Chapter 8

Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 8: Let’s Just Brush It Off and Start Over (3)

‘Huh, what is this?’

I can tell that it was my stat information. What I was seeing was the same as what I saw in Royal Roader.

But why were the numbers like this? It was much different than the one in Royal Roader. In Royal Roader, my numbers were mainly 2 or 3, and the highest one was still less than 20. The stats right now were higher than 100 on average.

Maybe…….? There’s no way……! For real?

‘Holy crap! This isn’t Royal Roader but my stats in real life!’

I could start to understand it as I sat there thinking.

The way to increase your stats in Royal Roader was through leveling up. But in reality, there was no leveling up. Your body just changed as you got older, or through working out.

No wonder there is such a difference.

My eyes became extremely wide. I carefully looked at each and every stat.

The majority of them were around 100. That should mean that for each category, 100 should be the norm for an average person.

‘I guess my stats tend to be on the higher end.’

I was confident in my strength since I was young. Plus, after training my body through manual labor like working in a carwash, no wonder my stats were higher than average.

But what is the ‘+1’ next to strength?

‘Maybe?’

The majority of my stats in Royal Roader was less than 10. Among them, the only ones to pass 10 were strength, stamina, and health each at 17, 10, and 49. It was just these stats that had a ‘+’ behind them.

In fact, the number behind it was exactly 10% of the stat in Royal Roader.

Which would mean that 10% of the stat in Royal Roader gets added to my stats in real life?

Holy crap. I think that’s the case.

So, if I was to raise my strength to 1,000 in Royal Roader, my strength in real life would be twice that of a normal person. I think I heard my heart drop. If this was true, doesn’t it mean that I could earn a ton of money and become stronger than anybody else as well?

Of course this is all just speculation right now.

In order to know the truth, I will need to wait until time goes by and I gather a lot of data.

There’s no reason to act like a fool without knowing if it is true. I need to put aside premature thoughts and focus on what I can do right now.

I tried clicking other buttons as well. But nothing else came up. The only working buttons were ‘Virtual Accounting’ and ‘My information.’

I had no other way to gather information.

‘Then there is nothing else I can do right now.’

I erased the trivial things from my mind.

Isn’t this the moment my life will change? Not only mine, but all of my family’s life was about to change. I needed to think things through and act smart.

‘What should I do right now?’

Of course there was just one thing. I needed to forget about everything else and focus only on Royal Roader.

Lacking information?

Of course, tackling the source was the best method. More than any other method, using your body to gain information should the fastest and most accurate way.

Then there is just one conclusion.

“Let’s sleep. I will just continue to sleep.”

That was the way for me to quickly earn a lot of accurate information, and also the way to get stronger faster. That’s what I needed to do to earn a lot of money anyways.

I tried to fall asleep again.

I tend to like to sleep a lot. Although I slept close to eleven hours already, once I laid down and tried to sleep, I fell asleep again.

But even I could not just continue to sleep forever.

I managed to sleep another six hours, but any more was too much. No matter how many times I put the blanket over my head, I could not fall asleep even after counting 1,000 sheeps.

It felt like my closed eyes were saying ‘horse poop, horse poop’ to me. (TL: Must be a Korean saying; not too sure…)

This isn’t going to be an effective method. I would spend more time trying to sleep than actually sleeping. Also, since I continued to sleep without eating, I was hungry. I couldn’t sleep because I was hungry.

‘Let’s eat something first.’

I came outside of the goshiwon.

I went big and ordered the ‘Special’ Soondaegookbap. It was even the one with the assorted soondae. (TL: For those of you interested, or maybe hungry, here’s a link to the assorted soondaegookbap: https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5697/22276089798_2e066c8826.jpg)

I spent a whole 20,000 won on one meal. But I wasn’t feeling like it was too much at all.

Yes! Since I worked hard until now, I can live a little. I don’t need to fret over a couple thousand won anymore.

Thanks to that, I felt my stomach being very full.

It felt like I was eating without worries for the first time in a long time.

‘Ah, this is great.’

I placed the empty plate and pot in front of me and felt a sense of happiness.

Alright, let’s do some constructive thinking again.

The most important thing was sleeping a lot. However, something just as important was sleeping healthily. This isn’t something that is going to end in one or two days. I needed to think about the long term. This is something that could continue for a couple months, or even a couple years. Maybe even forever.

The method to healthily sleep a long time?

The answer came easily.

‘Tiring out your body.’

Of course manual labor was out of the equation. There was no reason to push myself to get a salary of 200,000ish won when I could earn a ton of money in Royal Roader.

Plus, if I got hurt in the process, it would be more harmful than good.

The best method would definitely be sports. If I spend a bit of money, I could tire myself out while being healthy and having fun.

After living as a cheapskate for all my life, I felt odd thinking about words like ‘money’ or ‘spending’, but if I could earn more money through it, I needed to confidently make the decision.

Alright, let’s brush away my terrible past. I can enjoy my life now too. Full of fun.

‘Let’s start right away.’

I immediately headed over to the sports center and signed up. I can use the pool and the health club. Including the training fee, it was 100,000 won a month.

I charged the fee to my debit card.

I guess I was still holding on to some of my identity as a cheapskate. I felt so sad, almost to the point of tear, spending 100,000 won at once.

Ah! My money that is like my blood!

Well, wasn’t I the person who didn’t want to waste a couple thousand won that I needed to really think about spending the money to buy the shrimp chips that I like so much?

But thanks to that, I could see my passion starting to burn.

‘I will make sure to get my money’s worth.’

I started to work out. The word ‘adequately’ is not in my dictionary. Whenever I start something, I put a single phrase in front of it.

‘So hard that I might die!’

It must be because of the environment I grew up in. I couldn’t persevere unless I tried anything with all my might that I might die.

There’s no reason to fix a habit like this. At least until I can perfectly take my place in Royal Roader, aggressively pushing forward is the right thing to do.

I really worked out so hard like I would die while swimming and in the health club. Although my body was trained through manual labor like washing cars, my whole body was full of aching muscles. However, as I clenched my teeth and continued on, my body soon adapted. On the third day, it felt like the aches were as bad as they could get, but starting from the fourth day, it quickly started to get better. After six days, I wasn’t feeling any issues at all.

Thanks to that, sleep came easily as well. I could easily sleep an average of 12 hours a day.

If I overdid it, I could probably sleep up to 14 hours, but I didn’t do that. This was going to continue for a long time.

Thanks to that, my condition was always in tip top shape.

As I continued going back and forth between Royal Roader and reality just like that, I was able to figure out a few rules.

First was the rule related to time.

If I sleep for 1 hour in the real world, one day passes in Royal Roader. In other words, if I sleep 12 hours a day, I am spending 12 days in Royal Roader.

It was pretty accurate.

On the other hand, when I was spending time in the real world, the time in Royal Roader stopped. So, even if I spent 24 hours in the real world and returned to Royal Roader, not even 1 second would have gone by.

I would just feel dizzy, and then, in the moment it takes to blink my eye, I would have traveled to and from the real world.

Second was the rule related to stats.

As I expected, 10% of the stat in Royal Roader is transferred to reality. If my strength was 50 in Royal Roader, 10% of that, or 5 points would be added to my real world stats.

That’s what the ‘+1’ in brackets meant.

However, my stats in the real world had no effect on my Royal Roader stats.

Third was the rule relating to money.

I could bring the money from Royal Roader into the real world.

However, I could not take money from the real world into Royal Roader.

So, Virtual Accounting on the Royal Roader homepage only allowed withdrawals and no deposits.

To sum it up, many of the things in Royal Roader affect the real world, but the things in the real world do not affect Royal Roader at all.

Why were these rules created? No, why were these things happening to me?

I was full of questions.

However, I did not find a dire need to find out. It’s not like I had a way to find out if I wanted to.

How could someone be so carefree you ask?

I think I can explain it like this.

The majority of people do not know why space was created. They don’t know why things like gravity, nuclear power, or electromagnetic forces were created.

Nor do they try to really find out. They just know that they need to abide by those laws as they live.

Of course, there are some scientists who spend their whole live researching these phenomenons, but I am far from those type of people.

So, similar to the average person, I am just abiding by the rules of Royal Roader as I live.

While giving it my best.

Thanks to sleeping diligently like that, money continued to pile up in Virtual Accounting. In less than one month, I was able to gain close to 10,000,000 won (TL: $8,877.60)

That doesn’t mean I was living like a scrooge. Obviously I paid for my mother’s hospital fees and my sister’s school fees and gave them enough money for their living expenses. I even paid back all the interest on the loan.

The total amount I sent to Daejeon for the month was 7,000,000 won.

In addition to that, I spent around 1,500,000 won on my personal living expenses.

Even with that, I had close to 10,000,000 won left. Yes, I had made close to 20,000,000 won in one month. (TL: The author tends to say one thing, and then change it just a bit later. Now it is no longer close to 10,000,000 won but actually 20,000,000 won).

Thanks to that, I became full of hope every time I looked at the Virtual Accounting page these days.

‘At this rate, I should be able to gather 140,000,000 won quickly.’

Then I could reach my first goal. I want to gift my mother a house.

I already found a decent house in Daejeon. It’s a house located in Daedong, and it is close to both the train station and Lotte Mart.

Most importantly, it has a pretty large front yard, enough to have a small garden. It was the type of house my mom had been dreaming about. (TL: At least he is filial).

The house was a bit shabby, but that can be fixed.

The sale price was listed at 290,000,000 won. If you’re willing to get a loan, you only need to have 140,000,000 won on hand. Then we would have a house to call our own.

Plus, if my estimate is correct, soon, I will be meeting my first turning point in Royal Roader.

When that happens, I can earn five to six times what I am earning right now.

My dexterity and stats were growing normally as expected as well.

I was suddenly full of motivation. I was a bit disheartened thinking about the harsh conditions in the mine tunnel, but thinking about the future full of rosy lights, I wanted to quickly head back to Royal Roader.

‘Then shall I start my manual labor again?’ I need to quickly create the turning point. Let’s go!’

Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle