I explained the plan to the members, and after that, we went back to our respective seats in the internet cafe.
Before starting my computer, I sent Jinhee the location to the internet cafe and the number of my seat via KakaoTalk in advance. Since we would be too engrossed in the game, there was a high chance that I wouldn’t be able to check my phone even if she called.
Lastly, I explained the rules that the club members had to be strictly followed once again.
“No taking off the headset. You must speak only through the microphone or server chat. Please hold off on going to the toilet for about an hour. You have to be completely focused for the next hour to succeed in this plan.”
“Hmm… Well, we understand.”
The members nodded their heads, following my words.
“Okay, Dukhun. This time, use the teleportation cheat to transport all the members to the south where I am.”
“Okay. Everyone, I’m going to put in the coordinates so stand still at your original location. All it was going to change are tiles.”
[Admin (Oh Dukhun): /tp 12550820 140 0]
Soon, Dukhun input the complex numbers that contain the coordinates of the places where the members were located to where they would be transported.
Swish, swish.
In front of me, the grass tiles were switched with the place where members were originally located. I watched as sand, snow, and seawater poured out from the air one by one as the members appeared.
All the members were successfully teleported to the south where Sunah and I had been wandering.
“One, two, three, four. Including me five. Okay, everyone’s here.”
At the end of the southern border, in the middle of the grassy field that stretched beyond the horizon.
The members of Ghost Story Club all gathered together.
Dukhun looked around the place he just appeared. Seeing the burnt grass in front of us, he said curiously.
“You were eating roasted mushrooms? But you can eat berries from the forest.”
“We can also collect berries?”
I was amazed at the sudden discovery. It seemed we could do many things in this game that we perhaps couldn’t do in real life.
Slowly looking around at everyone, I asked Dukhun.
“Can I command from now on?”
“As you wish. You’re the original captain.”
“Thank you.”
Dukhun agreed readily, perhaps understanding that I was more experienced in catching ghost stories than him even though he had played the game before. He knew that although I was still inexperienced at controlling some functions and game mechanisms, I was slowly getting used to the concept of this game world and started seeing things in a different way.
Therefore, before the start of our plan, I briefly took back the right to command I had left to Dukhun.
“So? What now?”
Gyeongwon asked as he touched the transparent wall with curiosity.
As usual, he was also blocked by the transparent wall to cross the border.
“We’re going to build a house beside the border. Together.”
“A house?”
The members all showed puzzled expressions, tilting their heads in wonder.
“Yeah, a house. However, this house isn’t going to be just some mud walls like Dukhun and the rest of us created after starting the game. We’re going to build a properly decorated two-story brick house.”
“Hmm.”
The members stared at me in bewilderment as if they couldn’t understand what I was saying.
“Instead, the entrance door to the house would be right next to the border. So that whenever we open the door from inside the house, it’ll open right through the transparent wall.”
“….Will it really work?”
Gyeongwon asked in a doubtful voice and looked at Dukhun for opinion. Since Dukhun had played the game before and was most knowledgeable regarding games, he thought it was right to ask him.
However, Dukhun’s fat character only shrugged his shoulders as if he had no clue regarding this.
“The President discovered something although it was his first time playing today. Even I, who played the game before, haven’t found it. I believe he knows what he’s doing so you can rest assured for now.”
“Are you sure? But how will it work?”
As Gyeongwon again asked in curiosity, Dukhun just waved his hand.
“I think it’ll work. So let’s get started preparing for work right away.”
“Okay. But, if we attached the door to the border, how are we going to get inside the completed house?”
“We’ll have to get in through the window or make some other way. Or maybe we should build the house from the inside.”
“Well, then it should not be a problem, but…”
Each of the members’ faces held extreme curiosity.
However, explaining more than this would ruin their focus in the game.
“For now, we should start building the house. I’ll explain the rest of the things after the house is finished.”
“Okay.”
In the end, Gyeongwon let out a defeated sigh and shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, since Prez is telling us to do it, I’ll assume he has thought it through. Let’s get started.”
Soon, we carefully looked around the transparent wall, searching for a place that would be perfect for our house and drew up a rough blueprint.
“As I’ve said before, this is going to be a proper house made of bricks, not just some dirt walls to mark the territory. It’s going to be a house that we’ll build with all our heart and souls, using excellent materials and decorating it thoroughly.”
At my request, Dukhun started searching for videos on YouTube uploaded by BJs on how to build houses and how much it was going to cost to build it. There was also the matter of time.
“Since the President wants to build a proper house, it’s going to take some time. Even if there are five of us, we’ll have to bake bricks, and search for the building materials. It’s going to take an awful amount of work and time. How much time do you have in mind?”
“Hmm.”
When I checked the time, it was a little past 4 PM in real time.
No matter how engrossed I wanted them to be in the game, I had to make sure each of them went back to their home by dinner time.
I had to finish building the house by 5 o’clock and attempt to cross the edge of the world by 6. If everything went according to my plan, I could even explore the world beyond the boundary for about two hours until dinner.
Pondering on it for a while, I opened my mouth.
“We can’t invest more than an hour in the house, and it can’t be an unbelievably large house. It’ll be a house with moderate size with a little bit of pleasant interior design. It’ll have a fence around it, a second floor, and some furniture to put in. That should be all for the interior.”
“Hmm, putting in a lot of interior design will take about an hour…”
Dukhun muttered as he looked through the blueprints on the internet beside a separate window on the monitor. Then, he moved his character and marked several places on the ground with sticks as he explained.
“If you want to build a house in just an hour, then it’ll be at most this big. I believe a house this size should be good enough.”
“Okay. Then let’s get started without wasting any time. We’ll have to make a lot of bricks first.”
“Hmm, to make bricks….”
Both Dukhun and I started looking through the crafting method in the inventory window. After searching for a while, we found that we would need to bake clay to make bricks.
“We have to bake clay to get them. But where are we going to get clay?”
“We will have to search for some sort of water bodies.”
“Water bodies…”
Raising my head, I looked around the place we were gathered around.
Currently, we were in a grassy field with a huge pasture.
There was no water source nearby.
“We can use cheat keys, right?”
“No cheat keys from now on.”
Before anyone could object, I nailed the point down hard on them.
“Let’s build a house as if we’re making it in real life and use the original game elements.”
“Okay, we understand.”
After a rough planning was done, we divided the roles between us through Dedenchi. Dukhun and Hayoon were sent to go find any water sources nearby to get clay. Meanwhile, we started preparing the ground where our house would be standing.
“It feels like we’re going to search for an oasis in the desert.”
“We aren’t in a desert. If we look around for a while, we’ll surely find something.”
“Tch. We should prepare some weapons before we go.”
It appeared to be that Dukhun had collected some valuable things while travelling alone in the desert. He soon brought out some ores and other equipment from his inventory before starting to combine and grind them to make weapons.
Handing a crossbow to Hayoon, he slung an axe at his side.
“Be careful on your way. And promise to not use any kind of cheat keys.”
“Okay.”
Although he agreed readily, Dukhun grumbled, not liking the idea of not using cheat keys as he left to search for clay. Behind his large figure, Hayoon’s small character followed holding a crossbow.
“Okay. We have a lot to prepare before Dukhun and Hayoon come back after gathering all the clay. Let’s hurry.”
Thump, thump, cang.
Sunah diligently began to dig the ground with a pickaxe, while Gyeongwon started to hit some rocks nearby with a sledgehammer.
We would need a lot of materials to make a house, however, there was only grass and mud around here. Therefore, I told members to dig the ground to obtain various minerals and break rocks to make a furnace.
“Huff, huff.”
“Alright. We must gather some pebbles and rocks to make a furnace.”
As I watched the members getting busy, I checked the plan which I made beforehand in my mind once again. What I wanted was a small elegant brick house, nothing too extravagant.
In the first place, there was not much difference whether we built the house using cheat keys or manually. The reason I engaged the members in building the house was to make them focus more on the game, to the point that they would think only about the game and nothing else.
“Joon!”
My train of thoughts stopped at the sound of Sunah calling me from the deep hole she just dug, her small figure jumping up and down.
“I can’t dig any more here! The mud keeps pouring out.”
“Good job. Come up, now.”
“Help me get out…”
While digging, she must have been too engrossed in the job that she didn’t realize when the hole got very deep. And since she still was inexperienced in building stuff such as stairs, she needed others’ help to get out of the hole.
“Gyeongwon, please make some stairs for Sunah to come up.”
“Leave it to me.”
Gyeongwon had been breaking rocks for the furnace nearby. At my command, he gathered up his sledgehammer and jumped down to the hole where Sunah was.
Thump-
“Eww, mud.”
“Be careful.”
It seemed the ground below in the hole had a humid atmosphere and was full of mud. No wonder Sunah said it was impossible to dig more.
Soon, Gyeongwon combined the piled up dirt and made a stair for both of them to climb up.
“Huuu, huuu.”
Unlike Sunah, who still seemed unfamiliar with game functions, Gyeongwon seemed to have adapted quickly. Thanks to his big brain, which not only was useful in explaining complicated situations, but also getting familiar with new environments.
Meanwhile, I was fully immersed in making the blueprint of the house with the help of crafting methods.
“President, I dug the ground here and collected pebbles.”
“Okay. Now let’s make a furnace to bake clay with it.”
Dukhun and Hayoon had been sent to collect clay from nearby water sources. To make bricks, clay was the fundamental element.
According to the crafting recipe, we would need to bake clay in a furnace to get bricks, which we would be using to build our house.
“So, we need to combine the pebbles and rocks like this…”
I opened my inventory and followed the method of crafting a furnace with pebbles and rocks. After adding the amount of pebbles mentioned in the crafting recipe, a furnace appeared with a click as if someone just did magic.
The furnace looked like the ones you’d see in blacksmith shops in a fantasy game.
Satisfied, I lit the furnace with the torch that I was holding, and soon, it started to burn brightly.
“Oi- President-”
Each of us were busy with tasks given to us. As I was busy preparing the equipment to build the house like a construction site, I heard the voice of Dukhun calling me from far away.
When I looked over, I saw him approaching with a big vehicle that looked like a cart, filled with clay. Behind him, Hayoon walked beside the cart as if guarding it.
In an instant, we threw down our tools and rushed over to him.
“Huff, huff.”
The cart was not only big but also quite heavy with a large heap of clay, as tall as a small mount stacked on it. The five of us pushed and pulled with all our might while grunting, and brought the cart full of clay to the construction site.
Just at that moment.
Tring~♬
“Oh, I got a call.”
Gyeongwon flinched at the sudden sound of his phone while he was completely engrossed in the game. Immediately, he dug into his pocket to take out his cell phone and received the call in a hurry, as if a second later could put him into grave danger.
“Yes, Mom. I think it might be a little late to go back. Yes… I’m just hanging out with my friends…”
Without him telling, I could tell who it was just by his cowering back and apologetic voice. It seemed although his parents weren’t in front of him, he was naturally fearful of them.
While he was talking on the phone, I also opened my phone and checked KakaoTalk for any new messages. A short reply of ‘yes’ had arrived from Jinhee.
And as soon as Gyeongwon hung up the phone, I instructed the members.
“From now on, can you all put your phones on silent mode? We need to focus more on the game. Unless it’s extremely important, please don’t pick up your phone. We’re very close to witnessing something strange.”
“Okay.”
The members swiftly turned off their phones with their eyes stuck on the monitor as if they had a few more extra eyes.
Although I knew I was going overboard, by instructing them to not go to the toilet or even use their phones in case of emergency without explaining anything to them, it was a necessary step. I needed to eliminate all the elements of distraction as soon as possible that could distract us from the game.
“Wheeze, wheeze.”
Back in the game, Dukhun scooped a handful of clay and began shaping them into a rectangle before putting them into the furnace. Once the brick was baked thoroughly, he pulled out the freshly baked brick before putting in another raw one.
As we had been playing for a while with full concentration, the appearance of all of us had already changed a lot. We no longer looked like the block-shaped small characters that we chose before starting the game. All of our game characters had completely transformed into our own real selves, as if our real selves were the original dwellers of the game.
“Okay. Put the bricks down here.”
“Hick!”
At my command, Dukhun put down the large heap of bricks that he just finished baking with a grunt in front of my feet.
“You’ve worked hard, Dukhun. Have some water and take a rest for a while.”
“Thank you. Hoo.”
Though I knew he shouldn’t be feeling thirsty or tired, no matter how long or hard he worked since we were in a game, I watched as Dukhun gulped down a large glass of water inside the game.
Wiping off the sweats dripping down his face, he sat down on the grass to take a break. He leaned his back against the wall of the house that had only been laid out on the ground a moment ago, and took a deep breath.
“By the way, President. I suddenly remembered something about the indie game that I mentioned to you before.”
“Indie game?”
“Um. Previously, you asked me for some advice while concealing the truth about the system with an indie game because you didn’t know where to spend your points.”
“Oh, that one.”
About a month ago, after solving the A-rank ghost story, Song of Resentment, that shook the whole country, I earned a ton of points.
At that time, I couldn’t decide where to spend all the points that I accumulated. Therefore, I remembered asking Dukhun for advice while hiding the truth of the system with the information of a video game as if I was playing the game recently.
“You have been asking me where and how to spend the Ghost Story Points, and also the usage of the system in a roundabout way, right?”
“Yes. I indeed hid the truth in that way and asked the questions in a roundabout way. I couldn’t explain the whole situation back then, so I thought concealing the fact then should be the right decision.”
“Hmm, just as I thought.”
Dukhun began pondering on something as beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.
A cool breeze passed by from beyond the horizon, caressing our tired body.
“Why? Is there something bothering you?”
“A little.”
“What is it?”
“How should I put it… If I remember correctly, I think I explained the situation that the President asked based on the perspective of an RPG game. Am I right…”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
At that time, to explain the situation properly, he mentioned things like ‘monsters’, ‘experience points’, etc.
“But now that I know the context to some extent, I can’t help but be a bit concerned about the way the President is getting stronger. The way you gain strength doesn’t match the heroes of typical RPG games.”
“The way I get stronger?”
“Um, how should I put this…”
Scratching his chin, he began to explain more.
“In RPG games, the important element for the hero is to ultimately grow stronger than the villain or his enemy. However, the way the President is gaining abilities isn’t like those heroes. Because in the end, no matter how much you struggle, you can only gain at most a few special abilities.”
“…Well, that’s true.”
“The main character, which is you, has limited options and methods to grow stronger. And this is the fact that has been bothering me for a while.”
Hmm, while listening to his explanation and giving it some thoughts, I realized that he wasn’t wrong.
Truth to be told, I also tried to apply the concept of Demon King as the villain to a typical fantasy game and consider myself as the Hero, the main character who would be defeating the Demon King.
However, thinking back on it, I realized that many things were missing that didn’t seem like fitting with the concept.
In reality, I wasn’t someone with a heroic personality.
No matter what I do, how many ghost stories I solve or monsters I fight with, in the end, I couldn’t improve my stats at all.
Even if I spent points to become stronger and gain abilities, all I gained were temporary abilities like Goddess of Luck or almost useless abilities like Lip Reading.
Could I really consider such strange abilities as growing stronger? Would the growth story of a hero, who sets out on an adventure to defeat the final boss, the Demon King, be this lame?
“Your ability is too limited compared to the heroes of typical RPG games. Something isn’t adding up…”
The cool breeze of the horizon had dried up the sweat on Dukhun’s body but he was still lost in thought.
“Your stamina didn’t improve, you have no mana, strength, intelligence, or agility… Those elements are key factors in growing stronger. Moreover, even the abilities that you gain are just strange gimmicks. There are no abilities that enhance your physical quality…”
“Hmm.”
That was undeniably true.
If I compared the growth of mine to the heroes of RPG games, it was too clear that I was far more lacking than those heroes.
If we look at the systematic differences between me at the entrance ceremony and the me of now, the only difference was that I’ve acquired two special abilities, Lip Reading and Life Design. Unfortunately, that was the only changing factor in my growth.
“Although I can gain special ability slots, that’s also limited. At most, I can gain three special abilities. It’s clear that I haven’t had any systematic growth other than this.”
“Sodesune…”
[T/N:Sodesune (ソデスネ) is a Japanese word which means, ‘I see’.]
In the distance, I could see Sunah shaping the clay into bricks and poking the bricks that were put inside the furnace, to see if they were baked properly. The heat of the furnace made her sweat all over, which she wiped away while working.
She glanced at the two of us who were still sitting there, but Dukhun didn’t bother to glance at her and continued with the explanation.
“You already have two special abilities… That means that if you gain one more skill, your quota of growth will be full.…”
“I guess so.”
Even if there were a lot of abilities, I couldn’t gain more than three abilities since that was the limit set by the system.
My growth was too limited and I could only have 3 abilities.
There was nothing special in me that could distinguish me from other people as a special individual. Whether it be the items, abilities, or achievements I gain.
3 abilities.
That was the limit to how strong the hero Lee Joon could become.
“Why is that… Hmm.”
Dukhun looked at the green grass beneath him and pondered deeply.
He had a focused look on his face. His jaw twitching every once in a while, a habit I noticed he seemed to have whenever he had a lot in his mind.
Like him, I also felt like wanting to know the truth. Therefore, while the rest of the members diligently worked to build the house, I stayed beside Dukhun who was deep in thought.
“….Maybe, President.”
After a while, Dukhun slowly opened his mouth. He carefully said, tilting his head although he seemed unsure of what he just uttered.
“Maybe I completely misunderstood the concept?”
