Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 46

“Phew…”

Dropping a shocking name on us, Rani slumped onto the floor.

Was crafting this weapon that brutal?

She looked more exhausted than ever.

She really ought to get some rest, but…

“Y-Yongyongi…?”

“No, no! Not just Yongyongi! It’s Yongyongi, Boom!”

“Just what is that ‘Boom’ supposed to mean?”

“Huh? Boom is boom!”

“Well, that…”

Meanwhile, her corrections were razor-sharp.

Hey, Rani.

Look at your grandpa’s face.

No, what on earth…

He’s standing right there in utter denial.

Still, I understood him completely.

Everyone had reacted that way at first.

“Arthur knows. Arthur reacted like that when receiving Wharuruk and Ttanttani too.”

“…This is Neaty.”

“I kept wondering why their gear had such names…”

Right.

They had all received names just like that.

From whom?

“Hehe!”

From our Bokdeongi, grinning brightly.

Oh well.

Everyone ended up satisfied in the end anyway.

It would probably be the same this time around.

So.

“Haha…”

Let’s leave our shocked client alone for a moment.

Name confirmed first.

Now, let’s crack open the options.

[Yongyongi, Boom!]

– A masterpiece by a remarkably skilled artisan.

– Imbued with the power of a legendary figure.

– Bestows a blessing on allies fighting alongside the wielder.

– Reduces enemy defense through overwhelming pressure.

– Can use the special skill ‘Blue Flame Dragon (靑炎龍)’.

– Can use the special skill ‘Summon Flame Steed (火焰馬)’.

– While mounted on the Flame Steed, grants a powerful severing effect to every attack.

– Immune to fire attacks below a certain threshold.

“Whoa…”

“Why that reaction?”

Why else?

Take a look.

When I quietly slipped the options into view, he blinked.

Then he took another hard look.

“Ahem.”

“Well? Satisfied, aren’t you?”

I asked casually.

His answer?

“Haha… This wizard was thoroughly pleased from the moment he laid eyes on the staff’s exterior.”

“Hehe! Right?! The dragon Rani made is pretty!”

See?

I told you you’d love it once you saw the options.

Time to claim your staff, then.

“Give it a hold.”

I passed it over.

Flash!

As soon as his hands closed around it, it flared with brilliant light.

[You have obtained equipment bound by fate.]

[A portion of the laborer’s latent potential blooms.]

Latent potential blooming.

Arthur and Robin had undergone drastic visual changes when it happened to them.

So what about Yunchang?

Hmm…

He looked pretty much the same.

“Grandpa, you got taller!”

Did he?

“A fine staff indeed. Thanks to this, the power of my magic has grown a step stronger.”

He had definitely gotten more powerful.

Whether it was ‘magic power’ or something else, who could say.

Either way, great.

Now let’s see just how much stronger he had become, and how well the weapon performed.

Ought to take it out for a spin, right?

A highest-grade laborer whose latent potential had bloomed through fate-bound equipment.

I wanted to send him into an S-grade or A-grade dungeon…

Nothing open right now?

Well, nothing to be done about that.

[B-Grade, Grave of the Fallen Warriors]

Let’s just hit this one.

“Whoa… That’s a lot.”

“Zombies all over! Swarming and popping!”

Dungeons usually fell into one of two types:

1. A handful of powerful monsters.

2. Swarms of relatively weak monsters.

By the looks of it, this one was the latter.

The moment I toggled on Monitoring, a horde of zombies filled the screen.

What about our highest-grade laborer?

“Grandpa! Over there! Riding a toasty horsey!”

“A toasty horse? Oh…”

The skill attached to Yongyongi, Boom!

Summon Flame Steed.

He must have used it immediately.

Mounted atop a blazing steed, beard fluttering in the wind as he held his guandao at an angle, the sight was—

“Pure, insane presence.”

I’d seen that imagery online before.

Riding a red steed, wielding the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

Would he charge while mounted?

Slice —

Nope.

With a smooth sweep of his guandao from left to right—

“Whoa… Holy crap.”

“A dragon?”

“Hehe.”

It manifested in midair.

A dragon forged of azure fire, the Blue Flame Dragon.

Its effect?

BOOOOOOM!

It plunged straight into the cluster of monsters, detonating violently.

The blast wiped out the vast majority of the zombies in a single strike.

Insane.

A blast like that could level an entire building without breaking a sweat…

“Hehe! Grandpa wizard went KA-BOOOOM!”

Ah.

Now I get it.

That’s why it’s named Yongyongi, Boom!…

A sudden thought crossed my mind.

Awakening as the Manpower Office Director was like hitting the lottery.

Even so, among all of it, pulling Rani had to be the real jackpot.

That was honestly how it felt…

*

Beijing, China.

Inside the President’s Office.

Zhang Zhi’an, President of China, smiled with deep satisfaction.

“So the agreement has been finalized.”

“Yes. I came straight here after receiving the report that Arthur Brandt accepted.”

Arthur Brandt.

The United Kingdom’s rank 1 hunter and a Member of Parliament.

Otherwise described as the second-strongest man in the world.

The pact spearheaded by the man was straightforward:

Should an S-grade dungeon manifest in China, he would arrive to provide aid.

In return, offer him a matching price.

“The amount requested in return is substantial… Chen Yu is expected to climb past the 60th floor soon, so we need only maintain the agreement until then.”

“Good grief… How has a great power fallen to such a state…?”

The UK had agreed to the pact.

Requests had been dispatched to other nations as well, however.

The United States, Germany, Russia…

Every single response had been a flat refusal.

China, reduced to begging for help?

What sort of…

What proved even more infuriating was something else.

“Any news regarding the Manpower Office Director, that hunter from that petty state?”

“The situation remains as previously reported… A substantial number of undercover operatives from the Special Operations Unit have perished…”

“The world is turning completely upside down.”

China was the center of the world.

That conviction had guided an entire lifetime.

It had unquestionably been so…

Until somewhere along the line, that order began unraveling piece by piece.

All because of that small-nation hunter.

Ever since the Manpower Office Director emerged.

At first, it hadn’t seemed like much.

A guy who conquered an S-grade dungeon was also skilled at crafting weapons?

Naturalize him, then.

It was only obvious.

“Historically, petty states have always offered everything they possessed to us.”

“Indeed.”

Yet…

He dared disregard a request from the central power?

So orders were given to at least secure weapons from him.

That, too, failed.

Even when party-level pressure was exerted on South Korea, it was rejected.

Word was that the Awakening Management Bureau stood in fierce opposition.

“Daring to trample upon the pride of a great power?”

President Zhang Zhi’an was currently eighty-seven years old.

In his younger days, such a thing would have been utterly unimaginable.

Still, patience had been kept.

Solely because of the lingering threat of an S-grade dungeon.

Now that the hazard had been mitigated…

“Is the current head of the Special Operations Unit still Liu Hao?”

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Pass the word to him. The party will spare no support, so tell him to pursue it again.”

The objective was singular.

Find out who the Manpower Office Director really was.

Discovering that identity would suffice.

Armed with that intelligence, vastly heavier leverage could be applied.

“Manpower Office Director.”

Outstanding ability, certainly.

Enough to send shockwaves across the globe.

Even so.

He was nothing more than a lone individual.

Would he dare turn a blade against a great power like China?

At best, he might vent some minor frustration.

A show of force?

Completely out of the question unless he had lost his mind.

Attempting an act of terror on the mainland would see him captured immediately, which might actually be a welcome development.

“Run wild all you want; that is as far as you go.”

Time had come to show the whelp what happened when one crossed the might of a sovereign state.

*

[The remarks made this morning by the Chinese ambassador to South Korea are stirring up controversy. Ambassador Zhang Xiao stated that the Korean hunter known as the Manpower Office Director ought to take moral responsibility and assist China — ]

“Huh?”

News blared from the television I had left on without much thought.

What kind of absolute bullshit was that?

Tilting my head, I listened closer.

“Basically, he’s saying that since the Director cleaned out their storehouse, the growth of their next-generation ranker Chen Yu has stalled, so you have to take responsibility?”

“Wow…”

“They certainly have a knack for coming up with novel ways to talk nonsense.”

“Tell me about it.”

The old saying never lied.

Save someone from drowning, and they demand you hand over your bundle…

Saved their hides, and now they want us to cough it back up.

Made zero sense.

I ignored it and hopped online.

“Whoa, what’s this?”

Total chaos here too.

It all started with the Chinese ambassador’s statement.

From there, the ripples had spread everywhere.

Politicians chiming in to agree with him, no less.

– Why the hell would the Director need to help those bastards lolololol

└ Then why did he help India and Egypt? Should help China too.

└ Did you leave your help with him for safekeeping or something?

└ Korea and China are like family, so shouldn’t he naturally lend a hand?

└ Don’t know about family, but it sure feels like shit.

– After taking so much, taking some moral responsibility is the bare minimum ;;; Embarrassing as a fellow Korean.

└ They gave it willingly, what’s the issue?

└ Question) Is the original commenter even Korean???

The comment sections were a disaster zone.

People bickering back and forth…

No, seriously.

Was this even something to debate?

“Makes no sense at all.”

“For starters, China is behind the politicians backing that statement.”

“Huh? Todd, how do you know that?”

“Nowadays, you can find all of that just by looking it up, Director. Combine that with the intel from the Eye of Truth, and look here—”

He pulled up a whole pile of information…

Ugh.

Total Greek to me.

Proposed bills and whatnot.

Honestly, sometimes he felt far more like a modern person than I did…

To sum it up:

“You’re saying there’s a high chance China orchestrated this?”

“Not a high chance — it’s a certainty.”

“No wonder things seemed suspiciously quiet…”

Out of nowhere, the Chinese ambassador makes a bizarre statement.

Politicians echo his words.

Unconditional shielding from endless commenters and news outlets.

Every bit of it was their doing…

“Did the Director not come to their aid?”

“Yeah…”

“My, what ungrateful scoundrels with zero sense of decency.”

Tell me about it.

Still, whatever.

It was fine.

I could just ignore it all anyway.

Politicians? Reporters? Internet comments?

What could they possibly do?

None of them even knew who I was.

Instead:

“Todd, no matter how much money they bring to the table, don’t accept any commissions from China.”

“Understood.”

We were actually getting ready for something like that anyway.

Todd had suggested it earlier:

since Rani loved crafting items, why not turn her work into a luxury brand and take commissions?

The plan was to kit out our own laborers first, then start taking custom orders from world rankers once everything was set…

China?

Application denied.

“Let’s leave it at that for now.”

Ignoring them was easy enough.

I was ready to leave it there — until Yunchang spoke up.

“Director, there appears to be suspicious movement outside.”

“Pardon? Again?”

He had said the exact same thing when we first met.

Back then, I had been half-skeptical.

Eventually, though, that person really had turned out to be suspicious.

What about now?

“I sense about three presences carrying the same energy I felt back in China. Likely those fellows from the Special Operations Unit.”

You guys again?

After failing last time, why come back?

“Blackmail, most likely. Or bait.”

Ignite public pressure up front with the news, and make moves like this in the shadows.

What if the Manpower Office Director didn’t step forward…?

“Then they will dispose of them, just as they tried to do recently. The survivor among them would be the Director, after all.”

“Haha…”

“Boss mad?”

“Eek… Don’t be mad…”

Yoon Hajun, age twenty-three.

Generally slow to anger.

Most things could be laughed off with a good-natured chuckle.

This, however, crossed the line.

“After I saved their country from collapsing…”

Sure, I had hauled away a little extra in the process.

Was that not better than an entire nation falling to ruin?

The stockpiled materials were what they had put up as the bounty in the first place.

And now they pull this crap?

What angered me even more was the immediate threat.

“If we just look the other way, random, innocent people will die.”

“Yes. Likely everyone on that list alongside you, Director.”

China’s Special Operations Unit.

Todd had previously looked into them through the Eye of Truth…

They were absolute monsters.

Blackmail, kidnapping, murder — all in a day’s work for them.

Being a covert agency, even uncovering those snippets had taken immense effort.

I had pretended not to know, knowing full well what would happen if I sent Yunchang their way.

Still.

When pushed like this, there was no holding back.

Enduring it once was plenty.

A second time wasn’t happening.

Before hesitation led to innocent casualties—

“Yunchang-nim, I’m sorry to ask, but I think you need to make a trip.”

“I was merely waiting for those words.”

*

Dispatch to China.

Not for a pleasant errand, either, but to fight.

I had intended to send everyone together.

“It is fine. This wizard finds it more convenient to go alone this time.”

Yunchang declined.

Even Todd agreed.

“Director, place your trust in laborer Yunchang and me this once.”

With them putting it that way, I couldn’t easily refuse.

Frankly, I was worried.

A highest-grade laborer wasn’t completely invincible.

Even so…

[Dispatch Laborers]

– Office (Eye of Truth, Beijing, China)

Having this option made it far less daunting.

The beauty of Dispatch:

no matter how vast the distance, travel was instantaneous.

And returning?

He could warp back from the very spot.

“If it gets dangerous, don’t hesitate. Return immediately, understood?”

“Haha, understood. Have no worries.”

Right.

Since he and Todd had drawn up a plan, he was bound to be reliable.

Just in case, though…

“Take this with you. It’s a Ring of Recovery.”

“Haha, my thanks.”

“Grandpa! This too! Rani made it! It blocks owies a little bit once!”

When on earth had she made something like that?

Regardless, preparations were complete.

All that remained was opening the door and stepping through—

“Rookie?”

Arthur suddenly called out to Yunchang.

What was that in his hand…?

Coffee?

When had he brewed that?

“Lose if you get tense. Drink one two-two-three before going?”

Seeing everyone else fuss over Yunchang must have made Arthur feel awkward.

A warm cup of coffee sounded nice, honestly.

Good for calming the nerves.

“Sounds great. Have a cup before you head out.”

I nudged him gently.

Laborer Yunchang looked exceptionally dependable today.

Chuckling softly, he spoke.

“No need. Leave it right there. I shall return before that coffee cools.”