I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 221: Episode 46_The Ice Castle Lord (3)

4.

When Fly had first proposed his plan, Kim Buja had asked him a question.

What if, while they were carrying out the plan, they somehow ended up killing the Ice Castle Lord?

Of course, Kim Buja had only been invited to help with Fly’s plan. Fly wanted something from him, and Buja couldn’t ignore that Fly had been the one to initiate contact.

In that situation, yielding the contribution for the Ice Castle Lord was not just a matter of courtesy; it was the baseline assumption.

There was no need to say it out loud. It was something that should be taken for granted.

However, when had anything in this world ever gone that smoothly?

Especially not in a difficult dungeon, and certainly not in a dungeon several levels higher than you. You couldn’t expect to get every result you wanted.

Even if everything went according to plan, a tiny variable could still flip the outcome.

That was the possibility he was addressing.

Still, neither of them assumed that kind of one-in-a-million situation would actually happen.

Fly knew it, and so did Kim Buja.

If, in the final moment, the roles they each played led to a result that deviated from the plan—

“Then we settle it with competition.”

That was how Fly answered.

Competition didn’t mean they could just act however they wanted or pull random stunts. It simply meant that if that truly unlikely situation came to pass, he would accept it.

“If it gets to that point, it means my calculations were wrong, and if you show enough potential to overturn even those calculations, then I should be the one thanking you.”

It was a form of confidence.

’My plan is perfect.’

The plan had plenty of shortcomings and was rife with variables, but if he could push through them and things went his way, it would not fail.

That was why their deal was struck.

No, rather than a deal, it was more like the final fallback.

A fallback to the fallback to the fallback.

It was like a standard clause in a house contract: if you somehow manage to protect the house from a natural disaster, you get ownership of it.

That was how low the odds were.

Even so, the reason Kim Buja had insisted on getting a clear answer about that possibility was that, in his judgment, the odds were not that low.

’A boss that might be level 87 or 89, or maybe even 90 after eating more players, is not going to die that easily.’

Fly might have thought the same thing.

That was why he had gone so far as to invite Kim Buja and prepare a final trump card.

The fact that he had accepted the deal without protest was proof that he didn’t take the Ice Castle Lord lightly.

You could even say he was prepared to accept failure.

The line about being willing to give up his reward if they succeeded had been half-serious.

It was both consideration and a wish.

It was proof that Fly desperately wanted this as well.

So when Kim Buja clasped his hand, he spoke with complete sincerity.

“I’ll put everything on the line too.”

For Jeong Cheol, for Jeong Seora, and beyond that, to carve his own name into a page of history.

* * *

Plunge!

The sensation of piercing flesh traveled up the Gold Ring in a sharp, electric thrill that reached his fingertips.

’Got her!’

The rush of success and exhilaration hit him.

At the same time, the tangled mess in his head cooled down in an instant.

The most critical moment was when humans were most likely to make mistakes.

Most people would be shaking the hardest right now, but Kim Buja was different.

He had gone through this tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times, growing numb and seasoned.

If you wanted a clean, fast finish, you had to end it when you had the chance.

Vwoom!

The dagger he had driven in up to his wrist sank deep.

From her pale, flawless skin, a red glow began to seep out.

It was not blood.

The Ice Castle Lord’s blood was as red as any human’s, but this was different—clear and radiant.

[Explosion Lv9 is activating.]

The "Red Dragon’s Essence."

The treasure he had brought back from the 3rd floor of the Tower of Trials flared to life, flaunting its presence.

This was the finisher.

There was not much time left on the level 7 "Gnawing Soul" buff. From the moment the Ice Castle Lord had appeared, he had matched his breathing to hers and held back, all for this moment.

“You insolent...!”

Her voice stabbed into his ear, but it no longer frightened him.

The blizzard that had been raging so fiercely turned and lunged at Kim Buja to protect its master, but the hand gripping the dagger refused to freeze, no matter the cold or the storm.

Fwoooosh!

If anything, it melted it.

The Red Dragon’s Essence.

Even in the form of an essence, it had left its will in Kim Buja’s fingers, and its aggressive nature had not gone anywhere.

Maybe it simply hated this cold so much that it unleashed a fire-type, explosive skill.

[You are immune to status effects.]

The hologram flashed a clear signal.

In response, mana flooded through his entire body.

His body felt lighter, his strength surged.

This wasn’t some last-ditch burst of power from his expiring Gnawing Soul buff.

Fly.

The man who was barely holding back the blizzard squeezed out the last of his mana and entrusted him with the final blow.

At the same time, a spell detonated and talismans scattered.

The talismans stuck to her body were landmines, laid in advance with her final struggle in mind.

“Gaaaaah!”

A heart-wrenching scream, raw with resentment and grief, echoed through the air. But no one threw themselves into the blast to save her.

There couldn’t be.

Anyone who dared to rush toward her, toward the exploding level 9 Red Dragon spell, would only be signing their own death warrant.

Even monsters, driven purely by instinct, understood that much.

The blizzard died away. With the Ice Castle Lord gone and nothing to hold him aloft, Kim Buja plummeted to the ground.

All the strength drained from his body; he didn’t have a shred of energy left.

It wasn’t just the release of tension; it was the backlash from opening his soul and pushing it all the way to level 7.

He turned his head and looked at Fly.

Fly approached, his expression a complicated, subtle mix of emotions, yet he was smiling.

“Is it over?” he asked quietly.

Countless holograms filled Kim Buja’s vision.

Still, he couldn’t be certain it was truly over.

One way or another, what they had done was a kind of exploit.

It wasn’t as if there was ever an "official strategy" for the Ice Castle, but they still hadn’t confirmed if it was possible to kill the lord during a "Random Inspection" rather than in her so-called "Chamber."

Fly had also ruled out that scenario in his assumptions.

If the Ice Castle Lord who appeared for a Random Inspection had turned out to be a clone or something similar, they would have had to draw up a completely new raid plan.

In the end, their entire plan had revolved around taking down the Ice Castle Lord during a Random Inspection.

As he waited for confirmation, tension seized his entire body.

’Did we kill her?’

’Or is this the start of something else?’

Kim Buja stared into the empty air for a long time.

Then he suddenly swung his hand.

Whoosh—!

It was a light, casual swing, a sound it had no right to make.

Yet a faint flurry of snow followed in the wake of his hand.

Fly lifted his head at the wordless gesture and let out a slow breath.

“Phew. As expected.”

They had failed.

Although, could you really call it a failure?

They had defeated the Ice Castle Lord, and every guild member who participated in the raid received rewards appropriate to their contribution.

The awestruck exclamations from the guild members proved as much.

Even so, a sigh slipped from Fly’s lips. Objectively speaking, the guild members who hadn’t contributed much had still received rewards of that caliber. Fly himself, who had created the opening for the finishing blow, had received rewards on another level entirely. So what kind of reward would Kim Buja, the one who actually delivered the final strike, end up with?

Setting everything else aside, the Ice Castle alone was an overwhelming prize.

However, the sigh was fleeting.

Fly reached out and helped Kim Buja to his feet.

“You worked hard,” he remarked, his tone crisp and composed, the earlier flicker of frustration gone without a trace.

“You never fail to exceed my expectations.”

Fly’s strength came from his refusal to cling to regrets.

It wasn’t just him; most rankers didn’t waste energy on pointless attachments, especially not to things that were already over.

What mattered was what came next.

For the sake of the future, they would even join hands with a mortal enemy and dive into a dungeon together.

That was why he could smile.

“Congratulations.”

Whether he meant it or not, Fly smiled as he offered his hand for a shake. Only then was Kim Buja finally able to speak.

“It’s a shame,” he said plainly.

He knew with certainty that if his attack had landed first, followed by Fly’s, their roles—and who was laughing last—would have been reversed.

That had been the plan. Fly’s attack was only supposed to draw the Ice Castle Lord’s attention for a moment, nothing more.

But he had gotten greedy.

Although, calling it greed might be overstating it.

The situation had progressed too smoothly. An opening appeared, born from the Ice Castle Lord’s own greed and her reaction time, and Fly had simply been the one caught in the crossfire.

It had been unexpected.

Normally, he would have played it safe to guarantee the result, but this time, a tiny mistake had slipped in, born from the thought: ’What if I drag this out and Buja steals the kill?’

It was Fly’s one and only Achilles’ heel, one that had been there ever since the National Team Battle.

Neither of them said it out loud.

Either way, they had brought things to an end.

After a brief rest and some quick regrouping, they headed into the castle interior.

There were still plenty of monsters inside, and some of them looked even stronger than before, but they were able to enter without any real trouble.

“Nice,” Fly murmured.

The authority of the Ice Castle Lord needed no explanation.

It was so good that Kim Buja briefly wondered if Fly might just throw everything away and stab him in the back for it.

* * *

The players who had been kidnapped by the Ice Castle Lord were safely released.

They had been flash-frozen into human popsicles and left that way for weeks, so it would have been a stretch to say they were in good condition. But they were all high-stat rankers, so nothing serious came of it.

—They actually pulled it off.

—Fly really is something else.

—Didn’t Kim Buja do more than Fly this time, though?

—Kim Buja just came in to leech at the end. He’s basically a last-hit junkie, no?

—You don’t know shit about dungeons. Did you not see the Ice Castle Lord go berserk at the end? Fly was on death’s door.

—Why are you guys fighting? The two of them synced up perfectly and cleared it together.

—For real. By the way, when did Kim Buja disappear? I didn’t even notice he was gone.

—Same. I was like, “Huh, where’d he go?” and then suddenly he was already behind the Ice Castle Lord.

—I kinda felt bad for the Ice Castle Lord. Her clothes were all torn up, and he went and shanked that frail body like that.

Naturally, the world slipped into a festive mood.

Friends and family of the kidnapped players sent in their thanks as well.

Fly’s flashy, overwhelming magic, the spectacular clash with the world-freezing blizzard, and Kim Buja’s final finishing scene were edited together into a video that racked up billions of views in a single day.

Overnight superstardom.

Although, calling it that was a bit much, since both of them were already household names. But this raid had cemented their legends beyond dispute.

—What even is Kim Buja?

—Landing a meaningful hit on a boss in an 8-star Legendary dungeon? Is that something a level-30-something player can do? What level is he actually at?

—Maybe he secretly leveled up to like 60.

—Get real.

—I just want to see his status window once.

Fly’s rival, or his successor.

There was only one candidate: Kim Buja.

And the questions poured in for him.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of millions of people all asking the same thing.

—So what’s going to happen to the Ice Castle?

They all wanted to know about the new Ice Castle Lord.