Hyper Luck

Early dawn came to find the land of Azharus. Several men in black suits were walking down the streets on that quiet morning.

“Do we get overtime pay for this?”

“Most likely. It’s such a pain in the ass to come to work in this outfit, and now we have to wear this in a game too?”

“Yeah, but damn we rockin’ these suits though.”

The men in black suits stopped and gathered in the middle of the street while having small talks with each other. 

And soon after the silence, a man walked out from the center of them.

“We will be searching for those who tried to mess with us. It seems that the incident was a retaliation for the drugs we made.

Our first destination is the hospital. Clean that place up, and I mean everyone, completely clean. You got that?”

“Yes, sir!”

All the men in black suits answered in unison as Jason commanded his men in a solemn tone.

Jason pointed to the hospital with a lazy light gesture and those who were occupying the street rushed to the hospital at once.

And a moment later,

Numerous screams and all kinds of crashing noises began to spread from the hospital. Jason leaned against a stone on the side of the road and pulled out a cigarette, with those noises in the background.

“Cigarettes in Circuit are too weak for me to enjoy.”

After letting out a complaint with a smoke from his cigarette with his head looking up to the sky, he started humming to himself until the noises from the hospital completely stopped

“Hum~ Hm~”

After a while, all the men in suits gathered in front of Jason, with blood on their shirts and black tan on their faces, breathing heavily.

“So, what did you do with the ones that looked like players?”

“We killed them off, all of’em. Since it doesn’t matter if they die.”

“We only took care of the NPCs who tried to fight back.”

“Hospital, 100% finished! We are done.”

All of them reported their actions to Jason seemingly without even a single trace of guilt on their faces.

Since all of them thought of this as mere work to do at their job.

“This incident was purely organized and carried out by the <Pickup Artist> guild. It has nothing to do with <NGTEC>, you understand that?”

“Yes, of course, sir.”

After the reporting session was over, the members of the <Pickup Artist> guild slowly began to move towards the next target.

The next target was a small complex, mostly inhabited by NPCs.

They committed one-way assault and battered many people, as they did back at the hospital as if they were trying to get a false confession.

Naturally, the fact that a guild called <Pickup Artist> was attacking players and NPCs indiscriminately among players began to spread within the community.

“You scum! What do you think you’re doing!”

By then Jason had found the dwarf NPC who was the only person fighting back at them. The dwarf's name was Lorad.

“Get this guy’s house.”

A few employees in the black suits assaulted Lorad atrociously, and the rest of them started searching his house.

Soon a man found a picture inside a broken frame and reported it to Jason.

Jason smiled after comparing the picture he was handed over to the picture he had found from the guy in the forest.

“Aha, so this is that house we were searching for. Your name’s Lorad, right?”

“Y-you bastards! No!”

Lorad, bloodstained, shouted like crazy, but Jason only smiled.

“Take him.”

* * *

The moment I returned to Azharus with Khea, we were greeted by a brutal scene. The town where Khea lived was completely turned upside down.

Even the small house where we spent the night yesterday and had a hot meal was in complete disrepair. As soon as Khea saw the scene, she ran quickly into the house, and I looked around to get a grasp on the situation.

Vivid bloodstains, obviously someone was seriously injured here. Whose bloodstain is it?

“Mose!”

Soon Khea's voice echoed from the house. When I hurried inside, there was an inscription engraved with a knife in a silver chest of drawers that I had paid close attention to.

‘Will you come to rescue me, captured in Troll Tongue?’

Lorad    -

“They already moved.”

Khea bit her lip with both of her firsts held tight.

“I beg to you, Adiath. Please allow me to tear them apart to pieces without a single regret!”

Khea's anger reached its peak. And so did mine. And as a player, I was very curious as to why they would do such things like this.

Even until I confronted Lidornn, it didn’t come to me how toxic troll players could be. It was only now that I was finally starting to realize their essence.

They are like cancer in this world of  <Circuit>. Something that should disappear. How many 

‘Lidornns’ were born from the sins they have committed so far?

“Khea, Let’s go. To Troll Tongue.”

I said to her quietly. Then she started moving her steps first, without a single word.

***

The ‘Eye of the New Mankind’ discovered by the <All Search> had been delivered to its destination, the ‘Cathedral of Laceras’.

The crowd of players and NPCs who were already waiting at the place welcomed the Sacred Artifact.

And among the crowd, there was JiHyun, the caster of Circuit TV.

She was wearing a tidy one-piece dress, standing stern in front of the camera with a microphone in her hand.

“Hello! To all the players who love Circuit! This is Circuit TV’s caster, JiHyun! Finally, the Sacred Treasure discovered by <All Search> has arrived at its destination!”

The camera turned to focus on the crowd.

“It was said that the Sacred Treasure called the ‘Eye of the New Mankind’ will reveal its true power! Everyone here is very excited to see what will happen!”

As soon as JiHyun finished her words, a loud noise began to spread from the cathedral that made the ground rumble.

And at the same time, the crowd started to shout and applaud.

After a moment, people began to notice the changes on the roof of the Cathedral of Laceras, the largest cathedral on the continent.

And with people’s cheers, its movement stopped.

After a while, a huge sphere began to rise above the roof.

The sphere, as if it had been carved out of a rock with great precision and meticulous care, was held in mid-air and just spun around in its place.

“Ah, a sphere appeared and floated to the top of the roof! We are not noticing anything special just yet!”

JiHyun quickly commented on the situation. And as soon as she finished her comment, there was a roaring enough to make the ground ring once again.

And when the roaring stopped, an intense green light began to leak out of the round sphere. The radius of the light gradually widened and became strong enough to appear clearly in the clouds.

And a moment later,

[Reveal the root of everything that unfolds on this earth.]

[You shall know the greatest one since the moment you have reached down to this land.]

“D-did you see that?”

JiHyun continued with her comment, unable to hide her excitement.

“A phrase just appeared in my sight! Did you see that too, Director?”

The camera nodded. After a very brief second, the green light that had only leaked out from one part of the sphere soon spread out from the entire sphere.

And the light began to surround everyone.

And on that day and place,

Players have discovered exactly what the role of the ‘Sacred Treasures’ was.

< All of the player’s honor levels will be revealed. >

< A ranking calculated according to the player’s honor level will soon be presented. >

<Circuit> is a game.

A game has its players.

And for the players to enjoy the game, there needs to be a system.

And the thing that implements the systems,

That is what the ‘Sacred Treasures’ are for.

“Woow!”

“This is insane! Seriously!”

“Amazing!”

“Aaaawesoooome!”

The crowd started cheering loudly. One of the essential user-friendly systems that could not be found in <Circuit> was now finally implemented.

The numericalized statistics that were easily viewable by everyone. It was thought to be impossible to implement in <Circuit> where there were way too many variables.

But the truth was different. It was an item that players had to find!

< A new command, ‘honor’ is added. >

< All of the player’s honor levels will now be revealed. >

< 42,923,112 quests related to honor have been found. >

A notification continued to all players in the world of <Circuit>.

And it wasn't over yet.

[Honor Rank]

[ 1st place Mose - 178,332 ]

[ 2nd place Charisma - 93,891 ]

[ 3rd place Levie - 83,755 ]

[ 4th place Kellion - 81,181 ]

[ 5th place Kalguksu - 75,447 ]

...

...

...

* * *

All the men in black suits were focused on the words that suddenly appeared in front of their eyes.

“What is this?”

“Is this about that ‘Sacred Treasure’ thing I heard from a while ago?”

“Team leader, isn’t this the Honor ranking that just got added or something?”

“Woah, look at that first-place score. I wonder what he does for a living?”

A little gossip arose among those who were preparing everything in Troll Tongue, so murmurs began to be heard here and there.

Meanwhile, Choi SeopHo, who sat in the second-floor seat of the hall, was starting to get very annoyed.

“When will the goods arrive?”

Jason smiled softly and opened his mouth.

“Very soon, sir. You'll probably have to tame it for quite a bit.”

“That won’t be a problem.”

Choi SeopHo put a confident smile on his face. And a moment later, the door to Troll Tongue opened up. Everyone in the room started to get ready for battle.

One half-elf and one player were walking slowly from the entrance. They were all staring at Choi SeopHo without any expression.

“It’s a lot hotter than the picture. This is the best, really!”

Leaving behind Choi SeopHo's voice mixed with lust and madness, Jason slowly stepped forward.

“I am Jason, the guild master of <Pickup Artist>. Well, it seems that you’ve done a lot of things you will regret, but let me tell you what happens if you do something you can’t handle.”

Then he folded his arms and gave orders to the black suits standing in the very front line.

“Begin.”

As soon as the order was given, men in black suits rushed towards the targets.

And in that instant,

A system window that emerged as a result of the hostility declaration appeared in just the right spot for Jason to notice.

< ‘Pickup Artist’ has become hostile to 'Mose'. >

Jason's brain began to spin intensely. The nickname of the player who was ranked first in the honor ranking that came up a while ago was the same as that man.

So, is this guy the number 1 on the Honor rankings?

This game doesn’t have any restrictions for duplicate nicknames. One can create many duplicate names without any restrictions.

And what is the probability that the No. 1 ranked person will appear at Troll Tongue located in Azharus in this wide world right now? Very low. This one’s a typical fake.

In most cases, the real person would never appear in this situation. It's like a pro gamer entering a novice server with his main character. There were many people who even used the same ID that the pros used.

And that Mose was probably just another one of those people who used pro’s nicknames. No, he had to be.

So the men in black suits of <Pickup Artist> attacked Mose and the half-elf.

Jason saw the black suits covering the floor before he could even blink a single time.

Only his consciousness was aware of that situation, he still closed his eyes and opened them back up.

An unbelievable scene began to unfold in front of Jason who had just blinked a single time.

It all started from the one word from that player that he heard the moment he closed his eyes.

“Go’h.”

Two swords suddenly started to fly around Troll Tongue swimming through the empty space, like the absolute peak of a sword art that one would see in the Wuxia genre. Nobody in this building was able to stop those blades.

Because of the large number of people, those who did not 'yet' been targeted by the blades tried to attack the half-elf and the player named Mose. However, the resistance was proved to be meaningless as they were sliced by the quick blades of the half-elf.

Just what the hell is this?

Why are those monsters here right now?

The beings who stood far beyond the scope of the brilliant brain of Jason stood here and now.

Only one thought ran through Jason's head.

‘I have to get out of here!’

“God... Damn it!”

Just as he was about to step back, a sword flew at Jason as well.

He soon fluttered his black robe and lifted a unique class staff. Since it was a staff equipped with a barrier option, even Choi SeopHo's items cannot outperform this staff in terms of the instantaneous defense performance.

Not to mention that it was a perfect staff for a support with an option to even get information on items that damaged the barrier.

“B-barrier!”

He tried to block the sword flying at him with the barrier provided by the staff.

However, the sword completely penetrated straight through the barrier and snapped the staff he was holding in half.

Even amidst all that, the effect of the staff still activated.

And in Jason’s sight,

A golden shining item information window appeared which he had never seen before.

[Engraved 11 Swords - Korma]

Class: Longsword

Rank: Legendary

Manufacturer: Lavoger

Weight: 9.8 Kg

One-handed Attack power: 654 - 671

Both hands Attack Power: 881 - 968

Strength + 31

Vitality + 24

Speed + 38

Intelligence + 28

When the engraving is completed, the sword disappears and is automatically engraved on the wielder’s active arm.

When the engraving is complete, the ‘Engraving Summon’ is automatically learned, and when this skill is activated the sword is automatically summoned around the wielder.

Set Effect: 2 / 11

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- Engraved Sword Korma

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- Engraved Sword Sharma

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2 Set Effect (Korma & Sharma)

- All the existing ‘Engraved Summon’ skills are all deleted, and the summon method will be changed to 'Will Summon’.

- Acquire an active skill: ‘Go’h’

- Attack power of the Engraved Swords will be increased by 8%.

History: As one of the 11 Engraved Swords forged by Lavoger, Korma was eventually handed over to the Logis Kingdom by the ‘100 Years War’ in the end. This sword has the power to control all the other Engraved Swords. If the summoner has enough magical power, it can be summoned from a distance rather than from close range. Therefore, those who face their blade against the master of Korma are often beheaded without even a death sentence. Korma, the jockey of all the other Engraved Swords, is the second sword among its 11 other Engraved Swords.

A legendary item. The class between him and I was completely different.

Jason couldn’t help but feel that.

It was him that shouldn't have started this in the first place.

The arrogance built upon his pride eventually brought the monster to the fore.

Even Choi SeopHo’s company which just had to exploit the NPCs, players, and this world in order to grow bigger, may be completely wiped out by this atrocious monster.

Jason felt an immense regret at that brief moment. And soon, he was pierced through the heart by the second blade that came after the first one.