Chapter 3
Chapter 3
For a moment, tempted by the thought, I picked up my phone and entered the Awakened community, but soon folded the idea.
It’s not that I won't sell, but shouldn't I at least test what the effect is like before selling?
Of course, there is the content of the book, and since the system even specified it as a Healing Potion, I had no shred of doubt.
Therefore, I took out the blood lancet I bought for pricking fingers when having indigestion.
Prick.
“Ugh, I hate this no matter when I do it.”
Still, since I am experimenting, it would be better to do it multiple times rather than once.
Like that, red blood drops fell drip, drip from all five fingers.
With a trembling heart, I poured the potion I made slightly.
Of course, waste is absolutely forbidden, so using a dropper to drop it one drop at a time.
And the result was surprising.
“Jackpot..., it’s beyond imagination...?”
I only dropped one drop on the thumb, but all five fingers healed.
“Hehehe...”
I can already see the future of sitting on a cushion of money.
Common sensically, if the value is this high, there is no reason not to sit on a cushion of money.
No, I’d be an idiot if I didn't sit on it!
...And a while later, I realized that I was indeed an idiot.
Thinking market research is essential, I wrote one post on the community.
Of course, I didn't intend to sell it for real.
I guarantee it is top-grade, incomparable to existing potions. Of course no side effects. No pain felt either (Based on experience). Offer price. However, minimum 500k+ (50).
Seller: D
But that post was eating all kinds of insults.
└ Ridiculous. Going so far as to pull a scam like this.
└ We are already of the stance that Awakened should stick together because of potions right now, do you want to play a prank like this? It’s embarrassing as a fellow Awakened, really.
└ If it is top-grade like you said, do you think it makes sense to start at barely 500k? It’s just straight-up lying from the price offer alone.
Etc. An immense number of malicious comments were posted.
Before I knew it, my post went up to 'Today’s Best' and was receiving hot attention.
“As expected, this is the reaction.”
Of course, it’s not that I didn't expect this reaction.
I wouldn't have believed it either.
Plus one more thing.
Would I be crazy to sell this good thing for 500k?
It is an item I must receive at least 5 million for. No, 5 million is insufficient; I must get 50 million.
However, thanks to that, it is also true that it became an opportunity to definitely feel the demand for high-quality potions.
Since it was a post posted aiming for this in the first place, I achieved the intended purpose.
But why am I an idiot?
That reason was due to one certain comment.
“...Uh?”
A tackle I couldn't even imagine.
However, the nickname that wrote that comment was wearing a badge indicating they were an employee of the Awakened Management Bureau, not a general community user.
“10 years in prison...?”
Only then did I realize the part I missed.
The fact that for things commonly called medicines, licenses recognized by the state along with documents proving passing various inspections are essential for manufacturing, selling, or distribution.
And I.
Naturally, there is no way I have them.
Let alone potions.
Meaning, targeting medicines used by Awakened, a law called the [Special Medicine Law] was newly created, and potions also fall under this.
It is even these days where the danger regarding potions is intensifying day by day.
Maybe if it was in the past, but these days when cases of abusing potions happen frequently, the trend is that the Awakened Management Bureau also reacts sensitively to the relevant issue.
I hurriedly deleted the post and searched the internet for relevant laws or essential licenses, inspections, etc.
The conclusion I reached like that.
“...Shit, did I make this only to not be able to use it at all?”
I made a jackpot item with great effort, but I can't use it because I'm blocked by the law. That is natural, but at this moment, it approached me as a huge wall.
A feeling as if the cushion of money I piled up in my head was collapsing with a crash.
“For manufacturing, manufacturing is possible only in facilities that have passed GPMP (Good Potion Manufacturing Practice)...”
Not only that, mandatory requirements for special facility equipment to maintain the stability of ingredients, mana shielding rooms, or Magic Stone concentration stabilization devices, etc.
On top of that, a person possessing a ‘Special Medicine Dispensing Manager’ license had to exist as the person in charge.
“I have to graduate from a pharmacy college...?”
If it was just that, it would be fortunate.
It can be obtained only by passing the special exam organized by the Hunter Management Bureau, famous for its atrocious difficulty.
Adding to that, especially in the case of potions, sales were possible only after passing strict clinical trials spanning 3 stages...
“...What do I do about this.”
It wasn't something to be excited about just because I made a potion.
For a long time.
I worried for a really long time.
I calculated all the various number of cases.
From studying to death starting now to get accepted into pharmacy college and getting a pharmacist license, to passing all processes and selling the potion.
Even if I run the happiness circuit to the max, it takes 10 years.
Time is not the problem.
If I invest 10 years and succeed, I will gladly invest.
However, funds.
I cannot handle the astronomical funds going into all those processes.
Of course, support from my parents is also impossible.
My two parents are already having hard days as the family fortune tilted due to Father’s business stumbling.
I have no desire to beg, nor the intention to do so.
Therefore, the orthodox method is impossible.
Then only one method remains.
The one with a possibility is that after all.
Climbing the Tower and becoming a Ranker.
If I become an Awakened managed by the state, I can receive astronomical money as well as conveniences in various aspects.
Above all, trust in my words will increase.
If only that happens, the possibility that the potion I make will establish itself as a national project is also sufficient.
The problem is how I will climb the Tower.
It is not even just a Hunter, but a Ranker.
The best elites pushed by the country called the Republic of Korea.
Realistically, this method is difficult all the same.
While continuing to worry like that, an amazing idea flashed through my head.
Recently, Hunter Lee Se-hwa failed the climb, right?
On top of that, it is said she even experienced shock due to existing potions.
In such a situation, what if I make her use the potion I made with no side effects somehow?
She will come to look only for my potion.
And if Lee Se-hwa, who is evaluated as carrying the future of the Republic of Korea, guarantees my potion.
There is hope.
The only problem is the point of how to make Lee Se-hwa use my potion.
No matter how I think about it, this method has to depend on luck.
However, isn't the fact that a method exists something?
“Let’s just try doing it first.”
Further worrying is meaningless.
Because I believe luck can be grown by a person’s effort.
Therefore, the effort I can do is maximizing the probability that luck will visit.
Somehow make high-quality potions.
Minimum 3.
Lee Se-hwa probably uses the community too.
Then she would have seen my post that went up to Today’s Best.
Even if she laughed and passed it by, it surely remains in her memory.
Therefore, what I am doing now wasn't a very hopeless effort.
One week passed.
During that time, excluding my part-time job and feeding the kids, I poured all my time into potion manufacturing.
So, right now.
Sararak.
I flowed the last Dawn’s Essence into the purified water mixed with Magic Stone.
“...All done.”
Before me, 7 glass bottles containing a brilliant liquid taking on a color somewhere between scarlet and gold existed.
Now the remaining work is packaging the potions securely.
Just in time, the news flowed out.
Second conquest failure.
The implication of this is by no means small.
If a new floor is not conquered within a certain period, the Tower collapses.
It’s not simply the Tower collapsing and ending, but a true catastrophe where the surrounding terrain disappears together.
Even cases where monsters inside the Tower come out in that process exist.
There were already a few countries pushed to the brink of ruin by crossing that line.
Representatively, Australia.
Australia was that representative case.
Now they realized the danger and went all-in on Tower climbing.
They are barely maintaining their existence somehow.
If things went wrong, an apocalypse seen only in novels might have unfolded.
Anyway, the only person staying at the highest floor in the Republic of Korea currently is Lee Se-hwa.
The fact that she failed the conquest twice is no different from content implying that the ruin of the Republic of Korea has approached one step closer.
Naturally, all media including the community were in an uproar.
“...If it’s like this, I seem too mean.”
However, ironically, this situation was no different from an opportunity given by God to me.
Imagine if she succeeds in the conquest using my potion.
“Then the game is over.”
From then on, my value will skyrocket through the roof, and furthermore, a free pass even to potion manufacturing.
Even if they have to amend the bill for me, they will beg me to please make just one potion.
The happiness circuit ends here.
Now only the finishing stage remains.
They say a good-looking rice cake is also good to eat.
Preparing for times like this, I even custom-ordered a wax seal where my nickname D is written stylishly from a workshop.
After transferring it to pretty glass vials, I stamped the seal and transferred them to a fancy wooden box.
Of course, the wooden box is also custom-made.
You are going to rely on luck anyway, right?
If I decorate it really plausibly so the thought ‘Shall I try using it just this once?’ occurs, it is a success.
I put 3 Healing Potions into the box decorated well like that.
Of course, there is a reason for not putting them all in.
“Push and pull is important in things like this.”
Since I am sending it under the assumption that she uses my potion, the thought was to firmly establish who is the alpha and omega from the start.
“Wow, it really looks plausible?”
A black wooden box that looks luxurious just by looking at it.
The character D was engraved stylishly in gold.
Giving off a premium feel fully, a good premonition started to arise for some reason.
Lastly, after enclosing even a card with a brief message to deliver to Lee Se-hwa, shipping.
The destination is the Management Bureau office.
Since elites like Lee Se-hwa whom the Republic of Korea pays attention to have heaps of items sent by fans, I planned to send it mixed in there.
After completing the shipping like that and returning home, I packed the potions I left behind without sending.
Then, after entering the room where my babies were sleeping soundly, I approached the red flower bud.
The fellow shaking its petals and leaves violently as if it just feels good knowing nothing.
The appreciation that it is cute was brief.
This time, I entered with a definite purpose.
The book obtained by chance.
In the explanation about the Angler Flower written there, there was massive information I got to know newly during the potion manufacturing period.
One of the few combat plants native to the Tower. In fact, its ecology or behavioral principles are closer to an animal than a plant. Yet, a heterogeneous plant that also possesses traits a plant has. Anyway, the reason the name combat plant is attached is that it is literally a creature that engages in combat and hunts directly.
...(Omitted)...
Therefore, the Angler Flower cannot be grown into an adult form by normal cultivation methods, and is a plant that grows on its own only by eating demonic beasts inhabiting the Tower.
Recalling that content, I opened my mouth slowly toward the Angler Flower.
“Spiky, want to go into the Tower with me?”
I have no intention of leaving my fate only to luck.
I must become a Ranker.
(End of Chapter)
— Translated by Prime Works —