Chapter 44 - Chapter 44

Chapter 44

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Translated by Jinmu

Read more at hivetoons.org

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He had ultimately made up his mind to buy a house.

Even so, part of him still wondered if this was really the right call.

Having dropped 20 billion won on a place, if he felt perfectly at ease about it, that itself would be abnormal.

He had to keep reassuring himself that he'd made the right choice.

'High-end apartments don't lose their value easily.'

If anything, he'd rather they went up.

He could always sell and move out later.

'Let's think of it as an investment.'

It wasn't for himself, Joo-hyuk told himself.

It was for the summoned entities.

For however long they were out in this world, he wanted to give them a comfortable, restful space.

Not cramped together in this tiny officetel.

The next morning.

He summoned the summoned entities as usual via Designated Summoning.

"Sir! Shall we climb to the 42nd floor today? I'm ready, sir."

"No, if we went twice yesterday, we should rest today."

"Now is not the time for that, sir. We need to earn money, sir. We're actually going to end up house poor, sir."

Cossack was somehow even more impatient than he was.

"Worker Rajix is here too, sir. We need to make a big haul, sir."

A big haul, honestly.

"I'm not going to end up house poor. I have enough money, and I'm eating and living just fine right now."

"Uwah, money can never be enough, sir. Money is power, sir. The more money one has, the stronger one becomes, sir. And the stronger you are, the safer Summoner Bong becomes, sir."

When did this guy develop such an obsession with money?

"Also, if someone puts a Rune of Trait Enhancement up for sale, we need to have the funds to buy it, sir."

Oh dear, Mr. Cossack.

That's not something that goes for a few coins, you know.

Joo-hyuk had asked Jeon Kwang-il about it before.

How much would a Rune of Trait Enhancement cost?

Apparently, transactions in the tens of billions of won were not unheard of.

And that was in dollars, not won.

"Come on, we can't earn enough to buy one. Let it go. You'll feel better."

"Little drops of water make a mighty ocean, sir."

Gathering tiny amounts of money to build a great fortune?

That was wisdom for the agricultural age. Now, tiny drops of water just stay tiny drops.

"I will set up a tower climbing revenue generation project and give a briefing, sir."

"A briefing? Why so grand?"

"We need thorough planning, sir."

"..."

His resolve wavered.

He'd been hoping to take it easy.

He could live comfortably enough as things were.

But with Cossack arguing so passionately.

'Well, I suppose I should go along with it.'

Later, once other countries started climbing into the 60th-floor range in earnest, tiny drops really might become an ocean.

There was joy in spending money, but there was joy in saving it too.

"Alright. Let's proceed. Mr. Cossack, prepare the briefing materials yourself. You'll present them too."

"Yes, sir!"

The plan was obvious enough.

Earning money by utilizing Worker Rajix's abilities.

For now, let's try selling the tower materials he'd accumulated.

To see what kind of price they could fetch.

But the Player Shop was out.

The materials Rajix had gathered looked nothing like ordinary tower reward materials at a glance.

The hides alone were whole, single-piece skins stripped from entire monsters, and the herbs were freshly plucked, not dried.

On top of that, the quantities were enormous.

At this volume, it probably surpassed the total amount of hides the Player Shop bought in an entire month.

He needed to go through Team Leader Jeon Kwang-il directly.

Mana Stones, he could just hand over at market price.

But today was still a rest day anyway.

It was Sunday, so all the civil servants were off.

Besides, the second clear yesterday had taken a very long time.

He couldn't exploit Rajix after he'd worked so hard. That would be taking advantage of a capable worker.

Plump and round like a ball of fluff, just looking at him felt heartwarming.

"Mr. Rajix, let's keep climbing towers together for a long, long time."

"Ho-eng!"

"Is there anything you'd like to eat?"

"Ho-e-e... Carrots?"

"Oh! Carrots."

Right.

Hamsters love carrots, after all.

Gyeon Dal-rae quickly dashed to the refrigerator and pulled out carrots, cheese, and broccoli.

Crunch-crunch.

Rajix sat in the living room with his short legs spread wide, taking the carrots Gyeon Dal-rae had cut with his tiny hands and eating them.

He was a walking lucky charm. An absolute lucky charm.

Letting go of greed truly did bring good fortune.

An LSSR, Gwangma?

Who was that again?

Was there even such a person?

Yesterday had been a whirlwind of a day.

A series of twists and turns.

What he'd thought was a miss turned out to be a jackpot, and what he'd thought was a jackpot turned out to be a miss.

'Gwangma was a bust-ma.'

(T/N: 'Gwangma' means 'mad demon,' and the author plays on the word by replacing 'gwang' with 'kkwang,' the Korean sound for a miss/dud.)

The more he thought about it, the more it annoyed him.

World domination? Killing all the powerful people?

He regretted it.

He should have argued back logically before dismissing him.

But it was already in the past.

He couldn't call him back now either.

The classic beta-male move.

In debates or arguments, he'd often fumble trying to counter the other person's logic, ending up muttering incomprehensibly before the whole thing fizzled out.

He had many thoughts, but he was clumsy at expressing them in words.

What does a beta male who lost a debate do once he gets home and lies down to sleep?

He starts replaying the loss.

'If I'd countered that argument like this, I would've won. The premise itself was flawed, and I should've pointed that out. Next time, I'll definitely rebut like this...' He kicks the blankets around in regret.

That's exactly what Joo-hyuk was doing right now.

When Gwangma had declared his world domination plan with his own brand of logic.

'Seriously, does he think this is some simple martial-arts world of rivers and lakes? This is a far more complex world than any martial world.'

War?

What an absurd idea.

'He probably thinks people still fight clumsily with swords and spears.'

Does he have any idea how many nuclear-armed nations exist on this planet?

There's even one right to the north.

'A nuclear war destroying the world would come faster than any tower collapse.'

No matter how much of a mad demon he was, how would he withstand nukes?

And even if he killed a few powerful leaders, could you really take over an entire country?

Not a chance.

'Any nation forced together that way would inevitably fracture.'

The only possibility, if any, would be unification by mutual agreement.

But even that would be near-impossible to realize.

'International alliances for economic, security, and diplomatic cooperation already have member nations constantly threatening to leave.'

And even if a global federation were somehow formed, how would you decide which nation sits at its center?

By vote?

Would that even work?

It would only succeed if a knife were being held to everyone's throats.

For instance, perhaps consensus could be reached when tower collapses were cascading like dominoes and extinction was at the door.

By then, who knows if it could even be reversed.

But humanity had always overcome hardship and moved forward.

After India's tower was the first to collapse, people didn't just stand by and watch.

Countless attempts and efforts were made to climb the unchallenged upper floors.

'Thanks to that, no tower in the world has collapsed since.'

It would stay that way in the future too.

Psh!

How could he know what the future holds when it hasn't come yet.

Forget it.

He had magnificently rebutted Gwangma in his imagination.

He felt much better now.

The classic beta-male trait.

Always achieving a mental victory.

There are no losses.

Erase them from memory.

Having achieved his mental victory, he decided to pop by his parents' house for a bit.

* * *

He goofed around with the summoned entities in the morning, and in the afternoon, he went to his parents' place.

Honestly, he did feel a little guilty.

His son was about to buy a penthouse, yet his parents were living in what he'd consider a 'small' 40-pyeong apartment.

He'd give them a lump sum later.

They'd probably try to refuse it.

He couldn't just hand over a large sum of money outright either.

Even between family, gift taxes applied.

He'd need to consult a lawyer and sort out the tax issues cleanly before passing it on.

Somehow, money kept finding ways to get spent.

He punched in the door code and walked in.

"Son, son! Come here quick. Hurry."

His father was calling him urgently.

Had something happened?

"What's wrong?"

"I went fishing at the Incheon breakwater a while back."

Fishing, his father's one and only hobby.

He couldn't even clean the fish he caught, yet he still went regularly.

He'd sent money for a fishing rod not long ago, and apparently the old man couldn't wait and went right away.

"Take a look at this photo."

"...Wow!"

A photo of him holding a red sea bream.

Even at a glance, it had to be over 80 centimeters.

"What a catch."

"It's my personal best, isn't it impressive?"

"You caught this at the breakwater?"

"That's what I'm saying. I thought it was just a snag on the bottom."

"What happened to the fish?"

"Your mother and I had half as sashimi, and the rest is in the freezer."

Could it be the Fortune Talisman?

Looking closely at his father's face, his complexion was genuinely better.

His hip joint seemed to have healed completely too.

Or was this the Health Talisman at work?

"Oh right! When did you get that air purifier in the living room? I was thinking of getting you one."

"Ah, that? Your mother..."

His mother came out of the bedroom.

"Why are you two talking about me? You're talking behind my back, aren't you?"

"Did you buy that air purifier, mom? It's an expensive one."

"No, I didn't buy it. There's a new supermarket nearby and they were doing a prize draw, and I won it as a prize. First time in my life I've won something, of all things."

That settled it. The Fortune Talisman was working.

His father caught an enormous red sea bream, and his mother won an air purifier as a prize.

So what about his younger brother, Min-hyuk?

He just happened to come out of his room.

He looked like he'd just finished playing a game.

Min-hyuk's go-to game was FPS, first-person shooters.

"Ha! Every shot just connects. Bro, I think I'm a gaming god. I'm just spraying bullets and my kill count is going through the roof."

"It must be a fluke. You've always been terrible at games."

"Uh..., is that so?"

Is that really the end of it for this guy?

"Anything else good happening to you lately? Unexpected good luck, that sort of thing?"

"Hmm, oh! I remembered. Yesterday,"

"Go on. What happened yesterday?"

"I was going to get a coffee from the vending machine in the school library. But I didn't have any change."

"And then?"

"I was about to just leave and get one later, but right by the trash can there was a 500-won coin just sitting there."

"..."

"Isn't that crazy luck? Anyway, the coffee was great."

Sigh, poor kid.

That's incredibly... modest.

"That's embezzlement of lost property. I'm reporting you."

"Come on, seriously... it's just 500 won?"

"Yep, even picking up small amounts and using them can get you in trouble."

"For real?"

"Go look it up."

Min-hyuk's face went pale.

"Can't I just go first thing tomorrow and put the 500 won back where I found it?"

"That I don't know."

Knowing him, he'd absolutely go put the 500 won back exactly where he found it.

Anyway, everyone was living well.

* * *

The next morning, Monday.

Joo-hyuk sent a message to Jeon Kwang-il via his smartphone.

Saying he wanted to visit the Awakening Management Agency, asking if he had time.

The reply shot back the instant he sent it.

- I'll send a car right now.

Joo-hyuk waited in front of the officetel for the car.

A short while later, a car arrived with a screech.

"Please get in, Player Bong."

"Wow, you came yourself."

"Isn't a car the perfect place for a quiet conversation?"

The reason Jeon Kwang-il came in person.

Meeting alone in an office-type location drew people's attention.

This way was better.

"Player Bong, congratulations on the 41st-floor S++ clear."

"Ha ha, it was nothing."

"The meditation must have worked, it seems?"

"It worked tremendously. Far beyond what I expected."

It got him Rajix, after all.

Gwangma had been unexpected.

"If you need it, I can also arrange a yoga instructor for you. She's a young female instructor around your age, and apparently very good."

Ah, that feels a bit awkward.

Teaching and learning yoga, then falling for each other and getting married, then they'd need to have kids, look into kindergartens, send them to school, get them married off, then becoming a grandfather and grandchildren...

Did he get a bit carried away in that short moment?

And his meditation had been half-hearted at best anyway.

Yoga, no thank you.

"I don't need to go as far as yoga."

"Ha ha ha, understood."

First, the business at hand.

"Is there a large space somewhere in the Awakening Management Agency? Ideally with no people around."

"There is. The Agency has a tower materials storage warehouse that no one without clearance can enter, since it's where Mana Stones and tower materials are kept."

Convenient.

He could take it out there.

Before long, the car arrived at the Awakening Management Agency.

They walked inside and around to the back of the building, where, just like the main entrance, there were guards.

It appeared to be the special materials warehouse.

Jeon Kwang-il opened the driver's window to show his ID and face, and both the barrier and the iron gate rose simultaneously.

The car drove into the warehouse.

Shortly after, the iron gate and barrier lowered again.

Joo-hyuk got out of the car with Jeon Kwang-il.

"So what is it you needed?"

"I'm here to sell some material items."

"Oh!"

Jeon Kwang-il's eyes lit up.

If Player Bong Joo-hyuk was selling materials, they wouldn't be ordinary ones.

If they were ordinary, he'd have just gone to the Player Shop.

"Shall I take them out?"

"To see what kind of quantity we're dealing with."

"The count isn't that many, but they're fairly large."

"Then please take them out here."

Just at that moment.

Whoosh!

A massive object slid out from thin air.

The shape of it looked like... a monster?

"Aaaaaaagh!!!"

Jeon Kwang-il shrieked and tumbled backward, collapsing onto the ground.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I should have warned you in advance."

"Eugh, um, yes?"

Jeon Kwang-il's legs were still shaking.

Even looking again, it really did look like a monster.

And an enormous one at that.

But something about it looked familiar.

A massive head shorter-snouted than a crocodile, deep black bumpy skin, unmistakably...

"I, Ironclad Basilisk? Is that right?"

"Oh! You know your monsters."

"I've only seen them on video."

But why is this here?

It was lying limp, already clearly dead.

Even so, a tower monster appearing in reality?

And the item he brought to sell is a monster?

"Impressive, isn't it?"

"Um, yes, yes."

"It's the whole hide of an Ironclad Basilisk. The skin was stripped clean, like a snake shedding."

"Ah-ha!"

It was a hide.

The whole hide.

So that was it.

Still, it was hard to fully accept.

Even if it was just a hide... could it possibly be?

"Is this an S++ clear reward?"

"...Let's say that."

Only then did Jeon Kwang-il relax and step closer to examine it carefully.

"A size like this, I've truly never seen this before."

"Can you sell it?"

"That's difficult to say. Pricing would be hard too. There's no precedent for it."

"Hmm."

That was true.

The hides players received as clear rewards were no bigger than a seat cushion.

By collecting many such fragments you might craft combat boots, and with even more, a leather armor piece.

But a whole hide?

How many sets of armor could you get out of that?

"I'll take everything out. Please sell it all for me."

"...Everything, you say?"

Meaning there was more.

"Seven whole Ironclad Basilisk hides in total, and some herbs too, which I think will need refrigeration."

"..."

Joo-hyuk pulled the whole hides and herbs out of his inventory.

He added the Mana Stones as well.

Items pushing out of thin air, one by one.

'What in the world....'

Jeon Kwang-il's jaw slowly dropped.

It stayed open for a long, long time.