As the acceptance ended, a person carrying a box approached. It was a diamond payment box.

From the usage fee to the commission on the purchase amount. Even before buying a random box costing 15 diamonds each, thousands of diamonds were already draining away due to the exchange.

The purchase amount itself goes to the person who listed the item, but since I was buying things at such high prices, the commission was substantial. Honestly, if people who practiced reasonable spending saw me now, I felt they would have cursed me out.

I had a feeling that an attendant would frequently visit with a diamond box for purchasing exchange items or re-registering promotion services. Filling the box with diamonds didn’t take long, but doing it every time was a bit annoying. And that was because of my dwarves.

I had clearly been stopping by the shop along the way, waking up my phone to summon the dwarves often. That was because there were many cases where the diamonds the kids playfully tossed into my pocket couldn’t solve the problem. Yet, the dwarves seemed pretty upset.

At first, they were happy because I called them often.

The problem wasn’t the frequency, but the amount of diamonds taken each time—it never satisfied my dwarves’ standards. The thought of having to wake up the dwarves, who were full of complaints, made me sigh involuntarily.

[Master! Take more!]

[Master! If you don’t take more, us dwarves in charge of shoveling diamonds to you will lose our jobs!]

The dwarves, who originally only mined diamonds from the mine and moved them to carts or storage, had somehow come to hold various jobs.

Along with the world tree straw and the occasional diamond jackpot the elder triggers, consumption outlets increased, so all the dwarves inside got jobs.

I thought they were just going to the mine to dig more, but the costumes I put on them were gone, and I started seeing dwarves wearing glasses or gowns and mortarboards.

Of course, when I played <Infinite Diamond>, the ending was the dwarves’ diamond empire construction, and within that, the dwarves each worked, ate, slept, and lived, but this was the first time I’d seen them in anything other than miner dwarves on screen or cheerleader dwarves shaking support tools when using buffs.

Clearly, <Infinite Diamond> was a very simple game where dwarves just mined diamonds.

Since it was a game about to end service, there was no way a new costume I’d never seen before would have been released.

Curious about what they were up to, I watched as each dwarf introduced themselves—one modifying a cart, another designing it. The role of shoveling resources in small quantities for me was something along those lines.

They even said that the position of shoveling diamonds for me was highly competitive and only the best dwarves could take it.

[Master! I’m fine! Even if you don’t call me, I’ll keep diligently shoveling and sending diamonds to you!]

Those were the ones tossing diamonds into my pocket. Small as they were, with tiny shovels, they’d fling them away in groups, and occasionally when I reached into my pocket, I’d feel a handful at a time.

[Master! Look at this hose! Since you don’t use it much, we’ve turned it into a slide!]

I could see little dwarves sliding smoothly through a hose passage dozens of times their size, just like a water slide. The hose wasn’t likely to be used much except when the Elder rained diamonds…

[Master! Big trouble! One of the dwarves sliding down fell into the diamond storage!]

[Master! Hurry, if you don’t take out a lot of diamonds, the dwarf will die!]

[Master! Please use diamonds to save the dwarf!]

“I don’t need that many…”

[Master! Show mercy!]

[Master! Since you take too few diamonds, the storage is full and it’s even more dangerous!]

They grumbled and pouted, then it seemed the dwarves did some thinking on their own. The direction was a bit absurd, though.

Looking down at the underground diamond storage on the screen, I spotted a dwarf leisurely floating above a high pile of diamonds. Whether he hadn’t expected me to see him or not, he hastily adjusted his posture and waved both arms signaling SOS.

Doesn’t look that dangerous. There’s even a ladder on the wall over there. Plus, has using a lot of diamonds become an act of mercy now?

“Alright, then open the hose for just 3 seconds.”

I should have sensed it from the tremendous cheer of ‘Wow!’. I laid my phone face down on the diamond box, but suddenly the clerk holding the box wobbled downward. Even though the box was small, it could hold a lot more diamonds than it seemed—how much was it if I could feel the weight? I quickly turned off the phone.

I hurriedly checked the number displayed on the diamond box and felt a sinking darkness before my eyes, realizing I had messed up big time. I had thought it would just spill a few thousand diamonds, but it turned out to be tens of thousands. Even if the leading digits were different, tens of thousands was a unit the Elder only used when raining diamonds.

I quickly covered the numbers on the box with both hands. It would be a disaster if anyone saw. Daisy, who was next to me, followed suit and overlapped her small hands over mine. Wolfsbane, not to be outdone, stretched out his arm too. These kids probably had no idea why I was doing this.

“Wha… what the hell is this…?”

“Shh, keep it down. I have a plan for this.”

Covering the box, I dragged the clerk toward the wall where there were fewer people. Daisy, cover for me! I also pulled the tall personal shopper along to block the view.

“From now on, don’t bother coming to me for payment every time. Just deduct it from the diamonds I’ve given you. I thought a major workshop like the 10th Terrarium would have this kind of service, but I’m disappointed. I thought pre-payment systems were common. I just want to focus entirely on shopping. Even the process of asking how much is beneath my pride!”

“I apologize for not preparing in advance, Master Jae.”

Suddenly, the personal shopper apologized to me. I had just made up some urgent words and acted a bit to hide my panic, but it made me feel really sorry.

It was a good thing the beauty salon’s pre-payment system came to mind just in time; this amount was nowhere near something you could casually dump out by mistake, so blurting out any random thing would have been a disaster.

But since no one besides me has seen the diamond count in the box yet, if the personal shopper had seen it…

“It’ll be the same when I visit next time. I want to just pick items and walk out without the annoying process of checking amounts. I’m so used to it that this felt a bit suffocating.”

Was that a bit obvious? ‘Used to it,’ my ass—I’m the one who checks price tags and even looks for 1+1 deals. I even verify the payment when I get a text!

“I will do my best to ensure Master Jae can focus on shopping. Also, I will actively reflect your opinions and further review services for our valued customers in the future.”

“Hmm, come to think of it, about that golden apple tree on the list earlier. I have one of my kids who likes that sort of thing. Could I ask for something similar, please? It’s on a normal field and tree-type. It’s a recovery type! Oh, and you know price doesn’t matter, right? Since the prepayment is already done.”

I made the personal shopper leave so she wouldn’t see the box. She soon disappeared, saying she’d bring a recommendation list right away.

“You know the vibe, right? And send all the purchased items to the synthesis alchemy commission office. The commission fee is, of course…”

“Yes, I promise to ensure that you can fully enjoy the services you wish to use without any unnecessary processes.”

“And is there somewhere I can relax comfortably? It’s too crowded and noisy here. I’d prefer somewhere quiet. Well, if it costs extra for my comfort, so be it…”

I saw the clerk’s eyes glint dangerously. Prompted by my words, it seemed he intended to charge a tip for every service I received to make me spend money. That had to be done. We dwarves had gone too far. It would have been dangerous if I didn’t give the impression that I could easily burn through this amount.

Just from the exchange’s spare fees, the VIP reached level 8 in one go. With the pension commission fee, it became level 9, and by preparing a VIP room, drinks, snacks, and a private trading board, it reached level 10.

As soon as I ordered the maximum quantity of random boxes purchasable at my level for my room, I easily hit level 12. I effortlessly surpassed the target level of 10.

Before the drinks got cold, I’ve topped the VIP hierarchy. But at this point, I wondered if there was anyone besides me who had achieved such a level.

The VIP room seemed hastily set up and didn’t quite look the part, but it was satisfactory in its own way.

In truth, I would have preferred wandering among the artifact furniture displays and looking around more than being cooped up inside like this, but the whispers about who set off the bomb at the exchange, about market manipulation, about who the hoarder or real tycoon was—and the desire to see their face—grew so loud that I felt I needed to keep a low profile.

Once we came to a less crowded place, Wolfsbane also stopped being anxious.

Sprawled on the plush sofa, I grinned widely as I examined the Temple of the Sun I had just purchased. Of course, the clerk had personally brought this to the room too. I wondered if they hadn’t skimped on the delivery fee.

Next to me lay the gold card certifying VIP level 12. Daisy was staring at it with wonder.

There was no special notification like when the guardener rank in the terrarium goes up. Every so often, the clerk simply brought a business-card-sized gold card and informed me that my VIP level had risen. I just had to present this card like a nameplate.