Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 85

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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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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (85)

Strike While the Iron Is Hot

[(Exclusive) Eterion Magic Engineering Academy Dean sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘plotting large-scale terrorism’]

[Dean A (58) of ‘Eterion Magic Engineering Academy’, the nation’s largest specialized academy, along with 73 related individuals including Chronos Industry executives, have been sentenced to life imprisonment for planning large-scale terrorism aimed at overthrowing the state.

(…omitted….)

The defendant’s side argued that “it was pure magical engineering research, and the terrorism possibility was exaggerated,” but the court ruled that “using his position as dean to privately operate research facilities….]

Tap.

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been checking the news article, put down his phone.

It had already been a day since meeting Pyo Jae-hwan.

He had looked into it since the article appeared on the portal site’s main page, but seeing there was no mention of Pyo Jae-hwan at all, it seemed the Association had decided to cover up his condition.

‘Looks like it wasn’t discovered.’

He had been secretly anxious.

In the end, he had learned that Pyo Jae-hwan had some connection with the Reynolds family, and in preparation for this, he had secretly injected ether before leaving.

Fortunately, it seemed no one had noticed.

There was no separate contact from the Association either.

“Hmm.”

Well, it wasn’t something he had done based on personal feelings alone.

Even if Pyo Jae-hwan had literally committed a mortal sin, Lee Si-hyeok himself didn’t think he was qualified to make him pay for his crimes.

However, the reason he had gone that far was simply out of concern for potential future troubles.

In that case, rather than simply disposing of him—that is, killing him—it would be a cleaner method to use ether to render him completely insane.

Even artifacts that analyze brain cells to extract memories would become completely useless.

In the end, the one who craved ether became one with ether.

Click.

Lee Si-hyeok, wearing his usual research coat, turned off the lights and left his room.

Taking the elevator down to the first floor, the view of Eterion Dormitory, now completely familiar, came into sight.

‘Everyone’s busy.’

And among them, he could see Termion Corporation employees moving about busily.

Currently, Eterion Magic Engineering Academy had entered a temporary leave period.

Originally, student attendance should have started immediately after the seminar ended, and the full semester should have begun, but hadn’t there been too many incidents?

From the buildings Lee Si-hyeok had blown up, to the Engineering Academy even floating in the sky.

‘…Thinking about it this way, it feels like I’m the bad guy.’

Anyway, it was a leave period decided by Chairman Lee Young-hoon, Eterion’s biggest sponsor.

Since he had poured in tremendous amounts of money, most of the decision-making power belonged to the Chairman.

That’s why they were so busy.

Repairing damaged buildings, investigating crime scenes including corpses in the Central Records Hall, selecting a new dean, completely changing facilities to match the core Lee Si-hyeok had created….

‘There’s a mountain of work to do.’

Lee Si-hyeok was no exception.

He had no intention of getting involved in Eterion, but he still had to clean up what he had started.

Crossing through the busily moving people, he headed to the outskirts of the Engineering Academy, where the 〈Soaring Elevator〉 was located.

The transparent elevator extended endlessly down to the ground below. An unrealistic sight. After staring blankly at that spectacle for a moment, he finally moved his hands.

“Did I ask for a safety inspection?”

Of course, there wasn’t really anything to do.

He had designed it almost perfectly from the time of creation.

However, once the leave period ended, countless students would be using it, so it would be right to make it as certain as possible.

He had no intention of carelessly handling the safety of students with dreams.

Some time later.

Lee Si-hyeok, having completed various inspections including load response tests and shaft alignment checks, came back up to the sky.

Feeling it again, the ascending speed was really insanely fast.

‘Students with acrophobia, hmm….’

Still, he had added a function to adjust the glass window transparency during the inspection just now, so wouldn’t that be somewhat better?

It was unavoidable as long as Lee Si-hyeok had no intention of bringing this sky island back down to earth.

There was one reason for that decision.

‘It might be needed someday.’

Wasn’t this the Gate era that had arrived 20 years ago?

Currently, Gates appeared at levels that could be sufficiently handled, but one couldn’t assert that would continue forever.

Right now, a few hours later, an out-of-spec Gate could appear and devour the entire world.

In preparation for such times, it would be good to leave at least one aerial fortress like this.

If he set his mind to it, he could operate this massive landmass floating above Seoul to other countries.

And to include a bit of personal desire….

“…Because it’s cool.”

A massive island floating in the sky.

A natural fortress like an aerial city.

Wasn’t this the very scene one could only dream of, something that would appear in animations or movies?

Lee Si-hyeok, who loved magical engineering, was almost crazy about such things. Those with a science fiction feel….

Ding!

―The door is opening.

As he was continuing his trivial thoughts after finishing the inspection, the elevator door that had arrived at some point opened.

Through the open door, a familiar silhouette came into view.

“Oh, Si-hyeok?”

“Department Manager Yoon Seo-jin?”

“What are you doing here? Standing blankly in front of the elevator?”

He was momentarily speechless.

“…I was in deep thought.”

“Something philosophical? Amazing, Si-hyeok. Doing that kind of thing even in a place like this.”

“Yes, well. Something like that.”

Still, Department Manager Yoon Seo-jin laughed cheerfully without prying further.

“Thank you….”

“Suddenly?”

“Just because.”

“Really, why is our Si-hyeok being like this? I’m the one who’s more grateful. Even if I thanked you until my mouth went dry, it wouldn’t be enough.”

Yoon Seo-jin approached and poked him with her elbow.

On her wrist, two bead bracelets sparkled. They seemed to catch even more light due to being closer to the sun.

“But you know. I have something urgent right now? You can see the documents by my side, right? I need to deliver them to the Engineering Hall.”

“Ah, please go ahead quickly.”

“Sorry. This should be a time when I’m devoting time to Si-hyeok, but my position at the company makes it really hard to find time.”

Her eyes curved sadly.

“It’s fine. You’re not the type to forget such things either. You’ll give me a nice gift next time.”

“Hehe, such consideration. Alright! Next time for sure… Oh, right.”

Yoon Seo-jin, who had been grinning and about to walk away at Lee Si-hyeok’s words, suddenly stopped as if remembering something.

Then she approached again and whispered softly.

“What happened to Pyo Jae-hwan? I think I got a message that you were going to meet him.”

Come to think of it, he had sent a text message to Department Manager Yoon Seo-jin before leaving yesterday. That he planned to meet Pyo Jae-hwan directly to decide his treatment.

He had thought she had the right to know since she was also a party to the past incident.

“Did you, by any chance, kill him? Even if Si-hyeok didn’t do it directly, maybe another Association staff member stepped in….”

“I didn’t kill him.”

“Ah….”

A sigh flowed from Yoon Seo-jin’s lips.

A sigh mixed with regret and disappointment.

However, that was only momentary, as a smile suddenly played around her lips as if she had realized something.

“…You mean you didn’t kill him?”

“I made him into a state where dying would be preferable.”

“As expected!”

The smile that had been hovering spread into a bright laugh.

She clenched her fist and cheered, then rushed toward Lee Si-hyeok.

“Whoa, why are you doing this?”

“Because I’m grateful! That bastard Pyo Jae-hwan who deserves to be chewed up and spat out. You really don’t know how much I suffered. I’ve had nightmares because of that bastard hundreds of times, you know?”

“Is that so?”

“Yes! But Si-hyeok, you got revenge for me! I’m so grate— do I seem too psychotic?”

She suddenly panicked and stepped back hesitantly. The pressure that had been tightly squeezing his back disappeared in an instant, and he could see Yoon Seo-jin fidgeting with her mouth.

A sudden silence descended.

She must be quite shocked that she unconsciously felt so happy about someone suffering worse than death.

Lee Si-hyeok smiled bitterly.

“I think that’s perfectly understandable. It’s not like you’ve been thinking about it for just a day or two. Moreover, Department Manager, you lost all your friends too.”

He couldn’t empathize since he hadn’t experienced it himself. Nevertheless, he thought it was inevitable to feel resentful. It must have been a time of pain so difficult that it was hard even to fathom.

“…Thank you for saying that. Even if it’s just empty words.”

“I’m sincere. Anyway, shouldn’t you hurry and go?”

“Ah, right. Then I’ll go ahead first!”

She checked the time and started running like crazy. It seemed she was quite late for her appointment.

‘I should go too, then.’

Lee Si-hyeok straightened his clothes with a pat-pat and got on the elevator.

* * *

It took quite a long time to decide on the next destination.

That was understandable, since there were so many things to do.

‘When the dimensional gate connects, I need to check Orbes too, and… did Song Hyeon-gyu return safely? Song Chae-ah must have been worried. I also need to contact the Snow Flame Empress to thank her for taking care of things….’

Though they were trivial matters, they piled up like a mountain when gathered together.

In addition to this, he would need to receive the various rewards the Association promised to provide as a result of the first session.

However, the next destination Lee Si-hyeok decided on after much deliberation was….

‘Danyang, Chungcheongbuk-do.’

It was a massive bunker located deep in the caves of Danyang County.

He had learned about the existence of a bunker there only about a week ago.

[Chronos Industry Property. Hidden Asset List 31 Types]

It was since discovering this file in Ryu Se-eun’s dormitory.

The ‘hidden assets’ listed here weren’t scattered in various places, but were all concentrated in one location, which was the deep caves of Danyang County.

Lee Si-hyeok, who was looking up photos of the nearby area on his smartphone, quietly exclaimed in admiration.

“It’s certainly a good place to hide things.”

Perhaps because the region itself had many limestone areas, there seemed to be quite a lot of natural caves. Especially good for converting into tunnels or mines.

Moreover, the population density was relatively low, and it could even be disguised as tourist facilities.

Wouldn’t it be the optimal place to hide something like a bunker?

‘Strike while the iron is hot.’

Now that Chronos executives were imprisoned one after another was the perfect timing. If he took all the concealed assets, those bastards would never have a chance to rise again.

“Are you ready, Isaac?”

“Ready to depart.”

Sitting in the truck’s driver seat, he briefly looked back at Isaac who would be lying down in the back. Since the guy had worked so hard this time, he planned to let him get some sleep while driving.

‘…And when this job is finished, he’ll have to return to Britain.’

As the guy had said before the seminar started, the time to return to his family clan was approaching.

Thinking that the guy he’d been with for several months would be leaving made his heart feel a bit melancholy, but it was fortunate that they could be together until this job was done.

Since there was no telling what dangers might lurk in the bunker.

―Vroooom!

The truck raced down the highway.

National road, highway, national road, highway.

Though it was an unfamiliar route, following the navigation’s guidance allowed them to arrive faster than expected.

However, since they had to walk to reach their destination, the cliff cave, they parked the truck nearby and got out.

“Wow.”

After walking a bit along the mountain path and reaching the steep cliff, such a sound unconsciously escaped him.

The wide beach spread out below the cliff was made up of bedrock and piles of stones rather than sand. Countless caves along the coastline came into view at once.

Dozens, no, perhaps even more than dozens of caves.

Crash! Crash!

Amid the sound of waves hitting the rocks.

Lee Si-hyeok checked the file Ryu Se-eun had left behind and muttered blankly.

“When am I going to find all of these…?”

The file only showed the approximate location, with nothing written about which cave exactly it was.

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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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