WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 59: 059
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Since he started using social media, the number of people he could somewhat call acquaintances had gradually grown.
They were not close enough to call friends, but they could at least exchange greetings. And if either side happened to want something, they could occasionally buy or sell it to each other.
From TrueFinal to Hogu.
Various names had been added to his social media friends list in between.
A little embarrassingly, some of them considered him less a friend or acquaintance and more a benefactor. This was one of those cases.
[Me: You finished them all?]
[Jeong Sang-in: Yes. The Eagle defeated this time was the last one. It was a real pain.]
[Me: When did you complete the Lake Field?]
[Jeong Sang-in: Ah. We completed that one first. It seemed like it would take a long time.]
[Jeong Sang-in: Considering how chaotic it has gotten there lately, I think it was lucky we took care of it early.]
[Me: That was smart.]
The man and woman he had saved in the forest before.
He had even given them two Personal Effects Bags each.
They mostly posted lovey-dovey couple pictures on social media, completely out of place in this world. But now, they had fulfilled all the raid conditions and were returning home together.
“I hope they live well.”
Maybe things would change.
Maybe the feelings they had developed here were just something like the suspension bridge effect.
But worrying about that felt like meddling, so Seo Hajin simply congratulated them sincerely.
[Jeong Sang-in: When are you leaving, Juggernaut?]
[Me: I’ve never raided an Eagle.]
[Jeong Sang-in: Ah.]
Jeong Sang-in seemed to assume he had his reasons. He did not press for details and let it pass.
[Jeong Sang-in: Then I should get going. Let’s talk again later.]
[Me: Sure. Good luck.]
The connection ended.
He had heard that reconnecting to it after returning home required a fairly troublesome process. Still, enough people already knew how that it would probably not be too difficult.
“Hmm.”
After closing the chat window, he looked into the distance.
As usual, Hogu sat by the water, watching his fishing rod from behind.
It had been nearly a month since the last visit.
But this time, Hogu had not requested it. Seo Hajin had suggested the visit first.
“Catch anything?”
“I hauled in one catch.”
While he had stepped away to accept the conversation request, Hogu appeared to have caught quite a lot of fish from a single cast.
A Wolf sat beside him, watching the water with eyes much like its owner’s. The other Wolves stayed a suitable distance away, protecting him in a semicircle.
‘They suit each other.’
There was no Wild Boar.
Hogu apparently kept it in his Inventory as an item most of the time. Its stomach emptied quickly after moving around for even a little while.
“Still, it’s quite useful as a mount.”
“Right.”
In terms of riding comfort, the Wild Boar was better than a Wolf, even better than a Tiger.
It was lower to the ground, but it did not bounce as much and avoided obstacles well.
‘Sangun just charges into anything in the way or smashes it with his front paws.’
From the rider’s perspective, that naturally made for plenty of rough rides. In that respect, the Wild Boar was definitely comfortable.
That did not mean it was entirely good, though.
If it came across mud or sludge by the road, it would stop in the middle of traveling just to roll around in it.
‘It must be even worse during the Rainy Season.’
Even so, Hogu did not complain.
It was probably not just because he had gotten it for free.
“You said you had something to ask of me.”
“Yes.”
That was why Seo Hajin had come here.
When he spoke, Hogu turned away from his fishing rod.
“Martial arts?”
“Yes.”
“For you, Juggernaut?”
Hogu looked puzzled.
But Seo Hajin was serious.
“I got lucky, and things went well from the start. But lately, it feels like I’m a building erected without a foundation. Unstable.”
“Hmm.”
“Up to now, my level difference and other advantages have kept me out of trouble. But I can’t be sure that’ll keep working in the future.”
It was an honest concern.
He had been compensating by increasing his pets, but that somehow felt like a shortcut. It did not sit well with him.
What if he met an enemy at the same level?
Should he not be capable of holding his own in a one-on-one fight without overwhelming them with numbers?
After hearing him out, Hogu silently watched him for a while before speaking.
“I know some killing techniques.”
He said it was not enough to call it martial arts.
He knew some martial arts too, but he was reluctant to openly name a specific style.
“Once you experience real combat, things change to some extent. They become suited to your own body and style. But…”
He looked at Juggernaut again.
“Sometimes, no matter how good your technique is, you still lose because of the difference in build.”
He said he had seen Juggernaut fight, mostly through videos.
“You definitely seemed short on technique. You get hit so often that I wondered if you were doing it on purpose.”
But that was what made him frightening.
Hogu smiled faintly.
“You know that saying, right? If you have a good body, you don’t need to use your brain as much.”
“It’s a twist on, ‘If you’re smart, your body suffers less.’”
“Right. But it’s true.”
No matter how strong a human was, they could not defeat a Bear or Tiger. That was what Hogu said.
“But you already have, Juggernaut. You even tamed one.”
“I haven’t tamed a Bear yet.”
“That seems like only a matter of time.”
“I’m planning to.”
Perhaps because Bears had come up, Hogu offered another example.
“You’ve heard stories about someone nearly being killed by a Bear, then hanging onto its back and choking it unconscious, right?”
“Ah. I think I saw something like that in an overseas news story.”
“But when people talk about cases like that, they don’t say the person defeated the Bear. They emphasize that the person survived. Because that’s what matters.”
They had survived.
It was not a victory.
“If you can’t repeat the same thing, you should just consider yourself lucky.”
“Hmm.”
“And think about it. Would a Bear need martial arts when fighting a person?”
“Of course not.”
“Right. It would just move according to instinct. Yet it’s still strong. That’s pure physical ability. And…”
“……?”
“You can beat a Bear like that, Juggernaut.”
“Hmm.”
Hogu was saying that what Juggernaut needed now was not some rigid martial art.
“And the Juggernaut I’ve seen has a truly incredible ability that others don’t.”
“An ability?”
Had he noticed something?
Then Hogu explained.
“You read your surroundings well. It’s like you have eyes beside you and behind you.”
He seemed to have noticed it from the way Juggernaut calmly responded to attacks coming from his blind spots in real time.
Hogu did not know about the viewpoint looking down from the sky. He simply thought Juggernaut’s senses were better than other people’s.
‘That counts as a sense too.’
Juggernaut nodded.
Even so, Hogu said that it would be useful to learn and taught him several simple joint locks.
They were originally techniques for restraining an opponent with less strength, or pressuring them by inflicting considerable pain.
But if Juggernaut used them, Hogu suspected he would not merely restrain someone. He would probably snap their joints.
“It’s not difficult.”
“It never is. Learning the moves is easy. Using them in real combat is the difficult part.”
Still, teaching him had been worthwhile.
Hogu had received an unexpected Wolf for free.
“I’ve been wanting to buy more, but I didn’t have enough Points.”
“I guess fishing doesn’t make much money.”
“There’s not much chance of hitting it big. A box appears occasionally, but most of the time it’s junk.”
“Junk?”
“You know. Various wires and scraps that look like they fell off something.”
“Where are they?”
“There’s a box inside the cabin. It keeps items from disappearing. You can have them if you need them.”
Hogu said he had gathered them just in case.
Seo Hajin went into the cabin with him and found a considerable amount of junk.
There was certainly nothing that seemed valuable.
Even if he took them, all they would do was make the pile of scrap in one corner of his Subspace a little higher. Still, most of it was metal, so it might be worth something someday.
“I’ll give you one more.”
“Really?”
“Yes. The atmosphere around here seems to be getting worse lately.”
“That’s true.”
Something Hogu had mentioned during the last visit.
Boss Catfish could appear in tributaries too.
Maybe that was why. They had been steadily raided almost every day, and the Field Level was already approaching 90.
“You’ll stay here, though?”
“Yes. I think this place is actually better.”
“Still, be careful around the water.”
Juggernaut’s warning that Wolves would not be the only things added made Hogu remember a monster he had forgotten about.
“…Crocodiles.”
“Yes. They’ll start appearing too.”
Seo Hajin gave him two Wolves and received simple combat techniques and a large pile of junk.
Anyone else would have considered it a losing deal.
He did not.
‘Wolves keep coming.’
He had also received Hogu’s advice to focus more on his strengths and develop them, rather than combat techniques.
‘I should exercise.’
Thinking about it, he had never specifically trained his physical strength since arriving here.
He had only been surviving day by day.
Combat itself could be considered intense exercise, but he seemed to need something more regular and systematic.
So he decided to add simple exercise equipment to the Subspace Rest Area. Dumbbells, barbells, a pull-up bar, and more.
He also set out his Glaive, his main weapon, and the clubs he still used well for training.
‘Even if actual combat is the best training, regular practice on top of it will help me improve even more.’
Most users recognized him as someone famous.
But titles like that did not matter.
What mattered was his own judgment.
He did not ignore his current sense of danger.
“You said you had an acquaintance. Someone staying near a tributary too.”
“Yes. Not around here, but farther west.”
Hogu asked what was going on, then fell into thought after hearing the proposal.
If the person was trustworthy, Seo Hajin could sell them Wolves as well.
“They were asking how I bought them. How I became acquainted with you, Juggernaut. When I said we interacted on social media, they said it made no sense.”
“Why?”
“They thought you couldn’t operate machines.”
“Huh?”
“They’re the one who’s bad with machines.”
If they used social media, there was no way they would not know Juggernaut was active there.
But Hogu said they did not know because they did not use it themselves.
They did not even use the old community board.
Hogu added that someone like that really needed Wolves.
“Not at all?”
“No.”
“Not since arriving here?”
“No. Not as far as I know.”
A pure fisherman who had started in this Lake Field and had not done even minor hunting afterward.
It was possible that someone like that existed, but hearing it in person felt strange.
“Could I ask their gender…?”
“She’s a woman.”
“Ah.”
He did not want to be sexist, but that made it understandable.
Compared to men, women tended to be more hesitant about inflicting violence.
‘Though once they properly adapt, they seem even scarier.’
Anyway, if that was her situation, she really would need Wolves as Hogu said.
Before long, she would be attacked even if she stayed still.
“Does she have enough Points?”
“This is only my guess, but she can probably afford two. If she hasn’t spent them on anything useless.”
“Is it far from here?”
“Not that far. It takes a little under an hour on a Wild Boar.”
“It would be faster on an Eagle.”
“Hmm. Yes.”
Since he was already out, Seo Hajin decided to visit. He placed Hogu, who had put away his fishing rod for a moment, in the basket below and took off with the Eagle.
Just as he had heard, there was a similar cabin at the end of another tributary not far from Hogu’s.
In front of it, a woman who still looked like a young girl was roasting pieces of fish over a campfire.
When the Eagle’s shadow swept across the ground, she quickly turned her head and looked up at the sky.
So as not to startle her, he circled the area a couple of times before landing in an open space beside the cabin.
Then he approached with Hogu and exchanged greetings.
Despite her girlish appearance, “Miyu-chan” was supposedly past her twenties.
When she saw the Avatar setup screen, she apparently guessed she was entering a game world and set her appearance accordingly.
“I thought it was a cozy game. Plant pumpkins, water the fields.”
“Why pumpkins?”
“Corn would be nice too.”
“……?”
She was a slightly unusual person.
Still, she did not seem malicious.
“Then, Miyu…”
“Miyu-chan.”
“Chan?”
“Yes. That’s part of the name.”
“…Miyu-chan.”
She was not just slightly unusual.
She was very unusual.
After talking with her, he learned that she truly wanted Wolves, but her reasons differed from Hogu’s.
“Beastkin! I need to make Beastkin. They have to be handsome.”
“…That’s not bad.”
What surprised him was that she had accumulated far more Points than Hogu had guessed.
She could afford not two Wolves, but twice that number.
Still, she said she only wanted to buy three for now.
From Seo Hajin’s perspective, selling too many to someone he had just met felt a little uncertain.
Two seemed reasonable, but Hogu had introduced her, so he added one more.
“Wouldn’t it be better to keep at least one as a Wolf? You’ll need a mount.”
At Hogu’s advice, she shook her head.
She said she already had a mount and brought something out.
It was a Mountain Goat, something Seo Hajin had not expected to see here.
It was larger than an ordinary Mountain Goat, and it even had a saddle of sorts. It seemed she had evolved it too.
Even so, he wondered if it was too small to carry an adult man.
But Miyu-chan looked light enough to ride it without issue.
“If anything happened, I was going to run into the mountains. Over there.”
“Ah.”
This was the western edge.
It was close to the boundary of this world.
Tall mountains and cliffs were not far away. If monsters appeared here, she planned to escape up the mountain on her Mountain Goat.
“It’s definitely good in the mountains.”
Juggernaut nodded.
In the Rocky Cliff Field he had seen on his travels, Mountain Goats ran around rock mountains so steep that he wondered how they managed it.
They fell sometimes, but there would not be much trouble if they did not push themselves too hard.
“Hmm. They suit each other.”
Hogu looked between Miyu-chan and the Mountain Goat as he spoke.
He seemed to ignore her quiet complaint that she wished it were an alpaca.
“But how do I turn on that social media thing?”
“I showed you before.”
“It didn’t work.”
“It worked then.”
“It worked then, but it won’t work again.”
“You’re probably just bad at turning it on.”
As Hogu shook his head and explained it carefully to her again, Seo Hajin moved Juggernaut to turn over the fish by the campfire.
A few minutes later, he received a friend request notification on social media.
It was Miyu-chan.
‘Should I decline?’
The thought suddenly crossed his mind.
Of course, he did not actually decline it.
* * *
He practiced the techniques he had learned from Hogu.
They were difficult to practice alone, but he was alone without truly being alone.
“This is going to give me a split personality.”
Juggernaut and Vulcan.
Vulcan and Stone.
As he matched five of his Avatars against one another, it felt like he was playing with dolls by himself.
Was that kind of practice helpful?
It was not entirely useless, but it was somewhat questionable.
No matter how well he could multitask, he already knew how the other side would attack. It was difficult to make it more than a slightly intense sparring session.
So he brought in various pets, including Companion No. 1, and practiced with them as well.
That was somewhat better.
When necessary, he even ordered Black to ambush him from behind.
But Black seemed uninterested and only halfheartedly joined in.
Even so, each of those halfhearted attacks was quite fierce.
Despite watching from above, Seo Hajin missed them in the moment several times.
Fortunately, the actual damage was not as great as Black’s sharp attacks suggested.
That was partly because Black was not going all out.
“This is fun.”
His leveling had stopped, but he could still become stronger in other ways.
Just when he was beginning to fall into something like a rut, he found new motivation.
Afterward, he brought in pets that were not humanoid as well.
He faced the Wolves he usually hunted with and, when necessary, even Sangun.
“I can’t handle this alone.”
He got hit too.
After showing a little too much bravado, he was thoroughly beaten.
Perhaps because they could not kill their owner, none of the attacks were fatal.
Instead, he was hit repeatedly in smaller ways until he was a mess.
“Hey, stop it.”
The problem was that they approached him while he was covered in dust and scratches.
The Wolves rested at a suitable distance, but Sangun and Black would come close, sniffing at him.
“Oh, come on.”
“Master, you’re dirty.”
“I’m going to wash.”
Sangun and Black.
Their appearances differed, but they behaved the same way.
They were trying to groom him clean.
Black was even in Humanization form.
“Come on, you smell like saliva.”
“Dirty.”
“I said I’m going to wash.”
He hurriedly fled to the bathroom in his Subspace.
As he soaked in the warm water, everything else in the world felt irrelevant for the moment.
“What should I eat later?”
Shakes were still his staple, but he made various things for dinner every day.
All kinds of ingredients were being listed in the marketplace, so depending on how he used them, he could eat even better than he had back home.
“Maybe things are worse back home.”
He opened social media again.
The pages of those who had returned home showed collapsed cities, slums, and packs of robbers sweeping through the streets.
Those were sights people would not see in places where public safety was still maintained, but there were apparently not many such places.
‘They said it was better near military bases.’
At least the military did not exploit the residents.
The country had not yet collapsed completely, and the military and police received priority support of all kinds.
Perhaps that was why young people who found themselves in bad circumstances had the option of joining the military.
At least they would not starve.
‘Are they doing well?’
His mother and younger sister.
Were they all right?
Were they alive?
Could they be looking for him?
Once his thoughts reached that point, he let out a brief sigh.
‘I can’t know from here.’
He could ask those who had returned to look for them.
But then his real identity and family would inevitably be exposed.
That was why even people who had returned home did not post photos showing their real faces.
‘They must be doing well.’
For now, that was all he could think.
After washing slowly and changing into fresh clothes, he resumed Juggernaut’s daily routine, which had briefly stopped.
He reduced the share of time spent hunting.
His level had already stagnated, and running his teams brought in greater results than hunting personally.
He invested the time he gained into physical training and combat practice.
Once he seriously began lifting weights, the body that had already been thickening started to develop faster.
“Flexibility is important too.”
He stretched thoroughly as well.
He did not want to end up with arms so big that he could not scratch his own back.
[Thank you, Juggernaut.]
That was when he saw the post.
He wondered what it was about, then recognized the photo attached to it.
It was a Water Generator he had bundled with Firewood and sold last winter.
“If there are problems with the water supply, getting clean water would be difficult.”
That was exactly what the post said.
The item they had bought with Firewood had been extremely useful after they returned.
“I have quite a few of them now, too.”
They did not drop in huge quantities, but they appeared regularly enough that he had accumulated around a hundred.
He did not plan to bundle them with Firewood again this winter.
They would sell even if he listed them normally now.
Last year had been more like a promotional event.
“I left them alone because it was bothersome, and now I have too many.”
There were other things he could sell as well.
Boxes did not only contain trash.
‘How much would I get if I sold everything?’
One million Points was still far away.
But it was gradually coming into sight.
“Rather than paying that and leaving, maybe it would be better to spend it on expanding Subspace.”
After considering it briefly, he shook his head, hung from the pull-up bar, and slowly began doing pull-ups.
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