Forced onto the Path of Greatness
Just because it hit 2500 didn’t necessarily mean anything had to happen.
Reaching 2500 didn’t automatically mean a new skill would appear or anything like that.
And yet, this felt different. Like reaching a milestone in the middle of a marathon you’d been aiming for all along. There was something satisfying about a number that landed so cleanly.
Wow. Still... this does feel good.
The moment he raised his Luck by five—
Luck has reached 2500.
Special conditions have been fulfilled.
Legendary Class — Class advancement is beginning.
“What?”
The word slipped out before he knew it. That was how shocking the flood of windows spilling across his vision was.
“What do you mean, Legendary Class? No way, you bastard! Cancel! Cancel!”
Archisus is the god of luck and gamblers.
Whenever they need luck, everyone on the continent turns to Archisus. But unlike the other gods, Archisus never answers the calls of his followers.
A god with no priests, no temples—a god so absent one might doubt whether he exists at all.
But that age is over now.
You possess a level of luck too great for a mortal to bear.
You are no different from Archisus made flesh.
No—calling you Archisus himself would hardly be an exaggeration.
Accept the name of Archisus, and submit to that destiny.
🎁 Reward: Advancement to Avatar of Archisus.
“Has the system gone insane? What kind of class advancement quest is this?! And for a Legendary Class, too?!”
Shouldn’t a Legendary Class come with some impossibly complicated quest chain dozens of stages long?
But this class, Avatar of Archisus, was trying to shove itself into his hands just because he’d met the conditions.
Of course, reaching 2500 Luck without taking a single class wasn’t exactly some casual little requirement, but still...
“I refuse!”
If anyone else had seen it, they would’ve coughed blood and collapsed on the spot.
Even with a Legendary Class rolling right up to him, Kim Tae-hyun was still stubbornly clinging to his original plan.
But that stubbornness meant nothing in front of the system.
Class advancement cannot be refused.
You are advancing to Avatar of Archisus.
“What kind of bullshit is this?! Why can’t I refuse?!”
As you have advanced to a Legendary Class, you receive a stat bonus.
All stats increase by 50.
As you have advanced to a Legendary Class, the Reputation stat has been unlocked.
You have gained 500 Reputation.
As you have obtained a faith-related class, the Divinity stat has been unlocked.
You can now establish a sect.
Affinity with certain individuals has increased.
You have learned Archisus's Whim.
You have learned Divine Dignity.
You have learned Prayer of Luck.
Et cetera, et cetera...
Window after window poured down in a stream.
At that point, there was no denying reality anymore.
He had advanced into the Avatar of Archisus.
“...”
“What happened?!”
Ji-su panicked when Tae-hyun’s body suddenly flashed and then he dropped his head.
Judging by his expression, he looked like he’d just been scammed.
“I advanced. By force.”
“What? Really? Into what?”
“A Legendary Class...”
“...!”
Ji-su stared, startled.
“A Legendary Class? Isn’t that really good?!”
She congratulated him sincerely.
Tae-hyun had helped her all this time, so seeing things go well for him made her genuinely happy.
Of course, to Tae-hyun, her congratulations just sounded like meaningless buzzing.
“Can I ask what class it is? What kind?”
“...I’m quitting.”
“What?”
“I said I’m quitting!”
“No, why?!”
“I got force-advanced into a Legendary Class, so I’m quitting! Happy now?!”
Only then did Ji-su remember what Tae-hyun had told her before.
“Look. Say you’re a Normal Class, and you beat a Rare Class in a one-on-one fight. People would say that’s amazing, right?”
“But say you’re a Heroic Class, and you beat a Rare Class in a one-on-one fight. What would people say then? That you only won because of your class, obviously.”
He was serious about that?!
“You can’t! In Fantasy Online 2, if you delete a character and remake it, you have to wait forever!”
“Like I care!”
It was rare to see Tae-hyun this mentally wrecked.
“I’m logging out first. You do what you need to do. That party setup over there looks fine, so leveling with them wouldn’t be a bad idea.”
“Hyung? Hyung? No, wait! Hold on! If you delete your character, I don’t even know how to contact you outside the game—!”
Kim Tae-hyun has logged out.
“Hey! You jerk!”
Ji-su shouted it from the heart.
Even if he was going to delete his character, he should’ve at least told me how to contact him outside the game!
She’d thought they were close.
All at once, she felt hurt.
As he got out of the capsule, Tae-hyun swore viciously.
“What kind of dogshit game system is this?! What, ultimate freedom? What kind of so-called ultimate freedom doesn’t even let you refuse a class?!”
No matter how much he cursed, his anger wouldn’t go down.
Should I just delete the character?
But character deletion wasn’t simple.
Fantasy Online 2 was notoriously strict about deleting and remaking characters.
If you deleted one, you had to wait at least a year before making another.
Whether you like that character or hate it, take responsibility for your character!
That was the official stance of Fantasy Online.
If a year passed, catching back up to the rankers would become truly impossible.
And waiting a whole year was something Tae-hyun’s personality simply couldn’t tolerate.
Fantasy Online 2 was just that kind of game.
The most advanced virtual reality online game in the world—without equal.
“Ha. Seriously. Ha, seriously... ah, this damn...”
But Tae-hyun’s bad luck didn’t end there.
Knock knock.
“Son, you in there?”
“I’m here. What is it?”
When Kim Tae-san opened the door and stepped in, he was smiling.
The moment Tae-hyun saw that, a sudden feeling of dread crawled over him.
Whenever his father smiled like that, it usually meant he had cooked up something evil.
“...What is it? What did you do?”
“What would I have done?”
A smile that didn’t suit that rough face at all.
Tae-hyun felt himself getting more and more uneasy.
“Why? Feeling guilty?”
“About what?”
“You’ve got nothing bothering your conscience? Put your hand on your chest and think again.”
“Nope.”
“You little punk, you didn’t even think about it!”
“If there’s nothing, there’s nothing!”
“You little—! What did you say at Kang’s Sundae Soup?”
“...!”
Tae-hyun jumped.
“Wait, how do you know about that?”
“Ha! So now you admit it!”
Kim Tae-san liked hiking.
One day, while coming back down from a light climb up the neighborhood mountain, he was called over by someone he recognized.
“Good afternoon, sir.”
“Oh, right. You always look sturdy as ever.”
“Haha! Thank you.”
“Still, you should drink a little less.”
“Pardon? I quit drinking a while ago.”
Kim Tae-san really had quit, after his wife nagged him into it.
“Really? Strange. I distinctly heard that you drink too much and say all kinds of nonsense...”
The old man circled a finger beside his head.
The meaning was perfectly clear.
“What kind of bastard is spreading crap like that about me?!”
Kim Tae-san roared, blood rising instantly to his head.
A man his size, shouting in anger like that, made the old man flinch.
“N-no... really now. Calm down.”
“How am I supposed to calm down? Someone turns a perfectly normal man into a lunatic and you tell me to calm down? Who was it? Tell me right now!”
“Well, I don’t really know who it was... I was eating at Kang’s Sundae Soup, and somebody started talking about you. I just happened to hear it.”
“What did the bastard look like?!”
“Uh... well. He was tall. About your height...”
“And?”
“Built like you too. Broad shoulders.”
“...And?”
“Now that I think about it, his face was rough-looking like yours— I mean, ahem. A very manly face.”
“...”
Kim Tae-san pulled out his phone and opened a picture of Tae-hyun.
“Did he happen to look like this?”
“That’s him! That’s the one!”
“That little bastard...!”
To dare paint his father—his father—as some drunk lunatic?!
Bang!
Kim Tae-san stormed back home like a typhoon, then sat down in his study and thought long and hard.
How should he get revenge?
Arguing wouldn’t work. Fighting wouldn’t work either.
He rarely won verbal fights against Tae-hyun, and physically, beating a younger Tae-hyun was getting harder and harder.
And if his wife got involved...
I’d be the only one getting yelled at.
So then what? Spread nasty rumors about him?
But there weren’t really any rumors worth spreading.
Besides, Tae-hyun was the sort of shameless creature who didn’t care about rumors in the first place.
Even if word got around that he was a flasher, he’d probably stroll outside with his head held high.
He’s my son, but that little punk really is shameless!
And on top of that, if ugly rumors spread about Tae-hyun, the one whose dignity would be damaged in the end was Tae-hyun’s father—him.
The more he thought about it, the more unfair it felt.
No matter what kind of disaster that brat caused, he never seemed to suffer for it.
The brat had nothing to lose.
He, on the other hand, had plenty.
This time, I swear I’ll—!
What did Tae-hyun hate?
After seriously pondering his son’s weak point for over an hour, Kim Tae-san suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
“That’s it! Yun-hee!”
Just as his own weak point was his wife, Tae-hyun’s weak point was his mother.
After all, Tae-hyun had never once refused to do something his mother told him to do.
“Kuhahaha! Kuhahahahahahahahaha! You little bastard! Just you wait!”
As he imagined Tae-hyun’s face crumpling, Kim Tae-san laughed so hard the whole study shook.
“Quiet down!”
“...Yes, dear.”
Of course, he had to stop immediately.
“The people at the soup place sure do have loose lips. Can’t keep a secret to save their lives.”
“Heh heh. Sure. Enjoy yourself while you can, son.”
“...?”
Tae-hyun started feeling truly uneasy now.
Normally if he threw out a provocation like that, his father would immediately take the bait. But this time Kim Tae-san was just smiling in total relaxation.
It was so calm it didn’t even feel like his hot-blooded father.
What the hell did he set up?
“Tae-hyun?”
“Mom?”
“I heard from your father. He says you’ve been trying to do something with games?”
“What?”
“I didn’t know before, but after hearing about it, it doesn’t sound bad. These days, they say that can be a profession too.”
Even if you didn’t go as far as becoming a pro gamer, top rankers in Fantasy Online 2 could earn more than enough money just from personal streams.
And players with star power like Lee Se-yeon were practically celebrities.
“If you like it that much, there must be a reason, right? I used to think games were just a hobby, but if it can really become a profession, then I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. Most of all, it’s something you love.”
“No, Mom, that’s not...”
For Tae-hyun, games were just a hobby.
Even back in Fantasy Online 1, he’d gotten an absurd number of offers.
“Come join our guild and let’s stream seriously.”
“We’re planning to create a pro team for Fantasy Online 1, and we absolutely want you in it! We’ll give you any position you want, so please come!”
Of course, Tae-hyun had rejected every single one of them flat out.
You played games to have fun, not to make money.
That was also why he had never streamed personally.
While other rankers all started broadcasting one by one, Tae-hyun never bothered with that sort of thing—he just kept cutting down rankers.
Because of that, his fans had to watch the personal streams of the rankers getting slaughtered just to catch glimpses of him.
And now, this late in the game, his parents were telling him to try going in that direction?
To Tae-hyun, it felt like a bolt from the blue.
“I’m just doing this for fun...”
“If it’s only for fun, then spend less time on it.”
It was so completely correct that he couldn’t refute it.
“If you’re putting that much time into it, that means you love it that much. And if you love it that much, then find a path in that field.”
“A path... meaning...”
Jeong Yun-hee looked at Kim Tae-san.
Grinning, Kim Tae-san said,
“Get famous by rising into the top ranks in-game, or make entertaining streams and break into the top of the broadcast rankings, or if not that, make a lot of money through the game. Wouldn’t you say that’s what it means to find a path?”
Tae-hyun’s face twisted more and more by the second.
And seeing that, Kim Tae-san felt profoundly satisfied.
It was like ten years of indigestion had finally gone down.