Emperor of Solo Play

 ­ Lucky Drop (1)

Pabat!

Hyrkan was running forward with the mane of his lion head fluttering in the air.

At Hyrkan’s destination…

Kikii!

Was an Armor Monkey letting out an impatient cry. Having lost its arm to a Skeleton Warrior made from using Armor Monkey as material, it had lost its will to fight and was trying to run away.

However, when it turned around to escape, it faced the one person it should have never faced.

It was Hyrkan.

When the distance between him and the Armor Monkey was close enough, Hyrkan’s longsword stabbed through the T-shaped hole in the Armor Monkey’s helmet.

Stab!

Hyrkan could feel the depth of the stab on his fingertips. It meant the sword stabbed through deeper than he had expected. Although it would be horrifying feeling for most people, Hyrkan smiled as if he enjoyed it.

‘How clean.’

Hyrkan’s remark was accurate, yet terrifying.

Hyrkan finished off the Armor Monkey with a single strike. The Armor Monkey drooped down like a toy hanging on a nail.

Chwing!

When Hyrkan swiftly pulled his sword out…

Thud!

The Armor Monkey’s body fell to the ground powerlessly.

[You have leveled up.]

[You have obtained the title, ‘Half to Hundred.’]

However, Hyrkan did not even glance at the Armor Monkey that had fallen on the ground.

He quickly put away his sword, and fiddled with the watch on his left wrist.

[Hyrkan]

– Level: 50

– Class: Magician

– Title: 20

– Stats: Strength (349) / Stamina (119) / Intelligence (239) / Magic Power (301)

’Level 50, finally.’

Hyrkan had finally reached level 50. It was a definite reward and proof of his efforts.

However, Hyrkan did not show extreme sense of happiness like he previously did with his body. Swiftly, as if he was reading through a boring school textbook, he put all stat points into strength and closed the stat window.

What Hyrkan looked at next was his skill window. A list of skills he owned appeared in a hologram in front of him.

– Summoning

[Skeleton Fragment (C)], [Madness Helm (E)], [Bone Armor (E)], [Skeleton Magician (E)], [Skeleton Science (E)], [Golem Summoning (F)]

– Curses

[Demon Curse (D)], [Slow Curse (E)]

-Body Modification Skills

[Skin Sewing (E)]

‘I hit level 50, but not a single skill ranked up.’

After checking his skill ranks, Hyrkan turned his gaze away from his watch. Although he would normally dance in happiness at achieving a level milestone, the current Hyrkan was only making a serious face.

At the same time, Hyrkan’s body did not show any signs of ease. As if he was in a hurry, Hyrkan checked the time.

‘I’ll be cutting it a bit close, but I should be able to log out after reaching the Ranger Village.’

After he finished checking the time, Hyrkan quickly began running.

★★★

The wall of a small one-room apartment was adorned with a rather unfitting 50-inch monitor. Everything else seemed old and broken down, but the monitor looked brand new like a technology transported from the future. The expression ‘pearls before swine’ could accurately describe the scene.

On the minitor, a video was being played. In an overgrown forest that could not possibly exist in this world, a monkey wearing armor was fighting with a warrior made of only bones and a golem made of mud.

The whole scene was very much like a movie. One that was worth the money.

However, the one currently watching the video, An Jaehyun, did not seem very interested in the video.

He was sitting on his overused mattress full of cheese-like holes in only a tank-top and underwear. His gaze was fixed on his tablet PC, not the 50-inch monitor. Moreover, the video being shown on the tablet PC was exactly same as the one on the large monitor. But what An Jaehyun was really looking at were the comments below the minimized video.

– As expected of Hahoe Mask Hyrkan. This one was just as good as the others.

– Hyrkan’s skeletons are the best in the world!

– I’m raising a necromancer after seeing you. I’d appreciate any tips on raising Skeleton Warriors.

– Is it possible to put skeletons up for adoption?

Most comments were positive. An Jaehyun made a light smile. No one would be unhappy with comments like these.

Then…

‘Hm?’

A needle-like comment caught An Jaehyun’s attention.

– I don’t get what’s so great about this idiot. I don’t understand the thought behind people like him spending so much money to spec-up just to make videos like these. Is that fun? I’d be a better necromancer if I tried.

It was a rather long comment, one that would normally make the reader frown. However, An Jaehyun made an even bigger smile.

“If he said this to my face in Warlord, I’d have a watch on the spot, heh.”

If he crumbled because of comments like this, the time An Jaehyun spent would have been worthless.

In any case, what really made An Jaehyun’s mood great were the donations. Although only 3 minutes had passed since he last checked, An Jaehyun once again checked his donation box. 1 dollar… 1 euro… donations were coming in endlessly. Hyrkan converted the donations into the Korean won, then made an even bigger smile.

“Uhahahaha!”

‘I finally feel like a Warlord gamer!’

His hunting guide on the Armor Monkey hunting was a bigger hit than he had expected.

‘I should really call those monkeys my filial sons.’

As he expected, a never before seen monster became a topic of interest for many. Because of the new viewers coming to see his hunting guide, his Skull Clown video had surpassed 1,000,000 views as was currently approaching reaching for 1,500,000. The Double Bear video had surpassed 800,000 and was going for 1,000,000, and his other videos were doing just as well.

It goes without saying, his revenue had increased as well. Donations were one thing, but he had finally gotten sponsorship deals. Although the sponsor wasn’t desperate, An Jaehyun was still able to receive 500,000 won for a 1-week contract.

‘With this, I can buy have meat for dinner every day!’

It was more than enough for An Jaehyun to eat meat 3 times a day with expensive coffee as a dessert.

‘It’s been a while. Why don’t I go oil my stomach up?’

At that moment, An Jaehyun’s watch began to vibrate.

– Your conversion request has been completed. Thank you for using our service. For further information, please call…

“Finally…”

When he saw this message, the thought of meat disappeared from An Jaehyun’s head.

‘I’ve finally got the bullets.’

It wasn’t the time to do something like that.

When he hit level 50, there was only one thing on his mind. Finding new items.

And now, he had acquired the funds to make his purchase.

’16,000 gold. Even if I have to use all of it, I’ll get some proper items.’

16,000 gold was equivalent to 16,000,000 won. After paying off his debt, An Jaehyun converted most of the money he earned to gold. Although he left some for emergency use, it was only enough to pay for his one-room rent, maintenance fees, V-Gear fees, and living expenses.

Since he was now making money on a regular basis, he would soon have more money to spend. Even so, what he did was not something most people would have done. When a poor person made 10,000,000 won playing a game, he would most certainly think to save it for the future. Very few, if any, would spend it all back into the game.

It was an all-in, in every sense of the word.

However, An Jaehyun did not feel uncomfortable by his spending at all.

He had always been like this with Warlord.

Any money he earned through Warlord, he re-invested it into the game. He didn’t put any of it into savings. As a result, when he was betrayed by the Hahoe Mask Guild and the Stormhunter Guild forced him to quit the game, his life had practically ended.

Even so, An Jaehyun didn’t have an inkling of mind to put his money into savings in this lifetime as well.

After all, An Jaehyun’s life was not in the real world, but inside the game world.

‘Oh!’

An Jaehyun’s eyes flashed with surprise.

‘At this price?’

★★★

“Huhu.”

Watching himself in the video he just took, Hyrkan couldn’t stop his almost offensively disgusting laughter from flowing out. He no longer had the childish lion suit. In its place, a bit wacky yet stylish skeleton armor was warming his body.

Skeleton Snake set. It was a level 50 item set made from the boss monster Skeleton Snake.

‘This design is not bad at all. Who made it?’

Including the helmet, top, bottom, gloves, and boots, it cost a total of 15,000 gold!

It was expensive.

However, it was worth every gold coin.

‘Just my magic power is 75 points higher than before.’

It wasn’t just the design that was good.

The items’ options were great as well. Just by changing his items, his magic power had risen by 75 points. Considering his old lion suit was a Magic Power Switching set, a 75 point increase was truly significant.

‘My stamina is… about 50 points higher?’

His stamina stat had risen by about 50 points as well.

Even to a magician, the stamina stat was important. If the stamina stat was too low, one became what was called the Sunfish Magician. Simply said, a single touch by a boss monster would kill them.

Of course, just these weren’t enough to make the items cost just as much as a car.

By standard, the helmet and glove parts of a set were Unique rank. The cost of Unique items was on a completely different level than Rare items. Rich players ran at them to acquire even 1 more stat points. That is, they came with brand name effects like designer purses and shoes did in real life.

What affected the price the most was the bonus option that came from wearing all 5 parts.

Hyrkan checked the bonus option one more time.

– Decreases the magic power used by summon-related skills by 10%.

Hyrkan couldn’t help but smile.

This bonus option was the reason Hyrkan was able to buy the Skeleton Snake set for a cheap price of 15,000 gold. If the bonus option was for curse-related skills, the price would have about 30,000 gold. In reality, Skeleton Snake magician sets, priest sets, and curse magician sets sold for at least 30,000 gold.

In other words, that was how unpopular the necromancer class was.

In any case, Hyrkan was satisfied with the items he purchased. It was perfect in every way. The design fit the necromancer class, not to mention the bonus option.

There was only one problem…

‘What do I do for the weapon…’

He was unable to buy a weapon. Although he had bought a Normal rank item just in case, for someone who was aiming for the top, a weapon of at least Rare rank was paramount. Moreover, now that he was level 50, it would be hard to raise another 10 levels within a month. Although there might be no problem using a low-end car for a day or two, but the effect of doing so would become clear within 30 days.

That was how important good items were. As time went on, their effectiveness became even more evident.

However, since he didn’t have the money, he couldn’t buy any.

‘I could get myself something good if I sold this lion suit set… but that’s going to take a while. It’s too much of a waste to sell it under price too.’

It would take some time before he could sell off the lion suit set. However, he couldn’t just suck on his finger and wait. He had to do something.

There was only one choice.

“If I don’t have a weapon, I’ll just have to make one.”

It was time to aim for what all gamers liked. A lucky drop.