10

THE STRANGE RAIDS

The following morning, after Jinho called him down, Jinwoo found a big van idling in front of his apartment building.

“……?”

Jinwoo was about to ask the driver not to block the entrance when the window on the driver’s side slid down.

It revealed a face with a big grin…… It was Jinho Yoo.

“Please hop in, boss!” Jinho stuck his hand out the window and tapped the side of the van.

When Jinho had said he would pick Jinwoo up yesterday, Jinwoo had thought he’d be driving a sports car or something fancy…… But this was an ordinary van, even if it was slightly too big to be ordinary.

“Isn’t your family superrich?”

“It would be too noticeable if I used my car. I bought this for raids.”

No wonder the van’s exterior was extra shiny.

He bought a brand-new vehicle.

Jinho was on time picking Jinwoo up early in the morning, and he was driving a new car that wasn’t too conspicuous. He was fully prepared. It seemed his expectations were just that high.

As Jinwoo checked out the new van, Jinho misread him and began to worry. “Do you not like this kind of car, boss?”

“No, it’s good.”

Jinwoo got in the front passenger seat.

“Here we go, boss.”

Jinho looked excited for their first day. He hummed as he gripped the steering wheel. They drove for a while before finally stopping in an empty lot.

Screeeek.

“Here we are, boss.”

Eight other hunters were waiting for them at the meeting place.

The gate behind them looked a little too small to be a C-rank.

Tak.

Tak.

The other hunters gathered around Jinwoo and Jinho as they got out of the van and closed the doors.

You would be hard-pressed to find a normal person in the whole bunch. Many of them appeared as if they could barely walk. One person looked like a hospital patient. Another came across as an alcoholic. There was a teenage girl, which was unacceptable by association or guild standards. She seemed like a high school student.

“Is it okay to work with minors?”

“I consulted an adviser, and there shouldn’t be a problem, legally speaking. No one hires minors because of potential issues if there’s an incident.”

Jinwoo nodded.

That should be fine, then.

Only Jinwoo himself and Jinho would be entering the gates anyway, so there would be absolutely no chance of any mishaps. These people were here solely to meet a quota.

Ten party members were needed in order to attack a C-rank gate. For that reason, Jinho had recruited these eight hunters. Naturally, these individuals knew their purpose for being here very well. They were hunters who were licensed but couldn’t work for various reasons and were having a difficult time making a living. The majority of the applicants had been in that same boat.

Jinho stepped forward. “I’m Jinho Yoo, the leader of this raid, and this is Hunter Jinwoo Sung, who will go inside the dungeon with me. All you have to do is wait for us near the gate.”

One of the hunters cautiously raised their hand. “Ummm…… Will we really get paid three million won for doing that?”

There was no need to hunt or even go inside the dungeon, and yet they’d get paid 3,000,000 won per raid. It sounded too good a deal for simply putting their names on the record saying that they’d attended. It made the hunters feel uneasy, and they were wary of being involved in some kind of scam. It wasn’t like Jinho was Robin Hood giving money to the poor.

“The terms haven’t changed.” Jinho put authority in his voice. His eyes were serious. “But you can’t reveal anything you see or hear here. As per the contract, if you break our nondisclosure agreement, the penalty is ten times what you were paid.”

The hunters murmured to one another.

What would those two be doing in the dungeon that required those terms? The other eight were curious but couldn’t ask.

That was part of the confidentiality agreement.

Jinwoo didn’t want people to know his strength, so for the sake of his plan to become a guild master, Jinho had made sure the squad members would keep their mouths shut.

……

The hunters murmured among themselves instead of asking Jinwoo and Jinho questions.

“But can those two even clear C-rank dungeons by themselves?”

“They don’t look like strong hunters.”

“If they have the abilities to clear a C-rank gate on their own, wouldn’t it be better for them to join a guild and raid higher-level dungeons?”

“That’s right.”

Even though they all had their doubts about Jinwoo and Jinho, no one mentioned wanting to withdraw from the squad. Of course not. The deal was too good.

Jinwoo himself had once been lured in by 2,000,000 won. The reason they were paying 1,000,000 won more than Dongsuk had been willing to pay was due to the confidentiality agreement.

The introduction had taken quite a while. Jinwoo checked the time and then nudged Jinho.

“We should get going.”

“Yessir.”

Jinho clapped a couple of times to draw everyone’s attention.

“Well, that should be enough of an explanation. I can’t force anyone to stay. So does anyone want to quit?”

“……”

“……”

Of course, no one raised their hand.

It was now time to enter the gate.

“Oh, boss, hang on a sec.” Jinho hurried back to the van as if he’d forgotten something.

He equipped himself and then waddled back.

“What……are those?”

“This is a full set of tempered armor by a master craftsman guild in Italy. If we’re going into those dungeons by ourselves, I had to at least prepare something.”

Jinwoo rubbed his forehead. “……”

He felt uncomfortable just looking at the pieces of steel covering Jinho’s body from head to toe.

“What’s wrong, boss?”

Jinwoo couldn’t take it any longer, so he drew the sword holstered at Jinho’s waist and dropped it on the ground.

“H-huh?” Jinho tried to pick it up but lost his balance and fell to the ground.

Krrrssshhhhh.

Jinwoo tried to push his irritation down as deep as he could. “Take that off before I say something I’ll regret.”

“……Yessir.”

But when Jinho tried to get up…

“Boss……”

“What now?”

“Could you help me up?”

Jinwoo sighed deeply at Jinho’s outstretched hands.

“Is this okay, boss?”

“That’s fine.”

They eventually agreed that Jinho could keep the helmet. Jinho leaped through the gate with a self-satisfied look on his face. Jinwoo plodded along after him.

Once they were inside, the other hunters gathered near the entrance one by one.

One of them vocalized their concern. “They didn’t seem all that strong to me……”

Another agreed as they watched the gate. “I know.”

The first two obsolete party members having opened the floor, the remainder started freely speaking their minds.

“What’s gonna happen if those two suddenly die in the dungeon?”

“At least we got the advance, so……”

“That’s true…”

“Wait, what did those two say their names were?”

“Let’s see.”

A man with a cast on his leg took out his phone and did a search.

“Jinho Yoo, Jinwoo Sung……”

Another hunter helped support him, though it could be because he looked wobbly or maybe because the other was impatient and wanted to look over his shoulder at the search results.

“What? The squad leader is D rank?”

Everyone was shocked by that, but the next search result was even more shocking.

“And the other guy is E rank?”

“Isn’t a C-rank dungeon dangerous for an E-rank hunter to even enter?”

“A D ranker and an E ranker raiding C-rank dungeons?”

“Is that even possible?”

“Plus, the squad leader doesn’t have any record of previous raids.”

“Are those young people……?”

This was basically a suicide mission. The association had a reason for enforcing a rule that required a minimum of ten people to attack a C-rank gate.

“Tsk, tsk.” A gray-haired man took out a cigarette. “The blind courage of youth kills the youth.”

The smoke from his cigarette rose into the air.

“……”

“……”

The hunters grew quiet. They felt uncomfortable because it seemed like they’d helped someone die. No one wanted to see anyone, even a stranger, perish before their very eyes or, to be exact, inside the gate before their very eyes.

But that wasn’t all, was it? They also regretted the fact that there would be no more money. Even though they’d received their compensation in advance, they could’ve made a lot more if they were able to attend eighteen more raids as per the contract. It was too bad, but the possibility of those two coming back was extremely low.

“Shouldn’t…… Shouldn’t we report this, at least?”

“You’re right. And what if some of the blame falls on our heads?”

Right at that moment…

Vvvmmmm.

Jinwoo and Jinho exited the gate.

“Huff, huff, huff.” Jinho was gasping for breath. They looked tired and were emitting steam.

“Ohhhh.”

“They escaped safely, at least!”

“That’s a relief.”

The hunters gladly welcomed back Jinwoo and Jinho. They assumed the two had run into problems at the entrance and barely managed to get away, given how briefly they were gone. But they were wrong.

The hunters’ expressions began changing, when they heard someone shout, “Th-the gate is closing!”

What?

Everyone turned around to look.

“Oh my God!”

“Look!”

“D-did they kill the boss?”

As a gate was wont to do after the boss was killed, this gate was beginning to disappear.

The eight hunters appeared stunned, but Jinwoo paid no heed to how they stared at him and spoke quietly.

“Where’s the next one?”

“It’s about an hour from here, boss.”

“Let’s go.”

Jinwoo and Jinho started walking toward the van. Dumbfounded, the other hunters watched them go.

Jinho realized his contractees weren’t following and turned around. “Let’s hurry up, everyone! No time to waste—we’ve got two more gates to go.”

The hunters’ jaws hit the ground.

Poff.

Guiwoon Yoon, the gray-haired man, didn’t even realize the cigarette had fallen out of his gaping mouth.

Those two are going for another raid after wiping out a C-rank dungeon by themselves?

Guiwoon wasn’t alone in this sentiment. The others were all thinking the same thing.

Are they even human?

Day one.

GRAAAHHH.

A bunch of zombies came after Jinwoo and Jinho.

“Boss, they’re coming!”

“Got it.”

Jinwoo maneuvered through the zombie horde with ease. Zombies’ heads hit the ground wherever he passed. The enemy count dropped quickly, and soon there was only one left.

Shhhk.

Gaaak!

The usual chime rang the instant Jinwoo stabbed the last zombie in the chest.

Ping!

Jinho had stayed back but was now applauding excitedly.

“Boss, that was amazing!”

“Essence stones.”

“Oh, yes.” Jinho took out a bag and started collecting all the essence stones.

Suddenly… More notification alarms went off following the level-up notification.

Ping!

Ping!

Ping!

Jinwoo’s face brightened.

I have new skills?

It had been a while.

Jinwoo gladly called up the skill info screen.

He’d used the Dash skill often enough that it had upgraded to level 2.

And there were two new skills called Advanced Dagger Wielding and Fatal Strike as new passive and active skills, respectively.

The speed’s been upgraded.

It had increased from 30 percent to 40 percent—and 10 percent could make a huge difference, since Jinwoo used this skill often.

More damage when wielding a dagger! Since he’d been using one as his main weapon up until now, he’d received a skill specifically for it.

Now using other weapons won’t be as effective.

In other words, using a dagger was just that effective when attacking. This was a great advantage because he didn’t have any intentions of changing weapons for a while. He’d grown to like Kasaka’s Venom Fang, since he’d gotten quite used to it.

And the last one…

Jinwoo scanned it with interest.

This was also a dagger-only skill.

A way to attack efficiently……

Now that he thought about it, he’d felt a similar feeling cleaning up that last zombie as he’d felt when he delivered the final blow to Taesik.

It was thrilling, so to speak. He could tell instinctively that the fight was over as soon as he stabbed them with the dagger.

I guess that was stabbing a fatal spot.

He couldn’t believe that something he’d just so happened to succeed in doing had become a skill, and he could now use it whenever he wanted!

Jinwoo’s heart was racing. He didn’t have many ways to attack other than swinging a dagger, so learning the skill Fatal Strike was like rain during a drought.

Yes!

He’d leveled up and learned some new skills.

This was the best start ever.

Day two.

Jinwoo’s hunting speed had become much faster with the new attack skill.

It was one shot, one kill!

Jinho’s eyes got bigger as he witnessed magic beasts fall left and right after being struck with Fatal Strike.

Was he hiding that skill until now?

What were the limits of the boss’s skills?

Jinho was amazed, but at the same time, he was curious about Jinwoo’s actual rank.

Since he defeated C-rank hunters easily, he has to be at least a B rank……

Jinho couldn’t imagine dealing with the fallout if he asked Jinwoo directly, so the only thing he could really do was watch Jinwoo with his mouth open.

But there was a problem with hunting so quickly.

Jinwoo frowned.

Again?

To give himself more mana, he took out the mana potion he’d purchased from the shop.

“What’s that, boss?” Jinho was curious about the potion.

It wasn’t the first time he’d witnessed Jinwoo doing something amazing, but he couldn’t help asking about the blue elixir he’d seen Jinwoo drink sometimes.

“This?”

Jinwoo stalled by reading info about the mana potion.

The description said he couldn’t give it to another person.

What would happen if I shared this with someone else?

Jinwoo’s curiosity was piqued.

He handed the potion over to Jinho, but the mana potion disappeared from Jinho’s hand as quietly as it had appeared.

“I-is this magic, boss?”

That’s why I can’t transfer it.

Jinwoo had discovered something new. A nontransferable item would disappear if someone else touched it.

Then what happens if they don’t touch it?

Jinwoo called up the shop and bought another potion, but it wasn’t the mana potion he usually bought. This red liquid was a healing potion.

The potion quietly appeared in Jinwoo’s hand when he finalized the purchase.

“B-boss, that’s amazing. The liquid changed to red!”

Jinho seemed to think it was some kind of party trick that the mana potion had disappeared and the healing potion had reappeared in its place.

Jinwoo had changed potions for a simple reason.

I want to find out if they’ll work on other people.

Jinwoo had Jinho lower his body. “Open your mouth. And look up.”

“L-like this, boss?”

“Perfect. Stay still just like that.”

Jinwoo tilted the bottle with the potion in it. Soon, the red liquid poured down Jinho’s throat.

Shhhwwwsh.

Jinho’s eyes widened. “Huh? What is this, boss? I suddenly have so much energy!”

Jinho had been tired from having to carry a heavy bag for a long time, but the color returned to his face in an instant.

Jinwoo was satisfied with the results.

It works if I transfer the potion like this.

This was good to know. If there were wounded hunters, he could treat them like this even without a healer.

This could help Jinwoo a lot in the future.

“If you get tired, let me know. There’s more where that came from.”

Jinwoo wasn’t doing this just to be nice. If the butler slowed down because of fatigue, the hunter would slow down as well, which would inconvenience Jinwoo personally.

That was Jinwoo’s ultimate motive, but Jinho interpreted the act very differently.

“B-boss……”

“Let’s go.”

Jinho was moved, and with tears in his eyes, he followed behind Jinwoo, who had proven to him that he had his back and was not only powerful but a class act.

Day three.

“Oh, please take this, boss.” Jinho dug through his bag of weapons and pulled out a bank statement for Jinwoo.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the money from selling the essence stones from the last two days.”

Jinwoo wasn’t particularly thrilled that Jinho hadn’t done this earlier instead of now, when they were in a dungeon infested with magic beasts. But that feeling didn’t last long.

Jinwoo stared at the number.

600,000,000 won?

That was the huge number written on the statement.

“You’re giving me all the money from selling the essence stones?”

Jinho nodded. “Yessir. I’m not doing raids because I need the money. Plus, you’re the one who killed all the magic beasts anyway. How could I shamelessly ask you to share the rewards?”

Jinho’s eyes sparkled like a child waiting to be praised.

Wow…… Look at this kid.

Jinwoo felt Jinho’s attitude toward him changing since they’d started working together. Before, it had felt like Jinho was forcing himself to do whatever Jinwoo asked when they’d first met. But now, Jinho was acting more like a young colleague, one who followed around a senior he admired.

He’s got some cute sides to him.

Jinwoo tried to hold back a grin. “Can I really take it all?”

“Do you think I, Jinho Yoo, am the kind of guy who’d say something I don’t mean, boss?”

Jinwoo waved the statement in the air and laughed. “Okay, okay. Thank you for this.”

“Thank you, boss!” Jinho gave a deep, ninety-degree bow. It was hard to tell who’d given money to whom.

Meanwhile, outside the dungeon… The squad members had gotten the hang of waiting around. They sat in small groups and enjoyed doing whatever they wanted as soon as Jinho Yoo, the leader, and Jinwoo Sung, the sidekick (?), entered the dungeon.

The largest group usually played the popular card game Go-Stop. This time, five people sat in that circle.

“What number is this raid?”

“Let’s see…… Three the day before yesterday, two yesterday, and this is the second one today. So this is number seven.”

“Are those two going to be okay raiding dungeons at this pace? Usually, you’d take a week off after attacking a single dungeon.”

“Nah, no need to worry about them. They don’t even break a sweat. It’s an additional three million won in our bank accounts every time. Good for us. By the way, it’s your turn—show your card.”

“Oh, okay.”

Despite their crazy schedule with no breaks, Jinwoo and Jinho never looked tired. The other hunters didn’t know that this was due to the power of potions. Thanks to the potions, they’d already cleared over one-third of the nineteen raids they needed.

Soon, the gate’s black membrane rippled, and Jinwoo and Jinho jumped out.

“Ah, the leader’s back.”

“Let’s get going.”

The hunters started tidying the areas they’d used.

“Please pack that up.”

“And please wake anyone who’s sleeping. Make sure you don’t leave anything behind.”

The hunters moved in an orderly fashion. Even those who’d just woken bolted up and started getting ready to leave.

“Let’s move out!”

Everyone was gradually getting used to these weird raids.

At an office of the White Tiger Guild located nearby, it was early in the morning, but the department manager of the second administration team, Manager Sangmin An, was already furious.

“Assistant Manager Hyun! The training of the new members begins tomorrow, and you still haven’t booked a gate yet?”

Assistant Manager Kichul Hyun lowered his head. “I’m s-sorry, sir. There’s a strike squad that always closes the bid whenever a C-rank gate appears nearby, even before we do anything!”

“What? Then you can pay them extra and take it. It’s not like we don’t have the money or the manpower. What’s the problem?”

“I was going to do that, but……”

“Hey! How dare you talk back like you did well!”

The entire second administration team fell completely silent at Sangmin’s roar. It had been a while since he’d been this mad.

What was the White Tiger Guild? It was one of the top five guilds in Korea. Its employees were the cream of the crop.

Kichul was an excellent employee who hadn’t made any major mistakes since he’d joined the guild. Yet he couldn’t book a single gate for the purpose of training new members?!

That was a major mistake.

The first administration team managed the schedule for the hunters in the guild, and the second administration team that Sangmin was in charge of recruited new members and trained them.

“P-please look at this, Manager An!” Kichul presented his laptop as he fought back tears.

“Seriously?”

Sangmin was about to scream some more, but his jaw dropped at the numbers on the screen. “Two hundred and fifty million won? There are idiots who’d pay two hundred and fifty million won for a permit to raid a C-rank gate?”

He was rendered speechless.

The maximum profit from a C-rank gate ran about 200,000,000 won. Paying any more than that would be a significant loss.

“Originally, the price was about seventy million won, but they paid two hundred and fifty million for the attack permit when I tried to buy it for a hundred million won.”

Sangmin now understood why Kichul had felt so wronged when he’d blown up at his subordinate.

Who the fuck are these bastards?

Taka, tak, taka, tak.

Sangmin typed quickly, and the search results soon came up. As Kichul had said, a specific strike squad kept buying up all the C-rank gate permits for ridiculous amounts of money at an outrageous speed.

“The crazy bastards……”

This was the territory of the White Tiger Guild. Sangmin initially considered the possibility of another guild messing with them.

No, there’s no way……

No other guild would pick a fight like this with White Tiger. Even the other guilds in the top five knew how risky it would be to challenge the White Tiger Guild and how easily they could be crushed.

It can’t be another guild…

Then who would it be and why? Sangmin swallowed nervously and then checked the information about the strike squad members.

The leader’s name was Jinho Yoo.

“Never heard of him.”

Sangmin’s job was to recruit new members. Because of this, he knew every single freelance hunter’s name, even if they had only the slightest bit of notoriety.

But the name Jinho Yoo was new to him.

Putting him aside for now…

He slowly scrolled down the list of members to see if he recognized any of them. There was only one name that sounded familiar.

Jinwoo Sung? Jinwoo Sung? I’ve heard that name before……

After some thought, he recalled the incident with the double dungeon that had happened about two months earlier. The White Tiger Guild had helped the association out at the time.

“Kichul, do you remember that double dungeon our men helped out with a couple of months ago?”

“Of course I do. Didn’t they say there were no beasts but that there was one survivor?”

“What was the survivor’s name?”

Kichul had a good head on his shoulders. He wasn’t remarkably smarter than average, but he had a superb memory. He didn’t need to do a search. He responded immediately.

“Jinwoo Sung, E-rank hunter.”

I knew it!

Sangmin’s suspicions had been proven correct. He knew instinctively that something was up. His gut had never been wrong before about this kind of thing.

He shouted at everyone. “Stop what you’re doing and scrape together any and all information you can on Jinho Yoo the D-rank hunter and Jinwoo Sung the E-rank hunter! Right now!”

Excellent employees exceed expectations in a pinch. Elites are called elites for a reason. Therefore, the information came pouring in.

In truth, there was nothing particularly special about Jinho Yoo. He was quite ordinary except for the fact that he was the second son of Myunghan Yoo, the chairman of Yoojin Construction.

But Jinwoo Sung was different.

“There were three incidents, including the double dungeon, that he came out of unharmed.”

Kichul confirmed this. “Yes, even though he is just an E-rank hunter.”

Jinwoo and Jinho had initially met at Jinho’s first raid. And only those two had survived.

The two of them had then formed a strike squad and were clearing dungeons at a terrifying speed of two to three dungeons per day.

“Something is fishy here……”

“What are they doing?”

“Well…… Wait. Rumor has it that Chairman Myunghan Yoo has been reaching out to S-rank hunters lately.”

“Yes, there is that rumor.”

“And Jinho Yoo is his son……”

Chairman Yoo was trying to form a guild. It was the most well-known secret in the industry. If that was true, Jinho’s odd activities were probably related to that.

“Wait……!”

A picture was forming in Sangmin’s head.

It makes sense now!

Kichul gulped as his manager’s eyes changed.

Sangmin was confident. “That bastard…… He’s a reawakened hunter!”

“A reawakened hunter?” Kichul looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Sangmin was completely sure. “That’s right.”

An E-rank hunter wasn’t so different from an ordinary person. If there was a big incident, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to say they’d just get killed. But Jinwoo had escaped safely from incidents where more than half the hunters had been killed each time.

Of course, he might’ve been lucky, but…

But that third incident? The one involving Taesik Kang from the Surveillance Team was a little different.

According to the record, a C-rank mage hunter had defeated him with the help of a B-rank healer.

That’s absurd. A Surveillance Team member’s main job is to fight other hunters.

Unless Taesik Kang was stupid, he probably would have tried to kill the B-rank healer first, since they were a high rank but had no combat skills.

But a C-rank mage hunter stopped Taesik by himself?

A mage hunter was weak against combat hunters, especially assassin-class hunters. Unless Taesik had been caught off guard and completely ignored the B-rank healer…… But he couldn’t imagine a hunter with a three-year career on the Surveillance Team making that kind of mistake.

Someone else who was there with this C-rank Chiyul Song stopped Taesik.

Sangmin didn’t have any evidence, but he was absolutely certain about his suspicion.

Jinwoo Sung had experienced a second awakening and become a high-rank hunter. Jinho Yoo happened to find out about Jinwoo’s abilities in a raid, so he was testing Jinwoo out for the guild his father was planning.

Everything fit together with that theory.

This is big news.

Not a lot of people probably knew about Jinwoo’s true value as a reawakened hunter besides Jinho.

Those who knew Chairman Yoo knew he wouldn’t accept any random hunter. Furthermore, this was a matter of choosing the founding members. This was an excellent opportunity to poach talent from him.

If this guy took down Taesik, a B-rank hunter, he is, at minimum, a B-rank hunter!

The first thing Sangmin had to do was scout Jinwoo before he joined another guild, especially Chairman Yoo’s. The competition would be fierce when Jinwoo got his reevaluation.

It didn’t matter even if Jinwoo wasn’t as strong as Sangmin assumed. There were only a few reawakened hunters, and media from all over the world liked to pay attention to them. No amount of money would be able to buy this kind of PR. It was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

If the hunter already signed a contract with him, there’s nothing we can do, but……

That was unlikely. That he was still being tested in C-rank dungeons was evidence enough that it was doubtful. There was a high chance nothing was set in stone yet. That meant the White Tiger Guild still had a shot.

There’s no time to waste.

Sangmin grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and put it on.

“Kichul, let’s go.”

He didn’t forget to take his right-hand man. Since Kichul was the only one who could succeed his position in the future, Sangmin was especially tough on him.

Kichul blinked in surprise. “Excuse me? Where are we going, Manager An?”

“Where? To recruit a new member.”

“You’re going recruiting yourself?”

“Why? Is there a problem?” Sangmin replied coolly before striding out of the room.

He was followed by a bewildered Kichul.

How strange……

This was Sangmin’s first time recruiting a new member personally since he’d become the department manager two years ago.