Capitalist Monster Hunter

12. Exciting Random Box (2)

“I already picked out the gear and cultivation technique for you, Yuseong! So please… just think about it once more. Please?”

Titania clung to Yuseong’s sleeves with teary eyes, pleading. Yuseong’s heart wavered a bit at her pitiful expression, but he had already decided. The Goddess of Mischief said she’d bless him, so he was determined to open that random box.

“Don’t worry; it’ll work out.”

“Yuseong…”

[Honestly, it just seems like you’re buying that random box impulsively.]

“Shut up, Eve.”

In the end, Yuseong bought 50 lower-tier random boxes. His points, which had been close to 100,000, were halved in an instant.

“Oh… all the plans I had…” Titania’s body wobbled as dizziness overcame her, watching his points plummet.

[Mischief Goddess: Hey, you bought the random box, right?]

“Yes. So, bless me…”

[Mischief Goddess: Ha, I lied. Just wanted to see you open it. But who knows? You might get something good, so go on!]

Snap—

Something broke in Yuseong’s mind. That was the sound of his last bit of rationality snapping.

[Mischief Goddess: Humans really are hilarious!]

[666: Why do humans stake everything on uncertainty? Not that I mind; it’s entertaining for me.]

[Great Archangel: Foolish.]

[Middle Kingdom Craftsman: Ah… the young should be like this… the courage… good to see!]

The gods and spirits observing Yuseong had found their new entertainment. They couldn’t understand his decision to buy another fifty boxes after already getting terrible results from opening twenty, but they were definitely interested. They watched eagerly to see what Yuseong would pull from the random boxes next.

“What kind of face will he make if he gets more trash items?”

“If he does pull something good, how will he react?”

Either way, it would be exciting and fun to watch. The gods and spirits fixed their eyes on Yuseong as he opened the boxes.

“Damn it. I should’ve been suspicious when she called herself the Goddess of Mischief…”

Vowing to unleash his fury if he ever met her, Yuseong swallowed his frustration.

“Fine, let’s just open the damn box…”

[You have obtained .]

[You have obtained .]

[You have obtained …]

Yuseong’s face was dark as he opened box after box. Out of the nearly 40 boxes he’d opened so far, he’d only received junk.

The only good news was that he hadn’t found any broken sword fragments this time.

The potion was drinkable. The old tunic, while useless, could be worn, and things like goblin hide or gnoll fangs could at least be sold on Earth for some cash.

Those broken sword pieces, though, were utterly worthless.

[Dragon Slayer: Hunter, are you cursed this year? Your luck is seriously trash. Hang in there, man.]

[War Freak: This is just sad.]

[Earth Mother: Stay strong!]

[Boris: Everything happens for a reason, lad. Don’t let it get to you.]

Seeing Yuseong’s unhappy expression, some of the gods and spirits began sending words of encouragement.

‘Don’t just say it—help me out with some support! Please.’

He thought it but didn’t say it out loud.

“Only 10 left…”

Out of the mountain of random boxes, only ten remained. Yuseong closed his eyes tightly and opened one.

Flash!

Inside the random box was a small ticket.

“A ticket? What kind of ticket?”

“It’s an inventory expansion ticket! Let me see… oh?”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Congratulations! It’s a high-level expansion ticket! You’d need tens of thousands of points to buy a high-grade item like this in the point shop!”

“How much does it expand the inventory?”

“The inventory is connected to a subspace granted to Hunters. The bigger the subspace, the larger the inventory. With this high-level expansion ticket… let’s see, it’ll expand to the size of several cities on Earth! You’d have a hard time filling it even if you spent a lifetime throwing items in.”

“Is there a level higher than this?”

“There’s the ultimate level, which could hold the whole planet, but it’s honestly unnecessary. Even with a mid-tier expansion, your inventory would be as big as a large park, which is plenty.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

While not exactly junk, this high-level expansion ticket still wasn’t what Yuseong was hoping for.

What was the use of all this storage space when he barely had any items to store?

“Not what I wanted at all.”

Yuseong turned to the next box.

Gulp.

With a dry swallow, he opened it.

Flash!

When the light from the box faded, he saw a black orb. The pitch-black sphere had a bright red tongue sticking out.

Slurp!

The black orb licked its lips as though it was alive. When Yuseong touched it, the tongue withdrew.

“What is this thing?”

He checked the item’s details.

Very little is known about this weapon. Its creator, origin, and purpose are all unknown. The one fact known is that this weapon eats other weapons. It devours holy swords, demon swords, and even legendary divine weapons, and grows stronger with every weapon it consumes.
The Weapon Eater absorbs the abilities and appearance of any weapon it consumes. It can transform freely to match any weapon it has devoured.

Yuseong felt like he’d just struck gold and looked over at Titania.

Titania gave him a thumbs-up and smiled.

Jackpot confirmed.

“Yes!!”

He raised his arms and shouted in excitement.

“The Weapon Eater is a top-tier weapon. In fact, ‘tier’ might be meaningless here. Its power varies depending on the weapons it consumes.”

“But it’s definitely awesome, right?”

“Yes, absolutely!”

The chat was on fire with reactions.

[Mischief Goddess: See? I told you! Hunter win!]

‘Her again?’

The Goddess of Mischief acted as if everything was fine now that he’d pulled something good, ignoring the fact that she’d tricked him in the first place.

‘Fine, I got the item, but I’m not letting her get away with it.’

[Fairy King: Congratulations.]

[Black Morningstar: Is this for real?]

[666: He actually got it.]

[Dragon Slayer: Whoa, he pulled the Predator’s Orb. That thing can actually drop?]

[Handsome Blacksmith: It eats weapons? I don’t like that.]

The chat was moving too fast for Yuseong to read everything, but nearly everyone watching his Hunter channel was shocked. The Weapon Eater was among the highest-tier items, nearly impossible to obtain.

It was also only available in random boxes—not even in the point shop. And even though it could drop, the odds of getting it were next to zero.

The highest-tier items only had a 5% drop rate from top-level random boxes, and even then, getting the specific item you wanted was nearly impossible. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of different top-tier items.

That’s why everyone in his Hunter channel was in disbelief. Yuseong had managed to pull the Weapon Eater from a lower-tier random box.

He didn’t just beat 0.5% odds; he beat impossible odds twice in a row.

“Titania, does this mean I’m a walking company now?”

“Not exactly.”

“Wait, what?”

Yuseong thought that with a weapon that left gods and spirits stunned, his life would be a breeze now. But now Titania was saying otherwise?

Her answer threw him off completely.

“The Weapon Eater is a Predator Orb. The more powerful the weapon it consumes, the stronger it gets. But if it doesn’t consume any weapons, what happens then?”

The Weapon Eater becomes stronger as it devours weapons. But if it hasn’t eaten anything, it’s just a black orb with a tongue.

“Its power depends entirely on what you feed it. If you feed it holy swords or demon swords, it’ll become incredibly strong, but if you only feed it common weapons, even the Weapon Eater won’t be able to reach its full potential. At worst, it could end up on par with an average iron sword.”

“Got it…”

Yuseong’s excitement, which had been sky-high, instantly deflated.

“Don’t get too discouraged! I’ll support you with everything I’ve got. Let’s gather points by clearing dungeons on Earth and feeding the Weapon Eater tons of weapons! I know you can do it!”

Titania, with her determined little fists clenched, encouraged him enthusiastically.

Yuseong couldn’t help but smile at her bright eyes and fluttering wings.

“All right, let’s make sure this predator eats till it’s stuffed.”

It was a moment of shared determination between Titania and Yuseong.

“Now let’s open the remaining boxes and check out the shop.”

“Yes!”

With a relaxed mind, Yuseong opened the remaining boxes. Unfortunately, it seemed he’d used up all his luck on the Weapon Eater, as nothing noteworthy came out of the last boxes.

Most of the items were potions and random junk, with the only halfway decent item being a single “Random Summon Token.”

“It’s a random summon token! You can use it to summon a creature. But… it’s kind of a shame. A guaranteed summon would have been better.”

“Ugh, another random thing. What’s with the system creators and their obsession with randomness? Are they all college students or something?”

Seriously, it was like some drinking game where everything was decided by random draws.

“If there’s a random summon token, that probably means there’s a random weapon or armor token too…”

Yuseong started feeling a weird sort of respect for whoever designed this system.

To come up with something even gods found worth copying? That was impressive.

“So, do I just tear this thing?”

Following the dotted line, Yuseong tore the token right in half.

Woooong!

As soon as he ripped it, the air around him began to warp.

“This is so exciting! I wonder what kind of creature you’ll get!”

[I am also intrigued to see what sort of companion this “summon” will be.]

Titania’s eyes were wide with excitement, and Eve looked curious too. Yuseong watched the portal with anticipation, wondering what would appear.

Pop!

Just like that, the warped space settled back to normal.

“What…?”

Yuseong was dumbfounded.

“It was supposed to summon something, right? But there’s nothing here!”

All that happened was a brief warp in the air, and then… nothing. No creature emerged from the portal or anything.

“Titania, what’s going on? Where’s the summon?”

“Um, the system shows it worked correctly… so what’s happening here…?”

Titania was just as confused. Right then, a message popped up alongside a donation alert.

[The Trickster Goddess has donated 1,000 points.]

[Trickster Goddess: Most likely a bug. Heehee!]

“A bug?”