Chapter 26

Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 26: Universal Skill

“Then once it is completed, can I use it too?”

“Of course. We are going to make it a paid membership, but I can’t take money from the two of you. Free members for life!”

Great! You are one of my peeps for life too. You are a lucky charm dude!

But that is for later.

Right now, I need to prepare for that future.

First,I need to move the money from Virtual Accounting to my bank account.

The experts are getting ready right now. D-Day will be when I make 20,000,000,000 won to start money laundering.

But I will probably lose around 7,000,000,000 won for fees and taxes.

I’m not too upset about taxes. It’ll be unfair if I had to pay something others don’t have to, but if it is something everyone needs to pay, it is not unfair.

But I am sad about the commission I will need to pay the experts. All they will be doing is making it look like normal income, but they are taking a fee of close to 100,000,000 won.

But I couldn’t do anything about it.

I want to properly inform the government of my gain and pay the taxes, but the problem was that I could not tell them the origin of my money. Who would believe that I was earning my money in a world called Royal Roader?

I hate to do it, but taking care of it to not have any future issues is the best way.

I also need to memorize a good amount of English. In our country, if you can speak a little bit of English, even if your head was full of shit, they will see you as a wise person.

Of course I plan to fill my head with other things than shit. I can’t have people point at me and called me an idiot when I become an omnipotent existence.

In order to do that, I need to learn how to study well first. If I could make it into a skill, things will be much easier.

Seeing that our conversation was slowing down, I made it sound casual as I asked Jong Suk.

“If you have a way to study well, please teach me!”

“Why? To go to college?”

“No. I just want to live without being called an idiot. Isn’t there a method for even someone like me to study well?”

“There really isn’t a special method to studying well. It really comes down to your focus. The amount of time you study is important and so are skills like associative memory, but if you can’t focus, everything else is useless.”

It was a textbook answer. It was a method the whole world knew about but one not anybody could easy do!

“Do you think I don’t focus because I don’t want to? The problem is that I can’t focus even when I want to!”

“Is there anybody who is good at it when they first start? Focus is a habit as well. If you keep trying, your body adapts to it! You need to be persistent until that time. Plus, don’t you focus well when you are playing games? Studying is no different!”

Oh! It’s easy to understand when he uses games as an example.

As Jong Suk mentioned, when I’m playing games, my focus is extremely good. I can easily get lost in games.

‘I just need to study like I play games.’

In the end, a problem of mind control.

I’m sure it won’t be easy, but if I’m lucky, I should be able to focus on studying as if I was playing a game, for about five minutes.

That was enough for me. The skill will take it from there.

I think I see a method.

Once I said goodbye to my friends, I headed back to my one bedroom.

My head was full of thoughts about  ‘methods to studying well.’

‘Focus is the core! Study like you are playing a game. Will it work?’

I opened my smartphone and took out the jewel with the highest creation index.

[Jewel of Creation: Creation Index 91

Will you make a skill?]

[YES / NO]

‘Yes! Skill name is Focus. Then shall I start?’

I opened the ‘English Vocabulary 3000’ and started to memorize it. I stopped by a bookstore to buy it on my way back.

As I expected, focusing was hard. I’ve been far away from studying since I was in middle school. I played games all night and slept during class.

Maybe that was the reason, but I kept feeling sleepy and started to think about other things.

But after trying for an hour, a skill was created. There were moments I had some levels of focus after all. Although it was only short moments! But the skill should have caught the feeling I had in each of those moments and recorded it.

[Focus: Beginner 0%]

‘The level is at 0%! Will it get better if I use it a bit?’

I tried using the skill to go through the English Vocabulary.

‘Oh! There is some effect!’

The feeling felt different than when I was studying without the skill. The small moments of focus I felt earlier were coming alive through the skill.

This was the good thing about skills. Before making the skill, it was hard to even focus for 1 minute, but using the skill, I could remember that feeling for 1 hour or 2 hour or even more if I wanted to do so.

But I wasn’t satisfied with it. It was quite lacking to be called a ‘focus skill’.

What will I need to do to create a proper focus skill? If I could manage to focus properly for about 5 minutes, I should be able to make a proper skill. Is there no way?

I pondered that question for quite a while.

Then suddenly, I remembered something. It was what Jong Suk said to me.

[Don’t you focus well when you play games? Studying is the same!]

‘Ah! Game!’

As Jong Suk mentioned, when I am playing games, I have extreme levels of focus. It was to the point that I wouldn’t understand what people were saying even if they were right next to me.

In High School, I had times I told myself ‘I’ll play just one hour and then sleep’ but by the time I regained my consciousness, it was already morning.

Isn’t that the same focus? It’s just that the point of focus is slightly different.

I suddenly felt like a path opened up widely for me.

“Let’s try playing a game!”

A PC game should be better than a mobile game. It’s easier to get absorbed.

I turned on my computer.

I haven’t played another game since Royal Roader.

However, I do know the basic information about many games.

‘Battlefield should be good.’

It is the most popular game right now. In addition, the controls are pretty similar to Royal Roader, so it should be easy to learn and easy to like.

‘Oh! It’s better than I thought!’

It really was fun, but I continued to brainwash myself by telling myself ‘it is fun. It is fun.’ I needed to fall in love with the game to really become absorbed.

Did I spend about two hours like that?

As I got used to the game, I could finally feel Battlefield’s true charm. I could feel for myself why people raved so much about it.

For a bit, I really did get absorbed in the game. I checked the time thinking I had been playing for about 10 minutes, but an hour had already gone by.

It was also dark outside.

‘Wow! It’s really fun! Then should I start making the skill now?’

But do I need to erase the existing skill? Or is it possible to overwrite?

I just need to test it out to see.

I picked another jewel with a high creation index and dragged it out.

[Jewel of Creation: Creation index 86

Will you make a skill?]

[YES / NO]

I pressed ‘YES’ and typed ‘Focus’ as the name again.

A completely new window popped up.

[Will you upgrade the focus skill?]

[YES / NO]

‘Oh! Even upgrades are possible?’

You really do need to try everything to find out what is possible.

I clicked “YES’. I set my alarm for 1 hour later. I only needed 1 hour to create the skill.

I started to enjoy Battlefield again.

[Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!]

I came back to reality with my phone’s alarm.

I had to think for a bit before remembering my current situation. I had been playing and forgot about why I was playing the game.

‘Ah! I was making a skill! But it has already been an hour?’

I felt like only 5 minutes had gone by. That just shows how absorbed I was to the game.

I had to be. The game was really fun, and most importantly, I was focused on being absorbed in the game.

Let’s see if the skill was created properly. I hope it is past beginner 50%.

[Focus: Intermediate Level 4, 37%]

Gasp! I was completely shocked! How is this possible?

It became Intermediate level 4 at once.

I tried making a lot of skills in the real world, but this was the first time something like this has happened. It always started at the beginner level, and after practicing, no matter how fast it went up, it took at least 10 years to reach Intermediate level 1.

What would have caused this to happen?

I could think of two reasons.

First, it was because I was completely absorbed in the game. If it wasn’t for my alarm, I would have probably continued playing without realizing that the night was over.

The skill might have recognized it as being focused and immediately raised it to Intermediate Level 4.

Second, it wasn’t because I created a skill but ‘upgraded’ it.

I can test this by trying it out again.

I set my alarm for 1 hour later and used another Jewel of Creation

[Will you upgrade the focus skill?]

[YES / NO]

‘Yes!’

1 hour went by quickly. I was able to get out of the game thanks to my alarm once more.

I checked my skill information again.

[Focus: Intermediate Level 4, 73%]

It did go up a bit.

However, compared to the first upgrade, it was extremely low.

Then it should not be because of the upgrade. It should mean that my focus while I was playing the game was that great.

Either way, I succeeded in creating a proper focus skill.

Now just one more obstacle to overcome.

‘Can I use this focus skill for studying?’

I believed it would. If there was a restriction, just like the combo skill, there should be something like the ‘Under 40%’ behind the skill.

I will know if I try it.

I turned my computer off and opened the ‘English Vocabulary 3000’ again. I used the focus skill and started to read it.

Once I started, something amazing happened. Everything else disappeared from my sight. The only thing I could see were the words in the English Dictionary. In fact, the words even looked bigger.

It was almost as if the words in the English Dictionary were being absorbed into my eyes.

Other thoughts? Didn’t have any. My mind was extremely clear, as if there were no other thoughts in the world. It was like only the English dictionary and english vocabulary words existed in the world.

That wasn’t it.

‘Wow! Why is this so fun?’

Was studying always this fun? I felt like I was being absorbed into the English vocabulary words. It only took a moment to turn the page. Then another one. And another one and another one ……

‘I can’t stop myself!’

Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle