Chapter 179. The Whole World Truly Is Blue...
Chapter 179. The Whole World Truly Is Blue...
'Would he denounce me as a mere merchant? Or would he show genuine curiosity?'
Song Hoon let out a quiet laugh.
A light, casual smile.
Far from being offended, he thought he was actually enjoying this situation.
'This man's inside matches his outside...'
Because the strong have no need to disguise themselves.
'But...'
The woman beside him, Laila.
Another Unknown Hunter.
In reality, however, she exuded an aura even more unapproachable than Song Hoon's.
A mysterious, beautiful face, with the corners of her eyes slightly upturned.
She gave a faint, intrigued smile.
'I couldn't figure her out at all.'
She smiled amiably, yet there was something cold lurking beneath.
Chairman Choi silently observed the two of them.
His gaze rested on Song Hoon, but his focus was entirely on Laila.
'I've laid all my cards on the table.'
For a businessman, revealing every card was a foolish move.
Hiding your options, hiding your expressions, enduring the scrutiny of others.
That was the law of the surviving merchant, and he had been a man who abided by that principle.
But now it was different.
His instinct told him.
- Concealing his hand clumsily in front of these people would be far more dangerous.
Rather, it was the ease of the strong, the confidence they could afford.
That was why Song Hoon expressed himself plainly and honestly.
'...'
And although Laila had a chaste and elegant appearance, he felt it intuitively.
That woman was by no means gentle.
In fact, she was the one hiding a sharpened blade.
And that blade would mercilessly tear apart anyone who dared bare their fangs at them.
'Hoo... how long had it been since I've felt this tense at my age...?'
He remembered.
That influential assemblyman who suddenly vanished from the political world one day.
He confessed his sins and stepped down from all his posts.
No news had been heard from him since.
'Hah... a politician resigning out of pangs of conscience?'
Absurd.
And recently, the owner of a mid-sized company had liquidated his entire business overnight.
On the surface, the reason was self-reflection for failing to manage his son, but he knew the truth.
That level of risk could have been contained in any number of ways.
And the common thread between the two was that the last person they had contact with was the same person.
'Ahem...'
A near-certain gut feeling swept down his spine.
He knew that if he got entangled with these people and tried any underhanded tricks, he would have no future.
'Not long ago, a multinational PMC bought goods for over three times the market price... and today, that representative who caused a scene in the lobby fled as if he'd seen a ghost...'
---
Chairman Choi honestly disclosed all of his plans.
What he described was a groundbreaking idea, and if commercialization were merely successful, one could rake in money from all over the world.
But it only piqued my interest at first; now I felt no excitement whatsoever.
With just one corner of my mouth slightly raised, I answered indifferently.
"That... will probably be impossible."
For an instant, Chairman Choi hesitated.
Then he smiled bitterly and said.
"Heheh, indeed. I thought it wouldn't be easy either. I might not even live to see it come to pass."
I nodded lightly at those words, but inside I was thinking something else.
The 'impossible' I meant was not in that sense.
The techniques, magic, and skills that Earth's hunters use.
They were fundamentally different from the magic of the other world.
Even I, who don't know much, could see that the other world's magic was complex and refined.
It had set rules like mathematical formulas, with clear cause and effect, activation conditions, costs, and mediums.
But Earth was different.
What hunters use just felt like drawing on mana and going 'click' to activate it.
As if they had been able to use it from the beginning, even the users themselves could not explain it.
'Magic with no cause or process... only a result.'
No one knew or cares what principle or process lies in between.
It just activates, and that's the end of it.
'Well, maybe it's possible?'
If Kyle or the archmages of Everheim came to Earth, could it be done?
But if that were easy, there would have been no reason for me to scrape up even the goddess's divine power and drain the empire's mana stones dry.
Chairman Choi still wore a generous smile.
"And for that reason, if you're amenable... would you be willing to give me a chance to study your artifacts, once every half a year, no, even once a year?"
I felt nothing in particular.
I had already left them in his care for several days before, and nothing went wrong then.
After all, I could retrieve them whenever I please, if I put my mind to it.
"Of course, I will certainly pay the appropriate price for it."
At that, a laugh welled up inside me.
Replicating them was one thing, but dealing with that overwhelming mass was another problem entirely.
'I was curious... could these people really replicate it?'
I looked at Chairman Choi and slowly spoke.
"That is not much of a problem. After all... if I set my mind to it, I can take them back anytime."
Chairman Choi laughed refreshingly as if satisfied with my answer and clapped his hands.
"Hahaha! Thank you, thank you! I will certainly pay you a price that will satisfy you!"
I drained the last remaining sip and rose from my seat.
Then Chairman Choi made an expression that seemed slightly regretful.
"If you don't mind afterward, how about sharing a meal? Ideally with my family as well."
"Hmm... I'm sorry."
"Aww... I was hoping to at least leave an impression on Unknown... what a shame."
Truly, he was an utterly transparent old man.
I smiled and glanced sideways at Laila beside me.
Then, naturally, I draped an arm over her shoulders and said.
"Because eating together with my lovely girlfriend tastes better."
At that sight, Chairman Choi nodded with a pleased chuckle.
"Heheh, it's wonderful to see, what with being young. I too had my time once..."
"..."
"Then later, when the opportunity arises, let's definitely have that meal."
I gave a light bow in greeting, and together with Laila quietly left the room.
Even until the moment the door closed, Chairman Choi's eyes were brimming with both interest and anticipation.
"What do you make of that young man?"
The man who had been standing beside the chairman bowed his head and said.
"He seems a truly rare young fellow."
"He does... which makes it all the more regrettable."
Soon he clicked his tongue, thinking of his granddaughter returning to Korea.
"Still, an old man shouldn't be indecorous and meddle with youngsters in the middle of their romance."
---
After a day or so of rest, I prepared for a broadcast after what felt like a long(?) while.
During the break, I had popped up in the streams of the streamers who had conducted that collaborative-not-quite-collaborative broadcast inside the gate.
One bought a fine house, one declared a break and went on a trip with family, and another bought a building for their parents.
Anyway, I was relieved to see everyone was using it well without wasting it.
Also, most of the streamers had also made donations to the foundation.
"Still, it's a relief they aren't squandering it."
Laila and I did a final check together, then turned on the broadcast.
[ World's Strongest Hero : Give us something to do ;; ]
"Nice to see you. Today let's plan some content together."
As soon as our faces appeared on screen, people started typing in chat.
And at my shameless remark, they all seemed to get quite riled up.
[You're really coasting...]
[You bastard, that's something you should figure out yourself]
[Ehem, 'nigga' counts as a racially discriminatory remark ;;]
[?]
I let out a dry laugh, propped my chin on my hand, and murmured.
"I've been to most places, you know... now, what, do I have to go to the moon or something?"
[Are you Armstrong?]
[It's getting cold, so instead of the moon, how about just going to the sun?]
[Why do these bastards just take it for granted that he can go there...?]
"Or maybe I should go to the Antarctic or the Arctic..."
I muttered to myself in a daze.
The moment those words ended, a ding sounded and a notification window popped up.
[ Anonymous has donated 10,000 Watts! ]
- Hero... this is friend money this time, sorry it's small, the US market crashed like crazy... it's my meal money
"...So Hero and Ho-geol are here too..."
At that, the chat erupted in response.
[Ah shit, I also got smashed in the US market]
[Fact) If you're gonna do domestic, do US stocks lol]
[lololol this is hilarious]
The kind of reactions that always pop up in stock-investing communities when people lose their shirts.
"Seems like you'll need a lot of dog houses..."
Then it happened.
Another donation arrived.
A nickname so familiar it had practically become staff by now: Lee Chae-hyun.
[ Saintess's Foot Wiper has donated 50,000 Watts! ]
- T_T Saintess, this is an offering... and I'm all blue too;;
"...Need one more dog house."
[ Saintess's Foot Wiper : If it weren't for the Chairman... ]
"What?"
[ Saintess's Foot Wiper : ... ]
was it because it's been a while since we wrestled... was our manager slowly starting to get cocky...?
[Chae-hyun has lost his mind lol]
[Fuck lolol if it weren't for the Chairman, that's what he'd be saying lolol]
From the perspective of someone who doesn't trade stocks, their screams were a different kind of entertainment.
"No, I don't know much about stocks... but just how badly did it crash?"
I tapped the keyboard and opened a search window.
I searched the keyword and clicked the top site that appeared.
"Whoa... what is this?"
A blue sea spread across the screen.
The whole world was truly blue...
"So the all-blue was right here..."
Even though I didn’t do stocks, I had a rough idea.
Unless there's a big event like an election period or a war, there's no reason for it to be like this.
"Huh? The gold price rose again?"
[Gold always goes up when the dollar falls, lol]
[Hoo... don't you do this stuff...]
[Dad, why don't we have a house? lololol]
[We had one!!!!!!]
Well, just the usual crashes and surges.
I just thought it was nothing special.
"This country really is something else."
All sorts of conspiracy theories were surfacing in my mind.
Rumors like 'underground nuclear test', 'aliens', 'Yellowstone eruption', and such messy nonsense were spreading.
"But..."
That was the kind of thing you could only say when you didn't trade stocks.
Honestly, it was something I said just to stir the pot.
[?]
[A secret of Unknown Hunter?]
[Say it, quickly]
"Can't you just sell stocks before they drop?"
[?]
That was a question mark packed with a great deal of meaning.