Only I’m the solo player

Chapter 8 – Learned Helplessness

—–CROW—– 

I stopped going hunting.

I didn’t search for treasure in the labyrinth. I didn’t clear quests.

After running away from the boss room with my tail between my legs, I did nothing but wait for a new challenger to come in.

And just like that, half a year had passed. No challengers entered during this long period.

[Tower of Trials #2661 (1/1)]

The Tower of Trials is basically isolated from the outside world, but you can still hear about what’s going on in society through the newly arrived challengers.

In the open community, there’s even a newspaper-like publication that summarizes the news from the outside that these newbies bring. I’ve been reading it regularly.

According to the newspaper, the 2661 Tower of Trials, where I’m trapped alone, is located in a rural area of Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do.

I heard the exact address, but I have no connection to that area. I’ve never been there, let alone heard of it.

I heard that challengers who receive an invitation are usually sent to the tower closest to their residence, so why was I sent here?

I heard that there are exceptions to the rule of being sent to the nearest tower, but that’s how it is in most cases.

“Fuck.”

I swore out of frustration. As I spent more time alone, I hardly spoke out loud, except for swearing.

Even before entering the tower, I was a bum… no, a job seeker, so I rarely had conversations with people, but it wasn’t this bad. I had my mom.

The village NPCs just say the same lines like machines, so I don’t think of them as people, and I can’t have a proper conversation with them.

-Thud, thud.

I left the inn and headed to the village restaurant. The food came out as soon as the employee NPC took my order.

[Cheese Tonkatsu Lunch Box]

The signature dish of the Western-style restaurant, Rabbit House. The stretchy cheese is exquisite.

It’s very delicious but a bit expensive. A special meal for adventurers with deep pockets!

Eating it fills your hunger a lot.

I’ve been eating at the inn every day, so I’ve been tired of it for a long time. Since I have a lot of gold anyway, I’ve been trying various foods.

This cheese tonkatsu lunch box is recommended by Rankers who spend even more time in the tower than I do, and it’s definitely worth eating.

Of course, those Rankers are crazy people who eat nothing but white rolls every day because of their luck stat buff.

[Author: Seo Jinhyuk#2661]

[Title: How’s my breakfast today?]

(Photo)

I’m getting tired of this too, any other recommendations?

– You’re tired of cheese tonkatsu? Are you a psychopath?

– This guy is stuck on the 1st floor, how does he afford to eat that?

–  Yeah, I have a ton of gold, it doesn’t decrease no matter how much I spend it, are you jealous?

–  Are you? ㅋㅋ

–  Fuck you, you bastard

– Jinhyuk, just eat white rolls, if your luck increases, maybe a newbie will come in

–  If they were going to come in because of that, they would have come in already, you motherfucker

–  Woah, why so toxic today?

– Why does this guy have so many posts and comments?? Does he just use the community instead of hunting?

–  You don’t know Jinhyuk? Are you a newbie?

I took a picture of the cheese tonkatsu lunch box and uploaded it to the community, and comments quickly followed.

It’s a pointless post, but my posts always get a good response. It’s because I’ve become a well-known figure in the open community, almost as much as a Ranker.

After my defeat in the boss battle, I spent every day holed up in the inn, spending all my time on community activities.

Now I’m a complete community ghost.

**

Even before entering the Tower of Trials, I used to browse the community every day.

I mainly used a humor community that dealt with social and political issues. There are a lot of so-called “losers” in those places.

It’s a good place to find solace by looking at real-life failures who are over thirty and spend all day browsing the community, and to complain about being a dirt spoon and curse society.

Hiding in the shadow of anonymity and venting my endless complaints was my biggest hobby. It still is.

Born with a dirt spoon, the invitation that I thought was a chance to turn my life around was a trap card, and half a year of forced confinement.

My life was a complete mess, full of things to complain about, and the users of the open community readily accepted my complaints.

To other challengers who were destined to turn their lives around as Hunters, my situation seemed truly pathetic.

[You idiot, are you just going to stay in your room and browse the community every day? Stop posting shit and try to do something, like hunting or whatever]

Of course, there were occasionally people who looked down on me like this. But I had too many things to refute them with.

Have you ever spent half a year on the 1st floor? Have you ever been alone without talking to anyone? I already almost died trying to solo the boss, and so on.

Thanks to this unprecedented situation that no one else has ever experienced, there was obviously no one who could fully counter my rebuttals.

Besides, who could win a keyboard battle against me, who had become a forced time-billionaire?

“Fucking bastard.”

I started pouring out all kinds of insults at the challenger who picked a fight with me while munching on the cheese tonkatsu.

[If you have time to whine in the community every day, do something, you idiot. You’re still on the 1st floor because you keep blaming the server and newbies]

No matter how much I hunt goblins at my level, I only get a tiny amount of experience. What does this guy know?

Does he think I can overcome this hopeless situation by trying? Does he think I can defeat the boss alone by hunting a little on the 1st floor?

He doesn’t seem to know that the efficiency of effort itself is different. He’s probably not stuck on the 1st floor like me.

He’s no different from the golden spoons I often saw before entering the tower, who looked down on dirt spoons.

They don’t even realize how good their environment is, and they label poor people as lacking effort and willpower.

I knew very well about this difference in starting points, so I was eagerly waiting for the invitation to the tower during my job search.

Because that was the only way for me, born with a dirt spoon, to repay my mother.

[Sigh, yeah, you idiot, live like that forever]

The challenger who picked a fight eventually failed to win with logic and ran away. The cheese tonkatsu tasted even better.

“…”

The good feeling was only temporary.

**

Another month passed without leaving the 1st floor.

Unless they are Rankers who are intentionally staying in the tower for a long time, all challengers eventually leave.

Even the community ghosts who seemed like they would be attached to the community forever are no different. Today, one of those ghosts left the tower.

[Author: Kim Minhyung#1451]

[Title: Farewell) It was fucking terrible being with you, and let’s never meet again]

(Photo)

I’m leaving now too. I’m not sure if I’ll be B-rank or A-rank, but I decided to just leave ㅋㅋ

To my party members Yongju, Minhyuk, and Seongcheol, you all worked hard.

I won’t forget all the comments that supported me.

Especially to 1247 Park Minseok, who gave me tips when I was stuck on the 50th floor, contact me when you get out, I’ll buy you a meal.

I’m really leaving now, take care~~~

– This guy is graduating too? A lot of people are leaving these days

– Congrats on graduating

– Congrats on graduating

– Farewell

– You did well too

– Definitely a B-rank lol

Kim Minhyung of server 1451 was aiming to become an A-rank Hunter and was living as a quasi-Ranker.

And he was also a community ghost who posted every day about how many years he had been in closed-door training.

When a Ranker-level challenger like this graduates, the open community gets noisy about it for a while. Click, I close the community window.

I don’t really want to see stories related to graduation. The items that the graduates leave behind and the news to be delivered to the outside world are all irrelevant to me.

Unless there’s a server integration event, there’s no way for me to receive the graduate’s items as long as the mail and auction house systems are not integrated with other servers.

The same goes for news to be delivered to the outside world. I’ve already told my mom everything I could.

That I’m trapped alone on the 1st floor of the Tower of Trials and can’t get out.

I heard that my mom went to government officials and Hunters and begged them to do something, but I wonder what she’s doing these days.

Anyway, if I have news to deliver in the future, it will be one of two things. Either a newbie has entered this tower, or I’ve died.

“Fucking hell.”

Feeling down, I went back to the inn, buried my face in the pillow, and took a nap all day.

**

A few days later, I woke up to the sound of an alarm after browsing the community until dawn as usual.

The alarm kept ringing from the open community window that I hadn’t closed, calling me.

“Fuck… what is it.”

I rubbed my sleepy eyes and checked the community. There were a lot of tags calling me in a post that told me to check my messages.

I closed the open community and opened the message screen.

The name of the person who sent the message was familiar. It was the person who had relayed news to my mom a few times by mediating between me and graduates.

[Please accept my condolences on your loss.]

It was too long and complicated for me, who likes three-line summaries, but the conclusion was simple.

Today, my mom died. Or was it yesterday? I don’t know.

The conclusion I reached on my own flowed out of my brain.

—–CROW—–