Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 30

An unprecedented crisis.

China had survived an S-grade dungeon break.

What did it have to show for it?

The answer was simple.

Nothing but scars.

Assorted materials, magic stones, elixirs…

The contents of the storehouses were thoroughly stripped.

On top of that, the emergency evacuation order Beijing had issued in preparation for the worst had destroyed the citizens’ trust in their leaders.

They had barely made it out alive.

Could they afford to sit idly by just because the disaster was averted?

Hardly.

They had to make a move to regain their footing by any means necessary.

As a first step, China immediately set about erasing the evidence.

[President Zhang Zhi’an Saves the Nation with Heroic Might.]

[President Zhang Zhi’an and Domestic Hunters Stand Together to Protect the People.]

[The International Community Maintains Silence Amid China’s Crisis.]

……

…

It was China’s might that conquered the crisis.

And the foreigners?

They sat back and watched without lifting a finger.

That was the narrative.

– Is this for real?

– You think it is…?

– What did the president even do?

– Flee faster than anyone else?

– Didn’t the Manpower Office Director basically do everything?

– Weird how his name isn’t anywhere in the PR blast, though.

The name Manpower Office Director was hidden away in secrecy.

Even so…

Did they really think they could blot out the sun with the palm of a hand?

Those in the know knew the truth.

Especially the Chinese hunters active on AwakenedNet.

The authorities couldn’t control the platform and had no way to stop the leaks…

And word traveled horrifyingly fast.

It didn’t take long to spill past the internet and onto the streets.

“I was holding the front line against monsters under government orders back then, you know?”

“Oh…”

“It was completely hopeless. Why else would they have issued a total evacuation order across the Beijing perimeter?”

“And the one who cleared the S-grade dungeon…”

“Yeah, that Korean guy called the Manpower Office Director.”

“A real hero.”

From mouth to mouth,

it passed along,

and spread.

Incredibly fast.

“What? We weren’t the ones who cleared the S-grade dungeon…?”

“Bullshit, we weren’t. My friend’s a hunter, and they said everyone was just looking for a chance to run until the Manpower Office Director stepped in.”

“Then what’s all this about Comrade President’s heroic might?”

“What do you think…?”

“Manpower Office Director, huh… Peculiar name.”

“Heroes are always like that, I guess.”

Soon enough, the citizens of Beijing knew the truth.

Manpower Office Director.

The name of the one who had saved them.

*

The news spreading beyond Beijing across all of China reached Hajun just as quickly.

“They’re calling you a hero, Director.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes, that seems to be the consensus among the Chinese public.”

Todd was a high-grade laborer specialized in commerce.

His current main assignment?

Rani’s comfort doll.

“Teddy bear!”

He got hoisted into the air several times a day.

In the middle of all that, he still managed to reel in real-time intelligence without missing a beat.

A high-grade laborer through and through.

His work ethic was flawless.

Still, a hero…

“That’s a little embarrassing.”

I hadn’t actually done anything.

Our laborers—

Arthur and Robin — handled it all.

Oh.

Rani deserved massive credit too for forging the weapons.

“That’s right! Hwalhwal and Syuk! Rani made them!”

“Director?”

“Yes?”

“What about me…?”

All right.

Todd got credit too.

Thanks to Todd, we secured Robin Hood’s Bow Fragment and the Elixir of Potential Increase.

“Haha, of course. Thank you, Todd.”

Rejecting their offer once to walk away with that elixir had been a massive coup.

Thanks to that, Rani hammered away much faster.

If it had taken a whole month…

Just thinking about it made me shudder.

“Hehe.”

Then why was she holding a hammer again?

A hammer in one hand,

the Green Dragon Crescent Blade Fragment and Young Bashe Scale in the other.

Looks like research was underway once more.

Rani really was something else.

She had been working nonstop for an entire week, yet she never seemed tired of it…

“Uh-huh! Rani loves this! It’s the most fun thing in the whole wide world!”

“Right…”

She called it a hobby.

Pondering how to use fine materials while playing with them.

To be honest, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it…

If Rani enjoyed it, that was plenty.

Go right ahead.

Feel free to use up all the materials.

“Ooh! Is it Arthur’s sword this time?”

“Arthur… She said that one doesn’t suit you.”

“Does too…? Wharuruk is…”

“Rani will make you one next time!”

“You heard her, right?”

“Arthur heard…”

Well, well.

No use slumping over.

The Green Dragon Crescent Blade Fragment.

No matter how much Rani researched it, there was no way forward with that piece alone.

We’d have to obtain another material from an S-grade dungeon…

For now, we didn’t have one.

So what else could we do?

Focus on what was currently within reach.

Which meant:

“Let’s head to the tower first.”

“Arthur’s going to the tower?”

“Yep.”

Sure…

Accepting commissions and clearing dungeons was great and all.

However.

“Right now, I’m more curious about the tower.”

More precisely, I wanted to see what was inside the Chaos Boxes.

What would come out next?

If I wanted to find out, I’d have to collect the keys and pop them open.

“Don’t you think so?”

“Yeah! Rani’s curious too!”

“Arthur is curious too.”

Rani and Arthur were on board.

Seeing Robin checking the bowstring meant everyone was set.

All right.

With a unanimous vote, let’s head straight in.

[Dispatch Laborers]

– Tower

[Would you like to enter Floor 21 of the Tower of Chaos?]

Starting from Floor 21.

From what I heard, Robin could easily manage up to Floor 60,

and Arthur had plenty of breathing room well into the 40s.

No need to drag our feet.

Two floors a day.

Time for a full sprint.

*

In Beijing, China, where the crisis had only recently been averted,

the mood should have been festive at the very least…

Instead, the Director of the Central Awakened Management Bureau felt like dying.

“Uh… so… you’re telling me to extend a naturalization offer to the Manpower Office Director?”

[That is correct.]

What kind of nonsense was this?

I asked just to be certain,

and the voice across the line confirmed it without hesitation.

“Do you think that person would accept?”

I asked cautiously,

praying for a sane response.

[Hah? Why wouldn’t they accept? An honorable opportunity like this.]

Pure nonsense.

Nothing but mindless blather.

[In any case, see to it that it is carried out as soon as possible.]

Click.

The call ended.

“Sigh.“

“Director, what’s the matter?”

What was the matter?

“Higher-ups want us to naturalize the Manpower Office Director.”

“Excuse me…? What does that even…”

See?

You can’t believe it either, can you?

Wait until you hear the rest.

“They said if that person refuses to naturalize, we should mobilize field agents to drag them in.”

“That… uh… no……”

Look at that.

Exactly.

Now that was a normal human reaction.

What on earth…

“Haaah…“

Maybe I should just quit.

A post like bureau director wasn’t something anyone gave up lightly…

These days, though, the thought crossed my mind quite often.

Particularly whenever orders trickled down from up top.

“If we had the power to catch that person, we would have done it ages ago.”

“You’re right…”

Nagging us to find someone wouldn’t magically make them appear.

How were we supposed to catch someone who left no trace behind?

The more we investigated the Manpower Office Director, the more it felt like chasing a ghost.

What was the point of scouring every lead?

Nothing ever turned up.

We even brought in hunters with tracking skills…

“There’s nothing here.”

A total phantom, baffling everyone involved.

And now what?

Naturalize them?

Would the Manpower Office Director ever agree to that?

What would be missing in their life to make them pick China over America…?

“It’s the same story every time… We kept surveillance on the A-grade dungeon, yet it was cleared without a trace…”

“Just like what we went through.”

“I’m sorry, sir…”

“Sigh.“

By this point, the picture was painfully clear.

The Manpower Office Director was someone we couldn’t track down by ordinary means.

Besides, this wasn’t the time to be chasing wild geese…

“We’re swamped just trying to nurture Chen Yu. Do the higher-ups have no idea how dire our situation is?”

“Come on, surely they must…”

The world’s Five Great Powers:

The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, and Russia.

Could that balance still hold today?

No.

Not a chance.

With Wei Jin dead, the stripping of our Great Power status was an inevitability.

South Korea would likely step into that vacant seat.

Word had it they recently broke past Floor 61.

“Whew, lucky bastards.”

Their tower climb was shooting up smoothly.

They had a monster like the Manpower Office Director.

Oh.

Come to think of it, wasn’t their tower progress thanks to the Manpower Office Director as well?

In any case.

“We’d be fortunate if losing our Great Power status was where it ended…”

“My point exactly.”

Was there more?

There was.

A great deal more.

The tower, and the dungeons.

Those horrors showed no mercy just because Wei Jin was gone.

“When did Wei Jin reach Floor 62 again?”

“Around this time last year.”

“Then we have one year left.”

The time limit to conquer the Tower of Chaos was two years from the conquest of the previous floor.

Fail to clear it within that window?

Catastrophe struck.

A tower would spawn in a densely populated region,

and monsters would come pouring out.

“One misstep and we’ll end up like India…”

“Careful. We have to prevent that at all costs.”

A nation had actually fallen that way.

India, a country that once developed rapidly by climbing the tower even faster than the United States.

To avoid meeting that same fate…

We had to nurture Chen Yu first.

“One year, huh…”

Chen Yu was currently on Floor 55, meaning eight floors had to be cleared.

Was that even possible within a year…?

“Haaah…“

“Still, isn’t the tower better off than the dungeons?”

“True. The real nightmare is the dungeons.”

Indeed.

The tower was relatively gentle.

At least it gave you a deadline.

Dungeons?

They manifested without warning or omen.

“If another S-grade appears…”

“We’d have to beg the international community for help immediately.”

“Exactly, that’s our reality… And yet they act like nothing happened regarding treating that person as a national hero, and they refuse to award the promised medal. Does this make any sense…?”

“Well, I heard someone even suggested taking back the materials we already handed over, so I suppose this is marginally better.”

“Have they lost their minds…? Ah.”

Mid-sentence, realization hit.

Daring to utter such words out loud.

If this leaked outside…

“Don’t worry, sir. I’m of the exact same mind.”

“Sigh… We shouldn’t be making enemies of the international community, at least until Chen Yu matures…”

They understood.

They knew what would happen down the road if the country acted like this.

And the higher-ups?

They should have known better, but…

“It seems they really don’t get it…”

What choice was there?

When the top brass barked orders, subordinates had to jump.

Right.

It wasn’t like lightning would strike twice, right…?

S-grade dungeons had only ever appeared twice in history.

There was no way…

“Hah…“

A major hurdle like an S-grade dungeon break had been overcome.

Why, then,

did it feel like slamming into an even higher wall? The bureau director’s sighs only grew deeper.

*

Things were just as exhausting over at the Korean Awakening Management Bureau.

Ring-ring-ring—!

“Ugh, these endless phone calls are driving me up the wall.”

“Seriously, I’m about to lose my mind.”

“All for the same thing?”

“Yep. Every single one is asking for the Manpower Office Director.”

That damn Manpower Office Director.

So many calls poured in from every corner that the staff was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

By phone, by in-person visits.

No.

Even the higher-ups were breathing down their necks.

“Especially the United States, China, Russia, Germany… oh, and the UK. Those ones are being extraordinarily aggressive.”

“Those Five Great Powers already have room to breathe, so what’s their deal?”

Indeed.

And the other nations were no different.

The reason?

Good grief…

Too many to count.

Everything from wanting equipment crafted

to requesting an in-person meeting.

If there was one common denominator:

“They’re all looking for the Manpower Office Director.”

Put them through.

Arrange a meeting.

Or at least pass along a favor.

Still…

“We can’t do that either…”

Whenever we gave that answer, they inevitably pressed further.

Isn’t that person a Korean hunter?

Yes, that was true.

It was true, but…

We had no way of contacting the director in the first place outside of AwakenedNet.

No.

Lately, even that route had gone quiet.

Whatever the director was doing, commissions were completely closed.

Nothing was being accepted…

[If you have a commission related to an S-grade dungeon, please leave a comment.]

Only that single post was left behind on AwakenedNet.

“The Manpower Office Director is quite a character too. Barring extraordinary circumstances like China’s, who on earth entrusts an S-grade dungeon to someone else?”

“Tell me about it. Isn’t that just a polite way of saying ‘don’t bother sending commissions’?”

“Hmm, could be.”

Ring-ring-ring—!

Ugh.

Another call.

Probably another inquiry looking for the Manpower Office Director.

Just as the worker picked up, ready to turn them away—

“Yes, hello? Are you referring to the S-grade dungeon that broke in India? The one overflowing with knight monsters, you say?”

Wait.

A commission actually came in?