Chapter 44

Working Hard as a Pay-to-Win Knight Chapter 44:

‘One billion won per month.’

Of course, I knew this fact well.

The arts were not an area to be taken lightly. With countless aspiring artists, geniuses, and hard workers vying for success, could one achieve anything by simply entering due to the allure of high earnings?

‘I’m not even particularly interested in that field.’

I had barely read any comics or novels, let alone tried drawing or writing them myself. Without adequate input, it was only natural to lack output.

However, there was a way.

‘I just need to imitate.’

Culture existed in Ardenia, including novels naturally. There were knightly tales, romance stories, war narratives, and more.

‘Obviously, they wouldn’t be popular here.’

It made sense. Trying to sell medieval literature in modern times is akin to attempting the impossible. Expecting contemporary audiences, accustomed to diverse entertainment, to appreciate works from a medieval land felt like wishing for the moon.

‘Nevertheless… there will be niche tastes. Above all else.’

I had a unique strength that other authors couldn’t match.

‘I can win with quantity.’

If I deliberately plagiarized, I could write several books a day. Even if only a minimum number of readers accessed Ardenia’s works, it would generate considerable revenue! Of course…there was also the possibility of failing to secure even those ‘minimum’ readers and producing countless flops.

‘Well, it won’t cost me anything anyway.’

Despite its lower level of civilization, Ardenia was still a fantasy world. The novels written there could be considered authentic fantasy, right? Although Ardenian literature prioritized narrative, they might seem dull and boring but would still find their audience.

Bee-beep!

I returned to my studio and turned on the computer. I searched for ‘places with good novels’ and looked through numerous platforms while thinking about Ardenia. To be precise, I was considering places where there might be many novel books.

‘The closest place is the royal library located in the capital of Chrom Kingdom, followed by the wagon-wheel mage tower.’

While the Chrom Kingdom wasn’t particularly culturally advanced, its capital city would still have a significant number of books. The problem was whether these books would remain safe amidst the current situation with gates unleashing monsters.

Moreover, Zhimail, the capital of the Chrom Kingdom, held strategic importance as a prime location for [Special] raids.

‘Well, eventually, it will need to be conquered anyway.’

I turned on the Revenge homepage to check the dungeon information:

[Ice Queen’s Paradise (Advanced~Hero)]

The dungeon rating was exactly the same as the orc dungeon, but they weren’t truly equal levels. This was due to the characteristics of the monsters inhabiting the flower shops.

‘If you don’t have cold resistance, it is impossible to clear.’

Moreover, additional conditions were required to challenge the hell difficulty dungeons of the flower shops.

‘A special raid must be conducted.’

Even if the monster level was hero rank, there were differences between ordinary and elite monsters, with bosses being different again. Furthermore, raid bosses existed on another level entirely. The special bosses found within each flower shop were even more formidable.

‘It isn’t yet time to conquer them.’

Currently, I hadn’t even regained my own territory, let alone any flower shops.

Thus, my primary objective was set to stealing books.

“By the way, it’s been quite relaxed lately.”

After setting up automatic hunting, I found myself with nothing much to do for the first time in a while. My schedule for today had concluded after the TV stunt earlier.

”…Yes, let’s catch up on the main quests that have been piling up.”

All Killians from one to four were level 39. Their levels weren’t increasing quickly at all.

‘Well, considering they’re still playing around in regular and advanced hunting grounds despite being this high-level.’

Moreover, whenever decent items appeared, I sent them all to Ardenia, severely hindering their hunting speed. While the character in Ardenia continued to level up and expand his collection, there was no progress for the game characters. In essence, they could be considered akin to free-to-play characters.

“I guess there’s no need to level up the other four characters.”

Killians Five through Eight were created solely for storing Songpyeons. Normally, I would clear my inventory by transferring items to Ardenia whenever it was full, but during the fight with Khan Slasher, that wasn’t possible. Thus, I had purchased cash items like ‘Character Slot Expansion’ to increase their capacities.

Kain: The rogue riflemen are causing chaos lately. Can you catch 150 of them?

Senson: Lizardman spearmen have attacked the village! Please capture 200 of them!

Dolce: We must defeat the evil undead! Capture 300 skeleton warriors…

“Ah, this is really tedious work. What kind of half-hearted quests are these?!”

I grumbled while pushing back the main quest again and again. Hunting for potions was inefficient but since my goal was to complete quests, I persevered despite the drawbacks.

The rewards included gold, experience points, and Class Summoning Rights.

“What will come out? Well, it might be problematic even if something good appears here.”

There were conditions required to obtain Revenge’s items. The item I wanted had to be marked as ‘[Deleted]’. It was unclear why this restriction existed when data could simply be copied, but it made obtaining items impossible.

If there were no conditions, Ardenia would’ve likely taken advantage of temporary possession during the main quests, such as wielding the ‘King’s Sword Asgard (Legendary)’ or possessing the ‘Goddess’ Statue of Protection (Legendary)’.

In other words, it was impossible to delete the Class Summoning Rights obtained as quest rewards. If by any chance, I got hero-class jobs from here…!

Swordsman (General), Wizard (General)… Flash! Iron Shielder (Advanced)! High Archer (Advanced)!

“Ah.” I laughed. “I was worried unnecessarily…”

Shaking my head, I completed the main quest. A linked quest appeared but couldn’t be progressed due to the level limit of 40.

“Well, isn’t it quite good that two out of four Class Summoning Rights are advanced? It seems like there is really a higher probability of getting them as quest rewards… What’s that?”

I was located at the legendary rank flower shop when I saw players dancing in the central square after receiving the main story reward from ‘Elsa’s Ice Kingdom’.

It wasn’t just one or two people. There were easily 100… no, 200 of them. Above their heads, these words could be seen:

[Guild Master’s Legendary Skill: Dance of Prayer]

“What is that?”

I moved my mouse to approach the dancing players.

Killians: What are you doing now?

Old Man North: The dance for Guild Master’s skill prayer!

Killians: What prayer?

Old Man North: See for yourself!

Following his words, I looked at a player standing in the central square. As I watched quietly, a screen appeared above his character’s head.

It indicated that he was streaming live on the internet.

[Ah… Another failure. I’ll go back to crafting skill boxes after opening another hundred treasure chests. Let me just buy some diamonds…]

Oh, I see. The guild master is…opening loot boxes.

There were three ways to acquire skill books:

First, monster drops.

This method seemed futile. Although it pained him to admit it, even when rare Revenge items dropped, there would be world announcements. Expecting hero- or legend-rank skills from drops might have been too ambitious.

Of course… It’s not impossible for them to drop.

They definitely existed on the drop table. Hero, Legendary and even Myth items were present. They certainly existed!

However, it was almost impossible to obtain them. Despite so many players using auto hunting, only one or two legendary skill books dropped per year across all of Revenge. Most of these came from raid bosses.

‘The second method is crafting.’

Skill Books could be crafted with magic-infused parchment and ink. The problem was that the parchment and ink were also drop items. They dropped more frequently than finished products, but crafting required enormous amounts of gold and had a chance of failure.

‘And the third way is the Goddess’s Treasure Chest.’

In other words, what could it be? Yes, ‘drawing lots’.

[I’m going again!]

I forgot about auto-hunting and just watched the broadcast.

Peroong! Long! Peronglong!

The boxes opened one by one, dropping skill monuments. Most of them were one monument but occasionally two would fall out.

[I will reset once.]

The character disappeared before reappearing immediately.

Killians: Why turn it off and on?

Old Man Nooknook: It is more likely to succeed this way.

Killians: …

I looked back at the dancing Players.

[Guild Master’s Legendary Skill Acquisition Dance]

[Kim Macho is Strongest!]

[Milky Kim Macho!]

[Holding Breath Until Guild Master’s Legendary Skill Appears]

“Ah… I see.”

It was a world of probabilities. There was no guarantee that trying harder would lead to success, so it had to be superstition.

[N-Now entering skill creation… Ah please. It has to come out within two…]

As I watched the broadcast, I opened a new window to check the price of treasure chests.

‘800 diamonds.’

It cost 80,000 won. Skill creation required 10 skill monuments and usually took around 100 attempts for 110 successes. The success rate was 5%. Simplifying the calculation, one attempt at skill creation cost approximately 800,000 won, with ‘normal’ success occurring after about 20 tries.

In other words…

“Wow… One skill costs 16 million won? Even if it’s legendary…”

[Ahhh! It’s about time it came out. Ahhh! This is for real this time. Everyone… Ahh!] The middle-aged man on the screen repeatedly groaned. With a sound akin to glass shattering, the monument cracked, displaying the word ‘Failure.’

The failure system in Revenge was brutal. Once you failed, nothing remained; even if you spent 100 million won trying to acquire something and still failed, your position would be identical to that of a player who hadn’t invested a single cent—a winner-takes-all structure!

However, relentless attempts eventually bore fruit.

[Yesssssss! Success! Success! Thank you! Thank you! I finally obtained Shadow Twin for 9,280,000 won! Yes! Just as I said, I have the golden touch!]

The man on the screen cheered while guild members gathered around him, setting off fireworks and congratulating with fanfare.

[Guild Master’s Legendary Skill Acquisition Celebration Dance]

“Wow. They poured ten million won into one skill and are thankful…” While I was amazed, a group of players approached from afar.

[Parkcry: Congratulations on obtaining a legendary skill! Now our guild master will do it.]

[KimMacho: Hahaha! Yes! Good luck!]

The players who had been dancing left en masse, replaced by a similar number of newcomers.

I asked, “Killians: Why are those people coming here? What difference does it make to reinforce items here?”

Old Man North: This is a great place! Madozhion got a myth class here! Ah! The guild master has invited me to dinner so I’m going now!

Killians: Oh yes…

The old man left and new players entered with banners appearing above their heads:

[Dance for Praying Guild Master’s Legendary Class]

”…”

I watched this incredulously before searching for the skill name.

“Let’s see…Shadow Twice?”

The results immediately came up.

[Shadow Twice (Legendary) (Passive)]

After a critical hit, guaranteed hit, maximum strike, counterattack or status attack (fainting, blindness, silence, burns, slow, etc.) succeeds, the same damage will be dealt after one second.

And finally, three seconds later, damage equal to both attacks combined would be dealt again.

“…” For a moment, he stared at the skill description in disbelief. No matter how many times he read it, the text didn’t change.

“No way… Are you kidding me? This is insane! And it’s passive?”

To top it off, this was a universal warrior skill, meaning any melee class could learn it regardless of their job. Goodness gracious, just look at these skill effects—they were unbelievably generous.

“But seriously… How many times does it say ‘or’? Even for a legendary rank, isn’t this skill too overpowered?”

Cursing at the developers, I couldn’t take my eyes off the skill description. Identical damage after one second, and then combined damage of both attacks after three seconds. No matter how many times I read it, the effect was insane.

“Wow…I really need to make a lot of money.”

I had to buy this skill.

“I have to move immediately. Not just the capital of the Chrom Kingdom, but everywhere else too.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be easy. The distance between dungeons could be up to 100 kilometers. However, there were ways around this issue.

“The money earned today… I’ll spend it all today.”

I started making purchases. Naturally, not on crazy items like treasure chests, but rather on relatively efficient ones—pet draws.