While still invisible, Ryu Min headed to the studio apartment where Lostyak had lived.
It was equipped with video chat gear, and he didn't have to worry about prying eyes there, so he had been visiting every Sunday like this.
'Now, once I put on the Assassin's Mask and transform…'
His form wavered, and then he changed into Lostyak, with bronzed skin.
It was flawless—no trace of his previous appearance remained anywhere.
[Lostyak has entered the chat room.]
He connected to the channel where they held regular meetings, but no one else was there.
It seemed there was still time left before the others were due to arrive.
As he waited in boredom, Yamtti logged in.
"Welcome, Yamtti."
"Lostyak, you're here early, huh?"
"I didn't really have anything better to do, haha."
His voice and face were exactly the same as Lostyak's.
Even his speech patterns matched.
'I've already analyzed every nuance of Lostyak's speech with the Rune of Inner Thoughts.'
There was no way Yamtti would ever notice.
Sure enough.
Her gaze was already drifting elsewhere, looking bored.
[The Chairman has entered the chat room.]
"Ah, Chairman, you're here?"
"Hello, Chairman."
"Good day, everyone."
The chairman replied with a bitter smile.
It was understandable; he had only two executives left.
"Let's begin the meeting right away. We decided to recruit new executives last time, didn't we, Lostyak?"
"Yes."
"Were there any promising applicants among those who signed up?"
Ryu Min opened the stats file he had prepared on the desktop.
It hadn't been hard to get ready; all the necessary data and programs were already installed on Lostyak's computer.
"I've narrowed it down to thirty candidates, ranked by highest level and zone ranking."
"Black Scythe isn't among them, I trust?"
"Correct. If he were, I would have reported it immediately."
"Any other named players?"
"Not particularly. I checked, but none of the applicants are using the nicknames Cheonma or Dumbass."
"Hmm… Then I suppose we'll have to pick our executives from among those thirty."
There were no big names like Black Scythe among them, but the candidates were still in the upper ranks.
"Then Yamtti, I'll have you handle the interviews. Among those who pass the killing test, select five to appoint as executives."
"Got it, Chairman."
"Next item. I hear there's a congressman out there these days slandering Players."
"Ah, I saw that news. A congressman named Lee Sung-hyun."
"Once we've selected our executives, we'll also need to discuss what to do about him. He's an enemy of us Players—the kind of legal professional who tries to bind us with laws."
'You're not even a Player, so what's with this "us Players"?'
Ryu Min sneered inwardly but didn't let it show.
The meeting proceeded smoothly after that.
Once all the necessary agenda items had been dealt with, Ryu Min took the opportunity to casually bring something up.
"Did you all see those articles?"
"What articles?"
"The ones about a market exclusively for Players. It's supposed to open next week."
"Ah, I saw that. I browsed the temporary homepage a bit, and it looked pretty good."
"Right? Once it opens, I'm going to put some items up right away. I've got a lot of useless stuff sitting in my inventory…"
"I should do that too."
Ryu Min and Yamtti spoke as if they were looking forward to it.
Only the chairman, the sole non-Player, remained silent.
Watching him, Ryu Min probed with a question.
"Chairman, I have an idea."
"What is it, Lostyak?"
"How about we post an announcement encouraging Players to actively use this open market called Player Place?"
"And why should we do that?"
"You may not have noticed, but lately the number of new sign-ups to the café has been steadily dropping. We have ten thousand members, but the post regen is low. At a time like this, if we spread the word about an open market where they can trade items…"
"It would help invigorate the café."
"Exactly! As expected of you, Chairman—you catch on right away!"
He deliberately joked around and flattered the chairman, who then fell into thought.
It looked as though he was seriously considering Ryu Min's proposal.
"Hmm, that doesn't sound bad."
The chairman gave his approval.
"We'll do as Lostyak suggests."
Just as he'd wanted, he had now roped Plseba into promoting the site.
"Thank you, Chairman."
No one saw the faint curl at the corner of Ryu Min's lips.
'Finally, it's today.'
The long-awaited opening day of Player Place had arrived.
Dressed in a suit, Ryu Min attended the opening ceremony and stared at the monitor.
Ma Kyung-rok, seated beside him, whispered.
"What do you think, Prophet-nim? We're about to open—do you think a lot of people will log in?"
"Well, we'll only know once the results come out."
At that uncertain answer, Ma Kyung-rok's eyes widened as if someone had smacked the back of his head.
"What? We've laid everything out on the table exactly as you said, Prophet-nim. How can you say it like that…?"
"Minor details of the future can change at any time. The main thread—this company hitting it big—will not."
"Ah… You scared me for a second there."
Soon, the other shareholders came in behind the two men.
They were the ones with the largest stakes after Ma Kyung-rok.
"Welcome, gentlemen."
"Ah, yes."
"Good day."
"..."
After exchanging brief, formal greetings, everyone took their seats.
To be honest, the whole situation left a sour taste in their mouths.
At the last shareholders' meeting, they had agreed to this venture with gritted teeth.
'Tsk, they even changed the decent company name to something weird.'
'Let's see just how well this really does.'
With displeasure written plainly on their faces, they all fixed their eyes on the monitor.
In five minutes, the social market's homepage would go live.
Manager Kim, whose abilities had been recognized back in the Cheonma Consulting days, was in charge of the proceedings.
"The official Player Place website will be opening shortly. I'd like to thank you all for coming, and briefly explain how the site will go live…"
After five minutes of filler explanation, the time finally came.
"All right, only ten seconds left until we open! Nine! Eight!"
Everyone watched the countdown with pounding hearts.
Their expressions varied, but in their hearts they all hoped it would go well.
"The site is now open! If you look at the traffic and number of connections on the side, you can see the trend, and—huh?"
Manager Kim, staring at the monitor, trailed off and adjusted his glasses.
"Uh, uh… Just a second. Th-this is…"
Everyone watching the rising traffic numbers was struck speechless.
Manager Kim alone managed to speak.
"A-a-amazing! This is insane!"
The words he squeezed out were pure exultation.
"The traffic is skyrocketing to a ridiculous degree!"
Even without him saying it, they could see it.
The numbers were climbing so fast that the thousands place changed every time they blinked.
In less than five minutes, the number of site visitors surpassed fifty thousand.
Ma Kyung-rok, brimming with excitement, looked over at Ryu Min.
If he hadn't listened to the Prophet and expanded the servers, they would have crashed long ago.
"Major shareholder Ryu Min, this is huge."
"So it seems."
He replied calmly, but he was also more than a little surprised.
'It wasn't quite this intense last time around.'
He had watched this opening ceremony multiple times across regressions, but this was the first time he'd seen the traffic explode like this.
When the traffic soon passed two hundred thousand, the shareholders began to smile faintly.
It was the first time they had smiled since arriving at the opening ceremony.
"Congratulations, President Ma."
"At this rate, it looks far better than back in the Cheonma Consulting days."
"Haha, thank you. We still need to wait and see a bit more, though."
After congratulating Ma Kyung-rok, the shareholders turned their attention to Ryu Min as well.
"Congratulations. Just as you said at the shareholders' meeting, it really blew up."
"Now all that's left is for the company to keep going from strength to strength."
"Thank you for trusting and following my lead."
At their kind words, Ryu Min smiled gently.
"We already have over a thousand people applying to register items for sale!"
As requests for sales registration approval poured in, the staff manning the office grew busy.
"Listings are going up!"
Item listings were appearing one after another like bamboo shoots after rain.
Comments, star ratings, purchase requests, and money top-ups followed them in droves.
A site that had been empty right up until the opening was now bustling like a crowded marketplace.
"Major shareholder Ryu Min, at this rate we might really get listed on KOSPI within half a year."
"You can tell that just from the first day's results?"
"Of course. You can tell a promising tree from the sprout, as they say. One look and you know. Just as you said, this is a jackpot."
Ryu Min did not miss the way the corner of Ma Kyung-rok's mouth twitched.
His pride kept him from openly grinning, but his face clearly showed how hard it was to contain his joy.
'If no one else were here, he'd be grinning from ear to ear right now.'
Ryu Min turned his gaze back to the monitor, smiling.
The whole reason he'd created this social market in the first place was to make item supply easier.
The better the site did, the more it would help Ryu Min's growth.
'And the rise in stock price that came with it was just a bonus.'
As expected, it was drawing tremendous popularity.
He couldn't help but feel pleased that the business idea he'd pushed for was succeeding.
While everyone was congratulating themselves as they watched the stats on the monitor, Ryu Min spoke as if making another prophecy.
"President Ma, something interesting is going to happen soon."
"Huh? What do you mean, all of a sudden?"
"I told one of the staff to register a certain item for auction on opening day."
"An auction?"
Pl.Pl had an auction system.
You could put an item up and run a twenty-four-hour auction, and anyone who had money charged onto the site could take part.
"So you're saying you secretly put an item up for auction without telling me?"
"Yes. If there's a big auction item, it'll naturally draw more attention."
"Ah."
"Of course, I'm not donating it. The proceeds from the auction should be treated as mine."
"Naturally. So what item did you put up?"
Ryu Min grinned.
"You'll know when you see it, Manager Kim."
"Yes, sir!"
"Please bring up the auction status on the monitor."
"Understood."
Manager Kim clicked his mouse and pulled up the auction section.
[Blueprint: Minotaur's Armor]
[Auction in Progress]
[Starting Bid: 1 won]
[Current Bid: 1,210,392 won]
[Time Remaining Until End of Auction: 23:52:34]
[At the end time, the Player with the highest bid will win the item.]
"Here's the auction status. As you can see, it's already up to 1.21 million won."
It had risen quite a bit in less than ten minutes.
But after an hour, the price exceeded ten million won.
After three hours, it had passed fifty million won.
And the next day—
Ding—
[Mr. Ryu Min, the auction item you registered has been sold to the final bidder.]
When he read the message, Ryu Min couldn't help but be shocked.
[Final Winning Bid: 1,000,123,912 won]
The winning price was a staggering one billion won.