Chapter 19

<The Beautiful Sword God>

A desperate victory was still a victory.

‘Is this really the right way to hunt?’

A sense of shame washed over me, but seeing my experience points rise still brought a smile to my face.

And so, I started wandering around in search of my next target.

“…Huh?”

I spotted another user not too far away.

Curious, I moved closer.

Just how impressive would someone hunting in a level 17 recommended hunting ground be?

My brief concern that they might be a PK user quickly faded. Someone hunting a Monster alone didn’t seem all that dangerous.

Swish— Swish—

The strange thing was, it was clearly the same Lizardman, yet it looked completely different from the one Han Youngwoong had fought.

It looked weak.

No, it was only because she made it look weak.

She twisted away from the stabbing spear at the last possible moment and, in the same motion, swung her sword and sliced through the Lizardman’s arm.

A woman who was turning the Lizardman’s own fighting style back on it.

With her small frame, she rapidly closed the distance, stabbing and slashing.

“Whoa.”

A gasp of admiration slipped out of me.

Was this really the same Lizardman that had toyed with Han Youngwoong and mocked him? Its wildly swinging trident cut through empty air, and it staggered around, unable to follow the woman’s darting movements with its eyes.

Slash, slash, slash, steadily carving away at it.

Thud—

The Lizardman finally collapsed.

“That’s insane.”

I stood there dumbfounded for about three minutes, just watching.

Her Equipment didn’t look all that impressive, but since she fought without taking a single hit, the level 17 Lizardman was no match for her.

So that was what they called control.

I felt embarrassed for being proud of taking hits to the side while trying to dodge with my awkwardly inflated Agility.

After collecting the loot from the Lizardman, the woman approached me.

“Oh.”

Only then did I realize I had been watching from much closer than I thought.

“You’re Han Youngwoong, right?”

“Eh, you know me?”

“Number one in the Tutorial Tower. First Clear of the Cursed Ferocious Bear. The Boing Hammer and the boxer shorts. And that Title.”

I had no choice but to nod when she pointed upward.

“…Ah. Right.”

To think someone recognized me.

It was the first time anyone had come up to me like this in person, so it felt strange.

And she looked somewhat familiar too.

“Ah! Aren’t you the Sword God?”

Nod, nod.

I had seen her a few times while browsing Fantasia Life.

She was a fairly famous user because of her flashy control in the hunting grounds, and she was also ranked third in the Tutorial Tower.

Just as the Sword God recognized Han Youngwoong from his distinctive traits, the Sword God from the videos also had several memorable features that made her easy to recognize at a glance.

“Small, pretty, and a great fighter.”

“……”

The moment I said it, I felt embarrassed for saying it to her face.

When I awkwardly looked away, the Sword God also changed the subject, her face slightly flushed.

“That heal, was it from you?”

“A heal? What… Ah!”

I was confused when she suddenly mentioned a heal, but then I remembered Lucky Chance.

It definitely said ‘allies and self.’

We weren’t that far apart, so it must have affected the Sword God too.

“…Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. Not like you really needed it.”

What difference could a healing effect possibly make to the Sword God, who hadn’t taken a single hit?

At most, it was probably no different from a brief recovery drink that eased fatigue.

Bow.

After giving me a small nod of thanks, the Sword God headed on her way.

Cute, young, pretty, and even a little quirky.

It made sense why she was so popular in the community.

A young girl who was good at games.

I wanted to keep watching her and learn how she fought, but after seeing her cut down another Lizardman not far away, I came to a firm conclusion.

“Okay, I get it now.”

I turned around cleanly.

“I can’t do that.”

In the first place, if I could learn just by watching, I would have already learned from the countless videos out there.

The Sword God’s movements especially made the gap feel even greater. She would casually brush away an incoming attack.

As if she already knew it would come from that direction.

She was literally bringing to life the kind of movement you only saw in martial arts novels, slipping past attacks by a paper-thin margin with the bare minimum of motion.

It was something Han Youngwoong, who instinctively shut his eyes whenever a blade came flying at him, could never imitate.

“Let’s just stick to what I’m good at.”

No matter how well she fought, the number one rank in the Tutorial Tower was still his.

The First Clear Title for the Cursed Ferocious Bear was also safely stored in his Title inventory.

For the Lucky Hero, the moments when luck exploded were his style and his strength.

Swish.

Around the time the Sword God disappeared from view, I found another Lizardman.

“You’re dead now.”

I said that, but I had learned something from watching the Sword God’s movements.

Filled with strange confidence, I watched the incoming trident and lightly twisted my body to the side.

Stab—

(T/N: The confidence… hahahaha)

“Aaaargh!”

I was sure I had dodged with the same timing and the same movement.

But the trident stabbed into me even harder.

Hiss, hiss.

Seeing the Lizardman mock me so openly, I brought the Boing Hammer crashing down.

Boing!

Crash!

“What are you laughing at? You’re not the Sword God.”

Along with the burst of Golden Light, I vented my frustration with satisfying force.

===

Team Leader Kim Chanwook monitored Han Youngwoong’s screen whenever he had free time.

If you asked whether he really had nothing better to do—

he didn’t.

The almighty Lucky was solving every problem in the game.

The operations team only had to focus on external promotions and events.

Even then, the team members did the actual work while the team leader just approved it, so he had plenty of time to monitor users.

‘Checking for inappropriate gameplay.’

“Every time I see it, it still makes no sense.”

One of the team members answered the team leader’s muttering.

“His luck is just too good. A 1% skill is activating at around a 20% rate.”

“Right? You think so too, don’t you?”

“But what can we do? That user is just lucky. You, sir, and five others already ran more than 10,000 tests yourselves, didn’t you?”

Kim Chanwook had a conviction.

‘At this rate, the game is doomed.’

He had nothing to say since Lucky was shamelessly helping Fantasia grow, but still.

He couldn’t blindly trust the AI, so he had personally experimented on a virtual server using a character under the exact same conditions.

He had set the probabilities himself and run the tests. And the result—

surprisingly, it followed the law of large numbers.

Right within the 1% range.

There was nothing wrong with Fantasia’s system.

To deny that, he would first have to prove that Lucky itself was flawed, and he knew all too well that such a thing would amount to a battle against science itself.

So he had no choice but to admit it.

That user was simply lucky.

There was even a plausible excuse for it.

“It’ll probably regress to the mean later.”

Though even the team member saying it didn’t sound convinced.

That was why he kept watching.

When would that user’s luck finally run out?

No, when would it at least normalize?

On the team leader’s screen, Han Youngwoong was drawing from the Roulette of Luck.

“What was the probability for Unique again?”

Even though Unique grade was technically included, no one had ever truly expected anyone to draw it.

“0.000015%.”

It was only there because it was the reward for a Unique-grade Main Quest, like a tiny bit of garnish added for flavor.

Yet it was ridiculous that he was checking the Unique probability again.

And even more ridiculous that the situation on screen was unfolding exactly like that.

A brilliant Golden Light.

“Huh?”

Startled, the employee quickly checked the probability again.

“It is 0.000015%. Ah! I think I left out a zero when I told you earlier.”

“…What, did he meet some kind of quest condition? Like First Subjugation or something.”

“There’s no such condition in Act 1. It’s just luck.”

“……”

Heh heh.

A laugh of resignation escaped him.

A user who had only just passed level 10 already had two Unique-grade Skills.

And on top of that, the performance he was showing in the swamp was absurd.

“As expected, the penalty for a Unique-grade Class is harsh, so the skill performance is good too.”

The moment he heard that muttered comment, as though the user was simply getting what he deserved, Team Leader Kim Chanwook couldn’t hold back anymore. He slammed the desk, shot to his feet, and shouted,

“What’s so harsh about it? How is one-shotting a level 17 Monster at level 13 with a 20% activation chance harsh!”

“It is harsh, though. If his luck had been bad, he would’ve died fighting the Cursed Ferocious Bear and ended up choosing a different Class.”

“Hey!”

His furious shout burst out at the team member’s reply, which only grated on his nerves even more.

===

“Hmph hmph.”

Humming to myself, I stepped out of the capsule room and walked down the street.

For the first time in a while, I was heading somewhere other than the capsule room after leaving home.

“Now that I’ve got some breathing room, should I buy a capsule? I think it’d fit if I moved the mattress out.”

Even if it was only a five-minute walk, going back and forth between home and the capsule room every day was still a waste of time.

If I could do it from home, I could save even that small amount of time and spend it playing the game. That alone was a huge gain.

Considering the cost of the capsule and the free three-month pass, it was technically a financial loss, but I could think of it as buying time for a better work environment.

I didn’t even need some top-tier capsule.

Something reasonably priced would be enough.

I could buy a used one, and when the dedicated capsule got released, I could just sell the used one again.

Or if possible, I could flip the dedicated capsule for a high price.

“If you’re going to be noisy, then get out! Why come to a six-person room and act like it’s your private room!”

“…Huh?”

But that happy fantasy vanished the moment I arrived at the hospital.

A loud voice was coming from my younger sister Han Yeri’s hospital room.

When I went inside, a middle-aged woman in the bed by the window was arguing with another middle-aged woman across from her.

“You need to be considerate, considerate. We’re all sharing this room, so you should sleep when it’s time to sleep. Everyone here is sick and struggling, so how can you be so selfish?”

“Hmph, honestly. So you don’t have the money for a four-person or three-person room, I take it. But you still want to use this place like it’s a two-person room or a private room? Am I making noise all night? You’re getting all sensitive over me quietly praying.”

“Oh my, Yeri’s brother is here.”

As I approached Han Yeri’s bed, which was closest to the hallway, the caregiver who had been getting ready to leave for the day pulled me outside.

Before I could even greet Han Yeri, I had to hear what had been going on first.

“She’s a patient who was admitted recently, and she prays all night so she’s loud. And when she goes to the bathroom, she stays there for three hours at a time. Yeri’s been having a really hard time because of it lately.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“About two weeks?”

That was a little before I started the game.

She hadn’t said a word about it back then.

“And you just left it like that?”

“If there had been an open bed, they would’ve moved her, but, sigh. The ward is completely full right now, so they said there’s nothing they can do. It’s not like she’s causing some huge disturbance…”

“……”

“Yeri, how about moving to a four-person or three-person room? I know it’s hard, but…”

I reflected on myself.

This was no time to be thinking about buying used capsules or anything like that.

I immediately headed for the nurses’ station.

“Is it possible to move her to a four-person or three-person room?”

“The patient’s name?”

“Han Yeri.”

“Ah, you’re Yeri’s guardian. One moment, please.”

The nurse checking the records spoke with a troubled look.

“The three-person and four-person rooms in this ward are all full right now. It looks like the earliest a spot will open is next Monday, so we could move her then.”

I looked at the calendar. Today was Tuesday.

If I hadn’t come and seen it myself, I never would’ve known.

I couldn’t leave my younger sister, who was already suffering from a rare illness, in this situation.

Until now, there had been nothing I could do because I didn’t have the money, but—

“Are there any two-person rooms?”

“A two-person room will be available in four days, and there is a private room available right now.”

I already knew from when she was first admitted and I was registered as her guardian.

Starting from two-person rooms, they weren’t covered by insurance.

A private room cost 400,000 won a day.

The thought that it was more expensive than a hotel had always stuck with me.

“Move her to a private room, and then when a spot opens up, move her to a two-person room…”

“Would you like us to do that? But the private room won’t be covered by insurance benefits. Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

“Yes. No, no.”

I thought about the monthly cost, then shook my head and corrected myself.

“We’ll keep her in the private room for this month.”

Han Yeri had already been hospitalized for several months since her diagnosis, receiving long-term treatment.

Even if the hospitalization fees were covered, the cost of medication and caregiving was extremely high. Adding a private room would nearly match the cost of the medication itself.

‘There’s no need to go that far.’

That was what I thought for a moment, but then I remembered the Gold I had spent on the Hammer of Fortune today.

Even if I told myself that was for work, an investment for the future, this came first.

“We’ll move her first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you.”

With my heart feeling at least a little lighter, I was finally able to return to the hospital room where the grating sound of prayer still echoed.

“Oppa.”

“Yeri, I’m sorry.”

“Huh?”

“Starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to rest in peace. You know that game I started? I’m making a lot of money from it. I’ll make sure you can rest comfortably, get your treatment, and leave this place healthy.”

The empty promises I had always piled away in one corner of my heart—

now, I could finally say them with confidence.

(T/N: Damn. Now this really shed more light on why he is thinking about money first rather than the usual gamers think when playing a game.)