Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: A Guild Master Can't Get By on Games Alone
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When I got home, my ultimate fave was there to greet me, decked out in a baking apron.
Is this heaven?
"Welcome back, Kaisha-nim."
The ecstatic critical hit left me breathless, clutching my chest, and Hellcannon rushed over in alarm, steadying me.
"As I thought, your wounds—"
"Ah, no. I'm fine."
Talking business with Hyun-woo-nim had been way more fun than expected, so I'd chatted away until it was already evening.
The smell of baking bread was pure bliss.
More precisely, the scent wafting from Hellcannon's apron was enough to make me lose my mind.
"You're back?"
Kim Je-hyeon poked his head out.
Kim Je-hyeon, you baking fanatic—what the hell did you have my heroes doing while I was gone?
Thank you. Accept my bow.
"I lost a lot of blood earlier, I guess. Feeling a bit dizzy. Hellcannon, escort me."
"Yes."
Hellcannon dutifully escorted me, and the heroes who'd popped out from the kitchen stared over at us, each wearing a cute apron.
And check this—all those baking aprons were top-shelf quality.
"……."
I was tempted to let the fragile mood carry me straight to my room with Hellcannon, but I couldn't just ignore that sight.
When Kali gets back and the gate opens, I'm sending all the heroes home.
Of course, I can summon my bound heroes anytime I want, but some instinct told me I needed to rack up more footage and memories before then.
"……Hold on, no way I can pass this up."
Hellcannon gave me a puzzled look, but I whipped out my phone and started snapping pics of my cute, handsome, pretty, do-it-all heroes.
Kim Je-hyeon, who'd been eyeing me suspiciously, spoke up.
"You're dizzy, aren't you?"
"This is all your fault!"
"M-Me?! What did I do?!"
"What the hell did you dress my handsome heroes in?! They're too adorable—I can't just walk by!"
At my words, the heroes glanced at each other like, *Are we really that cute?* or peeked down at their own aprons.
Cuteness overload.
Kim Je-hyeon looked stunned for a second before puffing up with pride.
"You get it. They don't appreciate it in Korea, but cooking's all about style. Those aprons? Hand-stitched by French artisans—"
With Kim Je-hyeon chattering on as background noise, I snapped away at my heroes like I was possessed.
*Click. Click.*
Then I followed him as he herded them back to the kitchen and filmed their baking session for some vlog footage.
Once I'd satisfied my fan heart, I sent the videos and pics to the channel manager. After a quick edit, Fullminak's hero baking vlog went up.
Abyss's other debut video, plus the casual clips we'd shot of what went down inside the gate with the guildmates.
Just a handful of videos, and boom—views and subs skyrocketed.
* * *
Kali got my message and came back through the return gate from the Babel Tower, and all the captured heroes made it safely back to Midgard.
The guildmates who'd been waiting for Hyun-woo-nim's call sent their bound heroes back to Midgard too.
Even my high-ranking, busy heroes got a short break.
Hyun-woo-nim said the hero unsummoning system was getting patched soon, and right now, summoning's free rein but unsummoning's not.
And finally, Fullminak's alliance guild Golden Pig uploaded their market system analysis report.
Kali said,
["Whoa, seriously, you still haven't checked out the item market? Why wait for the report? It's screaming 'I only played Vipa' from every pore."]
"What about respect for the guild master who scored northern dungeon access from Space King and a 100-billion-won contract from YM while you were gone?"
["I respect you, Guild Master-nim."]
Damn right.
I popped in my Bluetooth earbuds to chat with Kali while opening the item market window.
"Looks like a ton of stuff."
["All put up by users."]
I'd peeked once at launch and never bothered since, but a full-fledged item market had already formed.
[Free Market]
Per the report, ex-players had jumped right in selling items.
Stuff from after the Babel Tower opened.
Hunters in Midgard's dungeons must be listing every item drop from monsters like crazy.
Game systems applying to reality—wild.
I idly scrolled through the real-time listings, then glanced at another market tab besides [My Items].
Coin market was locked, so skipping that.
In the market's [My Items] section, all my in-game items were listed and locked.
I tapped one.
[[Weapon Info]
Name: Ancient Divine Sword Imbued with Uramat's Authority
Type: Sword
Acquisition Difficulty: ???
Attack Power: ???
Description: An ancient sword forged from the mightiest shard of a god in Midgard. An impossible divine relic for modern humans to craft, it possesses a will and lends its power only for righteous causes.
(This item is locked. Pay 7,000,000,000,000 won to use.)]
"……."
Not billions—trillions……
No clue what I'd shoved in my inventory. And I'd barely used them properly to hide my strength.
But this sword didn't have a 'relic-grade' rating either.
Maybe the grade itself is special.
"Kali."
["What."]
"These—we only pay in reality, right? In Midgard, we can just use them?"
["Yeah, correct."]
Kali sighed next.
["But isn't it ridiculous? We have to buy Midgard items with our real money to use them in reality."]
"Technically, items acquired before the Babel Tower opened."
["True, but we've got mountains of killer items stacked in the guild vault that we can't bring over. It's infuriating."]
"Resources are locked regardless of acquisition time."
["Yeah, no dice."]
The system's straight-up warning us not to farm resources.
According to the report, all Midgard items and goods obtained after the Babel Tower opened are usable in reality.
But pre-Tower acquisitions aren't.
To bring those to reality, you have to pay for full ownership.
They'd tried every trick—trading items, enhancing weapons, dropping and picking up again—but nothing worked.
So right now, Midgard's biggest resources are dungeon EXP and heroes.
"It's something that we can buy and use in reality, but damn, the prices are insane."
["Tell me about it."]
7 trillion? Sell it yourself then—gimme even a fraction.
Screw that, not using it.
"Feels like it's designed to protect Midgard from us. Like someone's made sure no one exploits it."
["Ha. Guess so. Can't tease you for overimmersion anymore."]
"If we think of Midgard as Korea's forward base, we should cherish it. Hell, it's basically our homeland. Turns out every country ran the game in different worlds."
Surprisingly, Vipa Online connected each country's channel to a unique otherworld.
Continent maps differed from the start per channel.
I'd wondered why they didn't just copy-paste maps for efficiency, but it was more convenient that way for the dimension connectors.
No word on Vipa's creators, still.
Kali said,
["Other Babel channels aren't opening? Feels like each has its own otherworld."]
That reminded me of the Babel quest.
I'd cleared *Fight the Incarnated Constellation*, so stepping into Babel lets me contract Hellcannon as an incarnation now.
"Other channels……."
In-game, we could freely access other countries' channels, but now even reaching Babel's unclear.
Not a priority anyway.
Tried buying a few basic potions from the market listings, but no money.
Looks like it accepts cash or bank registration.
"Have you pulled out cash? Like from inventory?"
["Yeah, works."]
"Neat."
Skimmed the Free Market, then headed to [Coin Market].
Tapped it, and a new window popped up, fully locked as per the report.
But.
"Hey, Kali."
["What?"]
"What's a coin?"
["The report writers admitted they don't know either? Nobody does right now."]
No way they'd admit ignorance outright.
No wonder the report barely mentioned Coin Market.
"Maybe for other channels."
["Could be."]
The alliance report focused on Free Market analysis and usage tips.
"You got basic coins?"
["Yeah, but Coin Market's locked, along with payments."]
Tapped the coin window.
[!Locked!]
[Cannot use yet.]
[Description: A currency worth saving. We advise against reckless spending, but hoarding too much could lead to regret.]
First time seeing a description like that.
"Anyway, mine says unusable too. Wonder what it's for with this much."
["How much you got?"]
["A lot? How much?"]
Glanced at my coin window at Kali's question.
[985986 C]
"Roughly a million coins. Not quite."
["A m-million?! That's insane! I have just over two thousand, and I haven't seen anyone with more!"]
"……Coin amounts vary per person?"
["Seems so. Whoa, jackpot. What the hell's it for? Oh, right—saw Gilgamesh mention having a lot on the boards too. But a million's next level."]
No idea what it is, but having the most felt pretty good.
"Yeah, whatever……."
Still can't buy a single relic-grade weapon, though—kinda frustrating.
Closed the market and opened my item window.
Midgard items unusable in reality were locked.
Maybe because that Incarnated Constellation mocked my weapons, but I kept eyeing them wistfully.
Browsed the rewards from beating the Demon King.
[Demon King's Shard]
[Broken Antenna]
[Depleted Fuel]
[Greater Golden Potion x10]
[Bracelet's Necklace]
[Tereb's Martial Arts Manual]
[Ancient Dragon Heart x4]
[Unknown Material x7]
[Diamond Gemstone x9]
[Gear of the Dead x11]
Pretty generous for Lowguard monster rewards, but most needed processing.
Gear of the Dead needs a forge to become usable weapons.
It's a gacha, basically, but Demon King drops mean solid quality expected.
The real jackpot: four [Ancient Dragon Hearts].
Processed into items, they're compact, massively boost intelligence, expand MP hugely—mages go nuts for 'em.
And.
"Demon King's Shard?"
Maybe process this like the Dragon Hearts for top-tier performance.
["Demon King? Oh yeah, you got lag-kicked during the fight, so rewards came late. Those count as post-Babel items?"]
"Yeah. EXP too."
["Reality level up?!"]
"Yeah."
["Whoa, you hit the honey pot. No wonder you started flying after entering Midgard dungeons."]
"Secret from Dart and Gilgamesh."
["You planned to hide it."]
Obviously.
The [Demon King's Shard] was uniquely cube-shaped and, not classified as Midgard 'resource,' had no fixed lock.
I took it out.