What? What Do You Mean?
The number of people excluding me totaled nine. For the size of this gate, that was actually quite a lot of manpower. If everyone just worked hard together, we could easily finish two or three hours ahead of schedule and each pocket an incentive of at least two hundred thousand won.
“I have something to say. Could everyone please pay attention?”
Of course, I knew these hopeless people wouldn’t suddenly listen just because I asked. I held no special position. Some would probably even find it annoying that someone of the exact same rank as them was trying to gather everyone’s focus.
“Who the hell are you to tell us to listen? What are you, some big shot? Huh?”
Look at this guy. These kinds of people exist everywhere. I’ve experienced it countless times, so I know it well. Simply talking wouldn’t get them to move.
To motivate people like this, you had to figure out what they wanted and use it to your advantage.
“I’m not a big shot. But aren’t you all really tired? Don’t you want to go home as soon as possible?”
When I spoke with a tired expression, even the guy who’d been picking a fight just shrugged his shoulders.
“Obviously. Who’d want to stay in a shithole like this even a second longer?”
“That’s right.”
“Exactly. It’s so damp and gross in here.”
The gate’s interior had a cave-like terrain. After a long battle inside, the ground was soaked with monster blood and bodily fluids scattered everywhere, making the whole place unbearably humid.
“I feel the same way. No one wants to stay in a place like this for long.”
I deliberately emphasized that it wasn’t just for them—I didn’t want to stay here long either. It might not have much effect, but most people respond better when you frame things as being for “me” rather than “you.” By planting the idea that my thinking was a little selfish, it reduced any sense of debt they might feel when accepting my plan. At the same time, it made them see me as the same kind of selfish person they were.
“If you all follow what I say, I’ll make sure we leave an hour earlier than scheduled. I’ll also make sure each of you gets a two hundred thousand won incentive.”
The real persuasion would come from offering what they wanted, but laying down this kind of groundwork was surprisingly important with these types of people.
“Whoa, buddy. Suddenly throwing around sweet talk like that?”
“Let’s hear him out. We all don’t want to stay here long anyway, right?”
The moment they started seeing me as one of their own, the majority began pushing back against the guy who kept picking fights. With one sentence, I could easily remove an annoying obstacle.
“Haha, thank you. So honestly, what both you and I want are the two things I just mentioned.”
Hunters who volunteered for miner work generally only cared about those two things: getting off work quickly and receiving a big incentive.
“Yeah, that’s true. But what if it doesn’t work out that way?”
He probably thought he’d made a sharp point. The problem was that anyone with even a little common sense would realize that if we all cooperated, we’d finish in no time.
“Hmm, that’s true. That could happen.”
But I didn’t bother pointing out how stupid he was being. Stupid people usually explode in anger when their stupidity is called out. So I pretended to think it over for a moment.
“Then let’s do this. If we follow my plan and it still looks like we won’t finish an hour early, you can all leave first. I’ll handle the rest by myself.”
“Huh?”
“That doesn’t make sense! Then our daily pay will get cut!”
That would never actually happen, but…
“I’ll take full responsibility and ask the raid leader to pay your full daily wage without any deductions.”
“You think that psycho raid leader will listen to anything you say?”
“Well… A raid party only needs to generate a certain level of profit for themselves. As long as the originally budgeted wages are paid out normally, there’s no real loss. And I won’t even be asking for overtime pay.”
When I looked the complaining man straight in the eyes and spoke calmly, he strangely lost his nerve. He turned his head slightly and backed down.
“Fine, I get it.”
“What about the rest of you? Is everyone okay with this?”
“Ah, well…”
“Yeah, if those are the conditions, I don’t mind.”
Once the atmosphere turned favorable, I drove in the final nail.
“Of course, I’ll only take on all that risk if you follow my instructions perfectly without a single complaint. The moment any noise or trouble starts, I won’t be taking any responsibility either.”
There were some grumbles here and there, but no one openly stepped forward to oppose me. Honestly, they probably knew it themselves. If things continued like this, they wouldn’t even get proper daily pay.
“Alright then, let’s work hard! I’ll start by assigning tasks!”
They were still a bit curt, but no one refused to follow orders. It had been a while since I felt like this. For nearly a month I’d only been focused on surviving on my own, yet here I was suddenly doing the kind of work I used to do in a guild…
“The arrangement should be like this for now. Ah, never mind. Mr. Jeon Seongjin, handling corpses seems difficult for you, so let’s move you over here instead.”
“Ah, thank you… Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up…”
If you don’t properly assess people’s capabilities and place them where they fit best, holes will appear in the workflow. And the moment even a small hole forms, all the motivation that had been burning brightly dies out in an instant. So reassigning the man who’d been gagging at the sight of corpses over to the mana stone mining team was perfect.
“Alright, the mana stone team will extract stones using the method I explained. The corpse processing team, please follow me.”
In truth, processing corpses was a bit more difficult than mining mana stones. That was why I deliberately joined the corpse team myself. I demonstrated the difficult tasks one by one right in front of them, showing them the proper methods. This way, no one could complain that I was just giving myself the easy jobs.
There were many ways to process corpses, but the most efficient methods I’d learned by following veterans around for the past month proved quite helpful. The people who had been grumbling at first gradually began following my lead, and after that, the work progressed at a blazing speed.
“Ugh, that’s the last of it!”
“What time is it?”
“Holy crap. We finished two whole hours earlier than scheduled?!”
“And my body doesn’t even feel that tired…!”
I could feel their eyes sparkling almost uncomfortably bright…
“It’s all thanks to how hard everyone worked. You all did great!”
To be honest, I’d been worried whether they would actually follow through properly, but it seemed they weren’t completely brainless after all. They were just people who had never received proper coaching or leadership, which left them as a disorganized mess. Back in my guild days, taking in people like this and changing them through personal coaching had actually been one of the more enjoyable parts of the job.
Yeah, and among those I’d rehabilitated, there were some truly unique individuals. One of them in particular had been really strange but followed me exceptionally well. His name was Kim…
“Let’s get out of here already, buddy!”
I’d let my thoughts wander uselessly. It had nothing to do with me anymore anyway.
“Yes, you should all head home quickly.”
When we exited two hours earlier than scheduled, the raid party members’ faces filled with curiosity, wondering what had happened.
“Isn’t it still during work hours?”
There was no need to answer the question from the on-site staff member. Simply taking out the mana stones and monster byproducts we’d brought would prove everything perfectly.
“Whoa, you finished two hours early and still brought back this much?”
“This is seriously amazing…?”
Hearing the exclamations from the raid party members, I finally felt all the tension drain away. At this rate, we had more than met the quota. In fact, we had so much extra that it might even become an issue. But honestly, with this many people sent in, this was exactly the kind of result they should have expected.
“Thank you for today.”
“Thanks to you, I actually got my full daily pay.”
“Good thing I listened to you, buddy!”
“Incentive? Two hundred thousand? I got three hundred thousand!”
After the excited people finished thanking me and left, I headed toward the on-site staff member to receive my own settlement last.
“I’d like to receive my settlement as well.”
“Ah, Mr. Han Junho! I was actually looking for you!”
The way the on-site staff member greeted me so enthusiastically was strange. Why were they suddenly looking for me?
“The raid leader said she wants to speak with you directly. Would you be able to spare some time?”
A personal meeting request from the raid leader? To a daily hire miner? Why?
If this had been the old me, I would have gone in first and listened to what she had to say, but…
“Will the meeting time be included in my daily pay?”
I had decided not to live so softly anymore. After all, the reason I led the others today wasn’t because I was a good person. I had simply analyzed them thoroughly and used them for my own benefit.
“Ah, yes! She said that would be fine! She also asked me to tell you it won’t take too long!”
“…I see. Alright. Where should I go?”
“She’s waiting for you in that tent over there!”
When I headed to the location the staff member pointed out, I saw the raid leader sitting alone inside a rather nicely decorated tent. I’d thought she would be with the other staff members. Did she clear everyone out because she was worried it might be uncomfortable for me?
“I heard you called for me.”
“Ah, Mr. Junho! Come in, come in! You worked really hard today!”
After greeting her politely and stepping inside, she offered me the sofa across from her. My clothes were dirty from being inside the gate just moments ago, so I hesitated for a second about whether I should sit on that white sofa.
“Yes, so what did you call me for?”
Well, since she offered, I figured I didn’t need to worry about it myself. I sat down and asked about her business.
“You must want to go home and rest, so I’m sorry for holding you up. Anyway, um, I’ll get straight to the point…”
Get to the point?
“Would you be interested in taking the position of leader for our raid party’s miner team?”
…Excuse me? Out of nowhere…?
“…I’m not sure I understand what you’re suddenly talking about.”
“We’ve always hired all our miners as daily workers. But starting this time, there was talk about hiring them as full-time employees…”
Honestly, if this raid party had enough resources to prepare and take care of people this well, it would be far more efficient to keep the miners as a proper team rather than daily hires. Looking at the preparations they’d made, it was almost at the level of a small guild in both readiness and treatment.
“So if you become the team leader, we’ll give you double the monthly salary! We’ll also give you double the incentive that the others receive!”
Of course, once today’s work was finished, I had been planning to look for a proper regular team through the community. But to suddenly receive a scouting offer like this? Double the salary and double the incentive compared to others. Plus they were even offering me the title of team leader. It was definitely not a bad offer. From my perspective, it was almost too good.
But why? Why were they suddenly making this offer to me?
“….”
“Um, Mr. Junho?”
This was the first time I’d seen her today. I had applied as a daily hire, worked with the miner team for just one day, and now they were suddenly throwing this incredible offer at me?
“Did you perhaps set up some kind of arrangement inside the gate?”
I had thought that might be the case.
“Uh, yes…?”
“If that’s not it, then the only things I can think of are that this is either a multi-level marketing scheme or an organ trafficking operation.”
If she had seen what happened today, making an offer like this wouldn’t be strange. But if that wasn’t the case… then it really had to be multi-level marketing or organ trafficking… The clear time for a C-rank gate was about two and a half hours… That meant there were quite a few C-rank hunters here… If all these people rushed me at once, would I even be able to escape…? Especially when I was just an E-rank non-combatant…?
“W-wait, Mr. Junho! This isn’t organ trafficking! It’s not multi-level marketing either!”
“Then what is it?”
Before I knew it, my tone had come out curt. No, it wasn’t that I disliked her or was trying to be rude… I was just… really tired today. That was all.
“It seems there’s been a misunderstanding. I’ll explain everything!”
Yeah, let’s hear this great explanation of yours. Of course, on the outside I nodded with a kind smile again. Because I… realized I still hadn’t received my pay yet.