Chapter 168 : Chapter 168
Chapter 168
Cha Myeonghan spoke again.
“Dodging the eyes of the Bureau and the administration in this world is extremely difficult.”
“That is precisely why I came to see you, Chairman.”
“And why do you believe I can do it?”
“Because you have already done it once.”
“……”
Thirteen years ago, during the Gangneung incident, the reason the refugees could be rescued was because of Cha Myeonghan’s support.
Very few people knew that fact, but it spoke volumes about the stance he maintained toward Baek Dojun, the Director-General of the Bureau.
“Since you know that, you are not trying to enter Gangwon-do for some frivolous reason.”
“I staked my life on it. If I were to exaggerate.”
“Of course, Yeri does not know.”
“If I told her, I would end up with a hole in my forehead.”
“That is true….”
Cha Myeonghan fell silent in thought for a moment.
He could have pressed me on why I was heading to Gangwon-do, but he did not bother to ask.
He clearly knew I would not answer.
He looked thoughtless on the surface, but one did not become the chairman of a group merely because of bloodline.
Before long, Cha Myeonghan’s gaze sharpened.
“An outpost project has been underway for some time. To be frank, entering Gangwon-do is not entirely impossible. Moreover, with your level of skill, surviving for a month would not be difficult. However, the problem is…”
“…?”
“That gap. As I said, you are the hottest topic in this world. In all likelihood, it will not even take a week before people begin to question your whereabouts.”
“That cannot be helped. I will have to handle things as quickly as possible.”
I said “as quickly as possible,” but I had no intention of leaving Gangwon-do until the magical artifact was removed.
If the plan succeeded, the resumption of the Great Rift could be prevented.
After that, the next phase would be watching the movements of Manyeong and the Demonic Beings.
Of course, once their shared objective vanished, the odds were high that they would keep one another in check.
It was largely the situation I wanted, but there was one problem: the Avid Reader.
I could not predict what method he would use to ruin matters next.
Cha Myeonghan spoke as though he had read my intent.
“So you have no countermeasure in the end.”
“If I were to put it simply, it is a time attack. An operation where the risks only increase as time passes.”
“Well, it is not as though there is no way at all.”
“Pardon?”
“I heard you took a leave of absence yesterday. In that case, it would be best for you to be employed under me. Ah, more precisely, it would be like commissioning a Special Affairs Division investigator.”
“You mean to formalize my absence.”
“Exactly. As it happens, I have business to fly to New York to meet my father in a few days. On the way, I will stop over in Busan, then depart again. We will simply drop you off in Busan and continue. The pretext will be that I am borrowing your Demonic Eye to verify the authenticity of certain goods.”
That was plausible.
In any case, Cha Myeonghan would move by chartered aircraft, and his close aides were, even in the original work, composed of people with loyal temperaments.
“How long will the period be?”
“Three weeks. If you count it, twenty days. If I extend the schedule abruptly, it will invite suspicion.”
“That is enough.”
“Good. It seems the rough size has been decided. We will proceed as such. In business, if you cling and drag things out, you end up with nothing.”
Cha Myeonghan rose from his seat.
He left only the words, “Next time we meet, you must come with a definitive answer,” and did not ask anything else.
Was there another man with such refreshingly decisive temperament?
Without regret, I left the study and got into the vehicle where Kim Songi was waiting.
“Will you be returning to Hero Prep?”
“No. Please take me to this address.”
“District 5.”
“Yes. It is the home of someone I know.”
The address I gave her was none other than Yun Jeongseop’s apartment.
The human skin mask I had requested from Park Chaeshin was scheduled to be delivered there.
While the vehicle drove, I opened a stock application on my smartphone.
The plan to head to Gangwon-do was proceeding smoothly so far.
There were still other important matters left, but I also needed to reorganize my financial assets.
No matter how things turned out, conflict between Manyeong and the Demonic Beings would intensify, and awakened capital would clearly surge in movement.
“At times like this, it is always…”
Hyeonseong Construction stock.
For the past eighty years, whenever major incidents occurred, Hyeonseong Construction stock always hit its daily upper limit.
Because disputes among awakened beings usually involved smashing, exploding, and collapsing.
Therefore, my choice was to buy in with everything, leaving only the bare minimum amount of cash.
Even if the profit did not turn out as desired, it did not matter.
In the original work, the value of Hyeonseong Construction had never fallen.
A miraculous stock that could not lose simply by holding it.
“Um, Investigator?”
“Yes?”
“A message just arrived from the young lady. She is asking for your location…”
“Absolutely not. Tell her that I simply left the estate on foot.”
“Understood.”
If I dealt with Cha Yeri here, today’s schedule would end on the spot.
Now that she already knew I was taking a leave of absence, she would try to cling to me no matter what.
“Ah, and if it would not be an imposition, could I ask for your autograph?”
“My autograph?”
“Well… my nephew is your fan.”
“Ah, that is fine. But I do not have a signature. Is it all right if I just write my name?”
***
At Yun Jeongseop’s apartment, I put on the human skin mask.
It was so suffocating that I could not help but wonder how Park Chaeshin wore this thing at all.
Still, I had no choice but to adapt.
Until I reached Gangwon-do, there would be almost no occasions to remove it.
“This is damned.”
In any case, I headed toward Seoul’s District 7 with my identity concealed.
That was the commercial district where the Production Guild was located.
The reason I visited was to go to Ironflame, the blacksmith guild.
I intended to obtain armor effective against status abnormalities and check Jang Incheol’s situation.
Whether he had ignited the Flame of Sloth, or not.
From District 5, I naturally took the tram and arrived in District 7.
Because I had contacted him in advance, I knew the location of the workshop where Jang Incheol was sweating. When I carefully entered, his back, endlessly hammering at an anvil, greeted me.
“Excuse me.”
A simple greeting.
He turned with an annoyed face, but the moment he recognized the ring on my hand, he brightened and set down his tools.
“Oh, welcome! You are later than the time you said you would come, so I was worried.”
“I hope I am not interrupting.”
“Not at all. If anything, I was worried about whether you liked the items I sent.”
“They were the best quality, just as I hoped. I have not been able to use them yet, though.”
“Is that so? A relief. Heh.”
The heat of the forge stung my skin.
Awakened beings did not easily sweat, but anyone who set foot here would leave having poured out a bucket.
Had he ignited a flame…?
The mana I sensed was different from a Dwarf’s.
When I sat on a nearby pile of leather and used the Demonic Eye, what I saw was an ordinary flame of mana.
“My workshop is shabby, so forgive me. It looks cluttered, but to my eyes, everything is in its proper place. More importantly, why did you wish to see me?”
“To thank you, and also because I wanted to look at some equipment.”
“Hm, you are welcome any time. Let me see. Will you wait a moment first? I only need to finish that one quickly.”
Jang Incheol pointed at the equipment on the anvil.
When I nodded, he immediately returned to the anvil and resumed his work.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Watching his back, I was reminded of that Dwarf from that day.
Was a master truly a master?
The work finished in less than ten minutes.
I followed him into a room connected to the workshop, and there, an enormous number of items lay arranged in chaotic profusion.
“These are…”
They were the items Jang Incheol had created over the years.
“It is only natural to be surprised. Every item here is waiting for its owner. Of what I have made, I selected only the finest and stored them.”
“You could sell them on the market and they would all be gone in no time. The quality is…”
Jang Incheol shook his head.
“If it were for money, would I have left inventory behind? Good items go to suitable owners. That is my rule.”
Stubbornness…
Not bad.
“Go on and look as much as you like. For you, I can give you anything.”
“Then I will take a look.”
I immediately began examining the goods with the Demonic Eye.
What I wanted were effects against status abnormalities.
I had a ring, but the more status-abnormality items, the better.
In particular, I needed to stack lightning resistance as much as possible.
Still, perhaps because he had spent his life in front of an anvil, he had amassed quite a collection.
Could I really check all of this in half a day?
For now, I was relying on the Demonic Eye to inspect them, but…
“Hm?”
At that moment, a suit of armor emitting a strange mana-light caught my eye.
It looked as though it were made from a small, thin silver metal, and its design was so easy to move in that it resembled the white shirt of a cadet uniform.
When Jang Incheol saw the armor I had picked up, he reacted as though impressed.
“Oho, that Demonic Eye truly is wondrous magic. You chose well. That fellow is armor made of Silvanium. It is thinner and lighter than most monster hides. Naturally, it is also excellent against status abnormalities.”
Silvanium.
One of the metals most renowned in this world.
“But is Silvanium not usually used for accessories?”
“Who decided that? It is an extremely rare metal, so it has merely been used for small trinkets. To begin with, there are few blacksmiths who can handle Silvanium properly.”
“Well, that is true.”
There was no room to argue.
In truth, even in the original work, dividing its uses had only been for the sake of explaining its characteristics.
“I call it magic armor. It cannot perfectly block physical attacks, but there is nothing better against magic attacks.”
“I would not even have thought of making Silvanium into an upper-body piece.”
“Ahem. If you like it, I will give it to you. Ah, since you said you would refuse free support, I will hand it over at a cheap price. It is, in fact, one of the most expensive items in this storehouse, but there could be nothing better than for you to take it.”
“May I pay right away? I want to wear it and test it as soon as possible.”
“Good. Then I will simply price the metal itself and roughly…”
Jang Incheol tapped a calculator on his blackened smartphone.
“Eight hundred million should do. It is a ninety percent discount.”
“Ah, eight hundred million?”
Eight hundred million for Silvanium magic armor was practically giving it away.
The metal alone was worth an absurd sum.
Having used Brichalcon and Platium so freely, I had briefly forgotten.
This was a world where Hunters with money to burn existed.
If it were someone else, they would have bought it without a second thought.
As an aside, it was only natural that it cost more than MA6, which had sold for 1.1 billion.
No matter how it was a classic limited firearm, there was no proof the Phantom Thief had used it, and firearms tended to be relatively less valued among items.
Above all, the metals used differed dramatically.
MA6 was a crude byproduct of cheap metal made in the early era of awakened beings, whereas Silvanium itself was a limited edition.
By that logic, the Brichalcon Sword I owned was even more expensive.
Seeing me hesitate, Jang Incheol thoroughly misunderstood.
“Is it perhaps too cheap? I quoted low to accommodate you…”
If I had been properly active, I likely would have earned far more money than I had now.
Should I simply steel my face and ask him to support me?
If I had known, I would have invested later.
I thought two hundred million would at least net something…
As I lamented inwardly, a message arrived on my smartphone.
It was a notice that the proceeds from the loot I had Stowed in Crystal had been deposited.
After taxes, a full six hundred million had come in.
A perfectly neat amount.
Since it was a period with fewer monster appearances, the auction must have fetched a rather high price.
I answered him at once, as he grew flustered.
“No, it is exactly the right price. I will buy it immediately. Where should I transfer the money?”