"Damn it, I’m in the red again."
The irritated voice of a party member who had walked toward the gate a little earlier still lingered in his ears.
"Tell me about it. After repair costs, I’ll barely have enough for a bowl of rice soup. At this rate, we might go bankrupt."
Another Hunter walking alongside them had agreed. They had voiced their complaints while tapping the translucent reward summary windows floating before them.
Recalling their retreating figures, Ju-min turned his gaze to the system window before him.
[100× Quantity]
[100× Value]
The enormous golden letters still filled his field of vision.
Ju-min cautiously checked his surroundings. The other party members had already left through the gate, and the porter who had been gathering loot from the floor had long since disappeared from view with his backpack.
No one was looking at him. No one had noticed this strange golden window.
'It’s definitely only visible to me.'
Ju-min’s lips grew parched.
His heart pounded so loudly that he could hear it thundering in his ears. Yet his mind was becoming surprisingly cool.
The greatest lesson he had learned from three years of struggling at the bottom of the Hunter business was this: before snapping up the bait in front of him, he had to determine whether it was poison or medicine. In this line of work, reaching out carelessly could cost him his head.
Quantity or value?
100× Value.
Honestly, it was tempting. If it inflated the value of low-grade mana stones a full hundredfold, they might turn into rare items he had never heard of, or high-grade mana stones of an extraordinary grade.
But not knowing what they would become was the problem.
He was already struggling to cover his parents’ living expenses and his loan interest this month. He needed cash quickly. Receiving some unidentified object could actually make things more difficult.
Moreover, what if it was a bound item that could not be transferred to someone else, or something so flashy that it drew too much attention? The moment he listed it on the exchange, he would surely be questioned about its origin.
'If an ordinary C-grade Hunter like me carries something he can’t explain, there won’t even be bones left to collect.'
The conclusion was clear. He should choose the safest, most straightforward option for turning his reward into cash immediately.
He needed to secure a definite profit while minimizing the risk.
Ju-min drew a deep breath. Then he fixed an unwavering gaze on the option to the left.
'100× Quantity.'
The moment he made that brief decision inwardly—
FLASH!
The golden window burst apart, releasing a light that seemed to stab at his eyes. Ju-min reflexively raised an arm to shield them.
As the light subsided, new text appeared in his vision.
[Issuing Individual Contribution Reward.]
[Quantity Amplification Applied.]
[300 Low-Grade Mana Stones Stored in Inventory.]
"Ngh."
A stifled groan escaped Ju-min without him realizing it.
He felt a heavy sensation, as though something were pressing down on his chest. A strange fullness swept through his entire body, as if his invisible personal inventory space had filled up in an instant.
Normally, he could barely feel three low-grade mana stones entering his inventory. But this was different. He distinctly felt that something had poured in and filled it.
Ju-min forced his trembling hand into a tightly clenched fist.
It was not a hallucination. Nor was it a system display error.
His body was proving that it was real.
Ju-min hurried forward. He stepped toward the rippling curtain of blue mana at the gate entrance.
***
Instead of the damp cave air, a gust tinged with exhaust fumes from the outskirts of Seoul rushed over him.
A temporary cordon surrounded the dungeon to keep civilians out. The party members who had just finished clearing it stood in small groups, smoking or checking their equipment.
"Check when the next run is scheduled."
"Ah, let’s find a proper tank this time."
The Hunters’ everyday conversations drifted past his ears.
Ju-min left the site at a brisk pace without meeting their eyes. His worn boots tapped rapidly against the asphalt.
How many minutes had he walked? Only after reaching a deserted back alley behind some old shops did Ju-min stop.
After looking all around him, he cautiously reached into the air.
'Inventory.'
A translucent rectangular window opened.
In the topmost slot, where his reward would normally have looked like a worthless speck of dust, the number showing three hundred low-grade mana stones shone proudly.
Holding his breath, Ju-min took out a single mana stone.
SWISH.
A small, dull gray stone rested on his palm.
He could feel every bit of its rough surface. Faint pulses of mana seeped through his fingertips.
No matter what anyone said, this was a genuine low-grade mana stone, one hundred percent.
"This is really driving me crazy."
Leaning against the concrete wall, Ju-min rubbed his face with his hands.
One low-grade mana stone was worth roughly ten thousand won.
Three hundred meant three million won in an instant.
Normally, he would have had to run E-grade dungeons for months, and even then, after deducting weapon repairs and potion costs, he might barely have managed to scrape together that much.
Yet that money had just been dumped into his inventory after a single ordinary dungeon clear.
His heart raced wildly. He could hardly hold back the grin creeping across his face.
He wanted to sell every last one of these mana stones on the exchange immediately, pocket a hefty sum, and go home. Merely imagining buying some meat on the way home and giving his parents spending money made him feel as though his feet might float off the ground.
But.
'Calm down, Im Ju-min.'
He slapped both cheeks hard.
SLAP!
The crisp sound snapped him out of his excitement.
Three million won. It was a lot of money. But he could not let it go to his head.
He needed to think sensibly.
The individual contribution reward from an E-grade dungeon was usually no more than three low-grade mana stones. Even a miraculously good reward yielded only about five.
So what would happen if a C-grade Hunter who had just emerged from an E-grade dungeon poured three hundred low-grade mana stones onto an exchange counter at once?
'They’d immediately investigate whether I’d robbed some major guild’s warehouse.'
The information networks of the Hunter Association and the guilds were more extensive than one might expect. Suspicious cash flows or abnormal loot distribution immediately attracted scrutiny.
There was no reason to get tangled up in trouble. Drawing attention was a way of shortening his own life. He could not abandon the safety he valued above all else.
'I need to split them up and sell a few at a time.'
Ju-min organized his inventory.
Of the three hundred stones, he moved two hundred eighty-five into the deepest slot. He placed only the remaining fifteen at the front.
That was just the right amount to pass off as loot he had accumulated over several days.
Letting out a long breath, Ju-min straightened his clothes and left the alley.
His destination was the Official Hunter Exchange.
***
The Official Hunter Exchange in central Seoul.
It was a weekday afternoon, so the interior was fairly quiet. Ju-min took a numbered ticket and waited briefly in a cushioned chair. When his number was called, he approached the counter.
"Hello. I’d like an appraisal for a sale, please."
"Of course, Hunter. I’ll need to check your identification first."
The neatly uniformed clerk gave him a businesslike smile and took his Hunter Registration Card.
When the clerk swiped it through the terminal, a beep sounded, and his information appeared on the monitor.
"Hunter Im Ju-min. Your C grade has been confirmed. Please place the items you wish to sell on the table."
Pretending to open the bag he was carrying, Ju-min took out the mana stones he had set aside in his inventory. The dull gray stones scattered across the appraisal table with a clatter.
"Fifteen low-grade mana stones."
He had taken out only the fifteen he had separated beforehand. It was a choice made to keep things as safe as possible. This quantity would arouse no suspicion at all.
With practiced movements, the clerk swept the stones onto a small metal tray and slid it into the appraisal machine.
WHIRR.
The machine began running. It was only a brief moment, but sweat formed along Ju-min’s back.
'Surely they won’t show up as defective just because the system created them abnormally.'
Their appearance and texture were flawless, but the machine’s detailed appraisal might give a different result. His mind grew crowded with thoughts of how he could explain himself if their mana pulses were irregular or they were judged to be fake.
A few anxious seconds passed.
DING.
A cheerful notification sounded, and a green light appeared on the appraisal machine’s monitor.
"The appraisal is complete. All fifteen low-grade mana stones meet the normal standards for mana content. At the current market price of eleven thousand won each, the total comes to one hundred sixty-five thousand won."
The clerk turned the monitor to show Ju-min the details.
"Shall I transfer the payment directly to this account?"
"Ah, yes. That’s correct."
Ju-min nodded, trying hard to keep his voice from trembling.
After the clerk typed a few times, the smartphone in Ju-min’s pocket vibrated briefly.
He turned on the screen and checked the notification.
[Deposit: 165,000 won]
The cash had entered his bank account.
At the same time, a receipt emerged from the small printer beside the counter with a crackling sound.
"The sale has also been properly recorded on the Hunter terminal. Here’s your receipt. Is there anything else you need?"
"No, thank you. Have a good day."
Ju-min took the receipt and hurried out of the exchange.
The automatic doors opened, and the outside air struck his face.
Ju-min stopped and looked down at the paper in his hand.
[Item: Low-Grade Mana Stone]
[Quantity: 15]
[Appraisal Result: Normal]
This was clearly an abnormal mutation of the system whose origin he did not understand. Yet it had passed both reality’s stringent rules and the scrutiny of a precision appraisal machine.
It had been recognized as a legitimate, normal asset, neither illegally distributed goods nor a duplicate.
"Whew."
The long breath he had been holding escaped all at once. His tightly clenched fist slowly relaxed.
His gaze rested somewhere in the empty air.
Deep within his invisible inventory, two hundred eighty-five low-grade mana stones still lay sleeping, untouched.
Completely clean assets that he could turn into cash at any time.
The corners of Ju-min’s mouth slowly curved upward.
He walked away with a lighter step than ever.