The GM is unfriendly in many ways. And difficult.
An overwhelming number of status windows.
Well over a hundred small stats and values. Pop-up settings that, if not configured, cause lag due to hopelessly bad user convenience, and so on.
It was the undisputed No. 1 most popular “devil’s game” that, once played, you couldn’t escape from, but it was undeniable that the entry barrier was absurdly high.
So, when giving advice to newbies, Lee Shin tells them to forget complicated thinking and focus on just one thing: points.
Raids, competitive matches, near-impossible achievements, and so on.
Points can be earned through various activities.
With these points, you can raise stats in the [Manager Status Window],
With these points, you can develop the guild in the [Guild Management Window],
And with these points, you can foster the raid squad in the [Development Management Window].
Raise your main character. Develop your guild. Foster your raid squad.
Achieve results with that, and you earn points.
Then use those points to raise, develop, and foster again.
They may seem different, but in the end, it all boils down to one thing in GM play.
That is Points.
••
Sssshhhh―!
[ First Gate Clear +200p ] [ ‘Goblin LV3-C2’ Time Record Broken +200p ] [ Loss Rate Below 10% Bonus +300p ] [ 3,000 Goblins Hunted +100p ] [ Title <Goblin Slayer 1> Acquired +50p ] ……
……
…
.
“Khh, this is why you GM.”
Maybe because it was the first gate clear, points poured down like rain.
Of course, it’s not like you can always get this much at the start—absolutely not.
GM rewards vary depending on score and record.
Recruiting the named character “Mountain King” even while being in League 4, or wiping the recorded time for each gate—these impossible perks had been scraped together thoroughly―
※ Overall Rank: SSS
※ Points Earned: 1250p
※ All obtainable perks completed. Additional reward: ‘Gold Card Pack (Trait)’.
1250! On top of points so high they’re hard to even see early on, a super high-grade trait-draw card pack!
“Mmm~ sweet.”
When the snacks are good, the drink tastes sweet too.
Now then, what should I raise first?
Lee Shin wiped his mouth and his eyes gleamed for a moment.
“As expected, the first is this.”
His fingertips touched the [Manager Status Window].
And the flood of information filled his vision―
________________________________________
[ Manager Status Window ]
※ Name: Lee Shin (23 years old) * Affiliation: <Mir Guild> * Type: Talent Mind (0/0)(Limited) Skill (0/0)(Limited) Body (0/0)(Limited) Combat (0/0)(Limited) Social (100/100)(MAX) ……
……
…
.
________________________________________
──Close it.
“I can’t even look at this. It’s in total default settings, isn’t it?”
Status windows that looked like something from before the interface convenience update ten years ago.
With the discomfort of looking at tangled plug wires, Lee Shin shuddered and busily moved his hands.
Delete all the limited talents that can’t be touched anyway.
Raise ‘Social’—the one stat to be raised—as the main, making it as simple and visible as possible.
After Lee Shin’s hands moved busily for a while―
________________________________________
※ Name: Lee Shin (23 years old)
• Social (100/100)(MAX)
Politics: 0 (+50p)
Leadership: 0 (+50p)
Reputation: 0 (+50p)
Domination: 0 (+50p)
Charm: 101 (???)
Wealth: 100 (MAX)
________________________________________
【 Due to insufficient ‘Politics’ stat, dispute probability greatly increases. 】
【 Due to insufficient ‘Leadership’ stat, dispute probability greatly… 】
【 Due to insufficient ‘Reputation’ stat, dispute… 】
【 Due to insufficient ‘Domination’ stat… 】
“Comfortable~”
The warning messages were quite spicy, but that in itself had a certain charm.
It just meant there was a lot of room to grow.
He took another shot of soju and looked over the stats.
Since the base stats were at 0, it only cost 50p to raise each by one point.
But that doesn’t mean you can just raise them recklessly.
Every 5 stat points, the point cost for upgrades spikes dramatically, so proper distribution is necessary!
“What should I raise?”
Politics, Leadership, Reputation, Domination.
“The one that’s giving me the biggest headache here is…”
Reputation.
While the others have subtle negative effects, Reputation is loudly raising its hand and shouting, “Lee Shin is an asshole!” with strong self-assertion.
If Reputation was just around 40 to 50, more than half the curses he was getting now would probably disappear.
From a common-sense perspective, raising Reputation first would be the obvious choice…
Unfortunately, this is Lee Shin—he doesn’t raise stuff like that.
“Even haters are still attention~”
Either way, it still means more people are watching!
According to the report from the head of PR, out of 100 articles about him, about half were insults.
Even at the end of the historic Mountain King recruitment showcase article, reality was that comments like “Extreme waste of money, disgusting” and “Mountain King definitely got scammed lol” were stuck on it.
But if you raise Reputation and stop getting cursed at? Immediately, half of those 100 articles—that is, 50 articles—disappear.
Lee Shin’s conclusion: better to have 100 with curses than only 50 without.
It’s not like you die from being cursed a little, and besides, isn’t charming even the ones doing the cursing this character’s ‘Charm’?
“This character was spicy from creation, so I’ve gotta go hard.”
With that meaning, Lee Shin’s finger tilted boldly.
________________________________________
※ Name: Lee Shin (23 years old)
• Social: (100/100)(MAX)
Politics: 0
Leadership: 0
Reputation: 0
Dominance: ‘5’(+100p)
Charm: 101(???)
Wealth: 100(MAX)
‘Dominance’ is a stat that projects unilateral influence like coercion and obedience rather than conversation, understanding, or negotiation.
It almost feels like Chae Dong-ha’s desperate cry of “You’re already plenty overbearing, and now you’re going to push it even further?” is ringing in his ears.
But, but… this is fun!
With a bit of luck, it can even sprinkle in some combat contribution, so in many ways it was the best choice.
“This one’s done.”
-Gulp, gulp.
After downing the last drop, he opened a new soju with a fresh mindset.
“Next one, easy.”
[ Guild Management Window ]
※ Mir Guild
• League 4
• Representative: Lee Shin
• Captain: Jeong Sun-dong
• Vice-Captain: Chae Dong-ha
• Raid Leader: Kim Jong-pil
• Raid Progress: 14/100
• Fame: 40/100
• Finances: 5/100
• Facilities: 33/100
• Disposition: Enterprising
• Value: 89.17 billion
“Kyaaa~”
The old ‘Pragmatic’ disposition had been changed to ‘Enterprising,’ and its value had risen from 3.1 billion to 89.1 billion.
Of course, 95% of that increased value belonged to Kim Jong-pil’s share, but still, that too was a kind of ability. He couldn’t just let that slide.
Lee Shin’s shoulders danced.
“As for honor, let’s go for the fatigue-tech.”
※ Mir Guild
• Representative: Lee Shin
•
•
• Honor
• Frontline Fatigue Reduction Lv1 (3%)
With a single click, 200p—like blood—was shaved off.
And what he got in return was a measly 3% fatigue reduction, meaning the efficiency was garbage-tier.
Early-game, it would be much better to go for the ‘Chemistry’ tech, which is said to be particularly effective early on, or the all-around solid ‘Loyalty’ tech, known as the national default choice.
But this character was built on a hardcore concept from the start.
Lee Shin’s goal was bigger and to achieve it, a normal progression wouldn’t cut it.
Rot in the 4th league for years?
Forget the early-game!
“Now there’s just one thing left.”
Perhaps the main thing at this point—he pressed [Training Management Window].
Soon, status windows came flooding in again.
Even when it was just him, it often felt like too much, but now with Kim Jong-pil and the raid team’s 15 members’ photos and status windows all popping up, it was like drowning in a flood of information.
Lee Shin cut away all of it without hesitation.
“This one’s out, this one I’ll think about, you—get out.”
At present, Lee Shin’s training philosophy was selection and focus.
He had no interest in people who would merely serve as tools.
He would focus on a small number of core members.
The first of these was, no matter what anyone said, Kim Jong-pil.
※ Mountain King Kim Jong-pil (Male, 59 years old) (195/195)▼
• Stats
Strength 21 Agility 25
Stamina 19 Intelligence 90
Wisdom 98 Magic Power 100
• Traits (9/9)
「World Tree’s Gardener」,「Flawless Commander」,「Howling Winds and Heavy Rain」,「Beast Taming」,「Spirit Eye」,「Natural Magic」,「Manual of Spirits」,「Multitasking」,「Aging」
【 Target’s potential is decreasing▼ due to 「Aging」. 】
【 Due to advanced age, stats cannot be increased through ‘training’. 】
And another one—
“Park Su-bin.”
• Stats
Strength 10 Agility 10
Stamina 31 Intelligence 31
Wisdom 33 Magic Power 50
• Traits (9/9)
「???」,「Weak」,「Timid」,「Deficient」,「Obsessive」,「Beta Male」,「Self-Doubt」,「Self-Deprecation」,「Sweet Potato」
Stats that were by no means high.
Even though wisdom and intelligence are especially important for the supporter class—more so than for magicians—his were shamefully poor.
And if that weren’t enough, all but one undisclosed trait were negative traits.
A character that could only be described as absolute trash.
And yet—this trash character was…
※ Park Su-bin (Male, 16 years old) (73/200)
—one of the extremely rare few among hunters worldwide to be granted the potential stat of 200, a ‘World Class (W.C)’.
With those stats? Those traits? World Class?
It might raise suspicion but remember this: the GM’s status window never lies.
If the potential stat says 200, then his final reachable stat total is 200.
World-class growth is possible.
Of course, the number of hardships and trials in that growth process varies, and in Park Su-bin’s case, especially!—to put it bluntly, it’s “hell of hell” difficulty, the kind even most veteran players hesitate to touch…
But I am Lee Shin, the true veteran of this field.
If it’s in my hands, even trash will become world-class.
“Time for some fun training~”
Lee Shin’s eyes shone as they turned toward the ‘Gold Card Pack (Trait)’.
________________________________________
Meanwhile, while Lee Shin was savoring sweet soju over the Mir Guild’s achievements, Lee Myung-hwan was downing bitter whiskey as he looked at those same achievements.
[ Mir Guild sweeps all records in Round 1 ]
[ MVP without even stepping to the front. Mountain King Kim Jong-pil shows his class. ]
[ This year is different: 5 reasons why Lee Shin’s Mir Guild stands apart ]
“Son of a bitch.”
There was a photo of Lee Shin, smiling with neat teeth, in the article.
He wanted nothing more than to smash those teeth in.
As Lee Myung-hwan was about to check the next article, Jung Sumi, wearing a bathrobe, asked, “Honey, what are you looking at?” and hugged him from behind—then caught sight of Lee Shin’s face over his shoulder and recoiled.
“What the hell, honey! Lee Shin again?”
“That smug bastard pisses me off.”
“Still, you should pace yourself. The day before yesterday it was Lee Shin, yesterday it was Lee Shin, every day it’s Lee Shin. That’s an obsession, you know?”
“What obsession? Don’t get cheeky.”
Ever since losing the Mountain King, Lee Myung-hwan had been habitually searching up Lee Shin.
It was only natural—this was the first failure of his life.
He had never failed before. Even if he did, he had the power to turn any failure into success one way or another.
But now, for the first time, an opponent had appeared whom his power could not overcome.
Lee Shin. That damned bastard.
Lee Myung-hwan found this fact unbearably humiliating, and perhaps that’s when his obsession with Lee Shin began.
“Forget the nonsense—what do you think?”
“About Mir Guild? Hmm…How should I answer? As your girlfriend? Or as CEO Lee Myung-hwan’s ‘advisor’?”
“Girlfriend later, right now I need my advisor.”
“Hmm~ If that’s the case…”
Jung Sumi released her embrace and sat opposite him.
“Where should I start? There’s no need to talk about Mir Guild’s popularity. The fact that articles about them are posted daily despite them being in the 4th league is already insane.”
“I don’t care about popularity, I mean their capability. How far do you think they’ll go?”
“If I judge based only on Round 1? Doing well if they get promoted.”
“Huh?”
An unexpected answer.
He thought they’d obviously get promoted and crush the competition, but she was saying getting promoted alone would be doing well?
“Surprising, right? But if you think about it objectively, it makes sense.”
As an expert, Jung Sumi saw Mir Guild as currently a very sloppy guild—and it couldn’t be helped.
“They’re young and inexperienced, and it hasn’t even been a month since they started working together. Can you really call that a team?”
“Now that you mention it…”
“You can tell just from their first raid. Don’t you remember how they were getting beat by goblins right at the start? That’s proof they lack experience.”
And another thing—
“You might not know this, but their so-called rookies… honestly, calling them ‘promising’ is a stretch. They’re all middling at best.”
“That’s the first I’ve heard of that. Keep going.”
“Former teammates’ evaluations aren’t good. They say the members don’t blend into the team well. In these cases, we usually judge it’s either a personality problem, or—”
She pointed to her head.
“—they’re just not very smart.”
“Not smart, huh…”
“Want an example? Do you remember who stood out the most in Mir Guild’s first raid, besides Mountain King?”
“…Don’t know the name, but I remember the tanker who wore bucklers on both hands and swung them like a martial artist.”
“Park Jung-seok. For a tanker, he had excellent agility and footwork, and was once called a top-tier prospect. But his hopeless positioning earned him the nickname ‘Fast-Dead,’ and he was soon forgotten. Most of Mir Guild’s current members are like that.”
They’re young, inexperienced, haven’t had time to build teamwork, and on top of that, they’re not very smart.
Experts aren’t saying it out loud because of the hype, but most probably think the same as she does.
That if things continue as they are, Mir Guild’s ceiling is clear.
And the really interesting part—
“They’re not even getting any help from the schedule.”
On her phone was the league announcement just posted.
‘LV4. Imp Archer’s Forward Base.’
One of the ‘death triangle’s’ three points, notorious for being League 4’s worst difficulty, was Mir Guild’s next opponent.
