Translation: Yamaking
Classes in Maegasaki High generally last for about six hours. After that, homeroom starts past 3PM and then everyone is dismissed.
From then on, club activities are normally carried out over the span of three hours which would cause the school grounds to be completely empty by around 7PM.
Some clubs would stay in school really late before a competition that they get scolded by the teachers, but in general, all club activities stop with the 6:30PM bell. After doing so, the clubs then clean up and prepare to go home.
We, the Modern Electronic Communications Game Club, also follow after that example and begin cleaning up as soon as we hear that bell.
“Come on Segawa. I’m going to turn off the AC so turn that off already.”
“Let’s go home~”
“Nooooooooooooooooooo! I don’t wanna go home yeeeeeeeeeeet!”
Because one of our members is crying and throwing a fit today, we couldn’t finish up with cleaning.
“…What’s happened here?”
Akiyama-san, who hasn’t joined us in a while, looked dumbfounded as she witnessed the scene before her.
“Like we’ve mentioned before, Segawa’s PC broke down you see, but…”
“But wasn’t she working part-time so she can buy a new one? Considering that she’s being paid daily, shouldn’t she be close to the amount that she needs by now?”
“Ah… Akiyama-san, do you know how she currently spends her time these days?”
“Eeh? Is Akane doing anything strange?”
‘She normally goes to her part-time job once club activities are over, right?’ is what she calmly replied. To that, Segawa murmured in reply,
“Once club activities are done… I go to the net cafe.”
“You go to the net cafe for your job?”
“I go to the net cafe and play.”
Even though she’s finally reached her limit and quit the job, she got along quite well with the owner so she cheerfully still drops by the cafe.
“And then I stay there until about dinnertime during which I go home. Once I’m done eating dinner, I go to sleep right away. After I wake up, I get on the first train to Maegasaki and drop by the net cafe again.”
“……”
Sette-san clammed up.
“And then, I leave just so that I can make it to class in time. After that there’s club activities… and then the net cafe again.”
“H, hey Akane? Do you have enough money for that kind of lifestyle?”
“I still have my pay from before I quit so…”
“Isn’t that what they call an infinite loop?!”
Oh, she’s learned a pretty good word. It’s exactly as you say, you know?
“It’s not an infinite loop at all! I’ll run out of money eventually! The day when I’m not going to be able to play anymore is approaching fast! And to add to that, my boss hunts are not going that well either!”
“So they finally have you marked huh?”
“That’s right!”
‘Bang!’ went the table as Segawa hit it.
“I’m still tailing those bastards from the boss hunting guild, but once they see me, they purposefully make it look like the boss hasn’t spawned at all… I don’t even know the death timers for the bosses anymore, and I can’t make it to the boss even if I run to it as soon as it spawns! I just can’t hunt at all anymore!”
“The people from the boss hunting guild has you on their list right?”
“She butts into their hunts everyday after all. This was bound to happen.”
“Uuuuuuuuu! I haven’t save up any gold at all!”
Segawa was, in every meaning of the phrase, at her limit.
“I understand deeply how you must feel. However, if I imprudently let you stay behind then the teachers would scold you and it could turn into a huge problem. If we were stopped from doing club activities from tomorrow onwards, that would be more unfavorable for you, wouldn’t it, Schwein?”
“You may be right but… won’t it work out if you just turn off the lights and secretly let her stay here?”
“That would make her never leave here!”
“That’s a nice idea! I’ll just live here now!”
“A, Akane… Your face is scaring me you know…?”
There she goes saying things like a club room refugee.
“I hate to disappoint you, but I simply won’t allow that with my authority as the club president. If you’re still adamant about resisting, then I’ll have no choice but forcefully shut everything down.”
“I can’t really cut War Machine’s lifespan short because of my whims… I guess it can’t be helped.”
Segawa finally took her hands off of the keyboard.
“Unfortunate as it may be, I’ll have to drop out of this competition…”
Is what Segawa said, crestfallen, as she went to turn off the PC.
“Walking together like this makes it look like I really have friends right!”
On the way home, Ako was saying dreadful things with a smiling face.
“Hey now, stop talking as if your premise is that you have no friends at all.”
“It’s fine you know? As long as I have Rusian in my world then everything is fine.”
“Stop saying such yandere-like things.”
Coming from you, it just doesn’t sound like a joke at all.
Actually, it makes me think you may be serious about that statement.
“But isn’t it more fun to go grinding and questing when there’s less people? That way we don’t have to line up in order to get kill counts for the quest mobs after all.”
TL note: In Japanese MMO culture, quest mobs are done on a first come, first serve basis where if you arrive and there’s people, everyone lines up to get their turn. It’s quite civil.
“Though in exchange, finding a party would take you about an hour. There’s a positive and negative side to that.”
“Then it would be fine if we could just change channels here.”
“Please don’t suddenly go CCing to a world devoid of people.”
“If we switch to a dead server and make our characters there then that would become a world just for the two of us right!”
“That’s eventually going to be merged with another large server you know?”
“No! Give us back our small village server!”
It looked as if she was traumatized by something as she clung on to me and protested.
And heck, reality and the game are different so don’t clump them up together like that.
“Uuu… At least let me be able to change the settings… I feel like the mouse sensitivity for my life is way worse than everyone else’s.”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard about settings for real life. Is it going to run smoother if you turn effects off?”
“I’d like to lower the difficulty if it’s possible!”
“Let’s just be happy that at least the graphics settings are maxed out.”
Though I can’t really deny that Ako’s life is somewhat in hard mode.
“And anyway, even if you’re able to lower the difficulty, it won’t affect anything if you keep doing nothing right? No events would happen if you just stay in place after all.”
“You got it wrong, I’m charging. I’m the type who uses the charge playstyle. I’m the forever charging Ako.”
“You mean like a charge style Guile?”
“Once the enemy jumps in, I’ll counter them with a backflip kick!”
“You sure that Flash Kick isn’t just going to end up whiffing?”
Even if you properly input the commands for it and the opportunity arrives, it would be all for naught if you mess it up.
TL note: This is all a reference to Guile’s playstyle in the old SF games where you mainly play defensive zoning. Guile’s Flash Kick requires you to hold down to perform it (which is called in the community as charging) and that is what Ako was referencing. Though I believe the defensive Guile style has changed greatly in SFV but still relies greatly on zoning.
“…H, hey…”
Suddenly, Segawa timidly called out to us.
Oh, so she finally feels like talking now? I wonder what’s on her mind.
“You two… Is this how your conversations always go?”
“Generally, yeah.”
“Most of it really is just like this right?”
“That sounds fun doesn’t it—”
Isn’t it, Akiyama-san?
This is already so much fun that saying me and Ako are acting like a married couple may not just be an overstatement.
“I thought for sure that, well, the topic would be more romantic… I mean, I’m not saying that it’s not looking like that at all but… After listening to you two banter, you still look like a stupid couple but… Something about it feels a bit off…”
“Is that weird?”
“It’s not that there’s anything strange about it right?”
It’s just normal, completely normal. This is certainly what you’d call standard operation.
“It was already late so I decided to walk with everyone and go home but… I’m kind of regretting my decision already.”
“What are you saying now? Don’t you think you’re being strange? Let’s have fun and talk along the way, all right?”
“A guild with an active chat is a nice guild after all right!”
“Okay, let’s make greetings for the guild mandatory then.”
“‘Ah, Ako-san didn’t reply to my greeting even though she’s logged in!’ would be like something someone would say right?”
“Please not that!”
A guild that forces your participation in chat is scary. Oh so very scary.
However, Akiyama-san tilted her head in wonder.
“But as the president of the ‘Maegasaki High’s Never Forgive Seenzoners Association’, I believe it’s only proper to reply back to every greeting you know?”
“Akiyama-san, you were in that kind of group?!”
“Actually Nishimura-kun, do you have LINE? Tell me yours.”
“I will definitely never tell that to you!”
I can’t imagine what she’d say to me if I ever seen zone her.
Actually, being told that directly might be better rather than having rumors about me spread around.
TL note: If you aren’t aware, seen zone seems to be the generally used term for someone who views a message and yet doesn’t reply. Since messengers these days notify you if someone has read your message or not, they’ll know if you chose to just ignore them. LINE is also one of those messengers in Japan.
“There’s no need for you to know the account of someone like Nishimura anyway. Unless you want someone messaging you like a stalker, then I’d advise against it.”
“Couldn’t you please be a bit kinder to me? I’m begging you here.”
“Beg? If you’re talking about begging then genuflecting is a standard position to assume while doing that, no?”
“Saying it like that doesn’t really show any hint of your kindness you know!”
“Will I get more friends if I genuflect?!”
“Ako! That’s not charming anyone at all!”
Everything is just messed up.
It’s already way into autumn, so the period of daylight has gotten shorter.
The way to school may be dimly lit, but any commotion happening on it could still easily be seen.
Once Segawa devotes herself to her part-time job, these moments we have of fooling around would drastically decrease.
It’s really depressing after all, though it can’t be helped.
“Come to think of it Segawa, you said that you were dropping out of the competition but…”
“I’ve already said it earlier but yeah… Sorry, it’s probably impossible for me.”
“Impossible is it?”
“If that drop before was a Moonlight then I might have been able to win but…”
Segawa’s face looked full of regret. Ooh, so she’s still saying that huh?
Rares like that don’t often drop you know. You always end up finding out it’s garbage after identifying it.
TL note: If you already forgot, equipment drops as unknown type of item in Ragnarok Online until you identify it. In this case, it dropped as a One-Handed Sword and the actual item will be known once you use a Magnifier on it.
“I couldn’t even find out the spawn timers for the boss anymore, and I think that’s impossible to farm a decent amount with just the time we have for club activities. To be honest, all that hunting has probably gotten me a net loss instead.”
“You bet everything on boss hunting after all.”
That means the only rival we have left is Master.
If we can save up more gold than Master, then the Guild House would turn into me and Ako’s ‘My Home’.
“But, I just can’t imagine us winning against Master…”
“Come to think of it, Master was saying that she was making a huge profit right?”
“It looks like her market manipulation is going well after all.”
Starting out, she mentioned her capital was about 400M. And she said she’s going to increase that amount even further.
“Then if it keeps going like this, it’ll turn into Maegasaki Palace huh?”
“Yet another dangerous situation that just calls for doxxing.”
Rather, I don’t think Nekohime-san would be able to stand that.
“Hey, hey— but you know…”
Just then, Akiyama-san pointed her index finger upwards.
“But isn’t it the standard for the most reliable person to do an epic fail at such an important time?”
“I don’t think you can really expect something like that when it’s Master we’re talking about.”
“Rusian’s right you know! Master always does great at everything!”
“Master is a pretty capable person you know?”
“Is that really so…”
As we cheerfully laughed that off, Akiyama-san playfully waved her finger around.
“But didn’t you say she was the idiot character in the club…”
Please just completely forget about that. I beg of you.
I wonder if it was that conversation that triggered this flag.
Or maybe it’s because Akiyama-san said this is what would happen and that’s why it did.
The next day in the club room, Master let out a single statement in a very low voice as we all listened on.
“……I really did it this time.”
She said that in a really low voice, but I felt that the way she couldn’t possibly be joking with how she said it.
It looks like something had happened. Something incredibly unpleasant, that is.
“……”
“……”
I took a peek at my side and my eyes met with Ako’s.
(“Hey Ako, go ask Master what happened will you?”)
(“That’s just impossible for me! That kind of thing is Rusian’s duty isn’t it?!”)
That’s probably what she was saying. At least, that’s what I think.
Selfishly pushing on the role of a mediator on to me is quite the problem. There are things that even I can’t do.
I took a peek at Segawa as well, who was at the other side of my monitor.
(“Go ask her already.”)
She’s glaring at me.
Isn’t she being too harsh on me? You didn’t even farm up that much compared to me so isn’t making you ask her this just fine?
But things can’t possibly proceed without anyone asking her. ‘It can’t be helped’, I thought as I slowly opened my mouth.
“Err, Master? Did something happen?”
“I wonder how I should explain this? If I were to describe it in one statement, it would be— it’s over.”
“You mean the gold farming?”
“Indeed.”
If you simply focus on the words that were said, it may sound like it’s a good thing.
‘I’ve safely finished up farming gold and now it’s over’, is the meaning you could take away from this statement.
However, I feel that’s not quite it. I can’t help but think it’s the opposite of that.
Why you ask? It’s because Master is making a face that looks like all her money in the Forex has suddenly melted away.
“This is just a guess but… Was it a loss?”
“Let’s see. It was a loss. A huge loss. If I had to put it into numbers, the losses should be around 600M.”
“Haa?!”
Segawa, who had been silently listening this whole time, suddenly reacted out loud.
“Just how did you lose that much gold?! Did you get scammed?!”
“No, that’s not it. I just normally lost at a battle of wits in the marketplace.”
Her words sound full of frustration, but since her face looks really relaxed, I just can’t feel any sort of tension at all.
But because the calm and composed Master doesn’t usually make that kind of face, I knew right away how grave the situation really is. Did you really just drop 600M down the drain?
“I’ve explained this to Rusian and Ako before. How I would buy up the supply for crafting materials, use that as a stepping stone, and manipulate the prices in the market. I profited quite well from the Crow Bird’s Feathers, so I tried doing the same thing with another item.”
“…And then?”
“The item I bought was the Sequoia Timber. It’s a high grade raw material that you can use in crafting— at least, that’s what I thought as I started this venture. Even though I went to check the trade history on said item, it seemed to have stable sales for the time being.”
If she had just stuck to the usual plan, counting in the huge profit she made off of this, she could’ve probably had close to about 1B in assets.
But the reason Master still took on this challenge, putting her grand ambitions aside, might have had something to do with her underestimating the part-time job from before.
“I went to the Auction House and bought up the Sequoia Timbers. I bought and bought until there was nothing left. I kept buying until the stock in the AH ran out. However… it kept getting restocked right away as soon as I bought them all up.”
Even if you have a large stock of crafting materials, it’s going to go down in price if you simply put them all up at once.
That’s why a good merchant would know to sell them bit by bit. Once the current stock sells out, that’s when you put more up again. This method is not anything new at all.
And so, that was the trap.
“Even when I kept buying it all up, they still posted it at the same price. They’ll run out of their stock eventually, so when that happens, it’ll be my win. Thinking that, I continued buying them up. I didn’t stop. However— the first one to run out was my gold.”
“You bought 600M worth of timber Master…?”
“Yes, that’s right. I kept buying until I ran out of funds. In the worst case scenario, I could just sell them all back for the same price. At least, that’s what I thought.”
‘However…’, Master drooped her shoulders as she continued on.
“They didn’t sell. I couldn’t possibly sell them. When I started buying the Sequoia Timber, the trade history showed them being sold at 10k a piece. I definitely saw it being bought up at that price. There were logs of its sale, logs of it being sold numerous times. However, those records themselves were fake. I’ve been had.”
Suddenly, Master seemed to be laughing at her own mistake as she leaned on her chair, turning her back against us.
“Just what exactly happened?”
“It seems that there was someone who had set people who do market manipulation as their target and set up sales log of trash items being sold out in order to hook them in. They would create logs of the item being sold by their own, making it look as if the item had any value at all. And I fell for that trap hook, line and sinker.”
So to summarize, they put up a large amount of trash items in the auction house for a high price, buy some of them up themselves, and then wait for an unsuspecting person to discover that and buy it all up.
“It seems that the info about Sequoia Timber being used in crafting was true, but that was a long time ago. Now however, it’s a completely useless item. My sources were simply too outdated.”
So it turned into an item that was completely useless for everyone huh?
Then no matter how many of them you buy up, there’s simply no way to sell them off.
“I wouldn’t be able to get back a hundredth of what I spent even if I try to sell it. This is truly what you’d call a checkmate. Hahahahaha…”
Master gave a hollow laugh.
In my screen, I could see Apricot dropping the Sequoia Timbers on the floor. It seems as if she had already given in to despair.
“This is what happens when you try doing something you’re not used to…”
“The market pros are really scary right…”
Seeing the sloppy work of a beginner market manipulator, they went and set out their trap.
Net games sure are scary. You can find that there are incredible pros no matter what the genre may be.
“You also did market flipping right? What about the profits from there?”
“That was also a huge failure. Ever since the announcement for the Housing Update, barely any of the players are buying anything in order to save up money for land. This means that the value of gold has risen, and the prices for equipment and items have decreased. The items I bought, that I thought were actually cheap, were also ones that I couldn’t sell back at all.”
Just as the management planned, it seems the issue of in-game inflation is getting better.
Though that would be a huge blow to the players who make their gold by buying and selling stuff from players.
“And there you have it… Vexing as it may be, you can simply consider myself as having done nothing at all. Ha Ha Ha.”
The sight of Master’s smile, who had thrown everything, was purer than anyone else’s and was also full of regret, more than anyone else’s.
“Why couldn’t you have stopped when you already had a decent profit…”
“A castle. I simply wanted a castle. I still can’t forget the ecstasy of sitting on the throne of the castle lord that day…”
“So the Castle Siege was the main cause!”
Even I was overjoyed about our victory that day, but that doesn’t mean that it’s alright to sacrifice everything just for a mere throne.
“Ah that’s it Rusian. Won’t you back me up with those funds of yours? If I can just have a little more gold on hand then I can definitely show them this time. I’ll surely be able to reinstate myself as the Queen of the Marketplace!”
“Don’t go saying things like those trash adults who lose all of their money in Forex. I’m not going to lend you any.”
You should just obediently retreat here before the damage done gets any bigger.
Anyhow, Master has dropped out too.
This was certainly unexpected, but this is the fate that awaits those who risk everything in a gamble.
“That means— huh?”
Suddenly, I just realized the astonishing truth of the situation.
“Does this mean it’s going to become the house that Ako and I wanted it to be?”
“Right! We did it! Epic win!”
“By the way, how much did the two of you save up anyway?”
“Ako, just how much did we end up getting?”
“If you add up both our gold, we saved up around 500M.”
“Seriously?! That’s amazing!”
Farm up 10M an hour for 4 hours every day. Add to that the amount of time we spent on our farming up gold, and this is what you get. This is the product of both our blood, sweat, and tears.
“Aaaah, I didn’t expect to lose to something normal like this.”
“A steady and honest effort has never failed anyone.”
The two of them smiled wryly in response to that.
Now you see right? You thought for sure we were going to lose, didn’t you? Well too bad. In your face, you two.
“In addition to that, there’s one more problem that needs to be resolved.”
“What is it? Is it the name of the house?”
“I’ll leave that for you to decide, Ako. Just make sure to pick a proper one.”
It’s not a problem for the two of us.
“We planned to make this a guild house in the beginning right? But since no one else but me and Ako are going to be putting out money for it, then doesn’t this make it our personal house rather than the guild house?”
“……Ah, that’s right.”
“True, I myself am not able to provide a single gold for this…”
It seems that they finally realized, is what their faces were saying.
It’s because it’s going to turn out like this that you shouldn’t have ventured in a do-or-die gamble.
As a result of all that, you didn’t make any gold at all.
“I guess we really have to be serious in thinking about our future right~”
“I have doubts about what you consider as ‘serious’ when we’re talking about the future but… well, I’ll let that slide this time.”
In any case, we have safely saved up the amount we have previously planned for. All that’s left now is to wait for the update.
“Do you two think you could take in a freeloader like me in your house?”
“I mind not as long as I have a place to stay. I’m fine with sleeping on the floor as well.”
“We’ll properly set a room for you two there as well, so don’t worry!”
“The second floor is the married couple’s personal area so make sure you don’t enter it okay?”
Don’t go saying those lines that sound like things said in a two-family house.
“…Mu. What perfect timing. The announcements in official site has just updated.”
Eh? There’s an update?
This is bad, I haven’t checked it at all. I hurriedly opened the page to the official site to take a look.
“Update Pre-patch Announcement. It says here ‘Cost of buying land’!”
“So the prices for land have already come out… It would be outstanding if it were cheaper than what I had anticipated—”
“Hmm let’s see… what we were aiming for was something inside the city, a 4th rate residence located someplace out of the way of everything else, and M-sized land so… it should cost about—”
Segawa narrrated until that part as she abruptly stopped.
What’s the matter I wonder? And as I went to check the price for myself, I unintentionally gasped as well.
I, is this… serious…
“A 4th rate residence in Lodestone with an M-sized land is…”
“Worth roughly, 1B.”
It was that amount.
It was double than what we had expected.
“…We can’t buy this.”
In the end, the management team has subverted all our expectations.
“What do we do…?”
“This is… quite a problem.”
We’ve come this far into our plan of setting up our own home, only to arrive at a dead end.
Translation: Yamaking
Classes in Maegasaki High generally last for about six hours. After that, homeroom starts past 3PM and then everyone is dismissed.
From then on, club activities are normally carried out over the span of three hours which would cause the school grounds to be completely empty by around 7PM.
Some clubs would stay in school really late before a competition that they get scolded by the teachers, but in general, all club activities stop with the 6:30PM bell. After doing so, the clubs then clean up and prepare to go home.
We, the Modern Electronic Communications Game Club, also follow after that example and begin cleaning up as soon as we hear that bell.
“Come on Segawa. I’m going to turn off the AC so turn that off already.”
“Let’s go home~”
“Nooooooooooooooooooo! I don’t wanna go home yeeeeeeeeeeet!”
Because one of our members is crying and throwing a fit today, we couldn’t finish up with cleaning.
“…What’s happened here?”
Akiyama-san, who hasn’t joined us in a while, looked dumbfounded as she witnessed the scene before her.
“Like we’ve mentioned before, Segawa’s PC broke down you see, but…”
“But wasn’t she working part-time so she can buy a new one? Considering that she’s being paid daily, shouldn’t she be close to the amount that she needs by now?”
“Ah… Akiyama-san, do you know how she currently spends her time these days?”
“Eeh? Is Akane doing anything strange?”
‘She normally goes to her part-time job once club activities are over, right?’ is what she calmly replied. To that, Segawa murmured in reply,
“Once club activities are done… I go to the net cafe.”
“You go to the net cafe for your job?”
“I go to the net cafe and play.”
Even though she’s finally reached her limit and quit the job, she got along quite well with the owner so she cheerfully still drops by the cafe.
“And then I stay there until about dinnertime during which I go home. Once I’m done eating dinner, I go to sleep right away. After I wake up, I get on the first train to Maegasaki and drop by the net cafe again.”
“……”
Sette-san clammed up.
“And then, I leave just so that I can make it to class in time. After that there’s club activities… and then the net cafe again.”
“H, hey Akane? Do you have enough money for that kind of lifestyle?”
“I still have my pay from before I quit so…”
“Isn’t that what they call an infinite loop?!”
Oh, she’s learned a pretty good word. It’s exactly as you say, you know?
“It’s not an infinite loop at all! I’ll run out of money eventually! The day when I’m not going to be able to play anymore is approaching fast! And to add to that, my boss hunts are not going that well either!”
“So they finally have you marked huh?”
“That’s right!”
‘Bang!’ went the table as Segawa hit it.
“I’m still tailing those bastards from the boss hunting guild, but once they see me, they purposefully make it look like the boss hasn’t spawned at all… I don’t even know the death timers for the bosses anymore, and I can’t make it to the boss even if I run to it as soon as it spawns! I just can’t hunt at all anymore!”
“The people from the boss hunting guild has you on their list right?”
“She butts into their hunts everyday after all. This was bound to happen.”
“Uuuuuuuuu! I haven’t save up any gold at all!”
Segawa was, in every meaning of the phrase, at her limit.
“I understand deeply how you must feel. However, if I imprudently let you stay behind then the teachers would scold you and it could turn into a huge problem. If we were stopped from doing club activities from tomorrow onwards, that would be more unfavorable for you, wouldn’t it, Schwein?”
“You may be right but… won’t it work out if you just turn off the lights and secretly let her stay here?”
“That would make her never leave here!”
“That’s a nice idea! I’ll just live here now!”
“A, Akane… Your face is scaring me you know…?”
There she goes saying things like a club room refugee.
“I hate to disappoint you, but I simply won’t allow that with my authority as the club president. If you’re still adamant about resisting, then I’ll have no choice but forcefully shut everything down.”
“I can’t really cut War Machine’s lifespan short because of my whims… I guess it can’t be helped.”
Segawa finally took her hands off of the keyboard.
“Unfortunate as it may be, I’ll have to drop out of this competition…”
Is what Segawa said, crestfallen, as she went to turn off the PC.
“Walking together like this makes it look like I really have friends right!”
On the way home, Ako was saying dreadful things with a smiling face.
“Hey now, stop talking as if your premise is that you have no friends at all.”
“It’s fine you know? As long as I have Rusian in my world then everything is fine.”
“Stop saying such yandere-like things.”
Coming from you, it just doesn’t sound like a joke at all.
Actually, it makes me think you may be serious about that statement.
“But isn’t it more fun to go grinding and questing when there’s less people? That way we don’t have to line up in order to get kill counts for the quest mobs after all.”
TL note: In Japanese MMO culture, quest mobs are done on a first come, first serve basis where if you arrive and there’s people, everyone lines up to get their turn. It’s quite civil.
“Though in exchange, finding a party would take you about an hour. There’s a positive and negative side to that.”
“Then it would be fine if we could just change channels here.”
“Please don’t suddenly go CCing to a world devoid of people.”
“If we switch to a dead server and make our characters there then that would become a world just for the two of us right!”
“That’s eventually going to be merged with another large server you know?”
“No! Give us back our small village server!”
It looked as if she was traumatized by something as she clung on to me and protested.
And heck, reality and the game are different so don’t clump them up together like that.
“Uuu… At least let me be able to change the settings… I feel like the mouse sensitivity for my life is way worse than everyone else’s.”
“That’s the first time I’ve heard about settings for real life. Is it going to run smoother if you turn effects off?”
“I’d like to lower the difficulty if it’s possible!”
“Let’s just be happy that at least the graphics settings are maxed out.”
Though I can’t really deny that Ako’s life is somewhat in hard mode.
“And anyway, even if you’re able to lower the difficulty, it won’t affect anything if you keep doing nothing right? No events would happen if you just stay in place after all.”
“You got it wrong, I’m charging. I’m the type who uses the charge playstyle. I’m the forever charging Ako.”
“You mean like a charge style Guile?”
“Once the enemy jumps in, I’ll counter them with a backflip kick!”
“You sure that Flash Kick isn’t just going to end up whiffing?”
Even if you properly input the commands for it and the opportunity arrives, it would be all for naught if you mess it up.
TL note: This is all a reference to Guile’s playstyle in the old SF games where you mainly play defensive zoning. Guile’s Flash Kick requires you to hold down to perform it (which is called in the community as charging) and that is what Ako was referencing. Though I believe the defensive Guile style has changed greatly in SFV but still relies greatly on zoning.
“…H, hey…”
Suddenly, Segawa timidly called out to us.
Oh, so she finally feels like talking now? I wonder what’s on her mind.
“You two… Is this how your conversations always go?”
“Generally, yeah.”
“Most of it really is just like this right?”
“That sounds fun doesn’t it—”
Isn’t it, Akiyama-san?
This is already so much fun that saying me and Ako are acting like a married couple may not just be an overstatement.
“I thought for sure that, well, the topic would be more romantic… I mean, I’m not saying that it’s not looking like that at all but… After listening to you two banter, you still look like a stupid couple but… Something about it feels a bit off…”
“Is that weird?”
“It’s not that there’s anything strange about it right?”
It’s just normal, completely normal. This is certainly what you’d call standard operation.
“It was already late so I decided to walk with everyone and go home but… I’m kind of regretting my decision already.”
“What are you saying now? Don’t you think you’re being strange? Let’s have fun and talk along the way, all right?”
“A guild with an active chat is a nice guild after all right!”
“Okay, let’s make greetings for the guild mandatory then.”
“‘Ah, Ako-san didn’t reply to my greeting even though she’s logged in!’ would be like something someone would say right?”
“Please not that!”
A guild that forces your participation in chat is scary. Oh so very scary.
However, Akiyama-san tilted her head in wonder.
“But as the president of the ‘Maegasaki High’s Never Forgive Seenzoners Association’, I believe it’s only proper to reply back to every greeting you know?”
“Akiyama-san, you were in that kind of group?!”
“Actually Nishimura-kun, do you have LINE? Tell me yours.”
“I will definitely never tell that to you!”
I can’t imagine what she’d say to me if I ever seen zone her.
Actually, being told that directly might be better rather than having rumors about me spread around.
TL note: If you aren’t aware, seen zone seems to be the generally used term for someone who views a message and yet doesn’t reply. Since messengers these days notify you if someone has read your message or not, they’ll know if you chose to just ignore them. LINE is also one of those messengers in Japan.
“There’s no need for you to know the account of someone like Nishimura anyway. Unless you want someone messaging you like a stalker, then I’d advise against it.”
“Couldn’t you please be a bit kinder to me? I’m begging you here.”
“Beg? If you’re talking about begging then genuflecting is a standard position to assume while doing that, no?”
“Saying it like that doesn’t really show any hint of your kindness you know!”
“Will I get more friends if I genuflect?!”
“Ako! That’s not charming anyone at all!”
Everything is just messed up.
It’s already way into autumn, so the period of daylight has gotten shorter.
The way to school may be dimly lit, but any commotion happening on it could still easily be seen.
Once Segawa devotes herself to her part-time job, these moments we have of fooling around would drastically decrease.
It’s really depressing after all, though it can’t be helped.
“Come to think of it Segawa, you said that you were dropping out of the competition but…”
“I’ve already said it earlier but yeah… Sorry, it’s probably impossible for me.”
“Impossible is it?”
“If that drop before was a Moonlight then I might have been able to win but…”
Segawa’s face looked full of regret. Ooh, so she’s still saying that huh?
Rares like that don’t often drop you know. You always end up finding out it’s garbage after identifying it.
TL note: If you already forgot, equipment drops as unknown type of item in Ragnarok Online until you identify it. In this case, it dropped as a One-Handed Sword and the actual item will be known once you use a Magnifier on it.
“I couldn’t even find out the spawn timers for the boss anymore, and I think that’s impossible to farm a decent amount with just the time we have for club activities. To be honest, all that hunting has probably gotten me a net loss instead.”
“You bet everything on boss hunting after all.”
That means the only rival we have left is Master.
If we can save up more gold than Master, then the Guild House would turn into me and Ako’s ‘My Home’.
“But, I just can’t imagine us winning against Master…”
“Come to think of it, Master was saying that she was making a huge profit right?”
“It looks like her market manipulation is going well after all.”
Starting out, she mentioned her capital was about 400M. And she said she’s going to increase that amount even further.
“Then if it keeps going like this, it’ll turn into Maegasaki Palace huh?”
“Yet another dangerous situation that just calls for doxxing.”
Rather, I don’t think Nekohime-san would be able to stand that.
“Hey, hey— but you know…”
Just then, Akiyama-san pointed her index finger upwards.
“But isn’t it the standard for the most reliable person to do an epic fail at such an important time?”
“I don’t think you can really expect something like that when it’s Master we’re talking about.”
“Rusian’s right you know! Master always does great at everything!”
“Master is a pretty capable person you know?”
“Is that really so…”
As we cheerfully laughed that off, Akiyama-san playfully waved her finger around.
“But didn’t you say she was the idiot character in the club…”
Please just completely forget about that. I beg of you.
I wonder if it was that conversation that triggered this flag.
Or maybe it’s because Akiyama-san said this is what would happen and that’s why it did.
The next day in the club room, Master let out a single statement in a very low voice as we all listened on.
“……I really did it this time.”
She said that in a really low voice, but I felt that the way she couldn’t possibly be joking with how she said it.
It looks like something had happened. Something incredibly unpleasant, that is.
“……”
“……”
I took a peek at my side and my eyes met with Ako’s.
(“Hey Ako, go ask Master what happened will you?”)
(“That’s just impossible for me! That kind of thing is Rusian’s duty isn’t it?!”)
That’s probably what she was saying. At least, that’s what I think.
Selfishly pushing on the role of a mediator on to me is quite the problem. There are things that even I can’t do.
I took a peek at Segawa as well, who was at the other side of my monitor.
(“Go ask her already.”)
She’s glaring at me.
Isn’t she being too harsh on me? You didn’t even farm up that much compared to me so isn’t making you ask her this just fine?
But things can’t possibly proceed without anyone asking her. ‘It can’t be helped’, I thought as I slowly opened my mouth.
“Err, Master? Did something happen?”
“I wonder how I should explain this? If I were to describe it in one statement, it would be— it’s over.”
“You mean the gold farming?”
“Indeed.”
If you simply focus on the words that were said, it may sound like it’s a good thing.
‘I’ve safely finished up farming gold and now it’s over’, is the meaning you could take away from this statement.
However, I feel that’s not quite it. I can’t help but think it’s the opposite of that.
Why you ask? It’s because Master is making a face that looks like all her money in the Forex has suddenly melted away.
“This is just a guess but… Was it a loss?”
“Let’s see. It was a loss. A huge loss. If I had to put it into numbers, the losses should be around 600M.”
“Haa?!”
Segawa, who had been silently listening this whole time, suddenly reacted out loud.
“Just how did you lose that much gold?! Did you get scammed?!”
“No, that’s not it. I just normally lost at a battle of wits in the marketplace.”
Her words sound full of frustration, but since her face looks really relaxed, I just can’t feel any sort of tension at all.
But because the calm and composed Master doesn’t usually make that kind of face, I knew right away how grave the situation really is. Did you really just drop 600M down the drain?
“I’ve explained this to Rusian and Ako before. How I would buy up the supply for crafting materials, use that as a stepping stone, and manipulate the prices in the market. I profited quite well from the Crow Bird’s Feathers, so I tried doing the same thing with another item.”
“…And then?”
“The item I bought was the Sequoia Timber. It’s a high grade raw material that you can use in crafting— at least, that’s what I thought as I started this venture. Even though I went to check the trade history on said item, it seemed to have stable sales for the time being.”
If she had just stuck to the usual plan, counting in the huge profit she made off of this, she could’ve probably had close to about 1B in assets.
But the reason Master still took on this challenge, putting her grand ambitions aside, might have had something to do with her underestimating the part-time job from before.
“I went to the Auction House and bought up the Sequoia Timbers. I bought and bought until there was nothing left. I kept buying until the stock in the AH ran out. However… it kept getting restocked right away as soon as I bought them all up.”
Even if you have a large stock of crafting materials, it’s going to go down in price if you simply put them all up at once.
That’s why a good merchant would know to sell them bit by bit. Once the current stock sells out, that’s when you put more up again. This method is not anything new at all.
And so, that was the trap.
“Even when I kept buying it all up, they still posted it at the same price. They’ll run out of their stock eventually, so when that happens, it’ll be my win. Thinking that, I continued buying them up. I didn’t stop. However— the first one to run out was my gold.”
“You bought 600M worth of timber Master…?”
“Yes, that’s right. I kept buying until I ran out of funds. In the worst case scenario, I could just sell them all back for the same price. At least, that’s what I thought.”
‘However…’, Master drooped her shoulders as she continued on.
“They didn’t sell. I couldn’t possibly sell them. When I started buying the Sequoia Timber, the trade history showed them being sold at 10k a piece. I definitely saw it being bought up at that price. There were logs of its sale, logs of it being sold numerous times. However, those records themselves were fake. I’ve been had.”
Suddenly, Master seemed to be laughing at her own mistake as she leaned on her chair, turning her back against us.
“Just what exactly happened?”
“It seems that there was someone who had set people who do market manipulation as their target and set up sales log of trash items being sold out in order to hook them in. They would create logs of the item being sold by their own, making it look as if the item had any value at all. And I fell for that trap hook, line and sinker.”
So to summarize, they put up a large amount of trash items in the auction house for a high price, buy some of them up themselves, and then wait for an unsuspecting person to discover that and buy it all up.
“It seems that the info about Sequoia Timber being used in crafting was true, but that was a long time ago. Now however, it’s a completely useless item. My sources were simply too outdated.”
So it turned into an item that was completely useless for everyone huh?
Then no matter how many of them you buy up, there’s simply no way to sell them off.
“I wouldn’t be able to get back a hundredth of what I spent even if I try to sell it. This is truly what you’d call a checkmate. Hahahahaha…”
Master gave a hollow laugh.
In my screen, I could see Apricot dropping the Sequoia Timbers on the floor. It seems as if she had already given in to despair.
“This is what happens when you try doing something you’re not used to…”
“The market pros are really scary right…”
Seeing the sloppy work of a beginner market manipulator, they went and set out their trap.
Net games sure are scary. You can find that there are incredible pros no matter what the genre may be.
“You also did market flipping right? What about the profits from there?”
“That was also a huge failure. Ever since the announcement for the Housing Update, barely any of the players are buying anything in order to save up money for land. This means that the value of gold has risen, and the prices for equipment and items have decreased. The items I bought, that I thought were actually cheap, were also ones that I couldn’t sell back at all.”
Just as the management planned, it seems the issue of in-game inflation is getting better.
Though that would be a huge blow to the players who make their gold by buying and selling stuff from players.
“And there you have it… Vexing as it may be, you can simply consider myself as having done nothing at all. Ha Ha Ha.”
The sight of Master’s smile, who had thrown everything, was purer than anyone else’s and was also full of regret, more than anyone else’s.
“Why couldn’t you have stopped when you already had a decent profit…”
“A castle. I simply wanted a castle. I still can’t forget the ecstasy of sitting on the throne of the castle lord that day…”
“So the Castle Siege was the main cause!”
Even I was overjoyed about our victory that day, but that doesn’t mean that it’s alright to sacrifice everything just for a mere throne.
“Ah that’s it Rusian. Won’t you back me up with those funds of yours? If I can just have a little more gold on hand then I can definitely show them this time. I’ll surely be able to reinstate myself as the Queen of the Marketplace!”
“Don’t go saying things like those trash adults who lose all of their money in Forex. I’m not going to lend you any.”
You should just obediently retreat here before the damage done gets any bigger.
Anyhow, Master has dropped out too.
This was certainly unexpected, but this is the fate that awaits those who risk everything in a gamble.
“That means— huh?”
Suddenly, I just realized the astonishing truth of the situation.
“Does this mean it’s going to become the house that Ako and I wanted it to be?”
“Right! We did it! Epic win!”
“By the way, how much did the two of you save up anyway?”
“Ako, just how much did we end up getting?”
“If you add up both our gold, we saved up around 500M.”
“Seriously?! That’s amazing!”
Farm up 10M an hour for 4 hours every day. Add to that the amount of time we spent on our farming up gold, and this is what you get. This is the product of both our blood, sweat, and tears.
“Aaaah, I didn’t expect to lose to something normal like this.”
“A steady and honest effort has never failed anyone.”
The two of them smiled wryly in response to that.
Now you see right? You thought for sure we were going to lose, didn’t you? Well too bad. In your face, you two.
“In addition to that, there’s one more problem that needs to be resolved.”
“What is it? Is it the name of the house?”
“I’ll leave that for you to decide, Ako. Just make sure to pick a proper one.”
It’s not a problem for the two of us.
“We planned to make this a guild house in the beginning right? But since no one else but me and Ako are going to be putting out money for it, then doesn’t this make it our personal house rather than the guild house?”
“……Ah, that’s right.”
“True, I myself am not able to provide a single gold for this…”
It seems that they finally realized, is what their faces were saying.
It’s because it’s going to turn out like this that you shouldn’t have ventured in a do-or-die gamble.
As a result of all that, you didn’t make any gold at all.
“I guess we really have to be serious in thinking about our future right~”
“I have doubts about what you consider as ‘serious’ when we’re talking about the future but… well, I’ll let that slide this time.”
In any case, we have safely saved up the amount we have previously planned for. All that’s left now is to wait for the update.
“Do you two think you could take in a freeloader like me in your house?”
“I mind not as long as I have a place to stay. I’m fine with sleeping on the floor as well.”
“We’ll properly set a room for you two there as well, so don’t worry!”
“The second floor is the married couple’s personal area so make sure you don’t enter it okay?”
Don’t go saying those lines that sound like things said in a two-family house.
“…Mu. What perfect timing. The announcements in official site has just updated.”
Eh? There’s an update?
This is bad, I haven’t checked it at all. I hurriedly opened the page to the official site to take a look.
“Update Pre-patch Announcement. It says here ‘Cost of buying land’!”
“So the prices for land have already come out… It would be outstanding if it were cheaper than what I had anticipated—”
“Hmm let’s see… what we were aiming for was something inside the city, a 4th rate residence located someplace out of the way of everything else, and M-sized land so… it should cost about—”
Segawa narrrated until that part as she abruptly stopped.
What’s the matter I wonder? And as I went to check the price for myself, I unintentionally gasped as well.
I, is this… serious…
“A 4th rate residence in Lodestone with an M-sized land is…”
“Worth roughly, 1B.”
It was that amount.
It was double than what we had expected.
“…We can’t buy this.”
In the end, the management team has subverted all our expectations.
“What do we do…?”
“This is… quite a problem.”
We’ve come this far into our plan of setting up our own home, only to arrive at a dead end.
