Chapter 23

Chapter 23

‘Something about… impossible, I think.’
Hyunseok opened his stat window.
The newly acquired title read, Pioneer of the Impossible.
It was originally a title only granted after completing ten “impossible achievements.”

<Stat Window>

A Slayer could equip up to five titles at once.
However, since effects that granted the same bonuses negated each other, what he ultimately gained was just +1 Strength and +1 Agility.

But that wasn’t what mattered.
He had reached 100 points in his base stats and gained the corresponding titles, each granting a modest +3 bonus. Those were easy rewards, achievements for crossing the first threshold.

In truth, Hyunseok hadn’t struggled much to hit 100. It had just taken some time, after all, he had the electric fly swatter and F-Killer spray, excellent items for grinding.

The recent achievement, though labeled “impossible,” hadn’t actually been difficult for him. Yet it was judged by the system as an Impossible Achievement, granting an enormous reward.

Hyunseok had been deliberately hoarding his stat points in Easy Mode to trigger these “impossible” achievements more easily, avoiding forced conversion to Normal Mode.

But just as Easy Mode’s limitations reached their peak, Hyunseok completed ten Impossible Achievements, and even the achievement system itself penalized him.

In exchange, he obtained the title Pioneer of the Impossible.
Fortunately, rewards from the achievement system, especially those tied to impossible feats, were massive.

His current unassigned stat points totaled 395.
That meant that the original reward, before penalties, should’ve been nearly 790 points, assuming the 50% penalty still applied.

“Pioneer of the Impossible…”

Hyunseok stared blankly at the translucent stat window only he could see.
It was absurd.
The title’s bonus wasn’t a fixed number like the others, it doubled whatever remaining stats he had.

Which meant: he could reclaim every single point lost to penalty, if he hadn’t spent any.
And indeed, Hyunseok hadn’t used a single point.

So, while the system had penalized him for exceeding Easy Mode’s limits, it had also built in a backdoor, and Hyunseok had found it.

Pure luck.
But it was also the reward for his calculated patience.

‘If I had spent all my stat points earlier…’
Then the bonus would’ve been zero.

This was a jackpot.
It was as if the reward had been designed just for him.

‘That means… my remaining stats are now…’

A number that would make anyone gasp.
Hyunseok now held 790 unassigned stat points.

‘With this much… I might be able to break into Normal Mode!’

He began distributing his stats, one by one.

❋ ❋ ❋

It was the weekend.
As usual, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Minseo came up from Seoul.

Feeling good, Hyunseok decided to pick her up in his brand-new Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet, freshly purchased despite his friend Ha Jongwon teasing him for “thinking too small.”
But the car turned heads everywhere he drove; it was plenty flashy.

He reached the terminal, picked Minseo up, and started home.

Then, he nearly crashed.
Because Minseo suddenly shouted beside him.

“What the heck, oppa! Why are you telling me this just now!?”
“…”
“I hate you!”
“Ah, my ears! You’ll make me deaf!”

He began explaining everything that had happened.

He’d started assigning his bonus stat points.
But since he didn’t know exactly how many points would trigger forced conversion into Normal Mode, he focused them all into a single stat, Strength.

Upon entering Normal Mode, HP and MP became visible as numerical values.
That meant he could quantify danger, he’d know exactly how much damage he could take and when he’d be in real peril.

A double-edged sword, having numbers meant he could manage risk precisely, but also that neglect could kill him instantly if he didn’t feel pain.

Minseo looked dumbfounded.
“So you’re saying… once your Strength hit 200, you were forcibly switched into Normal Mode?”
“Yep.”
“And since your stats were too high for Normal Mode, your remaining points were about to be deleted?”
“Yep.”
“But they didn’t get deleted, they got evenly redistributed instead?”
“Exactly.”

Minseo let out a long sigh of relief.
Apparently, forced entry into Normal Mode came with penalties, the same kind as when you were forced into Easy Mode, with one extra: any unassigned stats would vanish after 30 seconds.

Luckily, Hyunseok, ever the balance-obsessed player, had immediately chosen to distribute everything equally.

He had used 100 points to bring Strength to 201, triggering a system alert.

[You have reached 200 Strength Points for the first time.
Title <Strongman> upgraded to Strongman +1.
Bonus Stats +6 awarded.]

Before the remaining points vanished, he evenly distributed 690 points across all stats.
He hadn’t even done it manually, when the system prompted “Would you like to distribute all points evenly?” in his panic, he had just hit Y.

Fortunately, it worked.

Now his stats were monstrous:

Stat

Value

Strength

339

Agility

239

Intelligence

238

Endurance

239

Vitality

188

It even overshot his expectations, Strength had exceeded 300.

Then more alerts came.

[Strength 300 Points reached.
Title ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠<Strongman> upgraded to Strongman +2.
Bonus Stats +24 awarded.]

[Agility 200 Points reached.
Title <Quickfoot> upgraded to Quickfoot +1.
Bonus Stats +6 awarded.]

[Intelligence 200 Points reached.
Title <Sage> upgraded to Sage +1.
Bonus Stats +6 awarded.]

[Endurance 200 Points reached.
Title <Iron Man> upgraded to Iron Man +1.
Bonus Stats +6 awarded.]

Aside from the Monster Slayer titles, all of his primary ones had upgraded, yielding a total of 48 new bonus points.

But Hyunseok decided not to use them.
Normal Mode surely had its own penalties, and wasting unassigned stats rashly could be dangerous.

If the Pioneer of the Impossible title could upgrade too, say to +1 or +2, the consequences were unknown. Better to hold on to them.

He noticed something, the bonus stats had followed a geometric pattern:

Base +3 → +1 gave +6 → +2 gave +24.

‘So… 3×2, then 6×4… if it keeps doubling like that, the next tier could be exponential.’

Even if he wasn’t sure of the exact rule, one thing was clear, title upgrades scaled absurdly.

He concluded:
“The direction’s clear now. I can’t grow through levels or EXP like normal. I need to stack as many achievements as possible.”

Minseo smiled softly at her brother.
Her big eyes blinked once, she didn’t say it out loud, but thought to herself:

Oppa… you’ve changed.

Then questions poured out of her mouth like bullets.
“Then oppa, what’s your HP? What level’s your battle field now? Did MP consumption finally show up in that blank slot? Any new skills? Did attack and defense get added too? Come on! Tell me already!”

❋ ❋ ❋

Hyunseok had entered Normal Mode.
His current stats stood at Strength 339, Intelligence 238, Endurance 239, Agility 239.

With Normal Mode unlocked, his HP and MP gauges became active.

The system noted:

“+10 HP per Strength, +40 HP per Endurance.”

But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠when he checked, his HP was over 107,000, far higher than linear scaling could explain.

If he started from baseline values, Strength 339 should’ve added about 3,300 HP, and Endurance 239 about 9,000 more, roughly 13,000 HP total.

But 107,000? That was eight times higher.

‘A hundred thousand HP… insane. This isn’t linear growth. There must be a step-up multiplier.’

Instead of scaling gradually, there seemed to be hidden thresholds that caused sudden surges.

Perhaps crossing 100 Endurance triggered a 100% HP amplification.
Just like how titles had scaled exponentially.

‘So if 100 gives ×2, and 200 gives ×4, that would explain it.’

He couldn’t prove it yet, but the logic fit.

Checking MP next:
His Intelligence was 238, so linearly he should’ve had about 2,300 MP.
Yet his MP was 21,000.

‘Then my SP…’

His SP was only around 400, a low number, but consistent with the rule: +1 SP per 1 Vitality.
So his theory still held.

When he told Jongwon about it, his friend scoffed:

“See!? Dumping all your points into one stat is the real deal!”

Then spat dramatically toward Hyunseok (just pretending).

“Dude, you’re nuts! Most people struggle to max ONE stat to 100, but you’ve got EVERYTHING over 200! Are you kidding me!?”

Hyunseok grinned.

“If you’re jealous, go complete some Impossible Achievements yourself.”
“It’s called impossible for a reason, you lunatic! It’s impossible! That’s what it means!”
“It wasn’t for me.”
“That’s because you’ve got a freaking cheat code, man! If you’ve got a cheat code, anything’s possible! Show me the money, you bastard!”

Jongwon shouted indignantly, then suddenly laughed.

“So what’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your Class now?”

In Normal Mode, classes were subdivided.
Jongwon’s new class was “Warrior of Lightning,” which sounded unintentionally funny.

Hyunseok scratched his head sheepishly.

“Uh… it says ‘All Stat Slayer.’”
“What the hell is that supposed to be?”
“No idea. That’s just what it says.”
“Guess that’s what you get for maxing every damn stat, huh.”
“Probably. Sounds good, right?”
“…”

Jongwon was speechless.

(End of Chapter 23)

Enjoyed the chapter? Share your feedback and help Hyunseok keep leveling up!

— Translated by Prime Works —