Chapter 114

“I wanted to become a space mercenary but…”

Space mercenary? It was impossible even for part-time work.

“Sigh, Cheeda.”

At my voice, Cheeda lightly jumped from the desk towards me. I extended my right hand and grabbed him by the neck.

”…Ugh!”

A groan escaped involuntarily. He felt incredibly heavy!

“No way. Shouldn’t he barely weigh over ten kilograms…?”

When I dropped Cheeda, he landed gracefully on the floor. He quietly looked up at me before returning to the desk when no further commands were given.

“Ah…I have to cancel all the martial arts competitions…”

Despite having ‘Unsolvable Combat Premonition’, this body condition made it hopeless. My strength was too weak, and my perception was dull. Even against ordinary people, not just ability users, I would surely lose.

This wasn’t the only problem.

“Huff huff, wow. My physical condition is insane.”

Just lightly stretching caused beads of sweat to form on his forehead and his breathing to become labored. His body still appeared muscular, but its performance couldn’t be compared to his past self. It felt like having water balloons instead of muscles.

‘Is this what they mean by water muscles?’

Generally speaking, 10 points of strength equated to a child’s muscle power. Twenty points represented an adult woman’s strength, while thirty points indicated an adult man’s strength. There were different benchmarks for each stat, but typically, around 30 points was considered ‘average for a decent person.’

‘In that regard…my current state is truly dire.’

I had 21 points in Strength, 11 points in Stamina, 18 points in Health, and 11 points in Agility. This was no joke.

My physical abilities were worse than someone who had never left their room, only breathing and clicking a mouse for exercise throughout their life.

‘With these terrible stats, even working part-time at a convenience store would be hard labor filled with adversity.’

As someone who once possessed enough physical strength to crush steel like clay with bare hands, this situation was frustrating beyond belief.

“Still.”

Thankfully…

“I can play games…”

Despite my abysmal stats, playing Revenge wasn’t particularly challenging. Most actions could be automated anyway.

I completed daily quests to fill up teleportation scrolls while farming items through auto-hunting.

[Killian has acquired the Berserker’s Sword (Rare) from the Rebel Fort!]

Without doing anything but mindlessly watching my character auto-hunt, a rare-grade sword dropped before me.

As I watched my character pick up the item, a question arose that had been pushed aside due to urgency:

‘What happens when I acquire items without paying money?’

I decided to test it immediately.

“Log in.”

I entered Ardenia.

“Eh.” The sensation of strength returning to my limp body was almost pleasurable.

‘I suppose it’s the opposite feeling of the immense loss experienced when leaving Earth.’

Shaking off distractions, I retrieved the Spearsman’s Sword (Rare). It might be obvious, but once an item is brought into Ardenia, it can never be sent back to Revenge again.

“Log out.”

(-1,322,166,900 won -> -1,322,166,990 won)

My eyes narrowed as I examined the numbers floating in my field of view.

“The minus… increased by 90 won?”

Instantly, I opened the exchange.

Spearsman’s Sword: 980 diamonds

It was 980 diamonds or 98,000 won. Yet my debt only increased by 90 won. I used Revenge’s diamonds to buy the Spearsman’s Sword and took it from Ardenia.

[For unknown reasons, your strength has decreased by one point!]

“Ugh.”

The restriction became stronger. I checked my debt:

(-1,322,166,990 won -> -1,322,261,990 won).

The debt had increased by 95,000 won. It wasn’t exactly the same but similar to the exchange price.

“This… isn’t a fixed value.”

I immediately started various experiments. I deleted the Spearsman’s Sword that I bought, took Kasim the Roaring Drake from Revenge in Ardenia, and then deleted him again.

I sent and deleted items bought with gold from the shop, items purchased with merit coins, and even items that others had discarded. It wasn’t a large amount but I also tried charging my account using the remaining balance. The experiment wasn’t difficult since the value changed immediately.

“I roughly understand…” I organized what I found out.

“Firstly, this number… Yes, let’s call it Charging Power.” I called Cheeda to organize the contents of my memo:

1. When you charge money in the game, your Charging Power increases.

For example, when selling stocks this time, my Charging Power increased by 40 billion. There were no other variables—the Charging Power increased based solely on how much I invested in Revenge. This was confirmed through several more charges. The number only increased when I charged.

2. When items from Revenge were ‘used’ in Ardenia, my Charging Power decreased. In the case of equipment, it applied immediately upon removal. However, even for the same item, the decrease varied greatly depending on how it was acquired. Whether I bought it from someone, purchased it from the cash shop, picked it up after someone discarded it, bought it with gold or merit coins at a store, or obtained it directly by killing a monster - each method yielded different results. For reference, Kasim and Thunderbird Awakening received from Bae Sarang were categorized as ‘[items discarded by others].’

3. Charging Power accumulates only through charging activities and is consumed instantly when using charged goods. Through several experiments, buying from other players proved to be the least efficient method, but nonetheless, it still contributed to my Charging Power.

For example, if I charged 10,000 won and used an item worth 10,000 won from Ardenia, only 500 won of charging power would accumulate, but it still increased my charging power. Moreover, most of my charges so far had been through the cash shop, hadn’t they?

‘The loss rate for the cash shop is approximately 70 percent.’

In any case, since 30 percent remained consistently, I could accumulate enough charging power to withstand the decrease caused by deletion and restoration requests. The problem was with free items. In other words, pure farming instances. The numerous items and Songpyeons I obtained were all consuming my charging power!

However, the experimental results weren’t bad:

4. The consumption of charging power for purely farmed items is less than 0.1% of their value.

When I bought Berserker’s Sword at the exchange, my debt increased by 95,000 won but when I obtained it through Farming, it only increased by 90 won. This was evidence of the difference. Of course, restoring legendary pets and gatekeepers that weren’t covered by ‘Farming’ and were worth tens of millions of won would’ve resulted in quite a significant minus.

‘I blew them away with Synthesis. They must have been restored.’

It was possible because Revenge had extremely low efficiency for cash purchases compared to similar games. As a result, over the past year, my charging power steadily accumulated.

‘However…’

The current situation arose due to the diamond tenfold multiplication event. The generated charging power was 40 billion won, while I possessed 40 trillion won, causing a problem.

‘Fortunately, I noticed before spending all 4 trillion won. It seems…I discovered it around 500 billion.’

The day known as ‘The Great Madness of 4 Trillion Won Recharge Party’ on fan sites…

Regardless of whether it was large or small, accumulated charging power flew away and even went into minus territory. At that time, I was surprised by this unexpected penalty, but looking back, I was lucky in many ways.

“Yes. I found out early enough.”

Immediately after conquering the next flower shop, I planned to install a Mythical Castle there. And once the Mythical Castle was installed? Naturally, several multi-billion won buildings would follow suit. If I hadn’t visited Earth now, my negative charging power wouldn’t have been -6.3 billion but closer to -150 billion.

‘And as time passed, the situation would become more serious.’

In Ardenia, I only used a small portion of my diamonds. There were still hundreds of billions worth left, so I could’ve spent even more! As time went on, my negative charging power would’ve continued to increase exponentially.

“Now that I think about it…I won’t be able to take over the flower shops like this.”

To be precise, I could acquire them but couldn’t protect them due to insufficient funds for building proper castles and annexes.

“Firstly…let’s replenish my charging power.”

Obviously, this meant earning money. My body had weakened too much, making stunts, acting, or even part-time jobs difficult. However, there were other options available.

[Hello! Writer-nim!^^ This is Green Dragon Publishing.]

I am sending you the settlement statement, please check it. I look forward to more good writing from you in the future!

Settlement Amount: 4,830,000 won

The royalties were coming in but it was still insufficient.

‘If I want to recover all my minus 13 billion won charging power with this…’

I roughly calculated it. Assuming the monthly income would be around 5 million won…

‘260 months. Even if I earn 5 million won per month and don’t spend a single penny, it will take 11 years and 8 months.’

Once again, I realized that dealing with billions of money wasn’t easy.

“Indeed, one novel isn’t enough… Sponsorships have also decreased lately.”

As a result, I edited some pre-recorded videos and uploaded them to MyTube. It was the process of drawing items which Players called the ‘Great 40 Billion Won Charging Party’. The reaction was explosive. There were 270,000 video views per day!

Considering it was from a new channel with no previous activity, the results were truly amazing but the reactions in comments weren’t good. They were very bad.

ZPangSword: What is this with such great material? I rushed here with high expectations only to be disappointed.

BLPangJay: Is this how you do a livestream? Shouldn’t there be action and reaction shots?! Showing just the game screen is the same as watching someone else’s footage!

HotBodyBuddy: Killian…the stream…seems…quite…poor…

It was filled with negative reviews. However, I couldn’t help it.

“No, how can I film while repeatedly logging in and out…”

If I showed my gameplay screen when sending items to Ardenia, problems would arise.

Despite not pressing delete, items were disappearing one by one. Anyone witnessing this would think it was hacking. I couldn’t risk filming such scenes as they could potentially cause problems later on.

‘Streaming monetization seems difficult…’

Of course, editing might solve the issue, and there wouldn’t be any trace of it in the system logs. However, people aren’t fools; with countless eyes watching my gameplay, someone would inevitably notice something peculiar. Moreover, even if uploading monetized videos could potentially earn billions, I didn’t want to expose my secret advantage.

Alternatively, I could record normal gameplay without any microtransactions involved.

‘No chance.’

In the fiercely competitive world of personal broadcasting, akin to swimming in a sea of blood, making enough just to cover basic expenses, let alone reaching thirteen billion won, seemed highly unlikely.

“Ah…maybe I should borrow it?”

Several faces came to mind when thinking this way.

‘Sungjae, who has been a superstar for a long time since his child acting days.’

An actor of Sungjae’s caliber would likely have around 1.3 billion won saved up. Since we were quite close, he might lend me the money if I asked nicely.

‘Alan, the high-class mage of class 7.’

Considering the success of his recent movie, he must have a substantial amount. Moreover, as a top mage on Earth-34, his profession essentially prints money. If I promised to appear in all his future films, would he consider lending me 1.3 billion won?

‘Hye-young, niece of the Game God.’

She is literally related to a deity. Plus, she considers me her significant benefactor, so if I ask, she might find a way to help.

”…”

I pondered deeply, struggling with my thoughts for quite some time.

However, I ultimately had to shake my head, “Ah, it is impossible.”

In the past, when I had nothing, maybe things would’ve been different. But now, I didn’t want to make any baseless requests given my current situation. Of course, if I regained my strength and worked as a mercenary, I could repay her quickly. However, this was something only known to me.

“It’s better to earn money through hard work.”

I clicked my tongue, dismissing such thoughts.

Fortunately, uploading the video wasn’t entirely fruitless.

MercenaryDreamer: Huh? This person has filmed quite a few other videos too? Eh? Instead of revenge, they’re all about reading books.

MercenaryDreamer: Wow! Is this person a writer? They seem to be reading their own books!

Unconditional Playback: Wait, this face is familiar… Ah! The emperor! Isn’t it the emperor? >

Hot Body Buddy: What about the emperor? >

Chanoha: Is he from the Royal Family of Korea? >

Unconditional Playback: Sorry, but the official name is Yi Dynasty. Saying ‘Korean Empire’ makes me sound like a hardcore patriot. >

Kim Choco: Ah, aren’t there any movie fans here? He’s one of the protagonists in the recent blockbuster hit ‘The Aspiring Professor’!

People started to gather around my previously unnoticed ‘Reading My Own Writing’ content. Quite a few were curious since a rising star, currently famous in the film industry, was reading books on stream. Of course, there were limitations.

‘The number and popularity of works are insufficient!’

The amount of writing I produced was huge, but after spending half a month reading books for 24 hours a day, it eventually ran out. Of course, there were still quite a few works…but regardless, could you really read encyclopedias on this type of video platform?

Ultimately, I decided to take extraordinary measures.

“Login.”

Crackling. Woom…

Strength surged through my previously weak body, stimulating my brain like a potent drug.

“Sigh.”

I gently exhaled, shaking off any distractions, and called out to Flower.

“Flower.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After witnessing me struggle once, Flower had arranged a desk in the guild master’s room where she now handles her usual tasks.

“How many writers are there in the Human Empire? Ah, I shouldn’t say it like that.”

In Ardenia, ‘writers’ referred to all people who made a living through writing, not just literary authors. Even civil servants managing administration were considered writers.

“How many novelists are there?”

“Novelists… Do you mean playwrights as well?”

“Yes, including them. It doesn’t matter as long as they write stories.”

Flower showed a troubled expression at my words.

“I don’t think there will be many. The Holy Empire is the birthplace of theatre. The Ming Empire and kingdoms aren’t particularly advanced in literature.”

Actually, I was already aware to some extent. The kingdom guys cheered only for bloody arenas, showing no interest in literature.

“Then I’ll have to create one.”

“Pardon?”

I observed Flower’s confusion. Indeed, if something doesn’t exist, then it must be created. What was power for after all?

“I will hold a competition under my name. There will be no restrictions on eligibility, and the deadline will be set for this same day next year. Participants will receive a certain amount of gold just for entering, and those who reach the finals will be granted citizenship and housing. Additionally, based on their performance, they can earn items, classes, pets, etc., with the ultimate winner receiving…”

As expected, extravagant rewards would make the competition truly enticing.

“A legendary pet.”

And so, the curtain rose on the “Great Era of Literature.”