by Yoo Seong
‘That’s it! I’ve got the feeling! I can get to level 10 by the end of the day with this momentum!’
Ark was fully immersed in the combat.
……That was a mistake.
He was so immersed in battle that he forgot an important fact. Ark realized it after defeating a space bug.
Kikikiki! Kikikiki!
He had been killing the space bugs in a party of 3 without any breaks. Thus Ark had a confident smile on his face while fighting.
“Take this! I will slice….eh?”
Ark flinched and stopped swinging his dagger. His dagger was blinking red.
-Alloy dagger: Durability 1/20
There was only 1 durability left on the dagger! Ark’s face was filled with confusion after checking the status in the Nymphe.
‘Huck! That’s right, didn’t equipment have durability?’
Ark’s equipment in New World had infinite durability. He had made it like that with the master code because he felt annoyed with the constant repairing. Thus Ark hadn’t needed to repair any items during the past year. So he had even forgotten the common sense stuff like repairing equipment after entering Galaxian! Thus Ark made a huge mistake because of his previous character.
‘How stupid…..!’
He only had one dagger in his bag. If it broke then he would become unemployed.
‘No! I can’t lose the dagger!’
Ark hurriedly stopped the attack and withdrew. As soon as Ark stepped back, the space bug rushed towards the party member with the lowest health. The bug attacked and the member fell into a critical condition. The space bug devoured the party member and they died. The 3 people party was reduced to 2. In addition, Ark couldn’t attack anymore! The remaining member was also level 2.
‘Do we have to run away?’
There were many users in the vicinity. If Ark ran away then he would be giving up the hunting spot. Once he left the spot he would once again by unemployed. Ark looked at the jobless in the corner who were staring with shining eyes.
‘No! If I leave here then I don’t know if I can get a job again!’
“Damn! Aslan-nim, try attacking from behind!”
“Huh? “U-understood!”
Aslan hesitated before attacking the space bug. However, he wasn’t a match for the space bug. It was okay with 3 or 5 people but a level 2 user stabbing didn’t do any damage. Now this was a 3 people party and one person was dead. The result of this battle was obvious! Ark’s health quickly reduced to 10%. He couldn’t run away any longer.
“Dammit!”
In the end, he was forced to wield his shield. One, two, three…..and it broke on the fourth blow.
Jjang!
The sharp steel blade turned into sand. He stared with desperate eyes as he felt a pain in his chest. His body drained of its strength. Death! The legendary gamer became the prey of the space bug after playing the game for 5 hours.
‘Damn, now I’m really embarrassed.’
At this point, Ark was still unaware. It wasn’t simply embarrassing. Ark only realized after he was revived with Galaxian’s system.
-Your body has been restored through the revival system ‘Fairy.’
Character information window
Name Ark (R-02788) Level 1
Species Human Occupation Beginner Pioneer
Fame –
Health 100 Mental Power 100
Strength 15 Agility 15
Stamina 15 Wisdom 15
Intelligence 15 Luck 15
Space 3
From the Beginning Again
R-14’s central plaza. Space ships occupied one entire side of the plaza. Hundreds of eyes looked around every time a ship made a noise. People playing with their Nymphes were scattered here and there. Hundreds of ships continuously flew down towards the docks and the amount of people around was reminiscent of Yeoido Plaza when it was the World Cup. They were the users who had just begun Galaxian. Of course they were keenly interested! If they grasped the new system and raised their level faster than other people then they had a chance of conquering the universe first. Deep in a corner of the central plaza. There was a young man wrapped in a gloomy aura. The young man locked in a gloomy atmosphere was Ark. Ark looked out the window with spiritless eyes.
“That is Earth……”
The earth where humanity lived used to shine with a blue light. But the Earth that he saw through the window had turned to a dark brown. The ignorant humans had been too greedy and turned it into a barren land 200 years ago. In the end they left Earth for space, making them seem like shameless children eating off their parents until coldly discarding them after the parents died. When Ark first came to R-14, he hadn’t been interested in Earth. He just thought it was a good setting as a background. Now he felt different. His circumstances weren’t much different from the earth dying because of human greed. The difference between Ark and the earth was that he was the cause of his suffering. Ark blankly stared at the earth while pulling at his hair.
“Stupid! Bastard!”
More knowledge would only cause confusion. That was Ark’s theory. But he was starting a new game. When Ark stated New World a long time ago, he had experienced some troubles because he didn’t know the basic information. Well, it was thanks to that incident that Ark managed to find a hidden class and became the strongest in New World. Therefore Ark made sure to learn the basic information about Galaxian. One thing he learnt was the revival system.
-
-This is the revival system in Galaxian.
-Through the cloning technique discovered in the 2000’s, users will automatically have the registered genetic information restored as flesh after they die. The body will be 100% identical to the registered information.
-If you use this system then considerable resources are needed to restore the body.
-The higher level a registered person it, the more resources it would consume. If you lack the necessary resources then the body might not be restored properly. The damage to the body and spirit is intense and you might end up disabled for your whole life. However, the federal government wants to encourage space pioneering so this service will be free for beginner pioneers.
-There is the revival system so I don’t have to worry even if I die!
-Please use this.
‘Don’t have to worry even if I die?’
……It was sugar-coating it. If he died then he would be 100% restored using the registered genetic information. This meant he wouldn’t lose experience or stats if he died. Of course it cost a lot of money but it was better than the normally severe death penalty in other virtual reality games. However, this system was a trap. Only the genetic information stored would be revived. If he raised his character from level 1 to level 100 and didn’t register the information, he would be reset to level 1 if he died. Furthermore, there also weren’t many revival systems. Only places of civilization like towns would have one. Once the user left the beginner area and started earnestly exploring the universe, it would be difficult to find a revival system in certain areas. In other words, if he died during fighting in the field then all that experience would disappear.
‘Dammit, don’t worry?’
It was like the system was saying not to level up.
“I was aware……”
R-14’s revival system was in the central plaza. The revival system was the first thing he saw when he first started the game. But Ark never registered. This was due to the mileage quest reward so he never dared to leave the hunting ground for fear of losing his spot. In addition, there were thousands of users hunting in the 2nd district so he could count the number of dead users during his 5 hours with his fingers. He never even considered that the legendary gamer Ark would die in such a place. This was the penalty he received for his arrogance.
‘All my experience from the 5 hours hunting has flown away!’
5 hours of experience wasn’t a long time in game hours. But now those 5 hours felt li
ke a whole life time to Ark. It was a lifetime of experience. Ark also lost the ‘Space Combat’ skill that he learnt. However, that wasn’t Ark’s main problem now.
‘The problem is the dagger!’
To be exact, it was the broken dagger. Naturally the dagger wasn’t restored by the revival system. The experience could probably be recovered but the dagger was gone forever. It might just be a basic beginner dagger but it was Ark’s only weapon and fortune. Now his entire fortune had disappeared. But he still had hope when he revived. He had completed the quest 8 times so he could turn in the mileage points for bonus compensation. ‘This might be a beginner quest but I can’t survive without a dagger.’ So Ark had visited Bhurad after reviving. However, the visit to Bhurad just caused despair.
“Your mileage has been destroyed.”
“Huh? D-destroyed?”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? I can’t give rewards to someone who died from a space bug.”
He remembered hearing something like that when receiving the quest.
“But I built up some mileage before I died.”
“The accumulated mileage needs to be registered to get the reward. If you died during a mission then all that mileage will disappear. You came here without knowing something like that? If you didn’t understand then you should’ve just taken the reward every time.”
“You said that you recommended the mileage……”
“What? Do you intend to blame me?”
Bhurad’s face turned serious. Naturally Ark was furious since it felt like he had been scammed of his mileage. He really wanted to rip off the beard but there was still the matter of the dagger. What profit would a level 1 character have if he grasped the neck of a NPC? Ark sighed and tried to appeal to his sympathy.
“Actually, I broke my dagger while fighting the space bugs. If I don’t receive compensation then I can’t do anything. Can you please look over this matter one time?”
“It is the rule so I can’t help you.”
He grinded his teeth.
“The revival system is expensive A trivial pioneer like you won’t have that much money. Due to the federal policy, R-14 has no choice but to offer a free service after the proliferation of pioneers so the budget is suffering. Nevertheless, some pioneers are still trying to play tricks. The space station wouldn’t be able to keep operating if I did something like this. So just think of it as a fee.”
The explanation didn’t help. Curses rose in his throat but he pushed it down. He wanted to ask more questions but…..
“Ah, can you get out of the way if your request is finished?”
“Are you the only one receiving the quest? Don’t you know there are people waiting?”
The players behind him became impatient so he was forced to leave. It was regrettable. There were a lot of things he wanted to question. However, wasn’t a NPC just a system? Of course, if his intimacy with the NPC was higher than something might’ve been possible. But he only talked to Bhurad when accepting the space bug quest. And since Ark died, his spot in the 2nd district was gone. Even if he tried to get employed again, what party would invite him when Ark didn’t even have a dagger? It was a crisis where there was a possibility that he would become homeless!
‘And the cause of that…..’
At first he blamed Bhurad for not explaining properly. He then blamed himself for not reading the quest related information properly. However, Ark realized the fundamental problem after becoming depressed in a corner.
‘Yes, the problem was my mental state from the beginning.’
When he first started Galaxian, he was starting from level 1. He didn’t realize it but he had a sense of entitlement from his status as a legendary gamer and had a different attitude from the other gamers. He used the name ‘Ark’ in his job advertisements and unreasonably fighting with 3 people was also the result of that arrogance. It was the arrogance created by becoming a legendary gamer! Once he thought about it, all his problems started from there.
‘I thought that my lack of level and skills wouldn’t matter when fighting the space bugs. But it isn’t like this. Obviously New World’s Ark was strong. If I enter again I will be strong. But it is different. Ark is only strong in New World. I thought if I created Ark then I would have the power of the strongest character behind it…..’
There was no reason for him not to be strong. He didn’t need to worry before fighting. Ark never realized that his abilities as a warrior were rusty. Ark thought he wasn’t accustomed to battling in Galaxian but he had actually lost his battle sense a long time ago. Even the strongest warrior would become old once he sits down on a throne…..
Jjak-!
“Wake up Ark!”
Ark slapped his cheeks with both hands. Ark didn’t start this game to become idle. He came in here with a clear goal. Of course, Ark wanted to stop Lucifer but he didn’t have a ‘Saviour’ disease. He didn’t fall into the delusion that he was Superman. However, he wanted to achieve it once he accepted. He would make a strong resolution to accomplish it. It was with this confidence that he was able to make a deal with the government. His overconfidence ended him with him making a huge mistake.
‘If I continue to be depressed then I can’t fix this!’
Ark realized his mistake after reflecting. However, there was no time to dwell on the past. If he couldn’t abandon his regret then he wouldn’t be able to move forward. Ark discarded his regret and thought again.
“I’m not the hero of New World here. There is no legendary gamer. This is a starting point. Right now I am the beginner pioneer Ark who just entered the universe.”
Ark shook off everything that happened. At the same time, the legendary gamer Ark died. And the level 1 beginner pioneer Ark was born. Ark now knew what to do. Something appropriate for a level 1 user!
————————————————————————————
“Hehehe, hello?”
Ark greeted while fiddling with his hands nervously. Bhurad sent him a look and declared sharply.
“What? You still can abandon your regrets?”
Bhurad didn’t have a good opinion of Ark after the mileage problem. Ark shook his head and spoke quickly.
“No. I became extremely embarrassed after recovering my senses. After staying in that corner and thinking, I realized that it was my fault.”
“I’m glad you understand.”
“So I wanted to visit you to apologize.”
“Apologize?”
“Yes, I was too short-sighted. How many people have come to R-14 now? I can’t fathom how you deal with so many stupid people alone. For someone like me to question you about mileage, it is natural that you would become angry.”
Ark said while continuing to wring his hands. This was what Ark came up with. If he raised his public image with NPCs in a virtual reality game then it would benefit him. Ark knew that the intimacy system also existed in Galaxian. However, he had wanted to leave the beginner area after starting the game so he didn’t feel the need to raise his intimacy with the NPCs. But now the situation had changed. Ark’s dagger was broken so he was literally a beggar! The conclusion Ark came up with was that he needed to talk. The other users also thought like Ark and wanted to escape from the beginner area
Therefore Ark was the only one trying to get close to a NPC. So he was going to raise his intimacy with Bhurad! That was the first thing Ark needed to do now. In fact, this was an area that Ark was an expert in. Ark was a user who could act subservient to a NPC. Once he decided, his tongue moved smoothly like oil.
“Actually, I’ve been watching while lingering in the corner of the plaza. And I realized that you never sat down despite how many hours passed.”
“That is the regulations for the crew…..”
“I also realized this. I became really impressed after watching you thoroughly stick to the rules.”
“The attitude of the crew is recorded on the CCTV…..”
“That’s not it.
It would be the same even if there was no CCTV! How many civil servants could still act like that despite receiving complaints? Bhurad-nim is someone with firm beliefs. You are indeed the paragon of a civil servant.”
Bhurad had a bad impression of Ark but his smooth words gradually loosened him up. Not a lot of time was needed for the effects to show.
“Can’t you make it a little quicker? Don’t you know there are people waiting?”
“Hey! Can’t you see that I’m speaking now? Why are you making such a fuss?”
Bhurad scowled and retorted after hearing the users’ complaints. And his expression softened after looking at Ark.
“Well, in regards to my words earlier. Like you said, my nerves are slightly sensitive after being swarmed by so many new pioneers. Please understand.”
“How can I not understand? It is the rules.”
“Yes, in fact I also felt sorry regarding your situation. But how can I go against the rules? Although I have a pain in my heart, I can’t do anything despite my position. So I hope you don’t dwell too much on the past and firm up your heart.”
“Thank you. I might’ve lost my dagger after just entering the universe but I’m glad I can meet someone who gave me sincere advice.”
“Aha! This friend, are you trying to make me tear up?”
Bhurad sent him a worried look.
“By the way, what are you going to do now? You don’t have your dagger so won’t it be difficult for you to find a job?”
“That’s why I wanted to ask Bhurad-nim. I don’t have a dagger so I can’t catch the space bugs and I don’t know anyone here. So I wanted to ask Bhurad-nim if there is any work other than catching a space bug.”