Ten days of gathering ore.

He’d just piled it up at home.

Because he worried that if he put it into his Inventory and entered and exited the Tower, it might disappear.

But it piled up too much.

At this rate, the house was going to collapse.

It felt like it was time to sell it by handing it over to the Administration.

First, he should at least get the ore appraised.

It wouldn’t take time like hides, right?

Juhyeok took the ore Meatshield handed up to him and put it into his Inventory.

Whew, there’s so much.

This wasn’t easy.

Because it only went in if he held the ore in his hand and mimed putting it in, it felt like his arms were going to fall off and die.

“I’ll be back. You all rest.”

“Maiden, I pray for Master’s triumph.”

“Summoner Bong, fighting! Sell it for a high price.”

“I will guard the house well.”

“SQUEAK!”

When it was time, Deputy Commissioner Jeon Gwangil appeared in front of the apartment right on schedule, as always.

It made him uneasy, like he was using a Deputy Commissioner as a chauffeur.

So when he apologized,

“Hahaha, don’t worry. How important is it to meet Player Bong Juhyeok? And it’s the safest way.”

Well, then.

“And there’s also something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“We’re currently taking reservations for the holy sword.”

Reservations.

“Uh... are there a lot of countries applying?”

“Only Norway. They need to clear Floor 66 as well. Soon, the number of reservation countries will increase little by little.”

Only one place so far.

Just because you reached Floor 61 didn’t mean you had to use the holy sword.

With only light-attribute items, you could climb to around Floor 65.

That was how Korea had been.

“For holy sword rentals and reservations, if the Administration handles it like it has been...”

“Yes. Don’t worry.”

Ten million dollars again.

It still didn’t feel real.

At this rate, his sense of money was going to get dull.

When money comes in, I should buy some land while I’m at it.

Land and buildings were best.

Later, he could retire and farm.

Of course, he wasn’t looking down on farming.

If anything, wasn’t this a team optimized for farming?

Meatshield, stronger than an ox, Rajix whose class itself was a worker, Gyeon Dallae the shamaness who prayed for a bountiful harvest, and Cossack could... be told to chase off roe deer or wild boars.

“Ah! The United Arab Emirates Crown Prince has entered Korea.”

“Mm, I see.”

But what did that have to do with him?

“The United Arab Emirates’ Black Tower situation is not good. Not long ago, state-sponsored Players all died in a terror attack by an Islamic extremist.”

“That’s awful!”

That place had terror attacks every day.

And now even Players got caught in it.

“The Tower’s time limit only has twenty days left. They’re planning to request temporary naturalization from the Tower Player Awakening Administration soon.”

If it was a Player eligible for temporary naturalization—

“To Nam Gaeun?”

“That’s right.”

They had nerve.

They wanted to borrow the top Player?

“The United Arab Emirates currently believes Korea has two top Players.”

“...Yoo Cheolmin? He’s Japanese.”

“No, Player Bong Juhyeok.”

...What kind of random nonsense was that?

“How would they even know about me?”

“Of course they don’t. But they seem to believe our Administration would know the identity of the one with the S++ clear record.”

Tch. They really were desperate.

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t a neighboring country be better? There’s Saudi Arabia too.”

“Saudi Arabia does have one top Player, but would they ever lend them? Maybe if it were their next state-sponsored Player, but the level gap between their top and next is more than ten levels, so it won’t work.”

Of course.

If their next, Plan B, was solid, they might consider it.

But sending the top Player?

If something went wrong?

“In fact, the relationship between the two countries isn’t very good.”

“Why? They’re both in the Arab world.”

“It’s because of Trait enhancement runes.”

Tempting.

Juhyeok showed interest.

Trait enhancement runes, all of a sudden.

“When Trait enhancement runes first began appearing on the market, fierce competition broke out between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, backed by tremendous oil money.”

Oh. A clash of titans.

“In the process, there was a rumor that many runes that were supposed to be contracted to Saudi Arabia ended up going to the United Arab Emirates. It wasn’t confirmed, though.”

It meant the United Arab Emirates might have stabbed Saudi Arabia in the back.

“As a result, the United Arab Emirates succeeded in raising multiple state-sponsored Players... so the rumor might be true.”

The competition between nations to climb uncleared upper floors of the Black Tower.

Juhyeok didn’t care much about national competition, but there was something that had caught him for a while now.

“Hey, do you think the United Arab Emirates still has Trait enhancement runes?”

“There’s a very high chance. They likely didn’t use them all at once, and stockpiled them.”

“If temporary naturalization were pushed in exchange for that?”

“Well. They probably wouldn’t want to hand them over. They would sooner solve it with money, I imagine.”

“I see.”

If they wouldn’t give them, he didn’t care.

They could handle it themselves.

I’ve got a Multinational Tower Access Ticket (One-Time Use), too.

If Trait enhancement runes were on the line, he’d burn this body for it.

Tch, climb slowly.

While they talked, they were already at the Administration’s materials warehouse.

Juhyeok and Jeon got out of the car, put on long padded coats, and went inside.

They said they kept the temperature very low to store hides.

“We are storing the hides safely. As soon as the processing facility is fully equipped, we will handle them immediately.”

Yeah, right.

They were still just sitting there.

What was he supposed to do with a huge sum later?

It needed to come in now.

First, the main business.

“I brought materials again today. Not hides, though.”

“Ah! Yes, yes.”

Jeon Gwangil was full of anticipation.

Not hides.

Then what?

It couldn’t possibly be something ordinary.

In truth, there was something he was hoping for...

The rectangular metal ingots Players received as clear rewards.

I hope it’s ingots.

Juhyeok began taking out the ore Rajix had mined, one by one, from his Inventory.

Jeon Gwangil was a bit disappointed.

He didn’t show it, but.

They weren’t ingots.

Ordinary-looking rocks.

“...Rocks.”

“Similar.”

Definitely rocks. No matter how you looked, rocks.

No.

Rocks that went into a Tower-Only Inventory.

Looking closely, there was something that seemed to sparkle.

So ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) he picked one up.

Jeon Gwangil flinched.

It was pretty heavy.

It wasn’t the weight he’d imagined.

Like iron ore—

Huh?

Iron ore, iron ore... iron ore?

Don’t tell me.

“Is th-that... ore?”

“Yes.”

Insane. Like an idiot.

How had he not realized?

That the Tower materials Player Bong Juhyeok brought in were different from what Players received as rewards.

It had been like that with hides, and with herbs.

No, he even brought ore?

What on earth couldn’t he bring?

“...This is adamant ore.”

“There’s orichalcon and sectonium too. Less than adamant, though.”

Jeon Gwangil forgot how to speak for a while.

Player Bong did what Player Bong did, but....

Haha...

He was always beyond expectation.

So much that Jeon’s imagination couldn’t keep up.

“Since it’s ore, not ingots, it’ll be a little inconvenient if you want to use it.”

“N-no, not at all! How could it be inconvenient!”

Ore, not ingots.

If you smelt ore, you could get metal.

Would it work with Tower ore too?

Of course it would.

All metal melted in fire.

The Tower reward ingots did too.

That was why you could make weapons and equipment.

“Ah, then, I’ll take it all out.”

“...There’s more?”

“There’s a lot, so I’ll need something to hold it.”

“J-just a moment, please.”

Juhyeok kept taking ore out of his Inventory.

As Jeon Gwangil brought over multiple baskets, his mouth slowly fell open.

Ore came out.

More came out.

He thought, surely that was enough—then more came out again.

At some point, Juhyeok was sweating buckets, and he even took off his padded coat.

This was insanely hard.

There was a lot.

Just counting the ore pieces roughly, there were about six hundred.

Even when taking them out of the Inventory, he had to hold them and set them down somewhere.

Inside the Tower, it felt light to carry, but—

This was outside.

You could just sit still and collect holy sword rental fees, couldn’t you?

This is asking for trouble.

How much money was he trying to make, anyway?

Or he could just wait for hide products to sell.

But he couldn’t turn away from the expectation shining in Rajix’s eyes.

That desire to be helpful, even if it meant mining ore.

Jeon Gwangil didn’t just stand there, either.

He took the ore Juhyeok pulled out and sorted it by type, putting it into baskets.

Adamant, orichalcon, sectonium—each separately. You could tell by the color.

And then,

“Whew, that’s everything.”

“Th-that’s... the end.”

“Yes. I thought my arms were going to fall off.”

“Hahaha...”

How many baskets was this?

“...You’ll buy it, right?”

“We will buy it unconditionally.”

Good. If they were buying it, that was a relief.

What remained was the price.

“May I weigh it first?”

“Yes.”

Jeon Gwangil pulled a large scale out from the corner of the warehouse.

After zeroing it out, he began placing the sorted baskets on top.

He recorded each basket’s weight carefully.

Weight measurement complete.

Jeon Gwangil’s trembling hands tapped on a smartphone calculator.

Partly from the effort of lifting the baskets, but also because the amount was overwhelming.

“Player Bong.”

“Yes.”

“Usually, Players occasionally receive metal in ingot form as a clear reward.”

“I know that.”

“The Player Shop buys adamant ingots at 5,000,000 won per kilogram. Orichalcon is 10,000,000 won per kilogram, sectonium is 20,000,000 won per kilogram. That is the international standard price.”

In Tower climbing, metal was an even more precious material than hides.

Hides could only be made into armor, but metal was used everywhere—weapons, armor, everything.

The probability of receiving equipment items as a Tower clear reward was extremely low.

Most Players had to wear weapons and armor directly produced by their country when they went in.

In other words, strategic materials for Tower climbing.

So an international standard price was set so it wouldn’t get too expensive.

Metal buyback prices are better than I thought?

Well, a small hand shield made of metal plate had been 40,000,000 won.

And that was at cost—pretty cheap.

This might actually turn out well.

It’d definitely clear ten billion.

Jeon Gwangil held up a piece of ore and continued.

“Usually, iron ore has an iron content of around 50% or more. This seems similar to iron ore, so...”

Half the price of ingots.

“We would like to purchase adamant ore at 2,500,000 won per kilogram, orichalcon ore at 5,000,000 won per kilogram, and sectonium ore at 10,000,000 won per kilogram. That would be our standard pricing. Is that acceptable to you?”

Juhyeok nodded.

If there was a standard price, there was no need to haggle.

So what was the total?

“Adamant: 3,742,500,000 won. Orichalcon: 2,680,000,000 won. Sectonium: 3,005,000,000 won. Altogether, 9,427,500,000 won.”

And while watching Juhyeok’s reaction, he asked cautiously,

“How is it? Are you satisfied?”

Juhyeok didn’t move at all. He’d heard the amount, but....

“...How much did you say?”

“9,427,500,000 won.”

“Not 940,000,000?”

“It is 9,400,000,000 won, at the standard price.”

Juhyeok flinched.

9.4 billion.

Is this real?

Does that even make sense?

“...Uh, h-are you sure you didn’t calculate wrong?”

“How could I? The total ore weight is 2,342 kilograms when rounded, and among that, adamant ore is 1,497 kilograms, orichalcon is 536 kilograms, and sectonium is 309 kilograms.”

So it was 2.3 tons of ore.

“If more ingots are extracted later, we will add that amount on top in full.”

“...And if less is extracted?”

“Then that would be my mistake, so there’s nothing I can do.”

Jeon Gwangil couldn’t believe it.

Such an enormous amount.

At 50%, the total metal ingots would exceed one ton.

Even if only 30% smelting succeeded, that was 700 kilograms.

At 700 kilograms, it was a bit more than the amount the Player Shop bought in an entire year.

He felt ashamed that he’d worried about nothing more than hide crafting tools.

Now they could supply Players with high-quality equipment as much as they wanted.

To the point that they could even put plate armor on close-range Players.

“Thank you for selling it to us.”

He wanted to say, I’m the one who should thank you, but his chest was pounding so hard the words wouldn’t come out.

These days, every deal was in the tens of billions.

The holy sword, the penthouse, the ore.

This was bad.

Amounts in the billions didn’t even feel like money.

Thanks to Rajix, his nerve was only going to get bigger.

*****

Juhyeok’s penthouse.

Cossack was rolling around on the floor, chewing snacks.

CRINKLE, CRINKLE.

The crumbs that fell every time he pulled snacks out of the bag.

The living room floor got dirty, but there was no need to worry.

Rolling in from far away, a furball Rajix—

“SQUEAK!”

SHHHK! SWISH!

One wipe with a rag and it was over.

“Thanks, Rajix.”

“HWEHHH.”

Rajix disappeared again.

Gyeon Dallae shook her head side to side.

Cossack dirtied the living room with no guilt whatsoever.

And servant Rajix came running happily whenever there was something to clean.

The one who threw it away, and the one who cleaned it. A fantastic pairing.

Hah... this is absurd.

Cossack rolled around on the now-clean living room floor again and said,

“Meatshield, don’t think too hard. Just say whatever comes to mind.”

“Nothing comes to mind.”

“Okay. I’ll go first. Five hundred million.”

Then Gyeon Dallae said,

“Only that much? To belittle Sir Rajix’s labor in such a way—fine. I will go with one billion.”

“Princess, no take-backs. You said one billion, right?”

“I am not Sir Cossack. I will never go back on my word.”

“Heh! I don’t go easy just ‘cause you Princess.”

“I did not ask you to.”

Cossack, Meatshield, and Gyeon Dallae were in the middle of betting on how much the ore would sell for.

The punishment was that first place flicked last place on the forehead.

“Meatshield, if you’re not going to say anything until the end...”

“I will.”

“How much?”

“Ten billion.”

Cossack sprang up and laughed at him.

“Kakakaka, ore for ten billion? You really have no sense of reality. This house is twenty billion.”

“I-is that so?”

“No take-backs for you, either. Get ready to take your flick, bastard! And don’t transform when you get hit.”

“...Okay.”

And then he rolled around the living room floor again.

Snack crumbs scattered across the floor as always.

Rolling.

SWISH!

Rolling.

“SQUEAK!”

It was then. His ears twitched.

Cossack vanished in an instant.

POP!

What’s wrong with him?

As Gyeon Dallae tilted her head—

BEEP.

The front door opened.

“I’m back.”

It was Juhyeok.

“Welcome, Master.”

“Summoner, waited.”

At some point, Cossack reappeared holding a cordless vacuum.

WHIIIIIR.

While shamelessly vacuuming the living room with an innocent face,

“Oh? When did you get here? ATTENTION! Summoner Bong’s right arm, Cossack, was cleaning. I was helping Rajix.”

“Oh my, working hard. It’s really only you, Cossack. Hahahaha.”

“Hehehehe.”

“HWEH?”

Gyeon Dallae stared at the scene with a dumbfounded expression.

Th-that cunning...

A born schemer.

A great schemer who would throw the state into chaos.

It made her want to throw him to Mad Demon.

Juhyeok took off his shoes and sat on the living room sofa.

Everyone looked at him with curious eyes.

How much was the ore worth?

Juhyeok’s mouth opened slowly.

“9,427,500,000 won.”

“...Huh?”

What do you mean 9.4 billion?

“The money I made selling the ore today.”

“...Huh?”

The summoned entities looked dazed.

“I don’t really understand what you mean...?”

Juhyeok smiled and said again.

“9,427,500,000 won. I sold the ore. Money Rajix earned all by himself.”

Cossack’s eyes shook uncontrollably.

“Eek?”

Meatshield wore a pleased smile.

“Mm.”

Gyeon Dallae fluttered over like a butterfly and gave a deep bow.

“Summoner Bong, congratulations.”

Rajix still looked as if he couldn’t quite believe it.

“H-HWEH?”

Then, suddenly! Cheers burst out!

“Woooooo!”

“Hooray! Hooray for Rajix!”

“Truly a servant of a great manor!”

At the same time, the white furball shot up toward the sky.

Rajix tossing time.

“HWEH, HWEHHH,”

Rajix enjoyed this moment too.

He felt fulfilled, and proud of himself.

Even when he went high up, he wasn’t scared at all.

But then, in the middle of tossing him, Cossack seemed to remember something. His face went pale as he crept over and whispered into Juhyeok’s ear.

“S-summoner Bong.”

“What? Hmm, you don’t look good. Something wrong?”

“I not feel good, can you dismiss summon right now?”

“Huh?”

What did he mean, not feeling good?

“We have to go celebrate.”

“No, th-that’s not it.... Dismiss summon right now, please!”

“Uh.”

“F-fast! If not, I d-die!”

Right then!

GRAB!

A huge hand seized Cossack by the collar.

“Pay.”

“Eek?”

“Assassin. Promise is promise.”

“W-wait, let me talk—”

Flick!

KABOOM!

A blast loud enough to make the living room’s glass windows shake.

Cossack’s head snapped back like it might break.

Cossack dangled limp, swaying, held by the collar in Meatshield’s grip.

Gyeon Dallae’s satisfied smile.

“...”

What kind of forehead flick was that?

He wasn’t dead, right?

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