Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: How Much Will It Take? (4)
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Deep at the bottom of the dark ocean abyss.
A city sprawled across the seafloor, centered around the Dragon Palace.
Glowing corals adorned every side, dazzling the eyes.
But lift your head, and the abyss's darkness loomed right there.
The city of the merfolk, slumbering in the deep sea.
A city built by pushing back the seawater with a grand barrier formation.
A city of eternal darkness lit by unquenchable light.
This city that never slept was the headquarters of the Merfolk Church.
Seo-ran and Dam-cheong had arrived at the heart of the Dragon Palace.
It was a lavish yet secretive chamber.
Seo-ran scanned her surroundings with suspicious eyes.
A feast made with precious spirit herbs, used without restraint.
Was there deadly poison mixed in?
No—poison was useless against dragons and high-ranking cultivators.
Gigantic sculptures crafted from the finest glowing corals.
Had they hidden assassins inside?
No—even if the entire city attacked, victory was impossible.
She couldn't even guess what scheme they were plotting.
The banquet began, but master detective Seo-ran never let her guard down.
And the moment she had been waiting for arrived.
The First-Class Believer who had introduced herself as Hong Lin-eo began acting strangely.
She had been eating normally when suddenly she slipped something into Seo-ran's sleeve.
Dumbfounded, Seo-ran checked inside and found an ingot.
It was Star White Silver, one of the finest materials for magic tools.
Impossible to obtain on land, it was a rare metal found only in tiny amounts in meteorites fallen from the heavens.
For it to exist in such a hefty ingot form defied common sense.
Of course, the clueless Seo-ran had no idea.
"Why did you slip this into my sleeve?"
Hong Lin-eo feigned complete innocence.
"Slip it in? What? Me?"
"No, just now..."
Seo-ran shut her mouth mid-rebuttal.
There was no special reason.
Her other sleeve had suddenly grown heavy too.
She turned her head, and the merfolk beside her sat calmly, gazing at distant mountains.
Checking just in case, sure enough.
Another Star White Silver ingot welcomed her.
This wasn't pickpocketing—it was sleeve-stuffing.
Seo-ran was so flabbergasted she was speechless.
Even a dagger to the ribs wouldn't have shocked her this much.
Looking across, Dam-cheong was in the same boat.
His sleeves bulged with all sorts of junk, ready to burst.
In that instant, a gut instinct flashed through Seo-ran's mind.
Could this be a bribe?
A secluded spot, secretive hospitality, expensive-looking goods.
Seo-ran's left and right brain spun wild imaginings.
Desperate to become a noble being, Seo-ran shot to her feet.
And let out a righteous shout.
"What do you think you're doing?! Take these bribes back right now! I'm not that kind of person!"
Hong Kong noir film buff Ryu Seo-ran sniffed out crime, conspiracy, and the lingering scent of blood with her keen nose.
Here, she had to firmly reject them.
The moment greed took hold, some vile schemer would pierce her nose and lead her like a puppet.
That's how it went in the movie she'd seen before.
Persuasion genius Hong Lin-eo wielded her three-inch tongue once more.
"Bribe? Not at all. This is an advance payment, an advance. Didn't you promise earlier to fix our coral beam? I just handed it over in this somewhat inappropriate spot out of eagerness."
Seo-ran shot back immediately.
"Then show me that broken coral beam you're so worried about. I'll fix it for you. Right now."
"Shall we? After you."
Hong Lin-eo led the way, and Seo-ran followed right behind.
Her arms swung vigorously with her strides.
But weighed down by the ingots, Seo-ran's sleeves barely swayed.
Walking the Dragon Palace corridors of coral, Hong Lin-eo pointed to one beam.
"That's the one I mentioned."
"You said it was cracked all over and about to shatter—where exactly is it broken?"
"Right there, there. Take a good look."
Looking closely, there was a faint scratch.
But this wasn't a space telescope.
Even if it were, they'd ignore a scratch only visible under a microscope.
With her one year of civil engineering experience, Ryu Seo-ran figured that beam could last another millennium.
"It's perfectly fine."
Hong Lin-eo humbly accepted the expert opinion.
"What a relief. We're clueless about construction. Shall we head back to the banquet hall now?"
Seo-ran returned with a displeased expression—and found a neat stack of Star White Silver ingots.
"What's this? More bribes?"
"Payment for the repair work."
"What did I fix?"
"My mistake—consulting fee."
A truly formidable opponent.
*****
After the meal, the group began touring the Dragon Palace.
It was the Dragon Palace, yet not a single dragon was in sight.
Curious, Dam-cheong asked the church leader beside him.
"Where is the dragon?"
The leader, pushing a cart full of bribes, replied.
"Right before me."
He was looking at Dam-cheong as he spoke.
"Not me—the dragon that lives in the Dragon Palace."
"A dragon? There are no dragons in the Dragon Palace."
Seo-ran racked her memory.
Thinking back, the merfolk had said they would show her the Dragon Palace, but never claimed there was a dragon there.
Dam-cheong, who had expected one, grew angry.
"Then why call it the Dragon Palace?! A palace with no dragon!"
The leader answered in a sorrowful voice.
"There used to be one. Not anymore..."
Then he spilled the long, drawn-out tale of the Merfolk Church.
A weak race, the dragon's grace, the founding of the faith, and so on.
It was a concise, engaging fairy tale explaining how the merfolk came to rule the abyss.
"And so the Merfolk Church achieved its current glory. But decades ago, the Dragon God suddenly vanished. Without their god, the believers gradually fell into depravity."
Finishing his tale, the leader stared intently at Seo-ran and Dam-cheong.
Dam-cheong asked.
"So you want me to become your new god?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Why would I take on such a hassle?"
The leader said.
"We'll give you the now-masterless Dragon Palace."
Dam-cheong answered instantly.
"Being a god sounds pretty good!"
Shocked, Seo-ran tried to dissuade him.
"You're really going to do it?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"What if they borrow your name for evil deeds..."
"Then I'll just punish them."
If the man himself was fine with it, Seo-ran had nothing to say.
Elated, the leader shoved a contract forward.
It listed clauses on maintaining dignity, portrait rights, procedures for changing contract terms, and various other matters.
With a signature and seal, Dam-cheong became the Dragon God.
Handing Dam-cheong a copy, the leader now turned to Seo-ran.
"What do you think about becoming a god, Investigator?"
Seo-ran answered with a baffled look.
"I'm not a dragon."
But the leader didn't stop his sales pitch.
"Does it matter when you possess such a massive golden core? If 'Dragon God' doesn't sit right, any other god will do."
"Does the church need two gods?"
"Think of it as risk management. Two are safer than one. If one ascends, the other remains. And our Merfolk Church isn't strictly monotheistic. Let's make it polytheistic while we're at it."
"No..."
Seo-ran grew confused.
Was this a proper religion?
Did they recruit gods regardless of race just because they needed one?
Wasn't it too flexible for a faith?
Hong Lin-eo whispered to Seo-ran nonstop.
"Investigator, the Merfolk Church needs a god. Please take pity on us and sign the contract. Right now, we'll offer not just regular tribute but massive irregular tribute too."
It sounded just like a home shopping ad: Order now and get a second pot free.
She felt like she shouldn't sign carelessly.
Seo-ran resisted fiercely.
"I will absolutely not become a god! Thinking about it, this ties me to the church's fate! If they mess up, I'll get dragged down too! No way—why trust a church I just met today?! Stop it! Quit stuffing ingots in my sleeves!"
Negotiation maestro Hong Lin-eo retreated one step.
When a big demand is rejected, push a small one.
It was her killer move that everyone knew about but still fell for.
"Then how about a one-day trial?"
"One-day trial?"
"Yes. Sign a one-day short-term contract and live as a god for a day. If you don't like it, withdraw the next day. Of course, no need to return the advance payment."
Seo-ran agreed for now.
It wasn't that she'd been persuaded.
She just didn't want the hassle of more refusals.
In the end, she signed a one-day trial contract that auto-extended if not canceled within days.
She could just remember to cancel it.
Seo-ran was confident.
She had already forgotten the time she'd forgotten to cancel an OTT subscription and wasted two years of money.
Hong Lin-eo led Seo-ran to the treasure vault.
She pulled a key from her pocket and twisted it this way and that.
Before opening the door, Hong Lin-eo suddenly asked.
"But how much should the advance be?"
To the question of how much, Seo-ran replied casually.
"Something reasonable, reasonable."
"Understood."
Hong Lin-eo opened the treasure vault door.
What lay inside wasn't mere wealth.
It was overwhelming persuasion made visible.
To a minor sect barely surviving a crisis with emergency transfusions, these were treasures like rain in a drought.
Spirit pills that could sustain her even through the Primordial Infant stage if rationed.
Countless rare materials needed for puppetry cultivation.
First-Class Believer and vault keeper Hong Lin-eo declared.
"There—from now on, it's all yours, Investigator."
The Merfolk Church's greatest negotiator in history, heaven-sent genius of persuasion, unflappable dealmaker Hong Lin-eo handed over the vault key.
Seo-ran accepted it reverently.
She forgot all about unholy words like "cancellation."
Dam-cheong asked the newly deified Seo-ran.
"Weren't you just saying you'd get backlash if the church messed up?"
"Ryu Seo-ran is prepared to bear even personal disgrace for the revival of the Black Bamboo Sect!"
The Merfolk Church gained two gods.
Earth Mother Goddess Ryu Seo-ran and Dragon God Dam-cheong.