No Regrets in the Choice
Items come in six tiers, from Common to Unique, Rare, Legendary, and Mythic.
Their value jumps dramatically after Unique. Besides raw performance, Unique items also carry the rarity factor—one-of-a-kind in the world, so the scarcity principle kicks in hard. High-rank hunters often treat Rare and lower as trash.
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**【UNIQUE】Left Eye of Oculus** (Wearable location: Neck) One of the ancient Guardian Oculus’s pair of eyes. When equipped, the wearer can summon it to track enemies and conduct wide-range surveillance. The Left Eye of Oculus can freely roam within 1 km of the wearer according to their will, detecting even stealth and traps.
▶ **[Third Eye]:** Summon the “Left Eye of Oculus” within a 1 km radius (Cooldown 15 minutes) ▶ **[Detection]:** Can detect hidden enemies; warns the wearer of enemy positions and movements. Cannot pass through walls or obstacles.
Bound upon equipping.
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A floating necklace with a single eyeball dangled in mid-air.
It rolled lazily, scanning the surroundings.
Those curious, childlike pupils were utterly adorable.
“Active skill item!” “How much is it?” “Combat support utility is high, so the asking price makes sense. Especially lately with the surge in PK, Detect items are almost impossible to find. The only downside is it doesn’t boost direct combat stats… but I can see the initial bid hitting around fifty billion.”
I nearly dropped my jaw.
“Congratulations, sincerely. Heh heh. You planning to sell?” Fifty billion. An amount that could graduate from capitalism itself. My father and I could live off interest for the rest of our lives without ever working again. That’s the definition of “work is finally over.”
But the temptation burned stronger.
“Can I use it just once?” “Too bad, it’s bound and you can’t sell it.”
The Oculus Eye blinked at me with a puppy-dog gaze. It couldn’t speak, but its eyes screamed, “Hurry up and summon me!”
And above all, being able to move freely within 1 km while sharing my vision felt like the perfect function I’d been missing. Plus, watching from above through the Oculus Eye would probably create its own mini-map.
In the end: *With this, I could probably head straight to Kalid alone.*
I could spot monsters’ positions and dodge all the risks.
“If you’re selling, I know a top-tier archer who’d pay over fifty billion. I can introduce you.”
Even with Kim Cheolgeun’s offer, I still grabbed the Left Eye of Oculus.
At the same moment, the radiant light spilling from the synthesis board faded away.
The board fell silent as if nothing had ever happened.
“I’ll be using this.”
I couldn’t bear to give it away.
“Are you serious? A fifty-billion necklace? You could buy an Artifact that raises all stats by twenty. Are you sure you won’t regret it?”
Twenty all-stats? I’d be tempted too. One of those and I could kill Goblins with a pickaxe without grinding, skipping the whole “squish every mosquito and grind levels painfully” phase.
But I shook my head.
“Yes.”
I hung the Left Eye of Oculus around my neck.
**【『Skeleton Star』 smiles contentedly.**】**
The Skeleton Star confirmed that my choice was right. Money is money, right?
**【Left Eye of Oculus has been bound.**】** **【Skill ‘Third Eye’ is now available.**】**
I, who’d never even worn a fifty-thousand-won coat, now sported a fifty-billion-won necklace.
“Summon.”
The same command I used for skeleton soldiers, but the result was different.
The Oculus Eye closed its eyes, and right in front of me a single eyeball appeared.
It looked exactly like the one dangling from the necklace.
“Ugh… my head feels dizzy.”
At the same time, a brand-new sensation flooded in. It was like putting your phone against one eye and opening both—your vision overlapped.
When I closed both eyes, I could now see through the Oculus Eye.
“Do I look like this?”
Experiencing myself from a third-person viewpoint was strangely novel. Even the mirror reflection didn’t match perfectly, and my back was completely unfamiliar.
The Oculus Eye moved at my will and its vision was shockingly sharp.
When I opened my eyes again, the double vision returned.
“How is it?” “Amazing. I’ll need a lot of time to get used to it.” “I’m so jealous…”
The Oculus Eye floated out the window and hovered in the sky, looking down.
Whoa. No separate mini-map needed.
Higher up.
The Oculus Eye’s control range was 1 km.
I took it straight to the limit.
The Oryukdo Gate came into view in a single glance. Kalid, way in the distance, looked almost tiny.
Kalid stood tall, head high, fast asleep.
Looking through the Oculus Eye from an altitude of roughly one kilometer felt exactly like standing atop Songnisan Mountain and overlooking the world.
“I don’t think I’ll ever regret this.”
I recalled the Oculus Eye and opened the eyes that had been closed all night. Even while equipped, I could detect stealthy enemies.
“Congratulations, hunter. You’ve grown a few ranks already.” “Thank you, Boss.” “I’m just getting paid for it. This is my real reward. Hot hot.” “Boss, as a thank-you, can I clean your shop once?” “Clean? Forget it, it’ll just get like this again anyway.” “I’m worried it’ll be bad for your health. You should live a long time.” “Heh heh, neat is better, but there’s no point forcing myself.” “No hassle at all. Summon.”
Two skeleton soldiers appeared.
“Hansik, take the kids and clean this place spotless.” *Got it.*
Hansik found cleaning supplies and gave orders to his brother skeletons through sign language. They moved with perfect efficiency.
Cleaning flowed from top to bottom. First the ceiling dust…
“Cough. Boss, you should step outside and let the wind blow away some dust.” “Hmm? Wait a sec.”
Kim Cheolgeun pulled a drink from the fridge and handed it to me.
Doctor Pepper. A drink that sparks massive controversy.
“Thank you.” “Our kid said he likes this one. Never heard of it, so I bought it. Turns out my son’s the same as me. Now I’m addicted too. Heh heh.”
I took a sip. Not my style at all. I just moistened my lips.
The night breeze was a little chilly.
“Thanks to this, I got a great item. Thank you, Boss.” “My job, right? If the Oculus Eye could reach America, that would’ve been great. Of course it’s yours… but still.”
A note of longing colored his voice.
I stayed silent, becoming the perfect listener.
“My eldest was talented in music. I sent him to a piano academy, and the foreign teacher said if he went to America he could blossom. At the time I told my wife, ‘I’ll earn money and send him, so you focus on his education in America.’”
“Would you regret it?”
Instead of answering, he pulled out his phone and opened his gallery.
“Want to see?”
The screen was packed with photos, but one glance told me they were all family pictures—his without him.
He scrolled rapidly, then played a video and handed it to me.
“2024 LA International Piano Competition. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2. That’s my son playing. Looks good, right?” “Yes.”
Actually, the photo was taken from far away, so his features weren’t sharp. But the tuxedo-clad posture oozed confidence and looked perfectly dashing.
The grand orchestral overture began. Kim Cheolgeun closed his eyes and waved his hands like he was conducting an invisible baton. The motions matched the real conductor’s almost exactly.
“Amazing.” “Right?”
Under the moonlight, in silence, the piano sang its own little monologue. Melodies filled with loneliness and longing.
In the final movement, my son’s son poured out flawless technique and free, dynamic energy.
Even I, who didn’t understand music, recognized it was extraordinary.
The piece ended at the triumphant peak with a soaring energy that felt like a victory march.
Thunderous applause.
Kim Cheolgeun bowed politely toward the empty space as if the applause were for him. This time the gesture matched his son perfectly. Now I noticed the body shape was quite similar too. Even though he wore a shabby, dusty work outfit instead of the flashy tuxedo.
Behind my son’s glory stood this father’s sacrifice.
Somehow my nose stung. I rubbed the tip with my index finger.
“He didn’t win first place, but you know David McKenzie, right? Music critic. He said both technical perfection and musical interpretation were outstanding. The five-star review he gave in that competition was only for my son. Even the other winners couldn’t get five stars.”
I didn’t know David McKenzie, but I clapped along. “And our daughter… she was beautiful from the moment she was born. Want to see?” “Whoa… she really is beautiful.” “Right? The older she gets, the prettier she becomes. It’s worrying.”
His child-bragging continued long after that, until Hansik came back through the back door to announce the cleaning was done.
The workshop was astonishingly neat.
“Ah no! In such a short time? Honestly I didn’t expect anything, but this is way better than expected!”
The three skeleton soldiers cheered.
“Ah, nothing special. Just doing my best.”
The skeletons did the real work, while I played the part of the boss.
And Kalid’s stomach still had plenty of synthesis materials left.
Since I’d be seeing Boss Kim Cheolgeun again, I needed to keep a good relationship.
“No, it’s not just talk. Do you know how hard it is to hire awakened people for these kinds of tough jobs? Their egos are so high. What if I hired just one skeleton soldier here? I’ll pay fifty thousand won per hour. Eight hours a day at night would be perfect.”
Fifty thousand won an hour, eight hours? That’s four hundred thousand won a day! More than a month! Better than delivery work.
“Really?” “Really! I need help twenty-four seven without holidays. I can’t do it alone. One assistant would make everything easier. How about from ten in the morning until seven? Starting tomorrow.” “Sounds great. But the commute is a bit far from Seoul to Busan.” “Then I’ll pay sixty thousand won per hour. That should be enough, right?” “Of course!”
He tore off the recruitment notice on the door and we quickly wrote up a short employment contract before parting.
It was early morning, and time to sleep had passed. I summoned the Left Eye of Oculus again.
The [Detection] option attached to the Oculus Eye was incredibly strong. It even caught the tiniest movements of monsters active in the dark night.
“Hmm… I might be able to head out and farm mosquitoes soon.”
A safe path to Kalid without monsters in sight appeared.
But now I only had about thirty hours left in Busan.
The remaining experience for upgrading the skeleton soldier summon skill was 9,820, and with no one to help me grind mosquitoes, I’d have to push hard the rest of the night just to level up.
“Then I won’t even be able to loot the honey stomach.”
There was no way to stuff a skeleton soldier into Kalid’s nostril through his sleep.
Thinking about it, even if it somehow entered the esophagus and settled in the stomach, if it had gone the wrong way it would have entered the lungs instead.
The time until the crystal trading market opened felt endless.
While I wandered, thinking about all kinds of things, I passed the Oryukdo blacksmith district and reached the bustling street.
♬
Guesthouses, restaurants, bars, karaoke rooms, even emo cafés and nightclubs.
Drunk hunters’ loud voices mixed with thumping music.
I couldn’t focus on the Oculus Eye in the noisy crowd, so I turned again.
**【Monster Material District】**
Another street with a pungent smell.
Nighttime businesses were also open here.
**【Oryukdo Monster Materials Mega-Mart】**
From the entrance, expensive-looking items dangled from various monster corpses—worthless display, but still eye-catching. The name “mega-mart” was a bit exaggerated; a regular supermarket would have sufficed.
“Whoa…”
Still, the variety was amazing. Salted Perilorok whole bodies, places where only monster bones were meticulously cleaned and stacked, meat corners, leather corners, internal organs, claws, fangs, eyeballs, fur—everything under the sun.
“Eh?”
Something caught my eye among them. Something I was already sick of seeing.
A freshly salted Perilorok corpse. It looked like it could wake up and walk at any second.
Perilorok had almost no value as a monster material except that its back legs tasted good, so it was ridiculously cheap. One only cost three hundred thousand won. With awakened hunter wages, even the transport fee felt like a rip-off…
Then a sudden thought struck.
“Hmm… Do I really have to go through the nose?”
I could just swallow it whole, right? My lips curled up at the thought of raiding the honey stomach.