Chapter 122

“You’re going to speed up the annihilation?”
Alkan stared at the crystal ball in mild surprise, and then a voice began to emanate from it.
-Yes, Your Majesty.
“Well, since Prominus is dead, I guess it’s okay to move forward. I’ll wait for your report.”
-Thank you.
Suk
The light faded from the crystal ball. Alkan looked away from the crystal ball and resumed his work.
Smart
“Your Majesty, this is Revill.”
A short time later, there was a knock on the door and Revill’s voice came through.
“Uh, come on in!”
At Alkan’s shout, the door opened and Revil entered. Once inside, Revil placed the few papers he was carrying on his desk.
“Here are your documents for payment, and…”
Revil’s words trailed off, and Alkan looked up from his papers. Revil was pulling something out of his arms.
“It’s not that urgent, but… I think it’s the most important thing.”
Reveille pulled the letter out of his arms and handed it to Alkan. Alkan put down the papers he was reading and began to read the letter.
“…”
Alkan’s brow began to furrow as he read the letter, and when he finished, he put it down, thought for a moment, then pulled out a piece of paper and began to scribble something down.
“Tell him that it’s okay to take it slow.”
“…?”
Revil shook his head as he received the letter, and when he realized who it was addressed to, he opened his mouth to speak.
“Then you are currently…”
“They said it’s over.”
“Oh… I see, then.”
Taking the letter, Revil left the office again. As Revil left, Alkan muttered quietly to himself as he picked up his papers to get back to work.
“A city. I can’t believe it.”
* * * * *
<Trouble in the Denba Plains
The northernmost city of the Helioca Empire, Madran, is currently in the midst of its expansion. However, one of the neighboring frontiers, the Denva Plains, is currently being held back by a problem. Travel to the Expansion Headquarters in Madran to hear about and solve the problem in the Denva Plains!
Time remaining: 44 days
Difficulty Level: A
Quest Reward: ???, 2 million Helioca Merit + ??? (You will receive additional Merit).
"How much will you give me…"
Ming Hu muttered as he looked at the quest rewards. When he had completed the previous Karot quest, he had received 3 million Merit Points as a base reward and 10 million Merit Points as an additional reward. The base reward for this quest was 2 million, and I was curious to see how much the extra reward would be.
"I'm buying a chutzpah temple! It's expensive!"
"I'm looking to get rid of some stuff, and I've got a lot of miscellaneous items. Trade!"
Arriving at the auction house, Ming Hu closed the quest window and went inside.
"I buy gold, $13 per gold, minimum 10 gold, maximum 200 gold."
"Buy gold! I dream of 3500 won per gold!"
"Selling 50 gold. Fourteen thousand per gold!"
Once inside, Ming Hu paused as he heard the cries of the players. He hoped he hadn't misheard them, but the cries continued, so he approached the auction house NPC and opened the sale board to check the price of the gold.
"15k per gold? It went up?
This didn't make sense to Ming Hu, who continued to sell gold except for his 100,000 gold emergency fund.
"Last time it was 9,000 won.
The price of gold has been falling steadily. The last time Ming Hu disposed of the gold, the market price was 9,000 won per gold. But now, the price had dropped so low that only when it fell below 9,000 did the normal price of gold go up. Not just up, but up dramatically.
"Is it manipulation?
If the price went up like this, it was obviously manipulated. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was manipulation.
"Why take such a big risk…?
Gold is different from items. Manipulating gold was a risky endeavor when it was new, and now that it's starting to diminish over time, it's a risky endeavor.
"Is there another purpose?
There had to be another purpose. Otherwise, there was no reason to manipulate gold with an overwhelmingly high probability of losing.
'It's me… I like it, but…'
Ming Hu first gave 200,000 gold to the auction house NPC and registered it to be sold automatically at $14,500 per gold. He waited and watched for a while. After a while, all 200,000 gold was sold. It didn't happen over a period of time, but in one fell swoop.
'…Wow. What kind of a lunatic is he.'
It was clear that someone was manipulating the system, as 2.9 billion gold in cash was purchased in one fell swoop. Ming Hu raised the price again by 200,000 gold. As expected, the gold sold quickly.
"900,000 gold. I only need to sell four times."
After checking how much gold he had left, Ming Hu continued to post gold in 200,000 gold increments. The gold sold almost as quickly as it was posted, and after a while, when he had sold all of it, Ming Hu checked his mileage.
"Yikes."
Ming Hu's jaw dropped when he saw the miles. As usual, Ming Hu transferred all but 100 million miles to his bank account.
Jumbled
After Ming Hu finished his business at the auction house, he checked the bulletin board once more and exited the auction house. He walked straight to the north gate and opened his inventory. The inventory was filled with the certificates he had gotten from the stone knights and soldiers.
"Ah!
As Ming Hu was looking at the token, an item came into his field of vision.
"I didn't check this.
Ming Hu quickly checked the item's information.
<Skillbook: Summon Palace
to learn to summon a palace.
The Palace Summon skill book, which was the only item that Prominence dropped aside from the quest item, the Mark, had very concise information, just like the other skill books. Ming Hu thought about what kind of skill it was, Summon Palace.
'No matter how much I think about it. I'm summoning a palace.
I couldn't think of anything else. I couldn't think of any other meaning for the skill name, Summon Palace.
"So it's a skill that summons them.
Ming Hu remembered the palace where Prominus had been. Prominus had been there, this skillbook had come from Prominus, and the name of the palace was the Palace of Waiting for the Master. It made sense, Ming Hu thought, and quickly pulled the skillbook out of his inventory. He then used the skill book to learn the skill.
-Skill: You have mastered Summon Palace.
After acquiring the skill, Ming Hu immediately opened the skill window to check the skill.
Helioca Merit 100
Intermediate Gargoyle Soldier’s Mark -> Helioca Merit 300
Superior Gargoyle Soldier’s Mark -> Helioca Merit 600
Mark of the Lesser Gargoyle Knight -> Helioca Merit 1400
Intermediate Gargoyle Knight’s Mark -> Helioca Merit 2500
Superior Gargoyle Knight’s Mark -> Helioca Merit 5000
Ming Hu, who was once again reminded of the merit he would receive for redeeming the certificates on the bulletin board, took out the certificates and began handing them to the boy. Luckily, the tokens are stackable, so he doesn’t have to exchange them one by one.
[Handed over 657 marks of a junior stone soldier].
[Helioca’s notoriety has increased by 65700].
.
.
.
.
[He handed over 173 certificates of senior stone knights].
[Helioca’s public profile has increased by 865,000].
“It’s up about 2.5 million.
Ming Hu smiled when he saw the merit he had earned through the certificate. The little boy bowed his head in greeting.
“Thank you!”
The kid’s demeanor had changed enough to make Ming Hu wonder if it was the same kid who hadn’t said a word the first time. Ming Hu turned away from the boy and started walking toward Madran again, and with that, he disappeared, and the users who were buying the tokens started talking.
“Has anyone seen it?”
“Oops, I wasn’t looking at the wrong thing.”
“Look at the kid’s reaction. I think he’s over two million.”
“But the kid didn’t say anything at first, which means it was zero before the exchange.”
“Six times zero to two million?”
“He was clearly a first-time user.”
“Does anyone recognize that user?”