“It would be great if you could introduce me.”

“There were about three places that traded with our world. As I recall, this one was the best. Quality for price. There are also completely premium options, but building such good facilities takes a long time. They’re expensive and not very good.”

The Headquarters Chief wrote down the base name and company name on a small memo.

‘Magic Tech’ at Pevon Base.

The store name somehow gave a rough idea of what they did.

It was an easy-to-understand name.

“If you go to that base, there’s a big tower. If you go about 500 meters east from there, you’ll find it.”

“Really? Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. We should help each other. In similar circumstances. How long has it been since dungeons appeared in your world, Mage?”

“It’s been a little over 10 years for us.”

The Headquarters Chief did not hide his regretful expression.

“That’s the hardest time. I learned it in textbooks. They said there were many deaths and it was difficult back then.”

If it’s been 70 years, that’s modern and contemporary history on par with the Korean War by current Earth standards.

Thinking about it that way, 70 years did seem like a very long time.

‘Will my grandchildren study dungeons and gates in their history textbooks…?’

They probably will be covered in textbooks.

After all, it was a real event, so it couldn’t be left out.

Though it felt strange to include dungeons and gates in a history textbook.

“I heard later that the 20-year mark is a turning point. They say things stabilize after that.”

“Is that so? 10 more years then.”

While the Republic of Korea already felt somewhat stable, the situation with no A-rank gates yet prevented him from readily saying not to worry.

“Ah, but what about that request…?”

Kim Songcheol changed the subject again.

He had obtained various pieces of information, but his original goal was Thunderclap Magic.

He had to complete the request to be able to share it, so accepting the request was the priority.

Oh, right, you’re here to take a request, aren’t you? I got carried away chatting. My apologies.

No, it was very helpful.

It’s my pleasure. The reason I applied to be the Headquarters Chief is because I wanted to be of some help to other Hunters.

Oh… you applied yourself?

Yes. Why do you ask?

No, it’s nothing.

The previous Headquarters Chief flashed through his mind for a moment. The Headquarters Chief who had been forced into the position by the Gambler and then ran away in disgust.

It would have been better if this Mage had been the Headquarters Chief from the start. Did he just shove anyone in there?

While Kim Songcheol was lost in thought for a moment,

Then… just a moment…

The current Headquarters Chief scrolled through a hologram with his finger, examining the list of requests.

Ilwol… that’s a bit much…

He muttered to himself, scrolling through the list.

Kim Songcheol didn’t miss the first two letters.

What did you say?

Huh? Oh, there’s a request related to Ilwol. We can’t handle requests from such large organizations, but they do come in occasionally.

Considering the Magic Alliance’s position in an A-rank Dungeon, it’s a situation where even requests related to small and medium-sized organizations, let alone large ones, must be handled with caution.

If they poke a hornets’ nest under the guise of a request, the Magic Alliance Headquarters will be wiped out.

Could I hear the details of that request?

Of course, if there’s a Hunter with strong backing, the story changes a bit.

Well, hearing it isn’t difficult, but…

Curiosity appeared on the Headquarters Chief’s face. He wondered why Kim Songcheol was asking about an Ilwol-related request, but he didn’t ask.

At best, it’s dispute resolution. If the situation gets difficult, it’s a protection request, against Ilwol.

I’ll do that one.

Excuse me?

The Headquarters Chief frowned as if he had misheard something.

No, this should naturally be rejected at the request submission stage…

I will do it.

The Headquarters Chief looked at Kim Songcheol for a moment, then spoke a beat late.

…Do you perhaps have connections to Ilwol?

Yes, a little.

Kim Songcheol nodded with an awkward smile, but the Headquarters Chief’s expression didn’t completely relax.

If that’s the case… But are you really sure you’ll be okay?

Yes. I’ll be fine.

Hmm… If the situation gets difficult, you can abandon the request. I won’t impose any penalties.

Thank you for your consideration. If it gets dangerous, I’ll definitely give up and come back for a new one.

Kim Songcheol’s polite demeanor made the Headquarters Chief feel a little more at ease. Just a moment ago, he had wondered if it was recklessness, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

‘Does he have some really impressive connections…?’

It wasn’t polite to pry into the Mage’s background, so the Headquarters Director simply handed the request over to Kim Songcheol.

“Yes, I’ve accepted the request for you. You just need to meet the client at the designated location before 70 hours pass.”

“Yes, thank you. You’ve worked hard.”

After receiving the request, Kim Songcheol left the Magic Alliance.

His next destination was Magic Tech at the Paebon Base.

There was still some time before the request, so he planned to look around first.

Finding the shop was, as expected, not difficult.

As the Headquarters Director had said, he moved east from the tall Tower and soon found a sign that read ‘Magic Tech’.

Ding-a-ling.

Kim Songcheol stepped into the shop. The interior was like a custom tailor’s. Most of the furniture was made of Nothingness, and the decor was reminiscent of medieval Europe.

Moreover, the drawers that filled the walls and even the inner rooms brought to mind Devilrak’s Workshop.

“Take care of the customer.”

An old voice came from inside, and soon a young Female Staff Member walked out.

“Welcome, customer.”

She was wearing a shirt, a vest, and loose pants.

She was clearly a Female Staff Member, but her attire was a bit masculine, perhaps.

She stood behind the counter and greeted Kim Songcheol.

“Are you looking for a specific blueprint, perhaps?”

“No, not really. I just wanted to look around.”

“Oh, I see. Don’t worry. Consultation is one of our services. Have you ever been to the Universe?”

“Me?”

“No. I jumped in too quickly. From now on, the questions are about the civilization of your world. Have you ever been to the Universe?”

“Ah… I’ve been to the Universe.”

“I see.”

The Young Female Employee held a Document File and checked something.

“Can the middle class travel to the Universe?”

“No, they can’t.”

“Good. What’s your primary energy source?”

“Oil…?”

“Ah, carbon-based fossil fuels. That gives us a general idea of your civilization type. What about your unit system? Yard-Rupture-pound? Digalborsa? Chicyeong? Meter-kilo? Fals-orocal? Bimirun?”

“Meters. Meter-kilo.”

“Good. Meters are especially good. The speed of light is the same in every world. We design based on that and then convert it to other Illusions.”

The Clerk wrote a large ‘3G’ on the document she was holding and placed it on the counter.

It meant that Kim Songcheol’s world corresponded to the 3G Type in the shop’s own civilization classification method.

“What I can recommend for your world are, of course, infrastructure facilities. There are also designs for transportation methods and magic tools, but the number of Mages in your world is small, isn’t it? There aren’t many people who can use them, so it might not be meaningful. I think large-scale facilities that can apply the Mana absorption mechanism would be better. First, there are a few bestsellers…”

She opened a counter drawer and pulled out a stack of Catalogs. After rummaging through them for about 15 seconds, she picked out one Catalog.

It was a fairly old catalog, but there was no major problem in recognizing it.

As she opened and laid down the catalog, pictures of completed buildings were visible.

She pointed to a building in the middle of the catalog.

“Now, this is a Mana Power Plant. This is our specialty and best seller. Honestly, it’s not the most efficient among Mana Power Plant blueprints, but you can think of it as the easiest to construct. Since it’s a Mana-based facility, it can be a bit hard to build if you’re not familiar with it, right? This item was designed with that in mind.”

Her finger moved to another building. It was distinctly smaller than the power plant.

“This is a purification facility. As you know, being a Mage, there’s no field of study more specialized in purification than magic, right? For your civilization type, you’re probably using quite a lot of resources for treating sewage and industrial wastewater, aren’t you? Sanitation is important, right? And… when it comes to sanitation, you can’t leave this out either.”

This time, it wasn’t a building but a circular facility.

Nothing was visible inside the circle; it was just pitch black.

“A waste disposal facility. You just create a large subspace and just dump everything into it. However, this one is a bit expensive. It’s also difficult to build. So…”

The clerk leaned forward and lowered her voice, as if sharing a big secret.

“Do you know about the portals? The ones you can buy with points.”

“Yes.”

Kim Songcheol’s voice also became softer.

“Does your planetary system have a star? Usually there is one, but sometimes there isn’t.”

“It does.”

It was obvious. Earth revolved around the sun.

“Then just build the portal near the star. And if you keep putting trash into the portal, the star will burn it up for you.”

“Is it possible to build it there?”

“People don’t know this, but when you build a portal, you see the planetary hologram, right? If you zoom that out, you can see the entire planetary system, right? At that point, you just designate a location near the star, and that’s it. Then it just becomes a direct incinerator. Don’t worry, the portal won’t burn.”

“Wow… I didn’t know that.”

Since Kim Songcheol hadn’t installed the portal himself, it was something he hadn’t considered at all.

“Good tip, right? Ho ho. Scientific civilizations have a lot of trash problems. And they don’t usually try to zoom out. You would have discovered it eventually… but I gave you a quick heads-up. And next.”

Again, the clerk’s finger moved.

“In places with large land areas, agricultural packages also sell quite well. If you include climate manipulation and accelerated growth, the harvest yield increases significantly. So you won’t starve, so to speak. And… how many mages do you have?”

“I don’t know exactly, maybe 50?”

“Out of how many people?”

“50 million.”

“Ah… that’s quite barren.”

The clerk folded the catalog so that the items on the opposite side were not visible.

These were facilities that required mages to be stationed there to operate.

With only 50 mages, it would be difficult to even clear dungeons, so they couldn’t spare mages for infrastructure where alternative technologies existed.

“What I recommend is what I’ve told you. You might want to consider the ones on this side.”

There were many facilities other than those the clerk mentioned. However, they weren’t as appealing as the recommended ones.

Kim Songcheol looked through the catalog, then raised his head.

“I forgot to ask the most important thing. What’s the price?”

“We have fixed prices. For the Mana Power Plant, it’s 7 million points.”

“7 million points? That’s cheaper than I thought.”

Kim Songcheol unconsciously thought 7 million points was cheap.

He used to tremble at not having 3 million points to clear a C-class Gate, but now, hearing 7 million points, he even felt it was nothing.

And objectively, 7 million points seemed cheap.

Even if it was just buying the blueprint.

“Yes. It’s a bit cheap, isn’t it? They say it used to be incredibly expensive. But because it was so expensive, illegal sharing was rampant… so we’re just going with low-margin, high-volume sales. There’s also a package for 45 million points that provides all blueprints without any restrictions. We don’t usually recommend it because the losses are severe, but since you’re from a similar world to me… I’m also from a 3G type.”

The Clerk continued, his eyes sparkling unusually.

“The Dungeon doesn’t often penalize transactions related to thread-based infrastructure. So, you can really sell blueprints to other countries. And receive cash instead of points. Then we also have some indirect losses, but we still have to make a living together. So, that’s why the 45 million points unlimited package is very profitable. It looks expensive at first glance. But if you really look into it…”

Kim Songcheol got lost in the story but suddenly snapped back to reality.

And he thought.

He might get sold into something if he wasn’t careful.

Now, the Clerk’s sparkling eyes were a little scary.