Jeon Seongryeol subtly smiled at those words, feeling a rare sense of satisfaction well up within him.
“This guy, I’ve been in this business for over 30 years. I can roughly estimate the weight just by looking. It’s 50kg, exactly.”
“Wow, as expected of a veteran. I’m glad I came to you first, President.”
“Just wait a moment.”
“No, I’ll come with you. While you’re off getting the money, I might mess with the mushrooms. I could swap a few boxes.”
“I don’t think you’re that kind of guy… but if you come along, I’d be grateful. If you suddenly disappear, I’d be like a dog chasing a chicken.”
After repacking the mushroom boxes, Jeon Seongryeol and Ha Suyoung headed straight to the bank.
It was just the start of the bank’s business hours, so Jeon Seongryeol withdrew 23 million won in cash.
While waiting, he tried to pry information from Ha Suyoung, but didn’t get any satisfying answers.
“Here’s 23 million won. Want to count it?”
“Yes, just a moment.”
After carefully counting the money, Ha Suyoung asked nonchalantly,
“You’re giving me 500,000 won extra?”
“It’s nothing. It’s a bribe to keep me in mind.”
“I don’t have anything more to offer you.”
“If you get something like this again, bring it to me. I’ll buy it at a good price.”
“Haha, so are we partners in crime now?”
“Did you really collect these illegally?”
“President, the important thing isn’t whether it’s legal or illegal, but that it’s not mushroom season right now, isn’t it?”
His gaze was strangely overwhelming.
He exuded a confidence beyond his years.
Yet, Jeon Seongryeol didn’t feel bad about it.
“How old are you, by the way? You look like you’re in your early twenties, but the way you carry yourself suggests otherwise…”
“I’m twenty, born in 2000.”
“…”
“I don’t get told I look older than my age. People see me as exactly my age.”
Jeon Seongryeol couldn’t help but laugh at his confident demeanor.
“You seem like someone who will become very successful, whether in a good way or a bad way. I’m looking forward to it.”
“I don’t have any grand ambitions. I’ll be satisfied with owning one or two decently pretty and sophisticated buildings in Cheongdam-dong.”
“Just bring me 6 or 7 tons of mushrooms like these, no more, no less. Then you can build such buildings in Cheongdam-dong.”
“Where would I find that many mushrooms? I was lucky to get these rare ones.”
Jeon Seongryeol felt that Ha Suyoung was exaggerating.
His expression, gaze, and sly tone gave off that impression.
“Still, I hope to see you again.”
“Sure. Let me know if you find something like this again.”
“I’d like that too.”
Ha Suyoung climbed into the truck’s driver’s seat, waved out the window, and stepped on the accelerator.
Watching the truck fade into the distance, Jeon Seongryeol couldn’t help but be impressed.
“That must be a manual, and he drives so steadily. Impressive for a young guy.”
Judging by how smoothly he climbed the slope, it wasn’t the skill of someone who had only driven for a year or two.
On his way home, Ha Suyoung hummed a tune, glancing at the cash envelope tossed on the passenger seat.
Just looking at the bundles of 50,000 won bills made him feel full.
“One drop a day. Two drops in two days. Three drops in three days.”
The exclusive property of the ancient divine being.
A mysterious elixir that, if consumed steadily, could one day allow one to transcend humanity.
But for him right now…
It’s just good mushroom fertilizer.
Matsutake mushrooms primarily grow by attaching to the roots of living pine trees.
They absorbed nutrients through mycorrhizae from the trees and deliver minerals like potassium and phosphorus, along with water, to the roots.
Only when this tripartite relationship between trees, fungi, and soil was well-formed could matsutake mushrooms reproduce.
However, they could not be artificially cultivated and could only be harvested naturally.
Their rarity, high demand, and exorbitant price made it said that developing a method for artificial cultivation would be a quick path to wealth.
The difficulty of creating a cultivation environment was notoriously high.
Even growing one or two artificially in a lab was extremely challenging.
But with the elixir, it was different.
You can ignore the soil and trees and cultivate them, making it truly the best mushroom fertilizer.
Ha Suyoung leisurely scattered the mushroom caps on the ground, shaking them off.
He was spreading the spores contained in the caps onto the soil.
The ground was covered with a mix of pine needles and pine tree leaves, which he had roughly gathered from a nearby mountain.
It was the most laborious task in cultivating the mushrooms.
“Even though I don’t need pine needles, I should at least keep up appearances. You never know what might happen.”
He filled a large basin with water and submerged a glass cup containing the elixir.
He stirred it slowly but strongly to ensure the elixir mixed well with the water.
As soon as a single drop of the elixir was mixed in, the entire water briefly glowed golden before subsiding.
Ha Suyoung filled a large syringe with the diluted elixir.
On a smooth plastic board lay finely shredded pieces of matsutake mushrooms.
He carefully dripped the diluted solution over the mushroom pieces.
After ensuring every piece was covered, he placed them in a basket.
“What’s the point of becoming a divine being? I’m sick of pain. In such a peaceful era, it’s better to use the elixir like this. Anyway, thank you, Father.”
He focused on the growth-promoting properties of the elixir, wondering if it could be used to cultivate high-end crops.
For instance, expensive ingredients like matsutake mushrooms that couldn’t be obtained through farming.
And his prediction was spot on.
“One drop a day, seven drops a week, 12kg of mushrooms in a week. About 50kg in a month.”
Stepping into the garden, Ha Suyoung whistled happily as he distributed the mushroom pieces across the field.
“When will I ever build a building in Cheongdam-dong at this rate?”
He paused and looked around the mushroom field.
In truth, it was too small and shabby to be called a field.
It wasn’t a field set up in the mountains or fields, but rather a section of the garden inside his home.
He and his father had lived in a house with a large garden in the suburbs.
Although the land value wasn’t high due to its semi-rural location, it was spacious, which was nice.
He had set up the mushroom field inside the garden fence to prevent theft.
Although it was an isolated house, it wasn’t entirely devoid of nearby residents.
Just a few hundred meters from the house was a small village with dozens of households.
Most of them lived by cultivating orchards or greenhouse crops.
“I wish Father would give me a hundred drops a day. Then I could produce 5 tons of mushrooms a month.”
Ha Suyoung sighed as he looked at the Galactic Divine Tree.
He couldn’t understand why the inheritance left for him to live well was so stingy.
Just one drop a day.
With one drop of elixir a day, he could cultivate about 50kg of matsutake mushrooms a month.
Converted to a week, it was about 12kg.
While he could adjust the cultivation period, the amount he could produce with one drop a day was about 50kg a month.
Considering the garden’s area, he adjusted to harvest once a week.
Given the area and harvest frequency, that was the most suitable.
