Gob Strikes Gold

The phone rang with a cheerful trill.

"Hello, this is Ttuttu Samgyeopsal."

"Hi, um, last time I..."

"Yes! Garlic allergy! Haha, we remember. You're a regular."

"Right. Then two servings of pork belly and doenjang jjigae without any minced garlic, please."

"Got it! It'll be about forty minutes!"

"Thanks."

I hung up and let out a long sigh before taking a sip of coffee.

Ordering food was always a hassle because of the garlic.

Minced garlic snuck into every sauce imaginable.

I never expected it to show up even in the sauce for seasoned chicken, but one tearful, snotty incident taught me that lesson the hard way.

Now I had to call every restaurant and ask the same question.

Does the dish come with minced garlic?

"Aargh! Is there anywhere that doesn't use garlic?!"

I'd given up on delivery apps entirely.

Unless I was cooking myself, I had to call and specifically request no garlic.

I slumped back in my chair and switched to third-person familiar view.

"Ooh, a greatbow. Nice."

Forty-nine warrior goblins were sweeping through the Labyrinth, farming every item in sight.

Normal-grade items dropped on the outskirts, but once they reached the center of the first floor, Magic-grade items started appearing too.

Most of them were junk, with the occasional useful piece mixed in.

"The warehouse is going to burst. I really need to liquidate all this stuff."

Forty-nine goblins each bringing back decent items meant forty-nine pieces of gear.

The difference between me and solo Labyrinth divers was on another level entirely.

"By the way, why aren't any frying pans or fluffy cushions dropping?"

I needed those for base upgrades.

Unlocking both features required hauling materials from the first floor and dumping them into the central delivery box at the base.

Yet cushions and frying pans remained stubbornly rare.

Collecting just ten of each had already taken two full days.

What kind of junk item was this hard to find?

Still, I figured they'd turn up eventually and shifted the third-person view over to Gob.

"Kyaak!"

Gob sprinted at full speed toward two wild goblin warriors ahead.

"Kieeek!"

One swung a sword, but Gob ducked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠effortlessly and drove his dagger into its side.

"Kyaak!"

He slashed the second warrior's thigh, spun behind it, and buried the dagger in its neck.

Once the first warrior fell, Gob grabbed the remaining one by the side and sank his teeth into its throat.

Crunch! Slurp slurp.

"Gob's really good at this."

Gob had already reached level 9.

Wild goblin warriors averaged levels 5–6, so it was no surprise he dominated them.

Especially since he was decked out in Magic-grade gear from the Labyrinth.

I'd given him the best gear first to help him stand out, and now he was turning into a monster.

"...At this rate he could probably solo the first-floor boss."

The guardian of the central gate leading to the second floor.

Could Gob take it alone?

"Want to give it a shot?"

If he killed that thing, nothing on the first floor could stop us anymore.

My warrior goblins ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were already crushing the wild ones.

***

"Keruruk."

Feeling his master's gaze, Gob tossed aside the warrior goblin he'd been feeding on and dashed into a nearby building.

Sniff sniff.

He took a quick whiff, then began rifling through drawers and boxes.

'Find shiny things. Master likes them.'

Gob's farming speed far outpaced the other goblins.

He was even starting to tell good items from bad ones.

'Trash. Trash. Keep this.'

He stuffed a badly dented frying pan into his pack and stepped back outside.

Good job, Gob!

"Keruruk!!"

His beloved master was pleased.

Gob felt deeply satisfied with his current self.

After being bitten on the shoulder, his world had changed.

Power surged through him. His mind cleared.

This was his master's blessing.

Once he could think, a single desire took root.

He wanted to grow stronger.

He wanted to become smarter.

To do that, he had to be useful to his master.

He had to earn recognition and receive more power.

So Gob threw himself into slaughtering his former kin and ransacking buildings at full strength.

While other goblins searched one building, Gob cleared three times as many.

Then, inside a box in one building, he spotted a faint white glow.

"Kerrrrk!"

That's it! The shiny thing Master loves!

Gob sprinted, smashed through the glass, rolled once, and flung open the glowing box.

A tiny white orb.

The same one that had made his master jump for joy last ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠time.

The moment he picked it up—

Run! Get out of there, Gob! Escape right now and come back!!!

"Kerk!!"

Nothing else mattered. This white orb ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was everything to his master.

***

"Waaah! Gob, you're the best!!"

Watching through third-person view as Gob raced toward the exit, I threw my arms up in triumph.

I'd expected the second Ether to take days, but it had only been two days since Monday's reset.

I kept praising him, and he really was performing like a madman.

"I'm raising you all the way, Gob!"

One Ether was worth at least ten billion won, and he'd already brought in twenty billion by himself.

I jumped up and headed straight for the base.

Once goblins escaped the Labyrinth, they were automatically transported to the center of the base.

I ran out barefoot to greet our hero, and right on cue Gob appeared in a flash of light.

The system treated returning to the base as an escape.

Checking the newly reset national weekly ranking, I saw my name in second place.

"Kerrrrk!"

"Aww, you little rascal! You did great!"

"K-Kerk?"

Gob looked flustered by my intense praise.

Not that it mattered. Right now he was just adorable—

"Hmm..."

Okay, maybe not adorable. He was still a goblin.

But he was definitely my favorite goblin.

Gob tilted his head, handed me the Ether, grabbed his pack, and headed for the warehouse.

He really did know exactly what I wanted.

"Now what do I do with this..."

Eventually I'd have to sell an Ether to the Association.

"No, not yet."

Making a quick ten billion to move and build infrastructure for selling junk was tempting, but it still felt too soon.

Gob was exceptional, but this haul was the result of fifty goblins scouring the first floor like locusts.

What if I had even more goblins?

I needed to let things simmer a little longer before the Association came crawling.

I decided how to use the Ether.

Strengthen my ability, of course.

This time, instead of hoping for a random skill, I'd target exactly what I needed.

"Use Ether."

"Enhance Domination Power."

Domination Power rose automatically with familiar levels anyway.

But why wait?

Spamming workers like crazy in the early game was the real path to growth.

Food and logistics could wait.

Time to roll the snowball.

And I was right.

It wasn't a normal level-up. It was a direct Ether-enhanced boost to Domination Power.

Light burst from my body.

Power flooded every limb.

So Domination Power didn't just increase the number of familiars—it boosted my physical abilities too?

"Huu... haa."

A deep breath made the world feel different.

Grinning, I turned to the goblins.

"Hey, kids."

"Kerrrk?"

"Kerk?"

"Go out there and bring back everything."

"Kyaaak!"

"Kieeeek!!!"

The bloodthirsty vampire goblins poured out of the base.

"Alright. Brakes off. Let's see how far we can go."

***

Ever since the Labyrinth appeared, the Ether rankings managed by the system had become the world's biggest obsession.

People said it was killing sports.

When the Ether rankings flipped, countless people laughed or cried.

Because Ether equaled national power.

America, China, and India had used their massive populations and economies to create SS-rank Awakeners by feeding them over ten thousand Ethers each.

The wealth those Awakeners generated rivaled entire nations' GDPs.

So of course people obsessed over the Ether rankings.

Just one or two rankers could flip a country's GDP standing.

Then one day, a completely new name appeared.

BasementBloodDemon had burst onto the scene out of nowhere.

People might have dismissed a weekly ranking as luck, but he'd already farmed two Ethers this month and cracked the monthly top ten.

The community was half-convinced, half-skeptical.

But the next week—

The mysterious nickname "BasementBloodDemon" was climbing from the bottom.

The moment he brought out his third Ether, the community flooded with discussions about him.

Three Ethers made someone a top-tier star in Korea.

But his rise didn't stop there.

***

Another week passed.

Korean branch of the Awakener Association.

Bang!

Kim Min-woo slammed the podium in the packed auditorium and pointed furiously at the screen.

"What the hell are you all doing?! Mobilize the police, the cyber investigation unit—everyone! Find him no matter what!"

The central projector displayed the monthly Ether ranking.

He jabbed his laser pointer at third place.

"Search the internet, the magic stone shops, the black market—turn everything upside down!"

A massive new talent had appeared like a comet in Korea's Labyrinth.