Chapter 3

'Achievement points… Why is this here, and why do I have a hundred thousand of them?' Achievement points were an honor score that increased each time you completed a challenge in a Battle Net game. 'It's a pointless score.' It was literally an 'honor score'. Achievement points were nothing but a number that served as a measure of how much of a veteran you were. 'How strange. It shouldn't be present at this stage.' JiHan closed his status window. Leaving the achievement points aside, he was concerned about how things were different from what he remembered. 'I wonder if there are any other changes.' "Inventory." The inventory window popped up over the broken photo of Yoon Sae-jin. As expected, the storage space was completely empty, except for… "What's this…?" There was a small piece of paper in the last slot of his inventory. [Achievement Point Exchange Voucher] [Rank: EX] [Non-Exchangeable] - A special privilege given to the 'Last Survivor' who chose to retry. - You'll obtain the right to exchange achievement points. 'An Achievement Point Exchange Voucher?' Achievement points, that useless honor value… There was a ticket that would allow him to exchange them. JiHan's eyes began shining. 'On top of that… It's ranked 'EX'.' It was a non-standard rank that he only knew of one other being having. To think the 'EX' rank would appear on an item. 'I need to use this.' He wasn't sure what he could exchange for achievement points, but if the ticket had a rank of 'EX', whatever it was would probably be special. He had to use it. [You've used the 'Achievement Point Exchange Voucher'.] [The 'Achievement Shop' has been added to your system window.] It was powerful enough to add something to the system? As expected of an Exrank item. Surprised, JiHan opened the shop. [Achievement Shop LV.1] - Achievement Shop Upgrade – 20,000P - Status Window Expansion LV.1 – 10,000P - Extra Class Slot LV.1 – 10,000P 'They sell things like this…?' JiHan's eyes widened in surprise. The things sold in the Achievement Shop were things that could completely change a player. 'They're useless for now, though.' He didn't need those things right away, but once he reached higher levels, they could overturn the rankings. 'There's nothing I need to buy at the moment, so I should upgrade the shop instead.' JiHan proceeded to upgrade the shop's level. [The Achievement Shop has been upgraded to LV.2] ['Inventory Expansion' item has been added. ] 'I also don't need this right now.' [The Achievement Shop has been upgraded to LV.3] ['Extra Title Slot' item has been added.] 'I also don't need a title right now.' JiHan suppressed his excitement. 'These are only helpful after I reach Gold League.' Gold League… To get there, he first had to pass through the Bronze and Silver Leagues. For JiHan, a Bronze level 2, it was still a world away. The Achievement Shop would become his wings later on, but he needed to learn to walk first. 'I shouldn't expect to get too much from the Achievement Shop during the early stages.' JiHan looked at the remaining achievement points. 'Fifty thousand…' With the remaining fifty thousand, he could either purchase all the options that had been added so far or spend forty thousand points to upgrade the shop. 'Let's upgrade the shop.' Without hesitation, JiHan chose the latter option. After all, purchasing all of the options that had been added so far wouldn't help him immediately. [The Achievement Shop has been upgraded to LV.4] ['Emergency Recovery' item has been added.] 'Emergency Recovery…?' JiHan opened the Achievement Shop and read Emergency Recovery's description. [Emergency Recovery (Item)] - Can restore a broken item. It was a brief explanation, but when he read it, JiHan's eyes began shining more than ever. 'Finally, something that can be used right away.' If it could restore items, it could drastically reduce the trial and error in the early stages. Tap, tap. JiHan walked through Sae-jin's house. 'It should be here.' He walked past three rooms and entered the deepest area of the penthouse. There was a fingerprint-reading device next to a black door, and he put his finger over the device. [Recognition Complete. Family.] The door opened with a brief mechanical whine. 'Family…' JiHan smiled bitterly. His relationship with Sae-jin was worse than that of a stranger, but the machine still recognized him as a family member. JiHan stepped into the room and saw the Battle Net connector Sae-jin used to play Battle Net. At first glance, it looked like a racecar seat, but it was big enough to fill a whole room. 'Was the temporary storage box here?' JiHan sat down at the Battle Net connector and pressed a button in the left corner. As he did that, the inventory of the Battle Net connector used by Sword King Yoon Sae-jin appeared before him. [Temporary Storage Box] 'As expected, he sold all of the items.' A player's inventory had a restriction of 10 slots, so many players stored items in a temporary storage box provided by the Battle Net connector. Considering it was the Sword King, there should have been many items left behind, but it seemed like he'd cleaned up everything before leaving for Japan. He'd probably disposed of them on the Battle Net market. 'But… this is still here.' He probably sold everything to obtain GP (Game Points) before heading off to Japan, but some things hadn't sold as well. JiHan removed an item from the corner of the inventory. [Dongfang Shuo's Broken Brush] Rank: A - An unusable, broken brush. - A broken brush of Dongfang Shuo, who's said to have lived for 180,000 years. Despite being broken, it was rank A. It was useless, though, so it hadn't sold, but… 'I know what it can be used for.' After all, Dongfang Shou's brush was what made him the Martial King. "Emergency Recovery." He used the Emergency Recovery he'd obtained from the Achievement Shop. [Restoring the Broken Brush of Dongfang Shuo…] [The Broken Brush of Dongfang Shuo has been restored. Its name has changed to 'Dongfang Shuo's Brush'.] A light circled around Dongfang Shuo's brush, and then red and blue gems appeared in the middle of it. [Dongfang Shuo's Brush] Rank: SS - The brush of Dongfang Shuo, the one who lived for 180,000 years. - Creates a connection to the Martial God. "It… really worked." After confirming that the item was restored, JiHan opened his status window while holding the brush. Strength, Agility, Vitality, Magic Power… He touched the tip of the brush to the status window, which showed his stats all at five, the lowest possible score. Tsss-¡ Sparks began flying from the brush's tip. Letters were engraved over his stats, and Dongfang Shuo's Brush was soon covered in flames. The heat turned JiHan's fingers red, but he didn't even grimace and kept drawing characters with the brush. After a total of 10 strokes, he removed the brush from his status window. Tsss- The brush, its task complete, turned into dust and disappeared. Two words were written over the three stats that had previously been shown in the status window. Strength, Agility, and Vitality had disappeared, overwritten by a new stat… Martial Power. [You've cleared the achievement 'Unique Stat Acquired'.] [You've earned 10,000 achievement points.] Martial Power: 5 Magic Power: 5 A smile appeared on JiHan's face when he saw how Martial Power had overwritten the other stats. 'It worked.' Although he still hadn't obtained Nameless Divine Arts, he would probably be able to dominate the Bronze League with Martial Power alone. [The Battle Net League tutorial will begin soon.] [Once you're ready, answer the summons.] [You'll be forcibly summoned in 5 minutes.] The Battle Net summon message popped up. JiHan glanced at Sae-jin's Battle Net connector. Most players used a Battle Net connector at that point in time. 'This model reduces pain by 99%, right?' It was a Battle Net connector that almost entirely numbed your sensation of pain. Using it was considered essential at that time, but… JiHan unplugged it without hesitation. 'I won't be using something Sae-jin used.' JiHan accepted the tutorial invitation, and his body began shining a white color before vanishing from the spot. • * * Bronze League – Gangnam Area 1. Among the many League divisions that existed in Korea, it was one of the most special. 'Do people say you should have at least nine in every stat and an A-rank Gift?' Gangnam 1 was a hellhole that most big corporations and guilds put their best talents into, a League division where promising players fought against each other to become the best. JiHan hadn't been able to survive there in the past. After all, his stats averaged five; on top of that, his Gift had an Franking. 'I was foolish back then. I reached level 2 after drinking one of Sae-jin's XP potions that I thought was whiskey.' When he heard Sae-jin say he would naturalize as a Japanese citizen, he'd accidentally drunk an XP potion. You could say that was indeed a crime. To make things worse, he became level 2 in Sae-jin's house, and as a result of that, he was assigned to Gangnam Area 1. Of course, he hadn't expected to join that League division. What happened next was obvious. 'I was stabbed and eliminated in less than 10 seconds… I really wasted my life back then.' JiHan looked at the message window. [Welcome to the tutorial.] [The tutorial mission is 'survival'.] Boom! Boom! He heard the sounds of drums coming from the sides. Light returned to his darkened world. 'Is this the Colosseum?' It was a Bronze-only survival map, the Colosseum. 100 players and many monsters appeared at the same time, and they had to fight until only half of the players remained. JiHan looked around and saw players wearing dazzling equipment. He also saw an entire horde of monsters. 'Are they rank B? Their equipment looks good.' However, just like JiHan, they were all level 2. Since they were considered promising players by guilds and corporations, they could borrow B-rank equipment. In contrast, JiHan was wearing sweatpants and a short-sleeved T-shirt, but he wasn't nervous at all. 'I need to warm up a bit.' He had no doubt that he could beat all of them. It might have been a problem if he didn't have Martial Power, but it wouldn't be a problem for him since he already had it. 'I'll feel sorry for the newbies if I stand out too much.' They were future peers that would help him support the country's future, after all, so there was no need to traumatize them by slaughtering them. He would try to go against them while moderating himself to a similar skill level. That's what JiHan was thinking when… [The achievement window has been activated.] [A limited quest has been added.] A new quest was added. [Limited Quest] • Finish 1st place in the tutorial. [Reward: 1,000 achievement points] A thousand achievement points… JiHan's expression suddenly changed. 'The Spartan way of teaching is the best when it comes to educating new players.' JiHan had previously reached 7th in the global rankings, and when he read that the reward would be 1,000 achievement points… 'This is going to be a massacre.' He got serious.