Arena

We went to the Korean Arena Research Agency together with the Choi Chi-hoo group.

There wasn’t enough room for more people on the helicopter so Yoo Ji-soo and Cha Jin-hyuk were the only ones to board. Cha Ji-hye and I, along with Marie, followed suit by flying with Sylph’s help.

It would’ve been nice to fly on the backs of the rake eagles but for now I wanted to keep it a secret that I could take out living organisms from the virtual space.

“Do we have to go like this?”

Asked Cha Ji-hye with an uncomfortable tone.

She was currently held in my embrace. Kind of like how one would carry a princess.

“Yes, this is how we have to go to not waste the spirit summons. Do you know how hard it is to lift three people in the air?”

I came up with some bullshit explanation.

“It has to be this position? Even though there would be no change in weight between the two of us if we were in a different position?”

“Have you used spirit summons before?”

“I haven’t.”

“Then you don’t know. How could you?”

“……”

Held in both my arms, Cha Ji-hye must’ve felt embarrassed because she kept squirming. And I looked at her happily.

“Then switch with me!”

Hanging off my back, Marie, shouted unpleasantly.

“Miss Marie, please stay still.”

“Hmph! I want to be carried by Hyun-ho!”

“You can’t.”

“Why not? I can to!”

“Sylph said no. We’re flying in the air, we can’t just move. Right, Sylph?”

-Meow!

Sylph nodded her head.

“Lie!”

-Meow?

“The cat is lying!”

-Meow? Meow, meow.

Sylph shook her head no.

Marie was looking at Sylph while growling, and all the while Cha Ji-hye didn’t know what to do in my arms.

The people in the helicopter flying alongside us laughed as they watched.

“When did you get into this kind of relationship with Ji-hye unni?”

“I thought she was the type of woman to always live alone.”

When Yoo Ji-soo and Cha Jin-hyuk each said something, Cha Ji-hye’s face grew red, unlike her usual self.

The sound of the helicopter propellers were loud but through the use of Sylph’s powers, we were able to hear each other well.

But then, Yoo Ji-soo must’ve felt bored because she suddenly leapt out the helicopter.

“Catch me, woooooo!”

Completely surprised, I had Sylph catch her.

As if she was swimming, Yoo Ji-soo paddled her way over to us.

“This should be more fun. Unni, tell me. When and how did you guys start dating?”

“It just sort of happened that way.” (Formal speech)

“Aw, you can lower your speech, unni.”

“Okay.”

“Now now, tell me. How is it you two became an item, huh?”

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“Hmph, then I’ll just have to ask someone else. Kim Hyun-ho, spill.”

“Haha, well what happened is…”

As I was about to chatter away, Cha Ji-hye pinched my arm.

It really has been a long time since her face was so full of embarrassment.

But if she’s like this it makes me want to mess with her more.

We were goofing off and didn’t notice the time passing by when we arrived at the Korean Arena Research Agency.

After landing on the helipad, we were escorted in by employees.

When we entered a large hall on the 4th floor, a middle aged man greeted us.

“Welcome.”

He was small and thin with his hair half gone. But his gaze was still strong. He looked to be about in his late 40’s to early 50’s. ƒ𝐫𝒆𝐞w𝗲𝚋𝗻૦𝘷e𝙡.c𝑜𝙢

He was the new chief of the Korean Arena Research Agency, Im Chul-ho.

I heard he is an elite manager that had a long experience working at the Jinseong Group’s planning office. He had the trust of Chairman Park Jin-seong therefore was able to take on this secret position.

“We meet again, Mr. Kim Hyun-ho.”

“Yes, chief. Thank you for your help today.”

“It was only what we should’ve done. Ah, Good job to you too, Choi Chi-hoo team. Your mobilization fee will paid shortly.”

“Yes, well then we’ll be on our way.”

Choi Chi-hoo must have sensed that we had something secretive to talk about and she immediately left with her teammates.

This time, Chief Im Chul-ho looked to Yoo Ji-soo and Cha Jin-hyuk.

“I heard. You went through some trouble when you were attacked?”

“Yes.”

“If you were managed by our research agency, you would not have been so easily targeted, what a pity.”

“……”

“If you would like you can contract with us again. Under the same conditions as before.”

“Really?”

Asked Yoo Ji-soo, surprised.

Taking them back, who were such easy TUK targets, was enough to surprise her.

Chief Im Chul-ho nodded his head.

“Mr. Kim Hyun-ho here was also attacked anyway. Even if we were to ignore you and Mr. Cha Jin-hyuk, we cannot avoid our conflict with them.”

“We would appreciate it for sure. We’ll sign. That’s okay, right?”

Yoo Ji-soo asked Cha Jin-hyuk. Cha Jin-hyuk silently nodded his head.

“Then you can do the contract with the clerk. If you go down to the hall on the 2nd floor, you can meet with them there.”

“Got it.”

Yoo Ji-soo and Cha Jin-hyuk went down to the 2nd floor.

In order to keep it a secret and bring up the Big Rats being ranched in the basement, he was sending away the unrelated peoples one by one.

Now the only thing left was clung to my neck and not willing to get off was Marie.

Chief Im Chul-ho gave me a slight glance. He was telling me to do something to get rid of Marie.

I said to Marie.

“Would you wait somewhere else for me for a bit? I have something to discuss in secret.”

“Okay.”

I thought she would throw a tantrum but she was unexpectedly obedient and got off me.

Her behavior was always like a child but she’s actually mature. It must mean her mental health is progressively improving.

Marie left with the employee Chief Im Chul-ho had brought.

Now it was just the three of us.

“Has there been a problem with the Big Rat breeding?”

“It hasn’t grown into a problem yet but I do predict that there is too much room for problems to arise.”

I couldn’t hide my confusion at Chief Im Chul-ho’s words.

“Just what happened that makes you say that?”

“I think it’ll be faster for you to see yourself.”

“Alright.”

We rode the elevator together and went down to the basement.

We got into the executive elevator at the end of the hall. Tt seems it was made after making the Big Rat habitat in the basement so that not just anyone could go down.

We arrived in the basement.

The stable was fortified with walls but I was able to see inside through the CCTV.

“Huk!”

I was aghast.

It was a complete bloodbath.

The Big Rats, having eaten through all of the food waste provided to them, were fighting with each other and digging into and eating the dead corpses of their same race.

They must have nibbled down the bones because other than small bone shrapnel, there were no other traces. There were only some bloodstains left as proof of the horror.

“It makes me question whether it is okay to keep breeding and growing these things.”

At Chief Im Chul-ho’s words, I just blankly nodded my head.

It’s true.

I hadn’t thought of this.

They were big but in the end, they were still rodents. In Arena, they were considered a calamity.

“I’m not only saying it’s a problem because it looks bad. If you look closely, you can see the other problem.”

Chief Im Chul-ho maneuvered the touchscreen CCTV and adjusted it.

Damaged to the steel partitions could be seen here and there.

There wasn’t a hole anywhere yet but thinking long term, eventually the Big Rats may pierce through.

“A pro is that they definitely breed well. The two pairs of male-females already bred twice in 15 days and had 25 babies. Even though among those babies, 5 of them were eaten by their siblings and parents.”

Having 25 babies in 15 days, that’s an incredible breeding rate. It gave me goosebumps.

“They gave birth once a week?”

“Yes, that was weird. From what we know originally it takes 15 days for a Big Rat to get pregnant and deliver.”

‘Ah, maybe it’s because of my growth acceleration skill?’

If my growth acceleration skill was activated, it made sense that they gave birth in a week.

I didn’t necessarily look after the Big Rats myself but it could be that because I own 40% of the company that the skill still has an effect.

I’ll have to test that further though.

“And the majeong?”

“We use sleep gas and go in and harvested five F-level majeong. We have verified that beings born here still contain majeong. This alone is an incredible result.”

“Thank goodness for that.”

We could keep getting majeong from the babies that were born here rather than in Arena.

Thus, even without going to Arena, it meant we can still get majeong.

Despite it being F-level, if we got 25 babies in 15 days, that would be impressive but……

“For sure, we can harvest a ton of majeong this way through the Big Rats. But the problem is that the danger level and capacity of the Big Rats is too high. If something were to go wrong and even one escaped to the outside…..”

If that happened, the ecosystem could be ruined in an instant.

“And we can say that other than majeong, the Big Rats have nearly no other use. The meat can’t be used for food, and the leather has poor quality.

More so, if an image gets captured on a foreign country’s satellite, there’s a big chance of it being stolen so we can’t raise them on ground either.”

“Yes, I agree there.”

“That’s why I’m suggesting this but what do you think about bringing an animal livestock from Arena that looks like a dairy cow?”

“An Arena dairy cow?”

“Yes, dairy cows in Arena give E-grade majeong. On top of that, milk and dairy, good leather with a high usability, even giving up the high breeding rate of Big Rats, we won’t lose out on anything.”

“More than anything, they’re gentle so raising them will be easy.”

“Exactly.”

I thought that Chief Im Chul-ho’s suggestion was pretty good.

I looked over to Cha Ji-hye and she too was expressing her agreement with a nod.

“I think that would be good. Then we’ll give up on the Big Rats and on the next exam I’ll bring back a dairy cow.”

“Thank you. But……”

“Disposing of the Big Rats?”

“Yes, I think they’ve developed a tolerance to the sleep gas……”

Whew.

To have already built up a tolerance against the sleep gas, I really thoughtlessly brought over a dangerous beast from Arena.

“Kasa!”

-Bark!

A summoned Kasa eagerly wagged his tail.

“Burn all of them in there for me.”

-Bark!

Kasa immediately smoked into the ranch.

Before long……

Hwa lu lu lu luk!

“Jeeek!”

“Jeek!”

With clamorous shrieking screams, the inside of the ranch filled up with flames.

In a little while, the Big Rats had become a pile of ash and were completely gone. Any trace of excretions or food waste was burned and gone. Only 24 majeong remained.

‘Feels like a clean slate.’

I reproached my decision to bring back a brutal beast like the Big Rat.

Since we were done with our consultation we went back up to the ground floor. Yoo Ji-soo and Cha Jin-hyuk, and Marie were hanging out. Yoo Ji-soo and Cha Jin-hyuk must have had a satisfying deal as they looked bright and happy.

“Thanks a lot for today.”

Said Yoo Ji-soo after approaching us.

“Don’t mention it.”

But Yoo Ji-soo’s team still had a problem.

It was if they could they fulfill the mission they’ve already failed twice.

The TUK has stepped away for now but there’s no way they’d do the same in Arena.

On top of that, seeing as England has shown their true colors now, there was no way to know when other countries will join in to stop us from completing the exams.

‘We’ll have to set up special countermeasures.’