Fame (3)

9.

The first thing a player must face when starting a game is the terms of use.

Of course, no one reads every detail of it.

Everyone only tries to find the ‘agree’ button and hit it fast.

It wasn’t different in God Wars.

No one read the long terms of use when they played God Wars for the first time.

So, no one doubted about a clause that said selling and transmission of all video content in God Wars were available only through WarsTube.

Anyways, players in God Wars uploaded all kinds of videos on WarsTube and broadcasted while dreaming of making a fortune in one stroke.

Most of them obviously went broke.

It wasn’t just 99%. 0.3% more had to be added to describe how many had failed.

The expression, ‘blood ocean’, appeared since it was descriptively worse than just the red ocean.

– Hello, this is WarsTube.

People couldn’t survive on WarsTube if they didn’t have anything special.

WarsTube edited videos that others had uploaded and also focused on gossip instead of producing their own content. They got 450,000 viewers and became a famous broadcasting channel.

– Today, we will show you guys a video of a player solo killing the slayer orc that shows the reality of the game, that this game favors players with overpowered equipment.

Of course, they didn’t care about the truth behind the gossip.

They always used provocative vocabulary while directing and editing.

They did the same to the video of a player solo killing the slayer orc.

– By the looks of his hunting methods, his holy beast took on the tanker role. From this fact alone, it’s hard to claim he solo killed. He seems to use his exceptional skill to control the aggro of the monster. This is a fucking gotcha game as expected. These kinds of bitches will solo kill and brag about it everywhere. It already makes us disgusted by imagining that, right?

– Plus, look at the damage he made. He threw only a few fireballs and the monster’s phase passed quickly. He definitely bought fucking expensive items. Is this a game? Haha! Who can’t solo kill with those items and damage deal?

The video was not from the player himself but from the audience. The video was taken secretly and the opinions about it were so aggressive.

The comments were the same.

– It’s definitely a fucking P2W game as always. (TL: P2W -> Short for pay to win, in the sense that in order to ‘win’ a free to play game, such as Maplestory, you need to pay for various advantages to ‘win’ in game. -Urban Dictionary)

└ Who can’t do that without spending that much money?

└ I think I can buy a car if I kill him and sell his items.

└ Recruiting players who will hunt the slayer orc hunter!

This would look so absurd to the player who was directly involved.

“Haa…..”

The player, Hyunwoo Jung, looked dumbfounded for real in front of the video.

He checked the video on the phone one more time and shook his head.

‘Why is it getting so many views?’

Hyunwoo actually didn’t feel any anger.

If he thought about the insult and dishonor he had gotten for 5 years in God Wars, this was nothing.

The reason why he was dumbfounded was that the number of views of the video were over 150,000.

Solo killing the slayer orc was incredible for sure.

It was like a pitcher shutout in terms of baseball.

‘It’s only the slayer orc though.’

However, the slayer orc was only level 30.

In God wars where level 400 monsters appeared, level 30 was like a middle school student shutout in a middle school league.

A baseball fan can remember all the players in his favorite pro baseball team, but he doesn’t know about a middle school student shutout in his hometown.

That was why Hyunwoo didn’t consider the videos he recorded as a source of profit.

He was going to sell them at the right price when he becomes famous in the future.

‘This becomes an issue? The broadcast is only about gossip.’

This situation was out of his expectations.

‘If it gets this many views, how many can my videos get?’

Of course, the possibility of his videos getting sold at the right price was still low.

If he makes his own channel now, it won’t even be searched.

Then the only way was selling his videos to a major channel that professionally manages those kinds of videos on WarsTube. That means he has to share the profit with them and they won’t pay him right since they have the advantage.

‘Should I try to sell on G-bay?’

He wouldn’t lose anything just because he tried to know how much his videos were worth.

He touched his phone quickly.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Hyukjoo Lee suddenly appeared.

Hyunwoo turned off his phone right away.

“I was just watching some video.”

“Oh, you mean the video of the rich asshole doing P2W?”

Hyunwoo’s left eye shook slightly at Hyukjoo’s words.

“Those unruly bitches who buy overpowered items are the problem. He’s fucking nothing without his items.”

Hyukjoo didn’t know how Hyunwoo felt and continued his words.

“Well, he didn’t kill anyone. Don’t be too harsh on him. He might be a good guy.”

Hyukjoo made a surprised face.

“Hey, aren’t you the one who said rich P2W bitches must be hit by a truck or get an electric shock and die?”

He repeated exactly the same thing Hyunwoo always said.

“Hey, your life gets better when your mind is kind. By the way, can I log in now?”

Hyunwoo glossed over the situation.

“Yea, it’s ready.”

“Good, thanks. See you later.”

“Yea, I wish you luck!”

The game had started.

10.

The Cursed Forest that was always covered by black fog was located South and was pretty far from Wiga city.

Woof!

“Yea, Lucky.”

It was Midas and Lucky’s new hunting field.

“It won’t be so easy.”

The difficulty was much higher than the Stinky Forest.

He could know that as soon as he saw the place.

Figuring out the forest structure properly was impossible due to the black fog.

‘There is nothing scarier than being blind.’

The fact that it was foggy pressured players mentally and psychologically.

‘Plus, it’s the worst since there are zombies……..’

Another problem was the zombies.

It wasn’t difficult to hunt a zombie, but it was like hell to a player who didn’t have tolerance for its unique grotesqueness.

Besides, players couldn’t take advantage of its weakness which was slow speed due to the black fog.

That was why many players didn’t go through this hunting field. They leveled up as much as possible and went to the next hunting field.

‘I can already see that it’s full of monsters.’

The number of monsters was always the highest, so players ignored the forest.

That’s how it was called the Abandoned Forest.

‘Well, thanks to them, I don’t need to wait for monsters.’

Midas pompously shouted.

“Lucky, let’s kill them all.”

Lucky didn’t answer.

“Lucky, let’s go!”

Midas shouted again but Lucky still didn’t answer.

“Lucky?”

When Midas turned his head towards Lucky, he was sniffing on the ground.

And soon, Lucky spoke.

Woof!

At the moment Lucky’s Treasure Locator skill was invoked, Midas realized.

‘Oh, why didn’t I know that?’

‘There are going to be so many rare items and hidden dungeons here!’

This place was literally a treasure warehouse.

11.

Everyone thought similarly.

“The Cursed Forest? Everyone avoids it because of the level of difficulty?”

Their thoughts were also similar to the Abandoned Forest.

“Then there will be plenty of monsters!”

Every player heard about the story of the Cursed Forest and thought there would be a lot of monsters.

The problem started from here.

Most of them frowned and showed their hateful feelings about that.

However, very few players considered it as a chance.

“I can level up so well.”

So, there were always challengers in the Cursed Forest.

And their beginning was mostly fine.

Err…..

“Fighting a zombie orc is ridiculously nothing compared to fighting running orcs.”

The zombie orc or the zombie goblin were very slow compared to normal goblins that ran away so fast and normal orcs that rushed towards players.

That was why players didn’t care that the zombies had much higher HP and attack power.

However, the problem started when they sustained their momentum and went deep inside the forest.

“Hey, there are too many. Let’s flee! Huh? What is it?”

Only when they felt their limit and turned around, they realized their situation.

“fuck, When did they crowd around here?”

They fell into the zombie swamp without noticing.

That was the biggest reason why the forest was abandoned.

It looked easy, but hunting speed or efficiency were too low when players actually hunted in there.

[ You have hunted a zombie orc. ]

[ The rank of the Ice Arrow skill has risen. ]

Midas was also experiencing the same thing.

‘I’ve killed 74 zombies….. I expected to hunt more than 100 by now.’

His hunting pace was slower than what he had planned.

Hunting a zombie wasn’t a problem.

He could kill a zombie with the combo, fireball, ice arrow, and another fireball.

His hitting and running strategy worked fine.

Sniff Sniff!

The reason for slowing down was because of Lucky who was sniffing in front of him.

Woof!

Lucky was the real reason because he constantly found rare items.

“Oh, please, Lucky!”

Of course, it wasn’t Lucky’s problem.

His Treasure Locator skill was able to turn on and off on his owner’s order.

If Midas tells him ‘Don’t find it! Focus on hunting!’, he will only show his scary teeth to the monsters.

“If you keep doing this, I can’t stop respecting you!”

As always, a pet’s problem was from his owner.

In plain English, Midas was the biggest reason why his hunting was slow.

“Oh? It’s a black herb this time! It costs 20 Gold! That is 20,000 won!”

It was so amazing that his eyes flipped out.

‘How many have we already found today?’

It’s weird if he doesn’t flip out his eyes when there’s a lot of money.

‘I’m too lucky.’

He was so lucky that he even felt nervous.

Woof!

While Midas was picking the black herb, Lucky shouted at him.

“Mr. Lucky. Please wait a moment. I will finish gathering the black herb and pet you soon.”

Woof!

Lucky continued barking and Midas picked up his head to look around.

‘There is no zombie.’

He wasn’t trying to notify him of danger.

Woof! Woof!

Lucky shouted again and Midas put herbs in his inventory and walked to Lucky.

“Yea, what’s going……”

Woof Woof!

Only then Midas could check the sentence he had never seen before.

‘A human?’

Lucky walked forward slowly and led Midas.

Midas followed Lucky and found a human as Lucky said.

There was a guy who fainted in the middle of the Cursed Forest.

It wasn’t a player.

‘An NPC?’

He was no other than an NPC.

As soon as Midas checked that he was an NPC, he came up with an idea.

‘Can it be the skill card book quest?’

A skill card was traded with a very high price and the reason was that the supply was so much less than the demand.

The lack of supply was unavoidable. The most typical way to get a skill card was through hidden quests from random NPCs that appeared in the middle of playing the game.

Even the worst player who PK a lot became a polite person in front of an NPC he met in a hunting field.

That was why Midas was surprised.

Woof!

Lucky went close to the NPC and called Midas.

Soon, Midas could verify.

[ NPC, Yoshi ] ! When having a conversation, you can start a quest ‘Yoshi’s lost item (unique)’.

‘Unique!’

As soon as Midas saw the word, he quickly approached the NPC, Yoshi, and tried his best to shout loudly.

“Hey, mister! Are you ok? Wake up! This place is very dangerous! Wake up! You gotta wake up now!”

His voice sounded so urgent.

“Quickly!”

‘Wake up quickly and just give me the quest now!’

However, Midas’s mouth that was shouting desperately had a bright smile.

–