1.

Lying in his capsule, Buja stared blankly at the message floating in the air before closing his eyes again.

"Log out," he muttered.

'If this is a dream, let me wake up now.' It was a dream he'd had countless times over the past five years. In those moments, he felt on top of the world, but waking up to the harshness of reality always left him feeling hollow. He no longer welcomed dreams of awakening as a player.

'Although, this feels more real than any dream I've had before,' he admitted to himself.

His mind was sharp, his eyes stung as they adjusted to the light, the ceiling was just as shabby as he remembered, and the capsule felt familiarly soft. Every detail was intensely vivid, yet the message hovering before him made him certain it had to be a dream.

But he wasn't a fool who would waste time indulging in fantasy.

"This isn't a dream." When he opened his eyes again, the holographic messages were still there, confirming that this time, it was real. "I've become a player," he whispered, savoring the words, which were laced with excitement.

Gold Maker. His grade and his class didn't matter.

"All I need are the privileges of a player."

People always said that games and dungeons were different. But Buja was certain they were wrong. At least for him, they were one and the same.

"As long as I have a system for growth, that's all I need."

To start a game, you create a character. To enter a dungeon, you must awaken as a player and become that character. The class was irrelevant. Buja could take any class, exploit its strengths to 200% of its potential, and claw his way to the top.

"Whew."

He took another deep breath and closed his eyes, not in denial this time, but in preparation.

"Let's do this."

Awakening was always sudden and unannounced. All seventy million players, the top one percent of the world's population, said the same thing. The most important thing was how quickly you accepted it. The life of a player meant leaving behind normalcy to risk your life against monsters in a dungeon.

'Am I ready?' he asked himself.

He didn't have an answer, but the corner of his mouth curled into a confident smirk.

"Let's find out."

Climbing out of the capsule, Buja instinctively swiped through the holograms in his vision, reading them one by one.

"Still, a high-grade, combat-type class would be nice," he murmured, a hint of his hidden desire slipping out.

As if on cue, the holograms diligently presented their information.

[Congratulations! You have acquired the 'Gold Maker' Class!]

[Level has been activated.]

[Stats have been activated.]

It was the standard notification for a new player. Though it was his first time seeing a hologram in the real world, he navigated it with practiced ease and spoke the command.

"Status Window."

The words felt strangely new, despite him having uttered them tens of thousands of times across a thousand different games.

[Status Window]

▶ Name: Kim Buja

▶ Level: 1

▶ Class: Gold Maker (L)

▶ Stats: Strength (1), Agility (1), Stamina (1), Magic (1), Divinity (1)

▶ Special Stats: Gold Power (1)

▶ Gold Owned: 1G

[Due to the (L) Class effect, stat point distribution is sealed.]

[Due to the (L) Class effect, only skills exclusive to 'Gold Maker' can be learned.]

"Huh?"

The status window was familiar, yet strangely not. As his eyes scanned down the screen with a proud smile, he froze. His gaze was fixed on his class.

"Legendary?"

There, in his status window, was a class with an unfamiliar grade, both familiar and utterly unbelievable.

* * *

In this era, even someone who knew nothing about players understood that a Legendary class was the absolute best. Stories about them were everywhere, appearing on every form of media at least once a day, whispered with awe by those who dreamed of such power.

Of course, that didn't make them common. Only seven out of seventy million awakened players possessed one. It was a class born of incredible luck, obtainable by only 0.0000001% of the world's top one percent.

People had a few choice names for the seven Legendary players who had won the genetic lottery out of seven billion people.

'Those bastards must have sold the Earth in a past life.'

'I bet they're the ones behind the dungeons.'

'They used up three generations' worth of luck in one go.'

Unless they made a rare media appearance, you would be lucky to see a Legendary class player even once in your lifetime. And naturally, they were all powerful. Though they had awakened at different times, and some even had non-combat classes, all seven publicly declared their status and regularly conquered high-level dungeons.

That was why, even though class wasn't everything, players coveted a Legendary class above all else.

"Wow… me?"

Buja was no different. If he was going to be diving into dungeons, it was only natural to want a good class.

"Is it really Legendary?"

His earlier thought of being fine as long as he awakened was just his usual pessimism preparing for the worst. With a better tool in his hands, he was overflowing with the confidence to use it more effectively than anyone else.

He forced himself to calm his pounding heart. He'd been struck by lightning twice in one day, blessed with a fortune he could have spent a lifetime chasing. Times like this required composure.

"I'm level one," he reminded himself.

Arrogance and excitement were a fast track to death. The moment you got carried away, your vision narrowed, making rational judgment impossible and creating a fatal opening. Unlike in games, where a careless mistake might lead to a respawn and a moment of regret, real-world dungeons offered no second chances.

The common belief was that a Legendary class made you invincible, but Buja knew better.

'Death doesn't play by the rules.'

Normal, Rare, Epic, Unique, Special, Legendary. In the end, the only players who made a name for themselves were those who survived long enough to build a solid foundation. For all he knew, there might have been more than seven Legendary players at some point. Perhaps there still were. The saying that a player's strength was measured by their level and experience, not their class, existed for a reason.

"Haah."

Taking another deep breath, he centered himself. His focus shifted from what he wanted to see to what he needed to see.

"Point distribution sealed?"

His status window contained details he'd never seen or heard of in the online player communities.

"Legendary classes really are different, I guess."

Buja wasn't fazed by the anomaly. Special stats were so rare that even among rankers, players at level 50 or higher, few possessed even one. And the 'Gold Owned' stat was obviously tied to his class name, Gold Maker.

"Class Information."

Pushing aside his questions for later, he recited the next command, determined to master the fundamentals of his new life.

[Gold Maker]

▶ Grade: Legendary

▶ Classification: Growth

[A class that grows through the special stat 'Gold Power'.]

[Due to the special stat 'Gold Power', stat distribution is sealed.]

[Due to the (L) Class effect, only skills exclusive to 'Gold Maker' can be learned.]

So this is a Legendary class!

"A growth-type class," he murmured.

It was a new classification that completely defied the standard trifecta of attack, defense, and support. It even came with what seemed like a special penalty of only being able to learn exclusive skills. The ability to distribute points was locked because of Gold Power. He couldn't allocate the stat points gained from leveling up to his general stats.

"I can live with a penalty like that."

Something like this surely meant there was a corresponding reward. As he finished reading the class information, a cascade of new holograms appeared before him.

[Congratulations on awakening as a 'Gold Maker (L)'!]

[A (L) Class special benefit gift has arrived.]

[You have acquired the 'Gold Maker Beginner's Exclusive Equipment Set'.]

[You have acquired the 'Wait for Free Gold (L)' skill.]

[You have acquired the 'VIP Level (L)' skill.]

[The (L) Class penalty is now unsealed.]

This marked the official start of his life as a player.

2.

Holograms flooded his vision as he confirmed his Legendary class, detailing everything from new penalties to skills. But before diving in, Buja first posted a message on his personal video channel.

[I will be ending my game streaming with the raid of The World's Demon King.]

For five years, this channel had been his life. It was a space visited by people who had watched him, sponsored him, and cheered him on, whether daily or just once in a while. The time had come to pursue the dream he'd held for so long, and he didn't hesitate to abandon what had essentially been his job. Still, a final goodbye felt like the right thing to do.

"Everyone, please send your tearful donations." Of course, he didn't include it in the post, but there was some selfishness behind it. After writing a lengthy message, he uploaded it, a wave of bittersweet emotion washing over him.

He was living in a tiny studio that cost $230 a month, surviving on instant noodles, yet he owned a $77,000 gaming capsule and had over $38,000 worth of in-game items. The thought of parting with the digital avatar he had poured his entire life into, from his teens to the age of twenty-three, sparked an unexpected feeling of attachment. He stroked the capsule with mournful eyes.

"I wonder if I can get $15,000 for it used. Maybe a little more if I get it professionally cleaned?" he mused aloud. "As for the items… if I'd known this was going to happen, I wouldn't have finished the raid. I should've just poked the Demon King a bit, triggered the final story event, and sold everything off."

The cruel reality was that, against the power of money, his five years of affection crumbled into nothing more than a worthless relic. With his calculations complete, Buja began to clear out his old life.

* * *

A wall stood between games and dungeons. The world had seen countless pro gamers try and fail to conquer dungeons. As Buja spent the day reading comments from his subscribers and arranging the sale of his gear to fund his new career, the hours slipped away.

"I'll just go in tomorrow," he decided.

He felt no particular regret. To move forward, you had to let go of the past. Even if it meant taking a financial hit, he felt a sense of relief from having made a clean break.

Lying down in the empty space where his capsule once stood, Buja recalled the holograms he had minimized to a corner of his vision. Two Legendary skills and a beginner's exclusive equipment set. This was his starting capital, the foundation for his new life as player Buja.

As he was about to examine them, a new set of holograms materialized before him.

[24:00:00]

[The effect of Wait for Free Gold(L) is now active.]

[You have acquired 1 Gold.]

It appeared at the stroke of midnight.

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