“It’s a lot,” Dohyuk said as he saw the coins.

Yuri asked, “Is it… okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know, I mean… Nobody will say anything if you want to take a break for a few days. You don’t need to…”

“Yeah, I can get some rest,” Dohyuk answered as he closed the bag. “I really want to just fall down and sleep right now. I really do. Just sleep, no matter what everyone wants of me, not giving two sh*ts about anything else, no matter what happens.”

But unlike the words, his voice was calm. There was no feeling of rage or contempt.

“Or maybe I can just find a way to waste time. Like going up to the murderer and asking questions knowing that I will not get a satisfying answer.”

However, was no point in doing that. He was angry; he wanted to give up and run away. But since when was it ever like that? Ever since the first day where everything began, it was like that for Dohyuk.

“I… knew it was going to happen eventually.”

The people he saved weren’t corrupt, but Dohyuk knew that it didn’t mean that these people were ‘good’. Even before the world turned into something else, people weren’t all that innocent and good.

“If I was going to be broken just because something like this happened, I would’ve been dead long ago.”

“..”

“So, ‘It’s okay.’ I’m not broken to the point where I have to give my job to someone else yet.”

Yuri nodded.

“Then what of the criminal…”

“Do as the laws of the city indicate. When Giwon proves the crime, I will expel him through the process.”

Murderers will be given one of two choices. Either be locked up under a prison where one will rot away with the other criminal beasts, or walk into the city and be transferred somewhere else this world.

“Thank you for worrying about me though.”

“…Yeah.”

“Oh, and tell Giwon and Heeyun when you leave. Don’t worry too much about me.”

Yuri understood that Dohyuk wanted to be alone. She too wanted it for Dohyuk so he could have even the slightest amount of time to rest.

Yuri sighed as she walked down the corridor.

‘I know this is stupid… but it could’ve been better if he was perverted trash in this case.’

She wasn’t just thinking about sexual pleasure. If Dohyuk was the type of man who relieved his stress by using someone else, Yuri would not have worried this much. There were enough people to sacrifice themselves to help Dohyuk.

‘At least… I hope he gets some sleep.’

Yuri hoped, fully aware that there was no chance of it happening.

“One million coins for five of these…”Dohyuk mumbled as he sat on the bed. There were three stacks of ten gray coins. He didn’t want to even look at them as he knew these were the price of his dead citizen, but he needed to know. It was crucial to know about these gray coins that were given to those who corrupted others.

One million to five.

This was the basic ratio that Dohyuk knew. He didn’t make the trade, but Giwon and Yuri were notified of this by the one-winged angels. The ratio changed to a ‘trade’ ticket beginning with 10 coins.

<>

It was easy to guess the use of the ticket. The ticket granted rank-specified equipment. 10 gray coins also meant 2 million coins. If it was over S, it might have been good, but it wasn’t worth it if it only gave A grade items. Dohyuk asked Giwon because of this…

-You might think that because you are on the stronger side.

It was very simple. Like Dohyuk, strong ones who ruled over the region did not have trouble acquiring high-ranked items as the most valuable pieces of equipment were either collected or taken away by the strong ones.

But what about weak? In the case of Giwon and Yuri, they would soon be equipping themselves with S-ranked equipment along with Dohyuk’s growth in force. The same applied to Heeyun. Maybe Changsu would get an opportunity. But what those who were lower?

There was no way that these people would be given the chance to obtain the equipment. S-ranked equipment was limited in supply. Even when using the Mukasa Merchant Group, it wasn’t easy to get S or high-ranked equipment.

That was where these tickets came in. It was going to provide a steady stream of high-ranked equipment.

There were more trade ticket types too.

With the 30 coins that Dohyuk currently had, he had the option of choosing two types of trade tickets.

<>

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The ticket with 100% S-rank equipment and a ticket to get a skill. Skills had a difference in rank as they were rarer since they disappear after use, and thus skills were considered two to three ranks higher than how they were actually ranked.

Next trade ratio was at 50 coins, but the information was not made public.

-I will tell you when you bring 50 coins or more… hehehe.

That was what the angels said. But even from five, ten, and thirty, it was enough to shock people… and this was the information summarized by Giwon and Dohyuk a few days ago when they were waiting to move metals from the land.

-We will need to see how hard it is to acquire these coins first.

That was what they came to as a conclusion. It was apparent that these coins would bring about a huge change to the world, but they weren’t sure how far was needed for one coin.

‘The amount of change depending on the mental and physical strength of the one being corrupted.”

That meant that it was possible that the coins were hard to come by. Maybe one coin per one person, with a few exceptions for two. That would limit the supply of these tickets.

Dohyuk glanced at the coins again. Compared to normal people, the murderer’s mental strength didn’t seem to be very high. The only difference was probably the physical strength and…

‘Potential was maybe middle… to mid-high.’

Even that wasn’t much of a difference than the others. The coins used to increase stats were also very little.

“…”

Dohyuk closed his eyes and thought. There were thirty thousand people in his city, each working hard to grow in strength so that they could protect themselves. Coins were in abundance and it was apparent that these people would become much stronger than this murderer in a month.

And what would happen if the beasts outside find out about this? They were probably torturing all weak uncorrupt people to find out how to acquire coins.

“Well, I did guess as much,” he said quietly to himself.

“So, it WAS after me after all, you motherf*cker.”

Dohyuk gritted his teeth. It was all because of Casita.

“…?!”

That’s when Dohyuk placed his hand on the mattress. It was shaking, but it wasn’t his bed. The entire building- no. The entire island was shaking. Dohyuk quickly jumped out of his bed and out of the window, sliding down from the 10th floor to the ground.

Everyone on the ground knew about the trembling. Dohyuk ran past those people looking at him in confusion and got to the city wall. The report came in right after.

“Direction has changed?”

The man who was on the watch nodded. He was there to check on the compass and he let everyone know when he found the land.

“I believe you felt the tremor too, Mr. Mayor. Direction turned from the northwest directly to the north after the tremor.”

“…”

What is going on? It wasn’t sure, but it was certain that it wasn’t Casita who did this. Dohyuk was sure of it.

Aruga.

When he set sail with the island, he made a bargain with Aruga. He couldn’t just set sail without knowing which part of China he wanted to go, so he asked Aruga to have the island set sail to one of Aruga’s cities that was on a beach in China, with the neighboring regions where Dohyuk had the upper hand in fighting.

But if the direction changed…

“Keep watch. We might arrive sooner or much later than we expected.”

“Yes, sir.”

Either Aruga had betrayed him, or he was in need of Dohyuk’s help.

“Damn chickenhead,” Dohyuk spat as he jumped down from the wall. It didn’t seem like Aruga betrayed him at least. He was prepared for the worst, but if Aruga wanted to betray, there was better timing for that. He was probably having some trouble that couldn’t be dealt with his current power, and thus he was bringing Dohyuk to him.

Whatever it was, Dohyuk was determined to get the right price.

But what was waiting for him wasn’t just some ‘annoyance’.

…Something exceptionally good was waiting for him.