The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 68

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#068. Human Desire

 

Even so, they didn’t want to win the first drop item at a price more than three times the market value, so the first dropped item, Gasfield’s Bracelet, was sold at the 100 million credits that Sung-jun had called.

 

And just before the auction for the second drop item from the 42nd Floor boss began, the man who seemed to be the leader of the wealthy patrons sent another signal.

 

“I heard that a similar item was recently sold for 100 million credits.”

 

‘

 

Two fingers this time? Then they’ll stop at 80 million.’

 

It wasn’t incomprehensible why they were trying the failed collusion strategy again.

 

Sung-jun had only participated in one auction so far – the first one.

 

There was no guarantee that Sung-jun would interfere in the next auction as well.

 

‘He probably interfered because he really needed it.’

 

‘Surely he won’t interfere again?’

 

However, as if to completely shatter such expectations from the wealthy patrons, Sung-jun called out a bid exceeding market value as soon as this auction started.

 

“120 million.”

 

“What?!”

 

“The market price is 100 million!”

 

With the recent surge in credit value, credits that were originally worth about 10 yen per credit had skyrocketed more than 5 times.

 

So the 120 million credits that Sung-jun called was equivalent to 6 billion yen, or close to 60 billion won – a massive sum.

 

‘The amount itself isn’t a problem, but…’

 

The problem was the market price.

 

Since the purpose of participating in this raid was to win layer boss drop items at prices cheaper than regular auction prices, winning items at prices higher than what Sung-jun called might result in massive losses.

 

Eventually, the wealthy patrons of this raid, who gave up on the second drop item as well, gathered together during the break before the 43rd Floor boss battle to review their auction strategy.

 

“What should we do? It seems our collusion has already been exposed.”

 

“So Mr. Sakamoto thinks that man Ma Sungjun’s participation in the auction is simply a scheme to raise the winning bids?”

 

“Wouldn’t that be the rational view?”

 

“Why do you think so?”

 

“Given his abilities, the items he’s won so far would be completely useless to him.”

 

As the man said, for Sung-jun who could implement similar abilities through magic, layer boss drop items were completely useless objects.

 

Bidding on such items at prices higher than market value suggested there was likely some other reason besides needing the items.

 

Eventually, they concluded that Sung-jun’s participation in auctions at higher than market prices from the beginning was intended to instill crisis and break up their collusion, but the wealthy patrons couldn’t find a countermeasure.

 

Even if Sung-jun’s intention was to break up collusion and make the wealthy patrons participate competitively in auctions, there was no particular means to counter that intention.

 

Whatever means they used, Sung-jun would participate in auctions calling prices higher than market value, and unless they called higher prices than his, most items would be taken by the man called Sung-jun.

 

The problem was that there was absolutely no way for the wealthy patrons to find out how many credits Sung-jun possessed.

 

Eventually, the wealthy patrons who participated in the raid went to find Sung-jun separately and honestly confessed that they had colluded.

 

Along with a promise to seriously participate in auctions from now on without any signals or instructions.

 

Thus, Sung-jun shattered the wealthy patrons’ collusion conspiracy with just two auction participations and returned to the position of observer.

 

Leaving room for himself to intervene again the moment any signs of collusion appeared.

 

This was one of Sung-jun’s strategies to pressure the apocalypse-class Corrosion Entity ‘Dungeon Maker’ that appeared in Japan.

 

***

 

“We’ll have to close medium-grade and lower dungeons.”

 

In the deepest part of Tokyo Dungeon, in the ‘Master Room’ that could only be reached by going one floor deeper than the 100th Floor, a man spoke.

 

Then a small fairy flying beside the man giggled and said to him.

 

“Hehehe… Will you really close them? Wouldn’t it be better to extract even a little more negative energy rather than just closing them?”

 

“Simply maintaining dungeons consumes too many resources. Maintaining harvest sites requires energy, respawning monsters requires energy, and placing reward items requires energy. It might be different if adventurers were flocking as usual, but now most adventurers are active around large dungeons.”

 

“Better to close than operate at a loss?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

Surprisingly, the man’s identity was an ordinary human.

 

And beside him, an old computer with a strange screen reminiscent of classic games was emitting bluish light in the dark room.

 

A refrigerator full of energy drinks standing in one corner of the room, shelves filled with various snacks that had no nutritional value but were disgustingly high in calories.

 

The space called ‘Master Room’ located on the 101st basement floor of Tokyo Dungeon surprisingly resembled a somewhat messy gamer’s room.

 

“So what will you do from now on? Your original strategy is completely blocked, isn’t it?”

 

“First, as I said, I’ll close all medium-grade and lower dungeons. And I’ll convert all the monsters and dungeon rewards I summoned inside back to resources.”

 

“What’s next?”

 

“Since Osaka Dungeon is currently the most deeply conquered, I’ll place a large number of treasure chests with legendary to mythical grade rewards on the 70th Floor of Osaka Dungeon.”

 

“Then the already insufficient energy will be consumed even more?”

 

“Think of it as an investment for the future.”

 

If rumors spread that decent rewards come from the depths of Osaka Dungeon, adventurers conquering other dungeons would move en masse toward the 70th Floor of Osaka Dungeon.

 

The man’s purpose was simple.

 

To drive as many adventurers and civilians as possible deep into a single dungeon.

 

It wasn’t particularly difficult.

 

He just had to accept losses and dramatically increase the quantity and quality of treasure chests and harvests.

 

However, since he had to consume most of the resources he’d gathered so far in this process, this plan was also a huge gamble for the man.

 

“Are you confident you can recover it?”

 

“I am. As long as no ‘variables’ intervene. And even if they do, it doesn’t matter. No matter how strong that man Ma Sungjun is, within the space called a dungeon, I am king.”

 

The man’s voice was full of confidence.

 

Despite watching in real-time the battle of the man called Sung-jun, who proved his military prowess by solo defeating layer bosses.

 

Having finished his conversation with the fairy, the man sat in front of the small computer in the room and began typing on the keyboard.

 

The absolute authority that the fairy who introduced itself as ‘Dungeon Master’ had given him.

 

To completely change the dungeon’s structure using the ‘Master Tool’.

 

And after a while, the man’s movements, who had been typing on the keyboard in front of the monitor, stopped.

 

It was a signal that the dungeon modification work using the divine artifact ‘Master Tool’, created to allow redefinition of all dungeon elements in the form most familiar to the man, was complete.

 

-Click-

 

The moment the man pressed the enter key, numerous messages began flowing down the screen.

 

「Nagano Dungeon’s harvest site has been deactivated.」

 

「Aichi Dungeon’s harvest site has been deactivated.」

 

…

 

「Hyogo Dungeon’s unopened item boxes have been destroyed.」

 

「Hiroshima Dungeon’s unopened item boxes have been destroyed.」

 

…

 

「Miyazaki Dungeon’s monster regeneration rate is decreasing.」

 

「Tokushima Dungeon’s monster regeneration rate is decreasing.」

 

Watching the numerous system messages coming from not just one or two places, but from all dungeons in Japan except the five major dungeons, the man smiled.

 

“Watch carefully, Dungeon Master.”

 

Then he spoke to the fairy looking at the monitor behind him.

 

“It’s time for a joyful, joyful harvest.”

 

***

 

Unlike Chinese Awakened who become stronger by accumulating energy in their bodies through the peculiar breathing method called ‘internal energy cultivation’, Japanese Awakened had completely different forms of growth.

 

The method of becoming stronger by growing the ‘awakening artifact’ taken from Pandora’s Box when first awakening, and the method of obtaining a new awakening artifact, abandoning the connection with existing artifacts, and acquiring new awakening abilities.

 

Among these, obtaining a new awakening artifact to replace existing abilities was not only the only way to replace randomly granted unique abilities with desired abilities, but also the only way for civilians without awakening abilities to be granted awakening abilities through the same method.

 

Therefore, among artifacts obtainable in dungeons, awakening artifacts were particularly valuable items.

 

No human could be uninterested in objects that could instantly turn them into superhumans from comics or movies.

 

The problem was that these ‘awakening artifacts’ had extremely terrible drop rates befitting their high value.

 

While monsters at the level of layer bosses occasionally dropped awakening artifacts, the probability of awakening artifacts appearing from treasure chests regenerated in dungeons was very low.

 

Moreover, since most of the few awakening artifacts that appeared during layer conquest were handled through on-site auctions, obtaining awakening artifacts at auction houses to become Awakened was an unimaginable situation.

 

In this situation, awakening artifacts that weren’t layer boss drops being listed at auction houses was a major issue that couldn’t help but become big news.

 

Moreover, it was unprecedented since D-day for five items, not just one, to be listed simultaneously.

 

「Guys, did you hear the rumor? That 5 awakening artifacts were listed at the auction house at different times?」

 

↳ Just a rumor? I’m also a regular at auction houses, but I’ve only seen one listed once, let alone five? Even that item was immediately cancelled from auction.

 

↳ Auction cancellation means it was a fake listing?

 

↳ Not that, but a prospective buyer paid a fortune to cancel the auction and purchased it separately through an agency. I heard they paid twice the expected winning bid.

 

↳ Anyway, from what I confirmed, it’s not a rumor but real. There are indeed 5 listed.

 

↳ It’s probably a general artifact, not an Awakened artifact. I’m not sure about right after the Yokohama raid ended, but didn’t the Unbreakable Shield Clan still not return?

 

↳ No no, the items that came up this time aren’t from the Yokohama raid but from Osaka Dungeon treasure chests. They’re all items that came out during exploration of the 70th Floor that was cleared in the last raid.

 

↳ Oh damn, jackpot. All 5 came from Osaka’s 70th floor?

 

↳ Awakened are gathering en masse at Osaka Dungeon after hearing the rumors.

 

Although normal communication systems had collapsed after D-day, communities for the Awakened were somewhat established through internal networks installed in Adventurer’s Guilds.

 

However, there was the disadvantage that connection speeds were incredibly slow, resembling the level of classic PC communication.

 

Despite those slow connection speeds, the story that the Awakened artifact drop rate on Osaka Dungeon’s 70th Floor was abnormally high spread in an instant.

 

Moreover, according to rumors, the level of monsters appearing was unbelievably weak for the 70th Floor of a major dungeon.

 

With drop rates and difficulty so abnormal that if this were a game, one might suspect an operator error, adventurers across Japan urgently began seeking parties.

 

To recruit companions who would explore Osaka Dungeon’s 70th Floor with them and help achieve their dreams of striking it rich.

 

And beneath that hotly burning issue, another issue occurring at the same time was rapidly spreading among civilians rather than adventurers.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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