chapter_0074

74 – The Skeleton Knight Magia (4)

74 – The Skeleton Knight Magia (4)

Until bedtime, I bought one invitation ticket with all the money I had scraped together.

In the meantime, the boss also purchased another ticket together with the others.

With Komari as Maru’s daughter and Rain as Dora’s daughter, all five Parallel members were now gathered.

The situation room now focused on just hunting while managing members’ sleep schedules, and also switched their promotional strategy from an aggressive approach to a more subtle one.

So from today, there’s not much to see…

[ (🔴Live) Wicker Town Season 2 – Parallel Situation Room Day 3 ] 👪7,942

#64Cubics #Parallel

“… Why 8,000 viewers?”

Even though the boss and members have all logged into the server, and each is recording about 1.5 times their usual viewership.

My viewer count is still at 8,000.

It was no different from when I ended the stream yesterday.

Why?

Do they want to see more Skeleton Knight gameplay?

Naturally, when viewers have expectations for a streamer, their viewing time increases. If that continues, they start making small donations to interact with the streamer, follow to receive regular broadcast notifications, and eventually subscribe. But…

My broadcast is limited to 2 weeks.

There won’t be more to see later.

I understand the 64 Cubics fans going crazy for the Skeleton Knight, but getting too invested will only hurt them later.

I casually greeted the chat to check what kind of people had come, now that all the members’ streams had started.

“Since the boss and members’ streams have started, I’ll go get equipment from Mugeon and start earning money in earnest. I’ll periodically switch the screen to interesting parts, so please show a lot of interest.”

— Huh? I came to watch Jia though?

— Ske le ton Knight Ma ji ya

— You are the hero of Skeleton Village!

— Anyone who wanted to watch other members probably already left?

— For real lol

— Are you hunting with Geon hyung today?

— Let’s go to the dungeonnnnnn

Skimming through, about half came to watch Skeleton Knight gameplay.

About 10% asked if I’m hunting with Mugeon.

The rest were just my usual viewers.

I knew people were excited about hidden classes.

But I didn’t know that excitement would last this long.

Maybe it’s because we haven’t gone to the dungeon in earnest yet?

If so, half of those 8,000 will probably drop off by the end of today.

I suddenly felt regretful that the other members didn’t discover hidden classes.

If the kids had gotten them, they could have enjoyed a special influx of viewers for at least a week.

Well, it’s just regrettable.

Anyway, I just need to do what I planned to do.

First, let’s support the members in changing to secondary job classes.

Unlike the primary classes which focus on gathering materials, the secondary classes involve staying in town and crafting various things, so there’s a lot more interaction with people.

More interaction? That means more good scenes.

The boss said he’s buying a house plot today, so if I make a chest there for them to store items, the members should be able to handle the rest on their own.

You might be wondering what the subtle promotional strategy I mentioned earlier is.

Well, I need to earn money first before I can use it, so I need to run the dungeon first.

I need to know roughly how much I can earn in a day to make calculations.

So today I’ll be living in the dungeon.

Soon I got a whisper from Mugeon.

–
[Whisper] Movgun: 309, 25, 294

–
[Whisper] Movgun: You can come to these coordinates

Since we agreed to receive equipment in front of the dungeon, I ran there right away.

When I arrived, the surface was an ordinary forest, but following the stone stairs Mugeon had dug in advance, there was a large portal.

“Oh. That’s interesting.”

[You kill mobs like a pro, but you find this interesting.]

“It’s my first time seeing it. I’m still a 64 Cubics newbie, you know.”

[What kind of newbie kills 500 mobs with a sickle…?]

“It’s true. My total playtime, including playing on this server, is barely 50 hours.”

— New?bie

— Honestly, it seems like you must have done a ton of back-cubing lol

— We have no way of knowing anyway lol

— You’re all so naive, it’s obviously just a broadcast concept lol

— Were you a Cubics master in a past life?

— What past life lol

— Hey hey hey

— If they say they’re a newbie, they’re a newbie, why are you all so suspicious

— Majiya-chan is a baby

I banned a few people who mentioned past lives and reincarnation, since that’s not allowed in VTuber broadcasts.

If they feel wronged, they can come to the detention center and write their own posts.

Anyway, I was confident since I’m a newbie who’s been playing for less than a month.

“I haven’t even been to the Void World after the Red World.”

[What? Jia, don’t tell me you haven’t fought the Void Dragon either?]

“No. I know it exists, but I’ve never fought it.”

[Hmm. You really are a newbie. I’ll give you the Mugeon certification stamp.]

“Thank you.”

— ??

— What certification stamp lol

— What’s Mugeon certification lol

— What the

— They’re getting along well lol

— Surprisingly, their wavelengths match lol

— It’s obviously Mugeon adjusting to her, what are you talking about…

— As expected, friendship forged through kill competitions in civil war lol

The word “friendship” bothered me a little, but I decided to let it slide for now.

What friendship.

Momo’s malicious turret is just waiting to fire a missile right in Mugeon’s face if he crosses the line even a little.

“Anyway, will you give me the equipment?”

[Ah right. I should. I’ll drop it here, so take it.]

Helmet, armor, greaves, gloves, pauldrons.

Equipping all five parts in purple gave me a 40% damage reduction effect.

Apparently wearing the Void set increases the reduction effect to 60%.

Mugeon said it would take him two days, so I’m not going to worry about that for now.

The equipment I received was good enough that I didn’t need higher-tier gear.

The maximum enchant level in 64 Cubics is 5…

[I put some really killer enchants on it. How is it?]

Two parts have Protection Lv5, giving an additional 20% damage reduction.

Two parts have Swiftness Lv5, giving 120% movement and action speed.

One part has Thorns Lv5, reflecting 10% of damage received.

There’s no tank armor like this tank armor.

And the Obsidian Sword I received as a weapon is even more impressive.

It has the Annihilation Lv5 enchant. An overpowered option that boosts final damage by 120%.

I heard it’s really hard to get, where did he get this from?

The Diamond Sword I was using before only did about 20 damage even with headshots.

With the Obsidian Sword including the Annihilation enchant, headshots do a whopping 36 damage against living creatures.

A vertical increase in damage!

However, calculating the damage, I wondered if this was too much to just give away.

… I hope he’s not going to say I owe him later or something.

“The equipment you gave me is too good. The enchants must not have been easy to get.”

Mugeon replied nonchalantly.

[Our viewers kept summoning monsters through donations, so I beat them all up. Luckily these dropped. I already have all of them. I just made another set, so don’t feel burdened.

Just. Hunt diligently and make sure to pay the commission. 20%. You know, right? And you need to wear that much to offset the Skeleton Knight debuff. How can you survive in the dungeon with your HP reduced to a quarter?]

“I can just dodge, can’t I?”

[Well… you can dodge, but it gets tiring to concentrate for hours on end. You end up fighting sloppily and taking hits later.]

“Ah.”

[Should I go around with you once and briefly explain what mobs there are?]

“No. You must be busy, so just give me a quick explanation. I’ll try banging my head against it myself.”

I politely declined hunting together with Mugeon, saying I’d go on my own.

[Okay then, I’ll just give you a brief explanation after we enter.]

The dungeon consists of 10 floors in total.

Different monsters spawn on each floor, and they get stronger as you go up.

According to the server guide, you need weapons, equipment, and upgrades to clear the 10th floor.

Higher-tier weapons and equipment must be crafted by the secondary Blacksmith class using materials and minerals from the dungeon.

Upgrades can be done at the upgrade shop at 12 o’clock in town using upgrade stones obtained from killing monsters.

By the way, these upgrade stones are another main source of income from the dungeon.

They become more expensive as the game progresses, so I need to minimize using them myself and save them diligently.

[Well, have a good hunt. You know what happens if you’re caught lying about your income, right? Your hand gets chopped off.]

“I’m an honest taxpayer, so I don’t do things like that.”

[You’re talking like I’m evading taxes or something…]

“Why? Feeling guilty?”

[Hey now! No, I’m an honest taxpayer too. Anyway, good luck. I’m going to go exploring, so whisper me if you have any questions.]

It seems Mugeon plans to leave the dungeon to me and collect 20% commission while searching for hidden classes.

With sufficient equipment, now is indeed a good time to look for hidden classes.

After all, in just a day or two, the server will become crowded with more people entering through invitation tickets. Then the chances of hidden classes being taken by others becomes too high.

Anyway, now let me explain what the subtle promotional method is.

The influx of new residents. These are my next promotional targets.

Remember how there was a commotion over just 10,000 WK on the first day of the server?

The number of new residents will keep increasing, but it probably won’t be easy for them to earn money right away.

They might lose out to senior residents in the competition for spots.

Or they might just be unfamiliar with this kind of server and get lost.

Anyway, latecomers face many difficulties in various ways.

I plan to earn money and invest half in our members.

The other half I want to steadily distribute to newcomers.

It’s called the Parallel 1st Generation Resident Support Fund, given in the name of Another.

This is also why I want to check how much money I can earn today.

The more I earn, the more I can share with members and people.

— What’s up with this person really?

— How would we know?

— Don’t ask, we don’t know either lol

— I’ve been watching since yesterday too lol

:: Anonymous donor donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: Having other broadcasts open on the side was really a godsend… ::

— But still, does it make sense to just hunt for 12 hours straight…?

— Since hunger and thirst don’t build up, they’re really just living in the dungeon lol

— Ah lol they don’t even need to eat Wicker bread lol

— The troll who kept nitpicking Majiya’s words earlier finally gave up too lol

:: Anonymous donor donated 10,000 Clouds! ::

:: But more importantly, does this person eat? ::

— ? That’s true

— Oh

— Come to think of it, food…?

— Did they go to the dungeon without eating? lol

[ (🔴Live) Wicker Town Season 2 – Parallel Situation Room Day 3 ] 👪4,332

The results of today’s 12-hour ant farming, with half of the 8,000 people unable to endure and dropping out:

[390,395 WK]

— Wowwwwww so much lol

— Whoa but the money lol

— Crazy lol

— Wow they really do earn a lot for real

I originally had 10,000, so I earned a whopping 380,000 WK.

Since not many people have changed to secondary jobs yet, I sold most items to the shop. This is how much I earned excluding upgrade stones.

If users start buying dungeon materials, the prices will go up even more.

It’s just a money-making well.

You just have to slice monsters and money comes in, you know?

Moreover, with good equipment, my health barely decreased.

“Thank you to those who told me to go to the dungeon. It’s made it easier to support Parallel.”

— No, use some for yourself?

— They absolutely won’t use it for themselves lol

— It’ll probably be used up quickly once upgrades start in earnest, so saving it up is…?

“It’s better for the boss and members to use it than for me to use it. I should go put it in the chest at the house plot.”

— Nooooo

— Wow that’s too much money to waste

— With 380,000 you could do so many upgrades and appearance draws and mount draws oh my goodness just give it to me instead

OTNXSU9XcTFURXdtd0tweHpoait4akVEQVJoTmMrTm16VjVSWTNEeEJiVGtHc1p4SldHOGJVQUFVdXpKdmllaA

— Oh my oh my

As I was heading towards the Parallel house plot that the boss had started building, suddenly a burning bird flew down from the sky and landed gracefully in front of me.

Mugeon, who was walking around when I met him yesterday evening, was now riding what looked like a phoenix.

He was saying earlier that he got a Phoenix from the mount gacha, seems like Mugeon was the one who drew it.

[Oh my~ I’ve come to collect.]

“Perfect timing.”

Since I earned about 380,000 today. 20% rounded up to 77,000 WK.

I made it into a check and dropped it in front of Mugeon.

Mugeon’s eyes widened as soon as he saw the money.

[What? Did you really just run the dungeon today?]

“Yes. It turns out you can earn good money.”

[Wow. I knew you were crazy since you did the smokescreen thing, but this is something else. Aren’t you going insane? I tried that last season and my head nearly exploded, so this time I’m just occupying the dungeon and not running it.]

“Not really? It was manageable.”

[You ate while doing it, right?]

“Food? No?”

[I mean in real life, not in-game.]

“Ah. Yes. I ate four energy bars. I was too busy hunting and switching the broadcast screen to the other members’ locations.”

— Wait, you really didn’t eat? lol

— Fasted for 12 hours??

— That’s crazy;

— Is that even a meal lol

Mugeon sighed and muttered.

[No, that Gia-nim character. I mean Gia is a bit skinny, but still. Energy bars? You’ll really become malnourished like that?]

“Wow. Your puns are really not funny at all.”

[Hmm. I wasn’t trying to make a pun, it was a mistake.]

“The second one was definitely a pun.”

[Oh. Busted.]

— Gia lol nice

— Giaaaa lol

— lololololol

— Ah, you mean Magia?

— The avatar does look skinny…

— The representative really is skinny for real

— Magia lolololololol

— lolololololol

Of course, Mugeon’s wordplay didn’t end there.

[Ah, I see? You’re doing concept play? Since the hidden class is Skeleton Knight. Skeletons are undead so they don’t eat. Skeleton Knight Magia. Shortened to Skele-gia. Puhaha.]

“Wow…………”

A sense of humor that really makes me sigh.

Are all pro gamers like this?

This is why I really hated when Mugeon streamed with the boss.

This guy’s jokes don’t even deserve 0 points.

“Good work. Since you drew a mount, come collect on your own tomorrow too.”

[Yes yes, will do. Good work~.]

As I logged out of the Wicker server, I muttered under my breath:

“He really needs to tone down the jokes…”

It sounds like talking behind his back, but I said it loud enough for Mugeon to hear.

From the next day, Majiya avoided Mugeon.

He wasn’t someone Majiya liked anyway.

She felt like he would make more weird jokes if they met and talked.

She was just thinking she should move to a new dungeon if someone else found one, when…

Somehow, after avoiding Mugeon, other people started appearing in front of Majiya one by one after a few days.

It seems they came looking because Majiya had been going around for days giving out disaster support funds (some called it disaster relief funds) to server newbies who just joined, so they thought she must be earning a lot of money.

However, a nickname Mugeon mentioned on his stream seemed to have become a meme, as everyone who came always said the same thing.

Even Ronje, who came to slip some money under the table asking to sell upgrade stones cheaply, said:

[Oh, aren’t you Skeleton Gia? You ate well today, right?]

“I haven’t eaten yet.”

[What? Are you trying to collapse while earning money?]

“I’ll eat…”

Even Kamik, who lost all his money upgrading and came to borrow money at 30% interest, said:

[Gia. You’ll collapse if you just earn money while being so skinny. I’m really worried about your health, so you should listen to my advice.]

“Should I raise the interest rate to 40%?”

[Oh my, I should go. 30% is already generous~.]

Finally, Serena who came last also worried about my health first.

[Jia. You’re eating a late night snack while doing this, right?]

No.

Everyone’s making such a fuss just because I ate some energy bars.

I ate dinner early at 4pm because of the situation room, and ate energy bars in between since it’s hard to leave my seat.

Of course when I got home I was hungry, so I had a light meal before bed.

It was just a test to see how much I could earn on the first day of the dungeon.

I thought you lived off energy bars every day.

Majia, who had somehow gotten annoyed, asked brusquely.

“I’m ordering pineapple pizza. Want a gift certificate?”

[Ah. No. I’m okay….]

“Too bad. So. Did you come to borrow money too, Serena?”

[Ah. It’s not that.]

Serena was a blacksmith.

She said to Majia,

[I’ll make you the best equipment on the server, Majia. If you provide the dungeon materials, it’ll be free.]

“Hmm? If you make it for free, won’t you be losing out, Serena?”

[No. I’ll gain something. The title of ‘Server’s Top Equipment Maker.’ With that title, I can sell equipment that’s slightly below the top tier for a high price.]

Majia, who had thought Serena was just a nice person since the Aim WOLF collaboration, could now see a strangely money-grubbing side to her.

“Is it because of the invitation ticket?”

Serena hesitated and said,

[Ah, yes. There are eight of us in total… I want to invite everyone. Merisha and I are working our butts off right now.]

“Oh dear. What about the special invitation ticket?”

[We had a ranking and gave it to the senior member who was first in line, but they suddenly got a schedule to re-record an original song and have been practically incommunicado since they came in.]

As soon as she heard that story, Majia felt a strange sense of empathy.

How desperate must she have been to come all the way here, even though they were competitors and reluctant to ask each other for favors.

“That’s too bad….”

As it happened, Majia was also stuck because the monsters on the 5th floor were too strong for her to proceed.

She had struggled to get to the 5th floor, so she felt the need for better equipment.

If it was Serena, who seemed so desperate, she would probably make the best equipment, even if it was just to make money, right?

Unlike others, she didn’t directly mention the keyword Jia.

Majia, who had finished calculating in her head, said readily.

“I’ll give you all the materials I get from hunting for two hours, so go and make it, and tell me if you need more.”

A Word from the Author (Author’s Note)

I was a little late because I was watching Yongyong’s graduation concert.

I’m sorry.

To those of you who are reading, hold on tight…