“This is killing me, for real.”
I barely managed to climb to the rooftop on trembling legs.
The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, I stripped off every piece of clothing I was wearing.
Even my underwear was soaked in sweat; it was impossible to keep it on.
I went straight to the bathroom, splashed myself with cold water, then came back out, turned on the beat-up old fan, and collapsed in front of it.
Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter.
The fan roared to life, spewing out a torrent of air.
“Ahhh, now I can finally breathe.”
After cooling down a bit, I pushed myself up.
I picked up the rickety fan and sat down at my computer.
Right now, I was facing three major challenges.
First, the diet.
If I can’t get rid of this mass of fat, the prime of my youth at twenty? Forget about it.
Some women might like a bear of a man, but no woman likes a man who looks like a rolling ball.
This wasn’t just about women, either. It was directly linked to my health, so it was the top priority.
“How should I even start working out?”
I’d exercised plenty of times before.
But I had no idea how to approach it when I was starting from less than zero—from the negatives.
“Should I sign up for a gym membership?”
Getting a personal trainer would be ideal, but there was no way I had that kind of money.
And that brought me to the second challenge.
Money, as I mentioned before.
“This is a problem.”
I wasn’t just broke; I was completely broke.
This bastard earned next to nothing, and he’d meticulously spend every last cent of it each month without saving a single won.
I had no idea why.
Was he afraid someone would steal it if he saved it?
I opened the banking app on my smartphone and checked my account balance.
“33,000 won…”
In this era of high prices, that was barely enough to order a single fried chicken without worrying about my next meal.
“For now…”
I had to make money, no matter how little.
So, I logged into the RPG that Kim Do-jin had used to sustain his life until now.
His character was decked out in all sorts of fancy gear.
Searching through my memories, it was clear this guy had put more effort into his character than his own body.
Playing games isn’t a bad thing, but did he really have to give up on reality for it?
As I sifted through his memories, I found myself cursing him out before I even realized it.
“Hey, I shouldn’t be like this to my benefactor.”
Enough.
It was because he lived so indulgently that I was able to be in this body now.
That’s how I decided to think about it.
“Alright then…”
I logged into the game to make money, just like he did.
Of course, my approach was a little different.
I started taking off the character’s equipment, piece by piece, and listed it all on the auction house.
Instantly, a flood of chat messages poured in.
[King God Lord: Dude, what’s up? Why are you selling your gear?]
[Warlord Jjangjjangman: Hacked?]
[Shushire Manse: No, bro;; why are you suddenly selling your stuff;;]
[Pretty Princess: Oppa... are you quitting the game...? You promised to carry me tomorrow... ã ]
“Look at all these connections.”
He didn’t have a single number saved in his smartphone, yet his in-game friends list had dozens of people.
A shut-in loser in reality, a popular guy in the game.
This disconnect was probably another reason he got so addicted.
It must have been easier to raise his game character’s specs than his real-life ones.
Since these were connections this body had cultivated, I showed a minimum of courtesy and sent the same reply to everyone.
[vVStrongestLordVv: Going to get a life. Peace.]
One by one, the items sold, and the gold piled up.
I used a familiar trading site to convert all the gold into cash.
[Balance: 3,633,300]
“Holy shit…”
Was this for real? My balance just shot past three million won.
“Well, he did pour years into this game. It’d be disappointing if it wasn’t worth at least this much.”
He had played this game diligently for the three years he was cooped up in this room.
To be honest, three million won was a ridiculously low price for three years of effort.
“This should last me a while…”
If I made good use of the landlady’s help, I could probably hold out for a few months.
“Okay, the money problem is temporarily solved…”
That left the third and final challenge.
Increasing my mana capacity.
My current mana stat was 2.
After experiencing mana exhaustion and getting an IV drip, it went up by 1 by the time I was discharged.
“Though 1 or 2, it’s six of one, half a dozen of the other…”
There are several ways to increase one’s mana.
Elixirs, equipment, medical procedures, and so on.
These methods are highly effective for boosting mana in the early stages, right after awakening, but they require a lot of money.
For me, with my entire fortune of three million won, they were things I couldn’t even dare to dream of.
“Looks like I have no choice but to grind it out.”
The only method available to me right now was training.
The training to increase one’s total mana pool is simple.
You use your mana until you’re on the verge of exhaustion, then recover it through meditation.
During the recovery process, you absorb more mana than your previous capacity, naturally increasing the total amount.
Hearing just that, you might wonder why anyone would bother with the methods I mentioned above, but the problem is that the amount of increase is minuscule.
It’s barely a speck of dust.
“Well, I’ll just have to gather those specks.”
Gather dust to build a mountain? There’s no such thing.
Gathering dust just makes a bigger pile of dust.
But right now, even that was urgent for me. I had no choice but to do what I could while looking for other methods.
“Still, this is pretty fun.”
Transforming and processing the ambient mana according to my will.
It was more enjoyable than I’d expected.
So much so that I almost recklessly used it all up and fell into mana exhaustion again.
“No, can’t do that.”
The more frequently you experience mana exhaustion in a short period, the more severe it becomes.
Initially, you might just lose consciousness for a moment and wake up right after recovering. But later on, your entire mana circuit could be destroyed, leaving you unable to use mana ever again.
So, managing it carefully to avoid exhaustion was more important than anything.
I extinguished the flame I had lit on my fingertip like a lighter.
My mana was dangerously low.
I immediately leaned against the wall, sat down, and focused my mind, pulling the surrounding mana into my body.
“That was fast.”
Because my mana stat was so pathetic, recharging was incredibly quick.
The number didn’t change, but I could feel that my mana pool had grown, just a little.
It was then that I truly felt the special nature of this body.
“I can feel the difference after just one time.”
As I said, when you use and refill your mana, its capacity grows little by little.
However, it doesn’t normally grow enough to be noticeable after just one cycle. Yet this body was feeling it after a single refill.
Even if the change was minuscule, it meant I could increase my mana capacity at a much faster rate than others.
“Interesting.”
Ever since I became an S-rank Hunter, training had been nothing but a duty. Now, I was starting to feel the fun in it again.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
[Your Mana stat has increased by 1.]
“Hoo.”
I finished my meditation and slowly opened my eyes.
I checked the pleasant message floating before me.
This was the result of working out with the landlady in the morning and then focusing solely on mana training for the rest of the day.
Height/Weight: 160cm / 117kg
[Strength: 5] [Agility: 2] [Stamina: 3] [Mana: 6]
Do you see it?
This dazzling change.
Of course, it might be faint, but it was the first result I had achieved with this body.
“This is why I train.”
It had been a week since I started working out, suppressing a ferocious appetite.
I had succeeded in losing 3kg.
It was a mere speck compared to the mountain of fat I still had to lose, but a good start is half the battle.
“But that’s not what’s important.”
Losing weight was one thing, but what was even more thrilling was the change in my stats.
First, my stamina went up.
It only increased by 1, but when I thought of it as taking one step further away from death, that number felt enormous.
Next was mana.
This was something I could proudly say had made a leap forward.
It had finally surpassed my strength, which had been forcibly developed just to support this fat body!
“Yeah.”
My mana pool, which had been the size of a bean, was now as big as my thumb.
Fwoosh!
The flame that had resembled a cigarette lighter was now large enough to cover my entire palm.
“It’ll keep getting better.”
It was the same for all stats.
There’s a huge difference between going from 1 to 2 and going from 10 to 11.
The higher the stat, the more you have to struggle to raise it by a single point, but the gains you get from that one point also become immense.
“Once it hits around 10, I should be able to give it a try.”
I pushed myself up from my seated position against the wall.
Having repeatedly sat down and stood up, I felt like the laziness that had clung to my body along with the fat had been diluted, just a little.
I went into the bathroom, took off my shirt, and stood in front of the mirror.
I found myself frowning involuntarily.
“This isn’t it.”
A pathetic body.
I don’t mean because it was fat. I mean the underlying musculoskeletal structure itself was poor.
While it possessed the perfect constitution for a mage, it was far from ideal for a warrior, or even just as a man.
Mage is one of the most popular classes in the Hunter industry, along with Healer.
As long as a tanker provides solid protection, a mage can return the favor by unleashing the highest firepower as a dealer.
Furthermore, their numbers are extremely low compared to the demand, so mages can always drive up their price before joining a party.
Anyone else but me would probably think so.
That if they had the optimal constitution to become a mage, they could endure a weak physique.
“Endure what?”
Others might, but I had no intention of enduring it.
I lived a suffocating life because I kept enduring one thing after another. You want me to endure again?
No thanks.
If there were no way to change my innate constitution, I would have had no choice but to live with what I was given. But that’s not me.
I have a way.
A method that can change even one’s inborn constitution—a method known only to a select few, including myself, and one that only I can perform.