Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Episode 21
What that means is this.
The Dimensional Tower basically won't let you bring most real-world objects inside.
Clothes and shoes were allowed, but...
Weapons and the like weren't.
On the other hand, you can bring objects out of the Dimensional Tower.
Here's the interesting part.
Things brought out of the Dimensional Tower can be taken back inside.
If it came from the Dimensional Tower, even weapons and similar items could be taken back inside.
As a result.
Hunters would repeatedly run floors that were safe for them and bring objects out of the Dimensional Tower.
Koreans called that "mining."
Overseas, they called it farming.
As for me, when I cleared the tutorial and floors 1 and 2, I didn't bring any objects out.
At the time, I was getting into my first bloody fight in a long while, so I hadn't given much thought to anything else.
And I'd earned so much DP that, honestly, just cashing it out would already make me as rich as a chaebol.
So after thinking it over, I decided to start by mining for money and gathering the resources I needed.
Mining wasn't only about bringing out items. I also needed to farm corpses. For a Necromancer, corpses were resources.
There was even a [Multidimensional Corpse Pit] in the Town-Grade Undead Subdimension, after all.
It was a strange facility that produced five corpses from other dimensions every day.
I also needed to load large numbers of Walking Corpses into the [Necron Ossuary].
The more undead I put inside, the more both my Necromantic Mana recovery and total capacity increased, so it was something I absolutely had to do.
But where could I get that many undead?
In reality, it was absolutely impossible, so in the end, I had to enter the Dimensional Tower.
So even just for corpse mining, I needed to keep running Floor 1 or Floor 2.
While I was mining, I could also finish putting up the remaining buildings.
Since DP was overflowing, putting up the buildings I hadn't built last time wasn't difficult.
[Multidimensional Corpse Pit], [Corpse Processing Plant], [Flesh Workshop].
I had built these three with DP, and in the case of the [Necron Ossuary], it was something I received as a reward.
In fact, those were the only four buildings I had.
On top of that, I'd never even used the [Corpse Processing Plant] and [Flesh Workshop] after building them.
Come to think of it, what kind of corpses had appeared in the [Multidimensional Corpse Pit]? I needed to check that too.
There was a ton to do.
I suddenly felt busy.
"Well then...... I'll turn on the stream and go do some mining......."
It was then.
Ding-dong, ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
Was there still someone left who might come by?
Last time, after seeing the conditions I made public, everyone had thrown up their hands and left.
0% commission and a 10 million DP signing fee.
Didn't everyone's jaws drop when they heard those conditions?
"Who is it?"
I opened the door.
And then I paused for a moment.
Standing in front of the door was a woman.
She wore a neat suit, her hair neatly swept back.
She was beautiful, sure, but...... something about her felt oddly doll-like.
Was her skin too smooth?
Most importantly.
On her forehead.
A small mark was glowing.
[ANDROID]
Ah.
Ah. An android.
Humanoid androids like this had been commonplace for a while now.
At some point, AI and robotics had advanced explosively, and androids almost indistinguishable from humans had begun to be mass-produced.
The problem was that once they became hard to distinguish from humans, they caused quite a bit of social controversy.
That was what led to the Android Special Act.
It required every android to display a mark on its head identifying it as an "ANDROID."
That glowing [ANDROID] mark on her forehead was exactly that.
Without it, she'd be an illegally modified android.
And the leading company behind humanoid android technology was—
Haneulnuri, the big-tech company that had recently overtaken the competition to become Korea's number one corporation.
Haneulnuri was an unusual company.
It didn't manufacture and distribute products itself.
It only sold the technology.
Knowledge known as Magitech Engineering.
In other words, Haneulnuri had succeeded in applying Dimensional Tower technology to reality to some extent. It supplied its designs and technology to partner companies and collected royalties in return.
The android in front of me was the same: Haneulnuri supplied the design and technology, while Ungnyeok—the conglomerate Park Kang-chan belonged to—handled production and sales.
In fact, this model was one of Ungnyeok's flagship products.
But...... someone had sent me an android? Who?
Just because it used Haneulnuri's design and was manufactured by Ungnyeok didn't mean Ungnyeok had sent it.
It was a product anyone could buy on the open market.
Anyone with enough money could get one.
While I was racking my brain like that.
Bzzzt.
The android's forehead mark glowed even brighter, and a bluish hologram window appeared in front of her.
Inside that hologram screen, a man appeared.
『It's a pleasure to meet you, Awakened Lee Mu-seon. Or perhaps I should call you the Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign?』
He was a man with a neatly groomed appearance.
Intellectual, yet with eyes that shone with a peculiar intensity.
『I'm Kim Yu-han of Haneulnuri.』
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Lee Mu-seon. I never expected the chairman himself to contact me like this. I'm a little surprised."
That wasn't empty flattery.
Why was the chairman contacting me personally......? Well, not in person, but he was even video-calling me.
I was exceptional, sure.
But was I really that big a deal?
『Haha. It's an important matter, after all. Besides, on the Dimensional Tower Community, you might be more familiar with me under a different name.』
"A different name?"
『I go by Big-Spender Ajusshi.』
Ah.
Only then did I slap my knee in realization.
"Ah! I wondered who could casually burn through 140 billion won like that. So it was you, Chairman Kim Yu-han? No wonder. I'd been wondering who could put down that much money without blinking, and now it makes sense."
The world's wealthiest person.
Korea's top ranker, occupying one of the seats of the Platinum Ten Stars.
The man called the Arcane Professor.
Someone like him could probably burn through 140 billion won like pocket change.
That actually made sense.
On the screen, Kim Yu-han narrowed his eyes slightly.
『You're...... less surprised than I expected.』
"What's there to be surprised about? A rich person is just a rich person."
In my former life, I'd seen emperors and the leader of the Martial Alliance.
I'd even beaten the crap out of those bastards.
The world's wealthiest person?
Well.
It's impressive, sure, but that doesn't mean I have any reason to grovel.
* * *
From beyond the screen.
Kim Yu-han was quietly impressed.
'Ha. I contacted him personally, and yet he's this composed.'
An ordinary person would be nervous or excited.
One or the other.
He had seen countless people break into a cold sweat at the mere sight of a major-corporation chairman.
And he himself stood even above those chairmen.
But the man in front of him...
He was as composed as if he were chatting with the owner of a neighborhood supermarket.
'As expected. He wasn't an ordinary person.'
If anything, he grew even more intrigued.
Martial arts he couldn't analyze.
And that boldness.
The more he dug into this man, the more interesting things he expected to find.
『I'll get straight to the point.』
Kim Yu-han spoke.
『Would you become an exclusive hunter for Haneulnuri?』
At those words.
Lee Mu-seon asked back, completely unfazed.
"Did you look at my conditions?"
『I already know them. 0% commission. A 10 million DP signing fee.』
『I agree.』
In that instant.
Lee Mu-seon's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly.
He looked faintly impressed.
'He's accepting those sucker conditions...... without a word of objection?'
Lee Mu-seon was thinking something that would have made Kim Yu-han faint if he'd known.
Well, he couldn't help it.
With 0% commission, the company had nothing to gain.
On top of that, they'd simply hand over a nonrefundable 140-billion-won signing fee?
Those were conditions that had made every corporation's jaw drop before they fled.
For someone to accept those terms without hesitation...
'He wants something from me that badly.'
Still,
it didn't matter.
Whatever the other party was after,
I wasn't losing anything.
"Very well. Shall we sign the contract, then?"
『A wise decision.』
A contract appeared across the hologram screen.
Reading it, it really was exactly the conditions I had set.
Without a single extraneous addition.
"I agree to the contract."
Along with my words.
[An exclusive hunter contract with Haneulnuri has been signed.]
A Dimensional Tower system message appeared to confirm it.
『I look forward to working with you, Corpse-Spirit Martial Sovereign. If you need anything, please let me know. The android I sent will assist you.』
"Yes. I look forward to working with you."
With those words.
The hologram screen quietly faded out.
* * *
In a room after the screen went dark.
Mana circuits pulsed sapphire throughout the space.
Kim Yu-han leaned back deeply in his chair, staring at the darkened screen.
"I've made contact, at least."
A corner of his mouth slowly lifted.
"Step by step. Lee Mu-seon, I'll have to uncover your secrets."
The ability to carve martial arts into dead corpses and reproduce Dimensional Tower knowledge in reality—and the truth behind it.
He would uncover it no matter what.
"I'm looking forward to it."
The mana circuits on the ceiling glowed even brighter, as if responding to his anticipation.
* * *
『From today, I am secretary-type android A0-912, registered as the property of user Lee Mu-seon. I look forward to working with you.』
"Oh."
Androids had become common, but a fully humanlike model such as the beautiful secretary android in front of me was still far beyond what an ordinary household could afford.
They were expensive. Not merely expensive, either—they could cost hundreds of millions of won.
Could someone earning around 40 million won a year realistically drive a 100-million-won imported car?
It's possible if they push themselves insanely hard, but generally, they'd buy a domestic car.
Even though this is an era where androids help greatly with household labor in many ways, the cost-effective ones still run into the tens of millions of won.
Fully humanoid ones like this were so staggeringly expensive that people couldn't even dream of buying them.
"Your name from now on is Jegal Yu-yeon."
Jegal Yu-yeon.
The name of the Martial Alliance's chief strategist who had tormented me relentlessly in my former life.
She'd schemed up every trick imaginable and had been incredibly annoying.
『This unit's designation has been changed.』
"Good. If you're a secretary-type android, tell me what you can do."
『This unit.......』
According to the explanation, a secretary-type android could handle not only household labor but also external schedule management and even tax processing.
Wasn't this basically Alfred, Batman's all-purpose butler?