Chapter 21

Royal Roader on My Own – Chapter 21: A Pretty Savory Extra Gain (III)

“What? Gi, Gildeon? Hold on! How does 500,000,000 won sound?”

As expected, there was no better threat than ‘Gildeon.’

Of course, I had no desire to compromise. Even at 1,000,000,000 won, Bae Doochi had no option but to agree.

“I will see you again tomorrow.”

“700,000,000 won! 1,000,000,000 won is inhumane.”

I did not respond. Instead, I opened the door and stepped outside.

As I was walking, Bae Doochi chased after me and grabbed onto my sleeve. He let out an extremely loud sigh.

“Sigh, fine. 1,000,000,000 won. However, if I don’t like the tunnel, you must agree to let me switch even if it is ten times, twenty times, or even more than that. Even if there is a different supervisor in that tunnel.”

I’m sure that won’t happen. Tunnel 99-5 has an overwhelming amount of titanium compared to the other locations.

The more he switches, the more disadvantageous it would be for him.

“Of course.”

I assigned supervisors for the other subtunnels after receiving bribes as well. Tunnel 99 has a lot of good mineral deposits, so I was able to receive and average of 200,000,000 won for each of the remaining four.

Of course, I sold one of them to Gildeon as well.

‘It’s so easy to make money.’

I kept one of them for myself. It was the tunnel with the greatest gain.

While I was settling all of that, Jonnan came back with the ten new recruits.

“They’re all youngsters who wish to become mercenaries.”

Seeing their physical appearances, it made sense that they would dream of becoming mercenaries. Each and one of them had a body like Rambo. Their ages ranged between 18 – 22.

“Work hard. If you do, you can become like Kang Hwi Ram-nim. You heard the stories, right? He defeated a monster by himself and cleared Tunnel 99. The hero of Titan Valley.”

It was just recently that I was at the bottom of the food chain at the carwash. But to suddenly be called a ‘hero’? It was kind of embarrassing.

However, I could not show that type of expression.

No, from now on, I needed to change my own thoughts. What I have done in the past is not important, the important thing is what I will do from here on.”

My dream!

Yes! I will become a hero. I will push past the strongest warrior and become an omnipotent presence. I will do as I please in the world and rule from the top of the world.

I was confident that I could achieve it.

Then shouldn’t I act the part? I have to stop lowering myself and thinking low about myself.

I opened my shoulders widely at Jonnan’s introduction. I looked towards them with a somewhat nonchalant expression. Their gazes were full of respect and admiration. They all knew about me from the stories about Tunnel 99.

“You dream of becoming mercenaries?”

“Yes!”

They seem very disciplined.

“The reason?”

“Because I can earn a lot of money as a mercenary……”

“It looks cool……”

“I want to travel all around the continent…….”

Each of them had their own reasons. However, the common goal for all of them was of course, money. If their families had enough money and influence, they could achieve their goals without necessarily becoming mercenaries.

I guess I feel sorry for them?

“The majority of you will not be able to achieve that dream. In fact, you will decide on your own accord to give up that dream.”

My blunt response made them all confused. Their expressions seemed to be asking why.

“Are you curious as to why?”

“……yes!”

“Because I will show you a path that will make you much richer than if you were to become a mercenary. Then you will forget that you ever wanted to be one.”

They all had a look that seemed to be saying ‘Ah!’

“Of course, I will not show that path to just anybody. Whether you appeal to me with your talents or with your loyalty, do what you can to become one of my people. Then I will take care of you for life!”

They could think that I’m bluffing and saying things that I cannot promise.

But I was really confident.

I needed to be. The reason I was the strongest character in the game but could not become an omnipotent presence was because of my lack of influence.

I will start early to start making people mine one by one.

The first will be Jonnan, Batoom, and Goultan. The youngsters gathered here will be my people as well.

In return, they will be rewarded with a life full of luxury.

How?

I will show them with my actions.

“First, I will help you earn money. I’m sure all of you are in need of money right now. Am I right?”

“Yes, Tunnel Supervisor-nim!”

“Great! From now on, clench your teeth and put in the effort! If you do, around this time next year, you will be able to make more than 1,000,000 won in a single day. This is my first promise to all of you. Of course, only to those who become my people!

The youngsters lived with us starting that day.

All of the youngsters put in their full effort. Jonnan really did pick some determined characters.

As that happened, time went by so fast that you couldn’t even tell how the day was going.

* * *

“Griiiiiind! Yaaaawn~ I slept well.” (TL: You slept for like… 5 chapters. So freaken long. Although I’m sure he didn’t sleep the whole time…)

I stretched real wide as I woke up.

As soon as I woke up, I looked at the clock out of habit.

10am. I slept exactly 12 hours again.

Maybe that was why, but I felt so good like I could fly away. Best condition!

I opened my smartphone to access the Royal Roader homepage. I start everyday by checking my Virtual Accounting account. (TL: Early signs of turning into Gollum)

[Amount: 3,146,833,291 won]　(TL: $2,826,328.32 Fool became a millionaire!]

“I guess I collected a decent amount.”

Although I was saying that, my smile was so wide my lips were hanging on my ears.

It wasn’t 31,000,000 won, or 310,000,000 won, but a whole 3,100,000,000 won.

Wasn’t I the person who bought kimbap or cupbap from the convenience store instead of soondaegookbap because I didn’t want to spend 8,000 won?

But now, I could be so calm seeing a hundred million won in my account.

No, this is not being calm. It’s so amazing that it doesn’t even feel real. In fact, I feel like I’m seeing someone else’s money and not my own.

‘Is this really all my money?’

The thing that was even harder to believe was that it only took me half a month to collect this much money. (TL: I need this in my life…)

You’re asking how this was possible?

It was thanks to clearing Tunnel 99.

First of all, unlike Tunnel 7, Tunnel 99 has a lot of expensive mineral nicely stored. Titanium was considered a common mineral there, with mithril, azurite, and even gold being found.

In addition, switching from the ‘old pickaxe’ to ‘Goo Chu’s pickaxe’ had a huge impact as well. My attack strength went up from 5 to 15, and attack speed went up from 5 to 10. Plus the extra damage…

By simply changing my pickaxe, my efficiency increased by 6  times.

Thanks to that, even though I was working the same amount, my income was over 20 times more than before.

My slave, Jul Goo, also helped. His dexterity is still low so he’s still rough at it, but he’s still doing his best to give it his all.

Working together with Jul Goo, the two of us mined enough for my share to be around 4,000,000 won a day. I also received around 3,000,000 won a day from the taxes for Tunnel 99 as well.

Put it together, I was making an average of 7,000,000 won a day. That is, of course, speaking in Royal Roader time. In the real world, it was about 85,000,000 won a day.

In addition to that, I received bribes of approximately 1,800,000,000 won from handing out the supervisor positions.

Let’s be honest. At this level, I can enjoy my life. Whether it is in the real world or in Royal Roader, I could leave the hard mining to Jul Goo and Jonnan while doing whatever I want.

No, I could even immediately start walking the path of a warrior. Even with my current dexterity and stats, I could rise up to become the greatest warrior.

However, I had no thoughts about doing that at all. Why should I be satisfied and stop at 5 when I know I can get to 100?

The successor to the mine competition does not take that long. Once that ends, I could once again make my life’s turning point.

If I can get past the last hurdle at that point, I could walk the path of flowers.

I just need to wait a little longer.

I opened the Royal Roader homepage on my smartphone and clicked ‘my information.’

[Kang Hwi Ram]

Dexterity: Advanced Level 1, 5%]

Strength: 131 (+9)

Agility: 114 (+10)

Stamina: 141 (+6)

Intuition: 107 (+3)

Mana: – (+12)

HP: 119 (+25)

[Jewel Box]

For the last fifteen days, all I did was work out when I was awake. I wanted to tire myself out as much as I could so that I could manage to sleep longer.

I also ate a lot of food. Working out increased my appetite, but I also ate all the food that I wanted to eat but couldn’t in the past.

But since I didn’t gain any weight from it, it should mean that all of it went to my stats.

Thanks to that, my body was visibly much better. Of course my stats increased quite a bit as well.

In addition to that, because I get 10% of my stats in Royal Roader, I could probably go against anybody and no longer be called weak.

I once again admired my stats. I got happier every time I saw it.

But suddenly, a weird item caught my attention.

[Jewel Box]

‘Wait! What is this? I know this wasn’t here when I looked yesterday!”

Translator : Miraclerifle

Proofreader : Miraclerifle