Hard Carry Support

「See? They\'re already checking the terrain around the area since many buildings will be constructed there.」

According to the Darkness Guild information analysts, the chances of their movements overlapping if Hyun didn\'t know the information were less than 1%, but that 1% of possibility had turned into reality. The truth was that the probability was 100% from the beginning.

「Hmm… Isn\'t he trying to get Sacred Stones?」 Pias asked, but Bearshield dismissed his commentary.

「No. Why would he dig so little in so many places if that were the case?」

「Pias, think a bit more logically. The deal hasn\'t even started. Who would touch a resource when the deal has yet to begin?」

「I guess so.」

After hearing Bearshield and Mayday, Pias had no choice but to clear up his doubts.

XL and Reina also agreed with that.

「It\'s clear that he came here with all of that information.」

「Yes. It would be better if we avoided unnecessary conflict.」

XL remembered what Hyun had said.

"I forgot to obtain control priority, so they ended up dying. If I had control priority, that wouldn\'t have happened."

That\'s what Hyun had said after they met.

He knew the hidden meaning behind those words.

By ‘control priority’, he was probably talking about the protection clause in contracts. He was probably threatening them because of that.

「There\'s no way he doesn\'t know the situation.」

XL decided to accept his mistake.

He was sure that was information an individual wouldn’t know, but it seemed like Hyun had obtained the same information as the Darkness Guild by himself.

「There\'s a chance any further action would cause even more animosity.」

「Then are you saying he should give it all up?」

「No. I\'m just saying we should make the best deal possible.」

The Darkness Guild had already invested a sum of money they couldn\'t ignore.

The day after a patch was as valuable as gold and dozens of guild members had lost their lives!

If they backed off without any results, their guild members would lose trust in the higher-ups.

「We have a reputation to maintain, after all.」

How should he make the deal?

The benefits of Demonia Gorge could be split into two: One was the obvious benefit, and the other was the hidden benefit…

The outer benefit was the Sacred Stones.

The Sacred Stones had stacked up a lot after five years of no one going to those lands. On top of that, if someone sold the one or two that were generated each month, they would be able to obtain quite the benefits.

Still, that was nothing compared to the other benefit.

The hidden benefit was the contract to protect the research institutions. That contract was worth millions of dollars!

\'We\'ll have to give up… On the bigger benefit.\'

XL analyzed the situation coldly.

Hyun and Ain were the only users and the only faction that could nullify their contract.

If they overreacted, their guild could have to pay a penalty for breaching the contract.

\'Although it\'s too bad, I\'ll have to offer him something good.\'

XL thought of what he would do.

He’d already prepared something that would satisfy Hyun, wouldn\'t ruin the Darkness Guild’s reputation, and wouldn\'t make them have to pay a penalty.

Even if Hyun\'s personality were as Keiji described, it wouldn\'t be easy for him to refuse such conditions.

XL brought up what he\'d prepared when the conversation ripened.

"We\'re going to give you however many control rights you want over Demonia Gorge."

"Control rights…?

"Yes. Also, we can\'t help you build the infrastructure."

\'What is he talking about…?\'

Hyun couldn\'t understand what XL was talking about.

A Sacred Stone appeared once every two or three months there, so was he talking about giving him the right to obtain them?

He wasn\'t planning to visit Demonia Gorge constantly… There were too many things he had to do, so he couldn\'t be bothered with a task like that.

Then XL took a few documents out of his inventory.

"Here\'s a brief explanation of everything we can help you with."

"Hmm? Documents?"

"Yes. There\'s also a copy of the contract. Feel free to read it and tell me what you want."

Confused, Hyun took the papers.

Was there a need to have so many written words while discussing the distribution of Sacred Stones?

\'…?\'

Those thoughts disappeared as soon as he began reading the documents.

After feeling as if he\'d been hit in the back of the head over and over, he realized it wasn\'t something he could quickly give the answer to.

Hyun opened his mouth again after a while.

"I have something urgent I have to do… Could we talk again in a few hours?"

Translator - Daniel Shin

Proofreader - ilafy

* * *

After spending some time in the middle of an awkward atmosphere, Hyun left the administration of the people to Ain and changed to rest mode.

He began searching for information about Demonia Gorge, research institutes, and a few other keywords, but he wasn\'t able to find the information he wanted.

[Research Institute in Asrian attacked by monsters.]

[The instability of the other world.]

Thanks to a few news articles, he realized that there were a few corporations and organizations that were interested in Asrian.

\'This is bigger than I thought… If I didn\'t see it wrong… Wait, maybe?!\'

Hyun remembered that JaeHoon had told him that Jini had found a job in a research institute.

He obtained Jini\'s number through JaeHoon and called her.

"Where did you hear that?" she asked in surprise.

"What?"

"The thing about Demonia Gorge… that\'s top secret! Ah, this isn\'t something I can say, but…!"

For some unknown reason, Jini began to kindly explain things to Hyun after telling him it wasn\'t something she could say.

To make it brief, Demonia Gorge was the only place that wasn\'t affected by the influence of NPCs or monsters, and that\'s why many research institutes had chosen it as a base.

It seemed like the Darkness Guild was chosen as the mercenary group to stop other users from interfering there.

\'Why are they sharing the information they obtained?\'

SeoHyun began wondering about how the executives of the Darkness Guild had reacted.

\'Were they worried I would interfere with their plans?\'

He still had some questions, but he understood what was going on.

He could understand why they looked uncomfortable—they were worried he\'d messed up the contract they\'d obtained after a ton of effort.

\'Seeing that people from real life are interested in Asrian, it seems like Asrian really is a simulator.\'

SeoHyun thought about it for a while.

A contract with a company…

If it were the current him, he could not only put a spoon on a table that they had prepared, but he should also be able to grab it all for himself.

For some reason, he didn\'t want to do that.

YouTube was okay. Making strategy videos and looking at the comments were fun… but that was something completely different.

SeoHyun realized he was standing on top of a border—the border that divided work and hobby.

Hyun felt that, the moment he crossed that border, he wouldn\'t be able to enjoy Asrian as much as he did before.

\'Is there a need to do things like this?\'

Hyun imagined himself dealing with real-life situations.

Of course, he might be able to earn a lot of money, but he was for sure going to become busier than before.

He was definitely going to get a step away from his goal of getting to the top of Asrian\'s world.

\'There\'s no need to take control over things like that.\'

A land that couldn\'t be influenced by monsters or NPCs…

In a few years, he would be able to create a place like that on his own.

A place much bigger, safer, and more peaceful than the Demonia Gorge—his own castle… Or territory… A country!

Demonia Gorge was nothing compared to the future he\'d planned.

\'Just becoming the owner of a castle would make me very busy… I probably won\'t have time to think about a real-life contract.\'

SeoHyun decided to refuse the contract they had offered.

Giving up on an amount of money that could change your life wasn\'t something a normal person could think of doing.

Was he just not greedy?

No, SeoHyun didn\'t think that he was greedy. In reality, he was more ambitious than most people.

His goal was to obtain the crown of Asrian.

He wanted to get what other people couldn\'t even imagine.

SeoHyun\'s goal was to get to the very top from the first moment he started to play Asrian.

"Hyun, when are you going to return?!"

"On my way."

After hearing Ain\'s urgent voice, SeoHyun quickly got into the capsule.

The leader of the Darkness Guild and the vice-leader had been waiting for more than an hour, sitting on top of a rock.

As soon as he saw them, Hyun told them what he\'d prepared beforehand.

"I thought about it, but I\'m going to take everything that\'s here."

"Everything…? Really?"

At that moment, XL\'s eyes became cold.

What Hyun said sounded like he was going to refuse to make a deal with them.

Hyun refusing to make a deal with them was what they were the most worried about.

Whir. Mana started to gather around Reina\'s wand.

Even if she couldn’t prove a challenge for him, she would fight to the death if Hyun tried to get everything.

"So Keiji was right. I guess we don\'t have anything else to talk about with you."

"Really? I haven\'t finished talking yet."

Hyun\'s, no, Ain\'s smile deepened.

"I don\'t need that contract. Things would probably get bothersome for me if I accepted… Right now, I don\'t have time to do that."

"What does that mean…?"

While XL was trying to understand what Hyun said, he finally told them his condition in a clearer way.

"What I\'m requesting is all of the Sacred Stones within the Gorge at the moment."

"Wait. Is that all…?"

"Ah, there\'s one more thing… You see the people working for me?"

Hyun pointed toward the worker.

There were four people digging and a Theologian watching them.

"Please look over those people in my place. It\'s probably going to take about three days to dig out all of the Sacred Stones, and I hate the idea of wasting so much time."

"Then… The contract?”

"I told you I\'m not interested. I don\'t care if you invest in the land, become a building owner, or whatever, so do as you wish."

Reina lowered her wand.

It took the executives quite some time to understand Hyun\'s words.

Their chat became noisy as they were watching the stream.

「What?! He really came here just for the Sacred Stones?!」

「Hey, Keiji, you told us Hyun is trash one couldn\'t even negotiate with! How are you going to explain this?」

「That\'s right. Everyone\'s too naive. This is also probably part of Hyun\'s long-term strategy. It\'s better to be careful from now and not regret it in the future.」

Keiji was still sure of his opinion.

Mayday, who had looked at everything along with them, mumbled in disbelief.

「Hmm… I think that, from now on, we should reduce how much Keiji can talk and not take his opinion into consideration so much.」

「Oof, I don\'t understand what\'s going on.」

「Huh…?」

Mayday let out a short exclamation.

She\'d received a quest from Hyun through the friend window and slowly read it over.

[I heard that the people Ain killed were Mayday\'s underlings… With this quest, they should be able to overcome the death penalty a bit. Up to 25 people can participate in this quest, so if there are some places left, you could add more people. (Detailed Information)]

Mayday laughed after reading the message.

Hyun was too different from what she\'d heard.

She spoke up again in the noisy guild chat.

「Can we kick Keiji from the executive position?」

「Hmm? Why so suddenly…?」

「Kicking him out is a bit too much. Keiji has been of great help numerous times. Although, this time, his criteria were a bit weird.」

「Weird?!」

「Hmm. I guess so…」

When she thought about it, except when it was about Hyun, Keiji was always right.

Anyway, Mayday concluded that she would be more careful about listening to other people from then on.