China's Unwelcome Proposal
A suspicious presence lingered behind me in the alley.
I had first sensed something off three minutes ago.
"You noticed rather quickly, my lord."
"Someone's hiding?"
Sir Isra possessed senses honed to a razor's edge. Ingrid, on the other hand, shared the power of the Heavenly Martial Body and still hadn't felt a thing.
So even with the same senses, there was a difference.
Fascinating.
"We've been tailed for five minutes now."
Tch.
Right. I still couldn't match Sir Isra.
"You iron-headed idiot! You noticed first and just sat there for five minutes?!"
"There was no killing intent."
"You're a knight! Our master could have been in danger!"
"This, too, is a form of training."
Training, huh.
Holding your breath. Hiding your body among objects. To catch the subtle distortions that arise when someone conceals their presence, you had to sharpen your senses even further.
Three minutes ago, the only reason I'd realized someone was following me was the shift in the airflow when they exhaled.
Only after focusing every sense but my eyes from the moment I felt that wrongness did I finally pick up the stalker's presence.
Sir Isra had simply acquired and refined that kind of awareness as a matter of course.
It was a strange feeling.
"Worry not. Had I sensed any intent to harm my lord, I would have acted at once."
"You really are—!"
Ingrid. That's enough of that.
Right now, it was time to have a word with the uninvited guest on our tail.
"Are you going to come out, or do I have to drag you out?"
Sir Isra said there was no killing intent. But if they'd meant well, they wouldn't have spent five minutes hiding and watching me.
I'd heard plenty about the dirty business that went on in the hunter industry. The only surprising part was that I was the target this time.
I wasn't shaking, though. With two retainers standing by in the death space, what was there to be afraid of?
Mir? Or some punk the Hwarang Guild kids had hired for payback?
Those were the only two possibilities that came to mind.
"Well now. Impressive."
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Applause echoed down the quiet alley. A man stepped out from around the corner and into the glow of a streetlamp.
A face that looked about thirty. Ordinary office-worker clothes—except they weren't. Residual mana clung to every piece. Jacket, bag, even the watch: all items. Custom gear for everyday use. Performance wouldn't be much, but the price tag sure would.
"Jin Xiao. Second-grade Administrative Inspector, Superhuman General Bureau."
The Superhuman General Bureau?
That was a Chinese government organization. I'd figured it was Mir Guild. I never expected someone from there to come looking for me.
"Think of it as roughly equivalent to a deputy director of your Counter-Abnormal Bureau."
"Ah. So why is someone that important tailing me?"
"I'll be direct. The Superhuman General Bureau wishes to welcome Hunter Park Minho into our ranks."
"I decline."
The answer came out instantly, without a second of hesitation.
China? The Superhuman General Bureau? Why the hell would I go there?
"You may hear the terms before deciding. There's no rush."
"Come on. I already turned down Mir's twenty billion. You think I'd pack up for a country like China?"
A flicker.
For a split second, the cheerfully smiling man's face twisted. If not for the five senses sharpened by the Heavenly Martial Body, I never would have caught that faint change of expression.
"One hundred billion."
Excuse me?
"You would also receive instruction from Old Master Gu, China's greatest blacksmith."
Old Master Gu. A craftsman on par with Meister Han Yohan. In China, he was called the reincarnation of Zhurong, the god of smiths.
"Corpses? We'll procure whatever you desire."
China was vast, and it managed just as many gates. The claim that they could deliver a wide variety of monster corpses from all across the continent needed no second-guessing.
"Concerned about your family? You needn't worry."
Just as they had smuggled Jeong Sinho's family into China, the Superhuman General Bureau could quietly relocate mine as well if they put their weight behind it. Top-tier housing and apartments reserved exclusively for Communist Party cadres would be thrown in as a bonus, he said.
The man spread both arms with pride.
"Hunter Park Minho, we can give you anything you want."
A confirmed sum of one hundred billion right off the bat. Benefits as standard. Anything else I needed, the government itself would provide. That was his offer.
"Quite extravagant, that."
"It puts every other proposal we've received to shame."
Yeah. It was heavy, all right.
The signing bonus I could set aside—I'd already rejected the American guild GGG's fifty-billion investment. But the offer didn't stop at money.
Intact monster corpses. Family welfare. And on top of that, they were willing to stack on extra conditions for anything else I needed.
"Well?"
His face radiated confidence, the look of a man certain I would accept.
Which is exactly why—
"I decline."
—I wanted to go even less.
"Are the terms insufficient?"
"They're more than I deserve. I still don't want them."
Patriotism? That wasn't it.
As I'd told Director Jeong, the first reason was simply that I had no desire to leave the land where I was born and raised.
"Jeong Sinho got a generous offer too, didn't he?"
"He did. We welcomed him with the very best terms, with all our hearts."
"That's why I don't want it."
Sure, you could leave if they paid a high enough price for you. Then go quietly. Instead he'd blamed the Rift Bureau for everything and hadn't said a single word to the Chilseong Guild, where the real penalty clause was hanging over him.
Whether the Superhuman General Bureau had ordered it or he'd said it to rationalize things to himself, I had no interest in living that low.
"Hahahaha! Now that is the mettle of Isra's lord! Aye—a man ought to be just so!"
"As expected of Master. Refusing to bow to capital—truly the bearing of a great man."
Both retainers backed my choice.
Yeah. I wasn't wrong.
"There will be no better offer than this."
"Is that so? Are you sure?"
Ah, whatever. Since it had come to this, I might as well bluff a little.
"Seems a bit cheap for recruiting a hunter who's locked in as the next SS-class."
The man wore a blank look for a moment.
"Are you being arrogant?"
"Let's call it confidence."
"No guild will match terms like these."
"Thanks for the concern."
I answered with a crooked smile.
Negotiate? Why bother. I made it abundantly clear I had zero interest in dealing with them.
"You will regret turning down today's proposal."
And now we were at threats.
"We'll see who regrets it."
"Hmph. Forgive the intrusion."
The man turned away with a stiff face.
Making empty threats and acting tough. What a joke.
"Summon me. I shall break that insolent cur's limbs!"
"Just leave him."
Roughing up one guy wouldn't put a dent in the Chinese government. What was the point of harassing someone who barely ranked as a single hair on their head?
Still.
Wasn't poaching hunters to another country basically espionage?
Should I call 111? Or tell the Rift Bureau? I hesitated, then pressed the number of the highest-ranking person in my contacts.
Beep. Beep.
"Hunter Park. Thank you for contacting me."
"Ah, well. Someone from China's Superhuman General Bureau showed up, you see."
"What is your location?!"
"Not far from my place, but—"
"I'll be right there."
Uh. I hadn't actually asked him to come in person.
Director Jeong Seungil arrived on scene in five minutes.
And that was no exaggeration. He literally flew in, kicking off the empty air.
He wasn't even a mage. How was that possible?
"It is not difficult. I could teach you as well, my lord."
According to Sir Isra, the key was striking the empty air with mana and using the pushback. Yeah—even if you explained it like that, I still couldn't do it.
BOOM!
With a roar of compressed air bursting free, Director Jeong landed in the alley.
I almost felt like I should clap.
"Are you all right, Hunter Park Minho?"
"Ah. Yes."
"Any injuries?"
"I'm fine."
"Personnel with tracking abilities have been dispatched. Please wait a moment."
This was ballooning fast. A lot of people were going to a lot of trouble because of me.
Still—at this point, I'd at least managed to smear some dirt on the face of that unlucky Superhuman General Bureau official, right?
"Shameless bastards. Scheming to steal another Korean hunter!"
Director Jeong always kept that calm, even voice whenever I saw him. Right now, though, he looked genuinely furious.
So he was human after all.
"What did the Superhuman General Bureau say to you?"
Well. They'd put an absolutely enormous deal on the table.
After hearing the whole story, Director Jeong squeezed his eyes shut.
"One hundred billion."
He turned the words over again and again. The atmosphere was so heavy I couldn't even open my mouth.
Don't worry, I wanted to say. I cut them off cold. I refused.
"First, on behalf of the government of the Republic of Korea—thank you."
"Sir?"
"If I had been in your position, Hunter Park, I never could have refused."
Looking only at the numbers, the American guild GGG's investment had been enormous too. It hadn't even been paid directly to me—they'd offered roughly fifty billion as an investment into Ascent Agency, which supported me. If they'd tried to cast me directly, they probably would have matched something close to China's terms.
Though, of course, that offer had never been made public.
The condition about procuring rare monster byproducts had been a little tempting, sure. But five years as a hunter had taught me one thing.
"Because I know there's no such thing as a free lunch in this world."
A massive investment at the Chinese government level? The moment I signed and changed nationality, they'd wring every last won of their investment back out of me by any means necessary.
I wouldn't even join a major guild because of the restrictions on my freedom of action. Joining the Communist Party? Ugh. Nightmare fuel. I already had more than enough on my plate without getting chained to a government agency.
"Ah. Forgive me."
Different country or not, that wasn't something I should have said in front of a high-ranking official of our own government.
"Not at all. And thank you."
Director Jeong's waist bent to a perfect ninety degrees.
Uh. Uhhhh.
"You really don't have to bow like that."
"I have nothing else I can offer but my gratitude."
Still bent low, Director Jeong continued.
"For choosing not to leave our country—thank you once again."
It wasn't really patriotism or anything. But he looked ready to keep his head down forever if I kept protesting, so I gave up.
"If there is anything the Bureau can do for you, please say so."
China's offer had been so massive that the Rift Bureau seemed determined to put something on the table of their own, to at least try to match it somehow.
Hmm. Well.
If President Baek were here, I could squeeze them effectively. But I couldn't exactly demand the hundred billion the Superhuman General Bureau had thrown out. I knew perfectly well how poor the Rift Bureau was.
So when the question came at me like this, nothing suitable came to mind.
Ah.
"I'd like to request protection for my family."
That Superhuman General Bureau guy had said it himself—they could quietly spirit a family out from under the government's nose. Flip that around, and it meant they could also harm my family without anyone knowing.
Maybe I was overthinking it. But I couldn't think of anything else worth asking the Rift Bureau for, so I decided to treat it as taking out an insurance policy.
"Understood. I will take personal responsibility for protecting Hunter Park's family."
Director Jeong answered without a moment's hesitation.