Chapter 250 - Message (1)
Chapter 250 – Message (1)
I got a sense of what kind of quest this was after trying one time, two times, three times, four times, five times, and finally ten times.
I realized very clearly that this quest was nasty.
Obviously, I was different from others, and I had a lot of things that others couldn’t even dream of. For example, I had 9 titles and 3 traits, plus enormous stat points and tremendous items.
However, everything I had was reset to default to Strength 1, Agility 1 and Intellect 1, just like all the others, which made me really upset.
And that was there was another big reason why this quest frustrated me so much.
It was none other than luck.
It was really unfair that all my merits were gone, but I also didn’t like the situation where everything was decided by ‘luck’.
Luck often made one’s enormous efforts so trivial, so I felt even more upset.
There was a word often used for this kind of situation.
It was what they called probability.
Perhaps that’s why my Strength, Agility, and Intellect each ended up around 10 because of the one third probability by the time I reached Round 30.
In other words, the worst numbers in Round 30 were Strength 11, Agility 11 and Intellect 11, but that was usually the case, based on probability.
If one was a bit lucky, they might end up with something like Strength 8, Agility 15, and Intellect 10.
However, there were few cases where one stat was exceptionally high because of the huge wall of probability.
So, during one round, I attempted to use the golden rings I received to evenly upgrade Sharp Blade, Threatening Arrow, Lethal Mana Ball, and Attack Speed Increase, for I could change my attack method between sword, bow, and magic whenever I wanted.
Puck!
[…]
Bang!
[…]
But when I used that method, the monsters did not die.
And because the monsters didn’t die, they travelled around the track and returned to the starting point, so the initial 300 health rapidly decreased.
Eventually, it seemed like I needed something extraordinary to break out of this slump like the leader of Mongolia’s Tugal Guil who brought this quest repeatedly said.
In other words, something extraordinary in Strength, or Agility, or Intellect.
Of course, it didn’t mean I had achieved nothing.
As a matter of fact, I sometimes achieved an extraordinary high stat by Round 30 among Strength, Agility or Intellect.
As for upgrading using golden rings, I kept showing outstanding performance by using Sharp Blade for Strength, Threatening Arrow for Agility, and Lethal Mana Ball for Intellect.
However, it was impossible for a couple of players out of the twenty to get rid of the monsters pouring out from the starting point.
Moreover, just as monsters with magic defense came out in Round 6, monsters with sword attack defense and bow attack defense also appeared once in a while as if to remind the players that they had a long way to go to reach the final round.
[You have failed to clear Round 36.]
[You have failed to clear Round 40.]
[You have failed to clear Round 32.]
I failed again and again.
Sometimes I failed in a much lower round than I thought.
Therefore, I really wanted to give up on this quest right away. Even though people said you can learn success from failure, there was nothing I could learn from my repetitive failures because it was all luck and randomness.
In other words, all I could do was pray I would be lucky next time.
But it wasn’t easy for me to give it up because of the reward.
The reward was so tempting because 10,000 coins was not a small amount.
I also could not ignore 2 billion golden rings and 700 remaining stat points, as well as the key to the new hunting ground.
So, I just wished I could be sure of some success at the end of the day, even if it took me 100 days or 1000 days, because I would not feel so frustrated no matter how long it took me as long as I knew that I would succeed one day.
And I was not the only one who thought so.
My father, elder brother, sister, and the elite players of the Myongjin Guild who challenged this quest had to stop all their other productive activities, including hunting, to devote themselves to this quest, so they inevitably suffered large losses.
Anyway, this quest was something like a necessary evil, but the rewards were so attractive that I kept challenging it.
A week passed by as I continued to challenge the quest to no avail. But at that moment, a message rnag.
[The Predator Status you received from the Cunning Vampires has disappeared.
-The Cunning Vampires will attack you first like before. ]
“…”
I couldn’t bring myself to rejoice at the message that appeared before my eyes.
I’m still level 1000, and maybe I will continue to be so for the time being. So I continued to challenge the quest.
Of course, I sometimes reached up to Round 50 during that process.
However, the monsters that appeared in Round 50 were boss and event monsters. I definitely needed more damage to defeat them, but since I never had enough, I had no choice but to stall in Round 50.
[Boss monster Minotaur appears.
-When you defeat the boss monster Minotaur, you will be given 3 golden rings and 3 stat points that you can invest directly instead of it being randomly allocated to you.
-The person that lands the last hit on the Minotaur will be given 10 golden rings and 10 stat points that they can invest directly.]
Of course, I could not help but covet this last hit bonus because it would be a big help to any player.
However, even though all 20 players desperately attacked the boss monster, they couldn’t defeat it.
Moreover, there was another problem.
[If you fail to defeat the boss monster Minotaur, you will fail regardless of your team’s remaining health.]
Anyway, although Round 50 attracted players with such sweet temptation, it proved to be an unachievable goal at the end of the day.
Of course, I could find some relief elsewhere.
“Damn it!”
“What kind of quest is this?”
“How much more time should we spend here!”
Japan’s Mitsuya Guild also had no possibility of success like us.
But the problem was that there was nothing good other than that.
That evening we had a get-together dinner at the Myongjin Shelter.
“Whew…”
Since 10,000 coins were at stake, everyone in my family was participating in the quest. Even my mother did because I didn’t participate in the quest in the name of Juyoung Hong.
Slap! Slap!
My mother slapped me and my sister on the back when we let out a sigh.
She said, “Why are you two sighing like that?’
“Ugh…”
“Ouch. You must also know how nasty this quest is because you’re challenging it as well, right?”
Actually I could not think of anything to say other than I was sick and tired of it.
But my mother didn’t seem to think so.
“Well, I am enjoying it because I’m playing with you.”
“…”
“…”
As if it was really fun, my mother spoke with a smile, which just astounded my sister and me.
While eating, my sister kept sneaking glances at me.
Then she quietly opened her mouth.
“Hey, Juyoung. Can’t you show something extraordinary this time?”
Of course, I knew what my sister was trying to say, for I often cleared the kind of quest that others thought impossible to clear. For example, I achieved a whopping 100% in the last level 900 only quest. But this time, I could not show the same performance as before.
When the round began, all my items, skills, and status window were reset to default.
All that remained was Strength 1, Agility 1, and Intellect 1.
Besides, it was impossible for me to use the nearly 30 billion golden rings stored in my inventory.
To make matters worse, Strength, Agility, and Intellect didn’t come out just because I wanted them to. In short, there was nothing I could do about it.
So, I just shrugged.
At that moment, my sister received another slap from my mother.