Chapter 144: <Smartphone Slime>

The argument that <Frame Slime> was too expensive was losing its strength and withering away.

[<Frame Slime> Don’t buy it. The reverse feel is so intense you can’t sit on other chairs.]

[Essential items for going out: smartphone, <Frame Slime>.]

[Want a good chair? Go to a secondhand store. Tons of branded secondhand listings are pouring out.]

[Ignore the comment below.]

That human is a secondhand seller. Trying to clear out stock. With the money to buy that, it’s 20,000,000 times better to get a loan and buy <Frame Slime>.

It delivers satisfaction worth its price.

A chair worth 27 million won was absurdly recognized as a cost-effective product.

However, the <Slime> that Alchemy Slime released next silenced the faction that had defended <Frame Slime>.

[Yeonseul really seems obsessed with money.]

The newly released <Smartphone Slime> boasted a jaw-dropping price.

400,000 dollars.

Roughly 520 million won in Korean currency.

If the screen boasted 100 inches, people might have said it made sense.

The screen size was adjustable, but despite claiming to be a smartphone and not a tablet, the maximum screen size was 7 inches.

If it had been studded with diamonds, it might have been different.

No matter if it was made by an S-rank Alchemist, who would buy a smartphone worth 520 million won?

[They meant to release it for 400,000 won, not 400,000 dollars, but made a typo.]

Posts mixed with such hope also appeared.

But the price didn’t change.

400,000 dollars. Roughly 520 million won in Korean currency.

-Is this price for real?

└They’re completely ruining the good image they built up.

└I thought they were a friend to the common people, but this betrayal stings.

-Do we really need to start a boycott?

└Not really.

└You do it on your own.

└A life without <Slime>? I’d choose death.

Unlike with <Frame Slime>, this time there was no product showcase.

There was no place to touch it either.

To experience <Smartphone Slime>, you had no choice but to buy it.

[No showcase, no experience zone. What are they even trying to do?]

Are they hoping to catch a sucker or what?

=Yeonseul earns so much money in a day, would he do something like this just for 500 million?

└Then why aren’t they giving a chance to touch it?

└How the heck would I know?

└Poor folks with no money to buy it shouldn’t even touch it. I heard there’s an experience zone open only to VIPs.

└Is this for real?

No matter how much of a broadcaster someone is, it’s an amount they can’t touch just for testing.

Wouldn’t someone experience it and post a review?

While waiting so hard my eyes nearly popped out, a post finally appeared.

[Bought <Smartphone Slime>]

Took out a loan from Slime Savings Bank to buy it.

No regrets.

Taking questions.

-You’re betting your house on a smartphone?

└Is this the so-called smart house I’ve heard about?

└Ah, you can live inside it. Anyway, it’s there.

└My life is inside this smartphone lololol.

-Where’s the verification?

└(Contract photo)

└Crazy. Is this real?

-Are you rich?

└Bought it with a loan.

└With that money, you should buy a house, not a smartphone.

└They loaned me the full amount, so I didn’t spend a single penny of my own.

└Your ancestors are paying the interest?

└Considering they offer 10 years of after-service and upgrades, it’s not a huge loss.

└Your ancestors are paying the interest?

└If I can’t handle it while using it, I can just sell it to AlchemySlime Company. Of course, I won’t get the full price, and the value drops based on usage time, but if you think about it, it’s not much different from buying in installments.

-Isn’t it better to sell it secondhand?

└Since it’s an alchemy product, secondhand trading isn’t allowed.

└Just buy one <Frame Slime> for me, please.

-What are the specs like?

└Rather than me explaining in detail, it’s better to watch this person’s video.

└https://-

-Is it worth buying?

└I think it is.

└For detailed info, rather than me explaining, watch this video.

└https://-

-Watched the video, is this for real?

└Yup.

└If this is real, it’s expensive…. really expensive, but…. no, damn…. wow….

└No, why is this coming out now! If I had the time and money I invested in learning English, I could’ve bought this and still had money left!

└This is a wise choice by Yeonseul. <Smartphone Slime> shouldn’t have been released at a cheap price. If it had been cheap, at least two industries would’ve died instantly.

└I know which industries. But aren’t they already on life support now?

└They were already declining because of AI, so there’s not much difference. But having their lifeline cut off in one blow is a different story.

-I’m planning to travel, is there no service to rent it for just a week?

└Ask AlchemySlime Company.

=If I use it for just a week and sell it right away, how much would I get back?

└Ask AlchemySlime Company.

—

Uncle Charles, whose subscribers rose from 30 million to 70 million in just one year for his credit in introducing an S-rank Alchemist’s <Slime> to the world.

He posted a review of <Smartphone Slime>.

[This is a review of an alchemy product, so if you don’t want to see it, go elsewhere.

Those who watch, remember that using alchemy products is your own responsibility.

No one lacks this common sense, right?]

[Alright, let’s get started.

Today is the <Smartphone Slime> review you’ve been waiting for forever.

Before that.

Isn’t this chair cool?

We’ve replaced all the chairs we use with <Frame Slime>.

You have the money, yet you sit on another chair instead of using <Frame Slime>?

That’s a sin against your waist.

For detailed info on <Frame Slime>, check out my other videos.

Stop the nonsense and hurry up with the <Smartphone Slime> review, you say?

Before that, don’t forget to hit ‘Subscribe’ and ‘Like.’

Alright, alright.

<Smartphone Slime>, right?

It’s on the screen you’re looking at right now.

Guess where it is.]

The viewers searched for the <Smartphone Slime>. But it wasn’t easily found.

Uncle Charles pulled out the earphones stuck in his ears and waved them in front of the camera.

[This is it.]

Uncle Charles kneaded the <Smartphone Slime> like clay.

[You can fold it, stretch it, roll it, and compress it small.

You can even stretch the screen like this, and the maximum size is 7 inches.]

He demonstrated that it works in any shape.

[Turning it into a bracelet form is familiar to anyone who’s been to Slime Land, right? Well, you probably expected this much.]

Uncle Charles rolled the <Smartphone Slime> up and put it in his ear.

From there, he pulled out a tentacle, brought it to his eyes, and stretched it vertically wide.

[Welcome to the future.]

Smart glasses.

[Many of you might be disappointed that the screen only goes up to 7 inches.

No need for that. You don’t even need 7 inches.]

Since the screen is right in front of your eyes, there was no need for a large size.

[You don’t need to touch the glasses directly.]

Uncle Charles waved his hand in the air.

[You can freely control the screen just by waving your hand like this.]

He lowered his hand and moved only his eyes.

[Once you get used to it, you can operate it with just your eyes, and it also has voice recognition.

Amazing technology, right? It’s amazing, but is it worth burning 400,000 dollars?

No, it’s not.

If it were 400,000 yen instead of dollars, I’d think it’s not bad.]

Charles tapped the <Smartphone Slime> twice with his finger.

Then, the <Smartphone Slime> automatically covered his eyes and ears.

[It’s video viewing mode.

The sound is absolutely killer. I wish I could convey the quality of the sound to you, but since broadcasting it has its limits, I won’t. But I guarantee, this is better than a 60,000-dollar headphone.]

Uncle Charles tossed aside the 60,000-dollar headphone he had been showing off.

[And the video quality? It has a function that automatically boosts the resolution and FPS of the video, and it’s insane.]

Charles showed a video.

It was a video of the game screen displayed by the <Smartphone Slime>, captured with a high-speed camera, alongside the original video.

The difference was stark.

[The best headphone, the best display, and incredible software. Some of you might be thinking 200,000 isn’t bad. Wondering if it can justify the remaining 200,000?

Of course, it can.

(Absolutely.)]

The unfamiliar language coming from Uncle Charles startled the viewers.

[Interpretation and translation.

Of course, it’s not perfect simultaneous interpretation.

That’s impossible.

Even I don’t know how I’ll end this sentence, so how could it interpret?

Perfect simultaneous interpretation would require not just reading my mind but predicting the future.

But here’s the thing.

If you speak sentence by sentence like this.

(Sentence by sentence like this.)

It gets interpreted in real time.

And in my own voice, no less.

Listening works the same way.

The other person’s voice sounds like it’s in a different language.

Isn’t that awesome?

If interpretation is at this level, what about translation?

Of course, it’s real-time too.]

Uncle Charles held the <Smartphone Slime> up to the camera and showed a scene of scanning a Korean booklet.

The sentences were automatically translated.

[Congratulations.

English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and so on,

Any language you’ve ever opened a book to learn.]

Knock knock.

[This one device is all you need.]

[Oh, of course, the capabilities of the <Smartphone Slime> don’t end here.

Put a movie file in here.

Not only does it add subtitles,

It’ll fully dub it with the actor’s voice.]

Uncle Charles showed a scene from a movie that had been fully dubbed.

[Still think 400,000 is too expensive?

Of course, you might think it’s expensive.

It might be an amount you couldn’t save in your bank account even if you worked your whole life.

And with taxes or whatever added, the price goes up even more.

But listen.

This <Smartphone Slime> is revolutionary.

Remember when smartphones first came out? That was revolutionary.

I can confidently say this is on par with that.

The <Smartphone Slime> is an invitation from a broader world.

If you’ve been scared because the language doesn’t work,

Worried about getting scammed,

Frustrated because everywhere you look, it’s all unfamiliar words,

And because of that, you couldn’t travel,

This <Smartphone Slime> will open the closed door in front of you.]

[I still haven’t uncovered everything about the <Smartphone Slime>.

In just a few days of using it, it’s shown such amazing forms.

How many more secrets and mysteries does this little child hold?

Don’t you want to find out for yourself?

If you absolutely can’t buy it because you don’t have the money, subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications.

I’ll gradually reveal the secrets I uncover right here.]

[Oh, by the way, this is strictly for personal use.

If you’re a company or plan to use it commercially, you might need a separate license, so keep that in mind.

And don’t hope for the price to come down.

If they started selling this for 4,000 dollars, the IT industry would collapse.

Even if Alchemy Slime wanted to lower it, they couldn’t.]

***

The price is so exorbitant that no one will buy it.

Only the biggest suckers, the ultimate suckers, will buy it.

The <Smartphone Slime> was treated like a luxury item, as if it were made of gold and studded with jewels to inflate the price.

But the true value of the <Smartphone Slime> was somewhat revealed through the review of a 70 million-subscriber W-tuber.

The world’s best headphone + the world’s best smartphone + next-gen smart glasses + interpreter + translator.

Even this alone is tempting, but after a few more days, additional information came to light.

With camera performance boasting billion-pixel resolution and a security system that grinds hackers’ minds along with their computers, public opinion shifted completely.

The best smartphone that won’t come down from the top for the next 10 years.

Like the <Frame Slime>, it’s worth the money but recognized as a <Slime> too expensive to buy.

Not only practical people but also those with a strong desire to show off bought it.

What’s the point of wearing luxury goods to flaunt?

If there’s no one to recognize and admire it, it’s just emptiness.

On the other hand, <Smartphone Slime> became very famous.

It was easy to recognize.

The more people wanted to own it, the greater the desire to show off became when flaunting it.

The drawback of lacking scarcity due to unlimited quantity was offset.

Thanks to that, orders came in at a level unimaginable to those who thought, ‘Who would buy such an expensive thing?’

All the money earned from selling <Smartphone Slime> and <Frame Slime> was invested in Slime Savings Bank.

Money sleeping in the accounts of the rich was pried out, divided into small amounts, and distributed.

Small loans were given out without much discrimination.

They were distributed at low interest to both Koreans and foreigners alike.

Large loans, however, were not given to just anyone.

Especially, humans asking for 520 million to buy a <Smartphone Slime> were mostly turned down.

What about the person who posted a verification post saying they bought a <Smartphone Slime> with a loan?

This person said it’s not much different from buying on installments, and they were loaned the money because they had enough income to buy on installments.

<Smartphone Slime> is an item released for people who are overflowing with money and don’t know what to do with it.

There’s no intention of lending money to someone who can’t afford to pay the loan interest just to buy a <Smartphone Slime>.

Loans are easily given out on the condition of buying a <Frame Slime>.

Because <Frame Slime> is a necessary item for people’s waist and spine health. The loan interest isn’t at a level where one would say they absolutely can’t handle it.

<Pack Slime> and <Frame Slime> differ in price by over a thousand times, but the manufacturing difficulty isn’t much different. The cost of materials used is also almost the same.

If someone borrows money to buy a <Frame Slime>, hardly any cash moves.

It’s just that one more loan contract is added to Slime Savings Bank.

Even if the borrower can’t repay the money, there’s no damage.

Getting the money back isn’t that important.

Unless it affects the operation of Slime Land, there’s no worry about that either.

Money is a promise.

A promise to provide labor worth that amount.

The more people borrow money from me, the more they increase.

The more people will move for my sake.

The reason for not giving out large loans is that when someone takes on too much debt, they tend to give up on life.

A slight sense of burden is just the right amount.

Those who bought expensive <Slime> are also tied to me in the same way.

If something happens to me, there’s no guarantee they can keep using that <Slime>.

Spending money without hesitation on luxury items to be left like trash at home and having an expensive item turn into trash by someone else are two completely different stories.

They’ll at least serve as a shield against factions attacking me.

There’s only one reason I’m doing this.

To gain authority.

When I clear the dead land of the deep-sea and claim legitimate rights around it.

When I occupy the area around Jeongju Dungeon.

When I connect the ground and space together with Road.

When I do things necessary for the world.

To prevent unnecessary conflicts from arising, authority is needed.

I am right, but the public won’t understand that I am right.

Even if I prepare dozens of documents and evidence, it’s meaningless.

Even if I present countless pieces of evidence, humans believe who they want to believe and follow who they trust.

Persuasion through authority is the most efficient and certain method.

Hans’s world travel has ended.

An agreement has been reached.

Soon, the existence of the Undersea Dungeon will be announced.

Before that, should I release one more premium <Slime>?