Suho has a lot of money.
In truth, even before now, whenever he spent money he had spent it like water without worrying about a thing, but since profits kept piling up like a waterfall, his funds never had a chance to hit bottom.
The potions and Etherium he listed from time to time whenever he was bored always fetched the highest prices at the Global OnTower Auction House,
and at TDM, Suho’s business aimed at Addmiti, he sold every material as cheaply as possible at the most reasonable prices, and yet, because the place was always packed with customers, staggering profits came flooding in.
Not only that, but Arcane Arsenal, the high-grade item shop Suho frequented, accepted gold and Etherium as payment, so it was practically free for him,
and the many people Suho had hired—Joshua, the Sanarae Clan, Seongsik, Jang Narae, and so on—only took pocket change as compensation for their efforts.
Every one of them was such a modest, ordinary citizen that they waved their hands in protest, saying even a few billion won was far too much.
The only place he had spent a relatively large amount recently was the pittance he had paid on Han Taeung’s behalf for his clan penalty fee.
On top of that, though he did not particularly need it, the government had gone out of its way to grant him drastic tax reductions, so Suho’s wealth shrank even more slowly and accumulated even faster.
From long ago, the wealth stored in his subspace storage had been too vast to estimate, but now even his real-world cash was overflowing.
An excessive amount of wealth.
First, in his subspace storage, he had around 3 trillion won in cash currency.
He had stopped converting it into bundles of physical cash after reaching 3 trillion won because he lost interest, so at least it was only that much.
Whether there were pallets of 50,000-won bills worth 1 trillion, 2 trillion, or 3 trillion, there was no great difference in emotional impact, so he stopped. As he lost all sense of money, it had come to feel like he was stacking boxes of A4 paper.
More than anything, if he kept gathering cash like this and stuffing it away in subspace, increasing the amount of money tied up and not circulating, it would hardly have a good effect on the economy.
Other than that, he seemed to have about 500 million points at the OnTower Auction House, equivalent to 5 trillion won,
and another 10 trillion won or so scattered across various banks, but because he paid so little attention to it, Suho had finally reached the point where he no longer knew how much money he actually had.
When Suho casually shared this concern,
Narae carefully suggested a “family office” for wealth management.
Narae personally ran around and looked into it, forming a “single family office” dedicated exclusively to managing Suho’s enormous fortune.
The person she scouted as chief manager was a Korean-American professional asset manager with experience working as the chief investment officer for an American chaebol family.
He was a welcome talent who would handle everything from finance, law, and taxes to devising the family’s financial strategy.
At the same time, on Joshua’s advice, Suho also decided to use and sign up for a “private banker,” which specialized in investment management and financial services and was advantageous for making use of everyday financial transactions and investment opportunities.
By using both of these services—the family office service and the private banker service—at the same time, he established channels through which he could receive help from the top experts in each field.
It also made his asset management safer.
Of course, the areas these services primarily supported—the goals ordinary chaebols worried about, such as “preserving wealth” or “the future of one’s children and successful transfer of wealth”—were not subjects that particularly interested Suho.
He was simply tired of managing too much money one thing at a time.
He needed someone to efficiently, cleanly, and safely take over this bothersome work for him.
* * *
“Ravi, I’ve made up my mind.”
“What decision would that be?”
“I’m thinking of selling the elixir of anti-aging.”
“Oho...”
“What do you think? Sounds all right, doesn’t it?”
“Hmm... If it makes you wealthy, Master Suho... no, if it makes you happy, then it will be well worth its price.”
“Ooh! That’s right. Ravi. That’s exactly it!”
After the incident last time when he threw in one hundred thousand runes, Ravi’s attitude had changed.
The guy had begun trying to accommodate Suho in various ways.
In particular, rather than offering objective feedback, scolding, or sighs in response to Suho’s various emotions and miscellaneous thoughts, he seemed to be trying his best to understand them.
That was a major change for him, and it also became an opportunity for the relationship between the two of them to deepen.
‘Even if he can’t empathize, the fact that he’s trying to understand is something...’
Seeing him like that, as if a pet were trying to fathom its owner’s heart, even made him seem admirable.
In reality, it might have been the opposite, with the owner trying to understand the pet...
Ravi would almost certainly think of it that way.
“So, how much are you planning to sell it for? Even if you sold it at cost without leaving any margin at all, one 300-milliliter bottle would be 30 quadrillion won.”
“Right. But I can’t sell it at that price.”
“Because Earth’s economic scale is extremely small.”
“Exactly. Even the richest person in the world doesn’t have 30 quadrillion won. So, like we talked about last time, I’m thinking of listing it at a 99.99% discount.”
“Three trillion won?”
“Yeah, the starting price will be 3 trillion won.”
“Hmm...”
It was plain to see that interest was already leaving Ravi’s indifferent face.
“I’m planning to promote this on a large scale and get the rich competing as much as possible.”
“Mmm...”
“So, Ravi, you remember that diamond bottle you made for me once before? Can you make it again?”
“Of course. I can make as many as you like. You plan to make it in the 300-milliliter size, correct?”
“Yeah, that’s right. A 300-milliliter one... For now, can you make just ten?”
Ravi immediately made ten transparent water bottles, each 0.5 centimeters thick and capable of holding about 300 milliliters, made entirely of diamond and weighing roughly 105 grams, and placed them in front of Suho.
Because the shape was different, it was difficult to estimate exactly, but compared simply by weight, even this bottle alone would exceed 70 billion won at current market prices.
Suho filled the bottles to the brim with the [Elixir of Anti-Aging], then created glass stoppers like the Vino-Lok used for high-end wines and sealed the openings.
When the brilliant, sparkling diamond bottles were filled with the luminous rainbow-colored liquid, their appearance exuded tremendous mystery.
“Whew, this really does look cool, doesn’t it? This’ll be seriously fun if I put it up at the auction house.”
He had made ten bottles, but he could not release them all at once.
For now, just one bottle.
“Shall I try selling one? First, I need to advertise it.”
Holding one bottle, Suho left the storage in high spirits.
Suho held a press conference, saying he had an important announcement regarding item collecting.
He held a modest conference in the main hall of Suho’s TDM building, but because Suho and TDM were already at the heart of the world’s issues, reporters thirsting for exclusive articles rushed over and gathered in no time.
“Thank you all for coming despite how busy you must be. Since I’m sure you’re busy, I’ll keep this short and simple.”
Suho, standing on the podium, spoke as he looked over the gathered reporters.
“During this round of item collecting, a very unusual object was collected. It is an extremely special, rare, and new item, so before selling it, I have abruptly arranged this occasion in order to share this special information with everyone in the world who may truly need it, and at the same time, to give everyone an equal opportunity to obtain it.”
From the box standing on the table prepared beside the podium, Android Minji smoothly took out a bottle with restrained movements.
“This is a special potion that has never existed before. In fact, I’m not even sure whether I should call it a potion, but according to the appraisal results, this is a medicinal liquid that reverses the natural aging of the human body.”
Those gathered stared as if bewitched at the rainbow-colored liquid inside the bottle. It was a unique color that could not be seen in any potion.
“For now, I have arbitrarily named it the [Potion of Anti-Aging]. Its effect is that immediately upon ingestion, it returns the drinker’s body to the time when it was at its prime, while also increasing that person’s natural lifespan limit by ten years.”
As the bombshell announcement continued, almost all the reporters raised their hands. Suho pointed to one of them.
“How do we know that potion has such an effect? As you said, isn’t it an unprecedented item?”
“Yes, I expected you would be curious about that. I can explain in two ways. First is my ability. I can appraise detailed information about the items I collect. Since I was able to learn the information on top-grade healing potions and top-grade disease-curing potions without having them appraised even once, I trust there’s no need to explain further.”
Even in the reporter’s eyes, that was true.
The person who had obtained top-grade potions that had never existed in the world, learned their information, and even sold them was Suho, so that ability must be real.
The reporter nodded and busily typed the information.
“The other is the result of a clinical trial.”
“N-no! How could you do that with the only one of its kind to appear in the world...”
“Ah, I forgot to mention this. Actually, there was one more bottle. There were two in total. But I drank one of them. The effect was incredible.”
The reporters, gaping in shock, raised their hands wildly again.
“Yes, the reporter there in the front.”
“W-what route do you plan to use for the sale? Will it be through the TDM store, as expected?”
“No. I’ll be selling this through the Global OnTower Auction House. To people all over the world. Among those who need this, there may be people who are not Addmiti. Next, the person with glasses over there.”
“Th-that bottle looks unusual. Is it perhaps made of some special material?”
At the question from the reporter with glasses, laughter burst out among the audience. Some even shot him looks of pity, as if wondering how he could waste such a precious chance to ask a question on something so useless.
But Suho’s reaction was unexpected.
“Oh! That’s a sharp and excellent point. I forgot to mention this. Since the potion inside is special, the bottle was also specially crafted. This bottle is made entirely of diamond. It contains 105 grams of natural diamond alone.”
“......!”
“D-diamond...!”
“......!!”
The reporters’ eyes bulged as they continued to raise their hands like mad.
* * *
He had definitely drawn attention.
Once the news was reported, the entire world boiled over, regardless of whether they were ordinary people or Addmiti, commoners or chaebols.
That desire to become young. It was a longing that burned even more fiercely in chaebols and people in power than it did in ordinary people and commoners.
For reasons of safety, public credibility, and so on, he decided to deliver the item to the Administration’s OnTower Auction House, but the auction house’s delivery team felt an extreme burden over transporting this item, which was drawing worldwide attention, so Suho personally brought it over with the Sanarae Clan members.
In truth, it would not have been strange if some group attacked the delivery team while they were moving the item.
There were countless chaebols and people in power in the world who wanted to become young, and there was only one item.
Among those who wanted to regain their youth, could all of them really be normal?
The world’s dictators, the heads of terrorist organizations, the bosses of drug cartels—
people like that were highly likely to be unable to participate in the OnTower auction, and even if they did participate, there was also a chance they would be unable to receive the item they won, so there was a high possibility they would not wait for the normal auction date and try to obtain it through a legitimate auction process.
It would not be strange for any number of such villains to appear.
Because “buying youth” was something impossible with money, gold, Etherium, or even potions.
Until the auction opened, and afterward until the item was delivered, the vault where the [Potion of Anti-Aging] was stored was guarded under tight security in several layers, and the Tower Management Bureau even temporarily requested support from the military to raise the level of the item’s security.
Suho also asked the Sanarae Clan to provide security in case of an emergency.
For several days before the auction opened, calls came endlessly to Suho’s public contact number.
They were aides to politicians from various countries..., personal secretaries to heads of major corporations..., world-famous actors..., and so on.
Every single one of them said the same thing.
“Do not put it up at the auction house. Sell it to me privately.” They even dangled sweet words, saying they would buy it for an amount far higher than whatever it would sell for at auction. Somehow, all of them were exactly the same.
But that was an outright lie.
If they were going to buy it for more than the amount it would fetch at auction, they could simply participate in the auction. He had no idea why they were making such a fuss.
Without even hearing them out, Towerpia rejected them all at the door.
At last, the day of the auction arrived.
The starting bid was set at 3 trillion won—the auction price Suho had discounted by 99.99%.
The Global OnTower auction house had dozens of layers of anti-hacking barriers in operation, capable of blocking countless hacking attempts at the source, and the auction was even being broadcast live to the entire world.
Renowned conglomerate owners, politicians, and celebrities from all over the world participated in the Global OnTower auction.
The supreme value of “restoring youth,” incomparable to any asset such as artwork or real estate,
the special nature of an unprecedented item that had never once appeared on Earth or in the Tower,
the rarity of there being only one,
and on top of that, the credibility of the seller being the world’s one and only item collector, Jeong Suho—
with all these elements combined, the bidding price of the [Anti-Aging Potion] pierced through the ceiling from the very start.
With every stage of the race, it continued to break the all-time record.
The auction, which had begun at 3 trillion won—300 million points—surpassed 1 billion points in an instant, and soon crossed 1.5 billion points.
As it approached 2 billion points, the bidding war slowed somewhat.
Once it reached a level that many could not afford even by investing nearly half their fortunes, a considerable number of the great billionaires withdrew.
Even so, the asking price steadily rose, and the auction window grew increasingly heated amid the silence.
- 2.95 billion points has been offered. Is there anyone who will offer more?
- ......
- ......
- I will call it three times and close the auction. 1.9 bill—
- 3 billion.
- 3 billion! 3 billion points has been offered. Is there anyone who will offer more?
Only then was the auction window filled with complete silence.
- 3 billion, 3 billion, 3 billion points. [Bang. Bang. Bang.]
The [Anti-Aging Potion] was sold for 3 billion points—30 trillion won—and the fiercely heated auction came to an end.
Even after the auction ended, the news dominated the headlines under the title “The Most Expensive Auction in History,”
and after deducting the auction consignment fee and taxes, Suho once again earned an astronomical sum of money.
For Suho, it was an event that amounted to nothing more than light amusement,
but those who had once drunk that potion—
especially Suho’s family, Joshua’s family, and the main members of TDM—were all appalled.
“Waaah... This is insane... It makes no sense. I want to throw it all back up. I should’ve just sold mine...”
Suji cried as she watched TV.
* * *
“...So it sold for 30 trillion.”
“Hmm... Even so, that’s a 99.9% discounted price.”
“It’s still a lot.”
Rabi was about to toss out a remark with an indifferent expression, then hurriedly swallowed it back.
“I don’t really understand how that counts as selling it well... but... if you enjoyed it, Suho, then that’s good enough, right...?”
“Hahaha, Rabi, you’re seriously hilarious. Haha.”
Suho pulled Rabi into his arms and ruffled her hair wildly.
The winning bid of 30 trillion won.
It was far short of the original cost of 30 quadrillion won, but it was still a considerable sum.
Through this interesting experiment of selling a single bottle of the [Anti-Aging Elixir], Suho once again keenly realized the power of the items in his subspace storage—especially the Cheonyangwon.
And also just how small and fragile this world was when it came to accommodating the kinds and quantities of these tremendous items.