Game 11: Jackpot Crystal, Jackpot Trouble
The no-nonsense, flat, voice of the system sliced like a bad ringtone into the head of Han Tae-yang.
[Message: Codename is Loner. Anonymous mode on. Your face will be blurred. Your voice will be altered.]
"Blur my face? Change my voice?" As he could shake the nonsense out Tae-yang muttered and rubbed the side of his head. He was indolent, murmuring his words, like a penniless college student complaining of instant noodles. Why not add a laugh track to it? "Maybe auto-tune me. Eh, whatever. Do what you want. I already lost the vote here."
He shrugged, and dust flew off his shoulders as some chalk had been thrown at him by the system. He did not this time talk to the cold thing buzzing in his skull. There were bigger matters. Much bigger.
His eyes jerked in at the opening of the great bamboo like tree trunk before him. Its bark was slightly green, and the neon cracks in its lines made me think that it was old pavement. Sap was clinging to the roughness of the surface in strings, and it was sticky and glittering, and smelled as sharp as resin and burnt sugar.
He slipped a hand inside. The wood was warm. No it was not warm in the sunshine, it was alive, it was as though you had touched the skin of a living thing that was breathing. The fingers of Tae-yang were moving fibrous ridges, moving soft pulsating membranes. His pulse kicked up. His chest was like a tight glove half filled with nerves, half with the unnatural heat of the tree.
Then, click.
He was holding something hard. Smooth, crystalline. Cold. It whistled somewhat, like a telephone in his palm.
When he pulled it free, his lips split into a grin so wide it almost looked painful. His eyes caught the glow. Emerald light spilled across his face, lighting up his sharp cheekbones, bouncing in the whites of his eyes.
"Jack. Pot." He dragged the words out, savoring them like candy on his tongue.
The object sat there: a Wood Crystal. Dense, flawless, humming with a rhythm that beat against his hand like a second heartbeat.
"Ah, so this is it," Tae-yang whispered, tone shifting from disbelief to greed in a blink. "While those scrubby fruits only hand out three points like stingy waiters dropping half-empty glasses, this baby here throws down twelve. Twelve points! That's like... four level-ups in one bite. Tell me, where else in fifty floors do you find a cheat code like this?"
He held the crystal up, watching the green light cut through the drifting mist. For a moment, he just admired it. The glow reflected in his pupils, and in that moment, he looked less like a rookie hunter and more like a thief admiring a stolen crown jewel.
He licked his lips. "Alright, no need to play with food."
Without hesitation, he popped it straight into his mouth. The crystal crunched between his teeth like hard candy, except instead of sugar, it spilled a wave of heat and cold down his throat.
Instantly, his body convulsed. His veins lit up under his skin, glowing green for a flash before fading. His muscles clenched as if he'd swallowed live firecrackers. The taste was metallic, sharp like chewing glass soaked in herbs.
He doubled over, fingers clutching his stomach. His breath came out ragged, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might pop his ribs. Then, release. His entire body loosened, every joint cracking like knuckles after a long cramp.
A wild laugh escaped him.
"Ooooh, now that's better than coffee."
He threw his head back, eyes closed, savoring the aftershock. He felt it, the agility twisting into his muscles, the magic stirring under his skin like restless sparks. His lungs expanded more fully, his arms felt lighter, and his reflexes were sharper.
He snapped his fingers just to feel the speed.
Click.
The sound cracked sharper than usual, echoing in the hollow forest chamber.
"Yeah, I'm addicted already."
He pulled up his system panel, the green holographic screen shimmering before his face.
[Player Status]
Name: Han Tae-yang (hantaeyang)
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Level: 1
Strength: 5
Agility: 6 (+3)
Vitality: 7
Magic: 5 (+3)
Skill Points Available: 12
Occupation: None
Special Skills: None
Tae-yang tilted his head, staring at the glowing numbers.
"... Twelve skill points. At level one. Strongest rookie alive, that's me."
His grin spread again. "Everyone else is out there grinding, begging monsters for scraps, and here I am, boom, level one with stats on steroids."
Back in the outside world, the stage was already shifting.
Kang Jin-hoop, the floor moderator, sat in his dingy office lined with flickering screens. He leaned back in his chair, cheap coffee steaming on the desk, eyes glued to the system feed. The moment the greedy bamboo-staff duke tree registered as defeated, the system chimed.
[System Announcement: The First Duke-Class Bamboo-Staff Tree has been Defeated!]
[A replay video will be uploaded in 10 minutes.]
He rubbed his temples. "Great. Just what I needed. Another freak rookie stirring the pot."
And sure enough, when the replay dropped, the comment section erupted like a broken fire hydrant.
"No way. No way. Who the hell deflects a duke-tree strike with a branch?!"
"Lucky scrub. Must've glitched the boss."
"Nah, nah, I saw that footwork; the man's got skills. He legit parried that thing."
"Is he hacking? Tell me he's hacking. Please. I need to sleep at night."
"Respect. Pure respect. I reached floor seven last week, and I couldn't even scratch the mini-guard vines. This dude... this is another species."
The anti-fans, the skeptics, and the self-declared experts, one by one, shut up. The video left no room for denial. Han Tae-yang's moves were clumsy in some parts, reckless in others, but impossible to fake. His awkward dodges turned genius. His swings landed with terrifying timing.
The haters' words dried out like spilled ink. In their place came awe, suspicion, and a strange fear.
Meanwhile, Tae-yang wasn't doomscrolling the comments. He was already home.
His tiny apartment smelled of leftover stew and warm dust. The light flickered above the old couch where his younger sister, Han Ha-neul, sat wrapped in a blanket, remote in hand. She watched the news with the intensity of a referee in extra time.
Tae-yang dropped onto the couch beside her, sweaty shirt sticking to his back, a lopsided grin plastered on his face like he'd just gotten away with stealing candy from an entire nation.
On screen, the anchor's voice carried the breaking headline:
"Mysterious Rookie Defeats Duke-Class Boss Alone; Two Major Corporations Competing to Sponsor Him."
Tae-yang blinked. "Wait, what?"
His phone buzzed immediately. A new message blinked.
[From: Mr. Oxy, CEO of Five Star Semiconductor]
"We can pay you 10 billion won upfront and 100 million won monthly. We'll provide you with as much money as you want. Contact us the moment you see this message."
Tae-yang stared at the screen, jaw slack, as Ha-neul tilted her head toward him.
"...Oppa, are you about to faint?"