Here's an Opportunity
Chapter 56: Busy, So Busy (4)

Chapter 56: Busy, So Busy (4)

Although Kim Ji-Hee's actual level was very low, her skills were at a high level and her first contracted spirit was an Archwizard. Thanks to that, her understanding and proficiency in mana usage were exceptional from the very start, and she had only grown more skilled at manipulating it since.

Within the Castle of Contaminated Ghosts, Kim Ji-Hee purified all the corrupted spirits in one fell swoop, and with their assistance, cleared the Gate in under an hour. This, of course, included destroying the altars for the special reward.

This perfectly demonstrated the power of compatibility.

Kim Ki-Rok took out the notes recorded by Record and looked up some information on the Gates.

"Ugh, what a shitty gacha game. Terrible balance. Why is there only one in all of Korea..." Kim Ki-Rok whined.

Among the Gates that had appeared in Korea during this Break incident, the Castle of Contaminated Ghosts they'd just cleared was the only one featuring ghost-type monsters. About 10% of all Gates worldwide had ghosts, yet Korea had received only a single ghost-type Gate.

Statistically, shouldn't there have been at least five?!

However, Kim Ki-Rok quickly let go of his frustration. "It's unfortunate, but there's nothing that can be done."

At least there was one, which was still better than none.

One lesson he had learned through countless regressions was that the quicker he let go of what he couldn't change, the easier life became. It was much simpler to give up and move on.

Putting away his notes, Kim Ki-Rok sank deeper into his seat.

As their bus traveled to their next destination, the guild members took the chance to get some well-earned rest, each in their own way.

The young Kim Ji-Hee was one of those who had already fallen fast asleep. Kim Ki-Rok lifted the blanket that had fallen off because of her tossing and turning, gently tucking it up to her neck before turning to gaze out at the darkened road.

Even though it was late at night, there were still a lot of cars on the road. People seemed to be fleeing to rural areas with fewer Gates due to anxiety, though acting on such fears wouldn't change the outcome if things were to go wrong.

"Excuse me, Mr. Driver, do you think we will get stuck in traffic?" Kim Ki-Rok asked the bus driver.

"Hmmm, according to the GPS, it looks like there won't be much traffic, thankfully," the bus driver replied with a smile.

"Thankfully?"

"The number of cars on the road is already rising. If we set off even a little bit later, we might have hit congestion."

"That's good to hear," Kim Ki-Rok said with a sigh of relief. "In that case, Mr. Driver, please head to the Yuseong Hotel near the next Gate location."

"A hotel?"

"We were planning to clear one Gate a day, but we ended up clearing two today. I figured everyone should get proper rest before tackling the next one, so I booked out the whole hotel."

"I see. Then, I'll drop everyone off at Yuseong Hotel?"

"Yes, that's fine. We've also reserved a room for you, Mr. Driver, so you can also rest up once we arrive," Kim Ki-Rok informed him.

Slightly surprised by Kim Ki-Rok's consideration, the bus driver glanced at his face through the rearview mirror. He had just been planning on taking a nap in the bus.

"Ah, thank you very much..."

"No, we should be thanking you. You're going through a lot because of us."

Kim Ki-Rok knew that no Breaks would occur before the deadline, but everyone else had no way of telling when one might happen. If it did, normal people like the bus driver would be as good as dead.

Despite the danger, Choi Tae-Soo, DG Guild's commuter bus driver, had volunteered immediately when he saw the recruitment notice.

"Well, I'm getting paid, after all," Tae-Soo replied casually, somewhat embarrassed. It was undeniably courageous on his part, despite the generous hazard pay Kim Ki-Rok had set.

Once Choi Tae-Soo returned his attention to driving, Kim Ki-Rok opened his tablet and quietly added a bonus to the driver's payment. He then briefly reviewed a few urgent matters.

"Mmmhh..." Ji-Hee frowned slightly, turning her head away from the faint glow of the screen. Though he had already dimmed the tablet, the light must have disturbed her.

"Well, there's still plenty of time to finish this later," Kim Ki-Rok said to himself.

He returned the tablet to his subspace pocket, pulled his blanket up to his neck, and closed his eyes, comfortably drifting off to sleep.

***

In this Attempt, Kim Ki-Rok slightly altered the order in which he recruited his allies to maximize efficiency and eliminate unnecessary complications. However, that one decision had ended up changing the flow of events by quite a bit.

"This Attempt sure is interesting," Kim Ki-Rok thought.

Lee Ji-Yeon was the first person he had recruited, and using his close connection to her, he had ended up contracting with an Elemental himself.

But as his elemental affinity was at such an abysmal level, he had originally chosen an Elemental solely for the sake of amusement, but it unexpectedly turned out to be a jackpot.

The Fire Elemental, fascinated by idol videos, formed her own group called "Fairy Flower," attracting numerous Elementalists to the guild, even some from overseas.

Next, he rescued Ji-Hee earlier than usual, but nothing deviated from the norm here.

It was only after recruiting Kang Woo-Hyuk ahead of schedule that another strange change had occurred. In order to assist his growth, they had gone to the Fortress of Living Armor, bringing along Kim Ji-Hee earlier than usual as well.

Originally, they'd planned this visit two months later, but by entering sooner, Ji-Hee ended up contracting Archwizard Kan Cho-Woo and recruited many other spirits along the way. As a result, her growth had progressed in leaps and bounds.

Because of her age, Kim Ki-Rok previously had decided not to risk drawing public attention and had been wary of taking her into the Gates to level up. Thanks to Kan Cho-Woo's early training, however, Kim Ji-Hee became a high-spec Hunter despite her low level.

From this sequence of events, she had gained the opportunity to make a contract with the Pegasus, Mandong. This, too, caused another shift in the timeline.

Ding!

As the elevator doors opened, Kim Ki-Rok headed over to a cafe in the hotel lobby.

The current time was 3 a.m.

At this hour, he already knew who would be visiting. Kim Ki-Rok was mildly irritated from being woken, but instinctively wore a friendly smile. Unsurprisingly, Manager Kang Min-Ho arrived accompanied by the three foreign Hunters.

"Oh my, thank you for travelling such a long way to meet me," Kim Ki-Rok said in English, then repeated it in Russian, and once more in Chinese.

The foreigners all stared at Kim Ki-Rok with wide eyes.

"While language isn't really an issue, for efficiency's sake, perhaps we should have this meeting in my language rather than me adjusting to each of yours. What do you all think?" Kim Ki-Rok said, repeating himself in all three languages again.

Glancing at one another, the foreigners nodded in agreement.

Kim Ki-Rok bowed his head as he repeated in their respective tongues, "Thank you very much. Then I will begin speaking in Korean from now on. Ah, and there's no need for your interpreters to translate back to me. I understand everything."

After outlining the meeting procedure, Kim Ki-Rok invited his guests to sit, taking his place next to Manager Kang Min-Ho.

"You can speak three languages?" Manager Kang Min-Ho asked him in surprise.

Kim Ki-Rok corrected him, "Well, four actually... including Korean. Although, I'm somewhat decent with several others, too."

"That's amazing... I can barely speak English." Manager Kang Min-Ho muttered.

Having lived for over seven hundred years, he had collaborated with Hunters from various foreign countries.

"Well then, let's get straight to the point. You're here to confirm the credibility of the information provided by the Hunters Association, correct?"

"Indeed. It's information we find difficult—or rather, unpleasant—to believe. We need certainty," the Chinese Hunter responded, relieved that Kim Ki-Rok understood Chinese fluently.

"Can we confirm it right now?" asked the Russian Hunter impatiently.

Kim Ki-Rok was troubled by the sudden request and hesitated. "As you may know, our Spiritualist, Miss Ji-Hee, is only seven years old, and she's currently having a nap."

Of course, this was a widely known fact.

"We could summon her spirit over without waking Ji-Hee so you can ask your questions, but I'm afraid that we won't be able to understand whatever Mandong is saying without her help. If you have watched the videos on DG Guild's MeTube channel, I'm sure you'd be aware of this."

The foreign Hunters were able to accept this reasoning.

The foreign Hunters nodded understandingly. Stuck in traffic earlier, they had pulled up the DG channel's "quirky" videos, complete with subtitles provided by MeTube's global service.

"Anyway." Kim Ki-Rok turned to the American Hunter who had been quietly sitting there. "Is there anything that you would like to ask, Hunter Daniel?"

Daniel Jackson might currently be an A-Class Hunter, but in the future, he would become a famous S-Class Hunter.

"Well, there's nothing we can do right now, as you said, Guildmaster." Daniel shrugged.

"I appreciate your understanding. The fatigue of a large-scale expedition isn't something a child can easily overcome. And aside from that, it would still be difficult to wake a sleeping child up at this hour. A child needs their sleep in order to grow up strong, after all. Let's see... since you all have traveled very far to get here—"

Kim Ki-Rok checked the clock on the wall to organize the upcoming schedule.

"It's 3 a.m. now, so let's meet up again tomorrow at 9 a.m. We'll be in the hotel restaurant."

"Not here?" the Russian Hunter questioned.

"Yes, it has to be in the restaurant," Kim Ki-Rok insisted.

***

Morning came, and guild members staggered around like zombies after waking up.

Kim Ji-Hee, wearing a set of pure-white rabbit pajamas, took Kim Ki-Rok's hand as they stepped into an elevator together.

"Haaaah." Kim Ji-Hee yawned widely.

"Tired?"

"Yeeees."

"Want more sleep?"

"But... gotta eat."

"As expected of our future champion eater." Kim Ki-Rok gave a thumbs-up.

Ding.

The elevator came to a stop after only going down a single floor. The doors opened once more and a set of familiar faces quickly got in.

"Good morning, Guildmaster," they greeted him cheerfully.

"Oh, did the three beauties of DG Guild sleep well?" Kim Ki-Rok asked mischievously.

"Beauties, my foot." Yoo Seh-Eun, Lee Ji-Yeon, and Lee Ji-Ah quickly waved him off.

"What about me, Guildmaster?" Cha Min-Ji interjected from behind the three of them.

"Our token high-schooler had a good sleep too?"

"Don't you mean the pretty, young face of DG Guild?" Cha Min-Ji aggressively corrected him.

"Look around you."

Cha Min-Ji looked back and forth between Lee Ji-Yeon, Yoo Seh-Eun, and Lee Ji-Ah.

Kim Ki-Rok asked with a serious tone, "So, would you like to be called the pretty, young face of DG Guild?"

"No, I still have a conscience." Cha Min-Ji huffed dejectedly. Then as if to change the subject, Cha Min-Ji squatted down on her heels and asked, "Sleep well, Ji-Hee?"

"Yeees... slept well." Kim Ji-Hee politely bowed, still half-asleep.

"Oh my. Your cheeks are as soft as ever. Sooooo soft." Cha Min-Ji said happily as she rubbed Kim Ji-Hee's cheeks with both hands.

"What do you want to eat?" Kim Ki-Rok asked her.

"Um... whatever they give me?" Kim Ji-Hee replied uncertainly.

"But it's a buffet?"

"Biffet?"

"Buf-fay." Kim Ki-Rok carefully sounded out the word.

"Buf-fay?"

"It means you can eat as many different foods as you like."

"Anything? Really?"

"Mhm.Meat, fish, cake, fruit, and even your favorite black bean noodles."

"Ooooh!" Fully awake now, Kim Ji-Hee rejoiced.

Ding.

"Mister! Hurry, hurry, hurry! Hurry up!" Kim Ji-Hee eagerly pulled Kim Ki-Rok's arm as soon as the elevator opened, running off toward the delicious smell.

"Wow!" she gasped upon reaching her destination in front of the restaurant doors. The DG Guild was currently staying at a three-star hotel in Namyangju.

Kim Ki-Rok nodded approvingly. "As expected of three stars."

Kim Ji-Hee's eyes lit up, awed by the mountainous heaps of food.

Meanwhile...

Clatter, clatter.

Slurp, slurp.

Crunch, crunch.

"Crunch?" Kim Ki-Rok understood why there was clattering and slurping, but crunch? He turned his head to investigate, only to find a sight that he really should have been expecting.

Judging from the dozens of empty plates that had already piled up around Jeong Man-Kook, it seemed like he had barged in the second the restaurant had unlocked its doors. He was currently in the middle of filming a mukbang so large, it would make even the viewers feel full.

Jeong Man-Kook's mukbang was also quite a popular form of content on the DG Channel. He should be glad that they were working hard at creating content for the channel, but still...

"Let's just get something to eat first." Kim Ki-Rok said, resigned.