Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 69

Chapter 69

A new post was uploaded on AwakenedNet.

[Accepting crafting requests. – Head of the Manpower Management Bureau]

The reaction was explosive.

– When do you start accepting them???

– Is there a nationality restriction?

– By any chance, is it going to be held via auction like last time?

– Is it possible even for the 34th Floor?

……

…

The moment the post went up, comments flooded in like a storm.

And when I refreshed the free message board.

[Why you must get a weapon this time if you’re a top ranker]

[I’m the rank 2 hunter in Canada, just 1 floor behind 1st place, and I seriously want to get a weapon….]

[The Head of the Manpower Management Bureau’s weapons…. I’m so damn jealous.]

……

…

Sheesh.

It’s nothing but talk about that.

Look at the foreign hunters mixed in the middle of all this.

No, seriously, guys.

Why are you doing this in another country’s forum?

You should be hanging out on your own countries’ AwakenedNets.

Did rumors spread somewhere?

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Wow….

Guess so.

Look at those comment notifications popping up.

This is crazy.

At this rate.

“It’s gonna be way more cutthroat than the last auction.”

Actually, no.

Come to think of it, isn’t this only natural?

The conditions for crafting requests I posted last time.

——-

[Request Conditions.]

1. Materials MUST be from the 61st Floor or higher.

2. Request fee: None.

3. Instead, you must send more than double the required materials. (Requests offering better conditions will be prioritized)

——-

And now?

There are none.

It just ends with the note to coordinate with the Central Awakened Management Bureau.

Since there are no set conditions, plenty of people qualify.

That’s probably why there are so many comments.

But….

Even so, it’s useless.

I’m not gonna read the comments anyway.

Is this my first or second time posting a crafting thread?

I don’t even need to look to know what’s there.

– If you make me a weapon just once, I will treat you as my lifelong benefactor.

– Clearing the 47th Floor is my lifelong wish, please make one for me.

– Can’t you make it a bit cheaper?

And so on.

Most of them are probably useless comments.

Yep.

Not buying it.

Go talk to the Awakened Management Bureau.

If you state your terms over there, things will proceed in order.

Of course, the final decision is up to me.

Still, well….

It’ll be better than Ralph Carter, who offered 174 materials.

“Ah.”

Except for China.

I have no intention of making anything for them unless something extraordinary happens.

“Todd, you remember, right? China is excluded unless they propose an insanely good deal.”

“Yes. If they bundle in a bunch of junk like last time, I will instantly reject them.”

Right.

When I said the condition was at least double the materials from the 61st Floor.

Those guys sneakily slipped in all sorts of miscellaneous junk along with low-grade magic stones.

Thinking back to that time still baffles me.

Low-grade magic stones when commissioning a weapon for a 60th-Floor-tier hunter to use?

Are they kidding?

“If they mix in low-grade magic stones again, we’ll permanently reject them.”

“Haha. I’m looking forward to 3 months from now.”

3 months from now?

Ah.

What if they fail to clear it?

Well….

They’ll figure it out on their own.

Either bring even more offerings to beg us.

Or find another way.

“If there’s really no other way, they’ll probably beg another country.”

I don’t care that far.

It’s not my responsibility.

So unless something changes, it’s a definite rejection.

Then again, who knows.

What if they bring terms too lucrative to refuse?

Then I might just say yes.

Though knowing China so far, that’s unlikely.

At any rate, one thing is certain.

“Rani’s going to be busy for a while.”

“Whyyy? Because we have to make weapons?”

“Yup. And not just making them, we have to make quite a lot.”

“It’s fine! Rani loves making weapons super much!”

“I know, I know. But by the looks of it, you’ll probably have to make 2 or 3 a day, you know?”

Because right now, the entire world is in utter chaos.

[Global Announcement: Humanity has surpassed the 1st Gate.]

[From now on, the difficulty of the Tower of Chaos will increase, and rewards will be drastically enhanced.]

[Additionally, after the clear time limit for all towers is reset, it is recalibrated to 3 months.]

[If a tower is not cleared within the time limit, the region where the tower is erected will be annihilated.]

An announcement that popped up for everyone across the entire world not long ago.

There was no need for a summary or anything.

Clear the top floor within 3 months.

Fail to clear it, and your capital city gets wiped out.

That was it.

About 10 days have passed since then….

So there are roughly two and a half months left.

How many countries have successfully cleared the top floor so far?

Just one.

South Korea.

And the rest?

Um….

They say it’s brutal.

The difficulty spiked drastically in the first place, after all.

It’s probably because of that 1st Gate or whatever….

I asked the workers to see if they knew anything.

But I couldn’t get a satisfactory answer.

They said we can only find out once we go above the 71st Floor or something.

Nothing I can do about that.

“Anyway, since they have to clear it in about two and a half months now, a ton of people are gonna flock in.”

“How many?”

“Probably the entire world…?”

“Gasp! Really?”

“Of course, naturally.”

This wasn’t arrogance; it was a fact.

The Head of the Manpower Management Bureau is accepting crafting requests?

How could anyone resist that?

“Though Rani’s the one making them, of course.”

“That’s right! Rani makes all of them!”

Indeed.

The items made by Rani.

They were insanely famous.

“Blaze-Blaze?”

“Well…, Flare-Flare isn’t famous. Only we know that one.”

But there are plenty of others.

Fwoosh, Stabby….

Weapons like those.

The names of the gear Ralph took still haven’t been revealed.

Still, well.

The process itself was so famous.

An auction where rankers from the five major powers brought piles of materials?

Just hearing those keywords is sensational.

On top of that, the result was Ralph Carter’s victory, betting 174 high-grade materials.

Thanks to that, the reputation was firmly etched into everyone’s minds.

Gear made by the Head of the Manpower Management Bureau?

It’s so good that rankers from all over the world would pounce on it.

“People were begging for gear back then too, but we didn’t open commissions. We were busy making Arthur’s gear and all that.”

“Uh-huh!”

“Dat’s right! Made Sturdy too, and got a scabbard.”

Right.

So people have been waiting just for this moment.

If this were a physical shop, they’d probably camp outside with piles of money and materials for an open run.

Of course, even then, it wouldn’t exceed a few hundred.

There aren’t even that many countries in the world in the first place.

And the countries capable of satisfying the conditions are even fewer.

Still, it looks like well over 100 requests will pour in….

Of course, I have no intention of fulfilling every single one that comes in.

“Todd, you told them the general terms, right?”

“Yes. I notified the minimum conditions for each level bracket through the subcontractor, instructing them to reject any that do not meet the criteria.”

“Nice.”

That’s how it should be.

What, are we a charity?

The conditions have to be decent for it to feel worth working on, right?

Still, on a global scale with so many nations, it’s going to be frantically busy—.

“Yay! Gonna make lots of weapons!”

Rani was already excited.

She hopped around, humming a tune, and then.

“Then should we make one right now? What should Rani make?”

Look at her tightly gripping her hammer with sparkling eyes.

Sheesh.

Every time I look at her, she’s amazing.

Doesn’t she ever get tired?

“Rani, you just finished making a cannon. Aren’t you tired?”

“Nope! The boom-boom thing barely had any materials, so it wasn’t hard at all!”

Is that so?

No wonder it finished so quickly.

Still, the person involved seems satisfied, though?

“Mr. Yeo Hae, how is it?”

“Loyalty! Aside from the fuse disappearing, I am fully satisfied!”

“That! Rani got rid of it! Instead, it goes fwoosh!”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yup! Put a fwoosh stone in it!”

As expected of Rani.

When it comes to crafting, her intuition is incredible.

I was already thinking it’d be inconvenient to light a fuse every single time.

If that’s the case?

“Then I am entirely satisfied! I wish to fire it right this instant!”

“No, I’ll let you use it soon, so please calm down for a moment.”

“Understood!”

This won’t do.

I need to send him to a tower or dungeon quickly.

That man.

If he fires that in the training grounds, he might fail to control his strength and cause an accident….

But it clearly must be good.

Whether he’s hyper-disciplined.

Or just nervous.

Normally, he’d be standing in a rigid, textbook posture….

Today, he’s too busy sneaking glances at the cannon.

Even right now.

Look at his face practically screaming absolute satisfaction.

“Newbie, if you work hard, you’ll get lots of stuff like Arthur!”

“Oh…! I will work hard!”

Wow.

Even giving motivation.

Arthur has grown so much.

Feels like just yesterday when he was high grade.

“Dat’s right! Newbie will become peak grade too! Train with Arthur!”

“May I try firing it?”

“You cannot.”

“Yes! Understood!”

Excuse me, sir.

That thing is way stronger than a regular cannon.

“It’s a bit of a shame it doesn’t have a name this time either.”

“Dat’s right…. Newbie should have a Blaze-Blaze too, Arthur is sad too.”

Arthur.

That….

Wishing suffering on others is a bad mindset.

Though honestly, I was looking forward to it too.

What can we do?

“B-but…. This isn’t complete either…. There’s a friend turtle, but need more materials to make turtle….”

If Rani says so, that’s that.

Our Rani.

Has very firm standards.

If it’s not a definitively complete product, she won’t even name it.

She’ll just end it with something like ‘scabbard.’

This time was the same.

The user was grinning ear to ear just looking at the cannon—.

Yet Rani claims that thing is an unfinished piece.

She says a turtle needs to be made.

“A turtle, huh….”

The name of the relic fragment used this time.

[Turtle Ship Cannon Fragment]

Could the complete product be… a Turtle Ship?

“Right! Turtle!”

“Oh….”

Crafting a Turtle Ship?

Yeah.

Honestly, it felt a bit underwhelming.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin.

Just going bang-bang with a single cannon felt a little lacking.

But having a Turtle Ship later on?

Now that changes everything.

Suddenly, I’m getting excited.

“Rani too! Turtle is big, so making it sounds fun!”

“Okay, Turtle Ship fragments? Let’s try to get them.”

How?

No idea.

They’ll probably drop while running dungeons.

“For now, crafting requests will be accepted starting tomorrow, so let’s rest today, Rani.”

“Yup! Then Rani will go to the training grounds!”

Hey, now.

Look at her trotting off to the training grounds after being told to rest.

As if she’ll actually rest over there.

She’ll just play around with materials.

“That is what counts as rest for worker Rani.”

“True….”

Ah, right.

“Todd, you get some rest too. Watch some TV. You’ve had a rough time these past few days.”

“As long as it was of help to the Director, I am satisfied.”

“Damn….”

Rani worked hard, but.

In truth, Todd had it the hardest.

Regarding this crafting matter.

Coordinating with the Awakened Management Bureau through our subcontractor, Eyes of Truth.

And establishing all the standards that would satisfy me.

Todd handled all of it.

The process finalized through that was:

1. The Central Awakened Management Bureau receives the requests and filters them.

2. Delivered via the subcontractor, Eyes of Truth.

3. The request is processed through AwakenedNet.

The key point here is number 3.

Why?

Because that’s how I get request points.

With the grade increase this time, a lot of new items appeared in the Request Point Shop.

The Request Point Shop.

The original grade was Bronze.

Now it’s Silver.

The newly added list is just as extensive.

Just skimming through it took several dozen minutes.

If I were to pick the three most coveted items among them….

[Head of the Manpower Management Bureau, Additional Skill]

– 1,000,000 P

[Unique Skill Grade-Up Elixir]

– 1,000,000 P

[Fixed Team Management, 1 Additional Slot]

– 500,000 P

It has to be these.

The additional skill.

The grade-up elixir was there before.

Fixed team management is the new one.

But out of all of them, the skill is the most tempting.

Unique skill grade, fixed team.

There will eventually be ways to raise those.

But a skill?

That isn’t easy.

The problem is that the request points are absurdly expensive, but….

Thanks to this, that’s solved.

Crafting requests.

These give quite a lot of points.

If I clear requests while constantly using 2x scrolls?

Farming points is only a matter of time.

Great.

Then starting tomorrow, let’s get this factory running at full throttle.