Chapter 14
Though modest, the small rented office in Gangnam-gu that would now serve as our company office held a meeting of three: Mincheol hyung, Ms. Gyuseon, and me.
It was, in its own way, our company’s first historic executive(?) meeting.
Even now, just as we were getting our business off the ground, I could see how difficult it was to objectively measure a person’s abilities.
Some people, in particular, showed their true worth all the more when given greater authority.
Mincheol hyung was a prime example.
I’d told him 50% would be enough, but he’d doggedly negotiated it up to 80%.
That deserved proper compensation.
“Hyung, take about half of the extra 30% you secured as an incentive. So... roughly 20% of the profits from waste disposal will be yours.”
“What? R-Really?”
“Yeah, of course. But you’ll be pretty busy from now on. You’re the sales director.”
“Leave it to me! I’ll do it all!”
There was a reason people said you worked as much as you were paid.
He was already fired up.
But while sales was going well, development and production were making little headway, and Ms. Gyuseon’s face darkened as she sat in on the meeting.
“I-I’m sorry. I...”
“There’s no need to apologize.”
This was unavoidable, regardless of Ms. Gyuseon’s abilities.
Securing pharmaceutical-company-level facilities from scratch wasn’t something you could just whip up in a snap.
Ms. Gyuseon and I had been looking into it from various angles, but it wasn’t easy.
“It’d be great if a decent pharmaceutical company came up for sale.”
It was a hundred times easier to fix up something that already existed than to create something from nothing.
Of course, we didn’t have that kind of money...
No matter how you looked at it, nothing was easy.
How on earth did businesspeople manage this stuff?
I was scratching my head, deep in thought.
“Actually, I did hear something.”
At Mincheol hyung’s voice, like rain in a drought, my eyes widened.
“What do you mean? What did you hear?”
“Oh, I was going around trying to land clients and happened to hear something, but I don’t know if it’s true.”
“True or not, I’m desperate enough to clutch at straws.”
“Tsk. Don’t blame me later if it turns out to be a rumor.”
“Just tell me already.”
After hesitating for a moment, still unsure whether he should say it, Mincheol hyung opened his mouth.
“You know Saeil Pharma? The one in Cheonan.”
“Oh, that gloomy company?”
I’d gone there a few times to pick up waste, but lately they hadn’t given us much work, so I hardly went anymore.
Every time I went, the place felt gloomy and the employees looked unhappy, so I’d thought they were about to go under.
Were they really going bankrupt?
“No way, are they going under?”
“Yeah. They were on my list, so I went to pitch our services, and I heard they’re going to close the company soon.”
“How did a company that big end up like that?”
Saeil Pharma wasn’t exactly a small company.
They’d been in business for quite a while, too.
I did a quick search online and spotted an article that stood out.
[Saeil Pharma Makes Headlines with Bid for a Stage 7 Dungeon: Will Direct Sourcing of Dungeon Byproducts Cut Costs?]
That headline alone sounded pretty ominous.
There weren’t any follow-up articles, though.
Maybe Zephyros knew about it since it involved a dungeon?
I was supposed to see him later, so I’d ask.
**
After wrapping up our brief first meeting, I headed to the building where Zephyros was.
Having an office in Gangnam really was nice.
Except for the rent being so expensive it made me sick.
I was holding iced Americanos from a chain café I used to think was too pricey to drink at, and handed one to Zephyros as he stepped out of the elevator.
“Oh, coffee. Coffee’s good.”
As soon as he took it, he yawned widely, looking exhausted, then practically inhaled the coffee.
“Looks like you have a lot of work?”
“I do, thanks to someone.”
“Would that someone happen to be me?”
“Who else?”
“Haha...”
“I put together a list of the next Gates worth clearing. I sent it to you in a message, so take a look and decide.”
“Yes. Oh, by the way, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
When I asked about Saeil Pharma, Zephyros slurped up the last of his iced Americano and said,
“Saeil Pharma? It’s one of the classic cases of a company failing at dungeon investment.”
“I saw it in an online article. They invested in a Stage 7 Gate?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t say exactly where online, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“It’s a Gate near Daecheong Lake. What was its name... Anyway, the monsters there are fish. Sawblade Ichthyosaurs, I think.”
Fish monsters?
“Then the field is...”
“Underwater. It’s not that unusual. As you know, 70% of Earth is covered by water.”
There were actually quite a few Gates that had formed in the sea.
Across both the open ocean and coastal waters.
“And while there aren’t many, there are specialized Hunters who clear these kinds of Gates. They can move freely underwater or have skills that work better underwater. In the industry, they’re called fishermen—or Fishermen. Both terms have the same origin.”
“So they’re literally people who fish.”
“Exactly.”
“But if there are people like that, why did Saeil Pharma go under?”
“I told you there aren’t many Hunters. There’s steady demand, but not much supply. What do you think happens?”
“Don’t tell me...”
Zephyros nodded and elaborated.
“The Fisherman’s Club, Korea’s largest maritime Hunter association, practically has a monopoly. They took on the work a few times at first, then jacked up their service rates like crazy. They got so high it’d be cheaper to buy the materials outright.”
They’d won the dungeon in order to procure raw materials cheaply, but if the rates rose to the point where it was cheaper to buy them, things couldn’t get much worse.
They had to pay the dungeon lease to the government, and on top of that, cover the Hunters’ service fees. It would’ve been strange if they hadn’t gone bankrupt.
“The case actually went to court after a complaint was filed with the Fair Trade Commission, but in the end, the Fisherman’s Club was found not guilty. If they said they couldn’t work unless they were paid that much, the government couldn’t force them to work for less. It could be construed as forced Hunter conscription.”
“That’s something you’d expect in China or North Korea.”
“Hey, even China can’t force Hunters into service these days. That’s old news. Hunters’ social status has risen that much. If they mess with them, even the Chinese Communist Party can’t weather the backlash. North Korea... well, those bastards...”
Anyway, so that was the inside story at Saeil Pharma?
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Saeil Pharma went under because of the Hunters.
“But why are you asking about Saeil Pharma? Don’t tell me...?”
“Zephyros. What if, just what if...”
“No.”
“I haven’t even said anything yet.”
“If you’re thinking about acquiring Saeil Pharma, I don’t recommend it.”
He was a mind reader.
“I’m not saying I’ll just acquire it blindly. I want to inspect the dungeon and everything, then take it over if it looks promising.”
“...I’ll look into the terms.”
Zephyros took out his phone and called someone.
Was he checking right away?
After making a few calls, he said,
“Saeil Pharma seems to be in worse shape than I thought.”
“How much?”
“One thousand won.”
“.....”
I looked at him as if to ask if he was kidding,
and he met my gaze as if to say he was serious.
“Seriously?”
Even gum cost more than a thousand won these days.
What kind of company...
“It’s a nominal acquisition. You’d be taking on 1.5 billion won in unpaid employee salaries, 12 billion won in overdue dungeon lease payments, 1.7 billion won in unpaid taxes, and 48 billion won in bank debt. Its assets, including the office building and factory, are worth about 12 billion won.”
I knew it. The mention of all those billions nearly took my breath away.
So what did that add up to?
I pulled out my phone and tapped on the calculator.
“About... 63.2 billion won?”
“If we negotiate well during the acquisition, I think we can get about half of the bank debt forgiven.”
Zephyros explained that the bank would probably decide it was better to forgive half than have the corporation go bankrupt and recover only the scrap value.
“Then subtract 24 billion... that leaves 39.2 billion. Subtract the asset value, and it’s 27.2 billion.”
Of course, the assets couldn’t be sold, so we had to subtract their value.
Then it’d be a bun with no filling. Why buy it?
Still, it was relatively cheap for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company.
But it was still an enormous sum.
An amount I couldn’t do anything about with my entire net worth of barely two billion won.
“But if we put together a good repayment plan, the bank will extend the repayment period. What we need right away is the employees’ salaries, dungeon rent, and taxes.”
“That’s 15.2 billion won.”
“You have 15.2 billion?”
“No.”
“Then it’s a nonstarter.”
Rationally, he was right...
Still, it felt like a shame to let this opportunity slip away.
“Could we at least say we’re interested in acquiring it and inspect it?”
“Hmm. If you’re that serious... all right.”
He made another call, finished talking, and shrugged.
“They’ll allow a limited inspection of two sites: the Cheonan factory and the dungeon.”
“Those two are enough.”
All I needed was to check the factory’s actual production facilities and see if we could resolve the dungeon, which was a liability.
Fortunately, it was a Stage 7 Gate, so even at Level 7, I could enter.
“Then shall we go now?”
“I can go alone.”
“Look at this guy. You had nothing to your name just a few days ago, and now you’ve gotten so uppity. You’re my companion. I’m the one who got the authorization. You think inspecting a company, even one on its last legs, is that easy?”
“Th-That’s not it... I just thought I’d be a bother when you’re so busy...”
“I know. I’m joking.”
Zephyros flashed his characteristic mischievous grin, one that didn’t match his age at all.
Phew, that gave me a cold sweat for no reason.
I really didn’t want to get on this guy’s bad side.
He was like a benefactor to me... no, he was my benefactor.
“I have someone I can bring along to the Cheonan factory.”
“All right. We’ll take my car.”
“...I feel so bad about this.”
Cheonan and Daecheong Lake were quite a ways from Gangnam.
It would probably take half a day just to go there and back.
“It’s fine. An old fossil like me, just sitting around the office and making everyone walk on eggshells, ought to clear out his seat anyway.”
“Thank you.”
Somehow, I just kept accumulating things to be grateful to this man for.
How could I ever repay him?
**
After picking up Ms. Gyuseon, we arrived at the Cheonan factory and finished our inspection.
Her reaction was better than expected.
“The equipment’s a little old, but it’s still usable! There are even some newer machines. It’s better than I expected.”
“Okay. Good work. We’re going to inspect the dungeon now, so I think you should head back, Ms. Gyuseon. Is it all right if you take a taxi back?”
“Yes, of course.”
Okay, the first half passed.
After sending her off, I headed to the Gate at Daecheong Lake with Zephyros.
Near the Gate entrance, a steel fence was lined with a bunch of signs saying Saeil Pharma property, private property, no entry into the Gate without authorization, and so on.
There was also a guard who looked unmotivated, but he must have already been notified, because he opened the gate without a fuss.
“Phew, an underwater dungeon.”
“The entrance isn’t underwater, so don’t worry. You don’t have any swimming-type skills, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“I don’t know what made you think you could check out a dungeon without a swimming skill, but... let’s go in.”
I took a deep breath and entered the Gate.
[You have entered Stage 7 Gate, ‘Lake of the Sawblade Ichthyosaurs.’]
Upon entering the Gate, I found myself standing on the shore of a lake whose scenery was a little different from Daecheong Lake.
“So, what are you going to do now?”
“I’ll figure something out.”
I answered casually and first took the staff out of my inventory.
[The proficiency of Undead Rise (Unique) has increased, and your dormant undead have reactivated.]
At least underwater, I now had a friend even more dependable than No. 1.
As an aquatic bacterium, it secreted a substance with even stronger adhesive properties in water...
I released my entire No. 2 bacterial legion into the water.
At the same time, I gave them a command.
‘Let’s secrete adhesive in the form of a net and sweep up every last fish in here.’
Following my command, No. 2 formed a dense net of adhesive underwater.
Then, the net moved this way and that according to my will.
The net itself had such powerful adhesive properties that once something stuck to it, even a monster wouldn’t easily be able to break free.
The monsters probably hadn’t expected someone to make a net in a dungeon, either.
At first, when they got caught in the adhesive net, the Sawblade Ichthyosaurs didn’t seem to care.
But as other ichthyosaurs got caught in the net, and then more and more...
“......!”
The ichthyosaurs thrashed around, trying to escape the net.
Each struggled in the direction it wanted to go, and the force of one ichthyosaur canceled out the force of another.
I didn’t lift a finger, but the ichthyosaurs were exhausting themselves and growing weaker on their own.
Was this what they meant by using one enemy to defeat another?
In no time, dozens of ichthyosaurs were caught in the net, and it began to sink slowly under their combined weight.
It was after a few dozen minutes had passed like that.
[Your level has increased!]
[Your level has increased!]
[Your level has increased!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 10.]
[You have received a ‘Random C-Rank Class-Exclusive Skill.’]
I instantly gained three levels, and my vision filled with system messages.
That wasn’t all.
[All monsters in Stage 7 Gate, ‘Lake of the Sawblade Ichthyosaurs,’ have been subjugated!]
[You have cleared the Gate!]
This didn’t seem to be the fastest clear in history.
The ichthyosaurs had needed time to tire themselves out and die.
And I only got the clear notification; I wasn’t expelled from the Gate.
That was because this was a regular Gate, not an instance dungeon.
Those monsters would probably respawn after some time.
“Heh, hahahaha...”
Zephyros must have received the clear message, too.
He must have seen it, because he let out a hollow laugh.
“I don’t know what you did... but you cleared it...”
“Yes, I did.”
“But there’s a problem.”
“A problem?”
“You killed them, but what are we going to do about the retrieval? We didn’t come here just to clear it. We came for the byproducts.”
“Oh, right.”
I touched the lakeshore and recalled No. 2.
At the same time, the adhesive lost its properties and dispersed into the water.
With the adhesive net that had been squeezing them gone, the corpses of the Sawblade Ichthyosaurs lying on the lakebed began floating to the surface.
Finally, as the entire surface of the lake filled with dozens of Sawblade Ichthyosaurs floating belly-up, Zephyros could only stare in disgust.