Chapter 161

Chapter 161

The Pegasus Raid Team occupied a thirty-story ultramodern building located between West District and Central District.

The Pegasus Raid Team used the top seven floors.

It was a very obvious thing to say, but building prices in Neo Seoul were extremely expensive.

That was because there was no land left within Neo Seoul on which buildings could be constructed.

Demand was high, but there was no supply, so building prices had soared as if they would pierce the heavens.

They had risen so high that even the Pegasus Raid Team, one of the most prominent raid teams in Neo Seoul, did not dare purchase a building.

In the end, the Pegasus Raid Team had to be satisfied with using seven floors of a thirty-story building.

The world had changed, and the age of Awakened had arrived, but this land was still ruled by the logic of capitalism.

Money stood above Awakened.

Lee Ji-ryeong stood by the window with his arms crossed, looking out over Neo Seoul.

Countless lights lay beneath his feet.

“It took twenty years just to reach this point. But if this dungeon clearing ends safely, the Pegasus Raid Team will reach an even higher place.”

His gaze turned toward City Hall.

The tallest building, visible from anywhere in Neo Seoul. That was Lee Ji-ryeong’s final destination.

Of course, countless obstacles still remained.

The other raid teams in competition with him, and the rulers of each district.

Only after overcoming all of them would he finally be given the opportunity to face Jin Geum-ho, the master of City Hall.

He had no idea how many more wounds he would suffer or how much more blood he would shed in the future. Even so, Lee Ji-ryeong was confident he would overcome every obstacle and stand on equal footing with Jin Geum-ho.

“Though before that, I need to escape from this document hell......”

Lee Ji-ryeong smiled bitterly and looked at his desk.

Countless documents were scattered across it.

The personal histories of the personnel to be deployed in this clearing, operational plans, transportation to the dungeon, and even budget allocations.

Lee Ji-ryeong had to review all of it.

Preparing like this exhausted Lee Ji-ryeong more than clearing the dungeon personally.

“Whew!”

Just as Lee Ji-ryeong let out a faint sigh, it happened.

—Captain!

Suddenly, his secretary’s voice came through the intercom.

“What is it?”

—You have a guest.

“At this hour?”

—Yes! He says he came from West District.

Lee Ji-ryeong frowned.

If the person had come from West District, he could not ignore them.

“Let him in.”

—Yes!

A moment later, the door opened, and a man as sturdy as Lee Ji-ryeong entered.

His outward appearance was clearly that of an ordinary human, but somehow, the man had a metallic feeling to him.

Lee Ji-ryeong knew why he felt that way from the man.

‘He replaced a perfectly fine body with machines, so of course he gives off a metallic feeling......’

Most Awakened of West District replaced part or most of their bodies with machines.

There were some who openly displayed their mechanical bodies, but most disguised themselves to look as similar to human bodies as possible, like the man before him.

In particular, the higher an Awakened’s grade, the less obvious the mechanical traces became.

But even they could not completely hide the metallic feeling that lingered somewhere about them.

The man before him was the same.

A strong metallic quality could be felt from him.

The man greeted him first.

“It has been a long time, Captain Lee Ji-ryeong.”

“What brings you here?”

Lee Ji-ryeong immediately recognized the man’s identity.

The man who had suddenly come to visit in the middle of the night was Cha Jin-cheol of West District.

Lee Ji-ryeong’s eyes as he looked at him were not particularly friendly.

Cha Jin-cheol looked at the documents scattered across the desk and said,

“It seems you were working.”

“You have not yet told me why you came.”

“Those are documents related to the dungeon you will clear this time, are they not?”

“I asked why you came.”

“We would like to participate in this dungeon clearing as well.”

“How dare you!”

Lee Ji-ryeong’s expression turned cold.

It was a dungeon they had discovered, and a dungeon clearing plan they had established.

A large number of personnel and an enormous amount of funds had been invested.

If they succeeded in clearing the dungeon, it was certain to bring tremendous profit. Yet now West District was trying to put a spoon on the table, so of course he had no choice but to grow angry.

“Who gave you permission to participate?”

“Of course, we are not saying we will participate for free. We will cover half the clearing costs. In addition, we will support transportation and supplies.”

“I refuse.”

“Even though Lord Kim Hyun-su has shown interest?”

At that instant, the corner of Lee Ji-ryeong’s eye trembled.

Kim Hyun-su was the ruler of West District.

Outwardly, Lee Ji-ryeong was known as Grade A, but in reality, he possessed power close to Grade S. However, even he could not dare disregard Kim Hyun-su.

Kim Hyun-su was a Grade S Awakened himself, and he had countless Awakened under his command.

Among them were people whose power did not fall far behind Lee Ji-ryeong’s.

Cha Jin-cheol was one of them.

He smiled and said,

“I hope you will not be too displeased. In exchange, we will split the items excavated from the dungeon seven to three. Of course, you take seven, and we take three.”

“What about priority over the items?”

“That must be negotiated.”

Cha Jin-cheol smiled slyly, a smile that did not suit him.

“Why did you come this late? When I proposed investment before, you refused.”

“At the time, we judged the chance of success to be low.”

“And the reason you came now?”

“Has the Sandmancer not joined you?”

“So this is because of Zeon.”

Lee Ji-ryeong’s expression hardened.

---

Dungeons were graded according to the difficulty of clearing them.

They were assigned grades just like Awakened.

The problem was that no one could know a dungeon’s exact grade before entering it.

No technology existed that could determine a dungeon’s grade from the outside. Awakened had to enter personally and make a judgment while carrying out the clearing.

Because of that, a dungeon’s exact grade was usually assigned only after the clearing was complete. However, there was a method to roughly estimate a dungeon’s grade.

It was the mana value flowing out from the dungeon entrance.

The higher the mana value, the higher-grade the dungeon was, and the greater the probability that the rewards would be good.

The dungeon discovered this time was deep beneath the sand. Even so, it boasted an overwhelming mana value.

That meant there was a high probability it was a high-grade dungeon.

The Pegasus Raid Team staked everything on clearing this newly discovered dungeon.

Every Awakened belonging to the Pegasus Raid Team was mobilized.

The Pegasus Raid Team had a total of three hundred members.

Of them, more than one hundred were ordinary people.

They were in charge of support duties such as administration, supply distribution, and clearing plan development.

Because of that, the number of Awakened actually deployed into dungeon clearing was around two hundred.

For an ordinary dungeon, that would have been more than enough. But this time, they must have judged that even that was insufficient, because they recruited mercenaries from outside.

Because of that, not only Neo Seoul but even the slums became noisy.

The Pegasus Raid Team was a renowned raid team even within Neo Seoul. This was the first time such a Pegasus Raid Team had recruited personnel from outside.

People wondered just how extraordinary the dungeon must be for the Pegasus Raid Team to prepare this thoroughly.

Awakened who did not belong to a specific district or guild volunteered as mercenaries. Among them were Awakened from the slums as well.

Levin shook his head and entered the house.

“Ugh! It’s so noisy I could die. If two or more people gather, all they talk about is the Pegasus Raid Team.”

“Humans, honestly......”

Briel shook her head.

Last time, the White Bear Caravan had absorbed every issue, and this time, the Pegasus Raid Team was absorbing every issue like a black hole.

Levin asked Briel,

“Are you done preparing?”

“I don’t know! Everything at the Dokkaebi Market has completely dried up.”

“Tch! I knew it. It’s the same everywhere else.”

A dungeon clearing required a large number of supplies and items.

If something seemed even slightly helpful, the Pegasus Raid Team bought it. Even the useful items in the Dokkaebi Market had dried up.

Because of that, Briel’s research had suffered considerable disruption as well.

“Are the departure preparations going well?”

“Ah! You came at just the right time.”

“Mm? For what?”

“Take this.”

Briel threw the backpack beside her to the puzzled Levin.

“A backpack? Why this?”

“Put your hand inside.”

“Hm?”

Though confused, Levin put his hand into the backpack as Briel told him.

At the sudden cold feeling against his hand, Levin jumped in fright.

“Whoa! What is this?”

“Hoho! Coward.”

“What is this?”

“Put your hand in again. Don’t you feel something?”

“Uh, uh! There is something.”

Levin pulled out the object he felt inside the backpack.

What he pulled out was a large shovel.

“A shovel? No, more importantly, how did a shovel fit in here?”

Levin looked at the backpack with a confused expression.

The backpack was, at most, about one meter long. Yet the shovel he had pulled out from inside looked at least one meter and fifty centimeters long.

It was physically impossible.

“Is this a subspace backpack?”

“Mm! I barely succeeded yesterday.”

“Insane! You really made a subspace backpack?”

“It is still only at a basic level, though......”

“You really are amazing. Even in Neo Seoul, there are only a handful of people who can make objects enchanted with subspace.”

Levin looked genuinely impressed.

Objects enchanted with subspace were not released onto the market.

That was because high-ranking Awakened and guilds claimed them in advance. Because of that, Levin had not even been able to see an item enchanted with subspace before.

“But you’re an alchemist, so how did you make a subspace?”

“I was lucky. If you told me to make it again, I probably couldn’t.”

“Luck?”

“Mm! I was trying this and that, and it just happened to be made by coincidence.”

Briel spoke honestly.

She was not a professional Enchanter.

She could imitate them, but it was impossible for her to make objects with desired performance one after another like a high-grade Enchanter.

“I’ll give this to you, Levin.”

“Really?”

Levin’s eyes widened.

Objects enchanted with subspace could not be obtained even with money. The fact that she was giving him such a precious item without any conditions moved him deeply.

“Like I said earlier, the subspace inside isn’t that big. It is only about the size of one small room.”

“That’s more than enough. I can put all the things I need for this expedition inside.”

“Mm! You should mainly pack drinking water and food.”

“Don’t worry. I already prepared everything, so all I have to do is put it in. Wow! Thanks to you, this expedition will be comfortable.”

Levin hugged the backpack carefully as if it were a treasure.

His face was filled with happiness.

“Wait, this isn’t the time for me to stand around.”

“Mm?”

“I received a precious treasure, so I need to test it, don’t I? I’ll try putting all the supplies I prepared into the subspace backpack.”

Levin quickly ran into his room.

At that moment, Zeon came out of his room.

“What is he doing?”

“He’s happy because he got the subspace backpack.”

“The one you made yesterday?”

“Mm!”

“You gave that to Levin.”

“I can’t give it to you, Zeon. The porter should carry the backpack.”

“Pfft!”

Zeon burst out laughing.

Levin was moved because he had received a precious item, but to Briel, he was nothing more and nothing less than a porter who would carry troublesome luggage.