Awakening at Bitstorm

Jisu froze, startled by the old man suddenly staring straight through him.

"You don't look like a hunter, lad."

"Pardon? Ah—yes, that's right. The test results said I had no aptitude…"

Before throwing himself into every odd job under the sun, Jisu had tried to become a hunter too. The results had been grim. They'd told him he would never blossom with a hunter's talent.

A sudden surge of physical strength, some mysterious magic-like power, even a gift for conversation, communication, or persuasion—you needed at least one aptitude. Jisu, they said, had none at all.

In this modern world, ability meant running raids as a hunter: slaying the monsters that poured from the gates, or excavating dungeons. But that was a story reserved for people who possessed a hunter's aptitude. For everyone else—Jisu included—it wasn't even something you could attempt.

"Ah. So that's how it was. Hmm. I think I might just try giving this ability to you."

"I'm sorry? I don't follow…"

"Can you swear an oath?"

"What?"

The question came out of nowhere, and Jisu could only blink. The old man paid his confusion no mind whatsoever and simply pressed on with what he meant to say.

Jisu hadn't the faintest idea what any of that was supposed to mean. And yet, strangely, a feeling settled over him that something terrible would happen if he didn't say yes.

"…Alright. I'll do that, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I guess."

"Good, good. Well, I figured you'd say as much, so I've already transferred the ability."

"Sir, I'm really sorry, but I still don't understand a word you've been saying…"

"When you get home today, look up a website called Bitstorm. The moment you see that site, you'll succeed in awakening. A lad like you ought to make a fine hunter. Or perhaps… no. No use letting an old man run his mouth. Farewell."

With that, he rose from his seat as suddenly as he'd appeared and slipped away.

"Did you say hunter? But I—I don't have the aptitude… Sir? Excuse me, sir!"

No matter how loudly Jisu called after him, no answer came back.

Just as Jisu had expected, no work came in from the labor office today. He ended up home early, slipping past his mother asleep in the middle of the afternoon and into his cramped room, where he switched on his computer for the first time in ages.

I'll just check real quick. I need to sleep if I'm going to work tomorrow.

Nothing was more sacred than labor. That was Jisu's creed. Naturally, he'd never had the slightest interest in bizarre speculative products like Bitcoin, which meant this was the first time in his life he'd ever searched for anything related to it.

Let's see. Bitstorm. South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, huh…

Jisu clicked the link.

That was the moment a window—something like a hallucination, a pane of light hanging in midair—bloomed in front of his eyes.

What the hell is this?!

No way… Did I seriously just awaken as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a hunter, just like that…?

People said that at the moment of a hunter's awakening, a window appeared before your eyes like something out of a video game. You could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠check your basic abilities—your status—and you could see the unique skill that belonged to you alone. He'd only ever heard it described. Seeing it with his own eyes was something else entirely.

Invest? What is that supposed to mean?

Then another window, larger than the last, unfurled in front of him. Strength and the rest were listed across it—a status window, by the look of things.

His Strength and Stamina numbers were on the high side. Mental Power was a bit low, and Magic was practically nonexistent—but even so, his Mental Power sat at an ordinary civilian's baseline, which was a perfectly respectable figure. All those years knocking around construction sites and part-time jobs, steadily building his base strength, had finally paid off.

Ordinarily, a hunter's rank was decided by the sum of their stats. But the real flower of a hunter wasn't the numbers—it was the skill. Depending on how useful your unique skill was, you could outperform your stats by a wide margin. It wasn't hard to find hunters who'd only grade out as C-rank or D-rank on stats alone, yet were recognized as far higher-class hunters simply because they knew how to use what they had. Of course, a lot depended on what kind of skill you ended up with. Still, status numbers rarely changed, so it was fair to say Jisu was sitting on a pretty decent sheet.

I learned the basics of stats when I took the hunter aptitude test, so I get that much. Doesn't look like I have a Unique Stat, either…

Unique Stats. The hunters of this world possessed every kind of talent imaginable, and depending on that talent, a status no one else had would occasionally be added to their sheet. They were rare enough that a rumor made the rounds: if you had even one Unique Stat, you were almost guaranteed not to wash out as a hunter. Their usefulness was that well established. Jisu, apparently, was not that type.

If anything looks special, it's this Rank Aggregation System. What even is that?

What he had instead was the Rank Aggregation System—something that seemed to total up his current stats and automatically tell him what rank he was. As far as present-day Jisu was concerned, he could only wonder why it was there at all. Your rank was something they'd measure at a hunter testing center, and unless something unusual happened, that rank would stick to you like a name tag for the rest of your life. Did he really need to check what rank of hunter he was at every hour of the day?

Everything was a question mark. He decided not to think too hard about it.

So… what am I supposed to do now?

Unique Stats, ranks, all of it—Jisu ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was still too bewildered by the situation itself to care. He looked at the Bitstorm site still hanging open in front of him.

Beneath that, dozens more cryptocurrencies with names just as bizarre scrolled into view.

What even is all this…? There were this many besides Bitcoin?

Jisu stared, stunned by how much larger the zoo of coins was than he'd imagined. Underneath the price ticker sat a chat window packed with anonymous users.

The chat's scrolling so fast I can't even think.

He went back to the ticker and looked more carefully, and that was when something strange caught his eye.

Huh? Wasn't that 128 won a minute ago?

What? The price moves this fast?

Gazua Coin's price thrashed like a living thing. It jittered back and forth by a single won, then started jumping ten won at a time, climbing without a ceiling in sight.

Jisu could only stare, dumbfounded, as the price nearly doubled in a mere five minutes.

What on earth is this… wait, huh?

Was 200 the end of it? The instant it kissed 201 won, the price turned around as if the rally had never happened and began to fall with eerie precision.

Wait. Wait—

And within a few minutes, the price was in a terrifying free fall.

Why does the price move this fast? Come to think of it, my skill is Ability Investment… Does that mean I invest my stats here?

Jisu checked his skill. Hunters instinctively understood how to use a skill from the moment they obtained it.

Alright. Let's try investing.

Ability Investment wasn't like other people's money—it was a system for investing your own abilities—so there was no need to sign up for a separate account. On top of that, sell orders would go through even if nobody was there to buy his stats, which meant that even on a crashing coin with weak buying pressure, a quick enough eye could dump at the peak. It was an enormous advantage. Jisu, who'd only just started, had no way of knowing that.

The stats I have right now… Hmm. Where do I even put 116 Strength?

A man who'd set foot in the cryptocurrency market minutes ago couldn't possibly know a thing. Jisu skimmed the charts at random.

"Let's see… What am I even supposed to buy, though?"

When it came to crypto, Bitcoin was the only name Jisu knew. But Bitcoin was sitting at over twenty million won. Was he really supposed to buy that? The price was so high he couldn't help but hesitate.

Hoping there might be something like a help menu, he looked around the edges of the status window. After a bit of searching, he did find a few genuinely useful lines of text.

Hmm. I still have no idea what any of that means.

A man who'd spent his life consciously staying away from investing couldn't be expected to. He was still staring at the monitor, no closer to knowing what he was supposed to do, when a particular coin caught his eye.

Justice Coin? As in… justice?

It hit Jisu's tastes dead-on. He was an upright sort by nature, and he liked justice; his personal motto happened to be Live justly. Even the geometric emblem beside the listing, with the letters JST carved in sharp relief, looked strangely cool for no good reason. He opened the coin's details.

There was more underneath. A whole lot of more. Honestly, Jisu didn't understand a single word of it.

Get taken in by a door-to-door flooring scam and at least you still had the flooring. What exactly were you supposed to be looking at when you bought a scrap of data like this? For a moment, people who spent actual cash on coins in the real world seemed downright pathetic.

Still, it looked like he had to invest his stats for anything to happen, so he set the sour thought aside.

There's something kinda cool about this one… Maybe I should buy it as a trial run?