Chapter 45: It’s a Trap?, Part I

Translator: HunterW Editor: RED

Austin, Texas…

A meeting was taking place in the basement second floor auction house of Store 17.

“Is everyone here? It seems Manager #1 isn’t here yet.”

Two days ago, Lalaku, the Manager of Store 17, requested a meeting from his auction house with all of the other Managers, except for Store 72. Today was the day of that meeting.

“Good to see you, Manager #17.”

“Welcome, Manager #44.”

“What did you have to discuss to call of us, Manager #17?”

“One second, please, Manager #101. Once Manager #1 gets here, we will begin our discussion.”

[Manager #1 has arrived.]

“Why did you call this meeting at such a busy time, Manager #17?” asked the latecomer Manager #1, as his face appeared in the video conference room. He seemed very dissatisfied and annoyed.

“Welcome, Manager #1!” Lalaku exclaimed, ignoring Manager #1’s annoyed tone. “Now then, since everyone is here, I shall start this meeting. As you all know, I have requested this meeting without the presence of Manager #72.” The other managers began murmuring to each other at what Lalaku said.

“What do you mean, Manager #17?”

“What do you think I mean?” asked Lalaku, giving each of the attending managers a look.

“Ahem.”

“Hmm.” The other managers coughed and cleared their throats at his question.

“I’m sure all of you have noticed by now? Is there really a need to put up a noble front right now?” Lalaku continued as the other managers hesitated to retort.

“Very well. Since you are all noble beings, I’ll explain it to you all. Store 72’s progress has risen far beyond our reach. I’m positive you all know, but that Store’s points have surpassed 2.4 million points. 2.4 million!”

“True.”

“I wonder how he was able to amass that many points.”

“We’ve barely started and already he has…”

“Isn’t it that Store’s first time participating?”

“You’re right. The Anton family sent their youngest son so that he could gain some experience.”

The other managers murmured to each other in agreement to Lalaku’s claim.

“If we just leave it like this, the competition will be over before it actually starts. All of you have put in a large deposit to participate on Earth. Are you really going to just sit back and let this happen? You’re all about to lose your deposits! You all know that Anton paid the bare minimum to participate. His whole intent was to just see how the inner workings of the system work. He has no reason to win. It’ll be embarrassing for all of us if we were to lose like this. If this gets out, we won’t be able to show our faces in public anymore.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?”

“We’re frustrated about this as well, Manager #17.”

The conference room grew loud with many voices once more.

“Now, now. Calm down, everyone. That is why we’re holding this meeting right now.”

“You’re not suggesting we tell the Anton family to hold back in this contest, are you? Are you insane? This is the Anton family we’re talking about!” Manager #33 exclaimed at what Lalaku said.

“True. One wrong move, and that’ll be the end of us.”

“The Anton family is ignorant. They can never make heads or tails of any situation. All they’re good for is swinging their swords around.”

“It’s because they’re ignorant that they don’t have mercy.” The other managers nodded and agreed with Manager #33. They all knew about the Anton family’s power.

Should any scheme against the Anton family be discovered, the schemers’ necks would soon meet the merciless blades of the Anton family. There was no room for negotiation. That was how the Anton family operated.

Swords over words. A clan that started with blades and would end with blades. All of the gathered managers had the same thought; they really didn’t want to make a mess of things by crossing the wrong family!

“Thank you for pointing that out, Manager #33,” replied Lalaku, without a change in his expression. He expected this response from the other managers.

“Oho! Seems to me you have an interesting idea,” Manager #1 butted in. The whole time he had maintained his annoyed demeanor and refrained from participating in the conversation, but he sensed that Lalaku had something and asked about it promptly.

“Of course I do,” replied Lalaku confidently.

“Tell us how you expect to decrease the 2.4 million point distance between us and Store 72 without interfering with the Anton family,” the other managers asked excitedly.

“It’s too much of a risk to take this to Manager Anton. Instead, why don’t we mess with the deva that has been bringing Manager Anton all those points directly?” Lalaku replied, as if he discovered something amazing.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Some of the managers frowned in silence at Lalaku’s suggestion. Other managers shouted at her in outrage.

“What sort of bullshit are you spouting, Manager #17!?”

“You’re insane!”

“If you have a death wish, go die by yourself, Manager #17!”

The managers spouted insults at Lalaku one by one. However, once the outrage died down, Manager #1 decided to speak up.

“We may all have our own private interests, but our main objective for Otadolon Earth is to help devas grow. Our one and only principle is to never harm devas. I know you’re aware of this, so tell me why you thought your suggestion was a good idea.”

Lalaku had stayed silent at the other managers’ insults and smiled at Manager #1’s question.

“I’ve been a manager for many cycles. How could I not know? Hahaha.” The other managers’ ceased their insults and quietly looked at Lalaku with shameful expressions.

“Manager #17 seems very different today.”

“You’re right. Tell us what you are thinking, quickly.”

Lalaku looked over to the other managers, still smiling.

“We cannot bring harm devas. We just need to stick to that code, correct? Then instead of harm, how about we bring them more incentives?”

The other managers continued to shoot glares at Lalaku’s strange suggestions, but remained silent. They had already made the mistake once. They knew there was more to what he was saying.

As if amused by the other managers’ curiosity, Lalaku looked around at them once more before taking something out of her inventory.

The object Lalaku took out shone with a purple light and oozed a similar purple haze.

“Is…that?” asked Manager #1.

“Hah! Can you tell what this is?” asked Lalaku in return.

“If my memory serves me correctly, that looks like the Sleepy Trainer.”

(TL note: the literal translation is ‘The treasure chest that makes you stronger while you sleep. No joke. Might need a different name for it.)

“As expected of Manager #1! I’m actually impressed you know what this is,” exclaimed Lalaku. He seemed genuinely impressed.

“What is it?”

“What in the world is the Sleepy Trainer?”

“I’ve never heard of such an item before.”

All of the managers had enough years of experience under their belts to boast that they knew of just about all items in existence. They had even memorized the names of all Rank 10 items they came across solely because of the rarity of the items.

They were managers; they had to! But to them, this Rank 10 Sleepy Trainer was unheard of.

“It seems with the exception of Manager #1, that no one knows what this item is. Allow me to explain,” Lalaku haughtily said. The managers listened quietly, as this was about a Rank 10 item that they didn’t know about.

“You all know who Joseph Lee is.”

“You mean that odd genius!”

“That guy that prefers to live in his imagination!”

“The man who can alter matter!”

Everyone spoke in amazement when Lalaku dropped the name “‘Joseph Lee”. The genius that even God acknowledged! The man that could make fantasy a reality. There were too few words that could describe a man of his caliber.

“There once was a world called Sylvyn that passed its Otadolon stage and entered its Mekocion stage. In that world, there was a kingdom, and the king of that kingdom had a son. But that son was lazy, and was only level 1,000 in the Mekocion stage.” The other managers paid full attention to what Lalaku was saying.

“The king thought long and hard. His son was his one and only heir, but he was so lazy. That was when the king discovered Joseph Lee had come to visit the kingdom. The king invited Joseph Lee over and hosted a six-year long festival. After the festival, the king asked Joseph Lee a favor. ‘My son is very lazy and sleeps for twentyhours a day. Is there a way to make him stronger?’ the king asked Joseph Lee. And Joseph Lee replied, ‘Isn’t the solution in front of you? If he sleeps too much, then let him grow stronger in his sleep’.”

There were many stories about Joseph Lee. Most of them were legends and some were first-hand accounts, but the managers’ had never heard this story before.

“And after fooling around for another six years in the kingdom, Joseph Lee left one present behind before leaving. That present is this, the Sleepy Trainer. Item check!” Lalaku opened the item check for all to see.

[Sleepy Trainer (Rank 10)

One of Joseph Lee’s collection. Created for a king’s lazy son who slept for twenty hours a day and was too weak to be the heir.

The Trainer grants one stat at random to the user once a day.

When the user awakens, granted stat points can be moved to residual points.

There is a side effect to the Trainer. Because Joseph Lee created the Trainer in a rush, once the user falls asleep, there is no telling when the user will awake.

The Trainer’s stored Stat points

Stage 0 – 257,754

Stage 1 – 574,334

Stage 2 – 7,332

Stage 3 – 1,469

Has branding effect.

Once used, the Sleepy Trainer returns to the possession of the distraught monarch.]

“Could this item be harmful to a deva in any way?”

The other managers remained quiet at Lalaku’s question.

“As far as we know, the shortest time period a user was asleep was two years, and the longest period was seven years. We all know that there is only one deva that has used Store 72, bringing Anton all those points. That deva’s name is Lee Jiwon.”

The other managers nodded; this was information they all knew.

“What do you all think we can accomplish if we could put him to sleep for at least two years? At most seven years?”

The other managers knew that if they could do that, they could put a stop to Store 72’s progress. They knew about the deva responsible.

“Of course, Deva Lee Jiwon will be amassing stat points while he sleeps without having to level up. That was the reason Joseph Lee created this item in the first place. If we say that Lee Jiwon sleeps for two years, that’s 730 days. The Trainer’s total stored stat points total is 840,916 points, and we can assume that the chance of him getting Stage 2 or Stage 3 is close to 0. At most, he’ll only get 12 during the 730 days. He has a 68% of getting Point 1, a 30% chance of getting Stage 0, and a 2% chance for both Stage 2 and Stage 3. Statistically, the most stat points he can obtain from the Trainer is 520. That’s 52 levels.”

(TL note: this was a really difficult section. The Stage section of the item description was really confusing as well. The comment section of the raw chapter had readers that were confused about this part as well. The author mentioned there would be more explanation in future chapters. Basically what it means is that each stage of the Trainer has a certain amount of stat points and the user of the Trainer has a certain chance of activating a stage. I’m just unsure how the author did his math in the above paragrah.)

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