“...Report.”
The Golden Lion spoke while wearing golden armor emblazoned with the Stars and Stripes, staring at his subordinate with trembling eyes.
The man forced the words out in a heavily subdued voice.
“The raid team had seventeen members in total. Seven are dead, and five are critically wounded and unable to fight. Including you and me, Captain... only five of us are still capable of fighting.”
“What about the wounded?”
“All of the healers are dead. We are pouring potions into them for now, but they probably...”
“They will not last much longer. Even the members who are still breathing are at their limit.”
Yellowstone National Park in the United States.
Despite being called a ‘park,’ the place consisted of sheer cliffs and mountainous terrain, covering an area as vast as South Chungcheong Province.
And a Gate had opened in this enormous region.
An S-rank Gate, no less, a level of danger that had supposedly appeared only twice in American history.
With no other choice, the U.S. government had assembled a raid team led by the Golden Lion, the No. 2-ranked hunter in the country.
It had been an elite dream team made up exclusively of those hailed as the strongest of their generation.
“Captain, what should we do? Please give us an order.”
“Even if we retreat right now... I do not know whether even one of us will survive.”
Yet instead of clearing the dungeon, they were the ones being overwhelmed.
The balance of power itself was completely lopsided.
They could not even dream of reaching the boss. They had barely managed to force their way through about half of the dungeon, but they had finally reached their limit.
Retreating would not be easy either.
Had it not already been said? This national park was as vast as South Chungcheong Province.
They could neither press forward nor turn back. They were caught in a true dilemma.
‘I can’t abandon my comrades. There are still plenty of hunters alive. But if we try to take them with us...’
Of all things, every healer had died.
That was the most painful blow.
In this worst possible situation, the Golden Lion, as the raid leader, had to give an order.
He barely managed to speak, his voice choked with tears.
“We... abandon the wounded. So that at least the survivors have a chance to live. Somehow, we retreat...”
It was a decision to abandon comrades who were still alive.
Just as he thought he had no choice but to commit such a terrible sin—
“Captain! Over there! Look over there. There is something beyond the steam!”
“What?”
One of the raid members ran over, his face deathly pale.
Sulfurous steam from Yellowstone’s hot springs hung thick in the air, but the Golden Lion narrowed his eyes and stared in the direction his subordinate was pointing.
And sure enough.
“Am I... seeing things?”
There was something there.
Amid sulfur springs that could melt flesh on contact and swarming monsters.
A magnificent building stood tall.
The brightly lit building even had, astonishingly, a sign.
[The HOTEL]
“This should be the first dungeon ever discovered by the United States. How could there be a building here? N-no. A hotel, on top of that?! Can you see it too?”
“Yes. I can clearly see the words ‘The HOTEL.’ That is not an illusion, Captain.”
“What in the world...”
A hotel, in a demonic land that might as well have been hell.
The situation went so far beyond common sense that he could scarcely trust his own eyes.
“We’re going there. To The HOTEL.”
They had no other choice anyway.
Under the Golden Lion’s command, the survivors carried as many of the wounded as they could on their backs, gritted their teeth, and pushed ahead.
As though drawn there by something, they finally arrived in front of the hotel.
They opened the main doors framed by elegant floor-to-ceiling glass and stepped inside, where the spotless interior of a hotel spread out before them.
As they stared at the reflection of a beautiful chandelier on the marble floor, their mouths fell open.
“Impossible.”
There really was a hotel inside the dungeon.
Before long, a young Asian man dressed in a neat suit suddenly appeared from somewhere.
“Goodness, we have guests. Welcome. This is The HOTEL, where we always provide the finest service and the most comfortable rest.”
“Y-you are...?”
“I am the owner of this hotel. I know you have many questions, but hmm... you have quite a few injured people behind you. Oh dear, the person over there with a hole in his abdomen is on the verge of breathing his last.”
CLAP CLAP!
The man who had introduced himself as the owner lightly clapped his hands.
“Doctors!”
Then people truly began appearing out of thin air.
Around fifteen doctors in white coats rushed in and immediately began treating the wounded.
A clear green glow flashed from the doctors’ hands.
Wounds healed, bleeding stopped, and faces that had been clenched in pain finally relaxed.
“Is that... Heal? But I have never seen a Heal skill at that level...”
“It is one of The HOTEL’s services. Ah, of course, just because it is a service does not mean it is free.”
The owner gave the Golden Lion a meaningful smile.
“For reference, emergency treatment for the injured is rather expensive. Here at The HOTEL, we follow the latest American healthcare pricing model.”
“If it is money you want, I will pay any amount. My people are alive. That is enough for me.”
“Mm! Excellent. Then, my dear customer?”
He confidently produced a card reader from somewhere and held it out.
“Shall we settle the bill first?”
“Do you offer installments, by any chance...?”
“Oh, absolutely!”
Gates appeared all over the world, and countless people died to the monsters that emerged from them.
But perhaps God truly did exist.
A tiny fraction of people awakened special abilities, and the hunters they became cleared and closed the Gates, allowing humanity to somehow survive.
Ten years after the first Dungeon Break.
In South Korea, which now looked quite different from before but had slowly begun to stabilize—
“Okay, business is done for the day. Let’s see the settlement... Oh! I made 800 Gold?”
Lee Hae-jin smiled contentedly as he looked over the profits he had earned from his land and buildings.
He owned dozens of plots of land scattered across the world, and once the rent and profits from the buildings erected on them were added together, the amount was truly enormous.
It was enough for him to spend the rest of his life in leisure without working, and even if he spent money freely, it accumulated faster than he could use it.
Ah, of course.
‘I wasn’t expecting much because it was such a cheap game, but at this point, isn’t this an incredible game?’
It was all happening inside a game, not reality.
He had bought the game for 2,000 won during a summer sale at an 80% discount.
It belonged to the real estate tycoon genre, and it had turned out to be more entertaining than expected, so his playtime had already exceeded a hundred hours.
And even after all that, he was still nowhere near the ending.
‘Now that’s value for money.’
Unlike his in-game character, who lived extravagantly, Hae-jin was stuck in a cramped semi-basement room.
Naturally, he had no money.
His future, marriage, owning a home... he could not even dream of such things.
‘Haa... I want to become a God Landlord too. I want my own land, with a building of my own standing proudly on it. I could run my own business and collect rent like clockwork.’
Then he could spend his entire life relaxing without having to work.
He did not ask to become a hunter who saved humanity or the greatest billionaire in the world.
He wanted nothing of the sort.
‘Ah, I don’t want to work. I don’t want to go to my part-time job. I don’t even want to breathe. I just want to spend the rest of my life doing nothing... God, I sincerely pray. Please let me coast through life without lifting a finger...’
It was self-interest and devotion to personal comfort taken to a shameless extreme.
There was no need for any grand explanation to understand the kind of man Lee Hae-jin was.
‘I wish to spend the rest of my life at home, doing nothing but playing games. When I am hungry, I wish to order delivery, and when I am sleepy, I wish to lie down and sleep on the spot... If possible, I would also like that home to be a roughly 1,140-square-foot place registered in my name...’
The moment he offered this solemn prayer to God with all the sincerity he could muster—
-A selfish prayer utterly devoid of even the slightest pang of conscience!
-The power of the universe is sincerely impressed by your greed and sloth!
Perhaps God really did exist.
Hae-jin’s wish came true.
“...What?”
A fanfare suddenly rang in his ears.
A translucent screen and messages appeared before his eyes.
It was exactly the same phenomenon said to occur when someone awakened as a hunter.
‘Wait, am I really so lazy that the universe is impressed? Doesn’t everyone want to become a landlord and live an easy life?!’
For a moment, his pride was stung by the message openly mocking him.
[Congratulations, Lee Hae-jin. You have awakened to the ‘God Landlord’ Job!]
“My Job is—no. I actually awakened as a landlord?!”
And not even an ordinary landlord.
A ‘God Landlord.’
In all his life, he had never heard of a God Landlord among the various hunter Jobs.
The absurdity of it made him laugh in disbelief.
He searched the internet for a while.
He had never been particularly interested in hunters before, so he had not known much about awakening, but it certainly seemed that he had awakened for real.
However, he could not find a single piece of information anywhere about a Job called ‘God Landlord.’
‘No, I mean, the message itself is weird.’
Apparently, most people received positive praise when they awakened.
Something about the universe being impressed by their strength, being moved by their compassion for helping others, or at the very least, saying, You are special somehow!
But the reason Hae-jin had awakened was apparently that he was so lazy that even the universe was impressed.
‘Does this still count as a compliment?’
For now, he decided to accept reality.
Since it was such an unusual Job, he first had to figure out how he could make use of it.
‘Still, if my Job is a God Landlord, something beyond an ordinary landlord, maybe there’s a skill that makes a building pop into existence. Or maybe I can buy land all over the place. There should be something like that, right?’
With his heart pounding, he imagined a skill window in his mind.
A screen truly appeared before his eyes.
[Job: God Landlord]
[Skill List]
[Safe Property]
-Protects properties owned by the user.
-Prevents monsters from invading and prevents unauthorized individuals from entering.
-The user also becomes invincible while inside a property they own.
[Go Home]
-The user can move to any property they own at any time.
-Only the skill user and the belongings they are carrying can be transported.
-Traveling with other people is impossible.
[Landlord]
-The user can lease another person’s property and temporarily make it their own.
-A mutual contract is required.
[Full Property Operations]
-Electricity, gas, water, and other essential infrastructure will operate normally without limit in properties owned by the user.
-However, energy charges and utility bills must still be paid separately.
Hae-jin slowly read through the skills and their descriptions one by one.
His face, which had been filled with anticipation, gradually twisted until it was completely crumpled by the end.
“Are you kidding me? What am I supposed to do with this?”
You said I was a landlord.
A God Landlord above even the Creator, at that.
Then should you not at least give me a building, or some land?
‘This is too much. Seriously.’
It was like getting a steamed bun with no filling.
Just like that, he had become a God Landlord without a building to his name.