Chapter 69

Several months had passed since Amon returned from investigating <White Dawn>.

During that time, White Dawn had been acquired by Rekhetio Corporation.

Other companies, who later realized the secrets of White Dawn, regretted it deeply, but by then, the dungeon had already become the permanent property of Rekhetio.

During that period, Cash had done such an excellent job that no one even noticed any signs until the day of the acquisition.

Cash proudly puffed out her chest at the perfect victory.

“I worked overtime for months for this.”

To prevent any leaks, she ran the company like a prison.

She also buttered up officials, tightly controlled the media, and even deliberately caused incidents elsewhere to divert attention, just in case the stock charts reflected any intentions.

As a result, other companies didn’t notice a thing and lost White Dawn.

“Amon, you don’t even know what you brought back, do you?”

Amon nodded.

A dungeon where you could probabilistically extract Essence.

It was indeed a cheat.

But even as a dungeon, White Dawn was megacorp-level.

Acquiring the dungeon itself wasn’t subject to the Dungeon Special Law.

The Dungeon Special Law only applied to freely taking items obtained by searching inside the dungeon.

Rather, acquiring the dungeon itself meant securing future rights, so even if it was just the shell left after the 3 Dollar Group had taken the core, the acquisition price was set very high.

So high that Rekhetio Corporation had to use several years’ worth of funds and even stocks to acquire it.

For Amon and Sonia, it was hard to understand just how much of a cheat it was.

“You guys were in danger once.”

Amon pointed that out.

During the acquisition process, Rekhetio had stumbled significantly.

If an external attack had occurred, they could have been wiped out in one go.

Mobilizing 50% of their total strength was that risky.

Even now, after the successful acquisition, their weight class hadn’t fully recovered, and they were still in a precarious state.

For Amon and Sonia, it was hard to understand why they took such a dangerous tightrope walk.

But Cash thought differently.

“First, let me correct a misunderstanding. It wasn’t a gamble. It was all calculated.”

They were able to mobilize their total strength because they had foresight that there would be no fatal attacks for the time being.

They stumbled, but they didn’t collapse.

To others, it might seem like the heart of a beast, but to Cash, it was a rational decision.

“Also, the costs we incurred this time will be fully recovered in a year. In fact, once fully recovered, it will be incomparable to before.”

She explained the value of Essence to the still-confused Amon and Sonia.

Essence is the power to manipulate concepts themselves.

Amon’s Sky Step applies to all actions of stepping on air.

Depending on the content, the price varies, but it’s still used somewhere.

“You know I tried to buy Essence for you, but there was no supply, right?”

When Amon was getting new equipment, Cash had tried to get him Essence as well.

But the Essence Amon wanted wasn’t available.

The supply couldn’t keep up with the overwhelming demand.

“That’s why current Essence supply companies were created, but they still can’t keep up with demand.”

Some companies even acquired dungeons with relatively high drop rates and kept their employees running to extract Essence like a factory.

But the Essence they produced still couldn’t meet the demand.

In other words, the Essence market is a blue ocean.

“Imagine a business that can stably supply Legendary Essence appearing in such a market.”

The term “game-changer” was fitting.

Thinking that the price is justified is just one-dimensional.

Now, through Legendary Essence, Rekhetio will set the price for all Essence, and other Essence companies will have to follow the prices they set.

What if an Essence company crosses Rekhetio?

If Rekhetio keeps releasing the same Essence as that company at a Legendary level, that company will go bankrupt in an instant.

Countless other possibilities came to mind.

To summarize, it meant that Rekhetio Corporation could now dominate the Essence market as they pleased.

“Wow.”

Hearing that, Amon and Sonia could understand the value of the information they had brought.

The meaning of monopolizing a market was immense.

It was absolute power.

“Thank you. The final key our company was missing has been filled.”

Rekhetio boasted overwhelming capital power through future foresight-based asset investments.

But surprisingly, they often fell behind in power struggles among megacorps because the irreplaceable power each megacorp held couldn’t be matched by capital power alone.

At best, they could use foresight to sow discord, engage in politics, and maneuver carefully to stand shoulder to shoulder, but even that was limited.

In the end, compensating for the lack of weight class with such tactics hurt their pride and was exhausting.

This fatigue wasn’t just for the employees but also for the chairman.

“When your weight class grows, people don’t pick fights as easily, and even if they do, it’s easier to handle, and you can focus less on other things, so efficiency increases…”

The benefits were too many to list in a day.

No wonder the chairman adored Amon.

“Da… I mean, Amon, because of you, my dad is really happy that he doesn’t have to engage in exhausting power struggles with other megacorps.”

Cash barely swallowed the word “son-in-law.”

It was still too early, and the chairman didn’t praise Amon’s contributions in such a dignified manner.

– “Our son-in-law is the best!!”

Recalling her father popping champagne as soon as he heard the news, Cash conveyed his gratitude.

“He said to ask for anything. He’ll grant any wish.”

Amon was embarrassed by the blank check Cash handed him.

Between the contract with the 3 Dollar Group and the money from Rekhetio, he already had more money than he could spend.

He had moved to a wealthy neighborhood and built a house as grand as Cash’s.

Now, he could eat real meat whenever he wanted.

His equipment was high-end, and all that was left was for him to train.

Even if they offered more, nothing came to mind…

“Ah.”

“Did you think of something?”

Amon cautiously asked Cash.

“By any chance, are you thinking of running an orphanage?”

*

Several more months passed.

Following Amon’s suggestion, the Rose Bud Orphanage was established.

It was structured exactly like the Perfume Rose Orphanage where Amon had come from.

A 10-story building that functioned as a welfare center during the day, with various facilities.

Since there was already the precedent of the Perfume Rose Orphanage, there were no operational worries.

As long as they picked a good director, it would run smoothly.

And Amon already had someone in mind for the director position.

“Amon-kun. Do you see me as unemployed? I have a lot to do as an exorcist, you know?”

It was the Narrow-Eyed Priest, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time.

Sonia often met him as a guest professor at the university, but for Amon, it had been over a year since he last heard his voice.

After no contact for so long, the first thing Amon said when he visited was,

“Please be the orphanage director.”

Who would readily accept that?

It was natural for the priest to react that way.

“Sigh… I’m such a pushover… Let’s have a meal sometime.”

But despite grumbling, the priest accepted the position of orphanage director.

With the new orphanage issue resolved, Amon returned to his main job.

His main job, of course, was one thing.

Mercenary work.

Now, it was more for self-realization and training than for making a living.

In the process, his mercenary credit rating rose to platinum, and he earned the nickname <Crusader>, but that’s not important.

As he continued taking requests, Cash’s named request came in for the first time in a while.

“Perfect timing, I was getting bored lately.”

Amon gladly accepted the request.

The requests he received through the Mercenary Agency felt too easy for him.

Some might be shocked to hear it, but he wanted more challenging and dangerous missions.

In that sense, Cash’s request was perfect.

“This time, you should prepare thoroughly before going.”

Unlike during the White Dawn incident, Cash emphasized the need to be cautious.

Amon immediately returned home and began checking his equipment.

“Subspace coat, twenty-eight daggers, five longswords, a pistol, a crossbow…”

As he meticulously checked each piece of equipment, Sonia approached him.

“I can’t go with you this time…”

Sonia rested her chin on Amon’s head as he sat.

Amon patted her head as she whined.

From atop his head, Sonia muttered.

“Come back before my internship starts.”

“I promised. I’ll be back by then.”

“Good.”

Sonia answered, rolling her head to rest her chin on Amon’s shoulder again.

Then she turned her head and emphasized in his ear.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“Of course.”

Amon turned his head and bumped his lips against her cheek.

*

The next day, Amon headed to the airport to carry out Cash’s request.

When the plane arrived at its destination, he received a call on his phone.

It was the Narrow-Eyed Priest.

“Amon-kun. Didn’t we say we’d have a meal together sometime?”

“That’s how it turned out.”

“Amon-kun? Wait a minute? Are we going to let another year pass like this? Hey, you-!”

Amon hung up.

He lightly stepped into the waiting vehicle.

The destination was an android manufacturing company,

<Lloyd & Life>.

*

On the way from the airport to the Lloyd & Life company building, Amon recalled his conversation with Cash.

“Lloyd & Life is one of the megacorps our company has invested in.”

It’s easy to forget, but Rekhetio Corporation’s essence is an investment company.

They profit by short-selling and destroying competitors, but fundamentally, they make a living through investments.

Therefore, it wasn’t strange that they had invested in a megacorp.

The problem was the request content.

“First, the request content is for you to go there as our company’s representative and check if the investment funds are being used properly.”

For Amon, it was quite a baffling story.

He was a swordsman, not a suit-wearing businessman.

Even if he saw how the company’s money was flowing, he wouldn’t understand it.

Of course, Cash knew that well.

“However, this is only the surface mission. There’s a real mission separately.”

With those words, Cash took out a box from the drawer.

The long box was divided into three compartments inside.

Each compartment contained a piece of paper rolled up like a cigarette.

She pointed to the left and said,

“I’ve written down what you need to do here. Unroll them when you arrive, when the incident is resolved, and when you leave.”

The papers were specially treated to turn to ash after one minute, and she emphasized that they should only be unrolled at the specified times.

Amon was puzzled.

“Why go through such a hassle?”

To his question, Cash explained the limits of her foresight.

“My ability is to glimpse the threads of fate connected to someone. I can see the actions they take towards me, but I can’t know everything about them.”

By weaving multiple threads of fate, she could indirectly predict the future, but there were still limits.

One of those limits was when she sent Amon directly into the dungeon last time.

She knew Amon would accept the request and that he would succeed and return to submit a report.

But she didn’t know the exact content of the ‘report’ Amon would submit.

She could guess the content through conversation, but it wasn’t as certain as seeing it directly.

That was the limit of her ability.

Because of this, she couldn’t fully prophesy Amon’s future and could only give fragmented advice like this.

There was another reason.

“Ultimately, foresight must be acted upon to be realized.”

No matter how much information you have, if no one even goes to investigate, you can’t know that future.

Therefore, even if you know, there’s a clear limit that you must send investigators.

After hearing Cash’s explanation, Amon understood and took the box.

.

.

.

Returning to the present, Amon took out the box.

Just before arriving at the company, he unrolled the leftmost paper to check its content.

<Act as you see fit, follow your heart. You are always right.>

As Amon read the sentence over and over, the paper suddenly turned to ash and disappeared.

As Amon brushed off the ash from his hand, the car arrived at the company.

“Please get out.”

The driver said.

Numerous employees rushed out and opened the car door for Amon, welcoming him.

Afterwards, Amon followed an assigned guide and listened to stories about the investment.

“This is Heriter 3.0, which our company has recently developed. It’s a technology that extracts only the behavioral patterns of the deceased to converse with their families, but now it also considers the deceased’s search history and environment to provide more natural responses.”

“Uh-huh.”

Amon had no idea what they were talking about and just nodded.

If investment talk came up,

“We’ll discuss it at headquarters.”

He just brushed it off.

Meanwhile, Amon’s mind was filled with the sentence Cash had written.

‘Am I right?’

Even as he nodded, he wasn’t sure.

He just nodded because Cash said so.

Thus, without understanding anything properly, the tour was coming to an end.

‘Is this the mission?’

It was too peaceful.

That fact actually heightened Amon’s vigilance.

Then, suddenly, a siren blared in the company.

[Entity escaped in Section 3! Isolating the area!]

Amon, startled, asked the guide for an explanation.

The guide, considering Amon an investor, explained the escaped entity.

“The entity’s name is <Happy Baker>. It’s a baker that bakes human-shaped cookies.”

According to the guide, the baker bakes pastries shaped like specific employees based on its mood that day.

At that time, the pastries that come out of the oven are indistinguishable from the original person.

Their physical abilities and magic used are different, but their appearance, personality, and speech are exactly the same.

At this point, the pastry is considered human, so it’s useful for human experiments, analyzing human behavior patterns, or offering it to entities that require human sacrifices.

“Actually, a significant portion of our company’s products are created by accumulating big data from the actions of these pastries.”

The problem is the three characteristics that appear when the pastry meets the original.

First, the pastry will try to kill the original by any means.

The pastry’s physical abilities aren’t extremely strong, but they’re not weak either.

They’re strong enough to kill researchers.

Second, if the pastry kills the original, it can then use the original’s physical abilities and magic.

Third, the pastry helps other pastries replace the original.

When these three combine, it becomes a headache.

At first, a weak researcher is replaced, then several together replace a decent security guard, and later, the security team could be replaced.

Therefore, when <Happy Baker> escapes, the manual is to shut down the entire section where the baker is.

Then, through strict inspections, they have to pick out the pastries one by one.

After finishing the explanation, the guide said to Amon,

“We’re currently in Section 5, so you can rest assured. From now on, it might be a bit dangerous, so we recommend you hurry home.”

At the guide’s kind suggestion, Amon nodded.

Amon followed the guide towards the building exit.

But when they reached the exit, Amon’s steps halted.

He looked at the exit and muttered,

“So… that’s what it meant.”

The guide looked at Amon, who had suddenly stopped moving.

“Is there a problem…”

Swish.

At that moment, Amon’s sword sliced through the guide’s neck.

The person’s head flew into the air.

Belatedly, red liquid gushed from the severed neck.

“Kyaaah!”

An employee who witnessed the scene screamed.

The guards also panicked and drew their weapons.

But when the red liquid gushing from the severed neck began to flow on the floor, everyone felt something was off.

It wasn’t blood.

It was jam.

Strawberry jam.

The first to realize the meaning was the guard closest to Amon.

Amon said to the guard,

“Is it really okay to just shut down Section 3?”

The guard, pale-faced, picked up the radio.

Soon, the entire building was locked down.

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