Chapter 137: Premium Random Game (2)
“Ggoming!”
In the light, there came a powerful and energetic shouting. Something was coming out. Something was definitely coming out. Lloyd braced himself, trying hard to make out the outlines that started to appear in the light. At that moment…
“Ggomiming!”
Bzzzzzzt! A small lump burst out of the brilliant light and flew toward his direction to nestle in Lloyd’s arms.
“Ggoming!”
“Eh…?”
The first thing Lloyd noticed was fluffy white fur.
Soft hair? No, is it a feather?
This creature was divided into a head and body that was fully covered with white feathers. It started to flutter its small wings. Its body was about as big as its head. Its beak was cute, and its eyes were dark.
“A parrotbill?” said Lloyd out loud.
“Ggoming!”
A parrotbill, which was smaller than a fist, replied as he looked up. He looked like a baby bird that opened his beak to his mother to be fed. Lloyd gulped dryly.
“Um, you see,” called Lloyd.
“Ggoming?”
“Your name is Ggoming, right?”
“Ggoming!”
“But tell me, what’s a parrotbill doing here?”
“Ggoming?”
“No, um, I’m not trying to say anything against you, but I had actually been hoping for one that could produce tough, inflexible wires and ropes.”
Lloyd thought that he would naturally receive the one that fits the condition because he was allowed to add it to the premium game.
I was hoping it’d be something like a spider.
A strong spiderweb could sufficiently replace metal wires. That was the reason why he wished for a spider-shaped fantastical creature. But contrary to his wish, right now…
A bird?
At the emergence of the creature that had nothing to do with a spider, Lloyd’s heart sank as he wondered if the premium random game was another loss. As he thought about the amount of RP he consumed in the premium game, Lloyd felt as though bile was surging through his throat.
Argh, my RP. I spent 800 on this. I’ve worked so hard to save.
Lloyd was rewarded 700 RP after constructing the first apartment complex on the continent. Therefore, he had just consumed as much as the reward of his historical achievement.
Ha, no. No. He has to be useful one way or another.
Collecting his thoughts, Lloyd shook his head and told himself that it was too early to give up. Hamang was initially thought to be a failure until Lloyd learned what the latter was capable of. First thing first. He needed to check what this new friend could do.
“Do you have a note with you? The one that has done what you can do,” said Lloyd.
“Ggomiming? Ggoming!”
“You have it. Can you please show it to me?”
“Ggoming!”
Ggoming buried his beak into his chest and fished a stamp-sized note from his fluffy feathers. Lloyd took it and opened it. Just as Lloyd had expected, it was written in tiny letters. So, he concentrated on making out the words.
[Ggoming User Manual]
[Ggoming is a cute parrotbill. Please show him love and care.]
[Ggoming will give his utmost loyalty to you, his master. A summon partner is a lifetime pet and a family member. Please do not abandon him.]
[Ggoming can change his size by eating one of the enclosed sunflower seeds.]
[Red Sunflower Seed: Will make Ggoming grow to gigantic proportions. Effective for a maximum of 12 hours.]
[Blue Sunflower Seed: Will make Ggoming shrink back to a smaller size. Feed this to Ggoming before the 12-hour limit is up. Ggoming will be dehydrated if he stays over the 12-hour limit without eating the blue sunflower seed. He will automatically shrink back to his small size, but he will not be able to grow gigantic for the next 24 hours.]
[One set of the two colors of sunflower seeds is 1 RP.]
[Ggoming can use a wide range of skills while she is gigantic.]
[Bangul’s Skill Log]
[Spiderweb Discharge (Lv. 1)]
[Spiderweb Shooter (Lv. 1)]
[Nest Construction (Lv. 1)]
[Dung Blast (Lv. 1)]
What is this?
Lloyd cocked his head after reading the manual. He was confused because he noticed two skills that obviously stood out.
Constructing a nest and blasting dung… Well, he’s a bird. But what are these two other skills? Spiderweb Discharge and Shooter? What are those doing here?
It was strange. Lloyd wondered if Ggoming could discharge spiderwebs instead of feces. He stared at Ggoming on his palm.
“Hey, Ggoming,” called Lloyd.
“Ggoming!”
“I have something I want to ask you.”
“Ggomiming!”
“How do you discharge spiderweb?”
“Ggoming? Ggomiming! Ggoming!”
Ggoming wheeled around for Lloyd to see. And at last, Lloyd noticed a small bag Ggoming was carrying behind his back, and it was shaped like a spider. Lloyd’s eyebrow quirked up as he saw it.
“Hold on. Could that be…”
“Ggoming!”
“Does the spiderweb come out from that spider-looking bag?”
“Ggoming!”
“Are you serious?” asked Lloyd in disbelief.
“Ggoming!”
“The bag can’t be a part of you, can it?”
“Ggomiming!”
“…”
Ggoming shook his head hard, and Lloyd finally felt as though a ray of light was shining down on him.
Still, I was relieved. At least it really was spiderweb. The game wasn’t a complete failure, after all!
Spiderweb. It was the ability that Lloyd wanted the most because he needed a robust and non-rusting wire mesh or wire to put up a gabion. Suppressing a large grin, Lloyd spoke.
“Ehem! Great. I need to test it out then,” said Lloyd.
“Ggoming?”
“That spiderweb of yours. I think I need to test its function.”
It was an obviously required process. This spiderweb was going to be used as a core material for the gabion. As such, Lloyd needed to see how much weight it could hold and how it reacted to varying temperatures and water. Therefore, testing and verifying its function in various circumstances was imperative.
“I need to create the design based on how robust the spiderweb is. Otherwise, it’s going to cause accidents. Retaining walls can lead to massive casualties if they collapse.”
That was the case as a retaining wall was built after cutting steep and sloped areas in the mountains. Underneath, most facilities were roads and houses. So, its collapse meant they would be buried under tons of dirt and rocks. A landslide would consume everything in its way.
“It’s the same here. I plan to build retaining walls that will hold the paddies and fields, which will be the labor sites of countless people. So, if that collapses and leads to a landslide, there will be a total catastrophe. Won’t it?” asked Lloyd.
Lloyd held out a red sunflower seed after finishing his explanation. But Ggoming reacted in a way that caught Lloyd by surprise.
“Ggoming…”
Ggoming refused to take the seed. Instead, he looked at the seed and Lloyd’s face, his gaze holding a glint of a complaint.
“Hmm? What’s wrong?”
“Ggomiming…”
“Don’t you like sunflower seeds?”
“Ggoming, Ggomiming.”
“Oh, are you saying it’s not that you don’t like it, but you just can’t be bothered right now?”
“Ggomiming! Ggoming! Ggomimiming! Ggoming!”
“Um, so you don’t want to work, and you can’t be bothered by anything in this world, huh? Are you asking me to leave you alone and let you live because you hate flying and growing giant because you just arrived here?”
“Ggoming!”
Ggoming nodded as he fluttered his small wings. Lloyd was flustered.
What is this lazy bird?
The fantastical creatures were summoned for labor. But this one didn’t want to work, and instead, he wanted to live the rest of his life lazing around? Lloyd realized that contrary to his looks, this cute little bird was a terrible goldbrick.
Ugh. I can’t let that happen. No way. No way.
How could anyone dare to stay jobless when the economy was bad, and employment was unstable? How could he dare say that he wanted to slack off when he had done nothing?
I can never let that slide.
Even the master, Lloyd, was working his head off every day. Even if he wanted to live the life of Riley, he couldn’t. He wasn’t able to even take a small break. And yet, here was this little bird that wished to be a couch potato. Resentment swelled over Lloyd.
And to think I had invested such a huge amount of RP in you!
Lloyd had spent a whopping 800 RP for the premium random game. But if he added the three times he didn’t win, Ggoming had cost him 1,513 RP. And what? He wants to rest already?
It’s like recruiting the highest-paying baseball or football athlete into the team, only to see him refuse to train or play games.
This couldn’t be tolerated. Until Lloyd lived high on the hog first, these fantastical creatures could never be bums. Resolving such, Lloyd lifted his head and spoke to Ppodong, Bangul, and Hamang, who were all watching the situation by his side.
“You guys?”
“Ppo? Bang? Ha?”
“Looks like our newbie needs to learn some lessons.”
“Ppo! Bang! Ha!”
The three answered with force. They had been closely watching the conversation between Lloyd and the newbie, and they had let out a cry of disbelief at the sight of this newbie rejecting work as soon as he was summoned. The world has turned for the better, they said sarcastically. During their time, it was only courteous for them to gaze at Lloyd with a glimmer in their eyes. It was only virtuous to shout and beg at Lloyd to bestow any form of work on them. As such, they clicked their tongue in resentment at the unruly and ill-mannered fantastical creature. Ppodong, Bangul, and Hamang approached Ggoming. Ppodong grabbed Ggoming’s shoulder.
“Ppo-do-dong? Ppodong?”
“Ggoming?”
“Ppodong? (Do you have a minute?)”
Ggoming nodded at Ppodong’s kind words. Just like that, Ggoming, who was in the dark about what was coming to him, followed his seniors to the corner of the training hall. Meanwhile, Lloyd gazed at the moon above. It was brilliantly shining.
“My, what a perfect day to teach a lesson,” uttered Lloyd.
Thwack! Wham! Chirp! Crash!
Later, Ggoming scrambled toward Lloyd’s side, his feathers plucked out here and there. He flew to Lloyd’s palm in one flutter of a wing and started to chirp aloud with a glimmer in his eyes.
“Ggoming!”
“Hmm? Wait, are you asking for work? You want to eat the red sunflower seed that badly?”
“Ggomiming! Ggoming!”
“Good choice. I suppose your older friends taught you how you should behave, right?”
“Ggoming!”
Ggoming opened his beak wide as his head bobbed. Lloyd held up the sunflower seed with a smile.
The test was a success. It was actually more than a success. The spiderweb Ggoming discharged turned out to be the best of the kind.
This is better than an actual spiderweb.
The spiderweb wasn’t a replica, even if it came from a bag. It was way sturdier and stronger. When Lloyd grabbed both ends and gave a hard tug, it neither tore nor extended. Lloyd activated the Asrahan Core Technique, rotating the mana circle by adding one each. He pulled the web with more force by harnessing the amplified mana until he used three circles. On top of that, he used the optional skill of the Asrahan skill, “Latent Power Surge.”
Ziiiiing!
In a split second, the mana amplification rate became stronger five times for the next 30 seconds.
“Arghhh!!!”
Lloyd consumed every bit of his strength, and the spiderweb stretched just a bit. It was sturdy and enduring just fine.
This is good enough. No, actually, it’s much better than I expected.
In nature, spiderwebs were the byword for thin and robust material. It boasted three times the tensile strength and elasticity of a similarly thick metal. What was more, the strength remained unchanged even after 20 or 30 years because of its excellent durability.
And it’s strong against humidity. It hardly changes shape and remains sturdy even after prolonged exposure to sunlight.
And Ggoming’s spiderweb seemed to be better than the one in nature. Moreover, it held one more advantage that was useful to the gabion construction.
It’s sticky!
It was quite a fight for Lloyd to tear the spiderweb he had grabbed for the test. Since it was extremely difficult to tear with his strength, he had to scrape it off using a knife. But it still wasn’t enough. Only when he smeared his hands with the bean oil was he able to clean his hands. Lloyd was amazed by the viscosity of the web.
And if I use it to make the gabion for the retaining wall, I’ll be able to hold the rocks and dirt inside the retaining wall without fail.
When a mountain slope was cut, and a retaining wall was built, there would be a space left in between called the “backfill.” The backfill was the area where the dirt and other sediments would go into. Acquiring stable bearing power was a critical issue when constructing a retaining wall. But now that Lloyd felt firsthand how amazingly sticky the spiderweb was, he figured the bearing power would remain steadfast even after a thousand years.
So, the gabion and the space inside the retaining wall will be sheeted with several layers of mesh made of spiderwebs. One layer of spiderweb mesh, and some dirt on the top. After, the mesh will be placed again, and then the dirt. The outcome will look like a stack of pancakes.
Lloyd decided to make use of the modern method common in constructing retaining walls: Mechanically Stabilized Earth (MSE). Among the methods, he judged to apply the HDPE geogrid.
I just need to combine the geogrid method and the gabion method. Combine the two, and connect with this spiderweb. And the structure will last for thousands, no, tens of thousands of years.
Crack! Lloyd cracked his knuckles, assuring himself that he could do it. He was skilled in design, and his fantastical creatures were powerful and skilled. Ggoming now joined the crew, and he can discharge spiderweb. And there was also the large workforce that was composed of Javier, Sir Bayern, the engineering corp, and refugees. Compound all of those together, and Lloyd will surely be able to create terraced paddies that can last from generation to generation in a great quality that will be registered as one of the world’s heritages. Thinking so, Lloyd kickstarted the design, and as soon as it was done, he moved on to the construction. A rumor spread like a wildfire among the refugee workers. It was about how they had seen Master Lloyd, the young master of this fiefdom, freely mobilize fantastical creatures. A magical genius, they said. The voice of reverence toward Lloyd started to grow louder.