Chapter 12

This teammate's job was rated exceptionally well, but the person was likely to be too afraid to use it to its full potential.

Overall, it was likely to be in such a way that first place would be a tall order.

Mok Jae-Hyeon was Jin-Hyeok's ideal teammate.

At least, that was Jin-Hyeok's impression at the time.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

As soon as Mok Jae-Hyeon completed his Awakening as a Wood King, Jin-Hyeok was hit with a series of notifications as if they had been waiting for him all along.

[You have unlocked the Major Achievement 'Completion of Tutorial'.]

When Jin-Hyeok selected the underlined part, the details of the conditions he fulfilled to unlock the Achievement were revealed—and those conditions were as sickeningly complicated as they came.

1. Acquire the Achievement 'Lord of the Tutorial'.

2. Acquire the Achievement 'Exorcism'.

3. Clear the Hidden Quest 'Survive the Subway Platform'.

4. Yield the 'Great Hero' Job to someone else.

5. In triggering the 'Great Hero' reward, have 0 dead Players.

'Now that it's done, I see that it was an extremely difficult set of conditions to satisfy.'

It was no wonder that Jin-Hyeok had not heard of any information regarding this Achievement prior to his regression—it may very well have been that not a single person was actually able to satisfy all these conditions in his previous lifetime.

[Would you like to register your Major Achievement in the Hall of Fame?]

The Hall of Fame—now, that was a name he haven't heard in a while.

Jin-Hyeok had accumulated fourteen of these Major Achievements in his previous life. That, too, was only if the ones he earned solely on his own were counted; the total was far higher if the Major Achievements he earned while playing with others were included.

'No.'

Jin-Hyeok no longer desired fame and glory.

There was no point in putting his name on that list; it was literally just for 'fame,' as the name suggested. No matter how seriously he took it, this kind of celebrity was going to be as meaningless to him as dust in the wind.

Rather, registering his name in the Hall of Fame would only make things more difficult for him. 

It would imply that he would become the target of hunters from all over the world—possibly even hunters from other dimensions—and that he would be forced to participate in major events against his will.

[Are you sure you want to forego registering this Major Achievement?]

'Yes.'

Jin-Hyeok declined without a trace of regret.

Jin-Hyeok was given another reward after losing the Great Hero Job transfer opportunity and declining to register the Major Achievement.

'Wow... as expected of the Tutorial's generosity. Unlike every other time afterward.'

Jin-Hyeok was reminded that he was in a Tutorial Field, which was known for its friendliness toward the Players.

[One of your Traits will be strengthened at random.]

[The Trait 'Broadcaster's Truesight' is strengthened.]

The Skill's name remained unchanged. In fact, Jin-Hyeok couldn't tell what had changed about the Skill at first glance.

That was something he would discover later. For the time being, Jin-Hyeok simply kept the fact that it had changed in mind and moved on.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Egan Paul's POV

Egan Paul was now certain that his decision was correct.

It was a blessing that he had chosen to abandon his Eltube channel, which had 20 million subscribers, and start over in this new System.

'A new era is upon us.'

Egan Paul was one of those people who was adjusting to the changing times better than anyone else—and he was certain of it.

He was currently gathering information about other Players who had Awakened as Streamers, using his enormous fortune as a launchpad.

"Some viewers with registered accounts purchased a VIP package and requested a VIP-only chat with me," Egan told Joseph at the time.

"Is that so?" Joseph responded.

Joseph, Egan Paul's manager and friend, seemed unconcerned about Egan's remarks. He still didn't understand why Egan was concentrating all of his efforts on such a strange platform.

"I'm not sure about the details, but whatever VIP package they purchased required a lot of Dias. You know, I'm the first Streamer in the world to get this kind of request," Egan explained.

"Wow, I guess that's something."

"Right?"

"So, what is the Mission all about?"

Egan Paul had received notification from a VIP that there was a new Mission.

"Have you been to South Korea, Joseph?"

"What about South Korea? What about it?"

"I need to look for someone there."

"Who?" Joseph asked, growing concerned about this whole Mission thing.

"I don't know any personal details," answered Egan.

"...So you're telling me you need to find a Korean with no identifiable information in Korea?"

"Find that person for me," Egan stated bluntly, "that's what friends are for, right?"

"Friends, my @ss. If you ask me to do something like that, I'm going to sue ya."

"I'll give you ten thousand dollars as compensation for your work."

"You can count on me, bro."

Egan was a wonderful friend to Joseph.

While that was fine and dandy, the fact remained that he still required a bare minimum of information in order to go about finding a specific Korean in Korea.

"Of course, I've got a lead," Egan assured, "The person you're gonna be looking for is a Streamer who's mainly sticking around an area called Seoul Station Field. I heard he only streams in first-person view. He should be playing with another Player with abilities that use wood."

"Why are you looking for him?" asked Joseph.

"That's precisely the Mission. There are 10 thousand Dias on the line here."

"How much is that in dollars?"

"Ten thousand."

Joseph's jaw dropped.

He always hang out with Paul since they were kids, and he was certain he knew Paul better than anyone else.

That was how he knew Paul was thrilled with the Mission at the time.

"You're getting worked up over that? So, let me get this straight: you'd pay me ten thousand dollars to complete a ten thousand dollar mission? Where is the money?" Joseph yelled.

"Only about five of the people who watch my stream have purchased VIP packages. However, it appears that more than ten people have purchased VIP packages for that broadcast," Egan explained.

It was, admittedly, a setback for Egan's ego. If this Streamer was able to grow so quickly in such a short amount of time, there was no doubt that it was someone with a lot of experience in this field.

"Yet he turned down his VIP chat requests. Not only that, but he completely disabled general chat on his stream. VIPs are clamoring to speak with him," Egan added.

In Egan's opinion, these were the actions of a complete lunatic.

Who in their right mind would cut off all communication with their viewers? The move simply did not make any sense.

"Even so, he appears to have more viewers than me. I have to figure out who he is."

"How many do you have now?" Joseph asked.

"Bout to reach 2600 in a bit."

"And how many is the fake public number?"

"I've still got the x3 multiplier applied."

"So it's showing as 7,800?"

"Yup."

Joseph stroked his chin.

"If he's the type of Player that VIPs want to interact with—giving you a Mission and all that—wouldn't he be the type of person to be ranked first, or close to it, in Korea? He might be easier to reach than we think."

"He's not a ranker," Egan said, putting an end to that train of thought. "There's no doubt that he has some sort of incredible secret or charismatic sauce to be so popular. Please find him for me," Egan asked Joseph earnestly.

Joseph eventually boarded a plane bound for South Korea.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Jin-Hyeok realized he could gather much more information from the upgraded Broadcaster's Truesight after testing it by looking at Mok Jae-Hyeon.

'Wow, I can see so many different things.'

[#vague adoration #taken a liking, plain as day #met my hero]

Jin-Hyeok was taken aback by the high-pitched nature of Mok Jae-Hyeon's emotions towards him. Jin-Hyeok had done nothing more than try to have fun while playing.

"Can I be as strong as you, hyung?" Jae-Hyeon asked.

"Yes. You will undoubtedly grow stronger than me."

[#greatly assured #yearning for strength]

Many thoughts and emotions were interpreted and relayed to Jin-Hyeok in real time—perhaps a little too much, including information he didn't need to know.

Jin-Hyeok was also getting tired because the upgraded Trait was consuming more of his Focus.

'Ah, I can control the sensitivity of this.'

Jin-Hyeok opened the settings window and lowered the sensitivity of what Broadcaster's Truesight detected to its original level.

That was much better—it wasn't as suffocating as it was awhile ago.

"Thank you," Mok Jae-Hyeon said. Then, after a brief pause, he added, "Really?"

"Of course," said Jin-Hyeok.

Why would Jin-Hyeok have any reason to disagree? He was not a fighter class Job, and Mok Jae-Hyeon was.

However, the more Jin-Hyeok interacted with Jae-Hyeon, it became clear that he was a much more sensitive individual than Jin-Hyeok. Without any additional input from Jin-Hyeok, those few words were enough to move the teenager, and he was choking back his tears.

"No one ever said the sort of things to me that you do, hyung."

When they returned to the first floor, they noticed that there were more people in the Tutorial Field than before.

As time passed, the number of people who had experienced Awakening grew steadily, and knowledge of the Tutorial Fields' existence spread as well.

"Hey, those kids are wearing the same school uniform as you," Jin-Hyeok intervened.

"…"

Mok Jae-Hyeon started to tremble a bit.

With just that, Jin-Hyeok was able to figure out who they were. They were most likely the ones who scared Mok Jae-Hyeon into accompanying them to this location.

They were three in number.

Jin-Hyeok kindly introduced them to his viewers.

"I don't know their names, so I will be calling them the Three Little Piggies."

Mok Jae-Hyeon was noticed by one of them, a man with a shaved head and a large body.

"Hey, for f*ck's sake, didn't I tell you to contact me right away? Was what I said to you a f*cking joke?"

"Ya! Mok Jae, you son of a b!tch! Why did you come back here without telling us? Looks like this jerk is no longer afraid of us."

"Did you want your @ss beaten up some more, you sh!t-for-brains? Is that it, you want to fight back right now?"

They continued to cackle together enjoying themselves in a way that Jin-Hyeok couldn't understand, their language filled with vulgarity.

Jin-Hyeok simply went on his business, continuing his commentary.

"These students don't seem to consider the possibility that Mok Jae-Hyeon could have survived courageously and returned," Jin-Hyeok went on to say.

They assumed that Mok Jae-Hyeon had also been killed, but had escaped after regenerating and returning to the Field.

Mok Jae-Hyeon was approached by the Bald Piggy, who poked him on the forehead with a finger.

"Where have you gone instead of returning home?"

"...Y-you came to my house?"

"You motherf*cker. You did not answer any of my call, so this is your fault. You're supposed to be the group's f*cking tank. What are we supposed to do if you ran away like a p*ssy?"

"I already asked you not to come to my place." Mok Jae-Hyeon said.

According to Mok Jae-Hyeon, he was raised by his grandmother. Most likely, only his frail, elderly grandmother was at home.

"This sh!t has decided to start talking back now, huh?"

"Man, has he really lost it now?"

"Little b!tch is forgetting his place."

The Bald Piggy kept poking Mok Jae-Hyeon on the forehead.

"Oh, you didn't even call your old hag, did you?After all, it appears that you were scared sh!tless after all, ha... You f*cking p*ssy."

Jin-Hyeok continued to commentate.

"Hmm, there's a high probability that these students barged into the grandma's place and acted quite rudely."