Chapter 055
The contradictory monster flame that had been raging inside the shattered room gradually died down. I let out a long breath and stepped out, joining Lee Se-eun and Han Sang-ah.
"You actually killed Taebaek's partner hunter."
"I couldn't exactly let myself get killed in there."
Six fairly capable brutes, and as Lee Se-eun had said, Yoon Seong-hyeon was Taebaek's partner hunter.
When guys like that come charging in with the intent to kill, there's no way you can take it easy and toy with them. Besides, the place where I fought Yoon Seong-hyeon was a room, which honestly didn't give me much of an advantage.
"Taebaek's going to flip out and try to hunt you down now."
"It was an organization I was never going to get along with anyway."
There was never any reason to be friendly.
"And hunt me down and beat me up, huh. Well, I guess the Hanwha Eagles will win the championship someday too."
At my words, Han Sang-ah replied with a puzzled look.
"If you mean the baseball team Hanwha Eagles, they've won the KBO League championship five years in a row. Everyone's predicting they'll win again this year."
"…"
I stared at Han Sang-ah with a shocked expression. Who's been doing what for how many years now?
A fair amount of time had passed since I returned to Earth, but I hadn't exactly had the leisure to keep up with baseball rankings. That shocking bit of news hit my ears for the first time today.
For an entirely different reason, it really feels like the world is going downhill. Anyway, Han Sang-ah's story was certainly shocking, but my shock was my own problem, and it wasn't what mattered right now.
"Let's drop the baseball talk and talk about Taebaek."
The structure of the company called Taebaek is so famous that there's practically no one who doesn't know it. The only place with an actual representative. But strangely enough, I don't know much about that so-called representative himself.
When I looked at Lee Se-eun, she immediately spoke up.
"Taebaek's representative is named Seong Si-hun. A narcissist with a decent face, but he's strong."
"How strong are we talking?"
At my question, Lee Se-eun replied simply.
"Strong enough to lift Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and the London Eye with telekinesis and juggle them."
Wow. That's basically a walking natural disaster. Well, Taebaek decides everything by strength. They're like the protagonists of some insane cartoon where everything is settled by duels. There's no way Taebaek's representative would be weak.
"Then he's basically stronger than you, right?"
Lee Se-eun answered my question.
"He has a limitation. Seong Si-hun's telekinesis only works within a 20-meter radius."
If you step within 20 meters, he can choke you like Darth Vader or snap your neck outright. But outside that radius, he can't directly attack with telekinesis.
In other words, to attack someone beyond 20 meters, he has to lift something within his telekinetic range and throw it.
"Hard to even call that a real weakness."
I could already think of several ways to attack Seong Si-hun from outside 20 meters. But the moment any attack enters the space he controls, his overwhelming telekinesis would simply block it.
If I had to evaluate it, it's an extremely troublesome ability. With power like that, it's easy to see why he turned into a narcissist.
"For now, the transfer market is going to open soon…"
At my words, Lee Se-eun briefly glanced in the direction of London before continuing.
"The British Hunters Association is going to be busy because of you."
"Is that so?"
"You think only one or two hunter companies are going to come running, wanting to sign you? Britain's infrastructure is a mess right now, so the only place that can handle proper remote negotiations is the Hunters Association in London."
In other words, the phones at the British Hunters Association building were going to be ringing nonstop.
"I'm not planning on going anywhere."
At my words, Han Sang-ah and Lee Se-eun nodded as if they'd expected that. The contract with Britain would be ending soon anyway. It seemed the barrier generators installed in Dover had already finished gathering any meaningful data.
"I was planning to stay a while longer after the contract ended. But…"
Before the transfer market opens, I need to move quickly and raise my reputation even higher.
"So, what do you think? At this level, do you think we could handle Russia's Grade-1 Corrosion Source, 'Refrigerator'?"
At my question, Lee Se-eun replied.
"Once you get to Grade-1 Corrosion Sources, it's not just the monsters that matter—the gimmicks become massive variables too. I can't say for sure. Still… I'd say there's about a 40% chance."
Even if nothing's certain, 40% is an annoyingly ambiguous probability. With a serious expression, Lee Se-eun looked between me and Han Sang-ah.
"Adapting to the gimmicks inside a Corrosion Source isn't about raw power. It's about how much experience you have. And the two of you don't really have much of that."
After finishing, Lee Se-eun paused as if thinking something over, then spoke again.
"For reference, the bounty for eliminating the Corrosion Source Refrigerator is 38 billion won."
Han Sang-ah and I fell silent at the same time. How much did you say?
Suddenly, Lee Se-eun pulled out a calculator and started tapping away.
"Of course, it'd be basically impossible for just the two of you and me to waltz in and clear it. We'd need to account for the Corrosion Source's risk level… and hire an operating team too…"
A moment later, Lee Se-eun handed me something.
"What's this?"
"My junior and senior members. And there's a hunter company in Japan where an acquaintance of mine works. He owes me a favor. They won't help with clearing the Corrosion Source itself, but they'll at least help open a path until we reach it."
After adding in operating team costs and subtracting various other expenses, the money Han Sang-ah and I would each receive would be about 1.5 billion won.
That's only if we succeed.
Right now, I don't have the assets to hire the people Lee Se-eun mentioned.
Chapter 055 (continued)
In other words, it meant we'd have to hire them conditionally. Put more simply, it meant we'd pay them back with what we earned.
"What happens if we fail?"
At Han Sang-ah's perfectly reasonable question, Lee Se-eun answered briskly.
"That means you hired people and couldn't pay them. You'd both become debtors. Still, since you're hunters, you could probably scrape by for the rest of your lives paying just the interest."
When I looked at Han Sang-ah, she spoke up.
"I'm fine. Geumyang Group will cover my share."
"And me?"
At my question, Han Sang-ah replied simply.
"Using Geumyang Group's money to roll over your debt isn't a wise choice. You'd end up more miserable than an ordinary debtor. But if you're okay with that, I'll help."
What, are they going to drag me underground and make me do forced labor? I can already picture myself being moved by a skewer of chicken and a beer bought with my pitiful paycheck.
"But if we succeed, it's a jackpot. Taking down a Grade-1 Corrosion Source isn't something just anyone can do."
After finishing her sentence, Lee Se-eun rubbed her thumb and index finger together as she continued.
"Money will come pouring in bundles. Even if you don't want to earn it, you'll end up watching money make itself."
Either we drown in debt and crash spectacularly, or we use this job as a springboard and soar.
"Life isn't that big a deal."
I said that, stood up from my seat, and looked straight at Lee Se-eun.
"We do it."
There's no such thing as 'just trying once.' Life is like a burning scrap of paper—it flares up in an instant, then just as easily goes out.
"Good. Then I'll start preparing what I need. First…"
Lee Se-eun contacted someone.
"Hello, Nanami? Time to pay back your debt. What? Magical girls don't have debts? What kind of bullshit is that. Want to die?"
While Lee Se-eun handled matters in her role as a partner hunter of the prestigious hunter company Jannabi, Han Sang-ah and I diligently continued the same training as before.
And a week later, Lee Se-eun handed me some documents. It seemed the preparations for subjugating the Grade-1 Corrosion Source, Refrigerator, were complete.
"There's something you need to know in advance. Everyone's hired conditionally. Among the hunters I've mobilized this time, none of them will enter the Corrosion Source. To begin with, Refrigerator is a Corrosion Source that absolutely allows only two people to enter."
Everyone else would simply open a path so that we could reach the Corrosion Source.
"Come to think of it, if we fail to clear the Corrosion Source, won't Han Sang-ah and I just die?"
Once you enter a Corrosion Source, you can't come out unless you either die or destroy its core.
Which meant that once you entered, there'd be no need to worry about paying back debts at all. At my words, Lee Se-eun replied.
"There's a way."
As she said that, she showed something to Han Sang-ah and me. A small glass orb.
"This is…?"
Lee Se-eun answered.
"Glass Candy of Salvation. You don't eat it—you input your mana pattern into it and carry it with you. I'm planning to borrow it by putting my name on the line with the Korean Hunters Association."
It was essentially an extra life. Just hearing the price of a single one was enough to make you dizzy. Since Lee Se-eun was such an important hunter, it seemed the association had provided it to her.
And just in case, the Korean Hunters Association kept about fifty of these glass candies in storage.
"If you're on the verge of death inside a Corrosion Source, it forcibly pulls you out. The price of escaping is simple—you can never enter that Corrosion Source again."
In other words, failure.
"If you clear the Corrosion Source safely without using the candy, we'll naturally return it to the association."
But if we failed to clear it… we'd be ejected outside the Corrosion Source, and then our delightful debtor life would begin.
Naturally, we'd also have to pay for the glass candy that was consumed.
"Failure would be a disaster."
"Yeah. And once I started gathering people, broadcasters from all over the world went into an uproar."
If we failed here, not only would we be debtors, but all the fame I'd built up so far would vanish as well.
"Then let's go."
Heaven awaited us if we succeeded; hell if we failed. Han Sang-ah and I put on the in-ear devices Lee Se-eun handed us.
—Connection confirmed. This is Operator Team Seagull. Are you Hunter Yoo Chan-seok?
"Yes, connection confirmed."
A calm voice came through. I'd heard this was an operator team Lee Se-eun frequently contracted with.
—Current time is 13:57. Hunter Lee Se-eun and two others have been confirmed to have departed Dover. The final objective of this operation is the elimination of the Grade-1 Corrosion Source Refrigerator located in Bratsk.
The explanation about Refrigerator, our target this time, continued.
—Refrigerator in Bratsk requires exactly two entrants. No more, no fewer.
Exactly two people. Information I already knew from Lee Se-eun.
—Confirming once again. The hunters entering Corrosion Source Refrigerator are Yoo Chan-seok and Han Sang-ah, correct?
"Yes, that's correct."
Of course, if Lee Se-eun and I entered together, things might actually be easier. But then the impact people would feel would be too weak. A top-10-ranked hunter like Lee Se-eun accompanying us to clear a Grade-1 Corrosion Source?
That'd feel like getting carried on a bus. But if Han Sang-ah and I entered and cleared a Grade-1 Corrosion Source, that wouldn't be a carry at all.
I was already gambling with the resolve to become a debtor. If that was the case, I might as well choose the option with the bigger payoff.
—Honestly, I'm a bit worried.
Lee Se-eun's voice came through the in-ear.
"It'll be fine."
I muttered as I fidgeted with the glass orb in my pocket. This was the Glass Candy of Salvation Lee Se-eun had mentioned.
Entering the Corrosion Source with the resolve to die rather than become a debtor wouldn't mean much. My mana pattern was already imprinted in the glass orb. Only by exiting the Corrosion Source and going through the procedure to remove that mana pattern would the orb's protection disappear.
"Alright. Let's do this."