novelraw Chapter 256 : Chapter 256
Chapter 256 : Chapter 256
Chapter 256: Preparation (3)
A very brief silence flowed.
"Ah…"
Se-ah put her hands together neatly and twisted her body this way and that, fidgeting.
She glanced at Ho-cheol and covered her reddened cheek with her palm.
However, in the current situation where her entire face was flushed red, she failed to achieve the goal of hiding it.
The fidgeting girl couldn't suppress her curiosity and finally asked.
"…Why?"
"It's nothing much."
Ho-cheol scratched the back of his head.
"I have some business on the Hunter side. I heard they run a big business over there?"
"Ah."
Se-ah, who had been entertaining numerous soft, romantic fantasies just a moment ago, let the hand covering her cheek drop.
"Right. Now that I think about it, this is normal."
Se-ah laughed hollowly.
I was crazy and made up another strange delusion.
The only saving grace was that she hadn't revealed it outwardly, at least.
If she had made a fuss, she would have been embarrassed for ages.
She unnecessarily wiggled the fingers she had placed on her thigh.
"Even if it's not my parents, I can introduce or broker Hunters for you."
She was quite famous in the Hunter industry.
Even though she had retired a while ago, she still had contacts with a considerable number of active Hunters.
Just a few months ago, when Ho-cheol was lost in a Gate, she hired and mobilized a significant number of Hunters.
Of course, since Hunters prioritize money as their most important operating principle, they wouldn't help for free.
"At least you won't be charged a 20% brokerage fee."
"I appreciate the thought."
Ho-cheol scratched the back of his head.
"The problem isn't just Hunters; I also need a lot of their 'toys'. You can only get those from corporations."
"Ah. Hunting tools too? Well, that's true; even active Hunters find those hard to come by individually. What do you need?"
"Well, this and that."
"What the hell is going on?"
Ho-cheol tapped the armrest of the bench with his fingertips and explained the situation.
The monster and the Gate.
Strictly speaking, they weren't my area of expertise.
The Hero Association wasn't either.
Se-ah would probably be the most objective and rational person to judge my plan.
When my explanation was completely finished.
Se-ah gaped, looking bewildered.
Gom-gom, who was in her arms, couldn't open his mouth, but his expression was equally astonished.
"…That's unbelievable."
"Is it impossible?"
"It's a crazy amount of money and effort. And it's even dangerous."
This was the third time I had heard that.
Since it was no longer surprising, I merely shrugged.
"So, in your expert opinion, what's the success probability?"
"If the monster's specs you mentioned are correct, 15… no, 10%."
"Oh."
I let out an exclamation of surprise, as if it was unexpected.
At my reaction, Se-ah waved her hand.
"Ah, no! Maybe it'll be 20%!"
She raised the probability to console the disappointed me, but I hadn't let out the exclamation of surprise for that reason.
I twisted the corner of my mouth into a grin.
"As much as 10%, you say?"
That was more than three times my expectation.
"It's enough. No, it's more than enough."
I had only expected it to be a crazy gamble that would barely hit 3%.
Yet, Se-ah, an expert, suggested 10%.
In my eyes, there was no more perfect plan than this.
There were even additional positive variables that I hadn't told her about.
Considering those, I was confident I could double the probability of this gamble.
"So that's why you said you needed to see them."
Se-ah belatedly understood why I had asked to see her parents.
The tools I wanted were not easily obtainable, even for her.
"Can't be helped."
Se-ah sighed and pulled out her phone.
Her relationship with her parents was still awkward.
Especially since the last time, when she lied and took me there, claiming I was her boyfriend.
To escape the situation, I had even fabricated two children who didn't exist.
Since then, the talk of marriage had stopped, but she hadn't had any personal contact with them since.
She couldn't believe I was making her contact them again now.
Recalling the faint number, she pressed the call button.
After a few brief exchanges, she ended the call and spoke to me.
"I set up the meeting. They told us to come today."
"How straightforward of them."
It was a welcome reaction for me as well.
The head of the Society said the monster was recovering its strength.
The sooner we proceeded, the higher the probability of success, naturally.
"But wouldn't it be better if I went alone to get what you need?"
Se-ah asked with clear worry.
"They said they'd throttle you the moment you show up."
I chuckled and stood up from the bench.
"Should I wear a scarf to make it easier to throttle me?"
***
Looking at the traditional Korean-style restaurant in the distance, I let out a hollow laugh.
"My feelings are quite strange."
This wasn't the first time I had visited this restaurant.
This was the exact place where I met Se-ah's parents while acting as her fake boyfriend.
However, since I didn't need to tell those teasing lies this time, I felt relieved.
Entering the reserved room, Se-ah's father was already seated.
When I first met him, I only knew he ran a modest Hunter-related business, as Se-ah had explained.
However, I later learned that the scale of his business was considerable.
The monster byproduct refinement business, one of the top in the country, and his skill was so outstanding that he could line up with businesses worldwide in his core specialty.
To me, he was still just my friend's dad.
The last time we met, I was warned never to cross his path again, but here we were meeting again.
I was the first to lightly bow and greet him.
"Hello."
"I am not well."
Se-ah's father scowled. The response was quite blunt, even hostile.
However, I laughed, unconcerned.
If he truly hated me and was so displeased, the meeting itself wouldn't have been arranged in the first place.
I had framed this meeting simply as "I want to meet."
I didn't even reveal the purpose or objective.
Yet, he showed up.
Just like Se-ah's father would.
He was quite a character—different on the inside and the outside.
I took off my shoes, entered the room, and sat across from him.
Se-ah entered sluggishly without even greeting him and sat next to me.
Despite the spacious room and large table, our distance was close enough that our knees would touch if we moved sideways.
Se-ah's father found that proximity quite displeasing.
He nervously unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.
There were already two empty water bottles rolling next to him, showing how agitated and unresolved his anger was.
"So, what did you call me here for?"
I didn't feel the need to waste time with flowery language, so I immediately got to the point.
"I'd like to make a trade. Given the scale, you could call it a business deal."
Business—that single word instantly changed the atmosphere.
The look in his eyes instantly switched from seeing a scoundrel who had teased his daughter and him to seeing a merchant and a Hunter who needed to distinguish friend from foe.
I was inwardly impressed by the atmosphere's instantaneous shift.
He was an exceptional person, regardless of his strength.
He knew exactly what took precedence over his emotions or instincts.
Se-ah's father tapped the table with his fingertips.
"Seeing as you came to me, is it about the Hunter side?"
"Yes. I need reliable people for brokerage and transport."
"Huh."
He snorted.
A nobody who only hangs out with heroes, even if he was a professor at Clington and a former villain.
That contemptuous laugh conveyed the thought.
"You don't put the expression 'reliable' in front of people in this business. Anyone who says that immediately gets labeled a sucker."
I shook my head at his unsolicited advice.
"Ah, you don't need to worry. The one I rely on is not you, but…"
I reached out my hand and placed it on Se-ah's shoulder, who was sitting right next to me.
A wrinkle appeared on the brow of the father, who instantly reverted to the look of a businessman.
"…Her."
Se-ah, who had been quietly eating the food on the table, flinched but showed no further reaction.
Instead, she subtly leaned her body more toward me.
"How could I trust you? We've only met twice. I'm just pretending to trust you due to the circumstances."
"Huh."
Honestly, the situation was ridiculous to the father.
Not only he and his wife were deceived by me that time, but Se-ah was too.
So what was this seemingly intimate relationship?
"And most importantly, a sucker is only a sucker if they get taken. If I get taken, I'll pay it back a hundredfold. How is that a sucker?"
"You talk well. So, back to the main point. What exactly do you want for this business-scale trade?"
"First, I will hire reliable A-class Hunters. That is, 1st Grade or higher by your standards. The objective is, of course, a Gate subjugation and monster extermination."
"Didn't I just say that words like 'trust' or 'reliability' don't belong in this field…"
I cut him off by snapping my fingers.
I had encountered Hunters numerous times myself.
I had definitely learned that they couldn't be trusted.
"The reliability I'm talking about isn't that kind; it's skill. True 1st Graders, not those who got promoted by stacking flimsy achievements or taking backroom deals. Strong people with the capacity to survive on their own even if thrown naked into a modest Gate."
"We're not an employment agency."
If that were the only objective, it could have been achieved easily through Se-ah.
"This is just an added benefit. The real purpose is this."
I took a piece of paper from my pocket and placed it on the table.
The expression of Se-ah's father, who received the paper, subtly changed.
"Space Compressor, Gate Suture, Sealing Hook... These aren't impossible to find."
Not for an individual, but for a business with a certain scale, they could certainly be obtained.
They weren't illegal, and they were items occasionally used in Gate raids.
The problem, however, was.
"The quantity is strange. It has two extra zeros attached."
It was a quantity that would barely be enough even if every item in the country were collected.
No, it would probably be insufficient.
"That is the minimum. I might need more, but I have no intention of reducing it."
"That's impossible. These aren't items we monopolize, and other corporations won't willingly give them up."
"That doesn't matter. I can just bring them in from overseas. Just lend me the logistics route from that time."
Foreign Hunters couldn't be easily brought in due to security and other issues.
That's why, even though I had extensive connections in the Battleground, I couldn't mobilize the Hunters from there.
However, the story was different if it was merely tools for a Gate raid.
At my words, the father asked with a puzzled look.
"Do you have connections with foreign corporations?"
"Not the state, but in the Battleground. [The Top]."
[The Top] would supply the goods as long as a fair price was paid.
At my words, Se-ah's father opened his eyes wide in surprise.
"You have connections with that corporation?"
"By chance."
The mega-corporation of the Battleground.
Although it was currently facing some turmoil due to the trouble I caused, it was still one of the world's leading corporations.
Even if Se-ah's father ran a business of a considerable scale, it was merely a corner store compared to [The Top].
"Anyway, to legally manage the goods coming from the Battleground, a proper intermediary corporation like yours needs to be involved, so I would like you to handle that."
"Right. Certainly, the Battleground could meet this quantity. But tell me."
The father asked what he understood the least.
"What about the cost? You surely aren't asking for a discount just because you know Se-ah, are you?"
"Surely not. You provide a rough estimate."
The father was willing to lower the price somewhat if I apologized for deceiving him last time and approached him respectfully.
But I still maintained that relaxed attitude.
The money from a professor's salary wouldn't be nearly enough.
Even if I was a successful villain in the past, it would still be an absurd amount.
He twitched his lips and pulled a pen from his pocket.
After running calculations in his head, he wrote the amount below the paper I gave him and handed it back.
"The minimum cost. This is the price if we purely took only the labor costs."
The father believed I would be utterly astonished, with my eyes popping out, when I saw this amount.
However, I merely looked at the amount the father had written, saying nothing.
"Why the silence? Is it too expensive?"
"You certainly named an unexpected amount."
Not too expensive.
Still, we weren't complete strangers, and it seemed he had named a fairly low price.
Muttering that, I took out a pen from my pocket.
I drew a line through the number 2 written in the front and changed it to 4.
"I'll give you double. But you have to prepare it two days faster."
The father was the one who was astonished, and belatedly, he recovered his wits and asked what he should have confirmed first.
"What the hell are you planning to catch?"
"What else would I be doing with these items but catching a monster? Although I can't explain the details."
For the first time since I entered the room, I picked up my chopsticks.
Chewing the now-cold meat, I chuckled.
"I plan to show that monster just how great human malevolence is."
***
A temporary cooperation agreement has been signed with the Association, and the work of hiring Hunters and bringing in tools is also proceeding without major issues.
Through the still-undissolved Unhappy, I have managed the underground order as much as possible.
All preparations for the monster subjugation were going smoothly.
There were no variables.
Everything was perfect.
I thought so just ten minutes ago.
"…What is all this?"
Thud-du-duk—
A letter envelope dropped to the floor.
It was certainly perfect until So-hee found the newly written will.
I rubbed my face, alternating my gaze between the envelope and So-hee.
"Ah."
I'm screwed, this is it.