Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Territory Development (2)
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Kim Hyunwoo sighed inwardly with relief as he gazed at the bandits, who had been crushed to death under the logs without so much as a final scream.
'Did it somehow work out?'
Naturally, the reason he'd come up with this method was pure coincidence.
In Arteil to begin with, when summoning resources, he'd simply drag his finger to the desired tile, and they'd appear as mobile graphics.
But in this world, he could summon any materials he wanted anywhere within the territory boundaries, so he'd tried it on a whim—and it had worked.
However.
"Hmm."
Kim Hyunwoo glanced downward.
There lay an enormous pile of logs.
'Honestly, about ten logs would've been plenty to take out the bandits.'
But out of fear it might not work and he'd get a game-over ending, he'd summoned far too many. Now the rundown village outskirts were buried under a veritable mountain of logs.
'Yeah, I really overdid it.'
Even so, his expression didn't sour.
Logs were a hugely versatile resource with endless uses. For now, with no way to import or gather supplies from outside, everything had to be made from blue stones anyway—so it wasn't a loss.
After staring at the log mountain for a good while, Kim Hyunwoo shifted his gaze to the territory residents staring blankly at him from afar.
"Alex."
He spoke to one of them in the distance.
"Ah, yes...!"
A man in his mid-thirties bolted over to him right away.
Ever since hearing about the Red Eyes a few days back, Kim Hyunwoo had used this man as his go-to representative for relaying messages to the residents—until a hero suited for internal affairs showed up. He felt a twinge of puzzlement.
'Was he always this spry?'
Alex had moved with the same sluggishness as the residents' work efficiency before. Now he was zipping around. Kim Hyunwoo cocked his head, then shrugged it off. He instructed Alex to prioritize these logs over the ones stockpiled behind the territory, then turned and headed back.
Once all the bandits were dealt with and Kim Hyunwoo had left.
The residents stood frozen, staring at the spot where over forty bandits had been wiped out in a single blow.
"H-H-How'd he do that?"
"You see that? Logs just dropped outta the sky!"
"How?!"
Confusion rippled through them as they buzzed.
"He's a mage, right?"
"How's that magic?"
"But the logs fell from the sky...?"
"Even magic can't do that, can it?"
"Can it?"
"I heard magic can't create stuff like that—"
They traded theories on the lord's bizarre technique(?), voices overlapping.
It wasn't long before.
"Our lord's actually pretty amazing, isn't he?"
"Y'know, they said the guy who led Lartania ten years ago was him. Territory went to hell 'cause he vanished outta nowhere—"
"Yeah, back then, no one around could touch Lartania's strength—"
The residents' murmurs started weaving wild tales.
"Remember those rumors from ten years ago—"
"I was in Harancia territory then too, and yeah, they said Lartania's lord was somethin' else."
Those half-baked, wildly exaggerated rumors from a decade prior—already thin on truth—began resurfacing from memory, further twisted.
Some thirty minutes later.
"Isn't the lord actually like... an apostle of the gods or somethin'?"
"Apostle of the gods?"
A strange misconception about Kim Hyunwoo began taking root among them.
By then, back at the lord's castle and letting out a sigh, Kim Hyunwoo suddenly felt an odd disconnect.
'Hang on... didn't I just kill people?'
It was unease about his own emotions.
Call it weird, but Kim Hyunwoo—now trapped in the game—was just your average joe.
No psychopath. Regular middle school, high school, vocational college grad. Did his full military hitch as a sergeant. Worked his ass off at a furniture factory.
Sure, he'd gone nuts for Arteil in high school, slinging night shifts instead of studying for two years straight. But he saw himself as normal.
Point was: killing in-game? Fine. But here, where it was real? Morally, it should've wrecked him.
It should've.
'...Why am I totally chill?'
By his own gauge, he was fine. Not quite xianxia protag levels of life-disregard, but just a flat oh, killed 'em.
So.
'Am I secretly a psycho?'
Doubting his "normalcy"(?), he soon uncovered the truth.
Name:Kim Hyunwoo
Title:None
Star:?? Star
Traits
'So that's why.'
Staring at Immovable Mind, Kim Hyunwoo felt quietly relieved he wasn't a psycho after all. But his faintly twisted expression lingered.
The culprit? That garbled mess below Immovable Mind.
'What the hell?'
He'd never seen this status screen before. He toggled the traits tab over and over, but the broken text stayed broken.
Pondering it briefly, he shrugged it off.
He had no time for this crap anyway.
Content just knowing he wasn't a psycho, the next day.
"Maybe I should crack down on discipline after all?"
Kim Hyunwoo was chatting with Loria.
The topic? Managing the residents, naturally.
Bandits would keep swarming until Territory Development hit a threshold, so to boost efficiency ASAP and shape up the basics, he'd go for discipline.
"But?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Wearing a baffled look at Loria's words, Kim Hyunwoo did as told and opened the construction window.
"...Huh?"
And there it was.
It had been barely 50% yesterday.
"...Suddenly?"
Shocked by the skyrocketing number, Kim Hyunwoo blinked in confusion.
The alerts popped up the moment he opened the territory window, like they'd been waiting.
"...What's this now?"
He muttered, face caught between disbelief and exasperation.
"Then why 'King of Logs' over Apostle of God?"
Watching Loria trail off evasively, Kim Hyunwoo felt a tangle of emotions.
A title wasn't bad news.
Per Loria, wiping out those mercs yesterday had boosted resident loyalty, jacked up efficiency, and snagged event rewards to boot.
'Still... King of Logs?'
Haunted by internet memes, he knew what "logs" meant in shady circles. Felt off.
But things had worked out, so he accepted it with good grace.
Exactly one day after becoming the King of Logs.
"...From Sertova territory?"
"Yes."
A visitor from Sertova territory.
And not empty-handed.
"The Lord of Sertova bade me deliver this gift."
"...Gift?"
"Yes. Wine."
Bearing a gift.
Already suspicious of Sertova's sudden friendliness, Kim Hyunwoo froze upon seeing the envoy's wine.
The wine from Sertova was mid-tier, decently priced.
But his expression stiffened oddly because.
Starrpan Wine
Wine produced in the old South Continent territory of Starrpan. Trades at quite high prices on the market.
※ Caution: This wine contains a colorless, odorless Formless Poison.
Formless Poison creator: Absolute Ruler of Darkness
"...?"
Ten years ago, the epithet of the hero he'd raised from 1-star alongside Merrillda was etched right there in the wine's info window.