Episode 11

[V? V? Hahahaha! This is too funny.]
[Ah, damn. Be quiet. Still, it had its charm.]
[That’s true. We had to hide our identities anyway, and looking cool doesn’t hurt. But what does V even mean?]
[Ah, y’know, like those black monsters in movies. The voice and everything just kinda match.]

He was talking about that guy.

I couldn’t just use his real name, and since we were hiding our identities, a simple name would be best—so I just took the first letter. But I didn’t expect it to become a laughingstock.

[Honestly, the name itself isn’t that funny. It’s just the way the boss acted that made it ridiculous.]
[Alright, alright, enough.]
[Okay. Stopping now.]

Ugh, this is embarrassing.

I needed to seriously consider whether I should keep up this act. Well, I’d already started, so I might as well stick with it.

[Anyway, this “Darkened Mode” is seriously flashy.]
[It’s a really useful skill in many ways.]

I completely agreed.

With every swing of the sword, monsters were cleaved in half, and black flames lingered on their wounds, preventing regeneration while inflicting excruciating pain.

And that wasn’t all.

Swinging the sword through the air unleashed wide-range fire attacks. Of course, none of it harmed civilians.

‘So this is the perspective of a top-ranked Hunter.’

I once watched a clip of Faker, who was called the greatest pro gamer of all time. His screen moved so fast it was hard to believe he was actually seeing anything. What I was witnessing now felt similar.

No—to be exact, it was several times faster.

I could perceive the movements of every monster in sight and even sense the ones behind me. It was a state where every action was observed, reacted to, calculated, and executed with precision.

[We’re entering the dungeon now, so pay close attention to the movements. It’ll help you get stronger.]
[Got it, I’ll focus—Whoa!]

Before I could finish, my vision went black.

No, more accurately, it felt like my sight was sucked into a black hole. In an instant, I accelerated, pushing off the ground.

[The foundation of all combat starts with seeing and dodging. To do that, observing muscle movement is key.]

As he spoke, my vision entered an ultra-focused state. I could almost see the muscle fibers of the avian monster, its subtle movements captured in my sight.

‘I need to dodge now!’

My body moved the moment the thought formed. I evaded the monster’s claws and swung my sword.

Swiish.

A monster at least two meters tall was bisected.

[…Wait, what? You’ve got talent?]
[Huh? You’re the one who did all that, Woojae.]
[Well, yeah, but… Let’s just keep going.]

With that, his movements became even faster.

He closed the distance to monsters in an instant, slashed, rained fire on the rest, and repeated without pause. About five minutes later, I snapped back to my senses—we were standing before the boss monster.

[A wyvern. An upper-tier B-rank?]
[Are… are we going to lose?]
[We win.]

The same method applied.

Observe the wyvern’s muscle movements, counter with a slash timed to its motion.

Swiish.

With that sound, the wyvern was cleanly severed.

Thud.

The wyvern’s corpse collapsed, and as the mana sustaining the gate dissipated, the dungeon entrance slowly began to close. That was when Lee Woojae spoke up.

[So, did you learn well?]
[J-Just a sec… Let’s get out of here first.]
[Huh? Why?]
[I-I need to get to a bathroom…]
[Alright, got it.]

But I had no time to bask in the joy of my first successful gate raid.

The reason?

“Uweeeehk!”
“Uh… Boss, sorry. I wanted to teach you more since you’ve got talent…”
“Agh, no more sudden movements! Hrk! And no more Darkened Mode outside of gate raids!”
“Understood. Again, sorry…”
“I don’t need to get as strong as you, Woojae! Just… take it easy on me! Uweeeehk!”

Because Woojae had moved so fast that my head was spinning.

Ah, I never want to do this again.

So dizzy.

Just let Woojae handle everything.

“Ughhh…”

Come to think of it, I was too dizzy to collect the loot. The Association would handle that, right?

“Hey, Kim, did you get all the loot?”
“Of course. You think I’d skim any?”

As Namjung expected, the Association’s work was thorough. Normally, when a Hunter cleared a gate, a retrieval team would come to collect the spoils, but this time, they were even faster and more precise.

Because Chairman Kang Seok-gu had personally ordered it through a direct line, demanding flawless execution.

So not only Team Leader Choi of Retrieval Team A but the entire team was on high alert.

“Pfft, as if you’d skim, Kim. Even if we do pocket a little sometimes, no way we’d dare with the Chairman watching. Our necks would be on the line, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Obviously~ Just stating the obvious.”

Kim carefully placed back a magic stone he had slipped into his pocket.

Team Leader Choi, who had been glaring at Kim’s pockets, relaxed his expression and patted Kim’s shoulder with a laugh.

“That’s our Kim. No one handles loot like you.”
“Hahaha…”
“Everyone, learn from Kim! If you mess up like he almost did, we’re all dead. Got it?”
“Yes, Team Leader!”

They resumed their work with loud responses.

And watching them from above were two pairs of eyes.

[Tch, unexpected variables led to a disappointing harvest.]
[Right? We made more from other investments, but this was too little.]

A wrinkled, black-haired old man and a young woman with purple hair.

The reason no one noticed them despite their open conversation was that they had concealed their presence.

[Should we at least take those guys, Willer? The harvest was too small this time.]
[Hah! Think before you speak, Lucy. Killing them now would expose us!]
[Ugh, fine, fine.]

The old man clicked his tongue in displeasure and continued.

[We move only when everything is prepared. Detonating a single bomb is meaningless. Hundreds must explode at once. How many times must I say this?]
[Yeah, yeah. You’ve got it all figured out, old man~ It just didn’t go as planned this time.]
[…We made sure high-rank Hunters wouldn’t respond this quickly! We even opened multiple gates on the opposite side of Seoul to delay them.]

The calculations had been perfect.

They had set up gates on the outskirts to prevent rapid responses from Association or guild Hunters, then upgraded gates in areas far from their residences.

Yet an S-rank—no, one of the strongest among them—had appeared out of nowhere.

And he was someone they’d never even heard of.

What was this? A secret Hunter raised by the Association? Or perhaps a recent Tower conqueror?

No, that couldn’t be.

They had thoroughly investigated Awakened ones likely to clear the Tower. Even the best among them had only reached the 70th or 80th floor.

Unless someone had shattered every floor and climbed in less than a month, it was impossible.

[Who the hell is he? That ‘V’ guy.]
[Right? Could he be the famous ‘Midas’?]

Midas.

An individual rumored to possess an Awakened ability allowing free passage through the Tower.

An absurdly overpowered ability.

Unlike top-ranked Lee Woojae’s power, which focused on raw strength, Midas could strengthen others.

For now, he only used his ability for personal wealth, but if he started training other Awakened, the number of strong Hunters would multiply like locusts.

That would make harvesting souls even harder, becoming a major obstacle to their plans.

Meaning, if V was Midas, he was target number one.

But Willer scoffed.

[Don’t spout nonsense, Lucy. You think someone could be that strong right after entering the Tower? How strong would he be after clearing it?]
[Well, I was just guessing. If he’s this strong right after Awakening, the world’s just unfair.]
[We’ll have to settle for Soul Condensed Elixirs this time. They’re no substitute for human lives, but they’ll have to do.]
[Wow, old man. Wasting money like a champ. Could’ve bought me a bag with that.]
[Shut up.]

It was frustrating to spend money when harvesting human souls would’ve sufficed.

But dwelling on failure was pointless. They had to focus on what they could do now.

Especially with the wildcard ‘Midas’ now in play.

[We’ll have to move the timetable forward. If Midas starts properly training Awakened, it’ll be a disaster.]
[Whatever you say.]

A new wrinkle formed on the old man’s forehead, but he endured it with superhuman patience.

Kids never listened anyway.

‘That V guy… He’s not worth worrying about yet.’

At most, he was just another S-rank Hunter.

Korea alone had about five S-ranks, and globally, there were far more. This was just a minor nuisance.

Annoying, but nothing more.

The old man recited a prayer.

[For the glorious resurrection of the Great One.]

Lucy responded.

[And for the disgusting end of humanity.]

The apocalypse was near.

Until doomsday, Willer and Lucy would lurk in the shadows, working silently for their cause.

“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”
“Understandable. You’ve been moving nonstop without sleep.”
“It’s less about sleep and more about the dizziness.”
“…Sorry.”

After emptying my stomach in the bathroom and calming down, I stepped out.

A person about to enter the bathroom jumped at the sight of us emerging.

I probably looked half-dead.

They must’ve thought, ‘Even in a gate-break crisis, there are still lunatics who drink themselves to death.’

“Still, we’ve got work to do.”
“True.”

We were now heading to a café near the convenience store to meet the Association Chairman.

‘Namjung, is someone else watching the store right now?’
‘Huh? What do you…?’
‘I rushed over thinking the gate break had happened, but someone else was there. Said you asked them to cover for you briefly.’
‘Ah… Yeah, that’s right.’
‘Is that so? I figured you’d have fled when the dungeon break happened, but this is unexpected.’

They covered for me?

Now I feel kinda guilty.

The Chairman was at least B-rank Hunter level, so he could handle himself, but still…

At least Woojae’s perception-blocking magic prevented him from recognizing me.

Was this some high-level strategy to make me feel indebted and gain leverage in negotiations?

No way he’d change contract terms after already agreeing, right?

If he did, I’d just switch to a guild or another country.

“Man, why is everything so hectic…? Feels three times busier than working part-time.”
“But you’re making 30 times more money.”
“That’s true.”

There was so much to do.

Convert the points from selling ramen, beer, meat, and cola into cash, list items in the auction, finalize negotiations with the Chairman, open the random boxes from the Tower…

But that also meant it was time to rake in the cash.

Time to start the real money-making.