Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 113
Chapter Title: Hardworking Pay-to-Win Knight
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"Minus... 6.8 billion... won?"
My stats, which had plummeted to rock bottom, returned to their original levels, making my body overflow with power to the point of boiling over. But with my inexplicable physical control, I quickly stabilized it.
"6.8 billion... won."
Even amid this, I sorted through my thoughts.
'The key is the unit.'
Won (₩).
What unit is that? The unit of money.
"Your Majesty."
"Ah, I'm fine. I was just testing a new ability for a moment, and there's some backlash."
"A new ability...? Please don't push yourself. You're already doing too much, Your Majesty."
I lightly stroked Flower's worried head, then stood up from my seat.
"I'm okay, so go rest."
Flower gazed at me for a moment but soon bowed and took the elevator. I watched it descend for a bit before turning away.
Stepping over to the window, I looked down at the massive city sprawl.
'Money.'
I thought.
'Money's the issue again.'
I'd sold off 40 billion won worth of stocks to balloon it to 400 billion, and with the ability to restore 100 billion won diamond boxes three times a month...
I'd become completely free from the cash shop in this damn pay-to-win game.
This was on another level from using money cheats in a package game. Unlike package games, where even with tons of money, there were limits to what you could do, modern pay-to-win games let you do absolutely anything as long as you had cash.
I could buy whatever I wanted without caring how much money I had left, so if I set my mind to it, I could truly treat this world like a game. That was the situation up until five minutes ago.
"Money...."
My mind raced. I'd pondered the principles and origins of my ability dozens, hundreds of times.
It was a completely out-of-the-blue situation.
Still, I had some guesses.
'My money went negative. It's as good as me being in debt.'
To use game abilities, I needed money. I'd thought it was bad luck.
-Argh! Why this crap game! This trash game! This pay-to-win game of all things!
Yeah, that's what I'd thought. If this ability had attached to what people call a god game, just playing would level me up. Leveling up would let me spec into whatever skill tree I wanted.
Just hunting in dungeons would earn me resources.
Just studying raid boss patterns and strategies would net me legendary, mythic gear.
But even while regretting that, I'd come up with another hypothesis.
What if it wasn't bad luck getting stuck with a pay-to-win game where I had to grind money to death?
What if this ability only worked because it was an extreme pay-to-win game?
'It was a hypothesis I'd shelved for now.'
Yeah. Shelved it. It had too many holes. Not everything I brought over was cash shop items, right? I'd pulled plenty of drop items from Revenge. Just the rice cakes I'd brought were in tons.
'But. What if. Really, what if...'
Even so, if this ability truly revolved around cash spending?
If buying something with money was what granted me power?
If that was the case.
'Then restore requests after deletion... or tenfold stock pumps become the problem.'
Because the value consumed would be far more than what I'd actually spent.
That would make a minus 6.8 billion won result possible.
It was a forced fit, messy as hell, but no other hypothesis matched this well.
'Let's see.'
I opened my pet window. I selected the least popular Hamdori (Common) card among them.
[Delete this card?]
[Collect four lower-grade pet cards to synthesize into a higher-grade pet card. Really delete?]
I tapped through the pop-ups to make them vanish.
And then.
"Log out."
Returning to reality, I checked the figure in front of me. I felt my stats plummet wildly again, but I ignored it and just looked at the number.
(-6,872,772,300 won)
Beep!
(-6,872,770,800 won)
"...As expected."
It decreased. Down by 1,500 won!
But there's a problem.
Pet cards cost 10,000 won, but this common-grade pet was valued at only 1,500 won.
"Log in."
For another test, I deleted one more Hamdori card.
"Log out."
(-6,872,769,900 won)
This time, down by 900 won.
'What the hell. Not a fixed value, huh... Maybe RNG.'
This time, I deleted a big chunk.
[1,000 Diamond Box]
A 100,000 won item.
But.
(-6,872,769,900 won)
Not even a single won decreased.
'As expected.'
Unused diamonds don't count as spent. Makes sense—if using a diamond box counted, it'd be minus hundreds of billions, not 6.8 billion.
"Hmm."
The confusion settled, and my thoughts cleared.
With the situation clear, I realized one fact.
"Ah...."
A moment of choice.
'In truth, if I'm just going to live in Ardenia forever, there's no issue at all.'
I still had plenty of [Diamond Boxes] left, and diamond consumption wasn't as high as I'd thought.
The biggest drain was pulling mythic-grade classes, guardians, and pets into reality.
'Plus, I don't age in Ardenia.'
In other words, as long as I didn't blow through the remaining hundreds of billions in diamonds.
I could live the emperor's life in Ardenia for eternity.
"...Hmph."
But I scoffed. No need to agonize.
[Mind Pathfinder (Hero) card deleted.]
[Cannoneer (Hero) card deleted.]
[Star Seeker (Legendary) card deleted.]
[Ironclad Fire Bear (Hero) card deleted.]
[Unicorn (Hero) card deleted.]
[Ironclad Fire Bear (Hero) card deleted.]
[Never Die (Hero) card...]
I sorted through the classes, guardians, and pets I'd stockpiled.
Not everything, of course—just keeping usable ones in the same grade and deleting the rest.
For example, even among common-grade jobs, I culled the mage ones. They only had a 1/3 draw rate, but training difficulty was way higher.
For pets, I deleted all the cute ones with [Auto-Loot] abilities.
'Items? I can pick them up myself. How much loot are we talking?'
Instead, I kept most mount pets, and for buff or combat pets, the bulky ones that could carry bags or palanquins.
For hero-grade pets, I deleted everything except flying mounts.
"Log out."
(-3,723,111,400 won)
"Ha... Even after scrapping gear to arm an army, this is all it drops?"
I'd deleted plenty, but still like this.
The problem: nothing left to delete.
'Looking back, it was insanely risky.'
At least 6.8 billion gave me hope to recover somehow.
But minus 100 billion?
200 billion?
If it had been that, I wouldn't have even dreamed of recovery and would've just lived in Ardenia. Discovering this before blowing even more in Ardenia was pure luck.
"Anyway, what now? Nothing left to delete. Part of me wants to puke up my collections too...."
Honestly, collections had the worst efficiency. Legendary weapons and +9 gear all gone just to boost stats.
But I couldn't withdraw registered collections.
'Gear isn't the only thing you can't take back.'
Mythic-grade classes, guardians, pets were in collections too—no way around it. Same for the mythic castle and outbuildings I'd already built.
The other castles upgraded fully to legendary—irreversible.
"...."
In the end, only one answer.
I pulled a sword from my inventory.
Twin Dragon Sword (Legendary) +9
Weapon Damage +29 (+18)
Critical Hit Bonus Damage +21 (+21)
Strength +15 (+18)
Vitality +15 (+18)
Bonus Damage +6 (+9)
Skill Damage Amplification +20%
Material: Oriharukon (Damage Prevention).
Weight: 11.8 kg.
Special Effects.
Three Feet Oath to Heaven, Mountains and Rivers Tremble (Unique).
One Swing Clears, Blood Stains Mountains and Rivers (Unique).
A sword I'd brought to use. Not just use, but upgrade to mythic and wield forever—maybe for centuries.
And I didn't stop there.
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
I set down helmet, chestplate, pants, gauntlets, boots. All +9 legendary gear.
Not stopping.
[Ring of Light Dominion (Legendary) +9]
[Ring of Darkness Dominion (Legendary) +9]
[Ring of Flame Dominion (Legendary) +9]
[Ring of Wind Domi...]
I pulled them out. All of them.
"Yeah... Honestly, it's overkill. I can solo special bosses with luck gear on."
Of course, once entering the inland—high-level zones with legendary-grade mobs in the field—it'd change.
But... Even facing them, I didn't think I'd get one-sidedly crushed. Especially when my immediate target was just the auction house?
Rather than the future, I gazed at the legendary sword in hand.
Shing.
Grasping the hilt and drawing it, the silver blade gleamed coldly.
"Never hunted a single monster, and now deletion...."
I stared at the Twin Dragon Sword.
Not just any legendary—a +9 legendary sword.
'This item must have stories too.'
The Twin Dragon Sword wasn't popular gear. Revenge gear required accuracy stats, which it lacked.
Gear for classes with built-in accuracy skills or low accuracy dependency.
Yet someone reinforced it to +9.
"He...."
He was probably some big corp executive. Or a prestigious family heir, new-money chaebol, or top celeb.
Anything less, and +9 legendary gear was impossible.
'What was his ID?'
I wondered. Choosing Twin Dragon Sword of all things—probably Yi Sun-sin... No, that'd be taken, so something like Hero Yi Sun-sin.
'Guild master, obviously.'
Yeah. That spending meant guild master. Ruthless warrior in hunts, reliable big bro shielding guildies in wars.
When reinforcing legendaries, guildies would've gathered to bless him.
[Hero Yi Sun-sin Guild Master Legendary +9 Prayer Dance]
[Great Hero Yi Sun-sin!]
[Lucky Hero Yi Sun-sin!]
[GM, holding breath till +9!]
Yeah, definitely.
And on success, cheers and applause. A guild's power rose, not just one guy.
'He... Hero Yi Sun-sin...'
He'd fought countless battles with this weapon. Massacring monsters, sieges, defenses.
[Ooooh! It procs!]
[Three Feet Oath to Heaven, Mountains and Rivers Tremble!]
[With a three-foot blade swearing to the heavens, mountains and rivers quake!]
[One Swing Clears, Blood Stains Mountains and Rivers too, GM!]
Yeah.
Wielding this one-yet-two sword, he'd PK for grudges, warred for raid monsters.
And after?
Maybe quit the game. Reality got tough, sold his alter ego sword.
Or hit mythic class, chased mythic weapons or better fits.
All those stories and history in this data fragment.
That.
That...
[Twin Dragon Sword (Legendary) +9 deleted.]
[Hero's Helmet (Legendary) +9 deleted.]
[Hero's Armor (Legendary) +9 deleted.]
[Hero's Leggings (Legendary) +9 deleted.]
[Hero's Gauntlets (Legendary) +9 deleted.]
[Hero's Boots (Legendary) +9 deleted.]
All gone. My eyes stung hot.
"Ha... Damn it."
The fact I bought and deleted items was already all over the official site and fan pages.
With character info public in the game, it was inevitable. Saw tons of posts and comments calling me crazy or mocking me.
My reaction then?
So what?
Yeah, exactly that vibe. I'm not hurting anyone—why do they care? Nosy bunch.
'That's how I'd thought.'
But now, actually deleting gear for real.
"Wow, for real."
I got their feelings.
"Guess I looked like a lunatic."
I knew it was necessary, yet my hands and feet trembled—how must onlookers have felt?
Still, the tearful deletions worked.
(-1,322,166,900 won)
"Minus 1.3 billion."
I opened my status window.
ID: Han Jaeyeon
Class: Sword God (Mythic)
Title: New Adventurer (Common)
Level: 69
Strength: 21 Stamina: 11
Vitality: 18 Agility: 11
Mana: 1 Mana Power: 1 Magic Resistance: 1
Recovery: 13 Mana Recovery: 11 Luck: 10
Free Stats: 0
Status: Normal
"Wow...."
Still minus 1.3 billion, so bonus stats were cleanly gone.
No, worse... Even my base stats were massively shaved.
At least I could function on Earth—good news.
"But this is worse than a normal person?"
The gap between logged-in and logged-out physical abilities was so huge that being on Earth felt like massive deprivation.
"Was gonna be a space merc on Earth...."
Space merc, my ass.
Couldn't even do part-time work at this level.