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A half-empty can of Respawn Glacial Blue sweats a ring onto the hardwood. A distant part of my brain registers that it will etch the finish, but the thought evaporates. Moving means setting the laptop down, and the feed won’t let me go.

I scroll through the Buy & Sell forums, a time capsule of conversations stretching from launch day to last week. I pass threads from those first wild years, where players hunted Mythril in Ember Vale and tier-3 Enchanter’s Tables went for twenty gold. Mixed among them are more recent auctions.

I scroll past the first few listings in Buy & Sell. A Celestial Griffin mount from user_ShadowCoven for 600 real-world credits, untouched for three days. Eldritch Runes from DirtyDeals, advertised as “mint condition” for the last three years. A new post from GoldenApple for rare weapon skins, PayPal only. The usual suspects.

These forums aren’t supposed to be a marketplace for real-money trades, but without active mods to boot offenders, people keep at it. Kain told me to vet content for the user manual.

My foot taps on the floor. These rule-breakers need logging.

I pull up a spreadsheet app and start a new sheet. Better to sort data now so nobody repeats this chore later.

I flag the blatant rule violations for immediate deletion and scroll on.

user_NodeHunter202 >> Mythril Spawn Timers?

user_Seller247 >> Tier-3 Table — 50 Gold + 2 Starlight Shards

user_Venometrics >> Viper Scales Price Comparison [COMPLETE DATA]

↳ LOCKED BY MODS: Excessive data

Further down, my own old posts surface.

user_ZeroSignal >> Rune Node Patterns: A Comprehensive Guide

user_ZeroSignal >> Supply, Demand, and Why You’re Overpaying for Starlight Shards

user_ZeroSignal >> RE: Rare Drop Rates — Your Math Is Wrong

My grainy avatar is an absurd relic beside this ancient forum layout, a placeholder I’d long since replaced.

Scroll, read, flag, scroll.

I shift, wiggling my hips to sink deeper into the beanbag. Feet up, head cushioned by the beanbag’s mound, I lean back.

From the corner of my eye, I catch Kain’s fingers moving over his keyboard, but I don’t hear the clatter. The headphones block everything but the soft, repetitive guitar playing in my ears.

My thumb stops on an old thread.

user_ForgeMaster88 >> Sapphire Essence Drop Rates Rigged in Chapter Nine?

I reread it and scroll down to my own reply.

user_ZeroSignal >> Check the hidden chest in the Ruined Cathedral—blueprints drop there, not random mobs.

ForgeMaster88 never answered.

Long overdue, I flag the whole thread for deletion. Our manual demands accuracy.

Kain’s chair swivels toward me for a quick check before he returns to his screen.

Satus: updated.

Reef: on task.

A new post from today catches my eye.

user_EmberwoodMap >> Celestial Wood Routes in the Ember District?