Absolute Dweller

Chapter 23: Construction (1)

[Episode 06] Construction (1)

I nonchalantly watched as Baek Sung-yeop’s group moved objects with grunting sounds.

Baek Sung-yeop and the twins, as if aware of their wrongdoing, glanced at me.

After finishing, Baek Sung-yeop once again bent his waist towards me.

“Well then, we’ll be going!”

“Yes, have a good day.”

With a strict demeanor, Baek Sung-yeop cautiously retreated.

『Name: Baek Sung-yeop (Lv. 10)

Trust: 39

Awakening Ability: None

Experience Distribution Rate: 0%

Settlement Money Distribution Rate: 0%

★Quest Assignment 🖾Expulsion』

‘Trust has skyrocketed.’

Except for Baek Sung-min, Baek Sung-yeop’s party all had trust values in the single digits.

The values shot up dramatically since our first meeting.

‘Still, thank gosh they’re easy to handle.’

Honestly, people like Baek Sung-yeop were not particularly likable.

Those who were excessively boastful and only concerned with inflating their own importance like a puffer fish.

Baek Sung-min had risked his life to lead the goblins over, yet Baek Sung-yeop only felt pressured to assert his authority or pretend to be strong by throwing a spear.

Nevertheless, my reason for supporting them was simply due to a shortage of talent.

‘Only three teams are willing to go out to hunt monsters.’

Over the course of a week, survivors steadily joined, and the citizen population increased to a total of 197.

However, among them, only three teams showed active interest in hunting monsters.

Kim Min-ho’s team, Baek Sung-yeop’s team, and Shin Yoo-ra’s team.

Other than these few teams, there was absolutely no interest in goblin hunting.

They’d rather save 10 people living in other buildings than hunt monsters.

There seemed to be many people, like Choi Hyeong-jun, who felt significant aversion to killing living creatures.

Even the quest to hunt just 10 goblins was burdensome for the average citizen.

However, the number of people clearing quests gradually increased through the methods Baek Sung-yeop’s party was using.

‘Shin Yoo-ra’s Team is excessively cautious.’

Despite having two more members than Baek Sung-yeop’s team, the number of goblins hunted had just exceeded 80.

It was a considerable difference from Baek Sung-yeop’s team, who had defeated 100 goblins with only four members.

‘In essence, they’re not much different from ordinary citizens.’

The number of goblins hunted by Shin Yoo-ra’s team members was around 12 goblins per person. At this point, there was not much difference from ordinary citizens who had cleared the hunt 10 goblins quest.

‘If I assign a quest to hunt 10 goblins every week with the penalty being restricted use of public facilities, they will have no choice but to do it.’

I checked the citizen management window.

Current Population (197/900)

Additional Experience +100%

Additional Settlement Money +100%

Unfortunately, the additional bonus did not increase after 100 people, but nonetheless, hunting 10 goblins would earn around 60,000 won per week.

Team Shin Yoo-ra was slightly better than the rest.

But in the end, I had no choice but to support Baek Sung-yeop’s party, which brought in somewhat satisfactory results.

A person who expects something from others becomes a ‘subject’, and the one giving becomes the ‘master’.

I planned to become the master of Baek Sung-yeop’s party and firmly tame them.

‘Well, if you diligently cultivate even weeds, they might become somewhat acceptable.’

In any case, since they were the second place team after Kim Min-ho’s party, they deserved a reward.

‘I’ll adjust the experience distribution rate to 50%. That should be sufficient.’

I didn’t think there was a need to invest too much.

What I expected from them was just the utility bills citizens cost.

After all, the party that earned the most money was Ha Dong-geon’s party.

‘If Baek Sung-yeop resembled even 1/10th of Ha Dong-geon, that would be great.’

A man with true leadership based on responsibility and sacrifice, rather than fake leadership built on showmanship and boasting.

Thinking of Ha Dong-geon brought a satisfied smile to my face.

『Name: Ha Dong-geon (Lv. 33) [+]

Titles: [Sixth Vassal] [Knight] [Spearman]

Trust: 70 Loyalty: 78

Awakening Abilities: Throwing, Stabbing

Experience Distribution Rate: 200%

★Quest Assignment』

When Ha Dong-geon, who possessed abilities before becoming a vassal, the results were different from ordinary individuals.

First off, in addition to the common title ‘Sixth Vassal’ all vassals received, two more titles were added.

{Knight}

– Increases physical abilities by (Loyalty)%.

– A vassal with the Knight title will receive three times the experience and settlement money for monsters hunted.

※Note: Knights can grow by distributing experience.

They could obtain 1.5 times more rewards than ordinary vassals, and on top of that, they could grow by distributing experience.

The third title that Ha Dong-geon opened was:

{Spearman}

– Current Proficiency: 11%

– As proficiency in spearmanship increases, attack power will also increase.

The reason for creating the spears that were given to Baek Sung-yeop’s party was precisely because of this.

The store that reached level 4 with skill points earned by Moon Byeong-ho not only increased the discount rate to 20%, but also opened one more special function.

[Commercialization]

Evolves crude items into sellable goods.

A crude spear made by taping a kitchen knife to a long stick.

After registering it in the store and investing 3 million won, it was commercialized.

As a result, the ‘crude’ label disappeared, and it became a basic spear.

Although it had been labeled ‘basic’, its performance seemed quite decent when watching Ha Dong-geon use the spear.

Considering the total revenue earned by Ha Dong-geon every time he hunted, the investment wasn’t much.

Moreover, Ha Dong-geon was the only one among the vassals who possessed two awakening abilities.

[Throwing] (Grade B)

– Consumes mental power to throw objects, amplifying attack power by 5 times.

It was estimated that this skill evolved from the baseball throwing skill he had at the beginning.

[Stabbing] (Grade A)

– Consumes stamina to generate a blade, creating a temporary blade edge.

It was a Grade A skill.

Although the blade that was generated only lasted for an instant, it possessed the power to cut through even reinforced concrete in a single strike.

Essentially, he was now the strongest among the forces I possessed.

It was then.

[You have hunted an Orc (Lv. 18).]

[You have gained experience.]

[1,721,892 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet.]

‘Orc?’

The hefty settlement money for a Level 18 creature was probably because Ha Dong-geon hunted it.

I immediately shifted the Absolute Dweller’s Eyes to observe the situation over there.

‘Tsk-!’

Muscular monsters confronted Ha Dong-geon.

They had green skin like goblins, muscular body covered in hair, and protruding tusks from their mouths.

A typical appearance of an Orc.

Ha Dong-geon took a step forward and thrust his spear towards the creature.

Woong!

At that moment, a blue energy enveloped the spearhead, neatly tearing through the Orc’s heart.

“Kkoek!”

An Orc nearby seized the opportunity, thrusting a glaive towards Ha Dong-geon.

At that moment.

Ssshaa―

An arrow flew in from behind, piercing through the forehead of the Orc that was about to attack Ha Dong-geon.

Ha Dong-geon threw out a basic spear while side-stepping the Orc that was hit by the arrow.

Striking the abdomen of an Orc that was emerging from the subway, creating a loud sound.

Quake!

The upper body of the Orc was smashed with a loud bang.

‘That’s worth quite a bit.’

Although it hurt to see him casually throw away an item worth 300,000 won, I felt relieved seeing the amount Ha Dong-geon earned.

[You have hunted an Orc (Lv. 18).]

[You have gained experience.]

[1,633,003 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet.]

‘Yeah, it was originally an item meant to be used like this anyways.’

Ha Dong-geon picked up the glaive of the Orc that fell beside him, then moved towards the back where his companions were.

They were temporarily relieved after moving away from the subway station where the Orcs came out.

‘Orcs, huh.’

After the number of goblins near the apartment decreased significantly, I ordered Ha Dong-geon’s party to target the subway.

Considering that my parents were in Nambumin-dong, attacking the subway seemed faster than dealing with monsters scattered on the surface.

I naturally anticipated that monsters would occupy the subway.

‘But I didn’t expect them to be Orcs rather than goblins.’

Orcs were a completely different level from goblins.

They had much higher levels, and naturally, the experience and settlement money they provided was much more.

‘Awesome.’

With this, the short-term goal was set.

‘Party quest assignment: Hunt 100 Orcs.’

Ha Dong-geon and his party, who received the quest, began moving towards the subway station again. It was time to leisurely observe their performance.

[Unauthorized entities are attempting entry.]

“Huh?”

Someone was touching the boundary of the territory, triggering an alert.

Usually, this alert occurred in two cases.

One was when monsters attempted to invade the territory, and the other…

[A being satisfying the conditions to be recognized as a citizen has been found.]

[Would you like to grant citizenship?]

When new citizens came.

‘Three people?’

It turned out to be a family consisting of a high school-aged son and parents.

They were being guided by Hong Jung-su, who lives in Room 501.

‘With these three, there are exactly 200 now. Grant citizenship.’

When the three accepted citizenship.

[Offering citizenship to Lim Dong-woo, Son Saet-byeol, and Lim Hyun-seung.]

[The number of citizens has reached 200.]

[As the number of citizens has reached a certain level, the ‘Tax Collection’ skill has been unlocked.]

A new skill had been unlocked.

{Tax Collection}

Collects 10% of the cash that citizens possess. However, cash held by citizens does not decrease during this process.

-Cooldown: 30 days

“Hoh?”

Until now, I had wondered why the system gave an option to distribute settlement money to citizens. It seemed to be for the purpose of utilizing this skill.

‘It’s cash citizens possess.’

In other words, to use the Tax Collection skill, settlement money had to be distributed to some citizens.

‘Once a month is too long.’

The fact that the money citizens have does not decrease meant that the money was being duplicated.

The next time the skill is used, there’ll still be the original amount, so the money would continue to increase like compound interest.

‘Sort of like a bond.’

Considering it as an interest payment from settlement money distributed to citizens made it simple.

However, this was the kind of bond where you can’t recover your initial investment.

Looking at it in the long run, distributing settlement money to citizens was undoubtedly beneficial. However, at the moment, I was in a situation where every penny mattered.

‘I at least need to raise Ha Dong-geon’s party specs a bit more and send them to Nambumin-dong as soon as possible.’

Time was crucial to save my parents.

I needed to send the dispatch as soon as possible.

It was a big concern.

‘Hm, maybe I can start by distributing settlement money to citizens at a level that won’t burden me too much.’

Anyway, this was an investment for the future.

And if they could earn money, citizens might become more proactive in hunting.

‘For now, maybe I can distribute it to 30%?’

Although it was only 30% from 200%, it still felt strangely a waste.

‘This is an investment. An investment.’

The fortunate aspect was that most of the money was earned by Ha Dong-geon’s party.

Since everyone, except for Kim Geon, was a vassal, the losses wouldn’t be too significant.

At that moment.

[You have hunted an Orc (Lv. 19).]

[You have gained experience points.]

[3,211,098 won has been deposited into the Absolute Dweller’s wallet.]

Thanks to the ongoing hunt by Ha Dong-geon’s party, I was able to level up.

[Your skill level has increased.]

[The Absolute Dweller’s Declaration has reached level 10.]

[You have gained 3 skill points.]

Simultaneously, a feeling of pain swept over.

“Ugh.”

The homebound area traveled all the way to the first floor.

And then.

[Congratulations!]

[You have declared sovereignty over the entire apartment building.]

[1,000,000,000 won in support funds has been deposited.]

[The ‘Construction’ function is activated.]

A bizarre feature was added.