Ch.85Disgustingly Expensive Prices

Whether the gallery was burning or not, our work continued.

Except for when I needed to check on daily quests, training the kids, or handling unusual quests.

It was somewhat strange that I, who normally had to keep an eye on the gallery and chat rooms, was now saying I didn’t care whether those two places were burning or not.

Honestly, from “our” perspective, this was completely natural.

Long before being possessed in this crappy game Astral Lagrange…

During the game’s golden age, communities and strategy sites related to Astral Lagrange sprouted like mushrooms across all Korean internet community sites.

For example, on sites like “Never Copy,” “YouaWeb,” “D-Archive,” “Gallery Side,” and so on.

Unfortunately, as I witnessed right before being possessed…

The game itself had fallen into the status of a failed garbage game in the real world, and consequently, most related communities had collapsed and broken down.

Because of that, most users would only “occasionally” visit the gallery to read “humor posts.”

Or they’d just browse information posts written by veteran players or others.

The people currently burning up the gallery…

Were likely the die-hard loyal fans, the so-called “Death Squad” who had been around even before being possessed here.

People like me, who had quit the game once and then came back out of curiosity after seeing ads or YouTubers playing it…

Well, we just didn’t quite fit in with them.

Anyway, while I was lost in these idle thoughts…

“Commander, here’s proof that I completed the requests Oxianor gave me.”

“Oh, you handled them quickly.”

Our Jessica had successfully completed quests available within the base.

—————————————-

<Quest Complete!>

<Event Reward Points: +150>

<Faction Trust has been added!>

—————————————-

—————————————-

<Current Trust Relationship with “Space Monster”: +18>

—————————————-

Seeing that she had gained at least +1 in just one day, I nodded and told her she’d done a good job.

“Good work, Jessica. Take a break for now.”

“Ah… yes, understood.”

And while Jessica was “resting”—which meant sitting in her chair in a corner of the command center and spacing out—

I decided it was finally time to check the “reward points” I’d been accumulating for over a week.

‘Let’s see… what should I call it? Ah, Event Reward Shop?’

I called it in my mind, just like I would summon my status window.

Soon, along with the event points that had accumulated over the past 10 days, a splendid-looking shop notification window greeted me first.

—————————————-

<Welcome, Commander!>

<We welcome you to the “Favor in Return” shop for the first time!>

<This shop offers items that can be purchased using points earned from the “Favor in Return” event.>

<We hope the Commander shows great interest and makes many purchases!>

<As a gift for your first visit, we present you with 100 points!>

—————————————-

—————————————-

<“Favor” Points: 3,550 points>

—————————————-

“Hmm…”

Up until now they had been calling them “points,” “points,”

But here they were writing “points” again, making me wonder where their consistency had gone.

But at this point, there were too many things to worry about due to the developers’ nonsense to get hung up on such minor details.

So I quietly moved past that part and focused on other aspects.

For example, the fact that in just 10 days—

Or more precisely, 9 days and 8 hours—I had already accumulated over 3,000 points.

Some might wonder what’s strange about this, but…

If my memory served me correctly, the level at which this crappy game distributed event currency was such that…

If this were reality? I should have only collected about 300-400 reward points at most by now.

Moreover, the event itself seemed like it would last a very long time, similar to the previous “Pirate Raid” event.

So I found myself tilting my head in confusion at the amount of currency that had come in, far exceeding my expectations.

However, this doubt vanished like snow melting when I opened the “Event Shop” window without much thought.

‘These crazy bastards.’

And the reason was the prices—or rather, the point requirements—listed in the shop window.

—————————————-

… … … … … …

-<Event Resource Box: 1,500>

-<Event-Exclusive Random Causality Lock Usage Ticket (1 use): 25,000>

-<Base Shield Rapid Charging Battery (1 use): 55,000>

… … … … … …

—————————————-

‘These damn money-grubbers.’

The currency consumption rates were at absolutely murderous levels.

Of course, these money-hungry developers, like all gacha games, tend to put the “expensive items” right at the front.

Thinking they were obviously pushing users to get screwed over, I slowly scrolled down, but…

—————————————-

… … … … … …

-<Azkran-class Destroyer: 81,500>

-<Kanhel-class Light Cruiser: 170,120>

-<Tlaloc-class Medium Cruiser: 200,950>

… … … … … …

—————————————-

‘No, you sons of bitches.’

As if mocking my expectations, the prices were absolutely murderous, incomparable to what I’d seen at first.

I ran calculations in my head, comparing the currency I would earn during the event period (which would last at least 6 months) with the murderous prices of the “products” in the shop.

After a moment, while holding my throbbing head, I was somehow able to reach a conclusion…

‘Hey, if I want to buy everything I want from the shop, I’ll have to give up on the rankings.’

The structure was such that if you wanted to shop for items in the store, you had to completely abandon any thoughts of ranking in the top positions.

Shaking my head at such a vicious structure, I quietly decided to just window shop.

But as I continued scrolling down, expressing my extreme disgust at the murderous prices…

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… … … … … …

-<Random Causality Lock Usage Ticket (Superhuman Only) (1 use): 45,000>

-<Bahamut-class Bombardment Medium Cruiser: 257,000>

… … … … … …

—————————————-

‘Superhuman only? And a Bahamut-class?’

As a result of my window shopping, I found the things I needed most right now.

Namely, ships to provide firepower in “fleet battles” and a “random gacha (superhuman only) usage ticket” that could fill the superhuman forces that were severely lacking compared to other users.

I took some time to carefully consider whether these items that had caught my eye were truly necessary.

==========

About an hour later.

‘Yes, I definitely need to buy those.’

Honestly, they were disgustingly expensive, but…

Given that my ratio of “superhumans to ships” was already quite unfavorable compared to other users…

I was determined to buy those items even if it meant giving up my ranking position.

And while I was thinking this…

I could see Jessica, who had finished spacing out, coming over to talk to me.