Ch.493″The administrators have a splitting headache today as well.”

About two weeks after the ‘Astral Expo’ event ended.

The eternal third-place holder, ruler of the Central Zone, master of Leviathan, protector of Tannhäuser, Avalon, Barracuda, Spiralis, and so on and so forth…

…Anyway, at the exact moment when Icarus with his ridiculously long title was becoming a meme among users for placing third yet again,

The administration team was suffering from severe headaches despite the successful conclusion of the Astral Expo event.

But the reason wasn’t like before—not some “unexpected irregular situation” like what Humanity’s Antares had caused.

So what exactly was making them like this…?

“The rate of gold consumption among users is more serious than expected.”

“Whoever suggested we should just distribute more money, come forward and bang your head on the floor.”

“I thought it was a pretty good idea, actually.”

Due to the large-scale hoarding that had been happening for some time, most users’ gold reserves had drastically decreased, except for a few.

To somehow resolve this, the administration had distributed gold to users through events—thousands per person up to a maximum of 10,000…

But contrary to expectations, no “events where users could spend gold freely” followed afterward.

Now the opposite problem had occurred—users had excess gold, causing prices of major items in the trading market to skyrocket to “insane levels.”

And it wasn’t just the major trade items…

“The prices of ships, equipment, and superhumans that users need in the trading market have become way too high.”

“Prices have jumped from triple to quadruple, and there are still suckers buying them…?”

“You know the usual level, what more did you expect?”

“Come to think of it, you’re right.”

They were experiencing the effects of inflation where “all items” were increasing in price, and they were trying to figure out how to solve it.

Because there was excess gold in circulation, users were purchasing ships and superhumans at several times their actual value.

And since users were buying even at those inflated prices, sellers were hoarding their inventory and raising prices even more.

Eventually, as things progressed, only wealthy users could afford to buy anything with gold, while the rest couldn’t buy anything even if they “had gold.”

The administration team temporarily turned off their glowing halos and put their heads together, struggling to come up with a new solution.

And after a grueling 6,974-second marathon meeting, someone finally proposed what they thought was a solution…

“Let’s inject more gold? Maybe we didn’t inject enough last time?”

“Go stand next to that gentleman and bang your head on the floor too.”

“Ah.”

Given that they were already in a disaster after injecting gold, suggesting to make the situation worse earned that administrator punishment.

So that administrator ended up joining the one who had suggested gold injection earlier, both banging their heads on the floor as punishment.

==========

Fortunately, the remaining administrators, excluding those being punished, demonstrated their collective intelligence.

“This is that economics book or whatever.”

“…But why are you bringing this?”

“From now on, we need to somehow figure this out using this.”

“Argggh.”

“Argggggh.”

They brought in economics books from who knows where.

They mobilized all sorts of resources, making every possible effort to come up with a solution.

And after spending another week just in meetings,

When the glow from their shining heads began to dim…

“The answer is to collect the gold itself.”

“It seems so.”

“Let’s create content separate from the trading market where users can spend large amounts of gold in a short period.”

“It’s almost been 4 years since users began their possession, hasn’t it?”

“Oh.”

“Let’s run a random box event for the 4th anniversary, using only gold and no other resources.”

“Additionally, since users might not participate if we just launch it, let’s make the first 5 to 10 boxes free.”

“We shouldn’t give them all at once. We should distribute them over several days to continuously remind users.”

“Oh.”

Our excellent administrators were planning to recover the users’ excess gold through a ‘random box’ event for the 4th anniversary.

Of course, some administrators expressed concerns about such an ambitious plan…

“But if we proceed as is, won’t users resist and end up spending even less?”

“Plus, if they think it’s not worth it, they might just take the ‘free’ boxes and quit, potentially increasing the gold in circulation…”

In response to these concerns, the administrator who proposed the plan confidently nodded and continued.

“That’s why we need to increase the probability at first, don’t you think?”

“…Are you suggesting we increase the odds for free boxes so users will think the rest will be good too?”

“No, how could we manipulate probabilities like that?”

“Then what?”

“Since we’re keeping the probabilities hidden anyway, let’s say the free boxes have ‘relatively poor outcomes’ but actually guarantee an S-rank or higher within the first 5 boxes.”

“Oh.”

“Then users will be entranced and pour all their available gold into random boxes with undisclosed probabilities.”

After hearing this administrator’s suggestion, the others remained silent for a moment…

“Let’s go with that then.”

“This will be fun.”

“Sometimes we need to do things like this.”

“Life as a long-time eyesore and eraser is tough, but occasionally there’s fun in watching this.”

They agreed with the proposal and immediately began preparing for the 4th anniversary event.

Of course, after creating the event message text and designing fancy “random boxes,” just before sending out a mass email to users…

“Wait a moment, please.”

“What is it?”

“We still have about a week until the 4th anniversary.”

“Ah.”

“Oh dear.”

Unfortunately, contrary to the administrators’ plans, there was still quite some time until the 4th anniversary…

Those devious and wicked administrators’ plan could only be implemented a week later.

==========

And one week later.

—————————————–

<General Announcement>

<<<Astral Lagrange Possession 4th Anniversary Event Notice!>>>

<Notice to all Commanders!>

<It has already been 4 years since you Commanders entered this world… (continued)>

—————————————–

As I was spending my time idly as usual, keeping a hawk eye on when the trading market bubble would burst,

I saw this long event message pop up and couldn’t believe that so much time had already passed.