Chapter 198
Chapter 198
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: Hunting Festival and Golden Skill Books
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[Spike Securities Account Domestic Stock Profit]
-51,181,118,130 won (-48.8%).
"Ah, is this a dream?"
I washed my eyes and looked again, but it wasn't a dream. Minus 50 billion was the cold, hard reality.
That's right. My stocks had been halved.
"Ah......"
Truth be told, stocks getting cut in half is commonplace. Countless people dive into the stock market and end up like this.
But there's a world of difference between 1 million won, 10 million won, or even 100 million won getting halved,
and 100 billion won getting halved.
"I had to buy them anyway. I had to......"
I tried to mind-control myself like that, but the thought "Why didn't you just buy them a little later since you were going to anyway?" wouldn't leave my head.
That said, I couldn't blame Nemesis either—the entire stock market was in a similar state.
Nemesis had dropped the most among them, but minus 30% or 40% was common too.
The news explained the situation with talk of physical assets due to the monster crisis and credit assets doing this or that, but to me, who hadn't bought stocks to invest, it was all meaningless noise.
"Login."
I entered Ardenia.
"Let's go."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I took the elevator out of the guild tower. In the northwest corner of the continent, the upper-left quadrant, the Myriad Poisons Stronghold bustled with thousands of parties.
"His Majesty has arrived."
"Emperor His Majesty......"
"This momentum. This dignity...... It makes my flesh crawl......"
I stepped on the air and ascended into the sky, listening to the players murmuring low.
Of course, it wasn't Air Step or Sky Walk—it was a feat using Extreme Will Body's Universal Interference.
'The catch is that I'm now at a realm where I can do Air Step too.'
Anyway, from high in the air, I looked down at all the players gazing up at me.
"My proud warriors."
They were high-level players in the top 1% of the Human Empire, fully equipped. It was only natural, since the participation requirement for this 'event' was level 40 or higher.
"Over the past 10 years, you have grown strong. Just six or seven parties here could topple a nation if sent back in time. But as you know, beyond those walls still lurk monsters you cannot stand against."
Players were strong. Of course, they were still free-to-play...... but now they had completed collections up to high-grade items, with advanced classes as the baseline and rare grades not uncommon.
But it wasn't enough.
Ardenia's inland had become a hell overrun by legendary monsters. Even I only cleaned up perches of flying drakes or burrowing worms, leaving the rest alone—so without mythic walls, no amount of player growth could have maintained this peace.
Legendary monsters' [sieges] still happened every few days.
Players who regularly joined defenses to grind experience couldn't afford to get complacent.
"Of course, if I went out and fought 10 hours a day, I could wipe them all out. Is that what you want?"
"No!"
"We can do it!"
"We won't be a burden!"
They shouted and yelled. I hadn't said anything particularly grand, yet they were all in extreme excitement, beside themselves.
"You—humanity—will grow even stronger. We will advance!"
I knew the 34th Earth. A mad world where even transcendent monsters killed you in 3 minutes flat.
Someday, I would turn the Human Empire into that too.
"Right now! Show that potential before my eyes!"
"Yes!"
"Long live Emperor His Majesty!"
Amid the pouring cheers, stomping feet, and applause, I wrapped up my speech.
"The hunting festival begins!"
"Waaaaah---!"
With thunderous roars, tens of thousands of players charged into the dungeons.
I confirmed the plaza emptying of players, then used stocks.
"Execute 5th Anniversary Event: Complete the Golden Skill Book. Location: Myriad Poisons Stronghold Dungeon. Duration: maximum."
At my words, the stock count floating in my vision rapidly decreased.
And the moment it hit zero.
[Golden Skill Book Event Applied]
[Remaining Time: 37:48]
I landed and spoke to my adjutant.
"The remaining hunting festival time is 37 hours and 48 minutes. Announce it."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I'd used stocks to summon NPCs, connect one-on-one chats, create guild boards, and more, but I hadn't grasped the exact mechanics.
'It wasn't very popular.'
For some items, I could boost drop rates up to 10%, for others not. I could summon shop NPCs but not players.
I'd used it, but the criteria were unclear—guessing by depletion speed.
But through talks with Bae Sarang—Nemesis's CEO and Revenge's planner—I figured out the patch's nature.
'I can only apply systems that exist—or existed—in Revenge.'
Revenge tweaked monster drop tables often: locking rates or buffing for market control.
They changed monster grades or skills, added or removed systems.
Buffed or nerfed jobs, added or deleted skills.
Those 'records' defined my patch scope.
From countless chats with Sarang, I found the perfect target.
'Complete the Golden Skill Book.'
The 5th anniversary event that opened amid fanfare, required 3 emergency patches, and became infamous.
I recalled Sarang's words.
'It was a huge event hyped for praise, but we got flooded with hate. Posted apologies—total chaos.'
The 'Complete the Golden Skill Book' event let you get 'skill book fragments' from monsters, then craft: 10 for advanced skill book, 100 for rare, 1,000 for heroic, 10,000 for legendary.
Obviously, it wasn't handing out legendary skills en masse.
Drop rates were abysmal—most players scraped a few hundred at best. No trading either.
Auto-farming got you rare at most. Top players barely hit heroic. Absolute tops grinding high-end spots nonstop got legendary.
Even then, fragments required diamonds for [probability] crafting—not free. Only Revenge players thought [What a steal!?].
But problems arose.
Fragments weren't tradeable, but helping others in 'combat' was allowed. Players realized high-grade monsters dropped fragments well.
'Large guild masters dragged dozens of buffers and healers to butcher mythic normal monsters.'
Mythic normals usually had trash drops—waste of manpower normally. But with fragments? Game-changer.
The result was very Korean.
Large guilds shared intel fast, flooding servers with hundreds of legendary skill books.
Naturally, the event vanished forever after.
'And I summoned that cursed event.'
As big a jackpot as the rice cake event. Use it right, and Ardenia floods with legendary skill books.
'The crash hurts...... but with tons of stocks, options abound.'
I summoned [Shop NPCs] spending gold, unlocked unusable [Mail] convenience.
Installed [Public Bulletin Boards] synced real-time across cities, tweaked specific [drop rates], ran [events].
My current stocks: about 20,000.
Enough to flex every patch I'd dreamed of. Stocks(?) recover over time anyway—no holding back.
And alongside stocks,
one more discovery.
[Level 22 Spirit Disaster Warning! Level 22 Spirit Disaster Warning! All citizens......]
[Cleared in 2 minutes 38 seconds! Elder Kim Chan-gi's astonishing finishing move?]
"What're you watching?"
Ruby came flapping over, burrowing into my arms. I answered.
"News. Monster crisis is hot lately."
Black Cat sidled up, hooking my arm with one of hers, pressing her ample chest against my shoulder, whispering in my ear. Her breath tickled.
"Even at 34th Earth, single monsters don't cause casualties anymore. Makes sense—we handled 11 just fine."
I'd spent as much time in Ardenia as in reality lately.
Mostly sleep and rest, but work or hunts too.
'Fortunate, I guess.'
My guess that long Ardenia stays caused monster outbreaks was half-right.
The variable wasn't Ardenia......
but the [Temple of Death] in Cheonyeon.
'Good that I can still access Ardenia, though I don't know why.'
After experiments, mythic monsters spawn in reality regardless of killing mythics in mythic dungeons—if staying long.
The prior 11 mythics? From my 10-year routine visits to Temple of Death.
For me, a key issue. To conquer Cheonyeon...... no dragging it out—finish in one go.
"Clear!"
A blond hunk in white armor rocketed out like a missile.
Onlookers watching the dungeon from afar buzzed.
"Cleared...... in just 20 minutes? Solo Hell difficulty?"
"Even pro special parties take an hour......"
"Faster than Duel Knight or Silver Cross Knight."
"As expected of His Majesty's disciple......"
No faction, no title—yet Edward's status was immense. Pure skill and merit.
'Confirmed myth, as expected.'
As I admired, the dungeon gate rippled again.
"Done!"
"Too late, sis."
"Argh, damn it!"
Hayes emerged second, clicking her tongue at Edward dumping items from inventory. But the festival was just starting.
They emptied inventories and dove back in. The leaderboard etched names, fragment counts, clear times.
[Edward: 1 (1 clear).]
[Hayes Starlight: 0 (1 clear).]
Starting with them, other players cleared and emerged.
"Wow, those two already came and went. And I have a party......"
Confirmed legend Red exited with her party, emptied inventory, left.
'Oh, right—Red got a myth class.'
New mythic class: [Dimension Wanderer].
But Red's wasn't confirmed myth.
[Dimension Wanderer]
In a hopeless battle, Red poured all mana into dimensional collapse, only to get stranded in the dimension's underside.
Original timeline: mere 5 years. Dimensional underside: decades or centuries unknown.
Returning, she transcended human—became a dimension wanderer.
Class embodies [all] possibilities in Ardenia.
Never the absolute original future. Myths especially premise rare fortunes or flukes—so even with empire infrastructure, Red's mythic odds are slim.
'Of course...... not zero.'
Hand her a myth class card now, she'd rebirth as mythic. Didn't I pull Sword Master future for Hayes the same way?
"......"
Then I paused.
'Wait...... does this actually work?'
I'd brushed it off, but on second thought, it was bizarre.
'Even for a newly added mythic class?'