Chapter 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Synchronization (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“So it wasn’t a dream.”
Right after I woke up to the blaring alarm and got out of bed.
I muttered to myself, checking the status window floating before my eyes once more.
Name: Kim Hanul
Age: 28
Gender: Male
- Stats -
Strength: 10
Agility: 6
Stamina: 13
Mentality: 5
- Skills -
Regeneration Lv.1
- Contracted Divine Seats -
None
So far, everything was the same.
No different from when I first Awakened.
My stats were still horribly pathetic.
“Back then, I was jumping for joy just to have this.”
Thirty years ago, after the cataclysmic event where gates opened and monsters appeared all over the world.
‘Awakened Beings,’ who wielded scientifically inexplicable superpowers, became heroes overnight.
So, naturally, I thought I’d hit the jackpot.
I boasted that I would succeed as a Hunter, let my mother live a comfortable life, and pay off all my student loans.
That was before I was assessed and told my stats were no different from a normal person’s.
Of course, the so-called sponsors who only approached the most exceptional of the Awakened.
The ‘Divine Seats’ didn’t even give me a second glance.
And the skill with the grand name ‘Regeneration’?
- Your platelets are just a tiny bit more active than a normal person’s.
That’s what the doctor at the Awakened Management office said, covering his mouth with a surprised expression.
- This is truly amazing!
Amazing, sure, for a normal person.
Thanks to it, new skin grows back in a few days even without any healing ointment.
It means I saved money on salves.
Plus, I didn't tire easily, so I could work manual labor for years without my body breaking down.
Thanks to that, I was able to bring some money home and pay off my student loans, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.
“Still, I thought my stamina would’ve gone up after years of manual labor. But my stats haven’t changed at all.”
I heard some Hunter went from E-rank to A-rank just through endless self-training, but seeing this, I know that’s total bullshit.
An Awakened Being’s potential for growth is pretty much set the moment they Awaken.
“But how do I get a skill just by playing some game?”
In that sense, this was unbelievable.
I stared at the flashing text just below my status window.
[You have acquired a new skill. Would you like to view detailed information?]
I touched my earlobe.
It wasn't a habit; it was how I answered the status window’s prompts.
The window expanded, and new information appeared before my eyes.
[Conversation with the Lord Lv.1]
[Bargain with the Lord Lv.1]
These were the two new skills I got last night.
The reward for being the first in ‘MonMonMak’ to defend against the 700th wave.
There were two, but the ‘Conversation with the Lord’ skill was grayed out.
It wasn't active.
So, what was ‘Bargain with the Lord’?
[Activating Bargain with the Lord Lv.1.]
[You have not yet acquired enough gold! Unable to load the list of available bargains.]
“What a crappy game.”
Unfortunately, I couldn't get detailed information on this one either.
But I had a vague idea.
Call it the intuition of a seven-year veteran of ‘MonMonMak’.
I got up and turned on my computer.
“First, the MonMonMak website is gone.”
I muttered after trying to access the site I had bookmarked at the very top of my list.
The MonMonMak homepage had vanished without a trace.
Naturally, the game launcher that ran through the website didn't work either.
There was now no way to play the game.
“Then, next is…”
I only checked to confirm; I had expected this anyway.
As planned, I started my stream.
It was early, so no one joined when I went live.
Except for one person.
[Viewer 1 has entered the broadcast.]
Viewer 1.
“Bro.”
I called out to him with a calm expression.
[Viewer 1: Good morning, What Kind of Crappy Game Is This.]
“I have something to ask you.”
[Viewer 1: Please, go ahead, What Kind of Crappy Game Is This.]
“...You can just call me Hanul.”
[Viewer 1: Understood, Hanul.]
Viewer 1 obediently followed my request.
“After I blocked the 700th wave yesterday, I got a new skill. Not a skill in the game, but a real skill in my actual status window. Right when you said the ‘Lord’ had Awakened.”
[Viewer 1: Yes, Hanul.]
I had a feeling.
This guy knows exactly what’s going on.
“Could you please explain what kind of skill this is and how to use it?”
[Viewer 1: It would be better for you to find that out yourself, Hanul. Not only do I not know exactly which skill you received, but even if I did, I have no authority to tell you.]
A firm reply came back.
His tone left no room for argument, and I felt a little dejected, but I cleared my throat with a *hem* and spoke.
“I’d like to, but both skills are inactive. I can’t find anything out even if I want to.”
[Viewer 1: Hmm… As for the first skill, it seems my liege is not yet mentally prepared.]
The first skill was ‘Conversation with the Lord’.
Well, it is a ‘conversation,’ so I guess some mental preparation might be necessary.
Is the Lord shy?
Even if it was just pixels, I didn't get a shy vibe from her as she drew her sword and annihilated the monsters.
[Viewer 1: And you should be able to check the second skill. The skill information is displayed the moment you activate it.]
“Really?”
*But Viewer 1, didn’t you just say you don’t know what skill I got?*
*Yet you know the order and even how to check them?*
I swallowed the words that rose to my throat and, resting my chin on my hand, asked.
“It didn’t work. It said I don’t have enough gold.”
[Viewer 1: ?]
Suddenly, a hook-shaped punctuation mark appeared in the chat.
It seemed this guy was quite flustered.
[Viewer 1: That can’t be right?]
“It’s true.”
[Viewer 1: I’m sure I told my liege… Did you not receive the 50 gold deposit?]
“Forget 50 gold, I haven’t received a single penny.”
I had no idea where this ‘gold’ was supposed to be ‘deposited,’ but I told him the truth.
[Viewer 1: …Please wait a moment, Hanul.]
With those words, Viewer 1 disappeared from the chat.
He returned about ten minutes later.
[Viewer 1: My apologies, Hanul. It seems there was a slight error in the process. It will be deposited shortly. It’s a skill that can be viewed once you have gold, so please check it then. I shall take my leave now.]
“…”
With that, Viewer 1 vanished from the chat.
*Ting!*
And suddenly, a sound like a cash register drawer opening rang out.
At the same time, a new information window popped up.
[50 gold has been deposited from the ‘Dream Lord's Castle’!]
The word ‘gold’ itself wasn’t unfamiliar.
After all, ‘gold’ was the currency unit in the crappy game MonMonMak.
I immediately tapped my earlobe.
[Selecting Bargain with the Lord Lv.1.]
[You possess gold. Activating the skill.]
This time, a new line was added as the information window updated.
After checking the skill information, I nodded.
“As expected of a crappy game, right to the end.”
The status window that appeared when I Awakened the new skill yesterday.
- Synchronization with ‘Monsters Are Blocked by Monsters’ is complete.
From that information alone, I could roughly guess what ‘Bargain with the Lord’ was.
And the information window that appeared before my eyes was exactly what I had expected.
[Available Gold: 50]
First, the gold was displayed at the top edge of the status window.
Below it was a list of information that was not at all unfamiliar.
[List of Monsters Available for Bargain with the Lord]
Goblin Slave: 50 Gold
Goblin Warrior: 70 Gold
Goblin Archer: 70 Gold
Goblin Elder: 100 Gold
↓
…
“This is just MonMonMak.”
It was the recruitment window from ‘Monsters Are Blocked by Monsters,’ copied and pasted.
In a way, MonMonMak employed a very strange payment system.
Usually, this type of defense game encourages players to pay to draw good units.
But this damn crappy game was different.
In MonMonMak, you could hire any monster with in-game currency.
- MonMonMak is a god-tier generous game with no pay-to-win mechanics!
That’s how the poor, ignorant fools who didn’t know the game’s true nature praised MonMonMak.
But that was short-lived.
Public opinion completely flipped when it was revealed that every single item that could strengthen monsters only came from random loot boxes that cost at least 20,000 won each.
In the first place, except for specific counters, the monsters themselves didn’t matter much.
It was all about which paid items you slathered all over them.
At least, that’s how it was from the ‘player’s’ perspective.
- Telling the tale of how my 6-star Archmage got one-shotted by a 1-star goblin with a Hero’s Sword lol
- My Lizard Hero disintegrated while attacking a kobold wearing a full Ancient Warmog’s set. Is this even a game?
It was basically like that.
Free-to-play users couldn't even dream of participating in ‘Siege Wars,’ where you invade other players’ castles, and in the single-player ‘Defense Wars,’ they were wiped out before even reaching the 100th wave.
“It really was a shitty game.”
In any case, the status window floating before my eyes now was the one that had once deceived so many poor souls.
The ‘list of monsters available for hire with currency.’
Should I call it a relief?
At least that evil item gacha window hadn’t appeared yet.
“There are all kinds of goblins, kobolds, orcs, trolls… they’re all really here.”
I muttered, touching my earlobe to scroll down the list.
All the monsters that could be hired in MonMonMak were implemented here as well.
There were even quite a few monsters I had never seen before.
Perhaps because I lacked the gold, every entry except the Goblin Slave was grayed out.
“Huh?”
And when I checked the very bottom, my eyes narrowed.
[Dream Lord: 999,999,999,999 Gold, Favorability 100]
“What, you can hire the Lord too?”
Never mind the ridiculous price of 999.9 billion and the term ‘Favorability,’ which seemed completely out of place in MonMonMak.
The very fact that the Lord was on the list was enough to pique my interest.
It was because the scene from yesterday, though in pixel graphics, remained so vivid.
The image of the silver-haired female knight sweeping through the monster waves like autumn leaves!
“I have to hire her, no matter what.”
Besides her, there were a good number of new monsters on the list that weren't in the original MonMonMak, like Dragon Lords and Void Lords.
“But favorability aside, how do I earn gold?”
The way to earn gold in MonMonMak was simple.
By blocking monster waves.
A certain amount of gold was always rewarded after successfully defending a wave.
The lore was that you sold the parts from the monster corpses to earn gold.
“In that case…”
I nodded my head.
Thinking simply, that was it.
You kill monsters to earn the gold to hire monsters.
If that same principle applied to reality…
“I’ll probably find the answer by hunting monsters in the real world.”
I opened my desk drawer and took out a plastic card.
A card that brought a person shame, with the letter ‘E’ emblazoned on it in huge letters.
But right now, nothing was more precious than this card.
“I heard the standards for getting into a Hunter’s Den have gotten stricter lately.”
As expected, it was always best to get your certifications before they became harder to obtain.