Chapter 38

EoSP Chapter 38

­ Golden Skeleton (1)

‘2 minutes and 30 seconds . ’

Looking at the result of the Climbing Test he just took, An Jaehyun shook his head .

‘It’s still not as good as it was when I was at my prime . ’

Recently, An Jaehyun performed another Climbing Test . It was the first time since he visited Peach Store to buy a V-Gear . The time he got this time was 2 minutes 41 seconds, even longer than his last score at the Peach Store .

Even so, An Jaehyun wasn’t surprised . He was only bitter . Why? Because he had expected it .

It was only obvious . It has been a long time since An Jaehyun fought on the front lines with his life at risk . After the Hahoe Mask Guild’s betrayal, he was forced to quit Warlord .

Then, there was a long period of rest .

Even after he returned to the past, An Jaehyun’s battle style put safety first and foremost . Although he took risks when necessary, he avoided them otherwise .

Growth only came about through pushing past one’s limit . To run a 100 meter in 9 seconds, one had to do so in 10 seconds countless number of times .

In any case, after this experience, An Jaehyun pushed himself more often in Warlord . He worked himself more diligently, more harshly, and more fiercely . He took the Climbing Test every day to measure his transformation . As a result, it didn’t take long until he reduced his time to 2 minutes and 30 seconds .

Even so…

‘I still need to lose another 10 seconds from here . I must have been crazy back then . How did I do it?’

He was still far from his prime . It was only now, that An Jaehyun realized how much of a monster he truly was .

‘I’m the best alright . ’

At the same time, he understood that no matter how strong his summons became, they would never be as strong as An Jaehyun himself . It wasn’t an unjustified confidence . It was the truth, one that no one could argue about .

However, he had totally forgotten about it until recently . He had focused solely on making his skeletons stronger without minding to his own abilities .

‘Body Modification . ’

Until recently, he had even forgotten about his plan to use his strong personal capabilities .

Summoning, Curses, and Body Modification!

These three must be what An Jaehyun aimed for . Without them, it would be impossible to achieve his goals . Even without just one of them, there would be no point to An Jaehyun’s efforts . Even so, An Jaehyun couldn’t even get started on Body Modification .

‘Damn money problems . ’

The reason was, of course, money .

‘I have 3,000,000 won to spare . ’

For someone who constantly complained about not having money, he had amassed a fair amount . At the moment, he could cash about 3,000,000 won, which could not be considered a small sum . If he were to liquidate all the items in his possession, he would have even more money . Considering the enormous amount of money it would take for other players to get as strong as Hyrkan, the amount Hyrkan had spent so far was impressive . Not to mention, he had started from nothing . If he were to make an autobiography, it would surely be a best seller .

‘I can buy Slow Curse and Skin Sewing with the money I have now but…’

If An Jaehyun really wanted to, he could buy Slow Curse, which was a higher tier skill than Demon Curse, and Skin Sewing, which was the start of Body Modification . The problem was the price of the two!

‘No matter how I look at it, spending over a thousand gold to buy them would be like wiping my ass with money . ’

Slow Curse cost 1,000 gold on the market and Skin Sewing took 800 gold . The price of the two combined would be 1,800,000 won .

For a low level skill, they were expensive . Of course, there was a reason for it . Slow Curse and Demon Curse were skills that curse magicians used forever . Even if one wasn’t a curse magician, a black magician would always learn these two skills .

In the case of Skin Sewing, the reason was a bit different . It was because Skin Sewing was the beginning skill of Body Modification . Beginning skills were always expensive, regardless of the class . Thankfully, skillbooks after it weren’t so expensive .

Even so, it was a hefty sum to pay . Because of recent advertisements and events leading up to Warlord’s 1-year anniversary, more people had begun to play Warlord . As such, the price of low level skill’s skillbooks had skyrocketed .

‘I’d rather buy it if I can, but… well, I’ll sleep on it I guess . ’

With that, An Jaehyun threw himself on his bed . It was time to sleep .

‘Aaah, if only Romany’s film would go viral . If I can get a million views, I wouldn’t even need to worry about this . I would immediately buy the skillbooks, and maybe even change this goddamn fashion…’

An Jaehyun even made a small wish as he stared into the ceiling .

Of course…

‘If only…’

An Jaehyun laughed at this dumb wish . No matter how much he thought, it was a ridiculous wish .

With that, An Jaehyun fell asleep .

★★★

Once An Jaehyun started a game, he would put his all into finishing what he had planned to do . He knew that once he went off schedule, it would be hard to get back on it . If he got sick or something during that time, it would be even harder to get back on track . One week . If he threw away just one week, the distance between him and the front-runners would widen up again . It was the same for Rankers . Because of this, there was a saying that the enemies of Rankers weren’t their competitors, but cold .

But now .

“What?”

An Jaehyun had logged out, even though he hadn’t fulfilled his quota . Having taken off his helmet, he was wearing a surprised expression . As An Jaehyun was someone who wouldn’t flinch while watching his house burn down, it was indeed a strange thing .

That explained how surprised An Jaehyun really was .

An Jaehyun checked his donation account once again, unable to believe his eyes .

‘1,000 dollars? Not 1,000 won but 1,000 dollars?’

There were three major ways of getting money through YouTube .

The first was through paid videos . It was the most representative way of profit .

The second was through ads . Even free videos pulled in quite a lot of money with high view count . If a video was sponsored, the profit became even bigger .

The third was through donations . Donations were sent in by the fans, and they couldn’t be called insignificant . Popular YouTubers received millions or tens of millions of won just through donations .

Donations could be checked 24/7 even in Warlord . Watching donations pour in was quite fun in its own way . 1,000 won, 1 dollar, 100 yen, 1 euro… watching money flow in from various countries was undoubtedly exciting for many people . When one received a big amount like 10 or 50 dollars, he would hunt for the rest of the day feeling happy .

But today was different .

The donations had exploded . In fact, the average amount donated had increased as well . One of them was a 1,000-dollar donation . An Jaehyun couldn’t sit by and continue gaming .

It was only now that An Jaehyun figured out what was happening .

“Yes!”

Before he had logged in, Skull Clown only had about 5,000 views . Now, in just 4 hours, it had reached 40,000 . It was growing exponentially!

“Yes! It finally blew up!”

An Jaehyun was sure that someone from a famous Warlord fan-site had recommended the video with an introduction .

Otherwise, such an exponential growth would be hard to account for .

In truth, An Jaehyun had partially expected it . When he watched the film Romany sent him, An Jaehyun couldn’t help but be impressed . At the very least, he thought he would receive 100,000 views in a couple weeks .

However, at the pace it is now, it seemed Skull Clown would pass 100,000 in less than a week .

‘100,000… that’s enough to pass the cut-line . ’

There was something called a cut-line .

Past a certain point, there was a big difference in view count . Once a video passed the cut-line, it would become a “viral” video and its view count would go up steadily . IF a video couldn’t pass that cut-line, it would die down just as quick .

‘Can it hit a million?’

As it is now, An Jaehyun’s Skull Clown video had enough power to pass that cut-line .

Its high view count and increased number of donations was proof of it .

Plus, if Skull Clown could hit one million views, An Jaehyun would be able to get close to 10,000,000 won .

Warlord videos earned 3 won for 1 view . One million views would mean 3,000,000 won, excluding the amount one would gain from donations . Furthermore, once a video got one million views, sponsors were sure to involve themselves . This was something An Jaehyun knew by heart .

A player with 5 one-million-view videos on their belt was worth about 10,000,000 won per month . In most cases, the player wouldn’t take all that money for himself . As Warlord players were part of guilds or raid-parties, at least 5 or more people took a cut of the money .

But it was different for An Jaehyun .

Just like he always wanted, everything was his to have .

’10,000,000 won for a million views . ’

The light in An Jaehyun’s eyes changed .

“Let’s do it . ”

★★★

[Skin Sewing]

-Proficiency: Rank F

– You can put monster skin over your own to make your skin stronger .

[Slow Curse]

-Proficiency: Rank F

– Cast a curse that slows the enemy’s speed . This curse requires more magic power and lasts for shorter time as the target’s size, speed, and strength increases .

Hyrkan stared at the explanations of his two new skills . Though they were skills he had been dying to get, he didn’t seem happy . In fact, he seemed quite bitter .

‘Damn it . I can’t believe these two skills cost 1,900 gold… I know there is more demand than supply, but come on, it’s too damn expensive! Are they messing with the price?’

1,900 gold .

Without Skull Clown seemingly about to go viral, Hyrkan would never have purchased the skills .

On the other hand, if Skull Clown really did not go viral, his investment would have huge tolls on his food . For one, meat would be nothing but a dream . He might even have to steal coffee from a nearby office .

In any case, these two skills were quite useful for the current Hyrkan .

‘It’s not that bad I guess . ’

First, Skin Sewing passively increased his defense . It was the same as Skin Armor that swordsmen learned . There was one difference, however . Skin Armor strengthened the user’s skin itself, but Skin Sewing was different . The amount of defense its user would get changed depending on the skins or scales of monsters used . This was generally a good thing, as Skin Sewing provided more defense than Skin Armor . The downside, however, was that its user would have to pay for the monsters’ skins or scales . When the user received damage, Skin Sewing would have to be renewed . It was one of the reason why necromancers were called money-eating hippos .

Slow Curse didn’t need much explanation . It was a core curse skill that all curse magicians used . It slowed its target’s movement speed, and its effectiveness was universally recognized in Warlord .

Hyrkan now had these precious skills on hand .

It was now time to put them to use .

‘I’ll make something awesome with these, and go for a Synergy Effect . ’

Skull Clown was even better than Hyrkan expected . It was only obvious to release another video at this point . With two videos working in synergy, his profit would be doubled as well .

‘If I get a second million-view, I can say goodbye to my debts . ’

If Hyrkan’s could get a million-view video like he wanted, he could stop worrying about the money he owed . In fact, he could stop worrying about the V-Gear cost as well .

Furthermore…

‘I can get some proper clothes too . ’

He could say goodbye to his pitiable fashion .

This fueled Hyrkan’s will even more .

★★★

“Fuck! What’s wrong with you?”

Dead Woods .

In this eerie, sinister place, a player shouted in anger at two other .

“None of your business . Blame you and your party for entering this area . ”

“You bastards… do you really think you can get away with suddenly attacking us? I have everything on video!”

At that, the two players sneered .

“Whatever . You can’t see our faces anyways . ”

At the same time, one of the two players made a spear of ice and threw it at the player in front of him .

Game Over .

After confirming his death, the two players stared at each other .

“Damn it . If we didn’t miss that Golden Skeleton, we wouldn’t have to do this . So Annoying!”

“Did I let it go? Why are you yelling at me? Besides, Golden Skeleton has one fucked up behavioral design . ”

“Tell me about it . What kind of a monster requires you to kill it from the beginning if you can’t kill it within a time limit… because of that, we’ve only been hunting players for two days . ”

“We have to kill it soon . We can’t continue killing players to prevent the information from spreading . Tomorrow or the day after at the latest… that’s all the time we have . ”

With that, the two went silent . Having received an order from a voice-messaging program, the two quickly turned back and ran .