A Stroke of Luck
Was this... luck?
“We need to harvest this before those damn Scavengers show up, nyang! Everyone, step back for a second, nyang!”
“Yes…!”
“Ah, understood.”
The moment Sion heard that the contractor and Hans had found a high-grade maseok, she drew her knife and dashed toward the Wendigo’s corpse.
“Here… and then like this…”
Soon Sion began carefully running her fingers across the Wendigo’s chest with meticulous, delicate movements. Her golden pupils darted frantically, following the path of her flashing knife.
“Unyanyang… easy does it…”
She was so tense. A bead of sweat rolled down the bridge of her sharp nose and fell with a soft plop.
A short while later.
“…Done, nyang!”
In her hands, she carefully lifted a jewel that resembled a red diamond. At first glance, it looked insanely expensive, radiating a captivating crimson glow. Pink particles swirled and scattered around it like the subtle aura that flowed from rare items in games. Its brilliance and splendor were on a completely different level from ordinary or mid-grade maseoks.
Yeah. This was the kind of reward that made killing a boss actually feel worth it. It was worlds apart from those pathetic games where raiding a boss only left you with scars and empty glory.
Damn it. Just like my friend said, why the hell did I choose that godforsaken trash game instead of playing a normal RPG…
While I was inwardly cursing my past self and letting out a mental sigh, Sion raised the high-grade maseok high like a fisherman who had just caught a massive fish and shouted to the party.
“Look at this, nyang! This is what a high-grade maseok looks like, nyang!”
At its dazzling appearance, soft gasps of awe rose from those around us.
“Ooh… It’s so radiant…”
“Would someone as lowly as me even be allowed to gaze upon something so precious?”
— Sword —
“What the—?!”
The ego sword screamed as it was slammed into the ground, protesting that it had done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, the contractor and Hans were staring at the high-grade maseok with sparkling eyes.
‘Everyone’s really excited, huh.’
Watching my companions rejoice like kids who had just found a 50,000 dallant gift certificate during a scavenger hunt, I couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.
Still, it made sense. According to what I’d heard, high-grade maseoks like this were incredibly rare, usually only found inside high-tier monstrosities that lived deep in the Red Zone. In RPG terms, it was like clearing a low-level hunting ground that only dropped 5 won trash items, only to suddenly encounter an event boss that rewarded you with a 7 million won enhancement scroll.
There was a phrase from one of the web novels I used to read that fit this situation perfectly.
“…We got lucky.”
Uttering words I never imagined I’d say in my lifetime felt strangely surreal.
‘Lucky, huh.’
In my pathetic life, the only times I’d ever felt lucky were when I met my suspiciously rich, respected, and dakimakura-collecting friend Min-seok for the first time in high school, and when I encountered the contractor in that cramped one-room apartment right before reaching the ending of Terraforming.
But now that I thought about it… maybe I really had been quite a lucky person.
Strict but good parents. Strange but good friends. A shitty but well-paying job.
Looking back, my life had been remarkably smooth.
That was exactly why I had grown bored of that peaceful, uneventful life and chased after pleasure. I had thrown myself into disaster and drowned myself in the dopamine rush that was Terraforming.
And before I knew it, that had become my real life.
The abnormal had become normal.
Why?
‘Because I wanted it that way.’
Because I had wished for it. Rather than rotting away meaninglessly at a poorly ventilated office desk in a cramped cubicle, I had wanted to freely roam a ruined world…
—Ah, I want to quit my job and just play Terraforming all day… No, I want to live inside Terraforming…!
Because I had longed for it so desperately. Because I had wished for it with all my heart.
[Q. Do you truly… mean that?]
—Huh? What the hell?
Was this the moment I had been heading toward all along? The thought suddenly crossed my mind.
But then—
‘…What was that just now?’
A faded memory had flashed through my mind. I lowered my head, trying to recall it again, when Sion’s voice from beside me shattered my train of thought.
“Crow! This isn’t just ordinary luck, nyang! This is the kind of insane luck where you’d find an artifact lying around in the slums, nyang!”
“Is that so…?”
—Hey, did you hear that? Lucky Hans?
“Hmm. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say you were the lucky one, Sword? If it weren’t for me, you might have spent the rest of your life living in that dusty pit with the rats, right?”
—What? Do you truly believe that, Hans?
“Yes.”
—This… this lowly mortal…! You don’t know your place!
Suddenly, Hans and Sword began bickering, each claiming that meeting the other had been a stroke of fortune. Thanks to their noisy argument, I completely forgot what I had been trying to remember just moments ago.
It couldn’t be… dementia, right? I mean, I suppose I was old enough for that, but I refused to believe it. I was the Demon of Terror, not the Demon of Alzheimer’s.
Then, amid the small commotion, the contractor—who had been standing there blankly, mesmerized by the maseok’s magic power—quietly spoke up.
“Um… Sion-nim.”
“What is it, adventurer?”
“If this is the case, what happens to our original plan? With so many high-value maseoks to sell, wouldn’t it be difficult to accompany Hans-nim all the way to the 20th floor?”
At the calculating look in the contractor’s eyes, Hans’s complexion darkened rapidly.
“Y-Yuri…?”
His voice trembled slightly, and his expression was like that of an abandoned puppy. The stray hairs poking out between his red locks drooped like the ears of a countryside mutt.
— Sword —
Hans, prepare to be abandoned. As expected, comrades are a luxury you cannot afford! Life is a path one must walk alone, Hans!
“That’s…”
Seeing Hans suddenly dive into melodrama, Yuri hurriedly added,
“No… I’m not abandoning you. I was just saying that’s what it looks like.”
“Yuri…!”
“But if there’s no other way, we might not have a choice.”
“Huk.”
—Unlike a certain soft-hearted pebble, you really are ruthless. I like it. Contractor of Terror.
It might have seemed harsh, but I understood why the contractor was worried. Maseoks were essentially time-limited special items; unless specially coated by the Adventurer’s Guild, they continuously leaked mana. In other words, their value dropped over time.
However—
“Hehe, adventurer, you don’t need to worry about that, nyang! This Sherpa has already prepared everything, nyang!”
Despite the contractor’s concerns, Sion grinned confidently and pulled out a purple pouch from the large backpack Kkachi had spat out.
She made an expression so pleased that a blue robot cat with its ears cut off might have mistaken her for one of its own kind.
“Ah, thank you, Kkachi, nyang! Nyangnyang! Yes, as long as we have this, we don’t have to worry about the maseoks losing value, nyang!”
“Sion-nim, what is that?”
“This is called a maseok pouch, nyang!”
“A maseok pouch?”
The purple pouch had an extremely straightforward name, much like the plaza in front of the dungeon. As its name suggested, it was a pouch specifically for storing maseoks.
“If you put maseoks in here, there’s no mana leakage even without special coating, nyang!”
Just as Sion had said, not only did it prevent mana leakage and maintain the stones’ value, but the surface was also engraved with shock-absorbing runes. Even if it took a strong impact from outside, the maseoks inside would remain unharmed. It was the perfect storage item for preserving maseoks.
There was no better treasure for keeping maseoks in perfect condition.
But then—
“If you had something this good, why didn’t you bring it during the initial exploration, you thief?”
At my purely curious question, Sion took the high-grade maseok from the contractor and placed it inside the pouch as she answered.
“Ah, that’s because bringing a maseok pouch on a White Zone expedition wouldn’t be cost-effective, nyang.”
Although it sounded like a perfect item from the description, the maseok pouch actually had one fatal flaw.
That was—
“It’s a charge-type item. To use it, you need to charge it with mana at the Magic Tower for about three hours, nyang.”
“What?”
In order for the maseok pouch to function, it needed to be charged with mana once a week.
“How much does a single charge cost to make it that expensive?”
“One hundred.”
“One hundred dallants?”
“…As if, nyang? It costs a full one million dallants, nyang!”
‘One million? Not even the purchase price, but just to charge it once?’
Imagining a phone charger costing over a million in electricity fees made my head spin for a moment. I had been using mana like it was water and never realized it, but mana was actually insanely expensive?
‘Then… couldn’t I make money easily by selling mana?’
Since I could obtain mana easily as long as I felt fear, maybe I could sell it to the Magic Tower somehow, just like how adults used to sell their blood in the past?
While I was having these deranged thoughts, the contractor’s voice pulled my mind back to reality, telling me to stop thinking such crazy things.
“That makes sense. At that price, it would be too much to bring on a White Zone expedition.”
The contractor nodded in understanding at Sion’s explanation. Hans shrugged at her words.
“The maseoks found there are at most high-grade regular ones, after all.”
“Hans is right, nyang. Even if you collect things worth at most a thousand dallants, you’d never reach a million no matter how many you gathered, nyang!”
But things were different once you reached the Green Zone.
“From the Green Zone onward, mid-grade maseoks worth between twenty thousand and a hundred thousand dallants appear quite frequently. If you grind for about a week, you can easily gather a million, nyang!”
“I see. Understood.”
So that was why she had packed like a madwoman when we said we’d be staying in the Green Zone for a while. As expected, I could always trust our veteran!
Once the conversation was settled and we had finished harvesting the maseoks from the monstrosities that had gotten caught up in my battle with the Wendigo, we stood before a portal glowing green.
With only one step left until the floor transition portal, Sion turned around, looked at us, and grinned.
“Then let’s go, nyang!”
To catch the big one!!!
“We’re taking the fastest route to the 20th floor, nyang!”
Sion’s face was beaming like a miser who had picked up a gold bar on the side of the road after collecting a ton of maseoks. Hans asked her cautiously.
“…Um, are we flying again by any chance?”
“That’s right, nyang! Flying is faster, so there’s no need to walk, is there, nyang?”
“Aah… That’s true, but…!”
— Sword —
Just accept it already, Hans. This is the party you chose.
“Ugh.”
“Don’t worry, magic swordsman. I’ll fly as slowly as possible.”
“Uuu, I’ll really be counting on you, Raven-nim.”
“What, nyang? Wasn’t Crow going with me, nyang?”
“This time he’s coming with me, Sion-nim. I’ll make sure it’s an extremely satisfying flight.”
“What’s with you, adventurer? Your eyes look a little scary, nyang!”
“…Hehe.”
“Kkyu…?”
After soothing the now-pale Hans and shoving him through the portal with Sion, I took the contractor’s hand. Just before stepping into the portal—
“Hm?”
“Raven-nim, what’s wrong?”
I felt a gaze on the back of my head and turned around. There, I saw—
“Ukkiii….”
“You…?”
A proboscis monkey was staring at me with an unnecessarily wistful expression while scratching its crotch.
“Is there something behind me?”
“There’s… nothing…!”
“Eek!? Raven-nim!?”
At the terrifying sight that would surely haunt my dreams, I squeezed my eyes shut and jumped into the portal with the contractor.
—Ukkii…!
I thought I heard a sorrowful monkey cry in my ear, but I was sure I had misheard it. I believed that more firmly than anything else.