Ch.6969. Divine Mandate

Amon had returned from his investigation at <White Dawn> several months ago.

During that time, White Dawn had been acquired by Requetio Corporation.

Companies that later discovered White Dawn’s secrets regretted missing their chance, but by then the dungeon had permanently become Requetio’s property.

During this period, Kathy had done such an excellent job that no one noticed any signs until the very day of the acquisition.

Kathy proudly boasted about her perfect victory.

“I worked overtime for months because of this.”

She had run the company like a prison to prevent any leaks.

Beyond that, she had bribed government officials, controlled the media, and deliberately created incidents elsewhere to divert attention in case stock charts might reveal their intentions.

As a result, other companies didn’t notice a thing until White Dawn was taken from them.

“Amon. Do you even know what you’ve brought us?”

Amon nodded.

A dungeon where essences could be obtained probabilistically.

It was incredibly overpowered.

But even as a dungeon, White Dawn was Megacorp-level.

The act of acquiring a dungeon itself wasn’t subject to the Special Dungeon Law.

The Special Dungeon Law only applied to taking items found during dungeon exploration for free.

Rather, acquiring the dungeon itself meant claiming all future rights to it.

Even if it was just a shell left behind after the Three Dollar group had taken its essence, the acquisition price was set extremely high.

So high that Requetio Corporation had to use several years’ worth of funds plus stocks to acquire it.

Amon and Sonia couldn’t quite understand how game-changing this really was.

“You guys were in danger once.”

Amon pointed this out.

During this acquisition, Requetio had staggered significantly.

If they had been attacked from outside, they could have been finished in one blow without resistance.

Mobilizing 50 percent of their total power was that dangerous.

Even now after the successful acquisition, they hadn’t fully recovered and were still in a precarious state.

Amon and Sonia couldn’t understand why they’d take such a risky gamble.

But Kathy thought differently.

“First, let me correct your misunderstanding—it wasn’t a gamble. We considered everything.”

They were able to mobilize their full power because they had a prediction that there wouldn’t be any fatal attacks for a while.

They staggered, but didn’t collapse.

To others it might look like the heart of a beast, but to Kathy it was a rational decision.

“Also, the costs we incurred will be fully recovered in a year. Once we recover, we’ll be incomparably stronger than before.”

She explained the value of essences to the still-puzzled Amon and Sonia.

Essence is power that deals with concepts themselves.

Like Amon’s Sky Step, which applies to all acts of stepping on air.

The price varies depending on the content, but it’s still used somewhere.

“You know I wanted to buy you an essence but couldn’t because there weren’t any available, right?”

When Amon was getting new equipment, Kathy had wanted to get him an essence too.

But the essence Amon wanted wasn’t available.

Supply couldn’t keep up with the overwhelming demand.

“That’s why essence supply companies were created, but they still can’t keep up with demand.”

There are companies that acquire dungeons with relatively high drop rates and have employees continuously run them to produce essences like factories.

But the essences they produce still couldn’t meet the demand.

In other words, the essence market is a blue ocean.

“Imagine a business that can stably supply legendary essences to such a market.”

It was truly a game-changer.

The idea that you can charge whatever you want is just one-dimensional thinking.

Now Requetio will set the prices for all essences through legendary essences, and other essence companies will have no choice but to follow their market rates.

What if an essence business crosses Requetio?

If Requetio keeps releasing the same essences as that company but at legendary quality, that company will go bankrupt instantly.

Beyond that, countless other possibilities emerged.

To summarize it all, the essence market would now be completely controlled by Requetio Corporation.

“Ohh.”

Hearing this, Amon and Sonia finally understood the value of the information they had brought.

The meaning of monopolizing a market was immense.

It was absolute power.

“Thank you. You’ve filled in the final key that our company was missing.”

Requetio boasted overwhelming capital power through asset investments guided by future predictions.

But surprisingly, they often lost in power struggles between Megacorps, because the irreplaceable power each Megacorp held couldn’t be overcome with capital alone.

They had managed to stand shoulder to shoulder with others through predictions, political maneuvering, and social skills, but that only worked a few times.

Eventually, trying to compensate for their lower status with such methods hurt their pride and caused tremendous fatigue.

This affected not just employees but the president’s fatigue levels directly.

“When your status grows, people pick fewer fights with you, and when they do, it’s easier to handle, and you can focus your attention elsewhere, increasing efficiency…”

The benefits were too numerous to count in a day.

No wonder the president adored Amon.

“So… I mean, Amon, Dad is really happy that we don’t have to deal with exhausting mind games with other Megacorps thanks to you.”

Kathy barely swallowed the word “son-in-law.”

It was still premature, and the president hadn’t praised Amon’s contribution in such a polite way.

– “Our son-in-law is the best!!”

Remembering her father popping champagne as soon as he heard the news, Kathy conveyed gratitude instead.

“He said to ask for anything you want. He’ll grant whatever it is.”

Amon was embarrassed by the blank check Kathy was offering.

With the money from his contract with the Three Dollar group plus what he’d received from Requetio, he was already swimming in cash.

He’d moved to a wealthy neighborhood and built a new house as nice as Kathy’s.

He could eat real meat whenever he wanted now.

His equipment was high-end spec, and all that remained was for Amon himself to train.

If they offered him anything more, he couldn’t think of what to ask for…

“Ah.”

“Thought of something?”

Amon carefully asked Kathy.

“Would you consider running an orphanage?”

*

Several more months passed.

Following Amon’s suggestion, Rose Bird Orphanage was established.

It had the same structure as Perfum Rose Orphanage where Amon had grown up.

A ten-story building that functioned as a welfare center during the day, with various facilities.

Since Perfum Rose Orphanage already existed as a precedent, there were no concerns about operations.

As long as they appointed a good director, it would run without any problems.

And Amon already had someone in mind for the director position.

“Amon. Do you see me as unemployed? Despite appearances, I have plenty to do as an exorcist!”

It was the squinty-eyed priest he hadn’t seen in a long time.

Sonia had met him frequently at the university as a guest professor and student, but for Amon, it had been over a year since he’d heard the priest’s voice.

After no contact for so long, Amon suddenly showed up and said:

“Please be the orphanage director.”

Who would readily accept such a request?

The priest’s reaction was understandable.

“Sigh… I’m such a pushover… Let’s have a meal together sometime.”

But despite his grumbling, the priest accepted the position of orphanage director.

Having resolved the new orphanage issue, Amon returned to his main occupation.

His main occupation was, of course, one thing:

Mercenary work.

Now it was less about making a living and more about self-realization and training.

In the process, his mercenary credit rating rose to platinum, and he gained the nickname “Crusader,” but that’s not particularly important.

As he continued taking requests, he received a designated request from Kathy after a long time.

“I haven’t had much to do lately anyway.”

Amon gladly accepted the request.

The requests he received through the mercenary exchange were starting to feel too easy.

Some would be horrified to hear it, but he wanted more difficult and dangerous missions.

In that sense, Kathy’s request was perfect.

“For this request, you’d better prepare thoroughly.”

Unlike the previous White Dawn mission, Kathy emphasized the need to be cautious.

Amon immediately returned home and began checking his equipment.

“Subspace coat, twenty-eight daggers, five longswords, pistol, crossbow…”

As he carefully inspected and maintained each piece of equipment, Sonia approached him.

“I can’t go with you this time…”

Sonia rested her chin on Amon’s head as he sat.

Amon patted the head of the whining girl.

From above his head, Sonia murmured.

“You have to come back before my internship starts.”

“I promised, didn’t I? I’ll definitely be back by then.”

“Okay.”

Sonia responded, rolling her head to rest her chin on Amon’s shoulder.

Then, turning her head sideways, she emphasized into his ear.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“Of course not.”

Amon turned his head, and her lips bumped against his cheek.

The next day, Amon headed to the airport to carry out Kathy’s request.

When the plane arrived at its destination, he received a message on his phone.

It was the squinty-eyed priest.

“Amon. Didn’t we say we’d have a meal together sometime?”

“We did.”

“Amon? Wait a minute? Are you going to let another year pass? Hey, you—!”

Amon hung up.

With light steps, he got into the vehicle waiting for him.

The destination was an android manufacturing specialist company,

<Lloyd & Life>.

*

On the way from the airport to the Lloyd & Life company building, Amon recalled his conversation with Kathy.

“Lloyd & Life is one of the Megacorps our company invests in.”

Easy to forget, but Requetio Corporation was essentially an investment company.

While they sometimes destroyed opponents through short selling to extract profits, they basically lived off investments.

So the fact that they were investing in a Megacorp wasn’t strange in itself.

The problem was the content of the request.

“Basically, your request will be to go there as our company representative and check if the investment funds are being properly utilized.”

This was quite perplexing for Amon.

He was a blade wielder, not a suit.

He wouldn’t know how company money was being used even if he saw it.

Of course, Kathy knew this well.

“However, this is just the surface mission. The real mission is something else.”

With those words, Kathy pulled a box from her drawer.

The elongated box was divided into three compartments inside.

Each compartment contained a rolled-up piece of paper, like cigarettes.

She pointed from the left and said:

“I’ve written what you need to do here. Open them when you arrive, when the incident is resolved, and when you leave, respectively.”

The papers were specially treated to turn to ash automatically after one minute, and she emphasized that they must only be opened at the specified times.

Amon was puzzled.

“Why go through all this trouble?”

To his question, Kathy explained the limitations of her precognition.

“My ability is to peek at the threads of fate connecting people. I can see what actions others will take toward me, but I can’t know everything about them.”

By weaving together various connections, she could indirectly predict the future, but limitations still existed.

One such instance was when she sent Amon directly to the dungeon before.

She knew Amon would accept the request, and that he would return successfully and submit a report.

But she couldn’t fully know the ‘content of the report’ Amon would submit.

She could guess the content through conversation, but it wasn’t as certain as seeing it directly.

That was the limitation of her ability.

Because of this, she couldn’t completely prophesy the future Amon would experience, and could only offer fragmentary advice like this.

There was another reason too.

“Ultimately, precognition only becomes reality when someone acts on it.”

No matter how much information she knew, if no one took the action of going to investigate, she couldn’t know that future.

So there was a clear limitation that even though she knew, she still had to send an investigator.

After hearing Kathy’s explanation, Amon understood and took the box.

.

.

.

Back to the present, Amon took out the box.

Just before arriving at the company, he opened the leftmost paper to check its contents.

<Act as you see fit, follow your instincts. You are always right.>

As Amon read the sentence several times, the paper suddenly turned to ash and disappeared.

While Amon was brushing the ash from his hands, the car arrived at the company.

“Let’s get out,” said the driver.

Numerous employees rushed out to open the door of Amon’s car and welcome him.

Afterwards, Amon followed an employee assigned as his guide and listened to investment stories.

“This is our company’s newly created Heritor 3.0. Unlike the previous version that only extracted behavior patterns of the deceased to allow conversations with bereaved families, this technology provides more natural responses by considering the deceased’s search history and environment.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Amon didn’t understand what they were talking about and just nodded his head.

If investment talk came up, he would simply say:

“We’ll discuss it at headquarters.”

Meanwhile, Amon’s mind was filled with the sentence Kathy had written.

‘I’m always right?’

Even as he nodded, he couldn’t be certain himself.

He was just nodding because Kathy said so.

Without properly understanding anything, the tour reached its final stages.

‘Is this really the mission?’

It was too peaceful.

That fact actually raised Amon’s vigilance.

Suddenly, a siren went off in the company.

[Entity escape in Section 3! We will isolate that area!]

Amon was startled and demanded an explanation from the guide.

The guide explained about the escaped entity, noting that Amon had the right to know as an investor.

“The entity’s designation is <Baker of Happiness>. It’s a baker who bakes human-shaped cookies.”

According to the guide, the baker bakes cookies shaped like specific employees depending on its mood that day.

The cookies that come out of the oven look identical to the original person.

While their physical abilities and magic differ, their appearance, personality, and speech patterns are exactly the same.

Since these cookies are classified as human, they were useful for conducting human experiments, analyzing human behavior patterns, or offering as human sacrifices to entities that demanded them.

“In fact, a significant portion of our company’s products were developed using big data collected from these cookies’ behaviors.”

The problem arises from three characteristics that emerge when these cookies meet their originals.

First, cookies that meet their originals try to kill them by any means.

The cookies’ physical abilities aren’t extremely powerful, but they’re not weak either.

They’re strong enough to kill researchers.

Second, once a cookie kills its original, it can use the original’s physical abilities and magical powers.

Finally, cookies help other cookies replace their originals.

When these three factors combine, things get complicated.

Initially, weak researchers get replaced, then when several cookies gather, they can replace security guards, and eventually they might replace the security team.

Therefore, the protocol when <Baker of Happiness> escapes is to close off the entire section where the baker is located.

Then they have to conduct strict inspections to identify and remove the cookies one by one.

After finishing the explanation, the guide said to Amon:

“We’re currently in Section 5, so you can rest assured. From now on, it might be a bit dangerous, so I recommend you return home promptly.”

Amon nodded at the guide’s kind suggestion.

Amon followed the guide toward the building exit.

However, when they reached the exit area, Amon’s footsteps stopped.

Looking at the exit, he murmured.

“So… that’s what it meant.”

The guide looked at Amon, who had suddenly stopped moving.

“Is there a problem…”

Slash.

At that moment, Amon’s sword cut off the guide’s head.

A human head flew through the air.

Belatedly, red liquid gushed from the cut surface.

“Kyaaak!”

An employee who witnessed the scene screamed.

The security guards were also startled and drew their weapons.

But when the red liquid from the cut surface began to flow on the floor, everyone sensed something was wrong.

It wasn’t blood.

It was jam.

Strawberry jam.

The security guard closest to Amon was the first to realize what this meant.

Amon said to that guard:

“Is it enough to just close off Section 3?”

The guard, whose face had turned pale, picked up his radio.

Soon, the entire building was sealed off.