“What Cha Jun-hyeok said... is it true? You really are the owner of a Legendary-Grade Title?”
“Yes.”
For a moment, the surroundings grew quiet.
And then...
“...Homeowner!!!”
Lee Se-a’s eyes and mouth widened at the same time in shock.
But Cha Jun-hyeok continued speaking seriously as he looked at her.
“It is too early to be surprised, Lee Se-a.”
“Why? What else is there?”
“Do you know what the reward for Stage 1 of a Legendary-Grade Title is?”
“Ah! Why? What is it?”
“A buff.”
“A buff? Why does that matter?”
Cha Jun-hyeok paused briefly.
Judging by his expression, he was doing it deliberately, one hundred percent.
“Hey! Are you not going to hurry up and tell me?”
Cha Jun-hyeok, who had been grinning at Lee Se-a’s reaction, finally opened his mouth.
“It is a 100% buff.”
“...What? A 100% buff can exist? For what?”
“Growth speed. 100%.”
“......That is cheating, is it not?!”
“Exactly! I told you that you were truly lucky.”
Their gazes turned toward me at the same time.
The two looked at me seriously for a while with eyes that were difficult to describe, then soon began laughing at the same time.
“Come, Lee Se-a! As long as you are with the homeowner, you too can be resurrected. We are human beings!!”
Cha Jun-hyeok stretched out his hand with the waterfall behind him.
“A Wish Right...! If I can be with La Vie en Rose again, I...!”
The two people, no, the two ghosts, clasped each other’s hands tightly.
But there were beings that interrupted their moving agreement.
“Kieeek!”
“Grrrr...”
Goblins came running out of the cave, thrusting spears forward.
Behind them, there were also goblins taking positions to shoot arrows.
“You are noisy!”
“Get lost!!”
SLASH!
Cha Jun-hyeok’s sword cut through a goblin’s neck.
“Reverse Regeneration!”
Lee Se-a’s magic drained the goblin’s life force.
Seeing the goblin turn to ash and scatter in an instant, Chae Seon-hwa murmured quietly,
[Is she really a Healer...?]
Then Chae Seon-hwa also fired a sphere of spiritual energy.
BOOM—!
<Your level has increased.>
<Hwanseon Cave Tower’s 3rd floor has been cleared.>
<Shortest time updated. Rank will be raised.>
<You have succeeded in the first S-Rank clear of Hwanseon Cave Tower.>
Basic Rewards: 100 F-Rank Magic Stones, 10-slot Inventory Expansion Ticket, 3 Essences of Earth.
First S-Rank Clear Rewards: 1 Time Delay Ticket, Random Box Assembly Ticket, 1 Random Box Upgrade Ticket, 1 Skill Selection Ticket Fragment>
Attack Power +5%, Defense +5%>
<Would you like to exit Hwanseon Cave Tower’s 3rd floor?>
“Cancel.”
<Exit standby time is 5 minutes.>
“I will absorb one.”
1. Goblin
2. Goblin
3. Goblin Spearman
4. Goblin Spearman
5. Goblin Archer
6. Goblin Archer>
This time, the choices were quite varied.
There were even Spearmen and Archers.
For now, I decided to choose from the Archers.
“Number 6.”
<Absorbing Goblin Number 6.>
The soul of a goblin holding a bow separated from its corpse.
Then it soon slid into my hand and was absorbed.
SHAAAK—!
Up to 30% of the target’s stats can be absorbed.
Vitality: 20
Strength: 21
Agility: 23
Intelligence: 10
Attack Power: 10
Defense: 7
Concentration: 30>
Unusually, this time, there was an item called Concentration.
Was it because its occupation was Archer?
“Concentration.”
<Stat absorption has been completed.>
This time, 8 Concentration was added.
Compared to before, my eyes seemed to focus better, and I felt as though I could see distant things more clearly.
“Homeowner, it is here!”
Today’s exit was, ordinarily enough, the actual entrance to Hwanseon Cave.
Beneath the cave ceiling, the letters spelling “Hwanseon Cave” hung one by one.
Rewards will be recalculated according to causality.>
WHIRRR—!
110 F-Rank Magic Stones, 11-slot Inventory Expansion Ticket, 4 Essences of Earth, 1 Time Delay Ticket, Random Box Assembly Ticket, 2 Random Box Upgrade Tickets, 2 Skill Selection Ticket Fragments>
[Homeowner, is today a welcome party?]
[Ah, that is right! Since Sister Se-a has newly joined us!]
[A welcome party? What do you do at a welcome party?]
[Obviously, a team dinner!]
[A team dinner?]
[Homeowner! What is today’s menu?]
“Wild vegetable bibimbap, potato pancakes, and makgeolli.”
If one had come to the mountains, it was a required course one had to experience at least once.
[Makgeolli! Makgeolli!]
[Potato pancakes and makgeolli are the truth! May we have acorn jelly too?]
“Of course.”
[Kyaaaak!]
[Acorns? Why would anyone eat acorns?]
[Tsk, tsk. This is why you are a chaebol bumpkin. There is such a thing. Just come along.]
[What? Bumpkin?!]
Lee Se-a, who had followed behind us while glaring daggers, ended up drinking makgeolli more diligently than anyone else.
[Ah! It is a rice drink, a rice drink! This is good!]
[Sister, try this too!]
[Acorn jelly! The best!]
[When it comes to potato pancakes, the edges are the best!]
As Cha Jun-hyeok diligently tore off only the edges of the potato pancake, Lee Se-a slapped the back of his hand.
[Hey! Are you the only one with a mouth?]
[Lee Se-a, you said this was your first time having potato pancakes.]
[Does that mean I cannot know what tastes good?]
[This is why I called you a chaebol bumpkin. Once bumpkins get a taste of commoner food, they cause even more of a fuss.]
[What? Bumpkin?! Hey!!!!! Are you looking down on the countryside right now?!]
“We will add three more potato pancakes and three more acorn jellies.”
“Yes, thank you!”
It seemed they would not fight if each person had one placed in front of them.
[Hm? Really?]
[As expected of the homeowner!]
[I told you, did I not? Our homeowner is no ordinary person. He is generous. Generous.]
Chae Seon-hwa smiled brightly and nodded vigorously.
[Let us toast!]
[I will toast too!]
“Cheers.”
Today, I walked back to the lodging with tipsy ghosts.
[A night in the forest is nice too!]
On a moonlit night, Chae Seon-hwa, dressed in clothes that suited the setting perfectly, smiled brightly as she followed behind us.
At dawn the next day, an emergency was declared at the Hunter Management Agency.
Although I was on a business trip, I hurriedly returned to Seoul.
First, I stopped by the house, dropped off the cat and the ghosts, changed clothes, and then headed back to the Hunter Management Agency.
“Ha... America. Those damned bastards!”
On the television at the front of the conference room, a news anchor was delivering the news with a grave expression.
<Governments around the world are expressing difficulty over the United States’ sudden notification. We will connect to our Washington correspondent. Correspondent Jeong Hae-in?>
It was night in Washington.
However, the area in front of the White House was brightly lit by lights that the press corps from various countries had turned on as if competing with one another.
<Yes. With the deadline for the Washington Monument Tower now one week away, the United States has begun pressuring countries to mobilize top-tier Hunters from around the world.>
<What announcement did they make specifically?>
For a moment, the screen changed to the White House briefing room.
<They have decided to impose tariffs of up to 200% starting the day after tomorrow on countries that do not comply...>
Everyone in the conference room was shocked by those words.
“What? T-two hundred percent?”
“Have they lost their minds?!”
SNAP.
The ballpoint pen I was holding broke.
Since awakening, I had developed a slight problem with controlling my strength.
Of course, I was fine most of the time.
But when even a little emotion entered my actions, troublesome things like this happened.
Soon after came the address from the current president of the United States.
<At this moment, the future of humanity hangs by a single thread! We must fight together against a great enemy. If the heart of America collapses! That will be the same as the defeat of the entire world!!>
BEEP—!
With that sound, the television turned off.
At the same time, the Commissioner threw the remote control onto the conference room floor.
However, perhaps because he had deliberately reduced his strength, the batteries did not fly out of the remote control.
It was a kind of performance meant to show, “I am angry right now.”
Office supplies were precious, so it was only natural.
“As you all heard, America has declared a tariff war.”
Whew. A sigh came from somewhere.
Everyone gathered here was probably feeling the same way.
‘Those American bullies, that reckless fool, have done it again!’
Thanks to them, every civil servant in the Republic of Korea was now facing overtime work.
But this situation was not merely a problem of overtime.
“What about the FTA?”
“How is this a request for cooperation?”
“No, a forced Hunter draft? Does that even make sense?!”
A forced Hunter draft.
The true problem Korea now faced was this.
The United States was calling it a voluntary mobilization, but in reality, its intention was to sweep up the top-tier Hunters of its allies.
“We are about to begin the second clear attempt of Gwanaksan Tower right now.”
Everyone nodded at someone’s remark.
Rank 1, Kim Yong-ho.
Rank 2, Moon Tae-oh.
Rank 3, Jeong Eun-seo.
Rank 4, Park Jong-su.
Rank 5, Kim Ye-jin.
The maximum number of people in a party that could be formed in the Tower was five.
So at present, Korea’s five top-tier Hunters were all gathered in one place to clear Gwanaksan Tower’s 36th floor.
And originally, one hour from now, they were scheduled to begin the second clear attempt of Gwanaksan Tower.
“They even briefed us that it seemed possible...”
“It has to be now!”
“That is right. The 20% buff only lasts until today!”
The 20% buff on Gwanaksan Tower, obtained as the reward for the first clear of the Event Stage.
The deadline for this buff’s benefit was 9:05 a.m. today.
When the Tower judged time, it always used the moment of entry as the standard.
This was a rule known to everyone in the world.
Therefore, in the case of this Tower buff as well, it did not matter how many days they spent clearing inside. All that mattered was the time when they entered.
Tap, tap!
The Commissioner knocked on the conference room table with the back of his hand.
“A minimum of five days.”
That was the result the AI had calculated for the clear schedule of Gwanaksan Tower’s 36th floor.
If Korea entered the 36th floor clear as originally planned today, it would be unable to meet the schedule America wanted.
The Hunter America wanted was Jeong Eun-seo, Korea’s Rank 3 and World Rank 9, who specialized in wide-area attacks.
However, without Jeong Eun-seo, Korea’s own clear would also be impossible.
“If only Cha Jun-hyeok were here...”
“No, even if Lee Se-a had at least been alive, it would have been fine!”
“What on earth is happening this year?”
Two top-tier Hunters had already died.
This was no ordinary matter.
“Why did Cha Jun-hyeok go to the 40th floor alone in the first place?”
“The Association sent him.”
“What kind of Association is that, seriously?!”
The conference room grew noisy with everyone’s opinions.
That was how absurd what America was trying to do truly was.
“Two hundred percent...”
“There is no common sense! None!”
“Is this how they treat an ally?!”
“Are they determined to destroy themselves?”
“They are saying we should all die together!”
No matter how one looked at it, it was an operation on the level of a drowning ghost dragging others down.
America was also in a desperate situation.
America, too, had recently lost a top-tier Hunter.
John Howard, who had been ranked third in the world.
No one had expected that a man who boasted such overwhelming military might would die.
However, an anomaly had occurred, and John Howard had died.
On the 50th floor of the Washington Monument Tower.
Thus, the allied nations that received America’s request were now in a position where they could neither do this nor that.
If they did not send Hunters, tariffs would rise to 200%. But if they sent Hunters, and those Hunters died in the Washington Tower?
Then the very foundations of those countries would be shaken.
That was because the Hunters America was demanding were the Hunters who represented each nation.
The situation sank deeper and deeper into chaos.
The worst possible move was this.
If a country refused this Hunter draft and America somehow succeeded in clearing the Washington Monument Tower?
The economic retaliation that would follow would not end with 200% tariffs.
No.
Perhaps economic retaliation alone would not be the problem.
At present, Korea was nothing more than a small country in East Asia protected under America’s umbrella.
One surrounded by great powers, at that.
The cards America held did not end there.
Depending on the situation, they could present something far worse.
For example, national defense issues.
If things went wrong, they might even bring up the nuclear submarine issue.
With the current president of the United States, that was entirely possible.
He was someone who always did more than whatever one imagined.
As expected, this situation was far too dangerous to leave alone.
Last time, Lee Se-a had said...
‘The Tower is connected.’
She had definitely said that.
If that was true, then perhaps this was possible as well.
An item I had simply accumulated until now without paying attention to it.
If its name meant exactly what it said, then perhaps...
‘Time Delay Ticket.’
I opened my Inventory window and checked the detailed information of the Time Delay Tickets.
<Time Delay Tickets x115>
Extends the Tower’s deadline by one day.
The currently applicable Towers are Gwanaksan Tower, Hwanseon Cave Tower, and Seopjikoji Tower.
Applicable Towers can be added using Magic Stones.>
I had found it.
The game changer.