‘Mine crystals for development funds?’

Byeonggap stared at the hologram, unblinking.

The short sentences had no hard words, but he couldn’t quite grasp them.

‘What kind of crystals, and how the hell am I supposed to mine them?’

He mulled it over, then walked out of the cave.

He spoke to the gathered goblins.

«One of you, go get a thick branch.»

«Ah, yes, understood!»

The goblins swarmed off in a mob.

“Tch. One or two would’ve been enough.”

He tried to see them as endearing, but all he felt was exasperation. Still, when told what to do, the goblins did it well.

They came back with an armload of branches, snapping them off and presenting them.

Byeonggap pulled a lighter from his pack and started a flame. But the wood was green and wouldn’t catch.

His temper flared.

«Hey! You’re supposed to bring dry branches! What good’s this? It won’t even light!»

«Uwuu…»

«We’re… sorry…»

The goblins drooped their heads, faces glum.

Byeonggap thought he might be acting a bit like a jerk. But it couldn’t be helped. They were monsters, after all—it just came out that way.

In a dark corner of his mind, a voice insisted he should grab a gun right now and shoot every last one of them dead.

“Haaah.”

Byeonggap let out sigh after sigh, patiently coaxing the fire to life. After a while, a decent campfire crackled into existence.

A few goblins timidly clapped their hands.

‘Fire’s going.’

«Hey. You.»

Go Byeonggap pointed at one of the goblins. The pointed-out goblin stared back at him with a face that asked, Me?

«Come here.»

«Oh, okay!»

The hob goblin had at least used honorifics, but stepping down to the normal goblin, there was none of that.

«Take that off.»

«What?»

«Take off your clothes and hand them over.»

He called it clothes, but what the goblin wore was, at best, a rag.

The goblin’s eyes went wide as he glanced between the group and Go Byeonggap.

«I’m making a torch, so take it off.»

No way.

The goblin shook his head with a pitiful expression. Go Byeonggap scowled and yanked at the rag the goblin was wearing.

The goblin held on, not wanting to lose it.

‘Oh, is that so?’

«Ah, damn it! I’ll buy you a new one later! Just give it to me!»

«Kieeeng! Kieeeng!»

Finally, tears welled up in his eyes.

Unbelievable. To think I’d see a goblin cry.

«Ooooh…»

«My Lord, have mercy…»

The goblins watching the scene looked uneasy.

They couldn’t bring themselves to stop him, but just watching was painful.

Seeing that, Go Byeonggap felt self-conscious. He felt like the biggest asshole on earth.

«Ah, screw it! You’re so damn petty! Fine, I don’t need it, man! I’m too disgusted anyway.»

Snapping, Go Byeonggap let the goblin go. Then, out of irritation, he took off his jacket. It was a checkered shirt he’d bought at a discount store for ten thousand won for three.

‘Ah, what a waste.’

He tied the jacket to a thick tree branch and lit it on fire. For something improvised, it made a pretty decent torch.

As soon as the torch was done, Go Byeonggap cursed his own stupidity. He could have just stopped by the house and grabbed a lantern…

Anyway, with the torch ready, he held it up and entered the cave again. This time, a different hologram appeared.

[Crystal Cave]

-A cave rich with deposited crystals.

-Mine the crystals.

Go Byeonggap ignored the hologram and walked inside, lighting his way with the torch.

The cave was cool. Just as he was thinking it would be perfect for escaping the summer heat, something sparkling caught his eye.

It was literally a crystal. A reddish crystal peeked out from the wall, flaunting its presence.

“A gem!”

Go Byeonggap got excited at the sight of the crystal. He didn’t know what kind of gem it was, but he had a strong hunch it would be worth money.

He grabbed the crystal with one hand and immediately tried to pull it out with force, but it didn’t budge.

“Such a little thing… putting up a fight…!”

Go Byeonggap punched the crystal’s surroundings, then kicked at it. But for all his effort, the crystal didn’t budge.

Well, of course—a crystal wedged tight into the wall wasn’t coming out with brute strength alone.

‘I need some kind of tool.’

To mine that thing, you’d at least need a pickaxe.

‘How much does a pickaxe cost?’

He clicked his tongue and stepped out of the cave. The torch was nearly spent.

The goblins had gathered in a crowd, waiting in front of the cave. As Byeonggap emerged, they shuffled back a step, murmuring, “Ooooh…”

Byeonggap let out a hollow laugh, struck by how absurd it all was.

«Hey. You guys got anything like a pickaxe?»

«Pick…axe?»

«What?»

«…Tch. Never mind. Dressed like a bunch of bums—no way you’d have a pickaxe.»

«Ooooh…»

Byeonggap walked past the goblins toward where he’d left his backpack. His plan was to head home first, grab a pickaxe, then come back.

«U-um… My Lord…»

Just then, a hob goblin stepped forward and spoke up. Byeonggap answered with a bored look.

«What? Why?»

«W-well…»

«What is it, you bastard! Spit it out already!»

«We’re… hungry.»

«…What?»

The hob goblin fidgeted, looking wretched with apology.

«We’re… hungry.»

«Lord. Want. Food.»

«Hungry. Tired.»

«Give. Food.»

Even the goblins behind him started murmuring.

Byeonggap was so flabbergasted he felt like words had left him.

He stood there blankly for three or four seconds before managing a reply.

«There’s a river over there. Go catch some fish or something.»

«Went yesterday. No fish.»

«No fish? And what if I go there and there are?»

«S-small fish there. But. Small fish not enough.»

The hob goblin stammered. By the look of it, he really was starving.

‘Fuck. Now I gotta feed goblins on top of everything else?’

This was Byeonggap—the guy who skipped his own meals all the time from being too busy doing subjugations.

And now he was supposed to feed goblins? Ridiculous.

The hob goblin kept pleading, on the verge of tears.

«Yesterday, today. Nothing. Ate nothing. We’re hungry.»

«Wait, hold on. Aren’t you guys supposed to not need food?»

A sudden doubt struck Byeonggap.

Monsters—creatures that lived in the hidden world—he’d never once heard of them needing to eat.

Which made sense, because the hidden world basically had no food to begin with.

And some rifts had gone un-conquered for years. The ones with high difficulty that hunters didn’t even bother trying.

“If monsters starved to death, uncleared rifts wouldn’t even make sense. They’d all die off long before anyone got around to clearing them.”

But as if to shatter Byeonggap’s common sense, the hob goblin made its hunger known.

«Before. Not hungry. But now. Hungry.»

«This is driving me insane.»

Byeonggap pressed a hand to his forehead and swept his gaze across the goblins.

One, two, three—counting them off like a damn kid’s rhyme…

Thirty-three of them in total. And that giant goblin looked like it could wolf down five portions on its own.

‘Even one Big Mac each—how much would that set me back?’

Maybe he could scrape together one meal for them somehow, but what came after was the real problem. Byeonggap’s wallet couldn’t handle over thirty mouths to feed.

His damn hospital bills and loan interest alone were already breaking his back.

He’d spent potions he was still kicking himself over just to treat these goblins, and now he was supposed to worry about feeding them!

…And yet, even as he thought that,

‘Ha—shit… can’t exactly let them starve to death either.’

If I’d been planning to let them starve, I wouldn’t have bought potions and healed them in the first place.

«Fish—really none?»

«Big fish. None.»

«…Tch! What do you guys eat, then?»

«Anything. We eat.»

«Anything?»

‘Would he even eat something I scraped together? Dog feed’s not cheap these days either.’

Go Byeonggap was wrestling with a serious internal conflict.

Then, in an instant.

A flash of an idea struck him.

«You said you’d eat anything, right?»

«Anything. I eat it.»

The hob goblin answered at once.

Byeonggap grinned.

«Complain about the side dishes and you’re dead.»

* * *

Go Byeonggap folded himself into a small compact car.

It was a beat-up used model, the odometer already past 270,000 kilometers.

Nothing to look at—but still, his Number One treasure.

Some might curse him for it. “Can’t even pay off your debts, but you’re driving a car?”

But they didn’t know the half of it. For hunters, a car wasn’t a luxury—it was essential gear.

He had to scour the entire country looking for rifts, and it wasn’t like he could haul all that gear on public transit, right?

Guild-affiliated hunters got everything handled—transport, supplies, the works—but independents like Go Byeonggap had to manage every step themselves.

Long story short: a car was non-negotiable.

Before heading out, Byeonggap checked his phone.

The Association’s app, HunterNet, loaded with intel on every rift that had opened across the nation.

Hunters used it to pick their targets.

Byeonggap focused on F-rank rifts.

Being D-rank himself, the only rifts he could solo were the lowest-grade E and F-rank ones.

He found one soon enough—a village called Hyeonni in Gapyeong County.

‘Two hours away.’

He punched it into the navigation app. The distance was brutal.

Still, there was no choice. Every close-in rift had already been snapped up. These days, even hunting was a speed game.

Hoping the spot wouldn’t already be taken by some bastard, Go Byeonggap floored the accelerator.

“And IIIIIIIII will always love youuuuuuuuuu~” he warbled, off-key.

Go Byeonggap hummed along, soaking in the drive.

On a weekday afternoon, the national highway was nearly empty.

An hour passed. Then two.

Go Byeonggap reached his destination twenty minutes ahead of schedule.

He parked in a clear patch of ground, shouldered his gear, and walked toward the rift. The area was quiet — just a sleepy rural village.

‘If I die inside this rift, they probably won’t find me for days.’

Go Byeonggap had the same thought every time before he entered a rift.

Working solo, he knew the odds: die in the hidden world, and his body might never be found.

After chain-smoking two cigarettes, Go Byeonggap checked his gear one more time.

He checked the rifle’s condition, the ammunition, his gear. All clear.

He double-checked the rift’s rank with the karma meter.

An unmistakable F-rank rift. And it looked like no one had entered before him.

‘Another variant…? Nah. Don’t jinx it.’

Having finished his preparations, he threw himself into the rift.

The hidden world—a place that looked identical to the outside, yet teemed with monsters.

Go Byeonggap calmly surveyed the hidden world. Unlike the bright outdoors, the sky here was gloomy.

As an F-rank rift, it wouldn’t be very large.

At most, a kilometer in diameter.

Go Byeonggap stepped forward cautiously.

“Keeek! Keeek!”

The monster revealed itself almost immediately.

These creatures were called ‘earth ghosts.’

They were the most common monsters found in F-rank rifts.

It looked like a monkey’s body fused with a dog’s face — gray all over, completely hairless, and slick as a peeled bone.

Looks like some shit-ass.

For a G-rank threat, it wasn’t much. But treat it like a stray alley mutt and you’d be missing a finger before you knew it.

Its jaw strength rivaled any wild beast’s.

“Kiiii…” — a long, thin screech.

Crack!

“Ggk!” — a sharp, choked yelp.

The earth ghost charged, its arms flailing wildly.

Byeonggap snapped his aim and blew its head clean off.

One round, and the creature crumpled on the spot.

The gunshot flushed the rest out from their hiding holes.

Byeonggap blew a breath through his nostrils and lowered the muzzle.

He wasn’t the one fighting those monsters today.

He steadied himself and opened the gate to Asvillam.

A swirl of light bloomed at his solar plexus.

«Everybody out!»

He shouted, and goblins poured out like water blasting from a hose.

The lot of them—crude hand-axes and clubs in their grips—spotted the earth ghosts, and their eyes changed.

It was the look of predators sizing up prey.

Go Byeonggap snorted a laugh.

«Alright, feeding time. Leave the magic stones. Eat everything else.»

«Kreh-heh-heh!»

«Krehk!»

The instant the words left his mouth, the goblins charged, drool stringing from their jaws.