The Elixir (1)

When I got back, my territory had grown to nearly twice its former size.

Seeing it suddenly swell to such proportions genuinely startled me. I even wondered for a moment whether I'd been summoned to the wrong place, but one glance at the factories scattered across the grounds told me otherwise.

"So what do I do with the factories now... and the barrier?"

"Ah, don't worry about the barrier, Master! We can move it, you know~"

With that, the combat engineers stationed out where the land stretched into the distance began building something on the spot, piece by piece. Before long, something that looked remarkably like a doorstep stood rooted there.

"Heavy Weapons Units. Move the barrier for me."

The engineers did something at the base of the original barrier, and it detached cleanly from the ground. Then they hoisted the whole thing up and began carrying it over to the expanded territory.

"Well, that's just absurd."

And so the barrier, which had once been three layers thick, was adjusted down to exactly two. It wasn't as though the inner fortress wasn't already built like a vault, and with the ground so vast now, it would take monsters considerably longer just to reach the defense crystal.

"Let's build factories. I could put up a ridiculous ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠number of them."

A single factory earns me hundreds of millions. My parents can't exactly travel these days, but they're doing everything they ever wanted to do. My little brother seems to be texting some girl lately too — eh, he'll figure it out.

"Anyway, might as well check my traits."

This latest round of clearing waves 33 through 39 had netted me three new traits, plus three enhancement tickets and one question ticket. I still hadn't decided what to spend the question ticket on.

Most of South Korea's citizens had achieved a perfect clear up to wave 10 by now, so the government kept posting its own list of questions on the community. In a situation like that, there was no reason for me to ask the questions the government wanted asked. Most of what they were after — how to get stronger, why this whole mess had happened in the first place — was useless to me.

What's more, a question ticket can even reveal how many magic stones China is holding in reserve. Down to exactly how many returnees have come back from there. Since it tells you everything related to this whole affair, there simply wasn't a question that would benefit me personally.

"I'll have to keep thinking about what to ask."

Lost in that thought, I noticed I already had five enhancement tickets piled up.

"So what I've got left is five trait enhancement tickets and one trait evolution ticket."

That alone gives you a sense of how comfortable my position has become. Ju Hwan, posting under the alias "Pyromaniac," had already announced on the community that he'd enhanced his Agility stat five times over. The result, apparently, was a speed of one hundred meters in two seconds. An ordinary person probably wouldn't even register him as a blur.

On top of that, unlike me, he runs on magic rather than points, and he'd said that putting points into [Magic Enhancement] boosts the base power of his skills, so that's where he's been pouring his enhancements lately.

For reference, since I'm running solo, I share intel on what monsters spawn in my solo sessions. Ju Hwan and Kim Min-gyeol share what shows up in their two-man parties in return.

"Now that I think about it, the special forces captains said they'd be due to return tomorrow. I should be heading back soon myself."

With that in mind, my plan for now was to farm coins by running wave 39 on infinite repeat. First things first, though — I should write about the raid, which was the hottest topic on the community.

"That should about do it."

I'd written it as detailed as I could. None of them were at a level where they could reach a raid yet, but eventually, the whole world would be participating in these things together. How was any single country supposed to hold that off?

A raid demanded that you genuinely put your life on the line. This post alone should be warning enough.

With that thought, I hit upload and started catching up on everything that had happened while I was gone.

"...Huh?"

The community hosts two servers in total. I have access to the [South Korea] and [World] servers, and what I was scrolling through was the World server. And there, one post was enjoying overwhelming popularity.

He kept posting for a while after that, and his final message read: [I just can't take it anymore... Thank you all for the encouragement, but this is where I end.] Then he vanished from the community for good.

"I can't even pin this one on China, can I..."

The country had been rotting from within all along. He'd known it, and this whole catastrophe had struck at the exact moment he was about to emigrate with his family.

After that, the World server turned out to be richer with information than I'd expected. Most striking of all: anti-communist factions within China were visibly conspiring with one another.

Someone would leave a comment cursing the Chinese regime, and an invitation to a private chat room would follow. Once the person accepted the invite, their comment would be deleted. And every single one of those usernames was a barcode string — impossible to trace.

China, at present, is grinding its young people through the defense trials, planning to use their gains to make the nation strong. To be precise, the leaders pulling the strings intend to.

"I see. The moment a blade touched their own throats, they finally woke up. So even decades of brainwashing mean nothing in the face of death, hmm?"

Even the North Korean returnees declared they had no intention of going back — returning there would mean nothing but death. And people who appeared to be South Korean government agents were reaching out to them, opening one-on-one conversations.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠world is changing at breakneck speed. And through all of it, South Korea is growing — with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me at the very center of it.

"I can't let myself get swept along. No — I need to become the one holding all the cards. So first..."

Clatter.

"Time to put these to use."

The elixir Pitasha had produced after a full week of research. It won't raise anyone to stratospheric heights, but a human can drink up to ten of them. To be precise, ten is the maximum efficiency — beyond that, drinking more is pointless. So it's a limited elixir, capped at exactly ten doses per person. We'll develop a higher grade eventually, but for now, this is more than enough.

"Let's price the elixir at thirty million won apiece. That makes it three hundred million per person."

The returnees might complain it's too expensive, but they're already plenty strong. Which is exactly why I need to give them a reason to want to earn money, don't I?

The moment they return, I'll have them hunting goblins and contributing to society. Forcibly, mind you.

Anyone selling potions and the like will soon be extinct. This is no world where you survive on that kind of business — unless you happen to have combat power like mine, in which case, sure, different story.

It's only natural to hate doing at home what ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you do all day at work. Same reason a chef can't be bothered to cook for himself. That's why, once they return, the returnees supposedly won't hunt goblins at all.

"And the next step is tracking exactly how many goblins and orcs they've killed — that's what we'll use to determine how many elixirs they can buy."

Thanks to the genius that is Pitasha, higher grades of the elixir are already in development. Three tiers in total, to be precise. And just like the first, each tier stays effective for up to ten doses.

"Let's throw everything into elixir production for now. As for artifacts, the domestic market is already saturated. What trickles down to civilians will be, what, ten percent or so?"

Another three percent gets sold abroad at extortionate prices. The remaining eighty-seven percent goes to the military.

I don't know how powerful soldiers armed with mountains of artifacts would actually be, but there's certainly a use for them — and of course the army will buy.

The elixirs, though, I have no intention of selling to the government. I have no plans to let them dictate terms to me.

"First order of business when I get back: build the guild headquarters properly."

The time had finally come.

Time to choose my commanders!