Chapter 22 – New Update

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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110 billion won.

Even after recounting several times, it was certain.

That astronomical unit of numbers.

They said it’s money that will be deposited into my account just by applying for deposit.

For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m going to be scared of money.

110 billion.

How many times do you have to win the lottery to get that amount!

But what’s scarier than that.

That astronomical amount of reward money.

It was my appearance of taking it for granted.

A salary that wasn’t bad for living alone.

Despite that, the past where I wept tears of blood over various living expenses.

The hot and cold days obsessed with the operation time of the air conditioner and boiler.

Let’s imagine that a huge sum of 110 billion was given to me from those days.

For starters, a confirmed case of insomnia.

Every night, what if a robber breaks into the house. What if my colleagues or the department head notices after I suddenly quit my job. What if a bank employee embezzles it.

I would have lost sleep over useless worries.

In that sense, it was a relief.

?Born as the successor of a great family and having tasted the end of abundance.?

This extraordinary sense of money, that is.

Perhaps because of that setting.

Rather than going blank, my brain started spinning even faster.

“What is more urgent than anything is armament.”

Yeah, it is urgent.

From level 55 to level 134.

Most of all, because the level had risen a lot, and rapidly at that.

The equipment items I am currently using are honestly at a level where it doesn’t matter whether I have them or not.

Saying that it’s no different from just throwing on a long coat in front of high-level monsters.

‘I have to use my head well.’

By the way, that in itself was another problem.

Let’s say I get items tailored to my rapidly risen level.

What should I do for the next level up?

Of course, there would be no guarantee that I’d be able to level up at this rapid speed in the next Rift.

But let’s look at it objectively.

Even if it had risen, it was only Level 134.

At my level, my level goes up just by catching a low-level demonic monster, an Imp.

‘Is it a good idea to get items suitable for my current level range?’

Spending tens of millions of won at least, and hundreds of millions at most?

Absolutely not.

Then a question naturally follows.

Then does it mean I won’t get items?

When I don’t know when I’ll have to enter a Rift where I have to risk my life again?

No, that’s absolutely not it either.

I also have a plan all figured out.

‘Items whose effects are the real deal rather than specs.’

You know, items that hold high value thanks to their effects rather than absolute stats like Attack Power or Defense.

‘Because there are items with good effects regardless of level limits.’

At this point, that was the kind of item I needed.

Among them.

‘If only my magic power regeneration was supported just a little.’

Magic power regeneration related items!

I realized the importance of magic power in this Count Ascura Rift.

Even excluding the moment of crisis due to magic power exhaustion, there had been quite a few times when it was regrettable that I lacked magic power.

In that sense, if I could supplement magic power regeneration.

‘I might be able to hold out somehow.’

Until I get plausible high-level equipment items, that is.

Naturally, they would be expensive?

Back when Arcana was merely a game.

Mage-type classes were treated as nobility.

Setting aside looking cool.

Basically, because they had outstanding performance, the amount invested in their growth was also not to be scoffed at.

What was essential to such Mages was precisely items related to magic power regeneration.

Now that Arcana has become reality.

Its value must have risen even further.

I might really gasp ‘hundred million’ dozens of times.

Billions for a single item!

To think I would become the buyer rather than the seller of such an item.

It was truly something I couldn’t even imagine.

There was no agitation in my emotions.

Taking a seat in front of the table.

An upright posture pressed fully against the backrest.

Even the occasionally leisurely tilted teacup.

Even if it’s an item worth billions, no, more than that.

It means it couldn’t shake Granfel’s heart.

Whether receiving 110 billion.

Or the whole world focusing on me.

There was no worrying more than necessary.

Scratch scratch-

The A4 paper filling up once again.

-Train your weakened body. (Repeat) ?

?Run 20KM (In Progress)

?1,000 Push-ups (Success)

?500 Pull-ups (In Progress)

?300 Burpee tests (Success)

Likewise, the repeating quests filling up.

My actions that were no different from usual were the proof.

Really, a terribly strict ‘my way’.

Suddenly, such a thought occurred to me.

I was really like this in eighth grade?

But I soon folded that kind of thought.

Today’s shame was overflowing just from having my dark history uncovered in front of my one and only niece, A-rang.

*

Sometimes, there are things that are more valuable because they aren’t revealed.

“What on earth is his identity?”

Currently, Ho-yeol’s situation was exactly like that.

The Count Ascura Raid with Jesse Heinness.

However, the truth of that incident hadn’t been accurately revealed.

Ho-yeol and Jesse.

Because the parties involved kept their mouths shut as if they had made a promise.

“First, let’s look at the video.”

Rumble!

From the stone pillars rising from the ground.

To the moving stone statues collapsing in front of Ho-yeol.

In order to uncover such Ho-yeol’s identity.

Or at the very least his class, there were more than one or two people keeping their eyes wide open.

But it has to make sense in the first place, really.

The more they looked into the video, the more the sense of mystery surrounding Ho-yeol couldn’t help but grow bigger.

“First of all, Alchemy is certain.”

“Alchemy?”

“Yes. Look closely here. Can you see it clearly? The sight of ruins’ debris turning into stone pillars, to be precise. This is unmistakably Alchemy. But what doesn’t make sense again is how extreme the amount of magic power consumed in Alchemy is. Goodness, just how high is his magic power.”

“Excuse me, expert?”

Ex-management of Arcana.

AAU wasn’t much different either.

AAU Korean Branch.

Recently, Sung Hyun-jun felt like his ears were going to fall off.

Plop-

Sitting at his office desk, he spoke to his senior.

“Senior, I’m really dying here.”

“Why, again?”

“Everywhere I go, Lee Ho-yeol. Lee Ho-yeol. It’s just a total uproar!”

Friends, cousins, even his father and mother.

Inquiries about Lee Ho-yeol were just flooding in.

He could understand.

How long has it been since a star Player like this appeared?

Since Gaon’s Nam Tae-min, there hadn’t been anyone showing that much achievement in South Korea.

You know, even when someone wins a medal at the Olympics, that’s all people talk about for a while.

Because Ho-yeol wasn’t a medalist, but a true hero who handled a collapsed Rift, that massive disaster.

“Can’t be helped. The kids go crazy too when I get off work. Asking dad to secretly tell only them. Saying they won’t say a word to the kids at school.”

“That’s what’s driving me crazy.”

“Exactly. I’d need to know something to tell them!”

The two of them simultaneously looked at Ho-yeol on the monitor.

Just what in the world is he?

What is this skill?

And what is that which defeated Count Ascura!

Even they, who were managers of Arcana in the past, couldn’t guess Ho-yeol’s level, no, even his class.

Sung Hyun-jun shook his head side to side.

“The bigger problem is that it seems like it’ll be exhausting going forward.”

Would it kill him to answer kindly for once?

Come to think of it, the root cause of everything was Ho-yeol’s interview.

That prickly interview that was gathering as much huge attention as Ho-yeol’s active contribution.

-LOL The concept is sick

-Can you see his expression? Just overflowing with confidence

-Looks like someone who came to a runway, not a Rift

-Wait, you’re telling me that’s a concept? Do you think it makes sense to act out a concept in front of all those Rankers gathered there?? That’s the real deal

“We’re dying of curiosity too. And we can’t speak honestly about this either.”

From their days as managers of Arcana.

To now as employees of AAU.

Their essential virtue was maintaining secrecy.

Pretending not to know even if they knew, pretending to know even if they didn’t.

As the saying goes, if you stay still, you’ll at least go halfway.

It was to not cause confusion in society with unnecessary words and actions.

The only fortunate thing was.

“This is the first time I’ve looked forward to Thursday.”

Today is Thursday.

Meaning there might be a new update.

If the details of the new update were revealed, wouldn’t interest in Ho-yeol decrease a little.

Then wouldn’t my hearing also be protected.

Sung Hyun-jun couldn’t help but inwardly look forward to it.

“Come up. Come up!”

Was it thanks to that earnest prayer reaching the heavens.

A new update was announced on the Arcana official website.

“It’s up!”

At that sound, AAU employees checked the update details in perfect order.

Checking the details, Sung Hyun-jun also inwardly let out a sigh of relief.

‘I shouldn’t be happy but I have to live too!’

A Rift is always a time bomb.

However, the existence of Ho-yeol, who appeared out of nowhere.

Was a disaster that struck his hearing and mental health.

Click-

Rolling down his mouse wheel, Sung Hyun-jun grinned.

It was long.

Not an update notice that just had a Rift and nothing else.

It was an update full of substance.

‘If it’s an update of this scale.’

Wouldn’t interest in Ho-yeol fade a little bit too?

Sung Hyun-jun thought so.

But unfortunately, that was merely an illusion.

At the same time.

Players also checked the details of the new update.

“W-wait. Is this real? Did this really come up?!”

“At this rate, we’ll have no choice but to meet again?”

“Seriously, they should have held it back just until this update.”

“Hah, darn it. Just added one more competitor.”

Competitor.

Naturally, the story was about Ho-yeol.

Because this update was a large-scale update.

No, if it was people who had played Arcana in the past, it was definitely an update that they couldn’t help but flutter at just by checking the details.

?A new region arrives by your side.

The new region, ‘Yusra Islands’ is added.?

Yusra Islands!

Back when Arcana was a game.

It was the island in the rumors that spread widely around Arcana.

Quests, treasure maps, and further, even NPCs.

Because they had mentioned the Yusra Islands as a ‘treasure island’.

They said everything born and raised there was at the level of a treasure that couldn’t be compared to worldly things.

So Players who acquired that information had searched every corner of the continent to find that treasure island.

However, the Yusra Islands weren’t discovered until Arcana became reality.

So they had only thought of it as an illusory island handed down like a legend, but.

“Are they giving a disease and then giving medicine?”

Next after Count Ascura.

That Yusra Islands was updated.

“Every single monster is going to gather. Really.”

Would high-level Players, including Rankers, leave such a treasure island alone?

And who recently showed the most prominence among them was none other than Ho-yeol.

So it meant that interest in Ho-yeol would only grow bigger, and absolutely couldn’t die down.

“This time, with real formality!”

Whether that’s in a good sense.

“One humiliation by Unification of the World is enough.”

Or in a bad sense.

Yusra Islands.

Ho-yeol, who was receiving as much attention as that treasure island.

However, as if that attention and those checks were nothing.

Ho-yeol was the same as always.

Yusra Islands.

Even the moment he checked the update details.

“.”

There was no change in that haughty expression.

.

.

.

Yusra Islands?

Where the heck is this now.

I tilted my teacup while checking the update details.

‘I’ve been feeling it lately but.’

A 10-year gap was definitely serious.

Look, just recently it was like that.

That pointed hat.

No, just like how I couldn’t recognize Jesse Heinness.

[Divine Punishment], which turned Count Ascura into a pile of ashes.

Seeing the power of that skill, I did think she was amazing, but.

To think she was a whopping Rank 4 Player.

‘I told someone like that to observe manners.’

Saying that observing manners is the basics of being a person.

I had inexplicably laid out a sermon.

As if that weren’t enough, I even ended up receiving an extremely polite self-introduction, me.

That atrocity came to mind again, but.

I brazely spoke.

“A new tea is not bad either.”

It sure isn’t.

Since it’s a whopping green tea bag that costs 200 won a piece!

Forget it.

Let’s stop thinking about it.

It wasn’t like this personality would change just by worrying about it anyway.

Even if I found out that Jesse was a Ranker.

My attitude towards her wouldn’t change.

Of course, being able to be carefree even after seeing the update details.

Wasn’t just because of my personality.

A 10-year gap?

Such things are the conveniences of civilization.

Meaning it can be sufficiently overcome through an internet search.

‘Yusra Islands, you say.’

Judging by the volume.

It was definitely the core of this update.

I immediately popped open the green window and in the search bar.

“?”

The moment I was about to type Yusra Islands.

I ended up stopping.

The very end of the update details.

“This is?”

Because a single line of a sentence caught my eye.