When Joshua Evans came to Korea, the airport was swarming with countless clans, including the Tower Management Agency, as well as reporters.
Since Evans had left immediately, taking only cash as though he were going on a trip without even disposing of his house or property in the United States, there had been no time to properly get hold of him there.
“Evans! Why did you choose to become a naturalized Korean citizen?”
“There were rumors that you had fallen out with the Phantom Rock Clan in the United States. Is that the reason for your naturalization?”
“Are you retiring? Will you continue climbing the Tower in Korea?”
“What are your plans regarding joining a clan?”
Flashes went off without end, and a barrage of questions poured from the reporters.
Evans had mostly maintained his silence as he pushed through the crowd with his wife and their daughter, who lay on a patient transport bed. Then he stopped and said,
“I have the greatest benefactor of my life here in Korea. I will continue climbing the Tower. I need to make money, after all. I intend to earn it as quickly as possible and repay the favor I owe.”
“Then which clan will you be joining…! Do you perhaps already have a clan in mind?”
“Who is this benefactor in Korea? Is that person one of Korea’s Admitties?”
“Over here! Please answer us!”
Papapapapapapa───
The flashes erupted again, and the excited reporters’ shouts grew louder.
Amid the uproar, Evans calmly said,
“Please move back a little. There isn’t enough room for our bed to pass.”
When Evans lightly gestured with both hands, an invisible pressure took effect, gently pushing back the crowd surrounding them.
“Huh…?”
The reporters, pushed away without even realizing it and now separated from Evans, blinked in bewilderment, their mouths opening and closing soundlessly.
Evans leisurely disappeared with his family in the van he had called in advance.
* * *
Evans arrived far sooner than expected.
Fast enough that someone might have mistaken him for having already been in Korea.
Since Suho had invited Evans to his home to avoid the public eye, Evans had driven there directly in a rented van.
This was an age in which simultaneous real-time translation devices had eliminated the language barrier.
Although Evans was the first foreigner Suho had ever spoken with, communication was not difficult in the slightest.
“Wow, you really got here quickly…”
“My daughter is suffering more with each passing day. Her condition is unstable, and we don’t know what might happen or when… So I put everything else aside and came here.”
Indeed, if Evans had taken the time to communicate sufficiently with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Tower Security Bureau and the Admitti Protection Bureau, settle things with the clan he had belonged to and his countless other connections, and dispose of his house and property before wrapping up his entire life in the United States, there was a good chance he would not even have been able to depart within a month.
Suho was once again impressed by Evans’s decisiveness and drive, as well as his love for his daughter.
“This is…”
“Yes… This is my daughter, Connie.”
Seeing the child covered in various tubes and medical devices made Suho’s heart ache.
“How old… is she?”
“She’s twelve.”
However, because she had barely grown due to her long illness, the girl looked around eight or nine years old.
Her unconscious face was as pale as a corpse. Without the connected ECG monitor, it would have been difficult to tell whether she was even alive.
Suho gave Evans’s family a separate room in his spacious house,
then handed him a [Top-Grade Disease Treatment Potion] and left them alone.
With only his family remaining in the room, Evans poured the potion through the feeding tube inserted into his daughter’s abdomen with trembling hands.
The girl’s body convulsed violently twice, and then her complexion began to improve before their eyes.
From the room Suho had provided, the couple watched their daughter’s miraculous recovery.
After approximately three hours, Evans’s daughter regained consciousness, and by the fourth hour, she was taken off the respirator.
“…Dad, Mom, I’m hungry.”
That was the first thing the girl said as she opened her mouth with a faint smile.
The couple, hearing their daughter’s voice for the first time in years, embraced her and wept for a long while.
* * *
Watching the Evans family left Suho with much to think about.
How many people were there in the world with sick family members they wanted to cure?
‘If I could heal every one of them at once…’
What would happen if Suho released billions of [Top-Grade Disease Treatment Potions] and cured them all?
Even if he could not be precise, he could roughly predict the extensive changes that would occur immediately.
Countless hospitals would collapse at once, medical workers would lose their jobs on a massive scale, most pharmaceutical companies would go bankrupt, and important research and development projects could be halted.
Mass unemployment would arise, potentially leading to economic and social unrest. That, in turn, would place an overload on welfare systems.
And with the medical system having collapsed, humanity’s dependence on potions would skyrocket. Whenever anyone fell ill, they would have no choice but to seek out a potion.
The population that no longer died from disease would also grow explosively, naturally creating problems involving water, food, energy, and the environment.
And how would potions be supplied to everyone around the world?
Those in charge of the potion supply would surely try to secure reserves. They would do everything they could to keep as many potions as possible for themselves.
If the potions were not distributed fairly and instead concentrated among the upper classes, that would create yet another source of social conflict.
All these problems were interconnected and would interact in complex ways. It was not a simple matter.
‘It wouldn’t be entirely good…’
Suho felt strangely stifled.
Having power did not mean he could wield it however he pleased.
And even if he could wield it however he pleased, that did not mean it would necessarily work only for the better.
The more he thought about it, the more his head began to ache.
‘Jeez… Does God have to live with these kinds of worries all the time?’
Who knew?
He wanted to solve all the problems piled up across the world at once, but every one of them was tangled together like a spiderweb, influencing the others.
The enormous wealth Suho possessed.
Leaving it unused felt utterly pointless,
but spending it carelessly seemed likely to make the world worse than if he had spent nothing at all,
and using it wisely was far too complicated and troublesome.
Suho’s financial resources were practically limitless, but for them to reach every person, especially each of the most marginalized individuals, he needed a greater power and the assistance of countless people.
Suho sat absentmindedly, pondering again and again, until he suddenly snapped to attention.
‘Ah! I should be doing this kind of time-consuming thinking inside the subspace… Damn, what a waste of time.’
Even so, Suho wanted to use the abundance he possessed to make some meaningful contribution to the world.
“…If I do nothing but think about it, I’ll end up accomplishing nothing.”
Suho cut off his chain of thoughts and made up his mind about one thing.
A mass supply of [Intermediate Healing Potions].
Whether inside or outside the Tower, an ‘intermediate’ potion was necessary to expect an immediate and dramatic effect when someone suffered major trauma.
However, [Advanced Healing Potions], which were virtually the answer to every kind of injury, were so rare that intermediate potions were effectively the highest-grade items traded on the market.
Naturally, they were expensive.
Though they were called intermediate-grade, the price of the potions still ranged from hundreds of millions of won per bottle, and in severe cases, even reached the billion-won range.
They were items that only major clans and high-ranking Admitties could carry,
while small clans and low-ranking Admitties had little choice but to make do with the lowest- to low-grade potions.
“I need to bring this price down first.”
Suho contacted the places he had previously traded with and ordered a large quantity of empty titanium bottles.
Ten thousand bottles to start with.
* * *
The next day, Evans came to visit Suho and bowed in the Korean manner, apparently having learned it somewhere.
His wife, Jennifer Evans, and daughter, Connie Evans, had come with him and bowed as well.
Suho was caught off guard and awkwardly returned the bow.
Evans told him about his daughter’s recovery and expressed his heartfelt gratitude.
In his mid-forties, Evans was tall and strikingly handsome, and his wife was extraordinarily beautiful. Their daughter had inherited their looks as well.
The entire family looked as though they had stepped out of a fashion magazine.
Suho shrank inwardly without realizing it.
‘Still, by Korean standards, I’m not exactly outclassed…’
After sending his wife and daughter away, their eyes brimming with tears as they expressed their gratitude, Suho sat down for a private discussion with Evans.
As they talked, Suho learned that Evans did not actually possess the wealth to pay the fifty million points immediately.
With an awkward yet resolute expression, he repeatedly bowed his head and appealed to his plan: he would select a clan as quickly as possible, climb the Tower, earn money, and somehow make up the initial bid of five hundred billion won.
In truth, there were countless clans eager to welcome him. Nearly every clan in Korea was scrambling to recruit the newly naturalized Admitti.
But money was of little importance to Suho, so he told Evans that he would not accept payment.
Evans, however, stubbornly insisted that he would absolutely, unquestionably, repay the debt step by step.
Suho subtly explained what kind of Admitti he was and how much money he would continue to earn, repeatedly emphasizing that he had no need for money. He even told Evans that he should return comfortably to the United States now.
But Joshua Evans was utterly unyielding.
“……I cannot. I cannot do that.”
“No, I’m telling you I don’t want your money. Why are you acting like this?”
Evans’s stubbornness left Suho dumbfounded.
“…I cannot let things end like this. You saved my daughter, who is more precious to me than my own life. I will repay this debt with my body.”
“What? Uh… ah… I’m not into that kind of thing…”
What an alarming thing to say! He was a twenty-nine-year-old virgin on the verge of becoming a wizard, no less.
Evans looked flustered and laughed.
“That is not what I meant. You are an Admitti specializing in crafting and support, so your personal combat power is not particularly strong, is it? Please employ me as your exclusive bodyguard. I will devote the rest of my life and my remaining strength entirely to protecting you, Suho Admitti.”
What was this man doing all of a sudden…?
For such a high-ranking Admitti to serve as the bodyguard of one person—himself—what an enormous waste of international talent.
However, Evans refused to back down, and in the end, Suho accepted his proposal.
To be honest, it was tempting.
Even if all of Suho’s guard androids and the Management Agency’s bodyguards were assigned to him, they would not be able to match a single Evans.
How reassuring was that?
“Well… This is rather sudden, but… I look forward to working with you, Joshua Evans.”
“I look forward to working with you as well. I will not disappoint you.”
There was not a single contract between the two men as they shook hands, but a pact deeper than blood had been forged.
* * *
Since the Evans family had suddenly rushed to Korea after abandoning everything, they had no foundation for living there and barely knew anyone. Suho helped them in every way he could.
First, he purchased a unit in the building right next to the luxury villa where he lived and gave it to them,
then filled it with the finest furniture and appliances.
Evans politely declined, saying it was unnecessary, but Suho unilaterally furnished the entire place with only the best.
This was his first exclusive personal bodyguard, and not just any bodyguard—he was an S+ Admitti from the realm beyond the heavens. This much was only basic courtesy.
Suho also asked the Management Agency to help Connie Evans gain admission to a prestigious international school.
Jennifer, his wife, held a doctorate in molecular biology from Stanford and had been a senior researcher at a famous pharmaceutical company. There were many places in Korea eager to hire her, so she found a job immediately.
But even that was not enough.
Suho called Evans over again to provide support for the family’s living expenses.
“Joshua Evans, I’d like to set a salary for you as compensation for your bodyguard services.”
“I do not need a salary. I have already received a disease treatment potion of astronomical value, and I cannot accept a salary until I have repaid its full cost.”
“I’m giving it to you. It’s a gift—a present. Besides, you need some income, don’t you? You’re not climbing the Tower and will be staying by my side all day. How are you planning to support yourself?”
“My wife found a good job thanks to your help, so we are fine.”
“You’re not fine. Do you know how much the monthly maintenance fee for this villa is? And have you seen the cost of living in this neighborhood? On a researcher’s salary, you’ll become house-poor.”
“……I will take care of that myself.”
“No, think about it from the employer’s perspective. If my bodyguard is financially unstable, how secure do you think that makes me feel? That’s why I’m making this offer—for my own peace of mind.”
“…I will consider it.”
“What is there to consider? In any case, that’s why I want to set a salary. The amount I’d like to offer is three billion won per month. In dollars, that’s… approximately 2.1 million dollars. Would that be acceptable?”
“…That is absurd. It is far too much for the work I do.”
“Ah! So that means it’s acceptable! Then let’s go with that!”
* * *
Evans naturally could not accompany Suho all the way to the agency where he worked,
so he decided to protect Suho along an independent route that would not overlap with Minsu, Minji, or the guards from the Tower Management Agency.
‘Do the people at this tiny company realize that this old, little building has practically become a fortress?’
Leaning back as far as he could in his office chair and gazing at the ceiling, Suho grinned to himself, amused just thinking about it.
Then he heard the sharp sound of dress shoes approaching.
Team Leader Han Shin-cheol, the grouch. By now, Suho could recognize him by the sound of his shoes alone.
‘Tch. Is this the moment I get the first stamp on my new accumulation coupon?’
“Jeong Suho, you sure have it easy, don’t you? You’ve got nothing to do, so you’re sitting there laughing and enjoying yourself.”
“Yes, something rather funny happened. Why? Did you need something?”
Suho sat upright in his chair and replied. The team leader glared at him, his face twisting grotesquely.
His lips moved as though he were about to say something, then he tossed down the absurdly thick bundle of documents tucked under his arm.
“Hmph. Since you look so free, deal with this. Reorganize it by date and category, convert it into an Excel file, and submit it.”
“What is this?”
[Inyeon Agency Requests #34, Investigation into Auction Registration Items at the Admitti-Only On-Tower Auction House — First and Second Halves of 2037]
Suho flipped through the documents to see what they were, and his eyes widened.