Chapter 2: Farming is All About Speed
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 2: Farming is All About Speed
Seo-un grabbed the short bolt lodged in the door and strained with all his might to pull it out, but it didn't budge an inch.
The bolt was already short, making it difficult to get a firm grip, and with Seo-un’s current strength, pulling it out was simply impossible.
“Damn it. I tried to get a feel for the weapon early, but I just ended up wasting a precious arrow.”
Still, if he had tried to save the arrow and failed to grasp the mechanics of the crossbow, the chances of making a fatal mistake in a crisis would have been high. He needed to know the effective range and the flight path at the very least.
However, because he had fired it inside the cramped cabin, the bolt had slammed into the door almost instantly. He hadn't been able to gauge the range or the arc of a long-distance shot.
“For now… it’s farming. It won’t be too late to figure it out after I’ve looked around more and finished looting. The others are probably slow to adapt because they’re busy trying to wrap their heads around how this supernatural madness is even happening. I have to identify and farm as many items as possible right now.”
The only way for Seo-un to survive this game was to utilize every item he could find.
Unlike Log, where everyone started on equal footing, this game featured a massive disparity in the individual abilities of the players from the very beginning. To overcome that gap, he needed a corresponding arsenal of items.
After a quick sweep of the cabin where he found the crossbow, Seo-un was about to turn away when an old booklet caught his eye.
He was going to pass it by, but he stopped.
Driven by a sharp intuition that he shouldn't just leave it, he turned back and picked up the tattered book.
At that moment, a clear, ringing sound echoed in his head.
[Ding! You have obtained a Martial Arts Manual. Would you like to learn it?]
A translucent window appeared before his eyes with 'O' and 'X' selection buttons.
“M-Martial arts… I can learn them?”
He reflexively reached for the button but paused to flip through the book first.
If the system allows me to learn martial arts like this, there must be grades for the manuals. If there’s a limit to how many I can learn, I can’t just pick up any random skill.
As he opened the book, a small window activated, translating the Hanja-filled text for him.
[Black Star Finger Technique. A martial art that trains the fingers to throw hidden weapons. Chapter 1 describes finger conditioning. Chapter 2 describes the method of throwing hidden weapons. Chapter 3 describes advanced applications. Training period: 1 year for martial artists. Ordinary people must train for 4 years to use it.]
Once he finished reading that far, the system voice rang out again.
[Ding. Would you like to learn it?]
“Hidden weapons… I don’t think I’ll lose anything by learning it for now.”
He had read his fair share of martial arts novels. Since it wasn't a complex mental cultivation method but a simple technique for throwing weapons, he figured there was no harm in knowing it.
As his hand touched the selection button floating in the air, the manual dissolved into a bluish light, turning into dust and vanishing. Simultaneously, Seo-un’s fingertips were stained with a dark hue.
“Huh?”
Startled, he examined his hand. His knuckles felt somehow sturdier than before. Along with that sensation, the knowledge of how to fire hidden weapons using the Black Star Finger Technique surfaced in his mind as if he had known it for years.
“If it’s like this… it condenses four years of training into just a few seconds.”
Marveling once again at the game’s system, Seo-un hurried out of the cabin.
When I looked from above, there were definitely several cabins. I have to clear them all out quickly.
He had been so panicked during the fall that he couldn't remember the exact locations of the cabins. Furthermore, from his experience playing Log, he knew well that for a novice jumper, finding landmarks on the ground that they had seen from the air was never as easy as it seemed.
I should have memorized some terrain features as reference points…
While searching for the next cabin by relying on the vague image in his head, Seo-un suddenly stopped.
“Ah! There was a Map!”
The moment the word 'Map' left his lips, a small window appeared before his eyes, showing his current location and the surrounding terrain.
It functioned like a touch screen, allowing him to zoom in and out. Seo-un immediately ran toward the cabin closest to his position.
When he opened the door and stepped inside, he found the place just as abandoned as the first. He looked around for a moment, but no special items or martial arts manuals were in sight.
“Tch. A bust?”
Just as he was about to leave, something caught his eye. It was a roll of paper tied with a blue string, lying carelessly in a corner of the cabin.
Seo-un had played enough games to rival anyone. Because of that, he hadn't made it into a top-tier university, and after being discharged from the military, he was in a position where he had to enroll in an academy to prepare for a bleak future. However, his intuition regarding games was exceptionally sharp.
And that intuition was sending him a signal: Do not pass over that bundle of paper.
“It looks… like a scroll.”
As he finished his sentence and picked up the object from the corner, a familiar notification rang out.
[Ding! You have obtained a Stage 1 Recovery Scroll. Would you like to use it?]
It was an item, after all. He didn't know how much damage a Stage 1 recovery could heal, but Seo-un was certain this item would be essential at some point.
When he pressed the 'X' button, the rest of the system notification appeared.
[You can use the item at any time by tearing the scroll. Cooldown: 5 seconds.]
“As I thought.”
A scroll or a magic spell. Generally, these were items that allowed anyone—even non-mages—to use a specific spell once by tearing them. It was an item anyone who had played fantasy games would recognize.
I’m starting to get the hang of this. Items from worlds where mages and martial artists live are scattered around like this. If that’s the case… there might be items from my world too. If I can just get my hands on a K-2 rifle, I might actually have a chance.
The K-2 rifle he had been holding until he was sick of it just a short while ago. If he could obtain the weapon he had been so eager to part with, he might be able to survive in this place where monsters roamed. No, he was confident he could.
With that thought, Seo-un stuffed the scroll into his pants pocket, only then realizing that a truly essential item had yet to appear.
“I can’t go on like this.”
Hurrying toward the next cabin, Seo-un prayed that the item would appear there.
When he ran into the third cabin and didn't see the item he wanted after a quick glance, he let out a heavy sigh.
“Haa.”
As he acquired more items, Seo-un realized he had no place to store them.
There’s a limit to what I can carry in my hands… I need at least a small bag.
While searching the cabin for any martial arts manuals or scrolls, the setting sun cast a reddish glow across the floor, and something sparkling caught his eye.
“Hm? This is…”
It was a single black ring, so small that it would have been impossible to find with just a cursory glance. A smile spread across Seo-un’s face as he picked it up.
The inevitable system voice confirmed that this ring was also a valuable item.
[Ding. You have obtained a Ring of Strength. Wearing it will increase your strength.]
“There really is everything here. I bet every item I’ve seen in games exists in this place.”
As he finished speaking, he slipped the ring onto his finger. Suddenly, the weight of the crossbow on his back became almost imperceptible.
It hadn't been incredibly heavy, but carrying a strangely shaped crossbow on his back had been quite cumbersome. However, the moment he put on the ring, the weight felt so light that he could immediately feel the ring's effect.
“This is the best item I’ve found so far.”
He knew it instinctively. Compared to a scroll that vanished after one use, a crossbow that took considerable time to reload, or a martial art he couldn't use yet because he hadn't found any decent hidden weapons, this ring—which boosted his overall physical power—was an item he could use continuously.
Having reached this conclusion, Seo-un immediately took the crossbow off his back and tried to cock it.
“I knew it!”
The old crossbow, which he previously couldn't even cock without using his foot and his entire body weight, was now easily cocked with his bare hands. This would undoubtedly make the crossbow's rate of fire much faster than before.
“It won't make me equal to those terrifying martial artists, but still…”
Even so, the fact that this ring was an incredibly precious item to him right now didn't change.
Growl.
Looking down at his rumbling stomach, Seo-un finally felt the hunger. Come to think of it, he had been active all day without eating a single thing.
Due to the sudden change in environment, he hadn't even had time to feel hungry, but now that he was adapting and the tension was easing slightly, a sharp hunger hit him.
“Is there anything to eat? Now that I think about it, if the game lasts for a hundred days, it’ll be dangerous without a stable supply of food and water.”
It was a detail he had overlooked because the situation was so similar to the game Log. In a game, you only needed to maintain the character's HP, so there was no need to eat. But here, he was playing with his own body; he wouldn't survive if he didn't eat.
Starving to death is even more pathetic than dying to the magnetic field.
With that thought, Seo-un checked the setting sun and hurried toward the fourth cabin.
Unlike the first three cabins, which were relatively close to each other, this one was quite a distance away. If he wasn't careful, he might arrive after dark.
“Still, wearing the Ring of Strength makes this a lot easier.”
No matter how fit a young man fresh out of the military was, running through mountainous terrain was exhausting. Fortunately, after obtaining the Ring of Strength, he didn't feel particularly tired despite running a significant distance.
Does it boost my cardio too?
Seo-un didn't realize it, but increasing physical strength was essentially the same as making the body feel lighter. Mathematically speaking, the ring Seo-un had obtained increased strength by a fixed amount.
Since the ring was designed to boost strength based on the average player's stats, the effect was even more dramatic for him, whose strength was overwhelmingly lower than other players.
If Seo-un’s base strength was 10, the ring added roughly 20. In other words, his strength had nearly tripled, so it was only natural that he felt such a difference.
After running for a long time, Seo-un arrived at the cabin just as the sky was growing dark, gasping for breath. Despite the Ring of Strength, he couldn't help but be winded after sprinting in a hurry.
“Haa… haa… Damn it! The sun is finally setting.”
Catching his breath and steadying his breathing, he hurried inside.
It was the fourth cabin of his farming run.