The next day,
Suho picked a few more items from the remaining 999 types, excluding gold.
Searching the internet, californium, plutonium, tritium… there were many things with high value per gram, but since they were all radioactive elements, he thought it would be a disaster if he stockpiled a lot of them.
So he excluded everything that looked dangerous,
Drugs also had high value per gram, but how and where would an ordinary young Korean man named Suho distribute drugs?
He would be the perfect candidate to get shot by criminal organizations. Or get arrested.
So he excluded such illegal things as well,
Things that looked somewhat decent—
platinum, silver, and diamonds, receiving 1 yang-won’s worth of each.
And together with Rabi, he moved around the areas where platinum, silver, and diamonds were piled, sightseeing.
At current Earth market prices, there were 240 quadrillion tons of platinum, 8 quintillion tons of silver, and 127 trillion tons of diamonds stacked in some space in the warehouse.
“Rabi.”
“Yes, Suho-nim.”
“I can take items out of the subspace even when I’m outside; is that also you gathering and sending them?”
“Yes!”
“The size, shape, and location all come out exactly as I want; is that you too?”
“That’s correct.”
“That’s amazing. How do you cut it so precisely?”
“That is merely an extremely basic skill, so…”
For some reason, the bashful Rabi was cute.
“Then shall I cut some in advance?”
“It’s alright. I can make them for you immediately without delay the moment you request it, Suho-nim.”
“Well, I just wanted to see them cut and stacked in the shapes I desire.”
“Yes, then by all means.”
Suho pointed to one spot among the endlessly stretching land inside the subspace.
“Over there—no, this spot looks good. Stack them here. Hmm… First, can you make gold into 100 tons of 100g gold bars, 100 tons of 1kg gold bars, 100 tons of 20kg gold ingots, and 100 tons of 1-ounce gold coins?”
“Of course.”
In less than a second, gold ingots and gold coins were stacked in heaps.
In various forms and sizes, the gold coins and ingots piled up like royal tombs shone brilliantly. Because the forms were mixed together, hills of gold crumbled here and there with a rustling sound.
“Hyaah… Yes. This is it.”
Rabi tilted his head watching Suho approach the pile of gold and stare at it blankly.
“Is there a reason you stacked only a very small portion here like this?”
“Hmm… I just wanted to feel like I have a lot of gold. Hundreds of quadrillions of tons where an entire planet is made of gold don’t actually feel like anything at all…”
Leaving behind far more gold and taking out only an extremely small portion to enjoy the feeling of having a lot—Rabi could not understand what that meant.
He simply thought that if Suho, the master of all wealth, said so, then it must be so.
When Suho plopped down on top of the densely stacked gold, gold bars and coins collapsed in a cascade, making clear sounds.
“Killing it… I’m really rich.”
Suho dusted himself off and stood up, pointing beside the pure gold pile.
“Now make platinum the same way here. In 100g, 1kg, 20kg, and 1-ounce pieces. 100 tons each. Then, make the same thing out of silver beside it.”
“Understood.”
The moment Suho finished speaking, a royal tomb of platinum and hills of pure silver appeared beside it.
“And beside that… stack diamonds. Diamonds don’t feel right if they’re too big… so what size should they be? Hmm, 100 tons of 10-carat, 100 tons of 100-carat, 100 tons of 500-carat, and 100 tons of 1,000-carat. Stack just these.”
As expected, a hill of diamonds was created.
“Wow! This is totally like a movie set. Haha. Even Aladdin’s treasure vault would have to bow down to this, wouldn’t it?”
Suho ran around the hills of gold and silver treasures like a child playing on a large sand dune, a beaming smile on his face.
* * *
After touching and playing with gold, platinum, silver, and diamonds to the point of growing tired of them, Suho took out a very small amount of each and went around various exchanges, selling them to cash out.
There were many places that bought diamonds even without certificates, so he could conveniently exchange them for cash.
The cash he received was so bulky that while moving around, he had to busily toss it into the subspace warehouse.
The money received that way amounted to 1,825,660,000 won.
Without a doubt, it was all real. The platinum, the silver, and the diamonds too.
Counting yesterday and today, he had come into over 2.8 billion won.
Returning home, Suho stacked bundles of cash in his room and sat blankly beside them.
Tap,
Crash…
The bundles of fifty-thousand-won bills stacked into fifty-million-won units, precariously piled because the room was cramped, collapsed like Jenga when Suho bumped into them.
It was wondrous. He should have felt like he owned the world, but he couldn’t.
Everything simply felt unreal.
Because Suho knew very well how small a portion this was, considering what was in the subspace warehouse.
Everyone has probably imagined it at least once.
What would I do if I had 100 million won?
What would I do if I won the lottery?
People with bigger guts might have even imagined: What if I had 1 trillion won?
But I can say with certainty that not many people have imagined, “What would I do if I had 1 yang-won?”
Even fewer if it were 1,000 yang-won.
Ding.
A text message came from somewhere.
Agency, 2nd round passers’ interview schedule.
- No response; resending.
- Date, place, documents to prepare, attire, blah blah…
“Hah, these guys again…?”
Without reading it again, he deleted it.
He had applied to make money anyway; now he had no lingering attachment.
He didn’t even want to see the face of Yang-won’s boyfriend.
Suddenly, the scene of the room, unparalleled in its messiness and clutter, caught his eye.
He shared a room with his immediate younger brother Jiho, and the cramped space was piled high with luggage belonging to both of them.
If the two of them lay down in the middle of that luggage, the room would be completely full. They had to sleep practically hugging each other.
In Suho’s home, a two-room apartment of about ten to thirteen pyeong, Suho and his younger brother used one room, his younger sister used another, and his mother and father used the living room.
For five adults to live in, that house was far too cramped.
“…Sigh, should I suggest we move at this point…?”
He picked up a bundle of 1,000 fifty-thousand-won bills, smelled it, and threw it back into the corner. He thought how tightly it was bound, just like a brick.
Having experienced such strange events and thought too many random thoughts, his head seemed to throb.
‘I need to get some sleep…’
Suho closed his eyes and thought.
He would have to make his family understand everything that had happened to him first.
* * *
After sleeping soundly and waking up, his head felt a bit clearer.
It was already evening.
He wasn’t sure if they had eaten dinner without him or were just chatting, but the living room was noisy, so he left his room.
Everyone seemed to be having some conversation, but the mood was bad.
Scratching his stomach, he asked.
“What’s with this mood? Did something happen?”
Mother sighed.
“The landlady came by earlier and asked us to move out.”
“Suddenly?”
“Right…”
“Why?”
“Her son recently got married, and she said her son and daughter-in-law are moving in, so she asked us to move out as soon as possible. I mean, there’s still time left on the contract; how unreasonable… She said she’d return the deposit and even pay a penalty fee if we move out quickly. For heaven’s sake.”
“Honey, let’s just hold out. What’s there to worry about when there’s still time left? We don’t have to accommodate everything.”
“That’s right. Mom, the contract isn’t there for nothing. So what if they’re the landlord? Who do they think they are?”
Father and younger sister Suji both flared up in anger.
But Suho spat out words thoughtlessly.
“Let’s move. It’s about time we left.”
“What?”
“It’s about time we left this cramped hellhole of a house.”
“What are you saying? Oppa, do you think it’s easy to find a house like this?”
Following Suji, Jiho added a word.
“Yeah, hyung, this place is near the subway station…”
“Suho. You don’t understand—with that tiny deposit, there’s really nowhere for us to go.”
“How much is the deposit?”
“30 million.”
A truly small deposit, meaning the monthly rent was monstrously high to match.
“Tch, it’s basically nothing anyway. Don’t worry about the deposit. Let’s move to an apartment this time.”
“There he goes, talking nonsense again… Go back to your room and get some more sleep.”
Mother sighed again, and Suji glared sharply.
Now it was time to tell them.
“I’m not just saying this. I’m saying it because I gained power. I’ve been chosen.”
Suho puffed out his chest.
“Chosen?”
“Yes.”
In that instant, the gazes of the four family members focused on Suho at once.
“N-no way… D-don’t tell me.”
“Suho… don’t tell me, you… you’ve Awakened? You’ve become an Admitee…?”
“Really? Oppa, really??”
Suho shook his head.
“No. I didn’t say I Awakened. I said I was chosen. Literally.”
In that instant, the family members’ expressions became complex.
“…Not an Awakening? Then, chosen… what does that mean…?”
“It’s different from Awakening. Honestly, it’s billions of times rarer than Awakening.”
“……”
“……”
It’s the truth. Ten billion times? So what.
It’s one in tens of billions out of hundreds of billions out of trillions. Just how many times rarer is it exactly?
How can you compare its rarity to something like one in ten thousand?
“So what is it? Tell us quickly.”
While quietly looking at his clamoring family, a better idea came to Suho.
The Awakened who possess supernatural abilities and climb the Tower.
Since the Tower had appeared several years ago, the system for conquering it had become established, and moreover, Admitees had secured sufficient social support.
Various legal and institutional aspects were well systemized, making it easy to explain to others.
On the other hand, the power of Cheonyangwon that he obtained was an ability too alien and a concept too unfamiliar to everyone, not just his family.
It was also an enormous power that couldn’t be fully fathomed even with the utmost imagination.
Suho himself, who had received it, hadn’t figured it all out yet.
As such, trying to make people understand with the power of Cheonyangwon, and finally being acknowledged, protected, and respected, would involve such an arduous process and troublesome affairs.
As if mere annoyance were the worst of it? All sorts of threats could follow during that process.
If that’s the case…
‘I’ll exaggerate a little and just overwrite it with something that already exists.’
Suho exhaled lightly, shrugged his shoulders, and continued.
“Actually, I did Awaken. I became an Admitee.”
Only then did the family, who had begun to grasp the fact with trembling, become filled with joy.
“I-I knew it…”
“Of course.”
“I just knew it would be like this…!”
“Yes, Awakening is being chosen, what else?”
“Ahh… even this hellhole sees a sunny day…”
“Hey! Suji. What’s with the hellhole? Is our house a hellhole?”
“Mom, then what do you call this if not a hellhole?”
“Then what are you, living in a hellhole!”
“A hell-rat, what else?”
“Ugh, Mom, Suji, calm down. Hyung, so, so, what’s your rank, what’s your class?”
Jiho’s eyes sparkled as he pressed the question.
Suho pondered briefly, choosing his words, and opened his mouth.
“First, my class is ‘Crafting and Support type’,”
“Oh…!”
“Wow! That’s great!”
“Jackpot…”
The family clapped and rejoiced.
In truth, Crafting and Support type Admitees were what everyone wished for.
Since they weren’t combat-class, many didn’t enter the Tower at all, and even if they did, they mostly participated in combat only from the rear providing support.
In short, an Admitee that was quite safe while guaranteed high income—that was the Crafting and Support type.
“And my rank is…”
Receiving everyone’s expectations, Suho said.
“It’s S-Rank.”