After returning to the gate, the first thing I did was shout. I’d heard the main reason those things came charging in with rocks was because of their sensitive hearing.
Their inconvenient temperament, reacting violently to even the slightest noise, played a part as well, so bellowing at the top of one’s lungs could be called the perfect trick for provoking Hell Monkeys.
And so the provocation began.
A provocation that began with Steelheart’s immortal classic, “She’s Gone.” I’d chosen it precisely because I couldn’t sing it well, presenting the Hell Monkeys with a bizarre musical performance perfectly suited to irritating them—a succession of shrieks and cracked notes.
When would those things ever have experienced this kind of racket?
Was that why? The furious creatures came running with grotesque “Kkieeeek!” shrieks, even forgetting that their boss had died with his head smashed open.
So I picked up one of the 100-won stones scattered around me and lightly kissed it.
“Ah, precious thing. Their corpses should be worth money too. Surely they’ll give me 50 won, right? Then that makes you worth 150 won, doesn’t it?”
I stared at the Hell Monkeys charging toward me, their eyes flashing and gleaming. Then, when they reached a certain distance, I began picking up stones one by one and throwing them, and we started pelting each other with rocks. Happily enough, it seemed the bastards had brought along all the covellite they’d hidden away when they came looking for me because of my racket.
As far as I knew, an F-rank gate was about one kilometer in radius. I had no idea how many Hell Monkeys were inside, but the battle continued as I kept up the shouting.
After fighting without a moment’s rest, an hour passed in the blink of an eye, and by the time nearly two hours had gone by, I finally finished off the creatures that only appeared sporadically. My throat was so hoarse it was almost absurd. But all the stones and Hell Monkey corpses piled up on the ground looked like money to me.
“All right! Shall we go collect the cash…”
Chuckling to myself, I stepped outside, and saw people sitting on the ground with faces that said they were bored to death. Then the appraiser and a Gate Yard employee saw me and greeted me with bright expressions.
“We thought something had gone wrong!”
“I was a little late, wasn’t I?”
The two of them flinched at my hoarse voice. But their surprise lasted only a moment before they asked me,
“What happened?”
“All cleared. But is something going on?”
I’d been thinking there was no need for an employee to come all the way here, but the appraiser spoke to me cautiously.
“It seems I made a mistake in my appraisal.”
“...Why?”
Wondering if he was trying to cut the price, I glared at the appraiser. He hurriedly waved his hands and called forward an old man standing behind him, then introduced him.
“This is Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin.”
I wondered why a weaponmaster was suddenly showing up here. As I tilted my head in confusion, Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin spoke.
“Do you know what this mineral is?”
I’d thought the old man would start off speaking down to me, but surprisingly, he was polite, so I straightened out my crooked posture and answered.
“Yes. There’s a lot of it inside.”
“A-A lot, you say?”
I wondered if that was really something to stammer over. When I nodded, Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin’s face lit up as he spoke.
“This is not a mineral called covellinite. Covellinite tends to break easily because the mineral and metal do not harmonize properly. But this does not have that quality, does it?”
“Then what is it?”
“It is something called black iron.”
There was no way I would know that. It was a metal that didn’t exist on Earth. So when I asked what it was, Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin explained in detail.
“You can think of it as a heavy, hard, and tough metal. It is also highly resistant to fire, so refining it is extremely difficult, but once a weapon made from it is properly refined, its shape does not change, and its edge is not easily damaged. In terms of material grade, the higher the grade, the better, and this black iron is a grade-eight metal.”
“I see.”
Jeong Jongjin looked at me with a hint of disappointment at my dry response. To be honest, this was the sort of thing only someone who worked with metal would get excited about. From my perspective, what mattered was the value of the stuff.
“Then what do you think the selling price would be?”
“To be serious, I would say one chunk of this should fetch around one thousand won.”
Jeong Jongjin sounded cautious when stating the price. Right, the value of the metal had jumped from one hundred to one thousand in one go. Thinking of that, and of all the metal beyond the gate, I spoke seriously.
“There’s a lot of it. Seems pretty rare too. Now then, let’s negotiate. Mister Appraiser, is one thousand won the real price?”
At my question, the appraiser, who had been wearing a fairly serious expression, had his eyes tremble slightly. A sign of lying.
“You said one thousand won, right? I’m not selling. Give that back.”
At my words, Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin did not try to hand over the black iron in his grasp. In that instant, I understood. There had been collusion. And they were hiding the true value of this metal… So I spoke seriously.
“I said I’m not trading. If you really want to, come find me later. And porters, let’s get to work. We have to move everything inside to my house, so we’re going to be very busy today.”
They really were bad at trying to rip someone off. Still, I figured the price probably made them feel burdened.
Calling it one hundred won or one thousand won was one thing. Bluntly speaking, there weren’t just one or two pieces, so it would have been more than enough to become a problem later if I decided to make an issue of it.
In any case, when I declared the trade off and started giving orders to the porters, the panicked Gate Yard employee and appraiser began negotiating.
“Two… no, we’ll give you up to three thousand won.”
“That’s right. I think that price is appropriate.”
“A hundred-won item jumped tenfold, and now it’s thirtyfold? I’m curious how high it’ll go later.”
I was genuinely curious. In any case, they had no means to force me. And this gate—I planned to take everything out, then go in one more time to check it. I intended to search every inch of it, high and low, and after confirming everything, I would call a Gater to close the gate.
That way, the Gate Yard wouldn’t be able to take any potential bonanza. And I also considered that the value of the metal I possessed might soar without limit.
“Let’s go.”
Ignoring the employees like that, I entered the gate. The employee and porters followed after me, and all of them were astonished when they saw the dark lumps scattered across the ground.
Since they had just learned how much each piece was worth, their expressions were even more shocked.
“Now then, welcome to El Dorado!”
A broad grin spread across my face.
* * *
It took a full twenty-three hours and fifty minutes to move all the goods and go around the inside of the gate collecting the rest. Then, when I used the remaining ten minutes to close the gate, the Gate Yard employee looked at me with a deathly expression.
“Why go so far as to close it…?”
“Isn’t that up to me?”
“Well… yes, but…”
The employee smacked his lips in regret. The appraiser had a lot of work, so he couldn’t come today, and only Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin stood beside the Gate Yard employee, looking at me with greasy eyes.
“Old man, wouldn’t it be better for you to go about your business too?”
“Ahem, I was hoping to buy a little of that black iron…”
“I’m not selling to someone who tried to lowball me.”
It was a conversation that had been circling in a similar fashion since yesterday. Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin had followed me around all day, saying he wanted to buy some black iron. But now that I had grasped the situation, there was no reason for me to sell the metal.
Because I was certain that if I spread some rumors later, raised its value, and sold it off, I could earn a sum that went beyond a fortune—enough to wallpaper the entire manor with money and still have plenty left over.
Whether he knew what I was thinking or not, I was getting tired of him constantly bringing up a deal.
A little later, I watched the Gater leave after casting me an envious glance, then I too moved to leave the Gate Yard.
Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin trailed after me. Since it seemed like he would follow me all the way to the manor at this rate, I asked,
“Why do you keep bothering me?”
“You know what I want, don’t you?”
“Even if I know, I don’t. Good enough?”
“One chunk will do. I’ll give you five thousand won, so how about selling me just one?”
Five thousand won was certainly a tempting price. But I had no intention of saying yes right away. Jeong Jongjin’s face fell at my refusal. Really, if a person had been decent from the start, wouldn’t this sort of thing not have happened?
Well, since he hadn’t deceived me by calling it covellite or whatever, Jeong Jongjin could be considered a benefactor in his own way. But right now, teasing him was so satisfying that I didn’t feel like handing anything over gladly.
When I arrived at the manor and looked at the black stones that couldn’t all fit in the warehouse building and had taken over the reception room, I felt full without even eating.
They all looked like lumps of gold. On top of that, since I had hired a security company to defend the mansion like an iron fortress, I had no worries about theft.
“You have returned?”
Park Manuk greeted me politely, and I told him I was back before speaking.
“They say that metal is high-value. I got lucky.”
“I see. Amazing. To think that such a large quantity of metal is so valuable… I can only envy you.”
“I’ll make sure your salary is generous, so please bear with things a little longer.”
“Of course.”
Park Manuk smiled kindly. Then, seeing Jeong Jongjin, who had followed me, he asked,
“And who might this gentleman be?”
“Ah, this is Weaponmaster Jeong Jongjin. Well, he is a guest, but he’ll be leaving soon.”
At my words, Jeong Jongjin’s expression withered. Barely holding back a laugh, I looked at the mountain of black iron.
Bluntly speaking, what if weapons were made from that metal?
If a person called a weaponmaster refined a weapon over a long period of time, then surely a treasure-like weapon would be born, something that could not possibly be valued at a mere five thousand won.
So it looked to me like his scheme was to set a moderate price for even one chunk.
In any case, once the price was set, the next pieces would automatically be sold at similar prices. Moreover, when I imagined Jeong Jongjin selling a single weapon, then using the proceeds through a proxy to buy a large amount of metal from me, make more weapons with it, sell them off, and pocket the profit, I suddenly didn’t want to sell to him at all.
I didn’t know whether I was being twisted, or whether the situation was simply flowing that way, but in any case, I intended to jack up the price of the metal.
And so, a strange current began to flow on the outskirts of Hanyang.
* * *
Several days passed quickly. After arranging for a Gater and entering gates of the “Im” and “Sin” stages, I cleared them so easily that I was almost worried by how bland it felt.
That didn’t mean there was no money in it.
Thanks to the byproducts that came out of those places, I was able to stack my wealth even higher, and unlike the black iron, those could be converted into cash through trade.
The profit I gained from just two gate expeditions amounted to a whopping three million won. Excluding the black iron, it was the greatest profit I had made since coming to this Korean Empire.
And the first thing I did immediately afterward was search for the citizens of the Republic of Korea who had practically been abandoned far away, obtain citizenship for a family of six, and bring them into my manor.
To be honest, Jea told me over and over that there was no need to go this far, but I thought differently.
“I intend to do what I want to do.”
Someone might look at me and call me a pushover. In the end, it was no different from spending a huge amount of money for other people. But this was about saving people. If it was something that could be resolved with money, wasn’t it actually a cheap price to pay?
That was what I thought.
Besides, I couldn’t harm people in order to save people, and it wasn’t something that could be resolved illegally. So when there was a way to solve it, I thought it was right to do so.
It was stubbornness, and an action others might not understand. But because of that, I could proudly tell myself that it had become something only I could do.
Children running around the manor. Parents who had become able to express joy while watching those children. As I thought about it, I decided that something of this value was more than worth investing in. Then I looked over the well-prepared meal table and shouted,
“Kids, let’s eat!”