Apocalypse (1)
Opening the shop on Seon Yul’s Earth–001 happened faster and more easily than expected. In the end, Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu opened a shop in a corner of the Fortress of Freedom.
What the two of them planned to sell here were the byproducts from monsters they had hunted on Earth–001.
Monster hides, teeth, claws, and even fresh meat… Seon Yul intended to quickly sell off the items he had piled up inside Absolute Space.
In addition to that, Seon Yul also planned to sell items he had brought from Earth–104.
When passing through the Main Gate to cross into this world, there was a weight limit on how much each person could carry.
Taking Earth–104 as an example, the limit was 50 kg per person.
That was the maximum. Because of that, the mana users from Earth–104 who crossed over couldn’t bring many resources with them.
But for Seon Yul, that weight limit was meaningless.
Since he could simply pile things inside Absolute Space and then cross the Main Gate, he planned to sell items from Earth–104 on Earth–001 as well.
“For now, let’s sell monster materials as the main products and sell the Earth–104 items as side goods.”
In the past, when Seon Yul was planning to register at the Universal Tool Shop, he had personally purchased countless items that existed on Earth–104 and stored them inside Absolute Space.
There were all kinds of food ingredients, various disposable goods, and many other types of items stored there. Seon Yul planned to sell all of them in the shop first, make a list of the items that people in this world showed interest in, and later buy large quantities of those items when he returned to Earth–104.
He was basically planning to run a trading business.
If this started running properly, Seon Yul would be able to obtain large amounts of mana crystals.
Since mana crystals were essentially Seon Yul’s cost, the more he had, the better.
If he had enough mana crystals, Seon Yul could display abilities at a level others wouldn’t even dare imagine.
That was why he intended to become a great merchant.
“But who’s going to run the shop when we’re not here?”
“Well, since I have to take the items out of Absolute Space… the shop can only really operate properly when I’m here. But we can’t just shut down the shop whenever I’m gone… so should we hire a part-timer? I wonder if the concept of part-time jobs exists in this world, too.”
“This is still a world where people live… so it probably does, right?”
Since the two of them didn’t yet know everything about this world, they contacted the employee who had rented them the shop building and asked about hiring staff.
Eventually, they learned from him how to hire employees to work in their shop.
Surprisingly, there were many ordinary humans from Earth–001 in the Fortress of Freedom looking for jobs.
There were even Irregulars from other dimensions who were searching for work.
During this process, Seon Yul learned something new: among the Irregulars, some people had lost the world they could return to.
Those people had lost their place to go back to and ended up settling down in this world, using various methods to neutralize mana addiction and simply living their lives here on Earth–001.
Here, such people were called Closers.
Most of them had lost their goals in life and were simply surviving day by day.
The employee had hinted that hiring these Closers would be much more convenient.
Because of their nature, Closers often had excellent abilities but no real-life goals, which made them easy to employ at relatively low cost.
For now, Seon Yul did as the employee suggested and posted a recruitment notice on a large bulletin board in the Fortress of Freedom.
The conditions were 0.5 kg of mana crystals per month, which wasn’t a particularly good offer.
If it had been Earth–104, people would have lined up instantly for such conditions. But in this world, the usual weekly pay was 0.2–0.3 kg of mana crystals, so a monthly salary of 0.5 kg definitely wasn’t considered good.
However, since the shop could only truly operate when Seon Yul himself was present, he only planned to have the employee do simple tasks like taking advance orders or handling customers when he wasn’t there. Since the work would be extremely simple and easy, he set the salary low.
There was no urgent need to hire someone immediately, so he simply posted the recruitment notice and planned to take his time finding someone.
Now that the shop was open and he had more or less finished everything he needed to do in the Fortress of Freedom, Seon Yul decided that he should return to Earth–104 once more.
It was sooner than he originally expected to return, but the reason was that after successfully deploying the reconnaissance satellites, he wanted to launch his next objective: GPS satellites.
“Are you really sure you’ll be okay here alone?”
However, this time, Cheon Li Yu said she would remain on Earth–001.
She said she would stay in the Fortress of Freedom, manage the newly opened shop, gather information, and wait for him.
In truth, this was the best option.
There was no real reason for Cheon Li Yu to go with him. In her case, she had enough time to remain in this world for over three months, and as long as she stayed inside the fortress, there were almost no dangers.
“So it would be a waste of a Return Stone. Honestly, there’s no real reason for me to go. I should just stay here and handle the remaining tasks. But at least leave plenty of goods behind so the shop can operate properly.”
“That’s not a problem… but you’re really sure you’ll be fine?”
“Geez, someone might think I’m a kid the way you’re worrying. Don’t worry. I won’t step even a single foot outside the fortress. Just go and come back quickly.”
“Alright. Then I’ll go.”
In the end, Seon Yul decided to return to Earth–104 alone.
There was nothing wrong with what Cheon Li Yu said, so following her suggestion was the logical choice.
He was still a little worried about her, but as she said, as long as she stayed inside the fortress, there wasn’t much danger.
He installed another steel gate, similar to the ones he had scattered throughout the Forest of Darkness, in one corner of the shop. In the storage room behind the shop, he placed a large quantity of goods from Earth–104, excluding fresh monster materials.
Among the monster materials, he did not leave behind things like meat that required freshness.
Anything related to freshness had to remain inside Absolute Space, so it could only be sold when Seon Yul himself was present.
After leaving plenty of goods for Cheon Li Yu to sell, Seon Yul immediately used a Return Stone to activate the emergency entrance to return to Earth–104.
***
Second return.
This time it felt a bit awkward since he was alone, unlike before, but Seon Yul’s studio apartment on Earth–104 had not changed at all.
The first thing Seon Yul did after arriving on Earth–104 was check the community.
This community function didn’t work on Earth–001, so it could only be checked after returning to Earth–104.
While reading through posts on the community, Seon Yul learned that countries once considered advanced during the era of mana civilization had begun producing anti-field generators.
‘So the returnees have started appearing.’
The world’s first returnee was Seon Yul, but only a very small number of people knew that.
Therefore, the first officially recognized return group was the United States’ Team A. Team A had returned exactly ten days before today, which was Seon Yul’s second return.
Starting with them, returnees began appearing one after another at the Main Gates of various countries.
When Seon Yul returned to Earth–104, he used the emergency entrance inside Absolute Space to bypass the Main Gate and go straight to his apartment. But other mana users all returned to the Main Gate they had originally crossed through.
And naturally, those returnees submitted soul stones to their respective countries.
Once you thought about it that far, it was obvious that many nations would immediately begin producing anti-field generators.
‘But Korea has probably already finished one.’
Since Korea had started production nearly a month earlier than other countries, it should already have been completed.
They simply seemed not to have announced it yet.
Since Seon Yul had many things to discuss with Cha Seong Hyeon anyway, he contacted him again.
“Did you go again this time?”
Seon Yul met Cha Seong Hyeon in person. Since there was a lot to discuss, meeting directly was more convenient than talking over the phone. And now Seon Yul trusted Cha Seong Hyeon to some extent, so meeting him wasn’t uncomfortable.
“Yes, I went.”
Seon Yul nodded calmly in response to Cha Seong Hyeon’s question.
“While only the first returnees are just beginning to appear, you’ve already completed your second return alone… That’s truly impressive.”
Cha Seong Hyeon looked at Seon Yul with genuine admiration. It wasn’t exaggerated praise meant to flatter him.
He was sincerely impressed.
“It’s nothing that impressive. Now that other mana users have learned at least the basics about that world… maybe hope can return to this world as well.”
“Sigh, we’ve managed to catch our breath a little… but we still have a long way to go. Even in our country, we’ve completed the anti-field generator, but we still can’t properly operate it.”
As Seon Yul had expected, South Korea had already finished the anti-field generator.
But hearing that it couldn’t be operated yet made Seon Yul tilt his head in confusion.
“You built it, so why can’t you operate it?”
“Well, to properly use it, we have to choose one of the cities where the mana field has paralyzed urban functions and activate it there… but that process is causing more problems than expected.”
“May I ask what kind of problem?”
“It’s simple, but it requires time. The mutants created by mana’s influence… There are far more of them than we expected, so clearing them out and opening paths is taking time.”
Mutants created by mana’s influence.
Creatures with smaller bodies were affected by mana more quickly, so Seon Yul already knew that insect-level mutants were especially rampant.
Still, it was hard to understand why something like that would prevent the anti-field generator from being used.
“Couldn’t you just clear a path and use it in a city near Seoul or Busan?”
“That’s true, but… the Korean government wants to revive Sejong City.”
“Ah… so it’s taking time to clear a path all the way to Sejong?”
“Yes. Personally, I think we should just pick a city near Seoul or Busan and conduct the experiment there. But the government wants to revive Sejong first and rebuild the country using a three-city system.”
“There must be important things in Sejong.”
“There are. And soul stones themselves are still very limited, so they want to use them as efficiently as possible.”
“Are the mutants really that bad?”
“Yes, it’s worse than expected. And what worries us more is that right now the worst are small insect and rodent mutants… but as time passes, larger mammals like stray cats and abandoned dogs will start mutating as well. When that happens, things will probably become even more serious.”
“…Could humans eventually become mutants too?”
“…According to current research results, the possibility is very high. Personally, I think it’s almost 100% certain.”
“Shouldn’t people be evacuated then?”
“That’s… physically impossible. Governments around the world are doing everything they can to manage field refugees, but realistically, it’s impossible to move everyone into safe zones.”
“This could become a really serious problem later.”
“Yes. That’s why every country is trying to find ways to control the situation before it gets worse. For example, China is reportedly building massive walls around Beijing and Shanghai.”
“Walls… so they’re planning to completely block refugees?”
“Exactly. Their population is too large, so it seems they’ve decided to give up from the start and let only certain people survive.”
After hearing Cha Seong Hyeon’s explanation, Seon Yul realized that the situation was more serious than he had thought.
“Then… leave the task of bringing the anti-field generator to Sejong City to me.”
“…What? Is that possible?”
“Yes, it is. However…”
Naturally, it wouldn’t be free.
“In exchange, you’ll hand over all technologies and remaining equipment related to GPS satellites to me.”
After reconnaissance satellites, the next step was GPS satellites.
“That’s definitely possible. Though I’m not sure if any GPS satellites are remaining. I’ll check separately.”
“If there aren’t any, I’d appreciate it if you could manufacture some. If you do that, I’ll personally take responsibility for transporting the anti-field generator to the designated city.”
For Seon Yul, this task was easier than turning over his hand.
With the Absolute Space ability and Real Painting [The Door], it could be done not in an hour but in ten minutes.
“We’ll make them no matter what!”
Cha Seong Hyeon responded with firm determination.
And so, another deal between the two of them was established.
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