Chapter 5

Chapter 5

5. I Got an S-Rank Reward

The Presidential Palace in Pyongyang.

While Choi Hyunwoo was facing the greatest crisis of his life over the possibility of military service.

“At last, I get to breathe the air outside the Tower.”

Orc Grand General Krog took a deep breath and looked around.

Pyongyang had already been subdued.

North Korean tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters, and other equipment burned as smoke billowed into the air.

Soldiers struck by the orcs’ personal weapons, ‘Gatling Lasers,’ had been vaporized without even leaving corpses behind.

Other regions of North Korea had received urgent transmissions that Pyongyang was under attack.

But their forces were having difficulty reaching Pyongyang.

Because they lacked fuel.

And many units had already lost the will to fight after hearing that Pyongyang had fallen.

However.

“Grand General Krog! A human army is advancing from the south!”

“Are you afraid?”

“No, sir!”

Krog shoved aside the orc who had delivered the report and shouted to the assembled orc warriors.

“We orcs will crush the armies of those primitive, feeble humans! We will drench the earth in their blood and bring the entire world to its knees beneath our feet!”

“Kraaaaaah!”

“Grand General! Grand General! Grand General!”

“Drink the humans’ blood!”

“Wear their entrails around our necks!”

The orc army roared at Grand General Krog’s speech.

But then.

Whoooosh-!

The sound of something slicing through the air echoed from the distant sky.

“Grand General! A bomber formation is approaching from above!”

Krog raised his head and stared beyond the hazy clouds.

Shadows in the sky.

Bombers and the fighters escorting them were arranged at regular intervals.

“It seems humans still believe the sky belongs to them.”

Krog snorted.

Above downtown Pyongyang.

The bombers descended in unison and opened their bomb bays.

With a tremendous roar, black dots began falling toward the ground.

At that moment.

Vweeeee!

The barrels of the orc warriors’ Gatling Lasers began spinning all at once.

Zzzzzzzap!

Hundreds, then thousands of red beams shot from the ground and pierced the sky.

The heavens flashed crimson as though drenched in blood, and dozens of bombers split apart while trailing smoke.

Before the pilots could even scream, they vanished into the light.

The orcs had no need for specialized anti-air capabilities.

Thousands upon tens of thousands of red beams completely filled the sky.

The pilots had no way to evade the orcs’ anti-air fire.

Fighters and bombers were destroyed one after another.

Burning wreckage scattered beneath them and rained down over Pyongyang.

The remaining pilots desperately attempted evasive maneuvers.

But the lasers chased them down with mocking speed.

In an instant, the third and fourth fleeing bombers exploded.

Fireballs bursting overhead stained the daylight red.

“The god of the heavens has abandoned humanity.”

Krog slowly smiled.

“Now both this earth and this sky belong to the orcs.”

Before Krog had even finished speaking, the final bomber formation cut communications and hurriedly retreated south.

Only black smoke and wreckage remained in the skies over Pyongyang.

The orc warriors roared wildly.

Their cheers were louder than the explosions and lasted far longer.

“Now it is time to prepare for the real war.”

Grand General Krog had known from the beginning that the forces stationed in Pyongyang were not the entirety of humanity’s armies.

“This place is only the beginning!”

This was the world of humans, so countless human nations and armies would be waiting for them.

“But there is nothing to fear. There has never been an enemy we could not crush!”

Being outnumbered did not matter.

“Even now, my munitions factory is producing armor and weapons for our warriors. The more our warriors distinguish themselves, the more fighters and submarines we’ll be able to manufacture!”

After finishing his grand speech, Grand General Krog turned around.

There stood a gate shaped like an abyssal monster opening its maw.

“Wait here. I will cross back into the Tower, report our first victory, and bring over the warriors who remain.”

“Grand General! Grand General! Grand General!”

Amid the warriors’ cheers, Krog stepped toward the gate.

And just as half of Krog’s body passed through it.

Flaaash!

The gate suddenly closed, severing the two connected spaces.

And then.

Splurt.

With his front half cleanly erased, only the rear half of Krog’s body remained before toppling forward.

“Grrr?”

“Grand General?”

For a moment, the orc warriors could not comprehend what had just happened.

“Th-The Grand General is dead...!”

* * *

My house.

“So the boss monster on the 80th floor died because of that? Because I closed the gate?”

[Correct.]

The system messages were surprisingly good at answering questions.

It seemed willing to explain things related to clearing the Tower.

Probably because it was a floor I had cleared.

‘I really got lucky...!’

They say life is seventy percent luck and thirty percent skill?

No.

Ninety percent luck, ten percent skill!

‘While I was debating whether to close the S-Rank gate.’

The Orc Grand General happened to be crossing through it.

And I happened to close it at that exact moment!

My ‘strategic deliberation’ had paid off.

‘I’m afraid of myself...!’

I was beginning to fear my own genius.

No, this went beyond fear into awe!

My hands and feet trembled before the sheer magnitude of my own existence.

‘This is... the power of a man worth four billion won an hour!’

B-b-b-b-brrr!

* * *

The next morning.

Ding!

An endless stream of system notifications woke me early in the morning.

‘What the hell? It’s only nine-thirty.’

So I closed my eyes again.

When I came to, it was two in the afternoon.

‘What a refreshing morning.’

As soon as I got up, I grabbed something quick to eat and launched my game.

While starting with some simple life-skilling content to earn gold as usual, a nearby character suddenly caught my eye.

‘A ranker?’

You could recognize a ranker at a glance.

Because their weapons shimmered with a golden aura.

It was the exclusive effect for Legendary weapons.

I checked the other character’s combat power and saw it was over 3,000.

Even though his level was only 1,550.

‘And I’m level 1,500?’

There was only a fifty-level difference, yet our combat power differed by 2,000.

‘A 1,000-point difference in combat power means someone’s over twenty percent stronger.’

If I dealt 100 million damage with the same skill, that guy would deal 140 million.

I moved closer and typed in chat.

-Hey

-Yeah?

-How much did you spend on that weapon?

-? Why?

-Ah, I’m thinking about pulling for a Legendary weapon too lol

-Oh, I see. I never counted exactly, but I think around 200 million won?

Two hundred million?

‘Fucking bourgeois.’

You burned 200 million won on a chunk of data?

But then?

‘I have 200 million too.’

...I want it!

A Legendary weapon!

I quietly checked my bag.

Ziiip.

Lady Shin Saimdangs stacked to the brim inside.

The spirit and soul of the Korean people I had rescued.

One billion won in cash!

I opened the calculator.

“Hmm... I worked fifteen minutes yesterday.”

I tapped at my smartphone calculator under the blanket.

One billion in fifteen minutes.

Four billion in one hour.

Ninety-six billion in twenty-four hours.

Six hundred seventy-two billion in seven days.

Two trillion eight hundred eighty billion in thirty days.

And in one year...

“...An annual salary of 35.04 trillion won?”

For a while, I could say nothing.

Right.

Now I finally saw my true worth.

There had only ever been one reason the world looked down on me.

‘Because the world couldn’t afford my salary...!’

I stared at the wall clock for a moment.

Every time the second hand moved, it went tick.

Tick!

1.11 million won.

Tick!

1.11 million won.

That was no longer a clock.

It was a money-counting machine.

‘Even right now, the world is using me for free.’

I was suddenly struck by a profound sense of emptiness.

‘I’ve been giving away far too much for free.’

The time I spent sleeping, the time I spent breathing.

Even the time I spent sitting on the toilet contemplating life.

All of it was wasting me.

Choi Hyunwoo, a talent—no, a genius—worth four billion won an hour.

I suddenly noticed the instant noodle cups, drink bottles, and snack bags already piling up on my computer desk.

Should I clean them?

‘Cleaning? Ridiculous.’

I shook my head.

Clean when my hourly wage was four billion won?

That would be a thirty-billion-won loss.

‘I could start an entire cleaning company with thirty billion.’

And I’m supposed to clean it myself?

‘That’s no way for a shareholder to behave.’

Why was I suddenly a shareholder?

Not of some company.

I was a major shareholder of this ‘world.’

‘Right. From now on, I’ll put a price on my time.’

I don’t work for free.

‘I’m a man worth 1.11 million won per second.’

1.11 million won every second.

Four billion won every hour.

‘There’s no reason to sweat over a measly 200 million.’

Besides!

‘I don’t even own a house or a car.’

Aside from living expenses, I had nothing else to spend money on, so I could pour as much as I wanted into the game.

At this point, the world itself was practically pushing me to whale!

As a major shareholder of the world, how could I refuse the world’s request?

But then?

‘How am I supposed to buy that much cash shop currency?’

This wasn’t 200,000 won or even two million.

I couldn’t exactly buy 200 million won’s worth of gift cards.

‘Even if I cleaned out every convenience store in the neighborhood, it wouldn’t be enough.’

These days, gift card codes were printed directly on receipts.

But buying 200 million won’s worth would be pushing it.

‘Come to think of it, that isn’t the only problem.’

Even if I wanted to do something with my billion won, I couldn’t.

The National Tax Service might come knocking.

They’d grill me about where the money came from.

Then they’d tell me to pay taxes.

But I don’t want to pay taxes.

‘What do I do?’

That was when one of the piled-up system messages caught my eye.

[You have obtained the Tower of Fate tutorial reward.]

[Storage is now available through ‘Hunter’s Inventory.’]

Storage?

‘Was Hunter’s Inventory literally an inventory?’

Then again, why else would it be called an ‘Inventory’?

When I opened it, ‘Krog’s Gatling Laser (S)’ was stored inside.

[Krog’s Gatling Laser]

-Rank: S

-Equipping it grants the passive skill Krog’s Strength (S).

-Uses top-grade mana stones as fuel.

When I equipped [Krog’s Gatling Laser], it was enormous.

‘It’s light as a feather.’

Despite being a massive chunk of metal, I could barely feel its weight.

My entire body also felt incredibly light.

‘If I jumped.’

I felt like my head would punch straight through the ceiling.