"Isn't there anything fun?"
"Something fun?"
Since morning, Suho had visited TDM and latched onto the busy Seongsik.
"You've been so busy traveling around America and wherever lately, but you have time to do something fun?"
"You've moved about too busily, so you need rest too."
Narae smiled brightly, brought a beautifully plated fruit dish, and sat beside the two.
"That's right. I need something fun. Narae, do you have any good ideas?"
Seeing Suho's sullen face, Seongsik seriously put his mind to it and fell into thought with him. He already knew much about Suho's emptiness, having heard about it many times before.
"Hmm... People say making money is the most fun, but I suppose that doesn't apply to you, Suho..."
"What's fun about making money... If making money were fun, then pumping seawater with a pump would be fun too. Or loading sand from a desert would be fun too..."
"Heheheh..."
Seeing Suho speak so genuinely indifferently, Narae covered her mouth and laughed.
"The Aether Power Plant aside... what about SimCity? Has it gotten boring?"
"SimCity is fun... It's fun, but it takes too much time. I'm still paving roads. It's different from a game. Buildings don't shoot up just because you click..."
"True... Then, how about buying an EVTOL and riding it around?"
"EVTOL?"
"I mean like personal air mobility. Single-passenger drones, small electric planes, stuff like that. Flying boards were fun too. There are lots of personal flying vehicles coming out these days. Try riding one of those around."
"...Riding Wingki is way faster and more fun. I get a ton of attention from people too..."
"Hmm... Then a jetpack or a jet suit... Ah, your wing is better than those."
"Ugh, what's fun about flying around... Whew."
"Then how about collecting something? Luxury goods, cars, audio equipment, whatever. You used to like so many things."
"I did... But I have almost everything now. I bought supercars of every type quite a while ago... I bought several yachts too. But they're just bulky and annoying when I don't even ride them. I saw Jiho's and thought they looked nice, so I picked out a few private jets too. The items haven't arrived yet, though..."
"Aha... I-I see... Then how about a yacht tour with what you already bought... Or a mega cruise tour?"
"...Not fun. What is that? Being trapped inside a slow boat."
"Then, how about a submarine deep-sea expedition?"
"What is there to see in the pitch-black deep sea......"
Truly, there was nothing more for Seongsik to recommend, so a moment of silence passed.
This time, Narae asked Suho, who was silently picking at and eating the fruit.
"Don't you like sports very much? Like golf or something..."
"Golf...? It's not really a hobby of mine. Buying an island and building a golf course would be fun, though. Though that would also take a lot of construction time..."
"As expected, you like building things..."
"I suppose so. Even when I played games before, I only played sandbox-type games..."
"Since you don't enjoy sports, travel, exploration, or anything like that, you must be even more bored. Then I suppose space exploration wouldn't interest you either..."
"Space exploration...?"
"Yes, there are so many programs these days where you can directly participate in space flight. Kármán line experience, zero-gravity experience, ah, a tourism product orbiting the moon was recently released too! Though it is a bit expensive."
"Ah... Those things."
Space travel was quite appealing even to Suho, who had recently gone to the Kármán line with Wingki, but he had no desire to go using such bothersome tourism packages.
If he simply set his mind to going, he could go alone anytime.
"It seems the boss really needs to make something no matter what. Then... Ahah."
Narae burst into a short laugh alone as if she had thought of something, so Suho pressed her to tell him.
"Why? Did you come up with a good idea, Narae? What is it?"
"Ahahahah, it's too absurd an idea... I'm sorry. Please just forget it."
How absurd could it be? Seeing Narae's expression, Suho grew more and more curious.
"I won't take it seriously either, so please tell me just once. You never know. It might really be a good idea."
Narae's expression as she hesitated with a slight frown while holding back laughter was quite cute.
After hesitating briefly, she finally spoke under Suho's insistence:
"Terraforming."
"Terraforming?"
"Yes, there are movies and games like that. Terraforming Mars to make it an environment where humans can live, things like that. Heheh, it's too absurd, right? It just popped into my head. I'm sorry."
But Suho was completely inspired by those words.
Terraforming. Terraforming.
"Why didn't I think of that...?"
Light returned to Suho's eyes, which had been as dull and lifeless as a frozen fish from sheer boredom.
"Hey, hey... dude, get a hold of yourself. You being serious right now is really unsettling, you know? Huh?"
"Ah... really. Boss, surely you didn't take that seriously, did you?"
But Suho was serious.
"Hmm... isn't it worth considering at least once? Terraforming... what do you need for terraforming?"
"How would I know that, you crazy bastard. Wake up from your dream... Ugh, this guy is hopeless. Let's go swim in cold water together. I'll hang out with you. Ah, Narae, I'm going to take him out for a bit."
"Yes, yes."
Seongsik put Suho in a headlock and dragged him toward the parking garage entrance.
Suho, being dragged by Seongsik while waving back at Narae who waved awkwardly with an embarrassed smile, couldn't get the thought out of his head.
'...To think that possessing cosmic wealth, I've been satisfied with merely building big buildings and constructing new cities...'
Wasn't it pathetic? Suho clicked his tongue at his own small scale.
* * *
As summer passed and autumn began,
the Global Union S-Raid Team climbing the 83rd-floor tower had defeated the boss on the 79th floor and was destroying the altar.
When they destroyed the altar, something glowing black clumped together underneath was revealed.
"What is this? There's something here."
When Gang Hojin, the shield warrior at the front, discovered it first and tilted his head, Haruto Takeda and Zhang Wei took out scanners and brought them over.
They scanned the clumped black mass and waited for the components to be analyzed,
Beep-
the scanner's analysis values were printed out.
[Mineral, Blacksteel, Purity 78%]
"Blacksteel?"
"Jackpot..."
"Holy... Isn't this an S-rank item material?"
"That's right. My sword [Call of Blood] is made of Blacksteel. It's quite an expensive metal. We've hit the jackpot."
Several team members rushed in, completely destroyed the area beneath the altar, mined out the Blacksteel, and loaded it onto an electric cart.
The weight displayed on the cart was 57 kg.
Everyone who saw it brightened.
"57 kg of Blacksteel means several A-rank, or if we're lucky, S-rank swords. This is a real jackpot..."
"Right? The world is going to be turned upside down."
The team members, as gleeful as people who had dug up wild ginseng while hiking, ascended to the 80th floor.
* * *
The full-scale road construction for the development of a metropolitan-scale new city was nearly complete.
Two roads connecting the Jungang Expressway and the Seosan-Yeongdeok Expressway, as well as two new roads paved to about ten lanes, stretched splendidly across the new city construction site in Yeongyang-gun and Bonghwa-gun.
They had closely discussed with the government regarding the appointment of a general manager for the new city construction, and had concluded that it would be appropriate to select from former bureaucrats with abundant experience in large-scale city development projects and infrastructure establishment, rather than current officials.
In the end, Kim Sanghun, a former high-ranking bureaucrat from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy who had served as the Director-General for Industrial Policy, was selected as the Head of the New City Construction Project Headquarters.
Responsible figures for each field, including the Head of the Headquarters, architects, urban planning specialists, civil engineers, general construction managers, traffic planning specialists, experts in charge of power grid infrastructure, environmental consultants, green space and park designers, financial officers... and more, were invited to Elysium Heights for a full-fledged meeting.
In the largest and most spacious hall among the many conference rooms on the office floors of Elysium Heights, more than twenty responsible figures sat, with Kim Sanghun and Suho in the highest seats.
As the atmosphere was somewhat stiff, even tense, Suho passed around his trademark "Mid-Grade Regeneration Potion" as a beverage and asked,
"Is this your first time here? What do you think?"
At that, the officials who had been gazing absentmindedly at the splendid Elysium Heights poured out words as if they had been waiting.
"I've never seen such a building in all my life. The security upon entry was especially impressive..."
"The materials are all so luxurious it's dizzying..."
"Honestly, I think this is the first time I've seen a building so enormous that its structure can't be fully grasped at a glance."
Looking around at the people pouring out pure admiration or blatant flattery, Suho said,
"I've heard from Head Kim Sanghun that he selected only the best of each field. It is an honor to work together."
"Oh my... You're too kind."
"Not at all! We are the ones who are infinitely honored to participate in such a historic project."
"It is an even greater honor to work with Suho-nim, the savior of humanity, the hero!"
A few were so blatantly sycophantic that he felt he shouldn't engage them further.
In any case, the atmosphere, which had even been chilly, quickly heated up and became boisterous, so Suho entrusted the meeting's proceedings to Kim Sanghun and leaned back in his chair.
Kim Sanghun, former Director-General for Industrial Policy and the Head of the New City Development Headquarters, took the microphone.
"Everyone, we are now entering full-scale construction. Today, we will finalize the main infrastructure construction and design plans..."
Following Kim Sanghun's short greeting, Choe Yeongmin, the architect, began explaining by displaying a holographic sketch of the entire city.
Most of it was talk that was incomprehensible, but there were occasional parts where Suho could interject.
For instance, when Bak Jaemin, the financial officer, spoke of "the necessity of preparing alternatives for additional funding, as the budget has already reached its limit."
"Financial officer, what do you mean by budget limit?"
"Ah, yes, the progress of this new city project is based on the initially established budget plan..."
"So there was a budget plan. Could you put it on the screen?"
The budget plan appeared on the screen.
There was an incredibly detailed budget plan that Suho hadn't even considered, and the government was already covering many parts of it.
"Ha... These people... I said I would pay for it, yet they've overdone themselves."
The government had tried to gift state-owned land to Suho, who had donated an enormous sum,
but Suho had chosen truly useless land, transformed it into flat ground, and hadn't charged the government a single penny.
Moreover, he had created a massive water source where none existed and spent his own money to provide enormous support to the labor force deployed in the road construction,
making it an embarrassing situation in which the nation appeared unable to fulfill its role sufficiently.
In fact, large-scale city development is a public project, so the government couldn't stand idle.
It simply hadn't been in the plan because there hadn't been sufficient budget.
Suho pointed at the income section of the complex budget plan with a pointer and spoke.
"Erase that there."
"Yes...? Do you mean... erase the income section?"
"Yes, and put an infinity symbol there or something. Charge all necessary expenses to me."
"Ah, ah, understood."
The financial officer stammered and made a few corrections, and the meeting continued.
More incomprehensible discussions were exchanged,
and when Seo Jaehyeong, the person in charge of electricity and energy, explained the energy supply sector, Suho interjected again.
"Let's build a large-scale power grid separately."
"Yes...? Uh, what do you mean?"
"I mean let's build an Aether Power Plant to exclusively supply power to this new city, even if we have to scale it down somewhat. I'll supply Etherium without limit, so let's change direction toward building a power plant that can provide sufficient electricity."
"Ah, understood. We will do so."
Later, when I Hyeonu, the traffic planning specialist, explained the plans for the road network and subway lines, Suho added a word.
"Only buses and subways... Isn't that a bit disappointing? It is a Super Smart City, after all."
"Ah, then..."
"I understand. You must have planned under the assumption that not only funds but also power were insufficient. But now money and electricity will overflow, so I think it would be fine to introduce all sorts of things. Hyperloops, or maglev trains, EVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft)... Well, aren't there many?"
Traffic planning specialist I Hyeonu's eyes sparkled at those words.
"That's right. There are many! Would it be alright to set the direction toward actively introducing such aspects?"
"Of course. Please plan to your heart's content. It would be good to install a lot of skyways as well."
"Understood. Then we will return after a complete revision. Just leave it to us!"
With so much to discuss, the meeting continued for several hours without ending.
The meeting that had begun in the early afternoon had already reached evening.
"If... you have the time, how about having dinner here at Elysium Heights? I'll provide you with the guest floors so you can rest overnight, and we can resume the meeting tomorrow."
To Suho's proposal, everyone unanimously responded that they would do so.
The facilities of Elysium Heights were famously rumored to be dreamlike. Indeed, it was an opportunity they might never have again. When else would they get to spend a night here?
Everyone canceled or postponed their next day's schedule with that thought.