IBMATG 2

IBMATG

Posted by Enrique, Released on September 2, 2025

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Chapter 2 At the moment I was thinking I should dump all the money I had into buying diamonds.

Suddenly, a strange thought struck me.

‘A thousand won for a thousand gold. Ten thousand won for ten thousand gold. How can the numbers line up so perfectly?’

At first glance, it didn’t seem strange at all.

After all, it’s entirely possible to design a system where the ratio of real currency to in-game currency is kept simple for user convenience.

But the real problem was this:

‘Then… who built this system in the first place?’

The world turning into a game wasn’t something that happened only in Korea.

It was happening everywhere, to everyone across the globe.

Even here at Seoul Station, there were plenty of awakened foreigners who had come from overseas looking for work.

So in this world, why would some god suddenly create a convenient system just for Koreans?

It made no sense.

[CURRENCY EXCHANGE]

And the reason I couldn’t help but think this way was right in front of my eyes—there was a foreign exchange booth.

‘Then… what happens if I buy gold with U.S. dollars?’

The current exchange rate was 1,201 won per dollar.

If 1,000 won equaled 1,000 gold, then buying gold with 1 dollar should yield 1,201 gold.

But if that were true, it would be terribly inconvenient for Americans, since their dollar would buy less.

‘Purchase.’

I transferred some unused foreign currency into a bank account and bought gold with dollars.

And then—

[Gold Balance: 1]

‘…What?’

I had received only 1 gold.

Buying gold with 1 dollar had given me exactly 1 gold.

“This is ridiculous… what kind of scam—”

But at that moment, a thought flashed through my mind.

‘Wait.’

1,000 won equals 1,000 gold.

1 dollar equals 1 gold.

And right in front of me, I saw—

‘Indonesian Rupiah.’

So I tried again, this time wiring some Indonesian rupiah.

The exchange rate was 12,820 rupiah per 1,000 won.

I used that to purchase gold.

[Gold Balance: 12,821]

‘I get it.’

Now I understood the rule.

This broken system didn’t care at all about currency value.

Which meant: the bigger the denomination, the cheaper the unit value of the currency, the greater the profit!

So what I had to do next was obvious.

[Search: The world’s lowest-value currency]

Internet search.

‘Zimbabwe… discontinued. Venezuela, Iran… can’t exchange those here. Vietnamese dong… this is it!’

Among the currencies I could actually trade at the bank, the Vietnamese dong had the lowest value per unit.

One dollar was 23,037 dong.

So I immediately exchanged one million won into dong.

That was 20,661,157 dong.

Converted into gold, then into diamonds, combined with what I already had—

{You have obtained 206,739 Diamonds.}

“Holy shit!”

I accidentally shouted in the middle of the station.

People glanced at me, then shook their heads pitifully before turning away.

To them, I probably looked like some poor guy who had just lost money on stocks.

But in reality, it was the opposite.

[Diamond Balance: 206,982]

At a rate of 500,000 won per 10 diamonds—

I now had over 10.34 billion won worth of diamonds.

All from just about one million won.

There were many ways to spend diamonds.

But putting aside all the secondary, trivial uses, there was really one main course:

Summoning a new guardian spirit.

<Status>

Title: None
Name: Yoo Shin-woo
Guardian Spirit: Hoplite (Low-rank)

Every awakener, at the moment of awakening, receives a unique guardian spirit.

And the power of that guardian spirit defines the power of the awakener.

It determines what weapon they use, which stats are emphasized, and what skills they gain.

In game terms, the guardian spirit is basically your class or job.

But unlike games where everyone has an equal chance to choose a class, guardian spirits are random.

Low, High, Rare, Historical, Legendary.

Five ranks in total.

The odds are completely random.

A lucky few awaken with a legendary guardian spirit, but most people start off with a low-rank one, like me.

Of course, you’re not stuck with that forever.

For 300 diamonds (about 15 million won), you can re-summon your guardian spirit.

But the catch is—your chances of getting something better are astronomically low.

[Overseas statistics suggest that the odds of obtaining a Rare or higher guardian spirit are less than 0.05%.]

[Historical and Legendary are even rarer: estimated at 0.003% and 0.00025%, respectively.]

[With each re-summon costing 300 diamonds (15 million won), summoning a legendary guardian spirit has an expected value of 6 trillion won!]

So there were only two ways to become strong in this world.

Either be absurdly lucky—or have the resources to pour mountains of diamonds into re-summoning.

“Six trillion won…”

Click, click.

I muttered that impossible number as I scrolled my mouse.

Right now, I was researching guardian spirit re-summons online.

No one knew for sure if the rumors were true.

After all, it was a realm inaccessible to normal people.

Still, I was browsing a fairly reliable site I had used before.

[Think six trillion is too cheap? Do you have more money than Korea’s richest man, the chairman of the Baeksan Group, who has 15 trillion won in assets? Then you should attempt it right now!]

[Because Historical and Legendary guardian spirits are unique. Once someone owns one, no one else can ever get the same one.]

[So don’t wait too long—otherwise you might never get a legendary guardian spirit, no matter how much money you throw at it later.]

“…Yeah. I can’t be late.”

I smirked.

Before, that smile would’ve been hollow.

But not anymore.

Because to me, diamonds were nothing more than dirt-cheap currency.

“I really do feel like a tycoon now.”

It wasn’t like I had suddenly been revealed as the heir to a conglomerate.

But I had obtained something of equal—or even greater—value.

“This smartphone… this is a divine gift.”

I had no choice but to admit it now.

This wasn’t just an ordinary smartphone.

It was a sacred relic, a miracle from heaven.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

With the 200,000 diamonds I had, I could perform 689 re-summons.

Without hesitation, I began spending them all.

{Do you want to re-summon your guardian spirit?}

A message appeared, and unfamiliar scenes began unfolding before my eyes.

My Hoplite vanished, and a new form appeared, bathed in light.

{Low-rank Guardian Spirit: Ronin acquired.}

A katana-wielding swordsman.

Trash.

I re-summoned again.

{High-rank Guardian Spirit: Dire Wolf acquired.}

A high-rank this time.

Still not good enough.

Again.

…

Most of the summons were low-rank, with the occasional high-rank.

“Just give me a Rare…”

That’s what I was aiming for.

If I could just get a Rare, I’d be able to enter a major corporation’s core division and earn billions per year.

From there, I could steadily save and upgrade until I reached Historical or Legendary.

And the day I obtained a Legendary guardian spirit, I’d be free forever from the miserable life of scraping by for equipment.

“Just a Rare, just a Rare…”

As I prayed desperately and kept rolling—

{Historical Guardian Spirit: Lionheart King Richard acquired.}

“Ah…”

The moment I saw it, my eyes rolled back.

I remembered once going to a casino.

I’d never been into gambling—I’d seen too many people ruin their lives with it.

But that day, I had time to spare and some cash in my pocket, so I tried a slot machine.

The dazzling reels, the loud noises.

Before I knew it, I had blown 500,000 won into that tiny machine.

It wasn’t poker or blackjack with huge bets, just a few thousand won at a time.

Compared to others who lost fortunes there, it was nothing.

But it taught me just how dangerous gambling was.

The thing that hooked me was the 100x jackpot I hit soon after starting.

When 1,000 won suddenly turned into 100,000 in seconds, a few tens of thousands suddenly felt like nothing.

That’s exactly how I felt now.

I had pulled a Historical guardian spirit almost immediately.

It made me feel like the Legendary tier was within reach if I just pushed a little further.

‘0.00025% chance.’

And it wasn’t just blind hope.

‘With an expected value of six trillion won… but using this smartphone and Vietnamese dong exchange rates, it’s doable!’

From that day, I scoured everywhere to gather money.

I canceled weapon orders, broke savings accounts, even took out loans.

Then exchanged it all into dong, bought gold, and converted into diamonds.

For nearly a month, I did nothing but re-summon guardian spirits.

“…It’s done.”

Every day, exchanging, purchasing, rolling.

In that time, I gathered about 400 million won, even borrowing from secondary lenders.

Converted, that became 88,473,617 diamonds.

Which meant a total of 294,912 re-summons.

At market value?

4.423 trillion won.

And after all that—

“It’s done!”

{Legendary Guardian Spirit: Evil Dragon Azidahaka acquired.}

I had done it.

Years earlier than I’d ever imagined.

Of course, I now had over 3 billion won in debt.

Including loan sharks.

It was insanity.

But I didn’t care anymore.

Because I now had a Legendary Guardian Spirit.

<Evil Dragon Azidahaka>

Incarnation of Angra Mainyu, who drives the world into destruction. Possesses overwhelming magical power and uses every evil art to steal life from God’s creations.

Its description was extraordinary.

Its appearance, monstrous.

A dragon with three heads, terrifying beyond words.

And it was mine—mine alone.

The one and only of its kind in the world.

It wasn’t just the power—it carried a sense of destiny.

“…But why are its stats like this?”