The Core Cost
The GM is unfriendly in every way. And difficult.
The sheer number of status windows is enough to make your head spin.
Well over a hundred minor stats and values. If you don’t disable the pop-ups, the lag is so bad it feels like a deliberate insult to user convenience. It was the undisputed number one “devil’s game” that once you started playing, you couldn’t stop. Yet no one could deny that its sky-high entry barrier was a fatal flaw.
That was why, whenever Lee Shin gave advice to newbies, he told them not to overthink it. Just focus on one thing.
Points.
Raid clears, league matches, near-impossible achievements, and so on.
Points could be earned through all sorts of actions.
With those points, you could raise your stats in the Manager Status Window.
With those points, you could develop your guild in the Guild Management Window.
And with those points, you could nurture your raid team in the Training Management Window.
Raise your main character. Develop your guild. Nurture your raid team.
When you produced results, you earned points.
Then you used them to raise, develop, and nurture again.
They all seemed different, but in the end they all converged into one. The core cost of GM play.
That was Points.
Chrrrrrr—!
First Gate Clear +200p
‘Goblin LV3-C2’ Time Record Updated +200p
Loss Rate Under 10% Bonus +300p
Hunted 3,000 Goblins +100p
Acquired Title +50p……
“Krrgh. This is why I play GM.”
Since it was his first gate clear, points poured down like rain.
Of course, you couldn’t get this much every single time. Absolutely not.
GM’s rewards varied depending on score and records.
Recruiting the named character ‘Mountain King’ despite being in League 4, completely shattering the time records on every gate—these were near-impossible feats. The result of scraping together every special reward he could get his hands on—
Overall Rank: SSS
Points Acquired: 1250p
All available special rewards completed. As additional compensation, ‘Gold Card Pack (Trait)’ has been granted.
1250 points! On top of an amount that was nearly impossible to see in the early game, he even received a high-grade trait draw in the form of a card pack!
“Mmm~ Nice.”
Good snacks made the liquor taste even better.
Alright. What should I raise first?
Lee Shin licked the corner of his mouth, eyes gleaming for a moment.
“Of course it has to be this first.”
His fingertip touched the Manager Status Window.
A tidal wave of information flooded his vision—
──Closed.
“I can’t even look at this. It’s completely default settings?”
Status windows that looked like they belonged to an era before the interface convenience update from ten years ago.
The discomfort was like staring at a hopelessly tangled power cord. Lee Shin shuddered and quickly got to work with his hands.
He deleted all the restricted talents he couldn’t touch anyway.
He set Social—the stat he could actually raise—as the main window and made everything as simple and visible as possible.
After his hands moved busily for a while—
Due to insufficient ‘Politics’ stat, conflict probability has increased dramatically.
Due to insufficient ‘Leadership’ stat, conflict probability has increased dramatically……
Due to insufficient ‘Reputation’ stat, conflict……
Due to insufficient ‘Dominance’ stat……
“Comfy~”
The warning messages were quite spicy, but they had their own charm.
It meant there was a lot of room for growth.
He took another swig of soju and examined the stats again.
Since the base stats were all zero, raising one point only cost a mere 50p.
But that didn’t mean he should just dump everything in randomly.
Every five points, the cost jumped significantly. Proper distribution was necessary!
“What should I raise?”
Politics, Leadership, Reputation, Dominance.
“The one that’s bothering me the most right now is……”
Reputation.
While the others quietly exerted negative influence behind the scenes, Reputation was raising its hand high and loudly proclaiming, “Lee Shin is a total bastard!”
If his Reputation reached around 40 to 50, at least half the hate comments he received would disappear.
By normal standards, there was no question—he should raise Reputation first. But……
Unfortunately, this was Lee Shin. He didn’t play that way.
“Antis are still attention~”
At least it meant one more person was looking at him!
According to the report he received from the PR team leader, if there were 100 articles about him, half of them were hate pieces.
Even at the end of the historic Mountain King recruitment showcase article, comments like “Disgusting money flex” and “Mountain King-nim definitely got scammed lol” were attached. That was reality.
But if he raised his Reputation and stopped getting hate? That would mean half of those 100 articles—fifty of them—would vanish.
Lee Shin’s conclusion was that even if it meant eating some hate, a hundred articles were better.
It wasn’t like a few insults would kill him. And besides, the very fact that people were getting hooked by the hate was thanks to this character’s maxed-out Charm, wasn’t it?
“The character concept was spicy from the moment of creation. Might as well go all in.”
With that in mind—
Lee Shin’s finger moved decisively.
Dominance (Charisma) was a stat that projected unilateral influence through coercion and obedience rather than conversation, understanding, or negotiation.
He was already plenty overbearing. He could almost hear Chae Dong-ha screaming, “You’re going to make it even stronger?!”
B-but it’s fun!
If luck was on his side, it could even help a little in combat. All things considered, it was the best choice.
“That’s enough for this.”
Gulp, gulp.
He drained the last drop, then opened a fresh bottle of soju with renewed spirit.
“Next is easy.”
League: 4
Representative: Lee Shin
Guild Leader: Jeong Sun-dong
Vice Leader: Chae Dong-ha
Raid Leader: Kim Jong-pil
Raid Members: 14/100
Fame: 40/100
Finances: 5/100
Facilities: 33/100
Disposition: Progressive
Value: 89.17 billion
“Kyaah~”
The disposition that had once been “Preservationist” had changed to “Progressive,” and the value that had been 3.1 billion had become 89.17 billion.
Of course, 95% of the increased value belonged to Kim Jong-pil, but that was a display of ability too. There was no way he could just let that slide.
Lee Shin’s shoulders danced with excitement.
“For fame, let’s go down the fatigue tech tree.”
Fame
└ Front Office Fatigue Reduction Lv1 (3%)
With one click, a painful 200p disappeared.
All he got in return was a 3% reduction in fatigue. The efficiency was absolute garbage.
The “Chemistry” tech tree, which offered exceptionally good early-game efficiency, or the “Loyalty” tech tree—known as the national tech because it was solid in every aspect—would have been much better choices for the early game.
But this character had always been built for a hardcore concept.
Lee Shin’s goal was much bigger. And to achieve that, ordinary progression wouldn’t cut it.
Rot away in League 4 for years? No thanks.
He was throwing away the early game!
“Now there’s only one thing left.”
He pressed the window that might be the true main focus at this point—the Training Management Window.
Another wave of status windows crashed over him.
Even when it was just him, there had been a lot. Now with Kim Jong-pil and the fifteen raid members’ photos and status windows flooding in, he felt like he was drowning in an ocean of information.
Lee Shin ruthlessly swept them all aside.
“You’re out. You, I’ll think about later. And you, get lost.”
His current training philosophy was selection and focus.
He had no interest in people who would only be used as tools.
He would concentrate on a small number of core members.
The first, without question, was Kim Jong-pil.
Mountain King Kim Jong-pil (Male, 59) (195/195) ▼
Stats
Strength 21 Agility 25
Stamina 19 Intelligence 90
Wisdom 98 Magic Power 100
Traits (9/9)
「Gardener of the World Tree」, 「Flawless Commander」, 「Call of Wind and Rain」, 「Beast Taming」, 「Spirit Eye」, 「Natural Magic Power」, 「Spirit’s Textbook」, 「Multitasking」, 「Aging」
【Subject’s potential is declining▼ due to 「Aging」.】
【Due to advanced age, stats cannot be improved through ‘training’.】
And one more.
“Park Su-bin.”
Stats
Strength 10 Agility 10
Stamina 31 Intelligence 31
Wisdom 33 Magic Power 50
Traits (9/9)
「???」, 「Weak」, 「Timid」, 「Deficiency」, 「Obsession」, 「Beta Male」, 「Self-Doubt」, 「Self-Deprecation」, 「Sweet Potato」
His ability scores were by no means high.
In fact, even though supporter magic control was said to be more important than a magician’s, his Wisdom and Intelligence were painfully mediocre.
And if that wasn’t enough, aside from one unrevealed trait, they were all negative traits.
He could only be seen as a total dud of a character.
Yet this dud character—
Park Su-bin (Male, 16) (73/200)
—Among the countless hunters across the world, he is one of the extremely rare few granted a potential of 200. A true ‘World Class (W.C).’
With those stats? Those traits? World Class?
It was understandable to be suspicious.
But one thing had to be remembered: GM’s status windows never lied.
If it displayed 200 potential, then the boy’s final ceiling was 200.
He could grow to World Class level.
Of course, the number of hardships and trials in that growth process varied. The character Park Su-bin in particular had a difficulty so absurd that even veteran players hesitated to touch him. In crude terms, it was hell of hell……
But I am Lee Shin.
The true veteran of this scene.
Anyone who falls into my hands will rise from dud to World Class.
“This is going to be a fun training session~”
Lee Shin’s gaze turned to the sparkling ‘Gold Card Pack (Trait)’.
* * *
Meanwhile, while Lee Shin was enjoying sweet soju with Mir Guild’s achievements as his side dish, Lee Myeong-hwan was downing bitter whiskey while staring at those same achievements.
Mir Guild Sweeps All Records in Round 1
Doesn’t step forward but still takes MVP. Mountain King Kim Jong-pil shows his class.
This year is different. Five reasons why Lee Shin’s Mir Guild stands apart.
“Fucking bastard.”
The photo of Lee Shin smiling with perfectly aligned teeth in the article.
If he could, he’d smash the screen.
Just as Lee Myeong-hwan was about to check the next article, Jeong Su-mi, wearing a bathrobe, hugged him from behind and asked, “Honey, what are you looking at?” Then she caught sight of Lee Shin’s face over his shoulder and recoiled.
“What the—honey! It’s Lee Shin again!”
“He’s so damn annoying.”
“Still, you should moderate yourself. The day before yesterday it was Lee Shin, yesterday it was Lee Shin, every single day it’s Lee Shin. Honey, that’s obsession.”
“Obsession my ass. You should watch yourself. Stop nagging.”
Ever since he lost Mountain King, Lee Myeong-hwan had developed the habit of searching for Lee Shin.
It made sense. It was the first failure of his life.
Until now, he had never once failed. Even if he did, he possessed the power to turn any failure into success.
But for the first time, an opponent had appeared whom his power could not reach.
Lee Shin. That damn bastard.
Lee Myeong-hwan found that fact incredibly humiliating. That was probably when his obsession with Lee Shin had begun.
“Stop talking nonsense and tell me what you think.”
“About Mir Guild? Hmm… Should I answer as your lover? Or as Representative Lee Myeong-hwan’s ‘assistant’?”
“We can do the lover thing later. Right now I need you as my assistant.”
“Mmm~ In that case.”
Jeong Su-mi released her hug and sat down across from him.
“Where should I start? There’s no need to talk about Mir Guild’s popularity. The fact that articles about them are posted every single day despite being in League 4 is already beyond common sense.”
“I don’t care about popularity. Their combat power. How far do you think they’ll go?”
“If we’re judging purely on Round 1… they’ll promote, and that’ll be considered doing well?”
“Huh?”
An unexpected answer.
He had assumed they would promote as a matter of course and put up overwhelming results. But she was saying that simply promoting would already be considered good performance?
“Surprising, right? But if you think about it coldly, it makes sense.”
As a professional, Jeong Su-mi saw the current Mir Guild as extremely sloppy, and it couldn’t be helped.
“They’re young and have no experience. Plus, they’ve barely had a month to practice teamwork. Can you even call that a team?”
“Now that you mention it……”
“You can tell just from their first raid. Remember how they were throwing up in the early stages against the goblins? That’s proof of their lack of experience.”
And another thing.
“You might not know this, but those promising talents you mentioned… it’s actually hard to call them promising. They’re all pretty ambiguous.”
“That’s the first I’m hearing of this. Keep going.”
“Their former colleagues all gave them bad reviews. They say they don’t blend into the team well. In cases like this, we usually judge it one of two ways. Either there’s a personality problem, or—”
Jeong Su-mi tapped her temple.
“—they’re not very bright.”
“Not very bright……”
“Want an example? Do you remember who stood out the most in Mir Guild’s Round 1 raid besides Mountain King?”
“……I don’t remember the name, but I remember the tanker who was swinging two bucklers around like a martial artist.”
“Park Jeong-seok. He was once called a top-tier prospect thanks to his excellent agility and footwork for a tanker. But his hopeless positioning earned him the nickname ‘Missed Again’ and he was quickly forgotten. Most of the kids currently in Mir Guild are like that.”
Young, inexperienced, no time to build teamwork, and not bright either.
She wasn’t saying it out loud because of the buzz they were generating, but most experts probably shared her opinion.
If things continued this way, Mir Guild clearly had a limit.
And what was even more interesting was—
“The schedule isn’t helping them either, is it?”
A league notice had just appeared on Jeong Su-mi’s phone.
‘LV4. Imp Archer’s Forward Base.’
The first vertex of the Triangle of Death, boasting the worst difficulty in League 4, was Mir Guild’s next opponent.