The 31st Piece Overturns the Game Board

‘What on earth is happening?’

Kang Seol was greatly taken aback by the system message. Not just the message, he had no choice but to be startled by the changes in his surroundings as well.

Lights were pouring down from everywhere and silhouettes of people were visible.

They weren’t clearly visible nor were their voices audible, but their every movement revealed their bewilderment.

“Are we all entangled in this?”

A horrible speculation that he hoped was merely a delusion. He wondered if everyone around the world was involved in this.

The reality becoming a game seemed to be a whole different problem from having a peculiar dream.

-The place where you lived will become a different world from today. The convergence of the worlds is scheduled for today. It’s your world and the world of eternity, Pandeia.

Words left by Codon for him.

The enigmatic words now made sense. As it turned out, the trial of the eternal world had ended as of yesterday.

‘Have people entered the world of eternity?’

It seemed like a reasonable inference in his context.

The cause was likely the gods who had been yammering in his dreams every night.

‘It wasn’t just in my dreams…’

What he assumed to be illusions appearing in his dreams were apparently real gods.

As Kang Seol carefully recollected his memories, he walked through unsettling segments one by one.

‘No, the very fact that they exist in dreams was strange…’

Because Kang Seol thought they weren’t real, he had dismissed their existence as such.

However, their existence was certain.

Otherwise, none of this would have been possible.

Kang Seol, who had been blankly standing, suddenly began to laugh.

“Ha, ha, ha… Did I get tricked? Or did I trick myself first?”

In his defense, Kang Seol hadn’t unmasked himself to them because he couldn’t find a reason to reveal his identity.

But in hindsight, it was fortunate he didn’t. If his true identity had been revealed at the wrong time, he would have been torn apart, just as the gods had wished.

‘A bug, huh? Is it that infuriating that I view the world at their level?’

Having roughly understood the situation, Kang Seol gave a hollow laugh. Oddly enough, while he was laughing, his eyes remained cold.

His heart was now stained with feelings of disappointment, betrayal, and perhaps, inferiority.

What hit his heart the most was rage. He had nearly lost his life without any resistance.

‘Are you… that great?’

The reason he almost died was merely because he was human.

-How dare you converse with us at the same eye level?

That was the only reason.

‘So, you’re angry that I am a human. Then…’

A cold aura could be felt from his eyes. It was the look of one who had made a firm resolution.

‘May I be angry that you guys call yourselves gods?’

Kang Seol was crazy about the eternal world.

Perhaps he wanted to not just wander through that world in words, but genuinely explore it.

His surging strange emotions, dominated by negativity, testified to that.

He was now looking forward to it.

The fact that he could continue doing what he did best and would do better in the future heightened his emotions.

And with that, he could reach the gods.

He was going to find an answer to his earlier question, no matter what.

-Snowman, there is only one way to save you and your race. Reach Ascension, the final adventure.

Kang Seol did not consider himself a hero.

Salvation of mankind? Survival of the race?

Those things didn’t really matter to him.

He didn’t particularly like being noticed in reality, and he didn’t possess such grand ideologies.

But if there was a reason why he needed to reach the final adventure, Ascension, it was to prove his existence.

-How dare you barge into heaven without knowing your place? Die stuck to the ground like a bug!

“So, I’m supposed to die like a bug? … I wonder about that.”

How can he reach the gods?

Codon, who had put his life in danger, would know that.

In any case, the only immediate method that came to his mind was heading towards Ascension.

Kang Seol decided to focus on the situation around him for now. He could plan for the future once he got out of the immediate threat.

What caught his eye was a character settings window composed of a large number of characters.

‘This character setting window… It’s the same as the eternal world I know.’

It just differed in whether you were a being rolling dice or a being running directly.

The eternal world sets up characters before the game starts.

It’s no different from an RPG placed on a board game, but in reality, this process took up the most important part in the eternal world.

‘In the eternal world, everything gets twisted if you don’t put effort into character setup.’

The saying that the beginning is half the battle was also true here. While reality divides the classes of birth into golden spoon and dirt spoon, the game couldn’t escape this either.

‘If it’s about characters… then…’

Kang Seol licked his lips.

In truth, once the Eternal World trial was over, there had been a character that he had not fully verified.

“Alright, let’s go with that.”

The characters he had verified while playing were too heavily influenced by his comrades. There were limits to what he could do on his own, and there were several crises.

If it had been real, there were threats that could have killed him.

Each time, he managed to overcome with wit, but the process wasn’t easy, and there was no guarantee that he would be successful this time either.

“A character who can reach the pinnacle without any variables.”

The character he was about to create reflected his determination.

He first carefully looked at the job setting.

The job setting in the Eternal World had its peculiarities.

It wasn’t simply divided into ‘swordsman, wizard,’ and such.

It was possible to choose both swordsman and wizard to play as a sword wizard, or to choose a deeper process of the wizard and dig into one discipline like the previous Snowman.

“It virtually has infinite freedom.”

The ability to become anything was a characteristic of the Eternal World.

“The problem is, with so many choices, there’s a trap.”

Not all jobs from a myriad of options could be perfectly balanced. Of course, there were preferred jobs and jobs that became obsolete.

“Wizard… Summoner… Here it is.”

The Summoner, a rather safe job among hundreds of jobs.

If he were to list its advantages, it was versatile from a relatively safe position.

A drawback was that it wasn’t outstanding.

Given the multitude of jobs, there were many with distinct personalities.

Such jobs received special treatment wherever they went. They were always needed at some point.

However, the summoner didn’t belong there.

As a dealer, as a healer, and as a supporter, its position was ambiguous, which was the current status of the summoner.

“Of course, that’s when the uninformed use it.”

If Snowman chose a summoner, there would be a reason.

Those who had played the game with Kang Seol would have said so.

‘Where… is the sect…?

The summoner wasn’t just a summoner, there were various branching points.

The first of these key branching points was the character’s sect in the settings. It was a setting about which summons to mainly handle.

‘Demonic beast, divine beast, spirit, golem, undead…?’

Over 10 types of sects.

Even without choice paralysis, Kang Seol found a sect hidden in the corner after pondering for about an hour.

‘Found it.’

Shadow summoner.

Shadow was a property that spread everywhere, not only in summoning but also in magic and dark magic, swordsmanship, and physical skills.

However, except for swordsmanship, no one had adopted the shadow property.

‘It’s weak in the early and mid-game. It’s not strong in the end-game either.’

The power of properties that burn, tear, and freeze.

However, unlike those, if the shadow was raised incorrectly, it ended up with nothing but mediocre abilities.

Hence, it was abandoned.

‘Others didn’t know that when the shadow and the summoner combined, it caused a certain synergy.’

Choosing the Shadow Summoner as his job, Kang Seol completed the rest of the settings in a blink.

‘Pour all stats into wisdom, talents in cooking and discernment. As for the nickname…’

When he thought about the nickname, a crescent-like smile appeared on his lips.

The 31st, the final character.

There couldn’t be a more appropriate nickname than that.

“Snowman.”

[Character setting completed.]

[Shadow summoner ‘Snowman’ joins the Eternal World, Pandeia.]

***

[‘Devoured by Concept’ has entered ‘Snowman’s’ room.]

-I’m here!

-I’m leaving.

[‘Devoured by Concept’ has left ‘Snowman’s’ room.]

-Did he really leave? ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ

-Human! It’s a human!

-Beep! Humor code and culture code patch complete! Now all that’s left is to enjoy~

“Ugh….”

Kang Seol, the Snowman, shook his head and woke up.

Unbeknownst to him, entities of unknown origin began to spy and gossip about him.

[The first adventure begins.]

[Adventure 1. Dance of the Moonlit Night]

“…Forgotten Moon Relic?”

He remembered.

The adventure designed to help new users adapt to the eternal world.

‘Ah.. but this.’

This adventure was tricky.

The solo adventure was excellent, but the difficulty was a bit harsh.

‘Was the strategy to keep taking damage and moving forward?’

If the job is not rogue-based or doesn’t have ‘trap disarm’ as a talent, HP can be severely reduced due to traps set everywhere.

‘Damn… casters are at a disadvantage…’

Shadow Summoner is clearly a caster.

It was a job that moved clumsily while chanting spells.

‘In addition, I put all my free distribution ability points into wisdom…?’

Had he known the first adventure was Dance of the Moonlit Night, he might have chosen a different job. Or he wouldn’t have dumped all his ability points into wisdom.

But, knowing what the first adventure is like knowing the world would turn into the eternal world.

If he had known that, he wouldn’t have lived his life so diligently or saved money for his future.

“Let’s start with checking.”

The basic ability point score of 10.

Kang Seol, who invested all 10 of the freely distributable ability points into wisdom.

“It’s not going to be easy…….”

In a worn-out robe with a single baggy sleeve.

His attire seemed far from agile.

After the check, Kang Seol took action.

‘First… I should enter the relic.’

A garden overrun by weeds.

The moonlight illuminated the garden.

Swoosh.

Across the shattered garden created outdoors, Kang Seol arrived at the entrance of the relic.

“What’s the dream and what’s reality..”

Perhaps this distinction is no longer significant.

‘This… this is like a real game of dice. Where… what were the choices here?’

Kang Seol inadvertently tried to recall the original choices.

Then something unexpected happened.

“Huh?”

‘So there are options?’