Chapter 6: A Race Against Departure

“Now it’s time to leave,” the instructor continued.

Time to leave?

Soohyuk was confused by the instructor’s words.

Was the rabbit hunt the last quest?

It didn’t seem like the instructor would give more quests.

“Go to Kodra in the Central Plaza. She’ll send you where you want to go. But you can’t return to Oren, the starting village, so finish any business here before you leave.”

With that, the instructor fell silent. Soohyuk thanked him, turned around, and left.

What should I do?

Opening his inventory to store the sword, Soohyuk walked out of the training center, thinking.

Can’t come back?

He could go anywhere on the continent through Kodra, but leaving Oren meant never returning.

And the library’s here.

Not returning to Oren meant he could never use its library again.

If there are books here…

If there were unique books in Oren’s library, he’d never read them unless he deleted and recreated his character.

Guess I need to collect it.

Soohyuk frowned. He’d planned to return after earning enough, but since that wasn’t possible, he needed to gather 50 gold now.

The amount of gold I have now…

Determined to collect 50 gold, Soohyuk checked his current amount.

33 gold…

Soohyuk currently had 17 gold from quests, leaving him 33 gold short of the 50 needed for a library pass.

How much would one rabbit skin sell for?

Checking his gold, Soohyuk looked at the one rabbit skin left from his quest and thought. In this starting village, Oren, only rabbits existed. No wolves, foxes, bears, or other monsters. The only way to earn money was to collect and sell items dropped by rabbits. And in Oren, the item rabbits dropped was only rabbit skin.

Creak.

Arriving at the shop, Soohyuk took out the rabbit skin from his inventory and asked the shopkeeper, Tira, about its price.

“How much would you buy this for?”

Tira lowered her gaze to the rabbit skin Soohyuk held out, then looked back at him with a thoughtful expression and said, “Sorry. At least four skins are needed to give one gold.”

Puzzled by Tira’s words starting with “sorry,” Soohyuk couldn’t say anything after she finished. He retrieved the rabbit skin back to his inventory.

“Oh, I see, four skins for one gold,” he said, nodding as if understanding, and left the shop.

Outside, Soohyuk walked with a disappointed expression and thought, At least one gold per skin.

He’d thought he’d get at least one gold, maybe even two. He’d even hoped for more. But one skin, they won’t buy?

If four skins for one gold…

Soohyuk calculated. Since it’s 33 gold. The needed gold was 33 gold. 4 times 33.

Finishing the calculation, he frowned. 132 skins?

To make 33 gold, 132 rabbit skins were needed. 132 skins was by no means a small amount. Even if a skin dropped every time, 132 rabbits had to be caught.

Fine.

Though 132 skins was an enormous amount, Soohyuk relaxed his frown. Let’s do it until I get tired.

When catching the first rabbit, he felt reluctance due to the overly excellent graphics. But from the second rabbit, it felt like entering a novel, and interest arose. Soohyuk resolved to keep hunting tiresomely until the interest faded.

“Hey! Don’t steal!” a user shouted.

“Who’s stealing? Don’t you know how heavy skins are? I hit it first!” another replied.

“After stealing, what?” the first snapped back.

Not long after resolving, Soohyuk reached the village outskirts. Outside, even more users than before were fighting over rabbit ownership. Passing them, he continued to walk.

Wow, it’s crowded here too.

Arriving where he’d hunted for the quest, Soohyuk couldn’t stop. Earlier, there were more rabbits than users, but now, there were more users. Though less chaotic than the village entrance, for Soohyuk, who had to catch at least 132 rabbits, he needed a place without competition and kept walking.

This should do.

When the number of users became fewer than rabbits, Soohyuk stopped and started hunting.

“Hoo,” Soohyuk exhaled heavily, emerging from the capsule.

His expression was full of disappointment. Only caught 70 rabbits?

The reason for his disappointment was failing to meet his goal. He’d caught 70 rabbits, far short of the targeted 132.

Skins, 50 skins.

The drop rate was also disappointing. It wasn’t as good as he’d thought. The skins from 70 rabbits were only 50 skins. No, since he originally had one skin, it could be said 49 skins.

Tomorrow could catch more.

Today, since various quests were cleared, he hadn’t spent much time hunting. Tomorrow, with no quests to clear, he could pour all his time into hunting.

Can 132 skins be collected?

But he couldn’t be certain if 132 skins could be collected. Thinking, Soohyuk approached the computer.

Pangea’s official website opened one hour after Pangea’s launch. Curious what information was available, Soohyuk wanted to check.

Hmm.

The website had more information than expected. Not only company details but also user-uploaded information was considerable.

There’s not much information about the library.

However, information about the library wasn’t much. Each library handles different requirements?

The information was that libraries couldn’t be used recklessly and qualifications were needed to use them.

Noble? Merchant? What are these conditions?

Unlike Oren’s library, which only needed 50 gold, other libraries needed status.

No library that can be used easily?

Soohyuk searched more, curious if there was a library usable without status like noble or merchant.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, searching.

This is pretty good!

It wasn’t without conditions, but it was a decent condition, a library that existed.

If you just change jobs to a mage, you can use it.

It was a library usable if the job was a mage.

The Magic Tower.

Checking which library it was, Soohyuk realized it wasn’t tied to a nation. The Magic Tower, an alliance of mages with greater influence than most nations, managed this library.

Should ask to be sent to the Magic Tower.

He could use it by changing jobs to a mage. And changing to a mage wasn’t difficult. Level 10, wisdom 30 were the conditions. Planning ahead, Soohyuk got up. Leaving the room, he went to the second floor.

Since I need to sleep soon.

Browsing the bookshelves, Soohyuk took a book thin enough to read in about an hour. Returning to his room, he started reading.

If I caught ten more rabbits, would’ve been done.

While reading, Soohyuk thought.

“Huh?” he said, startled.

What’s with this distraction?

The reason for his shock was the current situation. Until now, when reading, he focused only on reading, never having other thoughts. But now, even while reading, thoughts about Pangea came up.

Is it that disappointing?

The thoughts were surely due to disappointment. Soohyuk stopped reading for a moment and thought about the disappointment.

Having dispelled the disappointment, he resumed reading. Perhaps because it was gone, no random thoughts came up. He could focus entirely on the book. Like that, Soohyuk immersed himself in it.

“Who’s the highest-level user now?” Yang Joohyuk asked Jang Yul.

“Just a moment,” Jang Yul replied, monitoring Pangea’s main status on five monitors, tapping the keyboard.

A new window appeared on one monitor, and seeing it, Jang Yul said, “A user called Hunting King, level 21.”

“What? Already?” Yang Joohyuk couldn’t help but be surprised.

“It’s only been a day since?” he added.

Not days, just one day since the launch, and level 21?

“No way,” Yang Joohyuk said.

“A tester,” Jang Yul explained.

“Oh,” Yang Joohyuk let out, understanding.

“A tester?”

Pangea opened after numerous tests, including internal tests and secret tester recruitment.

“Then it makes sense, no way a regular user reaches 21.”

If a tester, level 21 wasn’t strange.

“How many received Oren’s Practitioner title?” Yang Joohyuk asked.

Oren’s Practitioner title, earned by catching 100 rabbits, Oren’s unique monster, increased strength, agility, stamina, and wisdom by 3 each, considerably helpful early on.

“By percentage, 0.7,” Jang Yul answered.

“What, that many received it?” Yang Joohyuk was surprised.

If users were few, maybe, but with over one million users, and more expected to join, 0.7% meant many caught 100 rabbits. Hard to believe.

“Yes,” Jang Yul confirmed.

“Special job users? Many?” Yang Joohyuk asked.

“Training Knights? Or Tamers?” Jang Yul clarified.