Ex-level Player With the Greatest Civilization of All Time - Chapter 37

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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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Chapter 37

The moment I saw the price, I nearly let out a groan.
Still, when it came down to it, the sum was something I could manage somehow.
“Around twenty billion won, then?”
Not long ago, my entire bank account held only a few million won.
The fact that I felt almost nothing seeing this colossal amount made me realize just how bloated my spending habits had become.
A numbing of financial sense.
But from the perspective of city management and national defense, this wasn’t wasteful spending at all.
This wasn’t an indulgence for personal gain — it was an investment in the city’s prosperity. That much was certain.
“Might as well check the community’s reaction to the auction…”
The forums were predictably flooded with discussion of today’s broadcast.
Most of it centered on the announced auction.
Talk of the Hidden Floor had already become yesterday’s gossip, barely visible anymore.

[What do you think the Goddess’s Tear will sell for?]
└ It sold for 2 million gold five years ago, so maybe 3 million now?
└ └ Wait, it raises item grade? Then 3 million is way too low.
└ └ A modern fighter jet costs 300 billion won, and the Goddess’s Tear is worth less?!
└ └ So what’s your actual guess?
└ └ At minimum, 5 million gold. That’s 50 billion won. If there’s real competition, I’d say way more.
└ └ Player cultivation is a national project. Even trillions wouldn’t be surprising.

My eyes went wide.
Trillions? Did they just say trillions?
I blinked hard, but the text remained the same.
Worse, most responses weren’t mocking that claim — they were agreeing with it.
I found similar comments scattered throughout without difficulty.
I’d expected the Goddess’s Tear to be expensive.
After awakening, there was no way to grow a trait — none whatsoever.
But there was exactly one item with the power to raise a trait’s grade, and that was the Goddess’s Tear.
Still, trillions for a single item seemed impossible.
Neglecting the Tower meant facing the Gate Catastrophe, humanity’s ultimate disaster.
But even knowing that, it didn’t feel real.
Could a single Player really be trusted with that much money?
The phrase “Player cultivation is a national project” had sounded hollow when I heard it yesterday, but now, feeling it in my bones, it carried weight.
“At this rate, what was I even freaking out about twenty billion for?”
After buying it cleanly, the remaining funds could easily accelerate city expansion.
Why stop at a measly 0.5% when I could aim for a full 1% without breaking a sweat?
“What about the other items?”
Of course, the other rewards were drawing significant attention too.
Just not as much as the Goddess’s Tear.
The Elixir and the Branch were both getting active discussion.
It looked like I could sell those two for even higher prices than I’d anticipated.
“Hmm…”
Which brought a troubling thought to mind.
Was this auction really safe as planned?
These items, with their staggering valuations, were set to go on sale.
There was no guarantee that criminals wouldn’t target them.
“I did think I should be careful about this.”
Baek Jinseong could be at risk too — I needed to hurry.
“And can I really trust that guy?”
The sums involved now were on a completely different scale.
I felt bad suspecting him, but caution never hurt, did it?
If greed got the better of him and he tried to pocket or smuggle the auction items, I’d be the only loser.
“But if I use Lucid… that’s basically the same as me advertising that I’m Naia.”
This situation was fundamentally different from the Forgotten Relic.
These Hidden Floor items were far too easy to trace back to me.
Moreover, he had already opened loot in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators.
So the auction would proceed as scheduled, but protective measures were necessary.
“There’s no one suitable.”
A trustworthy figure who could rescue Baek Jinseong from any crime scene that might occur, while simultaneously keeping tabs on him.
Now that he thought about it carefully, no one came to mind.
Argelayer had a certain flakiness to him, so he couldn’t quite be trusted.
Sermin was specialized in defense and had a frame built for that, and besides, there wasn’t enough information about him yet.
If he’d known this would come up, he should have built relationships with a person or two beyond just Baek Jinseong.
“Maybe I should consult with Naia about this.”
That might yield an answer.

* * *

The world’s greatest superpower: America.
Even in this present age, as the era of Players dawned, it remained an axiomatic statement.
America’s ability to maintain hegemony despite the transformations of the age stemmed from one force: immense wealth.
And the city symbolizing that wealth and power was Manhattan.
The Arc Guild’s headquarters stood amid the forest of supertall buildings known as “the capital of the world.”
James Frillman, the Arc Guild’s representative, was in his office.
Despite the early morning hour by local time, he hadn’t left his desk.
It was all because of Naia’s broadcast, which had just concluded moments before.
“The Goddess’s Tear…!”
James was seething with desire.
Absurd as it sounded, James was not actually a Player who competed for rankings.
That was precisely why the Arc Guild, despite harboring Miller, was ranked only third globally.
And why it could not surpass Tempest, America’s number one.
‘But if I acquire the Goddess’s Tear this time…’
the situation changes somewhat.
It becomes possible to aim for the edge of the top tier.
Then the Arc Guild’s reputation would skyrocket as well.
Rivaling the fame of Tempest itself, ranked first.
‘By whatever means necessary, I must bring it back.’
Yet James’s desire to collect wasn’t motivated solely by his own complex.
To be honest, the Goddess’s Tear was something someone else in the guild could use just as well.
The real catastrophe would be if it fell into a rival’s hands.
It didn’t matter whether that rival was Tempest or a foreign guild—either way, it would be bad.
It would mean the emergence of a new threat, or a widening gap between him and existing competitors.
James turned to Jake, a Ranker enjoying coffee in the corner of the office sofa.
“What about Miller?”
“No reply. As always.”
Miller had little interest in worldly affairs by nature.
Though he belonged to the Arc Guild, he devoted himself only to climbing and training outside his scheduled duties.
James had thought this time, with the Goddess’s Tear revealed, might be different—but it wasn’t.
“This time, just hand it over to me. I mean, why else would I stick around the Arc Guild?”
Jake was the Arc Guild’s second-strongest Ranker and counted among the top ten strongest in the entire world.
Of course, the ranking by floors cleared was imprecise, offering no guarantee that actual strength correlated with floor count, but Jake was far from being treated as a second-rate member.
“Well, I’ll consider it.”
If he acquired the Goddess’s Tear, he could give it to Miller.
Or he could give it to Jake instead.
But for now, preventing anyone else from taking it took priority over deciding who would.
That’s why James reached for a work phone that lay dormant in his desk drawer and made a call somewhere.

—You’re the one calling me now? That’s both gratifying and frightening.

“I’m calling because I need a favor.”

—Well, tell me. What is it?

“We want the Goddess’s Tear. For the Arc Guild.”
Modern guilds, at their foundation, are massive enterprises commanding enormous capital.
But even so, no guild could outmatch the capital of a nation-state.
That’s why the Vice President had maintained close ties through political lobbying for years.
Vice President Vince was well aware of that.

—You’re asking me to exclude Tempest from this competition?

“That’s correct.”
Certainly, this was a matter the government had every reason to involve itself in.
It always was whenever the Goddess’s Tear appeared.
But where that Goddess’s Tear ultimately ended up was another matter entirely.
James’s request wasn’t simply to win the auction—it was to possess it themselves.

—… I’ll do what I can.

Once the call ended, Jake spoke up.
“After pouring all that money into it, isn’t it a waste to use it up like this?”
“Can’t be helped.”
He’d invested an astronomical sum in lobbying Vince.
But given the magnitude of this request, he knew they’d exhausted their accumulated credit.
“Can’t be helped? Come on, there’s got to be another way. An easy, quick way to get it.”
Jake made a throat-slitting gesture with his thumb.
Whose throat he meant was painfully obvious.
Baek Jinseong.
The items, including the Goddess’s Tear, were structured to fall into Baek Jinseong’s hands just before the auction opened.
There was a method: kidnap him then and there, seize the goods.
Even if Baek Jinseong stubbornly refused to withdraw them from his Inventory and chose death instead.
At minimum, they could prevent the items from passing into someone else’s hands.
Instead, James regarded Jake—who had made an undeniably efficient proposal—with cold eyes.
“Didn’t I already tell you?”
“Yeah, you did. But I didn’t know you were still planning it. I thought that ship had sailed.”
James sighed at Jake, who brushed past the matter with casual humor.
“It hasn’t sailed. We wait until Naia reveals herself, and when that moment comes, we’ll bring her into Arc. That’s all.”
“But she signed a contract with Korea.”
“For two years. Besides, a guild contract and a government contract are different things, aren’t they?”
A guild contract concerns activities within the tower.
A government contract takes a different form—binding cooperation in national crises, plus clauses against emigration.
“Right, I forgot. Our guild master is exactly that kind of person.”
James’s strength lay in being an affable leader with genuine capacity for inclusion.
Miller had chosen Arc Guild for precisely that reason.
Jake was no different.
So his approach to Naia remained consistent.
Naia would make an excellent colleague.
Just as Miller had.
If they brought Naia into Arc, they could surpass Tempest’s dominance as the world’s number one guild.
James tucked his phone away in the drawer and spoke.
“Fine. Clear my schedule for that day.”
He was going to get it.
“The Goddess’s Tear.”

* * *

The Military Demarcation Line of South Korea.
Under cover of night, a handful of North Korean special forces operatives crossed through covertly.
This was, naturally, no act of defection.
“Hack…”
“What—why are you—ungh.”
The special forces unit, composed entirely of Players, dealt with the soldiers guarding the checkpoint with ease.
Swift, silent movements—gunfire would only complicate matters.
They headed straight for Seoul.
Then moved rapidly to a location they’d surveyed in advance.
Their target was a kidnapping—abduction, to be precise.
Baek Jinseong, of all people.
“Stupid bastards, why bother buying when we could just take it?”
“But I heard Baek Jinseong doesn’t communicate with Naia anymore.”
“The fool actually believes that? How many idiots do you think would swallow such a lie?”
“So it’s a lie, then?”
“Of course. And in situations like this, the swift hand wins.”
They compared the photograph against the building’s facade.
“Hold position.”
According to intelligence, Baek Jinseong had recently moved into the Luxury Residence before them.
The unit commander, confirming that both the address and the building’s exterior matched, gave a hand signal.
Five operatives vaulted over the wall and entered.
According to plan, some would breach the front entrance on the ground floor while others would shatter windows from the roof, infiltrating this level simultaneously.
The objective was to enter before the target could react and capture him.
Baek Jinseong was a Player.
It was a flawless operation designed to preempt any misfortune—blindfolding and gagging him to prevent him from fleeing to a Tower.
……
But three minutes after the operation commenced.
“What’s taking so damn long?”
The unit commander checked the time.
The remaining operatives maintained perimeter control outside, waiting, yet no word came through.
As unease began to bloom.
“I am in excellent spirits.”
A deep, measured male voice emanated from somewhere.
The unit commander, spotting a man standing atop the wall looking down at him, flinched in surprise.
“Despite such a grave error on my part, you still grant me a chance for redemption… how merciful you are.”
“You… you’re—!”
The unit commander’s eyes widened upon recognizing Krail.
“Damn it… abort operation, take him down!”
The unit commander and his operatives rushed forward.
Or tried to.
Whisp—
Beams lanced down from above, piercing through them.
The Hunter Drones’ beams tore through their skulls.
Krail’s face broke into a smile of pure satisfaction.
“Thank you for granting me the opportunity to restore my honor. Successor of the mission.”

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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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