I Woke Up as the Villain

Yu-Seong proposed a short-term contract first, which could then be upgraded to a long-term contract depending on the reporters' performance. He thought they would be a bit reluctant, but they seemed delighted as they rushed back with a response the very next day.

That wasn’t all. The media company that the reporters belonged to gladly let them work with Yu-Seong and keep their employment contracts. There was also a rumor that both the editor and CEO were excited when they heard Choi Yu-Seong's name. The company’s condition was to post the video taken by the two reporters to their media outlets first.

Yu-Seong wanted the same outcome, so there was no problem whatsoever. And just like that, he was able to sign a short-term contract with the two reporters quite easily. In addition, he reactivated his social media Outstagram account, which he had been keeping private, because he was dismayed by how quickly time was passing him by.

He had already decided to become an attention seeker anyway, and was planning to build his reputation by sharing his useless private life onto social media just like a celebrity would. The goal was more than just to expose himself to the public and reduce the threat.

‘It’s for the full growth of Star Factor skill.’

As a result, Yu-Seong planned to increase the efficiency of increasing experience points and opening up additional capabilities that were still sealed. After all, the basis of the hunter was high rank and high level. It was no different from the games that Yu-Seong had once worked hard to develop. No matter how powerful the skills he had and how useful they were during battles, no gap in ranks and levels could be easily bridged by them. This was especially true when the rank itself was overwhelmingly different.

Eventually, he would have to raise the level. In that sense, the Star Factor skill that benefited the rate of level increase through increasing experience points was the best treasure.

For this reason, Yu-Seong began to share his daily life on social media, such as taking pictures while dressed up with people commonly called influencers or celebrities.

A week soon passed. Yu-Seong drank red mana drinks every day, went to the dungeon, drank Hunting experience boost potions, and focused on level growth. He also exposed his pictures and videos throughout the media. The result was quite good.

『Name: Choi Yu-Seong

Age: 21

Type: All-Rounder

Rank: D

Level: 7 → 22

Retention History: 1

Chakra: 803 → 1,023』

Just looking at the necessary parts, Yu-Seong could confirm his rapid growth.

‘I passed 1,000 Chakra points.’ 

The tremendous increase of level in just one week was certainly helpful, but the biggest improvement was because of the Chakra breathing through the mana drink.

‘It felt great when I first drank the red mana drink and gained 50 points.’

Yu-Seong's prediction was just right. When he changed the color itself, he noticed a big increase compared to the dark gray drink. Of course, the cost-effectiveness began to decrease exponentially, and the next day, the increased points were 40, then 35, and so on. However, it stopped falling from the moment it hit exactly 15 increased points.

‘As I expected, I got the best result when I drank it the first time.’

The eventual effect was quite disappointing for 100 million won, but Yu-Seong had already ordered the higher-rank orange and yellow mana drinks already. If possible, it would be best for him to drink at least the first glass of mana drinks in all colors.

However, unlike gray and red mana drinks, it was not easy and could take some time to obtain the two higher rank mana drinks. However, the search would not be too long and they would be found after waiting a little while. In addition, Choi Yu-Seong was planning to continue drinking red mana drinks that kept the minimum mana increase of 15.

‘Actually, the minimum increase of points for the gray mana drinks eventually dropped to 10. If I consider the price and efficiency, I know it's right to choose a gray drink instead, but…’

In fact, the accumulation of losing five points each time would make a considerable difference.

Yu-Seong might face a slight lack of money later on, but since he was a conglomerate’s son, he could easily find many ways to obtain money. So, he chose the definite way to grow faster rather than to spend less money.

Though, it seemed that these efforts of his were certainly meaningful. On the overseas personal website ‘Ranker’ —which he had recently discovered—Choi Yu-Seong's ability stats had changed.

‘Chakra... I mean, mana, since this homepage is all written in terms of mana…’

Yu-Seong’s absolute amount of mana had been updated to 980 yesterday.

‘Yesterday, my Chakra was already barely over 1,000. It's not exactly right, but it's pretty accurate. It’s likely that the website’s owner has the skill to know the abilities of the player?’ 

If one had a similar ability to Kim Do-Jin's insight, it was possible. However, there seemed to be a limit to what could be known.

'There is an evaluation of publicly known skills, but there is no information about skills that are not directly revealed by the player.’ 

For example, Choi Yu-Seong's mana was actually Chakra. The basic effect of Chakra was similar to mana, but additional abilities existed separately, such as strengthening the body directly. In addition, there may be hidden abilities that Yu-Seong himself did not know yet.

However, there was no such record on the website. The fact that Yu-Seong's Chakra was marked as mana like other hunters in the first place would mean that not everything could be perfectly known.

‘Still, that important part is that it's quite reliable.’ 

It wasn’t perfectly trustworthy, but quite reliable information about the hunters was given. In fact, there were quite a few similar websites around the world. However, it was rare that the accuracy was as high as this website.

Suddenly, Yu-Seong was curious about the face and name of the website’s owner. But unfortunately, the owner did not write down any personal information.

‘Yeah, it would be a problem if a ranker who’s not satisfied with his score comes after him.’

That would be unsurprising, of course. Choi Yu-Seong shrugged his shoulders and switched the screen to check his score and ranking, which would clearly have rebounded.

A week before the day of discharge, Yu-Seong's evaluation was ranked 7th with 8.3 points in the D-rank. Since his mana points were noticeably higher compared to by the time after his dungeon video was released, he expected the ranking to rise by at least one or as many as three. However, he tilted his head after looking at the D-rank ranking table.

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‘Huh?’

Among the names listed from top to bottom, from first place to the last, Yu-Seong’s rank was still seventh. That was right after the sixth-place Indian hunter, Ram Mukherji. At first, he was shocked for a while, but he did find a change after looking at it closely.

'The ranking and rating records are all underlined.’ 

In addition, there was a saying ‘Measurement hold’ in small letters next to Choi Yu-Seong's name.

‘Does that mean there's not enough data about me? Or is it difficult for the website’s owner to judge?’

Whatever it was, it was a bit disappointing for Yu-Seong, since he was curious about the immediate record.

‘Well... This wouldn’t change anything.’ 

Although it was true that he was interested in it, Yu-Seong was more excited than disappointed by this situation.

‘The results might be better after the measurement hold is over.’ 

Choi Yu-Seong was rapidly becoming stronger than other rankers with the help of various environments, situations, and skills. Perhaps the owner of the website noticed the fact and put his stats on hold.

After a short bitterness, he closed the website ‘Ranker’ and moved on to his next goal–checking NewTube.

The journalists, Park Jin-Hwan and Kim Jin-Young, who had great writing skills themselves, even hired a professional video editor and reached 700,000 subscribers in a week. The two reporters said it was regrettable that they failed to reach their goal of 1 million, but it was satisfactory enough for Choi Yu-Seong. They did something that could take years for someone in just a week. Moreover, the length of the video was not short and the number of views was quite high, so the advertising revenue would be immediately paid.

Choi Yu-Seong had a lot of money already, but he thought it would be good to have more. For him, hunting was something he had to do anyway so making income from that was like killing two birds with one stone.

"All right, all right."

Was it because he never lived a busy week doing various things like this? Yu-Seong was quite tired but was satisfied with the results. He then finally checked his social media Outstagram account.

‘10,000 followers so far.’

The word ‘follower’ was interpreted as supporter or believer. In other words, it meant that the number of supporters of Choi Yu-Seong on Outstagram, a social media platform, had already surpassed 10,000.

Compared to NewTube, it seemed like a fairly slow speed. However, fundamentally, Outstagram was a space where people gather to see the character named Choi Yu-Seong, not just a specific content.

In addition, since it was not possible for him to promote his account much, it was inevitable that the speed of increase of followers was relatively slow as one would have to find the account manually.

‘Even so, it’s still a bit disappointing considering there are over 1,000 comments in the NewTube video, but…’

Choi Yu-Seong briefly checked his followers' numbers and tilted his head.

‘What?’

It wasn’t just ten thousand. Yu-Seong was momentarily confused because it was written in a mysterious way—‘100k’—but when he checked it closely, it was exactly 10 times more than he first thought. It was 100,000.

"...Wow."

In addition, the number of followers still increased in real-time. Even though, there were only five photos of himself posted on his Outstagram, so-called Outstar.

‘Wait, isn't this growth considered super fast?’ 

All over the world, it was quite common for superstars, or celebrities, to be hunters. The job of ‘celebrity hunter’ became common since it was a good progression for attention seekers who were originally either a hunter or a celebrity.

Of course, there were quite a few such figures in Korea as well. So far, the most influential figure on social media was Kim Hyuk-Joon, an A-rank hunter. He had 98,000 followers more than a week after he started Outstar. As a result, it became a huge headline with various entertainment media making a fuss and reporting.

"I have 2,000 more followers than him… And Kim Do-Jin... He doesn't use social media. That's a surprise."

It was somewhat childish, but Yu-Seong felt good after comparing his follower count with Hyuk-Joon’s. Then, he looked up Kim Do-Jin's name and scratched his cheek. Needless to say, he thought Kim Do-Jin was also a person who enjoyed public attention and so would have social media.