The Shut-In's Global Ripple

Beijing, the capital of China.

Chinese President Haoran and the nation's top officials sat in a conference room, their expressions grave as they stared at the screen before them.

The headlines blared across screens worldwide:

South Korea was in full festival mode, but China was not.

Small nations were easier to control when they stayed small. Until now, China had paid little attention to its diminutive neighbor, but the situation had changed.

"An inn on the second floor? Director Zhang, explain."

At Haoran's command, Awakener Management Bureau Director Zhang Wei rose from his seat.

"Bangguseok Hyeolma is South Korea's new number-one ranker. Based on his abilities, I predict he is a monster tamer."

Beep!

Zhang Wei pressed a button, and the screen changed. Images appeared of Bloodma Guards, Bloodma Rescue teams, and other monsters alongside humans.

One official tilted his head at the scene.

"A tamer? Can tamers really do that? Ordinary tamers are…"

"Yes. Most tamers cannot stray far from their monsters, and independent movement is impossible. But Bangguseok Hyeolma appears to be different."

Tamers were generally classified as the lowest-tier ability. Monsters tamed in the labyrinth lost their bond upon leaving, and their power remained fixed at the moment of taming. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Furthermore, most tamers could only handle one or two monsters at most. With such clear growth limits, the ability was widely regarded as trash—most who possessed it simply gave up entering labyrinths altogether.

"Don't tell me…"

"Yes. We cannot rule out the possibility of a natural SS-rank."

"Hah!"

"Hmm…"

"How could such talent appear on that peninsula…"

Sighs of dismay filled the conference room.

Then Haoran spoke.

"It seems there is more to it than that."

All eyes turned to him.

"If he were merely a tamer, the safe zone on the second floor would not make sense. He might possess the very ability America has been searching for. Zhang Wei, have you made contact with Bangguseok Hyeolma?"

"No… America has been desperately blocking us with Ether…"

"I see. So that's how it is."

"W-wait, then he really is…?"

"How could such a small country produce someone like that?!"

"We must stop him now…"

As the room grew chaotic, Haoran barked an order.

"Silence."

The officials fell quiet.

"So America has already made the first move."

Haoran studied the goblins and kobolds on the screen, deep in thought.

"Are we certain those creatures have not entered the fourth floor yet?"

"Yes…! None of our awakeners have ever encountered monsters like those."

"Then he is extracting that much Ether from only the third floor."

"Shall we eliminate him?"

"If America is involved, it will be difficult. We cannot afford to spend Ether on that right now."

"Then…?"

"We continue as planned. Heroes must come from China. Zhang Wei, issue the order to our awakeners."

Haoran gave a faint smile.

"There is no one in this world who can complain if we kill monsters on the fourth floor."

Zhang Wei nodded in understanding.

"Yes, sir."

***

The deeper one ventured into the labyrinth, the more Ether appeared.

Personal labyrinths on the first floor yielded one Ether at a random location. National labyrinths on the second floor gave one to the first to defeat the central boss, plus three random drops. The third-floor national labyrinth produced a total of sixteen.

One went to whoever defeated the central boss first, just like on the second floor. The remaining fifteen were random drops. This total was known not because all fifteen had been found and reported, but because it had been discovered through the use of Ether.

Until today, no country in the world had ever mined every single Ether on the third floor.

"Master, shall we store the Ether and build a second outpost?"

"Yeah. Let's put it at the Four Seasons Plateau."

"Then we will need to wait a little longer."

So far, three Ethers had accumulated from the first floor—one per week. Seven more had come ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the second floor.

"By the way, how is the community reacting?"

"They say they trusted you all along, but damn, this is something else."

"Ah, I see."

They had mined twenty-seven Ethers from the third floor this time. A total of thirty-seven.

"What's our current world ranking?"

"Fifty-fourth."

"If I keep bringing in roughly the same amount until the end of the year?"

"Eighth."

"…"

That would cause quite the uproar.

Hello, world. This is Bangguseok Hyeolma, currently ranked eighth.

"Japan in particular went absolutely wild. Would you like to see, Master?"

"No thanks. I can already imagine it. Don't look either—you'll ruin your eyes."

"Understood."

For now, they decided to wait until they had gathered forty Ethers. There was one day left until the first- and second-floor resets. Once the resets finished, they planned to check how the outposts were doing and quickly secure three more Ethers first.

"By the way, Master."

"Yeah?"

"What should we do about the items…?"

"…"

As I leaned back in my chair, Mongmo flew over and looked up at me from the desk.

"We cannot just leave them. The warehouse will burst."

"How many do we have right now?"

"Combining rare and magic items, they are worth roughly two hundred billion won at current market prices."

"…"

Our golden goblins had thoroughly cleaned out the third floor just like they had the second. The power of 777 Agility was tremendous. After all, that was ten times faster than Bolt, a species specialized in agility.

"What if we sell them all at once?"

"It will shock the Korean market. Prices for rare and magic items will plummet instantly."

"What if we sell them slowly?"

"The warehouse will burst, Master. Of course, if we stop farming new items after that, it would not matter."

"Let's go take a look."

I carried Mongmo and left the room, heading for the territory.

"What a shame. If these were fourth-floor items instead of third-floor ones, we could have sold them to other countries."

Labyrinth items could only be used in regions matching their origin. For example, every item I created could currently only be used inside Korean labyrinths—because they had come from Korean labyrinths. The same applied to equipment made by production classes. If it was crafted on Korean soil, it could only be used in Korean labyrinths.

If I flooded the market with goods in this state, the income of awakeners running the first, second, and third floors would be cut in half.

To sell on the world market, only items dropped from the fourth floor and above were permitted.

"Kyaak! It never ends!"

"Overtime… We're pulling an all-nighter today! Keruk!"

"This place is hell, keruk!"

The goblins were still floundering in the mountain of items.

"…Man, what are we supposed to do with all that?"

"What should we do, Master? Pretend to be crazy and dump everything on the market?"

"Then I would not make much money either, right?"

"Correct. Prices would keep falling, so you might earn around eighty billion won."

Two hundred billion won worth of items reduced to eighty billion…

"Is there a way to store them as materials instead?"

"Materials?"

"We have never tried breaking items down at the disassembly plant, have we?"

"We have not. There is no need to disassemble them when we can just sell them as is."

The territory's disassembly plant had two main functions.

Until now, we had only disassembled environmental byproducts to use as materials for the Bloodma Shrine. But items? Why bother? We could just sell them in their original form.

"If we grind them down into materials, we could stockpile them and use them for crafting later. Or sell the byproducts in bulk to a merchant."

"We do not know what will come out, Master."

"Let's try it anyway."

I picked up a random magic item rolling nearby.

A common magic-grade item found with low probability on the first floor and higher probability on the second and third floors. I carried the steel shoes to the disassembly plant.

"Disassembly Chief!"

"Keruk! You called for me!"

The soot-covered disassembly chief goblin came running.

"Take this and disassemble it. How long will it take?"

"Keruk! Please wait five minutes!"

The goblin snatched the shoes and dashed inside. A short while later, he returned carrying the disassembled materials.

[Steel Fragment x6]

A common magic-grade material. [Screw x10] — a common normal-grade material. And then—

[Majeongseok Fragment x5]

Majeongseok fragments?

"Huh?"

Mongmo, who had been examining the materials with me, jumped in surprise as well.

"Majeongseok fragments?! Why would these appear here?! Wait—hey, Gob!!"

"Keruk, what is it, Mongmo?"

"Have someone disassemble a Bloodma Steel Armor right now!!"

"Why disassemble something we just made? Keruk?"

"Just do it, quickly!"

Following Mongmo's order, a goblin took one of our own magic-grade Bloodma Steel Armors to the disassembly plant. The chief returned with the results.

[Steel Fragment x10]

[Steel Plate x1]

[Screw x10]

"What? No Majeongseok this time? Try another magic item."

We tried again. Items dropped from the labyrinth consistently yielded Majeongseok fragments upon disassembly.

"Master, natural drop items produce Majeongseok when disassembled… and quite a lot of it!"

Mongmo nodded at me, clearly thinking the same thing.

I pointed at the mountain of items.

"Disassemble all of that."

If we turned them into Majeongseok and sold it, we could earn money without crashing the market. The government was desperate to buy every Majeongseok it could get. We might not reach two hundred billion, but a rough estimate suggested we would still get about one hundred and fifty billion won worth of Majeongseok.

"Our association president is going to be very happy."

***

When Bangguseok Hyeolma mined twenty-seven Ethers in a single week, South Korea was thrown into chaos. Just a few months ago, Korea's number-one ranker had been Choi Kang-hyeok, who brought in eight Ethers per month. Now Bangguseok Hyeolma had shattered that record and kept climbing. Suddenly, twenty-seven Ethers in one week.

President Park Jung-ang called an emergency cabinet meeting. The sole topic: Bangguseok Hyeolma.

The ministers and Association President Kim Min-woo sat with determined expressions. In the solemn conference room, President Park spoke.

"I assume you have all heard the news. I will get straight to the point. Association President Kim Min-woo."

"Yes, Mr. President."

"Twenty-seven. And it only took a week—actually three days."

"…"

"What do you expect by the end of the year? He is already in the top fifty."

"If he maintains this pace, he could reach the top ten—possibly as high as eighth."

The ministers murmured in admiration.

"Eighth…"

"A top-ten ranker from our Republic…"

"This is a miracle…"

President Park raised a hand, and the room quieted.

"Ministers, Chairpersons. I will not mince words."

He looked at them with unprecedented seriousness.

"Until now, we have only stumbled. We failed to protect what we should have. But now the tide has turned. This may be an opportunity Korea has never seen before in its history."

"…!"

"!!"

"You are right…"

"Since the labyrinths appeared, our country has remained in stagnation. But this might be our moment."

At Park Jung-ang's nod, Kim Min-woo projected a new symbol onto the screen—the teardrop emblem of the Bloodma Group.

"A massive wave called Bangguseok Hyeolma has arrived. Even if we cannot build the engine, we should at least row the boat!"

"Exactly!"

"Well said!"

"Finally, an end to this long humiliation…"

How many times had they swallowed their pride while being compared to other nations?

Defense? Economy? Who knew. But how much Ether does Korea bring in? How do they make a living from Majeongseok? Oh no, what if the barrier stones crack? Poor Korea!

"From now on, we must discuss ways to support him…"

Buzz—

…

A phone vibration echoed through the room. Who would leave their phone on vibrate during a cabinet meeting? The officials' glares sharpened—until Kim Min-woo bowed his head.

"My apologies. It is my emergency contact phone…"

"Check it."

"Yes, I am sorry."

Kim Min-woo's face turned to shock as he read the message. Sensing the gravity, President Park studied him closely.

"What is the message, Association President Kim?"

"I-it is from Bangguseok Hyeolma…"

"From Bangguseok Hyeolma?"

"He says he wishes to sell… one hundred and fifty tons of ordinary Majeongseok."

"One hundred and fifty tons of ordinary Majeongseok?"

"Can an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠individual even supply that much?"

"One hundred and fifty billion won worth of Majeongseok…"

Even the President could not hide his astonishment.

"Did he not sell thirty tons last month as well?"

"Y-yes. But suddenly one hundred and fifty tons this time…"

"Is this related to the sudden surge in Ether supply?"

"I am not certain, but it may be, Mr. President…"

One hundred and fifty tons of ordinary Majeongseok. Enough to fill the barrier stones and still have plenty left over. Korea now had an unprecedented surplus of Majeongseok—all thanks to Bangguseok Hyeolma's massive sales.

"Everyone! Let us release the article immediately! We must prevent other countries from interfering again. We want the world to think of him whenever they hear 'Republic of Korea'!"

If he were merely a ranker, it might be different. But as a national hero, other countries would hesitate to touch him.

"Let us rebrand Bangguseok Hyeolma as Korea's hero!"

***

Stories about labyrinths and awakeners were global news, yet many ordinary citizens paid them no mind. Just as some people quietly went about their lives without interest in politics…

"That Bangguseok-something brought in a bunch of Ether."

"I heard some kind of guard is trending in the labyrinth."

"Something about Majeongseok, whatever that is."

It was all talk from another world—stories that never truly reached them. Plenty of people simply went to work, ran their shops, and lived their days one at a time.

Out of fifty million citizens, 49.75 million were non-awakeners.

Then came the breaking news that struck even their hearts.

This urgent report struck the hearts of the 49.75 million non-awakeners, not the 250,000 awakeners.

Thanks to Bangguseok Hyeolma, electricity bills were being cut!

And the man himself, watching the news from his room, could only stare in disbelief.

"…Me?"

It was simply absurd.

"I just… made some money, that is all."

End