The Flowers That Would Not Break

The flowers of the Golden Flower Garden would not break, no matter the method. A blade left them whole, and magic could not so much as scorch them.

"What a shame..."

Do Jiyun clicked her tongue, unable to hide her disappointment. Gold lay strewn in every direction, and not a stem of it could be taken. It was a feast behind glass — there to be seen, and nothing more.

But Yujun did not give up. How many enemies had there been whose rank alone had turned his attacks aside? Chaos might yet change the outcome.

He poured Chaos into his sword and cut at the stem of a flower.

The message surfaced, and Yujun's sword swept through a flower of the Golden Flower Garden. It had not glanced off. It had passed clean through, and for a heartbeat elation touched his face — only to wash out into disappointment.

"I really thought I'd cut it."

The flower he had aimed for stood perfectly intact. The sword had simply gone through it, as though the blossom were no more than an illusion. All the attempt had done was raise his hopes.

He slid the sword away and, still unwilling to let the matter go, swept his hand back and forth. The flower swayed.

"Huh?"

No way. Will it come free?

He closed his hand around the golden flower. No amount of force would uproot it, and when he tried to slice it with the edge of his palm, it only quivered and swayed. The meaning was plain enough: as he was now, carrying the golden flowers off was impossible.

On the slim chance it might matter, Yujun gathered Chaos into his hand, gripped the flower, and pulled upward.

Pop!

His eyes widened.

It worked!

The golden flower — an impregnable fortress until this very moment — had come free. He had barely applied any strength at all, and still it pulled...

Was it possible because Touch of Healing mixed with Chaos? What was the reason?

And then it happened. The flower clenched in his hand began to melt, turning to liquid.

Before the thick fluid could run through his fingers, Yujun snatched from his inventory whatever item might serve as a basket, pulled it out, and caught the liquefied golden flower.

It melted, sure — but I still ended up with the gold, didn't I? Strange...

Touch of Healing had never been a trait meant to harm its target. Keep your hand on someone, and it healed them at a furious pace. Mix that same Touch of Healing with Chaos, however, and it melted whatever it touched with overwhelming force. Most likely, because he had not broken the rule — the law — that the golden flowers could not be damaged, the blended effect had been permitted to take hold.

The corner of Yujun's mouth split into a grin. Forget hunting the Golden Goblin. Simply stripping the flowers of the Golden Flower Garden as he went looked as though it would more than pay for the trip.

"Think you could do it too?"

He murmured it, meant for Harp alone. The little one had known how to wield his own Chaos before, and this was no different. But Harp shook his head, looking terribly sorry.

"I don't think Chaos alone would be enough."

There was no way to share Touch of Healing with Harp, and the frustration of it stung — but it could not be helped. If the trait could be passed on, that would have been the stranger thing.

Yujun went along touching the flowers and pouring the melted gold into something like a great basin, and the rest of the party watched him in puzzlement.

"What are you doing?"

At Do Jiyun's question, he showed them the dissolved gold.

"Hah... what is all this?"

"I believe I can pick the flowers."

"...I'm jealous."

"The rest of you, go find the Golden Goblin first. I'll mine gold here and join you later."

He said it with a perfectly blank face.

"We're really going on our own?"

Do Jiyun asked.

Yujun answered without a shred of hesitation.

"Yes."

"..."

"I'll be here making preparations to draw the Golden Goblin in."

"Hold on. What does mining gold have to do with preparations?"

"The Golden Flower Garden. And the Golden Goblin. Don't you think there might be some connection between ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the two?"

"I wouldn't know..."

"Damage the garden long enough, and the Golden Goblin may come looking on its own. At the very least, I think the odds are high."

"...You're not just doing this because you want the gold, are you?"

"You've seen right through me. Everything I just said was bullshit. The Golden Goblin isn't even on my mind."

"..."

"Off you go."

"Fine."

"Yujun. There is reason in what you say. Should there be even the slightest chance the Golden Goblin comes seeking us ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of its own accord, it may well be wiser that we part ways."

"See? Exactly."

Yujun nodded with a smile, then looked at Manuela.

"Oh, Manuela."

"Hm?"

"You stay here."

"Huh? What? Why?"

A faint blush rose on Manuela's face.

"Someone has to cast the blessings."

"Oh. Me."

"Put one on Do Jiyun and Uncle Dokgo Minsu as well."

"...All right."

The others departed, Manuela excepted, and he gave himself over entirely to picking golden flowers.

As time passed, the work grew more efficient, and the gold piled up at a pace visible to the eye. Each time his figure flickered past like lightning, the golden blossoms vanished without a trace. A garden once packed with them grew stark and empty, as though a typhoon had blown through.

"Dad, are we rich now?"

"Yeah. With this much gold, we can leave the bug-ridden vagrant life behind and live in a grand, glittering mansion."

"I like that!"

In truth, it wasn't a shortage of money that had them living rough. Even so, watching the gold heap up fat in his inventory, he felt his heart grow wealthy all on its own.

And he had barely begun. The Golden Flower Garden stretched so wide he could not see the end of it, and everything Yujun had cleared amounted to scarcely a drop in the bucket.

Time to do this properly.

He began drawing on skills and traits as well, driving the pace of the work to its limit. With Manuela's blessing laid over the top, there was nothing left to want. A thoroughly easy, thoroughly delightful harvest went on for a long while.

Manuela tried more than once to pick the golden flowers alongside him. Every attempt ended in failure.

"How on earth are you doing that?"

"You want to pick them too?"

"Honestly, I don't care all that much about gold... I'm more curious about the method. It's not like you spent ages researching how to pick flowers."

"You just have to pick them with the intention of not damaging them."

"...What kind of nonsense is that?"

"I mean you pick the flower while holding a kind heart, one that wants to help it."

"I don't get it. I have no idea what you're saying."

"The problem is that your intentions are impure."

"...So mindset is what matters?"

"Yeah."

"Doesn't wanting to pick the flower in the first place already make it hard to get away from that kind of thinking?"

"Which is why you borrow the power of a skill or a trait."

"And that's how you managed it?"

"Yeah. I got lucky."

"So I can't?"

"If you had a healing-related trait or skill, it might be worth a try... though the mana cost might be more than you can stomach."

"Then I won't."

"Sure."

Having the gold all to himself, Yujun grinned.

Will the Golden Goblin come?

Even as he harvested, he pushed the range of his senses outward and kept searching the surroundings. What he had told the party earlier had been no empty talk. Keep up the work of destroying the Golden Flower Garden, and the Golden Goblin might truly come looking.

Yujun called back up the hologram window that had been floating since earlier.

A Golden Goblin would have to be gold, wouldn't it... and the Golden Flower Garden would be the perfect place to hide.

It was an excellent place to conceal a body, this Golden Flower Garden. There was no chance the creature would sit quietly by while Yujun tore a place like that apart.

Would the Golden Goblin be weak?

He was certain it would not. He might even find the thing, only to fail at killing it because it was too strong.

Which would suit me just fine.

The one to catch the Golden Goblin had to be him.

First, gather as many of the golden flowers as I can.

Bait for catching a whale. Yujun meant to be that bait himself. It would not matter if the Golden Goblin never bit. Take enough flowers from the Golden Flower Garden, and sooner or later a moment would come when the creature stood fully exposed. He could step in then.

His rationalizing finished, Yujun set to gathering gold with even greater diligence.

"Dad. I think we've really gathered a whole house's worth of gold."

"This much isn't enough. Didn't you hear me say we were going to live in a grand mansion?"

"I didn't think that meant filling the grand mansion with gold."

"Put my mind to it, and even more than that ought to be possible."

"I'll be cheering for you!"

"Good."

Every gamer had a dream. His was to plate every inch of his body in gold-wrought gear. He had come halfway to it once, back when he played War of the Gods — but that had been a game. Doing the same in reality was an entirely different feeling.

The moment this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠event ends, I'll do it.

He had gathered this much gold. Even in the real world, that old dream was now within reach.

Few players had sat out the sudden event opened in the Heavenly Realm — though of course that only counted those who cleared the rather exacting bar of level 600 and above.

The celestials' hopes for this event ran unusually high, and the reason was that very level requirement. Level 600: even in the Heavenly Realm, only players of the middle-upper ranks and beyond could take part. Enormous rewards, besides, were to be paid according to contribution, and since no single person would monopolize them, there was no great need to work oneself into a fret.

As ever, the celestials split between moderates and hardliners and moved in factions, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠while a good many smaller bands formed as well — neutrals, belonging to neither camp. Crowding together brought no advantage in the search for the Golden Goblin, so the moderates and the hardliners alike organized squads of eight to ten and set them to scouring the garden.

"Huh? Aren't those the hardliner kids?"

"Yeah, they are."

"Kill them first."

Finding the Golden Goblin was their foremost goal. Even so, the moment celestials of the moderate and hardline factions met, a fight was all but ordained.

The Golden Flower Garden was immense — vast enough that one could almost believe it the size of a continent. It had to hold a great many of the Heavenly Realm's players, so the scale was, in its way, only natural, and it only made the Golden Goblin harder to find. Two things in particular had the celestials foundering: the towering flowers that kept the goblin concealed could not be damaged, and the garden itself offered not a single clue, nothing but golden flowers.

"This feels like an event that'll take days."

"Tell me about it. It's way too big."

The moderate celestials, fresh from victory in a small skirmish, grumbled.

"I'm not even hoping to take any of it with me. It'd just be nice if we could cut the flowers."

"That would make things a lot easier."

"If you converted everything in this garden into points, how much do you think it'd come to?"

"Forget the money. If you could only possess it, you'd be the being holding the most gold in the entire Tower of Infinity."

"Are you an idiot? They already said it can't even be damaged. Why are you spinning fairy tales?"

"That's why I'm only imagining it. It's something that could never actually hap—"

The celestial who had been laughing as he walked let the words trail off.

"What's wrong?"

"O-over there. Look over there."

"Huh? What is that..."

The moderate celestials' eyes went wide.

The flowers that had stood packed throughout the Golden Flower Garden had vanished without a trace.

And in that same moment, a single player entered their view — gathering the flowers in real time.