n

n

n“Ha…. Why is my schedule so wretched?”

nJinsung sighed as he looked at his timetable on the phone.

nHe had two classes today.

nOne of them, Understanding Virtual Reality, had just finished. The real problem was that he had to

nwait for three hours for the next class.

nAs he shook his head while sitting in the study room, someone scolded him from behind.

n“Your schedule is so tragic because you have registered for your courses without thinking.”

nIt was Han Yuhyeon, Jinsung’s best friend, who studied the same major.

nNormally Jinsung would have said something, but today, he didn’t have the strength.

nJinsung reclined his chair and lay on his back. Yuhyeon smiled at this and looked back at his laptop.

nIn fact, Yuhyeon was in the same situation. He was also trying to kill some time while waiting for the

nnext class.

n“Hmm…”

nAs Yuhyeon focused on his laptop, the study room became quiet: they were the only people in it.

nHowever, after a while, Yuhyeon’s excited voice woke up Jinsung who had been dozing off.

n“Hey, Jinsung, wake up!”

n“What? Dude, I’m sleepy. Don’t bother me.”

n“You will regret that. There’s news about a big update for Kailan on the main page of LBsoft. Do you

nreally not want to see it?”

nAs soon as he finished talking, Jinsung, who had been leaning back on his chair with his eyes closed,

ninstinctively stood up and sat beside Yuhyeon.

n“Really? Was the news supposed to come out today?”

n“Yes, man. That’s why I’ve been monitoring it all this time.”

nThe two men started to read about the update, focusing so hard that they could have been sucked

ninto the monitor at any moment.

n“Hey, this is great! We are going to have three more new classes.”

n“Yeah, for real! New areas are also going to be opened…”

n“Don’t you think the Assassin looks really cool? It is irresistible. Dark Sorcerer looks cool as well…

nand maybe, the Summoner could take dragons as pets?”

nYuhyeon sounded a little too excited, Jinsung smiled and answered, “Hey, give up. What good are the

nnew classes for us? They are only for new users starting the game now. I am currently over Lv. 90…

nyou are over Lv. 80 as well. Do you really want to reset your character?”

nIn the virtual reality game Kailan, there was no way to create a sub account. Once you made your

ncharacter with an iris scan, you would not be able to create another character.

nAdditionally, you cannot change your class after deciding on one. So, resetting the character was the

nonly way for a user to choose a new class.

nHowever, the two had already come too far to reset their characters.

n“Huh, right. We should visit the new areas as soon as the update ends. We could potentially get our

nhands on some new powerful item. It might even be enough to pay off our tuitions for an entire

nsemester.”

nJinsung could not help but laugh at this. However, he was excited as well.

nThe update would take place exactly a week later, on the 20 th of June.

nThat was not the best date.

nIt was three days before Jinsung’s final test.

n‘Uh! That Basic of Game Theory. It was annoying enough that I had to spend three hours every

nFriday, and its test is at the very end.’

nThen, Jinsung’s eyes sparkled.

n“Wait!”

nJinsung turned his head and stared at Yuhyeon who was still reading about the update.

n“Hey, Hyeon.”

n“Yeah?”

n“Why don’t we skip the Basic of Game Theory class?”

n“What?!”

nYuheon’s eyes shook a little.

n“Why are you so surprised? We’ve done this before!”

n“You even ask me why? We will definitely fail this course if we skip a class again, dude. We already

nmissed two classes.”

nJinsung’s lips curled up at this.

n“Hyeon, look. What does it say?”

nYuhyeon looked at the monitor Jinsung was pointing at.

n“What, this? The opening date?”

n“Yeah. June 20 th . You see it?”

n“I do.”

n“When is the Basic of Game Theory test?”

nYuhyeon scratched his head. He couldn’t remember.

n“When is it?”

n“June 23 rd .”

n“We take the test that late? I thought the update would be during my summer vacation.”

n“You are so hopeless… can’t you see what we should do at this point?”

nYuhyeon started to seriously consider Jinsung’s words. When he reached the conclusion, his eyes

nslightly shook.

n“Skip… the class?”

nJinsung’s eyes met Yuhyeon’s as he gave him a thumbs up and got up.

n“Perfect! You always understand quickly.”

nYuhyeon shook his head at this.

nHowever, he was already packing his stuff as well. He closed his eyes and tried to justify himself. ‘I

nam only in the first year of my first semester. If I don’t do this now, when will I be able to do it?’

nAs he packed, he heard Jinsung talking as he left the room.

n“Don’t look for me today! I will go to the Clik Mountain and play solo.”

nJinsung run away from the campus as if he was being pursued by some monster. He went straight

nhome and immediately took a shower.

nHe wanted to sit in the capsule right away, but even a game addict like Jinsung didn’t want to enter an

nenclosed space in summer drenched in sweat. He would not get out from the capsule for at least 10

nhours once he entered.

n“Ha! Dropping the course was an excellent choice. I should have done that quicker.”

nJinsung lived alone in a studio near the back gate of his university. It was too large and luxurious for a

nstudent to afford.

nJinsung didn’t live there because his family was rich. The truth was that his parents lived in the

ncountryside and didn’t give him a penny.

nHowever, Jinsung could live in better places compared to most university students. He made use of

nthe money he earned in Kailan.

nJinsung was very talented at virtual reality games.

nAs soon as he got admitted to a university, his parents told him that they had done their parts. They

ngave him 5,000,000 won for tuition and leased a shabby room for him and then, they moved to the

ncountryside.

nHowever, Jinsung decided to not use that money to pay for his tuition. Instead, he deposited the

nmoney in a bank and got a student loan to pay for the tuition. Then, he started to work part-time in

nJanuary.

nAll of this was done to buy a game capsule for Kailan. Its price was 10,000,000 won.

nAs soon as the semester started, Jinsung had gathered enough money to buy a capsule by using the

n5,000,000 won from his parents, the money he earned from his job and all the saving he previously

naccumulated to buy the capsule. All of this happened within two months of Kailan’s opening.

nYuhyeon, who had watched the whole process, called Jinsung’s efforts of buying the capsule ‘the

nvictory of mankind’.

nEven though Jinsung started to play two months later, his passion and talent for the game were

noutstanding. In fact, just after playing for two months, he was able to catch up to Yuheon’s level who

nhad started to play as soon as the game opened. Currently, in the fourth month of the game, Jinsung

nwas one of the top 1000 players in Korea.

nKailan nearly monopolized the entire game market. In fact, the number of players present online had

nlong surpassed the ten million.

nAdditionally, Korea was a well-known country famous for having great players, so, being one of the

ntop 1000 players was quite an achievement.

nThe fact that he had earned tens of millions of won with Kailan in just 4 months was enough to show

noff his skills.

nFinally, having finished his shower, Jinsung sat inside the game capsule.

n“Let’s do this until the weekend!”

n– Iris scanning complete. Ian, welcome to the world of Kailan.

nWith this system message, Jinsung closed his eyes.

n