The Thorny Path He Chose

Kim Tae-hyun had already made up his mind to walk the thorny path.

If there was a skill he could learn, then he had to learn it.

"You've got talent, don't you?"

"That's just how I am."

"You're not humble at all."

"That's just how I am."

Whether Sophia stared at him in disbelief or not, Tae-hyun kept stirring the ladle in silence.

Since this was a virtual reality game, learning skills wasn't easy either.

Just because you learned something didn't mean you'd instantly master it. You had to figure it out with your own body.

"I think you still need to do more."

"It's still lacking. The seasoning isn't flavorful enough."

"Better than last time, but it's still not enough."

"Excuse me, I'd like to rest too, you know. How long exactly are you planning to keep coming here?"

Each time he cooked something and handed it over, Sophia's response changed.

At first she'd been grateful because he had found her husband's corpse, but once Tae-hyun started showing up nonstop without taking a break and shoving dish after dish at her, she gradually grew irritated.

NPCs were people too, in the end.

"My skills are still terribly lacking!"

"No, at this point that's enough. What are you even trying to do by getting this good at cooking?!"

Maybe if this were another city in another kingdom, it'd be different, but Tyrum was a hunters' city located deep in the mountains.

The Salz Kingdom itself, where Tyrum City stood, was practically a kingdom of hunters, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so compared to other countries, it lagged badly in culture and that sort of thing.

It was a secret seasoning Sophia had learned from her grandmother.

Normally she never taught it to anyone else, but thanks to Tae-hyun finding her family member's corpse, he had been able to learn it.

Of course, it may also have been because your stubborn persistence was getting on her nerves...

When consumed, it temporarily increased HP by 5% and Strength by 5.

It dropped!

This was exactly why he'd wanted to learn cooking from an NPC.

If he'd just tried cooking alone, recipes like this would've been almost impossible to come by.

"At this point, I don't think there's anything left for me to teach you."

"No. I want to learn more."

"Get out already!"

He got kicked out by Sophia, but Tae-hyun didn't stop.

He went straight to find August.

"I wish to cook for the Tyrum Hunters."

"What did you say?! As expected of you, lad..."

By now, Tae-hyun didn't even bother responding. He just moved.

The Tyrum Hunters were the NPCs who stayed in Tyrum City and roamed around its surroundings.

In other cities, soldiers would have filled that role, but in Tyrum City, the Tyrum Hunters did.

You could think of them as a kind of army.

Naturally, there were a lot of them, and they had their own quarters.

"So you're the one who found Dainz. August told us."

"Thanks to you, we were able to bury our friend. But what brings you here?"

"I'm going to cook for all of you."

"What?"

Their affinity with him was high enough that they didn't reject him, but the Tyrum Hunters were baffled by how he'd suddenly shown up offering to cook for them.

"Cooking, huh. Well, we wouldn't mind..."

"Can he actually cook? Doesn't seem like he'd be as good as Sophia."

"Come to think of it, it's been a while since we've had Sophia's food."

Leaving the murmuring Tyrum Hunters behind him, Tae-hyun walked up to the cauldron.

The barracks were full of ingredients.

As expected of hunters' quarters, they had ingredients to spare.

The only problem was that nobody cooked.

Just as I thought. I can coast on this.

A place where he could make a big show of cooking for everyone without spending a single coin.

A place where he could raise his skill proficiency like crazy.

For ordinary skills like cooking, proficiency was hugely important.

The higher it got, the bigger the gap became.

Tae-hyun tossed chunks of meat into the pot just as Sophia had taught him and started boiling them.

The hunters, who had watched him with skepticism, began loitering around him before long as a rich, savory smell filled the barracks.

"Oh, that smells pretty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠good..."

"Mind if I try a bite?"

"Go ahead."

"Ohhh! This taste!"

"It tastes exactly like Sophia's cooking!"

"Now it's cooking?"

"Isn't it a good thing he's not killing rabbits?"

"He probably isn't not killing rabbits."

"Huh?"

"No, nothing. See any other players worth noting?"

"Lee Se-yeon has reached the final Legendary quest. She'll probably class-change into Successor of the Necronomicon sometime this week."

"Just as expected."

"It's all over the broadcasts and forums right now."

Unlike Tae-hyun, who never uploaded his own gameplay or posted about what he'd done, Lee Se-yeon had been a famous player since Fantasy Online 1.

She was the type who was good at uploading videos of her play and promoting her guild.

With her skill and looks, her popularity had no ceiling.

Even now, she had personally given an interview announcing she'd reached the final stretch of her Legendary quest.

Fantasy Online 1 had been a worldwide hit too, but compared to the success of 2, it felt shabby.

That's how overwhelmingly successful 2 had been.

Which meant the standout players from 1 got plenty of attention, and plenty of people wanted to interview them.

"I'm gonna get some sleep, so you take over after a while too."

"Yes, sir!"

"Ji-su, are you still in the Salz Kingdom? You said you'd come to the Erangs Kingdom once you hit level 10."

"Huh? Oh. Right."

"You still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠haven't hit level 10?"

"Uh... I did, but I got a quest."

"Really? What kind of quest?"

"I hope it's a rare one!"

As her friends excitedly pressed her for details, Ji-su hesitated over how to answer.

- I met this guy in front of Tyrum City who only hunts rabbits. He's a nice person, but kind of weird. I ended up following him around, and then I class-changed into a Heroic class.

They'll probably worry for no reason...

Her friends were the worrying type, so if she told them the truth, they'd probably start fussing unnecessarily.

"It's a class quest... it's nothing special. I'll clear it soon and head over there. What are you guys doing?"

"Us? I class-changed into a mage, so I've been sightseeing around the city while doing Magic Tower quests."

"I joined the Tailor's Guild and I'm learning tailoring skills. It's actually really fun."

Her friends weren't the kind of players who treated the game like their lives depended on it.

They leveled up at a reasonable pace, did quests at a reasonable pace, looked around beautiful places...

Honestly, this was how most players played.

Players like Tae-hyun, who ground themselves half to death, were the minority.

The Erangs Kingdom had everything from the Magic Tower to all kinds of production-class guilds, plus high-level NPCs.

So players who started there could join under those NPCs, learn from them, and pick up quests.

There was a reason the Salz Kingdom got trashed so much.

The surrounding difficulty was high, but the facilities inside the kingdom were pathetic, and the only thing with even a halfway decent reputation was the hunters.

If you asked people from other kingdoms about the Salz Kingdom, you'd hear things like those barbarians or those mountain idiots who only know how to shoot bows.

"You should hurry up and come to the Erangs Kingdom too. Let's hang out together."

"Uh... my knight uncle's here, so I have to go! See you later!"

Ji-su ran toward the car that had stopped in front of her, and the friends she left behind looked at each other.

"Doesn't Ji-su seem kind of weird?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just a little while ago, she kept being depressed because she'd picked the wrong kingdom with Salz. But now it feels like she's suddenly in a good mood."

"Maybe she found a quest or an item or something?"

"You think Ji-su's simple enough to perk up over something like that? What is she, you?"

"Why are you taking it out on me? Just ask Ji-su!"

"If Ji-su didn't tell us first, then obviously she'll hide it if we ask! You know what she's like, don't you? What if we keep pressing and she gets upset?"

One of them snapped at Si-young.

Si-young stared back at Hana like she'd lost her mind.

And she calls herself a friend...

"Then why don't you go to the Salz Kingdom and check what she's doing?"

"Oh! Can I do that? Wait, isn't the Salz Kingdom supposed to be super hard?"

"Tyrum City is a beginner starting city, so it should be better than the other places."

Si-young answered with a yawn.

"Really? Then maybe I'll go with some people from the guild."

Even though they went to an all-girls school, Ji-su was popular.

She had beautiful, slightly androgynous looks, a bright and kind personality, good grades—and her family background didn't even need mentioning.

Even I think I might be a little insane.

Stretching, Tae-hyun opened his status window.

His level had only gone up by 2 at most, but his Luck had nearly doubled.

His Cooking skill had reached level 4 too.

The reason was simple.

After cooking for the Tyrum Hunters, when he ran out of ingredients, he went outside and hunted rabbits.

He killed so many of them that they'd temporarily stop spawning, then returned with the rabbit meat.

Then he cooked again.

He repeated this over and over without getting sick of it.

He was long past the point where hunting rabbits was good for leveling, but Tae-hyun didn't care.

I'll raise my stats until they stop going up!

Tae-hyun's greatest strength wasn't his amazing control.

It was his stubbornness—once he chose a direction, he never stopped.

"This rabbit dish is really delicious."

"Amazing! If I could eat rabbit like this every day, I'd have nothing more to ask for."

"It really is tasty, but don't you have anything else? We brought back deer and bear too..."

"Please, just make something besides rabbit! Somebody go get Sophia!"

As a result, the ones dying inside were the Tyrum Hunters.

They were used to eating a variety of dishes, after all.

At first they'd been delighted that Tae-hyun was cooking delicious meals for them, but once he kept making nothing but rabbit over and over, they started suffering from sheer exhaustion of the palate.

If Tae-hyun had low affinity, one of them would've threatened him into stopping, but his Tyrum Hunter affinity was maxed out.

So all of them suffered in silence while continuing to accept his goodwill.

"Urgh... I don't want rabbit meat anymore..."

Swordsmanship, cooking, butchering... and while hunting rabbits, my Luck keeps going up too. Perfect.

Tae-hyun had no idea, but when Team Leader Choi Myung-sung came back from his break and saw Tae-hyun's stats, he nearly foamed at the mouth.

"Does that bastard never sleep?!"

"All right, now that I've rested a bit..."

"...!"

"I should probably learn some blacksmithing too. Where's the forge the Tyrum Hunters use?"

Choi Myung-sung nearly fell over backward.

He'd gotten friendly with them thanks to Luck in a way he'd never expected, but being close with the hunters in Tyrum came with a tremendous advantage.

The Tyrum Hunters were the biggest force in Tyrum City.

The forge they frequented, the restaurants they used, the taverns, the inn...

There were too many to count.

Which meant that if you were close with the Tyrum Hunters, every one of those places would treat you kindly.

It was the sort of treatment a newly starting beginner could never hope to receive.

"Get lost before I throw salt at you!"

"I'll do anything you ask! Please give me a quest!"

"Who the hell do you think you are that I'd give you work? You think blacksmithing is some kind of joke? Get lost!"

One player was clinging to the blacksmith's leg and begging before finally being kicked away.

The white-haired blacksmith, who looked irritable as hell, bellowed at him at the top of his lungs.

"If you come back again, I'll smash your skull in with a hammer!"

That's a bit harsh. Surely he won't treat me like that too?

The NPCs in Fantasy Online 2 were basically people.

They had all kinds of personalities, and naturally, some of them had rotten tempers.

You had to be careful when approaching those kinds.

Otherwise, you'd end up like that poor guy getting chased off.

"You are..."

When the blacksmith looked at him, Tae-hyun tensed.

"Ah! A new Tyrum Hunter. Come in, come in! What do you need?"