Mythic Gear Appears!

From the crack of dawn, countless streamers had flipped on their broadcasts and flocked to the Minecraft tab, fretting and fidgeting as they waited for the server to open.

Why the mass stakeout?

The answer was simple.

About twenty minutes earlier, Rena World had gone into maintenance to roll out Mythic-grade gear.

No streamer worth their salt could sit still through a topic this hot. Even heavyweights who were dead serious about Rena World — Wang-ko among them — had fired up their streams first thing in the morning just to wait it out.

Being the first person on the server to own Mythic-grade equipment would pull an insane amount of aggro, no question.

Even if the lucky winner were some no-name hakko streamer, they'd probably hit ten thousand concurrent viewers in a blink. The floaters would pour in by the thousands just to gawk at Mythic gear. The streamers camping the login screen right now were banking on exactly that kind of spectacle.

I'm the complete opposite, though. For the first Arena, I need to keep my full strength under wraps.

I was more than happy to hand over the hollow honor of "first Mythic item owner." What I wanted was real profit — the Arena prize money and the massive haul from the betting pools.

So who ends up as the first Mythic gear owner, then?

If you only looked at liquid cash on hand, Mu-yang Group had the best odds. But as a regressor, I already knew the truth. I knew exactly who would claim Rena World's first Mythic-grade piece of equipment.

Most people would naturally put their money on a big-company streamer. But…

There was an irregular who defied ordinary common sense. What other companies scraped together every last coin from their entire roster to attempt, this person casually pulled off on personal funds alone.

When you really think about it, it never made sense. Why was she the only one who could do it? It wasn't like everyone else was slacking. They were all working themselves to death.

Maybe it was inevitable. Minecraft had been so unfamiliar on Pangea TV that nobody even imagined the existence of the "illegal programs" that worked here.

"The second the update finishes and the server opens, I'm going straight for Mythic gear. Huh? Shouldn't Namsin-nim be the one doing that? Ahaha, this is my own personal money."

I lurked into Tu-nyang-i's stream and watched her with a cold eye.

The irregular of Rena World — the X-ray user. Other people at least had a "line" they wouldn't cross and used it in moderation. Tu-nyang-i had long since blown past any line that existed.

She'd dropped eye-watering sums on big-company streamers' Bang-sel, then casually tossed out seventy million Rena for the vehicle auction under the banner of "contributing to the company." Hanamon, the second-highest contributor, had earned the nickname "Mole" for mining all day every day — and even she had only put up twenty-five million Rena. That alone was enough to make anyone tilt their head.

How on earth had Tu-nyang-i made that kind of money?

On top of that, she'd spent a full week on the Poco Server at the start before even coming over.

Whenever the questions came up, Tu-nyang-i wheeled out her personal mining theory — "Chunkron" — and claimed she had all kinds of unshareable know-how and tips, working the media angle hard. If she went public with them, rival companies would rake in massive income too, she said, so she only mined in secret. A thoroughly disgusting excuse.

At last, the server opened.

Streamers who had been dying for the green light stampeded in. And Tu-nyang-i, true to her word, sprinted straight to Spawn Village and started buying Fortune Tomes from the NPC in bulk — fifty thousand Rena apiece — for the Fortune Fragment gacha.

"I'll start with a twenty-million-Rena attempt. The admin said the expected value sits around fifty million Rena, so if I hit it with this, I'd be ridiculously lucky. Alright — here we go."

Fortune Tomes vanished at a blistering pace. The occasional Fortune Coin Fragment popping into the log was already a warning that the odds were anything but generous.

A short while later, after burning through all twenty million Rena, Tu-nyang-i's inventory was packed with Fortune Coin Fragments, each one loudly advertising its presence.

"Fifteen L's, ten U's, nine C's, thirteen K's, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠twelve Y's. At this rate, people are going to be trading these back and forth constantly."

She wasn't alone — a fair number of people around her were also gunning for the Mythic gear open-run. Tu-nyang-i worked the crowd hard, swapping two 'L' fragments and one 'K' for a 'U' and a 'C' respectively. Then she went back to the NPC and converted the lot into eleven Fortune Coins.

"Now I combine these coins with Ghast Tears and Blaze Rods…"

Judging by the materials she was listing, she was clearly going for Witherite. She'd stockpiled the ingredients ahead of time — she pulled them freely from a Shulker Box and fused them with the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Fortune Coins at a crafting table. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Before long, eleven Witherite Essences sat ready.

"At least crafting the essences is a hundred-percent success rate, so that's a relief. Now only the real wall is left. Too many people here, though — I'm moving somewhere luck might actually follow me."

She opened the world map, spread her wings, and circled the sky until she settled on the mountain behind Do-zney Castle. Minecraft's internal clock had rolled into evening, and the castle glittering in the dark was a genuine spectacle.

"Not many people around, and the vibe's perfect. I'll attempt it here."

Tu-nyang-i pulled a smithing table from her Shulker Box and slotted a Netherite Ingot and a Witherite Essence into their respective slots. Even I, watching in secret, felt the tension climb.

Honestly, I had no idea how many attempts it had taken Tu-nyang-i to succeed before the regression. Back then, she hadn't been a streamer I paid much attention to.

I heard lucky people pulled it off in three or four tries.

She'd made eleven essences for twenty million Rena — meaning some people managed to land Mythic gear for less than ten million. On the flip side, others burned close to a hundred million Rena and hard-capped the pity. Pure gambling, every last bit of it riding on luck.

Would this world's fortune smile on Tu-nyang-i?

"Alright, here we go! Cheer me on, everyone."

With eleven shots in the chamber, she started bold — dropping an essence straight onto the Netherite Ingot and attempting the fusion.

Clang—!

"Ah, so this 'energy' thing hits the ceiling at a hundred, right? Does the number go up by threes? First try's a fail, anyway."

Clang—!

Clang—!

Clang—!

Was it because X-ray had made the money so easy to earn? Even as twenty million Rena evaporated in an instant, she kept challenging with total calm.

Clang—!

"Ah, damn it. Twenty million Rena wasn't enough after all. Now I have to drag myself all the way back to Spawn Village? And I'm completely out of Ghast Tears."

"I'm keeping at it. I'm becoming the server's first Mythic gear owner no matter what, and I'm carrying that momentum straight into today's Purge Day."

That promise came true about two hours later.

After burning through a staggering sixty million Rena in total, Tu-nyang-i finally crafted a Witherite Sword. The moment the news hit the community, viewers flooded her stream in droves — and streamers were no exception. They lurked into her broadcast one after another, peppering her with questions about the sword's performance.

For that moment, Tu-nyang-i was the protagonist of Rena World. Her avatar wore a smile of pure, unfiltered happiness.

Knowing that every bit of it was a false achievement built on X-ray left a bitter taste in my mouth as I watched.

I get the desperation of a hakko streamer, but did it really have to go this far?

Her future was painfully easy to read. To keep this spotlight going, she would lean on X-ray more and more frequently — until the day of the inevitable collapse finally arrived.

I left Tu-nyang-i's stream, ate a late breakfast that doubled as lunch, and got ready to go live.

I would never win that way — never claim victory through a lie like that.

The afternoon's Purge Day was waiting for us.