6:30 PM.
The hunt ended thirty minutes later than originally planned.
Even so, the total hunting time was just over four hours.
However, the profit they earned during that time was truly staggering.
“Wow! Twelve million won for only four hours of hunting!”
Just yesterday, the Taeseong Guild’s party earned fifteen million won.
Even though there were only three of them and they had hunted for less than half the time, they had earned a whopping twelve million won.
This was entirely due to Holy Weapon Enchant, Holy Armor Enchant, and the darkness attribute imbuement, which allowed them to eliminate monsters at an incredible speed.
“Let’s split it exactly three ways. After taxes, the total profit is 10.8 million won, so we should each take 3.6 million.”
For monster corpses, mana stones, and other byproducts, a ten percent tax is deducted upon settlement. In other words, although they made twelve million won, the actual amount they took home after the ten percent tax was 10.8 million won.
At Seong-jun’s suggestion to split the money evenly into three parts, Gwang-taek shook his head.
“How could we? Honestly, hunting would have been impossible without you in the first place. Give Yu-seon and me twenty percent each, and you take the rest. I think that’s right.”
When they started hunting properly later, they would have to set a proper settlement ratio, but today’s hunt was an experimental run to test various things.
Therefore, he decided there was no need to go through the trouble of calculating a complex settlement ratio.
“We’re grateful if that’s how you feel.”
“Then we each take 3.6 million? Wow! A daily wage of 3.6 million. And you’re saying we’ll keep making this much from now on?”
Gwang-taek shook his head at Yu-seon’s words and said, “No. We only hunted for a little over four hours today, right? When we hunt properly, we’ll be out for at least nine hours. Regardless of the settlement ratio, we’ll definitely take home more than this. Much more.”
If they hunted for nine to nearly ten hours at their current pace, it was obvious that they would make at least double, or even triple, today’s profit.
Even if they didn’t split it into three equal parts as they were doing now, they would definitely take home more money than they currently were.
“W-wait! Then even if we only make five million a day, five days a week for four weeks… that’s 100 million? Gasp! This is crazy!”
Working five days a week for four weeks equaled twenty days total, and if they took home five million every day, they would earn 100 million won a month.
Compared to the five million won they had earned per month until now, it was an unbelievable amount of profit.
Seong-jun smirked at Yu-seon’s words and said, “Well, if you do the simple math, it’ll be around that much. But the profit could decrease depending on the situation, so you’ll have to take that into account to some extent.”
Of course, there was no guarantee they would take home five million every time they hunted, but they would take home more than today at the very least.
Even in the worst-case scenario, they would still make as much as they did today, which was an enormous profit for Gwang-taek and Yu-seon.
Yu-seon approached Seong-jun with sparkling eyes and suddenly grabbed his hand.
Then, she said, “Seong-jun. Stay with us for just one year, neither more nor less. I want to achieve my dream of an annual salary of 1.2 billion won.”
She asked him to stay with them for just one year.
In reality, Seong-jun intended to stay with them for much longer than that.
To put it bluntly, it wasn’t easy to meet new people and reach a trust level of over 90.
“Was Yu-seon’s dream an annual salary of 1.2 billion? Then I’ll have to make that dream come true. Haha. Sure. I won’t go anywhere for at least a year and will stay by your and Gwang-taek’s side.”
He intended to stay with them as long as possible, not just for a year.
***
After the weekend passed, Monday arrived.
The members of the Taeseong Guild, who went out on a party hunt again, were able to earn more profit than before thanks to Seong-jun’s buffs.
As a result, Seong-jun’s position within the party rose to an incomparable level.
He had established an absolute position within the party after only two hunts.
However, they did not know that today would be their last day with Seong-jun.
Evening time after the party hunt.
“You know the drill from last time, right? Just talk openly about the party members you hunt with.”
Finally, the long-awaited interview with the Taeseong Guild took place.
The person conducting the interview was an employee of the Taeseong Guild’s audit team.
Not only Seong-jun but also Gwang-taek and Yu-seon, who worked as fixed mercenaries, were present.
“I know. Shall we start right away?”
At Seong-jun’s words, the audit team employee nodded.
“Let’s do that.”
Seong-jun began to speak.
“First of all, most of the Taeseong Guild members we hunt with are very kind to us. Even though we are F-rank mercenaries, they didn’t act superior or use insulting language, and they treated us as fellow hunters like any other party member.”
As Seong-jun continued, a smile naturally formed on the audit team employee’s face.
There was nothing more rewarding than hearing that the guild they belonged to was well-evaluated by outsiders.
Unfortunately, that was as far as it went.
“I’d love to stay with this party forever, but unfortunately, I think it will be difficult for us to be together in the future.”
What was this sudden talk?
To say it would be difficult to be together in the future meant they would no longer work as fixed mercenaries, right?
“What do you mean by that?”
“As I said, the members of the Taeseong Guild are all good people. Except for one person.”
Sensing that something was wrong, the audit team employee’s expression hardened as he asked, “Hmm, who is that one person?”
“E-rank warrior Kang Jae-jun. He’s the party’s dealer and the person who pays us our allowance.”
Saying so, he took out a copy of his bank statement and placed it on the table.
“This is…”
“It’s the deposit history for the past six months.”
The audit team employee began to check the deposit history.
“Hmm? 250,000 won? Moreover, only 200,000 won was deposited recently? In Kim Seong-jun’s case, 400,000 won was deposited twice recently? The contracted daily wage should be 300,000 won.”
“Kang Jae-jun gave it to us after deducting 50,000 won. Even so, we endured it to keep our positions as fixed mercenaries. But recently, he said he would deduct 100,000 won. The reason we endured all kinds of abuse and insults was to somehow keep our fixed positions.”
Seong-jun paused for a moment and then continued with a sorrowful expression.
“But I can’t do it anymore. I mean, it’s not like he’s taking blood from a stone, but if he cuts 100,000 won from 300,000 won, how are we supposed to live? To be honest, we’re the ones putting our lives on the line in the dungeons too.”
Seeing Seong-jun speak passionately as if he were being wronged, the audit team employee asked with a serious expression, “Do you have anything else besides the deposit history? Solid evidence that E-rank dealer Kang Jae-jun stole your daily wages and also abused his power and used verbal abuse.”
The deposit history?
Of course, depositing less than what was contracted was problematic, but if Kang Jae-jun made up a story on purpose, there was no way to verify it.
Furthermore, this history did not prove that he had abused his power or used verbal abuse.
In response, Seong-jun took out a pen recorder from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“I recorded what Kang Jae-jun did to us.”
Hearing that there was a recording, the audit team employee picked up the pen recorder and played it.
Click!
– N-no, how can this be?
You’re going to give it to us after cutting 50,000 won?
Yu-seon’s voice flowed out of the recorder, followed immediately by Kang Jae-jun’s voice.
– Ha!
What did you just say?
Look at the way you speak even though you’re just a lowly F-rank.
For people like you, even 100,000 won is a waste, let alone 250,000 won.
What do you have to say when you’re just the ones cleaning up after us?
If you want to keep your hard-earned fixed spot, stay quiet.
To be honest, even if I just post one thing on the internet, there are plenty of guys who will come running to take your spots.
More voices from different situations followed.
– Hey! You guys. Go to my house and clean it up. My parents are coming up from the countryside in a bit, and the house is a mess. If even one speck of dust comes out, watch out.
– Today is my girlfriend’s birthday, okay? But I’m too busy to buy a gift. I have other business, so you guys go to the department store and buy exactly this product from this brand.
– You motherf*ckers! Are you sh*tty bastards looking to die? How dare F-rank trash talk back to me? Should I just fire you all? Huh?
– Tsk tsk, you pathetic pieces of sh*t. How pathetic. Did your mothers even manage to swallow seaweed soup after giving birth to things like you? You pathetic b*stards with no pride.
The insults and power trips that Kang Jae-jun had committed flowed out of the recorder.
– What? Hey, you guys want to lose your jobs? You should be grateful that we even hired F-rank trash like you as mercenaries. I used you as fixed mercenaries because I thought you were somewhat useful among F-ranks, but you’re crawling up without knowing your place, aren’t you?
– The leader hyung told me to give you 600,000, but honestly, it’s not like you did that much, right? Since other people get 200,000, you just take 400,000, which is exactly double that.
– The leader hyung seems to have taken a liking to you, but in the end, you’re just a lowly F-rank mercenary. I can fire you whenever I want.
The playback finished with what happened a few days ago.
“Hmm…”
After listening to all the recordings, the audit team employee just had a grim expression on his face.
Seeing him, Seong-jun spoke carefully.
“Whatever the case, a mere F-rank mercenary dared to criticize a Taeseong Guild member, so it will be difficult to enter a party belonging to the Taeseong Guild in the future. We are well aware of that. But I hope you understand our feelings of having no choice but to do this even though we knew that. We won’t be going to our current party starting tomorrow, so please keep that in mind. Well, as Kang Jae-jun said, even if you just post a recruitment notice for F-ranks like us on the internet, they’ll line up, so finding new mercenaries won’t be a problem.”
At Seong-jun’s words, the audit team employee pointed to the pen recorder and said, “This recorder. May I take it?”
In response to the audit team employee’s question, Seong-jun subtly cast Insight.
‘Insight.’
Then, the analysis results appeared in a translucent window before his eyes.
[Analysis Result]
Jo Gyu-seon: [Civilian]
Trust: 37
Psychological state: [Worried that the guild’s image will suffer a significant blow if the recorded content is released. Trying to get hold of the recorder to prevent the image from tarnishing.]
As expected, the audit team employee was reluctant to have the contents of the recording made public.
‘As expected, he’s worried about the recording being made public. Well, my goal is also to screw over Kang Jae-jun, and I don’t want to create trouble by touching Taeseong anyway.’
Of course, Seong-jun didn’t want to blow things out of proportion either.
Seong-jun was only targeting Kang Jae-jun as an individual and didn’t want to cause trouble by messing with Taeseong itself.
Having organized his thoughts, Seong-jun nodded and told him to go ahead.
“Go ahead. For your information, that’s the original and there are no copies. So whether you take it and quietly dispose of it or whatever, that’s up to you. And as I said earlier, the other members were very kind to us. That’s why I’m telling you this, but I hope the others won’t be harmed because of this. Then, we’ll be leaving now.”
It wasn’t that the other people were particularly kind to them, but he had to say this so that all the arrows would be pointed at Kang Jae-jun.
In other words, it meant he could make him look like a relatively worse guy.
Seong-jun said that and stood up.
Gwang-taek and Yu-seon also stood up with him.
After Seong-jun, Gwang-taek, and Yu-seon left, the audit team employee who was left alone was just staring at the pen recorder with a grim expression.
***
Seong-jun, Gwang-taek, and Yu-seon, who came out after finishing the interview, had relieved expressions.
“Ha! Now it’s finally over. But will that punk Kang Jae-jun face any consequences because of that?”
“No way. He’ll just get a talking to. Anyway, Kang Jae-jun is one of their guild members, and we’re just F-rank mercenaries. They wouldn’t kick out a guild member for the sake of an F-rank mercenary, would they?”
In any case, he didn’t think any severe sanctions would be imposed on Kang Jae-jun because of this.
He had revealed it out of a sense of being wronged and wanted to give him a slap on the back of the head before leaving.
“Whatever it is, it’s no longer our concern.”
Gwang-taek and Yu-seon nodded at Seong-jun’s words.
“Right. It’s out of our hands anyway.”
“Still, it feels refreshing. By the way, I’m hungry. Let’s go grab something to eat.”
Since the interview was scheduled immediately after the hunt, they hadn’t eaten dinner yet.
“Shall we? Oh, I don’t care. I’m in a good mood! This brother will treat you to a big pork belly feast today, so let’s go!”
When Gwang-taek said he would treat them to pork belly:
“Oh! Gwang-taek. Awesome! Then let’s start with a light ten servings. Deal?”
“Gasp! W-what? Ten servings?”
“Hey, if you said you’d treat us to a big feast, that should be the basic amount.”
Seeing Gwang-taek startled by the mention of ten servings, Seong-jun said with a smile, “Haha, Gwang-taek. You must not know because you weren’t there when I treated her last time. For your information, I treated her to a total of seventeen servings back then. Well, there are three of us today, so I think more will come out.”
“Urgh! Seventeen servings? Hey! Choi Yu-seon, are you even human? A human can’t eat that much.”
“Oh, I’m not human. So let’s go. I’m going to set a new record today.”
Gwang-taek sighed as he saw Yu-seon leading the way with her fists clenched.
“Sigh, I shouldn’t have said anything. I shouldn’t have…”
Seong-jun patted Gwang-taek on the shoulder.
“There’s no turning back now. Let’s just go. Let’s go have some pork belly and soju and talk about our new start starting tomorrow.”
Since they had made their move today, they no longer needed to participate as fixed mercenaries starting tomorrow.
Instead, they planned to form their own party and conquer dungeons.
To do that, there were various things to discuss, so they planned to talk slowly over dinner and drinks.
***
Around the time they were having a pork belly party at the restaurant, the party Kang Jae-jun belonged to was summoned by the audit team.
“What’s going on all of a sudden at this hour? People just finished hunting and are tired, and you won’t even let them go home.”
When Seong Je-hun, the party leader and team leader, asked with a frown, the audit team leader said with a serious expression, “You know that there was an interview today for a personality evaluation as part of our internal assessment, right?”
“I know. So the audit team employee took the fixed mercenaries after the hunt. Why? Did some kind of problem arise there?”
As soon as Seong Je-hun finished speaking, the audit team leader handed him a paper with the deposit history written on it.
“It seems that wages have not been properly paid to the mercenaries.”
Seong Je-hun had a puzzled expression at the audit team leader’s words.
“That can’t be.”
Then, Seong Je-hun checked the deposit history.
“…”
There, the history of deposits less than the original contracted daily wage was written.
And Kang Jae-jun, who handled all of this, was truly on pins and needles.