The Price of Pride
“W-what are you saying right now?” Executive Director Oh’s voice trembled.
“You seem to have understood me, so stop pretending you don’t.” Kim Jeonghyeon walked over to the sofa and sat down without even asking. “Sit.”
Kim Jeonghyeon gestured as if he were the owner of the place. As if possessed by a ghost, Executive Director Oh sat on the sofa as well.
“I received a report a moment ago. They said you scheduled a meeting with our company.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Aren’t you from Cheomdan Happy Industry? Suddenly, Cheonnuri? What is this….”
“I was appointed as of today. It’s a bit difficult to go into the details. We’re both busy, so let’s get to the conclusion. Ohsung Group will continue to receive magic stone supplies. Of course, the quantity will be lower than before.”
“I-is that true?” Executive Director Oh’s eyes, which had been flustered, lit up.
“Cheonnuri is still quite lacking in capacity to handle the entire supply of magic stones coming out of the Hunter Management Department.”
Well, of course, that wouldn’t be the case for long. The very first thing he did upon taking office as COO was to replace the facilities. He had replaced all the existing equipment that used to process magic stone byproducts. Cheonnuri no longer planned to make mere trinkets. From now on, they wouldn’t just be dealing with byproducts; they would be constantly researching and cutting the magic stones themselves to increase their purity and produce new items.
“However, there is a condition.”
“…A condition?” Executive Director Oh’s eyebrows twitched slightly. He felt uneasy for some reason. Why did he have a sense of déjà vu?
Kim Jeonghyeon spoke slowly and firmly.
“We intend to increase the supply price of the existing magic stones. Let’s start with a 20% increase.”
Executive Director Oh’s face stiffened in an instant. 20%?
“Do you think that makes any sense right now!? 20%! The amount we’re already paying is the highest in the industry! And you want to raise it by 20%? Then we’ll be in the red!”
“I think you misunderstood. It’s not a fixed 20%; that’s just the start. We’ll be raising it by another 10% soon.”
Bang! Executive Director Oh slammed his fist down hard on the table.
“What are you trusting to act so cocky? I don’t know how you became the COO of Cheonnuri, but at the end of the day, it’s just a mid-sized company. How dare you threaten Ohsung Group!?”
His eyes were wild. He was right. It was a company that couldn’t be ignored in the industry, but it was still just a mid-sized company. In front of Ohsung Group, it was like a firefly. But Kim Jeonghyeon was calm.
“Are you finished? Then I’ll give you exactly five days. Decide for yourself whether to accept my demands or not.”
Kim Jeonghyeon stood up from his seat and walked out the office door without hesitation.
“I did as you told me for now. But will there really be no problems?”
Kim Jeonghyeon looked somewhat anxious, and sitting across from him was Cheon Yooshin. Yooshin, having heard about what happened, was the one who had been pulling Kim Jeonghyeon’s strings.
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Don’t worry and just push through. You’re not that team leader from Cheomdan Happy Industry anymore. You’re the proud COO of Cheonnuri, so don’t show any weakness. If you, Jeonghyeon, get looked down upon, I get looked down upon too. I absolutely cannot tolerate that.”
Watching Yooshin pat his shoulder, Kim Jeonghyeon’s expression changed strangely.
‘No, even so, I think I’m at least 10 years older than him.’
Calling him ‘Jeonghyeon’…. He’d be grateful if he just used his job title. But the annual salary was 10 billion won. He had to adapt quickly. Age wasn’t important in the face of money.
“Oh, and this.”
Suddenly, a yellowish object appeared in Yooshin’s hand.
“Gasp!”
Kim Jeonghyeon was startled after identifying the object.
“C-could it be a yellow magic stone?”
“Oh, you know it well? I picked it up while passing by.”
A yellow magic stone. Unlike before, that rare magic stone, of which there were only five in the country now thanks to active clearing, was in Yooshin’s hand.
“Use it for research. I lent one to the research institute, and I’ll get that one back soon too, so you figure out how to put it to work. You don’t need more money, right?”
Kim Jeonghyeon, who carefully cradled the yellow magic stone in his arms, nodded with a dazed face.
“I-it’s fine. We still have quite a bit of company liquidity we can manage.”
A moment later, Kim Jeonghyeon, having regained his senses, pulled a stack of papers from his briefcase.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the business plan you mentioned.”
“Ho-oh?”
Fast. He hadn’t been in charge for long, yet he already had the framework of a business plan. This was unexpected.
In fact, the reason he had chosen Kim Jeonghyeon as the manager of Cheonnuri wasn’t because of his ability. It didn’t matter if his ability was lacking. He believed that once he sat in the seat, the ability befitting it would emerge. The reason he chose him was very simple. It was because he had saved his mother from a crisis.
Yooshin, who had scanned the documents, nodded. At that, Kim Jeonghyeon gulped.
“I don’t really get it even after looking at it. You’ll handle it well on your own, I guess.”
Yooshin, having set the documents down, stood up.
“Well, if anything is difficult, just tell me. I’m quite strong, after all.”
Cheon Yooshin began to wear a mischievous, rascal-like smile.
Hiroshi gulped and entered the office where Prime Minister Kenji was.
Prime Minister Kenji was sitting quietly alone on the sofa.
“I… I failed.”
They hadn’t been able to deal with the B-class Apocalyptor, so they had launched a nuke to force it off its path. Successfully, the Apocalyptor had returned to Korea, just as Japan had intended. So he had desperately hoped. That it would devastate the Republic of Korea itself. But the result was the exact opposite. A hunter named Cheon Yooshin had caught the Apocalyptor. And not just barely; he had caught it in an absolutely overwhelming fashion.
China, which had been imposing economic sanctions along with his own country, had lifted all sanctions at once. Their intention was obvious. ‘They must feel the need to get on the good side of Cheon Yooshin, who can catch B-class monsters.’
But Japan’s situation was quite different from China’s. There was no need to even mention the deep-seated past between Japan and Korea. What should he do?
Kenji turned his gaze to Hiroshi, who was waiting for his orders.
“Right now…,”
Slam!
“T-this is a big problem.”
Kenji furrowed his brow.
“What big problem?”
“A gate has appeared near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant!”
Prime Minister Kenji jumped up from his seat without realizing it.
“What?! Why are you reporting that while just sitting there! Send the hunters in immediately! Clear it quickly!”
“B-but….”
“What do you mean, ‘but’? You aren’t going to tell me that the gate that appeared just happens to be B-class, are you?”
“It is… B-class. Prime Minister.”
The air in the room froze instantly. The secretary added,
“What’s more serious is that the gate is gradually expanding. If this continues, it will soon reach Reactor No. 1.”
Gulp. Hiroshi, who had been in the corner, gulped.
The problem wasn’t just the contact. Since a gate had occurred, the situation around it had to be controlled. Furthermore, the reactor also required continuous management. But a gate—and a B-class gate that was impossible to clear with Japan’s own power—had appeared. If so, a Gate Break was inevitable. If a break occurred? Monsters would pour out of the gate. No one knew how many would come out or what would come out.
The problem didn’t end there. Managing the reactor itself would become impossible. What crazy person would go into a place where a B-class Gate Break was occurring to manage a nuclear reactor? If the reactor wasn’t managed in time, it could lead to a massive meltdown. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant would reach a level far exceeding the accidents at Chernobyl or Fukushima.
Prime Minister Kenji, who had been keeping his mouth shut, squeezed his eyes shut. Hiroshi and the secretary stared intently at Prime Minister Kenji without a word.
How many seconds, how many minutes had passed? Prime Minister Kenji’s eyes opened.
“Send word to the Korean side immediately. Tell them a B-class gate has appeared, so they need to handle it quickly.”
“…Understood!”
Upon receiving that news, an emergency security meeting was convened at the Blue House in the Republic of Korea. What was unexpected was that Hunter Cheon Yooshin also attended the meeting. Of course, unlike the others, Hunter Cheon Yooshin attended online via a screen. Minister Choi Jeongwon of the Hunter Management Department, who cast a glance at him, reported to President Cha.
“A B-class gate has occurred in Japan, near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. And they have requested that we clear the gate.”
President Cha fell into thought for a moment.
“Yooshin-gun. What are your thoughts?”
Cheon Yooshin, who had been distracted for a moment, opened his mouth.
“That’s good. I agree.”
President Cha nodded refreshingly. Minister Choi Jeongwon of the Hunter Management Department carefully opened his mouth.
“Then shall we convey our intention to Japan immediately?”
“I will think about it for a moment.”
President Cha tapped the table with his finger. Soon, he opened his mouth.
“We will accept Japan’s request, but we will also present our conditions. First, an official apology and compensation for the comfort women issue. Let’s take this opportunity to firmly nail it down so that no further distortion is tolerated.”
There were now fewer than 20 survivors among the comfort women victims registered with the government. To comfort the suffering they had endured, an official apology was needed while they were still alive. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had been nodding at President Cha’s words, lifted his head in surprise, but the President didn’t care.
“Second, Dokdo has been the territory of the Republic of Korea from the beginning, and they must immediately cease all sovereignty claims related to Dokdo.”
A breathless gasp leaked out in the conference room.
“And they must promise to completely scrap the plan to discharge contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant and treat it safely according to international standards.”
Discharging contaminated water was a serious act that could harm not only environmental pollution but also the livelihoods and health of people who made their living from the sea.
“Lastly….”
The staff attending the security meeting all held their breath.
“We will demand an end to the distortion of past history and the revision of history textbooks. There should be no such thing where we become the perpetrators and they become the victims. If they do not accept these conditions, there will be no help from us. In front of the B-class gate, Japan will have to choose. Whether they will clearly acknowledge their past mistakes and go in a direction that saves Japan, or whether they will be unable to escape their past stubbornness and fall into the path of destruction.”
The conference room was instantly engulfed in a tense silence. The one who broke that silence was the sound of one person clapping. The protagonist of the clapping was Cheon Yooshin.
Awe was buried in Cheon Yooshin’s voice. The staff were flustered by Yooshin’s remark, but President Cha instead smiled.
“It’s a relief if you think so. All of this is possible because you are here. Because you are here, our country is safe, and because you are here, we can be proud. The same goes for this time. If it weren’t for you, Japan would never have asked us for help. I really want to express my gratitude to you.”
“…Hahaha.”
An awkward laugh spread across President Cha’s face. Usually, when he said things like this, the other person would bow their head. At that moment, the Minister of Foreign Affairs interjected.
“Don’t worry. In exchange for clearing this B-class gate, we will also demand financial compensation. Enough to satisfy Hunter Cheon Yooshin.”
Yooshin shook his head.
“What is it?”
Curiosity filled President Cha’s eyes.
“…Are you perhaps planning to cause a Gate Break on purpose?”
The conference room was once again engulfed in a heavy silence. Everyone stared at the screen. Amidst the focused gazes, Yooshin grinned.
2 trillion won. That was the amount he had earned after defeating one monster. Yooshin was planning to cause a Gate Break on purpose. Clearing it inside the gate was useless. Of course, he could get magic stones, but he couldn’t get the corpses. There was no way Yooshin, who had made a fortune from corpses, would give them up. Who wouldn’t know that? They had just left it alone because they didn’t have the ability to clear it. But Cheon Yooshin was different. No one doubted his ability. Because he already had a track record.
“……?”