Not a Script — Anomalous Play (2)
“Begging? Us?”
I’d just come up with a brand-new technique. Pretty impressive, right? I immediately checked the chat.
Exactly what I expected.
“Praise. Hehehe. Nice.”
See? When people compliment you, doesn’t it feel great? The atmosphere gets all warm and fuzzy. Why does this feel so good? Hahaha. It’s hilarious. Anyway, let’s keep this going. The mood’s improving.
“Hahahaha. This is too funny.”
“There they go again.”
They were totally into it ten seconds ago. Ugh. I could smack them. No, now’s not the time. I should explain the situation to the two people I’m about to go begging with.
“Begging?”
“Ah, yes. We’re doing the street-performer thing.”
“Suddenly?”
The woman kept asking, clearly confused. Of course she wouldn’t understand. If she did, she’d be the crazy one. I only blurted it out because I was sick of scripted bits!
Ma’am… you really are a normal person. I’ll give you that.
“Yeah. You two don’t have money, right? I’ll recommend a great way to earn some. Once you’ve made a decent amount, just deposit it with Seon-a Holdings. I’ll guarantee at least the legal interest rate.”
I’m not a scammer, so I can’t promise double or triple. Just the legal rate, that’s all I can manage. Wait, how much is the legal rate again? Huh…? Twenty percent? No way. That’s way too high. I’m not that dumb. I know what interest is. Mom used to give me interest on my allowance every month at 1.3 percent. Thanks to her, I got a solid economics lesson. What I realized was, “If it’s not a lot of money, the interest doesn’t really mean anything.” You need serious capital to earn meaningful interest. I said that once and Mom scolded me hard. Anyway, thanks to my early economics education, I know my stuff. Wait!! If I borrow a million won… I have to pay back two hundred thousand? That’s like throwing away six whole chickens? Well, I could just not eat them, so maybe it’s fine. But… I couldn’t buy two of those 110,000-won value packs? No… that’s not right.
“Hold on. Seon-a Holdings has changed its policy. I’ll only support one-quarter of the legal rate. Five percent interest. Sorry for the confusion.”
My brain had kicked into overdrive for the first time in a while, so I pulled myself together.
“Honestly, even five percent is a lot.”
“No, if you guess right in one round of holdings-odd-or-even, it’s double.”
“That’s gambling…”
“If you win, it’s investing.”
“Ooh?!”
That actually sounds plausible? Right, if you win it’s investing. It only becomes gambling when you lose!! …is what I thought they’d say? Not at all!! Absolutely not!! You idiots. Gambling is bad. Gambling and drugs are genuinely terrible. Even middle-schoolers know that. There are lots of other bad things, but gambling and drugs are the most completely useless ones…!! I do have common sense. Did you think I’d let that slide? Not a chance.
“Gambling is bad. It ruins your life. But games are fine. As long as you don’t use real money.”
It’s really bad. Anyway.
“For now, let’s go beg and ask them to open the storehouse, okay?”
“What if they don’t?”
“If they don’t…?”
I hadn’t thought that far. Hmm… if they don’t?
“Then… we protest?!”
“Protest?”
“Oh!! That sounds fun. Let’s smash everything like a union.”
“Eeeeeeeh? Wait, suddenly? What the heck, seriously.”
The woman’s words were getting intense. Union? She didn’t mean an actual labor union, did she?
No. Our stream isn’t that kind of channel. I don’t know anything about that stuff. I’m always neutral. The chat was filling up with nasty comments.
“How do you know that? Have you tried it?”
“I did it once. I thought it’d be easy money, but it was so hard I ran away. Turns out not just anyone can do it.”
“Whoa…”
First time in virtual history. Don’t tell me there’s a National Virtual Union or something? I honestly have no idea!!
“This is insane…!! Is there anything else?”
I was genuinely impressed by a job I’d never heard of in my life. The woman, clearly excited, started spilling more stories.
“The downside is that you get paid by the employees. In the end it’s still basically a service job. Even if the employees are awful, you have to side with them because they’re the customers. Plus, since the company doesn’t pay you directly, your salary gets cut a bit.”
“How do you know all this so well?”
“I told you, I’ve done it.”
Wait, what could a VTuber have done? How old is she…?
“Your age…? You must have a lot of social experience…”
“Hahahaha.”
Both of them just laughed. Something felt off. I was starting to feel like I was being pranked on a hidden camera. I paused my character and searched them up on my phone. Maybe because they were small streamers, nothing came up. I couldn’t figure it out.
Anyway… we arrived at Maru Church. The moment we got there, I heard something shocking. , who used to be under Joseph, recognized one of the two women.
“Oh, hey. Hello, noona.”
“You know her?”
I butted in.
“Yeah, I do.”
“What do these people do?”
“Is it okay if I tell her?”
“Yes!! Please tell me!!”
I kept staring at . Huh? The two women had already disappeared.
“They’re gone?”
“What?! Those two said they were going to form a union. What do they do?”
“That one’s a noona.”
“Do you know her age?”
“Probably in her thirties…? Anyway, she’s a noona.”
“This is getting weirder and weirder…”
I don’t understand the virtual world at all. What is this? Even people in their thirties are VTubing now? How novel.
“Ah! This… isn’t a script!! It’s real…”
This is actually happening. I didn’t know either. This was a real situation. I’m just as flustered.
I gathered a bunch of enhancement materials and headed to the plaza. I looked for the two of them, but they weren’t there. So I decided to just enhance my gear.
“No, they trusted me and left it with me.”
I wanted to enhance my Crusader weapon. If I succeeded, I’d become an incredible Crusader. There’s all this talk about war lately, but I have no intention of getting involved in that. I’ll only use it for Maru.
After more than thirty minutes of enhancing, I finally reached +11. I didn’t even temper it, so it went pretty fast, but I’m satisfied with this much.
What should I do next? I wandered around the plaza. Something caught my eye… whoa…
“Over there. Bboing-nim. Bboing-nim.”
“Yes? Yes?”
“Where did you get that horse?”
A woman riding a pure white horse. It looked like it would suit me perfectly.
“You can buy one at the ranch.”
“How much?”
“500,000 won.”
“Hmm…”
“Ah, there’s more. Take a look at this.”
The woman suddenly started acting all fidgety. Since she answered my question, I’ll look. Yeah, go ahead and show off. I’ll smile for you.
She summoned a dragon and mounted it, then soared into the sky.
“Whoa…”
That’s cool. Honestly, it’s really cool. Watching her fly so majestically through the sky was impressive. I want one too. Why don’t I have one?
“How is it? Pretty awesome, right?”
“This is insane… Seriously. Where did you get it?”
“This? Want me to tell you?”
“I’ll beg as hard as I can. Pleeeeease tell me.”
“Hahhahaha. If you beg like that, I have to tell you.”
“Wait, but I can’t hear you properly!! Can you come down?”
The farther she flew, the quieter her audio became.
“A~!!! Can you hear me now?”
The closer she came to the ground, the louder her audio got. I’m so jealous. This is…
“This is S-rank. I got it on my first try.”
“How much to sell it?”
“This? I’m not selling.”
“I’ll give you my guild, will you sell it?”
“Pfft. Guild? Huh?”
Oh no!! I got too greedy and went overboard. That was a ridiculous offer.
“Sorry… I just wanted it that badly.”
“Then just pull one yourself. Follow me.”
“Ooh!!”
“I’ll guide you right now.”
“You’re an angel!! But how much is one pull?”
“Around a million won, I think?”
“No, why is it so expensive?”
It’s ridiculously expensive. I only have 1.7 million won on me. Is money just worthless paper in this world? Why is everything so pricey!!
“Ah~ F to S is 100,000 won, B to S is a million won. The million-won one feels more satisfying.”
“Aha!! But I don’t have money, can I take out a loan?”
“Don’t worry. There are plenty of pawnshops over there.”
“Pawnshops…? Probably full of gamblers.”
“Hahahahaha. Exactly. You can pawn or sell anything there.”
“If I pull an S-rank, how much could I sell it for? I might not get what I want.”
I was just asking on the off chance. It could happen, right? Ehehe. When you buy a lottery ticket, you buy it thinking you’ll throw it away if you lose, right? No, you buy it with the hope of winning.
“Ah~ If you sell it, you can get a high price. Someone once bought one for 40 million won.”
“That dragon for 40 million?”
“Yep~ And if you auction it, they say you can get twice that.”
“Whoa… Then I could just pull one, sell it, and use the money to keep pulling infinitely until I’m rich.”
“Kuhk. Big dreams you’ve got there.”
“Dreams should be big.”
Let me tell you my plan. First, pull one with a million won.
“Ah… got a B.”
I pulled a strong rabbit B from the million-won banner. What the heck is this?
“It didn’t go according to the script… I was supposed to get an S-rank. Bboing-nim… could you lend me some money?”
This wasn’t in the script. I never dreamed I’d end up begging. Yeah… this is anomalous play… hngh.