Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Weekly Dungeon Conquest (5)
The Friday Dungeon that grants Special Runes. The Saturday Dungeon that drops monster material and synthesis blueprints. And the Sunday Dungeon that gives Skill Books. Baek Jin-woo swept through the Weekly Dungeons like a whirlwind.
For the Saturday Dungeon— All the monsters called ‘Plants’ had to be killed, so he had to go in with a full fire setup. The method was to set the entire map ablaze. He brought the Movement Speed Buffer, Wind Falcon, the fire-attribute dealer Lava Drake, and 3 C-rank Lava Drakes.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Whoooosh!
The Drakes, boosted with Movement Speed increases, ran around wildly, breathing fire and incinerating the forest in an instant.
[Annihilating all monsters!]
[Dungeon Clear!]
[Clear Time—00:03:50]
That way, the Saturday Dungeon record was also broken in South Korea.
For the Sunday Dungeon— He had to defeat an old man called the ‘Supreme Master’ within 30 minutes.
He was so difficult he was practically final boss-tier, and even during his days as God of Jinu, he rarely bothered hunting him. Skill Books could just be drawn from the Thursday Dungeon anyway. So he had simply set a record and left it alone.
Ruination Dragon's Breath—an all-time 1-second clear across all difficulties. After that, he never looked at it again.
Guess I'll have to clear it this time too.
Baek Jin-woo dove in leading only his elite Summoner Beasts: Lamba, Drill Instructor, and Explosive Dragon Sorcerer. After a grueling fight—
[Disposing of the Supreme Master.]
[Dungeon Clear!]
[Clear Time—00:14:50]
It took quite a long time, and unlike the other dungeons, this one consumed a fair amount of effort.
This is only because it's low-grade.
If it had been mid-grade or above, he wouldn't have been able to kill it at all. Of course—
[Congratulations!]
[You have broken South Korea's all-time record!]
Even so, it easily surpassed the national record. The South Korean average had been in the 20-minute range.
"Phew."
Now all the low-grade dungeons had been cleared. If he kept grinding every week, the records would be pushed further ahead. He'd also need to keep leveling up through regular dungeons and training.
Until the next mid-grade challenge, I'll just keep growing.
The goal was to clear every top-grade dungeon. Only by doing that—gathering enough Runes, items, and Skills—could he take on the Tower of Trials. Would 2 years be enough?
Anyway.
Over the course of the week, clearing dungeons had stacked up quite a few rewards. Starting with 18 High-grade Summoning Scrolls from the first achievement rewards. And all manner of Runes, polishes, Skill Books, materials, and blueprints.
What do I do with all this?
* * *
Yu Ji-a, CEO of YuBaek, had secured a small office in Samseong-dong. She had the capital to buy a large building from the start, but chose not to. She wanted to handle the initial startup costs separately from the gift she had given Baek Jin-woo. Once you start a business, it should run on business funds alone. Otherwise, calculating profit margins becomes a headache, and tax matters get complicated.
Swipe, swipe!
Seated at the CEO's desk, sliding through her phone screen to check articles, Yu Ji-a let out a sigh of amazement. The entire world was Baek Jin-woo. Every platform and community was plastered with articles about him. Goodness. To have broken South Korea's all-time record across every single dungeon—in just one week.
"Kim Byeong-jin."
"Yes, CEO."
"How far along is the video editing?"
The video editing was being handled by Kim Byeong-jin himself. Given how sensitive the content was to leaks, they couldn't hire an outside firm.
"It's almost done, but……"
Yu Ji-a tilted her head. Almost done, but? Was there something else?
"Is there a problem?"
That video was YuBaek's first business item. One that would earn dozens, no—hundreds of times more than their initial investment! A golden goose! If something went wrong, it would be a disaster.
"It's not really a problem……. It's just, I still can't believe it even as I'm making it."
"Excuse me?"
"Just a moment. It's almost finished."
Clatter, tap, tap!
Kim Byeong-jin, who had been tapping the keyboard as if in a trance, soon rose from his seat.
Done.
Out of 2 playthroughs, he had extracted only the cleanest movements and assembled them into a single walkthrough guide. Crafted so that watching just the one video would be enough to understand everything.
"It's finished. Per Player Baek Jin-woo's request, the Thursday and Sunday Dungeons have been excluded."
"Ooh, let's watch it together."
Just how incredible was it that he couldn't close his mouth while making it? The 3 members gathered in the small office. Kim Byeong-jin, Yu Ji-a, and Hwang Tae-seop.
Click!
The video began playing from the installed projector. And— Yu Ji-a and Hwang Tae-seop's mouths slowly fell open.
It was on a completely different level from the brief glimpse they had caught before. With proper 3D editing, Baek Jin-woo's gameplay was now unmistakably visible from a first-person perspective. Especially in the case of the Friday Dungeon, where Player Running had been used—
"What in the……"
"This makes no sense……. Who's supposed to watch this and copy it?"
Yu Ji-a couldn't get her bearings. Wasn't it practically circus-level movement? Even the trick of swapping out the Sky Dolphin for a Sky Wyvern in midair drew nothing but pure amazement.
"Even a movie filmed like this would get roasted."
"……Will this even sell? I mean, we can sell it, but won't people curse us out for selling it?"
Even the usually composed Hwang Tae-seop was shaking his head.
Regardless—
Jackpot.
Yu Ji-a's tightly clenched fist was trembling. She already knew it, but seeing it in video form made it even more certain.
Baek Jin-woo is just a jackpot.
1 thing was clear. This was absolutely not a talent that belonged in South Korea. He was someone who could compete at a global level. She finally understood why Park Chang-seok had been so fixated on Baek Jin-woo.
Congressman.
Park Chang-seok had been right. His eye for people was far sharper than she had imagined.
"First."
Yu Ji-a exhaled deeply, calming her excitement, and her eyes gleamed.
"Before selling the video, buy up every single one of those Summoner Beasts."
Kim Byeong-jin, who understood immediately what that meant, gave a single nod.
"You're planning to hoard them."
"Exactly. Based on this information, we need to extract maximum profit."
When this information began to spread gradually? The value of the core units would skyrocket through the roof. They had to prepare maximum stock in anticipation of that. Because the price difference would all become YuBaek's revenue.
* * *
How do you sell information? And even if you sell it, can you keep it from leaking out easily?
If you ask those questions, the answer is simpler than you'd expect.
You use the Player Trading System.
The system-supported transactions place great importance on promises. If you include ‘Confidentiality’ at the time of the trade proposal? The moment it's violated, a curse is brought down. The system judges the extent of the damage and delivers it accordingly, and for information, it's almost always instant death.
They say overseas, that's already how the rankers manage their information too.
Anyway. Yu Ji-a began purchasing Summoner Beasts in bulk. If they weren't available domestically, she went abroad to source them.
[Summoner Beast Purchase List]
1. Combat Marshal (C-rank)
2. Radiant Priest (C-rank)
3. Spotted Komodo (B-rank)
4. Wind Falcon (B-rank)
5. Titanium Golem (B-rank)
6. Horned Fairy (C-rank)
7. Frost Cat (C-rank)
8. Sky Dolphin (C-rank)
9. Sky Wyvern (B-rank)
10. Lava Drake (C-rank)
Exactly the same list Baek Jin-woo had given her before. Some were expensive due to information already circulating overseas. Others she was able to purchase for quite a reasonable price, perhaps because the information hadn't leaked yet.
This is guaranteed to be a jackpot.
She went ahead and took out loans to their maximum limit in YuBaek's name. Banks that had identified Yu Ji-a's background during the loan review practically rushed to hand her money. The granddaughter of Daeseong Group? And Yu Ji-a famous for being an elite? This was guaranteed business where getting stiffed was out of the question!
On top of that, they had also looked into information about the company called YuBaek.
"Player management? Why would Daeseong Group's granddaughter be running a business like that?"
"What? The player signed to them is Baek Jin-woo? That same Baek Jin-woo who's blowing up right now with those records?"
"Yeah, yeah—approve the maximum legal loan limit for them. Yes, it's fine, right now!"
Using that money to purchase Summoner Beasts from around the world, Yu Ji-a posted on the Player Web.
***
Selling information on all Weekly Dungeon walkthroughs.Contains the know-how of record holder Player Baek Jin-woo.
1. Confidentiality clause applies.
2. Video information (Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat) is 100 million won, text information (Thu, Sun) is 10 million won.
3. Sales limited to players registered at South Korean nationality headquarters.
She priced the information relatively cheaply. More of a high-volume, low-margin approach.
After all, it's also for the development of South Korea.
If it spread to many players and raised the overall level, that was a good thing for her too. And for the information to sell well, it needed to spread widely—which would naturally drive people to buy those Summoner Beasts.
Yu Ji-a also split into multiple IDs on the ‘Marketplace’ and posted listings to sell the Summoner Beasts. The pricing went like this—
1. Combat Marshal (C-rank), 200 million won.
2. Radiant Priest (C-rank), 200 million won.
3. Spotted Komodo (B-rank), 1 billion won.
4. Wind Falcon (B-rank), 1 billion won.
5. Titanium Golem (B-rank), 1 billion won.
6. Horned Fairy (C-rank), 200 million won.
7. Frost Cat (C-rank), 200 million won.
8. Sky Dolphin (C-rank), 200 million won.
9. Sky Wyvern (B-rank), 1 billion won.
10. Lava Drake (C-rank), 200 million won.
Uniformly set at 200 million won for C-rank and 1 billion won for B-rank.
"……Isn't this outrageously expensive?"
Kim Byeong-jin clicked his tongue and asked. The prices were 5 to 10 times higher than what they'd paid to acquire them.
Yu Ji-a grinned.
"Prices are determined by supply and demand anyway. Since we hold most of the stock to begin with, they'll have no choice but to buy."
Especially anyone willing to pay for Weekly Dungeon information would almost certainly be part of a large guild or be a ranker. Such people had the purchasing power to begin with. Meaning they'd boldly invest for the sake of a Time Attack.
"And those units will naturally increase in value over time anyway."
Because they're core units. The value of units that everyone needs is bound to rise.
The reward for trusting and investing in Baek Jin-woo.
The time to receive that sweet reward had finally come.
* * *
Baek Jin-woo mulled over what to do with his rewards. First, the 18 High-grade Summoning Scrolls. He decided not to open them.
The probability of an EX-rank Summoner Beast coming out is practically 0.
He had obtained Explosive Dragon Sorcerer and Drill Instructor only after opening hundreds of thousands of scrolls—so expecting another EX-rank from just 18? The cost-to-benefit ratio was far too poor.
Besides, I have plenty of Summoner Beasts to raise right now. Even focusing only on that, there's not enough time.
So he just sold them all on the Marketplace. At the market rate of 3 million won each.
"Heh, 54 million won in just 1 week, nice and sweet."
Baek Jin-woo smiled at his rapidly fattened bank account. And—
All the miscellaneous items I picked up from grinding—I should sell all of those too.
In his days as God of Jinu, Baek Jin-woo had only used graduation-tier Runes and items that dropped at low probability from top-grade Weekly Dungeons. There was no way anything coming from low-grade would satisfy him.
He'd already slotted in whatever Runes were usable along the way.
Should I ask Yu Ji-a to sell them?
That was part of what a management company did, after all. But then— Someone else came to mind. His younger sister, Baek A-jin, who was barely scraping by running a Rune retail business.
Going forward, as I keep grinding, there will be mountains of materials to sell.
What if Baek A-jin sold them? And he gave her a percentage of the sales as commission?
That actually seems pretty good.
His younger sister, who had covered part of his hospital bills for 3 years. It felt like he could finally start repaying her.
Right, I need to take care of family too.
Having sorted out his thoughts, Baek Jin-woo immediately picked up his phone. To make an appointment with Baek A-jin.