At Lee Ho-gyu’s words, Kim Cheol-su’s face twisted into a frown.
“E-Grade in one month? Is that true?”
“What would I gain by lying?”
“For now… I suppose I will have to meet him.”
Kim Cheol-su said that as he stroked his chin.
“By the way, old man. It has been a while since we met. Are you not even going to give me a cup of coffee?”
“If you promise to be reasonable with Mr. Park, I see no reason why I cannot give you a cup of coffee.”
“I will go easy on him. I will not kill him, and I will not cripple him either.”
“Tsk, tsk. You really are…. Fine. Come in.”
CLANK.
The door opened.
Lee Ho-gyu let Kim Cheol-su inside.
Since it had been a long time since they had seen each other, it would be good to exchange news and talk about how they had been.
***
Park Il-sang lived as Park Il-sang.
The strength of a Necromancer.
He had used the advantage that, as long as he had [Corpse Box], he could continuously replenish Necro Mana and had ground through Dungeons over and over.
In truth, endlessly running Dungeons did not earn much money. If Dungeons earned a great deal, everyone would be risking their lives in them instead of hunting in the Field.
Originally, the Field earned several times more money than Dungeons.
That was why everyone went Field hunting and neglected Dungeons.
In truth, there was another reason as well.
In reality, firearms could be used, but they could not be used inside Dungeons. Gunpowder weapons did not function there.
Also, every Dungeon had different gimmicks.
Some Dungeons had truly vile gimmicks, and people who entered them died in droves.
In the case of such Dungeons, people gave up on clearing them, and those Dungeons would periodically burst and pour out Monsters.
The people who went into such dangerous and stingy Dungeons were mainly those who wanted to Rank Up, or those who accepted commissions to enter them for the sake of regional defense.
For example, take Geumcheon-gu, which had now become one of the most expensive areas in Seoul.
There were as many as five Dungeons inside Geumcheon-gu, and they could not simply be allowed to burst, could they?
Before they burst periodically, Hunters had to go in and clear them out.
They said this was also quite dangerous, and several people died each time a Dungeon was cleared.
Those who went into such Dungeons as if they were ready to die were all people called the Dungeon-clearance faction.
People who risked their lives to Rank Up.
Madmen obsessed with only one thing: becoming stronger.
They entered Dungeons to obtain Skills and Rank Up.
However, even such people could not recover Mana easily.
If they exhausted all their Mana, on average, they had to rest for about a week to ten days before their Mana recovered. Otherwise, they had to drink extremely expensive Mana Recovery Potions.
The higher one’s Rank became, the more powerful and terrifying one’s Skills became, but they also consumed that much more Mana, so the cost inevitably became impossible to handle.
But Park Il-sang was different.
As long as he had corpses, Necro Mana kept being produced!
Corpses were the best! Corpses were the best!
That was how it felt. So while Dungeons were an inefficient money-making area for others, for Park Il-sang, they had instead become a place where he could earn money easily.
So he continued running the F-Grade Dungeon, the Frog Dungeon.
Even though his Rank no longer rose and it no longer gave him Skills.
He ran it again and again to mine the Boss Magic Stones.
He even ran it while doing time attacks.
“Good! A 46-minute clear!”
Park Il-sang had measured the time with a digital watch.
He had shown the impressive feat of cutting down the Dungeon in a mere 46 minutes.
“If I pick up a broadcasting Skill and debut as a streamer, could I earn some money?”
That was enough to make him mutter such a thing.
In fact, among Skills, there were things called Universal Skills. Such Skillbooks appeared as rewards or in Item Boxes inside Dungeons.
If one possessed Broadcasting and Internet Access, one of those Universal Skills, one could use the internet and broadcast anywhere, anytime.
What an astonishing world!
Of course, there were also Hunters who did not use this Skill, instead undergoing implant surgery that allowed them to access the internet and carrying broadcasting equipment around.
Because there were more people than one might think who lived with their lives on the line.
And such broadcasts were popular.
There were many people who made a living from them too.
That was right.
The world was half-ruined, but just like in the old days, streamers still existed.
“Phew. I got something done today too.”
Park Il-sang left the Dungeon.
As always, he carried the Magic Stones and headed to Lee Ho-gyu’s pawnshop.
“A commission?”
“Yes. A commission. Apparently, there is someone who wants to entrust a commission to you.”
“Since when did you start arranging jobs too, sir?”
“Why would I do things like arranging jobs? But since you do not go anywhere except my shop, Mr. Park, they contacted me like this.”
Out of nowhere, the owner, Lee Ho-gyu, told him there was work.
‘What is this about?’
“Mr. Park, you have become quite famous lately. I hear you have hundreds of Summons?”
“Even so, I am just an E-Grade small fry. Are there not many people stronger than me?”
“I heard you have that many Summons. Is that not why?”
“Well. That could be true.”
“You know President Yu’s place, right? It is from that side. Go there.”
“Yes, sir.”
Park Il-sang answered and was about to leave. Then Lee Ho-gyu called out to him.
“Ah. Has anyone from the Cheol-su Faction come to see you?”
“The Cheol-su Faction? No. Did something happen?”
“I heard some talk from that side that they should meet you at least once.”
“I wonder what reason I would have to get involved with that sort of organization.”
“Be careful.”
“Yes, sir.”
Park Il-sang took the money and left the pawnshop.
The amount he had saved so far exceeded six hundred million won. He had to think about what to do with it.
***
‘Hmm~ Is the Mafia looking for me? I suppose my weight class really has gone up.’
In the past, they had supposedly been called gangsters, but now they were simply called the Mafia.
They said that back in the old gangster days, killing even a single person had not been easy, but now that the world was half-ruined, killing people had become as easy as Park Il-sang, or something like that.
Rather than the fact that Broker Yu, that was, Yu Ina, was looking for him, he was more concerned by the news that the Cheol-su Faction had taken an interest in him.
After all, getting involved with criminal organizations was exhausting in all sorts of ways.
That did not mean he was particularly afraid.
He had lived for a long time in his previous life as well, and he considered his current life to be nothing more than a bonus.
From the beginning, he did not have much fear of death.
When one spent enough time as a Necromancer, everyone became that way. And there was also the fact that his previous life had been a complete mess of a world.
‘For now, I should hear what this commission is about and then think it over.’
Park Il-sang’s current daily income was about one hundred million won.
That was the income he generated by running the Frog Nest Dungeon in circles.
Of course, to earn one hundred million won, he had to run the Frog Nest Dungeon about ten times, and by that point, even if he did not run short of Necro Mana, his mind became tired.
Even so, he did possess the Warrior Class, inadequate as it might be, and he also had the Achievement [So Diligent and Industrious, Are You?], so he was not physically tired either.
It was simply that his mind was tired.
After all, when one repeated the same action over and over, that was bound to happen.
Others might ask what kind of spoiled nonsense he was talking about.
But what could he do? Boredom was unavoidable.
That was why he had been wondering whether he should start visiting other F-Grade Dungeons, or perhaps an E-Grade Dungeon.
Because of that, if this so-called commission did not pay well, there was no particular need to accept it.
So he would have to hear what it was about.
He headed for the market street created by remodeling the former National Assembly Building in Yeouido.
He was accompanied by four Necro Guards, while Kitty had been put back into the bag.
“Prosthetic arms are cheap! They are used, but the repairs are clean!”
“Hey, brother. The drugs here are killer. Take a look!”
The market street inside the former National Assembly Building in Yeouido.
All sorts of shops lined the inside. Most of the goods were secondhand, and all of them were contraband. Things torn from dead bodies, things robbed and torn from living people.
Whenever Park Il-sang saw this sight, he found it rather amusing.
After all, if one went to a 3rd- or 4th-class district less than ten kilometers away, one would not see this kind of scene at all.
DING.
He arrived at [Ina Pocha], a bar located deeper inside. It was a bar named after its owner, Yu Ina, but in truth, it was more famous as an employment broker than as a drinking establishment.
The owner, Yu Ina, was a woman with the Job of Witch, and her Rank was a staggering B.
However, she had a criminal record, and her body was wrapped in all sorts of dangerous curses, so she could not enter the upper-class districts and lived in this 5th-class district instead.
‘And she is beautiful.’
That was right.
Yu Ina was a beauty.
However, she was also someone no one in this 5th-class district dared touch.
Why?
Because she was strong.
There was a rumor that plenty of Hunter riffraff who had tried to do something to her had met their end and gone straight into her cauldron.
When he opened the door and entered, perhaps because it was still early, there was not a single customer.
Though this bar had “pocha” in its name, the inside was decorated like a bar, and there was actually a bartender.
However, the catch was that the bartender was not human.
The bartender was a female Demon about two meters tall, and her true identity was a Familiar contracted to the owner, Yu Ina.
Judging by appearance alone, she was an extraordinary beauty. But she was around two meters tall, with seven horns growing from her head, so the sheer intimidation she gave off was no joke. That bartender looked at Park Il-sang and shouted, “Welcome!”
She was cheerful and lively.
Judging by that attitude alone, she did not seem like a Demon. But he could not be fooled. The story that she had once torn apart and killed a C-Grade Hunter who was causing a disturbance was famous.
“Good day. I heard President Yu had a commission for me, so I came.”
“You are a corpse-fucker, are you not? This is my first time seeing a corpse-fucker in this world, so it is fascinating! One moment, please. I will call the owner for you!”
The bartender said something absolutely vile in a cheerful, lively tone.
Seeing that, Park Il-sang thought inwardly, ‘Same as ever.’
Because that bartender Demon had long been famous for such poisonous remarks.
Should he say she was truly befitting of a Demon?