Reader - Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

“It’s time to leave now.”

The teaching instructor spoke as Soo Hyuk accepted the sword.

‘Time to leave?’

Soo Hyuk was baffled by what the teaching instructor said.

‘What the, was the rabbit hunt the last quest?’

Seeing as what the instructor was saying, it didn’t seem like another quest was going to be given.

“Go and find Codra in the central plaza. They will take you to the place you want to go to.”

The teaching instructor continued to speak.

“The only thing is, it will not be possible to come back to this town Oren, so if there is anything you need to do here, it’ll be good to finish what you need to here, then go.”

The training instructor closed his mouth after he finished speaking. Once the training instructor stopped speaking, Soo Hyuk greeted the instructor good-bye and turned around.

‘What should I do?’

Soo Hyuk thought to himself as he opened his inventory, placed his sword inside, and came out of the training center.

‘I can’t come here again….’

Through Codra, he could go anywhere on the continent. However, if he leaves Oren, he will not be able to return again.

‘That means the end for the library too.’

Not being able to return to Oren also meant that he would not be able to access the library in Oren again.

‘What if there was a book that was only in here?’

What if there was a book that existed only at the Oren library? Soo Hyuk would never be able to read it unless he deleted his character and replayed with a new character.

‘I need to save after all….’

Soo Hyuk frowned. If he was able to return, he was going to save money then return. But, since he is unable to return, he needed to save 50 gold.

‘The amount of gold I have….’

Soo Hyuk decided to save 50 gold and checked to see how much gold he possessed currently.

’33 gold….’

At the moment, he possessed only 17 gold that he acquired through the quests. He needed another 33 more to move forward.

‘It’ll come down to how much rabbit hide is going to be sold for.’

Soo Hyuk thought to himself as he checked his gold and looked at the rabbit hide left over from completing the quest. At the start of this town, ‘Oren,’ only rabbits existed.

There were no wolves, foxes, bears, or any other monsters. In other words, the only way to earn money was to acquire an item dropped by a rabbit and selling it. And, the only item that a rabbit dropped at this place, ‘Oren,’ was rabbit’s hide.

Shriek!

Shortly, Soo Hyuk arrived at the store and took out the rabbit’s hide from his inventory. And he approached the storeowner, Tara and held it out.

“How much would you purchase this for?”

Tara put her head down as Soo Hyuk spoke and looked at the rabbit hide he had held out. And, with a perplexed expression, she looked at Soo Hyuk again and spoke.

“Sorry.”

“……?”

“I won’t purchase one hide. You have to bring at least 4 hides in order for me to give you 1 gold.”

Tara’s response of saying sorry puzzled Soo Hyuk, so when Tara finished speaking, there was nothing he could say. Soo Hyuk withdrew the rabbit hide he held out and put it into his inventory.

“Oh, I see. 4 hides for 1 gold.”

And then after, he shook his head as if he understood and came out of the store. Soo Hyuk had a lost look on his face as he began walking and thought to himself.

‘I thought I would at least be able to get 1 gold for 1 rabbit hide….’

He thought he’d be able to get at least 1 gold no matter what. Or wouldn’t he be able to get 2 gold? What do I do if it’s more than the price? He anticipated the offering price. However, they don’t purchase only one hide?

‘If it’s 4 hides for 1 gold…’

Soo Hyuk calculated.

‘It’s 33 gold.’

He needed 33 gold.

‘4 multiplied by 33 is….’

Soo Hyuk frowned as he finished calculating.

‘132 hides?’

In order to make 33 gold he needed 132 rabbit hides. 132 hides were not a small amount. Even if the item was dropped every time he caught a rabbit, he would still have to catch 132 rabbits.

‘Fine.’

Soo Hyuk frowned as he thought about the immense amount of 132 hides, but soon stopped frowning.

‘Let’s try until I get exhausted.’

The first time he killed a rabbit, he was repulsed because of the realistic graphic. However, from the second rabbit, he felt like he came inside a real novel, which built his interest. Soo Hyuk pledged to himself to hunt until he lost interest and became tired.

“Ah! I told you not to steal!”

“Bullshit, what do you mean steal, can’t you see the hide came to me? I’m the one who gave the first punch, and you’re the one that stole.”

A short while after Soo Hyuk made a pledge to himself, he was able to come out of the town. Outside of town, there were a lot more users than before, fighting over ownership of the rabbits. Soo Hyuk passed these users and continued walking.

‘Wow, there’s a lot here too.’

Soo Hyuk arrived at the place he caught rabbits in order to complete his quest and was unable to stop walking. A minute ago, there were more rabbits than users, but now there were more users than rabbits.

Of course there were less users than the town entrance, but to catch 132 rabbits, Soo Hyuk headed for a place with no competition and continued walking.

‘I can do it here.’

Soo Hyuk continued walking until he found a place where there were less users than rabbits and stopped his steps. He then began to hunt.

* * *

“Sigh.”

Soo Hyuk let out a long sigh as he came out of the capsule.

Soo Hyuk’s face was filled with regret.

‘I was only able to catch 70 rabbits.’

His face was filled with regret because he was unable to fulfill his goal. He had only caught 70 rabbits. His goal of 132 rabbits was far from sufficient.

‘Hide is 50 pieces.’

The problem was that the drop ratio was also regretful. The drop ratio was worse than he thought. He caught 70 rabbits but was only able to get 50 hides. Actually, he already had 1 hide to start off with, which meant he received 49 hides.

‘I should be able to receive more tomorrow.’

Today, he completed a couple different quests, so he couldn’t say that he spent a lot of time hunting. Tomorrow there are no quests to complete, so he should be able to spend all his time on hunting.

‘Would I be able to collect 132 hides.’

But he was not certain he would be able to collect 132 hides. Soo Hyuk thought to himself as he approached the computer.

Pangaea’s official homepage opened an hour after the servers had opened. Soo Hyuk decided he would check what types of information would be up.

“Hmm.”

There were a lot more information up on the official homepage than he thought. There were considerable amounts of information not only from the company but from users posted.

“There’s not much information regarding the library…”

However, there was not much information regarding the library.

“Does each library need different things.”

The information that was posted about the library was that you were unable to blindly use it and the qualifications needed in order to access it.

“Nobility? Subject to? What kinds of qualifications are these?”

Different than Oren’s library where you need only 50 gold to access it, you needed a high ranking for the other libraries.

“Is there no library you can easily access?”

Soo Hyuk researched a little bit more. He wondered if there was or wasn’t a library you can access without nobility or subject to high rankings.

“Oh?”

While researching, Soo Hyuk shortly shouted out an exclamation.

“It’s good here!”

Although it wasn’t a place that didn’t have any qualifications at all, there was a library that had a decent qualification.

“If I change into a magician, I can access it.”

If his occupation were a magician right now, he would be able to access the library.

“Matab?”

Soo Hyuk checked to see where the library was located and found that it was not a state-owned library. The magicians were allied with Matab, a place that held enormous influence that was more than most nations, and Matab maintained the library.

“I should ask to be sent to Matab.”

If he changed to a magician, he would be able to access it. And it was not very hard to change into a magician. The qualifications to change into a magician were to be level 10, and to have wisdom 30. Henceforth, Soo Hyuk formed a plan and stood up from his seat. And then he came out of his room and went up to the second floor.

“Since I have to sleep soon…”

Soo Hyuk looked through his bookcase and took out a thin book that seemed like it could be read and finished in an hour. He then came back to his room and began to read the book.

‘Should I have caught 10 more rabbits, then come out.’

Soo Hyuk thought to himself as he read his book.

‘Huh?’

Soo Hyuk was baffled.

‘What kind of situation is this.’

The reason Soo Hyuk was baffled, was because of the situation he was in right now. Until now, when Soo Hyuk read a book, he concentrated only on reading. He never thought of anything else. However, even though he was reading a book right now, he was thinking about Pangaea.

‘Is it because I have that much regret.’

He was clearly thinking about it, because of regret. Soo Hyuk stopped reading briefly. And thought about his regret.

Through his thoughts he was able to let go of his regrets completely and began to read his book again. Was it because he let go of his regrets? He had no other thoughts. He was able to concentrate solely on the book. As such, Soo Hyuk fell into the book.

* * *

“Who’s the user with the highest level right now?”

Joo Hyuk Yang asked Jang Yool.

“Hold on one second.”

Jang Yool observed the key situation through his five monitors while playing the virtual reality game ‘Pangaea’ and typed on his keyboard as he replied to Joo Hyuk Yang’s question. And then, on one of his monitors, a new window appeared. Jang Yool looked at the window and spoke.

“A user named ‘HuntingKing.’ He’s level 21.”

“What? Already?”

Joo Hyuk Yang heard Jang Yool’s response and was astonished.

“Even though only one day has passed?”

It hasn’t even been a couple days since the game opened. One day, only one day had passed. It was now going to be 2 days, but he was already level 21?

“He is a tester.”

Jang Yool replied as he heard Joo Hyuk Yang’s surprised voice.

“Oh.”

And then Joo Hyuk Yang let out an exclamation as if he understood.

“He was a tester?”

Pangaea had opened after various tests were completed. Not only for internal tests but testers were recruited in secret and tests progressed.

“Of course that’s it. A general user to be 21 is irrational.”

It was not unheard of for a tester to reach level 21.

“How many received the title of ‘Butcher’ in Oren?”

Joo Hyuk Yang asked. The game’s starting town, ‘Oren’. Oren’s Butcher was a title that could only be acquired by catching 100 of Oren’s monster rabbits.

The title gave the option of general stats: strength, agility, stamina, and wisdom; which increased 3 each and were a title that were of great help in the early stages.

“The percentage is 0.7.”

“Hul, that many people received it?”

Joo Hyuk Yang heard Jang Yool’s response and was taken aback. It was a title that could be acquired by catching 100 rabbits.

He could understand if the number of users was small, but one day has passed and the number of users exceeded 100,000 right now. Moving forward, the outlook should increase.

In that type of situation, how is it 0.7%? All of those users didn’t get away from the tutorial zone and captured 100 rabbits? It was hard to believe.

“Yes.”

“What about the users that acquired special occupations? Are there a lot?”

“Are you asking about the training engineer? Or the tamer?”

Jang Yool cross-questioned the question Joo Hyuk Yang asked.