Chapter 26
Chapter 26: Family Care Service (1)
Among all the dealers Baek Jin-woo owned, which had the highest potential?
Goes without saying.
Obviously, it was the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.
Our Explosive Dragon.
Lamba was nothing more than a support who maximized the dealer's power, and the Drill Instructor wasn't bad in combat either, but he was ultimately just an assistant whose role was to provide training.
But the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer?
—Dragon Burst!
Fwooooosh!
The dragon-shaped flame that shot out from her staff swallowed the goblin in front of them.
—Kyieeek!
—Kyieeeeek!
The monsters melted away with a sizzling sound.
Baek Jin-woo had now begun cultivating the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer in earnest.
To continue his activities as a public figure and player, he needed to be strong, and the easiest way to do that was to develop his dealer.
Leaving the rest of his Summoner Beasts in the open field, Baek Jin-woo had come out to a regular dungeon alone with just the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.
For reference, Summoner Beasts could remain in the world for up to 5 hours without a player present, and could reverse summon themselves on their own.
He had told the Drill Instructor to train hard and reverse summon himself if anyone showed up.
Naturally, the Weekly Dungeon rotation was still running continuously.
"Hey, Explosive Dragon."
—Yes, Jin-woo.
A D-rank regular dungeon was already child's play at this point.
The Explosive Dragon Sorcerer walked leisurely, sweeping away the surrounding monsters.
"Is there anything you want for yourself? Like the cream buns Lamba loves?"
The efficient way to manage Summoner Beasts.
That was to fulfill their cravings.
The Drill Instructor had a burning desire to train, and Lamba loved cream buns.
If he rewarded them with those things in exchange for their growth, the Summoner Beasts would naturally push themselves harder.
But the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer?
She didn't really seem to have anything like that.
—I'm satisfied as long as I continue to grow and be of help to you, just as I am now.
The Explosive Dragon Sorcerer came from a background of being a dropout.
He didn't know exactly which world's magic school she had dropped out of, but he understood enough to know she had a deep longing to ‘be useful’.
Still.
"Come on, not that kind of thing."
Baek Jin-woo didn't back down.
—Pardon?
"I'm asking if there's food or something you want."
—Hmm……?
"I've been feeding you all kinds of food from this world, haven't I."
Normally, there was no need to pay Summoner Beasts.
They didn't feel hunger, and they didn't even excrete.
But every time Baek Jin-woo ate a meal, he made sure to prepare food separately for his humanoid Summoner Beasts.
The Drill Instructor, the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer, the Combat Marshal, Radiant Priest……
Why?
No particular reason.
He just figured that was what affection looked like.
Just looking at how Lamba went crazy over cream buns, they clearly had a sense of taste……
He couldn't be the only one eating good food.
"Anything that was your favorite, or something you'd like to eat again?"
—Well……
"Is there?"
—Hmm, yes. I think there is.
Fwooooosh!
Mid-conversation, a Dragon Burst flew out naturally and consumed a monster.
She really cleared dungeons easily.
Other players would be floored if they saw this.
"Oh, there is? What is it?"
Baek Jin-woo's eyes lit up.
Being EX-rank, she retained her memories from the past, so there was no need to separately work on building affection. But even so, if he was going to raise her properly, some management was necessary.
And nothing was better for management than gifts.
—Fried chicken.
"Fried chicken?"
—Yes. Chicken and beer.
Oh wow.
Chicken and beer is an absolute classic.
"Alright! Then……"
After a brief moment of thought, Baek Jin-woo nodded.
"What's the art you're about to learn next?"
—Dragon Burst Art: Chain.
Dragon Burst Art.
A secret technique passed down from an ancient Explosive Dragon, born from research into how to use the Dragon Burst more effectively.
Naturally, it was the Drill Instructor who had unlocked it.
The Dragon Burst Art's secret arts were divided into 4 stages total.
Chain, Shift, Blaze, and Annihilation.
In the past, the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer had broken through to exactly the 3rd stage, Blaze.
Then she had learned the latent skill Predation, and a week later it was deleted in a patch.
"Oh, Chain is great."
Chain was an art that allowed Dragon Burst to be used consecutively.
Rather than launching Dragon Burst each time magic power was gathered like now, it allowed skills to be accumulated in multiples and then released all at once!
"Then, the day you master that, I'll specially ask the Drill Instructor to take the day off as a celebration."
—Oh, really?
"That day is a chicken and beer party. Deal?"
—Deal!
The Explosive Dragon Sorcerer's eyes sparkled for the first time.
Come to think of it.
She seemed more drawn to the day off from training than to the chicken itself.
Well.
As long as that motivated her to work hard, Baek Jin-woo was satisfied.
***
Hanam City.
Below Geomdan Mountain.
"Wow……"
"Director, how do you even find places like this……"
The employees who had arrived in expensive cars were left in awe.
A fairly large plot of land was dotted with the occasional abandoned building.
"Everyone, follow me."
Yu Ji-a stepped out of the car wearing sunglasses and walked through the main gate of the lot.
This was where YuBaek's members would be staying from here on out.
Originally I wanted to be within Seoul, but.
The land prices were just too expensive.
With so much land taken up by buildings, there wasn't the slightest gap to squeeze into.
I'll settle for the outskirts for now.
Even finding this place hadn't been easy.
In truth.
This land belonged to Daeseong Group.
More precisely, it belonged to Yu Byeong-cheon.
Originally purchased for business purposes, it was land that had been sitting idle with no direction. Yu Ji-a was the one who stepped forward to buy it.
Her grandfather had granted his granddaughter's request.
Of course, it wasn't granted easily.
After carefully assessing ‘YuBaek’, and concluding that it would benefit the company he had built, he made the decision.
Thanks to that, Yu Ji-a was able to purchase a massive plot of nearly 30,000 pyeong at a bargain price.
Crunch, crunch.
Yu Ji-a walked through the lot, inspecting every corner closely.
The abandoned buildings?
She'd have to tear them all down and rebuild from scratch.
It wouldn't take long.
These days, with enough money, construction was incredibly fast.
Because laborers all used Summoner Beasts.
And the specialized Summoner Beasts provided by construction firms handled everything from foundational work to rebar installation and concrete pouring in one go.
They say the longest part is the permits and approvals, which says it all.
"I'll be building the office here. Over there will be employee dormitories and apartments."
Yu Ji-a had deliberately chosen not to pay off the bank loan.
There was no need to repay money borrowed at such a low interest rate.
She pulled as much as she could get.
"Every building will have a bunker built underground."
Baek Jin-woo had said it.
That he wanted to protect his family.
Not forgetting that, Yu Ji-a had hired the world's top bunker designer.
Systems prepared for an apocalyptic scenario.
From automated cultivation units to water purification systems and solar energy systems!
All of it was set to be installed completely beneath this land.
Next, the most important thing.
Yu Ji-a's gaze turned toward the base of Geomdan Mountain.
Where it met the edge of the lot.
If the training ground goes there, it would be perfect. Since he likes open spaces.
The mountain would block noise heading toward the city.
Add a soundproofing system on top of that?
A fairly perfect training ground would be born.
"How long will it take to build all of this?"
Kim Byeong-jin asked, scratching his head.
Our director.
The scale is just too enormous.
This means we have to keep working in that tiny office until all of this is finished……
Yu Ji-a smiled faintly and held up her fingers.
There were 2.
"……Uh, 2 years?"
"No, 2 months."
"Pardon?"
"With today's technology, 2 months is more than enough. Oh, did you manage to get the Summoner Beast I asked you to buy?"
"Ah, the Shadow Wolf?"
Kim Byeong-jin nodded and reached out his hand to summon it.
—Awooooooo!
Swoooosh!
A wolf-shaped figure emerged from the shadows with a quite impressive howl.
Yu Ji-a nodded.
Now it's time to get into full-scale player care.
And the first priority?
Was Baek Jin-woo's family.
***
Baek A-jin had been living blissful days lately.
Goodness.
She sold runes and sold more and they never ran out.
Listings kept coming in.
Whatever dungeon rotation he was doing, the inventory never dried up.
The even better part?
20% of those sales proceeds were entirely hers to keep!
Aaaaah.
She shuddered with delight.
It had only been a month since she contracted with Baek Jin-woo, yet the speed at which money was piling up was no joke.
Especially the rate of premium runes is high.
Runes that appeared on occasion in great condition.
Runes with popular options like Strength%, Intelligence%, Crit Rate, and Crit Damage spread evenly across them—those were what Baek A-jin called premium runes.
Naturally, premium runes were popular, and vendors who carried many of them attracted more players.
"My goodness, owner. I've been feeling this every time I come, but your inventory here is the best."
"Here's my business card. Please make sure to contact me first when good runes come in."
"You know me, right? That Skill Book I was looking for last time. Has it come in yet?"
Good inventory brought customers.
Among those customers were ranker players and members of major guilds.
Baek A-jin saved them as VIPs and managed them carefully.
Once her brother grew stronger and listed even better items?
They would cleanly absorb those listings for her.
And today.
With the shop closed, she headed out to a periodical gathering with her friends.
Flush with both money and confidence, Baek A-jin fulfilled her earlier promise and generously treated everyone.
"Oh wow, A-jin. Isn't this place an insanely expensive beef restaurant?"
"Wow……. A successful player really is different!"
"Baek A-jin, I heard you've been super busy lately?"
Spend money and compliments follow naturally.
The friends, forgetting all their earlier grievances, were busy heaping praise on Baek A-jin.
Sizzle, sizzle!
Premium beef cooking away, and her friends growing noisy again.
This week's topic was different from before.
"Hey, did you hear? Baek Jin-woo. He swept through all the records again this past month."
"Incredible, seriously. How does a person keep growing every single day? The records change every week."
"At this rate, isn't he going to challenge world records too?"
Their topic was Baek Jin-woo.
This was inevitable.
Lately, players were a bigger point of interest than celebrities, and the hottest figure among them was Baek Jin-woo.
Naturally, Yu Ji-a came up in conversation too.
"Yu Ji-a is amazing too. How did she know to reel Baek Jin-woo in like that?"
"That's why she's a Daeseong person."
"That's what you call being born into the right class. But did you know? At first I was jealous of Baek Jin-woo. But lately I'm actually more jealous of Yu Ji-a. Isn't Baek Jin-woo seriously so handsome?"
Handsome, my foot!
Baek A-jin narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, but none of her friends caught it.
Ha.
Baek A-jin sighed inwardly as she watched her friends giggle away.
Are these people really my friends?
How could they not even recognize her own brother!
Of course, this was unavoidable.
She wasn't in the habit of talking about family with her friends, and there were plenty of people with the surname Baek in the world.
On top of that, Baek A-jin's brother was well known for having lost consciousness, wasn't he.
Ah forget it, just eat the meat.
Munch, munch.
Baek A-jin was just about to savor the tender texture of the premium beef when—
"But about Yu Ji-a."
One of the friends who had been pouring enthusiastic praise on Yu Ji-a picked up her phone.
"I always follow her and check her page. She usually never follows people back, right? She keeps it to family and genuinely close friends, so she's never gone past 100 followers……"
The friend scrolled through Yu Ji-a's SNS account.
Baek A-jin naturally followed her gaze.
"Doesn't this person here look really familiar?"
Among the few people Yu Ji-a actually followed, one appeared—
An account with the ID dbwldk_kk.
Baek A-jin dropped the piece of meat she had been holding right then and there.
"Oh wait, really!"
"I feel like I've seen that ID somewhere."
"That's……"
One of the friends looked at Baek A-jin.
"A-jin, isn't that you?"
"What?"
"Baek A-jin?"
"Why would Baek A-jin be on there……?"
The friends began to stir one by one, but the most shocked person of all was Baek A-jin herself.
Seriously though.
Why is that woman following her……
Chopsticks raised midair, posture frozen.
Baek A-jin turned completely stiff.