He purchases the majority of his gold through middlemen who buy gold in large quantities from gold producers and then resell it through websites such as OSRS gold. Horn estimates he's spent between the 4,000-5,000 euro mark, which fuels what he believes at one time was an addiction to gambling.

As players like Corne as well as Mobley came back into RuneScape with the money and appetites of adulthood, the black market for the game grew. Players still reported the existence of Chinese gold farmers, however, there were other players who profited from the revival in RuneScape's popularity: Venezuelans as well as Marinez.

On March 12, 2020, Marinez embarked on a journey to enroll in a police academy in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela and pursue the career of a law enforcement officer. On the same day after, the Venezuelan government announced the initial two cases of COVID-19.

It also closed all Buy OSRS gold, closed the border between Venezuela and its neighbors, and put six states and Caracas on quarantine. Marinez was forced to travel on his own and hunkered down at his uncle's house in a city a little more than 50 miles away from Caracas' capital.