THUD.
THUD, THUD.
The dead, having lost their driving force, collapsed one after another.
At the sight of the dullahan crumbling right before his eyes, Kim Tae-seong, dazed, watched the dust scatter with a faint hiss.
"......This is insane, seriously."
He had known Sama Pung was strong.
The 'just clear it yourself' strategy itself had come from trusting skill he rated highly, but even so, this was a result far beyond common sense.
Come to think of it, it was only natural.
Having cleared the forty-ninth floor.
It was proof they had fought through countless obstacles beyond the twentieth floor that had plunged present humanity into despair.
If Sama Pung was one of the foremost powers in that world, Floor 10 could not help but be a difficulty so easy it made him yawn.
"Are you all right?"
"Th-thank you."
It was Paeng Dal.
Taking the hand he offered, Kim Tae-seong rose, brushing off his clothes.
He moved on.
With the traits of the [Dark Zone] and [Dark Labyrinth] gone, they soon reached the destination where Sama Pung was.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"This hardly counts as hard work. Paeng Dal."
"Yes."
"Water."
"To the great 'First Elder of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult', Lord Sama Pung, I present water."
Paeng Dal scurried off.
When he opened the waterskin and presented it respectfully with both hands, Sama Pung gulped it down and looked at Kim Tae-seong.
'That fellow is not bad.'
He had held a prejudice about Kim Tae-seong.
The man had formed ties with murim through a skill called E-031 Link, but Sama Pung had judged that apart from that he had no special ability. This had become the occasion to shatter that. He could judge a situation strategically and find solutions, and above all he had the grit to take risks and push his plan through.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult followed [the logic of the strong].
Proving his ability was the same as Kim Tae-seong proving his own worth.
So he spoke in a noticeably softer voice.
"Moneybags."
"......Moneybags?"
"Yes, my moneybags. This elder has fulfilled his promise, so you too must fulfill yours without fail."
The relationship with Sama Pung.
It was mutual aid.
The surrounding scenery came into Kim Tae-seong's view.
Countless remains sprawled across the floor.
Sama Pung had not only broken through the Dark Labyrinth in one go, but also butchered every monster that must have swarmed this vast space.
And with his power alone, without a scrap of help from anyone.
If he could receive the help of this absurd monster for mere mana cigarettes, any sensible working adult had reason enough to actively keep this relationship going.
Nine years in.
D-Grade.
Twenty-eight years old.
Kim Tae-seong smiled brightly.
"Of course."
Already worn smooth by life in society, Kim Tae-seong was a working adult ready to hand over his liver and gallbladder if need be.
***
SIZZZZZLE.
The meat on the grill gave off the pleasant sound of sizzling as it cooked.
Watching Kim Tae-seong tend the meat this way and that with tongs, his mother spoke with a smile.
"My son. Did something good happen?"
His mother.
To Lee Seon-yeong's eyes, her son's mood was plain at a glance.
A son who always came home worn out whenever he went out to work.
As a mother her worry had been no small thing, but over the last few days she had seen something positive in her son's expression.
"Right? What's gotten into Oppa, buying meat?"
"He's bought it plenty. All-you-can-eat, though."
At his younger sister Kim Su-rin's words.
His younger brother Kim Hyeon-min added.
Twenty-one and nineteen, respectively.
Watching his siblings chomp away and inhale the meat, Kim Tae-seong smiled.
"Things at work are just going well."
Ten consecutive climbs.
The results were tremendous.
Even excluding Skill Boxes, he had obtained no small amount of mana stones and items, and by selling all of them he paid off debts of nearly three hundred million won and still had tens of millions of won to spare.
He was glad.
The life of low-grade hunters was an endless cycle.
Surviving as a hunter required ability, and ability required financial investment first, so they could never escape the cycle of poverty: always taking on debt and paying it off, taking on debt again and paying it off again.
But not anymore.
He was in the plus.
Beyond the fact of having no debt, knowing he had no reason to take on debt in the future brought him tremendous joy.
'With my Unique Skill's ability, I'll never have to worry about making ends meet.'
Kim Tae-seong picked up some meat.
He set it on his sister's plate and met her eyes.
"How's work? Manageable?"
"So-so."
"I hear Dawn pays well but it's pretty rough. If anything's hard, tell your oppa."
"......Huh? And you can actually fix it?"
Kim Su-rin laughed playfully.
Where she worked.
Dawn Management was one of the foremost conglomerates in the Republic of Korea.
Kim Su-rin, who had long since given up the hunter's path and chosen to become a working adult, had managed to join Dawn after studying hard.
That was why it was funny.
Kim Tae-seong was a D-Grade hunter.
Dawn did not even deal with anyone below C-Grade.
Which meant that Kim Tae-seong looking out for Kim Su-rin in this line of work simply did not add up.
"Of course."
"Right, my oppa's the best."
Brushing off his answer playfully, Kim Su-rin just went on eating meat.
Kim Tae-seong turned his gaze.
He looked at Kim Hyeon-min.
"Hyeon-min. That thing you mentioned last time."
"Last time? The academy?"
"Yeah. Enroll in it."
"Huh?"
"Oppa?"
Kim Su-rin's head whipped around.
"Tuition there is damn expensive. Can you handle it?"
"I'm saying it because I can. Hyeon-min, you said it seriously, didn't you? That you want to do hunter work too, and if possible, you want to do it properly. I've run the numbers before saying this, so just send in your application and get in."
"......Hyung."
"......My oppa's damn cool."
The academy Kim Hyeon-min had mentioned.
The [Hunter Academy] cost a hundred million won in tuition for a single year.
At his words that he would cover it, the eyes of his two younger siblings were colored with emotion.
'Let's not tell the family the truth yet.'
The Floor 10 climb.
The existence of his Unique Skill.
He felt now was not the time.
Rather than a notion of hiding his power, it was clearly a freelancer's mindset.
A freelancer has high highs and low lows.
Since this miraculous encounter he had obtained might be a momentary mirage, he intended to tell them once he had secured a high floor for his lows.
If his Unique Skill evaporated right now.
What would become of the words he had just spoken?
'I'm a Platinum Box owner now, so I'll earn that much money at least.'
The special reward of Floor 10.
It was a turning point in his life.
Whenever he recalled that moment, the corners of his mouth twitched on their own.
Kim Tae-seong said, serving more meat.
"Eat up. Auntie! Three more servings of prime rib-eye over here, please!"
The Floor 10 climb.
Its result turned the world upside down.
Think about it.
It was the moment a new legend was born, one who broke the realm of impossibility where even the 'Lion of Sweden', the face of solo climbing, had failed.
-He actually succeeded at the Floor 10 climb.
-Who on earth is it?
-Whoever you are, please come out and clear Floor 20. If you can solo Floor 10, Floor 20 seems totally doable.
-For real. He's one against a hundred on his own, so what if he tries the Floor 20 climb with national support? If you ask me, the key to solving humanity's hope is that 'Unknown'.
Hunter Camp.
Naturally, it was in an uproar.
While the world was abuzz, the Korean Intelligence Agency threw itself into the search for the Unknown.
"......The point we focus on is clear. Assuming the Unknown's nationality is Korean. We must find out whether any thread exists that leads to contact with the Unknown."
The head of the Intelligence Agency.
Park Gi-cheol said.
It was an order handed down directly from President Jang Tae-ho.
At present, instead of clearing the twentieth floor, the Republic of Korea had poured all of its government manpower into the search for the Unknown.
'If the Unknown holds another nationality. We effectively have no way to find him, and even if we did, contacting him before other governments would be impossible. Then, flipping the idea around, starting from the absurd assumption that the Unknown is from Korea, a sure plan for not losing him to anyone has to come first.'
He changed his thinking.
Looking at the people of the Intelligence Agency, Park Gi-cheol spoke in a firm tone.
"After the Unknown's first climb, there is a gap of about three hours until the second climb was attempted. That may simply be a personal choice, but it can also be interpreted the other way: that from the second climb on, he did not want to climb in a public place. So, on the day the Floor 1 record was made public. At every climb point in the Republic of Korea, we investigate everyone who finished a solo climb within ten minutes and came out. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Understood."
It was a sweeping investigation.
They cast a net over the entire Republic of Korea and searched for people matching the conditions.
It was one of many search methods.
They were looking into the Unknown in various ways, and one of them was the hypothesis Park Gi-cheol had just laid out.
The investigation found dozens of people who fit the conditions.
Whether they had succeeded or failed their climbs was unknown, but they compiled those who had left a climb point within 'ten minutes'.
First they checked all of their information.
At the same time.
"Check their movements after they finished climbing. If he attempted a climb three hours later, he'll have left a thread for certain."
The Republic of Korea was a nation of CCTV.
Thanks to the CCTV all over the streets, they could check what happened right after people left the climb points, and those filtered out in this process were the people whose whereabouts were clearly visible even 'three hours' later.
Someone plainly wandering around outside could not be the Unknown.
The people were quickly narrowed down.
A solo climb cut at ten minutes.
Someone whose whereabouts three hours later could not be verified.
About six people fit.
Park Gi-cheol looked at the documents.
"......This is a real head-scratcher."
The profiles were a sight.
All C-Grade, D-Grade, E-Grade.
Low grades everywhere.
People who, for the most part, could safely be regarded as 'failed climbs'.
No matter how he looked, it did not seem the Unknown would be among them.
But an institution like the Intelligence Agency was not so foolish a group as to miss the truth over one person's private judgment.
"These six. Make contact with all of them."
"Understood."
They had to find him.
In one of those documents.
FLIP.
[Name: Kim Tae-seong]
[D-Grade]
The information of a man who could not possibly be believed to be the Unknown was recorded.
The next day.
Kim Tae-seong steadied his breathing.
"Hoo."
Right after clearing Floor 10.
Kim Tae-seong had obtained three rewards.
Two Gold Boxes and, of all things, a Platinum Box.
He had heard such rewards were rare even at grades above Floor 10, so he guessed it was an exceptional result from several factors combined, such as the first-ever 'solo climb'.
'If I use the two Gold Boxes to reinforce my Unique Skill.......'
What mattered was the Platinum Box.
How to use it.
In truth, Kim Tae-seong was an anxiety machine to an almost excessive degree.
Enough that he had resolved to tell his family the truth only once he had secured his lows, he knew that if he could not use the elements tied to his [Unique Skill], he would plunge to rock bottom in an instant. If some problem arose where he could no longer call the murim martial artists into this world, the reality of D-Grade Kim Tae-seong would not change.
Therefore.
"I'll use this one on myself. Open box."
FWOOSH.
Bright light flared.
Three choices appeared before his eyes.
[Platinum Skill- Inferno]
[Platinum Skill- Body Enhancement]
[Platinum Skill Reinforcement]
The first skill.
It was an area-type spell.
One of the widely known skills, it was a powerful skill that 'fire-type' mages were said to absolutely need to secure.
The problem was that it did not suit Kim Tae-seong.
Kim Tae-seong moved as an all-rounder with an omnivorous skill tree, while a skill like Inferno was not instant but required a preparation time dubbed casting. In other words, it was a skill for those planted firmly in the rear on a magic tech tree, and for Kim Tae-seong its usefulness might fall somewhat short.
Above all, acquiring skills required continuity.
Those who chose the rear-dealer line matched even the items they armed themselves with to it.
For this reason as well, Kim Tae-seong had passed over magic like the 'wind skill' from the Silver Box.
Then the second choice.
The skill's effect was clear-cut.
[Body Enhancement] lv1
[Platinum Skill]
[Passive]
-The body grows stronger.
In fact, the moment he saw Body Enhancement, he had already made his decision.
If the magic line had Inferno.
The warrior line had Body Enhancement.
Body Enhancement in particular existed one per grade, and Platinum-grade Body Enhancement granted physical ability befitting C-Grade just by acquiring it. It was what Kim Tae-seong wanted. Even if his Unique Skill failed to deliver, the reward of Body Enhancement would draw a clear line from his previous life.
He chose the skill.
An unknown power swirled through his whole body.
As he hopped in place, checking his condition, a smile rose on Kim Tae-seong's face.
'It's definitely different.'
Now what remained were two Gold Boxes.
There was no reason to hesitate.
[Summon] was already leveled up, so he raised the levels of Conscription and Salvation.
[Conscription] lv2
[Unique-Bound Skill]
-Summons a specified being of the 'E-031' dimension. The target of the summon cannot refuse the summon, and obeys commands absolutely.
-Cooldown: One week
-Duration: 2 hours
-Special Effect: If the duration is exceeded, the summon may be maintained by applying 1 day of cooldown per 10 minutes.
[Salvation] lv2
[Unique-Bound Skill]
-Within the 'E-031' dimension, a designated area can be made into a 'Green Field'. A Green Field possesses the ecosystem of the era when life existed there.
Two skills.
No particular changes.
If Summon had at least gone from one person to two, Conscription's duration went from one hour to two. As for Salvation, the simple skill description gave no clue what had changed at all.
'If I'd known it'd be like this, should I have just gone all-in on Summon?'
He had held a sliver of hope.
If Conscription increased to two people, there would be tremendous synergy, like summoning Namgung Cheol and Paeng Dal at once.
For using two Gold Skill Boxes, it was a disappointing result.
But then.
[A skill reinforcement condition has been unsealed.]
[As the Bound Skills Summon, Conscription, and Salvation have all risen to level 2, the level of the Unique Skill E-031 Link rises.]
"!?"
At the unexpected turn, Kim Tae-seong's eyes went wide.