Chapter 5: Is This for Real? (2)  

Critical hit does 2x the damage. In other words, if you just focus properly, you can do twice the work with the same amount of effort. Of course, the effects of critical hit don’t end there. You have to launch a lot of critical hits for your dexterity to advance quickly. There is also one more effect that is just as important!

One of the reasons I can confirm a miner is a ‘hidden class’ is because of this. The speed at which you could raise your stats was surprisingly fast and almost at the speed of raising your dexterity.

If you managed to trigger the right qualifications, the stats increase even faster.

First, you have to focus and launch a lot of critical hits.

Second, even if you are tired, you have to continue to swing the pickaxe. In other words, you have to push your body to the limit.

Other than stopping briefly to erase my hunger, I continued to swing the pickaxe. Since I knew I would be rewarded based on my efforts, I could continue working with joy even though it was difficult.

‘Ahrachacha!’ (TL: It’s really just a grunting noise.)

Claaaang! Claaaang!

As I continued to do that, the sound of my stats going up became more frequent.

Humans are definitely animals of adaptation. On the first day, I really thought I was going to die. Not only was I in a harsh environment like the narrow underground tunnel, I was feeling an immense amount of pain from my sore muscles.

But I clenched my teeth and persevered. The other miners only worked an average of five to six hours a day, but I worked more than two times that amount, swinging my pickaxe 14 hours a day.

No wonder I was so tired that it wouldn’t be weird if I fell over.

However, after four days my muscles completely stopped being sore and I was getting slowly used to this harsh environment known as the mine.

My speed in mining ores became faster each and every day. Only nine days had gone by, but I was mining over 40,000 won per day. That was the case even without selling titanium, the most expensive ore.

Thanks to that, I already had 299,990 won in my bag. Just 10 won short of 300,000 won. I managed to save that much even after spending a decent amount on food and living accommodations. It was thanks to my increased stats.

[Kang Hwi Ram – Level 1]

Dexterity: Intermediate level 3,17%

Strength: 16

Agility: 8

Stamina: 9

Intuition: 3

Magic: 2

Vitality: 2

Mana: 8

Health: 46

My stamina points increased the most. It even went up by 7 points. Following that was my strength with 4 points, and agility and intuition both raised 1 point each.

Vitality will increase on its own as stamina and health goes up, so I don’t need to worry about that. Same thing with mana, that’ll increase on its own as magic and knowledge go up. (TL: But knowledge isn’t one of the listed stats…)

Anyways, I had a total of 13 point increase in stat points.

Of course it doesn’t go up like this forever. The speed goes down as the stats get higher, and at some point, it will stop completely.

When I was playing Royal Roader the game, it took about 5 months to arrive at that point. Until I get there, I will continue to swing this pickaxe without looking at anything else.

‘Shall I get started again? Aja!’

Clang! Clang! Clang!

I focused all of my attention as best I can. I treated it as if I was training sword skills.

Thanks to that, I did not miss even one hit. Each swing with the pickaxe resulted in critical hit.

But suddenly, I felt lightheaded. At the same time, my eyes became dark and my mind started to get cloudy. It felt like I was suffering from an extreme case of anemia.

It was unexpected and happened in an instant.

‘Why all of a sudden……?’

My thoughts did not continue any further. Less than 0.1 second after I felt anemic, I lost consciousness.

* * *

I opened my eyes wide.

“Where is this place?”

I looked around my surroundings with dazed eyes. I was not in the mine. I was in my room at the goshiwon, which was cramped and shabby but still comfortable and safe.

‘What happened? I was in the tunnel just now.’

As I came to my senses, I noticed that the alarm was ringing on my cellphone.

Once I heard that noise, I realized the current situation. With a sense of disbelief, I subconsciously launched a kick at the blanket.

‘Damn it! How could this be?! It was a dream?!’

How could it be so cruel!

I really believed that it was real and not a dream. I really believed that I could once again become the greatest warrior and rule while sitting on top of the world.

Yet it was only a dream!

It felt like the world was falling apart.

‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’

I couldn’t hold in my anger and continued to kick my blanket.

But that didn’t change anything. I couldn’t believe it, but I had no choice but to accept the situation.

But it was so weird.

I was dreaming about eating, sleeping, and even using the restroom? I vividly remember each and every one of those actions.

How could a dream feel so realistic?

The conclusion I came to was this.

I’ve been way too deep into games lately.

As a result, I had a game-related dream that felt like reality.

Now it was time to clear my mind. But I guess I was not ready yet. As soon as I woke up, I approached my computer out of habit.

To me, my addiction to computer games was harder to kick than smoking.

Like usual, I turned on my computer and went to the Royal Roader homepage.

‘Huh? It’s loading!’

Just last night, it only had a message that said ‘Page cannot be found.’ But now, I was able to enter the homepage.

But that was it. Although the homepage loaded, none of the buttons to any of the posts worked. In fact, none of the buttons wor……!

‘Oh! This one works!’

The Virtual Accounting button! It’s a function that lets you manage the game money you have in Royal Roader on the internet.

This button was still working.

‘What is this? Are they saying they’ll at least protect our earnings?’

There was no point. You could only use the Royal Roader game money in the game itself. Plus, the interest in the game fell so far that there wasn’t even any trading going on for cash.

But I was still interested. I clicked the button and entered the Virtual Accounting page.

I still had some game money left.

Exactly 299,990 won.

I couldn’t believe it. At one point, I had saved over 1 trillion won. I had so much that when I was in Royal Roader, money didn’t even look like money.

But now, it was only about 300,000 won. Exactly 10 won less than 300,000 won.

‘Wait? Hold on! 10 won less than 300,000 won?’

That amount was surprisingly familiar. The last time I checked my account in my dream, I also had exactly 10 won less than 300,000 won.

How could it be exactly the same?

‘Hmm, whose game money is this?’

I was not logged in right now. Because the homepage wasn’t really working, it was not possible to log…!

‘Huh? I guess I am logged in!’

My name, ‘Kang Hwi Ram nim’ was clearly visible on the top corner of the homepage.

How is this possible? I never logged in.

It was a situation I could not understand.

Oh? What is this thing?

As I looked, there was an unfamiliar button under Virtual Accounting.

[Money Transfer]

Has this button always been here?

No, it wasn’t here before. I have been obsessed with Royal Roader for over 11 years. I fell even further into the game once I became the overlord. So I’m confident that I have analyzed the game more than anybody else.

It was to the point that I even researched information about irrelevant NPCs. I thought that there might be some important hidden quests I didn’t know about.

After all of that, there was nothing I didn’t know about the game or the homepage. In fact, there were over fifty errors on the homepage that I personally caught…

But you’re telling me I missed a ‘Money Transfer’ button?

Not possible. If there was a button like this, I would have used it endlessly.

Which means, until the website disappeared yesterday, this ‘Money Transfer’ button was not there.

Then why did this suddenly appear?

Did one of the Royal Roader programmers make it out of boredom? Since it was a terminated website, they could play around to practice their programming.

Whatever the reason was, I was curious.

There is a saying that people use for these type of situations.

‘You have nothing to lose. Might as well try it!’

I pressed the money transfer button.

Three new windows popped up.

[Name of Bank: ???]

[Account number: ???]

[Transfer amount: ???]

What is this? It feels like it is getting more serious as I continue on.

I felt like the money would really be transferred if I put information into the empty areas and clicked transfer.

Is it okay to try it?

What could go wrong? It’s an account under my name anyways. It’s not my mistake either.

If the owner of the money comes forward and says ‘that money was transferred in error so please return it,’ I can just be cool and return it then.

‘Alright, let’s try it!’

My hand was starting to fill in the empty windows. My account number for my account at Saemaool Safe. (TL: This is a legit online banking website in Korea.) Transfer amount, 99,999 won.

There was no special meaning behind that amount. I just simply clicked wherever my finger went.

Then I pressed the transfer button one more time.

An unbelievable message popped up on my screen.

[99,999 won was transferred to Kang Hwi Ram nim’s Saemaool Safe account.]

Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle