Chapter 90

The friendly match ended rather unceremoniously.

Since the purpose of the friendly match wasn’t about fostering friendship, but rather gauging Yuseong’s power, there was no reason or need to continue the duel any longer.

No Contractor could possibly incapacitate a heavily armored knight with just a single finger in barely a second.

While it might fall short of comparing to heroes often called strategic weapons, this was more than enough to be called a tactical weapon.

“…I’ll escort you to the next location.”

Seeing cold sweat trickling down the security guard’s neck, Yuseong bit his lip slightly.

‘I went too far.’

While there was a need to show an overwhelming display that ordinary Contractors wouldn’t dare attempt, there were still lines that shouldn’t be crossed.

A hero representing a country had not only belittled the prestigious experts of a friendly nation by comparing them to ants, but also left his opponent in critical condition during a friendly match.

It was a major incident that could cause tremendous aftermath if word got out.

‘Damn, have I lost touch with reality after causing so much havoc and charging recklessly through quests? I’m really going crazy.’

At minimum, it could damage Yuseong’s personal reputation, and at worst, it could negatively impact Korea-US diplomatic relations.

Boarding the car after the security guard, Yuseong couldn’t help but worry about how to handle this situation throughout the journey.

However, to cut to the conclusion, Yuseong’s worries turned out to be unnecessary.

“Welcome to America!”

“Mr. Yu, could you tell us more about what happened in the city of the lizardmen?”

“How long do you plan to stay in America?”

Not a single official they met during the schedule brought up what happened at the air force base, and reporters and civilians only asked trivial questions.

Fortunately, it seemed America intended to pretend the incident never happened.

‘Well, that’s probably for the best.’

It wouldn’t be good to cause face-losing incidents on just the first day.

Besides, America was the one in need right now.

Given that they had barely managed to bring in this hero after searching the entire world, America had no choice but to cover up even if Yuseong caused worse incidents than this.

After finishing his schedule with a glamorous party attended by high-ranking American political figures, owners of globally renowned corporations, promising politicians, and famous celebrities and actors, Yuseong threw himself onto the bed in his assigned luxury suite and let out a long sigh.

Though all he did was move around and say pleasant things with a smile on his face, somehow he felt more tired than when completing quests or fighting monsters with his life on the line.

‘As much as I’d like to just sleep like this…’

Remembering his purpose for coming to America, Yuseong got up and took out his smartphone.

He needed to properly set up a meeting with made in usa, who had just kept repeating like a parrot that he would know when and where to meet once he came to America.

‘…Wait.’

As Yuseong was naturally about to open his messenger app, he suddenly remembered something and activated Eye of Truth.

‘There might be bugs or cameras.’

While he thought it unlikely they would surveil someone who came to help their country, especially a superhuman who transcended human limits, there was always the possibility.

As Yuseong slowly turned his head, he suddenly spotted something in the corner and froze.

An energy mass in human form was staring at him.

“…”

After staring silently for a while, the energy mass tilted its head and began moving to another spot.

Of course, Yuseong’s gaze followed, and after this repeated a few times, the energy mass made a gesture of raising both hands in surrender.

“Wow, how did you notice? I never expected you to see through a spatial distortion device, let alone cloaking.”

“…made in usa?”

“That’s my nickname, my real name is Sophia Blanchett. Nice to meet you, Mr. Han Yuseong.”

“Nice to meet you too, Sophia Blanchett.”

“I told you to speak casually, didn’t I? Just call me Sophia.”

Yuseong looked over Sophia with a dubious expression.

Red hair reaching her shoulders and a strangely languid voice.

made in usa turned out to be a woman who appeared to be around his age.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Surprised that I’m a woman?”

“No, I’m surprised by the fact that you were secretly hiding in someone else’s room without saying anything. What’s this about? Were you monitoring me?”

“Ah, that wasn’t my intention. I was planning to meet secretly to avoid surveillance, but I was late in undoing the distortion, so it seems I caused a misunderstanding. I apologize if I offended you.”

Watching Sophia bow without hesitation, Yuseong shook his head while internally sighing.

While Kang Changseok had taken an extremely user-friendly stance and his personality allowed him to be somewhat forward, that couldn’t apply to other users.

Unless the other side showed hostility first, Yuseong had no intention of being hostile to users either.

“No need to apologize. And you should speak casually too.”

“I’m more comfortable being polite. But this is really amazing.”

“Amazing? What is?”

“Your abilities, of course. To be honest, I was quite dismissive of you. No, perhaps it’s more accurate to say I didn’t have much expectation? But with what happened at lunch and how you detected the spatial distortion device… You’ve only been a user for about 4 months, right? It’s an unbelievable rate of growth.”

“…Is my growth considered fast?”

Yuseong tilted his head at Sophia’s voice, which seemed genuinely impressed.

Kang Changseok had also said things like “unbelievable” or “amazing” whenever he demonstrated his abilities.

He had dismissed it as mere lip service then, but seeing another user show a similar reaction, it seemed his growth really was quite rapid.

“Extremely fast! Excluding physical strength since you seem to be using special skills or artifacts… what grade of stat increase rights are currently available to you in the karma shop?”

“D-grade.”

“I don’t know about other users, but it took me about 2 years to unlock D-grade stat increase rights. Just calculating arithmetically, you’re growing more than 5… no, 6 times faster than I did.”

“2 years?”

Yuseong’s eyes narrowed.

He had unlocked D-grade stat increase rights after completely wrapping up the quest related to Alice, before the Dragonia incident.

Considering the time limit for the [Girl Seeking Salvation] quest, it took roughly 50 days.

Even generously counting it as 2 months, by Sophia’s account, he was growing at more than 12 times her speed.

No, it might be even more than that.

After clearing [Girl Seeking Salvation], he had achieved SSS rank clears on the C-grade quest [Youngest Disciple of the Jincheon Martial Arts Family] and B-grade quest [Twisted World]. It wouldn’t be strange if C-grade stat increase rights became available soon.

If that happened, the difference wouldn’t be just 12 times, but potentially dozens of times greater.

“That’s impossible. It took you 2 years to unlock D-grade stat increase rights? You must have had periods where you didn’t use the goggles.”

“No, I used the goggles consistently. Even so, it took 2 years.”

An incomprehensible difference.

As Yuseong pondered this, he recalled what WeaponMaster had said when he first entered the community.

‘They definitely said it takes clearing more than 10 quests to rise from beginner to Novice Solver rank, and others seemed to agree. They also said achieving high-rank clears was nearly impossible. Did my growth speed increase because I achieved high-rank clears?’

Sophia seemed to reach the same conclusion as she opened her eyes wide and said.

“It seems your growth is faster because you cleared quests at high ranks. What’s your average clear rank?”

“Almost all were SSS rank. What about you?”

“Mine were D to E rank.”

“Why? I mean, it’s not like high-rank clears are completely impossible? Even if SSS rank is difficult, if you just put in a little effort you could aim for A… no, at least B or C rank, right?”

D to E rank is barely enough to avoid penalties.

Beyond simply using lots of skills or artifacts, it’s a rank you can only achieve by meeting just the basic clear conditions without touching any additional conditions.

Once or twice might be understandable, but he couldn’t comprehend why anyone would clear quests at such poor ranks for nearly two years.

“Well… I had no particular reason to aim for high ranks.”

“But you can get additional rewards. At minimum, you can get ten times the basic reward, up to dozens of times more. Isn’t it a waste to miss out on that?”

“But it’s that much harder. When the rewards aren’t that desperate a need, rather than taking on that difficulty to aim for additional rewards, it’s easier to accumulate basic rewards by doing many low-rank clears over time, even if it takes longer. When there’s an easy and comfortable path, why take the difficult and challenging one?”

Let’s say there’s a quest to defeat a group of orcs.

To clear this quest at a high rank, you’d need to defeat the orcs using mainly the client’s abilities, with minimal use of otherworld skills and artifacts.

But since quests by definition refer to situations that are difficult to resolve with the client’s abilities alone, that’s not as easy as it sounds.

Whether through ambush, setting traps, sowing discord, or dragging in completely unrelated people or forces, you’d have to go through all sorts of hardships.

In contrast, low-rank clears don’t require any of that.

You just bring one gun from Earth, pull the trigger, and that’s it.

The reward would be reduced accordingly, but as Sophia said, you can make up for that by clearing multiple quests, and if you’re satisfied with modest rewards, you don’t even need to do multiple quests.

‘…If there hadn’t been the monster invasion, I might have acted like Sophia too.’

His obsession with high ranks was because he had the desperate reason of the monster invasion.

After securing safety, he had also started enjoying the quest completion itself, and since he had consistently aimed for high ranks from the beginning, he naturally continued to aim for high ranks afterward.

What if there had been no monster invasion?

He would have been satisfied with roughly completing quests and receiving basic rewards like Sophia.

As she said, there would have been no reason to take on difficulties for greater rewards.

Yuseong finally understood why users were divided into three tiers, and why there was such an enormous difference in ability between Three Strong’s Kasim and Three Weak’s Kang Changseok.

Even spending the same time on the same quests, someone clearing at high rank receives dozens of times more rewards than someone clearing at low rank, enabling that much faster growth.

As the number of cleared quests increases, that difference accumulates, potentially growing to hundreds of times or more.

“…”

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re looking at someone pitiful.”

“You’re imagining things. Let’s move on to the main topic.”

Meeting Sophia’s eyes, Yuseong spoke in a lower voice.

“You said there was a way to quickly get a power plant.”

“Mmm, I did say that. But this is actually problematic in many ways, so I’m not sure if I should tell you…”

“We’re not stealing someone else’s property, are we?”

“Huh? How did you know?”

“Something that takes 3 years to make properly can only be obtained quickly by taking one that’s already complete. If it was from another world, you could just tell me which quest has it and be done with it, but you made me come all the way to America, which means it must already exist somewhere in America. And your use of the phrase ‘way to obtain it’ suggests it belongs to someone else, not you. Am I wrong?”

“You’re amazing. To deduce all that from just that one phrase.”

Sophia clapped her hands in admiration before looking at Yuseong with a serious expression and speaking.

“I’ll tell you. But first, one thing. What I’m about to say is a secret that must not be revealed to the world. Can you promise that you’ll never tell anyone what you hear here?”

“I promise.”

“Good. America is secretly building a spacecraft to escape Earth. What you want is there.”

“…Why are you suddenly talking about quests?”

“This isn’t about quests, this is reality.”

Yuseong’s expression twisted strangely.