK (50 15) INT (10 15)
* Skills: Enhancent (F), Absolute Enhancent (SS)
He checked his skills without hesitation.
[Absolute Enhancent (SS): Passive]
* Description: A special sense unique to the enhancent masters who existed in legends. Allows you to feel the way to increase the enhancent probability.
“Huh?”
His tension montarily eased. Just checking that one skill was enough to make him sigh in relief. Not much had changed. There was no mana cost, and his previously abstract ability had simply been materialized within the ga under the na of a skill.
‘This isn’t a nerf, is it?’
Far from a nerf, he felt an urge to hug and kiss Betago. Only then did his eyes fall on the Legendary job.
“Is it encouraging
to use it openly?”
The fact that other players would cry for a nerf if they found out remained unchanged. But now, he had sothing to say for himself.
“This is amazing.”
A secret war and a war with a just cause are on completely different levels. Han Simin imdiately placed the dagger back on the anvil.
“Here we go.”
For whatever reason, if Betago had given him this benefit, it was only right to accept it with open arms! In a life where you never know when you’ll die, what’s the point of doubting and worrying? He felt like there were a few important holograms he hadn’t checked, but he cleanly ignored them. Currently, reaching
15 was the priority.
‘I’ll just make one more and then hold back for a bit.’
After all, his goal was to level up.
“Haah.”
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. And he felt it.
‘It will succeed. It will succeed.’
When he did this, he could feel it. His supernatural power had never once betrayed him since the accident.
“...Huh?”
But now was the first ti.
He didn’t do sothing foolish like opening his eyes to see if sothing was wrong and then concentrating again. The evidence was clear enough. And though he couldn’t feel it right now, his senses were still intact. However.
‘...You’re kidding .’
His senses weren’t demanding a specific pose and ti from him as usual. ’A location! Follow the feeling!’ That’s what his intuition was telling him.
“Interesting.”
Han Simin took the dagger off the anvil and smiled. So this is how it was going to be? He could roughly picture it. An un-analyzable ability, an imasurable influence. But they couldn’t just sanction a paying player’s account simply because it was strange. In the end, they had guided him in a direction where they could control that ability to so extent.
“Nothing’s changed really. Hehe.”
As he played the ga, his level would rise, and once he hit the max level, there would be no place he couldn’t go. The difficulty had risen a bit, but if he could enhance without anxiety, it was a price he could fully accept.
“A Legendary job and a decently enhanced item should be enough for leveling.”
He would make up for his lack of control with items! Just by equipping the
12 dagger, hadn’t he received a stat boost equivalent to gaining 15 levels?
“Ti to hunt.”
The corners of his mouth crept up unconsciously. An expression of his twisted desires!
“You arrogant rabbit bastards. I’m coming for you.”
He roughly swiped away the remaining botherso holograms and left the enhancent shop. The Legendary job penalty flashed across his retina, but he let it pass without a thought. He didn’t want to accept reality.
2.
‘What’s going on?’
Jeong Seolah’s expression was complicated as she walked through Haran Castle with confident strides that drew the attention of those around her. She was heading outside the castle walls. After seeing the announcent that the beginner’s dagger had been successfully enhanced to
12, she had contacted Han Simin, only for him to cut her off, saying sothing was urgent. She had gone all the way to the enhancent shop to et him, but was told he had already left to go hunting.
‘He said he’d call
back.’
This was the part that puzzled her. Why on earth had Han Simin suddenly ended the conversation and not called her back?
‘Is he trying to raise his price?’
Of course, the real reason was that he had simply forgotten. To Han Simin, Jeong Seolah was still nothing more than a pretty girl he had passed by. Faced with a critical issue concerning his livelihood, the fact that she had called him was quickly forgotten. Unaware of this, Jeong Seolah was busy pondering. Since this was sothing she had never experienced before, her thoughts ran even deeper.
‘He didn’t seem like it, but he’s a man who knows his own value...’
The Han Simin that Jeong Seolah had seen was just an immature young man. But as her imagination ran wild, he was reborn as a man wearing a mask, one who understood the value of his profession and knew how to act rationally.
‘I have to recruit him.’
Whatever kind of man he was, as a player, he was the first and possibly only enhancent master. A player who, upon starting the ga, had bizarrely sought out an enhancent shop and learned one of the rarest skills on the continent. It didn’t matter that he was shabby and low-level. What mattered was his value to Jeong Seolah’s elite team! Above all, hadn’t she witnessed Han Simin’s unbelievable luck?
‘A
12...’
A 1% chance was no different from being told to just use a
11. In fact, in the ga MapleStory, which was famous for its enhancent system, there was a case where the success rate after
22 dropped sharply from 30% to 3%, so all players just stuck with
22 weapons. There were cases where a few players who were quitting or felt life was boring would throw caution to the wind and succeed, but a continuous streak of luck like this was unheard of.
That’s why she had to get him.
A player who could enhance whenever and wherever he wanted. What if his job’s effect added to the enhancent probability, or if he was just naturally lucky? Even if not, the Han Simin she had judged was a player who knew how to enhance. Like those artisans who stread themselves doing enhancent content in countless online gas! Those who knew how to break through the set probabilities and create the best results! If she could recruit soone like that, her foothold for getting ahead of others would be even stronger.
‘I need to et him and talk more.’
Jeong Seolah was a woman who knew how to go after what she wanted without hesitation. To do that, she first had to find where Han Simin was hunting. Since he was still a beginner, he was probably hunting rabbits at best, but Haran Castle was so large that it would take a while just to look around the vicinity. Her dilemma was surprisingly solved easily.
“Hey, hey, that guy from earlier. That was the guy from the announcent, right?”
“The
12 beginner’s dagger? Probably? The effect was insane.”
“How can the effect be so clear from a distance where you can barely even make out the person’s shape?”
“It’s
12, man. So freaking cool.”
“But why is a guy like that wearing beginner’s clothes? Shouldn’t he be wearing at least leather armor?”
“Who knows. He must be rolling in money. How many items do you have to break to get a
12?”
“I know, right? I was reading so posts about enhancent on the community forums, and it said one attempt costs 1 gold coin and 50 silver.”
“Wow. He’s a total psycho.”
The conversation of two passing players was about the man she was looking for.
She went up to them. “Excuse .”
The two n looked at each other.
“Us?”
“May I ask you sothing?”
The two n were stunned.
Though Jeong Seolah’s face was expressionless, her charm was unapproachable. Naturally, the two n’s jaws dropped.
“Ask us anything!”
“If you need money, I’ll give you my entire fortune!”
Han Simin’s location on the vast plains was quickly pinpointed in her mind.
* * *
Once she knew which direction he was in, finding Han Simin wasn’t that difficult.
“Wow. Aweso.”
“Look at that effect.”
“That’s crazy.”
“That’s
12? Just how flashy are
13 and
14 going to be?”
“The monsters will probably piss themselves and run away just from seeing the effect.”
Even people who were hunting would stop to watch, and he was flaunting an effect so flashy and beautiful that it stood out even from a distance. Unlike the players who watched for a mont and left, Jeong Seolah headed toward the source of the light. A few other players were approaching to watch or with other intentions, but the closer she got to Han Simin, the number of players noticeably decreased. The reason why, despite looking like a complete newbie who would be perfect to scam, beca clear soon enough.
“Mr. Citizen...”
“Hahahaha! Co here, you little cuties. Die! You bastards!”
Thwack!
“Aargh! You son of a... you’re dead. Get over here.”
Han Simin was speechless.
Just as the few remaining gazes were about to turn from Han Simin to Jeong Seolah, who had called out his na, she turned her back.
* * *
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