I Woke Up as the Villain

On top of everything else, the percentage level of Choi Yu-Seong's Star Factor rose every time he received a certain degree of attention. Thus, it could be seen as a skill that was several times greater than the Nioh’s ‘Titanic Growth’ skill.

‘I mean, maybe it’s not even comparable to a skill that only accelerates growth?’

Although Nioh’s skill was called the best among the growth acceleration skills that were known to the public, Yu-Seong knew some better skills since he had read the original novel. The best among those skills was Kim Do-Jin's specialized skill, "Genius."

As could be seen from the name, the skill ‘Genius’ was simply the protagonist’s supernatural ability. It was no different from a collection of all features of a ‘main character’, such as deleting penalties of All-Rounder, specializing in all weapons, significantly increasing skill growth, significantly increasing the gain of experience points, reducing the required experience points, and transcending the ranks of some skills. It was a single skill which worked beyond the confines of one.

‘Come to think of it, I shouldn’t be so happy just because I have three specialized skills.’ 

After all, there was a real imbalanced character.

Anyway, among the abilities of the skill ‘Genius,’ Yu-Seong could at least catch up to the growth-related abilities thanks to his Star Factor skill.

‘Actually, if I do well, I might be faster than Kim Do-Jin when he was D-rank.’ 

When he had first obtained the skill ‘Star Factor,’ Yu-Seong had felt that he could keep up with some aspects of Kim Do-Jin’s growth. Now, Yu-Seong even thought that he could be even a little faster than Do-Jin. On top of that, in a situation where Kim Do-Jin didn’t know the existence of the hunting experience boost potion, Yu-Seong could raise his level considerably faster than Do-Jin too.

In conclusion, thanks to the Star Factor skill, Yu-Seong could grow at a faster pace than the returnee who had fought against the devil in another world.

Of course, the quality and quantity of combat experience, basic combat sense, and talent would be different, so Yu-Seong couldn’t perform the exact same skills at the same level. However, he at least had an ability that was much more powerful than the original novel’s main character.

‘Of course, this will also be meaningless if Kim Do-Jin uses the hunting experience boost potion and his rank of the Genius skill becomes far higher.’

At least he had won for now. Knowing this made Yu-Seong feel strangely good. On the other hand, he was worried.

‘Now that this happened, I'm worried that I’m the only one who’s growing too fast…’

This was because Chae Ye-Ryeong and Yoo Jin-Hyuk, who were both supposed to grow up with him soon, had come to Yu-Seong’s mind.

‘But that doesn’t mean that I have to slow down, right?’

The sooner Yu-Seong became stronger, the better it was for him. He decided not to doubt this part of his plan, since he had already suffered from overthinking once. Above all, Chae Ye-Ryeong and Yoo Jin-Hyuk were characters who were portrayed as a disaster or a high potential of disaster in the original novel. Maybe he might have to worry about falling behind them even though he was gaining strength so quickly.

‘Anyway, it’s a good problem to have, after all.’

Yu-Seong chuckled with enjoyment. At that moment, he received a message.

- A Joke-loving Prankster feels strangely discontent while seeing Choi Yu-Seong’s smile.

- The Oldest Hunter thinks the player Yu-Seong has a beautiful smile. He sponsors 30 Karma points.

- Culann’s Hound looks at the growth of the player Choi Yu-Seong with satisfaction. He sponsors 10 Karma points.

Looking at the three remaining gods’ messages, Yu-Seong inwardly clicked his tongue.

‘Loki, what's wrong with that man, I mean, god…?’

Loki was acting up for nothing, but thinking of it, he was also good at subtly taking care of Yu-Seong. With this thought in mind, Yu-Seong assumed that Loki had become crooked because of his disingenuity.

- A Joke-loving Prankster snorts at the player Choi Yu-Seong.

Yu-Seong ignored the message that followed and went out of the dungeon.

Jin Yu-Ri approached him and said, "You did a great job today.”

"Yeah. Thanks for waiting," Yu-Seong replied.

"I’ll have to cheer up more until my brother comes back. It’s true that I got busier since I’m doing it alone, but it’s bearable since Jenny is helping me in between. Oh, by the way. About the money that you supported me with, do you want to know how it's used?" Yu-Ri asked.

Not long ago, Yu-Seong had provided about 30 billion won to the ‘Hidden Team’, which was created by Jin Yu-Ri and run directly by Jenny, who was another A-rank hunter. Originally, he had planned to provide 20 billion won, but since Choi Woo-Jae had given him about 25 billion more pocket money after watching the "Hunter's Night" program and being proud of him, Yu-Seong had decided to invest nearly half of it in the Hidden Team without much thought.

Thanks to this, a considerable amount of 30 billion won had been spent at once. However, Yu-Seong didn’t consider it as a waste at all, since the Hidden Team was virtually an organization that worked solely for his own purposes. He would benefit from as much as he had invested or even more. He also believed that Jin Yu-Ri would definitely make that happen.

"No need to." Aside from believing in Yu-Ri, Yu-Seong simply didn't bother to pay attention to where his money went. He just wanted to purely focus on his growth rather than pay attention to such things.

"...thank you. I won't let you down,” Yu-Ri replied in a clear voice. She seemed to understand Yu-Seong’s current priorities. She opened the car door. Then, she added, "I have something else to report. I have good news and bad news, which one do you want to hear first?”

"Hmm..."

While Yu-Seong took some time to think, Jin Yu-Ri sat in the driver’s seat. Yu-Seong sat in the back seat.

The car started with a single button, and the loud exhaust sound rang out. It was the unique sound of an Italian vehicle. It was the taste of villain Choi Yu-Seong, who had originally been the owner of the body. Yu-Seong had initially found this sound a pain, but he was now quite used to it.

‘It would be rather disappointing if I couldn’t hear it anymore.’

Did they say that the position changes manners? Yu-Seong felt as if he were becoming accustomed to the tastes of the body’s original owner.

"Are you still thinking?" asked Yu-Ri as she headed out.

Choi Yu-Seong smiled awkwardly. "Ah, I'm sorry. I thought about something else for a second. If that's the case, it's better to face the music. I want to hear the bad news first."

"I heard last night that Helen Mirren came out of the dungeon,” Yu-Ri said.

"And?"

"In less than two hours, she went straight back to the dungeon. Because of that, I didn't have time to contact her.”

It was a sad story for the two who hoped that Jin Do-Yoon would recover as soon as possible. Moreover, as mentioned, Helen Mirren sometimes disappeared for months once she entered the dungeon.

"Ah..." Choi Yu-Seong let out a sad sigh without realizing it, but soon nodded. "It’s sudden, so it can't be helped. Let's look forward to the next opportunity."

"Jenny is trying to find people who have direct connections with Helen Mirren. There are extremely few, but she should be able to find someone."

"Right."

A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.

"Next is the good news. Do you remember the mana stones you asked us to collect?” Yu-Ri asked.

"Of course."

This was what Yu-Seong had asked for Chae Ye-Ryeong's Re-Awakening, who would be as greatly helpful to Yu-Seong as both Jin Do-Yoon and Jin Yu-Ri in the future.

"I bought it. 48 orange and 7 yellow mana stones. 55 in total. It's worth about 20 billion if you calculate it at the market price."

"That's insane. We’ll be broke sooner or later.”

Although Yu-Seong was somewhat flustered, there was no big problem, because he had already expected to spend this much. Also, Choi Woo-Jae had recently given him a lot of pocket money. As he had thought, he was benefiting from being close to Choi Woo-Jae.

‘Though it’s true that he’s a little scary.’

In many ways, Yu-Seong suddenly thought it was a good thing that he had worked hard to stand out in Choi Woo-Jae's eyes.

‘How nice to be born with a silver spoon in my mouth.’

Jin Yu-Ri did not know what he was thinking, but she replied with a smile, "Of course, if I was going to buy it for the original price, I wouldn't have suffered this long."

"You look quite confident," Yu-Seong said.

"I bought all the items I just mentioned for 18 billion won," Yu-Ri revealed.

"Wow..." Choi Yu-Seong expressed his admiration almost automatically.

Mana stones were the most important and precious resource in the world, and they were also mentioned in the original novel. They could produce a significant amount of energy with no risk of radiation, and there were also new technologies created that used mana stones. Of course, their value was bound to be high, and it was quite difficult to buy them at a lower price. However, Jin Yu-Ri had managed to purchase the goods at a discount as high as ten percent.

"Are you happy with it? I did my best."

"Very happy."

Two billion won was more than enough money to buy orange and yellow mana drinks. There was no reason for Yu-Seong to not be happy. He then said, "If you can buy them at a low price like this, please secure as many mana stones as possible within 30 billion won.”

"Again?"

"I was originally planning to do that, but since I have a talented person like you, Jin Yu-Ri, I would like to kick-start the plan a little earlier."

Jin Yu-Ri's eyes sparkled at the word ‘originally planned’. She asked, "Can I ask what you're going to use it for?"

"It’s a secret."

"...That’s a little cheeky."

"Haha." Choi Yu-Seong smiled insidiously and shrugged.

In fact, the value of mana stones was expected to increase gradually over time. However, if it were for this reason alone, Choi Yu-Seong would not have invested as much as 30 billion won to buy a new mana stone right now.

'The timing is a bit uncertain, but when artifact creators start to appear, the price of mana stones will go through the roof.’

Artifact creators were literally players who made artifacts. Their direct combat power was low as they were production-type players, but because of their appearance in the near future, the hunter world would face another cataclysm.

'Until now, the hunter equipment was all about the ancient relics, the treasures of the world, the iron weapons made by Earth’s craftsmen...' 

Of course, many things would change when the new equipment type, the artifact, appeared. Artifacts were considered to be somewhat weak compared to ancient relics and treasures of the world, but they boasted quite good performance with the addition of magical abilities that ordinary iron weapons could not have. Their greatest advantage was the fact that they did not require large amounts of karma points, like ancient relics or exotic treasures did. One could buy an artifact as long as one had enough money.