The Mage's Unfortunate Choice
After dinner, we talked in Ha-im's room instead of mine.
"Oppa, please save me!"
"Hmm, what should I do?"
Ha-im knelt before me and begged. My little sister had become my slave. How should I tease her?
"No, isn't there another way? Don't fortune readings give lucky items or something?"
"There is one, but I can't remember because I'm low on sugar. Got anything sweet?"
"……!"
Ha-im rushed to the kitchen and came back with ice cream. Not just any ice cream—Häagen-Dazs.
"Here you go."
I felt like I'd acquired a pretty good slave. I scooped up the strawberry Häagen-Dazs with a spoon.
"So what's my lucky item?"
"Kingfisher."
"……?"
"You don't know? It's a bird from the kingfisher family, one of Korea's summer migratory birds."
Except it was currently winter in Korea.
"What the hell?! How am I supposed to get that now?!"
Nom nom.
"You don't need to get it."
"Huh? Didn't you say I had Great Misfortune today?"
"Yeah, only today."
"……!"
Once today passed, the Great Misfortune would disappear too. And right now it was 11 PM. If nothing happened, the misfortune's influence would fade on its own.
"Th-then my ice cream…?"
"Here." I handed the empty cup to my slave. "You can clean it up yourself."
"Mom! Oppa ate my ice cream!"
My slave bolted toward Mrs. Kim. Nothing good would come of running like that.
"Aack, my toe!"
The idiot slave stubbed her toe on the doorknob. The Great Misfortune's influence still hadn't worn off.
The next day, a mysterious package arrived at our doorstep.
Sender: Korea Awakener Association
Recipient: Lee Sung-a
'Lee Sung-a? Who's that?' We didn't have anyone by that name in our house…
"Hey, Ha-im, is this for you?"
"Yeah, what is it?"
Ha-im checked the name on the package. Had she secretly changed her name without telling the family?
"This is definitely yours, Oppa."
"Huh? What are you talking about? My name isn't on it."
"Just open it."
"……?"
Following Ha-im's advice, I opened the package. Inside were three items: a resident registration card, a passport, and a smartphone.
"This has my photo on it… but the name…"
Lee Sung-a
It was only one character different from my name. Why was there a name I'd never seen before on my ID?
"Oh, the photo came out nice."
"Did you take it?"
"Yeah, a little Photoshop and it's done. Easy."
That stalker brat. When did she even take the photo? She could've at least told me.
"Anyway, the name's different. What happened?"
"I changed it. I'm your guardian now."
Ha-im had been the first to find me and she was family, so it made sense that she was my guardian. But the name…
"Why change a perfectly fine name?"
"But I wanted a pretty name for my big sister."
Right after she said that, I smacked her on the back out of sheer annoyance.
"Ow! Ow! Stop hitting me!"
"Sung-a?! What kind of name is Sung-a?! It's totally a girl's name!"
"But you're a girl now, Oppa!"
"No, still, this is a bit…"
As always, no matter how much my body had changed into a woman's, I hadn't abandoned my masculinity.
"Oh, check your bank account. The Association probably deposited money."
"Money?"
At the mention of money, I stopped hitting her. The smartphone had no password, so it opened easily, and the apps were all the same.
"How many zeros? One, two… seven?!"
When I checked the account, ten million won had been deposited. I'd heard welfare for Returnees had improved, but I didn't expect this much.
"Well, I'm heading out. I have university classes."
Ha-im grabbed her bag and left. I was alone in the house now. What should I do?
"…Might as well play a game."
Since I had nothing else to do, I might as well play a game at my leisure. I went to my sister's room and turned on the computer. The desktop was filled with various games. This girl really lived for gaming. I absolutely must not become like her.
"Any good games these days?"
I should check the community after so long.
Every other comment was also recommending Last Magic.
'Should I give it a try?'
Last Magic was already installed on the computer. I created an account and entered the character creation screen. There were five classes total.
Swordsman
Mage
Thief
Martial Artist
Priest
It was a game where you chose your favorite class and advanced. And I was a meta slave. The type who'd quit immediately if the damage was low—an utterly ruthless meta slave.
'Should I check my fortune first?'
These kinds of RPGs usually did balance patches over time. Because of that, top-tier dealers could fall to the ground while bottom-tier dealers could soar to the sky. And the community always got noisy during balance patches.
What I needed to pick here was the job that received the least hate while dealing the highest damage for the next ten years.
I lit a tissue with the lighter I'd brought from Manager Lee's room. As smoke rose, it revealed the character's appearance.
'Now, tell me. What's the job that gets the least hate while dealing the highest damage for the next ten years?'
The smoke showed a female character holding a rope and a staff.
Mage.
The smoke had shown "Mage."
My divination was always right. I entered the character creation screen, selected the Mage class, and entered the game. I set the gender to female, but the nickname was the problem.
'What should I use?'
I moved my fingers across the keyboard as I pleased.
[Ha-imIsTheKingOfDicks]
"Kya, this is it!"
The nickname already felt familiar. Now I was in the mood to play. Next was the character customization. Honestly, this was the most troublesome part. My dexterity was just too poor…
[Would you like to synchronize with your real face?]
'Synchronize?'
Without thinking, I pressed the YES button on the suddenly appeared prompt.
Click!
"Ugh!"
The computer's camera function activated and took a photo of my face with a flash.
"Wh-what? Why did it suddenly take a photo?"
It would've been better to just make it manually. But when I checked the character's face, it had changed to look exactly like mine.
"So that's what synchronization is?"
Technology had really improved these days. Even though I was the one saying it, the face was really pretty. Since making it would be a hassle, I'd just go with this.
When I logged into the game, a beautiful angel greeted me.
"Welcome, hero! We…"
'Yeah, skip.'
"We have prepared a special power for you…"
'Yeah, skip.'
Skip skip skip…
I spammed the skip button. I didn't need to listen to this. I was going to use a jumping ticket anyway. I immediately applied the jumping ticket to my character and went to the town square. It was filled with players who had the same class as me.
'First I need to enhance my weapon, right?'
Following what Anonymous had told me, I entered the weapon enhancement window first.
'My fortune today is "Ordinary Path." I wonder if it'll be okay?'
"Ordinary Path" meant an average fortune with neither plus nor minus.
"Should I give it a try?"
This was confidence. If you think you'll fail, even things you'd succeed at will fail.
Click!
Failure
"Ugh, failing on the first enhancement…"
The start wasn't great, but this was where it began. I immediately spammed the enhancement button until +16.
I quickly reached +16. Now came the dreaded +17 enhancement. Because you couldn't use probability-up items from +1 to +17, it was called the newbie filter. Once you achieved +17, the auction house feature would open, so it was mandatory. Many newbies got filtered out at this point.
But I was different from ordinary newbies. I'd breeze through this easily.
Click!
Failure
'…Well, eating it on the first try was too much to ask.'
This was where it began. I spammed the enhancement button again.
Failure
Failure
Failure
…
Failure
Click click click click
No matter how much I clicked now, I couldn't even attempt enhancement.
"Why won't it work?!"
When I checked, I was out of materials and currency. I'd used up all the materials and currency the jumping ticket had given me. Without hesitation, I entered the payment window and casually spent about 500,000 won.
'Alright, let's see who wins.'
"Huff, I finally succeeded…"
I'd succeeded at +17 with 1.5 million won. It was a human victory. Now I'd met the minimum requirements to go on raids.
'Where should I go?'
With an excited heart, I entered the party finder and immediately sent join requests.
'With this spec, they won't reject me—'
Rejected.
"…They did."
'W-well, they can reject me. It's fine. I can just send requests to other parties.'
But that was a huge miscalculation. No matter how many join requests I sent to other parties, all I got back were rejection messages. Unable to bear it, I wrote a post in the community.
No matter how many join requests I send, they all reject me. I even matched accessories with +17
Every single comment was mocking me. For accurate confirmation, I wrote another post in the community.
In most RPGs, isn't Mage an overpowered class? I thought Mages dealt good damage?
"……"
Mage was quite different from what I'd imagined. It seemed I'd picked the worst class in the RPG. Clench!
'I can't give up here…!'
Glass cannon? I'd just avoid getting hit. Highest control difficulty? I'd just stop when my fingers hurt. Lowest mobility? I'd just move in advance. I'd already spent so much money—I couldn't give up now.
"I'll make this class work in raids somehow…!"
One month later.
Ha-im looked at her older sibling who was still gaming late into the night. From the hunched back to the snack crumbs scattered across the desk to the eyes full of dark circles—nothing about it looked healthy.
"Oppa, can't you come out for a bit?"
"Just a little more. I'm in a raid right now. Yawn~"
The fortune teller who had defeated the Demon King and returned to Earth…
"Hehe, this is fun."
…had become a game addict.