At that moment, somewhere in Seoul.
In a club blasting loud music, a group of people in suits gathered through the VVIP entrance.
“Damn it, we really have to use a place like this.”
“If we didn’t, we could end up assassinated by the ‘Blue Lightning.’ Hahaha.”
“Tsk.”
As two middle-aged men entered the room, young, beautiful women took their places beside them.
“What about Representative Kim?”
“He chickened out. Said he couldn’t go through with it.”
“Coward. He always yells and struts around like a big shot, but when it comes down to it, he tucks his tail between his legs?”
The men picked up their glasses as if it was the most natural thing in the world, unaffected by the women reaching their hands over their suits. They casually continued their conversation.
“So, are you planning to work under that punk?”
“Are you crazy? I don’t care what the law says about giving opportunities to the youth—how could I call someone who’s not even thirty ‘sir’?”
“Right? Even if he is an S-rank Hunter.”
The women next to the two representatives flinched at the mention of an S-rank Hunter, but the men filled their empty glasses as if nothing had happened.
“Still, we can’t afford to lose this time. Keep pushing the polls hard and leak things to the media. Did you release the shills?”
“Yes. We liquidated all the Tower Coins we had saved and hired agitators. They’ll smear the kid online, mock him, spread slander, and flood the comments.”
“That’s the way. Wait, did you say you liquidated everything?”
“Yes. …Should I have kept some?”
“Nah, it’s not like we could use them anyway. Tower Coins are basically useless. What do gamers call that kind of thing…?”
“You mean ‘for looks only’?”
“Yeah, exactly. Hunters clearing the Towers strut around in fantasy outfits that only exist in games. If I couldn’t make a quick buck speculating on this, I wouldn’t have touched it. Would’ve been pushing for regulations instead, haha.”
“What about you, Representative?”
“I sold everything. Made a hefty amount in cash thanks to that—”
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
A wall-mounted phone in the room began ringing loudly.
“Damn. Pick it up.”
“Ah, yes.”
One of the women answered the call immediately.
“…Yes?”
“What is it? What’s going on?”
“Well, um…”
With a pale face, the woman looked at the two men and relayed what she had just heard over the phone.
“Tower Coin… it just tripled in value.”
“……?”
“They say there’s a special item in Babel that can turn Non-Awakened people into Hunters… and you can buy it with Tower Coins.”
“……What?”
“They’re saying to recall all the Tower Coins immediately—”
“…….”
CRASH!!
A glass smashed violently on the floor, shattering into pieces, but it didn’t matter financially.
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!”
They had just sold all their Tower Coins and turned them into cold, hard cash.
* * *
“Tower Coins are now more expensive than most cryptocurrencies, but I don’t think this is my fault.”
“That’s right, Master. Just because a pharmaceutical company’s stock hits the ceiling after releasing a cancer cure doesn’t mean the company did anything wrong.”
As Elaine said, the coin markets worldwide are on fire—but it’s not my fault.
Sure, I did spread the information that caused Tower Coins to skyrocket, but people still aren’t fully convinced, just like all the speculation going around online.
“Drei, how’s the public sentiment?”
“About 70% are trying to buy Tower Coins, trusting your words, but are struggling to get any. The other 30% think you and the U.S. President orchestrated this whole thing together.”
“Me? Come on. Even if I was involved, you think the U.S. President would manipulate stock prices?”
That’s just slander against President Luigi.
What kind of president would deliberately shake the global economy while increasing his personal fortune by billions through stock manipulation?
Like, buying up stocks ahead of time and then pushing some convenient excuse to the public, making prices soar before cashing out?
“That’s something out of a novel. No way that happens in real life.”
“……”
“What is it, Drei?”
“Hmm, nothing. Just felt like I should bite my tongue. I mean… the situation’s what it is. People are bound to raise suspicions. Especially if it’s something that can turn a human into a Hunter.”
“I suppose that’s a reasonable reaction.”
People suspect that I and President Luigi tried to manipulate Babel’s unknown information to make Tower Coin skyrocket.
Maybe 90% of those suspicions are from people thinking logically. But 10%? They’re probably the ones who sold all their Tower Coins yesterday and now have to buy back in at a loss.
Or maybe not.
“Partner, what are you gonna do? Planning to cash in your Tower Coins?”
“Nope. Not at all.”
Kiharu asked with a knowing look, but I drew a firm X with my hands.
“Even if Tower Coins go up by the trillions, I won’t cash out or play coin games with them.”
“You are in the position to, though.”
“Sure, but if I did that, I’d be no different from the countless S-rank Hunters I saw in Babel.”
If I let greed guide me with Tower Coins, I might lose myself as a Summoner.
“Tower Coins are for conquering the Towers and Babel—not for farming rice. If I used them for that, the one who gave me the power of a Summoner might just yell, ‘You little punk!’ and scold me.”
“Would that actually happen?”
“Of course not. I’m just saying. That’s how strongly I feel about not using Tower Coins for profit.”
“But you did tell President Luigi, didn’t you?”
“I did, but they didn’t start stockpiling Tower Coins like they were some kind of strategic national asset.”
Both President Eisen Armstrong Luigi and I had our limits.
Had we crossed them, Tower Coin’s price would have skyrocketed before I even entered Babel, and far more people would be looking at us with suspicion now.
“At the very least, I had no particular intention to make money off Tower Coins.”
“Said the man who owns tens of thousands of times more Tower Coins than the total global supply.”
“…”
Kiharu’s words were playful, but not wrong.
“Before we began the Babel raid, it was roughly one-to-one with the global supply.”
“But now, it’s laughable to even compare. Even if you gathered all the Tower Coins in the world, they wouldn’t amount to your pinky toe’s toenail worth, partner.”
“Kiharu.”
“What?”
“Did you invest in Tower Coins behind my back?”
“As if. I just find it a bit bittersweet seeing all those who did invest going crazy now.”
Kiharu moved toward Drei and hopped onto her shoulder.
“Drei. Can you look something up for me?”
“Like what? The skyrocketing number of credit loan consultations? Or how many people are urgently downloading apps to throw their entire housing deposit into Tower Coins?”
“They’re already doing that?”
“Of course. Just holding Tower Coins is like watching a million won being added to your bank account every second.”
“…I don’t know what people are trusting to go that all-in.”
“Didn’t you ever invest in Tower Coins yourself, Commander?”
“I tried learning a bit, even put in about 100,000 won at one point, but I gave up in the end.”
Tower Coins have a fatal flaw.
“Let’s be real. If a Hunter holding Tower Coins dies, they’re gone too. Not like Babel, where things persist.”
Unlike cryptocurrencies, Tower Coins don’t exist purely as data. They’re bound to a specific person—an individual Hunter.
“And what if the Hunter runs off? Tower Coins are soaring in value. What if they just disappear and sell the Coins themselves to pocket the cash?”
That’s the limit of Tower Coins.
The ‘account’ is a human being.
“Even companies that invest in Tower Coins through hired ‘human wallets’—well, those human wallets still have heads that can think and legs that can run…”
“And stats that qualify them as Hunters.”
If it were me, I might bolt too.
“Anyway, forget it. Let’s focus on what we can do. While people are busy speculating or value-investing in Tower Coins, we’ve got more important things to do—like saving as many lives as we can.”
I took the control key to Illinois.
“Let’s roll out an experiment. One for the entire nation… A ‘lottery’ in the truest sense of the word.”
* * *
[That same moment, somewhere in Jeju Island.]
A place devoid of any electronics.
“Mmrrgghh!”
A being bound to a steel-like pillar let out a muffled scream, a gag stuffed in their mouth as they writhed in pain.
WHAM!
An aluminum baseball bat slammed into the figure.
It bent with a single strike, and the middle-aged woman who wielded it threw it away and grabbed her wrist in frustration.
“Ugh…! Not even good enough to be a punching bag, are you…?!”
“Please calm down, Mayor. At least you got to relieve some stress, didn’t you?”
“Hey, Secretary Kim. Honestly, this is more stressful. Can’t we just kill and dump her somewhere?”
“…We mustn’t kill her carelessly. If she dies, that kid will turn the whole thing into a media frenzy—shedding tears on-screen like—huh?”
The secretary froze as the thread around his sleeve twitched unnaturally.
“Something’s…”
“Mayor!!”
A voice echoed deep from within the cave.
“The Master is on his way to Jeju right now!!”
