Chapter 59 : The gambling genius,Silver Hair (4)

The clock tower stood tall in the center of Belheim’s plaza.

It looked old, and there was a mysterious aura surrounding the structure.

It was a building right in the middle of the city, like the heart of the town itself.

The village’s entire defense system was located here.

That was information given by NPCs during gameplay.

Since the quest was meant for retrieving gold, details like the location of the power cores or the defense system were basically handed out.

When Yoo Seoyeno pushed the heavy door open with her small hands, a creaking sound echoed as the dust-covered interior revealed itself.

The inside of the tower was more spacious than expected.

Massive gears were interlocking and rotating.

Strange, ancient letters were carved into the walls.

And in the center,There was an altar glowing faintly like starlight.

Exactly thirty slots were carved into the altar.

“The clock tower vibe is amazing.”

“Fr fr, feels like a fantasy game.”

“Looks like you put the cores in there?”

“I’m gonna put it in…”

Standing before the altar, Yoo Seoyeno opened her inventory.

She took out an ancient power core.

A high-grade item worth 1.5 million gold each.

Without hesitation, she inserted the power core into the altar.

Srrrk.

With a smooth sound, the power core slid into place.

At the same time, a faint blue light began to radiate from the entire altar.

The core fit in perfectly and satisfyingly.

When the tenth core was inserted,A pillar of blue light began to rise from the altar.

The whole tower began to hum with a low vibration.

By the time the twentieth power core was placed,Light also began to shine from the ancient letters engraved on the wall.

As if a long-dormant magical circuit had awakened.

And the moment the thirtieth power core settled into the final empty slot on the altar.

PAAAH—!

A brilliant flash of blue light.

At the same time, a massive tremor shook the earth.

KUGUGUGUGUNG!!!

Outside the tower, the entire city of Belheim shook violently.

“An earthquake?”

“What the hell, what’s going on?!”

“Are we under attack or something?”

“There wasn’t supposed to be a raid!”

The streamers in the city were completely caught off guard.

Since the whole city suddenly started shaking like there was an earthquake, it was only natural for them to panic.

[‘Ancient Power Core’ 30/30]

[All defense systems have been activated!]

[Activating defense system: ‘Aegis’s Touch’!]

[Defense system control rights: ‘Silver Silver’]

A message rang out across the entire server.

KUUUNG—!

The ordinary outer wall that surrounded Belheim.

Right behind the massive city walls, the ground cracked open and buildings began to rise.

Defense towers.

Towers made of solid stone etched with rune letters.

There were easily dozens of them, encircling the entire city like a fortress.

“Wowwwww is this scale for real?”

“Silver Silver turned into a tower master lol”

“Wait, is she controlling all of those?”

“It’s city defense mode, yup yup”

The towers finished rising completely.

Some streamers were already taking screenshots in awe, as if they were sightseeing.

Then.

WIIIIIIING—!

The large crystal spheres mounted on top of the towers suddenly lit up with a dazzling blue glow.

A chilling sound of energy compressing split the air.

And in the next instant.

KWAHHHHH—!!!

What fired from the defense tower was a massive ball of magical energy.

The blue flash tore across the sky and struck a clearing with pinpoint accuracy.

With a thunderous roar, the ground exploded.

Dust shot high into the air, and the shockwave reached all the way back to the clock tower.

When the dust began to settle,a massive crater had been scorched black into what was once a flat clearing.

As if a small meteor had crashed down.

“U-uh, Silver-nim?”

“I-it was just a test shot……”

She didn’t mean to scare anyone.

She had just fired off one shot at an empty field to see if the system worked.

The power was way beyond expectations.

The firepower was satisfying—almost alarmingly strong.

“I-I’ll be more careful next time.”

Leaving behind the streamers still stunned by the surprise shot,

Yoo Seoyeno scratched her head awkwardly.

***

“Daaaamn.”

Admin Office.

On one of the monitors, a replay of Silver Silver’s extravagant entrance at the casino was playing.

Not a water show, but a golden rain—An ultra-luxurious display of wealth.

Silver Silver casually shook out a pouch and scattered a hundred million gold coins.

The streamers around her erupted in cheers.

Frost let out a bitter chuckle.

Fifteen billion gold.

An astronomical amount that was unthinkable through normal gameplay.

And she just flamboyantly threw a chunk of it away.

“She threw over a hundred million, huh?”

“Yes. She even said she’d give 2 million gold to players who weren’t present, based on login data.”

At Frost’s report, Zeronix let out a laugh of disbelief.

“Silver-nim… With that innocent face of hers, turns out she’s sly as a fox.”

The timing had been perfect.

Just as frustration and resentment were about to boil over, she soothed public sentiment in the most effective way possible.

Using a political maneuver that wouldn’t be out of place for an actual politician.

Her strategic skills were unexpectedly high—beyond just firepower.

‘She basically bought public opinion across the server with a hundred million gold.’

And that wasn’t all.

“There’s no way to retrieve it now.”

“Exactly. The players who got the money will just spend it wildly. To get it back, you’d have to collect from every single one of them.”

It wasn’t just a matter of collecting from Silver Silver herself.

At this point, nearly everyone on the server had received money from her.

To retrieve that amount, they’d have to get it back from dozens of streamers.

And collecting from dozens—no, hundreds—was far harder than just one.

‘Not that we ever planned to take it back anyway.’

Of course, this was a streamer server.

If this had happened in a typical large-scale online game, the devs would be scrambling for emergency measures.

But here, fun and buzz were far more important than balance.

Even if Silver Silver’s absurd performance had basically taken the server out of the admins’ hands.

One way or another, this server was the hot topic of every community.

In what could’ve been a dull situation, things had shifted and come back to life.

“Well, if anything, the server’s atmosphere feels better now.”

Frost tried to frame it in a positive light.

“Yeah. I guess. Gotta look on the bright side… power of positive thinking…”

Zeronix closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.

Oddly enough, letting go of balance made him feel a little more at peace.

When Silver Silver first hit that massive 1.5 billion gold jackpot,he’d been shaking with panic over the potential balance issues.

‘Let’s just focus on fun.’

The server would only last two months anyway.

Instead of flawless balance, what really mattered was the moment-to-moment excitement.

He slowly opened his eyes and unlocked his smartphone.

Time to snoop around the online community he checked from time to time—to see how the public was reacting.

Just when things started to settle down, Silver Silver stirred up more chaos—and once again, the Pixel Wars streamer server community was buzzing.

[Silver Silver’s Gold Splash Show LOL]

“Why is she spraying money like it’s water LOL”

“For real LOL”

“It’s just a game, but damn it looks fun… I kinda wanna try it.”

[Streamers’ floor-cleaning performance LOL]

“Better than most donation reactions…”

[GIF of winning 1.5 billion with 50 million]

“This is insane. How did she hit 30x? Was she possessed or something?”

“Whoa, that was literally her entire fortune.”

“Heart of a beast, damn.”

“Dumping 50 million gold like that is just nuts.”

[Apparently she predicted it by listening to the sound of the roulette]

“I tried watching the replay just listening to the sound too, but I can’t tell the damn difference…”

“She’s basically a gambling master.”

“You know how pro gamblers can sense tiny differences? Must be like that.”

“Nah, she’s way beyond that LOL.”

[I’m pulling full leverage after seeing this…]

“I’ve been inspired. Starting with a 500k seed, I’m going all the way to 5 billion.Buffett, watch out. I’m about to become a crypto legend.”

•“Another one headed to the river, I see.”

•“LOL”

•“Silver-noona just ruined another soul…”

[So to summarize what happened…]

“Silver-noona sprayed something gold in front of everyone,and people freaked out, picking it up like crazy.Now that I think about it… kinda sounds kinky…”

• “Ah, come on.”

• “Who’s your favorite football player and pro gamer?”

• “(Not human.)”

……

Posts like this were flooding in nonstop.

For better or worse, the buzz was undeniably satisfying.

“Let’s stay positive. Should we just build Silver a statue? I think it’d look great in front of the casino.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“I’m not. Gotta roll with the chaos and keep things fun.”

That’s the trend in game development these days.

Instead of going for strict, serious, and mysterious vibes,it’s better to embrace the chaos and be more approachable—even if things break a little.

In fact, putting up a statue would give everyone a good laugh.

“Silver Silver… Maybe it should be made of actual silver?” 

Zeronix thought, surprisingly seriously.

“What about the casino? When should we reopen it?”

“No, we’re shutting it down.”

Even if they’d decided to prioritize fun over balance—they couldn’t completely let go of control.

The casino had to go.

Especially with Silver Silver’s godlike gambling skills, reopening it was impossible.

Besides, she didn’t seem interested in gambling any further anyway,so closing it wouldn’t cause any trouble.

“Even if Silver Silver stops gambling, what if the streamers spend the whole time in the casino?”

Thanks to the legend of the 1.5 billion win, dopamine-fueled streamers might end up holed up in the casino the entire server session.

They were supposed to do other content too—and if that didn’t happen, it’d be a problem in many ways.

For those reasons, Zeronix decided it was best to shut down the casino now.

“By the way, how the hell did she figure out that pattern? Did you notice anything?”

“No, I didn’t even know a pattern existed…”

Frost shook his head.

The roulette in the casino was built like a simple random number generator.

There wasn’t supposed to be any pattern at all.

Even Frost, who helped design the game, didn’t know how the number sequences came out.

And yet Silver Silver figured it out.

Zeronix let out a helpless laugh.

“Even the American dev who made Pixel Wars wouldn’t know.”

That American guy probably wouldn’t believe it if he heard this story—he’d say it made no sense.

“Hmm. By the way, what’s CritZone been up to lately?”

“CritZone? Probably out hunting or something?”

This event definitely favored CritZone, who led a major faction.

With the financial power of a large clan, it would’ve been easier to buy ancient power cores.

“Originally, CritZone was our biggest concern.”

From the beginning, the dev team had worried the most about CritZone’s influence.

If it weren’t for Silver Silver, it wouldn’t have been surprising if CritZone had completely dominated this server.

They’d even been thinking about how to apply penalties to large clans.

But instead, an irregular force—Silver Silver—showed up and completely took over this event.

So now, what was CritZone up to…?

“His stream is off, but he’s logged in?”

The stream wasn’t running,but he was connected to the server.

Not AFK either—he was doing something with his clan members.

“Looks like he’s trying not to get caught doing something?”

With the stream off,no one else could tell what CritZone was up to.

Of course, Zeronix and Frost were exceptions as devs.

They could view any player’s screen once they were logged in.

Curious what he was up to, Zeronix and Frost checked CritZone’s screen.

“…Huh? Bro, CritZone… this is…”

Frost looked flustered after seeing the screen.

Meanwhile, Zeronix burst out laughing.

“He’s a streamer through and through.”