**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "At least having the chat group keeps the door open. But if rerolling your character would leave you too weak to survive what's coming, the cost might outweigh the gain."
**Average Group Owner:** "The most important thing right now is to spend whatever time you have left clearing the market — collect every divine artifact and world-class item you can find."
**Average Group Owner:** "Money isn't the problem. Almost everyone in the chat group has more than they need."
**Average Group Owner:** "As long as you give a fair exchange after the fact, that's all anyone will ask."
**Flying Squirrel:** "Got it."
**Flying Squirrel:** "There's about a week left before the server shuts down. Rerolling at this point isn't realistic, so I'll spend that time aggressively collecting as many items as I can."
**Flying Squirrel:** "In terms of funding — I'm not sure exactly how much I'll need, but the more the better."
**Flying Squirrel:** "World-class items aren't cheap."
**Flying Squirrel:** "If anyone wants particular items after I've crossed over, feel free to ask me."
*Ding — Group member Lighthouse Tycoon has sent a red envelope to group member Flying Squirrel.*
*Ding — Group owner Average Group Owner has sent a red envelope to group member Flying Squirrel.*
*Ding — Group member Whitebeard has sent a red envelope to group member Flying Squirrel.*
*Ding — Group member Invincible East has sent a red envelope to group member Flying Squirrel.*
*...*
The moment Flying Squirrel finished speaking, red envelopes began arriving one after another.
**Golden Flash:** "What's going on?"
**Golden Flash:** "Why is everyone suddenly sending red envelopes?"
Minato Namikaze stared at the chat feed in confusion. He'd glanced at the new member notification earlier without paying much attention, and now — barely any time later — notification after notification was ringing in his ears.
Why the sudden flood of red envelopes?
Tony Stark, the Group Owner, Whitebeard, Invincible East... why were they all sending red envelopes to someone who'd just joined?
The last time this had happened was when they'd asked Nyan to purchase Pokémon for them — back when the group's shop function wasn't yet active.
What was going on this time?
**Railgun User:** "I just walked in — why is everyone sending red envelopes?"
**Railgun User:** "Exclusive red envelopes at that."
**Railgun User:** "Kind of painful to watch."
**Dried Fish Komari:** "Go read the chat history."
**Dried Fish Komari:** "A shame I don't have anything I can convert into cross-world currency, or I'd have sent one too."
**Dried Fish Komari:** "This is a rare chance to spend money on actual in-game items."
**Railgun User:** "Spend money on in-game items?"
She recognized every individual word, but put together they made no sense.
Which game doesn't let you spend money on items? That's basically what games are.
But items from inside a game couldn't be used in real life, right?
Misaka Mikoto seemed to realize something and frantically scrolled up through the chat history.
A maxed-out endgame player transmigrating when the server shuts down — and taking his entire in-game faction with him?
Game items fully materializing into the real world?
This...
Misaka blinked, then glanced around her room, as if searching for something.
She dropped her head, disappointed.
Money wasn't an issue for the vast majority of group members — but there were a handful for whom that wasn't the case. She was one of them.
Especially with the bottomless pit she was currently feeding.
She still hadn't fully come to terms with how much Index's tiny stomach could hold.
At least she wasn't broke — just not flush. And Index wasn't picky; she'd eat anything put in front of her.
If it got any worse, she'd have to trade group points with other members for foreign currency.
Gold and jewels were still very valuable in her modern urban world, at least on the surface.
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "What are you all doing?"
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "Can't you see I already sent a red envelope?"
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "This is one area where you not stepping up makes me look bad!"
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "Look at my username. Do you understand the weight behind the words 'Lighthouse Tycoon'?"
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "Listen to me — everyone pull your red envelopes back. I'll cover the items myself. Anything he needs, I'll send for free."
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "Wait — hold on, what are we even buying?"
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "@Flying Squirrel, let me wire you some gold right now. Just use it to buy out that game company outright. If they won't sell, become a shareholder. Then have them produce items for you in bulk — we're talking hundreds of thousands of copies!"
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "If you run short on funds, say the word. Tony Stark might be short on a lot of things — but never on money!"
The words left Tony's lips with a wide, deeply satisfied grin spreading across his face.
How long had it been?
How long had he been keeping a low profile in this group?
All because of those damn points.
He just didn't accumulate them as fast as others.
But points weren't what mattered right now.
Right now, it was about funds.
And who was he?
The Lighthouse Tycoon.
Buy out the items? Please. Buy out the whole company.
**Average Group Owner:** "Buy out the company — I can't believe I forgot that option."
**Average Group Owner:** "When you think about it, the game's about to go offline anyway, so the company probably isn't sitting on a ton of cash, right?"
**Average Group Owner:** "Either way, even if they are, we just throw more money at it."
**Average Group Owner:** "Divine artifacts, world-class items — wholesale, all of it. It's just typing on a keyboard."
**Average Group Owner:** "If this actually works, Flying Squirrel collecting even a fraction of those items should make him one of the wealthiest members in the group."
**Average Group Owner:** "The only question is whether there's enough time. He's got one week."
**Average Group Owner:** "The red envelopes we sent are mostly gold and silver — converting those to liquid cash will take time."
**Average Group Owner:** "With that volume, he'll probably have to do it across multiple locations to avoid drawing attention."
**Average Group Owner:** "His situation isn't exactly discreet."
That wasn't actually Roxie Vale's biggest concern. What worried her was the possibility that after all this — if they really did acquire or buy into that company, and filled a warehouse with tens of thousands of world-class items — Flying Squirrel might fail to transmigrate.
Unlikely, yes. But not impossible.
Wait — no. Flying Squirrel was a protagonist. The weight of fate was on his side. A failed transmigration was essentially out of the question.
The worst case was that the wholesale items didn't fully materialize.
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "Then start by converting a portion to cash and buying up every item currently on the market. Then we'll see about acquiring a stake in the company."
**Lighthouse Tycoon:** "If it doesn't work out, no big loss — it was just an impulse anyway."
**Flying Squirrel:** "Understood."
With that, Flying Squirrel accepted their red envelopes and looked for a place to open them.
And then—
"What the—!"
In an instant, his entire room was filled to the brim with gold, silver, and jewels — overflowing.
And among the treasure, he spotted something else: a blade, its edge gleaming with cold, lethal clarity, buried to the hilt in the pile.
---
*End of Chapter 292*