Episode 6
“What business do you have?”
He was a client who had been employing Jonghyeon for a very long time. He never ordered killings, but he demanded all sorts of difficult problems. Breaking into some tycoon’s secret safe or stealing someone’s ledgers—things that were perhaps harder than murder. But since the rewards were substantial enough to match, Jonghyeon always welcomed him with open arms.
“There’s a magic item I simply must acquire, you see. The auction house is in an area inaccessible to anyone besides Rankers.”
Before the words even finished, Jonghyeon felt he knew exactly which place it was.
“The auction in America’s Harlem district, then.”
“I like that you’re always quick on the uptake.”
“When is the auction date?”
“Three weeks from now. I’ll tell you the item information when we depart—it’s confidential. You may spend as much as you like on the bid.”
The client was known as one of the world’s preeminent tycoons and a major power holder. Seeing that such a man placed no limit on the bid, it seemed this was no ordinary auction.
And most importantly,
“What about the reward?”
“We’ll go with the usual rate. Still, since you’ll be going overseas, I’ll see that you receive a small bonus.”
It would be difficult right away, but in about three weeks, it was feasible. No matter how good money was, in the end, you had to be strong to seize it, did you not?
‘He called it a small bonus, but judging by the scale, it’s at least several thousand units.’
In America’s Harlem district, there was an area fully sanctioned by the United States as a lawless zone. It was a city, so to speak, where even among the natives there were many rough folks, and where even those with the power of Rankers gathered if they wished to live freely doing business. Of course, there were auction houses, various magic weapons were sold, and there were frequent fights between Rankers. In the end, it was a place ordinary people could not enter.
But America would never have permitted a lawless zone for just that reason. Prominent guilds had unilaterally negotiated over and managed that area for the longest time. No matter how powerful a force America possessed, in the modern era, it could not ignore the power of guilds. Most ability users could withstand firearms and blades to some degree. If a proper civil war broke out, America’s reputation would be the only thing to fall. So in the end, America swallowed its tears and had no choice but to officially recognize that area as a lawless zone. America tried to save face merely by banning ordinary citizens from entering. Even that was the best course of action, but it was unavoidable that it announced to the world that guilds could surpass nations.
Jonghyeon, who was formally a D-Rank, could naturally enter and exit that area.
After a brief moment of thought, Jonghyeon opened his mouth to the client waiting on the line.
“Very well. Please send the plane ticket by mail about a week before departure, as before. I’m cooking right now, so I’ll be going now.”
Click.
It was truly an undesirable closing line for a business call, but Jonghyeon hung up without a care. Since the client knew his personality anyway, it wouldn’t be a problem.
Jonghyeon began to think deeply about this auction. Since even the item information was confidential, it clearly wouldn’t be a normal auction. The thought that it might be more dangerous than expected flashed through his mind. But soon that thought faded from his mind.
‘Well. I’m just going to an auction, after all.’
After marking the schedule on his calendar, right as he took a spoonful, a call came in to Jonghyeon again.
Riiing~
“Hello?”
“Ah. Is that Jonghyeon? Big trouble!”
“What happened?”
A familiar voice. It was the vice principal of the orphanage where he had spent his childhood. Jonghyeon didn’t have very good memories regarding friendships or relationships with the other orphans there. But he had liked the teachers. Back in his wandering days, when everyone had given up on Jonghyeon, a few teachers had still tried to hold onto him. It had annoyed him then, but now he understood that feeling and gratitude. They were some of the few precious relationships Jonghyeon had.
“Today some foreigners in black suits suddenly came asking about your information. Are you still up to no good these days?”
“No. Of course not.”
After changing his profession to a fixer, he hadn’t done anything particularly illegal.
‘A D-Rank like me cleared a dungeon they outsourced, so they’re investigating?’
Even on the national side, his existence and his profession as a fixer were classified. But guilds now possessed power that nations couldn’t ignore, so it wasn’t strange at all if information had leaked. They had likely dug up information on him somewhere and were now at the stage of expressing displeasure over the situation. But no matter how reckless they were, it was extremely unlikely they would attack an unrelated orphanage.
“Pretend you don’t know. And if the orphanage is short on funds, please tell me.”
Jonghyeon now poured a considerable amount of his earnings into the orphanage. Because he wanted to atone for his past, if only in this way. After calming the flustered teacher, Jonghyeon hung up and finished his meal.
‘How would they find me? And just because I grew up there, no foreign guild would be stupid enough to raid an orphanage in another country.’
It was something impossible by common sense. Besides, for several weeks, even if someone came looking for him at home, they wouldn’t be able to meet him. Because he would be inside the watch. Since this had happened a few times before, Jonghyeon wasn’t particularly frightened. Because most of the time, they just expressed their displeasure like this and then gave up when things died down.
After finishing his meal, Jonghyeon stretched lightly and began packing his bag. Now it was truly time to test the watch’s performance.
“Shall we go.”
Beep.
When he pressed the button, the portal he had seen before appeared before Jonghyeon. A portal of faint light. Moments after absorbing Jonghyeon, even the faint light disappeared as if the portal had never been there.
* * *
“This is much harder than I thought.”
He could leave even before clearing it. Meaning he wasn’t trapped. That was truly fortunate, but there was one problem.
[If you leave now, you will be penalized with no re-entry for 3 days. (Y/S)]
That’s right. There was a penalty.
[No re-entry for 3 days.]
It was a holographic display. Since pressing Yes seemed like it would spawn an exit portal, he pressed N for now to dismiss the hologram.
Depending on how you looked at it, it was a very small penalty. But to Jonghyeon, it was no small penalty. Jonghyeon’s vacation was one month. Of course, if he stretched it, he could rest longer. Either way, Jonghyeon was a freelancer. It was none of his business what happened to state affairs. Just because one person like him was absent, this country would never fall. However, if he rested from work longer than planned, it became difficult to send money to the orphanage. In this chaotic era, no one besides the teachers and himself cared about orphans. Jonghyeon was essentially the one maintaining the orphanage.
‘Even if it weren’t for the orphanage, I hate doing a job twice.’
But from the very first gate, Jonghyeon was feeling firsthand that this was by no means easy.
The Stage 1 training ground was an empty lot about the size of a small school’s playground, covered with a bit of sand. And there stood a single wooden puppet. Jonghyeon had fought this wooden puppet for an entire day but still hadn’t found a way to clear it.
‘What the hell is this thing.’
In strength, it matched him. In speed, it matched him. Everything was on a similar level to Jonghyeon. But that alone shouldn’t have been a problem. Most importantly,
‘This damn swordsmanship!’
The swordsmanship used by the wooden puppet was quite unique and destructive. Because the attacks that deflected Jonghyeon’s sword while simultaneously striking in were quite threatening to him. Still, the fortunate thing was that there was a button at the entrance to reset the wooden puppet. Thanks to that, Jonghyeon had been repeating a cycle of pressing the button and fighting.
‘The wooden puppet’s reaction range is about 5 meters.’
Jonghyeon charged in powerfully once more, but as expected, he was stabbed in an opening by the puppet’s bizarre swordsmanship. A part that normally couldn’t even be considered an opening transformed into a fatal flaw as it deflected Jonghyeon’s attack. Jonghyeon caught his rough breath and thought.
‘At this rate, my schedule will be delayed.’
Jonghyeon intended to clear all the training dungeons. And he guessed that the training dungeons had stages from 1 to 7. When he first entered the dungeon, there were doors numbered 1 through 7 on all four sides, and everything else was reddish-brown brick. The room containing only the rectangular doors was about the size of his own house. Roughly the size of a decent studio apartment. But when he opened the Stage 1 door and entered, the connected place was here. The doors seemed merely formal; inside appeared to be a completely different space. Like a dungeon entered via portal.
Therefore, considering the difficulty and map size of each door, even if he allocated three days per stage, it would take about three weeks to reach Stage 7. If survival missions like before appeared, he didn’t know how much more time it would take. Because of the request, the vacation permitted to Jonghyeon was only three weeks.
‘And if Stage 1 is like this, who knows what will come out as the stages go up.’
Having thought that far, Jonghyeon had no choice but to enter the wooden puppet’s range again. Was there any other way? He just needed a slight change in thinking; he had no time to hesitate.
“Haah!”
Ting- ti-ding-!
Through sparring, Jonghyeon discovered two things.
‘This wooden puppet uses swordsmanship almost only when I attempt to attack. And the puppet’s stride is extremely consistent.’
It might not seem like much, but it was quite important information. The basics of combat always started from the small things. Jonghyeon immediately began fighting while keeping these two things in mind. After fighting for about three minutes, Jonghyeon came to a conclusion.
‘With my fighting style, I can’t win even if I die.’
And he changed his thinking. It was absurd to discuss the rhythm of combat with a wooden puppet, but Jonghyeon intended to try this absurd thing.
‘Let’s break the wooden puppet’s flow and rhythm.’
Then Jonghyeon’s fighting style began to change bit by bit. His style was originally suited only for assassination. Fast thrusts and slashes too quick for opponents to deflect were his main weapons. But he needed to fight while departing from all of that. To break a refined flow, he had to enter into that flow to the same degree. That was Jonghyeon’s conclusion.
‘A swordsman who has wielded the blade for a long time does not fight hastily. Rather, they exchange moves and find their opponent’s gaps and weaknesses.’
And.
‘An opening.’
When Jonghyeon matched pace with the wooden puppet and mixed in unorthodox moves, he was able to create a very slight opening in the puppet. But that degree of opening was an instantaneous moment Jonghyeon simply couldn’t exploit. Jonghyeon ended up spending the entire day defending against the same attack patterns and fighting to find a way to exploit the gaps.
‘Got it!’
That gap, which he hadn’t been able to see at all for over half a day. It was now beginning to come into view bit by bit. Like a martial arts grandmaster attaining enlightenment, Jonghyeon too gained a slight enlightenment regarding his fighting style.
‘I’ve always been hasty.’
Because he fought alone, Jonghyeon was always in a hurry. Whether fighting humans or monsters, he was alone. When fighting one against many, time was accordingly precious. If he dragged it out, more reinforcements would come continuously.
‘But here it’s just me and the wooden puppet.’
There was no need to be impatient, no need to strike a vital point in a single blow. Then Jonghyeon realized the fighting style he needed most right now.
‘A fight where I slow the pace and look for gaps. That’s what I need right now.’
So Jonghyeon spent another whole day continuing his battle with the wooden puppet. Changing his combat style bit by bit while making his existing strengths stand out even more. During that day, he analyzed all patterns, his own strengths and weaknesses, and the puppet’s strengths and weaknesses.
Swish-
The next day, Jonghyeon, who had been lying in wait for an opportunity, finally changed his fighting style and was able to slash near the wooden puppet’s chest in just one day. The moment its chest was slashed, the wooden puppet vanished on the spot. A fight that ended so easily it was almost anticlimactic.
‘So in the end, it was just a matter of landing one hit?’
-Ding!
-Congratulations. You have cleared Stage 1 of the Training Dungeon.
-Stage 2 is now accessible.
-As a reward, a healing effect and 《Leaf of the Wooden Puppet》 are provided.
Instantly, Jonghyeon felt the fatigue accumulated in his body fade. And the still-unhealed wound on his cheek and all the cuts and scrapes on his body began to heal rapidly.
‘A healing effect. To think this was possible……’
And along with a white light, a leaf appeared before Jonghyeon’s eyes. As the leaf was about to fall in midair, Jonghyeon quickly opened his right palm. The leaf fell into his hand.
‘How do I use this?’
He looked the leaf over every which way, but couldn’t figure out how to use it at all. Then the second hand disappeared from the round face of the watch, and a hologram poured out onto the leaf.
“Wha…… what?”
-Recognition complete.
The watch uttered just one phrase and fell silent again. Jonghyeon still wore an expression of utter bewilderment, but fortunately the watch seemed kinder than that guide(?) had been. The watch began spewing out quite a long text via hologram.
[Leaf User Manual]
[This leaf is…]
As he read the explanation, Jonghyeon couldn’t hide his widening eyes. If his guess was right,
‘This is revolutionary!’
A smile began to bloom at the corners of Jonghyeon’s mouth.
---------= Author's Afterword ---------=
Jonghyeon is absolutely not a psychopath.
He just has a bit of a bad personality, that’s all.