Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Chapter 2. F2P Gamer Life
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I was thrilled at the fact that I could use game abilities in reality—something I'd momentarily forgotten—but even so, I knew it deep down.
Revenge was a trash game.
“What if the game system applied to me had been something else?”
For fifty years, it had reigned as the most popular game on the 34th Earth and was still hailed as a masterpiece even now: [Real Stage]. A skill-based game packed with high-rankers: [Blade & Magic]. The essential course for Giggas pilots: [Great War 4]. And [Emperor Quest], which had devoured every inch of gaming cafe market share within a single year of launch, among others.
If one of those games' systems had been applied to me, what I'd need to do would be simple.
Just play that game hard. Master the strategies, study the systems, level up, farm items, and send them to Ardania.
I'd have acquired skills just by raising proficiency, cleared dungeons to obtain legendary gear, and fulfilled special conditions to job-change and complete quests for unique rewards.
But what about Revenge?
Jobs? Buy them with money.
Gear? You can farm up to a certain point, but to go higher, you have no choice but to spend.
Levels? Unless you buy a Blessing with money, you can't even dream of leveling up.
Skills? Buy them with money too!
“This game is insane.”
Setting everything else aside, having to buy skills with money— is that even sane? The skills you can buy with in-game gold are only Common or Advanced grade (and even those are ridiculously expensive). Anything Rare or higher requires purchasing Skill Random Boxes.
Someone might say, “Just farm drops from monsters, right?” But the drop rates are the real issue.
And Revenge's drop rates?
[A child named 'Pre-Kid' has obtained Heart Rip (Rare) in Crocodile Swamp!]
Even for a single Rare-grade drop, it blasts your skill name and ID in a world message! A global announcement visible to every player in the game!
“Crocodile Swamp—that's in the southern region, right? Almost the opposite side of the continent, and it's showing up here too.”
Having lived in Ardania for twenty years, I knew the place well. A massive swamp spanning dozens of kilometers, infested with magic beasts known as [Two-Legged Crocodiles]—a demon-infested hellscape among hellscapes!
“An event two thousand kilometers away, and they still announce it.”
It was absurd, but distance wasn't the problem. The real issue was that even a mere Rare triggered a world message—never mind Heroic, Legendary, or Mythic.
If Rares were easy to get, why announce them? Right now, millions of players were probably hunting.
“Humanely speaking, shouldn't Rares pour out just from killing regular monsters? It's a game, a game!”
I grumbled, but I knew the reason.
Revenge had no gear levels or equip restrictions.
Without levels and only grades, gear value stayed stable.
A level 1 character lucky enough to get a Legendary weapon ten years ago? No joke—they'd use that Legendary for all ten years.
Unlike other games, Revenge's grades truly reflected the gear or skill's value. Common weapons were common, Rares were genuinely rare.
Legendaries were the stuff of legends.
“No such thing as a level 50 Common beating a level 10 Legendary.”
Seriously, players poured years into this game without ever wielding a Legendary.
Without spending money, you couldn't crack the top ranks even after twenty-four-hour grinds spanning years. That was Revenge.
And in this pay-to-win paradise,
I now had to go full F2P.
“Ha… I blew my entire fortune. Nearly forty million won, and now F2P.”
But I'd shipped all my paywalled classes to Ardania, so no choice.
“Should I contact customer support and ask them to restore it?”
The thought crossed my mind, but it was risky.
I didn't even understand how the game system had fused with my body. In a situation where Revenge's devs or GMs might or might not be involved, rash moves could cost me these powers.
If it had never happened, fine—but now that I knew this world, losing it all might drive me to hang myself.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Clang! Screeech!
Screee!
I glanced at my avatar diligently hunting on the monitor. With the Starter Pack shipped to Ardania, my Common-grade Archer job and collection of Common drops registered—my character [Killians] was pathetically weak.
Bottom-tier trash in Revenge.
How weak? After ten full days of twenty-four-hour auto-play, it was still hunting [Common]-grade monsters.
Autos in [Advanced]-grade zones guzzled potions beyond affordability.
“Level 37, and this is it.”
Revenge's leveling system ballooned EXP requirements exponentially, slowing progress to a crawl.
Today, a full day of hunting barely netted 30% EXP. Free stat points from levels helped a bit, but even that was getting tougher.
In short, no matter how much I played,
I wasn't growing at all!
“Is this a game?”
It was just auto-farming for pocket change in gold. Not even enough for one Advanced skill.
Ding!
[Inventory weight exceeds 50%!]
[Inventory weight over 50%: HP and MP will not naturally regenerate!]
I sat at the PC as the alert popped up. Cheddar, who'd been kneading my stomach, hopped off the bed and plopped beside the chair.
“Full already.”
My character was hunting [Plateau Boars (Common)] in the [Windbreak Plateau], west of the starting area. Roughly one every fifteen seconds: four per minute, 240 per hour.
“Plateau Boar's drop table…”
I opened the homepage and checked the monster info.
[Plateau Boar (Common) Drops]
Common Summon Scroll (No Grade), Bone Dagger (Common), Bone Longsword (Common), Leather Shield (Common).
Boar Hindquarter (Material), Boar Hide (Material), Boar Tusk (Sell to Shop), Gold.
“Gear: dagger, sword, shield—three items. Rest is meat and hides.”
A pitiful table, no Advanced items.
It included a class summon scroll, but I ignored it. Two hundred hours of boars here, and I'd never seen one.
Not even on others. Nearby characters auto-hunted endlessly, same result.
“Before emptying…”
I roamed the hunting ground, picking up items beside other characters.
Obtained Bone Dagger (Common)!
Obtained Leather Shield (Common)!
Obtained Boar Hindquarter (Material) x12!
Bone Longsword…
In Revenge, drops stayed owned for one minute, then free-for-all, vanishing after ten.
Other players ignored me taking them. Why else would they pile up? They'd disabled ground loot in options. Not worth inventory space.
“Makes sense—this is a hide farm spot. Everything else is just heavy junk.”
Revenge had crafting, and hides were key materials.
Plateau Boar hides were Low-grade, but ten Low + 1,000 gold combined into Mid-grade, scaling to High and Top-grade. Decent auto spot despite being basic.
“Lucky the meat's the junk, not hides.”
Boar hindquarters were cooking materials, treated differently from hides.
Unlike hides, they couldn't upgrade to higher meats—just unique recipes.
Sure, you could cook them, but who fills buff slots (lasting at least an hour) with bottom-tier food?
To players, hindquarters were inventory-clogging trash.
[Inventory weight exceeds 75%!]
[Inventory weight over 75%: Movement speed reduced!]
[Inventory weight exceeds 100%!]
[Inventory weight over 100%: Movement speed critically reduced! Stamina, HP, and MP slowly drain!]
I looted until full.
“Alright. Log in.”
In that instant,
I was in Ardania.
“You've returned safely. Are you alright?”
Catching up to the villagers, the knight leading them approached me.
His name: Hundred Silversword. One of only two knights in my territory.
Unlike Steelstone's rags-to-riches path from commoner to bandit, mercenary, knight—Hundred was elite-born: fifteenth-year knighted from the prestigious Silversword Count family.
“Of course, that doesn't mean he has any real power.”
Patriarch Ilain had sired twelve sons and nineteen daughters. Hundred was the twenty-fifth child.
His mother was even a knightess guarding the count—zero chance of inheritance.
“No wonder he's out here in the boonies.”
I shook off the thoughts and addressed Hundred.
“No issues. Completely shaken them off, and we've got distance now. No need to worry about pursuit.”
“Impressive. Those monster-like orcs…”
His ever-polished, gleaming full plate was dented from the orc battle. But blocking for the villagers? Surviving with that damage was the real feat.
“Slippery bastards. Anyway, let's eat.”
“Ah! Yes, sir. Understood, my lord. Everyone! Dinner time!”
“Dinner time! Lord's back!”
“Light the fires! Pots up!”
“Time to eat!”
Exhausted from the mountain trek, the villagers cheered and set up camp. Forest aplenty—no firewood worries. Food for a thousand, though—that was the problem.
“Line up and take yours!”
“Yes! Single file! Grilling now!”
But here, infinite boar hindquarters!
I reached into my Revenge inventory, grabbing and tossing hindquarters.
“Whoa! Look at these! Hindquarters are huge, even on second glance.”
“But where'd you hunt this many boars?”
“And all right hind legs. Where's the rest of the bodies?”
Villagers eyed the pattern curiously but grabbed and started grilling or boiling.
Fleeing their homes in dire straits, but full bellies kept spirits decent.
“And take these too.”
I handed over dozens of boar hides I'd piled aside.
Still summer, but my territory was northern, heading farther north.
Freeze or prepare.
“My lord.”
Hundred, watching, spoke up.
“What is it?”
“I know it's not the time, but… what are these hides? Perfectly tanned boar hides.”
“Hard to explain. With the world changed… think of it as a special power I got. I can pull faraway items. You saw stuff drop when we killed those orcs, right?”
In Ardania now, anyone killing monsters dropped items and gold.
No Goddess's Blessing (cash shop: massive EXP/drop buffs), so rates low—but gold dropped often enough. Hundred had seen it.
“The world has become truly unknowable.”
“Yeah. Anyway.”
I dumped every Bone Dagger (Common), Bone Longsword (Common), Leather Shield (Common) from inventory.
Decomposing gear yielded [Soul Crystals] for Guardian Spirits, but needed bought Melting Stones (nothing free), with success rates, great success, failure—bad math for Commons.
“Arm the villagers. Strong ones get shields too.”
“But my lord, the orcs won't follow…”
“You think other territories are fine? That monsters only hit us?”
“…”
“Arm them.”
“As you command.”