Chapter 77 077

Kiri overreacted to Seojin's short remark.

"No, not at all! I'm not intending to… but if you want, I can offer you better conditions than Résistance!"

"Nonsense! Résistance would benefit you way more than Red Tower… if you want to join, of course! What's the point of looking at rankings when we're much more stable and practical?"

"So, you two still have the same goal, right?"

"I didn't mean it like that, though! I just wanted to help a good cause, but it would nice to have you in our ranks."

"Same goes for Résistance."

While it was safe to say that the Kingdom of Valaran had pretty much become Ironblood territory, they were naturally not the only guild there as there were many small and medium-sized guilds. Résistance and Red Tower were among the best of them.

<Contribution Leaderboard. >

1. Seojin.

2. Kiri.

3. Bigfoot.

4. Merian.

The leaderboard was a good indication, as third and fourth place held a significant difference in contribution points.

"Let's complete the quest before we talk. Take a break for now."

Seojin left the two behind and returned to the first village. Everyone remained focused on work since Seojin changed his appearance. Seojin quickly met with the village chief, who was bawling his eyes out, inside his house.

"…Thank you. Thank you so much," the chief repeatedly thanked. Seojin

It wasn't just because Seojin had freed him from such painful memories. The village chief himself had a sense of duty when it came to leading the village but couldn't help the collapsing town by himself.

Seojin, however, made that possible. He led even the most self-interested players and eventually healed the once seemingly incurable wounds of the village.

"Thank you, adventurer. Thanks to you, our village is able to live again."

Chain Quest complete.

Following the chief's tearful gratitude, a system message popped up. The players strewn all over the Southern Island looked up at the sky.

"Oh, it's over."

"It's over."

"This soon?"

Everyone thought that completion wouldn't have been far off, from the psychological treatment of the townspeople to the environmental improvement work to warding the entire island. And soon enough…

Total Participants: 1044

Rewards will be distributed according to the accumulated contribution points.

The message that everyone had been waiting for showed up.

"Please! Please let me be in the double digits!"

"I really need to improve my specs!"

Seojin had promised a private meeting with the top ten players, and one question each for everyone above Rank Sixty. Therefore, asking the wrong question would be like throwing away a golden opportunity in vain.

The result was revealed as the players gulped nervously.

<Contribution Leaderboard. >

1. Seojin.

2. Kiri.

3. Bigfoot.

4. Merian.

…

"Oh, no!"

"It can't be! I put that much effort in for this result?!"

"Holy shit, I'm in! There was only a one point difference!'

Few shouted in joy while most people filled the air with disappointed sighs.

Distributing Rewards…

Common Rewards

* Achievement: I'm Still Alive!

* Churai Islands' Resort Silver Membership.

Top 50% Rewards

* Churai Islands' Resort Gold Membership.

* Slight Increase in Dharma Points!

…

Nobody was complaining, as everyone was rewarded with an achievement. On top of that, the achievement boosted their skills.

"I-it's an achievement!"

"We got memberships, too! Crazy! How much is this membership worth?"

"Silver is around one hundred gold… and Gold must be well over three hundred."

That was worth more than tens of millions of won back in the real world. It was just a game, but visiting Churai Islands was worth the cost.

They were also rewarded with something called Dharma, but many of them didn't even know what that was.

"I knew it! Anti-Mainstream! AM! We AM you!"

"I AM you! I knew that I could gain something by following AM!"."

"Long live AM! Thank you for the achievement and the membership!"

In their eyes, the rewards easily made up for the missed opportunity to talk to Seojin.

* * *

Seojin read the message from up on a hill near the village, where he could look down on those players at a glance.

* Generous adventurers assisted the villagers in returning to their everyday life. The townspeople can now move forward without being tied to the past.

* You led the fierce process forward and became a role model for everyone by not sparing yourself. You will be rewarded for your efforts.

'This must be exclusive to me.'

Seojin realized that as soon as he saw the system message since the previous ones didn't mention the top-ranked contributor. As expected, his reward was different.

Churai Islands' Resort Platinum Membership.

* I'll show you how Platinum shines! Platinum Membership is only issued to a small number of people by the founder of the Churai Resort.

* Free access to all of the resort's services.

* Services exclusive for Platinum members.

Achievement: I'm Still Alive!

Achievement: Formidable Reinforcement

Achievement: The Last Leaf Has Yet to Fall.

The platinum-level resort membership and three achievements were just the start.

Acquired: 1200 Gold

And the gold didn't even look sufficient, but the last one…

Acquired: 11656 Dharma Points.

…Was a ton of Dharma Points, more than three thousand times what the amount low-contribution players gained.

'Dharma huh… is it the same thing here as it was in Asgard?'

Also, unlike other players, Seojin knew what they were. The evil energy produced from misdeeds in a previous life was referred to as Karma, while the virtues one accumulated were named Dharma.

'Asgard used to have stores that used Dharma as currency but will it be the same here too?'

Midgard revolved around the realm of men, so using Dharma as a currency likely wouldn't be the case here.

'I'm sure that it'll be useful someday.'

The developer wouldn't have given it out as a reward otherwise.

Seojin stopped thinking there and looked at Flappy flying around.

"Hey, wha is folks usin' verbs wrong?"

"Verbs?"

"Thay kept sayin' weird thangs lahk'Way AM yawl.'"

"Oh, that means Anti-Mainstream."

"Whuts thet?"

"It's my other name. The one used among adventurers."

Flappy nodded as if she grasped the meaning of it.

"Way AM yawl, let us AM witchew, blah, blah, blah… Ah thank Ah saw similar thangs durin' uh religious war. Wha don't yawl make uh new religion?"

"No, religion is… it's a little different from that."

"Wayul, suit churself. How comfortable would it bay hif hay had minions tuh collect magic stones? Thayure's naw easier way tuh control hawh? mans than turnin' them into fanatics."

Her words were truly that of a three hundred-year-old. While her cute appearance could be deceiving, Seojin reminded himself again of that fact.

He also knew what the spirit liked.

"Do you know what Dharma is?"

"Yer. Wha is yawl askin' all uh uh sudden?"

"Please enlighten me, three-hundred-year-old spirit."

"Aha, yawl must hav finally recognized mah worth! Ahl teach yawl personally, but not fahwar free."

Flappy held out her tiny hand.

"Ah'll take payment in advance."

"You want a magic stone?"

"It's uh price yawl hav tuh pay fahwar valuable information."

Hm. Seojin raised his head.

"How about service-first pay-later?"

"Yawl shouldn't bargain wheyun askin' fahwar uh lesson."

"Is the information worth it?"

"Uh course, dja fergit whut Ah sayud? Thayure aren't many bein' in thus reeyulm who know bout it. Perhaos an ode elf or uh dragon?"

Flappy raised her chin as if she wanted to impress him. It was pretty cute to see the fairy, who was smaller than his fist, acting confidently and flapping her wings.

'She's begging for a teasing.'

Seojin already knew all about Dharma, the only thing he didn't know was how it worked in Midgard. Stating what he knew would surprise Flappy, but…

"There you go, a magic stone."

He wanted to see her looking happy with a giant magic stone in her arms. She snatched the stone like a squirrel and did a slick three-sixty before looking at Seojin seriously.

"Dharma iz…"

"Yes."

"…sumpn thet good gods luv. It's kinduh uh score, if yer will…."

As expected, the story began with what he already knew, but Seojin's eyes shone as if he had never heard about it before.

* * *

Dharma Points was one of the currencies in Asgard, earned for doing good or producing good results. The opposing currency was Karma Points, and one could buy a totally different list of items with them.

"The gods who like you will reward you. Good gods love Dharma and evil gods go nuts over Karma. They might even try to make you their champion."

That was the way to use Dharma in Midgard, where there were no such stores.

"So, the gods will reward me directly?"

"It's not a reward, more like a gift. Imagine them saying'what a good boy, I'll give you some treats!' That's pretty much it."

"Oho, I get it…"

Seojin nodded as he remembered something. Luna, the epitome of a good god, once favored a particular human, and granted him an enormous number of holy gifts, including the chance to become her champion.

'That human must have had many Dharma Points. No wonder she took so much care of him.'

That human managed to even win the position of a champion later.

'The ending wasn't pretty though…'

Luna was a pushover, and the man knew that too. As soon as he gained the title of champion, he turned on his heels and was rapidly corrupted. The title of champion couldn't be taken away once granted, so Luna had to punish him herself.

Dharma: 11656

'That's how it is, huh? Then I guess I don't particularly need to do anything.'

One good thing was that he could see the exact amount of Dharma points he had, which meant he could figure out what kind of actions reduced or increased them.

Karma: 17

Surprisingly, his Karma level was right next to it.

'Karma and Dharma are like the two sides of the same coin.'

The system wasn't simple. It didn't only consider intentions or outcomes and had its own complex standard.

'I'm sure my skills have something to do with why Karma went up.'

Stanceshifting, especially threats and lies, must have had something to do with his Karma. Perhaps he could even stack both Karma and Dharma at the same time if he calculated things well enough.

"That was a very valuable piece of information."

"Ahem, didja lahk mah teachin'?"

"Very much so. I think I'll ask you things more often. I'll have to squeeze out some more money to buy magic stones, though."

"Yawl shore do know how tuh do business."

Flappy, looking rather happy, did a loop and began to munch on the magic stone in Seojin's head. With that, he looked off to the side to see two people awkwardly approaching from afar.

"Good timing."