Chapter 60: The Family Token Is a Trap
After that came the distribution of minor resources—not as grand as Soul Forest. Things like a medium-grade soul iron mine.
They had value, sure, but not enough to tempt the major powers.
Everyone was saving their strength for the real prize—the family token.
This allowed Asuma, who was seriously short on funds, to secure a medium soul iron mine.
"What's going on with Konoha?"
"They're blowing it. Everyone thought they were going to pull off something huge. Turns out it was just a huge dump!"
The move drew mockery from players across the board.
During this time,
Sunagakure tried to repeat its earlier tactic—threatening certain players into dropping out of the bidding so they could snag minor resources for cheap—but was blocked by the combined efforts of other powers.
"Sunagakure's got no shame, huh? This is an auction, and they're still pulling dirty tricks?"
"We Kumogakure folks aren't scared of you. If you've got the guts, send Rasa to fight our Raikage one-on-one!"
"My apologies, everyone. I am Elder Chiyo of Sunagakure. The individual responsible is a temporary recruit who just joined. He acted out of desperation. I've already reprimanded him."
Seeing they'd stirred public anger, Chiyo quickly stepped in to defuse the situation.
Before the appearance of Reincarnation Game, provoking all the major powers in one go was nearly impossible. Sunagakure lacked the deep reserves of Konoha and couldn't survive being targeted by everyone.
"Lady Chiyo, what do we do now?"
The young, seemingly harmless-looking Mashu asked nervously.
Chiyo shook her head. "Don't worry. Everyone thinks Sunagakure is poor. Let them keep thinking that—it'll make them drop their guard."
It was true that resources were scarce in the desert.
But what no one remembered was that the Fourth Kazekage's magnetic gold release allowed him to manipulate the gold-laced sand of the desert, purifying it into highly valuable gold.
Even though their daimyo kept cutting funding, and much of that gold had been used up, what remained was still enough to win a family token.
"Let them have their moment."
Once all the minor resources had been auctioned off, the final family tokens took the stage.
The first one was taken by the Mist Village for a whopping 200,000 reward points.
Next came the surprise upset: the newly emerged organization Dawn won the second token.
Just when everyone thought the last would go to either Kumogakure or Iwagakure,
Sunagakure swooped in and claimed the third family token.
"Those bastards!"
Upon hearing the result, Raikage A's mustache curled in fury. His hand trembled as he picked up a pen to draft a declaration of war.
Mabui quickly restrained him. "Raikage-sama, war is not a trivial matter. We already agreed with Iwa to make a move on Konoha. We can't risk complications now."
Raikage took a deep breath and steadied himself. "Filthy Sand Village. After we carve up Konoha, they're next!"
Mabui rubbed her forehead and said, "Raikage-sama, based on my analysis, there will likely be more family tokens released later through various channels. We'll be able to form our own then—it'll just be a bit later."
Kumogakure was full of hot-blooded warriors—even the Raikage wasn't the easiest man to keep in check.
Raikage sighed. "Being the first to form a family is a show of power. It'll attract tons of players. If we're late to the party, it'll be too late."
"Not necessarily."
Mabui shook her head. "If I know that shady game merchant well, being first to form a family might come with perks, but it probably also comes with downsides."
The biggest of which was financial.
Just look at Mist. First to kill the Ghost General, they got great rewards—
but they were also nearly bankrupted in the process.
Being first might mean getting ahead, but it also meant bleeding the most.
And just as many players feared, the family token turned out to be a trap.
Bang!
A crisp shattering noise rang out in the Mizukage's office.
Mei Terumi's beautiful face was filled with rage, her lips dribbling with corrosive acid.
The decor on her desk had melted into sludge, hissing as it dripped onto the floor.
Clenching her teeth, she shouted, "That damn game merchant! To activate the family token, we need ten Ghost Mage Hearts?!"
"That's right."
Chojuro didn't even dare breathe as he glanced at the fresh family token in his inventory.
The Ghost Mage Heart was a silver-tier material dropped in the [Soul Camp] dungeon.
Extremely rare.
Not even available in the shop—only dropped by the dungeon's final boss or awarded on S-rank clear rewards.
The reason Mei was furious was because Soul Camp came in difficulty levels:
Normal, Adventure, Warrior, and Hell.
Each level brought stronger monsters and better loot.
Normal could be soloed with green gear at level 15.
Adventure needed five players to scrape by.
Warrior required a full party of level 19 players in purple gear and still had a risk of failure.
Hell was beyond imagining.
But the kicker?
Only the Hell-level dungeon had a chance to drop the Ghost Mage Heart.
"One Hell ticket costs 200 reward points."
Grinding her teeth, Mei muttered, "A full five-person team means 1,000 points just for one run. Even without failing, it'll take dozens of runs to gather ten hearts."
And even then, it wasn't a guaranteed drop. With bad luck, it could take a hundred runs.
"Any news from the merchants?"
Mei asked.
Chojuro replied, "We've contacted them. Looks like the other family token holders also reached out, so the merchants have realized something's up. They're asking 40,000 points per heart."
No one had stockpiled these materials.
They seemed useless at first, so even big factions hadn't saved them.
Only the merchants had hoarded a few, betting on a future need.
But even they didn't have many—Hell dungeons were brutal, the tickets were expensive, and the drop rate was abyssal. Most of them were acquired during the first wave of dungeon clears.
It all came down to the [Soul Camp] Hell mode now.
Afu couldn't help but marvel, "As expected of you, Master. You left the hole in the pollution source on purpose, didn't you?"
When a pollution source is destroyed,
it leaves a "hole" in the world fragment it once corrupted.
If left unattended, it gradually absorbs cosmic energy and births a new pollution source.
All progress made earlier would be lost.
Afu had advised patching the hole—
but her master didn't care. He didn't want to spend a million points to seal it.
"I told you: make full use of the players' enthusiasm."
Fang Yi smiled. "Once I opened the Soul Camp dungeon, I could take the energy absorbed by the hole and break it down into weaker versions of the Ghost Mage for players to grind."
"If I can repurpose it for loot and XP, why would I waste points fixing it?"
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