Jinhyuk’s thought was quite simple.
Since his hyung was a total newbie and would undoubtedly be a burden, it was more convenient for him to be in a soul state for the sake of mission success.
After all, trying to take care of a newbie would only create more vulnerabilities, and the probability of mission success would decrease.
That was troublesome in many ways.
A mission worth 500,000 won wasn’t something that came by often, and it was better to seize the opportunity when it came.
He planned to work hard and complete the mission on the first try, and from the second attempt onwards, he would kindly teach his hyung.
[“Brotherhood” donated 1,000 won!]
[We will remember you who abandoned your hyung. Disgusting.]
“Aigo, disgusting, you say. How clean my character is, and you call it repulsive.”
He didn’t care much about such donation messages.
Winning here and receiving the mission prize money would ultimately make his hyung happy.
He would also acknowledge earning money through broadcasting.
There was a time when the hospital was his only world.
He wasn’t sure how his hyung had managed to gather so much money, but without him, he wouldn’t be where he was today.
Jinhyuk always thought that way.
On the day his reliable and strong hyung was discharged from the military, he was determined to clear the mission and buy him a present himself.
Thinking so, he diligently continued farming.
He acquired a rare grade helmet and armor, and though not as rare, he was also able to farm a magic grade sword with good versatility.
Today, his luck was exceptionally good.
If things continued like this, after successfully finishing farming, he could just kill time in a secluded place and still win.
As he continued farming for who knows how long, someone’s donation alert went off again.
[“Brotherhood” donated 1,000 won!]
[What’s with the kill log?]
– Isn’t that SolidRock’s ID?
– ???
– What?
– ??
The atmosphere in the chat room was odd.
Normally, if you just kept farming, messages like “Farming is so boring” would pop up.
Moreover, the viewers of this channel were the worst of the worst.
If the streamer made the broadcast even slightly boring, these guys wouldn’t hesitate to hurl the worst of abuses.
But it seemed like something had caught the viewers’ attention.
Jinhyuk slightly furrowed his brows and checked the messages floating on the top right of his vision.
There, a system called “Kill Log” showed information whenever someone made a kill.
And in that place.
<Sha Kill (crowbar) Sword Saint>.
<Sha Kill (crowbar) LeeHanSen>.
<Sha Kill (crowbar) Tra……>.
Logs with his hyung’s nickname, “Sha,” were rapidly descending.
***
Certainly, fighting in this way was somehow more fun than playing games with guns.
Should I call it the joy of hand-to-hand combat?
The sensation in my hand was absolutely electrifying.
I nodded as I lightly swung the blood-stained crowbar.
I was worried it might feel awkward since it had been a while since I’ve played a VR game.
But all that worry was for nothing.
Perhaps because the immersion rate had advanced by a step, I could move in better condition than during my Gaia Online days.
Five minutes into the game.
So far, I have already sent six users here to hell.
In videos, I’ve seen people going solo and racking up over 20 kills, but it seemed I was too much of a newbie to reach that point.
Well, although I didn’t do any farming myself, thanks to knocking down six people, my equipment was quite splendid.
<Helmet of Conviction (Legendary)>
<Armor of the Knight King (Legendary)>
<Steps of the Goddess (Rare)>
The helmet and armor were legendary grade, and the shoes were rare grade, but they significantly increased movement speed.
Even I, who didn’t know much about the game, thought the equipment was quite impressive.
I looked around with a satisfied smile.
It seemed there were no more survivors left in the training ground.
“Hyung!”
…except for that ungrateful dongsaeng who abandoned his hyung and wandered around alone.
Jinhyuk was wearing purple, i.e., rare-grade items he must have picked up somewhere.
Abandoning his hyung and doing well for himself, it seemed he managed to get good items.
“What’s all this?”
“They just came at me all of a sudden.”
“…Don’t tell me, you killed all those people with that crowbar?”
Jinhyuk stared at the blood-stained crowbar in my right hand and opened his mouth wide.
“It just happened.”
“Where did all this equipment come from?”
“Where do you think? I farmed hard with the crowbar.”
“Farming with a crowbar?”
Oh, farming corpses.
It wasn’t particularly hard.
Jinhyuk shuddered lightly as he alternated his gaze between my equipment and the crowbar.
“Did you ever try Excalibur when you were on leave?”
“This is my first time. I told you I quit gaming.”
“Damn, how did you kill people wearing helmets and armor with a crowbar?”
His question heated up the shared live chat for a moment.
– ㅋㅋㅋ Dr. SolidRock.
– Crowbar>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Other random weapons
– How did you kill with a crowbar you fucking idiot!
– You’re not supposed to use it like that…….
The chat quality was still not great.
But what?
The crowbar was not a weapon?
Then why was it lying around like that?
“A crowbar is supposed to be used like this.”
Jinhyuk demonstrated it for me.
He shivered a little when he took the crowbar from me, but immediately walked to a door located at the corner of the training ground.
Then, he inserted the crowbar and forcibly opened the locked door.
“It’s meant for picking locks.”
“Were crowbars around in the past too?”
“It’s a game.”
“Well, that makes sense.”
“But hyung, can I ask you one thing?”
Jinhyuk returned the crowbar to me and asked.
I looked at him and nodded lightly.
“What is it?”
“Seriously, how did you kill with the crowbar? It’s actually one of the weaker weapons.”
“Ah, that? It’s pretty simple.”
It wasn’t a difficult task.
“Just beat them until they drop dead.”
“…Huh?”
“Dodge their attacks lightly and just beat the shit out of them. That’s all it takes.”
The chat erupted once again.
– ㅋㅋㅋㅋ Only speaking the truth here.
– Just beat them until they die. Agreed.
– If this is what Dr. Solid’s crowbar was like… I wonder how he is in bed.
– This guy… is crazy!
I was just being honest.
I don’t like lying much, so I laid it out naturally without embellishment.
As soon as Jinhyuk heard my answer, he opened his mouth wide and said,
“Anyway, since it’s weak, pick up a sword or something right now….”
He couldn’t finish his sentence.
Because someone made a noisy donation.
[“MissionVillain” donated 10,000 Won!]
[Starting now and for this round only, 10,000 won per kill with SolidRock’s crowbar.]
Oh! A mission?
Moreover, Jinhyuk’s attitude, who had been trying to dissuade me until just a moment ago, changed in an instant.
Instead, he kicked away the swords nearby and said to me,
“What are you doing? Let’s go make some money.”
I smirked at Jinhyuk’s confident remark and threw out a word.
“Hey.”
“Huh?”
“90% of that is mine.”
“Hyung, why… between us…?”
“I’m a bit sensitive about money because I’m unemployed.”
I had once considered streaming.
I even participated in raids with famous streamers and once had some degree of fame.
But after that incident, I became a public enemy.
Every day, internet forums were filled with slander and curses about me, and eventually, I had no choice but to give up everything and join the military.
I don’t regret that decision now.
Thanks to that, I have Jinhyuk smiling at me like this.
That was enough for me.
Plus, being able to enjoy the taste of money in a game after such a long time was the icing on the cake.
The chances of my identity being revealed were almost nil.
I had customized my appearance in Gaia Online completely differently, even my voice.
So, to put it very simply—
“It’s time to make money.”
—it was time to enjoy capitalism.
***
The game had already been going on for 20 minutes.
The magical barrier that limited the arena was entering its final phase.
There were only four survivors left: my dongsaeng and I, plus two whose locations were still unknown.
The remaining two could be on the same team, or they might be from different ones.
Well, it didn’t matter.
I just needed to kill them all.
“Hyung, honestly, I thought I was really good at this game. The viewers called me a natural talent, you know.”
“And?”
“Just… that.”
Jinhyuk’s gaze toward me had distinctly changed since the beginning of the game.
Initially, he must have thought of me as nothing more than dead weight.
But now, seeing the results I had produced, it seemed his opinion had completely flipped.
– Strong! Strong! Strong! Strong!
– Ministry of Defense! You were wrong!
– Breaking News! Ministry of Defense to re-enlist the SolidRock in the 707th Special Mission Group[1].
Re-enlist?
They must be out of their minds.
I lightly tapped my crowbar while scanning my surroundings.
Besides the six kills I had made with the crowbar at the start, I had smashed 11 more after receiving the mission.
Now my record stood at 17 kills.
All 17 kills had been made entirely with the crowbar.
That would be 170,000 won in cash—assuming we won, of course.
The final location had been designated as “The Throne,” a place adorned with a splendid throne and twelve pillars scattered around.
In other words, there weren’t many places to hide.
We walked straight towards the throne.
Since the magical barrier’s end would lead here, the hidden ones would eventually show themselves without us having to risk searching behind the pillars.
“Should we take them out one by one?”
Jinhyuk casually placed his hand on the splendid throne and asked me.
However, I immediately shook my head firmly.
“Just crouch behind the throne. I’ll handle this myself.”
“Is it worth gambling so much for just an extra 10,000 won?”
“What? Just 10,000 won?”
That was when it happened.
A user hiding behind the second pillar charged toward the throne with a long spear, and almost simultaneously, another user from behind the fourth pillar shot an arrow at me.
I moved as if I had been waiting for this moment.
I jumped, stepping on the throne and then onto the shaft of the spear of one of the users rushing toward me.
Not bad in terms of balance.
But the spear user’s expression turned to horror when he saw me on his spear shaft.
Pwack—!
As I swung the crowbar toward his head, the helmet began to dent slightly.
The spear user’s helmet was yellow.
It was a legendary-grade helmet, but it began to crumple under the continued attacks.
“Ahhh! You crazy fuck!”
As it was in Gaia Online, the spear was not an advantageous weapon in close combat.
It needed some distance to be effective.
His fate was sealed the moment he charged.
I easily dodged the wildly swinging spear, smashed the helmet, and then lifted my crowbar again.
“Y-you crazy…”
Pwack—!
One down.
Alright, now for the archer who was shooting arrows…
“Sorry! Whaaaa!”
What the…
“I-I’ll just leave on my own! Don’t kill me like this!”
The archer was on his knees, crying rivers.
I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly acting like this.
It wasn’t part of the plan.
10,000 won wasn’t the name of someone’s dog, and it couldn’t just disappear like this.
I decided to speak softly, in a soothing tone.
“I’ll make it quick and painless, so just stay still.”
It was better to calm him down and end it with my hand…
Then, the person cried out even louder and more desperately.
“Waaah! You crazy pervert!”
Puff.
That was their last word, and soon a message window appeared in front of me.
[You have won the glory of the battlefield <Avalon>!]
[You have acquired the challenge Born with Talent!]
[You have acquired the challenge The Reincarnation of Gordon Freeman!]
[You have acquired the challenge Farming is indeed corpse farming…]
…I swear, I was not a pervert.
Sigh.
[1] The 707th is Korea’s elite military counter-terrorism unit.
