Chapter 5

The old man, who had been sitting quietly staring at the wrapper the pill had been wrapped in, asked the middle-aged man. There was a firm and unyielding presence in his voice.

“I don’t know.”

“Go find out.”

“Yes.”

“It was probably bought at the auction house, so it’ll be hard to track down right away. But if we keep looking, we’ll find it eventually. There’s nothing we can’t do with the power of our Blue Dragon.”

“That’s right.”

“Are there more?”

“Yes. Four more.”

“I don’t know how long they’ll last, but I hope we find them before we run out.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Call Director Kim. I need to get examined.”

“Yes.”

The middle-aged man answered and rose from his seat, leaving the hospital room. But he was still in a daze. His father, who had been no better than a half-corpse, regaining his strength like that could only be called a miracle.

‘If Father regains his strength, the justification is on our side. I can drive out those bastards whenever I want.’

The man muttered to himself and immediately began to move.

* * *

“What? That old man regained his strength?”

“Yes. President Ju bought something at the auction house and gave it to Chairman Ju, and his vitality suddenly returned.”

“What kind of item is it, exactly?”

“Judging by the fact that he didn’t show it to me, it seems I haven’t earned his full trust either. Still, I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye—it looked like some kind of pill.”

The middle-aged woman bit her lip upon hearing the words of the man in the doctor’s coat.

“Alright. Director Kim, keep a close watch.”

“Yes.”

As the man called Director Kim left the room, the woman, who had been sitting quietly lost in thought, pressed a button on the phone on her desk and spoke.

“Secretary Kim, come in.”

<Yes.>

Not long after, a neatly dressed man in a suit entered.

“You called for me.”

“I heard some kind of pill went up at the auction house a while back. Do you know about it?”

“Yes. One of the underlings mentioned an unusual item had been listed, so I looked into it myself.”

“What was it?”

“An item called Hua Tuo’s elixir. Its effect was restoring vitality. It was 15 million won each. Since the effect wasn’t verified, I didn’t bother purchasing it.”

“Looks like President Ju bought it.”

“Yes.”

“And he gave it to Chairman Ju, and the Chairman regained his strength.”

“Hmm.”

“Find out. Who got it, and where.”

“Understood.”

As the man left the room, she bit her lip. Then, not long after, she rose from her seat.

“Heh heh.”

She looked out the window and smiled.
Chapter 4

Arriving at the Hunter Shop, Jaeha looked around as he made his way up. The Hunter Shop referred to a place where various stores gathered, selling the supplies hunters needed for hunting.

The shops were lined up one after another like a department store, and Jaeha wandered around inspecting this and that. As he walked, he eventually stopped in front of one store.

“Welcome~”

As Jaeha entered the store, the clerk greeted him with a smile.

“Uh……”

“Are you looking for something?”

“Yes. Do you…… have things like bows?”

“Bows?”

“Yes. Bows for hunters.”

“Ah, yes. We do.”

With that, the clerk brought out items that had been buried in a corner.

“These two are all we have in our store.”

As the clerk brought out two bows to show him, Jaeha began to examine them.

“Hmm.”

“How about a sword instead of a bow? Most of the ones coming out these days are made with monster bones. So they’re sturdy. And of course, the price isn’t that expensive either.”

“Ah. My trait is on this side.”

“Ahh, I see.”

“How much are these?”

“This one is 3,000 won, and this one is 4,000 won.”

“Ah, yes. Do you also sell arrows?”

“Of course. We have steel ones and wooden ones.”

“I’ll take that one. And give me plenty of Steel Arrows too.”

“Yes. I’ll get them ready for you.”

The clerk nodded at Jaeha’s words and packed up the bow and arrows before handing them over. Jaeha received them, paid, and left the store.

After finishing his weapon shopping, Jaeha called Seungho.

<Hey, Jaeha?>

“Yeah. How’s work going?”

<How’s it going? It’s a mess. Head office people came in and stirred things up, so nobody can get any real work done.>

“Sounds like things are working out.”

Jaeha said that with a smile.

<Anyway, are you doing okay?>

“Of course.”

<Good to hear.>

“Let’s grab a drink.”

<Sure. They let me off early yesterday, so I’ll probably get out early today too.>

“Got it.”

<I’ll text you when I’m done.>

“Alright.”

After hanging up, Jaeha rested and watched videos until Seungho’s work was done. He searched various things on MuTube and watched all kinds of videos.

Even after watching quite a few videos, he couldn’t obtain a proper skill. His eyes growing tired from watching videos nonstop, Jaeha stretched and got up from his seat.

“No decent skills are showing up.”

He wandered around the house, walked over to the balcony, and leaned against the window, muttering to himself as he slumped. No matter how much skills could be obtained through videos, unless it was a proper skill, it was ultimately just a waste of time and a chore—meaningless.

‘Well, if passive skills showed up, they’d be useful for a long time, so that’d be fine. But passives aren’t showing up either. I guess I’ll just have to watch videos of famous hunters hunting and check what skills I can get from those. If there’s a decent passive or supporting skill, it’d be worth learning.’

As Jaeha was watching videos, a call came from Seungho, and he picked up immediately.

“Yeah.”

<Come to the skewer place by the station. The one we always go to.>

“Alright.”

After hanging up, Jaeha headed straight to where Seungho was waiting.

* * *

Arriving at the skewer place by the station, Jaeha walked inside and approached Seungho, who was eating skewers off to one side.

“What’s on the menu today?”

“Chicken.”

“Ha, nice.”

As Jaeha said that and sat down, Seungho looked him over from head to toe and spoke.

“You don’t look like a skeleton anymore.”

“Well,”

At those words, Jaeha shrugged and looked at his own body. His once gaunt frame was already starting to put on some muscle.

“Man, I’m jealous. I wish I could Awaken too.”

At his muttering, Jaeha smiled. Then, after looking around for a moment, he spoke.

“Seungho.”

“Huh?”

“You. Ever thought about working with me?”

“Doing what?”

“I’m telling you this because it’s you—my Total Ability is 100 right now.”

“What?”

“My Total Ability is 100.”

“At level 1?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Want me to show you?”

When Jaeha asked back, Seungho laughed and asked once more.

“For real?”

“Of course.”

Jaeha showed him his stats.

“I don’t have any family. You’re the only one I can trust.”

“…….”

“So here’s what I’m saying. Want to work with me?”

“I’m not even a hunter, though. Is there anything for me to do?”

“Well, it’s like this…… you know how hunters these days all film videos and post them on MuTube.”

“Ah, yeah. I know.”

“You’d be my manager and handle the server management too. How about it?”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll pay you well. Don’t worry about that.”

“Honestly, the atmosphere at work has been weird and chaotic lately, so I was thinking about leaving anyway.”

“So?”

“Hmm.”

“I’ll guarantee you at least what you’re making now.”

“There’s no guarantee you’ll even succeed, though. Can you really say that?”

“I have ways to make money. Even if it’s not through videos.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Honestly, I’m down. I wouldn’t have to watch my boss’s face, and it’d be more comfortable.”

“You’re good with computers. You’ve got all those certifications, and with a little practice you’d pick up video editing in no time. I’m talented, but you’re a talent freak in your own way too.”

“I can handle that much.”

“So?”

“……I’ll do it. Honestly, it’s true that it’s about time I quit the company anyway. Once this storm passes, the company’s probably going to start a purge. And since I was close with you, I’d get cut for sure…… In that case, it’s better to just step out on my own terms first.”

“Good. I’ll fill you in on the details once everything’s sorted. Take a few days off and clear your head.”

“Got it.”

And so Jaeha and Seungho chatted about this and that over their drinks.

* * *

“Ughhh.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah…… but why don’t you have a bed?”

“Ah, yeah. It ended up getting ruined somehow. I threw it out and never bought a new one.”

“I see. Ugh, my head.”

“Here.”

Jaeha handed him a small pill.

“What’s this? Herbal medicine?”

“Eat it. It’s good for you.”

At Jaeha’s words, Seungho took it and swallowed it right away.

“Ha. What is this? That’s damn good.”

“It’s an elixir made with a skill.”

“An elixir? So it’s expensive, isn’t it?”

“15 million won per pill. Well, it’s the downgrade version, though.”

“……You’ve gotten a lot more generous in just a few days?”

“It’s just something I threw together using what was left over after making everything I needed.”

“I see. Well, it’s great either way.”

With his hangover and headache completely gone, Seungho smiled and got up from his seat. Then he looked at Jaeha and spoke.

“We talked about it roughly yesterday, but I don’t remember exactly. What’s the plan again?”

“First, I’m going to run a dungeon once or twice. And once I get the hang of it, I’ll start recording videos.”

“But how do you film hunters? Do you carry a camera around?”

“No. The system records video.”

“……Really?”

“Yeah. Apparently if you input a command, everything I see gets recorded. I haven’t tried it myself, but that’s what I heard. Anyway, you can save what you record as a separate file and edit it or whatever, so that’s how people do it. I tested it out, and the quality was good too.”

“That’s awesome.”

Looking at Seungho as he said that, Jaeha spoke.

“Rest up for now, then head home. I’m going to go check out a dungeon.”

“Alright. Stay safe.”

“Yeah.”

And so Jaeha left Seungho behind and headed to where the dungeon was.

The dungeon Jaeha came to for his experiment was one of the E-Rank dungeons, named Goblin Village. As the name suggested, goblins appeared in the dungeon, and with plenty of trees around, it was a decent dungeon for an archer to shine in.

After confirming there was no one inside the dungeon, Jaeha entered right away. Then he loaded up a bunch of arrows onto his back.

‘100 arrows per quiver. With three quivers, that should be plenty.’

Nodding to himself, Jaeha immediately began hunting. The moment he spotted a goblin up ahead, Jaeha nocked an arrow to his bow. He calmly aimed at his target and held his breath. Then he loosed the arrow, and the Steel Arrow flew at speed, piercing the goblin’s head.

“…….”

Having killed the goblin cleanly with a single attack, Jaeha drew out another arrow, nocked it, and moved forward. Just like that, Jaeha cleared the dungeon without any real difficulty.

“Easy.”

Every goblin in the dungeon died before even realizing Jaeha was there. Jaeha checked the footage of his hunt. Watching the video slowly, he nodded.

“Not bad. I just need to get a skill that speeds up my body.”

Muttering to himself like that, Jaeha turned off the video.