chapter 179

“Who in the world are you?”

“I’m a normal person as you can see. However, I won’t deny that I have a little special ability.”

“Hm…… I’m a person with quite a bit of strength even if I look like this. It seems you’re not afraid.”

“How about you go about it properly if you’re going to threaten someone? Not even a 9 year old would be frightened.”

I felt better now that he was pressuring me straightforwardly like this. One would have their guard up against someone who hides their true feelings after all.

That’s why An Gyu-bum was the closest enemy to me right now.

He didn’t properly show his inner thoughts while continuously showing me goodwill after all.

I was using him since he was loaded and all but I felt like this guy might request something great at some point.

I was thinking about trying not to owe him as much as possible for that time.

President Wholshore took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

“I have no intention of threatening you. I was thinking about telling you the specifics either way and I was hoping to hear a bit more before that. It’s a bit of a shame though.”

He took the coffee on the table to his mouth.

“The Alpha system was created in Korea.”

“…… Is that so.”

“You’re not surprised?”

“I thought that it was a possibility.”

The place that saw the greatest profit from the Alpha system is Korea no doubt. A small country became a top level country instantly and obtained economical power on the same level as China who had dozens more land and population.

Nowadays, Korea was slowly giving out shares to China but Korea had monopoly on the Hunter Market for the past 50 years.

However, there was only one reason no one could doubt them.

It was because monster waves themselves were too large of an event for a single country to cause.

There was no one that believed such a thing could happen in the first place that made others unable to doubt someone.

However, a specific name called Korea came out. This means that a considerable amount of information had already leaked out.

“Do you know who made it by any chance?”

“We are not certain about that yet. However, we are guessing that Mr. Lee is related to it.”

“Mr. Lee being…….”

“Lee Hui-seung.”

Sir Lee Hui-seung was connected to the Alpha system.

This was pretty stunning. Was the person that was called the Teacher of Mankind, Hope, and Savior actually the one that caused this disaster?

No, this wasn’t a decided matter.

“Can that information be trusted?”

“It’s only a speculation for now. More data is needed to find out more details. You are aware that exploration of ruins are ongoing yes?”

“Yes.”

“We are figuring things out one by one through information from those ruins. All ruins exposed have all been mined and the only thing left are the newly sprouted lands. Also, I have heard that Mr. Jun has explored the ruin in New Alaska.”

“Somehow yes.”

It seems the submarine wasn’t wandering there for no reason.

It would have been lost to Baek Gyeong if it wasn’t for me so there was nothing for America to feel left out on. I asked just in case.

“Do you need that data by any chance?”

“We have already negotiated with Mr. An. It’s been decided that we would receive the data at a later date.”

This Mr. An was probably An Gyu-bum.

I didn’t know how he negotiated but he probably didn’t hand it over cheaply. It might be money or rights the GE Group would receive once trade resumes.

Either way, that guy profited greatly because of chasing after me.

I was thinking that I should drain him further.

I was trying my best to get used to the sudden situations.

The fact that the Alpha system started to put its guard against me didn’t really matter much. I knew that it was a matter of time when I figured out Delta’s will.

I had no qualms about continuing to use Delta while risking the danger.

The problem is that there’s too many things I don’t know. I couldn’t be compared to the American government and it was the same for An Gyu-bum. I was just a normal hunter that got minor profits from acting like a parasite of the Delta system.

And it was true that I had been satisfied with that.

However, that wasn’t the case anymore.

Something was happening.

We conversed about many things while flying in Air Force 1. He tried to obtain information from me in any way possible and I told him many things except the Delta.

Of course, it wasn’t satisfying but I felt like it was appropriate for the good information that I obtained. Moreover, information on Baek Gyeong probably had quite a bit of worth since even America didn’t know much.

The place we arrived at after flying for several hours was an underground laboratory in Texas.

The elevator was going down endlessly.

I quietly opened my mouth in the dark.

“What are you trying to show me?”

President Wholshore opened his mouth at my question.

“It will be pretty fun.”

“What’s that supposed to…….”

“I understand that you have many things you are curious about. However, there’s no method more certain than seeing it for yourself so please wait a bit.”

Once his words ended, my sight suddenly expanded.

A blinding city was spread in front of my eyes after the dark vertical tunnel ended.

There were dozens of skyscrapers and there was a large dome shaped botanical garden in the middle of them.

I called it a botanical garden but it was more exact to say that it felt like a world on its own. In a space as wide as dozens of soccer fields put together a jungle, ravine, and dry desert were in the same place.

It was an unbelievable sight even after seeing it personally.

I opened my mouth with a trembling voice.

“What is this?”

“What do you think it is?”

He asked me on the contrary.

I slowly opened my mouth. There was something I thought of the moment I saw this.

“…… Is it a dungeon?”

“That’s correct.”

“However this is…… It doesn’t make sense.”

I shook my head. The spaces, each with their own vegetation, were inside the dome. The thing that it reminded me of was a dungeon.

However, dungeons couldn’t exist in that form.

“You should definitely have some doubts yes?”

“Certainly.”

“It can’t be helped. You would never have thought about creating dungeons in that way after all. However, that is a dungeon without a doubt.”

The elevator continued to go down.

A short while later, I stood in front of the dome shaped dungeon made of glass.

People who were waiting for us ahead of time guided us. I slowly entered the dungeon.

The dome was structured such that there were smaller domes within it. Also, each dome was made with transparent glass so that the inside could be seen.

The entrance was also made of glass and inside, a different vegetation of cave, desert, and jungle was spread out.

Wholshore stood in front of a dungeon.

There was a 5 meter long Red Tongued Iguana on the other side of the glass. It felt like it couldn’t see outside of the glass.

“Everything is the same as original dungeons besides the fact that it was manmade.”

“Do the monsters get reset as well once it’s cleared?”

“Since everything is the same, of course.”

“What is this…….”

To create a dungeon.

Is this the power of money and time.

I had seen many things until now but this was more shocking than the time the Yellow Sea appeared.

If that had been something I couldn’t understand, then this was the same thing as creating a human the same as me.

“But why did you show this to me?”

A dungeon was a strategic resource in and of itself.

Items from it are sold at a high price and ores are used in various businesses. High level ores could be used in power plants. A majority of businesses were working with rare earth metals.

America probably created man made dungeons to make up for the deficiency and it passed experimental stages to enter realization.

But there was no reason to show such important information to an outsider.

“I have a question.”

“The question being……?”

“This dungeon is currently working independently from the Alpha system. In other words, it’s true that it’s working in the same way as the Alpha system but it’s missing the most important thing.”

“It’s a reward.”

“Indeed.”

President Wholshore nodded his head.

To piece everything together, the Alpha system not only created the monster wave but it also manages the reward system.

Being independent from the system means that the reward from the Alpha system isn’t being given properly.

This means that although they were able to copy the dungeon which was part of the Alpha system but they weren’t able to bring the reward system.

“Then what is it that I have to do?”

“We are thinking about creating a thinking about connecting the dungeon system we created to the Alpha system through a detour. However, the firewall of the Alpha system was much tougher than we imagined. To be honest, we have not succeeded even once.”

“Are you saying that it would be possible if it’s me?”

“Mr. Jun is a main target of the Alpha system. I don’t know the reason but if you can connect the dungeon to the Alpha system then we will pour all of the annual capacity of production on you. In that time, we would plant a Trajan Horse in the Alpha system. We will use that to steal away the Alpha system reward system while avoiding the system’s watch.”

“Is that possible?”

“I’m not sure to be honest. Everything was told by our researchers after all.”

President Wholshore made an awkward smile.

Certainly, there was no way someone could know all those technological details even if it was the president.

I had a certain question during the conversation.

I had a feeling that thing were progressing too matter of factly.

“Excuse me. There was the thing about hacking as well, and you said something about pouring the annual capacity of production. Is that a metaphor?”

“The Alpha system being with a high integration ability possessing computer is the conclusion of our researchers.”

“A computer?”

“Yes. I’m not certain about the details but we are thinking that it has changed this world with mind blowingly high level computing skills. Our researchers are doing their best to follow but it’s at this level for now.”

I looked around the dungeon as he spoke.

I pondered whether I should believe that the monster wave that put the world on the brink of destruction was caused by a computer program.

However, it was the same for the USB given by Delta’s master and the downloaded data from the ruin, as well as the use of the manual.

In the end, I had to admit that everything had a close relationship to an actual computer.