I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 545: Honey, Poison, Flame 5
Though we'd requested support from the Grand Temple through Irene, with Imperial Temple knights answering the call, this was hardly some all-powerful cheat key.
Han Se-ah seemed to be hoping for an easy ride to make up for all the grinding we'd done on the 61st floor, but realistically, that wasn't going to happen. Even if the Temple's ranks had expanded with the Empire's appearance, Temple knights remained an elite minority force.
There was no way enough Temple knights would come to break through the vast forest.
"So they'll probably just create holy safe zones to keep the ghosts at bay."
"...I figured as much."
-Look at her sulking after her easy-mode mindset got shut down immediately LOLOLOL
-Of course the Temple can only help on lower floors, what could they really do on higher ones?
-For real LOL if that were possible, the Temple would've conquered the Tower and taken the Demon Lord's head without any heroes LOLOLOL
-So you're saying players without Temple connections are screwed if ghost gimmicks activate?
-Connections are a skill too, stop whining and build some relationships through side quests LOLOLOLOLOL
Han Se-ah immediately deflated at my words. It was funny how she got so irritated when called a one-trick pony relying on luck, yet happily activated her pleasure circuits at the prospect of an easy ride.
Of course, most gamers dislike having their skills questioned but love taking shortcuts. What made Han Se-ah particularly amusing was how transparently she displayed these tendencies in front of a camera with millions watching.
Thinking about this, I glanced up with just my eyes to look at the finch that had suddenly landed on my head. Come to think of it, beyond the shadow fang tiger, we should have investigated what this starlight finch actually did. When we returned to the Tower, we'd need to visit the fairy village where we left the seed to gather more information.
"Since we can't just sit around waiting for the Imperial Temple knights, let's experiment with the lich's head and then re-enter the Tower."
"That sounds like a good plan. Even with help from our Temple brothers, we can't shirk our responsibilities."
Cheep cheep!
Whether ghosts appeared or Imperial Temple knights gathered to support us, we needed to keep climbing the Tower. Everyone nodded in agreement with my words, and the finch on my head chirped in apparent concurrence.
If the shadow fang tiger was perceptive, this finch seemed to go beyond perception to actually understanding human language. Between its ghost-repelling chirps and other behaviors, it seemed almost like a forest spirit. At least it wasn't causing trouble like the fang tiger, which was a relief.
With the finch on my head and the fang tiger at my feet, we moved busily through the city like some kind of traveling menagerie.
"Are there any quests related to the deep forest layer?"
"There's hardly any since information is so scarce. We might need to sell our mana stones and submit ghost-related quests to the Magic Tower ourselves."
"Makes sense—everyone's probably busy hunting ogres in the plains."
We had several tasks to complete: requesting Imperial Temple knight support and the release of the lich's head from the Kingdom's Grand Temple, gathering information from the Adventurers' Guild about the deep forest layer and what other adventurers had discovered on the 61st floor, and selling beast-type monster mana stones to the Magic Tower while checking if their research using the fang we'd left had progressed.
This sounded like a lot of work, but since we weren't personally running around, it didn't consume much time.
An ordinary adventurer, whether high-rank or top-tier, would be scurrying about taking quests from the Magic Tower and nobles. But as the hero party blessed by the Temple and the Kingdom's Third Princess, we were in a position to issue quests and order others to investigate things for us.
Request from the Temple
Request from the Guild
Request from the Magic Tower
Like rolling a snowball in a game, we'd leveraged our early advantages to reach our current position, so we might as well use every resource available.
'I wonder how regular players manage? If they lose the boss last hit at the beginning and can't build prestige, do they end up unable to get support and become pawns of larger factions?'
I suddenly grew curious about how other players besides second-ranked Kim Seok-hyun were progressing, but I was too lazy to seek out specific examples. While pondering this as we walked, Han Se-ah's broadcast suddenly grew chaotic.
Glancing sideways to see what was happening, I noticed one viewer passionately arguing something through a video donation, with other viewers agreeing that it made sense. She usually blocked all these attention-seekers, so why was she allowing it now?
[Goguryeo Watermelon Diagram donated 100,000 won!]
The forest is full of evil spirits. I humbly request you drive them away with fire cannons.
[Bird Missile donated 50,000 won!]
Just one shot is all it takes, please, I'm begging you, just let me fire one shot.
[Deep Forest Camping Alliance donated 30,000 won!]
There aren't any elf villages past the 62nd floor anyway, so let's go all out and torch it?
Ah, shit.
I didn't know why she'd opened donations, but I understood why she'd been listening all along.
※
The gimmick of the deep forest layer could be summarized most simply as honey and poison.
Either tempt with sweet honey
Or assassinate with deadly poison
This was evident from the fact that the walking flowers producing honey and the shadow fang tigers providing poison were only visible on the 61st floor and nowhere to be seen on the 62nd. What we thought were named monsters like the shadow fang tiger were actually neutral objects for completing gimmicks.
But Han Se-ah's viewers were dopamine-soaked addicts. Being the world's #1 in progression meant nothing to them—they'd grown accustomed to watching a natural 6★ monster with a holy sword slice through everything in an overpowered curbstomp broadcast.
Now that we understand the gimmick, can we set it on fire?
Since we've seen what we needed to see, should we gas the forest?
There don't seem to be any forest fairies, so can we just blow it all away?
And so these malicious viewers, growing restless with the peaceful animal therapy atmosphere, began tempting Han Se-ah with one mind and heart.
No matter how close to reality this virtual game might be, no one except some crazy extremist civic groups would personally condemn a gamer for setting a fire in a game... There were hardly any such people among the viewers.
"Should we? Honestly, I was holding back because of the forest fairies, but if they're all gathered on the 61st floor and definitely not above, there's no reason to hold back. I've heard that even if the Tower's internal environment gets destroyed, it regenerates over time."
-Didn't Teacher explain that in the cave? That tunnels get filled in again? LOL
-I think he explained it in the forest first—trees grow back even when cut down, which is why the Magic Tower old men built research labs in safe zones
This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
-But ghost-catching isn't really about fire cannons—it's about firing ceremonial cannons and firecrackers to scare them away
-Then couldn't we just load napalm into ceremonial cannons? Let's borrow a cannon from the stone dwarves
-Since there are beasts as well as ghosts, let's fire ceremonial cannons, regular cannons, gas—basically, let's fire everything first and ask questions later
The method of temptation was very simple.
Money, and more money.
Someone wanting to fire cannons donated 10,000 won, someone lamenting that her enhanced staff hadn't seen enough action donated 30,000 won, someone referencing historical archives donated 100,000 won, a Chinese viewer urging her to stop being cautious and go all out poured in money, and a Western firearms enthusiast refused to be outdone and donated even more...
Was this what it felt like to assault someone with money? Even without the money, the content itself seemed enough to tempt Han Se-ah, but with mission rewards generously attached, her eyes immediately began to gleam with flames of madness.
"Hmm, should we go back to the mansion on the 50th floor? Or stay at an inn in the city and take care of personal business?"
"Since the extraction probably won't be completed in a day or two, I'd like to stay in the city today and go to the 50th floor tomorrow."
So Grace's question was met with Han Se-ah's answer that sounded like she planned to thoroughly search the city's alchemy workshops today and the stone dwarves' alchemy workshops tomorrow to prepare ammunition. I had no particular reason to object, so I quietly listened to the conversation, and the others seemed to have no objections either.
Even if we went to the mansion on the 50th floor, we could receive the lich's head from the Temple with a single use of the gate, so it didn't matter whether we stayed in the city or on the 50th floor.
"So Roland, want to grab a drink for once?"
"After struggling in the forest, a good rest would be nice."
My companions, unaware of Han Se-ah's sinister thoughts, smiled brightly and suggested visiting a restaurant in the city for a change.
Perhaps still dwelling on how the ghosts had ruined the nice atmosphere in the tent, Grace clung to my side, while Katie, noticing this, linked arms with Irene and nudged her toward me.
The movement was so blatant that even viewers who had been joking about cannons and making imperialist plantation jokes about purifying the forest with fire took notice... but Han Se-ah's crazed eyes didn't even bother to look our way.
To give up voyeurism in favor of preparing bombs—just how important were fire and gas in Han Se-ah's mind? This was getting scary.
Enjoy the chappy!
