Chapter 72. Time Acceleration (2)

To be exact, Chaos’s time acceleration was in fact used in Sanghyuk’s previous life. However, that was before the EL was revealed to the world.

After long periods of research and effort, Raonsoft was able to make the very basis of the world of EL and its supreme ruler, the Chaos.

When the foundation was created, they ordered Chaos to ‘maintain’ and ‘raise’ the world and left everything for Chaos to do. In the first place, this was what their effort was aimed at.

In any case, when the order was given, Chaos then started making decisions and applied them to the world. Time acceleration was one of the powers that was created through that.

Chaos used time acceleration to the limit and made it so that an enormous time had passed.

Like that, the worlds of EL were completed one by one.

Although the planet of Treenark was the first and only planet in EL right now, many other planets made by Chaos would later be added into the EL game world.

When a new planet was added, the Chaos that created that world would naturally combine into one with the original Chaos, so there were no problems regarding that.

The reason Chaos used its time acceleration right now was just one. It used it as it judged that the world has ‘fallen behind’ due to whatever reason.

The judgement and application was solely possible by Chaos, so there was no room for outside interference.

Chaos judged that there was a need for the players to pass the Path to Death, and this was naturally because of Sanghyuk.

Sanghyuk had raised his avatar at an incredible speed and produced such a large gap between himself and the users to the point that he made Chaos sense an ‘unbalance’, and in pursuit of ‘balance’, Chaos produced a simple solution to erase this unbalance.

Of course, this plan from Chaos was not a perfect one.

Pulling new updates ahead of time using time acceleration did not make the gap between Sanghyuk and the other users decrease at all. In fact, it would increase the gap even further.

The reason Chaos’s choice could still work was because no matter how great of a user Sanghyuk was, he was also just one player.

The individual differences could definitely widen. However, on a larger scale, the levels of the users as a whole would increase, and the gap between Sanghyuk and the rest may become blurred.

Simply speaking, it was a form of scale trading…….

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a bad thing for Sanghyuk.

Actually, what Chaos really wanted was to decrease the individual gaps as well. Chaos believed that it would happen.

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Unfortunately, Chaos’s judgement was wrong.

Chaos did not know that Sanghyuk had returned in time, so it judged using ‘normal’ variables, and normal variables would only result in a wrong output.

‘I think I know what Chaos wanted. But…… the aura system update is not bad for me at all.’

The majority of the players did not know what the aura system was about at all. As such, there was a lot that Sanghyuk could do, and a lot that he could profit off of.

‘So it was updated around an hour ago? Looks like today will be a busy day.’

There was no time to sit still.

It was time to rake in the ‘cube fragments’ that no one knew anything about.

***

The first thing Sanghyuk did was to order the NPCs of the Golden Mountain merchant guild to swipe all the cube fragments on the auction.

Cube fragments were little puzzle-piece like items that all monsters dropped at a certain probability since the update.

A single cube could be created with a minimum of 26 cube fragments. As there were many types of cube fragments, it was definitely not easy to complete a cube, even if it was of a lower rank.

In any case, completing a cube made the cube a ‘random cube’, and unlocking the seal on the cube resulted in the item ‘aura crystal’.

This aura crystal was the core of the aura system.

This aura crystal was the fundamental energy source that created aura, and surprisingly, aura could be exerted into almost anything.

The most basic way of use was to exert it in the user’s ‘heart’ to create a ‘full-body aura’, or exert it into a certain body part like the limbs, to create ‘partial aura’.

Other than this, aura could also be exerted into items or skills to cause an ‘aura upgrade’.

The important thing was that it couldn’t be used permanently, and that the usage duration differed according to the rank and type of the aura crystal.

And only one aura could be used at once, meaning a user couldn’t use multiple aura at once.

Since the ranks of the cube determined the rank of the aura crystal, getting higher-ranked cubes was better.

However, the only one aware of this fact right now was Sanghyuk. Numerous users were using their NPC network to look into the aura system right now, but not only has it been only a few hours since the update, Sanghyuk was also manipulating information in the Land of Dusk and the Hellfire Desert through the Hiddenline, so it was very hard for them to acquire proper information.

Sanghyuk twisted truths and lies into one.

Users weren’t fools, and the majority of them were able to realize that the cube fragments had something to do with this round of update. And after looking into it through the NPCs, they had also found out that putting the fragments together would result in a cube.

This was in accordance to the information that Sanghyuk had manipulated. However, the final piece was different.

‘Cubes can be created by combining the cube fragments, and the cubes can be used to host friendly matches.’

Sanghyuk connected the cube not to the aura system but to the friendly match. He also added additional manipulated information.

‘To acquire aura, one must defeat named monsters and acquire an aura crystal that can be gotten from it at a low probability.’

The most decisive factor was that it had only been an hour since the cube fragments started dropping.

Sanghyuk knew that, due to the characteristics of these cubes, even the largest guilds would have a hard time completing a single cube. This was why he twisted the information.

With information like this circulating around the NPCs, the large-scale guilds naturally started to look for more named monsters to kill rather than gathering cube fragments.

Of course, in the meantime, some of the curious individual users tried to complete the cube by themselves, but completing a cube individually in one day was practically impossible.

Since Sanghyuk was practically hoarding the cube fragments in the auction, it was impossible for them to complete the cube through the auction as well.

The friendly match and the aura system – the latter received a lot more attention. The only ones interested in the friendly match system were the few PvP-style users, and as a relatively minor demographic, it would take time for them to find out about the truth behind the cubes.

Although the friendly match system was originally about clearing 4 chain quests and acquiring ‘qualifications’ to do it, as Sanghyuk had manipulated too much information, this fact wasn’t known yet.

Sanghyuk was planning to swipe all the cheap cube fragments while everyone else chased the wrong rabbit.

Although the truth would be revealed a few days later, Sanghyuk would have gotten an enormous amount of cube fragments anyway, so it didn’t matter that much.

The core of this strategy was to make users think that the value of the cube fragments was low, and to induce them into selling those items for cheap in the auction or the commissioned sales store.

Someone may ask how many cubes can you get through that anyway, but Sanghyuk was confident in his chances.

He already knew the trick to monopolizing certain items through NPCS of the Golden Mountain merchant guild. And considering the user base of EL, even if only half of them through their cube fragments to the auction, the quantity of cube fragments he would get would be enormous.

Cube fragments would still appear on auctions even after the truth was found out. Although it may get more expensive, most of the players of EL were casual players who just enjoyed themselves, and they put the fragments on auction without much thinking.

‘If I can get my hands on the initial influx, I’ll be able to get an enormous profit.’

Sanghyuk wasn’t a person who would miss such a good opportunity. He used everything he could to rake in the cube fragments.

After doing everything he could to set up the game, when he no longer could do anything more, Sanghyuk took a step back and watched the turn of events.

Although not everything moved according to his expectations, the NPCs of Golden Mountain were raking in cube fragments like mad. They did not look at the rank or type. They bought every single one of the cube fragments as long as they weren’t priced absurdly.

Although the information manipulation wouldn’t work 100%, he succeeded in inducing users who were late to the catch into believing that the cube fragments weren’t anything special.

As a result, many users threw their cube fragments to the auction or the commissioned sales store, and Sanghyuk swallowed all of those items.

Sanghyuk’s finances were enormous. He sucked in all of the cubes with his enormous funds as well as his NPC hoarding system.

Some of the quick-witted users tried to hoard the cube fragments as well, but they were nothing compared to what Sanghyuk had prepared through the NPCs.

At best, they were able to buy one or two fragments an hour. In the end, the ones hoarding all fell off after judging that it wasn’t worth it.

‘Good, at this rate…… I’ll be able to hoard them for another two to three days at least.’

Sanghyuk nodded his head with a satisfied expression.

‘That will do for the hoarding…… and shall I go look for the highest-grade fragments?’

The grades of the cube fragments naturally differed a lot according to what monster it was dropped from.

‘The Valley of Stone Giants. I should be able to get high-grade cube fragments there, right?’

The Valley of Stone Giants was one of the hunting fields in the Heroic Lands.

Stone Giants appeared here and there in this field, and these Stone Giants, although not named monsters, were almost as strong.

Their average level was around 77, so it was no wonder that they were stronger than most known named monsters.

Although they walked around alone, they had the ‘Giant’s endurance’ skill as well as high defense and health, so it wasn’t an easy feat to hunt them.

This wasn’t a very popular field in the Heroic Lands in Sanghyuk’s previous life either. However, after considering all of his abilities, Sanghyuk deemed this place to be better than any other hunting field he knew.

***

Pzzzzt!

The Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip imbued with Zeus’s Thunderbolt wrapped around the neck of a newly arisen Stone Giant.

Although the Stone Giant was a large-scale monster with a height of over 7m, the Ten Millennia Goldbone Whip was able to wrap around its neck easily.

The Stone Giants had very slow movement.

Instead, each of their strikes were incredibly strong, while their defense and health were way beyond normal monster level. And although it was an A-rank version, they also had the ‘Giant’s endurance’ skill, so they had enormous tanking abilities.

Their specialty was to attack while getting hit.

In other words, their strategy was a go-ahead-and-hit-me style, and thanks to that, Sanghyuk was able to deal a very strong ‘first blow’.

Crunch!

The Ten Millennia Goldbone whip ground away at the giant’s neck. The attack was deemed as critical, and was buffed to incredible extents.

Grrrrrrrhhh.

No matter how great the Stone Giant’s tanking ability was, Sanghyuk also had the constant effect from the First Giant Slayer title, ‘Is the air up there different?(A)’.

This effect halved the effect Giant’s Endurance against giant-type monsters, so the Stone Giant took even more damage on that first blow.

Thud!

The Stone Giant fell on one knee in pain.

This first blow blew 70% of its health away. Normally, users would spend around 30 minutes to 1 hour to kill just one of these monsters – and in parties too – Sanghyuk made one kneel on one knee in just seconds.

This was the reason Sanghyuk chose the Valley of the Stone Giants as his field.

To him, killing one big guys like this at a time was more profitable than killing many little ones in one go.