"Did you properly collect the computer that was handed over to the police?"
"Yes, sir. I have erased all traces of him, as well as his memory, so there will be no news or anything like before."
The old man nodded at the woman's report and slowly read the papers on the desk, a document summarizing a man's life. He didn't take long to read the entire page. "He's had terrible luck, but that's all."
The woman nodded. That man's life was so chaotic that even that was an understatement, but other than that, he was unremarkable. His workplace was ordinary, his education was ordinary, and his relationships were ordinary. Everything was ordinary except for this game.
"I just don't understand it."
That's why the man feels even more special.
Auril Gavis's Dungeon and Stone was a failure. This conclusion was reached after lengthy deliberations. There was no disagreement that it depicted that world better than any other work, but it was impossible to surprise, and so it was scraped five years ago.
"...But to think that someone who has discarded it would come out at this point. Could it be that it wasn't a failure?"
The old man, who had been muttering, shook his head. Didn't everyone agree that even if someone managed to get it approved, there were no guarantees that this project would yield better results than others? His decision wasn't wrong.
"However... I'm a little curious to know how it turned out."
Then the old man opened his laptop and entered the name of the only player who had managed to clear his legacy, which was considered impossible: Hansu Lee.
***
[GP owned: 139,000]
After selling information about the Lord of the First Floor and Skull Island, I didn't sell any more. There were two reasons. First, each case took longer than expected because the buyer destroyed me due to my lack of transaction history. They believed me after a few questions, and both bought the information, but it would be more accurate to say they trusted this community more than me, since it was a place you couldn't rejoin if you dared to scam someone and were kicked out.
The second reason was more important than time.
If I sell information whenever I want, I'm sure someone will be interested.
They say a cornerstone is mean to be stack by a chisel. Whoever it was, I wanted to minimize the number of times I was under scrutiny. Anyway, I didn't need GP at that time.
Ding!
Just then a message arrived.
[From: Ghost Master]
I saw this nickname several times in my notifications. In other words, it was a note from the community administrator. My heart pounded like I'd been caught, but when I opened it, the message was nothing special.
[Elfo nunna's transaction history exceeds 10. EXP +10. Adjusted member level: Deadman – Goblin].
It was an automatic notice that was sent when you rose through the ranks in the community. Not that there was a huge benefit to having a high rank, but there was nothing wrong with it going up as there were some rooms with rank restrictions.
Type.
I posted a question using the GP I won. The GP I offered as compensation was 10,000-100,000. It was an expression of willingness to pay more for valuable information.
[The exchange has been published].
After posting, I spent some time taking a look at the community as if I were browsing the Internet. Seeing the jokes and humorous messages on the free bulletin board, I felt like I had returned to the original world. It was when I was doing this that I learned the point value of GPs.
Two million stones for 100,000 points?
My current GP was about 140,000.
Shit, so he had just won 2.8 million stones for answering two questions?
At first I was speechless, but when I thought about it, it wasn't that far-fetched. It's not that the information I sold wasn't valuable either.
I can sit on a lot of money just selling information here.
Suddenly, I came to wonder if there was any reason to keep entering the maze. However, to me, the act of exchanging GP for money still seemed dangerous.
Let's not have strange thoughts. Let's not get greedy and use this only as a place to gain information.
Therefore, I established a new iron rule and made up my mind. When I was taking a look at the rest of the community board I heard another notification.
Ding!
When I checked the monitor, I saw that a new message had arrived.
[Elfo nuna amor requested a 1:1 chat].
Elf nuna love was an awkward nickname for me, but I pressed «accept» without hesitation. They could only contact me for one thing.
I was worried, but they showed up after the day.
Finally an information seller had appeared.
***
In a library with an old-fashioned interior, I was a little surprised to smell the faint smell of books.
It is very well decorated. How much did they spend on this?
It was a different kind than the vacant lot that served as the backdrop for the freshman room, or the desolate field that became my base when I started a conversation. It must have cost a considerable GP. However, it didn't seem like an indulgence to me.
Certainly, this alone builds some level of trust...
After briefly looking around, I spotted a white man and greeted him. «Hello.»
«Hello. You're Elf nunna, right? Take a seat». As soon as I sat down, the man immediately got to the point. «Do you want to know about a wizard named Shernal Fergang, from the Tarutein School?»
«That's right.» If I only asked about the phenomenon of dimensional collapse, it would be difficult for me to discern whether the other person was lying or not. But if I asked about Shernal Fergang, it was another story, like this. «To be exact, I want to know more about what you did recently».
«Hmm, is it because of the rumors about the collapse of the dimension?»
Man immediately associated the name with dimensional collapse. The reliability of the information to be output increased even more. So I asked openly: «Are those rumors true?».
The man asked for 20,000 GP in exchange for an answer, and after I accepted, he continued talking. «If you ask if those words came out of his mouth, yes, it's true. But if you ask about the veracity of the rumors... Actually, no».
«What does it mean?»
The man took a moment to organize his thoughts, and then said frankly: «It means that a dimensional collapse will not occur».
«What is the basis for saying that?
«I'm afraid those motives include high-ranking figures and political tensions...». Simply put, it meant it was too exclusive information for 20,000 GP.
«I will pay 20,000 GP more.»
«If you want to hear it so much». The man nodded and continued speaking without interruption. «The Tarutein School focuses on the study of labyrinths, especially dimensional magic. And the teacher wanted to do an experiment».
«Experiment...?»
«I can't go into details, but it's not a dangerous experiment. There just needs to be fewer explorers than usual in the maze».
That is why the Tarutein School had spread a rumor through the mouth of one of its magicians in the city. They believed that if rumors of a dimensional collapse spread it would deter superstitious explorers from entering.
«...Is it okay for you to just tell me all this?»
«No 'just' I'll tell you, but I'll sell it for GP». That confident attitude left me with nothing more to say. The man laughed and continued: «What does it have to do with me in the first place? Not even that I was the teacher at that school. Furthermore, sooner or later the royal family will publish an official letter denying the rumors».
«...Will the royal family do it?»
«So you think the Rafdonian royal family will stay still? Fewer scouts entering means the mana stone supply will also decrease.»
Hmm, that was true. After hearing the brief explanation that followed, it all made sense. The reasons presented without problems were also convincing. It didn't seem like he was lying either. When I said I would complete the transaction there and ship the remaining 20,000 GPs separately, the man shook his head.
«Now that I think about it, it's okay. It seems like you're a fan of them too».
20,000 GP was 400,000 stones, but you said you wouldn't accept them just because I was a fan of that user? Although I thanked him for now, curiosity blossomed. How long had this person been here? Five years? Ten? Whatever the time, one thing was clear: he had established himself in this world firmly enough that 400,000 stones were nothing.
That's probably why he knows information that I couldn't learn for days no matter how hard I tried.
Once again, he was determined not to forget where he came from. I didn't care which way he had surpassed, 15 times, 20 times, 30 times or 100 times. This was not a game. It was a harsh reality governed by a savage providence that only the strong survived.
Little Balkan or not... I'm still a newbie here.
I realized that, compared to the path I had taken until then, I had a much longer distance to go. But why? For a moment I had been determined not to forget where I came from, but I smiled satisfied.
This is fun.
The place where the man who bought the strategy for the Lord of the First Floor, the woman who wanted information about Skull Island, and the man in front of me would have arrived over the years, it never occurred to me that I couldn't get there myself.
***
It started as a black DOS screen. After a short charging time, a beep sounded and a journal with the selected player's actions filled the monitor.
Beep beep beep!
The rules of the newspaper were simple. Only shares were recorded.
[The coming of age ceremony has been successfully completed.]
[The new equipment has been used.]
[The character has stepped into a goblin trap.]
Choosing a shield at the coming-of-age ceremony, the danger of entering the maze, stepping into a goblin trap and crawling on the ground bleeding for hours, killing someone on the first day, befriending an elf found by chance and arriving to the second floor without weapons at the first entrance.
«Crazy bastard».
The more he read the newspaper, the more speechless the old man became. Even more so because it was a newspaper in which only shares were recorded. Every action had a reason. The old man, who had seen many player diaries, could see the reasons for the judgments Hansu must have made at the time. I had to do it, because it was the right decision. And so, Hansu acted like he was playing a game. It was really amazing. How many players had made irrational decisions in the dilemma between the game and reality?
«...How many of them made it to the second floor at the first entrance?».
«117 players, as far as I know».
It was a fairly large number, but the old man was sure that, of the 117 players, there were none who had such poor overlapping conditions.
It's fascinating.
The old man, who was still scrolling through the diary, froze in a moment.
[The player has killed the vampire duke Cambormere. EXP +5]
[Bonus for killing a higher-class mutant. EXP +1]
[Bonus for killing a guardian. EXP +3]
[The essence of the Guardian Vampire sees into the character...]
Before he knew it, the screen's diary had reached recent activity.
[Bjorn Yandel]
Level: 3 (New +1)
Physical: 155 (New +75) / Spirit: 90 (New +44) / Special Ability: 115 (New +85)
Level item: 98 (New - 104)
Overall Combat Power: 381.5 (New +204)
Essences acquired: Corpse Golem – Rank 7, Vampire (Guardian) – Rank 5 (New)
Information of a nature that would be hard to believe even for a veteran player; all of this was achieved just two months after waiting up in an unfamiliar body. Of course, he must have had some luck.
However, if it had been possible by pure luck, there would have been at least one similar case.
The statistics worked like this. As samples and data accumulated, the number of cases decreased, and uncertain information become clear facts. Surprisingly, the probability derived through this process had almost no errors as the sample size increased. In other words, the variable of chance was extremely insignificant in statistics.
However, there were also some cases like this; first, the impossible become possible. Simply put, 0 becoming 1. An irregular variable existing beyond statistics, where the cause couldn't even be determined because, remove simply, there was no sample to compare it to.
Click, click.
The old man raised the player's Observation Range to the maximum.
[This is an abnormal growth rate. The administrator will now monitor the character.]
He suddenly wondered when everyone agreed it was a failure. His last words were: "I only judged the situation rationally. Even if it's just one person in my entire life, if I can send them off with complete fulfillment, it would lead to greater potential.
Perhaps that was correct.