Chapter 7

After the rather abrupt incident with Choi Min-Seok was over, Jin Do-Yoon soon returned to his daily routine, as he only took a day to recover from his wounds. It was thanks to the outstanding recovery that physical-reinforcement type players had.

Meanwhile, Jin Yu-Ri went to Yu-Seong, asking what she should do with the voice recording.

"Just keep it for now. It won’t be of any help if I brought it to my father. He’d probably mock me saying I’m just a useless kid whining to an adult for help because I can’t handle it myself.” Choi Yu-Seong responded.

If he was going to attack, then he had to do it perfectly, like thrusting a knife squarely into a chest.

"Plus, with just that, the punishment Choi Min-Seok would receive would only be a severe scolding. Although he isn't a beast, he'll become wild if he's cornered. So we’ll save the recording and collect more intelligence. The data we accumulate will become a sharp knife that will cut Choi Min-Seok's heart out when the time comes. Oh, and lastly, you don't have to ask these kinds of questions. Haven’t you already reached the same conclusion?"

Yu-Ri’s eyes sparkled at Yu-Seong's last remarks and nodded silently.

'He has definitely changed. He’s become extremely clever.'

In this current situation, Yu-Seong in the past would follow one of these two options. He either would have been delighted that he had Min-Seok’s weakness in his hand, in which case he would’ve run off to boast while tattling at the same time to Choi Woo-Jae, or he would’ve been too scared to do anything.

Recently, he seemed to have changed, and now he was even demonstrating keen insight. This was no simple coincidence.

'How much more are you planning on surprising me, young master... ?’

Except for resetting Yu-Ri's expectations of himself through these short conversations, Yu-Seong normally spent the majority of his day sleeping. Nevertheless, he didn't make the Jin siblings too nervous, as he occasionally woke up and ate.

But that was it. Yu-Seong didn't try to push himself. He also tried to forget all his concerns due to the fact that he woke up inside the novel.

'Adequate rest is important.'

A lot had happened after he had first woken up as Yu-Seong. He had to relieve the stress that accumulated from his recent busy days. If he only moved forward, it would be exhausting even for the stubborn Yu-Seong.

Three days passed like that.

After Yu-Seong finished the break he set for himself, he smiled peculiarly at the half-transparent window that floated in front of him.

『Name: Yu-Seong

Age: 20

Type: All-Rounder

Rank: E

Level: 1

Special Skills: Star Factor E, Fusion E

General Skills: Stylish F, Eye of Replication E

Current Inactivated Skill Slots: 5』

"Interesting."

To begin with, he became an all-rounder, one of the three types: Physical, Psychic, and All-rounder. The [Modern Master Returns] novel explained the All-rounder as a

'jack of all trades, master of none.'

After all, only one All-rounder was included in the world's top ten players. And even that player was ranked tenth.

Nevertheless, Yu-Seong wasn't disappointed. Hadn’t he originally considered it to be a success if he could even become an ordinary player? Setting his type aside, there actually were more positive aspects.

'Two special skills and two general skills.'

Super rookies that shocked the world usually had a minimum of seven initial skills. Yu-Seong seemed somewhat lacking compared to them, considering that he only had four. However, Yu-Seong clearly recognized the advantages of his status.

‘First off, I have two special skills.’

Even the greatest player in the world had only one special skill. It was natural considering that special skills were a literal representation of the uniqueness of a person. As such, although the special skill could develop or change, there was no player in the original novel that possessed two of them. Yu-Seong was the only one who had two special skills.

‘Star Factor and Fusion.’

This was extremely peculiar, as even the main character of the novel, Kim Do-Jin, only had one special skill.

Using his experience in his original world as an employee in a game company that designed the level system, Yu-Seong easily came up with a reason to comprehend the current situation.

'This is a unique phenomenon that triggered because I woke up in Yu-Seong’s body.’

As a result, the system of the Awakening identified two souls inside Yu-Seong. It was a bug, or to put it positively, a hidden piece. Perhaps that was why his pain during the Awakening was exceptionally terrible.

What had happened wasn’t entirely strange.

‘As expected, the [Modern Master Returns] has a lot of holes in its setting.’

Ever since Yu-Seong met Choi Woo-Jae, he acknowledged that there were a lot of settings in the [Modern Master Returns] novel, a mass-produced fantasy novel suggested by its cliche title, that misses important settings except for those surrounding its main character Kim Do-Jin.

Considering Yu-Seong woke up inside a world based on that novel, what he was going through wasn’t that strange.

“Haha…”

He couldn’t help but laugh. Although he was dumbfounded by the lack of plot consistency when he read the novel, that flaw ironically benefited him now.

The first benefit was that he had two special skills. There was a saying that one special skill was better than a hundred general ones. Special skills were

that

powerful. In addition, Yu-Seong clearly realized that this world had various ‘plot holes’.

‘I can obtain a lot of unexpected benefits if I use my skills well.’

Yu-Seong had earned both realistic assets and useful intelligence at the same time. He couldn’t help smiling in this evidently favorable condition.

Of course, he had to learn about the skills in detail in order to use that intelligence to its full potential. Fortunately, this was a field that the previous game designer Yu-Seong was most confident in.

‘Let’s start with Star Factor.’

『Special Skill: Star Factor E

The more people pay attention to the holder, the faster his growth level accelerates. Additional ability unlocked once the level of attention exceeds a certain number (0/100).

Current acceleration rate +0%』

Yu-Seong had confidently checked the explanation, but then a look of bewilderment flashed across his face.

‘Does… it wants me to be an attention seeker?’

Star Factor was a skill that could only grow if he cultivated attention-seeking behavior.

But why bother getting attention from someone? Considering that Yu-Seong had been rather busy just trying to survive in his original world, he had never thought of something like this. He was a bit dumbfounded, but besides that, the effect itself was terrific enough for it to be deemed as a special skill.

‘Since the original setting said that more experience points are required to level up as a player’s rank increases, this skill would be extraordinarily effective.’

Yu-Seong’s starting rank was E. Compared to normal players who started from rank F, he had an extremely good starting point. However, as mentioned before, rank wasn’t that important.

‘After all, I can always rank up once I reach the max level for the E rank.’

Of course, those who start with a higher rank tend to have better skill sets, but it wasn’t an uncrossable gap, and the Star Factor skill completely covered the shortcomings of a low starting rank and even provided additional potential for development.

‘As long as I can get a lot of attention.’

Yu-Seong’s eyes glistened. Didn’t he have a ton of ways to do that? In fact, he was in the perfect position for it. The ninth son of the Comet Group, the rascal child of a wealthy family. How could anyone dislike a topic like him?

Therefore, Yu-Seong received attention all the time anyway. There was no one better than him for journalists who hunted for gossip. In a way, Yu-Seong was practically already a celebrity. Now that he had the Star Factor skill, he could make very good use of it.

‘Although it’s a little embarrassing, it’s totally bearable for efficiency’s sake. Come to think of it, this special skill, Star Factor, really does fit Choi Yu-Seong.’

Was it because Yu-Seong had been shunned and berated at home since childhood?

Yu-Seong was exactly the type of person who longed for the attention of others like a child. He couldn’t remember ever wanting it before, since there were so many things going on, but now he realized that this was the reason why Yu-Seong had become such a rascal.

‘I’ll fulfill your dream of getting attention.’

He then moved on to the second special skill, Fusion. Yu-Seong’s eyes sparkled much more than when he read the Star Factor skill.

『Special Skill, Fusion E

Except for the user’s initial skills, it can fuse any two general skills into a new one. The features of the newly-created skill will change depending on the user’s luck. The skills used for fusion cannot be reused.

This skill provides five additional inactivated skill slots. Once this skill levels up to a higher rank, more slots become available. The user can freely delete or overwrite the skills listed in the inactivated skill slots that can be used for fusion.』

‘

So this means I have to manipulate what I’ve got to its fullest, huh?’

This skill possessed endless potential. For Yu-Seong, who designed the level system when he worked at the game company, this skill was perfectly suitable.

The downside, of course, was that this skill was useless by itself. But after he read all the details for the skills Stylish and Eye of Replication, the two general skills, Yu-Seong couldn’t hide his excitement.

‘My skill set is so solid!’

According to his plan, he could start right away.

How to survive in a novel with myself as the foolish villain:

Step two.

‘Become strong enough to endure this dangerous world.’

Yu-Seong jumped out of his seat and immediately headed out.

* * *

After Yu-Seong left his room, he posted a job recruitment notice.

[The first hundred players to demonstrate a skill below E rank will be paid one million won]

With this somewhat provocative phrase, Yu-Seong’s face was printed in the background of the notice. And this was advertised on the most popular forum site in Korea. Less than an hour later, provocative articles poured out from every media outlet about Yu-Seong’s job posting.

* Why did the ninth kid of the Choi family, Choi Yu-Seong, post such an absurd job ad?

* Yu-Seong, what are you up to this time?

* Yu-Seong—Full of money, mine to use.

* Now I’m a player! An Interview with Choi Yu-Seong?

It didn’t matter whether the articles were true or not.

What mattered was that Yu-Seong would pay the first hundred applicants one million won for simply demonstrating a skill below E rank, and that this provocative statement was posted in the main banner of the largest portal site.

As mentioned, Yu-Seong was as famous as a celebrity. It was just that his fame mostly came from hate, so he basically had more haters than fans. People couldn’t understand why Yu-Seong did this. Of course, the response wasn’t good.

- The fool that always drank and wreaked havoc is now putting on a show.

- An abrupt job recruitment? And the Comet Group let him do that?

- Isn’t that practically embezzlement, since that money would be coming out of the Comet Group accounts?

- But this really is a damn good opportunity. We don’t need to demonstrate combat skills, do we? It’s an easy one million won by simply showing any kind of skill.

┗ I already submitted the application form lol.

┗ Completely agreed.

┗ Nah, I don’t buy it. It’s probably a scam Yu-Seong doing stupid stuff.

┗ I can’t believe someone’s actually buying this.

- But is it real that Choi Yu-Seong became a player?

As Yu-Seong sat down and read the comments below the Internet articles, complicated emotions flashed across his face.

‘They say ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire,’ but that doesn’t seem to be true these days.’

Although he did post the job recruitment and paid a lot of money for advertisement, he had never met anyone or given any interviews. In other words, the articles that stated that he had become a player or embezzled company money were made up by reporters. But even though many people repeated the rumors about him, Yu-Seong didn’t care.

‘Well, I knew that I had a bad reputation anyway.’

He could change that little by little. Since Yu-Seong was born as an orphan and adapted to the rough modern society, his mentality was strong enough that he wasn’t affected by some hateful comments.

Instead, he focused on the half-transparent window in front of him.

『Special Skill, Star Factor E

The more people pay attention to the holder, the faster his growth level accelerates. Additional ability unlocked once the level of attention exceeds a certain number (20/100).

Current acceleration rate +30%』

The figure changed drastically in just one day.

‘The level of attention for the additional ability increased by 20 percent while the acceleration rate also increased by 30 percent. Sweet.’

Wasn’t this proof that he was the center of attention? Thus, to Yu-Seong it didn’t matter if others cursed or disparaged him. After all, the numbers in front of him were making him very happy.

‘I’m okay as long as the people aren’t ignoring me.’

There was a reason why celebrities said that anti-fans were also fans. On the other hand, the Jin siblings looked incredibly mad as they read the comments by his side.

“Young master, I can’t take it anymore. I’ll call the forum headquarters for the information of the users who commented, and sue them all.”

“Oppa, I’ll do it myself since you take too long with these kinds of things. I’m pissed off.”

“I’m alright so leave it as it is. You guys said you would trust me and leave everything to me.

Yu-Seong waved them off; he had his plans. Of course, since he was also human, he did prefer hearing compliments rather than curses.

‘It would be fun to gradually change the public’s perception of me.’

For that, he had to endure it for a while, even if he felt bad.

“I understand. Anyways, we already have over two hundred applicants. Should I only accept the first one hundred as the recruit stated?”

“No, just call in all two hundred.”

The more skills he saw, the better leveling graph he could create. There was no need to save money.

‘I already have a lot of money.’

Although the comments on the Internet speculated embezzlement or that he used his family’s money, the expenditures for this advertisement were funded solely from Yu-Seong’s own assets.

‘I never imagined Yu-Seong to be this rich.’

As he was checking his personal bank account to figure out how he should move forward with his plan, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

He had much more money than he thought he would have. It was unlikely that Choi Woo-Jae gave Yu-Seong this much allowance. There were so many zeros that he gave up counting them.

Yu-Seong must have gotten this money from somewhere. It was just that the original novel never explained where it came from.

‘I’ll have an answer soon since I told Jin Yu-Ri to figure it out.’

When he had asked why he had so much money, even the Jin siblings, who were his closest allies, had said that they didn't know about the money. Yu-Seong realized once again how much the original novel omitted important details.

Anyway, Yu-Seong was using the money well, and there was no reason for him to refrain from doing so.

“When should I tell them to come?”

At Yu-Ri’s question, Yu-Seong stood up and responded calmly.

“Tell them to come tomorrow.”

Why bother dragging this out? Those who couldn’t come because of their schedule would unfortunately be eliminated.

1. The Korean sentence used was ‘??? ??, ??? ??’ which could be directly translated as ‘Up to par at best, if not, a player with a ragbag of skills.’