A Mountain of Gold

Creating a bank account was not difficult.

After the paperwork was finished and his fingerprint was scanned in place of a seal, the youngest arrived and transferred 100 million won from his own account to serve as the initial balance—an ironic reversal of how things used to be.

The hunter-exclusive card apparently had a high production cost. It normally cost one million won, but they offered a fifty-percent service discount and deducted only five hundred thousand. There was no way to verify the actual manufacturing expense, so he simply nodded.

What pleased him more than the card and passbook was the separate wallet-style case they provided to hold it. The case even functioned as a proper wallet, eliminating the need to buy one separately.

“Thank you, sir. Please take care.”

Leaving the politely bowing staff behind, Tae-sung stepped out into the intersection in front of the bank. It was packed with people and vehicles, almost chaotic. One clear change was the number of small electric cars now on the roads—something rarely seen before.

“Electricity is relatively cheap these days. A core power plant was completed recently.”

It was a large-scale facility comparable to a nuclear plant. The government’s demand for cores had risen sharply as a result, but even at high purchase prices the maintenance costs and risks were far lower than with the old nuclear or thermal plants. Electricity bills had dropped noticeably.

Meanwhile, shipping costs for Middle Eastern crude kept climbing, and those burdens were passed directly onto oil prices. Everyone knew fossil fuel supply would only grow more difficult, so more drivers were switching to electric vehicles.

“We need to stop by the police station too.”

“The police station?”

“I need a weapon possession permit.”

Being a hunter did not mean one could carry weapons freely. A system similar to the old sword-possession permits had been introduced. Rather than registering individual weapons, it granted permits to the person.

As long as there was no criminal record or other disqualifying factors and the applicant passed a separate personality evaluation, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠process did not take long.

“I see.”

The police station they visited with the youngest was so swamped with work it was hard to tell whether it was a station or a company office; everyone looked rushed. When they explained they had come for a weapon possession permit, they were guided to the proper department. There, Tae-sung verified his identity with his ID card and several other procedures, then took the personality test the youngest had mentioned.

The test involved running an application on a provided tablet. It consisted of simple multiple-choice questions about the correct course of action in various situations.

In truth, the weapon possession permit felt less like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠granting the right to carry arms and more like a system for tracking and managing hunters’ personal information. After a series of largely formal steps, he received the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠permit without issue.

The permit itself was a plastic card the size of a business card. It slipped neatly into the card case he had received at the bank.

“Now that you have the permit, buying weapons won’t be a problem. With an account, online transactions are fine too.”

They stopped at a mobile carrier store, replaced the unrecognized SIM in his smartphone, and signed up for the carrier’s wireless internet service. By the time they finished, the sun had already set.

When they returned home with the youngest, the second brother—who had been out on business—had also come back. After another reunion with his parents, Kang Tae-sung filled the bathtub, soaked and washed thoroughly, then put on a bathrobe and lay down on the bed.

The tablet PC worked without any trouble once the internet connection was restored. Unlike the past, the data centers of existing portal and video sites showed no problems; both the volume and accuracy of information had clearly improved.

“Rift…”

What Kang Tae-sung searched for was, of course, information on moving rifts. As his younger siblings had said, little came up. A few bulletin boards contained one or two comments that appeared to come from awakened individuals, but the posts were already quite old. They were nothing more than passing chatter, offering no real knowledge.

“I’ll have to be careful.”

The sensation he remembered was pure helplessness.

It was like the indescribable, overwhelming power an ant might feel before a human.

Standing before it, he had felt utterly powerless.

“I could probably escape.”

But if the same thing happened again, he had no intention of repeating the foolish act of ignoring the danger and leaping in from the side. It would be wise to learn as much as possible about what it was.

“Maybe I should have asked the Saintess.”

He felt a twinge of regret, yet the sense of betrayal toward her remained strong. They had fought together for so long, only for him to realize late that she had merely been an agent of the gods.

“Still, I have two pockets now.”

Looking at the two magic bags placed beside his pillow, Kang Tae-sung wondered if he should at least take comfort in that, then shook his head.

“Should I consolidate them into one?”

Both bags had plenty of empty space. He could choose one and move everything over, but the old stock-trading adage about not putting all your eggs in one basket came to mind and made him hesitate.

“There’s too much gold.”

Roughly estimating, the two bags together held around twenty thousand gold coins. Each coin was made from roughly one nyang of gold. He did not know the current market price, so he searched. It seemed to fluctuate between 1.5 million and 2 million won per nyang.

“Roughly thirty billion won.”

As expected. While considering whether to divide them, Kang Tae-sung’s thoughts shifted. Rather than carrying split loads, it would be better to sell some, deposit the money in the account, and carry only a portion.

“……”

Tap tap tap.

He asked his younger siblings whether there was a good place to sell the gold.

He had initially thought a simple gold shop would suffice, but while checking prices he learned that hunters brought back gold coins from abroad and that separate sales channels existed. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠That was why he asked them.

“The government, huh.”

Even uncertified gold would fetch a decent price from the government if the quantity was above a certain threshold. Since the second brother worked with government personnel, he offered to contact his connections and try to get a better rate.

The whole family gathered in the living room once more. They pushed the sofa and table aside, and everyone stared blankly as Kang Tae-sung poured a clattering heap of yellow gold coins onto the floor.

“Wh-what is all this?”

His father, who had been about to go to sleep and came out in pajamas, and his mother standing behind him both asked the question with still-sleepy faces. Kang Han-sung, wearing disposable plastic gloves so the gold would not be damaged, scolded his siblings to stop staring and start counting.

“For now, stack them in tens, then make groups of ten stacks. Hyung can put each hundred back into the bag.”

“This bag still has a lot left.”

“Magic bags really are convenient. Let’s move everything into one, use the empty one for the counted coins, and keep pulling from the full one as the pile here shrinks.”

The gold-coin counting session continued until nearly midnight. Since they had started, they decided to do it accurately. When they finished, the exact total was 21,032 coins.

It seemed the king had not given him a perfectly round number.

“Maknae, check the market price.”

“Just a moment. At the purchase rate… if we use 1.5 million won per nyang, it comes to roughly 31.5 billion.”

“Wow. Our hyung is rich.”

Kang Han-sung grinned and held up his index finger in a joking gesture, pretending to ask for just one coin. Kang Yu-ri, who still could not quite grasp the reality of it, yawned and returned to her room. The youngest glanced carefully at his oldest brother’s expression.

The parents, who had stayed up watching, said little. Their father simply patted Tae-sung’s shoulder and nodded. Their mother, however, looked at her eldest son with a slightly darkened face.

“I didn’t obtain this through wrongdoing. There’s no need to worry.”

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. To earn this much, how much hardship must you have endured?”

Earning such a sum in only three years clearly implied he had done extremely difficult and dangerous work. Faced with his parents’ misunderstanding, Kang Tae-sung simply wore an awkward expression and offered no further explanation. He also kept the truth—that it had been more than a hundred years, not three—buried in his heart.

‘An annual salary of three hundred million must have been a pretty good job, huh?’

The thought did not cheer him up in the slightest. After his parents returned to their bedroom, he quietly discussed the matter with his two brothers while they put the sofa and table back in place.

The 1.5 million won per nyang they had calculated was on the lower end of current purchase prices. Kang Han-sung said the government could probably offer more.

Whether to sell all of it, however, had no clear answer. It was Kang Tae-sung’s gold; he could decide as he wished. But he needed to give a definite number before his brother could contact his connections with concrete details.

“Sell twenty thousand coins and keep the rest.”

“Are you going to bury them in the garden?”

“Not a bad idea.”

“I was joking… but actually, it’s not bad at all. I’ll tell them that, then.”

“Will there be any problems?”

“It’s not stolen goods, and they’re already short on gold, so they’ll probably welcome it. Core technology uses a lot of gold. If they want to build more power plants, they need to gather every ounce they can.”

With the discussion settled, the very next morning Kang Han-sung reported that the connection had already been made. It seemed he was regarded as trustworthy on that side. When he mentioned the goods belonged to his older brother, the other party said they would send someone without issue.

They could not simply trust the situation blindly, however. The three brothers arrived early at the appointed location—a quiet park—and waited, each equipped in his own way. Kang Han-sung wore the pistol issued by the government along with a bulletproof vest. The youngest had unfolded his collapsible metal bow and strung it.

In contrast, Kang Tae-sung looked comparatively underdressed. He carried no weapons or armor and wore the same casual clothes from the day before.

He simply wandered around, tapping paving blocks on the ground with his foot and touching a fixed metal bench.

“What are you doing?”

When Kang Han-sung asked, he raised one hand casually as if it were nothing.

“Just checking in advance what I can use.”

“Use for what?”

“That bench looks serviceable.”

“…What would you even use that for?”

“The screws holding it to the ground are loose. Shake it a couple of times and it’ll come right off.”

“……”

The youngest, listening from a short distance, looked at his oldest brother with renewed eyes. While hunting, one saw all kinds of hunters. Some did not use fixed weapons and instead grabbed whatever was at hand—sometimes even other people’s discarded weapons.

Yet among such people, proper hunters were rare.

‘No way.’

The thought that his oldest brother might be one of those improper hunters did not even cross his mind. Above all, this was the man who had helped him awaken.

“They’re here.”

Around the appointed time, vehicles arrived a little early. A cash transport truck appeared, escorted by fully armed government hunters on motorcycles. Two additional police cars accompanied them. From one of the cars stepped a man who appeared to be Kang Han-sung’s connection and another from the gold purchasing department.

“Only two?”

While the two men shook hands with calm expressions, one of the government hunters standing guard muttered the words. The speaker wore a helmet, so her face could not be seen, but the curves visible beneath the tight leather suit made it obvious she was a woman.

“Watch your mouth. I know that Kang Han-sung over there.”

Another hunter waiting on a motorcycle behind her spoke up, glancing in her direction.

Apparently displeased at being scolded by her colleague, the woman shook her head as she looked back toward the people conducting the transaction.

“I wonder if his connections are as good as his skills.”

“At the very least, he’s good enough to watch my back. He’s Level 2, but his judgment is on par with a Level 3. Ever heard about the Yeouido incident?”

“Yeouido… you mean that explosion?”

“A lot of friends owe him their lives. He’s the one who put a bullet in that bastard’s head.”

“Then why don’t I remember hearing about him?”

“They say it’s better for mercenaries not to leave records. He handed over the credit to the staff who were there at the time.”

“And back then… he wasn’t even in that department. He stepped back in case problems arose. What was it again… the department that went around crushing tax evaders?”

Another hunter from behind joined the conversation.

“What’s someone like that doing here now?”

Knowing her colleagues would not speak nonsense, the initially prickly woman asked in a noticeably softer tone.

“Seems he’s selling gold.”

“They don’t accept it unless it’s a serious amount, right?”

“Must be a serious amount, then.”

“I’m jealous. When will I ever escape this salaryman life?”

“Real salarymen would feel murderous hearing you say that.”

“Everyone, focus on perimeter security.”

“Doesn’t look like there’ll be any problems… understood.”

The hunters who had been quietly chatting straightened their postures after receiving a radio message from the person in the passenger seat of the transport vehicle.