I received a letter of introduction from the shop owner for the alchemist who makes bullets.

They said handing over the letter of introduction at the alchemy tower’s information desk would allow me to meet him. I tucked the letter, sealed in a neat envelope, into my pocket and pondered.

I felt like I had a mountain of quests to complete. I was the type of player who clicked on every NPC with an exclamation mark above their head, filling my quest log to the brim with sub-quests. When would I go see the alchemist…?

I also bought and equipped a belt that could hold my gun, and I finally felt like I looked somewhat impressive. While practicing quickly drawing the gun in case of emergencies, an unfortunate incident occurred where I dropped it on the floor. “Do you know how much that costs…?” I deliberately avoided the shop owner’s eyes as his face turned pale.

Ah, that’s so embarrassing… In my head, it was clearly an action movie, but my body was a documentary. And one about sloths, at that.

Pretending nothing had happened, I scanned the list of shops I needed to visit next. A grocery store with an attached restaurant and the long-awaited artifact workshop remained. Since I had already stocked up on emergency rations, I thought I’d just leave the information board at the grocery store.

While I wanted to eat a proper meal, I planned to stay at an inn reserved for VIPs, so I was looking forward to the dinner there, which promised to be on a whole different level from an ordinary restaurant.

As I left the weapon shop, I spotted Iris and her party running toward the area where potion shops were clustered.

“Hey, you pig! Waiting for you to scarf down all that stuff took forever! We’re running out of time to buy everything we need today!”

“Have you ever seen a chocolate fountain? Have you ever indulged in the luxury of strawberries piled high with three tiers of whipped cream? I might never get to eat something like that in my life, so I’ve got to eat it all while I have the chance!”

“You’re gonna get a stomachache…”

“You say you don’t like sweets, but you ate a whole tray of green tea cake!”

“I only ate what was in front of me and stopped; you had three refills of lemonade and guzzled it all! Do you even have room for all that?”

“It’s been so long since I’ve had a drink with flavor!”

It was still a noisy party. Seeing how often our paths crossed, I felt like I had quite a bit of fate with that party. The quiet man, Notos, somehow spotted me and gave a subtle nod.

I tried to wave my hand, but he urgently pulled out a weapon, shoved the two bickering men and women aside, and hurriedly disappeared. His actions seemed to carry a hint of embarrassment.

After visiting the grocery store and simply handing over the guide sign, the personal shopper looked a bit surprised. It made their enthusiastic explanation of the store’s special service—about how skilled chefs could make various dishes from the high-quality ingredients sourced by the 18th Terrarium—seem pointless.

I just gave a vague nod of admiration and quickly left. Had I secretly expected my wallet skills from previous stores to shine here too?

Hehe, don’t be disappointed. The highlight will unfold at the last store!

“Did you not like the interior? If you give your opinions, I’ll try my best to reflect them…”

“The interior was neat and nice! The owner was also kind, so don’t worry—I didn’t refuse to buy because I was upset! I just had nothing particular to buy. I’d already stocked up on plenty of tasty emergency food from the previous Terrarium. Even if I bought ingredients, I have no hobby for cooking, and my skills are terrible anyway.”

I was a certified disaster in the kitchen, even by my mom’s standards. My dad, who never complains and even drinks expired milk if Mom gives it to him, took one spoonful of my tteokbokki and said he disliked spicy food—this from a guy who slices several Cheongyang peppers into his hangover soup…

Mom said I should marry a man who can cook well and go out to earn money, and I agreed wholeheartedly. Come to think of it, are my parents doing okay? They’re such extreme individualists in our family that even when I disappeared for three nights and four days without a word about a trip, they didn’t send a single text.

It feels like I’ve been enjoying this game for ages, but even they wouldn’t have filed a missing person report, would they…?

But do I want to go home? Not really. Right now, every day is too enjoyable. Somehow, things will work out. For now, there’s no commuting, no assignments, no exams, no graduation thesis, no TOEIC study, no mock interviews, and no job-hunting worries.

They said I could play to my heart’s content after high school graduation, but that was all a lie. You only get a free month or two after the college entrance exam. And it’s not just about playing—you have to work part-time too.

Right now, I’m thoroughly enjoying gathering lots of Dryads, leveling up, spending diamonds lavishly, and raising them. Smiling contentedly at my phone, which is practically a cheat key, Daisy—who’s always staring at me—smiled beautifully along with me.

Yeah, I have my Daisy too. As I stroked her red hair, the lush red daisy flower by her ear swayed brightly.

Finishing my stray thoughts, I arrived at the Artifact Workshop, the final destination of the guide quest. What had to come finally came. My heart raced at the massive building, as if I were visiting the headquarters of a famous toy company. It felt like passing through trivial shops full of minor mobs and finally entering a boss raid.

The red carpet laid on the floor, the clerks stationed on both sides, the bustling crowd, and the products displayed all the way to the ceiling made me feel like I could hear Elder’s frustrated voice. This place seemed nothing short of Elder’s dream paradise.

Just like in that place in the 26th Terrarium, separate artifact furniture corners were set up according to the natural habitats of the Dryads. Each corner was as large as a single store I had visited so far.

The artifact furniture, packaged in transparent glass spheres, sparkled under the lights, each seemingly begging to be bought. In the Desert Field corner, I discovered a white temple model installed at about eye level height.

The best house for a Desert Field Dryad! Let your precious Dryad feel like a field guardian! Limited edition release: ‘Temple of the Sun’

Desert Field…! Mesquite came to mind. Imagining her walking out of that temple with dignity made my legs feel like they’d give out on their own.

Towering over the golden sand, the pure white temple shimmering in the sunlight, and contrasting with it, Mesquite walking out in full black armor with a cape fluttering behind her… It would be like the appearance of a sun deity. Stop, heart… no, don’t stop—if you stop, I’ll die, so just calm down…

I have to buy it right now! Take my money! As I looked around for a clerk, the personal shopper, who had been carefully observing which items I was interested in, called one over on my behalf.

While I couldn’t take my eyes off the temple house, the two finished a brief conversation, and the clerk, whose smile had brightened a hundred times more, bowed politely. It seemed they’d been given some heads-up.

Wolfsbane, who had been clinging tightly to my robe with a tearful face because of the crowd, tremblingly handed something to the clerk. It seemed he’d mustered tremendous courage. It was the guideboard I had briefly forgotten.

“Oh dear, I forgot about that. Thanks to you, I’ll complete the quest.”

How adorable. I patted Wolfsbane’s head, and his trembling stopped. It felt like the bristled fur of a baby kitten had settled down softly.

The clerk’s expression looked quite flustered. A druid doing a beginner’s quest accompanied by a personal shopper—what an odd combination.

“Ah… well… let me introduce our workshop…”

“Oh, no need for an introduction! How much is this house?”

“Ah! Are you referring to the product from the Temple of the Sun? You really have an eye for quality! It’s a limited edition crafted by our workshop’s master artisan, and it’s this month’s VIP-exclusive event benefit. It’s available for purchase starting from VIP level 10, and the price is 1,000 diamonds.”

“Whoa…”

What, does this game also have that infamous VIP system? The one that’s basically in every mass-produced Chinese game? The kind that’s disguised under different names like nobility or something, where your rank goes up based on how much you’ve spent?

And they even sell the product for money while calling it a VIP-exclusive event benefit? This is clearly targeting people like me who would think it’s special treatment and buy it just because it’s a limited item available to high ranks! The 18th Terrarium administrator is an absolute master at business, no doubt!

Naturally, the VIP points increased based on the amount of diamonds spent within the workshop. However, how many diamonds were needed to reach a certain rank was kept a secret. It was a tactic by ruthless merchants to prevent players from efficiently strategizing their diamond usage.

Temple of the Sun… just wait right there… Before this heat cools down, I’ll take the top VIP head and come back.

I felt like I could easily reach high VIP just by sweeping up all the items in the Desert Field corner right now, but the problem was the 28th Terrarium, which had low recovery capacity and couldn’t accommodate many furniture pieces, and the Terrarium artifact, which wasn’t even low-level but not high-level either, so its interior wasn’t very spacious.

How can I waste diamonds recklessly? If I’m going to splurge, nothing beats random boxes!

Guided by the clerk, I headed toward the random box corner with a determined face. Well, I was about to go, but something caught my eye.

In this massive artifact workshop, there wasn’t just one type of random box. Instead of cramming all artifact furniture into one random box like in the 26th Terrarium, they were divided in detail by field, by effect, by base shape, and even by theme.

On the surface, it seemed considerate to allow you to only pull from what you wanted, but since the items in each random box didn’t overlap, if you wanted various items, you had no choice but to try all types of draws. And there, I saw a really vicious system.