D.I.O

He wanted to program the spirit to respond appropriately during a specific given situation. However, what Merlin was considering was nonsensical. If Wicalein, the person who made the spirit, saw what Merlin was planning to do, Wicalein would have angrily responded, “Hey, idiot, do you think it’s that easy… do you want to die?” This was because a Wicalein spirit, which was artificially made, had relatively low intelligence and little operational ability.

A spirit was an existence that possessed some level of intelligence but didn’t act like a living being. If it were told to [Go], it would go, and if it were ordered to [Block], it would block. Yet, if it were instructed to [Wake me up if anyone comes near] or [Attack anything less than a meter tall that approaches], the spirit would not be able to carry out these orders. In fact, the spirit couldn’t comprehend any order with a complex sentence structure. However, Merlin had shattered that way of thinking.

“An arrow can fly at speeds of 200 to 300 meters per second, right? Since the bow and arrows that the Nol used previously were shoddy, 200 meters per second would be a good baseline… Alright, I’ll make the spirit block any attack that approaches beyond that speed.”

The order that Merlin stated was, [Defend against any attack that approaches me at a pace greater than 200 meters per second. However, I don’t want you to confront the attack head-on, just hit it to make it veer away.]

Whoosh.

If any other mage saw what Merlin was doing, they’d question whether he was sane and if that type of order would work in the first place. Nevertheless, Merlin proceeded without a moment’s hesitation. Merlin had [Envisioned] the arrow that the Nol had shot towards him, [Fixed] that overarching image into his order, and [Attached] the order alongside the image into his Wicalein Ring.

“Okay! Done.”

All the while, Merlin made sure to pay attention to the wavering mirage in front of him. However, regardless of whether he was paying attention or not, the space wavered before something solid appeared in its place. And that was…

“A door?”

Merlin looked dumbfoundedly at the newly appeared door. On the door was a sign that read, ‘You’ve worked hard!’

Merlin continued to look at the cheery words with a blank stare. Anyone who saw this message would instantly know that it was the end of this test.

“Is this really okay? I feel like there’s something missing.”

Despite whatever Merlin felt, the door was there. It didn’t seem like anything would change if he waited longer.

“Well, alright then.”

Creak.

He opened the door and walked through it.

“Let’s go.”

***

Something that you should have heard but didn’t.

Something that you should have known but didn’t.

Boom!

A large bear crumbled to the ground. The bear was over four meters long, but it had not hurt anyone.

“Okay. That was much easier than I expected.”

“Good job, Tappe!”

“Good job, everyone!”

The users who had felled the bear congratulated each other and then looked at the drops they were given.

“The bear’s gallbladder. Is this worth any money?”

“Money. Gosh, it must be nice to think of things in terms of money.”

Jiwoo was a player who had chosen to go down the path of a pure spiritual energy user. Now, after the battle’s completion, he released his connection with the otherworld and returned his summoned being, Tappe. He did this because his spiritual energy levels were low, so he couldn’t maintain the link for a long time.

“… Hmm?”

Then, Jiwoo noticed that all the other users had disappeared, confounding him. In front of him stood a young, white-haired girl whose long hair was braided on both sides of her head. It was Mari.

“Mari?”

“Hello, Jiwoo. You’ve passed?”

“It wasn’t that difficult.”

Seeing Jiwoo with a self-satisfied expression on his face, Mari replied.

“Well, you’ll be entering the world of DIO fairly soon. But, there’s one thing you have to do first. Hmm, actually, it’s probably more correct to say that you need to receive something before you enter.”

“I’m receiving something?”

“Bonus stats, 100 points.”

As soon as Mari stated those words, a new window popped up.

“This…”

“It’s your point chart window. The layout is a bit different from your stat window. You can bring it up by shutting your eyes and pressing your left thumb and middle finger together for five seconds.”

“What kind of program is this used for?”

Seeing his confusion, Mari calmly answered.

“DIO’s system rewards users with 100 points whenever they level up. Users can put those points into areas that don’t have a direct correlation with the abilities that they’re training in. Nothing negative arises from ability points rising; however, it does get harder to raise ability stats once they reach certain levels, like 100, 200, and 300. After a stat is increased to 100, an additional point is needed to improve that ability by one point. In other words, once you reach 100 in an ability area, you’ll need to spend two points to raise that ability number by one.”

“Hmm. But it states that it already costs me two points to raise my Regeneration and Magic Power Regeneration by a point. Also, it says that it takes five points to raise my Luck by one. Moreover, I know my Luck is at 24 points, but why is it saying zero here?”

Mari answered, “Your Regeneration goes up one point automatically whenever your life points or physical strength increases by three points. This is why it takes more points in certain areas once you hit specific thresholds. Magic Power Regeneration is the same. Also, Jiwoo, Luck isn’t an ability that you can raise with points.”

“But it shows up in the ability stat area, so why not?”

“While it does appear there, it’s not a fixed ability number. It changes from time to time. If you’re really lucky, it can shoot up to 300, and if you’re unlucky, it can go all the way down to -50. This is why you’ll often see the words ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’ in the Luck ability slot. Think about it, does it make sense to be able to train Luck?”

Mari’s words were correct and logical. Training luck wouldn’t make sense at all.

“Then what do the numbers that appear here mean? It shows zero and says I need to use five points to increase it by one.”

“You can’t raise Luck through training, but you can improve it with bonus points. It is impossible to stop your Luck from changing daily, but if your daily Luck is 30 today, then you can use your 100 bonus points to add 20 into Luck, raising the value to 50. For another example, let’s say your Luck was at -10, putting you into the ‘Bad’ category. You can use your 100 bonus points to raise your Luck to 10, which would put you into the ‘Good’ category.”

“That’s interesting. However, since the conversion rate is five to one, converting all 100 bonus points into Luck would only raise Luck by 20 points.”

This meant that Luck couldn’t be raised by much. Moreover, it wasn’t entirely true that someone who had 40 points in Luck was twice as lucky as some who only had 20. To add to this, what exactly did it mean to be twice as lucky? Since Luck was not something absolute, even a relatively lucky person could face troublesome and challenging situations, and an unlucky person could find fortune somewhere.

In other words, the real difference between Luck was chance. Would someone have a 30% chance of something happening or a 40% chance?

“It’s a slight, almost imperceptible change. Even if a player’s Luck rises, they probably wouldn’t know or feel the difference.”

“Then, I should use the bonus points in other ability categories.”

Jiwoo used 40 of the bonus points for spiritual power. In one go, his spiritual power had doubled, jumping from 40 to 80 points.

“Oh, damn! This is great!”

“That’s the reason why everyone tries to level up.”

While listening to Mari, Jiwoo evenly distributed the remainder of his bonus points into various ability stats. Though this even distribution didn’t benefit a single area of ability, Jiwoo was satisfied with the result, as he enjoyed stable progress over instant gratification when playing games. Also, if something went wrong, he’d have to reset his character and stats, so he didn’t worry about where he put his bonus points.

“This is great. I’m many times stronger than I was just five minutes ago. If you didn’t tell me about this, I would have never known.”

Jiwoo whistled and admired his upgraded self as Mari smiled.

“Well, explaining the bonus point system is something that I’m charged to do, so I would have told you eventually. Furthermore, gaining and using bonus points greatly affects one’s combat effectiveness and physical abilities. So, if you were unaware of bonus points and you met someone else at the same level as you outside this training program, you’d immediately notice that something was off. Since users often talk amongst each other, information and news always gets around.”

This was true. Almost all users would grow to understand the bonus point system and utilize it to benefit themselves. However, as in life, there were always exceptions.

Merlin was that exception, as he no longer enjoyed having a guide like Mari. This was because the Mari assigned to Merlin had used up all her energy and ‘eliminated’ her vestige thoughts.

Since Mari wasn’t around, there was no one to help Merlin understand these basic system functions and structures. The reason why a tyrannosaurus appeared two times was because the system had recognized the Joint Warfare test as being taken by both a 15/16 member group and a 1/16 member group.

Hence, Merlin had no one to explain the bonus point structure to him. Of course, Mari didn’t do what she did to punish Merlin. She had to act quickly when a complicated situation arose. Furthermore, Mari felt that Merlin would be able to pick up something as simple as the bonus point system by himself. However, there was something Mari didn’t know. Since he started playing games, Merlin had always chosen to play solo. He did not seek or accept any outside help or advice.

Thus, Merlin didn’t know about the bonus point system. Additionally, as Merlin was also heads and shoulders above other users at his level, he wouldn’t question his ability stat levels. Hence, this confluence of events would later lead to…

“Then, I’ll be off!”

“Goodbye.”

… something only a God would know.

***Starting***

When Merlin opened his eyes, he saw tens of users standing around him. However, unlike Merlin, the others didn’t look around at the players surrounding them. The closed beta had operated for nine days, which meant 54 days in terms of DIO time. Even if there was the fifth wave of beta testers entering the closed beta, most of the users gathered in this area were those who had either reset their characters or used [Village Transport].

“This place is… Starting?”

Since the village was a starting place for beginners, Merlin expected the village to be small; yet, it was much larger than anything he could have anticipated. The ground was neatly fitted with marble tiles, and the buildings were built in Eastern, Western, and modern architecture.

“Wow, there are even tall buildings made from Eastern tiling.”

Whoosh!

While Merlin was looking around, a strong gust of wind passed by, causing him to look up. There, Merlin saw a young man flying across the sky atop a sword.

“What the hell? A flying sword? Is this some sort of martial fantasy land?”

Merlin was mistaken. The young man wasn’t flying atop a sword; he was flying through the air on a summoned being. However, there was no way for Merlin to know this, so he stared wide-eyed at the young man streaking across the sky until he lost sight of him once he went behind a large building.

“Make way!”

As Merlin continued to stare at the sky, he saw a huge golden lion pass above his head. Mounted on the lion was a cute middle, school-aged girl.

“…”

In a daze, Merlin continued to look around. There was a swordsman who was purchasing a potion at a store, a mage reading a book in a park, a tamer brushing the coat of a giant eagle, a spiritualist who was manipulating the water that sprouted from a fountain…

“… Wow, this place is great.”

No one was walking down the village’s streets as they normally would. There were people flying all over the place and others who were bouncing around in leaps and bounds, jumping over public fountains and buildings. There were also users who, like Spiderman, threw out lines from their hands to move around.

“Anyway, I wonder where the bank is.”

Merlin was holding two 15-liter containers, one in each arm. The containers were filled to the brim with tyrannosaurus blood, and as he looked at the surrounding buildings, Merlin sighed.

“I should really organize my inventory.”

His inventory could handle up to 100 kilograms. However, since he had already reached that limit after acquiring an assortment of items he had gathered during his basic tests, Merlin had to carry around the large containers when stepping through the last door. And while Merlin felt that the blood wasn’t special and that he had gathered a decent amount of money, he didn’t like to waste anything.

“Man, I really need to change my begging and hoarding mentality.”

It wasn’t difficult for Merlin to find the bank. If he covered both of his eyes with his left hand for two seconds, a map of the village popped up, showing the area within a one-kilometer radius of where he stood. The map was detailed and easy to decipher, allowing even an idiot to find his way throughout the village.

“Welcome, valued customer. What brings you here?”

“I wanted to store some items.”

“Very good. Customer, your account… ah, I see you don’t have one with us. Please wait one moment. Done, your account is now active.”

Above the bank employee’s head was a name card that read [Bank Employee: Vessy]. Vessy looked to be in her early twenties, and she didn’t move an inch throughout their conversation. She only blinked a few times to create Merlin’s account. Of course, Vessy didn’t have special powers; she was just executing system commands.

Merlin asked, “Can I deposit some of my stuff now?”

“Yes, customer. You can deposit and withdraw gold or items into any of our Gouldian Bank locations across the Dynamic Island region. Even if you deposit something here, you can withdraw it at any of our branch locations within Dynamic Island.”

“Okay. Where do I deposit items?”

“On the left door, customer.”

“Your left or my left? Left of where? Can you be more…”

As Merlin was about to complain, he turned his head to his left and saw a door. There really was a door to his left, but it wasn’t there just a moment ago.

“Your personal storage unit can be called up at any time as long as you’re within a Gouldian Bank. For security reasons, no other person or being can call or look into your personal storage unit.”

“Do I deposit my money in this storage unit as well?”

“You can deposit money with us directly, and once you carry a certain balance, we’ll open a money pocket exclusively for your use.”

“A money pocket….”

‘It’s not a debit card?’

Merlin had a perplexed expression on his face. Seeing this, Vessy snapped her fingers. Then, like magic, a small leather pouch around the size of Vessy’s palm appeared in her hand. Written on the leather pouch was the name ‘Merlin.’

“The money pocket is an item that allows the user to take out money that they have stored in the bank.”

“Is that necessary? I mean, a user has an inventory, and money doesn’t really take up much space or weight.”

Hearing Merlin’s words, Vessy smiled. She was quite attractive when she did this. In fact, it seemed as if the whole room became several times brighter after she smiled.