I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 203: Episode 44_Recon Unit (3)

Episode 203

Chapter 44: Recon Unit (3)

4.

Why had the stream cut off?!

Few people were demanding an explanation from Kim Buja.

—Is he not gonna explain why he ended the stream?

—Does that even matter, you idiot? To the guy who risked his life, came back alive, and brought us all that info?

—I wanna throw that bastard in the Arctic and make him keep streaming until he’s about to die.

—This is why shut-in losers are hopeless.

And even if there were people asking, it would have been hard to satisfy their curiosity. For most people—for most players—that was no longer important.

—Anyone wanna try a run?

—Recruiting for Ice Castle, need Freeze Immunity Lv. 4+ and Freeze Resistance Lv. 5.

—Looking for people who just want to break through the entry condition.

New information had been released.

That information was a hint about the Ice Castle. It was the first knot to be untied in the ribbon wrapped around a package that had been bound in dozens of layers.

It might not look like much. It might be just one of dozens of steps, something that made you think, ’That’s it?’

But there was a reason people said, “Well begun is half done.”

If you grab hold of one thread and keep working at it, the wrapping will eventually come off.

—Third recon team departing.

—Forming a party.

The community was on fire.

* * *

“Everyone’s really fired up,” Seora commented.

“If you’re a player in that level range, it’s impossible not to be tempted,” Buja replied.

While the man who had experienced it firsthand and made his own judgment—Kim Buja—had completely lost interest in the Ice Castle for now, countless other players were heading toward it. In this kind of atmosphere, if you just sat still, it was only natural to start feeling anxious, wondering if you were missing out.

But Buja did not waver.

“More information will come out. The entry condition is tough, but it’s not impossible to meet. And since the level requirement is so high, some of the very top rankers might even end up grinding mobs inside the Ice Castle.”

The Ice Castle was tempting.

However, whether in games or in real life, there was one thing you always had to keep in mind: knowing your place.

’You have to know your limits. Just because you want something doesn’t mean you can have it. You need to know when to give up.’

Risking your life and clinging to something just because someone else might get it first?

If you had the ability, that was fine. The joy of investing everything to achieve something could be a huge source of hope and a foundation for growth.

But for now, that wasn’t where Buja was.

“Clearing an 8-star Legendary dungeon, let alone taking down a boss that’s basically 9-star tier—that’s ridiculous. I can afford to sit back and watch for a year.”

He hadn’t grown that much yet.

He decided to let go of his greed and focus on crossing the bridges right in front of him, the ones he still hadn’t managed to cross.

“There are probably some perks to grinding there, but I doubt it’s going to be some insane gold mine.”

That was the judgment of the person who had been the first to enter the Ice Castle and who currently had the most information about it. Of course, he didn’t think his take was the most accurate or absolute.

He also felt a sense of unease.

“The ones who’ll probably profit the most from it are...”

“Fly?” Seora guessed.

“If the Ice Lord just waits in her room for them to come to her, then for a guild of that caliber, it might actually be a decent farming dungeon.”

In the end, the Ice Castle was still a dungeon. The only difference from the dungeons that had appeared on Earth so far was that instead of players entering through a portal, a part of Earth itself had become a dungeon.

Other than that, there was no real difference. If anything, it might even be easier. Although the recommended level was 8-star, the only condition for clearing the dungeon was killing the Ice Lord. The difficulty missing from that simple clear condition was being made up for with multiple entry conditions and other requirements.

There were dungeon penalties, and of course, there were rewards. On top of that, there was the advantage of being able to leave at any time.

“I just hope we don’t get some bullshit like monsters dropping points when you kill them.”

Up to that point, it was still fine. He had only one wish.

If there was honey to be had—valuable honey—he wanted it to be honey that no one else could get either, if he couldn’t.

’This is bad.’

As long as that didn’t happen, he would be fine. But the suffocating sense of unease that wrapped around his whole body had a habit of turning his fears into reality.

—Breaking News: Ice Castle monsters drop points.

A reason to go to the Ice Castle.

News that made the value of the “Tear of the Glacier” he had gotten for free shoot up even higher was revealed not long after.

5.

After the Dungeon Break, players had one main complaint.

“Farming is way too inefficient.”

The points and point dungeons that had appeared after the Dungeon Break were clearly a path that gave players a chance to level up in a new way. In this world, where each player was a “character” themselves, it was a way to permanently increase their base abilities, separate from item options and leveling up.

Naturally, no one complained about the system itself. Their complaints were only about its efficiency.

“I wish we could farm a bit more easily.”

In a way, that was just human greed. Once you were shown a better life, you started wanting an easier one. You could call it selfish, but you could also say that desire was the driving force that had brought humanity this far.

And now, information had appeared that satisfied that desire.

—Non-aggressive boss, monsters around the recommended level of 8-star. From what I saw, the inside of the castle is like a maze, but there don’t seem to be any spots where you get swarmed. If you can hunt properly, is there any better place than this for farming points?

—Forget everything else. The fact that level 70-something monsters give points at all is enough to make the top rankers lose their minds.

—Yeah, right now, the highest we see are 3-star monsters, and that’s just one or two at a time. For rankers who’ve been killing those and buying point items, what news could be more important than this?

—Wow, so does this mean we don’t have to chase monsters around anymore? Seriously, even getting 20 points a day was brutal.

—Stop daydreaming. This only applies to a handful of top rankers and their guilds.

—Sigh. Even if I had the level, I don’t have a Freeze Immunity item, so I can’t even get in.

—This is literally the rich getting richer. The guys with money use it to farm points and make the glass ceiling even thicker, while the rest of us chase monsters around all day for scraps.

Users no longer cared who would clear the Ice Castle, defeat the Ice Lord, and become the master of the castle—or her master. A dungeon that was hard to clear, with a window of opportunity narrower than a needle’s eye, mattered less to them than the fact that there was profit to be made.

—Breaking News: Fly is heading to the Ice Castle.

And the frontrunners once again showed why they were the frontrunners. While everyone else was arguing online about whether it was possible, they took action.

Of course, charging in without a plan would have been idiotic. The fact that Fly—the man who had casually handed the “Tear of the Glacier” to Buja—had suddenly gone back on his earlier words and was heading straight for the Ice Castle meant one thing: he had a clear, solid plan.

And Buja knew exactly what that plan was.

“Damn.”

He had figured it out. He had figured out the Ice Castle, which had been a complete unknown just a short while ago.

’Did I just do all the work so someone else could reap the rewards?’

Even so, the “Tear of the Glacier” was beautiful enough to make him sigh in admiration every time he saw it.

But that was all.

The “Tear of the Glacier” didn’t give him the power to grind points in the Ice Castle, nor did it dump a huge pile of points into his lap. No matter how good his items were, no matter how he traveled across continents, experienced other worlds, and grew rapidly through the Tower of Trials, the Ice Castle—something only the current top rankers could challenge—was still out of his reach.

For now. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

That was probably why Fly had been willing to give it away so boldly, gladly giving up an item that could have been a huge loss.

’He’ll probably use magic to get in, right?’

On top of that, Fly had publicly announced that he would be farming the Ice Castle with his guild, not solo.

That meant only one thing.

He had found a way for the entire guild, not just himself, to meet the publicly known entry condition.

It had to be one of two things: either every guild member had an item with a Freeze Immunity option, or they had some trick that worked just as well.

He could be absolutely sure it wasn’t the former.

’If they had fifty of those items, they must have been duped.’

An item that granted level 5 Freeze Immunity was Legendary grade. Even a level 4 Immunity item would be Unique grade or higher. And the difference between Resistance and Immunity was between chance and certainty, creating a ridiculous gap in value.

One of those for every guild member? He could admit that Fly’s guild had the resources to pull something like that off, but the idea that they had fifty of those items just lying around was impossible to believe.

Naturally, that left the second option.

’This game is broken in favor of mages.’

Fly, the world’s first level 70 Legendary mage. The man who had handed over the ticket to the Ice Castle without a second thought—there had to be a similar skill behind his confident stride.

’I’m jealous.’

The Ice Castle recon team. In the end, the player the community talked about as having profited the most was not Kim Buja.

’I’ve still got a long way to go.’

There was a reason Fly had managed to stay at the top for so long.

Now, there were only two choices left.

Chase after him, or give up.

If he had planned from the start to grind points in the Ice Castle, he wouldn’t even be having this internal debate. If it had been truly impossible, he wouldn’t have framed it as two choices in the first place.

If he really wanted to do it, it wasn’t impossible.

’The problem is the amount of gold it would take.’

Soul Liberation. Gold Shop items to kill monsters faster. His gold would melt away in an instant, and he might even end up having to farm gold just to farm points.

It might not be a bad choice. At this point, the best currency for players was points, and he was already making excellent use of “Gnawing Soul,” which he had bought with points.

But he gave up.

’Think bigger.’

Right now, because it was just the Ice Castle, it felt urgent. He might think that he had to somehow squeeze past the cutoff and keep pace with the frontrunners to avoid falling behind.

But in reality, he was already far behind. The idea that he had caught up was just an illusion. Five years was not a short amount of time to make up.

’Just keeping up with new content as it comes out isn’t enough.’

Just as Fly had invested in something that Buja didn’t have and couldn’t get—points—Buja had to dig into something Fly didn’t have if he wanted to close the gap.

’As much as it sucks...’

He would put points on hold for now.

It was the obvious decision, but it wasn’t an easy one. In every game he had ever played, he had never once fallen behind the frontrunners. Choosing not to jump into a race that was clearly dripping with profit felt like swallowing his pride.

Which only made his fighting spirit burn hotter.

’Time to go hard again.’

With that resolve, he opened his skill window.