007
Right after I got back.
I sorted out the loot.
-Crash!
I flipped the bag upside down and dumped the goblin daggers into an empty ramen box.
Thirty-four goblin daggers, all told, lay packed inside the box.
“Sis! Sis!”
“Huh? What is it?”
The moment I shouted for her, my sister opened my door and walked in.
I held out the leather bag and made my request.
“Sis, can you wash this bag for me? It’s got blood on it, so I think it should be cleaned right away.”
“Why is the bag suddenly... Wait. Don’t tell me you went to the Tower? In that short a time?”
“Yeah. It was quick. Took about twenty minutes, I think?”
“Even on the first floor, I heard it takes at least half a day...”
“Well, I’m me.”
Like my sister said, the first floor of the Tower normally took about half a day.
That was because stealth play was the standard.
There were roughly thirty goblins on the first floor.
If all thirty charged at once, it got dangerous.
So the proper strategy was to move quietly, hide, ambush, or dodge, then keep repeating one-on-one fights until you found the exit.
But I just went and brute-forced the whole thing.
I pulled aggro, gathered a huge crowd, and then, with a single sweep, kimchi-shredded the lot.
That hadn’t been the plan, exactly...
But anyway, it was over fast.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea : Floor 1)]
[34 Points]
The points I earned came to 34.
The goblin daggers, as loot, came to 34 as well.
So how much did I make?
At 30,000 won per goblin dagger, thirty-four of them came to 1.02 million won.
But loot sales were taxed at 50 percent, so the actual loot revenue was 510,000 won.
Add another 340,000 won from the 34 points, and...
My total income came to 850,000 won.
It was the kind of number that made me laugh helplessly.
“Wait. Did I just make 850,000 won in twenty minutes?”
My mind was blank.
Of course, unlike ordinary hunters, I’d used magic, so there was that absurd speed to account for.
Still, even taking that into account, it was an outrageous profit.
No wonder there are so many rice-eaters. With taxes like this, it makes sense.
In the past, there had been no tax on Tower loot sales.
It had been a kind of special privilege, meant to encourage hunters to climb.
But as more and more rice-eater hunters increased and point income dropped, the government kept raising the tax on Tower loot sales until, before anyone knew it, it had reached 50 percent.
In other words, they were saying, stop making money off loot and go earn some points.
Even so, the number of high-floor climbers didn’t increase.
And the current situation was rice-eater hunters squatting on the low floors, barely willing to pay the 50 percent tax.
Anyway, I felt pretty damn satisfied.
“I took a twenty-minute walk and came back with 850,000 won. Tonight calls for beef.”
The goblin dismemberment show had soured my stomach a little, sure...
But if it was melt-in-your-mouth beef, maybe I could stomach it after all?
As I stared fondly at the ramen box full of goblin daggers, a thought suddenly struck me.
I wanted to brag about my achievement.
-Click!
I took a picture and posted it on Hunter Gallery.
I just went to the first floor
There were goblins there
Killed them all and brought back their daggers
If I sell all this and cash in the points too, I think it’ll come out to around 850,000 won
So this is what first-floor profits look like...
No wonder hunters make so much money
Guess I should grill some beef tonight
“Heh heh.”
Seeing the reactions in Hunter Gallery, I couldn’t help but let out a sly laugh.
Most of them were denying it, mocking it, or sneering at it.
But it didn’t bother me at all.
It just made my absurd, outside-the-normal-range abilities feel all the more real.
Thanks to that, the sour mood I’d gotten from the goblin dismemberment show seemed to lift a little.
At this rate, I might even enjoy the beef.
I sprang to my feet and shouted,
“Sis! Let’s have beef tonight! I’m paying!”
* * *
At a beef restaurant near our house.
-Sizzle!
The meat sizzled deliciously on the grill, fat crackling as it cooked.
I picked up a properly seared slice with my chopsticks.
I dunked it deep into the sesame oil and salt dipping sauce, then swallowed it in one bite.
Krrr—!
“This brisket just melts in my mouth!”
“That’s not brisket, that’s sirloin.”
“I don’t know much about beef. Either way, it’s delicious.”
I rambled nonsense while happily mowing through the meat.
Maybe because I hadn’t had it in a while, it tasted absolutely amazing.
No, maybe it was just expensive beef, so of course it tasted good.
My sister, sitting across from me, pouted.
“And if you’re going to the Tower, at least tell me first. What if you just vanished out of nowhere? I might’ve ended up searching for you.”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll tell you next time before I go. By the way, Sis, you’re really good at grilling meat.”
“Back when I was working at the company, I was always the one grilling at every company dinner. That department head was a total fossil who thought women were supposed to grill and pour drinks while men drank—”
“Yikes. That must’ve been rough.”
We kept chatting and eating happily.
Then, in the middle of the meal, I stole a glance at my sister’s face.
Her expression looks so much better now. Thank goodness.
Over the past two days, my sister’s face had clearly changed.
The gloomy shadow that used to hang over her features was gone, replaced by a smile that looked completely unburdened.
She’d been freed from the stress and exhaustion of being a manager.
And on top of that, seeing me display overwhelming abilities had erased even her worries about the future.
No wonder her face had brightened up.
I felt proud on the inside.
All this time, I’d been nothing but a burden to my sister, that pathetic little brother of hers.
And now I could actually help her.
At last, it felt like I’d escaped being dead weight and become a brother she could genuinely rely on.
As I ate on in quiet satisfaction, a bitter feeling suddenly welled up in me.
I wish Mom and Dad were here too.
My mother, who had embraced me with love no matter how bizarre I acted.
My father, stern but also gentle in his own way.
What would it have been like if the two of them were still alive?
If they were still here now, I was sure I could finally make it up to them properly.
Of all times, they had to pass away before I became a hunter...
I shook my head and pushed the stray thoughts away.
Forget it. What kind of gloomy nonsense is this in front of good beef? Just eat.
That was when I was about to reach out with my chopsticks.
-We now have an emergency announcement from the President. Regular programming has been interrupted.
The stiff voice of the announcer spilled out from the restaurant TV.
My eyes turned there on their own.
“Emergency announcement, sis.”
“...I think I know what they’re going to say, but let’s watch.”
My sister and I—
No, everyone in the restaurant—fixed our eyes on the television.
At a time like this, with collapse looming overhead, no one would ignore an emergency government announcement.
On the screen, the Blue House press room came into view.
The President, standing at the podium, faced the microphone.
-Dear citizens...
The President slowly began to speak.
-The government of the Republic of Korea informs you, with a heavy heart, that...
-All negotiations overseas and all requests for aid have failed. Securing points from outside is impossible...
-The time remaining for our Republic of Korea is now only three months.
-Accordingly, in accordance with Article 76 of the Constitution, the government hereby declares a Hunter Mobilization Order across the entire nation of the Republic of Korea, effective at 9 p.m. today.
Hunter Mobilization Order!
What the President announced on TV was, in fact, the Hunter Mobilization Order.
A national emergency order forcing hunters who refused to climb into the Tower.
My sister nodded as if she’d expected this and muttered,
“Figures. It’s the Hunter Mobilization Order. Well, there are only three months left anyway... They probably couldn’t put it off any longer.”
“That doesn’t affect me, right?”
“No. You passed the tutorial recently. The ones getting dragged in by force are only the retired hunters who’ve been taking time off. You just keep climbing the Tower and paying your daily points.”
“Thank goodness.”
Even while my sister and I talked, the President’s speech went on.
-This is a decision made to protect our survival and our future.
-All retired hunters, report for duty immediately.
-From this moment on, all national hunter manpower is being converted to a wartime survival system.
-A harsh period of trials is coming. But our people have never once fallen before countless crises.
-We will definitely delay our destruction, and we will greet a peaceful morning again.
-Citizens, please trust the government and remain in your respective positions...
* * *
After the meal was over, I went home and opened Hunter Gallery.
As expected, it was total chaos.
The site was burning with discussion about the Hunter Mobilization Order just announced a moment ago.
I read through the posts one by one.
As of 9 p.m. today, the Hunter Mobilization Order has been declared ^o^
To the retired hunters who’ve been hogging hunter slots and doing absolutely nothing all this time,
Get your asses to the Tower and earn points.
You, who were too scared of monsters to go to the Tower!
You, who were rich enough that you didn’t bother being a hunter!
You, who made a ton of money and retired just to sit around sucking on the good life!
Get your asses to the Tower right now and earn points!
Work your butts off to save this country~~~
My next-door hunter neighbor
was this jobless bastard who always bragged that he’d already made enough money to last his whole life, that he’d achieved financial freedom,
and he’d just gotten taken away by soldiers a moment ago lol.
While I was busting my ass working, that bastard used to ride imported cars, go to clubs, and party his life away, and it honestly made me so jealous and angry,
but now that he’d been dragged off to climb the Tower by force, I felt downright relieved.
I passed the tutorial, but I’ve been too scared of fighting to work as a hunter.
And I was already making good money, so I didn’t really want to risk my life climbing the Tower...
But now it’s the fucking Hunter Mobilization Order?
Does that mean anyone who’s a hunter has to go up the Tower no matter what?
Shit, do I really have to go? I’m terrified.
What happens if I don’t go?
I’m a hunter who lost one arm during the job and retired as a disabled person.
And now you want me to go to the Tower like this?
You want me to fight with one arm missing?
God, this is bullshit.
If I go in like this, I’m 100 percent going to die.
Out of the 50,000 hunters in our country, about 10,000 are retired hunters.
If they’re all threatened with knives and forced into the Tower, they’ll bring back that much more points.
So the country’s life span gets extended, right?
We’re not actually doomed, are we?
...
People’s reactions were all over the place.
Some were furious at being forced into the Tower.
Some held onto a thin strand of hope.
Some expressed skepticism, saying none of it would matter anyway and that doom was still inevitable...
I scratched my chin and thought.
Hunter Mobilization Order, huh...
The Hunter Mobilization Order.
An emergency national decree that forcibly mobilized all hunters.
It was the last desperate struggle to stop the country’s collapse, even if that meant restricting hunters’ rights.
But judging from people’s reactions,
even such an extreme measure seemed far from enough to stop the collapse that was already set in motion.
Posts overflowing with despair and giving up on everything.
As I looked at them, I felt... what should I say...
I didn’t like it.
This reality, where even after giving up human rights, we still couldn’t escape the collapse that had already been decided.
The future where my homeland, the Republic of Korea, disappeared.
I hated seeing people flailing in despair.
On impulse, I posted something.
The faster I grow, the faster I’ll save this country, yep.
If you’re from the Extreme Lunatic Hell Difficulty, you can do it.
So stop worrying, wash your feet, and go to sleep.
The crap post I’d just dumped was quickly swept under and buried by the wave of new posts flooding the board.
I closed the gallery and went to bed.
Tomorrow, I’d be climbing the second floor.
---