Trait Hoarder – Chapter 3

Becoming Warrior Kim — Part 2

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Alright, calm down.

I decided not to think too deeply about how I ended up in this world, or why I became Warrior Kim. There’s no point.

It’s an unsolvable problem.

Whether some supernatural being, like a god or demon, is playing tricks on me, or whether aliens kidnapped me and shoved me into some strange machine for an experiment, none of that matters right now.

What matters most at this moment is survival.

I need to stay alive.

If I’m not careful, I’ll be dead or have my organs harvested in a matter of months.

‘I don’t have any money.’

I glanced at my smartphone, raising an eyebrow.

[Legion Bank]

[Balance: 136,711 won]

On top of that, I had four 10,000 won bills in my wallet.

A total fortune of 170,000 won! (TL Note: Around US$130)

How am I supposed to survive on this?

What about the credit card bill and next month’s rent?

[The person you are trying to reach is not answering. Please leave a message after the tone…]

“Tsk. Your life is pathetic too, huh?”

I tried calling the contacts saved in the phone, but no one picked up.

The class leader, the vice leader, Mister Choi, and so on.

They’re probably ignoring the call because they think it’s the hospital trying to reach them.

I didn’t know any of these people anyway.

I had no clue what kind of life Warrior Kim lived or what kind of relationships he had. The game’s settings weren’t that detailed, and there was no information on the smartphone either.

I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes.

‘Let’s make some money first.’

Arcane Seoul is notorious for being a P2W hell.

So, how do you survive without spending?

You need money, of course.

In-game currency like won (₩), diamonds, or nectar.

Especially when you use Grinding Warrior Kim—that character was a goldmine.

If you filled your four-character party with Grinding Kims and went mining, you could earn way more than the typical paying user could.

‘The Jirisan Demon Cave isn’t open yet, is it?’

I wasn’t sure.

The Jirisan Demon Cave opens after Episode 7, but this isn’t a game. It’s either another reality or a parallel world, so maybe all the dungeons, forbidden zones, and mazes that were patched into the game over time already exist here.

“Status window.”

Of course, there was no response.

“Status. Stats. Character sheet. Character info. Warrior Kim. C… Damn it.”

Trying to cheat my way through failed.

If I’ve been dumped into another world, shouldn’t I at least get some cheat skills or a status window?

Surely, the knowledge I have from the game isn’t completely useless, right?

I forced myself to focus, recalling the grinding version of Warrior Kim I used in the past.

Not the one I used recently, but the early-game version from when I first started playing.

‘This isn’t going to be efficient…’

Alright, let’s start with the basics.

The Jirisan Demon Cave and Baekdusan Demon Cave are high-level zones you can only enter later.

When you’re as broke as I am right now, the Landfill Dungeon is the best place to start.

But before that, there’s something I need to check first.

I grabbed a pen from the desk.

Closing my eyes tightly, I jabbed the pen into the back of my hand.

“Keck!”

Tears welled up from the sharp pain.

But I didn’t stop. Still squinting my eyes shut, I stabbed my hand again and again.

Thump!

Suddenly, my heart gave a powerful beat.

My whole body felt like it was on fire.

It was as if lava was flowing through my veins, spreading throughout my entire body.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that the wound on my left hand was slowly healing.

“Okay.”

It worked.

If this were a game, a message would’ve appeared on the screen right about now:

[Warrior Kim (Level 0) has acquired the trait: ‘Wound Recovery.’]

It’s not regeneration or immortality—just a third-tier common trait. But hey, I’ll take what I can get.

I felt a wave of relief wash over me.

“Hoooo.”

Let’s try one more thing.

I closed my eyes and concentrated.

In the game, I would have just tapped a few buttons to accomplish this, but in the absence of a status window, this is what I had to do.

‘Delete it. Delete it. Delete it.’

I kept repeating that thought in my head.

I wanted to delete the ‘Wound Recovery’ trait.

I wasn’t sure if it would work, so I focused intensely on wishing for the trait to disappear.

Then, I jabbed the pen into my hand again.

“Agh!”

Maybe I should’ve experimented with a different trait.

But there aren’t many traits as easy to acquire and as immediate in their feedback as Wound Recovery.

Despite the pain, I glanced at my hand.

Thankfully, the wound stayed.

The first wound had healed completely.

This time, I succeeded as well.

“Phew.”

I let out a sigh of relief.

The trait had successfully been deleted.

Don’t I regret losing it?

Not at all.

This is, in fact, the greatest feature and strength of Warrior Kim, the default N-tier tutorial character.

A blank slate body.

Since it’s the basic character, it starts with no traits.

Other versions of Kim, like Fistfighter Kim, Mage Kim, or Priest Kim, all start with a unique trait. (TL Note: For those that don’t know, Kim is the most common surname in Korea, so it’s basically used as a way to say that someone is generic)

But Warrior Kim has the most flexibility when it comes to acquiring, changing, and deleting traits.

Other characters need diamonds to modify or remove traits, but Warrior Kim has no cost requirements.

Acquiring traits also has far more relaxed conditions.

This is one of the reasons why, even after pulling R and SR-tier characters, I kept Warrior Kim as my main.

“Thank goodness.”

It seems the conditions for acquiring traits work the same as they do in the game.

Which means there’s no time to waste.

I hastily threw on some clothes and rushed out of the boarding house.

The damp alleyway stretched out before me.

Flickering streetlights barely clinging to life.

Broken pavement blocks.

Puddles of water pooled in random spots.

Heaps of trash piled up everywhere.

Flies buzzing around the rotting garbage.

And somewhere in the distance, the stench of decay.

A drunken man staggered toward me, creaking like a wooden puppet.

He giggled as he stumbled, his steel jaw and cogwheel teeth grinding audibly with each step.

He looked like something out of a nightmare.

I instinctively held my breath.

“H-huh?”

“Heh heh heh.”

The drunk chuckled and passed me by.

‘Mister Lee.’

That name popped into my head suddenly.

Mister Lee…

That’s the name I heard earlier today.

[Remember? The guy in Room 207? I introduced him to that doctor to cure his liver disease!]

He must have paid for the treatment with his jaw, mouth, and teeth.

A shiver ran down my spine.

What kind of barbaric world is this?

If I dawdle any longer, or stand around lost in thought, I’ll end up like that too.

Shuddering, I took off running.

From the narrow alley, to a wider street, then to a main road, and finally into a nearby park.

It was only a few hundred meters, but the atmosphere completely changed.

Bright streetlights illuminated the park, and people were busy taking their evening strolls.

“Woof! Woof!”

“Hehehe!”

It looked like a scene straight out of the real world.

Dogs playing, kids laughing, people enjoying the evening.

It was still early evening, and I started sprinting around the park.

“Huff, huff, huff.”

Did Warrior Kim always have such low stamina?

I was out of breath in no time.

Ignoring the burning in my chest, I kept running. I disregarded breathing techniques and stamina management—I just ran and ran. My lungs felt like they were about to explode, and the world turned yellow, but I forced my legs to keep moving despite feeling like they weighed a ton.

I couldn’t stop. I had to keep running until I collapsed, my face buried in the dirt. It’d be even better if I ended up in the emergency room.

Because that’s the condition I needed to meet to acquire the trait!

“What the hell?”

“Watch where you’re going!”

I could barely see where I was going.

After bumping into a few people, they started grumbling in irritation.

It was clear to anyone watching that I wasn’t in a normal state.

But nobody bothered to stop or help. They just steered clear of me, thinking I was some kind of weirdo.

“Ugh!”

Eventually, I collapsed.

I faceplanted into the dirt.

My nose cracked, and blood began pouring out.

“Ugh…”

“Mom, that guy’s weird.”

“Let’s go home.”

People hurried away from me.

And who could blame them?

After all, I got up from the ground, nose broken and blood streaming down my face, all while grinning like a lunatic.

Who in their right mind would think I was normal?

But none of that mattered. I had confirmed that I’d acquired the trait.

[Vigor]

No text appeared on the screen, of course.

Instead, my depleted stamina slowly began to recover.

The weight in my limbs lifted, and the yellow-tinted world returned to normal.

This was the trait I gave to every early-game Grinding Warrior Kim.

It’s just a common trait, but for grinding, it’s invaluable.

With it, you could mine for 24 hours straight without needing to rest.

‘And now…’

I checked out the exercise equipment in the park.

Thankfully, the one I was looking for was there.

The chest pull machine.

It was unoccupied, so I sat down and cranked the weight up to the maximum before pulling.

“Ugh.”

I couldn’t do it properly.

For a warrior-class character, this body sure is weak.

“Just one pull…”

I only needed to pull the maximum weight once!

Just one time!

Straining my entire body, I barely managed to drag the weights down.

The moment I completed the pull, a cool sensation spread through my muscles, and they bulged, suddenly feeling much stronger.

And then, the weights became lighter.

Success!

I’d acquired the [Strength] trait.

Now, there was only one more thing left to do in the park.

After wiping off my sweat, I wandered around the park at a leisurely pace.

My eyes scanned the ground like a hawk, occasionally brushing through the grass or kicking up the dirt.

‘There has to be one here…’

In Arcane Seoul, every park contained this item.

If you walked any character around for long enough, they’d pick it up randomly.

Before long, I found it.

A 500-won coin!

Suddenly, my eyes adjusted, and I could see several glowing blue points scattered across the park.

‘Alright, now we’re talking.’

[Treasure Hunter].

For grinding, especially mining, it’s an absolutely essential trait.

Without it, no matter how good a dungeon you enter or how high-level the monsters you defeat, your loot won’t be efficient.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t done preparing yet.

There was still one more thing left to do.

A task I really didn’t want to do.

Do I seriously have to?

But still, it’s better than stabbing my hand with a pen.

Trying to comfort myself with that thought, I made my way back to the alley near the boarding house.

I stood in front of a suitable pile of trash.

“Mrowwww!”

A one-eyed cat that had been rummaging through the garbage sprinted away.

I watched it disappear before instinctively pinching my nose.

The foul stench of rot and sourness stabbed at my nostrils.

“Ugh, gross.”

I reached out toward the pile of trash.

Closing my eyes, I dug through the garbage.

The moment I felt something sticky and unpleasant touch my hand, I grabbed it and smeared it all over my face.

‘Ughhhhh!’

I screamed internally.

I hadn’t lived an easy life, but I’d never done anything like this.

I worked factory jobs, sure. I even did construction work. But this? This was a whole new level of disgusting.

‘Goddamn it!’

This trait was also essential.

It wasn’t just about making more money. It was a matter of survival.

I had to endure it.

I had to.

I HAD to endure it. Ughhhhhh!

“Uwaaagh… huh?”

It worked.

After a few more smears, the smell began to disappear.

Not completely, mind you, but the nauseating, vomit-inducing, make-you-want-to-die stench had diminished to the point where it was more like sniffing fish at a seafood market.

Compared to before, it felt like I was in heaven.

I cursed under my breath and threw the rest of the trash away.

“Ugh, gross.”

I rubbed my face with the clothes I was wearing and tossed them too.

The fourth trait I had acquired was [Contamination Resistance].

Without it, if you go grinding, the magical contamination can render you incapacitated for days after a single day of work.

If you’re unlucky, it could even kill you or cause severe mutations that land you in a temple for healing.

“Phew.”

The hard part was over.

The only things left were [Extraction] and [Synthesis].

Both were easy to acquire.

I headed to a nearby convenience store, shamelessly picking up a toothpick holder.

“That homeless guy reeks.”

I ignored the insults thrown at me from behind.

These were my badges of honor, damn it.

After taking a shower at the boarding house, I opened up the toothpick holder.

I carefully stacked the toothpicks on the desk, one by one.

Surprisingly, this was harder than I thought.

I had to create a delicate structure, but even a slight breath or the tiniest tremble in my hand would cause it to collapse.

“At least it’s better than digging through trash… better than that…”

I suppressed the urge to give up and kept at it for hours.

After much trial and error, I finally managed to finish it.

As soon as I completed the crude toothpick house, my vision blurred, and I could see faint, glowing lines connecting the toothpicks.

“Got it.”

Next, I began removing the toothpicks one by one.

Just like a game of Jenga, being careful not to knock the whole thing over.

If the house collapsed before I acquired the trait, I’d have to start from scratch. I concentrated so hard I felt like my eyes would pop out of their sockets.

One by one.

Then another.

And another.

How many times did I repeat the process?

Just before the house fell apart, the world briefly turned red, then shifted back to normal.

And now, there was a faint red glow on some of the toothpicks.

“Finally!”

It was done. Everything was done.

The initial grinding version of Warrior Kim was complete!

[Vigor] to help with stamina recovery.

[Strength] to boost power and physical attacks.

[Treasure Hunter] to detect rare loot.

[Contamination Resistance] to withstand magical pollution.

[Extraction] to harvest materials instantly.

[Synthesis] to combine materials into higher-tier items.

The perfect early-game grinding Warrior Kim!

‘It would be perfect if I could add a few more.’

Unfortunately, that’s impossible.

Each character is limited to six traits.

‘Six… it’s six, right?’

Suddenly, I had a thought.

What if?

What if there’s a chance?

There’s no way, right? That would be totally broken. But still, I picked up the pen.

“Huff.”

I took a deep breath and jabbed the pen into my hand again, hard enough to see sparks in my vision.

“Kuhhk!”

A groan slipped out.

Why did I do this again?

I must be out of my mind!

If I ever pull this stunt again, I swear I’ll—

“Oh, come on.”

Despite all that fuss, the wound remained.

It was a complete waste of effort. A total waste of time.

I sighed briefly and thought.

‘It would’ve been nice to still have the Wound Recovery trait…’

It’s not a great trait, but at least the pain would’ve gone away faster.

Maybe I stabbed myself a little too hard because my hand really hurt.

If this were the real world, I’d probably be heading to the emergency room right now.

I wondered if I’d broken a bone or something when, suddenly, I felt the strength drain out of my body.

“Huh?”

Startled, I looked down at my hand and saw something strange.

My left hand.

The skin on the back of my hand, where I had stabbed myself with the pen, was slowly healing.

It was slow.

But it was definitely healing.

–TL Notes–
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