I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 206: Episode 45_SVIP (3)
Episode 206
Chapter 45: SVIP (3)
3.
The ten-hour hunting video was a shock to the system.
The scenes weren’t as spectacular all the way through as that initial, intense opening, but watching high-level dungeon hunting—footage from the best hunting ground currently in existence—made it impossible to look away.
Of course, most viewers were just enduring the monotony, waiting for the payoff at the end.
—Even Fly’s hunting gets old after eight hours of repetition.
—That’s just how hunting videos are.
—Yeah. There’s a reason most dungeon guide videos are edited before they’re uploaded.
—If it’s this boring to watch, imagine how boring it is to do.
—For them, this is a dream gig. Just standing there and repeatedly killing monsters that swarm you is insanely efficient. It might look boring, but because their levels are so high, they can’t let their guard down for a second. From their perspective, it’s probably brutal.
The end of the hunt.
People endured ten hours of watching what was technically a variety of spells—but in practice was just a wall of fire—all for the reward waiting at the end.
—Time to tally it up.
—So, how much?
Everyone focused on Fly’s point tally.
How many points had he earned in roughly eight hours of hunting?
The time frame was similar to that of an ordinary player who decided to spend a full day roaming Dungeon Break zones to farm points, which drew even more attention.
—How much would you normally earn in that time?
—No idea. If you get lucky, maybe 10 points? I heard these days if you chain 2–3-star monsters, you can get 15 to 20.
—Then he must’ve earned at least 50 points, right?
—I’m guessing around 80.
How efficient was it?
No one cared how hard those eight hours of hunting had been.
Only the result mattered.
Fly had chosen that grueling path for the sake of the result.
He had gone so far as to go back on his word, so he had to walk away with something to show for it.
"We hunted for eight hours and earned about 250 points."
The result was more overwhelming than anyone had expected.
Roughly 30 points per hour.
It might not look like much.
From the average player’s perspective, it was definitely a lot, but that was only when you compared it to the points you earned from 1–3-star monsters and quest-based farming. Considering this was an 8-star Legendary dungeon, it was hard to accept that number as "a lot."
’Hunting for an hour only gets you enough to activate Stage 3 for a short while.’
That was how he wanted to see it.
Clicking his tongue, Kim Buja turned off the video.
He said that, but his brain kept crunching the numbers.
Eight hours, 250 points.
It was their first hunt, so they had probably prioritized safety above all else. As they got used to the Ice Castle and got faster at dealing with the monsters, their efficiency would rise.
If they could just push it up to 50 points an hour, then earning 400–500 points a day wouldn’t be difficult.
Of course, that assumed monsters spawned infinitely and they could hunt without limit, but at the very least, the advance party—Fly’s guild—wouldn’t have to worry about missing out on that sweet spot.
’If they hunt for a month, they could buy something like Gnawing Soul.’
He could at least console himself by looking at the point-to-gold ratio.
If he spent that time earning more gold instead, he could use it far more efficiently than points.
With a 1:10 ratio, 250 points translated to about 2,500 gold.
’...Thinking about it that way just makes it hurt more.’
Lately, he had been tossing around sums like 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 gold so often that his sense of scale had gone numb. But dungeon runs still didn’t yield that much gold, and the only way to handle huge sums was by completing achievements.
For Kim Buja, who now had a 1.12-million-gold grind mission sitting right in front of him, this was less a consolation and more a painfully sharp kind of envy.
"Phew."
Still, what could he do?
If he let his carefully crafted resolve waver and ran off to the Ice Castle just because of some video, he’d be proving how easily swayed he was.
He had to walk his own path.
It wasn’t about pride; anyone with a brain could see it.
’That place is going to be packed.’
People had always been like this, in games and in life.
The moment a story about someone striking it rich on cryptocurrency went public, everyone else stopped being human and turned into a pack of hyenas.
’I can do it. I can strike it rich, too.’
Once that idea takes hold, people forget reality. They charge headfirst into the challenge, heedless of what might be waiting for them.
There was no way Fly didn’t know that. Even so, he hadn’t made the information public out of some sense of guilt or responsibility for what he’d shown in the video.
’Guess it really is a brutal grind.’
People who want to curse you out will find a reason no matter what. Would Fly really reveal such vital information just because he was worried about his image and a few haters? He probably just wanted to hunt a little more comfortably. That was all.
“Does the Jeong Cheol Guild have any plans?”
“The Guildmaster seems to want to go, but I think he’s hesitating because the entry requirements are so difficult to meet.”
“That’s true. Even with a known solution, the answer sheet is way too expensive.”
Still, the world was vast, and there were plenty of rankers. With dungeon entry levels relaxed and the Ice Castle having no level requirement to begin with, a massive number of players would flock there.
’It’s going to turn into a graveyard.’
And a massive number of them would die there. In the end, the ones who would profit were, as always, the tiny handful who broke ahead of the pack.
With that thought, he was finally able to let go of his interest.
’I’ll go later, once the cream has been skimmed, and just look for a Promotion Stone.’
He was just about to jump back into the grind after a short break when—
“Fly’s guild announced they’ll be selling some of their hunting loot through an in-house auction in a week.”
“Anything worth buying?” he asked, pausing mid-step at Jeong Seora’s words.
It wasn’t out of curiosity or excitement, just simple wondering. Points might seem like the core of the system, but in the end, the real reason to kill monsters was the immense value of their corpses.
Especially after the dungeon breaks, the practically living monster corpses fueled all kinds of research projects, with plenty of rumors about new drugs being developed. Buja wasn’t interested in that side of things; he was asking about items.
“Nothing special. A few monster corpses not yet in the Monster Guide, one Unique item, five Epic items, and a stone of unknown nature.”
Unfortunately, the list fell short of his expectations.
“A stone of unknown nature?”
“Yes. It’s just a chunk of ice with a strange pattern on it. Apparently, it dropped from a monster only once during a full week of hunting.”
’What kind of bullshit scam...’
Sure, this was an era where people sold water and even air, but selling a chunk of Arctic ice dressed up as something fancy? He didn’t intend to criticize them.
Curious if it was at least a pretty stone that might sell, he moved closer. The stone appeared on the tablet screen.
It definitely looked like there was more to it than met the eye. However, there was nothing written on the shared hologram.
“The hologram isn’t completely blank; it’s showing an empty field. It feels like there’s something there, doesn’t it?”
Instead of answering Jeong Seora’s guess, he simply nodded.
’It’s definitely a special stone.’
[SVIP Promotion Stone (3)]
It was indeed a very special stone that only he could see.
“When did you say that auction was again?”
Buja, who had just sworn he wouldn’t get worked up over this, promptly lost his mind.
* * *
He honestly hadn’t seen this coming.
’They just drop that as a random drop? A class-exclusive item?’
Not only did it drop like this, but the fact that it could end up in another user’s hands... He’d never experienced anything like it, so it felt novel.
At the same time, the thought made him let out a short laugh. It was only because he was a Gold Maker that he’d never gone through this; other classes experienced it all the time.
Getting items that didn’t fit your class and selling them was common, and getting rid of accessories with mismatched options was routine. There was no guarantee that Gold Maker-exclusive items had to drop only for him.
’In fact, this could be a good thing.’
Whether this was a recent change or the way it had been designed from the start—
’Maybe they raised the drop rate.’
If the item never appeared in the world, the odds of him never finding it would be high. But whatever the system, players just had to adapt. So Buja decided to do his best.
’Wow, I’ve really piled up a lot of money.’
First, he took stock of his assets. Even without selling any of his current possessions, the assets that experts had been quietly managing for him were considerable.
Most rankers were probably in a similar situation, but in Buja’s case, it was possible because he had spent almost nothing on equipment while steadily acquiring Legendary items.
“Mm.”
The liquid funds he could marshal came to about $30 billion. It seemed absurd that a player who did nothing but run dungeons could have that much, but when he remembered that "Tear of the Glacier" accounted for the biggest chunk, it became easier to accept.
’My life is worth less than a single Legendary item.’
His video channel alone brought in tens of millions of dollars every month, but that was nothing compared to a single Legendary item. Instead of demanding a fix for item value inflation, it was far more realistic to just say, "Use that time to go get a Legendary drop."
It was reassuring.
’This should be enough, right?’
He didn’t get complacent. The world was vast, and there were plenty of rich people.
He had to be especially wary, since he had no idea why someone like Fly, who practically vacuumed up the world’s wealth, was selling such a mysterious item.
’I need to take out some insurance.’
In any case, the item had surfaced. Before anyone realized how badly he needed it, he had to snatch it up in one go. To do that, he took out his final insurance policy.
* * *
Ten days of hunting in the Ice Castle. Two days of rest after returning. Then the auction.
Fly’s guild hadn’t held many in-house auctions. That’s why so many people were interested, and why there was so much talk.
[Are they running out of money?]
[Yeah, sure, and the Pacific Ocean is about to dry up.]
[They say that even if Fly’s guild bought every Legendary item in the world, they’d still have money left over.]
[Their guild operating costs are fully covered by the U.S. government, so they barely have any reason to spend money, lol.]
[Then why are they even holding an auction?]
[To flex.]
[Yeah, flexing.]
An auction to celebrate their successful Ice Castle hunt. Fly’s guild itself was loaded; this was more like a bonus for the individual guild members.
[They’re basically advertising, "Come get ripped off," and people are still showing up with bags of cash.]
[Plenty of people blow their entire net worth just to "support" Fly, so yeah.]
[And the items and corpses this time are actually worth investing in.]
Naturally, the items for sale were of a commensurate quality. This time, even if they weren’t jaw-dropping, they were rare items from the Ice Castle, a newly discovered land in the Arctic.
[That collector freak Sergei is coming too, right?]
[Looking forward to it.]
[What did he come to buy?]
With all that attention, the auction began.
