Kang Ha-min ended up taking in Seoul’s night sky against his will before coming down.
The moment he finally returned home, he collapsed onto his bed.
His whole body ached.
He was definitely coming down with something tomorrow.
‘I really thought I was going to die.’
No, that was wrong. He really had almost died.
He had nearly been hit by a bus and died on the spot.
Just thinking about how the bus had filled his entire field of vision still made his blood run cold.
Still, thanks to that, he had realized one thing for certain.
‘I really did become a Hunter.’
He really had become a Hunter.
Normally, people realized something like that while fighting in the Tower or during a Dimensional Break.
‘I realized it by nearly getting hit by a bus.’
It made him seem terribly pathetic.
Kang Ha-min let out a lonely sigh.
Then he shifted his gaze.
There stood a man intently examining the things around him with great interest.
The Sword God, Baek Cheon-myeong.
The one who had risen from a grave.
‘The situation earlier was so chaotic that I did not properly understand it.’
Baek Cheon-myeong had spoken as though he had experienced the Tower before.
‘How, exactly?’
He was obviously not a modern person.
Just look at those eyes as he surveyed the city.
Anyone could tell at a glance that they were the eyes of someone seeing modern society for the first time.
Where had Baek Cheon-myeong come from?
The Mythic Grade class called Gravekeeper was shrouded in many questions.
Ring-ring—
Just then, his phone rang.
The caller was his mother.
“Ah, Mom.”
— Son, you haven’t been in touch lately. What have you been up to?
His words caught in his throat.
“......Ah, I’ve just been working.”
He had not yet told his parents that he had been dismissed.
His conscience pricked at him, but he could not bring himself to tell them now.
— Work, right. Things have been awfully chaotic on TV lately. Nothing is affecting you too, is it?
“Ahem, of course not. What would a National Assembly member’s affairs have to do with people at the bottom like us?”
She would be horrified.
Talking to his mother was not easy either.
— Good. That’s a relief. Son, can Mom ask you a favor?
“A favor?”
— Yes, a favor. Your father hurt his knee a little while ago, remember?
His father’s knee had always been a chronic problem.
It had flared up again, sending him back to the hospital.
— I had money that needed to be used somewhere urgent, and then your father ended up like this. What can I do?
— Business has been bad for me this month too, and I’m going to be short on his hospital expenses. Could you lend me some money just for this month?
Apology filled his mother’s voice.
His parents had spent their entire lives trying not to become indebted to their son.
But the times were what they were.
There were few places for an aging father and mother to work.
That was why their family had never been anywhere close to well-off.
Even so, they had supported their son through all his civil service studies.
Because they were those parents, he could not reveal the truth all the more.
“Mom, you should have told me sooner. What are you so sorry for?
I’m a civil servant, you know. My salary comes in regularly. I’ll send it right away. How much do you need?”
Despite having been dismissed, a display of bravado burst out of him.
He did not put on airs in front of other people.
But he wanted to do so in front of his parents.
— One million won will do.
After the Dimensional Breaks, insurance companies had raised their prices one after another.
Whenever a Dimensional Break occurred, people died in droves.
When demand exceeded supply, there was nothing to be done.
As a result, ordinary citizens could no longer even afford insurance.
Still, it was fortunate that Korea’s health insurance system was reasonably established.
Otherwise, the country might have been devastated as the United States once had been.
Even so, hospital expenses were a burden on ordinary people.
But if they did not receive treatment in time, they would only get sicker.
So, without the slightest hesitation, he transferred the money to his mother.
“I sent it. Take good care of Dad, and you take care of yourself too. I sent an extra hundred thousand won, so make sure you eat properly.”
He heard his mother sniffle.
Maybe it was because he had not done nearly enough for them.
The tip of his nose stung for no reason.
— Yes, you’re all Mom has. Thank you. Let’s have a meal together soon.
“Okay.”
After the call ended.
Kang Ha-min quietly opened his bank balance.
He had only been a civil servant for three years.
A civil servant’s pay might be stable, but it was meager.
Naturally, he had earned much less than an ordinary office worker.
There was no way he could have had money left over.
Especially after living in Seoul while repaying his student loans and family loans.
“......Heh heh, only ten thousand won left.”
The money remaining in his account was barely more than ten thousand won.
This was no longer an age in which anyone spoke of the happiness of ten thousand won.
He had become completely broke in an instant.
He would not even be able to survive through next month.
Then again, according to his original plan, he was supposed to start saving money this year.
His student loans and family loans were finally nearing their end.
Just when he thought he could finally breathe a little easier, he was dismissed.
The reality of survival constricted his throat.
GROWL—
As his bank balance shrank, his stomach had already noticed and begun to churn.
It was awfully quick on the uptake.
‘There’s only one pack of ramen at home.’
Even if he got a part-time job now, he was not sure he could hold out until payday.
“Master.”
“Gah!”
A voice suddenly spoke from behind him.
When he spun around in alarm, Baek Cheon-myeong stood there.
A sinister shadow had fallen over his face.
It gave him an ominous feeling whose nature he could not grasp.
Baek Cheon-myeong’s eyes flashed sharply.
He had a bad premonition.
The kind of ominous premonition that might make him agree without thinking after a single sentence.
“If money is short, is there not a simple solution?”
Yes, just as he thought.
“......Are you going to tell me to climb the Tower again?”
“From what I can see, your world too seems to be one where climbing the Tower can bring honor and wealth.”
He was quick on the uptake.
A Floor Lord could obtain immense wealth and honor.
But not every floor had a Floor Lord.
From Floors 1 through 10, the first floor tier commonly called the tutorial tier, there were no Floor Lords.
However, from the second floor tier onward, it was possible to become a Floor Lord.
The first person to reach a new floor earned the right to challenge for the position of Floor Lord.
After that, one had to break the floor’s clear record just to earn the right to challenge for it.
That was why most Hunters were racing upward, hoping to claim a floor before anyone else.
“Besides, the money you just sent will not be enough to fully cover your father’s hospital expenses, will it?”
Sharp.
His mother had surely asked for less than the actual cost of his father’s hospital treatment.
His father’s knee was a chronic problem.
They had missed the chance to catch it early, but there were still many procedures they could undergo even now.
But in the end, they had not been able to do so because of money.
Money, money, money.
This damned money.
The world ultimately came down to money.
And one reason Kang Ha-min hesitated to climb the Tower was his concern for his parents.
If something went wrong in the Tower, they would lose their only son.
‘There is no parent who can live normally after losing their child first.’
For three years, while working as a civil servant in the Hunter field, he had watched people like that.
Parents who collapsed after hearing that their Hunter child had died.
He usually never heard anything more of them afterward.
“......Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, I have been called timid ever since I was young.”
A frightened safety-first advocate.
A soft man.
A cowardly man.
A Shih Tzu.
He had spent his entire life hearing nothing but words like those.
Naturally, Kang Ha-min did not like hearing them.
In fact, he hated this personality of his more than anyone else.
But he had been born this sort of person.
After all, few people could change their innate nature.
So.
‘I really do not want to go to the Tower, even if it kills me.’
Scary was scary.
Who was not afraid to die?
But if he did not make money now, he was the one who would die tomorrow!
“Nngh...”
Stress made Kang Ha-min feel as though his stomach hurt.
It had always been a sensitive stomach, befitting his personality.
But he could not simply sit still either.
As he agonized and pondered for a long time.
One thought flashed through his mind.
“Oh.”
He slowly lifted his head and looked ahead.
Baek Cheon-myeong stood there in a relaxed posture.
A brilliant idea.
A brilliant idea that could overturn the entire situation.
“......Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong, you want to climb the Tower, right?”
“Yes. This body made a contract in order to climb the Tower.”
Baek Cheon-myeong had consistently wanted to climb the Tower.
It was his long-standing wish.
Kang Ha-min decided to grant it.
“Then, let’s climb it.”
“Have you finally made up your mind?”
Baek Cheon-myeong’s eyes flashed.
Yes, let them flash all they wanted.
Kang Ha-min had an idea that had just flashed through his own mind.
“Yes. But Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong will climb the Tower alone.”
Why had he not thought of this until now?
Baek Cheon-myeong was not a being that required orders like another Hunter’s summoned creature.
More importantly, he remained active at all times without consuming his Hunter’s mana!
Then all he had to do was send Baek Cheon-myeong into the Tower!
A tremendous realization sent a shiver through him.
It was the best idea he had had since being dismissed.
“......Alone?”
At Kang Ha-min’s words, Baek Cheon-myeong raised an eyebrow.
Kang Ha-min froze.
‘Ah, from another perspective, I just told him to go alone to a battlefield of death.’
He was afraid himself, yet he had not even considered the other person’s thoughts.
No matter how he looked at it, that was terribly rude.
“Uh, well, I would be providing rear support, I suppose. You know, looking up information and doing things like that.”
As he hurriedly listed one excuse after another.
“Not bad.”
Baek Cheon-myeong’s response was unexpectedly positive.
“Uh, really?”
“From this body’s standpoint, the master’s safety is the highest priority. It is not a bad proposal.”
“R-Right? Exactly! I need to be safe for Mr. Baek Cheon-myeong to climb the Tower safely!”
He shamelessly agreed at once.
Avoiding things was embarrassing, but sometimes it was useful.
“But there is one thing. I do not know how far the Tower will permit that.”
......Ah, right.
Until now, he had never heard of a summoned creature climbing the Tower alone.
If only the summoned creature entered without its master, the Tower would not count it as an entry.
As Kang Ha-min fretted, Baek Cheon-myeong suddenly grinned.
“However, there are always loopholes in the world.”
“Is there a way?”
“Soul Synchronization. We pass off a familiar’s form as yourself.”
“Something like that is possible?”
“The Tower, or the gods dwelling in it, see us as forms of the soul anyway.
They do not distinguish us by our appearances. We can deceive them easily enough.”
Even so, it did not seem possible without any cost.
“Of course, there is a price. During synchronization, the master’s mana must be used. Once it is depleted, the synchronization will end, and naturally, the master will grow tired as well.”
“......Is that all?”
“That is all.”
The cost was too small.
Kang Ha-min briefly pressed at the corner of his mouth.
His deliberation did not last long.
He needed money to survive tomorrow.
Safety secured.
A way to earn money secured.
A way to be a good son to his parents secured!
There were no better conditions than these!
“......All right.”
His decision came quickly.
“Fine, I’ll do it.”
Kang Ha-min.
Starting today, he would revoke his status as an estrogen man and become a high-testosterone man.