***Dead Man’s Chest***

After reaching the Level 5 test, Merlin went to the Training Room. Then, he returned to Starting to find that the west and north gates had already been besieged, leaving only the south gate.

“Wow, did you see the tank?”

“They aren’t just a mere tank. The Bright Tai Chi Sword is a ten-star skill… ten stars. I’ve only reached three stars. Isn’t it crazy that there’s someone who’s progressed so far?”

A man carrying a blue iron longsword on his back mumbled in disbelief. As martial artists progressed through the ranks, it became more difficult to further develop. Initially, it was relatively quick, but as martial artists mastered a skill, they would inevitably face barriers and plateaus.

“They’re defeating all the bosses.”

“We’re not really in a position to complain. We would’ve lost if it weren’t for them.”

The man shrugged as he spoke, and the other party narrowed his eyes.

“Ah… it doesn’t feel good. I really need to start training. I thought I was talented up till now, but after this Siege Quest, I can see that the average user’s abilities and skills are at a fairly high level. It seems as if every user I bump into is a genius. Actually, I feel like everyone that’s been invited are geniuses who are being divided into different tiers.”

The complaining two players weren’t weak. Using Insightful Eyes, Merlin could see that one of the men was an internal energy user with two full cycles or 120 years readily available within him. In terms of internal energy capacity, the man was capable of holding twice as much as Merlin.

“Until just now, I really hated that term, ‘genius.’ I disliked how people who didn’t apply themselves and just fooled around would use the term to explain why I was better than them.”

“Right. I agree. But to think, there really were geniuses.”

As the two continued talking, one of them sighed heavily.

“Damn it. I disliked the term, but now I feel like I’m on the other end. I’ve become normal, and that realization is depressing.”

“What are you talking about? You, normal? Normal?!”

As he listened, Merlin realized that the users successfully fended off the monster attacks. Moreover, he also learned that the primary reason the players succeeded was the two users he had seen on the first day.

“I see, they were the cream of the crop, the top users. Well, if they weren’t, I would have been shocked and depressed either way.”

Merlin was now wearing a red robe, which was a different color from his previous one. The item rating was also tier 7 rather than tier 9. It was the fruit of his labor, research, and reinforcement in the Training Room.

“Still, that Training Room is really something. Did I truly only spend two days in there?”

He had spent 32 days in the Training Room. Obviously, 32 days wasn’t a short amount of time. He had spent over a month in the Training Room, but only two hours had passed in DIO time. In reality, two days of time in DIO was only eight hours in reality.

Merlin couldn’t wrap his head around this mind-boggling concept. One person experienced 32 days passing while another experienced just two. A single day in real-time was six days in DIO, and the Training Room lengthened the amount of time the user experienced by 100x. If you were in the Training Room, one day in real-time would equal 100 days in DIO. What would the difference be between someone who played DIO and someone who didn’t? And what if DIO went on for one year or even ten years? The difference would be monstrous.

“Hmm, I’m actually a little frightened by the whole thing.”

A young child that possessed the wisdom and knowledge-base of an eighty-year-old… it wasn’t an impossibility. DIO’s manipulation of time would greatly impact how human society operated. People who didn’t play DIO probably wouldn’t be able to keep up with the ever-changing tech and processes of society.

“Well, I just need to enjoy my game-play.”

As he mumbled to himself, Merlin started walking. Atop his shoulder was a soccer ball-sized egg. Though the egg had been the size of his fist when he first got it, it had increased in size tremendously.

“The South Gate is the last gate to be attacked, right?”

“Yeah. The leader is a Lich. Obviously, it’ll use large area of effect spells, so we shouldn’t group together too much.”

“I guess we need to equip ourselves with magic resistance items and armor?”

Merlin gained information on what happened during his time in the Training Room by overhearing others’ conversations. For the average user, it wouldn’t have been easy to listen to so many ongoing conversations or decipher what information was useful, but Merlin had exceptional critical listening and interpretation skills. If he wanted, he could listen to a radio station at 10x speed and perfectly understand the content being broadcasted by the radio station.

“A lich at the South gate… then it’s probably leading the monsters of the Dead Earth.”

Merlin pulled up a map of Dynamic Island. He didn’t necessarily have to pull up the map, since he had essentially memorized all the information, but it gave him a visual cue.

“If Starting is on the southern end… the sea isn’t that far away.”

It had been a while since he had a swim. The Training Room had almost everything within it, but it didn’t have a place to swim. Since the Forest of Despair monsters moved from the Forest of Despair to the village walls, Merlin assumed that the same would occur for the monsters of Dead Earth.

“Shall I go to them, then?”

Since his abilities and skills were optimized for super long-ranged attack, the best position for him would be to place himself amongst a large group of users or behind them. Of course, he did have a close combat ability and skill as well. His internal energy could quickly be expanded through Golden Pill Immortal Technique, as the internal energy circulated through Mercury and Venus, and once this expanded internal energy was used by his hand skill, Great Strength Vajra Hand, Merlin could wreak havoc.

“However, the issue is that my internal energy and hand skill aren’t suited for any extended period of combat. It’s optimized for short-term bursts.”

Short-term bursts. The Golden Pill Immortal Technique was optimized to output large amounts of internal energy in short periods of time. The rule governing the universe would usually offer one thing in absence of another. Hence, the Golden Pill Immortal Technique possessed the weakness of slow recovery and qi absorption (energy collection) speeds.

Due to this property of the Golden Pill Immortal Technique, even if one had the same magic gathering numbers as another user, the Golden Pill Immortal Technique practitioner would have to go through an additional process of purifying gathered internal energy. Essentially, this additional process would delay one’s internal energy recovery rate. Of course, if absolutely needed, one could compartmentalize the internal energy and use two separate techniques or forcefully increase the circulation speed to increase one’s internal energy recovery rate, but then the efficiency would drastically fall.

“A sea…”

The reason why Merlin had entered the Training Room was to remedy this weakness. For him, his medium of choice was water, not land.

“Alright, let’s be off… no, wait. I need to organize my inventory first.”

Having said this, Merlin started walking. He was heading to the center of Starting, where all the stores were located.

***

“I’ll give you 5 silver for it.”

“Huh? Only 5 silver? Are you mad?”

“What do you mean ‘only 5 silver’?”

Roden, the NPC who operated the jewelry and fine gems shop, made a confounded expression. In the world of DIO, 1 gold was 50,000 won in real-life, so 5 silver was 25,000 won. Even if one focused solely on hunting for 12 hours, one wouldn’t be able to collect such an amount of currency. If collecting currency in DIO was so simple, people would have invested their 10 hours of real-time every work day to mine money in DIO. 10 hours of DIO work would yield roughly 125,000 won in net profit each shift, which would total around 3,750,000 won per month [1].

Merlin’s concept of money was convoluted since he had obtained the rewards from a high-level dungeon, but for any other user in DIO, coming across even a single gold piece was virtually impossible. Even silver was considered a relatively high denomination of currency. A level 3 monster’s bronze drop rate was about 6%, so obtaining a silver piece was quite a feat. Thus, stating ‘only 5 silver’ exasperated the NPC. However, Merlin truly looked as if he was being cheated.

“But I’m trading in so many pearls!”

“Right. I’m offering you 5 silver because you have so many pearls.”

Seeing Roden fight back, Merlin realized that the conversation was going nowhere. Merlin wasn’t a person who couldn’t read the temperature in a room. Hence, Merlin realized that 25,000 won worth of in-game currency was actually quite a substantial sum of money in-game.

‘Huh? Then did I overspend?’

Easy come easy go, that was the saying. If Merlin had come across his money after killing off an innumerable number of monsters, which would make collecting 250 gold still virtually impossible, he wouldn’t have purchased something like a Mithril armor set so easily. Merlin, who was quick to accept reality, soon changed his tune and started to think positively. A Mithril set was good after all; it was well worth the money.

“Hmm, you really can’t offer a better price?”

“… Fine. 5 silver and 4 copper. However, no higher. I’m only able to haggle the price with you since these pearls haven’t been officially priced yet.”

Seeing Roden’s eyebrows twitch, as if he was thinking ‘this isn’t your run-of-the-mill marketplace’, Merlin gave in and nodded his head.

“Hahaha. Alright, I’ll sell it for that amount.”

This was how Merlin exchanged all the pearls he had gathered from the deep ocean. He didn’t have any use for them, so he didn’t really have an attachment with the pearls. Merlin possessed other fine gems and stones that would probably fetch a higher price but seeing as he was a mage that could utilize precious stones, it wouldn’t have been cost effective to sell his more precious stones.

“Goodbye.”

“Hope your business booms.”

After receiving the money for his pearls, Merlin walked out to the bustling street. The everyday scene was quite the spectacle.

Merlin saw a small girl riding atop a large, summoned bear. Another user controlled the wind surrounding him to fly and move 10 meters above ground. A magic user used a flying magic spell to move around atop a magic carpet… a spirit that laughed while circling its master… a man carrying a sword much larger than his own height on his back…

It was literally a fantasy world.

Scenes that would have caused an uproar in the real world happened on an everyday basis in DIO. No one was surprised by scenes of people riding atop of fierce-looking monsters or riding magic-imbued objects. They weren’t surprised because they could do the same. As long as a user logged into DIO and passed the initial test, one had the ability and skill to do any of these things.

“It’s fun here.”

In reality, Merlin, or Yongno, often played video games, but he had also played a few MMORPG online games as well. Online games were usually lacking in content versus console games, as console games were made solely for individual user experiences. However, online games beat everything else in one aspect.

Community.

This was an online game’s bread-and-butter. This was at the heart of an online game’s service. Online games allowed users to enjoy gaming with others, allow people to achieve something together, and promote conversation and friendship. Users played online games for this reason.

Whoosh!

Seemingly in a hurry for whatever reason, a swordsman was running through the street at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour. His senses seemed to be well developed, as he avoided bumping into any of the other users on the bustling street. At that moment, a mage, who was reading a book while sitting on a bench in the middle of the street, raised his left hand.

“Ah, Manir. Make sure you don’t set off my defensive spell.”

“Okay. I apologize. I’m a little busy.”

Whoosh!

1. $3,000 USD ☜