“Gotta love the private loaners. They sure work fast if money is involved.”Drrk, drrrk!
An Jaehyun fiddled with the dial on his watch. He checked his bank account and saw the 10 million won he borrowed. Then, he fiddled with the dial again before lifting his watch towards his mouth.“Peach Store.”Since the money was in, he knew where he had to go.
The Peach Store.It controlled over 70% of the VR market, and contained the VR devices needed to access the virtual world. It was also where one could create his Warlord character. Peach Corp, of course, was in a partnership with Tobot Soft. Since Warlord’s launch, more than half of V-Gear buyers were looking to play Warlord. Since Warlord’s sales skyrocketed V-Gear sales, it was obvious that Peach Corp would give Warlord special treatment.
At the Peach Store, one could take care of everything needed to access Warlord.
‘Alright.’After looking up its location, An Jaehyun placed a small earphone over his left ear.-Navigation started.
★★★
When the household virtual reality device, V-Gear Level 1 Model, appeared for the first time, the world called it a revolution.
But it wasn’t a revolution for most people.“Who the hell would buy a gaming console for 20 million won?”It was truly revolutionary for VR devices worth several hundreds of millions to be reduced to 20 million, but the price was still exorbitant. Instead of trying to lower the cost, Peach Corp took a different approach in solving this problem.
You aren’t paying for a new toy, but a new era!That was Peach Corp’s slogan, and Peach Corp took great effort in creating the Peach Store.
It was different from an ordinary store. Its peach-shaped building and its sleek and fancy walls were unique to the Peach Store. Its interior was even more astounding.
Inside the Peach Store, one had unlimited access to any V-Gear related content.Enjoy as much as you want, then buy it! This was their motto.
This unlimited access applied for all 24 hours of the day. They were open 24/7, and Peach Stores allowed their customers to freely try out the V-Gear. There were some who made their Warlord characters and played exclusively inside the Peach Stores!
When An Jaehyun visited the Peach Store for the first time in quite a while, he naturally found himself looking around for any changes. He saw other customers seated on comfy chairs, wearing huge gloves and thick helmets slightly bigger than motorcycle helmets. They were obviously customers enjoying the VR world.
At this time, an employee walked up to An Jaehyun.“Can I help you?”At the employee’s pleasant smile, An Jaehyun immediately replied,“I’m here to buy the Level 1 model V-Gear. I’m ready to form the contract, so lead the way.”Because of An Jaehyun’s hasty reply, the employee thought he was the impatient type. The employee asked An Jaehyun a question according to his manual.“Have you used a V-Gear before?”An Jaehyun stopped to think.‘Not at this point.’Before he returned to the past, An Jaehyun even showed symptoms of neck disc from wearing V-Gear too much, but all that has yet to happen in the current time. The An Jaehyun now had never used a V-Gear before.“No, I haven’t.”
“Then I recommend you try one out before purchasing it. As you know, some people feel dizzy or show signs of motion sickness with V-Gears.”“I’ll just buy it right away.”If An Jaehyun showed such symptoms, he wouldn’t have come back to the past in the first place.
The employee led An Jaehyun to buy a V-Gear. As he walked, An Jaehyun noticed something from the corner of his eyes, and he stopped.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Isn’t that a Level 6S? Is that on sale?”
An Jaehyun could see an emerald-colored V-Gear, unlike the normal white colored ones, as well as two programmers testing it.
‘That’s definitely a Level 6, and an S-Level to boot. Didn’t that go on sale around the end of 2036?’
Level 1 was the most basic model for V-Gears, and every subsequent level indicated a higher model. Higher models showed better VR performances, as better equipment showed better results. The difference wasn’t too big. The general consensus was that there was about a 2% difference for every 1 level.But this 2% was nothing to scoff at, especially if it accumulated. A 2% difference in one’s stats was a huge difference. Between a Level 1 model and a Level 4 model, there was a whole 6% difference! One wouldn’t be able to find an in-game item that raised one’s stats by 6% no matter how much they paid.
Level 4 V-Gear were around 100 million won. These were used by professionals whose livelihoods depended on their performances in Warlord. The Level 5 models could only be custom ordered, and the price skyrocketed depending on what additional options the buyer ordered. As for the Level 6 model, they weren’t even on sale yet! The ones in existence should still be in there testing stage.
Plus, the emerald color indicated that it was an S-series. The ‘S’ stood for ‘special,’ and it was meant to be the one of Peach Store’s fanciest V-Gears. There were only 77 of them for each level, and they boasted an astronomical price. They weren’t meant for regular users or even professionals, but for rich millionaires and billionaires… the kind who bought yachts on a whim.
‘That thing is so good.’
An Jaehyun had once used one of these. When An Jaehyun was making a name for himself in Warlord, he was chosen as a Level 7S tester, and he was genuinely awed. As he was still using a Level 3 model at this time, he felt as if he changed from a cheap bike to the best sports car. He could do whatever he wanted.The programmers who received An Jaehyun’s VR testing data were equally surprised. They even claimed no one could so perfectly utilize the Level 7S’s capabilities as An Jaehyun.In any case, the Level 6S was right in front of him.An Jaehyun was naturally curious.
“Sorry, but that model is not on sale.”
The employee immediately explained, to which An Jaehyun couldn’t help but to laugh inside.
‘Even if I had the money to buy that, I’d probably spend it on stocks instead.’
The current An Jaehyun didn’t have the capital to buy such a thing even if it was on sale. Even so, he couldn’t understand why something that wasn’t on sale officially would be at the Peach Store. Usually, Peach Corp directly delivered such products to the buyer’s location. It wasn’t something that would be on display at a store, just like how a Lamborghini wouldn’t be on display at a local car store.
‘This could only mean there was a technical problem, and they hurriedly brought it here for a test.’
It was obvious that there was a problem with the machine, and technicians were on the case because of its owner’s notice.An Jaehyun was curious about its owner.
‘Someone in Korea who can buy a product that isn’t even on sale yet…’
Furthermore, it was highly likely that An Jaehyun knew this owner.
‘It’s her, isn’t it?’
This owner was also the person he despised the most in the whole world.An Jaehyun frowned.The employee misunderstood An Jaehyun’s change in expression. Thinking it was his fault, the employee bowed his head in apology.
“We’re very sorry, but that product is…”
“Hm?”An Jaehyun was surprised, but soon realized what the employee was thinking.
‘Peach Store employees are way too kind. It’s almost too much.’
An Jaehyun immediately relaxed his expression.
“No, I was squinting because I couldn’t see well. If you aren’t selling it, that’s that. Let’s go form the contract. Ah, I’m also making a Warlord character so take care of that as well.”
At An Jaehyun’s words, the employee began walking. As he followed the employee, An Jaehyun turned his head once again.
‘Is this model really that bitch’s? Then I won’t feel satisfied until I spit on it or something…’
To elaborate, players of the same class could form highly individualistic characters depending on the skill tree and stat distribution.
Even so, there were popular classes and unpopular classes. It was a matter of fact for RPG games.In Warlord, necromancer was an unpopular class.
The class itself wasn’t bad. They could apply curses, summon undead monsters and golems, and use attack spells like other magicians. They could even modify their own body and increase their combat strength. In a way, it was the ultimate all-around class.
The problem was that it was near impossible to simultaneously acquire high-ranking skills in all these aspects.Warlord had a skill tree system. To obtain a high-rank skill, one needs a high-rank skill book and its low-rank skill to achieve a certain rank. There were many ways to raise a skill’s rank, but the most common way was to use it repeatedly.
Naturally, to obtain skills of different variety, one had to use lower-rank skills of different variety. If a player took his time doing so as a hobby, it wouldn’t be impossible.
But because players needed to show results quicker than their competitors, most opted for efficiency rather than enjoyment. As such, it made sense that the necromancer class would be unpopular. It was also the reason Starters didn’t give much thought to necromancers. If they became necromancers, they could enjoy the game, but they wouldn’t be able to surpass their competitors.
In addition, necromancers weren’t all that useful in the main content of Warlord – raids. Standard magicians could cover most of what necromancers could do. They had stronger attack spells than necromancers. Curse magic is a type of debuff magic, but it isn’t the only debuff magic.
Most importantly, necromancers could only use a single attribute magic. This penalty was huge for rankers that had to kill higher level monsters. Players could deal more than two times the damage depending on the attribute compatibility, but necromancers didn’t have such advantage.
Summoning magic was even more complicated.
First, they required a lot of money. Necromancers summoned using cores that were made using materials dropped from monsters. There were other ways to summon, but cores made summons far more powerful.
Unfortunately, these cores were expensive. Top level players typically spent several million wons for a single item, and cores costed about the same amount. It would be fine for one or two summons, but some necromancers controlled close to 100 summons.
This was fine if it was one big investment, but necromancers had to change their cores as they leveled up.
There was another problem. Summons were unappealing. Moving skeletons gave off a totally different feeling in the virtual world than on PC screens. If the summons were ghouls or zombies… it was simply too disgusting. A very small minority might enjoy something like it, but even they wouldn’t admit that it’s a normal hobby.
Even so, there was one player that reached the top 100 rankings as a necromancer.
His username was Himala, and his nickname, Rich Lich.
As one can expect, he was extremely rich in real life.His real name was Subrata Duta. He was a 33 year old multi-millionaire, who struck rich with a single app. His hobby was gaming, and he was the type of pervert that enjoyed crushing others through money.
Sadly, his money didn’t help him in Warlord. He had no talent for VR games. Even if he equipped himself with the best items, he was just food to PKers who wanted his item. It was no different than a beginner driving a Lamborghini. In fact, because he had good items, he was often PKed by other players.At one point, he gave up going into battle himself. He became a necromancer and made his summons battle. It didn’t matter to him how much money it cost.
When he successfully solo killed Queen Blaze Ant, a level 250 elite monster, people started seeing necromancers in a different light. This was also when he was given the nickname Rich Lich.
But necromancers never became popular. They required the biggest investment of all the available classes and were difficult to raise. Plus, when players started to reevaluate the necromancer class, Warlord’s raid system was close to being perfected without necromancers. It was out of the question for top ranking players to give up their characters and restart as necromancers. They weren’t willing to change their raid strategies for the sake of necromancers either.
This was why An Jaehyun was conflicted.‘It’s possible.’Want to do everything alone?
Then the necromancer class was the answer. Necromancers weren’t weak in battle either. They could make themselves into the undead and modify their own bodies. Their combat power wasn’t particularly higher than that of other classes, but An Jaehyun was always able to win against rankers with better equipment and higher stats. He just had to meet certain standards.
Money was a problem, but if he monopolized the profit from killing monsters, it wasn’t impossible. He could earn as much as he used.He had only one concern.‘It’s possible… but if I fail, I’m done for.’It was the possibility of failure.There was enough information about necromancers, but if his plans failed and he couldn’t achieve the results he desired, he would be in dire straits.He didn’t think he could return to the past again.
If he failed, he had to change his mind. He had to throw away his pride, borrow a dog’s, and bark under someone’s legs.If he failed, it was over.But what if he succeeded?
What if he could really do everything by himself as a necromancer?He would be able to place everyone under his feet. That was the case with Rich Lich. He fought with entire guilds alone. He couldn’t fight the Top 30 Guilds, but he was able to crush ordinary guilds by himself. In a simple 1v1, only a handful of rankers were able to beat him.
Rich Lich’s battle skills were atrocious, but what if he had An Jaehyun’s battle skills? He might have changed Warlord’s history.‘Yeah, I have to change history.’An Jaehyun had no use for the history he knew. What he wanted was a new history centered around himself.
Most importantly, An Jaehyun was confident. That if he became famous enough, the Top 30 Guilds would try to eliminate him again. He knew that if anyone threatened them, those fat pigs turned into boars and charged at their target.
An Jaehyun had to fight against them.In a way, this was most important to him.‘Alright.’He made his decision.“Time to go borrow some money.”
★★★
An Jaehyun’s first contact with Warlord was through a workshop part-time job. Warlord was a game for the rich. Many didn’t have the time or were too lazy to farm for levels, skills, or items. Of course, if they could pay for them, they would happily do so.
Workshops were created for this reason, and part-time workers were hired. Since one couldn’t use bots like in PC games, one could only hire actual people.
An Jaehyun found his talent in this part-time job. He saved up money and started Warlord about three months after.
Of course, An Jaehyun now had no intention of wasting three months.The solution to his money problem was private loans.
Private loans weren’t illegal, but as one might expect, people who deal with money think in strange ways.
Used V-Gears sold for a high price. As long as it worked, it would sell for 80% of the original cost. So private loaners often lent money with V-Gears as conditions. That way, they wouldn’t lose too much money.
People who borrowed money to buy V-Gears were those looking for a way to earn money. No one borrowed money just so they could enjoy playing VR games. As for the remaining money they owned, it could be paid back as referral fees to workshops.This was called the V-Gear loan.
When An Jaehyun was working part-time in workshops, he saw many who couldn’t pay back their V-Gear loan and came to work in workshops. As much as he worked for these people, he knew where to find them.
As a result, An Jaehyun found himself drinking coffee in a private loan company an hour after he made his decision.“You’re here to borrow money to buy a V-Gear, correct?”“Yes.”At An Jaehyun’s response, the loaner, Park Wuyoung, glanced over him from head to toe.‘He doesn’t look like anyone special.’To Park Wuyoung, it was important to know how to categorize their customers.
Even if they could get back most of their money, a loss was still a loss. At the same time, there were other things to watch out for.
How much money could he rip off apart from the amount he lent? Customers who paid back the amount they owed were good, but even better customers were those who could never pay back the amount they owed and only paid back the interest.
To the loaner’s eyes, An Jaehyun was the latter.He looked like a nobody. With all the news of money in Warlord, there were more people of this sort every day. They were the type to think they could become heroes, like the people they saw on Warlord videos. They were the type to think they may have talent in gaming.Many of them were especially those running away from reality.
To Park Wuyoung, An Jaehyun was exactly that type.‘Well, there’s no reason not to.’Of course, there was no reason for Park Wuyoung to let the man in front of him borrow. He could easily get his money back.“Alright, but understand that the interest is high. It will be 29.9%.”To Park Wuyoung, it was laughable.
Park Wuyoung was certain. In 3 months, after his free trial period was over, An Jaehyun will come running back to him. With no way to pay back the money he owed, he will cry his eyes out as he begs on his feet.“How much are you looking to borrow?”Knowing this, Park Wuyoung smiled on the outside, but sneered inside.
An Jaehyun calmly replied to Park Wuyoung’s smile.“10 million won.”“Excuse me?”It was higher than he had expected. He knew 7 million was enough to buy a V-Gear and play Warlord for 3 months.
But he’s borrowing 3 million more?To Park Wuyoung’s surprise, An Jaehyun kept his calm and replied,“If I can’t pay it back, introduce me to a workshop. Even if I have to work like a dog, I’ll pay you back.”Park Wuyoung couldn’t answer for a moment.At Park Wuyoung’s silence, An Jaehyun snapped his finger twice.“Excuse me, but I’m a bit busy right now. Can I get the money or not?”An Jaehyun knew the man thought nothing of him. He was used to the way the man looked at him. Although he didn’t feel good, he could care less about it at the moment.
So An Jaehyun let his displeasure show on his face, but still asked with a calm voice.In response, Park Wuyoung fixed his attitude.“We can, of course, but you will also have to put in your one-room deposit as guarantee.”“Done. Alright, let’s hurry up.”Before Park Wuyoung had the chance, An Jaehyun grabbed the contract on top of the table and started reading it like it was his. Then, without listening to any explanations, he filled in the blank space with the amount he wanted, then stamped it with his legal seal.
Afterwards, he turned the contract around and handed it back to Park Wuyoung, saying,“Stamp it.”
Warlord has many classes to choose from.
To elaborate, players of the same class could form highly individualistic characters depending on the skill tree and stat distribution.
Even so, there were popular classes and unpopular classes. It was a matter of fact for RPG games.
In Warlord, necromancer was an unpopular class.
The class itself wasn’t bad. They could apply curses, summon undead monsters and golems, and use attack spells like other magicians. They could even modify their own body and increase their combat strength. In a way, it was the ultimate all-around class.
The problem was that it was near impossible to simultaneously acquire high-ranking skills in all these aspects.
Warlord had a skill tree system. To obtain a high-rank skill, one needs a high-rank skill book and its low-rank skill to achieve a certain rank. There were many ways to raise a skill’s rank, but the most common way was to use it repeatedly.
Naturally, to obtain skills of different variety, one had to use lower-rank skills of different variety. If a player took his time doing so as a hobby, it wouldn’t be impossible.
But because players needed to show results quicker than their competitors, most opted for efficiency rather than enjoyment. As such, it made sense that the necromancer class would be unpopular. It was also the reason Starters didn’t give much thought to necromancers. If they became necromancers, they could enjoy the game, but they wouldn’t be able to surpass their competitors.
In addition, necromancers weren’t all that useful in the main content of Warlord – raids. Standard magicians could cover most of what necromancers could do. They had stronger attack spells than necromancers. Curse magic is a type of debuff magic, but it isn’t the only debuff magic.
Most importantly, necromancers could only use a single attribute magic. This penalty was huge for rankers that had to kill higher level monsters. Players could deal more than two times the damage depending on the attribute compatibility, but necromancers didn’t have such advantage.
Summoning magic was even more complicated. First, they required a lot of money. Necromancers summoned using cores that were made using materials dropped from monsters. There were other ways to summon, but cores made summons far more powerful. Unfortunately, these cores were expensive. Top level players typically spent several million wons for a single item, and cores costed about the same amount. It would be fine for one or two summons, but some necromancers controlled close to 100 summons.
This was fine if it was one big investment, but necromancers had to change their cores as they leveled up.
There was another problem. Summons were unappealing. Moving skeletons gave off a totally different feeling in the virtual world than on PC screens. If the summons were ghouls or zombies… it was simply too disgusting. A very small minority might enjoy something like it, but even they wouldn’t admit that it’s a normal hobby.
Even so, there was one player that reached the top 100 rankings as a necromancer.
His username was Himala, and his nickname, Rich Lich.
As one can expect, he was extremely rich in real life.
His real name was Subrata Duta. He was a 33 year old multi-millionaire, who struck rich with a single app. His hobby was gaming, and he was the type of pervert that enjoyed crushing others through money.
Sadly, his money didn’t help him in Warlord. He had no talent for VR games. Even if he equipped himself with the best items, he was just food to PKers who wanted his item. It was no different than a beginner driving a Lamborghini. In fact, because he had good items, he was often PKed by other players.
At one point, he gave up going into battle himself. He became a necromancer and made his summons battle. It didn’t matter to him how much money it cost.
When he successfully solo killed Queen Blaze Ant, a level 250 elite monster, people started seeing necromancers in a different light. This was also when he was given the nickname Rich Lich.
But necromancers never became popular. They required the biggest investment of all the available classes and were difficult to raise. Plus, when players started to reevaluate the necromancer class, Warlord’s raid system was close to being perfected without necromancers. It was out of the question for top ranking players to give up their characters and restart as necromancers. They weren’t willing to change their raid strategies for the sake of necromancers either.
This was why An Jaehyun was conflicted.
‘It’s possible.’
Want to do everything alone?
Then the necromancer class was the answer. Necromancers weren’t weak in battle either. They could make themselves into the undead and modify their own bodies. Their combat power wasn’t particularly higher than that of other classes, but An Jaehyun was always able to win against rankers with better equipment and higher stats. He just had to meet certain standards.
Money was a problem, but if he monopolized the profit from killing monsters, it wasn’t impossible. He could earn as much as he used.
He had only one concern.
‘It’s possible… but if I fail, I’m done for.’
It was the possibility of failure.
There was enough information about necromancers, but if his plans failed and he couldn’t achieve the results he desired, he would be in dire straits.
He didn’t think he could return to the past again.
If he failed, he had to change his mind. He had to throw away his pride, borrow a dog’s, and bark under someone’s legs.
If he failed, it was over.
But what if he succeeded?
What if he could really do everything by himself as a necromancer?
He would be able to place everyone under his feet. That was the case with Rich Lich. He fought with entire guilds alone. He couldn’t fight the Top 30 Guilds, but he was able to crush ordinary guilds by himself. In a simple 1v1, only a handful of rankers were able to beat him.
Rich Lich’s battle skills were atrocious, but what if he had An Jaehyun’s battle skills? He might have changed Warlord’s history.
‘Yeah, I have to change history.’
An Jaehyun had no use for the history he knew. What he wanted was a new history centered around himself.
Most importantly, An Jaehyun was confident. That if he became famous enough, the Top 30 Guilds would try to eliminate him again. He knew that if anyone threatened them, those fat pigs turned into boars and charged at their target.
An Jaehyun had to fight against them.
In a way, this was most important to him.
‘Alright.’
He made his decision.
“Time to go borrow some money.”
★★★
An Jaehyun’s first contact with Warlord was through a workshop part-time job. Warlord was a game for the rich. Many didn’t have the time or were too lazy to farm for levels, skills, or items. Of course, if they could pay for them, they would happily do so.
Workshops were created for this reason, and part-time workers were hired. Since one couldn’t use bots like in PC games, one could only hire actual people.
An Jaehyun found his talent in this part-time job. He saved up money and started Warlord about three months after.
Of course, An Jaehyun now had no intention of wasting three months.
The solution to his money problem was private loans.
Private loans weren’t illegal, but as one might expect, people who deal with money think in strange ways.
Used V-Gears sold for a high price. As long as it worked, it would sell for 80% of the original cost. So private loaners often lent money with V-Gears as conditions. That way, they wouldn’t lose too much money.
People who borrowed money to buy V-Gears were those looking for a way to earn money. No one borrowed money just so they could enjoy playing VR games. As for the remaining money they owned, it could be paid back as referral fees to workshops.
This was called the V-Gear loan.
When An Jaehyun was working part-time in workshops, he saw many who couldn’t pay back their V-Gear loan and came to work in workshops. As much as he worked for these people, he knew where to find them.
As a result, An Jaehyun found himself drinking coffee in a private loan company an hour after he made his decision.
“You’re here to borrow money to buy a V-Gear, correct?”
“Yes.”
At An Jaehyun’s response, the loaner, Park Wuyoung, glanced over him from head to toe.
‘He doesn’t look like anyone special.’
To Park Wuyoung, it was important to know how to categorize their customers.
Even if they could get back most of their money, a loss was still a loss. At the same time, there were other things to watch out for.
How much money could he rip off apart from the amount he lent? Customers who paid back the amount they owed were good, but even better customers were those who could never pay back the amount they owed and only paid back the interest.
To the loaner’s eyes, An Jaehyun was the latter.
He looked like a nobody. With all the news of money in Warlord, there were more people of this sort every day. They were the type to think they could become heroes, like the people they saw on Warlord videos. They were the type to think they may have talent in gaming.
Many of them were especially those running away from reality.
To Park Wuyoung, An Jaehyun was exactly that type.
‘Well, there’s no reason not to.’
Of course, there was no reason for Park Wuyoung to let the man in front of him borrow. He could easily get his money back.
“Alright, but understand that the interest is high. It will be 29.9%.”
To Park Wuyoung, it was laughable.
Park Wuyoung was certain. In 3 months, after his free trial period was over, An Jaehyun will come running back to him. With no way to pay back the money he owed, he will cry his eyes out as he begs on his feet.
“How much are you looking to borrow?”
Knowing this, Park Wuyoung smiled on the outside, but sneered inside.
An Jaehyun calmly replied to Park Wuyoung’s smile.
“10 million won.”
“Excuse me?”
It was higher than he had expected. He knew 7 million was enough to buy a V-Gear and play Warlord for 3 months.
But he’s borrowing 3 million more?
To Park Wuyoung’s surprise, An Jaehyun kept his calm and replied,
“If I can’t pay it back, introduce me to a workshop. Even if I have to work like a dog, I’ll pay you back.”
Park Wuyoung couldn’t answer for a moment.
At Park Wuyoung’s silence, An Jaehyun snapped his finger twice.
“Excuse me, but I’m a bit busy right now. Can I get the money or not?”
An Jaehyun knew the man thought nothing of him. He was used to the way the man looked at him. Although he didn’t feel good, he could care less about it at the moment.
So An Jaehyun let his displeasure show on his face, but still asked with a calm voice.
In response, Park Wuyoung fixed his attitude.
“We can, of course, but you will also have to put in your one-room deposit as guarantee.”
“Done. Alright, let’s hurry up.”
Before Park Wuyoung had the chance, An Jaehyun grabbed the contract on top of the table and started reading it like it was his. Then, without listening to any explanations, he filled in the blank space with the amount he wanted, then stamped it with his legal seal.
Afterwards, he turned the contract around and handed it back to Park Wuyoung, saying,
“Stamp it.”Warlord has many classes to choose from.
To elaborate, players of the same class could form highly individualistic characters depending on the skill tree and stat distribution.
Even so, there were popular classes and unpopular classes. It was a matter of fact for RPG games.
In Warlord, necromancer was an unpopular class.
The class itself wasn’t bad. They could apply curses, summon undead monsters and golems, and use attack spells like other magicians. They could even modify their own body and increase their combat strength. In a way, it was the ultimate all-around class.
The problem was that it was near impossible to simultaneously acquire high-ranking skills in all these aspects.
Warlord had a skill tree system. To obtain a high-rank skill, one needs a high-rank skill book and its low-rank skill to achieve a certain rank. There were many ways to raise a skill’s rank, but the most common way was to use it repeatedly.
Naturally, to obtain skills of different variety, one had to use lower-rank skills of different variety. If a player took his time doing so as a hobby, it wouldn’t be impossible.
But because players needed to show results quicker than their competitors, most opted for efficiency rather than enjoyment. As such, it made sense that the necromancer class would be unpopular. It was also the reason Starters didn’t give much thought to necromancers. If they became necromancers, they could enjoy the game, but they wouldn’t be able to surpass their competitors.
In addition, necromancers weren’t all that useful in the main content of Warlord – raids. Standard magicians could cover most of what necromancers could do. They had stronger attack spells than necromancers. Curse magic is a type of debuff magic, but it isn’t the only debuff magic.
Most importantly, necromancers could only use a single attribute magic. This penalty was huge for rankers that had to kill higher level monsters. Players could deal more than two times the damage depending on the attribute compatibility, but necromancers didn’t have such advantage.
Summoning magic was even more complicated. First, they required a lot of money. Necromancers summoned using cores that were made using materials dropped from monsters. There were other ways to summon, but cores made summons far more powerful. Unfortunately, these cores were expensive. Top level players typically spent several million wons for a single item, and cores costed about the same amount. It would be fine for one or two summons, but some necromancers controlled close to 100 summons.
This was fine if it was one big investment, but necromancers had to change their cores as they leveled up.
There was another problem. Summons were unappealing. Moving skeletons gave off a totally different feeling in the virtual world than on PC screens. If the summons were ghouls or zombies… it was simply too disgusting. A very small minority might enjoy something like it, but even they wouldn’t admit that it’s a normal hobby.
Even so, there was one player that reached the top 100 rankings as a necromancer.
His username was Himala, and his nickname, Rich Lich.
As one can expect, he was extremely rich in real life.
His real name was Subrata Duta. He was a 33 year old multi-millionaire, who struck rich with a single app. His hobby was gaming, and he was the type of pervert that enjoyed crushing others through money.
Sadly, his money didn’t help him in Warlord. He had no talent for VR games. Even if he equipped himself with the best items, he was just food to PKers who wanted his item. It was no different than a beginner driving a Lamborghini. In fact, because he had good items, he was often PKed by other players.
At one point, he gave up going into battle himself. He became a necromancer and made his summons battle. It didn’t matter to him how much money it cost.
When he successfully solo killed Queen Blaze Ant, a level 250 elite monster, people started seeing necromancers in a different light. This was also when he was given the nickname Rich Lich.
But necromancers never became popular. They required the biggest investment of all the available classes and were difficult to raise. Plus, when players started to reevaluate the necromancer class, Warlord’s raid system was close to being perfected without necromancers. It was out of the question for top ranking players to give up their characters and restart as necromancers. They weren’t willing to change their raid strategies for the sake of necromancers either.
This was why An Jaehyun was conflicted.
‘It’s possible.’
Want to do everything alone?
Then the necromancer class was the answer. Necromancers weren’t weak in battle either. They could make themselves into the undead and modify their own bodies. Their combat power wasn’t particularly higher than that of other classes, but An Jaehyun was always able to win against rankers with better equipment and higher stats. He just had to meet certain standards.
Money was a problem, but if he monopolized the profit from killing monsters, it wasn’t impossible. He could earn as much as he used.
He had only one concern.
‘It’s possible… but if I fail, I’m done for.’
It was the possibility of failure.
There was enough information about necromancers, but if his plans failed and he couldn’t achieve the results he desired, he would be in dire straits.
He didn’t think he could return to the past again.
If he failed, he had to change his mind. He had to throw away his pride, borrow a dog’s, and bark under someone’s legs.
If he failed, it was over.
But what if he succeeded?
What if he could really do everything by himself as a necromancer?
He would be able to place everyone under his feet. That was the case with Rich Lich. He fought with entire guilds alone. He couldn’t fight the Top 30 Guilds, but he was able to crush ordinary guilds by himself. In a simple 1v1, only a handful of rankers were able to beat him.
Rich Lich’s battle skills were atrocious, but what if he had An Jaehyun’s battle skills? He might have changed Warlord’s history.
‘Yeah, I have to change history.’
An Jaehyun had no use for the history he knew. What he wanted was a new history centered around himself.
Most importantly, An Jaehyun was confident. That if he became famous enough, the Top 30 Guilds would try to eliminate him again. He knew that if anyone threatened them, those fat pigs turned into boars and charged at their target.
An Jaehyun had to fight against them.
In a way, this was most important to him.
‘Alright.’
He made his decision.
“Time to go borrow some money.”
★★★
An Jaehyun’s first contact with Warlord was through a workshop part-time job. Warlord was a game for the rich. Many didn’t have the time or were too lazy to farm for levels, skills, or items. Of course, if they could pay for them, they would happily do so.
Workshops were created for this reason, and part-time workers were hired. Since one couldn’t use bots like in PC games, one could only hire actual people.
An Jaehyun found his talent in this part-time job. He saved up money and started Warlord about three months after.
Of course, An Jaehyun now had no intention of wasting three months.
The solution to his money problem was private loans.
Private loans weren’t illegal, but as one might expect, people who deal with money think in strange ways.
Used V-Gears sold for a high price. As long as it worked, it would sell for 80% of the original cost. So private loaners often lent money with V-Gears as conditions. That way, they wouldn’t lose too much money.
People who borrowed money to buy V-Gears were those looking for a way to earn money. No one borrowed money just so they could enjoy playing VR games. As for the remaining money they owned, it could be paid back as referral fees to workshops.
This was called the V-Gear loan.
When An Jaehyun was working part-time in workshops, he saw many who couldn’t pay back their V-Gear loan and came to work in workshops. As much as he worked for these people, he knew where to find them.
As a result, An Jaehyun found himself drinking coffee in a private loan company an hour after he made his decision.
“You’re here to borrow money to buy a V-Gear, correct?”
“Yes.”
At An Jaehyun’s response, the loaner, Park Wuyoung, glanced over him from head to toe.
‘He doesn’t look like anyone special.’
To Park Wuyoung, it was important to know how to categorize their customers.
Even if they could get back most of their money, a loss was still a loss. At the same time, there were other things to watch out for.
How much money could he rip off apart from the amount he lent? Customers who paid back the amount they owed were good, but even better customers were those who could never pay back the amount they owed and only paid back the interest.
To the loaner’s eyes, An Jaehyun was the latter.
He looked like a nobody. With all the news of money in Warlord, there were more people of this sort every day. They were the type to think they could become heroes, like the people they saw on Warlord videos. They were the type to think they may have talent in gaming.
Many of them were especially those running away from reality.
To Park Wuyoung, An Jaehyun was exactly that type.
‘Well, there’s no reason not to.’
Of course, there was no reason for Park Wuyoung to let the man in front of him borrow. He could easily get his money back.
“Alright, but understand that the interest is high. It will be 29.9%.”
To Park Wuyoung, it was laughable.
Park Wuyoung was certain. In 3 months, after his free trial period was over, An Jaehyun will come running back to him. With no way to pay back the money he owed, he will cry his eyes out as he begs on his feet.
“How much are you looking to borrow?”
Knowing this, Park Wuyoung smiled on the outside, but sneered inside.
An Jaehyun calmly replied to Park Wuyoung’s smile.
“10 million won.”
“Excuse me?”
It was higher than he had expected. He knew 7 million was enough to buy a V-Gear and play Warlord for 3 months.
But he’s borrowing 3 million more?
To Park Wuyoung’s surprise, An Jaehyun kept his calm and replied,
“If I can’t pay it back, introduce me to a workshop. Even if I have to work like a dog, I’ll pay you back.”
Park Wuyoung couldn’t answer for a moment.
At Park Wuyoung’s silence, An Jaehyun snapped his finger twice.
“Excuse me, but I’m a bit busy right now. Can I get the money or not?”
An Jaehyun knew the man thought nothing of him. He was used to the way the man looked at him. Although he didn’t feel good, he could care less about it at the moment.
So An Jaehyun let his displeasure show on his face, but still asked with a calm voice.
In response, Park Wuyoung fixed his attitude.
“We can, of course, but you will also have to put in your one-room deposit as guarantee.”
“Done. Alright, let’s hurry up.”
Before Park Wuyoung had the chance, An Jaehyun grabbed the contract on top of the table and started reading it like it was his. Then, without listening to any explanations, he filled in the blank space with the amount he wanted, then stamped it with his legal seal.
Afterwards, he turned the contract around and handed it back to Park Wuyoung, saying,
“Stamp it.”