Ex-level Player With the Greatest Civilization of All Time - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 14

A-rank, no less.
“H-how much is it worth?”
Still dazed, I typed the name into Lucid’s search.
“1… one billion?”
The Forgotten Holy Relic was salvation itself for Players bearing the Priest Trait.
It was a material that boosted healing power when crafted into accessories, but its other applications had only recently been revealed.
Specifically, that offering it to the temple in neutral zones would grant you a Buff Skill.
High-quality Buff Skills could elevate an entire party’s tier.
It was already proven by data.
Those who possessed special Buffs commanded prices fit for nobility.
I finished searching and pinched my cheek.
Just days ago, I’d been thrilled to earn one hundred million.
The fact that I now held an item worth ten times that felt unreal.
I posted the sale listing on Lucid immediately, then cross-posted it to TopKnow as well.

[Selling Forgotten Holy Relic — cool trade through Lucid only.]
-Price is one billion. No negotiation.
ㄴ Is this real?
ㄴ Don’t BS us.
ㄴ I’ll buy it. Just give me two days.

The moment I posted, comments poured in like rain.
Several showed genuine purchase intent.
I glanced at my Lucid inbox — it showed the maximum display count.

+999
[Sell to me, please accept.]
[I’ll pay double what you’re asking.]
[Hey? Reply to me.]

“Wait — why are so many people trying to buy something worth a billion?”
Suspicious of what I might have missed, I pulled up my previous transactions to double-check.
I wanted to make sure I hadn’t misread anything.
First, I verified the price.
Counting the digits from the end, methodically.
“No, I counted right.”
Next, I checked the last transaction date for the Forgotten Holy Relic.
“Ah, so that’s it…”
Two years ago.
Not everything necessarily moves through Lucid.
But Lucid was undeniably the most popular and standard trading hub.
If there were no transaction records even on Lucid, it meant the item was trading only in minimal quantities behind closed doors.
In other words, this was something you couldn’t easily buy, no matter how much money you had.
Meanwhile, my inbox kept filling with messages.

[Unread Messages +999]

“What do I do?”
At this point, I couldn’t just sell it at the listed price.
I had no way of knowing what it was actually trading for under the table.
If I didn’t want to be swindled, I needed to reassess the price.
Looking just at the people showing purchase intent now, many were willing to pay more than double the last recorded transaction price…
“Maybe I should hold an auction?”
Lucid did have its own auction system, of course.
But that was reserved for high-value items starting at one billion or more.
With the last transaction price hovering around one billion, this item didn’t qualify.
So he decided to hold the auction himself.
He adjusted the price.
“Starting bid is 2.5 billion.”
He changed it from the original 1 billion to 2.5 billion and re-listed it.
Then he deleted all the messages piled up in his inbox without reading them.
They were meaningless now that the price had changed.
A few clicks and he’d swept them all away.

[Unread message +1]
[Unread message +3]
[Unread message +8]
…

But the moment he turned back, messages began flooding in at an alarming rate.

[Why aren’t you responding?]
[Did you already sell it?]
[I’ll pay you an enormous amount.]
[Sell it to me? Please?]
[I’m watching—I know what’s going on. You didn’t actually sell it already, did you? There’s no way you could move it that fast.]
[I sent the first offer….]

“Ugh… what is this person’s problem…?”
Messages were still arriving in real time.
Checking the message history from that username, he saw it hadn’t been like this from the start.

[Will buy the Forgotten Holy Relic.]
[Hello? Why aren’t you answering?]
[Please, I’ll buy it. I can pay whatever you’re asking now—2.5 billion or even more.]

“Why are they so obsessed?”
Still, he was glad he hadn’t sold hastily.
While reading the messages, quite a few trade requests had accumulated.
More than twenty people were willing to buy at 2.5 billion.
He took down the listing and raised the price by another 1.5 billion.
Ding, ding—
After waiting about five minutes, this time ten trade requests came through.
Many irritated messages arrived as well.

[Are you messing with us?]
[The item does exist, right?]
[You said you were selling!]

He took down the listing again and re-listed at 5 billion.
“Five people this time, maybe….”
Many had dropped out.
But this time no one voiced complaints.
They seemed to have caught on that this was an unofficial auction.
Next came 6 billion.
Then 7 billion.
By now only three people remained.
He sent a message to those three.

[Can you deposit 7 billion immediately?]
[That surprised me. Did I win the bid?]
[No, there are about three of you left. Can you deposit immediately?]
[Of course, please sell it to me. I’m Korean too, you know. It’s better to sell to a fellow Korean, isn’t it?]

Sense of belonging was nice, patriotism was nice, but he wasn’t about to make a losing deal.
He left the message for now and checked the replies from the others who’d expressed intent to buy.

[Not right now, but could you hold for a few hours….]
[8 billion can be wired immediately.]

One of the two appeared to be running short on funds, so I set him aside for now. I sent messages simultaneously to the one still raising the bid and the Korean with the crazed look in his eyes.

[The other person has bid 9 billion. What would you like to do?]
[I can go up to 9 billion as well. Anything beyond that requires authorization.]
[No, never mind that — I’ll buy it at 10 billion. But if the amount goes higher than this, I’ll need a bit more time….]

Both seemed to be straining at anything above 10 billion.
Pushing further competition seemed pointless, so I decided to sell to the Korean who’d shown that wild fervor from the start.

[You can wire 10 billion right now, yes?]
[Of course!]

Apart from these two, there might be other buyers out there, and I wasn’t without the urge to raise the listing to 12 billion and watch for a few more days.
But thinking it through, the more rational long-term judgment was to close the deal quickly and grow with the money I’d made, so I decided to proceed with the sale.
Once I got stronger, I’d surely be able to acquire higher-grade items anyway.

* * *

After going to the Lucid Seoul branch in person to hand over the goods and returning, an enormous sum had been deposited.

[99.051 Gold]

The transaction was large enough that I’d taken it in Gold.
Gold was essentially currency provided within the Tower.
At the conversion rate of one Gold per hundred thousand won, it came to exactly 9.9 billion.
Lucid’s one percent fee felt unusually substantial at that scale.
Either way, I collected only the Gold that arrived through the system mail and blocked it again afterward.
Still, thanks to Baek Jinseong recently, it felt like attention on Naia had dispersed somewhat.
“What should I buy with this?”
I sank into happy deliberation.
It seemed wasteful to simply buy Mana Stones with the full amount and reinvest them in the city….
I headed home with a light heart to consult with Naia, and stepped directly into the Subspace right after.
“What on earth is that?!”
I witnessed something shocking with my own eyes.

* * *

What I witnessed upon entering the Subspace was the fiery chaos of war blooming at the city’s outskirts.
Crimson smoke billowed upward, and explosions thundered through the air.
Flash! Flash!
Boom-boom-boom!
Fortunately the explosions ceased shortly after, but unease gripped me.
I rushed toward the Core Center.
It was a path I traveled every time, but now it was thick with dread.
“Naia!”

『Welcome back, Seonwoo.』

At my call, Naia appeared as a hologram.
Her tone was steady, as always.
For a moment, I wondered if what I’d just witnessed was a mistake.
“I just heard explosions from the city’s edge…?”

『Yes, that is correct. Approximately one hour and seventeen minutes ago, a swarm of monsters attacked from the northwest of the city. Upon confirming your absence, I engaged them according to protocol.』

“So you managed to stop them, then?”

“The engagement has concluded, though the damage is severe,” Naia reported, bringing up a holographic display of the scene.

Buildings lay in ruins, consumed by flames—the devastation was absolute.
Corpses of monsters were stacked like mountains across the landscape.
Seeing the scale of it, Naia continued her report.

“Two nearby production facilities have been completely destroyed.”
“Twelve residential districts in the vicinity have partially collapsed, with fifteen percent completely burned out.”
“Fire suppression operations are in their final stages. We await orders to begin reconstruction.”
“Next is the Drone damage report: two Combat Drones are a total loss. One Hunter Drone sustained minor damage and is currently undergoing repairs.”

Only then did Naia’s report come to an end.
I’d considered pointing out to her that I’d destroyed drones before—I’d noticed her disapproval then—but I decided against it.
There was no real ground to challenge her on.
Not when I looked at the battlefield footage.
‘Against an enemy of that magnitude, and we managed to hold the line with only these losses?’
Our defensive force had consisted of three Hunter Drones, three Combat Drones, and one Aegis unit—that was all.
Minimizing damage to the city meant we couldn’t simply retreat and fight on favorable ground; our options were constrained.
Criticizing the drone losses under these circumstances made no sense.
“What’s the city’s energy situation?”

“The engagement caused massive power drain. We have only about twenty days’ worth of Energy reserves remaining. I apologize,” Naia said.

If I’d heard a report like this just hours ago, despair would have been absolute.
Fortunately, I’d earned considerable money since then.
“At least the city’s intact. That’s what matters.”
But that aside, there was something more fundamental about this disaster I needed to understand.
“You’re telling me there are monsters in this Subspace?”
We still hadn’t determined the full extent of the Subspace.
We simply hadn’t investigated beyond the city—there hadn’t been time or resources.
I was asking because I’d wondered if monsters might dwell outside the city and had somehow found their way in, but…

“That is not the case. Under normal circumstances, no monsters wander here.”

“Then where did all these monsters come from?”

“Occasionally, Gates appear.”

“Gates…”
The words caught in my throat.
I’d understood instinctively that this was no trivial matter.
I was well aware of how catastrophic Gates could be.
The Tower inflicted ruin on those who failed its trials.
The cost of failure was already infamous.
We’d managed to hold back the disaster this time, but…
There was no guarantee it wouldn’t happen again. So while worry gnawed at me, relief came first—at least for now, we had the means to respond.

“There is something I wished to ask, Seonwoo.”

“What is it?”

“May I begin reconstruction of the city?”

I wanted to say yes immediately, but having just heard the damage assessment, I hesitated.
I chose my words carefully.
“What kind of resources would that require?”

“City reconstruction would require the following materials.”

Naia listed the resources needed for the city’s reconstruction.

– Dark-grain Sand
– Mana Metal.
– Self-generation Stone.
– Purification Crystal.

“The resources currently held within the city are insufficient. Resupply is necessary.”
“Beyond this, operating work robots to be deployed in reconstruction efforts requires an energy resupply.”

…Could a billion won really cover all this?
The damage wasn’t catastrophic, they said, but reconstruction wasn’t going to come cheap…
“Wait, hold on.”
A thought struck me as I stood there deliberating—perfect timing.
“Naia, can we process the byproducts from the monsters we killed this time?”

“Yes, we can.”

Hearing her answer, a path forward suddenly came into focus.
Monster byproducts.
Normally, you couldn’t harvest them directly from a Floor during Tower climbing.
There was never time to leisurely butcher a dead monster, and corpses dissolved after a certain period anyway.
In other words, the only way to obtain byproducts was through the material crates provided as Tower rewards.
“Gather everything for now.”

“Command acknowledged. I’ve dispatched thirty collection robots to the site per your instructions, Seonwoo.”

I reviewed the materials Naia had mentioned once more, then turned to leave.
“Oh, and I wanted to increase drone production.”

“Please specify which units you wish to produce.”

“I’m aiming to manufacture a Seizure Runner and other forces that would make city defense more manageable.”

“Manufacturing a Seizure Runner is impossible with our current resources.”

“It worked before, didn’t it?”
Well, that was a while back.
Since then we’ve repaired damaged drones.
We’ve done additional manufacturing too.
The city’s resource reserves have been depleted.
“Tell me what resources are needed.”

“The resources required to additionally manufacture one Seizure Runner, four Aegis units, ten Combat Drones, five Hunter Drones, and three Projectile Units are as follows.”
-Clear-sky Stone: 100 kg
-Condensed Mana Core: 20 units.
-Lightweight Mithril: 5 kg
-Purification Crystal: 20 kg
-Reinforced Black Iron: 50 kg

“…That’s everything?”
“Yes, those are all the resources necessary to execute your orders.”
“All right. I’ll head out for now.”
I thought things might get easier…
Nothing ever goes smoothly.

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