God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 167: Episode 33_So Sue Me (4)
6.
Loan sharking is a terrible business.
But for today, at least, he finally understood why men with some muscle and money were always drawn to it.
“I’ve collected more than I expected.”
If you were confident you could get your money back, was there any better job?
You could just sit back and watch your money grow in real time.
Especially since what Han Simin had lent out wasn’t money.
It was items.
As long as he could recover them, he wouldn’t lose a single coin of principal, and he’d get collateral on top of it.
“This pile’s from the Kar Guild, and this one’s from the Kainz Guild.”
He compared the guild names on the borrowed items and the collateral, committing them to memory.
It wasn’t that he had done poorly in school because he was stupid; he just had no interest in studying!
That was his personal claim, anyway. Regardless, things were going smoothly.
The countless items he picked up on the battlefield, where players charged in as a mob and were sent flying, were free for the taking, whether they were items he was reclaiming or not.
“I really am going to have to buy a building.”
The joke he had tossed out before was starting to feel like a real possibility.
There had only ever been one reason he hadn’t been able to bring himself to spend the money he’d stockpiled.
It was that last, lingering anxiety: ’What if I spend it all and my source of income dries up?’
But if he could keep making money like this, it felt like he could spend it.
He had gained confidence.
The confidence to spend big.
Without feeling like it was a waste.
He vowed to seriously start looking as soon as the Guild Selection Tournament was over and continued to move busily.
The longer the tournament dragged on, the bigger the opportunity for Han Simin.
“Let’s go. To the Imperial Palace.”
PPAEAEK!
Sleeping for maybe three hours every three days, Han Simin, his eyes sunken and hollow, mounted Squeaker and took to the sky.
* * *
As one might expect, the dragon raid dragged on.
From the start, the Guild Selection Tournament had been planned as a three-month event. And while everyone’s morale was sky-high, their opponent was still the Guardian of the Continent, the Black Dragon who had once driven the entire land to the brink of catastrophe—a final-boss-tier monster.
Simply attempting the raid was both an adventure and a suicide mission.
Yet they had challenged it, and they were still challenging it.
Give up?
—Wow. I just died from getting smacked by the dragon’s tail.
—I got roasted by its breath.
—Tsk tsk. I managed to peel off one little bit of callus from its claw before I died.
—No way. Seriously?
—How much did that go for?
—Wasn’t gonna say, but... ha. Some mage NPC bought it from me for 200 gold.
—Gah. 200 gold?
—That’s like twenty thousand dollars!
There was no such thing as “giving up” for players.
This was especially true for the countless players who had rushed over just for the experience, unlike the guilds and NPCs participating in the tournament, who had something on the line and had to be more cautious.
Even as the participating guilds slowly began to pull back, stories like that one spread, and the number of people only increased, along with the casualties.
However, there was no real damage.
—I’m stripping all my gear before I go anyway, since I’m just gonna die.
—Recruiting for a Dragon Miner Expedition! Callus and scales are personal loot. The reason we’re forming an expedition is to distract the dragon and rush it from all directions to raise our odds. If you’re interested, contact me. For reference, dragon claw callus sold for 200 gold, and a random scale fragment went for 1,500 gold.
With posts like that, how could there be any damage?
Death still wasn’t exactly "comfortable" in Fantastic World, but it no longer weighed on people, and the rewards for accepting it were beyond imagination.
This was a game where even Han Simin, who had over 350,000 gold coins in his pocket, ran around trying to earn one more.
—The dragon doesn’t seem to be using AoE skills as much as we thought.
—There’s a chance here.
—It’s an RNG-hell game anyway. If you’re lucky, you might get the kill.
The dragon’s sudden appearance, the unplanned change to the tournament’s format, and the players’ unexpected involvement had flipped the script so completely that it was hard to tell whether this was a Guild Selection Tournament or a Player Selection Tournament.
The smarter guilds read the room, regrouped, and entered the Mountains of the Crash.
Going after the dragon right now was too much of a long shot.
’While those adventurers are keeping it busy, let’s rack up some points.’
In the end, this was still a raid for the Guild Selection Tournament.
There was no need to kill the dragon itself to raise their score.
The Kenji Guild did the same, and most player-run guilds followed suit.
And so, every time the dragon emerged into human lands, it had to deal with a swarm of annoying flies instead of high-value targets.
One day passed, then two.
After two weeks—
The dragon no longer came out of the mountain range. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
7.
Have you ever watched a swarm of ants?
Even if there are tens of thousands of them, to a human, they are nothing but a laughable nuisance.
A single stomp could crush them in clumps.
Even if they swarmed you, they would pose no real threat to your life.
But if they actually did swarm you, the story would change.
Especially if they charged without any fear of death.
Tens of thousands of ants would cling to you, biting and tearing, seemingly indifferent to how many times you stomped them.
Even with skin so thick that it wouldn’t suffer a single scratch, the sheer annoyance would be unbearable.
They were beings you had never considered a threat.
It hurt your pride.
Yet calling your friends for help would hurt your pride even more.
If you had to call for backup because you couldn’t handle a swarm of ants, what could be more humiliating?
She’d rather die from ant bites.
With that mindset, weeks passed, and she grew tired.
Naturally, a standoff formed.
Kardian, sick of the humans and unable to stand the sight of them, remained within the mountain range. The players, desperate for even a single dragon scale, ventured into the mountains, only to be killed by her minions without ever reaching her.
Unlike the guilds, whose goal was the tournament, the players’ sole objective was the dragon. After their initial failures, they couldn’t just keep charging blindly into the mountains.
GRRRRR...
A stalemate.
Kardian despised the situation.
The idea of a mighty dragon like herself holed up at home, trembling with rage because of some humans—
If the other dragons found out, she would suffer a humiliation far worse than this.
No, they might already know.
The thought made her irritation surge anew. She was not like the other dragons. That very distinction was the root of her betrayal.
GROOOOAAAAAR!
Her rage-filled roar echoed through the mountain range.
In the human world, that roar had only inspired awe in players, but here, the monsters shuddered at the sound.
’Yes, this is how it should be.’
Regaining a sliver of her confidence, the dragon began to sweep through the interior of the range.
She erased every trace of human presence she could sense.
’Insolent ants.’
She would vent her anger like this and wait for her strength to return.
As she was prowling with this thought, she suddenly noticed something strange.
’...GRRRA?’
It was a weapon, dropped by a human she had killed.
It looked oddly familiar.
’GRRRAA?’
’No. That’s ridiculous.’
’How could a weapon held by some weak human who died in a single kick look anything like the one I knew?’
Still, just in case, she moved closer.
The weapon was small, unsuited to her massive body, but that didn’t make it hard to inspect.
She lifted it with her mana, and her eyes, which could see for a thousand leagues, examined every tiny detail.
’...!’
When she confirmed what it was, Kardian’s pupils trembled.
There was no doubt.
She was certain.
GROOOOOAAAAAAAR!
’This is a weapon from my lair!’
A murderous glint flashed in her eyes.
’So it was humans.’
The moment her suspicion turned to certainty—
The difficulty of the Guild Selection Tournament rose to another level.
* * *
Upon returning to the Imperial Palace, Han Simin headed straight for the Emperor’s secret treasury.
“Open up, please.”
He made the request as casually as if asking to enter his own storeroom.
Leaving the Emperor so dumbfounded he couldn’t even muster a bitter laugh, Han Simin walked in and dumped the contents of his magic pouches onto the floor.
A cascade of all sorts of items tumbled out.
Even the Emperor was startled by how flashy and dazzling they were.
Not bothering to hide the proud lift of his shoulders, Simin began sorting through the goods.
“This pile is A-grade, this one’s B, this one’s F.”
It was the detailed classification he hadn’t had time for earlier.
Even with a major event like the dragon raid and Guild Selection Tournament underway, this work was important enough for him to set aside time for it.
“The Guild Selection Tournament is basically impossible for players to win anyway.”
’The audacity to give up without even trying!’
The Emperor was once again at a loss for words.
He had entertained a faint hope that this one, at least, might achieve some surprising results for an adventurer.
To see him make such a cold, realistic assessment—
It wasn’t a bad thing, but it was deflating.
“This one’s B-grade.”
“That one is mine,” the Emperor stated flatly.
“Tch.”
’Even in the middle of this, he can’t stop trying to pull a fast one...’
Still, the Emperor didn’t force him to go back and participate.
The man was uncontrollable, and the Emperor himself had never really thought they would kill the dragon.
It was just for show.
Whether it would actually be a threat to the dragon was another matter.
Humans did not back down easily.
No matter how many times you stepped on them, they would resist without fear of death.
And if they kept resisting, maybe—just maybe—the dragon would get sick of it and leave.
That tiny sliver of hope.
The fact that it was being realized, and far more effectively than he had imagined, was what was truly surprising.
“The dragon hasn’t appeared for over a week. Wouldn’t it be better for you to assist with the Guild Selection Tournament?” he tried to persuade him.
He was, after all, the Emperor’s son-in-law in name. If he at least got his name into the top 100, the princess would be delighted.
“Come on. Me going isn’t going to change anything.”
The problem was, his words bounced right off.
“I’m just going to use this special situation to make some money. What’s the point of taking first place in some fancy-sounding event like the Guild Selection Tournament? Even if I get all the benefits the Empire is offering, in the end, it just means I’m tied down here, right? I prefer a free life.”
On top of that came his self-justification and his chilling ability to poison the well for any prize he couldn’t claim himself.
“And if I go and die, I’m the only one who loses. I’ll just help out from here by supplying war materials. Not that anyone’s going to give me any credit for that.”
The Emperor was too stunned to speak.
’You call price-gouging support?’
The Emperor found himself speechless once again as Han Simin continued sorting without a single glance his way.
When the work was finally done—
Clutching two magic pouches, Han Simin set off with a resolute look in his eyes.
“I’ll sell all of this within six months.”
He headed for the auction house.
* * *
The Black Dragon Kardian had also solidified her conviction.
’This is definitely a weapon from my lair.’
’That is armor from my lair.’
’That one, too.’
’And that one!’
Most of the gear carried by the humans who had entered the mountain range was items that had once been piled up in her lair.
Not only had humans robbed her lair, but they had also distributed her treasures to other humans.
Unforgivable.
She had lost her temper and flown out, only to be bitten by ants and slink back into the mountains with her tail between her legs. But after seeing this, how could she possibly fear a little annoyance?
She would have her revenge.
She would mete out punishment.
She would ensure that no one ever again dared to take the name “dragon” lightly.
GRRRAA.
She checked her mana.
She could sortie right now—
She fell silent.
—except she didn’t have enough.
’If only my body were in perfect condition...’
She hesitated but did not give up.
VMMM—
The little mana she had managed to recover began to glow.
The Black Dragon’s massive body began to shrink. It contracted further and further, until it was the size of a human. Then, the light faded.
Polymorph.
“Ah. Ah.”
Kardian flexed her hands and feet and tested her voice. With a satisfied smile, she pulled the robe dropped by a dead mage over her otherwise naked body.
The etiquette, common sense, and culture needed to navigate human society were all etched into her mind—albeit based on standards from hundreds of years ago.
It would be difficult to sweep through and grasp the situation in her true form, but like this, it should be more than possible.
She sifted through the knowledge in her head for information on where she needed to go.
POP—
Then she blinked out of sight.
