The Most Valuable Thing
Shine Mall was a heavyweight in the distribution industry that supplied goods to Hunter Logistics Centers, yet it had no offline stores of its own.
It operated exclusively online, so it maintained branch offices that doubled as warehouses across the country. When an order came in, the nearest branch shipped the product. The headquarters served as the nerve center controlling that entire logistics network—and as the largest warehouse of all, managing the stock for every branch—so people were always thronging through it in three rotating shifts.
"Still, that is honestly impressive."
"To be fair, I'm pretty stunned myself."
Inside what looked like a warehouse-style mart—no, an actual logistics warehouse—employees roamed around hunting for ordered items. And right in the middle of them, Jeong-Hoon was making his presence felt.
He wasn't wearing a luxury suit. He wasn't projecting the overwhelming aura that Steward Joo or Yeo Tae-Hyeon did. He was simply dressed like the other workers—short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans for easy movement—pushing a cart with a tablet in one hand.
Yet somehow he still stood out from everyone else.
"Jeong-Hoon, any idea where this one's kept?"
"Ah, that? You'll find it in Block C13."
When another employee walked up and showed him the item on a tablet, Jeong-Hoon answered immediately and pointed the way. It seemed like nothing special, but remembering even the things multi-year veterans often forgot was no ordinary talent.
"If I'd known about him before he became Gaju, I would've hired him as a full-time employee on the spot."
"That might have eased his hard years even a little."
Yeo Tae-Hyeon judged him exactly the kind of talent Shine Mall needed, and Steward Joo nodded in silent agreement.
A week had passed since the assignment began. Instead of hunting for Shine Mall's single most valuable object, Jeong-Hoon had thrown himself straight into the company's work. He wasn't evaluating products other companies delivered, either. He was handling the most basic task of all: logistics sorting.
He had gone into the warehouse to look for the object of the assignment, wandered around for a full day, and then declared he needed a better feel for the place. After that he simply grabbed a cart like everyone else, took a list of the items he would clear that day, and got to work. The people searching the warehouse for goods were a mix of regular employees and part-timers. Jeong-Hoon introduced himself as a part-timer, blended in naturally, and before long had the entire floor under his command.
"Hey! That load has to go to Warehouse 2!"
"What? Isn't this Warehouse 2?"
"This is Warehouse 1. Warehouse 2 is over that way."
He even caught mistakes made by the people stacking goods while looking after everyone else, and corrected them before they became problems.
"It's strange. From the information I received about Gaju, he never sounded like someone this exceptional."
"Whether the position made the man, or whether he was always like this and simply never had the chance… I'm still reeling from one surprise after another."
Steward Joo watched Jeong-Hoon through half-lidded eyes and shook his head. Whether the young man had been hiding his abilities all this time or some latent talent had simply surfaced, even the steward who had observed him long before bringing him in as Gaju found the current Jeong-Hoon disconcertingly different.
"Anyway, I was worried, but if he can take control of people around him like that, I can rest easy."
"What is there to worry about? We vassals exist precisely to cover whatever Gaju lacks."
"Come on, Steward. Do you really think an ordinary person could handle the family's truth?"
When Yeo Tae-Hyeon touched on the part they still had not told Jeong-Hoon, Steward Joo's brow furrowed.
"That is exactly why I am being careful."
Jeong-Hoon still believed only that he had become the head of a family that built corporations with staggering wealth and accumulated power the world knew nothing about.
"Huh? Isn't that already enough for him to guess?"
"…I have been guiding him to guess it himself from the beginning. If we simply told him first, it would only sour his mood, would it not? We should at least wait until he asks."
Yeo Tae-Hyeon let out a short, incredulous laugh.
"I'll bet you anything Gaju has already figured even that much out and is deliberately not asking so he won't have to carry the burden."
He had spoken with Jeong-Hoon for only a short time, yet he had already formed a solid read on the man. Yeo Tae-Hyeon nodded with absolute conviction. Steward Joo could not bring himself to deny it and only smiled bitterly.
Find the single most valuable thing in Shine Mall.
Nearly a week had passed since he received that assignment. Jeong-Hoon pushed a cart loaded with the items he had found that day and hummed under his breath.
"…Today's work is done too."
Still humming, he flashed a grin toward the CCTV that he could feel watching him, then looked around as if searching for something.
He was only pretending to search.
Honestly, the day he first heard the assignment and returned to Lumen, Jeong-Hoon had already been certain what it was pointing to. Probability of being right: 99.9 percent. If he was wrong, there was no hope left.
The reason he had still spent a full week after arriving at that answer was simple.
"I never managed to get a job at Shine Mall, but at least I got to work here once. I should be satisfied with that."
It was a bucket-list item. Most of Jeong-Hoon's part-time jobs had been at Dungeon Logistics Centers. He had always wanted to try working at Shine Mall as well, but the competition was so fierce he never got the chance. Somewhere along the way it had landed on his bucket list—and this time he had finally checked it off. On top of that, because he was not actually employed, he could work with a light heart. It almost felt like playing.
"Still, I wonder if I overdid it and ended up getting on Representative Yeo's nerves."
Judging his own floor-dominating charisma as nothing more than showing off, Jeong-Hoon shook his head, suddenly self-conscious. Because it felt more like a fun outing than real work, he had swung around freely and drawn every eye in the place. He was still surprised he even possessed a talent like this.
Come to think of it, ever since becoming Gaju he had been discovering one unknown talent after another. Self-defense, firearms, even the etiquette lessons Steward Joo and the head maid oversaw—both of them had been astonished by how gifted he proved to be. They were not simply flattering him. When he made a mistake or got something wrong, both of them drilled him mercilessly. Their standard was the previous Gaju himself.
Jeong-Hoon had never met that man—his uncle—but he had been born into the family, raised and educated to become Gaju, and had actually held the position. Using someone like that as the measuring stick meant their eyes were extremely sharp. Even so, both of them acknowledged that Jeong-Hoon had real talent. Steward Joo had even gone so far as to say, "Blood truly does not lie," and brought up Jeong-Hoon's grandfather, a man Jeong-Hoon himself had never seen.
His grandfather, they said, had opposed the family's principles at the time and severed ties. Until then, however, he had shown every quality of an excellent Gaju. His opinions had simply been too dangerous for the family of that era, so when he left of his own accord the family made no particular effort to stop him. As a result, after the world changed and his uncle's life hung by a thread, they searched for a new Gaju candidate and found Jeong-Hoon—the family's sole surviving blood relative—and appointed him Gaju.
"That's as much of the family's secret as I know."
If he dug any deeper, doubts about the family began to surface. Steward Joo had said that once all the family's corporations were gathered and Jeong-Hoon completed the assignments and was recognized as the true Gaju, the family's latent power would be enough to found a nation. That was no joke. Looking at the corporations he had received, the 12 Vassals, and the list of roughly three thousand retainers made that clear.
No matter how much wealth they possessed or how many loyal retainers had served the family for generations, the scale was suspicious—far too suspicious. Every single one of those three thousand retainers was A-class or higher. Among the 12 Vassals there were three SSS-class, four SS-class, and five S-class. Even among the top ten guilds, S-class hunters were rare enough that they were usually the guild master or vice-master. SS-class and above were classified as national-level figures and rarely engaged in ordinary guild activity; among the top ten guilds, only about three even had an SS-class hunter. Yet the Awakened already under the family's control already numbered at national-power levels. Forget founding a nation—they could easily aim to overthrow one with that kind of force.
Could mere accumulated wealth and loyal retainers have built such military power in only ten years?
"Absolutely not."
Jeong-Hoon shook his head, thinking of Steward Joo, who kept gently pushing him toward the family's secrets. Whatever secret the family was hiding almost certainly had something to do with the monsters that had suddenly appeared. Or perhaps the family itself was the dark hand that had released the monsters upon the world. That possibility was why he was refusing to approach the family's secrets any closer. That did not mean he intended to reject the position of Gaju.
"In the end, the one who decides that is still me."
Muttering to himself, Jeong-Hoon wheeled the cart up to the counter and smiled at the man checking the goods.
"Jeong-Hoon, good work today too."
"Thanks. You too. Wait—aren't you going to check?"
"Come on. When has Jeong-Hoon ever gotten it wrong?"
"You still have to check."
The man was about to send the cart straight through to shipping without even looking at the list. Jeong-Hoon stopped him, but the man still refused. That kind of trust was something you gave only to a handful of people who had worked there for years—not to a part-timer who had not even been there a full week. Yet this man's confidence in Jeong-Hoon already outstripped that of multi-year veterans.
"Please check it anyway. It's my last day and I'd feel weird otherwise."
"Last day? I thought you were getting hired here."
"Nah, I just came to help out for a bit. Time to head back to my real job."
He had enjoyed his Shine Mall part-time stint enough; it was time to wrap it up. Jeong-Hoon grinned. Come to think of it, the family's corporations were perfect for checking off the rest of his bucket list.
"That so? Well, someone like you was never going to be unemployed. Thanks for everything."
Hearing the regret in the man's voice, Jeong-Hoon nodded and shook his hand. He considered saying goodbye to the others as well, but a flashy exit was not his style. He planned to leave quietly. Besides, if he went around shaking hands with everyone, the resolve he had finally formed—to truly become the family's Gaju—might start to waver.
"…Time to give the answer."
Steeling himself, Jeong-Hoon left the warehouse and headed for a quiet corner of Shine Mall. He had marked the spot over the past week; as expected, no one was around. He snapped his fingers.
"You called, Gaju?"
"Have you found the answer?"
Steward Joo and Yeo Tae-Hyeon appeared as if they had been waiting. Jeong-Hoon swallowed, avoided their heavy gazes, and opened his mouth.
"Where is the supply contract we signed with the Dungeon Logistics Center?"
"…It's in my office. Why are you looking for that?"
The moment he stated the answer he had been certain of from the first second he heard the assignment, Yeo Tae-Hyeon's eyes lit up.
"Because that's the answer."
After the world changed, Shine Mall had been born and risen to become a distribution giant. The foundation of that rise was the recognition it gained by supplying the Dungeon Logistics Centers the government had established to control hunters and guilds. The moment that contract ended, Shine Mall's entire business stability would take a direct, devastating hit. That made it the single most valuable thing the company possessed.