3.

In the past, Buja would have kept throwing money at it until it succeeded. He had about 7,000 Gold left, and with a 55% success rate, the odds were that it would work within two tries.

But things were different now.

He had the Gold Shop—a supply depot that compensated for his Gold Maker class's lack of combat skills. He had already seen its usefulness during the Gold Missions before the event. Locking up too much gold in the shop could slow his growth, but he calculated that he needed to keep at least 5,000 gold in reserve to prepare for the increasingly large-scale Gold Missions.

On top of that, he was about to move on to Chapter 2, where the odds of encountering more complex and difficult situations were much higher than in Chapter 1. So, he decided to be satisfied with investing the roughly 22,000 gold he had earned from the event into his WFFG and the upgraded Gold Ring.

'I'll just write off the 3,000 gold as an event expense.'

He had 18,000 gold before the event, so the math more or less checked out. All he had to do was rationalize it.

Of course, that was easier said than done.

"My poor 3,000 gold…"

That gold was his flesh and blood. Even if he had become a millionaire overnight, any gold that ended up in his hands was still his gold. He couldn't help but want to recoup his losses.

On top of that, his body was itching to move after lazing around the house for days. He grabbed his coat and called out, "Ms. Seora! Line up a dungeon for me, just one. Anything Unique grade or higher!"

He wanted to earn some gold and test out his newly upgraded Gold Ring.

* * *

He got in his car and headed for the location from the text message that had arrived instantly. For the first time in days, he checked the internet.

"Wow, that bastard Sijun. He's been milking me for views like crazy."

He already knew that video platforms, news sites, and forums were plastered with stories about him, but he hadn't expected Sijun to be capitalizing on it so brazenly. Given that this was the same guy who had swallowed his pride and paid for publicity under the table, it was only natural. Still, it was a novel sight, since Buja hadn't spared him a single glance before or after the event. He had thought Sijun would at least put on a hostile front and engage in some media manipulation, but instead, he'd chosen this angle.

'Even if he is the youngest of the SJ Group, is it really okay for him to act like this when his guild is basically in mourning?'

"He's something else."

Buja had no intention of nitpicking the videos Sijun was posting. That was how the world worked. Back when he'd been struggling to make a living, he had tried all sorts of clickbait to squeeze a little more revenue out of his own channel, so he understood the mindset perfectly. Honestly, the only reason he wasn't saying anything was because Sijun had sent him quite a bit of tribute in one form or another.

Instead, Buja opened his own channel's page.

'I won't stop him from cashing in on my name, but…'

In the video, Sijun was slyly slipping in some PR for the SJ Guild. Buja could tolerate being used for views, but if Sijun was trying to use that to rehabilitate the SJ Guild's image, that was unforgivable. As long as Buja was in the Jeong Cheol Guild, Jeong Cheol had to remain the guild that represented South Korea.

'How should I mess with him?'

A dozen different methods flashed through his mind. A direct call-out or some media play would be the easiest and fastest way. Plenty of people hated Sijun, but right now, there were far more people in Korea who adored Kim Buja, praising him almost as much as Fly.

That was exactly why he wouldn't choose that route. One of the dumbest things you could do was feed attention to someone desperate for it. If he had been less famous or lacking in other areas compared to Sijun, then drawing attention that way wouldn't have been a bad move, but the situation was the opposite. If Buja mentioned him, Sijun would just come running, thrilled.

So Buja decided to ignore him and make his own video. There were plenty of ways to handle this. He chose the simplest one, which also lined up with what he was already planning.

He arrived at his destination, grabbed his filming gear, and got out of the car.

4.

Sijun, who had been feeling quite pleased with his channel's recent resurgence, sensed that something was amiss. Along with his existing fans, a huge number of new people had flooded in through his videos about Kim Buja. He didn't check every single comment, of course, but he did keep an eye on the general flow. A certain amount of arguing was a good source of energy for keeping a channel alive, so he had been letting it go. But when he returned after a short break and glanced at the rapidly updating comment section, he noticed something strange.

The comments were coming in too fast for it to be just a flame war.

When he checked, sure enough—

—Hey, there's a new Kim Buja video up.

—Holy crap, what is it? Event footage?

—Wow, is it finally dropping?

—The team battle video's already up on the official Jeong Cheol Guild channel though. Is he uploading his own version?

—Who cares what it is. We can just watch it again from Buja's POV. And I wanna see the 1v1 too. I wanna feel that rush from the finals again.

The comments were completely flooded with talk about Kim Buja. It was inevitable. The channel's revival had started with clickbait about him, and most of the new viewers were his fans. It felt like people who usually hung out on Buja's now-massive channel had wandered over to kill time while waiting for his next upload. There was no way to stop them.

—Nope, not event footage. He said he'll upload the 1v1 separately, but not today. If you're curious, go watch it yourself. I'm heading over too.

—Yeah, I'm going. What are we even doing in Buja's waiting room?

—I already left. Bye.

These were people who didn't care about Sijun's videos at all and wouldn't care in the slightest if he blocked them. From Sijun's perspective, it was actually better to have them hanging around and making noise like this.

"What did he upload?"

Of course, Sijun knew better than anyone that there was no realistic way to stop this. Even he was already pulling out his tablet and navigating to Buja's channel.

[The Class Everyone's Been Curious About. I'm Revealing It.]

"What?"

He shot to his feet. Had he read that wrong? Sijun rubbed his eyes and checked again, but the title was exactly what he had seen.

'No way, right?'

Even a clickbait artist like Sijun had a line he wouldn't cross. The most important thing was to write titles that pushed the envelope but didn't get reported and taken down. This one didn't just cross the line; it was so far over it that he wondered if Buja had lost his mind.

"Has he gone crazy?"

A class was practically a player's most private information. While some might have scoffed at making a fuss over a class back in 2018, many players wouldn't even reveal their class name. Even now, the classes of many rankers remained unknown. Some had revealed theirs, but even they almost never disclosed their exact skills or detailed class information.

And in this environment, the man of the hour, the one who had beaten Fly, was going to reveal his class himself?

Anyone could see it was bait.

'He'll probably just spout a bunch of fluff and then drop the class name at the end, tops.'

No matter how he thought about it, that was the limit. Buja was the hottest player in the world right now, and countless people were speculating about his skills and class. It made sense that he would try to win public favor by revealing it himself while all eyes were on him. But only the class name. That was as far as it could go.

'Even that feels like too much, honestly.'

His head spun. What on earth was Buja thinking, putting up a video with a title like this? Sijun didn't want to give the video a single extra view, but his finger was already tapping on it.

And when he watched it, his jaw dropped.

"You've got to be kidding me."

He could tell from the comments that he wasn't the only one cursing under his breath.

—For real? He's actually revealing it?

—Wow, there's a class like this?

—Insane. With this, he really might catch up to Fly someday.

At the exact moment everyone's curiosity peaked, Kim Buja laid his hidden card on the table.

* * *

There was no special reason for it.

'It's all going to come out bit by bit anyway, so I might as well get ahead of it.'

He had already revealed that his class was Legendary, and the event had exposed the Gold Shop to the entire world. Even if the distribution rights to the footage technically belonged to him and the Jeong Cheol Guild, it would have been stupid to sit on it when everything had already been shown. Sijun decided it was better to ride the wave of public interest.

Besides, there was no longer any need to hide. At first, Buja had had no backing, not even enough money to buy a single dungeon, so he hadn't wanted to be pushed around. That was why he had hidden it. Now, though, he had climbed to a position where that was completely unnecessary. He had the solid backing of the Jeong Cheol Guild, more money than he could ever spend, social recognition, and even his friend, the Oil Prince, Sergei.

Of course, that didn't mean there would be no jealousy, envy, or threats. But if he tried to respond to every single one, he would never get anything done. If he had wanted a life focused solely on safety, he would have quietly run a dungeon once or twice a month and spent the rest of his time enjoying himself.

So Buja revealed it.

"My class is a little special."

He was inside a dungeon with his newly upgraded 2-star Gold Ring on his finger.

"I have a hybrid-type class." He swung a massive greatsword as he spoke, showing it off.

His casual request for a Unique-grade dungeon was no problem; Seora had naturally prepared a 2-star one to match his level.

WHOOSH.

The monsters facing the overwhelming destructive power of the greatsword were cleaved cleanly in two.

"You can think of it as a class that mixes offense, defense, and support. Of course, because it's mixed, it's hard to dominate in every field. In my case, I've invested heavily in support. The explosive early growth and stat bonuses you saw during the event were because of that."

The monsters fell like dominoes, lending credence to his words. It was a very convincing lie, but no one doubted him—no one could, because it was a lie laced with truth.

"A lot of people have misconceptions, and I didn't really want to reveal this, but I decided to make this video to clear things up. It's true that I beat Fly in the event, but please don't use that alone to compare and judge us in real life. My class had many advantages specific to that event and situation. Of course, I'm confident. If I keep growing like this, I believe that one day I'll be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Fly through my own ability and talent." Buja stated.

He only spoke words that were half-sincere. The only lie was about the class itself.

"As for details like skills, like I said before, I'll leave those as a source of fun for my subscribers."

No one knew the truth anyway. And even if they did, it didn't matter.

Only one thing mattered.

"My class is called Gold Maker."

From the very beginning, the only reason he had turned on the camera was for this moment.

* * *

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