Chapter 76

Ding.

System

• You have joined the Peace Guild!

• You have completed the Guild Membership achievement!

• You receive 10 points as an achievement reward.

This counts as an achievement too?

Whenever a System message like this appeared, I felt like I had become some kind of hero. An achievement, huh? That was quite an impressive way to package joining a Guild just to make money.

Well, I’m not complaining.

Ten points was a pretty sweet reward on its own, but after hearing what Team Leader Choi said next, I had to keep fighting the grin that threatened to spread across my face.

“The signing bonus will be processed by the end of today. As for your housing and other matters…”

A 500 million won¹ signing bonus, a fixed monthly salary of 50 million won,² and a seventy-percent settlement share.

A house and a car provided by the Guild, along with dozens of other benefits.

I had already gone over everything in the contract several times, but hearing it laid out like this made it all feel new again.

I’ve really made it.

Barely three months ago, I couldn’t have imagined my life turning out like this.

The Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi in Murim, and a Hunter in the real world who casually earned hundreds of millions of won³ a year.

“Team Leader.”

“As for equipment rentals, you can use anything you want apart from my collection… Yes?”

“Could you slap me once? If this is a dream, I’d like to wake up quickly.”

The moment I finished speaking, my vision flashed.

Wham!

Wham? Not smack?

I rubbed my stinging jaw and muttered, “You really don’t hold back.”

“I have trouble refusing a request.”

“I don’t think I told you to use your fist.”

“You didn’t tell me not to, either.”

“……”

Without my newly acquired Toughness stat, I might have gone sprawling in a most undignified fashion.

Right. This guy was a B-rank Hunter.

The punch he had thrown without even taking a stance had landed squarely on my jaw. The power, the point of impact—both perfect.

“Still, don’t people usually slap you?”

“There are exceptions. So, are you feeling more awake now?”

“……Wide awake.”

“Good. It’s better for making a first impression if you meet them while you’re in your right mind.”

His out-of-nowhere remark made me look at him in confusion.

“First impression? Who are we meeting?”

“Who do you think?”

Team Leader Choi continued with a smile.

“The other Guild members.”

“Ah.”

Only then did I remember something I had completely forgotten.

A Guild needed at least three people to be established.

“Shall we get going, then?”

Team Leader Choi pointed out the window. A sleek black limousine was gliding into the parking lot in front of the café.

“Congratulations.”

That deep, dignified voice, the sort that belonged in a coffee commercial, belonged to Butler Kim. Even in the sweltering summer heat, he wore a suit as he expertly drove the limousine.

“Oh, yes. Thank you.”

For some reason, I found it hard to speak naturally around this man. Was it because the only butlers I had ever seen were in dramas?

No. If that were the reason, Team Leader Choi would be even worse.

After giving it some thought, I decided it was Butler Kim’s distinctive air. The unfamiliarity of riding in a limousine for the first time might have had something to do with it too.

A limousine.

The interior was spacious and stocked with all sorts of things. For example, the small refrigerator Team Leader Choi had just opened.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Sure.”

I happened to be thirsty.

“Water? Alcohol?”

“You have alcohol?”

Team Leader Choi nodded.

“Of course. Anything you want.”

“Then I’ll have soju and beer. Half and half.”

“……I’ll give you water.”

The bottle of water Team Leader Choi handed me didn’t have even the most ordinary brand name on it.

He told me it had been brought in from somewhere in the Himalayas, and I clicked my tongue inwardly.

That must cost a ridiculous amount.

What a fucking waste of money. Still, when I took a sip, it was refreshingly cold.

Gulp.

Ding.

System

• You have consumed Essence of the Himalayas.

• Your Intelligence increases by 1 for one hour.

……So this was why they blew all that fucking money. Well, this was how wealth got redistributed and the economy stayed active. Right.

The limousine came to a stop while I was wondering whether I should take a few bottles with me.

Butler Kim spoke in his characteristic deep voice.

“We’ve arrived.”

The moment I stepped out, my jaw dropped at the sight before me.

A skyscraper towered into the sky. Its exterior gleamed even without direct sunlight, as if it had undergone some kind of magical treatment, and guards in formal uniforms stood waiting at the entrance.

“Wow. Woooow.”

As I continued to marvel at the sight, Team Leader Choi approached me.

“Impressive, isn’t it? It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that all the branches of Korea’s top one hundred Guilds are gathered here. There are even branches of foreign mega-Guilds whose names you know just from hearing them.”

I answered without taking my eyes off the building.

“Land must be insanely expensive here.”

“It is. You could call this the center of Gate activity around Bucheon.”

“Like Gangnam in the old days?”

“Neither of us lived through that era, but…… from what I understand, this place is at least as expensive, if not more so.”

The value of land had been turned on its head long ago.

Though it had happened before I was born, middle-aged Hunters who had lived through the pre-Great Cataclysm era sometimes became nostalgic and went on about what things had been like back then.

“Back then, if you owned even one house in Gangnam, people said you were born with a gold spoon in your mouth.”

“People used to joke that Bundang was above heaven. That’s how valuable the land there was.”

“It was that expensive?”

“Expensive enough to make you puke. At least until the monsters invaded.”

I knew what happened after that. In the early days of the Great Cataclysm, well-developed metropolitan areas and densely populated regions were the first targets of the monster armies, and humanity had been helpless against them.

Present-day Gangnam and Bundang had both been destroyed once and rebuilt. After the Great Cataclysm, true prime real estate fell into two categories.

Safe zones and Gate-dense areas.

Safe zones, where the chance of a Gate appearing was close to zero, were the best places for ordinary people to live. Gate-dense areas, meanwhile, offered ideal conditions for Hunter Guilds to establish themselves.

Like a snack bar in front of an elementary school.

There were around a hundred Gates in Bucheon. Many were low-level, but by sheer number, Bucheon still ranked among the ten most Gate-dense areas in all of Korea.

And this was the center of it.

I could tell just by looking at the skyscrapers packed around us. This was a neighborhood where your average small or mid-sized Guild couldn’t even set foot.

Just how rich is this guy?

I was staring at Team Leader Choi in awe when he spoke.

“Let’s work hard and move somewhere like that, too.”

“I’ll devote my loyalty to you…… Huh?”

“Pardon?”

“No, what?”

“What’s wrong?”

Damn it, why do you think? Are you asking because you don’t know?

I barely swallowed the words that had risen to my throat before managing to speak.

“You said we’d arrived?”

“Yes, we have.”

I whipped my head toward Butler Kim.

“Butler Kim, is this the place?”

“It is.”

Butler Kim nodded without hesitation, then added, “However, I believe you’re looking in the wrong direction.”

“The wrong direction?”

“Yes. If you turn your head a little to the right from where you’re standing, you should see it.”

I turned as instructed. After a brief silence, I asked, “What is that run-down building?”

Standing alone amid the luxurious skyscrapers, it looked especially small and dilapidated.

Butler Kim kindly explained.

“Strictly speaking, it’s a supermarket.”

“More precisely, it looks like a corner store.”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at the collapsing store. The yellowed sign read:

Sooni’s Super

“Who’s Sooni? What a tacky name.”

“She’s an old woman who’s lived here for seventy years.”

“Now that I think about it, it’s quite elegant. Sounds like a name that promises a long life.”

“She passed away two months ago.”

“Ah.”

Why is this happening to me?

“She was incredibly stubborn, so during the redevelopment of the Gate-dense area, she refused no matter how much money they offered. By then, the other Guilds had already established themselves… In the end, we purchased the property from her surviving family.”

“So that Sooni’s Super is our Guild house?”

“Precisely.”

I stared at the half-collapsed Sooni’s Super with mixed feelings.

A Guild house was the face of a Guild. Its signboard. No matter how expensive the land in this neighborhood was, they had really chosen a place like that……

No, wait. For a newly established Guild, this is incredible.

It was only that my expectations had been too high. In an industry crawling with scams, Team Leader Choi had shown me enough sincerity that I could trust him and follow his lead.

“Team Leader Choi.”

“Yes, Taekyung?”

I grabbed his hand.

“I’ll work really hard. I don’t care whether our Guild house is Sooni’s Super or Sooni’s Building.”

Team Leader Choi answered with an awkward expression.

“I’m glad you understand.”

“You know what they say. Though the beginning is humble, its end will be magnificent!”

“It’s already fairly magnificent. Butler Kim, how much did it cost to purchase that lot?”

Butler Kim answered, “A little over two billion won⁴ per pyeong.⁵”

“……Two billion won⁴ per pyeong?⁵”

“Yes.”

After a brief silence, I spoke.

“I believe the beginning is magnificent, but the end will be even more magnificent.”

“……”

“……”

Team Leader Choi and Butler Kim’s gazes pierced me like arrows. Just as they stared at me with expressions that seemed to ask, What kind of asshole is this? a sound rang out.

Screeeech. Crash!

Sooni’s Super

The sign, whose decades-old lettering had been neatly written in Hancom Batang,⁶ slammed into the ground.

“……It’ll look fine once we remodel.”

Team Leader Choi muttered in a tiny voice. Then the store door opened, and someone stepped out.

“Oh dear, it fell again.”

Grumbling, the monstrously strong man lifted the fallen sign with one hand. At the appearance of this completely unexpected person, my mouth fell open.

“Uncle Kkeokjeong?”

The good-natured, middle-aged E-rank Hunter Im Kkeokjeong spotted us and waved with a bright smile.

“Hey, Taekyung!”

What the hell? How did this happen?

While I stood there dumbfounded, Im Kkeokjeong approached and patted me on the shoulder.

“You little punk. Been doing well? I heard you made C-rank.”

“No, why are you here?”

“Hahaha! Why am I here? Is there something wrong with a Guild member being at the Guild house?”

After letting out a hearty laugh, he continued.

“I was stuck lying in the hospital when Team Leader Choi suddenly came to see me and asked if I wanted to join the Guild. I said yes without a second thought.”

Team Leader Choi, who had been looking sadly at the fallen sign, added, “He seemed like someone I could trust.”

“That young man knows what loyalty means. Mr. Kim over there doesn’t say much, but he’s a really good man. And Miss Song goes without saying.”

“No, wait. Hold on.”

What was going on here?

I asked as calmly as I could, “You joined recently?”

“Yeah.”

Team Leader Choi cut in again.

“He seemed like someone I could trust.”

“That young man knows what loyalty means. Mr. Kim over there doesn’t say much, but…”

“I heard that part already. What about the others?”

“Huh?”

“Where are the other Guild members? Surely these four aren’t everyone.”

“Of course not.”

Im Kkeokjeong answered firmly, then added, “Miss Song went grocery shopping. She said she’d throw you a welcome party.”

“Miss Song? Don’t tell me she’s the last one.”

“Yeah. Including Miss Song, there are five of us. She left over an hour ago, so she should be back soon.”

I couldn’t hear anything after that.

Five people.

Is this a dream?

Im Kkeokjeong’s booming voice snapped me out of my daze as I stared blankly at the collapsing Sooni’s Super.

“Oh, there she is. Miss Song! Over here, over here! The newbie’s here!”

I followed his gaze and turned my head.

The final Guild member of the ultra-tiny Guild, and one of its founding members.

She was there.