The VIP Special Auction Invitation! (Part 3)
It was 2 a.m., long after the event had ended that day.I met Ji Yosin at a nearby luxury bar and shared a few drinks.Ji Yosin kept bowing to me with an incredibly excited expression.“It really feels like the heavens sent you to me, Deputy Choi.”“You’re too kind.”“Not at all. Thanks to your guild and you, Deputy Choi, Red Tower is now on the verge of going public and we’ve received four major pieces of good news.”So they were about to go public.As expected.“First, Chairman Han Won-tae of the Korea Group was extremely pleased, which means we’ve earned his trust. Second, we’re receiving an overwhelming number of investment inquiries from VIPs. All of this is thanks to the centipede dish becoming an absolute hit with the VIPs, isn’t it? Hahaha.”Ji Yosin seemed so overjoyed that he couldn’t contain the laughter that kept bursting out of him.“Third, our company’s external credibility has skyrocketed. We’re now being classified on the same level as China’s Xinyu Heavy Industries and Japan’s Sendai Motors. This was truly an unexpected stroke of luck!”“And the fourth?”“The fourth is that this event has strengthened the bond between your guild and ours even further. Your guild also earned an incredible profit of over 1.5 billion won from a single auction… Hahaha. Come, come, let’s have a celebratory drink!”That was true.The final winning bid for the ogre intestines had been 1.1 million gold.In our money, that came to 1.5675 billion won.Ji Yosin had transferred the entire amount to my inventory without deducting even a single gold in commission.He had even slipped me two envelopes—one with 10 million won and another with 50 million. According to him, the first was for me and the second was to be delivered to the guild master.In the end, I had earned over 1.6 billion won from the ogre intestines auction alone.When I thought about how I would have received less than 100 million if I’d sold them at the per-kilogram market price, it was clear that the VIP auction had delivered an enormous windfall.However…There was one fact that this innocent Ji Yosin would never even dream of.The 1.6 billion I had earned from the auction was nothing more than the smallest chunk of money I had made that day.“I just got off the phone, and the guild master also asked me to express his deepest gratitude to CEO Yu. He wants to hand over all the recently acquired tunnel centipede stock to you at market price.”As I spoke, I felt a slight twinge of guilt.It was stock I desperately needed to sell, yet here I was pretending to be doing him a favor.“H-how many kilograms?”“About 2,200 kilograms in total.”At that, Ji Yosin shot up from his seat with both arms raised high.He placed a hand over his heart, squeezed his eyes shut with a deeply moved expression, then grabbed my hand and said,“Let’s keep going like this forever! If your guild supplies the tunnel centipedes and we handle proper distribution to conquer the global market… this is… K-food! World domination! Fuck! …Ah, ahaha! I’m sorry for swearing! I got too excited! Ahahaha! Ahahaha!”He really looked like he was on cloud nine.* * *The next morning, Jang Hancheol greeted me with a bright smile and immediately rejected the 30% dividend I had proposed.“You’ll remember that I once said I would spend my entire life repaying the grace you showed me. A dividend? That’s out of the question.”“You’re being too generous. You’ve already more than repaid that grace through your meticulous care in our joint venture. This time, I’m the one who owes you.”“Not at all. It is we who have benefited greatly from the Rot Virus joint venture. If anything similar comes up in the future, please feel free to ask me for anything. I will help in any way I can.”“Thank you. …By the way, how exactly did you manage to recruit the foreign VIPs?”“Yamashita Shigeo of Sendai Motors is an old classmate and close friend from my Princeton days. Chairman Zhao owed my father a favor once, so he gladly joined this time. Both of them are tight-lipped and extremely trustworthy, so you don’t need to worry.”Soon after, the gold was deposited into my inventory.The Twin-Headed Eight-Armed Ogre’s skeleton had sold for a staggering 3.6 million gold—5.13 billion won.Its hide had gone for 2.4 million gold, or 3.42 billion won.Combined, that came to 8.45 billion won.Adding the intestines brought the total just over 10 billion.And because the gold had come from a secret VIP event, it was completely tax-free.* * *For the next several days, I was so busy preparing for the third basement floor raid that I barely had time to breathe.First, I prepaid a whopping 9.5 billion won at K-Citadel and commissioned a custom reform elixir that would open up poison resistance in my body.Securing and crafting the remaining materials needed for the operation was no small task either.And then…There was one problem I simply couldn’t solve no matter what.Then one day, when I visited the second basement floor to install the secured materials, I immediately sensed that something had gone wrong.The moment I stepped off the waypoint, the Miserable state of B2 filled my vision.===
There is 1 Hero Ogre on the 2nd Basement Floor that can become a Named Ogre.
Several Ogresses lay dead with their limbs torn off, their green blood splattered everywhere.The remaining Ogresses and their young were huddled in a corner, trembling violently as if terrified.I looked toward the center of the B2 plaza.The Queen Dowager lay on the floor as if dead, while the Queen Consort and Royal Noble Consort were locked in a desperate battle against something.I used to rush over to the Queen Dowager.Fortunately, she was still breathing.And then…The moment I saw her shrunken belly and the wet mess between her legs, I finally understood what had happened.A new king had been born while I was gone!I turned my gaze toward the two Named Ogresses engaged in a bloody fight.The two Named Ogresses were battling a small monster that was only about one-fifth their height, yet they looked like they were struggling.This was ridiculous.Was it already rampaging the moment it was born?Most animal offspring, unlike humans, often possess excellent motor skills from birth.But this was the first time I had ever heard of a monster that murdered its own kind the instant it came into the world.I moved a little closer.It had eight arms!And two heads!There was no doubt about it—this was the newly born Twin-Eight Stallion.As astonishing as it was, cleaning up the situation came first.Suddenly, I felt the old-squad-leader instinct from my military days surge all the way to the top of my head.I charged toward it at full speed.At that, all the Ogresses began cheering and shouting for me.A single, unified will reached me—they didn’t want to become slaves again.Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!Katang-ka! Katang-ka! Katang-ka! Katang-ka!As I ran, the newborn baby ogre’s side profile came into clear view.The newborn Crown Prince, its two heads still covered in sticky green blood from the birth!I felt the need to establish dominance right away.I used again now that the cooldown was up, then swung the shovel handle with the full force of my 290 Strength straight into its ugly face.CRAAAAAACK—I smashed it without mercy.The creature’s head snapped back from the punch.Then.THUD—It collapsed sideways.Slap! Slap! Slap! Slap!Katang-ka! Katang-ka! Katang-ka! Katang-ka!The watching Ogresses went wild.The Queen Consort and Royal Noble Consort also bowed deeply to me, crying out “Utata! Utata!”That was when it happened.The creature that had fallen suddenly shot high into the air.Kakakakakakakaka—Oh, right.Even if one head was knocked out, the other head was still awake?At that moment, I saw it swinging all eight arms wildly as it came crashing down toward me.!Even though it was just a baby ogre’s attack, getting caught by it would probably mean going straight from injured to dead.Like a true Katangka, I calmly and gracefully raised my hand upward.Whoooosh~Then a orange circle spun above its head, and the creature lost control, slamming face-first into the ground with a loud splat.
The monster has now become a loyal soldier of the Ogre Squad.
Please issue a command to the soldier.
After successfully completing the trial, I had already equipped the banner that allowed me to recruit male ogres as well.Looking at the creature lying unconscious with its face planted in the ground, I thought,Huh. If I use this guy, I might be able to cleanly solve that annoying problem that’s been bothering me for the past few days.* * *Several more days passed, and many things happened.And now I was back on the second basement floor.Today was finally the day to put the long-prepared third basement floor raid into action.I first inspected the troops.The 140 Rotters, including Sergeant Rotter, stood by as loyally as ever.The Queen Dowager had finished her short postpartum recovery and was ready for the raid along with the other two pregnant Ogresses.And the Twin-Eight Ogre, whose height and size had already grown dramatically in just a few days, looked restless and eager for the raid to begin.It had only been a week since its birth, yet it was already bigger than me.What a terrifying creature.“Everyone, to your positions!”“To your positions~~”Utata— Utata—Utata— Utata—At my command, they all moved to their assigned positions exactly as they had been trained.The first task was to clear away the stone tomb covering the tunnel entrance.The Twin-Headed Eight-Armed Ogre, myself, and three Ogresses pushed aside the piled rock fragments, quickly clearing the stones and revealing the bunker lid we had placed on top.I grabbed the nozzle of the specially prepared hose and finished my preparations.The Ogresses then began shouldering the mana oil drums they had stacked like a mountain and pouring them, glug glug glug glug, into the large funnel.Since the funnel was positioned on high ground, the hose quickly filled with mana oil and became rigid.When I aimed the hose downward and gave the signal, the Twin-Eight Ogre—who had been beaten like a dog by its mother for the past few days and was now perfectly disciplined—swiftly lifted the iron plate.In the darkness.Bzzzzzzzz~Tatata~I could hear the sound of several Devil-Bees still lingering near the tunnel entrance, unable to give up.I opened the nozzle and sprayed the flammable mana oil.Shhhhhhhhhhh~A powerful stream shot out like water from a fire hose, spraying deep into the tunnel.I pulled the lever to spark the ignition wick.Click—Fwoooooooooooosh—Even though I had practiced many times, the flames that erupted were still fierce enough to make my heart tremble as they roared down into the tunnel.Fwoooooooooooosh—Flame throwers had been one of the most powerful area-of-effect weapons since ancient times.Fire attacks were originally the best way for a small force to deal with a large one.And when used inside a narrow tunnel, the victims were completely helpless.Because it instantly consumed all the oxygen inside the tunnel, it was a terrifying weapon that could suffocate enemies to death before they even burned.After roughly purifying the inside of the tunnel, I put on the new high-grade heat-resistant suit over my hazmat gear, then equipped the full plate armor I had farmed after killing Go Jutae on top of that.Most armor used in the tower could be equipped or removed with a simple tap on a hunter watch, so the whole process took less than two seconds.I then wrapped thin but sturdy steel chains around my thighs and waist over the heavy armor, creating a knot harness.This was because I had calculated that a regular climbing rope and harness wouldn’t be enough to withstand a Devil-Bee’s attack.Once preparations were complete, I chewed one of the expensive oxygen gums I had bought, bent down, and began sliding down the tunnel with a clank, clank.Fwoooooooooooosh~I occasionally fired the flamethrower to purify the tunnel.If I let my guard down and even one escaped and made it up to B2, the entire operation would be compromised, so I needed to be thorough.Soon, I reached the end of the tunnel.Bzzzzzzzzzzzz~Tatata~The sound of thousands—no, tens of thousands—of wings beating began to echo.And then…The most aggressive among them caught the intruder’s scent and started flying toward the tunnel entrance.Fwoooooooooooosh~I spewed flames wildly at them, making sure they didn’t dare approach the tunnel.While I was focused on punishing the bugs, the Twin-Headed Eight-Armed Ogre approached my side.Because it had already grown to my size, it had to crouch down almost crawling to descend the tunnel. It then pushed something down to the floor of B3.It was a cloth scroll with a metal rod as its axis.As the heavy rod fell, the cloth scroll that had been rolled up on B2 unfurled endlessly as it dropped.Soon, through my scope, I saw the metal rod at the end of the scroll hit the floor of the third basement level.At my signal, the Twin-Eight Ogre immediately lowered the barrel it had been carrying to the end of the tunnel.It was at least five or six times thicker than the one I was holding.When I opened the barrel’s nozzle, a liquid that was less viscous than honey but stickier than water began to pour out with thick glugs.The liquid flowed endlessly down the cloth scroll.It was acacia syrup.A cheap fake honey made with 10% real honey and 90% high-fructose corn syrup.