Chapter 14 · 10 min
Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Epsilon was thrown into confusion by the government’s sudden announcement.
=========
Title: National Assembly’s 2,326,534th useless stunt
Author: CutTheAssembly
Views 5551 | Likes 91 | Dislikes 3
HACCP my ass lololol
Have they finally lost their minds?
Bastards who don’t even know the T in Tower, seriously ugh
↳ Grab Lord Merchant’s products first;;;
↳ Everyone’s hoarding lolol
↳ They gonna inspect every imported Tower vegetable one by one too? lol
↳ Government will probably admit this is bullshit and reverse it soon?
↳ Problem is prices keep rising until then, fuck
↳ Stock up on ramen and lettuce!!!!
↳ Lettuce is being released on the marketplace right now!!!
↳ Is this for real;;;
↳ It is!!! Lord Merchant is dumping lettuce!!!
=========
<Lord System>
!!Current influence rapidly increasing!!
[Fame +3]
[Worship +3]
* * *
Cheongyeol headquarters.
Cheon Ryujin read the newspaper and slapped it down. The government had announced that HACCP would be applied to Tower vegetables...
“No wonder comedians can’t find work.”
When the government itself acted like a clown, how were comedians supposed to make a living?
Cheon Ryujin logged into Epsilon for the first time in a while.
It too had become a cauldron of madness over lettuce and HACCP.
Cheon Ryujin did not join the frenzy.
He didn’t need lettuce.
And it was obvious how this ridiculous disturbance would end.
The government would soon raise the white flag.
The question was why they had done something so stupid in the first place.
“The pharmaceutical industry must’ve greased some palms, right?”
“Of course.”
Secretary Lee, Cheon Ryujin’s right-hand man, was certain.
Politicians were not as stupid as people thought.
They merely acted stupid when necessary.
“HACCP is a respected system even recognized in the United States. It’s useful for painting the Lord Merchant as an unscrupulous operator.”
“Will it work?”
“No.”
“Thought so... fucking idiots in pharma...”
Cheon Ryujin pressed hard against his brow.
His bright red hair flashed beneath the sunlight.
“I expected them to put some effective pressure on the Lord Merchant. And this is the best they can do? How the hell is this supposed to make the Lord Merchant show himself?”
It had been a chance to uncover the Lord Merchant’s identity.
He had hoped to reap the benefits without lifting a finger, but the so-called global pharmaceutical companies were even more incompetent than expected.
“They’re practically advertising the Lord Merchant on behalf of the government.”
“That’s correct. The name Lord Merchant is now appearing overseas as well.”
“Damn it. Now getting chlorella will be even harder...”
Cheon Ryujin had no interest in lettuce.
But he desperately needed chlorella.
“Isn’t he increasing chlorella production?”
Everything always came back to chlorella...
When Earth stole his mana every waking moment, it made him want to burn the planet down.
“Ah. Director, you also have the Nightmare debuff, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“Should we secure some lettuce?”
“No.”
Cheon Ryujin had contracted the Nightmare debuff during his academy days, but he had never once taken dream medicine.
He simply.
Didn’t need it <by constitution>.
And that night...
When Cheon Ryujin came to his senses, dense fog surrounded him.
Well now. He remembered leaving work and falling asleep earlier.
“Ah. I’m inside the nightmare.”
The Nightmare debuff had activated.
Brrrrrr... Rrrrrrrr...
The sound of a chainsaw came from beyond the fog.
“Wow. Haven’t been here in a while.”
Cheon Ryujin stretched out his entire body.
Inside the nightmare, Cheon Ryujin’s stats had been reduced to those of an ordinary person.
The mana that normally erupted from him every moment had gone still, while the strength in his limbs had shrunk to less than one hundredth.
The worst possible conditions.
And yet he grinned with delight.
“Hah. Hahahaha―!”
His mana wasn’t decreasing!
No one was stealing his mana!
That fact alone made him unbelievably happy.
Tap―!
Cheon Ryujin sprinted forward.
His speed was ordinary-human level.
But his movements never hesitated.
Beyond the fog, toward the sound of the chainsaw, he jumped.
A flying knee.
Crack!
He felt the impact cleanly through his knee.
The strike had landed squarely on the killer’s jaw.
He had located and attacked the target beyond the dense fog using sound alone.
His stats may have fallen, but the senses of a top-class Climber had not.
Stagger.
Fear entered the killer’s eyes after taking the kick.
“You haven’t visited me lately. Did your feelings cool off?”
Grab!
Cheon Ryujin’s hand seized the killer by the hair.
Even greater fear poured from the killer’s eyes.
“Let’s have some fun for old times’ sake.”
“@#%@#%^#!!!@@”
The killer screamed in the fairy language.
Conditioned terror was bursting out.
“What the hell are you saying...”
Cheon Ryujin swung his elbow into the killer’s throat.
Wham.
A grin curled at the corner of his mouth at the satisfying impact.
“I’ve told you over and over, haven’t I? Speak Korean in front of me. How long are you going to keep babbling in fairy?”
A middle kick to the solar plexus.
A finger jab to the eye.
He shattered the nose, then seized and tore out the ribs with his bare hand.
Cheon Ryujin’s movements grew increasingly violent.
“This really is great! Having an ordinary human body!”
Madness in his eyes.
Joy at his lips.
“To think I can move this violently without losing any mana!”
Hah, hahahaha!
Cheon Ryujin didn’t need lettuce.
He didn’t need dream medicine either.
Those at the very top even among rankers.
They did not use dream medicine.
Because the strength of the highest class did not come from their innate bodies.
Their strength was exceptional.
Unique.
They could unleash fighting spirit even inside a dream and use their five senses to win an unfair battle.
Driven into a corner, the killer swung its chainsaw.
Brrrrrrr!
Cheon Ryujin lightly avoided the attack.
“...Ha. You’re even resisting now? Forgot what kind of personality I have?”
Cheon Ryujin used a grappling technique to twist the killer’s wrist and steal the chainsaw.
Kikikikeke.
Cheon Ryujin laughed.
“Now you’re it. I’ll give you until I count to three. Actually, forget it.”
Crushed by his murderous presence, the killer began crawling away...
Vwooom!!!!
Cheon Ryujin swung the chainsaw.
“!@#!@@@!!!!!!”
Now it had no arms with which to flee.
No legs either.
“Time for our old question-and-answer session.”
Crunch.
Cheon Ryujin planted his foot on the killer’s back and ground it down.
As always.
He asked the same question.
“How do I cure Nightmare-7 patients? I need to wake up a bastard who’s been sleeping in a hospital.”
“@#$@^%#$%$%!!”
“Well now... I said Korean.”
Vwoooooom―!
A penalty was administered.
“@#%#$!!!!!$#@$%#!!!”
The killer gasped in fairy.
Cheon Ryujin showed no mercy.
“In Korean. Speak. Korean. Korean. Korean. Korean!”
Vwoom. Vwoooom. VWOOOOOM!!!!
The interrogation had become torture long ago.
It produced nothing.
“Well, damn.”
Cheon Ryujin tossed the chainsaw aside.
The killer no longer had any recognizable shape left.
Cheon Ryujin wiped the blood from his cheek.
“My old friend... It really has been a while.”
It used to appear in his dreams often, but after being treated like this every time, it had gradually stopped coming.
“What brought you back today? Lose your job because of the lettuce?”
If it had stopped getting entertainment from lettuce eaters and come all the way to him.
Then the lettuce definitely worked.
“Ugh. More importantly. I still didn’t get an answer this time.”
Cheon Ryujin had to find a cure for Nightmare-7.
Because there was someone he had to awaken.
“Haah. Seriously. Ji Wuchang, you fucking idiot...”
Cheon Ryujin cursed alone within the fog.
* * *
The peaceful first-floor territory.
Thud. Thud.
I diligently dug into the ground with a shovel.
If I wanted more lettuce farms, I had to keep moving my body.
“Buy mid-grade magic stones!”
One hundred magic stones rained down and buried themselves in the ground.
I spread them evenly, then hauled dirt around.
Once I planted lettuce seeds too, the Level 3 farm was complete.
[Lv.3 Farm Complete]
[Lv.3 Farm Complete]
[Lv.3 Farm Complete]
Building a Level 3 farm required hundreds of millions in investment, but I could keep increasing them.
[16,000,000 won deposited]
[16,000,000 won deposited]
[16,000,000 won deposited]
Because money kept coming in.
The government’s HACCP fiasco showed no sign of ending.
“I won’t lose!!!! Full-scale price-stabilization war begins!!!!”
[Aqua... Groove groove!
づ
]
Aqua cheered beside me.
[The Lord’s. Determination. Is astonishing.]
Geumsul cheered beside me too.
These guys.
This isn’t just my imagination, right?
Whenever physical labor is needed, all they do is cheer.
They don’t lift a finger.
“Ugh. Focus.”
The moment I let my guard down, money piles up.
“Buy mid-grade magic stooooones!”
Papapapapap!
I barely managed to sell all of today’s lettuce and spend all the money before collapsing onto the ground.
Handling all this by myself.
I’ve really grown.
“For now, I can barely manage alone, but eventually I might need extra hands.”
But there were plenty of practical problems.
Could someone else even enter my territory?
Confidentiality?
Salary?
National insurance?
At that point, I’d rather work alone.
Or.
Hire labor directly inside the Tower.
[Notification. Golden Lettuce. Has fully. Evolved.]
“Ohhh. Finally!”
Aqua spat out the Golden Lettuce it had swallowed.
Its color was truly dazzling.
=======
[Golden Lettuce]
[Ultra-Rare][Miracle]
Effect: Allows travel to the deepest world of dreams.
=======
Huh.
Complicated.
Easy to understand, yet hard to understand.
“Should I try it myself first...”
I couldn’t sell something to others without even knowing what it did.
I planted the Golden Lettuce’s golden seeds separately, then decided to eat the rest myself.
“Then... I’m eating it?”
[Aqua... Looking forward to it!
ᕤ
]
[May you have. Comfortable deep sleep.]
I sat down in the fishing chair.
Then I ate the Golden Lettuce and...
Snore.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, a bright yellow sky greeted me.
Not an ordinary yellow.
An utterly alien, ominous yellow.
Black stars floated in the sky, radiating terrifying viciousness.
The stars that rose over my own territory always carried curiosity.
‘Are those lords from somewhere too...?’
But there was no curiosity in them.
Only strangely grotesque gazes.
Pure malice prickled against my skin.
I looked away from the sky.
If I looked at the seniors.
The seniors looked back at me.
Absolutely not here.
‘...This is a dream, right?’
Why did the viciousness radiating from those black-star lords feel so vivid?
I left the area and continued forward.
If the sky was yellow, the ground below held an enormous red city.
‘Hmm. Medieval?’
A river flowed through the city like Venice, but the water was white.
Wol Hayeon’s words suddenly came to mind.
「Tower water contains all kinds of things.」
Seeing it for myself, I understood.
Drink that and you’re dead.
Countless citizens walked throughout the city, all dressed in elaborate clothes as though attending a masquerade.
Their colors were equally ominous.
Golden yellow.
Blood red.
And the pure color of stars.
Yellow. Red. Black. Yellow. Red. Black. Yellow. Red. Black.
‘Something feels wrong.’
Maybe because it was a dream, nausea churned inside me.
Was the deepest dream world supposed to feel this strange?
I wandered farther through the streets and discovered a bizarre life-form in the plaza.
It was an enormous mass of filth wearing a pale mask.
At regular intervals, the creature fired tentacles at passing citizens and rummaged through their insides.
「―! ―! ―!」
The citizens suffered, yet obediently submitted to its 「inspection」.
Ah.
I understand.
The creature was examining the citizens’ 「―」.
Only lawful citizens were permitted to exist in this city.
Visitors from outside were forbidden.
If an outsider entered—
Y o u a r e a n o u t s i d e r.
The mass of filth wearing the pale mask snapped its head toward me and stared directly at me.
「―!!!!!!!!!!! ―!!!!」
It began singing grandly.
Countless mouths formed across its filthy body, creating a chorus.
Every time it sang, filth burst out.
Its tentacles began approaching.
“Hey!”
Someone shouted from behind me, snapping me back to my senses.
I hadn’t even thought about running away.
Why had I stood there while a creature like that approached?
Had the chorus bewitched me?
“Get a hold of yourself!”
A man wearing a crow mask grabbed my shoulder and shook me.
“As I thought, you’re an outsider! Wake up! If this continues, you’ll fall into being a 「citizen」 of Carcosa!”
“C-Carcosa?”
“That is the name of this city.”
Something about the man’s speech sounded strangely familiar.
That’s old Seoul dialect.
Someone actually speaking that peculiar Seoul dialect you only ever heard in archival news footage.
“If you become a citizen, you’ll no longer be able to resist the dream! Follow me!”
“Understood! But who are you?”
Crow mask.
Bright eyes gleamed beneath it.
“I am Ji Wuchang. A Climber born in another dimension. Let’s go!”
We fled through Carcosa while avoiding the monster.
I Set Up House in the Tower, and Making Money Became Too Easy