18. Class Change
A glint passed through Ryumin's eyes as he saw the follower.
It was a familiar face.
'That person is... Seo Arin?'
Seo Arin was a rising rookie actress popular among young people.
She was beautiful enough for his brother Ryuwon to talk about excitedly.
He heard from his brother that her personality was as good and diligent as her pure appearance.
'A woman like that followed me?'
He wasn't mistaking her for someone else.
'It's definitely that woman living in the penthouse upstairs.'
Not only her appearance, but even her nickname was [Seo Arin].
"I-I'm sorry for following you."
As Seo Arin bowed her head, Ryumin looked at her with a cold gaze.
Just as he was about to ask why, another man came out from behind a tree.
It seems Seo Arin wasn't the only follower.
"We're very sorry about this. We didn't follow with bad intentions, so please calm your anger."
The man with the nickname [An Sang-cheol] spoke with a smile as if wanting to make peace.
But Ryumin's lips showed no sign of moving.
It was because the nickname and face were familiar.
'An Sang-cheol? Isn't he Ma Gyeong-rok's right-hand man?'
Ma Gyeong-rok.
The eldest son of one of Korea's top conglomerates.
He was one of the people Ryumin was targeting with the nickname [Sky Horse].
'Making Ma Gyeong-rok my ally would make growth easier in many ways.'
Especially among those connected to Ma Gyeong-rok, there was a top-class Priest.
To take her to Round 20, he needed to catch Ma Gyeong-rok's eye.
'To think I'd meet Ma Gyeong-rok's right-hand man so soon.'
While inwardly surprised, Ryumin maintained his cold gaze.
Though Ma Gyeong-rok was someone to get close to, he wasn't exactly a good guy.
'Strictly speaking, he could be considered a villain.'
Though he acts gentlemanly on the outside, he has psychopathic hobbies behind the scenes.
There was no reason to view Ma Gyeong-rok's right-hand man favorably.
'But why is An Sang-cheol with Seo Arin?'
Ryumin momentarily recalled the man he saw when he visited the upstairs.
It was the man who embarrassed his brother by saying things like rice cakes weren't needed next to Seo Arin.
'Could the man with Seo Arin have been An Sang-cheol?'
His face was different from reality, perhaps due to customization.
So he couldn't be certain they were the same person, but...
'There were rumors that Ma Gyeong-rok sponsored celebrities as part of his business.'
Based on circumstantial evidence, it seemed the man he saw yesterday was indeed An Sang-cheol.
"You two. From where did you follow me?"
"From the starting point. We saw you enter the forest and followed... If it offended you, we're sorry."
Though they apologized again, Ryumin's expression showed no sign of softening.
It couldn't be helped, as there had been no tailing in previous regressions.
Naturally, Seo Arin was unwelcome.
'The future has changed. That means I did something different from before... Could it be?'
He had indeed acted differently from previous regressions.
'Is it because I gave out rice cakes to neighbors with my brother?'
Though he had merely encountered Seo Arin while giving out rice cakes, it seems that caused a change in her mind and led to the tailing.
"Why did you follow me?"
At Ryumin's frosty question, Seo Arin tensed and answered.
"It wasn't with bad intentions... We had something to propose."
"Propose?"
"You ranked 1st in Round 1, right? So we thought maybe we could cooperate..."
"Cooperate?"
The corner of Ryumin's mouth rose mockingly.
"Isn't cooperation a word used when both sides need help?"
"Y-yes, that's right."
"But I don't need you. I'm fighting well on my own. Didn't you see while following me?"
Seo Arin could only nod in agreement.
During the 30 minutes of following, she had seen the monster corpses Ryumin left behind.
It was an overwhelming sight that showed he didn't need allies.
"Don't waste my time with useless things and go back. I have no intention of forming a team."
Ryumin turned his back as if there was nothing more to see.
As he disappeared into the forest, An Sang-cheol voiced his displeasure.
"What's with that bastard? His arrogance is through the roof."
Meanwhile, Seo Arin sat down heavily as if the tension had drained out of her.
"Haa... He's not 1st place in Round 1 for nothing. The pressure was no joke."
"What pressure? Anyone would be tense when stared at with a knife."
"Still, maybe because he's 1st place, there was an unapproachable atmosphere. His eyes were scary too..."
"That's probably because he customized well. It would be troublesome to think that's his real face."
"I guess. You changed your face too, Mr. Bodyguard..."
Seo Arin sighed deeply as she looked in the direction Black Scythe had disappeared.
"I was hoping to team up with the 1st place ranker, but it didn't work out."
"See? What did I tell you? People like that are too proud to make allies."
"I guess so... But I thought he'd join hands since teaming up increases survival rates..."
Seo Arin, who had been watching Black Scythe from the open space, finally followed him.
She wanted to propose cooperation.
But it didn't go as planned.
"What should we do now?"
"What else? We'll have to do it ourselves."
"Should we look for others to ask about cooperating?"
"That sounds good. It's better to team up for survival after all."
"It would have been better if we could have brought in Black Scythe..."
"Forget it. Let people like that live well on their own. He'd probably just be a hindrance even if we added him to the team."
"It's still disappointing."
"What's disappointing? We just wasted time following him around."
Trying to join forces to survive in this harsh world wasn't easy.
"But I didn't know there were monsters in the forest."
"Me neither."
"Black Scythe doesn't seem interested in voting. Everyone else is probably discussing who to make representative at the starting point..."
"He probably gave up early thinking it would be hard to be selected as representative."
Seo Arin nodded at An Sang-cheol's words.
The competition would be fierce since only one out of 5,000 would be chosen.
"Let's go back then. Maybe you'll get a lot of votes for being a celebrity?"
An Sang-cheol said that as he turned his head, but Seo Arin showed no sign of moving.
"Ms. Arin?"
"Should we hunt during the remaining time?"
"Pardon? Hunt?"
"Yes. If even Black Scythe gave up on voting, we have no chance either, right?"
An Sang-cheol nodded at the reasonable point.
"Well, that's not a bad idea."
"Then let's go, Mr. Bodyguard."
The two entered the forest with weapons in hand.
They had given up on following Black Scythe.
They lacked confidence to persuade him, and were worried about getting stabbed if they followed again.
But they didn't know.
Rustle-
That someone was actually following them.
* * *
Stab-!
Ryumin, who had rejected Seo Arin's proposal, killed a hobgoblin.
'I'm busy enough as it is, and they talk about cooperation. There's nothing to consider.'
He could kill these monsters sufficiently on his own anyway.
There was no reason to join hands.
'Still, it's not a bad situation that Ma Gyeong-rok's right-hand man lives upstairs from me.'
Though the future had changed, it wasn't to a degree worth worrying about.
Minor branch futures can change as much as they want.
As long as the main trunk future doesn't change, it's fine.
'When I return to reality, I should first confirm if that man next to Seo Arin is really Ma Gyeong-rok's right-hand man.'
The confirmation method isn't difficult.
He just needs to find out if the name of that manager or whatever is An Sang-cheol.
'If it is An Sang-cheol, I could approach Ma Gyeong-rok more easily.'
But he won't do anything right away.
It's not time to contact Ma Gyeong-rok yet.
That's also why he rejected the proposal.
'What's important now is just raising levels through hunting.'
Ryumin plunged back into the forest.
"Kyaak-!"
"Kiit-!"
Hobgoblins charged, but they couldn't even touch Ryumin's body.
They just became corpses to his nimble movements.
It couldn't be helped.
[Current Kill Count: 60/100]
[All stats increase by 60% due to Rune of Massacre effect.]
His stats had increased 1.6 times.
'Increasing all stats... The Rune of Massacre is certainly helpful if you stack it.'
As he was smiling at the noticeably increased stats.
"Kyaoool!"
"Grrrr!"
Five ogres, which appear occasionally, showed up.
But to Ryumin, they were just good experience fodder.
[You have killed an ogre!]
[3x Experience Gain Buff is in effect.]
[Experience +7.2%]
[Gold +20]
[Current Kill Count: 65/100]
[All stats increase by 65% due to Rune of Massacre effect.]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have reached level 10!]
[You can now use the shop.]
[Class change conditions have been met!]
[There is a hidden sub-quest!]
Reaching level 10 met the class change conditions.
Ryumin immediately checked the sub-quest that appeared.
└Change class before voting time
└Obtain a class change item and get a job!
└Success Reward ▶ 50% discount coupon for today's items!
Most people seeing this message would think:
Obtain a class change item?
How do you get one?
What's good about getting a job?
Since there was a job field in the status window, everyone would know jobs exist.
'Slow people might be learning about jobs for the first time.'
Anyway, unless they're fools, everyone would know it's good to get a job.
'Ages 15-29 are when people are most familiar with games.'
The problem is not knowing how to obtain a class change item.
'I was lost at first too. I thought they just dropped randomly from killing monsters.'
Of course, class change items do drop with a very low chance just from killing monsters.
But basically, class change items are easier to obtain by meeting specific conditions.
'For example, for Warrior, you need to kill 30 monsters within 1 hour with Strength stat 10 or higher for the class change item to drop.'
For Berserker, you need to hunt for a certain time while bleeding, and for Assassin, you need to successfully ambush monsters from behind multiple times.
In other words, you need to perform actions related to the job for the class change item to drop.
'That's why jobs somewhat reflect a person's tendencies.'
Ryumin also obtained the Hunter job at first.
It was a job he got from repeatedly tracking or fleeing from monsters in the forest.
'But now there's no need to change to Hunter.'
There's no need to obtain a class change item.
Because he already got one in the previous round.
Ryumin took out the Angel's Blood from his inventory and spoke the activation words.
'Use.'
Light burst from the Angel's Blood and a message appeared.
[You have used a class change item.]
[You cannot change jobs once chosen, so please decide carefully.]
[Do you want to change to the 'Reaper' class? Y/N]
Ryumin immediately answered the question that needed no consideration.
'Yes.'
At that moment, Ryumin's body shone with golden light.
An intense light burst out that could blind the eyes, but only for a moment.
As if it had never happened, it subsided and a message came into view.
[You have changed to the Reaper class. Congratulations!]
[You have obtained 'Reaper's Scythe' as a class change commemoration reward!]
[You have obtained 'Reaper's Rune' as a class change commemoration reward!]
[The obtained rune is automatically engraved on the player's body!]
[You have learned the Reaper-exclusive skill 'Death's Seal'!]
[The next skill can be learned automatically when you reach level 20.]
Weapon, rune, and skill came in as class change commemorations.
The good news didn't end there.
[Your grade has risen from 'Novice' to 'Apprentice'!]
[You have completed the sub-quest!]
[You have been awarded a 50% discount coupon for today's items!]
Grades include Novice (Lv1), Apprentice (Lv10), Regular (Lv20), Expert (Lv40), Master (Lv60), Grand Master (Lv99).
By changing class, Ryumin's grade rose from Novice to Apprentice.
There are many benefits to rising in grade.
New job skills are gained and existing skills are strengthened.
Lock functions are released and higher-tier items can be equipped.
'But if you don't change class, you'll stay at Novice grade forever.'
That's why class change was an essential element for growth.
Though various rewards came in, the messages weren't over yet.
The first class change reward remained.