Chapter 68 - Realizing His Worth (2)

"I'll contact you again when I'm able to log in."

What Jini did shook Hyun.

—It made him think a lot.

He couldn't concentrate on gaming at all. Sometimes, his heart sank for no apparent reason.

But slowly, he started to stabilize.

'Yes, Asrian is different from Asra—a game no one played.'

After reaching that conclusion, Hyun began checking out some item marketplace websites.

Items he thought were worthless were selling for huge sums of money.

He learned the position an Asrian ranker had a little bit.

Of course, as time went on, the price of gold would drop because of inflation, and that would make the price of items fall.

Maybe the items he had were worth tens... No hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Not only that…

Rankers received a lot of money by appearing on shows, commercials, etc.

He felt like he was seeing a new world.

'I think I can be a little bit more confident. Right?'

As time passed, he became calmer.

And from a certain moment, instead of feeling uneasy, he began feeling pride.

'Yes. Even though it was in Asra, I'm the former ranking number one.'

After a few days, he began smiling more frequently.

He also did that while logged in to Asrian, so Ain asked him.

"Hyun, you seemed to be happy. Did something good happen?"

"Hmm... Well, something like that."

Hyun, who had solely focused on gaming, started learning his position a little bit.

* * *

The next day…

Finally, both Stardust members were able to log in.

Ain was late that day. so only the three of them were gathered together.

"I feel like we're receiving more attention than before..." Practice said while walking through the Knight's Hall.

Just like he'd said, they were receiving a lot of attention from the NPCs around there.

Some low-ranking soldiers even bowed their heads when they saw them.

After clearing the Knight Commander's Quest, their reputation among NPCs had risen.

Hyun added some explanation.

"We're probably the first users to clear a quest from the Knight Commander. Being the first ones to do anything increases reputation."

"That means that if your reputation increases, the NPCs’ interest in you grows too. Right? As expected from a hidden quest. And Hyun, who cleared such a quest, is incredible as well!"

"It's not like I've done it alone."

Hyun smiled bitterly at Jini's praise.

For the moment, only Ain knew that he belonged to the Abyss.

Who would think that, among the first users to spread their name through Heaven, there was one who belonged to the Abyss?

Of course, it would've been better if his reputation among the Abyss had risen.

'But this isn't bad. Right?'

Hyun tried to think positively.

If he had a good reputation among Heaven's Forces, people would be less suspicious of him, and the probability of him being outed as a member of the Abyss would decrease too.

A few days before, he had swapped his old dark robe for a clean looking black and white one, so no one would probably mistake him again for being a Dark Priest.

The Robe of the Praying Priest was luxurious, yet classy, so it suited a user with a good reputation.

'It's here.'

They soon reached the gymnasium, which was located on the third floor of the Knight's Hall.

There was no one there.

Only the top knights were allowed there, so it was a place forbidden to most users.

They could enter there thanks to a message from Knight Commander Ollie.

It seemed like the Knight Commander was quite surprised by how fast they'd cleared the quest.

Especially Ain. Thanks to her showing the rune of a Heavenly Being, it seemed like he completely trusted her.

It was a piece of cake for Hyun to control the Knight Commander while being «Assimilated» to Ain.

That's why he let them use the place.

Just a glance was enough for Hyun to know that the place completely differed from the public gymnasium on the 4th floor.

Practice and Jini were lost for words.

"The floor and the walls are made of marble..."

"It's an enchanted marble. Most physical attacks won't be able to leave even a scratch."

"More than a gymnasium... This looks like a giant palace."

The place was full of numerous fitness equipment, a place to spar, somewhere to rest, and a lot of magical equipment they weren't sure what they were.

It was too much for only three people to use.

There were two reasons why Hyun had chosen that place:

The first one was that he wanted to increase the level of «Pray» in a quiet place where there wasn’t anyone around.

The second was that he wanted to teach both Stardust members comfortably.

'Since things have gotten like this, I should teach them properly. Right?'

The truth was that, when he had received Jini's request, he wanted to end it with just a few recommendations... But right then, that would make him feel guilty.

He couldn't ignore those two looking at him with shining eyes.

Practice invited him to eat almost every day... And he was thankful to Jini for what she did the other day.

Not only that, but they'd accepted his request.

—That they would help him when he asked it.

From what he'd seen up until then, it seemed like teaching them would be helpful for him in the future.

'Well, even if I teach them properly... In reality, It's nothing that impressive.'

What Hyun wanted to teach them first were some basic movements.

Even though Asrian was a virtual reality game, it was fundamentally different from real life.

Because neither of them had experience with the previous game, Asra Online, there was a chance that their movements were similar to those of real life.

First, Hyun asked Practice a question.

"What's your Agility?"

"Hmm? My Agility right now is... Exactly 50."

"Good. If you have 50 Agility, it should take you five seconds to run 100 meters. Right?"

"Yes, something like that."

In real life, those numbers would've been impressive, but in Asrian, that speed was normal.

At that moment, Hyun smiled and asked another question.

"Then, how many times can you go back and forth a distance of one meter in 5 seconds?"

"Back and forth...?"

"If it's 100 meters in five seconds, can you do it 50 times?"

"Wait, the calculations are weird...?!"

"That's right. The speed while running straight and changing directions can't be the same!"

They both couldn't hide their surprise at Hyun's question.

Of course, he also knew it was impossible.

He'd asked that question because he wanted to teach them how to move in Asrian.

"Good, then how about 20 instead of 50?"

"20 times...?"

Practice tilted his head while frowning.

It looked like he couldn't get an estimate, but Hyun relieved him of his worries.

"From here to here," Hyun said while drawing a one-meter line with a stick.

"Run back and forth from here to there as fast as possible."

Practice immediately followed Hyun's orders.

Whish-!

The speed at which he moved from left to right was fast enough to leave an afterimage, but it didn't last long.

"Ugh...!"

It took two seconds until his feets got entangled, and he lost his balance.

He was able to move back and forth only five times.

Practice got up and tried to do it again... But it didn't matter how many times he tried, the result was the same.

Ultimately, he had no choice but to laugh and click his tongue.

"Haha, I can't do it."

"That's because you rely too much on your senses."

Practice listened to Hyun's words while getting up.

What Hyun was saying was something he had never heard. It wasn't mentioned in the communities, and the coaches hadn’t told him either.

"As the game progresses to the latter half, there are going to be situations that will be hard to deal with using a normal human's reflexes, so the solution is to make as few decisions and judgments as possible... But senses are also some kind of judgment."

To abbreviate Hyun's explanation:

The reason why Practice fell so much was that he tried to balance himself.

Even if you took 0.1 seconds to process a piece of information, that made your thought process slower, and the next movement ended up being delayed.

In real life, you could probably process the information and make a judgment almost simultaneously, but in Asrian, it was impossible.

Then what you had to do was ignore the sense of balance on purpose!

You needed to move while thinking you were controlling a virtual character, not your real body.

"You need to put away your senses to think faster. In my case, I'm used to doing it thanks to the previous game... But it seems most users are having trouble differentiating Asrian's movements from those of real life."

How many users were capable of not feeling discrepancy with the game's movements?

That is where a dilemma appeared.

While moving, one couldn't help but feel that weird sensation.

Asrian had a technology that recreated sensations, that ended up becoming poisonous for gameplay.

"The problem is that your body must move as you imagine... But you can overcome that with enough training."

Wiinnggg-

As Hyun pressed a switch inside a Magic Circle, dolls rose from the ground.

When they noticed, Hyun was already holding a short sword.

Paf-!

Suddenly, Hyun moved at a speed at which his body couldn't be seen.

Practice and Jini's mouths gaped after seeing the result.

In just one second, Hyun had managed to cut five dolls that were two meters apart.

He had cut exactly on their necks.

"Woah..."

"Amazing...!"

After taking a break, Hyun explained.

"You need to think about the path from start to finish and then move at once."

The theory behind the movements Hyun explained to them was comparable to typing.

While typing, rather than thinking about each separate letter, you think about the whole sentence.

The theory behind successfully chaining movements was similar to that.

After thinking of the entire process, you moved only with your thoughts.

—That's what he meant by leaving your senses behind.

"This is the basis of all movements."

When Hyun finished explaining, Practice and Jini had serious expressions on their faces.

The two seemed to be lost in their thoughts for a while—they were blankly staring at the air.

Hyun waited until they finished processing what they saw; then he gave them a task.

"Let's start with the basics."

The one-meter back and forth that Practice had failed…

The goal was to do it successfully 10 times in five seconds.

At first glance, moving back and forth seemed like nothing. But it was perfect for getting used to the basic movements.

"It's hard..."

Even after listening to Hyun's explanation, Practice was having a hard time doing it—he kept falling to the ground.

That was because his thoughts couldn't catch up to his movements.

"That's because you need to get used to it."

But Practice was still doing it better.

Hyun found something that surprised him.

The first two movements Practice performed were incredibly fast and reliable.

—That was because he had subconsciously learned it while trying to copy Ain.

It was the result of trying to change the direction of the movement twice while attacking.

"It's harder than what it seems..."

Jini, who was next to him, murmured.

Even though Jini was a priest, she'd raised her Agility to 30

That was because Hyun had said that even Priest or Magicians needed some Agility to increase survivability.

The low Agility stat meant that her movements were slower, so that should make things easier for her, but she was having more difficulties than Practice.

'I'm sure she'll get used to it soon.'

Hyun wasn't worried.

They were both professional gamers; that meant that they were both talented people.

He was sure they would learn faster than the average person.

'Then... I should increase the proficiency bar of «Pray».'

While they were both practicing moving, Hyun was at one side of the gymnasium with his eyes closed.

Because he had «Pray» at level 6, increasing it wasn't an easy task. That was why he tried raising the proficiency bar whenever he had free time.

That's how Hyun spent the next following days inside the Knight's Hall.

When Ain wasn't there, he prayed. When she logged in, they completed Heaven's Achievement Quests together and raised their stats.

He also didn't forget to check on Jini and Practice for at least for 10 minutes each day.

Ting.

He kept receiving the message that made his heart flutter for a few days.

[You've received $3,000 USD from Jinny77.]

After sending him $50,000 USD, Jini continued to send him payments for the classes.

It had only been three days since he had begun teaching them, but that was already the second time she'd sent him money.

If it were the Hyun from before, he would've gotten scared by the sum of money... But after receiving $50,000 USD, he could look at it with relative calm.

'I told her I didn't need the payment for the classes... Does this mean that she wants to be taught more rigorously?'

Then it may be better if he invested a little bit more time in it.

Hyun decided to increase the time of the classes from 10 minutes to 20.

____

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried for more updates!

____