The Veteran Player Already Knows

Chapter 6 - Guild (2)

[Kim Gyu-sik]

[Lv.1]

[ Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Durability: 1

Stamina: 1

Luck: 1

Magic: 1 ]

“Hmm.”

There was some time to kill before the train arrived, so my intention was to take a closer look at my status, but.

I couldn't help but feel dizzy every time I looked at this status window.

I was a bug character who could learn skills from any class in a complex way, and I had already proven a fraction of that power in the graduation exam, but.

With stats this low, it was no exaggeration to say that I had no base at all to make such a talent bloom.

Fortunately, there was a device that could compensate for this to some extent right now.

There was the most representative way to raise stats in a game, wasn't there?

Leveling up.

‘First...’

I opened the quest tab in the status window.

Quests that couldn't be undertaken yet were all grayed out, but among them, there was one item shining in gold.

It was the main quest I had cleared in the graduation exam.

I tapped it to receive all the rewards at once.

Not only the ‘Guardian Angel’ buff I had my eye on, but also the experience points that naturally came with quests were received together.

[Kim Gyu-sik]

[Lv.1 → Lv.3

Stat Points +4

Skill Points +2

All status ailments are cured.]

Good.

For now, just having the Guardian Angel buff would allow me to handle emergency situations one way or another.

With this many stat points, I could raise at least one stat to the standard of an ordinary person.

Above all, the 2 skill points I hadn't used yet and the 2 new skill points I got this time.

If I invested all of this, the skills I could learn were quite useful in the early stages.

“...”

Hmm.

But, what were the levels of the other guys?

At the thought that suddenly came to mind, I glared at Seo Ah-in, who was sleeping soundly in front of me.

[Scan the target individual? Y/N]

Ah.

Come to think of it, there was that too.

It was a function that automatically activated when I got closer than a certain distance to a target, and the opponent had no hostile intent.

First, I tried scanning Seo Ah-in as a test.

[Seo Ah-in]

[ Strength: 60 (During combat with demonic beasts -40)

Agility: 52 (During combat with demonic beasts -40)

Durability: 50 (During combat with demonic beasts -40)

Stamina: 48 (During combat with demonic beasts -40)

Luck: 2

Magic: 60 ]

“...”

For a cadet who had never experienced a real battle, it was an unbelievable spec.

Considering that the standard for an ordinary person was around 3, and a climber with some experience hovered around 10-15, these were stats on par with a somewhat skilled climber.

What on earth were these eye-popping numbers?

The 60 points in magic, in particular, were enough to make me laugh in disbelief.

“...”

The debuff attached at the back was a bit concerning.

But that wasn't something to worry about right now.

‘Hmm?’

But why doesn't she have a level?

Could it be a bug?

As a test, I went to Yoo Ho-jun in the other cabin.

“What's with you staring at a person like that.”

“Shut up and stay still.”

[Yoo Ho-jun]

[ Strength: 3

Agility: 3

Durability: 3

Stamina: 3

Luck: 3

Magic: 3 ]

“You're really like trash...”

“...Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden?”

I ignored him and came out of the cabin.

This guy didn't have a level either.

While I was at it, I tried to scan every person I encountered on the train, but none of them had a level.

“...”

Wait.

Could it be.

‘Am I the only one with the concept of a level?’

At the same time as that conclusion hit my head.

I barely suppressed the laughter that was about to erupt from the pit of my stomach.

If that was true.

“...This is a cheat, isn't it?”

I could learn skills that took others a long time to master in an instant, just by investing points.

I wasn't restricted by the type of skills I could learn either.

On top of that, the supply of such skill points could be quickly obtained through leveling up, which others couldn't do.

“...”

If that was the case.

There was only one thing for me to say.

“All hail bugs. All hail monopolies.”

I'm sorry for cursing at you all this time, Gyu-sik.

***

Guild.

If you were to ask what was the most influential type of group in the world since the appearance of the tower, nine out of ten would name them.

Because the benefits obtained by conquering the tower had brought about a massive paradigm shift in all previously existing fields.

Very simply, the phenomenon of petroleum, the resource that had dominated the entire world, being replaced by magic stones from the tower was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Then, it was only natural for the laws of the world to be naturally re-established.

A climber who extracted resources from the tower was a walking treasure in and of themselves.

And the guilds where such climbers gathered were also the most powerful and prestigious groups in the entire world.

“...”

So.

The fact that Seo Ah-in next to me was having her mental state thoroughly shattered was also one of those contexts.

“This is a guild...?”

Anyone who has been to a gosi-chon would be able to easily understand the scene before their eyes.

Shabby buildings packed together without any breathing room. The sight of people moving as if being chased by something, and the chronic fatigue that was commonly present on their faces.

Yes.

Anyone could see that these were people worn down by the hardships of life.

Looking at the equipment they were wearing, they were clearly climbers, though.

“H-how can a guild be this...”

I guessed the words that would follow Seo Ah-in's trailing sentence.

Small. Shabby. Etc.

From her perspective, it was a shocking sight.

“Compared to the guild your dad runs, it's definitely the size of a booger, isn't it?”

She flinched.

Ignoring her gaze that asked how on earth I knew such a thing, I took the lead and walked forward.

“Let's register first.”

“The structure here is quite complicated, do you know the way? It would be better to ask the people around…”

“They probably wouldn't know even if we asked.”

A look of bewilderment appeared on Seo Ah-in's face.

“What? How can they not know the internal structure of their own guild...”

“What are you talking about?”

Just as I used the gosi-chon as an analogy a moment ago.

This place was often called the ‘Guild Village’.

In other words.

“There are over dozens of guilds concentrated here.”

“...What?”

Seo Ah-in looked around with a dumbfounded face.

Well, from her perspective, the image of a ‘guild’ was probably fixed in her head as something magnificent and splendid.

The fact that all the buildings here combined wouldn't even qualify as a villa by her standards, and that this was shared by not just one guild but several, seemed to have genuinely shocked her.

“As expected of a bourgeois…”

What are you going to do if you're already surprised.

What comes next is even more shocking.

“...”

A short while later, Seo Ah-in stared at the scene before her, completely at a loss for words.

The sight of a single cardboard box placed in a dusty warehouse was the epitome of pathetic.

Well.

If any guild were to present this as a ‘chair’ in an orientation venue, it was clear that not just this girl, but anyone would be in this state.

“It's cleaner than I thought?”

Correction. This guy wasn't.

Yoo Ho-jun scratched his head and looked around.

Since the setting was that he had lived in a slum for a long time, he was seen taking this level of shabbiness in stride.

As he naturally sat down on a cardboard box, Seo Ah-in stuttered and opened her mouth.

“...Is, is this a hidden camera? No matter what, it's a guild, isn't it? The money they earn must be no small amount...”

“That's because the money that goes out is no small amount either.”

I smirked and pushed a cardboard box towards her.

“Equipment for climbers, membership fees to the guild association, other labor costs, and taxes levied on guilds... just this much is enough to break the back of a small to medium-sized guild.”

When that happens, the first things to have their budgets cut are naturally the parts that are not needed for practical work.

The guild building was a place that was hard to see as a high priority in that respect.

Although, there weren't many places as pathetic as this.

“This is... a dream...”

Ignoring Seo Ah-in, who was clutching her head and slumping down as if her mental state was completely shattered, I looked around.

Although it was clearly a shabby warehouse, in my view, there were some interesting things.

The cardboard box we were sitting on was one of them.

On the outside, it was useless trash, but the label of the company ‘Cheonghae Logistics’ on this cardboard box was quite noticeable.

It wasn't a company with a high name value right now, but it was a place that would later grow into one of the world's leading distribution companies exclusively for climbers.

Also, besides Cheonghae Logistics, the labels of companies that would become famous in the future caught my eye in various places in the warehouse.

The guild master of Renegade was a quite capable person, so he was someone who would always form connections with any group that had growth potential.

‘And if I look closely...’

The warehouse was littered with junk that was just thrown around, but among them, the equipment used by climbers were all quite well-maintained items.

Among them, there were also some high-grade items mixed in, even if they looked old and worn out.

The conclusion that could be drawn from these facts was quite simple.

‘A group that only cares about substance.’

This guild didn't care about anything other than doing the work of a climber.

They were squeezing their money to the point where the guild building looked like an abandoned warehouse, and investing it only in practical work.

And they were doing that while somehow forming connections with promising groups that would grow in the future.

To others, it might look like a guild that was so bankrupt that it couldn't even make a peep, but from my perspective, it looked like a honey pot that would soon be filled with gold.

“Oh, what's this? Newbies?”

And as I was sitting in the warehouse thinking such thoughts, someone burst in through the door.

He was a middle-aged man whose bushy beard and shabby suit caught my eye first.

“Hello. We are cadets who came to register for the guild.”

While Seo Ah-in, whose mental state was completely gone and was just clutching her face, stayed still, Yoo Ho-jun, who had a relatively good social sense, stood up and bowed his head.

At that sight, the man scratched his head and opened his mouth.

“Yeah. Are you preparing for orientation?”

“Yes. That's right.”

“Sorry, but there's no time for that. You guys have to go to work right away.”

“...What?”

Yoo Ho-jun's eyes widened at what the man said calmly.

“You can tell by looking at our situation. We don't have the luxury of teaching newbies. We have to earn a little more just to maintain this. Let's learn the details while we work.”

“...Don't be ridiculous!”

Seo Ah-in, who had been silent, snapped her head up.

“I can't even understand why I came to a place like this! But as a guild, you should at least observe the proper etiquette towards cadets! At the very least, if you're a trash guild, you should introduce yourselves properly-!”

The enraged girl mercilessly kicked the cardboard box she had been sitting on.

Hey, you punk.

This person is also someone I need to keep an eye on for a long time to come, what are you doing?

“Keck!”

While Seo Ah-in lost her balance and tumbled pathetically to the floor, I bowed my head to the man and apologized.

“I'm sorry. I will educate my colleague well.”

“...No, well.”

The middle-aged man nodded with an indifferent expression.

He was probably about to say that all the guys who came here showed a similar reaction.

But I snatched the sentence before he could.

“We'll go and take care of the work you requested right away. It's the harvest work, right?”

“...Huh?”

“Should we proceed in sector A-4?”

“That's... right. How did you know? Who taught you about the harvest work or sectors?”

How did I know?

“It's an important job, isn't it.”

In fact, the harvest work itself was just a chore.

But it was this ‘first harvest work’ event that occurred at Renegade that was a lump of fortuitous opportunities.

To be precise, it was the ‘place’ where that event happened.

Because that was where I could get an item that I could use over and over again until the end of the game.

‘So, well.’

Let's go eat a sweet cheat key.