Miracle Skill Vending Machine

“Thank you, it’s strange though… … I generally store all my gold coins in my inventory so there is no way I could have dropped them somewhere… Oh, of course, I was missing one gold coin since yesterday… And I was wondering where did it go, maybe I did bring it out and forgot about it and dropped it somewhere… Anyway, thanks for returning it…” Said the user as he bowed his head gratefully towards Yong-hoo.

Of course, it is impossible to drop the gold coins from the inventory, so the loss of a gold coin could only have defaulted as his own mistake and carelessness. After all, how could he have imagined that there would exist a skill out there that would allow others to steal gold coins directly from the inventory of the others?

As such, he didn’t doubt Yong-hoo at all and he was really grateful to Yong-hoo and admired him for his honesty…

A different world where there are no strict laws, and the laws that exist don’t strictly apply to the users… In such a world, who would be honest enough to return back a gold coin that he found on the street to its original owner?

Although the user did wonder why Yong-hoo returned it back today instead of yesterday, after all, if Yong-hoo could recognize that he dropped the coin, then Yong-hoo must have at least watched him when he dropped the gold coin, and yet he didn’t return it at that time, but waited for today… Which is kind of suspicious… But no matter what reason, the fact that Yong-hoo returned it made the user forget all those doubts.

The user could only imagine how much effort and inner resistance to greed it would have taken for Yong-hoo to return it so simply… After all, 1 gold coin has very high value for normal people, especially for people like Yong-hoo who doesn’t earn much… Therefore, the user had real admiration for Yong-hoo, and he felt that Yong-hoo must be awarded for his honesty.

Thinking so, the user took out a piece of freshly baked bread from the paper bag in his hand, then handed it over to Yong-hoo, and said, “Although this is not much, please accept it…”

The bread was topped with cheese which is quite expensive in this world… and since it was freshly baked, the steam was rising up.

Yong-hoo has never had the opportunity to eat such a high-quality bread… and although he would love to eat it, he was hesitating to accept it as he was kind of feeling guilty at this moment…

To be honest, Yong-hoo has only returned back the gold coin that he stole yesterday from the other party’s inventory, so he felt that accepting such a high-class bread for just this task is not a good thing…
“Ah… it’s okay it was just a gold coin, you don’t have to…”

As Yong-hoo was hesitating, suddenly a system prompt sounded in his mind…

[Reputation: +10]

‘Again…?’

Reputation increased again… but he didn’t have too much time to think, because the user standing before him interrupted him, “You see, I just bought three pieces of bread as I was kind of depressed because I had lost 1 gold coin, but now that I have got it back, I realize that I won’t be able to eat all three of them alone… So, help me finish them while they are fresh… Here have one… You know this is from Miss Anna’s bakery’s latest menu… Have you tried them before? They are really delicious… come one, have one…”

“We… well… if you insist.”

“Here you go… eat’em while they are fresh…”

“Sure.” In the end, Yong-hoo chose to accept the user’s kindness and took the freshly baked cheese topped bread that was offered to him.

“Alright then, I’ll be leaving since I have some other chores, goodbye, and have a nice day…” The user bid farewell to Yong-hoo and walked away while waving his hand with a smile…

Even though Yong-hoo had returned the user’s gold coin, the fact that he earned free reputation points and such a high-class bread for nothing made him feel a bit helpless…

But he decided not to think any further…

The only reason he accepted the bread was because of the other party’s kindness, and because it would not affect the other party all that much…

Although he didn’t deserve this kindness, he choose to accept it…

And as he slowly ate the bread, he decided to do something for the benefit of all the users who hunt near the Falken Village, and that is to kick out the Rock-Armed Party from that good hunting spot.

Of course, he isn’t going to deal with them just because he wants to do something good for them.

Yong-hoo intends to exploit them through his skill to his heart’s content.

Yong-hoo also has the intention to exact his revenge against them.

While working at the general store, Yong-hoo has been bullied quite a lot of times by the members of the Rock-Armed Party… Every time they come to the General store, they would taunt him with words like coward, stupid, and low-life and bully him… Although Yong-hoo didn’t care too much, they still hurt his self-esteem… all these incidents have been piled up over the past year, and now it’s payback time for them.

And among all the users in the Falken Village, they are also the people who generally have the most money in their hands.

For all these reasons, the Rock-Armed Party is the perfect target for Yong-hoo to use his skill.
With these intentions, Yong-hoo continued to return everyone’s money…

After a while, all the 57 gold coins were returned back to their original owners… Of course, while performing this task, Yong-hoo’s reputation also soared.

His reputation increased by ‘200’ points in just half a day, which is quite a lot.

Reputation has a lot of use, especially when it comes to accepting quests.

The higher the reputation, the higher and more confidential quests one can receive from the NPCs of this world.

Also, although they are called NPCs, there have been rumors and stories in circulation that the attitude of the NPCs changes when interacting with the users of higher reputation… Then behave as living people, not just NPCs… which is something to look forward to.

Of course, these are just rumors and stories that Yong-hoo once read in some books that were specifically written to arouse the interest of their readers.

Regardless of whether this rumor is indeed true or not, there is nothing wrong with higher stats, and this is also his aim. Yong-hoo’s thought of spending his entire life in this beginner-level village has also disappeared and now he plans to go on adventures.

Yong-hoo also doesn’t intend to spend his entire life just by earning gold coins using his ‘Only 1 Gold Coin’ skill, after all, now he has the ‘Miracle Skill Vending Machine’ gifted to him by the Goddess of this world. If he uses it well, then he can do some really great things, and become a great person admired by the mankind of this world.

‘*Cough* well, before all that I must do what I have planned… it’s going to be lunchtime soon, so the Rock-Armed Party is likely to return to the village very soon… let’s wait for them to come back.’ Thought Yong-hoo…

He knows that the Rock-Armed Party will make their way towards ‘Elven Song’ the inn with a tavern, so, if he waits for their arrival at that inn, he will be able to see them.

With these intentions, Yong-hoo headed to the ‘Elven Song’.

* * *

Jang Hyung-Seok is the leader of the Rock-Armed Party. He is currently at Level 17, which is quite high considering that this is a beginner-level village.

Hyung-Seok usually had a difficult time in this area before he reached level 15, in fact, he even died several times to reach it, however, since he crossed Level 15, he hasn’t died once.

Currently, there are 14 members in the Rock-Armed Party, and most of these members are quite similar to Hyung-Seok.

Before joining the Rock-Armed Party, they have also experienced death once or twice, but since they joined the Rock-Armed Party and became Hyung-Seok’s subordinates, they have never once come close to death.

The reason is that they hunt in relatively safe zones where the spawn rate of monsters is quite high, but the spawned monsters aren’t too strong. In fact, the monsters that spawn in this area are weaker compared to the same monster that spawns in some other area.

As such, this spot is a hotspot for hunting monsters…

Since they spawn faster but aren’t very strong so killing them is quite easy, and killing a lot of them gives quite a lot of ‘exp’. The members of the Rock-Armed Party have monopolized such a hunting spot and they use it exclusively for themselves, that’s why their level goes up faster compared to the other users. And because they kill a lot of monsters, they also make a lot of money as there are a lot of drop items.

If this hotspot had existed from the beginning, then Jang Hyung-Seok, who was not the first user to arrive in this world would not have been able to occupy this hotspot for himself.

But because it appeared only a few months back, therefore…

In fact, Hyung-Seok wasn’t the first person to find this place, the ones who actually discovered it was others. However, they had only 10 members in their party, and all of them were below level 10, so Hyung-Seok used his numeric advantage of the Rock-Armed Party and forcefully occupied this hotspot.

And since he has made this hotspot the exclusive hunting grounds of the Rock-Armed Party, he does not hesitate to kill anyone who doesn’t accept this decision of his.

In this way, Hyung-Seok quickly became stronger and stronger, and there was no other active party left in the Falken Village who could stand against him and his Rock-Armed Party.

Of course, there are a lot of parties that are far stronger than him and his Rock-Armed Party, but such parties have no interest in a beginner-level village out in the boonies.

In fact, even Hyung-Seok also realizes that he has reached a pretty high level, and won’t be able to raise his level quite a lot if he kept using that hotspot and continued to stay in Falken Village.

Perhaps Level 20? That’s the highest level he will be able to reach while staying in the Falken Village…
However, Jang Hyung-Seok has no intention of leaving Falken Village, even if he won’t get any ‘exp’ that would help him in raising his level, he will continue to get drop items. And selling those drop items to earn money is a pretty good temptation.

As Hyung-Seok was deeply thinking about all these things, it was then it happened…

“These low lives… they dare to come here again? Go and kill’em all!”

“Are you sure boss? Looks like newbies…”

“Yes, we need to set an example… this is our exclusive territory, and no one is allowed to come here!”

Lately, more and more users are coming to this hotspot with the hope of gaining some ‘exp’.

Rock-Armed Party has caught such people several times, they pretend to be newbies and enter this hotspot, when caught, they act like they are raw novices who have lost their way and aren’t aware of where they are…

This thing has already happened several times, and Hyung-Seok has grown tired of dealing with them… He fully understands how to deal with them, just words aren’t enough to stop them, only by experiencing death will they stop.

And death is exactly what Hyung-Seok intends to make them experience.

“Huh? Oh shit… don’t, I’m going, I’m leaving!”

“I really don’t know where I am!”

“But… but… this isn’t even your territory! What right do you people have to monopolize it and use it exclusively for yourselves…… Argh…!”

When attacked by the members of the Rock-Armed Party, two immediately ran away, while one tried to resist with words and actions thinking that he will be able to reason with the Rock-Armed Party, however, soon his throat was cut by Jang Hyung’s Sword.

In this world, people don’t have the luxury of death, and even after death, they will resurrect back in the Falken Village… but the price to live is the users’ memories…

Each time a lot of memories will disappear as if they were erased by someone using an eraser.

Since everyone knows of this risk, that’s why, despite being sort of immortal, everyone fears death, and is even willing to beg…

“Please… I beg you… forgive me! I won’t come here again!”

“Somebody… help me!”

However, in front of the members of the Rock-Armed Party, these begging and crying for help had no effect. For all the members of the Rock-Armed Party, Jang Hyung-Seok’s words are absolute. If he wants something done, then it must be completed. And that’s why, no matter how much these novice pretenders escaped or begged, they were killed off one by one.

“The next time you are born, make sure to not forget that this area is my territory… and it’s mine because I have claimed it! Anything I want is mine once I claim it!” Jang Hyung-Seok said such words with a cruel grin as he sheathed back his sword.

After dealing with the novice pretenders, Jang Hyung-Seok and his party continued to hunt, and as the sun reached over their heads, they started to feel hungry.

Gradually, they grew tired and decided to go back to the village to eat and rest, and they also wanted to drink cold beer.

Jang Hyung-Seok thought about it and said, “Let’s go back.”

At Hyung-Seok’s words, all the party members gathered their equipment and followed him back to the Falken Village.

The distance between the gate of the Falken Village and this hunting hotspot is only about 150 meters, so coming and going back is not that big of a deal for them… And since the distance from the village entrance and tavern is quite close, the members of Rock-Armed Party soon arrived at Elven Song.

As they were about to enter the Tavern, suddenly they heard someone…

“Excuse me…”

It was another user, and as he approached the members of the Rock-Armed Party, he said something very strange and absurd.

“Only 1 Gold Coin!”

‘Huh?’ Hyung-Seok was confused…

The member of the Rock-Armed Party standing next Hyung-Seok also looked strangely at the user, then stepped forward and asked, “What do you want?”

“Only 1 Gold Coin!”

“Did you drunk himself in the broad daylight?” muttered another member of the Rock-Armed Party, and approached Yong-hoo with a more rough and crumpled face. He rolled up his sleeves to intimidate Yong-hoo and asked, “What do you want bitch!”

“Only 1 Gold Coin!”

[Success: 1 Gold Coin Earned!]

It was a success!

[ -Skill- Only 1 Gold Coin (LV 2–> LV 3)]

At the same time, the level of the skill also rose, and the success rate increased to 30%.

As Yong-hoo was relishing in happiness, it was then…

“Why do you keep saying, ‘Only 1 Gold Coin!’ over and over again?” asked Jang Hyung-Seok as he punched Yong-hoo’s face.