Chapter 188 |
95(2) – Expansion
Hasad went back satisfied with Sanghyuk’s explanation, as he promised he would hand over Gorren’s black market and those of Mir Fortress and Dion Castle. As they used the Book of Pact to record their promises, Sanghyuk used everything he knew about the book to make the contract more advantageous. He cunningly placed some trap statements, and as he had done these things often, it was not that difficult for him.
After finishing the contract, Sanghyuk started sending supplies to Gorren City’s black market. He prepared for the future by sending in Sunstones he had gathered up to now and becoming friendlier with Enroph.
The Sunstones were only an advertisement, as they did not bring in much profit. Sanghyuk aimed to become the middleman between the user and the Sun people.
As the Sun people looked down on users, they refused to directly deal with them. Sanghyuk remembered from his past life that the users who had tried to deal with the Sun people first had been refused. They had to go between the lower lands and the higher plane.
Sanghyuk planned to construct his business web, so the users who would come to the land of the Sun had to use Sanghyuk’s business to make transactions. That way, he could make amazing profits, and to do so he had to be acknowledged by the Sun people. That was why he wanted his place in Gorren City.
‘I can maintain profit before the Sun Wars.’
As that was far in the future, Sanghyuk would only need to change his business methods until then. Since his plan was going smoothly after meeting Bacan and Hasad, it seemed that Sanghyuk would be able to build his business web faster than he thought.
‘Let’s name this one…Geumhae Group.’
**
Nothing much changed, however, as Sanghyuk continued to hunt for Sunstones. There were little things he was preparing, though. He remembered that the Sun people had gone crazy over cigarettes, which only the dimension travelers could get. Users were only beginning to use them. Interestingly, a user whose occupation was a cook made this. He had wanted to recreate cigarettes in EL and had spent years.
Cigarettes were categorized as ‘food.’ Since the cook user had revealed the recipe with a royalty, those with a certain level of cooking skills could make one. While these cigarettes were inferior compared to those in the real world but were adequate and unquestionably cheaper.
Sanghyuk knew that the Sun People would love them in the future. No one knew why, as the NPCs in the lower lands were indifferent to them.
Sanghyuk, therefore, kept storing cigarettes and began to present them little by little to the Sun People, especially to Enroph. It would be easier to sell them once the Sun People got a taste, and ten days went by easily.
Bacan was cooperative, and Hasan gave Sanghyuk other smuggling routes. Sanghyuk became even busier as he needed to hunt sixteen hours a day to keep up the Sunstone supplies. While it was tiring, he managed to gather massive amounts of karma. As a result, Sanghyuk’s level increased, and his items also became stronger. Sanghyuk thought he could build Geumhae Group in the Sun lands in a month, but things did not work out like that. There were problems both in the real world and the virtual one.
“So, you want me to stream more and participate in the next LGN Champions League, right?”
[Yes, I tried my best to stop them, but things are frigid here after Channel One’s ratings fell.]
Sanghyuk frowned as he spoke on the phone with Mirae.
“I know I haven’t streamed much, but…”
[I know. The higher-ups only want the numbers.]
Mirae also felt it was wrong to put unnecessary pressure on Sanghyuk, not as his friend but as an employee.
“They said to talk about my contract renewal if I didn’t follow through, right?”
Sanghyuk had gone against the thickheaded LGN higher-ups in his past life and knew the words Mirae had heard.
[How did you know?]
“It’s logical. I will try to satisfy them.”
[I’m sorry.]
“You shouldn’t be. I will try to follow LGN’s directions this time for you.”
[Thanks.]
Since Mirae would suffer the most if Sanghyuk went against LGN, he was going to concede this time.
“However, tell them this. If they want to control me with my contract renewal, I may move to Switch TV or Forcenet.”
While LGN was the top broadcasting company, these two firms were notably growing.
[I will tell them so.]
“Do I get a seed spot in the competition?”
[They’re saying you will go to the finals directly. It seems that Junyung Kim said he will participate if you come, and the higher-ups are doing all this to make this competition the hottest one.]
“Junyung Kim…All right, tell them I will participate.”
Sanghyuk wanted to fight him again, as Junyung Kim would give him a good fight.
[You can think this over, you know.]
“I don’t have time. Tell them I will go along.”
However, Sanghyuk was surprised to see that the competition would start ten days after accessing the LGN homepage. LGN was rushing things.
‘The competition is the unlimited mode? He’s not going to be a match.’
Sanghyuk had to smile, as no one could beat him in unlimited mode. After checking the schedule, Sanghyuk accessed the live channel management homepage. There were less than 10,000 subscribers, as Sanghyuk had put recorded videos or skipped them.
‘I should slowly build up my channel again. Let’s go with the middle earth videos.’
Sanghyuk had taped the sky as he navigated them and thought it would be all right to release them now.
‘I will do this for a month and then talk about the land of the Sun then, which would increase my subscribers.’
This would probably solve his problems in the real world, but Sanghyuk’s real problems lay in the virtual world. He had only come out of the capsule because Mirae had placed an urgent call.