Chapter 232: I'll Demote You
Han Tae-jun, after leaving the tower, supplied half of the 10,000 Detoxifying Green Onions given by Theo to Brazil. This was because by simply killing the Purple Locusts in the Amazon, where they were most concentrated, it was possible to devolve them into Red Locusts.
The remaining Detoxifying Green Onions were supplied as a priority to areas exposed to Purple Locusts' attacks.
On the northern border of the Brazilian Amazon,
"To kill so many with just a single Green Onion... The crops from the tower are truly amazing."
Pedro, commanding the northern border and ranked 397th in the World Hunter Rankings, marveled at the sight before him. Endless corpses of Purple Locusts, killed by the Detoxifying Green Onions, lay stretched out before him.
Initially, Pedro was puzzled by Han Tae-jun's instruction not to remove the corpses of Purple Locusts that died after eating the Detoxifying Green Onions.
This was because the Locusts consumed the bodies of their dead, so removing or burning the corpses quickly was the best way to reduce their numbers.
However, Pedro understood the reason when he saw Purple Locusts dying after eating the corpses of their kin.
To Purple Locusts that had evolved to withstand poison, the Detoxifying Green Onions meant death. The bodies of Purple Locusts that died after eating the Detoxifying Green Onions retained the Detoxifying's effect, and those that ate these corpses were also detoxified and killed.
This process repeated until the Detoxifying effect of the Green Onions wore off, successively killing Purple Locusts.
Just when the surrounding Purple Locusts were almost dealt with,
"Sir Pedro, we have orders from above to load their corpses and drop them into the center of the Amazon!"
The government had given an order.
"To the center of the Amazon?!"
"Yes!"
The Brazilian government decided to drop the corpses of Purple Locusts, still carrying the Detoxifying effect, into the center of the Amazon to maximize the effect.
The center of the Amazon was swarming with an overwhelming number of Purple Locusts, too daunting for anyone to approach.
Encouraged by the effect of the Detoxifying Green Onions, the Brazilian government made a bold move, having planted Detoxifying Green Onions around the outskirts of the Amazon and slowly advancing.
"The government must be confident now. Good! Hurry and load the dead Purple Locusts onto the helicopters!"
Soon, hundreds of helicopters from various directions along the Amazon border flew towards its center.
And then,
"Drop them!"
The helicopters scattered the Purple Locust corpses over the Amazon from the sky.
Flap, flap.
A tremendous number of Purple Locusts swarmed towards their falling kin's bodies to feed, and about three hours after the operation began, the color of all locusts on Earth turned red again.
"Wow! We did it! We've won!"
While Brazil celebrated its victory,
Squirm, squirm.
Black lifeforms with squishy bodies emerged from the sea and entered Hawaii.
***
Swoosh, swoosh.
"Why does this fur keep coming out..."
Sejun grumbled about the endless fur while stroking Theo,
'The expression on Chairman Park's face is turning sour, meow! It's time to reward him for his hard work, meow!'
Observing Sejun's expression closely, Theo stood up energetically, thinking it was time to increase his favorability.
"Puhuhut. Chairman Park, look at this, meow! I've earned money, meow!"
"Really? How much did you earn?"
"10.15 million Tower Coins, meow! Here it is, meow!"
He took out the money earned from the auction and handed it to Sejun. He planned to give the money first and then offer a massage.
"Good job. Here's your incentive."
When Sejun gave 1.15 million Tower Coins to Theo,
"Puhuhut. Thank you, meow!"
Poof.
Theo immediately burned the money he received.
And then,
"Chairman Park, lend me some money, meow!"
Theo, having burnt all his money, immediately stretched out his front paw to Sejun.
"Theo, you know you already owe me 70 million Tower Coins?"
"Puhuhut. Don't worry, meow! I'll pay it back in one go later, meow!"
Theo responded confidently, disregarding Sejun's reminder about his debt.
"Theo, why are you so confident?"
Sejun became uneasy seeing Theo's confidence. Did Theo get into some kind of trouble?
Then,
"This time, I caught a pink pig sucker, meow!"
"A pink pig sucker?"
"Yes, meow! When I went down this time..."
Theo started to narrate his encounter with the Jǫrmungandr's fragment and how he survived and returned.
"What? You met an Apostle of Destruction? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Although Sejun had been stroking Theo until now and noticed no injuries, he began to examine Theo's body more closely to see if he had missed anything.
'Puhuhut. Chairman Park, this guy. Caring for me like this...'
"Chairman Park, the important part starts now, meow! I swiped my paw across that guy's face..."
Theo continued his story, satisfied with Sejun's attention.
"So, the pink pig sucker you saved is one of the only three Legendary merchants in the Black Tower?"
"That's right, meow! Legendary merchant is an honorary title given to those with a lot of money, meow! And such a legendary merchant said he would reward me and invited me, Vice Chairman Theo, to come to the 65th floor of the tower, meow! So, Chairman Park, you can lend me money without worry, meow!"
Theo boasted proudly.
"Okay. Got it."
Sejun, realizing that Theo had a reliable sponsor(?), handed Theo 8.9 million Tower Coins. 100,000 Tower Coins were for buying rice flour.
Poof!
As soon as Theo took Sejun's money, he burned it, producing a golden light.
'Puhuhut. As expected, burning Chairman Park's money is the most effective, meow!'
Theo was pleased, burning Sejun's money with a satisfied expression.
A short while later,
"These are the coin I got from defeating the Apostle of Destruction, meow!"
Theo, having burnt all the money, started to take out the white coins he had obtained from defeating Jǫrmungandr's fragment.
"Meow?! Why are these combined, meow?"
While taking out coins from his bag, Theo discovered that the small coins he had obtained from killing white snakes inside Jǫrmungandr's fragment had merged. It's a failure, meow...
Theo, who had planned to boast to Sejun about the many coins he had obtained, was disappointed when he took out only 50 white coins.
"What?! There are 50 coins?!"
Sejun was surprised at the number of coins Theo was taking out. The number of coins dropped when an Apostle of Destruction dies indicates how powerful it is.
'But 50 coins means...'
An unimaginable level of strength for Sejun. Theo had easily defeated such a powerful Apostle of Destruction...
'I guess there was a purpose in giving the 70 million Tower Coins!'
Sejun thought Theo had defeated the Apostle worth 50 coins by burning 70 million Tower Coins, but that was a huge misunderstanding.
Sejun didn't know that Theo had burnt 1.2 billion Tower Coins he received from the Legendary merchant Uren. Theo hadn't told the story of receiving and burning 1.2 billion Tower Coins from Uren.
And Theo hadn't even properly burnt that money. There was a limit to the amount of money Theo could burn at once with his ability. The maximum amount of money Theo could burn at once was about 100 million Tower Coins.
Unaware of this, Theo had nearly died trying to burn an unmanageable 1 billion Tower Coins at once.
Fortunately, Theo instinctively awakened the hidden ability of 'insignificant wealth.' It was the ability to convert a portion of the burning wealth into attacking power against enemies.
Thanks to this, Theo was able to convert the unmanageable 900 million Tower Coins into attacks and defeat Jǫrmungandr.
If the fragment of Jǫrmungandr hadn't appeared at that time or if the efficiency of converting wealth into attacks hadn't been high, the result might have been a bad ending rather than a happy ending.
Theo's attack would have needlessly destroyed dozens of merchant passageways, and he would have had to pay a tremendous amount of money.
'If Theo burns about 100 million Tower Coins more, can't he even fight the Minotaur King?'
While Sejun was under this misconception about Theo's strength,
"Meow?! What is that, meow?!"
Theo, who was about to lie down on Sejun's lap again, was surprised to see the pile of fur next to Sejun.
"What do you mean what? It's your fur."
Sejun replied and started to stroke Theo's body again, brushing off more fur. Even during baths, Theo used his water-affinity talent to prevent his fur from getting wet, so a lot of fur remained on his body.
After about 30 minutes of Sejun stroking Theo's body, the amount of fur coming out had significantly decreased.
"Okay, we're done."
"Meow..."
Sejun picked up Theo from his lap, placed him on the ground, and started gathering the fur into a pile to dispose of it easily.
Squish. Squish.
As Sejun bunched up Theo's fur, pressing it down, the fur began to take the shape of a ball.
"Wow! This is fun?!"
Sejun rolled the fur ball between his palms like making a sweet rice ball, transforming it into a sphere.
And then,
"Ta-da! The Theo Ball is complete!"
A fist-sized yellow fur ball was created.
"What's that, meow?!"
Theo, sitting on the floor and grooming his disheveled fur due to Sejun, started showing interest in the ball made of his fur.
At that moment,
"Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. I'll buy that!"
Iona, who had been curling around Theo's tail and sleeping, exclaimed. She felt that with that ball, she could sleep comfortably anywhere.
"You want to buy this?"
"Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. Yes! Please let me buy it!"
Iona, taking out her pouch and shouting in response to Sejun's question.
"Okay. Iona can have it."
Sejun handed the Theo Ball to Iona.
"Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. Thank you, Sejun."
Kyuororong.
Iona, hugging the Theo Ball as big as her body, happily fell asleep quickly. It had an incredible sleep-inducing effect.
"Here."
Sejun handed the pouch he received from Iona to Theo. Since it was money made from Theo's fur, Sejun thought it was right to give it to Theo.
However,
"I don't need it, meow! Chairman Park, you can have it all, meow!"
Theo coolly offered the pouch back to Sejun.
"Really, are you sure I can keep all this? Wow! There's 1 million Tower Coins in here?"
Sejun, opening the pouch given by Iona, was surprised to see the amount of money inside. He could feel Iona's immense sincerity towards sleep.
"That's right, meow!"
Even when Sejun asked again, Theo happily let Sejun keep all the money.
"But lend me some money, meow!"
Of course, Theo had another motive.
"You're going to burn it, right? Just take this money."
"I don't want that, meow! I want to burn Chairman Park's money, meow!"
"What?!"
Sejun was dumbfounded by Theo's words.
Crackle!
'Theo, you... you bastard! You like burning my money that much?!'
Sejun got annoyed by Theo's seemingly taunting words.
And then,
"Vice Chairman Theo, if you don't pay back the money within a month, I'll demote you to Representative Theo."
Sejun decided to impose a harsh penalty on Theo: demotion.
"Meow?! What are you saying, meow?!"
Theo's expression was as if the world had ended upon hearing Sejun's words.
"Then... If I'm demoted to Representative Theo, does that mean I can't eat two Churus at once, meow?!"
For Theo, who was accustomed to eating two Churus at once, the thought of only having one was too shocking.
"Of course. Representative Theo can only have one Churu at a time."
"Chairman Park, that's too much, meow! Stingy, meow!"
Theo started to whine to Sejun.
However,
Gororong.
Theo whined only a bit before quickly falling asleep, clinging to the cozy lap of Sejun.
Thump, thump.
Thanks to this, Sejun was able to work on the dough in a fur-free, comfortable environment.
Thump, thump.
Kyuororong.
Gororong.
Sejun's kneading sounds and the snores of Theo and Iona peacefully took over the kitchen.
*****