A Short Daily Life

Compared to how chaotic the world was, time passed quickly.

Starting with Europe, the Sea Sun Brigade launched a large-scale operation to eradicate the Church of Ruin, and while doing so, they steadily expanded in size, showing a course of action different from the Sea Sun Brigade until now.

Ben Smith acted publicly and appeared in so many media outlets while devoting himself to recruiting members that people even misunderstood him as having stepped back from the front lines, and perhaps thanks to that, the first miracle in history occurred, with the number of Sea Sun Brigade members exceeding 200, and they even declared that they would be reborn as a frontline group that would spearhead the large-scale war against the Church of Ruin.

In addition, Marcelo and the other mages of the Sea Sun Brigade went around the world and began investigating whether members of the Church of Ruin were among those sitting in key national facilities and important government positions, and they began catching many infiltrators. Though it was not known in detail what method they used to make that possible, when they publicly announced that they could identify them at once through the sacred relic of a certain religion, people suddenly began disappearing or retiring, and rumors spread that such people had to be investigated further.

While the Sea Sun Brigade was busily trying to stabilize the world like this, the fact that Red Gates and Yellow Gates continued to appear could not be ignored as a problem.

At least in the case of Red Gates, many people were now resolving Gates without much difficulty through the Gate subjugation method, but the part that remained a problem was still the Yellow Gates.

“I hear requests are flooding into our country. Are you not busy?”

I was having a private meeting with Kim Dae-san, who had come to the Black Magic Academy.

“Do you know that simply continuing to meet with you makes my political position quite solid?”

“What happened to persecuting us so much? And now you are pretending to be friendly with us?”

“I am a person who stands in opposition to all Awakener factions. It is not as though only black mages were persecuted, is it?”

It was a ridiculous story.

How many Awakener groups were desperate to get on the president’s good side?

Because a single word from him could ruin their livelihoods, the Awakener organizations consistently took a low posture and tried somehow to win Kim Dae-san’s favor.

In that situation, it was almost laughable for him to say such a thing.

“Well, let’s say that is true. Why did you come looking for me?”

“The research institute wants one item that you possess.”

“Something I have… I have so many things, so please be clear about what you want.”

“They say they want to research the orb that came out after you killed Saturn.”

“The security there is so poor that if it is an important item, it will be stolen far too easily.”

“We strengthened security because of this incident. We also plan to fortify the facility to a level above the private laboratory of the Magic Tower from before.”

“That place was already breached by the saintesses too, and several high-ranking mages had their heads sliced off, didn’t they?”

“…If you do not want to give it, just say you do not want to.”

“It is not necessarily that.”

I had actually once struggled desperately to identify the true nature of the orb I had looted after killing Saturn.

I had gone to each religious order and asked them to confirm what the orb was, and I had also tried to destroy it using all kinds of elemental magic.

I had even asked Ben Smith to try cutting it with the holy sword he possessed, but in the end, all of it proved completely useless. However, I wondered why they wanted to research it.

‘Did they obtain something I do not know about?’

A country’s intelligence capabilities were not something that could be taken lightly.

There was no telling where or how they had picked up some piece of information. On top of that, for someone like Kim Dae-san to come looking for me while leisurely talking about political maneuvering meant he stood to lose more than he would gain.

“It is useless for the time being, and it does seem like an item that carries some kind of meaning, so let’s do this.”

“…What do you mean?”

“I will lend it to you. How about a 10% increase in funding per year?”

“People like you are what one calls daylight robbers.”

“On the other hand, Mr. President, you also seem to have come to me knowing what this is. From my perspective, you are no different from a robber either.”

“Neither of us is planning to grow attached to the other anyway… May I answer after careful consideration?”

“Well, do that. For reference, I will include a clause requiring twentyfold compensation in the event of loss. You understand, right?”

Kim Dae-san’s expression twisted sharply.

Strictly speaking, he could have simply claimed it was lost or damaged during experimentation and washed his hands of it.

It was an object that remained fine no matter what I did to it, but the fact that he had come looking for me meant he had discovered something capable of handling it. From the start, I intended to squeeze out a huge amount as a way to tie him down.

‘If an Apostle is caught, it will probably be a guaranteed drop anyway, so there should be no need to obsess over it.’

Even if I ended up regretting it bitterly later, I could make enormous profits for now.

Kim Dae-san let out a deep sigh, then moved his feet and left the academy.

And a short while later, Han Sang-gil came to see me.

“Is the mana absorption going well?”

“What do you think?”

When I raised both hands, he clicked his tongue at the sight of my fingers still being blackened.

“Still, compared to when your entire arms were like that, this is considerable progress. Did you find a method?”

“I compress the power that can be compressed, and I am preparing a new space to store the things that are unnecessary to keep within me. They can be used like weapons in and of themselves.”

“Has your realm risen greatly?”

If one looked only at the total amount of mana I actually possessed, I was in a state around three times that of an 8th Circle Master.

When I estimated it, I judged that I would need at least five times that amount to attempt to cross the wall of the 9th Circle, so for now, I told him as it was.

“I have come halfway.”

“I never thought I would live long enough to see a human standing right before the wall of the 9th Circle.”

“You were someone who thought even the 8th Circle was difficult, and now you are trying to throw off the 7th Circle, aren’t you?”

During the previous Black Gate operation, Han Sang-gil had taken in a large amount of black mana just like me.

But the interesting part was that, rather than absorbing the black mana itself like I did, Han Sang-gil filtered out black mana close to toxins through Magic Stones and the like, then increased his mana quantity only with the black mana he could accept.

It was a method others could not even dare to attempt, and it cost a tremendous amount of money, but Han Sang-gil himself was rich, and it was possible even with low-grade Magic Stones, so it could be said that he was rapidly increasing his mana quantity.

“What do you think it will be like once you reach the 8th Circle?”

“The same as you.”

“Please answer properly instead of giving such an annoying answer.”

“What more could there be? I merely think of it as having been shown a direction in which I can continue advancing endlessly.”

I thought it was an answer befitting a stubborn old man, and soon, I got up from my seat and spoke.

“You have a lecture, don’t you?”

“What are you going to do?”

“I am going to go earn money.”

“If you earn money the way you do, soon all the money in this country will become yours.”

“There are surprisingly many rich people. Anyway, you old gentlemen work hard. I will come again.”

I left like that and began going around on foot for my afternoon schedule.

Recently, the work I had been doing involved handling security matters for corporations, including public facilities.

More precisely, I had been forced to retire from the byproduct recovery company.

Because Go Yu-jin said that I had to find and do work suited to me, work only I could do, I had ultimately been driven out, but the fact that the company had also hired a large number of people as its recent workload sharply increased was one of the reasons she had made me leave.

‘Did she say labor costs would not work out?’

It was a ridiculous story, but Go Yu-jin had begun expanding the company while carrying out various forms of business at the same time.

On top of that, she occasionally accepted Gate Raid requests, and at the government’s request, she had even begun handling byproduct processing, making her busy enough to have no time to breathe. Still, no matter how I thought about it, there was no reason to cut me, so it remained something I was still questioning.

“Is it here today?”

That was because a request had come in to strengthen the security facilities of “HG Rotem,” one of Korea’s top ten representative corporations.

It was a major corporation boasting a Grade 1 security rating, but recently, more and more companies had realized that simple security alone was not enough and had begun hiring mages to establish double and triple security systems.

‘The biggest reason must be that the National Magic Research Institute was robbed.’

Unlike what was known to the public, I got the feeling that corporations knew all the inside details, and thanks to that, I had unexpectedly made inroads into this industry.

Moreover, compared to the fact that designing security itself was not that difficult, the request fees were set extremely high, so it was suitable as a means of earning a lot of money in a short period.

It was then.

“Master Geum Seong-chan, welcome!”

A neat-looking man in an expensive suit, the executive director of HG Rotem, warmly greeted me.

“This is the second time, isn’t it?”

“We have been waiting for you so eagerly that our necks nearly stretched.”

I wondered if this was something to be welcomed so much, but when I was guided into the building, I saw Awakeners in charge of security waiting there.

Wondering if all of them were standing by to see me, I looked at the executive director and asked.

“Were you waiting for me?”

“I heard there would be many parts to pay attention to. I thought that if we worked alongside the practical staff, there would be no need to go through the handover several times. Shall I send them away?”

I said it was fine, then looked at the people and spoke.

“I am Geum Seong-chan, and I am in charge of today’s request. I plan to set up 6th-rank defensive magic and security settings across the entire building. And is the ‘key’ I told you to prepare last time ready?”

At my question, the executive director looked to one side and waved his hand, and soon, several employees brought over boxes and showed the contents.

“These are them.”

They were panels the size of cards, and after checking them, I spoke.

“Then let us begin the work first.”

Everything was prepared, and since composing the defensive magic itself was not even work, I used resonance to increase the mana, then used patterning to instantly begin creating one unique setting across the entire building.

Geometric patterns began covering the entire building, and leaving behind the people who were blankly looking up at them, I snapped my fingers.

Snap! With the sound, an imprint was made on the building, and a magic circle was engraved. Afterward, I created grooves in various places and spoke.

“If you simply insert Grade 7 Magic Stones into the grooves I just made, the magic will activate. And if someone does not have this ‘key,’ they will be pushed away by the defensive magic, so manage it carefully.”

“I-Is it already over?”

I looked at the stunned executive director and the Awakeners of the security team and spoke.

“If you try to understand it with your head, your hair will fall out. Please process the agreed payment. I will be going now…”

Like that, less than ten minutes after arriving in front of the building, I finished the work and withdrew.

‘How much was today’s pay again…?’

I recalled that I had agreed to receive roughly 100 billion won.

‘Making money is so easy.’