“Damn this world.”

A phrase that had become a habit before I knew it.

Perhaps it was to shake off the lingering dread of death, but it was a phrase I muttered reflexively every time I returned from the battlefield.

Yet, more terrifying than death itself was my bed, thoroughly blanketed in mold.

Why would a world devoid of any concept of welfare bother looking out for a lowlife like me?

I should have been grateful just to have a roof over my head and sleep out of the cold wind.

Adapting to this new world was quite a daunting task.

Unlike the protagonists in novels, I didn’t possess even a speck of talent.

After wandering the streets, I only managed to live somewhat like a human after obtaining my shieldbearer qualification.

1-Cost champions were as common as weeds by the roadside, but it was better to be a weed than nothing at all.

Before that, I couldn’t even amount to dog feces meant to fertilize those weeds.

To live like a proper human in this damn, discriminatory world, a champion’s license wasn’t a choice—it was a necessity.

Well, above that, money and connections naturally reigned supreme, of course.

Fumble.

Regaining my senses, I threw on my relatively decent clothes—a linen tunic worth 10 silver coins, which accounted for the majority of my assets.

I couldn’t afford new pants, so I had to stick with my current pair, but what did it matter?

Looking like a human rather than a beggar was a blessing in itself.

Even among the dregs of society, there seemed to be an unspoken hierarchy.

With my black hair and yellow skin, I was a target for discrimination everywhere I went.

To silence the loose tongues that mocked me as carelessly as they judged my body, I needed actual strength. But having only played games in my room, I was pathetic at physical altercations.

Perhaps to console themselves by mocking those beneath them, I frequently became the target of bullying.

The ones who had been sincere in their mockery back then remained stuck as lowlifes, while I gritted my teeth, studied, and earned my shieldbearer qualification. If that counted as revenge, it was revenge.

I lacked the strength and backing to enforce private sanctions, so I merely scoffed and laughed at them. Yet, it was so incredibly cost-effective that one guy even collapsed from a stress-induced illness.

After roughly trimming my greasy hair, unwashed for days.

I stepped out of my quarters and strolled down the street.

There were street stalls selling fruits and vegetables along the way.

However, they possessed the experience to size up their customers, so they effortlessly ignored a bum like me and didn’t waste their energy hawking to the wrong crowd.

After walking a short distance, I spotted my destination: a signboard bearing the shield emblem.

I had arrived early because I had chosen my lodging purely for practicality, as someone who refused to indulge in the Empire’s cultural lifestyle, which I still hadn’t adapted to.

It was a building anyone had to visit if they were a champion, especially a shieldbearer.

[Shieldbearer Guild]

The door was wide open, so I immediately stepped inside.

As always, a familiar face caught my eye.

“Hans.”

“What? Is that you, Shin?”

A man with an unkempt, overgrown beard responded to my voice.

It had been about a week.

“I thought you died out there somewhere.”

Hans stood up and flashed a grin.

Quite tall for a dwarf, Hans was about the same height as me.

Looking at his outward appearance alone, one might not even guess he was a dwarf.

“Thankfully, I’m still alive.”

“Yeah, glad you made it back.”

Tap- tap-

Hans patted my shoulders as if pleased to see me.

Since he wasn’t the type to touch others unless they were close, there was no need to feel offended.

Hans was one of the staff members at the shieldbearer Guild located in Luteran.

Hearing his circumstances, Hans was quite a pitiful guy.

He was looked down upon among dwarves for being too tall (apparently, being short was a virtue among them),

and he was looked down upon by humans for being a dwarf. He was an awkward guy with nowhere to truly belong.

Perhaps birds of a feather flock together.

A 2-Cost Shieldbearer and guild employee, Hans inexplicably treated me well, and I liked him for it.

“You’re here to settle your account, right?”

Nobody liked junior staff wasting working hours on small talk, so Hans got straight to the point.

“Yes, please.”

I rolled up my sleeve and extended my left arm, and Hans, looking accustomed to it, brought a Device to my wrist.

Ding-

“Oh, what’s this? You made 3 gold.”

Hans looked at me with surprise.

He seemed curious how a guy who usually only brought back 1 gold managed to earn 3.

“Looks like you did pretty well. Did you get an Item or something?”

“Well… something like that.”

Participating in a battlefield awarded 1 gold per round.

Surviving to participate in the next round would naturally earn more money.

However, I had only ever managed to earn 1 gold in most battlefields.

The reason was simple: dying in combat meant immediate expulsion from the battlefield.

Even if I died, I could be rehired if the employer wished, but no one ever rehired me when I didn’t even have a Skill.

“You need to start Albakgi soon, too.”

Hans patted my shoulder as if understanding my plight.

Since Hans was also a former shieldbearer, he knew well the circumstances of a 1-Cost champion.

“I’d love to do that, too.”

I shrugged at the unrealistic suggestion.

What kind of overly generous player would keep a skill-less guy like me on the battlefield?

“Alright, 3 gold. Check it and sign here.”

It was the same procedure I went through every time I returned from a battlefield, but this time, it felt entirely different.

Filled with anticipation, I kept my eyes glued to the Device’s screen, waiting for it to refresh.

Time that usually flew by felt agonizingly slow at moments like this.

Ding-

‘It’s here.’

The message popped up in no time. Looking at the number on the screen, I recalled all my past hardships. How much time had it taken?

[Current Assets: 100G]

I had saved up 3 gold and settled it all at once just to see that perfectly round number.

Three years since I came to this world. I had finally saved up 100 gold.

“I’ve confirmed it.”

Not signing wouldn’t make the gold disappear, but as if someone might snatch it away, I quickly finished signing.

“Alright, come again next time.”

With that, the settlement was complete.

100 gold.

“Hehe-“

Seeing the number 100 on my Device made me feel full without even eating.

Actually, calling the gold earned from the battlefield “money” was a bit ambiguous.

You could exchange 1 gold coin for 1 gold, but you couldn’t exchange 1 gold for 1 gold coin.

Meaning, no matter how much gold I had, I couldn’t even buy a single piece of rye bread.

Thinking about it, it was obvious.

If they handed out hundreds of gold to bums like me, how could the economy possibly survive without collapsing?

To maintain the value of currency, “gold” had to be something separate from actual money.

“Though they highly encourage cash purchases.”

There were occasionally people who bought gold by throwing money around instead of living as a champion.

But unless money was rotting away in their pockets, it was the ultimate inefficiency that no one would choose.

From the perspective of the Empire, the issuer of gold, they were probably grateful benefactors filling the national treasury.

Gasp-!

My next destination after leaving the guild.

This time, even the entrance was far from smooth.

As I shoved open the heavy wooden door, unsure if it was welcoming customers or rejecting them, a hot and humid wave of heat greeted me first.

Kiii-

The hinges attached to the wooden door groaned under the strain.

“Push it gently- I’ll charge you if the door breaks.”

“Got it. I got it.”

As soon as a space large enough for a person to pass through opened up, I quickly slipped inside before the door closed.

It hadn’t been long since it was oiled, but the cheap iron acting as hinges had rusted due to the moisture.

Thud-!

The place I had barely entered was the only remaining public bathhouse in the Luteran region.

The owner was an old man who looked well past sixty. Whether it was from the hardships of life or the humidity of the bathhouse, his face was deeply wrinkled.

If I, a black-haired foreigner, wanted to be treated like a human, I had to at least be clean.

Ever since I started making proper money, I had frequented the bathhouse.

Since the Empire lacked the modern concept of hygiene, it was safe to say there was no regular patron who used the bathhouse as often as I did.

Those with money washed in their own homes, and those without would rather spend the bathing money on a single meal.

“1 silver coin.”

The owner’s memory wasn’t that great, so it was a shame I couldn’t be treated as a regular.

“6 copper coins.”

“Just a moment.”

I pulled out a silver coin I had hidden deep in the inner pocket of my linen shirt.

I handed the owner a silver coin bearing the portrait of an unknown figure, and in return, I received 4 copper coins as change, a cloth to wipe my body, and a warning.

“Wash your body before getting into the bath. Take off your clothes and leave them here. Don’t do your laundry inside.”

“Yes.”

A few frugal souls attempted to do their laundry and bathing simultaneously, but from the bathhouse owner’s perspective, they must have been a nightmare.

Submerging myself in a bath where dirty water was floating around was out of the question for me, too.

Since the changing room couldn’t possibly have personal lockers, I deliberately took my expensive linen shirt inside with me, fearing it might get stolen.

And then, to prevent it from getting wet, I neatly folded and placed it in a dry spot.

It might have seemed petty, but it was unavoidable if I wanted to wear that expensive shirt for a long time.

“Huaaa-“

The presence I felt at that moment.

Was there an early guest?

Turning my head, I saw a familiar face.

One of the peers who had completed the shieldbearer training course alongside me.

He wasn’t one of the guys who had bullied me, but we weren’t close enough to exchange words either, so I didn’t acknowledge him.

We were both too tired to waste mental energy on pointless karma.

Shhhh-

Returning to my natural state, I thoroughly washed my filthy body under the running water. There was no soap and the water pressure was weak, but it was satisfying enough.

The water that flowed to the floor headed toward a hole in the corner of the room.

The water that had passed over my body would flow through a septic tank and back into the water supply.

Recycling with a nearly 0% loss rate.

That was the reason the bathhouse was so cheap, all thanks to the rapid development of Magic Engineering over the past 100 years.

Fortunately, the Empire, with its advanced magic and engineering technology, wasn’t such a bad place for a human with modern sensibilities to live.

“It’s damp.”

Despite my best efforts to avoid getting wet, my clothes had absorbed the moisture in the air.

It felt a bit unpleasant, but the weather was sunny, so it would dry quickly as I walked around.

Growl-

After finishing my shower, I headed to a restaurant.

An ordinary restaurant situated right next to the bathhouse.

As I entered the restaurant, a burst of delicious smells wafted over, and smelling the food made my mouth water involuntarily.

“The basic menu, please.”

“Yes-“

After ordering my meal, I casually took a seat at an empty table.

I spotted a few familiar guild staff members around. They were probably here for a late lunch after their shift.

A sparse, round wooden table. It wasn’t long before it was filled with food.

“Your order is ready!”

Bread that seemed freshly baked despite the lunch hour, with warm steam rising from it. A slightly cooled soup packed with chunks of meat. And finally, a plate of nameless weeds masquerading as a salad—that was today’s menu.

Slurp-

‘Not bad.’

It wasn’t that the grain known as rice didn’t exist, but the Luteran region was more suitable for growing wheat than rice.

Thanks to that, the staple food of the residents here was bread, not rice.

Due to a lack of spices, the food was generally bland, but the Empire’s cuisine was quite edible.

There were times when I used to crave spicy foods like kimchi stew or doenjang stew, but perhaps because I suffered from severe stomach issues during my days living on the streets, my palate had adapted to become omnivorous.

After filling my stomach to some extent. Feeling relaxed, I manipulated the Device attached to my wrist and brought up a holographic window.

The Device was a mandatory purchase upon acquiring a Champion’s qualification, a special item that integrated all sorts of Magic Engineering technology.

The rental fee was cheap, too. Only 1 gold per month.

The Device served as a means of communication, an ID card, a battlefield management system, and even allowed for home shopping.

But it was an item that couldn’t be obtained without a Champion’s qualification.

“Shop.”

Ding-

A new screen popped up along with the trigger word.

And various pop-up windows appeared.

Items purchasable with gold.

Several recommended catalogs popped up, but I didn’t hesitate.

This was the reason I had desperately participated in battlefields and saved up gold all this time.

[Paid 100 gold to purchase ‘Lowest-Grade Skill Book (★)’.]

[Remaining Gold: 0G]