《World of Masks》 Chapter 1 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 1Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Puk. The soft sound of a fist hitting something could be heard. A man fell back without a sound, seemingly shocked. From his appearance, the man who stumbled seemed to be some kind of gangster. ¡°This bastard!!!¡± His appearance was also quite uncommon. With hair spike and dyed blonde and ears that were full of piercing. His appearance was quite similar to the man who was attacking him, whose hair was dyed red. In addition, the man had ring piercings on his nose and lips. The man laughed and looked very much like a common backstreet bully. Huk! The man avoided a right hand swung at his face and threw a jab as if he was staking his life. Again jab, jab and then a straight right. The straight hit the nose of the blonde gangster, causing him to stumble again with a soft sound. He let out a scream and the other man¡¯s body shuddered a bit in pleasure. (TL: trying not to have dirty thoughts¡­) Ahh! It was this feeling. The feeling you couldn¡¯t get from alcohol, drugs or sex. It was the feeling you had when you break something! The pleasure was especially great when it was a human that you were breaking. Puk. As he was basking in pleasure, a sharp pain came from his right cheek. And there was more. The red haired gangster, who¡¯d seemed to have lost his soul in the midst of the fight, was hit. He returned with a right and then a left. The guy had learned martial arts and so he tried to clumsily defend himself. (TL: the author uses a lot of ¡®the guy¡¯ and ¡®he¡¯ so bear with it for now) The red haired gangster gave a right straight as an exclamation came in his heart and the man¡¯s defense became disorganized. The blonde haired man fell to the ground heavily as if hit by a sledgehammer. ¡®No teeth fell out, right?¡¯ The last blow had been pretty bad so he was worried about the guy he hit. Of course, it didn¡¯t really matter what happened to the gangster, but he was worried if his actions could still be considered self defense. When he went to the police station, he would have to act. He would be an exemplary, law abiding citizen. Chuk! ¡°This bastard!! I¡¯m really gonna kill you!!!¡± S~?a??h the n0v?l(?)ire.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Kyaaah!!!¡± He didn¡¯t know how the man who¡¯d been beaten could stand in his current condition, but he watched as the blonde gangster pulled out a knife. However he was annoyed by a loud soprano scream that came from behind him. ¡®Shut up.¡¯ He felt like turning around and giving the woman behind him a glare, however, even a man would not be relaxed in front of someone who was holding a knife. However¡­ ¡®He has a knife.¡¯ He licked his lips slightly. Objectively speaking, the situation was very dangerous, but he was satisfied. He was fighting three strong men to protect a woman from being raped. But what if one of those three had a knife? In his fear of being stabbed, he forcefully incapacitated the man. Even though he had to use violence. ¡°Die!!!¡± The man looked calmly as the blonde guy ran toward him with his knife. It didn¡¯t seem like he had learned how to properly use a knife, nor was he used to them. He just took it out to use as a threat because of the circumstances. In all honesty, it was easy to avoid. But¡­ Puk! ¡°Kyaaaah!!!¡± Along with the eerie sound of skin being pierced, a sharp pain came from his left hand. Following the stab, another annoying scream could be heard from behind him, but the man ignored it and instead looked at the blood coming from his left hand. The blood flowed freely and soaked his clothes as if the sound was very deep. Under the streetlight, the cut looked very grotesque. The man also groaned a little, as the pain was unbearable. (TL: Well duh, it was a stab wound.) But his heart was instead filled with joy. Not only was he threatened with a knife, but he was even badly injured, which gave him even more reason for his actions. At the moment, the man was looking at his wound with a crooked smile then, without hesitation, he punched the gangster in his face. Puuk! His nose bone which had had already been squashed before, collapsed even more and something white fell out of his mouth. But this time the man was not worried. Even if they said anything about it, wasn¡¯t he cut by a knife? So even if the blonde guy lost a couple teeth, he wouldn¡¯t worry. He jumped toward the man with his right hand outstretched and delivered body blow after body blow. Then he delivered a brutal uppercut with his left hand as the guy¡¯s body rebounded from the force and an odd sound came from the blonde man¡¯s chin. Blood from the wound shot out and the pain arose again but he ignored it. ¡®Oh man, I¡¯ve done it.¡¯ He thought to himself, but then thought that it should be okay. He had a knife wound to show after all. The last hit was a clean hit to his jaw and the blonde gangster collapsed again. After that the man ignored the guy on the ground as though there was nothing else he could get from the guy. He thought of waiting for him to wake up and then playing with him until he was completely destroyed, but the laws of Korea would never allow something like that. He could only let go of his regret and kick the knife that the blonde guy had dropped under a car behind him. The woman behind him made a small sound as the knife flew beside her but the man easily ignored her. There were still two more toys that he could destroy. As he was wondering how to break the two of them, they both pulled out knives and looked at him. He had kicked the blonde gangster¡¯s knife away because he was afraid one of them would pick it up and use it. Two knives were dangerous, even for him. He might not get intentionally hurt like he just did, but might instead be fatally injured. The man looked at the wound on his forearm which was still bleeding, and decided to think positively. No matter that it was self defense, it was still dangerous to have broken the jaw of the blonde gangster. Therefore, he needed a few more wounds. As he thought so, the man charged toward the two gangsters who looked as if they wanted to kill him. The man faced off against the two gangster¡¯s knives and began to beat them up. He was able to avoid most of the slashes from the knives and for the ones he couldn¡¯t avoid, he used his left hand to block them. Finally, he was able to take down the two gangsters. His left hand, which he had used as a substitute for a shield was bloody, filled with cuts and stabs. (TL: I like knives and often get wounds from them¡­but ouch¡­) Fortunately he¡¯d remained cautious about stabs so he avoided attacks to his body. ¡°Huuu~¡± The man gave a relaxed sigh. The fight just then satisfied the man who derived pleasure from destroying things, especially humans. Enough to deal with a price of a mutilated left arm. ¡°Are you okay?¡± He turned and spoke to the woman in a very gentle tone. It was the end of his wild streak and now it was time for him to put on the mask that he usually did. The woman was shaking fiercely, but she still managed to nod her head at him. The leggings under her mini skirt were badly damaged and the heels of her high heels were bent. Her white skin and white underwear were visible through her blouse as the buttons were all damaged. The woman tried to cover her body with her jacket, but her jacket was also badly damaged so it did not do a good job. Her hair was a mess and her makeup had run down her cheeks because of her tears. It was quite a funny sight to see but it did not hide her beauty at all. She was comparable to Lee Hee-yeon, a celebrity that was loved by men all over. He swallowed his saliva as he saw her beauty. (TL: it seems beauty soothes all pains, he hasn¡¯t paid his arm any attention) He slightly understood the feelings of the gangsters lying on the floor. He had also been amazed by the beauty staring at him with teary eyes. He wanted to feel her as he liked and maybe leave his mark on her. (TL: creep¡­MC Favorability -1000) ¡®It¡¯s secluded.¡¯ A bad thought ran through his mind. After all, the alley the gangsters had attracted the beauty to was well hidden. There wasn¡¯t anyone around so he would be able to simply wipe his mouth after his meal. (TL: MC Favourability -10000) ¡®Enough.¡¯ But the man soon shook his head and erased those thoughts. (TL: too late buddy, you thought about it in the first play) Then he smiled and reassured the woman. ¡°I¡¯ll call the police and report to them. Don¡¯t worry, you only have to endure it till then alright?¡± The mask on his face skillfully displayed the smile of a kind hearted person. It was a mask that was used to meet and greet people every day so he was familiar with how to use it. When he asked this the woman nodded, but then she looked at his left arm in worry. ¡°I, that¡­¡± ¡°Ah! Rest assured I¡¯ll call for an ambulance too. I don¡¯t want to leave it like this after all.¡± He tore some cloth and used it to wrap his arm. The cloth became red in an instant but the man didn¡¯t seem to care about it. As he¡¯d said that he would, the man pulled his cell phone out and made a call to the police station. ¡°¡­I, huk. Thank you very much.¡± Maybe it was because she now felt safe. Looking at the beautiful woman who began to cry again, he kept comforting her and telling her it was fine. However, unlike his soft, comforting voice, intense passion was burning in his eyes. After all, the appearance of crying women was the most provocative. (TL: it¡¯s official¡­burn the MC) When he felt his blood start rushing to his lower half, the man quickly turned his attention elsewhere. He felt that if he kept looking, he¡¯d get overwhelmed by desire. Somehow calming the burning in his heart, he put his cell phone to his ear, but he couldn¡¯t help the annoyance he felt. The idea of not being able to do what he wanted stressed him out greatly. As he heard the ringing in his ear, he gave a kick to the guy in front of him. (TL: This is our new project, if there are any mistakes or if you feel I might¡¯ve interpreted something incorrectly, feel free to tell me in the mistakes-channel in the discord. This novel feels pretty interesting so far, let¡¯s see how it goes) For any errors and issues contact me through discord :- https://discord.gg/Q3dStgu Chapter 2 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 2Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± ¡°Kim Jin-suk.¡± Jin-suk replied calmly as he watched the detective in front of him beating on their keyboard. ¡°Identification number.¡± (TL: Or Resident Registration Number or Social Security Number) ¡°xxxxxx-xxxxxxx.¡± ¡°Where do you live?¡± ¡°Xx-x, xx, Sinchon-dong, Seodaemun District.¡± The detective who was entering the information paused as they saw what popped up on their monitor. ¡°This isn¡¯t your first time coming to the police station.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Jin-suk scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he said that. The important thing was that such an expression and behaviour was normally what a hero would do. The detective in front of him wouldn¡¯t be able to imagine what he was thinking or why he was doing such heroic actions. There was nothing for him to be embarrassed about. Moreover, no one would be able to imagine how much practice he¡¯d put into making that expression as natural as possible. It was icing on the cake for him to be a citizen who was pure and innocent who also had a just mind. As Jin-suk expected, the detective¡¯s attitude visibly softened as he saw this. ¡°You save two victims of robbery and three victims of sexual assault so far. You also received a Courageous Citizen Award?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m lucky or not, but I get involved in such things pretty often. Maybe it¡¯s because I don¡¯t like the loud noises cars make so I often walk in alleys.¡± He couldn¡¯t say he was looking for someone to legally break. It was no exaggeration to say that the detective in front of him would never be able to understand that interesting hobby of his. Jin-suk wasn¡¯t foolish enough to say what he wasn¡¯t supposed to say, especially things that should never be said in front of law enforcement. ¡°It must not have been easy to deal with guys like that¡­did you learn some kind of martial art?¡± ¡°I did learn a bit of boxing. I didn¡¯t learn it under the assumption that I was gonna use it, but now it seems I¡¯ve only been using it for things like this.¡± It was a total lie. Kim Jin-suk had learned boxing for the sole purpose of defeating people. In order to properly enjoy the ecstasy that came with hitting someone with the perfect punch. It was purely for the purpose of delivering unilateral violence upon his prey. But of course, he couldn¡¯t say that either. ¡°First of all, we¡¯ll make sure those gangsters pay for what they did. Those bastards will get some nice Kongbap1 in their comfy prison cells. There¡¯s already CCTV footage of the three of them dragging the woman away. It¡¯ll be fine Jin-suk, you won¡¯t be held responsible for your self-defense. No, actually since you¡¯re injured, if you go through the civil procedures, you should be able to claim compensation from them.¡± It was clear from the way the detective spoke about the three gangsters under investigation that he held a great dislike for them or people like them. ¡°I couldn¡¯t. I think it¡¯s cheaper than saving that woman. That¡¯s like a medal of honor. I just don¡¯t want to see those guys again.¡± He was already satisfied with beating the three of them. Anyway he felt that the price of his arm was worth the ecstasy he got from them so it wasn¡¯t necessary to go to civil affairs. However the detective kept trying to persuade Jin-suk as he could not tell what he was thinking. Maybe it was because they wanted to give those gangsters as much trouble as he possibly could. But when he saw Kim Jin-suk continuously shaking his head, he decided to stop talking about civil affairs. ¡°Anyway, is that woman okay?¡± ¡°Oh! The lady. She is in the hospital right now because we still want to ensure that her mental health is okay. Fortunately there were no injuries other than some light bruising but she was quite shocked by the incident.¡± (TL: ¡®The lady¡¯ in this case was said politely¡­there is just no way to politely say it in english.) He was being quite thorough. Since he was pretending to be a good guy and a hero, he had to ask about the victim of the attack. This was because he himself had been treated in the hospital¡¯s emergency room and thus couldn¡¯t know what had happened to the female victim. ¡®She was one hell of a woman.¡¯ (TL: Stinky MC -_-) Jin-suk, who could feel his heart burning, could only shake his head to shake out the thoughts. ¡°Is this the end of my interview?¡± ¡°Yes. Thank you for your cooperation.¡± Jin-suk raised his body and extended his hand over the desk, reaching out to the detective. This was what he called perfect post processing. It had been a satisfying hunt, from start to finish. At this time, a group of people ran past him in the police station. The guns that he could see under their clothes made him think they were also detectives. ¡°Are you guys really busy?¡± Looking at the detectives who ran past the glass doors and quickly entered their patrol cars, Kim Jin-suk turned back to the police officer who had been interviewing him. The detective, who had a cigarette in his lips and was searching his pockets for a lighter, shrugged. ¡°That¡¯s how this job is. And these days there have been a lot of deaths in that World of Masks game.¡± The detective turned on the lighter, lit his cigarette and walked to the outside of the police station, seeming as though he was grieving. He was weakly muttering, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s like I saw a high ranking detective behind me, screaming and pointing at the ¡®no smoking sign¡¯,¡± while taking a puff from his cigarette. Jin-suk also walked out of the police station. After the glass doors opened, he saw the detective, who seemed to have been lost in the smoke from his cigarette. Taking out a cigarette, he went to stand beside the detective. ¡°You said it was the World of Masks? The one that was prohibited because of the side effects¡­¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. That¡¯s the main cause of stress for the police station right now. Why would you want to die in a game that¡¯s been prohibited by the law¡­¡± ¡°Is extreme realism really so good anyway?¡± The detective kept grumbling by his side, and Kim Jin-suk, who heard this, lit his cigarette and took a long drag, filling his lungs. (TL: basically he took a long suck on his cigarette) As he spat out the smoke, he looked up at the sky. The World of Masks. It wasn¡¯t a gambling game, it was a virtual reality game that had been banned worldwide, yet people continued to play it. He had only heard rumors and never experienced it for himself, but he was told that it was a game that pursued extreme realism. However the realism of it was so overwhelmingly high that it was banned. ¡®The doctor said I shouldn¡¯t smoke.¡¯ Jin-suk scratched his head with his bandaged hand, then quickly puffed on the cigarette until it was finished before discarding the butt in a trash can beside him along with the other cigarettes he had. He then said goodbye to the police officer who was staring at the discarded cigarettes with an unfortunate expression on his face, before leaving the compound of the police station. (Note: S?a?ch* Th? N0v?lFire(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Kongbap is rice with beans, a meal that is served to inmates. The expression ¡®Eat Kongbap¡¯ basically means ¡®to serve a sentence¡¯) For any errors and issues contact me through discord :- https://discord.gg/Q3dStgu Chapter 3 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 3Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk gently stroked the plant in front of him. It was a ¡®Dendron¡¯. The common name for the plant known as ¡®Clerodendrum Thomsoniae¡¯. With a careful and gentle touch, he inspected the leaves and stem and removed any branches that might affect the plant¡¯s growth. Snip. Snip. The scissors in his hand give up crisp, clear sounds. Whenever this sound was heard, a branch of the dendron held in Jin-suk¡¯s hands would fall into the plant pot below. Jin-suk smiled as he finished pruning his plant. Pruning was a very important factor in the growth of a plant, but it was simple repetition, so it was quite boring work. However, Jin-suk overcame this boredom in his own special way. First, he¡¯d grab the branch that needed to be cut and bring the scissors to it. Then, he¡¯d imagine that what he was about to cut was in fact a human finger. As he slowly closed the scissors, the person would surely scream very loudly. They might cry and beg him to stop, or insult him and shower him with all sorts of threats. But he would ignore that, and slowly increase the amount of strength he put in the scissors, all with a smile on his face. When the skin was cut, then the muscles and veins would be cut, the blood would slowly spill out and drip down. The crimson red blood would surely grab all his attention and at that point the person¡¯s screams would definitely be deafening. (TL: Thoughts of rape aside¡­I really like this MC now¡­) Jin-suk moved on to prune another plant, all the while humming a nice tune. After the skin, muscles and veins were all cut, the only thing left would be the bones. The progress of the scissors, which had been moving smoothly, would stop for the first time. Then, he¡¯d spread the wound open by moving the scissors from side to side. And finally, he¡¯d put a little more force in the scissors until finally¡­ Ring. Ring. At the sound of the bell ringing at the front door, Jin-suk stood up beside the plants that he¡¯d been pruning with the scissors. For a moment he looked at the branch that the scissors had barely begun to cut through before he walked toward the customer who had come in, putting on the mask he wore during business hours. (TL: another figurative mask) ¡°You there Bachelor?¡± (TL: it could also be ¡®single-man¡¯ or ¡®virgin¡¯¡­just saying¡­this ajumma is pretty rude) The person who came in was a middle aged woman. She was a regular customer of Jin-suk¡¯s flower shop and lived in the same residential and commercial complex. Her husband was a civil servant. She seemed to like plants, so she often came to the store. ¡°It¡¯s you Auntie. It¡¯s been a long time.¡± ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s been a long time bachelor.¡± It was common for her to buy all kinds of items like new house plants, fertilizers, nutrients, flower pots and soil but he hadn¡¯t seen her recently. Besides, the slight frown on her face made it seem like everything wasn¡¯t okay. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± ¡°You can tell?¡± ¡°You look upset.¡± The Auntie frowned some more. ¡°Sigh. I don¡¯t want to talk about it. This time, my son wrote his college entrance exams. But he was always frolicing about, but it¡¯s his own effort. I couldn¡¯t even go to a temple to pray.¡± ¡°It must have been hard. So, did your son do well in his college entrance exam?¡± ¡°Well. Even though we went through such trouble and spent a lot of money on it. He couldn¡¯t even get a university in Seoul, I¡¯m so frustrated. My neighbour is boasting how Jae-sung can get into Seoul National University or Yonsei university, now I¡¯m too embarrassed to even go outside.¡± It seemed that she was so upset her chest might explode. Jin-suk could only smile awkwardly and try to calm her down. The middle aged woman, who had been complaining for a long time, suddenly smiled awkwardly and covered her mouth as if ashamed of her behavior. ¡°Goodness. I came to the bachelor and started complaining. Anyway, I came to order one graduation bouquet. I¡¯ll come back in three days to pick it up.¡± ¡°Is it to give to your son on graduation?¡± ¡°No matter how badly he did, he¡¯ll only have his highschool graduation once and I can¡¯t let him regret it.¡± Jin-suk nodded at that and led her to a side of the flower shop. It was not as cold as it was a month ago, but it was still too early to call it spring. Yet, in front of Jin-suk were many flowers blooming as if to mock the seasons. ¡°Do you see any flowers you want?¡± ¡°Well. I like roses, but¡­¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll make roses the main component. Besides that I¡¯d like to add about five to six other flowers, would that be okay?¡± ¡°Uh huh. That would be enough. Then show me your skills, bachelor.¡± ¡°Yes, don¡¯t worry.¡± As a regular customer she was already used to his abilities. She knew that Jin-suk would satisfy her. (TL: is it me¡­or is the author being deliberately dirty¡­) After they were finished she picked up her hand bag before turning to Jin-suk like she¡¯d forgotten something. ¡°Oh, was it you who cleared the snow in front of the apartment? You didn¡¯t need to be nice.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t do it on my own. I did it together with the guard. I just felt like it should be cleared.¡± She felt that Jin-suk had been pressured, but she didn¡¯t continue asking. How many young men were like that these days. At least in this neighbourhood, Jin-suk might be the only young man who was so filial, sincere and kind. ¡°Ugh. Other people don¡¯t even try to clean it, they just curse at the guards, but you are like an angel. I don¡¯t know where you came from. Do you have a girlfriend? Do you want me to introduce you to my niece?¡± (TL: just making it known, she never says ¡®you¡¯ she always says ¡®bachelor¡¯) ¡°I¡¯m not thinking about that yet. I still have to think of my parents after all.¡± ¡°Tch tch tch. Everyone in this apartment knows that you¡¯re a good son. But the sooner you find a lover is the sooner you get married and start a family. One of the greatest ways to show filial piety is to give them grandchildren. I don¡¯t understand you. If you give your parents a boy or a girl to look down on from the heavens, they would be the happiest they could be.¡± ¡°But I still don¡¯t have any such thoughts.¡± In the end, when faced with Jin-suk¡¯s smiling face, she could only shake her head and give up. ¡°Right. Then there¡¯s nothing I could do about it. If you change your mind, just tell me. I¡¯d love to have you as my son-in-law, but I only have a son like Wen-soo. So I could only have you as my nephew.¡± As the middle aged woman said this with a smile, she opened the door and walked out. After the auntie left, Kim Jin-suk sat down and began to prune the plants again. S?a?ch* Th? N?v?lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. However, thoughts of his parents who died half a year ago in a car accident kept floating in his head together with the auntie¡¯s words. If his parents knew that he was such a crazy person, what would they think? Would they despise him as a monster, or would they feel pity for their son. The guilt that had previously dried up without a trace gave him a small pang of pain in his chest. For any errors and issues contact me through discord :- https://discord.gg/Q3dStgu Chapter 4 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 4Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana A wolf the size of a house was rushing toward him. He didn¡¯t think it would end well if he was bitten by that drooling mouth filled with sharp teeth. S~?a??h the N???lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Jin-suk slashed a sword in his hand at the wolf while thinking, ¡®I could get rabies or something if I was bitten for real.¡¯ ¡°Tch.¡± Jin-suk stared at his hand while clicking his tongue. The senses were dull, as if he was wearing 10 pairs of carpentry gloves, everything seemed to be only 1/10 of reality. Though it looked like human skin, Jin-suk, who was still looking at his character¡¯s hand and felt that it had an awkward and rubbery feeling, kicked the corpse of another wolf in front of him. But it was impossible to do anymore damage to the wolf that had already lost all of its HP. Therefore, Jin-suk¡¯s foot passed through the wolf¡¯s body in vain. Looking at the disappearing body of the wolf, Jin-suk kicked the ground hard. However, the touch sensations were only 1/10 so even the feeling of kicking the ground was subtle. Eventually Jin-suk, who was annoyed, ended the game. As he exited the virtual reality capsule, Jin-suk roughly threw away the headset. He felt that he was boiling so he decided to go to the kitchen and get some cold water from the dispenser. The cool sensation that flowed through his body seemed to help the irritation he felt, subside slightly. The feeling of guilt he had felt toward his parents in the flower shop earlier in the day had quickly become annoyance. Then the annoyance developed into a desire for violence and pleasure. A desire to kill filled him. In a hurry, he entered his favorite virtual reality game and vented his anger on all the monsters he could find there, but he still wasn¡¯t satisfied. No, instead it seemed to awaken his appetite. He couldn¡¯t help it. Now, the only way for Jin-suk to relieve his desire was to find a game that was a better virtual imitation of reality. But that was in itself a hard task. In order to prevent intense feedback and reactions in their players, the sensations in games were usually 1/10 of those in reality. In addition the bodies made of shapes and code which appeared awkward at times, could never catch Jin-suk¡¯s eye. ¡®I thought I would be fine for at least three months.¡¯ He had been quite satisfied with his last hunt, so he thought that it would be quite some time before he got the urge to hunt again. However, it now seemed like it would be hard for him to maintain his state for even another week. ¡®Although I¡¯m not fully healed yet. I can¡¯t help it.¡¯ As he thought this, Jin-suk stroked the knife wounds on his arm through his clothes while pulling on a jacket. He decided to head down the back alleys. His objective was to find a prey that he could hunt and beat legally. ¡­¡­¡­. [The victim was found around 6:30 yesterday evening. He was found by his mother who had visited her son after she couldn¡¯t contact him. From the state of decay, the police believe that the victim had been deceased for 5 days before they were found. The victim, who lived alone, was found wearing a virtual game headset which is why the police believe that he died from a heart attack due to excess feedback while playing the game World of Masks. With this new victim, the number of deaths from the World of Masks game this year has risen to 396 worldwide and the police commissioner has released a statement¡­] The chilly weather made him cringe slightly in his overcoat. As he looked at the TV screen in an electronics store, Jin-suk warmed his hands in front of his face. The World of Masks. It was a game that pursued extreme reality that had been a big sensation when it was first released half a year ago. At that time, Jin-suk had been taking care of his parents who had been laying in hospital beds because of the car accident. Media all around the world praised the game and the public opinion was extremely high because they thought that a true virtual reality game had finally appeared. This caused the stock prices of other virtual reality game companies to fall sharply. However, that reaction didn¡¯t last very long. As virtual reality games continued to develop, so did the laws to regulate them. There was a difference between killing a person or a monster with a mouse click behind a screen and killing a person or a monster with a weapon in virtual reality. Being able to kill people in virtual reality could mean that you¡¯d be able to do the same in reality. So as virtual reality games developed, so did the concerns. Therefore, governments around the world developed policies to limit those virtual reality games. Typical examples were the restrictions of PK, the prohibition of the appearance of human looking monsters and a realism limit of 1/10. However, the World of Masks largely ignored most of those laws. The realism was very high, at least 2/3 that of reality and even the restriction on PK was removed. Naturally, this caused governments to step in to regulate the World of Masks. However, they were left in shock. The developer who had produced and distributed World of Masks turned out to be a ghost company. In response, governments around the world desperately tried to gather information, to regulate and restrict the game but couldn¡¯t find anything. It was as if the game World of Masks had fallen from the sky. Eventually, there was an incident which caused the public opinion to switch from excitement, to concern. A man died. The government analysts concluded that the pain in the game was fed back to the player which caused shock. Subsequently, more and more deaths began to occur and the governments decided collectively to ban the game. However, it was impossible to completely eradicate the World of Masks. Not only the head office, but even the location of the servers were impossible to find, moreover, the method of access and the operation of the game execution tool were all unknown. Therefore, it could not be eliminated. Once it became banned, the World of Masks became even more sought after and it no longer needed any advertising. The sensations were almost equal to reality and the restrictions like PK were all removed. It was the only game of its kind. But the number of deaths also increased. Somehow, even though the country imposed heavy sanctions, players of World of Masks did not disappear. And the number of deaths didn¡¯t decrease. Jin-suk stepped closer to the TV. Extreme Reality. This catch phrase stood out to him more than anything else. After his parents died, he was definitely on the path to ruin. With them not around, he could no longer resist the temptations for violence and murder that boiled inside of him. It was only after his parents died that he started hunting. And now, under such circumstances, he¡¯d stumbled upon a game like this. He wondered if playing that game would be as good as hunting in reality, but there was no way for him to find it. As it was a banned item, the country strictly forbade the possession or distribution of World of Masks. So now he was faced with a dilemma. With a sigh, Jin-suk entered an alley and was immediately greeted by a bad smell. Looking at the scenery which was completely different from the normal streets downtown, he walked at a fast pace. Robbery, assault or rape. Jin-suk went deeper into the alleys to find someone who could satisfy his needs. In front of him, was an old man. He hid grey hair under a fedora and had a nice mustache under his nose. Wearing a clean black suit with black trousers and a red bow tie on top of his prim white shirt that was mostly covered by his suit. He had clean white gloves and well-groomed black shoes that would probably shine brightly if there was enough light. In his hand, the old man held a cane, completing the look of a gentleman who seemed to have jumped out of the pages of a book. The old man knocked his cane across the floor a few times and laughed loudly. ¡°Nice to meet you. Mr. Kim Jin-suk.¡± Jin-suk felt like the old man¡¯s smile was very bright. For any errors and issues contact me through discord :- https://discord.gg/Q3dStgu Chapter 5 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 5Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana ¡°Do you know me?¡± As the man in front of him was an older person, Jin-suk was very polite as he spoke. But that didn¡¯t mean he didn¡¯t tense his body in preparation. Jin-suk couldn¡¯t remember ever meeting such an old man. And now the place they were meeting was in a back alley with no one else around. ¡°Ahh. In fact I know you very well.¡± The old man spoke with a meaningful smile. ¡°Ever since your parents died.¡± Was he a friend of his parents? However as far as Jin-suk knew, there weren¡¯t any friends or relatives who looked like the old man in front of him. But it was quite normal for his parents to have a few friends that he didn¡¯t know. Of course, the situation of encountering them in an alley was still strange. ¡°So you¡¯re my parent¡¯s friend? Thank you for worrying, but I¡¯m okay now. It¡¯s been 6 months already. I¡¯ll get over it eventually.¡± ¡°No. That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talking about¡­¡± The old man shook his head slowly and stared deep into Jin-suk¡¯s eyes, as if he could see through all deceit. ¡°I meant your urges toward destruction and murder.¡± ¡°Yes? What do you mean.¡± The man took in the appearance of Jin-suk who only looked at him doubtfully. ¡°Hmm. You¡¯re much calmer than I expected. I thought you¡¯d be a bit more jumpy or speechless¡­¡± The young man in front of him was much stronger than he expected. The young man could still keep calm even when he knew a secret that no one else should¡¯ve known. No, from looking at his expression, the young man seemed to be normal and similar to an old man like himself. (TL: this is referring to this temperament) ¡°Hey. Grandpa? Would you like me to take you to the hospital?¡± ¡°¡­Hmm. It¡¯s quite new to be treated like an old person.¡± However, the old man was quite satisfied in his heart. The young man in front of him still managed to remain calm in front of someone who knew something that could be considered his weakness. Rather, he was making him seem like a senile old man. That meant that he was a very thorough human being. ¡°No. I¡¯m not yet that old.¡± As the old man lightly denied the suspicions of his senility by this abominable young man, he tapped his finger on the top of his cane, seemingly in a contemplative mood. ¡°It seems you won¡¯t easily admit to it. What I want to see isn¡¯t this good-natured Kim Jin-suk, instead I want the psychopath Kim Jin-suk.¡± ¡°Hey, grandpa. I¡¯m a little offended by you calling me a psychopath. So first off, who are you grandpa?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to know who I am right now. You don¡¯t have the right.¡± The old man stopped talking and looked at the hand that Jin-suk had just slipped into his pocket. ¡°And I don¡¯t have any intention of harming you, so you can let go of the knife.¡± Jin-suk, who had just grabbed a knife in his pocket, laughed awkwardly at being caught. However, even though the old man said that, he didn¡¯t let go of the knife. No, instead he simply pulled out the knife that was hidden in his pocket. ¡°Well you see. I¡¯ve been going through some rough times lately. I carry it with me in case I find myself in any strange situation¡­Isn¡¯t this situation suspicious enough?¡± ¡°How sly. You are skilled at talking yourself over a wall.¡± Despite the old man¡¯s jeers, Jin-suk didn¡¯t let go of the knife. Although he appeared to be very calm, he was in fact very wary. Evidence of this was in the fact that he¡¯d taken out the knife, which had never been taken out even when dealing with knife-wielding gangsters, in front of this elderly man who seemed to have no power. s?a??h th? ???el F?re.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. However, even though he was rather bewildered at that moment, Jin-suk still remained level headed. Should he kill? Should he silence this man? No. There was no guarantee that the old man was alone. The situation might get worse if there was another person who witnessed the murder. Should he just wait? He hadn¡¯t done anything anyway, did he? Wouldn¡¯t it be better to just treat him like a senile old man? But how did he know? He couldn¡¯t tell if it was a joke¡­but he was sure that that wasn¡¯t true. Jin-suk looked at the old man warily who had turned his head away a bit. Then the old man, who had been muttering something for a long time, slapped his palm against his fist. ¡°Ah! That¡¯ll do.¡± It seemed as though the old man had thought of something, as he turned toward Jin-suk with a large smile on his face. ¡°Here¡¯s what we¡¯re gonna do. For now we¡¯ll do a play.¡± (TL: like acting out a play) ¡°A play?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. A play.¡± The old man nodded as if it was the best idea he¡¯d ever come up with. But Jin-suk was instead incredibly confused. No, it was the sudden play. The old man¡¯s words were hard for him to understand. ¡°All you need to do is go along with this crazy old man¡¯s play. You¡¯re a good person, so you should be able to do that.¡± In other words, what he meant wasn¡¯t real acting. It was to use the mask called acting to instead show your true intentions. ¡°¡­I don¡¯t want to ask, but my role is¡­¡± ¡°Of course it¡¯s the psychopath suffering from the impulses toward destruction and the desire to kill.¡± The old man said this without any hesitation. However, Jin-suk was also pulled into the story. For Jin-suk who usually pretended to be a good person, the strange and suspicious old man who was sure of his impulses for destruction and murder was now asking him to act in that way. He felt that it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea to let down his mask once. Even if the old man had a change of heart, he would simply say he was acting and he would use the tape recorder running in his pocket as proof. After he was finished thinking, Jin-suk nodded. ¡°¡­Whoo. Then I guess I¡¯ll do it.¡± Of course, he made it seem like he didn¡¯t really want to do it, he twisted his face like he was intending to do his best in this old man¡¯s play. The old man looked at him as if to say that he could see through his act, but he ignored that. ¡°So I¡¯m the psychopath, what role will grandfather play?¡± As he asked this, the old man in front of him gave him a bright smile and spread his arms. ¡°I¡¯ll be the angel.¡± Jin-suk¡¯s expression froze. For any errors and issues contact me through discord :- https://discord.gg/Q3dStgu Chapter 6 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 6Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk thought about quitting the ridiculous play right away. An angel. Maybe that old man really was senile? The old man coughed lightly while staring at him with thin eyes. ¡°Anyway, it¡¯s just the play from an old man. So just go with it.¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s true but an angel? I¡¯m sorry, but rather than being an angel you(grandfather) seem more like¡­¡± ¡°The devil?¡± As Jin-suk nodded, the old man smiled. ¡°Of course, to other people I¡¯d be the devil. But for you I could be considered more as an angel.¡± ¡°¡­you mean it¡¯s relative?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. Most people usually long for heaven or want to go to heaven. But then. Let¡¯s change the subject from a human to a demon instead. Is the heaven that people dream of, a heaven for demons too?¡± Jin-suk shook his head. No matter how he thought of it, the image of a demon going to heaven and living happily couldn¡¯t appear in his mind. ¡°Exactly. For humans, heaven is heaven. For demons, hell is heaven. It¡¯s the same. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯d be a demon to others. But at least I¡¯ll be an angel for you.¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m a psychopath?¡± (TL: he¡¯s not admitting, but sticking to the play) ¡°You understand very fast.¡± The old man claps loudly as though it brought him great pleasure to finally progress in the conversation. ¡°So. Why did the ¡®Devil Angel¡¯ come to me?¡± ¡°I can feel that you¡¯re being very sarcastic, but this time I¡¯ll let it go. I just wanted to give you a gift. A way to deal with your desire to kill and destroy.¡± ¡°Wow. That¡¯s a great gift.¡± ¡°¡­you are very careful.¡± The old man spat out these words to Jin-suk, who was showing an expression as if reading a Korean novel, as if he was sick of it. Even though he¡¯d said that he would be able to help him solve his most serious problem, Jin-suk still never showed his true feelings. ¡°Well, that¡¯s fine. All I need to do is deliver it anyway.¡± The old man took a device out of his suit jacket. ¡°This is the access tool for World of Masks.¡± The World of Masks. At that moment, Jin-suk¡¯s eyes were drawn to the item in the man¡¯s hands. If the old man¡¯s words were to be believed, then the item he held was notorious around the world for its human-eating game. ¡°The World of Masks is literally another reality. It should be enough to satisfy you. Besides, since it¡¯s not the true reality, it doesn¡¯t matter what you do inside. Murder, rape, assault. You can do whatever you want there.¡± ¡°¡­isn¡¯t it dangerous because of the feedback?¡± ¡°You¡¯re gonna have to deal with that. Aren¡¯t you in a situation where you don¡¯t care whether the food is hot or cold?¡±1 He was absolutely right. ¡°Besides, the World of Masks is no ordinary game. If you do well you could easily have wealth, power, honor and beauty follow you.¡± ¡°Even then, it¡¯s still a game.¡± Jin-suk turned his head away as though he wasn¡¯t interested. The old man then said firmly. ¡°In real life.¡± Jin-suk turned to look at the old man, his eyes clearly asking what the old man was talking about and he shot Jin-suk a proud look. ¡°World of Masks is a very dangerous game. Do you think that people would play the game just do things they can¡¯t do in reality? Not everyone is a bloodthirsty psycho like you.¡± ¡®Well, you¡¯ll find out more while playing,¡¯ the old man said the last part in his head. Jin-suk looked at the device in the old man¡¯s hands with suspicion. He didn¡¯t fully trust the old man¡¯s words. S~?a??h the N?v?lFir?(.)n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. However even if the story about wealth, power, honor and beauty was fake, the device would be well worth it since it would solve his present needs. But he was wondering if he should accept something that an unidentified old man gave him. ¡°What are you worried about? If you have this then your troubles will be solved completely. You don¡¯t need to worry about it do you? It¡¯s a game where you can kill as many NPCs and players as you want. Well, dead players are more likely to be traumatized or die from shock, but they should¡¯ve been prepared for that.¡± ¡°¡­still, don¡¯t you have a guilty conscience?¡± The moment he didn¡¯t spit out ¡®Ah! It¡¯s like this¡¯ as was expected, the old man standing in front of him began to laugh crazily. He pressed the fedora to his face as he laughed heartily. At first glance it might be unpleasant, but Jin-suk scratched his cheek, feeling embarrassed. Conscience. It was not a word that suited him. It was long after that the old man stopped laughing. ¡°Kukuku. Ah. I laughed really well. I feel like you have a really good sense of humor. I thought I came here to give you a gift but instead I got the real gift.¡± The old man was still twitching from his outburst. ¡°I received a big gift, so I have no choice but to give you my gift. Take it.¡± The old man threw the device in his hand at Jin-suk who was able to catch it gently at the end of its parabola. The device, which looked like a headband, shined silver even in the dark. The feel of the cold machine in his hands was like the devil¡¯s seductive touch. ¡°Now the play is over. I¡¯m thankful that you played along with my sudden inspiration. You can give that headband that I gave you to your lover. It¡¯s your reward for playing. Of course, you don¡¯t believe what I said so far do you? It was only a ¡®play¡¯ after all.¡± The man winked at Jin-suk, causing him to laugh. Headband? This cold and heavy device? Give it to your lover? Isn¡¯t the difference pretty big? He once again took a close look at the so-called ¡®headband¡¯ in his hands. ¡°That will be all for now. It was a fun conversation with you. I think it¡¯s called a good game. In the country it¡¯s called ¡®gg¡¯ right?¡± Jin-suk raised his head and looked at the man as he heard him saying his goodbyes. The old man had turned his back to him and was walking into the alley while waving his hand. Looking at the old man¡¯s back, Jin-suk wondered if he could send him on his way now and he looked down at the knife in his hand. A sharp glint could be seen. As he couldn¡¯t make up his mind, Jin-suk scratched his back and raised his head again. ¡°¡­gone?¡± In front of his eyes was only a dark alley with many dark, ominous shadows. There was no trace of the old man he had just been talking to. (Note: 1.It means ¡®he doesn¡¯t care whether the food is hot or cold because he¡¯s very hungry¡¯ or ¡®he is so desperate for his desire that he doesn¡¯t care how he gets it¡¯) For any errors and issues contact me through discord :- https://discord.gg/Q3dStgu Chapter 7 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 7Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Tapping his fingers, Jin-suk stared at the object on his table. It was the connection tool for World of Masks that was given to him by the mysterious old man with a simple silver design. After tapping his fingers on it for a moment, Jin-suk collapsed on his desk with a long sigh. The thing in front of him was certainly a coveted object. No matter how he thought about it, the item in front of him was the only way for him to solve his problem. There was of course the option which might end with him playing tag with the police while they carried silver bracelets and pistols, but he quickly refused that one. The question was whether he could trust the old man that this was actually the connection tool for the World of Masks. Well firstly its appearance seemed to match the connection tools that were shown on the television. But the problem was if the intentions of that old man who¡¯d mysteriously disappeared could be trusted. In fact, Jin-suk was seriously considering whether that old man was the devil or something close to it. Of course, he quickly shook his head because that was ridiculous but even then he could not figure out how he could suddenly appear in front of him and know so much about him as well as his sudden disappearance at the end right in front of his eyes. The possibility that he was a magician with nothing to do so he decided to play the prank of a lifetime on him could also not be eliminated. So why did the old man give that to him? For himself, who was having a hard time containing his murderous desires? (TL: him being Jin-suk) Or what? For what purpose? Was this tool gonna pull his soul out? Jin-suk, who was contemplating for a long time, sighed heavily and lifted the device up. Anyway he had to make a choice. Game or Murder. He could only pick one. ¡°It¡¯s all or nothing.¡± As he muttered this, Jin-suk stepped into his capsule. He made himself comfortable in the chair in the capsule before looking down at the access tool in his hands. He couldn¡¯t help but ask in a confused voice. ¡°How do you connect this?¡± At first glance he couldn¡¯t find any way to connect it to his capsule. Then an absurd thought came to his head as he looked at the access tool. His bewilderment increased as he thought this. ¡°It isn¡¯t possible that you play the game with the access tool without needing the capsule, is it?¡± It was a ridiculous thought. Running virtual reality games required tremendous computational power. And the device that was usually required to process such an enormous operation was the capsule. The connection tool was usually just a tool used to connect the human brain waves to the capsule and then to the installed game. But if what he thought was correct, that would mean that the game that was causing chaos around the world was run from this small device. Jin-suk stared at it for a long time as if he couldn¡¯t believe it. Then he decided to try it. ¡°Well, since the devil gave it to me, shouldn¡¯t it be possible?¡± It was funny to think that demons would use the same technology as humans in the first place. Thinking up to here, Jin-suk sat on the comfortable chair again before putting the device on his head. [Welcome to the World of Masks. Would you like to access the game? YES/NO] A window appeared in front of him. He wasn¡¯t wearing any goggles and there weren¡¯t any holograms so he Jin-suk was surprised by the window in front of him. Instinctively, he lifted his hand to tap on the yes button. Jin-suk blinked. He rubbed his eyes, shook his head, kept his eyes close and after 5 seconds, he opened them again. Nothing changed. There was still a monitor floating in front of him. ¡°¡­well, it¡¯s really like the devil.¡± Jin-suk, who was barely convinced, couldn¡¯t help but mutter those words as he looked around slowly. He seemed to be in a small hut. Sunlight poured in through a window at the side, illuminating the dust that floated in the air. On one side of the two pyung space, there was a pile of hay that seemed to be some sort of bed. In the center was a wooden table and chair, each of them appearing to be roughly carved. On the table was a white mask that had no eye catching characteristics. ¡®Isn¡¯t there any character modification?¡¯ Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help but think this as he examined himself. Nothing had changed. Well, except for his clothes. Jin-suk¡¯s clothes had become a white short sleeved t-shirt and black shorts. He looked like a typical beginner, he was even wearing a pair of straw slippers. The only distinctive characteristic was a black bracelet on his left wrist. After he¡¯d finished inspecting his surroundings, he stepped toward the table. A translucent window appeared in front of his eyes with a ¡®ding¡¯. [Welcome to the World of Masks. If you are ready, touch the window to get a brief explanation of the game.] It was a very polite way of speaking, considering that it was made by a devil. Feeling a strange sense of admiration, Jin-suk touched the window in front of his eyes. [Thank you for using this game. This is a game dedicated to your enjoyment and gives a sense of reality that is not much less than actual reality. However please keep in mind that you are responsible for yourself.] It was no surprise. The attitude of the creators could be felt. [This game has no concept of HP. Since the physical impact and damage is the same as that in reality, it is advised to defend vital spots as much as possible. Be careful. No matter how high your level is, you can still be shot through a vital spot. Your avatar is made to the same specifications as your real body and your appearance can¡¯t be changed. However this game is under the oppression of foolish clowns who cannot understand its greatness so it is recommended that you wear a mask to protect your identity from others. There is a mask on the table.] Jin-suk looked down at the table. [The reason the game abandoned its original name and started to use the name World of Masks is because of the mask in front of the user. The mask covers your face and cannot be destroyed or taken off against the user¡¯s will. However the mask in front of you is the one given to new players and as such has no defensive capabilities. Damage will penetrate the mask as though it wasn¡¯t there. If you don¡¯t want your eyes, nose and lips to touch each other, or to have a new hole in your face then please avoid ignorant belief in the mask¡¯s defense.] ¡®That¡¯s not as polite.¡¯ Jin-suk thought as he stared at the window in front of him. If they wanted to defend the identities of the players in the first place, why not let them modify their characters? Although he grumbled in his head, the illegal game did not have anything like customer service or request board. [Skills in this game use vitality, not MP. The vitality represents how many days you have left to live and is displayed in hours. As your level increases, the amount of vitality that can be consumed increases. If you have a bright life ahead of you then you won¡¯t have to worry about not being able to use skills since there is no MP. But be careful. The avatar¡¯s vitality decreases as vitality is used. What if the avatar¡¯s vitality is linked to yours?] ¡®Is this it?¡¯ He frowned at that. The warning in front of him did not seem like a joke since he was already wondering if the one who met with him and gave him the game was the devil. Perhaps the devil was really pulling people¡¯s vitalities out using the game. [But don¡¯t worry. The game also has ways for you to regain vitality. Look at your left wrist.] Jin-suk compliantly raised his right hand. The wide bracelet was the only thing that stood out about his newbie outfit. [The bracelet can be used as a warehouse for magic items. Players would be more accustomed to the word ¡®inventory¡¯. To use it, you only need to think of using the warehouse in your mind.] Jin-suk thought of using it at that time and another window popped up in his eyes. In it, there were 10 copper coins, a short sword and an unidentified bead. [The currency is 100 copper coins to 1 silver coin, 100 silver coins to 1 gold coin, 100 gold coins to 1 mithril coin. Prices vary in different countries and regions as you will learn for yourself. The short sword is a basic weapon and it is not recommended to be used for a long time. Finally the bead is called the Bead of Life. If the user touches the corpse of a monster they¡¯ve hunted then the vitality of that monster will be sucked into the bead. Users can restore vitality with the vitality stored in the bead, or use it as experience or add it as skill points. Please note that in this game you get no experience for killing monsters.] Jin-suk stretched his hand to the window and touched on the Bead of Life. When he touched it lightly, the bead appeared in his hand easily. A translucent tag appeared above it that said ¡®Lowest Grade Bead of Life¡¯ for a moment before disappearing. [Currently the Bead of Life is the ¡®Lowest Grade Bead of Life¡¯ and it¡¯s total storage is rather small. Please note that regardless of how many monsters are killed, any vitality above gained after the Bead of Life is filled will simply evaporate.Other Beads of Life must be found by the user. For your information it is impossible to take vitality from humans and other humanoid creatures due to the blessings of Ueron.] He couldn¡¯t kill humans? At that, Jin-suk clicked his tongue in disappointment. [The NPCs in this world similarly have to use vitality to use skill and can also regain it, however they have no concept of levels and experience. You can sell Life Beads, but remember to think carefully. The Beads of Life are not so common. When taking an item from the inventory, simply touch it and to put an item in the inventory, simply press it to an empty slot. If you are finished with the inventory it will go away with a thought. You can also use the warehouse by touching the bracelet on your wrist and calling out the name of the item or touching the bracelet and thinking about putting an item inside. Keep in mind, this item is not a bound item. This item can be stolen at any time after killing you.] ¡°What?!¡± The shout came out subconsciously. No other game allowed others to touch your inventory like this. [The flow of time in the game is 1:3 compared to reality. Please enjoy it.] ¡®Even the time!¡¯ Normally games stuck with or inverted the regular day and night cycles while maintaining the same time as in reality, however a full day in this game was only a few hours in reality. [If you want to view your current stats and status, use the character window and use the skill window to check on the status of skill or to add skill points. The way to use them is the same as the inventory.] As he read the instructions in the window, Jin-suk called up his character window. LV : 1 EXP : 0/42 Vitality : 744,600 :28 : 32 (744,600 :28 : 32 ) (Max consume hour / Per Skill ¨C 1hour) Str : 13 Dex : 14 Int : 12 It was a simple screen compared to other games. The stats were simply Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. The only unusual thing was the vitality of the character that was written in hours. While the other stats were fixed, the vitality was steadily decreasing. It was great that he had so much vitality compared to MP but that was only if the fact that the avatar¡¯s vitality was linked to the real body¡¯s vitality wasn¡¯t true. His skill window was empty as it seemed they didn¡¯t even give any skills to beginners. S?a?ch* Th? N?v?lFir?.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. [The avatar¡¯s initial stats are based on the attributes of the user¡¯s real body. The average adult¡¯s strength, dexterity and intelligence are all set at 10. If you have a stat higher than 10 then you should be happy. If you have any less than 10 then blame yourself. Lastly, the current village was built as a tutorial to help new players get used to the game. There is only the player in this town and no dangerous monsters. It is necessary to leave the beginner village if you truly want to enjoy the full fledged game. Please note that once you leave the beginner village, you¡¯ll never be able to return. That is it for the basics. Please enjoy the game.] After that sentence, there were no longer any more translucent windows. Jin-suk took a few moments to digest all the information before lifting the mask from the table. A simple mask with no other characteristics besides its startlingly white color. After staring at the mask for a few moments, Jin-suk put it in his bracelet. ¡®It¡¯s a village where I¡¯m the only one so I don¡¯t need it.¡¯ The intended use of the item was to hide the user¡¯s face from other players in the first place. It was not necessary to use it in the beginner¡¯s village. Jin-suk, who put away the mask, took out the short sword instead. The translucent tag ¡®Beginner¡¯s Short Sword¡¯ appeared for a moment before disappearing. There seemed to be no status window such as how much damage it did and the like that could be found in other games. However the short sword in his hand did not seem like an item he¡¯d use for a long time no matter how he looked at it. It was so old that it was hard to find a spot that didn¡¯t have rust on it. As a test, he poked the table with the knife and the faint crack proved that it was also incredibly dull. ¡®It¡¯s usually like this at the start.¡¯ He thought this before completing his examination and exiting the hut. Following the sound of a creaky door, Jin-suk was greeted to a face full of fresh air. He unconsciously let out an exclamation. The small cabin appeared to be on the outskirts of a small village. Dozens of similarly small huts could be seen, enclosed by a wooden fence gave the appearance that this was a pioneer village. Between the huts, people could be seen moving to and fro in the village. Jin-suk also noticed that there were many villagers staring at him with unwelcome eyes as though they didn¡¯t like strangers in their village. A soft breeze blew through his hair. This was very different from the other virtual reality games he¡¯d played. This place was literally a reality. Jin-suk took a few more steps out of the hut. ¡®Can I use this?¡¯ Jin-suk looked at the shabby house that seemed that it would collapse at any moment. With the level of reality in this place he was sure that there were things like fatigue, hunger and the need to sleep. In reality, the hut was not someplace he¡¯d want to stay but for now it would prove to be useful enough. Jin-suk suddenly lifted the short sword as if he just had a thought. In a way, he had forgotten one of the most important things. Puk. Jin-suk stabbed his hand lightly. It was doubtful as to how useful the short sword could be as a weapon, but since it had a pointed tip, Jin-suk managed to get it into his hand with a bit of force. A pricking sensation came from his palm. As the rumors had said, it was similar to reality. The grip on the shortsword, the firmness of the ground supporting his feet, the pain in his palm. The blood flowing from the wound on his palm was red. Not the bright red that was used in other games, but the actual color of blood. Jin-suk stared at the blood before licking out his tongue. Lick.(TL: imagine a licking sound, what the author put scrambled my brain) The taste of blood filled his mouth. That demon seemed to be right. This place might really be heaven for Jin-suk. For any errors and issues contact me through discord :- https://discord.gg/Q3dStgu Chapter 8 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 8Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk was resting under a tree so wide that it would not be enough even if three people tried to wrap their arms around it. As he did, he threw around an orb about the size of a fist. The short sword that was stuck in the ground in front him was covered in blood was evidence that he¡¯d just hunted. Jin-suk, who stretched and yawned loudly, pulled out the short sword from the ground. It had actually been stabbed into a red lump in front of him. The short sword stuck came out of the lump with a soft ¡®puk¡¯ after Jin-suk pulled it out without hesitation. From the spot where the sword had been stuck, murky liquid and undigested pieces flowed out, splashing onto the grass. Jin-suk stood to his feet. Then he walked toward the reddish lump that was leaking onto the grass. A splash was heard as his footsteps caused ripples in the pool of blood. ¡°Hmm. This is awesome.¡± Jin-suk poked around at the ball of flesh that had once been a rabbit that was now torn, mutilated and completely dismembered. It hadn¡¯t been long since he caught it, but inside the rabbit¡¯s steaming intestines, the food that the rabbit had eaten and was digesting could be clearly seen. After his stabbing, the undigested pieces of grass protruded from the stomach and from the intestines, brown pieces of stool were visible. ¡®The guy who made this world. He¡¯s either someone who was really chasing extreme realism, or he¡¯s a complete psycho like me.¡¯ As he had this thought, Jin-suk played with the broken body of the rabbit that was laying in a pool of its own blood as if it was a ball. The contents splashing from inside. The feeling coming from under his feet was pleasant. Jin-suk looked at the rabbit in the pool of blood before going back to his spot and sitting down once again. About 10 minutes passed. Suddenly the ground began making an ominous sound around the body of the rabbit. As if it was quicksand in the desert, the ground beneath the rabbit¡¯s corpse began pulling it down bit by bit. After a while only green grass was left, swaying gently in the wind. ¡®Is this how the garbage is disposed of?¡¯ It was completely different from the other games where the bodies became specks of light and disappeared. Jin-suk, who had been staring at the ground in front of him, finally turned his eyes away. A vast stretch of grassland, with trees growing here and there, stretched as far as he could see. The flashes of white that he saw were rabbits similar to the one he¡¯d just caught. It was the appetizer before the main dish. With a slight lick of the blood that had been splattered on his face, Jin-suk began to move toward the meadow, the short sword held tightly in his hand. It may have been a setting of the game, but the rabbits were not afraid of people. Even as Jin-suk approached, they continued grazing on the grass without showing any unusual behavior. It was impossible for him to cut with the blunt short sword. So Jin-suk crept up stealthily behind the rabbit, holding the short sword steadily, before striking vigorously down on its head. Kwajik. The feeling of penetrating the skin, muscles, bones and brains all at once was truly the best feeling. The rabbit, who hadn¡¯t been given the chance to resist at all, collapsed onto the ground, its body twitching intermittently. Jin-suk, who had successfully killed another one, let out a comfortable sigh while wiping his sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. The hunt had looked easy, but in fact Jin-suk was pretty nervous. When he had first started hunting, Jin-suk had thought that they were only rabbits, but these guys were actually pretty fast. Attacks with the short sword often missed, and since the short sword was very blunt, it could only be used to stab instead of cutting. He had no choice but to stab them, but stabbing was also easy to miss since they were very small. And when they managed to bite his hand or foot with their front teeth it was surprisingly very painful. In fact, red blood was still dripping from the wounds where his flesh had been torn off by a rabbit. They weren¡¯t difficult per se, but they definitely weren¡¯t easy either. And when a little bastard had tried to jump and bite his groin, Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help but grow deathly pale. He¡¯d luckily managed to smash it away with his quick reflexes, but the shock of it all was unlikely to go away. Since then, Jin-suk had changed his hunting method. He would sneak behind the rabbit and stab them in the head. It seemed like a weak method to use against a rabbit, but Jin-suk had no intentions of changing it. At least he wouldn¡¯t think of it until he had armor that could protect his groin. He approached the body of the rabbit, his body slightly tense as he remembered his near horrifying experience, and put the Bead of Life on the rabbit¡¯s body. Following a rumbling sound, the body of the rabbit began to dry up and the Bead of Life began to give off a red glow. After a while, all that remained was the soft red colored bead and the body of the rabbit, which had become like a mummy. Jin-suk inspected the bead in his hand. The number 8 could be seen clearly. So far, Jin-suk had managed to hunt 4 rabbits. Each one gave him 2 vitality. ¡®How should I distribute the experience?¡¯ S?a??h th? n0v?l(?)ire.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Jin-suk pondered for a very long time. After a moment, a red light poured out of the bead and entered his body. Surprised, he found that the number on the bead had returned to 0. Jin-suk hastily opened his character window. LV : 1 EXP : 8/42 hour : 744,599 : 43 : 57 (744,599 : 43 : 57) (Max consume hour / Per Skill ¨C 1hour) str : 13 dex : 14 int : 12 His experience had gone up. This meant that the bead responded to the player¡¯s will. Jin-suk mumbled under his breath, feeling like this was truly a comfortable game. After he¡¯d caught a few more rabbits, Jin-suk returned to the village, carrying the mummified corpse of the rabbits that had had their vitality absorbed. After passing through the simple tree branch fence, Jin-suk headed to the grocery store. Even in this small town there was a store. ¡®This is really a game,¡¯ Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help but think. ¡°Can I sell this?¡± The owner of the grocery store frowned as he looked at the mummified corpses of the rabbits on his counter. ¡°Hey. Brother. If you were in my place, would you buy something like this?¡± No. Not at all. Jin-suk was a bit embarrassed by the question he was asked. It was truly amazing. No matter how realistic the game was, he had never expected that the NPCs would be able to say such things. It seemed that he had to be careful when dealing with NPCs in this game. ¡°Brother. Are you a traveler? It seems like you don¡¯t know anything. Have you just arrived here?¡± ¡°¡­a traveler?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. The people from a different world with a weird sense of fashion who like to wear masks that don¡¯t look cool.¡± Ahh. The players. Only then did Jin-suk learn what the NPCs called the players. ¡°Yeah. I arrived today.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s why you don¡¯t know anything. Look, brother. The prey that you use the Bead of Life on, they become dry like these ones. The way they are. You¡¯d probably starve to death eating things that had been sucked of all their vitality. I¡¯m sorry, but these are worthless. Skin, meat, bones. If you want to get these things from your hunt, then you can¡¯t use the Bead of Life.¡± ¡®It seems I can¡¯t get the materials.¡¯ It seemed that players who hunted their prey were given two options. Experience, or materials. ¡°Well, since there¡¯s a traveler in the town then I don¡¯t have to worry about meat anymore. If you get it, I¡¯ll buy it from you at a reasonable price.¡± ¡°¡­aren¡¯t there rabbits outside?¡± ¡°Ah, those? Those things are scary. They¡¯re so fast that we can¡¯t catch them unless we set traps. It¡¯s not like everyone in the village can go trapping. And barely anyone can face it and survive too.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t run away? It might be hard to face it head-on by yourself, but is it still a problem with 3-4 people?¡± ¡°That¡¯s only for you. I don¡¯t know what kind of grudges you travellers have, but be it animal or monster, you don¡¯t hesitate to rush to your deaths. Well, the smart ones run away from the danger.¡± ¡®What else don¡¯t I know of?¡¯ Jin-suk looked at the owner and recalled the information he was just given. The game was illegal. So of course there was no internet forum. And so far the game was very different from other games and wasn¡¯t very friendly to the players. ¡®I need to learn the rest of the information by myself.¡¯ With that in mind, Jin-suk left the grocery store. Chapter 9 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 9Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Puk. The body of a rabbit, who had been running to leave a few bite marks on Jin-suk¡¯s body, was hit by the short sword and sent flying. You could imagine the performance of the weapon when it sent the rabbit flying like a club, instead of cutting it. As he thought that he should change the short sword the moment he got enough money, Jin-suk ran to the rabbit which was still stunned from the blow, and stabbed the sword into its head. Pagak. It always felt good to pierce the skull. Jin-suk, who picked up the still wriggling rabbit that was leaking blood and brains, pondered for a moment. Should he sell this one, or make it experience? After thinking for a while, Jin-suk decided to sell it, so he put the body of the rabbit into the bracelet. Feeling like hunting some more, he looked around. There were no more rabbits to be seen. There were white shapes that seemed to be rabbits in the distance, but Jin-suk¡¯s surroundings were clean. Rumble. ¡°I should sell the meat.¡±. In the end he decided to head to the village, rubbing his stomach that was growling angrily in hunger. It was 5 copper coins per kilogram at the store in the village. After earning around 1 silver coin, he bought two loaves of the cheapest bread from the bakery before heading to the only smithy in the village. ¡°¡­I shouldn¡¯t have bought this.¡± He forced himself to chew the bread that was so hard he didn¡¯t know if he was chewing on a piece of coal, or a rock. His jaw quickly became sore. Jin-suk, who thought that the bread in his hand might do more damage than his short sword, finally arrived at the blacksmith. Determined to increase his strength so that he could chew through bread like this. ¡°Excuse me.¡± ¡°Huh? Oh a customer.¡± In the corner was a middle aged man who was lighting a fire in a furnace. The man was obviously the blacksmith, had a large body packed with muscles, giving Jin-suk the subconscious feeling that he would not be able to win with his present ability. ¡°I came to look for a sword.¡± ¡°Ah you must be the novice traveler that Lancaster mentioned.¡± ¡°¡­there are rumors already?¡± ¡°Well, it is a small town after all. Besides, that grocery store owner has never been known for his tight lips.¡± The way he talked with a bright smile on his face made him seem like a good person. However he only laughed for a moment before it instead became a frown. ¡°Hmm. Well you see. Our forge is specialized in making farm equipment. We don¡¯t have any sword molds. Because this is such a small village, there isn¡¯t anyone who would need a dedicated weapon.¡± ¡®Wait a minute.¡¯ The blacksmith took out a stool and brought it to a shelf. From the top, he took down what seemed to be an old box, covered with dust. The blacksmith swept the dust off of the box before placing it on the counter. ¡°I brought this when I first moved to the town. At that time, I thought I¡¯d be able to sell it. I was very young then.¡± The blacksmith removed the lid. Then he stepped away. Jin-suk peeked at the contents of the box, wondering what was happening. In the box was a sword that seemed to be a bit old. It was in the form of a longsword. The only drawback was that the blade had lost its luster and was now covered in rust. ¡°¡­you can¡¯t use this.¡± Jin-suk also agreed with the blacksmith who covered the lid of the box again. ¡°¡­I¡¯ve got iron bars, sickles and axes.¡± ¡°¡­so you don¡¯t have any swords.¡± Jin-suk sighed. It seemed that he would have to suffer with the short sword until he left this beginner town. The grasslands in front of the village had become boring for now, so Jin-suk was trying to strengthen himself so that he could try to climb the mountains behind the village. Should he just use an axe? Jin-suk was a bit worried. ¡°¡­no, there is one.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a bit of a stretch for a beginner to buy it though¡­¡± As the blacksmith muttered, he went to get another box from the side and this time, the box was clean. The blacksmith opened the box. Inside was also a longsword. However it was visibly different from the previous piece of garbage. ¡°This one is a little expensive, so I¡¯ve been holding it for myself. I bought this from the city. I never showed it to the villagers. I¡¯m only showing you because you are a traveler.¡± ¡°How much is it?¡± ¡°Only gotta give me 50 silver.¡± It was expensive. The price matched, but it wasn¡¯t a price he could afford. So there was no need for him to think about it right now. Jin-suk walked out of the blacksmith, his face showing his desire to be it at a later time. He needed a shield, but it wasn¡¯t something that he would be able to get in this village. Jin-suk stretched, looking at the slowly setting sun. A man walked past Jin-suk. His face was pockmarked and his hair was messy. The man¡¯s back was curved and a big lump was protruding from it. He staggered forward with the help of a walking stick. This man, dressed in shabby clothes that were only fit to be called rags, was obviously a beggar. The villagers in the village all seemed to avoid him with cold looks on their faces. Jin-suk kept watching as the man left the village and headed into the mountains. After taking off the connection tool, Jin-suk stepped out of the capsule, raised his arms and stretched. After he stretched his body which had become stiff after a night in the same position, looked at the connection for World of Masks. That game was the best. The reality of the world, the reactions of the NPCs and the blood and guts which behaved as they should. It seemed that there really was no reason for him to hunt in back alleys anymore. Now all he needed to do was level up so he could hunt humanoid monsters or even other humans. Jin-suk carefully placed the device on the table before checking his watch. It was 6:00 in the morning. While enjoying the game, he had ended up staying up all night. Thinking that he would be dead tired, Jin-suk suddenly realised something about his current condition. ¡®Shouldn¡¯t I be tired?¡¯ Even though he had played the whole night, he did not feel any fatigue at all. No rather, his mind was energized as if he¡¯d just had a good night¡¯s sleep. ¡®Well, it¡¯s good if I¡¯m not tired.¡¯ While muttering about the Devil¡¯s magic, Jin-suk headed to the bathroom. The game didn¡¯t feed him, so he still had to work today. Jin-suk received a phone call from the police while he was organizing the nutritional supplements he¡¯d received that day. ¡°Is this Mr. Kim Jin-suk?¡± ¡°Yes. This is he.¡± ¡°Ah! Mr. Jin-suk. I¡¯m brother Han Sang-tae. I was the detective who spoke to you regarding the attempted rape by those bastards a few days ago.¡± Ahh. That heavy smoker detective. The sight of the detective squatting outside the station smoking with a happy expression soon came to Jin-suk¡¯s mind. ¡°Yes. I remember. But what is it that you need?¡± At this time, Jin-suk¡¯s body was a little stiff with tension. Just as he¡¯d started playing the World of Masks which was an illegal game, he received a call from the police. ¡°The victim asked for Mr. Jin-suk¡¯s contact information. I don¡¯t think it is a problem since it is the victim who wants to thank you and not the perpetrator, but I still need to check first.¡± His tense body immediately relaxed. However if it was possible for them to know that he¡¯d just started playing the game and arrested him, then the World of Masks game would have been wiped out a long time ago. ¡°Well, I just did what anyone would do.¡± ¡°Well. The victim doesn¡¯t think so. To be honest with you, there are not many people who would do the same thing nowadays. Even if you saved a drowning man, instead of giving you a reward, they might ask for more help instead.¡± Come to think of it, that was true. Jin-suk had saved two robbery victims and three sexual assault victims before but this was the first person who had asked for his contact information to properly thank him. Suddenly Jin-suk remembered the woman. The woman who had been crying bitterly and trying to cover her body with her torn clothes was a great beauty. So it seemed okay to accept it this once. ¡°Then it¡¯s fine.¡± ¡°Okay. So I can give her this number?¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s right.¡± He hung up the phone after saying that he had to work. After he put his smartphone back into his pocket, Jin-suk continued to organize the nutritional supplements and then put a bag of fertilizer that had also arrived, in the storage room at the back. Surprisingly, a flower shop was a place with a high requirement for manual labor. With a groan, he put his hand on his back and stretched. A cracking sound was heard from his waist. He was wondering if he should go back to the dojo that he had stopped after his parents died, when his phone rang again. ¡°Hello?¡± Now that he had finished his work, he felt like he should take a smoke break, so as he answered the phone, he began looking for cigarettes and a lighter. He remembered that he¡¯d thrown them somewhere when he walked into the store in the morning. A soft voice sounded in his ear. ¡°Is this the number for Mr. Kim Jin-suk?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯m Kim Jin-suk.¡± ¡®Ah. Found them.¡¯ While listening to the voice that was hesitating on the phone, Jin-suk began to walk to the entrance of the store after finding the cigarettes and lighter in the pocket of his coat. ¡°Ah! I-, thank you for what you did a few days ago!¡± Huh? Jin-suk, who was surprised at the sudden shout, made an ¡®Ah!¡¯ sound as a thought came to his mind. This must be the woman who he had saved a few days ago that wanted to call to say thank you. ¡°Ah. It¡¯s you from a few days ago.¡± ¡°Yes. My name is Han Yu-rin. I¡¯m really grateful for what you did.¡± ¡°Thanks. I did what I had to.¡± Jin-suk was a man of dignity. In addition to the fact that she truly had no reason to be grateful since he had only done it to satisfy his desire to hunt in the first place, what was important was that the one who was thanking him now was a great beauty. He spoke with a moderate amount of humility, but she didn¡¯t agree with that. ¡°No. Not at all. I don¡¯t want to imagine what would¡¯ve happened if it wasn¡¯t for Mr. Kim Jin-suk¡­¡± A blurry image of that scene came to his mind. However he didn¡¯t think about it much. Instead he clicked his tongue as he looked at the cigarette box. ¡®Damn it. It¡¯s Mast.¡¯ He frowned unconsciously. Although he was an ordinary smoker, Jin-suk really hated using Mast. ¡°Well my parents would like to thank you with a meal together. Do you have time?¡± ¡°No. You don¡¯t need to do that. It¡¯s really okay.¡± ¡°It¡¯s because we¡¯re not okay. Please, I beg you.¡± Since she spoke like that, it would be a bad thing for him to refuse. Honestly, he didn¡¯t really want to meet her parents, but he decided to bear with it because of her beauty. Afterall, Jin-suk was a man. In this situation he couldn¡¯t help but imagine himself getting involved with such a gorgeous woman. In the first place, he was reluctant to meet the woman¡¯s parents because of his instincts, but that was settled. Eventually they were able to match schedules and made an appointment to meet for the meal in a month. s?a??h th? N?v?lF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 10 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 10Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana While playing the World of Masks, Jin-suk was really happy. Although it was just animals, he was able to feel blood splashing and bones being cut every day. Jin-suk had already begun hunting wild boars in the mountain after moving on from the rabbits in the grassland. The worn out short sword was still a problem, but Jin-suk had managed to level himself up a bit already. He had less problems hunting after he invested the 5 stat points he gained by level up to his dex and str. He didn¡¯t even look at his int. From the beginning, his play style was to use his weapon to smash his prey. That way he was able to look at their faces and feel his weapon cut into them. So Jin-suk¡¯s job in most virtual reality games was always warrior. S~?a??h the N?velF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Jin-suk sold half of the prey he¡¯d caught that day at the general store in the village and when he was picking up his money from the counter he remembered the hunchbacked man that he had seen a few days before. ¡°Come to think of it. I saw an old man with a hunchback walking with a cane a few days ago. Is he from this village?¡± The owner of the store, who was in a good mood because of all the boar meat that Jin-suk had brought back, answered him after losing his smile. ¡°Ah? That guy?¡± From the harshness of his voice it did not seem to be a good topic. ¡°He¡¯s not from this village! Instead of being helpful, all he does is beg!¡± ¡°¡­a beggar¡­?¡± It was true that he had been wearing clothes that were no better than rags. Just thinking of it made the store owner angry as he grabbed Jin-suk and began swearing loudly. ¡°He¡¯s a cancer. A begging bastard. He appeared a few years ago, built a hut on the back mountain, then dug out some grass roots to sell in the village. The bastard couldn¡¯t sell them so he went to people¡¯s houses, going house to house, begging for food as he went. If he sold something useful then he could get enough to live off of but instead he chose to beg, going from door to door. It was extremely annoying. Where could we get the food from? And everytime he comes down to town, something bad happens. Rumor has it that he is the descendant of a Demon King who flipped the world upside down just 50 years ago.¡± The grocery store owner spoke till spit flew out of his mouth. Whether it was because he felt that Jin-suk was really interested or whether his grievances were large, the store owner kept getting louder and louder and he recounted all the unfortunate things that happened whenever the old man came into the village. But Jin-suk, who had listened to the store owner¡¯s entire tirade, had a completely different feeling when he learned of the villagers¡¯ reasoning. ¡®It¡¯s just bullying.¡¯ The supposed bad things that happened to the village all turned out to be incredibly trivial. Other than claiming him to be the descendant of a devil, there was really no reason for the villagers¡¯ persecution. However seeing the store owner shout so vehemently with spit and foam coming out of his made it seem like that was truly what he thought. Perhaps these were just rumors that sprung because someone with an unusual look came to live close to their small village. And this thought became solidified when he made a stop at the blacksmith after level the general store. ¡°He¡¯s just a poor old man.¡± As he swung his heavy hammer, the blacksmith, who was rippling with muscles, spoke of the old man in a tone filled with pity. ¡°I don¡¯t know where he came from, but he built a little cabin on the back cabin about four years ago. But the villagers were disgusted by his appearance. He didn¡¯t do anything to hurt us. Well, I don¡¯t know if it was because he tried to beg for food when it was already so scarce. The closedness of the villagers might have played a part as well.¡± Tch. Clicking his tongue, the blacksmith looked in the direction that the old man might be living in. Now that he thought about it, Jin-suk had only been able to really get close to the store owner and the blacksmith since he came to the village. The others were still vigilant and cautious toward him. The blacksmith as though he didn¡¯t want to endure the solemn mood anymore burst out laughing, revealing his white teeth. ¡°Now that I think about it. How much money do you have? I heard from Langster that you¡¯ve been very diligent in bringing us wild game. Thanks to you I¡¯ve been able to grease my throat for the first time in a while.¡± The blacksmith seemed truly satisfied. He couldn¡¯t remember when last he could eat meat in the village so easily. So he couldn¡¯t help being in such a good mood. ¡°It¡¯s fine. I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be much longer if I keep earning like this.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great. Honestly I couldn¡¯t even know when I¡¯d be able to sell it if it wasn¡¯t for you. But I can¡¯t discount any more. I already gave you a huge one with 50 silver.¡± He didn¡¯t really know if the blacksmith had cut much off the price but it was a good sword so Jin-suk didn¡¯t complain. After chatting with the blacksmith a bit longer, Jin-suk finally left the smithy. Then without hesitation, he left the village and began climbing the back mountain. From what he¡¯d gathered by combining the stories of the general store owner and the blacksmith, the old man lived alone on the mountain without family. He had no relatives or close friends. No, he was treated like a plague by the entire village. After finding a small footpath at the foot of the mountain behind the village, Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help the wide smile that stretched across his face. Jin-suk took the short sword from his bracelet. The dried blood had been roughly washed off in a stream near the village but it didn¡¯t help much so the sword still appeared worn and not properly cleaned. But he could still kill something if he stabbed it. Holding the short sword tightly, Jin-suk looked up at the mountain where the hunchbacked man¡¯s home should be. A person with absolutely no combat ability chose to live in such a place without any family or friends. It was as if they were asking for death. Jin-suk slowly moved up the path as he climbed the mountain. It was surprisingly difficult to find the old hunchback¡¯s house. The path was the only sign that a person had passed by here and even then it was very inconspicuous. The back mountains that were filled with the squeaks of wild boars as he kept searching along the shallow path. It was long after the sun had set that he finally managed to find the hut. Jin-suk, who had finally found his target, was speechless for a moment. This is a house? If he was to compare it to something, it would be like the structures from the Neolithic era that were showcased in the Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement1. The hut was made by half rotten branches and seemed to only have enough space for one person to enter. A pile of black ash lay in a small area that appeared to be a bonfire and on a nearby wooden table there seemed to be wooden utensils. Rustle. As if they had felt his presence, someone crawled out of the hut. His bent back and ragged clothes let Jin-suk know that it was the Hunchback that he had been looking for. ¡°Hello.¡± The man glanced at Jin-suk who then gave him a kind smile. Even if he didn¡¯t look dangerous, you could never tell what might happen. Jin-suk tried to approach the man while wearing that smile, but the man flinched and fell away from him. ¡°Wh-¡­who are you?¡± As he heard the sound like scratching a broken brass bowl, Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help the slight frown that came across his face. The man in front of him seemed to have something wrong with his vocal chords. ¡°Ah, I am a traveler who stopped by the village at the bottom of the mountain. I came here because I became curious after hearing that someone lived here.¡± The man looked up at the word traveler. ¡°Tr-¡­traveler? That¡­one who came to save the world¡­that¡­traveler?¡± What was he talking about? Jin-suk tilted his head slightly as he heard a statement that he hadn¡¯t encountered before. However now that he thought about it, he realised that he had never really asked any questions about travelers. Jin-suk made a note to ask the general store owner or the blacksmith when he went back to the village. Anyway he decided to make use of it since the old man had misunderstood so conveniently. ¡°Ahh. Yes. That¡¯s the traveler.¡± He tightly gripped the handle of the short sword that he was hiding behind his back and began to approach the man, all while maintaining his kind smile. When Jin-suk got closer and was about to stab the man with the short sword. ¡°I¡­I¡­He-¡­Help me. Frien-¡­I want friends. The villagers¡­I want them to be my friends.¡± Jin-suk¡¯s eyes trembled slightly as he looked at the old man who was holding onto his close as if he was a savior. Friends? What was he talking about? Maybe this guy had mistaken him for a genie from a lamp? The man in front of him seemed to have had a misconception from the word traveler. As the unexpected situation caused Jin-suk to pause since it seemed like the man had mistaken him for something else, the man limped into his hut before bringing something out. ¡°P-¡­I¡¯ll pay. Here.¡± The man arranged some objects in front of Jin-suk. There were a few copper coins which seemed to have lost their distinctive glimmer due to dirt. It was probably all the wealth the man had, but in truth it was practically nothing. Jin-suk¡¯s cold eyes which were watching at the items the man brought out, suddenly widened in surprise. ¡®A Bead of Life?¡± The blue bead that was beside the coins surprised him quite a bit. ¡°Th-¡­this. I will give them to you.¡± Jin-suk felt that he was lucky. He would never have expected this beggar to actually have a bead of life. He thought he would leave the beginner village before he got the chance to get a better Bead of life¡­ Thinking that it was truly his lucky moment, Jin-suk gripped the short sword behind his back and got ready to launch his attack. Frankly, he didn¡¯t think he could help the man with his request. From looking at the attitude of the villagers, he felt like it was practically a quest with S rank difficulty to get the man in front of him to be their friend. Therefore Jin-suk who did not intend to waste his time on an impossible task, intended to steal the item after killing the man. If it wasn¡¯t for the quest window that appeared before his eyes. Ding. [Quest- Poor Hunchback Ranphral¡¯s friends¡­ Difficulty: D Ranphral was abandoned by his parents at birth due to his disability and has lived alone for as long as he has known. So his biggest wish is to make friends. Of course, it may be difficult for him to make friends because of Ranphral¡¯s appearance. But Ranphral has recognized you as the savior. Help Ranphral make friends.] Jin-suk alternately looked between the quest window in front of him and at Ranphral alternately. Then he smacked his lips and relaxed his grip on the short sword. He could kill the man in front of him at any time. So it would be better for him to clear his first quest in the World of Masks first. Thinking up to here, Jin-suk smiled even brighter and put his hand on Ranphral¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯ll be successful, but let¡¯s try.¡± With a quiet ¡®thank you¡¯ Ranphral also returned a bright smile to Jin-suk that was as pure as a child¡¯s. However Jin-suk¡¯s eyes as he looked at Ranphral were still cold. (Note: 1. he Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement Site is a historic site where visitors can learn about Korea during the Neolithic era. The site has two exhibition halls with displays of ancient artifacts excavated at Amsa, and with educational displays about the lives of prehistoric people who lived during 5,000 BCE. Ahhhh this chapter made me sad¡­at one point I wanted him to kill the old man, but then I saw the ¡®Fri-¡­I want friends¡¯ and my heart broke¡­no fair T~T why did author-sama have to give the prey feelings¡­T~T ) Chapter 11 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 11Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk, who had accepted the quest, began to move hurriedly. This was his first real quest in the World of Masks so he was determined to do his best. He had already formed a plan to complete the quest to some extent. All he needed to make the plan work was a prey. ¡°Kweeek!¡± The wild boar rushing towards him had come just as he was intending to go look for something. He evaded its charge and stabbed it in the back with his short sword. Puk. ¡°Kweeek!¡± Ignoring the wild boar¡¯s pain, he pulled the short sword out. If he didn¡¯t pull it out, then with the momentum of the wild boar which hadn¡¯t died yet, he would lose the short sword. When Jin-suk had first started hunting he had many similar mistakes and it gave him a lot of trouble. Jin-suk calmly watched as the wild boar kept running for a bit while thrashing wildly due to the pain. He waited. If he approached it during that commotion then there was a high chance that he would get hurt by it. Of course, the wild boars on this mountain weren¡¯t particularly large since it was only a beginner village. They were only about half the size of a regular wild boar. But even then, a wild boar was not an animal that could simply be hunted by fighting it with a knife or sword. This was a fact even if the wild boar was small. Though he¡¯d raised his level a bit and gotten stronger, Jin-suk wasn¡¯t careless when hunting his prey. The wild boar, which had been running for a long time, finally stopped before looking toward Jin-suk. Its small form which was frothing at the mouth and glaring with red eyes was quite a fearsome sight. Nevertheless, Jin-suk, who had been waiting for the moment the boar stopped moving and instead looked for the one who hurt it, rushed toward the wild boar. Before it could react, Jin-suk leapt forward and thrusted his sword towards its head. Crack. He enjoyed the feeling of piercing a skull once again. ¡®I think I¡¯ll really become addicted.¡¯ Looking at the dead boar, Jin-suk smiled in satisfaction and wiped the bit of sweat that accumulated on his forehead. He struggled a bit because the short sword was not very reliable, but he was able to make due because of his increased attributes. Jin-suk put the wild boar¡¯s carcass into the bracelet before moving on in search of another prey. ¡°Brother! Why must you be like this!¡± Jin-suk, who had stopped by the general store to ask something, was accosted by the store owner. Due to the sudden shout of the store owner, Jin-suk tilted his head slightly in confusion because he didn¡¯t understand what was going on. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± ¡°Problem?!¡± The owner of the general store shouted with so much force that it seemed like his teeth would fly out of his mouth and smacked the counter. ¡°Brother, you keep giving away your wild game to the villagers for free. It¡¯s hindering my business.¡± ¡®So it¡¯s because of that.¡¯ Jin-suk looked a bit troubled. No matter what, the store owner would be angry. Jin-suk, who didn¡¯t know that he had implemented such a change, felt that this game was no different from reality. But to be surprised was just to be surprised and now he just needed to appease the shopkeeper in front of him. ¡°Calm down. Calm down. I didn¡¯t mean to mess with Mr. Langster.¡± Because they had a connection, he was still willing to listen to him, however, Langster glared at Jin-suk with eyes that said ¡®if you tell me nonsense, I will deal with you¡¯. ¡°It¡¯s been such a long time since I came to this village but I¡¯m only close to Mr. Langster and the blacksmith Mr. Hans. Right?¡± ¡°What about it?¡± ¡°I am just a traveller and will soon leave the village, but I still feel off when the villagers are on guard. That¡¯s why I thought about making some friends by sharing some of the boars I caught. I didn¡¯t mean to interfere with Mr. Langster¡¯s business.¡± In order to complete the quest, Jin-suk first thought of a way to create friendships with the NPCs in the village and himself. Once he had built familiarity with the NPCs, he would implement his plan. So Jin-suk handed out his catches to the villagers. Of course, the effect was amazing. ¡°Now I have some acquaintances so I¡¯ll stop doing that. In fact, I¡¯ll even increase Mr. Langster¡¯s sales.¡± ¡°Sales?¡± As expected, the moment he heard the word sales, Langsters ears perked up like he had heard a tune from heaven. ¡°Yes. Didn¡¯t Mr. Langster say before that there was alcohol in this store?¡± ¡°Of course. This town is small, so my store handles almost everything.¡± ¡°How much?¡± ¡°There is only beer. Five oak barrels. Why, you want to buy?¡± ¡°Yes, please give it to me.¡± ¡°¡­all?¡± Five oak barrels of beer was an enormous amount. Even if he sold one, it would be large enough for a party, not to mention all of them. Langster¡¯s mouth was understandably wide with shock. ¡°Ahahaha. You should have said so early. Then why would I have a reason to be angry?¡± It seemed that he felt it wasn¡¯t enough as he opened the door on the counter, walked out and patted Jin-suk on the back a few times. As expected, the best way to gain the favor of the store owner was to boost his sales. Fortunately, it seemed that Langster¡¯s negative feelings had been completely resolved which caused Jin-suk to sigh in relief as it seemed that he would be able to ask his questions now. ¡°Come to think of it. I heard that travellers came from another world, is that right?¡± ¡°Huh? Brother, you didn¡¯t even know that? Then why are you here?¡± Jin-suk shrugged at those words. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a trip.¡± ¡°Hmm. Really? Well, there was a prophecy before the travellers appeared. The travellers were coming to our world to subjugate the monsters and accept our requests. Well, to request a favor would require a certain amount of wealth first.¡± When he heard Langster¡¯s words, Jin-suk nodded. It seemed that that was the story that convinced the NPCs of the legitimacy of the players¡¯ existence. ¡°But why are you buying so much alcohol? To drink it yourself?¡± ¡°No. I¡¯m preparing to leave in a few days so I¡¯d like to host a small feast in the village. Mr. Langster can you please tell the other villagers?¡± ¡°A feast?¡± Langster¡¯s eyes widened in surprise. However, his mouth soon followed as he understood Jin-suk¡¯s meaning. ¡°You will share all of the alcohol there?¡± ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve already got some meat stocked up. I will like to host it tomorrow, so Mr. Langster, please tell the other villagers.¡± ¡°Leave it to me! We¡¯ll take care of the preparations!¡± This was a feast after all. In small villages like this one, there would only be small feasts after the harvest. While thinking that he could eat and drink to his heart¡¯s content, Langster¡¯s mood turned 180 degrees from the previous day, it kept soaring unaware of how high the sky was. A bonfire rose and the smell of meat spread from it. The town was small, so even though there were only about 40 people, the atmosphere was quite lively. It was quite a long time since they could eat meat and drink alcohol so freely which caused the villagers to laugh freely. ¡°Ahahaha. I didn¡¯t expect you to prepare such an event.¡± It was Hans who was smiling brightly as he slapped Jin-suk on the shoulder. In his hand was a large wooden mug that was filled to the brim. Hans, whose face was already laughing with a red face as if he was drunk, plopped down to sit beside Jin-suk. ¡°I¡¯m new to this world, so I thought that this was a good way to treat everyone.¡± ¡°I heard that other travellers who went to other villages were very dangerous people, but the traveller who came to our village was kind instead. Hey! Don¡¯t you all think so?!¡± S~?a??h the N?v?l(F)ire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. The people who were dancing around the bonfire all cheered loudly in unison. In this world which was similar to the Middle Ages from reality, there was not much time for the poorer people to have fun. Therefore, the villagers were filled with praise for Jin-suk who had given them this great opportunity. ¡°I knew that he was this sort of person from the start.¡± Langster, who was holding a large mug of beer in one hand and a large piece of boar meat in the other, sat on the other side of Jin-suk and spoke loudly. ¡°Tch. At first, this guy had come to me and spat about a strange guy who¡¯d shown up¡­¡± ¡°Uhh. Brother. Is this right?¡± These two men pointed at each other and shouted before bursting into laughter. Between the two of them, Jin-suk leaned forward and raised his beer. The stench of the beer was coming from their mouths. Maybe it was because this world was like the Middle Ages, or because this was a rural village, but it was not good alcohol. However, Jin-suk was never a person who cared about the taste of alcohol. He didn¡¯t care if it was a drink that went smoothly down the throat. It was the people who were dancing around the bonfire, and the stars in the sky that seemed to embroider the scene, that he noticed. ¡®This world is really beautiful.¡¯ While listening to the song that villagers sang with all their hearts, Jin-suk drank his alcohol. The next morning. Jin-suk slowly opened his eyes as a soft breeze stroked his hair. As soon as he got up, Jin-suk grimaced as he was assaulted by an intense headache. He raised his arms and stretched his body that had been laying on the ground for an entire night. ¡°Ugh!¡± There seemed to be no problems with his body. Jin-suk got to his feet and dusted himself off. It was his first time sleeping in the game because he usually had to go to the store every day for a living. Fortunately, he had the day off or he would have definitely been late. This was also the first time that he had slept outdoors while drunk. Jin-suk laughed as he recalled how fervently he laughed when people had told him of it before. Jin-suk then picked the grime at the side of his eyes and looked around. All around him were villagers who had gotten drunk and fallen asleep. Jin-suk, with half closed eyes, moved forwards to sit in front of the bonfire beside Hans who looked like he was about to fall over at any moment. ¡°Ahhh. Drinking too much is not good. Oh my head.¡± He didn¡¯t expect that even the hangover would be reproduced by the game. No matter what he expected, what he experienced was much worse. ¡®How much beer would someone have to drink to end up like this?¡¯ Jin-suk looked toward Hans who seemed to be looking at the oak barrels with tired eyes. With his head down and no movement, it looked like he was actually sleeping. ¡°Did you have fun yesterday?¡± He didn¡¯t receive an answer. Did he drink too much yesterday? As if he was asleep, Hans made no response to Jin-suk¡¯s question. Jin-suk let out a laugh. ¡°But you can¡¯t answer.¡± Jin-suk pushed Hans beside him. Thump. Hans fell over to the side easily, as if he was a pile of wood. The shock would have been enough to wake him, but he didn¡¯t move. In fact, it didn¡¯t even seem like he was breathing, like a corpse. Jin-suk looked at the pools of blood around him and moved forward to retrieve the short sword that had been stuck in the ground beside the bonfire. The short sword was covered in blood, as if it had been used to mutilate something. Having blood on the short sword was nothing new. Whenever Jin-suk finished hunting, this was how the short sword would. However, the only difference now was that the blood on the short sword was that of a person instead of an animal. Jin-suk got up from his seat. Twirling the short sword in his hands, he looked around again. Blood had pooled around the fallen bodies of the villagers. Blood! Blood! Blood! The blood came from bodies that had various injuries, some had been stabbed in their throats, some had holes in their skulls, there were bodies that had been completely mutilated, even some that had been decapitated. The blood pooled to form a lake. Jin-suk took a deep breath. The air was clear of any pollutants and so he was able to easily smell the scent of blood that tickled his nose. Jin-suk took another deep breath and looked up to the sky with satisfaction before turning his gaze back to the village. Suddenly a thirst arose from within him and so he licked the blood on the short sword which belonged to someone he didn¡¯t even know. ¡°As expected, it¡¯s really a beautiful world.¡± Jin-suk smiled brightly as he looked at the corpses that had already become stiff and the pool of blood that glimmered in the sunlight. (TL:¡­.mind¡­blown¡­) Chapter 12 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 12Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana In the refreshing morning air, it felt like his hangover was slowly fading. Jin-suk, who was sitting among the corpses and pools of blood under the clear sunlight, slowly got to his feet. Although he had pretended to drink while he was in fact throwing away most of the alcohol, he still drank enough to get a hangover in the morning. ¡°Well, I drank so much that I ended up sleeping like a log.¡± Jin-suk clicked his tongue and kicked a body that was next to him which rolled over without any resistance. Then, while spinning the short sword in his hand which seemed to have become a new habit, he entered the house in front of him which had a structure that was no different to his own. Jin-suk approached the bodies that were laying on a pile of hay in the corner. It was a mother and her child. He then put away the short sword he was holding and began pulling the bodies out of the house. To be honest, the hardest ones to deal with at dawn were the ones who didn¡¯t attend the feast like these ones, or those who had left early. It was pretty easy for him to deal with the ones who had gotten drunk and collapsed, but it was annoying for him to sneak into the house of those who were sleeping at home. Jin-suk, who had pulled out the two bodies, soon went into another house to pull out even more bodies. They were mostly children, and the bodies of some adult women were scattered between them. All of the men had participated in the feast and were taken care of there. Jin-suk, who had roughly collected all the corpses in one place, sat down in a chair that he had taken from a random house. ¡°Now. It¡¯s about time that he arrived.¡± Sitting on the chair, Jin-suk took a bite of some meat that had been left over from yesterday and waited for someone. Anyone would say that waiting like this was boring, but Jin-suk waited quite patiently. How would that person react when they saw this? Would he collapse from shock? Would he become upset that this happened? Jin-suk giggled to himself, hoping that he¡¯d be able to see an unexpected reaction. S~?a??h the N?v?lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. The sun rose and was almost in the middle of the sky. Soon a man¡¯s shadow could be seen approaching. The man seemed to walk with a limping gait as if there was something wrong with his legs and there seemed to be something protruding from his back. As he hobbled over, Jin-suk gave a bright smile when he saw this man walking with the help of a cane. The time had finally come. ¡°Hey. Welcome.¡± He welcomed him with wide arms. However, the man who was approaching seemed to sense that something was wrong and slowed his pace. ¡°Th¡­.thi-, this!¡± Ranphral stopped walking and fixed his eyes on the corpses that were behind Jin-suk. The dried bloodstains that had already started turning black and the bodies that had been piled together like garbage. Faced with the overwhelmingly disgusting smell which seemed to fill his nose all at once, Ranphral collapsed to the ground. ¡°Hiiik!¡± When he saw this reaction, Jin-suk felt a bit disappointed. He had hoped that he¡¯d see a different reaction. Nevertheless, Jin-suk, who still had a bright smile as though the gruesome scene had nothing to do with him, took a step to the side so that he would stop obstructing Ranphral¡¯s view. ¡°Now, here are the ¡®friends¡¯ that I promised.¡± As if he was an announcer on stage who was announcing the next performance, Jin-suk stretched his hands exaggeratedly and introduced the ¡®friends¡¯. ¡°Hey. Now Mr. Ranphral should keep his promise.¡± The sun above his head showed that it was noon and he had delivered the promise right on time. Jin-suk had happily told Ranphral yesterday to visit the village the next day because he was close to fulfilling his request. That was why Jin-suk felt some satisfaction after completing this job. Well, he didn¡¯t know if this was what his client Ranphral had in mind. Jin-suk walked towards the pile of corpses for Ranphral who was shivering on the ground and was unable to react. He picked up one of the bodies that was in the pile and held it for Ranphral to see. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to be scared about. Now these ¡®friends¡¯ won¡¯t ever annoy, curse or despise Mr. Ranphral. No, now Mr. Ranphral can do whatever he likes. How¡¯s that? Where could you find ¡®friends¡¯ as comfortable as these ones?¡± After saying that, he shook the body, and changed his voice before saying ¡®Hi Ranphral! We are friends!¡¯. ¡°U¡­Uak!¡± Ranphral screamed and began to flee from the village as fast as he could. However, his limp made it so that he couldn¡¯t run very fast. After seeing Ranphral run away, Jin-suk clicked his tongue and threw the corpse he was holding aside. Without taking another glance at the body that fell with a ¡®thud¡¯, he began to chase after Ranphral. He didn¡¯t need to run to catch up to the man limping away with his cane, only a fast walk was necessary. Puk. ¡°Ack!!!¡± Jin-suk, who hit the back of the escaping Ranphral which caused him to fall, grabbed him by the leg and began dragging him back to the pile of corpses. ¡°Now, now. Where are you going? I worked really hard for this.¡± ¡°Hiiik!¡± Ranphral dug his fingers into the ground to stop himself from being dragged away. His nails broke and his skin peeled, causing him to paint marks on the ground with his blood, but he wasn¡¯t able to stop himself from being taken. ¡°Well I¡¯ve made a lot of preparations for this. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn¡¯t think of a way to make them become your friend. So I eventually decided to kill them and give them to Mr. Ranphral. At first, I attracted the people by giving them the prey that I hunted. They didn¡¯t even know it was for their lives. After building a good relationship, I threw a big feast. Since it was a feast held by someone who treated them well, of course they would participate without any hesitation. Next? What is there to say? I killed the ones that had fallen asleep after getting drunk. But that wasn¡¯t the end, I still had to go kill the rest who weren¡¯t there too.¡± Jin-suk gave out a hearty laugh. It was the best idea he¡¯d ever come up with. But Ranphral swung the walking stick in his hands at the hand that Jin-suk was using to hold his leg as if he didn¡¯t agree. ¡°Le¡­Let go of me!!¡± Pak. The sharp pain made Jin-suk let go. Following that, Ranphral began to crawl to the town desperately. Jin-suk¡¯s eyes became a bit distorted when he touched his still tingling hand. Puk. ¡°Hiiik!¡± Ranphral¡¯s body stiffened when the blade of a short sword stuck into the ground beside his face. The surface of the sword, which had lost its original luster seemed to glow red as if it was an invitation to the gates of hell. ¡°It seems that Mr. Ranphral doesn¡¯t like the ¡®friends¡¯ I made.¡± Jin-suk put his face close to the face of Ranphral who had his head turned. What he saw was an ugly, swollen face that had snot running from its nose and teary eyes that were visibly afraid. Jin-suk pulled out the short sword and held it to Ranphral¡¯s neck. ¡°Do you really not like them? The ¡®friends¡¯ I made?¡± The shivering Ranphral shook his head slowly. ¡°N-¡­no. Huk, I, I love¡­them.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Jin-suk laughed again. ¡°Yeah. If you didn¡¯t like it. I don¡¯t know what I would do.¡± Taking the shortsword away, Jin-suk came off of Ranphral. Ranphral kept staring at Jin-suk with a terrified expression and it was unsure whether he still had thoughts of running away. ¡°But there¡¯s a problem. Ranphral needs something more to be friends with them.¡± Jin-suk approached Ranphral¡¯s face again. ¡°Are you curious?¡± ¡°Uh¡­m-, mhm! Mhm!¡± (TL: not quite¡­but it is the closest english equivalent) Looking at the desperately nodding Ranphral, Jin-suk nodded with satisfaction. ¡°You said it.¡± Puk. The shortsword entered Ranphral¡¯s throat as Jin-suk whispered in his ear. ¡°It¡¯s your life.¡± ¡°Kek!¡± Blood flowing in his oesophagus and lungs prevented Ranphral from breathing. Looking at the twitching Ranphral who was desperately grasping his neck, Jin-suk pulled out the shortsword without hesitation. Shik. The fresh blood on the sword fell to the ground, making a small puddle by his feet. Ranphral desperately tried to stop the bleeding in his neck, but as if to ridicule his efforts, blood continued pouring past his fingers. It was hot. As if he didn¡¯t care whether Ranphral was able to stop the bleeding or not, Jin-suk grabbed Ranphral¡¯s leg again and continued dragging him to the pile of corpses. ¡°I thought about it. And in the end a friend that was a corpse was indeed the best. But discrimination between friends isn¡¯t good. Doesn¡¯t Mr. Ranphral think so?¡± ¡°Kelug! Kelug!¡± ¡°I knew it! I knew you¡¯d think so too! As someone who was always discriminated against for being different I knew you¡¯d be able to understand me!¡± Jin-suk put his hand to his chest as if he was impressed. However, Ranphral¡¯s movements were gradually slowing down. ¡°Now Ranphral will truly be the villager¡¯s friend. Aren¡¯t you happy?¡± ¡°¡­¡± There was no answer. When he heard that there were no more sounds, Jin-suk turned to look at Ranphral. It seemed as though he had bled out as there was a long trail of blood behind them as though it was painted by a brush. Ranphral¡¯s body was extremely pale, and he did not move at all. ¡°He died.¡± Jin-suk smacked his lips, before scratching his cheek and humming a happy tune as he continued to drag him to the pile. Huk. Thump. Jin-suk threw Ranphral¡¯s body into the center of the pile of the villagers¡¯ corpses. Then he walked away for a bit before turning around. In front of him were the villagers bodies surrounding that of Ranphral. Jin-suk raised his thumb and index finger on both hands in the shape of an L and put them together to form a picture frame. The entire scene seemed to perfectly fit the frame of his fingers. Jin-suk smiled brightly as he saw this. He felt refreshed as if he had accomplished a great task. ¡°See!. Look how nice that looks!¡± Chapter 13 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 13Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk, who was admiring the scene he¡¯d created through the square he made with his fingers, praised himself, feeling that no matter how he looked at it, the method he chose to solve the quest was perfect. The villagers and Ranphral, who were originally so far away from each other, were now gathered in one place. Jin-suk felt that Ranphral should have been very satisfied with the result. Ding. [Quest Completed: Poor Hunchback Ranphral¡¯s Friends¡­. Difficulty: D s?a??h th? ??v?lF?re.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. You made perfect ¡®friends¡¯ for Ranphral who was lonely because he didn¡¯t have any. Although they are immovable, lifeless friends, they will no longer insult or despise Ranphral. Ranphral himself courageously accepted the same conditions as his new friends in order to become more acquainted with them. Give your blessings to Ranphral, who has found new happiness with his new friends. Reward: 3kg of Silver] Jin-suk, who had blinked his eyes for a moment after reading the quest window that appeared in front of him, immediately burst into a fit of manic laughter. If anyone managed to see the sight of Jin-suk rolling on the ground while holding his stomach and laughing, they would immediately think he was crazy. But Jin-suk was not crazy. Well, he was crazy, but not that kind of crazy. After wiping his tears, Jin-suk once again looked at the window that had never moved from in front of his face even when he had been rolling around. ¡°Haha. So even this can be considered a quest success.¡± No matter how he thought about it, this was truly a great game. He hadn¡¯t expected that what he¡¯d done could actually be considered a successful quest. In fact, he¡¯d been sure that he failed the quest. Of course, this didn¡¯t mean that Jin-suk didn¡¯t have any interest in completing the quest from the start. He¡¯d seriously thought about how to make friends for Ranphral and he had done it in his own way. Right. This was definitely Jin-suk¡¯s own form of ¡®goodwill¡¯. However, Jin-suk knew that he had other opinions from the general public. Therefore, while he¡¯d tried his best to complete the objective since it was his first quest in the game, Jin-suk had felt that the game would not be able to understand his intentions. However, in the end, this window had surprisingly shown him that he completed the quest. ¡°Kukuku. The guy who made this game is definitely as crazy as I am.¡± It was truly delightful. He really wanted to meet this person and say thank you. They were like birds of a feather. Jin-suk felt like he¡¯d be able to talk freely and openly with that person and they would really be able to have fun together. ¡°The reward is 3kg of silver. How many coins would it take to come up to 3kg?¡± Since he didn¡¯t know how many grams of silver were in a silver coin, he didn¡¯t know how many he would get for a 3kg ingot of silver. ¡°Did it go to my inventory?¡± Deciding to look for his reward, Jin-suk touched the window in front of him to get rid of it and opened the storage in his bracelet. But soon he tilted his head in confusion. ¡°Not here?¡± Inside his inventory was only the silver and bronze coins he¡¯d gotten for selling the meat as well as some leftover meat. No matter how he looked at it, there was no silver ingot. Just in case, Jin-suk began scouring his surroundings. He even checked the corpses, put his head inside an empty oak barrel, and even picked up a wooden dish that fell on the ground. But there was still no sign of a silver ingot. ¡°Is it a bug?¡± Jin-suk frowned. He felt like he¡¯d been hit with a bucket of cold water after being excited. ¡®Can you even report bugs?¡¯ Jin-suk, who had been searching for his reward, soon gave up. It was just money in a game anyway. There was no need to think about it anymore. It just felt like swallowing a bitter pill when such an otherwise perfect game revealed such a bug. Jin-suk, who¡¯d lost his reward to a bug, decided to end his game time here for the day. In this game, logging out was as easy as just thinking about it. When he¡¯d first entered the game, he had been confused because he couldn¡¯t find a way to leave. Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help but smile when thinking about how frustrated he was a few days ago. It was only when he had strongly desired to log out while closing his eyes that a window saying ¡®You cannot log out in the village. Please leave the town or go to your residence before trying again.¡¯ appeared in front of him. After all the villagers were dead, he tried again, but it seemed that it was impossible to log out within the village. Jin-suk trudged his way to his cabin. After climbing out of his bed, Jin-suk removed the access tool from his head. After learning that the World of Masks didn¡¯t require a game capsule he no longer needed to worry about becoming stiff from sitting in a capsule for too long since he could just change his gaming location to his bed. Jin-suk went to open the curtains that had been closed and stood in the sunlight, which was a little too strong, before heading to the living room. Then he got a cup from the sink and filled it with water from the purifier. As he drank the water, Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help but brood over the first quest that he had done in the game. Pfft! This was until he saw an object on the table which caused him to spit out a mouthful of the water he¡¯d been drinking. After looking at this object with a stiff face, Jin-suk hurried to the front door. There he inspected the locks which were the average locking mechanisms that one would find in an ordinary home. A lock below the handle and an auxiliary lock above it. Along with a latch at the top. Naturally, these were all locked and showed no signs of tampering. Just in case, Jin-suk tried to push the door open but it didn¡¯t budge. Then he went to the windows. But he found that they were also locked securely. This was also a low floor so the windows were all equipped with security measures. Although these security windows could easily be torn open, the ones in his house were not bent in any way. When he could not find any signs of intrusion, Jin-suk decided to give up and returned to take a seat at the table. Sitting on the table, the object that caused him to do such a sudden inspection was shining brightly. Suddenly, the words of the ¡®Devil¡¯ that he¡¯d met before, resounded in Jin-suk¡¯s mind. ¡®If you do well, wealth, power, honor and beauty would be yours.¡¯ ¡°So this is what he meant.¡± The reward for the quest in the game had been 3kg of silver, but when he couldn¡¯t find it anywhere in the game he¡¯d figured that it was a bug and so he decided to forget about it. But now it appeared that it wasn¡¯t a bug. Jin-suk was looking at three rectangular silver ingots in front of him which were engraved in the middle to show their purity of 99.99% and weight of 1000g. Chapter 14 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 14Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana A silver ingot. This literally meant a chunk of silver. Silver was a precious metal that was used in ancient times together with gold and was considered to be the most precious metal after gold. However, with the discoveries of many new precious metals around the world, it was true that the image of this precious metal had dropped a bit since it could not be purchased without much difficulty. Even so, precious metals were precious metals, which meant that their value wouldn¡¯t be low. Especially when it was a large amount of pure silver instead of the small amounts that were used in jewelry. Jin-suk picked up a silver ingot and examined it. 3kg of silver. Even if it was worth less than gold, 3kg of silver would definitely be worth a lot of money. It would probably be worth as much as two to three months of Jin-suk¡¯s salary. The quest that Jin-suk had completed was a D rank quest. From what he could see, since the game had added a difficulty to the quest, the chances were high that the quality of the reward would vary depending on the difficulty of the quest. And if the reward for a D rank quest was already 3 kg of silver, Jin-suk wondered what the rewards for more difficult quests would be. The demon angel had said that the World of Masks had more to offer than just a new reality. ¡°First off¡­is this real?¡± He would have to check it later, but Jin-suk didn¡¯t think there was anyone who would be bored and skilled enough to break into his house without a trace and plant fake silver ingots as a prank. Jin-suk put down the ingot as he had this thought. He felt that it was a bit odd of him to get rewards in real life after completing a quest in the game, but when he thought about it, it wasn¡¯t really a bad thing. He wouldn¡¯t welcome it with open arms, but it wasn¡¯t necessarily something to get upset over. With that, Jin-suk took the ingots and hid them deep within his closet. He then looked at his watch and found that it was a little past 11 am. ¡®Come to think of it, I haven¡¯t had breakfast.¡¯ Jin-suk headed to the refrigerator and opened it, only to find it mostly empty. Inside the refrigerator were only a few eggs. Jin-suk scratched his cheek at the desolate sight which made him remember the fact that he hadn¡¯t gone shopping because he had been playing World of Masks for the whole week. He sighed and closed the refrigerator door. Then he headed over to the rice cooker and opened the lid. It was also empty. ¡®You¡¯re acting like a shut-in at this age.¡¯ He closed the rice cooker while thinking, ¡®well at least I managed to go to work¡¯. Jin-suk, who decided to just settle for eggs, put water in a pot, placed the pot on the gas stove, put a few eggs in it and began to boil them. ¡®So what should I do on my day off?¡¯ It had not been a very long time since he started playing World of Masks, and he was already feeling like he was becoming addicted to it. But when he thought about it, it was natural. The feeling of the blade piercing a body. The fishy smell of a fresh kill. The bright red color of fresh blood. It would be weird if he didn¡¯t get addicted to it when it allowed him to do everything he¡¯d dreamed of when he was young. ¡°Well. Should I play again?¡± Jin-suk looked at the bedroom where the access tool laid. He had intended to play World of Masks all day anyway. He¡¯d been upset about the bug which is why he¡¯d turned it off but now he found that the bug wasn¡¯t actually a bug but instead his own misunderstanding. After a moment of thinking, Jin-suk headed toward the bedroom and put on the access tool. The World of Masks that he saw when he connected was just as he¡¯d left it. The only difference was the passage of time as the sun was now shining red light over the mountain. With so many corpses piled up, crows and wild beasts would have swarmed, but this was only the beginner village. There was only a spooky silence. But if he could get scared by something like this, then he wouldn¡¯t have created such a scene in the first place. Without even glancing at the pile of corpses, Jin-suk headed towards the smithy. ¡°Pardon me.¡± It was nothing more than a morbid joke to say a greeting after entering a building he knew was empty. The furnace, which was usually burning brightly, was now turned off, with only a few embers burning in the pit. Jin-suk searched around the smithy for a while before he managed to find the box that he¡¯d gone there for. Sik. And after opening the box, he saw the longsword that he¡¯d seen when he came here for the first time. ¡®I can finally say goodbye to the shortsword.¡¯ Jin-suk had this thought as he lifted the longsword out of the box. A translucent tag saying ¡®Longsword¡¯ appeared beside the sword for a moment before it disappeared. He didn¡¯t know if there was supposed to be any additional information or if the longsword was just plain, but JIn-suk didn¡¯t care. The only thing that mattered was that he¡¯d finally gotten a good weapon. Jin-suk swung the sword and cut the furniture around him to test the strength and sharpness of the sword. As expected, Jin-suk¡¯s satisfaction sharply rose when he realised that the sharpness of the longsword was not something that the shortsword could ever compare to. He admired the longsword for a bit longer before placing it into his storage. Then he once again began searching the smithy in earnest. It was a smithy in a small frontier town, so there wasn¡¯t much he could take. All he could find were just some unmelted iron bars and some pocket money that Hans had probably left for emergencies. In addition, he swept all the farm equipment that was made of iron into his bracelet because they looked expensive. Fortunately, it seemed like the bracelet did not have a weight limit since it was able to contain a large amount of iron. After making sure that he¡¯d taken everything from the smithy, Jin-suk also began scouring all the other shops and houses. However, as he expected, there were not many valuable items in the village. The only good things that he could find were some pocket money, some relatively good tasting bread from the bakery, as well and meat and leather from the general store. However, Jin-suk¡¯s fortune increased by quite a bit. ¡®It feels like playing an old rpg game.¡¯ It reminded him of games where you had to enter houses and find treasure chests. Jin-suk, who didn¡¯t care that he was actually looting the houses, began searching the bodies of the villagers next. But there wasn¡¯t much there either. The only things they had were the few coins that they saved at home. Jin-suk, who was putting everything he could find into his bracelet, finally began to search Ranphral and found something interesting. ¡°Huh?¡± He could feel a hard object in his pockets, so he dug into them and pulled out the object he found. The translucent tag ¡®Bead of Life¡¯ appeared before disappearing. He¡¯d probably brought it with him to give it to Jin-suk after he successfully completed the quest. Jin-suk laughed. Originally he thought he¡¯d have to go up to Ranphral¡¯s little hut but now, thanks to the kind Ranphral, he wouldn¡¯t have to do such a useless task. Jin-suk took a boar¡¯s carcass from the bracelet. He intended to figure out the maximum amount of vitality, this new Life Bead could absorb. The maximum amount of vitality that the bead Jin-suk originally had could absorb, was 40. He intended to see if the maximum amount of vitality absorbed by low grade Life Beads were all the same, or if there would be slight differences between them. However, Jin-suk¡¯s face suddenly became distorted. Tuk. This was because there was no response from the boar¡¯s body even though he had placed the Life Bead on it already. Thinking that there might be a problem with the corpse, Jin-suk placed his original Life Bead on it. Crunch. s?a??h th? N???lFire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. The bones and muscles of the corpse began to shrink as the vitality was absorbed into the bead. Since there was nothing wrong with the body, Jin-suk¡¯s expression became worse. Jin-suk repeated the process many times, but the results were the same. The bead he got from Ranphral was not absorbing any vitality while the bead that Jin-suk had from the start absorbed it without hesitation. ¡®Did I get cheated?¡¯ Now that he thought about it, it was strange for a vagrant like Ranphral to have a precious item like a Life Bead in the first place. In the first place, there was a tag that appeared when he picked it up, so it should be a real Life Bead. But¡­what if the item was defective? Then it would make sense for him to have it. Jin-suk glared at Ranphral¡¯s body. He couldn¡¯t believe that he¡¯d cheated himself. Upset, Jin-suk threw the Life Bead in his hand at Ranphral¡¯s body. Then he pulled out his sword. It seemed that he wouldn¡¯t be satisfied until he destroyed the body a little bit. Crunch. However, at that moment, Ranphral¡¯s body began to twist strangely. Shocked by the sudden change, Jin-suk stopped. He could see that Ranphral¡¯s twisting body began to shrivel and dry up. The scene¡­reminded Jin-suk of what happened when he took the vitality from the bodies of animals with the Life Bead. The Life Bead that Jin-suk had thrown at Ranphral¡¯s body, shined bright red then fell away. The bead then rolled until it hit the body of a next dead villager. Then¡­ Crunch. Crunch. The body soon became shriveled just like Ranphral¡¯s. Jin-suk walked over to the dead body. He then picked up the shining bead that had sucked the body dry of vitality. ¡°Didn¡¯t it say before that it was impossible to suck the vitality out of humans and other similar races because of a blessing or something?¡± He didn¡¯t understand what the hell was going on. Jin-suk stared at the Life Bead in his hand that had just ¡®absorbed human vitality¡¯. Chapter 15 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 15Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk was confused. According to the description window that had given him the basics of the game when he first started, the vitality of humans and similar humanoid races could not be absorbed. However, the Life Bead that he¡¯d gotten from Ranphral had just absorbed vitality from humans. No, to be precise, it seemed to absorb vitality from humans. Jin-suk desperately tried to recall what he¡¯d read in the description window before. After struggling for a while, he managed to get a faint recollection of it. [For your information it is impossible to take vitality from humans and other humanoid creatures due to the blessings of Ueron.] He was certain that the description window at that time had said it was ¡®impossible¡¯. But then again, that could be considered as hearsay, and might not be a real confirmation. ¡°Don¡¯t tell me they were messing with me.¡± If he hadn¡¯t accepted Ranphral¡¯s quest, or if he hadn¡¯t completed Ranphral¡¯s quest in ¡®this way¡¯, he would have been stuck. He didn¡¯t know how other people carried out the quest, but if they received this Life Bead which seemed to be a defective item, they would definitely have thrown it away or sold it. After all, if he hadn¡¯t thrown the Life bead at Ranphral in a fit of rage, he would have also been fooled. However, this harvest was very satisfying for Jin-suk. The premise of Jin-suk¡¯s only complaint about the game, ¡®killing humans had little to no use¡¯, had been smashed brilliantly. Of course, this didn¡¯t mean that he would have given up killing humans even if there was such a premise, but it was always better to do something that was more rewarding. Jin-suk nodded as he got what he felt was the best idea. He decided to distribute the experience in the bead and absorb all the vitality in the rest of the bodies. He held the Life Bead tightly and thought. He wanted to transfer all the vitality in the Life Bead to experience. But after a while, Jin-suk frowned as he realised the bead had not changed at all. ¡°What¡¯s the problem this time?¡± This bead was really annoying. S?a??h th? N?v?l(F)ire.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. Jin-suk decided to check his status window because while there was no change in the bead, the experience might have been transferred. LV : 6 EXP : 8/1,572 Hours: 744,507: 18 : 37 (Max hour consumption/Per skill ¨C 1hour) Str : 31(Exp: 0/62) Dex : 26(Exp: 0/52) Int : 12(Exp: 0/24) ¡°What the hell is this?¡± Next to his stats, he could see the required experience which he¡¯d never seen before. Jin-suk looked down at the bead in his hand. The required experience for his stats had suddenly appeared. And the vitality that he¡¯d absorbed was not being transferred to experience. So he made an assumption. Jin-suk immediately thought about transferring vitality to the experience points for strength. LV : 6 EXP : 8/1,572 Hours: 744,507: 18 : 11 (Max hour consumption/Per skill ¨C 1hour) Str : 31(Exp: 16/62) Dex : 26(Exp: 0/52) Int : 12(Exp: 0/24) ¡®Bingo!¡¯ His assumption was right. As Jin-suk predicted, the vitality in the bead was transferred into experience points for his stats. After learning how to use the bead, Jin-suk diligently began extracting vitality from the corpses of the villagers. Unlike animals which could only give a certain amount of vitality, the vitality from every human was subtly different. ¡°Mr. Hans as well.¡± As if to prove that his thick muscles weren¡¯t fake, he had managed to absorb almost twice as much vitality from Hans as from a normal villager. Just like a giving tree, Hans had helped Jin-suk when he was now getting used to the village, and now Hans was still the biggest even after becoming a corpse. Jin-suk jokingly said, ¡®Thank you Hans, the generous tree¡¯, before moving on to another body. After extracting the vitality from several bodies, including Hans, the bead quickly became full. Jin-suk looked inside the bead. The number written in the bead was 52. This showed that the maximum amount of vitality this bead could store was higher than the original. Jin-suk looked at his status window again. Then he started to think. ¡°Now then. I wonder how I should distribute it.¡± So far, Jin-suk had distributed the five free stat points he gained per level into his Str and Dex at a ratio of 3:2. The reason he chose Str over Dex was because Jin-suk was more fond of crushing his enemies with overwhelming force instead of playing with them with quick body movements. He would prefer to tear his opponent apart with a blunt cleaver using nothing but his brute strength. And he would be overjoyed watching them scream in pain. This was the sight that Jin-suk sought after in virtual reality games. It was an impossible sight in other virtual reality games because of the law restrictions, but in this game, it was still possible. ¡®Should I keep distributing it 3:2?¡¯ At first glance, that would be the best choice. Jin-suk looked down at the bead again. The bead shined with a red glow like a demon that seduces people. Jin-suk soon came to a decision. ¡®Let¡¯s go all in on strength.¡¯ It was no exaggeration to say that these were just bonus stats anyway. So it wouldn¡¯t be a problem for him to dump them all into one stat. Instead, he decided to change the Str to Dex ratio to 2:3 from now on. After coming to a decision, Jin-suk diligently pulled the vitality out of the bead and began to increase his stats. LV : 6 EXP : 8/1,572 Hours: 744,507: 16 : 57 (Max hour consumption/Per skill ¨C 1hour) Str : 37(Exp: 25/74) Dex : 26(Exp: 0/52) Int : 12(Exp: 0/24) He transferred all the vitality in the bead to his Str, causing the stat to raise by six. This number was similar to if he¡¯d placed all the stat points he gained after levelling up into one stat. ¡®The required experience twice as much as the stat.¡¯ The required experience was exactly doubled every time the stat increased. Jin-suk, who had done everything he wanted, smiled happily. Everything seemed to be working out really well for him these past few days. He was able to enjoy his hobby in the truest sense, and he was even able to make money by doing quests. In addition, he was able to break the rule that you couldn¡¯t get experience by killing other humans. It allowed him to gain bonus experience that directly increased his stats¡­ ¡®If I keep increasing my strength like this, there will hardly be anyone on the same level who could take my attack.¡¯ Just that thought made him ecstatic. The opponent would struggle to somehow block his attack. But his attack would still break through his opponent¡¯s defenses and hit them. And if that happened¡­ With a ¡®pak¡¯ sound like a watermelon breaking, his opponent¡¯s blood would splash in every direction, creating a red rainbow. The blood would cover his body before falling to the ground like scattered rose petals. He felt that it was hard to hold in his laughter as he imagined this scene. ¡®It would be better to get a heavy weapon.¡¯ It should be blunt as well. With a huge grin on his face, Jin-suk walked to the entrance of the village. He didn¡¯t have to stay in this place any longer. This beginner village had already provided him with everything he needed. He¡¯d taken everything he could, literally. Jin-suk passed through the village entrance and trudged along the road happily. What kind of adventure awaited him in the future? Could he find even more interesting prey? Could he recreate a more interesting method of murder? Was there anything more interesting for him to destroy? Like a child waiting for a present on their birthday, like a young man waiting to meet his partner for a date, Jin-suk walked with light steps although his heart beat excitedly. However, no matter how excited he was, he could never let his guard down. This game was famous all over the world for eating people. ¡®I am a hunter, not prey.¡¯ And to stay that way, he had to become stronger. Carefully, but steadily. The means was in his hands. ¡®Come to think of it, I have to look for information about that guy.¡¯ It had the ability to absorb humans, but it was still a low level bead. In order to increase his stats at a satisfactory rate in the future, he had to find a higher grade bead. ¡®I wonder if something like that exists.¡¯ Still, it would be better than playing the game without any purpose. Jin-suk, who had been thinking about this and that as he walked, stopped. That was because in front of him was a huge cliff that he couldn¡¯t see the top of even after raising his head. The road Jin-suk had taken had led to this cliff. And at the point where the road ended, blue light swirled in the place which should have been blocked by the cliff. Perhaps that was the passageway. Jin-suk stepped into the light without hesitation, and his body soon disappeared as though he had been sucked in. After Jin-suk disappeared, the world began shaking violently as though there was an earthquake. The ground collapsed, the sky collapsed, and everything in the world was ground to powder. The huge world of the beginner¡¯s village gradually collapsed into darkness at the loss of the player, its reason for existing. After the brief feeling of being sucked into the light, Jin-suk found himself standing on a quiet road. When Jin-suk snorted, saying that it wasn¡¯t a surprise, a window appeared in front of him. [Welcome, Traveler. To the True World of Masks.] The corners of Jin-suk¡¯s lips curled upwards. (TL: Hey guys, it¡¯s been a while(186 days according to a diligent reader in our discord). I originally stopped translating this because I didn¡¯t have the time since I had two main projects, but I finished one of them, so here I am again. ¡® At least ? of the reason I picked this novel back up again is because there was a reader who was counting the days since the last upload so I feel like I should give him a shoutout. HungryRice, you¡¯re gonna have to start from 1 again buddy¡­ Kidding kidding, I will be posting one or two chapters a week(for now at least) with the occasional bonus chapter if I get more time. I genuinely like this novel so I really do want to keep translating it more frequently. Maybe if you guys recommend it to your friends and our reader base increases, we might be able to push this up to a main project.) u And make sure to read on woopread <- click here ^-^. Chapter 16 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 16Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk looked around. As if it had just rained, the plants in the surrounding forest glittered with droplets of water, and puddles had formed all over the muddy road which was covered by wheel marks from what could have been a carriage or a cat. In other words, it was a typical dirt road. Maybe it was because this place was frequently traveled, but the road was made wide enough to accommodate two carriages at the same time. In the distance, he could see a huge city wall. The sight of the heavy grey stone blocks which had become smooth over time was quite spectacular. And behind the wall, he could see pointed spires with bells within them as if a large church was sitting there. Jin-suk was momentarily mesmerised by the sight which seemed to have been taken out of a movie. It was a scene deserving of admiration. ¡°Should I head over there first?¡± This unkind game had only given him a welcome window and didn¡¯t give him any information, as if it was to say that he had to figure it out on his own. While grumbling that this was truly an unfriendly game, Jin-suk took something out of his bracelet. It was a mask. An item which served as a mark of identification for the players, and which had given this world the name ¡®World of Masks¡¯. Jin-suk decided to put on the mask because he knew that he would be meeting other players before long. ¡®It¡¯s not so bad.¡¯ He could feel the foreign object on his face, but surprisingly, it wasn¡¯t much of a problem. He didn¡¯t feel like his vision was obscured at all. After completing his preparations, Jin-suk walked carefully in order to avoid splashing muddy water on himself, but he soon gave up that thought after looking down at the clothes he was wearing. ¡®I should go buy some clothes first.¡¯ Jin-suk¡¯s clothes, which were covered in his sweat and body odor, not to mention the blood of monsters and the villagers, were in such terrible shape that it was almost impossible to tell their original appearance. Although he had washed them as much as he could, there was no detergent or washing machines in this world that could¡¯ve washed them properly. He¡¯d bought new clothes at the general store, but the only clothes sold there were farmer clothes which was part of the reason why they were able to last until he left the village. With the thought that it didn¡¯t matter if they got dirtier, Jin-suk began to walk casually. Despite the feeling of mud sticking to his calves and the sound he made while walking being unpleasant, Jin-suk disregarded everything and simply told himself that it was his first time experiencing something like this. While he was walking, he noticed that the distance to the city walls seemed to not reduce at all, making him feel like it was much further than he expected. For a long time, the only things he could see were the city walls in the distance, and the greenery on each side of the road. Nevertheless, Jin-suk continued to walk at a leisure pace as though he¡¯d only come on a sightseeing tour. Bshk. Along with the sound of the bushes being pushed aside, two humans stepped into the road to block Jin-suk. The bushes and grass on both sides of the road made it perfect for setting up ambushes. ¡°Hey, Mr. Traveler. How¡¯s your trip going?¡± The sarcasm and sloppy attitude, together with the fact that they were both wearing crude leather armor and wielding daggers, showed that they hadn¡¯t come with good intentions. Bshk. Bshk. Jin-suk looked back when he heard the sound of bushes moving behind him. The two men who had appeared behind him dressed in the same way as those in front of him chuckled menacingly when Jin-suk looked at them. Naturally, these two men also had daggers in their hands. The bandits had completely blocked his front and back. And the only thing at his sides was dense forests. In other words, Jin-suk was completely surrounded. ¡°Who are you?¡± Nevertheless, he still asked them to identify themselves. ¡°Kikiki. Ah, us? Well we¡­ are kind-hearted bandits who¡¯ve come to help you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a man this time? Tch. I¡¯d hoped that it would be a woman like last time.¡± ¡°You want to play with a bitch whose face you can¡¯t even see because she¡¯s wearing a mask?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t pretend like you haven¡¯t. I know you did it before. You took off her clothes, and even when you couldn¡¯t take off her mask, it didn¡¯t stop you from pressing her down.¡± ¡°Well. She still cried and begged when I pressed her down just like the other bitches.¡± The bandits completely ignored Jin-suk and chatted among themselves. Looking back, it was obvious that the ones behind him were only carelessly holding their daggers. Jin-suk slowly straightened up and relaxed his muscles. ¡°Well, that¡¯s good. Just stay still and let us kill¡­¡± As soon as the bandit noticed this and spoke up, Jin-suk leapt forward. As though he hadn¡¯t expected Jin-suk to take the initiative, the bandit on the right could only let out a soft ¡®huh¡¯ as he recklessly swung his dagger in a flustered manner. Jin-suk easily avoided the sloppy attack and took the short sword out of his bracelet before stabbing it into the bandit¡¯s neck. Puk. Maybe it was because he had almost four times the strength of an average man, but the dull short sword dug deeply into the bandit¡¯s neck. Jin-suk, who didn¡¯t even glance at the bandit who fell over with a short scream, let go of the short sword which was stuck too deeply in the bandit¡¯s neck to be easily removed, and shot towards the bandit on the left, who had not yet reacted, before unleashing an uppercut with his right hand. Crack. The sound of jawbones breaking and a scream of pain sounded from the bandit¡¯s mouth. Jin-suk grabbed the bandit before he could collapse to the ground and immediately spun around. The two remaining bandits were charging towards him with loud shouts. Without hesitation, Jin-suk pushed the bandit with the broken jaw to the ones who were charging at him. Puk. Puk. The eerie sound of flesh being torn echoed. The bandit, who had been used as a human shield by Jin-suk and ended up being stabbed by his teammates, convulsed. Jin-suk looked over his human shield to the two bandits, and upon seeing them panic at the fact that they¡¯d stabbed one of their companions, he stomped the bandit he was using as a shield, sending him crashing towards them. ¡°U-, uaak!¡± ¡°Aak!¡± This caused the two bandits to collapse into a pile together with the human shield kicked by Jin-suk. Jin-suk then gently pulled the longsword from his bracelet before swinging it to the right arm of the bandit who had gotten out of the pile and was trying to help his other teammate. Shuk. Shuk. ¡°A-, aaaaaak!¡± ¡°My arm! My arm!!!!¡± Jin-suk looked down in satisfaction at the longsword, which had cut off a third of both bandits arms without much resistance, feeling that it was well worth its price. (TL: which he didn¡¯t pay¡­) Then he kicked the bandit who was rolling around on the ground and clutching the stump of his arm, and the other bandit, who was being helped up by his teammate, had collapsed back to the ground. Briefly looking away from these two bandits, Jin-suk looked at the other two. The bandit who had been stabbed in the neck was already dead. And the guy who had been stabbed by his teammates was gasping for breath. Jin-suk walked up to him. Looking down at him, he couldn¡¯t help but let out a laugh when he saw the pitiful expression the man was making. Puk. Jin-suk stabbed his sword into the man¡¯s skull. His muscles tensed up and twitched a few times before going still. After killing him, he turned back to the two living bandits. S~?a??h the ??v?l_Fir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. These two bandits, who had lost their daggers and become unarmed after their arms had been cut off, were looking at Jin-suk with fearful eyes while holding onto the stumps of their arms. Jin-suk casually placed the longsword on his shoulder before walking towards them. As he approached, the two bandits tried their best to move away from him, but their crawling speed could not compare to his walking speed. Jin-suk walked up to the bandits and stabbed his sword in front of their faces. ¡°Hiiik!¡± ¡°Sp-, spare¡­¡± Jin-suk squatted in front of these men who were crying and begging with tears and snot running down their faces, and eyes filled with fear. He held onto the sword which was stuck into the ground with his right hand and looked them in the eyes. Seeing the terrified gazes of the bandits, Jin-suk¡¯s eyes subconsciously curved like crescent moons. ¡°Do you want to live?¡± When Jin-suk asked this question in a soft voice, the bandits nodded their heads desperately. ¡°Good. Then I¡¯ll make a deal with you. I have a lot of questions because it hasn¡¯t been too long since I arrived here. If you can give me the information I want, I¡¯ll spare you. That¡¯s not a bad deal, is it?¡± Jin-suk¡¯s voice was soft as though he wasn¡¯t threatening them at all. Maybe it was because he saw the hope of surviving, but one bandit nodded passionately. Just as Jin-suk smiled widely at the satisfactory response from the bandit¡­ ¡°H-, hang on.¡± The other bandit, who hadn¡¯t responded to Jin-suk¡¯s question, grabbed his companion¡¯s shoulder as if to restrain him. ¡°W-, why should we believe you? You could just kill us after you get the information.¡± Hoh. It seems there was a smart one among them. Jin-suk felt a bit of admiration. Perhaps because his teammate¡¯s words had increased his suspicion, the bandit who had already nodded raised his guard again. ¡°Hmm. I guess that¡¯s true. But it¡¯s true that I need information. And¡­¡± Jin-suk stood up. Then, he pointed his longsword to the bandits, who scurried back. ¡°Are you forgetting who is the one that holds the blade? Do you think that I won¡¯t kill all of you if I don¡¯t get what I want?¡± His voice was still soft and gentle like before, but when combined with his words, it sounded extremely eerie. ¡°I, I know. I¡¯m not saying we won¡¯t give you the information. We just want to guarantee our survival. I, I have a way.¡± Pok. ¡°Kuk!¡± Jin-suk kicked him without hesitation. A pink, diamond shaped, metallic jewel flew out of the man¡¯s hand. The piece of metal bounced a few times before coming to a stop. Jin-suk picked up the jewel after it came to a stop. ¡°You know that you won¡¯t survive if you do something stupid, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I-, it¡¯s not stupid! We need that to guarantee our survival!¡± Jin-suk looked down at the jewel in his hand as the bandit desperately made excuses. The surface of this jewel which was only about half his palm in length, was covered in many esoteric patterns. ¡°It¡¯s a magic item called a Contract Jewel! All contracts made using that jewel must be followed. Or else the contractors will die!¡± ¡°Hoh?¡± Jin-suk made a sound of admiration. He didn¡¯t expect this pretty stone to have such a function. ¡°That¡¯s surprising. But this looks much too expensive for a bandit to be carrying around.¡± ¡°¡­sometimes, there are rich people who say that if we let them live, they will pay us even more.¡± ¡°I see. So you carry them around to force people into contracts to get more money? Well, it does seem to be worth investing in.¡± Jin-suk clicked his tongue as he briefly sympathised with the rich people who were captured by these bad guys. ¡°So? What contract do you want to make with this jewel?¡± ¡°We will give you the information you want. And you will spare our lives.¡± ¡°And if I refuse?¡± ¡°We won¡¯t tell you anything!¡± Jin-suk smirked. In all honesty, he knew that if he were to swing his sword a few times, they wouldn¡¯t dare say such insolent things. But it was always better for someone to reveal information of their own accord, and if he really went through with this, he¡¯d be able to confirm the accuracy of the information. ¡°Good. Your brain is much better than I expected. If you hadn¡¯t offered this condition¡­¡± Jin-suk paused for a moment before turning to look at the bandit, not the one who was trying to make a deal with him, but the one who was shivering beside him. ¡°¡­I would have killed you after receiving the information I wanted.¡± ¡°Hiiik!¡± Jin-suk looked at the squealing bandit before turning to look at the one who wanted to make a deal with him again. ¡°But your sudden attack pissed me off. So it would be difficult to spare both of you. Let¡¯s do this. You just need to answer my questions without lying to me. I will then judge the usefulness of your answers and spare only the one who gave me the most useful information. What do you think? That way, at least one of you will survive.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not fair¡­!¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t like that!¡± Jin-suk shouted, causing the bandit to stop talking. Then he looked at them with a dark gaze. ¡°Then both of you can die here. After all, there are still other places where I can get information.¡± The bandits were stunned by Jin-suk¡¯s gaze. The instinctively realised that this man meant what he was saying. ¡°Now, this is the best concession I will make. What do you think?¡± ¡°¡­I, I will do it.¡± ¡°¡­I will do it too.¡± The bandits, who had become wary of each other because of Jin-suk¡¯s words, soon nodded. Their loyalty to each other had never been high in the first place. After all, if they were the type to loyally defend their comrades, they wouldn¡¯t have become bandits in the first place. ¡°Good. Then shall we use this first?¡± Jin-suk held up the jewel in his hand. ¡°Tell me how to use this thing. But!¡± Jin-suk pointed his sword to the throat of the bandit who¡¯d offered the deal. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but if I have a lot of doubts. If I believe the method of invoking this jewel goes against the name Contract Jewel, I will not hesitate to put a nice new hole in your neck.¡± The bandit who had a sword to his throat gulped nodded. He nodded slowly because the sword was so close to his neck that he would be cut if he moved too much. ¡°Now then. This gem. How do you use it?¡± ¡°¡­we each reveal our terms before saying, ¡®I swear on the Contract Jewel¡¯.¡± ¡°It¡¯s surprisingly easy. Then let¡¯s try it. My terms are, ¡®I will let only the person who gives me the most useful information go¡¯. That¡¯s it. In other words, I¡¯m sparing only one person. Your terms will be ¡®You will give me useful information accurately and without lies¡¯. Is that enough?¡± The two bandits nodded. ¡°Good. Then you swear first.¡± ¡°I swear on the Contract Jewel.¡± ¡°I swear on the Contract Jewel.¡± When the two bandits said those words, the jewel in Jin-suk¡¯s hand lit up faintly. Jin-suk admired this beautiful phenomenon for a bit before reciting his own oath. ¡°I swear on the Contract Jewel.¡± The light from the jewel shined brighter until it enveloped the three people. After the light disappeared, Jin-suk smiled brightly and stabbed his sword back into the ground. ¡°Now then! I¡¯ll start asking questions.¡± (TL: So as I said in the previous chapter, I¡¯ll be doing one or two releases a week. They will be either on monday or friday. So if I miss one day, you can be sure that you¡¯ll get chapters on the other day. And if you¡¯re lucky, then you¡¯ll get chapters on both days, and maybe even multiple chapters in a day(if I feel up to it). Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, see you next time ^-^.) u And make sure to read on woopread <- click here ^-^. Chapter 17 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 17Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk cleared his thoughts for a moment. Luckily he¡¯d managed to find a way to obtain even a little information about this unfriendly game as soon as he entered the true game world. Jin-suk organised the questions he wanted to ask in his head before turning to the bandit on the left, who was trembling. ¡°First of all, why did you attack me?¡± The bandit hesitated a bit before finally opening his mouth. ¡°Yo-, you look like a novice traveler¡­ So we didn¡¯t think you would have been a threat and decided to rob you.¡± Jin-suk then turned to the bandit on the right, who had proposed the deal. Perhaps it was because it was a matter of life and death, the bandit on the right tried to as sincerely as possible. ¡°U-, usually, people who walk down this road wearing white short sleeves and black pants are novice travelers.¡± Jin-suk looked down at the clothes he was wearing. Although blood, mud, and grime stained his clothes, one could still see that it was the same clothes usually worn by beginners. ¡°Then, the person on the left again. Why do you attack novice travelers?¡± ¡°I, I don¡¯t know about anything else, but the magic bracelets and Life Beads that novice travelers have on them are worth a fair bit¡­¡± It was clear in the description that he¡¯d been given at the start that players¡¯ bracelets could be stolen, and Life Beads were quite expensive in the game. ¡°So you guys specialise in robbing novice travelers?¡± When the two bandits nodded, Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. No matter how realistic the game was, he never would have thought that there would be NPCs who specialised in robbing players. Even if they were players, most of them were people who could not even kill a chicken in reality. Even if they gained some experience by entering the World of Masks and hunting rabbits or boars in the beginner village, it would be impossible for them to kill humanoid NPCs without hesitation. After all, the NPCs in this game were just like real humans. And after thinking that much, the reason for their actions was quite obvious. A novice traveler with only a few levels and little to no experience in this world would be the best prey for them. ¡°Come to think of it, you said that you wished I was a woman before. And that it didn¡¯t matter if she was wearing a mask since you could still take off her clothes and press her down. Have you even raped travelers?¡± The two bandits avoided Jin-suk¡¯s eyes. This kind of reaction made the answer obvious even if they didn¡¯t say it outloud. ¡®This game is more dangerous than I thought.¡¯ Not only did they attack players, but they also raped them. And since the game allowed you to feel the same sensations as in reality, the raped players must have been traumatised. It was possible that they might even have needed to receive psychiatric treatment. No. they wouldn¡¯t have spared the woman even after raping her, so those players probably died of shock. After that, Jin-suk continued to ask his questions. However, because they spent their days as bandits, they didn¡¯t have access to any high level information. The name of the city that he could see in the distance was the Blau Holy Neutral City. It was a city-state that guaranteed neutrality. It is said that novice travelers usually appeared near Holy Neutral Cities like this one. The bandits only knew that there were a few other cities, but they didn¡¯t know just how many there were. These Holy Neutral Cities seemed to be the first city that the beginners in this world would reach. And he guessed that beginner players would fall randomly in the vicinity of a Holy Neutral City. Blau Holy Neutral city was sandwiched between the borders of two kingdoms which seemed to be named Prail and Raden. But that was all the bandits knew. They had no knowledge of the world beyond that. No, it could have been said that they weren¡¯t interested in it. In a way, it should have been obvious that these bandits, who lived in this medieval world, would have little knowledge and interest in the rest of the world. ¡®These guys were surprisingly useless.¡¯ They had given him some useful information, such as the price to enter the neutral city and information about the shops, but they didn¡¯t really give him any information that was really helpful. Perhaps it was because he read Jin-suk¡¯s expression, but the smarter bandit who had offered a deal suddenly spoke up urgently. ¡°S-, skilled travelers don¡¯t wear masks!¡± Hoh? What was he talking about? Jin-suk¡¯s eyes became filled with interest. When he saw Jin-suk react to his words, the bandit hurried to say the rest of his words. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but skilled travelers would sometimes attack each other! And even high end criminals in the world would sometimes target skilled travelers, so they sometimes target masks! I heard that skilled travelers preferred to wear hoods or disguise themselves! Only the really powerful travelers or novice travelers who don¡¯t know anything wear masks!¡± He couldn¡¯t believe that masks were targeted. The World of Masks was an illegal game, so nothing good would come of revealing your face. That was why the masks were essential in a way. However, if the masks became targets of the enemy, then it would become an entirely different story. Plus, players attacked each other? Was it just simple PK or were their purposeful attacks? He felt like he should find out about this too. ¡°Hmm. I see. That information was pretty useful. Anything else?¡± The bandit¡¯s face brightened when he heard Jin-suk¡¯s praise, and the other bandit¡¯s expression became darker. ¡°Th-, there¡¯s something else! It¡¯s better to wear the mask when you enter the city! Novice travelers can¡¯t enter because they don¡¯t have any forms of identification. You have to talk to the gatekeeper and have them guide you to the church! Once you receive a way to prove your identity from the church, you won¡¯t have to wear the mask anymore!¡± ¡°I see. That is also helpful. Anything else?¡± ¡°I know how to kill a traveler completely! Completely in the travelers¡¯ world!¡± Jin-suk couldn¡¯t help but raise his eyebrows when the bandit shouted out. It seemed that he would have to listen to this method. S?a??h the ??v?l_Fir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Travelers can¡¯t leave this world while they¡¯re in combat! So by using a lot of supplies, you can keep them in a constant state of combat! The important thing is to make sure the traveler doesn¡¯t die. If the traveler seems to be undernourished, catch them for a while and force feed them food and water. Then let them go again and make them enter a combative state once again. Even when the traveler sleeps or falls unconscious, guard their bodies while forcibly maintaining the combative state. All you have to do is keep repeating that process. If you stop the traveler from leaving this world, then after about 20 days, they will die on their own! Even in the travelers¡¯ world!¡± About 20 days. The time difference between the game and reality was about 3:1, so in reality, that was about 7 days. Humans couldn¡¯t survive for a week without water. So from what the bandit said, the players would not be able to drink even a mouthful of water because they would still be ¡®connected¡¯ to the game. Then, they would die of dehydration. ¡®In the first place, the game is illegal so we probably can¡¯t expect anything like a manual or forced disconnection from the access tool.¡¯ The more he listened, the more dangerous the World of Masks appeared. The question was, how did this method spread to the NPCs in the game? Of course, it was possible that the NPCs were the ones that came up with the method. Just by looking at these bandits who were desperately fighting for their own survival showed just how real this game was. But the method he¡¯d just heard could have only been created after fully understanding the conditions that the players played the game under. A large amount of supplies, and constant forced combat. Capture them alive, force feed them food and water. Guard their bodies and don¡¯t let them out of the forced combative state even when they were asleep. The prerequisites were too complex for the NPCs to have happened upon this method by luck. ¡®There is a high chance that it was designed by a player.¡¯ He didn¡¯t know who that guy was, but they were really good at using their head. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that there are a few other things which prevent travelers from leaving this world, but I don¡¯t know the rest.¡± ¡°I see. Your information was very useful. You are definitely in the lead.¡± Feeling that he¡¯d succeeded after hearing Jin-suk¡¯s words, the bandit who told him the information raised his arms to the air. Jin-suk then turned to the other bandit who was trembling pitifully. ¡°What about you?¡± The difference in information was too large. The bandit who was losing desperately rolled his eyes and bit his lips as he tried to think of something. Then he looked at Jin-suk as if he¡¯d thought of something. ¡°A-, as long as the information is useful to you, right?¡± ¡°Yes. As long as it¡¯s useful information.¡± ¡°Th-, then I¡¯ll tell you the location of our hideout! Our emergency money is there!¡± ¡°Hey! You bastard!¡± The other bandit was about to cover the mouth of his teammate who was about to sell out their hideout when a longsword was aimed at his throat once again. Therefore, he could only grit his teeth and glare at the other bandit but he was unable to do anything else. ¡°We already sold almost everything we stole, so there isn¡¯t much, but there is still some left.¡± He then taught Jin-suk how to find their hideout. Surprisingly it was in the middle of an ordinary residential area. ¡°A place with money is definitely useful. But that¡¯s still not enough.¡± The information he¡¯d heard from the bandit was not enough, but he might catch up if he knew something else. The other bandit knew this so he was trying to think of anything he could use. ¡°Damn it! Hey! Hey! Travelers need a place to rest and sleep don¡¯t they? You can just take that hideout! It¡¯s in a residential area, but it¡¯s in a remote spot, so there wouldn¡¯t be any problems if you live there! I¡¯ll even show you the spot where the captain hid the property documents. You put a hole in his neck, so I am the only other person who knows.¡± This was a surprisingly large amount of extra income. Jin-suk thought this as he looked at the bandit who had regretfully sold out their hideout after realising the situation couldn¡¯t be reversed. After hearing the location of the documents, Jin-suk turned to look at the bandit who was far behind once again. He was so anxious that his entire body was covered with sweat. ¡°T-, treasure. I know where treasure is. So¡­¡± Just as the bandit was about to finish his words, a light shot from the Contract Jewel that Jin-suk was holding. ¡°Ahhh!¡± The bandit suddenly screamed crazily before rolling around on the ground as if he was in serious pain. He only calmed down about 10 seconds after. ¡°¡­what was that?¡± ¡°¡­if you try to break an agreement made on a Contract Jewel, you will suffer like that. And if you ignore the pain and continue to break the agreement, you will die.¡± ¡°In other words, that guy?¡± ¡°In this case, he was about to tell a lie.¡± The bandit looked down at his companion who was crying pitifully on the ground. However, his expression soon changed. ¡°I think the results are clear now.¡± Jin-suk nodded. ¡°I suppose so. Yes. I¡¯ll admit it. You provided the most useful information.¡± The moment he heard those words, the bandit stretched his hands up and cheered joyfully. It was a sharp contrast to the bandit who was crying bitterly beside him. u And make sure to read on woopread <- click here ^-^. Chapter 18 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 18Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana One bandit rejoiced in the fact that he would survive while the other sobbed in despair at his inevitable death. These moments of joy and sorrow overlapped. ¡°Y-, you¡¯ll let me go now, right? That¡¯s what we agreed on.¡± ¡°Yeah. That¡¯s how it should be. After all, I don¡¯t wanna die either.¡± Jin-suk, shrugged while looking at the gem in his hand. Just as the bandit¡¯s hope for survival reached the peak. Tuk. Something landed in front of him. The bandit, who was still overcome with joy, unconsciously looked down to see what it was. It was his dagger. The bandit took his eyes away from the dagger and turned to the direction it had been thrown from. His eyes landed on Jin-suk. ¡°Th-, this¡­ What do you¡­¡± Perhaps it was because he had a foreboding feeling, but the bandit¡¯s voice shook slightly. However, Jin-suk ignored that as he used his chin to point at something. It was the spot where his fellow bandit was laying on his face, crying. The thrown dagger. The chin pointing towards his teammate. No matter how he thought about it, it could only mean one thing. ¡°You, you want me to kill him?¡± Jin-suk shrugged again. ¡°Do-, don¡¯t mess around! Why would I¡­!!¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to do it if you don¡¯t want to. But that guy who¡¯s shivering over there could still give me useful information. Whether it¡¯s the exact layout of the city or the location of a restaurant. There are a lot of things that I haven¡¯t asked yet.¡± It was a threat. It was a clear threat. The bandit grit his teeth. From the start this demon had only been playing with them. But his threat was too effective. As if he couldn¡¯t help it, the bandit grit the dagger tightly. ¡°Wa-, wait. Don¡¯t do this, Frank.¡± When he realised the turn the situation was taking, the sobbing bandit lifted his head and called out to his teammate, Frank. Frank, however, only pressed his lips tightly together as he looked at his former colleague with cold eyes. ¡°Sorry.¡± That one short word was all he said. Without hesitation, Frank stabbed the dagger into the other bandit. ¡°Ahhh!¡± The bandit screamed. Although he desperately tried to fight back, the pain from the attack as well as the injuries he¡¯d suffered from Jin-suk made it impossible. With a mad gaze, Frank stabbed his teammate. Once, twice, thrice, four times. In the middle of the forest, another puddle of blood spread on the road. The voice of the bandit, who had been screaming loudly in pain and fear slowly faded before disappearing completely. He¡¯d long stopped moving, but Frank didn¡¯t stop stabbing him. It was only after a long time that Frank¡¯s movements finally stopped. ¡°Ha, haha, hahaha.¡± Frank looked down at his hand. He¡¯d been covered in a lot of blood before, but this blood was different, special. It was the blood of his teammate. ¡°H-, hoo.¡± No matter how brutal the life of a bandit was, Frank couldn¡¯t help but let out a small groan after the shocking experience. Then, he casually threw the dagger aside and stepped away from his teammate¡¯s corpse. ¡°Hey. I killed him like I promised. Now it¡¯s time for you to keep your promise.¡± ¡°Ha~am. Ah! Are you done?¡± Seeing Jin-suk yawn as if he was bored, Frank grit his teeth. This guy had been toying with them from the start. Frank couldn¡¯t help but stare at him with resentment. If looks could kill, Jin-suk would have already been torn into thousands of pieces. ¡°Good. Then I guess it¡¯s time for me to fulfill my promise.¡± Frank was relieved when he saw that Jin-suk intended to keep his promise. He held a grudge, but the first thing he wanted to do was get out of there. It was completely unreasonable to expect him to let go of his fear despite the fact that the contract was protecting him. However, it was too early for Frank to be relieved. Shuk. Jin-suk pulled his sword out of the ground before walking towards Frank. ¡°W-, wait. What are you doing?¡± ¡°Huh? I¡¯m naturally gonna kill you.¡± Frank¡¯s heart shook when Jin-suk said those words as though it was obvious. ¡°D-, don¡¯t be ridiculous. Do you think you¡¯d be fine if you do that?¡± The agreement made with the Contract Jewel was still in effect. It should still be valid. But Frank¡¯s expression became pale when Jin-suk, who should have been suffering greatly due to attempting to breach the contract, walked over as though nothing was wrong. ¡°I don¡¯t understand why you¡¯re so surprised. I¡¯m just fulfilling the contract.¡± ¡°S- stop messing around! The agreement was that you¡¯d spare me!¡± ¡°No. I have to kill you.¡± ¡°Wh-, what the hell are you talking about?!¡± He didn¡¯t understand how he had to die. He hadn¡¯t lost. Seeing Frank struggling, Jin-suk smiled. ¡°You seem to have misunderstood something. Do you remember what I swore?¡± ¡°Of course. You said you¡¯d spare the person who gave you the most information!¡± ¡°That¡¯s not all.¡± Jin-suk tried desperately to stop his laughter from bursting out. This was just too much fun. ¡°I added two clauses to the contract. ¡®I¡¯d let only the person who gave me the most information go¡¯ and ¡®I¡¯d spare only one person¡¯.¡± ¡°R-, right! So hurry up and let me go. I gave you the most useful information.¡± ¡°Yeah. That¡¯s why I¡¯m gonna let you go.¡± ¡°What the hell are you talking about?!¡± He couldn¡¯t understand what Jin-suk was saying, but the Contract Jewel didn¡¯t react. This caused Frank to feel like he couldn¡¯t understand English. ¡°Hmm. It seems there has been some miscommunication between you and I.¡± Jin-suk¡¯s act of tapping against his mask as if he was embarrassed only appeared abominable to Frank. ¡°I said I would definitely let you go.¡± ¡°Right! So stop messing around and let me go!¡± ¡°Where?¡± Frank became speechless for a moment. What the hell was he talking about? Where would he go?¡± ¡°N-, naturally I¡¯d go home¡­. No, I just have to leave this place!¡± ¡°Huh. Is that how you understood it?¡± Jin-suk spoke in an exaggerated tone as though he finally understood where the miscommunication stemmed from. Then he corrected Frank¡¯s mistake in a pitiful tone. ¡°The place I was thinking of letting you go to is ¡®hell¡¯.¡± ¡°¡­.what?!¡± Frank¡¯s face turned white. Letting him go to hell meant that he planned to kill him. ¡°When I said my clause, what I meant was ¡®¡®I will let only the person who gives me the most useful information go to hell¡¯, and ¡®I will spare only one person who has not provided me with useful information¡¯. Did I ever say who the ¡®one person¡¯ was? Or where I would let you go?¡± ¡°Wh-, what are you talking about. In these situations, the person who gives the most useful information is spared!¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m a bit of a weirdo. I wanted to make a different contract.¡± Frank¡¯s body began to shake. It was only at that point that he began to understand. The Demon in front of him had worded the contract in such a way because he¡¯d wanted to create a situation like this from the start. ¡°By the way, because of the contract, I intended to spare that person, but I didn¡¯t expect that his own teammate would kill him.¡± Jin-suk turned to look at the corpse of the bandit on the ground seemingly with remorse. Then he turned and asked Frank with an accusatory tone. s?a??h th? Nov?lF?re .??t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡°Why did you kill him?¡± ¡°You¡­ You told me to kill him. You bastard!¡± ¡°Me?!¡± Frank felt like he was going to go crazy when Jin-suk raised his arms in the air as though he¡¯d heard something shocking. ¡°Don¡¯t pretend! You¡¯re the one who gave me the dagger to kill him!¡± ¡°Ah! Is that how you took it? I was just thinking that since you would never see him again, you should trim his hair for him.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous! You said that if I didn¡¯t kill him, you would ask him a bunch of questions so that he could take the lead!¡± ¡°I never told you to kill him. It¡¯s the same as with the dagger. When you asked whether you should kill him or not, I shrugged my shoulders because I didn¡¯t know what you were talking about. I threatened to give him the chance to overtake you because I felt that you were not a good friend to him since you seemed unwilling to do a simple thing like trim his hair. Most importantly.¡± Jin-suk desperately held in his laughter while he said one last thing to the frozen Frank. ¡°Did I ever tell you to kill him?¡± Frank was devastated. Now that he thought about it, he truly found that Jin-suk had never told him to kill his teammate. When he¡¯d asked if he should kill him, he had only shrugged his shoulders which caused the situation to develop as it did, but it was true that Frank had never heard him say to kill his teammate. ¡°Ahh. What a tragedy that happened because of a small misunderstanding.¡± As if acting on a stage, Jin-suk lowered his head while speaking in an exaggeratedly sad tone. However, his lips beneath the mask were curled into a large smile. ¡°Nevertheless, tragedy or no tragedy, the contract must be fulfilled.¡± Jin-suk once again started walking to Frank, who was still frozen. ¡°W-, wait! Don¡¯t do this! S-, spare me!¡± ¡°Ahh. I also wish that I could spare you, but I can¡¯t do that because of the Contract Jewel. Can¡¯t you see?¡± When Jin-suk stopped and tried to turn around, the Contract Jewel in his hand lit up. ¡°This jewel really is powerful. The moment I think about not letting you go to hell, my body begins to ache. So what else can I do? Aren¡¯t we bound by the contract?¡± Jin-suk shook his head slowly like the protagonist in a tragic play. Frank clenched his teeth hard. Even now, the desire to run away was strong, but the constant mental shocks sapped him of all his energy. ¡°P-, please!! Spare me!!!¡± ¡°Ahh. It¡¯s truly unfortunate.¡± Frank, who realised that he didn¡¯t have a chance as Jin-suk continued to adopt a sad tone till the end, spoke venomously. ¡°You sick bastard! I hope you burn in hell!!¡± Jin-suk chuckled. ¡°That¡¯s why you should go prepare a place for me.¡± Tuk. u And make sure to read on woopread <- click here ^-^. Chapter 19 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 19Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Tuk. A human head flew through the air. A waterfall of blood poured from the headless body before splattering on the ground. The soft feeling of skin and muscles being cut together with the dull throb that came when he reached the bone always filled him with excitement. (TL: I¡¯m starting to worry about the author¡­) Tuk. Frank¡¯s head, which had been cut off, landed in the bushes at the side of the road. Frank¡¯s expression, including his wide eyes which were filled with resentment, created an image that would have caused a weak willed person to faint upon seeing it. ¡°Kuk, kuuk.¡± But Jin-suk¡¯s shoulders only shook as he tried to hold in his laughter while staring at the severed head. Unfortunately, he failed. ¡°Puhahahahaha!¡± Jin-suk began laughing so hard that he clutched his sides in pain. ¡®Did you see? That stupid expression? That pale face? That spiteful gaze? He desperately stabbed his teammate like crazy without knowing that he was being deceived, then he collapsed and went crazy when he found out. Looking at his expression, wouldn¡¯t someone think that he had been raped, and after struggling to live, he realised he¡¯d been fooled?¡± Jin-suk threw his longsword to the side and rolled around on the ground. A man wearing a mask rolled around on the ground and laughed like crazy while surrounded by four corpses. It was truly not a normal sight. ¡°Haha! Ha.¡± Jin-suk laughed so hard that he had trouble catching his breath. He briefly raised up his mask and wiped his tears, his shoulders still shaking slightly. Then, he lifted himself up. He¡¯d laughed so hard that he had brief muscle spasms and didn¡¯t have any strength left. ¡°Ahh. That was a good laugh.¡± As he brushed the dirt off his body, he realised that this was the second time he¡¯d gotten such a good laugh since entering this game. Jin-suk was pleased. He felt like this game really let him experience things he liked. After basking in the afterglow of his laugh for a moment, Jin-suk absorbed the vitality from the bandits¡¯ corpses and invested them all into strength. But it seemed that they weren¡¯t much since they had less vitality than the blacksmith Hans. Then, he took their money, weapons and leather equipment, and dumped their bodies deep in the forest, thinking that the wild animals would take care of them. After properly ending his pleasant encounter with the bandits, Jin-suk looked down at the Contract Jewel, which was arguably his greatest harvest from the encounter. Jin-suk¡¯s agreement with the bandits was only to tease them, but he also thought it would have been a good way to test out the ability of the jewel. And because of it, he¡¯d been able to learn a few things. First, its ability was absolute. The bandit, who had tried to lie to him had rolled around the ground in pain, and whenever he thought about not sending Frank to hell, an uncomfortable pain suddenly rose. However, he also found that there were many loopholes. Usually, words could have different meanings depending on the context. For example, Jin-suk said that he¡¯d spare one person. However, the word ¡®spare¡¯ could have the passive meaning of ¡®let go without killing¡¯, but it could also have the active meaning of ¡®ensuring that they won¡¯t die¡¯. Both Jin-suk and the bandits had used the word with the passive meaning. However, if the word had been used in an active sense, Jin-suk would have had to protect the other bandit from Frank. However, the Contract Jewel didn¡¯t react when the other bandit died. This meant that it also accepted the passive meaning of the word. It was the same with the phrase ¡®let go¡¯. The meanings of the phrase that Jin-suk and the bandits accepted were different. Jin-suk meant ¡®let them go to hell¡¯, or in order words ¡®kill them¡¯, but the bandits took it as ¡®let them go away¡¯ as in ¡®spare them¡¯. But the jewel accepted ¡®let them go to hell¡¯. So what were the standards by which the Contract Jewel interpreted the meaning of a word? ¡®Probably based on the contractor¡¯s thoughts.¡¯ If that was the case then it made sense. Jin-suk had suggested that he would ¡®let the person who provided the most useful information go¡¯ and ¡®spare one person¡¯, which the bandits accepted. And the jewel interpreted these words in the way that Jin-suk, the proposer, did. This meant that the jewel accepted the meaning according to the thoughts of the proposer. ¡®It grants one the ability to make contracts filled with loopholes.¡¯ No matter how you looked at it, it was a really good cheat-like ability. Jin-suk put the jewel in his bracelet. He couldn¡¯t help but feel like he would be needing the help of the jewel a lot in the future. Jin-suk, who had gained an unexpected income and a good laugh, once again started walking towards the city while humming a tune. Then, a thought suddenly appeared in his mind. ¡®Aren¡¯t I really good at adapting?¡¯ Unlike other beginners who were raped and killed, Jin-suk was able to get a smooth start and additional income. Instead, in this situation where the concept of law was vague and killing someone did not carry the same weight, it could have been said that he was living more freely. Well, that was to be expected. After all, he was different from others. He was off. Twisted. Broken. He didn¡¯t care about what others did, or their pointing fingers. He was a psychopath, a madman. But Jin-suk didn¡¯t mind. ¡°All I have to do is have fun.¡± After all, it was just a game. So it wouldn¡¯t matter what he did. No, even if there was a problem, there was nothing he could do about it anymore. Now that he¡¯d already gotten a taste of meat, he couldn¡¯t go back to being a vegetarian anymore. Jin-suk, who had already shed plenty of human blood, no longer had the confidence to control himself. If this game were to disappear for some reason¡­ Reality would probably see the emergence of a new, brutal serial killer. ¡­¡­¡­.. After walking for a while longer on the road bordered by the lush forest, Jin-suk came to a large green meadow. Unknown weeds, that would cover his feet swayed back and forth in the wind. Without hesitation, Jin-suk stepped out of the forest. In front of him was the wall which had seemed so far away. It was a typical grey stone wall which had been created by stacking large cut stones on top of each other. A stream flowed gently beside the wall which seemed to exude a magnificent aura. Because of how close it was to the wall, there were no small animals in the meadow, but the scene was still reminiscent of a painting as unnamed birds flew into the sky. Jin-suk continued to walk along the road. In the distance, he could see people gathering in front of the large front gates. It seemed that, as the bandit said, one needed identification to enter the city. He could see people chatting with those beside them as they silently waited for their turn. Some of them petted the horses that were pulling their wagons, and some who sat on the wagons fiddled with their abacuses. People of all kinds were gathered there. As Jin-suk approached, a murmur arose from the people. It was natural that they would be surprised by the appearance of someone wearing a mask and covered in blood. In fact, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if they all ran away screaming in fear. However, none of the people seemed afraid of him. They only talked softly to their companions while observing him. ¡°It¡¯s a Traveler. It¡¯s been a while since I last saw one.¡± ¡°This is my first time seeing a Traveler. Wow. They really wear masks?¡± ¡°But why is he covered in blood?¡± ¡°He¡¯s probably been here for a while but had no clothes to change. Beginner Travelers are no different from beggars.¡± They looked at him like they were looking at a monkey in a zoo. However, they didn¡¯t seem to care about him much other than looking at him, so Jin-suk simply scratched his head and stood at the back of the line. ¡°Hey! Hey! You there!¡± Who were they calling? Jin-suk subconsciously turned to look in the direction of the shouts. There, he saw a soldier standing in armor with a sword at his waist. Maybe it was the guard who was responsible for this gate. The soldier walked down the line of the gate he was guarding before coming to stop in front of Jin-suk. ¡°You. Are you a Traveler?¡± Jin-suk nodded. Then the soldier beckoned for him to follow him before turning around. It was an unexpected situation, but it wasn¡¯t a bad thing, so Jin-suk followed the guard without saying a word. After passing by another guard who was checking identities and reasons for visiting, the guard entered the gate. Jin-suk, who followed the guard into the gate was impressed. s?a??h th? ?ov?l?ir?.n?t website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. This was a medieval city that one could only see in movies or paintings. There was an unpaved dirt road which ran between medieval western style houses made of stone and wood. The houses were all built in a simple way. Because of the warm climate, the people here probably spent most of their time outdoors. Most of the houses were two or three story buildings because of the limited space within the city. As he followed the guard who was leading him somewhere, Jin-suk turned his head left and right. In the real world, this was a sight that one wouldn¡¯t be able to see even if they wanted to pay money. So except for the minimal attention that he used to not lose track of the guard walking in front of him, Jin-suk tried to engrave as much of the sights around as he could into his retinas. Jin-suk, who was swiveling his head around like a country bumpkin who had come to Seoul for the first time, was finally led before a large church with a bell tower on top of it. What kind of style was this? Gothic? Baroque? No, was it a completely different style? While looking at the magnificent church which seemed to exude a sacred atmosphere, Jin-suk tried to scrounge up the knowledge he¡¯d gained from middle school and highschool. While Jin-suk was consuming precious calories on a foolish endeavor, the guard who had brought him there knocked on the church doors. Bang. Bang. He knocked heavily on the door with his fist before stepping back. And after waiting for a while, someone opened the door. He was dressed in a manner that made Jin-suk think he was a priest, or a pastor, or something like that. The guard talked to the priest while pointing at Jin-suk before finally turning around and heading back to the gate. While Jin-suk stared at the guard¡¯s retreating back, feeling like he¡¯d been abandoned, someone tapped on his shoulder. Jin-suk turned his head, and the priest smiled brightly. ¡°Greetings, Traveler. My name is Jorba, and my task will be to help you adapt to this world.¡± ¡°Ah. Hello.¡± u And make sure to read on woopread <- click here ^-^. Chapter 20 World of Masks ¨C Chapter 20Translator: Seven Editor: Ana_Banana Jin-suk bowed awkwardly in return as Jorba bowed towards him. He noticed that while this game seemed to be based on western culture, bowing in greeting was common. Jorba smiled warmly at Jin-suk. ¡°Come in. I¡¯ll prepare a cup of tea for you.¡± Jorba led Jin-suk into the church. As soon as he entered, he saw a large, empty room, with various altar looking items placed at the end. This was probably the place for mass or worship. Jin-suk followed Jorba through a passage to the right of this room, before being led to a small room. In the room, there was only a table, two chairs, and a bookshelf with a few books on it. These gave the room a very simple feeling. ¡°Please wait here for a moment.¡± With those words, Jorba opened the door and walked out, leaving Jin-suk in the room. Jin-suk, who was still standing at the doorway, felt that he shouldn¡¯t stay like that, so he stepped forward and sat in the chair before looking around the room. Judging from the absence of bad, Jin-suk figured that this wasn¡¯t a bedroom, but was instead a drawing room. Looking out the window, the white clouds floating in the blue sky created a rather picturesque image. ¡®How peaceful.¡¯ The view outside was so beautiful that this thought floated past in his brain. (TL: He¡¯s probably thinking about ruining it.) ¡°The world is beautiful, isn¡¯t it?¡± It was Jorba who spoke while holding a steaming cup of tea out for Jin-suk. ¡°Yeah. It really is.¡± ¡°Huhu. Usually, the Travelers who come to this world for the first time have similar reactions.¡± As he said these words proudly, Jorba sat across from Jin-suk. He gave the image of a true follower of God who felt pride in this world, which was God¡¯s creation. ¡°Have you seen a lot of Travelers?¡± ¡°I took care of almost every Traveler who came to this city. After all, I¡¯m the one in charge of this temple. Temple? The building seemed more reminiscent of a church or cathedral. But now that he thought about it, Jorba¡¯s outfit did look more like a priest¡¯s outfit rather than a pastor¡¯s. The mild cultural shock caused by his cultural differences had blurred this reality, but now he realised it. In all honesty, it didn¡¯t matter whether he was a priest or not, or whether this was a church or not. Those who were deeply interested in religion might have been interested, but unfortunately, Jin-suk was an atheist. ¡°Now then. Let¡¯s get to the main point. Just to confirm, is it true that you are a Traveler who has just entered this world?¡± ¡°Yeah. I came here about 5 hours ago.¡± ¡°I see.¡± Jorba reached into his pocket, retrieved a piece of paper, removed the lid from a bottle of ink which sat on the table, and dipped a pen in the ink. (TL: What a sentence) ¡°My job is to create an identity for those who came to this world for the first time.¡± This time, he removed a jewel from his pocket. Jin-suk¡¯s eyebrows rose. ¡°That¡¯s a contract jewel.¡± ¡°Hoh. You know about it?¡± ¡°Yes. The bandits I met not long after coming in had it.¡± Jorba¡¯s expression hardened. ¡°Bandits you say. I know why they had it. Are you alright?¡± ¡°Yeah. Fortunately, they weren¡¯t that strong, so I was able to defeat them.¡± ¡°Fortunate indeed. These days, there has been an extremely large number of bandits targeting novice Travelers around the Holy Neutral City. Even if we subdue them, they eventually reappear after a while. In a way, they are like pests.¡± He shook his head animatedly as though he was truly disgusted. ¡°Usually, I would give you a proper description about this gem, but I suppose you already know about it, so I¡¯ll skip that part. First of all, I would like you, Traveler, to make a pledge upon this gem.¡± Jin-suk frowned beneath his mask. He was well aware of the dangers of a Contract Jewel. After all, he¡¯d used it to toy with the bandits earlier. ¡°I¡¯m not reluctant to do it, but¡­¡± ¡°I naturally understand that. But I have to make sure that you really are a novice Traveler. It¡¯s common for criminals and fugitive slaves to try to create new identities by pretending to be novice Travelers.¡± Now it seemed that NPCs would even imitate players. This game really did have all kinds of situations. ¡°If you like, I can leave this world for a moment before returning. To show that I¡¯m a Traveler. Wouldn¡¯t that be enough?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, there are Travelers among the criminals I mentioned. In truth, it¡¯s even more difficult to check when this is the case. After all, they are much more capable of pretending to be beginner Travelers than inhabitants of this world.¡± ¡°I see. However, I really don¡¯t want to do something so risky.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± Jorba looked at his cup of tea for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. ¡°How about this. There will only be one condition. I will ask whether a day has passed in this world since you left the beginner village. The contract will only be that question, and you will only have to answer yes or no. I think that is simple enough for you to accept.¡± Jin-suk thought that it was fine. He would only have to give a short answer, and the question was only asking for a brief detail. In this way, there was no way to infer multiple interpretations about the clauses. The reason he wouldn¡¯t simply ask if he was a beginner or not was because the concept of beginner was subjective. He would have no problems if Jorba asked such a question. Jin-suk nodded his head. ¡°Alright. But, just out of curiosity, what would happen if I refused?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, you would have no choice but to leave without getting any identification.¡± Jorba¡¯s face seemed to be saying that something like that would be incredibly troublesome. ¡°And what if it had been more than a day since I arrived?¡± ¡°In that case, you would say yes. And I would have to ask you a few more questions.¡± It seemed that he had thoroughly prepared for the other possibilities. After taking a short breath, Jin-suk responded to the question to verify his identity as a novice traveler. And after checking with the Contract Jewel to make sure he wasn¡¯t lying, Jorba reached out to him. ¡°I apologize for the rudeness. However, it¡¯s a necessary procedure I must follow¡­¡± ¡°No. As long as you were able to confirm my identity, it¡¯s fine.¡± Jin-suk also stretched out his hand and shook Jorba¡¯s hand. ¡°Thank you for your understanding. Nevertheless, I cannot rid myself of guilt. You see, in our world, it is considered rude to use a Contract Jewel to determine whether someone is telling the truth. So even though I¡¯ve done the same for many Travelers before, I still can¡¯t get accustomed to it. If I wasn¡¯t duty bound to use this gem, I wouldn¡¯t.¡± ¡°It¡¯s¡­ rude?¡± ¡°Ah! I suppose you wouldn¡¯t know this. Yes. It is considered very rude to use a Contract Jewel to determine the truth like I just did. Using this is like bluntly saying, ¡®I don¡¯t trust you, so swear with your life¡¯. So if you were to use a Contract Jewel to determine the truth, you would receive the disdain of those around you. And they might even ignore you if you tried to do it again. Nevertheless, there aren¡¯t many disadvantages. Rather, someone who pushes to use a Contract Jewel to determine the truth might be seen as trustworthy to some.¡± ¡°And yet it¡¯s still seen as rude?¡± ¡°As a man of God, I shouldn¡¯t be saying something like this, but everyone always has something that they need to hide. And the fear that these secrets might be exposed by this gem has created such a culture. In all honesty, it depends on personal preference. In my opinion, it¡¯s better than being lied to or swindled.¡± ¡°I see. So these jewels aren¡¯t used very much.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right. The effect is absolute, but the risk is too high. People will unconsciously think that they are risking their lives whenever they make a contract. Because of this, it is not used even in a pledge between a Lord and a Knight. If you give an acceptable phrase, but your thoughts are different, the other person might end up entrapped. In which case, it would be like breaking each other¡¯s trust. In the old days, Contract Jewels were often used in such a way. Where both sides would use words that could be interpreted differently in order to get what they want.¡± Jin-suk looked down at the Contract Jewel which lay on the table. It seemed that this gem had a painful history behind it for the NPCs. ¡°Then are these gems still used?¡± ¡°They¡¯re still used. They¡¯re used for very important contracts. But in those cases, both sides would thoroughly go over the clauses and even add secondary clauses so that there would be no other interpretations. But it can be quite annoying. In the past, two kingdoms used one to sign an agreement. But when they listed the clauses for the contract, it was long enough to fill an entire book. But what was even more ridiculous was that the secondary clauses which were made to prevent any misinterpretations were long enough to fill more than two scrolls of parchment. Nevertheless, it is still used, and it is absolutely effective. Ah! Actually, there are some people who use it often.¡± ¡°Who?¡± ¡°Slave traders and bandits.¡± Jorba said these words bitterly. ¡°If you hold a blade to someone¡¯s neck and force them to agree to a contract, most people would do it. So most slave traders or bandit groups would have one. The bandits do it to steal all the remaining property from their victim, and the slave traders do it to forcefully make people into slaves.¡± As if his mouth had become dry, Jorba took a sip of tea. (TL: He¡¯s talking so much, his mouth should be a desert.) ¡°In truth, this gem is quite expensive. Moreover, it¡¯s relatively rare, because it is a magical item. It is something that could only be produced by the magic towers. They also have a fixed number of uses, and if you use it up, you¡¯d have to go to a magic tower to recharge it. Recharging it costs a lot of money, but the large slave traders and bandits use them because they feel they are worth the expense. After all, having it directly relates to how much they can gain.¡± ¡°The bandits who had the Contract Jewel didn¡¯t seem like a large group.¡± Jin-suk thought about the four bandits who had been trembling in front of him. Both their size and strength seemed completely different from the big groups Jorba had mentioned. In fact, now that he thought about it, they were either very stupid, or didn¡¯t know how to use a contract jewel since they were toyed with to such an extent by Jin-suk, who didn¡¯t even know much about the jewel. Well, they wouldn¡¯t be bandits if they were smart or well trained. ¡°That¡¯s why it¡¯s such a common thing to attack novice travelers. They usually earn enough to buy such expensive items.¡± Jorba smiled bitterly. After all, even if they robbed only beginner bandits, they would be able to receive low class Life Beads and bracelet type magic warehouses. Most of the people who had these treasures were raw beginners who knew nothing about self defense. Perhaps in this game, robbing novice Travelers was a high value industry which generated high profits for surprisingly low capital. ¡®I can¡¯t use it easily.¡¯ Jin-suk inwardly clicked his tongue with slight regret. However, he didn¡¯t think that he wouldn¡¯t use it at all. After all, this gem was still an item that, if used well, could be a really fun toy. ¡°My apologies. Our conversation suddenly went on another tangent. That¡¯s why it¡¯s better for the old to die.¡± (TL: I really thought I read this wrong¡­ ) ¡°No no. It was a very informative conversation.¡± Jin-suk was being honest. After all, for Jin-suk, who was thirsty for information about this unfriendly game, even the slightest bit of information was like rain in a drought. S?a??h the N0v?lFir?.?et website on G??gl? to access chapters of n?vels early and in the highest quality. ¡°I¡¯m glad you think so. Well then. Let¡¯s proceed with the procedure.¡± u And make sure to read on woopread <- click here ^-^.