Chapter 10 - The Start of a Solo Run (1)

What was the most annoying thing to wake up to in the morning?

The alarm you set on your phone last night ringing especially loudly?

Your hair getting so caked in grease overnight that it felt sticky even when you weren't moving?

The simple fact that you had to work another day?

-Get up! Wake up already!

"Oh, please..."

-Until you get your ass out of bed, I'll sing you a song we loved back home. Just so you know, I also learned sonic attacks when I was alive. One verse from me, and thirty grunts' heads would explode, kid!

None of the above.

The worst possible situation was some damn ghost who couldn't pass on running his mouth.

-Do you have any idea what time it is? Why are you still in bed?

"What time is it, then?"

I opened my eyes and checked my phone. The lock screen read 4:01 AM in a stylish font.

"It's only four in the morning, Mr. Lunatic!"

-Now, now. By four in the morning, even bugs are awake and wriggling around. You're weaker than a bug, so you should get up earlier.

"You're just bored because you can't sleep!"

-I have no idea what you're talking about.

The attendant spirit turned his head slightly, as though I'd struck a nerve.

"Wow. I wondered why the Sword Saint got up at four every morning to train. It wasn't because he was diligent. It was because you wouldn't shut up!"

-Fine, I woke you up because I was bored. Happy? You get to wake up early and train thanks to me. That's a damn good deal, so you owe me some gratitude. Get down and bow.

"I-I want to kill you..."

-Heh heh. I'm already dead, so you can't kill me. If you don't like it, try dying yourself! Oh, right. You can't stay dead even if you die. You zombie bastard. From now on, your name isn't Kim Gongja. It's Kim Zombie.

"Damn it."

I threw on some workout clothes and went outside. I couldn't stand a ghost yammering nonstop in my tiny, two-pyeong room.

For the sake of my sanity, if nothing else, I left my rented room and jogged beneath the still-dark predawn sky.

"Huff, hoo..."

-Kim Zombie, I'll say it again. Apart from sheer stubbornness, you've got no talent.

The attendant spirit floated over to keep pace beside me.

-Normally, I prefer taking my time and teaching from the ground up. But you don't have any ground to stand on. You're below rock bottom, you might say.

It was already the third day since I'd copied [Sword Constellation] from the Sword Saint.

In the meantime, I'd hunted down Yoo Suha once more and done my best to avoid running into the Sword Saint. Now I was training according to a schedule the attendant spirit had personally drawn up.

-When it comes to talent, you've got what we might call abyssal talent. Wow. So cool! I'm jealous!

"Huff... Please don't... interrupt someone who's... hoo... running...!"

-Anyway, the point is that you need special tutoring. And for special tutoring, you've got to have the hefty tuition fee ready first.

The attendant spirit grinned.

-Time to go collect your lottery winnings, Zombie.

There was a guild called the Union.

Short for the Merchants' Union. Its guild leader was the third-ranked hunter, commonly known as the Count.

As I mentioned before, the Count was the only person who could send goods to the outside world or bring them in. A walking one-person corporation, you might say. Thanks to that ridiculously overpowered skill, the Union held a monopoly over the Tower's economy.

What that meant was...

"Excuse me."

"Yes, sir. How may I help you?"

"I'm here to collect my lottery winnings."

The Union was also the only lottery issuer in Babylon, the city on the Tower's first floor.

"Oh, you've won our Union Happiness Lottery!"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Congratulations!"

The clerk, wearing a cat-eared hat, bowed at the waist. A customer-service smile as bright as a sunflower came with it.

-Hey, I've wondered every time I see it. Why do they wear cat-eared hats?

'The Union's leader is a cat owner.'

-Even if you like cats, why put cat ears on perfectly normal people? That bastard's definitely a pervert. I'd bet on it.

'Is that really important right now?'

Of course, the clerk in front of me probably thought the cat-eared hat looked f***ing stupid too. But a clerk was the lowest of the low on the totem pole. Whether it was cat ears or cockroach antennae, if the guild leader told him to wear it, he had no choice but to shut up and put it on.

Oh, and the clerk was a man, by the way.

That uniform... was unisex.

"Excuse me, sir, but have you checked the date? I'm afraid we cannot pay out on tickets purchased more than two years ago."

"It's fine. This ticket's from last week."

"That's a relief!"

I'd bought the ticket right after getting haunted by the attendant spirit. I needed to win the lottery at least once anyway, and the spirit had kept insisting, 'You need starting capital first!'

"Then we'll begin verifying your identity. Oh, right. Which prize did you win?"

"First prize."

"Pardon?"

The clerk reflexively asked me to repeat myself.

"I won first prize."

"..."

"Here. Check the numbers."

An electronic sign hung above the clerk's head. Labeled [Union Happiness Lottery First-Prize Jackpot], it flashed the accumulated rollover amount like a casino slot machine.

53,000 gold.

In the currency used back home, that was about 5.5 billion won.

-Man, making money sure is easy. Isn't it?

The attendant spirit's lilting voice drifted through the surroundings, which had suddenly fallen silent.

The clerk spoke, looking flustered.

"... I've confirmed the numbers. P-please wait a moment, sir. I'll fetch the person in charge right away."

"Sure, take your time."

The clerk hurried off somewhere.

We were in the Union headquarters building. I could sense several people whispering and stealing glances in my direction. They must have overheard something about first prize. They all looked at me with envy.

-Zombie, are you sure about this? Aren't you going to get stabbed in some dark alley?

"I've thought it through."

I shrugged.

"And trying to hide it wouldn't keep it secret anyway."

Every hunter who won the lottery went on record. The Flame Emperor, Yoo Suha, was no exception. That was how I'd known he'd won first prize twice in a row in the past.

'If people are going to find out anyway, it's safer to be completely open about it.'

Win the lottery, only to get assassinated right away.

If a rumor like that spread, the one whose reputation would suffer was none other than the Union, which needed to sell lottery tickets by the truckload.

A little later.

"Thank you for waiting, Mr. Kim Gongja. I'm Arthur Taylor, the person in charge."

A man dressed considerably more neatly than the receptionist approached and bowed. It was an exceedingly polite greeting.

Though he was still wearing a cat-eared hat.

"My alias is Vault Keeper. Please feel free to call me by that name."

"I'm Kim Gongja. That's a very fitting alias for someone in your guild."

"Haha! I hear that often. Now, if you'll follow me upstairs."

The Vault Keeper smiled amiably.

Appearances aside, having an alias meant he was at least among the top three hundred hunters. He was a ranker far beyond the reach of someone still merely F-rank like me, but he treated me courteously from start to finish.

-Well, you're a customer worth a whole fifty thousand gold. Of course he does.

The damn ghost spoiled the mood again.

-Zombie, I've been giving it some thought. I think you're too easily moved because you've never been treated well in your life. A few days ago, when I praised your talent for dying, you looked all touched. Watching you made even me feel sorry for you.

'Oh, shut up. Please. Just shut up.'

-You can't be that easy, kid. Learn from me. Think of it this way: everyone in the world exists to worship you.

No matter how desperate I got, I'd rather die than take after Yoo Suha or this guy.

As it happened, Yoo Suha and this ghost had similar aliases. Flame Emperor. Sword Emperor. Maybe everyone whose alias ended in Emperor was a deranged lunatic.

"Um, Mr. Kim Gongja. My apologies. Is something troubling you...?"

The Vault Keeper spoke as he led me upstairs. He looked worried that he'd done something wrong. Afraid of looking like a lunatic, I quickly answered.

"No. I was just lost in thought for a moment."

"Oh, that's a relief."

The Vault Keeper sighed in relief.

"You didn't look well, so I was worried I'd inadvertently offended you. Haha, I'm glad to hear that wasn't the case..."

What was with this guy? Was he an angel?

-Tsk, tsk. So easy. So very easy.

I ignored the psychopathic ghost's nagging.

We entered the VIP reception room. Piles of gold coins were already waiting on the table. Apparently, another clerk had come ahead of us and set them out.

The Vault Keeper smiled.

"This entire sum is yours, Mr. Kim Gongja."

"... That's incredible."

More than fifty thousand gold coins!

As the light hit them all at once, the room shone. Just looking at them got my heart pumping. I didn't know whether the display was staged, but it was undeniably overwhelming.

"You may take all these coins with you, or you may obtain a vault with the Union and store them here. What would you prefer?"

"Hmm."

I struggled to regain my senses.

'Money really does have an incredible hold over people.'

Honestly, my mouth was watering.

But my goal was to stand at the very top. To become a hunter so extraordinary that everyone envied me. Money was only a means of getting there.

'Be the one wielding money, not the one being wielded by it, Kim Gongja.'

Having regained my composure, I slowly nodded.

"I'll store it in a Union vault."

"Ah, a very wise choice, sir!"

The Vault Keeper brightened.

"Personally, I always tell our winners that, while I fully understand their desire to take the money home, I strongly recommend using a Union vault whenever possible. There are always people with ill intentions..."

"And..."

I spoke up.

"I'd like to purchase honorary membership in the Union."

"Pardon?"

"A grade-two honorary position costs ten thousand gold, correct?"

I approached the table and rested a hand on the pile of coins. Golden light. The color that bewitched people glittered before me. But I already knew a flame of the very same golden color that was far more captivating.

My future.

For that future, I would invest as many of these coins as it took.

"I'll pay in full."

"..."

The Vault Keeper studied my face for a moment.

"Mr. Kim Gongja... you haven't joined any other guild yet, have you?"

"No."

Guilds.

A hunter didn't join a guild merely to socialize. The greatest benefit was receiving the guild's [protection].

Even with the Hunter Administration Bureau and the neighborhood watch around...

'You could be attacked the moment you let your guard down.'

The Flame Emperor and the Sword Saint murdering me was proof enough.

It was a lawless place. Compared with the developed countries of the outside world, it was brutally dangerous here.

'I can't be stupid enough to repeat the Flame Emperor's mistakes.'

The Flame Emperor lived for his own self-importance.

Even after winning the lottery twice in a row, Yoo Suha probably hadn't paid [protection money] to anyone. I could just picture it. He would have happily gone on living, declaring that all the money was his.

'That's why he got assassinated and poisoned later.'

Pathetic.

Why make enemies of the major guilds for no reason?

"... Understood."

The Vault Keeper took out a notebook and wrote something down.

"Anyone can become an honorary member of our guild by paying the set price. I'll have an employee issue your grade-two honorary membership card right away."

"Oh, right. One more thing."

I continued listing what I needed.

"I'm living in a cheap rented room right now. I'd really appreciate it if the Union could recommend somewhere for me to stay for a while. Of course, I'll pay properly."

"..."

"Also, the newspapers will probably try to find out who won first prize. When they do, even if you don't disclose my real name, I'd like you to make sure the reporters know I'm an honorary member of the Union."

As the Vault Keeper jotted my requests down in his notebook, his expression went blank for a fleeting moment.

"Y-you're very thorough, sir."

"Well, you know what the world's like these days. You have to take at least this much precaution."

"... You're quite right."

Behind the Vault Keeper, the attendant spirit clutched his belly and snickered.

-Hey, he looks a little caught off guard after treating you like a sucker. This is delicious. This is why I can't give up the fun of messing with elites.

'Excuse me, you're the one who was clicking your tongue and calling me easy in the first place. What's with the double standard?'

-Did I? I don't know. If I don't remember it, I probably didn't.

Good God. How could anyone have such a rotten personality?

I must never become an asshole like that.

-Well, anyway, you're doing all right on your own.

The attendant spirit grinned.

-I was worried I'd have to take care of your diapers like I was looking after a newborn, but judging by how you're handling things, you'll be fine.

'I'd hate you a lot less if you couldn't talk...'

-Come on, kid. You look pretty happy yourself.

He was right.

Despite my inward grumbling, a smile was forming on my lips too.

'Of course I am. This is only the beginning.'