Entering The Way to Become an Alchemist
After finishing his deliberations about which game to enter, Seong-il checked his remaining points on his phone and began browsing through the available titles. The points I currently have are 1,265… That’s just enough to buy one C-grade game.
After scrolling through the list for a long time, Seong-il let out a deep sigh. “Damn it… They’re all just erotic games and simple shooters. There isn’t a single useful title here. Should I just buy any random C-grade game and grind out points through quests?”
While he was wrestling with that headache of a decision, an alarm suddenly rang on his phone.
“Huh? What’s this alarm for?”
Seong-il tapped the notification and read the message.
Congratulations on completing your first game (Death Ending)! Point settlement from game progression has been completed, and your reward has been sent.
Unable to contain his joy at the unexpected reward, Seong-il quickly checked the details. “2,400 points!”
Even though he had only played for a few days, the substantial point gain filled him with deep satisfaction. But what truly shocked him was the next line.
Commemorating your first death, you have been granted one B-grade game exchange ticket. Please refrain from dying in the future!
“Holy shit! A B-grade exchange ticket?! Jackpot!!!”
For Seong-il, who had been agonizing over how to grind points, this item was nothing short of a savior. Unable to hide his excitement, he immediately claimed the ticket and began frantically searching through the B-grade game list.
Prince Maker? They do have potions here, but the selection isn’t that wide. Pass.
The First Queen is also a fantasy world, but the main focus is war. That doesn’t align with my goals. Pass.
“No way! Dungeon Guardian?!”
Seong-il discovered a game he had loved as a child and shouted in excitement without thinking. “This was the one where the protagonist defects to the Dark Army, creates the Dark Alliance, builds dungeons, fights off invading heroes, and then captures and fucks the female heroes, right? Man, this was seriously fun…”
Seeing the masterpiece erotic game that had accompanied him through puberty right before his eyes, Seong-il lost himself in excitement for a moment. But he soon regained his senses and decided to stay true to his original purpose.
Sigh… I’d love to play it, but what I need right now are potions and the like… I’ll keep it in mind and look at the others.
Pushing aside his lingering regret, Seong-il continued scrolling through the list. After a while, a game he was very familiar with appeared.
“Wait… The Way to Become an Alchemist? It’s here?!”
This game was famous as a female-oriented title, known for its beautiful character designs and charming, cozy graphics. It had gained massive popularity among female gamers thanks to its art and visuals. Then, curious male players trickled in, and they unexpectedly fell in love with the solid gameplay, gathering, crafting, and combat systems. Through word of mouth, it drew in an enormous number of male users and eventually became a massive hit that appealed to both men and women.
This game looks simple and easy on the surface, but the deeper you dig, the more hardcore elements it has. I remember it satisfying both casual and hardcore players perfectly.
Seong-il had played The Way to Become an Alchemist quite extensively in the past and had even dove deep into its systems on a hardcore run, so he felt confident about playing it again.
“Since I already know most of the hidden tricks and secret events, clearing it should be easy, right? Combat isn’t even a required element in this game anyway.”
The more he thought about it, the more he realized this game perfectly matched his needs. “You can skip combat entirely, craft all sorts of buff and recovery potions, and even make offensive items.”
And most importantly, every single NPC is a beauty…
The final point made an insidious smile creep across Seong-il’s face before he could stop it.
“Alright! You’re the one. The Way to Become an Alchemist!”
Having made up his mind, Seong-il purchased the game and immediately entered it.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on an unfamiliar bed. The moment he confirmed he had entered the game world, he turned on his phone and checked his status.
User:Han Seong-il
1. Current World:The Way to Become an Alchemist
2. Held Abilities:Induction, Game Master, Heaven and Earth Yin-Yang Intercourse Divine Art (1st Star)
3. Stats:
4. Points:3,665 (+2,400)
5. Status:Dual Cultivation Training (Side Effects Present)
Overall Assessment: A student who came from the distant East to the Nelke Kingdom to study alchemy. Completely ignorant of Nelke’s culture and history. Currently preparing for today’s entrance ceremony inside the dormitory.
After reading the status window, Seong-il understood that he was a foreign student who had come from the East to study in the Nelke continent, and that today was the day of the academy entrance ceremony.
Hmm… This is a pretty good identity. Since I don’t know the common sense of this world, no one will find it strange if I act clueless.
Quite satisfied with his background, Seong-il changed into proper clothes and headed toward the entrance ceremony. Although it was his first time at the school, finding the auditorium wasn’t difficult. A huge banner was hanging outside (surprisingly written in Korean), and groups of new students were walking around in clusters. He simply followed them.
While quietly standing among the crowd of freshmen at the entrance venue, a familiar beauty caught Seong-il’s eye.
Short brown hair, pure and elegant features, yet voluptuous? Elisha Portis! She’s the main heroine!
Looking at her, Seong-il unconsciously recalled her detailed profile.
Elisha was born as the daughter of the Portis family—a viscount household that, while not part of the highest nobility, had a long and respectable history. Her childhood, which should have been without hardship, was shattered by her mother’s early death and her father’s business failure. The viscount’s reckless business ventures led to the loss of the family’s entire fortune and the complete collapse of their house. Unable to endure the shame, Viscount Portis chose suicide.
With her father gone, the only thing left for Elisha, now the sole heir, was an overwhelming mountain of debt. Edward, a commoner-born merchant and the Portis family’s largest creditor, offered to forgive the debt and take responsibility for it in exchange for all their lands, the old castle, and the transfer of the viscount title.
The problem was that the only way to transfer a noble title was through marriage. Elisha, who had no desire to become the old merchant’s second wife, fiercely rejected the proposal and declared she would repay the debt with her own abilities. Edward laughed at her declaration, then gave her five years to repay everything without even charging interest. If she failed, she would have no choice but to become his wife.
Though it was an utterly humiliating condition, it wasn’t a bad offer if she succeeded, so Elisha accepted and vowed to clear the debt.
But how could a single woman possibly earn such an astronomical sum? While she was lost in despair, the age of alchemy dawned. The enormous opportunities alchemy provided were attractive to both nobles and commoners alike. Realizing that alchemy was her only path to earning money and clearing her debt, Elisha sought help from William Bongrip, the dean of the Nelke Royal Alchemy Academy, who had once been indebted to her father. The dean became her sponsor and helped her enroll…
That was how the game’s story began.
The main goal of the game was to learn alchemy, raise her skills, develop and sell items to pay off the debt, and graduate from the academy. It was notorious for crushing beginners’ dreams because failing to graduate within five years or being unable to repay the debt resulted in an immediate bad ending. Despite its bright surface appearance, the game was also famous for implying, through subtle background details and the protagonist’s circumstances, that Elisha’s life in a bad ending would have been truly dark and tragic.
There had even been a leaked behind-the-scenes story from the infamous sadistic writer who worked on the game. In the true bad ending, Elisha, having become Edward’s wife, was trained according to his tastes and raised like a beast. Of course, the developer firmly denied this content, claiming it was nonsense that would harm the sequel’s sales.
Given the setting, Elisha was portrayed as an extreme workaholic and money-obsessed miser. Any event related to money would make her eyes glaze over as she lost her mind. She had decent business sense and earned money well, but she suffered greatly from her lack of basic alchemy knowledge. She barely passed each quarterly exam, earning her the nickname “potential dropout.”
A fallen noble lady suffering from massive debt and difficult exams…
Considering her two major weaknesses, Seong-il began thinking of ways to conquer her.
After the entrance ceremony ended and he returned to the dormitory, Seong-il started carefully organizing the plans he had been pondering during the event.
First, I need to gather a massive amount of money within three months before the first exam. Since I can easily solve the test questions that appear every quarter in reality, getting high scores won’t be difficult.
The reason Seong-il was so confident about the exams was simple. The Nelke Royal Alchemy Academy was a school in name only; it pursued an extremely autonomous academic system. If students attended four two-hour lectures per week, the school would not interfere at all. Instead, they held exams every three months. Scoring below an average of 50 would result in an academic warning, and accumulating two warnings led to automatic expulsion.
Because of this, most students lacking fundamentals had no choice but to attend classes diligently. Those who didn’t would only take the necessary classes and focus on their own experiments.
I have zero foundation, but my situation is completely different from the average student. I know exactly how the school creates their exams and can easily exploit the loopholes.
One week before the exam, the Nelke Royal Alchemy Academy would suddenly post the subjects and scope on the school bulletin board. Until then, the test topics were kept in absolute secrecy with no hints whatsoever. This forced students to take countless lectures while their blood ran cold with anxiety. The stress from the so-called autonomous exam system even caused many to drop out.
Seong-il decided to target the weakness of this seemingly impregnable exam system.
Once the exam notice is posted one week before the test, I’ll return to reality and play the game. I’ll grind until the exact same notice appears, take the exam, and steal the questions and answers. Then I’ll memorize them and take the test in the game world.
Since this method is impossible within the game world, they won’t suspect me. And even if they do, I can just memorize the answers in reality, then do nothing but take the test in the game world. There would be no evidence.
Having solved the exam problem, Seong-il now turned his mind to earning a massive amount of money.
How should I gather enough money to completely win Elisha over…?
It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to make money. On the contrary, he had too many options and was struggling to choose.
Should I develop something like the Philosopher’s Stone and sell it? No. That would draw too much attention. I don’t have the power to protect myself yet. Raising my fame without strength would only increase the risk.
After considering securing funds through the creation of transcendent items, Seong-il shook his head.
Hmm… Hunting through combat is too dangerous, so I’d rather avoid that…
In that case, the most efficient method would be to raid the hidden pieces inside the academy and the ‘haunted house’ abandoned in the city.
Seong-il began recalling the hidden pieces he remembered one by one.