Monopolizing - Part 1

Piercing four Soul Holes was, in effect, a declaration that he would walk a path inconceivable to any other player. Even though the Unique title Never-Giving-Up Challenger slashed his required Karma penalty from eightfold down to fourfold, leveling up was by no means going to be easy.

In the early game, the gap between him and players with only a single Soul Hole might seem negligible. But once past Level 40—entering what was universally dread-named the Hell Phase—players who had greedily etched too many Soul Holes inevitably beat their chests in bitter regret.

Only by pushing through that crushing wall could one become a true apex ranker, yet breaking through was anything but simple. There were, of course, a few ways to manage it. The easiest route was borrowing the raw power of real-world wealth; the most common was clawing upward through agonizing, near-fatal grind. Whichever method one chose, if a player could somehow break through and reach the heights, having etched more Soul Holes yielded devastating, peerless power.

Back when Sanghyuk made his name as a head coach, more than eighty percent of active professional gamers ran Double Soul builds, while the remaining twenty percent wielded Triple Souls. Not a single pro stuck with One Soul. Narrowing it down to the elite among the pros—the cream of the crop—over seventy percent utilized Triple Souls. That alone spoke volumes about the staggering potential of a three-slot configuration.

And in such an ecosystem, Sanghyuk had chosen the Quadra Soul—a build no one in history had ever perfected. If he could truly cultivate it to fruition, he would become an unrivaled sovereign standing alone above the world.

"Is this only the fourth day since the servers opened? Word of mouth should be trickling out just about now."

The overwhelming quality of Eternal Life had only begun spreading in earnest about a week after open beta launched. Of course, because the game was notoriously unforgiving and had an absurdly steep learning curve, it took several months before that growing buzz translated into a monumental commercial boom.

Right now, even the rankers whose names will eventually echo across the globe have either just stepped in or are stumbling around in confusion, struggling to grasp how anything works.

The ruthless reality that every scrap of information had to be uncovered firsthand inside the game drove players to utter exhaustion. Yet Raon Soft refused to offer a shred of hand-holding, insisting it was an unavoidable design choice essential to preserving the game's core integrity. And that unbending design worked entirely in Sanghyuk’s favor.

"Which means someone like me, armed with a mountain of critical future knowledge, has a golden opportunity to monopolize everything of value."

Sanghyuk murmured under his breath, a satisfied grin touching his lips. The targets surfacing in his mind were treasures and accolades widely regarded by the player base as the absolute pinnacle.

Not everyone who claimed those early advantages went on to become top-tier rankers, but every top-tier ranker possessed at least one asset hailed as "the best." And Sanghyuk was setting his sights on the best of the very best. Crucially, they were feats he could accomplish right now.

"Looks like I'll have to give up on sleep for a while."

Even Sanghyuk couldn't possibly know every minor detail. He had no precise timeline for who discovered what and when. To preempt everyone and monopolize the spoils, speed was paramount. He resolved to get by on barely two hours of sleep a night. He had spent his pre-launch weeks conditioning his body and resting thoroughly precisely for this ordeal; grinding on two hours of sleep for a month or two would not break him.

First on the list... the First Mountaineer!

Turning his head, Sanghyuk gazed up at Mount Puyan, the sacred peak towering behind Falcon City, and gave a slow, deliberate nod.

Mount Puyan was one of the five great mountains representing Planet Trinark. Though the lowest in elevation among the five, its profound symbolic resonance earned it a place among them. Reaching the summit of any one of these five peaks before anyone else awarded a unique honor: the title First Mountaineer—a staggering Unique-grade title.

While it carried neither prefix nor suffix effects, it bestowed an extraordinary permanent passive: an outright twenty-percent boost to all acquired Karma.

In Sanghyuk's past life, this title had reportedly gone to a top-tier ranker known as the "Climber," though rumor had it he had obtained it by scaling one of the other peaks, not Puyan.

Sanghyuk possessed such trivia because the pro gamers under his wing had frequently chatted about these nostalgic game histories in private settings. While pros guarded pivotal tactical secrets even from teammates, harmless historical lore was casually tossed around over drinks, giving Sanghyuk an immense vault of gathered intel.

Under normal circumstances, even knowing a special title waited at the peak wouldn't embolden a sane player to try such an ascent. But to Sanghyuk, who had spent over six months scaling precipitous cliffs and craggy precipices while gathering herbs in Sword & Magic, conquering Mount Puyan was hardly insurmountable.

Most crucially, he was still Level 10 and had not yet accumulated a single sliver of Karma on Planet Trinark. Even if he plummeted to his death, he had nothing to lose. Just to be safe, he had already stashed the Traveler's Treasure Sword inside the four-dimensional subspace granted to him—or rather, to the Dimensional Traveler 'Immortal'—at Falcon City's public bank, ensuring no gear could be forfeited.

Furthermore, Mount Puyan was the greatest sacred mountain on Trinark, enshrining a slumbering deity, meaning it harbored neither monsters nor wild predators. In this consecrated haven, impure beasts simply could not exist. Thanks to that divine sanctuary status, Sanghyuk could attempt the climb even at a measly Level 10.

Unburdened by risk, he could climb boldly. To prepare, he dumped all ten stat growth points he had stockpiled into Strength. Hanging off sheer cliffs and hauling his weight upward demanded raw physical power; the investment was indispensable.

Through relentless, agonizing effort, Sanghyuk reached the summit of Mount Puyan without dying a single time. It was the hard-won fruit of twenty continuous hours spent scaling rock faces without a second of respite.

"Huh. A Legendary quest? There was something like this hidden here?"

Stunned by the unexpected bounty, Sanghyuk muttered aloud and hurriedly called up his quest log.

"A Legendary piece quest..."

Quests that required gathering disparate fragments before activating were notoriously brutal in difficulty, but their final payoffs were astronomical. Sanghyuk had never imagined stumbling across one so early.

"To think I'd get this right now..."

It was an entirely unforeseen bonus. Even if he possessed no prior knowledge of this specific ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠questline, the intrinsic worth of a Legendary quest was virtually limitless, making it an extraordinary windfall.

"Well, I'll stash it away and challenge it once I have some real breathing room."

Attempting to tackle a Legendary fragment quest at this stage would be pure madness.

Opening his title window to inspect the parameters of First Mountaineer, Sanghyuk smiled with deep satisfaction. Even within the same Unique grade, its raw numerical efficiency fell slightly behind Never-Giving-Up Challenger from the Endless Grassland, but in truth, a twenty-percent bonus was already exceptional.

Never-Giving-Up Challenger was simply so absurd that it skewed the baseline.

"With this, I can definitely shake off the crushing weight of the Quadra Soul."

Having secured First Mountaineer, Sanghyuk could now cultivate his Quadra Soul almost as effortlessly as an ordinary Double Soul. While it would still demand more grit than those running two slots, it would be noticeably easier than raising a Triple Soul.

On top of this, if he methodically stacked the minor Karma-boosting titles he had stored in his memories, he could easily push his total acquired Karma bonus close to thirty percent.

"Whew. That said, getting down is going to be another nightmare. Should I just throw myself off?"

Leaping off the summit would certainly be the fastest way to the bottom. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. Even for someone as hardened as Sanghyuk, experiencing death in virtual reality was something to avoid whenever possible. More importantly, he had earned a solid chunk of exploration Karma from the ascent; losing that hard-won progress made jumping out of the question.

Taking a moment to steady his breathing, Sanghyuk drank in the breathtaking panorama sprawling beneath Mount Puyan's summit, then began his descent down the sheer rock face.

An ordinary player would have captured screenshots or recorded videos to preserve such a magnificent vista forever, but Sanghyuk possessed no such sentimental streak. Etching it into his memory with his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠own two eyes was more than enough.

Having conquered Mount Puyan and returned to ground level, Sanghyuk turned back toward Falcon City. Or rather, he attempted to. But before the city gates could greet him, three players wearing deeply disgruntled expressions stepped into his path.

In Eternal Life, leveling up required Karma. Interestingly, Karma came in two distinct varieties.

The first was Light Karma, acquired through methods typical of ordinary games. Functioning almost identically to standard experience points, it accumulated naturally whenever one hunted monsters or completed quests.

Yet an exact polar opposite existed alongside it.

It was known as Black Karma. This dark energy accumulated through malevolent deeds, such as murdering fellow players or slaughtering NPCs.

Whenever a player gained even a single level using Black Karma, or accumulated more than 10,000 Black Karma in total, they were designated as an Outlaw. Once branded an Outlaw, not only were they permanently barred from entering normal cities, but bounties were placed upon their heads.

Naturally, content catered specifically to Outlaws did exist—including lawless cities, and later on, massive syndicates formed by outlaws banding together—yet becoming an Outlaw unquestionably carried far more penalties than benefits.

Once branded, the only way to return to normal standing was to visit the Hall of Souls, surrender everything, offer all accumulated Karma to the Earth Mother Goddess and Heavenly Martial God, and undergo Penance Practice.

Undergoing Penance Practice forcibly reset the character back to Level 10. Worse, the player had to remain completely immobilized ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in place for an excruciating duration proportional to the Black Karma they had amassed. Virtually no one ever willingly chose Penance Practice.

Furthermore, Outlaws could be attacked without restriction by regular players. If an Outlaw was slain by another user, twenty percent of their total Black Karma was stripped away.

For a high-level Outlaw, forfeiting twenty percent of their Black Karma in a single death could instantly drop their level by several ranks. Combined with the fact that they dropped carried inventory at random upon dying, Outlaws feared death above all else.

Yet walking the path of the Outlaw did offer certain alluring advantages.

Namely... the ability to assault ordinary players to accumulate Black Karma while simultaneously plundering their hard-earned items. In addition, Outlaws could profit by slaughtering entities treated as friendly NPCs by the general player base.

For instance, special races that interacted peacefully with ordinary users—such as Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits—could be hunted down like monsters. Slaying normal monsters yielded only items and no Karma for Outlaws, but hunting down these special races yielded both loot and a massive influx of Black Karma.

The primary reason people chose the outlaw's path was the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠thrill of pillaging gear from other players. The secondary reason was the freedom to hunt both monsters and civilized races alike. These two perks were the decisive factors driving players into infamy.

And because accumulating Black Karma was far easier at low levels, the early days of open beta were rife with widespread, indiscriminate player killing.

I completely forgot this was the era when outlaws ran rampant everywhere.

Sanghyuk stared at the three players blocking his path, a dry smirk curling on his face. Every single one of them had eyes stained a vivid, crimson red.

Crimson irises... the unmistakable mark of an Outlaw.

"Talking's getting old," one of them scoffed. "Just consider today your unlucky day."

The trio carried the casual swagger of men who had already butchered numerous players. Their insolent arrogance was palpable—yet Sanghyuk knew better than anyone that the swagger of these low-tier outlaws would not last much longer.