At last, the auction opened.
Aside from those actually participating in the auction, anyone who met the qualifications could watch the auction unfold in real time, so Suho logged into the online auction house as well.
He was more than a little surprised by the unexpectedly large number of people who had logged in.
People watched the online auction in anticipation.
The items that drew everyone’s attention were, without question, the ten S-grade Aetheriums.
Given their prices, bidding began on the items one at a time.
While everyone watched to gauge the situation, the auction for the first item came to an end.
It had been listed at 10 billion won, but the price shot straight up to 30 billion before a winning bidder emerged.
The second item started at 30 billion won.
The impatience to win the bid at as low a price as possible and the anxiety that the remaining items were steadily dwindling became hopelessly entangled, creating a taut atmosphere.
As the excitement gradually mounted, the prices began to soar. The bidding race caught fire.
The Aetheriums listed at 10 billion won each surpassed 80 billion apiece by the latter half of the auction.
A total of 580 billion won.
In other words, 58 million points.
Once the auction ended, the total settlement amount—and the sum Suho would receive—was finalized.
Even after deducting the auction house’s commission and various taxes, approximately 30 million points were scheduled to be credited to him.
Needless to say, all ten Aetheriums had been sold.
After being informed that the points would be credited only after it was confirmed that the items had been safely delivered to the winning bidders, Suho logged out of the auction house.
The result was more than satisfactory.
Among the ways to turn the goods in his subspace warehouse into cash, the auction house seemed to be the most efficient.
* * *
Thanks to the unexpectedly large sum of money, the Suho family changed their plans and decided to move into a house far better than the one they had originally contracted for.
The apartment of around forty pyeong that his father, mother, and Suji had painstakingly researched and contracted was canceled, even at the cost of forfeiting the deposit.
What did a deposit like that matter? It was pocket change anyway.
What kind of house should they choose now?
There was no reason to weigh cost-effectiveness against the price.
Wasn’t “cost-effectiveness” ultimately a concept that only concerned people who had nothing?
Until just a short while ago, Suho himself had been someone who cared quite a bit about getting value for his money.
But when one possessed overflowing wealth, such considerations were unnecessary.
Instead, one naturally became more interested in what was the best.
Suho simply pushed for them to move into the best house available.
His family had no reason to refuse, and the Suho family signed a contract for an extremely fine, top-of-the-line villa.
Twelveone Cheongdam.
It was a luxury villa in Cheongdam-dong, one of the five most expensive residential complexes in South Korea.
With an exclusive area of 115 pyeong, the apartment was an ultraluxurious villa with seven bedrooms and four toilets and bathrooms.
Each unit had 7.8 dedicated parking spaces, providing more than enough room even if every family member owned a car.
Every unit also came with a terrace large enough to be called a small garden, where options such as an outdoor jacuzzi and an outdoor barbecue area could be installed.
And that wasn’t all. It was a luxurious complex where hotel services—including a clubhouse, cafeteria breakfast service, concierge service, fitness center, swimming pool, and more—were all provided as standard.
There was no telling how much they would actually use them, but there was no harm in having them available.
The family went to look around the house and was completely overwhelmed.
They stood there with their mouths agape at the luxurious interior, more opulent than anything they had ever set foot in even at a travel destination.
“Hey, hey, Jiho. That’s the entrance. Why are you already taking off your shoes?”
“Oh, this is the entrance...? It was so clean I thought I wasn’t supposed to wear shoes inside... It doesn’t look like an entrance. It looks more like the main gate...”
When Suho gave the bewildered Jiho a meaningful look, the guide gave a light laugh.
After showing them around every corner, the guide excused himself, telling them to take their time looking around.
In the enormous living room, they pushed aside the full-glass sliding doors, and a vast terrace welcomed everyone with an invigorating openness.
“Whoa... Is this indoors or outdoors? Is it an apartment or a full-fledged villa?”
“The view is amazing.”
“We could have barbecue parties here.”
“Oh, right. They said we could have garden parties here. Apparently all the facilities are over there.”
“We could even put exercise equipment out here and work out here. It’s so spacious.”
“Exactly.”
Watching his family chatter excitedly, unable to hide their delight, Suho felt rather proud.
“Of course, a place this size is just right for us. We have a big family, after all. Don’t you agree?”
At Suho’s words, his family merely opened and closed their mouths.
“Just... right?”
“Suho, if this is an adequate house, then where on earth is better than this...?”
“My goodness... Oppa, the whole band could move in here and live with us...?”
“Baaand? Ahem, absolutely not! Don’t even think about anything so pointless.”
“Why not? They could come over once in a while!”
Jiho and Suji bickered.
In any case, having lots of money was wonderful.
His family was satisfied beyond measure, but Suho didn’t feel the same way.
If there was no better house worth buying, then they would simply have to build a better one and move into it. He made up his mind then and there.
In the end, Suho went into the house on a jeonse-and-monthly-rent arrangement, paying a 400-million-won deposit and 30 million won in monthly rent.
It wasn’t because he was trying to reduce the pittance that was the property tax. Rather, there was no place in the country he liked more than this house, so he had decided to build one from scratch.
Thus, they would live here for only a year or two, until the new house was completed.
He left the decision regarding what kind of house to build entirely to his family, who would consult with an architectural designer.
Once the contract was finalized, the move proceeded swiftly, since the house had been vacant.
In truth, there wasn’t much to move.
All their existing furniture and appliances had been too old, so they threw everything away.
They replaced all the appliances with the latest, highest-end models to suit the new house, and furnished it with expensive pieces from prestigious brands.
Their mother had also wanted fine tableware, so they filled the kitchen with luxury dishware.
Suho told his family they didn’t need to worry about his opinion when spending it and gave each member 10 billion won in pocket money.
The gift tax amounted to an enormous 50 percent, but whatever the case, it was a trivial sum to Suho. Things like deductions for direct-line relatives were even more of a nuisance.
Suho and Jiho chose their cars, but when their mother and father—who had never owned cars before—went to purchase theirs, the two of them bickered again.
Their father asked their mother why she needed a car when she didn’t even have a driver’s license, only to get thoroughly beaten in the argument.
Their mother tore into him, asking why he was going on about a license when autonomous driving was so good at driving.
Laughter never ceased in the new house.
His father laughed, his mother laughed, Jiho laughed, and Suji laughed.
But Suho couldn’t laugh as much as they did.
No—whenever he laughed, it was hollow, and he kept finding himself giving bitter smiles.
The more money he spent like a madman, the deeper the emptiness in his heart became.
Rather, he felt his satisfaction gradually fading from everything he enjoyed.
He had more money than he could ever express, yet there were surprisingly few places to spend it.
Spending money was quite enjoyable, but the shelf life of that satisfaction was astonishingly short.
He grew tired of many things, and they became boring almost immediately.
There was still an incalculable amount of wealth piled up in his subspace warehouse, stacked as high as a planet,
because everything Suho had taken out and used amounted to less than a single drop of water removed from the entire Pacific Ocean with an eyedropper.
And that wasn’t all. There were still 987 empty slots, untouched and waiting for him to choose the wealth he would receive from the Administrator.
His worries only deepened.
He truly had never imagined that he would spend his life worrying about something like this.
* * *
The new house was so spacious that they greatly increased the number of guard androids.
Six were permanently stationed around the house, while the number assigned to protect each individual member of the family was increased to two per person.
A total of sixteen guard androids.
Rather than renting them monthly from a guard android rental agency, they bought them outright.
They had been renting them for 15 million won per unit per month, but when Suho looked into purchasing new ones, the cheapest models cost around 300 million won. The better ones went up to 500 million.
That was what it meant to be a fairly good line.
But Suho chose an entire set from the high-end line, incomparable to those models, with prices starting at around 700 million won per android.
Two were assigned to each family member, and six were stationed around the house.
He spent 14.4 billion won without hesitation—sixteen androids at nearly 900 million won each.
An investment in safety could never be considered too excessive.
Since they were purchased rather than rented, they could naturally choose their gender and appearance as well.
Thanks to that, their father was now always accompanied by a group of middle-aged male androids his own age.
Their mother chose the concept of traveling around with neighborhood housewives.
Jiho, that rascal, selected a model that even supported sexual relations, but after receiving an astounding number of smacks on the back from his mother, he compromised on a female model without such functions.
Suji chose two handsome male models with the appearance of idols.
As for Suho, he chose one male and one female model with the air of secretaries.
He had a feeling he would have to attend many official functions.
In truth, the only drawback of guard androids was their price; in every other respect, they were far superior to human bodyguards.
They were sturdier, faster, and stronger.
When outdoors, they linked up with satellites and reconnaissance drones to monitor the surroundings thoroughly.
Indoors, their infrared cameras allowed them to move without difficulty even in darkness, and they could easily locate concealed targets.
Their ability to detect explosives was nearly perfect as well.
Their bodies were extremely tough, and they could always immediately use themselves as shields to protect their clients.
Ordinary human bodyguards suffered a psychological burden when using their bodies to block bullets flying toward their clients, but androids had no such hesitation.
And that wasn’t all. They obeyed commands absolutely, and there was no chance of them betraying him or harboring ulterior motives.
The risk of hacking? Compared to a human bodyguard changing his mind, that risk wasn’t even 0.001 percent.
All that was needed was to charge their batteries, and everything was fine. They even handled that on their own.
Their high-efficiency batteries came installed as standard, so they didn’t need to be charged often, either.
In the end, the greatest obstacle was the price—but that was precisely the one thing Suho had no problem with.
Suho gave the androids’ AIs a basic education regarding his work and gave the two of them the ordinary names Kim Min-su and Kim Min-ji.
Two devastatingly handsome and beautiful androids, possessing boundless knowledge and martial prowess and worth 1.8 billion won, were now always at Suho’s side.
* * *
‘The guard androids are bodyguards, so...’
First of all, he needed to make his own body stronger.
In search of powerful and secure protection items that defied common sense, Suho checked the Ontower auction house whenever he had time.
But the items focused on protection that appeared there were thoroughly unimpressive.
He wanted to purchase a high-grade item that was small yet highly efficient, but nothing he liked ever seemed to be listed.
Even so, whenever he looked at the items from otherworldly realms beyond Earth, the sense of futility trying to eat away at his heart seemed to lessen somewhat, so Suho visited the auction house every day.
One day, Suho received a call from an unfamiliar number.
Someone who introduced himself as the commissioner of the Tower Management Authority wanted to meet him.
Suho hated getting entangled in bothersome matters, but since he had already set a massive lie in motion, he felt this was a process he would have to go through at least once.
In any case, now that he had revealed himself as an S-grade Admite, there was no avoiding the Management Authority.
He rode in the car the commissioner had sent and headed for the Management Authority.
* * *
On the top floor of the Management Authority, which offered a sweeping view, Suho sat comfortably on the sofa as if he were in his own home.
The commissioner personally poured him tea brought over from the secretary’s office and gave a hearty laugh.
“As expected, S-grade Admite Awakeners really are different. You’re quite young, yet you don’t seem nervous in the slightest.”
What was there to be nervous about?
The commissioner’s position and the authority building itself seemed nothing special to Suho.
Not a single piece of furniture or sofa in the commissioner’s lavish office looked better than the ones in Suho’s new house.
“Ah... Well. I’m just a bit insensitive to that sort of thing...”
It was a lie.
He hadn’t originally been like this.
But he had changed.
Because of that damned Cheonyangwon.
“Of course. I meant it in a good way. You seem full of spirit, which is admirable.”
Setting down his teacup, the commissioner asked,
“I heard that after having your S-grade Awakening confirmed at the testing center, you simply went home without receiving any sort of welcome...?”
“Ah, yes. Well, the employee didn’t seem to believe me at all.”
“Allow me to apologize on behalf of that employee. He has been disciplined.”
“Ah... You really didn’t have to go that far. It’s fine. I wasn’t particularly offended.”
“Ho ho, as expected, your heart is as broad as your grade.”
There was no reason for him to feel offended. The truth was, the very notion that he was an S-rank Admiti had been a lie.
“Even so, wrong is wrong. I have no excuse, no matter how many mouths I had. I’m sorry.”
“Yes, well... I understand.”
An awkward silence descended.
Suho could only hope this moment would pass quickly.
The director broke the silence by asking about joining a clan.
“I heard you haven’t joined any clan...”
“No, I have no intention of doing so.”
Of course he hadn’t joined one. If he did, he would have to enter the Tower.
Did he want to get exposed as a fake Admiti right away?
“Hmm... Even so, the assistance of a clan would surely be essential if you intend to begin climbing the Tower.”
“Well... I’m not a combat-type Admiti anyway. As you know, like blacksmiths, alchemists, and enchanter classes, I’m in the crafting and support category, so I don’t think I’ll have any reason to enter the Tower.”
Heh, Suho reeled off the reason he had come up with as smoothly as flowing water and smiled with satisfaction at himself.
But the director looked puzzled instead.
“Hmm... But in reality, even crafting- and support-type Admiti have their awakened abilities manifest at one hundred percent only inside the Tower. Outside, they can use only a very small portion of them. That is why most of them enter the Tower as well. While their other team members climb the Tower and conduct their raids, they generally remain on the first floor and work on various items.”
Gasp, so that was how it worked. He hadn’t known that.
Damn it, excuses built on scraps of half-understood information were always so flimsy.
Ah, then what should he say? Think. Think.
Before long, a good excuse came to him.
“Even so... I think I’ll be fine. My ability manifests even without entering the Tower.”
“Oh-ho... Then how exactly does your ability manifest? The Item Collector class is truly unfamiliar and one of a kind. How does the ability function, specifically?”
The director leaned forward, lowering his back and drawing close as he lowered his voice.
Suho began making things up at random.
“Uh... Well, just as the name suggests, I can excavate items that come out of the Tower... But for some reason, even without entering the Tower, my collecting ability manifests as long as I’m merely near it.”
The director’s eyes widened.
“My goodness... That truly is fascinating.”
“Isn’t it...? Haha.”
“Then, the S-rank Etherium from before...?”
“That’s right.”
“You acquired that without entering the Tower as well?”
“That’s right... I excavated it that way.”
“Then, if you entered the Tower to excavate items, wouldn’t you perhaps be able to obtain higher-grade items with greater efficiency...?”
“Ah! I don’t think it works that way. As you know, the highest grade of Etherium is S-rank, right? Since even items of that highest grade can be collected outside the Tower, I doubt it would be any different inside. There doesn’t seem to be much difference in the items collected near the Tower and inside it.”
Phew. How fortunate that the item he had sold at the On Tower auction house from the very beginning had been S-rank Etherium.
The director, who took Suho’s words at face value, could not hide his excitement.
“My goodness... Good heavens... To think such a thing is possible...! This completely overturns everything we have known about the Tower and Admitis until now.”
“Haha... Is that so...? Haha.”
At this point, Suho himself no longer knew what he was saying. He simply made things up at random, thinking that whatever happened, happened.
He could only hope that the settings he had invented for himself would not contradict one another later on.
“You may or may not know this, Mr. Suho, but ordinarily, S-rank Etherium is an item that can be dropped or extracted only from the highest reaches of Towers formed to a height of ninety floors or more. It is something one cannot even catch a glimpse of in a low-grade Tower. And yet you acquired it without even entering the Tower... Ten of them, no less...!”
“...Haha...”
I want to go home.
With absolutely nothing to say in response, Suho awkwardly scratched his head and laid the groundwork for later.
It was preparation for their next deal.
He would have to take various items out of his subspace storage and sell them at the auction house in the future, after all.
“If things continue to go as well as they have so far, who knows... I might be able to acquire more high-grade materials besides Etherium... This and that.”
The director suddenly seized both of Suho’s hands in his own.
“Eek...?”
“Mr. Suho, never have I been so grateful to be in charge of the Republic of Korea Tower Management Agency as I am today.”
“Th-That so...?”
Suho tried to slowly pull his hands free, but the director refused to let go. Damn it!
“Whenever I see the Towers increasing by the day, the insufficient number of awakened Admitis, and the resources that fall woefully short of what is needed to support them, I feel as though one corner of my heart is constantly being crushed...”
The director looked so deeply moved that Suho quickly began to feel burdened.
“How fortunate it is, and how grateful I am, that you are an awakened individual in this country, Mr. Suho... I feel as though I have gained a force as powerful as a thousand troops and ten thousand horses.”
“Haha... You flatter me.”
I’m a fake Admiti, you know.
At last, Suho managed to pull his hands free.
The director’s expression grew serious, and his gaze deepened.
“However, there is one thing that concerns me.”
A small shadow fell across his deeply wrinkled face.
“What is it?”
“It is only a matter of time before your abilities become known to the world, Mr. Suho. No, because of the auction, the Admiti management agencies of most countries have probably already gathered all the relevant information. That means... it is likely that countries around the world will soon approach you with extraordinary offers. Of course, our South Korean government will actively support you in every possible way, no less than any other country or institution...”
So that was what this was about.
There was no need to hear the rest, so Suho cut him off.
“Director, I’m sorry to interrupt, but don’t worry. Even if I died and came back to life, I have no intention of going to another country.”
“Oh...”
The director’s eyes glimmered with emotion, and Suho found the look overwhelmingly burdensome.
“Besides, it’s true, isn’t it? Is there anywhere in the world that’s as good to live in as our country? As long as you have money.”
He was sincere about that.
It was true. There was no country as good to live in as Korea.
As long as you had money.
And he had quite a lot of money.