<Please select the Tower you wish to use.>
1. Hwanseon Cave Tower (40th Floor, 93 days 20:54:17)
2. Gwanaksan Tower (36th Floor, 83 days 05:31:05)
3. Seopjikoji Tower (26th Floor, 145 days 07:22:34)
4. Washington Tower (49th Floor, 6 days 01:28:01)>
“Washington Tower.”
<Using a Time Delay Ticket on Washington Tower. Up to 115 tickets can be used.>
“Use 1 ticket.”
<The Tower’s deadline will be extended by one day.>
All the other words displayed on the Status Window disappeared.
Only Washington Tower’s remaining time remained, and the numbers began changing rapidly like a flip clock.
And then.
<Washington Tower’s deadline has been extended by one day. Remaining time is 7 days 01:27:57.>
[I wanted you to hear it together. I have set things so the Hunter Management Agency can only receive the audio. You may say anything.]
An English voice began flowing from the other side.
And then came a flustered voice.
〔...Seven days? Why did the date suddenly change?! Surely... the negotiation item is! Hurry! The method!〕
It was in English, but if I understood it roughly, that was what they were saying.
〔You were hiding something like this?! How dare you!〕
〔Hand over the solution to us immediately...!〕
They wanted us to hand over the entire solution just like that?
America still had not come to its senses.
〔This is no time for this!〕
〔As quickly as possible!〕
The balance had already tipped completely toward our side.
Ordinarily, in a situation like this, one had to cut off the other party at the right moment. That way, they would grow even more anxious.
For example, by hanging up the call.
It was know-how I had naturally acquired while handling counter work with civil complaints.
After the law was revised, if a petitioner used verbal abuse such as profanity or threats, the civil servant in charge was allowed to end a malicious petitioner’s call first.
But perhaps my thoughts had somehow been transmitted.
[Beep— beep— beep—]
That sound came from beyond the smartwatch.
The Commissioner looked briefly bewildered.
“...Hm?”
[Ah, no need to be alarmed. I accidentally dropped the receiver.]
Had Mugunghwa No. 1 also experienced being harassed by abusive petitioners?
His method of dealing with them was very natural.
He continued with a laugh.
[They are calling back immediately.]
Mugunghwa No. 1 was currently training America.
On the reconnected call, the American side shouted like this.
〔We will do it! We will! Absolutely! Immediately, even...! Please! Say anything!!! We will meet any condition you want! No, would it be better if we went to Korea instead?!〕
That would not do.
There was another operation tied to our side as well.
The conversation afterward proceeded smoothly.
America left everything to our decision.
The negotiation date, location, and even time were set according to the Korean side’s opinion.
〔Everything is fine. All of it is fine. Ah, but if the negotiations are in three days, then what about Washington Tower until then...?〕
I immediately used two more Time Delay Tickets.
〔Thank you. I knew I could trust you!〕
Thus ended the peaceful conversation that satisfied everyone.
After ending the call, the Commissioner grinned and recited the plan ahead.
“Then let us begin setting the trap in earnest.”
The Hunter Association was currently watching America’s movements closely.
America had always been a difficult opponent.
Even when Korea offered the best it could, America always demanded more, as though it were only natural.
China was the same.
On top of that, if the result was not favorable, China would retaliate against Korea. It was the same even when one slipped them under-the-table money and complied with their demands.
When caught between the two great powers, unable to do this or that, Japan would sometimes take advantage of the opening and strike from behind.
That was why the Association Chairman had made a decision.
To concern himself with only one side from the start.
As a result, the Hunter Association was now in the same boat as China.
After all, a neighborhood thug nearby was more threatening than a gangster far away.
Thanks to that, he had also obtained quite valuable information.
Because he had built a friendly relationship with China, he was able to grasp the precise truth of the information Cha Jun-hyeok had brought about the 100th floor.
‘The 100th floor of the Tower grants all wishes.’
And the Association Chairman had also heard top-secret information related to that.
‘However, the 100th floor only activates once.’
The Tower was open to anyone, but only one team could become the master of the 100th floor.
In other words, only the first conqueror could have a wish granted.
Currently, Korea’s Tower clear speed lagged far behind China’s.
That was why the Association Chairman had decided to put his strength behind the most promising card.
“If you help us, we will include someone from the Korean Association side in the clear team.”
That was the promise made by the Chinese side.
A contract stating that they would include a Korean person in the final clear team.
He had already received confirmation through a Mana Document.
The Korean who would enter that final clear team was none other than the Association Chairman himself.
No one else would do.
This was not selfish desire.
To keep China in check once it became the strongest in the world, there was no one better suited than himself, who had steadily watched China all this time.
To do that, he had dirtied his hands a little, but in the end, it was for the greater cause.
‘This is the path of true patriotism.’
Luring Cha Jun-hyeok into a trap.
Eliminating Lee Se-a.
It could not be helped.
Otherwise, China would monopolize every wish.
If that happened, it might not be much different from the end of the world.
It was a bitter matter that left an unpleasant aftertaste, but this too was merely one small trial that a great person had to endure.
However...
“What on earth is the Hunter Management Agency doing?!”
America was furious.
They demanded that Jeong Eun-seo be handed over immediately.
Otherwise, they threatened to raise tariffs to 200% and pressured the Korean government.
“They should have handed her over before things got to this point!”
The Association Chairman’s anger rose as well.
The Hunter Management Agency bastards had far too little experience.
If they lacked experience, they should at least have respect for their predecessors.
But the Hunter Management Agency was the opposite.
“Those bastards! Are they truly determined to ruin the country?!”
If they had requested help from the Association early on, he would not have let things deteriorate to this point.
While the Association Chairman was staining his own hands as he struggled to save the nation, the Hunter Management Agency was trying to bury the country in the ground with its own hands.
The television anchor repeated the same words like a parrot.
[With the deadline for America’s Tower now drawing near... if countries do not comply with the draft, tariffs will be raised up to 200%...]
“Why are they not answering the phone?!”
Since receiving the first report at dawn, he had called the Hunter Management Agency dozens of times.
But not a single person had answered.
“Surely not? They cannot still be sitting around arguing over paperwork at this hour, can they?! Those incompetent fools!”
The Association Chairman suddenly broke into a cold sweat.
It was not impossible.
Were those people not civil servants?
However, that did not mean the Association could simply sit back and do nothing.
The Association was a place where patriots gathered, people different from those incompetent wretches to the bone.
He intended to use this opportunity to show the stark difference between them and the Association.
The Association Chairman snatched his coat from the coat rack and was about to hurry outside.
It was then.
[...Breaking news! We bring you urgent breaking news! We have received word that Korea has succeeded in coordinating opinions with the United States. The two sides have agreed to exchange detailed negotiation proposals in three days, and the negotiation site will remain confidential and be disclosed later...]
“...Negotiations?”
Negotiations in this situation?
Had the Americans suddenly lost their minds?
The Tower in their own capital was about to explode, and they were leisurely negotiating?
It was then.
The Association Chairman’s phone began ringing.
At the same time.
[Negotiation Site: Three days later, Washington Hilton Presidential Suite, 15:00]
A text came from Hunter Choi Hyeong-woo.
And when he answered the ringing call...
[Chairman! I found out the negotiation site with America! Washington D.C., the penthouse at The Graham Georgetown Hotel, 3:00 p.m.!]
At the conflicting information that came in at the same time, the Association Chairman nearly threw his phone.
“Where on earth is it?!”
[Chairman? What is the matter...?]
“...Those bastards.”
[Excuse me?]
The Association Chairman had no choice but to admit it.
There was one negotiation site.
But he had received two pieces of information.
There was only one conclusion.
They had noticed.
That there were spies inside the Hunter Management Agency.
Three days later, Washington D.C.
Sixty administrative civil servants from the Hunter Management Agency were now on a business trip in Washington D.C.
As the Korea-U.S. tariff negotiation delegation, their schedule was three nights and four days in total, including short-term training.
The external purpose of this training was “benchmarking America’s Washington Tower clear.”
It was training with a reason attached, something about studying America’s advanced Tower clear methods and applying them to our country’s Tower clears.
There was a reason they moved on such a large scale instead of with a small number of people.
“Right now, America is desperate to identify you, Section Officer Lee. They are probably half-convinced that you belong to the Hunter Management Agency too.”
In other words, the employee list of the Hunter Management Agency had probably already fallen into their hands long ago.
In a situation like this, if only a few of us moved, including the Commissioner and me, it would be no different from handing them the answer sheet for free.
“In that case, it is better to move together like this.”
We booked lodgings in several places.
The Graham Georgetown, Washington Hilton, Washington Plaza, The Mayflower, and the Grand Hyatt, five places in total.
Among them, the Washington Plaza Conference Room was scheduled to host a working-level staff meeting and press conference after the negotiations ended.
At the actual negotiation site, the JW Marriott, three rooms had been separately booked under aliases for a week. One was the negotiation site, and another was the operations room where Ms. Su-a, Eric, and I would stay.
The other one was for misdirection.
Today was the final day: the day of the Korea-U.S. tariff negotiations.
Before the negotiations began, while we were diligently setting up the operations room under Ms. Su-a’s direction, Eric, who had been checking his phone, approached the Commissioner and spoke.
“Other countries have begun moving as well.”
“Where?”
“America and China.”
“America is doing that to determine our location, I suppose, but China? Why them?”
“This is still only a guess, but...”
Eric continued carefully.
“It seems related to the Association.”
“The Association? Surely you mean the Hunter Association?”
“Yes. The Association side is moving together with China.”
The Commissioner was silent for a moment.
A faint wrinkle formed between his brows, and he laughed hollowly as though dumbfounded.
“China, is it... I truly did not expect a connection on that side.”
“We had only been continuing to track it. We had received intelligence.”
“Intelligence? What kind?”
“It was intelligence saying that someone was leaking information on our country’s Hunters to China, but until now, we had simply been tracking individuals.”
That meant they had expected small fry, only to hook a big fish.
“It is fortunate that we know now. And it is truly fortunate that the Hunter Management Agency was created.”
“I think so as well.”
BEEP!
It was a sound from Ms. Su-a’s computer.
<Life signs have been detected in the Washington Hilton Presidential Suite!>
BEEP!
<The same goes for the penthouse at The Graham Georgetown!>
“It seems the bait has started moving.”
Administrative Officer Choi Hyeong-woo and the special recruitment trio had each been dispatched to the corresponding hotels.
Now, we simply had to wait for the other side to fall into the trap.
If the Association side intended to wiretap, interfere, or do anything else, they would have to show some sort of movement.
“I was worried that after we prepared this much, the Association might not react at all.”
The Commissioner let out a quiet laugh.
“But if they are connected to China, then there is no chance of that, is there? Should I say I am grateful for that?”
Eric nodded and stepped forward.
“I will move first.”
“Good. Wait, and when we send the signal, enter the rooms with the other black operatives. You organized them into two teams, right?”
“Yes. They are lying in wait at the lodgings.”
“Good. You have worked hard. We will move as soon as the meeting ends.”
After Eric left, our own setup ended not long after.
The Commissioner waved his hand and said,
“I will do well and return.”
<Yes! Good luck!>
“Stay strong.”
“What do you mean? All I have to do is deliver the message well. If anyone needs to be strong, it is Section Officer Lee. I believe in you.”
<Good luck, everyone!>
“Yes, yes. I will see you in a little while.”
The Commissioner, who left wearing a Disguise Mask, was scheduled to stop by another room, change clothes, and then head to the negotiation room.
Once all preparations were complete and we contacted the American negotiation delegation waiting nearby, they had agreed to move here immediately.
At last, it was 2:00 p.m.
The Korea-U.S. tariff negotiations, carrying the fate of Korea—or rather, the capital of America—were about to begin.