Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: A-Rank Gate (2)
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We headed straight to the apartment where I would be staying.
Location: Bundang.
Closer to Seoul than I thought.
"Bundang land prices are pretty high, as I recall."
Surprisingly generous of the Superhuman Management Bureau.
Maybe because it's temporary housing?
With those thoughts in mind, I followed behind Team Leader Lee Min-hyuk as we went up to the apartment. Finally arriving at the place, Team Leader Lee Min-hyuk carefully unlocked the door lock and opened the door.
"Here we are."
I brushed past Team Leader Lee Min-hyuk and stepped inside.
A white-toned interior came into view.
"Looks brand new."
As promised—just move in with your body—the place already had furniture arranged here and there. And the apartment was quite spacious. Hard to say for sure, but at least 15 pyeong, I'd guess.
"Ho."
As I stroked my chin and nodded approvingly, Team Leader Lee Min-hyuk hurried over and asked.
"How is it?"
"Eh, decent enough."
Not perfectly to my taste, but more than sufficient for a temporary stay.
I could always customize it to my liking after buying my own place later.
Thinking that, I fingered the Dragon Heart tucked deep in my tracksuit pocket.
The mana contained within the Dragon Heart was steadily being absorbed. It'd probably be fully absorbed by tomorrow.
"Normally, this would be plenty of mana for Earth..."
In truth, absorbing all the Dragon Heart's mana would make life on Earth perfectly comfortable. No wars to fight here—just having enough mana was all that mattered.
But.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Returnees, Gates, Awakeners."
Suspicious phenomena tied to Earth.
These fishy developments were getting under my skin.
They were clearly unnatural. Some transcendent external entity must have intervened to cause them.
"Daring to scheme in my territory without permission?"
Touching what was mine—it was highly unpleasant.
"If this were Hell, I'd have blown their heads clean off."
And the more these outsiders rampaged, the worse Earth's environment got. It was already nothing like the Earth I remembered.
What would happen if it deteriorated even further? Apocalypse?
I couldn't let that stand.
I had to protect my peaceful retreat on Earth.
For that.
I needed far more power.
"At least half of my main body's strength."
Of course, power from my main body in Hell was trickling in even without effort, but it was far too slow.
I needed to actively build strength here.
"Best would be absorbing mana from elixirs or artifacts..."
Like the grimoire from that warehouse before, or this Dragon Heart.
"Team Leader Lee."
"Yes, Ms. Kim Hyun."
"How do you get elixirs or artifacts on Earth?"
"Unless you're lucky enough to find them in a Gate, you buy them with money."
"Yeah, figures."
Money, in the end.
"Money, money, money. Gotta make some cash."
I asked Agent Chae, who was timidly poking at the rabbit ornament on the table with her finger.
"Agent Chae, does the Bureau pay well?"
Startled by my question, Agent Chae flashed an awkward smile and replied.
"Huh? Oh, the Bureau pays great. No months-long delays, and never less than promised. It's a good place."
"Isn't that just what they should do?"
"Is it? Y-yeah. Ahaha. Haha..."
Suddenly, Agent Chae looked crestfallen.
I turned my question to Lee Min-hyuk.
"How much do you pull in at the Bureau, Team Leader Lee?"
"W-well, after taxes and deductions, about 2.7 billion. That's decent, haha."
"2.7 billion?"
Hm. No matter how I looked at it, that didn't seem like much.
I crossed my arms and glanced at Choi Eun-ji.
"What about Hwang Won-uk? How much did that guy rake in at Seosung?"
"Uh, 150 billion? A little over that, I think."
At that, Lee Min-hyuk lightly nudged Choi Eun-ji's calf with his toe.
"Wow. 150 billion."
I leaned back, cracking my knuckles. If a scrub like that got 150 billion, how much should I be getting?
Besides, both were S-Rank hunters, but their was worlds apart. Sure, Hwang Won-uk was a tad stronger than Team Leader Lee, but even accounting for that, the gap was ridiculous.
They said civil servants were underpaid, but this was straight-up pitiful.
Well, whatever.
As I smacked my lips, Team Leader Lee cautiously asked.
"Interested in the corporate side?"
"Nah, not really."
Taking a salary from someone else was as good as putting myself under them. I was the type to dominate others, not crawl beneath anyone.
"But then where am I supposed to make money..."
Where to earn it from.
Right then, Team Leader Lee Min-hyuk's phone rang.
After talking in the corner for a good while, he turned to look at me.
"What?"
"Uh, Seosung reached out regarding you..."
"Seosung? I have zero interest in working under anyone."
"Not a contract offer. There's an A-Rank Gate Hwang Won-uk was supposed to raid—they're requesting you take his place."
"What? That's irritating in its own right. Why dump the mess from that Hwang idiot's screw-up and suicide on me?"
"Doesn't seem like blame-shifting. Just a straight-up formal raid request. You could refuse with zero ethical issues."
I scratched my ear and crossed my legs.
"What a pain. Hate cleaning up after others."
Probably best to just decline...
"But the terms are way better than expected."
"Good terms?"
My ears perked up instinctively.
"Yes. Full raid fee, plus all byproducts and resources go to you. Extremely generous."
Choi Eun-ji's eyes went wide.
"Byproducts, resources, and raid fee? That's basically handing over everything."
"Yeah, pretty much."
Muttering that, Lee Min-hyuk looked at me.
"Looks like Seosung wants to mend fences with you."
"Mend fences?"
"Well, things got awkward between Seosung and you because of Hwang Won-uk, right? They probably want to reset—or even improve—relations through this raid."
"Hmm."
Lee Min-hyuk tapped at his smartwatch and asked.
"So, what'll you do?"
"Eh, no reason not to."
If they're throwing money at me, of course I'd take it.
Seosung Guild, Strategy Team 2 conference room.
A dozen or so hunters were gathered, all wearing serious expressions as they murmured among themselves.
"You see the news?"
"Fuck, that psycho bastard. Not even human."
"How do you kill 17 people? Psychopath?"
"Damn, to think we called that guy our team leader once..."
"I knew he was like that. The way that bastard used to stare at me—it was creepy as hell."
"Sex offender scum. Good riddance."
After venting about Hwang Won-uk for a while, the hunters shifted topics.
"So, what happens to us now?"
One hunter replied indifferently.
"HQ will recruit a new S-Rank hunter, I guess. Whatever."
"What about the upcoming A-Rank Gate raid?"
"Hm... Pull in a team leader from another team?"
"No way. Their schedules are jammed too."
"And even if they did, there's adaptation time. Syncing the team takes two or three months. No way they'd throw them straight into an A-Rank Gate."
"Then what?"
"Hm, maybe just us."
"Ugh, no thanks. Don't wanna hit a Gate without an S-Rank."
Right at that moment.
The conference room door flew open, and the deputy team leader strode in, his face crumpled in frustration.
"Deputy Team Leader!"
"What's the word? A-Rank Gate raid still happening?"
"We're not going in solo, right? We could manage, but casualties would be brutal."
The deputy team leader let out a deep sigh at his team members' barrage of questions.
Then he slowly opened his mouth.
"New team leader's being recruited externally. I'll handle interim duties for now."
"What about the A-Rank Gate coming up?"
"They're bringing in an S-Rank hunter on a temp basis for the day?"
"What?"
The hunters' faces twisted in disbelief. All their pent-up frustration and anger began erupting, using this as the trigger.
"That 'recruitment' isn't the new leader, right? Just a short-term merc for that one Gate?"
"HQ handling shit like this? Unbelievable."
"Fucking desk-jockeys are the problem. Sitting around crunching numbers—no field sense at all. Think slapping any S-Rank on us makes the team tick?"
"At least we're not going in alone."
"So, who's the S-Rank? Foreigner? Or domestic?"
"Please say they at least speak Korean. Can't deal with some foreigner yapping mid-fight."
The deputy team leader, who had been listening silently to the tirade, finally spoke up.
"Good news—he speaks Korean. Apparently a recently returned S-Rank returnee."
The team members' faces soured further.
"...What?"
"So, a totally unproven newbie?"
"Wow, this is insane."
"They have ability?"
"Supposedly... but who knows."
"Not even confirmed?"
"Magic power measured S-Rank, but that doesn't guarantee they fight like one. What the hell is HQ basing this on?"
"They must have some reason."
"This is nuts."
Listening to the exchange, the deputy team leader smirked inwardly.
"Perfect. No need for me to stir the pot—they'll talk themselves into a boycott."
The deputy had never intended to go along with this Gate raid smoothly. Of course not—who'd want to team up with some unknown rookie?
Especially when lives were on the line.
"Get the whole team to boycott and boot that new returnee."
Then Seosung's only option would be to raid with the remaining Team 2 members. They couldn't just resell a Gate they'd already won at auction.
At that point, he'd use the raid difficulty and hazard pay as excuses to demand even more compensation than usual.
Money, elixirs, whatever.
"Kuk. Who'd have thought Hwang Won-uk that idiot dying would hand me this opportunity. I'm one lucky bastard."
The deputy chuckled to himself.
All while pitying the unlucky new returnee, who was nothing like him.