Chapter 97
“The output... is registering at S-rank.”
“That’s impossible. Even by simple calculations alone, the efficiency of the weapon we made exceeds 800 percent, though….”
“So skills really do beat it after all.”
Galahad Grandpa’s golem, made for about 900 million won, was, from a typical golem maker’s standpoint? Absolutely. Compared to that 900 million won investment, its performance was absurdly, ridiculously powerful.
Entry-type gates are fixed in place with a special mechanism, and if you don’t do that, a gate explosion will happen before long, spilling out the monsters inside.
Since they spill out in order according to how powerful the monsters inside are, it’s also called a gate wave. Usually, if access is poor and people don’t use it much, or it doesn’t seem profitable, they just blow it up.
The anti-magic barricade Oseong Group made to stop those gate waves is so sturdy that even a B-rank gate boss with a nasty attack pattern would have to keep pounding on it for about ten minutes.
“Huuuup..!!”
ㅡTHUD! THUD!!
After Galahad Grandpa gave it two solid punches, backed off a little, sprinted forward, and slammed it with his shoulder with a huge thud!!, the barricade couldn’t withstand the impact and immediately shattered.
ㅡCrackle….
“Ah... 70 million won.”
“Ho-eek….”
Sua-unnie beside me quietly muttered something terrifying while looking at the ruined barricade.
A barricade shaped like a 2-meter-long, 80-cm-thick blue translucent partition costs 70 million won each. Of course, it’s incredibly heavy, so you have to haul it on a dedicated truck, and once you refill it with mana stones, you can use it again.
But even the machinery underneath was completely smashed, and the exposed wires and crackling sparks were plain to see.
“Phew..! Without a weapon, I can’t bring out my strength properly.”
“Do you use Grandpa’s weapon too?”
“Hm? Princess, that’s a very obvious thing to ask.”
“Why wasn’t a weapon made too, I wonder.”
Minyum even came out carrying a weapon too, which was strange. Of course, Grandpa has a huge metal shield in his right hand, but apparently he originally uses another weapon in his left hand too.
“Ophelia, wouldn’t it be better to make a weapon too?”
“Yes. Since that’s the part that takes the most impact, we’ll probably need to use an alloy.”
“Ooooh.”
Soon, the raw metal materials that will become the alloy will start coming into Korea one by one through the distribution channels secured by the company Ophelia made. Then we’ll make the rare-metal alloy Ophelia refined again, and use that to make Galahad Grandpa’s weapon too.
But how do you even make an alloy? I don’t know much about metal, but it’s not like you’d go to a crafting table in a game, set the metal down, and poof—it’s made.
Ophelia walked up to Galahad Grandpa, who had blasted the barricade apart and was rolling his shoulders, and whispered quietly.
“Sir Galahad, the furnace is ready.”
“Ah! Good, I understand.”
“Uing.”
Apparently Galahad Grandpa is a blacksmith who can even forge weapons himself by hammering the metal directly, so with just a furnace and a hammer, that’s enough.
“Ophelia, when did you buy the furnace?”
“It was installed not long ago. As I mentioned before, we recently prepared the site that our company will use.”
“Wooooah..!”
Now our company isn’t just a name anymore; it’s a real company with actual land and even a factory.
“This is quite the mystery. I suppose I can only see it as a difference in skill output.”
“Hehe. I’m pretty strong.”
Teacher Ahn looked at Galahad Grandpa with disappointed eyes. The other researchers seemed to want to keep studying him too, but they all looked resigned. Apparently, if you go by the contract Ophelia and Oseong Group agreed to in advance, this is exactly as far as they’re allowed to go.
It’s not like the period was extremely short. The performance test just ended a little early, so things moved a bit faster, but we checked the internal structure and did X-rays and all that, and we collected the output data too.
They even said they’d check the prompt, but what are you going to do once you confirm there isn’t one? If you translated it into English, it’d probably come out as something like ‘Galahad Grandpa very very strong.’
A miraculous event where a prompt spanning hundreds of thousands of lines gets summarized into one line.
* * * * *
Even Galahad Grandpa has one weakness, though.
“If Grandpa gets in, the car gets wrecked….”
“Grrr.”
He’s so huge he can’t fit in a car. If he straightens his normally hunched back all the way, he’s just over 4 meters tall, and he weighs several tons, so of course that’s difficult.
By the time Grandpa was finished, it was already late and dark, and the secret base is in the middle of the mountains where even the roads aren’t properly paved, there are tons of wild animals around, and there aren’t any streetlights. So the plan is to sleep here for one night and head out tomorrow morning.
In the end, Galahad Grandpa will wait here for a bit, while Ophelia, me, and the golems go home briefly, then head to the company site and summon him with the Summon skill.
“Grandpa, wait just a little!!”
“Kahaha! If you make me wait too long, I might grow old and die soon!”
“Ho-ehk!!”
Of course, since he’s a golem, nothing like that happens.
Chaerin unnie was busy, so after watching Galahad Grandpa be born last night, she went back to Nova. Apparently another entry-type gate had opened somewhere too, and Nova bought that one as well or something.
It was said to be on the outskirts of southern Gyeonggi Province, and conveniently, our company factory is around there too.
It took about three hours from 10 a.m. to get home, and Ophelia said she’d prepare a meal, but since Galahad Grandpa was waiting, I just solved it by stuffing myself with bread and whatever else we had at home.
And so, we were back at our company site for the Eve Project, two hours from home.
A barren place on a mountainside, where there had once been an entry-type gate used by Nova, but because it wasn’t profitable they blew up the gate, leaving only flat ground and nothing else.
But now?
“There isn’t anything here.”
ㅡBeep beep beep….
“For now, that’s correct.”
Even now, it isn’t much different from before, just a gigantic factory building. It’s not a reinforced-concrete building.
It’s more like a sheet-metal building you feel like you’ve seen somewhere before? Like one of those places on the outskirts of a city where mafia or gangsters illegally occupy the place and rough up people they don’t like.
But that’s a factory for you. The inside is empty, and in one corner there’s a gigantic industrial furnace. The fuel and other materials used for it are stacked neatly in container boxes beside it.
“Then... shall we?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Okay!!”
All together: Galahad Grandpa at Oseong Group’s research base, plus Suri and Minyum at home.
“All troops! Answer the princess’s call!”
ㅡWooooong….
Paaaat ㅡ !!
Bright blue mana flashed inside the factory, and in an instant the golems that were elsewhere were summoned over. Then Galahad Grandpa appeared with heavy footsteps.
“Oh! Finally, you’re here!”
“Oh!”
ㅡClack!
Because the ceiling is high, it’s fine even if Galahad Grandpa walks around with his back straight, but since the building is made of sheet metal, it’s not exactly sturdy, so he should probably be careful.
“For security reasons, if you go outside the building there’s a risk of being observed. The surroundings are owned by the Nova Guild, so there’s almost no chance outsiders will come in, though.”
“Grrr, Ophelia is still so strict. Nothing’s changed at all.”
“Heehee.”
Galahad Grandpa grumbled that Ophelia was being too strict. Well, Ophelia really is a bit strict! Still, she’s incredibly good at her job and smart, so.
“Then let’s move those containers over there first.”
“Ooooh, fighting.”
“You expect this old man to move all of that..?”
“Then should the princess do it?”
With a sharp motion, Ophelia held out her palm toward me, and Galahad Grandpa looked at me.
“Hah, can I do it too!? That sounds fun! I want to get inside a container!”
I mean, I’ve got a little romantic dream about it. I didn’t commit any crimes, but I want to ride in a container across the open sea and sneak into another country.
But Grandpa apparently thought that wasn’t going to work and shook his head. What’s wrong with me..!
“Grrr, I guess it can’t be helped..!”
“Minyum will help too.”
ㅡClack..!?
Minyum, who had been standing quietly beside us, jumped in surprise. She was suddenly roped into moving the super-heavy materials.
“Minyum and Grandpa, hang in there!!”
“Kahaha! I can feel my strength surging!!”
I could actually feel the mana being siphoned away, so yes, my strength really was surging.
After busily moving things around for a while, most of the containers outside had been unpacked, and only a few were left. Inside the factory building there was room for Galahad Grandpa, plus the blacksmith’s hammer, an anvil, and various other things?
The metal still hasn’t arrived yet, so unfortunately we can’t start work right away, but once that’s taken care of, we’re done.
But who’s moving the stuff that comes in from overseas all the way here?
“We have a transport contract with another company, so you needn’t worry.”
“Ah.”
Oh, so another company handles that. I thought Ophelia would unload it herself at the port and drive it here in a truck.
“For now, please stay here.”
According to Ophelia’s plan, our target is a private defense and military firm. We’re going to build something like a Hunter Guild, packed with golems so it won’t be a problem even in the city.
But to do that, we first need to verify things like stability, and the qualification requirements are apparently insanely strict. It’s still a little far off.
If an open-type gate bursts open, the golems will immediately rush out and smash everything to pieces, taking on the fixer role.
Of course, since it’d be a little awkward to compete with our partner, the Nova Guild, we’re starting with open-type gates that don’t really make money. We’ll buy a few new entry-type gates on the outskirts, make money, and grow bigger.
“So cool!!”
“Hehe.”
We’ll run the military company under another name and keep it all hush-hush, then at the very end, bam!! we reveal it. Just who is the chairman of this ridiculously cool, ridiculously strong overtechnology golem army private military company??
It’s me.
“Gasp. It’s so cool I feel like I’m going to faint.”
I’m already!! this!! excited!!!!!