Chapter 134. Festival of Madness
Adventurer NPCs.
Players dreaming of striking it rich who came rushing in the moment they heard the Empire was opening an arena.
People who had simply come to have fun.
Streamers who went crazy over the new content.
And, of course, the fans following those streamers.
Watching the streamers who entered the arena through internet broadcasts made me painfully realize just how dangerous gambling could be.
[Are you freaking kidding me?! Screw the performances! Bring out the next match already! Haa... Haa...! If I win this one, I can pay everything back! Let’s go for the underdog bet~!]
[Guys... You guys... don’t do this... Seriously. Seriously, don’t... Instead of living a flashy life, live a life where you don’t get completely screwed... Please....]
“You can see every ugly side of humanity gathered in one place here.”
“I don’t think someone who made a fortune from a single bet should be saying that.”
“How was I supposed to know the sixty-four-times payout would actually hit?”
At first, all I had done was call Kim Inbang over because I wanted to ask the streamers to put on some performances.
I showed them the place for a bit.
That was all.
Yet every single one of them somehow smelled the scent of sports betting like ghosts and came flooding in.
Thanks to them, I had paid off every debt I had taken on from the previous Demon Realm expedition and from building this arena.
My wallet had also become very, very fat.
What I really couldn’t understand was this.
I had leaked information onto the black market specifically to suck money out of the NPCs and attract them here in huge numbers.
I had even deliberately posted information about the gladiators on the forums so the players could make some money.
So why were the players losing money along with the NPCs?
Thanks to them, though, the money is just...
This country was extremely sensitive about gambling, so I couldn’t openly build a casino.
But I ran lodging businesses.
Restaurants.
Money-lending businesses.
I manufactured and sold goods.
I quietly sold information about the gladiators.
The amount of money flowing in was honestly ridiculous.
Next time, I was thinking about trying horse racing too.
Even the adventurers I had hired with money were now being absorbed into the army and worked hard, so labor costs had dropped dramatically.
Everything was going wonderfully.
“Aipot’s arena only opens occasionally as a special event, and even then, it’s usually kept somewhat secret. That’s why all those starved people are gathering here like madmen.”
“Hm? Really? Why? An event like this seems perfect for attracting people.”
“Haha. What lunatic would try to use monsters as gladiators? This is only possible because you possess the Monster Commander class, Ingwang-nim.”
Right.
I had definitely benefited from being a Monster Commander.
And yet, despite all that, I still hadn’t found the Orc Captain.
At this point, I had gone beyond anger and reached pure emptiness.
How many expeditions had I gone on with the kids now...?
Did they have any idea how much money every expedition cost?!
Haa...
Well, thanks to that, I had gathered a large number of orcs that I could throw into the Abandoned District.
It was almost like Badger Season 2.
Aien’s father had also started settling down in the Abandoned District, and our military strength had increased.
Maybe it was finally time to seriously begin developing the Abandoned District.
“The champion is rampaging happily again today. No matter how many times I see it, that strength is terrifying. It’s impressive that Miss Aien managed to defeat him.”
“Yeah, it is. But lately, she’s even been trying to fight the gladiators... I’m starting to get worried she might turn into some kind of battle maniac.”
“Indeed. If Miss Aien becomes even more aggressive than she already is, then she truly will become impossible to handle. You’ll spend your entire life under her thumb.”
She already acted like she was my mother in reality.
If she became like that inside the game too, I might seriously run away from home.
She had apparently studied a ridiculous amount somewhere and even made a diet plan for me, nagging me about how someone who exercised could possibly eat like this and expect to build a proper body.
It was driving me insane.
Our household had grown, so I was thinking about moving into a larger house.
Aien followed me while I went house hunting and started going on about this and that.
And even while doing that, she absolutely refused to tolerate me trying to half-ass anything.
It was honestly a little scary.
Pai, who was supposed to be my one reliable ally, had practically lost her soul the first time Aien called her older sister, so she couldn’t even treat Aien carelessly anymore.
Damn it.
“Still, I’m truly glad everything worked out so well. Even without the power of Madness anymore, you can easily drive people into madness.”
“That’s just what happens when money gets involved.”
“But aren’t outsiders like yourself rather difficult to control, Ingwang-nim?”
What the Village Chief meant was probably this.
How had I managed to keep people who thought of this world the same way I once did—as just a game—so completely tied down here?
If they had stayed for a short while just to enjoy themselves, that would have been understandable.
But some of these people had practically been trapped here for almost an entire week.
That was definitely excessive.
...Wait.
Surely some kind of gold-farming operation hadn’t set up shop here, right?
The market price of gold had risen quite a bit recently.
And the number of people selling it had increased too....
“I periodically issue quests to people who lose their money. Apparently, they’re quite useful for leveling.”
“You mean the monster-capture quests. You give those who have already fallen into gambling a single ticket allowing them to gamble one more time, then keep them trapped here continuously....”
The Village Chief smiled faintly.
“Hope does not shine brightly inside faint darkness. Humans become far more obsessed with the faintest light they can see within absolute darkness.”
They could just stop gambling, leave this place, and make even more money normally.
Tsk, tsk.
The Village Chief rose from his seat with a pitying expression, holding the ticket he needed to exchange his winnings.
Then, as he passed beside me, he quietly spoke.
“A faint light has appeared before you as well, Ingwang-nim. That is precisely why I find it unfortunate.”
The Village Chief handed me a stack of documents as he walked past.
I had asked him to gather information and search for traces of the fanatic who might be hiding somewhere around here.
Apparently, after two weeks, he had finally managed to find something.
A faint light inside complete darkness, huh?
Even so, I still thought it was better than having nothing but darkness.
“Ah, and it seems the theme park you planned can proceed as intended. The related documents should be inside as well.”
“Oooh! As expected of you, Village Chief! Your work is always flawless!”
“Hohoho! I am merely doing what must be done.”
I pulled the theme park documents aside.
Now this was the faint light shining inside my dark gaming life.
Absolutely.
Without question.
Unfortunately, it was finally time to read the information about the fanatic.
I really didn’t want to.
I could already feel irritation rising inside me.
What was I supposed to do with this feeling?
There were several photographs.
Information about his usual movements.
Records of what he had done on certain days.
But none of it was written in great detail, and even the photographs were incredibly blurry and chaotic.
He was probably concealing himself with some sort of interference magic.
Still, they had somehow managed to create a sketch of his face.
I probably wouldn’t have too much trouble recognizing him.
I was actually a little surprised.
He looked far more normal than I had expected.
The overall assessment was simple.
He rarely associated with other people, which was unusual in Hopebon.
He lived alone.
And he wandered the streets in the middle of the night.
A complete weirdo.
Yep.
Definitely a fanatic.
Rustle.
“Hm? That card... I certainly did not place it there. Where in the world did it come from...?!”
A golden card engraved with a lily of the valley slipped from the documents and fell onto the floor.
What was this supposed to mean?
Was the flower proving something?
Or was this a signal telling me to meet?
Come on.
They could at least write one sentence so I could understand what they wanted.
The Village Chief’s expression hardened.
