BAAAAAANG--!
A single heavy gunshot thundered through the air.
“Whoa!”
Was this what made an Anti-Materiel Rifle different?
The recoil was far greater than he had imagined.
Unable to withstand it, Hae-jin toppled backward and rolled across the ground.
But—
-DING!
[You have defeated a Juvenile Basilisk!]
[Level Up!]
[You have reached Level 8.]
Heavy recoil meant tremendous destructive power!
As Hae-jin brushed the dirt from himself and stood up, a System window appeared before his eyes.
“F-Finally!!”
It was finally time to reap the reward for the days—no, weeks—of backbreaking misery he had endured.
The Basilisk, struck directly inside its mouth by the round, collapsed onto the ground.
“It's... dead, right? The Status Window appeared, so yeah.”
Still, safety always came first.
Hae-jin poked the creature several times with his Long Spear, but it did not so much as twitch.
Only then did he relax and walk outside the gate.
“Wow. I guess expensive guns really are different.”
He inspected the Basilisk's corpse.
The round seemed to have torn through its mouth and penetrated straight through its head.
A hole nearly the size of a fist had been blasted through it.
No matter how thoroughly a defensive monster covered its body in incredibly hard scales, it still had weaknesses.
But that was not the end of the good news.
-DING!
[Your Watchdog has grown!]
[Level Up!]
[Your Watchdog has reached Level 5!]
“Huh?!”
Hae-jin was not the only one who had received an enormous amount of Experience.
Perhaps Guard had been credited for continuously drawing the Basilisk's Aggro.
Guard had also received a tremendous amount of Experience, allowing him to reach Level 5 in one go.
“Woof! Woof!”
“Wow, our Guard got stronger too!”
Guard wagged his tail as he looked up at Hae-jin, seemingly asking to be praised.
Hae-jin vigorously stroked his head.
[Your Watchdog has reached Level 5.]
[You may acquire one Trait and one Skill.]
“Now then, this is the main event....”
Just like Hunters, Summoned Beasts could acquire a new Trait and Skill whenever their Level reached a multiple of five.
The same naturally applied to Guard, Hae-jin's Watchdog.
Now that Hae-jin had personally experienced just how powerful a single Skill or Trait could be, he could not help wondering what Guard would receive.
'Please give him something good. Something really useful! Please, God!'
The System window began to shine.
Then Guard's new abilities were revealed.
Hae-jin read the descriptions on the screen with a serious expression.
[You have acquired the Trait: 'Claws of the Protector'!]
[You have acquired the Skill: 'Unbreakable Bond'!]
Just as before, it was difficult to tell what either ability did based on the names alone.
That was why the descriptions mattered.
[Claws of the Protector]
-All Stats increase slightly while beside the Owner, 'Lee Hae-jin.'
-The amount of the Stat increase rises or falls according to the value of the Owner's Owned Properties.
“Oh!”
An increase in Stats was always welcome.
Not only did it raise all of Guard's Stats, but the increase would grow as the value of Hae-jin's real estate increased.
'This is incredibly useful. It's practically made for me, isn't it?'
The most important thing for Hae-jin's own growth was to continue acquiring more properties—and more expensive ones at that.
And along the way, Guard's Stats would rise alongside his.
It was better than he had expected, practically a buy-one-get-one-free deal on Stats.
Thoroughly excited, Hae-jin moved on to read the Skill description.
[Unbreakable Bond]
-Allows a deeper bond to be formed with the Owner, 'Lee Hae-jin.'
-When the bond with the Owner reaches a certain stage, the Skill evolves.
“Hmm... This?”
Hae-jin's brows furrowed slightly.
For now, the Skill seemed to do nothing beyond deepening his bond with Hae-jin, his Owner.
It did not raise any Stats, nor did it appear to provide any other immediate effect.
'It says the Skill evolves once our bond gets stronger, so I guess this is the kind of Skill that only shows its real effect after it evolves.'
But Guard was already Hae-jin's Watchdog.
Before even considering something like a bond, Hae-jin had saved his life, and Guard was already a dependable member of the family who understood him almost as well as a person.
And now he was supposed to deepen that bond even further?
Hae-jin thought about it for a moment, but no obvious answer came to mind.
“Ah, forget it. Who cares about that right now? The important thing is that neither of us got hurt and we finally managed to kill that damned thing. Right, Guard?”
“Woof! Woof!”
Hae-jin grinned as he stroked Guard's head.
Well, it was still a Skill.
Surely it would prove useful somehow.
With that thought, Hae-jin decided to focus on his immediate business.
VRRRRROOOOM-!
A loud engine roared.
Hae-jin brought over the small truck he had prepared in advance.
It was secondhand, but he had made a few special modifications to it.
A small excavator crane had been mounted behind the cab.
'I'll probably have to move a lot of large carcasses from now on. If I try doing all of that by myself, I'll wreck my shoulders.'
He had gotten somewhat stronger from exercising recently, but even a juvenile Basilisk was not merely large—it was enormous.
He did not know the exact weight, but it looked to weigh at least two tons.
There was no way he could simply drag something like that along the ground.
That was why he had invested money into preparing a truck specifically for transporting carcasses.
CREEEAK- RUMBLE--!
He lifted the Basilisk's corpse with the excavator bucket, swung it around, and loaded it onto the truck bed.
THUD!
The truck shook slightly under the impact.
The weight was tremendous.
“Guard, let's go! Time to make some money!”
Hae-jin patted the passenger seat, and Guard leaped onto it.
VROOM-!
Hae-jin pressed down on the accelerator and headed toward the Hunting City, humming cheerfully to himself.
Taking monster carcasses to the Exchange was something he did almost every day.
But today, he could not help feeling expectations every bit as heavy as the load sitting in the truck bed.
“E-Eek!!”
“What the hell is that?!”
The Monster Carcass Exchange stood in the center of the Hunting City.
People's jaws dropped when they saw the little truck puttering toward the building.
Hae-jin confidently opened the door, went inside, and returned with an employee.
It was a male employee whose face had become somewhat familiar after seeing him so often.
His eyes, usually filled with indifference, began trembling the instant he spotted the Basilisk.
“I brought this in to sell. Could you help me unload it?”
“You... killed this? You did, Hunter?!”
“Yes, by myself. It was a little troublesome, but once I hit it with a sniper rifle round, it wasn't too bad.”
“How in the world did you kill a Basilisk? N-No, even Hunters above Level 10 struggle against these things in parties....”
“Well, I kept at it until it worked.”
Hae-jin deliberately avoided explaining the details.
There was no benefit in telling anyone that he had hidden behind an invincibility Skill while shooting at it.
More importantly, God Landlord itself was an extremely unusual Job.
'I'm better off keeping information about my abilities to myself whenever possible. If they're curious, they can imagine whatever they want. Heh.'
Unless there was a compelling reason to reveal them, he intended to keep his abilities hidden for now.
“Hunter Lee Hae-jin? I apologize for making you wait. The appraisal of the Juvenile Basilisk you brought in has been completed, so I came to give you the results.”
“Oh, already? I like how quickly you do business here.”
Was it because he had brought in something expensive?
Even the employees' manner of speaking toward him had noticeably changed.
Before, Hae-jin had always needed to walk over to the counter himself.
Now, an employee personally came to the sofa where he was sitting and handed him the Appraisal Report.
“According to the appraisal, it is a perfect A-grade specimen. There are hardly any wounds. Most importantly, not a single one of the scales—the most valuable material—was damaged.”
“Oh, that's a relief. I was a little worried about that.”
“Even experienced Hunters rarely manage to bring one down in such good condition. And you did this alone, Hunter Lee Hae-jin.... That is truly impressive.”
“Oh, it wasn't anything special. So, what about the most important part? The price?”
Had he not heard that Basilisk scales were currently in extremely short supply?
Hae-jin had even checked the current market prices beforehand, just in case.
Of course, since this was only a juvenile rather than an adult, he had deliberately kept his expectations under control.
“Our immediate purchase price after tax is three hundred and twenty million won.”
“...?!”
It was far beyond anything he had imagined.
Not hundreds.
Not thousands.
Hundreds of millions.
Three hundred and twenty million won, at that.
Hae-jin's hands began trembling.
“The... purchase price is higher than I expected.”
“There are simply too many buyers looking for scales right now. Our Exchange alone currently has numerous exclusive purchase offers. And because this specimen is in such good condition, the price came out especially high.”
“I-I see.”
“How would you like to receive the payment?”
“In cash.”
“We will prepare it immediately, Hunter Lee Hae-jin.”
Less than ten minutes later—
Hae-jin walked out of the Exchange while the employees followed him all the way to the entrance and bowed farewell.
He carried large money bags in both hands.
Inside the heavy bags were stacks upon stacks of one-million-won checks.
“Three hundred and twenty million won... I never thought I'd live to hold hundreds of millions in my own hands....”
The profit was overwhelming.
Hae-jin climbed into his truck and tightly shut the windows.
Then he finally unleashed the cheer he had been holding back.
“AAAAAAAH! THIS INVESTMENT PAID OFF LIKE CRAZY!!”
The money he had spent until now suddenly felt like pocket change.
Completely drunk on exhilaration, Hae-jin sat there grinning foolishly for quite some time.
But what else could he do?
Every time he looked at the thick stacks of checks in his hands, another mad grin naturally spread across his face.
“HELL YEAHHHH! BRING OUT THE DRINKS!!”
“AROOOOOO--!”
Guard, equally excited, joined him in howling.
The Basilisk had been such a disgusting, hateful creature.
But after turning it into money like this, it suddenly seemed like the most lovable monster in the world.
“Hmmm... Now's the time when I need to start using my head.”
Normally, whenever he earned a satisfying amount of money, Hae-jin treated himself to a lavish meal.
Beef, expensive sashimi, or whatever else he happened to crave.
He would eat whatever he wanted and bring the happy day to a pleasant end.
But today, he went straight home without stopping at a restaurant.
The amount of money involved was so enormous that he did not even feel hungry.
Besides, he needed to seriously consider what direction to take next.
'I made three hundred and twenty million won in a single day. If things keep going like this, my income is going to increase quite a bit.'
There were plenty of monsters around the shack he had newly established.
Because it was in a deeper region, there were probably more monsters stronger than Garbage Dogs, even if they were not quite as dangerous as Basilisks.
'The question is what I should do with this three hundred and twenty million won.'
He now had a substantial amount of seed capital in his hands.
As Hae-jin considered how best to put it to work, his mind began spinning at full speed.