Chapter 2
[Acquired Skills]
<Translation> (A)
<Regressor’s Diary> (SSS)
<Poles Apart> (EX)
┗Triggers either a Luck or Misfortune effect.
┗The probability of occurrence and duration are random.
Luck and misfortune.
As long as the word luck is attached, there’s a high chance it will at least be decent.
But the problem is… it also comes with misfortune.
Judging from the description alone, it’s a skill that carries both risk and reward. If the risks can be minimized and the rewards maximized, it could definitely become a great asset.
How should I go about understanding this skill properly…?
Like before, just rushing to defeat the boss quickly doesn’t mean anything.
For the sake of a happy ending, he had to become stronger, and he had to do things differently.
Even if the path was harsher than before.
…Alright. It’s decided.
There was a choice that guaranteed better rewards and growth, but until now it was too dangerous to even consider.
And it was also the perfect place to test and understand this new EX-rank skill, <Poles Apart>.
Jang Su-nam looked down at the manhole cover that connected to the sewers.
First time going down here during the tutorial.
The sewers were a dangerous place to enter in the very early stages.
The reason? Slimes, the monsters that appeared most often during tutorials, were much stronger when in water.
A sewer, filled with dampness and moisture, is the perfect breeding ground for slimes…
“Kirirk?”
“Kiiiik?”
As if to prove it, echoes of slimes came from below.
Carefully… without being noticed.
Crack!
“…Huh?”
He looked up at the noise from above just in time to see a piece of metal fly past.
The ladder suddenly wobbled.
No way…
With a horrified expression, he looked at it—
[<Poles Apart> Misfortune has been triggered.]
Craaaack!
The sturdy ladder suddenly broke and came loose.
“Damn it! So this is what random misfortune means!”
Crash! Splash!
He had wanted to descend quietly, but instead fell with a thunderous crash.
Luckily, he landed in water, so his legs weren’t broken.
“Kirik?”
But the noise of his fall had caught the slimes’ attention.
Shit!
“Kiiiiik!!”
Dozens of slimes swarmed toward him.
One or two weren’t a problem. But dozens? That was another story.
And with the ladder destroyed, there was no escape route.
It wouldn’t be strange if he died and regressed here and now.
“Krrrk!”
He swung his axe at the first slime to charge, but somehow the attack missed.
By chance, another slime had leapt and collided, knocking the first out of the axe’s path.
So the random duration includes this kind of nonsense too?
Splash!
At that moment, he slipped on moss and fell backward.
…So it’s not just about time, but also about number of mishaps, huh.
A few slimes pounced on him at once, but he quickly rolled away and swung his axe at the nearest one.
This time, he hit the mark, shattering its core.
Good. It’s not that I can’t do anything. It’s just probability.
If he could act within that margin, maybe he could reduce the risks of this EX-rank skill.
But without knowing how far the misfortune could go, there was no guarantee of safety.
Then—
Boom!!
Part of the sewer ceiling suddenly collapsed, crushing several charging slimes.
At the same time, a system window popped up.
[<Poles Apart> Luck has been triggered.]
Perfect! So once misfortune ends, luck follows!
Seizing the chance, Jang Su-nam rushed headlong into the swarm, swinging his axe wildly.
[Acquired 2 Coins.]
Suddenly, coins began dropping in succession, far more than before.
So that’s how it works.
He was starting to understand the structure of the skill.
Like an uphill and downhill path, misfortune and luck alternated.
But this alone isn’t enough…
Almost dying just to use luck for survival? That wasn’t worth it.
If he was going to risk so much, he had to reap far greater rewards.
And right in front of him were dozens of slimes.
I don’t know how long this will last, but I need to milk it for all it’s worth!
How many slimes had he cut down by now?
“Krrrk!”
“Kiiiik!!”
He sidestepped two slimes charging from opposite sides, then cleaved both with a single swing.
Though his body was still adjusting after regression, the battle instincts and experience engraved in his mind were returning.
“Now it’s getting manageable.”
Before him, the remaining slimes were no longer a threat.
Hmm… looks like I wiped them all out.
Ahead lay three branching paths.
With no information, he simply chose the middle one.
If his luck was still active, acting without overthinking might yield better results anyway.
And this was the perfect chance to test <Poles Apart> further.
…Strange. The sewers are abnormally large. Is this… an Anomalous Zone?
Anomalous Zones were areas altered after the Trials—ordinary spaces twisted into something else.
A house could suddenly hold a dungeon entrance, or a five-story building could become a five-hundred-story tower.
They weren’t always bad.
Anomalous Zones often hid hidden pieces or quests.
I wonder what’s waiting at the end of this path.
He kept moving, occasionally cutting down stray slimes, until—
“Somebody, please save me!!”
He found an NPC surrounded by a horde of slimes in a massive open chamber.
“I don’t want to die here!”
The NPC, a young woman, was trembling on top of a cracked wall.
This is… a hidden piece event?
Normally, once a zone’s boss was defeated, no more monsters appeared there except in dungeon-like areas.
Because of that, Jang Su-nam had always rushed to defeat bosses and had never encountered sewer events before.
The luck effect of <Poles Apart> is proving its worth.
After all, the random path he’d chosen had led him straight to a hidden piece.
“Kiiiik!!”
Rumble—
But such events always came with crisis.
From every entrance, hundreds of slimes surged forth.
Way too many to handle if he only wanted to test his skill.
But now that he knew luck and misfortune alternated, the situation looked different.
And above all—
Luck time still hasn’t ended.
With a grin, Jang Su-nam charged into the horde of slimes.
“Amazing…”
The NPC woman whispered in awe.
From her perspective, all she could see above his head was [<Hunter> (F)].
So to her, it was shocking that a mere F-rank Hunter had wiped out hundreds of slimes.
It’s still just the tutorial, and yet he’s this strong…
He fought like a battle-hardened knight, wielding his weapon and even the environment itself with skill to crush the monsters.
Thanks to him, I’m alive.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman wore clothing of refined quality. Clearly, before her world perished, she had been of noble birth.
“Thank you for saving me, Hunter.”
Stepping down gracefully from the wall, she lifted the hem of her skirt in a curtsy.
Had the setting not been the foul-smelling sewer, the gesture would have been perfect.
“I am NPC Aria Linesis.”
NPCs.
Unlike Hunters, they only had one life. Even if they killed monsters, they gained no coins.
The only way they could earn coins was through commission fees from transactions with Hunters.
That’s why they fear Hunters so much.
They had once been denizens of other worlds.
But when the Trials descended, their worlds perished, and as punishment they were reduced to NPCs who could only run shops here.
It was a tragic fate—different from Jang Su-nam, who at least had reached endings, even bad ones.
NPCs were the remnants of failed worlds that had never even reached an ending.
If somewhere out there, another survivor like Jang Su-nam existed, perhaps they too were endlessly regressing in search of a happy ending.
But… Aria?
He looked closely at her.
<NPC> (F)
<Aria Linesis>
Open Regressor’s Diary.
A book visible only to him opened, displaying records from the first run related to Aria.
Holographic replay… ugh, this isn’t good.
A floating screen revealed a horribly mutilated corpse discovered by a river.
[Regressor’s Diary]
[Name: Aria Linesis (NPC)]
[- First Princess of the Linesis Empire, once the empire’s only hope.]
[- Information obtained from quests by NPCs searching for the missing princess.]
[- Princess Aria is discovered dead in the tutorial region’s river.]
[- In all previous runs, Aria never survived.]
[Further research needed on survival routes.]
So the corpse found in the river had drifted here after dying in the sewers.
He had never imagined she was an NPC that could actually be saved.
Good. This means I can revisit all those blocked events related to the empire.
Then—
“Would you like to use my shop? For my savior, I’ll even offer a 5% discount.”
Aria smiled warmly.
NPC discounts meant reduced commission fees—it was a genuine gesture of goodwill.
“Alright. Show me the list.”
Considering this was an event impossible to clear under normal circumstances, and with <Poles Apart>’s luck still in effect, the shop’s wares should be worth checking.
He scrolled through the list—
“What the…!”
His eyes widened in shock.
[Purchase Skill <Absolute Map> (SSS+)]
[Purchase Skill <Phantasmal Summon> (EX+)]
You’ve got to be kidding me.
Two of the best skills he had ever obtained in past runs—appearing together.
It was almost too much luck to believe.
First, Absolute Map.
It revealed terrain, monsters, items, and even people’s locations and movements, including those not yet discovered.
An invaluable information-gathering tool.
Because its acquisition conditions differed each run, he had only ever obtained it once across six regressions.
And now even Phantasmal Summon…
That skill allowed the summoning of beings from the caster’s memory—even the dead.
No wonder it was ranked EX+.
Though its conditions for activation were strict, its value was immeasurable.
He had also obtained it only once before.
But never both at the same time.
Each skill was decent in its early stages, but once strengthened, they became overwhelmingly powerful.
Wait—how much?
In previous runs, both had been absurdly expensive.
But now, their combined cost was only 100 coins.
Exactly the amount he had earned today.
Perfect!!
Perhaps because they appeared in the tutorial, or more likely due to <Poles Apart>’s luck effect.
Otherwise, what were the chances the price matched his exact coin total?
Normally, 100 coins in the tutorial was an astronomical sum.
But for these skills, it was more than worth it.
“I’ll buy both.”
“Of course! Thank you for your patronage.”
“Register them immediately.”
[You have acquired the skill <Absolute Map>.]
[You have acquired the skill <Phantasmal Summon>.]
[Status]
Jang Su-nam
Hunter (F)
♥x3
[Acquired Skills]
<Translation> (A)
<Regressor’s Diary> (SSS)
<Poles Apart> (EX)
<Absolute Map> (SSS+)
<Phantasmal Summon> (EX+)
This seventh run… is definitely different.
From the start, he had obtained a new regression privilege and two top-tier hidden skills.
Though difficult to control, if used well…
I might be able to crush bad endings with sheer force.
<Poles Apart> would always be a wild card, a double-edged sword.
But if harnessed correctly, it could make impossible things possible.
At that moment, another message appeared.
[Tip: A special tutorial-exclusive mail has been sent.]
[Tip: Hunters who do not leave the tutorial zone for 100 days will receive a reward.]
…Right, there was that tip.
But he knew better—system tips weren’t always correct.
Even if I don’t interfere, this tutorial zone will automatically clear itself in a month.
Once cleared, no more monsters would spawn, meaning he’d be idle for 70 days.
Should I give up again?
He had known this trick since his first run, so he had never once claimed the mail reward.
Though the reward was said to be decent, losing 70 days of coin farming was too big a risk.
Still… if I’m worried about not earning coins for 70 days, couldn’t I just earn a massive amount beforehand?
The thought struck him like lightning.
Yes. That method…
It wouldn’t be easy, but it was possible.
“……??”
Aria tilted her head, confused by the strange look in his eyes.
“…Aria.”
“Yes?”
“If I pay you fairly, can we trade things outside your normal stock list?”
Her body shivered at his firm tone.
“Eh? Uh… if we come to mutual terms, I suppose…?”
Gulp.
She swallowed nervously.
The unease and dread she felt was nothing like the fear she’d had when surrounded by slimes.
Then Jang Su-nam spoke.
“For 30 days… I’ll buy you.”
