In a luxurious room, a man struck a pose to take a selfie for social media.
A heavy necklace hung in thick clusters around his neck, decorated with pure gold and large diamonds, while on his wrist was a top-tier luxury watch from Patek Philippe, and stacks of cash were strewn about the floor here and there, deliberately scattered as if carelessly tossed aside.
Capturing all of this in the frame together, with a wide grin showing his teeth—snap—
Smiling in satisfaction, he uploaded the photo to his social media.
Thomas Harris, a Canadian Admittee, was a marksman class without equal when it came to long-range dealing,
and he was widely acknowledged as Canada's top S-Rank Admittee, as well as the Clan Leader of the large Canadian clan, [Thunder Base].
Many S-Rank Admittees lived lavishly off the fame and income earned from climbing the Tower, but few brought in as much revenue as Thomas Harris.
Not only was he always included in the annual "Top 10 Admittees Who Earned the Most Money in 20XX," but he was also someone who frequently took first place.
His skills were as outstanding as his reputation, but what made him a world-famous figure was his flaunting of wealth on an enormous scale.
Thomas Harris, the 'Wealth-Flaunting Admittee,' had imprinted his name on the world through his ostentatious display of riches even more than through his undeniable skill.
His social media was always plastered with shocking boastful photos.
Walls coated in gold, a collection of supercars of which only a handful existed in the entire world, bookshelves packed tight with high-denomination bills instead of books, a wealth-flaunting bed with a mattress placed atop heaps of cash bundles, and even a golden sofa made by filling a transparent sofa-shaped case full of gold.
There was a certain amusement to be had in viewing these astonishing and outlandish photos.
Of course, there were plenty of people who cursed and criticized him, as well as many who simply expressed envy, but either way, he currently boasted an enormous following on Outstar.
With an annual income easily exceeding $300 million, he flaunted his wealth by every means possible, but he had lately been feeling disappointed as his material was gradually running dry.
He could acquire more supercars, luxury homes, gold bars, or bundles of cash as much as he wanted, but they were content he had already posted too much of. It was getting stale.
While agonizing over what else he could use to show off his wealth, he spotted an item at the Global Ontower Auction House that made his eyes snap wide open.
It was none other than a [Highest-Grade Disease Treatment Potion].
He hurriedly participated in the auction, but at that auction attended by the world's wealthiest elites, the Disease Treatment Potion soared to insane prices.
Of course, having never anticipated such an astronomical sum, he failed to make the purchase.
Because he had neither the mental preparation nor the funds ready for such an amount.
He had thought he could push himself to pay a fairly high price, say, around $100 million if he stretched.
In fact, it was an item worth that much in terms of both utility and showing off.
But lo and behold, the first bottle was won at $500 million, and the last bottle surpassed $1 billion.
And so, the five bottles that were likely the most valuable items on Earth passed forever into others' hands.
After that, Thomas could not sleep.
Whenever he closed his eyes, the [Highest-Grade Disease Treatment Potion] haunted him.
Gold and diamonds looked worthless.
How wonderful would it have been to buy it and post it on social media?
Some time passed, and one completely unexpected day,
Thomas saw another new item at the auction house.
It was five bottles of [Highest-Grade Regeneration Potion].
This time, he did not hesitate.
He prepared enormous funds and faced the auction.
Fortunately, the winning bids were much cheaper than those of the [Highest-Grade Disease Treatment Potion].
The first bottle was won at 15 million points. And the second bottle was won at 20 million, with Thomas becoming the winner.
A selfie of himself holding the [Highest-Grade Regeneration Potion] he had purchased for 20 million points high in his hand.
In the photo, Thomas's mouth corners were hooked up to his ears as if he owned the world.
'It was a transaction well worth it.'
It was a crazy purchase pouring out almost 60-70% of his annual income, but he had no regrets.
Countless comments were posted on the photo with that as the caption.
He wanted to attach a string to the bottle and wear it as a necklace, but the bottle was too cheap for that. Ridiculous. A mere titanium bottle...
"Tsk... To think they'd put something so precious in such a cheap bottle."
If it were him, he would have made the bottle out of platinum and decorated it with diamonds and rubies. Such a shame.
He had considered transferring it to another container, but he hesitated because once opened, it would no longer be new.
Grumbling, he carefully placed the [Highest-Grade Regeneration Potion] on the top shelf of his luxury display case.
Who on earth was the seller?
It was only natural to be curious.
"He must be quite wealthy, tsk, but he doesn't know how to spend with style. I'd like to see his face at least once. While I'm at it, I could teach him a thing or two about the luxury life."
That was the small wish of Thomas Harris, Canada's Wealth-Flaunting S-Rank Admittee.
* * *
All five of Suho's [Highest-Grade Regeneration Potions] sold, but they only fetched a total of 90 million points.
Regeneration Potions that immediately recovered stamina and various energies seemed less popular than Disease Treatment or Heal Potions that saved lives from incurable diseases or immediately fatal traumatic injuries.
Truthfully, he didn't much care whether they sold for 90 million points or 900 million points.
More than that, what Suho was immersed in was the mass production of [Mid-Grade Heal Potions].
The dream village in his subspace warehouse,
In a place decorated as a workshop, Suho stacked 10,000 titanium empty bottles and ran the machines at full capacity.
To properly begin operations, he had additionally purchased and installed machines like automatic liquid measuring injectors and packaging machines and vacuum sealing machines.
Even so, it was quite a labor-intensive task.
After spending several days working tirelessly, he completed 10,000 bottles of [Mid-Grade Heal Potion].
He packaged and sealed them in boxes of 25 bottles each so the auction house delivery team could easily take them. 400 such boxes were piled up high.
After giving Ravi a heads-up to go outside and receive the boxes, Suho returned to his room and opened the domestic online auction house.
His goal for now was to crash the domestic market price.
He decided to try selling about 1,000 bottles first, listing them all at 1,000 points (10 million won) per bottle.
* * *
"Did you see? The auction house?"
"What on earth is happening... Is it a cataclysm?"
"No, which Tower is this volume coming from? Have you heard which team it is?"
"I don't know. No matter which team or Tower it is, can that much volume come from floor-by-floor raiding? Did some kind of Heal Potion mine explode or something?"
"Seriously. Even three or four bottles would be considered a lot."
"More than that, the price... the price... starting bid is 1,000...?"
"There's no rule saying it has to stay at that price if competition heats up."
"But still, the starting bid isn't even 10,000. I've never seen a Mid-Grade listed at that starting price. It's almost 10%!"
"Phew, could the day come when even someone like me carries a Mid-Grade potion while climbing the Tower...?"
"By the way, people who bought them at high prices recently must be feeling quite bitter..."
All the clans and all the Admittees across the country were in an uproar.
The world was in an uproar over the 1,000 Mid-Grade Potions that dominated the auction house at a certain hour on a certain day.
It was major enough to be covered as headline news.
Overseas observers checking the Korean Ontower Auction House through branches and other bypass routes also watched this situation closely.
Unable to hold back, the Chief called Suho.
"Hello. Chief, this is Jeong Suho."
"Admittee Suho... what in the world is going on at the auction house..."
"Ah, the Mid-Grade Heal Potions? Well, it's nothing much. I've been steadily collecting items from the Replica Tower, and I guess I had a critical hit that day. So many Mid-Grade Potions came out... They're low-cost mass-produced potions anyway. So I just released them all at once."
"L-low-cost... Even so, Mid-Grade Heal Potions command a market price of several hundred million won per bottle... The market price will fluctuate greatly."
"Well, that's good, actually. I was hoping it would shake things up a bit. Right now, Mid-Grade Heal Potions seem like the exclusive property of high-rank Admittees. I thought any Admittee climbing the Tower should have at least one bottle of Mid-Grade Heal Potion for safety."
"T-that's a good thing, but... phew, anyway, there seem to be too many surprising things since Admittee Jeong Suho awakened."
"Haha... I'll take that as a compliment."
However,
the price of Mid-Grade Heal Potions, which had been several hundred million won per bottle, did not drop so dramatically.
They did fall from the previous price, but only slightly.
This was because the main buyers—large clans and high-rank Admittees—had bought them up in droves, spending large sums of money to do so.
Suho tilted his head at the unexpected result.
"Hoo, it didn't drop much? Was 1,000 not enough?"
Another 1,000 listed a few days later.
Again, the starting bid was 1,000 points.
And then a few days later again, he listed a full 3,000 and lowered the starting bid to 500 points.
Then, change occurred.
Perhaps there was a limit to how much they could hoard, or it was insufficient to stop the price drop.
Finally, the price of Mid-Grade Heal Potions began to fall.
* * *
"Great work, Clan Leader!"
"As expected of Boss! Hand over the equipment!"
"Wow! This is the reward? Jackpot!"
"Everyone worked hard. Phew, you all look terrible... You should wash up and rest quickly..."
Having finally cleared the conquest of the high Tower known as the 70th Floor, the Sanarae Clan raid team exited the Tower,
and almost all clan members gathered in one place to celebrate and encourage the raid team.
"How was the boss? Wasn't it hard?"
"Yeah, the pattern was simpler than I thought."
"Unnie, what about the repaired sword, was it okay?"
"Yeah, this... it's really amazing. I don't know exactly what changed, but it became incredibly powerful. The damage output is different."
Lee Danbi emphasized that the repaired [Song of the Star] was the greatest contributor to this raid, and said she should go thank the blacksmith who had handled the repairs again.
After defeating the top-floor boss and destroying the altar, the Tower scattered into motes of light.
The Tower that the Sanarae Clan had raided,
being a high-floor Tower of the 70th floor, poured out diverse rewards.
B and C-grade Etheriums, various otherworldly minerals, a small number of items.
"The real jackpot is this, no matter what you say! Ta-da!"
One of the raid team members held up a thin piece of clothing.
Clothes that only superheroes might wear, a pitch-black bodysuit made of a spandex-like material.
"Oho? What's that?"
"We'll need a proper appraisal for the exact details, but according to the portable appraisal device, it seems to be armor made of 'Elastrin Silk'!"
"Elastrin Silk? Holy crap."
Elastrin Silk was a special fabric that boasted outstanding elasticity and a snug fit like heat tech, a soft texture, and breathability, while also possessing resistance to most physical forces.
Not only that, it was innerwear-type armor enchanted with various magic.
It was undoubtedly an item that would trade at a high price.
"Wow... amazing. This alone more than covers the cost of this climb. Really, everyone worked hard."
"This isn't the end, look at this!"
What another raid team member took out was liquid sloshing about in a water jug.
"Oh, don't tell me it's a potion?"
"Yes! A Heal Potion! What grade is this?"
"Well...?"
"Don't be surprised. The measuring device's reaction says Mid-Grade, Mid-Grade! With this amount, we can easily get six bottles out of this, right?"
He expected a "Wow!" reaction, but the others looked somewhat bewildered at the words "Mid-Grade Heal Potion."
The team member shaking the jug noticed the subtle reactions of the other clan members and asked again.
"What? Your reactions are pretty lukewarm? I said it's Mid-Grade, Mid-Grade!"
Then the remaining clan members who had not climbed the Tower exchanged glances with one another.
And soon, one of them took the lead and spoke up.
"Clan Leader... actually... Mid-Grade Heal Potions have been released in large quantities at the auction house recently."
Clan Leader Lee Danbi's eyes widened at those words.
Because of the ill-fitting word "large quantities."
"Mid-Grade, in large quantities...?"
"Yes, truly large quantities were released. Thousands at a time, every few days. So we also bought some in a hurry. You were away, so I used a lot of the clan operating funds at my discretion. I'll explain that in detail later."
It seemed something incomprehensible was happening again.
What I Danbi had recalled was, as expected, the seller of Star Light,
and the seller of the highest-grade healing potion.
* * *
As intermediate healing potions sold, tens of millions of points flowed back in.
There was still a stock of roughly 5,000 that remained unsold.
'Once I dump all of these too, the price will definitely drop...'
After that, he probably wouldn't need to release any for a while.
By then, wouldn't even most ordinary mid-grade Admissions be carried by people? He had such expectations.
Just then,
Knock. Knock.
At the sound of knocking on the door, Suho answered.
"Come in."
Then, the one who cautiously poked her head in was the youngest, Suji.
"Oh, Suji."
"Big Brother, do you have a minute?"
"Yeah, it's fine. What's going on?"
At that, Suji hesitated with a worried face, unable to bring herself to speak.
She used to be so casual with him, but ever since she had recently become an S-grade Admission, and since he had brought in a lot of money for the family, the way Suji had become somewhat awkward around Suho was rather cute.
Since she just kept moving her lips for the longest time, Suho waited.
And the story that finally emerged was quite surprising.
"Big Brother, this... I feel like I'm tattling on everyone, so it's a bit... But no matter how much I think about it, I thought it would be better if you talked to him rather than Mom and Dad..."
"What is it? Tell me. What's going on?"
"...You know, our younger brother. I think Jiho is getting into trouble."
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"
"I think he's fallen into gambling."
"Gambling?"
"Yeah... He squandered the 10 billion you gave each of us family members before... I kept nagging him. But pfft, as if he'd listen to me? Anyway, one day he showed up looking haggard and asked to borrow some money."
"How much?"
"He asked if I could lend him 1 billion. So, well, I lent it to him. I hadn't spent much of what you gave me, so I had almost all of it left. I gave it to him thinking he'd pay me back soon."
"Hmm... And then?"
"He came back after just a few days. Asked me to lend him another 1 billion. I mean, is 1 billion the name of someone's kid? I thought something was strange, so I had Salt put a tail on him."
"Salt?"
"It's my android's name. The blonde one out of the two."
"...Ah."
"And he filmed Jiho going in and out of some casino. Hoo... What should we do?"
"Hmm... I'll talk to Jiho."
Only then did Suji's face brighten up completely.
"Oh! Thank you. Brother. I couldn't tell you because I thought you were too busy, but I'm glad I did."
"What are you thanking me for? I'm the one who hasn't paid enough attention to you guys. Sorry."
Suho ruffled his cute youngest sister's hair, and she glared at him as she left the room.
It seemed something quite interesting had happened.