The Price of Greed

A sheaf of papers fluttered as it changed hands.

"These are last month's earnings, Lord Do-ha. This month isn't over yet, so I can give you the profit statement next month. If you'd like, I can pull a preliminary one for you now."

Jegal Seo-wol held out a set of documents detailing Do-ha's income. Everything was accounted for—Paju City's completion, the redevelopment investment returns he'd secured earlier through Assemblyman Park Seok-jun, all of it.

"No need. Once a month is fine."

Do-ha took the papers and scanned them. His lips puckered.

"Hmm. Less than I expected."

Excluding the revenue from mana stones, the total came to roughly 640 billion won. An astronomical sum by any ordinary measure—but for a Cheon-oe-cheon, it wasn't particularly staggering. A single SSS-rank mana stone alone went for a hundred billion, after all.

"This includes the Orichalcum sales?"

"Actually, there's something I need to tell you about that. I left it out of the paperwork on purpose."

"Hmm?"

"We've currently finished mining roughly one ton of Orichalcum."

"Ohh…"

Canteas, standing nearby, let out a low whistle of awe. And well he might—one ton of Orichalcum was enough to buy two entire kingdoms back in Belhart. Converted to Korean currency, it was roughly ten trillion won. Quality fluctuations might shave a little off the top, but it would still clear nine trillion ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the absolute minimum. Orichalcum was the kind of metal where the seller named the price.

"We estimate there's still a great deal more ore inside… but we can't get it out."

"Why? Did the entrance collapse or something?"

Even if it had, there was no reason they shouldn't be able to extract the minerals. To keep the dwarves safe, two hunters with teleportation abilities always went in with them. Even if the cave came down, they could get out anytime.

Seo-wol fell silent.

"What? Spit it out."

"It's the landowners around the Fraud Cave amusement park. They're refusing to cooperate. Whether they found out minerals are coming out of there or not, they've blocked every approach road and are demanding tolls to cross their land. They're being completely unreasonable."

"What kind of nonsense is that? Roads are state property. What 'landowners'?"

"Well… years ago, Assemblyman Park Seok-jun sold off even the land under the roads."

"What?!"

Do-ha shot to his feet. Was this man out of his mind? No matter how desperate for cash he'd been, selling state-owned land?

"That's illegal—"

"It isn't illegal."

"…Come again?"

"Lord Do-ha, you yourself currently own the entirety of Paju City, do you not?"

"Well… yes?"

"I looked into Korean law. After the world changed, the statutes were revised to allow the sale of land under roads as well. When I asked Park Seok-jun about it, he said he'd sold it back then to cover campaign funds. He just never expected the landowners to pull something like this."

"Did you send any official cooperation requests?"

"I did, but… they claim they don't speak Korean and ignore everything. They clearly understand just fine—and they're lying about their translation artifacts being broken, too."

"They don't speak Korean? They're foreigners?"

"Yes. Every single landowner is Chinese. There are some Korean owners as well, but all the approach roads into the amusement park belong to foreigners. The Korean owners never obstructed anything to begin with."

"What if we just teleport the ore out—ah…"

Do-ha started to speak, then exhaled a long sigh as something occurred to him. He'd installed coordinate scramblers to keep intruders out of the mine. The hunters who went in carried coordinate correctors for safety—but the coordinates loaded into those correctors pointed to the amusement park entrance. Even if they teleported the ore out, they'd still end up right in front of the park.

"So I was hoping, Lord Do-ha, that you might move the minerals with Mass Teleport."

"That would work, sure."

But it was only a stopgap. Without solving the root problem, the same issue would keep cropping up. What if he was fighting the cult at the time? What if he was in another country? What if he was off in Heaven or the Demon Realm? The ore would just pile up inside the mine again. There was storage space for now, but leave the minerals sitting long enough and work would grind to a halt. The mine interior was already cramped. The dwarves could still dig in tight quarters, but even they would hit a wall eventually.

"Haa… this is irritating."

Do-ha scratched his head, and his eyes went cold and still. Coming ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into someone else's country just to throw their weight around—what gave them the right?

"Maybe I should dig that thing out and use it."

"That thing?"

"You know, the god's whatever-it-was. The thing that triggers a Gate Wave."

There were already a couple of Gates near the amusement park. Summon every monster in them and the landowners would almost certainly run for their lives.

"I thought of that myself a minute ago, but it's not realistic."

As he'd said earlier, it wasn't only foreigners in the area. There were Korean residents too. They'd never interfered from the start—he couldn't drag them into the mess.

"Did you tell them it's Cheon-oe-cheon property?"

"I did. They said they don't care. From what I've gathered, there's someone behind those landowners…"

"A Chinese Cheon-oe-cheon, I'm guessing."

"Yes. I was going to handle it myself, but even if I deal with the Cheon-oe-cheon, I can't touch the landowners…"

Seo-wol scratched his head. He had martial arts of his own—he could arrange an "accident" during a duel and take care of a Cheon-oe-cheon that way. But the landowners were all ordinary civilians. He had no assassination skills to dispose of them quietly, and doing it openly would create problems of its own.

"Got it. I'll handle it."

"Then about the Mass Teleport—"

"No."

Do-ha ground his teeth.

"They caused me trouble. They're not walking away clean."

With that, he reached into his subspace and pulled something out.

"Bwahahaha! Did you see the faces on those guys who came by today? Begging us to work out a passage agreement!"

"They came to me too. I told them to get lost."

"Hahahaha!"

"Bwahaha!"

"But seriously—what the hell kind of ore are they pulling out of there? Gold?"

"No idea. But looking at how tight the security is and how careful they're being, it's got to be something valuable!"

"I'm thinking we hold out a little longer, then offer to open the road if they give us ten percent of whatever they're mining."

"That much?"

"Come on, friend. Ten percent is just the bait. You start at ten, negotiate down, and settle around three. Even three percent is an absolute fortune."

"Whew, look at this guy… if you'd gone to school, they'd be calling you Doctor by now."

"I am pretty sharp, yeah."

"Hahahaha!"

"Heh heh heh."

"By the way—I heard that amusement park belongs to that Cheon-oe-cheon, Baek Do-ha. We're not going to end up in trouble, are we?"

"You're such a coward. Didn't you watch the news? They say Baek Do-ha is incredibly kind and gentle! Sure, the news dresses things up, but he's not the type to harm ordinary civilians like us."

"Exactly. And more importantly, Lord Woo Shin already agreed to step in if anything happens to us. Stop worrying."

One of the drinking landowners clapped the frowning man on the shoulder. With Woo Shin—ranked seventh among the Cheon-oe-cheon—watching their backs, what was there to fear?

"Huu… yeah. I'm gonna step out for a smoke."

"Scared, are you? Bwahahaha!"

"Hurry back~"

As the gathered landowners burst into laughter, the man sighed, stood up from his chair, and stepped outside the building.

He pulled out his phone and dialed.

The call ended. The landowner let out a deep breath. He'd come to Korea following his Korean wife—not to make money like this. His wife was catching flak over this whole mess, and it left him deeply uncomfortable and exhausted.

"Huu… I should grab my wife and lay low for a while…"

Click. Fssst.

"Urgh?!"

Cigarette between his lips, lighter flaring—the landowner nearly jumped out of his skin. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Something was standing in the darkness. For a split second, the lighter's flame had caught a silhouette.

"W-w-who's there?"

A figure emerged from the dark. Wearing a black mask and black clothes, Do-ha stepped slowly into view.

"You. What's your name."

"Y-yes?"

"Your name."

"Jang Beom… sir."

"Jang Beom, huh… congratulations."

"S-sorry? For what…"

"For making a U-turn at the gates of the Underworld."

"?"

"That conscience of yours just saved your life. Remember that. Don't ever let that heart of yours change."

"…Yes."

Looking into Do-ha's eyes, Jang Beom found himself nodding before he even realized it. Those eyes… deep and dark as an abyss. Just meeting them sent a chill racing down his spine.

"Go home. Your wife's going to worry."

With that, Do-ha unfurled the Dark Ghost Step and melted back into the darkness.

Glasses clinked.

"Typical. The booze always runs out at the worst possible time."

"There's more in the fridge. Just bring the whole lot."

"Might as well."

One of the landowners pushed back his chair and stood.

In that instant—

Bang!

The LED lights shattered, and darkness swallowed the room in a heartbeat.

"Aaagh! What the hell?!"

"The lights blew!"

"Blew? Those aren't even regular bulbs—they're LEDs!"

"Somebody get a light on!"

"I've got my phone in my pocket—I'll turn on the flashlight."

Tap. Tap.

A beam flared to life.

"There. I can se—"

Shhk.

Thud.

Clatter-roll.

"Hey, you dropped your phone!"

"Did he fall over?"

"Ugh, seriously…"

Another landowner clicked his tongue in irritation and bent to pick up the fallen phone. Honestly—how hard was it to hold onto a phone? How heavy could the thing be?

"I've got the pho— AAAAGH!!!"

The landowner lifting the flashlight-lit phone screamed. The friend who'd been laughing and talking a minute ago lay cold and dead, his head severed clean off.

"What?! What's goi—"

Another landowner rushed over at the scream—and froze solid at the sight of the corpse.

Footsteps approached through the dark.

The man holding the phone swung the trembling beam sideways, hands shaking violently.

"W-who are you?!"

"Me?"

Do-ha stepped out of the darkness and pulled off his mask.

"B-Baek Do-ha?!"

"D-do you think you can get away with something like this?!"

"Yeah, I think I'll be fine."

"…"

"I'm the type who always pays back trouble twofold. You dared to get in my way?"

"Wait! Let's talk about th—"

A dagger whistled through the air and punched into the skull of the landowner holding the phone with a wet crunch.

"AAAAH! He actually killed him! Can an Awakened just do this?! We're civilians!"

"So what."

"What?"

"You're civilians. So what."

"…"

"Funny how you only remember you're civilians when it suits you."

Do-ha sighed and lunged at the remaining landowners.