5

BOSS ROUND

Why did it seem like there were more steps than usual?

Jinwoo licked his dry lips.

It was way darker here than on the first and second floors, but he had no problem seeing.

Maybe because of the perception stat?

He felt like his eyesight was much better than before.

He cautiously went down a bit farther and spotted the subway tracks. Or rather, he could see the space where the tracks were supposed to be. Instead of rails, the area was filled with black water.

What is that?

It didn’t look like a subway track…… More like a river or stream.

It happened the moment Jinwoo took a step forward for a closer look. In the blink of an eye, a large log-shaped object burst out of the water.

FFFSSSHHH!

Coming in hot!

What suddenly appeared before him was no log. It was a snake as thick as one.

“Whoa!”

Jinwoo hurriedly swung his sword at its head.

KLAAANG!

Jinwoo looked incredulous. “What the—?”

He was able to knock the charging snake’s head away from him, but his sword shattered. Shocked, he turned back.

Surprised by the counterattack, instead of rushing into its next strike, the snake stayed coiled up at a distance and glared at Jinwoo.

Jinwoo could clearly see its name floating in red letters. This snake was much faster and stronger than any of the ordinary monsters whose names had appeared in white letters.

I can’t believe it broke a sword imbued with mana so easily…

Jinwoo swallowed hard as he eyed the kasaka.

Smooth blue scales covered its entire body. They were so closely embedded that it almost looked like armor. Sword attacks had proven futile on these scales.

Would punching it do anything?

As Jinwoo was trying to come up with a strategy, the kasaka seemed to finish sizing him up and charged once again. Its speed was incredible.

FSHHH!

Jinwoo squinted.

It’s coming!

His eyes had trouble following the kasaka before, but after focusing all his senses on it, he was starting to make out its movements. It was thanks to the agility stat.

As the kasaka lunged at him with its mouth wide open, Jinwoo quickly twisted around and grabbed it in a tight headlock as it passed by.

Kri-krick!

Jinwoo’s strength stat was close to fifty. He applied as much pressure as he could to the snake’s artery. The reptile thrashed and writhed in pain as Jinwoo refused to let up.

Jinwoo gritted his teeth and squeezed harder.

WHAM! WHAM!

Even as the snake smashed Jinwoo into the walls and floor, he clung to it for dear life.

If I hadn’t maxed out my level as much as I could…

Once the mind thinks what if, it’s difficult to stop. So many thoughts raced through Jinwoo’s mind.

What if he hadn’t leveled up?

What if he hadn’t upgraded his strength stat?

This kasaka would’ve kicked his ass. This place could’ve been his grave. Not going straight down to the third underground floor had been a smart call. He’d made the right decision.

KRRRAAAKKK!

The sound of the kasaka’s skull breaking was unsettling.

As expected of a boss, after defeating the kasaka, Jinwoo went up by two levels.

Jinwoo pumped his fists.

His level had been stuck at 15, but it was now 17. He’d gone from level 1 to level 17 in a single day, which was an absolutely insane amount of growth.

That’s all great, but……

No one tackled a dungeon boss for the experience points. The best part of defeating a boss was the loot!

As he examined the lifeless snake, Jinwoo saw two things shining in its stomach.

Are there two because it was a boss?

He happily extended his hands.

Ping!

“Acquire all.”

A dagger seemingly made from bone and a pouch with some kind of liquid appeared in Jinwoo’s hands.

Jinwoo nodded in satisfaction.

Looks like it’s a dagger made out of a fang, not bone. Based on its info, it seems like a pretty good item.

Next up was the pouch.

Jinwoo’s face showed his conflicting delight and dismay.

Kasaka’s Venom Fang was an excellent replacement for his broken steel sword. Not only was its formidable attack power twice as high as the broken sword’s, but Jinwoo was especially happy about the paralysis and drain debuffs.

But the venom gland is……

He had initially been excited when he saw it was an A-rank item in terms of acquisition difficulty, but his excitement was mitigated by a careful reading of the description. The part about decreasing damage by 20 percent seemed like an effect fitting of an A-rank item, but it had a fatal penalty of decreasing the strength stat by thirty-five points. Since Jinwoo had been especially focused on increasing his strength, that caveat cut him deep.

It was like a double-edged sword. Or no, it was more like a white elephant. Maybe it’d be worth using once his strength stat was so high that even losing thirty-five points wouldn’t have much of a consequence, but it was impossible for Jinwoo as he was now.

“……Let’s just put this away.” He grimaced as he stored the dagger and poison in his inventory.

He would’ve been less disappointed if it had been an A-rank dagger and some C-rank poison. At least he’d have felt okay throwing away the C-rank poison.

As he did, a message popped up.

Everything went blurry for a few moments before Jinwoo’s eyesight reverted back to normal, though he did feel slightly dizzy.

When he looked around, he saw an ordinary subway station. The lights were bright, and the water that had once filled the tracks was gone.

“But why is there no one here?”

Not only were there no people, but there were no subway trains, either. He checked the time to see if transit hours were over.

It was currently ten o’clock. He’d stepped into Hapjeong Station at around lunchtime, so he’d spent over nine hours here.

Time flies.

If his fatigue levels hadn’t reset with each level-up, he probably would’ve passed out a few times from exhaustion by now.

Either way, the subway should still be running…

No matter how long he waited, no train came, so Jinwoo shrugged and decided to leave the station.

He didn’t see anybody along the way to the exit. As he trudged up the stairs, though, someone yelled at him.

“Hey!”

He didn’t realize how welcome another person’s voice would be. He looked up.

It was a soldier with a gun. “Who are you? What were you doing there? Did you not hear the news?”

Jinwoo tensed at the soldier’s stern expression. “What happened?”

“What kind of question is that?”

As the soldier approached, he saw the broken sword in Jinwoo’s hand. The broken sword wouldn’t go back into the inventory, but Jinwoo had been hesitant to abandon it in the dungeon and had brought it back with him.

The soldier’s eyes changed at the sight of it. He examined Jinwoo’s appearance. Upon closer inspection, he noticed the signs of combat on Jinwoo’s clothes.

The soldier’s expression softened. “Are you a hunter?”

“Yes, I am……”

“My apologies for being rude. This way, sir. Please follow me.”

“Um……okay.” Jinwoo figured things would get too hard to explain if he tried to clear up a possible misunderstanding, so he decided to just go along with the soldier.

He glanced around. Looks like……

Something wasn’t right. The street was totally empty. The only people he could see were soldiers and police officers. He also spotted the carcasses of dead magic beasts, trashed cars, and wrecked buildings.

Jinwoo realized what must have happened.

A gate must’ve opened near here.

While it was rare nowadays, what with the hunter system being so well established, sometimes a gate materialized in an out-of-the-way location and wouldn’t be discovered until it was too late.

Whenever that happened, the nearest army base would respond until hunters could arrive on the scene. Unfortunately, soldiers’ weapons have no effect on magic beasts, but they had to be prepared to make some sacrifices in order to give civilians a chance to escape safely.

To put it bluntly, they were essentially human shields. Someone had to do it, and the burden fell on the shoulders of the young men of the country.

“Thank you.” The soldier leading Jinwoo spoke up.

“Pardon?”

“We’re safe thanks to the hard work of hunters like you.”

“Oh……”

He’d said “thank you.” Jinwoo wanted to return those words to the soldier. Hunters were thankful to soldiers, and soldiers were thankful to hunters, because both fought to protect someone or something.

Chhhrkkk—

The soldier’s face brightened at the radio message coming in.

“Almost all the beasts have been dealt with, and there’s only one big one left.”

Jinwoo nodded. He understood the situation even without the soldier’s explanation.

He sensed a powerful force in the vicinity. He also sensed the energy of the hunters surrounding it. His increased perception ability let him process information he couldn’t see by sensing it.

He had a gut feeling.

It’s the boss.

And soon, he spotted it.

About ten or so hunters faced off against a giant made of stone in an empty lot nearby. The giant was about as tall as a utility pole. It was a golem-type magic beast.

“Eek……” The soldier whimpered and stepped back. Apparently, it was his first time seeing a magic beast, as he froze as soon as it came into view. Most people reacted the same way. Seeing a magic beast on TV or on a screen was totally different from seeing one in real life.

Jinwoo, on the other hand, was calmly assessing the whole situation.

“Healers! Please focus on the tanks!”

“We’re already doing our best!”

“Why won’t it go down?”

“Dealers, what’re you doing? Doesn’t look like it’s gonna fall anytime soon!”

“Its defense is too high! We don’t have enough mages!”

It had all happened so suddenly that low-rank hunters had been the first to answer the call. Both their defenses and offenses were minimal. It was looking to be a desperate struggle.

CRASH!

Right as the stone golem slammed its massive fist down, the tank’s knees buckled for a moment.

“Argh!” Blood spewed from the hunter’s mouth.

“N-no!”

“The tank will die if this keeps up!”

“What d’you expect me to do?! I’m running out of magic power!”

“Where are all the high-rank hunters?”

The hunters were obviously reaching their limit. Jinwoo was observing this with a keen eye.

I……can do this.

He slowly took a few steps back.

The golem-type boss had high defense, but its level appeared to be lower than it initially seemed. It likely wasn’t nearly as powerful as the Blue Venom-Fanged Something or Other from the instance dungeon.

I just need to neutralize its defense somehow.

All he needed was one blow so powerful that it would punch straight through its defense.

Once he was far enough, Jinwoo pulled his arm back. The muscles of the arm holding the broken sword quickly began to tighten. Thick veins appeared all the way to the top of his hand. He focused every bit of his power into his right arm.

When it was as tight as a bowstring, he launched it forward at a velocity close to the speed of sound.

“GO!”

D-rank hunter Hansoo Lee was falling into despair. He couldn’t keep this up any longer. His precious shield was starting to crack.

Healers seemed to be running out of magic power, and it was clear they were having trouble keeping up with everyone’s wounds. At this rate, they’d all die.

It was time to make a choice. The only viable solution he could think of was to sacrifice himself to let the others escape while they waited for higher-rank hunters to arrive.

It’s either that or everyone dies.

He broke out in a cold sweat but made a difficult decision.

Hansoo looked back and shouted, “I’ve got this, so you guys—!”

Just then, something caught his eye. Something shiny was hurtling in their direction.

To be honest, he sensed only that something was flying toward them, but he couldn’t actually see it. It was that fast.

KRRRRAKKK!

The golem’s head shattered after something struck it.

“Wh-what the…?” Hansoo looked on in disbelief.

The headless golem staggered. The rest of the hunters cheered and launched a final wave of attacks.

“Yes! It’s working!”

“It’s going down!”

“Just a little more! We got this!”

No one had seen the projectile because they’d been too focused on attacking. No one except Hansoo, who’d been standing right in front of the golem!

Graaaahhh…

The golem finally toppled over.

WHUUUD!

The heavy creature kicked up a cloud of dust as it hit the ground.

“Whoo-hoo!” The hunters roared in celebration.

“We did it!”

“We got ’im!”

Only Hansoo, who’d seen everything, shook his head.

No. Our attacks barely scratched it.

He hurriedly inspected the area around the fallen golem.

“What the heck could’ve shattered the head of this hunk of stone?”

In his search, Hansoo managed to scrounge up a broken sword. It was a steel blade, but it contained an insignificant amount of mana.

This boss-level golem withstood the attacks of over ten hunters, but somebody took it out by throwing this piece of junk?

He didn’t know what to say. Hansoo looked back and forth between the remains of the golem and what was left of the sword before running through the jubilant hunters in the direction from where the sword had come.

“Excuse me!”

There was a single soldier standing there. “Yes? Did you mean me?”

“Yes, you!”

The soldier swallowed nervously as a hunter of considerable mass lumbered toward him. It just went to show how overwhelming the mere presence of a hunter could be to a regular person.

Hansoo showed him the sword. “Did you throw this?”

“Oh, that was…” The soldier blinked in confusion as he turned to look behind him. “…Huh? There was definitely another hunter here a second ago.”

There was nobody behind the soldier. Hansoo scratched his head and looked down at the broken weapon fragment as the soldier glanced around in confusion.

The power, that destructive force…… Was a high-rank hunter here?

There was no way to verify this, since whoever it was had disappeared.

By that time, Jinwoo was heading back home. He’d turned around as soon as he saw the golem stumble.

He’d killed the thing. He knew that for certain.

All profits from killing a magic beast went to whomever killed it. If he wanted to, he could’ve claimed that he had the rights to the golem.

But the problem is, I’d have to prove it was actually me.

Who’d believe that a gigantic golem had been felled by an E-rank hunter’s attack? He didn’t have any decisive evidence, either. Neither the broken sword nor the soldier’s testimony would’ve helped much.

That wouldn’t even be the end of it. He’d have to reveal how he’d gotten strong enough to defeat the golem.

The more he thought about it, the more cons there were than pros.

He had the extraordinary ability to level up. Jinwoo couldn’t justify revealing his secret just to claim a single golem.

Too bad, but I have no choice.

It hadn’t been a total loss, however. In fact, he’d gotten something huge.

He’d received a message the moment the golem fell.

Thanks to the golem, his level had increased once more.

I level up even when I kill a regular magic beast.

This was excellent news. That was enough for him for now.

Jinwoo’s apartment was on the ninth floor of an old, shabby building on the outskirts of downtown. He found his key and opened the door.

It was dark inside.

Jinah’s really doing her best…

It looked like his sister was still at the library. The food on the table was cold by now. His sister had made it; their mother had been in the hospital for a few years now.

The notepad on the table had a message written in his sister’s bubbly handwriting.

—Don’t skip dinner. I’ll check if you finished everything.

Even though she was busy with her studies, she’d gone out of her way to make him something because he was getting discharged from the hospital.

Jinwoo smiled gently and sat at the table, but he wanted to check something first before eating.

“Stat screen.”

[Name: Jinwoo Sung]
[Job: None]
[HP: 2,220]
[Fatigue: 2]

[Level: 18]
[Title: Wolf Assassin]
[MP: 350]

[Stats]
Strength:	48
Stamina:	27
Agility:	27
Intelligence:	27
Perception:	27

(Available ability points: 0)

It had been a long day. But thanks to this long day, his level was already at 18. His strength stat was already almost at fifty, and his other ability stats were noticeably higher as well. He’d found out how his agility and perception worked.

On top of that, I got a very useful dagger with a bunch of debuffs and tons of gold, even if I’m not sure how to use them yet……

He didn’t bother counting the strange poison as part of the day’s achievements.

All in all, his raid on the instance dungeon had been a big success.

People who leave home early in the morning are usually careful not wake up their family, and so Jinah locked the door quietly so as not to disturb her brother, who was usually in a deep sleep at this time of the day. But when she turned around…

“Going to school?”

“Huh?”

Jinah’s head jerked up, startled by the voice coming from nearby.

Jinwoo was jogging slowly toward her. He was dressed in sweats and running shoes. With the way he had his hood pulled down low, it looked like he’d been out jogging.

Jinah’s naturally big eyes got even bigger.

“Wait. You were already up?”

“Been up for a while. Look out for traffic.”

“R-right……”

She watched, confused, as her brother went inside the apartment.

Huh. He actually got up before me.

Jinwoo wasn’t lazy by any means. Rather, Jinah tended to wake up unusually early for someone her age, so she was often the first in the family to start the day.

Somehow……

She got the feeling that her brother’s back seemed wider than before, but that didn’t make sense. The human body wasn’t an elastic band that could get bigger or smaller in the span of a few days.

I’m probably just seeing things.

She was shaking her head when Jinwoo suddenly handed her an umbrella.

“What’s this for?”

Jinah took the umbrella and stared up at the sky. It was the crack of dawn and consequently still dark outside, but the sky looked pretty clear.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s gonna rain.”

“Take it with you.”

“But it’s heavy.”

“Take it anyway. It’s a folding umbrella, so it’s not that heavy. Don’t be a baby.”

Slam.

He closed the door on her.

“What the—? So bossy.” Jinah lightly kicked the door to show her disapproval but shoved the umbrella in her bag and headed off.

Wait……

She mentally calculated where her brother’s eye level had just been.

That was weird. It was definitely higher than before.

“Do men get taller even in their twenties?”

Nah, that couldn’t be it. She shook her head again and hurried off to school.

Click.

Meanwhile, Jinwoo locked the door and called up his inventory as he walked into the apartment.

“Storage.”

Storage, inven, inventory. He’d found out after a few experiments, but the command word didn’t matter as long as the meaning got across.

It was the same when opening his inbox. Open, access, reveal, etc. As long as the command word indicated that the inbox should open, it worked.

He stuffed the umbrella he’d acquired from today’s mystery box in his digital inventory.

“Another dud.”

It had been four days since he’d first entered an instance dungeon. He hoped for another key to an instance dungeon every time he opened a mystery box, but it seemed to be a pretty uncommon item, and he hadn’t gotten another yet.

That’s that for now.

He went to his bedroom and sat on the edge of his bed. He had a decision to make today.

“Stats.”

[Stats]
Strength:	48
Stamina:	27
Agility:	27
Intelligence:	27
Perception:	27

(Available ability points: 12)

He’d been accumulating ability points for the past four days. He hadn’t missed one daily quest, and of course, he’d made sure to accept every single reward. He hadn’t been distributing the ability points, though.

The problem was…

“…It’s too hard.”

Indeed, he was finding it too difficult to make a decision.

Strength. A good stat. He’d never regret investing any points there.

Agility. Also a good stat. Agility didn’t matter against a weak enemy, but it was crucial for the high-rank ones, since speed was relative.

Then there were stamina and perception. Stamina was obviously better the higher it was, and perception was proving more useful than he’d expected.

Intelligence.

……Well, there lay the problem. It was the only stat whose function he wasn’t sure of. Even though it had increased quite a bit, he didn’t feel any smarter than when he’d started. He hadn’t gotten any better at memorization or math.

This stat’s probably related to magic, but……

Perhaps he didn’t need that one quite yet. That still left four, though—strength, agility, stamina, and perception.

“Still too difficult to choose……”

Eliminating one option hadn’t helped at all. He just couldn’t be sure.

He knew that strength and agility worked well together. Being able to deal a lot of damage was useless if he couldn’t hit a target. And vice versa, being able to hit a target was pointless if he couldn’t deal much damage. He could regard strength and agility as a set.

It’d be a good idea to increase agility to the same level as strength.

If he increased agility, stamina wouldn’t be as important for now. Agility and stamina weren’t very compatible. With his agility up, there was less of a chance he’d get injured, but stamina was only really useful when he was in a position to receive a lot of damage.

I can’t not invest in stamina, but……

It seemed inefficient to increase agility and stamina simultaneously.

With that, he’d finally decided on the order of importance. First was agility, second was perception, and stamina was third. Since he’d already invested heavily in strength, he’d put it on the back burner, and since he was planning to increase agility, it made more sense to raise perception instead of stamina for now.

With that in mind, Jinwoo first added two points to strength.

Ping!

[Stats]
Strength:	50
Stamina:	27
Agility:	27
Intelligence:	27
Perception:	27

(Available ability points: 10)

He wanted to start off by hitting fifty points for strength. It had been on Jinwoo’s mind for a while now.

Next, he spent eight points on agility.

[Stats]
Strength:	50
Stamina:	27
Agility:	35
Intelligence:	27
Perception:	27

(Available ability points: 2)

There was no special meaning to this. He simply wanted to make the stats multiples of five.

I prefer having them as multiples of five over some other random number. It looks cleaner……

Strength was fifty, and agility was thirty-five. Having them as multiples of five was an arbitrary decision on Jinwoo’s part, but he felt a small sense of satisfaction looking at them.

And the last two points…

Jinwoo invested the rest on perception. With that, he finished distributing his points.

[Stats]
Strength:	50
Stamina:	27
Agility:	35
Intelligence:	27
Perception:	29

(Available ability points: 0)

It irked him slightly that he hadn’t been able to get perception to an even thirty.

I know I had no choice because I ran out of points, but…

He was content with everything else. He was okay with increasing stamina and intelligence by leveling up.

“So I guess that’s it?”

It’s hard to be 100 percent satisfied with any one thing. Given that this was the result of much deliberation, though, Jinwoo was pretty happy with the results.

That was when the phone in the living room rang.

Riiing, riiing!

Could it be the association?

The old Jinwoo would’ve gone as long as he could without answering because he didn’t want to get called on a raid, but the new Jinwoo was itching to test his abilities on magic beasts.

He quickly picked up the receiver.

“This is Hunter Jinwoo Sung.”

“Ah, you finally answered.”

The phone call wasn’t from the association. Jinwoo felt somewhat disappointed.

“Kiddo, why’s it so hard to reach you these days?”

The voice coming over the phone was very familiar to Jinwoo. He hadn’t been referred to as a kid since he’d graduated from high school four years ago, but his landlord had known Jinwoo since childhood, so he still called him “kiddo.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I was in the hospital due to an accident.”

“Tsk, tsk. I see, so that’s why. So, uh, kiddo…… I haven’t received the rent for this month yet, but if this month is looking tight, I can push it back a month or two.”

“That’s okay, sir. I’ll transfer the money today.”

“All right, then. Don’t work too hard. I know you’re taking good care of your mom and sister. Money’s important, but make sure to take care of yourself.”

“Yes, thank you for your concern.”

The phone call ended.

Jinwoo took a bank statement out from a drawer. The balance read 800,000 won.

“Haaah…” He couldn’t help but sigh. Once he paid the rent, 500,000 won, the budget for the rest of the month would be 300,000 won.

The rent was only 500,000 won because the apartment building was an older, shabby structure located outside of Seoul, and the gracious landlord hadn’t raised the rent since a few years ago due to the unfortunate situation of Jinwoo’s family. These days, it would be difficult to find a place to rent for only 500,000 won.

It would be even more difficult to live a month with only 300,000 won.

“I need to make some money soon.”

Jinwoo had a clear goal for now. He wasn’t the same guy who, just a few days ago, had been afraid of and struggled to kill a single E-rank beast.

How did hunters make money? The best way was by killing a magic beast.

S- or A-rank hunters received sponsorships, shot commercials, and appeared on TV shows, so they raked in tons of cash, but that was a select minority of hunters. They were the elite few.

With the exception of those extremely high-rank hunters, most of them made their money from dungeons. Rank and experience—those were the two factors that determined a hunter’s earnings. For Jinwoo Sung, an E-rank hunter in the eyes of the association who had never experienced a dungeon higher than C rank, these were quite harsh guidelines.

Jinwoo grimaced.

Never mind the rules—it would be great if I could somehow join a strike squad……

He’d called several job postings on the hunters’ website, but they’d all been dead ends. No one wanted an E-rank hunter.

Most of those who posted these job openings were freelancers, so they tended to be extremely careful when forming their strike squads, as they’d often have to watch their own backs in fights. They were usually hunters who weren’t good enough to join a guild but were too skilled to stay with the Hunter’s Association. This made them outsiders.

I’ve heard that even those hunters make more than 10,000,000 won a month.

It was high-risk, high-return. They made big money in exchange for risking their lives. There was a reason hunters were often the targets of envy.

But it was frustrating for Jinwoo.

Would it be easier to get reevaluated and raise my rank?

He shook his head. No matter how many times he considered it, he concluded it would be a stupid thing to do.

An E-rank hunter becoming a high-rank hunter! It didn’t matter if it was a promotion to an A, B, or even C rank. A reawakening was always newsworthy.

People liked to gossip, and hunters were hot topics. When there were five mouths, there were also ten eyes. Meaning the more people talked about him, the more eyes there’d be on him. And since his abilities would keep increasing, it’d be only a matter of time before people found out his secret.

He’d get way too much attention. There had never been a hunter like him. It would be inevitable that some of the people who showed interest would either want to use him or harm him.

And if those people are powerful……

He felt queasy just thinking about it.

He still wasn’t strong enough. Jinwoo didn’t want to reveal his secret until he was absolutely sure he could protect himself.

Getting reevaluated wasn’t an option.

But I still have to make money somehow.

It wasn’t like he could do some ordinary part-time job, since he didn’t know when the association might call him. He couldn’t pass up an opportunity to make money and gain experience at the same time via a dungeon just because he was too busy trying to make ends meet.

As he pondered what to do, a new job posting caught his eye.

Jinwoo’s eyes lit up. A hot post that had just been uploaded. He quickly skimmed the details and noted it wasn’t far from home.

He gave them a call right away. The other side must’ve also been in a hurry, as they answered the phone before the first ring completed.

“Hello?”

Jinwoo gave a brief explanation of why he was calling and calmly awaited the other person’s response.

“Okay, so you’re an E rank?”

That wasn’t a bad reaction.

“That’s fine. We just need you to help meet a head count quota. But it’s a C-rank gate, so you might have difficulty hunting. We can divide the spoils among the rest of us and compensate you 2,000,000 won. What do you think? Can you get here right away?”

2,000,000 won for a day’s work!

That was a lot of money for helping to fill a quota. It was a pretty good deal. It was unfortunate he wouldn’t get a share of any other rewards from the dungeon, but he didn’t want to be greedy and potentially miss out on the 2,000,000 won.

Let’s put out the fire first.

This kind of opportunity didn’t come around often. 2,000,000 won was more than enough money to live on for a month.

Jinwoo accepted the offer. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

He was out the door in a second and flagged down a taxi to get to the meeting point.

There were already nine people waiting for him. A person who seemed to be the leader waved to Jinwoo.

“Over here! It’s this way.”

The guy was quite big and had a beard. He wore a friendly smile as he approached Jinwoo.

“Are you Jinwoo Sung?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, good. You found us with no problem. Why don’t we introduce ourselves, since we’ll be working together today?”

The bearded guy quickly introduced the other members. Eight of them, including the leader, were part of the same squad, and the last person had joined the team for the day just like Jinwoo.

Jinwoo scoped out his new squadmates as he greeted them. He had a good sense of what each member’s level was due to his increased perception stat.

Five of them seem to have similar ranks, and four of them have lower ranks. So five C rankers and four D rankers or lower.

There were rules to attacking a C-rank gate. There had to be a minimum of ten people in the party, and at least half the hunters needed to be C rank or higher. The association would give the green light once those conditions were met.

They weren’t kidding that Jinwoo really was just there to fill the quota.

“Now that introductions are out of the way, let me briefly go over some important points.”

The bearded man’s name was Dongsuk Hwang, and he’d told Jinwoo he was a C-rank tank. He had the composure of someone who had participated in a raid many times before.

While Dongsuk gave them a comprehensive overview of this mission, someone else approached Jinwoo.

“Um, I guess we’re the temps?”

It was a bright young man Dongsuk had brought in to fulfill the head count. He wasn’t a noncombat member like Jinwoo, though. He was a D-rank hunter and was expected to join the battle.

He was a twenty-two-year-old named Jinho Yoo.

He tried to greet Jinwoo, who merely nodded and purposefully looked away. Jinho had wanted to strike up a conversation but ended up awkwardly standing there at Jinwoo’s clear dismissal, so he rubbed the back of his neck and returned to his original position.

“Bro, that’s enough. Let’s get moving.”

“We’re going to kill everything anyway, so we don’t need any details.”

“Agreed. Our ears’ll bleed from all your nagging.”

As his squad teased him, Dongsuk clapped his hands and laughed. “Fine, I’ll stop here, and we can head in soon.”

Everyone started prepping to go inside.

“Oh, could you two please sign this?” Dongsuk handed Jinwoo and Jinho each a piece of paper.

It was a simple contract.

“Please write out your name and sign on the bottom.”

Jinwoo would be paid 2,000,000 won immediately but would not hunt or share in rewards. The stipulations were as per their phone conversation.

Rather than that, the very last condition caught Jinwoo’s eye.

I recognize that the party is not responsible for accidents that may occur inside the dungeon……

Unlike a raid hosted by the association, there was no other financial compensation provided for an individual raid. Because of this, insurance companies wouldn’t cover them. Hunters had to protect themselves.

It finally sank in that Jinwoo was legitimately part of a strike squad.

As he read over his contract, he sneaked a peek at the details of Jinho’s contract. As expected, unlike Jinwoo’s contract, Jinho was supposed to get a share of the rewards instead of 2,000,000 won.

Jinwoo turned to Dongsuk before signing the document. “So what do you need me to do?”

“Nothing special. You can just carry the gear and follow us.”

“Gear……?”

Dongsuk pointed at the huge backpack his colleagues were unloading from a pickup truck. “It has our lunches, extra clothes, weapons, first aid kit, etc.”

Wait, a first aid kit? That piqued Jinwoo’s curiosity.

“Are we going in without a healer?”

“You know how hard it is to have a healer in a strike squad! This is just how we roll.” Dongsuk smiled awkwardly.

A strike squad that barely met the association’s requirements, a temp who apparently thought a raid was a social gathering, and the lack of healer in a party made of tanks and damage dealers.

The temp’s expression hadn’t changed even after hearing there was no healer. That proved he was a complete newbie.

Jinwoo swallowed his derisive laugh.

They’re full of crap.

Nevertheless, he still signed the contract, not because he desperately needed 2,000,000 won but because he was confident he could protect himself.

“Here you go.”

“Mine too!”

Dongsuk took their signed agreements and, as if the papers had raised his spirits, energetically bellowed at the others.

“Well then, let’s go!”