Chapter 122 – Pursuit (1)

In just a few days, the city in the other world was rapidly restoring its walls and developing.

There were no monsters around the city, and it was rich in natural resources.

The undead corpses had all turned to ash and vanished, so there were no worries about contamination either.

A few more days passed beyond the promised time, and Diana drew attention by showing herself working out at the gym every day.

Cute. To think she’s training her muscles just because I said that one thing.

Muscles are always right.

I was thinking I might as well train her a bit since things had turned out this way.

“Ajeossi.”

If only Karin hadn’t shown up right then.

The look on Karin’s face wasn’t pretty.

From what she said, the coordinates had been thrown off, so she had a hard time finding me.

Diana stared at Karin resentfully.

Without even showing the proper courtesy of a monarch to Her Highness the Princess, Karin grabbed me and left through a portal.

The sight of Diana dropping the dumbbell in her hand was somehow pitiful.

“Then you should have just lived there.”

Karin grumbled in a disgruntled voice.

She seems really pissed off about having to travel between dimensions to find me. I decided I’d buy her lots of tasty food when we got back.

And so we returned, and as soon as I got back, I think I just passed out and slept my fill.

It was probably because I’d fought with Phase 3 open.

The time I could maintain Phase 3 was a mere 60 seconds.

It feels like wringing out every last ounce of strength to make my magic go berserk, so I’m completely drained afterward.

‘Still, I should have at least said goodbye to everyone.’

They were people I might never see again.

Just a few days ago, we had shared life and death together.

-Inventory is synchronizing.

Suddenly, a notification popped up.

-Your inventory has been synchronized with….

-The Goddess’s City ‘Pandel’ will be changed to the Hero’s City ‘Pandel’.

-Your city’s current population is 73,205.

-Congratulations! Everyone rejoices in your protection.

“…”

What is this?

Why is a message like this popping up all of a sudden?

I activated the newly appeared city tab.

Just as Karin had once shown me, a semicircular image appeared on the table.

Within it, I could see a city that looked like a miniature version of the Goddess’s City I knew.

I got a Lord Skill too?

Suddenly?

The lord of Pandel is that guy Roistan, and the queen is Diana. This is completely different from the time with the Rania territory.

[Long live the Hero!]

-Your followers are overjoyed.

-The city’s current Faith is 100.

“……”

This is getting more and more ridiculous.

Am I still not fully awake?

Setting aside the potentially cringeworthy dream I just had, am I dreaming up another one right now?

-Discord has arisen in the household of ‘Vincent Joe’.

-They are debating whether to spread cheese on bread or dip bread in cheese.

It’s like the whole ‘pour the sauce’ versus ‘dip it’ debate.

Why are they fighting over something like that? Just eat it however you want. Or they could just prepare it differently for each other.

-Your followers are overjoyed by your revelation.

-Faith has increased by ‘1’.

“……….”

What is this? It’s scary. And incredibly useless.

Just then, a new pop-up appeared.

-Special Discount!!!

-The Shop has opened!!!!!

-Prices will constantly fluctuate according to the market, and the list will be updated!

Ah, I’ve seen tons of ads like this.

It’s a feature they always put in mass-produced mobile games.

I clicked on the shop.

<Weapons>

1. Sword of Judgment (300C): The best sword for punishing evil.
2. Tetra’s Dagger (250C): A dagger that injects poison.
3. Tyrfing (500C): A dagger that cannot be sheathed until it has drawn blood.

<Armor>

1. Cloak of Stealth (30C): Covering your body with this cloak makes you difficult to distinguish from your surroundings.
2. Infinity Coat (100C): A coat of infinite regeneration. Can be enchanted with skills.
3. Walker’s Glass Slipper (50C): Helps you avoid traps.

<Skills>

1. One Versus a Thousand (150C): Amplifies magic to attack the surrounding area.
2. Blink (80C): Instantly move a distance of 5 meters.
3. Self-Destruct (50C): The higher your remaining health, the greater the damage you can inflict.

I don’t know the exact prices, but these aren’t things you can commonly find in this world.

I checked the item category as well.

<Items>

1. Muscle Supplement (1C): Miraculously increases muscle growth.
2. Auto-Defense Consumable (10C): Deploys a Hexa Shield that automatically defends for a certain period.
3. Elixir (1,000C): A panacea that cures all diseases and status ailments.
4. Sound Canceller (30C): Can block all sounds.
5. Dimensional Stone (20C): Allows travel to a dimension I remember.
6. Enhancement Potion (5C): The ones from the other world are different.
7. Feather of the Free Hawk (3C): Allows teleportation within a certain range.

The Muscle Supplement caught my eye.

I have to buy that!

I don’t know what else there is, but for now, I clicked on it to buy it.

-1 Faith is converted to 1 Coin.

I didn’t care about anything else; the fact that I could buy a muscle supplement with the faith I’d just gained was enough to pique my interest.

The purchased item naturally appeared in my inventory.

The muscle supplement, glowing with a brilliant light.

Just looking at it made my hands tremble. I wanted to go wreck my muscles right now.

[Diana: Sir Hero?]

[Diana: What is happening?]

Karin had mentioned once that we could exchange messages with each other.

So it’s real.

It seems this isn’t a dream after all.

I calmly checked each category one by one.

After a quick look, I got the gist of it.

It’s like a management simulation.

I can train soldiers and command them.

Just like in a Romance of the Three Kingdoms game.

It looks like some categories are still locked because my level is low.

Looking at the map tab, I could see other regions besides Pandel.

There were a total of seven Goddess’s Cities on the continent. But only five remained.

I already knew this, having obtained the memories of the Undying Demon King, Gamigin.

Two of the Goddess’s Cities had already fallen.

The Demon King was stopped by me at Pandel, his third target for conquest.

[Diana: I thought I would never see you again….]

Diana’s message came through.

It wasn’t just her. My message box was filling up.

It seemed that since I had a friendly relationship with Diana, her messages came straight to me.

I understood the situation clearly now.

Basically, in place of the vanished goddess, I had become something like the administrator of this city.

Gods are created through belief.

Just as beings like Demon Kings exist, so do gods.

They aren’t the omnipotent gods we usually think of, but rather beings with abilities on the level of a game master.

The data the goddess gave me contained explanations as if she knew this would happen.

Like Karin, I can manage this city. And furthermore, I can expand my domain to the other, currently inactive cities.

‘There are a total of five cities that are safe for now.’

Human belief creates a god, and a god’s aura is determined by their renown.

The city’s current population is about 70,000.

Usually, the population of a city in another world is between 10,000 and 100,000.

There was something called a management policy. I first chose to develop the area around the city.

The Demon King’s army had been defeated, but that didn’t mean the monsters were gone.

There were likely settlements of other races somewhere, and disaster-class monsters could be growing stronger.

In other words, the danger hadn’t been completely eliminated yet.

Stabilize the main base, then take the expansions, and then advance.

That’s a basic strategy in these kinds of games.

[Diana: Thank you, Sir Hero.]

I could see a dot-graphic Diana smiling brightly.

Oh, right. Can I do that too?

I went out to the kitchen. I saw several boxes of ramen. It was like a warehouse.

I picked up one box and returned to my room.

‘Was this how she did it?’

I lifted the ramen box and tried to place it on the dome where the image was being projected.

At that moment, the dome-shaped image opened like a mouth and swallowed the ramen box.

-Supplies have been delivered to the citizens.

-1 box of ramen has been converted to 100 boxes.

Oh, it works.

Isn’t this like that story about sharing bread and wine with everyone?

[Diana: W-What is this, Sir Hero…?]

A flustered Diana.

Ah, they don’t know what ramen is yet, do they?

“Ah, that is a thing called ramen.”

***

Thanks to Diana’s cleverness, the recipe for cooking ramen was quickly passed on.

For the citizens who had been short on food, it was a very satisfying meal.

Of course, this much wasn’t enough.

Ramen was the easiest option, so I decided I needed to go buy a lot more.

I went to a large supermarket to buy daily necessities.

“Welco—Huh? Hunter Lee Hyunbin?”

The supermarket employee’s eyes went wide as he recognized me.

“Wow, it’s really Hunter Lee Hyunbin.”

“Who’s that?”

“Oh my, the Delivery Man. You don’t know the Delivery Man?”

“Ah, I know the Delivery Man. Oh, wow. You live around here?”

The people in the supermarket stared at me so hard you’d think they were trying to bore a hole through my face. Among them, a little kid came up with a pen and asked for an autograph.

“Where should I sign?”

“Here, on my clothes! My clothes!”

Uh, it’s a black and white striped t-shirt, so the signature probably won’t even show up.

I signed it anyway.

He looks happy. That’s all that matters.

Seeing this, people suddenly started buying pens.

Geez, this popularity of mine….

Form a line, please. Hey, no pushing.

“Thank you for the autograph!”

The store manager personally came out to get an autograph and even took a picture with me.

I didn’t have anything urgent to do, so I provided some fan service, and people were ecstatic.

“But are you really going to buy all this?”

“Yes, yes.”

The manager looked doubtfully at the ramen boxes.

“By any chance… there isn’t a Gate or a dungeon opening up nearby, is there?”

This guy must think I’m buying emergency rations or something.

That’s not it, so let’s just pay. The payment.

I bought all the ramen in the supermarket.

About 300 boxes.

I also bought pickled radish and kimchi, but I wonder if they can eat kimchi?

Foreigners usually can’t handle kimchi well.

Ah, but Lee Ja-rang eats it really well.

Maybe because he’s still young….

“Payment’s complete. Where should we deliver it?”

“Ah, I’ll take it myself. Store.”

I could hear the people in the supermarket gasp in awe as 300 boxes of ramen vanished in an instant.

The Inventory skill is so convenient.

Thanks to all the leveling up I did, my inventory, which used to have only 60 slots, now has over 100.

Its capacity has become so massive that there’s no need to worry about breaking world records anymore.

‘If I compress each hexa-block as much as possible, the capacity changes, too.’

When using the Inventory Expansion skill, it seems like I can just stuff as much as it can hold in one go.

It was like that during the Earth Dragon raid, too.

I want to test what the max capacity is, but I can’t exactly gather people and try to put them inside.

It was about lunchtime.

The members of Team 3 had gone out to clear a dungeon today.

The kids are strong enough now that they go hunting just fine without me.

Plus, the three foreign brothers have also awakened, making the team composition even more solid.

Besides, my level has gone up so much that I probably wouldn’t even get any experience from low-level dungeons anymore.

There’s really no better place to gain experience than a battlefield.

Especially against the Demon King’s army.

I wonder if another Demon King’s army will show up somewhere.

Speaking of the Demon King’s army, someone comes to mind.

Im Jae-joon.

I actually had something to discuss with him anyway.

I drove my car to the Hanul Guild.

In the aide’s office, that Olivier girl looked at me with a bored expression.

“Is Im Jae-joon in?”

“The Director isn’t here.”

“Where’d he go?”

“I don’t know. He just left.”

What, talk about timing.

“You were scared when I suddenly disappeared in the other world, weren’t you?”

Here she goes again.

“I provided support, so have my payment ready. Got it? Nothing’s free!”

“You should pay me for riding on my shoulder. The nerve of you, freeloading like that.”

After exchanging some pointless banter, I called Im Jae-joon.

A few rings.

-What?

“You weren’t at your desk.”

-I’m on my way out for something.

“Hey, I have something to ask you.”

-Let’s talk tomorrow. I’m busy.

Click.

Did he hang up?

I called again. He didn’t answer.

Look at this guy.

I went to the other world, went toe-to-toe with your Demon King buddies, and wiped out an army of 50,000! You’re the one who’d be shaking in your boots from PTSD the moment I drew the Holy Sword.

“The Director’s been a bit strange lately.”

“Im Jae-joon? Why?”

“He’s been going out somewhere every day around lunchtime. He’s not someone who usually eats out.”

“Must’ve gotten a girlfriend.”

“He’s been doing it since last week.”

Come to think of it, Im Jae-joon always used the company cafeteria.

Whether in the other world or here, he wasn’t the type to spend money lavishly, no matter how much he had.

No, more importantly, he dared to ignore my call?

[Lee Hyunbin: I will look for you. I will find you. And I will mess you up.]

A reply came soon after.

[Im Jae-joon: -_-]

You might have something important to do.

But it can’t be more important than me.

“Hey, let’s go.”

“…? Go where?”

Where do you think?

“To catch Im Jae-joon.”

So he goes out every day at lunchtime, does he?

Something smells fishy.