CHSE 8

Chapter 8

Shops, crafting, housing, achievements, and more.
Save Earth had many different functions.

Among them, the shop had a bulk-sell function: a system that let you automatically dump all the junk in your subspace bag.

“Of course, the prices they give you are ridiculously low.”

But since there was no way to sell them outside, I had no choice.
I clicked the shop tab with the mouse in my hand.
Click.

[You need 100 Influence from Titch.]

When I clicked the shop tab, a message popped up saying Influence was required.

“……100?”

That was more than I thought.
But if I wanted to use the bulk-sell feature, I absolutely had to unlock it.

“Titch, how much Influence have we collected?”
< Hm? We’ve got exactly 110 right now. >

Was he checking?
Titch tapped at the air a few times before answering.

Less than I expected.
Even after grinding hard through the tower and killing elite-tier monsters…
That was the price of using the Tower of Growth.

“Well, at least we can unlock the shop.”
< Want me to open it right now? >
“Ah, wait a sec.”

Just in case my memory was wrong, I checked the in-game help guide again, then activated the shop tab.

[Titch uses 100 Influence to activate the Save Earth system. Shop function unlocked.]

The moment the shop opened, a subspace bag icon appeared on one side of the window.

• Broken Core of the Ice Golem – 87
• Broken Feather of the Ice Bird – 66
• Heart of the Glacier – 6
• Essence of the Blizzard – 21
• Fragment of Eternal Ice – 17 …

As soon as I saw it, the contents of my bag began appearing on the list.
It was linked directly to reality.

“Phew—thank goodness.”

At least now I could finally clear out the byproducts that were clogging my inventory.

But they couldn’t be exchanged for real-world currency.

< Mark of Frost? Everything we picked up can only be exchanged for that? >
“Yeah. Loot from cold-region towers can only be converted into Marks of Frost.”

A currency usable only in Save Earth.
But that didn’t matter.
As long as the shop function was unlocked, I could buy gear and consumables.

‘Actually… this might be even better.’

It was ridiculously versatile.
With the Marks, I could buy all kinds of things.

[Oath of Frost – Rare

Attack Power +35

Effect: Frost’s Touch (When you land a critical hit, 20% chance to slow enemy movement.)
Increases Resistance to Freezing
Can activate Aura of Frost]

In the outside world, getting a sword of this level would cost a fortune.

But in the Save Earth shop?

[Purchase completed.]

One click, and I had the sword.

Even though I’d spent all my Marks, the weapon’s value made it more than worth it.

“Ohhh…!”

As I pulled the Oath of Frost out of my subspace bag, a chilling aura spread through the room.

It felt unreal, seeing a weapon that only existed in a virtual world materialize in real life.

Its grade was Rare.

“But is this really just Rare?”

The sword I used in Heilongjiang Province before it broke was also Rare.

But the Oath of Frost was at least as strong, plus it had bonus effects.

“More like top-tier Rare or low-tier Unique.”

As I studied the stats again, Titch interrupted.

< Honestly, I don’t think it’s that great. >
“You’ve just got high standards. For me, this is more than good enough.”

Maybe that was just system bias?
Anyway, with proper use of the shop, I could gear up better than most hunters.

“Yeah, this is how it should be.”

If I was going to save the Earth, I needed at least this level of cheat.

< Cheat? You grinded for five whole days and all you got was this one item. >
“That’s how grinding always starts. Besides, the floors we’ve cleared so far were all in the lower levels.”

The higher you climb, the stronger the monsters… but the loot is much better too.

The problem was that from the 50th floor onward, you risked running into Named Monsters—those floor rulers, the “Hunter Killers.”

They weren’t even in the same league as normal monsters.

< Even you can’t handle them? >
“Not in my current state. Back in my prime, I could solo high-C-rank bosses, but that was about it.”
< Tch. Those bastards are a pain even here. >

To fight a B-rank Named alone, you had to be at Master rank, one of the strongest hunters alive.
And even then, killing it was nearly impossible.

Named Monsters.
They were the reason humanity hadn’t conquered past the 80th floor.

“At least they don’t leave the Tower.”
< Who knows how long that will last? >
“That’s the real problem.”

I turned my eyes to the monitor.

The world map stretched out before me, glowing orange and red.

‘If even one of those collapses…’

If the high-tier Named ever spilled into the world…
That would be Earth’s doomsday scenario.

[“Has the issue with the Heilongjiang Tower been resolved? The Chinese government remains silent.”]
[William Quincy: “There’s no need to worry about Libya. We’ll repel the monsters without a single casualty.”]
[Libyan President Khalib al-Madi: “The army will be fully mobilized to stop the monsters.”]

On the first day of the month, the Tower stirred as if about to spawn monsters, and its sealed gates swung open.

The world held its breath as the Libyan tower spewed monsters—only for Libya to successfully repel them all.

< That was easier than I expected. >
“They’d stationed the army there just in case. It’s a farming region.”
< Farming region? >
“I told you before. That’s when hunters intentionally leave a tower uncleared for a while, so more elite monsters spawn and they can farm rarer loot.”
< Ahhh… >

His voice was full of disgust.

< If Earth gets destroyed, it’ll be because of people like that. >

The Libyan president began his victory speech, and Titch’s face twisted in contempt.

Meanwhile, on Save Earth’s map, the Heilongjiang Tower changed from red to yellow.

Based on my game knowledge, we’d bought ourselves a little time.

I checked the Korean towers next.

“All safe.”

Most were within the global top 200.
Considering Korea didn’t have many hunters, that was an impressive record.

Then I turned my eyes elsewhere.

Though Heilongjiang was temporarily stabilized, nine other towers still glowed red on the map.

The most critical was…

“Brazil.”

A tower deep in the untouched Amazon rainforest.

< That’s a whole ocean away. >
“Pretty much.”

Normally, it would take over 15 hours by plane, and then another trek to reach the Amazon.

But with just a mouse click, I could enter the tower instantly.

< Gonna go right now? >
“Mmm… no.”

Who was I?
The villain who disrupted the world order.

After Heilongjiang, every government had its eyes on me.

‘I’ve already been branded a dangerous rogue disrupting society’s systems…’

Of course they’d be on guard.

When I was climbing the Growth Tower, Chinese hunters had chased me all the way up to the 42nd floor.
That could’ve ended very badly.

At all costs, I had to avoid clashing with foreign hunters.

“Hmm.”

I crossed my arms and studied the Amazon tower.

‘The contribution points of the lowest-ranked towers are slowly rising…’

Which meant someone was grinding low floors, killing monsters.

Not just in the Amazon—India, northern Sweden, and other threatened towers also showed small gains.

Obvious.

They were lying in wait—for the “terrorist” who’d cleared Heilongjiang. For me.

“No need to take risks. Let them waste their time.”

I had leeway.
The towers wouldn’t burst this month, and even Brazil’s was at least a year away.

< I thought you’d be farming Influence… >
“I’m not skipping towers altogether. I’ll still use the Growth Tower.”
< Good. You’ll need to get stronger fast. >
“And test out this Oath of Frost too.”

I murmured while checking the monitor.

Just wielding it boosted frost resistance, making it perfect for cold-region towers.

Scanning the low-contribution towers…

“Tsk. Sweden would be ideal, but too risky.”

Toronto’s tower looked best—its contribution was the lowest, mid-300s rank.

Strange, considering Canada’s hunter force was pretty solid.
Maybe it was just the time of day?

Either way, few hunters were active there.

As I debated my next climb, my phone buzzed on the desk.

It was an old guildmate from the Giants Guild.

“You’re alive?”

Seeing familiar faces after so long made my lips twitch into a smile.

“Of course I’m alive. What, did you think I was dead?”

I greeted them naturally and sat down. Someone jabbed my side.

The guild’s only girl, Choi Soo-jung.

“Hey, if you’re alive, you could’ve called once in a while!”
“No news is good news. Besides, I’ve been hearing about you guys constantly.”
“How?”

Her eyes went wide in surprise.

Did she really not know?

“News articles. Community posts. It’s always about you guys.”
“……Ah.”

They were the hottest hunter team in Busan.

In other words, the ones holding down the city’s security.

Thanks to them, Busan’s tower kept a top-100 contribution rank.

“Hey, Han Ji-min, what’ve you been up to?”

A guildmate across the table asked while grilling meat.

All eyes turned to me.

Not a hard question.

“Save Earth.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake…”
“Seriously? You’ve just been gaming at home?”
“You used to play even during guild downtime. Is it really that fun?”

Soo-jung’s curious voice made me chuckle.

“Try it once. It’s amazing.”
“Don’t bother, Soo-jung. I let him talk me into it—it was trash. The difficulty’s broken.”

And just like that, my sales pitch was crushed.

Still, we chatted away comfortably. Maybe because of all the time we’d spent together.

“Hey, hey! Raise your glasses! Ji-min, why’s your cup empty?”
“Just finished it. Do we really have to drink this beer?”
“Of course. Our guild’s partner company brews it. We even shot ads for them. If we drink anything else, we get fined. Now fill it up.”

Even after months apart, there wasn’t a shred of awkwardness.

Beer went down glass after glass, and the conversation grew more serious.

“Fuckin’ Karas. If we just take him down, we can hit the 73rd floor…”
“That bastard’s teleport ability with neon signs is bullshit. If we could just pin him down, we could melt him.”
“What about his shadow-healing trick? Any way to counter that?”
“We’re still gathering intel. Gonna take more runs to figure it out.”

I sipped my beer, listening.

The reason the Giants Guild was stuck on floor 72: Karas, the Named Monster.

I’d fought him over ten times myself. He was terrifying…

But thanks to Infinity and the system, he didn’t seem quite so scary anymore.

As I listened, someone brought up another topic.

“Oh, right. You guys know about X, right?”
“X?”

I blinked.

Kim Soo-hyun, the party leader of Giants’ first team, smirked.

“Man, you really only play games. Haven’t you seen the community blowing up over X?”
“What’d he do?”
“He cleared the Heilongjiang Tower. Because of him, William Quincy’s absolutely furious.”

“……Pft.”

I nearly spat my beer out my nose.

Wait—what the hell?

They were talking about me?