Poison and Market Logic
Hunters are bound to have strong egos.
In the brutal battlefield where gates, monsters, blades, and magic rain down like a storm, hunters must first believe in themselves.
Only by trusting themselves and standing firm can they coordinate with their allies up close and protect themselves from the madness of the battlefield at a distance.
So it was hardly strange that Lee Hye-jung stiffened at Lee Shin’s suggestion to change her style.
“I’m not sure I agree with that.”
No matter how much of a forgotten prospect she had been due to her various flaws, and no matter how grateful she was to Lee Shin for discovering her, this was still something that could easily offend her.
In contrast, Park Jeong-seok’s almost servile obedience just moments ago had been genuinely bizarre.
“If I offended you, I apologize. I think you misunderstood. I had no intention of trampling on your pride, Miss Hye-jung.”
“No… I got worked up too. I’m sorry for raising my voice.”
“I simply believe that if you changed your style, you’d have even more room to grow. That’s all.”
“If the representative wants me to change my style, I’d like to hear your reasoning.”
“Hmm~ Very well. If that’s what you want.”
Lee Hye-jung was an agile melee dealer who specialized in disrupting enemies and occasionally pulling monster aggro. She was the classic ‘thief’ archetype often seen in RPGs.
She was fast, had guts, and her hand techniques were top-tier.
Her tactical understanding of team play was no better than her colleagues’, but she at least possessed enough brains to handle solo actions—knowing where to go, what to do, and how to do it.
If anything, her lack of growth was the only thing holding her back. Once she matured properly, she would be fully capable of independent operations.
At first glance, she was a versatile all-rounder who could be used anywhere.
But there was one fatal flaw.
That single critical weakness held her back.
Dealing. Damage. Attack power.
Despite being called a dealer, Lee Hye-jung’s offensive power was pathetically weak.
It didn’t show much in League 4, but the moment she stepped into League 3, she would become utterly helpless no matter what she tried.
That was why Lee Shin had given her one piece of advice: poison.
“Depending on how it’s used, poison can serve as utility, debuff, and even compensate for lacking attack power. It will be the final masterpiece that completes Hunter Lee Hye-jung.”
“Just to be sure you understand, are you aware how difficult poison is to utilize effectively?”
“Of course. In fact, there probably isn’t anyone who knows it better than I do.”
“…That’s just like you, Representative. Such tremendous confidence.”
“Whether you listen or not is entirely up to you. As the representative, I simply want every hunter who passes through my hands to succeed.”
“Heh. For someone who called me a tool during our first meeting, that’s surprisingly sentimental.”
“Tools aren’t all the same. If you’re going to use one, it’s better to have a well-maintained one, isn’t it?”
“You really are something, Representative.”
Lee Hye-jung shook her head as if she couldn’t win against him, and the raid team consultation came to an end.
Alone in the representative’s office, Lee Shin watched Lee Hye-jung trudging across the training grounds and fell into thought.
“Hmm…”
“What is it?”
“You’re here, hyung.”
Chae Dong-ha, who had arrived at just the right moment, stood beside Lee Shin and shared the view.
The raid team members gathered on the training field.
What was interesting was how they had split into two clear groups centered around Park Jeong-seok and Lee Hye-jung, both of whom had just left the representative’s office.
“If it were me, I’d choose Hunter Park Jeong-seok.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Aren’t you trying to decide which one to nurture between Park Jeong-seok and Lee Hye-jung?”
“Is that how it looks?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you’re not entirely wrong.”
This kind of situation came up sometimes.
The reviews were good, people recommended them, but when you actually used them, they turned out to be just okay.
Not bad to use for a while, but somehow lacking if you wanted to take them all the way.
Lee Shin defined this as ‘ambiguous.’
And these two characters fell squarely into that ambiguous category.
Park Jeong-seok, whose first trait was Body Utilization, could be used with great versatility in close-combat roles. His Desire for Recognition could also be leveraged to accelerate his growth.
On the other hand, Lee Hye-jung’s trait Delicate Hands was, as the name suggested, a top-tier dexterity trait. However, it came with a severe penalty to strength and attack power.
Both characters had clear strengths and weaknesses.
That was why he was torn.
If they had been obviously lacking like the others, he could have comfortably used them as tools. But these two had the potential to be useful all the way up to League 1 if properly nurtured.
“Immediate results for the investment point to Park Jeong-seok, but in terms of temperament and end-game specs, Lee Hye-jung is superior. What made you pick Park Jeong-seok, hyung?”
“I looked at it purely through market logic.”
“Ooh, market logic. That’s a solid approach. Let’s hear it.”
At Lee Shin’s gesture, Chae Dong-ha organized his thoughts and laid them out.
“According to last year’s statistics from the Central Awakener Management Headquarters, first-line tanks make up 19.6% of all hunters, while dealers account for a staggering 52.6%. There may be some margin of error since both melee and ranged are grouped together, but—”
“The overwhelming number of dealers is a fact.”
What Chae Dong-ha was getting at was market logic.
The more common something is, the cheaper it becomes. The rarer it is, the more expensive it gets.
Dealers were a dime a dozen, while tanks were surprisingly hard to find.
So the answer was obvious, wasn’t it?
“Moreover, a tank like Hunter Park Jeong-seok, who fits current trends, is even more valuable.”
“And Lee Hye-jung can be replaced anytime?”
“There’s more.”
Chae Dong-ha paused, retrieved a binder from the bookshelf, and handed it over.
“Raid management ledger? You made something like this?”
“I organized the consumables and costs that go into raids. It’s my own little project.”
“Whoa…! As expected of the future genius team leader!”
When he opened it, the first page naturally showed ‘that.’
The core resource of any raid, often called the raid team’s drinking water.
It was Potion.
“You categorized them by importance. Very clean.”
“Of course it starts with potions. Anyway, the part I wanted to show you is right here.”
It was a sheet that totaled each hunter’s consumable usage.
“We’ll exclude Park Su-bin, who’s in first place. He’s your pick and now the guild’s core. So who’s next?”
“Lee Hye-jung, obviously.”
“Correct.”
She was number one in potion consumption.
She also overwhelmingly led in throwing daggers and various other consumables.
“You probably already know what I’m trying to say. Maintaining Hunter Lee Hye-jung costs far too much.”
“Looking at the numbers, it really is bad. She’s almost double the second place.”
“Honestly, we can let it slide for now. It’s awkward to say, but she’s still earning her keep. But what about the future?”
As they moved into League 3 and League 2 gates, the difficulty would rise, and so would the inevitable increase in consumable usage.
Which meant Lee Hye-jung’s maintenance costs would only go up, never down.
After considering all of this, Chae Dong-ha’s conclusion was clear.
“If I were to compare her to a car, Hunter Lee Hye-jung is an old sports car. She might still be fast, but her fuel efficiency is horrifically bad. Therefore, my opinion is that nurturing the more stable Park Jeong-seok across multiple aspects would be more beneficial.”
“Wow, comparing people to cars. I didn’t expect that from you, hyung. You really have no blood or tears.”
“As if the representative who called her a tool the first time we met has any room to talk.”
“Heh heh, exactly! I’m proud. You’re turning into a fine son of a bitch. As your senior son of a bitch, I’m very satisfied.”
“…I’m not happy about that.”
It was all perfectly logical.
Even though he was still learning, his judgment was already this sharp. Lee Shin once again realized just how different an SS-grade talent was from birth.
Still, he thought Chae Dong-ha still had a long way to go.
“It was an excellent opinion, but I’m sorry. My dilemma wasn’t about who to nurture between the two.”
“It wasn’t?”
“We’re going to nurture both of them.”
Generally, anyone with potential over 180 was considered an A-rank asset.
A-rank meant top-tier level.
Even if competing in the Asia League or Champions League might be too much, they could still perform without issue in League 1.
In other words, they had plenty of uses.
“What kind of wordplay is this? You’re saying we nurture both while also saying I wasn’t wrong.”
“It’s exactly as I said. We nurture both. What I was contemplating was who to take with me.”
“??!!”
The character you nurture and the character you take with you.
It was a common mistake among beginner GMs to treat these two things as the same. Just like Chae Dong-ha right now.
“Do I have to take them with me to nurture them? If I’m not taking them, should I just abandon them?”
Coldly evaluate a character’s potential and nurture the ones worth nurturing to the maximum.
If someone asked why waste resources on someone you’re not taking with you, that was an extremely amateur way of thinking. In the professional world, there was a wonderful system called ‘trade.’
“Ah…!!”
“Remember this, hyung. When you eventually manage the raid team, you must judge everything objectively without personal feelings. Even if someone’s entire life changes because of your decision, never let emotion sway you.”
“Representative… you really do seem like a representative now.”
“What, were you expecting a fake one?”
It was a rare moment of genuine seriousness.
After seeing him act like a clown who could make people burst out laughing, the occasional flash of brilliance like this reminded Chae Dong-ha that Lee Shin truly was the representative.
“Still, thanks to you, I’ve made my decision.”
Lee Shin picked up the phone and gave instructions.
“Equipment team? There should be a shoe item I acquired a few days ago in the underground vault. Please issue it to Park Jeong-seok.”
“PR team, from now on focus your coverage primarily on Park Jeong-seok. Reduce the articles on Park Su-bin and Lee Hye-jung slightly. Yes, that will remain consistent going forward. Thank you for your hard work.”
That took care of Park Jeong-seok.
Now it was Lee Hye-jung’s turn.
“You’re free, right? Come with me for a bit, hyung.”
“Where are we going?”
“To get some poison for Miss Hye-jung.”
“Poison?”
“Just follow me.”
“Wait a second. Let me change my clothes.”
Yeongdeok Potion Factory, Busan.
The factory owner was currently panicking at the completely unexpected visitor.
“Let’s get this straight. You’re asking me to cut off the deal with Mir? A business relationship we’ve maintained for twenty years since my father’s time?”
“Haha, have you lost your mind?”
It was ridiculous. In this industry, trust was everything!
Unlike the fiercely competitive capital region, in the provinces everyone knew everyone through just one or two connections.
The warm-hearted mindset that ‘good things are good’ was all well and fine when times were good, but once things turned bad, it became nothing more than a shackle.
Not to go far, this factory and the Mir Guild had built their relationship since the previous generation.
“—And you want me to unilaterally terminate the contract without any justification? Starting tomorrow I’ll be treated like a bastard across all of Busan.”
But the woman—Jeong Su-mi—was confident.
In five minutes—no more, no less—after five minutes, the factory owner would gladly become that bastard.
“How about this?”
She slid a document across with her slender fingers.
At first, the factory owner turned away with a displeased ‘Hmph!’
It was a show of refusal. He wouldn’t be bought with pocket change.
However, purely by chance, as his eyes brushed over it, a question mark popped up in the factory owner’s head.
??… What did I just see?
The unusual number of zeros made him immediately throw away his pride and check the document.
He hadn’t seen wrong. An unbelievable amount was written there.
The factory owner’s attitude turned polite in an instant.
A smile formed on Jeong Su-mi’s face.
“We will pay the penalty for breach of contract separately, and we will handle all tax processing on our end. Even if Busan becomes difficult, we will arrange deals with suppliers in other regions.”
“I-is that true?”
“So? At this amount, you can overlook the headaches that come with breaking the contract, can’t you?”
“W-well… yes?”
“What we want from you, factory owner, is very simple.”
Would you like to repeat after me?
“Hold your phone like this.”
“Call the Mir Guild like this.”
“And say just one thing.”
Jeong Su-mi spoke with a seductive smile.
“We are terminating the contract.”
A short while later, Jeong Su-mi emerged from the office door. She checked her wristwatch.
Four minutes and ten seconds.
That was how long it took for the twenty-year contract between the Yeongdeok Potion Factory and the Mir Guild to be terminated. It was also how long it took for the factory owner to become a bastard over a sum of money too large to refuse.
And it was also the moment Jeong Su-mi, lover and collaborator of Lee Myeong-hwan and master of the information guild Scavenger, declared war on Lee Shin.
“I wonder if the young master knows how to fight in the mud.”