Chapter 17
As soon as Yoo Hyun granted permission to hunt magical beasts in Pamagok, the Association moved quickly. First, they took control of the floors in the Tower where Great Worms spawned.
And, just as Park Ingyu had said, they began accepting applications from parties and guilds wishing to enter while releasing detailed information about the Hidden Stage. An announcement was posted on the government bulletin board.
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[Hidden Stage Entry Recruitment Notice]
Location: Forest near Pamagok, Gate 3, in the border region of the Cheonyu Empire
Eligibility: B-rank or higher players who possess a hunter's license issued by the Association
Reward: 35% of the mana stones obtained by killing monsters in the stage
Important: Completion of safety training in advance is mandatory; contact with residents is prohibited; entrants must follow the safety officers' instructions at all times; all mana stones will be sold in bulk by the Association after returning; signing a liability waiver and a statement of intent not to sue is mandatory; only those with no other grounds for disqualification may enter after screening, and so on…….
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At first, the hunters could hardly believe what they were seeing. What was the South Korean Association? Wasn't it the ultimate example of an incompetent organization that had been pushed aside by the Seven Great Powers, who had siphoned off every benefit since the Tower appeared, and couldn't even properly eliminate monsters when they appeared in Seoul?
The notices posted on the bulletin board day after day always asked for help because monsters were overflowing from the Tower and would soon escape outside. But this time, they weren't asking for help?
There were all sorts of suffocatingly complicated procedures just to enter. The mana stones they could receive as rewards even had to be forcibly sold for cash, and the share was seriously lower than that of an ordinary subjugation request.
"Has the Association finally gone insane?"
"That's what I'm saying. I guess they lost their minds after all the S-rank hunters left."
"Didn't the Ignis Guild come here a little while ago, though?"
"The Seven Great Powers?"
"Yeah, Vice-Master Lee Dowon even gave an interview saying he'd come because of the Hidden Stage."
"But they ended up coming right back out without accomplishing anything. Come to think of it, they're still in Korea. Could there really be something inside?"
Until now, the hunters had only heard that a Hidden Stage had opened and knew nothing at all about what had happened inside, so they scoffed. Even so, the announcement looked confident enough to be called arrogant, and a few people applied out of curiosity.
After passing such a rigorous screening, the hunters entered through the belly of a monster and stabbed its mana core. What awaited them on the other side was the base camp set up in Pamagok—and an extremely harsh natural environment.
"The facilities are seriously shabby. How is this an empire?"
"You fell asleep during the orientation, didn't you? They said we're far from the walls."
"What was the name of the ruler here again? Yoo Hyun, was it?"
"It is Great General Yoo Hyun."
"Ah! You startled me. Who are you?"
"I'm An Junhyeon, one of the safety officers. You're the Singil Party, right? Everyone, gather over here with your weapons."
Following the safety officer's instructions, the Singil Party received another briefing on the precautions to take in Pamagok. When he told them to immediately put their heads to the ground and lie flat if the Great General appeared, one of the party members asked,
"What happens if we don't lie down?"
"I have arthritis in my legs, you know."
"......That's wrong."
"Pardon?"
"You'll suffer terrible pain, so it would be in your best interest to do as you're told."
There was no way to know what that man had been through to make him wear such a pained expression. As they walked under the guidance of the nearby members of the Birang Party, the first monster they encountered was an Arachne shaped like a gigantic spider.
Although it was venomous, it had an obvious weakness to fire and was only Grade Three, so they thought they would defeat it easily. The result, however, was entirely unexpected.
"Haa, hah. It's insanely strong. What is this place?"
"The air is so stuffy that it's hard to breathe. I feel awful for some reason."
"Does anyone have any antidote potions left?"
"I've used almost all of mine."
After that, they encountered one unusually powerful monster after another, all far stronger than normal. The Singil Party's potions and magical tools quickly ran out. Contrary to their initial estimate that they would return after three days, they came back to base camp after only eight hours and informed the waiting Association employee that their hunt was over.
"I'm Moon Seoyeong from the Strategic Countermeasures Headquarters."
"I'm Hong Jaeman, the party leader."
"We'll analyze the purity of the mana stones and determine their value, so please wait here for a moment after passing through the rift."
"Yes, yes."
After taking a short rest and confirming that no one had any health problems, they returned. Naturally, their assessment couldn't have been positive.
"Ah, this is seriously the worst. I'm never going back."
"I told you not to take on work from the Association."
"I thought it was a Hidden Stage, so I figured we'd meet residents and do things like that."
"Huh? I saw one earlier."
"Really?"
"Yeah. From really far away, I saw someone in armor aiming a bow."
"......"
I should leave a review on the community board telling all the perverts who want to put themselves through that kind of misery to go ahead and do it. Soaked in sweat and monster fluids and feeling miserable, the Singil Party was waiting for its settlement when Moon Seoyeong appeared.
"I'm sorry. The portable measuring device broke down again, so it took a while."
"The meter broke down? What kind of antique equipment are you using?"
"The infrastructure and everything else look rather poorly prepared, so please specify these things in the announcement beforehand from now on."
"I'll pass that along to the department in charge."
"What about the measurement?"
"It finished a little while ago. The amount is......"
"Just deposit it into our account. We'll divide it among ourselves."
"Understood. The total comes to sixty-eight million won."
"What?"
"Yes......?"
For a moment, Hong Jaeman wondered whether the broken thing was not the measuring device but the employee's sense of money. Moon Seoyeong, however, calmly printed out an itemized statement and handed it to him to check.
The detailed breakdown and tax rate are written here. The Association isn't responsible for dividing the settlement among party members, but if the amounts differ from the distribution ratio in the party contract you signed when it was established, you can file an objection with the Hunter Rights Protection Center.
"W-wait a moment!"
"What is it?"
"We hunted for eight hours, didn't we? And we only brought back about thirty mana stones."
"Yes, the price assessed based on those spoils is accurate."
"......"
They had earned more than ten million won a day, on a mere 35 percent share. Their expenses were not insignificant, what with consumables and equipment repairs, but it was incomparable to what four B-rank hunters could earn in the Tower.
Even considering that their authorized stay was more than twice as long as this......
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"
"Which department do we go to if we want to do this one more time?"
.
.
.
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【Title】 Why Do We Even Work?
Every day, we climb the Tower, clear quests like our lives depend on it, and receive paltry rewards.
I'm telling you, if you spend that time hunting in Pamagok while putting up with the suffocating air, your money will multiply!
【Comments】
— We call that work too.
ㄴ I can work too, so please just let me in!!!
ㄴㄴ Yeah, no use. I heard the list for the next six months is already full.
— The Association finally knows how to do its job.
ㄴ I saw the news about them setting up a photo spot by the sign the basilisk tore apart and thought they must have lost their minds, but this is a relief.
ㄴㄴ (It's the Association. They must be doing something.)
ㄴㄴㄴ So this is what came out of them really trying to do something, lol.
— I saw a post showing someone's earnings, and it makes no sense. Is it fake?
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【Title】 ???: Applicant No. 81 Is Bin Salman
I run a small oil shop in my neighborhood.
I want to contribute to the development of our poor country by advancing magical engineering with Korea's mana stones.
【Comments】
— Where does that bastard think he's going, digging for nothing but oil? Get the hell out of here!
ㄴ Yeah, the Association is already controlling the entire supply, lol.
— I can hear the big guilds rushing home from here.
ㄴ They say the number of private jets arriving has actually increased.
— If one mana stone has this much impact, wouldn't discovering anything else cause a genuine upheaval of the world?
ㄴ Is this the time to go all-in on KOSPI?
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【Title】 Even for a Hidden Stage, mana stones this pure make no sense. At least suspect the Cheonyu Empire or Yoo Hyun once
The stain of suspicion is not easily erased, you Korean hunters who attacked me. The Empire's Water Mirror Guard will continue watching you.
【Comments】
— Gasp.
— Pamagok Wi-Fi, please don't turn it o……ff. Loyalty, loyalty ^^
— Who on earth dared attack the Great General?
ㄴ There are bastards who become unpaid slaves when they enter Pamagok. It's them.
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"What's this?"
"These are reaction posts from a place called Hunter Gallery. I thought it would be useful for you to check the sentiment of our people...... toward the Great General, so I printed them out and brought them."
I examined the papers Park Ingyu had brought, one by one. They were posts from a gallery I had been fairly familiar with in my previous life—that is, when I lived on an Earth where people like Awakened did not exist.
Everyone had merely watched from afar without ever setting foot across the threshold of a government office, yet their reactions could hardly have been more friendly.
"If you wish, we can also connect you in real time. Of course, we would need to install several relay devices and keep the rift open at all times, but we have ways to......"
"Let's put that on hold for now."
"Ah, yes."
Park Ingyu was capable. There was a reason he had brought community reactions rather than official press releases or news reports.
I, too, had felt the need to change the Daehan people's perception of the barbarians my subordinates regarded as contemptible, at least as far as Daehan was concerned. Even so, I thought it was still too soon to introduce new customs and technologies, so I refused.
Besides, there was an urgent problem that had to be dealt with now. I gathered the papers and handed them to Yeonri, who was beside me, then asked him,
"As expected, civilian access doesn't seem to be very well controlled."
"It's...... I'm sorry."
"It doesn't matter to us who hunts the magical beasts. You're the ones who suffer the losses."
"You're absolutely right."
At present, the supply of mana stones obtainable in Pamagok was woefully inadequate compared to demand. Inevitably, people would appear who wanted to hunt monsters without going through the Association.
Recently, there had been an increase in people entering through rifts that appeared outside the designated locations and hunting the monsters nearby. There was just one suspicious point.
"The large monsters required to enter Pamagok are almost all under the Association's control."
"What does that mean?"
"There is effectively no way for an ordinary party to enter Pamagok without permission. It can only mean that someone is behind this......"
It wasn't difficult to guess their identity. The Ignis Guild still hadn't left Korea.
They really were working themselves to the bone. Whatever else one could say, I had to give them credit for working hard to make money.
Honestly, if Lee Dowon hadn't come back, there was little I could do about whatever they did on Earth. But he couldn't give up his greed and had ultimately chosen to set foot here again......
I suppose I ought to offer them some help from this side as well.
"Should I at least grind their bones for now?"
"Pardon?"
..