An Offer You Can't Refuse
"Hey! What the hell are you doing? Move it already!! Over here, hurry up!!"
The moment we returned to base, the female soldier awakeners who ran the place were waving us over, working the hunters like pack mules. Inside a Gate saturated with mana, you couldn't bring in electronics, gunpowder, explosives, or fuel — every job had to be done by hand.
I had never once seen those female soldier awakeners who supposedly managed the base do any of the work themselves. Not every female soldier was like that, maybe — but the ones running our base sure as hell were.
"Hey. Is that…"
"Aren't those the magic stones we stockpiled?"
Magic stones.
The red pebbles that came out of a monster's body when you killed it. They were worthless rocks to anyone else — but to awakeners, they were the one thing that actually mattered. Awakeners who could handle mana would grind them up, dissolve them in an electrolyte drink, and down the mixture to restore stamina and mana.
We called it a potion, and potion-making was part of our daily routine. Beyond that, the stones were useless. So why the hell were they suddenly mobilizing every hunter in the base to haul them out? The members of the three parties who'd gone on the boss raid all looked at me at once.
I looked right back at them.
The reason was obvious enough.
A worthless red rock had just transformed into a magic item that could generate hundreds of millions in revenue. Of course they were going to sell it. Wouldn't you?
"You lot. If you're back, get over here and help. They want everything moved outside the Gate by end of day."
One of the female soldiers spotted us and waved us over.
"You mean everything in the warehouse?"
"Yeah. All of it."
"Why are we suddenly moving this stuff?"
Playing dumb, Yeonghak hyung stepped forward and asked. The female soldiers' faces twisted at the question.
"How should I know? It's the base commander's orders. Stop talking and start hauling."
The three parties who'd dismounted from the wyverns, plus me and Yeonghak hyung, walked slowly toward the warehouse. Then we stepped into the path of the hunters who'd been packing magic stones into sacks and hauling them for hours, and brought them to a halt.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
The female soldiers shrieked at us, but Yeonghak hyung didn't so much as flinch.
"Everyone stop. Put all of this back in the warehouse."
"What?"
The hunters started glancing back and forth between the female soldiers and Yeonghak hyung, frozen in indecision. At his words, the most senior of the female soldiers strode right up to him.
"Lee Yeonghak. Have you lost your mind? You've already got three years of extended service, right? Want me to add another year?"
But Yeonghak hyung wasn't the least bit intimidated.
"Hey."
"…Hey?"
"You fucking bitch. I've been grinding it out in this shithole for ten years already. You think adding a few more years is gonna make me so much as bat an eye?"
The relentless stream of curses and the murderous killing intent rolling off him made the female soldiers flinch and stumble back. Yeonghak hyung roared over them.
"Stop moving the magic stones! Put them back in the warehouse!! These things are worth money!!! America made a room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor out of this shit!!"
The hunters who'd been frantically hauling magic stones all froze at once. They stared blankly down at the pebbles in their hands. These? These rocks that were good for nothing except grinding into an electrolyte drink?
Hyung wasn't done shouting.
"We're taking these for ourselves!! We eat, and we sell them to whatever country pays the most!! We've been worked like slaves on two million won a month — isn't it about goddamn time we stopped?! Fuck!! Let's live well for once, you bastards!!!"
"L-Lee Yeonghak!! This is insubordination!! Insubordination!! If we report this to the Ministry of Defense—!!"
At the female soldier's shriek, Yeonghak hyung wordlessly drew the sword from his back and set the blade against her throat. Aura blazed along the edge, and the sound of searing flesh crackled in the air. The senior female soldier froze solid.
"Go ahead. Report the insubordination. You fucking bitches."
At hyung's move, the three parties who'd just come back from the boss raid drew their weapons in unison and advanced on the female soldiers. Still covered head to toe in ancient dragon blood from the kill, they walked forward with aura roaring off their blunt weapons.
The female soldiers' legs gave out. They collapsed where they stood.
"Wh-what do we… what do we do…"
"We have to tell Base Commander Cho Geunseong…"
The three parties closed in around the sniveling women.
"Disarm them. Strip them of every key, every ledger, everything they need to run this base — then throw them outside the Gate."
"Yes, hyung."
Just yesterday, these female soldiers had lorded over the hunters with nothing but Cho Geunseong's authority behind them. Now, under the sheer weight of violence, they didn't manage a single word of protest. They were subdued, stripped of everything, and driven out beyond the Gate.
Just like that, only men were left inside the base.
Every last one of them a conscripted active-duty hunter, dragged here against his will.
One hundred and three in total.
Yeonghak hyung ordered the magic stones put back in the warehouse, then gathered every hunter in the center of the parade ground.
"Like I said!! Those magic stones in the warehouse are worth a fortune!! And we're taking them!!"
The hunters started murmuring at his words.
"Just like that, all of a sudden?"
"What if they extend our service?"
"The Ministry of Defense isn't going to sit still for this."
Yeonghak hyung burst out laughing.
"Hey. Listen up, you bastards. From now on, you're going to want to keep doing this job. You're going to make tens of thousands of times more money than you ever would living as a civilian after discharge."
Ten years of leading hunters had taught Yeonghak hyung exactly how to seize a crowd.
"From now on, the Republic of Korea is going to be the one bowing to us!! Everything they put us through — now we get to bleed them dry for it! You hear me? Tomorrow! Just wait until tomorrow!! I'll show you the government on its knees!!"
Murmurs. Bewildered faces.
But public opinion swung to Yeonghak hyung's side in an instant. Sangmin's absurd, senseless death had left every hunter in the base seething with bitter resentment toward the government.
Of course, that patience was only temporary. Most of the hunters were still terrified of the punishment that might come crashing down for what they'd just done. The only reason they were holding still at all was because it was Yeonghak hyung — the highest-ranking veteran who'd spent ten years risking his life on the front lines — telling them to.
"Everyone get back to your posts and do your jobs. Fortify the base and keep training for monster incursions! Parties Forty-One and Forty-Two, you're with me — we hold the Gate. Nobody lays a finger on the magic stones in that warehouse. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Nobody goes hungry and nobody gets hurt! I give you my word!"
Having seized the base in a matter of minutes, Yeonghak hyung dismissed the hundred-odd hunters and immediately called me over.
"We've taken the base. But you know this isn't the end."
"I know, hyung."
Aside from the hundred hunters inside, the only people managing them were a handful of female soldier awakeners who never set foot in a fight because it was too dangerous. The structure was built so that mutiny was always an option. And Base Commander Cho Geunseong knew that perfectly well.
So why set it up this way?
The reason was simple.
After ten years of experience, the Ministry of Defense had figured out that the best way to control the hunters inside a Gate was to occupy the outside.
"Food, water, medicine — we've only got one day's worth of each. Every single day, just enough daily essentials come through the Gate to cover that day's consumption. Now that we've pulled this stunt, the supply drops are going to stop. Starting tomorrow, we starve."
Hunters only wielded superhuman power inside the Gate. The moment they stepped outside, they were no different from ordinary people. So the Ministry stationed military units outside the Gate and controlled the hunters by cutting off everything the instant they rebelled.
No matter how much rage you carried toward the Korean government, go one day without food or water and a person loses their reason. That was why every mutiny that had flared up at the base over the past ten years had collapsed the moment the food and water were cut off.
Cho Geunseong would probably not so much as raise an eyebrow when he heard the female soldiers had been thrown out. It was an unexpected development, sure — but he'd figure that controlling the supply drops would still put a leash around our necks.
But the situation was different now.
We'd seen the news. We knew magic stones were worth a fortune.
And with that, we could make a deal.
"I'll take the magic stones on the wyverns and head for the American sector. I'll cut a deal with the US government."
"You can pull that off?"
"Essentials. Medicine. I'll bring everything. And I won't stop there — I'll open up a disposal route for the magic stones we've got, too."
Yeonghak hyung nodded.
"I started this because I trusted you. That means you own it. You understand?"
"Of course. I'll be back before tomorrow."
I loaded a sack of magic stones onto Yongil — the fastest of my three wyverns — and launched straight into the sky. I'd been drilled until my ears bled that trespassing into another country's territory inside the Gate was a serious violation of international law. But so what?
We'd already staged an open mutiny. International law wasn't about to stop us now.
And as far as I knew, America was not a country that turned down anything that made money.
Not a chance.
"Good God. Is this real?"
Vincent Volkov, President of the US Hunter Association, was staring at a report that had come up from DARPA, lightheaded and laughing in disbelief.
"Elixir doesn't just make room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors — it has applications in medicine and industry, and Rift Stones can even be used to build anti-gravity devices?"
His secretary, who'd already finished reading the report, smiled patiently and repeated the same answers for Vincent, who kept asking about content he'd already been told.
"Everyone's calling Elixir 'Magic Water.' They're saying this is the most shocking discovery since the invention of fire. Corporate inquiries are flooding in so hard the phone lines are about to melt."
"Magic Water!! That's exactly what it is! Just refined worthless red rocks — and who the hell knew they'd be this useful! Hahahaha!!! Tell me more! More!! What else can it do?!"
"In medicine, Magic Water shows potential as a cancer treatment, an AIDS treatment — and above all, a cure for hair loss. It can also function as a perfect insulator, which opens applications in aerospace. They're saying it could even apply to room-temperature nuclear fusion."
"Insane! This is insane!!"
"And that's only what they've confirmed so far. There's no telling how many more technologies will come out of continued research. The White House and every major corporation are in a frenzy demanding inventory checks on the magic stone stockpiles at every American base inside the Gates."
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!!"
President Volkov finally couldn't hold it in and started dancing.
Had there ever been a happier day?
But the victory dance didn't last. He stopped dead.
"There's a problem, though. We don't have many high-level hunters, do we?"
"That's… true."
"Which means our magic stone reserves aren't that large either, right?"
"…That's correct."
America had maintained a thoroughly defensive posture regarding Gates and rifts. They poured hundreds of millions into building as many bases as possible within their zones, and whenever a rift opened nearby, they dragged the monster hordes and bosses surrounding it back to the base and dealt with them through siege warfare.
As a result, hunter fatalities, PTSD rates, and injury ratios were virtually nonexistent compared to Korea's — but the trade-off was that hunter levels and stockpiled magic stones were critically insufficient.
"The higher-level the monster, the more magic stones it drops. And to kill high-level monsters, you need high-level hunters."
"Yeah. Yeah. I know. But high-level hunters don't just pop into existence overnight. What the hell do we do about this?"
The president and his secretary fell silent, lost in thought.
That silence was shattered by an association employee who knocked urgently and burst into the room.
"President Volkov! You need to take this call right now!"
"What's so urgent that—"
"Hurry! Just take it!"
Volkov took the phone with a dubious look — and his expression lit up in an instant.
"A m-minimum stockpile of thirty tons? He actually said that? Holy shit!! I'm going right now!!!"
A shortage of high-level hunters.
A shortage of magic stone reserves.
A savior who could solve both problems in one stroke had just appeared in the American sector inside the Gate.