Chapter 56
“I don’t know. I only met her when we competed in the game, so how could I know so much about her?”
“Didn’t you team up with your successor and participated in the fight? He also didn’t notice anything about Erina?”
“Yes.”
These guys couldn’t even guess that I was Khan’s successor. Maybe it was because I looked like a beginner, as no one would think that the successor of the prestigious blacksmith Khan would be a beginner.
“…Sheesh.” Whether it was because they were irritated at not gaining anything, or because he was an NPC, the men left without saying goodbye to Khan.
I pulled out salt from my inventory and sprinkled it in front of the smithy.
“Phew, unlucky bastards. Don’t come back again.”
Khan scratched his head as he looked at me. “Shouldn’t you be sprinkling coarse salt?”
“…Ah, is that so? Hum hum, let’s go back to work.”
As I turned back to the furnace, Khan opened his mouth and asked, “Are you going to work today without resting?”
“Of course.”
“The more I look, the more I feel admiration. You already have excellent skills, but you aren’t satisfied and you keep working hard…”
Excellent skills… If my skills were really excellent, I would’ve created a unique and legendary rated item among the 73 items that I made. But not only did a unique rating not emerge, I only made three epic rated items.
I was still lacking. I needed to raise my skill level further. I would make a lot of money and show my parents.
‘I need to be quickly recognized by my parents…’
The fact that I had less time to play the game was a big problem.
Ttang! Ttang!
As I concentrated on making the items, Khan sat at the counter and sold the items I made to the customers. It was a very desirable system; other users would go green in envy if they saw this.
Why? There were three ways that ordinary users could sell items to other users:
Firstly – they could open up a street stall and sell them to users directly.
Secondly – they could sell items at the auction site.
Thirdly, they could post the items to be sold on a cash transaction site.
In the first case, a lot of time could be wasted waiting for customers to come. In addition, bargaining with the customers was frequent and could be stressful. The second and third options saved time but there were high fees involved.
In other words, it meant that a normal user had to take time and money to sell the items. But I was different. Khan sold the items on my behalf, saving me time. He also didn’t charge me a sales commission.
I just needed to make the items, while Khan sold them and gave the proceeds back to me. If I steadily made money by producing more than two items a day, I would surely become rich someday…
“…I’m still waiting! This is rotten. No, shit. Does this make sense? I am a legendary class so why can’t I make a legendary item?”
On that day, the S.A. Group Headquater’s operations team received an email.
Title: Look and you will see.
Contents: If you look at my information, you can see that I’m a legendary blacksmith. So why can’t I make any legendary items? If I am a legendary blacksmith, isn’t it normal for me to be able to make a legendary item? No, I didn’t do anything else for a month and made 73 items, but there were no legendary items at all. Yes? I didn’t create a single unique item and only made three epic items, so isn’t this manipulation? Yes? You are probably manipulating this right? Huh? Right? Ah, look. This is really X. Do you want me to snap? Should I go there? Eh? The materials and production method are good, so isn’t this manipulation, you #~!$@.
The employee who checked the email thought it was absurd.
“What manipulation… First he should raise the level…”
Level 10 users and level 100 users. Assuming that both of them had the same dexterity stat and skill level, a level 100 user was more likely to produce a higher rated item than the level 10 user.
In other words, the higher the level of the maker, the better the item. This was common sense among users with production classes. However, this wasn’t known by the user who obtained a legendary class.
The employees sighed as a group.
“It is painful to see that great class…”
Then someone said. “If the contents of the email aren’t false, he really is an unlucky person. With the Legendary Blacksmith’s Craftsmanship Skill, he only made 3 epic items out of 73? Unique and legendary items are unlikely because their probabilities are low, but there is a fixed probability of creating an epic item. Looking at this, doesn’t he really seem cursed?”
All the employees were sympathetic.
“He really is a person with bad luck…”
“No wonder why he feels doubts about manipulation…”
“If it is really possible to intervene, I would like to increase his chances of making higher rated items.”
From that day onwards, Grid became famous for his bad luck among the game operators.
***
The 73 items I made were weapons and armor with a level 60 limit. The total sales amount was 1,590 gold, with a net profit of 1,079 gold. This was equivalent to exactly 1,294,800 won when converted to cash.
The game, which I played for 5~6 hours a day, earned me around 1.3 million won a month. If I quit going to the labor office, I would be able to make three times as much money. In addition, if I was fortunate enough to make a unique or legendary item, I could earn tens of millions of won.
However, my parents didn’t agree, as they knew that the number of people who made money from the game was very low. Furthermore, I had been playing for over a year, and yet I still couldn’t escape my debt.
That’s right. In society and in my home, I was treated as someone with bad credit. My parents overlapped with the first and second financial institutions that rejected me.
‘Should I sell the Ideal Dagger? No, no. It isn’t time yet.’
I could sell the Ideal Dagger as a means of proving to my parents that I could make money through Satisfy. But I couldn’t sell the Ideal Dagger. The reason for this was the terms of use for the Ideal Dagger.
In order to meet the Ideal Dagger’s usage conditions, the passive skill called Advanced Dagger Mastery was needed. But at the moment, the top rankers of each class only had intermediate level skills.
If I put up the Ideal Dagger on the trading site in this situation, only the merchants thinking of future profits would flock to it. Therefore, the merchants were likely to bid at the cheapest price possible and it was likely that the dagger would be sold at an unsatisfactory price. I had to hold onto the Ideal Dagger for the moment.
It was four in the morning. I reached the end of my limit at the thought of going to the labor office.
“Do I have to live like this forever…”
Four in the morning was when most people would still be dreaming. But I had to work until 6 p.m. just for 90,000 won per day, while my body suffered. I could endure it if it was my only way of making money like before, but now it was different!
I was able to make more money from playing the game than doing labor work, so going to the labor office was just a waste of time!
“Shit…I want a unique or legendary item. Or if I make a lot of epic items, it will help persuade my parents that I am making a profit… Urgh, dammit. I feel angry as soon as I open my eyes. It can’t be helped. I should get some cold air. Huh? This…”
As I was exiting my front door to go on a walk around the neighborhood, I saw a flyer sticking out from the newspaper.
[September 10th! The long-awaited opening!
The best capsule room is open!
There are 150 top of the line capsules!
It is fully equipped with cafe facilities.
Delicious food cooked by a 5 star hotel chef.
A feast of beauties and handsome workers!
* Please don’t ask for the employee’ telephone numbers.
On September 10th, for just one day! Any customers who sign up will receive a 30% discount on the capsule room fee for a lifetime!]
Heok… a lifetime discount on a capsule room? The capsule room was 6,000 won per hour. If it was a 30% discount…
“This is it!” I got a good idea.
“Okay!”
I headed back to my room. I changed into my work clothes and opened the door.
“Huh? Your work clothes? Are you going to work already? Isn’t it only 4.10 a.m?” My puzzled mother asked and I vigorously nodded.
“That’s right! I am going work! Hahahahaha!”
“… Why are you so full of energy in the morning?”
“Puhahaha! Of course! I am young and overflowing with energy. Then Mother, Father! I will go to work early this time! Puhahahahat!”
“Youngwoo, are you sick or something…?”
“Yes… I am worried…”
I left the house while my parents felt worried. Today was September 10th! I looked for the newly opened capsule room. The colorful banners hung outside a building to announce the opening of the capsule room.
“This will be my job starting from today. Puhahahahat!”
Yes, I was going to quit the labor jobs today. Now I would play Satisfy from the moment I got up to when I fell asleep. I would spend the morning and afternoon in the capsule room. Then I would play at home at night.
“Now I can work harder to make items. Puhahahat!”
***
Recently, Khan’s smithy was a great source of interest for users.
Among the items sold at Khan’s smithy, there were level 60 equipment made by a craftsman with great talent and potential, but lacking in experience and reputation. His equipment had an almost 20% better performance than normal items. Even the normal rated items were comparable to rare rated equipment at the same level.
The users called this the ‘Unknown Craftsman Series’ and it was very popular. The performance was good but the price was rather expensive. However, money wasn’t a problem. They couldn’t live without this equipment.
The users entered Khan’s smithy on a daily basis.
“Did the unknown craftsman make any more items?”
“I will buy any items he made! I will pay however much you want, so please sell it to me!”
“Give me his name. I personally want to ask him to make me an item. Yes? Where can I meet him?”
The users wanted to have items made by the unknown craftsman, or they were curious about his identity.
But Khan never replied.
Grid always made a limited number of items due to time restrictions, and he didn’t want others to know his identity.
Ttang! Ttang!
The crowd at the counter never imagined that the beginner user hammering at the furnace behind Khan would be the one they were looking for.