The VR online game with the largest number of players in the world was Zero Fantasy Online. ZFO, for short. And in it, he was about to become the first person on earth to reach the maximum level of 999.
Two hundred hours straight, without a break. As expected, it was too much. He wanted to eat and he wanted to sleep, and both of those things could wait until it was over. He just wanted to achieve something. He wanted to perfect at least one thing and become someone whose name would go down in history. Be it studies or sports, he had never once been able to become number one. But even so, if this was ZFO, he could become first in the world.
Or so it was meant to be.
When he attacked the monster, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart. His vision began to blur. He did not care about his condition at all. He only thought about how close he was to his victory. And so, right before the last level, he died, both in the game and in life.
But this was not the end of his story. It was only the beginning.
He opened his eyes and saw tree foliage above him. Just as he was wondering where he was, a farmer's indignant cry came from the side. Right now, goblins were rampaging through the field, trampling watermelons and other crops, and the farmers were trying to drive them away.
He stood up and looked around. One of the farmers attacked a goblin with a hoe, but the hoe simply broke. A level seven fire goblin turned to him with displeasure and asked what the hell he thought he was doing. The poor level one farmer screamed in fear and took off running.
He stretched his arm. He felt his body very well, just like in real life. Now he realized that he had been reborn in the game world. For him, this wasn't even something surprising. He immediately opened the status window.
His name was Allen. He hadn't chosen a class yet. It was a nice name, he noted — but he was only level one. He had been so close to becoming the world's first max level player, and again he couldn't reach the top.
One of the farmers called him an adventurer and begged him to hurry and save them. Allen almost chuckled. An NPC villager, recognizing him as an adventurer and asking for help. That meant that just like in the game's main story, this world also had a plot in which adventurers fought the demon lord's army.
He asked the farmer to wait a second so he could choose a class first.
"Was he only level one?" the old man exclaimed in surprise. At level one, the guy said, he was no different from them. He couldn't defeat a fire goblin.
And they were right. At level one, he couldn't defeat that monster. So what should he do? The enemy was level seven, hard to defeat with a normal class. But he had an idea.
Artisan. A strange class that could only use the item creation skill. In the game, it was considered the worst, trashiest class in existence. But in this situation, where the plot had become reality, with his current capabilities, he should be able to use the Artisan's ability.
He chose the class. Basic equipment immediately appeared on him, and he used the creation skill. An assault rifle appeared out of a small magic cube. The weapon had automatic reloading, but while the magazine was empty, attacking was temporarily impossible.
He smirked at his success. The ability to create items, if you accurately understood their structure, also worked with the items he had known before rebirth. To think that the greatest minds of his world would actually come in handy here. If he could understand the structure, he could even recreate a fighter jet.
The NPCs were shocked. They had never seen such a weapon before, but they were even more perplexed by the fact that he had become an Artisan. That was the worst class.
Allen chuckled. It seemed that in this world, Artisans were also considered trash. He would prove them wrong.
He pulled the trigger and opened fire. The farmers were frightened by the loud sound, and when they saw something pierce the goblins' bodies several times at high speed, they were shocked. In a world where only medieval technology existed, Allen could bring as many modern things as he wanted. For him, the Artisan was a god tier class.
Right before their eyes, a level one adventurer had instantly killed a level seven goblin. What the hell was that?
Allen decided to give them weapons so they could destroy the monsters themselves. They clumsily picked up the rifles and asked in confusion whether he would really give them such a powerful weapon. He answered them that as a craftsman, he could create as much as he wanted, and they thanked him.
But the young farmer was worried about something. What if they hit an ally?
Allen told him not to worry. He had imposed restrictions so that the rifles wouldn't damage anything except monsters. He shot at the man to prove it, and the man was terrified — but the bullets merely slammed into him and crumpled, as if they had hit something impenetrable. Now that they were sure the weapon was completely safe, they confidently opened fire on the goblins.
Allen could simply stand aside and not participate. His level rose to two, which surprised him slightly. He hadn't thought leveling up would be so fast just from supplying farmers with weapons.
Crafted weapons could be passed on to others. And if monsters were killed with those weapons, part of the experience was returned to the creator. That is, to him.
After they finished with the goblins, the old man approached him and thanked him for his help, giving him a fire goblin magic stone as thanks. These stones contained the power of monsters, and adventurers earned money by exchanging them at the guild. The guild extracted magical power from them and converted it into universal energy.
Suddenly, a loud scream was heard. The goblin boss had arrived.
The NPCs scattered in panic, and Allen immediately realized that this enemy was serious. He was level 13, much stronger than the ordinary monsters. Two of the farmers immediately opened fire on him, thinking they would easily deal with him, but it was not to be. He was able to defend himself with his steel shield.
After that, the goblin laughed at them. He was not in pain. It did not even itch. Their attacks did not work.
Because of this, the farmers were confused, and Allen thought: this is bad. With his current level, it would be difficult to create a weapon capable of defeating that thing. The goblin went on the attack. The two farmers immediately started running, and one of them warned Allen that he also needed to leave, otherwise he would be killed.
But Allen was not going to. He looked at the magic stone in his hand and thought that the crafting skill could be used to repair items. In that case, couldn't he use things as materials?
He took two rifles, combined them with the magic stone, and got a rocket launcher with very high damage. It seemed that using the magic stone had a special effect. He even reduced the magazine to a single shot to increase the power. Plus, the effect of the magic stone was added on top.
He took aim and fired. The rocket hit the monster's head. It clearly hadn't expected that and didn't have time to dodge. Then there was a powerful explosion, and Allen's level immediately rose to four. He had single-handedly defeated a higher level boss, which was quite an achievement.
Such a large monster left behind a correspondingly sized stone.
All the farmers were shocked. He had killed the boss with one shot. Shouldn't crafted weapons be weaker than regular ones?
Allen put away the rocket launcher and thought about it. Weapons crafted using magic stones broke after depleting their magic power. A regular creation, and a creation with magic stones. He needed to consider when to use each.
The farmers, perplexed, asked why he was so strong. Was he from a famous clan of adventurers?
He told them that he wasn't. As far as they could see, he was just a newbie.
And so, a unique craftsman was born into this world. The only one capable of ending the long war with the demon lord's army — though he himself did not realize it yet.