Chapter 110 – Tanker Recruitment ‘Climbing The Tower Of Trials’ (3)

A letter requesting the final approval for the delay and the final broadcast volume was placed on the table.

“Phew.”

Director Kang Byung-chan touched his forehead after reviewing the letter. If he signed this, the program, which was supposed to bring life to their station, would be released in a week. Logically, their sales and reputation would also soar.

But…

‘It cannot be helped.’

A new form of disaster would come if this video was released to the public.

A video with a veteran who only shouted under all circumstances and a female host who looked like she would cry.

And the PDs who was actually crying.

It was as if all his nightmares were clubbed together into one video.

‘Right, I can understand it.’

He almost swore but then made sure to stay calm.

The problem was…

The person responsible for orchestrating this hell had proudly appeared to claim his money.

‘Is his conscience made of thick concrete or something?’

Even the devil would have felt sorry.

“Pay over your performance fee. Is that what you are saying?”

Kang Byung-chan asked.

“Of course. That is what the contract says.”

“We… sigh, I don’t know if you know about this, but we are taking a leave because of the damage that broadcast caused us. Rather, it is a situation where we should be claiming damages from you, Player Kang Jin-hyuk!”

Kang Byung-chan replied, but Jin-hyuk didn’t even blink.

“I do not know. I only did what we wrote in the contract, though?”

He got an invitation, and he did what he was asked.

Now was the time to get paid. He didn’t see any problem with this.

“Do you think such an attitude will work?”

“Yes. I think it will. Honestly…”

Jin-hyuk took a deep breath.

And then he said his words to pressure down the opponent.

“After working with the CEO of BJ entertainment, Lee Jong-soo, who exploited the BJs, said, ‘it is written in the contract, what is unfair about it, do you want to touch the law?’. And Director Kang Byung-chan was behind that, right?”

This was a fact that everyone knew.

Director Kang Byung-chan had secretly contacted the big-name BJs to make up for his company’s deficit. After hearing that they would be paid a large amount, the BJs had come to join hands with him.

One of them was the agency that Lee Jong-soo had operated and that Jin-hyuk belonged to. Jin-hyuk was here to claim his share of what had happened then.

‘That bastard died at the mangrove tree, so he paid for his sins. Not you, though.’

This wasn’t some grand scheme to take revenge on the person who made him quit being a BJ, but simply because he could no longer bear to see this man rip off other people.

It was worth the time he had invested, and he wanted to claim his share in magic stones.

“Ah! Do not try to deny what you did. You know that I am not simply saying it. I was one of the parties in contract with you after all.”

“…!”

Gulp!

Kang Byung-chan gulped at this revelation.

If the other party was someone that signed that slave contract, then he would not be able to deceive them at all.

Furthermore, the opponent wasn’t a simple BJ anymore. He was an S-rank.

Wasn’t he the most talked about player in the world?

If he lied…

‘My neck will be flying off.’

Kang Byung-chan could feel his head begin to hurt as he fanned his face.

He tried to use his brain, but not a single solution came to his mind.

“… fine. The magic stones. We will pay you right away. But can you come over after a phone call?”

A call?

It looked like he was trying to get some advice from someone.

Well.

Whatever he planned would only result in tightening the chain around his neck.

Jin-hyuk already considered everything that the man might do.

“Sure.’

He replied with a smile.

30 minutes later…

Kang Byung-chan and Jin-hyuk headed to a large warehouse located in the basement of the broadcasting station.

This place was once an underground parking lot, but after the Tower of Trials appeared, it was changed to be used as a warehouse for storing items from the Tower in large quantities.

‘To be precise, it is probably used to store things for tax evasion.’

Jin-hyuk looked around in curiosity.

As a facility built with cutting-edge technology, iris and fingerprint scans were required to pass through a single door. It also had tight security.

They had walked through quite a few security doors.

[Director Kang Byung-chan. Approval has been granted.]
Finally, the door to the warehouse opened, and a mountain of magic stones appeared.

“Oh.”

Jin-hyuk was impressed.

It was no exaggeration to say that the pile would touch the ceiling if there were another 10 centimeters of magic stones. That was just how many stones were in here.

There were so many that his eyes began to hurt looking at them.

And at that moment.

Kang Byung-chan then spoke with a stiff face.

“After hearing from PD Choi, I learned that you are trying to absorb the magic from the magic stones. Right?”

“Yes. That is how I want to use them.”

“Then, may I make a suggestion?”

The man’s voice trembled. It felt like he struggled for 30 minutes to get these words out.

It was cute.

Like a dog that was in trouble.

Jin-hyuk nodded with a smile.

“I will listen for now.”

“As you may know. The amount of magic stones we have is… quite a lot, more than anyone can imagine. For the lowest level stones, we have around 35,000, and we will provide them to player Kang Jin-hyuk until tomorrow morning at 7. This means that you can absorb as much as you want until then.”

The man clearly communicated something that he wanted.

But Kang Jin-hyuk saw the intention behind it.

‘They are evaluating the absorption rate of the stones.’

No matter how good your technique was, it would take more than 5 minutes to absorb even the lowest grade stones.

As long as there was a time limit, no player could absorb 500 million won worth of magic stones.

In other words, the stones here were good bait.

Even if he was given the whole night here, he would not be able to absorb much beyond 100 million won worth. The man stood there waiting for an answer.

This was his opportunity to cut his losses by almost 80%.

The face of a con man who wanted to go all in to save his fortune. That was the sign that any greedy middle-aged man would show.

Fine…

‘If that was what they wanted, let me finish them off.’

“Alright, until 7 AM tomorrow, I will use as much as possible.”

“H-hu! Really?”

“Why are you so surprised? Did you catch a good bait?”

“Haha… right. I just mean that it is good to have an agreement that benefits both of us.”

“Yes. Yes. You are making this awkward.”

Jin-hyuk waved his hand as if to dismiss a distraction.

Kang Byung-chan, worried that Jin-hyuk would change his mind, ran to the door.

Of course, he then added.

“Just in case something happens, there is an anti-theft spell on the magic stones. It would be impossible to put them into a subspace inventory.”

“Do not worry. We will meet in the morning.”

At those words…

Thud!

The door closed.

[Time Remaining 11h: 59m: 59s]
Twelve hours until tomorrow morning. The time remaining began to drop second after second.

However, even though he had to absorb the magic from the magic stones in a hurry, Jin-hyuk didn’t move.

Instead, he opened his subspace inventory.

‘He obviously said I cannot put them in the subspace but didn’t say I couldn’t take things out, right?’

So this wasn’t any violation.

“My Sweet Potato. Come out.”

Jin-hyuk extended his palm towards the subspace.

And…

Thud!

A reptile with black skin and yellow eyes walked out.

The Ancient Species, Sweet Potato.

“Bug?!”

“Right. You were quite lonely in there, right?”

Jin-hyuk hugged it passionately as it licked him on the cheek. This must mean that it liked him.

The cool touch and the way it tilted the head were insanely cute!

“It isn’t for anything else. I called you because you might be hungry.”

35,000 magic stones.

An absurdly large number for any average player to absorb.

However, if it was an ancient species that recently hatched out, it would have a considerable appetite…

The amount of magic stones here is not that large either.

Instead, it might fall short.

“Bug?”

Sweet Potato tilted its head cutely and asked with a fluttering tail.

“Right. You can eat everything in front of you.”

That’s right…

“Eat them all.”

Jin-hyuk said to his pet.

There was no need for hesitation here.

‘They must have thought of me as an idiot who cannot know his own absorption rate….’

To put down their heads and make this weird-ass apology to try and escape. This made him realize how people always think other people are dumber than they are.

The next day…

Kang Byung-chan came to work while humming.

He was quite excited.

Thanks to PD Choi’s advice, he was able to make up for any potential losses.

Moreover, the fact that he had gotten one over that cheeky kid to get rid of his troubles made him feel happy.

‘Money is money, but this feels more refreshing.’

As long as he could not get along with the other person, then he needed to do something to sleep at night.

They also received assurances from the Black Cloud Guild and the People’s Republic Guild that they would send their rankers after the break for the 8th episode was decided.

And then, he would be able to proceed nicely with the program.

“Ah, are you here? Good morning sir.”

A staff member greeted him.

“Uh. Right, it is good to see you, Park. Don’t sweat too much right from the morning, have a cup of coffee and relax.”

Kang Byung-chan, who was known to be a vicious tiger, was speaking nicely to them.

After putting down his briefcase, he received the report for the day from his secretary and then headed to the warehouse with the magic stones.

Ba-dump!

His heart was pounding fast in excitement and anticipation

‘Now, how many could he have actually absorbed? Our dear celebrity?’

He rubbed his palms and opened the door, but…

“H-How did this happen….”

Kang Byung-chan, who checked inside, gasped at the horrendous sight he was greeted by.