The Rice-Eating Hero’s Capitalist Streaming - Chapter 100

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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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The Capitalist Streaming of a Freeloading Hero

Episode 100

Constellation’s Game [Lyka]

“Huff… huff…”

Park Jinwoo gasped for breath that seemed ready to give out at any moment, barely suppressing the urge to just collapse on the floor.

What appeared before his eyes was the gleaming sign of the [Golden Pawnshop] he had so desperately yearned for.

[Golden Pawnshop]

So… this was the 9th stage.

They had finally stopped the hellish consecutive battles and arrived at a safe zone where they could catch their breath.

‘We survived…’

As relief washed over him, Park Jinwoo felt a strange sense of unease.

The data he had accumulated through countless party experiences.

It felt like all that common sense was being denied.

‘Common sense dictates… we should have been wiped out. No, we should have failed.’

The tank’s shield had been pierced, the dealer’s mana had hit rock bottom, and his own mana pool as a healer had long since dried up.

So how did they make it this far?

Park Jinwoo’s wavering gaze turned toward the man at the front of the party.

Team leader, Geon-ryul Lee.

While all the other party members were in tatters with their souls half-gone, that man alone was knocking on the pawnshop door with a perfectly calm expression.

Looking at his back, Park Jinwoo retraced the incomprehensible time they had just passed through.

It started from the 5th stage.

[Stage 5: Skeleton Archers]

That was when Park Jinwoo first had a premonition of ‘failure’.

The arrows shot by the enhanced skeleton archers poured down like rain, and even Eun-a Go’s shield creaked under the strain.

When the tank collapses, the party rapidly falls apart.

Therefore, Park Jinwoo was instinctively calculating who to save and who to abandon.

Of course, the team leader would naturally declare defeat before such a situation arose…

This was just an instinctive flow of thought.

However, these thoughts ultimately meant nothing.

It was a concern that didn’t account for the variable called Geon-ryul Lee.

[Clang-! Kachang-!]

How could anyone imagine that Geon-ryul Lee, armed with just a single sword, would break through the rain of arrows and disrupt their formation?

‘I thought he was crazy.’

At first, I thought he had some kind of skill.

But that wasn’t it.

With movements and judgment that were unbelievable even while watching, he approached the skeletons while dodging or deflecting arrows one by one.

Even the details of deflecting arrows were at an amazing level.

‘It wasn’t simply blocking with force.’

Looking closely, his stats clearly seemed insufficient to directly block arrows from level 40+ archers…

He showed the skill of overcoming stat disadvantages with technique(?).

[Clang- Scrape-!]

His wrist subtly bouncing each time arrow met sword.

The sword’s trajectory that flowed like water, merely deflecting the arrows’ paths.

This was a style of play that Park Jinwoo had never heard of or seen since awakening…

It was unbelievable that this person wasn’t a swordsman.

And that wasn’t all.

When they reached the 7th stage, that strangeness peaked.

[Stage 7: Poison Slime]

Slimes are fluid monsters that are almost immune to physical attacks.

So when Kangmin-woo got poisoned and couldn’t fulfill his role, there seemed to be no way to continue the strategy.

Jin-seong Yu’s low-level attack magic could barely inflict proper damage.

So…

‘It’s over. This time for real.’

I definitely thought that.

At least until a slime burst at the tip of Geon-ryul Lee’s sword.

Pop-

Splaaash-!

His sword didn’t cut the slime’s squishy surface.

More precisely, he didn’t even intend to do so.

Instead, he persistently stabbed and burst only the pinky-finger-sized ‘core’ that moved irregularly within the liquid.

Stab-!

This only looked easy in words, but it was absolutely not a problem that could be solved so simply.

Just stabbing wouldn’t allow the sword tip to accurately reach the inner core due to its structure.

The timing of the slime’s contraction and expansion.

The trajectory of the core wriggling and moving within it.

Without precisely calculating all of that, it would be impossible…

It was a strategy method that was only theoretically possible.

‘Does this… make sense?’

Taking down large slimes that are almost immune to physical damage… with just ordinary sword strikes without any skills?

This wasn’t something that could be explained by level or stats.

In some sense, it was an eccentric feat close to a trick.

‘Of course… the most shocking was the 8th stage though.’

Honestly, the battle on the 8th stage was so intense that I can barely remember what mental state I was in.

[Stage 8: Gargoyle & Mimic]

In the chaos where rocks fell from the sky and monsters popped up from the ground.

I could barely remember the sound of Geon-ryul Lee’s orders that came frantically.

“Eun-a! Shield bash at 11 o’clock in 2 seconds!”

“Minwoo! Don’t shoot now, wait! On my signal, 1 o’clock direction!”

He perfectly controlled the monsters’ aggro from the front.

No, beyond control, he was commanding even the party members like his chess pieces.

To put it with slight exaggeration…

Every time we moved as he instructed, the monsters’ attacks miraculously missed, and our hastily thrown attacks landed directly.

It was as if he was dissecting and assembling the time of this battlefield in 0.1-second intervals.

I don’t know if that’s a proper expression, but these were truly strange situations that could only be explained this way.

So.

‘…’

Reaching this point was truly a mystery.

Between stages 2-8 without a single skip or resupply.

Taking all the deficit penalties and still entering the third pawnshop…

Park Jinwoo swallowed dryly as he watched Geon-ryul Lee’s back entering the pawnshop.

Actually, there still wasn’t much information about him.

What he knew was only content that could be explained in a line or two.

‘Entrance mission 1st place. Level 35. And… a hidden class with an unusual name…?’

So it was natural for other participants to evaluate him as being lucky or having made good use of gimmicks.

However, Jinwoo could no longer think that way.

The wall he felt when first encountering Seong-hwan Lee or Hajun Park.

It was a shock from a different realm than that kind of force.

‘Monster…’

With Seong-hwan Lee, Hajun Park, and now this monster-like team leader.

Three of the top 5 positions already seemed decided.

“Now, let’s go shopping everyone. Your hard work will have been worth it.”

At Geon-ryul Lee’s grinning smile as he turned around, Park Jinwoo couldn’t help but chuckle even as he shook his head.

Either way, at least for this moment, there was no reason for him not to enjoy it.

What kind of rewards would the results of farming across seven stages bring them?

That much… was quite an exciting prospect.

* * *

It was quite difficult, but we finally overcame the first hurdle.

And perhaps this hurdle we just overcame… might have been the biggest hurdle, at least within ‘Midas’s Garden.’

└ Damn, that’s really harsh/intense ㄷㄷ

└ This is the first time I’ve seen someone actually clear this all the way to stage 9, holy shit lol

Is the difficulty of the mid-to-late labyrinth easier than the beginning?

Of course not.

The difficulty would naturally get harder and harder… but the most important thing was that we had built an extremely solid foundation for compound interest.

└ I’ve seen people who just ditch before, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone ditch even with a deficit penalty lol

└ But was there a reason to go this far? With this power, clearing seems guaranteed anyway.

└ The final ranking is determined by profit and loss anyway ㅇㅇ

└ Ah.

As I mentioned before, this dungeon is ultimately easier than any other dungeon if you just have enough money.

Even if you bought all the consumable items and buffs from this pawnshop that appears every time you clear 3 stages.

You could easily make it to stages 20-30 where boss stages start appearing.

However, according to Heroic School mission standards, the profit and loss calculated at the time of clearing affects the ranking… so the problem was not being able to buy everything.

‘If we earned this much by the 9th stage pawnshop timing, that changes things.’

Thinking of the byproducts packed full in my inventory, I couldn’t help but grin.

I haven’t calculated exactly, but roughly it seems like it would easily exceed 1500 LP…

Clank-

With such thoughts, I opened the pawnshop door, and the familiar proprietor greeted me with a broad smile.

“Welcome. This is the Golden Pawnshop, where desire proves value.”

Well, our party members didn’t even have the strength to respond… they all collapsed onto the floor as soon as they entered.

But at least their eyes were still alive.

Like… similar to office workers waiting for the numbers to appear in their bank accounts on payday?

‘They’ll come alive once the money comes in.’

Anyway, the time for settlement had finally come.

“Now, let’s settle up.”

I walked to the counter without hesitation and opened my inventory wide.

Whoooosh―!

Loot poured out like a waterfall.

Golden beetle carapaces, gold-plated arrowheads from skeleton archers, poison slime crystals…

Piled up so much that the counter felt cramped, they were all top-grade materials that would be hard to see in ordinary stages.

The proprietor’s red eyes flashed as he appraised them.

“Hooo…”

The proprietor didn’t hide his admiration.

“The quality is excellent. The purity of mana contained in the byproducts is also top-grade.”

“So, how much is it?”

“Hmm. Let me calculate it precisely for you.”

As the proprietor’s finger snapped, a settlement window appeared in mid-air.

Ding-!

But the next moment.

[Settlement has been completed.]

[Sales profit: +1,850 LP]

The party members’ eyes widened as if they would pop out upon seeing the number.

“Eigh-eighteen hundred…?”

Just from clearing the early stages, we had already made a profit exceeding the entrance fee.

Then pleasant notification sounds rang out one after another.

[Current assets: 1,850 LP]

[The ‘deficit’ state has been resolved!]

[Successfully converted to ‘surplus.’]

[From now on, 10% ‘compound interest’ will be paid on your LP holdings each time you clear a stage.]

Interest payment.

It was the moment when the ‘magic of compound interest’ I had been singing about finally began.

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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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