“Argh! This is driving me insane!”
The stalemate continued without any sign of ending.
THUD- THUD-!
-SKREEEEEE!!
The juvenile Basilisk kept letting out ear-splitting shrieks as it hurled itself against the invisible gate of the temporary structure.
Hae-jin was equally determined to see who would give up first and continued thrusting his Long Spear without rest, but even after more than twenty minutes, he had failed to inflict a single meaningful wound.
At this rate, the pointless struggle seemed destined to continue forever.
And then there was that damned screeching.
'It's ridiculously loud. My head is ringing. Argh!'
Listening to it constantly inside the temporary structure as it shook with every impact was enough to make him feel as though he were losing his mind.
He tried desperately to find a weakness, but that was easier said than done against a creature whose entire body was covered in scales.
'No. What if I aim for its mouth instead...?'
The Basilisk seemed completely enraged as well, screeching continuously at the top of its lungs.
Hae-jin took a step back for a moment.
Rather than blindly stabbing at it, he caught his breath and waited for the right timing.
'Now!'
STAB!
-SKREEEEK... KRRRREEEEEE!!
He timed his strike precisely for the moment the monster opened its mouth wide to shriek, then drove the spear straight into its maw.
No matter how tough a Basilisk was, surely the inside of its mouth was not covered in scales too.
Sure enough, its reaction was completely different this time.
“Yeah, how does that taste, you damned lizard?!”
The Basilisk screamed in agony as vivid blue blood dripped from its mouth.
Hae-jin could feel it instinctively.
For the first time in twenty minutes, he had landed a proper hit.
Realizing that he had finally found a viable method of attacking it filled him with renewed energy.
His head, which had felt ready to split apart only moments ago, seemed to clear instantly.
“If I stab you like that another ten times or so, let's see if you still refuse to die... Huh?”
Just as he was about to continue his assault while he had the momentum—
“W-Why won't this come out?!”
The spear he had driven deep into its mouth would not budge.
He pulled with every ounce of strength he had, but it remained completely immovable.
Feeling a sudden sense of dread, Hae-jin looked up.
The Basilisk had clamped its jaws shut around the spear.
“You can't be serious...”
-SKREEEEEE!!
Perhaps sensing that something had gone wrong, the Basilisk immediately turned tail and fled into the brush.
Of course, it ran away with Hae-jin's precious Long Spear still clenched in its mouth.
It moved at such incredible speed that there was no hope of catching it on foot.
“You lunatic! Hey, you damned lizard! Give me back my spear! Argh, my spear!!”
He called desperately after the retreating monster, but only an empty echo answered him.
It had been a precious weapon he had used for so long that it fit perfectly in his hands.
“Damn it.”
And just like that, it was gone.
“WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!”
“No, Guard. Wait. Don't leave the house. No matter what happens, our safety comes first.”
“Whimper...”
Guard looked at Hae-jin as though apologizing for being unable to help.
His ears and tail drooped.
Hae-jin stroked his head and muttered quietly.
“Yeah, I suppose it was about time I upgraded my weapon anyway. If I want to kill that lizard... Damn it. Do I need to get myself a gun or something?”
Apparently, the house was not the only thing that needed an upgrade.
To start with the conclusion, Hae-jin had one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.
First, the good news.
SWISH!
-YELP!
-YELP!
The Garbage Dogs that had been completely wiped out around the lodge had begun appearing again near this expansion base.
There were even far more of them here than there had been around the lodge.
Thanks to that, Hae-jin had cleanly solved the hunting problem that had been his greatest concern.
He bought another Long Spear and was able to continue hunting Garbage Dogs with even greater proficiency than before.
But as the saying went, when something good happened, something bad was bound to follow.
-SKREEEEEE!!
“Ah, damn it! Please, just stop!!”
Whenever Hae-jin finally managed to get a proper Garbage Dog hunt going, that creature appeared without fail.
That damned Basilisk.
Apparently, it had developed a genuine grudge against Hae-jin and was now thoroughly determined to make his life miserable.
-WHIMPER!
-YELP!
“No! Don't go! Argh!”
The Basilisk was a monster so powerful that Garbage Dogs could not even be compared to it.
As a result, the Garbage Dogs Hae-jin had painstakingly lured in tucked their tails between their legs and bolted the moment they heard the Basilisk's bizarre shriek.
By this point, Hae-jin was genuinely furious enough to feel his temper rising to the top of his head.
He glared at the monster while grinding his teeth just as fiercely.
“Fine... One of these days, I'm going to cut your damned throat myself. Let's see who wins in the end, you cursed lizard...”
About another fortnight passed like that.
After retrieving all the cash he had stored at the Studio Residence in the Hunting City, Hae-jin finally set aside a day to tally up his finances.
How much did he have in total if he combined his savings, cash, and stolen goods?
There was enough of it that he even bought a money-counting machine to calculate everything properly.
WHIRRRR!
“One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, ten million... One hundred million? I've already saved one hundred million won?!”
And even then, he still had another twenty million won left over.
He had spent every day doing nothing but hunting like a madman and selling monster carcasses, so he had not realized just how much money he had accumulated.
'Okay. With this much, I think I can finally move on to the next step.'
Naturally, he had already planned what came next.
Especially because he needed it if he wanted to kill the Basilisk that had become his sworn enemy.
'What good is it to just hoard money? My Job is God Landlord. I need to invest properly and make that money grow. Of course!'
He intended to spend somewhat boldly this time.
He spent the entire day relentlessly visiting properties around the Hunting City.
And as a result—
“Hunter, what do you think of this property? It's the only house that perfectly matches the conditions you asked for.”
“Wow... This is exactly what I imagined!”
Hae-jin managed to find another house he liked.
It was located on the outskirts of the Hunting City.
It was a massive detached mansion that had been completely abandoned more than a decade ago.
“But are you really sure you want to buy it? It's been neglected for so long that the renovation alone will probably cost as much as the house itself. And even though you're a Hunter, this is still an area where monsters appear.”
Perhaps his conscience was getting to him.
Before stamping the contract, the Licensed Real Estate Agent asked him cautiously.
Instead of answering, Hae-jin asked a question of his own.
“This house is about 397 square meters, right? And it has a yard and a terrace too. Correct?”
“Yes. The floor area ratio is excellent, and the actual usable floor space is extremely generous.”
“And how much did you say the house costs, including the land?”
“Twenty million won.”
That was right.
This unbelievable conversation was completely real.
A magnificent 397-square-meter mansion, land included, for only twenty million won!
It was a bargain that would have been unimaginable in Seoul, or even in most provincial areas.
Of course, there was an obvious reason for that.
'Prices in the Hunting City may be insanely expensive, but once you move even a little way into the dangerous zones, land prices practically drop to nothing.'
After all, this was a frontline region.
There was no infrastructure and hardly any people, while monsters were everywhere.
It might have been a different story in the central district where residents, stationed Hunters, the national association, and the Exchange were located.
But land on the outskirts offered no minimum guarantee of safety whatsoever.
And the only person in the world willing to buy such land together with a rotting house was Lee Hae-jin.
'I heard the owner originally listed this place for three hundred million won, but nobody bought it, so the price eventually dropped all the way to twenty million. I'm the only one making out like a bandit here.'
THUMP!
Hae-jin confidently pressed his fingerprint onto the contract.
He also paid the full purchase price in cash on the spot.
-DING!
-You have acquired a new property!
-The list of available properties has been updated!
[Owned Properties – 26]
[Leased Properties – 2]
“Ha!”
“Thank you so much for such a smooth transaction, Hunter!”
The System window appeared the instant the contract was finalized.
And that was not all.
['A Landlord's Gravitas' has been strengthened!]
[Attack Power increase: 0.1% -> 0.3%]
It was only a modest amount, but his Attack Power had increased as well.
'Ten million won for every 0.1%... I still have a long way to go. But this is still something!'
After leaving the real estate office, Hae-jin immediately headed toward his newly purchased house with his heart pounding in anticipation.
'What? The house is rotting away? Renovations alone will cost tens of millions of won?'
Under normal circumstances, that would have been perfectly reasonable.
But that only applied to ordinary people.
For Hae-jin, it meant absolutely nothing.
If anything, such properties were simply massive clearance sales that allowed him to buy excellent real estate cheaply.
“Ha! This is what I'm talking about!”
The moment he returned to the house he had purchased, Hae-jin's jaw dropped.
The mansion that had been on the verge of collapsing only moments earlier had been completely repaired in the blink of an eye.
The paint was immaculate, while the rain-soaked wood and shattered marble had been restored perfectly.
Forget renovation—it looked so pristine that anyone could have believed it was a brand-new house that had just been completed.
“As expected of my Skill. It's ridiculously overpowered. Heh!”
Hae-jin walked through the garden with Guard while inspecting every corner of the property.
His favorite part of the house was undoubtedly the garden.
'First of all, the walls are incredibly high. They look at least two meters tall. With these, the odds of some monster jumping over and causing chaos are practically zero.'
Hae-jin was an extreme believer in caution and self-preservation.
Safety came first.
It was not merely that he did not want to die.
If possible, he did not even want a single hair on his body harmed.
'And this huge gate is perfect too. It's one of those double gates you only ever see in television dramas.'
He planned to transport a large quantity of supplies through this house from now on.
That included everything from monster carcasses to materials for constructing even more temporary expansion bases.
A gate this large could easily accommodate not only an ATV, but even a truck.
'I guess I should start moving in first!'
He began transporting the furniture from the studio apartment in Seoul where he had previously lived.
A moving company?
There was no need to spend good money hiring one.
All he had to do was connect the bedroom door to his new house and walk back and forth.
Thanks to the My Comfortable Home Trait, he did not even need to clean the house before moving in.
The entire move was finished in the blink of an eye.
Hae-jin's eyes sparkled as he gazed at his home, which had now become a luxurious residence genuinely fit for a person to live in.
'The move is finished, and my Attack Power went up a little too. Then now... it's time to go get a weapon capable of killing that bastard.'
That damned Basilisk.
While investigating recently, Hae-jin had discovered that demand for Basilisk scales had suddenly skyrocketed.
Apparently, Alchemists had discovered a new formula for Buff Potions.
Thanks to that incredible timing, the carcass of an Adult Basilisk in good condition had become so valuable that one could fetch as much as five billion won.
The number was so absurd that it could practically knock someone flat on their back.
The price of juvenile Basilisks had risen along with it.
A creature that had previously been worth around one hundred million won had skyrocketed to between three hundred million and as much as five hundred million won.
It had truly become living gold.
'Just wait a little longer, you damned lizard. I'll be coming to avenge my spear soon.'
Hae-jin had a plan.
Just as he always did.
There might be a few waves along the way, but everything was steadily moving forward with the wind at his back.