Chapter 1 - The Wrong Job (1)
Clang!
The mont the blade slashed empty space, the world got split.
The ground shook, and part of the dinsion was cut off.
This happened after SeoHyun's ultimate attack, «Space Divider», was activated.
Tens of thousands of monsters were oxidized at once into darkness.
The sword that had just slashed many demons began emanating white light.
Asra Online.
SeoHyun, who had kept the number one position in the rankings for many years, was about to clear a quest.
'I can beat it.'
In the past, 40 rankers had tried to beat this quest, but they had gotten defeated as soon as the battle started, so they were forced to walk away from it.
But SeoHyun was about to beat that quest alone.
He had been planning this assault for three months, so he felt very confident.
'I just have to make no mistakes.'
Whish- SeoHyun jumped at the enemy's forces. He impaled the air and activated the chained skill of his ultimate attack.
«Dinsion Breakthrough».
The light emanating from the sword cleared all the visible opponents.
All kinds of monsters were wiped out in a single attack—from trash mobs to elite monsters; even nad bosses disappeared while screaming.
The laser-like attack pierced all the hills and reached up to space.
'Yes!'
SeoHyun celebrated the success.
His ultimate attack had successfully pierced the great demon Keidrial's heart.
'I've almost cleared everything up.'
What was left was defeating monsters that were still standing, but most of them were on the verge of death.
SeoHyun slowly killed the enemies that were left, one by one.
A couple of hours later, he had finally defeated the quest's final boss.
[You've successfully cleared the quest 'Demon World Annihilation'!]
[You've single-handedly ended a multi-dinsional war that has been going on since 1836! Everyone in the heavens will praise your accomplishnt!]
"Oof..."
After hearing the mission cleared ssage, SeoHyun smiled bitterly.
He had just accomplished sothing that most people couldn't even fathom. Despite this, he didn't seem happy. The reason was simple.
By coincidence, he saw the current server's status in the lower part of the screen.
'Another person has quit.'
He was the number one player of Asra Online!
He was the emperor who had managed to conquer all 21 castles.
—All users and mbers of different races looked up to him.
With one step, he managed to clear a castle, and with another, received the cheering of tens of thousands.
SeoHyun, an average first-year university student, was the king of the world of Asra Online.
But the king's world was sowhat shabby.
Asra Online only had 300 users online at one ti.
Video gas resembled the water's flow. Just like a stream of water flows in and then spreads in the ocean, most gas have new players coming in. Then, so users get tired and stop logging in—this is how the pluses and minuses were balanced.
Once new players disappear, the water that doesn't flow stagnates.
Since no new users are coming in, the entry barrier becos higher.
Then, users are left with two choices: either leave or resist.
The mont new users stop showing up, the ga basically becos their private league.
The ecosystem stagnates and starts to rot.
The Asra continent was rapidly decaying, and SeoHyun was the emperor of that dying continent.
'Why is nobody playing such a fun ga...?'
‘I just can't understand.’
A planetary-level scale and vast world-building…
A Well-written story and countless easter eggs…
It was as if they'd used the most advanced artificial intelligence to create each NPC—they were all very humanlike and had characteristics that made them unique.
There's no reason not to play this ga.
'Is it because it wasn't originally made for virtual reality?'
From what they said, Asra Online was first developed as a PC ga, but because of popular demand, developers quickly ported it to 3D Virtual Reality.
The problem was that many similar gas released around the sa ti were made for virtual reality from the beginning.
For Asra Online, it was hard to survive in this era where capsules and virtual reality gas had beco widespread. The bad user interface and poor graphics were Asra Online's fatal weaknesses.
'If only Asra Online had been developed as a VR ga from the beginning...!'
He felt angry.
If only it had been able to gain so popularity from the beginning, there would be at least ten thousand players online.
He thought about deleting his account many tis, but in the end, SeoHyun couldn't give up on Asra Online.
For eight years, he had focused on one ga.
SeoHyun couldn't move on from Asra Online.
But one day…
A new opportunity was presented in front of SeoHyun, the king of a dying ga.
‘What is this...?’
Just like any other day, SeoHyun had accessed the online community boards of Asra Online. An with an eye-catching font caught his attention.
'Asrian...?'
His hands were shaking. After he clicked on the , a page opened.
"What?"
SeoHyun's eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing.
There, he could see Gluna, Asra's moon. The purple light it emanated was illuminating the background of the page.
In the sky behind the floating castle, you could see an ancient dragon fighting a Divine Mage, one of the top jobs for a magician. He was attacking the dragon with a pillar of fire. Sparks were flying everywhere. Underneath that, a number so big that it was hard to read was going up continuously.
Amount of Pre-Orders: 78,739,952.
'Sensory Synchronization? Are they referring to that sa technology that was recently covered on the news?'
Even if it was called Virtual Reality, it only covered two of the five senses: sight and hearing. Compared to reality, it was lackluster. If you wanted to move, you had to use the controllers and not your muscles.
But a few months ago, there was news in which they had said that a realistic virtual reality that satisfies all five senses had been developed. Gars were excited.
'No way...'
After calming down his rapidly beating heart, he searched for Asrian on YouTube.
"This is crazy."
The teaser video of Asrian Online had been viewed 108,374,234 tis. He hadn't started watching the video, but he already felt intimidated.
SeoHyun beca imrsed in the video.
The 20-minute video was so great that SeoHyun beca dumbfounded.
He couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing—NPCs he knew very well were moving three-dinsionally.
'Is this really footage from a video ga?'
It was more realistic than the CG of a movie. One wouldn't guess that they took the scene from a video ga.
Asra Online had been reborn as a real virtual reality ga.
But it wasn't your average crappy virtual reality. Unlike others, it used cutting-edge technology!
SeoHyun beca so overwheld by feelings that he almost cried.
The 20-minute video finished playing.
That short video was good enough to know that everything—including the story, world-building, system, and gaplay—was perfect.
'Did NFM have enough money to build such a great quality ga?'
NFM.
It was a dium-sized company; its only source of inco was the 300 active players of Asra Online.
SeoHyun had doubts about how they could've built a ga like this. But he quickly stopped thinking about it.
'That's not for to worry about.'
Amount of Pre-Orders: 79,634,754
In just a few minutes, pre-orders had gone up by a million.
From what he could see, the pre-orders must have started that day since the number was going up very fast.
SeoHyun smiled.
While reading what was written under the number, he kept opening and closing his hands.
One week from then, Asra Online would be reborn as Asrian Online.
Nobody would be able to make fun and call it a dying ga from that mont on.
‘I'm going to show you the skills of the number one player.’
That night, he couldn't sleep because of the excitent.
Translator - Daniel Shin
Proofreader - ilafy
* * *
SeoHyun wasn't planning to play Asrian Online half-heartedly.
'There's going to be at least tens of millions of players...! There will probably be many professional gars among the users. By playing casually, I won't be able to get far.'
The following days were so of the most intense in SeoHyun's life.
At first, he tried to get more information on the official page, but he soon beca disappointed.
'There's only basic stuff here. There's no useful information.'
It was as if they were planning a surprise on the opening day—they were hiding all information very well.
There was no information about jobs, skills, or items; the explanation about the world was also very poor.
The only information available was about changing the user interface or settings.
'I won't be able to get any useful data here.'
SeoHyun changed his focus to the community boards.
Korea's biggest online community was already very active.
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