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The First Deal (4)

I looked at the hunters with a glance that seemed to say, ‘What are you going to do about it?’

I then shrugged my shoulders as if to say, ‘Now that it’s like this, you can’t do anything about it, right?’

“Wait a minute!”

It was, of course, Greg who argued at that point.

“The only authority the governments have entrusted to us is to Clear the dungeons and receive compensation. Not to mention, I’m the one in charge of this expedition!”

Jeez, that stuck-up human.

I was starting to feel annoyed.

“Well, what are you planning to do?”

It was the other hunters who participated in the Clear that stopped him.

The first one to speak out was a hunter from Italy.

There were quite a few Gates in the ‘very unstable’ state, causing the Aurora of Stability to become desirable.

I remembered that he approached me and was desperate to steal information when we were camping yesterday.

He questioned Greg with a puzzled look on his face.

“Yes, you’re the expedition leader. I won’t deny it. But your command is limited to the dungeon Clear! That’s also putting aside your questionable contribution to it.”

When he pointed out that Greg’s command was virtually meaningless, Greg had his veins protruding around his neck, and his nostrils flared.

“Hey, are you suggesting a fight?!”

The hunter of Italy didn’t even pretend to hear it but continued what he wanted to say.

“And even if you are the expedition leader, you have no authority to trash the opportunity for humankind to interact with civilized aliens for the first time!”

“…!”

“Didn’t you hear that? They said they would give us the Aurora of Stability! If they could give us one, why would two of them be impossible? Don’t you think it’s an opportunity to place them in the skies around the world like Korea?”

I murmured internally.

‘Wrong, you got it wrong.’

There were strict restrictions on the export of that item in most worlds, and the limit for starting a deal was only one.

The same went for the species we had come into contact with.

‘It can’t be a trade item in the first place, but they at least allow for the practical reason that it’s necessary to keep the door open.’

However, I remained silent as I observed them. It wasn’t necessary to mention that knowledge.

“I agree as well!”

“Me too! Why do we have to flip the negotiating table when they’re acting favorably?”

Hunters from around the world had all opposed Greg’s opinion.

Everyone was in a hurry because of the Aurora of Stability, which was an unprecedented concern. With the Korean government and I keeping our mouths shut, they desired the item that they couldn’t even get a clue about.

And even if they wouldn’t be the one acquiring it, it seemed like they didn’t want to miss the first historical moment of dealing with aliens.

They seemed to be looking forward to a rake-off just in case.

Greg’s face turned redder as he heard the pouring criticism.

“… Damn it!”

He spat and then made a final counterargument.

“Wait, everyone’s being so complacent right now. Cool your head down and think about it. How can we trust those aliens?”

“What?”

“Isn’t this too coincidental? The timing suggests they waited outside the perimeter of the dungeon for us to clear it. And so did the cockroaches in New York!”

The aliens outside the boundaries, Egrasto, must be able to hear and understand our conversation. However, they remained silent about it.

I knew the reason behind it.

‘They wish to unify the communication channel with the Earth into one person, which was me. They don’t want to talk to several people in unison since that would only cause more headaches.’

I threw my voice toward the boundary.

“Egrasto, before we move forward, there seems to be something that we have to clarify.”

– Yes, please go ahead.

As expected, even though we hadn’t given a definite answer, that alien was already responding to only my words.

Everyone’s eyes were on me again, and I asked the alien, ignoring the rays the people shot at me from their eyes.

“Does your kind stand by all the dungeon boundaries this way? I want to ask the reason why you chose our dimension and waited. It wouldn’t have been a coincidence. The beings we have experience with are those who wanted to invade, regardless of the opponents.”

– That’s a reasonable question. We don’t try to make deals with all the Gates and the worlds connected to our dimension. In this case, our Pezra species knew about your dimension in advance.

“How so?”

I asked even though I knew the answer.

I wanted all the other hunters can hear about it.

Egrasto started to explain.

– You are aware of the species called the Botarchs, right?

“…?”

Question marks came upon the faces of the Awakened except for me.

– This is how they look like.

In our heads, the image that the other being sent popped up.

“… Cow?”

It only looked like a cow head to other Earthlings’ eyes, but they’re aliens familiar to my eyes.

– They are a barbaric race that lives in a third world, not on Earth, not on our own. It’s a species that belong among those that ‘tries to invade regardless of the opponent.’

“…”

– They used to come into Pezra’s dimension without knowing their place, but they were taught a lesson and ran away, and they were nowhere to be seen. And not long ago, they invaded our dimension again. There weren’t many, so I took them as captives and questioned them.

In the first place, the Botarchs weren’t at the level to challenge that species.

Nevertheless, the High Priest seemed to have followed my instructions faithfully.

– But they were equipped with these.

Another image appeared in my head.

I saw the Botarch upper-class’s favorite accessories made out of molten iron taken from Earth.

– It’s a mineral that doesn’t exist in our dimension. We haven’t seen it in Botarch’s past invasions as well. Therefore, it attracted a lot of Pezra’s attention, making us interrogate the prisoners.

They continued explaining what I had already finished observing through the [Door of Hope].

– It turns out, the source was… your kind’s dimension.

“…?!”

At those words, everyone once again made a confused expression.

They seemed to be asking how those never-before-seen cow heads took the Earth’s resources.

– We’ve heard that the Botarchs have given up their invasion and have retreated because of your dimension’s excellent response. Those ornaments were made of minerals that had been plundered before.

There was a growing commotion among hunters who didn’t understand the situation. ‘Botarch? Have you heard of it?’ ‘No, not at all.’ ‘Which country was invaded? And they fought, won, and even kicked them out?’

Thanks to the Chinese government’s complete control of information, hunters from other countries had never heard of it.

There were no Chinese there. Hence, only I knew of them among the party.

– That’s how we discovered your world, which is connected to the Botarch dimension. We looked for a passage so we wouldn’t have to go through one more dimension but rather would directly connect to Pezra. We have been waiting by dispatching a number of us to all the dungeons that meet the conditions. We thought it would be a good dealing opportunity.

Just by listening up to that point, anyone could grasp how advanced Pezra’s civilization was.

They had mastered the concept of dimensional coordinates and dimensional mapping that people on Earth couldn’t even fathom yet.

Of course, it would be only connected-to-the-neighborhood level, which was a limited area compared to the coordinates I saw and remembered.

“You’re saying that you need that mineral enough to take that much trouble?”

– Yes, we don’t know the name since it’s a nonexistent element in our world, but…

Shortly afterward, hunters seemed to understand the telepathic description of their appearance and character.

Someone muttered.

“That thing, doesn’t it look like iron?”

That mineral was common on earth.

The hunter from Italy couldn’t stand it and shouted over the boundary.

“If we provide that mineral, can we exchange it for the Aurora of Stability?”

– …

Egrasto didn’t reply.

The hunter then gave me a desperate look.

After nodding, I asked a question that I already knew the answer to.

– I’m sorry, that isn’t possible.

It explained that only one of that item could be provided in return for the transaction’s commencement.

– The Aurora of Stability cannot be an official trade item, but don’t be disappointed. Here are the special products that are our pride. These are well-received products in most worlds that we made a trade partnership with.

Right after that, a large amount of information flowed into our heads at the speed of light.

“Gasp!”

The hunters who were new to that kind of communication were unable to adapt easily, causing them to struggle.

Some of them stumbled momentarily.

‘Even for A-Rank and S-Rank Awakened, this kind of telepathy is just like a psychological attack.’

Nate also grabbed his head as he must have felt a headache.

‘The rather unaffected ones would be… Only Hibiki?’

She seemed to have split her consciousness with [Multiple Cognition] in no time and was processing that enormous information.

Massive data flowed at the speed of thought.

‘Without me, trade couldn’t have started in the first place, but even if they had been lucky enough to pass the first hurdle, they would have been stuck here again.’

I nodded my head, calmly checking the information flooding into my mind.

I then told the other confused Awakened to share the information we had heard so far with each country’s governments.

The hunters agreed, but Greg, who was completely deprived of his leadership, made a displeased expression.

Everyone then gave me a strange look.

Looking at the flow, they realized that all countries would have to pass through me in order to make a deal with those aliens in the future.

“I don’t know how many items on the list we would need… But it seems like if we want to make a deal in the future, we will need to go to Seo Jin-Wook first.”

Someone murmured like that as if they were despondent.

– Then, I will see you again, Mr. Seo Jin-Wook.

Egrasto and I decided on the time to meet again in the same location.

– I hope I can talk to you again next time.

After greeting me, Egrasto’s presence disappeared.

Meanwhile, there was another disturbance between the remaining hunters.

“W-wait. Everyone, did you understand? Can you remember all of it?”

That was because they failed to properly interpret the contents of the large-scale mental waves Egrasto delivered.

That was more about experience and know-how than natural memory or mental ability. Anyone could keep it in their head for a while if they properly understood the meaning when the opponent sent it. However, everyone missed the timing and leaked almost all of it out of their minds.

‘It must have been on purpose.’

It was Egrasto’s last test.

Thanks to it, even if everyone wanted to deliver it to their guild and government, they wouldn’t be able to deliver even half of the list that the alien provided.

I looked at the people whose faces were cast with shadows.

‘Everyone, in the end, will look for me.’

*

While returning to the private jet prepared by the Australian government, Hibiki asked me something curiously.

“Will the governments of each country agree to the offer?”

According to my past memory, they would.

“I think so. Their response will be quick.”

They didn’t know when the Gate would collapse, so they had no choice but to hasten their actions.

The Aurora of Stability would only be handed over upon the confirmation of the first deal.

After returning to Earth, Greg reported what had happened in the dungeon to the Australian government and, of course, the government ordered not to close the Gate.

About 50 hunters who contributed to the attack witnessed something on the field, and it would have been burdensome to ignore it and push through.

They wouldn’t have wanted to give up the advantage of opening a ‘marketplace’ within their own territory where they could trade with aliens for the first time in human history.

“I think Jin-Wook is in a losing trade.”

Nate butted in the conversation.

“Aren’t you going to be super busy from now on? That alien said he would only talk to Jin-Wook from now on. Gosh, I’d be so annoyed.”

“In return, I’m earning something as well.”

In the past life, when Angelica said a word, governments around the world eventually followed her opinion. It was thanks to the authority that the prophecy held and the skill that manipulated their minds.

I had to control the game so that my voice would weigh that much.

It was needed to create a future exactly opposite to the destruction of humankind that Angelica intended.

“Oh yeah, what did you receive, Jin-Wook?”

Nate asked while fiddling with the A-Class skill card that he received as a reward.

“Ah, the reward.”

I recalled the event that happened right after the Clear.

*

Woong!

In the space where additional rewards were received, white light painted the surroundings like explosions.

The item that appeared was familiar to my eyes.

“…!”

There was a small, transparent glass tube.

Inside the see-through interior, calm light particles sparkled brightly.

When I touched it, a system message appeared.

[Mass-produced Energy Suit: Imperial Combat Officer Type (Rank: SSS)]

Item Description: An armor that was supplied to an Imperial officer in the Sebrarian Imperial Army. Among them, it was distributed to combat officers at the front line, boasting the highest protection capability among personal armor at the time when the empire existed.

This item does not work using cores. Rather, it will only be activated when the user injects the Mana himself. Five Mana per second is required for minimal maintenance after activation, and the amount of Mana consumption may increase depending on the impact imposed.

‘No wonder it looked like the [Stardust Wing]. It’s a Sebrarian again?’

I read the item description again.

‘Say, it consumes 5 Mana per second?’

I looked at my current status.

– Active Mana: 175,000 (+73,900)/101,100

– Latent Mana: 186,000

‘If I just set it on active and did nothing, it wouldn’t last half a day.’

It wasn’t as useful to people with ordinary Mana capacity.

‘How big was the Mana capacity of the Imperial officers to use these items?’

Without having to think about it, I decided to use it.

Since I had already experienced it during that time I got the [Stardust Wing], the equipment method was predictable.

I placed the clear vial on my arm.

Wee-ing!

A small needle protruded from the tip of the glass vial.

A light hologram arrow was projected from the needle, pointing to the veins in the forearm.

The moment I pierced it into the place it was pointing towards, my body quickly absorbed the powder of light inside it.

And like the moment when I first got the wings, I felt the warm energy storming in my body, but it soon calmed down.

‘Shall I test it out?’

I delivered my intention to the transplanted item in my body.

Woong!

A faint light surrounded my body.

Misty substances subtly wrapped around my skin and over the combat suit.

‘This is an item that boasts the highest level of protective capability back in the Imperial world?’

As a result, there were a total of six imperial heritages in my hands.

First of all, there were three that I chose myself when I received the additional compensation.

[Door of Hope (Rank: SSS)]

[Mass-produced Energy Suit: Imperial Combat Officer Type (Rank: SSS)]

[Stardust Wing (Rank: SS)]

And three things I got from the ministry spirit due to the deal.

[Wartime Emergency Production Supply System – Type 3 (Rank: SS)]

[The 3rd Class Imperial Guard Program (Rank: SS)]

[The Flute of the Imperial Palace Artist (Rank: SS)]

At that point, it made me think that it’s strange.

‘Doesn’t it fit too right to consider it as a coincidence?’

The ministry spirit gave it to me because I requested it, but I couldn’t help but question it since it came out that way even when I was choosing it by random.

The common feature of items with the keyword ‘Sebrarian Empire’ was that they were unheard of in my previous life.

Another thing in common was that they had great abilities. It was all proven except for the [The Flute of the Imperial Palace Artist] stuck in the snake inventory because I couldn’t figure out how to use it.

‘These good items were never known in my previous life.’

It meant that they were items with a slim chance of discovery…

‘No matter how much I distinguished it with [The Successor’s Eyes], does it make sense that such precious items come out so much? Only to me?’

There were also many SS-Rank and SSS-Rank items without the keywords of ‘Imperial”, but I had rarely chosen such items.

Whenever I picked, it’s a heritage.

I strongly felt that I was past the stage to let it pass as just being lucky.

‘This… There’s something strange about it.’