Chapter 48: Who Is Choi Junseok? (2)

As usual, he cleared the 21st and 22nd floors.

“The protection spell is definitely solid. Good work.”

Song Hana now looked disappointed if he didn’t pat her head.

She even openly pushed her head forward, asking to be petted.

Pat pat.

When he stroked her hair, she giggled happily.

Both floors were cleared in record time, of course.

The 21st and 22nd floors felt even lighter than the 20th.

He had simply summoned the holy sword and blown the entire room away.

Before the monsters could even show their faces, he obliterated the tower floor along with the ground.

“Summon!”

BOOOOM—!

[Clear time: 3 seconds]

He immediately collected the rewards and summoned the holy sword once more on the 22nd floor.

BOOOOM—!

The ground itself shattered, a massive crater formed, and the monsters literally evaporated into thin air.

Even so, all rewards except experience points came in perfectly.

The magic stones that were now fixed rewards starting from the 20th floor.

Roughly a fistful each: 210 grams from the 21st, 220 grams from the 22nd.

The weight increased subtly by 10 grams per floor, but that was only about half a magic stone’s difference.

“Quality is low-grade.”

The crystals were oddly cloudy and lacked luster.

Naturally, they didn’t contain strong mana either.

Top-grade magic stones were bought for around 20 million won per 100 grams.

These low-grade ones wouldn’t even reach a quarter of that.

200-gram low-grade magic stones.

Even if sold at the government exchange, they wouldn’t fetch much.

Prices might have skyrocketed recently due to the player terrorism incident, but the government’s purchase price still wouldn’t change dramatically.

‘Roughly 3 to 5 million won each if I’m lucky?’

Today’s fixed income alone was 430 grams total.

That would be around 8 million won in profit.

Yet for some reason, he suddenly smirked.

He momentarily felt something was lacking.

8 million won in potential revenue.

Plus the roughly 1.2 kg from clearing the 20th floor—if sold, that would easily exceed 10 million won.

Even so, it strangely didn’t feel like a lot.

Humans are truly greedy creatures.

“If this were the old days, it would’ve felt like a fortune.”

Now that he could make tens of millions just by eating one item drop and selling it, simply clearing towers felt somewhat boring and unsatisfying.

‘Back then, I desperately wanted to become a porter for the 20th-floor parties.’

He never even dreamed of VVIP treatment from the Player Management Office.

What was 10 million won?

Hadn’t he once thought that earning a stable 100,000 won a day would be nice?

If ten people attacked the 20th-floor tiers together,

the fixed rewards alone would give each person roughly 3 million won per day.

If porters and others were paid less, the core attackers would reliably earn over 3 million a day.

That was why players desperately tried to join repeated 20th-floor raid parties.

“Come out, Kamdori.”

Kamdori slowly materialized from thin air.

At the presence, Song Hana—who had darted into her room—came running out.

“Kamdoriii!”

Kamdori glanced back and forth between Choi Junseok and Song Hana before being caught in Song Hana’s arms.

Lee Nayeon calmly walked to the massive TV, sat on the sofa, and said,

“It seems we are receiving excessive attention in the Player Settlement.”

At her words from the room, Choi Junseok also nodded.

“Yeah, I felt it too. I went to the gym this morning and left right away because the stares were stinging.”

“Is that okay?”

For now, they were ordering all meals through room service.

In just one day since moving in,

they had already drawn every kind of aggro from others.

While Song Hana was pulling and playing with Kamdori’s cheeks, she asked anxiously,

“Come to think of it… a lot came today.”

“Hm?”

“I overslept and woke up, and the hotel staff had moved them over there.”

In the huge room, piles of items he hadn’t even noticed were visible.

Calling them “items” felt wrong—there were all sorts of shopping bags, gift packages, even some wrapped in shiny paper that looked like Christmas presents for children.

“What… are all those?”

“A mountain of gifts.”

“Gifts?”

Why gifts all of a sudden?

Song Hana pointed to the pile stacked by the window.

“I excitedly opened them, but there was only one bunny doll for me… Ah! I checked everything for safety too! I only opened mine… so it’s okay, right?”

If Song Hana said she checked for anything dangerous, it was probably safe.

Still, Choi Junseok felt uneasy.

Wasn’t the reason they were ordering cold high-end room-service courses from the hotel lounge because of the jealous, envious stares from other players?

Even if this place was under the Player Management Office’s surveillance, he couldn’t be sure what kind of tricks people might pull.

“Nothing particularly caught my senses among the items.”

Wait.

If Song Hana had only opened the gifts meant for her,

then who were the items stacked as high as the massage chair beside them addressed to?

“They probably aren’t gifts for me.”

Song Hana nodded.

“They’re all for Nayeon unnie!”

“…Oh.”

The massage chair by the window.

All the gifts stacked to the height of that massage chair were for Lee Nayeon?

“What about mine?”

“There were some!”

“If there were, just say there were… what do you mean ‘there were some’…?”

Song Hana grinned and ran to the gift pile.

On one side lay small letter-sized envelopes.

The contents were simple.

“Duel arena requests, sparring requests, challenge letters, guild recruitment letters, team invitations… a voodoo doll… and…”

“Stop. So everything else is Nayeon’s?”

“Seems like it?”

There were dozens of shopping bags bearing logos of famous luxury brands.

Yet Lee Nayeon showed not the slightest interest.

“They’re addressed to you. Not going to check?”

“Gifts for me? Why?”

Tilting her head, she soon turned her gaze back to the TV and said indifferently,

“I will proceed with TV training instead of opening them.”

“…Alright.”

The TV training method didn’t seem bad at all.

She was steadily learning a lot about this world, this country, and its culture.

“Looks like Nayeon unnie is totally trending among the players! Hehe.”

Of course, any male player would glance at her at least once.

Even aside from that, people would show goodwill just to network.

How common was an SS-rank player?

And if she was said to receive special national treatment, most would assume her grade increase to SS came from state support.

The formula “player in the shadows with full national backing = major national powerhouse” would naturally take hold.

They were probably approaching her either to get in line early or to invite her to their team or guild once she stepped into the light.

“Most of them seem to have impure intentions though.”

Choi Junseok shook his head as he looked through Lee Nayeon’s gifts and love letters.

He knew he would eventually have to reveal himself in player society,

but he still wondered if this was really the right way.

According to Team Leader Kang Jinsu, gaining fame among the general public first would cause more backlash than using this opportunity to be recognized as a mysterious powerhouse among players.

“Wouldn’t it be better to be acknowledged in player society first rather than becoming famous among the public?”

That way, when the inevitable “He’s getting special treatment because he’s Hamsu” situation arose, resistance from existing players would be minimized.

Rather than suddenly becoming famous among the public, gradually revealing himself in player society was the better approach.

Choi Junseok sat in the hotel lobby café lounge with Song Hana and Lee Nayeon.

He wore a cap, but some people still recognized the three and began whispering.

They were top-tier players with pride in their status,

so whenever the conversation turned to the Diamond-grade player Choi Junseok, they abruptly changed the subject.

The three sat calmly, enjoying high-end desserts and coffee,

yet subtle glances kept drifting their way.

“So delicious!”

Song Hana’s bright, innocent reaction.

The calm and composed Lee Nayeon.

And Choi Junseok casually chatting.

“What the… they live just like normal people?”

“They look young too. Early twenties, right?”

“But since the country kept them in the shadows and worked them hard… kinda pitiful.”

…

“I wonder how badly the country ripped them off.”

Just sharing the same space, breathing the same air, and eating together made some people feel fondness.

If they themselves had been Diamond grade, they would have acted arrogantly, claiming a different class from everyone else.

That was how clearly player society was divided into castes.

Like royalty who didn’t consider nobles as fellow nobles,

nobles who didn’t consider commoners as fellow humans,

and commoners who didn’t consider the lowly as fellow humans.

Royalty had reigned over them all,

yet now an imperial family had appeared above even royalty.

And when they actually saw that imperial family, they weren’t all that different and didn’t seem to keep much distance.

Subtle favor began to rise.

Of course, Choi Junseok’s purpose wasn’t only that.

He was eavesdropping on conversations.

Lee Nayeon focused her senses, listened to people’s talks,

and relayed everything to Choi Junseok through internal voice.

There was no better place to gauge how elite players viewed Hamsu.

‘Since rumors that I cleared the 21st and 22nd floors spread immediately after clearing… they’re tracking and relaying information very sensitively.’

It seemed even the top players were closely watching Hamsu.

“They say Hamsu solo-cleared the 20th floor.”

“…Is that floor even solo-clearable?”

“I couldn’t do it alone starting from the mines. Have you seen the ghoul swarms crawling on the ceiling?”

The undead floors that began from the 20th and continued roughly to the 25th.

What tormented people most on those floors wasn’t just the enemies’ strength but the psychological disgust.

The monsters’ appearances were grotesque and horrific.

Even boss monster attacks looked angelic in comparison.

Just facing the swarming ghouls crawling along the walls was enough to break one’s will to fight.

“Entering there alone already means his mental strength isn’t normal.”

“Come to think of it, I’ve been hearing a lot about the ‘Hamsu Cult’ lately. Heard of it?”

‘Hamsu… Cult…?’

The name alone sounded ominous from the start.

“It’s a religion that claims Hamsu is a god who will save all the magic towers in the world, that the system’s ruler has descended upon Korea?”

“Crazy… it’s a cult?”

Even Choi Junseok, who was eavesdropping, instantly felt his dry lips.

Then came the words that made him want to moisten them again.

“And apparently the leader of that Hamsu Cult stepped forward claiming he himself is Hamsu?”

…

……?

What kind of bullshit was this now?