Chapter 172
J: Kyle says he is planning on getting some more chapters done this week. Also, he apologizes for being late. Apparently, he was busy + playing around, but I do not see the point in an apology, so I removed his long apology. Also, 2% edited. Just happened to see a few mistakes I could not overlook.
The submarine was a Seawolf rank nuclear powered submarine, the Elveridge.
With a length of 100 meters it was a monster level submarine capable of voyaging over 500 kilometers.
It was also what contributed greatly in making America the greatest country in the world before monster waves.
"For this to still exist……."
An Gyu-b.u.m opened his mouth while observing the surroundings.
I didn't know much but he had a pretty excited look as if he had some knowledge on it.
In reality, nuclear powered submarines were treated as obsolete and couldn't even be seen unless it was in a museum.
Since submarines would just sink if they were to go to the ocean, highly dangerous nuclear powered submarines couldn't even dare to set off.
"How in the world is this wandering the ocean?"
An Gyu-b.u.m who was walking through the narrow pa.s.sage asked the soldier behind him.
However, an answer did not come back.
"Obviously, it would be a national secret."
He then nodded as if ashamed of himself.
After moving for a while we were guided to the captain's room that was relatively wide.
"Wait a minute please."
Lieutenant Colonel Reagan said so and left. There were two soldiers on standby in front of the captain's room.
Despite that, they didn't have guns and were not hunters but regular humans. It wasn't confinement since I could leave any time I wanted.
It seemed fine to think of them as observer c.u.m guides.
There were exactly four beds in the captain's room. I lied down on a bed for now.
I got drowsy as soon as I lied down as the pent up stress rose up.
The battle with Baek Gyeong, the battle with the Arctic Bear, and the other battle with Baek Gyeong.
A considerable amount of fatigue had piled up due to the continuous battles.
"To be able to sleep in such a place. You've got quite the nerves."
I let out a short laugh at An Gyu-b.u.m's words.
In the first place, my reason for finding the submarine was simple. I wanted to see the face of the guy that fired the missiles and second to see if it was actually possible for it to travel in the ocean.
If that was possible it would mean that maritime transportation would be possible which would mean humanity's domain would completely change.
China would start rampaging, and considerable chaos would occur even if not to the point of when monster waves first appeared.
The story after that is not at the level where I can infer.
It's possible that a huge problem may arise.
At that point, it's would be none of my business though.
After taking a short nap of 30 minutes, we were called to the captain's cabin.
There was an officer of about 50 years of age waiting for us with a pipe tobacco in his mouth.
Wait, isn't smoking forbidden on a submarine. This guy is dangerous, d.a.m.n.
"Shall we introduce each other? I am Colonel Ronald, the captain of the Elveridge. You are Jeon Sang-min correct?"
"You know my name?"
"You were pretty famous."
It seems John Mclain's words wasn't a joke.
He said I was pretty famous in America, but how did a nuclear powered submarine captain recognize me?
"And you are……."
Colonel Ronald's line of sight turned to An Gyu-b.u.m. He swallowed with a slightly tense face. It seems he was concerned about someone recognizing him.
"Could you introduce yourself?"
His expression crumpled up a bit. A light smirk appeared appeared on my face unconciously.
"He's An Gyu-b.u.m. The successor of the GE Group."
"I see."
"Is that it?"
"Is there something more that I should know?"
"No, it's fine."
An Gyu-b.u.m frowned. It seems he thought his company would be recognized even if he himself wasn't. However, no matter how famous the GE Group is it's not like they sell items to America or something.
Edward and Jeon Min-jeong also introduced themselves.
Pointless chattering continued for a while and then Colonel Ronald got to the main point.
"Do you know why I called you guys in? Even though this s.h.i.+p isn't supposed to board civilians that is."
"Because of Baek Gyeong I suppose."
"So you call that Baek Gyeong?"
Ronald said. As expected, it seems America didn't know much about this.
An Gyu-b.u.m shoved my ribs from the side. Probably telling me to not carelessly let things slip.
I ignored him and started talking.
"That is so. It's the existence that's currently destroying the American hunters at the moment."
"It seems there's more I need to hear from
I answered while shrugging my shoulders.
"There's nothing free in this world."
"Our government will reward you greatly."
"I have a surplus of money actually."
"Do you have something you want?"
An Gyu-b.u.m hit me lightly at Colonel Ronald's words.
I asked the Colonel to be pardoned and left my seat with him.
"Leave this to me."
"What are you going to do?"
"You don't need anything else besides money. And I have more information on Baek Gyeong than you do so I will be able to get direct profit through negotiations."
"What would I get?"
"My utmost support."
"What would I do with your support."
"I will support team Delta from uniform to all sorts of items."
"It is a bit funny to ask this after all this time but why are you going so far? What good would it do if you supported me."
"As you know, my personality is absolute trash."
This guy could self objectify better than I thought huh?
An Gyu-b.u.m opened his mouth with a laugh at my reaction.
"Why are you looking at me with such a surprised look in your eyes? Did you think I wouldn't know that much?"
"No, I was just surprised at the fact that you would go around acting like that even while knowing that."
"It's fine for me to do so."
"That sounds about right."
Just how overblown is this guy's ego.
"Either way, there's a lot of enemies around me because of that. Even now there's no telling when my seat will be stolen."
"Isn't there still a lot of time left before your grandfather dies? There's should be your father above you too so you seem like leftovers."
"I'm not talking about the president's seat. I'm talking about the System Research Laboratory seat. I need you on my side to be able to maintain this. I'm supporting you for that reason. It's a good idea to possess some force just in case."
"Wait. So you're telling me you're going to use me, no, team Delta as your personal army?"
"There's a nice word called cooperative relations.h.i.+p. You just need to help me out a bit when I need it."
"Don't really feel like it though."
"You don't need to. It's not forced after all. I just need to shower you with money like until now and you just have to take it."
It was an incredibly active att.i.tude. So this is what he meant by supporting. Is he thinking that I will want to help even if I don't like him if he feeds me to h.e.l.l?
"I'll say this again but you don't need to do it if you don't want to."
I nodded my head at his words.
"Alright. I'll rip you off as you want then."
"I knew you would do so."
"I'll say this ahead of time but I won't ever do something if it's absolutely absurd."
"Yeah."
An Gyu-b.u.m held out a hand after saying so.
I hit his hand as if lightly clapping instead of shaking hands and turned away.
I'll leave the annoying things to that guy and go sightseeing the nuclear powered submarine. There was no telling when I would be able to see such a thing again after all.
Since they said I couldn't go around alone, I was looking around with a soldier on me.
Originally, letting a civilian on board and letting them walk around like this would have been something impossible. However, I wasn't a normal civilian for one thing.
I was a level 10 hunter and was a pretty famous figure in America as the 'Great Summoner'. Personally, it's a bit embarra.s.sing nickname but movement is easier for a hunter the more famous they are so it wasn't all that bad.
Otherwise, there would be no way they would let someone wander around the interior of a submarine that should be a national secret.
The submarine's interior was more cramped than I thought. I thought there would be some s.p.a.ce for activity but I was told that a large portion of the s.p.a.ce was used up for operating the nuclear power generator. There were about 200 crew members.
It was a very small number compared to its size.
It's possible to stay underwater without surfacing for several years if they really wanted to but people aren't able to stay in such a cramped place for an extended period of time.
I suddenly remembered something and looked through the Delta Store.
There was an option to expand the interior of the van so I was wondering if it was possible to apply that on the submarine.
s.p.a.ce Expansion Marble (3): Expands the s.p.a.ce the user is riding. It is possible to retrieve after usage.
It seems it's an item that comes in the form of a marble and can be applied to what one is riding.
The cost was 50 EP. It was incredibly expensive as expected. However, since it was possible to retrieve it after using it, it wasn't all that bad of an item if I were to go around using it here and there.
I wanted to test if it was possible to apply it to a ride like this that wasn't considered an item.
It didn't matter because I could just use it on a van if it didn't work and it would be possible to sell this at a high price so I wasn't seeing a loss here in any way with that alone.
I was able to confirm the marble get added to my item list as I selected purchase in the store.
I held it up after taking it out.
This wasn't a marble but a……
"A dice?"
"Did you say something?"
The soldier said so while turning around. I laughed awkwardly as I shook my head. While slowly following him from behind I looked into the marble, no, 20 sided dice.
There was a number from 1 to 20 written on each side.
I wasn't able to tell the exact meaning but I think it was safe to say that the s.p.a.ce expanded would be larger the higher the number.
In other words, it's a type of random reward.
The s.p.a.ce would be expanded proportional to the number rolled.
It's a good thing I don't like gambling.
For it to be a random stat item. If such an item existed in the old system there would have been a heap of people that made their family go bankrupt.
In any case, I guess I should roll this on the ground since it's a die and all?
I stopped my slow steps following the soldier in front of me and lightly tossed the die.
The die that bounced on the ground a few times spun around and soon stopped.
The number facing the top was 10. No more no less, exactly in the middle.
"It seems you dropped something."
The soldier picked up the die and handed it to me.
I made an awkward smile as it was handed to me.
"Either way, that's a pretty interesting die you got there. It's my first time seeing a 20 sided die but it has 10 written on every single side."
"Every single one?"
"Isn't it yours?"
The soldier tilted his head as if confused.
"Haha. It's something I got as a present you see."
I glossed over it and inspected the die. As he said, the die that originally had the numbers 1 to 20 written on it were now all changed to 10.
In other words, you can't roll twice after rolling once. Now, only 10 will come out no matter how many times I roll it.
It seems it was made this way since it could be reused any number of times.
Rolled Expansion Marble (3): Expands the interior s.p.a.ce by 10 cubits. 1 cubit is a cube where one side is 1m.