Chapter 97
My memory of how I got home last night was hazy.
I remembered falling asleep in the car, but…
When I opened my eyes, I was in my room, on my bed.
I kicked off the neatly tucked blanket and sat up.
I loosened my stiff body and turned on the computer.
This was my morning routine.
The first thing I checked, of course, was Mage Gallery.
It was like unfolding the newspaper every morning to see what was going on in the world.
[They say Demigod is coming to Korea to promote his movie]
[Author: Beetle]
[They want me to show up at the event too, what is this?]
ㄴpkkatju: As expected of a world-class star, lol
ㄴMagicIsFirepower: Another movie? I heard the last one flopped.
ㄴFridge: I heard he was an actor to begin with, so why do all his movies always fail?
ㄴㅇㅇ(888.888): Are you seriously insulting King Migod-nim by saying some third-rate actor got lucky, awakened, and ended up making movies???
I checked all the posts that had been made while I was asleep and left a comment.
But it was a place with only five people.
There were barely any posts at all.
Bored, I naturally moved over to Hunter Gallery.
[If Kim Suho and Netero fought, who would win?]
ㄴWhat Hunter is Netero supposed to be? First time I've heard of him.
ㄴJapan
ㄴI just checked the list and there isn't anyone like that?
ㄴYep. I actually just made him up.
ㄴWhat the hell is this guy?
[Title: It's Never Too Late in Life]
[Kim Suho awakened at 21, but]
[Demigod awakened in his late thirties]
[Everyone has their own pace]
[If you wait, your time will come]
[There's no need to get all worked up over every little thing]
[I lost money on stocks this time and learned a lot, yeah…]
ㄴOnce it hurts, a million random thoughts start popping up, right? lol
ㄴ(Author) You son of a bitch, you wanna throw down? You're pissing me off.
ㄴWhat if you're pissed? What can you do?
ㄴ(Author) Yeah, I can't do anything, can I? I guess I shouldn't get angry anymore.
ㄴ ???
ㄴYou really learned a lot, lol.
[Title: Today's stock situation, lol]
[(Screenshot of a blue-colored chart)]
[Are you awake yet? lol]
ㄴ Let it fall more. You can just jump off and be done with it~
ㄴ Call them right now and get a refund, lol.
“Why are there so many stock posts today?”
I looked a little deeper into the source of the bait, curious.
Sure enough, after digging through the best posts, I found one where someone had kindly done all the rehashing.
Some trash stock had skyrocketed, drawing in a ton of people, then it crashed the very next day and caused heavy losses.
“What, that's all?”
I scrolled past it without giving it much thought.
Just the usual WWE.
But one of the usual templates caught my eye.
[Title: Is this hard to understand?]
[Why buy that trash stock and get stuck holding the bag?]
[They're basically scooping NVIDIA money up with a shovel and handing it out]
[I am invincible]
[NVIDIA is God]
ㄴ It's the age of heroes and warriors bringing in foreign currency. Bring me wine and women~
ㄴㄴ Hero~ Warrior~ let's eat~
“Hmm…. The company is a god?”
It was like they were worshipping the company they had invested in like a religion.
They shunned other companies like heretics and proclaimed that only their own stock was the sole salvation in this world.
The sight felt strangely familiar.
Then one thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
In modern society, isn't this what religion and faith are?
I immediately asked my faith consultant for advice.
“A company can… be an object of faith too, right?”
[Only a tiny handful of the strong, yes. Sandworm answers.]
[But Sandworm judges it to be a brilliant idea.]
[Sandworm explains that in the past there were cases where huge merchant houses or guilds themselves became focal points of faith.]
“So that's how it is, huh?”
[Sandworm adds that in modern society, spreading faith through business activity rather than overt religious activity can be far more efficient and less off-putting.]
Sandworm's advice made sense.
Rather than suddenly shouting at people to believe in me like some cult leader, it would be far more sophisticated to work my way into their lives with overwhelming technology and products.
People would become my followers without even realizing it.
The goal the broker had asked me about yesterday.
I felt like I had found the answer.
I immediately called the broker.
He answered before the ringtone even sounded twice.
“Boss, what's going on so early in the morning?”
“Mister, I have a goal now.”
“…Pardon?”
I could hear the bewilderment in his voice.
I declared it without caring.
“We’re going to make our company, One Star Management, the best in the world.”
A deep silence fell over the line.
I guessed he was remembering the conversation we had yesterday.
After a long moment, he cautiously spoke.
“Ah, the best in the world…?”
I could tell what he was thinking, so I beat him to it.
“You were thinking I was being childish again, weren't you?”
“N-no, of course not.”
Adults were all like this.
If a kid says their dream is to become the best soccer player in the world, adults usually just chuckle.
Of course, for most kids, that would be impossible.
But among those kids, some become Ronaldo or Messi.
“Mister, dream big. Boys be ambitious.”
“….”
I could clearly picture him pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Yes, fine. The best in the world. But how?”
“We’re going to sell items.”
“Items? What kind?”
“That's something I'll have to think about from here on.”
“No, but we're a management company to begin with, aren't we? It's a guild, so what items are we even supposed to sell….”
Come to think of it, that was true.
But I wasn't worried.
“We can just make one more company. Keep growing the guild as a guild….”
“Haa….”
Just grow the management side on its own and turn it into a large guild.
Hmm, should I start by bringing in the unaffiliated people from Mage Gallery?
Well, I'll think about that later.
For now, it's a company.
I'm going to stamp an hourglass on every product and sell them.
I answered confidently and hung up.
I thought I could hear the broker sighing, but I decided to ignore it.
Now then, time to draw up a business plan.
I opened the gallery again.
It was for market research.
I gathered information by going back and forth between the A-rank Hunter Gallery and Mage Gallery.
Which item would make the most money?
What do people want most?
I narrowed down the product line by reading countless posts.
“Mass production is impossible.”
I was the only one who could make items.
My clones could help with the work, though.
But those guys hated working more than they hated dying, and even then I could only manage about twenty of them.
There was no way I could run a factory.
Then there was only one answer.
Make a small number of top-tier items and build a luxury brand.
“Besides, my goal is to make a famous company. This is better.”
Selling fried chicken might make me famous, but it wouldn't build faith.
I needed to make products that could gather people's admiration and faith.
I had to sell something that anyone could see was premium—a true luxury item.
Something not just anyone could buy.
“Armor would be better than weapons.”
According to what I'd learned while browsing the galleries, weapons were extremely difficult to sell.
But armor was different.
Items directly tied to survival.
Any Hunter would want the best armor.
“Let's look for a suitable item.”
I poured mana into the legendary ring on my finger.
I had left it alone for a while because leveling it up was too much of a hassle.
A thick book containing all the dwarves' crafting blueprints opened up.
Among them, I found the strongest armor I could make with my current crafting level.
[Blueprint: Dragon Guardian Armor]
[Materials: Dragon scales, orichalcum….]
After checking the blueprint, I frowned.
“It uses a lot of materials….”
They were all things that sounded hard to get just from the names alone.
I immediately texted the material list to the broker.
[Please get these for me.]
A reply came back in less than a minute.
[Most of these are materials that don't even drop in the Tower, you know?]
[I think you can only get them from monsters that occasionally pop out of gates. This isn't something you can just buy with money.]
“Oh, really?”
My head started to spin.
Then should I make low-quality gear and sell that?
But that wouldn't fit the luxury brand strategy.
I spent the whole day combing through material lists and equipment lists.
But nothing satisfied me.
Just as I was starting to get a headache.
“Ugh, my head hurts.”
I flopped down on the bed.
When my thoughts got tangled up and I got stuck, a bit of exercise was usually the answer.
“Let's go into the Tower for now.”
Who knew? Maybe material drops would suddenly start pouring out as rewards.
***
[Entering Tower 39th Floor (EXTREME).]
The scenery changed along with the familiar notification.
A vast ruin spread out before my eyes.
It was the very same temple I had seen at the end of Floor 38 a few days ago.
This floor started right in front of the temple entrance.
“I've been waiting for you, Sage.”
A familiar voice came from beside me. It was Sharon.
It seemed she had stayed firmly in the very spot where I had disappeared.
“How long has it been since I disappeared?”
“About a week has passed.”
“You didn't wait here the whole time, did you?”
“Unless it was to spread faith to the soldiers as you instructed, I stayed here the whole time.”
“That's impressive….”
I hadn't meant to make her wait here for a whole week.
I felt a little guilty.
“Huh?”
At that moment, a milky-white point of light was drawn out of Sharon's body and flowed into mine.
The faith points I had wanted so badly.
Since only a week had passed, there wasn't much, but I was satisfied nonetheless.
It confirmed that the antenna named Sharon was faithfully doing her job.
If I established proper doctrine and a proper church now, the supply would be even more efficient.
“Well done. Then let's go in.”
Without hesitation, I walked toward the ruined entrance of the temple.
Just one more floor to the 40th.
This long, drawn-out story in the 30s was finally nearing its end.
The inside of the temple was as desolate as expected.
Everything had collapsed in places, and the ceiling in particular had caved in halfway, leaving the sky visible.
“This place… looks like a temple from the old empire.”
“Do you know it?”
“Not really. I just know this style of architecture was commonly used in that era.”
Sharon said in a voice full of caution.
Golden energy flowed from her bow, preventing the surrounding curses from approaching.
She seemed to have become fairly accustomed to handling divine power.
“Where's the enemy?”
I drew on the power of Insight Eye.
I could see mana tangled throughout the temple like a huge spiderweb.
And at the center of it all was the place where the spider should have been.
“There's something down there.”
The moment I took a step forward.
KUGUGUGUGUNG-!
The entire temple shook violently.
Stones rattled down from the already half-collapsed ceiling.
The powerful tremor felt like an earthquake had struck.
Sharon quickly stepped in front of me and drew her bow.
“Sage, step back!”
The source of the tremor was the central altar.
A mound of unidentified bones was piled up there like a mountain.
They began to wriggle as if they were alive.
Tadadadak!
Hundreds, thousands of bones clacked against one another, making a grotesque sound.
The bones floated up into the air and started taking their assigned positions.
Wings snapped into place, and a long tail was assembled.
Lastly, the massive shattered skull found its place.
A red light lit up in the empty eye sockets of the skull.
It was a dragon.
A giant dragon made entirely of pure white bones.
Bone Dragon.
A shockwave blasted from its mouth.
[Krr—————!]
A roar that you wouldn't believe could come from a creature made of nothing but bones.
Just that sent the surrounding mana raging like a storm.
“Ugh…!”
Sharon's face turned ghostly white.
But I was different.
What caught my eye was its bones.
And the material list from the blueprint I had seen not long ago.
That very material the broker had said couldn't be obtained with money alone: dragon bones.
Before I knew it, a smile spread across my lips.
“Jackpot.”