The Automatic Rooting Range Is Too Wide - Chapter 157

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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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Auto Looting Range Too Wide Episode 157

Episode 157: East Asia Energy (5)

* * *

“Oh my, I really came back from the dead.”

The manager of East Asia Energy Company.

Park Gu-chil said while wiping his dust-covered face with a handkerchief.

“Suddenly shadows spread in the basement. Then the Hope Society popped out from there. And I ended up witnessing a battle between mid-tier Awakened.”

Park Manager said in an exhausted voice.

The other employees were the same. Everyone’s faces showed intense fatigue.

“If it weren’t for everyone from Gakdeungjeong, we would all be dead. We truly thank you.”

“Not at all. Protecting our escort targets is only natural. Rather, we only feel sorry for failing to protect the artifact.”

Lee Min-jeong said with a dark expression. It seemed the artifact had indeed been stolen.

At Lee Min-jeong’s apology, Park Manager silently operated his system window.

Soon after, a message appeared before the eyes of all Awakened present.

【You have completed the request from ‘East Asia Energy Company’.】

【Success reward of 100 million won will be deposited into your Auction House account.】

【You have acquired 1,000 good deed points.】

Not only Lee Min-yeong but everyone looked at Park Manager with surprised faces.

Looking at the results alone, it was clearly a failed request.

Nevertheless, Park Manager had paid the success reward.

“Losing the artifact is heartbreaking, but not a single employee was hurt.”

Park Manager said with a warm smile.

“And in a way, this incident is our fault for not accurately predicting the value of the experiment. We never expected the Hope Society to target this artifact.”

Park Manager neatly folded the handkerchief that had turned black from wiping dust and put it in his inner pocket.

Unlike his middle-aged appearance, he was quite a meticulous person.

“For the Hope Society to appear over such an insignificant experiment. I feel like my lifespan shortened by 10 years.”

“What kind of artifact was it that the Hope Society targeted?”

The person who asked was Mincheol.

He had been curious about this. Why the Hope Society had appeared here.

“I’m not sure either. However, it was quite a peculiar artifact.”

“Peculiar how?”

“It was an artifact related to an entity called the Abyss.”

At the mention of the Abyss, Mincheol’s eyes slightly changed.

The Abyss itself wasn’t particularly special. It was an evil entity that existed in each dimension.

Like demons in the Bible or Titans in Greek mythology.

However, the problem was that it was too closely connected to the Hope Society.

‘It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence anymore.’

At this point, he had to think that the Hope Society was intentionally searching for the Abyss.

‘Then what exactly is their intention?’

He was curious, but there was too little information. So little that he couldn’t even speculate.

“What kind of ability did the artifact have? What experiment were you trying to conduct with it?”

He asked Park Manager to at least learn information about the artifact.

“The detailed contents are confidential. We should have informed you beforehand, right?”

Was it his imagination?

Park Manager’s voice seemed to have an edge to it.

It wasn’t wrong. But Mincheol couldn’t help but suspect Park Manager.

‘Could it have been some strange experiment?’

It was because of the Abyss statue he had seen in the Mercenary Layer.

The Hope Society had obtained elixirs that increased stats by offering human sacrifices to the statue.

Wasn’t the artifact acquired by East Asia Energy Company of that kind too?

So they were trying to keep the experiment contents secret…

“…That’s the principle, but I can’t keep it secret from my life savior.”

Then, Park Manager spoke.

“I heard while coming up from underground. Butcher, they say you saved us even at the cost of sacrificing a precious elixir?”

Though it was slightly exaggerated, Mincheol kept his mouth shut.

There was no need to dampen the mood when the other side was thinking favorably of him first.

“We were planning to extract the dark energy contained in the artifact. Then…”

Mincheol swallowed his saliva.

What kind of experiment could it be that was conducted so secretly?

“We were going to boil water.”

But the following words completely deflated his expectations.

“…Water?”

“Yes, the specific method is classified, but using that energy, we can make water molecules move actively.”

“What were you going to do by boiling water?”

“We need to turn turbines to generate electricity.”

Mincheol looked at him with an incredulous expression.

Compared to the grand introduction, the result was somehow very shabby.

‘I think I heard that boiling water to turn turbines is the most efficient method…’

While Mincheol was confused, Park Manager slumped his shoulders.

“But since it was stolen… the experiment completely failed. All our hard work has gone to waste.”

“Manager, cheer up. We’ll be able to find another artifact.”

“That’s right. Let’s be happy that we survived for now.”

The employees gathered around to encourage the manager.

Seeing his subordinates step up like this, he seemed to be quite a popular person.

Mincheol thought for a moment and then said to him.

“Wait, I’d like to use the restroom.”

“Ah, if you go into the factory and turn right, you’ll find it.”

Following the manager’s directions, the restroom appeared.

The basement and ceiling were destroyed, but the restroom was on the outskirts so it was intact.

After entering a stall, he took something out of his inventory.

It was none other than a thick tree branch.

Strangely, the tree branch had a pitch-black color.

A surface that didn’t even reflect light. It was as if darkness itself had been cut off.

【Abyss Wood】

-Grade: Unique

-Description: Show respect. Be courteous. Unless you want to suffer eternally in endless darkness.

It was the very artifact that the Hope Society had tried to steal.

* * *

While Mincheol was taking out the Abyss Wood.

“Oh my?”

An executive of the Hope Society.

Cheongrok said while adjusting the eyepatch covering one eye.

“Is there anyone who can explain what I’m looking at right now?”

In front of her, the battered Jo U-hwan was being supported by his members.

Grind.

At Cheongrok’s question, Jo U-hwan couldn’t suppress his anger and ground his teeth.

“Kang Ung-hyeok! That bastard was hostile to the Hope Society!”

“Kang Ung-hyeok? He may be stupid, but he’s not foolish enough to be hostile to the Hope Society, right?”

“I thought so too! But…”

Jo U-hwan explained what had just happened with a face full of resentment.

After hearing the entire story, Cheongrok made a displeased expression.

“…So you’re saying the Butcher lured Kang Ung-hyeok in with the Machine Empire’s elixir as payment?”

“That’s right!”

“You’re telling me Kang Ung-hyeok was fooled by a mere elixir and attacked you?”

“He said he could get more elixirs! He was completely taken in by those words and attacked me!”

Cheongrok rested her chin on her hand and fell into thought.

Once again, she had been interfered with by the Butcher.

However, unlike before, anger didn’t surge up within her.

Was it because it was too sudden?

That wasn’t it. There was another reason why Cheongrok wasn’t angry.

“Interesting.”

There wasn’t a single aspect that wasn’t intriguing.

First of all, there was the Machine Empire’s elixir.

The Machine Empire was a dimension filled with killer robots.

An elixir had never once been discovered there before.

Forget elixirs – not even food that living beings could eat had ever been found.

Yet the Butcher had casually presented an elixir from the Machine Empire.

He had even said he could obtain more.

“How did he get an elixir from the Machine Empire?”

“It might be fake.”

“Didn’t you say Kang Ung-hyeok reacted to it? He may be stupid, but he’s not someone who would mistake something like that.”

The upper floors weren’t a place you could reach through luck alone.

You needed that level of experience, guts, and skill.

In that sense, there was no way Kang Ung-hyeok would have mistaken an item.

“I get interfered with by the Butcher unusually often. Isn’t that really interesting?”

“Isn’t it just coincidence?”

At Jo U-hwan’s observation, Cheongrok’s enthusiasm deflated.

“…U-hwan, do you believe in fate?”

“No.”

Jo U-hwan answered curtly.

“I don’t believe things like fate or fortune-telling could exist.”

Cheongrok wasn’t disappointed.

Any modern person would be bound to think this way.

“U-hwan, there’s magic in the Tower, and there are gods too. Isn’t it a bit early to definitively say fate doesn’t exist?”

Just like how heroes are born with the ‘fate’ to defeat demon lords.

Just like how demons possess the ‘fate’ of inevitably falling before divine authority.

“Fate exists in the Tower too. Fates that have been terribly intertwined since before dimensions were destroyed.”

“Huh? But…”

Jo U-hwan seemed completely unconvinced.

Cheongrok didn’t try to persuade him further.

To understand the fatalism she spoke of, one had to reach the center of the Hope Society.

But Jo U-hwan wasn’t at that level yet.

‘Perhaps the Butcher might be the successor of the God of Radiance.’

Various gods existed in the dimensions where the Abyss originated.

All gods were enemies of the Abyss, but among them, the one that could be called an archenemy was the God of Radiance.

The two fought with everything on the line, and in the end, both were destroyed and scattered apart.

“Oh right, did you obtain the relic?”

Cheongrok said, turning to look at Jo U-hwan.

There was a reason she had sent someone of Jo U-hwan’s caliber on such a trivial experiment.

Nothing was more important to the Hope Society than relics of the Abyss.

“Of course I retrieved it.”

Jo U-hwan gestured to the subordinate employees standing behind him.

But no one stepped forward.

“…What are you guys doing? I threw the relic to you guys. I told you to keep it safe.”

Jo U-hwan’s expression crumpled instantly.

The subordinate employees’ faces turned pale.

“Who is it! Who has it!”

The subordinate employees looked at each other’s faces.

Then, someone cautiously stepped forward.

“I, I received it.”

“You stupid bastard… Hand it over right now!”

“Th, that’s… I, I definitely received it but…”

The subordinate employee trembled all over.

Jo U-hwan’s brow furrowed even more.

“I, I received it and… w, was holding it… b, but then… s, suddenly… that is to say… it disappeared…”

“What bullshit are you spouting!”

Jo U-hwan shouted and approached the subordinate employee.

He grabbed him by the collar and glared with murderous eyes.

“Where’s the relic!”

“Pl, please believe me! It r, really suddenly disappeared!”

“Where do you get off spouting such…”

“Oh my, wait a moment. U-hwan.”

Startled.

Jo U-hwan looked to the side in surprise.

Cheongrok had come over beside him at some point.

“Let me ask some questions too. So anyway, the relic is gone, right?”

The subordinate employee grabbed by the collar by Cheongrok hurriedly nodded.

“Think carefully before you answer. Is it really gone? Or did you hide it?”

“It’s, it’s gone! Really! How could I dare steal something designated by the Hope Society! Please believe me!”

The subordinate employee shouted desperately.

Cheongrok scratched her cheek and then looked at Jo U-hwan.

“U-hwan, so that’s how it is.”

“He must be lying! Just wait a moment! I’ll make this bastard spit out the truth…”

“But why didn’t you put the relic straight into your inventory and instead entrust it to these guys?”

Jo U-hwan’s body stiffened with a thud.

“Th, that’s…”

“May I guess? You’ve always had the bad habit of playing with your prey. And the Awakened guarding the relic would have been weaker than you…”

Cheongrok clapped her hands and continued speaking.

“You placed the relic in plain sight to mock that Awakened. Saying things like ‘come take it if you want to protect it,’ or ‘try to steal it back.'”

His complexion instantly turned dark, then pale.

“N, no… That’s not it.”

“Oh my, U-hwan. You know I hate liars the most after incompetent people, yet you’re still doing this?”

Jo U-hwan’s pupils shook greatly.

The next moment, Jo U-hwan prostrated himself on the ground and shouted.

“It, it was my mistake! If you could forgive me just this once…”

Suddenly blood splattered.

Jo U-hwan looked at his shoulder with a bewildered face.

At some point, Cheongrok’s index finger had pierced through his shoulder.

The moment he recognized the fact, he felt pain.

Like a snowball growing larger, the pain instantly swelled.

Something was wrong.

For just a finger being pierced, the pain was too much….

“Gaaahhh!”

Jo U-hwan grabbed his throat with both hands.

Before he knew it, black spots were covering his entire body.

He couldn’t breathe. His vision turned red.

“P-please save….”

Pop-

With a sound like a water balloon bursting, Jo U-hwan’s body came pouring down.

It wasn’t a metaphor but reality.

Flesh, muscle, and even bones had all melted away completely.

“Huff… Hufff….”

Cheongrok covered her face with one hand while breathing roughly.

She wasn’t tired. It was an act to suppress her boiling rage.

But no matter how much she tried to hold back, it was useless.

Cheongrok’s gaze turned toward the subordinate employees.

At that moment, the subordinate employees sensed their fate.

“Ah, ahhhhh! I don’t want to die!”

“Ch-Cheongrok-nim! Please spare me! Please!”

I-I don’t want to die! I want to at least leave a corpse behind!”

A luxury hotel built on the outskirts of Seoul.

From its depths came terrible screams.

* * *

“Hmm.”

Mincheol examined the black tree branch while sitting on the toilet.

“I brought it because Whitey asked me to….”

It happened when Hope Society’s subordinate employees rushed out to support Jo U-hwan.

Whitey in the inventory had suddenly shown an intense reaction.

To none other than a tree branch that one of the subordinate employees was holding.

As Whitey’s power grew stronger, they could naturally share deeper communion.

Thanks to this, Mincheol could tell that Whitey wanted that tree branch.

So he first stole it with Auto Looting.

When the tree branch disappeared, the subordinate employee panicked and looked around.

But another companion opened a dimensional gate, so he had no choice but to leave as if pushed out.

‘Since I know East Asia Energy Company has no bad intentions, I should return it, right?’

He could just drop it somewhere appropriate using the Silver Screen Cloak.

It would look strange if an artifact they thought was stolen was just lying there.

‘It’s a good deed, so they’ll probably overlook it.’

Just as Mincheol was thinking this and getting up from his seat.

Whoosh-

Whitey popped out of the inventory and attached to the tree branch.

“Whoa.”

Before Mincheol could stop it, Whitey instantly set the tree branch on fire.

“Hey, you fool, that belongs to someone….”

Mincheol was so flustered he couldn’t continue speaking.

This was no different from theft.

Whether Mincheol minded or not, Whitey diligently burned the tree branch.

【’Whitey’ has burned the ‘Fragment of the Abyss’.】

【’Whitey’s’ power is further strengthened.】

【The number of targets ‘Whitey’ can fuse with increases to two.】

Soon a message appeared.

Mincheol’s eyes sparkled as he read the message.

“The number of weapons I can fuse with increased by one?”

He had been feeling regretful since his main weapons were twin swords but Whitey could only fuse with one.

“It’s good that the power got stronger, but….”

He felt uncomfortable since he had stolen someone else’s property.

Burp-

Whitey let out a short burp and slipped back into the inventory.

Fortunately, the Abyss Wood hadn’t burned away completely.

It had just gotten smaller in size.

Moreover, it had turned white.

【Radiance Wood】

-Grade: Unique

-Description: A tree branch blessed by the God of Radiance. Possesses the ability to amplify flames several times over.

“Hm?”

Not only the appearance but the description had changed too.

“It amplifies flames? How?”

Mincheol took out flint from his inventory.

It was something he had prepared just in case. Naturally, it was an item from the Tower.

He placed the tree branch on the ground and struck the flint. A spark touched the tree branch.

At that moment, flames flashed. Mincheol stepped back in surprise.

“Wh-what?”

Just one spark had flown, but tremendous flames burst forth.

Mincheol looked at the tree branch with a curious expression.

“With this… the company should be satisfied too.”

Since they said they planned to boil water to turn turbines, wouldn’t Radiance Wood be perfect rather than Abyss Wood?

Actually, even if it didn’t fit, there was nothing he could do. The Abyss Wood was already gone.

“I should hurry and return it.”

Mincheol came out of the restroom wearing the Silver Screen Cloak.

Thud- Rattle-

The Radiance Wood fell into the underground facility with the hole.

It was the moment when Hope Society’s ambitions were thwarted once again by a moment of curiosity.

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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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