Chapter 87
When I opened the door and went inside, I found four people waiting for me.
Lee Tae-cheon, Baek Do-hee, Han Jin-hwan, and Choi Hee-seok.
All four of them turned at once and looked at me.
“Oh. You finally made it.”
The first one to speak was Tae-cheon, sitting in the seat of honor.
He was seated there ahead of Han Jin-hwan and Choi Hee-seok.
This was Baekwooncheon headquarters, and Tae-cheon was the master, so of course he’d be sitting at the head.
Still, seeing Tae-cheon there instead of the Rank 1 hunter and a veteran of twenty years felt strangely unreal.
It was the sort of thing that made me feel sentimental.
“I’m a little late.”
As I said that, I walked over toward Do-hee.
But she stopped me from sitting beside her and took that seat herself.
“……?”
“Sit here.”
She pointed to the seat she’d just vacated.
It was the seat right next to Tae-cheon, close to the head of the table.
At the same time, it was directly across from Han Jin-hwan.
In other words, Do-hee had handed me a seat right near the top of the table.
She really didn’t have to do that.
As I watched her with that thought in mind, she gave me a small smile.
Then she tapped the seat she’d given up.
It was one of those business smiles. Been a while since I’d seen one of those.
Her eyes were smiling, and so was her mouth, but it wasn’t a genuine smile.
Of course, it wasn’t meant for me.
She’d put it on because of the people sitting across from her.
Following Do-hee’s lead, I took the seat, and Choi Hee-seok extended his right hand in greeting.
“We meet again.”
“Good to see you.”
“Nothing happened after that day, did it?”
That day meant two days ago.
The day the Crow bastard with the mushroom brooch attacked with Lee Jeong-geun.
Had anything happened since then?
“Anything happened, huh...”
Of course it had.
The two kinds of potions I’d had Hong Su-jeong make for me went on the Hunter Association broadcast because their taste was so bizarre.
It had probably been meant to publicize the fact that I was supplying the potions, but the flavor ended up becoming the bigger issue by far.
The destructive power of those two flavors had exceeded anything I’d imagined.
Ever since the broadcast, they hadn’t budged from the top of the real-time search rankings.
At this point, the main content on the broadcast channels of A-class hunters using Watcher Cast had become potion tastings instead of gate raids.
And today, I’d also sold pinecones to the Ildea Group.
Thanks to a smooth deal that wrapped up in a single day, I’d become the owner of a 153 billion won building.
Looks like it was time for Baekwooncheon to move out of its six-story building and into a twenty-one-story tower.
And last of all... I’d moved between dimensions for the first time in human history and met elves.
The carnivorous elves were currently tending the World Tree with great enthusiasm inside my smartphone.
“Thanks to you, nothing’s been happening.”
“Thanks to me, huh.”
After a brief handshake, I turned to Han Jin-hwan.
He wasn’t wearing a mask today.
With his bare face, Han Jin-hwan looked back at me with his downturned eyes.
Maybe because the corners of his eyes naturally slanted downward, I couldn’t tell whether he was sleepy or just always looked that way.
“I’m Han Jin-hwan.”
Introducing himself, he held out his hand.
It wasn’t the obviously altered voice he’d used that day.
His real voice was a soft, clear tenor.
I’d never heard him sing, but for some reason I had the feeling he’d be good at it.
“Baek Do-woon.”
I took his hand at once and gave it a light shake.
The World Tree sapling sensed pure lightning mana.
It sent its admiration to the owner of that lightning mana.
Saessak sensed the lightning mana and sounded impressed.
If even Saessak was impressed, just how pure was that mana?
“So why did you suddenly come to Baekwooncheon?”
“……!”
His downturned eyes widened a little.
Even then, though, they still looked sleepy.
He probably hadn’t expected me to cut straight to the point.
Well, they’d probably spent nearly an hour talking about this and that while I was absent.
There was no need for me to sit down and waste time with the preamble again.
Do-hee shook her head, and Tae-cheon nodded.
Still, both of them were smiling like they’d expected this.
“We came to propose an Association quest. We also have something to hand over.”
It was Choi Hee-seok who answered.
Han Jin-hwan, sitting across from me, lightly brushed his lower lip with his fingers.
The slight curl at the corner of his mouth made him look like he was enjoying the situation.
He looked like someone watching something amusing.
“An Association quest? Something to hand over...?”
“Let’s give you the thing first and talk after.”
Choi Hee-seok took a white envelope from his inside pocket.
He slid the envelope across the table toward me.
I picked it up with my right hand. It was light.
It felt like there were only one or two sheets of paper inside.
“What is this?”
“Your reward.”
My reward?
Huh.
I blew on the envelope and pried the opening slightly wider.
Inside, as expected, were one or two sheets of paper.
Do-hee, sitting beside me, leaned in close.
She seemed curious about what was inside the envelope.
[Association Certificate]
[This hunter apprehended the wanted criminal Lee Jeong-geun....]
“Ah.”
“Oh.”
My sister and I let out exclamations at the same time.
Then I checked the paper tucked behind the certificate.
It had the number 2.9 billion won written on it, along with a large QR code.
A QR code?
“If you scan the QR code, the money will be transferred right away.”
“Huh. So this is how they pay out bounties these days?”
“No, not usually.”
The one who answered my question was Tae-cheon.
He must have jumped in because this was something he actually knew.
“The rule is to send it to your bank account. If they hand it over like this and you lose it, that’d be a huge problem, wouldn’t it?”
“Fair enough. Then this time... ah.”
I nearly asked a stupid question.
Tae-cheon grinned too and looked at the people across from me.
The one who had brought this here was Choi Hee-seok.
And he’d brought it while Han Jin-hwan was with him.
Try to snatch this envelope from those two?
Even the S-class hunters said to be only four in the entire world would have trouble with that.
They must have been completely unconcerned about safety, because they’d clearly dressed it up for appearances.
Buzz.
I took out my smartphone, scanned the QR code, and got the bounty paid instantly.
A moment later, 2.9 billion won was deposited, and a notification popped up from my banking app.
While that was happening, there wasn’t the slightest trace of curiosity on Do-hee’s or Tae-cheon’s faces.
They already knew I’d captured Lee Jeong-geun.
Rejau and Sang-cheol must have reported it to them, naturally.
Still, I should probably act like I didn’t know, right?
“Oh, right! About that, I mean. What happened was...”
“Explain it later.”
“That’s right. We should greet our guest first.”
“Ah, right.”
I cut off Tae-cheon and Do-hee before they could start explaining and spoke quickly.
We should greet our guest first?
They thought I wanted to hear it explained again because I didn’t know it already?
Well, what I’d meant to do in the first place was act like I didn’t know.
This should be enough.
“Have you confirmed the deposit?”
“Yes. Thank you for waiting.”
“No need to thank me. That was part of why I came here, so it was only natural.”
“Then...”
“Right. Now let’s talk about the other reason.”
“By all means.”
The other reason.
He’d said they came to propose an Association quest.
Just as I expected, were they going to bring up VP?
“We came to see you in order to propose the Two Fingers Project.”
“The what project?”
“...The Two Fingers Project.”
“……What the hell is that?”
Two Fingers Project?
What kind of quest name was that supposed to be?
It was so ridiculous I almost felt embarrassed for taking it seriously.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking that. Everyone except Choi Hee-seok bit their lower lips to keep from laughing.
The name was absurd.
Seeing that, Choi Hee-seok cleared his throat twice and went on.
That old man really did have a hard life.
“The government is currently planning to wipe out the domestic drug middlemen.”
“Drugs, huh...?”
Of course.
I’d guessed right.
“You’re trying to stop the distribution of VP?”
“You got it in one.”
“Wait. Is it called the Two Fingers Project because of VP?”
“...That’s a very dangerous substance.”
Choi Hee-seok dodged the question instead of answering it.
So it was because of VP. No question.
Who the hell named it?
Their sense of naming things was something else.
“The government and the Association are in complete agreement that they need to root it out as fast as possible. That’s why we put Jin-hwan in charge of it.”
As he said that, he pointed his thumb toward Han Jin-hwan beside him.
When everyone’s attention turned to him, Han Jin-hwan lifted a hand a little in greeting.
Hunter Ranking No. 1, Han Jin-hwan.
Seeing that they’d entrusted him with this, it seemed the government and the Association wanted VP completely erased from Korea, just as Choi Hee-seok had said.
It made sense.
VP was a drug that turned humans into monsters.
There was no way they could sit by and watch something like that circulate openly through society.
“Won’t you join us? We need your power.”
I agreed with the desire to uproot VP.
And I understood what he meant by needing my power.
Ji Sang-wook, Lee Jeong-geun.
I’d already turned monsterized people back into human beings.
There were surely more bastards out there who had monsterized from overdosing on VP or Baba.
For that reason alone, I was one of the people absolutely needed for this job.
“Are you hesitating because of the compensation?”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t worry. Since this is such a serious matter, we’ll make sure the reward is more than decent, even if it’s an Association quest.”
“Ah.”
Right. Because I hadn’t answered immediately, he must have misunderstood.
He probably thought I was worried the compensation wouldn’t be enough.
That wasn’t it, but if he was already saying he’d make it worth my while, I might as well keep quiet.
“I’ll accept the proposal.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yes.”
I had no particular reason to refuse.
This quest would have me working with Han Jin-hwan.
It was a good chance to see firsthand what an A+ class hunter could do.
And stopping the distribution of VP also meant sticking it to Crowd.
For me, it was a two-for-one deal.
“Then we can move on to the next part.”
“The next part?”
“This project has another purpose besides eradicating VP.”
“……?”
“We’re going to capture Yoo Hye-joo.”
Yoo Hye-joo?
I’d never heard that name before.
Tae-cheon and I naturally turned to look at Do-hee.
“She’s an Item Maker.”
“Famous?”
“A little. She’s a genius when it comes to item creation.”
“We’ve never heard of her at all.”
“She disappeared before she became widely known. Hearing what you’re saying now, it seems she must have gone underground.”
And the goal was to capture someone like that?
“Could it be...?”
“Yes. She’s currently believed to be the maker of Baba and VP.”
Yoo Hye-joo made those things?
Then... she might be Crowd.
A two-for-one deal?
No, if Yoo Hye-joo really was Crowd, then that wasn’t the case.
But it was still a chance to complete the quest.
Was that all?
The Followers of the Demon Race were all perverts in one way or another.
I could drain their energy with the World Tree Root.
And if I took enough energy, I might even be able to achieve the first fruiting...
This Association quest wasn’t a two-for-one deal. It was a four-for-one deal.
That was what they meant when good fortune came rolling in all at once.
“Then how many people are on the team?”
“That’s...”
Choi Hee-seok trailed off.
Why was he suddenly acting like that?
Han Jin-hwan answered in his place.
“Me and you.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait. What about everyone else?”
Do-hee asked in a worried voice.
Tae-cheon also opened his mouth as if he wanted to ask the same thing.
If Do-hee hadn’t asked first, Tae-cheon would have.
Han Jin-hwan grinned and shook his head.
“None.”
“None? What do you mean, none!”
“There’s no choice. The others can’t even stand being near me.”
“Can’t stand being near you? What does that even mean...? Ah.”
Do-hee froze, as if something had just clicked into place.
Something had just occurred to me too.
All of Han Jin-hwan’s skills were lightning-based.
It was like how my own skills were imbued with the World Tree’s mana.
Just as the World Tree’s mana purified defilement simply by existing, Han Jin-hwan’s lightning mana affected the surrounding area too.
Only unlike mine, it didn’t just affect impurities.
Han Jin-hwan could end up hurting the people around him simply by releasing his power.
Just like how the use of powerful fire magic would scorch the area around it.
Just like how high-level frost magic would lower the surrounding temperature.
“Why do you think I’m always alone and never in a party or guild?”
“Jin-hwan is strong, but he has to work alone. Otherwise he ends up attacking his own allies too. But...”
Choi Hee-seok trailed off and looked at me.
What was this?
I’d be getting attacked too, wouldn’t I?
Han Jin-hwan said it offhandedly.
“You said you were fine after Jeon Myeong-hwan attacked you, right? And you can even use a shield that blocks the sword qi of a B-class hunter. Then you should be able to stay near me.”
Jeon Myeong-hwan...
I hadn’t expected that name to come up here.
If he meant a B-class hunter’s sword qi, he was probably talking about Kim Jeong-cheol.
Looks like this guy, Han Jin-hwan, had done a pretty thorough job investigating me.
Crack.
A bone-sound echoed through the master room.
Bone-sound?
Who made that noise?
“Tae-cheon...?”
It was Tae-cheon.
He jerked his wrist around once, roughly.
Apparently he didn’t like Han Jin-hwan’s attitude of not caring about my body at all.
Do-hee felt much the same way.
Han Jin-hwan, for his part, simply smiled with perfect ease.
When was the last time I’d seen someone sit that comfortably in front of Do-hee and Tae-cheon?
Even Kim Mu-yeon hadn’t dared act like that.
“Hah-hah-hah...”
Laughing, I stretched out both hands.
One landed on Do-hee’s knee, the other on Tae-cheon’s.
I wasn’t in a bad mood at all.
I guessed it was because the two of them were getting angry on my behalf.
“I’m good with that.”
“Straightforward. I like it.”
“There is one condition, though.”
“Yeah?”
“Give me one hour of free time a day. There’s somewhere I need to stop by.”
At that, Han Jin-hwan frowned.
Choi Hee-seok beside him did the same.
They seemed not to understand the condition I’d just put forward.
Choi Hee-seok let out a long breath and said, “Would you please focus on this matter?”
“I’d like to, but this is something I absolutely can’t skip.”
“Absolutely can’t...? What on earth is it?”
“I’ve got to feed them.”
My carnivorous elves.
I had to buy them good meat.