I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 200: Episode 43_Lord of the Ice Castle (3)

Episode 200

2.

The reaction was explosive.

—My queen, please freeze me too.

—Haah. I want to watch that again.

People were going wild over the Ice Lord's appearance.

—Holy crap. A 5-star status ailment? And it's Freeze? How are we supposed to kill her?

—Are there even any accessories with that kind of status ailment resistance on the market?

—Even Fly is underleveled for this, and you're slapping a status ailment on top of that? That's way too unfair.

—Items with Freeze immunity are skyrocketing.

—There aren't any listings at all. Anything above 4-star?

—Even 3-star ones have tripled in price, minimum.

And some players ignored the lord's looks and focused on analyzing other aspects.

As expected, the hottest topic was the 5-star "Freeze" status ailment the Ice Lord had displayed.

It was a new kind of pattern, something players had never experienced before.

In truth, the top rankers had more or less anticipated something like this and were already preparing.

Starting from 6-Star dungeons, it wasn't uncommon to see 2-star and 3-star status ailments.

That was why high-level dungeons were so difficult.

Just clearing them was hard enough, with five or more clear conditions to deal with. Adding status ailments on top of that was the beginning of hell.

That was why items with immunity or resistance to any kind of status ailment were so expensive.

It was just like in a game.

And the more expensive they were, the more they were worth the price.

—On the flip side, if you can just get Freeze resistance or immunity, this dungeon isn't that different from the others, right?

—Aside from the level-86 boss.

—Just from her vibe, it feels like that 5-star Freeze is all she's got.

—If her combat stats were high on top of that, it wouldn't make sense.

—If she were truly on another level, they wouldn't have listed the recommended difficulty as 8-Star. There's gotta be an angle for players to exploit.

—The best way to establish dominance is to open with your strongest skill, right? My guess is that Ice Lord chick doesn't have much else.

—There's a reason Freeze-related items are going up in price.

It was clearly a threat and an act of intimidation aimed at humanity.

Still, people were scouring that very footage for answers.

From the top-tier rankers all the way down.

Right now, they didn't even dare set foot in the Ice Castle's territory, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way forever.

In the end, the Ice Castle would also be conquered by humans someday.

Just like all the other dungeons that had appeared on Earth.

No matter how threatening something was, humans would overcome it one way or another.

The question was whether you could get your foot in the door at that historic and highly profitable moment.

It was the kind of turning point that could define a player's entire career.

They were all preparing for that moment, which was why they were buying up related accessories at heavily inflated prices.

And naturally, attention turned to the player most closely associated with these kinds of issues.

—What's Fly saying?

—Is he going to attempt a clear now?

—Can he?

—If it's the Fly Guild, they probably already scooped up all the intel and cleaned out the market.

—He might've stockpiled stuff in advance.

The only guild and player considered even remotely capable of taking on the Ice Castle.

He opened his mouth.

"The Fly Guild and I consider the Ice Castle that appeared in the Arctic to be just another dungeon. It clearly has a powerful boss and a tricky 5-star status ailment, but we do not believe it is impossible to clear. We are also taking into account the possibility that this dungeon could trigger a Dungeon Break and move south out of the Arctic. However, given the current global situation, we have judged that forcing a clear of the Ice Castle would be more dangerous than beneficial in many ways, and have therefore decided to postpone any attempts."

For people who loved to tear others down, his statement was perfect fodder.

He had phrased it diplomatically for a massive audience, but it was no different from saying that, at the moment, they lacked the ability to clear it and would just leave it alone.

Naturally, criticism and condemnation poured in.

Could they really afford to leave a cancer that might lead to humanity's extinction alone just because it was dangerous?

Fly's answer to that was firm.

"There will be no Ice Castle attempts until we are confident in our ability to clear it."

If they were the type to be swayed by public opinion, they would have been swayed long ago.

Fly had the power and prestige that came with their position, giving them the strength to shrug off the hateful comments people spewed out of jealousy.

As public interest in them naturally cooled, people moved on to their next target.

—Can't we get Kim Buja to do something?

He was only level 35.

If it had been any other player, the comments would have told him to go grind in a 3-Star dungeon, yet all eyes were on him.

* * *

"This is kind of a lot of pressure."

Kim Buja scratched his head at the flood of attention.

He had more or less expected it.

"It's worse than I thought."

That was just how these people operated.

They were shut-ins who spent all day on community boards, acting like they were level-70-plus members of Fly.

The kind of people who publicly roasted top-tier rankers in front of hundreds of millions of viewers and dogpiled them, trying to shove them into dangerous dungeons without a shred of guilt.

Of course, the important thing was not to get swept up in it.

But it was impossible not to be affected at all.

Fly could ignore it because they were at that level, with that much power and prestige, but for players whose livelihoods depended on their image, the community's power was not something they could casually dismiss.

And what the community players wanted this time was, as always, one thing.

"They probably just want more screenshots of the Ice Lord to save, right?"

Individual desires might differ, but what most people wanted boiled down to that.

Whether they had fallen for the Ice Lord's looks or were impressed by her abilities.

Either way, the reason the Ice Castle was getting this much attention right now was ultimately thanks to the Ice Lord's overwhelming, spectacular debut.

"Hm."

He fell into thought.

He was torn.

He was also curious.

'Does she really not have any other abilities?'

The name "The Ice Castle" even sounded appealing.

Above all, what interested players most was the reward for killing the Ice Lord.

"Becoming the owner of the Ice Castle."

Kim Buja had already experienced something similar.

The Castle of Nightmares.

He'd once had the chance to become its lord but had passed on the opportunity because he didn't particularly need it.

This time was different.

That had been inside a dungeon, but this was on Earth—a massive castle built in a place uninhabitable by humans.

How cool was that?

The Lord of the Arctic.

It was a title no one else could have.

More than anything, in this era, owning your own land and your own castle carried even more weight.

It might even feel like becoming the king of a country.

"Hmm."

That was why he had to be even more cautious.

The bigger the reward, the greater the risk.

'What if what the Ice Lord showed isn't all she has?'

Most people assumed she had opened with her strongest skill to establish dominance, pretending to let the remaining players go after exhausting her power.

But Buja looked at it from a different angle.

'She's level 86.'

A 5-star Freeze status ailment.

It was undeniably powerful.

Considering his own Legendary item, the Nightmare Bracelet, granted immunity to 4-star status ailments, it would take at least a 5-star Legendary item to counter it—or something of equivalent rarity with an option specific to Freeze.

Either way, it wasn't something one could easily prepare for, so people assumed that was all she had.

But given the dungeon's 8-Star difficulty and the boss's level, there was no way that was all she had.

'I can't rule out the possibility that it's just a penalty applied to the dungeon itself.'

It was powerful, but not impossible to counter.

While it might be an insurmountable wall for ordinary players, it was a different story for someone like Fly, who possessed countless items. For that matter, even Kim Buja, who was only immune to status ailments up to 4-star, could still resist effects one tier higher.

If he only had to block it once, how much of a threat could a boss be whose entire strategy revolved around that single attack?

Level wasn't a huge factor in high-level fights. Unless there was an overwhelming stat gap, one could compensate with party composition and items.

In the end, he needed more.

More information.

Some of the top rankers were likely hiding among the masses on the forums, subtly muddying the waters and steering public opinion, which was why the topic continued to rage. He even wondered if Fly might be pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Kim Buja refused to get dragged into it.

However, that didn't mean he completely ignored the flood of attention. He had carefully cultivated his image, competing with Fly by taking a distinctly different path.

"It feels a little strange to volunteer myself, but here we go."

Kim Buja started his stream.

4.

"In response to all the interest, I'll go check it out myself."

With that one calm sentence, the chat exploded. Some people tried to stop him, while others accused him of lying.

Everyone reacted differently, but one thing was certain: he had their full attention.

Countless news outlets began relaying his stream in real time, and articles poured out. That was the world now—a world where a single comment from a random player could become an official news story, broadcast live. It was a world where players were the most important social issue.

In such a world, knowing how to sway public opinion was a basic survival skill.

Of course, it wasn't like Kim Buja had ever formally studied the subject.

"I'm sure everyone's curious and looking for someone willing to take one for the team, right? Naturally, no one actually thought I'd go in there to clear it. I don't either. My level? I'm 35. I'll be lucky if I don't get slapped by some random monster on the way and knocked out cold."

But he had learned through experience.

He knew how to play the game.

He knew what people wanted.

"I'll go and check it out. I can't promise I'll clear the Ice Castle, but I'll go take a look around. However!"

And he knew exactly what he could gain by satisfying their desires.

"Among the currently revealed information, the most solid fact we have about the Ice Castle is the 5-star Freeze status ailment. If you can't deal with that, you can't even step inside, right? Unfortunately, I don't have an item that can counter it. I tried to find one, but there are literally none on the market. So here's my proposal: if someone provides me with that item, I'll risk my life to bring back information on the Ice Castle."

Beyond that, he didn't particularly want anything.

He just needed a pretext. A reason to bow out, taking the public's attention with him. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Of course, people would curse him out.

—So you never planned on going in from the start!

—Knew it. Figures.

The chat was flooded with messages, but Kim Buja just laughed. Compared to indifference, this kind of attention gave him strength. More importantly, this wasn't some shameless excuse; it was just common sense.

It looked like things would end there. The interest directed at him would simply fade.

—I'll provide it.

If not for Fly's firm and cheerful reply.

* * *