Chapter 6

The deeper I went into Moina Forest, the fewer users I saw. Before long, there were almost none at all.

By the time the forest had grown so dense that even the sun couldn’t pierce through it, the boundary of the forest came into view.

It wasn’t a clear-cut boundary, but rather a stretch where a faint dark fog had settled.

The closer I got, the clearer it became.

“I can smell it.”

The Golden Light arrow was pointing this way as well, so this had to be where the Corrupted Monsters appeared.

It was pretty deep in.

The wolf I’d encountered at the entrance to the forest had been Level 7, so higher-level Monsters were bound to appear here.

[Contaminated Moina Forest]

[A deep region of Moina Forest, a Corrupted Forest. Corrupted Monsters, dangerous Dungeons, and a Field Boss exist here.]

[Recommended Level: 10~15]

My level was nowhere near the recommended range, but I stepped into the fog-shrouded forest without hesitation.

“I’ve made today’s wages, but if I want to clear this by tomorrow, I need to keep moving.”

I had to collect 30 Corrupted Mana Stones.

It didn’t look like the kind of Quest I could clear quickly.

Even with my high Stats, I wouldn’t be overwhelmingly strong in the Contaminated Moina Forest.

I’d gained a few levels on the way here, but I was still only Level 3.

“Wow, it’s dark.”

My vision narrowed, and the cold air made my skin prickle.

I was carefully scanning my surroundings for a Monster when—

“Whoa!”

Something suddenly popped out from behind a thick tree.

“Gasp!”

Whatever it was, it seemed just as startled by Han Youngwoong’s reaction and let out a gasp of its own.

Boing!

The Boing Hammer I swung on reflex barely grazed the thing that had popped out before smashing into the thick tree behind it, and Luck triggered.

Crack!

Thud!

“……”

“……”

An awkward silence fell as the tree—thick enough that it would have taken four or five adults holding hands to encircle it—came crashing down.

The thing that had popped out wasn’t a Monster.

“…An orc?”

“An orc? I’m a person! Are you… a Foreigner?”

“Yeah. I thought you were a mob.”

The text [Cain] above his head proved he was an NPC, not a user.

I’d never expected to meet an NPC in a hunting ground.

“For a Foreigner to have already made it all the way to the Corrupted Forest, you must be strong, yes?”

“It’s not that I’m strong… this thing is just pretty powerful.”

I held up the Boing Hammer and showed it off.

Cain adjusted the glasses on his chubby face and smiled awkwardly.

“I am Cain, an alchemist. I am currently researching the rare herbs that grow in the Corrupted Forest.”

“Ah!”

The moment I heard his introduction, a guess sprang to mind.

“You’re researching the Corrupted Forest to develop a medicine that can turn Corrupted Monsters back to normal.”

Even at a glance, the Corrupted Forest and the Corrupted Monsters seemed connected to the demon world.

It wasn’t just the temple investigating this. There were probably all kinds of Main Quests tied to it, and I figured Cain might be the NPC in charge of one of them.

A wandering NPC roaming around the forest was a pretty rare find, too.

“…Pardon? No, that’s not it. I was only looking for herbs that contain Corrupted Magi so I could refine them into better potions.”

“……”

I’d tried to make a smart deduction, and I’d been completely wrong.

Cain made a request to the awkwardly standing Han Youngwoong.

“By any chance, Foreigner, are you hunting Monsters in the Corrupted Forest?”

There’s a reason behind every question an NPC asks.

I may have barked up the wrong tree once, but I wasn’t about to give up.

Instead of replying with something like, ‘Why the hell are you asking that?’, I put on a friendly smile and answered.

“The temple asked me to hunt Corrupted Monsters and bring back Corrupted Mana Stones, so here I am. Of course I’ll be hunting.”

“Ooh. A Foreigner who has accepted a request from the Temple of Luck. In that case, might I ask you for a favor as well?”

After hesitating for a moment, Cain carefully voiced his request.

“I also need Corrupted Mana Stones, you see. But the Corrupted Monsters are very strong, and it is not easy for me to hunt them, so I have been avoiding them and only searching for herbs. If possible, could you perhaps get me three—no, just two—in addition to the ones you are submitting to the temple…?”

It didn’t seem like some special Quest. It was probably one given to any user Cain happened to meet in the Corrupted Forest.

I hesitated for a moment before taking the bait.

It came down to comparing the value of the reward to the 30 Corrupted Mana Stones.

Since the other Quest paid 1 Gold, excluding the 2 Stat Points, each Corrupted Mana Stone was worth about 3.33 Silver.

Shouldn’t this reward be worth at least that much?

[Sub Quest]

[Cain’s Request (1)]

[Grade: High (Hidden)]

[Hunt Monsters in the Corrupted Forest and bring 2 Corrupted Mana Stones to the alchemist Cain.]

[Reward: 1 Gold, Intermediate Health Recovery Potion x10]

“…Huh?”

I didn’t even need to read the Quest reward twice.

I grabbed both of Cain’s hands and made a vow.

“I’ll get them for you even faster than I get the temple’s done. Please stay here and gather herbs safely. Should I gather herbs for you too?”

To think I’d nearly killed a benefactor like this with my Boing Hammer.

For a moment, my trust in the temple dropped a little.

‘Were they trying to rip me off? Asking for something worth 50 Silver and only giving me 3.33 Silver for it?’

Of course, considering the 2 Stat Points and the Gold I’d already received before, it still wasn’t enough to make me truly disappointed.

But when two Quests required the same item, any proper dark gamer would tackle the one with the better reward first.

As Han Youngwoong’s fighting spirit blazed, something flashed between the trees at the edge of his vision.

This time, it was real.

[Lv11 Corrupted Goblin]

The level floating next to the Monster’s name looked like a price tag.

“That’s 50 Silver!”

I dashed off with my Boing Hammer, chasing after the Corrupted Goblin as it vanished behind a tree.

The moment I reached the spot where the Corrupted Goblin had disappeared—

Whoosh—

A rusty sword shot out from my blind spot and grazed past my side.

Kekeke. The moment I saw the goblin’s grinning face, a chill ran down my spine.

—

Han Youngwoong wasn’t exactly talented at games.

Even as a kid, he’d never shown any particular aptitude for controls in any game he played.

That was why the attack that had been lying in wait for him in his blind spot sent a chill down his spine.

The Corrupted Goblin hadn’t run away. It had been waiting for him.

It had hidden behind the tree, ready to thrust its sword the moment he came close.

Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it at all.

I hadn’t expected it to hide and attack, and even though I saw it and reacted, I was still too late. My side had already been stabbed.

It was definitely an angle where I should have been hit.

[Lucky Evasion!]

The only reason I avoided it was because the effect on the Mythical Grade panties triggered with a 22% chance.

“Wow…”

In that instant, I understood what users meant when they said Fantasia’s combat difficulty was high.

This was only a Level 11 Monster.

In other games, it would’ve been an early-game Monster that would die after a few lazy swings, but this thing actually used its head, taking advantage of both the terrain and its own strengths.

For Han Youngwoong, who would lose his Lucky Hero Class forever if he died even once, this was the kind of situation that couldn’t help but make his blood run cold.

“Kiek!”

The Corrupted Goblin, infuriated that its attack had missed, let out a sneer and thrust its sword again.

It was fast.

The rusty sword didn’t look like much, but when paired with the Corrupted Goblin’s speed, it stabbed with sharp precision.

“Die!”

See and dodge.

Dodge and strike.

I didn’t have the talent to execute that basic RPG combat pattern perfectly.

But I did have a piece of Mythical Grade Armor I’d obtained not long after starting the game.

I wouldn’t die from one or two hits.

The Defense on the boxers shorts would see to that, so in the meantime, I decided to focus on the one thing I could do.

Stab—

This time, Lucky Evasion didn’t trigger, and I took Damage.

The sword that stabbed into my stomach shaved off more than 20% of my Health.

In exchange, the lucky hammer came down on the Corrupted Goblin as well.

“Please!”

That single strike carried two probabilities.

[A 1% chance for Lucky Strike to trigger.]

[A 1% chance for Lucky Attack to trigger.]

If even one of them activated, I could win.

Boing!

Maybe my desperate plea was heard.

Boom!

Golden Light burst from the Corrupted Goblin’s head where the hammer landed, and Lucky Strike triggered.

“It triggers surprisingly often.”

Could I really go around bragging about that as an ability?

When I thought about it, it was hard to say.

That law of low probabilities had always followed me naturally since I was young.

For Han Youngwoong, the fact that Luck also worked inside the game felt perfectly natural—but he also knew full well that it wouldn’t be strange if it vanished at any time.

There had even been times in real life when I’d prayed every day for it to please, please just go away.

Now I was praying for the exact opposite.

“Please, stay with me for a long time here.”

From the corpse of the Corrupted Goblin dropped a stone emitting an ominous black light, 10 Copper, and a pair of gloves.

“W-Wow. That’s amazing!”

Cain, who had come running over while panting, showered me with praise.

“You truly are strong! To take down a Corrupted Monster in one blow.”

“I was lucky.”

I smiled modestly and scratched my head.

I really had been lucky, and there was no need to act arrogant in front of a client who’d offered me 1 Gold.

I quickly pocketed the coins and picked up the murky black stone.

[Corrupted Mana Stone (Common)]

[A stone in which Corrupted Mana has crystallized. Its properties are similar to Magi.]

“Ooh! My goodness. It dropped on the very first one!”

“Does it not drop often?”

“Of course not! Not all Corrupted Monsters carry Corrupted Mana Stones. Only those in which Magi has accumulated and crystallized do, and even then, killing one does not guarantee a drop. They say you usually get one after killing around twenty of them… To get one on your very first try, you must be extremely lucky.”

So that was why they were willing to pay 50 Silver for a stone that didn’t look like much.

There was a reason.

Was this drop rate affected by Luck too?

“Hehehe.”

That meant I could use these low-drop-rate Corrupted Mana Stones not just to complete Quests, but also to make money.

Everything I did made money.

Clearing Quests made money, and hunting made money.

On top of that, the 10 Copper dropped by the dead Corrupted Goblin was a pretty decent amount.

Converted to real money, it was about 170 won.

I couldn’t make 170 won for every scrap of paper I picked up in real life, but here I was picking up the equivalent of 170 won with bonus profit on top.

“I got gloves too.”

The generous loot made my urge to hunt surge even more.

Compared to the Mythical Grade boxer shorts, the rest of my Armor was only Common Grade, so I’d briefly considered spending my Gold to patch up my Defense a little. Now it looked like I could shelve that idea.

[Worn Goblin’s Gloves with a Hole (High Grade)]

[Gloves worn down from long use, with a hole in the ring finger. They look a little shabby, but their performance does not seem bad.]

[Contains faint Magi.]

[Defense +3]

[Finger with a Hole (High): Agility +2 / Stamina -1]

“Not bad.”

The Equipment I got from hunting looked good enough that I wouldn’t need to spend money buying any.

I couldn’t do anything about the fact that they looked so shabby they felt like something I’d pulled out of a clothing donation bin.

Maybe because of the Magi, the Option was very good for a High Grade item, even with the Penalty.

“I can just replace my Armor piece by piece by hunting like this.”

And since I didn’t need to get a weapon, all I had to farm for was Armor.

After putting on the gloves I’d just gotten, I turned toward my next target.

“I’ll be right back with them.”

===

Night in Fantasia lasts for 8 hours.

Users called that period—16 hours of daylight and 8 hours of darkness—their rest time.

– Gotta go sleep.

– Ah, this is fun.

– Should I just quit my job….

– I didn’t even do much, just killed rabbits outside the village for 12 hours lol

It wasn’t impossible to stay active at night.

But because the game emphasized realism, nighttime activities came with plenty of risk.

The biggest problem was that field hunting at night was twice as difficult as it was during the day.

Swoosh—

In the darkness, where you could barely see anything, you had to fight while relying on moonlight. And for humans, who depend so heavily on sight, that wasn’t nearly as easy as it sounded.

That was why people said hunting at night was basically just asking to get forcibly logged out by dying.

Han Youngwoong had tried it once as well, but after getting hit two or three times in a row by a goblin’s sword—one that was starting to look all too familiar—he retreated immediately.

His hunting style was to endure through the power of his items. Getting beaten to death was not part of the plan.

Especially not for him, whose character would be deleted the instant he died. Just thinking about it made a cold sweat break out on his back.

“By tomorrow, I should be done with the temple’s part too.”

If Luck had triggered every single time, I’d already have finished both Quests.

Unfortunately, Fantasia was where I came to fully realize that even though I hit low-probability chances far more often than most people, they still didn’t trigger every time.

Even so, they activated often enough that hunting went very smoothly, and the 22% evasion effect on my panties also did a great job shoring up my weak Defense and low Health.

“Logout.”

Han Youngwoong stepped out of the capsule room as well, thinking about his condition for tomorrow.

10 PM.

He planned to sleep during Fantasia’s rest period, which lasted until 6 AM, then go straight to work.

“It’s real.”

He picked up the phone he’d completely forgotten about while lost in hunting and checked the text message on it.

Balance: 5,467,500 won

He had never had more than 5,000,000 won in his life.

Forget 5,000,000 won—even seeing 1,000,000 won sitting in his bank account had been rare.

Of course, that money was now nothing more than a trace.

[2,102,000 won transfer complete]

[560,000 won transfer complete]

[…]

Balance: 100,780 won

“Haa. It’s not easy.”

His excited heart cooled.

He hadn’t gone into Fantasia for fun.

It was a relief that in a single day he had earned what he’d expected would take at least two months.

But next month, and the month after that, and the one after that—an endless chain of next months was waiting for him.

“Still, at least I’m earning something.”

There was a reason it was called a rare disease.

There was still no cure, and even staying alive was difficult. It was the kind of illness where, quite literally, breathing cost money.

His only family left now.

Fantasia, the final straw he had grasped for the sake of his little sister’s hospital bills, was showing him a faint glimmer of hope.

That was why he couldn’t afford to rest.

He had to split apart every minute, every second.

Along with the joy, his anxiety swelled too.

Whenever he suddenly became this lucky, he never knew what greater misfortune might be waiting for him somewhere else.

In his tiny basement one-room apartment, without even turning on the light, he threw himself onto the old mattress and passed out.

With the alarm set for exactly six hours later, he fell asleep in less than a minute.