LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 4
Chapter 4
The Second’s Crisis Response Team.
This was a department that predicted the autonomous direction of Second and sought countermeasures for it.
Since the direction that NPCs would take in Second was almost fixed, the majority of their work involved monitoring unusual users.
And, there were numerous ‘unusual users’ in Second.
Hya! Cha! Hya! Cha! Isn’t anything showing up yet? Shouldn’t something have appeared by now at this rate?
A user who, as soon as they started the game, obtained a shovel and was only digging in the outskirts of the beginner hunting grounds.
I’ve hit it ten thousand times and no hidden quest? Alright, let’s try a hundred thousand!
A user endlessly striking a scarecrow in the beginner city’s training grounds.
Try killing me again! My dream is Death Master! The hidden class is almost… Gack!
Even a user who repeatedly ran towards monsters and died as soon as they respawned.
Their repetitive actions, to the point where one wondered why they were doing it, never failed to bore the Crisis Response Team staff.
Despite this, the reason they continued to monitor was.
‘Surely a real hidden quest or something won’t actually appear, will it?’
It was due to Second’s autonomy.
The game company for Second, like the Crisis Response Team, also had a Balance Team, but the flow of the game was mostly autonomously controlled by the supercomputer that constituted Second.
Just recently, hadn’t a user who constantly bit into every monster they saw and engaged in bizarre eating habits been given the hidden class ‘Predator’?
Since one never knew what variables might arise in the game, these situations couldn’t be ignored.
At that moment.
“Team Leader Kang.”
“Yeah, Deputy Seo. What is it this time? Don’t tell me that guy who was just digging actually got a hidden class or something?”
“No, not yet.”
“Saying ‘not yet’ makes me uneasy. So, what is it?”
Deputy Seo had come to find Team Leader Kang.
As the team leader of the Crisis Response Team, Team Leader Kang was worn out by all sorts of variables and crisis situations in Second.
Dark circles were prominent under his eyes, and he had a thick beard, as if he hadn’t been home for days.
Facing such a Team Leader Kang, Deputy Seo began to report.
“A First user has appeared.”
“What? It’s been almost two years since the game opened, and there are still First users left?”
“Yes.”
“Ha, geez. I thought all the First users had already come out.”
Within the Crisis Response Team, the existence of First users was special.
First, the game that could be called the origin of Second.
Since it was such a mess of a game, the number of users was extremely small, but they weren’t completely absent.
And among them, a very small portion started Second and even obtained some of First’s abilities under the name of ‘returnee benefits.’
One of them was Yulha, the current Rank 1 swordsman of Korea.
Through the swordsmanship and skills she had learned in her First days, she was able to rise to the Rank 1 position in an instant.
“Alright, put them in F-rank.”
“Are you sure F-rank is enough?”
“First users were a concern when Second opened, but it’s already been two years since the game launched. No matter how skilled they are, what can they possibly do?”
“But…”
“Deputy Seo, don’t you know how busy we are these days? If you have time to observe the beginner city, monitor the Pateon Guild instead. It looks like something big is about to happen there soon.”
“…Understood.”
Team Leader Kang didn’t even properly check the documents.
Well, the reason First users were special was because it was the early days of the game back then.
At the current point, with two years since the game’s opening already passing, even if a new First user came in, they couldn’t cause any major variables.
At most, they would just grow a little faster.
That level of impact couldn’t even be considered a ‘variable’ for the Crisis Response Team anymore.
That’s why Team Leader Kang had lost interest as well.
However, the expression on Deputy Seo’s face as she returned to her seat with the documents wasn’t good at all.
‘This user… doesn’t seem like an ordinary First user.’
No matter how she thought about it, it felt unusual.
A First user appearing two years after Second’s launch?
And that nickname.
It somehow felt exceptionally out of the ordinary.
As she was about to return to her seat.
“Team Leader Kang!”
One of the employees monitoring the game situation rushed over urgently.
Then, they hastily reported what they had seen.
“An alleyway in the starting city has exploded!”
“What? What are you talking about? Did a bomb go off or something?”
“No! According to the monitoring results, it’s been confirmed that it was struck by lightning!”
“No, wait, what are you even saying? Why would lightning strike an alleyway in the starting city hard enough to make it explode?”
“T-that is… I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?”
“As soon as we detected the phenomenon, we checked, but we only found completely charred thugs.”
“What about other users? Were there any casualties? If anyone was harmed, we’d be getting reports and it would be chaos!”
“W-we haven’t grasped that part yet”
“Isn’t figuring that out your job?! Check immediately!”
“Yes!”
A peculiar phenomenon that occurred in the starting city.
Why?
In Deputy Seo’s mind, who had been listening to this.
‘Mir.’
The new returnee from First who had come to Second came to mind.
Meanwhile.
I, who had blown up the alleyway along with the thugs using the celestial god’s lightning.
“Wow, that was a surprise. Seriously.”
Had escaped the alleyway and fled far away.
And for good reason, even if the opponents were just thug NPCs, my attack had blown away the alleyway itself with lightning.
If I had been caught by the guards at that scene, I might have been dragged away as is.
It wasn’t that the thugs had died, but I had completely burned down the alleyway with lightning.
So, I hastily took out an item from Luke.
[ Tarnkappe ] ( Cannot be traded ) Type: Cloak Grade: Heroic Restrictions: Level 150 or higher Description: A magical cloak said to have been used by the great dragonslayer Siegfried to conceal his appearance.
Tarnkappe.
A magical cloak imbued with invisibility magic, quite useful.
Using its power, I was able to escape the scene safely without being detected by anyone.
Hiding in a quiet place and panting, I felt the power of the Tarnkappe draped over my shoulders disappear, and it was automatically unequipped.
Then, the deactivated Tarnkappe burned black and vanished.
“A penalty?”
The lightning of Astrape that I had just seen flashed in my mind.
The lightning was certainly surprisingly powerful, but the power of Astrape that I remembered wasn’t just at this level.
The Tarnkappe was the same.
Every time I moved, people around me would feel a sense of unease and glance over, making the invisibility ability feel somewhat lacking.
So, I did a few checks.
“Dividing by grade, taking them out by level…”
After taking out and using items in various ways.
I was able to understand the principle behind using the items stored in Luke.
“First, cannot be traded.”
As stated in the item description, items taken out from Luke cannot be traded.
It meant that only I could use them.
I had wondered if I could sell unnecessary items to raise funds if trading was possible.
It was a shame.
“Second, even if usable, performance drops to my level.”
Well, this was actually natural.
In fact, the principle was that you couldn’t even use them if you didn’t meet the restrictions.
The fact that I, at Level 1, could use Astrape was already absurd.
Therefore, it seemed that items that didn’t suit me had their performance reduced to a level appropriate for me.
Even so, the power of mythic-grade items was still formidable.
“Third, usage time limit.”
This was also connected to the second point.
The greater the restrictions, the higher the item grade, the shorter the item’s usage time.
For example, Astrape, which was an ultimate-grade weapon, could only be used once briefly.
And the Tarnkappe, even with its weakened invisibility performance, only lasted long enough for me to escape the alleyway.
It was a shame, but it couldn’t be helped.
No, this alone was enough.
Even weakened, my items were powerful enough, and as I grew, these items would regain their original performance.
Anyway, what was immediately fortunate was.
[ Sudden Quest ‘Alleyway Thugs’ completed. ]
[ Acquired a small amount of gold that the thugs possessed. ]
The money that the thugs, who had already turned to dust from the lightning, had on them was automatically received as a quest reward.
I had thought that if I had to search their bodies myself, I definitely wouldn’t get anything.
Fortunately, I was able to obtain a proper reward.
Thanks to defeating five thugs, it was a decent amount of money for a beginner to handle.
So.
“Should I find a room first?”
I decided to settle down for now.
The first place I looked for was, of course, an inn.
Finding an inn wasn’t difficult.
Because the location of the inn itself.
“It’s exactly the same.”
It was in the exact same location I remembered from First.
Of course, only the location was the same; all other elements were different.
It wasn’t the two-story inn from First but a three-story inn, the building’s style was much more advanced.
And most importantly.
[ Bonfire Inn ]
The name of the inn was different.
“Welcome! How may I help you? A meal? Or lodging?”
“Lodging for one night, two days. Please prepare a meal right away.”
“Yes! Our standard Bonfire Set is our recommendation, is that alright?”
“Yes.”
“Our Bonfire Set is the most popular menu in the city, so you can look forward to it!”
I went inside and had a simple meal first.
Just like in First, the food system in Second was important.
As realism was emphasized, not eating would result in various debuffs, and in severe cases, one could even die of starvation.
Conversely, eating well would grant buffs, so there was no reason not to eat.
“Here’s your Bonfire Set!”
The Bonfire Set that was served.
“Oh, it smells good?”
“Right? It’s our pride, so you have to eat it all without leaving any!”
Looked more luxurious than I had expected.
A rich stew filled with meat and vegetables.
Well-baked bread and fragrant honey water.
Still, I didn’t have high expectations.
No matter how well virtual reality was implemented, recreating taste was extremely difficult…
Slurp.
“Huh?”
Delicious.
So delicious.
It was on par with real food I ate in reality.
It wasn’t just simply sweet or salty, but even the subtle sweetness from the vegetables was clearly realized.
Was this even possible?
Surprised, I inhaled the food and finished the large serving in an instant.
The employee who had been watching me smiled.
“I told you it would be delicious, right?”
“It really is delicious.”
To think they had even perfectly implemented taste to this extent.
Second.
A greater evolution than I had imagined.
To the point where I was slowly realizing that First was truly an unfinished game.
After finishing my meal, I went up to my room.
Usually, beginners who had just started the game wouldn’t bother spending money on an inn room, but I needed my own space right now.
And for good reason.
For what I had to do from now on.
“Luke.”
Yes, Master.
“Could you show me all the elixirs you currently have?”
Wooong-.
[ Heart of the Golden Dragon ]
[ Ten Thousand Year Wild Ginseng ]
[ Tears of the Elf ]
I needed some time alone, undisturbed by anyone.