Chapter 20 · 8 min
Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Somewhere high in the heavens.
A sunny café.
The lords were talking about the Lord of the First Floor.
The first floor had been insanely popular lately.
Originally, the first floor was a horrific wasteland.
Dozens of lords had risen there until now, but not one had ever managed to revive it.
But this time was different.
He was doing bizarre things like livestreaming meals and building a max-loan giant gate.
That converted directly into interest from the other lords, accelerating the territory’s revival.
There was a side effect too.
He gained antis.
Darkened lords.
They felt inferior to the newborn lord and steadily nurtured envy and jealousy.
What’s so great about that wasteland!
They should come watch my territory instead!
And then.
The new lord happened to take the bait.
The little punk dared to plan interior decoration.
‘You’re fifty thousand years too early for that!’
The petty lords deliberately recommended the worst interior contractor.
A goblin interior contractor who gouged customers until their eyes swelled shut!
Still, the guy was skilled.
He had to be, or there wouldn’t be a steady supply of customers to scam.
「Hehehe. You showed off too much.」
「Territory bankruptcy~ Congratulations~」
「Have fun suffering. Kekeke.」
But then.
Things started unfolding in a strangely unexpected direction.
The interior contractors began groveling.
“KIEEEEEK! The spirit’s going to eat us!”
Some accepted death and surrendered their lives.
“Please kill us quickly and without pain.”
The aura they sensed was unmistakably that of a spirit.
Better to die quickly than be tortured alive.
That was the kind of existence spirits were.
* * *
The peaceful first-floor territory.
I was frustrated.
“What are you talking about? Aren’t you doing the interior work?”
I had gone through all that effort to lower the price, and now they were asking me to kill them.
“A-A-Are you sparing us?”
[Aqua... Very picky about interior taste! Please provide the highest quality!
ꉂꉂ (ˆoˆ )
]
“Ahhh! You mean you want us to slaughter one another and create an interior decorated in blood!”
“...”
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
These guys.
Are they idiots?
“Just hurry up and work. Normal interior decoration where nobody dies!”
“Y-Y-Y-Your grace is immeasurable... We’ll finish immediately! Please wait just a moment!”
Bang bang bang.
Led by the goblin, the interior contractors got to work.
They renovated the giant gate to hell in an instant.
=======
[Asura Rakshasa Statue Interior Results]
[Terrifying Ghostly Aura] [Sphinx’s Questions] [Periodic Lightning Strikes] [Obsidian Skin]
========
An enormous number of new functions had been added to the Asura Rakshasa statues.
“We’re finished! Will you kill us instantly now? Please do it painlessly!”
“Why do you keep asking me to kill you...”
“Please, spare only our families! Show mercy so that this heavenly tribulation ends with us!”
“Ugh. You’re making my head hurt. Just stay still.”
I examined the renovation details.
[Terrifying Ghostly Aura: The Asura Rakshasas spread ghostly energy and make visiting guests die screaming.]
[Cost: 100 High-Grade Magic Stones]
Die screaming?
Things were suspicious right from the start.
“Wait! You used a hundred high-grade magic stones?! When?”
“We paid out of pocket.”
“!!!!”
The interior contractors.
Maybe they were actually pretty decent guys?
The problem was the effect itself.
A hundred high-grade magic stones cost one billion won.
And the new function purchased with that much money.
Was just scaring guests?
“...Better than having nothing, I guess.”
With mixed feelings, I checked the next renovation.
This one wasn’t easy either.
[Sphinx’s Questions: The Asura Rakshasas ask guests three questions. If they fail to answer, they kick them in the butt and throw them out.]
[Cost: 100 High-Grade Magic Stones]
Huuuuuh.
I let out a deep sigh.
Are they that desperate to torment guests?
Does a concept like this even suit my territory?
“I’m aiming to be a friendly, neighborly lord. Why did you decorate it like this?”
“S-S-S-Sorry! Is there not enough blood? We’ll tear out our hearts right now and offer them as sacrifices—”
“Stop.”
There’s no talking to these people.
They had spent another billion of their own money renovating the place.
I decided to let it slide.
What’s the next renovation?
[Periodic Lightning Strikes: The Asura Rakshasa statues attract lightning and cloak their entire bodies in electricity.]
[Cost: 100 High-Grade Magic Stones]
[Obsidian Skin: Highlights the muscles, providing guests with suffocating pressure.]
[Cost: 100 High-Grade Magic Stones]
Clench!!!!
I closed my eyes.
“Why. Goblin and contractors. Why did you create nothing but antisocial interior design like this? Are you trying to screw with me?”
I felt deeply uncomfortable, but my cabinet officials were enthusiastically welcoming the renovations.
[Aqua...
( ◡̀_◡́)ᕤ
Actually not very social! A dangerous hard-boiled spirit!]
Right.
Of course.
[Incredible. Interior design. Authority emerges. From fear. The sequence for. Obtaining absolute power. Is purge → replacement → rule through fear → permanent rule → deification.]
Huh?
What’s with Geumsul?
Homesick for your homeland or something?
It was spouting alarmingly red rhetoric.
I had no allies among my cabinet officials.
“Fine. Let’s hear from the actual Asura Rakshasa who got renovated. You like it? No, right?”
『Man, this is fuckin’ awesome~』
Aaaagh.
The one involved was overjoyed.
Now that I looked closely, my territory was basically a gathering place for show-offs.
[I. Am. The state. by Han Jain.]
『Man, do ya know Lord Jain bro or not? If ya don’t, is that the end of the world?』
I clutched my spinning head and glared at the goblin contractor.
“Hey.”
“Yes!!!!”
“If I wanted to decorate the territory <properly for real>, what would I need?”
“T-To do it properly, you’d need 「building materials from another world」! They’re extremely rare, so they’re hard to obtain!”
“Got it... You can go...”
“You’re sparing us!!!!!”
Before the goblins retreated, I paid them four billion won.
The raw materials they had used on the renovations alone cost four billion.
I couldn’t cover dimensional travel expenses or labor, but I decided to at least reimburse the materials.
“Take it.”
The goblins and contractors had tried acting like thugs toward me, but I didn’t want to cheat them out of material costs.
“Thank you! If you ever call us again! We’ll charge only cost and provide the highest-grade work...!”
“Next time, please do it properly.”
“Yes!!!! We truly will!!!! Please look forward to beautiful interior design worthy of a spirit!!!!”
Sure.
They were saying it that earnestly.
Next time, I could probably trust them, right?
Let’s go for some truly amazing interior design worthy of a spirit.
* * *
Cheongyeol headquarters.
The purchasing team leader visited Cheon Ryujin’s office.
Cheon Ryujin had personally summoned him.
‘Why did he call me?’
When he entered, Cheon Ryujin brought up a strange topic.
“Oh. Purchasing Team Leader, you’re here? You’ve been doing well lately. Very well. I’ll keep entrusting chlorella procurement to you.”
“...Yes, sir!”
“The reason I called you today is something else. You know that cheap garbage setup used by trash-tier Climbers?”
“You mean the Flame Axe, Elf Boots, and Orc Bracer combination. It was a combination invented by Climber Ji Wuchang...”
Long ago, there had been a Climber named Ji Wuchang.
The world’s climbing speed changed after his journal was discovered.
A once-in-an-era genius...
His journal contained plenty of useful information besides攻略 methods.
One of them was the idea for a cost-effective item set.
Flame Axe.
Elf Boots.
Orc Bracers.
When the three completely unrelated items were used together, their weaknesses were overcome and their strengths maximized.
That was why the set earned nicknames like the 「Wuchang Set」 or 「Wuchang Uniform」.
“...That damn Ji Wuchang. Everyone’s desperate to worship him. What’s so impressive about a stupid bastard like that?”
“...”
“Buy that fancy Wuchang Uniform set.”
That was unexpected.
The Ji Wuchang Set boasted extreme cost-efficiency, but Cheongyeol didn’t use it.
Because they were a hyper-elite organization.
“What do you plan to use them for?”
“I don’t know either.”
“Excuse me?”
“Anyway, get me <a lot>. You can do that, right? Quantity is the key. Dry up the inventory circulating on the market.”
“U-Understood.”
Then Cheon Ryujin named the budget.
A staggering.
100 billion won.
The purchasing team leader was horrified internally.
One hundred billion was not a small sum.
Even by Cheongyeol standards, where money practically rotted in storage, it was enormous.
Director Cheon Ryujin must have been preparing some massive project.
“...I’ll complete the task soon.”
A few days later.
Cheon Ryujin and Wol Hayeon regrouped.
They had each gathered a rough quantity of the cost-effective set, so they decided to visit the Lord Merchant again.
And today, they had companions.
Cheon Ryujin brought executives from the assault division.
Wol Hayeon brought Spirit Masters she personally favored.
They didn’t have enough inventory space to carry all the items.
The people involved, however, were bewildered.
‘At my level of seniority, I’m doing porter work??’
It was dizzying.
Do you know how much our labor costs...
“Everyone be careful. If you space out like idiots in front of the Lord Merchant, I’ll kill you myself. Understood?”
“Yes.”
Cheon Ryujin kept warning them, but the assault-division executives were losing focus.
They weren’t going to hunt the Lord Merchant.
They were going to give him gifts.
Was all this really necessary?
Wol Hayeon’s Spirit Masters felt the same.
They didn’t want to be dragged into such trivial errands.
“Commence spell.”
Through Wol Hayeon’s spell, they departed for the void occupied by the Lord Merchant.
Soon after.
They encountered an enormous gate.
“Hmm!?”
Before they even reached the gate, the assault-division executives and Spirit Masters’ legs began trembling.
The muscular obsidian bodies of the Asura Rakshasa statues radiated ominous pressure.
Cyclops?
This wasn’t even comparable.
『Guests have arrived!』
The Asura Rakshasas began shrieking like damned ghosts.
Kyaaaaaaaa―!
Cheon Ryujin and Wol Hayeon endured it, but the porters who had come along suffered agony so severe their souls shook.
“G-Ghk! What the hell is this!”
This was not how guests were supposed to be welcomed.
Only then did they remember the warning.
Behave properly in front of the Lord Merchant!
So this was what it meant!
Regret came too late.
The psychological torment had only begun.
Ruuumble!
A bolt of lightning crashed down, and electrical energy flooded through the entire bodies of the Asura Rakshasa statues.
『The Lord will arrive shortly!』
The air itself seemed to weep.
Ah.
True terror was filling their hearts.
And even this wasn’t the end.
『Guests! We shall ask you a question!』
『Great in the morning.』
『Even greater at noon.』
『Greatest of all in the evening!』
『What is this being?』
『Fail to answer, and punishment awaits! You may look forward to it!』
Pressure like a mountain.
Their hearts felt ready to leap from their mouths.
We shouldn’t have come. We shouldn’t have come. We shouldn’t have come. We shouldn’t have come. We shouldn’t have come. We shouldn’t have come. We shouldn’t have come. We shouldn’t have come...!
“Enough. They are my guests.”
A calm voice echoed from beyond the gate.
I Set Up House in the Tower, and Making Money Became Too Easy