The Novel’s Villain
Chapter 38

8.Luck (2)

He bought a bunch of cash items and put them up at the auction. Of course, there was no such thing as a limit for Jin-woo.

[PayToWin’s ‘Sylphnar Armor Set’ has been sold.]

[PayToWin’s ‘Sylphnar Weapon Set’ has been sold.]

[PayToWin’s ‘Furona Wizard Set’ has been sold.]

Giant Tree Warrior: LOL, that bro is spending money again

Starlight Man: Gosh, LOL, he’s still the best, LMAO.

Woow: Don’t tell me, he’s doing it again?

Cute Reinforcement Stone: It’s worth 10 million won. He’s a real man.

Jin-woo spent about ten million won on cash items he immediately sold to the auction. He then bought a Sword of Judgment with the gold coins he had prepared. It wasn’t worth ten million, but Jin-woo put that much in the top bid to prevent others from bidding at all. Who would dare to touch his belongings?

‘I completely became Lee Jin-woo, huh?’

Jin-woo thought that way and giggled.

[PayToWin has entered the Elrond Enhancement Center.]

When Jin-woo entered the Enhancement Center, people flocked to him in an instant. At the bottom of the screen, he could see how many spectators there were, and it immediately became a full room of three hundred. However, the number of people watching was even more.

BJPuddles: I’m live-streaming! PayToWin, who provided countless legendary videos in the past, has made a comeback! He is someone I want to invite as a guest if I can reach out to him.

This was because the fairly famous BJPuddles broadcasted it. Even in broad daylight, up to 5,000 viewers were waiting to watch Jin-woo’s enhancement. Jin-woo’s character was wearing a wooden sword in his underwear after blowing up all of his equipment. The amount of money he spent alone reached hundreds of millions of won, but he looked like a beggar. When he put the Sword of Judgement on the enhancement window, the chat window went crazy.

Lazy: The Sword of Judgment is up!

Sneaky Guest: LOL, so crazy ASGJLMAO. Is he trying to enhance that?

Home Fireplace: As expected from a whale user of PayToWin’s level. He won’t enhance regular items, right? Is the class different?

Watchdog: Break it! Break it!

Normally, people pressed the enhance button with a desperate heart for this, but Jin-woo just pressed it coolly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The dwarf took his hammer and began to hit the Sword of Judgement.

Ding!

The reinforcement was successful. Some unlucky people failed on the first try, but Jin-woo pressed the button again, one after another, without a break.

MoneyShow: It looks cool, crazy LOL

Assassin: So far, everything has succeeded. He got his money’s worth.

Watchdog: Crap, I don’t want to see it

Kainan: Lucky shit game, LOL

He made it to level five. Although the developer did not disclose it exactly, the success rate was about 20% until this point. It dropped exponentially from level six and so on. The price would be about five times the original one. From level six, the price jumped several times per level.

It was magic that made an amount of money worth a house disappear with a single button.

[BJPuddles: Oh, PayToWin, are you quitting here? Right?! That can’t be true!]

It couldn’t be. Jin-woo pressed the button without hesitation. Cheers exploded when he reached level six. Shock broke in when he reached eight, and the chat room went crazy when he reached nine.

Central Area: Wow, that’s bullshit. Is that real !$@$?

HiddenCourage: Crazy, he made it right away to Level 9.

Middle-aged Man Kim Nam-sik: A Sword of Judgement +9 recently sold for 300 million LOL. Crazy LOL. It’s worth all the money he has lost so far @%#%LMAO.

GloomyPlace: Fake. He must be fake.

If they calculated what he had lost so far, it couldn’t even account for half of it.

‘Hmm, it seems that my enhancement luck has improved.’

He couldn’t give an exact number, but it seemed so. There was an effect on the way probability worked.

[BJPuddles: Is he going to Level 10? Will he?]

Middle-aged Man Kim Nam-sik Kim: Goooooooooo!

Kaisar: Goooooooooooooooooo!

Yoshiki: Go, Go, Go!

The chat window united. Many people cursed him to fail; an experience Jin-woo was familiar with. Seeing other people doing well made his stomach hurt. He smirked and pressed the button. It was unlikely he would fail today.

Ting!

Level ten was reached successfully.

King Bots: Crazzzzyyyyyyy LOLOLOL 1 billion ASDFGHJK!!

Dandyson: 1 billion…crazy.

[BJPuddles: Wow, awesome! Congratulations, PayToWin.]

A brilliant weapon of the top ten had been born. Jin-woo talked briefly with Yoo-na, who stopped by to report for a while and then returned. The number of viewers was already over 10,000.

[BJPuddles: PayToWin is back. Huh? Don’t tell me +11? Level 11!! Are you going to try +11? Let’s go!]

Hidden Courage: Let’s goooooooooooooooooooo!

ClassAMercenary: Let’s gooooo!

CompetentPersonS: Gooooooooooooooo!

My Brother Lee Jin-woo: BreakitBreakitBreakitBreakitBreakitBreakitBreakitBreakitBreakit!

It took a while, but he still hadn’t hit the button. Of course, Jin-woo was thinking of going all the way to the end.

[BJPuddles: PayToWin, are you hesitating? Ah! Press it! Press it! He pressed it!]

He hit the enhance button.

Ding!

It was raised to eleven, instantly changing the best weapon on the server. Of course, there was an uproar. BJPuddles’s broadcast was about to explode. The chat window scrolled by at the speed of light.

[BJPuddles: Wow, he’s a real legend. A +11 weapon! Crazy. I want to invite you as a brother. Really. Is there something today? Guys, hurry up and enhance! It must work out today!]

It was then. Immediately, a beeping sound began, indicating an enhancement.

[BJPuddles: Huh?]

Masaka: Don’t tell me?

ArrogantRacist: What is it? Is he going all the way to +12?

The enhancement seemed to take forever. In the case of level twelve, special motions and impacts were added to the screen. It was the moment when the Sword of Judgment was surrounded by gold. Everyone was convinced that the golden light would turn black and the equipment would split. It could never be a success.

But there was no absolute rule.

[Congratulations. You have succeeded in enhancing the Sword of Judgment to Level 12.]

[A legendary weapon created by a great man.]

It was a little tense but successful. The power of Luck seemed to be working for sure. He could just have been lucky today, but he was always lucky anyway.

[BJPuddles: Whoaaaaa!]

CompetentPersonS: Crazy!

Masaka: What is that?!

Kaisar: Fck LOLOLOLOLOL. Is that real?

Sweet Almond: Guys, let’s enhance quickly. That’s a bug.

Military High School Girl: Uwaaaaaaaaaaa $@$@%#&$^#^%

Hawaiian Burger: How much is that worth?

Of course, there was another uproar. Many people followed Jin-woo’s success in enhancement, but only a few succeeded. A wave of enhancements broke out on the server. Jin-woo raised the Sword of Judgment that gave off a brilliant light. It was very unbalanced as his character was in his underwear while holding the powerful sword.

[BJPuddles: Wow…this bro is crazy. It feels like he has spent all his life’s luck here. No, he must have used his luck for future generations, too.]

He swung it a few times in his underwear, and the effect was incredible. An impact that seemed to split the heavens and the earth came out. As expected from the Sword of Judgment +12. Jin-woo nodded and put his hand on the logout button. Then he remembered something and paused his hand for a moment.

‘Waste stacks…’

Jin-woo put the wooden sword he was holding on the attribute enhancement slot, and he put the Sword of Judgment +12 in the slot where the item for attribute enhancement was placed. Attribute enhancement items naturally disappeared when attribute enhancement was applied.

[BJPuddles: Wow, he’s joking around too. If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to do it like that. Oh, I’m so nervous.

He must be asked several times when he put in a high-enhancement item, and there was no way he could accidentally enhance the attribute.

[BJPuddles: Huh? Huh? C-crazy!]

Jin-woo renewed the Swords of Judgment +12 into his wooden sword just like that.

HiddenCourage: What?

ZoneBank: What’s wrong with him? Why?

PetitPujak: Huh.

LaLaRonda: Did he renew that crazy thing?

The level of the wooden sword had reached max level. The legendary attribute was attached to the wooden sword, but it wasn’t worth much because it was a wooden sword. Jin-woo’s lips turned up in a satisfied smile when he saw the Waste stacks increase. The value of the Waste stack wasn’t comparable to that piece of data. Yet, checking the chat window, everyone was screaming.

There was an effect on this particular part probability, but when he thought back on the past, there was a feeling of vagueness. Somehow, it seemed that there was some unquantified misfortune.

“Let’s think positively.”

There was no turning back anyway. Jin-woo put the max-level wooden sword on the auction and turned off the game. He was able to set it aside very easily. It felt like he could sleep very well after deleting the game. An Internet news article was published, and the news spread throughout the large gaming community, but Jin-woo had no clue. All sorts of speculations arose about the identity of PayToWin. It was even announced on the game’s official SNS that there was no manipulation.

At dawn, Jin-woo quietly got up from bed. The big bedroom felt even larger today. The moonlight gently lit up the room.

‘Shall I prepare soon?’

The Key to Greed appeared in front of his eyes. It was activated and shimmering with a strange light.

‘I’ll have to go alone.’

He was planning to go alone. It would be more dangerous if it became known that there was such a thing as an Emperor of Greed. Even just looking at the original story, there were too many troll beings. He was confident the right choice was to keep it a secret. To be honest, there were quite a few incidents that could have been prevented if the main character had dealt with them quietly.

Maybe the novel wouldn’t have progressed if it had been prevented.

‘I envy the correction of the main character.’

He seemed to have something in himself that ignored the Luck value. Perhaps it was normal since he was a villain. Usually, when you see a villain, it was common for his nose to break. Jin-woo shook his head. He changed into a Gate outfit and took his weapon. It was a ranked sword and the best weapon he had at hand.

The more reliable the preparations, the better. The flaw was that his appearance wasn’t so good as he wore the equipment mainly for defense.

“Huh?”

While checking his physical condition, he could see that his honor had risen.

Honor: F+ (Rich Genius)

As the honor rose, so would all his stats.

*All stats increase by 10%

The increase was due to the overlap between the Gate progress and the enhancement event. It seemed possible to make up for his lack of physical abilities with honor. Jin-woo nodded, wondering if it was because of the Gate progress. It was certainly a big enough deal that it was reported all over the world. Intelligence sources from each country were also very active in trying to learn more.

The stocks related to Lee Jin-woo soared automatically. The Korean government, as well as the United States and other countries, wanted to meet him.

‘Let’s go.’

As he had finished preparing, Jin-woo reached out his hand, and the key appeared. When he put mana into the key, the key stuck in the air, and a bobbing door appeared. It felt like looking at a miniature Gate. The shimmering colors were quite beautiful. It was a door to a scary place, but strangely, he didn’t feel nervous.

Jin-woo watched the door for a while before entering.

“Oh…”

Although the location was so deep underground that it was difficult to measure how far down he was, it was bright inside. He looked up at the ceiling and saw a very bright orb floating there. It felt like a miniature version of the sun, but it was only an extremely large magic crystal.

[A+] Magic Crystal of the Sun

A magic crystal created by the combination of high purity mana. It absorbs harmful components at night and emits a wealth of mana during the day. It resembles the sun, which symbolizes the source of life, and has great power hidden within. It purifies the unclean energy from the seal and turns it into pure mana.

*[A] A beneficial effect on the owner of the mana crystal and their possessions

*[A] Purification

The mana was so strong that it was hard to breathe, making the air feel viscous. Yet, it didn’t feel bad. It was as if a wave of pure mana were washing over his whole body.

Jin-woo looked around. There was a huge door right in front of him, clearly marking the entrance to the dungeon. The sculptures on the door were unusual, however. Skulls and demons were depicted massacring other creatures while laughing hideously. It was like looking at Auguste Rodin’s Gate of Hell, which he saw in a textbook before.

Just looking at it made him feel intimidated.

“This is?”

On the surface of the door were ancient Gate characters lined with gold. The language system looked completely different from the existing Gate characters, however. He couldn’t tell whether it was a text or a picture. Even if the world’s foremost expert in Gate character decryption came here, it wouldn’t make any sense at all.

He was really lucky to have the Magic Eye. Jin-woo read the door’s information carefully.

[S] Seal of Greed

A place where the Emperor of Greed is sealed.

It is sealed with the power of the center of the world and the Magic Crystal of the Sun. However, due to its instability, maintenance is required once every thousand years.

The seal cannot be affected unless broken by a being comparable to the Devil. If the seal is released, there is a high possibility that other Emperors will also be released from their restrictions and seals.

Unsealed: 99.99% (Remaining Period: 706 days)

Mana Charge Rate: 0.01%

It was said that the seal could be strengthened by putting mana into that door. Jin-woo was relieved when he saw the information.

“Is this the luck of Rank S?”

He was so lucky. Although the stat points were mostly wasted, the Luck stat seemed to be quite useful. Jin-woo was so relieved to hear that the door couldn’t be opened without an entity equivalent to the Devil.

Even the Devil was sealed, so there was no way that such an existence could come here.