NOVEL NEXT Chapter 673
VR SPACE.
When users connect to virtual reality through capsules, this is the first space they encounter.
The VR product manufacturer, VariA, led the revolution of space by first introducing VR SPACE.
Especially with the “Private Room System.”
By announcing a bold policy to provide an open world service for free to individuals, VariA was able to redefine itself as the number one company by market capitalization.
“It feels like I’m swimming as mana,”
Luri thought as she crossed the vibrant garden.
With the sensitive senses of a dragon on high alert, Na-name and Cheon Saetbyeol entered the mansion they cultivated.
Geeeeek-
[Can you even prepare a proper birthday gift considering you’re living off your sister?]
Luri felt a tightness in her chest.
The cat’s words were, unfortunately, spot on.
[Haven’t you adapted to the modern world yet? Hmph, you uncivilized medieval person, or should I just call you Grandma Luri.]
[Luri, you’re banished from this family. Now that you’re less than a cat, what are you going to do?]
All sorts of ominous imaginings intertwined and swirled in Luri’s head.
She looked around the mansion.
‘The resources are sparse compared to the space.’
VR SPACE isn’t just a space, but content itself.
Wider spaces, bigger houses, more varied furniture and decorations.
Many items could be purchased through paid transactions, but sometimes VariA held events to distribute limited edition items.
While browsing the shop catalog, Luri stumbled upon VariA’s event.
[Stellar Frontlines]
The frontlines of the stars.
A strategic simulation game where you become the commander of a space fleet, exploring the vast universe, collecting resources, and expanding your territory through battles with enemies.
Once a day. An event that picks the best commander through 14 troop pairings.
‘This could work!’
Luri’s eyes began to shine brightly.
“The untradeable item, spaceship, will be awarded to the top 500 players around the world… Can I do it?”
Luri imagined the sight of spaceships floating above her private room.
It’s not just something to do.
She must do it!
[You can enlist additional troops using your mileage. (Max: 10 million)]
‘Perfect timing, I’ve got 10 million mileage…’
Mileage that Na-me and Saetbyeol collected over three years, spending more than 10 million in-game.
‘Having 100 million troops is different from 110 million. This absolutely needs to happen.’
As a former commander of the Demon King’s Army, she deeply understood the importance of troop numbers.
The mileage spent could be repaid by obtaining the spaceship.
Thus began day one.
While others suddenly invaded other planets, fortified defenses, or monopolized resource gathering,
Luri focused all her efforts on securing space supply routes.
Victory in war does not depend on the number or strength of troops, but on the stability of the supply route.
‘Troop placement at the main crossroads of Hela-7, developing a constant supply system, deploying small reconnaissance fleets to the Titan belt, placing electromagnetic obstacles on the fusion planetary routes, and establishing a mobile supply base.’
Thanks to this, she could also see which player was gathering resources.
And from day two to day four, she invaded as many players’ planets as possible with a streamlined force.
It accelerated her growth to plunder what others had harvested rather than mining resources herself.
On day five, Luri was the first to start constructing spaceships with investments from other players.
The defense of the colony planet was left to allies, but they built a system where they had to monitor each other to avoid betrayal.
On day seven, using ghost fleets, she repelled rank invaders.
By day ten, with decoy operations and tactics utilizing artificial black holes, she seized large planetary clusters.
By day thirteen, she achieved a complete victory in the multi-front war spanning 3000 light-years.
[#336 RuriBlack]
‘Got it! This is secure now!’
Success was within reach.
“Wow, tomorrow is the last day, RuriBlack! I have a feeling about this and just invested. Can I start receiving my investment of 8.5 billion won soon?”
The leader of the alliance visited.
“Your eyes seem impure. Trying to pocket the investment alone, huh?”
“Haha, not at all. If I did, my subordinates would probably team up to kill me, you know?”
“Well, whether you betray or get betrayed, that’s none of my business.”
“Come on, I wouldn’t betray you. Why would I do that?”
Whether the leader distributed the money or not was a problem within the organization.
After checking the amounts carefully ten times, Luri pressed the transfer button.
Whoosh-
“Eh? Why has the send button disappeared?”
“Huh? Is it a bug? Must be because it’s a haphazardly made game. Try pressing it again.”
Luri’s finger flitted in the air.
When she pulled her finger back, a button appeared, but when she tried to press it again, it suddenly went transparent.
“It’s not working!”
“Don’t lie. I came to get the money, and this kind of prank is troublesome.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Then you could at least give it a rapid-fire try.”
Tickticktick- Ding!
A cheerful notification sound.
“Oh! It went through! Thanks, I’ll be off now!”
The man vanished abruptly.
Having given 8.5 billion won, her ranking likely dropped by about ten places.
It wasn’t a small amount, but raising a variable by causing a war on the last day wouldn’t be great either.
“Now just distribute the soldiers’ wages and defend, and we’re done. Huh? What, what the…!”
[#1412 RuriBlack]
Luri’s account had dropped more than 1000 ranks.
To make matters worse, soldiers disgruntled over their pay initiated a coup.
“Hurry up and give us cash… Huh? Why is there no cash…?”
[Balance: 18 billion 4917 trillion… ]
Luri’s meticulously built supply routes since day one were destroyed.
[#2581 RuriBlack]
Planets overflowing with resources fell into the hands of reactionaries.
[#7043 RuriBlack]
Even the dearly cherished spaceships were plundered.
[#15619 RuriBlack]
On day fourteen, her rank plummeted.
Luri stared blankly at the screen.
“I see…”
A whopping 102 trillion won in cash had vanished.
Records of transferring 8.5 billion fifty times.
It starkly showed how thoroughly Luri had been played by that scammer.
“Ah… Aaaaaah…!”
A groan mixed with confusion and despair burst from Luri’s mouth.
She cradled her head in her hands and sank helplessly to the floor.
It felt like everything was collapsing around her.
The pressing of the button, the urging to press it repeatedly; all of it had been orchestrated by that man.
Luri finally realized how foolish she had been.
“I’m… a dragon… a proud Black Dragon…”
She clenched her hands tightly, her voice trembling.
Victorious in countless wars and battles, she was the commander of the Demon King’s Army who thought and acted more strategically than anyone.
In an instant, the honor and self-esteem she had built over time shattered.
Moreover, a heavy sense of guilt began to engulf Luri from a deeper place.
“I borrowed ten million mileage from my mother… Oh no…”
Her pride as a dragon, the guilt of being indebted to her sisters, and the frustration of having lost the spaceship right in front of her surged within her.
Holding onto her waning sanity, Luri finally pressed the customer service button with trembling hands.
This was her last lifeline.
*
“What did you say? Hmm? ‘Hehe, that’s the secret of survival. We trust no one,’ right? Kiheeheh.”
“Don’t tease too much. She must be heartbroken. Are you okay, Luri?”
“Sniff… I-I’m sorry for misusing my mother’s wealth…”
Tears streamed down Luri’s face as she hiccupped pathetically.
Upon hearing the details, one couldn’t blame her for falling prey to such nefarious tricks, even a doubting Luri.
If a button suddenly stops working, wouldn’t you press it a few more times out of common sense?
“Just stick with the mileage. Since it’s not real money anyway.”
“No, Na-me unni. If you use mileage well, getting 10% back is not a big deal! So Luri basically squandered a million won into thin air! Puffervong!”
“Keuhk… Get away.”
Kicking Saetbyeol’s side, Luri was intent on rebuking her, regardless of whether it hurt or not.
I gently cradled Luri’s head in my arms.
As I stroked her head softly, the horn that popped out snagged on my finger.
So this is what it feels like; I’ve wanted to touch it for ages…
“?”
“It’s okay, don’t cry. It’s not your fault.”
“Y-yeah, sniff… but I’m just too angry…”
“What should we do? I would feel wronged too if I were you, after putting in your best efforts for two weeks.”
“I did my research diligently.”
Luri pulled out a hologram notebook and sent it over.
In no time, she adeptly handled modern technology.
The hologram floated up, and it began to draw on a transparent light screen.
The notebook contained densely packed information, spanning hundreds of pages.
“This is the specs analysis for the spaceships… the response time charts based on NPC tactics, fuel consumption rates and troop movement paths during interplanetary battles, troop deployments all meticulously detailed…”
“Wow, did you do all this by yourself?”
“I did get a little help from AI… but I didn’t know how to use it, so it was just for reference…”
This wasn’t merely information scraped from the internet.
It was data obtained through hundreds and thousands of simulations.
Luri was still meticulous.
“What’s your rank now?”
“I haven’t dropped below 20,000 yet. I suppressed the coup for now, but I suffered devastating losses.”
“Aren’t you satisfied with being at least 20,000?”
Shake shake-
A reward of a lightsaber awaited those within the top 10,000.
Below that, solar wind sunglasses would be awarded.
It seemed Luri still had the spaceship dancing in front of her eyes.
But wait a moment…
“If players can transfer to each other, can’t we just gather resources by rallying people?”
“That’s not it. While you can keep it, the principal won’t count towards the final score.”
“Ah, I see how that works.”
If that were the case, influencers would dominate the top ranks.
“But still, investment, after all, has a more substantial impact than expected… It became challenging to enter the top ranks.”
“Oh, is that it? It’s even more impressive that Luri broke into the top 300 without any support.”
“Hehe… Yes. Thank you, unni.”
“How about seeking investments now to recover the infrastructure? If you have cash, you could recover all the remaining assets, right?”
Losing 1 trillion won in cash was unavoidable.
Even after Luri inquired with customer service, they stood firm that recovery was impossible due to her own fault.
But couldn’t she somehow scrape into the top 1400?
“Today is the last day of the event, and if you give me money now, I won’t be able to pay it back! So… so just giving up seems best.”
“No, don’t give up, Luri. You always found solutions. Imagine you had enough operational funds. Could you really find a way to reclaim your 1 trillion won?”
“There is a way. If I PK him. But it’s impossible! He doesn’t provide precise coordinates to prevent sniping.”
I patiently listened as Luri explained the system.
So, unclear coordinates like ‘village’ would be provided, and portals would randomly open within that area.
There were roughly 100 players in one village.
“Do you remember the coordinates?”
“Yes, I took a screenshot.”
“Then let’s go and wipe them out.”
“Eh?”
Luri hesitated.
“It’s just a game, right?”
I grabbed Luri’s cheeks with both hands, making her look at me.
“All hundred of them?”
Even her crying face was adorable.
*
[VR SPACE Gallery & 20 other communities (+ more)]
[Posted by: NoName]
(NoName selfie with a note.jpg)
Hello, I’m NoName.
Yesterday, I got scammed for 1 trillion won while enjoying the VariA VR SPACE event.
If anyone wishes for retribution, I would appreciate your generous donations at this coordinate.
[X: 154,823 | Y: -24,109 | Z: 88,450] [Player: RuriBlack]
Additionally, all who support the war funds will receive the Stellar Frontlines analysis sheet.
Please fill out the Google Form and join in on the revenge!
(SF Cheonma Death Beam Na-me Twitter icon.jpg)