God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 192: Episode _Name Your Price (5)

8.

"What the hell. Shit. Are you insane?" Curses flew from his lips. It was inevitable. Anyone in this situation would have cursed first. "This is such an unbelievable setup, you son of a bitch Betago!"

In the broadcast chat, after a moment of confusion, the viewers began to laugh.

—Isn’t this staged?

—Seems staged.

—His acting is amazing.

They couldn’t believe it was real. After all, 99.99% of the viewers weren’t there to buy the pendant; they were there for the vicarious satisfaction of watching the enhancement process and seeing how ridiculously expensive it would sell for. So, their emotions didn’t change much. They were simply in awe.

To think he would stage an item binding just for the sake of entertainment—an item that, according to player discussions alone, was worth at least several million dollars! 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

—As expected. A show you can trust.

—This one was worth the $100. I never expected a twist like this at the end.

—Now unbind it and let’s get to the auction.

The performance was so convincing and realistic. After a good laugh, the viewers started to coax the still-frantic Han Simin. ’Let’s move on to the next segment.’ While this act was entertaining, the most exciting part was always the bloody bidding war of the world’s wealthiest. A chance to see sums of money you couldn’t throw around even in a game of Monopoly!

Unfortunately for the thrill-seeking viewers, their wish would not be granted.

"Wow. This is crazy. For real." Han Simin was more serious than he had ever been.

As time passed, people slowly began to realize what had happened. This wasn’t an act. It was really bound. There was no concrete proof, but it was easy to deduce from Simin’s reaction. This was the man who had abandoned tens of thousands of viewers to switch to a paid broadcast just to earn an extra penny. In a situation where he risked alienating his high-paying customers, there was no way he would drag this out for so long unless he had truly lost his mind.

—I think it’s real.

—What’s going on?

—Didn’t he just hold it to his neck?

—It looked like it equipped itself.

Amid the unsettling atmosphere, a link was posted. Naturally, few people clicked it. Fantastic World’s internal censorship meant the link was safe, but there was no reason to look at another screen during such a climactic moment. However, the link was posted repeatedly, and a few curious people finally took a look.

Soon, the link began to dominate the chat window.

*

The link led to a video. It came from a channel that wasn’t very well-known and had few subscribers. But it wasn’t completely unknown, either. It was just someone who played Fantastic World as a hobby and ran a video page. That was it. A page so common you could find thousands like it by browsing for an hour.

The most recent video on this unremarkable page was drawing attention. In truth, the video itself wasn’t particularly noteworthy; previous videos were much the same. Useful tips for daily life in Fantastic World. You could find tens, even hundreds of thousands of similar videos. If Han Simin hadn’t been in this situation, this video would have been buried among them.

But once it started playing, the video revealed its unique character. The ordinary-looking man in the video opened with his own unique style, his voice clean and neat.

"Yes, today we’re going to experiment with something that’s been heating up the FW community lately: demonic energy-imbued items. This box, often called the demonic energy-imbued Normal Box, is something you’ve all become familiar with recently, right? I’ve seen people spend their entire salary on them, and some who have bought hundreds with their savings. Unfortunately, we still don’t know the principles behind the box itself, so we’ll skip that for today and talk about what’s inside."

He got to the main point.

"After opening a few boxes, I was lucky enough to get a Rare item. The options were better than a typical Rare item, and I especially liked that it was an accessory. It was a bracelet, but I was flustered because it was too small to fit on my wrist. While experimenting, I discovered something amazing."

As he spoke, the man in the video held the narrow bracelet, which wouldn’t even fit a woman’s wrist, up to his own.

"Now, if I just think about wearing it like this..."

Click.

The bracelet opened by itself and automatically adjusted to fit the man’s wrist perfectly.

"How about that? This is today’s Fantastic World tip! The utility of demonic energy-imbued items. We’ll need a larger sample size to confirm the exact conditions for this option, but with items like this, you could wear them comfortably and even swap out armor during combat, opening up various new strategies."

It was a fascinating feature. And the video provided one certainty: Han Simin’s reaction was definitely not an act.

—Did he think about equipping it while he was explaining?

—Can the game system read people’s minds?

—No way. It probably just assumes you intend to equip it if you hold it there for more than a few seconds.

—Well, that settles it.

—End of broadcast.

The auction for an item that experts had valued in the millions, perhaps even tens of millions of dollars, was over. Before it had even begun. It was now hanging around Han Simin’s neck.

9.

The Specialists had paused their hunt and were relaxing in a hotel suite inside the Rich Territory. They were there to relay any messages while watching the live broadcast of the war. However, from what they saw after the territory war began, the battle was so one-sided that their intervention was unnecessary. Watching the Marquis’s soldiers being tormented day and night without sleep, they almost felt sorry for them. They could have opened the gates and invited them in for a short break.

The war was practically over. So, naturally, they were relaxing and watching Han Simin’s broadcast.

He fell silent.

She was dumbstruck.

The three of them, who had been securing funds to purchase the pendant, were at a loss for words. They couldn’t possibly feel as though they had lost the entire world like Han Simin, who was laughing hollowly at the necklace on his neck, but it was still a letdown.

"It looks like a dog collar."

"It’s like the dog got mad that its owner was trying to sell its collar, so it hammered a nail through it."

Well, what could they do? It was a shame, but it was a shame. It was such a good item and so widely known that there was no guarantee the Specialists would have won the bid anyway. There were many rich people in the world. And plenty of people who could spend far more than the heir of a chaebol. It was best not to dwell on it.

"By the way, at this point, isn’t Simin’s whole identity questionable?" Yeseul mused. "His main job is an enhancement master, but he also seems like a tamer. And with that thing on, he’s basically a buffer."

"...How many buffs does he have?"

"Just from what I know, there’s the experience buff, the drop rate buff, Sudal, and now that pendant..."

"If you include the dragon’s magic, he’s a real buffer."

"If he tamed a dragon, his main class should be tamer."

"Nah, nothing beats all those buffs."

"Simin is an enhancement master," Seolah stated firmly.

The three of them chatted about such useless things to shake off their disappointment. It was a conversation only possible because they knew Han Simin better than anyone. If you told a random player on the street about a user with such a playstyle, they’d probably curse you out for talking nonsense. Weren’t the three of them often the subject of debate over whether they even ate while playing? A monster on another plane, visible only to those who have reached the heavens.

As they talked, a thought suddenly occurred to Yeseul. "But is Simin okay? He just lost millions."

He fell silent.

"...He’ll be fine, right? He has a lot of money anyway."

Having a lot of money and having expected income evaporate were two different feelings. He must have had plans for that money, and what about the excitement he must have felt?

"There’s going to be a bloodbath," Seolah predicted.

"I guess so."

"Yeseul, tell the people outside to leave quickly."

"This is going to be fun," Yeseul chirped.

The three exchanged glances and lay down on the bed. ’It’ll work out somehow.’

*

The Marquis had finally decided to retreat. It was humiliating, shameful, and he couldn’t even lift his head, but... when a person is on the verge of death, the will to live takes over. Pride? You need to be alive to have pride. Besides, this wasn’t an honorable death. It was a death of self-destruction, tormented by monsters while waiting fruitlessly outside an enemy wall you couldn’t even breach. Compared to that, retreating was far less disgraceful.

He was exhausted enough to come to that conclusion. That’s why it was possible. He packed his things and began to withdraw, warily watching for a rear attack. He would return for now and plan for the future. He had to admit it: that wall was truly impregnable. There was no need for him to bear such a heavy burden alone. If they attacked him, he would seize victory then. If they didn’t, he would let the territory war fizzle out and pass this hellish situation on to some other fool.

However, the Marquis would not achieve his goal. Just as he finished packing and was about to leave, the castle gate opened, and soldiers poured out.

"Huh?"

The Marquis’s army was bewildered. What was this? The Rich Territory had never once opened its gates. Even when harassing them, they had only ever pecked at them with the Mana Cannons, taking great pains not to give them even a sliver of hope. So why now? And in broad daylight?

It was true that the morale of the Marquis’s army had hit rock bottom, and they were tired and weary. But their numerical superiority, which they had maintained from the start, had not disappeared. They had suffered many losses, but a significant number of troops were still intact. If they squeezed out their last bit of strength and fought back, the Marquis’s army would undoubtedly win.

His mind raced. He halted the retreat and observed the situation. Was this an attempt to intimidate them? But for that, the Rich Territory’s army had come out too far. Of course, they had only opened one gate and concentrated all their forces, which was formidable, but the Marquis’s army could simply gather in one place as well.

When the distance had closed enough that he judged they could catch the Rich army’s tail even if they turned and fled...

"All forces, advance!" the Marquis roared.

"Waaaah!"

The Marquis took the bait. His soldiers, who just moments ago had been thinking of giving up and going home, now charged with fire in their eyes, weapons raised. The first real battle! Tears welled up as they remembered the past days, which had felt more like torture than war. ’We will win and return to our families!’

As the Marquis’s army charged forward, something happened at their rear.

"Go, my 3-minute invincible rabbits!"

"Kkyu! Kkyu! Kkyu!"

The beginning of a legend, one who was an enhancement master, a tamer, and a buffer. No, the achievement of a legend who was an enhancement master, a tamer, a buffer, and a pauper.

*