The Seal of Approval

"Whoa."

Not an item I had seen coming. A permanent boost to an Apostle's stats — and to the experience they earned on top of it. Even so, I didn't feel like handing a thing like this over in some dull, ordinary way.

"Oh."

There was a better way. Careful that Kim Minsung wouldn't see, I worked the Revelation window.

The moment I confirmed it, a shudder ran the length of Kim Minsung's body.

"L-Lord Absolute!"

Whatever he was staring at, his eyes were halfway gone.

"Are you truly bestowing a treasure such as this upon me?"

I nodded.

"I shall keep it as a family heirloom and pass it down through the generations!"

Uh... is that even possible?

"I wouldn't know! Only that I am joyful to exactly that degree!"

Good thing he's happy. I'd been privately wondering if I was working him too hard.

"Perish the thought! I am only glad to repay your grace, even in this small way. And thanks to you, Lord Absolute, I have grown far stronger besides."

Well. He wasn't wrong.

Praise had made him ten percent stronger, and now the Seal of Approval had made him ten percent stronger again. Twenty percent, all told.

For an Awakener of Kim Minsung's caliber, there was almost no way to grow that much in so short a time. The only exception would be lucking into a piece of legendary-grade equipment.

Kim Minsung growing stronger was good for me, too. Setting aside the fact that he was my Apostle, our fates were bound up with Daejeon Tower. We were in this together.

"I shall only work harder from this day on!"

Well, if it made him this happy, that was enough.

Still — how, exactly, was Kim Minsung hearing my thoughts and seeing what I saw?

It nagged at me.

Kim Minsung was overcome.

Set the effects aside. An Absolute who could raise even the dead trusted him. Approved of him.

Could any guarantee be surer than that?

But... from Floor 6 on, the time attacks are only going to get harsher.

A new record was still within reach, but matching the overwhelming margin they had managed so far might not be. In the end, Kim Minsung opened his inventory. A few sets of doping potions remained, bought and kept for when a clear truly mattered.

Consumables or not, each one commanded a market price in the thousands. He popped a cap without a moment's hesitation.

All of it, for Lord Absolute.

Meanwhile, the Awakening Management Bureau was called into emergency session over the news of Cha Hyunwoo's clear.

"Mm. Everyone here?"

"Yes, Director!"

"So. He's cleared up through Floor 5?"

"Yes!"

"A sprint to Floor 5 in barely thirty minutes..."

"We expect he'll clear through Floor 10 before the day is out, Director."

"What makes you think so?"

"Because this clear is very likely aimed at exchanging on the black market."

"Exchanging?"

"First of all, judging by the records he's been setting since Floor 1, he is unquestionably a new Awakener. But among those who have registered recently, there was no one capable of results like these."

"And since he hasn't registered, he can't exchange through official government channels. That's what you're saying."

"Yes. On top of that, there's a strong chance he's holding a large quantity of mana stones earned by helping other Awakeners. He'll be wanting to cash them out before long."

"That does hold water. So in the end, the world records are just a bonus?"

"That's our assessment."

"And our response?"

"We've rushed the Task Force leader and deputy leader to Floor 10. We have to open a channel with him before any other agency gets a hand on him, and protect him in secret."

"Good... But under no circumstances can we let it slip that we're the Bureau. Understood? All we do is give him the help he needs. His information must never spread beyond the Task Force. Is that clear?"

"Of course. The problem is the National Tax Service. Those bastards won't hear a word of sense."

"Ah. The Prime Minister's Office has agreed to handle that lot."

"As expected of you, Director!"

"Now, now. This is the time to focus. No matter what happens, he must not be exposed outside. I want you on this with the conviction that the fate of the Bureau — no, of the entire Republic of Korea — is hanging in the balance."

"Yes, sir!"

"Hah... hah... Lord Absolute! Has a new record been set?"

Of course it had. If anything, I was starting to wonder whether we'd broken it by too much.

The old record was eleven minutes. This one was two minutes and thirty-nine seconds. After today, the Floor 10 record might never fall again.

"Thank heavens! I did not wish to cast a shadow on your renown."

The theatrics, honestly.

I cleared my throat.

"You did well."

I said it out loud, and held out my hand.

"L-Lord Absolute...!"

Overcome, Kim Minsung scrubbed his palm against his clothes again and again, then reached back to meet me. A light handshake.

"You can head back now."

"Understood!"

"The next time I summon you, I'll tell you ahead of time."

"Any time at all! Please — you must summon me!"

Kim Minsung scattered away into the light.

And then, immediately—

"Hm?"

I could praise him again? What happened if I did it a second time? Did the effect stack? Or did it only refresh the timer?

Either way, there was no reason not to. I pressed the Praise button at once.

Home again, Kim Minsung pressed his palms together.

"O Lord Absolute...!"

With two Likes accumulated, the buff had doubled as well.

Each Like, however, carried its own time limit. The doubled portion held only across the stretch where they overlapped. Even so, add the Seal of Approval, and he was already sitting on a thirty percent buff.

At this rate, Floor 51 could be cleared with ease, and with no help from outside.

"Hah—! No. How could I think something so blasphemous."

My faith is lacking.

Kim Minsung shook his head, back and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠forth. And someone was staring at the sight in a daze.

"Hey... where did you disappear to all of a sudden? The Tower?"

It was the girlfriend he lived with.

"Yeah. I went to the Tower."

"Without even streaming?"

"I just had something to take care of."

"Do you have any idea what a mess it was while you were gone?"

"A mess?"

"Yes! World records have been dropping one after another in Daejeon Tower, you know that? Everyone's losing their minds."

Kim Minsung grinned.

He was the one who had watched that miracle from the closest seat there was. A pride without equal in the world.

And yet.

"Honestly, is there a limit to how ungrateful people can be? All this time they hung off your pant leg and wouldn't look at anyone but you, and now it's 'we don't need him,' 'he's washed up,' 'finally we don't have to look at the weakest S-rank'— hey."

"Hm?"

"Why are you smiling? You're not angry?"

"People talking nonsense because they don't know any better — ignore them, and that's the end of it."

A strange look crossed his girlfriend's face.

Had he always been this mature?

"Miyeong."

"Yeah?"

"A new era has begun."

"Uh...?"

And the one standing at the vanguard of that new era was him.

Kim Minsung smiled, quiet and sure.

The Floor 10 Communal Area looked uncannily like the Kowloon Walled City out of an old Hong Kong film. On a plot of ground already far too narrow, annex had been piled upon annex until the whole grotesque mass seemed ready to scrape the ceiling.

"Atmosphere's downright murderous."

Had I sent Kim Minsung back for nothing? Keeping him at my side as an escort would have been a comfort.

"No... that's not it."

Nobody here would fail to recognize Kim Minsung. A ranker who had cleared to Floor 51, turning up in the Floor 10 Communal Area, would draw far too many eyes.

And though the place looked lawless at a glance, once I actually stepped inside, it was more orderly than I had expected.

Thud—!

"Aigoo, I'm sorry!"

"Not at all. The fault is mine."

The moment shoulders met, heads dropped into bows of something like seventy-five degrees.

Someone had said it once. Civilized people have worse manners than barbarians, because they can afford to be rude without ever getting their skulls split open. This place was different. Everyone here was an Awakener who, if the mood soured, really could crack someone else's head in two.

Courtesy and proper conduct had been beaten into them as a matter of course.

A Wild West for the modern age, then?

"Let's see..."

Taking the signs planted all over as my guideposts, I turned down a cramped alley. A winding passage barely wide enough for a single person — I threaded through it more than once before I found the place.

A shop with a small sign stuck out front. The ground around it was riddled with holes where stakes had been driven and yanked back out — they must have been pulling the sign up and planting it again constantly.

I'd heard that inside the Tower, everyone traded freely. Seeing it for myself, that didn't seem to be quite the case.

"Excuse me..."

I opened the door. An old woman, well along in years, sat inside.

"Well, come on in. Here on your own?"

"Ah, yes."

"Changing mana stones?"

"Yes."

"Commission's thirty-three percent. Laundering on top of that, fifty. Tax is separate."

"...Pardon?"

A base fee of thirty-three percent, and fifty if I wanted it laundered? Tax on top of even that?

So what — exchange a billion won and have it laundered, and five hundred million vanishes up front, and then the tax takes another cut besides...

"You'll come away with about three hundred million, near enough."

Exchange a billion and walk out with a paltry three hundred million?

"That's absurd."

"Don't like it, you'll have to register with the Bureau. 'Course, even if you register, the commission and the tax come along all the same."

"Even so, I'd get more than three hundred million, wouldn't I?"

"Well, that's true enough. But you've got a reason for not registering, haven't you?"

It wasn't as if I had some grand reason. I simply didn't want my actions and my choices constrained in any way. Whether that was reason enough to stomach seventy percent of my income flying out the window — that, I ought to think over.

"If I might ask... why is it people usually don't register?"

"Usually it's that they want to, and can't."

They want to, and can't?

"Foreign students, folks without papers, people behind on their taxes... plenty of cases like that."

Nothing at all like me. Then maybe there really was no reason not to register.

"Give it a good, slow think."

"Yes..."

For the moment, I stepped back outside.

The Bureau's base commission was fifteen percent. Over five hundred million won in a year, and it rose to twenty. Tax followed the comprehensive income tax.

"So the gap is double, at the very least..."

I wasn't a criminal. I was an ordinary, clean citizen of the Republic of Korea, with nothing to feel guilty about. Rather than bleed myself on black-market fees, wouldn't registering properly as an Awakener with the Bureau be the better deal a hundred times over — a thousand?

"Right. No need to sit in the shadows chewing my nails. I'm going to the Bureau. Right now."

I had just made up my mind.

"W-wait, please!"

A frantic shout came from behind me. A man and a woman.

"Might you be thinking of making an exchange?"

The man asked.

"Yes, I was, but... I was just going to register with the Bureau."

"You were?! Why would you register?"

"The fee is far too expensive. And private deals are illegal to begin with..."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"...Pardon?"

"Do you have any idea how much of a headache registration is?"

"I hear most people just register and get on with their lives."

"If you can avoid it, not doing it is the answer! Don't worry about the fee. You've come to exactly the right people."

"I wasn't looking for anyone."

"Ah— uh— n-no, we're the ones who found the right person!"

The woman beside him jabbed an elbow into his ribs. Calm down, her mouth shaped, without a sound. They did look a little unpolished.

"F-for now, let's at least step into a cafe and talk!"

"...A cafe?"

Was there really a cafe in a place like this?

Astonishingly, there was. An enormous one, planted right on the main thoroughfare. Its name: the Floor 10 Niche Teahouse. The sign had a pleasantly old-fashioned charm.

"That 3.0..."

"Three kilograms of mana stones. Oh, please don't worry. We'll pay."

Three hundred thirty thousand won for a single iced coffee? This neighborhood was insane. And yet more Awakeners than I had expected were sitting in the cafe, drinking coffee.

Why on earth? Couldn't they just leave the Tower and drink outside?

I had the answer the moment I took a sip.

"Aha."

In here, everything you ate or drank was a product of the Tower. Anything above a certain grade came with a buff attached. Drink buffs could even stack up to three times, which brought the increase to nine percent. Nine kilograms of mana stones, and you could raise your Spirit by nine percent. An Awakener climbing the upper floors would have no reason to refuse.

"Food is the most cost-effective buff in the Tower. The ceiling on it is rather low to match, though."

So that was how it worked.

"Anyway — you'd like to exchange 7.5 tons of mana stones?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. We'll take a fifteen percent commission, launder the rest cleanly, and deposit it straight into your account."

"...What?"

Fifteen percent, laundering included? That was identical to simply registering with the Bureau.

"No — how is it fifteen percent?"

"We have our own methods."

"You'll really launder it as well?"

"Yes."

"And the National Tax Service?"

"We'll settle the taxes as cheaply as we can, and deposit what's left."

"How?"

"We have a special channel."

"Then... could you draw up a source-of-funds statement, too?"

"Of course."

No, but — how? It was far too sweet. A scam seemed the likelier bet by far.

"I understand it's hard to believe. Why don't you try us once with a small amount first? We're confident. It will be the finest experience any outfit could give you — one you won't find anywhere else."

A small amount... The deposit I needed for an apartment application came to about three hundred million won.

"Then would four tons be all right?"

"Of course."

An offer this sweet... They weren't planning to swallow ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the mana stones and bolt, were they?

"Once the paperwork and the rest of it is handled... hmm. Twelve hours, at the longest."

There it was. Exactly the sort of line that makes it easy to disappear. They really were con artists. I was just settling on that conclusion when the woman, silent until now, spoke.

"You're wondering what happens if we run off without depositing the money, aren't you?"

"Yes, well."

"What if we offered collateral of our own?"

"...What?"

Collateral, from their side?

"What kind of collateral?"

The woman quietly held out a dagger.

"I don't know whether you're familiar with the going rate, but it's worth at least twice that."

I was. This thing was worth over eight hundred million won.

"You're... giving me this as collateral?"

"Yes. If we fail to make the deposit, it's yours to keep."

"And if I simply don't come back?"

"We're offering it because we trust that won't happen."

Well. They were promising a fifteen percent fee with the laundering thrown in. It was far too good a deal to throw away just to pocket a single dagger worth a mere eight hundred million. The problem was that the terms were so good I couldn't quite bring myself to believe them. Were they planning to let the deal grow as large as it could, and then grab everything and vanish? For now, I couldn't think of any other explanation.

"This is who we are."

The man and the woman each held out something like a business card. They were Awakener licenses, carrying their information.

"Huh?"

I'd heard of both of them.

The latter, especially, was one of the highest-ranked climbers of Busan Tower. Unlike Kim Minsung, she almost never did outside work like broadcasts, so I hadn't even known her face.

"As you may know, these can't be forged or altered. We are absolutely not suspicious people. We simply run a modest little business. If a problem comes up, you're welcome to report us with those."

Willing to hand over their Awakener licenses without a second thought... Now there truly was no reason to refuse. And just as they'd said, the honest truth was that if I could get away with not registering with the Bureau, I would much rather not.

"All right. I'll trust you this once, and we'll see."

I held out my hand, and both of them smiled, warm and easy. It was the kind of smile that set a mind at ease.