Chapter 11
“Fame, huh...”
Honestly, I wasn't exactly excited.
Instead, I was a little worried.
I had a feeling it would bring a lot of trouble.
When I voiced those feelings, Zephyros burst out laughing.
“You really do say things that don't sound like a newbie at all. Did you regress or something?”
“Regress?”
“Did you come from the future?”
“No. If I had, do you think I'd be living like this?”
“Haha. Fair point.”
Zephyros laughed for a while, then casually continued.
“Then how about getting an agent?”
“Mm, you mean a Hunter agent?”
Most top-ranking Hunters hired agents.
Hunters were busy enough clearing dungeons; they couldn't handle every task on their own.
So Hunter agents, who took charge of almost everything from contracts and earned a cut of the profits, were a highly sought-after profession in the modern age.
“Is there anyone you'd recommend?”
“There are some famous agents, but...”
For example, even I, who knew almost nothing about the Hunter world, knew the name Scott Drephees.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that nearly all the world's famous high-rankers were in Scott Drephees's hands.
The Drephees brigade, made up of Hunters he represented, was practically an enemy to dungeon development companies.
Because they were so ruthless about squeezing money out of them.
At times, he even negotiated contracts where Hunters received 80% of the spoils from dungeon clears.
The company owned the dungeon, yet got to keep only 20%.
But getting even 20% was better than letting a dungeon go unused, so companies entrusted clears to the Drephees brigade, gritting their teeth.
And true to their reputation, their success rate was sky-high.
“I'll handle it for a while. For free.”
“Really?”
Zephyros knew the Hunter industry inside and out and had plenty of connections.
And he was offering to act as my agent, for free at that.
“Are you sure? I wouldn't mind signing a formal contract.”
I meant it.
If not for Zephyros, would I ever have come all the way to this quarry in Chungju to take on the Stone Golems and clear a dungeon deemed impossible?
I probably would have just gone around clearing ordinary Gates until I exceeded Level 8, the limit for clearing them.
Dungeons were deemed impossible partly because the level system restricted the window of time in which they could be cleared.
As a result, I had gained an enormous amount thanks to Zephyros's judgment.
If I couldn't trust someone with judgment like his, who could I trust?
I wouldn't mind giving him an agent contract with the best possible terms.
But Zephyros shook his head at my offer.
“I'm already tied to the company as an executive, and my contract prohibits side jobs. This agent work... let's just call it a hobby. I'm rich now, anyway.”
“...What?”
“It's a long story.”
It was then, as I looked at Zephyros wearing a meaningful smile.
My phone vibrated.
When I saw the name in the messenger app, I realized I'd forgotten.
“Actually, I'm a little busy today, so I'll head out first.”
“Sure. Go get some rest.”
“Oh, a verbal contract still counts as a contract, right?”
I activated the recording function, held the phone to my mouth, and spoke quietly.
“I, Hunter Kim Segyun, hereby grant Zephyros Ryu Hyeonsu full authority over my agent contract. May 15, 2024, 6:22 p.m.”
I sent the recording to Zephyros over KakaoTalk and shrugged.
“You can take care of everything. I'll just keep running hard.”
“You'll just run, and I'll lay down the track?”
“You said you would. For free.”
Something like, This agent works for free...
How could I pass up a chance like this?
“Then I look forward to working with you!”
Leaving Zephyros smiling behind me, I ran to my car while making a call.
“Hey, Mincheol hyung. Have you decided?”
It looked like there was still quite a lot of time left before the day was over.
**
As soon as Kim Segyun drove off, Ryu Hyeonsu's phone rang.
“Hello.”
─S-Senior... that message that just popped up...
“What message?”
─Don't pretend you don't know. You saw it...
“Oh, that message?”
Ryu Hyeonsu reopened the message window he'd minimized in the corner of his vision.
[Hunter Kim Segyun has become the first to conquer the Stage 3 Gate, ‘Abandoned Temple of the Stone Golems’!]
[Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, has been pacified!]
[Monsters appearing in all Gates in Chungcheongbuk-do have been weakened!]
If the value of clearing a Gate deemed impossible had been nothing more than literally clearing a Gate that had been deemed impossible, it wouldn't have attracted this much attention.
Gates deemed impossible were like the last empty square on a bingo card.
Once every Gate in a region was cleared, that region received the ‘Pacified’ status.
In a pacified region, monsters weakened and dungeon difficulty decreased considerably.
How much would that be worth in economic terms?
Even a 10% weakening meant that, in simple arithmetic, one fewer Hunter was needed for work that had required ten.
At 20%, it was two.
For dungeon development companies, that meant overwhelming savings in labor costs.
But it wasn't as though this was bad for Hunters, either.
Since the clear times themselves were shortened, they could make better use of the time left over.
Either way, pacification had a tremendous impact on the region's economy.
However, South Korea had Gates deemed impossible to clear in each region, the so-called ‘Impossible’ Gates.
One of them had just been resolved.
─My God, did Hunter Kim Segyun really clear an Impossible Gate...?
“Yeah. You got the sponsorship contract rights transferred to my name, right?”
─...Yes. For some reason, the approval came through frighteningly fast.
“Pfft, that bastard Shin Taeho needs to get his ass kicked at the board meeting to learn his lesson.”
Zephyros chuckled.
They'd had a chance to secure a sponsorship contract with a rookie like Kim Segyun for a mere one billion won.
The CEO's decision to squander that opportunity in a matter of minutes—not even hours—would draw a massive barrage of criticism from the board.
They might even vote to remove him.
“Oh, and how many of my company's stock options do I still have?”
─A little under 100 billion won, I think? All the founding members got about that much.
“How about you?”
─Maybe around 500 million won.
“You haven't sold them, right?”
─They're still in the lockup period. Three months left.
“Congratulations.”
─For what?
“You're about to make money.”
─...What are you talking about?
“Which company owns the most Gates in Chungcheongbuk-do?”
─Whoa.
RHS was a company that had been granted 17 of the 53 Gates in Chungcheongbuk-do and held exclusive rights to them.
It had been based in Chungcheongbuk-do from the start.
The rest were state-owned Gates or belonged to other companies, but it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that RHS owned nearly all the valuable Gates in the region.
─You'd already thought that far ahead?
“Isn't that obvious? Anyway, thanks to that kid Kim Segyun, I think I'm going to make a lot of money.”
He'd also pulled the sponsorship contract into a personal agreement, and the gains he could make from exercising his stock options would be enormous.
Stock options gave him the right to buy shares at a set price, so if the stock price rose, the difference would go straight into his pocket.
“By the way, how much is the going rate for the ‘Understanding Harmony’ skill book these days?”
─The company has one. I think we won it at auction last month for around 12.8 billion won?
“When did the price go up that much? Good grief.”
─Necromancers are all the rage these days. A Legendary-grade skill book common to the magic classes was bound to get more expensive.
Ryu Hyeonsu clicked his tongue for a moment, then spoke as if he'd made up his mind.
“Is it still at the company?”
─It is. All our ranked magic-type Hunters have already learned it, so we kept it for the rookies. But... are you planning to give it to Hunter Kim Segyun?
“Why, is that a problem?”
─Even so... he's not with our company...
“Tell them I'm putting a lot of effort into him. I'll cover half out of my own pocket, and have the company expense the other half as entertainment.”
─E-Entertainment?
“CEO Shin rejected the contract, and our Hunter was deeply disappointed. We need to spend a little more to soothe that disappointment. What else can we do?”
Bae Sujin was so taken aback by Ryu Hyeonsu's casual grin that she stammered for a while.
─W-Will the CEO approve this...?
“If CEO Shin rejects it, tell him you'll bring it before the board. Then naturally, the agenda will also include the fact that our CEO Shin rejected a sponsorship contract with Hunter Kim Segyun, right?”
─Uh... I suppose so.
“Tell him that if he approves it without complaint, I'll keep quiet about our CEO Shin's mistake. And tell him there's no need for us to make an issue of it.”
─Do you really have to go that far?
“Of course.”
He paused, then checked the recording Segyun had sent over KakaoTalk, grinned, and continued.
“I'm his agent, after all.”
For a long time, Ryu Hyeonsu's eyes had been dull and lifeless. Now they gleamed once again, like those of Zephyros at the height of his dungeon-conquering days.
**
Mincheol hyung gave me the green light for now.
What finally convinced him, after he'd been hesitant to the very end, was seeing the account where one billion won had been deposited.
At least he wouldn't have to worry about his salary for a while.
“Good, hyung. Then contact the clients and tell them we'll handle everything for half price,”
─Half price? You'll do it for half? What's left for us? We wouldn't even cover the cost of running the incinerator.
“I've got a way. And it has to be that cheap for us to win the contracts. We have to factor in the penalties, too.”
Since we were a subcontractor, the penalties for breaking a contract couldn't be set too high, but they did exist.
We had to offer enough of an incentive to make them switch companies even after paying those penalties if we wanted to take the contracts from Hanyoung System, my employer until yesterday.
“Especially Seonggwang Biotech, Jinwoong Pharmaceutical, Jogwang Pharmaceutical, Unmi Pharmaceutical, and Guseongdang—we absolutely have to sign contracts with them. We can do those for 30%.”
─Thirty percent? No way. I'll make sure I get at least 50% for all of them.
“Haha, all right.”
Those five companies were the major domestic businesses that bought Luminarion corpses from France, extracted the Elixir, and produced generic versions.
In other words, they were the places that discharged the pellets left over after extracting Elixir from the corpses as waste.
If I couldn't sign contracts with those companies, all I'd make would be pocket change from waste disposal.
I'd finished talking with Mincheol hyung for now.
The next person was important, though...
I hadn't heard from Ms. Im Gyuseon for longer than I'd expected.
Was she going to turn me down?
Would I have to find someone else?
It didn't seem easy to find anyone better than her.
I was still pondering it when...
Bzzz. The name Im Gyuseon appeared on my phone.
I breathed a sigh of relief and answered.
“Hello?”
─I-I'm late, aren't I? I overslept...
“Not at all. You're not late. Should I come over?”
─Um, wouldn't that be a bother...?
“It's fine. I was going that way anyway.”
─Then come by my place. We can park in the complex and go to a nearby café.
“Sure. I'll head over.”
I thought I could probably recruit her, too.
It was at that very moment.
─By the way, this is strange... There's a system message floating in front of me... and your name's on it, Segyun... You cleared a Stage 3 Gate... first...?
“...You're Awakened?”
That was another thing I hadn't known.
I'd naturally assumed she was a non-Awakened.
─Yes, I'm an alchemist. My level isn't very high, though.
“!”
Alchemists were one of the few classes that synergized with modern science.
And this capable scientist, who'd graduated from MIT, had also Awakened as an alchemist.
I hadn't planned to let her go even before, but now it was clear.
I had to recruit her, no matter what.