Chapter 19: 19

Chapter 19 – Raison D’être (3)

I did a quick calculation in my head.

1 dollar was a little bit over a thousand won. That meant 80 thousand dollars was about 100 million won. He said it was a little bit over 8 million, so it was approximately a little over 10 billion won.

After calculating up to that point, I was so stunned my mouth dropped open. 

10 billion won?

That sword?

– A-Are you insane?

– You’re the one that’s insane. Who the hell are you calling insane?

– N-No! I mean, you’re telling me that sword was worth 10 billion won? What are you talking about?!

I raised my voice in my shock.

Choi Soo-hyun had shown me a list of the items inside of his personal vault, and he’d promised me I could take whatever weapon I wanted, so I just picked out a fine-looking sword. There’s no way I would’ve taken it if I’d known how much it cost. Because he’d given it to me with no complaints, I’d thought it was a weapon that he’d be fine giving away with no pressure.

Wh-Who the hell just gives away a 10 billion won weapon like that? What kind of showing off was this? If he’d bragged about it to my face even a little bit, I would’ve never handed it off to Yoo Ji-han without a second thought.

‘Wow, and I can’t ask him to give it back at this point either.’

But it wasn’t like I had nothing to say about this either.

The sword Choi Soo-hyun had given me wasn’t a bad sword, but my verdict was that it wasn’t one that was worth 10 billion won.

I’d made two mistakes here. Even if I didn’t know how much the item cost, I had been way too far off in estimating its price range, and I’d also forgotten that I was someone who didn’t have a good eye for judging these types of things. Over the phone, I could hear Choi Soo-hyun let out a deep sigh.

– So, how did you lose it?

– Something happened that I can’t tell you about. Anyways, there’s no way I can get it back.

Besides the fact that I had no idea how to reobtain an item that I’d already gifted, just the thought of asking for it back was absurd.

– Just shut up and get out of here for a minute. You damn kid.

I dutifully attempted to pacify Choi Soo-hyun over the phone because he sounded like he was seriously angry. Once he got tired of it, he cut me off and said bluntly:

– We’ll talk about the sword later. If you don’t shape up now, I swear to god I won’t let it go.

With those words, Choi Soo-hyun stopped talking about the 8.5 million dollar sword that I’d told him I’d lost. That didn’t mean that he’d forgotten about it or that we were just cool now.

‘He must be testing my worth.’

It was that kind of a test. 

It also meant that what Choi Soo-hyun had said that day was still a work in progress.

If that wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t be acting like this after telling me he’d join my camp.

‘Because I don’t think he’s going to stab me in the back.’

As long as I thought about it as a matter of building up trust, I didn’t feel too bad about it.

– So, how did the guild turn out?

– They said they’d take you. They’ll contact you. Anything is fine, just don’t cause trouble.

– I’m not some kind of delinquent, there won’t be any trouble. Well, I won’t be the one causing the trouble.

– Sigh, whatever. Anyways, they said they’d give you a call sometime next week. I told them to look after you as best as they could.

– Thank you.

– Alright, I’m hanging up. Talk to you later.

After he hung up, I lifted up my chopsticks to gently stir my ramen.

“…It’s overcooked.”

I should’ve answered the call after eating.

Gangnam Teheran-ro.

The Gangnam of my memories was a bustling street filled with civil service academies, plastic surgery clinics, corporate headquarters, offices, and bars in the back.

The Gangnam that I’d arrived in was similar to that, but also somehow different.

Instead of cram schools and hospitals, pawn shops and law offices of varying sizes lined the streets. The buildings that used to be owned by large corporations were now made up of the HQ’s of large guilds.

I’d searched up the Aria Guild’s headquarters on my phone, and now I stood looking up at a tall building right in the middle of Gangnam.

‘This building… I remember it as some corporate building.’

I couldn’t believe that the headquarters for a corporation famous for its bookstores was a Hunter guild’s headquarters in this world.

Every time I saw something like this, the feeling that this was an entirely different world after all would wash over me.

After I walked into the lobby, I gave my name to the employee inside.

“Could I see your identification card please?”

“Ah, yes.”

After handing over my issued Hunter ID, I was told to head to the 10th floor. The interior of the building was pretty plain. On the surface, I could believe that this was just a regular business. The only difference really was that while walking around inside the building, you’d run into Hunters wearing distinctive outfits or holding weapons.

The larger the size of the guild, the more layperson employees in charge of office work there tended to be. The competition rate for office jobs in large guilds wasn’t that different from that of large corporations.

‘It’s pretty amazing.’

Pushing past the people in the crowded elevator, I managed to get off on the 10th floor.

“You’re the one who came here to get a consultation on joining the guild, correct? Please wait in the room in the back, the person in charge will come meet you shortly.”

“Thank you.”

After being guided by the person at the desk, I went into the small conference room in the back of the hallway. There were some refreshments and drinks laid out on top of a white table. I unwrapped a piece of chocolate and popped it into my mouth right as the door opened.

A plain-looking man in a suit walked inside holding some files.

“Kang Han-kyul?”

“Yes.”

“I’m the Aria guild’s contract administration officer, Kim Ji-hoon.”

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Kim Ji-hoon pulled up a chair and sat down in front of me. He held out a Sagwa tablet with a contract file loaded onto it and started to explain the process of entering into a guild.

The Aria guild was one that didn’t have a specific god that all the members worshiped. Unlike other guilds, entry was dependent on skill, and because of that, the guild was able to grow rapidly.

That wasn’t to say that there weren’t any drawbacks to this. 

‘One thing is that this is a coalition guild made up from a collaboration of three different guilds. Another thing is that there’s a lack of solidarity.’

The flip side of accepting Hunters who worship a variety of different gods means that there’s a high chance for conflicts in opinion. It’s likely that this was the reason that, despite the fact that Aria guild was the No. 4 guild in South Korea, it didn’t have that much public influence.

Skimming through the contract, I didn’t really see anything that would cause any huge problems.

“You just need to sign right there next to the check marks.”

I quietly lifted up the pen and diligently went to work signing my name in the rectangle-shaped spaces. Before the signing in the final box, I suddenly stopped moving while holding on to the pen.

“There’s just something that I’m curious about.”

I pushed back the tablet that contained the contract and started to spin the pen around with my fingers.

Kim Ji-hoon gave me a strange look. After a beat, he finally responded.

“Is there something wrong?”

“It’s nothing that important. But I happened to lose my weapon for personal reasons, and I was wondering if your guild had any kind of support in terms of weapons or items?”

“For D-rank Hunters, we do provide basic support. Of course, as stated in the contract, all items and other materials received from the guild will be provided at a cost, which will be incurred as an additional fee after completing a dungeon.”

As expected of a contract administrator, he spoke very smoothly. Looking back, getting access to Choi Soo-hyun’s safe had definitely been a boon. I’d picked out a random sword, and it ended up being worth 8.5 million dollars.

‘Tch, couldn’t he let me borrow just one more sword?’

I’d belatedly asked if there was any way I could borrow another one, only to get cursed out to hell and back. Unfortunately, after all that, I couldn’t make any other requests.

I don’t know how many times I’ve kicked myself for giving Yoo Ji-han that sword ever since I found out it was worth over 10 billion won. It was basically like I’d accidentally invested 10 billion won into a stock I wasn’t wholly confident in.

‘That bastard, he better not have died inside that tower, I swear to god.’

But right now, I had my own fish to fry.

“Besides the basic support, what else is there?”

“First of all, you are a D-rank Hunter, correct? Sometimes, in the case of high-ranking Hunters, the guild does provide support, but besides support due to your ranking, there’s nothing outside of individually purchasing your own items. If you would like, I could help you get in contact with a guild dealer.”

After hearing Kim Ji-hoon’s explanation, I again carefully studied the terms and conditions written in tiny font in the contract. There were two points that caught my eye.

The down payment was 10 million won.

TL/N: About 8,000 USD.

It seemed like the guild and the Hunters split earnings in a 5:5 ratio. At least it seemed like that from my rough estimate.

I opened a canned coffee that was on top of the table and took a sip.

Kim Ji-hoon had clearly thought that I would sign the contract quickly, but he was now disconcerted by the way I was dragging this on. What did he know, anyways?

‘The conditions for joining the Aria guild aren’t very strict.’

Without needing to get Choi Soo-hyun’s introduction, if I’d made up my mind to, I could’ve probably gotten into this guild without much trouble. So the fact that he’d gone through that cumbersome process of introducing me just meant that he wanted to put me in a place where he could keep an eye on me.

I didn’t really have any intentions of criticizing Choi Soo-hyun. As I said before, between us, we needed a lot of time to verify each other. Even if it was through somewhat disreputable methods.

Anyways, I was someone who’d come in through a representative’s introduction. If I couldn’t get a weapon from Choi Soo-hyun, I needed to get a weapon from here.

“About how much does a decent weapon usually cost?”

“When you say ‘a decent weapon’, what expectations do you have? In any case, Hunter weapons usually vary in price, and there are so many different varieties.”

“Ah, that does seem to be the case. Well then, how far does this down payment go? And isn’t a 5:5 split just too much?”

“It’s just that our base rates are 10 million won and a 5:5 split. And you are a D-rank Hunter, after all.”

“Have you not heard?”

“Heard what?”

“That I’m besties with the representative here.”

“The representative… Which one are you talking about?”

Ah, right, there were three different representatives here.

I pretended to cough and started to speak carefully after I saw Kim Ji-hoon’s wary expression.

“Park Si-woo.”

“Are you an acquaintance of Representative Park? I didn’t receive any message of that nature…”

Kim Ji-hoon took out a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at his sweaty forehead. Since he seemed genuinely surprised, it looked like he didn’t receive any special notification from Park Si-woo.

Since it just looked like an ordinary Hunter had shown up to join the guild, he was probably only told to get me to sign the contract.

Now that things had turned out this way, I figured I might as well try to make an impression. I put the empty coffee can back down on the table and gave a bright smile.

“Is that truly the case?”

“Y-Yes?”

This bastard.

Don’t ask me, go find out on your own. As I kept on smiling with my mouth closed, Kim Ji-hoon finally jumped to his feet.

“Excuse me a second, I’ll go and make a phone call. I’ll be right back.”

Of course, of course. That’s how it should be.

As soon as Kim Ji-hoon left, I tore off the wrappers on the remaining snacks and popped them in my mouth one by one. Around when I finished eating all the snacks that had been set out for me, Kim Ji-hoon came back after ending his phone call.

“I’m sorry, sir. We’ll draw up a new contract for you. I didn’t know you were an acquaintance of Representative Park… He informed me that you should be given the best possible treatment.”

“Well, let’s be reasonable.”

“Reasonable?”

“Let’s go with a down payment of 1 billion won and a 7:3 split. That should be pretty conscientious.”

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