Choi Yu Seong returned to his daily routine after taking a well-spent rest for his exhausted body and mind. He woke up early in the morning and recalled the day before that he had something to do after the exam while drinking coffee that Jin Do Yun had brew himself.
Odin’s suggestion that had to be solved first.
Choi Yu Seong still had no regret about his answer.
‘I’m sorry, but not yet.’
There’s only one reason why Gods granted skills that were no different from a part of their abilities.
‘To increase their stake in the activities of their favorite Awakener.’
Then why was it important to increase their stake?
This was almost the only part of the original novel, The Master Who Return To Modern Times, that was explained in detail.
Choi Yu Seong clearly remembered the setting thanks to that.
In other words, God ultimately wanted only one thing.
It was to accumulate Karma count that they sponsor so hard.
So why sponsor away their Karma count when they want them?
It was incomprehensible at first glance, but this also had a reason.
‘Gods also want to grow.’
And the resources they need to grow were retribution, that’s Karma.1
The problem was that it was not easy to build Karma as a God.
This was because the accumulated Karma count was ridiculously low due to the expression of penalties for the position of God and the influence of the name when a considerable amount of actions or miracles were revealed.
For example, something like this.
Thor hunted a dragon with the nickname such as Thunder of Battlefield, Hammer and Victory, God of Lightning, etc.
It was a huge matter, but the Karma count that Thor could get would be about 1,000.
But what if Choi Yu Seong, an ordinary human, hunts a dragon?
With the record of such a legendary event, the Karma count would accumulate about a million, which was nearly a thousand times more than Thor’s. Maybe even more than that.
And whenever a human being they sponsor recorded outstanding achievements, Gods received a part of the Karma count divided by the sponsorship ratio.
It was like the relationship between an investor and a joint-stock company.
However, there was one thing that differed greatly from the general concept of stock investment on earth. It was safe to assume that there was little loss for the stock company(Awakener) in making this deal with the investor(God).
‘Because Karma points are equally earned by Gods and humans in the original novel setting.’
In other words, this deal does not divide the Karma count accumulated by human achievements but is copied and transferred to Gods.2
It is a win-win trade relationship.
Therefore, Gods do not mind sponsoring Karma counts, transferring skills, or fully handing over one of their representative abilities and trying to increase their stake as quickly as possible when they see an Awakener with outstanding potential.
Then why are Gods in such a hurry to fight for the stake?
Similarly, compared to stocks, making it is difficult to have as many stakes as you want with simple investments if the upper limit is too high.
In other words, Awakeners who have grown to a certain extent and have a high stake preoccupied by other Gods, have considerably less room for new Gods to intervene.
Of course, as is the case in modern society, it could be a part that was not a problem for Gods that have a lot of capital, like karma points or powerful skills by the standards of Awakeners.
In modern’s stock investment concepts, although sellers can only trade if they release goods, the Gods’ share ratio fight can take away the position with low shareholding as if someone with plenty of time has beaten up the sponsorship.3
However, no matter how much capital available, its investors desire to secure stakes when it is cheap.
Therefore, it was natural for Gods to draw attention to Awakener belonging to startups with a lot of growth potential, or small and medium-sized companies with potential that commonly referred to as a super rookie.
In the end, finding talented Awakeners quickly and not sparing investment is one of the virtues of becoming an outstanding God.
Choi Yu Seong, who summarized the settings for Gods in The Master Who Return To Modern Times in his head, thought Odin’s proposal was surprising and coveted, but he could not join hands recklessly as there was a risk.
‘There are many Gods in this world who are pure or have a favor for humans compared to Odin.’
It is inevitable that Karma, which is shared through human achievements, is coveted by Gods.
Therefore, he had no intention of cursing the greed itself.
In addition, it is not like the entire accumulated karma taken away, and the sponsors that Gods give to the Awakeners just by distributing a portion of theirs is also not small.
Above all, humans could not use Karma directly in the first place except for being sponsored unless they became Gods.4
So, if you think of distributing some of the resources that you can’t even use right away and receiving currency exchange in a useful form, there is nothing bad about each other.
And that’s why he thought it would be a foolish choice to join hands with beings like Odin who is so complicated that he couldn’t figure out what was the inside.
What if Odin randomly gave a skill and that was an S-grade skill that Choi Yu Seong couldn’t even use right away?
Skills of grade S can only be utilized if the Awakener’s ability rank reaches S.
It would take at least a few years before E-rank’s Choi Yu Seong, who just acquired a hunter’s license, became an S-rank.
The grade S skill Odin handed over would remain completely sealed like old paper in that case.
‘I’m sure it’ll be good when it’s available.’
But in the meantime, will there be another God who can support enough to counter Odin’s stake in grade S skill?
It was a matter of random luck.
If you’re lucky, another God of Chief God grade may appear and sponsor, but it may not.
Perhaps most of the Gods were likely to give up their investment early and withdraw due to the presence of skills given by Odin.
What if Odin turns off his mind in this situation, telling him to grow on his own since he’s increased his stake in Choi Yu Seong after throwing a skill?
Choi Yu Seong will become a black sheep5 for a while.
There is no need to close one possibility of growth that way.
Fortunately or not, the once rejected Odin did not whine and sent another message to Choi Yu Seong.
A God other than Odin sent a message instead, which was another interesting situation.
-[Private] The Prankster Who Likes Jokes likes you. He’d like to assign a skill. Y/N
At first glance, he used a rather insignificant nickname, but the identity of this God that Choi Yu Seong knew was never a person to be looked down on.
‘Loki Laufeyarson.’
One of the most famous Gods in Norse mythology along with Odin and Thor. A presence that can be considered as the main culprit of Ragnarök, sent a message.
He’s not a Chief God like Odin, but he’s never below him.
Didn’t Loki’s son, Fenrir, even devour Odin to death in Ragnarök’s story?
What’s interesting was that Loki’s message came shortly after he rejected Odin’s offer.
In other words, it was a rather slow response which was not like Loki in mythology.
Choi Yu Seong made two hypotheses about this situation.
One was Loki, who hated Odin, sent a message because he was happy with Choi Yu Seong’s refusal.
‘It’s actually close to impossible.’
In the original novel, there was an explanation that even the same Gods cannot see private system messages in the first place.
Of course, it was such a sloppy setup that there might also be gaps.
Even if the opponent was Loki, there would be nothing more to say.
The second hypothesis was that Odin might not have sent the first message from the beginning.
‘I fought quite remarkably, but it’s not to the level enough for a Chief God to put interest in.’
Would the Chief God be called the Chief God for nothing?
It is literally the god that is the focus of a mythos.
Those beings that are even harder to even look up to with those existing power and position which rising to an infinitely high place with the karma share that humans accumulate!
Not only it is not easy to stand out in the eyes of such beings, but it is also even more difficult to be given skills, not just a mere sponsorship.
Unlike the Lower Gods who confront each other through sponsorship to increase their stake from the bottom up, it is not too late for Chief God to give a proper skill to a guaranteed figure, not just a super rookie.
Of course, if there is a person they like very much, sometimes the petty trick Choi Yu Seong thought of, that is completely occupied the stake first. But this is very rare.
Even returnee Kim Do Jin, the main character of the original novel, received an offer of Chief God only after he went up to the B-rank.
In that sense, Odin’s proposal to Choi Yu Seong was too early.
‘It doesn’t make any difference for Loki’s case.’
In the first place, Loki is an enterprising and fast-moving God compared to other Gods.
But how could Odin, who even revealed his nickname, be a fake?
‘That’s also possible if it’s Loki.’
Perhaps because one of the things Loki likes and loves is disguising, no, transforming, it was quite common for Loki to use other Gods’ nicknames.
In fact, Loki was the one who put Kim Do Jin in trouble again and again through such nickname transform pranks in the original novel.
There is no reason not to do the same thing to Choi Yu Seong.
Therefore, Choi Yu Seong did not reject Loki’s offer as quickly as he did when it was Odin.
‘If Odin’s proposal I received was also Loki’s, he would have reached out to me again after being rejected once.’
In other words, it meant that there was nothing urgent for Choi Yu Seong.
Loki’s proposal can be decided a little more carefully and slowly, considering the various situations mentioned earlier.
It was a situation where Loki was proving that there was a great interest in him.
Loki is showing interest in Choi Yu Seong even at this moment in fact.
-[Private] The Prankster Who Likes Jokes winks at you. 20 karma points are sponsored.
In many ways, Choi Yu Seong had no choice but to put more weight on his second guess.
So there is nothing wrong with putting this problem back a little bit.
Instead, he remembered not being able to catch Choi Min Seok, who he decided to take care of the previous day.
“Seriously, I should have warned him properly this time…”
Choi Yu Seong went to his house but he couldn’t even see his face as if he had realized it and ran away.
He might have seen Choi Min Seok if he had waited in front of the door until the end, but he did not do so.
‘Let it slide first. Let’s see if he dare to come out.’
There were two reasons for this decision.
First of all, is the fact that Choi Minseok is avoiding Choi Yoo Sung by himself.
There’s no reason to step up, make a fuss and get stressed if he’s taking care of his tail on his own.
Secondly, it is the most important part, Choi Yu Seong had a lot of room now.
‘Now I’ve got a hunter’s license and I’m starting to see the results of training.’
Time is on Choi Yu Seong’s side.
Unlike Choi Min Seok whose natural talent is not bad but rather lazy and arrogant, Choi Yu Seong will continue to grow with gritted teeth from now on.
In other words, Choi Min Seok will not even be noticeable from Choi Yu Seong’s position soon.
‘I have to look ahead more. ‘
To settle down stably and safely in this life, there is no need to pay attention to obstacles around Choi Min Seok’s weight.
There is no intention to be arrogant about the subject he just took the first step into.
‘Come to think of it, I finally got over 100 Karma points.’
Until yesterday, Choi Yu Seong had 93 karma points sponsored by the Gods.
But just now Loki added 20 and it became 113.
Karma point that can be used for quite a several purposes for Awakeners, but the most frequently used place was decided.
Choi Yu Seong recalled that purpose and recited the words to himself.
“Summon, Dimensional Merchant. The condition is Lionbear clan.”
– You have requested to summon Dimensional Merchant for the first time. 100 karma points required for the contract will be spent. Do you want to proceed? Y/N
The kind Mr. System always asks for Awakener’s opinion.
“Yes. If you please.”6
The other party is a mechanical system, but it was kind anyway so Choi Yu Seong smiled and used honorifics.
Among the settings that were roughly overlooked in the original novel, it was written that someone had obtained a hidden piece for the tone used toward the system, but did not tell who it was until the first part was completed.
So he didn’t know what kind of hidden piece is it.
But if there’s something, there’s nothing bad about getting it right?
-Looking for a Dimensional Merchant who wants to contract. Please wait a moment.
Looking at the system message that still responds mechanically whether it understands his thoughts or not, Choi Yu Seong got up slowly from his seat. He went to the kitchen and rummaged through a box of lollipops he bought from a convenience store last night, took out some flavors then headed back to his room.
Jin Do Yun and Jin Yu Ri, who encountered him in the middle, said a few words to Choi Yu Seong. But he said ‘later’ and put off the conversation with the two.
As soon as he came back to the room and closed the door, the system message flashed as if it had been waiting.
-Dimensional Merchant who wants to contract has been matched. 100 karma points are deducted. After 10 seconds, the Dimensional Merchant is summoned. 10, 9, 8…
“The timing is good too.”
Choi Yu Seong responded to the system message with a smile. He sat on a teatime table in the room and roughly put the lollipops he had prepared.
After exactly 10 seconds, along with the flashing light and the scene as if a part of the space was distorted. A cute pink door, which looked like it would be hanged in a toy doll’s room where children played in, was created.
The handle of the pink door turns with a small sound.
And from beyond that, a pink bear toddling on its two feet walked out majestically.
It then began to look up at Choi Yu Seong, who wondered how it wrapped its doll-like short arms as if crossing arms.
“Nice to meet you. Human. I am Pingpong of the great Lionbear clan. It’s an honor to sign a contract with this body.”
It was a truly charismatic appearance.
Choi Yu Seong returned to his daily routine after taking a well-spent rest for his exhausted body and mind. He woke up early in the morning and recalled the day before that he had something to do after the exam while drinking coffee that Jin Do Yun had brew himself.
Odin’s suggestion that had to be solved first.
Choi Yu Seong still had no regret about his answer.
‘I’m sorry, but not yet.’
There’s only one reason why Gods granted skills that were no different from a part of their abilities.
‘To increase their stake in the activities of their favorite Awakener.’
Then why was it important to increase their stake?
This was almost the only part of the original novel, The Master Who Return To Modern Times, that was explained in detail.
Choi Yu Seong clearly remembered the setting thanks to that.
In other words, God ultimately wanted only one thing.
It was to accumulate Karma count that they sponsor so hard.
So why sponsor away their Karma count when they want them?
It was incomprehensible at first glance, but this also had a reason.
‘Gods also want to grow.’
And the resources they need to grow were retribution, that’s Karma.1
The problem was that it was not easy to build Karma as a God.
This was because the accumulated Karma count was ridiculously low due to the expression of penalties for the position of God and the influence of the name when a considerable amount of actions or miracles were revealed.
For example, something like this.
Thor hunted a dragon with the nickname such as Thunder of Battlefield, Hammer and Victory, God of Lightning, etc.
It was a huge matter, but the Karma count that Thor could get would be about 1,000.
But what if Choi Yu Seong, an ordinary human, hunts a dragon?
With the record of such a legendary event, the Karma count would accumulate about a million, which was nearly a thousand times more than Thor’s. Maybe even more than that.
And whenever a human being they sponsor recorded outstanding achievements, Gods received a part of the Karma count divided by the sponsorship ratio.
It was like the relationship between an investor and a joint-stock company.
However, there was one thing that differed greatly from the general concept of stock investment on earth. It was safe to assume that there was little loss for the stock company(Awakener) in making this deal with the investor(God).
‘Because Karma points are equally earned by Gods and humans in the original novel setting.’
In other words, this deal does not divide the Karma count accumulated by human achievements but is copied and transferred to Gods.2
It is a win-win trade relationship.
Therefore, Gods do not mind sponsoring Karma counts, transferring skills, or fully handing over one of their representative abilities and trying to increase their stake as quickly as possible when they see an Awakener with outstanding potential.
Then why are Gods in such a hurry to fight for the stake?
Similarly, compared to stocks, making it is difficult to have as many stakes as you want with simple investments if the upper limit is too high.
In other words, Awakeners who have grown to a certain extent and have a high stake preoccupied by other Gods, have considerably less room for new Gods to intervene.
Of course, as is the case in modern society, it could be a part that was not a problem for Gods that have a lot of capital, like karma points or powerful skills by the standards of Awakeners.
In modern’s stock investment concepts, although sellers can only trade if they release goods, the Gods’ share ratio fight can take away the position with low shareholding as if someone with plenty of time has beaten up the sponsorship.3
However, no matter how much capital available, its investors desire to secure stakes when it is cheap.
Therefore, it was natural for Gods to draw attention to Awakener belonging to startups with a lot of growth potential, or small and medium-sized companies with potential that commonly referred to as a super rookie.
In the end, finding talented Awakeners quickly and not sparing investment is one of the virtues of becoming an outstanding God.
Choi Yu Seong, who summarized the settings for Gods in The Master Who Return To Modern Times in his head, thought Odin’s proposal was surprising and coveted, but he could not join hands recklessly as there was a risk.
‘There are many Gods in this world who are pure or have a favor for humans compared to Odin.’
It is inevitable that Karma, which is shared through human achievements, is coveted by Gods.
Therefore, he had no intention of cursing the greed itself.
In addition, it is not like the entire accumulated karma taken away, and the sponsors that Gods give to the Awakeners just by distributing a portion of theirs is also not small.
Above all, humans could not use Karma directly in the first place except for being sponsored unless they became Gods.4
So, if you think of distributing some of the resources that you can’t even use right away and receiving currency exchange in a useful form, there is nothing bad about each other.
And that’s why he thought it would be a foolish choice to join hands with beings like Odin who is so complicated that he couldn’t figure out what was the inside.
What if Odin randomly gave a skill and that was an S-grade skill that Choi Yu Seong couldn’t even use right away?
Skills of grade S can only be utilized if the Awakener’s ability rank reaches S.
It would take at least a few years before E-rank’s Choi Yu Seong, who just acquired a hunter’s license, became an S-rank.
The grade S skill Odin handed over would remain completely sealed like old paper in that case.
‘I’m sure it’ll be good when it’s available.’
But in the meantime, will there be another God who can support enough to counter Odin’s stake in grade S skill?
It was a matter of random luck.
If you’re lucky, another God of Chief God grade may appear and sponsor, but it may not.
Perhaps most of the Gods were likely to give up their investment early and withdraw due to the presence of skills given by Odin.
What if Odin turns off his mind in this situation, telling him to grow on his own since he’s increased his stake in Choi Yu Seong after throwing a skill?
Choi Yu Seong will become a black sheep5 for a while.
There is no need to close one possibility of growth that way.
Fortunately or not, the once rejected Odin did not whine and sent another message to Choi Yu Seong.
A God other than Odin sent a message instead, which was another interesting situation.
-[Private] The Prankster Who Likes Jokes likes you. He’d like to assign a skill. Y/N
At first glance, he used a rather insignificant nickname, but the identity of this God that Choi Yu Seong knew was never a person to be looked down on.
‘Loki Laufeyarson.’
One of the most famous Gods in Norse mythology along with Odin and Thor. A presence that can be considered as the main culprit of Ragnarök, sent a message.
He’s not a Chief God like Odin, but he’s never below him.
Didn’t Loki’s son, Fenrir, even devour Odin to death in Ragnarök’s story?
What’s interesting was that Loki’s message came shortly after he rejected Odin’s offer.
In other words, it was a rather slow response which was not like Loki in mythology.
Choi Yu Seong made two hypotheses about this situation.
One was Loki, who hated Odin, sent a message because he was happy with Choi Yu Seong’s refusal.
‘It’s actually close to impossible.’
In the original novel, there was an explanation that even the same Gods cannot see private system messages in the first place.
Of course, it was such a sloppy setup that there might also be gaps.
Even if the opponent was Loki, there would be nothing more to say.
The second hypothesis was that Odin might not have sent the first message from the beginning.
‘I fought quite remarkably, but it’s not to the level enough for a Chief God to put interest in.’
Would the Chief God be called the Chief God for nothing?
It is literally the god that is the focus of a mythos.
Those beings that are even harder to even look up to with those existing power and position which rising to an infinitely high place with the karma share that humans accumulate!
Not only it is not easy to stand out in the eyes of such beings, but it is also even more difficult to be given skills, not just a mere sponsorship.
Unlike the Lower Gods who confront each other through sponsorship to increase their stake from the bottom up, it is not too late for Chief God to give a proper skill to a guaranteed figure, not just a super rookie.
Of course, if there is a person they like very much, sometimes the petty trick Choi Yu Seong thought of, that is completely occupied the stake first. But this is very rare.
Even returnee Kim Do Jin, the main character of the original novel, received an offer of Chief God only after he went up to the B-rank.
In that sense, Odin’s proposal to Choi Yu Seong was too early.
‘It doesn’t make any difference for Loki’s case.’
In the first place, Loki is an enterprising and fast-moving God compared to other Gods.
But how could Odin, who even revealed his nickname, be a fake?
‘That’s also possible if it’s Loki.’
Perhaps because one of the things Loki likes and loves is disguising, no, transforming, it was quite common for Loki to use other Gods’ nicknames.
In fact, Loki was the one who put Kim Do Jin in trouble again and again through such nickname transform pranks in the original novel.
There is no reason not to do the same thing to Choi Yu Seong.
Therefore, Choi Yu Seong did not reject Loki’s offer as quickly as he did when it was Odin.
‘If Odin’s proposal I received was also Loki’s, he would have reached out to me again after being rejected once.’
In other words, it meant that there was nothing urgent for Choi Yu Seong.
Loki’s proposal can be decided a little more carefully and slowly, considering the various situations mentioned earlier.
It was a situation where Loki was proving that there was a great interest in him.
Loki is showing interest in Choi Yu Seong even at this moment in fact.
-[Private] The Prankster Who Likes Jokes winks at you. 20 karma points are sponsored.
In many ways, Choi Yu Seong had no choice but to put more weight on his second guess.
So there is nothing wrong with putting this problem back a little bit.
Instead, he remembered not being able to catch Choi Min Seok, who he decided to take care of the previous day.
“Seriously, I should have warned him properly this time…”
Choi Yu Seong went to his house but he couldn’t even see his face as if he had realized it and ran away.
He might have seen Choi Min Seok if he had waited in front of the door until the end, but he did not do so.
‘Let it slide first. Let’s see if he dare to come out.’
There were two reasons for this decision.
First of all, is the fact that Choi Minseok is avoiding Choi Yoo Sung by himself.
There’s no reason to step up, make a fuss and get stressed if he’s taking care of his tail on his own.
Secondly, it is the most important part, Choi Yu Seong had a lot of room now.
‘Now I’ve got a hunter’s license and I’m starting to see the results of training.’
Time is on Choi Yu Seong’s side.
Unlike Choi Min Seok whose natural talent is not bad but rather lazy and arrogant, Choi Yu Seong will continue to grow with gritted teeth from now on.
In other words, Choi Min Seok will not even be noticeable from Choi Yu Seong’s position soon.
‘I have to look ahead more. ‘
To settle down stably and safely in this life, there is no need to pay attention to obstacles around Choi Min Seok’s weight.
There is no intention to be arrogant about the subject he just took the first step into.
‘Come to think of it, I finally got over 100 Karma points.’
Until yesterday, Choi Yu Seong had 93 karma points sponsored by the Gods.
But just now Loki added 20 and it became 113.
Karma point that can be used for quite a several purposes for Awakeners, but the most frequently used place was decided.
Choi Yu Seong recalled that purpose and recited the words to himself.
“Summon, Dimensional Merchant. The condition is Lionbear clan.”
– You have requested to summon Dimensional Merchant for the first time. 100 karma points required for the contract will be spent. Do you want to proceed? Y/N
The kind Mr. System always asks for Awakener’s opinion.
“Yes. If you please.”6
The other party is a mechanical system, but it was kind anyway so Choi Yu Seong smiled and used honorifics.
Among the settings that were roughly overlooked in the original novel, it was written that someone had obtained a hidden piece for the tone used toward the system, but did not tell who it was until the first part was completed.
So he didn’t know what kind of hidden piece is it.
But if there’s something, there’s nothing bad about getting it right?
-Looking for a Dimensional Merchant who wants to contract. Please wait a moment.
Looking at the system message that still responds mechanically whether it understands his thoughts or not, Choi Yu Seong got up slowly from his seat. He went to the kitchen and rummaged through a box of lollipops he bought from a convenience store last night, took out some flavors then headed back to his room.
Jin Do Yun and Jin Yu Ri, who encountered him in the middle, said a few words to Choi Yu Seong. But he said ‘later’ and put off the conversation with the two.
As soon as he came back to the room and closed the door, the system message flashed as if it had been waiting.
-Dimensional Merchant who wants to contract has been matched. 100 karma points are deducted. After 10 seconds, the Dimensional Merchant is summoned. 10, 9, 8…
“The timing is good too.”
Choi Yu Seong responded to the system message with a smile. He sat on a teatime table in the room and roughly put the lollipops he had prepared.
After exactly 10 seconds, along with the flashing light and the scene as if a part of the space was distorted. A cute pink door, which looked like it would be hanged in a toy doll’s room where children played in, was created.
The handle of the pink door turns with a small sound.
And from beyond that, a pink bear toddling on its two feet walked out majestically.
It then began to look up at Choi Yu Seong, who wondered how it wrapped its doll-like short arms as if crossing arms.
“Nice to meet you. Human. I am Pingpong of the great Lionbear clan. It’s an honor to sign a contract with this body.”
It was a truly charismatic appearance.
