Corpse Trading and Daily Life
I opened the office door and stepped inside. A middle-aged man rose from his seat to greet me.
"Welcome." It was Lee Tae-shik, president of Seongwon Industries. He paused while organizing documents and gave me a slow, appraising once-over.
"Yes, sir. You mentioned last time that you wanted troll corpses. I brought some."
His eyebrows lifted slightly. "Already?"
He paused for a moment, then added with a chuckle, "You’re quite capable."
"I had a bit of luck."
Lee Tae-shik nodded lightly and stood. "Well, we can’t discuss this here. Let’s move to the warehouse I mentioned before."
The moment the warehouse door opened, cold air rushed out and a vast space came into view. The president walked toward the worktable with practiced steps.
"You can unload them here."
I nodded silently and opened my dimensional pouch. The space warped, and a troll corpse dropped onto the floor. Two more followed—three in total. I also set down two ten-liter glass bottles I had stored separately.
At that instant, the president’s gaze changed. It was no longer the calculating look of a merchant, but a sharp, precise assessment. He circled the corpses slowly, examining the cut surfaces, joint conditions, and skin damage without missing a single detail.
"The condition is…" He hesitated briefly before speaking in a low voice. "Quite good."
"I minimized unnecessary damage. I also preserved as much blood as possible."
His eyes moved to the glass bottles. "So that’s why there’s still blood left."
A brief silence followed, during which I could almost hear the calculations running through his mind.
"Two thousand per corpse, as discussed. I’ll pay ten million won per bottle for the blood. That comes to eighty million won total. How does that sound?"
I nodded and took out a case containing mana stones from my dimensional pouch, placing it on the worktable.
"You said you’d also buy mana stones. There are thirty B-rank stones and about fifteen C-rank ones."
Lee Tae-shik opened the case and checked the contents. Once, then twice. His movements were far too practiced.
"At this quantity…" He calculated for a moment. "I’ll settle everything for two hundred million won in cash."
A short while later, the money he retrieved from the office safe was laid out on the table. I verified the amount and stored it in my dimensional pouch.
Just then, Lee Tae-shik spoke again. "By the way, I don’t believe I’ve heard your name yet."
"It’s difficult to reveal right now."
After a brief silence, he nodded and continued. "There are quite a few people like that. Sometimes it causes trouble once a name gets out."
He added, "If you have any more corpses, equipment, or mana stones in the future, we’ll offer you the best possible rates."
"Understood. I’ll bring more equipment or mana stones when I get the chance."
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, I left the office. Even after closing the door, the feeling of being watched lingered.
On the way home, my phone rang. It was Team Leader Yoo Mira.
"How have you been lately? Are you doing well? I’m sorry for calling out of the blue—you might have been surprised. The Investigation Bureau has been so busy that I couldn’t help but think of you."
"Yes, I’ve been doing fine. I heard the Bureau has been very busy."
"Yes. We’re short on people but the workload keeps increasing. Sometimes I think quitting was actually the right choice for you."
A brief pause followed.
"Do you have any plans for dinner tonight? If you’re free, would you like to grab a light meal together?"
"No, I don’t have any plans yet. Let’s eat together."
"That’s a relief. I’ll pick a place and contact you again. See you soon."
The call ended there.
When we sat down for dinner that evening, it was the first time we had met alone, so it wasn’t exactly comfortable. Still, the awkwardness wasn’t so bad that we needed to address it. We talked naturally about life after quitting and the current situation at the Bureau—who was still there, what the atmosphere was like, and how things that once felt ordinary now seemed distant.
After the meal was mostly finished and we ordered another round of drinks, Yoo Mira spoke first.
"Now that I think about it, we’re not colleagues anymore, so it feels a bit strange to keep calling each other Team Leader and team member."
She took a breath as if choosing her words carefully, then continued.
"It made sense back then because of the situation, but there’s no need for that now."
"That’s true," I replied with a nod. "But we’ve been calling each other that for so long that it’s become a habit."
"Me too." Yoo Mira gave a small laugh. "It’s not so much because it’s comfortable, but because it’s familiar. Still, since we’re the same age, there’s no need to keep that distance even in private."
"Then…" I hesitated before asking carefully, "Are you suggesting we speak casually?"
"Yes." She nodded. After a moment of hesitation, she added, "Well… shall we practice?"
Yoo Mira lowered her gaze briefly, then looked up with a slightly awkward smile and called out carefully.
"…Jihoon."
The moment the name left her lips, laughter escaped before either of us could stop it.
"Yeah." I answered a beat late. "Mira."
Even after exchanging the names, the conversation didn’t continue right away. We both felt like we should say something, but in the end, the glasses were the first to move. The sound of clinking glasses filled the space between us for a moment.
"It’s… more awkward than I expected."
"Yeah. I thought it would be fine if we just said it out loud."
After a brief silence, Yoo Mira added cautiously, "Still… I don’t completely hate it."
"Yeah. Me neither."
We didn’t drink much that night. But changing a single form of address had required at least one glass. And that was enough.
The next morning, when I opened my eyes, there was a message on my phone.
We continued the ordinary conversation for a while longer before naturally wrapping it up in a much more relaxed atmosphere. Carrying that buoyant feeling with me, I stopped by the equipment shop to drop off my gear, returned home briefly, then headed straight to the mountain behind the house.
I circulated the Harmony Heart Method, regulated my breathing, and began physical training at a moderate pace without overexerting myself.
Two weeks passed like that. While moving between the Break Zone and home, my contact with Yoo Mira had become frequent and natural. At some point, we no longer needed to consciously think about how we addressed each other or the tone we used.
Around that time, I received a call. A vehicle had arrived, so I headed straight to the dealership. The cash handover was complete, and most of the paperwork was already prepared, so the process didn’t take long. The vehicle registration was temporarily processed under Yoo Mira’s name. I didn’t want any record of me personally purchasing a vehicle to draw unnecessary attention from the Investigation Bureau.
A Blue Dragon SUV. It was neither excessive nor insufficient for an A-rank hunter. I explained to Yoo Mira that I had borrowed her name temporarily because a record of someone at my level buying such a vehicle might attract the Bureau’s attention. I also mentioned that I hadn’t reported some of the mana stones recovered from the B-rank dungeon to the Bureau and had no intention of making that public either. It was the kind of explanation that didn’t require further probing. Yoo Mira understood and didn’t ask more.
She was someone I wanted to share my secrets with someday, but I judged that now wasn’t the time. Still, I was certain she was someone I could trust.
When I received the car keys, Arin was the first to lift her head and look around inside the vehicle.
"So this is the Blue Dragon SUV." After glancing over the exterior, she calmly examined the interior. "It’s much roomier inside than it looks from outside."
"There should be plenty of space even with equipment loaded."
She sat in a seat, leaned back, pressed the cushion with her hand, and nodded. "This should hold up even inside a dungeon."
"The floor reinforcement is pretty solid too."
Elly sat in the passenger seat, silently gazing at the windshield before slowly scanning the vehicle’s interior.
"The mana stone slot placement is stable."
"It’ll be convenient to use even in the Break Zone."
The engine wasn’t started yet. The car was quiet, the engine and mana reactions both dormant.
"That’s why I chose this one."
"Because we can use it right away even in the Break Zone."
"Yeah." Arin nodded. "There’s a limit to walking everywhere."
"Accumulating fatigue from travel rather than combat isn’t ideal."
She paused for a moment, then added casually, "Now that we have a car, the next topic will probably be a house."
"Not that again."
"Of course." Arin was nonchalant. "It’s not like we don’t have a place to live right now."
"It’s just too small."
Elly nodded as well. "It would be nice if there were at least three rooms. We each need our own space to rest."
I was momentarily at a loss for words. The place I was living in wasn’t a bad house. The problem was that the two spirits had started demanding their own rooms as if it were obvious. I still couldn’t understand why beings who could rest and recover their spirit power in the spirit realm needed rooms in the real world as well.
"It’s fine for now. I just bought the car, so I don’t have any extra funds for a while."
"For now," Arin added with a smile. "But someday we’ll need it. Our rooms."
Instead of answering, I looked down at the keys. There was no need to rush. For now, it was enough to slowly see what role this car would play going forward.
On the way home after starting the car, I also stopped by the equipment shop. After rebalancing the sword and replacing worn parts, I checked the gloves and protective gear one by one. Adjusting the fasteners on the armor made it feel like it fit my body precisely once again.
After returning home, showering, and organizing my equipment, the next four months passed with me traveling across the country. As trips to the Break Zone became more frequent, I got rid of the used car I had been driving before. There was no reason to keep it now that I had the Blue Dragon SUV.
Even though I couldn’t enter gates, there was plenty to do just in the Break Zone. During that time, I learned through my body that terrain, weather, sound, and smell determined half of any battle.
In mountainous terrain, I didn’t run blindly. At every change in slope, I planted my entire foot on the ground and bent my knees first to absorb the impact. On descents, I lowered my center of gravity rather than speeding up to control the sliding force. In rocky areas, I shortened my stride to avoid twisting my ankles.
In forests, I didn’t greedily try to see far. Instead of chasing distant movement, I focused on what was close, relying more on sound than sight—the direction of breaking branches, the rhythm of crushed leaves, friction sounds different from the wind. Rather than chasing what couldn’t be seen, organizing what could be heard was faster.
In wetlands, I abandoned speed and focused on balance. I only stepped on spots that looked solid and didn’t put my full weight down at once. If my foot sank, I didn’t force it out but supported myself with my waist and thighs before slowly pulling free.
In canyons, I was even more cautious. Sound bounced off the walls and deceived direction, while echoes arrived a beat late and blurred distance. At those times, I stopped first and waited until the sound settled before moving.
I couldn’t enter gates. I couldn’t absorb dungeon cores either. There were no noticeable rank increases or explosive changes, but my body began to react first—the speed at which I sensed danger, the feeling of drawing up mana, the way of eliminating unnecessary movements and leaving only the necessary force.
Arin and Elly were the same. Without needing to consciously check each other’s movements, the rhythm of battle naturally aligned.
During that time, practical changes also occurred. Transactions with Lee Tae-shik of Seongwon Industries continued several more times, and our relationship gradually grew closer. At first we only exchanged necessary words, but at some point it became natural to ask names and save contact information. He quite liked my method of handling corpses and preserving their condition, and I confirmed that he was someone who kept settlements clean.
"If you bring them in this condition next time as well, I may be able to raise the unit price."
When I heard that, I didn’t argue. Instead, I actually brought them that way. For bulky items like trolls, I only took three at most and shifted focus to mana stones and harvesting parts for the rest. Space was limited, and efficiency mattered more. I collected mana stones according to grade and condition, and only took as many corpses as I could process. The money gathered covered equipment maintenance and travel costs with plenty left over, which I accumulated as reserves.
Meanwhile, contact with Yoo Mira never broke off. At first it was just checking in, but as time passed, sharing meals or coffee gradually increased. Even amid our busy schedules, we had become the kind of relationship where we naturally found time to meet. Not quantity, but quality. The same applied to combat, travel, and transactions.
Time passed like that, and before I knew it, spring had returned. It was the time when the cold air receded and the forest’s colors began to slowly change.