[Final Ledger: ¥250,000] [Active Quests: Canceled.] [Status: Financial Independence, Retire Early.]
Yuto Kurosawa sat at the kitchen table, staring at the pile of physical yen the Vanguard had brought home from their first day of work.
Isabella had made a killing in bouncer tips. Ayase had been promoted to executive chef in three hours. Kurenai had crushed an entire junkyard's worth of cars, and Shion had successfully extorted a tech CEO into paying her a consulting fee just to stop haunting his servers.
They were rich. By real-world standards, they were on their way to becoming billionaires.
"Master," Shion grinned, her bat wings fluttering. "Tomorrow, I plan to short-sell the entire telecommunications sector! We can buy a yacht by Friday!"
"I shall conquer the global culinary market," Ayase nodded calmly. "By next month, all fast-food chains will bend the knee to the Alpha."
Yuto looked at the money. Then, he looked out the window at the smog-filled sky of Neo-Tokyo, the blinking neon lights, and the endless crowds of people hurrying to their next shift. He saw the "game" of the real world for what it truly was. It wasn't about saving. It was an infinite grind.
"No," Yuto said quietly.
The Vanguard froze.
"Alpha?" Kurenai tilted her head. "Did we not yield enough profit? I can go crush more cars."
"No, Kurenai. You did perfectly," Yuto smiled, a genuine, tired, completely relaxed smile. He pushed the pile of money to the center of the table. "But I didn't bankrupt the gods of the Tower just so we could become wage-slaves in the physical world. The only way to win a system designed to make you grind forever... is to stop playing."
Yuto grabbed the classifieds section of the newspaper and slammed his finger onto a tiny, forgotten listing at the very back.
For Sale: Abandoned farmland. Deep mountains. No grid connection. Dirt cheap.
"We're going off-grid," Yuto declared. "No electric bills. No rent. No Wi-Fi fees. We are going to achieve the ultimate form of asset preservation: self-sufficiency."
[One Year Later]
The Neo-Tokyo Stock Exchange was still trying to recover from the day the Bank vanished, but deep in the uncharted mountains miles away from the city, things were incredibly peaceful.
A modest, perfectly built wooden cabin stood next to a crystal-clear stream. Kurenai had built it in an afternoon using timber Isabella had chopped down with water-blades.
Behind the cabin, Ayase was tending to a garden, using her Level 90 Samurai precision to slice weeds at the microscopic level without disturbing the soil. Shion was happily sunbathing on the roof, completely disconnected from the internet, having realized that real-world sunshine tasted better than digital mana anyway.
Rin sat on the porch, reading a paperback book, her cheeks flush with healthy color. The Code Default disease was a distant memory.
Yuto sat next to her in a rocking chair. He was wearing an old, patched-up flannel shirt. He held a cup of green tea in his left hand, the skin completely bare of any golden barcodes or VIP Ledgers.
There were no health bars. No Vault Pressure. No compound interest.
A gentle breeze rustled the trees. Yuto reached into his pocket and pulled out his real-world wallet. He opened it.
It was completely, utterly empty. He had zero yen to his name. The farm produced their food, the stream gave them water, and the Vanguard provided the labor. His daily overhead cost was exactly 0.00.
Yuto Kurosawa, the man who hoarded the wealth of an entire universe, looked at his empty wallet and took a sip of his tea.
"Perfect," he whispered, closing his eyes.
[SYSTEM SHUTDOWN.] [THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.]