Chapter 1
Five years ago,
the real world suddenly transformed as if it were a game.
No signs, no reasons, no logic—none of it existed.
All attempts to scientifically explain this phenomenon ended in futility.
People simply adapted to the changed world.
I was no different.
───
<Quest Log>
(Weekly) Clear Goblin Dungeon
Reward: 10 Diamonds – Completed!
───
{The contract has been activated.}
{In accordance with the contract, the reward for the quest will be transferred to <Holy King (1st Grade)>.}
The rewards for the quests I complete all go to someone else.
And I just watch the message appear.
“Good work. Your pay will be transferred by tomorrow morning. Here, double-check if this is the correct account number.”
The pay is 500,000 won.
It’s not a small amount for a day’s work.
“Please take care of it next week as well, Awakener.”
I am one of the chosen.
I can see the ‘Status Window’ and am assigned quests.
One of the most profitable quests is the Weekly Diamond Quest.
Diamonds are a currency exclusively used by Awakeners for various functions.
The wealthy use these diamonds to enhance their abilities, while regular people like me sell them to the rich for cash.
Normally, diamonds cannot be directly transferred, but using the ‘Contract’ system, quest rewards can be transferred.
So, I make money by completing these Weekly Diamond Quests.
The set price, as you saw, is 500,000 won for a quest that rewards 10 diamonds.
Working just four days a month nets me 2 million won.
Additionally, with extra requests or dungeon conquests, I can make 3 to 4 million won a month.
This is all possible just because I’m an Awakener.
However, despite all this, I still can’t afford my own house and am stuck paying rent for a tiny room.
The reason? Awakeners spend money just as easily as they earn it.
[MS-117 Thunder Attribute Spear]
[Price: 49,900,000 won]
A single weapon costs as much as a car.
And that’s just for a weapon suited for someone like me, who only tackles the lowest-level dungeons.
Not that I can avoid buying new weapons.
Even just maintaining my current level requires a significant amount of money.
To breathe as an Awakener, you need to earn at least 10 million won per month.
Of course, once you reach that point, your quality of life drastically improves.
But until then, I, along with 99% of average Awakeners, am just a caterpillar waiting to break out of its cocoon.
[Would you like to complete the purchase?]
“Sigh.”
I pulled up an online weapon shop on my smartphone.
Determined, I pressed the purchase button.
At least with this, I can try for higher-level dungeons.
“When will I ever be able to use diamonds for myself?”
Right now, this is the best I can do.
Just getting the gear I need is overwhelming.
Using diamonds directly is something reserved for those living in the heavens.
You need at least hundreds of billions of won just to get started, and to truly make an impact, you’d need trillions.
So, for now, it’s not even something I dare to dream about.
To me, 10 diamonds are just worth 500,000 won.
***
When you think of the children of conglomerate families, you tend to picture negative things: arrogance, indulgence, corruption, excess.
And yes, there are definitely people like that.
But that’s because those individuals are just inherently terrible people.
It’s not the money that makes them that way; it’s their character.
The problem just becomes bigger because they have money to throw around.
True, elite members of conglomerate families—the so-called ‘Royal Families’—tend to be the opposite.
They behave with restraint to protect their vested interests.
- “Baek Sun-yul,” a fourth-generation member of the Baeksan Group and holder of the title ‘Holy King,’ has returned today after completing a subjugation campaign in Japan.
The man who holds the contract to my Diamond Quest appeared on the large TV screen at the train station.
I’ve never met him in person.
The people I deal with are just lower-level employees.
Regardless, he’s out there saving the world and protecting humanity.
Gates appear periodically, and from them, monsters pour out to invade humanity’s territories.
It’s said that he returned after defending against them.
With the power he gained by gathering diamonds from ants like me, one by one.
Of course, if you think about how those actions affect the corporate image, it can all be explained as a matter of profit relations.
But, regardless of the reasoning, the important thing is that everyone praises him.
In contrast, I am just one of those who supports these protagonists, ensuring they shine.
I clean up after them, acting as nothing more than a background character.
‘…I’m so jealous.’
What would it feel like to live a life like that?
A main character’s life.
I wish I could experience such a life just once.
Honestly, it’s a daydream everyone has had at least once.
Like those ridiculous clichés where you find out you’re secretly part of a conglomerate family.
Forget it. Something as absurd as a drama cliché like that could never happen to me.
Click.
“Huh?”
As I got up to board the train, I felt something strange under my foot and looked down at the floor. I was startled.
“Oh no!”
It was a smartphone.
I had stepped on something someone had dropped.
‘Is it okay?’
I quickly inspected it to make sure it wasn’t damaged.
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any cracks.
‘Whew… But.’
I looked around to find the owner.
‘Whose is this?’
But no one was nearby.
The station was bustling with people, but the area around me was oddly empty.
‘What the heck…?’
Without giving it much thought, I decided to take it to the lost and found.
I figured the owner would find it there eventually.
Ding!
Just then, a notification appeared.
And the content of the message was too striking to ignore.
[“How long are you going to keep cleaning up after others?”]
“…?”
It was a sentence that pierced me, almost as if it were directed specifically at me.
But it wasn’t a text message or an SNS alert.
It was from an app—an app with a strange name.
‘Is this some kind of joke?’
I stood there, staring at the notification in disbelief.
Of all times, why did this message appear when I picked up the phone?
I let out a faint, dry laugh.
Just as I was about to shrug it off…
“Wait, what’s going on?”
The phone started moving on its own.
The lock screen was unlocked, and that strange app launched by itself.
The screen filled with complicated codes on a black background.
[Syncing… 99%… 100%.]
[User <Yoo Shin-woo>, syncing complete.]
At the end, my real name appeared on the screen, and I had been registered as the user without my consent.
‘What the…? How does it know my name?’
I hadn’t done anything.
I was just holding the phone, but it operated on its own, even calling out my name.
‘What’s going on?’
At first, I thought the phone’s owner might just coincidentally have the same name as me.
It’s possible, after all.
But then, I noticed something that gave me pause.
[Possessed Diamonds: 23]
The number of diamonds matched exactly with the amount I had.
* * *
There was a time when I tried gathering diamonds myself by going on quests and hunting without any contracts.
Of course, it was foolish.
To try your luck in a single gacha roll, you needed to gather 300 diamonds.
That’s equivalent to 15 million won.
And the odds were so abysmally low that it was better to just buy equipment with that money.
I realized this only after the diamonds had already been bound to me.
In the end, I was left with 23 diamonds—useless and difficult to get rid of.
And now, on this app, “User Yoo Shin-woo” also had 23 diamonds.
‘This can’t be a coincidence…’
I couldn’t think of it as a mere coincidence.
Someone knew that an Awakener named Yoo Shin-woo had exactly 23 diamonds and displayed that information?
And I just happened to pick up a phone that belonged to me?
That doesn’t make sense.
It had to be intentional.
But the strangest part is, I’ve never told anyone about having 23 diamonds…
Still, despite the oddities, this theory makes the most sense.
Especially since this app had a truly suspicious feature.
[Buy Diamonds]
When I looked into it, it mentioned another currency called “Gold,” which could be used to buy diamonds.
And apparently, Gold could be purchased directly with real money.
‘What a scam.’
They even set up a payment system so you could transfer funds directly from your bank account.
It’s a scam, clear as day.
I’ve never heard of anyone being able to buy diamonds with cash.
Diamonds could only be earned through quests.
‘Who would fall for such an obvious scam?’
Yet… I couldn’t help but keep looking.
The banner at the top of the app stood out:
[How long are you going to keep cleaning up after others?]
‘…Is that aimed at me?’
Eventually, I decided to give it a try, just to see what would happen.
‘I’ll just spend a little, not much, and see what this scam is all about.’
I made sure to use a rarely used bank account to avoid risking my main account.
I quickly transferred 1,000 won into that account using my banking app and then made the same payment on this suspicious app.
‘I wonder how much Gold 1,000 won will get me?’
As soon as I thought that…
[Gold Balance: 1,000]
I received 1,000 Gold.
It was quite simple: 1,000 won for 1,000 Gold.
‘Now, if I exchange this for diamonds…’
When I checked the diamond exchange tab, it said 100 Gold could be exchanged for 1 diamond.
So, with 1,000 Gold, I could get 10 diamonds.
I immediately clicked on the exchange button.
‘Let’s see what kind of scam this is. You crooks.’
It wasn’t even half disbelief—it was more like half curiosity, half humor.
I was just curious about what would happen. I didn’t believe it would work.
But then…
{You have obtained 10 diamonds.}
This time, the message didn’t appear on the smartphone—it appeared as a hologram in front of my eyes.
This meant it was a genuine system message from the world I live in.
“…No way.”
I immediately opened the diamond shop in my status window.
And there it was:
{Diamonds: 33}
My diamond count had actually increased by 10.
It wasn’t just the app—it had affected the real diamond count bound to me.
“This… this is a cheat.”
Once again, I remind you, a quest that rewards 10 diamonds is worth 500,000 won.
But I had just paid 1,000 won to get diamonds worth 500,000 won.
I had profited 500 times over.
‘This can’t be real.’
A chill ran down my spine.
Could this be a dream?
I pinched my cheek, but it hurt. This was no dream.
So, I decided to try something bigger—I made a 10,000-won payment.
I received 10,000 Gold.
When I exchanged that for diamonds, my balance shot up to 133 diamonds.
‘Wait, how much money do I have left in my account?’
I quickly checked my bank app.
After buying that expensive weapon earlier, I had 5.52 million won left.
Multiplying that by 500, I’d have 2.76 billion won.
—
Read More at – GENZNOVEL.COM!!
-> MAKE ACCOUNT AND GET [50] COINS FREE!!
-> Daily Login give you [2] Coins Daily!!
PLEASE JOIN OUR DISCORD AND SUBSCRIBE THE ROLE TO RECEIVE LATEST NOTOFICATIONS!!
https://discord.gg/S8c2kGVr2g
Comment