Chapter 18 (1/2)
Max Talent Player
Chapter 18: Nightmare
The Lady of the Scales, the Nameless Observer, and now the ‘Whispering Devil’, had an interest in me.
‘Who is it?’
It wasn’t a name I remembered, but somehow, I had a bad feeling I couldn’t quite explain.
‘Whatever.’
It wasn’t like I knew all the Guardians, anyway. For now, drawing the attention of a Guardian could be seen as a pretty good thing. Whether or not it could be of profit to me depended on how I controlled them and how I acted.
‘A lot of Guardians must have joined the stream.’
Countless anonymous Guardians had to be watching Channel #19207. Since Sunhwa and I were the only Players that had entered the Seoul Station Dungeon, the spotlight had nowhere to go but on us.
Information began to flood into me via Eye of Perception. The world was sketched out in detail in my head, like I was seeing it without my eyes.
“This is… a dungeon?” Sunhwa asked hesitantly.
The Seoul Station Dungeon was generally dark. It gave off the feeling of a dark cave. It was considerably humid, rather chilly, and water dripped from the ceiling. I nodded.
‘It’s just like what I saw on Youtube.’
In the future, this dungeon would become the place countless Players would frequent to accumulate experience, a ‘Tutorial Dungeon’ in the true sense of the phrase. I fixed my eyes on Sunhwa.
[Player]
Name: Kang Sunhwa
Age: 14
Level: 15
Class: –
Guardian: –
State: Lonely / Fearful / Trusting / Reliant
Disposition: Neutral / Curious
Summary: Slight Brother Complex
I grinned. ‘She’s already level 15?’
I thought there might be a somewhat weird trait in there, but I decided to ignore it. Somehow, both my sister and Sunhwa seemed to have something abnormal in their ‘summary’.
‘With a level like that, she did great leveling up.’
The fact she had raised her level to 15 despite there only being monsters like slimes, city foxes, and city wolves in Korea meant that she had worked pretty hard to progress her Playing. It was impressive she could raise her level that much by grinding low-level monsters.
I said to Sunhwa, “You remember everything I told you before, right?”
She nodded. I took the lead and began to walk forward. Streamer Senia followed in a half-transparent state. Her flat expression couldn’t be read, but she certainly looked unsatisfied. It seemed she was worried her ‘good quality content’—me—would kick the bucket here.
‘She’s not worrying about me.’ I didn’t delude myself. ‘She’s worrying about the product that is me.’
There was no need to bother about Senia. In any case, I had no intention of dying. All I was thinking about was how I could sell the product that was me better.
‘Seven forked pathways.’
When you turned into each forked path, that path would be activated. The Seoul Station Dungeon was a dungeon with a set ‘aggregate difficulty’. When all seven split paths were activated, the degree of danger would also be divided into seven. Put simply, if you divided a difficulty of ‘7’ among ‘7 people’ with ‘7 paths’, each path would only have a difficulty of ‘1’.
‘In the opposite case, if you only choose one path…’
The difficulty of ‘7’ would be concentrated on one path. That was how it would normally be… if you Played the dungeon the regular way. However, the Seoul Station Dungeon had been cleared by countless Players, and even the Hidden Piece lurking within had been publicized.
“Oppa. I see the forked pathways there.”
I saw the seven caves. They looked like snakes opening their jaws wide.
“Wait here.”
[The ‘Lady of the Scales’ is watching over you with interest.]
[The ‘Whispering Devil’ expresses intense interest in you.]
[The ‘Nameless Observer’ is earnestly observing you.]
I went into the first cave to the very left. When I did so, a golden magic array appeared on the cave floor.
[Seoul Station Dungeon 1st Forked Path, ‘Nepalas’ Path’, has been activated.]
Then, I immediately left, doing the same with the other paths.
[Seoul Station Dungeon 2nd Forked Path, ‘Dyugo’s Path’, has been activated.]
[Seoul Station Dungeon 3rd Forked Path, ‘Delansha’s Path’, has been activated.]
…
…
[Seoul Station Dungeon 7th Forked Path, ‘Lakitula’s Path’, has been activated.]
I activated every path. That was all I needed to do. There was more to dungeon clearing than forging straight ahead. You had to sometimes advance, sometimes retreat, and when necessary, roll to the side. It was possible to freely enter and leave the forked pathways. There was also no condition saying that all paths had to be ‘simultaneously cleared’. A clear like this, where each path was tackled one by one, was also just as valid.
Now, the difficulty of each path was set to ‘1’. I walked to the 1st Forked Path, ‘Nepalas’ Path’, and stood in front of it.
“Let’s go.”
* * *
* * *
So Yoohyun had the hunch that this thing called ‘Playing’ was not a one-time event. The Tutorial Field appeared, and ‘Intermediate Administrators’ and ‘Guardians’ showed up in the world, as well as monsters.
He made the bold decision to quit his job at the financial company where he had just been hired. He did so in order to devote himself to ‘Playing’. Some people ridiculed his decision, many of them cursing him for giving up on a stable and high-paying job.
However, So Yoohyun could imagine the future ahead.
‘As I thought… it’ll keep going.’
If weak monsters existed, then so did strong ones. Strong monsters would drop better items. Right now, just catching slimes, city foxes, and city wolves would drop things like ‘Iron Swords’ and ‘Low Constitution Potions’.
‘Even just those things have a pretty good effect.’
Monster drops were of great use in real life. For example, the ‘Low Constitution Potion’ boasted far better efficacy than most drugs used for surgeries. If such a strong item was dropped from a shoddy monster under level 10, what kinds of things would come from even stronger monsters?
Of course, far better things would drop from them. The world was faced with change, and Yoohyun decided to step in time with that change, to quickly adapt. That was his decision.
‘That’s a dungeon.’
At Seoul Station Exit 2, there was a dungeon. The Intermediate Administrator who focused their streaming on Yoohyun, ‘Neptune’, snickered.
“You need at least seven people for that one. Mm. There are already two people inside, so only four more people need to come.”
A few Players approached. They appeared to be survivors from the Tutorial Field. In the one month that had passed, several pieces of information were spread across the world. This information was relayed by the ‘Intermediate Administrators’.
[Monsters will break free from collapsed dungeons.]
[That is called a ‘Dungeon Break’.]
[The people who can clear dungeons are ‘those who have Player Qualifications’.]
Policemen had begun to seal off Seoul Station Exit 2. Sealing it off was expected, since it wasn’t yet known whether the gate was dangerous or not. That was for the safety of the populace.
Someone walked towards the police. Their feet floated about 30 centimetres off the floor. They were walking, but not on the ground. They were definitely not human.
“Jeez. How annoying,” muttered that blue-skinned being with a horn on his head as he approached the police. “Are you guys gonna take responsibility for my daily keep? Why’re you blocking my stream, huh?”