Chapter 54: Toward the Finale (3)

The event details were surprisingly simple.

Thirty ancient power cores.

Gather them to activate the village’s defense system.

That was it.

Unlike last time, where they had to gather difficult-to-find items of different types, or clear a high-difficulty raid (and got turned to ash by a golem’s laser), this event was straightforward.

“Um.”

Yoo Seo-yeon tilted her head and mumbled softly.

“Maybe at the end of the server… other monsters are going to attack the village? And this is to build the defense system beforehand.”

The event name was [Foundation of the Final Battle].

And the place to be protected was the capital of the streamer server—a place that had grown dear to the streamers.

Building a defense system for that whole area?

It clearly felt like a preview for a massive invasion finale.

‘You figured it out already.’

Raidel was slightly surprised.

She had a vague suspicion about it too.

Maybe it was a sixth sense developed from living as a streamer.

Having experienced events like this a few times, she could roughly see the bigger picture.

But Yoo Seo-yeon was different.

She had only just started Pixelwars a little over a month ago.

A total newbie, through and through.

Even VR games were new to her.

She didn’t have much gaming experience at all.

Yet she had grasped the big picture of the event perfectly.

‘Quick on the uptake, huh.’

Maybe it was an exaggeration to think so much of it, since it wasn’t exactly a secret.

But it did spark the idea that, surprisingly, she might be good at anything related to games.

‘First, we need information.’

Anyway, what mattered was the immediate goal.

Ancient power cores.

Where do you even get them?

Last time, during the event with Elderyn, the admins had spilled everything—the ingredient list, the approximate locations.

Information was readily available.

But not this time.

[Find 30 ‘Ancient Power Cores’ and supply energy to the village’s defense system.]

That was all.

No hint on how to obtain them.

‘There’s definitely some tricky requirement.’

Raidel started thinking hard.

Maybe just getting the information was the first hurdle.

“Shall we go to the village first?”

“Okaaay.”

They had no information on the ancient power cores.

First step: head to the village, ask other streamers, or dig for clues from NPCs.

‘Might be hard to get cooperation, though.’

A flicker of unease passed through Raidel’s mind.

The last event.

Silverhair had crushed the competition with a godlike performance, claiming first place with ease.

It had completely blindsided the other competitors.

If they pulled the same stunt in this event too?

Naturally, other streamers would be wary of them.

‘If worst comes to worst, we can just pay for info.’

Raidel decided internally.

In times like this, capitalism worked wonders.

Everyone was desperate for gold, after all.

Offer some money, get some info.

Of course—

This was the streamer server.

And there was stream sniping,

the dark art of the underground.

‘No, we can’t.’

No matter how you looked at it, that wasn’t right.

Tons of viewers were watching.

If they suddenly got info out of nowhere, people would find it suspicious.

Sure, some shady masters of the dark arts could casually watch other streams and act like it was coincidence.

But even that took some serious skill—and Raidel wasn’t comfortable doing it.

There’s a reason it’s called a dark art.

You get caught and you’re done.

‘Or we could ask NPCs.’

That was probably the right way.

Surely they wouldn’t make you go in blind.

There had to be clues from NPCs.

‘Time to show Seo-yeon something good for once.’

She’d been riding shotgun the whole time.

Yoo Seo-yeon was just too good, and Raidel hadn’t had much room to shine.

But now was the time to use her knowledge of Pixelwars—

and her communication skills, which Seo-yeon lacked.

She had to prove her worth in information gathering.

Thinking so, Raidel confidently took Yoo Seo-yeon’s hand and walked into the village.

And then—

“Wait… we just buy them from the NPC?”

Raidel blurted in disbelief.

The info came way too easily.

She hadn’t even asked.

She just overheard it while passing by.

Streamers were groaning, screaming about the “f*cking expensive power cores!”

Even the location wasn’t hidden.

Right in the center of the village.

An NPC casually set up shop.

An elderly-looking elf.

Long, pointy ears.

Wrinkled face weathered by time.

He held a staff, the classic sign of a wizard.

In front of him was a shoddy-looking sign:

[Ancient Power Cores for Sale.]

“……”

It was so honest it almost felt fake.

Blue-glowing spheres rolled gently on a mat before him.

Clearly ancient power cores.

With a rough estimate of the piled-up stash behind him, it looked like over 100.

So precious, and yet left completely unguarded?

Raidel almost let out a laugh.

Yoo Seo-yeon, wide-eyed beside her, seemed just as confused.

“Um… how much for one?”

Raidel asked cautiously.

The old elf slowly looked up and scanned her.

There was a mischievous glint in his wrinkled eyes.

“1.5 million gold each.”

“…Excuse me?”

Raidel thought she misheard.

1.5 million?

Each?

Even while sweeping gold from high-level hunting zones,

she made about a million a day.

Together with Yoo Seo-yeon, maybe two million a day.

“1.5 million… gold?”

And they needed thirty of them, not one or two.

Even for a gold-drain event, that was excessive.

Beside her, Yoo Seo-yeon let out a quiet gasp.

But then…

Raidel looked again at the power cores on the mat.

These supposedly valuable 1.5 million gold items were just lying there, unprotected.

Even the mat was like something from a flea market.

This was…

Raidel swallowed nervously.

‘If I just snatch one real quick…’

If there really were no security?

The moment that thought flickered through her mind,

her hand crept toward the mat like it was drawn by a magnet.

Then—

ZAP-

An invisible but very real forcefield bounced her hand away.

“!”

Raidel jerked her hand back in shock.

The elf gave a wrinkly smirk.

“Tsk, young lady’s got sticky fingers.”

“N-No!”

Raidel’s face flushed bright red.

Busted!

“I-I was just… looking!”

Viewers, naturally, went wild.

[Wowww trash~~~]

[LOL she really tried to steal it lololol]

[Steel-del LOLLLLL]

[It is insanely expensive though]

[‘GOAT_of_OrganicHistory’ donated 2,000 won!]

• Why y’all mad, stealing’s an option too ;;

[Two-faced LOL]

[Of course our guy steals]

[His way of thinking is different, fr]

[‘SilverhairFanclub’ donated 1,000 won!]

• But to be fair, Silverhair almost tried to steal too lmao

“No, I was just going for a stream moment!”

Raidel protested.

She never seriously intended to steal.

Okay, maybe just a little dark temptation.

Everyone tries to grab shiny things in games, knowing they can’t.

It’s just harmless fun in-game.

‘Anyway, Zeronix… nicely done.’

Even while talking to the viewers,

multiple thoughts flicked through Raidel’s mind.

‘Used his head there.’

It was simple.

So simple, it was genius.

And perfectly timed.

She recalled the key detail from the event notice:

[The player who contributes the most power cores will gain control of the final defense system, ‘Aegis’s Touch’!]

‘One person.’

That was the catch: only one person could receive the reward.

What did that mean?

‘No point forming an alliance between clans.’

Pooling money across clans so one person buys them all?

Basically impossible.

Even if you created a top donor, who would own the reward?

Without winning the control rights, you just wasted all that gold feeding someone else’s clan.

So the event promoted clan rivalry, but made alliance unviable.

Pooling gold for your clan leader was the only realistic strategy.

‘Big clans definitely have the edge.’

More people = more money.

Of course it was easier to pool funds.

But.

That didn’t mean Raidel and Seo-yeon were hopelessly disadvantaged.

‘Dimensional Distortion’ authority.

The absurdly efficient farming setup that used it.

The pile of gold they were steadily amassing.

Small in number, but not absurdly unfair like before.

…Of course, it still seemed hard to beat a big clan.

But at least it wouldn’t look completely rigged.

‘And also…’

Raidel fit another puzzle piece in place.

The server end date.

Not long now.

Admins already teased Season 2.

To motivate players, they promised partial carryover of assets.

‘Too much gold carried over would be a problem for the devs.’

Sure, they’d put in limits,

but with hard-working streamers in mind, they couldn’t make it negligible.

If too much Season 1 wealth carried over,

the new season would open with massive inflation.

The game’s economy might collapse.

Zeronix and the admins (aka Frost) clearly wanted to drain gold from players before the server shut down.

In the end,

this event, under the noble pretense of defending a village,

was just a cleverly designed mass gold-drain.

Everything fit perfectly.

Simple but effective at achieving multiple goals.

It was flawless design.

“So Silverhair… what do we do now?”

Raidel sighed and looked at Silverhair.

It seemed like the only way was to boost farming efficiency or farm longer.

“Hmm. Want to punch the NPC and make him hostile first?”

[Huh]

[Huh]

[Silver-noona is actually the crazy one LOL]

[Old man attack LOL]

[‘SilverhairFanclub’ donated 30,000 won!]

• I wanna be stomped by Silver-noona

[Yo]

[You, out.]

[lol it’s fine]

“…..Probably not gonna work. The devs definitely accounted for the Mask of Deception.”

If you made the NPC hostile, it would fulfill the Mask of Deception’s activation condition.

But Zeronix wouldn’t allow that.

They probably made him unattackable,

and even immune to aggro.

Yoo Seo-yeon looked up at Raidel and smiled slightly.

“I was kidding. I already have a plan.”