By all logic, this corporation shouldn't have been generating any profit, and yet, sohow, excessive gains had been pouring in since the very first week of operation.
According to the newly hired human administrator, in just these few days, we've already earned enough to cover the electricity bill for the comrcial building.
Expanding a guild on Earth only makes things more troubleso. So, the plan was to just hire a few low-rank mbers and run it quietly, like a small countryside supermarket. That had originally been a certain alien's main goal. However, as ti went on, reality began to drift further and further from that plan.
Seventy-two clears in just a week... Even looking at it again, I still can't believe it. What the hell did those nine lousy hunters do in that short ti?
Even shouting it out loud didn't make the situation any easier to understand. His tiny guild was still growing at an unbelievable rate even at this very mont. And so, the alien found himself retracting the flow of events from the past week.
...
How on earth had the guild business ended up doing so well? In truth, this kind of failed prediction was sothing the alien had been experiencing consistently ever since reincarnating on Earth. Still, in order to understand the problem that had once again surfaced—even just a little—he began to trace back through the past.
First, Choi Jin had brought in a few hunters who'd been resting in a particular region. After so brief introductions among them, the alien guild master—the guild's representative—took out an item.
"What is it? Is it an artifact?"
"Be careful. It's very sharp at the end."
Kim Giryeo had handed each of those who'd gathered at his guild a long, staff-like tal rod. It was a handmade tool of his own design—a mage's custom creation—one that, once its color changed all the way to the handle, could be easily pulled out and retrieved. Co to think of it, even if one of them were to be lost, it wouldn't cause any major trouble. After all, it wasn't crafted from any particularly special materials. Even if it sohow ended up in human hands, its purpose wouldn't be easily discovered anyway.
"If you happen to stick it in the ground for about two hours and the color still hasn't changed at all, just pull it out and take it with you then."
After much deliberation, Kim Giryeo finally made up his mind to properly hire human personnel.
"For reference, this is just an additional note, but in the case of the EX-rank gate like White Maze..."
"The one with the lion statue?"
"You know how those gates have walls and floors that are extrely hard to destroy? So please try to choose gates where you can actually use this tool. I'll share an example list with you on your phones."
"Well, a muddy environnt dungeon would probably be fine."
"That's all I have to say for today."
As this smooth exchange of words showed, at least during the ti they were passing the steel rods back and forth, there hadn't been any problems between them.
"They actually told us to be sure to stick this in the ground before hunting..."
"This sohow feels like a rule I've seen sowhere before."
In fact, the hunters gathered at Choi Jin's call even found the rod sowhat familiar.
"Maybe it's because he often interact with the Guild Master of the Korea Magic Tower Guild. Sohow, the way things are handled here feels pretty similar to theirs."
It was quite common for other guilds as well to hand asurent devices to their mbers.
"Ah~ right. I think I saw sothing like this in a docuntary about major guilds."
Information warfare has always been an essential elent in large-scale battles. The Korea Magic Tower Guild had valued information gathering since its founding, focusing on it as a key elent in hunting down monsters. In recent years, those efforts had given them a decisive edge across the industry. Even with major corporations pouring money into the market, the fact that a single S-rank hunter's guild still dominated the top was proof enough of their supremacy.
"Co to think of it, Hunter Seo Esther's mother was from sowhere in Southeast Asia, right? Anyway, I heard she was a businesswoman of so sort."
"Doesn't her uncle also run sothing big in real estate?"
"Their family's like that, so it makes sense they'd have so business know-how. But it's kind of surprising that Hunter Kim Giryeo, who's basically starting from zero, suddenly opened a guild."
"They'll probably do just fine anyway. I an, it's him, after all."
Step, step, step.
For reference, this was around the ti when the Awakened, have received a brief orientation from their Guild Master, were leaving the building. Kim Giryeo quietly listened in on the chatter of those moving about and made his own silent assessnt.
"The more I hear about Esther's family, the more astonishing it gets."
At first, it was just a passing impression about an acquaintance—but soon, his thoughts grew deeper. At that mont, Kim Giryeo pondered quietly.
The way she viewed the mysteries born from Dungeon Shock in such a positive light... And her overall personality as well... Sohow, that woman, Seo Esther, had an unusually magocratic at about her—rare even among the so-called primitives.
[ssage Inbox]
[Sender: Seo Esther]
[Content:]
[Hello! Kim Giryeo-ssi!
First of all, congratulations!
I sohow heard the news from soone else.
Most importantly, thanks to you going through the confirmation process once, I was able to hear the situation from Jeong Haseong.
You were planning to step back from the industry due to so personal circumstances, but luckily, those got resolved sooner than expected—so you'll be returning soon, right?]
Tak.
A certain man checked his phone for a few seconds. However, he didn't reply to the ssage that followed.
===========
[I'll say it here. I'm practically a secret fan of yours, Kim Giryeo-ssi.
If you've judged that there's truly no problem, honestly, I have no intention of stopping the hunter's return.
On the contrary, I'd welco it!
What fan in this world would refuse the coback of so they admire?
But there's just one thing...
Before the license is fully restored, I'd like to hear a single explanation...
Why did you post a hunter recruitnt notice under the na of a one-person guild that supposedly had no intention of operating properly...?
And why did you even go as far as securing an office in the capital, as if you were set on toppling the Korea Magic Tower's dominance...?
Overall, it's really intriguing!
When you have a mont later, could you give a light reply?]
14:23
[Please reply even if you don't have ti.]
===========
In any case, this was rely a personal matter for the guild master. The distribution of the long tal rods had already been completed safely. Moreover, the humans didn't show much resistance to the soil asurent activities.
'Five F-rank, two E-rank, one D-rank.'
Up until this point, the alien had expected his plan to proceed smoothly.
.
.
.
But all the problems began right here.
'I just ca here after overhearing sothing about a person nad Seonwoo Yeon...'
Jet-black short-cut hairstyle. Along with that, a fireproof coat obtained from killing reptilian-type monsters, and so on. That distinctive-looking person had been recruited into Kim Giryeo's guild.
'Surprisingly, the guild is even smaller than I imagined. Well, no wonder that official went out of their way to relay the situation to soone like .'
The easygoing A-rank hunter ca to a stop.
'Judging by how he's only picking up low-rank hunters, it seems his goal is data collection. Well, in that case, this isn't really our concern as outsiders.'
Choi Jin. She looked at the guild she had newly joined in Seoul and thought to herself.
'Running a guild as a latecor won't be easy. I'll do what I can to help a little.'
The truth quickly becos clear from the sentences above. In fact, Choi Jin never had any intention of working "diligently" from the start. She had just been through severe stress, and her physical and ntal health were not in good shape.
'It's killing to be out and moving after such a long ti.'
But Kim Giryeo was soone who had gone all out to help a sister through a disaster. Choi Jin acted purely out of human decency. She ca to work with the single mindset of repaying that favor, and after finishing her tasks, she would always glance at the hunter-exclusive wristwatch she habitually wore.
'As long as I don't overdo it... I just need to work at a reasonable pace.'
But strangely enough, there was just... too much ti.
[Current Ti: 6:00 PM]
Hunters, by nature, often worked overti and overexerted themselves. But the company run by Kim Giryeo went so far as to explicitly state in the contract—sothing the guild master himself obsessively emphasized—that employees should avoid working beyond reasonable hours.
6:00 PM. For an ordinary office worker, this wouldn't be an unusual ti to leave work. But upon seeing this hour, only one thought ca to Choi Jin's mind.
'Oh... that's right. I'm not being forced to work. I can actually go ho and have dinner now...?'
This is the truth about Choi Jin. Even among A-rank hunters, she was nearly at the very top. In other words, Choi Jin held the impressive dostic ranking of third, right behind monsters like Jeong Haseong and Seo Esther. Ever since she first gained recognition as an early beneficiary of the Awakening phenonon, she had worked tirelessly. Having beco excessively accustod to overwork in many ways, ordinary tasks no longer even made her twitch.
'This work is way too easy. At this rate, maybe I'll schedule things a bit more tightly for tomorrow's shift.'
On top of that, the undisputed number-one ranked hunter was openly taking a break at the mont. Jeong Haseong had gone on leave, partly to check on his ho's safety after his mother woke up, and partly to enjoy reuniting with his parents. As a result, the dungeon industry in South Korea was left with an abundance of unclaid hunting grounds. And Choi Jin began to tackle them all, devouring every opportunity that ca her way.
'What a sha. If this tal rod had changed color just a bit faster, I could have cleared one more dungeon...'
This happened because most Gates could be easily secured, unless the area was so popular it was put up for auction, like the Dinsional Treasure Vault.
Could it be that the Dragon's Heart also had a stamina-boosting effect? Choi Jin displayed feats that were hard to believe were done solo, all while spewing intense flas. Her trait as a workaholic, honed through years of endurance since school, played a part. And because of the shared fire attribute, so of her actions even resembled a budget-version Jeong Haseong. It was a testant that her own skills were just as formidable.
'Back in school, I used to sit in the study hall until late every night just to get good grades, and after awakening, I've been grinding daily enough to rank third in the industry—there's no way I should be feeling this tired from sothing this small...'
Then let's assu that a certain A-rank Hunter moved around vigorously, surprised by the 'balance between work and life' that they were experiencing for the first ti.
[Guild Report] Choi Jin's dungeon clears within 7 days (C-8 rank hunting grounds): 21 tis.
Why were other guild mbers so active that they made headlines?
One day, eight low-rank hunters, brought in by Choi Jin, gathered at Kim Giryeo's guild.
In fact, if divided into teams, there were barely enough people for just two groups—an extrely small number. And looking at the abilities of the mbers, there were F-ranks here, F-ranks there—talent that any proper guild wouldn't even glance at. But still, what kind of conversation could possibly co out when such people put their heads together?
"Hey, hey, anyway, we really have to be grateful to Choi Jin for life."
"Even after everything that happened... co back to the industry and still looking out for us."
"You guys are at least young! I almost had to go to a construction site, get yelled at by non-awakened workers, and compete for a job!"
"When the top-ranked [faith] guild completely collapsed, the neighboring guys must've been thrilled. Honestly, it seems like all the gates around Chuncheon have now gone entirely to rival companies."
The bottom of the food chain hasn't been a good situation, then or now. In clean areas with few gates, a specific guild monopolized the work. Those present here, unfortunately, had left their hotowns behind just to make a living.
"By the way, the base pay is one, but isn't it amazing to be under a hunter like Kim Giryeo?"
"Right now, he's not officially a hunter, and... didn't so foreign articles ntion there were issues with his abilities?"
"Ah, right. Kim Giryeo's health is..."
"Anyway, I'm fine with it in the end, he's paying a lot—what reason would I have to refuse?"
anwhile, a scouting offer had co in. For context, Choi Jin herself had honestly asked them, "If you have ti, could you co by and help out here for a bit?" In other words, the news that Kim Giryeo was struggling with a manpower shortage was ironically unknown to everyone.
But since everyone was struggling to find work anyway, did the small details really matter? Those gathered were simply genuinely happy to participate in the alien's soil exploration. And to be clear, they were also people who understood at least the minimal sense of human decency.
"Let's give it our all! Choi Jin called us here even though we beca freelancers, and honestly, we need to show results here to maintain a connection with them."
And thus began a chain of positivity. Choi Jin wanted to repay Kim Giryeo's kindness. anwhile, the low-rank hunters wanted to show their gratitude to Choi Jin. As a result, the unusually small guild in South Korea began producing results at a surprisingly fast pace.
It was a developnt entirely independent of the company CEO's intentions.
Author's Thoughts
Hi, from now on, I will update this novel 3 chapters/week. Thank you for all your support so far:)
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