Men in suits arrived early in the morning.
Looking closer, only one of them was human; the rest were androids.
Their movements were stiff, so they didn’t seem to be some extremely expensive high-end line.
“You are Jeong Suho, correct?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Please confirm the item you won here, and if there are no issues, sign here.”
At last, the [Tempered Ray Ring] had arrived.
A B-grade, Hero-rank ring item.
Suho briefly checked the warranty certificate the delivery team handed him, sent the auction house delivery team away, then sat in the living room and opened the box.
Even the shipping box wasn’t some ordinary parcel box, but a metal case.
It was a powered hard case designed to open only after recognizing his Admiti registration card.
Beep— Once authentication was complete, the box opened automatically with style.
“Whoa... The box alone must be insanely expensive.”
Inside the powered case was another luxuriously packaged box, and inside that, rings neatly arranged in a row. He took one out and slipped it onto his finger.
“What the. Is this a ring binder? It’s way too big... Huh—?”
No matter how he looked at it, it was a metal ring, but once he put it on his finger, it slowly shrank and settled perfectly into place.
When he tried pulling it off again, the ring widened and returned to its original size.
“...That’s freaking amazing...”
It had a simple design, like a plain, thick silver ring with not a single gem embedded in it.
Even so, a faint glow lingered around it, giving it a mysterious feel.
It was said to automatically generate a defensive barrier of light upon detecting an external attack, but he wasn’t sure how to test it.
“Minsu, Minji! Come here for a second.”
Minsu and Minji rushed over in an instant and stood before Suho.
“Okay, hit me once. Just... not too hard. Where should it be? My stomach? No. Hit me here, on the arm.”
But Minsu and Minji didn’t move an inch as they replied.
“Under Principle One of the Five Principles of Security Androids, we must protect our employer under all circumstances and cannot inflict any harm upon the employer.”
“No, I’m just trying to do a simple experiment. You can hit me lightly so it doesn’t hurt. There should be something like, ‘You must obey the employer’s orders absolutely!’ too, right?”
“Principle One takes precedence over any command.”
He asked several times, but the answer repeated endlessly.
It was just frustrating.
“Ha, forget it. Forget it.”
They were saying it was to protect him, so what could he say?
He would have to do it himself.
Suho sent Minsu and Minji back to the charging deck, went out to the terrace, and stood in front of the multifunction fitness machine.
Then he hung a weight plate from the pull-up bar, connected a rope like a pulley, pulled it, and lay down beneath it.
“Hoo... If this... doesn’t activate, am I seriously dead...?”
He was more scared than he’d expected.
Still, thinking the ring might not activate unless it sensed a genuine threat to his life, he made the reckless attempt.
‘If it looks like it’s not working, I can jump into the Subspace Warehouse right before the plate hits me... right?’
He took a deep breath and let go. The rope unraveled with a clatter, and the weight plate came dropping ominously.
At that moment,
Chiiiiing───!
Light extending from the ring instantly wrapped around his body and lightly deflected the falling plate.
The shield of light remained for another ten seconds or so.
“Yaaaah...”
After the shield disappeared, the ring no longer held its faint glow.
It seemed to have entered its five-hour reuse cooldown.
Success. This was a jackpot.
Security androids, plus the [Tempered Ray Ring].
A slight sense of reassurance had been added.
But this was only the beginning of his protective equipment.
‘I should be at a level where I can be dropped into the middle of a battlefield and still come back fine.’
Suho opened the auction house again.
* * *
During the agency’s lunch break, he visited the Subspace Warehouse.
Since time outside was as good as stopped, it was a place he could visit without burden.
Whenever he came here, he felt rich in all sorts of ways.
Ravi, who obeyed his every word absolutely; the wealth piled high; the endlessly vast space; the ample time; a place safer than anywhere on Earth; a place where he didn’t have to care about anyone else’s gaze... and so on.
He hadn’t measured it, but these days, Suho might have been spending more time in the Subspace Warehouse than in the real world.
“Ravi, when I come here, there are times I want to rest a little, but there’s nothing here, right?”
“It is not true that there is nothing. Everything is provided, including an appropriate air composition, moisture, gravity, friction, and so on, so that Suho may adapt here in a human body.”
“Uh... right. That’s true. What I mean is, I need a place to rest. Like a bed, a sofa, or a building... and also food, drinks, that kind of thing.”
“While you are here, your body’s metabolic activity proceeds extremely slowly, so you should not feel hunger, thirst, or fatigue. You are free to think and move, but muscle fatigue and energy expenditure are also extremely low. Wounds or illnesses do not recover either, but they also do not worsen, remaining almost fixed in place.”
“Ah...... I see. No wonder. Even if I stay here a long time, I don’t get tired or hungry. That’s amazing... It really is like a place inside a dream.”
“Even so, do you require a place to rest?”
“Hmm... Even if I don’t need it practically, I’d say I need it emotionally?”
“I see...”
Ravi did not seem to understand at all.
How could a member of the Blue Dragon race who lived for a hundred thousand years, and on top of that was only a thousand-year-old baby dragon, understand a human’s romantic ideals?
He wasn’t particularly hoping for her to understand.
“So anyway, can I bring things like that in here? In other words, can I put outside objects in here?”
“Of course it is possible. You already bring your clothes and all other items on your person in with you, do you not? As long as the volume does not exceed the spare space of the Subspace Warehouse, you may store anything.”
“...What could possibly exceed this space that’s the size of the solar system...? I’m just thinking of putting in something like a modular house. And stocking up on some food too.”
“You may proceed as you please. However, when storing something, you must clearly define the target’s category. Only things that are completely separated, not connected or joined to anything else, can be stored.”
“Aha. Okay. I figured that would be the case.”
“And living beings are not permitted. As for living beings, only authorized beings—namely, myself and Suho—may remain in this space.”
“A...ha. I see. Then what’s the standard for a living being? Just something alive? Then can I not bring in a living tree or a potted plant?”
“That is not the case. Plants of any kind are possible. If one must distinguish it... the presence or absence of a soul is the standard.”
“Oh... In short, living beings with a certain degree of emotion and intelligence aren’t allowed.”
“That is similar.”
Dimensional transfer functionality, and the ability to store external items.
Even the inability to store living beings.
Suho took out a notebook and carefully wrote it all down, then opened the page titled,
‘Subspace Warehouse SimCity Plan.’
Things he had ambitiously planned on his own in his spare moments.
First was setting the zones.
“First, Ravi, mark this spot where I’m standing right now.”
Suho began to run.
After running for quite some time,
“From that spot earlier to here. Yeah, mark this exact spot.”
Then Ravi sensibly made the floor bulge upward. Its shape was like a cornerstone.
“Now, I’m going to use a square plot of land centered on the diagonal connecting these two points as the village construction zone. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Then make that area higher than the rest of the floor. About fifty centimeters.”
Rrrrrrr....
As soon as Suho finished giving the order, a square piece of land with sides 150 meters long rose up from the smooth floor.
“Good! Awesome!”
The foundation had been prepared for Suho’s serious hobby: Subspace Warehouse SimCity.
* * *
The workday at the agency proceeded smoothly, with nothing particularly special happening.
Since he was still a new hire and in his probationary period, he wasn’t entrusted with important tasks, and spent a lot of time learning the company’s duties and work environment system.
There were also occasional tasks like organizing materials or drafting documents while assisting his seniors.
No matter how much work there was, Suho honestly had no worries.
After all, he had the Subspace Warehouse, a place where he could use nearly infinite time.
So while he completed his work separately and perfectly, he mostly spent his time in the company comfortably, focusing on building relationships.
Of course, the harassment from Han Sincheol, the team leader and Yangwon’s boyfriend, continued.
He frequently used insulting language, belittling and mockery were the norm, and even when assigning minor tasks, he overloaded Suho excessively while excluding him from important work.
He also interfered with Suho’s work by not giving him necessary information and even blocked communication so he couldn’t get close to the other employees.
In all sorts of varied and diligent ways, he tormented Suho.
Of course, since company life was by no means Suho’s main focus, it dealt him absolutely no damage, but the team leader seemed intent on harassing Suho however he could.
To live up to that effort and expectation, Suho also made a small card.
The so-called .
You know those coupon cards at cafés and places, where they stamp it every time you visit, and once you collect ten stamps, you get a free Americano?
He took a piece of thick paper, named it , drew boxes on it, and checked one off every time the team leader threw a fit.
And finally,
“Hey, Associate Jeong Suho. Can’t you see the shredder waste bin tipped over next to the copier? Seriously, you’ve got no sense of ownership.”
Suho had clearly seen the team leader lightly kick it over as he passed by.
“Yes, sir! I’ll clean it up right away!”
Suho smiled brightly as he cleaned up the spilled shredded paper without complaint.
At last, today! The team leader had filled ten stamps. Jackpot!
‘Oh, that took longer than I thought...?’
It was the first completion, so what event prize should he give him?
After rummaging through a few of the things he had thought up, Suho chose one, then whistled as he pretended to head to the bathroom and made his way to the underground parking lot.
Behind Suho, the voices of the new hires followed.
“Why does that team leader bastard always pick on Suho...”
“Still, Suho has such a good personality... He’s practically a saint.”
Soon, he arrived at the dark underground parking lot.
The parking lot, where the stingy company had only installed sensor lights to save electricity, was gloomy and poor, without a single CCTV camera.
Even the entrance was fairly narrow, perfect for beginners to scrape their cars.
‘Let’s see... the team leader’s car is... bingo!’
The team leader’s car was a silver midsize sedan that hadn’t been purchased all that long ago.
He had bragged so much about buying a new car that there was no way not to know it.
On top of the team leader’s car, Suho took out and placed a slab of gold just large enough to cover the car’s size.
The block of gold, two meters wide, five meters long, and two centimeters thick—about 3.8 tons—was placed on top of the team leader’s car, and the vehicle collapsed with a crunching noise.
He deliberately didn’t leave it there for long. After keeping it on just briefly enough for only the roof to cave in, he immediately stored the gold again.
‘I’ll have to make a new card.’
With his hands shoved into his pockets, Suho left the parking lot.
* * *
Through the Admiti of its branch office in Korea, the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Tower Security Bureau had participated in the previous S-rank Etherium auction.
Even though they had accessed it through a bypass, they had won as many as three lots.
“Where did all the Etherium go?”
Director Elain asked Hamilton, the chief information security officer.
“We distributed it appropriately among the five major clans. We charged them slightly more than the auction price as well. It appears they plan to install them in the top-tier equipment of their S-rank Admiti.”
“The clans that didn’t receive any must be making quite a fuss.”
“...Most likely.”
“Hoo... We need to secure more. The value of S-rank Etherium is worlds apart from A-rank. This time, it was the Korean OnTower auction house, and other countries participated through branch offices and bypasses, so the price ended at this level... But if the auction happens through the global OnTower auction house next time, it won’t be released at such a bargain.”
“That’s correct. Large clans from all over the world will swarm in.”
“Did you find the seller?”
“We found him. He’s an S-rank production and support-type Admiti who recently Awakened in Korea.”
“That must be the young man from the last report... As expected. There’s no way he was an existing Admiti... They said his class was unusual, didn’t they?”
“Yes. It is an unprecedented class called Item Collector.”
“And yet he’s keeping it secret...?”
“All official data is currently blocked. Still, rumors are circulating in the industry under the table.”
“Contact?”
“We are continuing to attempt it, but his security is stricter than expected, so we haven’t been able to approach him yet. There are several layers of security teams, both agents and androids.”
“Really? Impressive. Just because the Korean Administration Bureau isn’t showing it openly doesn’t mean they’re sitting idle. Make contact with him no matter what. And let’s show him what we can offer. We need to make him a deal he can’t refuse.”
“Understood.”
* * *
After multiple requests for design revisions and approvals, the titanium potion bottles arrived a few days later, and Suho was extremely pleased with them.
Beside the piled-up delivery boxes were machines that filled one corner of the room.
Equipped with liquid injection and vacuum packaging machines, as well as a fully automatic sealing machine to seal the caps, Suho intended to go into the potion business in earnest.
“Whoa, whoa, hyung, what is all this?”
Jiho, who had come to hang out in Suho’s room, gaped at the piled-up delivery boxes.
“I’m thinking of selling some medicine.”
“Medicine? ...Meeedicine? What kind of medicine?”
“There’s something like that. Good for the body.”
Then Jiho pulled out one of the titanium bottles sticking out from a box, and his eyes widened.
“Hyung, what is this? Highest-grade healing potion?”
“Ah, don’t take it out. Put it back. Don’t touch it.”
“Hyung... Hyung, if you run a scam with Admiti goods, you’ll be in serious trouble. Ah, man... I’m so anxious I could die. Is it because your ability isn’t manifesting properly? I saw on the news before that some Admiti got arrested after trying to run a scam at the OnTower auction house...”
“I’m not scamming anyone, so don’t worry. Get out already.”
“Ah... seriously. No, hyung, where in the world is there such a thing as a highest-grade healing potion? That kind of thing only exists in games... Aigoo, our hyung... This is bad.”
Even as he was pushed out of the room by the back, Jiho did not stop his worried lamenting.
Exhausting.