[SHOCKING! An extraordinary man has appeared who took overwhelming first place in the <Trial of the Goblin King> with his bare hands! Exclusive footage obtained]
It looked like the most common sort of clickbait video.
But the people who clicked in, hooked for a moment by the title, found that the content was not mere clickbait.
The man captured in the video really was fighting goblins with his bare hands.
The goblins rushed him in packs, but the instant they closed in they were flung back again, never to rise.
The video ran eight minutes.
And the fighting alone came to only five.
-Does that even make sense? A newbie nobody's heard of is out there massacring goblins?
-Isn't that CG? All the exaggerated videos these days are slathered in CG like they're movies.
-Doesn't look like CG. It's just a for-real master out there slaughtering commoners.
-Straight from a <Trial of the Goblin King> participant: that guy took first by a mile and got the reward. It's not commoner-slaughter.
-Same level would be around 10? Is there anyone among the Awakened who can move like that??
-Gwak Min-seo, the one they call Gale Sword, could hold his own.
-Gwak Min-seo, that bastard, is for real all gear. This guy isn't wearing anything.
-Who do you contract with to use a technique like that?
-No idea.
-Isn't that Tathagata Divine Palm? With Tathagata Divine Palm you can kill a goblin in one hit.
-Have you seriously never seen Tathagata Divine Palm? That's an area technique. It can't move around and hammer things like that.
With no one able to give a proper answer, the comment section ran wild with guesses.
It seized the top spot in trending videos in no time and spread across the Republic of Korea and the whole world.
Geon-mu's actions set the guilds in an uproar.
"Stop everything you're doing! A bastard who wrecked goblins with his bare palms has shown up. Do you think work matters right now!?"
"Contact the video uploader, contact the Awakened Association, and find out who he is! Do not be choosy about means or methods. You will find out, without fail!"
Manpower was money, and the higher the grade of that manpower, the more the earnings grew, exponentially.
In a land thirsting for high-grade manpower, a figure who dispatched goblins in a single blow needed no discussion at all.
Geon-mu's appearance was enough to paralyze every last guild there was.
***
Cheonho Guild, Gwanak Branch.
In a rare move, Kang Ho-seok pressed the button for the building's top floor.
The entire top floor was the branch manager's office.
Kang Ho-seok was on his way there.
The reason for the summons was easy enough to guess.
'Cha Geon-mu.'
The extraordinary man who had appeared in Tapgol Park and swallowed first place.
The questions would be about him.
He arrived at the top floor, and the elevator doors opened.
A branch manager's office like a luxury penthouse came into Kang Ho-seok's view.
His own space was barely enough for one desk and one chair.
As Kang Ho-seok stepped inside, he saw a man sitting with his feet up on a long desk.
The branch manager, Byeon Ho-jun.
"You called for me, Branch Manager?"
"Ah, Team Leader Kang, come in. Have a seat."
He offered the seat without once taking his eyes off the monitor.
The surround speakers rang with the sound of brush sweeping and air bursting.
"You are curious about what I am watching, are you not?"
"Would that be the video of the man involved in this Trial of the Goblin King?"
"Yes, correct. His name was...... what was it?"
Kang Ho-seok answered Byeon Ho-jun's question.
"Kim Jin-hyeok."
"Yes, Kim Jin-hyeok. It is his video."
Byeon Ho-jun turned the monitor to show him.
Kang Ho-seok had already replayed the video three times.
Even so, the man's movements in it never stopped drawing admiration.
"What are your impressions?"
Kang Ho-seok was thrown by Byeon Ho-jun's question, but he answered quickly.
"Well, I thought it was the sort of technique that makes you say...... this is truly remarkable."
"And besides that?"
"I am not sure. The picture quality is poor, and I did not see it myself......."
"You did not see it yourself......."
Byeon Ho-jun drew out the end of his sentence.
Kang Ho-seok knew at once that he had touched a nerve.
"You were the closest one there, and you did not see that hunt?"
"While I was handling the east, he was hunting in the west. They were on completely opposite sides......."
"I know. I know. My memory rivals a goldfish's, and so I have made Team Leader Kang repeat himself."
"......My apologies."
Kang Ho-seok bent at the waist as he apologized.
Byeon Ho-jun kept his brow furrowed as he stared at Kang Ho-seok.
Staying like this would only sour the mood further.
"But I do have some information."
"What sort of information?"
"To start with, he has no Patron Star."
"No Patron Star. Do you say that having confirmed it yourself?"
"He seemed to know nothing at all about Patron Stars. He told me the Goblin King tried to form a contract with him directly."
"The Goblin King, is it......."
Byeon Ho-jun looked intrigued.
The Goblin King was a poorly regarded Patron Star, but it was not one that threw contracts around at just anyone.
"Is there anything else?"
"I have obtained his address and phone number as well."
He had learned several other pieces of personal information while preparing the documents for the change to Cha Geon-mu, but Kang Ho-seok did not mention them.
That alone seemed to be enough; Byeon Ho-jun's expression eased enough to be reassuring.
"Excellent. Now all we need is a pretext to meet him again......?"
"There is no need to worry on that count. Since we took charge of processing the goblin corpses, I will meet him once more when I bring him the cash."
"You handle things skillfully. As expected of a man seasoned by long years in the trade."
Byeon Ho-jun said it with a satisfied face, but even that did not sound kind to Kang Ho-seok.
Kang Ho-seok knew what sort of man Byeon Ho-jun was.
A man who cut off all recognition when things went against him and drew every stream to his own field when they went his way.
There were no human beings in his eyes.
Only tools to be used and discarded, and janggi pieces.
"Team Leader Kang."
At Byeon Ho-jun's call, Kang Ho-seok stopped.
"Have you forgotten something?"
"Nothing much. Team Leader Kang, you have been a hunter for twelve years, correct?"
"That is correct."
"Twelve years, and your level is still not even 50."
"......Yes."
"Awakened who have not reached Level 50 are everywhere. Younger ones, more promising ones. You understand what I am saying."
Something like you can be replaced at any time.
It was a fact Kang Ho-seok understood perfectly well.
"I will bring you results. Please do not worry."
"I am not particularly worried. Rather than about me, Mister Kang Ho-seok, you should worry about yourself."
Kang Ho-seok bowed once more and boarded the elevator.
Byeon Ho-jun looked at the monitor with a satisfied face.
Cha Geon-mu's silhouette showed there, blurred.
It was nothing but an image made of pixels, and yet Byeon Ho-jun felt it vividly.
A tension he had never felt even from his equals.
It rose to the level of instinct, to where numbers on a status window meant nothing at all.
"What kind of monster are you?"
Byeon Ho-jun waited only for the day he would meet him.
***
Through meditation and the circulation of energy and regulation of breath, Geon-mu drew the limits of his existing body upward.
As a result he came to possess stats that were flatly impossible within his level range.
Name: Kim Jin-hyeok
Level: 8
Patron Constellation: None.
Lineage: Asura
Titles: <Heaven-Breaking Divine Lord><Dragon-Slaying Emperor><Asura King>
Traits: <Heaven-Breaking Divine Art (EX)>,<Myriad Phenomena (S)>, <Nine Dragon Divine Meridians (SSS)>
Strength: 25
Agility: 30
Perception: 23
Stamina: 28
Magic Power: 15
Remaining Points: 21
The three points granted at each level up had not been spent at all.
Simply breathing and concentrating had produced the effect of raising more than thirty levels.
"Hmm......."
Geon-mu stared hard at his status window.
His condition had improved noticeably, yet his eyes were not satisfied in the least.
"Damn it, is this not enough to change the name?"
Geon-mu looked down at a card lying on the floor.
It was his resident registration card, the ink on it not yet dry.
The name entered into the system had certainly been changed to Cha Geon-mu.
But on the status window it was still 'Kim Jin-hyeok,' and however hard he stared, nothing changed.
To Geon-mu, his name was a matter graver than his life.
'Walk long enough through time and you are bound to forget yourself.'
Every time he was reincarnated, Geon-mu possessed someone's body.
Whenever he took possession of a body, feelings and thoughts of despair that had never been his own tried to eat away at him.
They were without doubt the thoughts the body's owner had held.
And the emotions built upon them.
Geon-mu had to resist every time such weak thoughts arose.
To survive, he had to be strong.
For that strength, and to keep his consciousness from being eroded, Geon-mu always called his own name to mind.
The name might mean nothing now, but Geon-mu could not give it up.
'I need to ask someone, and the only one worth asking is Brother.'
The only person around Geon-mu now was Kang Ho-seok, with whom he had begun calling each other brother.
Part of it was to stand in an advantageous position, but there was also something dependable about Kang Ho-seok.
He already knew the problem Geon-mu was carrying, so raising the subject would be fine.
'But first.......'
Geon-mu opened his wallet.
[Goblin King's Golden Box]
A box granted to the victor of the Trial of the Goblin King.
Upon destruction, you acquire items.
The following items will be acquired.
Goblin Gold Coin x300
Lowest-Grade Stamina Enhancement Pill x1
You may choose one from the following list.
Random C-Grade or higher Weapon x1
Random C-Grade Trait Card x1
'A C-Grade card?'
Grades were assigned, but Geon-mu could not get a proper feel for what those grades meant.
He had nothing to compare the weapon against, but for traits he had a basis for comparison.
'<Myriad Phenomena> is S-Grade, <Nine Dragon Divine Meridians> is SSS-Grade, and <Heaven-Breaking Divine Art> is EX-Grade.'
Three traits with preposterous grades.
Was there any value in gaining a trait shabbier than those?
-Do traits have grades among them as well?
-Of course they do. The maximum is SS-Grade, I think. The grade of the trait our Sword Tiger granted is A+. Impressive, isn't it?
-Hmm, I see.
Geon-mu held not SS-Grade but SSS-Grade and EX-Grade.
From what he had heard, it was hardly a thing worth boasting about and puffing oneself up over.
'SS-Grade being the maximum only means that is all that has surfaced.'
Myriad Phenomena, the eye that saw through all things, was S-Grade, so what trait could possibly be better than that?
Geon-mu was beginning to find this world more and more interesting.
'Either way, the trait or the weapon.......'
Geon-mu finished thinking it through and chose his reward.
[You have destroyed the <Goblin King's Golden Box>.]
[You have obtained 300 <Goblin Gold Coins>.]
[You have obtained 1 <Lowest-Grade Stamina Enhancement Pill>.]
[You have obtained a <Random C-Grade Trait>.]
The reason Geon-mu made this choice was extremely simple.
'A trait can be put to use somewhere, but a weapon cannot.'
He did not know much about traits, but a useless weapon became an obstacle instead.
If it failed to cut when you believed you had cut, it was junk worse than having nothing at all.
Geon-mu now picked up the <Random C-Grade Trait> card.
[Random C-Grade Trait]
Upon destruction, you acquire a random trait of C-Grade.
Geon-mu read the card's description and held a doubt.
"Is this completely random?"
Geon-mu could only hope that it was.
An item whose result was not fixed would be vastly in his favor.
It was the moment for one of his traits, <Myriad Phenomena>, to shine.
[<Myriad Phenomena> sees through the <Random C-Grade Trait>.]
Myriad Phenomena was an eye that could see everything.
An eye of essence that saw through even the order within disorder.
It held the ability to find the exact right answer among irregular random numbers, among figures in ceaseless motion.
Which meant that instead of randomness, he could designate.
[<Random C-Grade Trait> has been transmuted into <C-Grade Trait Selection>.]
[C-Grade Trait Selection]
Upon destruction, you may acquire one trait from the list.
.
.
.
"Just as I thought."
What Geon-mu had suspected was correct.
If the result of this random card had been fixed, it would have been classified as a specific C-Grade trait card.
Its turning into a selection meant that it spun without end, like a roulette machine with a coin dropped in.
'Is there a trait I need in here?'
As Geon-mu fiddled with the <C-Grade Trait Selection>, the message expanded.
Sweet Voice (C)
Combat Breathing (C)
Supple Footwork (C)
.
.
.
From ones that looked useless to ones needed in combat, a total of 8,549 traits were contained in it.
"Sorting out the useless ones is going to take time......."
Going through every one of them thoroughly was daunting beyond words.
But there was no rule that the one he truly needed had to turn up 8,549th.
Geon-mu was leafing through the third page when he found the trait he needed.
"Exactly what I need."
Perhaps it was a trait he had craved even more than S-Grade Myriad Phenomena.
"This is the one."