Tutorial (1)
Baek Jinwoo, who had been walking for quite a while, came to a stop.
A deserted clearing nestled between the mountain trail paths. A chilly cold crept over him, raising goosebumps on his skin.
"Ha."
He still couldn't believe it.
'The world I knew has turned into the game I knew.'
The game he used to play had disappeared completely. As if it had never existed in the first place, the app itself was gone.
"Hoo."
What the hell was going on?
It seemed like clearing the 100th floor of the Tower of Trials had become some kind of trigger.
'Fuck.'
The world felt like some hidden camera prank, and at the same time, he wondered if he was still hallucinating from the aftereffects of the accident.
But the wind brushing against his skin told him otherwise. That the world before his eyes was unquestionably real.
Gulp.
Swallowing hard, Baek Jinwoo pulled two summoning scrolls from his pocket.
The very things he had used by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, over the past ten years.
'Yeah.'
Maybe this is better. Honestly, Dad was right about everything. A future that had no hope anyway. Wouldn't it be fine if, just once, a world meant for me came along?
'Of course.'
Something worthwhile has to come out here too.
The grade appearance rates for a low-grade summoning scroll were as follows:
[F-rank: 94%]
[E-rank: 5%]
[D-rank: 1%]
This was one of the main reasons Battle of Summoners had been called an ultra-hard, luck-dependent trash game.
The pull rates were completely insane.
'Please, at least E-rank or higher.'
Let's do this!
Riiip!
He boldly tore open the summoning scroll.
Wooooong!
A crack of lightning crashed down over the torn paper.
"Ugh!"
Startled, he stumbled backward at the same time.
[Using 'Low-Grade Summoning Scroll'!]
[Player 'Baek Jinwoo' has obtained the summon 'Wind Fairy' (EX-rank)!]
Huh?
"...."
Wind Fairy?
The Wind Fairy I know?
No, before that.
What rank did it just say?
Baek Jinwoo frowned.
In his narrowed vision, he saw a dazzling rank painted in brilliant platinum.
EX-rank?
Th-this is crazy.
What the hell is that?
* * *
The summon ranking system in Battle of Summoners ranged from F-rank to S-rank.
F, E, D, C, B, A, S.
A total of seven ranks.
Naturally, the closer something was to S-rank, the more broken its performance was, and the more absurdly low its pull rate became.
S-rank?
That was almost lottery-winning odds.
Even Baek Jinwoo had only pulled one once in ten years.
Among the Five Emperors, Rachel had pulled an S-rank.
A-rank?
If you were a ten-year veteran fossil, you'd usually have a few. Up until the game's third year, they hadn't even been obtainable.
Though they started handing them out more later.
B-rank was probably the best summon anyone could obtain at the current point in time.
'Didn't it come from a "High-Grade Summoning Scroll" at a 1% rate?'
If one came out, it was the kind of rank you'd bow in gratitude and use with reverence.
'But EX-rank?'
He had never seen that rank before in his life. And with a low-grade summoning scroll, only F to D-ranks should appear.
"—Yaaawn, what is this?"
It was then.
A girl no bigger than his forearm had appeared at some point, stretching and rubbing her eyes.
Then her eyes widened in shock.
"—Huh, whaaaat? What is this! Was I just summoned? For real?"
A tiny wand and a light green dress.
The name of the summon with a pair of small wings was 'Wind Fairy'.
Baek Jinwoo knew that appearance very well.
How could he not?
Back in the early days after launch, in other words during middle school, it had been an E-rank summon he had lovingly raised.
Though he had no idea why it was now carrying the EX title.
"...Are you Lamba?"
—Yeah, Lamba.....! No, I'm Wind Fairy, though? W-wait, you...!
The Wind Fairy—no, Lamba—stared in shock.
—The only person who uses that nickname is our God Ji-nu...! Y-you, you, you! Who are you really?!
'That's what I want to ask.'
Just what the hell was going on here?
And more than that, had Lamba originally been able to talk?
As far as he knew, summons couldn't speak in the first place.
For now, the nickname Lamba had come about because, like a game touched by AI, it had a function where you issued commands through chat.
"You just said it."
—Said what!
"You said there's only one person who uses that nickname."
—Th-then...
Lamba looked at him with a disbelieving expression.
—Don't tell me... you're saying you're God Ji-nu?
"Yeah, I'm God Ji-nu."
Baek Jinwoo, you brat.
* * *
Wind Fairy, Lamba.
She was an E-rank summon of the wind-attribute fairy race, specialized in buffs. The one who had handled Baek Jinwoo's early farming.
But.
She was also an unfortunate summon who had vanished in a bug patch one year after launch.
Baek Jinwoo recalled that time.
How wronged he had felt.
'What was their excuse again?'
Something about detecting excessive overbalance and restricting her use?
The summon he had painstakingly raised for a year disappeared overnight.
Compensation?
There was no such thing.
Even when he contacted customer service, they said there was nothing they could do because she had been removed by the judgment of the self-operating AI.
They sent him a document saying it was all written in the terms and conditions, and it had driven him nearly insane.
Well, he had been angry and furious at first, but his rage died down quickly.
'Because it's true I milked it to an absurd degree.'
Lamba.
She was E-rank, but if you figured out her hidden performance properly and equipped the right runes for it?
She became a straight-up bugged summon.
—Waaah, God Ji-nu! Do you know how much I missed you? Waaaah...
The Wind Fairy whimpered as she rubbed her tiny head against Baek Jinwoo's chest.
Whether she was really crying or not, his clothes were slowly getting wet.
—Sniff... I suddenly got dragged to some weird place, and I couldn't get out and was just trapped there the whole time...!
Sniff, sniff!
He still couldn't get used to the sight of Lamba talking while squeezing out tears.
It couldn't be helped.
Setting aside the fact that today was the first time he had seen her in full three-dimensional reality instead of on a mobile screen.
'It's been nine years.'
This was even the first time he had ever heard her voice.
To begin with, summons in Battle of Summoners didn't talk.
'Hmm.'
Baek Jinwoo was curious.
Why had she come out of a 'Low-Grade Summoning Scroll'?
First.
"Status window."
Let's check her information first.
[Summon: Wind Fairy]
[Race: Fairy Tribe]
[Rank: EX-rank (Isolation Judgment)]
A balance-breaking element was discovered under certain circumstances, and the summon was isolated.
[Level: 1]
[Stats Held]
Strength: 1, Intelligence: 1, Vitality: 1, Agility: 1
HP: 1,000, MP: 0
Critical Chance: 20%
Critical Damage: 20%
[Skills Held]
Wind Pressure: Each time the wand is swung, the attack speed of a single target summon increases by 3%.
'As expected.'
It was the same as before.
Just one shabby skill.
But that shabby skill?
Later, it would bring complete balance destruction.
The higher Lamba's level rose, the faster her attack speed became, and if you added a Swift Rune setup to push that attack speed to the absolute limit...
'It was just insane.'
She would give the summon beside her a ridiculously inflated attack speed boost.
Because every swing increased it by 3%, continuously, with compound growth.
And if that target was an A-rank summon?
It would soar beyond even S-rank.
'I farmed like crazy with that.'
—Anyway! Since we've met again, let's never separate this time! Okay? Right?
"Wait."
Baek Jinwoo peeled Lamba off where she was clinging to him.
—Huh?
"There's something I want to ask."
—Ask me anything! You're God Ji-nu, the one who summoned me again after I got isolated! What couldn't I do for you!
"What is isolation? Who isolated you, and how exactly does summoning work here?"
—Uh....
Lamba panicked at Baek Jinwoo's barrage of questions.
Then soon after—
—U-uaaagh! My head hurts!
"Hm? What's wrong?"
—My head hurts so much! It feels like that damned bastard put a restriction on me!
...A restriction, all of a sudden?
Though the way she was clutching her head did feel a bit awkward.
—Sorry, but there's not much I can tell you. We were isolated, and normally, no matter how much a player summoned us, we couldn't get out, you know?
"We? There are others besides you who were isolated?"
—Yeah, we weren't isolated in the same room, so I don't know who they were, but.... there were definitely more. About ten entities, I think?
More isolated summons.
If there were ten entities—
'Holy shit.'
He was sure of it.
'The summons I used, the ones that vanished after being judged as bugs.'
Ten entities, including Lamba.
It seemed those summons had all been judged EX-rank and isolated.
—Anyway, God Ji-nu, you definitely seem different from other players. When you tear a summoning scroll, it feels like we get a chance too. I was surprised myself. It had been a long time since I'd heard the call of a low-grade summoning scroll.
Ah.
He thought he understood what that meant.
In this world, I'm the only one who has the chance to pull EX-ranks?
And because Lamba used to be E-rank, she responded to the low-grade summoning scroll?
This was kind of huge.
"Why is that?"
—I don't know that either.
Hmm.
Could it be some kind of reward for clearing the 100th floor of the Tower of Trials?
For now—
Riiip!
Baek Jinwoo tore open the remaining low-grade summoning scroll.
Then—
[Using 'Low-Grade Summoning Scroll'!]
[Player 'Baek Jinwoo' has obtained the summon 'Fur Gorilla' (F-rank)!]
Ah.
Fur Gorilla.
He knew that one very well.
No matter how you tried to use it, it was hopeless, so it only got used as level-up material.
That settled it.
'Tearing a summoning scroll doesn't mean an EX-rank comes out 100% of the time.'
Which meant, if he wanted to bring back the ones he had lost in the old game—he would have to open countless summoning scrolls.
Countless summoning scrolls.
And if he could obtain them all and put them to work?
Wouldn't that create a player far stronger than even One Heaven?
Thump, thump-thump!
—Uoooh...
The gorilla approached, dropped both arms to the ground, and knelt.
What the hell.
Was that a pledge of loyalty?
"Lamba."
—Yes! God Ji-nu!
"I'm good on the God Ji-nu title. Just call me Jinwoo."
—Eeh? Why?
God Ji-nu was already a name known all over the world.
One of the One Heaven, Five Emperors.
Thanks to those veteran monsters, who had built up that name over the last three years.
'It's not time to draw attention yet.'
It was true that Baek Jinwoo had a great deal of information and experience, but the gap between him and them had currently widened to more than three years.
Also—
'Judging by the situation, it seems I'm the only one in the world who can make use of EX-ranks....'
When you still know nothing, there is nothing more dangerous than becoming the target of jealousy and envy.
And if he ever were to become that target?
It should only be after he had already become the strongest.
"Just do as you're told."
—Tch, fine. You're still as cool as ever. Hehe! Just thinking about climbing the Tower of Trials with you again is making me excited! Did we make it to the 10th floor back then? That was so hard.
"The Tower of Trials?"
—Yeah!
"I already cleared all 100 floors of that."
—Whaaaat? Really? That absurdly difficult tower?
"Yeah, I definitely cleared it."
In the game.
Now that it was reality, things would probably be a bit different.
—Well, a lot of time has passed since we got separated....
Still unable to believe it, Lamba looked at Baek Jinwoo with a doubtful expression.
Her plump cheeks were way cuter than they had looked on the screen.
"And you know, right? With your current specs, forget the 10th floor—you'd struggle with even the 1st."
—I know. Hng. Everything's been completely reset. No runes, level 1, everything.
"Which is why I think we need to focus on growth first..... so guide me to the synthesis lab."
That Fur Gorilla over there. I'm going to use it as material to power Lamba up a bit.
—Huh, Jinwoo!
"Hm?"
—How would I know where that is!
"What?"
—This is my first time here too. This is your world, so you should be the one guiding me.
Huh?
It was then.
[The player has acquired a summon.]
[Proceeding to the next stage.]
A tutorial message appeared.
Kugugugung!
With a rumble, blue light burst up from the ground of the clearing.
[A beginner's basic dungeon has been created.]
[Please enter.]
'A dungeon.'
Gulp—
Baek Jinwoo swallowed.
He had run through them countless times in the game and conquered all 100 floors of the tower, but—this was his first time facing a dungeon in reality.
Seriously?
You really want me to go in there?
[Please enter.]
Fuck.
Of course he was scared.
Wasn't the monster in the tutorial dungeon a Gray Wolf (F-rank)?
It was weak in the game, but how often do you come face-to-face with a snarling wolf in real life?
But when he thought about it again, there was no need to be afraid. After all, the summons would do all the fighting anyway, right?
'This reversed reality.'
I have to get used to it now.
Hoo, hoo!
After taking deep breaths for about ten seconds, Baek Jinwoo finally shut his eyes tight and threw himself forward.
It was his first time entering a dungeon.
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