40
Kwon Hyuk-jin, CEO of advertising agency ‘Performance’.
The performances he runs are very diverse.
In addition to the usual viral marketing, they also carry out exaggerated advertising mixed with lies, and even spread rumors that slander competitors as long as the unit price is right.
They receive requests to promote new entertainers and do the groundwork, and they also produce and spread rumors and flyers to bring down popular entertainers.
They also operated a so-called Wrecker channel that collected all sorts of incidents and accidents, added a lot of seasoning, and processed them into provocative stories that suited the public’s taste to increase the number of views.
In short, Kwon Hyuk-jin’s performance was one of the worst among viral marketing companies that were obsessed with converting public attention into money.
“f*ck, this is ridiculous. You crazy bastard trying to change your fate with a single weapon. What, 100 million for an item that’s going to be worthless in a month or two anyway? What kind of bastard’s name is 100 million?”
However, no matter how hard you work to earn money through bad deeds, it is useless if there are too many places where the money goes.
His bank account was not very full as he spent money on all sorts of things including gambling, women, and alcohol in addition to games.
Kwon Hyuk-jin. In LOST, he is called the Blood King. When he saw that the price of the item he wanted was much higher than he thought, he got annoyed and slammed the desk.
“f*ck. Why are these guys who eat broadcasting and advertising so slow? If you gave them that much bait, shouldn’t you have responded right away?”
Kwon Hyuk-jin recalled the preview video of the large-scale Blood Guild raid that had been posted a few hours ago.
By using provocative words like first, large-scale, and raid as keywords, it could be said that the aggro of gamers was aroused to a level that could not be further aroused.
Agro is attention. Public attention is money. Knowing this, Kwon Hyuk-jin uploaded a raid preview video, prepared for information about the raid to leak out.
They told the guild members that the Blood Guild was there to grow into a truly large guild, a truly strong guild, but in reality, it was all just a performance for money.
‘But why aren’t the lips coming out?’
Just as the impatient Kwon Hyuk-jin was about to lose his temper again, the messenger rang.
[Sir, I got a call from a cable TV station? And I also got a call from a company that makes virtual reality capsules… Oh, wait a minute.]
[I’m getting contacted by two internet broadcasting platforms at the same time. They keep asking questions from the guild side and not the company side. What should I do?]
It was a lucrative message from Kim Miri, his secretary and guild member.
Kwon Hyuk-jin smiled faintly.
“How could baby carp not be attracted to an event like this?”
Kwon Hyuk-jin, who had a keen sense of smell for money, was certain.
If this goes well, he will achieve success on a whole other level than he has now.
* * *
The steel necklace and earrings were sold for much more than Dojin had expected.
LOST Gold is worth 12,000 gold. It was sold for around 12 million won in cash value.
That’s a huge price for just two trinkets.
The merit of having no level restrictions and being able to recover some of the money when reselling it was what drove up the price significantly.
Dojin, who had made more money than he had expected by disposing of the other loot, decided to use it all to prepare for revenge.
After deducting living expenses and emergency funds, the remaining available funds are 18,000 gold.
‘I think I can use the weapon I’m using now a bit more. I can also use the accessories I have… If I change the armor to something usable, I’ll be pretty sturdy.’
The “Suspicious Ritual Sword” obtained from the Hidden Dungeon had a high item grade and, although it had a defensive penalty, its attack stats were comparable to those of a level 50 weapon.
Likewise, the rare item obtained from the hidden dungeon, the “Blackened Robe,” was so good that I still have no intention of exchanging it.
So, Dojin decided to replace the other armor he had clumsily put together.
The only problem was that it was difficult to buy good armor even if I spent all my money.
The price of equipment in the level 50 range, the highest level range in the current LOST, was expensive.
It was said that the area before level 50 was practically an extension of the tutorial, and that the real game starts at level 50, and this was the area where the difficulty of everything from combat to growth and item farming increased significantly.
It starts at 1 million won unless it’s an F-class, which is practically junk, and if it’s even slightly useful, the first digit changes to 3.
Even if it’s only a B-grade, which is about the level of a rare item in other games, it costs 10 million won if the options are just a little better.
Just by looking at this, you can see how thirsty the users currently at the top are for equipment.
Outside, there were so-called rice-eating users who made a living by playing LOST and wrote sensational articles saying that they could make thousands of dollars just by buying one piece of equipment, but in most cases, these words were just empty talk.
The setup cost required to enter a hunting ground to eat an item of that price ranges from a few thousand to hundreds of millions.
In reality, the ones who make money are those who are around level 40, where the difficulty is relatively low and the item prices are reasonable, and the users who try to advance to the top are growing by throwing money away rather than making money.
‘But this only applies to the top ranks.’
By spending more time, more money, and more effort than others.
Even if you get a little further ahead, it’s not easy to get back something equivalent to what you spent to get ahead.
Dojin was that kind of person in his previous life.
Spending several times more money, working several times harder, hunting… … to shake off the competitor who is chasing after you.
But those who did not simply get ahead, but climbed up so high that it was difficult to catch up, were different.
Those who have made an overwhelming difference through information, chance, skills, or something that cannot be solved simply with money and time have gained a lot.
‘The Blood King was of that type too.’
But this time, the luck he had was not going to be his.
Dojin intended to use the opportunity that the Blood King had as a starting point and springboard to fly high.
But that’s that.
“… The prices of items are crazy. Even C-grade ones are too expensive to use.”
Even seeing that C-class equipment costs around 5,000 gold, my mind is also going crazy.
Dojin had no choice but to compromise by purchasing only the top and bottom as C-grade equipment, and using D-grade items for the rest of the equipment, including shoes.
“Still, even a B-class one is worth a try.”
But there are always items that offer great value for money.
Dojin checked the price of the B-class equipment, “Ramael Detail Silk Gloves.”
As Dojin had expected, the price of the “Ramael Detail Silk Gloves”, despite being a B-grade equipment item, was incredibly cheap at 2,000 gold.
“Because there’s no way a crazy person would use equipment with an option to increase mana consumption.”
The current mainstream meta of LOST is that caster classes, including wizards, will rush to the mana recovery option like drug addicts, drooling.
In such a world, it is natural that an item with an option to increase mana consumption by 30% would be looked down upon and treated like shit.
Additionally, there is an effect that increases the effect of skills cast by 10% instead of consuming additional mana, but in the era of mana shortage, this option was bound to be ignored.
However, he wears a 3-piece set of steel jewelry with a “Mana Heart” and mana recovery option, and has much higher stat points than others.
——————
faqwiki.us
Join our Discord for new chapter updates!
https://discord.com/invite/xr7SxG5T6V
——————
For Dojin, who had met the conditions where he would rarely suffer from mana shortage, the option of receiving a 10% boost to magic effects in exchange for a 30% increase in mana consumption was a very attractive option.
“Is luck on my side even in a place like this?”
It was just as Dojin was about to buy gloves from the exchange for 2,000 gold.
Someone has put a new listing up for sale at half price.
In gold, it was equivalent to saving 1,000 gold and in cash, it was equivalent to saving 1,000,000 won.
“You must be quite angry. Well, I guess that’s understandable.”
The probability of obtaining B-grade equipment by hunting regular monsters in hunting grounds above level 50 was extremely low.
The probability increases as you catch elite or boss level monsters, but the probability of encountering such rare monsters is even lower.
Either way, the point was that acquiring B-grade gear felt like winning the lottery as a gamer.
However, if the item that you finally got through that low probability is an item that doesn’t sell well even at a cheap price, you can’t help but get angry.
Dojin mourned for someone he didn’t know, recalling memories of howling all over the place, holding a piece of trash that had popped out against the dirtiest odds.
While buying items that came up cheaply with your hands.
Total shopping amount: 12,500 gold. Although he spent a considerable amount of money, Dojin was able to improve his defenses by leaps and bounds by replacing all of his important armor, including his top, bottom, head, shoes, and gloves.
And lastly. The place where Dojin invested most of his remaining money was the 4-star magic skill that he could learn after passing level 50 and his magic circuits extending to just below his elbows.
As with equipment items, the 4-star magic skill books that are around level 50 are also incredibly expensive.
Since learning multiple books was impossible in the first place, Dojin purchased only the one magic skill book that he needed most right away.
4-star attack type light attribute magic “Flash Spear”.
“… Even though it’s still early in the game, it’s really… … that one skill book costs over 5 million won.”
Still, it is a happy moment when I learn magic that can be bought with money like this.
When it came time to touch the magic that started adding various conditions to learn, that was when the real hardships began.
Not only does it require proficiency in lower level magic, but there are also magics that require proficiency in attributes and series, and there are even cases where specializing in a certain attribute means you cannot handle the opposite attribute.
A representative and extreme example is Dojin, who in his previous life had a magic circuit specialized in ‘destruction’ and was unable to use any other magic.
‘Well, that’s not something I have to worry about anymore.’
A wicked smile appeared on Dojin’s lips as he recalled the painful process of training a wizard.
Although he suffered extreme pain in his previous life, thanks to the Book of Truth, he can learn magic without worrying about boundaries such as attributes or series.
That’s why I could laugh heartily at the future misfortunes that countless aspiring wizards would experience.
Dojin was already very pleased with the prospect of the future where the wizard bulletin board would be filled with all sorts of curses and screams.
“As they say, people should live with only good thoughts.”
Maybe it was because I had a positive imagination, but the price of the skill book that had seemed expensive until just now seemed reasonable.
[You have acquired the skill “Flash Spear.”]
“Now the preparations are complete.”
You just have to wait for the time to come.
Of course, I will hunt hard in the meantime.
* * *
October 10th, 10:00 AM.
The Blood King, the leader of the Blood Guild, was talking on the phone as Kwon Hyuk-jin, not as the Blood King.
[“You must definitely display the newly designed emblem this time. It’s almost like a surprise reveal that the Blood Guild is a team affiliated with Dynamic Gaming.”]
“Yes, of course. The entire raid will be streamed live, and the guild emblems will be displayed on the shoulders and backs of guild members throughout the raid. At the end of the raid, the guild flag will also be placed on the corpses.”
[“Yes, please do.”]
As soon as I finished talking to the major professional gaming club, I got a new call.
[“Hello, this is KGN PD Hwang Woo-young. It’s 3 hours before the broadcast, but you haven’t allowed the broadcast yet. Since we broadcast on TV in addition to the broadcasting company’s YouTube channel, we need to do some testing similar to a rehearsal. I would like you to turn on the option to allow video broadcasting as soon as possible.”]
“Oh, yes. I was just about to log in. I’ll process it as soon as I log in.”
[“Thank you. Oh, right, right. What is that? You’re only allowing us to change perspectives, right?”]
“Of course. You aired five minutes of Blood Guild commercials during prime time. Speaking of which, there were five one-minute commercials, right?”
[“Oh, don’t worry. If there’s no problem with the raid broadcast, it will be scheduled for 10 or 15 minutes instead of 5 minutes. But before you go to the In-bang side, you know that you’ll do our interview first, right? Even though we’re on cable, we’re a regular broadcasting station. We’re on a different level from In-bang, in terms of level.”]
“Haha, of course. Please make sure to finish the part where the viewpoint changes and broadcast it live.”
Kwon Hyuk-jin ended the call and laughed at the other person.
“The idiot is talking about regular broadcasting. Those bastards who survive by sucking up taxes are just full of pride. After all, they are making up for their deficits with YouTube and internet broadcasts.”
While we were talking, I checked the messages that had piled up.
Kwon Hyuk-jin smiled brightly as his smartphone screen was filled with stories of money.
“I guess I’ll have to set up another corporation after this is over.”
Kwon Hyuk-jin, or rather the Blood King, who envisioned a rosy future, never even dreamed of it.
That a very dark shadow is cast over the smooth road you dream of.
Without knowing it, he lay down in the capsule and logged into LOST.
