40th floor of the Black Tower.

Theo~nim, over there!

Leading the way, Uren pointed towards a shabby farm in the distance.

Meow?! Is it for real, meow?

Where Uren pointed, 10,000 swords were orderly embedded upside down in the ground. There really was a sword farm.

And believing in the ridiculous idea that swords could be grown, a single weasel was energetically running around, watering the swords.

It was still unclear whether this was a scam or just a failed business venture. However, from afar, the swords looked severely rusted to the extent that they appeared red.

Then,

Theo~nim, look over there. They were originally the size of daggers, but it seems theyve almost fully grown now!

Uren spoke in an excited voice as he looked at the 10,000 rusted long swords stuck in the ground. Thanks to that, Theo became certain again.

Uren got scammed, meow!

Swords growing, meow? That made no sense.

Hes a real sucker, meow! I want to easily make money by scamming Uren, meow!

In Theos mind, 100 ways to easily obtain gold through scams came to mind.

But,

I cant do that, meow! I, Vice Chairman Theo, am the assistant to the great detective Sherlock Sejun, meow! I cannot compromise with crime, meow!

Thinking of Sejun, Theo steeled his heart once again.

While Theo was steadying his momentarily shaken resolve,

Hey! Tolt!

Uren called out authoritatively to the brown weasel, Tolt, who owed him a 100 billion Tower Coins.

Since he came to collect the money, Uren was in a dominant position.

At that moment,

Ah

Just when Uren called him, Tolt tripped and fell to the ground.

Huh?! Tolt, are you okay?

Urens voice became softer, thinking it was his call that made Tolt fall. He was now talking in a lowered voice.

No, its fine. But Uren, did you come to collect money? As you can see, my situation is

Tolt clutched his leg, making a pitiful expression.

Well I guess so. When will it be possible then?

Uren, now in a lower stance, asked Tolt when he could get the money.

Wellthere seems to be a lack of fertilizer, so the swords keep rustinguntil a few days ago, 10 of them were legendary-grade swordsI think I need to buy more fertilizer.

L-legendary grade? Then how much money would you need to buy fertilizer?

Uren got excited at Tolts words. Now it was Uren who became desperate.

No how can I have the nerve to

No, its okay! Just a little more and there will be ten legendary swords! Ill lend you a bit more money! In exchange, sell those legendary swords to me.

Ahem. If Uren really insists on lending me more just 20 billion Tower Coins

Is that enough? Ill just lend you 50 billion Tower Coins.

At Urens words, Tolts mouth corners slightly rose before quickly dropping.

I feel so bad about this. Im always just receiving help

We all help each other out. And later, you agreed to sell those legendary swords to me, right? I will even give you a proper price for them.

Uren comforted Tolt, who felt apologetic. A true sucker was right here.

***

99th floor of the Black Tower.

Alright. Lets go!

Ppyak!

Kueng!

At Sejuns command, Cuengi and Black Rabbit responded loudly and followed after Sejun.

Today, they had not gone out in order to help Sejun harvest walnuts.

Hiyah!

Thump!

Sejun kicked the walnut tree with his foot.

Then,

[You have harvested a Training Walnut.]

[Your job experience increases slightly.]

[Your proficiency of Harvesting Skill Lv. 8 has increased slightly.]

[You have gained 70 experience points.]

..

.

[You have harvested a Special Training Walnut.]

..

.

With each message, walnuts fell to the ground, some of which were Special Training Walnuts.

Ppyak!

[Its a race, Cuengi!]

Kueng!

[Alright! Cuengi will win!]

Black Rabbit and Cuengi quickly picked them up.

Thump! Thump!

In the meantime, Sejun kept kicking the walnut trees to drop more nuts. Due to Sejuns weak strength, he had to kick each tree at least ten times.

While he was kicking a tree,

Thunk.

Huh?

Among the falling walnuts, a red walnut caught his eye.

Its a new variety.

Sejun had a hunch but no additional message appeared.

Whats this? Something like a Special Training Walnut?

Curious, Sejun picked up the red walnut from the ground and checked its options.

[Hell Training Walnut]

A walnut grown in the Tower with a rare chance of appearing and is delicious from absorbing sufficient nutrients.

This walnut has a harder shell than the Special Training Walnuts.

Each time you crack the shell, your strength increases by 50.

It tastes even nuttier.

Cultivator: Tower Farmer Park Sejun

Shelf life: 150 days

Grade: A

Hell Training?

Even harder than Special Training Walnuts? Sejun, whose competitive spirit was aroused by the description, put strength into his hand holding the Hell Training Walnut.

Crack!

The Hell Training Walnut endured at first, but as Sejun, with a strength in the 1400s, applied more force, the red walnut shell cracked making a crisp sound.

[You have cracked the shell of the Hell Training Walnut.]

[Strength increases by 50.]

Its definitely nuttier.

Sejun remarked as he cracked the red shell and ate the contents.

Thump! Thump!

Sejun continued to kick walnut trees and harvest walnuts.

A little while later,

Done.

After dropping all the walnuts, Sejun, along with Black Rabbit and Cuengi, began collecting them.

From nine walnut trees, he harvested seven Hell Training Walnuts.

Given that a single tree yielded about 1000 walnuts, it was indeed a rare occurrence.

As Sejun was picking up the walnuts,

Crunch.

Crunch.

The sound of cracking walnuts could be heard from somewhere.

Huh?

Sejun followed the sound and saw,

Heheh. Kking.

Heheh. Ill become stronger if I crack this!

Fenrir was cracking Training Walnuts with his dragon teeth. Even though his strength only increased slightly, it was significant for the sunfish Fenrir.

Kking! Kking!

Good! On to the next one!

Instead of eating the cracked walnuts, Fenrir rushed towards another one.

Then he bit into a Special Training Walnut.

Crunch.

His weak dragon teeth couldnt crack the hard shell of the walnut.

Kking?

Why wont this crack?

I am Fenrir, the god hunting wolf and the 1st seat of the Apostle of Destruction?

Despite Fenrirs threats and efforts, the Special Training Walnut remained intact.

Just another day for the hapless Fenrir.

Blackie, crack this one instead.

Amused by Fenrirs foolishness, Sejun sneakily swapped the the Special Training Walnut with a Training Walnut.

Crunch!

Kking!

I knew I am strong!

Thanks to this, Fenrir was brimming with confidence again today.

***

While Uren was voluntarily offering to pay 50 billion Tower Coins to Tolt,

That cunning guy, meow!

Theo saw through the cunning behind Tolts cute face. How? Well his face just looked like that.

On top of that, the meticulous acting of deliberately falling when Uren called earlier. It seemed getting a confession out of him would be quite tricky.

But

Puhuhut. No need to worry, meow! At times like this, Detective Sherlock Sejun said to scold with evidence, meow!

Theo had once heard about advanced investigative techniques while playing detective with Sejun.

Puhuhut. Its time for assistant Theoson to shine, meow!

Piyot, listen carefully, meow! This is a locked room case, meow!

Theo stretched out his right front paw towards his right front paw man, Piyot, and exclaimed.

Piyo?

[A locked room case?]

Upon hearing Theos words, Piyot looked around. Theres no locked room here?

Thats right, meow! Chairman Park said that most cases happen in locked rooms, meow! Now, lets find that locked room, meow!

Theos method of searching for a locked room was baseless.

Theo started scanning the surroundings with his front paws mimicking binoculars.

Piyo! Piyo!

[Ah! So we need to find a locked room!]

Piyot also tried to mimic Theos front paws with his wings and started searching for the hidden locked room.

Then,

Puhuhut. Found it, meow!

Luckily, Theo actually found a real locked room.

Creak.

As Theo opened the entrance of the locked room disguised as a rock,

Hey! Tolt, did that pig leave?!

Hehe. That pig, I bet he cant even imagine that were keeping watch at the entrance.

That pig should at least say something if hes coming. Look, how hastily we planted longswords because of that pig

Tolt, how much did you manage to swindle off this time?

Thinking Tolt was back, the weasels eagerly chattered, proudly confessing their crimes.

Inside the locked room, the table was laden with food and drinks, seemingly for a party, and gold scammed from Uren was everywhere.

Hey. Tolt, why arent you answering?

Yeah, why are you so quiet?

Usually, Tolt would quickly come down to brag about how he scammed Uren, but his silence made the weasels look toward the entrance.

However,

Puhuhut.

Instead of Tolt, it was Theo looking down at them with a sly grin.

The locked room became quiet.

As the weasels hastily tried to reach for their weapons,

Youll get in trouble if you attack, meow!

Snap.

Theo unsheathed his dragon claws and struck the air towards the locked room, making a thud sound as a fist-sized hole formed in the wall.

The hole was so deep that its end was not visible. It was one of Theos new skills. One-Meow Punch

Gulp.

The weasels froze, realizing they were up against a formidable opponent and there was nowhere to escape in the locked room.

Puhuhut. All of you, come out, meow!

As Theo watched the weasels coming out of the locked room,

Piyo!

[Stamp it!]

Piyot took out slave contracts and collected the weasels prints.

Piyo!

[Theo~nim, I got them all!]

Once all the paw prints were collected, a total of 107 slave contracts were completed.

Now go back and bring the gold, meow!

Yes!

The enslaved weasels obeyed Theos command and went back into the locked room to start filling Theos bag with gold.

***

Thank you! Ill make sure to grow legendary-grade swords and pay back all the money I borrowed!

YesPlease do

Of course! You can count on me!

Tolt, having received 50 billion Tower Coins, patted the anxious Urens shoulder and spoke.

The power dynamics were completely reversed at some point.

I can scam him again by promising to sell legendary-grade swords.

As Tolt was smiling bitterly and planning his final big score,

What?!

Tolts eyes widened as he saw the companions Uren had brought along tying up his colleagues like dried fish on a string and dragging them over. Why are you guys there?!

Im doomed!

The moment Tolt saw his colleagues captured, he turned to flee without a second thought for anything else.

But his body wouldnt move.

Kkuik! Kkuik!

Instead, rough breathing was heard nearby. At some point, Uren had grabbed Tolts shoulder tightly.

Just as Tolt realized he was doomed seeing Theo dragging the weasels, Uren intuitively understood that he had been scammed.

Though he still didnt know exactly what scam he had fallen for.

After capturing Tolt and making him confess the scam, and getting the print on the slave contract,

Puhuhut. Uren, hand over 75 billion Tower Coins, meow!

Theo charged Uren a 50-50 fee, including the 50 billion Tower Coins he had just been scammed out of.

Yes, here you go! As expected from Theo~nim!

Uren handed over the money, looking at Theo with respectful eyes.

Puhuhut. Uren, next sla- no I mean, guide me to the next guy who owes you money, meow!

Having received 75 billion Tower Coins and gaining 108 weasel slaves, Theo called out cheerfully.

Yes! The next one were visiting sold me a tree that grows Tower Coins for 300 billion Tower Coins

Uren led Theo to the next scammer who had sold him the money-growing tree.

*****