Chapter 54
Chapter 54
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 54
Citadel central government building. Supreme leader Ella Primgard's office.
The inside of the office was a bleak landscape made of gray concrete and steel reinforcement.
Though a fireplace on one side of the room was emitting warmth, it was insufficient to hide the chilliness.
It seemed like they didn't usually use steam heating either.
Seo-jin, who was looking around the room, fell into thought.
'For a space used by a floor's representative, it's excessively bleak and chilly.'
In fact, if Ella wanted to, she could live in a warm greenhouse like the nobles anytime.
However, this frugality would be the difference between the nobles and her.
WAGCHAK-.
Meanwhile, Seo-jin watched Ha-yeon struggling to lift her mask and put cookies in, then asked.
"Aren't you going to take off that mask?"
Ha-yeon, who was chewing cookies under her mask, swallowed what was in her mouth and answered.
"Yes. I'm a bit ugly, you see. It's more comfortable to cover up and go around."
"Sorry for being handsome then."
"You don't particularly need to be sorry."
"But who are you to have connections with this floor's supreme leader?"
When Seo-jin asked, pretending not to know, Ha-yeon answered.
"I helped Ella before during a climbing quest. We formed a connection through that incident. Right?"
"Yes, yes. I received a lot of help. I was short on Fire Seeds, and coincidentally the Sain..."
WOOP-.
Just before the word Saintess came out, Ha-yeon quickly grabbed a cookie and shoved it into Ella's mouth.
KUEOK- KEK-.
"Eh, Ella-nim!"
Thanks to escort Victor quickly bringing water, no mishap occurred.
"A-are you okay? Sorry!"
"Yes, I'm fine."
Ella, shedding tears and breathing heavily, and Ha-yeon, not knowing what to do.
Seo-jin watched the two of them and chuckled.
As he remembered, when Ha-yeon was a low-level player, while doing a quest for climbing to the 11th floor, she formed a connection with a native.
The quest's content was to find 'Fire Seeds', a temporary heat source to use during the replacement of the semi-permanent engine's core.
It was a crisis that struck just when Ella had recently become a leader, but thanks to Ha-yeon's quest, they overcame the crisis and the two became friends through that incident.
"You seem close."
"Of course. We're friends."
"It looks that way."
If they weren't close, they wouldn't treat each other so casually like that.
Ella, whose awkwardness had disappeared due to the brief commotion, spoke first.
She stood up from her seat and politely bowed her head to Seo-jin.
"First, I express my gratitude for saving the citizens of the Citadel. Thanks to you, we were able to rescue the miners."
"Yeah, make sure you're grateful."
When Seo-jin extended his hand as if telling her to show sincerity, Ella slightly frowned.
"I will give you a separate reward. But right now..."
"You're curious about the basis for the claim I made earlier, right?"
"Yes. Depending on your answer, I might cooperate, or perhaps..."
Ella omitted the rest of her words, but he understood the meaning sufficiently.
Seo-jin nodded slightly and placed the small Eternal Snow Ice he had brought from the mine on the table.
SHAAA-.
Despite being only the size of a fingernail, the Eternal Snow Ice froze the part it touched and emitted cold air.
Seo-jin asked Ha-yeon.
"Do you know how Eternal Snow Ice is created?"
"I don't know exactly. Do you happen to know?"
"Yeah."
CHAREUR-.
Seo-jin, who answered briefly, injected Reverse Heaven's mana into the Eternal Snow Ice.
When Seo-jin's mana touched it, it briefly shone with black light, then soon shattered with a loud sound.
JJAENGGEULANG.
"...!"
Seeing that, Ha-yeon was convinced that Seo-jin was the person she had been looking for.
She had heard that the Supernova was a master of black magic.
"...So you were the Supernova after all."
"I thought you had figured it out already."
"I'm certain now. Please continue."
Seo-jin nodded and continued speaking.
"Eternal Snow Ice is a crystallization of cold energy. Because it emits cold air until its energy is exhausted even without mana, it's used usefully in various places. But how this resource is made has been a mystery until now."
With those words, Seo-jin closed his eyes.
'Along with the generation mechanism of Eternal Snow Ice, there was another unsolved mystery in this Primgard.'
It was about the true source of this terrible cold, and the existence of the boss monster that dominated the entire 10th floor.
Why this land was frozen, and what exactly the boss monster of this place was - no one could know.
But after long analysis, Seo-jin found the answer, and through today's mine visit, he gained conviction in that hypothesis.
"The crystal structure of this Eternal Snow Ice is similar to magic stones. It's very similar to the structure of magic stones dropped by monsters."
"Then could it be that Eternal Snow Ice is..."
"That's right, Eternal Snow Ice is a byproduct of the boss monster that brought eternal winter to Primgard. It's probably sleeping deep in the Eternal Snow Ice veins. And..."
Seo-jin continued with a cold voice.
"There's a very high possibility that Primgard's three families made a contract with the major corporation 'Hanseong' to protect that boss monster."
When Seo-jin suddenly mentioned Hanseong, Ha-yeon's eyes lit up behind her mask.
"Hanseong?"
"That's right. To understand the full picture of this incident, we need to know about the relationship between Hanseong and the three families."
While talking about their relationship, Seo-jin started with something that seemed completely unrelated.
"You know that there's no climbing test site on this 10th floor, right?"
"Everyone knows that fact."
Climbers could easily climb the tower with the help of BABEL and the Climbing Management Office only up to the 9th floor.
From the 10th floor onward, for some unknown reason, a climbing test site hadn't been built yet.
"What if the reason is because of collusion between Hanseong and the three families? For reference, Hanseong has exclusive mining rights for Eternal Snow Ice on the 10th floor."
At Seo-jin's explanation, Ha-yeon, who had been deep in thought, stroked her chin and answered.
"...If individual miners increase on the 10th floor due to test site construction, it would affect the profitability of Eternal Snow Ice, and the possibility of the boss monster's existence being discovered would also increase. Are you saying Hanseong is collaborating with the three families who are the landowners to prevent climbing test site construction?"
Even though Hanseong had exclusive mining rights, individual mining was permitted due to the 'Climber Special Law'.
It seemed Hanseong wanted to maintain profitability by preventing individual mining while simultaneously hiding the identity of the boss monster.
Seo-jin nodded as if she had answered well.
"Correct. You understand quickly."
At this, Ha-yeon tilted her head.
"But to prevent influx to the 10th floor, shouldn't they eliminate the 9th floor climbing test site? It doesn't make sense."
It was ultimately the 9th floor test site that gave climbing authorization to the 10th floor.
Would preventing the construction of a 10th floor test site be effective?
To her voicing her doubts, Seo-jin clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"When the 10th floor was opened, would Hanseong have known what resources would be there and prevented the 9th floor test site construction? Since it was already built, there's no justification to eliminate existing facilities."
Also, climbing test sites aren't simply spaces for taking tests.
They're also passages that allow climbers to freely warp to the 10th floor.
Even people who didn't just climb from the 9th to 10th floor would stay on the 10th floor and dig into mines since many climbers wouldn't need to use expensive teleportation stones.
This means the risk of the boss monster's existence, which is the source of cold energy, being revealed could increase.
There's sufficient motive to prevent 10th floor test site construction.
"Moreover, this isn't a problem limited to just the 10th floor and Eternal Snow Ice, so it shouldn't be viewed short-sightedly. It's connected to the interests of not only Primgard but all floors to be developed afterward."
If they lock the door to the 10th floor, problems would arise not only for the 11th floor but also for climbing to subsequent floors.
If that happens, corporate climbers who have advantages in equipment and financial support would climb first, allowing corporations to monopolize resources not only of Eternal Snow Ice but of all floors.
At this, Ha-yeon asked in a half-believing voice.
"But that would be blocking tower strategy, meaning that climbers climbing isn't beneficial to corporations?"
Seo-jin nodded.
"That's right. They can just use the natives' labor force anyway. To them, individual climbers are just parasites that take floor resources as they please. What they need aren't individual climbers, but strategy teams that will open new tower floors, and corporate dogs that will effectively control the native labor force."
At Seo-jin's explanation, Ha-yeon slowly shook her head.
"I don't understand. In the long term, wouldn't it be more beneficial to produce many climbers and open upper floors as quickly as possible?"
"In theory, that's correct. Just like how not fighting and living peacefully would be beneficial to everyone. So was there no war on this earth?"
"That's..."
To her who couldn't answer easily, Seo-jin said calmly.
"In the end, neither Hanseong nor Primgard's three families want this winter to end. Perhaps even some figures in the association connected to politics and business circles might be thinking the same thing."
"Ugh..."
Ha-yeon closed her mouth as if shocked.
Though she already knew a lot about the darkness of corporations and the association, she couldn't have imagined it had become corrupt to this extent.
It was a moment when she understood Han Seo-hee, who always stayed up all night with heavy work and constantly cursed politicians.
Ella, who had been listening to the conversation from the side, said with a trembling voice.
"No, no matter what, that doesn't make sense. Whether it's interests or whatever, it only has meaning if you're alive. At this rate, everything will be destroyed due to engine overload, so what would the three families gain by risking their lives?"
Whatever thoughts the foreigners' corporation had, that was a secondary problem for Ella.
What was important to her was the reason why Primgard's three families were cooperating with them.
To that question too, Seo-jin answered without hesitation.
"You probably already know. That core and semi-permanent engine related quests haven't been appearing recently. Do you think those quests really haven't been discovered? Have you never thought that the three families might be controlling that information?"
"...!"
Ella recalled the conversation she had with Ha-yeon before going to the mine earlier.
Seo-jin continued.
"They already have sufficient preparation to spend winter in their own greenhouses. They probably have plenty of cores to repair engines and Fire Seeds hidden away. In places the supreme leader doesn't know about."
Following Ha-yeon, even Ella was left speechless.
It was because she was greatly shocked by the disgustingly cold reality.
Perhaps she was disgusted by the ugly desire that pursues profit at the cost of humanity's destruction.
That aspect was no different inside or outside the tower.
The corporations that are delaying tower strategy for momentary profit, and the three families who don't think about the safety of engines and workers to solidify their power, are ultimately the same.
This incident might be a great shock to the two, but from Seo-jin's standpoint, it was familiar.
'I've seen many of those bastards.'
There were also bastards who wanted to freely use the power accumulated in the tower outside as well.
They were bastards who argued to stop tower strategy and induce mana disasters in reality to increase the mana concentration outside.
Though he found out later, Ju Won-jae was also one of them.
However, rather than simply wanting to use power outside, he was more on the side of believing he should sweep away all the dirty trash with mana disasters and lead them anew.
He was more extreme and self-righteous than those mentioned before.
"..."
While Seo-jin was lost in thought, the atmosphere became even more gloomy.
The black intentions of corporations involved in tower interests, the machinations of the three families who don't care about citizens' lives.
It was because they couldn't figure out how to solve this.
Then Seo-jin opened his lips.
"That doesn't mean there's no solution."
"...You can solve this?"
Even from Ha-yeon's standpoint, it was a shocking situation.
How could this enormous conspiracy involving political circles, corporations, and global-scale interests be solved?
Even Han Seo-hee, daughter of hero Han Kyeong-cheol, was barely managing to maintain the status quo.
Seo-jin said.
"That's right. No matter how difficult and serious the problem is, it doesn't matter. What's important is solving them one by one. In the 'climber's' way."
KWAJIK-.
Seo-jin crushed the fragments of Eternal Snow Ice on the table in his grip and said.
"The boss monster sleeping in the Eternal Snow Ice mine. We'll subjugate the one that brought eternal winter to this land."