Half a Beat Ahead
The person who sees half a beat ahead and the person who can't see the future—after Jeong Hana hit max level, a few days later.
"Any good drops anywhere..."
Ghoul King, the CEO of Playpeople, was inhaling a serving of pig's feet in front of his three monitors.
Of course, he wasn't just scarfing down late-night snacks to fill an empty stomach.
The CEO of Playpeople was, quite surprisingly, working for the future of his company and its channels.
Ghoul King was watching over ten internet streams at once.
The side monitors were split-screened with multiple broadcast feeds playing simultaneously, while the central one had the stream he was mining for info.
He didn't roam around in-game himself to gather information.
He yelled at his subordinates to do it, but he never used that method himself.
"Ha... Heart of Fire... Heart of Fire... Heart of Fire..."
To raise Playpeople's status, he had to scrape every last bit of honey from the bottom of the jar that was Lost of Fantasy.
And Ghoul King, who knew that well, had one piece of good news.
Lost of Fantasy had more volume than expected—the bottom of the honey jar was deeper than he'd thought.
'This could make a decent video... but fuck, can't do much with the entrance or first boss.'
Ghoul King wasn't just some shit-for-brains uncle ripping off guides and stories from everywhere to make videos.
He had an 'eye' for spotting what content people would care about and how the devs would run the game.
His only issues were his rotten personality and total lack of morals.
"This is definitely future food... but no way to introduce it... Too good for Shorts? Nah, maybe Shorts?"
He was already brainstorming a Short titled something like 'No way! A hidden dungeon in Moonlight Abyss?!'
'Heh heh heh... Yeah, this ain't bad... A terrifying dungeon recommended only for raid groups... But too dangerous for us to cover, add some spice...'
The reason Ghoul King was convinced about the Heart of Fire raid dungeon was simple.
He was the madman watching 10 to 20 internet streams at this very moment.
Not just Korean Pajijik streams, either.
He watched YouTube Live streams and even foreign Twitch ones simultaneously.
So he'd seen streamers countless times stumble into Heart of Fire by accident or to answer donor curiosity—and wipe.
"Alright... Handle Heart of Fire like this, next video on Moonlight Abyss..."
Ghoul King, reaching for the piled-up pig's feet, suddenly froze.
'Not my imagination...'
He dragged the stream in the corner of his right monitor to the center and zoomed in.
It was a stream by a woman with a cute voice, but that wasn't the point.
Ghoul King was staring intently at the corner of the whiny streamer's game screen.
Popey Caldera
In the corner of the screen, as she begged for help, there was Lee Siwoo clearly visible, grinding fire essences.
"That little shit..."
『Black Magician』
Lee Siwoo, whose name screamed 'generic Black Magician nick' but had become somewhat rare, was grinding endlessly at Popey Caldera.
"If my eyes aren't fucked, he was catching fire elementals there earlier too..."
It was weird.
Essence grinding wasn't public knowledge yet, so to Ghoul King, seeing Lee Siwoo solely hunting fire elementals for hours—enough to show up on streams—was bizarre.
"This... there's definitely something. Why else grind that for hours..."
Ghoul King quickly rewound the replays of the other streams he was watching.
The world now was very different from the one Jeong Hana knew 20 years ago.
Internet streaming, not so normalized back then, had exploded into a massive subculture—no, bigger than that.
Lots of streamers, lots of viewers. Secrets didn't last.
"Heh heh heh... Let's dig some more."
But that's why Jeong Hana always moved half a beat ahead.
She knew exactly how 'crazy' she'd look spilling every future she remembered.
"Yesss! This is it! This was it! Yeah! KnightSuperstarMan! This fucker! He was involved! This!"
The next day.
Ghoul King was stalking Lee Siwoo, who had resumed his grind early Saturday morning.
Lee Siwoo wasn't roaming all over Popey Caldera, so tailing him was easy.
Plus, Ghoul King was playing a Rogue, and its Stealth skill made him invisible—movement speed halved, but it didn't break unless attacking. Perfect for stalking.
"Yeah, yeah... Knew you'd do this."
By near lunchtime, after sticking to Lee Siwoo like glue, Ghoul King got the scene he'd hoped for.
Jeong Hana met Lee Siwoo, and they both returned to Demon King Castle together.
'No escaping the grasp of Ghoul King!'
Of course, there was no in-game way to instantly know they'd returned to Demon King Castle.
But Ghoul King, true to his lack of morals, knew the /who command well.
> /who BlackMagician
Typing '/who BlackMagician' in chat showed level, class, rough location, and guild. He already knew that.
So he instantly knew they'd gone to Demon King Castle—and soon after, entered and left the auction house.
"What's there... what's the deal..."
The moment they left, Ghoul King clicked the auction house NPC like lightning.
Knowing Lee Siwoo had grinded only fire elementals all day, he rapidly searched likely items.
Lost of Fantasy's auction house censored seller names to prevent issues—but the censorship was half-assed. If you knew the character name, spotting their listings was child's play.
"Haha, there it is... Fire Essence... Fire Elemental Essence!"
After two days stalking Lee Siwoo, Ghoul King had arrived at the truth.
"So this is the money-maker..."
Ghoul King recalled a few days back.
He was the madman who'd overhyped Jeong Hana's tip, stirring up that specialist materials from Moonlight Spire were super expensive.
That video was now flooded with curses, naturally—but it had over 400k views, a golden goose.
"Dunno why it's valuable, but..."
Ghoul King thought of Jeong Hana.
KnightSuperstarMan. PissBloodGutsRip.
This weird character knew a ton, for some reason. Never wrong. Like she knew the future, nailing answers like a ghost.
"No doubt she tipped him off..."
『Black Magician』
A mysterious Black Magician grinding Popey Caldera for nearly a week.
Selling Fire Essence and Fire Elemental Essence on the auction house.
"...Time to have some fun with this."
Ghoul King grinned and hovered over the 'Bid' button.
That was the difference between Jeong Hana and Ghoul King.
"Uh... Noona, noona! Sis!"
Unlike Im Harin, who was all over the place, Lee Siwoo—usually silent, just grinding—suddenly freaked out.
"What? What's up? Why call your sis outta nowhere?"
"Why? What's going on?"
Lee Siwoo frantically pointed at his game screen.
"Th-this... something's weird. Wasn't like this earlier..."
"Why?"
"The Fire Essence and Fire Elemental Essence. They sell right after listing."
Im Harin snickered and peeled off me.
"I thought it was a bug or something! Dude! Instant sell is good!"
"It's weird though. Sometimes one took an hour to sell. But now instant? Suspicious, right?"
"Sigh, showoff~ Pay back that 100k won quick. Gold's fine if you're lazy, you know?"
Im Harin seemed to be brushing off the situation a bit...
"Siwoo, how much you listing one Fire Essence for now?"
"4 gold each right now, noona."
"Try 4 gold 50 silver."
Lee Siwoo listed as I said, and it sold instantly—no waiting.
"Sold right away again?"
"Kinda get the picture... Now 5 gold."
Sold instantly, as expected.
"Next, 6 gold."
"Huh? Sis buying at 6? That's 50% more than 4."
"Someone's buying no matter what."
Lee Siwoo hesitated but listed two at 6 gold.
"Huh?!"
"See? Instant."
"E-eh? What? 50% higher and still instant?!"
Looks like they've finally shown up.
"It's a bot. Bot."
"Why a bot here, sis?"
"...Not that! BOT! Like robot!"
Im Harin's face turned apple-red.
"T-top bot! Thought you meant that!"
"Anyway, you get what I mean by bot?"
"But noona, bots are like bot farms, right? The ones farming Thorn Heroes, Underground Castle, Mushroom Story?"
"And what do they do? Everything automatic, no human hands."
I shrugged and patted Lee Siwoo's shoulder.
"Now 7 gold."
Sold instantly, of course.
"Not super sophisticated yet. There's bots glued to the auction house all day, sniping listings."
This was the trash bot even the operators couldn't fix by the time I quit Lost of Fantasy.
These auction bots vacuumed up items below their set price, then jacked up to max—endlessly.
They manipulated markets on purpose sometimes, spawning urban legends about profiting for 100 years on rice.
"Siwoo, now 9 gold."
"Uh, noona... but..."
"Sis! That's over double the original!"
"Nah, this auction bot ain't that smart."
9 gold? Snapped up instantly.
This thing's made by some total moron.
Dunno who, but they think Fire Essence will get pricier, so buying everything...
"Good. Siwoo, list all your Fire Essence at 12 gold."
"But that's triple? Three times what sold an hour ago, sis."
"It's fine. Trust me, list it. It'll sell."
Lee Siwoo hesitated, then dumped his 200 Fire Essence at 'buy now' for rising prices.
"Huh?"
"See? Bot maker's a total idiot. Buys everything listed."
"Whoa, insane... Siwoo, you hit the lotto!"
Im Harin looked jealous, so I elbowed her chest.
"What, Harin? Jealous Siwoo's making bank?"
"D-duh!! Sis! Me too! Me too! Anything for me?!"
"Yeah, come to the auction house."
Fire Essence tripled in price.
What happens next? Anyone could guess.
Items using Fire Essence as mats? Prices skyrocket.
Why? Gas prices hype oil before it even hits? Gas stations jack up anyway.
Games are the same.