God-Tier Enhancement: My Upgrades Never Fail-Chapter 71: Episode 14 _ My Lord, You Know Best (2)

3.

“My Lord.”

Simin greeted the aide, “Long time no see.”

“Have you been well?”

“Oh, you know. I’ve been staying up every night agonizing over how to develop the territory in a way that lets me squeeze the most out of it.”

“Haha.”

’I’m not joking, you punk.’

Couldn’t he tell, when he had rushed over here instead of taking the break he was supposed to be on?

There was no point saying that to an NPC.

He just brushed it off as a joke and looked around.

In the month and a half since he had last been here, the territory had developed quite a bit.

The shabby houses and subsistence farming were gone, and while it wasn’t yet at the level he wanted, new buildings were going up one by one.

“This is encouraging. It’s still small, but if we keep developing bit by bit, someday we’ll become the greatest entertainment city on the continent.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“How are our external relations coming along?”

“Once we secured public safety from the monsters, merchants slowly began passing through our territory on their way to other kingdoms. The territory hasn’t developed enough to generate real profit yet, but it’s an issue that should resolve itself over time.”

“Good.”

There were still countless problems to solve in the territory.

Even so, just hearing that we had taken a single step was satisfying.

’Is this what it feels like to be a parent?’

For some reason, he found himself silently vowing to wipe out those bandit bastards skulking around nearby.

“You’ve been working hard. Take this and go buy yourself something good to eat in the nearest city.”

“Oh my. Thank you, my lord.”

It was a once-in-a-lifetime display of generosity from Simin.

Three gold coins landed in the aide’s hand.

Even his plump, slick frame was starting to look a little endearing.

He hadn’t expected much from an NPC, but he found himself noticing how hard the man was working to develop his territory.

Wasn’t this exactly the kind of aide he had been hoping for?

“Well, I’ll leave you to it. I’m going to look around the area a bit.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Simin clasped his hands behind his back in a dignified pose and walked out of the village.

Truthfully, he didn’t need to come all the way to the territory with Gongheon. He thought they could have just hunted down the bandits lying in ambush on their way here. But since he was here anyway, he couldn’t shake his curiosity.

’I wonder if the magic circle is activating properly.’

He had heard that thanks to it, they were catching tons of valuable monsters and selling them for a profit, but he couldn’t help wanting to see it with his own eyes.

“Oh. It’s working nicely.”

When he reached the outskirts of the territory, the magic circle he had installed came into view. It was a circle invisible to ordinary players, NPCs, and monsters, but visible to its owner.

Here, nothing had been developed besides the watchtower, so the place looked shabby, but to him, this was a treasure he wouldn’t trade for the territory itself. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Satisfied by its unchanging, reassuring presence, he headed toward where the rabbits were waiting.

The trip had been worth it, despite his fatigue. It was time to get to work. Then, he paused, confused. When he arrived at the rabbits’ rally point, he noticed a strange standoff in progress.

“What the hell?”

“I think they’re bandits,” Gongheon muttered from where he had been waiting with the rabbits.

My expression twisted.

Seriously, why?

“All those people?”

“Yes. Look at their cheap armor and hodgepodge of weapons. From the looks of it, they look like they’re from the East.”

“Wow. Just at a glance, there have to be several hundred of them. They bought that many capsules?”

“They must be convinced they’ll earn back far more than they spent.”

’I’m not so sure about that.’

’No, wait. Maybe they’re buying defective capsules on the cheap.’

Either way, Simin had no interest in how other people invested their money. What pissed him off was why the hell it had to be his territory.

“I thought they were just playing bandits. Why are they squared up like they’re about to raid someone’s territory?”

“...They must have decided it was easy enough to plunder,” Gongheon replied.

“These lunatics.”

When Simin had only heard about it, he had shrugged it off, but seeing it with his own eyes left him speechless.

Were they really going to raid a territory? No matter how small, it was still land owned by a noble.

A chill ran down his spine. He hadn’t anticipated this part. The game was just too damn realistic.

He had assumed no one would have the guts to attack a territory under the Empire’s protection, given how realistic the game was.

He realized stopping his thoughts there had been a mistake. Bandit NPCs might think that way, but players wouldn’t. Empire or not, as long as they made money, that was all that mattered.

Especially players who had a workshop; if things went south, they could just make new accounts. That was probably how he thought they saw it.

“We really had a close call.”

It might have started as Gongheon’s personal greed, but in the end, it had helped Simin enormously.

The magic circle I had bought from the Magic Tower was excellent, but its one flaw was that it didn’t trigger on humans.

Given the cost, he thought it had been inevitable; the version he had bought was only designed to target monsters across a vast stretch of land.

“Great. Now I have to worry about these damned players too.”

His headache grew a little worse.

The residents of the territory had no way to stop that many players.

They might be weaker than monsters, but humans were cunning to an absurd degree.

It would be easy for a territory with no proper law and order to collapse.

“You sons of bitches...”

The more I thought about it, the more my anger boiled over.

If things had gone wrong, my $160,000 magic circle might have ended up as a lone guardian spirit in a ruined territory, a footnote in the history books.

“You’re all dead.”

That single sentence marked the end of the strange standoff.

“Get them!”

The workshop players had heard there were only NPCs in the small village, but now the rabbits charged straight at them.

* * *

To him, it was a stroke of luck; but judging by the looks on the workshop players’ faces, it was a once-in-a-lifetime disaster.

Their encounter turned into a drawn-out, ugly affair.

“What the hell are these rabbits?!”

“Damn it! You! Who the hell are you to mess with our business? You got a death wish?”

The rabbits had gone through a month of special training and were now over level 35.

It stung that the rabbits had gained over seven levels while he had only gained five, but since he got double the stat points, he told himself it was like gaining ten levels.

In any case, the rabbits’ assault rendered the difference in numbers meaningless.

The workshop players were only in their mid-twenties at best, maybe low thirties, so there was more than a twofold level gap right from the start.

His little army could have stripped off their gear and still beaten them.

The only real difference from the Kenji Guild or Shield Guild and the players in front of them was... malice.

“Where do you live? I’m coming to find you right now.”

“You bastard! Get this shit out of here, now!”

The nerve of these guys was unbelievable. They were the ones who had invaded, yet they were yelling at the owner for defending his own land.

Their tone was so vicious that Simin flinched for a moment, but that wasn’t enough to make him back down.

“Get lost, assholes. You’ve got a lot to say for people trying to loot someone else’s land. You’d better shut your mouth before I hunt you down and kill you until your character gets deleted.”

“You crazy bastard. You’re saying this is your land? We’ll make you regret ever touching us. Kill us, kill us again, and kill us some more. See if we give up. We’ll take shifts 24/7 and make your life hell.”

“Do whatever you want.”

Simin never backed down from a fight. He thought that in real life, he might actually die, so he would swallow his precious pride—but this was just a game.

There was no need, and no reason, to hold back.

Besides, he had an army at his back, and that made him feel like there was nothing to fear.

“I’ll say this too. You picked the fight first, so I’m going to keep killing you until you apologize and pay me $500,000. You’d better be ready. I’m a guy with a lot of free time.”

“Idiot. Whatever.”

Neither side backed down. Naturally, there was no end to the war of words. Except one side was dying over and over.

Watching the scene, Gongheon clicked his tongue. “Poor bastards.”

They were his competitors and interfered with his business, so he’d been the one to rat them out, but he still felt a sliver of sympathy for anyone tangled up with Han Simin.

Gongheon thought back to how he had initially had a good impression of him, which made it all the more horrifying.

He had actually been happy at first, since Han Simin was a hot topic on the FW community, but when he had used that as a pretext to shove a soul-stripping contract in his face, he had seemed like a completely different person.

The only reason they were still on decent terms was that Gongheon had, at least, signed that contract with a smile.

The bandits in front of him, however, were clinging to their pride and baring their teeth. Of course, that might be the natural reaction.

For them, this line of work was their livelihood. If someone threatened to cut your lifeline, who would just sit there and take it? In the end, their real bad luck was choosing this territory as their target.

“Ugh. Shit. I’m pissed.”

Even after killing every last one of them, Simin was still fuming, breathing hard through his nose.

“Want me to try and find out where their workshop is?” Simin offered.

“What? Why?” Gongheon asked.

“They’re acting like they’re ready for a real-life fight.”

“Are you insane? What if you go there and they harvest your organs?”

His confidence came entirely from anonymity.

In reality, he was just a guy who had finished his military service and was loafing around like a bum in his first year in the workforce. He wondered what nerve he had to face people from the dregs of society?

Be handled in the game! Anyway, thanks. Thanks to you, she had protected her investment.” Simin decided.

“...Thank you as well.”

“I’ll start buying gold from you in batches of two thousand.”

“Okay.”

After taking the gold, Simin issued orders to the rabbits.

“I’m taking two days off. If anyone tries to enter the territory, smash them on sight and loot their items. Got it?”

His rabbit soldiers squealed in agreement.

“If you get hungry, go into the village and ask the pig-man in the village for some nice carrots.”

“Kkyu!”

He was going to be unemployed for a while anyway.

He had nothing to do and had planned to wander around enhancing the egg or something, but now he had just been handed new content that made his heart race— Pest control.

With a plan in mind, he logged out.

* * *

4.

First, he slept for twelve hours.

The bed was so high-end that his back didn’t hurt, even after sleeping that long.

When he woke up, he washed up in warm water, got dressed, and went out to enjoy brunch at a five-star hotel.

And that wasn’t all.

After eating, he lingered in the hotel’s outrageously luxurious dessert café, savoring pastries and coffee at his leisure.

It was worth every penny.

At least for today.

“Since I’m out anyway, should I just stay a night at the hotel?”

He didn’t look at the cheapest rooms, either—his eyes drifted toward the suites. He couldn’t quite bring himself to go that far. Even with over $1 million in his account, his mindset stayed the same.

“Why sleep at a hotel when I’ve got a perfectly soft bed at home?”

Besides, he had just wired $200,000 to Gongheon before coming out, so he wasn’t entirely carefree.

“I’ll just watch a movie.”

Today was a true day of rest.

He decided to erase the game from his mind and focus on enjoying real life. That way, he thought, he could go hard again afterward. Leaving the hotel, he headed straight out to look for an apartment.

He had $1.1 million on hand. Setting aside $70,000 for emergencies, he began hunting for a place.

“I want somewhere with lots of shops nearby, good transportation, close to the subway, and with plenty of people around.”

In Seoul, an apartment like that was expensive.

He thought that if he bought a commercial unit instead, he might be able to look forward to additional income. But he was convinced he would make more money in Fantastic World than any building could earn him, so he didn’t overthink it and picked a place that met his conditions.

“Can I see this one?”

A little under twelve hundred square feet.

It would cost the full $1.1 million, but to be able to call a place his own made his heart flutter.

There was a lot to do and a lot to research, but so what?

’I’ll just cut back on sleep to sign the contract and move.’

At the same time, he started thinking about how to decorate the place.

It would just be a place to use the bathroom, wash up, and eat for a few hours a day outside the capsule, but still.

“Heh. I’m excited.”

The place itself was exactly the clean, simple style he liked, and he appreciated the layout too.

After living in a cramped shoebox studio and only just upgrading to a three-hundred-and-fifty-square-foot officetel, what was there to complain about?

“I’ll take it.”

Having chosen a home, he canceled his movie ticket and went straight back to the capsule.

“Ah. That was a productive day.”

His vow to forget the game for two days vanished the moment he pictured his soon-to-be-empty bank account. It was time to earn every last penny he could.

“Starting today, anyone hanging around near my territory playing bandit—whatever their excuse—gets wrecked on sight.”

The soon-to-be homeowner, fired up with motivation, logged back in.

* * *

Episode 72