Barter

“So, when you say betrayal, exactly what kind of betrayal are you talking about? Could there have been some misunderstanding?”

“I was fighting with users in front of a massive tree covering all of Japan. Japan had all its earth energy absorbed by the tree and became a land of death where not a single blade of grass would grow, and both people and monsters were transformed into something strange. No matter how I look at it, it can only be seen as betrayal.”

“…I can’t believe it. Do you have any proof?”

Was the news of a user’s betrayal more shocking than hearing that Japan would turn into hell?

Yuseong shrugged dramatically in response to Olga’s question and said:

“Where’s the proof in prophecies? We didn’t believe Bruce’s prophecies because there was proof either.”

“There may not have been proof, but there was verification. We need to verify whether Mr. Yuseong truly has prophetic abilities.”

“Sorry, but I don’t have enough resources left to use Universal Vision for verification. I can only ask you to believe me.”

Words without proof or ability to verify.

However, the users’ atmosphere was serious.

There were two reasons.

One was that Bruce wore an extremely serious expression.

And the other was that there was already a precedent of user betrayal.

Life can change in an instant.

That person had deceived and dumped the goggles on Yuseong without any explanation before disappearing.

Fortunately, Yuseong had grown at an unmatched pace to fill the void so no major problems arose, but if Yuseong had grown at a similar pace to other users or died in the initial monster attacks, the world would have become much more dangerous than it is now.

“Can you tell us everything that happens in the future?”

“Of course.”

Yuseong told them everything except the future where he went mad and called upon an Outer God.

Though the users initially wore doubtful expressions as if they couldn’t believe it, their expressions grew increasingly serious as the story progressed.

The content was too detailed to be made up, and among Yuseong’s stories were Carlos’s characteristics and information that only they had known about.

“That’s what happened. Can you believe me now?”

“I believe you.”

Bruce answered without hesitation.

He had believed Yuseong’s words from the moment Yuseong mentioned the name Universal Vision.

“Good. Then let’s make new plans. Does anyone have good ideas?”

“…Though I find it hard to believe, if everything Mr. Yuseong has said so far is true, wasting time would be dangerous.”

“You know that bastard’s personality? If we move clumsily and arouse suspicion, things will get troublesome. We need to settle this in one go.”

“There may be some resistance, but it seems we’ll need to use rough measures.”

The intense meeting finally ended late into the night.

After all discussions were finished and the users were leaving the conference room, Yuseong held back Kang Changseok and Sophia saying he had something to discuss.

“What is it?”

“Nothing much, I got these boots as a quest reward but they don’t really suit me. Interested in buying them?”

“An item?”

Kang Changseok wore an indifferent expression while looking at the boots Yuseong held out.

For Kang Changseok, who was limited to support using shadow abilities or brief activity through limited contracts with transcendent beings, items weren’t very appealing.

Nice to have but not particularly important if you didn’t – that was Kang Changseok’s perception of items.

However, the moment he took the boots and used his appraisal skill, Kang Changseok’s thoughts did a complete 180.

“T-This is…”

An S-rank item.

But that wasn’t what was important.

These boots named Shadow King’s Boots had various shadow-related options befitting their name.

With these, he could demonstrate combat power approaching Three Intermediates level.

“I’ll definitely buy them! How much? How much do you want?”

“I don’t need money, I want to barter.”

“Anything. What do you need?”

Money isn’t very useful in this era.

What was needed now wasn’t paper scraps but physical goods.

“Consumable items that increase stats like elixirs or mystic pills.”

“Is that all it takes?”

“Of course not. In addition to that, I want raw materials like steel, aluminum, titanium, alloys, and advanced machine tools, cannons and shells, missiles and such weapons. The more the better.”

Kang Changseok scratched his head while looking down at the Shadow King’s Boots.

Even an A-rank item could have impact exceeding nuclear weapons depending on how it’s used, let alone an S-rank item.

A level that couldn’t be converted to money.

But after Europe’s virtual collapse, the value of physical goods had risen considerably.

Especially things like advanced machine tools couldn’t be obtained even with money.

After contemplating for quite a while, Kang Changseok opened his subspace to take out various bottles, placed them on the table, wrote something on a note and handed it to Yuseong.

“How’s this?”

“Write a bit more.”

How many times did they exchange notes?

Yuseong wore a satisfied expression while Kang Changseok clicked his tongue and sighed.

After Kang Changseok left the conference room, Yuseong handed the note he was holding to Sophia.

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“I want to proceed with that plan I requested before.”

“The plan from before… You don’t mean the Dragonia fortification plan?”

“Plus unmanned weapons.”

“Hmm. This much should be enough to at least attempt it. But it will probably take an extremely long time. You know why, right?”

Having raw materials and processing them into desired items are completely separate issues.

Especially for the items Yuseong was requesting.

With Earth’s mechanical engineering level, the limit was things like exoskeleton-equipped armor, special ammunition, and energy weapons even including lab-scale production capabilities.

Ultimately most would need to be produced using machines Sophia brought from other worlds, which meant it would inevitably take a long time.

“Oh really? Look at this and you might think differently?”

Yuseong extended his hand toward Sophia.

Understanding the meaning, Sophia grabbed his hand without hesitation and they instantly moved to Dragonia.

“What exactly did you want to show me?”

“That.”

“What is that? A mountain of garbage?”

Sophia tilted her head looking where Yuseong pointed.

Her brain couldn’t immediately comprehend such an extraordinary sight.

However, moments later when she realized it wasn’t garbage but all sorts of parts, Sophia let out a shocked cry.

“Impossible! I-Is this a dream?”

“Not a dream.”

Upon hearing Yuseong’s answer, Sophia ran toward the mountain of parts and dove right in.

“Oh my god! It’s real! Reactive material cores and miniature particle accelerators, could this be an anti-gravity device? This level of miniaturization is 2nd stage civilization technology? Is the semiconductor material solium? Wait, that subtle rainbow sheen? Could it be a solium and orichalcon alloy? How on earth did you get these?”

“It’s complicated to explain. So what do you think? Can you make what I talked about with this much?”

“Of course! With materials like these, I can definitely make them!”

“How long will it take?”

“Well I already made the plans before, and with the machine tools Mr. Changseok promised to provide, probably around 3 months.”

“Too long.”

“Hmm, looking at this it seems there aren’t just parts but completed products too, if we use these well we could somehow manage within 2 months.”

“That’s still too long.”

“Mr. Yuseong. It takes weeks or months just to produce one tank or airplane. Two months is really fast.”

“I know. But we need to reduce it more.”

To prepare forces as quickly as possible not just for this fight with Carlos but also to stop Lucifer and his subordinate demons and monster armies that could appear anytime.

Sensing something from Yuseong’s desperate expression, Sophia twisted her hair while falling into thought.

Then soon spoke in a calm voice.

“It might be a bit inefficient, but if we use Dragonia’s production facilities and maximize use of existing items and parts despite some compatibility issues, we could somehow manage within 40 days, no, one month.”

It couldn’t be reduced further than this.

Sophia anxiously wondered if Yuseong would demand further reduction.

Fortunately, instead of saying that, Yuseong waved his hand to open subspace.

“Ugh, next time please take me out faster. Subspace is so boring.”

“Sorry, urgent matters came up so I couldn’t think about you.”

“Ah! It’s fine. Please just be careful next time.”

Sophia, who had been staring at Alice with trembling eyes, let out a small sigh.

“Ah right, there was also the matter of making Alice’s body.”

“If my memory is correct, I believe you said it would be completed around now.”

“That’s right. The android itself is almost complete. All that’s left is finishing work and fine adjustments.”

“Then can we transfer to the new body right away?”

“Well… The finishing work involves real-time circuit engraving while Alice is possessing it to maximize synchronization rate, and that requires picometer-scale ultra-precision processing…”

“More simply.”

“It takes three days.”

“Then start right away.”

“About payment…”

“Feel free to take any parts you personally need from those.”

“Thank you!”

Perhaps because conditions were set for her to fully demonstrate her technical skills.

Sophia nodded while wearing an expectant expression despite the superhuman workload.

While using drones and robots to sort through the accumulated parts, Sophia made an “Ah!” sound and took boots out from subspace.

Thud!

“What’s this?”

“You asked me before to make you a suit like mine when you saw it. But watching how Mr. Yuseong fights, I thought wearing a suit would actually decrease your stats. So I made these instead.”

<Gravity Shoes>

-Rank: A

-Type: Footwear

-Cutting-edge shoes with gravity control technology applied. Various applications possible like strengthening gravity for rapid landing or weakening it for high jumps. Has tremendous weight due to using ultra-high density compressed gigantium as material to handle gravity.

-Gravity control possible according to user’s will.

-Gravity control possible time 10 seconds.

-Recovers 1 second of gravity control possible time every 10 seconds.

-Strength +300

-Constitution +300

-Agility -150

“You can’t fly around freely like with a suit but you can at least imitate it. With your strength, Mr. Yuseong, you should be able to use them sufficiently.”

“It was just an offhand comment, but thanks. Is there anything you’d like in return?”

“This is enough for me.”

“…That’s good then.”

Yuseong left Sophia, who was staring at the mountain of parts with an enraptured expression, and entered the lord’s room.

Too tired.

Don’t want to think about anything.

Just wanted to forget everything and sleep deeply.

Soon after, regular breathing sounds filled the room.