One Man Army

One Man Army – Episode 8 : [Chapter 5] To Monopolize (1)

Piercing four soul holes was something other users could never imagine doing. Of course it wasn’t easy to level up as one’s required exp quadrupled, but it still wasn’t as bad as he halved it with ‘The Challenger Never Gives Up’.

It wasn’t such a big difference in the early stages, it was only after level 40, which was called ‘Hell’ section among users, people regretted piercing so many holes.

You had to pierce all the soul holes to be the highest level class, which wasn’t easy at all. Of course, there were several ways to pierce the holes.

The easiest way was using the power of real money in reality. The most common way however was levelling up while trying not to die.

Whichever way you chose, if you could level up, more soul holes represented more power.

When Sang Hyuk was a director, 80% of active pro gamers had Double souls, the remaining 20% of them had Triple souls. There was no one who had only a Single soul.

By subdividing more, 70% of people who were the best of pro gamers had Triple souls. It meant that Triple souls had the greatest potential.

In this situation, Sang Hyuk chose Quadr souls which no one had ever completed. This meant that he could be without equal if he levelled up properly with it.

“Is it the fourth day since the server opened? It is about time people’s comments and stories began circulating.”

EL became known to people one week after EL’s open beta started.

Of course, it took a few months for it to hit its success from the rumors because it was hard to access and function in the game.

‘In fact, people who were well known in the former life who had just started playing this game still didn’t know anything even though they already started playing at this time.’

The fact that people had to find out all the information in the game in person made them quite tired. Nonetheless, Raon Software didn’t accommodate any user’s opinion at all; they chose to follow their rules for the game.

This part was very good for Sang Hyuk.

“It is time to monopolize amazing things for myself because I already know a lot of important information.”

Sang Hyuk murmured quietly and smiled to himself. He recalled several things that others had mentioned as the best in his former life.

Of course, not everyone who acquired those things were the highest level classes, users who were in the highest level classes always had something which was considered ‘the best’. Besides, Sang Hyuk aimed for the best of the best.

The most important thing was that Sang Hyuk could get them at this point.   

“I have to give up sleeping for awhile.”

No matter what he knew, he still couldn’t account for everything. Therefore, he didn’t know whether someone already got them or not.

It meant that he had to move faster to get them, so he had to put up with sleeping only 2 hours a day.

That’s why Sang Hyuk rested and built up his body, it didn’t seem too hard to play the game with sleeping only 2 hours a day for one or two months.

‘First…Let’s start to get the title The First Mountaineer!’  

Sang Hyuk turned around to see Puyan mountain behind of Palcorn city and nodded slowly.

Puyan was the one of five mountains representing Teurinakeu planet. The height of a mountain was the lowest one among them, but it was the most meaningful mountain so it got to be included in the five mountains.

If he climbed up to the top of the mountain first regardless of whichever mountain among the five, he could get a special title.

The First Mountaineer! This was valuable as it was a unique title.  

Even though there was neither prefix nor postfix effects, there was a permanent continued effect which was increasing acquired Karma by 20%.

Originally, a ranker in the highest level class who was called ‘climber’ got this title in Sang Hyuk’s former life. In accordance with a rumor, he climbed to the top of other mountains, not Puyan.

The reason why Sang Hyuk knew this kind of information was because pro gamers who were in his team used to talk about this kind of information privately.

They didn’t share important information even with the same team members, but they often used to talk about non important information at unofficial places. He picked up a lot of information from them.

It was hard for him to decide which peak to climb initially. Under ordinary circumstances, it wasn’t a big deal for Sang Hyuk because he had already experienced climbing strange rock formations and cliffs to collect medicinal herbs at Sword & Magic for more than half a year.

Decisively, he didn’t have anything to lose if he was dead, because he was only level 10 and he hadn’t got any exp(Karma) since he moved to Teurinakeu planet.

He already put his sword of traveler at a public bank in Palcorn city just in case. Well, he also put his items into four dimensional spaces, which the multi dimension travelers got offered from the game, so he had nothing to lose actually.

Besides, Puyan mountain was the best saint mountain, which had the sleeping god, in Teurinakeu planet, so there were no monsters or even savage beasts.

It meant literally that it wasn’t possible for any other living things to inhabit this holy mountain where god was sleeping. Thanks to it, he could try to climb Puyan mountain while only at level 10.

Sang Hyuk could climb Puyan mountain easily because he didn’t have any pressure. He used 10 growth points, which he had saved, for the power to climb Puyan mountain.

He had to invest the points for the power to hang on cliffs and climb up.

He achieved his goal, arriving at the summit of Puyan mountain after hard work, without dying even once. He obtained the valuable result because he climbed constantly for 20 hours without any rest.

You are the first one to climb to the top of Puyan mountain, which is the one of five mountains representing Teurinakeu planet. You deserve to be a role model to all travelers because you climbed this mountain first, something nobody has ever conquered.

You acquired a unique title [The First Mountaineer].

I heard the voice of god who was sleeping at the saint mountain. This is a piece of getting a legend level quest.

“Huh, a legend level quest? Were there these kind of things here?”

Sang Hyuk, who murmured with a surprised face didn’t expect to get this profit. Without delay he opened the quest window rapidly.

Quest, ??? [Legend]

-The mountain where god is asleep (Learn more)     

-???

-???

-???

“A legend piece quest….”

The piece quest, required people to collect all the pieces to activate a quest, which had a high level of difficulty, but the rewards were amazing. Sang Hyuk didn’t imagine getting this at this time at all.

“I’d get this at this time…”

It was an unexpected bonus. Even though he didn’t know about the request, the value of the legend level quest was infinite, it was a really big benefit.

“Well, let’s keep this for now and I will challenge when I have enough power.”

It would be crazy if he challenged the legend level piece quest right now.

Title – ‘The First Mountaineer’

Level – Unique

Explanation – You deserve to be a role model to all travelers because you climbed this mountain first, something nobody has ever conquered.

Effects – [Prefix: None] [Postfix: None] [Constant effects:<The amount of Karma acquired by challenging spirit(S) increased 20%.]

He opened a title window and had a contented smile after checking the effects of ‘The First Mountaineer’. Even though they were the same unique level title, its effect was slightly worse than ‘The Challenger Never Given Up’ at the boundless pasture. However, it was already great enough.

It only seemed like nothing because ‘The Challenger Never Given Up’ was so great.

“With this, I can release some of the pressure from the Quadr souls.”

If he got ‘The First Mountaineer’, he could develop his character like he only had Double souls even though he had Quadr Souls. Of course, it was still harder than people who chose Double souls but at least he could develop his character much easier than people who had Triple souls.

Furthermore, if Sang Hyuk added ‘Small Karma’, an additional title Sang Hyuk knew, his Karma acquiring would rise to about 30%.

“Huh, it is hard work to go down. Should I just jump down?”

If he jumped down, he could reach to the ground much faster, but he couldn’t do that. Because Sang Hyuk didn’t want to experience the feeling of death. In addition, he got Karmas through challenging and he couldn’t jump down or he will simply lose them.

Sang Hyuk enjoyed seeing the view from the summit of Puyan mountain. He took a short breather while he was up there. After which, he began to run down the steep cliff again.

If he was a normal person, he would capture this wonderful scenery forever by functions of snapping photos or video capability. But Sang Hyuk was too mature for such nonsense, he was satisfied with seeing this with his eyes.

Sang Hyuk returned to Palcorn city as soon as he came down from Puyan mountain. No, he tried to return. However, three users who had very unhappy faces welcomed him before he reached Palcorn city.

If people wanted to level up in EL, they needed Karma(Up). An interesting point is that there were two kinds of Karma.

One is a good attribute of Karma which people could get by ways similar to other normal games. This one was almost the same as exp, people could get it naturally by killing monsters or solving quests.

But, there was an opposite attribute Karma.  

It was called an evil deed or ‘Black Karma’, people could get this by doing bad things like killing other users, murdering NPCs or etc.

The interesting point was that the user became a villain if he/she collected more than 10,000 Karmas or leveled up at least one level by doing bad things. If the user became a villain, he or she couldn’t go to a normal city and also got a bounty on his/her head.

Of course, there were content for villains and cities only for villains. Later on, villains gathered and became a big influence. Anyway, if a user became a villain, there were more demerits than merits.

Once one became bad, he had to return to the Hall of Souls to give up everything, repent and practice to a great earth mother and a lord in the sky by dedicating all Karmas to be normal again.  

With repenting and practicing, he would return to level 10 and couldn’t do any bad things for a long time. So, no one really wanted to repent and practice.

Furthermore, villains could be attacked freely by normal users who were not villains. If a villain was killed that way, he/she lost 20% of their total black Karma.

20% of black Karma was able to cause the dropping of a few levels at one go if he/she had a high level.

Villains were afraid of their death, because they had to drop an item randomly which they had if they were dead.

Of course, there were some merits for being a villain as well.

It was…. that they could build their experiences by attacking normal users and could steal items from normal users. Besides, they could get some benefits by attacking those people who normal users called NPCs.

For example, villains could hunt special tribes like elves, dwarves or hobbits. They could get items, not Karma by hunting normal monsters. If they killed these kinds of special tribes, they could get both items and Karma.

The biggest reason why people chose the path of villains was because of the ability to steal items from other users, and the second reason being that they could attack other tribes not only monsters.

These were the two crucial reasons why people decided to become villains.

Also, the lower level people were, the easier it was to be a villain. After starting the open beta service, much was said about the villains indiscriminately PK’ing other users.

‘I forgot this was the time where villains ran around killing normal users.’

Sang Hyuk had a wry smile while looking at the three users who were blocking his way. The three users’ eyes had turned red.

Red eyes… This was the obvious sign that they were villains.

“I am too lazy to say this again. I hope you just think that today is a bad day for you.”

They seemed like they had killed a lot of users already.

They had a commanding presence… but Sang Hyuk knew the fact that their dignified presence wouldn’t last long.

< [Chapter 5] To monopolize (1) > end

Translator : Joyce Gim

Proofreader : Kerrigan