Chapter 68: Maintenance (3)

Kim Inho. He’s quite a diligent guy.

I never imagined he’d be struggling so much raising his late older sister’s child.

There isn’t much I can do for someone like Kim Inho.

But I do have the ultimate healing machine.

The disease treatment specialist, Karin, is by my side.

“Hehe.”

Karin is peering into something.

“Kkarin.”

“It’s not ‘Kka’, you idiot.”

Right, Karin.

“What are you doing?”

“Me? Heheh. Doing some relief work.”

Once again, Karin has stacked up boxes of ramen for the Territory’s residents.

Last time, a single box of ramen was enough for everyone, so with this amount, there shouldn’t be any worries about food.

“Wanna see?”

“Yeah.”

Karin swiped her hand over the desk, and a dome in the shape of a semicircle appeared.

Soon, a scene like a medieval SimCity spread out before us.

It’s honestly really fascinating.

Residents, rendered in pixel form, walk the streets. In the Market, pixelated merchants hustle for customers, and kids are playing and running around.

At a glance, it just looks like watching a video game.

‘If I could find a way to shift dimensions, maybe I could bring the Territory back.’

Unlike me, Karin is connected to the Territory.

Thanks to that, Karin, who used to eat like a bird, has become a huge eater just to maintain the Territory.

No, actually, it’s not that she has to eat, but that her appetite has become insatiable.

So I can’t even scold her about it.

“Uh, but isn’t something weird?”

“What is?”

It really is strange.

“Isn’t the Market pretty big?”

Right now, the Territory is floating around, having shifted to some unknown dimension.

I have no idea if the residents are getting motion sickness or not.

Anyway, if we’re cut off in another dimension, we obviously can’t trade.

Whether it’s another world or the modern age, you need planes, ships, or vehicles to carry things if you want to trade.

But how is the Floating Island now?

It’s a completely sealed space.

In other words, we have to be entirely self-sufficient.

“Hey, don’t we need something other than ramen?”

“Like what? Ramen is fine. Are you looking down on ramen, Coach?”

“Salt or stuff like that, you know? There’s no way the Floating Island can trade right now.”

Karin rolled her eyes around at my words.

I’m right, aren’t I?

In another world, the price of spices is astronomical.

Especially pepper.

It’s even more expensive than gold. Salt isn’t called gold for nothing.

“That’s right. Salt. Salt would be even better. The Territory’s income would shoot up right away.”

So up until now, she’s only been giving out ramen.

She seemed smart back in the other world, but…

For some reason, I feel bad for the residents.

“But we still do trade, you know?”

“Trade? You do?”

“Yeah.”

How are they managing to trade when the place is just floating over there?

“Once a month, the Trade Route opens up. So I’ve heard we can trade with other major cities then.”

What the heck.

You mean this Floating Island is trading with the other world?

“Ramen is super popular. Heheh. It’s selling at a high price.”

Even though it looks like there’s barely enough for themselves, they’re selling it off, huh.

And is it really okay to just sell modern goods so recklessly?

“Does that even make sense?”

“Did it make sense in the first place for the Territory to cross over?”

Well, I can’t argue with Karin on that point.

It’s kind of mind-numbing.

Wait, that Floating Island… don’t tell me it’s basically a Dungeon?

Usually, when something from another dimension comes over, a Gate forms.

Sometimes it’s like a crack, sometimes it looks like a black hole.

There are even cases where a literal castle gate appears, wide open.

They’re all pretty unique.

If you don’t close the Gate in time, the dimensional space—that is, the Dungeon—manifests here.

Usually, it’s in the form of a fortress, an underground prison, or a stronghold.

‘Even if a city crosses over, that’s not so strange, right?’

It’s on a big scale, but this could be considered a type of Dungeon too.

Thinking about that makes me feel uneasy.

The Boss Monster I met in Mago’s Dungeon.

No, Diana asked me to save her.

Not herself, but “us.”

Why did an ordinary girl become a Monster?

I don’t know. There’s still not enough information.

“Coach, Coach! Remember the Jaebak Store guy?”

“Yeah.”

I remember. That big-nosed idiot always pretending to be boisterous. Always whining about women.

“He just had Quintuplets, you know?”

“Quintuplets? Wait, did he get married?”

“Of course, he’s been married for a while!”

Wow, that’s unexpected.

I thought for sure that guy would never get married.

Whoever it is, she’s a truly self-sacrificing person.

Uh, person? She is a person, right?

“He married the Waitress at the Inn next door.”

Huh.

I remember that Waitress too.

Thanks to her sensual figure, she made a lot of men want to have a drink or two.

Jaebak Store guy really lucked out.

How did he pull that off, with that face?

“He wants help naming the kids. What about Ilho, Iho, Samho, Saho, and Oho?”

“Just hold back before they start a rebellion.”

The castle’s empty, no lord, so if they invade, it’s over.

“Well, seems like everyone’s doing well.”

“Yeah, luckily.”

I looked at Karin’s grinning profile.

What could she be thinking?

At a glance, she’s just a simple, cheerful girl.

But she’s always worrying about the Territory’s residents.

Doesn’t she want to hurry back?

“Coach, what is it?”

“Huh?”

“You’re staring holes in my face.”

“Oh. Right.”

I got so caught up in amazement that I forgot my original purpose.

“Do you remember the disease caused by Magic Stones from before?”

“Yeah.”

There was a time when Magestone Disease broke out in Rania Territory.

After we killed the giant Black Dragon, it spread disease everywhere as it died, causing a huge headache.

“Inho’s kid. Well, not his biological son, but there’s someone in their family who has Magestone Disease. I was going to help treat them this time.”

“You’ll need ingredients for that, probably.”

“That’s not a problem.”

I’ll prepare the materials.

They’re my people, after all.

The treatment is simple.

Take pure Magic Stone ore, and extract the contaminated Magic Stones from the patient’s body, then implant them.

That way, the patient suffering from Magestone Disease is cured.

Of course, there are downsides.

You can’t overuse it.

Aside from Karin’s mana consumption, the cost of the Magic Stones needed to treat the patient’s body is no joke.

A rough estimate came out to about 110 million won.

In the past, that would have made my knees shake.

As a Trainer, with my poor salary, I’d have to starve and go without clothes for years to make that much.

But now, it’s different.

The more you invest, the more comes back.

I bought 100g of pure Magic Stone ore from the Demon King and gave it to Karin. I took Karin to the hospital and waited outside.

“Hey, isn’t that the Delivery Man?”

“Delivery Man? The one who bullied Hooni oppa?”

Two women who seemed to be Seol Jihoon’s fans glared at me as they passed.

Then they started typing furiously on their phones.

Just in case, I searched ‘Delivery Man’ and ‘Lee Hyunbin’ on SNS.

As expected.

-The damned Hyunbin who bullied Hooni oppa

ㄴㅠㅠㅠ Hooni oppa

ㄴYou just let him do that?

ㄴDelivery Man is so ugly. Even his clothes are trash.

What’s wrong with my clothes? Should I walk around in a suit all the time?

Ugly and dressed like a beggar, they say.

At this rate, people will really get the wrong idea.

False information like this needs to be corrected quickly.

I waved my phone at the girls sneaking glances at me.

While they blinked, not understanding my actions, I pointed two fingers at my eyes, then at them.

Suddenly, both their faces turned pale.

Yeah, that’s right. I see you. I’m watching. Got it?

The two girls shot away like arrows, and the post disappeared.

While I was at it, I searched Seol Jihoon’s name.

Seol Jihoon. As expected, he’s very popular.

He’s probably the most popular S-rank Hunter, regardless of age or gender.

His image is said to be diligent and gentle.

‘Must be blind.’

I can’t help but sneer.

That guy is a Villain.

He kills Hunters indiscriminately, and the Terrorists who tried to summon the Earth Dragon and massacre innocent civilians…

They’re like that, but just because he’s good-looking, everyone sees him through rose-colored glasses.

Lately, the Fighting God Guild has been quiet.

They’re taking a passive approach to raids.

Sooner or later, Seol Jihoon will return to raiding. If it were me, I wouldn’t just let a valuable asset like that sit idle.

‘Since he failed in the Dungeon, maybe he’ll try to break through a Gate next.’

That’s my guess.

He might even be waiting to lure me into a Gate.

After losing to me before, he might have prepared some countermeasures.

Like getting help from an ally, for example.

Just then, my phone vibrated.

-Karin: Coach, done.

After getting Karin’s message, I went up to the hospital room.

Nothing good comes from staying in the hospital for too long. For now, Magestone Disease is known to be incurable.

The only way to treat it now is for Karin to extract the Magic Stones herself.

When I arrived, Karin was sitting on a bench outside the room, looking a little exhausted.

Beads of sweat dotted her face and neck.

I patted her head.

“Good job.”

“You know this is worth ten delivery meals, right?”

If you can get this much labor for ten meals, that’s a steal.

But I can’t let it show. I still want our Karin to be a dreamy girl at heart.

“Hmm, that’s not good.”

“Hey, this is really tough, you know? I have to concentrate so much, and scrape out all the Magic Stones flowing through the veins and everything.”

“True. Fine, I’ll give you ten delivery meals for this one.”

“Heheh.”

I let Karin rest a bit and looked in at Inho inside the room.

“Team Leader….”

Inho’s moist eyes turned to me.

He was holding his son’s hand, who was breathing evenly in comfort.

On the monitor, I could see the numbers dropping steadily.

“I heard. You spent a lot….”

A hundred million won is a lot. But it’s not a big sum for me anymore.

Just one TV appearance or a commercial, and I get hundreds of millions.

In other words, a hundred million.

With that money, I can completely make talented people like Kim Inho mine.

There’s a huge difference between just handing someone a hundred million, and spending it when they desperately need it.

“I don’t know if I can help, but I’ll make sure to help you, Team Leader. Thank you so much.”

There’s plenty you can help with.

Lately, I’m short on Assistant Instructors for my Hunter Training business.

Taeyang and Inho know my training methods well, so they’d make great Assistant Instructors.

Maybe I’ll have them help part-time later.

“Don’t worry. Just focus on your son for now. Take a short leave if you need to.”

“No, I’m fine.”

Fine, he says.

I’m sure he has a lot to take care of.

“And also.”

Inho listens closely to my words.

Seeing his eyes redden, I can tell how hard it’s been for him.

“Don’t ever tell anyone who treated the Magestone Disease.”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely.”

“Yes, I understand.”

There are many people suffering from Magestone Disease in this hospital.

Unless Karin fully recovers her strength, even curing one person is a struggle right now.

“I’m really glad I left the Fighting God Guild and came to you, Team Leader…. Not just for this time, but always….”

I couldn’t help but smile at Inho’s words.

I negotiated a trade with the Fighting God Guild just to mess with them, and I told Kim Inho to come to Hanul Guild.

I still remember Inho’s face lighting up back then.

“Well, see you after your leave.”

I can always tell who will become my people.

How many comrades have I worked with so far?

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah, but I’m hungry.”

Karin said, hinting.

When I first met this kid, I thought we’d have a long connection.

“Tell me what you want to eat. I’ll buy anything.”

“Really? Hehe.”

I bought Karin everything she wanted as she followed me, all excited.

She deserved it.

While I was grilling meat, the TV in the restaurant started broadcasting the news.

-The Shinwa Guild, which has never lost first place since the Gate era began, is now being threatened by the Fighting God Guild, whose market share is steadily declining.

Just then, a voice came from the TV.

-Thanks to the rapid rise of Hanul Guild’s stock, other guilds are receiving fresh motivation.

-The Fighting God Guild and several other guilds are doing their best to recruit new Hunter talent.

Kim Shin of the Fighting God Guild appeared.

Is he still not fired?

Kim Shin’s blunders are countless by now, so I thought for sure he’d be in the gutter.

-Our Fighting God Guild aims for the best by selecting the best talent and will become a social guild that helps ensure citizens’ safety through active engagement.

-The new recruits joining the Fighting God Guild this time are the ones who will lead the next generation of Fighting God. Hunter Seol Jihoon, and others who shoulder no less responsibility and duty.

The greasy-faced Kim Shin was making such a statement in front of reporters.

And behind him, the new Hunters of Fighting God Guild were introducing themselves.

-Hello, I’m Ryu Ji-yeon, newly joining Fighting God.

A woman dressed all in black stood in front of the camera with a smile on her lips.

She looks kind of familiar. Like I’ve seen her somewhere before.

-There’s a Hunter I respect, and I’ll work hard to become like them.

When a reporter asked who the respected Hunter was, the woman in black gave a bashful smile.

-Hanul’s Lee Hyunbin Hunter.