Chapter 114
Japan Is Shocked and China Trembles (2)
3.
The day after the broadcast.
I stopped by Ethernell for a moment, when I received a call from Deputy Director Choi of the Ability Management Department.
“Um… I’m asking just in case. Truly, without even the slightest doubt.”
“Come on, why be so formal with me? You can speak comfortably.”
“According to rumors, major corporations from China, Europe, the Middle East, and so on… are showing interest.”
“The complete mana core? Or the incomplete one?”
“Both… apparently.”
“Deputy Director Choi. Of course Korean companies come first. You know me, right? Patriotic Yoo Sung-woo. Don’t worry. And honestly, I have a lot of uses for them right now anyway, so selling them would take a long time.”
“Ah, I see. Then, if—just if—you ever plan to sell, please let us know first… We’ll prepare as much funding as possible. Then I’ll take my leave.”
“Yes, yes. Take care.”
Click.
I’m seriously busy to death.
Why are there so many calls?
“Who was it?”
“Ah, someone from the government.”
“If they keep bothering our boss, should I drop a meteor or something? Then it’d get really quiet.”
Bellua smiled while sipping the cola I had brought her through a straw.
I know she’s joking, but it’s scary.
Probably because she has a track record.
“Do you like the cola?”
“Yes. It’s really delicious. They said your world has a lot of tasty things, and they weren’t wrong. If I’d eaten Avalon’s food after this, it would’ve been hard to endure.”
“Boss! This drink is insane! Feels like it’s packed with protein. Please bring a whole box next time!”
Ah, Kalas was happily drinking a protein beverage.
Truly the hero obsessed with muscles—he wouldn’t touch soda, only stuff like that.
“Oh right. And chicken breast too. Bring lots of that. Earth is such a great world for building your body! You came from a place like this, so why don’t you have more muscles, boss?”
“At least the boss is better than you, Kalas. Sometimes even your brain is covered in muscles.”
“You crazy witch!”
“Wanna fight?”
“…Boss. I’ll go work out for a bit!”
Kalas fled in a panic without even recovering his losses.
This place was the 4th floor of the Abyss, Ethernell’s mirror world.
Specifically, our own hideout located in the center of the city.
It hadn’t been long since the broadcast, but there were already quite a lot of people in the city.
Since it didn’t have any immediately useful functions yet, most players seemed to be here just for sightseeing.
“Everyone was going crazy wanting to take pictures with me.”
“So did you let them?”
“Are you jealous right now?”
“No, it’s just that you usually throw fireballs when people bother you.”
“I thought about it, but I have to manage public opinion too. Reputation management is essential.”
“How many hours a day are you on your phone lately?”
“Hmm, about six? There’s a lot of fun stuff besides your channel, boss.”
Was it really Bellua who donated to my stream yesterday?
Let me probe a little.
“Do you ever donate?”
“What? With what money?”
“That’s strange.”
“Why?”
“I heard online that you got some money from people. Supposedly you charged cash for teaching a few spells.”
I’d heard the amount was enormous.
Bellua muttered while looking out the window.
“Hah, which bastard snitched? Should I catch them and stuff them alive?”
“Bellua?”
“I didn’t take that much. Really. I was just curious. Mages have crazy curiosity, you know.”
But how did she even top up her MeTube account?
That should be impossible without proper identification.
No matter how I looked at it, I’d have to ask the Ability Management Department. She clearly had connections there.
Just as I was about to dig deeper, Bellua skillfully changed the topic.
“By the way, where did you get this amazing thing?”
She admired the Complete Mana Core, shining golden in her hand.
“I’ve never seen this structure before, but it’s exactly like a mage’s circle. The functions should be similar too… Hmm. How would you even make something like this?”
“Even for a great archmage, is it hard?”
“This is closer to magitech than magic. I do know magitech, but you can’t make something like this without understanding the principles. To analyze it properly, I’d need to disassemble it…”
She smacked her lips for a moment, then glanced at me.
“But it’d be a waste to take it apart, right?”
“I brought it just in case. You told me to.”
“I thought it could push the city’s mana efficiency to the extreme. But it’s beyond my expectations.”
Ethernell.
This mirror world Bellua painstakingly created is ultimately a city that runs on mana.
In other words, the more mana supplied, the more functions are activated.
“Can you give this to me?”
I nodded readily.
“How much will efficiency improve?”
“If I put this core into the one I made, at least double. The city will run with much less mana. First, I’ll adjust the teleportation gates. I checked your MeTube channel, boss—you own a few more lands, right?”
She meant the Witch’s Forest and the Primordial Forge.
And now there was also the Secret Laboratory.
The Witch’s Forest was on the 2nd floor, the Forge on the 3rd, the Laboratory on the 4th.
All different floors.
So what was she planning with teleportation gates?
“I copied the principle of Abyss Gates and applied it to this city. Here—coordinate stones. If you plant these in the ground, you can create gates.”
“Gates?”
“It’d be convenient for other players to travel, right? Oh, and the beings living in those areas can come here too.”
So beings like Egersa or Ruby from the Witch’s Forest could come here?
That was good news.
Bellua said while turning the coordinate stone in her hand:
“You recruited beings from other dimensions again this time. I think that’ll happen more often from now on. So I want to make Ethernell a place that connects them all.”
That’s how Avalon’s Ethernell was.
A place where many races gathered to fight a common enemy.
A city of comrades.
It seemed Bellua wanted to make this Ethernell the same kind of place.
A city that gathers those trapped in the Abyss.
…That actually sounds pretty fun.
“Anyway, boss, just keep streaming like an idiot as you always do. I’ll take care of the rest. Bring what I ask for, help when I ask.”
“It’ll cost a lot to maintain this city.”
Bellua snorted.
“Weren’t you planning to activate its functions and rake in money anyway?”
“Get out of my head.”
“With someone simple like you, it’s obvious.”
She drained the remaining cola in one gulp, crushed the bottle lightly, and smiled.
“But still, boss.”
“Yeah?”
“You feel reassured with me here, right?”
“…Mm.”
This is why you should live kindly.
Save another world, and people from that world come to help you.
Isn’t that mutual aid?
“Just trust me, boss.”
“That line scares me the most.”
“And next time, bring a laptop too. It looked fun.”
“Wait, don’t you need to guard Avalon? Isn’t the Mage Tower busy?”
“I’m the tower master. What are they going to do about it? Go on strike like on Earth? Don’t worry. That doesn’t exist in Avalon. Let them try striking—I’ll crush them.”
…Is that really reassuring?
I don’t think so.
4.
And so, I decided to invest the Complete Mana Core directly into Ethernell.
Honestly, I didn’t calculate its exact value.
Last time, even a transcendence-grade trait cost hundreds of billions. If this was something beyond superconductors, wouldn’t it reach absurd levels?
Of course, I was planning to use it myself anyway.
“No, hyung, I seriously thought about it.”
“Yeah?”
“You made a corporation this time, right? Let’s just merge companies too.”
This was the office of Inseop’s MCN, Astral Core.
We came to discuss the fan meeting and other things.
I took a sip of coffee and glanced at him.
“You just want to slack off.”
“…It’s not a one-man MCN anymore. Right, Kangwoo hyung?”
“It’s closer to Meteor’s MCN than Inseop’s. Check your inbox. Most of the inquiries are for Sung-woo.”
“What kind of inquiries?”
“Usually ads, but… today’s different.”
Kangwoo hyung showed me his laptop screen.
Hundreds of emails piled up.
Their subjects were mostly:
“Hello, we are an American corporation…”
“We are a Saudi state-owned company. We would like to purchase the Complete Mana Core you obtained…”
“We are China…”
“We are Japan…”
All about the Complete Mana Core I got on stream yesterday.
With this level of interest, I could probably get a ridiculous amount.
While I was looking through the inbox, I noticed an internet tab open above it.
“…What Happens If Korea Regularly Produces Incomplete Mana Cores – Korea to Lead the World Order…”
“Oh, that? I was just curious.”
“You read stuff like that?”
“It’s fun.”
Kangwoo hurriedly closed the laptop.
Even he, usually so easygoing, was acting like this.
I’d checked the internet earlier too—it was insane.
…Still, isn’t this better than Koreans being depressed?
“But hyung, can they really produce it?”
“We’ll know once we test the materials, but probably. I did rough calculations with the department yesterday, and… the profit margin isn’t that crazy.”
Facilities could improve efficiency later, but for now it wasn’t extreme profit.
There were actually some Incomplete Mana Cores on the market already.
But Korea hadn’t reached the floors where they drop—after floor 7—because our Abyss progress was low.
So it was less like discovering superconductors, and more like discovering oil.
Of course, demand still far exceeded supply.
So it’s good news regardless.
“First in the world to produce it.”
Everyone would be happy that an item once only obtainable as drops could now be crafted.
And I was happy too.
“In the end, the money comes into my pocket.”
“Sometimes you really seem obsessed with money.”
“Who in the world hates money? I need to move houses.”
“…If you do business seriously, you could buy an entire apartment complex… no. Never mind.”
Oh, and the fan meeting list was finalized too.
They even found two viewers who’d watched me before I went to Avalon.
The venue was secured, the list made, and the merchandise was being produced.
Details were still being discussed, but—
Ring ring.
“Again?”
Deputy Director Choi.
They were really calling me a lot today.
I answered quickly, and heard his tense voice.
“…Sorry for calling again.”
“Come on, there’s nothing to apologize for.”
“Something happened. I was wondering if you had time.”
“Something?”
Choi wasn’t the type to call me lightly.
He was always careful around me—almost too much.
So what was it?
“Guests from the US and Japan arrived. But… wait, just a moment. Hey! Stop them from fighting! Now! …Sorry. Really sorry, but could you come?”
“Is it about the mana core?”
“You could say that.”
“Wow. So those MeTube channels were real?”
The so-called national pride TV that said “Japan is shocked and America is watching” was real?
No need to think about it.
“I’ll be right there.”
If I’m not there, it’s not a party.
I smell something fun.
Let’s head over.
