The garrison's duty was simple: one hour a day, patrol inside the Crossroads, or catch 20 monsters. If a special situation occurred that threatened the entire Crossroads, however, they had to respond and lend their strength, provided they were connected to the game.
'I can suck some honey and beat it,'Lokan thought.
As long as these conditions were met, the user-controlled garrison member could treat the role as they pleased. It was hard to get in, but easy to leave. Leaving would make it harder to re-enter later, but by then, he planned to be in a much higher position. Once he reached the conflict zone, the real 'class system' would begin.
"Uhm, that's right…"
Lokan, who had logged out briefly after receiving his garrison title, looked at the game's official website for a moment.
The news was out: Level 100 had been achieved, meaning the third job advancement quest had appeared. Game webzines and users, still unaware of Lokan's existence, were celebrating the appearance of the first Level 100 achiever. The player who reached the milestone even gave an interview, giving the impression of being the first.
But those who read the interview closely knew the truth.
"You idiot."
The player had smirked and claimed to be overjoyed but did not claim any "First" titles. Some might think he was a liar, but those with a keen eye would deduce that someone else might have reached Level 100 before him, especially if a First title had already been claimed.
"Still, information disruption is quite effective."
It was somewhat surprising that the first Level 100 achiever wasn't one of the known top-tier players. He had assumed it would be someone from the major guilds. He wondered if they had been misled by the false information he had leaked and were currently struggling with a high-difficulty Level 100 monster.
"Heh heh, let's get some blood and poop somewhere."
Smiling wickedly, Lokan logged out again and leaked the following false information. He split up the genuine hints he had prepared about the tertiary city, then accessed his YouTube channel, which he had neglected for a while.
The videos he had uploaded during the MP Guild incident had spread abroad, with view counts ranging from 10 million to 30 million. However, since there were no additional videos or comments, the subscriber count was only around 300,000. In this state, the number of views for his next video could plummet.
'Where can I learn without seeing?'
But Lokan didn't care. While it was true he hadn't had enough time to manage his channel, the content he was about to upload would make the existing low score irrelevant.
[The Road 3rd City and Nearby Hunting Grounds Revealed]
It wasn't a full video like before, to avoid exposing too much information. Instead, he attached screenshots to the snippet to make it only partially recognizable. Of course, the journey to the tertiary city was not included, so viewers would only see it after they themselves arrived at the Crossroads, but that alone would gather enormous attention.
Lokan set the video so that you could only watch it after seeing an advertisement. He didn't care if people complained that he had become greedy. It wasn't exactly untrue. But, looking at it differently, wouldn't it be more like a cheap trick to watch a video that someone else worked hard to film and edit without even viewing the advertisement? He considered uploading it as a paid video but decided to hold off.
"Oops, I should also turn on the automatic translation function."
Finally, Lokan started uploading other videos without any regrets—mostly edited clips of exciting battle footage. It seemed many people enjoyed watching such intense combat, so he looked forward to the boosted engagement.
"Done."
Now he just had to wait for the rumors to spread. He didn't need to talk to reporters or post articles in communities. Since he had no intention of doing an interview or bragging on a website, he turned off his computer and connected to The Road again. With a dramatic piece of content like this, the publicity was guaranteed. Rumors would spread quickly once a few people out of 300,000 subscribers talked about it.
Unlike novice streamers who refresh their screens every minute, Lokan started going about his business calmly.
"I should stop by the Integrated Auction House first."
It was already getting dark, and it was too late to go out hunting. He stopped by the Integrated Auction House and collected the money for the items he had put up for sale. It had only been a day since they were posted, and only the grades below Magic were sold, but a considerable amount of money had been collected.
"Oh, did he buy this too?"
The name looked familiar. The player who claimed to be the first Level 100 achiever seemed to have purchased the Magic-grade Long Sword he had uploaded. Lokan suspected the player had given up on additional rewards and managed to attack only the easiest Level 100 monster, barely succeeding. He couldn't remember seeing his face or name in his previous life.
"It's going to be really fun."
Thanks to his actions, things were getting very interesting. Other users might advance into the tertiary city faster than expected, but Lokan found the situation of the players who had previously lorded their power over others changing to be very amusing. He was far ahead of them anyway; they couldn't catch up. The future could change, but he wasn't scared. He was leading the main scenario, so any change would be minor.
"Let's see, the money is slowly coming over."
Instead, he started making plans to exploit them. What could he trouble them with when they finally arrived? The brainstorming process took up a lot of Lokan's time.
"Shall we go from Season 2 first?"
The default plan was Real Estate Speculation Season 2. Of course, many guilds already had a guild house, but having their base in a secondary city was becoming a problem. Their main stage of activity would be in the tertiary city, and using a secondary city base was inconvenient.
'You can't ignore the teleport scroll value either.'
Crucially, from this point until Level 200, the Crossroads had to be used as a base. Even if they moved to another city, it wasn't far from the Crossroads, and even moving to the next level area required passing through it. It was convenient in many ways to settle here, a fact anyone with a basic understanding of the game would grasp.
'The problem is that it's a big city…'
The only problem was that Crossroads was a huge city. As a place where various races gathered, the city was large and had many buildings. No matter how wealthy Lokan was, it wasn't easy to monopolize it like he did in Trinsic.
'Should I choose the yolk in the end?'
While there were many buildings, there weren't many empty houses. Furthermore, the price was far higher than in the secondary city, and long-term rentals (one year) were not accepted; only a maximum of three months was possible. If he wanted to inconvenience others by not signing the contract, Lokan would have to pay all the rent alone.
'The price is definitely going up…'
So, he decided to buy some of the best properties. Real estate prices would certainly rise, so he could sell them for a higher price when he left the area.
[Amount] 803 Gold 71 Silver 23 Cooper
His current holding amount was a little over 800 gold. With the Rare and Unique grade weapons still on sale, and by strengthening and selling more items daily, he could easily reach 1,000 gold. This was enough money to buy three or four decent three-story buildings. If he bought them in the best locations and aimed for capital appreciation, he could make a lot of money.
'Can I really do that?'
But Lokan felt uneasy. He felt like he was missing something bigger.
"Also… this is not it."
Buying a building and earning capital appreciation would certainly make him a lot of money, but that was it. The money would be tied up for a long time, and it would be difficult to pull off any major schemes during that period. Lokan wasn't just playing to make money, so he couldn't be satisfied with this.
"It's something only I can do and the best I can do. Still, it can affect other users."
Eventually, he changed his mind.
"Yeah, that would be nice."
Lokan immediately sought out real estate. He bought a four-story building in a downtown area where users frequented the most. Since it was a purchase rather than a rental, he lost a huge sum of five hundred gold at once, but he didn't care.
"Vendor Installation."
He next hired a Vendor, spending 30 gold on each floor. Vendors were merchant NPCs that users could hire (30 gold for the first hire, 3 gold per month after that). They couldn't think or judge like normal NPCs, but they were excellent at handling buying and selling transactions.
He also had the option of hiring a Maid for cleaning and management, but this was mostly bought by users with specific tastes since they didn't actually live in the house.
Lokan, who spent a total of 120 gold on the Vendors, then worked on the interior of each floor.
'The first and second floors are as simple as possible.'
The first and second floors were decorated simply, with many Lock Boxes installed to store goods. These boxes were system-protected and couldn't be opened even by the highest-level thief class, as they belonged to the 'Merchant NPC'.
The reason for this simple decoration was to accommodate as many people as possible.
'The third floor is centered around the exhibition space.'
On the third floor, the exhibition space was maximized. Instead of allowing many people to stay, it was designed so that a small number of people could watch and inspect the items.
'The fourth floor is luxurious and secret.'
The last fourth floor was made to be secretive. While maintaining a booth structure to make it difficult for people to recognize each other, the design was focused on drawing attention to a central podium. This floor cost him the most; while the interior for the first to third floors was 20 gold, this floor alone cost 30 gold. However, he was able to select the interior to his satisfaction.
"Now I just need to fill it in."
From the building purchase to the vendor installations and interior costs, a whopping 670 gold flew out in an instant, but he had achieved the structure he wanted. Now all that was left was to fill in the items according to the purpose of each floor.
And it was going to be very profitable. The strong scent of money was already in the air.