Chapter 29: Chero (3)

‘Do not covet what does not belong to you.’

That was the lesson contained within this Hidden Piece.

If the player gets greedy, this EX-grade Card will explode and destroy one of their existing cards.

‘But what if you let go of your greed?’

You get a new D-grade Card Guarantee Ticket.

‘And as a bonus, your intimacy with this conman shoots up.’

Knowing all that, I could answer correctly no matter what Chero said.

“Are you really saying this isn’t your card? I feel like it suits you perfectly, though?”

“It’s not mine.”

“Well, then whose is it? Now I’m really stumped as to who this card belongs to!”

Chero waved the card in front of my eyes like a fisherman dangling bait for a fish.

Honestly, this is a bit more annoying than in the original.

So then.

“If it’s not yours, then it must just be some trash lying on the street.”

I reached out my hand toward the Trap Investigator Card.

“Give it here, I’ll tear it up and toss it out.”

Chero’s eyes sparkled.

“Oh? You? You’d really tear up this card and throw it away? Can you really do that?”

He looked like he doubted I could actually tear up an EX-grade Card.

But I didn’t hesitate for even a second.

Rip! Riiip!

I snatched the card straight from Chero’s hand and tore it apart in one motion.

“……!”

In front of the Trap Investigator Card, now ripped into four pieces, Chero froze with his mouth hanging open.

I laughed inwardly.

‘With expressions that vivid, I almost feel bad.’

But I couldn’t just fall for this little Trap.

I knew this world far too well for that.

‘Alright, enough with the opening act. Let’s get to the point.’

Feigning ignorance, I smiled at his flustered expression.

“See? Done now?”

“……I can’t believe you actually tore it up.”

Chero looked completely dumbfounded.

“Sheesh, geez. Two pieces would have been enough. Did you have to make it four?”

He carefully picked up the shredded card pieces and put them away in his pocket as if they were precious.

“But you said it wasn’t your card?”

“Yeah, but actually, it was mine. I was just testing you.”

“Testing what?”

“What else? Of course, it was a test of the card.”

Chero the Card Swindler slowly straightened up and stared silently at my face.

“……!”

Suddenly hit by that gaze, I involuntarily took a step back.

A corner of my relaxed heart froze in an instant.

His eyes were deep and aloof.

In those dark pupils, a bottomless abyss coiled in perfect stillness.

Some unknown monster I couldn’t fathom was lurking there.

Gulp.

I instinctively gripped my sword hilt as I swallowed my dry saliva.

“Good. Good, very good!”

And just like that, it vanished.

Chero’s gaze calmed as if nothing had happened.

The wild glint faded, and he looked once again like the eccentric vagrant he always was.

‘What was that?’

I didn’t let my guard down, but that strange look in his eyes had completely disappeared.

Then a system message appeared.

[You have received an unknown reward from ‘Chero the Card Swindler.’]

[Reward Details]

• 1 D-grade Destiny Card Guarantee Ticket

‘Yeah, that’s it.’

I quietly nodded.

Just then, Chero, acting clueless, gestured at the items scattered on the ground.

“Mind giving me a hand? I’ve just got too much stuff.”

With that, he casually opened his pants pocket.

It was far too small for all these items to fit.

But they had originally come out of that pocket in the first place.

“……Alright.”

I nodded slowly toward Chero, thinking to myself.

‘He really is a bizarre NPC.’

Clearly, this old man wasn’t human.

Even I wasn’t sure exactly what he was.

There was something in this world I thought I knew so well that I didn’t actually understand…….

“Ha, geez! One of these days, I really ought to haul all this junk over to the 13 Shrines of the Demon Gods and just dump it there!”

In that moment, a strange sense of déjà vu sent a shiver down my spine.

‘What did he just say?’

Did he really say ’13 Shrines of the Demon Gods’?

Ten minutes later.

“Ah, thanks! Thanks! Some nasty fellow put a curse on me, you know! Now that I’ve cleaned out my pockets, I feel so much better!”

“Ahem. Is that so?”

“I’m telling you! It was a filthy, rotten curse! It won’t bother me anymore, right?”

Chero started fiddling endlessly with his old, hole-ridden fedora and mumbling to himself.

“Well, it’s fate that we met! My treat—let’s go have a proper drink! Let’s go!”

He didn’t even ask for my opinion before striding off ahead.

At that moment, I was deep in thought.

Something had gone awry.

My original plan was this:

‘First, keep feeding him silver coins until Chero goes crazy and dumps out his pockets.’

Then, I would approach, return the Trap Card, and trigger the Hidden Piece.

‘After I get this D-grade Card Guarantee Ticket…’

I’d use the increased intimacy to naturally lead Chero to the Cold Sun.

‘Then I could easily grab the Hidden Piece and finish Lucard’s Quest, too.’

Completing this Quest would fill all the experience I needed for Level 10.

Then, the ‘Second Card Draw’ would begin.

On top of that, Chero’s original purpose as an NPC was to transfer the Card Promotion Function.

So just by moving once, I could get the Hidden Piece, the Quest, level up, and unlock a new feature.

That was the best route to make the most of my first encounter with Chero.

So, I didn’t hesitate at all to choose this method.

And I had already completed about half of it.

‘Now I just need to coax him to the tavern I know and slowly bring him along.’

That’s what I thought…….

But suddenly, the situation changed.

It was because of that word Chero had mentioned out of nowhere.

’13 Shrines of the Demon Gods’

Thanks to that, I was completely thrown into confusion.

That Shrine…

‘Why is it showing up now, when it was removed in the Official Version!’

The ’13 Shrines of the Demon Gods’ was a location that only appeared in the Beta Version of .

No wonder I was flustered!

I’d been playing since before the official launch.

I had a general idea of what features had been cut.

So I caught Chero’s comment right away.

He definitely said 13 Shrines of the Demon Gods.

If so…….

‘Does that mean the places and features from the Beta Version are all here?’

Then what about game balance…?

“……Is this a jackpot?”

“Hmm? Jackpot? Is that some kind of cocktail recipe?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Come to think of it, there’s no need to worry about balance.

It’s not a game anymore.

Anyway, my mind grew more complicated.

This meant I had to think things through even more.

‘This is a headache. First, I need to fix the current situation.’

I had to change my plan right away.

Someday, I’d need to visit the 13 Shrines of the Demon Gods.

‘If I hand Chero over to Lucard now and lose all my intimacy with him, that’ll never happen.’

That shrine was a place only a few NPCs could access via teleportation.

So using my intimacy with Chero, who knew about the 13 Shrines of the Demon Gods, just for Lucard’s Quest would be a huge waste.

‘But I still need to complete the Quest. What do I do?’

My Level 10 and Thomson’s chance to turn his life around were on the line.

It would be a shame to just let the Quest fail.

Isn’t there another way?

After thinking for a moment, I soon came up with an alternative.

‘Yeah, that’ll work.’

It might not be a perfect solution, but I thought of a way to satisfy Lucard, more or less.

I gave a subtle nod to Thomson, who had been following me from a distance.

He looked puzzled.

‘What’s with the nod, sir?’

It was a gesture he hadn’t been expecting, so of course he didn’t understand.

Taking advantage of Chero’s rambling about delicious whiskey, I moved my lips silently.

‘This time, empty out that old man’s pockets.’

‘Not put things in?’

Thomson looked flustered at the sudden change of orders.

‘Yeah, take everything!’

But this was Thomson’s specialty. So it should go smoothly.

Let’s move on to the next step.

“By the way, Mr. Chero, how do I use this Card Guarantee Ticket?”

I took out the card ticket from my inventory as I spoke.

“Oh! That’s a fine card summoning ticket you’ve got there!”

Chero feigned ignorance with a shameless face.

And as an NPC, he began fulfilling his role.

“Now, you see, those cards are like fragments of God, believe it or not!”

[The Fate Card Enhancement Function has been unlocked!]

[Try making your Destiny Cards even stronger through various methods!]

It was time for a detailed explanation about enhancing Destiny Cards, which shaped the entire game.

Getting Destiny Cards from draws.

That’s something every player of this game knows.

With a grand cutscene at the very start, your first draw happens right away—there’s no way to miss it.

But in contrast, there were quite a few players who didn’t really understand card ‘enhancement.’

‘Of course, everyone knows you can enhance cards… but…’

How, and under what circumstances, this is most efficient—

That wasn’t widely known.

Most players treated Destiny Cards like simple skill packs, using them carelessly and discarding them.

But the moment a player started using a Destiny Card, a hidden stat called ‘Contribution Points’ began accumulating.

That stat showed how much the card had contributed to the player’s actions.

The most important point in card enhancement was making the most of these ‘Contribution Points.’

‘That’s what raises the success rate.’

Basically, enhancement begins by combining cards together.

When combining cards of the same grade, you have a high chance of getting a higher-grade card in the same series.

But if you combine cards of different grades, the odds change drastically.

‘Naturally, the chance drops.’

For example, if there’s a 50% chance to promote an A-grade card to S-grade by feeding it another A-grade,

Then the chance drops to 25% if you feed an A-grade with a B-grade to try for S-grade.

Of course, the actual odds are different, but that’s the general idea.

‘Now, here’s the tricky part.’

So, can’t you feed an A-grade card to a B-grade card?

In other words,

What if you prefer the B-grade card over the A-grade and want to promote it instead?

That’s where ‘Dismantling’ comes in.

You split the higher-grade card in two, then attempt the promotion.

This way, you get another chance to attempt promotion, so it looks like your chances go up.

But that’s where Contribution Points come into play.

‘Once you dismantle a card, all its Contribution Points vanish.’

Contribution Points on Destiny Cards more than double the success rate for promotion.

So, ‘Dismantling,’ which you thought would raise your chances, can actually lower them.

‘And if you succeed in promotion, the Contribution Points carry over to the next card.’

In conclusion, it was always better to delay promoting Destiny Cards as much as possible.

First, stockpile as many cards as you can.

Then, consider all the possible combinations before making your move.

That’s exactly what I planned to do tonight.

“Now, about the secrets of cards! Got it? EX-grade! Super grade! Hey! You can do it too!”

‘This old man’s tongue is totally twisted…’

I clicked my tongue as I looked at Chero slumped over the tavern table.

He’d become completely wasted, just like he’d been at dawn, rambling drunkenly.

While explaining the promotion of Destiny Cards, Chero had kept pouring liquor down his throat the whole time.

So this is how he ended up.

I was going to drag him straight to the Cold Sun to avoid this sight.

“Consider yourself lucky, old man.”

That Shrine is what saved you.

Poke.

He’s asleep now.

As I clicked my tongue and stood up from the table, Thomson, who’d been watching from the corner, quietly approached.

“What should I do?”

I shrugged.

“Told you, empty his pockets. There’s only one useful thing in there anyway.”

“…?”

“There should be something like a Scam Contract with Lucard’s name on it—just grab that and we’re done.”

With that, this Quest would be over.

The reward experience would push me to Level 10.

‘Now, I wonder what card I’ll get this time?’