Chapter 9

Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 9: You are My First Turning Point (1)

After entering Royal Roader, I once again grabbed the pickaxe.

Clang. Clang.

[12]

[13]

Clang. Clang. Clang.

[12]

[12]

[13]

Each time the pickaxe hit the boulder, the green number continued to pop up. There were no red numbers, just 100% green numbers.

Green means that it was a critical hit.

My accuracy had gone up that much.

My damage has also increased. At first, even when I succeeded in a critical hit, the damage was only at ‘4’ but now ‘12’ easily came out.

It was thanks to the fact that my dexterity and strength both went up.

‘I’m hungry’

I had been swinging my pickaxe without rest for five hours. I had run out of stamina a long time ago, so my hands and feet were shaking.

I sat down on a large boulder to rest and fill my stomach.

Today’s lunch menu is a 5,000 won fried rice lunch box.

Since I’m mining to make a living, I couldn’t always just eat that bland rye bread to save 5,000 won.

Plus, in Royal Roader, the food you ate affected your stats in different ways.

[Lamb Fried Rice] (TL: That sounds really yummy…)

Increase your stamina by 2% for 6 hours.

The cheapest food like the rye bread do not give any benefits to your stats.

So if you think about it holistically, since I can swing the pickaxe stronger the higher my stamina, it is more beneficial to eat the fried rice.

Being full makes it easier to use more strength.

“Chew chew chew.”

I scooped up the fried rice with my spoon and ate it as I checked my stats.

[Kang Hwi Ram, Level 1]

Dexterity : Intermediate Level 6, 96%

Strength: 49

Agility: 13

Stamina: 33

Intuition: 16

Magic: 2

Vitality: 2

Mana:8

HP:127

Compared to my initial stats, my points raised by about 90. To raise my stats 90 points through leveling up would require me to level up 18 times.

In other words, without leveling up and only swinging this pickaxe, I gained the same amount of stats as raising 18 levels.

Of course, in Royal Roader time, it took me around 1 year.

But I was still satisfied.

‘As expected, my strength is increasing the fastest.’

Following that was stamina, intuition, and agility.

Magic and Vitality no changes. But my HP went up because of my strength and stamina. Each increase in strength raised 1 HP and each increase in stamina raised 2 HP.

The thing I was happiest about was my dexterity. It was already close to intermediate level 7. The speed goes down as I get higher in level, but there was still joy in watching it.

‘Manual labor is the best because it is a stupid method where you don’t need to use your brain.’

You didn’t need to be adaptable. In order to mine perfectly, all you had to do was focus as best as you can and continuously swing your pickaxe without stopping.

By the way, I wonder when he is changing tunnels?

I peeked at the tunnel supervisor Bae Doochi.

I heard the news some time ago. Mine owner Batoom was finally retiring, and he was starting a competition to find his successor.

Of course, it was the same story as the first time I played.

Which means, Bae Doochi will soon change tunnels.

No, it needed to happen. That was the only way to make Jonnan one of my people, and I needed that to create my life’s turning point.

If things don’t go as expected?

I need to step up and shift it in the right direction. I need to make sure it flows the same way it did when I played the game.

That might actually be the most important thing for me to do.

But why has he still not changed tunnels?

Let’s wait a little longer. Rushing it won’t change anything.

“Burp!”

My stomach was pretty much full. Shall I start again?

I started to swing my pickaxe again.

Even though my stamina was boosted with the fried rice, my body was completely drained after 30 mins. However, I did not rest since this was what you needed to do to quickly increase your stats and dexterity.

But then I heard a pleasurable sound next to me.

It was the voice of tunnel supervisor Bae Doochi.

“I am now switching tunnels.”

‘Oh, finally.’

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

I focused my attention on what Bae Doochi had to say next.

‘Please don’t take Jonnan with you.’

Bae Doochi pointed with his finger and started to select miners.

“Sam, Peter, Harmon, Simpson! You four can come with me.”

I thought that things were good. Jonnan was not included in Bae Doochi’s list.

But I did not cause a scene. If I started acting now, Bae Doochi might feel that something was odd and choose to take Jonnan with him.

I need to wait until Bae Doochi is completely gone and Jonnan and I are the only two people left. That was the only way the perfect opportunity would arise.

I quietly continued to watch.

The selected miners let out a sigh of relief.

But the ones who did not get selected were starting to look pale. That was especially the case for Jonnan. He was so shocked that he grabbed onto Bae Doochi’s sleeve.

“Hey Bae Doochi. How come you are not taking me with you?”

“Old man, don’t you have any conscience? It should be enough that I’ve been taking care of you for the last 10 years. How long do you plan to live off of me?”

“Ho……taking care of me? Live off?”

Jonnan’s expression looked like he was in disbelief.

However, Bae Doochi’s expression did not change one bit. The other miners who were tossed away held onto his pant legs but he coldly pushed them away.

“I am not the messiah who will save the useless. Go look for him elsewhere.”

He then gathered his supplies and was about to leave the tunnel.

‘Perfect. The situation with Jonnan was resolved cleanly.’

Then it was time to earn the next thing.

Until now, I did not sell even a single bar of titanium. I put them in my bag whenever I found one and stored it in my temporary residence.

Why?

I was going to sell the titanium to Bae Doochi. At an expensive cost at that.

To explain it a bit further, it’s something only someone who knows the future could prepare for.

“Supervisor-nim. Do you have any thoughts about purchasing titanium?”

“Hmm? Titanium?”

Bae Doochi stopped trying to leave the tunnel and turned his head.

“Yes. Approximately 80 ryang.” (TL: ryang is a method of counting. Will be explained soon).

“80 ryang?’

Bae Doochi’s eyes started to shine.

He must be tempted. The topic of Batoom’s competition for a successor was titanium.

But they couldn’t just go buy titanium from somewhere else. You could only battle with the titanium that was mined in the Batoom Mines.

Because of that, even if he had to pay above the market price, he would want to gather as much titanium as possible. It was a loss that he could recoup easily if he became the owner of the mine.

There was even 80 ryangs of it. After all, I had not sold any titanium for a whole year of Royal Roader time. 1 ryang was equal to 100 bars, so it was approximately 8,000 bars. It wasn’t enough to seal the win for him, but I was sure it was a large enough amount to help him greatly.

“I was planning on passing it on to Gildeon, but I could never find him. If you are willing to buy it at an expensive price, I will give you all of it.”

As soon as the name Gildeon was mentioned, Bae Doochi’s eyes started to burn with a competitive spirit. There were many candidates, but the only one who could be Bae Doochi’s competition was Gildeon.

It wouldn’t be wrong to call the competition for the successor as a battle between just two people, Bae Doochi and Gildeon. All of the other miners felt the same way.

So then of course he would be greedy for the titanium..

He completely bit onto the bait that I had tossed.

“How much are you thinking?”

Back in the game, I was scammed by Bae Doochi when it came to titanium. The market price was 1 bar for 2,000 won, but I had sold it to him for 4 rye breads, aka a price that didn’t even reach 1,200 won.

But at that point, there was nothing I could do since I entered the mines without preparing anything to eat. I also didn’t know the market price for titanium.

But it was different this time. I was the one holding the blade this time.

“I will take 5,000 won per bar.”

“What? 5,000 won?”

I did push it a bit far up. Even the other miners were looking at me in shock.

However, if you add other considerations, the story changes.

“In return, I will only sell any future titanium to you. Of course the price will continue to be 1 bar for 5,000 won. Think about it. As you battle with the other successor candidates, wouldn’t the market price go up? In the long run, it is a good deal for you.”

Bae Doochi’s pupils were moving quickly. He was calculating the gain in his head.

Then he happily nodded his head and asked for a handshake.

“Fine! I will trade with you. But it is only until the end of the successor competition.”

I also reached my hand out and shook his hand.

“Of course.”

Once that happened, a voice announcing the successful trade appeared in my head.

After that, a red dot appeared on my wrist. The promise was engraved in the dot. When I touched the dot with my hand, the voice that I had just heard repeated itself.

‘This is how promises are handled.’

I made a lot of similar promises in the game. Back then, I could verify the promise with the message that popped up on my screen, but here, it looks like I can verify it with the voice in my head. (TL: I hear voices in my head…they counsel me, they understand, they talk to me… are we about to get an RKO out of nowhere? xD)

We decided to trade my current stash of titanium in the evening.

The exact number of titanium I had mined was 8,083 bars. After I complete the trade, over 40,000,000 won will be given to me.

‘Haha, it’s easy to make money.’

Bae Doochi left the tunnel after that.

The miners who were not selected plopped down on the floor and let out a sigh. Not long after, they all started to leave the tunnel. They were going to look for a new tunnel supervisor.

But there was one person who could not leave until the end.

It was, of course, Jonnan.

He just continued to sigh as if he had lost his whole world.

I just need to reach out to him now.

I started to talk to him.

“Senior, why do you continue to sigh like that? You need to be strong again.”

Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle