Chapter 157

Chapter 157

The Mayor’s office where Jin Geum-ho handled official business was on the top floor of City Hall, the fiftieth floor.

The elevator carrying Zeon and Seo Tae-ran moved silently to the fiftieth floor.

It felt as though less than ten seconds had passed since they got into the elevator, yet they had already arrived on the fiftieth floor.

“Please step out.”

Seo Tae-ran got out first, and Zeon followed behind her.

The moment he stepped out of the elevator, the vast interior of the office came into view.

The wide floor-to-ceiling windows, without a single obstruction, made the view feel refreshingly open.

A middle-aged man stood against the backdrop of the enormous glass window.

His hair was combed back neatly without a single strand out of place, and he had a mustache beneath his nose and a beard on his chin. Even the suit fitted tightly to his body was stylish in every detail.

He was Jin Geum-ho, the mayor of Neo Seoul.

Jin Geum-ho smiled faintly and said,

“It is good to meet you. I am Jin Geum-ho, the mayor of Neo Seoul.”

“I am Zeon. It is good to meet you.”

“Welcome. I welcome you to Neo Seoul.”

“Thank you.”

Zeon bowed his head to Jin Geum-ho in greeting.

The man before him was a legendary figure who had built a giant city upon ruined land.

If not for him, the people of this land would likely never have escaped medieval civilization, just like the other Colonies.

He and Deioden had taken the lead in building Neo Seoul, and thanks to them, humanity had been able to regain its old civilization.

For that achievement alone, Jin Geum-ho was a man worthy of respect.

The expression with which Jin Geum-ho greeted Zeon was full of ease.

“There is much I wish to discuss, so sit down first.”

“Yes!”

Zeon did not refuse and sat down across from Jin Geum-ho.

“What would you like to drink?”

“Water is fine.”

“I’ll prepare it.”

Seo Tae-ran immediately went to bring water.

“I heard you live in the slums. How is that place?”

“It is livable.”

“Is it?”

“It is where I originally lived, so it is comfortable.”

“That may be true.”

At Zeon’s answer, Jin Geum-ho nodded.

Jin Geum-ho treated Zeon comfortably.

He appeared simple and unpretentious, unlike the absolute ruler of Neo Seoul. But Zeon was not fooled by Jin Geum-ho’s outward appearance.

“I heard you are a Sandmancer.”

“I was fortunate enough to awaken as a Sandmancer.”

“Luck only follows when one has the will and ability to receive it.”

“Thank you for your high evaluation.”

Zeon answered with a relaxed expression.

At Zeon’s demeanor, Jin Geum-ho looked intrigued.

Anyone who saw him became tense.

No matter how comfortably he treated the other person, the pressure they felt was never small.

Even if Jin Geum-ho did not deliberately pressure them or release his presence, anyone who faced him could not help shrinking on their own.

Alexandro, the Caravan Master of the White Bear Caravan, who had met him most recently, had been the same.

Yet Zeon, who was comparatively young, showed no sign of shrinking even while facing Jin Geum-ho.

The faint smile on his lips and the confidence in his eyes made Jin Geum-ho think of someone.

“Looking at you reminds me of a friend.”

“A friend?”

“I have an old friend. You and he look different and give off different atmospheres, but somehow, there is something similar about you.”

“Is that so? May I know who this friend is?”

“Deioden! His name is Deioden. He was my only friend, and my rival. If not for him, we could not have rebuilt Neo Seoul.”

“Where is your friend now?”

“He left.”

“Where did he go?”

“I do not know. One day, he left this place, and he never showed himself again.”

“You said your friend’s name is Deioden?”

“That is right. It is a name one can never forget after hearing it once.”

A faint smile lingered at the corners of Jin Geum-ho’s mouth as he mentioned Deioden.

Zeon could not tell whether that smile came from genuinely missing Deioden or whether it was meant to deceive.

Deioden had said this about Jin Geum-ho:

—He is sinister, but when he is on your side, he is still someone you can trust and rely on.

When Deioden faced monsters from the front, Jin Geum-ho supported him from the rear.

They had fought monsters like that for decades and built Neo Seoul’s walls.

Although their relationship had later fallen apart, Deioden had still not resented Jin Geum-ho.

Jin Geum-ho said,

“I wonder why. Even though your temperaments and appearances are so different, why does looking at you remind me of that friend?”

“I wonder.”

“My apologies. I have invited an honored guest here and wasted time on irrelevant stories.”

“Not at all.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“You stopped the Balrog, did you not? Thanks to you, we were able to prevent damage.”

“If the Balrog had run wild, my home would have been destroyed as well. That is why I stepped in.”

“In any case, thanks to that, the entire slum remained safe. If the slums had collapsed, Neo Seoul would have suffered great damage as well.”

Jin Geum-ho’s words were filled with affection toward Neo Seoul.

He had mentioned the slums as well, but Zeon could not shake the feeling that it was merely ceremonial.

What mattered to Jin Geum-ho was not the slums, but Neo Seoul.

The slums were nothing more than a breakwater meant to protect Neo Seoul.

Jin Geum-ho asked,

“What do you intend to do from now on?”

“What do you mean?”

“There must be quite a few places contacting you. Have you decided where you will join?”

“I have not.”

“I thought as much.”

“Why did you think that?”

“Did I not say you resemble my friend? A person with eyes and a temperament like yours never goes under someone else. That is why I guessed as much.”

“I think you are overestimating me.”

“Are you not the one underestimating the profession of Sandmancer?”

Jin Geum-ho rose from his seat and walked toward the window.

Beyond the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, the splendid view of Neo Seoul spread out before them.

But Jin Geum-ho’s gaze was not directed at Neo Seoul, but at the endless desert beyond the wall.

“This is all I managed to gain.”

“What?”

“The land for humans that I gained through a lifetime of effort is only this much. No matter how hard I tried, I could not secure any more land where humans could live.”

Though it was magnificent, Neo Seoul was not that large.

Yet a full ten million people lived on that narrow land. If the slums were included, more than twenty million people were packed into this small city.

They had tried several times to expand the city, but every attempt had ended in failure.

“Outside this city is the domain of monsters. The farther one goes, the stronger the monsters that live there become. Expanding human territory that far is impossible. At least, for ordinary Awakened. But you are different. With your ability, human territory can be expanded beyond this.”

Jin Geum-ho turned around and looked at Zeon.

His eyes were shining intensely.

Zeon thought this was Jin Geum-ho’s true face.

“I want to expand humanity’s territory. I do not want to be satisfied with only Neo Seoul. I want to secure wider land. Neo Seoul has now reached its limit. Even if more people are born, we cannot accommodate them. It is truly on the verge of exploding.”

Jin Geum-ho’s words were true.

There was no more land to build on, and vertical expansion was no longer possible. The population kept increasing, but there were no homes to hold them.

“That is why I need your help.”

“If you are asking me to clear away all the sand around Neo Seoul, even I cannot do that. I do not have enough control to move such an enormous quantity of sand.”

“I know. If that level of power were possible for a human, this land would not have been ruined like this.”

“Then why?”

“I will be the one to expand the land. You only need to obtain one item I need. If you do, I will make things convenient for you.”

“Convenient?”

“I will deal with all the troublesome beings who approach you.”

“Even places like East District or West District?”

“I can state with certainty that they will never bother you. If you accept my request, that is.”

“Then do I have to enter City Hall?”

“That would be ideal, but you do not necessarily have to work for City Hall.”

“That is interesting.”

A strange light appeared in Zeon’s eyes.

He had not expected Jin Geum-ho to make such an offer.

Given Jin Geum-ho’s desire for power and his desire to collect talent, Zeon had naturally assumed he would propose that Zeon come under his command.

“I will also give you a home where you can live in Neo Seoul, and citizenship. If you wish, I will give citizenship to the children living with you as well.”

“What exactly do you need to ask of me that you are willing to go this far?”

“Catch one monster for me.”

“What?”

“There is a project I have been working on for a long time to expand human territory. I need the heart of a certain monster for it.”

“Are there not many Awakened in Neo Seoul?”

“There are many Awakened, but you are the only one who can catch this creature.”

“What does that mean?”

“Its name is Moby Dick.”

“Moby Dick?”

“It is a giant whale that lives in the sand.”

“Such a monster exists?”

“It was recently discovered by Pathfinder Team 1.”

Neo Seoul operated Pathfinder teams to search for land where people could live.

Among them, Team 1 had submitted an unbelievable report.

“They said it is a super-large monster, one hundred and twenty meters long, with a body circumference of over thirty meters.”

“That is hard to believe. A monster that enormous.”

“I felt the same. It was difficult to believe. But they sent me this evidence, so I had no choice but to believe it.”

Whirr!

At that moment, one wall of the Mayor’s office opened, and an enormous white pillar appeared.

“What is this?”

“It is Moby Dick’s tooth.”

The object that looked like a white pillar was actually the tooth of Moby Dick, the land whale.

An enormous amount of mana could be felt from Moby Dick’s tooth.

“Mm!”

“Amazing, is it not? That is why I was surprised when I first received the tooth. The purity of the mana contained in it was too high.”

“It is enough to make one dizzy.”

Zeon spoke honestly.

He had never seen a monster part that contained mana of such high purity.

A part separated from a monster’s main body normally grew faint in mana.

“If a mere tooth contains such tremendous mana, what do you think its heart will be like?”

“What do you intend to do with Moby Dick’s heart?”

“I cannot tell you that much. However, I can say with certainty that what I intend to do will help humanity, not harm it.”

“......”

“This creature swims through the sand like a Sandworm. That is why ordinary Awakened cannot find it, nor can they kill it. Pathfinder Team 1 discovered Moby Dick only because luck followed them.”

Moby Dick was a whale that lived in the sand.

It possessed all the characteristics of a whale.

Because it could breathe within the sand, it did not have to come outside the sand at all.

Because of that, Pathfinder Team 1 had lost Moby Dick while tracking it. They searched the nearby area thoroughly for ten days, but the only thing they found was its tooth.

“In this world, the only person who can find and kill Moby Dick is you, a Sandmancer.”

“So that is why you sought me out.”

“That is right.”

“No matter how much of a Sandmancer I am, finding Moby Dick in this vast desert is impossible.”

“But if it is nearby, you can sense it, can you not?”

“If it is within ten kilometers, I think it may be possible.”

“Then that is enough. If, by chance, you ever sense Moby Dick, catch it. If you remove its heart and bring it back, I will be satisfied.”

Zeon closed his eyes.

He could not know what Jin Geum-ho intended to use Moby Dick’s heart for. But it was not an offer that harmed Zeon.

If Moby Dick truly possessed the same nature as a whale, it would swim thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers.

There was a high chance he would not encounter it even if he spent his whole life searching.

Jin Geum-ho’s proposal was not that he must find and catch it no matter what. He was asking Zeon to hunt it if he happened to encounter it by chance.

Jin Geum-ho looked straight at Zeon.

“What do you say? Will you accept my proposal?”

His eyes gleamed eerily.

As if he would not accept Zeon’s refusal.