Chapter 1: A Fool and His Gold

Looking back, I was out of my mind. And I was the only one who didn’t know it.

[Kwon Da-jung] Why did you suddenly leave the guild?

[Kwon Da-jung] Honey?

“Ha…”

Now, regretting my idiotic past, I firmly pressed the name of the bastard I once loved most in the world.

[Block ‘Kwon Da-jung’?]

And, I blocked him.

Hoping his existence would be completely erased from my life.

After that, I decided to be reborn with a new name on a new server.

Originally, I was going to delete my character and quit the game as soon as I realized Kwon Da-jung had deceived me.

But, when I was about to quit, I started to have second thoughts. ‘How could I just throw away all the effort I put into this character?’ I couldn’t quit a game I was good at just because of that jerk.

The deliberation was long, but buying and using a server transfer with cash was instantaneous.

So, I settled into the new server.

But there was a slight problem with my new home. To be precise, it was my problem.

Chaos Online limits the amount of gold you can transfer between servers. I could only bring ten thousand gold, so my account, which had billions, became penniless the moment I transferred.

Naturally, it was only the in-game gold that disappeared. The cash I had charged remained.

And the easiest and fastest way for me to earn gold… was to buy items from the cash shop and sell them.

I chose the [Royal Kit], which was a limited-time item. I charged as much cash as I could and bought a ton of [Royal Kits].

[ TL Note: “Royal Kit” here is basically a cash item bundle or loot box meant to give valuable or rare items when opened.]

It would be great if I could just sell the [Royal Kits] as they were, but they were non-tradable. However, the items inside the kits were tradable.

Intending to sell the contents, I started opening them one by one without really looking at the results.

[‘Ah-ang’ has acquired ‘10 Enhancement Stones’ from the Royal Kit.]

[‘Ah-ang’ has acquired ‘3 Megaphones’ from the Royal Kit.]

[‘Ah-ang’ has acquired ‘1 Red Fox Tail’ from the Royal Kit.]

Double click and double click.

My hand, clicking mindlessly, suddenly stopped. The [Red Fox Tail], a cosmetic item used for avatar decoration, was a pretty decent find.

I glanced at my inventory, which was a mess with items randomly piled up from the [Royal Kits]. I even checked and found that it was my third Red Fox Tail.

Since it was chaotic, I decided to sell what I had and then continue opening the rest.

The cosmetic items, including the tails, enhancement stones, potions, and other miscellaneous items, amounted to quite a bit when piled together.

It was while I was busy selling these items that someone approached me.

[Ban-ye] Hey

[Ah-ang] ?

[Ban-ye] How many kits did you open?

Just a moment ago, fireworks from opening [Royal Kits] had been exploding over my character’s head.

Moreover, since you could see when someone obtained a good item from a [Royal Kit] via server-wide messages, it wasn’t difficult for the other person to deduce that I had been continuously opening them. They probably approached me after seeing the messages.

I hesitated, then answered honestly.

[Ah-ang] About a thousand…?

[Ban-ye] Oh

They seemed to doubt me, thinking ‘Who in their right mind opens a thousand kits?’ but I didn’t care. I was spending so much money that I was getting sick of opening them myself.

Instead of replying, I opened another [Royal Kit]. This time, I got a common item. Ban-ye, who had spoken to me, remained standing in front of me, even though I didn’t respond further.

[Ban-ye] Did you get a Gold Fox yet?

The item Ban-ye was talking about, the Gold Fox, was a limited-edition pet only available this season.

It had a critical hit damage bonus and was cute, so it sold for the highest price, making it the target of most people, including me, who opened [Royal Kits].

The problem was that it was incredibly difficult to obtain. As far as I knew, there were fewer than ten people on the server who had a Gold Fox.

[Ah-ang] Nope… 

Seeing my dejected reply, Ban-ye said to me.

[Ban-ye] If you get one, will you sell it?

[Ah-ang] If I get one, sure…

[Ban-ye] To me?

[Ah-ang] Yeah, if I get one

Then Ban-ye whispered to me as if sharing a secret.

[Whisper][Ban-ye] Want me to tell you a good spot for getting Royals?

[Whisper][Ah-ang] Where?

For a moment, I was tempted and asked immediately.

As soon as I did, my rationality returned, thinking, ‘As if such a place exists.’ But Ban-ye had already moved somewhere and used a summoning scroll on me.

[‘Ban-ye’ has summoned you. Do you accept?]

[Yes] [No]

I had no choice but to press [Yes] and go where Ban-ye had called me.

The place I arrived at was Janggyeong, a Chinese-style city.

Ban-ye moved very meticulously back and forth on top of the highest spire in Janggyeong, adjusting their position a few times before finally fixing me in one spot, saying “Right here.”

[Whisper][Ban-ye] Try opening one here

[Whisper][Ah-ang] Okay

‘To believe in such superstitions…’

Without any expectations, I clicked on a [Royal Kit].

[‘Ah-ang’ has acquired ‘1 Gold Fox Egg’ from the Royal Kit.]

Then, as if it were staged, I got a Gold Fox Egg as soon as I opened it! Crazy…!

“No way!”

[Whisper][Ban-ye] Jackpot

Usually, it wouldn’t appear even after countless attempts, but to get it on the first try… It was a real jackpot.

A while ago, I saw Ban-ye adjusting their position down to the pixel, and I wondered why they were going to such lengths, but it was completely worth it.

[Whisper][Ah-ang] Whoa, this is insane

[Whisper][Ban-ye] Told you it was a good spot

[Whisper][Ah-ang] Amazing

The Gold Fox Egg was so sweet that it instantly dispelled my belief that this was all superstition. After all, the Gold Fox Egg was worth whatever anyone was willing to pay.

Forgetting that I had just met Ban-ye, I started to cling to Ban-ye’s character using the [Hug] emote.

[TL Note: In games like Chaos Online, an emote is a pre-set character animation or action that expresses a feeling or interaction — like waving, laughing, crying, or in this case, hugging.]

Ban-ye seemed to hesitate for a moment, then accepted the emote. And so, we shared a hug of victory.

[Whisper][Ah-ang] Thank you so much!

[Whisper][Ban-ye] Haha

After the hug, Ban-ye asked me as if waiting for this moment.

[Ban-ye] How much will you sell it for?

[Ah-ang] Hmm

I pondered. I wasn’t familiar with the market prices on this server.

‘They don’t seem like a reseller…’

I looked at Ban-ye’s attire and made some assumptions. Since their equipment window was open, I also checked their equipped items.

“Fully enhanced?”

Unfortunately, their ranking seemed to be set to private, so I couldn’t check it.

Still, with this level of equipment, they didn’t seem like the type to resell even if I sold it a bit cheaper… Plus, they had told me about the Gold Fox Egg sweet spot.

[Ah-ang] How much will you buy it for?

[Ban-ye] How about 25 billion?

[Ah-ang] Okay

[Ban-ye] Thanks

Ban-ye, seemingly satisfied with the reasonably low price, made a swift deal. As if worried I might run away, they immediately initiated a trade.

[‘Ban-ye’ has requested a trade. Do you accept?]

[Yes] [No]

I pressed [Yes] and placed the freshly acquired Gold Fox Egg. Ban-ye put up 25 billion gold and pressed the confirm button.

[You have acquired 2,500,000,000 gold.]

[Ban-ye] Thanks

[Ah-ang] Congrats

And Ban-ye vanished as quickly as they appeared.

“Huh?”

At that moment, something felt off.

I hurriedly checked the gold that had entered my inventory and only then, realizing something was wrong, furrowed my brow.

“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million, hundred million, billion… What! It’s not 25 billion? It’s 2.5 billion?!”

How could this happen?!

I quickly whispered to Ban-ye.

[Whisper][Ah-ang] Ban-ye! You gave me the wrong amount! You were supposed to give me 25 billion, but you gave me 2.5! ㄱ-

[TL Note: The symbol “ㄱ-” is a Korean emoticon (also called kaomoji) used to show emotion or attitude in chat.In this case, “ㄱ-” expresses a feeling of annoyance, frustration, or disappointment .]

[‘Ban-ye’ cannot be found.]

But… this jerk had already run off with the goods.

“Argh!”

I had been scammed. No, to fall for such a basic zero-omission scam right after transferring servers!

I was so angry, dumbfounded, and disbelieving that I kept whispering to Ban-ye… But Ban-ye, of course, didn’t return. If I were them, I wouldn’t log in either. Damn it!

With a heart full of rage, I went to the free discussion board on the official website to catch this scammer.

And I searched for ‘Ban-ye’.

[‘Ban-ye’ search results: 113,224]

I was shocked by the sheer number of search results.

“Whoa…”

As I read through the posts mentioning Ban-ye, starting with the ones with the highest views and comments, my mind went blank.

Ban-ye… was a star of the forums.

In a very bad way.