CH 106

Chapter 106

“We need to go look at houses, yeah?” Jung Garam seemed to have lost every ounce of his attention into arranging new lodgings. After all, when I first summoned him, he looked around the current home and complained that it was too small; he seemed quite unhappy about it.

And behind Jung Garam, Kim Olim also creeped a few steps forward and blatantly stared at the food I was eating. Then she opened her mouth as if to say something, but, after making eye contact with me, her jaw muscles froze in place.

‘It looks like she has a complaint to raise…?’

Inwardly, I was concerned, but I couldn’t ask her because Jung Garam seemed to be too excited about buying a new house. I slowly stood up from my hunched sitting position.

So, as soon as I finished breakfast, I went with my servants to the stele at the heart of the hub to buy a new house.

Acquiring new lodgings within the hub was actually quite simple.

I don’t know exactly what was happening during the creation process within the system, but when one touches the hub’s stele, an interface with options for users to comfortably search for various convenient facilities or to spend money to build their own pops up.

In addition, residential areas within the hub have two methods of payment: monthly rent and wholesale/trade. The prices will vary depending on the contract period, the distance from downtown, and the size. 1 The current house I’m staying in was a small one-story house located a fair distance away from downtown, but it was quiet and homely in its own way. Also, the monthly rent was only 500,000 won a month. 2

At this point, one may think that this process is similar to real estate application outside the hub in the rest of South Korea. Inside the hub, however, the accommodations are immediately built at the designated location once chosen. Every home was a new building. Therefore, it was important to keep on top of the contract payments and length because the house could disappear while one was sleeping in it.

“It’s crowded in front of the stele today as well…”

This stele has always had a long line in front of it because it was the medium by which various facilities and amenities, as well as the tutorials, can be accessed.

Fortunately, when a User presses the stele, they’re sent to some private system space. Thus, though the space was crowded, the line disappeared at a fast pace–no one had to spend a long, boring time waiting around.

Though there were already dozens of people ahead of me when I first arrived in the morning, it had already decreased. I was able to reach the front of the stele in just 12 minutes.

The stele was a large rock the size of my body, inscribed with strange, unfamiliar letters that I had seen before in dungeons. I stared at its shining blue glow before placing my palm on it. Beneath, I could feel the warmth–close to hot, emitted by the stone.

Updating User information…Please wait one moment.

Soon after, my vision dimmed; when I opened my eyes again, I had relocated to a luxurious carpeted room. There was no furniture on top of the carpets, but I was not flustered since I was familiar with this space.

After waiting a while, the surroundings flickered, and a black [system message] window floated before my eyes.

[Please select the required service.]

Tutorial – Magic Use Create Accommodations or Storefronts. Register New Skills – Condition not Met Guild Service – Condition not Met Paid Service for Information – Not Available at this Time

There were other options available, but were captioned with the explanation for why they weren’t available. I stopped paying attention to anything else and chose [2. Create Accommodations or Storefronts.]

Updating User information… Please wait a moment.

Then, after repeated loading messages, the room began to change again.

The carpeted floor slowly began to break apart, like lego blocks, and the room itself disappeared. Then, suddenly, I was floating in the skies above the [hub]. It was like I was a drone, looking down from above.

Search for accommodation conditions.

Search for storefront conditions.

Just like that, the system updated its message window.

I clicked on [Search for Accommodation Conditions], and soon red lines began to draw over the hub beneath my feet. As I moved my gaze towards each region, the red began to fill in the terrain.

NH1: Packed with various shopping centers and convenient amenities, important updates to the system is applied first to this area.

NH2: Located beside the river that cuts through the hub, this area boasts a rich landscape. Residential amenities are concentrated here.

HH3: A bit out-of-the-way from the hub center, this place is both cheap and quiet.

Brief information about each housing zone was conveyed through the message window. Before, I would click [Sort by Price] to find the cheapest residential area, but this time……

“These are close to downtown, Lee-kyung-ah.”

“The major guilds are concentrated in this section. It’ll be easy for us to keep an eye on those who enter and exit the area.”

“The biggest room will be mine, right?”

[Clack Clack?]

Heeding the requests of the servants standing behind my back, I had no choice but to choose an area between NH1 and 2. Considering the incoming future members of the Red Lotus guild, the size of the house also had to exceed ten rooms.

The problem was, if we wanted to build a house in that area with all the accommodations they wanted, the price would…add up to almost half my current fortune.

“I-it’s so expensive…is that okay?” My eyes widened, surprised by the unprecedented price tag. But, the servants simply looked at me with eyes that seemed to say, ‘What are you doing, standing and dreaming, instead of paying quickly?’

Would you like to purchase this house?

In the end, I paid for that almost unfathomable lump sum.

The new house was located in a famous uptown 3 where a bunch of top rankers lived. And, with the addition of more detailed options to customize the home (I didn’t even know this feature existed), the simulated hologram of the home was the definition of luxury itself.

Thank you for the purchase. Tax information will be sent as a system message upon arriving at your new home. 

Then, with that significant parting message, the process to purchase a house was easily finished. When I opened my eyes again, both the overhead view of the hub and the carpeted room disappeared; I was standing a little ways away from the stele.

The Users around me chatted amongst each other and glanced at me from time to time, but no one kept staring at me for a long while. Do they know? That I just bought a home worth more than 10 billion…

“Choi Lee-kyung, you’ve made it now that you have a house and all. How do you feel?” Jung Garam asked, giggling as he noticed my dazed appearance. Of course I still couldn’t believe this was truly reality. It felt like I bought New York in Monopoly… 4

“L-lee-kyung hyung-nim?”

Suddenly, a big shadow fell across my way from behind. I turned around at the familiar voice; a giant in a tracksuit–perhaps he was out exercising–looked down at me with his eyes wide open.

It was Kim Sangyoon.

“……Sangyoon-ssi? Are you out exercising?”

“Yes. It’s my morning routine.”

As I expected, Kim Sangyoon was in the middle of his morning workout.

As a user, as your level rises, you will naturally be able to use extraordinary power beyond a human’s normal limits. However things like body type and shape must still be maintained through exercise.

Even very fat people can run quickly through skills, but they won’t lose weight on just that. So even rankers, who continuously defeat monsters as large as houses, must still work out at the gym.

Nevertheless, I was still a little shocked to learn that Kim Sangyoon jogs until he sweats every day. It may be rude to think this way, but I didn’t think he looked like such a diligent person who has a morning routine……

“By the way, what brings you here?”

“Ah, So…” He was so happy to see me, I could only hide my astringent feelings and pointed at the stele.

“Ah, so you’re here for the stele.”

“Yes, well…..”

Kim Sangyoon looked at my awkward hand gestures and my wide eyes. I thought he would leave soon, since we had nothing more to talk about…

“Then, shall we go to a cafe? We can’t just talk here.”

“What? Ah……Yes.” By the way, Kim Sangyoon was oddly active in talking to me, considering that we just met coincidentally. I could only nod at this force of nature. D-did he have something to say to me?

TL: Whoot~ new house! I’m going to upload another chapter within a few minutes, so this bonus chapter is for Areli! Thanks for the constant support and the kofi! Sorry this bonus was a long time coming T_T I’m so swamped with work lately…but I ended up turbo-translating yesterday, so I replenished the stockpile a bit!

Footnotes Houses/apartments are measured in the number of pyeong in Korea. Number of pyeong is said in the original, but I said size for ease of reading. FYI, that’s around $450-500 a month. 부촌 is a place where a bunch of rich people live The original said 부루마블 which is a board game similar to Monopoly. I just felt that the english-speaking readers would be more familiar with Monopoly though.