Hyper Luck

“To think I had to deliver up here! I’ll barely make a profit!”

The middle-aged man complained. He was a new player that played <Circuit> for just over a month.

After getting fired from his previous job, he started this game as suggested by his friend.

He was a chauffeur for an item wagon in <Circuit>. It was a job anyone could start if they had 200 gold. The 200 gold was for the basic wagon.

After purchasing the wagon, they just had to deliver items all over the map.

Although it was more efficient to add “Floating stone” or “Mana Stone” that directly increased the performance of the wagon, it cost a pretty penny. 

Therefore, like this middle-aged man, many users purchased two four-legged beasts called “Lard” to pull their wagon.

Since as a chauffeur of an item wagon you could earn up to five to twenty gold on a good day, the wagon was their most treasured possession.

“Well, if I can deliver this item I could at least buy my son something nice.”

He said as he made his way up the toughest route on the “Wing-tail Mountain Range” for the first time in his life.

Since this route was further up north than his furthest trade route Toico, he had to be on edge.

“I’ve heard some wagons taking up the business to deliver these ‘hunters’ to their destination. Maybe I should look into that.”

After traveling alone for a long time, he gained a habit of talking to himself on the road. 

“Giddy up! This delivery is worth 8 gold!”

As they went up the route, suddenly one of the Lard made a sudden stop. Not able to withstand the sudden stop, the wagon tilted forward to the brink of flipping.

“W-Whoa!”

The surprised chauffeur got launched out of his wagon and stumbled across the ground.

After the sudden turn of events, the man ended up with little cuts all over his body after rolling on the floor.

“Ouch…”

Letting out a small groan, he got up to check on his luggage before his own body. It was since if there were any damages, he would have to pay the compensations.

“You bastards! Why’d you stop!”

After checking on the safety of his luggage, he staggered over to his Lards that stood still in front of the wagon.

The man noticed that his Lards were focused on something in the distance.

“What’s up there…?”

After looking in the same direction as the Lards, he couldn’t help but trip over.

“Wh…Whoa!”

With a pale face, he stumbled backward. There was a large carcass blocking the road ahead of him.

Soon, the carcass turned into black smoke and turned into a single circular orb.

Which could only mean that the beast was slain by a user. The middle-aged man stood up slowly.

“My word…”

Behind the smoke was a user. The chauffeur quickly checked his surroundings for any of his party members.

He couldn’t believe that he slew that huge beast alone.

Though his armor was covered in blood, he could tell in an instant that he was wearing expensive armor.

Suddenly, the user threw his sword up in the air.

Noticing how the user was whispering something, the chauffeur leaned forward to listen in.

“Sharma.”

Suddenly, the floating sword turned into smoke and got sucked into the user’s right arm.

The chauffeur couldn’t believe his eyes.

Staring at the user with a helmet that covered his face, the chauffeur assumed he was a male based on his voice. 

Soon, the user who just showcased unprecedented skill walked over to the chauffeur.

Threatened by his anonymity, the middle-aged man slowly walked in the opposite direction of the user.

Not too long after,

The middle-aged man had gotten a notification.

He accidentally yelled out loud.

“Par…Party Request?”

“Sorry. It seems you’ve gotten injured because of me.”

Listening in on the young voice within the helmet, the middle-aged man felt relieved.

“Whew, You’re not part of the <Dark> guild or the likes right…?”

***

***

“Status screen.”

[Lee Ki-Ho]

[Nickname: Mose]

Class: Adventurer

Lv: 21

Vitality: 810 / 810

Mana: 60 / 60

Strength: 27

Health: 26

Speed: 19

Intelligence: 16

Abilities:

[Polorun’s Star] – Health regeneration per second +101

[Polorun’s Star] – Health regeneration in party + 43 (Form: Aura, Max range 250M)

Contract Magic – Sharma

My status was starting to look nice. I’ve also somewhat gotten used to summoning Sharma.

In <Circuit> time, it’s already been three days since I’ve left Toico.

During that time, I’ve only logged off twice, both times to head to the bathroom.

The regret from spending such an amount back in Toico still haunts me.

But the quality of the armor was reciprocal of its high price. Though only two parts of the armor were magic-grade, the defense boost given by steel as its material was not irrefutable.

Or so I believed.

Although quite sturdy, this armor was more like an artsy “Collectible”.

There are often clothes that look adequate during fashion week that cost thousands of dollars. This armor was one of them.

Thinking like that, I felt depressed again.

“Anyhow, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a user that explored alone in this area?”

As I pondered deeply about my purchase, the middle-aged man talked to me with a pleasant smile.

“You’re one heck of a user aren’t you? I just partied up with you and all my injuries were instantly healed!”

The middle-aged man showed great interest in me as I borrowed a seat in his carriage.

To be fair, I would’ve been surprised too if I was healed immediately like that.

“I’ll pay for the damaged clothes when we arrive.”

He was a victim of my doing. To think that he was crossing the narrow path just as I was defeating the Grona. It could’ve broken his carriage.

But rather than venting his anger to me, he even gave me a ride. He noticed I was walking all this time from the dirt accumulated on my greaves.

“Haha, clean clothes are good! I’m not the type to refuse these kinds of things!”

He gave me a cheerful laugh.

“So you’ve walked across all this time?”

“Unfortunately so.”

After looking back at me, he asked.

“Don’t you use things like scrolls? Recently, users have been summoning mounts using the scrolls.”

“Due to implications, I can’t visit major cities.”

There was no reason for me to be acting rambunctious in front of other users.

Though it might’ve been different if this was a normal video game, this was Circuit, which meant that the emotions and sentiment people had were more vivid in this virtual reality world.

To quote a villain from a comic, “You get five people together, one of them is always the reject”. There’s no reason for me to be the center of that attention.

It was easier dealing with the NPCs. At least they communicate with me, excluded from the confinements of the game.

“We’ve arrived!”

The middle-aged man notified me. I turned my attention back to him.

“Thank you for letting me on.”

“Haha, it’s thanks to you we’ve gotten here safely!”

“Excuse me?”

The middle-aged man got off the carriage and smiled at me.

“I was worried about getting attacked by a monster or thieves. It was a huge relief to have you at the back!”

He laughed wholeheartedly as he started unpacking his luggage. Looking at the man, I approached him.

“Umm…”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“I think I should at least pay for your clothes. What about meeting up at the town square after two hours?”

“Haha! Ok! Ok! I’ll find you!”

After letting out what I’ve been holding in, I finally felt relieved. Like that, I went towards the town entrance.

<Silver Valley>

The town was called Silver Valley. The size was way smaller compared to Ramzbush, but the buildings were more modern and polished. It gave me the impression this was a well-developed city.

However, the colorful brick path gave me a little headache.

The first place I visited was the forge.

I had to clean my armor from all the dirt and blood. Since impurities on items reduced their durability, I had to regularly mend them.

Only if I had magic that could control water or fire, I didn’t have to visit the forge like this every time.

After I scrubbed my armor clean, I left the forge.

Although the armor felt uncomfortable in the beginning, I’ve already adjusted to the armor to the point where it felt weird without it equipped.

“Whoa! A knight!”

After exiting the forge, a little body came running towards me with a little stick on his waist.

The boy pulled out his stick and gave me a salutation.

“Salute! Bow!”

Feeling soft from his pureness, I gave him a salute back. Then, the boy’s eyes started to glitter.

“W-Whoa…! Hey, Guys!!”

Soon, he bolted towards his friends to brag.

Sometimes, when these events occur, I can’t believe this world is virtual reality.

This feeling of being part of this world always left an uneasy taste afterward.

I moved my steps towards the town square.

My party with the middle-aged man hasn’t been disbanded. Therefore, I could check his status through my interface.

That’s where the change happened.

His health bar has started to reduce.

I moved quickly.

I could witness the crowd that gathered around the town square.

In the middle of it all,

There was a teen that was hauling his fists at the middle-aged man.

There was no time to analyze the situation. After anchoring my feet to gather maximum strength, I leaped towards the center with amazing speed.

Bam!