The Rice-Eating Hero’s Capitalist Streaming - Chapter 99

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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 99

Constellation’s Game [Lyka]

“Let’s take a brief rest. Please wait a moment.”

After the first battle ended.

Jin-seong Yu was facing a very interesting situation.

Step-

While the portal to the next level’s stage had opened.

Team leader Geon-ryul Lee suddenly declared a break and approached the fallen scarab corpses to start something.

What he pulled out from his pocket was a single sharp dagger with a keenly honed blade…

Stab-!

After thrusting it into the scarab’s corpse, what he began doing was…

Scrape- Scrape-

A sight he had never once witnessed in any gate until now.

‘Could it be… butchering?’

Jin-seong Yu’s brow furrowed.

Butchering was a lifestyle trait for collecting byproducts like monster hides and bones from hunting grounds.

He naturally knew that such a trait existed.

Butchering was a trait that was open for anyone to learn in the low-level sections before level 20.

But a player who grows through direct combat, not a production class, doing butchering?

This was an unprecedented sight.

‘Butchering… butchering. This is something I never even thought about.’

In Jin-seong Yu’s opinion, Geon-ryul was quite a clever individual.

He first had this thought last weekend before the training camp began.

Actually, Jin-seong Yu was one of the participants who received a tremendous shock upon learning that Geon-ryul was the first place winner of the <Entrance Ceremony Mission>.

So during the weekend, he lived on community forums analyzing Geon-ryul’s plays…

In that process, he was incredibly amazed while deducing how Geon-ryul had conquered the dungeon.

Especially when he learned that Geon-ryul had utilized the buff mechanic from body temperature drop to its extreme, he was honestly thrilled.

Geon-ryul’s playstyle of utilizing the system to its limits through analysis and insight was exactly the kind of ideal he had always admired.

‘So surely. There must be a hidden intention behind that butchering too…’

Of course, the other party members seemed to dismiss Geon-ryul’s butchering as simply eccentric behavior…

“Ugh, why are you digging out that disgusting stuff?”

“Team leader, do you need any help?”

Rustle-

Sizzle-!

Jin-seong continued trying to understand that intention in his head.

But a moment later.

When Park Jinwoo, who had approached Geon-ryul’s side, asked a question.

“But what are you planning to use these byproducts for?”

Upon hearing the answer that followed, Jin-seong Yu couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

“What I’m doing right now is a key element in conquering this ‘Midas’s Garden.'”

“Is… that so?”

“This place… is a labyrinth where you can only open the hidden final door by utilizing compound interest to its extreme from the very beginning.”

As soon as he heard the word compound interest, the puzzle pieces in his head clicked together and Geon-ryul’s intention became clear at once.

‘Wait. Now that I think about it… those can be sold to the pawnshop too, can’t they?’

Actually, Geon-ryul’s current actions could appear ‘stingy’ at first glance.

Even if he farmed all of that and took it outside, it would only be worth a potion or two at most.

So delaying the dungeon conquest for that level of farming was understandably difficult to comprehend.

But what if he sold those to the pawnshop to immediately secure LP?

‘Even 10 LP is precious here. Especially in the very early stages.’

It meant that 50 LP secured here could become 130 LP after 10 stages, and thousands of LP after 50 stages.

As his thoughts reached this point, Jin-seong Yu got goosebumps.

That man was now trying to scrape together every tiny bit of profit to snowball in the later stages.

Even while enduring that inconvenience and time consumption.

‘As expected, he’s meticulous. Could it be that even those seemingly stingy actions… were all planned parts?’

Jin-seong Yu unconsciously nodded his head.

No matter how he thought about it, being assigned to this party seemed like truly divine luck.

With such thoughts, Jin-seong began helping Geon-ryul with the butchering.

“Team leader. I’ll help with the hardening process so the hide peels off well.”

Of course, the fact that butchering was as natural as breathing to Geon-ryul was something Jin-seong couldn’t know.

* * *

The labyrinth conquest proceeded more smoothly than expected.

While maintaining a deficit state, the stage difficulty was rising steeply…

[Stage Lv3: Stone Golem]

[Stage Lv4: Poison Slime]

Even after clearing two additional stages, our party still seemed to have room to spare.

“Huff… gasp…”

Well, everyone did look a bit out of breath…

Being winded after some exercise was just a natural biological phenomenon.

└ I don’t think so…

└ They clearly look like they desperately want to rest?

So now, facing entry into the 5th stage, I decided to make a very bold decision.

“This turn, let’s skip the pawnshop once.”

This labyrinth’s pawnshop was structured to appear as one of the next stages every time we cleared 3 stages.

So originally, we were supposed to enter the pawnshop this turn and convert all the junk items we’d diligently collected into LP…

“What???”

“Why are we skipping the pawnshop!”

Because I was convinced that maintaining the deficit a little longer and pushing the difficulty to its limits would be the path to more extreme long-term gains.

└ Damn, what a vicious bastard;;;

└ He’s going to squeeze even more here?

└ At this rate, won’t they get eliminated before the 9th stage pawn shop even comes out? lol

How about we make a bet then.

└ Sorry;;

Of course, this kind of opinion that Park Jinwoo raised did seem reasonable in some ways…

“Team leader. Shouldn’t we quickly turn a profit and start earning interest?”

I was convinced that rather than earning interest three turns early, the more important choice was to raise the difficulty further and increase the LP farming per round itself.

“If we don’t choose the pawnshop here and endure one more turn, we can get LP supply from the 5th stage too, right?”

“That’s… true.”

“Just this alone will more than make up for three turns of interest, so let’s endure just one more time.”

As I said this, the calculations in my head were already mostly complete.

‘Let’s see. If I cash out everything at the 9th turn pawnshop…’

Turning a profit would naturally happen, and the LP available for earning interest would be roughly around 900 LP.

If we start compounding at 10% per turn from there…

‘Considering farming supply too… if we save well until the 17th turn pawnshop, we can definitely exceed 2000 LP.’

Of course, the 8th-9th stage section would come as an incredibly hardcore ordeal.

But the fruit we could gain by enduring it was too sweet.

The cost of acting cowardly here could result in a final profit difference of over 2000 LP.

“So let’s do this the hard way, everyone. You understand, right?”

“Understood, team leader!”

“Minwoo, you’re not finding it difficult already, are you?”

“Th-that can’t be! I’m perfectly fine!”

Hmm.

It seems the persuasion is roughly finished…

Step-

Walking past the portal marked with the pawnshop emblem, I stopped in front of a portal where a small skull pattern was rippling.

Then, the next moment.

Whirrrr-!

[You have selected a portal.]

[Moving to the next stage.]

[Stage level has increased.]

[Current Stage Level: 5LV]

The entire party was instantly sucked toward Stage 5.

* * *

HBC Headquarters in Sangam-dong, Entertainment Department Main Monitoring Room.

The air that had been stagnant from days of all-night work was refreshingly ventilated as soon as the door opened.

Clatter-

“Director? Why did you come out again instead of watching from home?”

A man who had been brewing coffee in a corner of the monitoring room asked with wide eyes.

It was Kwon Jinsu, the field PD in charge of filming inside the Gate.

Jang Seyeon, who had washed up cleanly and even changed clothes, chuckled softly while roughly brushing back her still-damp hair.

The zombie who had dark circles reaching down to her chin just a few hours ago was nowhere to be found.

“It’s the first broadcast, after all. I still feel more comfortable watching the first episode here.”

Seyeon familiarly pulled out a chair in front of the main console and sat down.

She had gone home and caught some sleep, but couldn’t fall asleep properly.

Today was the day when the first button of a project she had devoted months to would be fastened.

Rather than the front row of her master bedroom, this place where data was compiled in real-time was a more comfortable sanctuary for her.

“That’s not a snipe at FD Jeongmin who left work on time and went home, is it?”

When Director Kwon asked mischievously, Seyeon shrugged her shoulders.

“Hehe. Well, it’s not particularly that.”

Jeongmin had worked harder than anyone else over the past few days, so he deserved to enjoy today comfortably at home.

Of course, when he came to work tomorrow, she would grill him about the viewership trends.

“By the way, Director Kwon, did you just come up from the field?”

“Ah, yes. Since it’s the early part of the labyrinth, we don’t really have much to do inside either. We’re just rotating field standby teams by shifts.”

Director Kwon was an ‘Awakened.’

Although his combat ability didn’t even reach C-rank Hunter level, he was valuable personnel who could handle filming equipment while enduring the mana inside Gates.

“You’re working hard.”

“Not at all. Well, we’re just watching monitors inside anyway.”

“Ah, I’m not trying to criticize. I just have something I want to ask.”

Seyeon tapped the pen she had placed on the console.

Suddenly, a conversation she had heard earlier in the day when she stopped by the mentor waiting room flashed through her mind.

“About the ‘Midas’s Garden’ that’s currently in progress.”

“Yes, Director. Is there a problem?”

“I just met with the mentors briefly on my way here, and Mentor Ma Gwangcheol suddenly asked about that. What would we do if a ‘profit’ came out of there?”

“…Profit?”

Director Kwon stopped stirring his instant coffee and tilted his head.

His expression was like someone who had heard the phrase ‘square circle.’

“Is it possible to make a profit in that labyrinth?”

“Right? I think so too.”

‘Midas’s Garden’ was structurally a dungeon that forced losses from the start.

From the entrance fee to the vicious prices, and the constantly depleted combat resources.

The evaluation criteria for this mission designed by the production team wasn’t ‘who makes more money,’ but ‘who more efficiently defends against losses.’

So the concept of ‘profit’ wasn’t even considered from the planning stage.

“Still, since the mentors are curious, we should prepare a plan under the assumption of ‘what if.'”

Seyeon rested her chin on her hand and stared at the red rocky terrain on the monitor.

“But if there’s a profit, naturally that party should divide and take it, right? Since that’s the basic reward for this mission.”

“Of course that’s right. We have to acknowledge individual ownership rights. But…”

Seyeon shook her head.

The problem was where that money would be ‘used.’

“If we let them use it in the next labyrinth, the mission balance would be completely broken.”

‘Hunters School’ places limits on points and equipment given each mission for fairness.

But what about wealth legitimately acquired during mission performance?

This wasn’t ‘given’ but ‘acquired,’ so the production team’s justification for forcibly retrieving it would be weak.

If any party made even a few hundred LP profit here and then brought it into the mission…

The tension of the survival show itself could collapse.

“Well… that won’t happen anyway. But just in case.”

Director Kwon answered while scratching the back of his head.

He too seemed to think this discussion was unrealistic, just manual-making work preparing for a hypothetical situation.

Making a profit in Midas’s Garden was nearly as impossible as freezing ice in a desert.

“For now, let’s watch the results and have a meeting among ourselves about what to do, Director. Everyone will come out crying while clutching their negative bank accounts anyway, so don’t worry too much.”

“Got it. Then, good work, Director Kwon.”

“Yes! Enjoy watching!”

Director Kwon bowed and disappeared toward the break room.

Left alone, Seyeon turned her gaze back to the monitor.

On screen, 20 parties were making their way through the labyrinth in their own ways.

Most were already struggling with insufficient funds, showing pained expressions.

‘Right. Profit, my foot.’

Seyeon chuckled and leaned back against her chair.

Mentor Ma Gwangcheol’s question was probably just excessive worry.

There was no way a team that made profit in this vicious labyrinth would appear.

However.

She couldn’t even imagine.

That at this very moment, in the deepest part of the labyrinth.

As if mocking the production team’s expectations, there existed one team frantically multiplying their assets.

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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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