Arena Chapter 98:
Chapter 98 – A New Birth (1)
The feeling of my fingers freely pressing on the strings was such a strange feeling that I became immersed in playing for a while .
With a fast tempo, I played through the entire book that I had previously studied and I was in awe .
“This is so broken!”
Even when I think about it, the reflex is an unbelievable skill .
Amongst the assist skills that can be got by karma, there is a cooking, sparring/fighting, and a swordsmanship skill . There is even a music playing skill .
But with the reflex skill alone, I can do all those things .
Using one skill to be good at multiple assist skills!
Now I have 2,500 karma left .
What should I do with these?
I looked through all the skills I had so far .
First of all, pass on the spirit summons .
I raised the reflex just now to superior level 1 so pass on that too .
There’s no need to raise the guider another level, maybe the teleportation?
“Show me Teleportation . ”
At my order, the words on the board changed .
-Teleportation (assist skill): leap through space in the direction you want . Think of the desired direction and say “teleportation . ”
*Entry level 4: distance 9 m . cool down time 5 minutes .
It’s just entry level 4 and the cool down time is only 5 minutes .
If I raise the level a bit more, maybe the cool down time will disappear altogether?
If the cool down time disappears, I can use the teleportation repeatedly and it’ll be incredibly useful .
“Show me the distance and cool down time for each level of teleportation . ”
The board must have understood what I said because it shows me the information I want . It’s a very interesting piece of AI .
-Teleportation (Assist Skill) showing the distance and cool down time by level .
*Entry level 4: 9 m, 5 min
*Entry level 5: 12 m, 1 min (-300)
*Intermediate level 1: 12 m, 10 x day (-400)
*Intermediate level 2: 15 m, 20 x day (-500)
*Intermediate level 3: 15 m, 30 x day (-600)
*Intermediate level 4: 15 m, 40 x day (-700)
-Remaining karma: +2,500
Starting at intermediate level 1 the cool down time disappears and is instead replaced with ten times a day .
‘So, it means without the cool down, I can use it ten times one after the other without pause . ’
Starting at intermediate level 2, the distance doesn’t increase but just the number of times I can use it a day increases .
‘I think it will be good just to get it to intermediate level 1 . ’
I felt that raising it higher than that would be a waste of karma .
“I will raise teleportation o intermediate level 1 . ”
-Using 700 karma to raise teleportation (assist skill) to intermediate level 1 .
-Teleportation (assist skill): leap through space in the direction you want . Think of the desired direction and say “teleportation . ”
*Intermediate level 1: distance 12 m, 10 x day (resets at midnight)
-Remaining karma: +1,800
Continuing on, I brought up the flame of life . Because the flame of life could be used to raise the spirit summons, it will be good to raise its power .
“With the current karma, I will raise my flame of life as much as possible . ”
-Showing all the stats if you are to use all remaining karma on flame of life (synthesis skill) .
-Flame of life (synthesis skill): blow in a flame of life and revive life . Can be used twice a day .
*Intermediate level 4: can be used for: strength recovery, anti-aging, illness, and curses .
-Remaining karma: +500
1,300 karma is used and I will have left 500 .
I nodded my head .
“I’ll do this . ”
Pat!
The board started shining .
-With 1,300 karma, the flame of life 9syntehsis skill) will be raised to intermediate level 4 .
-Remaining karma: +500
After that, the Divine Protection of the Wind that was at entry level 5; I raised it to intermediate level 1 .
It’s just a one level difference but the entry to intermediate level power difference is completely different which is why I did it .
-Using 400 karma to raise the Divine Protection of the Wind (synthesis skill) to intermediate level 1 .
-Divine protection of wind (synthesis skill): ride a strong wind . Gains power from using the user’s concentration, skill level, and spirit summons level .
*Intermediate level 1: duration time 50 minutes, cool down time 25 minutes .
-Remaining karma: +100
‘100 karma?’
It is exactly enough karma to get a new assist skill .
‘Should I use skill synthesis to put together ingredients for another skill?’
I first asked the board to show me all the skills I could get .
I flit through the list and there were a lot of interesting ones but there wasn’t one in particular that I needed .
‘It would be good if it was related to shooting . Maybe a skill that could increase the power of the bullet… . Huh?’
I thought of something good .
‘What if I itemize bullets and use them as ingredients in the skill synthesis?’
Why hadn’t I thought of this before!
I immediately took out the magnum . 357 bullets from the space bag .
“I want to itemize this . ”
The words on the board switched around .
-Itemizing ten Magnum . 357 bullets will cost 1 karma . Would you like to itemize?
-Remaining karma: +100
1 karma per 10 bullets .
Will it use one bullet if I use them as ingredients for skill synthesis?
Ten of the magnum bullets have itemized and my remaining karma had been reduced to 99 .
“Skill synthesis!”
-Please select the skill or item you wish to combine .
Skills available for synthesis: spirit summons (Sylph), spirit summons (Kasa), physical strength buff, guider, teleportation Items available for synthesis: Mosin-Nagant, Neilson H2 (quantity 2), magnum bullets (quantity 10)*Items used for synthesis will be used up .
I’ll go through the list .
“Sylph and magnum bullet . ”
-Synthesizing spirit summons (Sylph) and . 357 bullets .
-Synthesis fails .
“Kasa and magnum bullet . ”
-Synthesizing spirit summons (Kasa) and . 357 bullets .
“Won’t work again . Then maybe the physical strength buff and magnum bullet?”
As light comes from the board . This time is a success!
-Synthesis success . You have acquired the ammo impact perk .
-One magnum . 357 bullet has been used .
-Ammo impact (synthesis skill): increases the surface penetration of the bullets .
*Entry level 1
“Nice!”
I pumped my fists up in the air and feel a pang of delight .
I got exactly what I wanted . A skill that made my bullets more powerful .
If I added the power of the spirits to this, the power would be even greater of the bullets .
‘Let’s keep going . ’
“I will synthesize guider with magnum bullet . ”
-Guider (assist skill) will synthesize with magnum . 357 bullet .
-Synthesis failed . You have already received the shooting skill (synthesis skill) .
‘So, this can happen too . ’
Now for the last one I tried synthesizing the teleportation and magnum bullet .
And this time too, light came from the board . It was the reaction of a success synthesis .
-Synthesis success . You have obtained the Reload skill (synthesis skill)
-One magnum . 357 bullet has been used .
-Using the reload skill (synthesis skill) during shooting will cause the gun to be automatically reloaded . You must have available bullets in the item bag or space bag .
‘Whoa . ’
This too is definitely a skill I needed .
The bullets in my space bag will automatically be used during shooting!
This eliminates the hassle of taking the bullets out and placing them one by one in person .
This reload skill doesn’t have levels to it . This is just it .
‘Well, it’s good I don’t have to worry about its levels . ’
With this, I had finished using my karma
It’s actually an incredible amount of karma I just used, equal to $1m .
‘In theory, a million dollars… . ’
It’s such a large sum that I can’t even wrap my head around it . So, I don’t even feel the pain of using it .
Going forward, if I come into large sums of money, I’m going to turn it into karma and do it like this again .
Money, I can always make more of, but karma I can’t always make .
‘I will clear all the exams no matter what . ’
My determination grew .
I will beat the ultimate goal of these exams and finish this **** once and for all .
When all the exams are clear and examinees are no longer on this earth the majeong that will be used as the new energy source won’t be attainable anymore either .
But that isn’t my problem to fix .
Those examinees and their nations that are crazy for the majeong, they can go to **** .
***
Korean arena research center .
At the top of the building, the 10th floor, at the end of the hallway was an office where a middle-aged man was looking at the monitor .
On the monitor was the latest article on a news portal site .
[Jinseong Electronics’ new product release, it might be the ‘Park Jin-seong recovery effect’]
“So, he really is all better . ”
With a fat build and half bald, the middle-aged man was closely looking at a picture of a smiling chairman Park Jin-seong .
On the name board on the desk it read ‘Chief Kim Joong-tae’ .
He was this agency’s head, Chief Kim Joong-tae .
On the desk was a file related to Kim Hyun-ho .
Examine Kim Hyun-ho .
From what he knew, he was an unlucky examinee who had lost all his teammates in the 3rd exam .
He had a special main skill, the spirit summons, that made him exciting, but there was no hope of his survival so he was given up on . Rooting and supporting a rookie with no hopes of survival would be a waste of resources .
Coincidently, that was when he had received a call from Chairman Park Jin-seong .
Chairman Park Jin-seong had always been generous with his donations to the agency and it was difficult to deny his request .
The chief was going to throw him away anyway so he un-reluctantly gave up Kim Hyun-ho without much thought .
But then afterwards, Chairman Park Jin-seong, who had been slowly dying from illness, became healthy and lively .
How was he supposed to interpret this?
With his suspicions, he put an employee onto the task of surveilling examinee Kim Hyun-ho .
Surprisingly, Kim Hyun-ho was still alive .
The hopeless Kim Hyun-ho was still alive .
About now he would be a 6th turn examinee but despite that, he was still alive .
Clearing the exams on your own is something impossible unless one was a pretty strong veteran examinee .
This means there was an external helper .
Chairman Park Jin-seong has acquired external assistance for Kim Hyun-ho .
Why?
Obtaining an external helper required quite a bit of money .
Why did he do such a thing for a mere 3rd turn examinee like Kim Hyun-ho?
There could only be one reason .
Chairman Park Jin-seong’s completely recovered appearance explained that reason well .
‘Kim Hyun-ho has the ability to heal diseases!’
“Damn it, I lost a big one . ”
Chief Kim Joong-tae started swearing .
He threw him away thinking he was garbage but it turns out he was the goose that lays the golden eggs .
“Damn, I should have caught on when Chairman Park Jin-seong made his request . ”
The ability to cure illnesses .
The examinee with that great power…if he were in the research center, that ability could have been used for great monetary gains .
It’s not like there are just one or two rich old folks in the world .
Everyone gets sick and dies .
And everyone wants to live .
Chief Kim Joong-tae felt angry that he basically had his treasure taken away right in front of his eyes .
Regardless of how, he wanted to somehow use Kim Hyun-ho for some gains .
But how?
How can I use Kim Hyun-ho for my own benefit?
The answer was simple .
‘There are those crazy for money in neighboring countries . ’
Chief Kim Joong-tae took out an old school flip phone from the inside pocket of his suit .
He looked through his address book and found the name he’s looking for .
[Chang-wee Lee]
He pushed the call button .
The calling out tone sounds and a young man answers the phone .
-What is it, Chief Kim Joong-tae .
“What do you think?”
Chief Kim Joong-tae spoke back in fluent Chinese . When he was in the national intelligence service, he was placed in China .
-Do you have any information worth sharing?
“I have some very precious information you’ll want . ”
-What kind of information? If it is good, you’ll be paid well for it .
Chief Kim Joong-tae smiled wryly .
“Jinseong Group, Chairman Park Jin-seong . ”
-……
A silence falls on them both .
The young Chinese man speaks .
-100,000 dollars .
“Puah!”
Chairman Kim Joong-tae replied by spitting on the floor .
-A million dollars .
“You guys are always like that . Saying you’ll pay well, pay well, and then trying to get it for nothing . ”
-5 million dollars . If you don’t like it then fine . We’re looking for other routes anyway .
“Fine, let’s not . ”
He folded his phone closed .
A moment later, a call came from Chang-wee lee .
“How much are you going to pay?”
-10 million dollars, but if it isn’t good information, I’ll kill you myself .
“Fine . ”
Chief Kim Joong-tae wasn’t one to back down .
***
‘What kind of call was that?’
Cha Ji-hye had something to report which was why she had come but she didn’t go in and had stopped in front of the door instead .
Because she could hear a conversation happening in Chinese from inside .