Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Episode 7
"Huh!?"
Park Il-chim was stunned. 1,000 DP was roughly 14 million won. And someone was putting up 10,000 DP as a mission?
That was 140 million won!
"An agent from some major corporation? No. There's no way someone who isn't an agent does this."
That was the only explanation.
Who would put up 140 million won just to confirm something? That wasn't something an ordinary person could casually do.
Park Il-chim.
And as the viewers watched, the man who had called himself the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign opened his mouth on screen.
* * *
Wow.
No idea who they are, but they've got deep pockets. First 1,000 DP, now a mission on top of it.
But did he really need to go this far?
Can't he tell at a glance?
It's the Internal School Heavy-Hand Method.
I knew there were awakened people with bizarre classes like Martial World Native, Low-Ranking Martial Artist of the Namgung Clan, or Shaolin Temple Novice Monk.
Honestly, Martial World Native I could understand, but what the hell was a Shaolin Temple Novice Monk? Were you supposed to stay a little kid forever or what?
Either way, martial-arts skills were fairly widespread among awakened people.
There are quite a lot of awakened people who use the Internal School Heavy-Hand Method too.
So shouldn't they be able to tell at a glance?
Well... no idea which company they're an agent for.
Free money is free money. Thanks.
"What a big spender! If you're that curious about my secret, it's only human decency to answer!"
-Old man, seriously.
-Boomer?
-A Pokémon reference here?
The viewers took shots at my corny joke. How insolent... Still, business was business.
"It's simple. My undead destroyed its head from the inside with the Internal School Heavy-Hand Method. You all know the Internal School Heavy-Hand Method, right? Martial arts has techniques that specialize in destroying the target internally. Got it?"
[You have succeeded in Big-Spender Ajusshi's mission.]
[You have obtained 10,000 DP.]
The system message appeared.
The Dimensional Tower broadcast system made it impossible to cheat mission payouts, because the system itself judged whether a mission had succeeded or failed.
My answer had been deemed correct, so the mission was processed as a success.
Anyway.
Today was ridiculously profitable.
-Whoa, since when did undead use the Internal School Heavy-Hand Method?
-Sir, how did you teach martial arts to an undead?
-LOLOLOL Internal School Heavy-Hand Method LOLOLOL is this for real LOLOLOL
-I am surprised. How does one do this?
[Soy Sauce Factory has donated 1 DP!]
[Time-Fishing Gang Tae-gong has donated 1 DP!]
[Electric Shock Construction has donated 1 DP!]
[ㅇㅇㅁㅁ has donated 1 DP!]
Donations were pouring in too. Donations alone had already passed 120 DP.
Considering that the DP I'd earned from the bet earlier was over 20,000, the amount of DP I'd made today was staggering.
So this was the life of a popular hunter?
I had to show my appreciation.
"Thank you all for donating! Now then, let's all check the reward together. Aren't you curious what reward I got?"
-Ooooooooh finally the reward.
-What comes out as the first clear reward?
-That's f-X-king badass. A Korean middle-aged guy snagged a world-first title....
-Mom! I'm happy because I'm Korean! Mom! I'm happy because I'm Korean!
The viewers were still in a frenzy.
A new message window appeared.
[You are the first to clear all tutorial trials.]
[A first-clear reward is being generated.]
[The accumulated bonus reward is being generated.]
[Confirming that the awakened person's class is 'Necromancer'.]
First clear reward. On top of that, it seemed the rewards were being generated by combining everything, including the stages I had cleared.
Let's see.
What would come out?
I was still thinking that when I found myself hoping it would let me train martial arts like in my previous life.
The reward appeared.
[A wondrous and astonishing achievement!]
[You have obtained a Genesis Grade reward.]
Are you kidding me?
Why the hell was a Genesis Grade reward showing up here?
Even as someone who had been the Martial God in a previous life, I was so surprised that I couldn't speak for a moment.
The Dimensional Tower's rewards came in six tiers.
The order was Normal -> Special -> Rare -> Legendary -> Mythic -> Genesis.
Genesis Grade had appeared exactly once worldwide; even Mythic Grade had appeared only a handful of times.
[Awakened Lee Mu-seon's class is being changed from 'Necromancer' to 'Necron Emperor'.]
A Genesis Grade reward.
It was a class change.
It wasn't surprising in itself, since there were many cases where doing well on the placement exam improved your class... but the problem was that this was a Genesis Grade reward.
It wasn't just a higher-tier class. It looked like the ultimate class in the Necromancer line.
I did feel good. I did, but....
Just change me to Martial World Native instead!
I was still thinking that when—
Another reward came out.
What?
Wasn't getting the ultimate necro class the end of it?
[You have obtained a Mythic Grade reward.]
My jaw dropped at this too.
The second reward was Mythic Grade? Was this... was this right? Wasn't the system giving me way too much?
[You can command 1 undead outside the Dimensional Tower.]
Are you kidding me!? They were letting me use an undead... in reality?
Whoa... this was... too much.
It was definitely excessive.
This felt even more absurd than becoming the Necron Emperor. In reality, the Dimensional Tower's power could only be used in very limited ways.
Otherwise, the world would already have been in chaos. It would have looked completely different from the world I knew.
Yet they were letting me command one undead out here?
And there was no restriction on 'which' undead it could be.
Say I got stronger later and summoned something like a Death Knight or a Corpse-Spirit Heavenly Jiangshi and brought it around with me?
I could overthrow a small dictatorship by myself and just settle down there.
That shocked me so badly I just stood there blankly—something I'd never even done in my previous life.
I had never been this surprised even in my previous life....
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Earth's population was currently in the billions. Compared with modern Earth, the population of the martial world in my previous life wouldn't even have come close.
I'd slept through some history classes, but I remembered hearing that the world's population around the fourteenth century hadn't even reached 500 million.
Nearly a tenfold difference in population.
In an era teeming with that many people, no one had managed to clear the 10th tutorial trial....
With that many people alive today and not one of them having cleared the tenth tutorial trial... maybe it was only natural for the rewards to be this generous.
I was still mulling that over when—
I was surprised once more.
[You have obtained a Legendary Grade reward.]
A Legendary Grade reward this time?
The tier before Genesis was Mythic. The tier before that was Legendary.
Even without going as far as Genesis or Mythic, Legendary Grade rewards were rare to see. When a Legendary Grade appeared, it caused a commotion on a national scale.
Enough that all kinds of news outlets would play nationalistic videos like "Our Korea did it! A Legendary reward has appeared!"
Yet here I was getting Genesis Grade, Mythic Grade, and Legendary Grade rewards all at once.
So... my hopes of living quietly were screwed, huh?
Couldn't I just say I was the Martial God in a previous life?
At this point, I'd gotten Genesis, Mythic, and Legendary rewards from the tutorial. Who cared if I said I was the Martial God in my previous life or whatever?
[Small Undead Subdimension is being upgraded to Undead Subdimension.]
[Undead Subdimension is being upgraded to Village-Grade Undead Subdimension.]
[Village-Grade Undead Subdimension is being upgraded to Town-Grade Undead Subdimension.]
So it was a Legendary Grade reward....
This was interesting too.
The Small Undead Subdimension was literally an undead storage space. I'd heard that if it grew later, I could build undead-related buildings or research facilities there.
But now its size had grown several times over.
Rural areas use administrative units like towns, townships, and villages, and it seemed the Undead Subdimension was being graded on the same scale.
So what did that mean.
So what did that make me? The owner of a whole town? Not a village chief—more like a town mayor?
My class said Necron Emperor, but in reality I was a town mayor.
After I finished checking the third reward...
The final message appeared.
[The tutorial is ending.]
[As a tutorial completion reward, 1 random skill will be given.]
[You have obtained the Necron Emperor class skill 'Dignity of the Corpse Lord'.]
[Skill: Dignity of the Corpse Lord]
Transforms corpses within a 10-meter radius into the lowest-grade undead 'Walking Corpse.'
The control limit is removed for Walking Corpses only.
Huh. This was... another seriously insane skill, wasn't it?
-What did I just see?
-Isn't this huge?
-Is it real that you can use 1 undead in reality?
-F-X-k lololololol
[May luck be with you.]
The viewers were stunned, and even the Dimensional Tower system had delivered its closing line.
And so the tutorial ended.
And my body returned to reality, to my room, in a flash of light.
Well, that ended before I even had a chance to say goodbye.
"Whew. Man, that was fun. It had been a while."
I was completely satisfied.
The moment I thought that and looked ahead, a curse burst out.
"F-X-k."
The chicken had gone completely cold!
Damn Dimensional Tower.
It could've waited until I'd finished my chicken to call me.
"Still... it felt good to run wild for the first time in a while."
I carried the cold chicken over to the microwave.
I'd heat it up and eat it.
* * *
Park Kang-chan.
He was attending a party for networking, following his boss's orders.
It was a place where figures from the political and business worlds came, and naturally, many hunters like Park Kang-chan were there too.
Famous celebrities came and put on shows, and while pretending to laugh and chat with others, people also talked shop.
In truth, Park Kang-chan didn't want to come to a place like this, but what could he do? Among his colleagues, he was the only one who was even somewhat sociable.
'If I'd known it would be like this, I would've acted like a lunatic too.'
Park Kang-chan let out a sigh.
Awakened life was not easy.
Dying inside the Dimensional Tower didn't mean actually dying, but the Dimensional Tower was a place where you experienced all sorts of horrible things, just short of death.
Because of that, there were plenty of people who awakened but never climbed the tower.
That meant most people who stubbornly kept climbing the Dimensional Tower had something warped or missing in them as functioning members of society.
'Sigh. All of this must be the grace of Coach.'
In fact, Park Kang-chan was one of those people too.
A few years ago.
If he hadn't met Lee Mu-seon, whom he now regarded as his teacher, and had some sense beaten into him, he might still be living like a complete mess.