The Hunter of the Other World Who Is Being Misunderstood

Ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand...

No matter how many times I checked, the number didn't change.

Just this morning, my balance had been scraping the bottom—at least by S-rank hunter standards—but now it had suddenly multiplied by nearly thirty times.

A life where money simply poured into your account while you did nothing...

'Depositor name... IMABARI?'

Could it have been a mistaken transfer?

For a moment, I wondered if someone had sent the money by accident—but the instant I saw the depositor's name, a memory surfaced.

'No way!'

This was the forgotten payout from the 'Kagoshima Dragon Raid.'

'I'd heard through the Japanese Association that processing would be delayed at the time... but it really did take several months to finally come through.'

Still, wasn't this a little too much for merely slaying a dragon?

One hundred billion.

A full one hundred billion won.

Even for an alien ignorant of Earth's ways, this was not an amount I could accept without hesitation.

'What if they come back later saying they accidentally added an extra zero and demand the money back?'

With trembling hands, I immediately contacted the Association.

Whenever a hunter completed a raid overseas, settlement payments always passed through a government agency, so I decided to verify the transfer through Earthlings who were certain to know what had happened.

Yes, I'll assist you with your inquiry. Before we proceed, we need to verify your identity.

Could you please provide the 8-digit issuance number on the back of your Hunter ID?

While speaking with the call center, I realized there was yet another ID I needed to have reissued.

Fortunately, my memory was good enough to retain useful information of actual value, so it wasn't a problem for the moment.

'VC0JLYH2.'

Hunter, may I have your name, please?

'It's Kim Giryeo.'

Ah, uh? Yes, y-yes. Then please wait a moment, and we'll get back to you by the end of today...

The call ended soon afterward.

Then, after I waited a little longer, a text message arrived from the representative I'd spoken with.

[Internal confirmation shows that the deposit is legitimate ^^]

The moment I received confirmation, I could no longer contain myself.

'What is this?'

According to various search engines on this planet, South Korea was currently going through a period of low interest rates.

But even so, with a deposit this enormous, wouldn't the monthly interest alone still amount to tens of millions of won by even the simplest calculation?

At this point, the ruined apartment no longer mattered.

In a capitalist society, money was everything.

If I really wanted to, I could abandon everything right now and vanish into some quiet seaside village without a second thought.

'To hell with training disciples and all that! Hahaha! I'm retiring immediately!'

It was right around the moment when, completely forgetting the kindness I'd been shown, I was about to shamelessly betray my temporary landlord, Jung Haseong.

Flash

.

The cell phone in my hand still hadn't dimmed, even after sixty seconds of standby time.

Rationally speaking, after receiving such an enormous windfall, I should have divided up the money properly and begun planning my immediate retirement...

[Today's Economic Headlines]

[World Artifact Expo to be held in Tokyo, Japan]

That article had been lingering in the back of my mind for some time.

I swiped across the brightly lit phone screen to check something again.

And there they were.

Several photographs.

Alongside the countless lines of text, the economic paper's article contained photographs of specific items.

Reading more carefully, I learned that the Tokyo event would hold a special auction featuring valuable Epic-rank items in order to draw public interest toward dungeon artifacts.

Which meant that the object currently displayed on my screen had to be one of the items scheduled for auction.

'Hmm.'

A pitch-black cloth that reflected not so much as a speck of light.

A broad piece of fabric, roughly sixty centimeters by sixty centimeters.

Since I only had a photograph to work with, I couldn't rely on touch or sound, making it difficult to be certain.

And yet, for some reason, the particular item shown in the article felt strangely familiar.

'More precisely, that fabric is from Alphauri Mountain.'

And something like that could never be cheap.

If that black cloth truly was an artifact from Alphauri Mountain, then its straightforward effects alone would make the material highly valuable even here on Earth.

'It might even be more valuable than the [Hydra] I have.'

If I seriously tried to buy that scrap of fabric, my newly overflowing bank balance would disappear in an instant.

And yet, despite being able to foresee that entire chain of events, the fabric I'd found was undeniably tempting.

"An artifact auction, huh."

If I could get my hands on that alone, even a worthless F-rank life like mine would gain at least some competitive edge.

What should I do?

I sank into deep thought.

But the answer came sooner than expected.

If this hundred billion had been the result of a hundred years of backbreaking labor, earned through blood, sweat, and broken limbs, perhaps I would have felt differently.

'It's free money anyway, so why not at least go take a look at the item?'

The human brain really was a strange thing.

Maybe because the fortune had fallen into my lap so suddenly, I felt almost no attachment to my current balance.

I hadn't suffered or struggled to build that wealth.

And so, I abandoned my hasty retirement plan and decided, for the time being, to at least browse the artifact market.

If I spent the money on an item, I wouldn't be able to buy a new place to live for a while—but that should be fine.

'If worst comes to worst, I can just keep freeloading at Haseong's place!'

I wasn't one of those black-haired beasts, after all.

I was an Alphaurian...

Only ten minutes earlier, I'd been eager to move out of someone else's home.

Yet now, transformed into a freeloading magic addict desperate for an item, I reversed my attitude as easily as flipping a pancake.

This was exactly why you had to be careful about what kind of creatures you allowed into your home.

***

23:00 UTC. Tokyo, Japan.

"Wow~"

"There are so many people."

"You know, Guild Master. Is LORE not working right now? Isn't he taking a little too long to reply?"

Today marked the opening of the International Artifact Expo.

The event, typically held in a nation's capital, usually lasted around two to three days.

Unlike ordinary regional festivals, this one was held indoors.

The vast interior space had been divided into numerous sections by white partitions, creating a neatly segmented layout.

"I'm not sure. There's no problem on my end. We didn't have any communication issues during the second event either, so I don't think there's anything to worry about."

The phrase "second event" made it obvious that this wasn't Tokyo's first time hosting the Expo.

This year marked the third.

Around this time last year, someone had only recently been reborn, leaving things far too hectic for me to pay attention to what was happening in other countries.

Three years.

That was enough time for even an ordinary office worker to accumulate experience, and so the once-chaotic event format had quickly settled into something much more polished.

"Oh! No, it's fine now. He just replied."

"I've been thinking this for a while, but lori really uses the strangest stamps."

"They're characters from recent animations."

Moritake Ito, one of Japan's prominent hunters, glanced at his coworker's phone.

Then, still standing with his hands clasped behind his back, he straightened his posture and surveyed the surroundings.

As usual, the venue was crowded with ordinary people.

"Ordinary people, huh..."

The Japanese man, who had once worked at a securities firm, swept his gaze across the crowd and fell briefly into thought.

"Those with supernatural abilities certainly fall outside what you'd normally call ordinary, but somehow, whenever the media uses expressions like that, it never sits quite right with me as an Awakener..."

It was nothing more than a passing thought.

Now was hardly the time to complain about such things.

"Oh! Imabari. That's Guild Master Imabari."

"Mr. Moritake!"

"The weather's hot, so come over here and take one. This just came out recently."

A loud voice rang out nearby.

As he walked, Ito absentmindedly accepted an item offered by a passing civilian.

The friendly-looking merchant handed him a plain pouch with the word "Infinite" boldly printed across the front.

"Oh."

It was a cold pack made by wrapping magical stones mined from an extremely cold dungeon in fabric.

Artificial items crafted by human hands from dungeon materials were hardly uncommon at the exhibition.

Right beside the booth, there was even a display featuring an eco-friendly, pollution-free table warmer made from the heart of a monster known as a Salamander.

[How to Use a Grade 5 Healing Potion – When to Use Potions in Everyday Situations]

Naturally, pure dungeon products were also displayed throughout the exhibition hall in large quantities.

But on closer inspection, the artifacts proudly exhibited here were conspicuously weak.

If these were the kinds of things people imagined when thinking of monsters that might someday bring down the Japanese archipelago, they were practically trash-tier.

But thanks to the efforts of the government agency commonly called the "Management Office," public perception of the exhibits inside this building had been shaped around precisely that level of performance.

Because the apparent purpose of the Tokyo Expo was to promote dungeon culture to the general public.

"As expected, there are a lot of visitors."

Since the primary audience consisted of ordinary people who hadn't awakened, only items posing minimal danger could be displayed in order to ensure visitor safety.

Furthermore, people without hunting licenses weren't permitted to recklessly purchase equipment above a certain performance threshold.

Given the practical realities of artifact trading, Tokyo had little choice but to organize the event this way.

'Could those kinds of things really come from F-rank gates...?'

Cheers erupted from all around the exhibition hall.

"They're having fun."

Seeing people delight in the mysteries of magic, Ito suddenly felt something unfamiliar stir inside him.

Doomsayers had once been everywhere.

So had deep-seated anger toward the gates.

Immediately after the dungeon shock, people had genuinely feared that the entire Japanese archipelago might collapse.

But thanks to the efforts of the government agency commonly called the "Management Office," public attitudes toward these new resources had improved considerably.

"Come to think of it, my grandfather in Ehime Prefecture still says that if you see things like that, you'll get sick, so you should stay away from them."

"Oh, you mean the guild master's family home?"

"Even in an age where a worker's crushed hand can be restored easily with a potion, my grandfather still insists on going to an ordinary doctor whenever he's sick."

"Hmm."

"They say it's because he's pure-hearted."

Of course, wherever you went, there were always people who opposed change.

Moritake continued walking along the path, casually chatting with his guildmates about one thing after another.

"If only he weren't so distrustful of potions, he'd probably be able to live a little more comfortably."

"It's unfortunate, but on the other hand, it can't really be helped. Grandpa must have a lot on his mind. Whether it's people or technology, it usually takes quite a long time before the world accepts something new."

Incidentally, the employee he was speaking with was a B-rank Awakener.

The scale of Imabari had diminished considerably over time.

"But honestly, I have a little fear of mana myself."

"Is that so?"

"There's a nursing home near my house. Even now, there are still many elderly patients bedridden because of addiction..."

How could anyone be afraid of mana?

If they hated it, perhaps he could understand.

Moritake listened to the employee and tilted his head in confusion.

But then, all of a sudden, the path ahead cleared.

Someone came running toward them.

It was an Awakener with a very familiar face.

"Mr. Moritake!"

"Oh. It's lori."

His hair was slightly long, reminiscent of an idol performing onstage.

His youthful face made it difficult to believe he was already a fully grown adult.

Who would have expected lori, Japan's standby S-rank hunter with an air attribute, to appear at the exhibition hall?

"What the—lori, you're wearing that outfit again today?"

The man named lori was dressed in a pale green shirt.

Apparently, it was an outfit familiar to those around him, because one of the other Hunters immediately began teasing him.

"If someone saw you, they'd think that's the only thing in your closet..."

But lori clearly wasn't in the mood for jokes.

Use of abilities was strictly prohibited inside the event venue except during emergencies.

Yet lori rushed toward them with such speed that he almost seemed to be flying, not even bothering to respond to his acquaintance.

"Move. Move!"

Having sprinted over at full speed, lori finally addressed the country's representative hunter.

"Moritake-kun! Ugh, we're in serious trouble. Call every S-rank to the venue right now. Right now!"

Call every S-rank hunter?

What kind of absurd request was that?

"The top-tier ones?"

For reference, Japan's S-rank hunters had undergone several major upheavals, with the balance of power shifting from a 2:1:1 split to a 3:1 ratio.

The important point was that only lori—the hunter standing before them—had successfully become independent.

Therefore, Moritake Ito, the guild master of the so-called "New Imabari," still worked closely with the remaining two S-rank hunters and naturally maintained direct contact with both of them.

"Why suddenly call every S-rank hunter? Don't tell me the Management Agency said even the two of us aren't enough for security?"

Even so, mobilizing every S-rank hunter in the country for what amounted to a recreational event seemed excessive.

Besides, this was volunteer work.

They weren't even getting paid.

Someone immediately voiced that exact complaint.

"It's not even related to a raid. We just need to show proper respect to the hunters coming from other countries, matching their level..."

But Ito's attitude changed the instant he heard the next sentence.

"The problem is, a hunter who's going to require an extraordinary level of respect is entering the country."

"What did you say?"

"Miss Seo Esther from the Republic of Korea just emailed me. Kim Giryeo just boarded business class. And his destination is this exhibition hall in Tokyo."

A particular hunter was entering the country.

"According to Miss Seo Esther, that man asked whether she wanted to come to the event with him. But because of her schedule in Korea, she can't make it, and she's extremely disappointed. Damn."

"Oh my god."

"So hurry up and contact those other two idiots! Kim Giryeo is coming—there's no way they're planning not to show up, right?"

There was no doubt about it.

This was an emergency.

Following lori's shocking announcement, the hunter named Ito immediately began contacting his guild members.

At the same time, he set off for the nearby airport together with lori.

Even across different countries, the impulse to rush out barefoot to greet an honored guest was probably universal.

"That Korean guy is coming back?"

Could he be aiming for the "Tokyo Auction," the special event being held as part of the festival?

But the kind of high-tier items an S-rank hunter like him might actually consider using weren't scheduled to appear until the event reached its peak—around the middle of the second day.

So then...

Why was he arriving now?

Just as Ito's thoughts grew increasingly tangled, the controlled entrance to the airport's central terminal opened for incoming passengers.

And finally, the formidable guest appeared.

–Step, step, step.

Like the hide of the Imogi he was said to have slain, the Korean hunter emerged dressed in pitch-black from neck to toe, pulling a suitcase behind him.

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