Starting with Vermouth, I ran every raid available for my level without missing a single one.
[ViennaMasitta: Saint, you have the wrong gear equipped!]
[ViennaMasitta: You're using a one-handed sword right now]
[GoksanGwonbeop1Jang: Ah lol, so you came as a DPS saint lol]
[Seongnyeo Nice: But I equipped it correctly?]
[ViennaMasitta: ?]
[GoksanGwonbeop1Jang: ?]
[You have been forcibly removed from the party.]
Of course, it wasn't exactly smooth sailing.
The majority of users still failed to realize the effectiveness of the one-handed sword Saint build.
They had never even properly experienced it, yet they dared to spew such nonsense—saying my setting was weird, that it was wrong, telling me to throw away my one-handed sword and equip a holy book or whatever.
Whether it's shit or doenjang, don't you only know after taking a bite yourself?
Well, I suppose that's possible. Even though Eder-hyung proved my setting on his stream, not all users enjoy watching broadcasts.
It was simply pitiful.
The sight of them chasing after pebbles while leaving a raw gemstone right in front of their eyes.
“Nnngh…”
Since I'd been sitting in one spot running nothing but raids for several hours already, my body was aching.
“Huuuh… uhh…-cha!”
I stretched lightly in place and let out a big yawn before sitting back down.
I could feel the gaze of the person sitting next to me, but it didn't particularly bother me.
If they were staring blatantly, maybe, but just furtive glances? Whatever.
And more than anything, I was already thinking of heading home soon anyway.
“Market share is rising~, concurrent users are growing~”
Of course, I had no intention of going home right away.
The reason I'd crawled out of my house and into a PC bang was precisely for this:
[Item Mania]
The amount needed to cover this month's rent was roughly one hundred thousand won.
If I sold all the gold I'd earned today, it was an amount I could somehow scrape together.
“Hmm… Raids reset on a weekly basis, and in a week…”
After checking the going rate on the trading site, covering the monthly rent through gold farming alone was impossible.
“It's woefully insufficient?”
I used to wonder why Lee Min-ji worked so many part-time jobs, but now I finally understood.
“Maybe I shouldn't have quit for no reason…”
But it was impossible for me, who had never worked a part-time job even once in my life, to handle that schedule.
A part-timer who suddenly became trash-tier—of course I'd get fired.
Anyway, this was starting to get annoying.
“Excuse me, sorry, but could you please stop staring?”
“Ah… I'm sorry.”
If I'd dropped hints a few times, I wish they'd stare moderately.
Looking at that girl's appearance, she probably wouldn't get fired even if she was bad at her job.
Because a pretty female part-timer who can't work has higher value than an ugly part-timer who works well—that was just common sense in this world.
Damn lookism.
Of course, since I had now become part of the privileged class of that ideology, it was a good thing for me.
Anyway, covering rent through gold farming was only possible this month.
From next month onward, I had to figure out a solution somehow.
Well… if there really is no answer, I'll just become a female streamer or something.
It's a bit disgusting, but it's better than starving to death, right?
[1:1 Chat]
[Me: 100:250, 500k pp]
[Trader: Wait, I'm logging in now]
[Me: Alt account trade possible?]
[Trader: Oh my, of course it's possible~]
[Me: Thx]
[Trader: You're welcome]
[Trader: You have come well]
“I'm a gold farmer~ I'm already a gold farmer~”
While waiting for the trader to log into Aias, I hummed along to the song playing on YouTube.
AI singing a whole song—the world really has changed in amazing ways.
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida (Whisper): I wondered who it was, turns out it's a big senior in the industry]
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida (Whisper): But does an alt even mean anything for you?]
[Seongnyeo Nice12: I just realized that too]
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida (Whisper): Lolol that's hilarious]
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida has requested a trade.]
[Accept]
Whether it was true that they were on standby 24/7, the trader logged into Aias in an instant.
After checking the signal that the deposit had been made into the Item Mania virtual account, I immediately sent an exchange request and tried to hand over the gold, but.
For some reason, the exchange was not accepted.
[The trade has been automatically canceled due to insufficient Trust.]
“Huh?”
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida (Whisper): No way, dude]
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida (Whisper): How are you gonna trade with no Trust;;]
“Trust..?”
[Seongnyeo Nice12: What is that?]
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida (Whisper): Oh come on;]
[JeongugEodiseonaSsalSabnida (Whisper): We just wasted time]
[The trade has been canceled.]
“What the hell is that!”
————
What on earth is Trust?
It seemed to be a system newly added to Aias during the year and a half I was gone.
Thanks to that, my plan to cover the rent through gold farming had evaporated into thin air.
But I wasn't someone who would just sit here and give up.
Who am I?
I am Seongnyeo Nice.
[Title: Honestly, saints need a buff lol]
[Title: If you're disgusted by Paladins not getting nerfed, upvote]
[Title: But Assassins, can't they get nerfed even more?]
A master strategist who caused a Gold Cup to be held on the gallery every balance patch by trolling as an anonymous user.
[Title: Stop fucking spamming]
[Title: Did you call me a gold farmer? Answer.]
[Title: Did you call me a gold farmer? Answer.]
[Title: Did you call me a gold farmer? Answer.]
A warrior who fought alone steadfastly even when thousands and tens of thousands of Aias gallerians ganged up to put me down.
As a result, I earned a permanent ban from the Aias gallery and the dishonor of being called a gold farmer, but even that was no different from a medal of honor to me.
Humans are destined to be weeded out if they don't learn.
If I don't know what Trust is, I just have to learn.
Fortunately, I was fairly surrounded by sages who did nothing but eat and play Aias.
Now, please teach me, sages.
[Aias Doomsday Gallery]
[Title: Story time: The girl next to me at the PC bang suddenly let out a moan]
[Author: ㅇㅇ(121.21)]
What does the Trust system even do..?
> So where is the girl next to you?
> There are attention seekers even in this shitty doomed gallery.
>> That's exactly the kind of gallery that has attention seekers.
> Attention seeking son of a bitch.
> I hate myself for getting excited and clicking.
A question post without bait gets weeded out quickly.
So I sprinkled some MSG, and it seems everyone likes it. Good to know.
> It's a new feature added this time to prevent gold farming.
Fortunately, a normal reply was posted quickly.
I was about to go dark if it had been a little later. Did you just save the gallery?
>> (Author) I get that it's for preventing gold farming, but what exactly is the mechanism?
>> It's complicated to explain.. In summary—
Hmm.
>> (Author) I perfectly understood!
>> You didn't understand, fuck.
>> (Author) Yeah.
I have no idea what they're saying.
>> Ugh fuck, basically the more gold you spend, the more your Trust goes up like mileage. If you don't have it, you can't send gold to others, okay?
So, in summary.
If you don't spend gold… you can't give gold to others?
>> (Author) If you spend gold… wouldn't you have no gold left to give others?
>> Um.. Right?
Good heavens.
To me, who didn't even have money to pay rent right now, there was no time to build up Trust.
In a situation where I had to earn money somehow to avoid getting kicked out of my house.
Is it really… only female streaming now..?
Was there really no other path than becoming side dishes for men whose faces I don't even know?
“Should I practice dancing at least..”
Zero Two and Terminal.. what else do I know how to do..
Just as my mind was drifting toward female streaming.
[Title: Seongna, Eder-hyung is looking for you]
A post on the Doomsday gallery caught my eye.
“Huh? Me?”
Honestly, if the author had been an anonymous user, I wouldn't have been baited by such clickbait.
[Author: Baengnyonggak]
But if it was a named user, and Baengnyonggak, a famous well-liked named user of the Doomsday gallery at that, it was a different story.
> Why
>> (Baengnyonggak) You're Seongna, right?
Doubting me straight away—truly a good attitude.
To survive in the anonymous world, one must maintain an attitude of constant suspicion.
>> 23.06.17 Yonggak got drunk and clingy to his kinda-gf and got blocked.
>> (Baengnyonggak) Hey you fucker.
This should let them know it's roughly me.
>> Deleted chat.
>> (Baengnyonggak) Hey you fucker.
>> You believe me now? So why'd you call.
>> (Baengnyonggak) Sigh..
>> (Baengnyonggak) Eder-hyung has been looking all over the gallery for you. Didn't you see?
Eder-hyung is looking for me?
Why?
>> I knew about it already though.
Ah, of course, I already knew that Eder-hyung was looking for me.
What I questioned was simply the reason.
>> (Baengnyonggak) ? Then why'd you ignore it?
>> Answered with no response.
>> (Baengnyonggak) ..?
Honestly, because of the Trust issue, I didn't have the mental bandwidth for that.
> (Eder) Are you Seongna-nim?
>> (Baengnyonggak) Ah, you came in person.
>> (Baengnyonggak) Then you two talk, I'm off to raid~
Oh, I didn't expect the man himself to show up.
>> Oh.
>> I thought you'd forgotten us, but you came?
>> (Eder) Forgotten? Haha.
>> (Eder) I've been busy with streaming, so I couldn't come often.
>> So what did you need me for?
I had a guess.
Probably… regarding my one-handed sword setting, asking me, the creator, to appear on his stream and explain it.
>> (Eder) I mentioned it at Vermouth earlier, but a lot of people are asking about Seongna-nim's setting.
>> (Eder) Could you perhaps appear as a guest on my stream?
>> Hmm..
Of course, I wasn't particularly interested.
It would be nice if the greatness of the one-handed sword Saint became widely known, but hadn't they already witnessed it once?
The greatness of the one-handed sword.
I didn't particularly want to associate with blasphemers who witnessed a miracle yet tried to dissect its principles.
>> (Eder) If you appear, I'll give you 80% of that day's donation revenue first of all.
>> (Eder) We can adjust the details more precisely depending on the situation that day.
..You'll split the donation revenue with me?
>> I'm in.
>> I'm in unconditionally.
I could see it.
The thread to pay my rent.