So Now I've Got Money
A few days later, the Hunter Gallery.
At the same time, a featured post.
That same moment, at Nebula Guild.
Shin Eun-woo burst in without so much as a knock, urgency written all over him.
"Se-ah! It's up! They're saying it's the 5th Floor Safety Zone, right now!"
Yoo Se-ah had been buried in paperwork. Her eyes sharpened.
"Is that so? Then let's get ready."
She was already preparing to head out. Shin Eun-woo tilted his head, something clearly still bothering him.
"Are we sure buying those thirty off our streamer was the right call? Bait's down to two million won a pop now."
They'd paid ten million won a piece. It wasn't a huge sum compared to the guild's income, but looking at the current market, it was starting to feel like a bad investment.
Yoo Se-ah, however, was the picture of composure.
"Don't worry about it. It's profit no matter how you cut it."
"I don't get it. The price keeps dropping. How is that profit?"
He scratched his head. Yoo Se-ah answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"The four major guilds in this country all have the same goal, don't they?"
"Yeah. Clearing the 50th Floor."
"Right. Similar strength, similar scale."
"So?"
"So the amount of Bait their people can scrape together is going to be about the same."
That was when it clicked for him.
"Oh. So those thirty we locked down first—"
"That's our advantage."
They still didn't know the exact potency, but if the effect was anywhere near NASA-grade compact combat rations, they'd need a hundred and fifty. Or maybe a hundred would be enough to make it work. Fill the rest with combat rations, glucose candy, and butter, and a clear was possible. That was how she saw it.
Shin Eun-woo still didn't look entirely convinced.
"But the price dropping means the supply's flooding the market like junk loot, doesn't it?"
"No. We're just geographically close, that's all. Think about what that item actually does."
"What it does?"
"Only about ten countries in the world have cleared the 50th Floor. You think the rest of them are just going to sit there and watch?"
"Ah."
"Before long, the price is going to shoot back up like crazy."
He finally nodded.
"You really are good at the annoying stuff. Leaving this to you was the right call."
"Haaah. Because of you, I swear…"
"So what now? We've got about fifty all told."
"What about the other guilds?"
"Pretty much the same. Looks like the others have scraped together around twenty each."
After that, the office fell quiet. Yoo Se-ah sat with it for a long moment, then her expression hardened — the look of someone about to make a serious call.
"If we just keep collecting like this, there's no way out. Sooner or later we'll be at each other's throats over a single piece of Bait."
"So what's the plan?"
"To do what?"
"Tell them each to go buy food. Every kind they can find. As much variety as possible. And I want nothing but the best."
"What about me?"
"You're coming with me. We've got something else to take care of."
Right now, I am standing in the 5th Floor Safety Zone. Standing here, and…
My brain is basically mush.
Hold on — I've only been here five minutes!
And what is that?
From a patch of stone floor in the corner of the Safety Zone, pillars of light kept shooting up without pause. I'd never seen an effect like it, so I asked a hunter standing nearby.
"What's that?"
"That? Oh, that! That's the teleportation array!"
"Teleportation array?"
"Ah — you're an NPC, so you wouldn't know! It's a system that lets you jump straight up to any floor you've already cleared."
"I see."
How would I know? I've never even left. Besides, I'm an illegal immigrant in here.
That said, I probably do need to get out of here at some point and actually take a look around. The problem right now was that there were way too many people.
Five minutes. That was all it had been, and the Safety Zone was already one sneeze away from bursting at the seams. It felt like I'd wandered into the most popular festival in the country. There were so many bodies packed in that the people arriving through the teleportation array couldn't even push their way out — and then the array itself just… stopped working.
Naturally, shouting broke out in every direction.
"Hey—! Move! Our guild members are coming through, you can't just sit on the array! You know you'll get banned for that, right?!"
"There's nowhere to go! What do you want me to do?! Don't push me!"
It was a complete madhouse. If this kept up, someone was going to get seriously hurt. I hurried out into the front courtyard.
They poured out after me like commuters spilling from a packed subway car. Now that I had some space… yeah. It looked like a concert venue.
The local wildlife, however, did not seem pleased about the crowd.
Grrrrrngh!
A dire wolf that had been prowling the field charged in, right on script. Was it insane? Did it not see how many people were standing here?
BAM! THWACK! CRUNCH! BOOM! BOOM!
"Yipe—"
It didn't even get close enough to take a bite. Just dropped. I don't think a full second passed.
Well. There were hunters here who operated on floors way above this one, so. The field monsters had basically evaporated. People didn't even glance at the dire wolf's corpse.
If we raided like this, wouldn't we just win everything?
More importantly — how long was I supposed to keep doing this? At this rate I was actually going to become an NPC.
Then again, even if I wanted to leave, I needed money to leave. I wouldn't starve, sure, but where was I supposed to sleep…
I needed a turning point. Something. A method was hovering just at the edge of my thoughts, and then a pretty decent idea surfaced.
What if I just went up to the 6th Floor?
I didn't know what I'd find up there, but it wouldn't be another boar, right? And it would be weirder if an NPC went up a floor and just… stopped making stuff, wouldn't it?
That was perfect, actually. I should do it right now!
No — should I deal with this first?
The zombie-like crowd that had been hovering in front of me, waiting for their moment, started creeping closer.
Let's deal with these people first!
And so, as if they'd all agreed on it in advance, they formed a line, one by one. I took their food, handed out Inedia Pills, and little by little — very little by little — people started to filter out.
A few hours later, the crowd had thinned considerably. A little more of this and I could finally put this tedious, overly elaborate gig to rest.
That's right! Forever!
And so, drunk on my own sense of accomplishment, I was nodding along to myself when a woman stepped forward.
Why did this feel so… electric? It was like my whole body was blaring an alarm. Even the hair on my arms was standing up.
My viewers, on the other hand, had their attention on someone else entirely.
I'm the one streaming, and they're getting distracted…
Yeah… not exactly a productive conversation.
While I was glancing at the chat, the woman in front of me spoke.
"Could I have a word?"
I'd definitely seen that face somewhere. I was about to ask who she was, when—
"It's Nebula's Yoo Se-ah!"
"S-rank Yoo Se-ah just showed up!"
"She's gonna buy up everything!"
Ah. The classic extra dialogue. I probably didn't need to ask.
That jogged my memory. Wasn't she from one of Korea's top guilds? The kind that actually made the news. And from the clips I'd seen, they fought hard.
Anyway. I should hear her out first.
"What is it?"
She glanced around, then opened her mouth carefully.
"The medicine you have. Would it be possible to buy it in bulk?"
I'd figured a situation like this would come up. Looking at how people were swarming in, there was clearly somewhere useful to put these things. I just hadn't expected the hottest guild in the country to show up in person.
Was this medicine really that effective?
No — more than that, this was rubbing me the wrong way. A major guild, throwing money around, trying to vacuum up the entire supply? I don't know. It just sat wrong. Felt like a rich person getting greedy.
"No. If I give it all to you, nobody else can buy any."
"That's not it. I'm not trying to monopolize it just because we're a major guild."
What? Did she just read my mind? Could S-rank hunters do that too?
The thought alone had me taking a step back. She caught the hint that I might run, and her words came out in a rush.
"Do you know anything about Korea's current progress in the Tower?"
"No. I don't."
"Korea still hasn't cleared the 50th Floor. Neither has anyone else, except for a handful of countries."
"Okay? That's not a reason."
"The 50th Floor has a debuff called the Curse of Famine."
"The Curse of Famine?"
"The moment you step in, you get so hungry you can barely stand, every hour. Combat-incapable. Just like that."
"For real?"
"Yeah. It's true. And it gets worse once you enter the boss fight."
Starving every hour. That was just cruel.
Chat lit up.
Laws? Did cultivators have similar techniques?
"Anyway, to clear the 50th Floor we'd need to buy America's compact combat rations, and that's not easy right now."
"Why? The US won't sell?"
"They'll sell… but I've heard the negotiations are so brutal they're nearly impossible to get."
Was she telling the truth? I turned to a hunter who'd been watching from the side.
"Is this woman telling the truth?"
The hunter, who'd been staring off in a daze, looked startled to be put on the spot.
"Uh… huh? It's true! She's not lying!"
"If I find out you're lying, I won't trade medicine with you anymore."
The man panicked.
"It's true! I swear on my mother's life!"
Alright. Truth, then.
Should I help? I didn't think of myself as a patriot, exactly, but I had taken what they gave me. Back at the orphanage, I'd gotten all kinds of support. That said, I wasn't doing this for free.
One last thing I wanted to know.
"So everyone lining up for medicine right now — that's all for the 50th Floor too?"
"Yeah."
"Why? It's not like all of them are going to clear it."
She hesitated, then her face turned bitter.
"Your medicine is trading at around two million won right now."
"What?!"
Two million won? Two million won for a single Inedia Pill? I'd been handing these out for food, and they were going for two million — to hunters who already made good money?
I felt betrayed.
"Is that true? Hunters make plenty. Why would they do that?"
Reselling. Do you know how evil that is?
"Not all of them make plenty. To earn more than a regular person, you have to climb past the 20th Floor."
"What?"
She nodded with a straight face. Didn't look like she was lying.
"Once you clear the 10th, you start making a little. Below that, the upkeep can put you in the red."
"For real?"
"Yeah. That's why there are a lot of hunters just trying to get by."
Hunters living hand to mouth. Everyone looked up to hunters like it was an easy life.
"That's why they're all flooding in?"
"That's why."
I didn't have any more questions. They were risking their lives and could still end up in the red. Did the country not support them at all? And what was I supposed to say to that?
This woman operated around the 50th Floor herself. She'd come here because she was desperate.
It doesn't sound like a lie…
After thinking it over, I pulled a jar from my storage pouch.
"There should be about fifty in here."
Her expression went a little strange. A hint of disappointment?
"I'm really grateful, and I know it's a lot to ask, but… is there any way to get more?"
"I don't have many left now."
She nodded, as if she'd expected as much.
"Alright. Thank you, anyway—"
"These ones work better than the others, though."
Her eyes lit up again.
"How much better?"
"Mm… at least three times?"
"Hah!"
Now she looked like she liked what she was hearing. She took the jar and asked,
"Would food be alright, same as everyone else?"
Food? I already had so much I didn't know what to do with it. But this was the top guild — they had to have money. I could afford to swing for the fences a little.
"I'll take money this time. I heard they sell for two million, but given the circumstances, I'll only take 200,000 won a pill."
"Then—"
"But these are at least three times as effective, so 600,000 each. Fifty pills — that's 30 million won."
I swung for it. A top guild couldn't possibly not have 30 million won. If they couldn't pay on the spot, I was willing to wait. If they said it was too expensive, I was even willing to knock a little off.
But her reaction was… weird. Why did she look so happy?
She listened to the number, nodded quietly, and raised a hand. The hunters who'd been standing watch behind her poured forward in a rush.
What? Did I overcharge?
They started pulling food from their combat packs and stacking it up. Piles of it. Every kind you could think of.
"I said I'd take money!"
A bear of a man stepped forward and held out a bag that looked heavy. Then Yoo Se-ah spoke.
My head went blank.
They were giving me money and food? They'd come prepared with cash? How did they know I was going to ask for money? And I'd asked for 30 million — why were they giving me 200 million?
This was suspicious.
"Why are you giving me extra?!"
"It's a fair trade."
A fair trade? That didn't make any sense. What was she playing at?
Still, they'd laid it all out in front of me. I couldn't just walk away and leave it. I packed everything into the storage pouch.
Whispers started up around us.
"Where's all that even going?"
"She's an NPC, so it probably goes into the system."
"What's an NPC going to do with food and Korean money?"
"She's probably just taking whatever's worth trading, right?"
I let the chatter wash over me. What bothered me more was the satisfied smile on that woman's face.
She's definitely up to something.
"Are you happy with the deal?"
"Yeah. But don't come back later asking for more. I won't give you any."
"Got it."
With that, Yoo Se-ah and her guild members were gone in an instant.
Is that it? Did I just… take care of that?
Why had they given me so much? No — more importantly, I had money now!
I had two hundred million won!
Could I even get an apartment with this? It had all happened so fast I couldn't think straight.
That was when the teleportation array flared back to life, and a man appeared. He came charging out in a frantic rush, then started scanning the crowd.