Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 1

A construction site.

In blunter terms, the day-labor trenches.

“Hey, Kim! Come over here and hold this drywall.”

“On it, hyung-nim!”

The young man addressed as “Kim” sprang over and took hold of the drywall sheet.

Yoon Hajun.

On-site nickname: Kim.

His job?

Helper.

His duties consisted of doing whatever he was told while assisting the skilled technicians, exactly as he was doing now.

“Aish, look at you shaking with both hands on it. Why does a young guy have zero stamina? Back in my day, I held this stuff up with one finger, you hear me?!”

Ah.

Listening to “back in my day” lectures was probably part of the job description, too.

“Don’t be so hard on him. For someone his age nowadays, Kim’s head is screwed on pretty tight.”

“Fair enough. Not making a damn fool of himself chasing that hunter nonsense already puts him in the top tier.”

“Right? A man’s gotta learn a trade!”

Um… hyung-nims.

If you’re going to praise me, at least get my name right.

I’m Yoon Hajun. Why keep calling me Kim?

He had tried speaking up once before, subtly dropping a reminder.

“Well, see, there was this guy who worked real hard back in the day. Kim was his name. You’re the spitting image of him when he was young. That rascal ran off claiming he’d be a hunter too, didn’t he? You stick it out here to the end, boy. A trade is your future.”

That was the only answer he ever got.

Come to think of it, former Kim was a hunter now?

That was news to him today.

What was a hunter, exactly?

Roughly thirty years ago, when the towers and dungeons first burst into the world, hunters emerged alongside them.

To put it simply, Awakened superhumans.

Their role was straightforward: climb the towers, clear the dungeons.

What if they didn’t?

Chaos.

Word had it that if dungeons weren’t raided regularly, monsters poured out into the open world.

“Speaking of which, that Kim bastard was bragging the other day about buying a building…”

“Whoa… He must be loaded. Must be nice.”

“Sure, but those folks put their lives on the line for work. It ain’t safe like what we do.”

Fair point.

What good was raking in cash if one wrong step could end your life?

Hajun was also a hot-blooded twenty-three-year-old.

He had once dreamed of being a hunter, too.

So what happened?

After watching a few dungeon raid videos, he abandoned the dream immediately.

Skills flying all over the place like a movie, blood splashing everywhere… Ugh, terrifying.

Not for me.

He shook his head, then paused.

Wait… but still.

If it was enough money to buy a whole building, wasn’t it honestly pretty tempting?

“Sounds pretty enviable, honestly.”

“And what good does that do you, kid? Who’s handing you a hunter license?”

“True. Can’t argue with that. You have to Awaken first to do anything about it anyway.”

“Exactly. A pine caterpillar’s gotta eat pine needles if it wants to live a long life. Don’t go getting greedy over useless pipe dreams, just quietly learn the trade, punk.”

“Yes, sir.”

[Congratulations.]

[You have become an Awakened.]

Excuse me?

Wait, what the…

He had Awakened.

Out of nowhere.

Hyung-nim, looks like I won’t be eating pine needles after all.

Putting silly thoughts aside, he needed to check what he had Awakened into first.

The moment he pictured it in his mind, an odd window materialized before his eyes.

——-

Name: Yoon Hajun (Lv. 1) / Republic of Korea

Job: Manpower Office Director

Unique Skill: Summon Laborers (Grade – Iron)

——-

Simple enough.

Still, Manpower Office Director?

Umm…

Was this job tailored specifically for day laborers?

No, wait.

A mere helper turning into a manpower office director overnight was practically a massive promotion.

More importantly, what was Summon Laborers?

He was dying to know, but…

“Kim! What are you standing around for, you punk?! I asked for the drywall screws!”

“Ah! Right, here you go!”

He held back for now.

It was far too early to boast to the whole neighborhood.

Instead, he tested the waters carefully.

“Min-uk hyung, if you ever Awakened, what would you do? Would you jump straight into hunter work like that Kim guy who bought a building?”

“Awaken? Boy, I’m fifty-three this year. What hunter work? I’d just keep living the way I do now.”

“Really? Even if you rolled a high-grade job and could sweep up cash by the truckload?”

Awakening was like the lottery.

Once you became an Awakened, winning was guaranteed.

The only question left was which prize you took.

Verifying it was simple enough.

First step: register at the Awakening Management Bureau, saying, Look, I’ve Awakened!

After that, they measured the power of your abilities according to bureau standards.

If you pulled a high grade there?

A jackpot. A monster jackpot.

High-grade hunters were elite personnel.

The bureau supported them wholeheartedly, both materially and spiritually, so they could easily grind stats in safe dungeons on normal days.

All they had to do in return was step up for dangerous dungeons or upper-tower raids when it truly mattered.

“Money? Money’s great. But is it worth more than your life?”

“Ah…”

He had a point.

Thinking it through, that was spot on.

Suppose he did roll a high grade.

Was it really just stepping up for dangerous dungeons or upper-tower raids at critical moments?

Who was going to clear them for him?

His ancestors rising from the grave?

Hardly.

It meant he would ultimately have to throw himself into the fray.

Me, in a dungeon?

When he trembled just watching dungeon raid videos?

Utterly ridiculous.

“So quit the useless chatter and pass me the M-bar over there.”

Right.

A pine caterpillar ought to stick to pine needles.

Back to work.

“Yes, sir, coming right up!”

*

“Great work today, everyone!”

“Good job, all of you.”

“Kim, let’s get moving.”

Twenty-three-year-old broke youth Yoon Hajun.

No car yet.

No money, either.

His commute usually relied on catching rides with the older guys coming and going along their routes.

As for today?

“Hyung-nim, I have plans nearby, so I’ll be heading out separately today!”

“Hey, go easy on the booze. If you call in sick out of nowhere tomorrow morning like last time, you’re out. Got it?”

“Understood! Loyal to the cause!”

“Look at this punk run his mouth.”

Once he sent the older crew off, Hajun slipped quietly into the on-site restroom.

After some time passed, he peeked through the door.

“Ugh, the stench…”

Just as the foul stench of the pit latrine was beginning to seep into his clothes, quiet settled over the site.

He crept out and looked around.

Sure enough, not a soul remained.

Those finished for the day had gone home immediately, while those on the night shift had stepped out for dinner.

And Hajun?

“Time to scratch this lottery ticket.”

A pine caterpillar had to eat pine needles.

He conceded that.

All the same, with a winning lottery ticket already in hand, shouldn’t he at least check which prize he hit?

Who knew?

It might just be the grand prize.

What if it was a bust?

No harm done.

There was no one around, and he had already confirmed the absence of security cameras.

In short, Yoon Hajun was the only soul who knew.

If it turned out useless, he would simply keep his mouth shut and go back to chewing pine needles.

Which meant…

“Summon Laborers.”

The die was cast.

All that remained was to see the outcome.

[Summoning laborers!]

[Grade – Iron]

[Summon Range: All Intermediate- and Low-Grade Targets]

The result arrived instantly.

Messages chimed one after another.

Flash!

A burst of light flared.

Then—

“Chwik!“

Excuse me?

Did that say chwik?

*

Summon Laborers.

Something had certainly appeared.

Five orcs, to be exact.

“Chwik!” “Chwiiik!“

Was this right?

“It said Manpower Office Director…”

It was stamped plain as day.

[Job: Manpower Office Director]

Manpower management (人力管理).

The character in meant human…

Yet right before him stood—

“Chwik!“

No, puffing out your chests like you’re proud of yourselves doesn’t change the fact that you’re monsters.

“Grand prize lottery, my ass.”

Someone had once told him the proper way to check an Awakening grade was by voluntarily reporting to the bureau.

Still, they added, you could usually tell without bothering to go.

How?

You just knew at a glance.

A truly good job or skill made itself obvious the moment you tested it, or so the story went.

He had wondered if that was really true, but now he understood.

This was a bust.

A bust multiplied by a hundred.

“Haah, damn it…”

Truthfully, he had harbored faint hopes.

What if he unlocked an absurdly broken ability, like Korea’s number-one-ranked hunter?

Living in an apartment with a view of the Han River, driving a pricey car, puffing on top-shelf cigars…

Leaving behind the semi-basement studio life once and for all?

High hopes, crushed upon unboxing.

“Chwik!“

All right, already.

Quit posturing.

Put down that hammer before someone gets hurt.

“Wait. A hammer?”

Looking closer, something was off.

Why were the orcs wearing hard hats?

They were even holding tools like electric drills and hammers in their hands.

Were these guys actual construction workers or what?

Baffled, he checked the messages again.

Oddly enough, quite a few had piled up.

[Summon Laborers (Grade – Iron)]

[Entities summonable at the current grade are all targets designated as intermediate-grade and low-grade.]

[Summon Laborers used for the first time.]

[Job Perk: Granted ‘1-Time Higher-Grade Laborer Trial Voucher’.]

[※ A highest-grade laborer may be summoned with a slim probability from the ‘1-Time Higher-Grade Laborer Trial Voucher’.]

“Oho…”

A one-time trial voucher?

Like a tasting spoon at an ice cream shop?

Reading through it, a sliver of anticipation rekindled.

Highest-grade.

The title alone sounded impressive.

The catch was that “slim probability” part, but he could worry about unpacking that later.

“So why are you guys just standing there?”

“Chwik!“

Despite lugging in their own tools, the bunch merely grunted back without budging.

What was he supposed to do next?

Just as he wondered, another message flashed.

[Summoned laborers act according to settings.]

[Manual Mode] / [Auto Mode]

Current status: Manual Mode.

Which meant they were idling purely because the system was on manual.

Would they move if given an order?

“Uh… you, on the left? Go move that over there.”

He pointed toward a pallet piled high with drywall.

“Chwik!“

Unbelievable.

The orc snapped its right hand up in a crisp salute.

Next thing he knew—

Thud!

“Whoa…”

It moved it.

The entire pallet in one go, no less…

Shifting that crushing weight all at once?

And making it look effortless?

“Maybe this isn’t a total bust after all?”

Of course, he had zero intention of becoming a hunter.

Orcs or not, dungeons were still dangerous for him.

Instead, a brilliant way to put them to work struck him.

For instance, what if he summoned them on-site to do the heavy lifting?

The orcs did the labor, and he pocketed the paycheck.

Wasn’t this an absolute gold mine?

Better yet, the unboxing wasn’t over.

Manual Mode worked like a charm.

What about Auto Mode?

Would they start bustling around on their own?

[Manual Mode] → [Auto Mode]

He swapped the setting in high anticipation.

The result was an even grander spectacle.

“Chwik! Chwik! Chwik!“

After a brisk stretch, the orcs actually raised their fists together and began chanting a safety cheer.

Wait, that rhythm…

“Safety! Good! Good! Good!”

Agh.

He had chanted along without thinking.

A light warm-up followed by a rousing safety cheer: the quintessential morning scene on a construction site.

So were they heading off to work now?

“Chwik!“

Oh, they were actually moving.

Where to, though?

Keeping himself ready to toggle back to manual just in case, he trailed behind them, watching closely.

“Chwik! Chwik!“

Third floor, second floor, first floor.

Following the orcs down the stairs, he reached the basement.

There, right in the middle of the site, sat something that had no business being there.

“What the hell… A Gate?”

A Gate, the entrance to a dungeon.

Why was this here?

I need to report this. Right now.

As he fumbled through his pockets in a panic—

“Chwik!“

The orcs marched inside, one after another.

“Wait, why are you going in th—”

Right at that moment, a strange notification chimed.

[Workers are entering the dungeon.]

[Commencing auto-hunting.]