Chapter 42. A World where Money Earns Money (1)

“Yes, that’s it, dodge to the right. Ooh, a counterattack here? Awesome!”

A man was looking at an internet stream video while exclaiming continuously. He was even jumping up and down in his seat.

“Sangmoon. It’s annoying me so calm down already. Didn’t you say that Pu TV streams were crap until yesterday? Why are you so excited right now?”

A cold-looking man who was taking care of some papers next to the excited man frowned and spoke.

“Oh, sorry about that. But, hyung. That’s before I watched this channel and I changed my mind now.”

“Changed how?”

“Everyone’s crap except for this guy.”

“Who’s this guy?”

“What era are you from? Don’t you know BJ Gale?”

“Gale? Oh! The user soloed Cave of Giants?”

“Yes.”

“I heard the rumors, but it looks like he’s really amazing.”

“He is. He’s really amazing.”

“I think it’s the first time I saw you saying that.”

“Honestly, there are times he even exceeds my expectations. This guy is a huge jackpot.”

“Is he that good? Someone who even the ‘Fighting God’ Typhoon of EL has acknowledged……. And what about you? Do you think you can solo the Cave of Giants?”

“Mm…… honestly, about fifty-fifty. I don’t think it’s impossible if I prepare many things and practice a lot. But even after that, I don’t think I can do it as cleanly as that guy there. It’s as if that guy played the Cave of Giants a thousand times already. His movements and skill usage are all perfect. It’s almost beautiful.”

“Hey, hey. Hold your horses. Don’t forget that you’re the ace of Rising guild. Honestly, this is not the time to marvel at someone else’s gameplay. You know that the other guys are all upset because we haven’t shown proper achievement in the Land of Dusk. Don’t get excited by someone else’s gameplay and just get ready to sprint in Hellfire Desert.”

“Hyung, did you forget that I’m the one who’s the most prepared? Just wait. The first named monster in Hellfire Desert will be killed by us!”

Sangmoon, no, Typhoon, replied with a very serious expression.

He had a very competitive personality.

“Yes, yes. So stop watching that channel and get ready to log in. Apparently, some of our guys found a karma singularity point in Hellfire Desert.”

Shooting Star, the guild master of Rising guild, had put in no small amount of effort, and his efforts were slowly coming to fruition.

“Karma singularity point? It’s not like you need me for that. Honestly, monsters that are slightly stronger aren’t really…….”

“This one is a little peculiar. They said that there was another change other than the upgraded monsters.”

“Eh? What does that mean?”

“I don’t know the exact thing so I’ll have to log in to find out…… but it seems like there’s a 2nd stage to the singularity point.”

“Whew, so we didn’t know everything? But really, hyung…… It doesn’t look like there’s much time left…… can’t I go after watching this? It’s not just fun, but it provokes me when I look at this guy’s battle style. I think I can do better in the future.”

“It looks like this Gale guy is actually amazing. I heard he doesn’t belong to any guild either…… where did such a freak come from?”

Shooting Star tilted his head in confusion as he spoke.

Many large guilds in EL were paying attention to BJ Gale. However, the person himself was actually focusing on something completely different right now.

***

The 43rd quest of the large chained quest ‘Merchant Guild’ has been completed. Go to the merchant manager in Tune and receive the final quest.

“Phew, finally…….”

When he killed the 1,000th humanoid monsters, ‘Redsand Thieves’, that appeared randomly in the desert, the most annoying 43rd quest in the chained quest line had been completed.

Sanghyuk had started this ‘Merchant Guild’ quest as soon as he arrived in Hellfire Desert.

Even after that, he still cleared some of the quests in his spare time.

The reason Sanghyuk had gathered insane sums of gold recently was also due to this Merchant Guild quest.

Actually, the Merchant Guild quest was something that three large scale guilds had combined their efforts to finish for the first time in his previous life. And that wasn’t right now, but would take around 1 year into the future.

Strangely, this quest was known to the majority of the users from the get-go. The actual difficulty of the quest wasn’t that hard.

It was just that the 44th and the final quest was a little too vicious; the prior 43 quests weren’t anything difficult, actually.

The reason this quest became famous was that a merchant guild could only be created through this quest. Merchant guilds were something that wasn’t exactly a guild but helped users do many business or commercial transactions in the game.

Of course, it was treated differently from guilds, so merchant guilds could be created separately from guilds.

Then why were merchant guilds made? There were two major reasons.

The first was that only by creating a merchant guild, users were allowed to hire transaction-specific NPCs, that is, merchants. Unlike how other NPCs couldn’t trade with users or even use the auction or the commissioned sales store, merchant NPCs could do all of those three.

They were NPCs with completely different AIs to vendor NPCs who were only capable of standing on the spot and sell stuff only.

With merchant NPCs, users no longer need to wait for good items in the auction or the commissioned sales store. Of course, hiring merchant NPCs required money, but they were the high-level workforce that did their worth, so the money spent on it wasn’t that much of a waste.

The second was that only merchant guilds were allowed to open shops in villages or cities. No amount of money was enough for users to open a shop in a city or a village under their own name.

In any case, there was only the final quest left and Sanghyuk returned to Tune after finishing the 43rd quest.

***

“You exterminated those evil vermins so proactively… I understand how much you care about us merchants. I think I can now trust you to hire us. How is it? Are you interested?”

The 44th quest of the large scale chained quest ‘Merchant Guild’ has been added.

To create a merchant guild under the permission of the merchants association, a large amount of investment is needed. The merchants association is a huge group of vested interest, so a large amount of money needs to be given to the merchants association to create a merchant guild.

For reference, the merchants association has only allowed up to five merchant guilds for the Dimensional Travelers for the sake of balance. Please be warned that the opportunity may disappear if you don’t hurry.

Sanghyuk finally received the 44th quest. Numerous users wanted to create merchant guilds, but 99% of them were blocked there.

It was no wonder.

The other 43 quests were child’s play compared to this.

‘0/8,000,000 Gold’

The amount of gold written on the quest window was 8 million gold. In other words, users would have to pay 8 million gold to the merchants association to acquire a permit. Normally, no single user would have the capability to pay this.

‘Urgh…… it’s so expensive.’

8 million gold was something that normal users wouldn’t get their hands on even if they played EL for their entire life, but Sanghyuk was different.

As a result of raking gold until now, he had around 20 million gold on him.

To express how big of a sum this was, the current gold-to-cash ratio was around 10,000 gold to 400,000 won (400USD).

In other words, 20 million gold was worth 800 million won (800,000USD)

What was more interesting was that the value of gold increased as EL’s popularity rose. Honestly, there were more buyers than sellers of gold right now, so it was hard to look for a seller.

So, the 8 million gold paid by the three alliance guilds in his previous life was worth about 400 million won (400,000USD).

Using 400 million won (400,000USD) just to create a merchant guild in-game may seem like a foolish thing.

However, Sanghyuk knew very well how much wealth the 3 allied guilds had amassed later in the game.

‘It’s an investment for the future!’

Sanghyuk didn’t hesitate and linked his (in-game) bank account immediately and paid 8 million gold in one go.

8,000,000/8,000,000 You have paid all the required gold.

“Ooh, you sir…… are more capable than you look. Congratulations. You are now a full-fledged executive!”

You have created a merchant guild. The name of the merchant guild can be created in the management window. All the other functions of the merchant guild can be set in the management window as well.

Congratulations. You have created the first merchant guild as a Dimensional Traveler. This achievement will be remembered for eternity.

You have acquired the unique-grade title ‘First Executive’.

Having created a merchant guild, Sanghyuk immediately hired 2 C-rank merchant NPCs through the merchant guild manager. They were NPCs who had to be paid weekly, and as C-rank NPCs, their weekly pay was only 1,500 gold.

Comparing to how B-rank received 5,000, A-rank 10,000 and S-rank 20,000, it was very cheap.

He didn’t need all the functionalities of an S-rank merchant NPC right now, so a C-rank merchant capable of simply selling and buying was enough.

‘The name…… let’s just go with Golden Mountain.’

Golden Mountain – this reflected his will to pile mountains of gold.

Like that, the Golden Mountain merchant guild was rather… easily made.

‘Let’s first send one of the C-rank ones to Falcon City…… and leave the other one here at Tune.’

Sanghyuk placed the two NPCs in the largest cities in the two continents respectively.

Merchant NPCs moved to their respective locations by themselves once he set them up, so it was rather comfortable. There was no need for Sanghyuk to move anywhere as he did with a vendor NPC.

The roles of the C-rank merchant NPCs in Falcon City and Tune were simple. Sanghyuk set them so that they would search the auction and the commissioned sales store and buy certain items that Sanghyuk had set when they were below a certain price.

They may not be able to hoard the items due to lack of money, so he gave them plenty, and also gave them the currently largest-available spatial expansion bag.

With this, they should be able to fill the bag without Sanghyuk having to take care of them for a day or two.

With that, Sanghyuk no longer needed to go to the commissioned sales store or the auction. The merchant NPCs hoarded the necessary items that Sanghyuk needed as long as they were below a certain price, so he only needed to visit them once a day and collect the items.

This was Golden Mountain merchant guild’s first business.

Buying low-evaluated items with insane investment…… Sanghyuk was planning to raise the Golden Mountain merchant guild as the big hand that manipulates the prices of items in the auction.

In his previous life, there were some invisible hands as well. And there were many items whose prices changed according to their will.

Since he knew that, Sanghyuk was trying to change it and become the one and only invisible hand.

‘The low-evaluated items will keep appearing for the time being. I know most of them, so if I can monopolize those…… I can gain immense profit.’

Sanghyuk had the confidence to not fail this business.

Of course, he was planning many other businesses other than just this.

And he could also automate those businesses with merchant NPCs without him having to care much about it.

The reason Sanghyuk had created a merchant guild even when he had to pay a big sum of 8 million gold…… was because he needed to raise his own level while earning money without him having to do anything.

Before he went off to hunt, he checked his newly acquired title.

Title – ‘First Executive’

Grade – Unique

Description – You have created the first merchant guild as a Dimensional Traveler and became its executive.

Effect – [Prefix: Receive 10% more money when selling any item to any NPC.] [Suffix: Receive 10% discount when buying from any NPC.] [Constant effect: >Wage freeze (A) : Weekly wage required to pay merchant NPCs decreases by 30% for all ranks.<]

‘Good, good! Very good!’

First Executive title was a very splendid one that decreased the wage he needed to pay merchant NPCs. The monetary profit he would gain from this was unspeakable.

Having checked the title, Sanghyuk headed to Hellfire Desert in a very good mood. He had solved his monetary issues through creating the merchant guild, so he headed to the mobile secret dungeon ‘Anteater dungeon’ that he was aiming for since a month ago.

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