Chapter 53
Chapter 53: The Genius Kang Ho-in Saves the Tower (1)
Past Life, Childhood.
It was during a walk with Mother.
Running wild and reckless, I left Mother — who was carrying my little sister Seon-a — and sprinted into the forest.
"Mother! I'm the commander. Just follow me!"
Mother followed behind me without a word.
After wandering through the forest for quite some time, I suddenly looked back and realized I was lost.
Little me, a single tear welling up at the corner of my eye.
Mother approached me as I sniffled, and spoke softly.
"Our little commander, why are you crying?"
"I told you to trust only me, but I don't know the way."
"You don't know which way to go?"
"No……"
Mother wiped away my tears and said,
"If you don't know the way forward, turning back is also an option."
"Pardon?"
"Look behind you. Do you remember where we came from?"
"Yes."
"Sometimes there are paths that only become visible when you return to the starting point. Let's retrace our steps carefully. Our little commander has to lead the way, doesn't he?"
Mother smiled brightly, and that smile was more radiant than sunlight.
* * *
We returned to Korea.
Apparently, there had been quite an uproar with Mother and Bo-reum because I had vanished for two whole days.
It was a good thing I came back when I did —had I been even a day later, she had been planning to report it to the Japanese police.
"Mother."
Eyes brimming with tears, Mother opened the hotel room door, and silently pulled me into an embrace as I stepped inside.
She held back Bo-reum, who was smacking me repeatedly on the shoulders.
"Something came up and took a little longer."
"I see."
I didn't explain much.
I'd let her know it was regarding the Japanese expansion of the Bungeoppang business, and I burned through the last day before returning home.
"Tae-yang. Stand over there for a moment. Let me take a photo."
"Sure."
"Bo-reum. Get a little closer to your brother."
"Okay."
"Even closer. Give your brother a hug!"
"That's a bit difficult."
"Same here."
After all that, we finally returned home.
With a promise to take her somewhere nicer next time, I sent Mother home.
Five nights, six days.
Short, yet long.
* * *
Chief Han walked into Minister Han Seung-pyo office of the Gukmubon with a confident expression.
"Chief Han!"
The moment she stepped inside, Minister Han snatched up the receiver and bellowed.
His toupee, slipping clean off his head.
He was so furious that steam seemed to be rising from his skull.
"Minister. I'm here to report on the mission."
"Report? What report! What on earth were you thinking!"
Minister Han slammed the receiver down with a bang! and roared.
"You. I told you to go to Japan, convince Jang Ae-guk and the Japanese Gukmubon, and bring back the Iron Instrument God's Sword!"
"That's correct."
"Then why is the Japanese Gukmubon calling me?! Jang Ae-guk is saying you stole the sword — making a huge scene!"
"That's correct."
"These Japanese lunatics, saying we stole some sword — as if that would even be possible……. What?"
Minister Han stopped and stared at her.
Chief Han smiled and nodded.
"That's right. I stole it."
"What do you……?"
Thud.
She placed something wrapped in white cloth on Minister Han's desk.
Minister Han hurriedly unwrapped the cloth, took one look —
"Huh!"
— and immediately wrapped it back up, as if afraid someone might see.
"……It's real?"
"Yes."
"Good heavens!"
"……"
"Oh, my darling!"
Chief Han let out a small smirk, and Minister Han lifted her up with both hands.
"Our daughter is the greatest!"
After fumbling around in sheer elation, Minister Han collected himself and asked her,
"How on earth did you pull this off?!"
"You told me not to care about the means or methods."
"I said that?"
"By all means, just bring it back. Ahem. Those were your words."
"Even so, you stole it?"
"It's simply returning something to its rightful place."
"This is truly……"
"……"
"Worth a medal!"
Minister Han looked ready to break into a dance.
"Get the car ready immediately!"
"Where shall I take you?"
"The Blue House!"
That evening.
Republic of Korea President Park Jae-yeol delivered a public address to the nation.
"Today, I stand before you with a humble heart. I bring joyful news to the people of our nation. That is — the lost treasure, the Iron Instrument God's Sword, has returned to the embrace of the Republic of Korea!"
President Park Jae-yeol's face was flushed red as he made the announcement.
The presidential approval rating survey conducted in haste the following day showed a surge of a full 20%, and Park Jae-yeol was making a tremendous fuss, saying he would have to nominate Minister Han as the next Prime Minister.
【Through your righteous act, every citizen of the Republic of Korea rejoices. +1,000,000 Happiness】
The internet forums erupted as well.
[Celebration! The Return of the National Treasure!!]
Korea cries tears of joy as national treasure returns, right?Japan cries tears of sorrow, right?
└ Josenjing. Theft is their specialty.
└ It wasn't stolen. It came back on its own.
└ Who would believe that? Lies are their specialty.
└ The Republic of Korea is blessed by the Golden Tower. The national treasure walked home.
└ Japan of the Shadowless Divine Thief Yellow.
└ Late with the news. Korea is golden.
└ Rot, Josenjing.
└ Next up is the Seven-Branched Sword.
Japan could not say a single word even after watching President Park Jae-yeol's address.
Because it was they themselves who had been flatly denying all along that the Iron Instrument God's Sword was in Japan.
And yet, they had been deliberately leaking glimpses of the sword to the media, stoking the nationalist right-wingers to boost their approval ratings.
The moment the address ended, a call came in from the Japanese Gukmubon. To Minister Han.
Riiiing—!
"Hello."
"Please return the sword."
"The sword? What sword?"
"The Japanese treasure that Chief Han took!"
"Is that so? Chief Han. Did you take the Iron Instrument God's Sword from Japan? She says she didn't."
"We just watched the president's address!"
"Then are you admitting that Japan had taken our Iron Instrument God's Sword all along?"
"That's not what I—"
"Oh, the reception is terrible. Must be because it's an island nation. Hello?"
"Minister Han! Minister Han!"
It was a conversation almost unbelievable for ministers representing their respective nations — childish, yet also thoroughly entertaining.
Minister Han was in such high spirits that he felt as though the hair he'd long lost might actually start growing back.
【Minister Han says it feels as though a decade's worth of indigestion has been completely washed away. +1,000 Happiness】
Chief Han received a medal — unofficially.
Though it was a photo that could never be released to the press.
Shaking hands with the president, as he pinned the medal to her chest —the proud look on Father's face was something she felt she would never forget for the rest of her life.
The recovered Iron Instrument God's Sword was, for the time being, to be kept in the Gukmubon's care.
To prevent the same thing from ever happening again, it was designated a National Treasure.
And three months later, a globally-scaled event was to be held.
A martial contest among Korea's climbers!
The prize for first place — none other than the Iron Instrument God's Sword.
However, to claim the grand prize, one condition applied: the winner had to be a citizen of the Republic of Korea.
The plan: skilled climbers from around the world would flood into Korea, all vying for this sword!
An advertisement draft for the event had already been produced.
[Super Climber K!]
‘Those worthy — claim the Republic of Korea's National Treasure!’
It was a slogan proposed personally by Chief Han.
In just three months, a climber bearing Korea's national treasure would storm the long-awaited 37th floor of the Murim Tower.
Chief Han put forward one additional suggestion.
To post the advertisement above in the Black Market as well.
Some argued there was no need to post it there since everyone would find out eventually —but she said she would go and post it herself.
When everyone asked why she would go that far, Chief Han smiled and answered.
"There's someone……I want to catch again."
* * *
Time flew like an arrow.
Though I needed to climb the 24th floor of the Murim Tower, I had been deliberately putting it off.
The country was buzzing over the Golden Tower and the return of the national treasure, the Iron Instrument God's Sword.
If I climbed the Tower right now, I could stand to lose even a little bit in Happiness Points.
With the collapse of the African Murim Tower, the points I gained upon reaching Gold Rank had multiplied tenfold.
One million points.
But to reach that insane goal of 999,999,999 — the road ahead was still impossibly long.
【Current Happiness Points: 29,773,265 / 999,999,999】
29.77 million points.
A lot earned, yet still woefully short.
Think about it.
If housing costs are roughly 990,000……actually, let's just round it to a billion won —and the money saved so far is 29.77 million won — you'd die a tenant for life.
"The efficiency is terrible. This won't do."
Assuming the Tower has 100 floors, I should have saved at least 200 million by the 20th floor.
But it was barely a tenth of that.
I was now certain.
Simply climbing recklessly is not the answer.
The sense of elation and thrill had to be maximized.
In other words,
"I can't let the people take the Golden Tower for granted."
The lower you press something down, the higher the happiness bounces back up.
But I had already set the entire nation ablaze with excitement.
"This is a problem. I can't exactly make things go badly on purpose."
There was a way.
Simple — just stop climbing the Tower.
As time kept ticking down, anxiety would spike again.
But……
"I have to climb the Tower."
With every eye closed, the thought of tearing into the Alliances Leader, the Sect Leader, and the Heavenly Demon's throats kept me from even sleeping properly.
"Will it be resolved if I just keep climbing at this rate?"
Thinking back on the climbs so far, the Murim Tower had been showing me the events of my past life —
"It won't end at the 100th floor. There's been so much more that happened after leaving Demon Wind Manor."
But.
What if it doesn't?
What if it truly ends at floor 100?
"Stuck either way……"
I quietly closed my eyes.
Mother's words from my childhood surfaced in my mind.
'If you don't know the way forward, turning back is also an option.'
Right.
"Let's return to the starting point."
One steady step at a time, rather than overnight riches.
Ding!
【A customer who ate a Handsome Bungeoppang exclaims it's delicious. +5 Happiness】
"Almost forgot."
There was this.
Around 3,000 points were coming in per day.
About a million points a year.
Earning small, steady points was all well and good.
But the scale of ‘small’ was truly, painfully small.
Bungeoppang was limited to a thousand pieces a day.
Aside from Grandmother and Mother, the secret recipe couldn't be shared with anyone, and quality was hard to guarantee otherwise, so —
"Besides Bungeoppang, what else is there?"
Ding!
【A Changbai Sect climber shouts their thanks to the Nameless Hero. +20 Happiness】
Right. There was this too.
The 21st-floor bypass strategy I had shared.
I'd been making a decent amount from this as well.
In particular, after leaking it to the Black Market, it had spread quietly around the world.
Ding!
【French climber Karl shouts 'Merci beaucoup' to the Nameless Hero. +20 Happiness】
【Vietnamese climber Nguyen Quang Hai whispers 'Xin cảm ơn' to the Nameless Hero. +30 Happiness】
Points were now being earned from all over the world.
Not as much as from Bungeoppang, but far better than nothing.
Just as I had predicted, 'Nameless Hero be blessed' had taken on the effect of a charm.
Of course, those who actually said it were fewer than those who didn't —
but I thought it over carefully.
"I shouldn't give people the option to chant it. Is there no way to make everyone give thanks to me by force?"
Words alone won't do it.
"It has to be something tangible."
Create a situation where they have no choice but to use something of mine — and if conquering the Tower through it sends that happiness back to me, and if I let it be known that this too was the Nameless Hero's work, it would lend even more weight to that name.
Mother.
Grant me your wisdom!
That was when something flashed through my mind.
"……I've got it!"
I got in the car immediately.
The destination was the Black Market.
* * *
I arrived at the Black Market.
"Guess I can't use this card anymore."
Park Jeok-sa's high-grade entry card.
Thanks to it, I'd made good use of it all this time.
Using his card to get in, I'd bought and sold all sorts of things — and leaking the 21st-floor information had been the most significant.
Using Park Jeok-sa's card stirred both the Red Dragon Gate and the Gukmubon into action, which in turn gave me more room to maneuver.
There had been a clash between the Red Dragon Gate and the Gukmubon —
"Not my problem."
And whose fault was it for recklessly sending people after me?
A small bird chasing a stork will only end up tearing itself apart.
I'm the stork.
One with very long legs, at that.
Thud—
I tossed Park Jeok-sa's card into the trash.
First, I made the rounds of the shops and started offloading the goods I'd swept from Demon Wind Manor.
I'd already sold a few hundred million won's worth at the Gukmubon Item Exchange —but trying to liquidate what amounted to well over 20 billion was bound to draw attention.
The Black Market was more appropriate.
"Let's sell just 2 billion worth today."
I spread it across several shops.
They all said I'd brought something rare and gave me good prices.
5 hundred million in cash, 1.5 billion in 'Coins'.
A considerable portion of that went right back out as payment for information on the next Murim Tower challenge.
I'd casually overheard a few things about the upper floors while talking with the Choi brothers, but I couldn't exactly ask them outright.
The information fees were steep, but I didn't regret spending them.
With the world riding a rollercoaster, Coin prices fluctuated wildly too.
"Coins — the more I think I understand them, the more I don't."
The cash was piling up back at my Cheongdam apartment.
Depositing it in a bank would be ideal, but a sudden surge in assets flags you for scrutiny.
As it was, receiving high-value real estate and large sums from the Choi brothers of Baekgyeong had recently drawn brief attention from the National Tax Service.
The Choi brothers had handled it, of course —and besides, I, Poison Demon, don't trust banks like Cheongeum Manor, which is in bed with the Namgung Family.
Trusting is fine, but not trusting is even better — that much I know.
"What I trust right now are my family and cash alone."
On this point, I might actually align with Kim Tae-yang's warped view of society.
After selling off the goods, I went in search of today's objective.
"Chief Han. Where are you?"
She must be somewhere around here.
Come out, come out.
I've brought something that should be quite interesting to your ears.
"……Hm?"
That's when something caught my eye.
The Super Climber K! advertisement poster.
"I go to the trouble of retrieving the Iron Instrument God's Sword for them, and this is what they do with it — Super Climber?"
That wasn't quite what I had in mind when I gave it to them.
They must have their own thinking behind it, but I wasn't particularly pleased.
'Those worthy……'
That one line alone I could get behind.
I stood there for a moment, looking at the poster —
"Would you like to grab a cup of coffee?"
It was Chief Han.