GM Ch17

Soohyuk clicked his tongue softly. For some reason, he felt reluctant when Minjun was persuading him to just do it. It felt like he was about to do something very immoral. His conscience, which he usually didn’t even realize he had, popped up out of nowhere and flaunted its presence.

“I’m intrigued, but I just don’t want to do it.”

“When hunter Kim Minjun tells you to do something, just do it. Say thank you, and then compensate him.”

“That’s for later. First, get the guild leader Choi Jongsoo for me. He’s not answering his phone.”

“He’s probably sleeping somewhere, I’ll go get him.”

The June Guild had several subsidiary guilds, including the November Guild, which was a workshop dedicated to crafting magic tools instead of dungeon raiding, and the leader of the November Guild was Choi Jongsoo.

As one of the leading magic tools experts in the country, he was a workaholic, practically living in the guild’s building. When he was focused on his work, he even forgot to sleep. Consequently, his sleeping hours were arbitrary, and when he fell asleep, he turned off his phone, making it difficult to communicate with him.

Jung Seongwon urged him to return to the office and then disappeared off somewhere. Now left alone, Soohyuk stood on the rooftop for a long time, indifferent to the cold winter wind.

***

After getting a ride home in the June Guild’s company car, Minjun took a shower. He hadn’t gotten particularly dirty, but it was still a habit he’d picked up after returning from the dungeons. Subsequently, he quickly made lunch. The hunter’s license practical exam ended before 12, but he had to stop by the June Guild and ended up staying until well after 1.

The menu was fried rice. He threw in some leftover vegetables from the fridge and a can of Spam, and finished it off with some magical oyster sauce and chili powder. The fried rice, topped with three fried eggs, was devoured in no time.

After patting his stomach in satisfaction, Minjun went through the same routine he did when he got home from his part-time job at a courier distribution center. He washed and cleaned the dishes, then laid down in the living room.

“Compensation, huh.”

Focused on just solving the accident, Minjun didn’t think about receiving anything from Soohyuk. Even when he said he had a lot of money, he assumed he was trying to placate him, so he just ignored it. But if it was something other than money, it was a different story.

He needed to run a lot of dungeon raids to overcome the class drop that was a side effect of dimensional travel. Fortunately, the dungeon difficulty didn’t matter, but it was hard to estimate how long it would take to participate in 99 dungeon raids as a freelance hunter.

Essentially, If he asked Soohyuk to get him into as many dungeons as possible, doing 99 dungeons would be much easier.

“I’m not going to be able to retire as soon as I reach S-class.”

If he was a freelance hunter, he could simply disappear. But if he was a member of the June Guild, things were different.

When Minjun wrote his guild membership contract, he knew he had to add a few conditions. If he slipped up, his retirement could be pushed back, and he had to make sure of that.

“What do I do with a guy?”

As he lay in his warm living room, Minjun suddenly realized that he knew nothing about how men do things with each other. He had a rough idea, but it wasn’t enough. This was the kind of thing he needed to learn in advance to avoid embarrassment later.

So Minjun picked up his phone, which he had set aside, and started searching.

***

Three days later, while eating pork trotters for lunch, Minjun received several calls from unexpected sources. The first was Choi Joongho, who he had worked with at a courier distribution center, calling to ask why he hadn’t come to work part-time lately.

“I was busy taking my hunter’s license test.”

— Is that so? Did you pass?

“Yes.”

— That’s nice. So are you still planning on doing freelance? Not joining a guild?

Minjun realized that this was Choi Joongho’s goal. So this time, he told the truth.

“I’ve been offered a job and we’re discussing it now.”

— What? I told you to join the Hancheol Guild.

“The conditions are better here.”

— That’s disappointing. We can meet the conditions too. What are the conditions? Hm?

Choi Joongho spoke softly, not bothering to hide his disapproval, but Minjun was unmoved. He had no intention of getting involved with a man who practiced a strange religion. When he told him that he had an agreement to keep the contract secret, the other person eventually said he understood and took a step back. He ended the call by urging him to contact him if anything went wrong.

Next was the vice guild leader of the Star Guild, whose cell phone number he had already blocked. Nevertheless, undeterred, he called Minjun from a new number and he was able to connect.

— I’m waiting outside the entrance to your apartment. Where are you?

“I told you I was going to join another guild.”

— What kind of terms? I’m sure I can match everything as well as the June Guild.

“I can’t tell you the terms because they’re confidential, and I’m outside right now, so I have to go.”

Minjun said the necessary and quickly hung up. He quickly blocked the number as well. Shortly after he got his hunter license, the Star Guild’s obsession intensified. They kept trying to contact him, asking how he knew he’d decided to join the June Guild and that they could fulfill all his requirements.

At that moment, he knew he had to get into the June Guild before it got any more complicated than that. This time, he was contacted by the National Security Agency Hunter Management Team.

— We’ve encountered a problem in the process of issuing your hunter’s license. We’re sorry, but will you be able to come to the main office of the National Security Agency soon?

“Yes.”

Minjun knew from past experience that this was an excuse to call him out, but he complied and ended the call. He immediately texted Soohyuk and Jeongwon, remembering that they had told him never to go alone if the National Security Agency contacted him.

Minjun was willing to join the Poison Jar dungeon raid if the National Security Agency requested him to, but if he was going to join the June Guild, it would be a bad idea to disregard the guild leader’s words.

As soon as he sent the text, he got a call from Soohyuk.

“Hello.”

— What did the National Security Agency say?

“They’re having trouble with the license process and want me to come in.”

— What kind of tricks- When?

“I said I’ll be there tomorrow.”

He asked if he could come today, but Minjun postponed it until tomorrow, saying he had work to do. For now, he planned to do whatever he wanted after he joined the June Guild.

— I made up my mind. Where are you? Home?

“I’m eating outside right now, near my house.”

— Then, I’ll send a car by 2. Hunter Jung Jinwoo from the General Affairs team will be there.

“Not the apartment. Send the car to the main entrance of the nearby Anhong Elementary School. The Star Guild’s vice guild leader is camping out for me near the apartment.”

— Tsk. Even though I made it clear I had my eye on you. I’ll take care of it. See you later.

“Oh, wait a minute.”

Minjun urgently called Soohyuk back when he thought of something to ask him.

— What?

“How’d it go, the unbinding?”

— … Let’s meet in person and talk. I’ll just hang up.

Soohyuk ended the call first with a flat voice. Minjun laughed as he watched the short call time flashing on the screen. It seemed like he hadn’t been able to find a way to unbind the item, and it was making him sensitive.

“I wonder if we can do it today?”

Minjun finished his meal, wondering if he should have packed condoms with him. After leaving the pork trotter shop, he got a coffee and loitered out in front of the elementary school. Hunter Jung Jinwoo showed up just in time, and Minjun greeted him before he got in his car.

As they made their way to the June Guild, Jinwoo spoke politely to him.

“Are you joining our guild?”

“I haven’t signed it yet.”

“Not to brag, but my guild is really good.”

And that was when Jinwoo started boasting about the June Guild. The salary, bonuses, and benefits were the best in Korea, he said, especially the in-house cafeteria, which served all three meals a day.

Today’s lunch menu was lobster, and when Minjun heard that up to five lobsters would be served per person, he was astonished. The sound of June Guild got better when he claimed that lunch had a special meal and that there were at least two types of meat side dishes for breakfast and dinner.

Usually, the atmosphere of a guild naturally depends on the personality of the guild leader. The well-being of the June Guild meant that the guild leader cared that much.

Minjun smiled as he thought of the lobster that was on the menu for lunch today. The favorability rating for Soohyuk, the guild leader of the June Guild, had risen significantly.

***

It took a little over 15 minutes to get from Minjun’s neighborhood to the June Guild. Jinwoo led him into the guild leader’s office, where Soohyuk and Seongwon were waiting for him.

“Welcome, hunter Kim Minjun.”

Seongwon got up from the couch to greet Minjun. Meanwhile, Jinwoo closed the door and left the guild leader’s office.

“I should have signed you that day. Have a seat over here.”

Minjun sat in the seat Jung Seongwon offered, and on the couch across from him was Soohyuk, arms crossed and a sullen face.

“Oh, our guild leader is in a bad mood right now. We haven’t found a way to unbind the item yet.”

“Ah, I see.”

“We just need to focus on the contract here. Our guild adheres to the Association’s standard contract. We are confident that hunter Kim Minjun will be fully satisfied with the down payment, annual salary, and bonus. You can read them here and here.”

As he flipped through the contract, page by page, explaining the important parts, Seongwon was a lawyer, so he was very well-spoken and eloquent.

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