I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 214: Episode 45_SVIP (11)

Episode 214

Chapter 45: SVIP (11)

12.

When he arrived at the Jeong Cheol Guild House, the only ones to greet him were a few staff members who recognized him.

The entire guild house felt deserted.

Even though the guild operated as a small, elite group, they still had to manage several dozen high-level players. As the number one guild in Korea, they also employed a sizable staff just to keep the guild itself running.

Whenever he had dropped by in the past, it was rare not to see any players around. But to find the place this empty, with even the staff gone, was almost unheard of.

“Is it a day off?” he asked one of the staff members who had recognized him and come over to say hello.

Even as the words left his mouth, he suspected it wasn’t a holiday, but it was the only explanation that made any sense.

Players ran dungeons 365 days a year, without a single day off. The staff who supported them were no different. There was even a saying that ever since dungeons appeared, the five-day workweek had never once been observed by guild house employees. The people supporting the players were just as crucial as the players themselves.

They might work in shifts, of course, but there was never a day when the guild house was completely empty.

On top of that, this should have been an especially busy time. Dungeon Breaks were popping off nonstop, and players were grinding dungeons like mad to squeeze every last drop out of the EXP buff that came with the Ice Castle.

“Ah, you must not have heard. Everyone left for the Arctic a week ago.”

“Oh!”

The staffer’s words reminded him of what Jeong Seora had said before he entered the Tower of Trials—that they were making plans to head to the Arctic.

’I figured it wouldn’t be easy, but did they find a way? Or did something change with the Ice Castle?’

The answer turned out to be simpler than he expected.

“They used the ring you left with the vice guild master, sir. They just passed it around to get in. It turns out you only need to be authorized for entry once.”

“Even if you leave and come back?”

“Yes. I’m not sure about the exact time limit, but as long as you meet the entry conditions, you can hand the item off to the next person right away and keep going in like that.”

“That’s... ridiculously sloppy...”

It was so lax it was hard to believe. If that was true, then the insane, sky-high prices of items with status ailment immunity might finally come back down to earth.

“So the value of those items has dropped a lot. They’re still more expensive than most other items, of course, but a thriving trade has sprung up around selling access itself.”

The whole situation was unfolding in a way that was shockingly similar to a game. Despite the appearance of a near-perfect, overwhelmingly powerful dungeon, its entry condition had been bypassed in the most anticlimactic way.

Of course, that didn’t mean it was easy.

An item with level 5 Frozen status immunity was still hard to come by. And even if the price for access wasn’t quite as high, paying that much just to enter was nothing but a waste of money for anyone below a certain tier.

In the end, it was only an entry condition. Even if you got in, if you didn’t have the ability to actually kill the monsters, you were just paying a fortune for a one-time sightseeing tour of the Ice Castle.

“Well, that’s good then.”

There was no reason for Kim Buja to worry about it any further. He thanked the staffer for filling him in and left the guild house.

Thanks to the “Tear of the Glacier” he had entrusted to Jeong Seora, the Jeong Cheol Guild had made it safely to the Arctic. While hunting there wouldn’t be easy, they had enough firepower to keep farming points without falling behind the frontrunners.

More than anything, it eased the guilt of having said he would take a “short” break, only to spend over a month in the Tower of Trials.

’I should go finish my SVIP promotion, too.’

He could now head out with a clear conscience. Relaxed, he opened the Gold Mission.

* * *

Jeong Seora had joined the hunt for the first time in a long while.

Her level had barely budged in over a year because she had been focused on guild work, but she was still a level 58 support-type player.

“Left side! Buff incoming!”

While she hadn’t been keeping her senses razor-sharp under the constant tension of battle, talent like hers didn’t just fade away. Before the update, she had leveled alongside Jeong Cheol to nearly 60 while growing the guild, so she had both a strong grasp of progression and solid combat instincts. Because of that, while the battles in the Ice Castle were challenging, she was handling them smoothly enough.

“Nice! Five-minute break!”

Hunting together like this, the Jeong Cheol Guild wasn’t quite on the level of the Fly Guild, but they had earned a reputation as one of the few parties in the Ice Castle capable of stable, consistent hunting.

Naturally, their growth curve shot upward.

In the current era, with no additional updates yet, the fastest way for players to grow was to buy point items with their points. Even without purchasing any special items, plenty of players permanently increased their own power just by drinking potions that granted bonus damage against monsters.

The Jeong Cheol Guild was no different.

It had been two weeks since they arrived. Everyone looked a bit grimy, and the fatigue was starting to show on their faces.

“We hunt through today, then we’ll take time to resupply,” Jeong Cheol announced.

“Wooo!”

“Finally!”

“I just want to go somewhere warm and thaw out.”

“Ugh, yeah. It’s freezing.”

“I’m spending my points first thing.”

Jeong Cheol had timed it perfectly. He never pushed his people too hard.

The Ice Castle wasn’t going to fall anytime soon. There was still a long way to go before players could truly clear it, and even if Fly was secretly preparing a strategy, he judged it impossible for them to succeed right now.

Besides, Fly wasn’t about to pass up such a guaranteed growth opportunity either. Until this still-blue-ocean Ice Castle turned into a red ocean, they were going to milk it for every last drop.

And for that, safety was the number one priority. They couldn’t afford to overextend, and they absolutely couldn’t afford injuries.

In that sense, his decision was a wise one. Their hunting pace was neither lax nor pushed to the absolute limit. He called for a break right around the point when their focus started to dull, and a few mistakes began to creep in.

“Let’s give it our all till the end!”

The guild members cheered as they munched on energy bars.

“This place really is a sweet farming spot.”

“Getting in before it got crowded was a god-tier move.”

“Yeah, all thanks to that entry exploit.”

“I want to rack up as many points as I can before more people show up.”

Just as the Jeong Cheol guild members—and indeed, all the players busily profiting from the Ice Castle—basked in their happy present and bright future, a blizzard, the first in a long while, rolled in, revealing a familiar figure.

“So many children have gathered.”

Floating in the air, the Ice Castle Lord was as lofty and beautiful as ever.

However, the players seeing her in person—seeing her beautiful form in the flesh—were in no state to admire her.

Every player here remembered the massacre on the first day. They remembered the power of the Ice Castle Lord.

They watched her, nerves stretched taut.

’Why has she appeared? Was her promise to wait at the top of the castle for our challenge a lie? Was she just waiting for the moment we were all gathered in her castle with no way to escape?’

While everyone tensed up at this unexpected variable, the Ice Castle Lord opened her mouth to speak.

13.

On the road to the Arctic, toward the Ice Castle.

The area that had once been filled with bases, then abandoned after the disaster, was now bustling with life again.

“Get your Ice Castle entry condition here! Lowest price! Cheaper than the guys next door! DM for details!”

“We’ve got three level 5 Frozen Resistance items ready! We’ll get you through the entry requirement, more reliable than immunity gear!”

“Gear rentals cheaper than shoes, cheaper than tires! We’ll get you through the blizzard, warm and comfy!”

“Looking for a group to go in cheap!”

The method that had suddenly spread through the community—an easy way to meet the Ice Castle’s entry condition and hunt there—had turned this place into a crowded, traditional marketplace.

People from all over the world who owned Frozen immunity or resistance items had gathered here to do business. At a glance, at least a hundred people were hawking their services within an 18.5-mile radius of the castle.

Naturally, where there was supply, there was demand. Even more players had gathered, haggling over prices and inspecting items.

Because it was all happening in such an unregulated way, accidents were frequent. There were players who rented level 4 Frozen Resistance items instead of level 5 to save a little money, only to die on the spot. There were others who went in with level 5 resistance gear but had bad luck and died anyway. And then there were the scavengers who roamed around, collecting the items dropped by the dead.

It wasn’t uncommon to see rankers who rented items, then ditched the lender and headed into the Ice Castle without ever returning them.

Chaos and confusion reigned. In this unrestrained, unregulated marketplace, all the players cared about was money and points.

Naturally, players who still had their wits about them found it difficult to actually enter, even after coming all this way.

“What if I get the entry condition and go in, but then I get hit with some other status effect?”

“Come on, man. You must be new here. Over 500 players have gone in today alone. Plenty of them have come back out, and there are a bunch of big guilds that have been hunting there for almost a month now. How many of the big guilds—other than Fly—do you think are actually using proper status resistance items to hunt? Most of them rented their gear right here and went in.”

“R-really?”

“Of course. Because this is all rental-based and the competition is fierce, you guys get to go in cheap. But if you look at current market prices, this stuff is no joke. And buying it just for the Ice Castle is a waste of money. This way, everybody wins. Trust me and rent. You need to stack points, right? I already got my fill early on, and now I’m here doing this to buy my own items. Just follow my lead.”

Life was all about taking risks, anyway. All or nothing.

It wasn’t like they were charging in blind; this was a method that had been proven to some extent, so players were more than willing to pay up and sprint toward the land where the honey flowed.

Today was no different. Dozens of players headed for the Ice Castle, and the lack of any major incidents was quickly packaged and advertised by the sellers as proof of their own “skill.”

They never saw it coming. They never even imagined it.

“Dude, if we can keep this up for just two more weeks, I could seriously buy a whole building.”

“Even with this many competitors, it’s nice that there’s enough for everyone to get a piece.”

“I crammed five new languages just to reel in customers. Just the basics, but still. If I had studied this hard in high school, I would’ve gotten into a top university.”

It wasn’t just them. Who at home, watching all this, would have dared to predict it?

—With the Fly Guild and all the big guilds there, what kind of accident could happen? If anything happens, it’ll happen to the Ice Castle Lord.

“Humans are as cunning and despicable as ever. The unworthy must be cleansed.”

They never imagined a sudden, belated blizzard would come roaring in.

Far off in the distance, the blizzard that erupted from the Ice Castle swept all the way out to the 18.5-mile mark that everyone had assumed was a safe zone.

And when the blizzard finally died down, not many players were left standing.

* * *