Probability Manipulation

"These are magic stones?"

What Ryu Hwi had pulled out were the magic stones dropped by the monsters he'd hunted in World of Phantasm.

The previous day, YggON had told him this:

Ryu Hwi had known that fact well enough. Magic stones were one of those very 'Special Items' that could cross over.

"They're low-grade stones, mind you…… Tell me, do you have any idea what magic stones are worth?"

"Is that even a question?"

Every human in the modern world knew the value of magic stones.

The source of all power in the current world was a mysterious energy called Ether. The old civilization had relied on nuclear and thermal power, but these days Ether solved everything.

"You can trickle a little Ether out of the atmosphere itself, but it's the stones gamers haul back from the labyrinths that yield it in bulk. The higher the grade of the stone, the purer the Ether you can extract from it."

That was one of the reasons gamers now sat at the very top of society.

"And knowing that, you hand a huge pile of them to a black marketer? Selling through official channels would net you more, would it not? Oh, right—you're an Unknown, so a chance to earn social contribution points in one stroke……"

Wolya stopped mid-sentence, shut her mouth, and stroked her monocle.

"Wait a moment. How did an Unknown get his hands on these magic stones?"

"Because I'm a gamer."

"An Unknown……"

"An Unknown can't possibly be a gamer, you say? And yet here I am, an Unknown gamer, standing right in front of you."

Wolya fell silent again, drumming her fingers lightly on the counter.

She kept at it for a while.

"Well. Fine. I suppose an Unknown has no credibility, so finding a legitimate buyer would be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠difficult. And even if they are low-grade, magic stones in this quantity…… Hmm?"

Wolya, who had been examining the pile of stones Ryu Hwi had placed on the counter one by one, suddenly widened her eyes. One of them was larger and darker in color than the rest. She fished a magnifying glass from her pocket and studied it closely. After a moment, she removed her monocle and turned to the Black Snake leader.

"Luga. Get out for a bit."

"Uh, but……"

The leader, Luga, shot a furtive glance at Ryu Hwi. When Ryu Hwi gave a small nod, he scurried out of the shop as if fleeing for his life.

"Now then. No—customer. Let me ask you something point-blank."

"……"

"Are you Ryu7017?"

Ryu7017 was the account name Ryu Hwi had created for uploading videos to Yggtube. He was well aware that his uploads were drawing more attention than he'd expected—the view counts were climbing to frankly absurd levels. Even so, he hadn't expected a black market dealer to bring it up outright.

"What do you mean?"

"Playing innocent won't get you anywhere. You weren't planning to hide it much longer anyway, were you?"

When Wolya snapped her fingers, a holographic video unfolded in midair. It showed the Chaotic Dark Knight fighting Ryu Hwi.

"I kept thinking he looked familiar—and to think the man of the hour would walk into my own shop. If you were trying to keep your identity a secret, I'd have to advise you to be more careful. But it's not just this video. The stones are a problem too."

Wolya held one of the magic stones out to him.

"'Appraisal'—the tool we use to judge a product's value—can also trace its origin. I can see the information clear as day: 'Chaotic Dark Knight,' from World of Phantasm."

So she'd had a special appraisal app installed on her SEED implant.

"Thanks for the advice."

Ryu Hwi gave a light shrug.

"Fine. I'm Ryu7017. SKN-8644007017. People call me 7017. And the 'Ryu'…… comes from the name I lost."

There had never been a reason to hide it in the first place, so he laid his identity bare.

Wolya hadn't brought up Yggtube right away—she'd kicked the Black Snake leader out first. It was consideration for the possibility that Ryu Hwi might want to keep his identity secret. He liked that small gesture.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Even if it was, of course, just a merchant's savvy way of earning a customer's trust.

"Part of why I want to deal with a black marketeer is that I'm an Unknown, sure. But there's one more reason. There's something I want to buy."

"Meaning something hard to come by unless it's through the underworld? And what would that be?"

Wolya's interest was piqued. Ryu Hwi tapped a finger against his own head—specifically, the temple where the SEED implant sat.

"Mods."

"!"

Game Modification. Mods, for short.

"Content that alters game elements. Apps for the SEED implant, built by people called modders to help players clear Yggdrasil's game labyrinths."

"You're a gamer yourself, so I suppose you're after mods too. Whew……"

Wolya let out a disappointed sigh.

"Are you unaware that the vast majority of mods failed to deliver their intended effects, developed fatal flaws, and were disposed of?"

"I'm aware."

You installed an app that performed a specific function onto your SEED, then connected to a game labyrinth to reap its effects. Used well, mods could have drastically lowered labyrinth difficulty and accelerated the world's development by leaps and bounds. That was the dream they'd been built on.

In practice, mods delivered something, but most fell short of expectations. Still, that faint glimmer of effect was enough. Emboldened by the fact that they worked at all, modders began churning out mods of every description, and gamers eagerly installed them—until the problems finally erupted.

Some players found their labyrinth avatars frozen in place. Even after deleting the mods, an account wrecked even once could never be restored, locking them out of the labyrinths forever. Others had every one of their senses go berserk—pain among them—and the sensory overload left some brain-dead. Still others simply couldn't leave. No matter what they tried, they couldn't escape the labyrinth, and in the end they were listed as missing.

When the mods triggered disaster after disaster, the authorities banned mod development outright and disposed of nearly all existing mods. Only a tiny handful of safety-verified ones remained in use today.

"Verified mods are still obtainable. So coming all this way to a black marketeer means you want the ones that were scrapped, doesn't it? But I'd have to say give it——"

"You may have a good eye for goods, but you clearly can't read people."

"What do you mean?"

Ryu Hwi crossed his arms and looked down at Wolya, a smirk plastered across his lips.

"Do I look like an ordinary gamer to you? Do you know what people who've seen my videos are calling me now?"

He had brought down the Chaotic Dark Knight—an enemy no one could ever hope to defeat. It went without saying that he hadn't done it by legitimate means. And among the viewers, someone had said this:

In a real game, such conduct would earn universal condemnation—but inside a game labyrinth, it was another matter entirely. Any method, any means, was fair game. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The winner is the hero.

And just like that, in barely a day, the bizarre title of Cheater had stuck to him.

"Modders never built mods for nothing. They made them hoping their creations would help players clear the labyrinths. So……"

Ryu Hwi pointed his thumb at his own chest.

"If no one else is going to use them, then I'll use them for them."

Wolya stroked the monocle clutched in her hand.

"In other words, you're claiming you can make use of mods that were discarded as worthless?"

"Too good to waste, if you ask me. Surely worth a test run?"

"Some fool really doesn't value his own life. One last question, then. Even supposing you truly can use mods…… what would you do with that power?"

Wolya's eyes gleamed sharp as blades, measuring what kind of man Ryu Hwi was.

"What would I do with it, huh……"

He had a goal. He would trample every last piece of trash into the dirt and climb to the very top of this garbage-strewn world. Which meant——

"The heavens."

Bronze, the rank of ordinary citizens. Silver, the rank of upper citizens. Gold, the rank of elite citizens. Platinum, the rank of nobility. And then, a whole dimension above all of them—the rank reserved solely for kings, for rulers.

"I'm going to reach Diamond."

An ambition so absurd it bordered on lunacy. Wolya clutched her belly and roared with laughter.

"Hahahahaha! In all my years, I've never met a customer this hilarious!"

She laughed until the tears came.

"Very well, very well. Watching a fool see just how far he can go should be fine entertainment."

Wolya put her monocle back on and flicked her fingers. At the motion, a display shelf bearing merchandise rose silently from a corner where nothing had stood a moment before.

"Most mods were scrapped, but I managed to hold on to a few. If you really can use mods, start by testing these."

On the dusty shelf sat disks marked with barcodes—less like merchandise than like warehouse goods someone had dumped in a corner and half-heartedly organized.

Ryu Hwi examined the disk labels one by one.

Mods were fraught with danger at every turn, but Ryu Hwi had his own reasons for confidence. Unlike other gamers, his physical body itself underwent Character Conversion. So even mods that were useless to them, or that triggered fatal side effects, had a strong chance of producing entirely different results in his hands.

And above all, Ryu Hwi had an absolutely superb support system.

Looking over Wolya's wares, Ryu Hwi felt a headache coming on.

Don't tell me every single thing on this shelf is unusable trash?

Even the ones that functioned as designed were utterly useless. He worked through the remaining mods one by one.

Then something caught his eye.

The moment he picked up that disk, YggON went briefly silent. Ryu Hwi glanced sideways at the robotic vacuum in his field of vision.

[The modder who built this was a genius. This mod genuinely contains the effect of bending every probabilistic event that occurs within Yggdrasil in the gamer's favor.]

According to YggON, using this mod would tilt everything that happened in Yggdrasil roughly 0.3 to 0.5 percent in the user's favor.

Succeeding at probability manipulation at all was impressive, admittedly. But——

A measly 0.3 to 0.5 percent? That's not something you can even feel.

No wonder it had been judged ineffective and scrapped.

[There is also a performance penalty from avatar-based connection. However, if you, Master, use this mod, the probability boost comes out to roughly 0.5 to 1 percent.]

A mere 0.5 to 1 percent—but if the one receiving that benefit was Ryu Hwi, then 'Probability Manipulation' transformed into a mod of enormous value. And for good reason——

Bending every probabilistic event in Yggdrasil means…… it applies to Random Boxes too, doesn't it?

The odds of pulling an SSR would go up?

He could say it with absolute certainty: the modder who built this was a god.

"Done. I'll buy this one."

[Ugh.]

YggON made his displeasure abundantly plain.

[Are you scheming to raise Random Box rates? That's heresy, Master. The true soul of the Random Box lies in betting your dreams—and your entire fortune—on the cruel mercy of the odds.]

Ryu Hwi ignored him. Whenever Random Boxes came up, YggON went off the rails in every possible sense.

He purchased three mods, including Probability Manipulation. When Wolya checked the list of what he'd chosen, she let out an awkward, rueful laugh.

"I concede. So it wasn't mere bravado. Picking out exactly the proper mods from that pile of garbage—well picked."

"What was the point of putting them out as 'merchandise' when you knew they were junk?"

If she genuinely couldn't tell mods apart, that would be one thing—but Wolya had known perfectly well that among all those mods, the only ones worth a damn were the three Ryu Hwi had picked. When Ryu Hwi's anger showed, Wolya put on a troubled expression.

"No, no—it wasn't my idea, I assure you. I received a request."

"A request."

"That's right. Someone asked that if a foolish, dim-witted customer ever came looking for mods, I absolutely had to let them test them."

"Who on earth——"

And what could such a test possibly have been for?

"You'll find out sooner or later. I'll sell these three at a special discount. Do put these poor things, which vanished without ever seeing the light of day, to good use."

The transaction was complete. With his objective achieved, Ryu Hwi turned away from Wolya.

"Do come again to Jucheongwang."

Ryu Hwi didn't answer. He simply walked out of the shop.

The Black Snake leader, who had been waiting outside the whole time, groveled obsequiously as he passed—but Ryu Hwi didn't spare him a single glance.

Back in his shabby one-room apartment, Ryu Hwi checked the reaction to his Yggtube video. It was generating quite a buzz—honestly, more than he'd expected. Even so, he was still a long way from his goal.

This video was, after all, merely the beginning.

The moment he placed his finger on the disk, a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠window appeared in his vision. Ryu Hwi installed the purchased mods one after another. The installation itself finished quickly, and since the functions could only be used inside game labyrinths, nothing visibly changed.

He took a deep breath, then lay down in his seat. This was the first time he was entering Yggdrasil of his own will.

[Master, are you ready?]

"Yeah. Do it."

YggON glowed. In an instant, Ryu Hwi's room was swallowed by pure white light——

and Ryu Hwi vanished without a trace.

Ryu Hwi carefully opened his eyes.

A small room came into view—the place where he'd been staying when he left World of Phantasm. Privately, he'd been worried it had been a pure miracle that he'd managed to enter the game labyrinth last time, and that this time it simply wouldn't work. But thankfully, he had returned to the labyrinth without a hitch.

"Well then, starting now——"