45. New Residence (1)
Baek Jinwoo had become a nationwide hero from a single selection match, but—
Huff, huff!
He never neglected his training. As usual, he moved to the open lot, released his summons, and steadily kept up his bodyweight workouts.
—If you focus only on strength training, you may become stronger, but you won’t become more agile, and your flexibility will drop. The most important thing is balance, my lord.
“Okay, okay.”
Even while sweating buckets, Baek Jinwoo held his form with a fierce, venomous glare.
‘The truth is.’
There was only one reason Baek Jinwoo could put on such overwhelming performances.
‘Because Korea’s level is way too low.’
Even setting aside the country that One Heaven belonged to, if he went to even a mid-tier nation, he might not lose—but he wouldn’t be able to dominate every single moment like this.
‘HunGyo and Gale Slayer’s DPS probably would’ve been lacking. Lamba, sure, but…’
She’d been given an endgame rune that would keep her set for the next ten-plus years, but the rest of his summons were the problem.
They were all only equipped with intermediate-grade or advanced runes—reinforced to a decent, but not exceptional level.
‘It’s about time I start preparing a proper rune set.’
And the first step was the 20th floor of the Tower of Trials.
He needed to go there to craft another guaranteed B-rank summoning scroll, and from that, draw the legendary scam-level summon: the “Rune Dwarf”.
‘And I should start pushing the day-of-the-week dungeons up to advanced, too.’
Specialist summons for the day-of-the-week dungeons—Combat Sheriff, Radiant Priest, Lava Drake, and the like—had all gained a fair number of levels by now.
And with HunGyo’s in-depth training, they’d even equipped new skills, so he should be able to aim for Advanced quickly.
* * *
Every morning.
Baek Jinwoo received Yoo Jia’s report at the open lot. A greeting, a workout, and a work report all in one!
It was practically as if Yoobaek’s weekly shareholders’ meeting was being held in the mountains every single day.
After finishing a round of exercise with HunGyo’s support, Yoo Jia wiped her sweat with a towel she’d brought along.
“Here.”
Baek Jinwoo pulled out an icy bottle of mineral water from a cooler and tossed it to her.
“Hoo… hoo. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Gulp, gulp.
The way it slid down her throat so refreshingly, it was like she was filming a celebrity commercial.
“Ahhh, that’s refreshing. Mr. Jinwoo.”
“Yes?”
“I think it’s about time we get ready to move the training spot, too.”
“Oh?”
Baek Jinwoo’s eyes widened. He’d heard they were constructing a training facility—was it already finished?
“In about a week, it should be completely done.”
It was far ahead of schedule. All thanks to Baek Jinwoo.
Once he became famous, construction companies threw everything they had into it—equipment, manpower, the works—like their lives depended on it.
“And we’re preparing for your family to move in as well.”
“You’ve been working hard without saying anything.”
“No, no! You’ve been working harder, Mr. Jinwoo. Oh, and…”
Yoo Jia, who’d been waving her hands and laughing, brought up the next agenda item.
“The government promised an enormous subsidy.”
“Oh? How much?”
“Each national team member will receive one trillion won in taxpayer money! And the captain gets special treatment—an extra trillion, so two trillion total! Looks like they squeezed the budget dry and scraped together eleven trillion won. It’s unprecedented.”
“…Whoa.”
Trillions? And two trillion just for him?
At one point, Korea had budgeted over six hundred trillion won, but lately it had slowed down a lot. The economy had died after the country hit rock bottom in the World League rankings.
The national debt was still enormous, and the money they needed to spend was piled up like a mountain.
Even so, they’d pinched and saved and gathered up eleven trillion won.
It showed just how desperately the government was betting everything on this World League.
“But there’s a condition.”
“A condition?”
“The budget has to be approved by headquarters, and it must be used strictly for player growth. And of course, you can’t take the money and then switch citizenship.”
“Ah, well, that’s only natural.”
He had zero intention of using the people’s hard-earned taxes for personal gain. And there were plenty of runes, summons, and materials he still needed to buy.
Also—
He had no desire to betray the country where his family lived.
“And one more.”
“That’s a lot of conditions.”
“Haha… when that much money is moving, I guess…”
Well, sure.
It wasn’t just a lot of money—it was trillions.
“What is it?”
…The text on her screen glitched for a moment, as if a line had been corrupted, but the gist came through: it was about time dedicated to guiding and training the team and practicing together.
“Once a week, ten hours…”
Honestly, from here on out, he was going to be busy. He had to set up the day-of-the-week dungeons, and he had to climb the Tower of Trials.
But—
If they were paying him, that changed things. He could easily do some consulting.
“Once a week—when?”
“That’s something the national team members decide among themselves, but if you choose, Mr. Jinwoo, won’t everyone follow?”
“…They’ll listen to me?”
“Don’t say that. Haven’t you seen the rankers’ interviews?”
“I haven’t.”
At first, he’d tried ego-searching himself a few times, but he stopped. For too many reasons.
Every community—no, the whole world—was talking about him… and even while he was reading, new posts kept appearing and the feed kept resetting.
He watched for about an hour, then his stomach turned and he shut it off.
What did the public’s gaze matter?
‘What matters is me.’
He was still nowhere near enough.
A national hero? God Ji-nu?
Right now, Baek Jinwoo hadn’t even recovered 10% of his past glory—his past power.
“Look at this article.”
Yoo Jia fiddled with her phone, then slid it toward him.
It was roughly like this:
[Baek Jinwoo is my idol!]
[Domestic Rank #1 Kang Geonho: “If you call yourself a ranker and look down on Baek Jinwoo, you’re the real idiot. Baek Jinwoo proved it. He’s already the best ranker.”]
[Arirang sub–guild master Orangs (a high school senior), devastated after being cut in selection: “My biggest regret is that I can’t get coached by Baek Jinwoo!!”]
[Carpe Diem executive members: “From now on, our guild’s role model is Baek Jinwoo.”]
‘Ugh. That’s… kind of badass.’
Why are they all hyping me up this hard?
“You know too, right? The stuff about God Ji-nu.”
“……”
At that moment, Baek Jinwoo’s expression stiffened slightly. But Yoo Jia didn’t care at all.
“Domestic rankers already think of you as God Ji-nu, Mr. Jinwoo. You proved it with skill, and you have symbolic weight, too. They don’t have a choice but to follow you.”
“I see.”
Seeing Yoo Jia’s expression, Baek Jinwoo realized it too.
‘She’s 100% convinced.’
He would have to reveal it someday. But if it was to the whole world, it was still too early.
Telling Yoo Jia seemed fine. They were in the same boat now.
“Ms. Jia, what do you think?”
“Pardon?”
“Do I really seem like God Ji-nu to you?”
“……”
Yoo Jia chewed on the question several times, then nodded.
“Actually… I’ve suspected it for a long time. It was just a hunch, but… now I’ve reached a certain level of confidence.”
“Haha.”
Baek Jinwoo scratched his head.
Well, yeah. Smart or not, if she didn’t notice, she’d have to be an idiot.
Why did he have to make the nickname God Ji-nu of all things?
Now that he was an adult, it was unbelievably embarrassing—enough to make the hair on his arms stand up.
“Yes, that’s right. Back when Battle of Summoners was a thing, I did raise an account called God Ji-nu. I’m sorry. At the start, I lied and said I only played for a year so I wouldn’t stand out.”
“I knew it…!”
“But I still don’t want to confirm it to the world yet. I want to do that only after I’ve recovered at least about half of my old power.”
There was nothing more dangerous than fame without strength. People guessing he was God Ji-nu was unavoidable because of the name, but officially confirming it was another matter entirely.
“I understand what you mean.”
“I’ll schedule the national team gathering on Saturdays. Sundays should be for rest.”
“Ooh, yes! I’ll pass it along to the rankers!”
“And.”
“Yes?”
“For the time being, I’m going to focus on the 20th floor of the Tower of Trials.”
“...The 20th floor.”
For reference, the world #1, Rachel, was on the 29th floor. And that was after clawing her way up for three straight years.
In Korea? Not a single ranker had ever cleared the 20th floor.
And now he was saying—openly—that he would clear it.
Goosebumps.
Yoo Jia felt like her whole body was itching with excitement.
Was this what it felt like to watch the making of history—right in front of your eyes?
“Great! If you need anything, call me directly anytime!”
* * *
A week passed.
First, he successfully finished setting up an advanced day-of-the-week dungeon rotation.
‘I could run top-grade too, but… the efficiency was terrible.’
It took too long, so it was far more cost-effective to run advanced quickly and repeatedly.
At this point, was there even anyone running top-grade rotations? Probably not.
Naturally, his record was the best in the country! As a reward, he received twenty-one Advanced Summoning Scrolls.
“Summoning Scroll window.”
The moment he muttered it, a window appeared.
[Summoning Scroll Inventory]
Advanced Summoning Scroll x 21
Ultimate Summoning Scroll x 1
He put all the other junk summoning scrolls up for sale through Baek Ajin.
As for the Ultimate Summoning Scroll, he planned to gather as many as possible and open them all at once.
And.
To prepare for the 20th floor of the Tower of Trials, there were two conditions he needed right now.
HunGyo’s semi-endgame rune, and Explosive Dragon Sorcerer’s Explosive Dragon Sorcery: Flame.
Especially Explosive Dragon Sorcery: Flame—that one mattered most.
Flame was the third stage after Link and Transformation.
If Link let her stack Explosive Dragon Wave repeatedly, then Transformation could alter that Explosive Dragon Wave, and Flame would allow her to detonate all the accumulated Explosive Dragon Wave at once.
The 20th-floor boss was the king of all vampires, the primordial vampire—“Dracula” (S-rank).
He was weak to fire, so Baek Jinwoo had to burn him to death in one shot with Flame.
‘First…’
Since Explosive Dragon Sorcerer hadn’t even mastered Transformation yet, reaching Flame was still a distant goal.
‘So should I get HunGyo’s semi-endgame rune set first?’
An endgame rune would only be possible after he obtained the Rune Dwarf. For now, semi-endgame runes were what he had to settle for.
And.
Baek Jinwoo had a staggering fortune—two trillion won. He intended to invest every last bit of it into HunGyo.
“There’s a top-grade ‘Omnipotent’ rune.”
-Ah! The Omnipotent rune! I know it! It’s super famous!
Baek Ajin’s voice flowed out of the phone.
“Get it for me. With Ms. Jia. As many as you can—maximum.”
-What? You want me to get that?
She sounded flustered.
No surprise.
[Omnipotent Rune]
[Grade: Top-grade (Rare)]
Limited to 100 runes worldwide.
[Set Effect: Omnipotent]
When 6 are equipped: All stats +500%, HP +10,000.
Adds 2 additional stat options.
[Level: 1]
[Stat Increase]
Strength +12%, Intelligence +12%, Stamina +12%, Agility +12%, Critical Rate +10%, Critical Damage +20%
Just like Lamba’s Light-Speed Rune, it was a limited rune. And it raised every attribute evenly, with absurdly good attached stats.
Normally, the most runes could have was four stats—but only this Omnipotent rune had six.
No matter what summon used it, it could draw out top-tier performance.
-But it’s insanely expensive. And there aren’t any listings.
“Exactly.”
Baek Jinwoo smiled.
“That’s why we’ll buy it for even more than market price.”
That rune was popular. Not just popular—countries were scrambling to secure it.
-How many do you need…? Six, obviously, right? For the set effect?
“No.”
Baek Jinwoo shook his head.
“Eighteen.”
What he needed was exactly three sets. He’d explain the reason later, if the opportunity came.
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