Chapter 9

— A-Rank Weapons Flood the Association Exchange! Where Did These Weapons Come From?!

— The Hunter Zodiac Abandoned Turns Out to Be a High-Rank Weapon Creator?

— Abandoned by Everyone, Yet Showered with Offers: Hunter Ha Seong-ha Awakens Again as a High-Rank Weapon Creator and Becomes the Most Sought-After Hunter

The Hunter community had been turned upside down.

All because of one person.

Ha Seong-ha, once a Hunter belonging to the Zodiac Guild, had recently awakened again as a High-Rank Weapon Creator.

The moment the A-rank weapons she had put up for sale appeared on the Association Exchange, they attracted attention not only from Korea but from overseas as well.

Hunters capable of crafting weapons were rare even throughout the entire world.

And among them, those capable of producing A-rank weapons were rarer still.

Yet Ha Seong-ha had casually tossed six A-rank weapons onto the Association’s doorstep as though she had simply picked them up off the street, then vanished without a trace.

Zodiac, which had absurdly dug its own grave by expelling her from the guild, and every other guild in Korea and abroad were now frantically searching for information about Ha Seong-ha’s identity and whereabouts.

“Damn it…! Ha Seong-dan! Send that bastard Ha Seong-dan to the Guild Master’s office right now!”

“Yes, yes!”

“And Ha Seong-ha? Have you still not found that bastard?”

“Th-We’re still tracking her, but we haven’t been able to locate her. She scrapped her car and even put the house she was staying in up for sale…”

“Where the hell did that bastard go?!”

Ha Seong-ha had even deliberately abandoned everything that could be used to track her before disappearing.

Ha Seong-woon, who had believed he could keep her tied to Zodiac through their past, could do nothing but shout.

The only things that had been revealed about Ha Seong-ha so far were her unfortunate past, which could easily be found online, the fact that she had solo-cleared an A-rank dungeon, and the fact that she had established the Blackhole Guild the day after clearing the dungeon.

If he could make her a member of his guild, it would only be a matter of time before Zodiac rose to the top of the world and became filthy rich.

Ha Seong-ha was someone the guild had to recruit as its absolute top priority, by any means necessary.

However, on the day Ha Seong-ha’s Blackhole Guild reached its first week of existence…

After anonymously purchasing five C-rank daggers from a guild exchange near Incheon, Ha Seong-ha’s whereabouts became a mystery.

No one could figure out whether she had shot up into the sky or vanished into the earth, and everyone was left anxiously waiting.

In truth, there was a perfectly good reason for it.

“Hey, you crazy bastard! If I have to go into a dungeon, you should tell me ahead of time!”

[Unfortunately, I don’t know when a dungeon affected by a rift will appear either.]

[They emerge irregularly.]

[Even at the earliest, I can only know about it a week before it appears.]

“Then you should tell me a week beforehand! What the hell are you thinking, telling me just one day in advance?”

Ha Seong-ha had entered another dungeon just one week after clearing the previous one.

[But it’s only been a week since you came out of the dungeon.]

[I’m not such a wicked entity that I’d tell someone who just came out of a dungeon that they have to enter another one a week later.]

“You’re already wicked enough!”

[Me? Why?]

[Am I not treating you well enough?]

[You know how much I care about you.]

“Hah.”

A suite at a luxury hotel in central Seoul.

Seong-ha had never imagined she would be able to come to a place like this in her lifetime, but now she was sprawled comfortably across the soft bed, raising her voice at Quasar.

She let out a hollow laugh at Quasar’s shameless response.

He had given her a terminal illness, and yet he spoke as though he had done nothing wrong.

Seeing how he genuinely seemed unaware of what he had done wrong, even the anger she had been about to unleash faded into disbelief.

She would die in two years.

Now that she had become keenly aware of that fact again, arguing with him felt pointless.

It would be more beneficial to think about something productive instead.

Seong-ha stared blankly at the ceiling.

It’s already been a week since I sold the weapons to the Hunter Association and went into hiding…

If she had checked into a hotel using her real name, she would obviously have been discovered in no time.

So Seong-ha used an alias and identification card Quasar had created for her.

He was supposedly the administrator of the dimension she lived in, and it had taken him less than a minute to create a forged ID and put it into her Inventory.

Even so, reporters, the Hunter Association, and people from all sorts of guilds were hot on her trail, so it was about time she moved to another hotel.

She had deliberately revealed her identity when selling the weapons to raise the value of her name.

And just as expected, every guild came rushing toward her with their eyes blazing, desperate to bring her into their ranks.

Even the Association had been subtly reaching out to her.

She had anticipated all of this, but their persistence was far more tiresome than she had expected.

…Could those people really follow me into a dungeon?

“What rank is the dungeon?”

[It’s C-rank right now. But because of the rift, it’ll probably rise to A-rank or higher by the time you get there.]

“A-rank? Well, whatever. I solo-cleared the Gwangmyeong Dungeon last time, so I should manage somehow. So where is it this time? I scrapped my car because I was afraid it would be tracked, so I don’t even have a car anymore.”

[It’s fine. This one is pretty close.]

“Where is it, then?”

Pressing down on her throbbing forehead, Seong-ha remembered the advance payment she had received for the A-rank weapons now sleeping peacefully in her bank account.

The sight of all those zeros she had never thought she’d touch in her lifetime unfolded in her mind, bringing a sense of peace to both body and soul.

Financial therapy really is the best treatment.

Once I get out of this dungeon, I’ll spend money properly and heal myself.

Our guild doesn’t even have a building yet.

Seong-ha firmly resolved this in her heart.

[Incheon!]

And so, after selling the A-rank weapons to the Association, Seong-ha’s life of wandering between hotels in Seoul to evade the guilds came to an end.

“I never thought I’d have to enter one of these again… And I have to do this eleven times?”

[Ten times now. There’s a saying among humans that a good beginning is half the battle, you know?]

“Hah, you sure talk big.”

Seong-ha carefully packed the five C-rank daggers she had bought from a guild exchange in Incheon into her bag and let out a sigh that seemed capable of making the ground cave in.

Fortunately, the exchange employee hadn’t recognized her identity beneath her hat and mask.

So now she had to enter the dungeon immediately.

“Yeah, a good beginning is half the battle. The problem is, I feel like I’ll die before I even get started.”

And this dungeon was located at the top of a mountain, no less.

After shoving her bag full of various items purchased from the exchange into her Inventory for dungeon survival, Seong-ha let out a long sigh.

“Huff, huff…! Where the hell is the dungeon…?”

[Almost there. Just 150 meters ahead!]

[By the way, your stamina is ridiculously poor. You should exercise.]

“If you’re not going to help, shut up…!”

[That’s harsh. Where else will you find an entity that helps you as wholeheartedly as I do?]

After trudging up the mountain for nearly an hour, Seong-ha’s vision had grown blurry with sweat.

Quasar’s notification window appeared in front of her.

Seong-ha glared fiercely at Quasar’s crocodile tears before straightening her back and catching her breath.

“Why the hell did a dungeon gate have to appear in a place like this…?!”

[I don’t know either. Dungeon gates appear in completely random locations.]

“You sure talk a good game. …Huh?”

At least she had been able to put her bag into her Inventory.

If she had been carrying a backpack all the way up here…

Seong-ha shuddered at the horrifying thought.

As she slowly walked toward the dungeon to warm up her body, her eyes widened.

“This dungeon isn’t registered with the Association. And someone has already entered it?”

[Huh? You’re right. I didn’t know anyone else would climb this rough mountain to enter the dungeon.]

“You… You deliberately put the dungeon gate here, didn’t you?”

[Hmm? Who knows? I wouldn’t know anything about that.]

He’s definitely trying to screw me over.

He absolutely is.

Grinding her teeth at Quasar’s shameless response, Seong-ha approached the dungeon gate.

Basically, all dungeon gates existing in Korea were managed by the government agency known as the Hunter Association.

Newly discovered dungeon gates were registered with the Association, then assigned to domestic guilds under the Association’s management so they could be cleared on a regular basis.

Gates registered with the Association were marked by guide signs set up nearby.

But no matter how much she looked around, there were no signs erected by the Association.

“Come to think of it, even the Association couldn’t have known a dungeon gate would appear on top of a mountain. I suppose it’s understandable that they haven’t registered it.”

[Though it seems someone has already discovered it.]

[Since they haven’t registered it with the Association yet, they must have been quietly taking advantage of it on their own.]

“Right. And the gate is red instead of blue, which means someone has already entered.”

Seong-ha raised her hand over the red, rippling gate.

Even so, having entered a dungeon once before, she wasn’t as nervous as she had been the first time.

Her vision suddenly turned white and flashed brightly, and her consciousness began to drift away.

It was her first dungeon entry in a week.

Calming her queasy stomach after the sudden transportation, Seong-ha opened her eyes, which she had reflexively closed, and gaped.

“It was a tropical rainforest last time, and now it’s a cave…”

[The boss of this dungeon is Aquarius.]

[It’s the one that carries a water bottle under its arm and sprays water everywhere. If you can just take away the water bottle it’s holding, you should be able to manage somehow.]

“What if I can’t take it away?”

[Don’t worry. As long as you don’t die, I can somehow keep you alive.]

“Thanks for letting me know that I’ll be pushed to the brink of death.”

Seong-ha shook her head with bleary eyes.

Even if she didn’t know anything else, she was certain that defeating this boss would be extremely difficult unless she dealt with the water bottle first.

The only light in the cave came from the pale blue glow of Quasar’s notification window, so Seong-ha carefully moved her feet.

The darkness around her made her feel as though her breath was being squeezed out, but the cave wasn’t narrow, so it was still bearable.

The sound of a single person’s footsteps echoed chaotically off the cave’s stone floor.

Fortunately, there was only one path, so it didn’t seem likely that she would get lost just yet.

In a dungeon like this, the boss monster is most likely to be in a large cavern or lake.

Or it could be hiding on the ceiling.

Seong-ha took out one of the daggers she had brought in her Inventory and gripped it tightly as she continued forward.

[But is that really all you want from me?]

“What?”

[You wanted me to stay by your side in exchange for saving my dimension two years from now.]

[Is that really enough?]

“If you’re by my side, I can make you do whatever I want, whenever I want.”

[Oh, that’s true.]

Quasar’s easy acceptance amused her.

He probably didn’t know that one of the reasons she wanted to keep him close was so she could hold on to him, an entity who could leave Ha Seong-ha whenever he wanted, and someday take her revenge.

After all, revenge is easier when you keep your enemy close.

Ha Seong-ha could have asked Quasar for much more.

He was the administrator of the dimension she lived in, and in this place, he possessed power close to omnipotence.

If she borrowed Quasar’s power, she could easily make up for the miserable twenty-five years she had lived through.

But Ha Seong-ha didn’t do that.

“Even if I can’t decide how my life ends, I’ll decide how I get there.”

Two years remained.

That long yet short period of time was insufficient to accomplish everything she had wanted to do.

She would have to run breathlessly if she wanted to finish everything with her own hands, rather than relying on someone else’s help.

Even so, Seong-ha was willing.

If only she could place those who had looked down on her and trampled her mercilessly, along with this world, beneath her feet and trample them in return.

Establishing a guild was only the beginning of everything.

“…There!”

[Looks like there’s someone up ahead.]

“…Let’s go see.”

Just then, the sound of a human voice and something flapping its wings came from the other side of the cave.

Seong-ha decisively cut off her thoughts.

Losing focus in a dungeon was the same as throwing away her life.

Keeping her footsteps as quiet as possible, she approached the inner part of the cave.

A fork in the path appeared.

The noise she had just heard was coming from the left passage, louder now and echoing with a deep hum.

Seong-ha moistened her parched lips, adjusted her grip on the dagger, and headed left.