WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈

Chapter 1: A Special Perk

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Clang...! Clang...! Clang...!

Every time I brought the hammer down, red sparks flew.

Heat rolled over me from the forge.

My entire body had long since been drenched in sweat.

My arms were starting to tremble and my throat was dry, but I couldn't stop.

What I was hammering was an ancient dragon's spine bone.

It was a legendary-grade material.

There was a set speed and rhythm for hammering, too.

You judged a material's condition by its color and heat, then struck it with the proper rhythm.

That was the most basic principle of blacksmithing.

Even the slightest mistake could ruin the material.

And there was one more reason I couldn't stop.

It was because...

Pew-!

Pop-pop-pop.

Damn. It had started already.

Fireworks had begun going off outside.

Yeah. The reason I couldn't stop was this.

Today was the final day of service for this game, [Kingdom of Fire].

A sense of disillusionment was starting to set in.

Was this really how I should be spending the very last day here?

Shouldn't I be outside like those people, enjoying the lingering feeling as a game that had defined an era faded away?

"Fuck. Why did I pick blacksmithing?"

This was a VR game.

The first VR device to reproduce 95 percent of real-world sensation.

And this game had been the biggest hit that drove the device's explosive popularity.

Well, other games had pushed it aside by now.

Still, in its early days, it had been such a worldwide hit that the servers practically exploded.

Combat so realistic it sent adrenaline surging through your veins.

Vast oceans and plains. Deserts. Jungles.

And more than two hundred different classes.

People jumped into the game in pursuit of the adventures they'd dreamed of as children.

I was one of them.

It was a new world.

The foods I'd tasted here for the first time and the unfamiliar scenery all made my heart race.

I was eighteen then.

There hadn't been any particular reason I chose blacksmithing.

You know how everyone gets that feeling sometimes.

The urge to try something different from everyone else.

For me, that had been blacksmithing.

The first time an NPC took me by the hand and led me into a forge,

something clicked into place.

Pulling hot iron from the furnace with tongs.

Setting it on an anvil.

Then striking it with a hammer.

The feeling in my hands. The metal slowly taking shape bit by bit.

For some reason, every burst of sparks gave me a rush of dopamine.

Watching things come together one after another filled me with an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.

That was when it began.

I made up my mind.

Ah. This was the path I wanted to take.

Back when the game first launched, the developers and operations team streamed often.

They revealed newly released classes and regions each time.

One day, I was watching a stream over a meal in case I learned something new.

[The first person to reach the maximum level will receive a very special perk. Please look forward to it.]

A perk?

The spoon in my hand stopped.

[And the next piece of news is-]

Without explaining anything, the operations team immediately moved on.

Something special awarded to the number one player in the entire world.

What could it possibly be?

A special perk.

Would they give out a one-of-a-kind game item or something?

No. They wouldn't offer just one item.

This was a game played by millions around the world.

There was no way they'd end it with something that trivial.

Could it be company stock?

My thoughts kept branching out.

Back then, I was obsessed with the word perk.

Guys were practically designed to be drawn to stuff like that.

There was a reason One Piece had become such a massive hit.

Still, the fact that they were giving out this perk had only been briefly mentioned among countless announcements.

Even after searching, I couldn't find anything about it.

Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

What if barely anyone knew about this?

The announcements were broadcast live, but most players just checked the patch notes.

There was no mention of the perk in the patch notes.

That meant the only people who knew were the ones who had heard it on the live broadcast.

Of course, I hadn't seriously planned to go after it from the beginning.

But the game's system made gaining experience exponentially harder as your level rose.

Even when the game's popularity began to fade, there were only a handful of players above Level 60.

Gulp.

I remembered it then.

[The first person to reach the maximum level will receive a very special perk. Please look forward to it-]

That excitement I'd felt at the time.

Could it be?

Was it actually possible?

I opened the rankings.

I set the class filter to all classes.

Then selected worldwide.

Tap.

[Rank 7. Lee Do-hyeon.]

Second in South Korea.

Seventh in the world.

I'd vaguely known it already.

I spent all day in the forge,

and whenever I went outside to gather materials, I almost never saw anyone with a higher level than mine.

I just assumed crafting classes were easy to level up.

But that wasn't it.

Scroll. Scroll.

No matter how far I scrolled through the rankings,

I couldn't find a single non-combat class, much less another blacksmith.

Well.

Wasn't that only natural?

A hyper-realistic game wasn't necessarily good for crafting classes.

Sitting in front of a scorching furnace in a forge,

hammering away all day.

If it didn't suit you, it wasn't something just anyone could do.

Everyone said it was boring and left one by one.

Eventually, blacksmith players became almost impossible to find.

'This might actually work.'

That was how it started.

I threw myself deeper into the game to obtain that perk.

And as a result...

[LV.99]

I briefly looked up at my experience bar.

Even on the final day, nobody had reached the maximum level.

And my experience was at 99 percent.

If I completed this, I'd definitely hit max level.

One legendary-grade item.

That was all I had left.

"But seriously. Fuck. My arms hurt like hell."

It had already been three hours.

No, was this really right?

I was practically max level.

I'd made legendary-grade items several times before, but this one was taking especially long.

Pop-pop-pop.

Pop-pop-pop-pop.

The fireworks outside were coming faster and faster.

Was I not going to make it?

Clang...! Clang...!

Still, there was nothing else I could do.

I had to keep hammering.

I'd already poured nearly ten years into this.

If the service ended before I completed it, I'd probably regret it even when I was an old man.

"Grandpa, that sound again? Isn't it time for your medicine?"

I'd probably get scolded by my grandchild.

Pop-pop-pop.

Pop-pop-pop-!

Just as anxiety swelled with the fireworks reaching their peak,

Flash-!

Blue light burst before my eyes.

A notification window appeared.

[The item has been completed.]

[Legendary. You have completed the Ancient Dragon Greatsword.]

[Level up. You have reached LV.100.]

Countless notification windows appeared one after another.

I tossed aside the sword I'd worked so hard to make and flipped through the notifications.

Where was it? Where?

[Congratulations.]

A translucent window flashed into view.

It wasn't flashy, but large letters appeared one by one in clear, deliberate strokes.

[You are the first person to reach the maximum level.]

"Fuck! I did it!"

I clenched my fist and shouted.

I was alone in the forge anyway.

Adrenaline flooded my head.

Ten years. It had been ten years.

I'd spent a full decade racing toward this day.

[The first person to achieve this will be granted a special perk-]

The status window displayed the words slowly, one character at a time.

It was there. It really was there.

The perk existed.

There had always been a corner of my mind that worried about it throughout my time playing.

It had only been mentioned once on a broadcast, and it wasn't written down anywhere.

So I'd imagined all kinds of bad possibilities.

Maybe someone had misspoken.

Maybe it had been an idea they considered, then scrapped.

But that wasn't it.

It actually existed. The perk!!

"Yeah, fuck, they better give it to me. After all this, it's only right."

I couldn't stop myself from smiling.

My heart pounded.

So what was it? What were they giving me?

I stared at the status window, waiting for it to change.

Then...

Something was wrong.

No matter how long I waited, the window didn't change.

It had stopped after displaying, 'A special perk will be grant-'

What? Was it a bug?

So what were they giving me?

I grew impatient.

As I stared endlessly at the status window,

the screen flickered irregularly as it turned translucent, its colors shifting back and forth.

My studio apartment appeared through the translucent screen.

The forge and my dark room alternated before my eyes, both visible at once.

"Uh. Don't tell me."

No. Please.

Fwoosh.

Then...

a translucent white window appeared.

[No Game.]

It was the VR device's standby screen.

What?

Wait a second.

Fuck. What was this? Did the game shut down?

No. Don't mess with me.

I frantically felt around the bed.

I barely managed to pull out the phone wedged between the bed and the wall.

No way. No way.

My shaking hand turned on the smartphone screen.

[12:00 AM]

Ah.

The date had changed.

Service ended. That was it.

Just in case, I turned the VR device off and back on.

It still only showed a screen saying it couldn't find the game.

I entered the community.

I opened a random post.

A picture taken with the final fireworks.

I went back.

I scrolled through the titles.

It seemed I wasn't the only one who couldn't get in.

Everyone was saying their goodbyes in their own way.

The strength drained from my hand.

Thud.

My smartphone fell onto the bed.

"......"

This was the end? After ten years?

Fuck. How many years had I spent chasing that perk?

"Was this... really right?"

Only the faint light of the screen illuminated the pitch-black room.

"......"

The room was bare.

There was only the basic fridge and desk that came with the place.

Moldy wallpaper.

Plastic bottles and meal containers scattered everywhere.

I stared blankly at the ceiling.

It didn't feel real.

I couldn't believe everything had ended like this.

Gulp. Gulp.

I drank from a bottle of water.

Lukewarm water ran down my throat and into my stomach.

"....."

Only then did I calm down a little.

Mm. It was over.

Just like that.

Surprisingly, I felt calm.

I wasn't as angry as I'd expected.

It was shocking how little I felt.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve.

'Well. It's not like I didn't know.'

The notice about the service shutdown had been out for months.

And part of me had expected it might end before I reached the maximum level.

There might not even have been a perk.

I'd told myself not to get my hopes up.

I kept imagining the worst, over and over, so I wouldn't be disappointed.

Like strapping on a parachute.

"Right."

Heh.

I laughed for no reason.

Yeah. I knew this would happen.

Even if the perk did exist, the game had ended. I probably couldn't have sold it anywhere anyway.

It was inertia.

I had only kept going because I wanted to see it through to the end.

"......"

Silence filled the empty room.

As I sat there without moving,

something slowly came over me.

It felt like something inside my chest was quietly collapsing.

My body seemed to realize before my mind did that I'd lost something precious.

My heart ached.

It was a horribly hollow feeling, too empty for the word emptiness to describe.

"What... was the perk?"

The murmur slipped from my lips, directed at no one.

Nothing answered.

* * *

A few days passed.

I didn't know exactly how many.

It had been a long time since I'd drawn back the blackout curtains, so my days and nights had long since reversed.

There was nothing to do.

For ten years, my routine had barely changed.

I woke up in the morning and logged into VR.

I went into the forge and hammered away. When I got hungry, I ate something simple, then went back in.

I made things until I got sleepy, turned off the game, and went to bed.

That had been my everyday life.

I'd never even had a part-time job.

Selling items made money.

Recently, I'd focused on leveling up quickly, so the balance in my account had been scraping the bottom for a long time.

Then that entire routine disappeared overnight.

I spent more time doing nothing but lying still and staring at the ceiling.

Sometimes, I'd fiddle with my phone and fall asleep. When I woke up, I did it all again.

Once, I checked the game's community.

The message board had already been shut down.

Even seeing that didn't make me feel anything.

I just put my phone down.

One day, a package arrived.

There were apples inside.

A note sat on top.

[Do-hyeon, are you eating properly? Your aunt sent you some apples. Enjoy them. From Mom.]

Maybe she was worried about her unfilial son who rarely even called to check in.

My mom sometimes sent side dishes or fruit like this.

I opened the box and took out an apple, but I had no knife to peel it with.

I bought a small fruit knife at the convenience store.

Back in my apartment, I tore open the plastic packaging.

The knife settled in my hand.

My hand stopped.

From the handle to the tip of the blade,

I could feel where its weight was concentrated.

The balance point leaned slightly toward the blade.

The handle material was too light.

The blade angle was roughly fifteen degrees.

Not bad for a fruit knife, but the sharpening was uneven in the middle, creating a thick spot.

'If I resharpen the base of the blade a little, then add a counterweight to the handle to balance it-'

That was as far as I got.

'What am I doing right now?'

It was a paring knife I'd bought at a convenience store for three thousand won.

What was I thinking, talking about resharpening it and adding a counterweight?

It was all pointless.

I set the knife down by the sink.

Then I turned off the lights and lay down on the bed.

But my hand kept nagging at me.

That feeling when I held the knife.

The sensation of judging its weight and examining the quality of the material.

My hand itched.

At some point, I woke from sleep in a daze and realized my fingers were moving.

The feeling of gripping a hammer. Its weight.

The habit of holding my palm near molten metal to judge its temperature.

The movement of my fingertips as they engraved a Mana Circuit into a weapon.

The game was over,

but the things my body had absorbed over ten years hadn't disappeared.

The urge to make something rose all the way to my throat.

But I had nothing to make, and nowhere to make it.

* * *

Those days continued.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

What?

I hadn't ordered anything.

There was even less reason for anyone to visit.

Had my mom sent more side dishes?

Still disheveled, I approached the front door.

Then I opened it.

There was no one there.

An empty hallway.

Only the faintly glowing elevator indicator at the far end was lit.

'Did I hear something that wasn't there?'

Yeah, maybe I'd been staying inside too much.

I was about to close the door when...

Flutter-

Something wedged in the gap between the floor and the door fluttered, then fell back to the floor.

'What is this?'

It was a small card the size of a business card.

But its material was unusual.

It wasn't paper or plastic.

It was rough, like traditional handmade paper, yet strangely thick.

○○ City, ○○ District, ○○ Market, ○○ Street, No. ○○

There was only an address on the front.

What was this?

I turned it over.

A small hammer emblem was engraved into the back.

I flipped it back and forth.

What was this?

I had no idea.

There was too little information for it to be a business card.

Was it some new scam?

Or had someone next door simply dropped it?

As those thoughts passed through my mind,

my fingers stopped.

A hammer?

A hammer.

It was definitely a hammer.

"......A forge?"

No way.

A word flashed through my mind.

Perk.

...No.

I let out a hollow laugh.

That was ridiculous.

The game had already ended, and nobody had contacted me separately.

I'd even called recently just in case, but they said there had never been any perk to begin with.

After denying it like that, were they going to compensate me now?

Because people might complain later?

But they knew there was no evidence.

Would a company that big

leave behind a single business card without even contacting me?

'...Then what is it? Did someone really just hand these out to advertise a forge?'

That didn't seem right either.

Who advertised a forge in this day and age?

Sure, they probably still existed, but would they advertise with a card like this?

Without even a single promotional line?

I ran my thumb over the back of the card.

In the faint sunlight shining through the window,

something glimmered from the engraved hammer symbol.

In one corner of my chest that had been empty for days,

something began to beat quietly.

Footnotes:

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