Chapter 111
Chapter 111
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 111
Chapter Title: The Distribution of Medals
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Namyangju Villa.
Joo-hyuk sat facing Gwang-ma alone at an outdoor dining table.
The first round had been concluded with everyone gathered together, cheering each other on.
Now, for the second round, since only the two of them were drinkers, there was no other choice.
The other summoned beings were scattered elsewhere, each taking their own rest.
Gyeon Dal-rae was reading, basking in the warm sunlight. Razix was tending to the vegetable garden. Sergeant V was holed up sleeping. Gobang and Bardin were engaged in a quiet conversation.
Joo-hyuk opened the genuine Maotai liquor he had bought from the department store and poured it with a glug-glug sound into Gwang-ma's cup.
"Hmm, the aroma is good. I never thought I'd get to taste such a drink. Summoner, have a drink too."
Glug, glug, glug.
"Thank you."
Kosak was in charge of the side dishes.
He lit charcoal beside them and placed the meat on the grill.
Sizzle!
After perfectly grilling one piece of premium Hanwoo sirloin tip so the juices wouldn't escape, he placed it on a plate with a clink.
"Please try it. Steak expert, master of fire control, three Michelin stars, global chef master, this meat was grilled by me, your humble co-chef."
What's a 'co-chef'?
Pfft, Gwang-ma smiled and opened his mouth.
"The order is wrong. The Summoner should go first, not me."
"Huh? This sirloin tip is for Lord Bong, the Summoner."
"...Mine?"
"I'm grilling it right now, aren't I?"
Kosak grilled a large piece of ribeye and placed it on a plate.
"Uhm, the meat is different."
"This is also delicious meat. Are you looking down on Hanwoo ribeye?"
As he said that, he also put a piece of ribeye in his own mouth.
"It melts in your mouth."
He then took a swig of cola.
"Ahhh!... Gwang-ma-nim, what are you doing? Eat it quickly. If you don't, I'll eat it all."
"...Ahem! Ah, alright."
Gwang-ma stealthily brought his chopsticks toward the meat.
"That's my meat. You said it was for Lord Bong, the Summoner."
"..."
Wow! That audacity.
Kosak was truly fearless.
Even after witnessing Gwang-ma's mass slaughter with his own eyes, he was brazenly messing around like that.
Well,
It was all written in Kosak's background description.
Even when his rank was SR, he died trying to assassinate a Sword Master.
Would it be any different just because the target was Gwang-ma?
Gwang-ma also seemed to be at a loss for words.
He gave a bitter smile, chewing on a piece of ribeye, and said,
"Summoner."
"Yes?"
"You were truly excellent today. I was worried you might act impulsively, but you held your ground well."
That kind of composure was easy to maintain.
Because all you had to do was not step forward.
"You also did well... um... well... hahaha."
"Hehehe, I know exactly what you're thinking. It's fine."
He wanted to praise him, but the words wouldn't come out.
If it weren't for the Tower, and if he had unleashed Gwang-ma's Crescent Moon Boomerang during those past anti-Korean protests in Japan, what would have happened?
Tokyo would have become a sea of blood.
He really was a dangerous Summoned Being.
At least it was a relief that he obeyed his orders.
But he couldn't let his guard down.
What if, at some moment, he decided to invoke the 3rd clause of the Summoned Being's Three Principles and step forward?
"By the way, when is the medal award ceremony...?"
"Ah! I was about to do it now."
"Oh! I see... uhm, what about this old man?"
"Oh, of course you'll get one. For brilliantly carrying out the mission of mass... ahem, I mean, the extremely high-difficulty mission. Haha."
Even if he did nothing, he had to give him one.
Honestly, he was scared.
As soon as he mentioned holding a medal ceremony, the summoned beings came rushing over in a crowd.
Shall we begin the reward distribution?
Gobang, who suffered the most.
He contributed more than anyone, but he was excluded.
Because he was soon to be promoted to LSSR with 22 medals.
And then Gyeon Dal-rae, Veronica, and Bardin. They also worked hard, but their contributions to earning medals were slightly insufficient.
Judging by their expressions devoid of expectation, they seemed to be well aware of it themselves.
First, Gwang-ma.
"As the eldest among the Summoned Beings, your formidable martial prowess has greatly contributed to... um... cleanly eliminating potential threats. Therefore, I hereby award you this medal."
"Hmph!"
Gwang-ma placed his fists together in a martial salute and bowed in acknowledgment.
"I thank my fellow martial artists for their enthusiastic support."
Next,
"Mr. Kosak."
"Yes, sir!"
Kosak absolutely had to receive one.
Even if there was no merit, he would create one to give it.
The most senior among the summoned beings.
Yet, he only had three medals so far.
Even Gwang-ma and Veronica had four.
That had always bothered him.
"Your elusive trap-disabling abilities greatly contributed to guiding the ultimate worker to the palace treasury, so I award you this medal."
One medal for Kosak.
He actually wanted to give him two.
Without his mechanism disabling and lock-picking, would the ultimate worker have even been able to enter the treasury?
But it seemed like he didn't desire that.
With a sly grin, Kosak thrust out his chest where the medal would be pinned.
"Thank you. I'll work hard."
Next, Razix,
How many should he give?
Two last time, so two again this time.
"You have once again miraculously sniffed out items, contributing to the theft... ahem, relocation of a vast quantity of items from the palace treasury. Therefore, I award you two medals."
"Wheee!"
Razix threw both hands up and cheered.
He was excited.
With two medals, he would complete five.
A total of ten.
Would another skill upgrade occur like last time?
As he carefully pinned them on...
Whoosh!
The five medals shone brilliantly.
And then the medals soon disappeared.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
The cumulative number of medals awarded to the Summoned Being 'Razix' has reached 10. The Summoned Being 'Razix' has received the Summoner's trust and recognition.
✨ SKILL UPGRADE! ✨
One of the Summoned Being's skills will be upgraded to LSSR grade.
The Summoned Being will choose which skill to upgrade.
A second skill upgrade.
What would it be?
'He wouldn't upgrade a skill like cleaning, would he?'
Well, cleaning would be fine too.
If Razix wanted to do it, how could he stop him?
But Joo-hyuk believed.
In the ambition sparkling in Razix's eyes.
"What did you choose?"
"Wheeee…"
No words were needed.
Because he could see with his own eyes what he had chosen.
Whoosh!
The extradimensional backpack Razix was carrying began to transform.
"...Extradimensional Space?"
"Whee, yes."
That's right.
The identity, the signature skill of the ultimate worker.
Extradimensional Space, upgraded to LSSR grade.
First, the external size of the backpack had become much smaller.
If the previous size was like a hiking backpack, now it was the size of a child's picnic bag.
Of course, appearance and actual performance were different.
"How much bigger did it get?"
Once again, Razix proved it with action.
He toddled over to the front of the camper van,
Swish, as soon as his hand made contact,
Slurp,
The camper van disappeared.
'Oh my god!'
And then, as he stretched out his hand again,
Slurp,
It reappeared right where it had been.
Did that go inside?
Previously, he couldn't store large, bulky items.
What was the capacity like now?
"How many of those camper vans can fit in the extradimensional space? About ten?"
Razix shook his head side to side.
"More?"
He shook his head no, then raised his hand high,
As if to say, 'That's nothing. Try again.'
"...Uh, 100?"
His hand went even higher.
More?
"500?"
Still not.
Then?
"1,000?"
At that, he tilted his head, thinking for a moment,
"Whee, they all fit. More than that."
Wow!
He said 1,000 camper vans could fit.
How was that possible?
The vast extradimensional space of LSSR grade.
Just how big was it?
'Insane. This is insane.'
The change in the extradimensional space wasn't just about capacity.
When he stretched out his hand, the desired items poured out, sorted by category.
In one corner of the wide open space, high-grade magic stones; in another, weapons; next to that, armor; next to that, elixirs and potions, gems, gold ingots.
Neatly stacked.
The items were beautifully arranged, as if deliberately piled.
"Can you separate Tower-exclusive items from regular items?"
Nod nod. He could.
He couldn't help but applaud.
"Amazing. Worker! This warrior is impressed."
"Ahhh, Razix-nim has surpassed the ultimate worker. He is the Infinite Transcendent Servant."
"Eh, that doesn't sound right. ultimate worker rolls off the tongue better."
"With a Quartermaster like you, is there any war we couldn't win?"
"As a knight serving the same lord, I am proud of you. May the light be with you!"
"Even I shall acknowledge you this once."
Smirk,
Razix smiled.
'Whee.'
He wasn't satisfied.
His greed was endless.
His ambition to be with the Summoner forever.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The S+++ rating conquest of the 73rd Floor this time was also announced via a world notification.
News broadcasts and articles poured in.
📰 Breaking News
He did it again. Republic of Korea's Black Tower achieves S+++ rating record for 73rd Floor conquest. Korean Awakening Management Bureau lobby countdown timer: 703 days until collapse. Player Shop begins selling Tower reward items. Players swarm as soon as it opens, supply is sufficient. Korean players begin upper-floor climbing after purchasing items. High-grade magic stones being mined in succession, supply to corporations begins. South Korea to become a leader in room-temperature superconductor utilization. Players from various countries flocking with requests for permanent naturalization in Korea. Interest in Korea surges especially among Japanese players. UN recommends Korean government refrain from recruiting players from other countries. Korean Awakening Management Bureau states naturalization is an individual's freedom, but will not accept applications for the time being.
Countless posts also appeared on the Tower Climbing Gallery frequented by Korean players.
💬 Comments
— Username
The Republic of Korea's Black Tower? It's just a high-grade magic stone mining site.
— Username
Did they get a lot of rewards?
— Username
↳ Reply
It's frustrating that you can only enter once a day.
⭐ Top Comment
— Username
Items too? I'm not sure. But I heard they give good ones.
— Username
Even if it goes from 0.01% to 0.1%, would you get a ticket?
— Username
0.1% would be a huge benefit, though? The probability did increase, right? Go check the Player Shop. The shopping god possessed me and my bank account is empty.
— Username
Hehehe, are you guys buying items to climb the Tower? You idiots.
— Username
What are you talking about? Then what are you buying items for? To make soup?
— Username
Resale. Don't you know how many foreign players have entered Korea right now? They buy them even at double, no, triple the price.
— Username
This bastard is a scalper! Hey, you son of a bitch! You're selling Korean item assets to foreigners?
— Username
So what?
— Username
Our top player would be beating his chest in frustration if he knew about guys like you.
⭐ Top Comment
— Username
That's right. He didn't clear the path all the way to the 73rd Floor for people like you.
— Username
Foreign player money or Korean player money, it's all the same money. If it sells well, he'd be happy, right?
In reality, quite a few foreign players were buying items sold at the Korean Player Shop through brokers.
If you have decent items, the difficulty of Tower conquest drops significantly.
Is that small amount of money a problem?
When you can mine high-grade magic stones.
Amidst this, an article also came out from the United States.
📰 Breaking News
Player Gerald! Perfect conquest of Eastern Tower's 71st Floor. Body cam footage not to be released due to mission nature. United States also begins high-grade magic stone rewards. New item appears: Tower-exclusive Holy Water of Divine Power. Potential to replace Holy Sword?
💬 Comments
— Username
Bravo! The US has become the second high-grade magic stone producing country.
— Username
The third, you mean, after China and Korea.
— Username
Ah! Right, China was there too. They've been so quiet. Is high-grade magic stone even a problem for China right now? Two top leaders, the Chairmen, died in succession. True.
— Username
Anyone here tried Holy Water? Or planning to? Me! I'll drink this and try climbing the 61st Floor tomorrow.
— Username
Oh! Which floor did it drop from? 56th Floor. So it's not only from floors 71 and above.
— Username
I'll drink Holy Water and conquer the Western Tower's 70th Floor. The Western Tower 4-piece gift set is mine, I tell you. Will the government just sit back and watch? What's the problem? They probably don't even know who got it. Hmm, I should give it a try too. First, buy some items. No matter how much Holy Water you have, it's better to enter fully equipped with Tower reward items. I should go to Korea and buy a few while I'm at it.
The Black Tower.
Until now, it had been the greatest threat humanity had ever faced.
But now the situation had changed.
The Tower could become a blessing for humanity.
In fact, it already was.
A revolution across all industries was foreshadowed.
Having witnessed the success of Korea and the US, countries around the world poured all their efforts into aiming for the 71st Floor.
First, let's just reach the 71st Floor.
If we can conquer beyond that, then to higher floors.
Thus, the paradigm of Black Tower conquest had completely changed.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
While the Player Shop was bustling with customers, the problem of resellers, i.e., scalpers, was indeed an issue.
Jeon Gwang-il and Park Kyung-su also had headaches.
Was there no way to regulate scalping?
"It's impossible."
"Why?"
"We can't stop selling items at the Player Shop, and we also can't detect if they're being resold."
"Hmm."
Since the items came from the Tower, they went into the player's inventory.
How could they catch them? Absolutely impossible.
"So, all we can do is raise the selling price or impose overall purchase limits, you're saying."
"That's right. But that's not a very good method either. Other players could suffer unintended harm."
True.
A shop solely for the players.
It wasn't started as a profit-making business in the first place.
It was created to help them perform missions safely inside the Tower.
"However, we do plan to regulate habitual scalpers. We've also compiled a list."
"Good. Revoke their Player Shop usage privileges."
But it wasn't that they couldn't understand the foreign players.
How frustrated must they be to come all the way to Korea to buy items?
Those expensive items.
A minimum of hundreds of millions per item.
Accessories started at 500 million.
Yet, even this was selling cheaply.
In foreign shops, they were sold for much more.
Some were sold for over ten times the price.
"By the way! What about Holy Water? Was it effective in the undead sections?"
Jeon Gwang-il nodded with a heavy expression.
"Elite players tried it, and it was effective. It's inferior to the Holy Sword, but the undead dark aura became much weaker than before..."
"Supply?"
"It's coming out quite a bit from various places."
"I see."
It seemed they would have to gradually wind down the Holy Sword rental business.
It was time-limited from the start.
Since they had confirmed it was practically useless once you got past the undead sections.
Still, as if trying to burn the last flame, the Awakening Management Bureau was crowded with players from various countries coming to rent Holy Swords.
Even though Holy Water was appearing, nothing yet matched the Holy Sword.
Because they had to climb quickly.
"The Holy Sword rental business is also reaching its end."
"Since we've earned enough, Player Bong should be satisfied."
"Even so, he'll be able to buy plenty of buildings, in cash."
A building in Gangnam, 61 stories, worth 130 billion won.
It would soon become the property of Player Bong Joo-hyuk.
"I wonder if there will be any disruption to Player Bong's profit ventures once the rental business ends."
"It'll be fine. Items are selling well, and wyvern leather products will soon be released too."
True, where would money only come from Holy Swords?
What was there to worry about?
"What are your plans for dealing with the Japanese player issue?"
"I already have a headache because of that."
Twenty Japanese players had requested asylum through the Korean embassy as a group.
They wanted to naturalize to Korea.
Currently, Japan's political situation was very unstable, causing problems with public order as well.
It was natural for players to feel threatened.
Players who weren't protected could become targets of crime.
But they couldn't recklessly accept them either.
Right then!
Ding!
A message notification sound rang from Jeon Gwang-il's smartphone.
He glanced at it.
"Hmm?"
"What message?"
"Ah, yes. Player Bong says he'll come to the bureau tomorrow."
"Really? What for?"
"I'm not sure about that."
Then Park Kyung-su looked at him with expectant eyes.
"It's not to request the sale of a large quantity of items again, is it?"
Jeon Gwang-il chuckled with an expression that said 'absolutely not.'
"Hey, no way. Is there a treasure vault inside the Tower or something?"
"Hahaha, I suppose not?"
They say 'no way' is what kills people... but still, no way!
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