Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 11

——-

[Commissions]

<Dungeon> Seeking a hunter capable of raiding a D-grade dungeon in Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province.

— Management Bureau

<Item> Can anyone find me five Sharp Wolf Teeth? Paying top dollar.

— Anonymous

<Dungeon> Gyeongnam, Goseong. Urgently seeking personnel for a C-grade dungeon.

— Management Bureau

……

…

——-

Most of them came from the Bureau.

Private commissions appeared only occasionally.

“There are a lot about dungeon raids in particular. Not bad.”

If he accepted one, how would it play out?

Curious, he decided to look into it.

He pulled out his smartphone and ran a quick search.

[No results found]

Huh?

Nothing came up.

“Well… makes sense. I didn’t even know AwakenedNet existed until recently.”

AwakenedNet was a community exclusively for hunters.

What about the general public?

They were mostly in the dark, knowing little more than the vague fact that such a site existed.

So where could he look…

Ah.

——-

[Free Board]

<General> Just awakened yesterday, complete newbie here. Drop some pro tips pls

<Tips & Info> Why you should join a guild

<Question> How much do you get paid for clearing a C-grade dungeon these days? I’m in the provinces and the Bureau keeps calling lololol

……

…

——-

The moment he opened it, the board overflowed with topics only hunters could grasp.

Now this is what I’m talking about!

Discussions, inquiries, and all sorts of advice filled the screen.

“Oh.”

There was a search function too.

He searched right away.

A flood of results appeared… and he tapped one with a light flick of his finger.

——-

<Tips & Info> The A-to-Z Guide to Using AwakenedNet for Beginners

…

……

Next up, the Commission Board.

Honestly, do I even need to explain this? You’ll figure it out the second you look at it.

It’s completely intuitive.

Open the commission you want and hit accept.

Clear it, tap complete, and your reward is issued on the spot.

Simple, right?

The best part about AwakenedNet is that anonymity is strictly guaranteed.

Dungeon commissions are mostly posted by the Bureau, so they reveal their name, but we don’t have to.

Sometimes you just want to get your hands on gear quietly.

The system isn’t run by humans, so unless you dox yourself, nobody will ever know.

Use it without worrying.

Oh.

For the record, whether it’s the Commission Board or the Item Trading Board, transactions happen through your inventory, so check it beforehand.

Try claiming stuff when you’re out of slots, and poof — gone.

Trust me, I didn’t want to learn that the hard way either…

……

…

— Is anonymity really guaranteed? Wouldn’t an admin see everything if they checked? lolol

└ It’s run by the system, like the Tower of Chaos or the Status Window. Where would an admin even come from? ;;

— Why couldn’t you post this sooner T_T I saw this too late and blew my magic stone. Who do I contact for an inquiry?

└ Inquiry? Lmao, open your Status Window and ask there, dumbass lolololol

——-

All right.

He had the gist of it.

In short:

“Keep an eye on inventory space and take the commissions.”

Time to double-check.

His inventory had plenty of room.

What about the jobs?

“If I’m taking one, dungeon raids definitely seem like the best bet.”

Countless requests were posted under the Bureau’s name.

A brief glance showed that most were dungeons whose clear deadlines were fast approaching.

Tapping on a location immediately linked to AwakenedNet’s [Dungeon Info].

The regions were scattered far and wide.

What about the payout?

“Oho, looking good.”

Dungeon clear rewards?

Naturally his to keep.

On top of that came extra pay.

Low-grade magic stones, potions, various consumables, and so on.

He had no direct use for them, of course.

He could just hoard them and sell them off later.

Judging by the Item Trading Board, demand ran surprisingly high.

Pure profit.

“The question is whether the Manpower Office recognizes commissions accepted from here…”

Only one way to find out.

No point hesitating — might as well test it right now.

[Remaining Daily Summons: 3]

One had been used when he met the Bureau employee and cleared that F-grade dungeon.

With no other summons used today, three remained.

Testing it once or twice wouldn’t hurt.

“Wonder if there’s anything nearby with decent difficulty.”

A brief search turned up a hit.

<Dungeon> Urgently seeking a hunter capable of clearing a newly emerged D-grade dungeon in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province.

— Management Bureau

This looked solid.

The location was right next door in the neighboring district.

Besides, he was officially registered as a hunter now.

Heading over to clear it in person wouldn’t cause any trouble.

Should he head out?

“Better move before it gets any later.”

He had already worked a full shift on-site before clearing a dungeon and coming home.

Night had settled in.

Delay any further, and dawn would creep up on him, interfering with tomorrow’s shift.

Heading back out was a massive hassle, but business was business.

“Ugh, let’s just get it over with…”

He climbed to his feet and reached for the door, then paused.

Wait a second.

What did that Bureau employee say yesterday?

‘Complaints have been piling up lately. Dungeons suddenly clearing with nobody around, just like this one.’

Hmm.

If it was Siheung… would it show up under Dispatch Laborers?

Better check first.

[D-Grade Dungeon, Mad Wolf’s Den]

That was the dungeon requested by the Bureau…

Was it on the dispatch list?

——-

Available Dungeons for Dispatch

…

……

15. Mad Wolf’s Den – D-Grade

……

…

——-

It was there!

The dispatch list didn’t display locations, but the name and grade matched.

In that case…

“I definitely need to test this, don’t I?”

First, he accepted the commission on AwakenedNet.

Next, he pulled up the Manpower Office tab.

[Commissions]

1. Clear D-Grade Dungeon, Mad Wolf’s Den

Nice.

It appeared on the list.

That meant he could earn points through AwakenedNet commissions too.

Now to summon a worker.

He headed up to the rooftop first.

[Summon Fixed Team]

— Arthur (High-Grade)

“Arser, here!”

“Yeah. Hold on a sec. Let me call in the crew and train them up before sending you guys out.”

“Trai… ning? Arser knows! Make weak runts into peoples!”

Uh, Arthur… how are you going to turn creatures that aren’t human to begin with into people?

Well, whatever…

Let’s just summon whoever comes.

“Summon Laborers.”

Flash!

A brilliant light burst forth.

“Weak runt, not here?”

Squeak.

Not here, my foot.

Right over there.

A slime.

“Phew…”

Squeak, squelch.

Yeah…

Nice to see you too…

Domestic laborer, slime.

Its specialty?

Cleaning.

It finished in the blink of an eye and clocked out.

“So shiny!”

Two summons left today…

Seeing a slime out of nowhere suddenly brought on a wave of exhaustion.

This wouldn’t do.

It was a substantial waste, but he might as well wrap this up fast and call it a day.

“Arthur, let’s go.”

“Arser, going! Go to Tower?”

“No, no. Over here today.”

[Dispatch Laborers]

— Dungeon

[Would you like to enter Mad Wolf’s Den – D-Grade?]

Nope.

Not me — he’s the one going.

“Dungeon, right?”

“Yeah. Dungeon today.”

At least it wasn’t an F-grade, but a D-grade.

Sending Arthur didn’t feel as much of a waste.

“Arser, go and come back!”

“I’ll brew some coffee. Hurry back.”

“Coffee!”

[Worker entering dungeon.]

[Auto-hunting initiated.]

Arthur entered.

And the exit?

Sssss—!

Right around the time the water for the coffee began to boil…

[D-Grade Dungeon successfully conquered!]

[Clear Time — 00:03:47]

Three minutes and forty-seven seconds?

That actually took a bit longer than expected.

“Huge! Dungeon!”

“Oh, right. This was a D-grade.”

Crazy.

Thinking back on it, of course it took that long.

Even an F-grade had an average clear time of two hours…

A D-grade in three minutes?

Arthur never failed to deliver.

The guy was absurdly fast.

“Give? Coffee!”

“Of course, here you go.”

Arthur had earned it, so Hajun handed over a freshly brewed cup.

Time to check the results.

First, AwakenedNet…

<Commission Complete!>

Oh, the completion popped up.

Sweet.

It really was that exact dungeon.

That meant he could clear them comfortably straight from home.

An absolute goldmine.

“Long live auto-hunting.”

What about the reward?

The moment he tapped confirm, the items slipped straight into his inventory.

The real-time sync lived up to its reputation.

Next was the Manpower Office window…

[Commission Complete!]

[Clear D-Grade Dungeon, Mad Wolf’s Den]

[Additional Allowance]

— 100 Commission Points

Hell yeah!

It worked.

That settled it for now.

“Guess I’ll be grinding commissions for a while.”

Last night, browsing through the Commission Point Shop, he had spotted one particular item.

[Manpower Office Relocation Voucher]

— 10,000 P (Cost increases with each purchase)

Moving into a spacious house required saving up 10,000 points first.

In other words, the real manual labor started today.

Rumors spread fast among hunters.

Rumors involving money spread even faster.

“The Bureau’s calls have been pretty quiet lately, haven’t they? It was so sweet getting urgent backup requests from them with all those fat bonus allowances.”

“Huh? You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Guess you haven’t been checking AwakenedNet. The Bureau’s practically throwing a party. Take a look at the commission tab.”

“Eh?”

The commission tab?

Who even checked that?

When things got urgent, the Bureau contacted hunters directly anyway.

D-grade hunter Kim Bonggil felt the same way.

In fact, this was only the second time opening that tab.

The first time had been packed wall-to-wall with Bureau commissions… but now, it looked strangely barren.

“Why are there so few?”

“Someone going by ‘Manpower Office’ has been clearing three or four of them a day — literally every single one that pops up.”

“What? These? Why?”

Wait.

Before asking why, was that even possible?

The reason the Bureau bothered posting commissions in the first place was simple:

hunters refused to run them.

As for why they refused…

Either the dungeons were tricky, or the locations were inconvenient.

“Those locations are scattered all over the map. One person’s clearing every single one?”

“That’s what I’m saying! But you know what’s crazier?”

“No! What?!”

“F-grade dungeons take eight minutes at most. Word is, even D-grades get wiped out within ten minutes.”

“What? Dude, stop bullshitting. How does that make any sense?”

An eight-minute F-grade dungeon was absurd enough on its own…

Ten minutes for a D-grade?

“Go see for yourself if you don’t believe me. The completion logs are public.”

Was that actually real?

Taking a look at the log…

D-grade, 3 minutes.

F-grade, 7 minutes.

D-grade, 5 minutes.

……

…

The hunter who cleared them…

Manpower Office?

Who the hell was that?

“Hey, you heard that ghost story floating around recently, right? About dungeons suddenly getting cleared when nobody was inside.”

“Yeah, yeah. Happened to me too. An F-grade dungeon opened in Incheon, so I went over, and it cleared right before my eyes.”

“Word is, it’s the same person.”

“The same person?”

Come to think of it…

The patterns were identical.

The nonsensically fast clear times.

The simultaneous clears all across the country.

“Who on earth could it be?”

“Beats me. One thing’s for sure, though…”

“They’re a complete monster.”

“Yup.”

The rumors continued to spread, eventually reaching Baek Hwarang, the Guild Master of Hwarang — one of the Five Great Guilds.

“So you’re saying there’s a chance this is that unidentified hunter?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Hmm… certainly plausible.”

The sheer strength to clear a D-grade dungeon in three minutes.

The mobility to wipe out dungeons across different regions at practically the same time.

Indeed, it carried a familiar scent.

The scent of the very same person.

Still, why pick a name like Manpower Office? What bizarre taste…

“For now, issue a designated commission targeting this ‘Manpower Office.'”

“What terms should we set?”

“Tell them if they have any Armored Turtle meat, shell, or core, sell it to us. We’ll pay a handsome price.”

“Do you think they’ll accept?”

“If this Manpower Office really is the person who intruded on our raid, without a doubt.”

After all, that hunter couldn’t use any of it.

Materials like that were useless unless one awakened with a crafting-related class.

And by any measure, that hunter was no crafter.

To them, it was just garbage, so they might as well sell it cheap.

“Ah, man… If only they’d sent the commission a little sooner. What a waste.”

“Director! What! Is there something?!”

“Ah, no. Someone asked to buy the shell and core, that’s all.”

“No way! That’s mine!”

Right.

Keep it.

You promised to craft something awesome with it anyway.

Now, who was the client again…

The Hwarang Guild, was it?

Sorry about that.

A crafting laborer had just shown up.

A high-grade laborer, no less.