Ch. 7 - Awakening (3)

"A signing-off contract of 2.5 million dollars?"

 "Yes. It's probably the first time someone whose job isn't an offensive one has received such an offer."

 Even if I wasn't interested in the Supporter side of things, I still knew how much money they earned.

 There weren't many whose signing-off contract surpassed a hundred thousand dollars among Supporters.

 2.5 million dollars?

 It was as if I had just won the lottery. Let's think about how much money I'm earning right now.

 My current salary was about two thousand dollars per month. Although when they send me to the dungeon to help newbie hunters with their tests, I receive a huge bonus. Even considering that, it was nothing next to what most hunters earned.

 "The reason why we're offering you so much money is that we don't want to lose you. You already know that our Guild stuck on the number two position, right?"

 Of course, I knew. These people were spending a scary amount of money. Thanks to that, they were leaving the other number two guild behind.

 But there's a problem.

 What's the benefit of having a high-ranking hunter?

 The first thing is that they received a commission from the hunter's earnings that they made while exploring the dungeon. The Guild was in charge of taking care of the loot that the hunter obtained in the dungeon and selling it for a profit. Then the earnings of the sales were distributed accordingly to the contract.  

 You might be wondering. Then, isn't it better to do it alone?

 There's something called 'dungeon exploring rights.'

 The gates were unstable, and you never knew when things would get dangerous.

 The dungeon core was planted from the gate. After that happens, the dungeon tries to evolve by expanding its scope. To stop a gate from becoming a dungeon, you had to prevent it from increasing its territory.

 When a new dungeon appears, guilds try to gain exclusive access and explore it.

 But there were some dungeons in which the government allowed everyone to hunt freely. To enter these, you just had to pay a small fee. But the drop rate of these dungeons was bad. The chance of normal monsters to drop magical stones was pretty low.

 If you wanted to get magic stones, you had to hunt rare monsters. Some of them even dropped special items.

 If you were really lucky, there was a chance that you'd be able to get a cd or a USB drive that contained a skill. These could be sold for a lot of money.

 Then, to what guilds did they give the dungeon exploring rights?

 If they thought about what was best for the country, they should give the rights to the Guild that paid them the most amount of money. To stop the over-competition, governments had put a cap on the amount of money Guilds could offer.

 The only requisite was that the chosen Guild should be able to close the door safely.

 This meant that while bidding for access to a dungeon, Guilds with the most amount of A rank hunters had more chances to win the bid.

 Because of this, the only opportunity small guilds had to explore the dungeons was either if they discovered one by chance or they'd been sub-contracted by a larger Guild.

 The explanation got unnecessarily long.

 This person said that they needed me to raise the guild's status.

 According to her, the signing-off fee was 2.5 million dollars.

 She had said it, even the best Supporter of South Korea had only 45 spaces in this inventory.

 In the other world, there also was inventory. That's the reason why he knew how to use it. Back then, when he used to be the hero, he only had 10 inventory spaces.

 A difference of 5 spaces on the inventory was huge.

 A small weapon occupied only 1 space. A larger one, used between 2 and 3.  

 In 1 space, you could also put away six 2 liters water bottles.

 Sometimes, you had to fight opponents without water or food in the inventory.

 If there was a way to return to the base safely, this wouldn't be a problem. If they didn't have that, they'd be forced to drink water from moss or even piss.

 "What's my ranking?"

 After hearing my question, the person from TooShin Guild smiled.

 "Your stats are very high."

 Among non-offensive awakeners, he thought that only healers got offered so much money.

 "It's rare to see a bag carrier... No, I mean a hunter to have more than 100 stats from the beginning."

 The reason why they'd offered me so much money was that I was right now the Supporter with the most amount of space in South Korea. Also, my basic stats were quite high.

 'I thought that it was because of my status window that's still locked.'

 I assumed that she couldn't see what was hidden from her reaction. Even if he was curious about the locked status window, there was no way to check it yet.

 "How is it?"

 "Is 2.5 million your best price?"

 Most people would sign the contract immediately after listening to such an amount of money.

 2.5 million. It was a lot of money. Especially to someone who lived in a rented room.

 "That's the most amount of money that I'm allowed to offer."

 "Then I should put on a good show."

 After saying that, I stood up. You could see the confusion in the eyes of the representative of the TooShin Guild.

 "Put on a good show?"

 "Yes. I think that I may be worth more than that."

 Following that, I left the room.

 It hadn't rejected that offer because I hated the TooShin Guild. But, if another guild had made me a similar proposal, I'd have chosen the other one.

 I hadn't taken that decision because I'm petty.

 A representative of the human resources department that isn't considerate with the people with whom you may work for a very long time.

 The first impression you get from a business is usually based on the person doing the job interview.

 I felt that way.

 I think that there's a good chance of me being a dual awakener.

 He should try to learn how to awaken again, but he didn't have any hints right now.

 'You awaken when you complete certain pre-requisites. '

 The system tends to give you the abilities you need the most right at that moment.

 'The blondie still hasn't come out. Should I enter again?'

 I hope he hasn't done anything stupid.

 Our blondie had changed. There's no way he'd do something like that. I've trained him so hard to change his attitude.

 At that moment, I heard people from the Control Center shout.

 "S... Someone died! A murder has been committed!"

 "Died? Who?"

 Death? Murder?

 Our blondie has changed for the better. There's no way it's him, right?

 ** *

 He had already completed all the pre-requisites.

 Kim TaeYang was resting for a little bit. He looked at the respawn area. There he could see people that were struggling hunting.

 Kim TaeYang not only didn't struggle at all, but he also didn't sweat while hunting the lesser goblin.

 It's boring.

 'I think that I'm ready to fight stronger monsters.'

 The Anyang Amusement Park Dungeon had three layers.

 In the first area, only weak monsters appeared. That's why it was often used to train newbie hunters.

 People with more experience from the same guild had told him that he'd be able to solo play up to the second layer of the dungeon.

 Even his coach, Lee HyunBin, recognized his abilities. After all, he was the Hwarang Guild's rising star.

 'Since the coach isn't here, should I go down?'

 He wanted to go down but decided not to do it. The coach would probably get angry with him if he went down to the second layer of the dungeon.

 - So, mister hunter was bored, huh? That's because you're too relaxed. That's why we need to train more.

 - You're slow even at falling down, Kim TaeYang hunter.

 Kim TaeYang shook his head while remembering the hard times while training.

 At first, he laughed at him.

 Normally, trainers are ex-hunters.

 Just think about it. Can someone that has never driven teach someone how to drive?

 If someone that has never done military service tries to train someone in the special forces, he's probably going to get ignored.

 But Lee HyunBin was different.

 For someone that had never awakened, he surprisingly knew a lot about a hunter's abilities.

 He knew a lot about the status window. It was as if he had used the system UI a lot.

 Even if he had read the manual many times, it should be hard to have such a clear image of it inside his head.

 Not only that, he knew a lot about how to deal with monsters. From their characteristics to the behavioral pattern. Among his knowledge, there was also how to fight the monsters. And what to do in case of an emergency in the dungeon.

 But the most surprising thing by far was his ability to fight.

 When you awaken, most of your physical abilities go up. Your body becomes stronger.

 But the unawakened Lee HyunBin, was terrifyingly strong.

 It was impossible to land a hit on him. He also managed to counter-attack every single time.

 After two weeks of training, he finally concluded that Lee HyunBin wasn't someone he could beat. Admitting that made him feel better.

 'Should I hunt a little bit more?'

 Kim TaeYang walked towards the respawn area. But there was already another hunter there.

 "I... I can do it!"

 "Try harder!"

 There was a guy as thin as an anchovy, trembling while looking at the lesser goblin. Kim Taeyang turned around and started searching for another place.

 He finally found an empty one, but there were already people from the TooShin Guild there.

 Kang SeonSoo and Kim InHo looked at him. After bowing his head, he entered the hunting field.

 In the first layer, only one monster spawned at the same time.

 The lesser goblin approached Kim TaeYang with his weapon raised.

 Seeing their old and rusty weapon didn't even make him nervous.

 Kim TaeYang walked towards the goblin. His weapon was still inside the inventory.

 "Kiek!"

 Was it thinking that Kim TaeYang was making fun of it?

 The goblin screamed and ran towards him. It had probably gathered a lot of courage in order to do it.

 Kim TaeYang moved slightly and evaded its attack.

 He used less amount of movement possible to dodge the attacks. And used the less amount of attacks possible to beat the opponent.

 Kim TaeYang knocked down the lesser goblin with a low kick.

 Since it was a small monster, it became a middle kick rather than a low kick.

 The goblin dropped the weapon and rolled down on the floor.

 Kim TaeYang didn't finish the goblin and waited for it to get up.

 In his head, he was running a simulation. The style he was trying to copy was the one used by Lee HyunBin.

 Lee HyunBin was his role-model.

 The goblin crouched down as if asking for him to spare its life.

 It's annoying to see something so hideous asking for forgiveness.

 But Kim TaeYang waited. If what Lee HyunBin had taught was true, goblins were specialists in hitting below the belt.

 To beat an opponent, they were capable of doing anything. Just like the stone he had hidden within his hands right now.

 "Kiek!"

 Swish!

 A stone flew right in his direction.

 Kim TaeYang moved his head slightly and avoided the stone from hitting him.

 The goblin grabbed the knife it had previously dropped and charged at him.

 Kim TaeYang was perfectly reading the goblin's movement.

 No one would have guessed that he was a newbie, and this was his first time hunting.

 His mind was also very stable. It was as if he was playing a video game.

 He was about to attack the goblin when he heard a wave sound approaching from behind.

 Kim TaeYang moved backward and avoided the attack.

 Slit!

 The brain's fluid splashed in Kim TaeYang's face.

 Blood dripped from his chin. Kim TaeYang frowned.

 "Oh, sorry. I was just trying to help you."

 Kim InHo from the TooShin Guild had just raised his hands as if he was sorry.

 The hand ax he had thrown had successfully hit the goblin.

 Leaving aside the fact that he had stolen another person's prey, what he had just done was too reckless.

 "Do you find this funny?"

 After seeing Kim InHo laugh, Kim TaeYang started getting angry.

 The trainer from TooShin Guild that was in charge of him wasn't there at the moment.

 "It's just that I have a smiling face. Sorry."

 "Smiling face?"

 He kept smiling. Kim TaeYang approached him while warming up his neck.

 If he didn't have good reflexes, he would have surely died.

 This guy had almost killed him. If he doesn't kick his ass, people will make fun of him. I'm sure that even the coach would say that people like this needed to be beaten up.

 "What's happening?"

 "Are they fighting?"

 Since it looked like two newbie hunters were about to fight, people started to gather around.

 Kang SeonSoo, who had purposedly left the place, smirked.

 He was angry that the guy being trained by Lee HyunBin had taken away the spotlight from Kim InHo.

 Kim TaeYang was clearly better at attacking. But Kim InHo was a more balanced fighter.

 Kim InHo was strong, not only physically. He had a lot of useful skills.

 In a battle, it's very important to know the opponent's skill. In a fight among newbie hunters, it was a common occurrence that one got knocked out by the other hunter's unknown skill.

 'Since they're from the same generation, they'll probably meet each other often. So teaching him a lesson now could probably be the best.'

 Kang SeonSoo smiled. In a dungeon, a fight between hunters could happen. And as a result of that, one of the parties involved could get hurt. Although, things could get complicated if one of the parties involved died.

 Kang SeonSoo wondered what kind of expression Lee HyunBin would make if the hunter he was in charge of got hurt.

 Just a minute had passed since he left Kang SeonSoo alone.

 Someone had screamed near the entrance.

 It wasn't the scream of Kim TaeYang.

 'What's happening?'

 Someone was approaching.

 Kang SeonSoo opened the inventory and took out a weapon. He could feel goosebumps. Something unbelievable was happening.

 The screams started to fade away. From the alley, someone appeared.

 Tap Tap.

 "Hello."

 He had clean pomade hair and was wearing a suit. In his hand, he had a suitcase covered in blood.

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