Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 101

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (101)

What do you mean what to do

Right after hanging up the phone.

Lee Si-hyeok went inside and immediately began going around the warehouse, gathering the things he needed. Construction-based materials, mana circuit-related materials, measurement and testing components… and so on.

Since he was gathering items from a list he had already thought out, there was no hesitation. The time he had spent staying up all night at Cheongyeon Workshop thinking it through had paid off.

Swoosh, swish!

There was no need to get a cart separately. The materials he grabbed were immediately thrown into his 『Subspace』.

It would take forever to sort them out since he threw them in haphazardly, but what could he do.

‘This is the fastest way.’

Since there were quite a lot of materials needed, there wasn’t enough time to move and load them one by one. Stacking them on a cart, then moving that to subspace again.

It would be better to use that time to devise a more efficient design instead.

Lee Si-hyeok made a full round of the warehouse like that and returned to the entrance.

Rustle.

He took out the paper he had written on all night and checked the list.

He had gathered everything for the auxiliary systems, and nothing was missing from the interior side either, so then the processing materials were…

“Ah, I haven’t gathered those yet.”

Lee Si-hyeok snapped his fingers and finished gathering the materials he had forgotten.

This seemed to be everything he needed to gather. Even if something else was needed later, well, he could just stop by again then.

With an excited heart, he looked around his surroundings.

It was a completely different sight from when he had first opened the warehouse door earlier.

Clearly, materials had been stacked like towers back then, but now the pillars were riddled with holes.

The smaller materials were the same way. The lighting that had been illuminating them wandered aimlessly through empty air with nowhere to go.

Then the depths of the warehouse.

When he confirmed that even the sector where the highest-grade materials were stored had been completely emptied out, worry suddenly welled up.

‘…It’ll be okay, right?’

Did he take too much?

There were more things needed than he had thought. As he looked around, there were also things he personally coveted. He had trusted only Deputy Han Da-hee’s words and gathered everything without exception, but maybe this was too much.

However, Lee Si-hyeok soon shook his head.

It was excessive worry.

The Expo, seminar, and even the Eterion incident. Thinking of that series of events, he thought he was fully qualified to receive this much.

The Association had gained tremendous benefits thanks to him. He had prevented national losses and even elevated Korea’s international standing to great heights.

‘Well, it wasn’t something I intended.’

He wasn’t trying to show off.

However, wouldn’t hesitating when he was qualified to receive it be too excessive?

He didn’t want to live while shrinking back.

Lee Si-hyeok smiled slightly and took out his smartphone.

Before entering subspace, he wanted to check his messages one last time, and there was a text from the Association.

It was from Team Leader Kim Seung-hyeon.

[Hello, Mr. Lee Si-hyeok. This is Team Leader Kim Seung-hyeon from the Awakener Association’s Grade Assessment Team.]

[We have safely returned from Cheongyeon Workshop to Seoul Headquarters. First, I want to express our gratitude. Thanks to you, we should be able to begin arresting foreign spies soon. We’ve been proposing this for a while, but it kept getting delayed due to other matters.]

A longer message than expected.

Lee Si-hyeok’s gaze moved downward.

[Also, I heard from Deputy Han Da-hee. You’ve currently arrived at Pohang Research Complex. I also know that you plan to gather necessary items from the warehouse, as you mentioned before.]

[Please feel free to take any items you want. Really, anything at all. Our Deputy Han Da-hee seems to have given you some hints, but I’ll educate her about this separately. I’m sorry for causing you worry.]

“No…”

There was no need to go that far.

Given Deputy Han Da-hee’s personality, she hadn’t blatantly given hints, she had just hesitated briefly when Lee Si-hyeok asked directly.

He was about to send a reply with a bitter smile when another text arrived just then. It seemed he had been continuing to write while Lee Si-hyeok was reading.

[Ah, there’s one matter I failed to mention before. The rewards you requested as compensation for the seminar’s first session – the highest-grade magic stone samples plus 2 other rewards. Originally, they were stored in the accommodation assigned to you.]

[…During inspection, we discovered you had left them behind, so we collected them. And those rewards are currently stored in the warehouse where you are now.]

“Oh.”

Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes widened slightly.

Come to think of it, the rewards given after winning the session.

He had forgotten about them because he was rushing through the workshop tour at the time, but they were stored here?

If he had those, they would be much more helpful for building the research lab.

[Storage cell R-7E-032. Please check and take them with you. Once again, thank you very much.]

After sending a brief reply, he headed there.

* * *

R-7E-032.

Past the general storage area, through intermediate, to highest-grade.

It was a small room in the deepest part of the warehouse.

When he held up the provided card key, the door opened immediately as if it had been pre-authorized. On a pure white shelf sat a single small storage box all alone.

Click.

He carefully unlocked it.

And seeing the items revealed, Lee Si-hyeok unconsciously let out an exclamation.

“Wow.”

Several well-processed crystal fragments.

One sphere that felt both liquid and solid at the same time.

A total of 15 jewel-like gate byproducts emitted dazzling colors.

Name tags were attached above them in neat handwriting.

[Highest-Grade Magic Stone Samples (14 types)]

[S-Rank Gate Core Essence (1 type)]

Truly treasures of tremendous value.

At a glance, they looked far superior to the level he had received at the seminar.

‘Did they deliberately prepare better ones?’

Lee Si-hyeok had also gathered magic stone samples and core essence from the warehouse earlier. They were materials essential for building a research lab.

However, there was no comparison to this.

No matter how highest-grade the materials were, in the end it was just a ‘large warehouse.’ Mass procurement was inevitably required, and even obtaining small quantities, such items could never be stored comfortably in an open warehouse like this.

These were byproducts treated as almost national treasure-level in society.

The Association was probably keeping them secretly stored too.

Yet they had readily given them to Lee Si-hyeok.

And 15 of them at that.

“Huh, well this is…”

He felt dazed.

Of course, Lee Si-hyeok was aware of his position too.

That if he wanted, obtaining this much was easily possible from his position, and that if he made demands to the Association, they would never refuse.

However, knowing something and experiencing it firsthand were different.

In fact, until now he had never ‘directly’ gone out to find materials. At most, he had toured workshops for a few days recently.

The reason was simple.

‘What I had was sufficient.’

From Termion’s Underground Warehouse to Eterion’s autonomous warehouse.

While they weren’t filled with amazing materials, Lee Si-hyeok had been able to create tremendous artifacts with just that level of materials.

He always had the desire to try better materials, but he focused on developing what was right in front of him. There were many paths forward even without materials.

That’s how it had been until now.

“…”

But facing them with his own eyes like this made him think a little differently.

…What if, someday.

Beyond Earth, across dimensions.

And if I were to gather only the finest materials from all those dimensions combined.

What kind of artifact would be born then?

Just how much would such an artifact transcend common sense?

Intense curiosity arose in Lee Si-hyeok’s heart.

Though he didn’t know when that day would come….

At the same time, there was a memory that flashed through his mind.

―Nari Basin Gate.

The countless new materials that would be discovered in that Gate, which would soon be conquered, and the main body of [Necrosis] sleeping somewhere within.

Even if they weren’t the finest materials in existence, wouldn’t they at least be close to that level? Wouldn’t they be worth attempting to use?

‘I should go there right after this matter is finished.’

By the time the research lab construction was completed, the conquest would probably be finished too.

Lee Si-hyeok smiled faintly as he organized his plans and put away the storage container.

[Special Skill 『Subspace』 is activated.]

Then he stepped into the rift that appeared.

* * *

A moment later.

After entering the subspace and looking around, Lee Si-hyeok unconsciously swallowed hard. Then he stood still and opened and closed his mouth.

“Hmm.”

He had certainly entered with high spirits. With the intention of quickly finishing the research lab construction and challenging a new goal.

But seeing the surrounding scene, only sighs flowed out.

The 『Subspace』 that was like a pitch-black universe.

And the 327 Legacy Artifacts brought from Orbes, scattered haphazardly throughout that vast space.

Seeing that chaotic mess, a sense of overwhelming despair struck him.

“When am I going to clean all this up…?”

He remembered that when he had gathered them from the Orbes treasury, he had just thrown them into the subspace randomly.

That was because the situation had been too urgent. The Infected were rapidly increasing, the world was collapsing… So there was no time to consider organization.

It was the same afterward.

When he returned to the Snow Flame Empress’s Grand Mansion, he was preoccupied with Blackie, and right after that, didn’t the seminar incident occur consecutively?

That’s how he had reached this point.

The artifacts were literally forming mountains.

Ugh…. Lee Si-hyeok groaned, then shifted his gaze slightly to look beside them.

But that place was even more spectacular.

The construction materials he had just dumped from the warehouse were piled up like mountains in exactly the same way.

Two peaks rose prominently in the infinite space.

The sight reminded him of a camel’s humps, making him let out a hollow laugh.

What to do about this.

“…What do you mean what to do.”

I have to sort them out one by one.

Lee Si-hyeok patted his cheeks and started moving.

He had to do something anyway. He couldn’t just stand there feeling overwhelmed forever.

And no matter how daunting it seemed, if he had gone through the sorting process in the warehouse, it would have taken even longer. In the end, this process was the fastest method.

“Legacy Artifacts. Let’s put these guys in one place first.”

Soon after, Lee Si-hyeok began moving busily.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————