The God of Controls' One-Coin Clear
Taeyang stepped through the door and let out a long sigh.
“Whew, I really thought I was gonna die.”
On the other side, Dantalion was rolling on the floor in absolute hysterics.
“What the hell? Why is he like that?”
“……Kuhahahat! Ha. It’s been so long since I laughed this hard. To think you’d use Bok-sun as a hostage to clear the floor.”
Dantalion had to pull out a handkerchief and wipe away tears, he was laughing so hard.
“……So the succubus’s name really was Bok-sun.”
-That one hits different, honestly.
-Whoa whoa whoa, hidden piece.
-Wow, the succubus is actually named Bok-sun?
-Mango! Your name is officially Bok-sun from now on.
[1-3 The Bored Queen: Akinella is bored. Satisfy the capricious queen.]
✅ Status: PASS
-Three more achievements.
-Three achievements is basically the standard now, huh.
-If he keeps climbing like this he’s gonna sweep the board.
-How many more is he planning to sweep here? Whoa.
Nine achievements on the third floor.
Most regular players only grabbed the clear achievements and moved on, so Taeyang had already reached the stat level of a typical player who had cleared nine floors.
“Taeyang, you’ve worked hard clearing the three floors I prepared for you.”
Dantalion smiled sweetly.
“Do I just go through the door?”
“Yes. There’s only one door on the graduation floor, so you don’t need to think too hard. Just walk in.”
Graduation floor.
One Demon King usually oversaw three floors. On the final floor, there were no doors for reinforcement, recovery, or gold.
That was because stepping through the door didn’t lead to a new trial or the next stage. It led to a rest area.
“You can look forward to it. In the rest area, you’ll get to meet humans who came from ‘other dimensions.’”
The Dimensional Labyrinth was, by design, a prison that held sinners from countless different dimensions.
It wasn’t just Earth’s players. Humans from other worlds existed here too.
And the players simply called those humans NPCs.
-Up until now, this was basically the tutorial.
“Wasn’t that way too unfriendly to call it a tutorial?”
-Exactly. My one wish used to be punching the Dantalion developer right in the jaw.
“Just one punch?”
-I didn’t know the situation would turn out like this back then.
Taeyang tilted his head.
If he ever met the developer, would he really be able to keep his cool?
He wasn’t sure.
‘As long as Byeolim is safe.’
Please, just let her be safe.
Taeyang walked toward the door.
Seeing only one lonely door where three had always stood neatly side by side felt strangely awkward.
He stopped right in front of it.
A stone tablet was attached to the door.
-That’s your report card. The score the floor’s Demon King gave you. In this case, it’s the one Dantalion wrote.
A report card. It was the Demon King’s evaluation of how entertaining the player’s actions had been.
The grades ranged from E to A. Receiving an A gave a reward of 50 gold.
This was exactly what Taeyang had been aiming for.
Combined with the gold he’d earned from the gold room, he could easily reach 100 gold.
“Nice.”
Taeyang grinned.
He had already swept up achievements from the very beginning and bulked up his specs. If the synergies lined up properly, he might be able to go on a rampage through the early floors of the labyrinth.
He checked the stone tablet.
Brilliant combat sense and the proficiency of someone who has entered the Dimensional Labyrinth dozens of times. On top of that, an unpredictability that no one can match. I cannot help but be impressed. I look forward to you continuing to refine yourself until you can even lift the corners of Baal’s mouth.
The additional reward caught his eye first.
Not 50 gold—100 gold.
What caught his eye next was the rank itself.
-??
-???? S-rank?
-There was an S-rank?
Taeyang tilted his head.
“It’s S-rank?”
-Y-yeah… Wow. So S-rank existed.
“Hyeonhye,”
-Yeah?
“You really don’t know much, do you?”
-Ahem. Cough.
When the corner of Taeyang’s mouth curled up, Hyeonhye hurriedly began making excuses.
-I-it’s because you’re doing way too well…
“You can’t keep up? Right?”
-Lmao look at Dal-nim making excuses.
-This is a rare scene.
***
Rest Area.
A place to reorganize before entering the next Demon King’s floors.
There were facilities where you could buy cards from merchants or bartenders and maintain your equipment.
Of course, everything cost gold.
“So it’s literally just a place to rest?”
-Yeah, at least until the 15th floor.
The other players glanced at Taeyang before quickly looking away.
His equipment was too shabby.
On the higher floors, physical ability was heavily influenced by synergies and achievements, but on the lower floors where accumulated achievements were few, what you saw was what you got.
-Let’s head to the inn first. You should be able to buy cards from the bartender.
The first floor of the inn functioned as a tavern, so it was packed with people.
Taeyang headed straight for the bartender.
-Oh, he’s pulling cards.
-Insane. Cards at the very first rest area!
-Isn’t this a first?
-Yeah, probably.
-Gacha got me so curious~
-My heart’s pounding.
The bartender, who had been wiping a cup, asked politely.
“What can I do for you? Beer is one gold per mug, rum is two gold.”
“Ah, I’ll pass on that.”
“Then?”
“I’d like to see a card.”
The tavern fell silent.
The single word ‘card’ had instantly drawn every eye in the bar toward Taeyang.
“Pardon me, but do you have the gold?”
Taeyang opened his status window and stuck his hand into the part that read ‘Gold: 124.’
When he pulled his hand back out, a shower of gold coins poured onto the counter.
A hundred gold coins piled up in front of the bartender.
Clink. Clink.
The occasional sound of coins hitting the floor echoed through the tavern.
-Heh. Even I feel proud.
-Boss! Bring out the good stuff! Tonight the tavern belongs to me!
The players whispered in shock.
“W-wait, is all that real?”
“Can’t you see it?”
“Whoa, so he’s actually buying cards?”
This was only the third-floor rest area.
No matter how outstanding a player’s performance had been, no one had ever bought cards at the third-floor rest area.
“One hundred. Counted correctly.”
The bartender, who had counted the coins at blinding speed, nodded.
Then he flipped over the shelf where the liquor bottles had been sitting.
Rattle.
Countless cards were displayed there.
“Cards? Real cards?”
“Is that the card? The one that gives synergy?”
The beginners who were seeing cards for the first time since entering the Dimensional Labyrinth swarmed toward the bartender.
-Lmao look at the noobs swarming.
-Hey! Look! This is what a card looks like!
Tap. Tap. Tap.
From between the stacks of cards, the bartender pulled out exactly three.
They wanted to see more, but that was the rule of the game.
At a rest area, you could only obtain three cards through the shop.
If you wanted to see other cards, you had to trade player-to-player.
“Please flip them over.”
Taeyang looked around.
There were a lot of eyes on him.
“Can’t I look at them alone?”
“I’m afraid not.”
The bartender shook his head firmly.
-This is the really nasty part.
Seeing is wanting.
When people see something, they naturally want it.
By forcing the sight of someone taking a precious treasure, the system stimulated the desires of the other players.
The Demon Kings wanted the players to fight each other fiercely.
That intention showed up everywhere in the system.
With no other choice, Taeyang flipped the cards in front of the crowd.
Warrior's Pauldrons (R): Martial Artist +1, Strength +1, Hero +1
Cloud Slice (R): Swordsman +1, Agility +1, Hero +1
Monk's Sash (R): Agility +1, Strength +1, Divinity +1
“These are the cards!”
“R? Rare rank?”
“Is that good?”
“It’s rare, so it must be good.”
Gasps of admiration erupted around them.
But the ones who were even more shocked were Hyeonhye and the viewers.
-Rare rank?
-No way! Why is this dropping here?
-Getting a rare on floor 3 right from the start. Lmao.
-Dantalion… was this what the game was like?
-You. You feel kinda unfamiliar now?
Dantalion’s card ranks went Normal, Uncommon, Rare, Unique, Legend.
Normal cards had one stat and offered ordinary equipment or skills.
Uncommon cards had two stats and, as the name suggested, provided uncommon-level equipment.
Rare cards had three stats and offered rare-level equipment or skills.
It was extremely rare for anything above Normal to appear in the shop.
Even more so in rest areas before the 15th floor.
The shock lasted only a moment. Soon everyone fell into deep thought.
-What should he pick?
-The pauldrons, right? It has Martial Artist on it.
-Cloud Slice is a skill. If he takes that one he can basically cruise through the early game.
-A skill? Doesn’t Yoon Taeyang already have like five or six skillizations with his bare hands?
-Correction) He has seven.
-You guys are all dumb. Take the Monk’s Sash and stack Divinity synergy.
Dantalion had a synergy system.
Every piece of equipment and skill card had an additional synergy effect. Once you collected a certain number of the same synergy, you received a buff.
Job synergies like Martial Artist or Swordsman gave buffs at three stacks. Stat synergies like Strength or Agility gave buffs every two stacks.
Special synergies like Divinity or Hero also gave buffs at two or three stacks.
And the more you stacked the same type, the stronger the effect became.
Martial Artist 3/6/9: Additional damage to martial arts / ‘Guaranteed’ hit on anything the body touches / Hit on the essence.
Agility 2/4/6/8: Agility correction / Additional agility correction / Presence blocking correction / Additional presence blocking correction.
It worked like that.
Job synergies were hard to collect but had huge potential starting at six stacks. Stat synergies were useful from the very beginning.
And special synergies provided unique ability corrections.
Divinity 2/4/6/8: All attacks deal an additional 20%/40%/80%/160% damage.
Hero 3/6: If the enemy’s total stats are higher than the player’s total stats, the player’s all stats increase by 50%/100%.
-Let’s go with the Monk’s Sash.
“You think so?”
Monk's Sash (R): Agility +1, Strength +1, Divinity +1
Stat synergies only needed two stacks to activate, making them perfect for triggering early buffs. Activating the Divinity synergy was a huge merit.
-It’s a shame it doesn’t function as proper equipment, but you’re not going to be using sword skills anyway.
“Having the pauldrons would be nice too.”
Even if it wasn’t a card, he could still obtain equipment as he progressed through the game.
“Will you purchase the Monk’s Sash?”
“Yes.”
The moment Taeyang purchased it, he equipped the card.
An antique sash wrapped around his waist as sacred light burst forth.
“Ugh.”
The demon bartender frowned at the holy light.
Divinity (2) — All attacks deal 20% additional damage
“Hmm.”
Taeyang clenched and unclenched his fist.
White sparks flew.
He looked around.
Countless players were staring at him.
-This kind of attention is a bit overwhelming.
-Is this how celebrities feel?
-Hey! You synergy-less losers! Stop staring!
-Kinda scary though;
-Isn’t he gonna get ganged up on and killed on the next floor?
The one saving grace was that combat was impossible inside the rest area.
Taeyang ignored the other players and headed for the inn.