Chapter 2：Hoarding Begets Victory (1/2)

Hold on! Don't get excited yet! True, all his stuff was still here—but could he actually use them? What if, like much of his user interface, they'd lost their functionality? What if he wasn't able to use these items?

Zhang Yun swallowed hard. He picked up a Golden Apple (one of the lesser treasures here), and took a bite.

[You have consumed a Golden Apple. 2,000 HP restored. 10,000 SP restored. You are now Energized: SP consumption reduced by 50%, gained immunity to certain negative conditions; 10-minute duration.]

All of a sudden, his whole body came alive, every inch of him thrumming with energy. Gone was the terror and anxiety that had been gripping his heart, replaced by an indescribable sensation of joy and excitement.

”Hot damn, this is amazing! I'm unstoppable!” Delight bloomed in his heart, and he tried out some of the other goods. They all worked.

The Summoning Scrolls seemed functional as well. Just like he'd become accustomed to in the game, he could choose to draw from a specific set, resulting in a more predictable range of results. In this way, he'd be more likely to get Heroes suited to his tactics.

Of course, the way summoning sets worked was one of the things that had changed with his new situation: All those sets which had been officially discontinued—such as the Limited Set, the Unity Set, the Legacy Set, and so on—were still available to him here.

In other words, he had access to every Hero ever released in 'Lost Kingdom'—even those phenomenally powerful ones he'd reluctantly passed over during his past life, for the sake of that title he'd been pursuing… with this profusion of Scrolls and Coupons, he could get them now!

But no, he wouldn't do that—the reason being that the Quest and Title systems were still active here, and the 'King of Hoarders' title could still be his, if he could scrape together two million Diamonds. He'd pursued this goal for ten years—he wouldn't abandon it now.

The problem with four-star and five-star Heroes was that, even if you only kept them in Storage and never actually brought them out into the field, they'd still tax you for Diamonds periodically.

Indeed, rather than the act of summoning Heroes, it was the upkeep of those Heroes themselves which cost one the most in this game. This was particularly true of Heroes with high Levels and Rating, who required a commensurately higher tribute of Diamonds. As such, even if you were lucky enough to get them, the question was whether you'd be able to afford having them around.

With enough Heroes, not even the wealthiest players would be able to afford to hang onto them, because there were limitations on purchasing Diamonds—whether you put eighty thousand bucks into the game, or one million, either sum would nevertheless get you exactly the same amount of Diamonds.

Sounds silly, doesn't it? Don't the game developers want to make money? Are they stupid or something?

Sorry, it's their game, and they can manage it in whatever way suits them. That's just how they roll: They won't let anyone buy too many Diamonds. They'll shut down servers at a moment's notice, without giving players any time to deal with it. What can you do about it?

And so, no matter who you were, every player had to scrounge for resources and hold off on Summoning, if they were to have any hope at all of becoming the 'King of Hoarders'.

It was an impossible task, for anyone…

… anyone, besides Zhang Yun.