Chapter 93
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: Rainbow Effect
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A design was certainly an important item.
‘It’s better, time-wise, to buy a design with the combination formula than to test out various items and possibilities.’
It cut down on the grind, too.
But was it worth up to 1 billion won?
‘Not really.’
A design was simply an item containing information.
The materials to craft the item in the design had to be acquired separately.
‘In other words, they spent 1 billion won just to buy information.’
The buyer must have invested because they judged it to be worth that much.
‘Well, it was the first design item to appear, and the ability to craft unique armor must have seemed appealing.’
Perhaps after learning the information from the design, they planned to profit by sharing it with others for a fee.
There were actually people who made money that way.
‘If I wanted to, I could sell the combination formulas in my head and make a fortune…’
But the reason I didn't was simple.
‘The profit from monopolizing is greater than from selling the information.’
Rather than sharing and consuming limited materials with others, I would monopolize the materials first.
‘Then, I could combine the items and sell them for a much bigger profit.’
Not that I planned on doing something as tedious as making and selling items.
I just planned to combine and create the items I needed.
I had more money than I could spend anyway.
‘And that’s not even mentioning when the stock prices rise.’
In any case, I was content with the extra billion won that had fallen into my lap when a call came in.
The caller ID showed Ma Kyung-rok.
"Yes, CEO Ma."
-Prophet! Did you see the final auction price?
"Yes, I did."
-My goodness, 1 billion in a single day. I never thought it would go that high.
"Can you identify the buyer? With that kind of wealth, I thought they might be an acquaintance of yours."
-You're right. I looked into it, and the buyer's name is the same as the eldest son of the Hancheol Group. Well, we're not close, just acquaintances by name.
"Is that so?"
-And I looked into a few things. About 10,000 people placed bids over 24 hours. It seems we definitely caught their attention, just as you said. The traffic dropped sharply as soon as the auction item was taken down.
"Really? Then shall we list another item?"
-Do you have something else to post?
"It's an inventory item called Bull Hide. I think it'll sell if we add that it's a material needed for the design I just listed."
-How did you know it was a required material for the design?
It was a sharp question, but Ryu Min had an almost omnipotent answer.
"I saw it in a prophecy."
-Ah…
"Anyway, I'll stop by the company later to deliver the item."
-Understood. If you give it to Manager Kim, he'll take care of it.
Being the top executive had its perks.
You could delegate tedious tasks to your employees.
-By the way, where did you get items like designs and materials? I've never seen them before.
"Items don't just appear because I want them to. I got lucky while hunting monsters, that's all."
Blaming it on luck was a good excuse.
"It's only been a day, but I see a lot of items have been listed."
-That's right. Over 3,000 items are currently registered.
"Hmm, it's a problem if there are only sellers."
-There are plenty of buyers, too. The transaction volume is over 50 per hour.
"As a brokerage site, you've prepared measures for transactions, right?"
-Of course. As we discussed before, for user convenience, we've diversified the transaction methods, including direct, delivery, and consignment. We at PlePle are also providing identity verification and various authentication methods so buyers and sellers can trade safely.
"That's good."
As expected of a chaebol heir, Ma Kyung-rok had business acumen.
"You've made it so foreigners can register too, as we discussed, right?"
-Yes. We're opening to foreign countries in a week, but we've already built the system to be accessible to players worldwide. We've sorted out everything, including customs and legal matters.
"Well done."
There were only 40,000 players in Korea right now.
Limiting customers to Korea would obviously lead to failure.
It was better to expand the scale globally.
That was the only way to sweep up all the materials from around the world.
-For now, I'll have the auction proceeds sent directly to your account, Prophet.
"Understood."
-If there are any other items you want, feel free to buy them yourself.
"Yes. Talk to you later."
Ryu Min hung up and grinned.
‘I was planning to.’
I accessed the app and browsed for any useful items.
‘Looks like people are desperate for money; they’ve listed all sorts of things.’
There was equipment that had become useless as they leveled up, and Magic Stones and material items whose uses were unknown.
A wide variety of items were listed.
‘Shall I start by sweeping up the unique materials?’
I had the combination formulas for the unique items needed for the Reaper memorized, having gone through them hundreds of times.
‘Deer Tree Root, Black Diamond, Orc’s Tusk, Gnoll’s Spine…’
A single monster dropped quite a variety of items.
Even the humble goblin dropped over half a dozen items, including the Goblin's Rusted Dagger, beginner-grade equipment, Goblin's Blood, and an Old Leather Bag.
How did I know this?
‘Because I’ve experienced it firsthand over dozens of regressions.’
Even when hunting the same monster, the items that dropped varied depending on probability.
More than once, I had been surprised, thinking, *This monster dropped something like this?*
‘The probability is low, but the variety of items is truly vast.’
That was why discovering combination formulas through grinding without a design was not easy.
There was also a limit to gathering materials alone.
The trade function probably existed for this reason.
‘The reason it unlocks at level 40 is likely because that’s when players have secured enough diverse items to trade.’
But most players wouldn't reach level 40 until around the 9th round.
‘I can’t wait that long.’
That was why I came up with the idea of a social market for players.
If someone else wouldn't make it, I would just make it myself.
‘Though Ma Kyung-rok was the one who actually made it.’
Ryu Min added the unique material items to his cart.
‘Looking at them all, I can make three unique items.’
He purchased all the materials via package delivery.
The payment was deducted from the cybermoney he had pre-loaded on the site.
‘Now the seller will ship the package to my address.’
Once he safely received the item, the site would give the seller the payment minus a commission.
Even if the wrong package arrived, the site would issue a refund, so there was nothing to worry about.
‘This way, with the site acting as a middleman, you can trade safely without getting ripped off.’
Perhaps because the market price hadn't been set, the material costs weren't that expensive.
Most were under 500,000 won.
After putting everything in the cart, the total material cost was less than 5 million won.
‘That’s incredibly cheap for the cost of making three unique items.’
Smiling with satisfaction, Ryu Min next searched for Magic Stones.
These, at least, seemed to have a known combination method, as even the lowest-grade ones cost over 2 million won each.
‘Well, the Magic Stone combination formula is easy to figure out.’
They must have figured it out by combining stones of the same color.
It seemed they had already realized their value after discovering they could be socketed into equipment.
‘Whatever the price, it’s not a problem.’
He was overflowing with real-world money.
Ryu Min purchased all the Magic Stones that were listed.
They were all lowest-grade Magic Stones, totaling about 90.
‘Spending around 180 million won is no problem.’
A smirk on his face, Ryu Min unhesitatingly pressed the purchase button.
* * *
Two days later.
A scream came from the front door. It was his brother.
"Gasp! Hyung! Wh-what is all this!?"
"What's wrong?"
Ryu Min walked out with an indifferent expression and grinned at the sight of the delivery boxes piled up in front of the door.
"They're here."
"D-did you order all of this?"
"Yeah."
"What on earth did you buy so much of…"
"It's nothing much. Just items that players use."
"Ah, you bought them from that Player Place market, PlePle, right?"
"Yep. Anyway, can you help me move these?"
"Ah, okay, Hyung."
Together with his brother, he neatly stacked the delivery boxes in his room.
*Click-*
He closed the door and began opening the boxes one by one.
The contents were all there, matching the 105 packages he had ordered.
‘Alright. Shall I start combining? First, the Magic Stones, since there are so many.’
He combined, and combined, and combined the Magic Stones of the same color.
He also took out the Magic Stones he already had and combined them.
‘Sixteen lowest-grade Magic Stones can create one highest-grade Magic Stone.’
The number, which had been over a hundred, gradually dwindled, and finally.
[Combination Successful!]
[You have created a ‘Highest-Grade Red Magic Stone’.]
[You have created a ‘Highest-Grade Orange Magic Stone’.]
[You have created a ‘Highest-Grade Yellow Magic Stone’.]
………………
…………
[You have created a ‘Highest-Grade Violet Magic Stone’.]
He was able to create seven highest-grade Magic Stones, one for each color.
‘Alright. If I socket these into each piece of equipment…’
Weapon, helmet, armor, gloves, boots, necklace, and ring.
He socketed a Magic Stone into each of the seven slots.
[Combination Successful!]
[The option ‘Damage +16%’ is added to the Death Scythe.]
[The option ‘Strength +32’ is added to the Feathered Cap of Hermes.]
[The option ‘Luck +32’ is added to the Wanderer’s Ragged Clothes.]
………………
…………
[The option ‘All Stats +16’ is added to the Ring of Resistance.]
All his equipment was now decked out with highest-grade Magic Stones.
When he equipped the items, his stats rose tremendously.
-Strength: 206, Intelligence: 284
-Agility: 244, Luck: 202
‘All my stats are over 200. And that’s without the Rune of Slaughter and Bless buff.’
With those buffs, they could rise to anywhere between 600 and 900.
The corners of Ryu Min’s mouth curled up in pleasure.
This wasn't the only joyous development.
[You have equipped seven highest-grade Magic Stones of different colors.]
[The buff ‘Rainbow Effect’ is now active.]
A faint, rainbow-colored sheen enveloped his equipped gear.
It was only visible from certain angles, so it wasn't distracting.
More importantly, the Rainbow Effect wasn't just for show.
[The Rainbow Effect buff increases resistance to status effects by 50%.]
The greatest threat to Ryu Min was, without a doubt, status effects.
The Rainbow Effect could raise his resistance to them by a whole 50%.
It was only natural that the smile wouldn't leave his face.
‘A 50% resistance is a huge help.’
Add to that the 35% from Jaba's Necklace, 35% from the Ring of Resistance, and 15% from the common skill Basic Resistance, and what did he get?
‘0.5 x 0.65 x 0.65 x 0.85 = 0.179. I can block status effects with about an 82.1% chance.’
If the percentages were additive, he would have long surpassed 100%, but unfortunately, the system's percentages were applied multiplicatively.
Equipping Magic Stones of every color like this granted a tremendous effect, but…
‘Most people won’t be able to receive this buff. It’s not a buff you can get with normal Magic Stones.’
The condition to activate the Rainbow Effect was to equip highest-grade Magic Stones of every color.
Lower-grade stones couldn't trigger the buff.
‘Most people would struggle to make even one mid-grade Magic Stone. There’s a limit to how many an individual can obtain.’
Therefore, at this point in time, Ryu Min was likely the only person with equipment filled with highest-grade Magic Stones.
He had monopolized every single Magic Stone.
‘Of course, more will be listed as time goes on.’
Others like Ryu Min, who would try to monopolize Magic Stones using the trading site, would also appear.
‘But by then, the value of Magic Stones will have risen, and a shortage will occur.’
Right now, a lowest-grade stone cost 2 million won, but later, it would exceed 20 million won.
And that was just for a lowest-grade Magic Stone.
Eventually, they would become as rare as hens' teeth.
People would think it was a waste to give them to others.
‘It pays to be an early bird.’
Now that he had made the highest-grade ones, he wouldn't need Magic Stones for a while.
Next, it was time to make unique items.
‘The method for making unique items is simple. You put the equipment you want to enhance in the main material slot and the designated materials in the sub-material slots.’
Just by doing that, even a normal piece of equipment could be transformed into a unique one.
It was more like enhancing an existing item than creating a new one.
However, Ryu Min had no intention of combining them right away.
‘I’ve already obtained the materials, but I’ll hold off for now. The higher the equipment’s required level, the more advantageous it is.’
Ryu Min was currently level 54.
It wouldn't be long before he reached level 60.
‘Then my grade will rise to Master, and the level of equipment I can buy from the shop will also go up. I should combine the unique items then.’
Enhancing his current Expert-grade gear would be a waste.
It was much more profitable to raise his grade, buy Master-grade equipment from the shop, and then combine it.
‘For now, I should be content with having secured the unique materials in advance. It won’t be long until I’m level 60 anyway.’
In the meantime, he would check the app whenever he had a spare moment and buy any unique materials that were listed.
So that when he reached level 60, he could enhance all his items to unique.
‘I wonder if any new materials have been listed even now?’
On that thought, he opened the app to check for any newly listed materials.
But then.
‘Huh?’
Seeing a recently listed material, Ryu Min blinked his eyes in disbelief.
‘Wait, this is…’
The reason for Ryu Min's surprise was none other than this.
‘Isn’t this a material needed for combining a Legendary item?’
An item that was rarely seen had been listed.