“That idiot Jinsung needs to be in the human system . What is he even doing now?”
Harin was back in Kailan and wondering .
When she arrived in the game, the place where she sp.a.w.ned was at the Pyro Manor .
She recalled the conversation she had with Jinsung .
Open the back gate of the Pyro Manor . Why all of a sudden? Let's talk more about it in the game . I'll be there when you enter, so we'll talk there . If you can't enter through the gate, message me .“What does he mean by 'not being able to enter' the gate…”
Harin shook her head and began to move .
After a moment, she found the gate of dimension that Ian told her about .
“Should I go in…?”
Cautiously, Harin took a step into the gate without hesitation .
The moment she entered, new system messages appeared in front of her .
[You have entered the gate . ]
[Moving to another dimension system . ]
[You have entered the map of 'Spirit Mountain' . ]
Woong-!
With a familiar resonating sound, the eyes of Harin which had been filled with darkness began to see light .
A familiar silhouette appeared in front of her .
Ian and Harin looked at each other .
And somehow, Ian started to shake .
“Oh, oh, oh! It worked? It did work?”
Harin who didn't understand what he was talking about narrowed her eyes .
“I told you there was something urgent . Why did you call me here?”
However, instead of responding to Harin, Ian talked about something else .
“What do you mean by why? This was a test!”
“Test? What did you test?”
“Harin you… Where do you think you just stepped on?”
“This is the spirit dimension . ”
At the answer from Harin, Ian smiled a little and pointed his finger somewhere .
“Do you see that monster over there? The level of the monster to be exact . ”
“Hmm… Are you talking about that monkey-like-robot monster?”
“Right . ”
“Uh, level 13? Is this the beginner's hunting ground?”
Advertis.e.m.e.ntThe mouth of Harin which had been talking opened wide .
Rather than being a beginner's hunting ground, she realized that it was a level 13 transcendence monster .
“Huhu, do you understand now?”
With her eyes still stuck on it, Harin spoke .
“Uh, uh… level 13 transcendence monsters are coming out…”
The information to the Middle-Earth had been officially opened .
It had been officially released by LB, but before that, a lot of the rankers had already been entering the Underworld .
Among those informations, the fact that the current middle-Earth system had been opened was like a 'trial version', and that was what everyone had been thinking, including Harin .
It meant that all the content after the transcendence level of 10 got locked in Middle-Earth .
In the case of the Underworld, the highest level of monsters that one could fight against was level 10, and a large update notice had been released right after that . It indicated LB's note, which mentioned the need to be an 'Intermediate-being' .
The things that Harin knew weren't different .
And she was now looking at a transcendence level 13 monster .
Which meant that…
'Don't tell me… Did he already turn into an intermediate-being?'
Surprised, Harin opened her mouth again .
“How in the world did you even get here?”
With a bright smile, Ian spoke with a rather arrogant tone .
“How do you think? I got in because it's me!”
At the words of Ian, Harin became more nervous .
“You are not using bugs, right?”
“What the!? I came to this place in a very normal way!”
“Then, did you become an intermediate-being?”
“My transcendence level is only 8, so I still can't be one . ”
Harin looked at Ian with a suspicious pair of eyes .
“You're not an intermediate-being, but you're here… and you're saying that you didn't use a bug?”
“I told you, I didn't!”
“Hmm, fishy…”
Harin who heard about the Ian Bug User theory couldn't get her doubts out of her mind . However, Ian seemed to be very excited .
'Keu, this is done!'
Ian's dimensional beads, the gate that could be opened . It wasn't an item that had no restrictions .
For example, it did have a specific condition that wouldn't allow a user to bring in another user who hadn't met the conditions of the dungeon or the region .
Using the gate like that was dubious .
Intermediate-beings were the only ones that could enter the place where Ian was currently at .
However, Ian himself got into that place because he needed Harin .
'If I'm gonna be here for a while, then I need some lightrep . '
The transcendence levels of the machine monkeys were around 11 to 13, and they would be very tough to deal with for users below the level of 5 .
Of course, the only user who could probably hunt there was Ian, but he was in need of a few rankers and wanted to ride the bus easily .
'Hoonie, Yu hyun, Fiolan, Remir and a few more . If I can get around five to six members and get them to level 6, then hunting here will be possible . '
With his rough plans, Ian asked Harin to join his party .
[Guild member 'Ian' requested you to join his party . ]
[Do you accept? (Y/N)]
Seeing the system messages, Harin was rather fl.u.s.tered .
“Uh? Why a party all of a sudden? You need to meet with the guild members because of the update, remember?”
“I know, I know . Tell the guild chatroom to wait for 10 minutes . What I'm doing now is related to the update . ”
“Ah, okay . ”
Harin nodded and with a little sloppy look, she posted in the guild chatroom exactly what Ian had asked her to do .
Harin: I just met Ian, and he said to wait for 10 minutes . He said he has something he needs to try .
Less than a minute later, the members of the guild chat, including Fiolan, responded .
Fiolan: Yeah, 10 minutes, so okay… I'll have some snacks and then come back .
Remir: Uh, okay . I too haven't had the chance to have a meal because of the morning update .
But the very next moment, beyond the surprise of Harin, the one who was already surprised turned stiff .
The system messages which were covering up the guild chat window were so unrealistic .
Tring-!
[Party member 'Ian' has successfully defeated the monster 'Kariopitecus'!]
[Obtained transcendence experience of 26 . ]
… syncopation…
[Obtained transcendence experience of 34 . ]
…syncopation…
[Transcendence level has risen to 2 . ]
[Transcendence level has risen to 3 . ]
It seemed like something very complicated was going on, but what Ian was doing at the moment wasn't so easy .
Aside from the ma.s.s update about the 'Warrior's Village', the most urgent task at hand was to reach transcendence level 10 .
In addition, in order to collect the materials which were needed for making the robot, he had to hunt non-stop .
Furthermore, the plan to collect attribute essences was laid out in detail .
'I need to ride the bus with the guild members… and I need to take the attribute essences that are dropped with the bus play ratio . Haha . '
Ian needed one day to collect all the essences he needed for the production robot .
It would take around 5 days for the guild members to reach the transcendence level of 6 .
If he could do an infinite hunt with all of them, maybe Ian could reach level 10 quicker .
'Let's see, there are exactly 20 days until the update…'
Ian's goal was to be at the gate that was at the Ulphir mountains .
He needed to reach transcendence level 10 to be able to enter the Warrior's Village .
And so, as soon as the server opened after the update, his goal was to enter the Warrior's Village .
Of course, being a transcendence level 10 wasn't enough .
There was another condition which stated that the user had to be recognized by the 'ancient heroes' who were guarding the gates .
However, Ian didn't have to worry about that .
Ian had the 'Champion's Mark' which he previously got from the Courageous Commander of the Dragon Cavalry, Camires .
'I'm not sure until I try it out, but… I do have a hunch . '
There was no way for him to know until the update was done, but Ian guessed that it was an item that was probably related to the 'ancient heroes' . He believed that the item would help him be recognized as someone worthy .
'Huh, the time is a little short . Even if I do it on a tight schedule, it would take around 3 to 4 weeks before I get to level 10…'
Ian clenched his fists .
He established a goal . And once he established that goal, all he had to do was run toward it .
“Okay, if I stay overnight, I'll be able to reach level 10 before the opening day . ”
With various plans running in his head, Ian was ready for the challenge .
Woong-!
The gate began to vibrate, and familiar faces started to show up .
Harin, who entered the gate, showed up with the guild members starting from Herz, Remir, Fiolan, Yu s.h.i.+n, Hoonie, Canoel, Carwin and Colban
A lot of retainers were there along with the guild members . Soon, the calm mountain began to get crowded .
“Ah, Is this the spirit dimension?”
“Why is the air so fresh here?”
“Right . This is just what I had been thinking about, the spirit dimension . ”
The guild members were talking among themselves .
But it didn't take long for them to turn stiff and nervous .
“Kay, you have all slept well and connected, right?”
The first words that came out of Ian's mouth were freaking scary for them all .
Kang- Kang-!
Drrrrk-!
The machine workshop in the contaminated mine had crystal clear sounds of beeps and buzzing of machine sounds .
And in such a place, two beings of unusual appearance were standing side by side .
To be precise, they weren't exactly standing beside each other .
Sitting on the shoulder of a boy that seemed to be around ten years old was a small creature that looked like a winged lizard .
Those two were Kaka and 77 .
“You said it was Kaka?”
“Yeah, robot friend . What can I call you?”
“Haven't you heard from Ian? I am P-77 . Feel free to call me no . 77 . ”
“No . 77, huh? Calling you that feels a bit awkward . I'll just call you 77 . ”
The reason why Kaka was left at the machine workshop was for supervision .
Kaka's role was to make sure that 77 wouldn't have the time to be lazy .
However, unfortunately, the scene wasn't going in the direction where Ian intended it to go .
“Kaka, have you ever seen anything like this?”
“If you do me a favor, I can make you something like this…”
What 77 was showing Kaka was a small figure that was similar to a toy robot .
A high-quality robot that had a blue light s.h.i.+ning from its body .
Since it was Kaka's first time to see something like that, her eyes couldn't move away from it .
“This… what is this!? It is so cool!”
“Right? It's cool, right?”
“Tremendously! How could you even make such a thing!?”
When 77 touched a small remote, the figure started to move around on its own .
Kaka started to look ecstatic .
“What… what is the favor you wanted to ask, robot friend!? Ask me anything you want!”
