AECS 12

Chapter 12

Breaking Achievement Records (2)

The player headquarters’ exclusive training ground was located in Yongsan National Park.

Originally, it had been a base for the U.S. military stationed in Korea, but the headquarters had purchased part of the area for their own use.

“Phew.”

At sunset, with the yellowish sunlight spilling over, Park Chang-seok let out an excited sigh.

And in front of him—

“Sir.”

“What’s this sudden gathering at quitting time?”

“I’m present!”

A few players greeted him.

There were ten in total, all affiliated with the headquarters and trusted followers of Park Chang-seok.

People who wouldn’t leak information even if he shared strategies.

Park Chang-seok smiled faintly.

“I called you all here for an experiment.”

It was still before Tuesday had passed.

He had hurriedly assembled them because waiting a whole week might have been too long.

“An experiment?”

“What kind of experiment?”

“…Oh, now that sounds interesting.”

If another lawmaker had called them, they’d have scowled and complained.

But Park Chang-seok was different.

He never summoned them like this unless it was important.

All of them looked at him with expectant faces.

“Are you aware that the low-level Tuesday Dungeon record was recently broken?”

“Oh, that.”

“Yes, we saw it.”

“Wasn’t it Baek Jin-woo?”

“Didn’t an announcement go up? They said not to discuss it. What’s up with that? He’s not even a ranked player.”

They were players who were seriously sensitive to information.

Even though it happened today, they knew all the details.

This made it even more satisfying to share a strategy with them.

“I obtained that strategy from overseas. We tested it with a player named Baek Jin-woo, and it yielded quite meaningful results.”

This was part of the promise made with Baek Jin-woo.

They were not to reveal that the information came from him.

“R-Really?”

“So that’s why you kept insisting we don’t spread it!”

“Where did you even get this information?”

The players began to get excited.

They knew why they were called here!

It was to share that strategy!

“Awesome.”

“As expected of Park Chang-seok!”

“He never calls us for trivial things.”

Seeing the players’ eyes sparkle, Park Chang-seok slowly began to speak.

There’s a B-rank summon called the “Spotted Komodo.”

It’s a man-sized lizard, sturdy and capable of dealing damage—essentially a DPS-tank hybrid.

However—

Being B-rank, it wasn’t easy to raise, and compared to other B-ranks, both its damage and tanking were somewhat lacking, so it wasn’t widely used.

It was a bit of a “chicken rib.”

For a monster with only a 1% chance to appear from a high-rank summoning scroll, its cost-effectiveness was poor.

So it was usually abandoned… until Genos, one of the Five Emperors, found a use for it.

[Genos: You know what a stock is?]

[Genos: Giant slimes. He goes crazy over them. Just watching him devour that huge thing—it’s insane.]

The key point: he only freaks out over giant slimes!

With a brilliant idea in mind, Genos released the Spotted Komodo at the start of the Tuesday Dungeon.

Then—

The Komodo marched through the maze at incredible speed!

It found its own way and immediately devoured the giant slime with a gulp, gulp, gulp.

[Genos: Amazing!]

[Genos: We can just let it run in circles, no need to control it. Leave it in the dungeon while I smoke a cigarette, and it’s cleared, lol.]

This method of Komodo hunting became popular around the fifth year.

Of course, very few knew this information: just the One Thousand and Five Emperors and their close associates.

Even Baek Jin-woo didn’t need it back then, since he had memorized the maze patterns.

Anyway, Baek Jin-woo revealed this information to Park Chang-seok.

Park Chang-seok shared it with the players.

“…What is it?”

“Just… if you release a Spotted Komodo, it clears the dungeon on its own.”

“That’s too simple. Are you sure?”

Park Chang-seok had procured a fairly expensive Spotted Komodo from the marketplace.

Now they could break achievement records with it.

“Now, we’ll move to the dungeon, but you need precise control. The current clear time is exactly 5 minutes 32 seconds, so we need to cut it to 5:31. If we overshoot, we can retry.”

“Ah, got it.”

The players swallowed nervously and nodded.

[Tuesday Dungeon – Low Level]
[Domestic Record #1 – Park Chun-sik]
[Clear Time – 00:05:31]

“It’s real!”

Park Chun-sik, flushed with excitement after leaving the dungeon, trembled uncontrollably.

“This is revolutionary, a revolution!”

“My character barely did anything!”

“Around 3 minutes 30 seconds, I reached the boss room and tried to stop the slime from being eaten, but besides that, it was really easy. I didn’t do much!”

[Tuesday Dungeon – Low Level]
[Domestic Record #1 – Lee Dong-myung]
[Clear Time – 00:05:29]

“Ugh! Sorry, I should have delayed just 1 second, but I accidentally delayed 2… this Komodo! Its gluttony is insane! It’s like a Bichon Frise staring at food.”

One by one, players continued to break records.

[Tuesday Dungeon – Mid Level]
[Domestic Record #1 – Park Chun-sik]
[Clear Time – 00:08:30]

“Wow, mid-level can be cleared in 3 minutes too! I intentionally delayed just 1 second from the original record.”

“Ha, no need to worry about refinement items now!”

“If we tune its movement speed rune, can we attempt a world record?”

It was literally a festival—an achievement festival.

Players who had never received achievements were gathered, given the Spotted Komodo, then cleared the achievements and shared the rewards.

The headquarters gave 2 high-rank summoning scrolls, and the players received 1.

Even with just that, there were more than enough volunteers.

“Crazy.”

At that moment, the most excited person was none other than Park Chang-seok.

Was it just about clearing achievements?

No. The more important reason was Baek Jin-woo.

“Baek Jin-woo is Korea’s hope.”

It was now certain.

Not just a first-year gamer?

No. This person had far more value.

He clenched his fist.

“No good.”

He took a deep breath to calm his excitement.

“I’ll create a dedicated team for Baek Jin-woo.”

As mentioned earlier, they only needed to secure one thing.

“Naturalization!”

They had to somehow bind him to Korea.

Then perhaps Korea could follow the Five Summoner Powers someday.

First—

“Secretary.”

Park Chang-seok called and issued an order.

• Yes, sir.

“The thing I mentioned earlier. Start it immediately.”

• You mean 150 million won and 10,000 low-rank summoning scrolls, right?

“Yes.”

Baek Jin-woo had kept his promise.

Now it was his turn to keep it.

[Account Details]
[Account Holder: Baek Jin-woo]
[Premium Account]
[Available Withdrawal Amount: 167,004,500 won]

“Whoa.”

Payment for selling three high-rank summoning scrolls: 9 million won, reward: 5 million won, and 150 million won more.

“Is making money this easy?”

He felt a slight existential pang.

Labor income suddenly felt incredibly light.

Moreover—

[Owned Summoning Scrolls]

1. Low-rank Summoning Scroll x 10,000

An employee came over and loaded all 10,000 into his inventory.

Now what remained?

Tear open the summoning scrolls endlessly!

He had promised not to resell, so he could only summon.

Baek Jin-woo moved to a quiet, empty field.

At the same time, he summoned the Wind Fairy.

• Lamba! Deh-jaaang!

“Lamba.”

• Woof!

“Let’s begin the summoning ritual.”

• Okay! Wash hands and pray, right?!

“That’s right.”

Baek Jin-woo opened a bottled water and poured it.

Sprinkle.

Lamba eagerly rubbed its hands in the flowing water.

• Please let us summon something good!

This was something Baek Jin-woo had done purely back when he was a middle schooler ten years ago.

Lamba, an extremely advanced AI (not just a simple AI in hindsight), followed along enthusiastically.

• Please, Jin-woo! Let’s get a good summon!

“Done. Now tear!”

Swoosh!

[Using Low-Rank Summoning Scroll!]
[Player ‘Baek Jin-woo’ has obtained Summon ‘Blue Dragonfly’ (F-rank)!]

Swoosh!

[Using Low-Rank Summoning Scroll!]
[Player ‘Baek Jin-woo’ has obtained Summon ‘Horned Caterpillar’ (F-rank)!]

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

From now on, it was infinite grinding.

Acquired summons piled up in the ethereal storage, to be collected later at the “Fusion Hall.”

“Ugh, ugh.”

He had just opened 3,600 scrolls.

It took an hour.

One scroll per second, nonstop.

“Damn it, I can’t do this. Let’s take a break.”

If he had received 50,000 scrolls, it would’ve been disastrous.

“And why aren’t these coming out?”

The trainer (E-rank), the Dragon Sorcerer (D-rank)…

They weren’t appearing as much as expected.

If he had bought all these scrolls, it would’ve been a huge problem.

Still, seeing 35 D-rank and 182 E-rank summons… roughly matches the probability.

D-rank summons were abundant and cheap, only C-rank and higher were valuable.

• You fool.

“Huh?”

• Do you think it would be that easy? These aren’t just E or D, these are EX-rank.

“Why? You got yours on the first try.”

• That was pure luck! To get them normally, 10,000 or even 100,000 scrolls wouldn’t be enough.

“…?”

Watching quietly, Lamba exhaled and began to explain.

• Do you know how the summoning system works?

“How?”

He had no idea.

Even Baek Jin-woo, with his vast knowledge, only knew it from a player perspective.

Back in “Battle of Summoners,” players couldn’t even communicate with summons.

• Normally, there are only as many summons as 10% of the total players. That Horned Caterpillar you got? It used to be just a few hundred, but now there are over 800 million.

“…Huh?”

Ah.

The world population is about 8.1 billion, right?

• But the important part is, we’re quarantined, so there’s only one.

“…What?”

• I don’t know the cause either, but the only person who can summon a quarantined one is you. That’s why only a single entity remains. Or maybe the god who made us quarantined us but didn’t want to waste us, so preserved just one. Headache…

“Ha…”

If that assumption was correct, the situation was serious.

Baek Jin-woo knew there were tens of thousands of types of summons…

…and if each type had 800 million copies, and he had to summon a single EX-rank by chance?

Even winning the lottery multiple times in a row would be easier.

• But don’t worry too much. Sold summons won’t appear again. If all 800 million Horned Caterpillars are summoned, no matter how many scrolls you tear, you won’t get another.

“That’s still tough.”

• Right.

“Ha, maybe I should switch to mid-level scrolls?”

Impossible.

Mid-level scrolls cost 500,000 each, and aren’t widely available.

There are limits.

“Eh, whatever.”

He just kept tearing scrolls.

Eventually, something would appear.

Lamba believed that other summons would pull through just like it had, beating the odds.

Swoosh, swoosh!

After a short break, Baek Jin-woo resumed tearing scrolls diligently.