Chapter 289: Episode 289_A Ga of Nerves (2)
2.
In truth, he had been worried. It was an issue where he had no idea how the contract terms would be applied, and on top of that, there was the risk that they might be annihilated while crossing the Celestials’ Gate. Of course he was concerned.
However, in the end, it had been a choice he’d been forced to make. Leaving Epia alone in the Heavenly King’s castle and going to the continent... well, sure. Originally, he hadn’t planned to take her at all.
Who in their right mind would bring the Demon King—the one who was desperately trying to swallow the entire continent, effectively the final boss of Fantastic World—to the continent? Even Han Simin wouldn’t go that far.
If the continent went down the drain, he stood to lose the most. His territory would be wiped out, and the casino he was currently investing in would be gone. The Imperial Princess, who backed him, would die, and so would the Emperor.
It wouldn’t be the end of his life. Han Simin was not that kind of person. Even if the server were about to shut down, with only one second left, he was the kind of guy who would argue with the admins to squeeze out one more won, promising to promote their next ga while rubbing his hands together.
At least for now, unless Fantastic World vanished overnight because of the sudden outbreak of World War V, he wasn’t in a situation where he had to be sad about the server closing.
But that was all an extre hypothetical. Everyone wants to live well. To put it bluntly, if people who won the lottery truly intended to just kick back and relax for the rest of their lives, they would live modestly off their winnings. But they don’t, because people always want a better life.
Han Simin was the sa. In the long run, the Demon King had only been a stepping stone to get to the continent for a better life. At least, that was true until he completed the Story Quest.
Now, things were different. Once they had put their seals on the contract, it wasn’t that he was bothered by the line Epia had added; it was that she had beco his complete property, and that ant he needed to take her with him.
Abandon her? When she might be annihilated? How could he possibly do that?
It was like this: you enter a one-ti dungeon and receive a dragon as a reward. But it turns out that dragon is a species that’s ridiculously picky about where it sleeps, and if it leaves that one-ti dungeon—if it exits through the sa door the Users use—it might die. Not for sure, but maybe.
What would you do?
You could leave it behind. But if you did, you wouldn’t know when you would ever get it back. If you took it outside, you could use it to climb to rank one. And right now, that dragon might die if you left it behind.
So you bring it out.
"...You’re perfectly fine?"
And then he saw her. Far from being annihilated, Epia was looking around the Great Temple with bright, curious eyes, completely full of life.
’Seriously...’
Just looking at her like this, she was the very image of an angel. Really. Even her dress was pure white, looking more Celestial than demonic. She was so innocently beautiful that if soone called her an angel, anyone would believe it. It was enough to make you understand why viewers who watched the video had empathized with the Demon King and cheered her on to kill that smug Heavenly King bastard.
"Dad!"
As he was letting out a sigh of relief, a familiar voice rang out from afar.
Squeaker!
Even after all this ti, her visuals were so perfect that he wanted to rip the word "dad" right off her. Beaming, she ran toward him with her arms wide open, and he caught her.
"Guh."
He collapsed to the floor under the massive damage but didn’t let it show.
He’d allow it. Just for today.
If not for Squeaker, he might never have made it back. He would have been stranded in the middle of enemy territory, waiting endlessly for the Heavenly King, with his neck washed and ready for the blade.
He sighed. ’How did I end up losing the Sanctuary?’
He had brought back sothing far better, but his greed left him with a lingering sense of regret.
“What?”
“Oh. My daughter.”
“Daughter?” Epia shot them a sideways glare.
Simin hurried to offer an excuse before turning to Squeaker with a question. Now that the contract was signed, there was no need to tiptoe around her jealousy. A far more important issue was at hand.
“Hyegi, how much did you spend?”
“Hm?”
“How much did it cost to open the Heavenly Transfer Gate?”
“Ah.”
It was ti to review the expenses.
He had loaded up his account with a lot of credit just in case, telling her to spend as much as she needed, but that might very well have been the last ti he would ever be able to do so. It was a luxury Han Simin could afford only once. Even though he earned plenty of cash and Gold, this was the one ti he had splurged.
He had grown to a point where protecting his life was more profitable than protecting his wallet, a decision only soone of his stature could make. He had converted all 350,000 Gold he possessed into Gold Points. While he had no desire to cash out what had beco a non-exchangeable currency, those points were still worth a staggering 52.5 million dollars.
There was no way she had used it all.
’Right. No way. Surely not.’
He could have just opened his status window to check, but Han Simin didn’t have the courage. Instead, he prayed inwardly and waited for Squeaker’s cherry-red lips to open.
Squeaker answered without the slightest hesitation. She felt no guilt or reluctance over such questions; it was all within the bounds Han Simin had permitted. He had clearly told her she could use as many Gold Points as she needed to open the Heavenly Transfer Gate. She had done nothing to be scolded for.
“Yup. Three hundred thousand Gold!”
“...”
As the value of the dinsional transfer gate was revealed, the jaws of the few non-humans present dropped. The only ones there were the Specialist from the Demon World and the Saint who had stayed by Squeaker’s side, but even for them, the number was shocking.
The most shocked of all was Han Simin.
The hand that had been ruffling Squeaker’s hair froze. The smile on his face faltered, the corners of his lips trembling.
“Th-three hundred thousand Gold?”
“Yup!”
He sucked in a sharp breath.
’Please tell
you’re kidding.’
He stared at her with a dead-serious expression, but she didn’t take it back.
A long silence followed as he processed the news. When he finally ca back to himself, Han Simin was no longer in shock. He was a man who faced reality head-on, not one to whine about what was and wasn’t possible.
Opportunity cost.
To gain sothing, you had to give sothing up.
In the Demon World, Han Simin had recorded legendary content that would go down in Fantastic World history—footage that would be used as reference material for at least the next fifteen years. On top of that, he had brought back a divine relic of the Heavenly King, sothing no User could ever hope to obtain.
That was enough.
At the very least, he could get far more than 300,000 Gold’s worth of value out of them.
No.
“I’ll make them worth it.”
Passion flared within him. That was the only reason this was acceptable. He was confident he could squeeze every last drop of value out of his gains.
And he couldn’t just break even.
Three hundred thousand Gold—he had to make at least 45 million dollars just to get back to square one. In Han Simin’s mind, a truly ga-changing, jackpot piece of content had to earn at least that much more on top. Since he wouldn’t have spent the 300,000 Gold otherwise, the bar he set for himself had automatically doubled.
It was an absurd goal.
And he planned to recoup it all within six months.
Forty-five million in half a year.
If anyone heard that—no, if he walked into the ho he hadn’t visited in years and told his parents that with a straight face—they would probably drag him straight to a ntal hospital. Even Han Simin, the one making the plan, felt a little intimidated. He had a ridiculous amount of money coming in, but 45 million was still an astronomical sum on top of that.
It felt like a peak beyond the highest mountain.
However!
The reason he even thought it possible was thanks to a treasure even more precious than the divine relic he had brought back.
Epia.
The reward for the Main Quest.
With her at his side, he could crush any enemy short of the Heavenly King. He didn’t care if she was under a penalty. Even if she could only exert the power of a high-ranking demon like Grokile, the continent would be his. If he marched into the Imperial capital right now with a
15 sword and armor, it would be absurd, but Han Simin could very well beco the Emperor.
Hope welled up inside him like a spring.
Peeling Squeaker off him, Han Simin looked at Epia with a serious expression. As long as he had her, what was there to fear?
“Epia, are you okay?”
“...Why does that question sound so strange coming from him?” Yeseul muttered to Seolah.
“Probably because it’s been almost an hour since we ca through the Gate.”
“What a piece of work.”
He didn’t flinch at the Specialist’s brutal dose of reality. Han Simin was simply asking questions in order of priority.
Instead of looking offended, Epia gave him a bright smile and nodded. She had fallen for this side of Han Simin—the sa side the forr Enhancer had shown—long ago. In a way, she had peculiar tastes.
“I don’t think Epia is in her right mind either,” Yeseul mused.
“She’s a succubus. There’s no way she’d be satisfied with an ordinary man.”
Just as Kang Yeseul was wondering if she needed to adjust her own tastes, Epia lobbed a refreshingly blunt answer to Han Simin’s belated inquiry.
“Darling, I’ve lost my power.”
“...What?”
“Crossing the Gate, all my power was sealed.”
It was a bright, breezy statent that shattered his hopes into a million pieces.
*
Han Simin’s regular viewers were his most loyal fans. Those who had been there since his very first stream remained dedicated, and the newcors who trickled in rated his broadcast so highly that they set aside a separate budget just for his channel, even if they never spent money in Fantastic World itself. They never complained, even as the viewing fee kept rising.
While there were certainly complainers, Han Simin never so much as glanced at the posts on his channel, so as far as he was concerned, they didn’t exist.
In any case, with a steep viewing fee of 200 dollars and ads that ran for over twelve minutes at the start of every video, Han Simin’s stream still boasted over a hundred thousand regular viewers. It was more than worthy of being called a major channel. If you were to na the top five strears in the world, he was considered the undisputed number one.
It was a lofty title for soone who hadn’t even been streaming for a full year, yet no one denied it.
Money.
No one could argue with the money he made, and his content was unmatched. Most of it was “just ga footage.” If soone wanted to dismiss it as such, there was nothing to be done. But in a world where Fantastic World footage was being made into actual movies, people didn’t bother arguing with such out-of-touch takes. They simply ignored them, thinking, ’It’s a waste of breath to even engage with soone like that.’
And so, without Han Simin even realizing it, his fa had already transcended Fantastic World and reached the real world.
—Even if he raises it to 210 dollars, I’m definitely watching.
It had reached the point where people were saying things like that. Of course, they were probably just talking big. He stread two or three tis a week, sotis only once, but that still ca out to 800 to 1,000 dollars a month. Who wouldn’t feel the burden of that amount? At least the videos were high-quality.
But the mont comnts like that started popping up, as if on cue, an announcent appeared on Han Simin’s channel.
—Tis are hard and prices are going up, so I’m reluctantly raising the viewing fee.
Obviously, it wasn’t because he had seen those comnts. The mont he heard Epia say she had lost her power—that the canvas for his grand masterpiece was gone—he made a snap decision.
His stream was the easiest target. It was the simplest, fastest, and most reliable way to pull in money.
He would gladly endure any backlash to hit his target.
In response to his brazen resolve, countless posts flooded his channel.
—Three hundred dollars, are you out of your mind?
—They say the global economy is in the biggest boom since the Middle Ages, but this damn strear is jacking prices up by 1.5 tis like we’re living right after the Korean War.
Reviews
All reviews (0)