Trip to Korea (1)
****
After getting home and searching the internet, I found out one despairing fact.
The fact was that if I stayed in Korea for more than a year and a half under the identity of Jin Yong-tae, I would have to go to the military.
Go to the military again?
I guess I'll just have to live as the Japanese Taira Ryuta in Korea, not Jin Yong-tae.
And now that I've become Taira Ryuta of the Taira Group, not Hata Ryuta of a small-to-medium-sized enterprise, I decided I had to get a few of the hidden pieces in Korea.
If I get caught up in the Taira Group's succession battle, my life would be in danger even if I had three of them, so I had to get something.
However, there was one worry.
My biggest worry was whether this world I was possessed into was the world of the original game, or the world of the drama that was a reinterpretation of the original and got fucking ripped to shreds by people.
In the drama, supernatural items like the ones in the game obviously didn't exist, so even if I went to Korea, there wouldn't be much for me to get.
If this was the drama's universe, it would just be a trip to eat the Korean food I hadn't been able to have for a week.
But if I was possessed into the world of the game, I could obtain quite a lot.
Hmm, how can I figure out which universe this is?
Hmm…. Right!
Should I check on the protagonist?
In the original game, belying the 'Son' in the title, you could choose between a male or female gender to create your protagonist, and in the drama, the protagonist was male, so if the protagonist here was a woman, it was 100 percent the game's universe, and even if it was a man, there was still about a fifty-fifty chance it was the game's universe.
First, I'll go on Google and search for the Shingang Group family tree in Korean....
Found it.
The child of Han Woo-jin, the fourth son of the Shingang Group's founder and current chairman, Han Mun-gang....
Han Yu-gyeong!
A woman!
It wasn't the drama.
Thankfully, it was the game's universe.
There was no picture, but if she has the default appearance from the game, she'd be gorgeous....
If I get a chance on this trip, I'll have to see her.
Now that I was certain, I had to decide what to get and plan my route.
Before that, I have to borrow some money from Mom.
I was a high school student until just a short while ago, so I didn't have much money.
I had saved up about 200,000 yen from part-time jobs here and there, but it's always good to have more money.
"Mom! Lend me some money. I want to take a trip to Korea before I start work in a few weeks."
"Korea? You're not very good at Korean, are you?"
When Jin Mi-ja came out of my room and asked, looking puzzled, I grinned triumphantly with the perk of being a Korean possessor and said.
"I'm actually incredibly good at Korean, you know? (in Korean)"
"Ehh? You're better than me?"
My mom was a second-generation Zainichi Korean, so her accent had a touch of awkwardness, which meant her Korean skills couldn't compare to mine, a possessor.
This guy here was someone who, until a week ago, was like the Heungseon Daewongun, knowing nothing but Korean.
Now I'm a bilingual prodigy in Japanese and Korean.
"So, how much do you need?"
"I'll be there for about four days, so maybe 200,000 yen?"
"Okay~"
My mom coolly agreed.
Combined with the money I already have, that's 400,000 yen, which is roughly four million won, so that should be enough, right?
This time I'll be going as the Korean Jin Yong-tae, and I have the passport I made during my sophomore year of high school for a school trip to China, so I just need to book a plane ticket and exchange the money.
***
As I got off at the airport, the air smelled of Korea.
It was just an indescribable feeling of Korea.
It had only been about ten days, but after being in Japan, it felt like a somewhat unfamiliar smell.
Or maybe it was what Hata Ryuta, the original owner of the body, was feeling.
Incheon Airport was different from what I remembered before I was possessed.
It wasn't vastly different, but I could definitely feel that this was another world.
What a strange feeling.
I took the airport railroad and got off at Yeongjong Station.
My targets were Baegunsa Temple and Yonggungsa Temple on Mount Baegun.
Before that, I stopped by a gukbap restaurant near the station and first ate a steaming hot bowl of sundae-gukbap.
Eating gukbap with kkakdugi on top for the first time in a while was heaven itself.
I left the gukbap place patting my full stomach, caught a taxi, and headed for Yonggungsa Temple.
I got off in front of Yonggungsa Temple and headed for the stone pagoda where the item was hidden.
I was nervous for no reason, worried the item might not be there.
I knew it was the game's universe, so I knew the item existed, but I was worried someone else might have taken it.
Befitting its name, Yonggungsa (Dragon Palace Temple), the base of the stone pagoda had four dragons carved on its four sides, one on each face, and the Yeouiju held by the dragon on the back, the one with the mountain behind it, was the item.
Its name was, just as it looked, Yeouiju.
Gamers speculated that it was an item prepared by the developers for newbies and unskilled players who were struggling with the game's difficulty.
In a word, that's how overpowered it was.
The first ability of the Yeouiju was to prevent instant death.
To explain in more detail, it would negate any single instance of damage exceeding 50 percent of the character's health once per day and grant 3 seconds of invincibility.
One life-save + 3 seconds of invincibility; it was an incredibly overpowered effect.
Usually, when playing [Megacorp's Youngest Son], there were a lot of sudden deaths from sniping or ambushes, and this was an option that suppressed that.
The second was a great option that lowered the death rate for newbies: 'damage below a certain threshold is halved.'
Just as the description said, even damage that wasn't fatal would be halved, so it could greatly increase survivability.
The third was Potential Enhancement.
In the original game [Megacorp's Youngest Son], every time you leveled up, you could choose one of three randomly appearing traits along with two status points, and this was an option that changed the randomly appearing traits to higher-tier ones.
Since traits were abilities that could only be obtained through pure luck, Potential Enhancement was also an incredibly good ability.
Finally, there was the increased experience gain option, which was exactly what it sounded like.
It was a trait that made you level up about 1.5 times faster than normal.
In the game, using the Yeouiju would get you called a fucking pussy, but this was reality.
Moreover, this was a world at the dawn of the era of blood-and-tears megacorporations.
So I have to look out for my own life.
When I pulled the Yeouiju from the dragon's mouth, it emitted a mystical green light and was absorbed into me.
It didn't show up on a status window or anywhere else, but it would give me beneficial effects just like in the game.
In the game, it became a bound item that couldn't be given to others, and here, it was absorbed into me so its form was no longer visible.
After obtaining the Yeouiju, I came down from Yonggungsa Temple, took a taxi again, and went to Baegunsa Temple.
Usually, at a temple, you pass through the One Pillar Gate, then the Gate of the Four Heavenly Kings, and then the Diamond Gate, which is the true main gate of the temple, but my purpose for coming to Baegunsa was at the Gate of the Four Heavenly Kings, where the statues of the Four Heavenly Kings were.
The Four Heavenly Kings were Dhṛtarāṣṭra of the East, Virūpākṣa of the West, Virūḍhaka of the South, and Vaiśravaṇa of the North, and the item was with Virūpākṣa of the West.
Virūpākṣa commands dragons, holding a Yeouiju in one hand and a spear in the other, and if you were sharp, you would realize that the item obtained from Virūpākṣa was a set item with the Yeouiju from Yonggungsa.
When I lightly pressed the space between Virūpākṣa's feet, a space appeared, and a small wooden box came out.
Inside the wooden box was a consumable item called the Cheonwanghwan.
It was an elixir that permanently and greatly increased physical-related stats, provided the growable trait 'Regeneration,' and added +1 to the physical-related stat limit.
Setting aside the stat increase, Regeneration was a trait that went very well with the Yeouiju's damage reduction, an ability that allowed you to recover quickly even after taking reduced damage.
Moreover, it was a God-tier trait that could even grow, so later on, you become a monster that can survive with just a sliver of health.
The physical-related stat limit +1 was an option that allowed you to surpass the stat limit of 20 and reach 21, and although it was just a single point, once you surpassed the limit, the character became so strong you'd wonder if it was a bug.
In the end, the Cheonwanghwan was also an overpowered item.
Ultimately, there was a reason why the protagonist's starting point in the game was Incheon.
It was the developers' consideration for weak players to start after eating the Yeouiju and the Cheonwanghwan.
Of course, since I was also weak, I accepted the consideration of the absolute being who had possessed me here.
I hate that you possessed me here, but thank you, Absolute Being.
Having obtained these two items, I had accomplished 70 percent of my purpose for coming to Korea.
I should rest for today.
It was already evening, so I carefully descended the mountain.
My phone battery is about to die, too.
I came down the mountain and entered a nearby motel.
The reason I got a motel instead of eating the Cheonwanghwan right away at Baegunsa Temple was that in the game, you would pass out for several hours after eating it.
Actually, the moment I searched for the Shingang Group family tree in Japan and realized this was the game world, there was a word I had shouted out without realizing it.
That forbidden word... 'Fucking Status Window.'
"Status Window."
As I said it quietly, a translucent status window popped up in front of me.
Why didn't I do it sooner, you ask?
Because this world was excessively real.
In the world before my possession, it was a truth that status windows didn't exist, so the thought of shouting it in this world just never occurred to me.
If I hadn't been certain after seeing the Shingang Group family tree, I would never have shouted the words 'Status Window.'
For reference, I got caught by my mom while I was doing that status window shit....
My mom clutched her stomach and rolled on the floor laughing, saying her son had caught a late case of chunibyo, and I couldn't even make any excuses.
Because it was true that I got caught while shouting "Status Window."
Let's not think about that dark history anymore and just focus on the status window in front of me.