RTGR 23

Chapter 23 …

[You have acquired ‘Charge Slash’.]

[Charge Slash]

• Grade: Normal

• Restriction: Swordsman class

• Description: While swinging your sword, you can dash once in the desired direction.

• Effect: Deals damage equal to 150% of attack power, and the travel distance is proportional to movement speed.
  The faster the attack speed, the faster it activates.

• Cooldown: 10 seconds

‘Oh!’

After checking the skill information, Dohyun let out an impressed sound.

His class allowed him to use the skills of all professions.

Because of that, he could have ended up with magic or archery skills, but fortunately, he got a sword-related skill.

‘Charge Slash isn’t bad.’

No—it was more than just “not bad.”

Setting aside the fact that it was sword-related, even among normal skills it had excellent utility.

Even if the raw power wasn’t impressive, the nature of a moving slash made it extremely versatile—useful for combos or interrupting enemy skills.

With its short cooldown, it carried almost no risk, and in emergencies it could even be used as a mobility skill…

‘I used this a lot back in Demrock too.’

Because he had god-forsaken luck, he had to make the most of low-grade skills back then, and few skills served him as well as Charge Slash.

And now, that same skill had returned to him.

‘Take good care of me again.’

Of course, he wouldn’t be relying on it as much as before.

Smirking, Dohyun closed the system window—though not his inventory.

Naturally.

[Random Skill Draw Ticket]

‘I’ve still got one bullet left.’

In God of All Worlds, players received a Random Skill Draw Ticket every 10 levels.

A gacha ticket that could yield anything from Normal to Legendary.

Dohyun, who had reached level 10 after clearing the dungeon, had also received one and saved it to use safely in town.

[Would you like to use the Random Skill Draw Ticket?]

And now, the time had come.

“Yeah.”

The moment he used the ticket, ten cards appeared—and then the Eye of Truth activated, bursting with brilliant light.

Dohyun squeezed his eyes shut and prayed desperately.

‘Gold… please be gold…’

When he opened his eyes and saw what greeted him, they widened in shock.

[Connection time limit has ended.]
[Forced logout in 5 seconds.]

‘Th-this is insane…!’

The connection time limit.

A system designed to prevent players from losing track of time in the hyper-realistic God of All Worlds and collapsing or becoming addicted.

It had existed back in the Demrock days too, so that part wasn’t surprising.

But…

‘Ten hours already passed?’

He hadn’t thought much of the fairly generous limit, but it was hard to believe he had used it all just graduating from Arde.

Especially since his party had cleared the dungeon faster than anyone else.

Even the goblin hunting had been closer to a massacre than a hunt…

‘Ah.’

Then suddenly, the tutorial flashed through his mind.

The tutorial that had taken over six hours.

At the same time the memory surfaced, his reason snapped back—and his judgment was swift.

[3…]
[2…]

Two seconds remaining.

‘Th-the card! I need to pick the card first!’

Dohyun’s eyes scanned the cards rapidly.

True to its random nature, the cards emitted various colors of light—until his gaze stopped on one.

‘That one!’

The moment he selected the card—

Flash—!

A brilliant burst of light exploded as the skill card’s information appeared.

Ding—

[Connection time has ended. Forcing logout.]

At the same time, Dohyun’s vision went black.

That was the final memory of his first day in God of All Worlds.

And seeing Dohyun suddenly vanish in a beam of light, ShieldBest’s party froze simultaneously like machines with dead batteries.

“…Huh?”
“…Wait?”

Their reactions came a few seconds later.

“W-what? Did Kaiser log out?”
“No, he was in the middle of drawing a skill…”
“Wasn’t Kaiser doing a skill draw too?”

Startled by his friends’ reactions, ShieldBest checked the party list and shook his head.

The name “Kaiser” had disappeared.

After confirming a beat later, MiganTakdae and YubinKkyung muttered in confusion.

“If he left while drawing a skill… he probably disconnected, right?”
“He hasn’t logged back in yet. Maybe his time limit ran out.”
“Oh, right. Huh? But why already?”
“Who knows… maybe he spent too long on the god draw?”

Since they’d been together from level one, the tutorial was the only real explanation.

None of them imagined he’d spent over six hours there, so they simply let it go.

Having grasped the situation, YubinKkyung and MiganTakdae sighed softly.

“Too bad. We didn’t even get to say goodbye properly.”
“Yeah. I wanted to leave a strong impression on him.”
“You already did. Not many people almost cause a party wipe on their first hunt.”
“You wanna fight?”

They bickered as usual, but the disappointment was obvious.

ShieldBest felt the same.

When he thanked Dohyun earlier, the words he had hesitated to say were: Would it be okay to send a friend request?

But before he could even ask, they’d been cut off.

‘…No. Maybe this is for the best.’

ShieldBest steadied his thoughts.

Honestly, he was human too—of course he wanted to get close to the famous Kaiser.

More than that… Kaiser simply shone.

It was only natural to feel drawn to someone like that, but…

‘Wanting more would be greedy.’

They had only received help from him so far. Hoping for a friend request on top of that would be shameless.

Friends were supposed to help each other.

Right now, he couldn’t see a single way he could be of help to Kaiser.

And even if that weren’t the case, greed could creep in.

Kaiser had coolly brushed off his mistake without asking for anything in return—ShieldBest didn’t want to taint that with selfish desires.

‘This is right for now.’

Having made up his mind, ShieldBest spoke.

“So, how was today for you guys?”

“Today? It was the best. We met Kaiser and even hit rank #1 together—how could it get better?”
“It was so fun. Now I get why everyone keeps talking about God of All Worlds.”

Their faces were flushed with excitement.

Like him, his friends had become serious about the game.

MiganTakdae was one thing—but he hadn’t expected YubinKkyung to get this hooked.

Nodding, ShieldBest said bluntly:

“Good. Then you guys can log in every day, right?”

“Obviously. Did you think I wouldn’t? I’m unemployed—I can go 24 hours.”
“Idiot, there’s a 10-hour limit.”
“Oh, right. Anyway, totally doable.”
“I’m on leave from school, so I’ve got plenty of time for months.”

Hearing their answers, ShieldBest smiled with satisfaction and suddenly spoke in a serious tone.

“Let’s grow stronger. Fast.”

YubinKkyung and MiganTakdae paused.

MiganTakdae stared into ShieldBest’s serious eyes, then smirked.

No further words were needed—it was obvious what he meant.

Shrugging, MiganTakdae replied in an intentionally lighter tone.

“Alright. We’ll grow big and strong and give Kaiser a carry next time.”

“Yeah. Feels like we only received help.”
“In that case, let’s hurry to the main continent. I’ll carry you guys before I carry Kaiser.”
“Yeah… that’s not happening.”

As the mood lightened again, ShieldBest met MiganTakdae’s eyes and smiled faintly.

A small hint of anticipation spread within that smile.

‘Yeah… we’ll meet again someday.’

They might even meet in the next city, Raven.

After the City of Promise, Brion, things would change—but as players climbed into higher content, their paths were bound to cross.

Some graduation quests and raids worked that way.

So…

‘When that time comes, we’ll be different.’

Looking forward to that moment, ShieldBest started walking.

Toward the warp to the main continent.

“Alright, let’s head to the main continent.”
“Okay. No one can stop me until my time limit runs out.”
“Let’s go together~!”

Standing on the warp, ShieldBest’s party vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Dohyun’s house.

His younger sister Hyuna was in a very bad mood.

“Hyuna~ If your brother’s home, tell him to come out for a second.”
“Ugh… this is an important scene.”
“Hurry~.”
“…Fine.”

She had been waiting ten minutes to watch her drama live, but at their mother Cha Misook’s request, she had to go call her brother.

It happened because the kitchen and his room were the farthest apart.

Honestly, she wanted to ignore it and keep watching—but if she did, she’d definitely suffer both a back smack and an allowance cut.

Choosing wisdom over pride, Hyuna grumbled:

“Seriously… why isn’t he answering KakaoTalk? Is he still gaming?”

It was already 10 p.m., but honestly, if it was her brother, it was entirely possible.

His gaming addiction was no joke.

He barely met friends—his life was basically gym and games.

Entering the room, she saw exactly what she expected: the lone capsule.

“Ugh, figures.”

Clicking her tongue, Hyuna shook her head.

‘I’ll just tell him tomorrow.’

If it were urgent, their mom would’ve told her to drag him out immediately.

If she force-quit him now, he’d foam at the mouth.

She could send a message through the God of All Worlds app… but her friendless brother probably hadn’t even installed that on day one.

Either way, she figured she’d done enough.

Just as she turned to leave—

Pshhh—

“AAAH!!”
“Kyaaa!”

The sudden hiss and shout made Hyuna scream sharply.

Startled beyond belief, she sprang back like a compressed spring and looked toward the source.

It was the capsule.

More precisely—Dohyun sitting inside it.

“Holy—! You psycho! Why are you yelling all of a sudden?! My heart almost dropped!”

She shouted at him, but Dohyun didn’t even react.

He just stared blankly into space and muttered.

“Wow… holy shit… wow…”

“Yeah… that’s exactly how I feel. Stop being weird and come out. Mom’s calling.”

Hyuna’s voice reached him—but not really.

Because the color of the skill he had just seen kept flashing through his mind.

“Huh? You can’t hear me? Hello?”

“…”

Whether she waved her hand in front of his face or not, Dohyun had no mental capacity to care.

Suddenly coming out of the capsule, shouting, swearing, and spacing out?

He didn’t look normal at all.

Hyuna, a woman who valued honesty, made her judgment immediately.

“Mom! Mom! Oppa’s acting weird! I think he finally went crazy from gaming!”

“Hey! Watch your mouth when you talk about your brother!”

“I’m serious! Shouldn’t we take him to the hospital?”

As Hyuna’s fading voice and Cha Misook’s scolding echoed behind him, Dohyun remained lost in thought with the most serious expression in the world.

If Rodin had seen him, the model for The Thinker might have changed.

‘That dazzling color… if I didn’t see wrong, it was gold.’

What had him so deep in thought was simple.

‘…Or was it? It looked a bit lighter than gold—maybe yellow…? No, but it was pretty bright, wasn’t it?’

Yellow or gold.

The legendary dilemma separating Heroic from Legendary filled his mind.

Either way, it was a happy problem—but the difference was like winning first place versus second in the lottery.

There was no way he could stop thinking about it.

Especially since, back in Demrock, he had never obtained a single Legendary skill.

This might be the first Legendary skill of his life.

‘I should’ve seen it for one more second—no, half a second… Why did it log out right when the light burst…’

His spiraling thoughts only stopped after being dragged to his room and scolded by Cha Misook.