The Factory

Stepping outside to begin Stage 12, I found the battlefield completely transformed from what it had been before.

To be fair, I had divided the zones up in a basic way to begin with. Gates didn't appear in fixed locations, so the outermost perimeter was held by combat units and scouts, with transport units staged behind them. Gatherers were scattered all over, and combat engineers and maintenance units were positioned around the fortress at the center.

That structure was still in place, but now everything had been rearranged for efficiency.

"What's all this?"

"It's a transfer array, Master! You can get over to that spot instantly now. Oh, and I installed turrets too, but I could only put up four total, one for each cardinal direction. We're a little short on materials, so..."

"It's fine! It's totally fine. Don't sulk."

"You're so kind, Master!"

Squeeze.

"Wh-what are you doing?!"

"...You don't like it?"

"Let's—let's just get to work."

I hastily extracted myself, and we crossed the massive triple-layered fortress walls she'd built using the transfer array.

"This is honestly incredible..."

It was the structure she'd suspended in the sky between the first and second walls. Since we didn't yet have enough materials to use Technology properly, it was a temporary platform, but apparently I could circle around on it and command from there. It flew by anchoring the Technology to the tops of the first and second walls, or something like that?

Granted, it could only move within the space between those two walls, but that was still a huge area I could now traverse freely.

"I'd love to ride a mecha someday too."

"That's possible!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Although it costs a whooole lot of coins... haha... and you'd need to clear a few more waves first."

That much couldn't be helped. Time would take care of it in the end.

For reference, the Goblin Chieftain had dropped a whole 5 coins. The Great Warrior gave 3, and the Shaman 4. Though I had no idea why regular warriors and archers only gave 1. Maybe warriors and archers were worth 1, while regular goblins were actually worth less than 1 and were just rounded up to 1.

"We're moving Stage 12 up."

At my words, Stage 12 kicked off immediately. When it began, two Goblin Shamans appeared—two of them. Warriors and archers came out in force, along with several Great Warriors. On top of that, more than a hundred regular goblins poured out as multiple gates began opening, and eventually we even had to commit the Raptors.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Naturally, the chieftain and shamans were blown apart first, and the whole fight was over in barely ten minutes.

And so, battling through the steadily swelling goblin hordes, we finally cleared up to Stage 15 of the wave. The rewards for clearing Stages 11 through 15 were two Random Trait Acquisition Tickets and two Trait Enhancement Tickets each. Traits seemed to be the easiest things to pull. The other reward was a whole pile of coins—opening the Coin Pile yielded a full 10,000 coins.

"Even so, the coins I've accumulated through grinding come to roughly 30,000... so for everyone else, getting 10,000 would mean clearing at least Stage 30 or repeating the same stages over and over, huh."

Viewed that way, 10,000 coins was an enormous amount.

"I'm the only one who can buy things, so I'll get what my units need now."

"Yay!"

After repairing the fortress walls for a bit, we started the Stage 16 wave. The moment a wave ended, I'd run straight over to the crystal ball to report in. Oh, and I'd told them that waves could be moved up and cleared early, too. Since there didn't seem to be any particular reason to hide it, I just told them straight that I was about to clear Stage 16.

That was the post sitting at the very top of the board.

It wasn't from Pyromaniac or 777—just the bitter lament of some completely ordinary person summoned to this place. The post was exploding in popularity, and I felt nothing in particular reading it.

What could I possibly do about it? This was reality.

I wasn't thinking that everyone should just resign themselves and get along, nor was I feeling superior. What else was I supposed to do? I only thought that when I returned, I hoped that person would return too—so I could at least build them a mechanical hand.

"Beginning Stage 16."

GUOOOOOOO—

At my words, the gates began to open.

"What is this? Something's different from before."

The goblins emerging from the gates were terrified. As I watched, wondering what was going on, the Goblin Shaman appeared—but no chieftain. Instead...

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

"There it is. An orc."

The orc came walking out slowly, dragging a massive club. It was enormous—roughly two meters tall. In games, orcs were called lumps-of-fat pigs, but this one was unmistakably a muscle-bound, roided-out crazy gym-rat pig. One look was enough to make you think it could be a boxing champion on the spot, without a single day of training.

Five orcs, each looking powerful enough that comparing them to a Goblin Great Warrior wasn't even a contest. Terrified of those orcs, the goblins began throwing themselves forward, screaming like mad.

I'd sensed something off and briefly held fire.

"Open up."

I sent the signal to my snipers, and they answered not with words but with muzzle flash.

CRACK!

"...Yeah, orcs really are different."

Their bodies didn't burst apart. Well—their heads did. When a regular goblin's head popped, the rest of the body didn't fare much better, but the orc's body stayed perfectly intact.

"Actually, this is better. More room to spread out. And why are there so many goblins?"

The number of goblin warriors and Great Warriors was small, but the regular goblins were incredibly numerous. Stages like this would definitely be easy for Ju Hwan—the guy with the Pyromaniac handle. He could just blast explosions from his palms and wipe them all out at once.

"...That's the end of it."

Once the orcs were dealt with, disposing of the goblins—who were frozen in total panic, not knowing what to do—was easy.

I posted a quick notice letting everyone know that orcs showed up starting at Stage 16. Then came this round's reward: another Random Trait Acquisition Ticket. I used it on the spot.

That brought me to three traits total, plus two Enhancement Tickets.

"Let's check the traits, then..."

"So this time I got Fire Resistance, Natural Healing... and Spear Mastery."

"Hmm. Same rude, terse descriptions as always. So does this mean I should go the spear-and-javelin route?"

According to Hwang Jinhyeok, traits were tied to innate talent. The bonuses were one thing, but a trait's true value lay in causing latent talent to bloom. So even if a trait seemed mediocre, if you'd had the underlying talent all along, it would make you tremendously stronger. And the proof of that would be all the people who'd survived this long without a unique trait at all.

"Okay, checked those. Now let's start Stage 18."

The gates opened, and this time even more goblins poured out—along with ten orcs to match. Twice as many orcs as before.

Trusting that the units would handle it on their own, I headed inside the fortress, where construction was in full swing. Watching my machine legion at work, I opened the Coin Shop. Inside, there were firearms, grenades, all kinds of melee weapons, even artifacts—stocked to the brim.

Why was I browsing this place so seriously?

Because of crafting—the specialty and signature ability of Pitasha, whom I'd appointed as commander of the combat engineers and maintenance units. The idea was to distribute goods to the units and stamp out equipment like a factory.

"For ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠now we'll sell on credit, and once the situation stabilizes a bit... then we switch to payment up front. If anyone dies here, don't bother billing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them. Or we could just sell the whole operation to the government later."

How should I put this? If you had, say, a hundred trillion won, you could afford to donate at least a trillion, right? It was like that. When money piles up that high, the thought of giving some away comes to you naturally. I'd honestly considered sponsoring people if my coins suddenly multiplied a few hundred times over.

"So when I get back to the modern world, maybe I'll do some charity work... Even just the mana stones would be worth a fortune, and stuff like this too... hmm."

Obviously my family's safety came first, but even so, I didn't think living for myself alone sat right. People might point fingers and call me an idiot, but this wasn't playing the saint—I just wanted peace of mind.

"This setup should work."

The basics went in first, obviously. Then I added things I'd personally tested and found reliable. For now, I packaged it all up as a starter bundle.

"We've got plenty of combat units right now, so... just in case, I'll summon mid-tier units at a ratio of 2 combat, 1 scout, 1 gatherer, 3 combat engineers, 3 maintenance."

And with that, countless machine units materialized before my eyes. Under Pitasha's command, they immediately began moving with flawless precision.

"The smell of corpses is overwhelming, so deal with that first. Then start up the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠factory. Run it for about a week and pump out as many units as you can."

"Yes, Master!"

Sorry about this, but since production wasn't properly set up yet, I was asking a lot of her. Still, since Pitasha had acquired a taste for the good stuff, I kept buying everything she wanted. Apparently her palate was close to a modern human's, because she absolutely loved volcanic stir-fried noodles. Tteokbokki too, of course.

"Phew... beginning Stage 19."

Let's clear up to Stage 20 first, then figure out the rest from there.