A few days later,
A university lecture hall.
Taking advantage of a time when we had no classes, we gathered separately at school.
It was a suitable place to explain things in earnest, while still being somewhere without any particular danger.
And since we had already obtained permission from the department to use it, there was nothing to be hesitant about.
In front of the whiteboard.
I operated the computer and brought up a huge pyramid.
The granddaughter of the chairman of Taesan Group.
An engineering student burning with revenge.
Yun Se-a, arms crossed, told me to explain and continued speaking.
“Why did you drag things out when I said we should sign the contract right away?”
“We need to make a good deal. Do you think that’s something I can decide in an instant?”
Dragging things out too long was indecisive, but the right amount of time could make the wisdom known as prudence bloom.
“I know very well how desperate you are to hunt down monsters like rats and wipe them out.”
However.
“I have absolutely no intention of releasing the secret art I showed you to the world in its entirety right now.”
“……What? Are you kidding me right now?”
“Whoa, calm down.”
“I told you I’d give you all the money you wanted. Is it because it’s not enough?”
When she glared at me with eyes burning with vengeance, I found myself thinking she was chilling.
Normally, her face was expressionless and her eyes emotionless, so I felt nothing in particular.
‘She’s got quite a bit of venom in her, doesn’t she?’
As a business partner, she passed.
Rather than some bland, ignorant face, someone filled with venom was far better.
I left the words [Aura Cultivation Method] displayed on the whiteboard and drew a large red X over them.
“It’s true the money is lacking, but this isn’t a money problem. It’s a fundamental problem of commerce. Let’s say you’re a company selling ApplePhones. If you release the completed ApplePhone 15 to the world from the very beginning, what are you going to sell next year?”
“……I’m saying I’ll buy your secret art and release it for the sake of humanity. Can you take out a patent on the sun?”
“That’s a very nice thing to say. But listen.”
Yun Se-a’s field of vision had narrowed right now.
If this were a simple item, a product like the cotton fabric I had released in Pellua, then I could sell it off immediately.
But this was, strictly speaking, “force.”
The very first force, at that.
“What will you do if a martial arts user who learned the Aura Cultivation Method hurts your family or friends?”
“……That’s.”
Selling a gun might be nice, but that gun could always be turned back on you.
Uncontrolled force was impossible to handle.
‘Of course, perfect control is something that can never be achieved.’
But shouldn’t we at least try to reduce the impact?
Beside the X drawn on the whiteboard, I drew lines dividing the pyramid into three levels.
“That’s why I’m going to split up the secret art and sell it. Starting with a very basic breathing method, little by little, slowly.”
“You’re going to split it up and sell it?”
“That’s right. At first, we release a lower version that can barely scratch a shield. People will go wild over just that, and we’ll watch the market’s reaction and the impact that power has on society while keeping control in our hands. Then, when they thirst for greater power, we release a higher version at a far more expensive price.”
The logic of a thoroughly calculating merchant.
Se-a bit her lip hard, but as an engineering student and someone of chaebol blood, she instinctively understood that I was not wrong.
“……So you’re saying you’ll maximize profits that way. Fine, I admit your method is safer. But will that accomplish my goal? Enough to wipe out the monsters?”
“Of course.”
I tapped the base of the pyramid with the marker.
“What do you think will happen once this secret art starts spreading? The threshold for becoming a Hunter, which had been the exclusive domain of special Awakened, will drop drastically. Ordinary people will also be able to tear through the shields of lower-rank monsters through training. In other words, the number of Hunters will explode.”
“That’s only natural.”
“Right. And that explosive increase in population will inevitably open up a ‘new massive market.’”
I wrote large letters in the empty space on the whiteboard.
[Equipment Market]
“Swinging a sword imbued with aura means a tremendous load is placed on the weapon. What do you think will happen if you infuse aura into an ordinary steel sword or bayonet from Earth? It’ll break apart like a brittle stalk before you can swing it more than a few times.”
Mechanical factors.
Se-a’s eyes flashed open.
Since she, too, was an engineering student who worked with metals and machinery, she grasped the meaning of my words at once.
“Existing weapons can’t handle the power of the secret art you’re selling…… Which means specially refined new weapons capable of withstanding that immense power will become necessary.”
“Correct.”
I cheered inwardly as I recalled my memories from Pellua.
The continent of Pellua.
There, the Carnoble Merchant Company led by my father wielded enormous wealth and controlled markets as it pleased.
But there was one place, the “equipment market,” that remained an iron fortress we could never encroach upon.
While my father was still alive, he had tried countless times to reach into it.
But the results were disastrous failures.
The reason was simple.
The techniques for forging famous swords and enchanting them with mana were monopolized by closed artisan guilds that had formed their own league over hundreds of years.
They kept their secrets locked away and had established firm relationships of trust with armed groups such as nobles, knight orders, and mages.
No matter how hard we tried to bludgeon them with the merchant company’s money, we could not pierce the barrier of trust and secret techniques built over centuries.
In the end, all the Carnoble Merchant Company could sell in that market were cheap hunks of metal, the lowest-grade weapons used by third-rate mercenaries.
‘But here on Earth, it’s different.’
There were no artisan guilds that had handled mana for hundreds of years, nor closed-off smithies with exclusive contracts with knight orders.
Feeling my heart pound hotly in my chest, I turned toward Se-a.
“Se-a. This market is, quite literally, a perfectly empty blue ocean.”
I clenched my fist.
“The mana-friendly refining methods and weapon enchantment techniques I know will become the one and only divine technology capable of producing weapons that can withstand mana.”
Even the lowest-grade trash weapon, in a place with no substitutes, could transform into a top-class masterpiece commanding prices in the millions or tens of millions of won.
“The vast capital earned by splitting up and selling my secret art. And the overwhelming modern industrial infrastructure of Earth possessed by your Taesan Special Steel.”
I stepped in front of Se-a and looked straight into her eyes.
“We combine those two and monopolize the production of equipment Hunters will use ourselves. We make it so that the ones who learn the secret art have no choice but to buy the equipment churned out from our factories at high prices, even if they hate it.”
The increased number of Hunters would be the ones killing monsters.
But we alone would hold the control to put price tags on those Hunters’ leashes and arm them.
“With the money we make from selling the secret art, join me in swallowing up the otherworldly weapons business. Wiping out monsters, as you want? All of humanity will gladly take up our weapons and bleed in your place.”
Before my demonic yet perfect business blueprint, Yun Se-a stopped breathing for a moment.
In her eyes, which had been frozen cold with vengeance, a fierce heat worthy of the bloodline of a chaebol family that had built a massive industry suddenly flared up.
“Ha…….”
Se-a let out a hollow laugh and pressed a hand to her forehead.
“You really…… drive people insane, Kang Woojin.”
When the time comes to finalize a contract, you feel a certain subtle sensation.
A feeling of: It’s done!
Perhaps it was similar to the sensation martial artists or mages described when breaking through a wall.
If they had to surpass their own limits, then merchants had to tear down the barriers standing before a contract.
“Kang Woojin. Your plan is perfect. Commercially, and for my revenge, too. But…… if we’re going to set this board in motion for real, it’s far beyond my authority.”
“Aren’t you the granddaughter of the group chairman, not just the daughter of the president of Taesan Special Steel? You can’t even pull in one source of funding as you please?”
At my jab, Se-a irritably threw her cap onto the table.
“Do you think a chaebol family is some neighborhood corner store? This is something that will move budgets in the hundreds of billions, even trillions, and overturn the paradigm of South Korea’s Hunter market. How are you going to fend off the vested interests? To roll this giant snowball, we’ll ultimately need the full approval of my grandfather, the chairman of Taesan Group. Absolutely.”
She was right.
Even in Pellua, no matter how good an item was, if you had no backing, you were bound to be devoured by people like Muller.
“Then let’s go see your grandfather right now. I’ll give the presentation myself.”
“Are you insane? An ordinary undergraduate in mechanical engineering is going to request a private audience with the chairman? No matter how much you’re my classmate, without clear proof, you won’t even get past the threshold of the secretarial office. If you just say, ‘I have a secret art for becoming a Hunter,’ you’ll obviously be treated like a lunatic and thrown out.”
Se-a firmly shook her head.
Indeed, meeting a person in a high position of power was not something easily accomplished.
Meeting the princess on the island of Cyprus had only been possible after truly astonishing coincidences piled up one after another.
What about when I met the Doge of Pellua?
Even though he owed my father a debt, meeting him had only been possible after the giant steamship had demonstrated its practical value.
“That’s why we need thorough preparation.”
Se-a’s eyes gleamed sharply.
“To persuade the chairman, we’ll need more than just my own claim. We need the guarantee of a ‘big shot’ within Taesan Group who handles the practical affairs of the Hunter industry. And as it happens, there’s one person who fits perfectly.”