Preparation

As soon as I got home, I turned on the computer.

I had a mountain of questions I wanted to ask Beetle about this book.

Just as I was about to log into Mage Gallery and make a post.

Vrrr-.

My phone rang. The caller was the broker.

I hesitated for a moment, then pressed the answer button.

"Hello?"

[Boss? Is now a good time to talk?]

The broker's voice over the phone sounded oddly exhausted, unlike usual.

Just hearing his voice made it obvious something was wrong.

"I'm fine. What's wrong? Your voice sounds completely drained."

[No, nothing like that. I just have something to tell you about the brand launch we've been working on.]

The launch of a new luxury brand.

It was one of the business ventures I had been pushing lately.

The very first step toward bringing in faith and money.

For that, I'd made a shield out of a true dragon's bones, and somehow ended up helping Shin Seha too.

[To put it bluntly, we've hit a wall.]

"A wall? What kind of wall?"

I asked back in confusion.

The quality of the item was top-tier, the best in the world.

And it had even been certified by a meister recognized as world-class.

Then was it a problem with the initial capital?

But I had money from selling orichalcum and magic stones.

Especially the magic stones—I’d mined twice as many as everyone else through the floor bonuses, so that alone must have been quite a sum.

The broker began explaining the situation in a calm voice.

[First, let me explain our progress so far. We've sold off all the minerals we had on hand. Thanks to that, we've secured enough capital now to ignore even most major corporations.]

"Yes, I heard about that."

[And thanks to the certification we got from Jang Inhyuk, we were able to build trust in the items' performance as well. Using those two weapons, I recruited the best experts in the industry. People from companies you'd recognize by name alone, boss. At the very least, we've brought in everyone money could buy.]

"That's... impressive."

It was an achievement that was hard to believe had been pulled off by a provincial broker nobody had ever heard of.

But the more I heard, the more confused I became.

Then what was the problem?

[We've established a brand-new company completely independent from the old One Star Management. I even gave it a stylish name: "Aeternus."]

"Uh... what?"

[Aeternus. It apparently means eternity.]

"Well, as long as the name sounds cool enough, that's fine."

The meaning of the name didn't matter anyway.

It just had to be hard to pronounce and sound like some unfamiliar English or French word.

[Now there is only one thing left: the showcase.]

The broker's voice turned serious again.

[A showcase is similar to presenting a work of art. It's not a place to sell goods... Who attends and what kind of evaluation they give changes the brand's standing.]

"You've studied this a lot..."

[If I'm going to at least pretend to live up to the boss's expectations, this much is only natural.]

I suddenly felt bad for him for no reason.

He was putting in this much effort just to make something I'd tossed out casually into reality.

[In any case, we have to invite the most influential people in the world. And naturally, we need to get good evaluations from them.]

"So that's the problem?"

[Yes.]

The broker said in a subdued voice.

[The wall of the global stage is far higher than I'd expected. I sent invitations to reporters from famous magazines, S-rank hunters, and international association officials... but hardly any replies came back.]

….

[Most of them ignored us, and the few replies we did get were refusals.]

"Why? We have money, and we've proven the quality."

I couldn't understand it.

What were we lacking?

[Fame, trust, and history. We're lacking all of it.]

The broker's answer was firm.

[To them, we're just rich upstarts. It wouldn't look good for them to suddenly show up and attach their names to us.]

Resignation seeped into the broker's voice.

I could tell just from his voice how much he had been struggling.

[No matter how excellent the items we bring out are, they won't want to tie their names to a brand whose roots are unknown. We've now run into a wall that money can't overcome. That's the power of fame and history.]

"So that's how it is..."

Only then did I realize the core of the problem.

To build history, you need to launch a brand and let time pass.

But without history, you can't even start a new brand and get it recognized.

It was like a company demanding that every new hire already have experience, leaving rookies with nowhere to gain any.

"Then what should we do?"

[There's something I'd like to ask of you, boss.]

"What is it?"

[The people you called your 'friends,' boss. The other four mages in Korea. Could you invite them?]

Worry seeped into the broker's voice.

[Of course, even if all of them attend, it won't change the global market's reaction... But at least within Korea, it could have absolute influence.]

I paused for a moment.

The broker's suggestion was extremely reasonable and realistic.

But a small sense of disappointment flickered through my heart.

'So in the end, the domestic market is the limit?'

I had dreamed of taking on the world stage.

A scene where people all over the world lined up to get items engraved with my emblem, and my brand became a legend.

But this was reality.

That I had to start in the small well that was Korea.

"...I wanted to be world-class."

The words slipped out before I knew it.

I heard the broker let out a small laugh over the phone.

[Boss, you can't have everything from the start. First, we rise to the top in Korea. If we keep moving forward step by step like that, the day will naturally come when the world pays attention to us.]

I couldn't find any words to argue against his persuasion.

He was right.

It seemed my greed had been too much.

'Come to think of it, just getting this far was close to impossible.'

Just a few months ago, it had been the same.

Back then, I was a shut-in loser glued to the gallery, and the old man was a broker who only handled items in a small country town.

Starting from nothing, gathering world-class talent, and establishing a proper company structure was already an unbelievably impressive achievement.

"Hey, did you maybe have a talent for this sort of thing? Seems like you were built for management, not brokerage, from the start."

[Honestly, I wasn't sure I could pull it off either. These days, every day is one surprise after another. It's fun, too.]

The old man paused, then continued in a slightly embarrassed voice.

[... It was you, boss, who gave me all these opportunities. Thank you again, truly.]

Hearing such sincere gratitude made me feel awkward instead.

I hurriedly continued.

"Ah, no. You did well. Anyway... I understand what you asked earlier. I'll try talking to them about the invitations."

After that, we exchanged a few more details and ended the call.

After putting down my phone, I placed my hands back on the keyboard.

I had one more thing to tell Beetle.

What should I write? I fell into thought for a moment.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe.

A desolate plain in Mexico.

Under the scorching sun, Kim Suho adjusted his staff and let out a deep sigh.

In the distance, he could see tumbleweeds rolling along.

His whole body ached from the grueling march that had gone on for days.

'What am I even doing here...?'

Kim Suho recalled a few days earlier.

A phone call from the demigod.

That was the beginning of everything.

***

[Hey, Kim Cardigan, been well?]

He had of course been doing well, but that phone call had ruined everything.

But he couldn't say that. Not with who was on the other end.

Kim Suho swallowed a vague sense of foreboding and asked what was going on.

[Remember the dream team for the "big event" I mentioned last time? It's finally ready. You're obviously joining, right?]

"Can I hear the explanation first?"

[The operation is called Doritos. Pretty cool, right?]

"…I see."

[So, are you in or not?]

"No, you haven't explained anything yet..."

[What did you hear? I said the operation name is Doritos!]

"……."

Kim Suho held his head.

Suddenly, it felt like a wave of dizziness was hitting him.

After a long back-and-forth, Kim Suho finally managed to figure out what the hell "Doritos" was.

"...You want to clean up Mexico?"

The face of the recently retired U.S. president flashed through Kim Suho's mind.

[Oh, damn. I think I know who you're thinking of... but that's not it, so don't get the wrong idea.]

"Mm..."

[Hey, Mexico has already been collapsed for ages! Do you know how many monsters are pouring out of the gates there?]

"I know, so lower your voice."

Of course Kim Suho knew about Mexico's situation.

Wasn't it a place that could no longer function as a country after the tower collapsed and gates appeared?

Thanks to that, the former president who had built a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border in advance was reevaluated, his approval ratings skyrocketed, and he supposedly won reelection with ease.

But even knowing that background, the phrase "clean up Mexico" still felt far too violent.

"What exactly are you planning to do?"

[Simple. We clean out all the monsters nesting in Mexico. We’ll go around the entire country doing it.]

"Even so, you can't close the gates, can you?"

[Right now we can't even properly observe the gates. We can't even tell what monsters pop out or when.]

"That's true..."

That was the same in Korea.

The north had collapsed in an instant, and with gates opening, monsters were periodically pouring out.

Even observing the gates was impossible.

Because if drones or aircraft approached, the monsters shot them all down.

[So if we sweep them out once, expand the border, and leave it as a buffer zone, the situation will improve a lot. Gate research will become more active too. Then maybe one day we'll be able to close the gates.]

"..."

Kim Suho was momentarily at a loss for words.

It was a story on a different scale entirely.

To launch an extermination operation across an entire country's territory.

[Well, all of that is just an excuse anyway.]

"An excuse?"

[This whole operation is going to be broadcast. That's the key. The response will be red-hot. No one has ever stepped up to do something like this.]

"I don't really like being on the news..."

[That works great. I can get more screen time... Anyway, you're in, right?]

Kim Suho hesitated and was about to refuse.

If he left, who would guard Korea's borders?

Even now, monsters were still periodically pouring in from North Korea.

But the demigod continued immediately.

[Of course, I don't plan to stop with Mexico. Next, we'll run the same operation in North Korea. That's how we'll normalize the whole world. And get broadcast footage out of it, too.]

It was hard to refuse even that proposal.

North Korea's gates were definitely a headache.

A bomb that would have to be dealt with someday.

If he could borrow the power of the demigod and that dream team, there was no better opportunity than that.

In the end, Kim Suho joined that special team.

And now, Kim Suho was in the middle of Mexico, locked in a life-and-death struggle against monsters.

With two staves and one shield equipped.