Chapter 30
Chapter 30
"Shelter Gallery?!"
What kind of bizarre gallery is this!
But.
It seemed like it might be okay.
"Let's see..."
I connected immediately.
└[Rice-eating Train] : Hey, you Sky Island bastards, change your orbit already.
└[Haeul's Moving Castle] : Fr fr lol. My crops are growing slower because of that bastard.
└[Heungseondaewongyun] : Isolationism is good.
└[Sky Island Laputa] : Ah, it costs a shit ton of money. Why don't you guys pay for it lol.
"Hmm...."
The names were quite something.
It felt different from other shelters.
It didn't smell like things holed up in a bunker.
"They seem to be.... moving?"
Moving houses?
Trains, islands, castles.
As I scanned the names one by one, a picture vaguely formed.
It seemed like they weren't fixed in one place, but people living while constantly on the move.
Anyway.
Since I wasn't sure.
"First, the standard greeting."
[Nice to meet you. I'm the Gallery Owner. Please take care of me.]
└[Rice-eating Train] : You're the Gallery Owner? Nice to meet you? Come visit our sacred engine room sometime.
└[Haeul's Moving Castle] : Ooh, Gallery Owner! Don't you want to come to my place? I'm bored.
└[Heungseondaewongyun] : Isolationism is good.
└[Sky Island Laputa] : Gallery Owner, let's not hang out with these dirt-poor losers. Hang out with me.
Everyone accepted the greeting properly.
Not bad.
But there was a problem.
"These guys fight each other too."
Even though they seem to be in the same dimension.
I guess the human passive skill is fighting one's own kind.
Anyway.
"What are these people's abilities?"
I was very curious.
If I had to guess based on the names, they sound like engineers, right?
If they're people who build and operate massive mobile residences themselves, they aren't just simple survivors.
Then...
"Let's check the shop window."
I immediately entered the shelter shop window.
And.
"Whoa..."
I was very surprised.
[Name] : Floating Core Levitation Engine
[Category] : Aerial Shelter Propulsion Core
[Required Ether] : 3.55 trillion Ether
[Name] : Anti-Gravity Anchor Field
[Category] : Aerial Mooring Device
[Required Ether] : 2.52 trillion Ether
[Name] : Apocalypse Express Fortress Engine Room
[Category] : Mobile Train Shelter Core Module
[Required Ether] : 2.88 trillion Ether
Starting from aerial fortresses and trains.
[Name] : Deep Sea Ark Submergence Module
[Category] : Underwater Mobile Shelter Core
[Required Ether] : 3.5782 trillion Ether
[Name] : Floating Ark Skeleton
[Category] : Marine Shelter Structural Core
[Required Ether] : 2.7825 trillion Ether
There were deep-sea and ocean ones too.
[Name] : Terrain-Adaptive Multi-Leg Walker
[Category] : Walking Shelter Movement Device
[Required Ether] : 2.5455 trillion Ether
[Name] : Crawler Fortress Lower Frame
[Category] : Land Mobile Platform
[Required Ether] : 2.2155 trillion Ether
[Name] : Giant Wheel Fortress Frame
[Category] : Wheeled Shelter Structural Core
[Required Ether] : 2.5576 trillion Ether
Even shelters that walk on the ground and roll around like tanks.
"Crazy......."
The shelters themselves were walking fortresses.
Massive structures that fly in the sky, cut through the sea, and crawl on the ground.
They weren't just residences.
It was literally a moving civilization, meant to keep living on top of it even after the world ended.
Above all, the most surprising thing was.
"What is this price?"
It goes into the trillions.
I really thought I saw it wrong.
I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but the numbers didn't change.
"Can this even be bought?"
My current record is around 30 billion.
This is about 100 times that.
"Wow.... Shelter Gallery. These guys are fucking rich."
They were people who possessed shelters worth several trillion Ether.
They were definitely not ordinary people.
These were things I had to buy someday.
Though they were pie in the sky right now.
Just having a goal was enough.
Of course, it seemed like that goal would take quite a long time, but anyway.
I jokingly posted a message just like that.
[Shelter guys. I have a dilemma. I built a shelter, but I don't know what to do about the defense system.]
Then, a whisper and a gift flew in immediately.
└[Rice-eating Train] : Defense? Hmm..... I run at 10,000 km/h so I don't really need defense. But I'll give you something I used to use.
└[Gallery Owner] : Ooooooh! Really?!
└[Rice-eating Train] : Yeah, but I want to just give it to you, but it says a trade requires a price?
As expected.
When I delivered protein to the Valkar Gallery.
It said a trade occurred, and they paid Ether.
It was the same for me.
"I guess it's because it's a different dimension?"
Since the balance shouldn't be broken, it seemed like it balances things out with Ether.
This gallery system wasn't just a simple community.
It was a kind of trading post connecting dimension to dimension.
Anyway.
"What do they need over there?"
This was the problem.
If it was something they needed, even if it had no value here, I could sell it for a high price.
But I had no idea what they needed.
So.
└[Gallery Owner] : What's the most precious thing in your world?
└[Rice-eating Train] : ...Well? Dirt?
"Dirt, huh..."
Since they have mobile fortresses, it made sense that fertile soil would always be in short supply.
Because they are beings that are always running, flying, and floating.
They can't plant roots in the ground.
Then.
"There was a forest nearby..."
There was a strangely green forest.
It seemed like a forest that wasn't on the map originally.
It was a bit strange, but.
"There's nowhere else to get dirt, is there?"
I had no choice.
Then I had no choice but to go.
"It's a defense system given by someone who owns a mobile fortress, so it can't be bad."
It had to be an amazing item.
---
20 Annihilation Units.
I headed to the forest with them.
Lee Su-ah and Han Min-ah said they would follow, but I couldn't leave the shelter empty yet, so I made them guard the shelter.
Both had dissatisfied expressions, but they followed orders.
"Is this the place?"
Before I knew it, I had arrived at the forest.
"Man, this place looks unsettling."
A forest that appeared out of nowhere in one corner of the city.
Roots were pushing up between the sidewalk blocks, and vines were winding up the building walls.
Its expandability was extremely high.
It didn't feel like nature, but like something was intentionally propagating.
"Tsk..."
But I had no choice.
I advanced.
"Let's go."
I put the Annihilation Units in front.
Then.
"Kuaaa..."
"Geueo..."
I discovered zombies.
But the Annihilation Units cleaned them up easily.
Quietly and efficiently, as if clearing obstacles.
As I kept going like that.
"Is this enough?"
I had entered almost the middle of the forest.
The surroundings were dense with trees taller than me, and because light didn't reach well, the air was strangely damp.
I immediately gave a shovel to one Annihilation Unit and ordered it.
"Dig."
When it comes to dirt, the inside is more important than the outside.
The Annihilation Unit started digging diligently.
Kung, kung. The heavy sounds repeated as dirt piled up.
And a small mound of dirt reaching my waist was completed.
"I can sell this, right?"
I immediately handed it over to the system.
+3 million Ether.
"Wow!"
It gives quite a lot.
This changes things.
"Alright! Guys! Let's dig!"
I handed shovels to all 20 Annihilation Units one by one.
They started digging silently.
+3 million Ether
+3 million Ether
+3 million Ether
.....
"Wow!"
The Ether kept increasing.
However.
While digging like that.
"Oh?"
+12 million Ether.
There was a strange number mixed in.
I approached the Annihilation Unit that sold that Ether.
"Hey, what did you dig up?"
Looking at the spot where it dug with the shovel,
"What is this?"
There was a vine that looked like human veins there.
A thin, reddish thing was connected deep into the ground.
It moved as if pulsating regularly. It was alive.
"Crazy."
The wriggling thing looked like a person.
But at the same time.
Whooosh!
Something flew at me.
Bang!
I raised my hand to block it.
The impact traveled up my arm. It was heavy.
"....What?"
As soon as I saw what flew at me, my eyes widened.
"A branch?"
It was a huge branch.
I had a cognitive dissonance.
"Did a tree... just hit me with a branch?"
If so....
No way.
"It's a Variant."
There were many types of Variants.
There were tree forms, some were insects, animals, etc.
It could be anything if it was a living thing.
In that sense, trees were possible too.
"All the trees here?"
I looked around.
The atmosphere was different from before.
The surroundings got slightly darker.
The Variant trees had blocked the sunlight.
The branches were moving slowly, but clearly.
As if reaching out their arms. As if surrounding me.
"Hmm...."
But strangely.
I wasn't scared.
"Those things.... are weak."
I sent one Annihilation Unit to fight it.
Then.
"Kku-eong...."
The Variant tree was cut off as soon as it was hit by the Annihilation Unit's hand blade.
It was only wood on the outside, but it was split in two as emptily as if it were hollow inside.
But that wasn't the end.
+20 million Ether.
"Crazy."
That one tree is worth 20 million Ether.
"What a windfall!"
I happened to be short on Ether too.
A source of supply had appeared.
"Good."
I gave an order to the Annihilation Units.
"Cut them all down."
And then,
I jumped in too.
I held axes in both hands.
After connecting them to wires.
I moved as if dancing with swords. The axe blades plunged down while rotating in the air. The wires were pulled taut and then released, drawing a trajectory. A rhythm was created.
Every time that happened.
Puk! Peoeok!
The bodies of the Variant trees snapped like thin branches.
At the same time
+20 million Ether.
+20 million Ether.
+20 million Ether.
+20 million Ether.
....