Episode 5
Lee Jun-cheol, who was checking the ledger in the office, sighed.
The number of transactions in the past two months has dropped dramatically compared to before.
This was a problem that arose because large guilds began monopolizing monster hunting, so there was nothing we could do about it.
“Those damn guys.”
Hunters belonging to large guilds only traded through the association or with merchants who had contracts with the guild.
Given the circumstances, organizations that secretly conducted business in the underworld were naturally bound to be eliminated.
If you want to get out of the swamp, you’ll need to join hands with the guild.
There was no way that a guild would make a deal with an organization that made a living through illegal activities.
If things continued this way, we might have to drastically reduce the number of people in the office.
“Brother, I’m going to do some business.”
Hearing his subordinate’s words, Lee Jun-cheol’s face brightened slightly.
A subordinate who consistently delivers results during this recession is a very valuable talent.
“Are you the gentleman we agreed to do business with?”
“Yes. I’m so busy that I keep calling out to you every day, saying I’ll never trust anyone else.”
“Don’t complain and treat me well. You are a valuable customer.”
“yep.”
After the subordinate answered cheerfully and left the office, not long after, another subordinate suddenly stood up from his seat.
“I’ll go do some business too!”
Lee Jun-cheol showed blatant disappointment when he confirmed that the person who brought up the issue was his subordinate, Jo Hyeong-il, who had been entrusted with the chore.
“Okay… … Have a nice trip.”
“Brother, aren’t your reactions too different?”
“What can I do, all the people who call my number are scumbags?”
The number assigned to Jo Hyeong-il was given only to lower-ranking hunters who were so broke that they would sell their organs.
Sometimes you get lucky and trade monster corpses, but those are extremely rare.
Even if there were any, the scale would be very small, amounting to a mere penny at best.
“This time it’s a little different, bro.”
“Different? What?”
When Jo Hyeong-il spoke with a bright expression, Lee Jun-cheol began to take a little interest.
“They want to sell monster corpses. The equivalent of 15 goblins.”
“what?”
Lee Jun-cheol stood up from his seat and raised his voice without realizing it.
“Are you trying to sell something like the rat gun that even the guild guys have given up on?”
If it’s hard to tell if these are actually goblins or giant green bean pancakes, then it makes sense to sell them in batches of 15.
However, Jo Hyeong-il shook his head from side to side and denied Lee Jun-cheol’s prediction.
“They say it’s a completely intact body, except for the head being broken.”
“Why are you selling it to us?”
“You shouldn’t say things like that, hyung… … Are you going to close up shop?”
“No, that doesn’t make sense.”
No matter how I thought about it, it was strange that they were trading corpses in such good condition with such an illegal organization rather than the association.
“I guess I’ll have to follow along.”
“Huh? Brother, you said you were leaving work early today because you were in a bad mood.”
“Shut up and tell me where the deal is.”
Lee Jun-cheol continued speaking while putting on his coat.
“Go ahead and have the kids who are going to wash their hands wait.”
“If you were joking, are you planning on throwing it away?”
“You call that talking? You should at least let them know that if they mess with us, it’ll be X.”
* * *
The trading time set by the designer and customer is 4:00 PM.
It was currently 2 o’clock, just after lunch time, so if I started preparing now, I wouldn’t be late.
The subordinates who received Lee Jun-cheol’s instructions ran to the transaction location and hid in an inconspicuous place.
Since the underground parking lot was abandoned and used as a trading place, there were plenty of places to hide.
While his men held their breath behind the car and pillar, Lee Jun-cheol and Jo Hyeong-il arrived at the scene.
And the business partner who contacted Jo Hyeong-il also showed up at the appointed time.
Lee Jun-cheol laughed inwardly when he saw Kang Jin-hyeok’s face.
‘You’re just fine, you’re a total beginner.’
He straightened his back and shoulders and showed a confident attitude, but this made Kang Jin-hyeok look even more immature.
To Lee Jun-cheol’s eyes, it looked like a herbivore showing off by making its body look bigger.
‘This guy is holding the corpses of 15 goblins?’
At first glance, it didn’t look like he had caught it himself and earned it.
Lee Jun-cheol thought that there was no way that a rookie hunter like this could have hunted a large number of goblins while avoiding the eyes of a large guild.
So, as soon as I saw Kang Jin-hyeok, I immediately made a request.
“Can you check the goblin corpse first?”
Kang Jin-hyeok looked flustered at the words that omitted even the greeting.
‘Is this how transactions are usually done?’
Although it was rude, it was not an unreasonable demand.
Kang Jin-hyeok quickly regained his composure and took out the goblin corpses one by one from his inventory as Lee Jun-cheol had requested.
As the goblin corpses piled up one by one in the center of the parking lot, the expressions on Lee Jun-cheol and Jo Hyeong-il’s faces changed.
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Lee Jun-cheol was half in doubt, so he couldn’t help but be surprised when he saw a goblin corpse in such good condition.
“Okay, so that’s 15, right?”
There was no need to count them on one’s fingers.
There were exactly 15 goblin corpses lying side by side in the parking lot.
“… … How much did you think it would cost?”
Since the other party was a real customer and not a joker, Lee Jun-cheol also had to take it seriously.
When the bargaining began, Kang Jin-hyeok said the price he had initially thought of.
“How about 5 million won per horse, including the magic stone?”
“Um… … The head damage is so bad that I think 300 should be enough.”
“Hey, who would wear a goblin head? Their faces are so grimy that they’re not even good for decoration.”
“Kuk… … .”
Jo Hyeong-il, who burst into laughter without realizing it, felt Lee Jun-cheol’s gaze and coughed awkwardly.
“Then let’s make it 350.”
“450. I will never sell for less than this.”
Even if you cut just 500,000 won, that’s 15 heads, so it’s a whopping 7.5 million won cut.
Kang Jin-hyeok had absolutely no intention of suffering any more losses.
Since there are more than one or two organizations that do this kind of business, selling it while suffering a huge loss was just a foolish act.
Lee Jun-cheol noticed Kang Jin-hyeok’s state of mind.
As he was not used to trading, Kang Jin-hyeok’s true feelings were expressed through his actions and eyes.
Lee Jun-cheol was able to grasp Kang Jin-hyeok’s inner thoughts by not missing such elements.
“great.”
In fact, the goblin corpse that Kang Jin-hyeok brought was of such high quality that it was worth buying it for 600 without any loss.
Being able to buy 15 of them for 4.5 million won was a huge win for the organization.
“I will buy them all for the 500 you initially asked for.”
Jo Hyeong-il was shocked and jumped at Lee Jun-cheol’s remark.
He approached Lee Jun-cheol with a frightened face and whispered.
“What are you doing, brother? Why are you raising the price again when you already lowered it?”
“You stay still.”
Lee Jun-cheol pushed Jo Hyeong-il away with his hand.
I know full well that it is foolish to voluntarily raise prices.
But he had his own thoughts.
“Instead of buying it for 500, can you tell me where you got this?”
“… … I came here because they said there was no need to talk about such things.”
“Oh, I’m not trying to cause you any inconvenience. I will definitely keep your information confidential. I just asked for your reference.”
Lee Jun-cheol wanted to know whether it was just luck or whether he had personally sought out the location.
If Kang Jin-hyeok was able to obtain a location where such a large number of monsters were present without being noticed by a large guild, then he could be considered a person of considerable skill.
Although, just looking at his appearance, he doesn’t look like a veteran at all.
“I don’t really want to talk about it.”
When Kang Jin-hyeok flatly refused, Lee Jun-cheol nodded.
“If that’s the case, then I guess there’s nothing I can do.”
On the outside, he looked disappointed.
Kang Jin-hyeok’s rejection was exactly the answer Lee Jun-cheol wanted.
If I had gotten lucky, I would have been able to tell you where it was.
Because you know best that there is no guarantee that you will ever have that kind of luck again.
Hiding the information meant there was still a chance it could be obtained again.
Kang Jin-hyeok asked the question without knowing Lee Jun-cheol’s true intentions.
“Then, since I couldn’t give you an answer, can’t I give you 500?”
“Yes. Even if I give it a high score, I don’t think it will be higher than 400.”
Lee Jun-cheol had a faint smile on his face.
There was no law that said you had to give up bargaining just because you got the information you wanted.
Get information and get a good price.
Why be kind when you can kill two birds with one stone?
If you were going to work with a good heart, you wouldn’t have chosen this job in the first place.
“Hmm… … .”
“You don’t have to think too hard about it. If you go somewhere else, it’ll probably be hard to get more than the price we quoted.”
Lee Jun-cheol spoke confidently, but it was something that could not be known without checking.
Although it was annoying, it was better than opening a deal and risking a loss of millions of won.
“I’ll think about it one more time.”
Kang Jin-hyeok turned around and refused, then took the goblin’s corpse away.
As each goblin corpse lying in the parking lot was returned to his inventory, Lee Jun-cheol’s conflict deepened.
‘Should I just give you whatever you ask for?’
Because the quality and scale of the product was such a big deal, it was a shame to miss it.
But if you go back on your word here, you’ll lose the initiative in future deals.
Should you look to the future and take losses, or give up big gains for the present?
Lee Jun-cheol was hesitating, unable to move forward, between two choices.
‘Yes. If we continue like this and get taken over by another organization, we’ll be in more trouble.’
The moment Lee Jun-cheol, who had made up his mind, was about to call out the price that Kang Jin-hyeok wanted.
At the entrance of the parking lot, one of his men came running with a pale face and shouted.
“Mom, a monster appeared, bro!!”
“What?! Does that make sense?”
It was hard to believe that the monster that countless hunters were searching for with their eyes wide open would appear in a place like this.
Lee Jun-cheol looked at the goblin’s corpse lying there and realized that he had overlooked one fact.
‘These corpses are attracting monsters!’
Using a large number of monster corpses to lure other monsters was one of the methods attempted by large guilds.
Although it was a method that was abandoned because it was not cost-effective with a success rate of less than 10%, it was clearly effective.
“I have really bad luck.”
I never imagined that I would win that 10%.
Since it was unexpected, it was already too late when I realized it.
Lee Jun-cheol and his men panicked as they watched the monsters enter and exit the parking lot one by one.
“Oh, Orc!?”
“Contact the association quickly! If this continues, we’ll all die!”
“I already did it, f*ck!”
How long can ordinary people last against orcs until the Association sends in hunters?
There were two orcs that required at least two B-class hunters to catch.
If we were not careful, it might have been faster for everyone here to have their limbs ripped off than for the cup ramen to cook.
“Are you a hunter? Please do something about it!”
Kang Jin-hyeok was startled by Lee Jun-cheol’s shout.
“What do you want me to do?”
Although he had leveled up a bit in the labyrinth, Kang Jin-hyeok was still level 15.
I was in a position where I couldn’t even get beyond a D-class hunter, let alone a B-class one, so there was no way I could deal with an orc.
But the orc had no intention of showing mercy in such circumstances.
The two orcs rushed at the person closest to the goblin’s corpse, Kang Jin-hyeok, screaming.
“Eww?!”
The orc, charging in like a tank, swung the club he was holding with explosive power from his heavy body.
If I had been hit by a club swung with all my might like that, I would have been closer to being reduced to a piece of meat than a corpse.
But contrary to everyone’s expectations, Kang Jin-hyeok was safe.
Kyaang!
The red baseball bat that popped out of the inventory bounced off the orc’s club and flew towards Kang Jin-hyeok’s hand.
It was as if he was telling me to write if I wanted to live.
