4.

'Slurp. Crunch!'

"Ah, hot." His body had become so resilient that he barely felt pain from most injuries, but the searing heat of noodles sliding down his throat and the cool, refreshing crunch of 'kimchi' were blessings that even players who had surpassed human limits could still cherish. Without a thought to cooling the chewy ramen, Buja's chopsticks were already moving for the next bite as he savored the quiet moment.

"You're a good cook, too."

"I'm wifey material," Seora said with a radiant smile, resting her chin on her hand as she watched him. She wore nothing but one of his loose shirts, completely unguarded. After confirming their mutual feelings, there was no awkwardness between them, though the last bit of distance hadn't vanished in a single night.

"We can just order delivery if it's a hassle. I'm not some old-fashioned guy."

"I'll cook for you often when I have the time," she promised. Their conversations were slowly filling with more personal, intimate things.

After a simple yet meaningful late-night meal of ramen, Buja walked Seora home and then gazed up at the inky sky. The penthouse. A place where the glittering Seoul nightscape outshone the starless heavens. The memory of his old life—sprawled in a capsule all day in a cramped, dark studio apartment, lost in a game—felt like a lifetime away. 'Is this really okay?' This luck had come to him so suddenly. In the grand scheme of things, it was the kind of small fortune that could befall anyone. But for him, it was everything he had desperately wished for, and more.

"Things are going almost too well."

Of course, he had worked harder than he'd ever planned. It might have looked like he'd never faced a truly life-threatening crisis, but that was only because he had managed to respond perfectly each time before the situation could escalate. That, and the luck that followed. It was just a nagging fear. It was an anxiety born from a life of stagnation suddenly turning around as if guided by an unseen hand. A worry that it could all vanish like a dream, in a flash.

But the feeling didn't last.

"I'm still a long way off. It's too early to be satisfied."

Compared to the countless other players out there, he was still lacking, still hungry. This was no time to get comfortable and start worrying about losing what he had. A ranker. The number-one ranker. A player whose name was known across the globe. He had to climb at least that high. Right now, he was just a rising star, a promising rookie, a lucky newbie. Nothing more. A meteor that could burn out at any moment. Those titles didn't suit him.

He would show them all. The Gold Maker. He didn't know how it stacked up against the other Legendary classes, but in his hands, it would be the strongest.

"Activate Gold Mission."

[Activating Gold Mission Chapter 1-1 'Rescue the princess'.]

[This mission cannot be abandoned. Do you wish to activate it?]

'How will this work? Do I have to find a dungeon? Or has some princess appeared on Earth, like she came through a dungeon gate?' He swallowed hard as the hologram prompted him for confirmation. The system had never asked him to confirm his intentions before. This was a warning: the mission could be dangerous.

"Activate."

His answer, of course, remained the same. As his mind filled with questions and his body tensed, the world in front of him flickered.

'Flash!'

5.

Despite the widespread mockery, Park Sijun was still a Special-class player and the youngest son of the SJ Group. His family, who had doted on him his entire life, had no intention of disowning him out of shame. On the contrary, the chairman himself had ordered that Sijun receive even more support. That didn't mean they could control every media outlet in a globalized world, but Park Sijun, whose charm lay in his audacity, refused to hide. He threw himself back into clearing dungeons.

Besides, he had still cleared a Special-grade dungeon. He'd gained a massive amount of experience and hit level 11—the level most players considered the end of the tutorial. It was a new beginning, the dawn of 2-star dungeons, and with it, Park Sijun resumed activity on his video channel. More people than ever flocked to his stream to mock him, but the mood didn't last long. Most were just jumping on the bandwagon for fun, and Sijun had never actually done anything to harm his viewers. That made it easy for him to win them back with his greatest asset.

—Whoa. What's with that gear?

—Is Unique-grade gear his default now?

—SJ Group is on another level, as expected.

As soon as the level 11 restriction on 2-star items was lifted, he began uploading videos of himself equipping his new gear. While there wasn't a monumental difference between 1-star and 2-star items, the base stats and options were undeniably better. For the average person, items of Epic-grade or higher were a rare sight, making his content an instant draw. It was an immutable truth of the universe: pay-to-win videos never fail.

And no one knew that better than Park Sijun. Vicarious satisfaction was a powerful drug, and none was more potent than the kind that came from watching someone else spend a fortune.

"Kim Buja, that bastard," he seethed. "He may have played me for a fool in the 1-star dungeons, but things will be different from now on."

He was so furious and humiliated that he hadn't said a word to his guild about the Legendary item. To the few executives who knew, he simply said he couldn't find it. But he hadn't given up. Buja might have more skill, but Sijun had the unshakeable backing of his family.

"I see he's not even level 10 yet. I'll get there first and rip that necklace right off him."

What did it mean to be a chaebol heir? It meant that no matter the situation, no matter the crisis, you achieved your goals and consumed everything in your path. That same blood flowed through Sijun's veins. He'd spent a few days drowning his anger in alcohol, but he had endured. Now, filled with venomous resolve, he was unshakable.

A bitter smile touched Sijun's lips as he watched the chat fill with cheers again. 'You pigs,' he thought. 'As if I'd let a bunch of simpletons like you get to me.'

—lol, you mean the sucker who gifted Kim Buja a Special accessory set and got scammed out of 50 million?

"That son of a… Ban him!" he roared.

Of course, it took a great many forced ejections before the chat finally flowed with the adulation he desired.

6.

A flickering vision wasn't an unfamiliar sensation for a player. It happened every time they entered a dungeon. Early on, after their first awakening, the disconnect from reality could cause nausea or even mental confusion. But after ten or twenty runs, almost every player adapted. They had to. Life inside the dungeons began to feel more real than life outside, a battlefield where they had to fight with everything they had.

Kim Buja was no different. He'd already experienced plenty of virtual reality dissonance through his gaming capsule, so this was hardly a shock. The problem was the situation itself.

"What the hell?!"

The world dissolved the moment he activated the Gold Mission in his penthouse. The warmth of his home and the lingering scent of Seora vanished, replaced by a musty, foul odor and a chilling breeze against his bare skin. He bit back the string of curses that rose in his throat. He was no fool. 'It's a quest.'

He'd almost forgotten, having not been near a capsule in ages, but he was always aware that reality itself was a game. The Gold Maker class, more than any other, was a living embodiment of that game-like system. He just hadn't anticipated this. If a mission was the real-world equivalent of a game quest, then this was a scenario quest.

He let his eyes adjust to the dim light. Thankfully, his initial outburst drew no attention. Slowly, his surroundings came into focus. He could hear sounds, feel sensations.

'Clatter!'

A steady vibration rattled through him. The smell of grass mingled with the stench of unwashed bodies. Slivers of light pierced the oppressive darkness. He couldn't see clearly, but he could piece it together. The countless stories and worlds from a lifetime of gaming coalesced into a single, familiar narrative. The final, decisive clue clicked into place.

'A slave cart?'

His wrists and ankles were bound behind him. In the cramped space, he could make out three other figures in the same condition. The cold wind sweeping over his body told him his armor was gone. With that rough assessment, he scanned his surroundings again. The one silver lining to being dragged off to god-knows-where was having time to analyze the situation.

'Status Window.'

[Status Window]

▶ Name: Kim Buja

▶ Level: 1

▶ Class: Gold Maker (L)

▶ Stats: STR 6(+24) AGI 6(+18) VIT 6(+42) MP 6(+42) HOL 6(+15)

▶ Special Stats: Gold Power (8)

▶ Gold Held: 500G

To his relief, his stats were unchanged. Except for one detail. '500 gold?'

He had gold he didn't have before. Before activating the mission, he'd had around 200G. Even distracted by his time with Seora, he wasn't so out of it that he'd misremember his balance. He quickly checked the new system messages to solve the mystery.

[Rescue the princess]

▶ Grade: Chapter 1-1

▶ Description: Rescue the princess!

▶ Reward: Level 1

[Use of currently equipped gear is restricted for this mission.]

[You have acquired 300 gold.]

[This gold will be retrieved upon mission completion. Items purchased from the Gold Shop will not be retrieved.]

"Wow." A gasp of awe escaped him. The loss of his beginner's set, special accessories, and Legendary necklace was completely overshadowed by the miracle of receiving 300 free gold in compensation. The reason was simple. '300 gold just for doing a quest without my gear? This is the most generous quest I've ever seen.' It said the gold would be retrieved, but if he converted it into items from the Gold Shop, he could keep them.

As he resolved to meticulously browse the shop later, he tried to shrink further into the corner, but his gaze was caught by a pair of eyes in the darkness. Among the three other slaves, she was the only one who hadn't reacted to his initial curse or his subsequent exclamation—the one who had been staring at him this whole time. Kim Buja stared back, sizing her up. 'What's her deal?'

The faint light filtering into the cart slowly began to illuminate the owner of those captivating eyes.

"Hah!"

He tried to stifle his third gasp, but it was impossible. He couldn't help it.

"Beautiful."

Because she was. So beautiful that the thought struck him even though he had been face-to-face with Jeong Seora just thirty minutes earlier.

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