Chapter 39
Shin Jun, his teammates, and everyone else who arrived at the Mirror World were guided by the Brass Cross Knights to Edu. Edu was a vast area where several university buildings were gathered, including those of Oxford and Cambridge in England, Harvard, Yale, Michigan, MIT in the United States, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Tsinghua University in China, and Korea University.
Jun thought, recalling what he had seen on their way here, This is a strange place.
It felt like he had visited three different countries in only fifteen minutes. In one area, the roads were nicely paved and lined with well-laid-out Northern European-style buildings, but it suddenly turned into an unpaved dirt road, similar to those found in Africa, and wooden buildings were scattered throughout. As they walked further, the streets turned into what seemed like a Chinese night market.
It’s like various parts of Earth were sewn together.
A piece of clothing would be considered a work of art if the designer systematically added various patterns, but it would only look like a rag if the patterns were randomly sewn all over the place.
“Over there, Jun,” Ho-Geun said from beside him.
Jun looked to see a man walking toward a podium. They were in a giant auditorium with roughly a thousand people as confused as each other.
They must have also cleared the mandatory quest. Does that mean there wasn’t just one Dark Forest?
According to Jun’s rough calculations, at least ten thousand people were Lost from Earth on the same day, and only a thousand survived. The murmurs of those who were dragged here filled the auditorium.
Just then, the blond middle-aged man with blue eyes arrived at the podium, looked around, and said, “Silence.”
“Let us out of this goddamn—Mmrp!”
“I’ll fucking kill—Mmrp!”
“Is there a way for us to—Mmrp!”
Everyone’s mouths were forced shut.
The man looked around the quiet auditorium and said, “I am Remy Martin, the leader of Clan Martin. I have been put in charge of this season of newcomers.”
The man’s voice echoed throughout the auditorium.
“You will all receive education on basic information about the Mirror World for one month. Any questions?”
“Mmrp! Mmmrp! Mrp!”
“Mmmmrp! Mmrp!”
Some tried to speak but couldn’t separate their lips. Remy released the binding on a man who raised his hand.
“Pwah! Goddammit! Who the hell are you?! Who asked you to educate us? Just let us go! We’re free to do whatever we—Mmrp!”
The man’s mouth was forcibly closed again.
Remy replied dryly, “The weak, free? That’s a joke I haven’t heard in a while. We would love to grant eternal freedom to uncooperative people like you, but the Union does not let us.” He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read aloud, “Dear fellow humans. I am sure you are confused by the abruptness of the situation, but you must keep one thing in mind. We must join forces.”
What is he talking about? Jun thought as his brows furrowed.
Remy continued to read, “The Mirror World is not run only by humans. Rather, humans are one of the weakest. Hence, humans must all band together.”
He then took his eyes off the paper and remarked, “Whether you like it or not, there is only one reason you are here. Because you are human. I’m sure many of you have killed and betrayed in the Dark Forest. I’d bet you shudder at the sight of fellow humans now. However, you will understand the value of fellow humans soon enough.”
Remy continued to read, “That is why we of the Human Union, or Union for short, set up the education facility Edu to save the lives of fellow humans whose deaths could have been easily prevented. I hope you will use the knowledge you learn in Edu for a month to brighten the future of the human race.”
He looked away from the paper again and said, “You will have to leave Edu in one month anyway. The survival tax is exempt in your first month at the Mirror World, but you’re on your own after that. We don’t have the leeway to invest ungodly amounts of Coins in you. We are at war, after all.”
He once again read from the paper, “Before we begin the education, be aware of the policy that the Union created to prevent bloodshed among fellow humans. Forget everything that happened during the mandatory quest. All crimes—murder, theft, and betrayal in the Dark Forest—will be overlooked. Hence, any form of revenge, direct or indirect, will be prohibited. Please understand that those who do not follow this policy may be punished under the Union’s laws.”
“Mmrp! Mmmrp! Mrp!”
“Mmmmrp! Mmrp!”
People began to resist as Remy continued to read; most were those who had been betrayed by those who were also in the auditorium.
Remy smirked at their behavior and said, “I know it sounds unreasonable, but let me assure you that it is highly reasonable. Congratulations, you have all been baptized. You have been washed of all your past sins and born anew as a human.” He read the final sentence on the paper, “We implore you to use your destinies for the future of our race. That is all for the introduction.”
***
“The Coin System allows conversion of untradeable Karma to tradeable Coins. Coins are a form of currency,” a slender black man taught in a lecture hall that could easily fit a thousand people. “They’re called Coins, but they have no physical form. It’s like a cryptocurrency. You can think of it like Bitcoin. The exchange rate between Karma and Coins is one-to-one. You can convert a hundred Karma into a hundred Coins. Coins can be exchanged through common quests.”
A woman asked, “Why do we need Coins if the exchange rate is one-to-one?”
The black man shrugged and answered, “I already told you that Karma can’t be traded because it is accumulated through feats. You can selectively convert those feats into Coins to make them tradeable. You can’t purchase cubes with Coins, but you can pay the survival tax with them.”
Most people in the lecture hall nodded. The Coin System generated a market and economy. Even those without talent for hunting could still pay the survival tax by earning Coins through selling or manufacturing goods.
“The Mirror World will take Coins from you one month from now as a survival tax. Is it too simple an explanation? Well, that’s all there is to it. The Akasha Message will demand you pay the survival tax like a thief pointing a gun to your head and demanding you pay up if you don’t want to die,” the black man explained as he chuckled.
A man asked, “How much do we have to pay?”
“It goes up the longer you’re here. For newbies like you, it will probably start at five hundred Coins.”
“Five hundred? That’s... five hundred Karma?”
“We have to pay taxes in a shitty world like this too?”
People voiced their complaints, but Jun thought about something else.
A survival tax, huh? You pay additional fees on Earth if you don’t pay your taxes on time. What about here?
Ye-Ji thought the same thing and asked, “What if we don’t have the Coins to pay the survival tax?”
The black man stared at Ye-Ji and smiled. “If you don’t have enough Coins, the outstanding amount will be taken from your Karma.”
“What if you run out of Karma?” another man asked.
The black man asked in return, “What did you all use your Karma for?”
“Well... to open cubes.”
“What do the cubes give you?”
“Stats and skills... Wait, could it be?!”
Everyone’s eyes widened, and Jun clicked his tongue.
The black man nodded and said, “Your items will be the first thing to disappear. Then, your skills. Lastly, a certain amount of stats equivalent to how much you owe. If you don’t have items or skills, and get most of your stats taken, you’ll be reduced to just an average person, right? Later, you’ll have so little Strength that you can barely walk. You’ll be like an octopus.”
“What if you... Also run out of stats?” a red-haired woman asked.
The black man asked in return again, “Have you seen a monster resembling a human in the Dark Forest?”
“Resembling a human? Well, we saw Bodies.”
“Yeah, the Bodies. To be more exact, the Invasive Chaos, Body.”
“Invasive Chaos?”
“You can get the details from your Race Theory class. I’ll just tell you the bare minimum of what you should know. Once a human’s stats reach zero, they are corrupted by Chaos Mana and become a monster. In other words, they become a Body.”
“N-no way!”
“T-then does that mean the monsters we killed were once human?”
“I’ll become a monster?”
People looked at one another in shock. Any of them could become a Body one day.
“You have to pay more survival tax the longer you’re in the Mirror World. What do you think you should do, then? Naturally, you need more Coins—more Karma.”
The black man grabbed a chalk and drew a graph on the blackboard. He labeled the x-axis as Time and the y-axis as Karma or Coins.
“As I’ve said, the survival tax will increase over time,” he said as he drew an exponential growth curve from the (0,0) point. It represented how the survival tax to be paid rose rapidly over time. “However, the amount of Karma you earn from hunting or Coins from working is bound to stagnate over time.”
He then drew a logarithmic growth curve from the (0,0) point, representing the high Karma or Coin earnings plateauing over time. The two lines intersected, creating a rounded rhombus.
The black man thickened the point where the expense curve met the acquisition curve and said, “This is where you can’t earn enough Karma or Coins to handle the rising survival tax. Those who have reached this point are known as escapers. It means they must escape death by obtaining Coins or Karma at all costs.”
Everyone remained silent, realizing this world was no different from the Dark Forest.
I need more Coins and Karma to survive!
Whatever the case, I have to get stronger!
The black man could tell what the people were thinking from their expressions. He then drew something else next to the graph. It resembled tree rings, each wrapping the smaller one.
“This is a map. Forgive my drawing skills. The Mirror World roughly looks like this. The Capital where we’re at is here,” the black man said as he drew a circle at the eastern end of the map. “You see the different zones made by the lines, right? The outermost area is the first zone. The second outermost is the second zone, and so on. The number goes up the further inside you go. Can anyone guess how these zone boundaries were established?”
Jun mumbled, “Based on the Chaos monsters getting stronger the deeper inside you go, perhaps?”
“Correct! You’re smart!” the black man shouted as he stared at Jun, hearing his quiet voice. He drew an arrow on the blackboard from the Capital to the center of the map and said, “This is the path you should all be aiming for.”
“The path?”
“To the center.” The black man tapped the small circle at the center of the map with his chalk. “You all received the Path of Life quest, right? That’s where the Master Stone is.”
[Path of Life (World Quest)
Rank: —
Description: Head to the center of the Mirror World and obtain the Master Stone. Everything you want will be granted.]
Jun stared at the quest contents.
Everything I want, huh? It’s way too abstract. Does it mean it’s important enough to promise an impossible reward? Or can the description be taken literally?
The black man continued, “It’s also the Union’s ultimate goal. They want to obtain the Master Stone and return to Earth on January 1st, 2021.”
“To Earth?!”
“2021 is when—”
The black man nodded and interjected, “Yes. From what is known, the human race began to be Lost on January 1st, 2021. That’s when everything started. The Union believes that if we rewind time and space to the past, everyone who died since then would come back to life, and we could return to our world. Of course, to a clean Earth, not one on the verge of ending due to climate change and the virus.
“Ah!”
“If only!”
Some nodded happily while others shook their heads, doubting the possibility.
The black man observed their reactions and continued, “In any case, it’s clear that we have to head to the center. Even if it isn’t to obtain the Master Stone, earning Karma will be much easier because the Chaos monsters get stronger the further you head to the center of the Mirror World. The quests and dungeon rewards will be much higher, too.”
I knew it. The Dark Forest was like a tutorial for the Mirror World, Jun thought as he nodded.
In the Dark Forest, they had to obtain a Teleport Rock in thirty days. The objective had just changed to the Master Stone, and the duration was switched to the survival tax.
Based on that graph, the acquisition line should always be higher than the expense line. We must head to the center to keep it that way.
Everyone’s eyes blazed with resolve; they seemed to think the same thing.
Someone raised their small hand and asked, “Is Karma all we need to become strong?”
It was Shaya Singh Rai.
The black man smiled at the girl and replied, “Yes. All you need is Karma. Here’s an important precaution. Once you convert Karma to Coins, it can never be converted back to Karma. Allocating Coins to use as currency and Karma to grow stronger is also a part of one’s ability.”
“I have a—”
Someone was about to ask a question, but the black man clapped his hands together to interrupt him and said, “Let’s leave the more detailed questions until you’re divided into your D Weapon categories.”
He turned to the ones wearing brass armor, who then went around the lecture hall, asking people what their D Weapon was.
“What should we do, Jun?” Min-Jae asked from beside him.
Jun looked at Ho-Geun, Seong-Tae, Hwa-Yeon, Min-Jae, Hee-Gyeong, Ye-Ji, Ha Rin, and Do-Hyun.
He said, “It appears... we can’t lie our way through this. Now that it’s come to this, we’ll have to receive education here. Don’t lie about your D Weapon. Let’s focus on the classes and get as much knowledge as possible.”
The people here were far stronger than the newbies who had just arrived. If they couldn’t escape, they could only search for an escape route from the inside.
“I think we’ll be divided based on our D Weapon categories. Everyone remembers which category Card mentioned you might belong to, right? We’ll probably be divided that way.”
Card had mentioned that Jun and Ho-Geun were enhancers, Seong-Tae was a conjurer, Min-Jae was an emitter, Hwa-Yeon and Rin were transformers, and Hee-Gyeong, Ye-Ji, and Do-Hyun were manipulators.
“Thankfully, our team has at least one person in each category. Try to get close to the people in each class. It shouldn’t be hard since we’re all in the same situation. I’m sure everyone is nervous and wants the same information. We’ll use this place to meet more people like us.”
Jun was looking at the bigger picture. He had not forgotten his promise to Seong-Hwi.
“Very well. Whatever kind of place the Mirror World is, I will become one of the many branches and create an unbreakable pillar.”
Cheon Seong-Hwi. I don’t know where you are or what you’re doing, but I don’t believe you’re dead. I will create a pillar and survive with everyone!
***
Seong-Hwi opened his eyes. His entire body was sore, and he could barely move.
[The Health, Dexterity, and Sense stats are temporarily lowered as per the aftereffects of the White Snake of Equivalent Exchange.]
[Health E(60) → F(82)]
[Dexterity E(45) → F(63)]
[Sense E(16) → F(45)]
...
The lowered stats had slightly risen, meaning Seong-Hwi had gotten some rest.
[You are hidden as per the effect of Concealing Cloak.]
Seong-Hwi raised his hand in silence, but couldn’t see it. He looked around and saw five corpses sprawled on the ground, all with a puncture wound to the neck and eyes widened as if they had not expected the attack.
Chaya Singh Rai.
𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
He could tell he had received the boy’s help. He had not expected his investment to pay off so soon. Although Chaya had been helpful, it was not how Seong-Hwi had expected it.
I guess... I still have a long way to go.
Seong-Hwi had taken for granted how easy everything was since his return to the past. After all, knowing things others did not was an extraordinary advantage.
But... I’m not a god. I’m just a human.
Nothing in the world always went as one predicted. Seong-Hwi vowed never to be conceited. Regardless of whether he knew the future, he was still weak. He was nowhere close to being the strongest in his past or current life. Just because he knew future events did not mean he could easily climb the ladder to the top like a hero. A human was bound to slip and fall along the way. It had been a while since Seong-Hwi felt puny.
He shook his head and thought, Even so, I risked my life and held onto it. I at least secured the best stepping stone possible.
Seong-Hwi checked the Akasha Messages he hadn’t checked because he had been unconscious.
[5,355 Karma obtained.]
[Fallen Knight: 1 / 1]
[Demon Knight: 1 / 1]
[Trait Quest: Pursuer of Chaos V, complete.]
[3,000 Karma obtained.]
[Converting Trait Chaos Slaughterer to Natural Enemy of Chaos.]
...
[Natural Enemy of Chaos (Trait)
Rank: F(0)
Description: The ability of a natural enemy that is unparalleled against the Chaos. 50% boost in attack for a set duration against the race Chaos.
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 72 hours]
“Hah... haha,” Seong-Hwi chuckled.
He had expected it, but was still shocked to see a trait that boosted one’s attack by fifty percent. Although it was only against the Chaos and had a cooldown of three days, it was still incredible. However, he couldn’t be surprised so soon since he had more Akasha Messages to check.
[You are the first to clear the Trait Quest Chain: Pursuer of Chaos.]
[The quest was nearly impossible to complete with your current stats.]
[Eternally recording this feat in the Akasha.]
[Destiny Force, the stat created to overcome one’s innate destiny, transcends its limit from intense stimulation.]
[Drastically heightening the caliber of Destiny Force.]
[Trait Quest: Rebellion of the Weak, complete.]
[Unlocking Trait: Underdog.]
[100,000 Karma obtained as the all-clear reward.]
[Skill cube (S) obtained as the all-clear reward.]
Seong-Hwi’s smile disappeared. He was so shocked that he was more scared than happy. A hundred thousand Karma was surprising, but he felt it was a reasonable reward for clearing a chain of five quests. He was overjoyed by the heightening of his Destiny Force caliber, since the power of his unique skill would be stronger. He would always welcome the unlocking of new traits.
However, the final reward made Seong-Hwi doubt his Sense stat.
“An S-rank... skill cube?”