Chapter 6
“What the…?”
MakerOfWells.
He had been quite a famous user in Eternal Sunshine.
Among blacksmith-class players, many were known for their speed, but the most well-known for that speed was MakerOfWells.
Just like his name, he had devoted himself entirely to crafting. In Eternal Sunshine, countless players had used his equipment.
However, he was never able to reach the top in Eternal Sunshine.
There was a legendary blacksmith who stood above everyone else.
No matter how many times he challenged him, he was always crushed. He couldn’t make equipment better than that legendary blacksmith’s.
Especially the top-ranking players in Eternal Sunshine—every single one of them used gear crafted by that legend, Jin.
Some did use MakerOfWells’ equipment, but that was only because they didn’t have Jin’s gear. If they could, everyone would choose Jin’s.
That situation continued right up until Eternal Sunshine shut down.
The legend remained a legend, but MakerOfWells never gave up.
He brought his skills honed in Eternal Sunshine straight into New Gen and immediately stood out in the tutorial quests. Before long, he had proudly entered the blacksmith rankings.
“What the hell? I got pushed down in rank?”
One of the tutorial quests—[Help the Vigilante Leader]—was a hot topic among users for many reasons.
It was both a gateway to unlocking class quests and one of the first quests new players encountered in New Gen.
With players unfamiliar with the game, very few managed to complete the quest perfectly.
But MakerOfWells used his experience to complete it almost perfectly.
His resulting Hall of Fame rank: 3rd place.
“Who the hell beat me?”
The stunned MakerOfWells checked the Hall of Fame rankings.
It displayed both rankings and scores.
“You have no idea how hard I worked to get past 100 points.”
The freedom of quests meant there were endless ways to approach them.
Everyone could clear them in their own way, from their own perspective. There was no single correct answer. But even with that freedom, there were scores involved.
No one knew exactly how the scores were calculated, but there was clearly a solid system.
Take the “Help the Vigilante Leader” quest—it literally only said to help the leader. It didn’t say how.
“In the early days, there weren’t even guides.”
So individual judgment was crucial.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
MakerOfWells stared, dumbfounded, at the new score.
Getting bumped down the rankings wasn’t unusual.
One constant in New Gen was the overwhelming number of talented players.
But this? This was absurd.
“150 points? 150?!”
It was a staggering difference.
His own third-place score was 108.
And that 108? He had poured his soul into it.
He had made and deleted his character multiple times, just to perfect the start.
He’d done that sort of thing all the time back in Eternal Sunshine, so it was second nature by now.
He had fought for that 108.
But now, 150?
“How the hell do you get 150 points on that quest?”
The previous top score had been 130 by a player named InClassic.
InClassic had been a top ranker in a semi-virtual game called Bridge.
“Who the hell is it this time?”
Even InClassic’s 130 had been a shock.
But 150? That blew everything out of the water.
Who on earth could it be?
New Gen had absorbed virtually all of Korea’s best gamers.
Anyone with talent would’ve jumped in by now.
“No way…”
Then a single name popped into MakerOfWells’ head.
“It can’t be. Rumor had it he retired to live in the real world.”
The overwhelming rank #1 of Eternal Sunshine, the legendary blacksmith—
Jin.
“It can’t be him.”
There was no way that guy came back.
“If it is him…”
MakerOfWells shook his head.
“Even if it is, it doesn’t matter. He’s got a year’s head start to catch up on.”
Even if it was that Jin, he wouldn’t be able to do much.
New Gen was a completely different game from Eternal Sunshine.
Sharknet.
A major online community site for New Generation players.
It was massive.
Anyone playing New Gen used Sharknet. Alongside the video site MeTube, it formed one of the two major platforms in the community.
Then, a strange post appeared.
Hey, did you guys see the new Hall of Fame tutorial quest record?
A new record? Who set it?
No way, there’s nothing left to break.
Must be trolling. There are barely any records in the tutorial Hall. All the high scores are already maxed out.
Slayer got 192 points killing a wyvern—at level 1. That guy’s nuts.
Didn’t someone even make a reenactment video of that?
Most people didn’t believe it.
There’s only so many points you can get in the tutorial.
And since enough time had passed, there were plenty of high-score guides available.
Even then, getting over 100 was hard. Repeating the same method wouldn’t guarantee the same score.
I heard this new record came from the blacksmith tutorial.
The crafting class one?
The “Help the Vigilante Leader” quest?
Isn’t crafting insanely hard?
Who even tries that now? No one, right?
What’s the new record?
They’re saying 150 points.
150?!
What????
150 POINTS?!
It was unbelievable.
Wasn’t the previous top score like 130?
That’s a 20-point gap!
You can’t close that kind of gap with anything normal!
How the hell do you even get 150?!
Everyone knew how hard the crafting path was.
Thanks to the steep difficulty that matched the game’s freedom, many tried crafting early on—and tasted how brutal it was.
It was high-difficulty content.
A field too advanced for beginners.
And now—someone scored 150? In the tutorial?
It was beyond comprehension.
Who is this?
Whose alt account is it?
There’s no way…
The entire community began buzzing, trying to uncover the identity of the mysterious record-breaking user.
VROOOOM—!
With a sensation of his body floating, Jinwoo arrived in a massive city.
Starting city selected based on tutorial performance.
Welcome to the small city of [Ryuten]!
From now on, your story will be written by you.
Shape the new era!
“So it really begins now.”
Jinwoo looked down at the crafting hammer in his hand.
“Let’s have a look around first.”
What he wanted to do most was—crafting.
“Just doing repairs got my hands itching again.”
Boing, boing.
Swish—! Swish—!
“Yup.”
As he wandered the town, he saw people hopping in place and throwing punches.
“Still getting new users, huh? This game really is a masterpiece.”
Player count had surpassed 50 million, apparently.
Even with global launch and real-time translation support, very few games retained that many users.
So constant influx meant just one thing: this was a god-tier game.
“And the capsule costs 30 million won, too.”
Jinwoo looked at the crowd in the distance.
“That must be the field area.”
Players were rushing out to the fields.
That’s where the monsters were.
“In the beginning, grinding levels is fastest through combat—but it’s boring.”
But Jinwoo didn’t head that way.
Combat was never what he wanted.
“Hmm.”
He took a deep breath.
“This way, I think.”
A faint smell of fire.
And yes, there was a sign pointing the way—so it wasn’t exactly magic.
“Got my crafting hammer now.”
Jinwoo was eager to craft. Ever since repairing the vigilante leader’s sword, the itch had only grown.
“Let’s see just how hard crafting really is.”
“Get lost already!”
“C’mon, man. Isn’t this enough? What am I doing wrong? I hit with the hammer just like you!”
“You outsiders are all the same. Do you know how many like you came here already? What do you think you can do with that clumsy hammer swing?”
A massive, muscular NPC was glaring furiously at a player.
“Sure, you can make swords or whatever. My five-year-old nephew could make a dagger with a skill. But that’s meaningless. It’s not real equipment if it has no soul. And you want me to teach you a skill? Don’t make me laugh.”
“Look, my level is 5! Five! How the hell am I supposed to make something with ‘soul’?”
“Soul doesn’t mean fancy gear. If you don’t get that, I’m never teaching you a skill.”
In front of the noisy forge, a heated argument broke out between NPC and player.
NPC-user arguments were common.
Especially in starting cities. Players following guides often ran into resistance from NPCs who adapted their responses to those exact patterns.
In other words, the “correct answer” changed constantly.
“I swear, this route wasn’t blocked just a while ago. How are we supposed to craft without skills?!”
Crafting in New Gen was already brutal.
“I picked crafting because I wanted to go down an unpopular path, but…”
No matter how hard he tried, some things just weren’t possible at low levels.
“Ugh.”
Chased away by the NPC, the player—Haram—shook his head.
“Damn it.”
He wanted to learn a skill and get his class advancement. But it wasn’t easy from the start.
“Why is it so damn hard to get a skill?”
Skills were crucial in crafting.
They determined the quality of your gear.
Of course, you could make gear without skills, relying purely on dexterity—but then all bonuses were gone. You had to rely entirely on raw talent.
“That’s just not possible.”
The difficulty had already been proven.
“If this were real life, maybe I’d stand a chance…”
To be continued…
