Sixty-Eight Billion

Heeyeon considered her options.

Should I go all in and make my play right here?

Nothing was certain. But against this guy… maybe she could actually pull something off.

She sat down in a chair, carefully drawing a sheaf of documents from the bag in her hands, and got down to business.

"Thank you for your hard work. Anyway—shall we go ahead and sign a contract? As a hunter under the government of the Republic of Korea."

"Alright."

Heeyeon set the papers on the table and looked at him as she spoke.

"There's a lot of fine print in there, but all you really need to do is sign. The important bits are mostly about the penalties if you transfer to another country, that sort of thing. Jisu—do you have any plans to emigrate? Anything along those lines?"

"Huh? No. No plans of the sort."

For Jisu, who lived with his mother, that much was obvious. She was comfortable in Korea, and there was no way he could leave her behind and go off to some other country by himself.

"Then you can just sign. Ah—and the most important part. Your salary."

Heeyeon cleared her throat twice.

This was the critical moment. She had to act as natural as possible.

"A government hunter's starting salary is usually around one to one-and-a-half billion won, but since you're SS-Rank, I'll make a special exception. I can guarantee you three billion won a year, before tax."

"Three billion?"

"Yes. People will complain that it's too much special treatment, but… I'll handle the fallout."

Three billion!

For a broke guy like Jisu, it was a sum that could make his eyes spin. And yet he couldn't shake the feeling that this woman's sudden change in attitude was off.

No way the woman who was being that difficult would just roll over and accommodate me like this.

Besides, he was a hunter with the potential to become even stronger than SS-Rank. If the coins dropped, that was one thing—but if they rose, wouldn't he become even more powerful?

Right. Time to play hardball.

"Ha… Heeyeon."

"Yes?"

"Are you messing with me right now?"

…Oh, crap.

Had she taken this man too lightly?

Jisu's expression had gone exceedingly stern.

"I let the SS-Rank measurement slide. I looked the other way when I went into a raid without a contract. And this is what I get? You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠think I have nowhere to go but this country?"

S-Rank hunters. Even those patriotic YouTube channels were always going on about how few of them there were—so they had to be rare. But SS-Rank for three billion? No matter how he ran the numbers, he could squeeze out more.

"No, that's—"

"The contract's off. You hear me? Unbelievable…"

"W-wait, hold on!"

In the end, Heeyeon raised the white flag.

The man in front of her had punched a wyvern into exploding with a single fist. If she tried to pinch pennies and lost him, she wouldn't be a patriot—she'd be a traitor to the nation.

"I understand. Then, uh… if you could give me a rough idea of the salary you'd want…"

"…Excuse me? What did you just say?"

"Three hundred billion, or I don't work with you. That's the deal."

The amount was so absurd that Heeyeon let out a snort of disbelief.

"That's… you're not even joking. The average annual salary for an SS-Rank hunter is around thirty billion, so—ah."

"Oh-ho."

Got you, you bitch.

As expected, it paid to aim high.

"The average salary is thirty billion, and you offered me three? Three billion?"

"No, I, that's—"

"We're done. Put that away. There's a limit to how much you can jerk someone around. I'm not signing with the Korean Hunter Association. I'm going home. Right now."

Jisu stood from his seat and made to leave. Heeyeon dropped to her knees on the spot and began to plead.

"W-wait! Jisu! I'm sorry! I, uh, there was a misunderstanding—no, anyway, I'm truly sorry!"

"I said we're done. Let go."

He was about to shake off the woman clinging to his pant leg when—

"We don't have the budget to go as high as three hundred billion! I really want to meet you in the middle, so please, just forgive me this once…!"

At those words, Jisu fell into thought.

Well. Three hundred billion wasn't exactly the name of somebody's dog. If the average salary was thirty billion, getting more than that would be plenty satisfying. He doubted any foreign country would offer more than that anyway, and honestly, he was more comfortable staying in Korea.

But he was still pissed, so he wanted to land one more hit.

"Heeyeon. I'll give you one last chance. If you lie to me again, this negotiation is over on the spot. And I will never speak with your side again. I'll announce to the entire country that it's because of you, so answer me properly. Understood?"

"Y-yes…! Please, speak freely."

"What's the absolute maximum you can give me?"

"…"

Heeyeon thought it over.

If she lied again here and it came out the way it just had, she would definitely lose Jisu. She had no choice but to be honest.

"Sixty-eight billion… won. But that's far too much, and from the average of thirty billion, a reasonably higher figure would be…"

"Fine. I'll sign for sixty-eight billion."

"…What? No, I mean, that's the Association's entire remaining surplus budget, so…"

"…"

Heeyeon wanted to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beat the floor in regret.

She'd tried to save a little money and was now looking at more than double the expenditure. But lose Jisu? Let some other country snatch up the man who exploded a wyvern with one punch? Because of her?

…Ghhk!

"You're taking too long. I'm not a patient man. Doesn't seem like you're interested, so I can go, right?"

"…Alright. I'll contract you… at sixty-eight billion a year."

That's more like it.

How many types of people had he crawled through the dirt with? He wasn't so stupid that he'd let himself get fleeced just because he was young and didn't know the hunter industry.

"Right. Bring the contract. Let's wrap this up."

"…Yes…"

Heeyeon trudged off to fetch the contract, thoroughly deflated.

Now then. What to do with all this money?

For the first time in a while, Jisu found himself lost in a happy dilemma.

After the contract was done, he checked his smartphone again in the room.

Come to think of it, what happened to the group chat?

Equalium Classic had dropped hard, and VictoriaSurrender looked like it had gone up some… but he had no idea how high it had climbed or how far it had fallen. Checking the chat would be the fastest way to get a handle on the situation.

Huh?

There was hardly anyone left in the room. Most of them seemed to have left.

Wondering what had happened, he scrolled up through the chat log.

He wasn't sure of the exact details, but it seemed Equalium Classic really had crashed. Which explained why his mental fortitude and stamina were in this sorry state.

He kept scrolling through the profanity, the nonsense, and the users tearing into each other, and that was when Lynx finally came into view.

The moment Lynx left the chat with that, the conversation died, and most of the remaining users started filing out. A few dying gasps popped up—people asking if anyone still believed that con artist—but after that, the room went dark.

Jisu tapped the link to the new chat Lynx had opened.

What the—it's full?

He couldn't get in. Jisu left the chat and this time checked Coinler.

Korea's largest cryptocurrency community. Only after lurking there did he confirm just how fast Equalium Classic had started tanking after a brief pump, and just how high VictoriaSurrender had soared.

VCS went past 500? Then the stats I allocated… how much was that?

From 40, that was more than ten times over. So his Strength and Agility had been inflated more than tenfold?

Jisu suddenly recalled the moment he'd punched a wyvern-like monster into exploding on the spot with a single fist.

Had it been up more than ten times back then?

He couldn't be sure, but it probably had. A power even he himself had no idea how to handle. Getting stronger was the good part, at least.

He remembered the pain of a few small pebbles gouging into his skin. A power he couldn't control the way he wanted no matter what—overwhelming when it was overwhelming, a headache when it was a headache.

And Lynx knew which coins would rise, regardless.

Humans weren't gods, so there had to be a method. He had plenty of money now, so joining the paid room didn't seem like a bad idea.

There was no time to buy and sell in the middle of a fight, so for now he had to accept his current stats as they were. More than anything, restoring his defense and stamina—which had plummeted far too low—was urgent.

But even the group chat that had been his only thread of hope, such as it was, had vanished.

As Jisu was wondering what to do next, something from yesterday suddenly came back to him.

Come to think of it… didn't a bunch of glittering orbs drop?

Yesterday, around the time he'd quite literally exploded that wyvern, he'd seen it with his own two eyes: flesh and blood spraying outward, and at the same time, glittering somethings pouring down over his head in heaps.

Could he use those for something?

As he poked through the various hunter menus, he noticed something he'd never seen before had appeared on his stat window.

Essence of Life? What's this?

Were those glittering orbs points? He had no physical proof, but he had a hunch.

Then what was he supposed to use them for?

Jisu put his hand to the menu bar and carefully read through the descriptions that appeared.

Essence ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of Life?

He searched the term online exactly as it was.

Essence of Life. A type of loot dropped from killing monsters, taking the form of a yellow orb. At the moment it wasn't visible, as if it had been absorbed into Jisu's status window.

He surfed a little further and read a few passages from a knowledge wiki.

So this is the energy source they use in those essence power plants that have been coming up lately as an alternative to nuclear?

He didn't know the details, but he'd heard about it in passing on the news and such. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but if it could be converted into money, there was no harm in stockpiling it.

Well, time to head home. Mom will be worried.

And with that, Jisu left.