“Hmm, these are good properties, but… they’re just crowded, cramped, and expensive.”
At Song Ji-hu’s words that the A-grade district every guild in Korea wanted to enter was crowded and cramped, Yoon Yeong-su’s finger stopped in midair.
“If we get an office somewhere expensive anyway, it’s only natural that the size shrinks. For the same money, a wider and freer place would be better.”
“But a guild office is also an external signboard. Simply having a base near the Association changes things like sponsorships and work efficiency….”
It was not for nothing that other guilds placed their offices near the Association building, where rent was expensive. The fact that they were there alone changed a guild’s class.
Yet this person had no interest in such things at all.
Just as Yoon Yeong-su was about to say something, Song Ji-hu moved the map this way and that with his finger.
He left Gangnam, where the Association was located, and moved out toward the outskirts of Seoul. Then he stopped at a point on the map where no landmark at all was displayed.
“Can we purchase this area too?”
Yoon Yeong-su adjusted his glasses and peered at the map. Then he furrowed his brow deeply.
The place Song Ji-hu pointed to was near what had once been Gasan Digital Complex, currently classified as a slum scheduled for redevelopment.
“Ah… To be honest, this place is not appropriate for placing a guild office. The environment is poor, the infrastructure is annihilated, and the security issues are serious….”
“Let’s go. It will be faster to see it directly.”
At Song Ji-hu’s words, Yoon Yeong-su closed his mouth.
His gaze naturally turned toward Eun Seo-jin, but Eun Seo-jin was looking out the window without saying anything.
Yoon Yeong-su forced his reluctant expression under control and turned the car around.
***
The moment they got out of the car, damp air greeted them.
Instead of the bustling vitality of Gangnam where they had just been, they heard the sound of paint crumbling and alley cats crying.
Shops with rusted shutters pulled down, making one wonder when they had ever opened, empty lots overgrown with weeds, and even collapsed buildings. Traces of people were rare.
Even the occasional passersby, once they realized the group were Hunters, lowered their heads and hurried their steps. No one wanted to stay here for long.
“…Is this the right place?”
Yoon Yeong-su knocked mud from his shoes and wore a troubled expression.
His elite expression grew ambiguous enough that he could not hide it. No matter how he looked around, this place was nothing but crumbling ruins.
Eun Seo-jin also instinctively stayed alert and toyed with his sword.
“Hmm… Which way was it….”
Song Ji-hu walked leisurely, as if strolling through a neighborhood he had known for a long time.
He checked the state of the buildings, measured the area of the empty lots with his eyes, and engraved the width and direction of the alleys into his mind.
“Here it is.”
And finally, he stopped in front of one building. An old five-story commercial building.
Every shop on the first floor had its shutter down, and the windows on the upper floors were broken. No matter how one looked at it, it was an abandoned building.
Mana concentration phenomenon.
A natural phenomenon that had occurred intermittently ever since Gates appeared, in which the concentration of mana in the air of a certain area rose abnormally high.
The cause was unknown, but one thing was certain. Hunters who trained in a mana concentration area showed several times greater efficiency than those who did not.
That was why, once discovered, such areas came under state-level management, and the surrounding land prices soared through the roof.
‘Who would know that in just a few months, this neighborhood will become the most expensive land in South Korea… no, in the entire world?’
Song Ji-hu, who had been looking up at the building, turned toward Yoon Yeong-su.
“Here.”
“With the amount it would cost to get an office in that A-grade district from earlier, can we buy this building, the surrounding buildings, and even the nearby land?”
Yoon Yeong-su, who had been staring blankly at Song Ji-hu, tapped on his tablet.
The publicly assessed land value of this area, actual transaction prices, and current listings. After checking the numbers, Yoon Yeong-su nodded slightly.
“It is possible. No, there will be money left over. The building owners are desperate to wash their hands of this place, so they are dumping properties as urgent sales. On top of that, there are quite a few buildings purchased by the state… With the assigned budget, you could own this entire block.”
At those words, Song Ji-hu nodded with satisfaction.
“Good. Then please buy as much land and as many buildings as possible, centered around this building. Zero Point’s base will be here.”
“…Pardon?”
Yoon Yeong-su asked back.
They had come to find one guild office, and now he was suddenly saying he would buy this entire area?
“But… Hunter Song Ji-hu, even so, the guild’s prestige….”
“As wide as possible. If I can take out a personal loan, add all of that in too. Please proceed with the land purchase as the priority over buildings.”
Eun Seo-jin looked around and slowly opened his mouth.
“…Why this place?”
He agreed, but it was pure curiosity.
Since this would become the base of the guild he would belong to, he wanted to know at least the reason.
“There are no people around to get in the way, it’s quiet, and isn’t it perfect for training?”
Song Ji-hu looked around once. The empty streets. The wide vacant lots.
A silence with no noise, no gazes, and no interference.
Even that was only the brief appearance visible right now.
“People are going to gather wherever I am anyway. What does the location matter?”
It was something that could sound arrogant at first glance, but there was no denying that it was also an obvious truth.
If the world’s only existence capable of healing mental contamination was there, Hunters from all over the world would gladly come no matter where that place was, whether a mud field or a garbage dump.
“Understood. I will organize the purchase draft by tomorrow and report back.”
Yoon Yeong-su added the bulk purchase of the site to his work list, though his expression still showed that he could not understand.
‘What on earth did he see in this shabby slum… even when we were offering to set up an office in the heart of Gangnam….’
But inwardly, he still had no choice but to tilt his head.
“As you said earlier, I will also look into a personal loan for Hunter Song Ji-hu.”
“Mine as well. Please.”
At those words, Yoon Yeong-su looked at Eun Seo-jin.
“Hunter Eun Seo-jin, you too?”
“If it is the guild leader’s choice.”
Song Ji-hu nodded and checked the time.
“Please handle the purchase matter. We have preparations for tomorrow’s dungeon.”
“Understood. I will proceed that way.”
That was the way Yoon Yeong-su operated.
Whether he understood it or not, he finished the work entrusted to him cleanly.
***
The next day, C-rank Gate Twilight Catacombs.
Unlike before, this was a simple annihilation dungeon.
It had a straightforward structure where one cleared it by exterminating more than a certain number of undead monsters inhabiting the underground cemetery. There were no special clear conditions, no traps, and no troublesome boss gimmicks.
There was one reason he had deliberately chosen a place like this.
‘Mental Link. I need to try it in real combat.’
He had to understand the performance and limits of his newly acquired skill precisely to use it in a real battle.
When he arrived in front of the Gate, the three Hunters assigned with them were already there.
“H-Hunter Song Ji-hu, right?!”
The first to run over was a female Hunter who seemed to be in her early twenties, her eyes sparkling.
“It’s an honor! Thank you so much for letting me run with you!”
“I saw everything on the community! It’s true that contamination levels really go down, right?”
“The story about you clearing that B-rank Gate was a huge topic in our guild group chat too!”
The other two also bowed their heads repeatedly in greeting.
Their eyes were full of reverence. Running a dungeon with Song Ji-hu itself was becoming a privilege no different from winning the lottery among Hunters.
“I look forward to working with you.”
Song Ji-hu calmly accepted their greetings.
When Eun Seo-jin stood half a step behind him, one hand resting on the hilts of his twin swords with an indifferent expression, the Hunters’ gazes shook once more.
“Then let’s go in.”
The Gate’s blue light swallowed the party.
***
After they entered the Gate, the air inside the dungeon that greeted them was cold and damp.
The smell of mold and rotting corpses stabbed their noses. An unidentified slime covered the floor, making a chilling squelching sound each time they stepped.
“Mental Barrier.”
When Song Ji-hu lightly raised a hand, a soft silver film wrapped around the entire party.
“Ohhh… So this is it.”
“It’s fascinating. Should I say it feels like my head is clearing up…?”
The Hunters’ expressions brightened considerably.
Since it was a C-rank dungeon, the debuff was not large, but the difference between having it and not having it was clear.
“Eun Seo-jin, wait.”
“Yes.”
When Eun Seo-jin stopped walking, Song Ji-hu approached and placed a hand on his shoulder.
‘Mental Link.’
HUM-
The moment it activated, the world opened another layer. At the same time, Song Ji-hu’s temples began throbbing as if screaming.
“Ugh….”
Eun Seo-jin’s vision overlapped over his own. It felt as if another transparent monitor had been pulled up.
The darkness of the left corridor that Eun Seo-jin was looking at flowed clearly into Song Ji-hu’s brain.
That was not all.
Even sensory information such as the touch and hearing Eun Seo-jin felt surged in like a wave, a vast amount of information that could never be conveyed through words.
Eun Seo-jin’s eyes widened as well.
“What… is this?”
“Wait. Mental Detection.”
When he activated the skill, the information Song Ji-hu’s skill read was transmitted to Eun Seo-jin without filtering.
Enemy positions, numbers, movement directions. It was enough information to draw the battlefield even with his eyes closed.
“This is….”
Eun Seo-jin could not continue speaking. He had never heard of or seen such a skill.
A strange sensation, as if they were two yet one. A sense of stability as if they were standing back-to-back even while standing apart.
“It is… a revolution.”
“It’s a skill I newly acquired. Let’s test it a bit.”
At Song Ji-hu’s words, Eun Seo-jin nodded.
When he drew his twin swords, a chill rose from the blades.
“I will go.”
FWOOSH-!
Eun Seo-jin’s form blurred. Frost Step. In an instant, he narrowed a distance of one hundred meters and cut down the vanguard of the undead unit.
“Wow… As expected of an S-rank….”
Normally, when killing undead, one would have to cut them apart, find their core, and destroy it one by one.
But just before Eun Seo-jin swung his sword again, Song Ji-hu’s information seeped in.
‘Between the third rib on the left.’
It was not speech. It was the transmission of an intuition closer to an image.
Eun Seo-jin’s sword twisted its trajectory.
Instead of bisecting the body, it precisely pierced the weak point Song Ji-hu had transmitted.
CRACK-!
The core shattered, and the undead vanished in a single strike.
“Oh…! As expected of an S-rank! The core in one hit….”
Then the second. The weak point transmitted by Song Ji-hu’s senses was precisely pierced by Eun Seo-jin’s sword.
The third, and the fourth as well.
There was not a single word of conversation, but it was more perfect than any coordination.
“Wasn’t Hunter Song Ji-hu a mental-type supporter?”
One Hunter following from behind gaped.
“Uh, hmm… That’s what I knew too, but… I guess the rumors floating around the community were true.”
“You mean that he fights well and gives good orders?”
At those words, the other Hunters shrugged. How could they deny it when the battle unfolding before their eyes looked like this?
“Is he using telepathy or something? How do they match up that perfectly without saying a word?”
“…Did we need to come?”
The speed at which the undead horde was being swept away was abnormal.
Once information was added to the combat power of an S-rank, the monsters of a C-rank dungeon were no different from paper dolls.
“Ugh….”
Song Ji-hu read the battlefield with Mental Detection while continuously sending information to Eun Seo-jin.
Enemy positions, weak points, next action patterns.
‘Good. It’s better than expected.’
Satisfied with the effect of the link, Song Ji-hu moved to the next area. That was when it happened.
Prickle-
A sharp numbness ran through his head.
“Ugh….”
Maintaining the link, receiving Eun Seo-jin’s sensory information, reading the battlefield with Mental Detection at the same time, and on top of that, handling his own combat.
The burden of processing those three things at once made his temples throb as if they would burst.
‘Ugh…!’
Something hot flowed from the tip of his nose, and his vision shook.
Just as the claws of an undead that had sprung out from behind a forked path were about to graze Song Ji-hu’s shoulder, Eun Seo-jin split it in half.
SLASH-!
“Do not overdo it.”
Eun Seo-jin’s sharp concern was transmitted through their connected consciousness. Song Ji-hu wiped away the nosebleed and lifted the corner of his mouth.
“It’s because I’m not used to simultaneous processing yet. It’s fine. I just need to adapt.”
Eun Seo-jin wondered if that was something that could be done so easily, but Song Ji-hu immediately began controlling it.
“Mm, mm… I think this should work.”
When he focused on battle, he reduced the bandwidth of the link. As if adjusting the volume on a speaker.
“There. This should be much easier.”
After ten minutes, simultaneous processing became natural, and after twenty minutes, his use of the skill became smooth, as if he had been using it that way from the start.
‘Testing a new skill in real combat and adapting to it during battle….’
Eun Seo-jin felt a shiver run through him. As a Hunter, he knew all too well how difficult that was.
Usually, making a new technique familiar enough to use in battle took weeks to months. And that was in a safe training room.
‘As expected… this person.’
Eun Seo-jin’s gaze rested on Song Ji-hu’s back.
He had felt it from the moment they first met, but Song Ji-hu’s speed of adaptation was far beyond the bounds of human beings.