Rather than sitting around imagining it, John decided it was better to put it into action.
Without much hesitation, he quickly found the general store in Novice Village.
The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man with a thick beard.
He took a swig of beer, let out a burp, and asked, "Young man, I've got everything here. Take a look and see what you want."
John got straight to the point. "I need a wallet."
With a flip of his hand, the shopkeeper produced a wallet made from the hide of some unknown beast and placed it on the counter.
"Five hundred copper coins."
A transaction window popped up in front of John.
He chose to complete the trade without hesitation.
As the 500 copper coins in his account dropped to zero, the wallet turned into a streak of light and merged into his body.
[Wallet bound. After death, your coins will no longer be dropped.]
John opened the game panel and saw that a new [Wallet] function had appeared in the upper-left corner.
Filled with anticipation, he opened the wallet interface.
When he saw that the numbers behind [Gold Coins], [Silver Coins], and [Copper Coins] were glowing blue, his breathing nearly stopped.
"So it really can be modified?"
In disbelief, he tapped the 0 behind [Gold Coins].
[Consume 1 System Point to increase Gold Coins by 1.]
The number behind Gold Coins actually changed from 0 to 1!
Just as he had thought.
As long as it counted as an item value, then even the balance inside the wallet could be modified!
A grin spread uncontrollably across John's face.
One gold coin was equal to 1,000 silver coins, and 1,000 silver coins were equal to 1,000 copper coins.
For the cost of just a single System Point,
he had effortlessly obtained wealth worth one hundred thousand copper coins!
Compared to that, spending 500 copper coins to buy the wallet was an absurd bargain.
In the early stages of the Apocalypse world, most transactions were conducted using copper coins.
Even a single gold coin was enough to achieve financial freedom.
And now, John possessed almost unlimited wealth.
As long as he stayed alive long enough, he could max out the wallet's upper limit if he wanted to!
Still, John quickly suppressed the urge to keep adding more gold coins.
"At this stage, there's nothing that requires huge amounts of money anyway.
Fifty gold coins should be more than enough."
He remained rational and only adjusted his gold coin balance to 50, based on his actual needs.
There were still many other places where System Points could be put to use.
As far as money was concerned, having enough was sufficient.
The server had only just opened, so resources had to be spent wisely.
After closing the panel,
John walked back to the counter.
"Boss, give me ninety-nine Burning Flasks and ninety-nine Throwing Knives."
The shopkeeper's expression turned strange after hearing that.
"Young man, Burning Flasks and Throwing Knives are premium items—fifty copper coins each.
Buying that many at once… can your wallet handle it?"
John did not reply.
He simply took out a gold coin from his wallet and slapped it onto the counter.
The moment the shopkeeper saw the gleaming golden coin,
his pupils contracted sharply.
"!!!"
…
After stuffing all ninety-nine Burning Flasks and Throwing Knives into his inventory,
John did not linger any longer. He turned and headed toward where the Assassin Mentor was located.
In Novice Village, there were five class mentors responsible for selling and teaching skill books for each class.
It was just that, for players in the early game, the prices were usually extremely expensive.
Very few players at this stage could bear to spend money at a class mentor.
But for John—who had just modified himself fifty gold coins—this was obviously not a problem.
He quickly found the Assassin Mentor standing beneath a crooked old tree.
The man was draped in a black robe, his aura cold and oppressive.
Most of his face was hidden beneath the hood, revealing only a scar-covered chin.
At that moment, there were also several assassin-class players gathered around him, asking about the prices of skill books.
"What did you say? Five thousand copper coins for one book, and it's only the lowest F-rank skill book?
Why don't you just rob us?"
The Assassin Mentor replied coldly, "Buy it or don't. If you're not buying, then get lost."
Those players were both embarrassed and furious.
"Hey, you're just an NPC. Why're you acting so arrogant?"
At that moment, John pushed past them and stepped in front of the Assassin Mentor.
He went straight to the point.
"I want Shift, Detection, and Throwing—the highest-grade versions of all three."
The moment he said that,
before the Assassin Mentor could even reply,
the players nearby had already started laughing mockingly.
"Bro, this guy's a total profiteer, and you still dare ask for the highest-grade ones?
He'd probably have to keep you here as unpaid labor for ten thousand years before you could afford them."
"His skill books are insanely expensive. Brother, stop trying to act rich."
John ignored all of their ridicule as if he had not heard a thing.
The Assassin Mentor stared at him and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"B-rank skill Instant Move, B-rank skill Throwing Knife Technique, and B-rank skill Detection.
Three books in total. 10 gold coins. Do you want them?"
For the early game, B-rank skill books really were worth that price.
John nodded. "I'll take them."
The assassin players standing nearby all put on expressions of amusement, waiting to see him embarrass himself.
Ten gold coins—
that was the equivalent of one million copper coins.
Unless you gathered together all the copper coins owned by every player in the entirety of Zone 5,
there was no way anyone could afford that.
And yet—
when the Assassin Mentor extended his hand and passed the three glowing orbs containing the skills into John's hands,
those players were instantly dumbfounded.
"Holy crap, where did this guy get that much money?"
"There's no cash shop in this game, right? Where the hell did he get so many gold coins?"
"Ten gold coins, spent just like that without even frowning once. This guy's seriously loaded!"
After buying the skill books, John quickly found a deserted place and learned them all.
[You have learned the B-rank skill Instant Move.]
[Instant Move: After activation, you can instantly move to any location within a 3×3 range.
Cooldown: 30 seconds
MP Cost: 30]
[You have learned the B-rank skill Throwing Knife Technique.]
[Throwing Knife Technique: After activation, you can throw three throwing knives simultaneously.
Cooldown: 180 seconds
MP Cost: 10]
[You have learned the B-rank skill Detection.]
[Detection: Allows you to inspect the information of targets up to 3 ranks above your own.]
After learning the three B-rank skills,
John almost immediately modified all of their values to the limit!
[Instant Move]: Range 3×3 → 50×50 meters
Cooldown 60 seconds → 0.5 seconds
MP Cost 30 → 5
…
[Throwing Knife Technique]: 3 Throwing Knives → 99 Throwing Knives
Cooldown 180 seconds → 1 second
MP Cost 10 → 1
…
[Detection]: Targets up to 3 ranks above → any target below Rank 9 can be detected
After the modifications, the three skills had completely transcended the scope of B-rank abilities.
Especially Detection.
Once modified so that it could inspect anything below Rank 9,
even SSS-rank entities could have their information revealed!
"With these three skills backing me up, I can run wild in the wilderness outside Novice Village for a while."
John was extremely satisfied with his modified skills.
He checked the items in his inventory once more to make sure everything was in order.
Then, humming to himself, John headed toward the eastern district of Novice Village.