Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Capitalism Knows the Answer (2)
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[Meanwhile, in a certain officetel in Gyeonggi Province. Inside a cramped room belonging to a young man.]
"Old character patches? Am I seeing this right...?"
The young man stuck out his tongue as he stared at the split-screen contents displayed on his monitor.
One side showed a community debating the situation in Ganghwa-do.
The other discussed the game's situation.
Normally, he wouldn't even glance at the former, but the feat of conquering two S-rank towers in a row had piqued even his interest in real-world bait, despite his lack of concern for reality.
"Whoa, insane. Hunters cosplaying to conquer towers is actually changing the game."
The young man hit the post button on the community and poured out his raw thoughts.
Was it right for the game company to abandon their philosophy and patch characters?
By buffing old characters' skills like this, were they only saving the players who pulled them while abandoning everyone else?
Would they restore and patch characters like this every time another hunter cosplayed?
"Heh heh heh."
In other words, trolling.
Hidden behind the mask of anonymity, the young man spewed all sorts of complaints.
The reactions to it were mostly similar.
-Even if they buff everything, you'd still bitchㅡㅡ
Exactly.
Philosophy be damned—if a patch boosted the value of the character he'd pulled, it was something to welcome with both hands up.
And if his favorite character benefited from it, then thanks to this real-world bait, the young man was coming out ahead.
Now even the so-called "political bait"—talk of S-rank towers vanishing from Ganghwa-do driving up capital region real estate prices, or cutting salaries for those government photo-op freeloaders who just drain taxes—was starting to catch his eye.
"Ha."
But would that change the world?
Towers would keep popping up like weeds.
In the world of Awakeners, non-Awakeners were just extras.
Amid reports of "frustrated dropouts" quitting jobs due to deprivation after a million Awakeners emerged, the young man was just one of them.
"Conquering an S-rank tower doesn't benefit me anyway..."
Direct benefit? Hard to say.
They said it brought the world closer to peace, but the ones seeing their assets grow were probably just those who'd bought land or houses near Ganghwa-do.
For a young man renting on a month-to-month basis, with only a latest-model smartphone and game account to his name, the massive real-world news of an S-rank tower conquest was just background noise—
"...Huh?"
When he refreshed the community, posts with short titles like "Whoa," "Insane," and "Jackpot" started flooding in.
"What the?"
The young man refreshed a few more times and checked the most upvoted post.
"!!"
A short notice from the development lead.
"30 free pulls to celebrate the S-rank tower conquest? Have they lost their minds?"
They had.
This was truly insane.
"Heh, heh heh heh...!"
For a light user who spent 5,900 won a month to stockpile just enough currency for one daily pull, this was sudden windfall territory.
"Money out of nowhere, haha."
Even for a young man who lived solely for games, real-world events were now directly padding his wallet.
"...Cosplay Maid-nim."
The young man cautiously clasped his hands together.
Not religious or anything, but he couldn't help directing his faith and joy toward the woman emerging from the S-rank tower conquest.
"No, Great Elaine."
He didn't know her name.
He knew she supposedly held U.S. citizenship, but suspicions were rife that she was a Korean who'd hastily acquired it.
All that was known was her ironclad resolve to cosplay as a maid even in front of the U.S. President.
And that she was an S-rank hunter with power to match her stubbornness and flair.
Thanks to her, he'd scored 30 pulls.
"...What if."
Human greed knows no bounds.
"If she cosplays as Elaine and conquers another S-rank tower next time, do they give 30 pulls again?"
>
Gulp.
Was this selfish thinking unique to him?
>
Probably not.
Posts joking "Let all the S-ranks bail on the towers and leave only New Elaine to conquer them" were popping up anonymously on the community, just like him.
"......Two would be 60 pulls."
The young man's hand trembled on the mouse, and the moment he clicked a newly upvoted post—
"Whoa."
Staring at Elaine in the grayscale photo, head thrown back toward the sky, the young man opened his mouth.
"Great Elaine."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 30 free pulls had appeared.
The game company had distributed pull currency under the pretext of celebrating Elaine's Ganghwa-do S-rank tower conquest.
I was beyond money worries now, but 30 pulls was basically the maximum they could hand out from this company.
'Human greed is a scary thing.'
Back in the day, dumping this much cash would have me fretting over company finances.
Games only showered pull currency like this right before shutdown, saying "The game's ending soon, so pull and play with all the characters freely beforehand," unlocking all content.
Of course, not quite 30 pulls' worth.
But handing out enough to signal shutdown was unwelcome.
So if anyone saw it as pure celebration, this currency was something to hoard in this game.
"Elaine. I'm not using this to pull a new character—I'm putting it toward your relic stamina."
"Pardon?"
"For the third summon, I'll take my time and think it through slowly."
Elaine had suggested summoning someone she knew from her world.
"I get the intent behind your suggestion. You don't want cases like this popping up among the various characters."
"To cling to me and pull such nonsense—how rude."
"Yes, the next 4-star giveaway. The one where a goddess gets trapped in a cat body and becomes a total trash character."
"Kyaaaah!!"
Even with the rough words spilling out from the booze, Kiharu just snarled at me without clawing or attacking.
This much was WWE territory.
Dig any deeper, and it turned into UFC.
Elaine was the same.
"Elaine. Sure, I was planning to pull the next limited pickup character anyway. Test server rumors say she's the strongest healer ever, a new game-breaker, a busty, pretty, sweet 5-star limited with hidden lore and all these perks, but..."
>
I hoisted Kiharu up.
"We've got Kiharu. Not enough healer for us?"
"On second thought, the one I should be mad at is over here-nyang."
I grabbed Kiharu's body and shoved her forward. She launched a flurry of meow-punches at Elaine while growling.
"Don't underestimate me just because I'm in a cat body right now-nyang! Once I regain my original power, I could judge humanity and end the world as its arbiter!"
"That's exactly why we're talking about bringing in someone we know—to control those variables."
Thinking about it, Elaine's suggestion wasn't half bad.
"In-game performance is the total power output we can muster in this world. To match what this world's people consider S-rank hunter standards, we need at least the latest released characters. And conveniently, that's someone from my side."
"Who?"
"Kind and diligent. Borrowing your game's terms, Master, she'd be a 'principal wife' type."
"Principal wife, huh..."
Hmm.
"No."
"May I ask why?"
"Too much pressure."
Honestly, that's how it felt.
"A principal wife character showing affection is just emotions built from in-game story."
Yandere vibes a bit.
"And you can't help but think about this..."
I pointed at the computer.
"For the third, I'd prefer someone with skills in this area over combat."
"Computer... internet expert, you mean?"
"How about this-nyang?"
Kiharu wriggled free from me and mimed rubbing something.
>
"Someone without dangerous thoughts like mine from humanity's view, who can blend into Earth's environment decently, more support for partners than direct combat."
"Someone like that..."
"Bound to be at least one if you look-nyang. Someone living in the shadows, knowing humanity's darkness and handling it themselves—an electronic warfare specialist."
"......."
"If you're interested, take a peek-nyang."
Kiharu pointed at the computer.
"Summon that friend, codename her [E-Lazer]-nyang."
"Kiharu. No one like that on my side. Someone from your world?"
"No. The one from ours isn't even limited-time..."
Kiharu glanced at me.
"What? Spoilers fine. Spill."
"Male-nyang."
"......."
"A nutcase living as a woman. Probably grows as the protagonist's sidekick, treating his mental illness and finding his gender identity-nyang."
"......."
"Of course, if Partner—you—wants to pull even that for 'performance,' no issue. I praise your heart for caring for such a one-nyang."
"Thanks."
In-game performance versus real performance.
Did I need someone acing both?
"...Not everyone has to be an S-rank hunter."
We weren't just combat maniacs anyway.
"If we need more fighters, recruit then. Elaine's plenty for now, so if we summon, pick someone with non-combat advantages. Like... yeah."
Real performance aside, lore-wise a genius hacker dominating the era.
"Blocking anyone digging into us beforehand would be nice. Plus, wipe out the annoyances without pushing regulations."
In any creative work...
"...A server backup specialist from your world would be even better."
Post-modern worldviews, especially futuristic ones, always had hackers.
"Picking the person is the issue, not full clears or rerolls?"
I had the black card.
"Got to be a game-breaker hacker among them."
The world overflowed with gacha games.