Whirlwind Tower Strategy
“Whirlwind Tower?”
“First time hearing about it. Is there such a place?”
Juyeonu and Avant-garde both looked puzzled at the unfamiliar name.
A bizarre whirlwind that spawned randomly somewhere on the continent. By using entry materials there, you could teleport into a tower hidden within it. And Hanbit knew exactly when and where those whirlwinds would appear.
“Think of it as a stage-type dungeon with monsters on every floor. It'll be pretty tough, but if you clear it all the way to the end, your levels will shoot up like crazy.”
“You're heading there before the episode? At your growth rate, hyung, you probably don't even need to grind levels.”
“It's not enough like this. There's that Adventure A issue too, and players like Nessto Guild or the pioneers are starting to get stronger and tangle with us.”
“Yeah… that's definitely a concern.”
The drastic changes since the Edlen episode ended. Forces that had gone beyond simple competition were growing more aggressive, issuing outright threats.
To counter that, he'd have to boost his growth and respond in kind.
“Sounds like an interesting spot. How do you even enter this Whirlwind Tower? If there's zero info out there, the entry barrier must be sky-high.”
Avant-garde, who'd quickly searched it up, asked with evident curiosity. His guess wasn't wrong.
“It's random spawn, but entry requires materials. The problem is, it costs over 200 million per person.”
“...Pardon?”
“200 million each?”
Hanbit tossed out the figure casually, and both men’s eyes went wide. Black Dragon's ranking was climbing fast, but this was an insane amount of money.
Having anticipated their reaction, Hanbit turned to Juyeonu.
“I know it's pricey. That's why I've got a plan to scrape it together. Oh, and I won't touch the stream revenue.”
Various materials were needed to craft the entry ticket, totaling around 200 million. An absurd entry fee, but Whirlwind Tower was a must-visit. That meant getting aggressive about generating capital.
“What's the plan?”
Juyeonu perked up at the talk of funding. Hanbit pulled up the RP world map on his smartphone.
“Sell info, obviously. There's still one starting city left, right?”
“Another starting city… Bellmora?”
The allied nations of Bastia in the continent's east had a starting city like Edlen. Hanbit knew everything that kicked off there too.
“The webnovel must've covered that storyline too? Adventure A's guidebook only skimmed the city intro.”
“From what I hear, the pick rate for Bellmora as a starting city dropped hard because of it. Everyone but the early adopters flocked to Edlen since it had guides.”
As the two explained, Bellmora was shunned by newbies. Unlike the info drought at launch, the guidebook was too tempting. Sadly, that choice had led most down the wrong path.
But why doesn't anyone know about Bellmora?
After catching the stalker, Hanbit had pondered Adventure A's identity deeply. No matter how many loops, he reached the same conclusion: that person had likely been dragged to the isekai world and returned, just like him.
Whatever the Goddess's goal, it didn't make sense for him to be the only one out of 7 billion with that experience. So why was Adventure A's info so sparse and wrong?
Maybe the number of regressions, possessions, and reincarnations differed?
Guess I'll have to talk to them eventually.
There were two ways to resolve this mystery. Meet the Goddess or her agents. Or confront Adventure A directly. He was using the detective agency's tails for now, but there'd be ways to meet in RP too. Of course, that meant matching the pioneers shoulder-to-shoulder.
“The storyline starting in Bellmora is simpler. No Holy Nation entanglements—just saving the city or people from monsters, mostly.”
“But don't you need first-clear achievements or something? Wasting good rewards would suck.”
Juyeonu fixated on the perks of firsts. Hanbit's track record showed how huge they were.
“You can't progress other starting cities' main quests anyway, right?”
“True. Once you start a story anywhere, time flows across the whole world.”
Edlen's main quest set the world's clock ticking. So in Bellmora at the same timeframe, their story progressed naturally. A single player body couldn't affect both sides. Hanbit knew that better than anyone, having lived it.
“No main quest means no real value. Hell, the story rewards aren't even that great to begin with.”
At this point in Bellmora, achievements were minor. Its true worth came much later. Better to cash in on the high expectations now by selling the info.
Decision made, Hanbit asked the two.
“So, how much should I sell this for?”
“Hmm… tough call.”
“Not many pick that starting city, so hard to say for sure. I'd guess over a billion, but even that's probably lowballing it.”
Juyeonu pondered, while Avant-garde offered his estimate. A billion was massive, but the buyer was likely a big corp with pioneers. Could fetch even more depending on the situation.
“Hyung, why not ask that person?”
Juyeonu suddenly piped up from his deliberations.
“Who?”
“Luna, duh. Pioneer, big corp affiliate, and the chairman's daughter? She's basically Yeonhwa Gaming CEO's little sis too.”
“...The CEO's sister?”
Hanbit was genuinely surprised he'd missed that. It suddenly made sense why she'd told him to ignore the CEO's calls. Bad blood between them?
She's probably busy now.
Around Snow Drake planning, Luna had shared pioneer movements faster than anyone. In exchange, he'd gifted her a hint: weapon materials north of Pheria Island. Talented pioneer group, so they'd snag it today or tomorrow. Message her near episode end.
“I'll reach out. Got other questions for her anyway.”
“I'll poke around too.”
With that settled, the topic shifted. To yesterday's events.
“Never thought you'd use the pioneers as DPS fodder. And Blood and Mars were there too.”
Juyeonu, who'd watched the whole stream, had been hopping out of his chair repeatedly. Especially Blood, a known pioneer using hidden skills like Hanbit. No telling what she'd pull.
“Stream comments and community reactions are all shocked too.”
Avant-garde showed them his phone screen. The titles were spicy clickbait.
<Breaking) Pioneers Including Blood Wiped Like Total Idiots>
Anyone who missed the Snow Drake fight, check the clip NOW.
About 20 pioneers there, got swept like ants by magic and tail.
Issue is the wipe pattern—only Black Dragon's party cracked it. Blood went berserk trying to kill Black Dragon, got frozen and schooled. Seems like a HP threshold trigger?
Shield bro Mars got wrecked too. Lv.500 boss, fine they couldn't take it, but pioneers??
Conclusion) Black Dragon wins: dwarf legacy, Snow Drake loot, some Spirit King trace(?), and escaped alive.
Conclusion2) Pioneers suck. Can't DPS, can't do shit.
-Conclusion facts only. lololol
-Blood and Mars lost? For real?
-Tail slaps balls when frozen. lmao
-Only Black Dragon party survives = dragon cartel??
└No way?
-Wtf corps gonna say? ;;
└Corps don't mess around on company time?
└Watching Black Dragon stream with CEO = innocent.
-Pioneers got nothing. lmao
└This guy's Lv.22
└Why always trolls….
-Black Dragon's nuts. No one's dug into his past?
└Hitman vibes? They'd do it.
└That's avg RPG player lol.
-Stfu and sub Black Dragon already.
-Ifrit clear = more info dump?
└Soul sold.
└Views good = maybe?
└10k backlog incoming.
The comment chain was raw as hell. Distrust toward Black Dragon, barely visible last time, was gone. Instead, mockery of the failed pioneers filled the thread. As noble-like elites in RP, envy and jealousy ran high. Plus, they hadn't met expectations.
“It's blowing up. But hyung's image is definitely shifting. From 'crazy guy' to 'pioneers benchmark' now?”
“Couldn't be helped. It was know the gimmick or get wrecked.”
Clashing with Snow Drake was set in stone. Taeyul employees and pioneers were just supporting roles in that plan. Info gaps like this were key in competition.
“Oh yeah, what about the card? It was random teleport, right?”
Avant-garde, listening in, suddenly recalled something. His own random teleport card had behaved exactly as Hanbit described.
“Remember modifying the scroll in Edlen? Same deal.”
Off-stream, Hanbit had tweaked the card's pattern with ether ink. Like patching a basic scroll, it let him alter effects.
“Always impressive, but Black Dragon-nim's memory is unreal. Replicating a novel's written fix verbatim…”
Avant-garde's sincere admiration. It wasn't from a novel but hands-on learning, but Hanbit took pride in his recall too. Maximized by survival instinct—to live longer in the isekai, you remembered or died repeating mistakes.
“Gonna milk it as far as it goes. Didn't finish the novel anyway.”
“Right, you said it wasn't complete. Maximize it till then.”
Juyeonu nodded without a shred of doubt, which oddly made Hanbit feel guilty. Couldn't spill the Goddess truth, though.
“Time's up.”
After chit-chat, the three rose without lingering. The 12-hour wait for main quest progression was ending. Time to see Ifrit episode's finale.
“Log back in then. See you in RP.”