Chapter 22: Five Seconds

-Pshhh-

“Haa… That was exhausting…”

Lee Tae-sung exhaled a long sigh as he sat up in the capsule.

Since receiving the Heavenly Net Flame Palm from Baek Un-ho, he had been obsessively taking on and completing quests.

‘I’m glad I became a First-Class Disciple.’

The fastest way to gain lacking skill points was to perform quests that rewarded them.

If he had still been a Second-Class Disciple, he would have had no choice but to level up, which would have been much more difficult.

Regardless, he had stayed up all night completing quests and had managed to gather all 16 skill points.

-Ding!-

[You have acquired a new skill.]

[Skill: Heavenly Net Flame Palm]

How good it had felt to hear that notification.

Stepping out of the capsule, Tae-sung stood before the mirror and looked down at his hands.

Knowledge of how to use the Heavenly Net Flame Palm flooded his mind. Naturally, he began to circulate the mana within his body accordingly…

-Sizzle-

His palms turned a deep crimson, beginning to radiate a shimmering heat.

“This is incredible.”

Tae-sung smirked.

He knew better than anyone just how devastating the power of these terrifying palms was.

After all, he had nearly died after one brush with Baek Un-ho.

He had learned a new martial art, and thanks to the elixirs, his mana capacity had increased significantly.

This should be enough to tackle the next mission.

The first three missions were treated as a tutorial, and he was told that things would get much harder starting from the fourth.

But with this much preparation, it seemed doable.

‘Time to go buy that Han River view house!’

If possible, he wanted a place with the best view in all of Seoul.

He figured he’d need a few billion won.

In the past, he wouldn’t have been able to save that kind of money even if he worked while barely breathing until he died, but things were different now.

If he continued performing Hunter Missions like this, it wouldn’t take that long.

‘And if I earn even more than that… I might even invest in Dream World itself.’

Giving real cash to people in reality to receive gold in the game—although the game company didn’t officially allow it, it was a thriving transaction among users.

If there were skills that could be bought with gold within Dream World, he could try that as well.

But that was enough thinking for now. He could worry about that a bit later.

-Ring-

Tae-sung called Manager Song Sang-yeop to let him know he was heading into the fourth mission.

Song Sang-yeop picked up before the second ring.

-Yes, Hunter Lee Tae-sung.

“Manager. I’m planning to head into a new mission today.”

-So today is the day. Are you mentally prepared?

“More than enough.”

-Then please wait a moment. There is something I need to tell you.

“What is it?”

-I’ll come see you and tell you in person. If you’re at home, would it be alright if I dropped by for a moment?

“It’s not that difficult… Fine, I understand.”

What was he planning to say that required him to come in person?

Not long after hanging up, Manager Song Sang-yeop arrived in front of the house.

Tae-sung went out to meet him, and as Song got out of the car, he began pulling large boxes out of the backseat and the trunk.

“Heave-ho.”

“…What on earth is all this?”

“Haha. I’ll show you inside. Could you give me a hand?”

The boxes were heavy, but for Tae-sung, who was gradually stepping into the realm of a superhuman, they felt like empty boxes.

He carried them into the house with him.

“Whew. Thank you.”

After wiping away some sweat, Manager Song opened a box to reveal its contents.

They were printed documents.

There were countless pages.

“…What is all this?”

“These are things likely to appear from the fourth mission onward. Monster forms, characteristics, strategies, mission types, traps, tips, and so on. I brought all the records kept by the Association.”

Hunter missions are easy up to the third one.

However, the difficulty spikes from the fourth, and one wrong move could lead to death.

In fact, many people had died after gaining confidence from easily clearing the first three.

That was why the Association put hunters who graduated from the tutorial through extensive preparation.

They informed them of how difficult the fourth mission would be and provided a mountain of preparations.

“I was just about to go into a mission, so why are you giving me this now? You should have given it to me sooner…”

“I was waiting because I thought you might feel pressured to hurry into the mission if I gave it to you too early. Please look through all of this before you go.”

“I mean…”

“Haha. Don’t worry. I’ll explain it in a way that’s easy to memorize. I even prepared PPT materials.”

Song then pulled out a laptop and a tablet.

Tae-sung was stunned. Did he really have to memorize all of this?

***

The Blue Dragon Guild was a large-scale guild rising rapidly within the country.

They had survived among the established giants and were now aiming for the top spot.

What makes a guild “good”?

Naturally, it was a guild that possessed outstanding hunters.

Powerful hunters earned massive scores in missions, and those scores allowed the guild to do all sorts of things.

Consequently, guilds were desperate to recruit talent.

The reason the Blue Dragon Guild grew into a large-scale guild was because the Lee Jung-woo and Lee Ye-ji siblings were exceptional hunters.

As the Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader who founded the guild themselves, they had grown it through sheer skill.

And now, they wanted to recruit an outstanding hunter to grow even further.

“I’m certain. He definitely has talent.”

“Hmm…”

The Guild Leader’s office.

Lee Jung-woo and Lee Ye-ji sat across from each other, deep in conversation.

It was about Lee Tae-sung, whom Lee Ye-ji had met at the Hunter Association not long ago.

“It’s certainly interesting. Perfect scores all the way through the third mission.”

Guild Leader Lee Jung-woo nodded.

There hadn’t been anyone like that among the hunters he’d heard of recently.

Even the two siblings had only achieved perfect scores twice out of three times.

Of course, they’d had a bit of bad luck, but it still meant this person had more talent than the two who led a major guild.

“But you know, right? We can’t jump to conclusions yet. It was just the tutorial.”

“That’s true. We need to watch him longer.”

Tutorials are easy.

Unless you have terrible luck, passing isn’t hard.

Thus, one couldn’t judge talent just yet.

They would have to see at least one or two more missions before talking.

“Then what if his results are good in the next missions too?”

“Why even ask? Naturally, I’ll have to take a mat to his front door, kneel, and beg him to come here.”

Lee Ye-ji chuckled at Lee Jung-woo’s words.

For a talented hunter, they would have to go that far.

Since other large guilds with deeper histories would offer much better terms, they couldn’t win by competing on conditions alone.

At the very least, they had to show more sincerity.

“Let’s talk more about this later. Nothing’s decided yet.”

“Right.”

“How is the China side lately?”

Guilds gather outstanding hunters and use their scores to buy various items from the shop.

This ranged from basic resources like mana stones to recipes for new medicines and various absurd items existing in other worlds.

Naturally, selling these was also important.

By selling to places with vast land and large populations like the US, China, Russia, and India, they increased the guild’s capital, which in turn allowed them to recruit excellent hunters—a virtuous cycle.

They could go through a corporation, but that would incur commissions, so they tried to do it themselves… but it wasn’t easy.

“It’s so hard because skill alone isn’t enough over there. Work just doesn’t progress at all without ‘Guanxi’ connections.”

Lee Ye-ji sighed.

They could hold their own in terms of skill, but China’s unique culture was the problem.

You couldn’t even establish those connections just by giving out a few bribes.

There were types and grades to these connections, and business didn’t run smoothly through ties formed simply by bribes and business interests.

“Whew. How easy would it be if we knew someone in the Chinese high-ranking circles?”

“Since that’s not as easy as it sounds… we’ll just have to figure something out. Let’s think about it.”

The lights in the Blue Dragon Guild Leader’s office did not go out until late.

***

Tae-sung looked into the mirror.

Hollow eyes.

Dark circles that had grown deeper.

His condition wasn’t great, but his confidence was high.

‘The preparation is perfect.’

He had completed a short but intense Spartan-style training session with Manager Song Sang-yeop.

He thought he was going to die trying to memorize all that.

It reminded him of his days at the company when he’d get scolded for not memorizing meeting materials in a single day.

Regardless, he had memorized the appearance, characteristics, and strategies for every monster likely to appear in missions after the tutorial.

His equipment was also solid.

He still had the longsword and leather armor he’d bought, and he had tucked five daggers into his right hip.

‘I’m glad I saved 500 SC.’

When he had received 300 million from Lee Ye-ji to buy and hand over the recipe, he had kept 500 score points just in case.

He’d kept it as insurance, and he was glad he did.

Because of that, he was able to bring these daggers.

“Whew.”

Preparation was over. It couldn’t be more perfect.

“Alright. Let’s go!”

Tae-sung immediately joined the mission.

With a blink of an eye, his vision shifted drastically.

He had been in his room, but now he was inside a massive stone chamber.

It was as wide as a playground.

Torches were lit throughout the stone chamber, making it bright, and statues of various races fighting with weapons were spaced evenly along the walls.

In the center, there was a platform that looked like an arena.

‘A dueling ground?’

That was his first thought.

And at that moment:

-Ding!-

[Welcome to the fourth mission.]

[Mission: Win the duel.]

[You are currently in Heportra’s Arena. Defeat your enemy and win the duel.]

[Mission Reward: 1,000 SC.]

[Note: If a victor is not decided within 5 minutes, it will be judged as a draw.]

[In the event of a draw, the mission reward will be reduced by half.]

[The faster and more decisively you defeat the enemy, the more the mission reward will increase.]

Tae-sung’s intuition was right.

It was an arena.

The next thing that caught his eye was the mission reward section.

He could see that the previous missions were indeed just a tutorial, as the reward had jumped significantly.

Previously, he had received 5 or 10 SC, but now it had increased by dozens of times.

However, he couldn’t just be happy about it.

‘It means the mission content has become that much harder.’

It also meant the probability of dying had increased.

-Rumble-

Just then, the stone wall on the opposite side slid up, and a monster began walking out from within.

“Grrr…”

A pig-like head, two meters tall, bursting with muscles, and veins bulging out.

He looked like a heavyweight MMA fighter who had turned into a monster after being injected with a mountain of drugs.

‘An Orc.’

One of the monsters that appeared frequently in various media.

However, an Orc appearing in this mission was by no means a pushover.

It was stronger and tougher than your average berserker.

The creature held a massive club that reached up to its waist; it felt like one hit would send Tae-sung straight to the afterlife.

‘…If it looks like I can’t win, I should just run away and hold out for five minutes.’

The thought occurred to him naturally.

But Tae-sung shook his head to steady his mind.

Then, he threw a dagger infused with internal energy.

-Swish!-

Fortunately, he had simulated encounters with common monsters like Orcs and Goblins before coming here.

First, throw an infused dagger as a distraction, then close in with a sword.

Fight as much as possible with the Fire Sword Technique, but if the opponent is too strong or the difference in physical strength is too great, boldly discard the sword.

The opponent will be momentarily flustered when he drops his sword.

No idiot throws away their weapon.

In that opening, dive inside and strike with the Heavenly Net Flame Palm.

The Heavenly Net Flame Palm was a Grade 5 Legendary skill.

Even though it was only Level 1, its power was overwhelming.

With this, he should be able to win—

-Thud, thud, thud!-

“Gurgle…”

‘Huh?’

The daggers pierced through the creature’s body and embedded themselves into the wall behind it.

One of the daggers must have struck the lungs or heart, as the creature immediately collapsed and began to gag.

Shortly after, its labored breathing stopped.

-Ding!-

[You have won the duel.]

[Mission Success!]

[You have acquired 1,000 SC.]

[Time taken to win: 5 seconds.]

[Mission reward increases overwhelmingly.]

[You have acquired an additional 9,000 SC.]

Tae-sung blinked at the following notifications.

No, wait.

Why was that so easy?