LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 4 - A Fixture of the Beginner's Zone (1)
Chapter 4: A Fixture of the Beginner’s Zone (1)
Who is the most famous person in the world?
In the past, people might have named a space entrepreneur or the President of the United States.
But nowadays, everyone agrees on one name.
‘Aaron Chris, the Developer.’
He is the CEO of L&T Soft, the company behind Elthera Online.
Yet, he is a man shrouded in mystery, having never once shown his face to the public.
Unusually, despite his absence from the public eye, his company, L&T Soft, has thrived.
Running the world’s largest virtual reality game, Elthera Online, the company employs over 100,000 people globally.
However, there’s something peculiar about this company.
Neither its headquarters nor any branch offices have any ‘game developers.’
While there are many programmers, there are no developers to update or manage Elthera Online.
The world of Elthera runs entirely on the ‘super AI Deus,’ and no developers can interfere with it.
So, what do all those programmers do if there are no developers?
“Team Leader Han Su-Jin, a bug has been detected!”
They are all assigned to the ‘Command Center.’
Their role is to monitor for unexpected occurrences that the super AI Deus cannot predict and notify Deus so it can take action.
Rather than developers, they are more like overseers.
“There’s a bug in the southern region where junk items occasionally display incorrect labels.”
L&T Soft Korea.
80th floor, First-Class Command Center.
This entire floor, filled with hundreds of monitors, serves as the primary observation and recording hub for incidents involving Korean users.
Of course, they have almost no ability to directly observe or monitor in-game activities.
Due to the so-called ‘Privacy System,’ it is impossible to observe personal spaces in the game, such as neutral area hotels or private houses.
Unless there’s an extremely significant event, the ‘monitoring’ function is virtually nonexistent.
“Well, minor bugs like that will probably be fixed by Deus soon, even if we don’t register them.”
Their role is straightforward.
They consistently monitor game logs and register observed bugs with Deus.
They have no authority to directly fix bugs. Only the AI Deus can manage this game. Even staff members face heavy restrictions in accessing information.
Thanks to this perfect system, time passed without any major incidents.
Until that moment.
WEE-OO! WEE-OO! WEE-OO!
A loud alarm echoed through the command center.
“Team Leader Han Su-Jin! Deus is sounding the alarm! Something major has happened!”
Deputy Manager Kim Young-Seok urgently called his superior. Deus had never failed to handle an issue before. But an alarm? Out of nowhere?
Han Su-Jin’s expression turned pale.
An alarm going off.
That meant something had happened that even Deus found troubling!
[Anomalous situation detected!]
[Recalculating.]
[Calculation failed.]
[An unanticipated situation has occurred.]
[Recalculating.]
[Calculation failed.]
[Unanticipated…]
The same system messages repeatedly appeared on the monitors.
The system ran hundreds of simulations per second, trying to comprehend the in-game situation, filling the monitors entirely.
“This doesn’t make sense. Are you saying the super AI is lagging?”
A super AI that manages an entire world. And yet, it encountered a situation it couldn’t calculate? Even to the point of lagging?
“What’s the cause?”
“L-Look at this!”
[A Level 1 user has cleared the world’s first ‘Royal Challenge!’]
“…What?”
She, normally composed, blurted out a dumbfounded remark.
The Royal Challenge.
A special quest available to all but almost impossible to clear.
Until now, not a single player had succeeded.
“This seems to have caused Deus to lag!”
“So, the Royal Challenge was actually cleared?”
When Kim Young-Seok nodded, Han Su-Jin wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Which challenge was cleared? The Ancient Paladin’s Ruins? The Hero’s Empire? The Wrath of the Ancient Dragon?”
“…None of them.”
Breaking into a cold sweat, he slowly enunciated the words.
“The worst Royal Challenge with a zero percent clear rate. ‘Tutorial Boss Khazaram’ has been defeated.”
Thud.
The smartpen in Han Su-Jin’s hand fell to the floor.
[An impossible event has occurred! Bug detection! Nuclear simulation! …Result: 0% probability.]
[The player did not use illegal programs.]
An unbelievable event had taken place.
But now was not the time to sit around in shock. While in-game incidents couldn’t be handled by the administrators, real-world issues required immediate action.
Within hours, countless users filed ‘cheat reports,’ prompting the company to release a swift announcement to protect their reputation.
For the first time in history, a single player prompted the release of an official notice.
[Greetings, adventurers of the Elthera continent. Regarding the recent controversy over the ‘Royal Challenge Tutorial Boss Khazaram,’ we’d like to inform you… (abridged)
[Player ‘Yeonwol#0104’ has been verified to have used no illegal programs. Please enjoy your adventures with peace of mind.]
[Thank you.]
Yeonwol walked through the area that appeared after clearing the Tutorial Boss.
The endpoint of the tutorial that no one else had ever reached.
What could possibly lie beyond?
“…”
At the end.
There was a cliff.
An empty void.
“Are you kidding me? You’re just telling me to jump off and die?”
The tutorial’s end was nothing but death.
It was inescapable.
For some reason, the game’s creators seemed intent on ensuring that players experienced at least one death.
Without dying, players couldn’t enter the world of Elthera.
So, jump off.
That was the intended path.
“Well, fine. I’ve already gotten everything I could from this place.”
From the beginning, he hadn’t planned to defy the game’s system. He lacked the power or ability to do so.
‘At first, you have no choice but to adapt to the game’s system. Or better yet, use that system to grow stronger.’
Still.
“I’d rather not die exactly the way they intended.”
Yeonwol sat down on the spot.
Perhaps it was because of the intense battle with Khazaram, but he felt a mild headache from the overexertion.
Taking the opportunity to rest, Yeonwol uploaded the video of his battle with Khazaram to Elthera Online’s official video site.
‘I don’t have time to become a full-time Eltuber. But uploading a simple battle video for fame points… considering the rewards from the Hall of Honor, it’ll be a huge help.’
Afterward, he checked his stats.
Lv: 1 Combat Power: 6
Class: None
HP: 125 MP: 125
[Fame: 12]
[Strength: 20] [Agility: 20]
[Wisdom: 20] [Stamina: 20]
[Vitality: 15] [Willpower: 15]
His starting stats were remarkably high.
Normally, all players began with stats at 10, but Yeonwol’s stats were 5–10 points higher across the board.
Considering that players received 5 bonus stat points for every level gained, he had effectively gained the equivalent of 10 levels.
For defeating a single Tutorial Boss, these stats seemed excessive. But for clearing a ‘Royal Challenge,’ they weren’t particularly impressive.
“Clearing the Tutorial Boss must have also cleared the Royal Challenge, granting me additional stat boosts…”
Accomplishing such a feat should have warranted greater rewards, but only a modest stat boost?
It might seem underwhelming, but the reality was different.
[By completing the Royal Challenge, you have received the ‘Hall of Honor’ quest.]
The real reward for the challenge would come later through a quest. However, since the Hall of Honor wasn’t accessible immediately, the reward had to wait.
Furthermore, even with just the stats he had received, it was already a fairly decent reward.
In his past life, rankers had cheered greatly over such stat rewards alone.
While leveling up quickly as a beginner made it easy to gain stats equivalent to 10 levels, the story changed at higher levels.
At that point, leveling up became incredibly slow, and raising even a single stat required tens of hours of grinding or completing quests.
This meant the stats gained here could eventually save him hundreds of hours of effort in the future.
He also checked the additional rewards he had obtained this time.
‘An S-rank skill and weapon. This is a more incredible reward than I expected.’
In his previous life, no one had ever defeated the Tutorial Boss, so he had been unaware of the quality of its rewards.
How did he manage to defeat a boss that no one had ever beaten before, even in his past life?
There was no specific strategy or guide for it. It wasn’t even about knowing future information.
It simply… became possible.
He could see previously invisible attacks, and impossible things became achievable.
The experiences of fighting superhumans and monsters with a normal body in real battles had transformed Yeonwol into something entirely different.
*Grade: Epic
*Description: A sword used by Khazaram, a famed swift swordsman. He was tasked with confronting players from Earth after his soul was bound by a god as punishment for murder but eventually found peace.
*Equipment Restriction: Only those recognized for defeating Khazaram.
*Increases attack power by 21–29%.
*Increases Strength by 5 and Agility by 7.
*Upon acquiring “Blue Wave Ascension Blade” and reaching intermediate swordsmanship proficiency, unlock the active skill “Iaido: Strike First to Gain Victory.”
The first thing Yeonwol did was examine the item, letting out a whistle of admiration.
‘No level restriction and a 29% attack boost? That’s pretty useful.’
On average, beginner wooden swords for Level 1 players provided a 5% attack boost.
In contrast, the weapon Yeonwol had acquired boosted attack by an astounding 29%, rivaling hidden weapons with Level 100 restrictions.
‘It might not be usable for the long term, but I won’t need to worry about weapons until Level 100.’
After equipping the gear, his combat power increased to 16. However, since his level was still low, even equipping good items didn’t lead to a significant rise in combat power.
Next, he checked his skill.
*Proficiency: 1%
*Description: There was once a swordsman who ran across the seas, chasing the moon. He was said to have such swift footwork that he could traverse continents and possessed unparalleled speed in his sword strikes.
*1st Form: Thunder Flash Thrust
└ Consumes 50 MP to rapidly dash toward and pierce the enemy.
*2nd Form: Sea Cloud Slash
└ Consumes 250 MP to leap and deliver a powerful downward slash.
*3rd Form: ???
Blue Wave Ascension Blade.
This was a swordsmanship skill, also referred to as a sword art.
Honestly, Yeonwol wasn’t particularly interested in the skill itself.
Others might call it an ungrateful attitude. An S-rank skill that even rankers struggled to obtain, and he wasn’t interested?
But it was true.
What truly pleased him was the [Basic Swordsmanship Proficiency] skill, a supplementary skill gained while mastering the S-rank sword art.
This skill, which enabled one to wield a sword proficiently, was typically only obtainable by advancing to the Swordsman class.
In other words, he had acquired a class-exclusive skill without becoming a Swordsman, which was a massive stroke of luck.
From now on, no matter what class he chose, he would be able to wield a sword.
‘A class, huh…’
After completing the tutorial, a beginner could freely choose their starting city.
And with his knowledge of the future, Yeonwol knew the best city to begin in.
‘There’s no need to just pick a city because it has a lot of hidden pieces or hidden quests. Even if it has fewer hidden pieces, I need to choose the city that aligns with my future.’
The future of an Elthera player.
No matter how many hidden pieces or secret equipment a player obtained, in the end, their destiny would be determined by their class.
All players obtained their ‘class’ through advancement, gaining the ‘Skill Support System’ to wield power.
Swordsmen could use the system to wield swords more skillfully, while archers could shoot arrows more accurately.
What about professions like Alchemist or Mage, which didn’t exist in reality? Without the Skill Support System, such professions were almost impossible to use effectively.
Only later did people realize.
The Skill Support System obtained through class advancement… was actually a blessing from the gods.
This meant that as long as one relied on the system, they couldn’t escape being puppets of the gods.
‘I must choose a class that doesn’t rely heavily on the Skill System.’
However, as far as Yeonwol knew, no such class existed in the game.
But there was a hint.
‘Chensolla said to overcome death. A very straightforward hint.’
The gods were neither omniscient nor omnipotent.
There must have been beings on Earth that even the gods feared.
Unfortunately, players were not among them.
For instance… it was said that professions like Necromancer, which involved summoning zombies, received noticeably less Skill System support.
Professions related to death, like zombies, seemed to be something the gods disliked to an almost palpable degree.
The difficulty of raising such classes was brutal, and their skill setups were notoriously terrible.
But what gave Yeonwol the greatest certainty was the existence of the ‘Necromancer’ class.
Necromancer, Archlich Riolis, just before his death, had said this:
‘You players use the power granted by the gods, yet you hate them so much. Why?’
His tone seemed mocking, as though ridiculing both the gods and the players.
During his time playing Elthera Online, Yeonwol had dismissed it as event dialogue. But thinking back now, it was strange.
Riolis, on the verge of death, had screamed at the players, preaching like a madman.
‘Do you wish to escape the gods’ manipulation? Then die! Death is the true escape! No dead man worships a god, and no god cares for the dead!’
The desperate cries of Riolis before his annihilation echoed in Yeonwol’s ears. And not a single word he said was wrong.
There were gods with good intentions, but there were also gods with malicious ones.
Every player tried to escape the gods’ schemes, yet they continued to use the blessings bestowed by those same gods…
‘I must not be tied down by skills.’
In his past life, Yeonwol had used production skills granted by gods overseeing various crafting professions through the Skill Support System.
Now, he couldn’t do that anymore.
‘If I want to escape the grip of the gods, I must overcome death…!’
Death.
Death itself.
Mulling over that word, Yeonwol rose from his seat.
The game’s creators might have intended for anyone who miraculously cleared the tutorial against all odds to fall off the cliff and die, but he had no intention of following that plan to the letter.
He drew a dagger.
He had already experienced a dagger piercing his heart once before.
The first time was difficult, but the second time wasn’t.
“Well then, let’s do this.”
Thrust!
Yeonwol plunged the dagger he held in reverse grip into his chest.
At that moment, a message appeared before his eyes.
[You have achieved the hidden advancement condition ‘Defying Inevitable Death’ and unlocked the S-rank class ‘Necromancer.’]
[You have died.]
Flash!
Yeonwol opened his eyes, cold sweat dripping down his face.
The world had turned pitch black. It was different from the usual ‘player death.’
As he raised his head, pondering the strange sensation…
-A sense of death emanates from you.
Suddenly, his vision was filled with a massive skull.
Whoosh!
The world turned bright again.
When he opened his eyes, he was standing silently at the center of the Temple of Resurrection.
‘What just happened?’
Even Yeonwol, now living his second life, couldn’t understand the situation.
But his heart began to race.
Just as Yeonwol sought death, death seemed to be seeking him too.
‘In that case… I should take one more step forward.’
An idea struck him.
A simple, direct, and bold one.