novelraw Chapter 359 359: Episode 359_Epilogue (4)
Chapter 359 359: Episode 359_Epilogue (4)
8.
[Sell your land in reality and buy land in Fantastic World!]
That was the phrase currently making the rounds in the real-world real estate industry.
Naturally, it was something you were supposed to laugh off as complete nonsense.
Who in their right mind would sell real land to buy some scrap of digital data that could disappear the moment the game went under?
On top of that, in reality, barring natural disasters or war, you could hold land stably. In 『Fantastic World』, you never knew when that land might be taken from you by conflict or the tyranny of NPCs. It was a perilous gamble where you had to sleep with one eye open, worrying whether your land was still intact.
Even so, the fact that such talk was spreading was no joke.
"The monthly rent is insane."
"Most of the land belongs to nobles or NPCs, so if you own even a single building in a decent location, you can collect five times the rent you'd get in reality."
"I looked into it, and apparently the nobles sold their consciences to a dragon. They don't just collect rent—they take eighty percent of what you earn."
The difference between reality and the game was the reward, which was high enough that even if you treated it like gambling, you could still make a hefty profit.
How could people not invest?
Unless you were one of those people whose money was rotting away—who bought real estate purely to manage assets, handle taxes, enjoy a vacation home, or maintain social status—everyone bought buildings for one reason only: to earn more than bank interest.
Most people didn't even have the money to buy in, but assuming they could, there was only one thing they agonized over the most.
How quickly could they recoup their principal?
From that point on, the path diverged between those who made a lot of money and those who did not.
Because of that, the rental business in 『Fantastic World』 naturally took off. If you built a single building on a reasonably good plot of land and rented it out to NPCs or users, you could earn in a month what would take five months in reality.
Thanks to that, a real estate boom had been layered on top of 『Fantastic World』.
The fact that this quintessential real-world business—one that should never have worked in a game—was proving to be a resounding success meant it was constantly in the news.
At the same time, the status of gamers who had staked their lives on 『Fantastic World』 rose even higher.
No matter how much time had passed—two years now—since the days when adventurers were treated like trash by NPCs, and no matter how far they had climbed to stand on equal footing, that only applied to users who had leveled up to a certain point and had at least a year of experience.
NPCs weren't about to be kind to level-one adventurers who had just created their characters and were wandering around looking for easy money.
Because of that, users who could actually purchase land received a flood of calls. Even those who had bought land in some small rural territory with a bit of foot traffic were able to manage their investments smoothly.
Day by day, land prices in 『Fantastic World』 skyrocketed, and people talked about it constantly as a new frontier for the real estate industry.
Some people worried that the influx was too fast and that 『Fantastic World』 would become a red ocean just like reality, but those concerns were drowned out by several months of continuous growth.
And at that very moment, it appeared.
Just as the people who bought and sold land all day long were trying to define which plots you should and should not buy—
– An Enhancement Shop building has gone up for sale in the Ain Kingdom.
The building Khan had handed over to Han Simin had appeared on the market.
*
He had been thinking about this from the very beginning.
—"Master, no matter how I look at it, this building is too good to use just as an Enhancement Shop. I feel like we could make a killing if we opened a café here."
Why had they been using an entire building in such a prime location—and not even a small one—solely as an Enhancement Shop? Of course, the enhancement fees were nothing to sneeze at, so there was no problem making a living, but that was only from Khan's point of view.
In the end, in exchange for giving Khan a building in the Rich Territory, Han Simin had taken over the Ain Kingdom's Enhancement Shop, and now it was time to sell.
"Master, I can just give this place back to you. Do you want to move here?"
"I'm not going."
From the standpoint of rental income, leasing out a building in the very heart of the Rich Territory—which had now become the hottest place around, rivaling even the Empire—would clearly be far more profitable. But if Khan didn't want that, what could he do?
'Should I just kick him out?'
If he had still been living hand-to-mouth, he would have done exactly that without a second thought, but now that he had some breathing room, Han Simin chose to take a loss for his master's sake.
– All businesses welcome: cafés, restaurants, and more! Guaranteed monthly visits from Ain Kingdom NPCs at least once per month.
At this point, that kind of thing no longer mattered.
Having tied off the game from start to finish, Han Simin was practically a king within 『Fantastic World』. People, too, were eager to invest in land with such premiums attached, especially in a real estate market where prices had not yet fully stabilized.
And so, at a high price, the Ain Kingdom's Enhancement Shop—the very shop where Han Simin's legend had begun—was transformed into a real-world-style café.
*
9.
The Rabbits became even freer.
After the Main Quest was completed, Han Simin had no intention of leaving his territory. Even when he did enhancements now and then, he took Kardian along and did them at an easy pace.
The Rabbits had absolutely nothing to do.
There was no harm in following him around, but Han Simin didn't allow them to just laze about, either.
"Get out there and make some money. Recruit some underlings. You've leveled up a ton—how long are you going to keep cleaning up after me? It's time to go pay me back."
"Squeak, squeak."
He did at least have a conscience, because he upgraded the Rabbits' gear by one more tier before sending them off.
With their levels high and their equipment stacked, the Rabbits bounded out of the territory in high spirits.
They might have spent every day trotting along behind Han Simin, picking up loot, but the Rabbits had ambitions of their own.
"Squeak, squeak!"
"Squeak!"
'Let's become the apex predators of the food chain too!'
'How long are we going to stay at the bottom, serving as fodder for newbie adventurers?'
'We'll build a world where we look down from above!'
With a spirited shout, the first place the Rabbits headed was the land of their still-suffering kin: the countless territories and castle outskirts overflowing with Rabbits.
Day after day, the pitiful cries of Rabbits echoed across the fields as adventurers laughed and slaughtered them.
In the Rabbits' eyes, those adventurers could only be forces of pure evil.
"Squeak, squeak!"
Strictly speaking, by that logic, the person who most deserved to be beaten to death in this world was Han Simin. But unfortunately, the Rabbits had learned to avert their eyes from reality and instead bare their fangs at the weak, perfectly mirroring their master's own predatory nature.
"Squeee!"
And so the Rabbits' rebellion began.
"Ugh! What the hell!"
"Why is this Rabbit so strong?"
"Aargh! It one-shots me!"
New users died without a peep under the Rabbits' front-paw strikes.
Complaints exploded across the community, but no one paid them any mind.
—Those are Simin's Rabbits.
—Just die. Tough luck.
—I'm jealous. I always wanted to see those Rabbits at least once.
Anyone who had played 『Fantastic World』 for any length of time knew this already.
And they were aware of something even more important.
—What kind of disaster are you trying to bring down on yourself by messing with those Rabbits?
—I heard that back in the day, when some of his Rabbits got killed, he shrugged it off, saying, "It's just a game." But then he tracked down the kingdom that killed them during a war and absolutely annihilated it. If you don't want your character deleted, the best strategy is to stay out of it.
—Even if you wanted to leave them alone, there's no way to kill those Rabbits in the first place. As far as I know, each Rabbit's level is about the same as someone ranked around 2,000th on the leaderboards, and they're wearing full +15 gear on top of that. If you're putting together a raid strong enough to kill a Rabbit, you might as well go try your hand at Dragon Slayer instead.
The little incident ended quickly.
Before long, the Rabbits vanished without a trace.
The problem was—
—What the hell? Where did all the Rabbits in the world go?
—I'm in the southeastern Reinz Territory, and all the Rabbits are gone.
—None in the north either.
—Did they all go on strike together?
—Ah. If we can't farm Rabbits, what are we supposed to grind on?
It wasn't just Han Simin's Rabbits that had disappeared.
This was the beginning of a disturbance that, in the distant future, would trigger a radical upheaval in 『Fantastic World』's ecosystem.
*
10.
Sudal went back to the mountain range as well.
Building mines and connecting veins was both Sudal's lifelong burden and his joy. Han Simin might have captured and exploited him, but now that he had been let go, it was only natural for him to return.
Of course, there was no way Han Simin would simply release a gold-laying otter so easily.
"Hey, Sudal. Once you go back, you're only making gold mines. Got it?"
"Chirp?"
"Gold. I'm talking about gold, you punk."
"Chiiirp…"
This was exploitation bordering on slavery.
For Sudal, building mines was supposed to come from a place of joy. If he was forced to build whatever someone ordered, it would no longer be a hobby or the joy of his life; it would become nothing but pain, hardship, and stress.
Sudal made a strong appeal on that point.
"Chirp! Chirp. Chirp."
'I will actively accommodate what you want.'
'But I am a living being too.'
'I can think, and I want to create the gems I desire as well.'
For the first time, he voiced his own opinion.
Sudal's shoulders trembled as the words left his mouth.
He was moved.
'I actually said that to my master!'
More than anything, it felt good to be certain, even after saying it, that he wasn't in the wrong.
'I played a huge role in getting my master this far, and I can be a great help in the future too! So let's both win.'
If only the person across from him had been anyone other than Han Simin, Sudal would have been able to steer the conversation exactly where he wanted.
"Listen, you little bastard. This is all for your good, my good, Squeaker's good—for all of us. Are you really going to keep this up? Do I need to give you a refresher course in discipline?"
"Chirp…"
"Don't keep pushing me toward the dark side, Sudal. My head has been killing me lately. Let's talk this out. With words."
Even as he said they should talk, the crimson hammer hovering above Sudal's head made him shrink back.
What could he do?
When the boss says jump, you jump.
Sudal stuck out his lower lip and hung his head. A flood of thoughts washed over him, starting with the question of how he was any different from the humans who were exploited and abused every day by their bosses.
He felt wronged.
He even wondered if he should just throw himself off a mine cliff and end it all.
Yes.
He made up his mind, and courage welled up.
If he was going to die anyway, he would say what he needed to say first.
From now on, even if it killed him, he would only do what he wanted to do.
"Let's do this right."
"Chirp!"
Thinking they had reached an understanding, Han Simin patted Sudal's shoulder and started to turn away, but the otter grabbed him.
And then he spoke.
Or rather, he tried to.
"Ah! And this."
"Chirp?"
"There's a reason I told you to make only gold. You get what I mean, right? This is just the beginning. If this goes well, I can bring you tons of gems you could never make yourself."
"Chiiirp?"
At some point, something had been placed in Sudal's hand—something darker and more lustrous than the two Demon World gems he had been holding.
A gem from the very heart of the Demon World, said to be manipulable only by the Demon King himself, looked rare and extraordinary even without any appraisal.
The moment Sudal saw it, his reason snapped.
"Chiiirp!"
"Yeah, you little punk. You trust me, right?"
"Chirp!"
"Good. Good. Gold. It's gold, no matter what. Only gold."
"Chirp!"
'Yes, Master.'
Sudal nodded vigorously.
*