Chapter 209: From the Ground Up (3)
That night, Chi-Woo heard someone knock right before he fell asleep. When he opened the door, he was surprised to see Ru Amuh nervously looking at him. The Ru Amuh Chi-Woo knew was the epitome of diligence and politeness, and wasn’t the type to suddenly visit someone in the middle of the night without any notice. Thus, Chi-Woo thought Ru Amuh must have good reasons.
“Teacher,” Ru Amuh started, “Please help me.”
His words took Chi-Woo by surprise even further. Chi-Woo stared blankly into Ru Amuh’s wavering eyes. An awkward silence settled between them. Ru Amuh’s visit was so sudden that Chi-Woo needed some time to organize his thoughts.
Feeling uneasy about the long silence, Ru Amuh pleaded once more. “If you haven’t received any offers yet—or even if you did, I hope that you will join me,” His expression looked desperate as he said.
Although startled, Chi-Woo asked, “Could you explain what’s going on more slowly?”
Ru Amuh finally let out the sigh he had been holding and began. He talked about how all the humans in the capital had migrated to Shalyh city under Chi-Hyun’s orders. Although the natives went through the same process as before, it was different for the heroes. They received different treatment according to their ranks. For heroes who hadn’t received a rank yet like Zelit, they had to stay in an inn room shared by eight people. Heroes at the iron rank like Chi-Woo shared an inn room with three or two others, and those in the bronze rank had a room to themselves. Those in the silver rank like Ru Hiana were granted permission to take a house for themselves; and Ru Amuh, who was the only gold rank among the heroes, was given access to an entire zone.
“How large is one zone?”
“I received a whole street block, and there are a total of nine buildings.”
Chi-Woo’s mouth gaped at Ru Amuh’s response. In Earth terms, Ru Amuh had become rich in real estate. But that didn’t only come with positives. Great power called for equal responsibilities. Although Ru Amuh was authorized to use the buildings in his zone, he wasn’t granted all rights to the land and needed to pay to maintain access and owners.h.i.+p. For Chi-Woo, he needed to pay 30 royals every day after the one-month grace period; that would be 900 royals per month. Chi-Woo asked Ru Amuh how much he needed to pay.
“I was told that I have to pay 27,000 royals every month.”
Chi-Woo’s jaw dropped to the floor. Ru Amuh’s fees were 30 times his fees and nine-tenths the amount his brother gave him.
“Uh…wow, that’s huge. Will you be able to handle it?”
“It’s impossible by myself, but I know it’s possible with you, Teacher.”
It was then Chi-Woo realized what Ru Amuh was telling him.
“I realized after coming back from the last expedition that I’m still far too lacking.” Ru Amuh fixed his posture. “I learned that no matter how hard I try, there are things I can’t do by myself.
No matter how outstanding Ru Amuh was, he was still one of the numerous heroes in the world and had many limits. He was but one man, and his cla.s.s came with restrictions. Thus, Ru Amuh came to the conclusion that he needed more people—people of diverse skills and cla.s.ses that could do things he couldn’t. Only then would he be able to a.s.sist his teacher more efficiently.
“I am planning to build our own zone in this place. If possible, I will also like the two others in the room to join me…” Ru Amuh said while looking at Evelyn and Hawa. “I will transfer all the rights I received over the zone, so please—”
“That’s ridiculous,” Chi-Woo said firmly. Ru Amuh’s offer was absolutely mad, and Chi-Woo had gone through too much to not realize what sort of repercussions accepting such an offer would lead to.
‘Still…’ It was a tempting offer; he would easily fulfill one of the conditions of the a.s.signment his brother had given him by accepting it. ‘Was Chi-Hyun talking about something like this?’ Chi-Woo wondered. His brother told him he would be able to finish the a.s.signment by doing nothing, and that seemed to be very true now.
But Chi-Woo didn’t ponder for long and gave his response. “I have absolutely no desire to receive your rights over the zone. It’s quite late. Why don’t you go to sleep now?”
“Teacher…”
“Let’s meet tomorrow afternoon at the square and discuss.”
Ru Amuh’s eyes turned wide, and his face brightened as Chi-Woo continued, “We’ll talk about the details after I move into your place.”
“I will give you the best house out of the nine I received,” Ru Amuh replied.
“No, just give me anything suitable.”
“But—”
“As I said before, I don’t want authority over your zone, but I want to fulfill my duty as a tenant.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much!”
Ru Amuh nodded eagerly, very pleased with Chi-Woo’s response. Chi-Woo also smiled. He could’ve refused, but he didn’t want to miss an opportunity to better his environment and complete one of the key components of his a.s.signment. 27,000 royals a month wasn’t a small amount by any means, but Chi-Woo felt like there was a way if they worked all together as Ru Amuh said. And above all, Ru Amuh was his first star. This was the first thing Ru Amuh had ever asked of him with so much pa.s.sion, and Chi-Woo wanted to help him. Hopefully, they would be able to help each other out.
* * *
The next morning, Chi-Woo met up with Ru Amuh at the square as promised. Then they made steps for Chi-Woo to move into his new place. The zone that Ru Amuh received for being gold rank was located in a good area. It wasn’t far from the center of the city, and was thus close to the central square where they could look for work.
The zone consisted of a central building and the eight buildings surrounding it. Chi-Woo chose one on the outskirts that had single-family housing because Evelyn liked the large yards on the upper floor. And after all this was decided, the five of them gathered their heads together and discussed.
“First of all, I want to increase the number of residents here,” Ru Amuh spoke as the head of the meeting. “27,000 royals is the amount we have to gather in two months and every month after that.” Of course, that only covered the housing fees; they needed to make more money for equipment and food. Ru Amuh told everyone the information he’d gathered while wandering the city yesterday.
There were many ways to earn money, but the most common one was to accept a request. The payments for completing a request varied widely, where some led to a couple hundred royals, and others thousands of royals. Among the requests he saw on the bulletin board on the square, the highest paying one offered 3,500 royals for getting an ingredient.
“Isn’t 3,500 royals pretty good?”
“Not necessarily.” Ru Amuh shook his head at Ru Hiana’s question. “After further investigation, I found out that it would take one 20 days to go and come back with the ingredient. It seems the compet.i.tion is going to be fierce too.”
“Ah, that’s no good then,” Ru Hiana sighed. Doing the math, they would need to make at least 9000 royals in 20 days.
“Then what do we do… Do we have to go on an expedition or something…?” Ru Hiana wasn’t wrong, but the risk of going on an expedition was too high. They could strike gold if they found a dungeon, but the odds would be akin to catching a star in the sky, and they might end up wasting valuable time.
Ru Amuh turned to Chi-Woo. “So I’d like to reduce the total amount I have to pay for housing first.”
“How?”
“I’m planning to lease parts of the buildings I own.”
“Ah,” Chi-Woo exclaimed. He now got why Ru Amuh had suggested gathering people first. Ru Amuh wanted to lease his building and have his tenants bear some of the land tax. Then he would be able to maintain his authority over his land while lowering the amount he needed to personally earn. After all, simply leasing one of the buildings would reduce the amount he had to pay from 27,000 to 24,000.
“But who and how many should we gather…” Chi-Woo murmured to himself and sighed. “Trying to raise money and seek tenants—we’re going to be really busy in the beginning.”
“Yes, that’s my biggest worry too, sir.” Ru Amuh nodded. “If I could, I would like to make official moves after securing some funds, but two months is not a lot of time.” They will have to get outside of the city to get such a large amount, but traveling outside would take a few days at the least.
“I feel like I will be able to stabilize the area with one more month of grace period, but…”
“Hey! Don’t worry about it too much! If worse comes to worst, I can always sell my house!” Ru Hiana said.
“No, I don’t want to do that no matter how desperate we are. Recruits are going to keep coming in, and the value of my buildings will only keep increasing.”
While Chi-Woo listened to the two converse, he recalled what his brother told him.
[You probably don’t even know why I’m giving you this money.]
Chi-Woo didn’t know why his brother gave him the money then, but he thought he knew now. His brother must have foreseen all of this and prepared him in advance—or else there was no reason his brother would’ve given him a nearly perfect amount.
“I think I can help you extend the time by at least a month,” Chi-Woo said.
“Sorry?”
“Give me a moment. Hey, spit it out,” Chi-Woo told Steam Bun, and Steam Bun spat out a pouch. Chi-Woo took out 27 gold coins with the number 1,000 engraved on each of them. “With this, we have another month to settle things, right?”
Ru Amuh looked star-struck, while Ru Hiana’s eyes opened wide.
“S-Senior…where did you get the money…?”
“I received them,” Chi-Wo said and told them a revised story of what had happened. In his version, he barged into the emba.s.sy and demanded the legend to compensate him for the injustices he alone faced under the new housing system.
“No, we can’t use that,” Ru Amuh refused immediately. “I’m really grateful for your offer…but this is for you alone, Teacher. I can’t take it.”
Having expected Ru Amuh’s response, Chi-Woo smiled. Adam Grant had written in his book Give and Take that people could be categorized into three types in human interactions. The ‘Giver’ wanted to give the maximum amount they could give regardless of the amount they received, the ‘Taker’ wanted to receive more than they gave, and the ‘Matcher’ returned as much as they received. If Chi-Woo was a Matcher, Ru Amuh was a Giver. Thus, as a Giver, Ru Amuh was extremely burdened by Chi-Woo’s offer and felt the need to reciprocate manifolds. People like Ru Amuh tended to not return exactly as much as they received even when interacting with a Matcher, because they had the firm belief that they would be reciprocated with more than they gave; in a way, a lot of the decisions they made were investments for the future.
“Mr. Ru Amuh,” Chi-Woo said leisurely while leaning against the chair and repeating the exact lines that had been told to him. “One must look out for themselves. It’s the same when receiving help. You must take it when you have the opportunity to do so.”
“…”
“It’s also your responsibility to take opportunities when offered. It won’t just come to you without you doing anything.”
‘Oh—’ Evelyn clapped at Chi-Woo’s seemingly cool lines. Hawa also seemed surprised that Chi-Woo was finally making sense. But of course, Philip and Mimi snickered knowing who Chi-Woo was imitating.
—Kuh! This is nuts. Are you seriously going at it again? You know it only seems cool if the right people say it?
[How cute.]
And while Chi-Woo told the two to shut up inside his mind, Ru Amuh still appeared conflicted. Thus, Chi-Woo continued imitating his brother. “…Ehem. In a way, you can think of me lending you this money as an a.s.signment I’m giving you, Mr. Ru Amuh.”
“Yes, Ruahu. Even Senior says so. Stop being so stubborn. You can just repay him,” Ru Hiana also added. And after the people around him pressed him a couple of times more, Ru Amuh finally surrendered. It was hard for him to refuse such a good offer to buy himself more time.
“…I promise to return your offer with interest,” Ru Amuh said.
Chi-Woo handed him the 27,000 royals, secretly wondering how much Ru Amuh would give him with hope.
“Is there anything else I can help you with?” Chi-Woo then asked. Ru Amuh’s face became red. It seemed he was embarra.s.sed to say anything after receiving such a large sum of money already.
“Are you really going to stop here?” Chi-Woo talked in a firm, indifferent tone like a certain someone he knew. “If you brought me all the way here, shouldn’t you have at least thought of the ways you could ask for my help?” Noting the way Ru Amuh held himself back in hesitation, Chi-Woo channeled his brother once more. “For me, effort and time are special resources, especially considering my position.”
Those were the pivotal words. Ru Amuh thought it was just as Chi-Woo said: time was like gold. The course of the future would be decided by who moved first and faster. Above all, Ru Amuh was already indebted to Chi-Woo for saving his life; it was something he would need to spend the rest of his life repaying. Thus, it was probably fine for him to become a bit more…indebted? Ru Amuh mused and spoke, “Teacher, then please…”
* * *
Chi-Woo went outside alone and walked.
‘…Did I go too far?’ He had told Ru Amuh to tell him anything he needed help with and really did receive quite a big task. After looking through the list Ru Amuh gave him, Chi-Woo soon sent a message to one person. He got a response immediately and promised to meet in front of the square’s fountain.
“I was thinking about going to see you again. It’s nice that you called me first,” Zelit said while sitting next to Chi-Woo. “It seems we both have things to say to each other. Why don’t you go first?”
Chi-Woo got straight to the point. “You said you were staying at an inn and sharing a room with seven others, right sir?”
“Hm, yes.”
“It must be very crowded.”
“Yes, it’s only expected.”
“Have you ever thought of staying in a more pleasant environment and improving your standard of living?”
“…Wait a moment,” Zelit raised his hand and asked, “By a ‘more pleasant environment’, are you perhaps talking about Ru Amuh’s zone?”
“…Were you already aware of that, sir?”
Instead of answering Chi-Woo’s question, Zelit said, “Then let me ask another question. Did you decide to join hands with Ru Amuh?”
Chi-Woo admitted it with some hesitation.
“Hahahaha!” Zelit burst into laughter. It was loud, unlike his usual calm self, and after the uncharacteristic display, Zelit spoke while smirking. “Ru Amuh…oh my. Should I call him smart or cunning? Regardless, I suppose this means he’s planning to do things properly.” Zelit looked at Chi-Woo curiously and said, “The big shot of the seventh recruits has joined hands with the only hero to reach gold rank. Ha.”
“?”
“It’s going to be fun seeing how things play out.”
Chi-Woo blinked in bewilderment.