He briefly reached a finger toward the translucent window floating in midair.
[Execute Promotion to Management Level 3]
The moment his fingertip touched the button, the mana value that had been solidly filling one corner of his vision drained away like an ebbing tide.
Watching the mana he had sweated to gather evaporate made his stomach ache for a moment, but the notification windows that soon appeared one after another covered up that regret.
[The Goblin Abandoned Mine’s Management Level has risen to 3.]
[Four new management functions have been activated.]
-Safe Zone Designation
-Monster Zone Separation
-Dungeon Entry Capacity Expansion
-Automatic Owner Revenue Distribution
Cheol-woo did not even look at the “Capacity Expansion” item at the bottom and left it deactivated.
More people would mean more money, but for now, the three people he could reliably control were enough. There was no reason to spread rumors for nothing.
He moved his finger and started by touching the zone separation settings.
A three-dimensional map of the abandoned mine rose inside his head.
Cheol-woo selected the space from the entrance to the first fork in the path, as if dragging across it, and designated it as a “Safe Zone.”
Inside this zone, goblins would no longer respawn, and even if a normal goblin wandering around deeper inside tried to cross this line, it would be blocked by an invisible wall and forced to turn back.
In other words, the users who entered now had a waiting room where they could check their weapons without combat pressure or catch their breath after hunting.
Next, he set the tunnels that continued in earnest beyond the Safe Zone as the “Normal Goblin Zone.”
It was a hunting ground full of only F-rank monsters that had yet to shed their beginner-level feel, perfect for Jun-seok’s group to farm.
On the other hand, he painted all the deep collapsed tunnels, where the Blue Magic Iron vein he had yet to mine was buried, in red.
It was the “Owner-Only Zone.”
Only Cheol-woo himself could enter this place.
“This should be enough to keep them from getting lost.”
Lastly, he pressed the temporary entry pass renewal button.
New usage conditions were assigned under the names of Park Jun-seok, Lee Jae-hoon, and Seo Yu-jin.
He made it so that only the designated usage time and the permitted Normal Goblin Zone would appear on their maps.
The Blue Magic Iron vein area, for which they had no access authority, would not even appear on their maps or routes.
After finishing all the settings, Cheol-woo took his smartphone out of his pocket and made a call.
Before the dial tone could even ring a few times, a familiar voice came through.
“Yeah, Cheol-woo. Is it already time to go tomorrow? I’ve finished maintaining my gear.”
“Jun-seok hyung. Starting tomorrow, I won’t be going in.”
“Huh? What are you talking about? What about the hunt if you don’t go?”
“You can just go in with the three of you. I’ve opened the authority so you can enter on your own.”
A brief silence flowed from the other end of the phone.
“Hey, even if we’re trustworthy, that’s still… Who’s going to open the gate, and what about settlement? How are we supposed to go in without you?”
“When you arrive at the empty lot by the entrance, you won’t need to use an app or scan your ID. Just reach your hand out into the air and the gate should open. I’ll open it remotely according to the scheduled time.”
“Whoa, that’s possible? No, even then, we still have to settle up. We’re supposed to hunt monsters, gather byproducts, and give you thirty percent. What do we do if you’re not there?”
Cheol-woo let out a small laugh and tapped the system window in midair.
“I already solved that. After tomorrow’s hunt, when you come out of the gate, exactly thirty percent—my share—will automatically be taken from the byproducts in your bags. I set up a separate system for it.”
“…Just what kind of connections do you have? I heard even the Association is still only test-running a system like that.”
Deep suspicion and shock mixed into Jun-seok’s voice.
But Cheol-woo brushed it off as calmly as usual.
“It’s a secret. Just hunt comfortably, and once you’re done, head straight home. Please pass that on to Jae-hoon and Yu-jin as well.”
“Uh, got it. It feels a little sketchy, but if you’re saying that, I’m sure you have your reasons. I’ll contact you tomorrow.”
After ending the call, Cheol-woo put down his smartphone and stretched lightly.
A system that earned him money without him having to put up a mosquito net and stand watch at the cave entrance himself.
It finally felt like he had taken the first real step toward proper passive income.
The next evening.
A window seat at a franchise café overlooking the neighborhood.
Cheol-woo had placed a cup of iced Americano on the table and was staring blankly into midair with his chin propped in his hand.
To others, he probably looked like an unemployed guy zoning out, but in front of his eyes, a real-time map of the abandoned mine was being displayed clearly.
On the map, three blue dots were clustered together.
It was Jun-seok’s group, who had just entered.
The three dots passed through the entrance and stopped for a moment inside the “Safe Zone” Cheol-woo had designated.
‘They must be getting their gear ready.’
A brief line of text appeared in the log window.
[Users “Park Jun-seok,” “Lee Jae-hoon,” and “Seo Yu-jin” are staying in the Safe Zone.]
A few minutes later, the blue dots left the Safe Zone and slowly began moving into the Normal Goblin Zone.
It was probably their familiar formation, with Jun-seok controlling the pace at the front while Jae-hoon and Yu-jin supported him from behind.
Soon, the numbers in one corner of the system window began rising busily.
[Lee Jae-hoon has slain a goblin.]
[Seo Yu-jin has slain a goblin.]
[Dungeon mana increases slightly.]
[One low-grade mana stone has been registered in the owner storage pending list.]
Cheol-woo leisurely watched the logs with the straw in his mouth.
Their hunting speed was actually slightly faster than when he had watched them directly from the side last time.
Whether they felt more comfortable without anyone watching them, or whether the sturdy retreat route called the Safe Zone gave them psychological breathing room, it was not a bad thing either way.
While the hunt continued for quite some time, one of the blue dots on the map suddenly popped off in an odd direction.
It seemed to be Jae-hoon, who carried the shield.
The place he was heading toward was the tunnel leading to the Blue Magic Iron vein that Cheol-woo had painted red.
‘Did he take the wrong path?’
As Cheol-woo narrowed his eyes, a short red warning message appeared in the log window.
[A user has attempted to enter a restricted area.]
[This area is outside their authority. Passage will be blocked.]
On the map, the blue dot that had popped out was pushed back as if it had bounced off an invisible wall.
After staying there for a moment as though bewildered, the dot soon rejoined the original hunting route where the others were.
Cheol-woo smiled and took a sip of coffee.
“Works perfectly.”
There was no need for him to personally block the path or raise his voice.
The system grabbed them by the collar and sent them back on its own, so nothing could be more convenient.
After about two hours of hunting, the three blue dots returned to the Safe Zone.
Then they exited through the gate.
[Users have exited the dungeon.]
[In accordance with the automatic revenue distribution setting, 30% of the total acquired items will be moved to the owner storage.]
Ding.
Along with a cheerful notification sound, a dozen or so low-grade mana stones, goblin hides, bones, and other usable byproducts were neatly sorted and entered Cheol-woo’s inventory window.
It was exactly thirty percent of the loot the three had carried out in their bags.
The tiresome process of manually counting, negotiating, and dividing shares ended in a single second.
On top of that, the goblin resources reduced by the three people’s combat had entered a natural production cycle again, and in exchange for them swinging their weapons inside the dungeon, the dungeon mana gauge had filled up significantly more than before.
‘I didn’t sweat a single drop myself, but the hunting ground runs on its own and the resources pile up too.’
He lightly rolled the empty coffee cup across the table.
It felt like he had become a dungeon owner in the truest sense.
That night.
The byproduct purchasing team office under the Geumgang Guild.
Assistant Manager Kim rubbed his eyes while looking at the Excel ledger displayed on his computer monitor.
His gaze, which had been scrolling down with the mouse wheel, stopped on a certain entry.
“The names are Park Jun-seok, Lee Jae-hoon, Seo Yu-jin…”
He took a highlighter out of his drawer and scribbled the three names onto a sticky note attached beside his monitor.
In this field, dozens, even hundreds of hunters came in every day to sell byproducts.
F-rank goblin mana stones or hides were so common that he usually did not care who brought them in.
But these three were different.
“These people’s cycle has been way too regular these past few days.”
It was not as if the quantity they brought in was enormous.
However, once every two or three days, at very regular intervals, they came in with goblin byproducts.
The condition of the mana stones was not bad either, and there were few damaged hides.
The strangest part was that there were few records on the Hunter Association’s computer network of these three entering a public F-rank dungeon together.
“Did they find some little-known farm out in the sticks?”
Rumors often circulated among hunters about hidden gates that people secretly farmed without having to wait in line.
Of course, even if that were true, it would probably only be a low-grade gate that spat out scraps. But from the standpoint of a guild purchasing office, having another fixed supplier who could steadily provide goods was not a bad thing.
“If the quantity suddenly spikes, I’d report it upstairs, but this is ambiguous.”
Assistant Manager Kim muttered as he filled the Excel cell with a yellow background.
It was not large enough in scale for someone to immediately seize on it and start an investigation.
It was merely a small irregularity that stood out from the perspective of someone managing the books.
He stuck the sticky note roughly onto the corner of his monitor and clicked the mouse again.
He had no idea that the location was an abandoned mine, or that a name called Oh Cheol-woo was behind it.
Around that time.
After returning home, Cheol-woo sat casually on the floor of his room and placed his laptop on his lap.
The screen showed the public bulletin board on the Hunter Association website.
He had achieved Management Level 3, and he had confirmed that the automatic operation system was running safely.
His mana supply was now much more stable than before.
Then it was about time to slowly prepare for the next step.
New items sleeping in his long-term memory, such as “Dungeon-to-Dungeon Resource Transfer,” kept catching his eye.
To properly use his new authority, naturally, he needed one more dungeon.
“I can mine iron ore and mana stones from the abandoned mine, so I’ll pass on anything that overlaps.”
Cheol-woo adjusted the search filters.
The grade was F-rank.
He narrowed it down to dungeons that major guilds would not even look at because of their low profitability, places that were practically abandoned.
The lower the danger level, the better. Most importantly, it needed to produce a type of resource he did not currently have.
Cheol-woo’s fingers, which had been scrolling down quickly, stopped.
[Misty Herb Garden] - F-rank. Generated resources: weeds, low-grade moonlight grass. (Neglected period: 1 year and 2 months)
It was a dungeon with terrible reviews saying it was so unprofitable that it could not even make back the entry fee.
To ordinary hunters, it was nothing more than a garbage dump and a waste of time. But to Cheol-woo, who could permanently own it and produce resources, it was practically a bonanza.
“I guess pulling weeds is better this time.”
Cheol-woo pulled over a notebook from the corner of his desk.
The tip of his pen moved smoothly and without hesitation across the paper as he wrote down the names of the low-grade dungeons displayed on the monitor.