Chapter 107

“Speaking of Contractors, is there no way to increase both their numbers and quality? If we could increase them by just 30%… no, even 20% would make things much more manageable.”

“That’s impossible.”

An immediate answer without a hint of hesitation.

Having expected this response, Yuseong exaggeratedly shrugged his shoulders.

If it had been possible to increase the Contractors’ numbers and quality, they would have done so long ago without him having to ask.

While ordinary people believed that the number of Contractors was slowly but steadily increasing and that there were differences in power between Contractors, Yuseong, who had received information about all users through the aforementioned personal information leak incident, knew this was a misconception.

‘The number and quality of Contractors always remains constant.’

Mediator.

Though it was a profession that mediated contracts between transcendent beings and humans to create ability users, there were clear limitations.

Mediators acted as a kind of antenna, relaying between transcendent beings and humans.

And like any antenna, there were limits to how much information could be sent and received.

Carelessly increasing the number of Contractors would lower their overall quality, and conversely, raising their quality would reduce their numbers.

Though Yuseong knew this fact as well, he couldn’t help but ask the question, disliking the current situation’s high dependence on users.

“Sigh… Honestly, it’s not like I became a user because I wanted to, and it’s not my fault the world turned out like this, so why do I have to go through all this trouble?”

Kang Changseok unconsciously swallowed at Yuseong’s lament.

Though it was an irresponsible statement, it was also undeniably true.

Even among users, some had complained about why they had to fight to protect the world, and there had been conflicts due to differing opinions.

Of course, since users wouldn’t be safe either if the world was destroyed, they ended up helping despite their grumbling, but since it was a semi-forced choice, some only provided superficial assistance.

‘No, superficial help would be fortunate. If they run away like that bastard OneLifeOneShot…’

Cold sweat dripped from Kang Changseok’s forehead.

Trying to appear natural while wiping away the sweat to hide his agitation, Kang Changseok pulled some documents from his drawer and handed them to Yuseong.

“What’s this?”

“Systems we’ll be implementing soon. We’re considering various methods to reduce users’ burdens, like improving Contractors’ capabilities and developing auxiliary forces, so calm down.”

“…Contractor equipment market activation, academy establishment, Contractor rank system implementation? The first two make sense, but what’s the last one about? Aren’t they all the same, how can you rank Contractors?”

“While their power is the same, we can differentiate them through equipment. I consulted with Sophia, and she said if we give up on cost-effectiveness, we can create equipment with performance up to three times better than what we’re currently making. If someone just became a Contractor they’re E-rank, if they graduated from the academy they’re D-rank, if they use standard technology equipment they’re C-rank, if they use advanced technology equipment they’re B-rank, and if they use equipment made with advanced technology and special monster materials they’re A-rank. Something like that.”

“What about users?”

“Users are naturally S-rank. I already made your certificate, so take it while you’re here.”

Yuseong smiled at Kang Changseok’s urgent manner.

Though his intention was obvious, Yuseong decided to let it slide, appreciating the effort.

Looking at the certificate gleaming with a subtle platinum color, bearing his face and name with Shooting Star written in elegant lettering, Yuseong tucked it into his chest and stood up.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Thanks for waiting on standby for two weeks. I’ll contact MartialGod later to question them about this, so go do your quests and get some rest.”

“You know you’re looking really pathetic right now, right?”

“…”

The moment Yuseong left and the door closed, Kang Changseok’s expression twisted violently.

He couldn’t curse out loud for fear of being heard.

‘If he just didn’t show so much potential, I could have just…’

Though called Three Weak and classified as the weakest among users, as a user himself, he had enough power to not be disrespected anywhere and had done all sorts of things, both proper and improper, while gathering money from around the world.

If Yuseong had shown signs of being consumed by desire or being lazy in completing quests like some users, Kang Changseok was confident he could have taught him a lesson using everything at his disposal – whether force, money, or authority.

However, Yuseong had always focused solely on self-improvement while completing quests, and had achieved heroic accomplishments while growing at an incredible pace that might match or even exceed Three Strong.

Though personally displeasing, objectively speaking there couldn’t be a more capable colleague.

‘No point thinking about it further, I’ll just hurt myself. Better get to work.’

Kang Changseok pushed away thoughts of Yuseong and reached for the mountain of documents.

While processing eight documents simultaneously using his thought division skill, Kang Changseok noticed a concerning passage and stopped moving.

“The number of Contractors has increased?”

It wasn’t particularly strange for the number of Contractors to increase.

Though there were limits on the number of Contractors, not all of them lived openly revealing their identity.

The number of Contractors steadily increased due to people later registering their identity for various reasons – some who acted as heroes while hiding their identity like movie protagonists, some who accidentally made contracts but didn’t use their abilities due to religious reasons, and some who just lived in hiding.

The issue was the scale.

“A nearly threefold increase compared to last week…”

Though not impossible, something felt suspicious.

Kang Changseok set that document aside for now and began processing the other documents.

How much time had passed?

After finishing all the paperwork, Kang Changseok frowned at the dozens of documents he had set aside.

Twice the usual amount.

“Increase in Contractor numbers, appearance of variant monsters never seen before, emergence of powerful unidentified Contractors…”

The world’s richest man’s instincts were sending warnings.

After pondering briefly, Kang Changseok put the documents in his desk.

The association was already busy just handling the matters shown to Yuseong and couldn’t spare attention elsewhere for now.

“Let’s finish what we’ve started first.”

There hadn’t been any direct damage yet.

Kang Changseok thought there wouldn’t be any problems even if he dealt with this issue a bit later.

* * *

“So you’re going to do a quest right away?”

“It’s been ten days since finishing my last quest, and two weeks after that. I haven’t been able to do quests for almost a month. I’m already behind other users, I can’t waste any more time.”

“If it’s like last time and dozens of days pass…”

“Didn’t you say worlds with such extreme time differences are rare?”

“…That’s true.”

Perhaps traumatized by being left alone in Dragonia for nearly three weeks, Sophia smiled bitterly at Yuseong subtly trying to hold her back.

However, the power dynamic between them was clear, and there was no justification for stopping a user from completing quests, so Sophia had no choice but to back down.

“It’s funny for someone freeloading to tell the homeowner what to do. Still, please come back as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll be back in a day if things go well, a few days at most, so just focus on your work.”

“Ah!”

Sophia, who had been wearing a gloomy expression, let out a small exclamation as the word ‘work’ reminded her of something she had forgotten.

“Come to think of it, I forgot to tell you the gynoid is complete.”

“…Didn’t you say that would take at least a year?”

“Of course it’s not the final product but a prototype for confirmation. Please tell me right away if there’s anything you don’t like. I’ll be angry if you complain later.”

Snap!

When Sophia snapped her fingers, a coffin-shaped case nearby opened and a girl walked out.

“…”

Yuseong was speechless.

Sophia had asked how to make the gynoid’s appearance and he had roughly described Alice’s features.

That’s right.

Roughly.

He had only given abstract descriptions like having gray hair reaching the shoulders, gentle-looking eyes with golden irises, and a slim face shape, without drawing any pictures, so he thought considerable modifications would be needed to make a gynoid identical to Alice.

‘But this…’

The girl before his eyes was perfectly identical to Alice in his memories.

Though there might be minute differences if he looked carefully with burning eyes, they were negligible.

Only after opening and closing his mouth several times could he finally manage to speak.

“How?”

A question containing multiple meanings.

Satisfied with Yuseong’s surprised expression, Sophia grinned and said.

“Not to brag, but I’ve made quite a few gynoids. With just basic characteristics, I can almost perfectly guess what image the client has in mind.”

“You’ve made many?”

“I can’t say more due to client privacy issues.”

It seemed one of the users had previously commissioned Sophia to mass produce gynoids.

“It’s completely human?”

Except for the eyes looking like camera lenses, he couldn’t find any differences from a living human in terms of appearance, hair texture, skin feel, temperature, and so on.

“This was made with technology centuries ahead of Earth’s current science, so of course it’s at least this good. The hair is made of special material that can cause quantum entanglement, allowing perfect secure information exchange anytime anywhere without distance limitations, and while the eyes have resolution limitations due to their size, they can observe and analyze nine types of signals…”

“Okay. That’s enough.”

Sophia pouted as her explanation was cut off, but Yuseong didn’t notice as his attention was elsewhere.

“There aren’t any problems with this, right?”

“Well, since it’s a prototype there are many issues. First, operating time is only 30 minutes, there’s no armament, the AI level is low so complex actions are impossible… There’s a mountain of things to fix.”

“No, I mean are there any problems like sudden explosions?”

“…Would you like me to add a self-destruct function?”

“No. Just wait here a moment.”

Yuseong hurriedly ran to the lord’s room.

Taking out the dragon heart stored in the deepest part of the lord’s room and the soul stone beside it, Yuseong rushed back to the rooftop.

Woong!

As if anticipating what was about to happen, the soul stone began trembling faintly.

After looking down at the soul stone for a moment, Yuseong activated Eye of Truth and immediately followed with Soul Control to carefully extract the soul from within the soul stone.

‘Containing the soul.’

Though it was his first time containing a soul in something other than a doll, Yuseong didn’t hesitate.

The cheat-like skill Eye of Truth could make the impossible possible.

He made minute adjustments to prevent Alice’s soul from conflicting with the energy flowing inside the gynoid and applied special secret techniques learned through the Forbidden Knowledge skill.

And the moment Alice’s soul and the gynoid’s body overlapped as one, the gynoid raised her head and looked at Yuseong.

“…I wasn’t expecting this.”

The gynoid’s… no, Alice’s eyes were shining golden like Yuseong’s.