When they cleared the dungeon and exited the Gate, the fading afternoon sunlight greeted the party.
“Wow… I don’t think even an hour passed.”
“Exactly… I still thought it would take at least over an hour.”
Clear time: 32 minutes. It was a record-breaking result, but what people were interested in was not how quickly they had cleared the dungeon.
“There were no special incidents, those two fought incredibly well, and the body cams are here.”
“Thank you.”
Normally, the procedures would have taken quite a while, but today was different.
‘If I use it by adjusting it depending on the situation… it’ll be useful enough even in long-term dungeons.’
While Song Ji-hu thought about the utility of the Mental Link skill, the other Hunters lined up before the supervisor with pounding hearts.
“Good work! We will proceed with measuring mental contamination levels!”
The supervisor approached with a measuring device in his trembling hand. The three Hunters who had participated in the party swallowed and lined up.
Was what they had read on the community true? Did mental contamination levels really decrease?
All three of them were trying to maintain their composure, but they could not hide their trembling fingertips.
Beep- beep- beep-
The measuring sound rang three times, and the supervisor’s expression subtly changed.
He checked the numbers on the tablet twice, then three times, before raising his head.
“All three of you… have had your contamination levels decrease.”
After a moment of silence, screams burst from the Hunters.
“By how much?! How much did it go down?!”
“By 1. This Hunter here decreased by 2.”
The first to react was the female Hunter who had run up and greeted Song Ji-hu earlier. Tears welled in her eyes.
“2…? It went down by 2?”
One might think it was only 2, but to Hunters, it was no different from having their lifespan extended by that much.
“Thank you… truly, thank you so much.”
The Hunters repeatedly bowed toward Song Ji-hu.
“You are our benefactor.”
“Truly… this feels like a dream. For contamination levels to go down.”
Song Ji-hu calmly nodded and accepted their thanks.
“Not at all. I’ll see you again if another opportunity comes up.”
The fact that mental contamination decreased simply by running a dungeon with Song Ji-hu would now become confirmed truth.
‘Is this the effect of Mental Barrier? The only skill I used in this dungeon was Mental Barrier, after all….’
The moment he finished cleaning up and climbed into the car, his phone rang. It was Yoon Yeong-su.
– Guild leader.
Yoon Yeong-su’s voice over the receiver was a tone lower than usual and stiff.
– This is an emergency.
“Yes, go ahead.”
– The USAA guild leader is coming to Korea. He has requested a personal meeting with you, guild leader.
USAA. United States Apex Agents.
An elite special guild under the American Hunter Alliance, and the world’s No. 1 guild in the guild rankings.
“When?”
– Probably… he will arrive in Korea in about 10 hours. What will you do?
“That’s faster than I expected.”
The corner of Song Ji-hu’s mouth rose. Contrary to his words, he would probably have been disappointed if it had been any later than this.
Eun Seo-jin’s eyes, seated in the driver’s seat, sharpened. It was the instinctive wariness he felt as an S-rank Hunter.
“I should meet him. He came a long way.”
Whether it was USAA, another guild, or a government, their reason for coming to meet him was obvious.
They were going to come anyway. The only difference was who came first, and when.
***
The next day, early morning.
At 6 a.m., before the morning sunlight had even fully shone on the apartment, Yoon Yeong-su arrived at Song Ji-hu’s apartment.
As always, he had a crisply ironed shirt collar, shoes polished without a speck of dust, and in one hand, materials on Rick Wesley, the USAA guild leader he would meet today.
Ding-dong-
After pressing the bell and before the door opened, Yoon Yeong-su looked over the materials once again.
There was only one most important agenda item today. The meeting with Rick Wesley, USAA’s guild leader.
Ceremonial protocol, route of movement, expected questions, the Association’s guidelines, even an interpreter. Everything was perfect. At least, within the scope of administration that he knew.
Click-
The door opened, and Song Ji-hu appeared.
“Good morning, guild leader.”
“Yes, good morning.”
And at just the right moment, the door across from his opened, and Eun Seo-jin came out as well.
“Regarding today’s USAA matter, the meeting time and route….”
It was an organization that had more than half of America’s S-rank Hunters under its command, practically no different from the military power of the American government itself.
Just as Yoon Yeong-su was about to hand over the meeting documents, Song Ji-hu spoke first.
“More importantly… was the site purchase completed?”
“…Pardon?”
Yoon Yeong-su’s finger, which had been about to explain, stopped on top of the documents.
“I mean the guild site purchase I mentioned the other day. What is the progress?”
Yoon Yeong-su stood there with the tablet in hand, blankly staring into Song Ji-hu’s ash-gray eyes.
Right now, this man was talking about real estate in a slum ahead of a meeting with the leader of the world’s No. 1 guild, who had the entire world’s attention focused on him.
“U-um… this is USAA we are talking about. Wasn’t that… business the urgent matter right now?”
Yoon Yeong-su’s voice trembled faintly, unable to hide his bewilderment, but Song Ji-hu shrugged and sank into the sofa.
“It’s urgent, yes. But it’s urgent for them, not for us.”
“The other party is the leader of the world’s No. 1 guild. He even flew here personally on a private jet….”
“If he suddenly notified us yesterday that he was coming, we have no obligation to clear our entire schedule and go out to greet him. That’s not courtesy. It’s rudeness.”
Song Ji-hu skimmed the materials Yoon Yeong-su had handed over and added.
“Anyway, if it’s USAA, the Association President will go out to meet him.”
It was strangely correct. The head of the world’s strongest guild entering the country was already not a simple visit, but a diplomatic matter.
Association President Park Jeong-ho was surely already waiting at the airport VIP terminal from dawn.
In other words, there was nothing for Yoon Yeong-su to prepare or not prepare in terms of protocol. The Association would take care of it on its own.
Yoon Yeong-su nodded, but swallowed the uneasy feeling left in one corner of his heart.
Even so, this was the world’s No. 1 guild. Could anyone truly be this calm?
“…Understood. Then I will report on the site purchase first.”
Yoon Yeong-su turned the tablet screen toward Song Ji-hu.
“The entire area you mentioned has been purchased. All available land within a 500-meter radius of the central point.”
A map with red lines drawn across the entire screen appeared. It was the slum area Song Ji-hu had pointed out the day before yesterday.
“Currently, about 80% has been fully purchased, and the remaining 20% is also in progress.”
“…You purchased this entire range? Was there enough budget for this?”
Song Ji-hu looked over the screen and raised an eyebrow slightly.
He had known Yoon Yeong-su was capable, but this was considerably wider than he had expected.
Yoon Yeong-su cleared his throat.
“As you instructed, I utilized several additional funding sources.”
Yoon Yeong-su adjusted his glasses and turned to the next page. The funding usage details were organized by item.
“As you said, I withdrew the guild establishment support funds from the Association to the maximum limit. And… when I reported it to the Association President, he said he was grateful that you were setting up the guild office in a slum, and transferred some Association-owned land.”
When Song Ji-hu had rejected a prime location like Gangnam and gone to a slum, Park Jeong-ho had no choice but to feel both offended and grateful.
On top of that, the mere fact that an S-rank Hunter would move into a slum would resolve the security issues in that area, so there was no political or administrative loss.
If anything, he might use that as a pretext to raise his voice even more.
“On top of that, I fully utilized the possible loan amounts under the guild’s name, Hunter Eun Seo-jin’s name, and Hunter Song Ji-hu’s name.”
It seemed Yoon Yeong-su’s explanation would end there, but his gaze briefly lowered. Then he added quietly.
“And… I also invested part of my personal emergency funds and loan money.”
Song Ji-hu’s gaze fixed on Yoon Yeong-su. Yoon Yeong-su adjusted his glasses and did not avoid his gaze.
All night, Yoon Yeong-su had run hundreds of simulations in front of his computer. The conclusion was simple.
The probability that Song Ji-hu’s judgment was correct was overwhelmingly higher than the probability that it was wrong.
Since Song Ji-hu had pointed to the map and said, “Here,” Yoon Yeong-su had judged that there was something there.
And even if it failed, all he had to do was cling firmly to Zero Point. In other words, he had placed both an investment and an insurance policy at the same time.
“You won’t regret it.”
Song Ji-hu gave a faint laugh.
It was a short sentence, but relief bloomed inside Yoon Yeong-su’s chest.
“Thank you.”
Yoon Yeong-su bowed.
It might have been different when he was the Association President’s secretary, but now he was also a member of Zero Point from the Association.
“And… what should we do about the office building?”
He immediately moved on to the next agenda item.
“Among the purchased buildings, the five-story commercial building is the sturdiest, but a full remodeling will take quite a bit of time. To build a new one, we will need additional loans.”
Song Ji-hu shrugged.
“For now, let’s just use the building as it is. We only need to replace the windows, don’t we?”
“…Still, it is the Zero Point building where the guild leader resides in name and reality. Would it not look too old?”
Embarrassment colored Yoon Yeong-su’s voice.
Even if the location was a slum, if the building that represented the face of the guild was no different from an abandoned building, appearances would be a problem.
“It’s fine. We’re not going to keep using it anyway, and money to build a new building within a month will come in on its own.”
The way the two of them interpreted Song Ji-hu’s words was completely different.
Eun Seo-jin recalled a few days ago, when they had discussed the housing issue. And the housing issue had been resolved exactly as Song Ji-hu had said.
“It’s something that’ll be resolved on its own anyway. Today, at that.”
And this time, he had said the money would come in on its own.
‘Just how far ahead is this person seeing?’
And somehow, he felt it would happen again this time as well. Eun Seo-jin quietly nodded and asked no more.
Meanwhile, an entirely different calculator was running inside Yoon Yeong-su’s head.
He thought Song Ji-hu intended to treat mental contamination the way he had healed Eun Seo-jin and receive treatment fees.
‘At that rate, treatment cases will pile up too… and he’ll earn enough to build a new building with plenty left over. How much should he charge per case? One hundred billion? A trillion?’
It was the only treatment method in the world, so even if people brought trillions, they would have to line up.
‘If USAA is here for the same reason… he’ll receive at least tens of billions.’
It was a reasonable calculation.
Of course, what Song Ji-hu was actually thinking was neither of those things, but neither of them needed to know that.
“For now, I will find a contractor and proceed only with replacing the windows and basic maintenance.”
“Please do.”
Song Ji-hu stood and checked the time.
“Schedule the USAA matter for the afternoon. The location will be the conference room at Association Headquarters.”
“The afternoon… what time?”
“Three o’clock.”
“Understood. I will relay it to the Association immediately.”
While Yoon Yeong-su took out his phone and contacted the Association, Song Ji-hu looked out the window and murmured softly.
“I wonder if Ollie Barclay came with him.”
His voice was so low that neither Eun Seo-jin nor Yoon Yeong-su heard it.
The corner of Song Ji-hu’s mouth rose faintly, then soon disappeared.