Chapter 87
When Kim Segyun entered the ‘Plague City’ Gate, most people had no doubt he would clear it.
The only question was how quickly he’d do it.
─Wasn’t Germ Man gonna clear it with another click?
└Ah, the supposedly impossible-to-clear Gate? Was that what they called a nobody back in the days before I was born...?
└LOL, if he clears it with another click this time, I’ll admit it’s a laugh riot.
But one day passed, then two...
When he still hadn’t been ejected from the Gate after a whole week, people grew anxious.
─Come back, Germ-ham...
└Did something really happen to Germ-ham?
└If he were dead, Gate entry would’ve reopened. He isn’t dead.
Since Kim Segyun already occupied the Gate, no one else could enter, which reassured people to some extent.
─Has Germ Man ever taken this long to clear a Gate?
└Seems like it might be a record.
└Just how hard is it?
Of course, those who knew a thing or two about the Hunter industry tried to reassure them.
─Maybe it’s because it’s an epic-type Gate?
└What’s an epic-type Gate?
└A shitty Gate where you have to complete multiple missions to clear it.
└Sounds like shit just hearing about it.
└That’s why most of them are classified as impossible to clear. You might manage one or two missions, but clearing them all is hard.
─Why the Plague City might be the first Gate Kim Segyun ever gives up on.txt
└Germ-ham never gives up!
└I believe in Germ, Germ believes!
And so, the eyes of the world focused on the entrance to a Gate in central London.
Whether they were cheering Germ on or trashing him...
Everyone was on tenterhooks.
The stock market was no different.
London DDF’s share price swung wildly as the time it took Germ to clear the Gate dragged on.
With speculators piling in, it became a complete mess.
─Germ-ham, hang in there! I went long on DDF!
└No idiot dwarf took a short position while Germ-ham was clearing it, right?
─Maybe even Germ Man’s having a hard time this time?
└You wouldn’t happen to have... taken a short position?
└No, a long one.
└(Pass)
Still, most individual investors trusted Kim Segyun and took long positions. Only a few looking for a gamble took short positions.
And then, just over a week later...
“... Huh?! Get up! Get up!”
The BBC cameraman, who’d pitched a tent and been waiting by the Gate, had been dozing off. He jolted awake, eyes wide.
The camera captured Kim Segyun appearing before them in a brilliant golden glow.
“Call the reporter! Reporter! Kim Segyun’s out!”
The other news outlets sprang into action at the same time.
The people who’d spent all seven days glued to YTube’s livestream, eagerly waiting for Kim Segyun to emerge, went wild, too.
The quick ones rushed to the forums to post in a hurry.
─Kim Segyun’s cleared it for sure! Watch the livestream!
└Yeah, right. I’m not falling for that.
└Go watch the livestream, idiot.
└Holy shit, it’s real?
There’d been so many fake-outs over the past seven days that plenty of people didn’t believe it at first. But as more and more people confirmed it was real, everyone’s attention turned to the livestream.
Meanwhile...
A message appeared before every Awakened person in Europe.
But...
It was a little different from the messages they usually saw.
[Kim Segyun has perfectly cleared the Level 37 Gate, ‘Plague City’!]
[The Gate has disappeared permanently.]
[Greater London, United Kingdom, has been pacified!]
[Monsters appearing in all Gates in Greater London have been weakened!]
The Awakened gathered there...
Witnessed a Gate disappearing for the first time in their lives.
The wavering entrance portal distorted, then shrank into its center...
And vanished completely.
“Holy... shit....”
“The Gate...”
“Gates can... disappear?”
The reporters’ stunned mutters were broadcast live through their microphones.
Of course, some of the more astute people...
had the sense to turn this situation to their advantage.
─Wasn’t the whole area around that Gate owned by Frost Dungeon Development?
└What? Seriously?
└The British government forced Frost to buy it.
└What the hell? Why?
─That’s a famous story, and you don’t know it? A Gate appeared on some of the most valuable land in London. Since a plague outbreak could spill out of it at any time, like this one, who’d want to live there? The British government had to control the area, so it needed to buy the land, but the owners refused to sell. Who’d sell valuable land for peanuts?
└Frost bought it?
└Yeah, officially they said it was for smooth operations or whatever, but honestly, that’s bullshit. Who’d pay that much for the land? The British government did pay them to guard it, but the accepted story is that they were forced to buy it.
─The guy above must’ve invested in British stocks before. That’s right, the people who bought into Frost Development back then got burned badly. They paid a fortune for a completely worthless piece of land.
└Ah, that brings back trauma. I cut my losses at 50% back then because the rescue team never came.
└Frost was riding high as Britain’s top Hunter back then, so lots of people must’ve been left holding the bag.
─Hey, wait... If the Gate disappeared...
└LOL, you’re only thinking of that now? Get in quick, it’s already up 10%.
And so, everyone started climbing aboard the train headed for a massive boom.
**
When I came out after clearing the Gate, a whole bunch of people in hazmat suits were waiting for me.
Ugh, what a pain.
“We need to decontaminate...”
“It’s fine. I’ll take responsibility.”
“B-But...”
“Who cured that plague?”
“... You did.”
“Then am I spreading the plague or not?”
“We can’t know that for sure...”
“I know.”
I could even see how many Demodex mites were in your pores.
At my firm words, the NHS official in charge of decontamination reluctantly ordered everyone to stand down.
“Hunter Frost will be here soon.”
Someone who seemed to work for Frost’s company had been waiting there. They bowed their head and spoke to me.
Frost arrived soon after, beaming as he embraced me.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
“It was nothing.”
“Would you like to go to the hospital? Or...”
“Anywhere but the hospital!”
I didn’t even have a scratch on me. What would I need a hospital for?
At my urgent exclamation, Frost chuckled and nodded.
“Let’s go to my house. I’ll have my wife prepare something delicious.”
“... It’s not British home cooking, is it?”
“Oh dear, what should I do? My wife is French.”
“... Let’s go. Right away.”
French cuisine was always a safe bet.
Besides, I was too tired to make the trip back to Korea right away.
How many days had I spent inside that Gate, anyway?
“How long has it been since I went in?”
“About eight days. To be precise, seven and a half.”
“That’s a long time.”
That had to be a new record, right?
“Was it that difficult a Gate? Ah, of course, I have a rough idea of what kind it was...”
Oh, right. He’d gone into that Gate himself, hadn’t he?
“What was your mission when you went in, Mr. Frost?”
“I had to treat people. So I figured it was a gimmick Gate for healers and gave up.”
“Well, that’s not too far off.”
Something like treating people and (omitted) making the castle peaceful?
There was no need to tell him about the intense... no, downright dirty... battle with the Crusaders.
“It took a while to clear, so I think I need to rest for a bit. Would you mind putting me up?”
“Of course! You’re more than welcome!”
“Then I’ll stay for a day or two. You have somewhere for me to sleep, right? If not, I can just get a hotel...”
“If Hunter Germ is coming, I’d have to give up my own bedroom. Though I don’t think we’ll need to go that far. The guest rooms are plenty spacious. Haha.”
I’d have run for it if he’d really offered me his bedroom, so it was funny how quickly he added that.
Well then...
Let’s see what the home of Britain’s top Hunter is like.
**
The home of Britain’s top Hunter was, naturally, incredible.
It was an elegant old mansion unlike anything we had in Korea, but the inside had been renovated and was impeccably modern.
A mansion where the present and the past coexisted.
And with Mrs. Frost’s French cooking on top of that...
Those two days were nothing short of paradise.
Now that I’d had a good rest, it was time to head back.
I was just starting to get ready to go home when...
“Do you think what you’re saying makes any sense?!”
Frost’s furious shout rang through the whole house.
“What’s going on?”
I tilted my head and headed toward the parlor, where the sound had come from. Several people in suits were there.
At a glance...
“Government officials?”
Yeah, they looked like British government officials.
I leaned on the second-floor railing and discreetly listened to them.
“Our company clearly bought that land at the time! And at a tremendous loss! Now you’re telling us to return it to the government? At the original purchase price? Are you joking?”
“It was sold to you at a price far below the value of neighboring land at the time. And it’s not the original purchase price. We’ll account for inflation...”
“B-Below market value?”
Frost looked like he was about to clutch his neck.
That usually cool-headed man was getting this worked up?
“You forced us to buy land that nobody would’ve taken even if it were free because of the Gate, and now you’re saying what?”
“You bought it for management purposes, didn’t you? In exchange, the government has been paying the management costs.”
“We bought it because the government told us to!”
“... There’s no record of that.”
“Of course there isn’t! You said we should call it a voluntary purchase so it wouldn’t hurt public opinion!”
“In any case, we’ll take it that you’re unwilling to reach an agreement and proceed with legal action immediately.”
“Damn it!”
Bang! He struck the table, and white frost crackled across it, freezing the whole thing solid.
The government officials stood up without even batting an eye.
“I hope you make the wise decision.”
After the officials left, Frost was alone, clutching his head.
When I approached and made some noise...
“Who’s there... Ah, Hunter Germ.”
“... Are you all right?”
“Yes, well... I suppose. It’s just that I’m starting to wonder if I want to keep living in this country.”
“What happened?”
“... Sigh. Well...”
After hearing Frost’s explanation...
The British government were a bunch of crooks, weren’t they?
They’d forced him to buy the land, then slipped a poison-pill clause into the contract.
“So we didn’t actually buy the land, but leased it in perpetuity, and the right to use it can be reclaimed once the duty to manage it ends...”
“Even though it was useless land, they said the government couldn’t just sell its assets to a private company, so I tried to make things easier for them. I was a fool. Damn it.”
A contract was a contract, but this was too much.
“Why did you agree to those terms?”
“My company and I had received a lot of support from the government at the time. If they’d pressured us by threatening to take the land back, we wouldn’t have had much choice. So, in effect, they used us as a piggy bank to draw on funds outside the budget. Later, we worked hard to improve our finances, and I thought we’d escaped the government’s influence... Sigh...”
That made sense.
Unless they were extraordinarily lucky, it was impossible for an individual to cover the cost of raising a star Hunter on their own.
They needed support from the government or an organization.
Unless they were a billionaire like Ahmad, at the very least.
“To be honest, I don’t need that land. Not me. But what about the investors who saw it and invested in our company? What happens to them?”
“... They’ll get wiped out.”
Without even a chance to get out.
“Yes, just like last time. I still can’t forget hearing about someone who invested in my company and then took their own life. I can’t let that happen again...”
After letting out a deep sigh...
“The City and a good chunk of Wall Street have taken short positions in our company.”
Taking positions that only make money if the stock goes down... while it’s soaring sky-high like this means...
“The information leaked. Or maybe they orchestrated this whole situation themselves.”
They weren’t just after the land. There was a faction aiming for something even bigger than that.
Ah, financial capital...
I’d been through something similar myself, so it didn’t feel like someone else’s problem.
Besides, he was a benefactor who’d even given me a precious ring.
I couldn’t just stand by and watch him struggle.
**
After clearing the Gate, I received countless interview requests from British media outlets.
From major outlets like the BBC to smaller news organizations.
I’d been tired, so I’d turned down every interview and holed up at Frost’s house.
But this wasn’t the time for that.
“Hello, Hunter Kim Segyun! I’m Maria from the BBC!”
“Hello.”
So I agreed to an interview with the outlet that would have the greatest reach.
I had something to say.
“I heard you agreed to do a live interview. So today’s interview is being broadcast live! Is there a particular reason you wanted to do it live?”
“... Because I have something to say.”
“Something to say?”
“I couldn’t stand by and watch the British government’s treatment of my friend, Frost.”
“By Frost, do you mean Mr. Edward Frost?”
“That’s right.”
The reporter glanced at the cameraman, seeming momentarily taken aback.
When the cameraman signaled to continue, the reporter forced a smile and asked,
“So you’re friends with Mr. Frost!”
“We’ve become friends recently.”
“I see. So what you wanted to say was...”
“The British government...”
When I mentioned that the government was trying to reclaim the land near the Gate that had disappeared, the reporter’s eyes widened in surprise.
“That happened? But why bring it up so suddenly...”
“I think it’s a deeply unreasonable contract that makes no sense. It made me think I couldn’t do any work in a country with a government like that.”
Following my first bombshell...
I dropped another, big enough to make the first one look like a joke.
“Wait, th-that means...”
“If the British government continues its outrageous treatment of Frost Development, I have no intention of doing any work on British soil. In fact, I won’t visit Britain at all.”
“... W-Wait! Hunter Kim Segyun! There could still be people carrying the plague...”
“There are. There definitely are.”
I’d called them together with my thoughts, but not everyone had been freed from Pride’s control.
If I didn’t keep treating those people, the plague would probably break out somewhere again.
“There are still many uncleared Gates in Britain...”
“There are, probably around twelve?”
“... But...”
“That’s right. I’m not coming.”
So they’re trying to make money by shorting Frost Development?
Let’s see...
Let’s see if those short positions can make up for the plunge in the value of all their dungeon-related assets in the UK.