Gilgamesh was troubled.
Even after transmigrating into… well, Gilgamesh, he was still troubled.
He’d gotten two cheats after crossing over.
But one was an empty Gate of Babylon that came built-in.
The other was an item system where the full versions cost a fortune, so all he could buy were single-use, time-limited items.
Then one day…
[HOST, JUST SAVE UP YOUR EXCHANGE POINTS AND WAIT TEN YEARS UNTIL YOU CAN REDEEM THE FULL VERSION OF EA. STOP DREAMING.]
Watching Gilgamesh put a single-use, time-limited item into the Gate of Babylon, the system mocked him.
[THIS “SINGLE-USE EA” CAN ONLY EXIST FOR TEN MINUTES. AFTER TEN MINUTES, IT WILL DISAPPEAR AUTOMATICALLY.]
Ten minutes later, Gilgamesh pulled Ea out of the Gate of Babylon.
[…]
Gilgamesh redeemed another [Single-Use Ea] and put it into the Gate of Babylon.
After some time had passed, Gilgamesh pulled a second Ea out of the Gate of Babylon.
[…]
Gilgamesh looked at the [Single-Use Holy Grail] on the system interface.
[!!!]
The system panicked.
(This is fanfiction, so please don’t nitpick the setting.)
Siduri was very pleased, because lately the king had finally started behaving himself.
Ah, no, that was too disrespectful.
Still, considering the nature of her work, Siduri felt a little complaining was only fair.
After all, every time the king caused trouble, she was the one who had to clean up after him. And whenever he ran off to amuse himself outside, she was the one left to deal with the mountain of government work that piled up day after day.
That workload was anything but light, so…
“Siduri, is that everything for today?”
Gilgamesh set down the last clay tablet and looked over at Siduri.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Smiling, Siduri gave Gilgamesh the day’s report.
“It’s still only early afternoon, and Your Majesty has already finished everything.”
She sounded deeply gratified, like an old mother finally seeing her son make something of himself.
Gilgamesh’s mouth twitched. He very much wanted to snap back that anyone could have finished this.
And that really wasn’t an exaggeration. The duties a king had to handle in this era had nothing to do with the sort of high-minded political infighting most people imagined.
They were the everyday trifles of the people living within his domain.
For a concrete example—if a pregnant woman in the south of the city went into labor, that somehow became his business too.
So the only real thing to say about the government work Gilgamesh handled every day was that there was a lot of it.
Things like city planning didn’t involve much finesse, either. If something was needed, you built it. If it wasn’t, you tore it down.
The only thing he really had to consider was whether building something now would interfere with future construction or demolition elsewhere—for instance, if some god suddenly decided a temple ought to be built nearby.
One of the few places Gilgamesh got to exercise his “creativity” was in spreading public latrines throughout the city and warning everyone not to drink untreated water or eat raw food.
As for the rest, things like administrative systems had only interested Gilgamesh at first. By now, he had realized there was basically nothing left for him to do on the management side.
What kind of complicated bureaucracy did a primitive city of only a few tens of thousands even need, anyway?!
Do too much, and not only would it fail to help, it might even offend the gods.
“I’m a little tired. You may withdraw, Siduri.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Siduri left with everyone else in the hall who had been assisting Gilgamesh with official business, leaving him alone in the vast, empty chamber.
“Sigh…”
Gilgamesh let out a long breath.
“Three months. It’s been three months since I crossed over. At first I couldn’t adapt at all, but now I’ve finally accepted reality.”
“I’ve been slogging through government work and clearing quests every day, and I’ve only managed to save up 3,000 points.”
[HOST, DON’T LOSE HEART!]
The electronic voice rang directly inside his head.
[THINK ABOUT IT—AT YOUR CURRENT RATE, IF YOU KEEP DOING YOUR DAILY QUESTS EVERY DAY, YOU’LL HAVE THE SWORD OF RUPTURE IN TEN YEARS!]
“Yeah. Ea…”
A yearning look appeared on Gilgamesh’s face.
He wanted that too. One day, he wanted to stand on a lamppost like the real Gilgamesh, calling people mongrels while shooting them with the King’s Treasury—ugh, the Gate of Babylon.
But before crossing over, he had only been an ordinary person.
He’d lived an ordinary, unremarkable twenty-something years in his previous life, only to get dropped here right as he was about to enter the workforce.
He still didn’t know whether that counted as a good thing!
“It probably does. I’ve got a strong body, I became a king, and the cheat is… decent enough, I guess.”
Golden ripples spread open behind him, and from them he drew out a golden goblet and a wine jug filled to the brim.
But that was all!
After crossing over, he had discovered that he came with a built-in Gate of Babylon.
He had been thrilled at first, only to discover there was absolutely nothing inside it!
Then the system arrived. And when he excitedly opened the exchange list…
[EXCALIBUR] 100,000.
SINGLE USE: 100
[EA] 120,000.
SINGLE USE: 120
[AVALON] 150,000.
SINGLE USE: 150
[NOTE: THE DURATION OF ALL SINGLE-USE ITEMS CAN BE ADJUSTED. THE SHORTER THE DURATION, THE FEWER POINTS THEY COST.]
(MAXIMUM: 10 MINUTES)
(MINIMUM: 1 MINUTE)
Then he looked at the ways to earn points.
[DAILY QUESTS:]
[HANDLE GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS]
REWARD: 20 POINTS
[INSPECT THE CITY]
REWARD: 5 POINTS
“…”
He had immediately decided to lie flat, and the kind that never got back up.
Enkidu, the gods, the Underworld—every last one of them could stay as far away from him as possible!
Don’t disturb my peaceful life!
“Sigh…”
The gap between reality and his ideals made Gilgamesh sigh again.
He opened the system interface once more and stared at Ea on the screen.
“Ea, oh Ea, when are you ever going to end up in my hands?”
[TEN YEARS FROM NOW~ BY THEN, HOST WILL BE ABLE TO TAKE ON MORE DANGEROUS QUESTS WITH BETTER REWARDS.]
The electronic voice answered him.
The moment Gilgamesh heard that, an inexplicable surge of anger welled up inside him.
That’s right! Hadn’t he come to this other world to be some overpowered protagonist? So why was it that even Ea—the weapon this body should have had to begin with—would only be his after ten years of diligent work?
He’d already crossed into another world, so why was he still living like some office drone?!
He’d come all this way just to watch the system’s face and the gods’ moods?!
Wouldn’t that make him nothing but a beggar on his knees?
Gilgamesh’s expression hardened, and as if possessed, his hand tapped the exchange button for Ea.
His hand immediately grew heavy, and a bizarre-looking yet undeniably cool weapon appeared in it.
[…HOST, WHY DO THIS TO YOURSELF?]
The electronic voice sounded almost rueful.
She had seen too many hosts who refused to get rich slowly. Most of those who became obsessed with short-lived power had not ended well.
[HOST, JUST SAVE UP YOUR EXCHANGE POINTS AND WAIT TEN YEARS UNTIL YOU CAN REDEEM THE FULL VERSION OF EA. STOP CHASING IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS.]
Gilgamesh calmed down as well, and as he looked at the Ea in his hand, he could not help feeling a little regretful.
This was several whole days of work! If he’d known, he would have exchanged for a one-minute version instead.
“Sigh… well, what’s done is done. If I were out in the wilderness, I could at least test just how powerful Ea really is.”
He casually tossed the sword into the Gate of Babylon he had been born with.
[THIS “SINGLE-USE EA” CAN ONLY EXIST FOR TEN MINUTES. AFTER TEN MINUTES, IT WILL DISAPPEAR AUTOMATICALLY.]
“I know, I know.”
Gilgamesh waved a hand and slumped bonelessly into his seat, a glittering golden version of a total couch potato.
“If it disappears, it disappears. Whatever.”
He gazed at the sky beyond the hall. It was beautifully blue.
…
Ten minutes later.
Gilgamesh frowned and sat upright.
He had noticed that something was off.
Golden ripples spread open again, and he pulled Ea back out.
He looked it over from one side and then the other.
The patterns, the texture, the weight… everything was fine.
“Why didn’t it disappear?” he asked the system.
[UH… MAYBE THERE’S A BUG. THAT SWORD SHOULD ALREADY BE UNUSABLE.]
“Is that so?”
Gilgamesh looked at Ea and slowly poured mana into it.
The three sections of the blade began to rotate, and a torrent of magical wind pressure wrapped itself around it. Gilgamesh had the distinct feeling that if he let it loose, it could blow the entire hall to pieces!
As he gradually drew the mana back, the blade stopped turning.
“…”
[…]
Frowning, he pulled up the system screen again.
“Redeem a one-minute [Single-Use Ea].”
As 12 points disappeared, another Ea, identical to the one in his other hand, appeared in his grasp.
Gilgamesh placed the newly redeemed Ea into the Gate of Babylon.
Two minutes later.
Gilgamesh took Ea back out. Looking at the two Eas in his hands, he fell silent.
[…]
Gilgamesh repeated the trick and redeemed another one-minute [Single-Use Ea].
One minute later, that Ea vanished into thin air.
“…”
[…]
“Hah… system.”
Gilgamesh smiled. His eyes blazed with unrestrained arrogance. In that moment, he really did resemble the original a little.
“Looks like you weren’t the one that bugged out.”
He rose to his feet, the corners of his mouth curling higher and higher.
“What people should fear is this king’s power!!!”
“BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!”
He pulled up the system interface again and went straight for the thing he had been dreaming of.
“Redeem! A one-minute, single-use [Gate of Babylon]!”
T/N: A GILGAMESH FIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUCK YOU GUYS U BETTER VOTE FOR THIS TO STAY!!!!!!!!!
This is a fan translation of 我要往王之财宝里再加点东西 by 海绵宝宝宝宝 Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!
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