Jackpot!
Staring blankly at the corpse that had just been glaring at him with upturned eyes, Seoun watched as it soon disappeared like in a game, leaving behind a leather pouch on the ground.
"Ha!"
He was too dumbfounded to speak at the sight of the vanishing body. But questioning the logic of this world any further seemed pointless.
Reaching out with his sweat-soaked hand, Seoun picked up the leather pouch and peeked inside. A smile formed on his lips.
It was filled with jerky. A precious food source. Quickly, he rushed outside to check the spot where he had earlier killed two werewolves.
As expected, leather pouches were also left where the werewolf corpses had been.
One pouch was filled with jerky, but the other looked different.
It resembled a leather canteen, the kind he'd only seen in movies.
Delighted, Seoun hurriedly picked up the canteen, opened the lid, and brought it to his mouth.
Sure enough, it was filled with cool water.
It was the first drink of water he'd had since arriving in this place.
After taking a few sips, he went back into the cabin and pulled out a bright lantern from the subspace.
As the inside of the cabin lit up, distinct bloodstains on the floor caught his eye.
They were the only evidence of the life-or-death battle that had just taken place.
"Whew. I really almost died."
For some reason, if those creatures had opened the door and attacked from the start, he would've had a 100% chance of dying.
"Now that I think about it, didn't it say I skipped the tutorial…? Why though? There's still so much I don't know."
Muttering to himself, Seoun began looting the last cabin, a smile slowly forming on his face.
He had found the old manual he so desperately wanted.
[Ding! Martial Arts Manual acquired. Would you like to learn it?]
Seoun pressed the X button for now and opened the manual.
As expected, it was filled with incomprehensible characters, and a small window popped up beside it.
**[Naehaseong Method. A martial arts technique for cultivating and utilizing internal energy. Chapter 1 explains energy accumulation, Chapter 2 explains its application and the effectiveness of the Naehaseong Method.
This technique is particularly effective for relieving fatigue and restoring the body.]**
[Would you like to learn it?]
This time, Seoun pressed the O button, and the manual disintegrated into dust and vanished, as all the knowledge of the Naehaseong Method was absorbed into his mind.
"Gah!"
As the information rushed into his brain, a wave of intense emptiness swept over his entire body.
**[Ding! You have learned the Internal Energy Technique. You may feel extreme fatigue due to the absence of internal energy in your lower abdomen. Your energy center is currently being activated.
You can now begin cultivating internal energy.]**
"Huh…"
He'd never had internal energy before, but now that he had learned the technique, the absence of it left a void he hadn't expected.
It was absurd to feel as if he had lost something precious, and yet he couldn't shake the hollow feeling.
"There must be some elixir… An elixir has to exist somewhere."
Seoun sat down, crossed his legs, and placed his open palms on his knees, facing upward.
Anyone who's read a martial arts novel has likely imagined learning martial arts at least once. And the highlight of martial arts? Energy accumulation, of course.
Seoun's heart pounded with excitement as he began his very first cultivation.
According to the manual, he divided his breathing into three phases: upper, middle, and lower.
As he inhaled and sensed a murky energy during the first breath, his shoulders briefly trembled.
It was natural to feel a sense of strangeness—he could now perceive an energy in the air he had always ignored.
The Naehaseong Method divided inhalation into three stages:
Upper breath: Light airMiddle breath: Heavy airLower breath: The middle layer between the two
By drawing these into the body and letting the different energies collide internally, the method produced pure, powerful energy that was stored in the energy center—thus beginning the cultivation process.
Although the technique was designed to purify mixed and murky energy, the rough and aggressive approach to doing so was anything but orthodox.
It wasn't a traditional method from a righteous sect but was instead developed by a twisted martial artist who, despite his talent, was rejected from a sect and created this method to grow stronger out of spite. After his death, the method was buried and forgotten—until now.
As the chaotic energies clashed within him and made their way toward his lower abdomen, a stinging pain shot through his body.
Focusing on the energy flow and the teachings in his mind, Seoun couldn't help but wonder:
'Is it supposed to hurt this much?'
A natural question. But lacking real experience, he had no way of knowing what was right or wrong.
He simply trusted the system of this game-like world.
If the system, incomprehensible and beyond human logic, forced such an unreasonable experience, then surely it wouldn't lead him astray. With only that belief, Seoun continued his cultivation.
By the time sunlight began to shine through the cabin, Seoun's eyes slowly opened.
'I've formed a small but complete energy center.'
The chaotic energies that had once torn through his lower abdomen now carved a clear path and settled firmly in place.
The path opened by the first burst of energy became easier for subsequent flows, and as the energy circulated through his major meridians and returned to his energy center, Seoun completed the Small Heavenly Cycle (Sojucheon) and opened his eyes.
'To think I completed Sojucheon in just one night.'
Though Seoun had no real-world experience in martial arts, he had read countless wuxia novels.
Even among overpowered protagonists, few could complete the Small Heavenly Cycle on their first try.
Writers naturally avoid that level of impossibility for the sake of story progression and coherence.
But in this world, the system made the impossible, possible.
Opening his eyes, Seoun rose from his spot, the sunlight streaming through the window.
He hadn't slept a wink, but he felt less tired than the day before.
'Must be the effect of the Naehaseong Method.'
His anxiety had faded, his mind clearer than ever. From the outside, one might even mistake him for someone calm and composed.
Completing Sojucheon and forming an energy center didn't suddenly make his body light or drastically boost his stamina like in stories.
He simply felt a bit calmer, and his fatigue had lessened.
'Just a handful. Barely enough to be used in a single technique and then gone. That's all I have.'
Seoun could clearly sense the amount of energy now stored in his center.
After just one night, there wasn't much to show for it.
Even with the system's help, this was the reality.
Leaving the cabin, Seoun opened the map and began walking.
He deliberately avoided towns or cities filled with buildings, instead charting a path through places with only the occasional cabin or small house.
"There's still plenty of magnetic field left. From yesterday to today, it only decreased this much…"
To prepare for any possible scenario, he carefully calculated how far the magnetic field would shrink and chose his next looting spot by making a wide detour around what looked like a nearby village.
Of course, it wasn't like he didn't want to loot a big village.
Every time he pulled up the map, he was constantly tempted by the desire to not simply pass by villages containing dozens, even hundreds of houses, when all he might get otherwise after a long walk were three or four.
Besides, it was only Day 2 of the game. There could still be plenty of players who hadn't adjusted yet.
But Seoun stuck to the strategy he had set from the beginning.
His goal was to make it into the Top 90. If he ever ran into another player, he had to assume he stood no chance.
In such a situation, no matter how low the probability of risk, he couldn't afford to take it.
If he did run into someone, he'd fight with everything he had—but there was no need to go looking for danger.
After walking diligently, two small cabins finally appeared in his field of vision.
They looked like run-down shelters hunters might use to spend the night in the mountains—almost identical in structure no matter where they were built.
He stopped and observed the cabin from a distance, then slowly approached while sensing for any signs of movement inside.
After confirming there was nothing, he finally stepped inside.
"Huh?"
Right as he entered, something big immediately caught his eye.
It was a breastplate—one he had seen many times in the game.
[Ding! You have acquired the Orihalcon Breastplate.]
[This is a high-grade Orihalcon breastplate. Increases resistance to fire and wind magic significantly upon wearing.]
[Greatly increases agility upon wearing.]
[Greatly increases stamina upon wearing.]
At the string of alert messages, the corners of Seoun's lips curled up.
"This… this is a jackpot!"
He quickly thrust his head into the slightly oversized breastplate and tried it on. It automatically shrank and tightened to fit his body perfectly.
"Whoa!"
The sudden tightening surprised him, but the breastplate stopped at just the right point—not too tight or uncomfortable. In fact, the fit was impressively comfortable.
He had never imagined rigid armor could feel this comfortable.
As he moved his body around to test it out, a question popped into his mind.
"It says my agility, stamina, and magic resistance increased a lot… but how do I check by how much?"
When he got the Ring of Strength, the stat increase was described very specifically, and he could tell the difference by testing how heavy objects felt.
But this armor didn't have that kind of clear explanation, so he had no way of knowing exactly how much the stats changed.
"Maybe…"
"Stats!"
[…]
"No? Character!"
[…]
"Still no… Status window?"
[…]
"Then… hmm… My Info?"
As he said the last one, a small window popped up in front of him.
***
[Name: Jin Seoun
Race: Human
Trait: Warrior
Strength: 30
Stamina: 30
Agility: 26
Toughness: 5
Magic Resistance: 10
Trait Stat – Inner Power: 5]
***
"So my trait is Warrior, huh. And these stats are with the help of the Ring of Strength and the breastplate. That means without them, my stats must be…"
Seoun tried to take off the breastplate, which had shrunk snugly to his body.
As soon as he did, it expanded back to its original size, making it easy to remove.
While he was at it, he also removed the ring.
The moment both items were unequipped, he saw his stats drop:
***
[Strength: 10
Stamina: 15
Agility: 13
Magic Resistance: 5]
***
"Haah."
Despite having been a Korean Army sergeant not too long ago, his stamina now felt shockingly low.
He had no way of knowing whether a stat of 15 was high or low in absolute terms, but with his experience in countless games, his intuition told him:
"Just plain low."
Considering how the Ring of Strength tripled his strength stat, he could tell even without comparing to others that his base stats were very low.
"Tch… Anyway, this breastplate is the real deal."
At first glance, it looked like it only raised his stamina by 15, but Seoun's guess was right.
The breastplate he had found doubled his stamina and agility.
If his stamina was 50, it would raise it by another 50. If it was 100, it would raise it by 100.
"So for someone strong, it's wings. But for me… it's just a convenience item."
With a bitter laugh, Seoun quickly put the breastplate back on and continued searching the cabin.
Just in case, he even lay flat on the floor and put his face close to the ground to check if there were any dropped rings.
This method was actually something he learned during his military service—from an annoying superior who used to inspect their cleaning by placing his face close to tables looking for dust.
That guy claimed it was the only way to catch every last speck of dirt.
Sure enough, by copying him, Seoun could see the dust on the floor quite clearly.
"Tch. Well, I guess asking for more after getting such a jackpot item is just greedy."
Seoun stepped out of the cabin and headed to the second one nearby.
"Whoa!"
Just like before, a large item greeted him as soon as he stepped in, making him feel excited again.
It was a dark black cloak—clearly a cloak, though it looked a bit crumpled and unimpressive at first glance.
Still, Seoun hurriedly reached for it.
***
[Ding! You have acquired the Cloak of Stealth.]
[When worn, you cannot be detected by detection magic while blended with darkness. It erases your presence. If you stay still in the dark, you will merge into the surrounding shadows.]
***
"Th-this is… totally…"
"A ghillie suit!"