CHAPTER 23
Construction (1)
I watched indifferently as Baek Seung-yeop and his party struggled to move their belongings.
Perhaps because they had wronged me, Baek Seung-yeop and the twins kept glancing at me anxiously and were overly cautious.
After finishing their task, Baek Seung-yeop bowed deeply toward me once more and said,
"Then, we'll be going now!"
"Yes, take care."
With a disciplined posture, Baek Seung-yeop carefully retreated.
Name: Baek Seung-yeop (Lv. 10)
Trust Level: 39
Awakening Ability: None
Experience Distribution Rate: 0%
Settlement Fund Distribution Rate: 0%
★ Assign Quest
☐ Expel
'His trust level has skyrocketed.'
Before, apart from Baek Seung-min, the trust level of everyone in Baek Seung-yeop's party was in the single digits.
Yet, after our first meeting, their numbers had surged dramatically.
'Well, at least they're easy to handle.'
To be honest, I don't particularly like people like Baek Seung-yeop.
They're all about bravado, puffing themselves up like blowfish.
Watching him berate Baek Seung-min—who had risked his life leading goblins here—just to assert his authority, or seeing him show off by throwing spears to act tough, didn't sit well with me.
Still, I had no choice but to support them because we were severely lacking manpower.
'I didn't expect only three teams to be hunting monsters.'
Over the past week, survivors had continued to join us, bringing the total population of citizens to 197.
But among them, only three teams were actively engaged in monster hunting.
Kim Min-ho's team, Baek Seung-yeop's team, and Shin Yu-ra's team.
Aside from these three, no one showed any interest in hunting goblins.
Instead of hunting monsters, most people preferred to focus on rescuing the remaining ten people in the other districts.
In fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that almost no one was willing to take up monster hunting.
It seemed that, like Choi Hyung-jun, many people felt an overwhelming aversion to killing living beings.
For most citizens, even the task of hunting ten goblins for a quest was a daunting challenge.
At least, thanks to Baek Seung-yeop's party spreading the "baiting strategy," the number of people successfully completing the quest was slowly increasing.
'Shin Yu-ra's team is overly cautious.'
Despite having two more members than Baek Seung-yeop's team, they had only managed to hunt a little over 80 goblins so far.
In comparison, Baek Seung-yeop's team had already killed 100 goblins with just four members.
'They're not much different from ordinary citizens.'
On average, each member of Shin Yu-ra's team had only hunted about 12 goblins.
At this point, that wasn't much better than the general citizens who had completed the ten-goblin hunting quest.
'I should assign a ten-goblin hunting quest every week. If I set the penalty as a restriction on using public facilities, they'll have no choice but to complete it.'
I opened the citizen management window.
Current Population: 197 / 900
Bonus Experience: +100%
Bonus Settlement Funds: +100%
Unfortunately, no additional bonuses were granted beyond 100 people. However, by hunting 10 goblins, one could still earn about 60,000 won per week.
Shin Yura's team was only slightly better than that.
In the end, the only viable option was to support Baek Seungyeob's party, as they were the ones delivering somewhat satisfactory results.
Those who rely on others will inevitably become "servants," while those who provide for them will become "masters."
I intended to become Baek Seungyeob's master and properly tame them.
'Well, if I raise these weeds with enough effort, they might turn out decent.'
Since they were the second-best performing team after Kim Minho's, it was necessary to reward them.
'Adjusting the experience distribution rate to 50% should be sufficient.'
I didn't see the need to invest too much.
All I expected from them was the equivalent of utility payments made by ordinary citizens.
After all, the majority of the earnings came from Ha Donggeon's party.
'If only Baek Seungyeob were even one-tenth of Ha Donggeon…'
A man with true leadership built on responsibility and sacrifice, rather than fake leadership propped up by bluffing and showmanship.
Just thinking about Ha Donggeon made me smile in satisfaction.
『Name: Ha Donggeon (Lv. 33) [+]
Titles: [Sixth Servant] [Knight] [Lancer]
Trust: 70 Loyalty: 78
Awakened Abilities: Throwing, Thrusting
Experience Distribution Rate: 200%
★ Quest Assignment Available
From the moment I took Ha Donggeon in as a retainer, the results were completely different from those of ordinary people.
In addition to the "Sixth Servant" title that all retainers commonly received, he gained two more unique titles.
{Knight}
Increases physical abilities by a percentage equal to Loyalty.Monsters hunted by a retainer with the Knight title grant 3x experience and settlement rewards.
※ Knights can be nurtured and leveled up through experience distribution.
He received 1.5 times the rewards of regular retainers, and since he could grow through experience distribution, he was an excellent investment.
The total revenue generated every time Ha Donggeon hunted was 600%, so giving him 200% of it was not a loss at all.
Then there was the third title Ha Donggeon unlocked.
{Lancer}
Current Mastery: 11%The higher the spear mastery, the greater the attack power.
This was precisely why I had created the supply-grade spears for Baek Seungyeob's party.
Thanks to Moon Byungho's efforts, the shop had leveled up to 4, increasing the discount rate to 20% and unlocking a special new feature.
〔Commodification〕
Evolves crude items into sellable goods.
A crude spear made by taping a kitchen knife to a long stick.
After registering it in the shop and investing a hefty 3 million won, it was commodified.
The word "crude" was removed, and it became a supply-grade spear.
Even though it was labeled "supply-grade," judging from how Ha Donggeon wielded it, its performance seemed quite decent.
Seeing him massacre goblins with a single spear was proof enough.
Moreover, Ha Donggeon was the only retainer who possessed two awakened abilities.
Throwing (B Rank)
By consuming mental energy, you can throw objects, amplifying attack power by five times.
This seems to be an evolved version of the throwing skill, which originally involved throwing a baseball.
Piercing (Grade A)
By consuming stamina, a sword aura momentarily forms on the spear's blade when thrusting.
A skill of Grade A.
Through testing, the moment the sword aura appeared was fleeting, but in that brief instant, it possessed enough power to cut through reinforced concrete with a single strike.
This had effectively become the strongest ability in my arsenal.
At that moment—
[You have hunted an Orc (Lv. 18).]
[You have gained experience points.]
[1,721,892 KRW has been deposited into the Absolute Ruler's Wallet.]
"An Orc?"
For a mere level 18 enemy, the payout was quite generous—likely because Ha Dong-geon was the one who hunted it.
I immediately shifted the Eye of the Absolute Ruler to observe the situation there.
"Shwik—!"
I saw muscular monsters facing off against Ha Dong-geon.
They had greenish skin like goblins, heavily built physiques, and protruding tusks from their mouths.
A textbook depiction of an orc.
Ha Dong-geon stepped forward and thrust his spear at the creature.
Wooong!
In that instant, a blue aura wrapped around the spear's blade, and it cleanly pierced through the orc's heart.
"Kuueegh!"
Another orc beside it took advantage of Ha Dong-geon's opening and lunged at him with a glaive.
At that moment—
Swoooosh—
An arrow flew in from behind, piercing the attacking orc's forehead before it could reach him.
As the orc collapsed, Ha Dong-geon swiftly sidestepped and hurled the standard-issue spear he was holding.
It struck an orc emerging from the subway station entrance.
Crash!
With a loud impact, the orc's upper body was obliterated.
'That thing costs a fortune.'
Seeing him casually throw away a spear worth 300,000 KRW, I felt a pang of regret. But upon checking how much he had earned, my heart settled.
[You have hunted an Orc (Lv. 18).]
[You have gained experience points.]
[1,633,003 KRW has been deposited into the Absolute Ruler's Wallet.]
'Well, that's exactly what the spear was given for in the first place.'
Ha Dong-geon picked up the glaive from the fallen orc beside him and retreated toward his party.
A temporary lull settled in as they distanced themselves from the subway station, where the orcs had emerged.
'Orcs, huh?'
After significantly reducing the goblin population near the apartment complex, I had ordered Ha Dong-geon's party to tackle the subway system.
Reaching Nambumin-dong, where my parents were, would be much faster by navigating the subway than fighting through monsters on the surface.
I had anticipated that monsters would be occupying the subway.
'But I never expected them to be orcs instead of goblins.'
The orcs were on a completely different level compared to the goblins.
Their levels were much higher, and naturally, the experience points and settlement rewards they provided were significantly greater.
"Jackpot."
With this, a short-term goal was set.
"Assign party quest: Hunt 100 orcs."
Ha Dong-geon's party began moving toward the subway station again. Just as they were about to observe their exploits at a relaxed pace—
[An unauthorized entity is attempting to enter.]
"Huh?"
An alert appeared, signaling that someone had touched the boundary of the territory.
There were usually two reasons for this type of alert.
One was that a monster was literally trying to invade the territory. The other—
[An entity that meets the conditions to be accepted as a citizen has approached near your home.]
[Would you like to offer citizenship?]
—was when new citizens had arrived.
"Three of them, huh."
It was a family consisting of a high school-aged son and his parents.
They were being guided by Hong Jung-soo, who lived in Apartment 501.
"That makes exactly 200 now. Offer them citizenship."
As soon as the three accepted citizenship—
[Citizenship has been granted to Im Dong-woo, Son Saet-byeol, and Im Hyun-seung.]
[The number of citizens has reached 200.]
[As the number of citizens has reached a certain level, the 'Tax Collection' skill has been unlocked.]
A new skill had been unlocked.
{Tax Collection}
Collects 10% of the cash held by citizens. However, the amount of cash in their possession does not actually decrease.Cooldown: 30 days
"Oh?"
Until now, I had wondered why there was a system for distributing settlement rewards to citizens. It seemed that this skill was the reason.
"Cash held by citizens, huh."
In other words, to use the Tax Collection skill, I had to distribute settlement rewards to some citizens first.
"Once a month is too long."
If the citizens' money didn't decrease, that meant the money was essentially duplicating itself.
By the time I used the skill again, the previous money would still be there, meaning my funds would keep increasing exponentially.
"It's like an investment concept."
If I thought of the settlement rewards distributed to citizens as stocks and the revenue earned from the Tax Collection skill as interest, it made sense.
However, this was a type of stock that I couldn't freely withdraw.
"The downside is that it takes at least 10 months to recover the principal…"
In the long run, distributing settlement rewards to citizens was a guaranteed profit. But right now, I was in a desperate financial situation.
"I need to level up Ha Dong-geon's party as quickly as possible and send them to Nambumindong."
Time was crucial if I wanted to rescue my parents.
The sooner I could deploy them, the better.
That's why I couldn't help but hesitate.
"Hmm… For now, I'll distribute settlement rewards only to a manageable extent."
After all, this was an investment for the future.
And if citizens could make money, they might become more motivated to hunt monsters.
"Let's start by distributing about 30%."
Even though it was just 30% out of 200%, it still felt like a waste.
"It's an investment. An investment."
At least the upside was that most of the earnings were being generated by Ha Dong-geon's party.
Since everyone in the party except Kim Geon was a vassal, the losses wouldn't be too severe.
Just then—
[You have hunted an Orc (Lv. 19).]
[You have gained experience points.]
[3,211,098 won has been deposited into the Absolute Ruler of the House's wallet.]
Thanks to Ha Dong-geon's continuous hunting, I was able to level up.
[Skill level has increased.]
['Household Proclamation' has reached level 10.]
[You have gained 3 skill points.]
At the same time, as expected, intense pain surged through me.
"Ugh."
The territory of the Household expanded to encompass the entire first floor.
And then—
[Congratulations!]
[You have proclaimed Household Sovereignty over an entire apartment building.]
[A support fund of 1,000,000,000 won has been deposited.]
[The 'Construction' feature has been unlocked.]
A completely unexpected feature had been added.