Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Charging Power Deficit
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"Hardworking Pay-to-Win Knight Chapter 114"
“I was going to try being a space mercenary on Earth…….”
Space mercenary? Yeah, right.
I couldn’t even handle a part-time gig.
“Sigh, Cheda.”
At my voice, Cheda hopped lightly over from where it had been perched on the desk.
I reached out with my right hand and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck.
“……Guh!”
A groan escaped me involuntarily.
It was so heavy!
“No, wait. It’s just barely over ten kilograms…….”
When I dropped Cheda, it landed nimbly on the floor. It stared up at me quietly, and with no further orders, hopped back onto the desk.
“Ah…… I’ll have to cancel all the martial arts matches…….”
Even with [Inexplicable Combat Foresight], there was no hope in my current condition. My strength was so feeble and my senses so dull that I’d lose to an ordinary person, let alone an Awakener.
And that wasn’t the only problem.
“Huff, huff. Wow, my stamina is insane.”
Just a light stretch had sweat beading on my forehead and my breathing ragged.
My body was still muscular, but its performance was incomparable to before—like water balloons attached to my limbs instead of real muscle.
‘Is this what they call water muscle?’
Generally speaking,
10 points of Strength is interpreted as a child’s strength. 20 points is an adult woman’s, 30 points an adult man’s.
The baseline varies by stat, but 30 points is generally ‘fit civilian’ level.
‘In that sense…… my condition is disastrously bad.’
21 points Strength, 11 points Stamina, 18 points Vitality, 11 points Agility.
No joke.
Worse physical ability than a shut-in who’d never left their room their whole life, whose only exercise was breathing and mouse clicks.
‘With these horrific stats, even a convenience store part-time job would be grueling hardship.’
From my perspective, having once possessed a body that could crumple steel like clay barehanded, this was maddeningly frustrating.
“Still.”
Thank goodness,
“Games are playable…….”
Even with these awful stats, playing Revenge wasn’t hard. Most of the gameplay was automated, after all.
I completed the daily quests to stock up on teleport scrolls and farmed items via auto-hunt.
[Killians has acquired Warrior’s Longsword (Rare) from Rebel Fortress!]
Without doing anything else—just idly watching my character auto-hunt—a Rare-grade sword dropped right in front of me.
Watching my character pick it up sparked a question I’d shelved amid the urgency.
‘What happens to items you take without paying?’
I decided to test it immediately.
“Log in.”
I entered Ardenia.
“Ugh.”
The sensation of power surging into my limp body was almost ecstatic.
‘The polar opposite of that massive sense of loss when exiting to Earth.’
I shook my head to clear the stray thoughts and pulled out the Warrior’s Longsword (Rare). Naturally, once an item was brought to Ardenia, it could never be sent back to Revenge.
“Log out.”
(-1,322,166,900 won → -1,322,166,990 won)
I narrowed my eyes at the number floating in my vision.
“Negative…… increased by 90 won?”
I immediately opened the marketplace.
Warrior’s Longsword: 980 Diamonds
980 Diamonds. That’s 98,000 won. Yet the debt only rose by 90 won.
I used Revenge Diamonds to buy the Warrior’s Longsword and pulled it out in Ardenia.
[Strength decreased by 1 point for unknown reasons!]
“Ugh.”
The penalty intensified.
I checked the debt.
(-1,322,166,990 won → -1,322,261,990 won)
Debt increased by 95,000 won. Not exact, but close to market price.
“This…… isn’t a fixed value.”
I started various experiments right away. Deleted the purchased Warrior’s Longsword, pulled the Roaring Drake Kasim from Revenge into Ardenia and deleted it, and so on.
I tested items bought with gold from shops, Honor Coins, even ones others discarded.
Not huge amounts, but I even recharged using the remaining balance in my account.
The numbers changed instantly, making experiments easy.
“Got a rough idea…….”
I organized my findings.
“For now, let’s call this value…… yeah, Charging Power.”
I called Cheda over and jotted notes.
1. Charging in the game increases Charging Power.
For example, selling those shares probably boosted it by +40 billion.
Charging Power rises purely by how much I invest in Revenge, unaffected by other variables.
Confirmed with a few more charges. Only increases on actual charging.
2. Bringing Revenge items to Ardenia and ‘using’ them decreases Charging Power. For equipment, it applies instantly upon withdrawal.
However, even identical items vary wildly by acquisition method.
Bought from a player? Cash shop? Picked up discard? Bought with gold or Honor Coins from shop? Dropped from monster kill?
All yielded different results.
For reference, Kasim from Bae Sarang and Awakened Thunderbird were judged as [discarded by others].
3. Charging Power only accumulates with charging and only depletes when using charged goods.
Even the least efficient method—[bought from player]—still netted some Charging Power buildup.
Charging 10,000 won and using a 10,000-won item in Ardenia might only yield 500 won Charging Power, but it still rose.
Moreover, most of my charging had been via cash shop, right?
‘Cash shop loss rate is about 70 percent.’
Since 30 percent persisted, I’d built enough Charging Power to withstand deletion/restoration requests that only shaved it down.
The problem was no-charge play—pure farming. All those items and rice cakes I’d brought depleted Charging Power!
But the results weren’t bad.
4. Purely farmed items consume 0.1% or less of original item value in Charging Power.
Buying the Warrior’s Sword on market raised debt by 95,000 won; farming it only 90 won.
Of course, restoration requests for legendary pets and guardians worth tens of millions—outside pure farming—were huge negatives.
‘But I synthesized and trashed them. They’d be restored to original.’
Possible because Revenge had abysmal charging efficiency like a knockoff game, but over a year-plus, Charging Power steadily accumulated.
‘However.’
The diamond 10x gacha fiasco caused chaos. +40 billion Charging Power generated, but with 400 billion ammo, problems arose.
‘At least I caught it before burning all 400 billion. Around…… 50 billion, looks like.’
The day fansites called the [Insane 400 Billion Charging Party]……
Whatever accumulation happened vanished, dipping into negative.
That’s when the sudden penalty shocked me, but looking back, I’d been lucky in many ways.
“Yeah. Catching it this early is good.”
I planned to conquer the next warp point and install a Mythic Castle there.
And once installed?
Tens of billions in accessory buildings, naturally.
If I hadn’t stopped by Earth now, the negative Charging Power wouldn’t be 6.3 billion but around 15 billion.
‘And it would worsen over time.’
The diamonds I’d used in Ardenia were a tiny fraction. With hundreds of billions more diamonds, I could’ve kept spending!
The negative Charging Power would only grow larger as time passed.
“Come to think of it…… I can’t even hold a warp point like this.”
I could claim it, but defending it? Impossible.
Not enough funds for proper castle and accessories.
“First…… replenish Charging Power.”
Obviously, that meant making money.
My body too weak for stunts, acting, even part-time work—but options existed.
[Hello, Author!^^ Green Dragon Publishing here.]
Attached ebook settlement statement—please confirm.
Keep writing great stuff!
Settlement: 4,830,000 won
Royalties incoming. But insufficient, of course.
‘To recover 1.3 billion negative Charging Power with this…….’
Rough calc: assume 5 million monthly income.
‘260 months. Even skipping every meal, 21 years 8 months.’
Billions really aren’t a joke.
“Novels alone won’t cut it…… Donations have slowed lately too.”
So, I edited pre-recorded footage and uploaded to MyTube: the gacha run fans called the [Insane 400 Billion Charging Party].
Response: explosive.
270k daily views!
Insane for a new inactive channel, but comments were negative.
Very negative.
⤷Jipanggeom: What is this with such prime material? Came salivating, left disappointed.
⤷StarbangBJ: Planning solo streaming like this? Add action reactions! Just gameplay is same as side-viewers!
⤷HotbodyBuddy: Mr. Killians…… streaming…… seems…… really…… bad……
All criticism.
But I had no choice.
“No, logging in and out mid-gacha—how to film that…….”
Filming my play screen while transferring items to Ardenia would cause issues.
Items vanishing without delete key—obvious hack to anyone.
No way to film that knowingly.
‘Charging streams are tough…….’
Could edit, and system logs show no issues, but viewers aren’t dumb. With eyes on my footage, they’d spot anomalies.
No guarantee of tens or hundreds of billions from charging vids, so no exposing my Achilles’ heel.
Normal no-charge gameplay vids possible, sure.
‘Fat chance.’
In the bloodbath of personal streaming—red ocean doesn’t cover it—such vids wouldn’t earn 1.3 billion, let alone living expenses.
“Ah……. Borrow it?”
Faces came to mind.
‘Seongjae, child actor turned long-reigning superstar.’
A star that rank surely has 1.3 billion. We’re friendly enough; might lend if asked nicely.
‘Allen, 7th-class High Mage.’
Movie succeeded, so plenty of cash. High Mages on 34th Earth print money. Promise all future films? Might loan 1.3 billion.
‘Hye-young, Game God’s niece.’
Divine kin. Sees me as great benefactor—might find a way if asked.
“…….”
I pondered. Long and hard.
But shook my head in the end.
“No, impossible. Not this.”
If back when I had nothing, maybe. But now? Hate begging from scratch.
Sure, regain power and mercenary—repay quick. But that’s my secret alone.
“Better bust ass working honestly.”
I clicked my tongue, banishing thoughts.
Upload wasn’t fruitless, thankfully.
⤷MercenarySeedling: Huh? This guy has other vids? Wait, not Revenge—all reading his own books?
⤷MercenarySeedling: Whoa! He’s an author! Reading his own stuff!
⤷AlwaysPlay: Face rings bell…… Ah! Emperor! This guy’s the Emperor?
⤷HotbodyBuddy: Emperor what?
⤷Chanoa: From Korean Empire royalty?
⤷AlwaysPlay: Sorry, proper name is Yi Clan. Korean Empire sounds like boomer patriot.
⤷KimChoco: No movie fans? One lead in hit [Aspiring Professor]!
My heretofore ignored Read-My-Own-Stuff content gained traction. Rising star famed from recent films reading books? Curiosity drew crowds.
Limits exist, though.
‘Not enough works, nor mass appeal!’
Huge output, but two weeks of 24/7 reading exhausted them.
Still works left…… but encyclopedic tomes in vids? No.
Thus,
I resorted to drastic measures.
“Log in.”
Crunch. Whirr……
Power filled my trash body. Drug-like rush electrified my brain.
“Fhew.”
Exhaled lightly, cleared mind, called Flower.
“Flower.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After seeing me ill once, Flower set a desk in the guild master room for routine work.
“How many literati in the Human Empire? Ah, no—bad phrasing.”
In Ardenia, ‘literati’ means all who live by writing, not just authors. Officials too.
“How many novelists?”
“Novelists…… You mean playwrights?”
“Including them. Anyone writing stories in prose.”
Flower looked troubled.
“Not many. Theater heartland is Holy Empire. Our empire and kingdoms aren’t literary hotspots.”
I half-knew. Kingdoms cheered bloody arenas, ignored literature.
“Then, we’ll make them.”
“Pardon?”
I met flustered Flower’s eyes. Yeah. None? Create. What’s power for?
“I’ll hold a contest in my name. Open to all, deadline next year today. Entry gets modest gold; finalists get citizenship and homes. Then items, classes, pets by rank; winner gets…….”
Contests thrive on lavish prizes.
“A Legendary pet.”
Thus dawned the [Era of Great Art].