As a result of calmly tracing his memory, Sang-hyeok was able to confirm that he remembered Sword and Magic in 2027 very clearly. It was inevitable that at this time, the retailer made a really big mistake and started showing signs of giving the best game spot to Eternal Life (EL) in advance.
It hasn't happened yet, but in the next 9 months, exactly in September 2027, Sword & Magic will carry out the 4th large-scale patch... This often played a decisive role in making the sleeves go bad.
Of course, even after a large-scale patch, a few minor mistakes were added, and then EL, which is called the DN virtual reality game revolution, gained popularity and completely collapsed.
But this hasn't happened yet, and right now retail is the best game.
What Sang-hyeok was paying attention to was one change included in the 4th large-scale patch that made the sleeves dirty.
This change was so out of the blue that users cursed it immensely, but from Sang-hyeok's point of view, it could be said that it was very honey-like information.
Wearing a helmet-type VR device, Sang-hyeok skillfully brought up the basic interface of Dream Network. In fact, users who are new to DN are not good at this.
This white-painted space where Sang-hyeok is now standing was called 'D-Room'. Simply put, DN was a huge intranet that brought virtual reality services all over the world together.
General users could access various virtual reality services in this personal D-room where Sanghyeok was standing. Of course, the sword and magic that Sanghyuk wanted to access could also be accessed here.
Of course, Sword & Magic had to pay a rather large fee of 70,000 won per month. There were also virtual reality services that could be used for free, but they also had advertisements or various billing systems, so it was natural to pay for DN to use the service.
And honestly, the monthly fee for retail seems expensive by today's standards, but it wasn't that expensive compared to EL, which had to pay a whopping 120,000 won per month.
Sang-hyeok bought a gift card in advance and charged it to his account, so he lightly paid 70,000 won and accessed the retailer.
DN's games, especially RPG games like Sword & Magic, had long and complicated tutorials. But to Sang-hyeok, this tutorial meant nothing.
He lightly skipped the tutorial and went right into the sleeves.
Basically, Retail was a well-made game.
That's why I've been keeping the best game in DN for three years already. However, it was true that it was difficult for new users to follow existing users.
Of course, Sanghyuk didn't think of catching up with the existing users by leveling up from now on.
Anyway, the purpose of Sanghyeok's game was to make short and bold money. To that end, Sang-hyeok made his own choices, not random selections, from his starting point to his initial job.
Ironically, all of his choices were made based on the experience he gained in the workshop where he was slavishly driven for five years.
Sang-hyeok, who chose 'Archer', the primary job with the highest basic strength and agility, and 'Fanwood', a small and medium-sized city in a mountainous area that is not often chosen by ordinary people, smiled bitterly as soon as he entered the game.
"At that time, all of this really felt like hell, but now that I look at it, the scenery is quite nice."
The memories of sword and magic that remained in Sang-hyeok's memory were all bad. It was inevitable that at the time, Sang-hyeok wasn't playing games because he liked it, but he was forcing himself to play.
For this story, I had to tell you about an event that hasn't happened yet, but will happen in the next 10 months or so.
When Sang-hyeok from his previous life was a high school senior, strangers came to his nursery school. As far as Sang-hyeok remembers, they had a business card with a fairly long title written on it: 'Helper for children in need of protection'.
Of course, I later found out how absurd that business card was, but at the time, they deserved quite a bit of attention from kids like Sang-hyeok, whose future was bleak.
They said that they are helping foster children stand alone, and they conducted a test for all children who have to leave nursery school within this year.
The test was a test to measure VRA (Virtual Reality Ability). Based on the test, they offered contracts to the children who could make money, saying that there was a very nice job where they could earn a lot of money while enjoying games.
Of course, the contract was a nonsensical slave contract, but to young Sang-hyeok at the time, everything they said sounded sweet, so he signed the contract without much thought.
In particular, the nursery school officials also actively recommended signing, so I didn't even have any doubts.
If you think about it now, they were really bad adults, but considering that Sang-hyeok in his previous life experienced a lot more bad people than good people, there was nothing to be greatly unfair about.
Of course, Sang-hyeok recorded an absurd number in the test, surprising the scum who run the DN workshop as a helper for children under protection.
At that time, when people recognized him greatly, Sang-hyeok got excited without knowing anything and signed the contract they offered.
And as they suggested, I moved to their workplace without finishing my third year of high school and without going to school under the pretext of getting a job.
There was no need to talk further after that.
From then on, for exactly five years, Sang-hyeok could not go out properly and was treated like a real slave. He might have had to live that life longer if the police hadn't attacked the workplace after receiving a report that he kidnapped his children and used them like slaves.
He was arrested when he was 19 and released when he was 24. The guys at the workplace were much more aggressive than the other kids because Sang-hyeok's talent was so outstanding. And in the end, an accident happened.
The accident made it easier, if at all, but in return, Sang-hyeok lost his brilliant talent.
Anyway, because of this hellish experience, Sanghyuk had to start all over again at the age of 24.
The five years spent at the workshop remained as a terrible memory to Sang-hyeok, but at least he vividly remembered the things he learned there.
It was something I learned more intensely than ever to survive, so I couldn't forget it even if I tried to forget it.
"Do I have to dig the herbs that I frantically hunted because I didn't want to get hit or to get something to eat… now I have to dig them to make money?"
What Sang-hyeok did in the sleeve for six months was digging for medicinal herbs. Each workshop had a different way of making money, but the workshop where Sanghyeok took him was threading the herbal respawn points on the sleeves.
Based on that, Sanghyeok went around like crazy collecting herbs.
Most of the areas where you can pick up herbs are areas where the minimum level was over 30, so those who got a second job could go, but Sang-hyeok only took level 10 and went around those areas.
The reason this was possible was, of course, thanks to the special talent that Sang-hyeok possessed.
Similar to other RPG games in Retail, leveling up in the beginning tends to be fast. Sanghyuk logged on to the game and reached level 10 in just 5 hours. In the beginning, this was possible because, unlike other users who were busy adapting to their own movements, Sang-hyeok hunted skillfully as soon as he logged on.
Starting from level 10, the time needed to level up dramatically increased, so Sanghyeok had no intention of leveling up any more. Sang-hyeok, who reached the minimum level for collecting medicinal herbs extremely quickly, immediately moved to the Panwood cliff area, which is considered one of the three most beautiful views in Somae.
The Panwood cliff area was an area where even level 70 users, the current highest retail level, could not easily navigate. It is an area where no monsters appear at all. To be precise, it was an area where even monsters did not live because the terrain was so rough that even a single mistake could cause you to fall down and die.
In fact, some high-level users believed in their skills and character's physical abilities, and often fell to their deaths while messing around here.
Even users who were close to level 70 were at that level, so of course it was considered a forbidden place for users with low levels.
The reason why Fanwood is the least chosen area among many starting points is because there are so many cliffs around. However, even though Sanghyuk was only level 10, he headed towards the cliff without hesitation.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been crazy, but at least to Sang-hyeok, this wasn't crazy. He already had the experience of walking around this cliff area with his level 10 body a long time ago.
"I remember it more vividly because it's definitely coming."
Whiik, Tak!
Sang-hyeok jumped lightly to the cliff on the other side and firmly grabbed the protruding part of the cliff with his fingertips.
Sang-hyeok clings to the cliff so easily as if he had glue applied to his fingertips. A normal user would have already fallen down, but he was very skillful at climbing the cliff.
The reason this was possible was because he had a very good and sensitive control ability to the extent that he could transmit all the power to his fingertips, unlike ordinary users.
This was the dignity of the VRA 350.
"There, and there..."
As expected, when I arrived, the respawn points of herbs that I hadn't come to mind at first began to come to mind. This place was not a point provided by the workshop, but a point that Sang-hyeok, who later became accustomed to the cliff area, pioneered by himself, so there was no risk of being taken away by others.
Of course, the terrain was very rough, but the rough terrain was not much of a problem for Sang-hyeok. Even if Sang-hyeok made a mistake and fell to his death, Sang-hyeok had little to lose.
Because it was below level 10, the level did not go down and even the item did not drop. Because he had nothing to lose, Sang-hyeok was able to climb the cliff all the more boldly.
Then why don't other users below level 10 take on this challenge? The reason was also simple. They couldn't move a few steps in these cliff areas.
In the first place, VRA 350 was not a figure that anyone could take.
Even if there was a person who recorded such a number, there was no way he was working on herbs here.
In other words, it meant that only Sang-hyeok could do the herb work that Sang-hyeok was doing.
Sanghyeok climbed with his bare hands without any equipment and moved around the strangely shaped cliffs. The herbs he dug up were rare herbs that were hard to find, so he could earn a decent amount of gold by selling them.
Of course, if I cashed in the gold I collected, I could make much more money than working part-time at a convenience store. However, Sang-hyeok was not working on medicinal herbs for such small money.
Sanghyeok had one thing he wanted to do with the gold he got from selling herbs.
And with that, he was about to hit the big jackpot.
A jackpot that can never hit other people.
There was one jackpot that only Sang-hyeok, who knew the future, could hit.
When I thought of sleeves, I thought of that first, and additionally I thought of herbal work to achieve it.
One change in the 4th major patch, due out in the next 8 months. Because Sang-hyeok was aware of the change, he knew very precisely what to do at this moment.
Sang-hyeok, who climbed another high cliff and pulled out two roots of a nine-leaved red plant costing 100 gold per root, turned his head for a moment to admire the dizzying scenery.
"I really missed this feeling…"
Sang-hyeok knew very well how dangerous the job he was doing was. However, the frustration he felt when he lost his brilliant talent and couldn't do this even though he wanted to do it really drove Sang-hyeok crazy.
"But compared to EL, this is child's play."
Sword & Magic was also a well-made game, but it couldn't compare to Eternal Life (EL).
EL was just the king of virtual reality games.
'The remaining time until the patch is 8 months······· Until then, collect them as much as possible!'
Sang-hyeok, who took a breath while looking at the scenery for a while, put the old-leaved red weed in his bag and started climbing the cliff again.
If Sang-hyeok in the past crazily climbed the cliff by his own will, the present Sang-hyeok crazily climbed the cliff voluntarily.
Sang-hyeok returned to the past with a new opportunity, and his new life began in earnest from now on.