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Translator: uly
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: A Guild Master Can't Live on Games Alone
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SpaceKing proposed ending the turn to all the guilds.
These bastards who kicked off a surprise war in the dead of night were now arbitrarily calling for a truce.
As expected, curses poured out calling them dogshit, but truth be told, everyone dragged out at dawn wanted to crash and sleep.
The turn's end was decided.
During the break, some guild members from each guild would stick around to monitor the situation.
With plenty of non-main members and allied guilds, securing standby personnel wasn't hard.
As the players declared the turn over, the NPC forces pitched tents and went into rest mode too.
* * *
I was about to head to bed.
["We're totally screwed..."]
Goldbunker's guild master, Gilgamesh, hit me up with a one-on-one voice chat and started whining nonstop.
["Fuck, karma—fucking karma. I swear, I've never seen numbers this insane since I started the siege."]
[Name] Gilgamesh (lv99)
—Korea Server Ranking 4th
Affiliation: Goldbunker
Position: Guild Master
<
He was the temporary head of the alliance, so I couldn't just tell him to shut up and fuck off to bed.
Might as well ask what I was curious about.
"How'd you make the nuke?"
["How the hell should I know? I'm not the expert. I just got a report saying it was possible, so I funded it."]
These guys didn't run a guild—they managed a corporation.
["I'm gonna find the prick who made it and kill him. Wasted money on this shit. Should've locked it in the guild vault with a password the second it was done."]
"You dropped it yourself."
["..."]
Gilgamesh went quiet for a bit.
As expected, Goldbunker had acted on impulse and gotten fucked.
I'd been wondering how they'd handle that karma spike.
I casually poured a little oil on the fire.
"Don't you have another one?"
["What the fuck?!"]
Predictably, he blew up.
["You think we don't know how fucked we are because of that shit?!"]
"Calm down."
["Does this look like a calm-down situation?!"]
I tried to smooth things over, but it didn't work.
The surprise war's first turn was over.
As expected, Weichen fell to SpaceKing in the end, and they'd basically written off the NPC forces they'd sent our way.
For now, I'd secured SpaceKing's affiliated heroes as prisoners without killing them off.
Gotta wrap this chat and sleep.
The only reason I was giving him my precious time was the alliance—and maybe I'd glean some useful info.
But he was just ranting nonstop, so I figured it was time to cut him off and crash.
["Sigh. We stocked up a ton of karma purge potions just waiting for today, and now it's all ruined."]
"!"
My eyes snapped open.
"Karma purge potion? That exists?"
["Yeah. It was actually our big hidden card—we put a shitload of work into it."]
"Tell me more."
["My nose is too stuffy to give any away now."]
Who asked?
Wait a sec.
"No way—you were planning to sell them for cash this time?"
["Obviously. Cash only."]
"..."
So Goldbunker's hidden card was the 'karma purge potion,' and they planned to gouge us and the other two guilds—including ours—at the final siege.
It was so quintessentially Goldbunker that I was speechless for a second.
Money. Important, sure.
"Just go into business, you psycho."
["That's what I'm doing."]
"..."
I was legit out of words.
["This was our shot at a massive payday. Fucking kills me."]
Unexpected haul.
Now I got why Goldbunker had slaughtered SpaceKing's NPCs without a second thought.
A potion that lowers karma values? Damn, that's tempting.
With that, I could go on a rampage, snag Weichen, maybe.
How much was in my account again? Jobless, so repaying would be slow, but I could borrow from loaded guys like Hyunwoo-nim or Mura-nim.
"How much karma does one potion wipe out? Since we're screwed anyway, if you have any bombs left, sell me one too?"
["That's..."]
"Why not?"
["If we're skipping the siege, why even play? You know how much I've sunk into this game."]
"..."
Made sense, but it felt off coming from a money-obsessed nut.
Money mattered, but the game itself was worth burning cash on for the fun.
Not a slave to money—its master.
This guy was probably loaded, just like the rumors said.
"Fine, got it. So the potions can handle the karma from that nuke blast?"
["Crunching the numbers, it's tight. But we can probably purge up to about 100 million, and we've got a decent stockpile of good deeds too."]
Talking in the hundreds of millions? Insane.
Fullminak had never cracked ten million, so billions felt alien.
High karma in war mode slaps the whole guild with brutal debuffs.
Midgard's territory systems turn hostile, putting you at a huge disadvantage in sieges.
Even NPC heroes lose faith in players hard.
When the land itself—the territory systems—rejects the gods, it's pathetic.
["We've got so many stockpiled for sales that if we're lucky, we might scrape by with ten million..."]
"That's manageable."
["Can't make money, so it's bullshit."]
Fucking spoiled brat.
SpaceKing and Goldbunker, as top guilds who'd claimed towers first, had fat reserves.
SpaceKing got famous early, drawing skilled players.
High win rates early meant overwhelming heroes and NPCs.
Goldbunker? Leadership loaded with cash and rare items.
Internal money-making ops lured top rankers.
But focusing on profit tanked their skills over time.
"Anyway, I'm out—gonna sleep."
["Hey, wait! Hold up!"]
For the record, Gilgamesh and I weren't close, and we had zero clue about each other's real ages.
But half-speak was common in VFA.
Some guilds like SpaceKing even made it a rule for wartime convenience.
"What now."
["Wanna stream with me? You're a total VFA star. Your character's bromides sell like hotcakes even to casuals. I'll manage you hard—let's meet up IRL and—"]
What kinda crazy shit.
Click.
I ended the voice chat, announced logout in guild chat as planned, and dipped.
* * *
Korea's VFA sieges blew up about a year ago.
Sure, individual streams existed before, but the domestic scene exploded when Goldbunker got involved.
One random player grabbing a major siege storyline for broadcast? Near impossible.
Goldbunker, though? Early top guild in VFA, constantly expanding in-game businesses.
They had access to sieges general players could only dream of.
Easily locked contracts with SpaceKing and Fullminak's GMs for video and bromides revenue shares.
Profits snowballed into nice guild side hustles.
Pulse-pounding action skills, vivid player-driven war stories.
Goldbunker's editors spiced it up with tasty hooks and bait, reeling in a global audience.
"No way Kaisha doesn't want in. Could make bank if she tried."
Gilgamesh—Kwon Hoseong—grumbled.
["Could just not know the market."]
Hoseong had his Bluetooth earbuds in, thumb scrolling fresh video comments.
Foreign fans had already swarmed the VFA Korea channel.
"Nice reactions."
And yeah—the quality of Korean VFA content crushed it.
Korea wasn't top in culture exports for nothing.
Plus, the three guilds and GMs left standing had such distinct flavors, the war's twists were pure gold.
Viewers called VFA streams like live war fantasy novels.
Especially foreigners ditched overhyped, high-budget [Game of Thrones] fanbait finales for k-VFA's rock-solid real-time sieges.
Domestic hype stirred at the whiff of national pride!
Hoseong smelled money!
"100%. Guaranteed."
["If Kaisha really hates it, push Dart. Her character's got edge."]
"What? Why would I push a dude? Comments are all hyping Kaisha anyway. She's got mass appeal."
["Dart's popular too—"]
"That prick wouldn't vibe with me."
["True."]
Sub-GM Credit brought reason back.
["But we don't even know if Kaisha's really a girl. VFA lets you voice-mod anything."]
"My gut says she's female."
["Gut? You've whiffed on guildies' genders—"]
"Shut it."
Gilgamesh desperately wished every friendly player in-game was secretly a girl.
So he bombed on guesses more often than not.
Wanted gamer girl pals for sessions and streams, but VFA's sausage fest made it tough.
Women played, but war-focused VR meant female mains were rare in core rosters.
Fullminak rumors said otherwise, but who knew.
Hoseong bellowed in frustration.
"If Kaisha's a girl, I'd slay that fake Jap netkama bitch!"
VFA's top-streamed female char? Japan server's ranker.
Self-streamed to stardom.
Precedent made Kaisha's potential obvious to Hoseong.
"This is national pride on the line."
["What bullshit."]
A sigh from his phone.
Kaisha.
Handsome vibe drew fangirls hard.
Streamer perks meant male fans for fem chars were baseline.
Plus, sole challenger to rank 1 Dart—tons watched.
Personality? Sane compared to other GMs.
Still rotten VFA vet core, though.
Leading powerhouse Fullminak as a fem char? Peak cool.
VR action skills blew minds.
Real-time combat from Kaisha? Addiction bait.
She seemed oblivious, but her skill visuals popped.
Killer flair on every cast.
No wonder Dart fixated. Most diehards were players.
["What if she's not a girl?"]
"Then oh well. Still blows up."
["...Yeah, sure."]
"She's total idol material. See that star on her forehead? She's basically VFA-famous already."
["Kaisha's gotta want it. Anyway, quit plotting other GMs' cash—back to Goldbunker. We're in deep shit."]
Hoseong snapped to reality, hand over one eye.
Escape over.
"Fuck."
Worst numbers since starting VFA.
That insane karma.
One dumb nuke flop, karma explosion, prized NPC army blown, Weichen Castle lost right after.
Missed payday too.
Hoseong groaned in agony.
"Aaaah, why no rewind items?"
["Tell me about it."]
Both would've killed to turn back time pre-nuke.