Chapter 70
Chapter 70
Chapter 70: 1st Players Convention (5)
I didn’t know this person would show up here, but he was a Player I knew.
[Player]
Name: Gu Sungmin
Age: 31
Level: 19
Class: Coin Thief
Innate ability: [Wallet Perception]
State: Excited / Expectant / Nervous
Disposition: Selfish / Quick-witted / Bold
Summary: Promising Thief Thirsty for Coins
It was Gu Sungmin, a Coin-specializing thief who’d gone around swindling beginner Players out of Coins in the early days of Playing. I remembered him as the most famous thief Player in the early period.
‘And he’s got an innate ability of his own, too.’
That was why he was able to rob so many Players of their money.
‘Wallet Perception, huh.’
From the looks of it, he could roughly see how many Coins were in a Player’s inventory. Since this was the early period of Playing, he might not know the exact figure, but he could probably determine who in the room had the greatest number of Coins.
‘Currently, the person with the most Coins is…’
There was a good chance it was me, since I had about 13,000 Coins at the moment. Sure enough, Gu Sungmin’s gaze flitted to me. He wasn’t staring at me, but he was definitely keeping me in sight.
Sungmin drew the attention of the crowd with his characteristic sly laugh and exaggerated clapping.
“It’s not just your face that is beautiful, but also your skills.”
He came closer.
‘Hrmmm?’
Many early Players experienced the strange phenomenon of the Coins in their Inventory suddenly dropping to 0. If Gu Sungmin hadn’t done the braindead act of revealing that he was a thief Player, those Coin losses might have remained a mystery for an eternity.
‘He often bragged about all the foreign cars he had, and then…’
He made a drunk post on Instagram detailing exactly how he earned his money.
‘Looks like he’s trying to draw attention, come to me, and take my Coins.’
I saw his movements precisely. His mouth was busy with other things and he appeared to be paying attention solely to Yeonseo, but I could still see it. Just like how I could read Yeonseo’s ‘sword path’, somehow, I was simply able to see his intentions.
‘But how come he can’t see Darongi?’
[!!!] marks clearly appeared over Darongi’s head, but Gu Sungmin didn’t seem to have much interest in Darongi. To be more exact, it didn’t look like he could see Darongi.
‘I think it’s because of his innate ability.’
For a frickin’ squirrel, he had an incredible amount of innate abilities.
Come to think of it, Darongi’s summary was nothing to scoff at, either.
A promising thief met a theft genius. Darongi stared at me, the [!!!] marks shining red above his head. He seemed to want something from me, like he was asking, ‘If I bring you a ton of Coins, what’ll you give me?’
We couldn’t converse, but we could communicate well enough.
“Fruit Bundle.”
Two words, and Darongi was off, moving as swiftly as an arrow.
[Coins have been acquired.]
[Using the innate ability Subspace.]
[Coins have been stored in the ‘Subspace’.]
Gu Sungmin didn’t notice Darongi at all.
“Are you fellows her party members?”
In the meantime, the obviously defeated Kim Taechun stealthily snuck away. Gu Sungmin was drawing the crowd’s attention away, so he left without another word.
[Eye of Perception grasps the use of an innate ability.]
I continued to stay where I was. I knew what he was trying to do. When I looked with Observer’s Eye, I could see that a bunch of mana was gathered around Gu Sungmin’s hand—he seemed to be in the process of taking my Coins. I opened my Inventory to find that my Coins were slowly decreasing in amount.
‘Wow.’
What a fun ability. To think he could really suck Coins from others, and even from a target that was over ten levels higher than him. He was indeed a promising thief.
“My friend is an incredibly competent journalist… Would you be willing to do an interview with us?”
“What? N-No. Um, that’s…”
Yeonseo reddened. In the meantime, Darongi jumped onto Sungmin’s shoulder with ‘Stealth’ activated and stared at me with [!!!] over his head. When I gave him a nod, Darongi snorted and waited, like he was shouting, ‘Watch, I’m this awesome!’
“This is my business card. I really would like to interview you. Please contact me.”
The whole time, my Coins continued to dwindle. When the number hit 0, Darongi took action with terrifyingly impeccable timing like the theft genius he was.
[Coins have been acquired.]
[Using the innate ability Subspace.]
[Coins have been stored in the ‘Subspace’.]
A [?] popped up above Darongi’s head. It was a message I could click. There really was no shortage of fascinating things when it came to this fellow.
[Currently, there are ‘47,000 Coins’ in Darongi’s Subspace.]
I almost laughed, dumbfounded. Just by sitting around, I was about to come into possession of 47k Coins. All it took to replicate this was to go to the store and buy a bunch of snacks that squirrels liked.
-13,000 became +47,000 in mere moments. I obtained a whopping 34,000 while sitting down.
‘Hah.’
Making money sure was easy. Thinking of how I got just 17 Coins from killing a level 25 Fanged Boar, this was one crazy amount of Coins to get in one go.
‘And it looks like this guy doesn’t even realize he’s lost all the money in his Inventory.’
He gave a very polite farewell, like he had finished everything he needed to do here.
“I will get in contact with you at a later time.”
And then, he turned and left, which made me certain of it.
‘He really doesn’t know?’ Even though he was sure to have checked his Inventory? ‘Wow.’
Darongi, this little squirrel, was the real deal.
‘He really is a theft genius.’
I didn’t know for sure, but I guessed that Darongi secretly put fake Coins into Gu Sungmin’s Inventory to fool him, if only temporarily. There was no other explanation. In any case, I rubbed the top of Darongi’s head with my finger after he returned to my shoulder. The boastful Darongi purred like a cat, enjoying the petting with [♪♪] marks.
“Just wait a little. I’ll buy you a ton of the snacks you like.”
“Hm? Boss, what are you saying? Why’re you talking about snacks all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Come to think of it, Yeonseo couldn’t see Darongi, either. This little rascal had a real convenient ability.
“Hey, this kid says his name is Jo Sunghyun. He said thanks to me, so I told him to say thanks to you.”
“…”
The Typhoon Jo Sunghyun was the type of Player who didn’t forget grudges, but also remembered favors even more clearly, to the point that he got the absolute good ‘Lady of the Scales’ as his contracted Guardian.
[Player]
Name: Jo Sunghyun
Age: 18
Level: 30
Class: Child of Wind
Guardian: Lady of the Scales
Innate ability: [Standstill]
State: Gratitude / Closeness / Rage
Disposition: Just / Strong Pride / Unyielding Spirit
Summary: Not-Yet-Mature Incarnation of Hammurabi
His talent plates weren’t completely open, but he was already level 30, and he had one innate ability.
‘As expected of Jo Sunghyun.’
It was the same as the past. He made a contract with the Lady of the Scales.
Jo Sunghyun bowed to me, saying, “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing to be thankful about. That person earlier wasn’t acting like a real adult.”
The Jo Sunghyun I knew from the future always said, “If an adult cannot act like an adult, they’re not a real adult.”
As was par for the course for a Player contracted with the Lady of the Scales, he was one of the Players who put great importance on ‘justice’ and ‘principles’, a Player who lived by the principle of ‘an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’.
“If a person cannot act like a person, I will not treat them like one.”
His mentality was probably the same right now. Even when he was appointed as one of Korea’s 8 Heroes, he spoke politely, even to little kids.
‘If Sunghyun’s disposition is like that… it’s probably best to speak politely to him.’
In any case, we exchanged proper greetings. Thanks to Taechun and Percy’s brilliant role(?), I was able to leave a good impression on Sunghyun.
With that, the first step was done. It wasn’t my intention, but I also got a bunch of Coins as a bonus. It would make the next steps a lot easier.
‘Alright, next is…’
Looking at Sunghyun, I said, “You are a magician class, correct?”
“How do you know that…?”
“The way you moved when that large man was picking a fight didn’t strike me as a combat class.”
“…Ah.”
“You are not a combat class, but it looked to me that you were mentally prepared to some degree for a fight. From your body movements, you were ready to jump back and widen the distance.”
More than anything—
“There was a weak wind in the room.”
* * *
* * *
“There was a weak wind in the room.”
At those words, Yoohyun exclaimed in admiration, “Hyungnim, just when did you pick up all that?”
“Dammit, any way you slice it, this guy’s really a genius. When did you see all that? I was just spacing out.”
Yeonseo elbowed Yoohyun and Sung-gu in the ribs. “Darn it, shut up, you two. You have to let him say these things so we can learn. Let’s just pay attention.”
The journalists were clicking their shutters nonstop, broadcasting the current situation, but Yeonseo didn’t pay any attention to the outsiders and focused on Hyukjin’s words.
“Which means, you’re a combat class who doesn’t use weapons or fights with your fists and feet, one who uses wind.”
There was only one class like that.
“You must be a combat magician, one specializing in wind.”
“…”
Like a Player in the early period, Jo Sunghyun naively nodded.
“Impressive.”
He looked calm on the outside as he nodded, but Sunghyun was feeling greatly shocked on the inside. It surprised him that there were adults who would step up in such a situation, and that there was a Player who could guess his class from a few tiny movements.
Of course, it wasn’t just a guess. Hyukjin was looking at Sunghyun’s class very clearly.
For his 1st advancement, he got the Child of Wind class. That wasn’t a class name Hyukjin remembered, but it wasn’t hard to figure out that it was the 1st class of the future ‘Typhoon’.
As he exchanged greetings with Sunghyun, Hyukjin checked the time.
‘Almost 2.’
Everything was settled with very appropriate timing. The Players Convention would soon begin.
‘This is where it really begins.’
For now, Hyukjin succeeded in bringing Sunghyun to his side, though it was hard to call him 100% an ‘ally’. But anyway, the first step was successfully taken. In the event that would happen today, Jo Sunghyun could essentially be called a ‘key person’, and Hyukjin managed to make positive contact with that key person. It was all within his plan.
“Would you like to come up with us? The convention is in the 12th floor’s main hall.”
“Thank you.”
We got onto the elevator.
1F, 2F, 3F…
The elevator moved quickly.
–Arriving on the 12th floor.
–The elevator doors are opening.
‘The time right now…’
Hyukjin glanced at the clock on his phone.
‘It’s 2:03.’
He took a step forward.
‘The notice is coming.’
If things went the same as he remembered, there would definitely be one.
This was the place the Typhoon later said was responsible for his awakening. I stepped into the site of the 1st Players Convention, as well as the flash gate ‘Hill of Blowing Wind’.
‘We’ll probably get a quest.’
During the 1st Players Convention, at least half of the participants died. Right here.
‘If I can save them… I will.’
Hyukjin thought back to the Tutorial Field, the convenience store safe zone. He could still vividly see the countless people who had died in front of him, separated by glass. If possible, he wanted to minimize the damage. As much as he could.
‘While also awakening Jo Sunghyun.’
And along with those two goals, he would also obtain ‘that’.
‘I have to get it… without fail.’
In no time at all, the field changed, and he began to see countless people on the new field.
‘Let’s do this.’
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