God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 63: Episode 12 _ This Makes Him a Model Citizen (6)

Chapter 63: Episode 12 _ This Makes Him a Model Citizen (6)

9.

For every hour Simin hunted, he earned $1,200. Not in-game currency, but in real cash! Of course, 1,200 gold coins in Fantastic World would be even better, but for a twenty-five-year-old who had just upgraded from a shabby shoebox studio to a decent one-bedroom, it was a dream-like income. Naturally, he had no desire to rest. He would hunt for even a moment longer.

“No sleeping, let’s hunt!”

The others were silent.

His passion was so great that he was willing to sacrifice even his four hours of sleep.

“Or do you want to leave your characters here and go to sleep? I’ll keep hunting for you,” Simin offered.

He hadn’t been paid yet, but money was a terrifying motivator. Although there was the pain of having to hunt meaninglessly while staring at a level that wouldn’t rise, all while being stuck in one place, the growing balance in his bank account gave him the courage to endure it all.

“Man, I’m a model citizen for this. Right, Yeseul?”

“Yes, yes. Thank you so much for your help. As a prize for your award, you will be given a one-day Yeseul voucher.”

“What kind of garbage reward is that?”

“What do you mean, garbage?! What’s wrong with me? Why not?!”

“Tsk, tsk. Look in the mirror.”

Besides, he had a kind party that would put up with his shameless nonsense. He was filled with energy. He wanted to make a quick buck and buy a decent house in the real world.

“With $700,000, I should be able to buy a nice apartment somewhere, right?”

“Seeing as you spent 1,600 gold coins on your territory, I think all that money will go back into the game,” Jeong Hyeonsu commented.

“Hey, don’t jinx it. Why don’t you go get some sleep?”

‘But it feels like that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Dammit.’

The three of them disappeared with a laugh. Simin also slept for four hours a day to match their schedule, so logging out would have been better for his mental health, but he didn’t. He had something he needed to do.

“The Legendary Tamer, or whatever, gave me this crappy skill, but how am I supposed to use it?”

That person had kindly increased his required experience by 200%. Still, since he had received it, he had tried to find a way to make money with it, attempting to tame monsters whenever he had the time, but he had failed every time. He had no idea why, and there was no one he could ask, which was frustrating.

“They say if you usually try after lowering your stamina, it could work.”

Of course, he had gone to the FW community forums and searched around. There was only one Legendary-grade Tamer on this vast continent, but there had to be other crazy people who thought of monsters as animals and tried to communicate with them. Fortunately, they had posted various pieces of information, and he was able to gain some basic knowledge about the job. The problem was that it wasn’t helpful.

He sighed.

It was his fault for comparing a Legendary-class person to others. The guy who had the job wasn’t in his right mind either. The joy of having to figure everything out from scratch! He scowled and started walking. It was time to test the most plausible theory he had come up with.

“Excuse me, can I ask you something?” a player asked.

“Yes?” Simin answered.

A group of players appeared before him. They were fully armed and looked like they had been roaming the hunting grounds for a while.

“Have you seen a party of four hunting around here?” one of them asked.

“A party of four?”

“Yes.”

At that moment, Simin realized, ‘These guys are looking for us.’ His intuition was top-notch. He quickly checked their numbers.

‘There are more than roughly ten of them.’

‘Are they from the Shield Guild?’ They fought every time they saw each other, so how could he know? Whoever they were, it was unlikely for a group to be wandering around this vast hunting ground looking for someone. Assuming they were spread out and searching, there had to be at least fifty of them.

‘They must be bored.’

Even if the game had nearly twenty million players, was it really necessary to bring a hundred people just to beat up four guys? And it would be one thing if they actually caught them, but they just came back to get humiliated again. He clicked his tongue and considered his options. They didn’t look particularly strong. There were probably only one or two players who could withstand his hammer, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to pick them off one by one.

“Hmm. I’m not sure. I’m just here for a quest to gather herbs.”

“Ah. Is that so?”

“Yeah, I just got here. About thirty minutes ago?”

“You don’t look like you’re at a very high level.”

“I haven’t seen any monsters.”

“You’re lucky. This is a place where level 45 monsters appear, so you should probably just finish your quest quickly and leave.”

“Ah. Thanks.”

He chose to avoid them. The fact that he had temporarily turned off his aura, which made monsters flee on sight, was a great help in getting out of this situation. Why waste energy when the other party didn’t know he was the one they were looking for? Besides, he had something he needed to test, even if it meant giving up his sleep.

“Who are you looking for?” Simin asked.

“It’s nothing. It’s a party that killed our guild member, so it’s best for a beginner like you not to get involved.”

“Aha. They sound like bad people. I hope you find them and get your revenge.”

“Yeah, have fun.”

Fantastic World was kind to beginners. He gave them a friendly smile and chuckled as they passed by.

‘A party that killed our guild member, my ass.’

It was true, but wasn’t the Shield Guild the one who started it? These were mercenaries who had nothing to do with the now-departed Shield Guild, but Simin’s misunderstanding had not yet been cleared up.

‘Will it be okay?’

The other three wouldn’t be back for another four hours, but if they were still searching by then, another battle would be inevitable. Simin didn’t mind the extra income from PKing, but if it interfered with his hunting, it could become quite annoying. Unlike before, time was now money.

“Ugh, whatever.”

He would take care of his business, come back quickly, and if they were still there, he would deal with them then. Leaving the hunting grounds, Han Simin headed for the castle.

* * *

It was nice to be back in the castle after a long time, seeing the fresh-faced beginners, the hopping rabbits, and the various NPCs. How could he forget that first moment when he logged in and was hit with the intense feeling that this was virtual reality? It was probably the same for the many other players who had started the game. And who knew how many more virtual reality games would come out in the future, but for the players who had already become accustomed to Fantastic World, they might not feel any excitement at all.

“Ah. Come to think of it...”

Simin’s business was outside the castle. But coming here reminded him of something he had forgotten.

“I wonder if Master made it back okay.”

Khan had been forgotten about for nearly a month. He was a person whom Simin was grateful for because he had accompanied him to the Empire and provided another stepping stone for his growth. Still, unfortunately, to the selfish Han Simin, he was just another NPC who had taught him enhancement.

“I should get him a gift later.”

He had no intention of going in to thank him right now. It was just a thought that came to mind as he entered to eat some delicious food he hadn’t had in a while. After wandering around and filling his stomach, Han Simin left the castle again. Then, he headed to a place filled with memories.

“There was a time when I hunted that hard, too.”

With his aura hidden, he headed to the rabbit hunting grounds, and no one paid him any attention. With his leather armor and beginner’s dagger, anyone would assume he was a beginner. He leisurely passed through the still-crowded area of rabbits and players and reached a more secluded spot.

A rabbit squeaked, approaching him.

“You cute little thing.”

He remembered being careless and getting hit by one of these things that approached him in the same way. There was a reason why men always rehashed their military stories every time they met. The new feelings and memories made him feel strange. If he hadn’t learned enhancement back then, how long would it have taken him to catch a rabbit? But now, he had grown to the point where he could extend his hand to such a rabbit.

Tears welled up in his eyes. He had grown, but why was his bank account still empty? He still had $100,000, but he planned to convert it to gold coins. Considering his rent, the only thing that had improved from before was a comfortable place to sleep. And he was only there for four hours a day while spending the rest of his time in the capsule, so it might be more efficient to use that money to upgrade the capsule instead.

Then, the rabbit bit his outstretched arm. He stroked the rabbit’s head. And he smiled at it.

“Oh, how cute. Our little rabbit knows how to bite people’s hands. All grown up, aren’t you?”

The rabbit squealed and bit down even harder. It tickled, but it felt awful.

‘Should I kill it?’

He hesitated for a moment, but he held back his anger and forced the corners of his trembling lips into a smile. ‘Still, it’s the lowest-level monster in Fantastic World. I should succeed at taming it at least once.’ It wasn’t a Legendary job he had wanted, but if he figured out how to use it, it could be quite useful. So, suppressing his instincts, he took out some clover from his pocket.

“Here. Eat up, little bunny.”

The rabbit took a step back. ‘What? Does it understand me?’ Then it should just eat and obediently submit to being tamed.

While he was trying to tame it, another small problem arose.

“Oh my, look at that person.”

“He’s talking to a rabbit?”

“He might be a poor, pitiful soul.”

Of course, he didn’t pay them any mind.

After a moment of muttering to the rabbit he’d pinned down to keep it from running away, he spoke, “Taming.”

He anxiously called out the name of the skill that had never once worked for him before. And then.

[You are using Taming (SS).]

[Taming successful!]

[Tameable Monsters: 1 / 100]

The rabbit nestled into his arms.

* * *

The number of tamers was small, but only in comparison to the game’s twenty million users—the job was far from nonexistent. In fact, it was beloved by a minority of players, and some tamers had even broken into the top 1,000 ranks.

“Taylor, Cain! Attack!”

These high-rankers were players who naturally understood the job’s characteristics and knew how to utilize them better than anyone else, making them a welcome addition to any party. After all, in a party that needed to achieve maximum efficiency with the fewest possible members, a tamer’s pets increased the number of combatants without taking a separate share of the experience points, as they drew from the tamer’s own allotment. This was why the most skilled tamers were always in high demand.

“Mr. Haian, but you can’t tame very many, can you?” one of the party members asked Haian, a tamer ranked in the 600s.

It was a point of both envy and curiosity, a thought every tamer must have had at least once: a one-man army, sending forth limitless monsters to rake in experience points. Since he was still a low-level player, he didn’t think it was possible, but he asked just in case.

“No, absolutely not.”

Faced with their hopeful gazes, Haian shook his head firmly, shattering their dreams. The bitterness in his voice was so palpable it was almost pitiful, and his party members fell silent for a moment. Every job had its own struggles, after all, and the grass was always greener on the other side. If the tamer job were truly that powerful, Haian wouldn’t be ranked in the 600s; he’d be competing in the double digits.

“The number of monsters you can tame is actually quite high,” he explained. “A Normal-grade tamer can have five, a Rare-grade ten, a Unique-grade twenty, and so on. I was lucky enough to become a Unique-grade tamer, but as you can see, I only have two with me now.”

“...Is there some kind of restriction?”

“No, not exactly. But that number is the total you can tame over your entire lifetime. Naturally, if you tame too many early on, it becomes a problem later.”

“Can’t you just abandon them and replace them with different ones?”

“Of course, if one dies, you can fill the spot. But for this job, losing a monster you’ve painstakingly raised is no different from having an item break during enhancement. You have to raise them as efficiently as possible. The only other option is to find an item that increases your taming limit, but those are incredibly expensive.”

The party members nodded, finally understanding the reality of the job of a tamer. So that was the kind of hardship they faced.

“Then I guess there aren’t any tamers running around with dozens of rabbits, right? It seems like it would be pretty effective in the early game.”

“It wouldn’t be bad,” Haian admitted, a faint smile touching his previously bitter expression. “But no idiot would do that, since hunting that way would just drain all their experience points.”

He thought to himself that he’d love to meet a tamer foolish enough to do that. With that, he began issuing commands to his two monsters once more.

* * *