Chapter 365 – This Is a Locked-Room Case, Meow!

40th Floor of the Black Tower.

“Lord Theo, over there!”

Uren, who was walking in the lead, pointed to a shabby farm visible in the distance.

“Meow?! Was it real, meow?”

In the place Uren pointed to, 10,000 swords were planted upside down in an orderly manner. Indeed, there was a sword farm.

And perhaps believing that swords could really be grown, a weasel was running around diligently watering the swords on the farm.

At this stage, it was still unclear whether it was a scam or simply a business failure. However, even from a distance, the swords were severely rusted enough to look red.

At that moment,

“Lord Theo, look over there. They were originally the size of daggers, but now they must have grown almost fully!”

Uren spoke in a joyful voice as he looked at the 10,000 rusted longswords planted in the ground. Thanks to that, Theo was convinced once again.

‘Uren has been scammed, meow!’

A sword grows, meow? That was nonsensical.

‘A true pushover, meow! I want to scam Uren and make easy money, meow!’

In Theo’s head, 100 methods of scamming to obtain gold too easily popped up.

But

‘I shouldn’t do that, meow! I, Vice President Theo, am Theotson, the assistant to Great Detective Sherlock Se-jun, meow! I cannot compromise with crime, meow!’

Thinking of Se-jun, he pulled himself together once again.

While Theo composed his temporarily shaken mind,

“Hey! Tolt!”

Uren, approaching majestically, called Tolt, the brown weasel who owed him 100 billion Tower Coins.

Since he was in the position of collecting money and thus held the upper hand over Tolt, he was unhesitating.

At that moment,

“Oh dear…”

Of all times, right when Uren called him, Tolt tripped on his foot on the ground and fell down.

“Huh?! Tolt, are you okay?”

Perhaps thinking Tolt had fallen because he had called him, Uren’s voice grew soft out of apology. Before he knew it, he was even using polite speech.

“No. But… Uren, did you come to collect the money? As you can see, my situation is…”

Tolt grabbed his own leg and made a pitiful expression.

“That… must be so. Then by when would it be possible?”

Uren, who had suddenly taken a submissive posture, asked Tolt when he could receive the money.

“Well… maybe because of a lack of compost, the swords keep rusting… Until a few days ago, ten of them were legendary-grade swords… I think I need to buy more compost.”

“Le… Legendary grade? Then how much money would you need to buy compost?”

Uren grew excited at Tolt’s words. Now, the one in a hurry was Uren.

“No… How could I have the face…”

“No! Just a little more and there will be ten legendary-grade master swords, so I will lend you a bit more! In exchange, sell the legendary-grade swords to me.”

“Ahem. If Uren wants to lend it that badly… just 20 billion Tower Coins…”

“Is that enough? I’ll just lend you 50 billion Tower Coins.”

At Uren’s words, the corners of Tolt’s mouth rose slightly and then quickly lowered.

“How can I be so apologetic about this? Always receiving help…”

“We all help each other live. And you agreed to sell the legendary-grade swords to me later. I will pay you a fair price for them.”

Uren, rather comforting Tolt who acted apologetic. The ultimate pushover was right here.

***

99th Floor of the Black Tower.

“Alright. Let’s go!”

Bbyak!

Kkueng!

At Se-jun’s words, Cuengi and the Black Rabbit replied loudly, trotting behind Se-jun.

In the place they were heading to now, there were walnut trees heavily laden with walnuts.

Today, the two did not go outside in order to help Se-jun harvest walnuts.

“Iyap!”

Kung!

Se-jun kicked the walnut tree.

Then,

[You have harvested the Walnut of Training.]

[Job experience increases slightly.]

[The proficiency of Harvesting Lv. 8 increases slightly.]

[You have gained 70 experience points.]

…

..

.

[You have harvested the Walnut of Special Training.]

…

..

.

Walnuts fell with a rustling sound along with the messages. In between, messages stating that he had harvested the Walnut of Special Training also appeared.

The walnuts that fell like that,

Bbyak!

[Cuengi, it’s a match!]

Kkueng!

[Fine-da-yo! Cuengi will win-da-yo!]

were quickly picked up by the Black Rabbit and Cuengi.

Kung! Kung!

In the meantime, Se-jun kept kicking the walnut trees to make the walnuts fall. Because Se-jun’s strength was weak, the walnuts did not fall easily, so he had to kick each tree ten times.

While he was kicking the trees like that,

Rustle.

“Huh?”

Among the falling walnuts, a red walnut was visible.

‘It’s a new variety.’

Se-jun had an intuition, but no additional message appeared.

“What is this? Is it like the Walnut of Special Training?”

Wondering, Se-jun picked up the red walnut that fell on the ground and checked its options.

[Walnut of Hellish Training]

[A walnut that grows with a low probability on walnut trees grown inside the tower, which has absorbed sufficient nutrients and is delicious.]

[It is a walnut with a shell even harder than the Walnut of Special Training.]

[Every time the shell is crushed, Strength increases by 50.]

[The taste is slightly nuttier.]

[Cultivator: Tower Farmer Park Se-jun]

[Expiration Date: 150 days]

[Grade: A]

“Hellish Training?”

Harder than the Walnut of Special Training? Becoming competitive at the description, Se-jun exerted force in the hand holding the Walnut of Hellish Training.

…Crunch!

Although the Walnut of Hellish Training resisted at first, as Se-jun, whose Strength was in the 1,400s, applied more force, the red walnut shell broke with a crisp sound.

[You have crushed the shell of the Walnut of Hellish Training.]

[Strength increases by 50.]

“It’s definitely nuttier.”

Se-jun spoke as he broke the red shell and ate the contents inside.

Kung! Kung!

Se-jun continued to kick the walnut trees and harvest the walnuts.

A moment later,

“Finished.”

After letting all the walnuts fall, Se-jun began to pick up the walnuts with the Black Rabbit and Cuengi.

He harvested 7 Walnuts of Hellish Training from the 9 walnut trees.

Considering that about 1,000 walnuts were harvested per walnut tree, it was a truly low probability.

While Se-jun was picking up the walnuts in that manner,

Crack.

Crack.

the sound of cracking walnuts was heard from somewhere.

“Huh?”

As Se-jun followed the sound,

Kkihikit. Kking.

‘Hehit. If I crack this, I become stronger!’

Fenrir was cracking the Walnut of Training with his dragon teeth. Even though his Strength only rose minutely, it was a big deal for the sunfish Fenrir.

Kking! Kking!

‘Good! Next one!’

Fenrir did not eat the cracked walnut and ran toward another walnut, pacing quickly.

Then, Fenrir bit the Walnut of Special Training, which looked identical.

Grate.

Because his Strength was weak, his dragon teeth could not break the hard walnut shell.

Kking?

‘Why won’t this break?’

I am Lord Fenrir, the noble wolf who hunts the 1st Seat of the Apostles of Destruction, you know?

Even when Fenrir threatened the walnut and exerted himself, the Walnut of Special Training did not break.

Fenrir was trivial today as well.

“Blacky, crack this instead of that.”

Se-jun, whose mood improved at Fenrir’s triviality, stealthily swapped the Walnut of Special Training with the Walnut of Training.

Crack!

Kking!

‘As expected, I am strong!’

Thanks to that, Fenrir was overflowing with confidence today as well.

***

While Uren was stating that he would voluntarily deliver 50 billion Tower Coins to Tolt,

‘He’s a cunning guy, meow!’

Theo detected the cunning behind Tolt’s cute face. How did he know? It was just… his physiognomy.

Moreover, the meticulous acting of the guy falling down on purpose when Uren called him earlier. It seemed it would be quite tricky to get a confession from him.

However…

“Puhuhut. No need to worry, meow! In times like this, Great Detective Sherlock Se-jun said to punish them with evidence, meow!”

Theo had heard of advanced investigation techniques while playing detective games with Se-jun.

Puhuhut. It was time for Theotson, Great Detective Sherlock Se-jun’s assistant, to shine, meow!

“Bpiyot, listen carefully, meow! This is a locked-room case, meow!”

Theo extended his front paw toward Bpiyot, who was on his right front paw, and shouted.

Bpiyot?

[A locked-room case?]

At Theo’s words, Bpiyot looked around, thinking there was no locked room.

“That is right, meow! President Park said there are originally the most locked-room cases, meow! From now on, we search for the locked room, meow!”

Theo’s investigation method of searching for a locked room without any rhyme or reason.

Theo began to inspect the surroundings, making binoculars with his two front paws, and

Bpiyot! Bpiyot!

[Ah! We have to find a locked room!]

Bpiyot also followed Theo, making his wings look as similar to Theo’s front paws as possible, and searched for a hidden locked room.

And,

“Puhuhut. Found it, meow!”

Theo, who was lucky, actually found a locked room.

Drrrk.

When Theo opened the entrance of the locked room disguised as a boulder,

“Hey! Tolt, did that pig leave?!”

“Kuku. That pig, he probably has no idea we are keeping watch at the entrance, right?”

“That pig should have at least said something if he was coming. Considering how we hurriedly planted the longswords because of him…”

“Tolt, how much did you rip off this time?”

The weasels, who were holding their breath thinking Tolt had returned, chattered noisily and proudly confessed to their crimes.

Inside the locked room, as if they were having a party, the table was full of food and alcohol, and the surroundings were full of gold obtained by scamming Uren.

“Hey. Tolt, why is there no answer?”

“Yeah, why are you so quiet?”

When Tolt, who would normally hurry down and chatter about how he had swindled Uren, remained quiet, the weasels looked at the entrance.

But

“Puhuhut.”

at the entrance, not Tolt, but Theo was looking down at them with a sly smile.

“······”

“······”

Inside the locked room, which had fallen silent.

Just as the weasels hurriedly tried to take out their weapons,

“If you attack, you’ll be punished, meow!”

Bbatching.

When Theo unsheathed the dragon claws and stabbed the empty space toward the locked room, a ‘pook’ sound was made, and a hole about the size of a fist was dug in the wall.

The hole was too deep for its end to be seen. It was Theo’s new technique, One Meow Finger.

Gulp.

The weasels’ bodies froze at the appearance of a powerhouse they couldn’t do anything against. Moreover, since this was a locked room, there was nowhere to escape.

“Puhuhut. Everyone get out, meow!”

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

Bpiyot!

[Stamp it!]

Bpiyot took out the slave contracts and received the footprints of the weasels.

Bpiyot!

[Lord Theo, I’ve got them all!]

Once all the footprints were received like that, a total of 107 slave contracts were completed.

“Now go down and bring the gold, meow!”

“”Yes!””

The weasels, who had become slaves, went back inside the locked room at Theo’s instruction and began to pack the gold into Theo’s bundle.

***

“Thank you! I will definitely grow legendary-grade swords and repay all the money I borrowed!”

“Yes… please do.”

“Of course! Just trust me!”

Tolt, who had received the 50 billion Tower Coins, spoke while tapping the shoulder of the anxious Uren.

The hierarchy had completely reversed before they knew it.

‘I’ll be able to scam him one more time, claiming I’m selling legendary-grade swords.’

While Tolt let out a fishy smile and set up plans for a final score,

“Huh?!”

in Tolt’s eyes, he saw the companion Uren had brought dragging his comrades tied with a rope like a string of dried yellow croakers, wondering why they were there.

‘I’m ruined!’

As soon as he confirmed his comrades were caught, Tolt turned around to escape without looking back, regardless of his comrades.

However, his body did not turn.

Kkuik! Kkuik!

Instead, rough breathing was heard from the side. Uren was holding Tolt’s shoulder tightly before he knew it.

Just as Tolt realized he was ruined upon seeing Theo dragging the weasels, Uren also intuitively realized that he had been scammed.

Although he still did not know what kind of scam he had been subjected to.

Having caught Tolt like that, received a confession for the scam, and even got his footprint on the slave contract,

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

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

“Yes. Here you go! As expected of Lord Theo!”

Uren gave the money, looking at Theo with eyes of respect.

“Puhuhut. Uren, guide me to the next slave… no, the guy we collect money from, meow!”

Theo, who had received 75 billion Tower Coins from Uren and also gained 108 weasel slaves, shouted in a bright voice.

“Yes! The guy we are visiting this time sold me a tree where Tower Coins grow for 300 billion Tower Coins…”

Uren guided Theo to the next scammer who had sold him the tree where money grew.