Chapter 197

Overgrown Pay-to-Win Chapter 197

“Ah, is this a dream?”

I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but it wasn’t a dream. The minus 50 billion won was a harsh reality.

Yes. My stocks had been cut in half.

“Ah…”

In fact, stocks being cut in half was a common occurrence. Countless people had jumped into the stock market and suffered the same fate.

However, stocks worth 1 million won, 10 million won, or even 100 million won being cut in half was one thing.

Stocks worth 10 billion won being cut in half was truly a matter of a completely different scale.

“I was going to buy them anyway. I would’ve…”

I tried to control my mind that way, but the thought “I should’ve bought them a little later” wouldn’t leave my head.

Still, I couldn’t blame Nemesis. The entire stock market was in a similar state. While Nemesis had fallen more than most, drops of 30 or even 40 percent were not uncommon.

The news explained the situation in terms of “real assets being hit hard by the monster situation” and “credit assets performing similarly.” But since I hadn’t bought stocks with the intention of investing, all this information was useless to me.

“Login.”

I entered Ardenia.

“Gazih.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I took an elevator out of the guild tower. In the northwest of the continent, where the upper left corner of the map lay, the Palace of 10,000 Poisons was teeming with thousands of parties.

“Your Highness has arrived.”

“Your Imperial Majesty…”

“This energy… This grandeur… It truly sends chills down my spine…”

Ascension of the Monarch

I raised my head toward the field of clouds,

Hearing the low voices of the Players touching the air.

Of course, this was no ordinary levitation or celestial ascension;

It was a feat made possible by the Supreme Being’s power to interfere with all things.

Though one might mistakenly think it’s due to supernatural abilities.

In any case, having risen above the clouds, I now gazed down upon all the Players looking up at me.

“My noble warriors,” I addressed them, “you are the elite of the elite, belonging to the top 1% of Players within the Human Empire. This should come as no surprise, given that the entry requirement for this event was set at level 40.”

“Over the past decade, you have grown immensely stronger. Even just six parties here today could potentially overturn a nation if sent back in time. However, as you well know, beyond those castle walls still lurk monsters beyond your control.”

The players had grown strong. Of course, they were still non-paying users… But now they were completing collections for basic to advanced ranked classes, and even rare ranks were becoming increasingly common.

Yet it was still not enough.

The inland of Ardenia had become hell, ruled by legendary monsters. I could only clean up the footholds of creatures like flying drakes or burrowing worms, leaving the rest alone. If not for the Mythical Rank Castle Walls, no matter how much the players grew, maintaining the current peace would have been impossible.

The Siege by legendary monsters still occurred once every few days.

Players who participated regularly in the stamina battles, earning experience, could not be arrogant.

“Of course, I could kill them all if I went out there and fought 10 hours a day. Do you want that?”

“No!”

“We can do it!”

“We absolutely will not be a burden!”

They shouted and strained their voices. It wasn’t a very extraordinary story, but everyone was extremely excited.

“You—you humans will be even stronger. You will develop!”

I knew Earth-34 well. It was this crazy world where Transcendent Rank monsters could kill everything within 3 minutes.

Sometime, I will make the Human Empire such a place as well.

“Now! Show me the possibility of this in front of me!”

“Yes!”

“Long live the Emperor!”

Applause and footsteps erupted. Amidst the clapping, I finished my speech.

“The Hunt begins!”

“Yaaaaaah!”

With a thunderous shout, tens of thousands of players raced into the dungeons.

After confirming that the number of players filling the square was rapidly decreasing, I used a stock.

“Five-year anniversary event. Execute: Complete the Golden Skill Book. Location: All-Toxic Dungeon. Time: Maximum.”

As I spoke, the number of stocks in my view steadily decreased. And the moment it reached 0…

I descended to the ground and spoke to my assistant.

“Tell everyone there are 37 hours and 48 minutes remaining in the hunt.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I had always been a little foggy on the specifics of what I could do with my stocks. I knew I could summon NPCs, connect to players via one-on-one chat, or create a guild bulletin board, but beyond those basic functionalities, my understanding was limited.

It’s too exclusive.

Some items could have their drop rate increased to a maximum of 10 percent, while others couldn’t. I could call forth NPC shopkeepers but not players. Although I’d used this feature before, I couldn’t discern any clear criteria—just a rough idea that certain types or regions were favored.

However, through numerous conversations with Bae Saram, the CEO of Nemesis and mastermind behind Revenge…I finally uncovered the true nature of these patches.

Only systems already present or previously implemented in Revenge can be applied.

In Revenge, developers often tampered with monster drop tables. They’d lock drop rates to control market prices or even create buff items that increased spawn chances.

They changed monster ranks and skills, implemented systems only to abandon them later. They raised and lowered job abilities. New skills were added or removed.

And these ‘records’ were the scope of what I could patch. Through countless conversations with Love, I found the most suitable target.

It was an event opened for the 5th anniversary and required three temporary maintenance sessions. I recalled Love’s words.

We launched a massive event hoping for praise but ended up getting heaps of criticism instead. It was chaos with the apology post and everything.

Complete the Golden Skill Book. The event involved defeating monsters to acquire ‘Skill Book Fragments’. Collecting 10 fragments allowed you to craft an advanced skill book, 100 for a rare one, 1,000 for a hero skill book, and 10,000 for a legendary skill book.

Obviously, it wasn’t an event where players would receive a buffet of legendary skills. The drop rate was so low that most players barely managed to collect a few hundred fragments, and trading them wasn’t possible either.

Even with persistent automated hunting, you’d be lucky to get a rare-grade book. Only top-tier players could barely piece together a hero skill book, and only those at the very pinnacle of skill, who tirelessly roamed the highest-level hunting grounds throughout the event, stood a chance at obtaining a legendary skill book.

To make things even more challenging, piecing together the fragments didn’t automatically create the book. Instead, players had to consume diamonds to manufacture the skill book with a probabilistic chance of success. Only a masochistic “revenge player” would see this as an opportunity for massive profit.

But then, a problem arose.

While players couldn’t trade the skill book fragments, they realized that other players could assist in battles, and the drop rate for skill book fragments from high-level monsters was quite high.

It was said that ‘the guild masters of large guilds would bring along dozens of casters and healers to slaughter myth-ranked monsters’.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a colossal waste of manpower, given the abysmal drop rate for myth-ranked monsters… But with the possibility of obtaining skill book fragments, the game changed completely.

The outcome of the event was very Korean.

The guild masters of the large guilds quickly shared this information, and hundreds of legendary skill books were released on the server.

It goes without saying that after that, the event itself disappeared and was never held again.

‘And I called that cursed event.’

This was an event as popular as the Songpyeon event. If I used it well, I could release a ton of legendary skill books in Ardenia.

‘The plummet is heartbreaking… But with enough stocks, there are many things I can do.’

I summoned the [Shop NPC], consumed gold, and opened the previously unusable convenience feature, [Mail].

I’d installed a [Public Bulletin Board] that synchronized in real-time across all cities. I’ve adjusted the [drop rate] of certain monsters and even held [events].

Right now, I have roughly 20,000 shares of stock.

Thanks to this, I’m able to implement every patch I’ve ever imagined in the past. In any case, my share power (?) recovers after a certain time, so there’s nothing to worry about.

And along with my shares…

I’ve discovered one more thing.

“What are you looking at so intently?” Ruby asks as she comes running and throws herself into my arms.

“The news says that the recent monster situation is all the rage right now,” Hwakyu whispered into my ear, his sumptuous bosom pressing against my shoulder as he draped an arm over me. His breath tickled my ear.

“Even on Earth-34, single monsters aren’t causing any fatalities. Although, considering how well they’ve held up against eleven at a time, that’s hardly surprising.”

I’d spent more time in Ardenia than I had in reality. Most of it was sleep and rest, but I’d also worked and gone hunting.

I suppose I should count myself lucky.

My suspicion that monsters were pouring out of Ardenia turned out to be half-right. The variable wasn’t Ardenia itself, but rather the Temple of Death in Heavenly Yuan.

I’m relieved that I haven’t been transported to this version of Ardenia, but I still don’t know what’s going on there.

After conducting several experiments, I discovered that regardless of whether one defeated the Mythical Rank monsters, spending extended periods in these dungeons would result in Mythical Rank monsters appearing in reality. The emergence of those eleven Mythical Rank monsters a while back was due to me regularly venturing into the Temple of Death over the course of ten years, almost like clocking in for work.

This was a critical issue for me to consider. If I wanted to conquer Heavenly Yuan… I had to finish the task swiftly, all at once, without dragging it out.

“Clear!”

At that moment, a golden-haired javelin of a man, clad in white armor, burst forth from the dungeon like a missile. The spectators observing from a distance were left agape.

”…He cleared it in just 20 minutes? And alone, at Hell difficulty?”

“Even the most elite squads take an hour to complete this place…”

“He’s faster than the Duel Knight and even the Order of the Silver Cross.”

“Indeed, he must be the monarch’s disciple…”

Though Edward wielded no special powers and held no distinguished ranks, his status was immense. It was a result solely of his own strength and abilities.

A true god, indeed.

As they marveled at his feat, the dungeon gate flickered once more.

“Race!”

“You’re late, Nuna.”

“Ah, dammit!”

The second Haze emerged, watching with amusement as Edward emptied his inventory. However, the hunt was only beginning.

After clearing their inventories, they re-entered the dungeon. The situation board displayed their names, acquired skill book fragments, and clearance counts.

Following their lead, other players began emerging from the dungeon after clearing it.

“Wow. You two have come and gone already. I had a whole party with me though…”

Red, now confirmed as a legend, returned with her team to empty their inventories.

Ah, right. Red’s Myth Class has been revealed.

The newly added Myth Class: [Dimension Wanderer].

However, it was difficult to call Red a confirmed Myth in this case.

A class in Ardenia represented all possibilities that could exist within its realm.

This was not an absolute determination of the original’s future. Especially for the Mythical Rank, most of these scenarios presupposed unlikely coincidences or sudden developments. No matter how advanced humanity’s infrastructure became, one should consider the likelihood of Red reaching Mythical Rank to be very low.

Of course… that doesn’t mean there’s no way.

If she were to hand over the Mythical Class Card to Red now, she would be reborn as a Mythical Class. Hadn’t Haez’s future as a Sword Master been similarly foretold using this method?

”…”

Suddenly, she hesitated.

Wait, hold on… Is this really possible?

She hadn’t thought much about it before, but upon reflection, it was truly a strange tale.

Even though the Mythical Class was newly added?