His fingers trembled as the realization hit.
"I've entered Neptuan Online."
A question—sharp, cold—stabbed through his thoughts. One he should've asked earlier:
"But… how did I even get inside this game world?"
But nothing came to his mind. Once again, he turned to look at the elf girl.
Name: Lana
Character: 7★
Rank: 3★
He blinked in surprise. A 7-star character? He hadn't expected to encounter someone of that level so soon.
Never in my dreams did I think I'd meet a 7-star this early on, he thought to himself, still stunned.
He remembered the rating system from the game Neptune—crystal clear in his mind. In Neptune, every character was assigned a rating based on their talent, potential, and bloodline. The system ranked them from 1★ to 9★, with stark differences between tiers:
1–3★: Normal
4–5★: Noble
6–7★: Royal
8★: Chosen One
9★: The Emperor
His thoughts sharpened. Wait… Does that mean Lana is from a royal family?
Just then, noticing Jin suddenly falling silent, the old man scoffed.
"What's wrong, kid? One slap and you're already quiet? Did he scare you that much?"
Jin, still slightly dizzy, responded groggily, "Me? Scared? Even in my dreams, I wouldn't be…"
But then his eyes caught the floating card above the old man's head.
Name: Mihon
Character: 5★
Rank: 6★
Class: Alchemist
Jin's pupils widened. A 6-star rank?! He couldn't believe it.
In Neptune, raising one's rank was no joke. The system there was brutal and rigid.
1★ Rank = Level 1–10
2★ Rank = Level 11–30
And so on, progressing slowly...
To reach 6★ Rank was no small feat. People at that level were often elders or leaders of royal families.
Jin gave an evil smile in his mind. Look, at the start of this new life, I've found a 7★ character and a 6★ rank person. If they're with me, I can easily get out of here.
Then, Something clicked in his mind. He thought, Wait, what is my character rating I saw then. He commanded again,
"Status"
The STATUS SCREEN opens in front of him.
┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ STATUS SCREEN ┃
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ Name : Jin Level : 7
┃ Rank : 0★ Character : 10★
┃ EXP : 0 / 100
┃ Class : N/A
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ HP : 7 / 10 MP : 20 / 20
┃ Stat Points : 0 Skill Points : 0
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ STATS:
┃ Strength : 3 Agility : 7
┃ Endurance : 6 Intelligence : 12
┃ Perception : 3 Willpower : 5
┃ Charisma : 15 Luck : 20
┣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┫
┃ SKILLS:
┃ [Equipment] Finger energy shot (lvl 1)
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
He was surprised to see that his character rating was 10★. He was utterly shocked — a 10★ character, and it was his! His heart leapt with joy. But suddenly he remembered that in the game, character ratings only ranged from 1 to 9 stars. So how did he get a 10★ character rating?
Still staring, Jin was lost in thought. Mihon, noticing his silence, raised an eyebrow.
"What now? Is something stuck to my face? Why are you staring at me like that?"
Jin snapped his gaze away, forcing a chuckle.
"N-nothing. Just… by the way, you seem really powerful. So… how did you end up imprisoned here?"
Mihon let out a deep sigh.
"Don't even get me started. All of this happened because of that damn student of mine. It's his fault I'm here today."
He growled and clenched his fists.
"If I ever get my hands on that brat, I'll rip his head clean off! I'll chew him up like—like a damn freak! That asshole… that cursed bastard… that %#!¡"
He ranted on and on, raining curses upon his student.
Jin quickly raised his hands.
"Alright, alright! Calm down, old man! You're not getting any younger, y'know? If you keep shouting like this, your heart might just give out."
Hearing that, the old man paused. His rants turned into grumbles, and he started muttering under his breath like a scolded child.
He's totally lost it… Jin muttered.
After a short silence, Jin asked, "Do you happen to know how we can get out of here?"
Mihon said, "How would I know any of this? I'm trapped here just like you."
Jin scoffed. "And here I thought you were powerful. But now it seems all you're good at is running your mouth."
Suddenly, Lana cut in between them. "What are you guys talking about?"
Jin waved her off. "It's just that we are talking about how to escape from this place."
Lana's eyes sparkled as she heard Jin.
"Tell me too! I want to hear your plan!" she said, her voice rising with excitement.
As her voice rose, one of the cult members stepped in front of her. Lana froze, stunned. She could sense a sudden presence beside her—cold and heavy, like a shadow pressing against her skin.
Jin's eyes shifted to that guy. It's the same guy who slapped him before. He looked at above his head, and a character card appeared in his vision:
Name: Leon
Character: 3★
Rank: 5★
Class: Demon Mage
Leon extended his hand and grabbed Lana by the hair. "I told you to stay quiet, didn't I?"
Lana screamed in pain, "Ahhhh!"
Jin's eyes blazed with fury. "I said—let her go!"
Leon looked at Jin and smirked. "The magic circle is ready. I'm taking her now. You're next."
Without another word, he cut Lana's ropes with the dagger in his hand, and with his power, he lifted Lana into the air. Then, with chilling calmness, he carried her into the center of the magic circle and gently laid her down.
Watching all of this unfold, Jin's heart pounded in fear.
"What are you doing to her?" he shouted. "If even a scratch touches her body, I swear—I won't let you live!"
But Leon paid him no attention. He knelt at one edge of the circle and began chanting an incantation, his voice a deep, rhythmic murmur.
Panicking, Jin turned to Mihon, still dangling in chains nearby.
"Hey, old man! They're taking Lana! Do something—fast!"
Mihon groaned. "I want to help, but I can't do anything right now."
"What? Why not? Aren't you a Rank 6? Taking care of those guys should be nothing for someone like you!"
Mihon opened his mouth, "My body—" And then he stopped mid-sentence.
"What is it? What's wrong with your body? Why'd you stop?" Jin pressed.
Mihon narrowed his eyes. "Hold on… how do you even know I'm Rank 6?"
Jin hesitated, caught off guard. "That's not important right now! Save Lana first!"
Mihon's gaze hardened, studying him with deep suspicion.
"Stop looking at me like that and do something!" Jin snapped.
"I want to save her too," Mihon replied. "But there's nothing I can do. My body is bound by an Authority Seal."
Jin froze. Authority Seal. Not just any seal—it was one of the highest forms of restriction in this world. It had multiple levels, and even the lowest tier required sacrificing ten 3★ individuals to activate. And if this seal is placed on someone, they won't be able to use their powers.
"You probably don't even know what an Authority Seal is," Mihon muttered.
"I do," Jin cut him off. "I know exactly what it is."
Now Mihon was truly shocked. This kid knows about Authority Seals? Before he could ask anything, Jin added, "And aren't you an alchemist? Can't you find a way to break it?"
The old man looked like he'd just been struck by lightning.
"Y-you even know I'm an alchemist?!"
"There's no time to talk!" Jin interrupted again. "I'll explain everything later. Just save the girl now! Did you even see her eyes? How innocent they were? Her face—so cute! She can't be older than 18! She hasn't even seen the world yet! Would you really let her die like this?"
Jin paused, then added with a straight face, "If it were you lying there, I wouldn't care as much. You're old anyway."
Mihon stared at him, stunned. "Let me ask you something… are you really a child?"
"What kind of question is that?" Jin retorted. "If you're not sure, I'll show you my pants and prove my machine's working. Now SAVE HER!"