The Return of the Legendary Golden-Handed Blacksmith - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 1
Episode 1.
“Today’s the end.”
The service shutdown day for Eternal Sunshine, the game that had dominated an era.
Yu Jin-woo sat alone in a corner of the Plaza, filled with regret.
“There was nothing like this game. It wasn’t full virtual reality, but there was no game you could immerse yourself in quite like this.”
Eternal Sunshine was a semi-virtual reality game.
It was the most innovative game among the semi-virtual reality games that were in fashion at the time, and at its initial launch, it was so popular that advertisements boasted ten million players worldwide.
But as the virtual reality game boom took off, technology advanced as well, and now full virtual reality games had emerged instead of semi-virtual reality.
Semi-virtual reality games could only fade with the times.
“When I tried the full virtual reality games, semi-virtual reality games don’t even compare. Over there, it’s really like reality.”
Full virtual reality games were literally another world.
There were countless catchphrases like NewGen and such, and above all, they filled what semi-virtual reality games could not.
Perfect realism.
It was the perfect game for people who wanted to create a version of themselves different from reality.
Sigh.
Jin-woo gripped his Hammer.
His inventory was stacked with equipment he had crafted over the years.
Every single piece was L-grade equipment, known as the final tier.
“I was just getting started, really. Even though L-grade is supposed to be the final tier, I feel like I could have made better equipment.”
This equipment had made Yu Jin-woo a Ranker in Eternal Sunshine.
Countless users wanted his equipment, and Jin-woo sold to the users he liked.
“Every user who had my equipment became a Ranker.”
The equipment Jin-woo crafted was unparalleled.
Back when Eternal Sunshine was active, the top 30 Rankers were always announced by rank, and all 30 of them possessed Jin-woo’s equipment.
And the users who had Jin-woo’s latest equipment would shoot up the rankings.
Jin-woo enjoyed watching that immensely.
“You couldn’t be a Ranker without my equipment. In other words, you couldn’t become a Ranker without my permission.”
Jin-woo in Eternal Sunshine was nothing short of a Kingmaker.
“It’s all over now, which is a shame. But at least it was fun.”
It had been a pleasant dream.
But nothing pleasant lasts forever. Where there is a beginning, there must be an end.
“Now it’s time to return to reality.”
Yu Jin-woo had a reality to return to.
He needed money.
A lot of it.
“Time to go back.”
And so Eternal Sunshine shut down.
* * *
-Would you like a full virtual reality game?
-A new era has arrived here.
-NewGen! Experience the new generation with us!
One month after Eternal Sunshine shut down.
As if on cue, a new game launched.
Full virtual reality.
NewGen appealed to countless users with the catchphrase that you could truly enjoy a new world, not semi-virtual reality.
Moreover, despite being a company no one had seen before, it conducted aggressive marketing, burning billions of won in advertising budget.
It started marketing not just in Korea but across the world—America, China, Japan—and the strategy worked.
-30 million won!
-You can start a new life!
The price of the NewGen Capsule device was 30 million won.
-What’s this? 30 million?
-Insane. The Eternal Sunshine Capsule was only 5 million.
-But seriously, even for a full virtual reality game, is the device price really this much?
-Don’t worry. I heard you don’t have to pay the 30 million all at once. There’s an installment plan and apparently a system where you can pay it back in-game?
-Pay it back in-game?
-Yeah. I don’t know the details either, but if you check the detailed ad page, it’s all there.
-That’s crazy.
Despite the negativity, NewGen proceeded with open beta undeterred.
The exorbitant 30 million won Capsule price was manageable thanks to the installment system and the in-game payment system, easing the burden for users.
And beyond that.
“Wow. This is insane?”
“It’s seriously like reality.”
“Has technology advanced this much?”
The immersion was on a different level from previous virtual reality games.
“It’s seriously just like reality?”
“It can’t even compare to semi-virtual reality games.”
Only then did people begin to understand full virtual reality games.
“30 million won was actually cheap.”
It was a place identical to reality, yet different from it.
The only thing you could take from real life was sensation.
NewGen spread by word of mouth and user numbers began climbing rapidly.
Rankers from semi-virtual reality games scattered across the landscape also began NewGen.
“Do you think Jin will try NewGen too?”
“If Jin showed up now, it’d be perfect.”
A Named Ranker from Eternal Sunshine.
Many sought out the Blacksmith, Jin, who had held the undisputed rank 1.
The reason was simple.
Crafting was incredibly difficult in the freedom-rich NewGen.
“I had no idea Crafting would be this hard.”
NewGen’s emphasis on realism made Crafting quite challenging.
“This seems like we have to rely entirely on skills to make things.”
“But even learning the skills is difficult.”
Those without Manual Dexterity found it nearly impossible to even start Crafting.
As a result, they had to use skills to craft, but doing so only produced mediocre equipment.
“Because my Manual Dexterity is low, I couldn’t even get a Crafting-related Job.”
“The requirements are too high. Is there even anyone with a Crafting Job right now?”
Users flooded the forums with complaints.
“Director, did you set the difficulty too high?”
“The freedom level was set by the superintelligence AI. We don’t have any say in the balance anymore.”
Lee Hwa-shin, CEO of Suomi, which had launched NewGen, replied.
Suomi conducted advertising worth hundreds of billions of won with its enormous financial power.
Many suspected the young CEO Lee Hwa-shin, but when his wealth’s source was revealed to be Bitcoin, suspicions faded.
“We’re running the open beta worldwide, so the noise will die down soon.”
True to Lee Hwa-shin’s word, users began steadily emerging who showed exceptional talent in Crafting.
They were called Artisans.
-Wow. You really made this yourself?
-We all have five fingers the same.
-Did they patch it? They didn’t?
-Synchronization Rate? I heard that’s the reason?
-Synchronization Rate? Isn’t that normally in the 20 percent range?
-Artisans are different. I heard some get over 30 percent.
The difficulty remained unchanged.
Only those born with talent began walking the path of Crafting.
The Synchronization Rate figures also played a role.
Synchronization Rate was the element that bridged reality and sensation.
Unlike semi-virtual reality games, this full virtual reality game required users’ sensations to be synchronized to implement reality as it truly was.
But this synchronization was no easy task. Even for a full virtual reality game, there were limits, and those limits were expressed as Synchronization Rate.
In other words, it meant you couldn’t bring 100 percent of your real-world sensation into the game.
The average user’s Synchronization Rate was around 10 to 20 percent.
Even 20 percent was being generous, and 10 percent was closer to the average, yet that alone was enough to fully experience full virtual reality.
But there were those whose Synchronization Rate was unusually high.
-I heard the Artisans who became famous for Crafting have a Synchronization Rate of 40 percent.
-40 percent!?
-The one who did archery reached a Synchronization Rate of 40 percent after starting the game and has since obtained a Legendary Profession.
-The one who did soccer has 28 percent, I believe.
The range of sensation you could bring depended on your Synchronization Rate, and the skill you could display in-game varied enormously.
The highest confirmed Synchronization Rate of 49 percent belonged to quite a famous Combat Ranker.
He had been regarded as a legend in other games and was now displaying that skill in NewGen.
“If you have talent, you can do anything you want. The Synchronization Rate proves it.”
There were countless difficult things in NewGen.
But difficult didn’t mean impossible.
Thus, numerous users began enjoying NewGen through the open beta.
The greatest influx came from users of the existing semi-virtual reality games.
Eternal Sunshine.
Before it shut down, the Named players from Eternal Sunshine had migrated en masse to begin NewGen.
They began to clearly demonstrate why they were Named.
-Wow. When those Named crafters came over, the quality of crafted items is totally different.
-The crafter Craftedwell came over too?
-All familiar names.
-There were a lot of Named players from other games besides Eternal Sunshine?
-They all have Synchronization Rates above 30 percent, they say.
-That’s crazy;;.
As users from other games still running began gradually migrating to NewGen, the open beta closed successfully.
And on the official launch day.
Over 10 million users logged in on launch day.
-Wow the optimization is crazy. It’s so smooth.
-There were some stuttering sections during open beta, but now it’s a god-tier game.
-Real-time concurrent users are over 10 million, they say.
The early phase was crucial for any game.
-Going for the rankings.
Hardcore players started running from the beginning, and in the process, users from Eternal Sunshine and those from Bridge stood out.
-Yeah, those from god-tier games are on a different level.
-The Named from Eternal Sunshine are definitely much faster than those from Bridge.
But the Named from Eternal Sunshine, who had been narrowly ahead, gradually began losing steam.
-Bridge players have overtaken the rank 1 spot.
-Bridge had plenty of monsters too. The rank 1 Blacksmith and even the top 1 overall were absolute beasts.
-Now that Slayer has come over, there’s nothing more to say.
-Didn’t the Eternal Sunshine Rankers all come over?
-The undefeated rank 1 didn’t, apparently.
Somehow the early-game competition had become one between users from the semi-virtual reality games, and the Rankers from each game shone in the process.
They adapted quickly to this full virtual reality game and began showing talent.
-Jin still hasn’t come over. What’s he up to?
-Wasn’t Jin basically living in Eternal Sunshine back in the day?
-I think he was Crafting nonstop.
The Eternal Sunshine users waited for Jin, the Blacksmith ranked 1 and overall ranked 1.
One month into official launch.
Jin had not started the game.
Rather, he couldn’t start it.
* * *
“Why aren’t you gaming, buddy?”
“Now’s not the time for games.”
The player Jin, called a legend of Eternal Sunshine.
Jin-woo could no longer play games.
The reason was simple.
He needed money.
Jin-woo’s household was poor. It had always been poor, but it became even more so after his parents fell ill.
Hospital bills, medicine costs.
Debts just kept piling up.
As the household provider, Jin-woo worked tirelessly every single day.
Eternal Sunshine had been like a breath of fresh air for him.
When he came home from work, he became Jin. But after his parents passed and the service ended, he had to return to reality.
There was no longer even time to enjoy a hobby.
Because he needed a lot of money to keep the household going.
Jin-woo worked for a full year without rest.
Three Jobs. By cutting back on sleep, he managed to pay off all those debts.
“Is it because of me?”
“Who else? Because of you. Why didn’t you study better? Thanks to my brilliant dongsaeng, I get to be a proper hyung. Don’t worry—I can play games anytime later.”
His younger brother was brilliant at studying. If Jin-woo was born with Manual Dexterity, his brother was born with brains.
That’s why his resolve to live in the real world became firm.
“I’m sorry, hyung.”
“Just joking around, man. I’m just tired of gaming. I can’t keep gaming forever anyway.”
It was a lie.
His brother, Yu Dong-woo, could tell immediately. Dong-woo knew how much fun his brother had while gaming.
Gaming was Jin-woo’s lifeline.
“You were crazy during Eternal Sunshine, hyung. You were so disappointed when the game shut down.”
Dong-woo, his younger brother, knew just how amazing his brother had been back then.
So Jin had gotten tired of gaming?
His brother could make something even with one arm missing.
Right now, he was still going to the Blacksmith Workshop every weekend to make things.
“It’s such a waste, hyung. You can’t let talent like that rot. Ugh, if Eternal Sunshine had just allowed real money trades, you really would’ve raked it in.”
Eternal Sunshine had strictly prohibited real money trading.
In-game currency could only be purchased with in-game gold.
Of course, there were users who ignored the rules and attempted real money trades, but they were all permanently banned and heavily penalized.
Because of that, Jin-woo was an overwhelming Ranker in Eternal Sunshine but never made real money.
“It’s fine. I’m already doing it in reality. I’m working part-time at Kim’s Blacksmith Shop. Plus, man, the Capsule is 30 million won. That’s enough to cover your tuition four times over.”
Currently, Jin-woo worked the 2-to-10 shift at a Factory on weekdays.
On weekends, he worked at the Blacksmith Workshop making farm tools. He was working part-time at Kim’s Blacksmith Shop.
“Hyung, you’re really not sorry about it?”
Of course he was sorry.
His body itched for it. There were clear limits to what you could make in reality. But not in the game.
You could make anything.
You could accomplish anything.
……
Jin-woo couldn’t answer.
* * *
Jin-woo couldn’t sleep.
Dong-woo’s words kept replaying in his mind.
“Not sorry? Of course I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
A full virtual reality game.
If NewGen was truly equal to reality as they claimed, he could do everything he couldn’t do in Eternal Sunshine.
Better equipment.
More interesting equipment too.
“Back then I was basically just winging it.”
Because semi-virtual reality had sensation limits, Jin-woo had compromised considerably when crafting equipment.
Still, he’d reached rank 1 despite those constraints.
But what if those constraints disappeared?
“It’d be amazing. Really.”
Just that thought was incredibly appealing.
Jin-woo pondered for a moment.
And then he made his decision.
“Let’s do it.”
A year. That was enough endurance.
For all that deliberation, action came swiftly.
* * *
The next day.
Knock, knock, knock—
“Hello! Installation service!”
When he opened the door, the Capsule technician came in carrying quite a large Capsule.
“Please install it in the Living Room.”
Seeing the Capsule, mixed emotions washed over him.
“Hyung, I’m home. Huh? What’s this! Hyung!”
“I bought it. In the end.”
Dong-woo stared at his brother in surprise.
“Hyung, where’d you get the money…?”
“Got it on installment.”
“I figured. Actually, I was about to say something first.”
Dong-woo showed him a bank statement.
“I saved it all from tutoring, hyung. The money you gave me, I only spent what I needed. Let me pay half the installment with this. Because I got into Seoul National University because of you, hyung. I have to repay that debt.”
Fifteen million won. Half the device price.
“I earned it working on two hours of sleep! Phew! Now I feel like I’ve finally earned my keep!”
Only then did Dong-woo’s face show relief.
“Thanks.”
“No thanks needed, hyung. Go on in. You’re really gonna be shocked?”
Whoooosh—!
The Capsule began to power on.
Jin-woo immediately stepped into the Capsule.
“It’s been a while.”
This sensation. It really had been forever.
“I’m back.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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