Chapter 6
The Tower's secret door.
Kang Ha-min stepped through it and blinked.
Hmm.
This was...
"...There's nothing here."
The room was completely empty.
Unlike what he had expected, there was absolutely nothing inside.
There was only one strange thing about it.
The room was so enormous that he couldn't see where it ended.
A pure white space stretched endlessly in every direction.
The longer he looked at it, the more unsettling it became.
It felt like if he got lost here, he might never find his way out again.
"Nothing here, you say."
At that moment, Baek Cheon-myeong also stuck his head through the doorway behind Kang Ha-min.
He looked around the room for a while, then casually picked up his wooden sword.
"What are you doing?"
"Testing something."
Before Ha-min could ask anything else,
Baek Cheon-myeong swung his wooden sword.
At that instant, a violent wind erupted.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
A powerful current of air burst from the wooden sword and shot across the space.
It continued flying through the endless white room.
Soon, even the air current disappeared from sight.
"Whoa! W, what did you just do?!"
Kang Ha-min stared at Baek Cheon-myeong in shock.
Even so, how could he suddenly swing something like that without warning?
It nearly gave him a heart attack.
"Even if this is a secret room, it is still part of the Tower. There is no need to worry about damaging it."
Well, that was probably true.
"More importantly, this place is absurdly large. That strike should have traveled at least several dozen kilometers, yet I still felt nothing."
Several dozen kilometers.
And even after traveling that far, it still hadn't reached the end.
That meant this room really was unbelievably huge.
"...What kind of room is this supposed to be?"
"I don't know."
Even Baek Cheon-myeong couldn't guess its purpose.
Why had the Tower given him something like this?
If it was going to reward him, couldn't it at least give him something useful?
He still had to eat ramen today!
"So, are you going inside?"
The endless white space certainly looked suspicious.
Still, this time, Ha-min decided to be brave.
"I already left the Tower climbing to you, Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong. I should at least do this much myself."
Besides, the Tower had given this place to him as a reward.
There had to be a reason for it.
Otherwise, he would feel cheated for getting no useful reward after all that hardship!
All that hardship!
That Baek Cheon-myeong went through.
Still!
He had to get something out of it!
With that thought, Ha-min stepped fully into the room.
"Huh? Huh?"
The moment his foot touched the floor, the entire space began changing.
"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong!"
The instant Ha-min shouted his name, Baek Cheon-myeong grabbed him.
He immediately tried to retreat through the doorway.
Whoosh!
But the door leading outside suddenly disappeared.
"Damn."
The light swallowed both of them.
It was so bright that Ha-min couldn't even open his eyes.
"Waaaaaaaaah!"
He didn't know how long the light lasted.
Eventually, Kang Ha-min slowly regained his vision and opened his eyes.
Chirp, chirp.
A familiar sound reached his ears.
Birdsong.
Sparrows were chirping.
Had morning arrived?
When he opened his eyes completely, he saw a forest and a wide grassy field.
The scent of grass carried by the wind was surprisingly pleasant.
It felt like one of those nature ASMR recordings he always played before going to sleep had suddenly become real.
But...
What was with this completely random scenery?
Where had the endless white space from earlier gone?
Just as that question appeared in his mind,
"...This place."
Baek Cheon-myeong froze.
"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong?"
Please don't freeze like that.
It makes me nervous.
Ha-min carefully called out to him.
Then Baek Cheon-myeong suddenly let go.
"Whoa!"
Hey!
You can't just drop me like that!
Ha-min rolled lightly across the ground before stopping.
Meanwhile, Baek Cheon-myeong slowly walked forward with a dazed expression.
"Wait, Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong! Hold on!"
Ha-min hurriedly stood up and followed him.
A short while later, they arrived at a clearing in the forest.
There were fewer trees here, allowing sunlight to shine brightly onto the grass.
In the middle of the clearing sat a single stone.
It looked like the perfect size for someone to sit on.
Baek Cheon-myeong stood there silently, staring at it.
For some reason, he seemed to recognize this place.
"Where are we?"
"...This is the place where this body trained in the past."
A place where Baek Cheon-myeong had once trained.
Then, could it be...
"Did we come to your world?"
"No. I don't believe so. It resembles it, but at most, this is only a reproduction."
Baek Cheon-myeong reached out and slowly stroked the stone.
"But it is real."
The wind blowing through the forest.
The scent of grass.
The chirping birds and insects.
Even the grass beneath their shoes.
Everything here was real.
"I believe I understand now. This space seems capable of turning scenery stored within one's memories into reality."
"What? Then..."
"Master, you have obtained an entire world that no one else has ever entered."
He had suddenly become the owner of an entire world.
But Kang Ha-min only looked uncertain.
What was he supposed to do with a world like this?
"It seems you still don't understand what I mean."
Baek Cheon-myeong raised his wooden sword.
Then he immediately struck the stone.
Crack!
Fragments of the stone broke apart.
Inside it,
there was some kind of mineral Ha-min had never seen before.
The crystal mixed purple and transparent colors together, making it look as beautiful as the night sky.
Kang Ha-min knew nothing about gemstones, but even he could tell this was valuable.
"Moonlight Stone. In my world, even a piece the size of one finger joint was worth thousands."
"Simply possessing Moonlight Stone can help a person awaken qi, and for those who have already awakened it, the stone can accelerate the flow of qi."
Kang Ha-min's eyes slowly widened.
Only now did he understand what Baek Cheon-myeong had meant.
At the same time, he finally understood why the Tower had given him this place as a reward.
"This forest is called the Heavenly Spirit Medicinal Forest. It is filled with all kinds of rare medicinal herbs and valuable resources."
"I went through endless trouble just to sneak into this place in the past. I never imagined I would see it again this easily."
A place where Baek Cheon-myeong had once trained.
And this entire place had now been recreated.
"...Holy crap. It's a gold mine!"
Jackpot!
The appearance of the Tower and its new resources had created an entirely new era.
And now,
Ha-min had obtained an entire world filled with resources that didn't even exist in modern society.
"The Hunters of your world are also obsessed with becoming stronger, aren't they?"
That was putting it lightly.
These were people who repeatedly challenged old floors just to strengthen their foundations and gain more levels.
Reaching Tower Ascension above the 100th Floor wasn't everything.
Beyond that point, how solidly a Hunter had built their foundation became even more important.
This was an era where strength meant everything.
The higher a Hunter's Rank, the more willing they were to use any method available to become stronger.
"Yes. And Hunters have a ridiculous amount of money."
"This body already knows which things here will have useful effects on Hunters."
"Ha, hahaha!"
Only then did Kang Ha-min burst into laughter and clench both fists.
"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, let's strip this entire forest clean today."
He wasn't leaving tonight until they had taken everything they could!
Moonlight White Flower (月光白花).
Blood Dragon Root (血龍根).
Solar Golden Flower (太陽金花).
Black Spirit Mushroom (黑靈茸).
Thousand-Year Blood Ginseng (千年血蔘).
Nebula Grass (星雲草).
Every herb sounded rare just from its name.
Kang Ha-min came out of the Tower's Secret Floor with his arms full of them.
Fortunately, when he moved the key again, the door reappeared and opened.
After returning outside with Baek Cheon-myeong, Kang Ha-min's eyes shone brighter than ever.
Of course they did.
He had just found an opportunity to make a fortune.
"Master, I should warn you in advance."
"Ah, don't worry. I'm not planning to sell all of this at once."
If he suddenly dumped a huge amount of rare medicinal herbs onto the market,
it could cause unnecessary trouble.
"I'll tell an Appraiser that I received them as rewards from the Tower, then sell them slowly, one at a time."
It was exactly what one would expect from Kang Ha-min, a man who always put safety first.
He wasn't trying to live the life of some extravagant billionaire anyway.
A life where he never had to worry about the future.
That was enough for him.
"That isn't what concerns me. I was referring to the Secret Floor we just visited."
"What about the Secret Floor?"
"It seems the location from this body's memories was recreated, but aside from that, I sensed several living creatures inside."
"They were creatures even this body had never sensed before."
Kang Ha-min's eyes widened.
That meant...
"...There's something living inside the Secret Floor?"
"They seemed wary of us and refused to reveal themselves, so I didn't bother hunting them down."
"But just in case, do not enter that place alone."
Not that someone with Ha-min's personality would probably do something like that anyway.
Still, Baek Cheon-myeong warned him in advance.
There had been something uncomfortable in Baek Cheon-myeong's eyes when he spoke, so Ha-min made sure to remember the warning.
"More importantly, let's sell these things!"
Morning had already arrived.
Normally, Ha-min would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.
But right now, his eyes were wide awake and sparkling.
This was his chance to earn an amount of money he could never have made as a civil servant.
His entire body was itching to sell these herbs as quickly as possible!
"Let's go to the Hunter Marketplace."
Once his bank account was full, he could finally sleep peacefully.
He couldn't hide his excitement at the thought of selling the medicinal herbs.
"Very well."
Baek Cheon-myeong had no reason to refuse either.
He had already slept more than enough when he was a corpse.
Besides, he was curious about what the city looked like during the daytime.
So they quickly gathered the herbs and prepared to head straight for the Hunter Marketplace.
Then,
Wait.
Kang Ha-min stopped.
If he went there like this, he would end up registering as a Hunter.
And during that registration process,
his identity might be exposed.
I want to hide the fact that I'm Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong's master if possible.
Most Hunters loved attracting attention.
But Kang Ha-min had absolutely no interest in that.
His life motto had always been simple.
Safety first.
A wealthy man who stayed completely out of the public eye.
That was his ideal life.
But what if his face became famous as a Hunter?
Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong is definitely going to keep climbing the Tower.
Baek Cheon-myeong's existence would inevitably become known to the world.
Ha-min was certain of that.
And the moment people discovered that Kang Ha-min was his master,
the media would swarm him from every direction.
The government might even pressure him into climbing the Tower personally.
No.
Absolutely not!
He had to hide it.
He absolutely had to keep it hidden.
He would hide everything until the very end and live his happy, safe life!
After reaching that conclusion, Ha-min turned toward Baek Cheon-myeong.
"Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, I have a favor to ask."
"What is it?"
Since he had already decided not to climb the Tower himself,
he might as well remain safe all the way to the end.
While Kang Ha-min was using his brain in his own way,
an order was issued to every Hunter-exclusive marketplace in the country.
[Hunter Management Association Directive]
[Record and report every Hunter who sells an item for the first time.]
Even a broken clock was right twice a day.
If Kang Ha-min had known about that order,
he probably would have praised himself for being a genius.
