The Moving Pipe Castle
As they drew closer, the FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel) looked less like a ship and more like a jungle made entirely of pipes.
Like an aircraft carrier in scale, the vessel had a tangled mess of pipework snaking across its deck like a jungle gym.
It made sense, really. These were refining facilities that belonged on solid ground, forcibly transplanted onto the ocean.
In the center rose a massive drilling tower over fifty meters tall, surrounded by several cranes.
“There were too many pirates, so we gave up on the Kamchatka oil field and purchased this small FPSO on its way back.”
“Wait, this is what you call small?”
It stretched so far he couldn’t even see the end of it.
“Yes, technically it is.”
“And the crew came with the purchase?”
“Correct. We got a good deal by agreeing to take on the entire staff. Fifty people total. They are the first official employees of our Empire Corporation.”
“Ooh.”
Until now, the company had been little more than a paper entity with only a president, a secretary, directors, and auditors. But now Empire Corporation had gained a full fifty employees.
And every single one of them was an expert in oil refining!
“That’s right, these are my first employees. Think you can protect this ship?”
“Gari! Gari!”
When Kim Hwang-je spoke to the Fisherman, it was the scallop that answered. Seo Jun-seo’s face immediately turned deathly pale.
“Sir, did that thing just… speak?”
The way he subtly lifted his buttocks off the seat said everything.
“Pwahaha—haaaat! Behold, Your Majesty! Look how loyal my spo—scallop is! It’s been whining since this morning about how much it wanted to serve you!”
“I understand how you feel, Mr. Seo. But you’ll get used to it soon.”
Kim Hwang-je nodded as if he truly understood Seo Jun-seo’s pain.
“Fisherman. By the way, can you lift that thing onto land?”
“Y-yes? Onto land, you say?”
“Yeah. There’s that old saying—too many boatmen and the boat ends up on a mountain. I was just wondering if it was possible.”
Seo Jun-seo desperately wanted to point out that wasn’t what the saying meant, but he held his tongue out of respect for his boss’s dignity.
Instead, he asked carefully, “You don’t plan to leave it at sea, sir?”
“Nope. I’m thinking of docking it at my harbor and turning it into my castle. Just think about it. That thing is basically an insanely tall steel wall.”
“…I see.”
“Its defensive power should be higher than most oil refining facilities.”
Seo Jun-seo stared at the enormous vessel.
For a moment, he imagined the ship sprouting legs, walking across the ground, and climbing a mountain.
Like that moving castle from… whatever it was called…
Seo Jun-seo shook his head vigorously to clear the image.
That was when the Fisherman spoke.
“Of course, Your Majesty. Just give me a thousand gold and I’ll move it for you somehow.”
“You use gold too?”
Let’s see… so using techniques in the real world costs gold coins.
“Yes, Your Majesty. There is no better offering than that.”
“Good. Let’s get moving. We’re hauling that thing onto land.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Transaction Window Opened
When Kim Hwang-je and the Fisherman boarded the FPSO, a friendly-looking middle-aged man appeared.
“Hello, sir. I’m Director Lee Deok-su. I’m in charge of this vessel.”
His hair was half gone and his belly was generous, but he seemed like a decent person.
“Nice to meet you. I’m President Kim Hwang-je. Let’s save the rest of the greetings for after we’re on land.”
“Pardon?”
“Fisherman. Let’s go.”
Kim Hwang-je pulled a sack containing a thousand gold coins from the transaction window and handed it over.
“More?”
“No, this is plenty!”
The Fisherman bowed at a perfect ninety degrees, then dashed toward the bow of the ship.
“Everyone please sit down and fasten your seatbelts. Tell the crew to buckle up.”
“Huh?”
“Hurry.”
At Kim Hwang-je’s command, the director broadcast the order across the entire vessel.
People scrambled to fasten their belts. Kim Hwang-je sat in a chair and buckled himself in as well.
He tossed the anti-magic gold he had received into the air and chanted.
“Come forth! Super—huge—water—seal!”
“Kuuuoooong!”
Splashhhhh!
Bubbles erupted violently as an enormous seal’s head burst from the sea.
It was genuinely massive.
Big enough to look like a small hill.
When the seal slammed its giant tail into the water, a massive wave surged upward.
“Come forth, giant—scallops!”
Huge scallops shot up from the water’s surface.
The pitch-black scallops circled the FPSO like orcas.
“Scallops, byssal threads!”
The scallops fired their byssal threads at one another, binding themselves together tightly. They also lashed the FPSO securely and connected everything to the seal’s body.
“Alright! Let’s move out!”
Boom!
The FPSO lurched violently. Everyone onboard was thrown back and forth.
“Whoa!”
The director’s face went pale with panic, while Seo Jun-seo quietly checked his own pulse.
There was simply no way around checking his pulse.
“Everything normal?”
“Ah… yes, sir.”
“Just accept it. It gets easier that way.”
The eyes of someone who had seen it all.
Seo Jun-seo found himself momentarily awed by the aura of a great archmage.
“Wait, sir. What exactly are you planning to do with… those… scallops… they’re going to be removed afterward, right?”
The balding Korean director.
The friendly, good-natured man couldn’t even fix his slipping hard hat as he fidgeted anxiously.
“Hahaha, don’t worry. We’re just going up the mountain.”
“Pardon?”
Thud!
Kim Hwang-je’s Imperial Harbor came into view ahead.
The seal leaped onto land, dragging the FPSO—which was wrapped tightly in byssal threads—up onto solid ground behind it.
Sluuuuurp!
All the scallops spat out their threads at once, turning the ground into a kind of silk road.
The threads transformed into something as soft as fabric, allowing the heavy FPSO to glide smoothly across the land.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
“Aaaaaah!”
“Uwaaaaa?!”
The employees screamed.
The seal waddled forward across the wide harbor hill, steadily pulling the vessel along.
Thanks to that, the enormous ship slid safely into the canyon between the port facilities granted to Kim Hwang-je.
The white, sugar-powder-like snow of the Gangwon Province forest embraced the giant vessel.
It had truly become Kim Hwang-je’s moving pipe fortress.
“…”
While the employees rubbed their eyes in disbelief, Kim Hwang-je cheerfully unbuckled his belt and stood up.
“First, show me the refining facilities.”
“Y-yes… this way, please…”
The director somehow pulled himself together and guided Kim Hwang-je.
They moved so quickly that they stepped out onto the wind-swept deck and walked toward the refining area.
“Wow, that tower is seriously tall. I saw on TV that it had flames on top…?”
“Yes. Oil, water, and gas come up mixed together. We burn off the gas, purify the water and return it to the sea. The crude oil then travels through pipes… and collects in these tanks here.”
Whoa, this is actually really interesting.
Kim Hwang-je strolled through the dense forest of pipes.
The intense smell of oil rolled in, but it was bearable.
They said if you liked the smell of oil, you’d get parasites in your stomach?
…No, that would be rude to the kingdom.
The director continued.
“The crude oil collected in these tanks is refined and separated.”
“How much can you refine per day?”
It was strange that the president had bought such an enormous vessel without knowing something so basic, but after witnessing the seal and scallop show, the director had zero mental energy left to question anything.
He simply recited what he had memorized.
“Total storage capacity is 1.87 million barrels. Maximum daily production capacity is 120,000 barrels… It’s not the largest vessel, but I’m confident it runs quite efficiently.”
This isn’t considered large?
“So the inlet is over here? No issues? We can start pumping oil in right now?”
“Yes, the facility is operating normally… You want to add oil right now?”
The director looked extremely tense.
Had they brought oil tankers or something?
But even after scanning the surrounding mountains from this high vantage point, there were no oil tanks in sight.
“I’ll be the one supplying the crude oil.”
“…Pardon?”
The employee blinked rapidly.
“Where should I put it?”
“Put it?”
“The oil.”
“Ah…?”
This employee is pretty slow.
Kim Hwang-je created a single crude oil orb in his palm.
“Ta-da.”
“Huk?”
It was a brilliant green crude oil extracted from the body of his slime friend.
Surprisingly, crude oil in its natural state was actually green!
The director’s eyes widened at the intense smell.
“Where should I pour this?”
“Uhhhh…! Please pour it here…!”
The director opened the lid of the storage facility.
Kim Hwang-je peered inside.
Then, facing the dark, deep tank that looked like a dead-end mine shaft, he spread both hands wide.
“Come forth, oil!”
Mysterious Animal Exchange
Transferring Produced Oil!
Through World Observation, he saw the workers pouring out all the crude oil they had accumulated with everything they had.
Gush gush gush!
The thick smell of crude oil exploded outward.
The massive volume of crude oil pouring from Kim Hwang-je’s palms cascaded into the storage facility.
“Holy…”
“Huk…!”
“…Oh my god.”
All the employees who had followed the new president were stunned into silence.
Oil was literally coming out of a human body!
Was this the true Oil King?
Come to think of it, he was even wearing a crown. He really did look like royalty.
“I heard the King of Saudi Arabia awakened the ability to extract oil from his body…”
“That’s just a rumor.”
“Then what the hell is this?”
They whispered among themselves.
Kim Hwang-je’s ears perked up.
It seemed there were similar awakened individuals after all.
Regardless, the oil kept pouring out vigorously, filling the crude oil tank in a refreshing manner.
“Phew, thank goodness. I was worried I’d have to go to the sauna and sweat it all out.”
Kim Hwang-je was relieved about something else entirely.
Alarm
Your Majesty.
Hehe.
Would you like to visit the sauna?
“No.”
Kim Hwang-je firmly dismissed the window.
The oil that had been pouring for a while finally stopped.
He had used up everything he had created so far.
“How much is it?”
“By weight, it comes to about 10,000 barrels.”
The director answered.
That’s the amount from 1,580 slimes.
“I’ll make a lot more in the future. But how much is 10,000 barrels worth?”
“On today’s U.S. futures market, it’s trading at $258 per barrel.”
Seo Jun-seo answered.
As expected, this man really was a human computer.
“Wow, the price of crude oil is going absolutely insane.”
“That’s because this oil has zero contamination and no curses.”
Kim Hwang-je folded his arms.
But that was Earth oil.
Would this oil be treated the same?
Of course, this oil was on a completely different level of safety compared to monster oil that carried strange magical ‘curses.’
Since it resembled the kind nature of the good slimes, he even wondered if it might bring down blessings instead.
As Kim Hwang-je stood there thinking, the hair on his head suddenly stood on end.
“$2.58 million in half a day?”
2.58 million dollars!
With the current exchange rate exceeding 1,300 won per dollar, a simple calculation would be…
Before Kim Hwang-je could even take out his phone, Seo Jun-seo spoke for him.
“Yes, that amounts to 3,354,000,000 won.”
“In half a day?”
“Yes.”
“So what’s the hourly rate?”
“Hourly… rate? The hourly revenue should be around 600 million won.”
“Uwaaaack!”
He already knew, but the scream came out anyway.
The employees didn’t understand what “half a day” meant in this context.
But both Kim Hwang-je and Seo Jun-seo knew.
This was the amount of oil the orcs had squeezed out of the slime cave while he was busy turning the chicken spit.
“That’s gross revenue. We still need to account for facility rental fees, transportation costs, defense expenses, refining costs, and so on.”
Seo Jun-seo did his best to calm Kim Hwang-je down.
But those words never reached the man’s ears.
“Wow, I’ve only ever focused on spending money. This is the first time I’ve earned it like this.”
This really is black gold.
Clink clink clink clink clink!
The moment he finished speaking, a shower of gold, silver, and bronze coins poured down from above Kim Hwang-je’s head.
“Gold~!”
Poyu snatched the falling gold coins and crunched on them noisily.
“Uwaaack!”
“It’s magic!”
“Run! Don’t touch it!”
“Get out of here!”
The watching employees scattered in every direction.
The waterfall of gold coins cascaded over Kim Hwang-je’s head and overflowed around the tank like water spilling from a bathtub.
“Uwaaa, the gold’s going in!”
Kim Hwang-je hurriedly closed the lid.
A few coins still fell into the warehouse below.
“P-President?”
Seo Jun-seo couldn’t even finish his sentence.
In that short time, a huge pile of gold coins had already accumulated above Kim Hwang-je’s head.
“What the hell is this?”
Even Kim Hwang-je was dumbfounded.
Despite his confusion, the crude oil tank had already filled up with gold like a dragon’s lair.
What on earth is going on?
It wasn’t time to receive tribute, was it?