God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 37: Episode 8 _ Wanna Bet On It_ (1)

1.

Time flew by. Just when the journey threatened to become tedious, Simin would sense a prime spot for enhancing his leather armor. These spots were invariably located in one of two places: a dungeon or an area swarming with level 40 or 50 monsters.

Enhancement required absolute focus, which meant he had to deal with the monsters that tried to kill any human on sight. Facing hordes of them alone left no room for boredom.

His strategy was simple: absorb a blow, then deliver a fatal stab. The brutish method remained brutally effective. With every piece of gear he brought to +15, his defense rose so dramatically that dodging became inefficient. Why waste time avoiding a blow when he could use that time to land another, deadlier one?

Of course, the monsters were so much higher-leveled that their attacks still visibly chipped away at his health. But between the health regeneration aura on his dagger and a well-timed Legendary Heal, their efforts were ultimately futile.

The result of his labor was a complete +15 leather armor set.

“Nice, very nice,” Simin murmured, feeling an immense sense of security just from wearing it. He felt like he could take on a dragon.

‘It would’ve been even better if it were a set item, though.’

Human greed knows no bounds. Now that he had the full set, the lack of a set bonus felt like a glaring omission. The aura on his leg guards would have been a perfect complement to a set effect. But what could he do? The items were designed as they were.

“Now what am I supposed to do to kill time?”

The closer they got to the Empire, the more prime locations he could feel. Considering the level of his current equipment, this could only mean one thing: the area was dense with high-level hunting grounds. Thanks to this, he had managed to get not only his armor but also his magic pouch and the Blessed Necklace to +14.

The only problem was the Ring of Blessing.

“I’ll probably find a spot for it once we’re in the Empire.”

Finding a prime location for that ring was proving more difficult than getting his dagger to +15. He’d thought it would be easy to get it to +13, since its level requirement was only one, but as always, he was wrong. The Legendary-grade item was living up to its fussy reputation.

Knowing that worrying wouldn’t change anything, he pushed it from his mind and opened the FW forums. “Anything interesting today?”

It was his only source of entertainment in the carriage. The hologram, which functioned much like a smartphone in the real world, was his constant companion. Khan shot him a pathetic look as he stared at the screen all day, but Simin found it far more comforting to read pointless text than to make conversation with the gruff old man.

“Oh, he posted something?”

While scrolling through the top posts, he spotted one from a user named Johnson slowly climbing up from the bottom of the page. He had a gut feeling he already knew what it was about.

A smirk touched his lips as he clicked the title. It was bound to be full of vitriol, but he was curious. Just what had the guy written?

[Beware of the player ‘Simin.’ He is a PKer.]

’A few hours ago, my guildmates and I were completing a quest when we stumbled upon a dungeon. We were clearing it, fighting our way through the monsters, and had the boss down to a sliver of health when this person showed up. It was the same enhancement master who has a few popular posts on FW.’

’He brazenly interrupted our boss raid and told us to get lost so he could do his enhancements. We were there first, so we naturally tried to reason with him. The result? He PKed us. We were all low on health from the raid and the boss fight, so we were helpless. He even showed a chilling cunning, using the boss monster to kill us.’

’We have now spent hundreds of gold on this quest, and because of him, it was a failure and a complete loss. If you see a guy named ‘Simin’ decked out in flashy, glowing equipment, run. He is a malicious PKer. A user like this, who disrupts other players’ hunts for his own profit, needs to be driven out of the game!’

‘What is this bullshit?’ Simin’s brow furrowed as he read the post. He was getting pissed off, but for a reason he hadn’t expected. He was just so dumbfounded. If the guy had just written the truth, Simin would have laughed and moved on. But he dared to lie?

“These bastards...”

Worse, there was no video. It was impossible that they hadn’t been recording during such an infuriating event, which meant they had deliberately chosen not to upload it. All they posted were a few plausible-looking screenshots and proof of their death penalties to lend the story some credibility.

“Hmm.”

Of course, that made their story flimsy. Simin had been annoyed, sure, but without video evidence, few would believe a post like this. Even with a video, unless the victim was famous, most people would just laugh and scroll past. At the end of the day, FW was just a game. Getting beaten up in real life because you were weak was something that deserved sympathy and attention. Getting beaten up in a game was just a sign of your own incompetence.

“Poor bastards.”

He clicked his tongue. They must have been truly desperate to post something like this. He gave them a mental pity point and closed the thread. They probably didn’t want to leak the leveling method they were using. In their anger, they likely hadn’t considered that their story would be dismissed as a fabrication. Or maybe they just wanted to put the smallest dent in his enhancement business.

“I’ll have to kill them again next time I see them.”

Unfortunately for them, Simin was the kind of person who had kicked over fifteen thousand viewers out of his stream because they weren’t profitable. His business model was simple: cater exclusively to the whales. A few negative comments from professional complainers meant nothing. Besides, the rich kids didn’t care about an enhancement master’s personality as long as their enhancements succeeded.

“A new method for clearing high-level dungeons...”

Of course, Simin wasn’t one to take things lying down. He immediately wrote a post of his own, vaguely outlining the method Johnson’s party had been using. He figured his readers could sort out the details of hiring mercenary NPCs and building rapport with nobles on their own. His only goal was to expose the very secret they had tried so desperately to protect.

After hitting ‘post’ with a satisfied smile, he went back to browsing the top articles.

“FW Basic Pro-Tips?”

The title caught his eye. It sounded like one of those convenient life-hack articles, so he clicked on it instinctively. Having played since the beta and spent ten days exploring every corner of the castle, Simin was confident he had found every useful interface the game had to offer. He didn’t expect to learn anything new, but it couldn’t hurt to look.

“Know this one. This one too... Are there really idiots who don’t know this?” As expected, most of the tips were about basic interface functions—though even those were helpful for new players, given how little FW explained.

“Hmm? Wait.” Just as he was about to go back, a particular tip caught his eye. It was titled: ’Effect Aura ON/OFF.’ The name was unfamiliar, but the title suggested it could be incredibly useful for him.

“Are you a low-level player who spent a fortune on good gear, only to live in fear of being PKed on sight? Are you bothered by the glowing auras that appear on items +8 and higher? If so, simply visit a magic tower and purchase an Aura Control Device...”

‘...Something like that existed?’

Simin’s gaze fell to his own body, which was enveloped in brilliant crimson auras so intense they were almost intimidating to approach. Could he hide them?

“Wow. Now that’s a pro-tip.”

Just moments ago, he’d been cursing the post for being full of useless information. Now, he slammed the ‘recommend’ button. He didn’t necessarily need to hide his effects, but who knew when he might need to conceal the fact that his items were all +15? It wouldn’t hurt to be prepared.

“Master, let’s stop by a magic tower when we get to the Empire,” he said.

“Do as you please,” Khan replied indifferently, his eyes closed in a deep slumber. “There’s a magic tower in every castle in the Empire.”

And with that, their carriage crossed into the territory of the Empire.

* * *

“Wow! It’s huge,” Simin exclaimed.

“It’s the Empire,” Khan stated, as if that explained everything.

“But it’s not as big as I expected. It looks about the same size as the capital of the Ain Kingdom.” That was Simin’s brief assessment after a glance around the castle town. It was certainly magnificent, as befitting the Empire, but it didn’t quite live up to his expectations. Having already seen the Ain Kingdom’s capital and even its royal palace, his hopes for the Empire had been inflated, and this place fell short of his imagination.

“Of course it does. This is the Empire’s frontier,” Khan said, shattering Simin’s misconception with a single sentence.

“...Ah.”

The frontier? A castle town as splendid as an entire kingdom’s capital was just the outskirts?

“As expected of the Empire! Amazing.”

Simin’s mood brightened, his tune changing just as rapidly. He wouldn’t have to worry about mediocre rewards or a lack of opportunities here.

They were told it would be a day’s rest in the castle town and then another three days to the capital, so he headed straight for the magic tower to buy an Aura Control Device. He’d initially thought it might be useful someday, but the more he considered it, the more uses he could imagine. He decided he should probably buy two or three, just in case one broke.

“That will be five hundred gold coins,” the mage at the counter said.

“...Excuse me?”

That thought evaporated the moment he heard the price. Simin cleaned out his ear. Had he heard wrong?

“The Aura Control Device you asked for is five hundred gold coins.”

He was stunned into silence. He had heard correctly.

“Do you have any sales or discounts?”

“No.”

“...How about a used one?”

“We don’t have any.”

‘What a bunch of heartless bastards.’ At the same time, he felt a surge of anger toward the person who had posted this as a “pro-tip.” ‘What an absolute asshole. Five hundred gold coins was $50,000! Who in their right mind would pay $50,000 just to hide their item effects?’

He couldn’t complain about the price itself. In Fantastic World, auras were manifestations of the magic imbued in an item. A device that could suppress that external manifestation would naturally involve complex magical processes. And since only mages could create such a thing, of course they would charge an exorbitant price.

“Hah.”

It was his own fault for getting his hopes up without even checking the price.

“I’ll come back later,” he said, turning to leave the magic tower with a dejected slump in his shoulders. There was no doubt the device would be useful, but not so useful that he was willing to invest five hundred gold coins in it. Besides, he didn’t have that much to begin with.

“I wish some sucker with an Aura Control Device would just show up,” he muttered, returning to their inn while entertaining the vague fantasy.

2.

As it turned out, the imperial capital was truly vast.

So vast it left him speechless.

“Whoa!” When a word did manage to escape his lips, it was one of pure awe.

“Tsk, tsk. You’re like a country bumpkin,” Khan scoffed.

“This is insane. How did they even create this?” Simin was too busy scanning to pay any mind to Khan’s ridicule. He was only looking at the massive wall that encircled the city, yet it was enough to captivate him.

“That Betago is a real piece of work.”

He didn’t know if the AI was a ‘he’ or a ‘she,’ but he was impressed all over again. Where did it even learn to create something with such intricate design and detail? As if to flaunt its status as the capital of the Empire and the center of the continent, the massive wall—which would take days to walk around—was constructed from gleaming, polished stone. He didn’t need to touch it to know how sturdy it was. It was undoubtedly reinforced with magic.

Not only that, but it was also coated with magical materials, making it seem impossible for players to conquer the capital, no matter how high their levels got or how many of them banded together.

“Whew.”

It had a different kind of charm than the modern world. If towering skyscrapers and dense cityscapes were the products of science, the structures of Fantastic World were the products of magic. Every time he saw something like this, he felt the price of his capsule was well worth it.

‘Rich people must love this. They’ve already gotten their money’s worth.’

Though Simin was arguably the one getting the most value out of the game, he wasn’t satisfied yet, which led to such uncharitable thoughts.

In any case, the imperial capital had an intimidating majesty that humbled you before you even set foot inside. The interior, of course, was even more spectacular.

“...Whoa!”

“Enough with the gasping,” Khan stated.

If the fantasy worlds that had only ever existed in one’s imagination were made real, this would be it. No, it was even better, filling in all the minute details that imagination alone couldn’t conceive. He finally understood why the game started players in the cities of various kingdoms instead of here. It was like an onion, with layers to be peeled back. Even without hunting, one could feel a sense of vicarious satisfaction and joy just by traveling the continent.

“What kind of game is this?”

This was a revolution—a revolution in the gaming industry.

At the same time, Simin’s shrewd mind began to spin. His bank account was still too empty to be lost in sentimental awe. In a beautiful game like this, what was the best way to make money? His brain, which was always pondering that very question, immediately connected the sight of the capital to a real-world opportunity.

“Master.”

“What is it?”

“How much do you think land costs here?”

* * *