The Dimensional Store (3)
The community was in an uproar over chicken. Users who knew the taste of the stuff swarmed the boards as though determined to tear the whole community apart, and those who had been abruptly dropped into other worlds in particular could hardly contain their emotion at a quality that recreated the flavor of modern chicken, down to the last detail.
And naturally, all of it flowed into praise for the Juddak.
The otherworlders trying K-Chicken for the first time were no different in the end — though at first, they simply could not understand what all the fuss was about.
Still, with the community burning this hot, curiosity was bound to win out, and they placed their orders. There was a streak of defiance in it too — fine, let us taste this thing ourselves before we pass judgment. How often had they been sneered at for not knowing the taste of chicken? Remembering the days when they'd been locked out of the unspoken camaraderie shared by the users from that place called Earth, a rebellious impulse was only natural.
This food you all boast about so ceaselessly — this 'chicken' — how great could it possibly...
And yet.
The moment the delivery arrived, they sensed something unusual in its aroma.
"W-wow. The smell really is something."
It was rich and oily, yet carried a fragrance with an almost violent grip on the appetite. The appearance was no less striking — the golden-brown fried coating glittered as though gilded in actual gold. Carefully, they lifted a piece and bit down.
Crunch—
"!!"
A nutty, overwhelmingly savory richness flooded their mouths and set their tongues singing with delight.
"Ah...!"
The crisp shell gave way to tender meat that played across the palate, while hot, briny juices seeped gently up from between the fibers. Crispy on the outside. Succulent within.
How can anyone fry so common a bird and coax out a flavor like this! This is nothing short of alchemy!
It wasn't that they had never eaten fried chicken before. But never once had it moved them like this. It had not been labeled K-Chicken for nothing — this was chicken brined and dry-aged for depth of flavor, sheathed in a thick, sturdy coating, then double-fried at precisely the perfect temperature for precisely the perfect time.
Comparing it to the old-style whole fried fowl of their homelands was like comparing two entirely different foods.
Juddak, explain yourself! Why does a dish this majestic carry the modifier "ordinary"?!
The community buzzed and seethed, and with every ripple the Dimensional Store sent through it, Karlstein's Karma Points piled up faster and faster.
"This... is a straight-up gold mine."
Karlstein glanced over the community's reactions while checking his Karma balance. Without his lifting a finger, the counter was swelling rapidly with every sale.
"Of course, this alone is a drop in the bucket."
It couldn't compare to the Karma that accumulated simply by virtue of being Emperor of the Galactic Empire. But Karma earned through the community was a different beast entirely — it was the kind of Karma meant to be earned big and spent big. Community Karma was untaxed, and functioned as an emergency reserve. In other words, a slush fund.
"Kgh. A shame it's only this much, though."
This level of profit would never satisfy Karlstein or Aria.
"It can't be helped — we're still in open beta. And this is merely the tip of the iceberg."
"Fair enough."
Far more was already in preparation. All so they could siphon the users' Karma down to the last drop!
"By the way, is that human going to be all right?"
"Hmm..."
On the screen they were watching, Kim Youngsik was under threat of assassination from his own shelter's executives. Several awakened individuals were closing in on his dwelling, weapons in hand — presumably driven by greed to kill him and seize the starship for themselves.
"Do they honestly think they can wrest Hyperion away with something like that? Well, I suppose they wouldn't know any better."
"They won't so much as singe a hair on it. However... Kim Youngsik does need to be protected. If he dies, the relay upgrades will be delayed."
On the screen, awakened individuals could be seen evaporating one after another beneath Hyperion's majestic rain of fire.
"Hyperion will handle itself. Still, that fellow's Karma income is surprisingly lucrative, isn't it?"
One of the things that had startled Karlstein was how much Karma Virdel and Kim Youngsik were pulling in — more than he'd anticipated. More precisely, it was the Karma that Hydra and Hyperion were earning on their behalf. Perhaps it was simply because they operated in other dimensions: as Virdel and Youngsik piled up achievements through their respective machines, Karlstein drank in the Karma like royalties.
"Hmm. Still, the initial investment is far too steep to go scattering equipment like that willy-nilly."
The more cutting-edge the SF technology involved, the more nontrivial the Karma burned just to transmit it. That held true even for these prototypes, rather than his current-generation gear. Break-even would probably come around the time that fellow ended the apocalypse and saved his world.
It was only natural, then, that he couldn't invest so freely.
"Heh heh."
But once that point passed, he would be able to squeeze Karma out like a pension with no further investment at all — hence the smile on his face.
"So what's Virdel up to these days?"
"..."
Karlstein stole a glance through Hydra's sensors at what she was doing.
"Mm. She's having a grand time, it seems."
She was crossing blades with some Grandmaster or other.
"If you ask me, she's positively enjoying herself?"
She was using Hydra's power sparingly, wringing maximum effect from minimum output — drilling herself to achieve the most with the least... practice?
"...It appears she's deliberately holding back from killing them and using them as sparring partners instead."
"Well... she does seem quite fond of swordsmanship, from what I've seen."
How she chose to live was her own business. He had no intention of meddling — and besides, plenty of Karma was already flowing in through Virdel as the empire crumbled around her.
"Speaking of which — you said Kim Youngsik only ever lurks, yes?"
"Yes. He hardly glances at the community at all."
Hmm. Well, plenty of people keep their noses pressed to the grindstone of real life.
The community's user statistics made that plain enough. Among the things that had astonished Karlstein when he took over as administrator was the sheer number of dimensions connected to the Interdimensional Integrated Community — it ran to the tens of millions. And those were only the ones he'd managed to catalog; calculate the whole pie, and the true figure had to approach infinity.
Yet whether because their connection to the community had never bloomed, or because they had simply drifted away and let it lapse, the users actively browsing amounted to less than one percent of the total. The fact had genuinely staggered him — even after his stewardship had doubled the active user base.
"Which just means that much more Karma out there for us to devour."
Right. The community needed to be built out until life without it became unthinkable.
"More to the point, we have very few users who've reached high VIP tiers."
"The transcenders sitting on mountains of Karma will be coming to appreciate its value soon enough."
"True..."
They might never wield it with Karlstein's efficiency, but the perceptive ones could already feel, however faintly, the way Karma bent causality around its holder.
"Even so, they're pearls before swine. They can't put it to proper use — they simply hoard it. Even if they spent every last point, it would barely move the needle."
"All the same, blindly milking them like some con artist would be close to the worst possible efficiency. We extract — carefully."
Karma was not a commodity one could trade away as easily as hard goods. Given the Galactic Empire's technology, outright robbery wouldn't be difficult — but to do so would be tantamount to slitting the golden goose's belly.
Petty Karma was not what he was after. He wanted Karma on a scale that would let him retire outright.
He needed a money pot that turned by itself, raking in Karma whether he tended it or not.
"Financial independence! Financial freedom!"
FIRE — a term he'd heard constantly in his past life. It described those who saved twenty-five times their annual living expenses to achieve financial independence and retire early, famous for pinching every penny until their assets compounded on their own, dead serious about saving and investing.
And that was Karlstein's true goal.
To achieve it, however, he had been forced to give up something enormous.
Namely, the community's Enjoyer Mode.
"Haha... hahahaah..."
He'd never wanted to be a Juddak grinding away at a desk!
In any case, that meant he needed to set his sights on the big fish — the ones hoarding Karma by the boatload.
"Hmm... and when that's the case, there's really only one answer."
"Which is?"
"A promotional event, obviously."
"?"
Karlstein flashed the grin of a mischievous little demon.
Of course, a second wave of chicken and the unveiling of the next menu item were already being prepped on schedule.