The hairs on my head stood on end.
I had not announced the product beforehand. I had uploaded it without a plan.
But how had the product sold within three seconds? Someone was not watching me, were they?
“D-Did someone who happened to pass by make a full purchase...?”
That was not it either!
Every buyer was a different person.
The steep price increase meant that purchasing competition had been severe.
If there were five buyers, then roughly fifty people had failed to buy it?
“All these people... Were they waiting for me to upload products?”
It was creepy.
Was that not strange?
I knew Tower Climbers suffered from Mana Dissipation.
But how many Tower Climbers were there in the world?
There had to be plenty in Korea alone, right? The proportion of Awakened people had gradually been increasing lately too. Could they not just climb diligently and pluck vegetables from the Tower?
“Could there be some story behind Tower-grown vegetables that I don’t know?”
My eyes suddenly turned to [Inbox].
[Messages: 0]
It was a number that suited a novice seller like me perfectly. But that number began feeling frightening for no reason.
Previously, because of the malicious seller called <Moonlight Beauty>, I had completely turned off the message function....
[Message Options]
I changed the message function to enabled. Nothing was supposed to happen, but....
Click.
The moment I changed the option.
[Unread Messages]
[99+]
[999+]
[9999+]
[Inbox Full!]
Messages that had been unable to enter because they were blocked until now began pouring down like a waterfall...!
Not figuratively, but literally!
Messages!
They poured down on me like a landslide!
CRASHHHHH!
— This Black Beard Algae is mine now. I can do whatever I want with it. (it’s mine mine plplplplplease)
— Hey!!!! Make the sound of mana disappearing stop!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
— Algae. I want it. So I can live.
— Algaealgae? Algaegaegaegaealgaealgaegae!
— Hee hee, stopping business is a crime.
— Hey. You. Why is a spirit trying to meddle in human affairs? The envoys and ambassadors of the Spirit Realm will not sit idly....
Tower messages resembled actual stationery. Since they possessed a small amount of physical force, I ended up buried beneath strings of text.
To avoid suffocating to death, I had to delete messages like crazy.
[999 messages deleted.]
[Remaining Messages: 9999+]
“W-What!”
I had deleted 999 messages, yet there were still so many messages left.
— If you give one Black Beard Algae I won’t eat you if no Black Beard Algae I have to eat you if you give one Black Beard Algae I won’t eat you if no Black Beard Algae I have to eat you
— FromtodayIhaveswornmyselftovegetarianismpleasegiftBlackBeardAlgaetothispitifulmeandhelpfillmyhungrystomach
— M y m a n a i s b u r n i n g.... B e c a u s e o f y o u.... I f o n l y I h a d B l a c k B e a r d A l g a e....
Every one of those carefully written, insane sentences covered me! Aqua worked hard to help me delete the messages too.
[Aqua.... Not stopping rapid clicking! Scamper, scamper, scamper! (꜆꜄꜆つ ⚆ ⚆)つ]
“Delete delete delete delete!”
Only after a long while was I able to crawl out of the grave of messages. What in the world was this....
“Ughhh... My back....”
[Aqua.... Sincere massage! Q–(ᵔ.ᵔ Q )]
Aqua kneaded my back.
SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, THWACK, THWACK, THWACK.
It was practically a one-two punch, but the acupressure strength was just right.
“You’re all I have.”
I had been complacent. My understanding of the market had been severely lacking.
“......Mana Dissipation was more frightening than I thought.”
I needed to increase the number of Farms further.
“If there are many people suffering from a lack of mana, I should supply it in massive quantities and bring the price way down.”
Mass production X mass sales = mass profit.
Very good.
The Territory was wide enough that I could make Farms endlessly.
I also needed to study Mana Dissipation in greater detail.
I checked an interview with Wol Ha-yeon on MyuTube.
「Ms. Wol Ha-yeon. Aren’t Tower-grown vegetables that prevent Mana Dissipation honestly too expensive?」
「They are expensive. But there is no choice. They are rare.」
「I do not quite understand. All kinds of plants grow inside the Tower, do they not?」
「Most Tower plants possess [Flaws]. They contain harmful factors such as toxicity, curses, and demonic energy.... Eating them prevents Mana Dissipation, but the secondary loss is greater.」
「Heeh. So they are like poisonous mushrooms?」
「Yes. There would be no fool who eats poisonous mushrooms because they are hungry, right?」
「Are there not?」
「In fact, there are quite a few Tower Climbers who eat any Tower-grown vegetables.」
Ha-ha-ha-ha.
The interview became a sea of laughter.
“So that was it.”
Curses and demonic energy....
They were frightening just to hear about. Only verified Tower-grown vegetables were safe.
「Why do Tower plants possess harmful properties?」
「Tower water has too many additional components, making it unsuitable for humanity.」
「It would be terrible if someone drank it.」
「Of course. Tower plants drink such water to grow, so they naturally come to possess Flaws.」
This was another fact I had not known.
The Tower’s drinking water was like contaminated water to humanity.
Drink it, and you were dead!
「Even tap water is a rare resource inside the Tower, then?」
「Yes. Finding fresh water is like plucking stars from the sky.」
「Then what if Tower Climbers bring water from Earth?」
...!!!
The host had pinpointed my question exactly. Farming did not seem like a business only I could do, did it?
Was it not an opportunity open to everyone?
「You mean the Tower Terraforming Plan? The entire world is trying, but there has not been a successful case yet.」
「Is it that difficult?」
「First, the water limit is strict. Tower Climbers can bring only twenty liters of water with them.」
「Ah! The setting is that they should only bring enough drinking water?」
「The Tower is quite stingy.」
I ended the video.
Wol Ha-yeon!
Wol Ha-yeon helped me every time!
“Wol Ha-yeon really is such an amazing person.”
Tower Climbers had all kinds of personalities too. There were bastards who sold leftover cherry tomatoes, while others gave information away for free.
Afterward, I studied the Tower’s drinking water. When I dug through related research papers, I felt sick.
“Risk of cellular metamorphosis and severe species-level shedding after long-term consumption...? What is this, radioactive material?”
Well, the Tower was a world where monsters lived. It would not be strange even if drinking water from such a world turned you into a green radioactive monster.
[Aqua.... Arisu’s water quality is the best! I’ve been missing out my whole life! (づᵔ.ᵔ)づ]
Aqua hopped around excitedly. According to Aqua, Earth’s pure water without additives was quite sweet.
That was a relief, but.
A question remained.
“I have brought an enormous amount of water into the Territory until now. There was no limit?”
Our farming method was based on spraying enormous quantities of water. It was a crude method made possible because Aqua drank five hundred liters of water from the sink before entering.
“Was that something only we could do?”
Seeing was believing.
I directly conducted an experiment. I filled a water container at my studio and entered the Tower.
Then a considerable amount of water vanished.
“Even I, a Lord, can only bring exactly twenty liters inside?”
Even the Lord’s privileges did not apply to water. Water was that rare a resource in the Tower.
Then what about Aqua?
[Aqua.... Pew, pew, pew! ꉂꉂ (ˆoˆ )]
Aqua, which mindlessly sprayed hundreds of liters of water....
That thing had been the cheat key all along.
“Aqua. You really are an amazing little thing, aren’t you?”
[Aqua.... Puffed-up-proud! ( ◡̀\_◡́)ᕤ]
It was a simple thing that became arrogant when praised....
But Aqua had something extraordinary about it.
The Tower did not grant privileges for no reason.
Perhaps it had a story it could not tell.
[Aqua.... I’m fairly good at running! Even cheetahs are laughing! (づᵔ.ᵔ)づ]
Scamper, scamper, scamper!
Aqua, running around the wasteland alone, rolled over spectacularly.
[Aqua.... Aaaah! That rock is a cowardly bastard! (꜆꜄•o•)꜆꜄꜆]
...Or not?
I could not find even a trace of extraordinariness.
[Aqua.... Sob... (っ´―\`c)]
Wow, it was really so pathetic.... I was confused....
***
Cheongyeol headquarters.
The large corporation was busy again today.
In particular, the [Exchange Monitoring Team] was in a complete emergency.
Director Cheon Ryu-jin had given them an assignment. They had to buy ‘that’ by any means necessary.
“Stock has been listed!”
A monitoring employee sprang to their feet. The team leader did not even have time to respond, merely jerking their chin.
“Everyone, proceed!”
The team leader and employees opened dozens of Exchange windows and began building a buy wall for the product.
CLACK, CLACK, CLACK!
Other small-time buyers who had been browsing the Exchange slammed into the thick buy wall.
“Good. So far, it’s going smoothly.”
Tower Climbers could each possess only one Exchange window, but at Cheongyeol, a single employee manipulated dozens of Exchange windows.
Once they seriously built a buy wall, individual buyers had no way to keep up.
It was a powerful workaround.
“Hurry! It will be troublesome if the Tower notices!”
The employees’ hands moved faster. This method was an illegal-like workaround, so it would draw the Tower’s attention.
It was not a method they could use often.
The employees broke out in cold sweat.
“Team Leader! A massive mana discharge has been confirmed above the Tower! A Mana Tracker has been deployed!”
“Team Leader! The Tower is tracing us in real time! Your orders!”
Calls for the team leader came from all directions.
It was an emergency.
Having caught the scent of a workaround, the Tower had sent mana all the way to Cheongyeol headquarters!
“Everyone, stay sharp! Lure the mana using dummy trade accounts! If we scatter false data, we can buy three seconds!”
The bait data cunningly scattered throughout the company threw the Tower’s mana into confusion.
“Purchase complete!”
“Disconnect!”
ZIPZIPZIPZIP!
Dozens of Exchange windows closed simultaneously, and all evidence that they had used a workaround vanished.
It was a nerve-racking moment.
Why?
Right now.
The Tower’s Mana Tracker.
Was at the office door.
「.......」
Step. Step. Step.
The sound of the Tower’s Mana Tracker leaving could be heard. A sigh escaped from the entire team.
“A total of twenty products were listed, and we purchased five.”
“Excellent... Everyone did well....”
They had successfully purchased products with severe competition.
Meanwhile, a post of condemnation began appearing in the Rankers’ secret community, 「Epsilon」.
\=======
Title: What was that Exchange server lag just now?
Author: Dark-Headed Baldy
Views 2821 | Likes 132 | Dislikes 1
Cheongyeol bast@#rds
You motherfuckers, smearing bids all over the place!
I told you not to do thiiis!
Do you have any conscieeence?
↳ I missed it too! My Chlorella! Aaaaaah!!!!!
↳ How are you so sure it was Cheongyeol?
↳ Are you a newbie? If something smells suspicious, it’s Cheongyeol.
↳ Anyone who wants to drop a nuclear bomb on Cheongyeol’s chairman’s head gets an upvote from Silverhand lol.
↳ It’s fine. I’ll go first.
↳ What is that one dislike? Is there a real-name system for dislikes?
↳ At least try not to make it so obvious, you Cheongyeol vermin bastards.
\=======
Cheongyeol’s workaround was quite well known, so it was immediately exposed. Negative public opinion surged.
“This is absurd.”
Cheongyeol.
And the Rankers.
The item they were searching for while foaming at the mouth like this.
Was merely Chlorella!
“When Cheon Ryu-jin ordered it, I swallowed a sigh inwardly. But even Rankers are clinging to it in droves? Over mere Chlorella?”
What kind of idiot battle was this?
In any case, Cheongyeol won.
They were victorious idiots.
Hooray.
At that moment, Secretary Lee, Cheon Ryu-jin’s right-hand aide, appeared.
“Where are the products?”
“Here they are.”
“Heh-heh. A full five, no less. You worked hard. Here is an unlimited Black Card. Have a company dinner at Seoul’s most expensive hotel, then rest well in individual hotel suites until the day after tomorrow.”
“G-Gasp...!”
The team leader’s common sense was collapsing.
What was Chlorella, exactly...?
“Still, this feels great! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Everyone! We are having a company dinner tonight, and a hotel vacation for two full days!”
“Waaaah!”
Chlorella or not.
They decided to thank the seller.
***
The peaceful first-floor Territory.
I liked money.
Was there anyone in the world who disliked money?
I could not trust people who said such things. In my experience, nine times out of ten, they were money ghosts.
“Argh....”
Yet I.
“Stop bringing me money!”
Was sitting here saying that.
Had I lost my original intention?
No.
The situation was that serious.
[8,000,000 won deposited]
[10,000,000 won deposited]
[14,000,000 won deposited]
“Stop competing with bids!”
I reflected.
I had underestimated the madness of Tower Climbers too much.
Chlorella’s insane rise had far exceeded my expectations. At this point, it was socially problematic.
“Let’s not do this, everyone! This is just a green algae bloom!”
Click!
I tried manually lowering the price, but I must have touched something wrong because the price surged even higher.
[16,000,000 won deposited]
[22,000,000 won deposited]
“How does this work! What did I do? Aaaaaah!”
\=======
[Quest: Agriculture 1]
Objective: Sell crops worth a total of 100 million won
Reward: 「Crop Praise」 Skill
\=======
The quest would be cleared far sooner than expected.