Arena

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 (synthesis 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 crap 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 hell.

***

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.

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