The First Settlement and the New Market

The morning after my first settlement. I woke up with a clear head and a fully recovered body. Considering how I’d passed out, I must have been quite exhausted, but since my Stamina stat had increased, my recovery rate must have improved as well. I checked the time: 8:00 AM. My family would have already left for their respective workplaces and schools.

I opened the Gallery out of habit. "I think I'm addicted." I hadn't been a climber for long, but there were all sorts of posts, and the bidding for my item was about to end. Is this what they call community addiction?

The Gallery was burning up for a different reason than yesterday. I read a few posts that stood out.

"Isn't that obvious?"

Since their lives are on the line, the public expresses total respect for those who earn points in the brutal mid-floors and above, calling them patriots. For those who risk their lives to climb, all they can be given is honor and money. Because mid-floor climbers and above always have death by their side. Low-floor climbers are probably just protesting this bill because of their own pockets.

Unexpectedly, the backlash was small. Production jobs aren't affected by this bill, and South Korea has the highest proportion of mid-floor climbers and above in the world, so the country is likely telling climbers to go climb the Tower. If you don't like it, you can just pay more taxes. It's actually a humane measure. Low-floor climbers aren't superhumans who have transcended humanity; if this were a developing country, China, or Russia, they would be locked in prisons or homes, and if they didn't submit a certain amount of points, they would be tortured or even executed. They said if you go to the Tower and earn points, the tax benefits remain the same, right? How lenient is that?

It seems the Mage class is highly dependent on equipment, as they have high firepower and consume a lot of mana. Come to think of it, mage-related equipment is much more expensive, so maybe I should try crafting Artifacts once I get used to blacksmithing. 'Ah, alchemy is also tempting, I'm conflicted.'

"Well, I understand both sides."

The reason South Korea is safe enough to even farm is thanks to the climbers on the mid-floors and above. Since I'm a producer, as long as I meet the conditions—like selling a certain quantity of items domestically every period or applying different rules based on skills—I get the same benefits as mid-floor climbers, so this bill doesn't really concern me. My registered skill is Repair, so I'll just have to repair a few pieces of equipment that come in, and unless I'm cashing out points, I don't need to register a production skill. If I need to exchange a lot of points later, I can just register a production skill then, or sell items from Tower climbing to cash out.

Anyway, the 24 hours were almost up, so it was time for the highest bid to be set. 'I should check the sales window.' When I clicked on the sales post, my post was flickering, signaling it was complete.

I guess I can reject the bid if I don't like the amount. Collusion would be absolutely impossible. I can just not sell it.

-8900

-8970

.

.

.

-22480

"How much is this..."

1 point is around $100, and $1 is around 1,100 won... I earned a massive amount of points at once. Well, I'm not exactly desperate for money, and I don't intend to exchange it, but shall I go shopping now?

I clicked on the sales post immediately and clicked on Ores in the production materials category, and countless posts appeared.

"This is why the production side earns points well."

Buying ore for a very cheap point price compared to the massive quantity and just refining it into steel is a 400x return. If I make items with that, points just multiply. Of course, under the premise of making normal-grade items. I placed a purchase request for 3 tons at the cheap price of 2 points per 3 tons for iron ore mined in the Tower, which makes up the majority, and the instant purchase was completed. Since it's divided into instant sale and bid sale, I guess instant sale is the default because material prices don't fluctuate much. I can keep them in the storage box until the 20 slots are full and take them out little by little. I don't know if it's because I don't have an inventory, but this is god-tier.

And I clicked on the boards selling special minerals.

Hmm, I have plenty of points, so if it's a small amount, maybe I'll try mixing it into steel. I purchased the Mithril, and it immediately went into my storage box. Let's see, is the next one Beryllium? Doesn't this emit radiation?

Let's buy all the Beryllium too. I want to try handling it right away. After completing the purchase, I entered the Dimension Workshop immediately. Wait for me, materials.