20
The place where Buy This turned on her broadcast was none other than the middle of prime Area 4 land.
In the middle of achromatic people busily coming and going!
There, Buy This turned on her selfie cam and greeted everyone.
“Helloooo! This is Buy This. Hmph... Even though Lord Thundercloud did not call me, I am Lord Thundercloud’s eternal fangirl! This is not an advertisement this time! It is pure curiosity-resolution content!”
└ Good, good! This is what Buy This should be!
└ Is it real that her nasal voice is crazy strong today?
└ Keep the concept in moderation.
└ Clear up our curiosity in one shot!
– BuyThisThatThisI’llBuyYou donated 100,000 credits.
└ Let’s go, to Forest-Access Druid Village!
“Ah! Thank you again today, BuyThisThatThis! Then shall we get started quickly? Everyone! You know where this is, right? This is the place called prime Area 4 land. It is where I live too!”
└ Wow, shit. Buy This was living in prime Area 4? So all this time, she was enjoying sweet life on prime land with the money we donated?
└ Her commoner cosplay was insane, lol.
└ Whoa...sudden reality check, shiver shiver.
└ That is some serious humblebragging.
Reactions came out like spinal reflexes.
But normal people shielded those reactions.
└ Then do you want Buy This to live on Area 5 shit land? Buy This probably makes a lot of money, so it is fine for her to live in a place like this, is it not?
└ Seriously, there are idiots like that everywhere.
└ I bet my wrist that a lot of bastards like that have never donated even once.
└ Manager, please cut out all the bastards who only scream about their rights.
Buy This was not very surprised.
She had talked about it a few times on broadcast, and she knew her fans would protect her like this.
She merely put on the kind of cute puppy-like expression that worked well at times like this.
“Please do not be too harsh... I live in about twenty square meters, you know....”
That was right. Buy This did live on prime land, but the place she actually lived in was only around twenty square meters.
A place where dozens of people lived on one floor, the kind of place called a “chicken coop” here.
└ What? Why do you live somewhere so narrow? Even I, an Area 5 beggar, live in sixty-six square meters.
└ [Fact Bomber] Twenty square meters is practically a paid prison. The prime land name-value bubble is insane, lol.
└ That is prime land, so the overpopulation must be worse there. Well, nothing can be done.
└ So how much is it there?
“2,000,000 credits!”
└ Holy shit, twenty square meters costs 2,000,000? This world has gone insane. Completely insane....
└ Twenty square meters for 2,000,000 credits? I thought Boss Thundercloud had been poisoned by capitalism, but those building owners are poisoned past the lethal dose, are they not?
“Yes...it really is hard, you know? If it is even a little bigger, it goes over 3,000,000....”
└ Wow, is prime land that good?
At that comment, Buy This smiled bitterly inwardly.
Yes, it was good.
The mana concentration was certainly high, so when others went hunting ten times, she could go twelve or thirteen times.
But everything else...?
‘Whew!’
Buy This swallowed her bitter smile and continued the broadcast.
“Haat! Anyway! Thanks to that, I can film reviews like this quickly too, right? Ah! Before we go, there is equipment I need to introduce! Ta-da-da-daan?”
There was a radar device about the size of four bricks put together.
└ ????
└ Uh. Is that not a portable mana concentration meter?
└ Not an installed one? A portable one?
└ Why is a portable one that big?
“I rented this at a high price, you know? It is really expensive... But if it is for all of you, how could I possibly consider this a waste?”
└ I am a specialist, and that is the “Magic Point Spectrum-mk4” model. A precious body, shiver shiver shiver.
└ That thing costs 400,000 credits per hour. If you rent it all day, it is 1,000,000.
└ Sis, once today’s broadcast settles, it will all go out on the measurement device rental fee, lol. Raise the donation firepower!
└ Wow...holy shit. What are you doing not donating?
└ Praise Buy This, the reviewer born from capitalism!!
A shower of donations followed!
A broad smile bloomed on Buy This’s lips, as this was something she had subtly wanted.
Watching that, the viewers joked about how her capitalist smile had come alive, whether she would smile more if they gave more, and so on, and the broadcast began in earnest like that.
└ Wow. Prime land’s concentration is 250? The mana concentration is definitely high.
└ This is why everyone tries to go there!
└ With that, even if you rest two days instead of three, your mana would probably fully recover, right? Damn, then what are those Area 3 and Area 2 bastards like? Is the concentration there around 1,000 or something?
└ You lunatic. Do you think they are the same as us? Do you know how big the mana pools of B Grades and above are? If they lived here, they probably could not even go hunting once a week.
As she headed toward the outskirts by subway,
the mana concentration of 250 fell to 200, then 170, then 120...plummeting like toilet-paper stocks.
└ Wow! I live at that station, and the concentration is 90? How far are we from prime land for it to be like this?
└ Wow, shit, it is hell. Hell.
└ Wow, shit...then what are the outskirts shit lands like?
└ ...If Area 4 is like that, then what is Area 5, where I live, like...?
└ [Fact] With an F Grade mana pool, you cannot feel the difference between concentration 50 and 200. Just live, lol.
└ Cut out the guy above. Who asked you to bring facts? You ruined the mood, lol.
By the time she reached the end of Area 4’s subway line, the outskirts among outskirts, the mana concentration had ultimately plunged to 50.
└ Concentration 50, lol. The air must smell like burning tires, lol.
└ At that level, does your lifespan get shaved off every time you breathe? Look at the level of Area 4 outskirts.
└ Come out, you guy who said 90 was hell earlier. This is hell right here....
└ Area 5 seems like the true hell....
└ At this point...are Area 5 people basically lung filters? sob sob.
└ Cut out the Area 5 bastards. What are ordinary people doing watching this broadcast?
└ I am an Awakened, okay?
└ Oh, is that so? Then why are you living in Area 5?
“Everyone, please do not fight! If you troll, I will have no choice but to permanently ban you!”
Even while saying that, Buy This was walking toward the outskirts among outskirts.
As soon as she passed the main road, the atmosphere turned gloomy in an instant.
Vomit and heaps of garbage were strewn here and there....
The surroundings were filled with acrid smoke.
It was all the smell of cheap cigarette smoke puffed out from human lungs.
Cigarette butts and cigarette packs lay scattered all over.
Scorpion Stick, Houndtail, and other cheap cigarettes...!
Her face kept trying to twist with every step, making it difficult to manage her expression.
However,
“Oh! It looks like we have almost arrived at our destination!”
Before her eyes spread a clean road and clean land, completely free of garbage or vomit.
There was also something like a fence.
A fence that could be climbed over if one forced it.
At the entrance of that fence stood one burly man like a gatekeeper.
He was actually a gatekeeper.
“What is your business?”
“Ah! Hello. Do you perhaps know Huntuber Buy This? M-May I go in?”
“Hmm......?”
└ lololol Buy This denied entry?
└ If push comes to shove, let us fight. Buy This is C+ despite how she looks. She can win.
└ Do you not know you cannot use abilities in public places? If he says no, let us go back.
└ Yeah, agreed. If an Awakened touches an ordinary person for no reason, they are screwed.
But that did not happen.
“Go in. You are on the list.”
“...The list?”
“Yes.”
The guard closed his mouth after saying that.
Buy This was flustered, but she did not ask anything more.
What mattered was that there was some kind of list, and that she was included on that list.
“Now, then, I will go in!”
└ lololol How much will it rise?
└ It is still 50, though?
└ Well, even so, I bet my left ball that it does not go over 100.
└ I bet my right ball.
└ I am not betting anything, but I will follow you guys until you verify it.
└ Yeah, I remembered your IDs.
Watching the chat’s reaction, Buy This swallowed hard as well.
‘The concentration needs to be very high...!’
He might be a complete stranger if one thought of it that way, but as someone who had promoted his items twice already, she could not help hoping this would be a good product again too.
However, even after taking a few steps past the fence, the concentration did not change. 30.
It stayed the same.
‘C-Could it really have been a bluff?’
Just as that thought made her heart sink,
the moment she took her fifth step,
[Mana concentration: 200]
└ Holy shit. 200?
└ ??
└ ????
└ ?????????
└ Did only I see the number spike?
└ No, suddenly 200?
└ Sevenfold concentration moonshot in one step, lololol. At least fake it in moderation, lololol.
└ Hey, the meter is broken, lololol. How does 200 come out in Area 4 outskirts? lololol.
└ What is this? 30 to 200 in one step? Is this cold bath, hot bath temperature change real?
└ Temperature X, concentration O.
└ I will not speak at length. The guy who bet the left one and the guy who bet the right one, play rock-paper-scissors and give them both to one person.
“Wh-What is this? What is this!!”
Buy This was dumbfounded.
But the measurement value shown by the meter was definitely 200.
Wondering if the measurement had really spiked, she took one step back, and it immediately plunged back to 30.
When she walked forward, it shot up to 200 again, and when she moved somewhere in between, it blinked while transmitting 30 and 200 in turn.
“No...the mana concentration changes this suddenly? This seems impossible...!”
But that impossible thing was actually happening.
“The effect...is definitely there, is it not?”
That was right. According to the mana meter, the effect was outstanding.
The concentration of a 40-level land skyrocketing to 200 was something that could not happen unless it was literally the power of the System.
However,
└ Even so, is it not worse than prime land?
└ No, prime land costs 2,000,000 credits, and this place costs 2,000,000 too, right?
└ It is lower, so why is it more expensive?
That was right.
If the concentration were 250, perhaps, but people apparently did not like that it was priced the same as prime land despite being 200.
But it was not as if there was no defending opinion at all.
└ [Fact] The basic floor area here starts at eighty-three square meters.
└ What? If you calculate it simply, that is over four times larger.
└ Even on prime land, the outer parts are 200. Other places are more expensive.
└ If you want eighty-three square meters on prime land, you have to pay more than 5,000,000, yeah.
└ Even so, it is prime land, is it not? And this is the outskirts, right? The infrastructure difference seems like it would be fucking huge.
While everyone was cursing, someone asked through a donation.
– What is your judgment, Ms. Buy This? Can you compare them?
“Honestly, prime land is more convenient. The infrastructure is good, there are hospitals wherever you go, delicious food, and frankly, public safety cannot even be compared. But, but...? Hmm? One moment? What is this?”
Buy This, who had been speaking, closed her mouth.
Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale.
Inhale, inhale?
Exhale, exhale!
For a while, she only breathed.
Until the chat window was covered in question marks(?), Buy This continued doing nothing but breathing.
Then she opened her mouth.
“To be honest, when air is filtered by machine, it takes moisture away too, so the air on prime land is truly desert-level in humidity.”
└ What, why did Buy This sis’s voice suddenly become so clear? It sounds like jade beads rolling.
└ Did you drop the nasal-voice concept? Or did you just spray something in your nose? lol.
“I will say it again, but my previous voice was not a concept. My nose was literally stuffy, so it sounded that way... No, just because I breathed a few times? My nose is completely open?”
Good heavens. How long had it been since she had breathed through both nostrils?
Her rhinitis, which had been severe even before, had worsened after she came to prime land, so this was the first time Buy This’s real voice, not her completely blocked voice, was being broadcast.
Perhaps the viewers would not have heard a voice like this even once in their lives.
If she had not entered Forest-Access Druid Village, that was.
“It seems to be because of this place’s efficacy? Effect?”
└ [Doctor] From the way her voice tone changed, it really seems like her nasal swelling went down. Is this air purification real? Shiver shiver shiver.
└ Bring back the nasal voice... It feels unfamiliar....
└ Sis’s voice feels unfamiliar... Give us nasal voice back, sob sob.
“Wow...how long has it been since I could breathe this clearly...!”
After that, Buy This walked around the area.
There was a walking path, and she decided to take a lap around it.
Before she knew it, Buy This’s code of conduct had changed from that of a reviewer to a sampling mode, as if she had come to decide whether to live here or not.
“Honestly, the air near my house is really dry.”
That was an unavoidable phenomenon that occurred during filtration.
Because of that, she lived with bronchitis and various complications.
Of course, they said Area 3 and above had some cutting-edge something that reduced that phenomenon, but she was in a position where she could not even dream of the next area.
“Here, the air...the air is so clear. Over there, how should I put it...it feels like the mana in the air is invading me, but here, each and every cell... Yes! It really feels like every single cell is waking up!? Wow....”
Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale.
Inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale!
Every time she breathed in and out, it felt as though something was being charged.
Should she say a corner of her heart was being filled to the brim?
Buy This herself probably did not know.
That the moment she came here, the foggy, moss-covered window inside her depressed heart was being scraped away and turning transparent...!
“Ha...this place! It is good....”
When she had first gone up to prime land, she had had many dreams.
She had thought that if she went there, the mana concentration would rise, and if she went hunting a lot, she would be able to reach B Grade.
But B Grade was a realm of talent that could not be reached by effort.
Now that she was eating and living well through broadcasting, she had often wondered whether there was any need to insist on prime land and remain in a space of barely twenty square meters.
“Oh my, what a pretty young lady. You look just like me in the old days.”
“......?”
When she turned her head, a grandmother who had been basking in the sunlight on a bench smiled benevolently at Buy This.
In that instant, an old memory suddenly brushed through Buy This’s mind.
The childhood memory of walking down the street while holding hands with her late grandmother
stimulated her tear glands!
Drop. Drip, drip.
└ ??????? No, crying show in the middle of a review? lololol.
└ Sis, why are you crying? sob sob. Are you crying because the air is too delicious??
└ What is this? Why is Buy This crying? sob sob.
└ What is this, why is she crying? Do not cry, sob sob.
└ ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Sis, do not cry ㅠㅠㅠㅠ.
“Uh...? Yes? Uh...why. Huh? Why am I... Why am I crying? Why...?”
***
└ Calm down, sob sob. Calm down!
└ What is this? Why is Buy This crying?
– Thundercloud donated 500,000 credits.
└ Is this how you donate? Goodness, why are you crying? This is troubling. If you stop crying, I will deposit another 500,000.
“Whaaaaaa.”
└ Whoa. Is that the real one?
└ Wow. It is the real one, right? Shiver shiver shiver shiver.
└ Wow. She keeps crying?
└ The level of Forest-Access Druid Village, which cannot be stopped even by capitalism, shiver shiver shiver.
– Thundercloud donated 500,000 credits.
└ Goodness....
└ There really seems to be something there.
“That is right. There really was something there.”
A man scanning through the chat window smiled faintly.
It was Kang Cheol-jin, the master of the guild Family.