Chapter 135

Yubaek City’s training grounds had been noisy since morning.

Hup, two! Hup, two!

Guild members throwing themselves into physical training since the crack of dawn!

“Run! Don’t just zone out while you’re at it—heads up, chests out, and RUN with focus! It’s hard? Of course it’s hard! The harder it gets, the stronger you become. That’s an immutable truth proven throughout the ages! Understood?”

Drill Sarge was right there with them, rallying their spirits and stoking their motivation.

As expected, he really does love this stuff.

Nobody even asked him to anymore, yet he was doing it all on his own.

“YES, SIR!”

“LET’S GO, GO, GO!”

“KEEP RUNNING!”

And.

The guild members’ training intensity had actually gotten worse than before.

What was it they said—only those who can bear the weight of the crown deserve to wear it?

Now that they’d risen to world ranker status, they had to train even harder to hold on to that position.

“Shall we get ready too?”

Baek Jinwoo slowly began warming up.

“Yeah! Jinwoo!”

“Yes, Jinwoo-nim!”

Ramba and Stormy moved to their respective spots.

“Mmm.”

“Grrrrrr……”

LG and Dhampir also headed off to do the basic training Drill Sarge had set up for them.

“Dad.”

Aso was staring at Baek Jinwoo with a blank expression.

Yeah, Aso.

He’d talked with her all through the night.

Aso, who retained every memory up until she’d been Quarantined during Battle of Summoners, found this world absolutely fascinating.

She also remembered every bit of the martial arts she’d learned before.

However.

Aso hadn’t actually trained under Drill Sarge for very long.

About a month, maybe?

After that, Drill Sarge had been taken away by a balance patch.

And that was the insane part.

With just one measly month of training, Aso had grown monstrously, overpowering and demolishing every other summon.

After one year, she’d single-handedly destroyed an S-rank summon.

After two years, she’d been soloing the upper floors of the Tower of Trials entirely on her own.

Right at that point.

The balance patch hit.

I kind of saw it coming, though.

Floor 60 boss, was it?

The demon, Asmodeus.

When she’d lopped that horrific bastard’s head off in thirty seconds flat, he’d thought—wait, is this right?

The very next day she was Quarantined, and Aso lost her Dad.

And I lost a summon I cherished.

Hah.

He should be used to it by now, but even thinking back on that moment sent rage surging all the way to the top of his skull.

Sons of bitches.

Whoever they were, they deserved to go through the exact same thing.

Did they have any idea how gut-wrenching it was to watch something you’d poured time and effort into raising vanish in a single day?

Crack.

As old memories dragged Baek Jinwoo back into grinding his teeth—

“Dad, Dad!”

Aso grabbed his collar and shook it.

“The stuff I learned back then—can I just start over from scratch and learn it the same way?”

She probably meant the martial arts of the Heavenly Demon, Zhang Sanfeng, and Bodhidharma that Drill Sarge had taught her.

Remarkably, Aso had taken that hodgepodge of martial arts, developed them on her own, and even fused them together.

“No, hold on.”

Baek Jinwoo shook his head.

The Drill Sarge of back then and the Drill Sarge of now were decidedly different.

He’d said as much.

This time, he’d have her learn a completely different kind of martial art.

“Drill Sarge!”

“Yes, my lord!”

The moment Baek Jinwoo called, Drill Sarge stopped his rallying and sprinted over.

“You called, sir!”

“Starting today, I want you to make Aso your top priority.”

“With pleasure, my lord.”

Drill Sarge’s eyes sparkled.

Teaching someone with talent—that was his greatest joy in life.

“Aso, and my lord. From this point forward, I’ll be focusing exclusively on the two of you.”

Huh?

Me too? Why me all of a sudden?

Baek Jinwoo tilted his head.

“First, Aso.”

“Yeah!”

“Forget everything you’ve learned so far. The martial art I’m about to teach you exists on an entirely different plane from what came before.”

Drill Sarge’s gaze settled low and intense.

In the past, he hadn’t known.

But now, having risen to EX-rank, he held the skills, martial arts, and underlying principles of virtually every notable being mapped out inside his head.

The one existence he knew of that had reached the most profound realm of all.

The true greatest of all ages—one who had ascended far beyond the founding patriarchs known as the Heavenly Demon, Zhang Sanfeng, and Bodhidharma.

Mugeuk Seonin (無極仙人).

A figure whose mastery knew no limits, who had transcended mere martial arts to become one with nature itself. The martial art belonging to that being was most certainly organized within his mind.

“First, sit in the posture my lord has been using. The breathing technique you’ll be learning from now on is the Geoncheongsimgong (乾淸心功).”

“Huh?”

Baek Jinwoo’s eyes flew open in surprise.

“But that’s the martial art I’ve been practicing?”

“Correct, my lord. In truth, I refrained from mentioning it for fear of burdening you, but the Geoncheongsimgong is the exclusive martial art of an existence known as Mugeuk Seonin. It is an art that purifies the mind and stills one’s ki into tranquility. So long as the heart remains unshaken, it can render any external threat utterly meaningless. It is, in every sense, an absolute martial art.”

“…Huh.”

An absolute martial art.

Taken at face value, the term meant a martial art at the very pinnacle—one that could not be developed any further.

“From now on, my lord and Aso will be learning the same martial art. Through the process, you will aid each other’s growth.”

“What about you?”

Come to think of it, wasn’t Drill Sarge going to learn it?

If he had the ability to teach it, shouldn’t he be perfectly capable of learning it himself?

“Regrettably, I lack the talent. Even my teaching will amount to little more than conveying methodology. The rest will have to be discovered firsthand by you and Aso through practice.”

Hmm.

Some kind of system limitation?

“I love it!”

Aso beamed.

“Learning together with Dad—I love it so much!”

“……”

Aso.

Your dear old dad wasn’t so sure.

The thought of having to keep pace with a ridiculous genius like her weighed on him considerably.

His self-esteem was going to take a beating.

“Naturally, Aso will pull ahead first. But my lord, you aren’t learning this art to become stronger in the first place, are you?”

“Trust me. You can absolutely do this, my lord. Even if you never achieve full mastery, reaching merely the third stage would be enough to read the movements of most summons.”

“Hoo, really?”

Baek Jinwoo let out a long breath.

So the Geoncheongsimgong had been that remarkable an art all along.

Good.

When it came to training, there was nobody better than Drill Sarge.

If he were an instructor, he’d be the top of the top. Among elite instructors, the undisputed number one. A legend.

If someone like that was pushing it this strongly, what reason did he have to refuse?

“Alright.”

Screw it.

“Starting today, let’s give this a real shot.”

Afternoon.

Once the physical training block ended, it was time for summon sparring.

Each guild member paired up league-style, fought a round, then gathered for group feedback.

However.

Hong Ari had decided to sit out of sparring for the time being.

To level up the Vermilion Bird.

She’d transferred every rune from Phoenix over to the Vermilion Bird and had already entered a nearby regular dungeon.

God, the Vermilion Bird…

Hong Ari shivered.

Just thinking about that moment still sent a thrill through her.

S-rank!

S-rank, of all things!

“Vermilion Bird, come out.”

Fwoosh!

First, a Firebird the size of a regular adult appeared, wings beating.

With every movement, flames rippled outward, incinerating everything around it—but for Hong Ari, that fire held no heat.

“Kiirrrrr……!”

Because it protected its master.

“KYAK, KYAAAK!”

From every direction, hordes of orcs with razor-sharp killing intent began closing in.

This was one of the tougher regular dungeons out there.

Right then.

Hong Ari rolled her wrists.

Let’s see how fast we can power-level, shall we?

FWOOOOOSH!

Under her control, the dungeon gradually began to burn.

Yu Jia had submitted a proposal to headquarters, and the Director reported it to the President immediately.

Upon receiving the report, the President established a ‘National Competitiveness Enhancement Committee’ on the spot.

The committee included the Prime Minister along with the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Minister of Science and ICT, and other heavyweights. Renowned university professors and heads of national research institutes also gathered.

“Ha ha.”

The Prime Minister chuckled heartily.

“Crude oil, you say. And ten billion barrels at that—isn’t that absolutely staggering?”

“…The technologies are even more insane.”

All ten Random Technology Summoning Scrolls had already been used.

A brief summary of the technologies:

[Medical Nanorobot Technology]

[Nuclear Fusion Energy]

[Full-Brain Interface]

[Gene Editing Technology for Disease Treatment]

[Quantum Computing for Climate Prediction]

[Automotive 3D Printing Technology]

[Electric Vehicle AI Autonomous Driving Technology]

[Carbon Dioxide Capture Technology]

[Flying Taxi Blueprint]

[Deep-Sea Communication System Construction Technology]

“None of these are pie-in-the-sky fantasies. Each one carries astronomical informational value. Just publishing any single one of them would practically guarantee a Nobel Prize.”

The Minister of Science’s voice trembled.

“Frankly speaking, if we were to pay full price for all of this…… the national treasury would bleed dry. We’ve already got a mountain of debt to pay off.”

Then he let out a quiet sigh.

Every single one was tempting.

Properly digesting even one of these technologies could contribute enormously to advancing human life and industry.

And there were ten of them……

But they couldn’t exactly invoke patriotism and demand the technologies be handed over.

More than a few countries had tried pulling that on capable players, only to humiliate themselves internationally.

“Prime Minister. We need to secure these no matter what conditions we have to agree to. No question about it.”

Yu Jia, who’d been listening, allowed herself a subtle smile.

So you’re coming in with your head bowed from the start, huh?

“So then.”

This time, the Prime Minister turned to Yu Jia.

“I suppose we should start by hearing exactly what Yubaek wants.”

Every pair of eyes in the room locked onto Yu Jia.

She was young, but no one here underestimated her.

She was Daesung Group’s person, and more importantly, the only person capable of reining in Baek Jinwoo.

“Hmm.”

Yu Jia’s eyes narrowed to slits.

The truth was, she held all the cards here.

This was a situation where she could comfortably state whatever she wanted.

“You don’t necessarily have to pay full price. We’re South Korean citizens too, after all. If we can help the country, all the better. Didn’t the government generously put up one trillion won for us?”

“Ha ha, really?”

“That’s right, that’s exactly how it was, ha ha ha.”

“If that’s Yubaek’s stance, how wonderful.”

Just as the atmosphere was about to melt into warm camaraderie—

“However.”

Yu Jia’s voice cut through, sharp and decisive.

“Before we negotiate, I believe the first order of business is properly appraising the value of the oil field and the technologies.”

“Of course.”

“Quite right!”

After all, they needed to know the value before they could determine how much of a discount to offer.

The value of technology has no fixed form.

It can be relative, varying from person to person and nation to nation.

Maybe we can lowball it a little?

Seems like we could get away with undervaluing it a bit……

As if Yu Jia couldn’t see right through those scheming thoughts.

She simply smiled, then pointed to the bird perched on her shoulder.

“You can all see the bird on my shoulder, right? As you’re aware, it’s called a Mindreader Eagle. This little one may not do much else, but when it comes to telling truth from lies? Absolutely impeccable.”

“If even a single lie comes out, negotiations are off the table. I’ll give you exactly one hour. You’ve gathered every top expert this country has to offer right here…… So go ahead and calculate that value. Very. Honestly.”

Her voice rang out crisp and commanding.

The councilmen’s faces went blank, as if their spirits had left their bodies.

This…

wasn’t going to be easy.