Volume 11 Chapter 5

Volume 11, Chapter 5: "Lee Hyun's First Class"

Lee Hyun's First Class
Volume:	11
Chapter:	5
Chapter Chronology
← Previous	Volume 11 Chapter 4
Next →	Volume 11 Chapter 6

Short Summary

In real life, Lee Hyun's first day of class at Korea University finally arrives. He enters his classroom for the morning lecture of his virtual reality major, but Hyun ends up leaving a bad first impression on his fellow freshmen classmates, who come to view Hyun as a senior student that possibly failed the class previously. When the morning lecture starts, the Virtual Reality Professor starts off going over the origins of virtual reality, and how it eventually led up to the Unicorn Corporation becoming the kings in the field when their virtual reality game, Royal Road, took the world by storm.

The class lecture continues where Hyun's professor switches over to discussing how the artisan classes for Royal Road are currently going through a re-evaluation amongst players after witnessing the in-game benefits they provide. One art topic the professor brings up is how Artistic Value works in-game to rank the artworks people create, which basically comes down to needing to create original works that were inspired by something to get the best score, but that no one actually knows how the game works when it comes to critiquing art since such information is classified. The professor also remembers back to an exotic moment that he witnessed when he was completing game quests for his Landscaper class. He points out to his students that the true purpose of Royal Road is to provide players with precious moments that leave behind a lasting impression on the player.

After the morning lecture ends, Hyun has over 2 hours to waste before the afternoon lecture starts, which he uses to eat his lunch, and take a nap. Once he returns to class, he sees that Lee Yu Jeong, Min Sura, and Choi Sang Joon are signed up for the afternoon lecture, which were some of the classmates he met awhile back at the college briefing session. Hyun then receives a phone call from Shin Hye Min moments before the next lecture starts. As it turns out, she told her colleagues at KMC Media that she's been on an adventure alongside the infamous Weed within the newly discovered lands of the vampires, which resulted in Director Kang wanting to start a new KMC broadcast showing off Weed's exploration of Todeum to their station's viewers. Shin Hye Min informs Hyun that they're planning to develop 1 episode for every 2 days that Weed's party spends in the vampire kingdom, and are ready to provide Weed and his companions with salaries, which Hyun accepts.  

His conversation with Shin Hye Min ends up grabbing the attention of all his classmates knowing how famous KMC Media's spokesperson is, but they end up not believing Hyun's calls are legit after he receives another unbelievable phone call from yet another famous person. This time from the idol, Jeong Hyo-Lynn, who just wanted to use a bit of her spare time talking with Hyun over the phone.

Characters

• Real Life
  • Lee Hyun
  • Lee Hye Yeon (mentioned)
  • Korea University
    • Soyun
    • Professor Hanh Minsoo (mentioned)
    • Hyun's Virtual Reality Class
      • Virtual Reality Professor (Landscaper class in Royal Road)
      • Kim Hyun Jun (Hyun's classmate)
      • Park Sumin (Hyun's classmate)
      • Lee Yu Jeong
      • Min Sura
      • Choi Sang Joon
  • KMC Media
    • Shin Hye Min
    • Director Kang
  • Jeong Hyo-Lynn
• Royal Road
  • Weed (mentioned)
  • Beraneo (Painter class, mentioned)
  • Tori (mentioned)

Quests

• (In the past, Hyun's professor for his virtual reality major took on a quest to help a girl raise up a flower, which caused him to realize that his calling is to be the Landscaper class. He then took on many different Landscaper quests afterwards.)

Items

• Paintings of the Continent (Painted by Beraneo, mentioned)

Trivia

1. The first day of Lee Hyun attending Korea University arrives in real life. He rides a bus to college on Monday where he overhears 3 female students discussing their majors. One is said to be going up in Regenerative Medicine tought by Professor Hanh Minsoo, snf one of the female students named Soyun is going up in Molecular Biology.
2. Hyun realizes that these girls are going up in the medical fields, which are said to last for 6 college years. Due to how expensive the medical field is, Hyun figures that they had to take out student loans.
3. The 3 girls notice Hyun checking them out on the bus, which Soyun is pushed forward by the other 2 to have her ask him out. However, Hyun apologizes for misleading them, and points out that the coffee they've been drinking is too expensive. He then uses the rest of the bus ride to get some sleep.
4. Korea University's lecture hall is said to be large and magnificent, and is filled with various state-of-the-art equipment.
5. Lee Hye Yeon doesn't start college on the same day as her brother since she's going up in a different major. She takes Liberal Arts on Friday.
6. It's said that the senior students of Korea University threw welcoming parties so that fellow students in the same curriculum can get acquainted with one another. They invited Hyun several times to go for his class, but he chose not to since the fee to join the welcoming party was 20,000 won.
7. Hyun enters his college classroom for his Virtual Reality major for the first time, and the first impression his classmates have of him is that he's a returning senior due to how old he looks compared to everyone else. 
8. Hyun's college supplies is an inexpensive old outdated laptop that he purchased from a marketplace on the internet. The laptop is said to be heavy and crude, but has good enough performance to not be that far behind the average stuff. However, Hyun forgot to get the required books for his major.
9. The class lecture for Hyun's first day of college is on the Existence of Virtual Reality topic, which he doesn't have the book for. A freshman girl next to him who thinks Hyun is an old senior offers to share her book, which Hyun accepts, but is forced to accept that his classmates think he's a senior student.
10. The professor goes over the Existence of Virtual Reality. Basically, it started off as Special Force army training to practice dangerous missions, but it wasn't at the point where a real person could be sent to another reality. Development in virtual reality was discovered to be a way to increase people's happiness, which led to companies competing to provide consumers with something fun to do in virtual reality. Eventually, the Unicorn Corporation rose to power with the introduction of their Royal Road game, which became the most loved game of humanity.
11. Due to his sleepiness, Hyun lets out a yawn during the lecture, which leaves a bad impression on his classmates thinking that he's an old returnee that failed previously. The girl that was sharing the book with him is also affected having moved the book 3 centimeters away from him.
12.  It's said that Royal Road is popular amongst the students, and that only a few people in the Virtual Reality major actually haven't played it.
13. The professor moves on to discussing what his class' favorite things about Royal Road is knowing that just talking about its origin is the boring part. The professor points out how virtual reality can be used as a tool for study, and asks his class how they should react towards someone that has taken on an artisan class in Royal Road now that Art classes are currently in a re-evaluation era.
14. It's said that if a Bard artisan class takes part in the same quest as someone, they will go about singing and spreading rumors of the quest achievements. As a result, the person the Bard was paired with would earn more Fame than they would if the quest was completed without a Bard. Bards can also help people get Fame if they help Bards create new songs. It's for these reasons that Bards have no problem getting accepted into parties that take on higher-tier quests.
15. It's said that the Painter artisan class has a good reputation thanks to a high-skilled Painter named Beraneo, whose "Paintings of the Continent" are sought after desperately by nobles. Nobles have also been seeking out Painters in order to have face pictures made of adventurers they come to dislike. As a result, hated adventurers that have their face plastered everywhere get black-listed to no longer receive any special quests unless they have a high level or high intimacy rating. Basically, Painters gained a lot of recognition after people realized that they're capable of really screwing people over.
16. The professor describes the artisan class as something that used to be viewed as useless as if there's an orc ready to pounce on ya the moment you step out of the front door. However, that is no longer the case as people have now come to respect the Art classes, but is still a very difficult path to become a true artisan.
17. The professor's speech about the artisan class gets his students hyped up to possibly take on an Art class. However, Hyun finds them to be idiots remembering how artists turn out to be nothing but poor beggars in Rhodium.
18. The professor next asks the class how Artistic Values are related to Art tier-rankings, which student Kim Hyun Kun answers that it's probably based on the users skill level and skill proficiency. It's said to be similar to how the damage output for attacking skills for Fencing and Archery depended on their skill level. 
19. The professor replies that Kim's answer is wrong. Hyun thinks to himself that Artistic Value isn't based on just skill level. The use of art tools, and the amount of work put into an artwork, can also play a part.
20. A girl student that wears glasses, Park Sumin, is the next to try to answer claiming that Artistic Value is based on how detailed the object is. Hyun thinks to himself that that's hardly an answer since it's possible to copy something down to the littlest of details, but it could never be called art since they copied it.
21. After many more students try to answer, the professor asks a new question as to how one can assess a piece of art. The professor goes on a rant answering it himself that basically comes down to needing to find some sort of inspiration to make an artwork that's considered to have high-tier Artistic Value, and that usually artwork that's full of inspiration from one's mind is greater than even normal works created by the best artists. 
22. The professor points out that it's possible to create an art piece that's full of technical mistakes, but has higher Artistic Value than one that's been perfectly crafted, which Hyun agrees with upon remembering that some of his flawed sculptures got higher Artistic Value than sculptures he sculpted perfectly.
23. The professor goes over how Royal Road establishes Artistic Value, and theorizes that the game's system was built to have input of past real life artists. As a result, the game expects you to create something original rather than repeat something that was already established by past artists. The originality would then boost the Artistic Value. He also adds that while experts exist in real life to critique artworks, the only thing to go by in game is the critique of Royal Road's system, which no one can see since it's classified information.
24. One of the students asks if the professor knows how the Royal Road's art critique system works, which the professor answers that he doesn't, but theorizes that including skill level, there's possibly thousands of unknown variables that come into play.
25. The professor claims that it's best to not think about the critique process, and just go about creating things since Royal Road is just a black space in virtual reality. The professor then points out that Royal Road is capable of achieving one's dream while enjoying the challenges that the game dishes out.
26. The professor's character in Royal Road is said to be the Landscaper class, whose job was to cultivate flowers and trees. When he first created his character, the professor gave advice to a little child watering a flower as to how said flower can be brought up. This action resulted in a quest to provide the flower with water and fertilizer, which the professor took as a sign that his calling is to be a Landscaper.
27. After becoming a Landscaper, the professor took on many different landscaping quests, such as looking after extravagant gardens, but was still viewed as a poor person. However, one night after looking after a garden, he ends up witnessing an exotic moment seeing butterflies attracted by his blooming flowers. The professor points out that Royal Road's main purpose is to provide players with exotic sightings that leave behind a great impression.
28. After class, Hyun goes out to the campus lawn to eat his homemade food for lunch.  His lunch box food is Radish Kimchi and White Rice. The meal is said to be simple and tasted decent for genuine ingredients, but the Kimchi wasn't soaked well. The reason Hyun went with it was because soaking the Kimchi himself would have been more expensive.
29. With 2 hours to waste until the next lecture, Hyun decides to take a nap. His Virtual Reality classmates pass by him resting, which worsens Hyun's already bad reputation since they view Hyun as someone who just eats and sleeps. Basically, being lazy and idle.
30. After the nap, Hyun returns to his Virtual Reality class, which is set to go over the technological aspect of the subject. Only this time around, students that he met awhile back, Lee Yu Jeong, Min Sura, and Choi Sang Joon, are seen taking the class. However, Hyun still ended up sitting at his table alone.
31. 4 minutes before the lecture starts, Hyun gets a phone call from Shin Hye Min. His current phone is said to be old and used, and has it just to keep in touch with his sister. The phone isn't even capable of providing 3-dimensional images or online service.
32. At KMC Media, Director Kang is seen establishing a new broadcast that will help elders, which will overlap with their Terrestrial Drama show. This is because Royal Road has seen a spike in elder players in recent days, which Kang thinks will benefit in bringing in more of the younger generation if their seniors love the game.
33. It's said that commercial advertising fees are on the rise due to the growing popularity of Royal Road, which has resulted in fierce competition amongst current and new broadcasting channels for games. Some of KMC Media's current stories are of a war between the Legend of the Hammer Guild and Silver Wings guilds, and an adventurer that traveled to the north.
34. Shin Hye Min arrives late to KMC Media, which Director Kang asks what she was so busy with. She replies back that she's been on a quest with Weed. The same Weed that became famous in Continent of Magic. Director Kang is said to have become a benefactor due to Weed's accomplishments up to this point.
35. Shin Hye Min corrects herself Director Kang and the other KMC Media workers that she still hasn't reached the quest yet, but has been journeying through the vampire kingdom of Todeum where Tori grew up to reach the quest. Hearing about the vampire kingdom catches everyone's attention, which she explains everything that happened up until now.
36. Hearing that Weed's party will be in the newly discovered vampire kingdom for at least a month, Director Kang announces that they will start a special program as one of their regular broadcasts. He then orders his workers to call Weed so that they can persuade him to air his vampire kingdom journey.
37. Back in class, Hyun's phone call ends up grabbing the attention of his classmates hearing him namedrop the famous KMC Media host, Shin Hye Min. She informs Hyun that KMC Media wishes to broadcast their adventure in Todeum using the video footage of everyone from their party, but are morally obligated to require Hyun's permission first given that he's the party leader. 
38. Shin Hye Min informs him that along with Hyun getting paid a consultation fee, everyone in the party will get a salary. She also informs him that KMC Media wishes to make 1 episode for every 2 days that Weed and his companions spend in the vampire kingdom, which Hyun accepts.
39. After his phone call with Shin Hye Min, Hyun receives another phone call. This time around from the famous idol, Jeong Hyo-Lynn (Hwaryeong), which they discuss a new song she just recently released. Hyun's classmates wind up believing that Hyun is pulling a prank since it's too unbelievable that he would know two famous people in Shin Hye Min and Jeong Hyo-Lynn.