Guild Raid
The raid rewards came out through an auction system, and the main prize by far was the SSS-grade item. It was the kind of gear that marked the end of the line.
If I remembered right, the base drop rate was three percent? And with the ambush event applied, that would make it nine percent. If I got lucky, maybe I could snag one more SSS-grade item today and upgrade it?
Still, there was one thing that worried me. As I’d said before, all the raid drops went through the auction system, which meant I had no idea how much money I’d end up spending just to win the thing.
Sure, you could argue that since it was an auction, we could just go with people we knew and bid cheap among ourselves, but our god-tier game, Unknown Universe, didn’t allow that kind of easy-money trick. It had a minimum bid system.
For an SSS-grade item, the minimum bid was 500 million uni, which came out to about 500,000 won in cash. It was unupgraded, sure, but a top-end item for 500,000 won? Honestly, that was basically a steal.
But the real variable was our MoMone. Would she just watch me bid, or would she join the auction fight? Please be the former. Please...!
First things first, before today’s stream started, I had to convert all my money into cash. That old promise about investing 170 percent of my revenue! At some point I’d ended up borrowing 5 million won, which had pushed me close to 200 percent.
◈ Amount borrowed from ChaeMoney: about 15 million won
◈ I will use this money sparingly.
I had borrowed the money from ChaeMoney, about 15 million won in total. ChaeMoney, you may not believe this, but I’m going to use it carefully. With that vow stacked on vow, I started today’s stream.
[Stream Title: Today is the day we farm the Lunatic Raid!!! The ambush event dropped! Unknown Universe is the greatest god game in the universe.]
"Hello, everyone. Haruru the Black Fox here."
"Yeah, really."
"Right? Let’s dive into Unknown Universe again today. I am, after all, a dedicated Unknown Universe VTuber!"
An Unknown Universe VTuber, and yet my track record so far was...
Steak-and-liquor mukbang, followed by the maid cooking stream that came from it. My past sins flashed before my eyes like a life review.
"Cries in pain."
The maid outfit video.
My tiny frame, the maid uniform, the tearful celebration for reaching 20,000 subscribers, and the fire show that nearly turned into a major accident all fed into one another, and the view count had already blasted past 100,000.
And subscriber count?
It had spread everywhere on the community boards under the title Crazy Maid Outfit Fire Show, Holy Crap.gif, and in just one week it had broken through 30,000 subscribers.
Over the past week I’d thought about it, and I’d come to the conclusion that this Blessing of the Goddess of Luck didn’t just trigger once and end there. It seemed to chain-react, like a butterfly effect. Otherwise there was no way to explain this situation.
"If I do them too often, it gets old. Maybe I’ll do one when we hit 100,000."
Really, the biggest reason was that I didn’t want to do it.
"Wear a kindergarten uniform and come back in ten minutes."
"Speaking of which, let’s take a look at the fire show video comments."
"Well, they had every right to be angry... I almost burned down a whole company by accident..."
"Did I get the NewTube angle? My life nearly got taken instead..."
"There are plenty of warm comments, but there are just as many scary ones..."
"I’m going to seal away the fire show for the time being..."
"Somehow, every time I stream, I end up with another nickname. It’s not easy to collect this many."
"Anyway, let’s get into Unknown Universe."
That was it for the opening. For today’s main Lunatic Rabbit raid, I logged into Unknown Universe. The guild currently had 50 members in total, and 30 of them, including me, were online.
"I’m going to pick 12 people, including myself, and we’ll go raid. The criteria is combat power order! That’ll keep the complaints down, right?"
"You’re asking about experience bonuses, but this is a pay-to-win god game. Stronger people are just better."
And so I entered the guild hideout, which felt like a second home.
[BlackFoxHaruru: Anyone going to LR today, please stand in front of me.]
[Monemone1123: Yes]
[HaruruDanBlackCow: Moo]
[HaruruDanImda: Let’s go~]
[HaruruDanVegetables: gogo]
[UlsanPrideJeongYong: WOOOOOO@@@@@]
...
...
The guild members’ chat came pouring down. Well, the people logged in right now were probably all here because they wanted to go with me.
"First, let me explain the Lunatic Rabbit raid. I skipped the story, so I don’t really know it. All I know is that the monsters living on the moon, along with their leader, the Lunatic Rabbit, show up as the boss."
"Huh? I’ll just take an IQ test later and prove it... or maybe I shouldn’t. That might be something I can’t take back."
"Anyway! Anyway! The combat power required to enter the Lunatic Raid is 1,000,000. One million! That’s a rough number to hit without spending money, but it’s not impossible. Let’s take a look at our guild members’ combat power."
Maybe because everyone kept bringing up free-to-play, they were all looking for Imda. And honestly, I was curious too. Could someone hit one million combat power as a free-to-play player in just one month?
"Last time, Imda couldn’t come with us to the Black Fox raid because he fell short of the requirements..."
Since Imda was a debuffer, if he could only meet the entry combat power, he’d still be able to pull his weight. He worked hard, so I wanted to bring him if I could, but...
[HaruruDanImda]
[Lv. 29]
[Class: Curse Mage]
[Combat Power 1,100,000]
"What the hell, he broke one million and hit 1.1 million?"
His stats had risen massively compared to the Black Fox raid. What had happened to him? Had he really spent money? As a livelihood gamer, had he made an investment of sorts and paid up? I had to interview him right away.
"Imda, your viewers are going wild. What happened during that time? Did you spend money?"
"First of all, I didn’t pay to win. I don’t even have money for meals, so where would I get cash to spend..."
"Exactly. That’s why I want to ask even more. What’s the secret?"
"Should I say this on stream? You might think I’m insane..."
"You can speak comfortably."
"Understood. When I couldn’t go because my spec fell short for the Black Fox raid, I thought about something once. If everyone else had 24 hours in a day... what if I spent about 31 hours? Wouldn’t that close the gap?"
What was he building up to with this? It didn’t seem like he was about to say anything ordinary.
"Haruru-nim. You know that farming manually, instead of using auto-hunt, gives about thirty percent better efficiency, right?"
"I do know that. But it’s a hassle, so I don’t really recommend it... wait, don’t tell me!"
"Yes. That don’t tell me. While everyone else was doing 24 hours of auto-hunt, I created the efficiency of 31 hours with manual hunting."
Everyone knew manual hunting was thirty percent more efficient, but nobody actually did it. Because the usual Unknown Universe player mindset was: if I’m going to manually farm, I might as well spend a little more and sleep comfortably while auto-hunting. But Imda had been doing that laborious work.
"Why on earth...?"
"Because Unknown Universe has Haruru-nim and the rest of the guild members."
"Of course you should be moved. In gratitude for your hard work, I’ll give you a title."
"What title?"
"From now on, you are Harusalidan 'The Undying' Imda."
"Thank you! As Haruru-nim’s undying one, I’ll keep the fire lit even brighter."
"Yes. Still, make sure you take care of your health."
"I was planning to do that anyway. Then, to set the guild straight, I’ll show my combat power next. First, let me show you my character specs. You need to know one thing: I’ve got +10 items and a bunch of endgame gear, but I still have a lot of empty slots. Keep that in mind when you look."
Current level: 26.
At that level, the average combat power was usually around 900,000. But I had long since left the average behind.
[BlackFoxHaruru]
[Lv. 26]
[Class: Cosmic Blade]
[SSS-grade Mika (★★★)]
[Black fox ears and tail]
[Options: Pluto/Pluto/Pluto/Pluto]
[(+10) SSS-grade Elemental 4-Element Necklace]
[Owned skills]
[Lv. 10 Cosmic Blade Basic Techniques]
[Lv. 20 Cosmic Energy Charge]
"And the combat power is..."
Fifty million.
It was a number that utterly dwarfed the one-million combat power required to enter the raid.