I'm a Fan

The whole thing had started an hour ago.

"Excuse me—are you Kim Harin?"

"Ahh, hellooo."

The address from the whisper message led me to an ordinary café. A woman sat in a quiet corner that, for a sunny afternoon, was surprisingly empty. This had to be Kim Harin—the hunter being talked about as an S-Class Candidate.

"You look... a little different in person."

"Ah, I've been changing up my style latelyyy..."

She looked nothing like the photos I'd found online. Those pictures had shown a pure, wholesome young woman. The person sitting across from me had piercings, tattoos, a face mask—classic jirai-kei. Well, how she chose to present herself was her own business. Not my place to judge.

With that first impression filed away, I broke the ice and got down to business.

"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Kim Jinho."

"K-Kim Harin..."

"You said you needed an A-rank or higher dagger, correct?"

"That's riiight."

I'd cooked up a reasonably convincing alias. If she heard my real name—Yuseong—she might connect it to Shooting Star. The odds were slim, but it never hurt to be careful.

"Ummm... did you bring the daggers you posted on the community?"

"Yeah. Right here."

"Wooow..."

"So. Why do you need this dagger?"

What I really wanted to know was why someone on the S-Class Candidate shortlist was out here begging on a community board. Put bluntly, a hunter receiving the nation's full backing had no reason to come crawling to someone like me.

"The truth is, I haven't been able to enter the Tower for two months."

"Sorry? There was an article two weeks ago saying you'd re-entered the 60th floor."

"That was a lie. I couldn't exactly come out and say I wasn't going in at all..."

She dropped her gaze, eyes sliding away from mine, and I knew immediately why she'd been keeping her distance from the Tower. Most awakened went in about once a week. The ones who didn't usually had a single reason: PTSD. People who'd taken a serious beating from the monsters inside and barely escaped with their lives.

"Would it be all right if I asked what happened in there?"

"...You know orcs show up in the 60s on Hard Mode, right?"

At my question, she began to recount what had happened, her voice trembling. She'd run into the monster that spawned most often on those floors—orcs—and among them, an Orc Warchief.

"It was going smoothly. I'd killed every regular orc. Only the boss was left."

"..."

"Then I let my guard down for a single second, and it got behind me... I lost, and it dragged me off."

I wasn't sure I wanted this much detail, but the story showed no signs of stopping.

"When I opened my eyes, I was in an orc village. Stripped naked."

"Ah..."

"And then the Orc Warchief came toward me, and..."

I could fill in the rest without her saying another word. She'd already started sniffling. She squeezed her eyes shut as if the memory itself hurt, and forced the words out.

"I got a clear-fail judgment and got kicked straight out of the Tower."

"...What?"

"My S-rank dagger, all my artisan-crafted high-end gear, even my designer sunglasses—I left everything behind!"

Wait... that was it?

That was a much better outcome than the horrific scenario I'd been bracing for. And the fact that she'd been wearing designer sunglasses through all of that was pretty hilarious.

"Well. You made it out alive. Isn't that what counts?"

"How can you even say that!?"

"I mean, a person's life is the most important thing..."

"The gear I threw away was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠worth 112 billion won!!"

"Ah."

Put that way, it did sound like an unmitigated disaster. Watching her wail about two years of savings going up in smoke, I revised my opinion. At 112 billion won, the debt I'd paid off looked like pocket change.

"Heh, heheheh... I blew my entire life's savings and got laughed at by a bunch of orcs..."

"Then even if I sold you these, you wouldn't be able to pay what they're worth, would you?"

"H-huh?"

"If you lost all your gear, that means you're broke."

If her story was true, her wallet was in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no condition for a purchase. I hadn't planned on selling Gan Jiang and Mo Ye anyway—but if she had no money, there was no deal to be made in the first place. She caught the look on my face and scrambled to explain.

"Th-that's nothing you need to worry about!"

"Why's that? You just said you don't have any money."

"I got scouted by this huge new guild that's being established! Once that contract goes through, I can pay you anything for the weapon!"

So in the end, she doesn't have any money right now. She was awfully brazen about asking me to take it on credit. And a newly founded major guild... I'd heard that story somewhere before.

"The moment the scout finishes the contract with the vice guild master, the guild gets founded on the spot!"

"...This scout wouldn't happen to be a woman with a tattoo on her neck, would she?"

"H-how did you know that?"

A certain lunatic who unironically thought of herself as a beautiful secretary flashed through my mind. So the contract would only go through if the vice guild master agreed to the terms? Yeah. That's a contract that's never getting signed.

"Yeah, I'm not really comfortable with that arrangement. I can't give you these swords."

"What?!"

"They're soulbound items anyway. They can't even be transferred."

At that single cold remark, her face crumpled. Of course, I hadn't come all this way just to waste my time. I had a backup plan. The moment I started to rise from my seat, she lunged at me and latched onto my pant leg.

"If you really don't give me this, my whole life is overrr..."

"I just told you. They're soulbound."

"Ah, aaaaah. I'm gonna die. Without a single item I can't even climb the Tower—I should just die..."

I was just trying to pull something out of my bag. Why the theatrics? I wasn't particularly keen on watching a grown woman crawl across the floor, so I hurried up and took it out.

"Please just give me a chaaance...!"

"Use this instead."

"Huh? What?"

What I handed her was the four-star dagger I'd gotten from my latest pull. It wasn't quite the Reaper's Scythe, but it was a weapon with a fairly unique effect.

Even at four stars, it comfortably outclassed your average A-rank weapon. For her current situation, this should be more than enough. She seemed to think the same—her mouth fell open in shock.

"Th-this is better than the weapon I used to use?"

"It's a pretty good piece of equipment."

"You're just giving this to me?"

"What are you talking about. You're paying what it's worth."

I had no intention of handing it over for free, of course. If she didn't have cash, I'd squeeze the equivalent out of her in goods. If she couldn't even manage that, the deal would be off.

"I've only got 4,200 won in my account right now... could I send the money after the guild contract goes through...?"

"That's not happening. But it doesn't have to be money. Something of equivalent value will do."

"Urgh... something of equivalent value..."

She clawed at her hair for a moment, thinking hard, then her eyes lit up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as if a brilliant idea had struck her.

"A group chat! There's a chatroom where the top rankers exchange information!"

"Now that is interesting."

A community where the Tower's top rankers talked shop. For someone still on the lower floors like me, there was a good chance I'd pick up some very useful intel.

"It's not a room just anyone can get into, but with my referral you should be fine!"

"What kind of information usually goes around?"

"Mostly trade requests, hidden pieces, and info on specific classes."

All three were pretty appealing options. The more intel on hidden pieces, the better. For someone like me who could pull in a mountain of gear through Celestial Summoning, a community with an active trading scene would be a huge help. And the possibility of getting information on the Summoner class in particular was especially tempting.

"Just an invite isn't quite enough to hand it over for good, so I'll lend it to you for now."

"That's more than enough!"

"And the rental fee is due after."

"...There's a rental fee too?"

"I'll give you a discount."

And with that, a successful deal was closed. I handed her Viper's Front Tooth.

"Kyaaah! Thank you so much!!"

"Make sure you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pay that rental fee. And go ahead and send me that group chat invite."

The way she clutched it to her chest like a precious gem was a little absurd, but collecting on the sale came first. I accepted the chat invitation she sent and entered the ranker group chat.

"Oh, just so you know, this room works through the status window."

"Does it? That's neat."

"So your registered Tower nickname will be visible—that's not a problem, right?"

"...Hold on. What did you just say?"

The moment I heard that, it felt like my heart had dropped through the floor. I frantically tried to decline the invitation I'd already accepted and paper over the whole thing, but—

The damage was already done.

"Uh, th-this is... what...?"

"Oh, fuck."

Am I going to have to kill her to keep this quiet?