I Entered a Gacha Game That Had Been Abandoned for 10 Years

24 – Upper Part (1)

A moment later,

For some reason, Elena’s face turned red and she made a sound like she was chewing her tongue as she left the lord’s chamber, and Kim Hyun-woo looked at the blue bones she had left behind.

“The Bone Sorcerer of the Blue Forest…”

That name was quite familiar to Kim Hyun-woo.

Of course, because the Bone Sorcerer of the Blue Forest was a character that had died while Kim Hyun-woo was enjoying Arteil and working on clearing the labyrinth.

Kim Hyun-woo briefly reminisced about that time.

When he cleared the 28th floor, the lowest floor of the labyrinth at the time of the update, Kim Hyun-woo lost the hero he had raised with blood and sweat as a reward for defeating the boss of the 28th floor.

“And to make matters worse, he died back then…”

In Arteil, when a hero’s HP is depleted, their fate is determined based on probability.

The most common outcome is “injured,” which is not a significant issue in this case.

If the hero is in a state worse than “injured,” they can be resurrected by another companion who escapes from the labyrinth with them.

The next most common outcome is “unconsciousness,” which is also not a major problem.

In this case as well, it is possible to recover through blue stones that can be collected in-game.

However, there was no way to undo death, which occurs with a 1% chance, and is known as an extremely unlucky event that happens only to those fools who take attacks from the enemy with a coefficient of more than twice the hero’s health in Arteil.

“Even thinking about it now makes me dizzy.”

It had been over ten years, but Kim Hyun-woo could still feel the darkness in front of his eyes when he thought about that time.

At that time, Kim Hyun-woo was pouring his life into Arteil, working as a student part-time and fitting the heroes with the items while listening to lectures, instead of participating in night shifts.

As a result, when a hero died, it even made Kim Hyun-woo burst into tears early in the morning, making his parents seriously think that he might be a victim of school violence.

The death of the hero, who had been raised from 1 star alongside other heroes, even caused Kim Hyun-woo, who was a game addict at the time, to not turn on Arteil for a whole week.

Because that hero, in whom he had invested a tremendous amount of care and affection, had flown away splendidly along with the money he had spent.

Furthermore, even at this moment, Kim Hyun-woo felt a little depressed as he thought about her existence and once again realized that his past self had truly been sincere about Arteil.

“If only there was a resurrection system.”

…Actually, the resurrection system did exist, just as Kim Hyun-woo had thought.

At the moment when the Bone Sorcerer, one of the heroes he loved, died, the resurrection system did exist, and Kim Hyun-woo was also aware of its existence.

The problem was that the resurrection system was truly a resurrection system steeped in the malice of the gaming company.

“Who spends millions on reviving a hero…”

As Kim Hyunwoo knew, there were two ways to revive a hero.

One was to revive the hero with in-game currency.

The other was to gather items dropped with an extremely low probability in the game to resurrect the hero.

When reviving a hero with in-game currency, reviving the hero itself was easy, but an exorbitant amount steeped in malice was required.

Though Kim Hyunwoo couldn’t recall it vividly, he remembered that it was an amount he had to earn by working an overnight part-time job for over half a year, an amount that didn’t even pay minimum wage.

Therefore, at that time, it was impossible for Kim Hyunwoo to invest such a fortune to revive the hero. He had chosen the second method, and even though it was truly an abysmal probability, he had managed to gather the materials through the dedication of his teenage years.

However, the reason he ultimately couldn’t save her was that he got tired of the game company’s malicious microtransactions and gave up before collecting all the materials.

“…”

Anyway, pondering over why this azure bone had popped out of the labyrinth, Kim Hyunwoo stared at the blue bone for a while.

####

The day after conquering the first floor of the labyrinth.

The Droal Mercenary Corps received the promised reward from Kim Hyunwoo and left immediately.

It was evident from Altah’s annoyed expression that she had been insulted yesterday, but Kim Hyunwoo chose not to confront her and simply sent the mercenary corps out, taking only the reward.

Returning to his office, Kim Hyunwoo checked the items obtained from this 1st-floor exploration.

“I obtained 220 low-grade magic stones and 1 inferior magic stone in this exploration.”

Unfortunately, there were no artifacts obtained, but Kim Hyunwoo was not particularly disappointed in that regard.

He knew that the probability of obtaining artifacts on the first floor was extremely low.

Moreover, Kim Hyunwoo’s reason for exploring the labyrinth this time was not to break through the layers but to lay the foundation of the labyrinth city.

To create the labyrinth city he envisioned, he needed to break through at least to the third floor.

“Should I try it right away?”

Although such a thought crossed Kim Hyunwoo’s mind for a moment, he soon shook his head.

No matter how much he thought about it, there were many aspects still lacking to open the labyrinth city immediately.

Both in terms of system elements and elements for making money.

“Now that I have magic stones, I should at least make the minimum.”

Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo planned to start the actual labyrinth exploration while Elena, who would break through to the third floor, took the time to prepare the things needed for the territory in earnest.

At the moment, he had gathered the essential material, Mana Stones, needed to construct the primary building, the 1st Building, above the basic structure.

Therefore, Kim Hyunwoo, who was continuing his thoughts,

—-

In the territory, the ★★★ hero, the ‘Witch of Gold,’ has entered.

—-

[In the territory, the top-ranked ‘Tynus’ has arrived!]

“?”

Kim Hyunwoo could see such a notification window.

####

Altair, who had almost escaped from Lartania, was filled with anger and irritation just a while ago due to the Lord who had claimed to be inferior to Elena.

But now.

Creak-!

“Kyaaaah-!”

She screamed, her right arm twisted in the opposite direction.

‘Pain! It hurts!!’

Even while screaming, she couldn’t properly comprehend how she ended up in this situation.

It’s not surprising, considering that the only thing she could recognize was being kidnapped by someone holding her head and the blurry rotation of her vision as she walked with her mercenary group.

Therefore, Altair, while screaming in pain from her suddenly broken right arm, turned her gaze to understand this situation somehow.

Having been active as a mercenary for several years, she knew that understanding the situation was crucial to survive in certain circumstances.

However.

“Ah-“

The moment Altair saw the person holding onto her head, she felt an added horror.

What she saw, as she rolled her eyeballs as much as possible, was a pair of red eyes staring at her with emotionless eyes.

Of course, Altair had never seen Merilda in person, so she didn’t exactly know who she was. Nevertheless, she was clear about one thing.

The presence in front of her was someone much more formidable than herself.

Therefore, instinctively, she trembled in the face of the overwhelming fear.

And Merilda, who was staring at her with endlessly indifferent eyes, said,

“If I heard even a little more cursing from you alone, I would have killed you.”

Suddenly, with those words, she released her grip.

Thud-!

As soon as Merilda released her hand, Alta, paralyzed by the terror that surged through her entire body, remained frozen in place, trembling uncontrollably on the ground.

Alta’s reason was so impaired that she couldn’t even use her intuition properly.

“This time, I’ll spare you just because you were a bit too arrogant. Just remember that,” Merilda declared coldly, staring at her with an indifferent expression.

However, Alta, with a slight murmur, disappeared without a trace.

With his right arm broken, Alta, though unable to fully grasp the situation, realized through intuition that he had survived and felt genuine gratitude for his unexpected survival.

####

Kim Hyun-woo was aware of the top system in Arteal.

Anyone who had played the game for even a short while could not be ignorant of the top system.

The top system was a crucial element for territories other than the combat zone in Arteal.

Nevertheless.

“It’s unbelievably massive.”

Kim Hyun-woo had never seen a top so huge.

He casually turned his gaze beyond the Lord’s Castle.

In view were rows of luxurious carriages lined up in the residential area, each easily surpassing dozens in number, opening their hatches and selling goods to the territory residents.

Watching this in a daze, Kim Hyun-woo soon shifted his gaze to the top right in front of him.

No, he looked at the hero.

“I am the top right of Tynus, Lady Adriana.”

With a confident smile, she introduced herself with a slight bow.

Her appearance, adorned with jewelry from head to toe, looked extremely splendid.

Kim Hyun-woo admired it for a moment.

Usually, it was a good idea to wear jewelry moderately when dressing up, and wearing too much could make one appear cheap. However, looking at Adriana, Kim Hyun-woo had no such thoughts.

The reason was that Adriana’s appearance, sitting in front of Kim Hyun-woo, was so stunning that all those accessories could be easily overshadowed.

Therefore, without revealing his admiration, Kim Hyun-woo could soon listen to her story.

“The reason I visited the Larthania territory this time is to pay my respects and greet. But before that, should I introduce myself first? It seems you don’t know much about our top right.”

Kim Hyun-woo nodded in response to her words.

Of course, he had no knowledge about the Tynus top.

From the beginning, Keanu’s top wasn’t the one he had when he played games.

“Well then, let me explain briefly.”

So it had been five minutes since Adriana explained the top to her.

Kim Hyun-woo, who had heard all the explanations about the top from her, soon spoke as if organizing the information he had heard from her.

“So, you travel around the entire southern continent, right? You purchase all kinds of items, but among them, the most well-treated ones are valuables and artifacts.”

“That’s right. We roam without a fixed settlement. That’s why we can find specialties from anywhere in our Tynus Top.”

In response to her confident words, Kim Hyun-woo nodded and expressed a sudden curiosity.

“So, is the Tynus Top affiliated with a specific territory?”

A question he blurted out because, fundamentally, all the tops he knew were affiliated with a certain territory.

“Well, to be precise, we are affiliated, but not with a territory.”

To that question,

“Then…?”

“We are affiliated with the guardian of the Tynus Top, ‘Red Dream Dragon.'”

Kim Hyun-woo could receive such an answer.