Strategy (2)
After stopping their climb and exiting the tower, the two first headed to the shop.
Although they had spent nearly a month inside the tower, in reality, only about a week had passed.
Before returning to the shop, they first took time inside the Absolute Space to organize everything they had gained from this climb.
First, checking only the experience points, Seon Yul had reached level 79. Now, with just one more level, he would enter the true hell-level range at level 80, where leveling would become genuinely difficult.
And Cheon Li Yu had reached level 58.
In some sense, the one who power-leveled wasn’t Seon Yul but Cheon Li Yu. During this climb, she had broken through both level 40 and level 50 at once, gaining two level perks.
The level 40 perk she obtained was “Increased Reaction Speed,” and the level 50 perk was “Agile Movement.”
Both were abilities that greatly boosted her evasion capabilities, and with this, Cheon Li Yu had reached a level where, in terms of evasion, she wouldn’t fall behind anyone.
Next to check was the loot.
First, the most basic loot, such as magic stones and soul stones… amounted to 1,614 kg of magic stones, 31 kg of soul stones, and even 97 return stones.
It was truly an absurd amount of loot that others wouldn’t even dare to imagine.
All of this was achieved thanks to the bonus loot boxes earned from 41 consecutive fastest clears.
Of course, since the two obtained it together, Seon Yul divided the loot exactly in half and gave half to Cheon Li Yu.
However, Cheon Li Yu said she didn’t need that much and only took about 20% of the loot.
In the end, Seon Yul ended up taking about 1,300 kg of magic stones and around 25 kg of soul stones.
Since return stones were used together, they didn’t bother splitting them.
The last remaining loot was the completed items.
They had obtained a total of 16 completed items, and all of them were unidentified, so they needed to be appraised separately.
On Earth–104, when you obtained items, the system automatically appraised them, but on Earth–001, item appraisal had to be done separately.
There were two methods of appraisal:
The first was to buy appraisal magic tools and appraise items yourself.
The second was to find a professional appraiser and request an appraisal.
Since Seon Yul disliked showing even a bit of his climb results to others, he chose the first method.
In any case, he already had more than enough magic stones, so he purchased about 30 one-time appraisal items.
Each one cost a whopping 1 kg of magic stones, so it felt a bit wasteful, but since he knew how insane prices were on Earth–001, he simply paid 30 kg of magic stones and bought them.
And then began the appraisal rush.
What was truly disappointing was that out of the 16 items, 14 were magic-grade items.
And the remaining 2 were barely unique-grade items.
However, there was a twist.
Even the items that seemed to be merely magic-grade had performance almost comparable to unique-grade items from Earth–104.
And the unique-grade items seemed to have performance comparable to unique or even legendary-grade items.
“Wow… is this what true original items are like?”
Seon Yul admired the items.
“Yeah… looking at it like this, the items we’ve gotten so far really look like complete knockoffs,” Cheon Li Yu agreed, nodding.
“In the end, everything we experienced must have been copies. And what we’re experiencing here is the original.”
The more Seon Yul experienced this world, the more he couldn’t shake the feeling that this world was real and they were the fake ones.
But that didn’t mean he intended to deny himself, who had been born and lived in that “fake” world.
Fake or real… it didn’t matter.
What mattered was that he was alive and that the world he was born into still existed.
Those two things were what mattered, and he intended to protect them.
Anyway, after roughly organizing the items, about 5 of them seemed suitable to give to Jang Jun Hyeok to enhance his abilities.
Among the remaining items, he planned to give 2 magic-grade items and 1 unique-grade item to Cheon Li Yu.
As for Seon Yul himself, there was only 1 unique item he would use, but since he liked it very much, he was fully satisfied.
[Teleportation Ring <Unique>]
— A ring that allows the use of teleportation magic. Since mana automatically recharges, once it is fully charged, teleportation magic can be used once.
[Base Effect] Intelligence +1%
[Skill Held] Teleportation (Active): Instantly teleport to a desired location. However, movement is limited to within 20 meters and only to places within one’s line of sight.
[Cooldown] 2 minutes
[Special Effect] If desired, teleportation can be used twice consecutively. However, in that case, the ring cannot be used for 24 hours.
A ring that enables teleportation.
An item of this level would likely have been close to legendary-grade on Earth–104.
But here, it was unique.
Of course, after looking into it further, it didn’t seem appropriate to say “unique.”
In this world, just as prices were high, the value of items was also significant. If he sold all the items except the ones for Jun Hyeok, Cheon Li Yu, and himself, he would obtain a considerable amount of magic stones.
To begin with, even unique-grade items were extremely difficult to obtain in this world, so Seon Yul had achieved enormous gains.
After finishing organizing all the loot, the two returned to the shop.
Jun Hyeok, who had been diligently running the shop, welcomed them and spoke.
“How was it? The Tower of Life. Nothing special, right?”
“Not sure about special, but I think I understand what kind of place the tower is.”
Seon Yul replied with an expression as if nothing much had happened.
“Is it like the gates on Earth–104?”
Jun Hyeok had many questions… not just about the tower, but about this world in general.
“It’s similar, but also a bit different. If there’s a chance later, let’s go in together.”
Seon Yul was planning to carry Jun Hyeok and raise his level anyway, so he intended to eventually take him into the tower.
“And here, use this.”
Seon Yul handed over the appraised magic items to Jun Hyeok.
There were a total of five items: a ring, a bracelet, a steel gauntlet, a large hammer, and a belt.
“Oh, what’s this?”
“They all have options that will help you, so equip them and train hard.”
“These are really magic-grade? Why are the stats like this…?”
“It seems items in this world are just different.”
“Yeah… by my standards, this isn’t magic-grade. Thanks a lot.”
Even back on Earth–104, Jun Hyeok had rarely used items of this level.
That’s why he felt even more grateful to Seon Yul.
“And I’m planning to go back to Earth–104 again. This time, you’re coming with me. Li Yu will watch the shop.”
To manage their stay periods efficiently, it made sense for Jun Hyeok to go this time.
“Oh, finally returning.”
“Have a safe trip.”
Cheon Li Yu nodded in response, and Seon Yul immediately took Jun Hyeok and headed to Earth–001.
***
Inside the Absolute Space, the two moved straight to Earth–001.
As always, they arrived at Seon Yul’s apartment and quickly discussed what they needed to do.
“You’re going to see your aunt, right?”
“Yeah, first.”
“Then tell her I’ll drop by after I finish my business. And don’t just relax… gather some information. Especially about other magic users from this world who crossed over to Earth–001.”
“Okay, got it.”
After giving Jun Hyeok his tasks, Seon Yul immediately contacted Cha Seong Hyeon.
***
At Sejong City, Cha Seong Hyeon was waiting.
“I’ll explain how to use the communication satellites. There are many precautions, and the usage is more complex than expected, so I prepared a manual.”
“Thank you.”
Cha Seong Hyeon always provided satisfying responses, so Seon Yul respected him quite a bit.
His explanation was extremely detailed, and Seon Yul listened intently, trying not to miss a single word.
After the long but informative explanation ended, Seon Yul nodded and asked:
“How many satellites have been completed?”
“So far, 20. But… if you’re planning to establish a proper communication network, you’ll need at least 400 in orbit.”
“Then please keep producing them. But with what’s been made so far, basic communication is possible, right?”
“Yes. There may be limitations in functions and reduced communication quality, but it should be usable.”
For Seon Yul, what mattered was whether the service was possible at all, so this was sufficient.
After finishing the explanation, Cha Seong Hyeon guided Seon Yul to a warehouse where completed satellites were stacked.
As expected, only Seon Yul was allowed inside.
Inside, the prepared satellites were neatly stacked.
Seon Yul stored all of them in his Absolute Space and came back out.
“Will you pay in magic stones? Or soul stones?”
The price for 20 units was 200 kg of magic stones.
Converted to soul stones, it would be about 2 kg, though the exchange rate wasn’t fully stabilized yet.
“Would it be possible to receive payment in soul stones?”
Although the price was unstable, what the South Korean government currently needed most was soul stones.
So Cha Seong Hyeon requested payment in soul stones.
“Yes, let’s do that.”
Seon Yul actually preferred paying in soul stones, so he readily paid 2 kg of soul stones.
“Next is the mobile phones, right?”
“Yes. Shall we move to Yongin together?”
The South Korean government had secured parts of the Gyeongbu Expressway infrastructure.
They had even managed to produce a few cars powered by magic stones.
Cha Seong Hyeon was driving one of those cars, so Seon Yul simply traveled with him.
The two arrived at the Ilsung factory in Yongin.
While moving, Seon Yul listened to explanations about the performance and usage of magic stone mobile phones.
As always, Cha Seong Hyeon explained thoroughly, and Seon Yul listened carefully.
“The factory isn’t fully operational yet, so the first production batch is only 10,000 units. There are many constraints… so it couldn’t be helped. We’ll steadily increase production.”
Cha Seong Hyeon spoke with a slightly apologetic expression.
But the initial production volume wasn’t important to Seon Yul.
At the early stage of the service, demand wouldn’t be high anyway, so 10,000 units were sufficient.
“That’s fine.”
What mattered to Seon Yul was consistent production.
The phones he received in Yongin looked quite crude, but all the functions he requested were included.
“You also made the master versions I mentioned, right?”
“Yes. We made 10 master-version phones with maximum specs.”
“Then I’ll take those as well.”
Seon Yul paid 100 kg of magic stones (production cost) and stored all the produced items in his Absolute Space.
As before, Cha Seong Hyeon asked if he could be paid in soul stones instead, and Seon Yul gladly gave 1 kg of soul stones instead of magic stones.
Satellites and mobile phones.
After securing both, Seon Yul parted ways with Cha Seong Hyeon and returned to Seoul.
With all his tasks finished, the only thing left was to meet Jun Hyeok and his aunt and spend some time catching up.
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