Awakened as a Money-Spending Genius Enhancer - Chapter 103
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 103
Chapter 103. Not For Sale
Since things had come to this, Kang Hoon shrugged his shoulders.
“Just a meeting. Let’s do it, whatever.”
“…Then why were you crouching down and hiding?”
“I saw Seri hiding first, so I tried copying her.”
“…”
Seri pouted her lips and got up unsteadily.
“…Then, I’ll give Alba a tour of the building.”
She took the two away to make it easier for Park Kang-hoon to negotiate.
Park Kang-hoon wasn’t unaware that this was also consideration on her part.
Expressing his gratitude quietly to Seri─
“I’m Park Kang-hoon. I heard you were looking for me.”
He entered the meeting room confidently, but─
Staaaaaare…
“…”
“…”
He couldn’t help but let his gaze drift to her mechanical arms.
“…Ah, this must be your first time seeing my arms in person?”
As if his reaction was nothing new, Seo Mi-do shrugged her shoulders along with her writhing mechanical arms.
These mechanical arms were like a symbol representing her.
Though they were detachable equipment, they only obeyed Seo Mi-do’s commands.
More delicate than human hands, she invented them for use when nanometer-level fine adjustments were needed.
However.
When she appeared at public events, they drew attention and left a striking impression about magical engineering that could also attract sponsorship funds.
Of course.
That wasn’t the only reason.
Her graduate students called these mechanical arms by a different name.
‘Multi-purpose combat machine.’
Seo Mi-do’s growth plates had closed early.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she had traded her genius for height.
Of course, since she was naturally well-proportioned, her small stature didn’t bother her much.
But.
Combat was different!
She was also an awakened Hunter.
Since she had to directly explore dungeons and analyze countless golems.
Being short naturally meant shorter attack range, that is.
Shorter reach.
Depending on weapons and situations… it was naturally a hindrance.
Those mechanical arms could cover all such disadvantages and generate even stronger force than most ogres.
Bringing them meant─
She was also in ‘combat mode’!
A little… yes.
Actually, it also meant she was very nervous.
To her, Park Kang-hoon was an extremely important person who could break through her stalled research.
Gulp.
Trying to hide her nervousness, Seo Mi-do performed an action she would never normally do.
Smoothly!
She extended one of her smoothly moving mechanical arms toward Kang Hoon.
She was asking for a handshake!
Normally, she would never let anyone touch her precious invention.
But today, there had been promising results.
“Ooh…!”
Park Kang-hoon was actually impressed!
‘Hehe, how’s that! Magical engineering is cool, isn’t it amazing?! I knew it!’
Shaking hands with Kang Hoon using her mechanical hand, Seo Mi-do deliberately smiled leisurely, showing her white teeth.
“Nice to meet you, Hunter Park Kang-hoon!”
“Yes, hello.”
Whirr whirr.
The Enhancement Specialist’s hand and the mechanical hand shook together.
‘Good. My first impression must have been decent, right?’
She didn’t look weak.
With this thing, she didn’t look young either, seemed taller, and looked incredibly strong!
However,
There was one fact Seo Mi-do had overlooked.
Her opponent was Park Kang-hoon.
An Enhancement Specialist who could see the ‘information value’ of anything the moment it touched his hand!
“Hmm? This arm, the index finger seems a bit off? It’s moving 1.0 nanometers to the right. It says it needs repair.”
“…What, what did you say?”
Flustered by this, Seo Mi-do jerked her mechanical arm.
Because she herself knew that what he said was correct!
‘I was planning to repair it as soon as I got back from this business trip!’
Beyond just a ‘something seems off’ level diagnosis.
Wasn’t that assessment chillingly accurate?
“How did you know─”
──────that?!
Though she was dying to ask, Seo Mi-do quickly shut her mouth.
Hunters typically hide about 20% of their power.
And Crafters?
They hide everything except what’s known!
Therefore, she judged that Kang Hoon also wouldn’t reveal such ‘classified information.’
‘I… I lost…!’
Smoothly.
Clasping her hands behind her back dejectedly with her mechanical arms, Seo Mi-do tried to manage her expression.
‘I was completely outplayed. He even crushed me without any hesitation…!’
Cracks appeared in Seo Mi-do’s pride.
The fact that she, the great leading figure in magical engineering, had been intimidated in front of someone.
That itself was humiliating.
‘As expected, this genius’s ordinary and strange-looking actions were all an act. He’s no ordinary person…’
…Seo Mi-do had made a huge misunderstanding!
“…Hmm?”
Mind games, schemes, acting?
These were the things most distant from Kang Hoon.
In reality, he was just a passing equipment otaku.
…Just then, the information value of the [Magical Engineer’s Mechanical Arm] that caught his eye was like that.
[Magical Engineer’s Mechanical Arm]: The mechanical arm of magical engineer Seo Mi-do. Developed to handle ultra-miniature nano diode electronic components at 1/10,000th the thickness of a hair. Can also be used in combat when necessary. * Current durability: 91% Requires repair.
Even though he didn’t know what nano whatever was.
‘What cool equipment, but it’s injured! How unfortunate! Please fix it quickly!’
…That was all the feeling he had when he told her.
Blankly staring.
In front of such a pure soul, Kang Hoon.
‘Krrrghhhhh…!’
Seo Mi-do fell into misunderstanding and worried about future difficulties.
If she had just asked ‘How did you diagnose it?’ from the beginning, he would have smoothly said,
‘Ah~! The information value showed that. I couldn’t help myself~! Haha, sorry if I was rude~!’
…The young man Park Kang-hoon would have laughed it off like that.
‘I need to get my head straight!’
Seo Mi-do was raising the difficulty of this meeting herself.
In front of such a woman, Kang Hoon was having different dreams─
‘Why isn’t she getting to the point quickly?’
In his eyes, Seo Mi-do looked like an incredibly wealthy ‘customer.’
‘I thought she was going to give me some big commission….’
He was just waiting for her to quickly state her business and open her wallet.
Watching their standoff, the most flustered person was Guild Master Cheong Jeong-kwon.
“…How long are you two going to keep standing there?”
It was the beginning of a mismatched meeting.
* * *
A meeting between the world’s only Enhancement Specialist and the top figure in magical engineering.
It was fortunate that Seo Mi-do came secretly and discreetly.
If reporters had known, they would have swarmed like a pack of dogs,
shoving microphones forward and turning every conversation into articles – it was a meeting of the century.
However.
The meeting got off to a rocky start from the very beginning.
The first topic Seo Mi-do brought up was the golem.
──’Alba.’
“Your creation, that golem, Mr. Park Kang-hoon…. How much would it take for you to hand it over to me, Seo Mi-do?”
Actually, she wanted ‘Park Kang-hoon’ himself.
However.
Looking at those clear eyes, it didn’t seem like he would come just for money.
‘Then at least the golem he brought from the dungeon. Please….’
Since she had come all this way to sit face to face, she judged that he must have some intention to deal.
Seo Mi-do went straight to the point with a serious face.
“Huh?!”
Kang Hoon was rather flustered.
He asked back in a loose voice as if bewildered.
“Huh? What are you talking about? Is this why you wanted to meet?”
“…What?! If not this, what did you think we were meeting for?”
“Well, I don’t know….”
Since his profession was ‘Enhancement Specialist.’
Most of the big shots he met were related to enhancement requests or fairly large commissions.
So from common sense, he naturally thought it would be that direction.
‘I’m in urgent need of money to buy skill books right now.’
But suddenly she wanted his creation, the ‘golem’!
“Hmm. Honestly, I thought you came to request enhancement.”
“Enhancement?”
Raising his eyebrows, Kang Hoon corrected his previously polite attitude.
Then he quickly thought and made this suggestion.
“But you know. Couldn’t you request enhancement from me to make another Alba, and then research that or something?”
“Uh, what’s ‘Alba’?”
“That’s my golem’s name.”
“…Ah. I see. I’ll call it that too.”
Whirr, whirr.
Moving her mechanical arms, she wrote down ‘Alba’s’ name in the notebook she brought.
Seo Mi-do said.
“Mr. Park Kang-hoon, if I could do as you suggested, I wouldn’t be doing this.”
“?”
“There are no fragments of that gol… I mean, Alba left in that dungeon, ‘Twilight Ancient Ruins’ now.”
“Hm? What do you mean by that?”
“It seems that you directly bringing ‘Alba’ outside the gate affected the dungeon too. I secretly formed a team and sent them… but even after thoroughly searching the entire area, we couldn’t find even similar fragments.”
“The entire area? I just picked it up right at the starting point though?”
“….”
Soon both Seo Mi-do and Kang Hoon fell into deep thought.
‘Wait, that means….’
So far, there have only been two cases of ‘monsters’ coming out of dungeons.
First.
When killed by hunters and brought out as byproducts like hide, bones, horns, etc.
Such byproducts could commonly be seen on Corn Market.com.
However.
Second.
From here, the situation becomes very serious.
Failure to complete the mission within the time limit after gate generation.
The gate itself, the door to subspace, bursts and monsters pour out.
The so-called ‘Gate Incident.’
North Korea, which has become demonized today, is exactly the case that suffered that disaster.
Also, in such cases, the ‘burst gate’ explodes and disappears after pouring out all monsters.
Once disappeared, the same gate has never appeared twice.
In other words.
‘Only Park Kang-hoon has brought a living monster outside the dungeon through ‘Creation Transformation’!’
Moreover.
After doing so, ‘Alba’s’ existence disappeared from that dungeon.
It was an even more amazing discovery.
At the same time, it was also good news for Kang Hoon.
Sparkle.
“Ooh, so my Alba is the only one in this world?”
At this newly learned fact, Kang Hoon’s eyes lit up.
At that, gasp!
Seo Mi-do felt dismayed.
‘I shouldn’t have told him…!’
This was the result of getting caught up in this genius’s seasoned(?) eloquence(?).
Grin.
Park Kang-hoon smiles.
“No one can replicate it, huh…”
He never had any intention of selling it in the first place.
In fact, it wouldn’t have mattered even if there were five hundred Alba replicas.
From Kang Hoon’s perspective, he had simply learned one new fact.
In the end,
A bolt from the blue struck down upon Seo Mi-do’s head.
“I’m not selling.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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