There was more to do on the 2nd floor than I thought.
To be honest, it’s a gold mine.
Since each floor can be raided repeatedly once a day, I spent my time sweeping up slimes and researching on the 2nd floor.
I didn’t sell the campfires either, as I needed to research them on the 2nd floor as well.
Was that why?
Hunternet was in an uproar.
—No videos are being uploaded.—
– Is he taking a break for a while?
– I guess so.
No campfires are appearing on the auction house either.
– Did he overdo it when he did the flawless clear of the 2nd floor?
– It’s possible.
Why else would people not challenge a perfect clear?
– It’s seriously dangerous.
The probability of dying is higher than in the 10th-floor range, so people just meet the minimum requirements and bolt.
– Yeah.
It felt much more dangerous from the 1st to 9th floors.
– Everyone says it’s not worth the effort, but they only climbed while meeting minimum requirements because they were terrified of dying.
Most of the comments were filled with worry.
They were mostly low-floor hunters.
To them, the Unnamed Hunter was a ray of hope.
On the other hand, another group was in a different kind of frenzy.
—Agh! Why aren’t the campfires being posted!—
– It’s fine to rest, but please just post some campfires!
– CAMPFIRE!!!!!!!
– If you’ve gathered slime fragments, please release some!
– Doing this all of a sudden is foul play!
The prospective buyers, who had grown complacent because he had posted consistently without a single day’s rest, were in a panic.
Since they took it for granted that items would be posted today, they had no choice but to freak out, especially since they had set their maximum auction bids on the premise that items would appear daily.
The same went for the 1st-floor slime mucus.
Perhaps because they weren’t used to it yet, there were currently no hunters posting the same volume as the Unnamed Hunter.
Because of this, those aiming for 1st-floor slime mucus also fell into a panic.
Of course, this was limited to those waiting for the auction.
For those just watching, there was no better entertainment.
—He’s tightening up the auction house atmosphere, which was getting too loose.—
– I know, right? Who do they think they are, setting a price ceiling?
– A teacher cracking the skulls of the morons who thought supply was guaranteed.
– It felt like they were about to collude and lowball the campfire prices, so he immediately brought out the whip.
– Wow… are you trying to normalize the auction house too?
Most of the comments were mocking the bidders who were waiting.
However, when neither videos nor auctions were posted the next day, public opinion began to shift.
—Is he really resting?
– Honestly, he’s probably made enough money to live on for the rest of his life, so he could stop climbing.
– That’s true, but….
It’s only been two days. Just wait.
People thought he would just rest for a few days and come back.
However, when three days passed and it became the fourth, they began to feel uneasy.
—What’s going on? Now I’m actually getting worried. Is he injured?
– Isn’t it more like defection?
– To another country?
You’re saying agents have already contacted him?
That makes no sense.
– Yeah.
There’s zero information on him, so how would they contact him?
– He might try to leave on his own without being recruited.
– Ah…. That might really be the case.
As if everyone had experienced this before, regretful comments began to appear.
It was because Korea had experienced such incidents several times in the past.
Several hunters who had awakened A-rank skills were squeezed dry by giant guilds and fled as soon as their contract period ended.
What was shocking was that even an S-rank awakener had once paid a massive penalty and fled to another country.
Because of that, the guild in question was audited to the point of being dismantled, and laws were enacted to regulate prevention clauses, but the malpractices caused by overheated competition still remained.
—Looking at how things are going now, defection would be tempting.—
– I know.
Look at what the Hunter Management Bureau is doing when they should be trying to coax him gently.
– It wouldn’t be strange if he defected.
The posts and comments were filled with self-deprecation.
It was understandable, as the Hunter Management Bureau had recently issued a warning to the hunter who exposed the problems with the Monster Management Office.
[Hunter Management Bureau: Publicly advising the Unnamed Hunter, who succeeded in the flawless clear, to register with the Bureau.]
[This advice is interpreted as meaning that under Korean law, all hunters must be registered. If he remains unregistered for a long period, it could be considered illegal, which might look like pressure….]
Hunters who saw these articles began to criticize the Hunter Management Bureau.
Of course, the Hunter Management Bureau had its own grievances.
It was because journalists had cherry-picked specific statements to write sensationalized articles.
Was that why?
They immediately issued a rebuttal statement.
“It was merely a suggestion. If you read the full text, you will see that there were mentions of tax benefits and the option to register privately if he does not wish to be public. Also, in case it is difficult to trust the Hunter Management Bureau, we plan to apply an exception rule to register him with Black-tier status, known only to the Director and the Special Team Leader.”
Threatening a genius who flawlessly cleared up to the 2nd floor?
No matter how much the Hunter Management Bureau was swayed by politics, they wouldn’t threaten him unless they had a hole in their head.
They emphasized once again that they would provide all sorts of benefits, and if he couldn’t trust the Hunter Management Bureau, it was possible to hide his identity and register only the minimum information.
“We are ready to negotiate at any time. Any channel is fine, so please just contact us.”
The Director himself bowed his head and pleaded.
That was how desperate they were.
There had already been an incident where an S-rank awakener defected.
Many A-ranks had also left.
After that, the Hunter Management Bureau had transformed with the determination to be completely overhauled.
Therefore, it was unfair to be treated the same as the Monster Management Office.
‘It’s an insult to be treated the same as those bastards.’
Park Young-hwan, who, while not as high as Cheon Tae-san, held a spot at the bottom of the world rankings, gritted his teeth.
Unlike the Monster Management Office, which had become nothing more than a dog of the regime, the current Hunter Management Bureau possessed its own level of independence, not being swayed by the regime even if it wasn’t perfectly clean.
Giant guilds that had grown into transnational corporations and the government trying to control them.
The Hunter Management Bureau was stuck in the middle, unable to do one thing or the other.
Could this really be called an independent agency?
Unable to watch any longer, Cheon Tae-san tried to control things by creating hunter regulations through the Cheonsan Guild.
However, Park Young-hwan wanted to change things in a different way.
By entering the Hunter Management Bureau himself to change it.
To do that, he needed power.
By providing benefits greater than those of giant guilds, he pulled hunters into the Bureau one by one and even siphoned off members from their original guilds to gather hunters.
He had formed an agreement with the Hunter Management Bureau alongside Kim Seon-hwa, a fellow world ranker he was close with, and had also formed an unofficial agreement with Cheon Tae-san.
However, this was not enough.
‘We need another S-rank belonging to the Hunter Management Bureau.’
He reached this conclusion.
That was why he made a deal regarding Park Min-hye, an unofficial S-rank who was originally the head of the Monster Management Office.
In exchange for giving the Monster Management Office, which was under the Hunter Management Bureau, to the government, the Bureau would take Park Min-hye.
‘Unofficial S-rank.’
An unofficial S-rank hunter who had to be placed as the head of the Monster Management Office because she developed mental issues during the climb.
An unfortunate S-rank hunter ruined by the Hunter Management Bureau’s idiocy during its dark ages.
What was even more tragic was that her family members were also trash.
When signs appeared that they were trying to manipulate her again, he immediately pulled her from the position of office head and protected her at the Hunter Management Bureau.
The Bureau was so broken that they had to bring in an S-rank who was already damaged.
Because of this, they were hectically busy.
Normally, they would have begged for the Unnamed Hunter’s attention even by plastering advertisements everywhere, but they didn’t even have the leeway for that.
So they switched to a step-by-step approach.
However, the Monster Management Office problem exploded and the situation escalated too quickly, so they moved like this, albeit belatedly.
‘No matter what conditions we have to offer, we must catch him.’
Not all S-ranks climb the high floors.
Therefore, for an S-rank to be properly treated, they had to conquer the 50th floor.
The reason was that even with all kinds of support, many collapsed in the middle.
In many cases, they wasted years on the middle floors because their compatibility didn’t match during the climbing process.
There were also cases like Park Min-hye where they stopped climbing due to mental issues.
There were even cases where they were ruined by gambling due to excessive support from the beginning of their climb.
As if proving this, even the S-rank who defected to the Middle East after receiving a high contract fee had sluggish climbing results.
Like an S-rank, they easily leap over the 20th floor, but many collapse, unable to overcome the walls of the late 30s and early 40s.
‘The Unnamed Hunter is different.’
Not only did he achieve flawless clears from the 1st floor, but even on the 2nd floor, he showed that he was different from an ordinary S-rank.
Is that all?
Even after clearing, he remained on the 1st and 2nd floors to create guides for low-floor hunters.
Those who are destined to rise are different from the start.
‘Cheon Tae-san said it.’
If he became a top world ranker by clearing in the shortest time, the Unnamed Hunter was the opposite.
‘A hunter who pursues perfection.’
If such a person defects elsewhere out of disappointment with Korea?
Then the Hunter Management Bureau will be ruined to the point where it can never recover.
“Please give our Hunter Management Bureau just one chance.”
The Director of the Hunter Management Bureau bowed his head once more.
Then he raised his head and looked at the reporters with a cold expression.
“I am warning you. If you intentionally distort the position of the Hunter Management Bureau, we will use all means to ensure you face legal punishment. If you want to know if this is an empty warning or not, try it again.”
After saying that, he glared at several reporters who had written particularly distorted articles.
“For your information, lawsuits will be filed against several reporters, so be aware.”
At the Director’s words, some reporters flared up and shouted, but he ignored them completely and headed inside to the Director’s office.
“That was a great speech.”
“How is your… recovery?”
“It’s almost done.”
As she said that, the woman glared at the reporters visible through the window with a cold expression.
“That person came too.”
The woman glared at one of the reporters gathered outside.
Seeing one of the culprits who had exhausted her spirit, Park Young-hwan told her to calm down.
“It’s not time to show your teeth yet. Calm down.”
“…Phew. I suppose so.”
“First, we have to put out the immediate fire. That way, we’ll have the chance to strike at the government by taking down the Monster Management Office.”
“We must. The current Monster Management Office is so broken it’s hard to fix.”
It was too rotten to be repaired.
It was better to smash it completely and rebuild it from scratch.
“Still, it shouldn’t be too late. We have to finish it before everyone leaves.”
At her words, Park Young-hwan nodded slightly.
“To do that, first… we need a response from the Unnamed Hunter. At the very least, a new strategy video needs to be uploaded for the flames to settle down a bit.”
It was a situation where it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the future of the Hunter Management Bureau depended on him.
With a desperate heart, hoping he would give this country just one more chance, he looked at the video on the building’s electronic display covering the news about the Unnamed Hunter.
Around the time news was coming out questioning whether he was preparing to leave Korea, Min-hyuk exited the 2nd floor after finishing his experiments.
“Whoa… what is all this?”
He looked at Hunternet, which was in an uproar as if a bomb had gone off while he was preoccupied with the tower for a moment.
In the few days he was away, the atmosphere had already shifted to the point where his departure from Korea was treated as a foregone conclusion.
It was absurd, but the situation itself was flowing very advantageously for Min-hyuk.
The absolute upper hand.
A situation where even the Hunter Management Bureau was pleading for him to just stay, promising to do whatever he wanted.
In that case, now was the time to show some mercy.
“I should post a campfire first.”
Intending to put out the immediate fire, he posted one campfire on the auction house.
Then, the reaction was immediate.
—The Savior of the low floors has returned!—