Right after coming down from the Mythic Tower.
"Is this the right shape? And this part is red?"
"No. A bit lower is red. That part should be a little sharper."
"Like this?"
"That area is correct, but something feels off."
Jinhyuk was drawing in front of his friends, who were gathered around him.
Why the sudden drawing session?
Their party's next objective was already clear.
They needed to find the three swords used by the statues in the Chamber of the Sword.
Fortunately, Seira knew the identities of the statue models—the owners of those swords.
She remembered not only the defining characteristics of the swords but their exact appearances as well.
If there was one problem, it was that only Seira knew these details.
If they were all going to split up and search thoroughly, they needed a shared visual reference for the image stuck in her head.
"Boss, may I… cautiously offer an opinion?"
"What is it?"
Kancho wriggled his butt as he stared at Jinhyuk.
"I think boss draws really badly."
"Ugh."
Not wrong.
Even back in middle and high school, the art teacher repeatedly told him:
'Choose any career except art. That way you can at least avoid impossible failure.'
"MoMo wants to try!"
"Oh!"
Jinhyuk's eyes sparkled.
He had forgotten the friend with the nimblest hands.
And a moment later—
"MoMo fails."
"MoMo fails? Why?"
Jinhyuk looked heartbroken.
He had only now realized that nimble hands didn't necessarily mean good drawing skills.
"What do you mean why! This is unbelievably bad! Is this poop or what?! Move aside! I'll try!"
Kancho's ears perked straight up as he excitedly moved the pen.
Not long passed before Jinhyuk tapped his shoulder.
"Yodel Ranger, disqualified."
"I accept that. I suck at drawing. I only tried because I wanted to."
Kancho stepped back without a fuss, and then Ellia and Seira each tried their hand with the pen.
After a few strokes, Seira raised her head and looked at Jinhyuk.
"Master. That expression feels rather rude."
"Sorry. My true feelings slipped out."
He squeezed his eyes shut.
So many people here, and not a single one with artistic talent.
Especially—
"Pffft! What is this? Seira is really bad at drawing! Last place!"
Seira was in trouble.
This must be what the art teacher meant in the past by "an insult to drawing."
"Grandma, do you have tremors? Why is your drawing shaking like this?"
"Try living over three thousand years. Your hands end up like this. But don't worry, Kancho—you have nothing to fear."
"Why's that? Because I'm an excellent Yodel Ranger, so I'll be fine in three thousand years?"
"No, because by then you won't even have bones left to tremble."
"Huh?"
Jinhyuk covered Kancho's ears.
That was a brutally spicy exchange—his ears might start bleeding.
Just then, Dark, who had been lying on the sofa eating ice cream, walked over.
He whistled quietly.
"Are you guys betting on who draws worse? What's this? Trash?"
Of all things, he pointed at Seira's drawing as he said it.
"You should return to your ice cream. Unless you're here to help."
Seira's voice went cold—perhaps because they were mocking her drawing.
Dark yawned and picked up the pen anyway.
With a bored expression as if the world itself annoyed him, he casually scratched lines onto the paper.
Why is he good at this?
For the first time, something that actually resembled a sword appeared.
"He didn't even try! No sincerity, no effort, doesn't even care—and yet he's good?! Seira worked really hard and still drew terribly!"
Kancho voiced exactly what Jinhyuk wanted to say.
Dark smirked and patted Kancho's head.
"Effort doesn't guarantee anything. Drawing is talent."
He was definitely saying that for Seira to hear.
Shrugging, Dark started walking back to the sofa.
Seira, expressionless as she stared at the sketch, finally spoke.
"Master. May I kill Dark?"
"He won't stay dead anyway."
"True. Ellia, if you know any method to kill an immortal, I would appreciate it."
"If I knew, I'd be the first to use it. He was annoying just now. No respect for this old lady."
Jinhyuk soothed his friends and called Dark back before he could lie down again.
"Just draw exactly as Seira describes it. And color it too."
"All right."
Dark was absurdly lazy, but he always obeyed his master.
He sat back at the table and looked at Seira.
"Captain Knight? Didn't you hear our master? Describe the sword. In detail."
Seira sighed and reluctantly began describing the sword's appearance.
Excellent.
Jinhyuk smiled warmly.
Clunky as they were, the two were still cooperating somehow.
This must be what a properly functioning party looks like.
Munching on a banana, he watched Dark's impromptu art class.
At this pace, they would finish soon.
An hour later—
Jinhyuk examined the completed drawing.
"Mm! Nice! Good job, Dark and Seira."
He snapped photos of the drawings with his phone and sat in his computer chair.
His friends lined up behind him out of curiosity.
"Boss, what are you doing?"
"Now that we have a base image, I'm going to ask an AI to turn it into something photorealistic."
"Ai-ai? What is that?"
"It's basically a smart, capable friend that handles all the bothersome, difficult work for you."
"A good friend indeed."
He uploaded the sketches and asked the AI to render them as realistic images.
In an instant, three polished images appeared.
"Oh? Fascinating."
"They look like real photos!"
Jinhyuk turned to Seira.
"Well?"
"They match my memory."
"Great. Perfect."
With their target images secured, all that was left was to find the swords.
He immediately tried the simplest method—image search.
Honestly, he didn't expect much.
These were weapons from another world, another era—huh?
He froze at the result that popped up.
"They look identical."
The other two swords didn't show up, but one of them—uncertain whether single-edged or double-edged—did.
Even the name was painfully familiar.
"Yoto Muramasa."
"A sword even master knows?"
"Most people would. It's incredibly famous. Shows up all the time in manga and novels."
"That's good news, isn't it? One sword, getto daze?"
Kancho's speech had gotten increasingly flashy—whatever he'd been watching lately was showing.
"Normally, yes."
But this was a problem.
If it were in the Mythic Tower or buried somewhere, he could just go and grab it.
But Muramasa currently had an owner.
The Matsuna Clan.
The clan of Matsuna Hiyori, currently Japan's Rank 7.
An outlet mall near Dongdaemun.
Jinhyuk walked toward a quiet corner of the shopping area.
He'd come both to plan how to approach the Matsuna clan and to check on the Yeonsanghoe branch.
"Jinhyuk!"
Yoo Suyeon waved enthusiastically as usual, and he approached her.
But… why were there so few customers?
The contrast with the bustling Dongdaemun flagship store was stark.
"What brings you all the way here?"
"You opened a new branch, so I came to support you. Here—try this. It's a trendy pastry everyone's talking about."
"Wow, I wanted to try this! Thank you!"
He nibbled the pastry with tea.
Suyeon sighed deeply as she looked around.
"Pretty empty, right? I guess I got cocky because things were going so well in Dongdaemun. Outlets and department stores are a completely different world. And honestly, Dongdaemun only thrived because of your help."
It seemed the new branch was struggling.
Hence her gloomy mood.
"But does the outlet assign the locations?"
Even for a newcomer, this spot was too terrible.
In Dongdaemun terms, this was worse than the obscure alley next to the odds-and-ends stall.
One might need a Yodel Compass to navigate here.
"Yes. Your connections, the brands that supply your goods, their influence—it all matters."
"So they invited Yeonsanghoe here only to shove you into a dump like this? Those outlet bastards."
"They just didn't know."
Seeing his expression, Suyeon explained:
"Most outlet customers are players above the 30th floor. They wanted to expand into the lower-level player market, so they invited me. But once they brought us in, they realized Yeonsanghoe carried not just low-tier items, but components for floors in the 30s and 40s as well. Our products were better quality and cheaper than what existing stores were selling."
"Ah. They invited you only to discover you were an unbeatable competitor."
"Exactly. The current tenants pushed back hard. They're supported by big supplier brands, so the outlet caved and shoved us into this kind of spot."
Suyeon had considered pulling out and focusing solely on the Dongdaemun store.
But there was a reason she pushed ahead anyway.
Yeonsanghoe's explosive rise in popularity was mainly thanks to the extraordinary items Jinhyuk brought.
Since he was speeding up the tower climb at a ridiculous pace, she needed to start securing a new customer base that matched those product tiers.
Not that she intended to abandon the low-floor customers—those could still be served with other suppliers' items at good prices.
But mid- and high-level players rarely came all the way to Dongdaemun.
To sell to them, she needed the right environment.
"Hmmm."
Jinhyuk nodded as he listened.
Thanks to compression tickets, he had entered the 50th-floor zone faster than expected.
From now on, only expensive parts would come out—items too costly to sell casually in Dongdaemun.
Not to mention MoMo's handiwork level had improved, raising the resale price even more.
She didn't challenge the outlet for no reason, huh.
She hadn't shown it, but Suyeon had clearly been calculating everything carefully.
As Jinhyuk pondered, Suyeon smiled.
"I know I was whining earlier, but you really don't have to worry! I'm already looking for supplier brands that align with us. I'll get us moved to a better location soon. And if not, we'll just switch to a different outlet."
"Come on, worry? About you? You always handle things well."
He meant it.
He trusted completely that she would find a way through.
Still, if there was even a small way he could help, he wanted to.
Riiiiing—
His phone rang at a perfect moment.
The very person he'd been thinking about.
This… might be fate.
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T/N:
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