The Kingdom Everyone Told Him Not to Choose

"I like searching for things, but I’ve got no intention of actually doing that. I wouldn’t care if someone else took it. Ah. If it’s a weak class, I might."

"You freak. Fine, then I’ll try it first, and when you start, I’ll help you. If you play like that, you’re honestly gonna need a lot of help."

"Thanks."

"You’ve been going to college, right? What’s it like being back after so long?"

"Yeah. The people who recognized me seemed to hate me."

"Well, that’s because of what you did."

"No, what did I do?"

Kim Tae-hyun grumbled.

He was, sincerely, completely shameless.

"Gasp. That guy. He’s that senior, isn’t he?"

"Huh? Ji-young, who is that?"

"You’re better off not getting too close to him. He’s seriously weird."

"Why? Did he beat people up? Throw his weight around?"

"No, not exactly, but..."

After enrolling, the students in their year had naturally broken off into little groups and gotten close.

And what did college kids who’d only just shed the last traces of adolescence do most?

They played games. So of course, they played together.

Right around then, the famous game company Flameburst released a new FPS, and it exploded in popularity. There was no way it wouldn’t—its cast of wildly different characters crashing into one another in fierce battles made it irresistible.

And among them, Tae-hyun had stood out.

"Head. Head. Head."

Winning a three-on-one was standard for him.

"A healer beat a damage dealer?!"

He even killed damage dealers while playing a healer.

Tae-hyun’s play was so absurd, clips of it ended up on the game’s official website.

"Uh, but why are you picking the defense-turret character when we’re attacking?"

Of course, even back then there had been warning signs.

His classmates just hadn’t noticed.

The disaster happened at a PC bang.

One classmate who treated ranked matches like life or death had begged Tae-hyun to duo with him. He figured having Tae-hyun on his side would make things much easier.

It was a catastrophic miscalculation.

"Tae-hyun... why are you picking Hanju..."

Hanju was an archer character. While everyone else ran around with bombs, guns, and even robots, Hanju was the one idiot using a bow.

Maybe because of that, the class had an infamous reputation for being the weakest in the game.

How bad was it?

If someone on your team picked Hanju, other players would literally threaten to leave.

"I’ve been messing around with this one lately. It’s fun."

"Switch, you bastard! Pick something else!"

"Who are you to order me around?"

And Tae-hyun had always been the type to get even more contrary the second someone told him what to do.

He refused flatly.

Then the game began.

Tae-hyun took every gold medal except healing and killed anything that moved on the other team, but the overall skill gap between the teams was just too large.

In the end, they lost.

"You, you! I asked you to help me!"

"I did help. You blind? Didn’t you see all the gold medals?"

"You’d have done even better if you picked something else!"

"That’s hindsight. It’s not like I failed to pull my weight. I practically carried three people by myself, and if we still lost, then that’s because you sucked."

"You little..."

His furious classmate came swinging.

And got beaten like a dog by Tae-hyun.

"Uh... so you’re saying he’s a bad person because he picked a weird game character?"

"No, look at what he did after that!"

"But the other guy attacked first, didn’t he? And he was the one who asked for help."

"Th-that’s true, but... anyway, he’s weird. Nothing good comes from getting involved with him, so it’s better to avoid him."

"??"

So-hee tilted her head, unable to understand her friend at all.

She was someone who had taken a leave of absence right after enrolling because of personal circumstances, then come back later.

"He doesn’t seem that weird to me..."

"Anyway, I’m just gonna prove I topped the class and then start gaming again, so wait three months."

"What, did you reserve first place in advance or something? Hey. Korea University isn’t exactly some place any random idiot can get into..."

Choi Sang-yun laughed as he said it.

"At this rate, you might not start for another year."

"We’ll see about that."

And when the first semester ended, Tae-hyun casually took ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠first place in the department.

"Finally."

Tae-hyun nodded as he looked at the capsule sitting in the middle of the spacious room.

Unlike Fantasy Online 1, Fantasy Online 2 required proper full-scale equipment.

That just means the realism is on another level.

After seeing his grades, his mother had granted him a short vacation.

Of course, he’d still have to work ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hard during the second semester, but for a while she would leave him alone.

She was the type who kept her promises.

"Kim Tae-hyun."

"Huh?"

He hadn’t expected the starting region to be split up.

Tae-hyun whispered to his friend, Choi Sang-yun.

"Sang-yun. I just got here. I’m making my character now."

"Oh? Really? I’ll come help!"

"Nah, it’s fine. The beginning’s more fun solo. More importantly, there are way too many starting regions. Got anywhere you’d recommend?"

"If you check the guide sites, they all say Dungland Kingdom or Erangs Kingdom are good for beginners."

"Then I asked the wrong question. Not what’s good for beginners—what do they absolutely not recommend?"

"That’d be Salz Kingdom, but... hey, you’re not pulling that crap from the start, are you? Seriously, don’t! Salz Kingdom is absolute hell! At least get your footing first before you try something like that!"

"My starting region is Salz Kingdom."

The guide site Fantasy Online 2 Mania was as lively as ever.

With hundreds of millions of users logging in from around the world, it was only natural the site would be packed.

It had even made Today’s Best.

The reply underneath it was surprisingly kind.

Under that came the innocent questions from clueless newbies.

"Oh. So this is what it feels like?"

Tae-hyun was impressed by how vivid it all was.

This was close to reality—on a completely different level from the previous generation of virtual reality games.

He clenched and unclenched his fist, then looked around.

It felt like a city, but a small one. A sparsely populated one.

The facilities looked shabby across the board, and the mountains boxed in the view on all sides.

And the faces of the players wandering around...

They looked miserable.

These were the people who had realized too late that they’d picked the wrong place.

"This is perfect. Perfect."

Tae-hyun felt his desire for a challenge surge up.

Yeah. This was how it should be. If it wasn’t at least this bad, where was the fun?

"...?"

Fascinated, Tae-hyun prodded the quest window with his hand for a moment, then dismissed it.

"A tutorial? Why would I do that?"

His starting gear was already equipped in the item window.

Basic beginner equipment.

I’ll check my character sheet, then head straight out to hunt.

Hmm. Those are definitely beginner stats.

And more than that, the line that read Class: Jobless bothered him.

Normally it would say Class: None, wouldn’t it?

Why did it have to be phrased in the most irritating way possible?

Are they trying to tell me to change classes already?

Tae-hyun opened his item window.

"..."

No matter how he looked at it, he could feel the malice of the developers.

"Well... whatever."

Tae-hyun headed for the city gate.

Though calling it a city gate was generous. Instead of grand walls, there was only a wooden palisade.

Even the guard standing watch looked lazy.

And outside any place like this, there were always beginner monsters.

I’ll kill a few, level up a bit, then think about how I want to build this character.

What kind of build would make people call him the biggest freak?

Mulling that over, Tae-hyun walked on.

Outside the gate, rabbits hopped through the grass.

Tae-hyun snorted.

"You’d think they could come up with something less lazy than rabbits for beginner monsters."

Still muttering to himself, he rushed one.

His strike landed cleanly, with perfect weight behind it.

Thud!

Then the rabbit counterattacked.

With a flying side kick.

Thud!

"?!?!"

Half ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his health vanished.

Before he could even process the shock, the rabbit raised its tiny fist and punched at him.

Tae-hyun dodged in a hurry.

No matter how startled he was, his control hadn’t gone anywhere.

What kind of goddamn rabbit is this?!

A punch, then a kick.

Seeing a city-gate rabbit pull off moves worthy of a skilled fighter was so ridiculous it was almost insulting.

And even after taking his attack, the rabbit looked perfectly fine.

Tae-hyun laughed again.

"Yeah. This is more like it! Come on! Hahaha!"

The guard at the gate yawned, then shook his head.

He knew a lot of newly arrived adventurers were strange, but this one was a first.

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠man laughing cheerfully while fighting a rabbit.

"That was a good fight."

Breathing hard, Tae-hyun looked down at the collapsed rabbit.

Personally, he felt like it had been tougher than fighting a thief ranker from the top twenty.

"Oh. Already? Just from killing one rabbit?"

"Hmm..."

Tae-hyun fell into thought.

Bonus stats are a beginner-only thing, right?

Once you chose a class, leveling up raised your stats automatically in line with that class.

But before that, you had to distribute your own stats.

To match the class you wanted.

Most people got a class before level 10 if they were fast, and before level 20 at the latest.

There were people who hunted for something better than a standard class—Rare or Heroic classes—but those were hard to find, and even harder to share.

You couldn’t cling forever to something that might never be discovered, so aside from a lucky few, most people settled.

"This is the kind of thing I should ask Sang-yun."

"If you cut off a whisper on me one more time, I’m blocking you."

The first thing he heard back was his friend’s deadly serious threat.