50. Recovery Business
“Because…”
“Oh, yeah.”
The explanation that lasted about 10 minutes was over. Ko Byeong-gap looked down at the booklet in a daze.
Kim Seul-gi seemed to have a sore throat since he talked a lot. He moistened his throat with lukewarm green tea before he spoke again.
“If you’re interested, why don’t you apply?”
“No, I don’t think so. I’m not interested.”
Ko Byeong-gap immediately rejected his recommendation.
To sum up what Kim Seul-gi said in one line, leading the North Korea recovery project, so do you have any intention of applying?” Ko Byeong-gap didn’t like it very much.
‘What am I going to do there?’
He knew it was a business with good intentions. He was also aware that experiencing such a thing twice in his life was hard.
However, it had little to do with himself. Even if they gave him a lot of money, he still wouldn’t know. If they could do much more than that, he might reconsider.
“Oh, you’re not interested? That’s too bad. The pay and conditions are pretty good.”
“How much is the pay?”
“As I said earlier, the primary expedition will last for three months. Two billion won will be paid as a basic salary at the expiration of the dispatch, and allowances will be paid separately–”
“Hey, two billion?!”
Ko Byeong-gap shouted in surprise. His voice was so loud that the lobby on the second floor almost rang. People’s eyes were on them, but Ko Byeong-gap didn’t care.
“Yes, yes. The basic salary alone is 2 billion won, and if you add these and other allowances, it will actually be more.”
“Oh, no. Why are they giving so much?”
“What?” Kim Seul-gi asked back, confused. Ko Byeong-gap couldn’t help but ask, “What kind of business is the Hunter Association doing for them to give away 2 billion won like that?”
He calmed himself down a bit.
“I think it’s a bit too much for a three months pay.”
“It’s a risky business, isn’t it? And as I said, the budget was set as the highest ever.”
“Ahhh.”
Ko Byeong-gap suddenly felt a surge of motivation. Two billion. A whopping two billion! Wasn’t 2 billion a whole lot?
‘If it’s 2 billion won, not only can I pay off my debt at once, but I can also make sure that my mother receives the best treatment.’
His heart had already turned.
“If I apply for it, can I do things freely?”
“No, you can’t do it unconditionally. You’re D-class, so if you apply, you’ll be out only as a porter. Only 150 porters are to be recruited from all over the country.”
“Ah… Then the chances of not making it would be much greater, wouldn’t it?”
“But it’s in the order of performance. Your performance is quite good, so I don’t know, and they’re still in the early stages of recruitment.”
When he heard that his performance was good, it made Ko Byeong-gap proud. He felt like he was recognized for the past three years where he had lived and died.
“So. If I apply, I’ll be a porter?”
“Yes, lower-level hunters could only become porters. The attack squad consists of top hunters.”
“Then, there’s a difference in pay?”
“I guess so.”
“Can you tell me how much the difference is?”
“I can’t tell you the exact value because the plan hasn’t been completed yet, but it’s probably a double difference.”
‘Double? So that’s four billion. Huh…’
His head went blank at the thought of four billion won. Ko Byeong-gap shook his head and came to his senses.
“… I’ll apply as soon as possible. Can you do it right away?”
“Of course, of course.”
Kim Seul-gi took out the application documents one by one. Ko Byeong-gap followed his lead and filled out the application form.
Approximately 15 minutes later, the whole process was over.
“Yes, you’re done.”
“When will the results come out?”
“The application deadline is Wednesday, and the announcement is this Friday. A notification message will be sent to the cell phone number you provided.”
“That’s fast.”
“Because next week is the first expedition. Even if you fail in the first round, we’re going to have a second round of recruitment soon, so try applying then.”
“Yes, thank you for letting me know. Take care.”
“Have a good evening.”
Ko Byeong-gap left the association. The evening air was quite chilly.
“Porter. I could live off of that two billion won just by being a porter for three months.”
If it was two billion, there was no reason not to apply. Moreover, he didn’t need to fight in person, right? It was a very good job.
‘The pay would be better if I were a part of the attack squad, but I’m only a D-class hunter on the surface…’
His rank was D.
Although his actual ability was equivalent to a B-class, it was of no use in a grading system determined by the amount and concentration of Karma. He also thought about applying for a rating review, but he decided not to.
Apart from his particular situation, his class wasn’t that important to him anyway, since he worked alone.
There was no guarantee that a reexamination would result in a high rating. Rather, he could’ve received unwanted attention due to his unknown power.
‘I hope I get picked.’
Ko Byeong-gap thought so as he got in his car. If he got selected for the expedition team, he could even change his car to a better one.
***
Some said that time went by too quickly.
That was quite right by all accounts. As the saying goes, the dawn will always come, and the earth will always turn.
Ko Byeong-gap’s daily life was generally similar. He woke up early in the morning, went around for subjugations, and went back to Ashvilam.
There, he checked the conditions of the Goblins. He lived those days for the fun of adding things to Ashvilam.
First, he decided to grow one more crop. Of course, the potatoes and sweet potatoes alone were enough to feed 300 people. That was because the growth potion dramatically shortened their harvest period.
However, wasn’t it sad that grain was missing from the table? So he chose rice.
“Oh, you can dig straight like that.”
“Got it!”
“No? Hey, stop for a second.”
“Oh, I got it!”
Farming was never an easy task. In other words, it wasn’t an area they could overcome only with spirit since they had no related knowledge and experience about it.
At best, they could imitate the job by watching a downloaded video, but they didn’t give up or quit. They had to keep failing to get close to success.
“I think that’s enough. Don’t you think so?”
“Ahhh… I don’t know.”
The rice field was cultivated next to the potato field.
They harrowed it to make it flat and connected it with the dug waterway. The water flowed in from the valley and filled the rice fields, and the floodgate was quickly closed before it overflowed.
The shape of the rice field that they watched on the media was formed. Now, all they had to do was transfer the seedlings that he brought in.
“Come on, let’s plant the rice! Come on, everybody!”
On Wednesday, dozens of Goblins stuck together and planted the rice. The next day, Ko Byeong-gap looked at the chicken coop and fell into deep trouble.
‘Shall we bring in new livestock? What should I do?’
At present, chickens were the only livestock in Ashvilam.
The reason he brought the chicken was purely by chance, but looking back, he realized that he had made a good choice.
It was easy to raise, and it didn’t cost much to feed. The chicken grew well, even if left unattended.
Sometimes, if two or three roosters were put in the henhouse, they would breed, grow, and do everything on their own. Moreover, they even gave eggs which was a good thing for their livestock industry.
‘How about other livestock?’
There were many different types of livestock.
Cows, pigs, horses, goats, rabbits, and so on. The most representative would be cows or pigs.
“Whew. Neither one is easy.”
Cows and pigs were too much for now. Maybe one or two of them would be fine. It took a vast lot of land to raise dozens.
It wasn’t normal just to make a barn. What about the initial funding? Food was even more troublesome. It was a burden to bear the prey of those huge beasts.
“Pigs are omnivores, so I could feed them anything, but cows need fodder…” Ko Byeong-gap groaned.
“I’m going to focus on the chickens for now. Let’s raise a pig after crossing the fog.” He came to that conclusion. He decided that it would be better to focus on one than to spread his focus recklessly.
So on Thursday, he expanded the chicken coop with Gobung, and before he knew it, it was already Friday.
He had a bad day since there was already an owner when he went to the B-rank crack he searched for the previous day.
“Ah…”
He bitterly smoked a cigarette and looked into his cell phone. It was to find if there were any cracks nearby.
“Tsk, they’re all E or F-rank.”
Ko Byeong-gap suddenly felt strange while clicking his tongue. He would’ve run to say it was good in the past, but now he didn’t even look at things below C-rank.
“I’ve made a lot of progress. Anyway, there’s nothing here. Should I really go down to Wonju? When was the last time I…”
Woo!
His cell phone rang out of the blue. It was a text message. What was it? Ko Byeong-gap checked the text with a slight frown.
– Congratulations on your acceptance! You have passed the application for the 1st North Korean Peninsula Expedition Team.
– Orientation (Mandatory!) Date: September 20, 2025 (Sat) 14:00. Venue: 4th-floor auditorium of the Ancient Building, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Ko Byeong-gap stared blankly at his cell phone for a few seconds. What was that? That was what he thought.
How many seconds had passed? He exclaimed.
“Oh, this!”
He applied with mixed feelings on Monday, and he really did pass. Ko Byeong-gap felt like he was dreaming.
“Wow. This is real… Wait. Then, this is not the time to do this.”
Ko Byeong-gap immediately packed up and returned to Seoul. Two billion won worth of work was just around the corner. Was it a problem to be self-satisfied that day?
He didn’t know when the expedition would depart, but if he would be away for three months, he had a lot to sort out.
Ko Byeong-gap calmly and meticulously organized his surroundings. The day went by so quickly, and the next day dawned again. He had a quick lunch and headed to Jongno for the orientation.
‘I should’ve taken the subway. Why is there so much traffic?’
He shouldn’t have driven to get there, but he wasn’t going to be late because he went out earlier than planned.
Ko Byeong-gap was guided by the navigation and went to the Ancient Building. He went down to the underground parking lot and pulled over, his mouth wide open.
“Hey, is this a supercar showroom or what?”
The parking lot was packed with cars that cost hundreds of millions of won. Among them, Ko Byeong-gap’s red light car felt the most shabby.
‘If I scratched any of these cars, it’ll cost me two billion won.’
He parked his car with all his attention to avoid scratching anything.
After parking the car, he went straight up. When he went to the desk on the first floor, a neat middle-aged man in a suit helped guide him.
“How did you get here?”
“I’m here to attend an orientation on the fourth floor.”
“What’s your name, by any chance?”
“I’m Ko Byeong-gap.”
“Can I see your ID?”
“Oh, yes.”
The middle-aged man looked at Ko Byeng-gap’s ID and searched for something. He then nodded his head and handed him a nameplate.
“Yes, you can use the elevator behind you.”
“Take care.”
His name tag was marked with his name, and below it was an unknown number, C-7. Ko Byeong-gap put it on his chest and headed to his elevator.
‘Why isn’t there a button on the elevator? Ah. Should I be aware of this? Oh, that’s amazing.’
As expected, luxury buildings were different. It was a series of admiration. When he arrived on the fourth floor, a wide corridor opened up in front of him, and at the end of it was a large arched door.
He walked over there and thought it was where he needed to go. When he opened the door and stepped inside, a slightly dark space welcomed him.
Shoot!
As soon as he opened the door, a huge wave of Karma hit him. Every hair on his entire body was on edge. The torrent of Karma was emitted by those who came first.
Ko Byeong-gap was instantly aware of it. How great the humans there were. There was a wide podium in front of hundreds of seats. He didn’t want to look like he was intimidated, so he kept his back straight. He found an empty seat and sat down.
‘It’s still 1:20. There’s quite a bit left to get started.’ He glanced at the clock and rolled his eyes. He secretly observed the first 100 or so people.
‘Isn’t that person Woo Won-tae? That’s Ma Si-young. Really crazy! Am I doing it with people like that?’
S-class powerhouses he had only seen on TV were in front of him. Even though he wasn’t a teenage girl, his heart was pounding. Shouldn’t he brag about that to his neighborhood? When he tried to think such immature thoughts, he heard a voice next to him.
“May I sit next to you?”
“Hmm?”
It was a tall woman who spoke to him. She looked familiar somewhere. The problem was that her name didn’t come to mind.
She sat next to Ko Byeong-gap.
“I didn’t expect to see you like this. Nice to see you. Did you also apply for the expedition, Mr. Byeong-gap?”
“Oh, yes.”
“How have you been?”
“I’ve been good. You are…?”
As Ko Byeong-gap hesitated, the other person noticed and said, “Have you forgotten me?”
“No, I remember. But to be honest, I can’t think of your name.”
“It’s Yeom Jeong-hwa.”
“Ah!” He let out a small exclamation.
Yes. It was the B-class hunter, Yeom Jeong-hwa, who went into the dungeon with him in Daejeon.
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