Genius Blacksmith's Game

[Calculating the debts you owe the citizens.]

[You must repay 12,013,013 gold.]

[The number of residences does not keep pace with the citizen count.]

[The number of shops does not keep pace with the citizen count.]

[The number of hunting grounds does not keep pace with the citizen count.]

[Residential satisfaction is at its worst.]

Before the meeting with Hansung Group.

After logging into Ares, Hyunsoo stood atop the city wall and looked out over the kingdom he had built.

“It’s the Hyun King!”

“Master Blacksmith Hyun!”

“Khh! He looks incredible!”

The users who had migrated there could not stop admiring the ease with which he stood atop the wall looking down over the country he had built, nor the expression of a true king on his face.

Hyunsoo waved to them and thought,

I’m fucked...

It looked like a marketplace.

Because more than 1.3 million people had been accepted in such a rush, everywhere he looked below was packed solid with bodies.

“Hey, don’t shove!”

“There are so many people...”

“I’m gonna get trampled to death in this crowd...!” 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The problems were visible everywhere.

“You’re out of potions??”

“I’m sorry, we’ve sold out.”

“What kind of place runs out of potions too?!”

The shops were crammed with users, and enormous crowds had gathered around the NPCs rumored to hand out quests.

“Give me a quest!”

“We’ve already assigned all available requests, so...”

“Come on, just give me one!”

“......”

Watching that, Hyunsoo gave a small flick of his fingers, and the user causing the scene was whisked away before anyone even realized what had happened.

From other places, more voices reached him.

“Are the hunting grounds crowded too?”

“I spent an hour and killed three monsters.”

“Gah... so it really is that bad?”

“It’s worse than bad. There are two or three users piling onto a single monster.”

“Ugh... you can’t hunt in the nation of Hyun like this.”

The sea of people was nearly on the level of Lotte World on Children’s Day.

The problem was that Lotte World only got that crowded on Children’s Day. By the next day, it dropped to a quarter of that.

The nation of Hyun was not like that.

Just ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) as the notifications said, if he failed to expand the territory immediately, he would hit a serious wall.

There were also the Unique artifacts he had bought up from blacksmiths.

Those had served as a kind of slush fund.

At the time, people hadn’t known who he was, and by selling the stockpile all at once, he had been able to raise the money needed to found the kingdom.

But he had kept buying steadily, and a great many of those acquisitions had been taken on debt.

Of course, most of them had handed them over willingly out of gratitude to Hyun.

Material things and gratitude are not the same. I need to settle those debts fast.

If he had to define the current state of the nation of Hyun in a single line—

it was a kingdom in appearance only.

The solution was simple.

Money.

Hyunsoo gave a bitter smile.

[Would you like to log out?]

“Yes.”

After leaving Ares, Hyunsoo prepared for his meeting with Director Lee Seokjin.

Don’t forget how many people are resting on your shoulders now.

He had deliberately brought bodyguards with him and turned down the contract with calculated calm.

“Is my value only 10 billion won?”

Then Hyunsoo began laying out his worth.

“I’ve already repaid Chairman Lee more than enough. I went to greet him, and that meeting alone sent Hansung Electronics’ stock up by over 10%.”

“There are separate reasons I chose Hansung. First, Hansung Group is known for superior quality and outstanding performance, but it’s equally famous for being terrible at advertising. More precisely, three of your advertising models in a row caused scandals. The first was drugs. The second was a hit-and-run. The third was a scandal of another kind. People call it a graveyard for ad models. If I appear in an ad, that changes.”

“Second, whether we try to hide it or not, the story between the chairman and me will come out. When it does, it can develop into a situation where the nation of Hyun benefits, and Hansung Group benefits even more. People love stories.”

“Third. The kingdom is only in its beginning stage. It will continue to grow, and the force of that growth will become something neither Hansung Group nor I can even imagine right now.”

“And finally, my market value has risen even more in the last few days. At a time like this... can Hansung Group really afford to give me up?”

Hyunsoo’s expression never wavered.

“Even if Hansung Group chooses not to sign with me, there are plenty of other companies.”

That might disappoint Chairman Lee Taesung.

...It can’t be helped.

Those were the real reasons he had chosen Hansung, just as he had said—and he never forgot that he was carrying three million citizens on his back.

Director Lee Seokjin studied him in silence.

Then—

pinching the contract between his thumb and forefinger—

RIIIIIP—

“......?”

He tore it apart without hesitation.

Hyunsoo’s eyes twitched.

Was that the chairman’s decision?

Anxiety clawed at him. Is this really where Chairman Lee and I part ways?

Then Director Lee Seokjin undid the lock on the briefcase he had placed on the table.

CLICK—

“The chairman gave me instructions.”

“......”

“He said this: if he starts talking about repaying favors and such, end it with an ordinary contract. If that’s the sort of man he is, then his kingdom ends here. But if not, then he has even more room to grow—so offer him the best amount our company can possibly give. He’ll bring us back far greater money.”

He reached into the briefcase and pulled out a document.

“This is the real contract. The one with the best conditions we can offer. And he told me to pass on one more thing, if it turned out to be the latter.”

For a moment, it felt as though Taesung’s voice was speaking right beside him.

“The promise from that day is still good.”

Hearing that, warmth spread through Hyunsoo’s chest.

“......”

“Of course, the situation is different now, and the chairman is a businessman. He’s the kind of man who hates parting with even a single won. But even while giving you the best terms he can, he’s convinced he can still make an enormous profit. Which means this contract...”

Lee Seokjin extended a high-end fountain pen with a gentle smile.

“...is your value.”

Hyunsoo took the contract.

The moment he checked it, his eyes went wide.

This is insane...

The number written there was one no other company could possibly have offered.

*****

Nation of Hyun, conference room.

The expressions on the faces of the founding retainers seated around the round table were grim.

They understood the current situation too, and Nell was taking it even more seriously than Hyunsoo was.

“If this goes on for just one more week, migrants will start leaving in droves. Knights will start walking out one after another, and once that happens, more migrants will leave like a crashing stock price. At that point, it’ll be hard to recover.”

They were users too, so they knew.

If the shops had no goods left to buy,

if the hunting grounds had no monsters and only users crawling all over them,

if the number of quests was limited,

if there weren’t enough inns to stay in or enough content to enjoy—

then people stopped feeling any reason to stay.

“What do you think about dividing up the equity in the kingdom?”

That was Bark’s suggestion.

“Right now Hyunsoo owns one hundred percent of the equity. If we split that among all of us, then we could bring in our own personal funds too. Wouldn’t that solve this pretty easily?”

Nell shot him down at once.

“If we do that, the equity gets fragmented, and once the kingdom grows later, conflict over those shares will deepen among the guild members and spiral out of control. On top of that, the friction with newly recruited guild members would be beyond imagination. This kingdom should be built entirely on Lord Hyunsoo’s own assets.”

That was right.

Everything in this kingdom—

was being sustained by Hyunsoo’s personal money.

But because it was all Hyunsoo’s private property, that also meant it had immense value.

The problem was the issues that value had now created.

At that moment, Hyeji, who had been hesitating, spoke up.

“What if we pool money together and give it to Lord Hyunsoo as a token of gratitude?”

“...Oh?”

“That’s not bad.”

“Even if we don’t own any share of this country, our earnings are enormous because of this kingdom.”

The kingdom Hyunsoo had founded had already doubled and tripled the founding retainers’ advertising fees.

And in addition to territorial management expenses, the founding retainers also received a portion of the kingdom’s taxes.

Hyeji added,

“You all know Lord Hyunsoo. He always repays kindness, so he’ll probably bend this contract toward Hansung Group too. Which means he probably won’t get that much money out of it.”

Everyone’s face turned bitter.

Of course, it wasn’t something they had any right to interfere in.

An advertisement deal was a matter of personal ability and personal choice.

“You think maybe around 1 billion won?”

“Our Hyunsoo’s too soft-hearted for his own good.”

“That’s part of the Hyun King’s charm too.”

“What a great guy...”

Resil looked moved. One of the guild members gave a thumbs-up, then somebody clapped a hand over their mouth.

“Let’s gather it. For our king.”

And so the money began to pile up, one little bit at a time.

From the founding retainers, and from the members of Hyun’s Forge.

Nell put in 200 million won.

“After all, it’s all money I earned thanks to Lord Hyunsoo.”

Hyeji put in 100 million won.

“The Great Bow of Demon-Slaying is so damn good...”

Takashi emptied out his meager salary and contributed 500,000 won and a one-year coupon for free gukbap.

And Luxiu, Bella, Akao, Borne, and the others—

“Take it all.”

“A life lived for our monarch has no need for material things.”

“Pirates, empty out everything you’ve got.”

“I even threw in the Blackwind’s money.”

They emptied their savings, but it didn’t amount to much.

Because stingy Nell had only paid commander-level salaries at about minimum wage...

In any case, Lancer Bangbae, Mage Jane, and Territory King Glass all contributed too.

“We’re with the nation of Hyun. This much is nothing.”

“...Perhaps this will give us a chance to get gear crafted, hmm? Heh.”

They gathered money.

All for their king, who was gracious, virtuous, and therefore almost certainly going to lose out on this advertising contract.

Some of them even gave away everything they truly had.

“Whiiiine...”

Lucky Lump put in its treasured barbecue doll—its entire fortune.

“Cluck?”

Kkoko abruptly turned into light, vanished, and then brought back some kind of Unique artifact.

Did it steal this...?

Pretty came back with a fish for some reason, and Golemmy—

CLUNK—

snapped off a piece of its own body.

[Golem King Fragment.]

“???”

“......?”

It showed what it meant to be a true pet, giving both body and heart.

The crucial one, though, was KyooKyoo.

This little extortionist, which had spent who knew how long shaking people down for money to trade for snacks,

handed over the staggering sum of 237 million won.

No, seriously, how much has it extorted from people?

...Wouldn’t it be better to make it a lord? Then it could suck up tax money like a corrupt ruler.

When the total amount had finally been gathered, everyone turned to Resil, the obvious rich one.

“...I don’t actually have that much money.”

“......”

They kept staring.

“I did shoot an ad with Hansung Group a while ago. But...”

Resil burst out in frustration.

“The advertiser still hasn’t paid me! They said they’d save it up and give it later like New Year’s money, but I already did the job and they still haven’t paid! And I can’t even report them! It’s my dad’s company!”

“......”

Everyone narrowed their eyes.

Resil really had intended to pay.

My allowance. Twenty years of it, saved up little by little in case I ever got kicked out of the house.

In the end, wouldn’t Resil inherit the company someday anyway?

Right then—

[Guild Master Hyunsoo has logged in.]

With one heart and one mind, everyone welcomed the Hyunsoo who had just logged in.

And the total amount they had gathered—

“7.4 billion. I think this will help with running the kingdom, so don’t feel pressured. We’ve got money, you know that, right?”

Resil handed it over on behalf of the others.

Hyunsoo’s eyes turned red.

“Thank you, everyone. Actually, I came because I wanted to get this contract reviewed before I signed it too.”

“Oh, then I’ll review it for you.”

But then—

“Huh?”

Nell’s expression changed in shock, and Resil, puzzled, stepped closer.

What is it? Is the amount even smaller than I thought?

The moment Resil saw what was written on the contract, they froze.

[Party B shall pay Party A 40,000,000,000 won upon execution of this contract.]

It was 40 billion won.

By the time Resil realized something had gone horribly wrong—

“...There can’t be a king in this world happier than I am. Really... thank you. Thank you so much, everyone.”

Hyunsoo’s eyes reddened even more. The guild members, who still had no idea what was happening, clapped and said,

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP—

“Resil donated the 2 billion won they saved up from twenty years of allowance(!)”

“They even said earlier they didn’t regret giving Hyunsoo this money one bit. Khh—”

“Absolute god-tier generosity... A conglomerate heir really is built differently.”

No, wait. My money...! Twenty years of allowance!

But then—

“Hwaaaah... Resil, you’re such an incredible friend...!”

Hyunsoo burst into tears and hugged Resil.

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP!

“Amazing... their friendship...”

“Khh...”

“So beautiful...”

Resil, looking at Hyunsoo in their arms, couldn’t bring themself to say Give it back! in a situation like this, so a tear rolled down their cheek.

“WAAAAAH! HYUNSOOO!”

Hyunsoo cried, and Resil cried too.

It was a happy ending.