The Patron of Evil
Gulp, gulp.
"Pwah..."
Finally, I drained the last supply elixir. I'd packed everything away neatly, and to borrow Rune's words, my current realm was now Aura User.
The standard realms came in three tiers: Aura User, Expert, and Sword Master — three broad classifications, each subdivided into lowest, low, mid, high, and peak grades.
My realm was Aura User, low grade.
"Everything's packed now, right?"
"Yes!"
The crops and artifacts and elixirs I'd been cultivating all this while. On top of that, armor newly crafted from the carapaces of the spider monsters I'd bred this time around.
Only five suits of armor made from the Spider Queen's carapace. Tens of thousands of armor pieces from the hunting spiders' carapaces. And millions from the ordinary spiders'.
I planned to sell the Spider Queen's armor first to the three-man special privileges unit. The remaining two would make fine negotiation cards.
My own armor was a nanomolecular suit — the kind you'd see on a hero flying around in a skintight suit abroad — so comparing it to these carapace armors wasn't even a contest, and I had no intention of wearing them myself. Naturally, no intention of selling mine, either.
"Then let's head back."
Whoosh.
This time, my return point was the rooftop of a building in the heart of downtown Seoul.
"Pitasha, let's take the drones."
"Yes, Master!"
I'd returned in a mere twenty days. An incredibly short interval — but the time I'd be staying here had shrunk too. Since I could come back whenever I wanted now, it hardly mattered.
With that thought, I rode the drone down into Seoul and headed for the building the government had recently purchased with tax revenue from mana stone and artifact exports, intending to meet Director Lee Jin-seok.
Its name: the Returnee Association.
There had been several name candidates, but the public wanted this one, so Choi Seok-hoon simply went with it.
The interim head of the association was Director Lee Jin-seok. As I approached to meet him, the guards recognized me on sight and bowed their heads in greeting.
"Welcome back, sir. Safe return. Are you here to see Director Lee Jin-seok?"
"That's right."
"Then please announce yourself at the front desk and take the elevator up. He's on the top floor."
"Thank you."
They must have drilled themselves hard this time — from the guards at the main entrance on down, you could feel the polish of a properly trained elite.
As I made my way slowly inside, returnees who had visited the place recognized me and offered their thanks.
"The artifacts saved my life! I'm going to rake in a proper fortune this time around."
"Thank you so much. By any chance, are there any new artifacts—"
"We run a trading company. If you ever go independent from the government and start exporting, please think of us..."
Not everyone was there purely to express gratitude, but it hardly mattered. I hurried out of the crowd and made for the front desk, where the clerks immediately issued me a key — presumably under standing orders to hand one over the moment I showed up. I tapped the key against the elevator and rode up to the thirtieth floor, the top level, arriving in the blink of an eye.
Ding.
"Ohhhh! We were notified you were coming — you must have cracked a Return Stone... But how on earth did you reach Stage 50 in just twenty days?! You are truly our nation's treasure!"
I swiftly dodged Director Lee Jin-seok's attempt to throw himself into a hug. Seeing that, he grew sheepish and cleared his throat.
"The reason I'm here is the artifacts, the elixirs, and the sale of the produce. On my way in, I noticed the guild's funds have nearly run dry."
There were still a few hundred billion won left, granted — but he'd burned through several hundred billion in a mere twenty days. At that rate, the well would empty fast. For now the guild was running on my money, but it was clearly an enterprise that would soon turn profitable.
"Ahem. I see. Exporting through the government should open up around October, I expect. And direct sales on your own will also be possible."
It was September now, meaning that in about twenty days the guild could export directly. Which meant that when I returned to the Abyss this time, I'd need to build more factories, keep ramping up production numbers, and push exports out across the whole world.
"However, the elixirs are not possible. Those must be sold through the government. It's simply too dangerous. Lately there have been frequent incidents overseas of people's brains bursting after drinking elixirs."
Apparently, members of the upper class who had failed to properly gauge their own level had gulped down two at a time in their greed to get stronger, and their heads had literally exploded. Efforts were being made overseas to stop them, but whether those people would listen... who could say. These were the same folks who guzzled drugs without a thought for their own lives and shoved guns in police officers' faces. As if they'd suddenly develop ears.
In the midst of all this, South Korea and Japan had reportedly taken the situation extremely seriously and moved into proper regulatory control.
"Understood. But what I brought in bulk this time isn't the lowest grade. It's a supply-grade elixir, weaker than the lowest tier."
"Ah... that's good to hear. Then let's call up a few of the people downstairs and run a test."
"Sounds good."
Needless to say, I brought in Rune — the closest thing to a supreme expert on the subject — plus one additional tester.
"Hello. I cleared up to Stage 30 and returned this time. My name is Yun Sia."
"Ah, hello. How many elixirs have you taken?"
"I've drunk three."
"Once this is over, I'll give you two."
"...! Thank you so much!"
And so two people were prepared for the minimal testing. As long as Rune was present, anyway, there was zero chance of anyone's head exploding.
"Are you really giving us real elixirs?"
"Yes. It's a supply-grade elixir, far weaker than the existing ones. You'll be drinking it yourselves."
The subjects were the young returnees who had recently filed their return registrations. Having only just cleared Stage 10, none of them could possibly afford a thirty-million-won elixir.
They were five men, picked from a swarm of volunteers practically falling over themselves, all swearing they'd do anything to test-drink my newly developed elixir and report their impressions.
Clatter.
"This is the new elixir. It's supply-grade, and its mana-boost rate is slightly lower than the current lowest tier — roughly a third, I'd say? Though drinking three of these still won't equal one lowest-grade elixir."
"I just drink it, right?"
A young student stepped boldly forward and drank. He was still wearing his school uniform — apparently he'd been summoned in the middle of class and had only just returned.
"Yes. Go ahead."
Gulp. Gulp.
While the others hung back nervously, the student was the first to step up and drink. Once he set the empty vial down, the others approached one by one and drank as well.
"Mmm... the taste is so-so. But my body feels hot, and I can sense my mana far more clearly. It's definitely an elixir, no question."
"I think so too. My heart's pounding a little, and my body's warm — everything feels sharper?"
"You all know how to circulate your mana, I trust?"
"Yes. If we can't, we die."
"Then everyone, give it a try."
Beside them, Rune and Yun Sia moved slowly around the group, observing how their mana flowed. When I looked over at Rune, she gave a nod that said everything was stable. Yun Sia was the same.
In the end, a single supply-grade elixir did produce results — just not the 1.6-fold average gain of the lowest grade. It came out to roughly 1.2-fold.
"Is this acceptable?"
"I'd say so. We'll continue the experiments here a bit longer and give you an exact answer in two days."
"Excellent. I'll set the price to the government at five million won per unit."
"Then we'll sell to the returnees at eight million."
This batch alone would go through the government; from the next batch onward, the guild would sell directly. Either way, the matter of the elixirs was now settled.
But one problem remained.
Belzer — the commander I had newly summoned this time. According to him, the current behavior of the Chinese government was deeply abnormal, and the movements of the Chinese people alongside it were no less troubling. Belzer was currently aboard a dedicated drone, headed to the guild master's office to gather intelligence. Naturally, I'd sent the other electronic soldiers along with him.
"Director Lee Jin-seok. What exactly is going on in China right now?"
"Ah... so I can't keep this from you, can I. You remember when the government used a Question Ticket before, don't you? The questions about Transcendents and gods."
"I remember."
"Among the answers — well, I suppose you'd call it this — there's a being that might be a Transcendent or might be an evil god, and it's currently growing popular in China."
"Why?"
"Because it grants immediate power upon contract. Instantly. You absorb the vitality of monsters and grow stronger. And a portion of that vitality flows to the patron."
Granted, you had to offer a certain minimum quota of vitality as tribute to the patron — but with the current situation allowing unlimited fighting, that was apparently no obstacle at all. And so these contracts with evil gods began spreading like a craze, and Chinese returnees started gaining power.
The problem with those returnees, however, wasn't in the Abyss. It was here, in the real world.
"They're required to offer up vitality, but they can't return to the Abyss. So they have to hunt the monsters that emerge through gates here in reality, but..."
Since they had all already contracted with the evil god and gained their power, their death rate had dropped — in a very different sense than you'd hope. Unable to find goblins and the like in the real world, they'd taken to raiding livestock barns at night to siphon vitality — a common occurrence now — and lately crimes targeting humans had been rising sharply too.
The Chinese government was keeping a iron grip on information about the situation, but the Chinese returnees who hadn't contracted with the evil god were broadcasting it to the world's servers. European nations condemned China over it, and China wasn't accepting a word of it.
"They refused the elixirs too. Said that since they can grow stronger by harvesting vitality, there's no need to lean on elixirs."
"Maybe their government actually encouraged it — to keep the nation from falling behind on account of the elixirs..."
"That's exactly it. Our own government suspects the same."
A dumpster fire. The country was heading straight off the rails.
"Then what about North Korea...?"
"North Korea is struggling. Struggling to survive."
And the fruit of that desperate struggle was this:
"North Korea has made a covert request to the South Korean government. For the establishment of an interim North Korean government."