novelraw Chapter 77
Chapter 77
Chapter 77
While Yoo Chan-seok stirred things up on talk shows and in interviews, Han Sang-ah wasn’t sitting idle.
Her job was to secure corporate investment for the Jaun Valley subjugation.
She negotiated with heavy-hitting companies. In talks like these, even Han Sang-ah found it hard to lean on Geumyang Group’s clout.
How the investment terms shook out depended entirely on her ability.
“Miss Han Sang-ah, good to see you like this again.”
Even so, the Geumyang Group name didn’t lose all its pull. The head of the company had shown up to the meeting in person.
“It’s been a while.”
“I figured you’d be hard to meet once you bowed out of the succession fight and became a Hunter. Didn’t expect to see you like this. Your messy… ahem, your grandfather must be proud.”
Han Sang-ah dipped her head.
“This has nothing to do with my grandfather.”
“Fair point. Let’s see here… you’re asking us to invest in eliminating the Erosion Core in Changchun, right?”
The middle-aged man across from her stroked his chin and shrugged.
“Honestly, I don’t see massive upside just because Jilin Province’s Erosion Zone disappears. And Jaun Valley isn’t the only Erosion Core in Jilin.”
He was right. Thanks to that damned Gonsalok in Beijing, Erosion Cores were swarming across Jilin. Just the identified ones numbered over thirty.
On top of that, Korea currently had another grade 1 Erosion Core that was a headache besides Jaun Valley.
Without a change in expression, Han Sang-ah answered.
“You know full well the two grade 1 Cores are the real problem.”
Cores of grade 2 and below weren’t hard to handle. Even without mustering people, other Hunters would swarm in like hyenas and clean out the Cores and the Erosion Zones.
“Yoo Chan-seok’s a problem too. He’s been stirring controversy every time he shows up on radio or TV lately.”
“That just means interest is rising.”
Yoo Chan-seok’s approach was simple. Even if he kept his head down, people who wanted to criticize and tear him apart would keep appearing. So he openly leaned into moves that would spark controversy and dragged the spotlight.
“There are more people empathizing with Yoo Chan-seok than there are people who dislike him.”
“Empathy, huh. Funny hearing that from you.”
The tone took a jab at Han Sang-ah, but she didn’t mind.
“The numbers say so. TV ratings and radio shares are up, and the videos he posts now and then with help from the Hunter Association are pulling high view counts.”
Numbers didn’t lie. The views were high, and the like-to-dislike ratio stayed at a healthy level. He was generating controversy, but drawing even bigger attention.
“He’s got star power. In his case, you could say that star power comes from the contradiction between his actions and his mouth.”
After becoming a Hunter he blasted through Erosion Cores from grade 3 up to grade 1 in a flash. In Seoul, he minimized civilian casualties while averting a major crisis.
He talked with a bit of an attitude. But if you thought about it, he wasn’t exactly spouting nonsense.
“There are several times more people who view him positively than negatively.”
She pulled out a folder.
“Among your subsidiaries, you’ve got Narsha Tour, right? I heard the numbers haven’t been great. If the grade 1 Core in Jilin gets removed, you could build routes that start at Mount Geumgang and run up to Baekdusan.”
The man across the table clicked his tongue.
“Sang-ah. I’ve got eyes and ears too. The grade 1 Cores in Jilin are dangerous on their own, but Gonsalok in Beijing is an even bigger issue. Lately, units from Gonsalok’s Undying Legion have been sighted in Erosion Zones across Jilin.”
The Undying Legion. The driving force behind most of China’s Cores growing so strong. A blanket term for the millions of monsters lingering around Gonsalok in Beijing.
And elements of that Legion had recently been spotted around Jilin. Beads abacus-clicked in Han Sang-ah’s head.
“Twenty-three billion won.”
She barely got the words out before the man shot back:
“Ten billion. With the Undying Legion in play, the risk is too high to go above that.”
“There’s a fairly effective countermeasure. Twenty-three billion.”
What flashed through her mind was the blessing-drawing method Yoo Chan-seok had used on Tsushima. Most monsters appearing in Northeast Asia’s Erosion Zones were undead thanks to Gonsalok’s influence.
It would likely be very effective. The method wouldn’t erase them outright, but it could debuff them.
“A countermeasure, huh?”
“Yes. And demand for a Baekdusan tour is strong in Korea, isn’t it?”
Korea currently holds global hegemony. National pride was overflowing. Even though the Erosion Zones had wrecked the North, for many Koreans Baekdusan was still a sacred mountain they’d never managed to visit.
“If we secure a basic level of safety, we can develop all kinds of tour products. If it hits, you’ll recoup your investment fast.”
They could partner with construction firms to build hotels, and promotion would be easy.
“I want to hear what that countermeasure is.”
Calmly, Han Sang-ah said:
“It’s not a technique I use. I don’t have the right to explain another Hunter’s method to outsiders. But it works.”
“Sang-ah, you’re telling me to put up twenty-three billion just on your word?”
“I’m not telling you to hand it over. It’s an investment. And tour products to a place with slightly shaky public safety have upsides for you as well.”
It made for a perfect slush pipeline. You could fudge headcounts on the tour, you could fudge hotel occupancy. If security was precarious, it was easier to dodge government scrutiny.
“And considering the scale of your companies, twenty-three billion isn’t exactly a fortune.”
She laid a few more documents on the table.
“There are other candidates besides your group. I came to you first because we’ve known each other for a while. Twenty-three billion. Anything less and we can’t make it work.”
“Even if Jaun Valley gets cleared, we probably won’t get exclusive rights to tourism in the area.”
She answered smoothly.
“You’ll need Hunters to operate there anyway, right? And once Jaun Valley is gone, those Hunters will stick around to sweep grade-2 and grade-3 Cores in the region, so they’ll need places to stay.”
She took a sip of green tea and continued.
“As soon as Jaun Valley is eliminated, I’ll place the Hunters who worked with Team Headhunter with your company.”
If you didn’t secure Hunters, you couldn’t run the business. Once Hunters were already hired and entrenched, other Hunters would hesitate to barge in. They’d have to fight over rice bowls.
“If you move quickly to contract them and deploy them around Baekdusan, the mountain will effectively be your company’s exclusive turf.”
The Hunters who had rallied under Team Headhunter would naturally stay near Baekdusan and use it as their base.
“…Twenty-three billion. Fine. Let’s do it.”
After much thought, the middle-aged man agreed.
While Han Sang-ah hustled to pull in money, Jung Oh-hoon also got to work in his own wheelhouse.
“Chan-seok’s doing media. Sang-ah’s courting the rich. As for me.”
Yawning, Jung Oh-hoon walked into a grimy traditional market. Unlike a few markets that had successfully reinvented themselves, this one had failed to keep up with the times and was completely dead.
“Damn it. This dump looks the same every time. A dandy like me doesn’t belong here.”
Cheap plastic tables and busted blue plastic swivel chairs lay strewn about. The smell was musty, and greasy runoff trickled along the asphalt.
Even in broad daylight the market was dim. Sodium lamps flickered here and there.
“Filth.”
“Hey, Mr. Kim!”
A scar-faced man hacked apart a raw chicken with a chop and looked up at Jung Oh-hoon.
“What’s up. I heard you’ve been palling around with that Yoo Chan-seok punk.”
Grinning, Jung Oh-hoon slouched onto a plastic chair with one broken leg and propped his chin on his hand.
“At least offer me a coffee before you ask questions. Is this how you treat customers?”
“Stuff it. Make it yourself.”
Jung Oh-hoon got up, mixed instant coffee, and said:
“We’re heading to Changchun.”
With a wet chop the man looked over.
“And?”
“You’ve got guys who’ve gone in and out. It’s a pretty sweet route.”
Thanks to monsters roaming the Erosion Zones, it was deadly risky. Law enforcement couldn’t reach deep, which made it perfect for illegal crossings and black-market traffic.
“I’ve got nothing to tell a guy who left this life.”
“Aw, come on. Are you feeling betrayed?”
He sipped his instant coffee.
“Mr. Kim, people like us work for money. What’s trust or credit got to do with it? I’ll pay well, so cough up the intel.”
There were runners who could move around the Changchun area without getting snagged by monsters. What Jung Oh-hoon needed was up-to-the-minute ground truth.
“How much will you give?”
“Mm, two hundred perhaps?”
The man clicked his tongue.
“That’s your idea of paying well? Not even close.”
Jung Oh-hoon looked mildly surprised. He thought that would do it. Was there more?
His phone buzzed. A text from Han Sang-ah. It said elements of Gonsalok’s Undying Legion were appearing around Jilin.
He finally understood why the man had jacked the price.
“Is it because of the Undying Legion?”
“For fucks sake. Fine, two hundred million. Deal.”
So that was it. If you went in blind, you could end up dead, so two hundred million won was a fair ask. But since the other guy hadn’t even gotten paid and Jung Oh-hoon had already figured it out, the man had no choice but to settle for two hundred million.
Jung Oh-hoon gently swirled the paper cup.
“Jaun Valley’ll be choked with toxic fog. How’d you string an illegal-entry route through there?”
The people sneaking into Korea via Jilin and North Korea weren’t Hunters. They couldn’t have resistance to Jaun Valley’s poison. If they could still use that route, then…
It meant there was a way for ordinary people to stay safe from Jaun Valley’s fog.
“There’s a way.”
“Of course there is. Who wants to immigrate as a corpse. Talk cheap.”
He leaned in, interested.
“There’s a thing called a sulfur-reed. It’s got soft, tough stalks. You spin fiber from it and weave masks. Basically a gas mask.”
Once made, you could reuse it several times. It blocked to some extent toxic gases, curses, and hallucinations.
“Sure, it won’t completely stop Jaun Valley’s fog… but even ordinary people, about thirty out of a hundred, can keep their wits in it.”
If ordinary folks could get that much resistance, Hunters could expect even better results.
He judged that it was worth the money. Still, if he could squeeze more, why not.
“Hey. The smugglers running that route must be tight with local terrain too, right?”
“You little punk, planning to skin me?”
Grinning, Jung Oh-hoon spoke.
“What would I use a mangy boar hide for. You stink so bad I couldn’t even grill you. Spit it out already.”