abcnovels
Chapter 25
Chapter 25
———
Chapter 25
Puushik-
The capsule opened, and Jeong-Hoon stepped out.
“Phew, done. That’s it for the Starting Village.”
He had taken care of everything he had planned in the Starting Village.
So, before moving to the next village, he needed some rest.
‘My body is stiff from playing games all day.’
Until New World became reality, Jeong-Hoon’s body was no different from an ordinary person’s.
It was natural for his body to feel stiff after playing for so long.
Buzz-
His smartphone vibrated.
It was Ha-jin.
He had sent another whisper before logging out, and it seemed Ha-jin had come out to meet him.
[Hey! You’re home, right? I’m coming over. Wait for me!]
He must have been in a hurry, because the doorbell rang less than 30 minutes later.
Jeong-Hoon opened the door, sipping his coffee.
“Slow down a bit.”
At the door stood Ha-jin, looking excited.
“Dude, you drop a bombshell and tell me to slow down?”
“Bombshell?”
“You got a hidden class, right?!”
“Ah, yeah.”
“What’s the grade?! What grade is it?”
Jeong-Hoon took a can of coffee from the refrigerator in response to the barrage of questions.
“Legendary.”
“… What?”
“Legendary.”
“Crazy… You’re lying, right?”
Not only hidden, but Legendary?
It was hard to believe.
After all, there had never been a Legendary class at the first advancement.
“Well, even though the grade is Legendary, the performance is about Epic level.”
“Epic?”
Ha-jin’s expression became complex.
Legendary grade, but Epic level performance?
Wasn’t Epic already insanely strong…?
“Yeah. Anyway, since you’re here, let’s eat something.”
Jeong-Hoon chuckled and opened an app to order two servings of stir-fried pork.
“No… Dude, now’s not the time for this!”
“What?”
“You could have major companies lining up for you! Earning 100 million won a month would be a piece of cake!”
A hidden class at the first advancement, and a Legendary grade at that.
The fact that it was a Martial Artist didn’t matter.
That alone would allow him to choose any guild he wanted and receive astronomical treatment.
But Jeong-Hoon shook his head.
“I’m not joining.”
“Huh…? Why?!”
“I have a lot to do.”
His comrades had already betrayed him once.
Perhaps that was why the mere thought of belonging to any group made him sick.
“This guy is crazy…”
Ha-jin couldn’t understand, but seeing Jeong-Hoon’s expression, he kept his mouth shut.
* * *
‘Hmm? Why are there so many users in the field?’
Countless users were pulling weeds in the field.
The weeds grew back in less than a second, returning to their original state.
It couldn’t be helped.
Those weeds were used for village quests.
Every time users accepted a quest, the weeds grew back in the areas they had been pulled.
“Move aside, I need to pull some weeds.”
“What are you talking about? Can’t you see I’m already pulling them?”
Jeong-Hoon had already pulled the weeds once while doing village quests.
The question was why so many users were pulling weeds.
Oh dear.
There was even a line forming behind them.
Among them were some users who had completed their 2nd or 3rd class advancements and were close to level 150.
“Since Min Jin-ho did it, the reward must be huge, right?”
“Yeah, why else would we come all the way here to do village quests?”
“Ugh, but what if it’s just a title? I’ve been doing this hellish work for two weeks.”
“Min Jin-ho did it, remember? He wouldn’t move just for a title, would he?”
“Maybe the title unlocks a hidden quest or something?”
“Oh, that’s possible.”
Ah, now he understood why they were all so eager to do village quests.
‘That bastard, Min Jin-ho.’
It seemed he had taken action as soon as the Poison Crusher was discovered.
That meant he would have finished the village quests and headed to the alchemist by now.
“Heh…”
Jeong-Hoon barely suppressed a chuckle.
He had already taken the Poison Attack and solved the hair loss problem, so the alchemist, Bleo, wouldn’t give him a hidden quest.
In other words, he had snatched the Poison Attack that Min Jin-ho was supposed to get in the previous life.
‘Jin-ho, no matter how hard you struggle, this game will end.’
And he would be the one to make it happen.
With renewed determination, Jeong-Hoon crossed the field and stood before a massive portal.
As it was a portal connecting villages, there was a gatekeeper in front of it.
“Halt.”
===
[NPC Information]
-Nickname: Iliaos
-Level: 100
-Job: Starting Village Portal Gatekeeper
===
The gatekeeper was level 100.
The gatekeeper’s level was set high to prevent users from carelessly passing through the portal.
If someone tried to force their way through, it would trigger a forced PvP, resulting in a 24-hour logout.
Of course, this didn’t apply to high-level users.
“I would like to use the portal.”
“Very well. May I check your information briefly?”
“Yes.”
Iliaos checked Jeong-Hoon’s information, nodded, and stepped aside.
“You are qualified. You may proceed.”
With his permission, Jeong-Hoon stood in the center of the portal.
[Would you like to activate the portal?]
[There are currently 122 villages you can travel to.]
After completing the 1st class advancement, he could access 122 villages.
[If you’ve completed the 1st class advancement, go to Eichen!]
-It’s the easiest of the 122 villages, with simple quests and easy leveling.
Don’t bother going to other villages with a special mindset and regret it later.
To take the portal again from those villages, you have to cross a field with monsters level 60 and above.
?This is real. Don’t get dragged away by curiosity and just go to Eichen.
?If you choose the wrong village, you’ll need help from high-level users to take the portal again lol.
?At least Eichen has easy quests and good experience points.
As they said, choosing the first village required careful consideration.
If he chose the wrong one, he might have to level up there to escape.
[One more tip before I go.]
-Don’t go to Idenharc. If they tell you not to go, don’t go, dammit.
The quests there are weird, and leveling is hard.
?The monsters are tricky to deal with. I’d rather go to Eichen and hunt orcs.
?Ah… I should have seen this before leaving the village.
?I picked the village with the coolest name and regretted it lol.
There were also tips on which villages to avoid.
However, Jeong-Hoon chose Idenharc without hesitation.
‘This is where I can achieve the highest efficiency.’
New World had hidden various growth elements in each village.
There were still countless undiscovered elements.
And Idenharc, where levels 30-70 were raised, was the place with the most hidden elements.
It was a village everyone avoided.
That’s why he had to go there.
[‘Idenharc’ selected.]
Jeong-Hoon’s body was sucked into the portal as he chose Idenharc.
* * *
Meanwhile,
Starting Village.
Min Jin-ho finished the village quests by checking his mailbox.
With his abilities, completing the quests was a piece of cake.
“Thank you!”
“Yes.”
He received a title along with the experience reward, which was barely noticeable.
It was time to head to the alchemist, who lived a short distance from Starting Village.
Having learned the geography from an NPC, Min Jin-ho headed straight to the alchemist’s house.
“Ah, I no longer need the Poison Crusher’s inner core.”
“What…?”
Upon arriving at the alchemist’s house, he was told that the inner core was no longer needed.
The news was like a bolt from the blue. Someone had already handed over the Inner Core and completed the quest.
“… …”
Just who the hell took it?
Min Jin-ho’s fists clenched.
***
Idenharc.
A small town with a medieval European vibe, slightly more developed than the starting village.
Jeong-Hoon appeared in the town square, bustling with many users and NPCs.
‘There are a lot of users in Idenharc too.’
Just relatively fewer compared to other towns.
“Excuse me, did you come to the wrong town?”
A user approached Jeong-Hoon.
===
[Player Information]
-Nickname: Prettypong
-Level: 56
-Class: Lower Warrior (1st class)
===
A level 56, 1st class Lower Warrior.
“No, I came to the right place.”
“Huh? You just did your 1st class transfer and came to Idenharc?”
“Yes.”
“Oh man…you’re not going to make it. Usually, you don’t come here until level 30.”
He started giving all sorts of unsolicited advice, saying Idenharc wasn’t great, that Eichen was better, and so on.
A higher-level user giving advice to a lower-level one isn’t uncommon in any game.
It was even more common in New World.
The reason was the quests.
‘It’s because of the event quests that help struggling new users.’
A quest available only from level 55 to 59, it automatically completes when you help a user below level 35.
The quest reward was a level up.
Leveling up becomes increasingly difficult at higher levels.
In such a situation, this was an event quest you couldn’t miss, as it offered a level up just by helping one user.
[‘Prettypong’ would like to help you. Would you like to accept?]
A message popped up.
Accepting this would allow him to receive help.
“Really? Then could you help me for a bit?”
Jeong-Hoon readily agreed to receive help.
Prettypong’s face brightened at his words.
“Great! Let’s go to the portal right away!”
All he had to do was roughly guide him to the portal and help him get to Eichen, and he’d level up.
Heh, what an easy quest.
[It’s super easy to get quests by picking up newbies who came to the wrong town lol]
-I leveled up twice that way.
?It’s a win-win situation, really.
?Those newbies will have to bow down to us when they get to Eichen lol
?Totally agree, leveling up is a pain in the ass, and this gives you 2 levels at once lol
Prettypong thought he had found the perfect sucker.
That is, until Jeong-Hoon accepted a quest from an old NPC who asked for help.
“Y-You’ll help me?!”
“Yes.”
[General Quest: An Old Man in Need]
-Restriction: All users level 30 or higher who have completed their 1st class transfer.
-Reward: Old Worn-out Map
-Description: A monster stole a pendant that my late wife cherished. Please retrieve the pendant for me.
The old man clasped Jeong-Hoon’s hands with pleading eyes.
“If you can retrieve the pendant, I will give you this map as a reward.”
The reward was not experience points or skills, but a regular map.
It was so old and worn that it couldn’t even be read.
[I completed the quest and got the map, but what do I use it for?]
-It’s all faded, so you can’t even tell what it is. Is this really a reward?
?Don’t do that quest lol It’s a rotten one.
?I worked so hard to dig up the buried item, and all I got was a map lol
?The old man himself doesn’t even know how to use the map lol
?I thought it might be an important map, but there’s nothing on it.
?It doesn’t even work with Restoration Potion lol It’s too old.
This was one of the quests that users who had already passed through Idenharc had completed.
It could certainly be seen as a useless map, but if you solve it properly, the story changes.
“Yes, I’ll look for it.”
“Thank you! I suspect the Blancs took it, but I’m not sure.”
A quest with no detailed information and a poor reward.
So no one would have tried to help this old man.
“Yes, I’ll find it as soon as possible.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much…”
He was a stranger, but it was the first time anyone had been so kind to him.
The old man’s eyes welled up with tears as he repeatedly expressed his gratitude.
“Um… user?”
Prettypong blocked his path as he was about to leave after accepting the quest.
“Hmm? What’s the matter?”
“Haha… You’re supposed to go to the portal, why did you accept the quest?”
Prettypong’s voice was thick with annoyance.
Jeong-Hoon tilted his head.
“Why would I go to the portal?”
“Huh? But… I told you earlier, didn’t I? It’s much faster to grow in Eichen than here in Idenharc. I also leveled up in Eichen.”
“Yes, I’ve already heard that.”
“Then why did you accept the quest?”
“I think there’s some misunderstanding. I accepted your offer to help me. For the record, I never said a word about going to Eichen.”
“Huh?”
“Hurry up and follow me.”
If Jeong-Hoon gave up on receiving his help, the quest would disappear.
It wasn’t Jeong-Hoon who was led by the nose, but Prettypong.
———