The Dragon's Pearl and the Heavenly King's Elixir

After getting back from my trip to Korea, I was digging through the internet when I discovered one absolutely ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠crushing fact. If I stayed in Korea as Jin Yongtae for more than a year and six months, I would have to enlist. The military again? Hell no. Looks like I'd have to live as the Japanese Taira Ryuta while I was in Korea. And since I was now Taira Ryuta of the Taira Group instead of Hata Ryuta slaving away at some small company, I needed to snatch a few of Korea's hidden pieces. Getting dragged into the Taira Group's succession war would put my life on the line even if I had three of them, so I had to secure every advantage I could.

But one massive worry loomed over me. Was this world the same as the original game, or was it the drama adaptation that had completely reinterpreted the source material and earned a mountain of curses from fans? The drama obviously didn't have any ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the game's ridiculous items, so even if I went to Korea there wouldn't be much to gain. If this was the drama world, the trip would just be about stuffing my face with Korean food I hadn't tasted in a week. But if I had really possessed the game world, I stood to gain an enormous amount.

Hmm. How could I figure out which world this was? Wait... that's it! I should check the protagonist. In the original game, the title MegaCorp's Youngest Son was misleading as hell since you could choose the protagonist's gender. The drama had a male lead, so if the protagonist was female it was one hundred percent the game world. Even if it was male, there was still roughly a fifty-percent chance it was the game.

I pulled up Google and searched the Shinkang Group family tree in Korean and... there it was. The child of Han Ujin, fourth son of Shinkang Group founder and current chairman Han Mungang... Han Yugyeong! She was a woman! This wasn't the drama. Thank god it was the game world. There wasn't a photo, but if it was her default game appearance she had to be stunning. If the chance came up on this trip, I definitely needed to see her once.

Now that I had confirmation, I could decide what to obtain and plan my route. But first I needed to borrow some money from Mom. I'd been a high school student until recently, so I didn't have much cash. I'd scraped together about two hundred thousand yen from part-time jobs, but more money was always better.

"Mom! Can you lend me some money? Before I start work in a few weeks, I want to take a quick trip to Korea."

"Korea? You don't speak Korean that well, do you?"

When Jin Mija stepped out of my room and asked with a puzzled look, I grinned confidently thanks to the special perk of being a Korean possessor and answered, "I actually speak Korean really well, you know?"

"Eh? You speak it better than me?"

Mom was a second-generation Zainichi Korean, so her accent was still a little awkward. There was no comparing her Korean to mine. Until a week ago this body had been like Heungseon Daewongun—completely monolingual in Korean. Now I was a true bilingual, fluent in both Japanese and Korean.

"So how much do you need?"

"I'll be there about four days, so around two hundred thousand yen?"

"Got it~"

Mom was refreshingly cool about it. Adding that to what I already had gave me four hundred thousand yen—roughly four million won. That should be plenty. Since I'd be traveling as the Korean Jin Yongtae this time, I still had the passport I'd made for that sophomore-year middle school trip to China. All I needed to do was book the flight and exchange the cash.

After landing at the airport, the smell of Korea hit me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠immediately. It was that indescribable Korean atmosphere. I'd only been gone about ten days, but after living in Japan the scent felt strangely foreign. Or maybe it was how the original owner of this body, Hata Ryuta, perceived it. Incheon Airport looked different from what I remembered before possession. The changes were subtle, but they drove home the fact that this really was another world. The feeling was oddly nostalgic.

I took the airport train and got off at Yeongjong Station. My targets were Baegunsa on Mount Baegun and Yonggungsa. Before that, I stopped at a gukbap place near the station and ordered a steaming bowl of sundae gukbap. After so long, the combination of rich broth, blood sausage, and kkakdugi was absolute heaven. I left the restaurant patting my full stomach, caught a taxi, and headed straight for Yonggungsa.

I got off in front of the temple and made my way to the stone pagoda where the item was hidden. I was nervous it might not be there. I knew the items existed because this was the game world, but I couldn't shake the fear that someone else might have already taken them.

True to its name, the base of the stone pagoda at Yonggungsa had four dragons carved on each side. The dragon on the rear face—the one with the mountain behind it—was holding the Yeouiju in its mouth. That was my target. The name was exactly as it appeared: Yeouiju.

Gamers had always assumed the developers added it as a mercy item for newbies and players struggling with the brutal difficulty. In other words, it was that ridiculously overpowered. The first ability prevented instant death. More precisely, once per day it nullified any damage exceeding fifty percent of my health and granted three seconds of complete invulnerability. A free life plus three seconds of god mode was insanely strong. Playing as MegaCorp's youngest son usually meant dying instantly to snipers or ambushes, and this option completely shut that down.

The second ability halved all damage below a certain threshold, another newbie-friendly feature that dramatically lowered death rates. Even non-lethal hits would be reduced, massively boosting overall survivability.

The third was potential enhancement. In the original game, level-ups gave you two stat points and a choice of three randomly appearing traits. This upgraded the random traits to higher-tier versions. Since traits were purely luck-based, this was an incredible bonus.

Finally, the increased experience gain. Exactly as described. Leveling would be roughly one and a half times faster than normal.

In the game, using the Yeouiju would have gotten me called a filthy cheater. But this was reality. This was a world where the ruthless Mega Corporation was only just beginning its rise. My life was mine to protect.

When I pulled the Yeouiju from the dragon's mouth, it emitted a mysterious green light and absorbed directly into my body. It didn't appear in any status window or elsewhere, but it would grant the same beneficial effects it had in the game. In the game it had been a bound item that couldn't be traded. Here it had fused with me completely, leaving no visible form.

After obtaining the Yeouiju, I left Yonggungsa, caught another taxi, and headed for Baegunsa. Most temples had an Iljumun gate, then the Cheonwangmun, then the main Geumgangmun. My reason for visiting Baegunsa lay at the Cheonwangmun where the Four Heavenly Kings stood.

There was Jiguk Cheonwang in the east, Gwangmok Cheonwang in the west, Jeungjang Cheonwang in the south, and Damun Cheonwang in the north. The item was with the western king, Gwangmok Cheonwang. He controlled dragons, held a Yeouiju in one hand and a spear in the other. Anyone with eyes would realize the item from Gwangmok Cheonwang formed a set with the one from Yonggungsa.

I pressed the space between the statue's feet. A hidden compartment appeared, revealing a small wooden box. Inside was the consumable item called Cheonwanghwan.

The elixir would permanently raise my physical stats by a huge margin, grant the growth-type trait Regeneration, and break the physical stat limit by one point. The stat boost was obvious, but Regeneration paired perfectly with the Yeouiju's damage halving. Even reduced damage would recover almost instantly. On top of that, the fact that it could grow meant that later I could become a monster who survived on a sliver of health. The +1 to the physical limit let me break past the usual cap of 20 and reach 21. That single point made the character feel brokenly strong once the limit was exceeded. In the end, the Cheonwanghwan was another cheat item.

Now I understood why the protagonist's starting point in the game was Incheon. It was the developers' way of giving weak newbies a fighting chance with the Yeouiju and Cheonwanghwan. Since I was also weak, I gratefully accepted the consideration from whatever absolute being had sent me here. I still resented being thrown into this world, but thank you, Absolute One.

Having obtained both items, I'd completed about seventy percent of my goals for this trip to Korea. Time to rest for today. It was already evening, so I carefully made my way down the mountain. My phone battery was running dangerously low too.

At the bottom I found a nearby motel and checked in. Consuming the Cheonwanghwan caused several hours of unconsciousness in the game, so I hadn't taken it at the temple. The moment I'd confirmed this was the game world by looking up the Shinkang Group family tree, I'd unconsciously shouted the forbidden word.

The taboo phrase... Jot-taechang.

"Status window."

I spoke the words quietly, and a translucent status window floated before my eyes. Why hadn't I tried it sooner? Because this world felt far too real. In my original life, the absence of status windows was common sense, so the thought had never occurred to me here. If I hadn't confirmed it was the game world by checking the Shinkang family tree, I never would have uttered those words.

By the way, I'd gotten caught by Mom while testing the status window earlier. She'd clutched her stomach laughing, rolling around and saying her son had suddenly come down with a late case of chuunibyou. I couldn't even make an excuse. After all, I'd literally been caught yelling at a status window.

Better not dwell on that black history any longer. Time to focus on the status window floating in front of me.