"To be honest, is it not best when things work out well for everyone?"
Park Seong-ho tossed the file folder onto the table and smacked his lips.
Park Jun-seok, who was seated on the sofa opposite him, kept his mouth firmly shut, his expression stiff.
On either side of him, two guild employees in suits stood with their arms crossed, exuding a subtle pressure.
"It is not as if our Geumgang Guild is some little corner store. If you would just quietly share the source of that profitable volume you have been bringing in these past few days, Hunter Park Jun-seok, I am saying we can open up a path where both sides win."
"How many times must I tell you? It is a personal hunting opportunity I obtained through an acquaintance, so I cannot reveal where it is."
Jun-seok answered in a low, subdued voice.
At that, the forced smile hanging on Park Seong-ho’s lips vanished completely. He leaned back against the chair and crossed his legs.
"A personal hunting opportunity, is it? Hunter, do you think I have only spent a day or two in this field? Byproducts from F-rank scrap monsters are coming in once every three days as if they were being stamped out of a factory. Do you think that is a volume that can come from an ordinary Hunting Ground?"
Park Seong-ho’s fingers nervously tapped the table.
"No matter how much we searched the Association records, there was no sign that your party recently entered a Low-grade Gate. Tell me, are you not illegally exploiting some Unregistered Gate tucked away in a corner somewhere?"
"Do not speak carelessly. We have only brought in goods obtained through legitimate hunting."
"Oh, really? Then reveal it openly. Where did you catch what, and how?"
Park Seong-ho thrust his upper body forward and lowered his voice.
"If a report goes to the Association that you have been sneaking around inside an Unregistered Gate, your Hunter license will be revoked immediately. If you do not want to end up out on the street, hand over the information while I am still asking nicely. Our guild will manage it exclusively and pay you a generous Commission."
It was a blatant threat.
Jun-seok gritted his teeth inwardly. He had been through all kinds of things while rolling around as a Low-tier Hunter, but he had not expected them to act like outright thugs while hiding behind the signboard of a large guild.
If he made some clumsy excuse here, they were sure to seize on his words. The name Oh Cheol-woo and the existence of the Goblin’s Abandoned Mine were secrets he had to take to the grave.
Jun-seok lowered his hand beneath the table and felt for his smartphone.
Without looking, he opened the message window by pressing a speed-dial number he knew by touch.
'The Purchasing Office bastards are threatening me, accusing us of having an Unregistered Gate. Do not worry. I will never talk.'
After briefly sending the text, Jun-seok lifted his head stiffly.
"I have nothing more to say. There is no defect in the goods, and I have no obligation to reveal their source. If that bothers you so much, I will use a different Purchasing Office from now on. I will be going."
As Jun-seok tried to rise from his seat, the employees standing on either side pressed down on his shoulders and forced him back down.
"Hey, hey. Where do you think you are going? We are not done talking yet."
"Are you going to let go?"
Jun-seok’s eyes became bloodshot. The strength of a Defense-type Hunter stirred, and he was just about to knock the employees’ hands away.
CLACK.
The office door opened roughly, and someone walked inside.
"You can continue the conversation with me."
It was Oh Cheol-woo, dressed in casual clothes with a light jacket over them.
At the sudden intrusion, Park Seong-ho’s brow furrowed sharply.
"Who the hell are you? Can you not see that unauthorized personnel are not allowed in here?"
"I am involved. I am the person who provided Hunter Park Jun-seok with that Hunting Ground."
At Cheol-woo’s words, Jun-seok stared at him with startled eyes. Cheol-woo gave Jun-seok a brief nod in greeting, then strode over, pulled out the empty chair across from the sofa, and sat down.
Park Seong-ho narrowed his eyes and looked Cheol-woo up and down.
He did not know where this guy had crawled out from, but the sight of him walking into a large guild’s office on his own two feet and acting so confidently was extremely irritating.
He gestured at an employee with his chin. The employee quickly opened the Hunter Association app on his smartphone and compared it against Cheol-woo’s face.
"Team Leader. He is Oh Cheol-woo, an E-rank Hunter. His main activity history is in Porter work and residue collection."
"Ha."
At the employee’s report, Park Seong-ho let out an incredulous laugh.
"And here I wondered whether some impressive backer had shown up. Why would an E-rank Porter nobody barge in here as if he is holding some gold mine? Hunter Park Jun-seok, if you were going to put up a figurehead, you should have brought someone a little more convincing."
Even in the face of Park Seong-ho’s sneering attitude, Cheol-woo’s expression remained as calm as a lake.
He took his smartphone out of his pocket and placed it in the center of the table.
On the screen, a red recording button was running.
"I have been recording since I came in."
With that one sentence, the air inside the office froze cold.
Park Seong-ho’s eyebrow twitched.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Exercising a legitimate right of defense. The goods brought in by Hunter Park Jun-seok’s party were handed over to the Purchasing Office through proper procedures. The condition of the goods was checked, their grade was assessed, taxes were deducted, and the Settlement was completed."
Cheol-woo folded his fingers one by one as he clearly pointed out each fact.
"We supplied good products, and the Purchasing Office made a margin. But then you suddenly called him in and demanded the address of his Hunting Ground? In what article and clause of the Hunter Act does it say that a Purchasing Office may demand information on a Hunter’s private Hunting Ground?"
"You little bastard."
Park Seong-ho placed his hands on the table and tried to rise. Cheol-woo continued speaking without so much as blinking.
"Furthermore, you threatened him earlier while bringing up an Unregistered Gate, did you not? If this recording of you trying to intimidate Low-tier Hunters without evidence and steal information about a prime Hunting Ground is uploaded to the Hunter Association audit office and the free board, what do you think will happen to the reputation of Geumgang Guild’s Purchasing Office?"
"……."
"Ah, since it is a large guild, I doubt it will go as far as a business suspension. Still, would it not be difficult for your position as Team Leader to remain safe?"
Cheol-woo’s voice had no rise or fall.
Without getting excited or angry, he tightened his grip around his opponent’s throat using nothing but facts and regulations.
Cold sweat formed on the bridge of Park Seong-ho’s nose.
He had looked down on them and pushed recklessly because they were Low-tier Hunters whose backgrounds he knew nothing about. But he could not keep forcing his way against someone who had come prepared, was citing regulations, and had even turned on a recorder.
If this matter grew larger, far from helping his performance, he might be dragged before a disciplinary committee.
Park Seong-ho cleared his throat loudly and quietly settled back onto the sofa.
"Ahem. Good grief, you are making this far too rigid. It was not something I said with bad intentions. There are so many people illegally exploiting Unregistered Gates these days that we were simply checking once at the Purchasing Office level."
"If your check is finished, may we leave?"
"……Go ahead."
Park Seong-ho waved his hand dismissively.
Cheol-woo picked up the smartphone on the table, put it into his pocket, and rose from his seat.
"Let’s go, Jun-seok Hyung."
With a dazed expression, Jun-seok followed Cheol-woo out of the office.
Just before the door closed, Park Seong-ho’s voice could be faintly heard cursing viciously at his employee.
After leaving the Purchasing Office building, the two of them sat across from each other under a parasol at a nearby convenience store.
Jun-seok opened the bottle of ion drink Cheol-woo handed him and emptied half of it in one go.
"Haa. I feel alive now."
"Are you all right?"
"Of course I am. Hey, you were genuinely scary back there. Did you see that guild Team Leader bastard’s face rotting away?"
Jun-seok laughed hollowly, as if the tension had drained out of him. But soon, he looked at Cheol-woo with a serious expression.
"Still, I am sorry. I thought I had some experience under my belt, but when he started openly browbeating me, I could not handle it. If you had not come, he really would have kept clinging to me until I was trapped."
"Not at all. You held out until the end because you were trying to protect the secret, Hyung."
"Of course I did. It is a gold mine you entrusted to me. I could not overturn it myself."
Cheol-woo fiddled with his Canned Coffee and smiled faintly at Jun-seok.
"From now on, contact me immediately if something like this happens. Protecting the secret is important, but it would mean nothing if you got hurt or your life as a Hunter became tangled up because of it."
"……Yeah. Understood."
Jun-seok felt something heavy settle in a corner of his chest.
A comrade who did not hide behind him after putting him forward, but rushed over and took responsibility the moment a problem arose. And at the same time, he had perfectly protected their most important secret.
In Jun-seok’s heart, his trust in Cheol-woo hardened like a boulder.
"Then I will get going now. You will proceed with this afternoon’s raid schedule as planned, right?"
"Of course. Jae-hoon and Yu-jin are waiting too. We will hand over only this batch to the Purchasing Office and immediately switch to another place."
"Handle it as you see fit. Good work."
Cheol-woo left behind a brief farewell and turned away.
When Cheol-woo returned home, three large delivery boxes were stacked in layers in front of his front door.
Cheol-woo sat down on the living room floor with a utility knife and opened the boxes one by one.
"That delivery was fast."
The boxes were packed tightly with the items he had ordered.
From the first box came industrial Gas Masks and bundles of replacement Filter cartridges. In the second box, a grayish Full-body Sealed Special Protective Suit was neatly folded. In the final box were ten small glass bottles of Middle-grade Antidote and one box of Low-grade Antidotes.
Cheol-woo pulled the zipper of the Protective Suit all the way up and carefully ran his fingers over the seams to check for any gaps. He had to completely block off any possible opening through which the Toxic Mist could seep in.
'With this much, I should be able to endure the environment of the Misty Medicinal Herb Garden well enough.'
After inspecting the equipment, Cheol-woo brought over a sturdy duffel bag and packed the items neatly into it as if playing Tetris.
He placed the Protective Suit and Mask on top so they would not get crumpled, wrapped the Antidotes once more in cushioning material so they would not break, and tucked them into the inner pocket.
The third dungeon.
Not a one-time hunt, but a new Territory that would permanently produce poisonous herbs and Medicinal Herbs that grew tenaciously.
At the thought of checking the Multi-Dungeon Management System and the Inter-Dungeon Resource Transfer function lying dormant in his mind, Cheol-woo’s heart beat a little faster than usual.
After firmly closing the bag’s zipper, Cheol-woo opened his desk drawer.
The F-rank Dungeon Raid Application for the 'Misty Medicinal Herb Garden' that he had prepared in advance and his Hunter ID were lying side by side.
Cheol-woo picked up the documents and slung the duffel bag over his shoulder.
He opened the front door and stepped outside.
His unwavering footsteps were headed toward the Hunter Association.