One Man Army Chapter 73-74

“We completed a cube.””

Typhoon of Rising guild, showed the completed cube to the guildmaster Shooting Star. Rising guild had gathered the cube fragments while hunting named monsters just in case, and after a whole day of hard work, they were able to complete a cube.

Low-grade random cube.

-An item that can be created from 26 low-grade cube fragments. Completing a symbol by rotating the cube can open the cube.

The item’s description was very simple. And completing a symbol was also pretty easy.

“Shall I?”

“Yeah.”

Shooting Star replied with a nod at Typhoon’s question.

Creak, creak.

When Shooting Star replied, Typhoon immediately rotated the cube a few times to complete the symbol. Then, a bright white light shone from the cube.

Flas.h.!.+

You have completed a low-grade cube. You have acquired ‘Low-grade Frostwind Aura Crystal’.

On Typhoon’s hand was no longer the low-grade random cube, and was the aura crystal that they had been looking for all this time.

“Oh…… s.h.i.+t…….”

Seeing that, Typhoon felt as though he was struck on the head with a hammer.

“This…… looks like we were fooled by someone, right?”

Shooting Star was also looking at the Aura Crystal with a defeated expression.

“Just where did it all go wrong? I thought you said this was genuine information.”

“Yeah…… Just where did it go wrong? Did that NPC lie to me then?”

“We were too foolish. There’s no reason an NPC couldn’t lie.”

“The information regarding updates until now were all true, so we didn’t possibly think that they would be lies. s.h.i.+t, are we supposed to discern truth and lies from NPC’s sayings in the future? What the h.e.l.l is this game? It’s so complicated.”

Shooting Star thought that the false NPC update information was also a part of the game. Not only him, Typhoon thought so as well. No, in fact, no one imagined that there was a single user behind this false information.

“Hmm……in any case. It’s good that we found out now.”

Typhoon muttered while gripping on the aura crystal. Although they wasted one day, it was very fortunate that they got to know about it now.

“What about the other guilds?”

“They shouldn’t be any different from us. Well, there might be some guilds that found out that they were struck on the back of the head by completing a cube for themselves.”

“What are you going to do now? Are you…… going to disclose this information?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I will.”

When Typhoon asked, Shooting Star shook his head.

“Then what?”

“We first have to fill in our losses as much as possible. The auction…… shouldn’t there be some ignorant cube pieces there?”

“Until now, there were many people that were fooled by the false information, so there should be. But you know already, don’t you? I think the ‘Black Hand’ of the auction is swiping them all.”

The top-ca.s.s users all knew that there was a giant hand in the EL auctions. They called this the ‘Black Hand’…… and as long as this being existed, h.o.a.rding was practically impossible.

“Then let’s gather whatever little we can through our guild members through person to person trading. Also, stop hunting named monsters…… if we tell everyone to gather the cube fragments, we should be able to get some.”

Shooting Star went with a decision to minimize losses.

“Then there will be rumors about it thought?”

“From how things are going now, there will be rumors regardless by tomorrow. So we should get our share before we’re too late.”

“Well, we shouldn’t be the only ones to notice this……. The other guilds should be doing the same about now, right?”

“Probably. In the end, the only ones that make losses will be the normal users that are slow to the uptake.”

Just as Shooting Star and Typhoon had estimated, a few of the large-scale guilds noticed this fact first, and started moving in secret. They all started moving in secret as though they had negotiated this beforehand.

Although this kind of information control couldn’t last that long, it might last a day or two.

Meanwhile, the normal users would make more losses.

The normal users only thought of the cube fragments as easy-to-sell items due to the seriously distorted information. It was also very easy to acquire cube fragments of lower grades.

Moreover, putting them up on the auction or the commissioned sales store gave them practically immediate money, so amongst the normal users, words got around that they should sell them while they could as much as possible.

Of course, there were a few people that claimed that they should gather them and not sell them, but since even 2 or 3 out of 10 low-levelled monsters dropped them, the majority thought that they should sell them while it was still possible.

The answer was that they should collect them and not sell them as much as possible. The price of the cube fragments would rise even more and would sell around 5~7 times the market price right now in the future.

Also, there was something that was not known to others yet.

Generally, a cube could be completed by combining 26 cube fragments of the same grade. However, creating a larger cube with more fragments meant that the grade of the aura crystal gained from it would rise.

Once this fact was spread around, even the lowest-grade cubes wouldn’t be sold for so cheap.

Although people were selling them ignorantly right now, once all the information regarding the cube was disclosed, the price of all the fragments would naturally rise.

Sanghyuk knew all this, so he was h.o.a.rding them all in before a the cube fragments toko their proper market price.

The Stone Giants were hard to kill, but killing them resulted in many rewards. Large amounts of karma, high-quality items, and even high-grade cube fragments…… It was practically a gift set.

Sanghyuk killed one Stone Giant every five minutes and turned the Stone Giant valley into a desolate land.

After hunting Stone Giants for nearly ten hours without rest, Sanghyuk was able to gather around 20 high-grade cube fragments. Although he gained a variety of cubes and was hard pressed to find ones of the same shape, he didn’t think that he would be able to complete a cube so easily.

Sanghyuk stopped hunting and returned to Tune in h.e.l.lfire Desert. Then, he started collecting the cube fragments that the NPCs of the Golden Mountain merchant guild had h.o.a.rded.

Since there were so many players, there were naturally a lot of ignorant cube fragments on the auction and the commissioned sales stores. Of course, even more cubes would be stored in user’s warehouses and inventories, but what was important was that one individual had h.o.a.rded the majority of the ignorant cube fragments.

Thanks to that, Sanghyuk was able to gain an unimaginable quant.i.ty of cube fragments.

When he collected all the cube fragments that the Golden Mountain Merchant Guild had gathered, he estimated that he could create hundreds of cubes of lowest-grade.

He also estimated that he could make dozens of low-grade, and even 5~7 mid-grade cubes.

The amount of money that the Golden Mountain merchant guild had used to buy these cube fragments amounted to 2 million gold.

On the second day, the speed at which ignorant cube fragments were appearing on the auction was definitely decreasing. At this point, even the slowest users to information were noticing that something was wrong, so very few people were selling their cube fragments.

‘I wish that the current atmosphere was maintained for another 2 days at least…… Looks like some of the information will be updated on the community today.’

Sanghyuk made an expression of pity. He put a lot of effort into manipulating the information, but it didn’t work 100% as he had expected. The large-scale guilds especially were very quick on the uptake and he was only able to fool them for a day at most.

“Well, I guess I got enough.”

Once the cube fragments reached their normal market prices, he would have spent around 15 million gold instead of 2 million to gather the same amount he had now.

In other words, Sanghyuk had pretty much earned 12 million gold in these 2 days. Once the true secret behind the aura system was disclosed, then many people would try to h.o.a.rd them, so he had probably gained more than that.

‘Let’s make a lowest-grade cube to check, eh?’

Sanghyuk chose one type of the lowest-grade cube fragments and started making a cube. He combined 26 of the same type to create a ‘single’ cube from which he could get a lowest-grade aura crystal from.

Cubes were cla.s.sified into ‘single’, ‘double’, and ‘triple’ according to their size. Single-sized cubes resulted in same-grade aura crystals, while double-sized cubes resulted in an aura crystal of a grade higher.

Lastly, triple-sized cubes resulted in an aura crystal of two grades higher.

There was nothing above triple. In other words, the maximum grade of aura crystal that could be gotten from lowest-grade cube crystals was mid-grade.

Sanghyuk first made a simple lowest-grade cube(single) and completed the symbol. Then, he was able to get a lowest-grade aura crystal.

Lowest-grade Steel Aura Crystal.

– Aura Crystal with the energy of Steel.

[Full-body aura effect] Defense +40

[Partial aura effect] Reinforces specific body parts as strong as steel.

[Aura reinforcement effect] Additional defense.

[Duration] 20 minutes

[Number of uses left] 4 times.

The Stell Aura Crystal was a very run-of-the-mill aura crystal. These were mostly used by tankers, and as there were no specific methods of using them, the only expected effect was the increase in defense.

‘It’s just as I knew it.’

There were just as many types of aura crystals as there were types of cube symbols. It was impossible to predict which aura crystal would appear just from the symbol of the cube alone.

Perhaps due to that, people didn’t care about the symbols on the cubes for a long while. They just thought that using the same fragments would do.

However, this actually wasn’t the case. This secret was not something that could be gotten through NPCs. In Sanghyuk’s previous life as well, it took four entire months from the update until someone found out about this secret.

‘Simply doing find the matching picture results in this…… but the symbols on the cube fragments aren’t there to just find the matching pictures!’

Sanghyuk put the lowest-grade aura crystal inside his bag and started rummaging through the lowest-grade cube fragments.

He combed through his memories to think up of one symbol that he knew of. These symbols were called ‘cube combination symbols’. Creating an entirely new symbol by using different cube pieces completed a different symbol.

It was just like Sanghyuk’s main ability, combining cards. The cubes had a formula of their own.

Even though they were different cube fragments, Sanghyuk was able to make a completely new symbol when he twisted around with the cube.

‘This was…… the golden lion, wasn’t it?’

Sanghyuk knew of many different types of cube combinations. The cube combinations he remembered were the ones that the users had verified their performance throughout the years in his previous life.

Sanghyuk completed a double-sized lowest-grade combination cube and twisted it to make the symbol that was in his memories. Then, light shone from Sanghyuk’s hands once again.

Flas.h.!.+

You have completed the combination cube ‘Golden Lion.’ You have acquired the ‘Golden Lion Aura Crystal’.

You have completed a combination cube the first time. You have acquired a special aura crystal. This will become your achievement and will be remembered for eternity.

You have acquired the unique-grade t.i.tle [Aura Master].

Aura crystals that could be gotten through combination cubes were unranked ‘unique aura crystals’.

This was aura, which contained the true power behind the aura system update this time. ‘Normal aura’ that could be gotten from completing matching cube fragments only gave users simple effects according to their grades.

However, ‘unique auras’ that were gotten from unique aura crystals were very peculiar.

Golden Lion Aura Crystal.

– A Golden Lion was completed by completing numerous fragments. The Golden Lion, a guardian deity since the ancient times, can give you a special power.

[Full-body Aura Effect] Golden Lion’s Roar: The Golden Lion roars and decreases the attack and defense of all beings hostile against you.

[Partial Aura Effect] Golden Lion’s Blood: The Golden Lion’s blood is imbued into a specific part of the body and is reinforced while s.h.i.+ning gold. The effect differs according to where it is used.

[Aura Reinforcement Effect] Golden Lion’s Soul: The Golden Lion’s soul is imbued into a specific item, and is reinforced through the Golden Lion’s power. The effects differ according to items used.

[Duration] 1 hour.

[Number of uses left] 7 times.

The Golden Lion aura crystal was one of the easiest and most ordinary combination cubes that Sanghyuk knew of. Of course, this didn’t mean that it was not that good.

This would become one of the most common unique aura crystals that the rankers would one day use. Later, these cubes would become so important that the ‘combination cube symbols’ would be traded privately at large sums of money.

OF course, Sanghyuk’s memories contained the truly effective combination cube symbols. This was something that he had learned through being a director of a pro-gamer team in his previous life.

‘Yes, this is it.’

Sanghyuk took the Golden Lion Aura Crystal with a satisfied smile. The reason he gathered all these cube fragments was precisely in order to make combination cubes.

Combination cubes, unlike normal cubes, required trial and error in most cases. There were even cases where a combination of lowest, low and mid-grade fragments completed a cbe.

It wasn’t for no reason that the cube combination formulae were traded at expensive prices.

‘Well, let’s see. What can I make next?’

Sanghyuk had a look through the cube fragments and started picking out the ones that were used in cube combinations that he knew of.

Other people weren’t even making a single ordinary aura crystal right now, while Sanghyuk was skipping that entire step altogether and was making special aura crystals.

The unique auras gained from aura crystals were like giving a tiger (Sanghyuk) a pair of wings.

He had once again widened the gap between himself and the other users. However, he was not planning to stay satisfied with his current situation.

t.i.tle – Aura Master

Grade – Unique

Description – What is aura? You, who have discovered the secret of aura the first time, should be the one who knows what true aura is.

Effects – [Prefix: N/A] [Postfix: N/A] [Constant effect: Aura amplification: The effect of all aura effects get amplified and the duration increases by 30%, while the usage number doubles.]

Aura master was something that Sanghyuk had never heard of before, but the effects were simply incredible.

Leaving aside the increase in duration, doubling the number of uses was like using the same aura crystal twice with one item.

‘Who took this in my previous life? I don’t know who it is, but he must have profited a lot.’

Sanghyuk remembered back to his previous life, but his previous life was no different from a no longer changeable past. What was important now was his current life.

Sanghyuk made a few more unique aura crystals and put the cube fragments in his warehouse.

Although he wasn’t able to make mid-grade or high-grade unique aura crystals, he did make a few decent aura crystals out of lowest and low-grade cube fragments.

Since the Golden Mountain merchant guild was set to collect more cube fragments, he was going to make a lot more unique aurcrystals anyway.

Just as Sanghyuk had expected, there was a new article in InGamez t.i.tled ‘The secret that the large guilds are hiding’ came out that night. That article was talking about the truth behind the cube fragments, and also criticized the large-scale guilds for hiding the truth.

The community naturally went into an uproar, and numerous users became enraged. However, despite their struggles, the large-scale guilds didn’t budge even a little.

There was no concrete evidence, but just circ.u.mstantial ones, so they only needed to deny it.

If they acknowledged it half-heartedly, they may also get accused of h.o.a.rding the auction, so they could not do so.

Of course, the true criminal behind this act was leisurely going on hunting even now.

He was ma.s.sacring stone giants as always.

‘Stone Giant hunting has too little impact…… I set up a good atmosphere with Blake’s guild war video, so I need to make them stay.’

While others were in uproar about the aura system, Sanghyuk had pretty much finished his business with it, and was rather concerning himself with the next broadcast that would happen in a few days.

‘A one man-raid should be the best, right?’

Since he had shown pre-recorded footages all this time, he was planning to do a real-time one this time.

‘It’s still too early to reveal Immortal, so I should look for the highest-difficulty raid dungeon that Gale can do.’

Immortal was One guild’s secret weapon, so he couldn’t show them to the ma.s.ses so easily.

After hunting a few more stone giants, Sanghyuk logged out for a little.

Due to the unexpected aura system update, he hadn’t had a proper rest for a few days, and since he got a message that his car had arrived, he logged out immediately.

He felt good now since the car came far quicker than he had expected, and immediately took the car for a spin around Paju. Since he had focused on the game for nearly 1 year without doing anything else, he was getting a little stuffy.

No matter how good his concentration was, and how good he was at the game, resting for some time like this was important.

The Benz S-cla.s.s was much more to Sanghyuk’s liking than he had thought.

It was incomparable to the E-cla.s.s of his previous life.

Sanghyuk pressed hard on the accel pedal and roamed about freely.

He even looked up on the internet for a good restaurant and had a meal there. Then, he stopped the car at a place called “He-i-ri(town)”, which was called the “Art Town”, and took a stroll.

‘Since it came to this, let’s rest deeply for today.’

Originally, he was just going to take the car for a spin, but now that he came out, he felt as though he was being energized with all this rest.

At times like these, resting deeply was the best.

But at that time, an augmented reality window appeared in front of his eyes with the name “Kang Mirae” on it. (T/N: I swear, her original surname is “Lee”)

He had bought the latest-model Compound Experience Device some time before, and since he had bought much advanced devices than the one he was wearing in his previous life, he proficiently touched in the air to receive the call. (T/N: I’m thinking Google Gla.s.s/Hololens)

When Sanghyuk received the call, Kang Mirae skipped with the greetings and immediately went into topic.

Considering her calm personality, Sanghyuk was able to see that she was in a hurry.

“So to sum things up, the guest for a TV program that was going to be recorded today ditched on you, so you contacted me since you couldn’t get any replacements?”

[Yes. Honestly, we are in a very urgent situation, but we can’t invite someone that isn’t related to intention of the program. As I see it, if we can invite you as the guest, then it should be better than any other guest we had so far…… that is why I contacted you even though you may think I’m rude.]

Kang Mirae was very hurried, but was still very polite as she was trying to liaise Sanghyuk.

“Hmm…… it is rather sudden.”

There was no reason he couldn’t appear on TV. Since Kang Mirae looked as though she would accept any of his conditions, he thought that putting on a mask like he did on the live channel would work as well.

And since Sanghyuk was very experienced with going on TV in his previous life, he didn’t feel that much rejection towards it.

It was just that this offer was too sudden.

“Oh! What’s the show called?”

[It’s LGN Weekly Game Information Channel’s ‘This week’s Invitation’ corner. it’s a simple interview, so it shouldn’t be that difficult.]

‘LGN Weekly Game Information? This Week’s Invitation? Wait, what year is it now?’

Listening to Kang Mirae’s story, Sanghyuk suddenly remembered something. He forgot about this person after he travelled to the past, no, it would be more correct to say that he didn’t try to think about this person…….

‘Chun Hyeyoung.’

There was a time she popped up on his mind after he travelled to the past. However, since he had finished up any of his emotions towards her in his previous life, he did no try to search for her, nor did he think about her.

‘Right now, she should be the interviewer for that corner.’

[Is it too much? But as I said last time, it should help out with the live channel’s views. Even though it sounds like that, it’s one of the longest-running programs of LGN.]

When Sanghyuk stayed silent, Kang Mirae also became very careful with her words.

“Oh, it’s not that. It’s just…… okay. I’ll do it. But can I wear a mask like I do on my live channels?”

[Sure. Is there anything else you need? Since we’re asking you to do something difficult, we’ll listen to your needs as much as possible.]

“No, I don’t need anything else.”

There were two reasons why Sanghyuk decided to accept this proposal. One was that, as Kang Mirae had said, this would help out with the views on his live channel.

Recording for an hour or two wasn’t something hard to do, so getting help with the views while the channel is growing rapidly was a decent bonus.

However, his real reason lay in the second reason.

‘Once, I thought she was my everything…… it shouldn’t be bad to meet her for once in this life.’

Sanghyuks was curious. He wanted to know how he would feel if he met someone that heavily hurt him in his previous life.

At this point in time, that incident had not happened, nor would it ever occur. However, Sanghyuk still remembered the cruel feelings from back then.

So, he wanted to confirm how his heart would react when he saw her again.

“h.e.l.lo, my name is Chun Hyeyoung.”

A lady extended her hand towards him with a blinding smile. The moment he saw her, Sanghyuk felt as though the horns of heaven were sounding out and the angels were descending onto the Earth…… was about his previous life, and right now, Sanghyuk barely held himself in from swearing on her face.

‘You G.o.dd.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h.’

At the same time, his curiosity was sated.

The feeling of when Chun Hyeyoung betrayed him was still there. Perhaps Chun Hyeyoung’s intentions are pure right now.

However, Sanghyuk couldn’t care less about her circ.u.mstances. Whatever happened, Chun Hyeyoung was just a ‘G.o.dd.a.m.n b.i.t.c.h’ to him. Nothing changed just because his previous life disappeared and now he lived a different life.

“Gale.”

Sanghyuk, as promised, was wearing a mask, and did not reveal his true name.

“Wow, so I finally get to see the living legend of EL.”

Chun Hyeyoung spat out her usual overreactions and started the interview. Sanghyuk, while doing the interview, thought up of one individual related to her in his previous life.

‘Hazaad! Yeah, that’s it. The info this b.i.t.c.h got from me, she all offered it to Hazaad.’

Hazaad wasn’t someone Sanghyuk was directly related to. Sanghyuk only found out after a long time that the one Chun Hyeyoung went to after betraying Sanghyuk was the ‘market master’ Hazaad.

At that time, he could only vent his frustration on the inside. Market master Hazaad wasn’t someone he could dare to touch. Not only in real life, but in game as well.

That made him more frustrated.

‘Hazaad…… now that I think about it. It’s about time he started pouring money into this.’

When Sanghyuk’s thoughts reached there, he also remembered what kinds of deeds he did in his previous life.

“Can you really not tell us what kind of people there are in One guild?”

Chun Hyeyoung then started to ask questions that weren’t on the script. Sanghyuk was able to notice that this wasn’t something she did of her own accord, and that the main producer had ordered her to do this.

Of course, he wasn’t an amateur, so he didn’t stutter or anything.

“I must apologize. That’s the one biggest secret that our guild has……. But instead, I’ll tell you one very important fact.”

Sanghyuk knew what the main producer wanted, so he decided to grant his wish a little.”

“Oh, what could that be?”

“First, I think many people are mistaken about this, but I am not the guildmaster of One guild.”

“What? Really?”

“Yes. The guild master is someone else. And he is the true strongest of our guild.”

“Wow…… the strongest out of the monsters known as One guild…… I’m really speechless.”

Chun Hyeyoung exaggerated both her voice and her actions as she looked at Sanghyuk. She seemed to want additional information from him.

“Well, any more than that should be revealed through the channel one by one. I’ll have to ask you to watch.”

Sanghyuk was very proficient in this.

Some people even thought that they brought a masked professional celebrity rather than Gale himself.

After the recording, Chun Hyeyoung indiscreetly approached Sanghyuk. She also approached him in this manner in his previous life. An ordinary man might be allured by her.

A skinny girl with a pretty face was approaching a man, so no ordinary man would hate it.

However, Sanghyuk felt that his insults were rising again in his mouth.

Barely holding himself in, Sanghyuk approached Chun Hyeyoung and spoke in a small voice so that only she could hear it.

“Can you please f.u.c.k off?”

There was nothing else to say.

He could finally say the words he wanted to say to her in his previous life. Although the current Chun Hyeyoung might be innocent since she did or knew nothing…… Sanghyuk wasn’t going to be considerate of her circ.u.mstances.