LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 26 - Family Care Service (1)
Chapter 26 Family Care Service (1)
Which of Baek Jin-woo’s dealers has the highest potential?
No need to even say it.
Of course, it’s the Explosive Dragon Sage.
‘Our Poryong.’
Lamba is merely a support that maximizes the dealer’s power, and Hun-gyo, though not bad in combat, is ultimately just an assistant trainer.
On the other hand, Poryong?
– Dragon Explosion Wave!
Fwoosh!
The dragon-shaped flame that extended from her staff swallowed up the goblin in front of her.
– Keeeaek!
– Keeeek!
The monsters melted down to sludge, sizzling as they burned.
Baek Jin-woo was now starting to train Poryong in earnest.
If he wanted to continue player activities as a public figure, he needed to be strong, and the easiest way was to raise his dealer.
Baek Jin-woo left the summoned creatures in the open field and went into a regular dungeon alone with Poryong.
Incidentally, summoned creatures could remain in the world for up to five hours without their player and could dismiss themselves when needed.
He had instructed Hun-gyo to train diligently and to dismiss himself if anyone came by.
Of course, the weekly dungeon grinding continued without interruption.
“Poryong.”
– Yes, Jin-woo Nim.
At this point, even a D-rank regular dungeon was a piece of cake.
Poryong strolled leisurely, sweeping away the monsters around them.
“Do you have anything you particularly want? Like cream buns that Lamba loves?”
How to handle summoned creatures effectively.
The trick is to satisfy their cravings.
Hun-gyo had a passion for training, and Lamba loved cream buns.
If he offered those in exchange for growth, the summoned creatures would work harder on their own.
But?
Poryong didn’t seem to have anything like that.
– I am simply satisfied to keep progressing like this and to be of help to Jin-woo Nim.
Poryong was a former dropout.
He didn’t know which magical academy in another world she’d been expelled from, but he did know she had a strong desire to be useful.
Still.
“Oh, come on, not like that.”
Baek Jin-woo didn’t give up.
– Huh?
“Is there something to eat or anything you’d like to have?”
– Hmm…?
“You’ve eaten plenty of food from this world, haven’t you?”
Usually, there was no need to pay summoned creatures.
They didn’t feel hunger or even need to relieve themselves.
But Baek Jin-woo would serve meals to his humanoid summoned creatures whenever he ate.
Hun-gyo, Poryong, the Sheriff, Radiance…
Why?
No particular reason.
He just thought it was the right thing to do.
Seeing Lamba go crazy over cream buns showed they had taste buds.
Would it be right for the master to eat good food alone?
“Was there something you liked best or wanted to eat again?”
– Uh…
“Is there?”
– Um, yes. I think there is.
Fwoosh!
Even as they talked, Poryong’s Dragon Explosion Wave naturally burst out and consumed a monster.
She really cleared dungeons effortlessly.
Other players would be shocked if they saw this.
“Oh, you do? What is it?”
Baek Jin-woo’s eyes sparkled.
As an EX-class, he remembered everything from his past, so there was no need to work on building favor, but… Still, if he was going to raise her properly, management was necessary.
And gifts were the best for that kind of management.
– Chicken.
“Chicken?”
– Yes, with beer.
Oh.
Chicken and beer? Now that was respectable.
“Okay, then…”
After a moment’s thought, Baek Jin-woo nodded.
“What was the skill you’re about to get?”
– Explosive Dragon Technique, Linked Strike.
The Explosive Dragon Technique.
It was an ancient technique from the old dragon of explosions, developed in a study of how to better use the Dragon Explosion Wave.
Naturally, it was something Hun-gyo had unlocked!
The Explosive Dragon Technique was divided into four stages.
Linked Strike, Transformation, Flame, and Annihilation.
In the past, Poryong had only managed to reach the third stage, Flame.
Then she’d learned the latent skill ‘Devour,’ but it had been patched out within a week.
“Oh, Linked Strike is good.”
Linked Strike was a technique that allowed the Dragon Explosion Wave to be used consecutively.
Rather than gathering mana each time to fire the Dragon Explosion Wave as now, she could accumulate multiple blasts and release them all at once.
“On the day you learn that, I’ll make it special and tell Hun-gyo to take a day off training.”
– Oh, really?
“That day will be a chicken and beer party. Deal?”
– I like it!
For the first time, Poryong’s eyes sparkled.
Well.
She seemed more excited about skipping training than eating chicken.
‘Well.’
As long as she worked hard, Baek Jin-woo was fine with it.
* * *
Hanam City.
Underneath Geomdansan Mountain.
“Wow…”
“Boss, how did you even find a place like this…”
The YooBaek employees who had arrived in a fancy car were in awe.
The site was quite expansive, with scattered abandoned buildings across it.
“Everyone, follow me.”
Yoo Ji-ah stepped out of the car wearing sunglasses and walked through the entrance of the site.
This would be where the members of YooBaek would stay from now on.
‘I would have liked it to be inside Seoul, but…’
Land prices were just way too high.
So many buildings squeezed into such a small area, there was no room to fit in at all.
‘I’ll settle for the suburbs for now.’
Getting even this place hadn’t been easy.
Actually.
This was Daeseong’s land.
To be precise, it was land owned by Yoo Byung-cheon.
He’d originally bought it for business but hadn’t figured out how to use it, so when Yoo Ji-ah expressed interest in buying it, he agreed.
Her grandfather granted his granddaughter’s request.
Though, it wasn’t a simple favor.
After carefully evaluating “YooBaek,” he decided it would be beneficial to his company and agreed.
Thanks to that, Yoo Ji-ah was able to buy this large 3,000-square-foot plot at a low price.
Step, step.
Yoo Ji-ah inspected the site closely, looking into every corner.
Abandoned buildings?
She would tear them all down and build anew.
It wouldn’t take long.
These days, as long as you have money, construction is incredibly fast.
This is because most workers now use summoned creatures.
Moreover, special summoned creatures provided by construction companies could handle everything from groundwork to laying rebar and pouring concrete in one go.
They said the licensing process took the longest; that said it all.
“We’ll build an office here, and there’ll be a dedicated employee dormitory and apartments over there.”
Yoo Ji-ah hadn’t bothered to pay off her bank loans.
There was no need to repay loans taken out at low interest rates.
If she could pull in more, she would.
“A bunker will be built in the basement of each building.”
Baek Jin-woo had said it.
He wanted to protect his family.
Not forgetting that, Yoo Ji-ah hired the world’s best bunker designer.
Systems for an apocalypse.
From automatic cultivation to water purification and solar energy systems!
All of it would be fully installed in the basement here.
‘And next, the most important thing.’
Yoo Ji-ah’s gaze shifted to the lower part of Geomdansan.
The place adjoining the plot.
‘It would be perfect to put a training ground there. He likes open fields.’
The mountain would block city noise.
Add a soundproofing system?
It would make for a quite perfect training ground.
“How long will it take to get everything built?”
Kim Byung-jin scratched his head as he asked.
Our boss.
Even her scale is huge.
That means we’ll be stuck in that tiny office until this is all built…
Yoo Ji-ah smiled and held up two fingers.
“Uh, two years?”
“No, two months.”
“What?”
“With modern technology, two months is plenty. Oh, did you get the summoned creature I asked for?”
“Oh, the Shadow Wolf?”
Kim Byung-jin nodded and extended his hand, summoning the creature.
– Awooooo!
Ssss!
With a dignified howl, a wolf emerged from the shadows.
Yoo Ji-ah nodded in approval.
‘Time to start the real player care now.’
And the first on her list?
Baek Jin-woo’s family.
* * *
Baek Ah-jin was enjoying blissful days lately.
Unbelievable.
No matter how much she sold runes, they never ran out.
More kept coming in.
Just how much dungeon grinding was happening every day that the supply never dried up?
And the best part?
She got to keep 20% of the sales proceeds entirely for herself!
‘Ohhhh.’
She shivered with excitement.
It had only been a month since she’d signed the contract with Baek Jin-woo, but the rate at which her money was piling up was incredible.
‘And especially the premium rune ratio is high.’
Occasionally, rare high-quality runes would appear.
Runes with popular options like Strength%, Intelligence%, Crit Chance, and Crit Damage attached; Baek Ah-jin called those premium runes.
Naturally, premium runes were in high demand, and players frequently sought out vendors with many of them.
“Oh, boss. I always feel this way, but the stock here is just the best.”
“Here’s my card. Please contact me first if any good runes come in.”
“You remember me, right? The one who asked for that skill book last time? Is it still not in?”
With quality stock, customers came naturally.
Some of them were ranked players, others from large guilds.
Baek Ah-jin saved them as VIPs and managed them carefully.
If her brother leveled up and offered even better stock?
These clients would readily take it off her hands.
And today.
After wrapping up her business, she attended a regular gathering with friends.
Feeling both wealthy and content, Baek Ah-jin kept her promise from last time and treated everyone.
“Oh my gosh, Ah-jin. Isn’t this an expensive Korean beef restaurant?”
“Wow… Player life really is different!”
“Baek Ah-jin, you’re super busy these days, huh?”
When you spend money?
Compliments come automatically.
Her friends quickly forgot their previous grumbles and praised her.
Sizzle, sizzle!
As the premium beef cooked, the gathering grew lively again.
The topic this time was different from last time.
“Did you know? Baek Jin-woo broke every record again this past month.”
“It’s insane. How does someone grow every single day? The records change every week.”
“At this rate, isn’t he going to challenge world records?”
Their topic was Baek Jin-woo.
It was inevitable.
These days, players were more popular than celebrities, and Baek Jin-woo was the hottest of them all.
Naturally, they also mentioned Yoo Ji-ah.
“Yoo Ji-ah is amazing too. How did she know to snatch up Baek Jin-woo?”
“That’s why she’s from Daeseong.”
“She really is from a different world. But you know, at first, I was envious of Baek Jin-woo. Now, I’m more jealous of Yoo Ji-ah. Isn’t Baek Jin-woo incredibly handsome?”
Handsome, my foot!
Baek Ah-jin narrowed her eyes slightly, but none of her friends noticed.
‘Sigh.’
Looking at her laughing friends, Baek Ah-jin sighed inwardly.
Were they really her friends?
How could they not recognize her own brother?
Of course, it couldn’t be helped.
She didn’t usually talk about her family, and the world was full of people with the last name Baek.
Plus, her brother had been famously unconscious for years.
‘Ugh, whatever, let’s just eat.’
Munch munch.
Just as Baek Ah-jin was about to savor the tender texture of the beef, pretending not to hear anything.
“But Yoo Ji-ah, you know.”
One of her friends, who had been raving about Yoo Ji-ah, picked up her phone.
“I follow her all the time, and she usually doesn’t follow back, right? She only follows family or really close friends, and her follower list has never gone over 100 people…”
The friend was scrolling through Yoo Ji-ah’s SNS profile.
Baek Ah-jin naturally glanced over.
“Doesn’t this person look familiar?”
One of the few people Yoo Ji-ah was following…
It was an account with the username `dbwldk_kk`.
Baek Ah-jin dropped her meat.
“Huh? Seriously!”
“I’ve seen that username somewhere.”
“That’s…”
One of her friends looked at Baek Ah-jin.
“Ah-jin, is that you?”
“What?”
“Isn’t it Baek Ah-jin?”
“Why would Baek Ah-jin be there…?”
Her friends started to show their surprise, but the person who was most shocked was Baek Ah-jin herself.
Well, why on earth was that woman following her…
With her chopsticks still raised.
Baek Ah-jin froze in place.