The Long Game Gamble
The time spent in the Terraforming world was only for reviewing the novel's content or taking short breaks during training, so it was still Sunday evening on Earth. A few days might have passed for me, but by Earth's standards, it was the evening of the same day the cleaning company staff had visited.
"Status Window."
Name: Park Chanyoung
Occupation: -
Strength: 9 → 10
Agility: 9 → 10
Vitality: 7 → 8
Intelligence: 5
Dexterity: 2 → 5
Charm: -22 → -21
Mana: 7 → 29
Traits:Natural Healing
Sunryeongilil Manyowolwol (Daily Immortal Decree, Monthly Lunar Chant) buff: +3 to all stats except Charm (00:00:05)
Karma: 8,355
All the stats had risen thanks to training. I'd saved up my karma without spending any. Thanks to the quest rewards increasing by a whopping 25%, I'd accumulated an unbelievable amount.
Let me share one astonishing fact I'd realized after spending a few days there.
The skill Sunryeongilil Manyowolwol (Daily Immortal Decree, Monthly Lunar Chant) periodically increased my mana. And once—just once—I confirmed it activated on Earth too.
That meant mana existed on Earth, not just in the novel's world.
Of course, it seemed to rise at a dramatically slower rate compared to the novel world...
Did the density of ambient mana differ between worlds? Either way, it was good news for me. Heading to a world richer in mana than Terraforming would make this skill even more efficient.
Sunryeongilil Manyowolwol (Daily Immortal Decree, Monthly Lunar Chant). What an incredible skill. It was so ridiculously good that I was deep in agony right now.
If it had just been a little less amazing, I wouldn't be agonizing day and night like this...
"What should I do? How..."
What was tormenting me was how to spend my stockpiled karma.
There were no worthwhile items. Most were modern conveniences for daily life.
No skills worth buying either. There were martial arts like Hapkido, Kendo, or Muay Thai that existed on Earth, but...
Level 0 or 1 skills from those probably won't help much...
That left me with just two options. But both were so tempting that I hadn't chosen yet.
First: Dump all karma into raising stats.
Vitality: 8 → 9
Required Karma: 100
Strength: 10 → 11
Required Karma: 300
As expected, once the tens digit changed, the required karma tripled. Still, over 8,000 karma was plenty. Dumping it all into stats would get two stats to 20.
How strong would a stat of 20 be? I remembered Chris Bennett and Brack averaging over 30, so it'd be around the level of a fresh Combatant who'd just graduated training camp and qualified to fight monsters.
"...But it's still not enough. The enemies will have at least Instructor-level stats..."
Second: "..."
Sunryeongilil Manyowolwol (Daily Immortal Decree, Monthly Lunar Chant) Lv 1 → Lv 2
Required Karma: 8,132
Upgrade the skill. Why wasn't it an even number? Probably due to proficiency.
I recalled it first showed 9,400 karma needed. It dropped gradually, now down to the 8,000s. Likely started at 10,000 and decreased with proficiency buildup.
The skill window didn't show proficiency, but I could infer it from the leveling cost.
Whether it'd auto-level at 100% was unknown, but anyway.
If it showed the exact gains after upgrading, I could've compared and chosen easily.
"Why won't it show..."
That's why I'd been agonizing.
Short-term, stats would give a huge immediate boost. Long-term, though, it was different.
Stronger mana absorption was great, and...
The lower your stats, the higher the chance training raises them. Raising from 10 to 11 is way easier than 20 to 21.
"Damn it..."
No more time to agonize. Events were coming soon, and I needed to spend this karma beforehand. No leisure for it mid-crisis.
...Honestly, by my tastes, it was already decided. In strategy sims, always late-game builds. In popular AOS games, ultra-late heroes. In RPGs, skill points into late-game percent passives.
I was the type to rip open the belly first, even if it might kill me. I knew how massively it paid off later, so I couldn't look away. Plus, I was confident I'd suffer less than others from the early risks.
My heart was set.
"..."
Ding! Daily Immortal Decree, Monthly Lunar Chant [Level] 2 Lv
Level: 2
Attribute: Hybrid
Type: Passive
Details: Exhaling briefly enhances physical abilities. (All stats except Charm +3 for 5 seconds.) Also purges bodily impurities. Doubled when the sun is up.
Inhaling absorbs natural qi. (Lv 2) Also sharpens senses. Doubled when the moon is up.
Cooldown: -
Sure thing! I’ve gone through and stripped out all the and tags while keeping the rest of the HTML structure intact.
Karma was down to about 200. Barely enough for two low-grade potions. A bit uneasy, but no regrets.
Now, all stats +6 during daytime. From +3 to +6 overall...
Worth every bit of that 8,000 karma.
"With this... I'm prepared."
The first major scenario in Terraforming: the rebels' training camp raid.
Deserters unhappy with Shelter leadership band together and strike.
Scariest part: Most are Combatants.
Having read the original, I knew the gist.
Long ago, an Instructor led most trainees from a camp in a mass desertion. The ringleader died, but his trainees formed the rebel spark, now threatening the Shelter.
As Combatants, clearing monsters for settlements was easy.
But they had a fatal flaw: manpower shortage.
They fought monsters daily too, with constant deaths. Unlike us, no way to replenish Combatants.
New transfers from Earth spawned inside the Shelter, near Central Command.
Recall my summoning: No buildings nearby, but a short walk to Central Command, then hours to training camp.
Spawn point inside Shelter.
The original doesn't say, but easy to guess why it's an empty lot—no buildings.
Unknown dimensional transfer mechanics meant no risking objects there. Like old fantasy novels: Teleport into solids? Boom, molecular overlap.
Couldn't test on humans, so empty lot. Brack et al. only approached after confirming summons.
Anyway, raid goal: Kidnap us.
Outskirts residents? Old folks or kids—useless baggage.
Us? Healthy limbs, too weak to resist, young. Brainwash periodically, perfect Combatant fodder.
From their view, doctors or architects would be ideal, but...
They're heavily guarded at Shelter center.
No sane rebel hits that far.
In the original, no deaths thanks to protagonist, but multiple Instructors mean abductions galore.
I planned to be absent during raid—no gain blocking them. But Hard Mode quest reward changed my mind.
...Plus, Blanc—now somewhat friendly, an unnamed extra originally—bugged me.
One day as roommates built bonds; their kidnapping wouldn't faze me, but ignoring felt wrong.
I'll judge based on how dire it gets.
"Gaaah!! Please!"
"Kekeke! Why? Hate it?"
"Ugh!!..."
Chris Bennett's tantrum echoed from afar, with a trainee's pained voice as victim.
Quiet at lunch yesterday and day before—thought she'd changed...
Nope, same old.
But I tensed up.
Her freakouts signaled rebels incoming minutes later.
Acting alone now? Bad idea. Prime kidnapping bait.
Tat-tat-tat!
I hurried toward the noise.
"Hate it? Huh?"
"S-sorry..."
Trainees clustered. On the ground, belly-down trainee; atop his back, squatting Chris with feet planted.
"Love gossiping. But you gotta not get caught, dumbass."
"N-never again..."
Chris gripped his twisted-backward wrist. Slight squeeze...
"Gaaah! It hurts! Breaking... it's breaking!!"
"Punk's not even hurting yet and already whining..."
- Ugh! Urgh!
Probably caught badmouthing. Tsk tsk... Chris was right. Don't get caught.
(Superhuman hearing aside.)
Then—