Thumbs Up, Level Up

Chapter 139

“What kind of person is Scrooge?”

?According to my information, he is not a real person, but a fictional character. And he is not from a traditional story, but the main character of Charles Dickens's novel ‘A Christmas Carol’.?

‘Yeah, Scrooge is probably not his real name. For now, the God that sold the skill book has no choice but to wait until the System sanctions are lifted, so let’s just put this on hold.

“Let’s see…”

Ji-Cheok couldn’t do anything about the expiration date, but he had created a machine that could bring down the price of potions tremendously. Ji-Cheok calculated based on the potion’s material cost.

?The material cost is 150,000 won and it consumes a lot of mana… Of course, that doesn’t apply to you, Master.?

‘Well, whether it’s alchemy or Arcane Engineering, mana consumption is a given. That’s why there is a limit to the amount of potions that alchemists can produce, even if they have a lot of materials. But for me, mana consumption is simply not something I need to worry about. I’m glad I have increased my Mana stat ever since I became Awakened.’

This unique way to increase stats was Ji-Cheok’s pride, and something that no one could imitate.

?In the case of D-grade healing potions, there are differences in price depending on the seller and additional effects, but the average price is around two million won.?

‘Wow. That’s the monthly salary of a newcomer at a small business these days. The potions that I drank were E-grade, just one grade lower than D. The E-grade potions were expensive too but they were only around one million won per bottle. So the material cost is 150,000 won and they sell it for two million won? How much money do these big pharmaceutical companies make?’

?Of course, the 150,000 won does not include the alchemists’ salaries. Nevertheless, it is believed that this is the reason why pharmaceutical companies have accumulated considerable wealth. If an alchemist sells potions too cheaply in their own small workshop, the companies will buy the potion recipe at a high price and put a patent on it. Otherwise, that alchemist’s workshop might accidentally catch on fire.?

‘These bastards are playing with people’s lives.’

Ji-Cheok knew this because he was a Hunter Assistant. People with a lot of money didn’t have much use for healing potions, because they work and live in a safe environment.

Apartments were built in preparation for monster attacks, but that meant that people who originally lived in the shacks of that area were forced to move. They had to work at factories and sometimes lost fingers or even limbs in that environment. And since they didn’t have money to buy potions, they lived with the disabilities for the rest of their lives. There had been attempts to include potions in medical insurance plans in the past, but it had become impossible since the United States and the Chinese giant pharmaceutical companies had encroached onto Korea.

?A human life has always been less important than money, Master.?

‘Yeah, it’s always like that. But that’s okay. We are Korean! Even in hardship, we survive. Our ancestors would gather around and talk shit about the noblemen. If the king didn’t listen to the people, they would protest with fire to make him listen. The Confucian scholars would give the finger to the authority if they didn’t like it. They weren’t afraid to die! When the Japanese were trying to invade our country, our ancestors fought with their pots and pans at the risk of death. And modern Koreans inherited this war-like personality.’

“Okay, so this machine is considered a summoned beast, right?”

?The Mono Bike G is also technically a summoned beast created through Arcane Engineering. Well, it was made in an unauthorized way using Scrooge’s alchemy, but…?

‘Who the hell is this Scrooge guy? Every time I read his skill description, it always talks about the unauthorized and unorthodox way, but the skill still does its job. That’s so interesting. Anyway, this kinda thing was bound to happen since I used the same alchemy skill as the core skill. I’m sick and tired of that ‘high◆profit with low?capital’!’

?There are advantages, but there are also disadvantages.?

‘Please tell me.’

?Currently, the mana required to maintain this potion machine is higher than that of Mono Bike G. In other words, Master, you have to take responsibility for all of the mana required for making the potions, and the mana required to maintain the machine as well.?

‘So, even if I’m not doing anything, my mana will be consumed? Wouldn’t it be okay with the increased mana recovery rate from the World Tree, though?’

?Assuming that Master receives all the skills and the effect of the World Tree at home and continues to recover mana, it seems that you can maintain about one hundred machines without a break.?

‘One hundred machines? Wow, the World Tree is so overpowered!’

“What if I get out of the house?”

?I have calculated that you can only operate about twenty machines when you are out of the range of the World Tree. If you are training or in a combat, I recommend that you operate only ten machines?

‘Right, I have to go to dungeons, too. If I have to go and fight the monsters, I guess it’s not a bad idea to spare some Mana and Cultivation for that. I’m glad I can maintain even ten machines.’

“Let’s see…”

Ji-Cheok played around the potion machine and checked the information.

“If I run this thing for twenty-four hours straight, it can make about one hundred bottles of potions a day.”

One hundred bottles didn’t seem like a lot, but If Ji-Cheok operated ten machines, that meant he could make one thousand bottles per day. That was one thousand bottles of D-grade potions.

‘That DOES sound like a lot. If I sell them at the current market price… That’s two billion won in daily sales!?’

The material cost was about 150,000 won, which was incredibly cheap. Even if Ji-Cheok added labor costs, it didn’t make a big difference.

‘Anyway, this is so crazy! Two billion won a day? In a month… I can make sixty billion won?! That’s some crazy numbers…’

?I do not know much about the economy in general… But I think this can partially collapse the economic system of the potion market.?

‘Hm… I don’t think so. Will my potions be sold out that easily?’

?It might be possible, Master. For example, if you sell your potions for one million won, there is no reason for people to buy D-grade potions from other companies.I may be exaggerating a bit, but I think it is possible. You just have to sell three thousand pottles per month.?

“You think the potion market can be disturbed with only three thousand potions? How many potions are consumed domestically in a month?”

?According to statistics, the monthly consumption of D-grade or lower potions is about thirty-six thousand bottles.?

“So I make about 1/12 of it. Well, I still don’t know if that could disturb the market…”

?The pharmaceutical companies will definitely be hit by it. The law of supply and demand will come into play. Alchemists who have their own private workshops will not be affected by this because they usually make potions that are superior to yours, Master.?

‘Oh, I might have to defend myself from outside forces while running this potion factory. Maybe foreign mercenaries will come and try to burn my factory down.’

.

?I am sure Ji-Han will take care of the legal and administrative parts.?

* * *

Some time had passed.

The interior of the acquired factory was now decorated to Ji-Cheok’s liking.

“The story I heard when choosing the factory was also interesting.”

?By ‘interesting’ you mean scary??

‘INTERESTINGLY, this abandoned factory is a place where an alchemist in the past went bankrupt due to a fire triggered by unknown causes while he was working in the potion business.’

?That story is rather suspicious. I understand that a famous guild gave him a large amount of money in advance and set a tight deadline for the delivery of goods, and if the delivery was not made within that time, the alchemist had to compensate triple the amount. After signing the contract, a fire suddenly broke out, yet the culprit has never been caught.?

The alchemist had ended up hanging himself in the burnt factory because he couldn’t afford the huge compensation. After that, the bereaved family had sold the alchemist’s potion recipe to a large company, and the factory had changed owners several times, but for some reason, the owners had all gone bankrupt. That was how Ji-Cheok had gotten hold of this factory.

?It was still not cheap, though.?

‘Right. Even with the creepy story, the location itself is really good, so the price didn’t go down that much. But among the lands Ji-Han showed me, this place was the best. It’s very cost-effective.’

“Hyung, do you need more drones?”

Numerous large and small drones floated around his younger brother. Now, Mu-Cheok could perfectly control drones with just his thoughts. Even a Master Mechanic could not break through the security network Mu-Cheok put on, but Ji-Cheok didn’t know the details. He just thought Mu-Cheok was great.

“Can’t you just hack the bank?” Ji-Cheok asked.

“I could, but the aftermath would be a bitch, so I don’t want to,” Mu-Cheok replied.

‘...This crazy bastard has actually reached the stage where he can break through bank security.’

Mu-Cheok created his own software and installed it in Bi-Ga’s drones. Ji-Cheok didn’t know if this was because Mu-Cheok had also used his [Chronicler] skills on them, but the commercial drones costing three million won a piece were now moving like industrial drones that cost around thirty million.

Bi-Ga had found this fascinating and had taken interest in his drones. She wanted to see how the [Script of Chaos] affected the program language of the drones. However, Mu-Cheok was firmly opposed to taking apart his drones. In the end, they compromised by filming it separately on GodTube.

Ji-Cheok had no idea what they were talking about. Even working with spreadsheets was complicated enough for him. The whole drone thing didn’t interest him that much.

‘Instead, I modded the hardware of the drones with Arcane Engineering.’

Like creating the Mono Bike, the exterior was reinforced and the energy efficiency was improved. Ji-Cheok also fixed the drones’ arms to deliver electric shocks to intruders in case of emergency. As for how well these drones operated, that depended on his brother’s programming skills.

“Well, a programming language is still a language, and if you go deeper, it is just a long sequence of ones and zeros. In a way, they are made with basic characters, which is my domain.”

Mu-Cheok was technically a humanist, as he had majored in law, but he didn’t really believe in the law or in humans. On the outside, he was just a puppy with droopy eyes. On the inside, he trusted machines far more than people. That was why the only things alive in this huge factory were the Um brothers. Ji-Cheok wondered how such a strange soul had been born as his younger brother.

“So, there are a total of ten potion machines that will be in constant operation, right, hyung?” Mu-Cheok asked.

“I think that’s the plan. Even with just ten machines, the rate of Mana and Cultivation recovery is decreased, but it’s worth a try. It would be nice to use the World Tree at all times, but to go to dungeons, I have to leave the house.”

“It’s amazing that this is even possible at all.”

“I need to train and clear dungeons. Also, if a ‘fire due to unknown causes’ occurs, I need mana to catch the culprit and eliminate them.”

“That’s what’s so amazing about it.”

After saying that, Mu-Cheok let out a languid yawn.

“Hyung, come here and see this,” Mu-Cheok said.

Just by looking at him holding up his phone, Ji-Cheok knew that his brother was trying to take a picture to put on his social media.

“Take a picture with the ceiling in the background. I don’t want to show the production process,” Ji-Cheok said.

With that, Mu-Cheok shook his head and stood to Ji-Cheok’s left side.

“I’m just going to post our faces. That’s going to be enough for today,” Mu-Cheok said.

Ji-Cheok slightly turned his face and looked elsewhere to get a natural look, and Mu-Cheok slightly bent his knees to be at the same height as his brother for the picture.

Click.

“Well, that came out well. You look like a natural hyung,” Mu-Cheok said.

“Well, I learned from a good teacher.”

“It is what it is.”

Tap.

Mu-Cheok wrote something with the picture and posted it on social media. In the meantime, Ji-Cheok did a final check on each of the ten potion machines.

“Hyung, it’s incredible that you have a [Heaven Martial Body]. Is that why your Mana and Cultivation stats soared to the S-rank?”

“It’s not just this. It’s a combination of all the skills and titles I’ve gathered so far.”

“Wow, even a top-tier Wizard wouldn’t be able to match your mana power.”

While saying that, Mu-Cheok sat on a steel drum and rummaged through the documents. In a world where paper books were becoming web novels and textbooks were becoming digital, these important documents still remained on paper.