Chapter 368

Kim Giryeo's image was gradually becoming... unusual, even among S-rank hunters.

"I was just an unemployed, money-hungry dreamer."

The alien sank into thought.

Come to think of it, long ago, an Earthling named Ahn Yoonseung had shown a fanatical devotion that was almost frightening. Yet as time passed, it became absurd to watch those once cold-hearted S-ranks sink even deeper into the same mire.

To think that prominent figures in society could live their lives believing in such a mirage.

"From an outsider's perspective, it might even look ridiculous."

Then again, being an intellectual—a professor, for instance—did not make someone immune to deception. In fact, it was hardly uncommon for highly educated people to fall prey to bizarre cults.

"Phew. Seriously."

People of high intelligence and social standing tended to be well aware of their own abilities.

Perhaps that was exactly why, once deceived, they became reluctant to question the judgments they had already made?

"Now I think I have a rough grasp of the characteristics of the locals here."

The alien lightly folded his arms.

"Earth is a planet full of easy marks... With so many naive inhabitants around, how could an Alphaurin like me possibly behave myself?"

That lie about needing the money for medical expenses had been remarkably effective.

At this rate, he could probably drain their retirement savings too.

But no matter how much he thought about it, there was no real alternative in the current situation.

The alien mage soon made up his mind, wearing the air of a cunning trickster performing an act of supreme generosity.

"But if I went that far, they'd end up looking far too pitiful, so I'd better not."

Another thought immediately followed.

"Well, it can't be helped!"

It was his firm resolution to ignore the Earthlings' miserable reactions and proceed with what had to be done.

"Unfortunately, we've been pushed too close to the edge to worry about the opinions of such weaklings."

He was only a few steps away from becoming a tax-delinquent hunter.

In other words, he was desperately short on money.

So first and foremost, he decided he would somehow deal with the enormous debt of 30 billion won.

"Completely curing Kim Giryeo's lung disease will take quite some time."

Come to think of it, Alphaurins had slow rates of cell division, and many of them were large-bodied species, so tumors rarely developed into fatal conditions...

Perhaps because of that, even with the knowledge of a grand mage, he could not guarantee a fundamental solution to the problem.

"Phew. Anyway, I was just about to retire. What kind of disaster is this?"

Still standing with his arms crossed, Kim Giryeo soon arrived at a rather self-assured conclusion.

After all his contemplation, it seemed this situation could not be blamed entirely on any one person.

"To say it was solely my fault..."

For reference, the Earthling named Ahn Yoonseung had quickly understood Kim Giryeo's physical condition after hearing a similar explanation.

He had even witnessed the side effects of the [Sacred Tree Seedling] firsthand, yet when Kim Giryeo simply told him he was fine, he let the matter drop.

As this Red Gate Rush had shown, Ahn Yoonseung treated Kim Giryeo not as a patient, but as a fellow hunter.

"Whether he truly believes me or not is another matter. What's important is that he plays along."

After much deliberation, Kim Giryeo continued along the same train of thought.

"Then this is simply their problem."

A rather rash conclusion flashed through his mind.

Isn't the real problem that I'm just too considerate toward my coworkers? Anyway, we're both at fault here. I'll ignore it and focus on making money!

First came the shamelessness of the one committing the deception.

Still, human nature was such that blaming others alone rarely improved one's peace of mind.

***

And then, several more days passed.

[S-rank Hunter Kim Establishes Guild... Yet Recruitment of Key Members Remains 'Completely Silent']

Naturally, the archmage spent those days running dungeons.

The more diligently he worked, the closer retirement seemed to draw.

Still, he was careful not to neglect his mental health, even taking the weekends off to rest when everyone else did.

And as he continued living such a diligent and healthy life, the day finally arrived.

[Tiring]

[Deposit: Korea Hunter Association Gala Disaster Response Report...]

If one were to guess the missing word, it was probably something along the lines of compensation.

Early that morning, a deposit notification chimed on his phone.

After all, payday had a way of lifting one's spirits.

"Money!"

So how much had he received for all his efforts during the flood disaster in the capital?

Of course, the artificial rainfall conjured by the Archmage had not been completely free of collateral damage.

"I heard one of the evacuating citizens dropped their phone, and unfortunately, it landed in a muddy puddle and stopped working..."

However, such minor losses were covered under the Hunter Association's protection policy.

Naturally.

Therefore, just as he had hoped, no one sued him, and he safely received payment for his labor...

[Deposit: 51,232,019 won]

Fifty-one million won...

Fifty-one million won?

Kim Giryeo froze as he stared at his online banking app.

The reward for extinguishing fires in the heart of the nation and running around killing monsters everywhere was only fifty-one million won?

"And this pathetic amount includes the additional bonus the mayor was talking about?"

In truth, though, the only strange thing here was the alien's reaction.

There was nothing unusual about the amount he had received.

First of all, the monsters that appeared during the recent Red Gate Rush had ranged from F-rank to A-rank.

It had been an extremely varied assortment, which was only natural.

Just like the pyramid structure among awakened people, monsters grew more numerous the lower their rank.

"W-Well, that's true. Hardly any of the monsters I killed at the scene were A-rank."

That alone cut the price once.

Moreover, in accordance with Hunter industry practice, he had carefully photographed the monsters he killed on the main roads with his phone as proof that they were his kills...

The real problem came afterward.

Once the hunt was over, who was supposed to dismantle all the prey he had already taken down?

Some ancestor descending from the afterlife?

"Ugh."

Naturally, this world had professionals known as dismantlers.

Only after experts extracted the valuable parts could a monster carcass reach its maximum market value.

And since a portion of the proceeds had to go to them, the hunting reward was reduced yet again.

"Damn it. I even went to the dismantling site myself to supervise them, just to make sure they weren't secretly skimming off the expensive parts."

The only consolation was that all subsequent expenses—road repairs, street cleaning, and compensation for civilian damages caused by superhuman activity—were already covered by the taxes paid by Hunters.

In any case, after deducting this and that, it was only natural that this was the amount left for him in the end.

[Fifty Million won]

And on top of that, Kim Giryeo had earned it in a single day.

If word got around that one could make fifty million won from a single day's deployment, an ordinary office worker commuting to work every morning might awaken on the spot from sheer stress.

"Fifty million won..."

The problem was simply that the alien's financial blunder had been on a ridiculous scale.

"..."

Soon afterward, the scholar by profession began running calculations in his head.

###########

40,035,248,900 won

51,232,019 won

###########

Result: 39,984,016,881 won

###########

Of course, he had already sold several magic tools, so the actual amount remaining was lower than that.

And once the government support he would receive for establishing a guild was taken into account, the figure would fall even further.

Still, for convenience, he continued his calculations using the amount quoted to him by the National Tax Service representative.

###########

Then came the result:

"What is this..."

For a moment, he thought that this must be exactly what the saying "it doesn't even reach the liver" was meant to describe.

"Does it even look like the number went down...?"

Fifty million won was, without question, an objectively enormous amount of money.

But at this rate, how many more months would he have to keep working?

Only now did the alien truly understand.

The hundred billion won Imabari had handed over was a sum that even Hunters could hardly take lightly.

"I'm screwed."

There were rumors that some countries had collapsed due to the inflation brought about by modern Hunters.

So where in the world had the tremendous earning power of those superhumans gone?

"At this rate... tomorrow and the day after, I'll be eating nothing but rice and kimchi."

It seemed the time had come to stop diligently hunting monsters one by one like a livestock farmer and start going after bigger catches.

After estimating the scale of income he needed, Kim Giryeo immediately began considering a way to strike it rich in one go.

Surprisingly, the plan forming in the mage's head was neither foolish nor misguided.

Gates were like fishing grounds overflowing with bait.

If he could secure the right artifacts, turning his life around in a single stroke was entirely possible.

"I heard that as monster research progressed, the value of their blood and flesh dropped quite a bit. But magic tools with special effects still fetch high prices..."

Phew.

Kim Giryeo shifted into a more comfortable position.

He draped his arms over the sofa's armrests and loosely rested his neck against the raised back of the furniture.

"Ah~ I wish a whole swarm of golems would just drop out of the sky somewhere."

As he continued thinking in that relaxed posture, frustration suddenly welled up inside him.

It had probably been a few months ago—he no longer remembered the details clearly.

But around the time of the [Thornbush Forest] incident, golems had definitely been abundant within the country.

"If you completely flood a three-story dungeon, you immediately risk losing the iron. But old-fashioned golems have predictable shutdown methods, so you can hunt them without wasting even a scrap of mana—practically while taking a stroll."

True to the soul of a creature that had once been a marine animal in a previous life, he wanted nothing more than to take things easy and reap rewards without effort.

But apparently, the saying that heaven helped those who used their brains was not entirely meaningless in this world.

While wondering how he could make a large amount of money, the alien soon stumbled across an article.

["Steampunk" Theme Park Becomes a Living Nightmare: Multiple Nests of Steam-Emitting Golems Appear in French City]

Of course, the incident in France itself offered him no benefit whatsoever.

"What? It's overseas."

There was nothing an individual could do by complaining about it.

Then again, a country could hardly allow armed foreign superhumans to enter its territory indiscriminately just to handle a domestic disaster.

"What a waste."

Even though Kim Giryeo possessed the tremendous power of an SS-rank, he could not simply act however he pleased.

The mountains where he could legally operate as a hunter were limited to places like Gwanggyosan, Geomdansan, and Surisan.

In other words, his hunting grounds amounted to the entirety of South Korea.

"No, of course. I don't exactly have any complaints about Korean food."

This country was excellent in many respects.

But from an alien's perspective, the territory did feel rather cramped.

"With such limited land, the range of opportunities is naturally narrower than in a country like the United States."

Kim Giryeo was confident that, given the right opportunity, he could be dispatched abroad at any time.

"I wish some expensive dungeon would appear somewhere that no one could clear without this archmage..."

And only twenty-four hours later, that very "opportunity" finally arrived.

***

[Seonhan Daily]

[Page 1]

[SOS Request From Abroad... Which Hunter Can Solve The Impenetrable Labyrinth?]

The next morning.

Once again, the debtor, who had risen early to repay his debts, habitually switched on his phone.

"Huh?"

But on the front page of the Seonhan Daily, which he had bookmarked using the advanced technology known as "favorites," he discovered an article like this.

"Wait a minute. If this is happening now, all that praying I did yesterday was completely wasted."

At last, a rare overseas dungeon worthy of his intervention had appeared.

"Of course, from the perspective of an Alphaurin soul, it's fair to call it trash."

The alien examined the article more closely.

To summarize its contents, an EX-rank gate unlike anything previously seen had appeared in a country called Turkey...

"Well, EX-ranks are usually troublesome. They're weak, but they require some ability to decipher their gimmicks."

And yet, the damage caused by this particular EX-rank was apparently already considerable.

A few B-ranks, and especially E-ranks who were barely different from ordinary non-awakened people—those casualties were, regrettably, understandable.

"Are they saying even an S-rank hunter failed to clear this dungeon and is now missing?"

He dragged his finger downward across the screen.

Then the following passage came into view.

[Feature:

The Dungeon That Creates Happiness — Blessing or Curse?

A certain dungeon that appeared on a road in Turkey has yet to produce a single survivor.

Even Mehmet Erdogan (10), a student who attended a nearby school, went missing in connection with the gate, yet the authorities still have no concrete solution to the situation.

What makes the situation even more bewildering is the possibility that this dungeon may actually be beneficial to humans.

Before launching a full-scale response, the Turkey Gate Authority began gathering information using trained guard dogs.

By attaching radios to the animals and sending them into the dungeon, authorities were able to receive normal transmissions for several seconds, even within a space from which there appeared to be no way back.

Through this process, it was revealed that inside the dungeon, one police dog encountered its former handler, who had died three years earlier...

(omitted)

Based on analysis of the received audio, experts believe the dungeon shows those who enter an illusion of their "happiest day."]

The explanation had been lengthy, but the true nature of the EX-rank dungeon was simple.

"Some Gisimche with truly peculiar tastes caused this."

To borrow the archmage's own earlier expression, what had appeared in Turkey seemed to be a Gisimche suffering from an extreme case of "picky eating."

[BREAKING NEWS: Additional casualties confirmed at Turkey's Happiness Gate (tentative name), including three top-tier treasure hunters... The strategy and escape method for the space remain a complete mystery.]

It was a thoroughly tragic situation.

The monster that had wished for humanity's happiness had, paradoxically, become the very creature threatening the lives of the greatest number of powerful individuals.