A Storm Beyond Imagination

Ethereum Classic?

Ethereum Classic.

Jisu would be the first to admit he didn't really understand how cryptocurrency actually worked. He had, however, at least read the description. Ethereum—currently regarded as the most famous and valuable coin after Bitcoin—had originally been this very thing: Ethereum Classic. For reasons unknown, something called a hard fork had gone down, after which the original leftover Ethereum was renamed Ethereum Classic, and the newly hard-forked(?) coin became the Ethereum of today.

What the fuck is this horseshit supposed to mean?

Hard fork, pork fork, whatever. The only thing that mattered was that it made money. Ethereum was the Stalik Viterin Foundation's flagship coin, and they kept issuing similar tokens to cement its place as the next-generation cryptocurrency. Ethereum Classic, for reasons Jisu couldn't fathom, had been slowly climbing right along with it.

But what the hell was VCS?

By now, Jisu knew what the Ethereum market meant.

There were three kinds of cryptocurrency markets. First was the won market, the one everyone knew. Coins listed there were famous in their own right, with a certain guarantee of safety. Second was the Bitcoin market: coins you could only buy with Bitcoin, not won, and the place where you stood a real chance of hitting a tens-of-times jackpot. It was also crawling with so-called nobody-coins at constant risk of being delisted. Last was the Ethereum market, a floor where high-risk, high-return ruled even more ruthlessly than it did on the Bitcoin market.

Put simply, it was a coin a newbie like Jisu couldn't possibly have been expected to know.

Where does this guy even dig up these no-name coins...

That's a bit...

There were actually people out there who would quit their day job on the word of someone whose face they'd never seen and whose real name they'd never heard. Jisu couldn't hide his astonishment. No matter how he turned it over, that didn't seem right. But what could he do? Everything in this world came down to a person's own choice.

And while some people were throwing away their livelihoods, others had awakened to the hunter aptitude that the rest of the world envied.

Setting aside how pathetic those people were, Jisu figured this was the moment to make his move. Because this man hadn't dumped this information as bait for the premium room for nothing, had he? If you wanted to pull people into a paid channel, you had to leak real intel.

Looking at Wildcat's track record so far, he'd clearly gotten his hands on a few genuine pieces of information, whatever else was going on. And even if Jisu himself were the scammer, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he'd throw real bait at the start. That was how you got the suckers to swallow the hook, wasn't it?

Jisu carefully checked his stats. In two days, having been summoned by the Association, he would have to present himself as an SS-rank hunter. That meant that one way or another, every last stat had to be invested somewhere. Dumping everything into Strength alone, or Agility alone, wouldn't let him function as a hunter. He had to put every single stat into something.

Alright. Let's do this.

Jisu finally committed to a serious investment. He'd grown his stats reasonably well through small-time scalping, so at the very least he'd recovered his principal. The real problem was that there were two coins he needed to invest in.

If you only listen to this Wildcat guy, one of the two should do way better...

Both could rise. Only one could rise. Or both could crash—though as bait, that honestly didn't seem likely. The conclusion Jisu reached was simple: split the investment.

I just divide my stats in half and put them in separately, right?

His thinking went like this. If he split them roughly down the middle, then even if one tanked and the other succeeded, he could still more or less break even. It was an extremely simple idea, but it was safer than going all-in on a single coin.

Let's start with Ethereum Classic.

Jisu spent half of the Stamina he had on buying Ethereum Classic. After the purchase went through, he figured he'd put the remaining half into the coin called Victoria Surrender.

This way, even if only one of them goes up, I can at least break even, right?

That was the idea. If you had two coins to invest in, you just put half in each. Barring the worst-case scenario where both completely tanked, even if one dropped, as long as the other rose he could preserve a decent amount of his stats.

But just as he was about to invest Stamina into Victoria Surrender as his second purchase—

What?

The world was not that generous. Apparently you couldn't put the same stat into two different places. By way of a test, he ran the exact same experiment with Strength. This time, though, the first purchase was Victoria Surrender.

Ah, for fuck's sake. What is this!

The experiment confirmed it: the restriction was locked in. The plan to split his bets and play it safe had gone up in smoke. There was an old saying that nothing in this world came easy. Turns out it was true.

Since it had come to this anyway, he dumped all his remaining Stamina into Ethereum Classic, which he'd already bought, and conversely went all-in on Victoria Surrender with Strength.

So what do I do now...

He kept turning it over, but it didn't help. Jisu let out a long sigh and sank back into thought. At first he'd figured this ability was just broken, but the conditions were trickier than expected, and he shook his head. Still—what choice did he have?

After a great deal of deliberation, he divided the remaining stats into two groups as well.

Strength and Agility into VCS. Mentality and Stamina into EQC.

The reasoning was simple. Strength and Stamina seemed like related stats, so he split them apart. Mentality was, well, mentality—it looked a little more important, so he parked it on the major coin.

As planned, Jisu invested all of his Strength and Agility into VCS, and his Mentality and Stamina into EQC.

That should do it, right?

He checked one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more time that every coin had gone through. Confirmed: everything was invested, no problems. He checked again just to be sure, and it was the same. All his stats were in, so the abilities should take effect now, shouldn't they?

Then let's get ready to deploy!

Jisu's first sortie as a hunter was about to begin.

"An SS-rank hunter? You're telling me talent like that was in Korea this whole time? What the hell have they been doing?"

"Whoever they are, they'll be delighted to receive an offer to join our Sacred Moon Guild. For a hunter, belonging to Sacred Moon means you've made it in life."

"Going senile already, and so young? If expensive meals are all it takes to make you talk nonsense."

"Hmph. Say whatever you like."

A man and a woman in conspicuously expensive clothes were deep in conversation.

This was the headquarters of the Korean Hunter Association, located in Yongsan. More specifically, they were on the twenty-third floor, in the Diamond Plaza—a space accessible only to hunters of S-rank and above.

Of all the hunters currently registered with the Korean Hunter Association, it was a safe bet that fewer than three percent had ever set foot in this place. In fact, the people gathered here now numbered fewer than ten in total. And to that same degree, every person assembled here had a personality that was unmistakably their own. Never mind the way they treated one another like oil and water that would never mix—even setting aside the expensive things draped over their bodies, how to put it? These were people who carried that quality others commonly called celebrity.

But personalities that strong also meant that gathering them in a single place was no easy feat. They had been able to come together in part because of the Association's orders, of course, but the decisive reason was one thing and one thing only: a new SS-rank hunter had appeared.

That was right. The conversation these people had gathered to have was about the SS-rank hunter whose news had come in only a short while ago.

Hunters of SS-rank and above were not only difficult to even discover; they belonged to the nation and yet occupied a position from which they could throw their weight around against that same nation. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠For them to become a topic of conversation among this crowd was not, in itself, particularly surprising. Among the already rare hunters of S-rank and higher, an SS-rank—of which there were vanishingly few—had appeared. Even for people this proud, it was an event they couldn't sit out if they tried.

Besides, after that incident, what little cooperative spirit had still existed had evaporated completely. The mere fact that this entire lineup had gathered in one place was a major incident in its own right.

And so the hunters stood talking among themselves, when—

Knock, knock, knock.

"Huh? What was that?"

At the sudden knock, every hunter's gaze snapped toward the door. A moment later, it eased open with careful hesitation.

"Um... is this the Hunter Association plaza?"