Of course, the Chaos Jewel cannot be used like a lie detector. It also cannot show the potential success of an item or the worth of an item.

All Chaos Jewels can do is show the aura and influence of the person or item you use it on.

That was why I only used it in the game to a.n.a.lyze sealed swords or armors to figure out their hidden abilities.

Some items required a lot of time, effort, and money to remove their seal, but once you finally unseal the thing, you could find out that it is actually worthless.

But even using it for that was not easy. Chaos Jewels were so precious that most users would never even see it throughout their entire time playing the game. That was why I only used it on items with really ancient seals.

Either way, using a Chaos Jewel should let me get a good idea about whether I can believe Kim In Hwan’s words or not.

“Do you have a finished sample by chance?”

“Of course I do.”

Kim In Hwan opened a locked cabinet and took a battery out of it.

In contrast to his, ‘amazing item,’ talk, it was really small and looked terrible. It looked like he picked up a broken battery somewhere and dissected it.

“I haven’t done any cosmetic improvements to it because it is still in development. But although it looks like this, I can guarantee its performance. I also conducted many tests. Like this … … hmm?”

Kim In Hwan stopped talking and looked nervous once I took my smartphone out. I could even see him slightly hide the battery with his hand.

He did say this had to be confidential. There is probably nothing more important than secrecy for Kim In Hwan right now.

“Ah, I am not trying to take a picture of it. I am just looking something up so you don’t need to worry.”

I said that as I opened the Jewel Box in my information page.

[Chaos Jewel: 6]

I do not have many of them.

In addition, four of them are really terrible with search indexes of less than 15. It will be hard to make a determination with such low index scores.

I picked the one with the highest search index.

[Chaos Jewel: Search Index 67]

I then stopped my hand. I suddenly felt like this was not it.

What I want to know is how much money I could make with this item. Then I need to know the cost of production, cost of sale, compet.i.tiveness with other products, size of the market, etc.

The Chaos Jewel cannot show me all of those things.

In addition, something like a battery does not give off much influence or aura. It only stores energy based on scientific principles.

On the other

hand, the Chaos Jewel shows only the aura or influence of the object. These two really don’t work with each other.

If I use it on this battery, I might just waste a Chaos Jewel for no reason.

‘Then what to do?’

I couldn’t invest without knowing anything, but I couldn’t just coldly reject Kim In Hwan’s request either.

“Is there a problem?”

Seeing me looking concerned while looking at my smartphone, Kim In Hwan asked in a worried voice.

I looked up and saw his face. At that instant, it was like I had an epiphany.

‘Right. Chaos Jewels can be used on people.’

Kaldera used it on me in Royal Road. That one use made both Kaldera and Humbley completely become my people. That was how much positive aura I was giving off, probably.

I should be able to inspect Kim In Hwan in the same way. If Kim In Hwan is someone who is going to be successful in the future, the Chaos Jewel will show me his potential.

And if I invest in someone who will succeed, I will also gain the benefits.

‘Let’s try it.’

I finally used the Chaos Jewel.

The smartphone turned into camera mode. At the same time, an input box appeared for me to put the name of the target.

I focused the camera on Kim In Hwan’s face and put, ‘Kim In Hwan,’ in the input box.

As soon as I did that, the smartphone started to show information related to Kim In Hwan.

It was not just information like name or age. It was information related to Kim In Hwan’s aura and influence.

[Wealth: 98/100]
[Intelligence: 53/100]
[Health: 46/100]
[Morality: 79/100]
[Politics: 51/100]
[Violence: 31/100]

……

*Human average/highest value: 50/100

I didn’t need to look at anything else. I only focused on wealth and morality.

Wealth was at 98 out of 100 and morality was at 79 out of 100.

If an average person is at 50 and the highest value is 100, you could call both values really high.

Which means, Kim In Hwan is someone who will become extremely wealthy, and is also someone who is more upright than most people.

That also means he is someone who is worth investing in right now.

I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. Of course, the future shown by the Chaos Jewel was not going to happen 100%, but there is no investment that has a 100% probability of success.

I closed my smartphone and looked toward Kim In Hwan.

I could see the antic.i.p.ation in Kim In Hwan’s eyes. He saw the smile on my face.

Now it was time to turn that antic.i.p.ation into reality.

“I understand. I will help you out.”

“Oh, Ahoo-nim! Thank you!”

Kim In Hwan grabbed my hand.

Actually, I should be the thankful one. I’ve been worrying about how to spend the rest of

of my money. I can invest all of it into Kim In Hwan’s business.

“Is 100 billion won enough to create the item?”

“Based on my current calculations. But no need to feel burdened. I will continue to secretly gather other investors like this.”

“There is no need to do that. I will take on all necessary funding. Hyung-nim can stop worrying about money and just focus on creating the item.”

Kim In Hwan’s eyes turned really wide. 100 billion won was a ton of money. How could he not be shocked after I decide to invest that much money so easily?

“Ahoo-nim has that much money?”

“I can manage that much.”

I confidently answered.

But there was something odd about Kim In Hwan’s response. He seemed more concerned than excited.

“Mm…… Then what about ownership ……?”

“Ah, because of that?’

He was worried that he would do all the work and I would take all of the profit.

“We can discuss that in detail. But I will promise you this. No matter how much ownership I have, I will not try to control what you are doing. If there is a meeting of the board or anything of the sort, I will always be on hyung-nim’s side. I can even sign a contract if you want.”

Kim In Hwan’s expression became a bit brighter.

“If you’ll do that, I won’t have any worries at all.”

Kim In Hwan and I continued to talk some more after that.

Kim In Hwan was still really excited to show off his new invention.

Honestly speaking, it was difficult for me to understand everything he was saying. All I could understand was that it had a different type of compet.i.tiveness than other items in the market.

But I wasn’t really interested in that. I already used the Chaos Jewel to look into Kim In Hwan’s future. In my point of view, that alone was enough.

Instead of talking about the product, I started to talk about things related to the ownership of the company.

After talking about it for a while, we came to a conclusion. Kim In Hwan and I will have equal 5:5 stakes. This was because there was a significant amount of necessary investment to start.

Part of the deal was my raising my investment to 200 billion won.

200 billion won was not that important right now. Kim In Hwan’s wealth stat is all the way up at 98 out of 100 points.

200 billion won can easily become 20 trillion won in the near future.

“Ah, I’m hungry.”

“There’s a pretty good meat place nearby. They specialize in Hanwoo, [1] and their meat is high quality.”

“Shall we go?”

We headed to the restaurant together.

I know what good quality meat tastes like now. It really was high quality meat like Kim In Hwan mentioned. It probably tasted

probably tasted even better because of my joy in finding a good place to invest my money.

“Wow, it really is good.”

“This place is a famous place. But did something happen with the Winners’ Hw.a.n.g-pro? He seems to be going crazy trying to track you down these days. Apparently he’s been calling our Lions members asking for your whereabouts as well.”

It made me smile. Guess his a.s.s is really on fire.

Guess that shows just how harsh Chairman Jung’s punishment is on him.

“It is nothing much.”

“I do know a bit about the relationship between you two, but don’t be too rough on him. You never know what someone might do if they have evil in their heart.”

I was being cautious as well.

But I will not let it easily pa.s.s by. I can’t stand letting someone like Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul do well.

“I understand, hyung-nim. Ah, I’m so full. I should be heading back now.”

“Thank you very much for today. Come down to visit whenever you want.”

“Thank you hyung-nim.”

I received an almost overwhelmingly good treatment from Kim In Hwan before I got in the car to head back to Seoul.

The traffic was pretty bad on my way back to Seoul. I only arrived at my house very late at night.

But I could not immediately head inside. An unexpected voice called out my name outside the house.

“Kang Hwi Ram.”

It was a voice I would never forget, but for all the wrong reasons.

I turned my head.

As expected, i saw Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s face. He slowly started to walk toward me.

“Let’s talk.”

I didn’t really feel like it. To be more accurate, I had nothing to talk about with Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul. It’s fine if he suffers a little more.

“I’m tired today. Next time.”

“Isn’t this too much? It’s already been half a month. Please forgive me now.”

His words made me stop moving. I never expected the word, ‘forgive,’ to come out of Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s mouth.

For someone as prideful as Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul to say that. He really must be in a rush.

I guess it’s been long enough. It is now time to take this to a new direction.

But there was no reason to move somewhere else. I still have no desire to spend a long time together with Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul.

“Speak. Briefly.”

“What do you want from me?”

“Nothing. You live your life and I’ll live mine.”

“Then why are you doing this to me?”

“What did I do?”

“Why did you say something weird to the Chairman to put me in this situation?”

Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul raised his voice as if to say, ‘Don’t change the subject.’ But I could also see him trying to hold himself back at the same time to make sure not to make me angry.

That was why it started offit started off rough, but became weaker as he continued to speak.

“What is wrong with talking about what happened in the past? You should have acted properly or apologized properly when it happened ……huh?”

Plop-

Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul suddenly bent one of his knees. I never expected Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul to do something like this.

I’m sure he was debating it over and over while waiting for me. To kneel or not to kneel.

And he must have come to the conclusion of ,‘Let’s close my eyes and just do it.’

But you think I care about what he thinks? Does he think his knee is worth a million won or something?

“What the h.e.l.l are you doing?”

“Apologizing.”

I guess Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s apology is only through his knees. His tone and gaze didn’t seem to be apologetic at all.

But he’ll have something to tell Chairman Jung. ‘I even apologized on my knees and he still didn’t forgive me. I tried my best but it was impossible.’

Then Chairman Jung might lift the punishment. He can’t ask Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul to do the impossible.

I need to make it something that is possible for him to do. I need to make him believe that we can become close if Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul puts in the effort.

Of course, I have a plan.

“Are you really reflecting on the things you did in middle school?”

“I am. I really was in the wrong.”

Although he was saying that, his tone and gaze told me a different story. It was like he was saying, ‘I’m only giving you this response because I know it is what you want to hear.’

You will never get what you want that way.

“Then prove it to me.”

“How can I prove it?”

“Go find all the kids who were hara.s.sed by you in middle school, apologize to them, and get their forgiveness. I will objectively think about it if you get a letter of confirmation and their contact information.”

“What?”

Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul raised his voice, as if to say that it was preposterous.

I knew he would act this way.

But he will have no other choice. I definitely gave him a path, and it will be his decision to walk or not walk down this path.

“Whatever then. I don’t want to see your face either.”

That’s all I said before turning around. I then quickly walked into the house.

I heard Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s sigh behind me.

But he will need to do it. With Hw.a.n.g Joon Yul’s information network and money, it will be easy for him to get a piece of paper and contact information.

But he doesn’t know this.

‘This is a quest chain, and this is only the first quest.’

—
[1] The Hanwoo, also Hanu or Korean Native, is a breed of small cattle native to Korea