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Chapter 22
From Jin Seong-uk’s point of view, it was perfectly reasonable to see Woo-hyun that way, and Woo-hyun answered him.
“Honestly, when I first came to buy gear, you could’ve sold it off without mentioning Dracula, but you didn’t. And you genuinely felt pity for Dracula stuck in that drum. So I wanted to give you a chance. Even if I went to another smithy, I’d have to entrust it to a blacksmith I don’t know—so I’d rather leave it with someone I can trust even a little more.”
Hearing Woo-hyun’s words, Jin Seong-uk thought there was some logic to them and nodded.
“If that’s your will, then I’ll accept. To be honest, if it were someone else I wouldn’t take a custom order, but since Dracula chose a proper owner for it and that owner is making the request, perhaps there’s something in it that will help me too.”
Woo-hyun smiled at Jin Seong-uk’s positive response.
“So what do you want to order? Since Dracula has the weapon, is it armor?”
In response to Jin Seong-uk’s question, Woo-hyun replied.
“Yes. We hunted an Arachne today, and I’d like you to make armor from Arachne silk.”
When Woo-hyun asked him to make armor using Arachne silk, Jin Seong-uk asked,
“Are you thinking of weaving the Arachne silk like a bulletproof vest?”
Bulletproof vests are made by weaving very tough synthetic fibers like Kevlar, so Jin Seong-uk wondered if that was what Woo-hyun had in mind.
When Woo-hyun nodded that that was the idea, Jin Seong-uk immediately shook his head.
“Many have tried that. Not just one or two. But they all failed.”
At Jin Seong-uk’s words, Woo-hyun responded as if he already knew.
“I know. Arachne silk has high viscosity, so it’s impossible to weave it uniformly.”
Woo-hyun pinpointed the exact reason why armor couldn’t be made from Arachne silk, and Jin Seong-uk couldn’t help but be puzzled.
“You know that and yet you want me to do it?”
When asked why he would place an order despite knowing it was impossible, Woo-hyun produced the answer he had prepared.
“While hunting the Arachne today, I discovered a way to weaken the viscosity of its silk.”
At Woo-hyun’s words, Jin Seong-uk’s eyes widened in surprise.
“R-really?”
“Yes. I’m not someone who has so much time that I’d lie about something like this.”
Calming his excitement, Jin Seong-uk replied to Woo-hyun.
“So that’s what you meant when you said trust matters more than skill.”
At Jin Seong-uk’s remark, Woo-hyun nodded in agreement.
“The technology to make bulletproof vests already exists, and Arachne silk is one of the cheapest and lightest materials among monster corpses. The only problem is the silk’s viscosity; if you know how to neutralize that, you can make armor that’s very cheap, very light, and extremely good. Then getting rich would be instantaneous.”
Hearing Woo-hyun, Jin Seong-uk nodded in agreement and asked him,
“Could I not learn that secret and then just shut up about it?”
To Jin Seong-uk’s question, Woo-hyun answered as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“Then I must have seen the wrong person. Can’t be helped.”
Jin Seong-uk stared at Woo-hyun silently for a long moment.
It had been a long time.
Someone who trusted him like that without expecting anything in return.
That small trust threw the tiniest spark into the furnace in Jin Seong-uk’s chest, and the flame very quickly burst into a blaze.
“Good. I’ll show what I can do after a long time. So what’s the method?”
In response, Woo-hyun took out a sample of Arachne silk and a urine pouch from his bag and said,
“The Arachne’s urine.”
At that same time, at Sky Investment—
While Woo-hyun was explaining at the Seoul National Smithy to Jin Seong-uk how Arachne urine could neutralize the viscosity of Arachne silk, Woo-hyun had used the Yeouido seventh-floor Sky Investment office—given to him as payment from Serin for the information about Kwon Woo-jin’s coup.
In the new president Jung-hyuk’s office sat a mountain of documents about the flow of mana stones from China.
Jung-hyuk had gathered not only materials from China, but also intel on mana stone flows from Korea, Japan, Russia, and even the United States. His hands trembled slightly as he read.
“Sigh…”
Upon reaching a conclusion, Jung-hyuk couldn’t help but let out a deep sigh. He leaned back in his chair and briefly closed his eyes.
“I wonder where that kid Woo-hyun learned this kind of ridiculous information…”
Unaware that Woo-hyun had regressed, Jung-hyuk could only think that his son had changed completely since leaving the military.
It could be explained that he somehow awakened a Gift and became a player.
But overnight he sold information and became an 800-billion-won asset holder, and took out a billion won to start an investment company for Jung-hyuk.
No matter how Jung-hyuk thought about it, it was beyond his comprehension.
“But since he’s not likely to tell me, I’d better focus on this for now.”
Shifting his focus from his son to the opportunity his son had brought him, Jung-hyuk looked at the graph he had created.
After mapping the recent clandestine purchases of mana stones by the Chinese government, Jung-hyuk examined a rumor article rapidly spreading through financial centers like Shanghai and Wall Street.
[New substance CM-89 to replace mana stones! Development in final stages!]
The article claimed that a new substance capable of replacing mana stones had been developed in China.
Jung-hyuk translated the Chinese portal-site articles himself and, after digging, confirmed that within China the article was being treated as established fact.
They had even given the CM-89 the name “Jin-eun” (True Silver) and seemed to be putting the researchers under protection; seeing this leak on CCTV, Jung-hyuk was convinced that at least within China they genuinely believed the new substance to be real.
Reaching that thought, Jung-hyuk arrived at a single conclusion.
“The Chinese sure are bold. They’re planning to pull a con on the whole world.”
His reasoning was simple.
If the new substance were genuine, the recent secret accumulation of mana stones by the Chinese government—even using nominee accounts—didn’t make sense.
If a material that could replace mana stones were developed, mana stone prices would inevitably crash.
Before such a crash, you would normally sell mana stones, not buy them, to avoid losses.
But China was quietly absorbing worldwide mana stone supplies—so much that it wouldn’t be strange to call it hoarding.
That meant that the development of the new substance, which was accepted as fact in China, must be false.
No one in a communist country like China would dare conduct such a huge deception alone.
If an individual tried something like that, the public security forces would immediately intervene.
Moreover, state broadcaster CCTV had acted and China’s psychic authorities had attached the codename “Jin-eun” to CM-89.
This suggested that the Chinese government wasn’t a duped victim or an unwitting accomplice; it was the mastermind from the start, planning everything.
Spreading rumors internally and using CCTV to make people believe—it was the old adage: “To deceive the enemy, deceive your own side first.”
Having reached that conclusion, Jung-hyuk fell into deep contemplation.
“Hoo… should I do it or not…”
He couldn’t help but mutter.
This was a massive con the Chinese were preparing against the world.
Given the scale, dipping one’s toes in then pulling back wasn’t possible.
You’d either gain everything or lose everything.
Joining this game was an all-or-nothing gamble.
His head told him to jump in and seize everything, but his heart urged him to run from the insane gamble.
“How long has it been since my son started a company? Do you plan to ruin the whole thing? Don’t even look at China,” his inner voice scolded, telling him to stay far away.
But his investor’s rationality whispered, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”—a temptation in sweet words.
As if angels and devils were circling in his mind, Jung-hyuk couldn’t reach an answer easily.
That night, at the Seoul National Smithy—
“My god… I really thought this could work…”
Jin Seong-uk had processed the Arachne silk using the method Woo-hyun had shown him—Arachne urine—and succeeded in lowering the silk’s viscosity enough to weave it uniformly like a bulletproof vest.
“With this, I won’t have to worry about making a living.”
Armor made of Arachne silk would have massive market-disrupting power.
Even just being cheap and strong would be disruptive, but being light as well?
It would be like releasing sharks into a pond where only small carp live.
Of course, high-ranking players who face top-tier enemies might find armor made from Arachne silk meaningless, but among the vast majority of lower-tier players, it was obvious such armor would be extremely popular.
“In time this method will leak out too, but until then we can monopolize it at our smithy, and that’ll be enough.”
Jin Seong-uk had lost his parents to monsters when he was young.
Raised by his grandfather, Jin Tae-san—the owner of the Seoul National Smithy—he began making gear to take revenge by exterminating the monsters that had taken his parents.
His goal was to eliminate the monsters that had stolen his parents, so he never intended to hoard this superior armor forever.
He planned to disclose the secret once he’d secured enough profit to guarantee his retirement.
