Chapter 6. Fox Hunt
“Ugh, how much did I just burn because of those bastards!”
A staggering 250,000 Purple Coins!
Before my regression, as more of the Abyss was explored and new currencies like Green Coins appeared after Purple, Navy, and Blue Coins, their value eventually dropped. But right now, with Blue Coins still being incredibly rare, Purple Coins were the standard currency and held great worth, each equivalent to about 1,000 won (roughly 1 USD).
If I calculate the resources I just spent to overwhelm those guys, it amounts to a whopping 250 million won.
Thinking about that sent a wave of frustration surging through me, making my hand rougher as I slapped the unconscious Kang San awake.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
“Wake up, you bastard! You think you can sleep peacefully after burning through all that money?”
After about five slaps, when his lip had split and his cheek had begun to swell, Kang San screamed and shot up from where he was lying.
“Argh! Wh-what? Was that a dream? Why does my face hurt so much then?”
“A dream? Did getting hit mess with your head?”
“Gasp!”
Watching Kang San shrink back from me in fear, I let a sneering smile spread across my face.
“Looks like you’re back to your senses. Now, we have some unfinished business to discuss, don’t we?”
“…What business?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know. The fox, that bastard. We need to talk about him.”
Kang San’s face stiffened instantly. It was as if he suddenly remembered how he had carelessly spilled the information after checking my Stat Window.
‘Damn it! I only mentioned it because I thought he’d be dead by now!’
Who would’ve thought that a Level 0 Hunter could defeat five hardened criminal hunters?
No matter how good his Unique Ability might be, his stats should still be low, and his experience minimal. We were convinced there was no way he could win.
Since he was carrying so much money, we thought he might be part of a big guild’s rookie squad or the child of some famous hunter, which could mean potential danger. That’s why we had the fox investigate him thoroughly beforehand.
And now I’d just blurted it all out, thinking he’d die anyway.
“Th-the thing is, we were just hired guns. The fox is the one who put a 1 billion won bounty on your card and hired us to kill you!”
I already knew that. The outskirts of the Black Market were known as “Mercenary City” for a reason.
It was a place where mercenaries lurked, hiding their identities, willing to do any job for money.
The Mercenary King, an A-rank hunter, had set up this quasi-labor market with the permission of the S-rank hunter who ruled the Black Market.
The reason I had deliberately planned to visit the outskirts in the first place was exactly this. I needed to quietly and safely transport my brother to Seoul, away from the loan sharks and the chairman’s clutches.
‘I intended to use a company I heard about before my regression anyway.’
After all, if a mercenary committed a crime while working, even the underworld would expel them, so their reliability was guaranteed. The mercenaries I wanted to hire were said to be skilled, even if they were expensive.
“But something more urgent came up.”
Looking down at Kang San’s terrified eyes, I flashed a wicked grin and raised my fist.
“So, you’ll cooperate, won’t you?”
I sent a malicious smile his way.
***
Ring, ring!
“Thank you.”
“Enjoy your shopping. This was Fox, your consultant.”
As soon as the customer left, Fox hastily checked the burner phone in his pocket.
—Task completed.
—Picture attached.
—The card is left in the prearranged spot. Please transfer the payment.
Snicker! Pfft!
Suppressing the laughter that threatened to spill out after seeing the photo of the corpse bleeding out, Fox stood up.
“Maybe I’ll call it a day?”
It was now 1 p.m.—lunchtime. Though it was way too early to clock out, Fox was in the mood to take a half-day today.
As he was known as Ace, his reputation was good, and the hastily written half-day leave was readily approved.
“Then, take care!”
The fox cheerfully waved goodbye to his colleagues and left the Black Money building.
“Hahaha! This feels amazing! So good!”
Four billion! No, since 1 billion had been sent in advance as a commission, it would be 3 billion.
That was more than enough. Even if he slept in a hotel every day, devouring expensive steaks and living extravagantly, it was enough to last a year.
“First, let’s sleep in a hotel suite tonight.”
Taking the half-day off, he decided to step outside into the fresh air from the Black Market!
With a heart full of dreams and excitement about to burst, the fox hurried his steps.
How long had he traveled?
Arriving at a promised location, a deserted area with no signs of human presence, the fox cleared his throat and surveyed the surroundings.
“Yes!!!”
He abruptly opened a container that looked like a garbage bin and pulled out the black object inside.
“Damn! 3 billion! Yes!!!”
As he excitedly held the card up to the bright light, one letter caught the fox’s eye.
D.
“…Huh?”
For a moment, his mind went blank, and as the fox rubbed his eyes and looked at the letter again, he gaped in disbelief.
Why? Why was it not the shimmering red letter A, but a brown D that was engraved there?
The confusion was resolved soon enough.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The rhythmic, simple, and chilling footsteps pierced his ears. They were familiar. But at the same time, it was the kind of footsteps that should never be heard in this place, causing the fox to panic and turn around.
“Um…”
A low sigh escaped, and at that moment, the fox froze.
“B… Boss? How did you end up here?”
The man in a black suit and white mask, the boss, merely gazed at the fox without a word.
It was like the silent moment just before a misbehaving child returned home to face their parents, as the boss stared at the fox, waiting for an explanation.
“Th… this! What’s going on here is! It’s all a misunderstanding! Boss!”
Frantically throwing the card away, the fox shouted at him. However, in such a clearly caught situation, the flimsy excuse only worked against him.
“What misunderstanding are you talking about?”
“Well… it’s just…”
“Phew… I guess I’m going to get scolded by the president because of some pathetic fool. I knew you were playing around a bit, but you’ve finally crossed the line. You dumbass.”
As the boss said this and pulled his hand from his pocket, the fox’s face turned desperate.
“I! I can explain everything! I’m Ace, the consultant for Black Money! Please trust my abilities just this once…!”
Crack!
The fox could no longer continue his sentence.
The small ball of magic that came from the boss’s hand burst his head apart.
Red blood splattered everywhere, creating a grotesque scene, but only one person, the boss, remained tidy and composed as he turned away.
“I’m truly sorry. We acknowledge our responsibility for this. Customer.”
He bowed his head to Shin Juha, who had quietly observed the entire situation from behind.
***
‘Wow! That’s brutal.’
I trembled at the sight of the fox, whose head had exploded with a single strike.
How powerful must he be to carry out such an act so easily?
‘Is that magic?’
To graduate from rank F, a hunter must at least possess the four basic stats: strength, agility, stamina, and durability.
To graduate from rank E, a hunter must have at least one of the three advanced stats: magic, internal power, or Ether.
In other words, the criteria for a D-rank hunter are whether they possess one of those three stats.
For instance, just because someone has F-rank stats doesn’t mean they are necessarily F-rank.
Even Kang San, a [F+] ranked hunter, had no stats at all that would indicate he was [F+]. The highest stat he boasted was strength [general] F (41/99), and he had confessed this before being tortured.
Even the existence up in the sky, the S-rank hunters, didn’t achieve S-rank because they reached the S-rank stats, nor did A-rank hunters achieve A-rank because they hit A-rank stats.
In fact, the highest stat rank in the world is [A-], so if we categorize like this, there shouldn’t be any hunters above [A-] rank in the world.
Of course, this is all just how humans have categorized things according to their own standards. Later on, when Abyss exploration progresses further and the dimensions of other races are connected for the first time, a massive upheaval will occur, causing all hunter ranks to be fixed according to the system’s criteria.
‘That guy’s mana stat must be at least above C rank.’
That would make him at least an [A] rank hunter.
Stats become more difficult to increase as ranks go up, requiring significantly more points.
And if his status is at the level of a mythic rank?
‘If it weren’t for the Golden Treasure Vault, I’d be in serious trouble.’
For now, as an [F-] rank, each free stat point raises my abilities by 1. But even if I move up to just an [F] rank, it’ll cost twice as many points to raise a single stat.
As I ponder over power, the man in the white mask, the director of the headquarters, approached me and bowed with a disciplined posture.
“I apologize. I acknowledge this is our company’s mistake.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That fox fuc…ahem. The fox employee is someone I personally scouted, so I take full responsibility.”
Looking at him, I waved my hand.
“You don’t need to go that far!”
It was burdensome. I only approached him to deal with the potential threat the fox posed, nothing more.
“No, as it’s our fault, we’ll compensate you. May I have a moment of your time?”
I checked the watch on my wrist and then stiffened my face.
More than five hours had already passed. If I delayed any further, something bad could happen.
“Apologies, I don’t have the time right now. I have something urgent to attend to.”
Upon hearing this, the director’s expression brightened slightly as he spoke.
“I don’t know what it is, but allow me to assist you. What do you need?”
I hesitated for a long moment, then finally made up my mind and explained part of my situation.
“If that’s the case, you’d be better off leaving it to me rather than trusting mercenaries. I’ll ensure your younger sibling is safely transported, and I can also arrange for a place for you to live in Seoul. Could you spare just a little time while we handle everything?”
“Well…if you’re willing to help.”
“Thank you. Oh! And don’t worry about safety. Our president detests such lowly tactics as killing people to cover up evidence.”
“Ah…right.”
Upon hearing an unexpectedly dangerous fact, I nodded, and the director hurriedly took me back to Black Money, where he escorted me to a VIP room, saying to wait just a moment before leaving.
“Not bad.”
I looked around the VIP room, which wasn’t flashy but had a luxurious air. While waiting for the director’s return, the door to the VIP room opened.
“Ah! Is everything done?”
In my rush, I jumped up from my seat and shouted, only to see a young girl sucking on a lollipop instead of the white-masked director in a suit.
If someone were to sculpt the concepts of beauty and cuteness into a single person, it would be this girl.
Gulp!
I froze in place and could only remain silent.
‘Why is she here?’
Judging by appearances, I was obviously older than her, and I was, but I couldn’t treat her carelessly.
She was none other than Seo Ye-rin, the S-rank hunter and master of word-based magic who had whimsically created a dark underworld in her territory, forming the Black Market and becoming the head of the giant company, Black Money.
She was a prodigy who awakened at just 10 years old and climbed to the rank of S-class hunter with the talent to look down on the heavens—a true monster among monsters.
〚Heavenly Fortune has broken through Misfortune and offers you the luck of a prodigy.〛
Was the reward for overcoming my misfortune meeting an S-rank hunter?
‘Not that I’m happy about it.’
The atmosphere of the VIP room shifted completely just because one person had entered.
“You?”
“…Yes?”
“Fox. Death. You?”
“Ah… that’s right.”
Pop!
Seo Ye-rin pulled the lollipop out of her mouth, tilted her head, and her eyes gleamed.
Like a sage searching for the truth of the universe, a mysterious energy surged in her eyes.
〚Authority – The Golden Tower rejects the intrusive gaze of a lowly creature trying to observe it!〛
〚Authority – Heavenly Fortune ignores the gaze of a mere creature under the sky!〛
〚Your authorities have blocked certain information from a high-level observation!〛
〚Your unique ability: Ultimate Soul rejects all intrusions below a certain threshold!〛
〚Observation has been completely blocked.〛
Unlike when the fox tried to observe me, normal system messages appeared, followed by a crackling sound as sparks flared from Seo Ye-rin’s eyes.
“Ouch!”
This is bad, really bad.
Using observation on someone without warning is an enormous insult and a severe mistake, but things are different when the opponent is an S-rank hunter who could kill me with just one breath…or even a simple blink.
“Are you alright?!”
I shouted, startled, but when Seo Ye-rin opened her eyes again, they were devoid of any anger.
Instead—
“You. Interesting?”
Her eyes were filled with boundless curiosity toward me.
—
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