NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 25 - A Sweet Offer
Chapter 25: A Sweet Offer
Gangnam Café.
Beautiful women dressed in flashy clothes were chatting while ordering coffee.
They were Baek Ah-jin and her friends.
Friends she had known since high school.
‘Sigh.’
Baek Ah-jin sighed inwardly.
‘I need to collect runes.’
The reason she, who was fully invested in rune farming and selling, came to this meeting was simple.
They were her only friends.
Not even coming to a meeting that happens only once every six months?
She thought the friendship would end right there.
For her, still in her early twenties, it was a very important matter.
Noise, noise.
The excited stories of her friends didn’t fully reach her ears.
In her mind, there was only Baek Jin-woo.
Do her friends know?
That her brother, who is in the hospital, is actually the hottest player these days.
And that he has started a company with the famous Yoo Ji-ah, selling information.
“Hey, didn’t you say your new boyfriend is a player? Have you seen his summons? How many C-ranks does he have? He doesn’t have any B-ranks, does he?”
“Wow, if your boyfriend’s a player, does he get you summons? Or some good runes?”
“Really……. I’m jealous.”
Once, these kinds of topics were so interesting, but now they don’t evoke any particular feelings.
As she was just nodding with a blank expression, her phone rang.
Ding!
It was a message.
‘Brother?’
It was even a message from Baek Jin-woo.
[Baek Jin-woo: Let’s meet for a moment. Can you come to the open area? Can you come now?]
At that moment.
Baek Ah-jin’s face lit up brighter than ever.
“Guys.”
She stood up abruptly and spoke.
“Sorry, but I have to go first.”
“Huh?”
“Suddenly?”
“We were supposed to have dinner together today.”
Her friends looked disappointed.
Baek Ah-jin was quite popular even within this group.
Because she’s an active player with a C-rank summon.
“Really, I’m sorry.”
Baek Ah-jin put her hands together and bowed slightly.
“My brother called me.”
“Brother?”
“The brother who had the accident before? Ah, he regained consciousness recently, right?”
“Is he doing okay now?”
Baek Ah-jin’s mouth was itching.
Yes!
My brother is that hot Baek Jin-woo who broke all the dungeon records in Korea!
She wanted to say it so much, but she held back, as always.
Because she had to keep her promise.
“Hehe, I’ll tell you the details next time. Next meeting, I’ll treat you all big. Sorry again!”
After apologizing to her friends, Baek Ah-jin quickly gathered her clothes and bag and left the café.
***
Somewhere in Seoul.
YooBaek’s tiny office.
“C-CEO.”
Secretary Kim Byung-jin’s voice was trembling.
“We really hit it big, didn’t we? I’m not dreaming, am I?”
Kim Byung-jin and Hwang Tae-seop.
They were both looking at the finalized sales figures with disbelief.
After posting the information sale notice, YooBaek practically soared to the sky.
“Oh, we haven’t even started yet, so what are you all talking about?”
Even Yoo Ji-ah, who spoke nonchalantly, had trembling eyebrows.
Jackpot!
The information was selling faster than expected.
In just a week, a whopping 100 players had bought it.
Because of the confidentiality clause, even a large guild bought ten copies of the videos.
Five videos and two text information.
Each video is 100 million won, and each text information is 10 million won…
A hundred people bought 5.2 billion won worth.
Do you know how much the sales alone amounted to?
‘520 billion won.’
It’s unbelievable.
Thanks to giving Baek Jin-woo around 1.3 billion won worth of gifts, a week’s sales reached 520 billion won?
Moreover, since the cost is almost non-existent, the sales are practically the company’s pure profit.
‘Incredible……. Even Grandfather would be speechless.’
Founder of Daeseong Corporation.
If Yoo Byung-cheon found out about this, he would clap his hands in acknowledgment.
‘The issue is that this is just the beginning.’
First.
Thanks to the confidentiality clause, there will be countless players who will buy the information.
Even with only lower-grade information, the future value looks promising.
Moreover, when medium, high, and top-grade information are released?
That will bring in even bigger money.
Second.
Actually, this is the real profit.
The summons that were stockpiled in advance suddenly started selling like hotcakes.
C-rank for 2 billion, B-rank for 10 billion.
If they were to gift the exact same set as what was given to Baek Jin-woo, do you know how much that would be?
A whopping 5.4 billion.
After all fees, about 4 billion won in profit remains per person.
Gulp.
Yoo Ji-ah swallowed her saliva as she looked at the sales sheet once more.
Though it was written in a complicated way, the final summary was as follows.
[Sales Sheet]
Information Sales Revenue – 520 billion won.
Summon Sales Revenue – 3.25 trillion won.
‘Total 3.77 trillion won.’
Of course, they still have to deduct taxes and pay back the borrowed debts…
But it was still a jackpot, no matter what.
Even as a third-generation chaebol, the amount slightly took her breath away.
And this time, the earnings came solely from her own efforts, not Daeseong’s power.
“Hoo, hoo.”
Yoo Ji-ah took a deep breath to calm her excitement.
Then she spoke to her employees.
“With confirmed business potential, it’s time to start serious investments.”
“What do you mean by serious investments?”
When Kim Byung-jin tilted his head.
“Here.”
Yoo Ji-ah pointed to the office.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit cramped?”
“It is, compared to the main headquarters.”
“If we’re going to properly care for Baek Jin-woo, we need to expand. We’ll need a lot of office space if we’re hiring a legal team and an accounting team.”
YooBaek is no longer a simple small company.
It’s a giant management firm handling the hit player Baek Jin-woo.
“First, let’s go buy some land and buildings. I’ve already found some places.”
YooBaek has many ways to make money in the future.
Information sales, private requests, tutoring, and so on.
Yoo Ji-ah sought Baek Jin-woo’s opinion on these, and luckily, Baek Jin-woo was open to all possibilities.
‘And.’
Yoo Ji-ah didn’t forget what Baek Jin-woo had requested.
‘Personal training grounds and family protection.’
All the earnings from this time would be reinvested for that.
***
Every day, Baek Jin-woo is in one of two places.
A regular dungeon or an open field.
After completing his rounds in the weekly dungeons, he would always head to one of those two places for training or hunting.
Baek Ah-jin, who had climbed the trail to reach the open area, was immediately wide-eyed.
‘What’s all that?’
Summons that looked dazzling at a glance were training in formation, and they were all familiar to her.
‘Combat Marshal and Priest of Radiance?’
And that’s not all.
‘Spotted Komodo, Gale Falcon, Titanium Golem, Horned Fairy, Frost Panther, Sky Dolphin, even Celestial Wyvern…’
And then.
Thud, thud, thud!
Three Lava Drakes were patrolling threateningly.
And the armored man who seemed to be leading them.
‘That guy who suppressed my Shadow Elf last time!’
Glance.
Hun Gyo turned his head to look at Baek Ah-jin.
Flinch!
Baek Ah-jin shivered, but he soon resumed his command as if he didn’t care.
“Oh, you’re here.”
Thud!
Baek Jin-woo, who was doing a handstand in the corner, held his pose and wiped his sweat.
‘What on earth…?’
Baek Ah-jin was startled once more.
It was because of her brother’s physique.
‘Was his body always that good?’
No.
That couldn’t be.
He had been living off IV fluids in the hospital, practically a skeleton…
When did he become like this?
His bare upper body was covered with lean muscles.
Enough abs to do laundry on.
Swoosh.
There was something unfamiliar about Baek Jin-woo as he wiped off his sweat with a towel.
She didn’t know it, but Baek Jin-woo had been enduring an immense amount of training.
Although players could technically relax, Baek Jin-woo disliked that.
Letting the summons do all the work while the player slacked off went against his values.
“Brother, what’s all this?”
Baek Ah-jin asked, calming her surprised heart.
“Huh? What?”
“Those summons!”
Baek Ah-jin silently looked at the summons who were focused on training.
By the way, a player can only have up to fifteen summons out at a time.
This is because they can only operate three teams.
“These are the popular summons! Their prices are rising, and seasoned traders are always looking for them! Just how much is all that…”
Recently, certain summons have skyrocketed in price.
Those exact summons.
Despite all listings being cleared out, well-known players were scrambling to acquire them.
Rumors naturally spread.
There were even rumors that YooBaek was purchasing these summons because of the information they’d sold.
‘No way.’
Baek Ah-jin’s mouth slightly opened.
Yes, it’s true!
It all fits perfectly!
“Brother, did you set the record with those summons?”
“Yeah.”
“Where did you get all this?”
“Remember Yoo Ji-ah from last time? She gave them to me.”
“…Gave?”
All those expensive things?
“Not to the company, but to you personally?”
“Yes, she said it was a gift.”
“…Gulp.”
She had nothing left to say.
She had already used up her surprises for the day.
“Anyway, Ah-jin. Thanks for coming as soon as I called.”
“Oh, right. Why did you call?”
“Are you still selling runes well?”
“Yeah, I sold some yesterday too.”
“Then come over here for a moment.”
Baek Jin-woo led her to a corner of the open field.
And there.
Whirring!
He began taking out numerous runes and materials he’d gathered from weekly dungeon runs.
Though they were low-grade, there was an impressive amount.
“What… is all this?”
“These are what I gathered while hunting. Want to check them out?”
Baek Ah-jin picked up each item on the ground and checked the information.
For the record, once things are laid out like this, someone can just pick them up without a transaction.
So you can’t lay things out unless you really trust the person.
“This is a Swift Rune? But the option isn’t that great. Oh? Wow, amazing! A Severing Rune with critical hit chance attached? This could sell for a good price!”
Baek Ah-jin started commenting as she examined each rune one by one.
‘Sharper than I thought.’
Baek Jin-woo, who was observing with crossed arms, noted that about his sister.
The Severing Rune has an effect that increases critical hit chance.
If the rune’s option adds even more critical hit chance?
It becomes quite valuable.
‘Maybe it’s because she’s always selling runes… She’s got a precise sense for rune value.’
Not only did she know the effects of common runes with high drop rates, but she was also well aware of the rarer runes.
And it wasn’t just runes.
It was impressive how she could instantly assess the value of skill books and materials just by looking.
Naturally so.
Baek Ah-jin practically lived in the “Marketplace.”
She was sensitive to real-time information, knew the going prices, and was even into arbitrage trading.
That’s why she recognized all of Baek Jin-woo’s summons as soon as she saw them.
After watching for a moment, Baek Jin-woo nodded.
“Ah-jin.”
“Yeah?”
She, who was sorting runes and materials as if possessed, looked up.
“Would you like to try selling these?”
“These… Me?”
Baek Ah-jin’s eyes widened.
She was confident.
Even professional rune sellers would often marvel at her selling skills when they saw her.
Since she was young, she was always more interested in trading than hunting, regardless of the game.
The thrill of selling cheap items at a high price was more enjoyable than leveling up her character.
‘If I handle all the sales…’
There would be no more time to farm runes.
But?
She was naturally more interested in selling runes than in farming them.
No.
Her heart was pounding with excitement beyond mere interest.
“Then, how much commission will you give me?”
Baek Ah-jin asked cautiously.
For her brother, she could do it for free once, but she also needed to prepare for her future.
She couldn’t work for free every time.
“Commission? How much do you want?”
“Usually, when players leave items with big wholesalers, they take around 8-10% of the profit.”
“Oh, really?”
There were companies that sold items for you?
That must be convenient.
“Yeah, but you’re family, and you’re a great player. So… I’ll just take 5%. That seems fair.”
After some thought, Baek Ah-jin nodded.
It was a fair offer.
‘For a player like my brother, companies would be eager to take him on.’
They’d probably be willing to take a financial hit to recruit him.
And now, she was getting that opportunity herself.
All because they were family!
Heh.
Baek Jin-woo chuckled as he looked at his sister.
‘Cute.’
He’d only asked her to sell the items, but she was setting up the commission and even being fair about it.
‘But…’
Baek Jin-woo hadn’t intended to use his sister.
It was all for her sake.
“Forget 5%. No need to be stingy.”
“Huh?”
“I’ll give you a generous 20%. So give it your best shot. There’ll be even rarer and better runes later, so be ready to get busy.”
“…What?”
Baek Ah-jin’s mouth dropped open.
R-really?
All that, at 20%?
Is that even possible?
“Ahhhh.”
Baek Ah-jin was on the verge of happiness overload.
Right then and there, she made up her mind.
Starting today, she’d give up on rune farming and become a dedicated marketplace expert.
A professional marketplace seller, just for Baek Jin-woo.