NSE-Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Winter Kingdom

After some back-and-forth haggling, he handed over a 10% stake to Ilseong.

The price set for it was 5 trillion won.

What had been most effective in setting the price was Park Si-woo’s existence.

He had brought in an SSS-grade Achievement holder overnight. Where was the law saying it would end with Park Si-woo alone?

The anticipation for the future had, in effect, inflated the stake’s price enormously.

‘If I’d founded a Guild alone, 5 trillion would have been out of the question.’

He had already received 1 trillion won in support. At best, he probably would have gotten about 2 trillion won.

‘Well, looking at the distant future, even this is quite cheap, but…….’

An EX-rank Awakened, and an SSS-rank Awakened on top of that.

Honestly, if he just laid all their abilities bare, there’d be no shortage of nations coming with even bigger bundles of money than this.

‘But then, I’d be properly leashed.’

Before he could even spread his wings, he’d be locked in a cage like a beast in a zoo.

It wasn’t such a good method.

By contrast, Ilseong had agreed to a contract close to a Daddy-Long-Legs arrangement, investing a large sum with almost no interference.

‘This is the blood-tie buff, you see.’

What’s family for?

Since he’d have to keep utilizing Ilseong’s power going forward, handing it over at a reasonable price was a win-win for both.

‘Got money now.’

Of course, this was not an amount he could put to use solely for himself.

Park Si-woo.

He had to invest in the guy to some extent too. It was money received for that very purpose in the first place.

He looked at the guy.

“You heard earlier, right? Si-woo, once you pass Level 101, that’s when you’ll join the Guild I made.”

“Yes. I understand. If I join now, I’d stand out too much.”

Park Si-woo nodded as if he understood.

When he had cleared Tomb of Osiris.

Kim Min-woo back then had been a newbie with nothing proven.

A record challenge?

Did he maybe get a serious head injury?

That kind of public opinion had been the mainstream.

But now was different.

He had already proven himself with one satisfying blow.

If Park Si-woo, too, drew attention here as an S-grade?

It wasn’t for nothing that they said your stomach hurts even when a cousin buys land.

People just want to trip up anyone who’s doing well, for no reason.

And right then, a Level 1 baby Awakened with an S-grade Achievement catches their eye?

Dark hands aiming for Park Si-woo would reach out from all sides.

From small things like appeasement and temptation to large ones like assassination attempts inside Gates.

The appeasement didn’t particularly matter.

Though their interaction had been short, the friendship he’d built with the guy wasn’t that shallow.

With generous support too, there was no need to worry much about Si-woo going elsewhere.

Only, assassination attempts inside Gates were different.

‘I have to be a bit careful about that.’

He himself had lightly wrecked Lee Seo-yun, but Park Si-woo was not yet at a completed stage.

If an Assassin of that level came after him, things would get extremely tough.

That was why he had adjusted the terms with the Chairman.

The Guild would be made right away.

Only the point at which Park Si-woo joined would be set somewhat later.

Roughly that was the content.

The benchmark was precisely Level 101.

The starting point of D-rank.

By then, he’d roughly have accumulated some real combat experience, and the Skills would have become familiar to his body.

He’d be able to join the Guild with at least the strength to protect himself.

“Your big brother will tell you what to do until then.”

“Yes, sir.”

He handed the guy Choi Yu-na’s number.

“Contact this person and ask for Elixirs to be made. Ahead of my orders. Use them to do some Lowest-Grade and Low-Grade Elixir-guzzling.”

“Yes.”

“Go around solo-playing Gates of moderate difficulty up to Level 101.”

The guy, too, was by nature a body that made party play hard.

The moment he slaughtered monsters with the Holy Sword in hand.

Huh?

Just how high is this kid’s Achievement?

Such suspicion was bound to arise. And if he held back his strength for real while playing in a party, his growth speed would become abysmally slow.

So solo play was the only option.

Fortunately, Gates weren’t all difficult ones.

Because even within the same rank, the levels were split, like 30-point and 90-point difficulty ones. Playing a low-score Gate solo didn’t draw tremendous attention.

On top of that.

He handed over several IDs.

Every one of them was an ID registered quite a long time ago. And yet ones that hadn’t escaped that range…….

‘Old-timer IDs.’

I’m an F-rank Gate specialist.

An E-rank master, that is.

With just one of these IDs, you could swagger around like this.

“For Gates, match the rank with these and go in. I matched the photos to resemble you.”

Old-timers who had stayed in each range for ages. If it looked like such old-timers were clearing low-score Gates, it would stand out even less.

The soldiers at the entrance would probably shrug it off too. There were always those stagnated in each range.

Park Si-woo, looking at the IDs, nodded.

“I’ll also bring in a teacher for you, so train hard in the sword too.”

“A teacher?”

“Yeah. Hold on.”

He immediately made a phone call.

After a moment.

―Is that Min-woo? It’s been a while.

A familiar voice came through the receiver.

“Yes, it’s been a while. The reason I’m calling is that I’ve found a usable prodigy. I was hoping the Sword Immortal could take on some of the instruction.”

―Usable, you say. Seeing you say so, he must be no ordinary child.

“You’ll find it quite enjoyable. May I ask this favor?”

―Send him over. I’ll look him over myself.

“Thank you. I’ll also visit you once when I have time later. Yes, yes.”

Having hung up, he looked at Park Si-woo.

“Whenever you have time, go to the Sword Sea Pavilion and learn some sword. Okay?”

“……Wow, Big Brother. You’re amazing. You even call the Sword Immortal directly…….”

The Sword Immortal was a being that even the Sword Sea Pavilion’s Instructors couldn’t easily meet.

Naturally, receiving direct instruction was something one could hardly dream of.

Yet Kim Min-woo had created such an opportunity with a single light phone call.

‘He really is an amazing person.’

Park Si-woo thought, gulping down his saliva. And he even realized what kind of opportunity he had seized.

“Thank you! I’ll work hard!”

‘Thanks, what for. I’m the one who’s more grateful.’

Kim Min-woo grinned.

The 5 trillion won in investment.

He planned to put this to very good use himself.

‘Because a Swordsman doesn’t particularly need +9 Skills.’

Of course, it would be good to have, but.

The efficiency was far lower than for himself, who ran a legion. It wasn’t for nothing that people said to choose and focus.

Awakened him.

Assigned a teacher.

Provided Elixir-guzzling.

And if he even fitted him with equipment, hadn’t he done all that was his duty?

Having done this much, it would be fine to funnel the investment money to himself.

It was truly high-efficiency money-printing.

“Yeah, work hard.”

It was about time to go clear a Gate on this side too.

* * *

[(Breaking news) Kim Min-woo, Now a Guild Master? Founds a New One-Person Guild Instead of Ilseong Guild!]

[(Breaking news) Guild Name Reported to Be ‘Money-Splurging’…….]

[(Breaking news) Will the Money-Splurging Guild Really Live Up to Its Name? Received Ilseong’s Generous Investment! Reportedly Traded Part of a Stake for an Enormous Sum…….]

[(Breaking news) Ilseong’s Side States That New Guild Members Will Be Selected After Consulting the Guild Master…….]

Han Baek-gil, who had been staring fixedly at the TV, looked at the members.

The past week.

He had poured Shadow’s strength into finding the guy who had hunted Lee Seo-yun.

From Number One to Number Seven.

They had gathered in one place again.

“Number Three. What are the investigation results?”

“First, it’s not an Awakened of A-rank or above. Their movements are all straightforward. There was no gap for entering a Gate.”

“Number Seven. Anything come up on the Low-tier Gate side?”

At those words, a man in a green mask shook his head and said.

“Boss, it’s gotten a bit tricky.”

“In what way?”

“Roughly five hundred guys entered Low-tier Gates alone that day…… and we’ve finished checking the rest to some extent. But this guy’s a bit different.”

Number Seven handed Han Baek-gil a document with personal details.

[Park Cheol-ung(32)]

[Awakened Rank: D]

[Class: Swordsman]

A document with the details of a most common Awakened.

Number Seven, having handed it over, said.

“This guy’s a forged identity.”

“……Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I went to the address and it was an empty house. On record he lived there for 10 years, but none of the neighbors know this bastard. That doesn’t make sense, you know?”

Han Baek-gil nodded.

In such cases, eight or nine times out of ten, it was a forged identity.

“So?”

“The ones who’d do this are usually only the black market guys. So I dug around a bit, you know? But I couldn’t find anything?”

“Did the merchants clam up?”

“No, it’s not on that level. The laundering is just far cleaner than theirs. This identity is even linked all the way into the government system network, you know?”

Normally, when forging an ID, it was typical to just copy the format plausibly enough.

Because the soldiers or Awakened guarding the entrance didn’t examine the details closely.

All the more so for something to be used at Low-tier Gates.

And that was linked into the government system network?

It meant the administrative systems had been tampered with. It meant it had gone through a truly proper laundering process.

That wasn’t something you could do with just money.

You had to have power as well.

Han Baek-gil’s face gradually stiffened.

“On top of that, maybe they noticed our investigation coming in, because they cut the tail right away? This identity has been completely destroyed. Now, a 32-year-old D-rank Awakened named Mr. Park Cheol-ung has become someone who never existed in Korea. Overnight.”

“……They must have ties to the conglomerates or the political world.”

“Yeah. And not just any ordinary tight ties. This guy’s backing seems pretty remarkable? Like that Kim Min-woo guy on TV over there.”

On the TV, content about Kim Min-woo’s Guild founding was still flowing out.

Several members who had been watching it as if entranced soon snickered.

“Hey, Number Seven. Don’t tell me you’re suspecting him?”

“Do I look that crazy? I’m just saying.”

Ilseong’s eldest son.

Laundering an identity to this extent would be child’s play.

But it was hard to think of Kim Min-woo as the culprit.

No, it was impossible.

He was a guy who had been Level 1 just a few days ago.

A mere low-level Necromancer taking down an Assassin at Level 300 who had attained an A-grade Achievement?

Even if he summoned a hundred, no, a thousand Skeletons, it was a fight Kim Min-woo couldn’t win.

Assassin?

Approach hidden, then one stab to the back of the head, and the game’s over.

Even if the Stealth were detected in advance, the problem remained.

She’d just advance head-on and swing a dagger once, and the Skeletons would collapse in a heap. What means would a Necromancer have to resist there?

Though there were rumors he was good with a sword, even so, it was impossible to overturn the gap in Level and equipment.

That was common sense.

Shadow’s members, being outstanding Awakened, were very sensible people.

The same went for Han Baek-gil.

“……Dig through the conglomerates and the political world entirely. See if anyone’s Awakened recently, and if so, at what level, everything.”

“Okay. I’ll start by digging through the higher-ups. It’d take that level to pull off this kind of thing in the blink of an eye.”

It wasn’t so strange that their investigation went slightly off track.

* * *

[You consume the Limit-Breaking Elixir!]

[Level Potential rises to 250!]

[You consume the Limit-Breaking Elixir!]

[Level Potential rises to 300!]

[You consume the Limit-Breaking Elixir!]

[Level Potential rises to 350!]

“Ahh, this is it.”

He let out a joyful scream at the dizzying ceiling. There’d be no more shedding tears of blood, blocked by the wall of mid-tier Awakened.

350 was the tail end of B-rank.

One more Level here and it was A-rank. From A-rank on was a domain everyone recognized as high-tier Awakened.

He’d only need to consume one more breakthrough Elixir, so it wouldn’t be difficult. By then, he’d be beating down Shadow and everything else.

Achievement Points would be printed out in copies.

‘Time to enter, it seems.’

He looked at the necklace in his hand.

A D-rank Gate.

He didn’t know anything about what would be there or what kind of Gate it was.

But was this only once or twice?

Kim Min-woo was confident.

Preparations were done too.

There was no reason to hesitate.

“Let’s go.”

[The Mysterious Necklace is activated!]

[The travel passage is opened!]

Soon, a red portal formed in the room.

The moment he put his foot into it.

The scenery before his eyes changed.

Whoosh!

Winter with a blizzard raging.

Inside a small village.

Kim Min-woo appeared amid a spacious clearing.

If there was one peculiar thing.

―What’s that, snort?

―Snort? Human? Seems like a human.

―Snort! Intruder! I kill intruder!

That instead of people, the village had muscular Orcs gathered in droves on every side!

“Uh…… hi?”

At the sight of the human offering a greeting, the Orcs raised their axes in return.