Chapter 53. The Power of Money (1)

“Can I ask you something random?”

Listening to Ilya’s report as always, Sanghyuk suddenly became curious about something.

“Please speak.”

“The Hiddenline…… can I buy it with money?”

It was actually just an absurd curiosity he had.

Since he had so much money on his hands, he was thinking about how to spend all this money.

Although he had a few plans in mind, he thought that he would still have a lot of money left over even after doing all those things. This was why he was contemplating on how to spend the remaining money.

The question was something that just came to his mind.

It was more of a joke than anything……. Naturally, it wasn’t like Sanghyuk wanted a special answer or anything.

But an unexpected answer was uttered from Ilya’s mouth.

“It is possible.”

“Right? Of course, it’s impo-….. what? I can?”

Sanghyuk widened his eyes in surprise and turned his head to look at Ilya.

“Yes, it is indeed possible.”

The hidden main quest ‘Shadow King’s first chain quest ‘Hiddenline of Hellfire Desert’ has met an unexpected change. A new chain quest ‘Hiddenline? So? How much do you need?’ has been generated.

Sanghyuk quickly tapped on the quest with the peculiar name.

Quest – Hiddenline? So? How much do you need? [Myth, Hidden, Main]

– Who would ever dare to think of buying a Hiddenline with money? Quite the guts. However, what’s important is that it’s not impossible. In the end, Hiddenline possesses a value, and that value can be bought with gold. However, you must realize that the value of a Hiddenline is unimaginably high.

Details : Buy all the Hiddenline scattered across Hellfire Desert and make them worship you as their lord!

Clear requirements : 0 / 40,000,000 Gold

Note : This quest can be given up. Once given up, the original quest will resume.

“Whoa…….”

Sanghyuk could only laugh in bitterness the moment he checked the quest contents.

He found it absurd that such a high-difficulty chain quest can be solved with money.

However, the moment he checked the price, he realized that it wasn’t that absurd.

40 million gold…… that was over 2 billion won in cash (2 million USD).

Basically speaking, 40 million gold wasn’t an amount that could be gathered just because one wanted to.

It was especially unimaginable that a mere individual could gather that much.

Perhaps the original quest was much lower in difficulty compared to gathering 40 million gold.

‘It’s easy, but expensive, eh?’

Sanghyuk looked at the part that said ‘0 / 40,000,000 Gold’.

Any other user would have declared forfeit the moment they saw that. No, even Sanghyuk would have given up if not for the war he had just been through.

However, he was in a slightly different situation now.

He had 140 million gold in his bank. Even though he was hoarding low-evaluated items from the auction, his gold didn’t decrease.

’40 million gold…… that’s 2 billion in won…… it definitely isn’t easy to use all that money just to clear a quest. However…… it does make me think about it since this quest is no ordinary one……. I especially like the fact that I can save a lot of time.’

Actually, Sanghyuk had no plans on taking the gold he earned inside the game to the outside. Though, that didn’t mean that he was going to live a humble life in reality.

He was planning to earn money through other means.

Earning money in reality – the start of it would be the live channel in LGN.

As long as he got that, there was no need to turn the gold he had in the game into cash. No, he probably would be able to invest real cash into the game as well.

He stopped speaking to Ilya and fell into thought. He slowly considered the advantages and disadvantages of this quest.

After a little time.

He came to a decision.

‘Right now, it’s definitely more valuable to buy time with gold!’

Honestly, it was insanely expensive, but Sanghyuk still decided to invest anyway.

There was no need to hesitate since he had come to a decision, so Sanghyuk immediately transferred 40 million gold from his bank.

All 40 million gold has been transferred. The chain quest ‘Hiddenline? So? How much do you need?’ has been cleared.

The gold you have spent has all been spent on buying the Hiddenline scattered across Hellfire Desert.

Congratulations. You have become the master of the Hellfire Hiddenline. You can receive all the rights as the master once you go to Pallakan residing in the back alleys of Tune.

Your daringness in using such a large sum of money at once is a wonder itself. This wonder shall be remembered for all eternity. You have acquired the unique-grade title ‘The most lavish spender’.

The first chain quest of the hidden main quest ‘Shadow King’, ‘Hiddenline? So? How much do you need?’ has been cleared. The second chain quest ‘Heroic Lands, and yet another Hiddenline’ has been generated.

‘Oho…….’

Having cleared the quest in one go, Sanghyuk nodded his head while checking all of the system messages one by one.

Although he felt bad about the gold he spent all at once, he really liked what he gained with those gold.

“Ah…… did you perhaps…….”

Ilya seemed to have felt something and suddenly looked around to Sanghyuk.

“Huh? You can feel that?”

“Yes…… it’s because I’m your deputy…….”

“Yes, I just took over the Hiddenline of Hellfire Desert.”

“Ah! So I did notice it correctly!”

Ilya nodded her head and smiled.

Ilya is marveling at your ability. The ring of fate becomes more sturdy and grows into ‘Ring of Fate Lv2’. Your ties with Ilya deepens and you can see more of her secrets.

Ilya rejoiced as though it was her own achievement.

“I’ll be off to Tune for a little.”

“Yes, go and receive the Hiddenline officially.”

Sanghyuk separated from Ilya and headed to Tune immediately. He also didn’t forget to check up on his new title.

Title – ‘The most lavish spender’

Grade – Unique

Description – Spending money can also become an achievement at this scale. Just who is daring enough to use such a large amount of money at once? Your daringness cannot be imitated.

Effects [Prefix: N/A] [Suffix: N/A] [Constant effect : >OK Goldback (S) : 2% of all spent gold returns to your bank every day at 24:00.<]

‘That’s an interesting title.’

After seeing the effects of the title, Sanghyuk closed the title window. But in fact, this wasn’t just an ‘interesting’ title.

Considering the fact that Sanghyuk spent around one million gold every day, this meant that he would receive tens of thousands of gold every single day.

Having arrived at Tune, Sanghyuk went to see Pallakan. His current location was kindly shown on the map by the system, so he didn’t need to ask around.

“Pallakan, the Lamp of the Desert Wanderers, greets the master.”

Pallakan bowed as soon as he saw Sanghyuk. To put it simply, Pallakan was a wanderer.

A wanderer that wanders around the back alleys of Tune – He was also called the Lamp of the Desert Wanderers.

You have been acknowledged by the Lamp of the Desert Wanderers, Pallakan. Congratulations. Your proof of qualification has finished and you have become the Master of the Hiddenline. You have acquired the special title ‘Shadow Duke of the Desert’.

[You have acquired a highest-grade enhancement stone.]

You have become the Master of the Hiddenline, and your familiarity with the members of the Hiddenline is raised to ‘Colleagues’.

The S-rank NPC organization [Hiddenline of the Desert], combines with the existing [Hiddenline of Falcon City] and changes to the S+-rank NPC organization, [Hiddenline of Two Continents].

The new organization management window is generated. You can efficiently manage and operate the organization through the management window.

Sanghyuk also just watched the stream of system messages without doing anything this time.

‘Combine? It’s possible to combine organizations?’

This was something even he saw for the first time. He had never heard or seen something like this despite his long years of gaming.

Sanghyuk stood still for a while as he tilted his head before opening the management window and selecting a deputy.

You have appointed Ilya, Lord of the Footless Horse, as the deputy of the Hiddenline.

Sanghyuk’s deputy could only be Ilya.

With two organizations combined, quite a lot of things had changed as well. However, Ilya did everything properly once he appointed her.

***

Ilya immediately came to Tune once the two organizations were combined and she was appointed the deputy. To be exact, she used a recall to come to this place. In any case, since she came here, she reorganized the organization as Sanghyuk had ordered her.

She appointed Pallakan as her direct subordinate and immediately seized control of the Hiddenline of the Desert.

Sanghyuk really liked the way she worked.

Like always, Ilya did everything to perfection. Sanghyuk just needed to watch. However, just as he was ‘watching’, he was suddenly contacted. It was unexpectedly the Golden Mountain merchant guild. To be exact, an NPC merchant working there requested Sanghyuk for help through messaging.

Since the NPC was in Tune, Sanghyuk immediately ran to the auction and saw what was happening.

“I will take care of this, so please continue with your work.”

Sanhyuk told the merchant NPC and immediately dragged the semi-translucent auction menu to the front of him.

‘That’s a dreadfully nice time. How can this come up right now?’

Sanghyuk was smiling while looking at an item that came up on the auction. The reason the merchant NPC messaged him was very simple.

It was a sort of a bug. To be exact, a condition error had appeared and he couldn’t take care of the matter by himself and requested Sanghyuk for help.

The item that made the NPC confused…… was none other than the ‘Flashblack Eye’ that Sanghyuk had taken out from Skies Above Skies’ guild warehouse.

Sanghyuk had told all the merchant NPCs under his management to buy the Flashblack Eye regardless of the cost.

However…… the problem was the price that it came up in the auction.

It was 1 million gold!

Normally, Sanghyuk supplied all merchant NPCs with 1 million gold. Since he resupplied them with 1 million gold every time they came back to him, there was not a case where the merchant NPCs were lacking in gold to buy something.

This was where it went wrong this time. The price of one item was 3 million gold, so even when the item was supposed to be purchased ‘regardless of the cost’, it could not be bought.

In the end, the merchant NPC decided that this was not a problem he could solve and contact Sanghyuk.

That led Sanghyuk here.

‘Looking at the price…… it looks like this seller thought that it looked like it was something, but was too bad to be used by himself, and thought that he would try and see the people’s reaction rather than trying to sell it, right?…… Fufu, but what can you do? No matter how expensive it is, I think I’ll take it.’

*Click!*

Will you purchase the item, Flashblack Eye? (Y/N)

When the message appeared, Sanghyuk pressed Y without a second thought.

As Sanghyuk had estimated, the seller did not plan to sell this item. That was why he put the item at an absurd price of 3 million, and was planning to see if there were any reactions.

However, contrary to his expectations, Sanghyuk bought the item without hesitation.

Later in the game, the Flashblack Eye could not be purchased even with tens of millions of gold. Sanghyuk was more than daring enough to buy that item for 3 million gold.

Having acquired the second Flashblack Eye, Sanghyuk once again could feel the power of money.

Money…… it possessed tremendous power.