Chapter 23: (2): Season 1- Preparation
It’s the weekend and as usual, Min-seo has come up to Seoul. Hyun-seok, in a good mood and wanting to show off his brand-new Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet, drove towards the terminal. It’s a car he had bought with the intention of lifting his spirits after receiving criticism from Jong-won about his previous vehicle, despite it being a little small. Nonetheless, it was sufficient and more than enough to attract attention.
“Min-seo.”
“Oppa!”
Min-seo ran over with a big smile, practically bouncing with excitement, and grabbed Hyun-seok’s hand, jumping up and down.
“Oppa, oppa, oppa, you know what? I got third place in the whole school!”
Hyun-seok’s smile grew wider. It was great that Min-seo was doing well in school, but what made him even happier was how happy Min-seo was. He ruffled her hair a few times and Min-seo responded by slightly shrugging her shoulders and grinning widely.
“If something like that happens, you should have called me. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I was going to tell you in person when we met today! Oppa, I did well, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did great. My little sister is so smart and talented.”
After scolding Min-seo harshly for bringing over the wrong Greenstone last time, she had become even more affectionate since that day. In reality, Jong-won had explained that Hyun-seok hadn’t answered the phone so she only brought over three Greenstones without questioning it, so Min-seo was unjustly reprimanded. That day, Min-seo cried bitterly and Jong-won had to buy her beef to make up for it.
Hyun-seok spoke up, “But Min-seo, it’s not just because you’re doing well in school, it’s because seeing you happy makes me happy. You know? Sometimes it’s more about the effort than the result.”
Min-seo, looking around cautiously, spoke in a soft voice.
“To be honest, I was trying to sleep, but the mosquito monster kept bothering me. So, I opened up the battlefield. But then, I found that I was studying really well. I could remember everything just by looking at it. So, I left the mosquito alone and studied, and I think I leveled up about 30 times because of it.”
Hyun-seok chuckled in disbelief. Normally, if you capture a monster, you can’t open up a battlefield. But this was a different situation. And it wasn’t just because of that.
“Besides that… I know how hard you’re trying. You worked hard for the exam. Let’s go eat something delicious.”
Hyun-seok felt unexpectedly happy and jokingly said, “Get in, miss,” before driving smoothly down the road in his expensive-looking foreign car. It was so comfortable to drive, he could clearly see everything around him. That’s why people talked about foreign cars, he thought. It was actually pleasant to drive.
However, Hyun-seok almost had an accident while driving because Min-seo suddenly shouted.
“What’s wrong with you, oppa? Why didn’t you tell me? I hate you, oppa!”
“Ugh, I forgot. My ears are falling off.”
Hyun-seok explained what had happened during that time.
He had started raising his bonus stats one by one. He had to focus on raising one stat because he didn’t know how much he needed to raise to forcefully enter Normal Mode. So, he chose strength. When you enter normal mode, H/P and m/p are shown as specific numbers. In other words, if you know H/P clearly, you can tell how dangerous it is when you are hit, and you can know exactly when it becomes dangerous.
According to Jong-won, there is no pain from damage in normal mode. There is no external force acting on you. It’s like being in a battlefield. If there are monsters within the battlefield, a shield-like transparent barrier appears, which -invisible to others- only reduces H/P from attacks.
In other words, at least in the battlefield, the impact only reduces H/P. Of course, they haven’t tried to experiment with H/P reaching zero yet. It could be fatal if you keep fighting without feeling any pain and H/P reaches zero. Even though he is a curious young man, he doesn’t seem willing to risk his life.
Anyway, the concrete H/P that has been solidified has become a double-edged sword that can provide some safety – as mentioned earlier, if you don’t manage H/P properly, you may unknowingly die. Therefore, he thought that increasing strength stats to increase H/P would be the most efficient way.
“So… you were forced to switch to normal mode when your strength stat became 200?”
“Yeah.”
“And you were in danger of losing your leftover stats because it was too big for normal mode?”
“Yeah.”
“But luckily, it was evenly distributed without disappearing?”
“That’s right.”
Min-seo breathed a sigh of relief as she listened to Hyun-seok’s words. He had been forcibly entered into Normal Mode and had received several penalties. It was the same penalty as when he was forced to switch to easy mode, but one more thing was added: invalidation of remaining stats. To be more precise, if he didn’t distribute his stats within 30 seconds, they would all disappear. Hyun-seok, who always emphasized balance, evenly distributed the remaining stats.
Out of 790 points, he used 100 points for his strength stat, and thanks to that, his strength increased to 201. He also heard an alert tone.
“You have obtained 200 points in strength for the first time. Your merchant title will be upgraded to Merchant +1. You will receive a bonus stat of 6.”
Before his remaining stats were nullified, he distributed 680 points evenly among all stats. When he thought of the method, an alert tone asked if he really wanted to do that, and in his haste, Hyun-seok just chose ‘Y’. Luckily, it turned out to be a fortunate event.
Thanks to that, he was able to record an enormous number in his five stats: Strength 337, Agility 237, Intelligence 236, Stamina 237, and Energy 186, each with 136 points distributed evenly. He exceeded his initial expectations and raised his strength stat to over 300, resulting in an immensely high stat value. But it didn’t end there.
“You have obtained 300 points in strength for the first time. Your merchant title will be upgraded to Merchant +2. You will receive a bonus stat of 24.”
“You have obtained 200 points in agility for the first time. Your Speedy title will be upgraded to Speedy +1. You will receive a bonus stat of 6.”
“You have obtained 200 points in intelligence for the first time. Your Sage title will be upgraded to Sage +1. You will receive a bonus stat of 6.”
“You have obtained 200 points in stamina for the first time. Your Iron Man title will be upgraded to Iron Man +1. You will receive a bonus stat of 6.”
As all of his titles, aside from “Monster Slayer,” were upgraded one by one, Hyun-seok gained a total of 42 remaining stat points. He decided not to raise his stats this time as there were penalties even in normal mode, and he couldn’t waste the remaining stat points recklessly. He had a feeling that anything could happen if his title “The Pioneer of the Impossible” gained +1 or +2 like the others. Keeping the remaining stat points seemed like the wise choice in many ways.
He knew that his titles were being upgraded.
If that was the case, then “The Pioneer of the Impossible ” would also be upgraded. He didn’t know if it followed the same rules as the other titles, but it gave a bonus of 3 stat points in the beginning and +1 gave 6 bonus stat points. However, when it became +2, it gave a whopping 24 bonus stat points.
“Twice of 3… and four times of 6… if it follows this pattern, it will increase geometrically.”
He couldn’t be sure that this rule was exact, but he felt that the effect would be tremendous as his titles were upgraded.
The direction was clear, as Hyun-seok spoke up.
“I’m certain about the direction. I can’t become stronger through the normal leveling or experience system. I need to accumulate a lot of achievements.”
Min-seo looked at her older brother with a broad smile. She blinked her large eyes and thought to herself.
‘Brother… has changed?’
Then she asked a barrage of questions.
“Brother, what’s your H/P? And what’s your level for opening the battlefield? Did the M/P consumption appear in the blank space as we expected? Did you learn any new skills? And if your attack power and defense power are also increased, what will they be? Come on, tell me quickly. I’m dying to know.”
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