Bone-Crushing Gratitude

The moment Yuhyeon granted permission to hunt the monsters of Pamagok, the Hunter Association sprang into action with impressive speed. Their first move was to seize control of the Tower floor where the Great Worms spawned.

Then, just as Park Ingyu had promised, they published detailed information about the Hidden Stage and opened applications for parties and guilds seeking entry. The official announcement went up on the government board.

At first, the hunters couldn't believe their eyes and stared at the announcement in open suspicion. This was the Korean Hunter Association, after all. Ever since the Tower appeared, hadn't they been the undisputed champions of incompetence — steamrolled at every turn by the Seven Great Powers, unable to properly exterminate the monsters that spilled into Seoul, their only talent skimming profits off the top?

The announcements that usually cluttered the board all said the same thing: monsters are overflowing the Tower, please help before they break out. And now, suddenly, this?

An exhausting parade of bureaucratic hurdles that choked the breath out of you just to get through the door. The magic stones you earned as compensation had to be force-sold back to the Association for cash, and the cut you received was drastically lower than a standard extermination commission.

"Has the Association finally lost its mind?"

"That's what I'm saying. All the S-Ranks left, so I guess they've gone off the rails."

"But didn't the Ignis Guild show up here recently?"

"One of the Seven Great Powers?"

"Yeah. Vice Guild Master Lee Dowon even gave an interview saying he came because of the Hidden Stage."

"And in the end he left without accomplishing anything. Come to think of it, he's still in Korea, isn't he? Is there actually something inside after all?"

Until now, the hunters had only heard that a Hidden Stage had opened — nobody knew what actually went on inside — so they snorted at the whole thing. Even so, the announcement radiated a confidence that could only be described as brazen, and a handful of them applied out of sheer curiosity.

And so, after that brutal screening process, the ones who plunged into a monster's belly to pierce its mana core found themselves at the base camp established outside Pamagok — and in a natural environment that was rough as hell.

"These facilities are absolute garbage. Where exactly do you see an empire here?"

"You slept through the briefing, didn't you. The camp is deliberately separated from the fortress walls."

"What was the name of the guy who owns this place again? Yuhyeon?"

"The Great General Yuhyeon, if you please."

"Ah! You startled me. Who are you?"

"My name is An Junhyeon. I've been assigned as your safety supervisor. You're the Singil Party, correct? Please collect your weapons and gather over here."

Following the safety supervisor's instructions, the Singil Party sat through yet another briefing on the rules of Pamagok. When he told them that if the Great General ever appeared, they were to press their foreheads to the ground and prostrate themselves without question or complaint, one of the party members raised a hand.

"And what happens if we don't bow?"

"I've got arthritis in this leg, you know."

"……They get twisted."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You will endure unspeakable agony, so for the sake of your own well-being, I'd recommend simply doing as you're told."

There was no telling what the man had been through to wear such a haunted expression. As they trudged along under the guidance of the Birang Party members stationed nearby, the first monster they encountered was an Arachne — a hulking, spider-shaped horror.

It was venomous, yes, but it had an obvious weakness in fire, and it was nothing more than a Grade 3 — surely easy prey. The result, however, defied every expectation.

"Haa, hah. This thing hits like a truck. What is wrong with this place?"

"The air's so thick I can barely breathe. Something about it just feels wrong."

"Do you have any antidote potions left?"

"I burned through almost all of mine."

From that point on, they ran into nothing but monsters freakishly stronger than the standard examples, and the potions and enchanted gear the Singil Party had prepared drained away at alarming speed. Their original plan had budgeted for three days; instead, after just eight hours they limped back to base camp and reported the end of their hunt to the waiting Association staff.

"This is Moon Seoyoung from the Strategic Countermeasures Division."

"Hong Jaeman, party leader."

"We'll analyze the purity of your magic stones to determine their value, so please wait here a moment after passing back through the rift."

"Yes. Yes, of course."

They took a short rest, got checked over for injuries, and returned home. Naturally, the evaluation could not have been worse.

"Ugh, that was absolute hell. Never again."

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"I told you not to take Association jobs."

"I thought it was a Hidden Stage, so I figured we'd at least meet the residents."

"Huh? I actually did see someone."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Way off in the distance — someone in full armor, aiming a bow right at us?"

"……"

I'm leaving a review on the community boards: recommended for degenerates who enjoy suffering, and no one else. And so, soaked in sweat and monster fluids, steeped in misery as they waited for their payout, the Singil Party watched Moon Seoyoung approach.

"My apologies for the delay. The portable analyzer broke down again."

"The analyzer broke? Just how ancient is the equipment you people are running?"

"The infrastructure, the preparation — everything looks half-baked. Please specify these shortcomings in the announcement next time, in advance."

"I will relay your concerns to the department in charge."

"And the assessment?"

"It was completed just now. The total comes to……"

"Just dump it in my account. We'll split it up ourselves."

"Of course. Your total comes to 68 million won."

"…I'm sorry, what?"

"Is… something the matter?"

For a moment, Hong Jaeman genuinely wondered whether it wasn't the analyzer that was broken, but the monetary sense of the staff member standing in front of him. Moon Seoyoung, however, calmly printed out an itemized statement and handed it over for him to check.

"The itemized breakdown and tax rates are listed here. The division of the payout among party members is outside our jurisdiction, but should the split differ from the ratio specified in the party contract you filed at registration, you may file a dispute with the Hunter Rights Protection Center."

"W-wait, hold on a second!"

"Is something wrong?"

"We only hunted for eight hours! We brought back what, thirty magic stones?"

"Yes. The price was calculated precisely from that haul."

"……"

They had cleared more than ten million won per head. At a mere thirty-five percent cut. After deducting consumables and equipment repairs, sure — but it was still an amount four B-Rank hunters could never dream of earning inside the Tower.

And that was before accounting for the fact that their authorized stay would have been several times longer than the eight hours they'd actually used……

"Do you have any further questions?"

"Which department do I go to if I want to do this again?"

"What is all this?"

"These are reaction posts from a place called the Hunter Gallery. I thought it would give you a good sense of the public sentiment — of your people's…… feelings toward the Great General — so I printed them out and brought them along."

I examined the papers Park Ingyu had brought, one by one. In my past life — back on Earth, where things like Awakened didn't exist — I'd been quite familiar with gallery posts like these.

Not one of these people had ever so much as set foot across the gates of the pass, yet their reactions could not have been friendlier.

"If you wish, real-time access is also possible. We would, of course, need to install multiple relays and other equipment and keep the rift permanently open, but as for the method on our end……"

"Let's put that on hold for now."

"Ah — understood."

Park Ingyu was a capable man. There was a reason he'd brought community reactions instead of an official press release or news coverage.

Truth be told, even I felt the need to change how these barbarians my subordinates dismissed so readily perceived us — if only within Korea. Still, I judged it too early to start importing foreign innovations, so I declined.

Besides, there was a problem that demanded more immediate attention. I gathered up the papers and handed them to Yeonri, who stood at my side, then turned to her.

"As expected, it seems civilian access isn't being managed very well."

"About that…… my apologies."

"It makes no difference to us who catches the monsters. The ones bleeding are on your side of the fence."

"A fair observation, Your Excellency."

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At present, the supply of magic stones obtainable from Pamagok fell woefully short of demand. Which meant that, inevitably, there would be those who tried to hunt monsters without going through the Association at all.

Indeed, lately, rifts had been appearing outside the designated zones more and more often, with parties hunting the monsters nearby. But one thing remained puzzling.

"The Association currently controls nearly every species of large monster needed to enter Pamagok."

"Which means?"

"There is, for all practical purposes, no way for an ordinary party to enter Pamagok without authorization. This is the work of someone acting deliberately — nothing else it can be……"

The culprit wasn't hard to guess. The Ignis Guild hadn't left Korea yet, after all.

So much for "crushing one's bones in devoted service." Whatever else you could say about Lee Dowon, you had to hand it to him — when it came to chasing money, the man ran himself ragged.

Honestly, if Lee Dowon never came back, there was little I could do about whatever he got up to on Earth. But the greedy bastard had chosen to set foot back in……

So it was only right that I lent him a hand in my own way.

"Perhaps I should, at the very least, get started on breaking his bones."

"I beg your pardon?"