I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 240: Episode 48_Money Spirit Bomb (5)

6.

Kim Buja hated half-measures.

In every novel, drama, movie, game, or real-life situation he had ever seen, there was always some element that made things frustrating at a critical moment, all for the sake of maintaining tension and considering the audience’s feelings.

Because of this “fun” factor, the protagonist or the villain would always make at least one mistake, which would then lead to a disastrous consequence.

Depending on whose side you were on, that mistake could be a cause for celebration, an opportunity, or a source of irritation. At the very least, Kim Buja hated it enough that he tried his best not to make mistakes himself.

That was also why he always tried to spend as much Gold as possible.

As he grew, he had always kept some spare Gold on hand, but that was just a minimum emergency fund for survival. Whenever a big payout came in, he converted it all into his stats to maintain peak condition and avoid mistakes.

There was only one thing he hadn’t followed that rule with: his stat points.

He had saved up more than 200 spare points, an act you could easily call the same kind of arrogance and complacency he so despised in protagonists.

He did have an excuse, though.

“I never know when I might need them.”

Most of his high stats came from item effects anyway.

Whenever he entered a Gold Mission, the harshest reminder was that those stats weren’t truly his. He had saved those points, thinking there might come a crucial moment when he would need them.

This time, he had spent even those.

“I’ll just split them three ways and distribute them.”

That was how determined he was.

He had always been careful, but now he was more resolved than ever not to let his guard down and to never forget his goal.

He remembered it clearly.

Even though he had returned to reality, he still remembered the last scene he had witnessed on the continent.

Hundreds of thousands of people had died, their blood spraying everywhere. With the activation of a magic circle formed from that blood, a calamity had appeared in the real world.

The Demon King.

He had come face-to-face with the king of the demonkin, a being he had only ever heard about in stories, and his body had literally frozen; he had been unable to move for a while.

Clutching his trembling hands, he had barely managed to pull himself together. Before he could even think about how precious his gold was, he had emptied his reserves, made the best decision he could in that situation, and fled.

He had loudly declared that he would definitely go back and kill the Demon King someday, but in his heart, all he had felt was worry over whether he could actually do it. He had comforted himself by saying the magic circle was meant to protect the Empire and the imperial princess, but in truth, it had just been a temporary measure to escape reality and end the Chapter.

That was why, even though Chapter 4 had opened, he hadn’t gone back in.

But he wasn’t going to look away forever.

It wasn’t that he was afraid because the Demon King was an opponent he could never kill.

It was simply that, in his current state, he could not possibly stand against him, and it didn’t feel like he would be able to for quite some time.

He needed to shorten that time.

The “Cursed Sand Desert” armor set had been the first step, and the “Gold Ring” was the second.

[Gold Ring]

▶ Grade: Legendary

▶ Level: ★★★★★★

▶ Attack Power +350 (+318)

→ Enhancement +300 / “Orange Aura” +5 / Pet Codex +8 / Achievements +5

▶ Mana +50

▶ Strength +70

▶ Agility +80

▶ Stamina +100

▶ Gold Power +20

▷ Gold Maker-exclusive weapon. Becomes bound on equip.

▷ Can never be destroyed.

▷ At level 61, you can spend 10,000,000 Gold to increase its level.

▷ Can be transformed into any weapon type you want.

▷ “Weapon Absorption” is available. When you use “Weapon Absorption,” the absorbed weapon is converted into points needed for the next level.

▷ Gains bonus attack power from Gold Power. +83

▷ Gains a random additional status effect chance from Gold Power. +8.3%

▷ Gains armor penetration from Gold Power. +16.6%

▷ Gains increased cutting power from Gold Power. +24.9%

▷ You can spend 50,000,000 Gold to unlock Traits (5).

It wasn’t perfect.

As the stars increased, only the attack power and stats had gone up.

However, even without the extra options he had really wanted, it was more than enough.

“Now this is a weapon.”

SCREEEEEEEEECH.

The massive sand scorpion thrashed, its huge pincer sliced clean off. He watched its unfamiliar agony—a pain it had likely never known—with a satisfied smile.

He didn’t need any miscellaneous bells and whistles.

At least not on a weapon.

Attack power, stats, and combat-oriented options—that was the simple, straightforward power a weapon was supposed to have.

In that sense, the Gold Ring wasn’t just sufficient; it was exceptional.

He even found himself thinking that the Gold Ring, an early event reward, might be the very thing that had made him who he was today.

“Armor penetration and cutting power. This thing is busted.”

The Gold required for the next traits was so astronomical it was hard to tell if the game even wanted him to unlock them, but instead of feeling frustrated, he felt challenged.

He thought of the steadily rising percentages.

’What kind of options will I get? How much will they boost my overall power?’

If he saved gold with that kind of anticipation, he could probably grind for days, months, even years without complaint.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Besides, the Gold Ring wasn’t just a sword.

It was a ring-type weapon that could transform into any weapon he wanted at any time.

Which meant all those options applied perfectly to magic as well.

Dozens of fireballs rained down on the severed joint, as if they’d been waiting for that exact opening.

The scorpion bucked and raged, but even as its body thrashed wildly, the fireballs still struck dead-on—a perfect demonstration of just how precise his aim had become.

The magic didn’t have enough raw power to shatter the thick carapace outright, but it was more than strong enough to dig into the wounds he’d carefully created and tear them wider from within.

On top of that, he had more than enough defense to block the enraged scorpion’s attacks.

CRACKLE!

Then came the sensation of its body locking up. Before his very eyes, the torrent of attacks became useless, nullified by his Petrification skill.

After he absorbed the massive bolts of lightning crashing down from the sky, all that remained was to finish off the scorpion, now barely clinging to life.

It was neither cumbersome nor complicated.

He simply walked up and lopped off its head.

For the viewers, it might have felt like a somewhat anticlimactic ending.

For those who had been hoping for one last desperate struggle, it was a flat, underwhelming finish.

But for the man himself, it was anything but.

[You have defeated the Sand Castle Lord.]

[You have achieved “Achievement: Sand Castle Lord (L).”]

[You have achieved “Achievement: Lord of Two Castles (L).”]

[“Sand Castle” has been added to your “Dungeon Management List.”]

[You do not have enough available dungeon slots. “Sand Castle” will remain inactive until you have a free slot.]

A flood of rewards and a rush of accomplishment.

As always, he preferred the clean, tangible rewards to the razor’s-edge tension of a fight.

“This concludes the Sand Castle raid.”

Simple and clean.

The swirling vortex stopped expanding.

* * *

—Wait, so there’s a player who owns both the Ice and Sand Castles now?

—Calling him Fly’s rival is an insult at this point. He’s clearly surpassed him.

—Nah, that’s going too far. It just feels like he got a head start and scooped them up first, same as the Ice Castle.

—Results speak for themselves, dude.

The clearing of the Sand Castle.

Many people had forgotten, but the moment the “Omen of Catastrophe” stopped, rewards were distributed to the players who had hunted the monsters that emerged from the Sand Castle.

Additional rewards, on top of the EXP buffs they had been getting from killing Sand Castle monsters.

Only then did the players remember that this had been a catastrophe, but also an event. They let out sighs of relief, realizing that this event-turned-catastrophe could have very well swallowed the entire world.

But that relief didn’t last long.

Now that the event was over, what mattered to players and the public wasn’t that the crisis had passed.

What mattered was the person who had actually cleared the dungeon.

And not just cleared it, but soloed it.

And that person wasn’t Fly, the one everyone expected, but Kim Buja.

On top of that, he had taken down the boss so decisively that no one could even dream of contesting it, unlike what happened with the Ice Castle.

Even Fly couldn’t have done it.

Plenty of people felt confident enough to say so.

The fact that Fly had entered the Sand Castle with his guild members, not alone, was proof enough.

Which was why the controversy and buzz only grew louder.

Was the world’s strongest player now Kim Buja?

Or was he just a clever opportunist who had leveraged his advantages to get in first?

The debate never stopped.

It couldn’t stop.

Whatever the truth was, that massive fandom would never allow their god to fall.

They plugged their ears, covered their eyes, and continued their pointless flame wars.

Even so, one undeniable truth emerged.

—The Gold Maker is at least on par with the Elemental Wizard. He reached that level in just three years since his debut.

An offensive class versus a growth-type class.

People who had been curious about the potential and power of this unprecedented, first-ever growth-type class now felt sure.

—Give it another year or two. If the Gold Maker is still around, he’ll probably have conquered every dungeon there is.

—At that point, Fly might have to beg Buja to let him tag along on raids.

It might have been an exaggerated and hasty judgment.

However, at the very least, Kim Buja’s back-to-back performances were spectacular enough that people could exaggerate and jump to such conclusions.

—Isn’t this getting a little too crazy, too fast?

—Feels like he’s abusing some bug.

—Here come the bug-criers, right on cue.

Naturally, more and more people started spouting nonsense.

This was the side effect.

The side effect of a setup Buja had never wanted, a storyline with zero consideration for the audience.

They were uncomfortable.

They said it felt unnatural, broke immersion, and made no sense.

And of course it did.

For people who needed the world to be fair, transparent, and just, this was pure bullshit.

It was something he would have to live with.

Kim Buja was more than willing to shoulder it.

So he showed them.

And then he kept going, without a break.

—Breaking News) Kim Buja announces the challenge of a 7-Star Legendary Dungeon.

—Is he out of his mind?

—7-Star Legendary? You sure you didn’t mishear 6-Star?

—Buja’s level just passed 50, so technically he can enter a 7-Star dungeon, but I’m not sure this is how things are supposed to go.

He charged ahead like a runaway locomotive with its brakes ripped out.

He gladly put himself on display, completely ignoring everyone’s worries.

—Cleared it in 4 days, holy crap.

—If he soloed the Sand Castle boss, what’s a 7-Star Legendary to him?

—What kind of insane build does it take for a level-50-something player to clear a 7-Star Legendary dungeon?

—Easy. Become a Point millionaire and deck yourself out in shiny Legendary gear!

Not everyone could accept it, but he forced the majority to.

In the end, people had to avert their eyes and look for something else to latch onto.

—From now on, stop comparing people to Buja. Compare them to Fly, or maybe Hwangdo, that pet he’s raising. Let’s see who’s stronger then.

—That tiny, cute little lizard?

Unfortunately, even that was impossible.