Evolution Theory of the Hunter

I followed behind the guy to the parking lot. He was waiting for me surrounded by dozens of people in black suits.

“Take it out.”

“Wait.”

I took out the van from the item list. As a van suddenly appeared from nowhere, an exclamation came out of An Gyu-bum’s mouth.

“Didn’t you say that did doesn’t have the function to become small?”

“This is a different ability.”

“I will give you the information if you add the secret ability and give it to me.”

“Don’t spout bullshit and hand over the information. If you don’t like it you’re not getting the van either.”

“Hm. Come here for a bit.”

He held his index finger and signalled towards me.

“Are you asking me to break your finger?”

“Oh boy. You’re a really twisted guy huh. How does this look like that?”

“Do you call your parents like that as well?”

“Are you my parents?”

“Damn. If only you couldn’t talk.”

It hurt my pride a lot but I endured thinking about Jong Sa-won.

As I went towards him, Jeon Min-jeong who was next to him handed me a black suitcase.

As I received it and opened the bag, a black suit was in it.

“What’s this?”

“The thing you want. It blocks aging as a matter of course and prevents diseases as well. By the way, that’s a level 10 item and it’s not sold even in the market so it wouldn’t be possible to get it anywhere.”

“…… Really?”

“Do I look like someone that has that little to do to bring you all the way here and joke around?”

It seems like he had really little to do looking at how he was stalking me in the first place.

I inspected the suit through the manual.

Eternal Immortality Suit (10) : Returns the body to its prime condition. Aging is stopped and becomes immune to diseases. Can regenerate missing body parts.

It wasn’t a lie. I was curious as to how this guy had such a thing but I was also curious as to why he would hand over such a thing.

The van was a good item but could it be said to be as good as this suit? This was something that not only Jong Sa-won but anybody would be greedy for.

“It’s all good. Besides one thing.”

“What is it?”

“Is there no other design besides a suit? You can’t battle while wearing this right.”

The suit itself was a level 10 so there was no problem with its defensive capabilities.

It wouldn’t get ripped but it can be said that it had no ability to absorb damage.

“That’s a problem you will have to take care of yourself. Don’t speak nonsense and hand over the item.”

“Take it.”

I pointed at the van.

By the way, this was a newly available merchandise of the store, a 10 EP low price van. Everything was the same besides one thing, it didn’t have the internal space expansion.

Of course, even without that it was a really good item. It was a vehicle that had absolute bullet proof and had some defensive ability against hunter ambushes.

It would be overdoing it to use it in a ceremony, but if it’s a situation where safety is needed then there should be a time this will be needed. I’m thinking that it was for such a reason that An Gyu-bum tried to buy it for a price of 1t.

Of course, looking at his expression it can be assumed that he has some other thoughts but, well, he shouldn’t be able to do much.

In the first place, it’s not something that can be disassembled.

Even if it could be done, the same thing can’t be made. The main point of this vehicle is whether it’s treated as an item or not after all.

An Gyu-bum inspected the van closely.

“Hm. It’s the right item right?”

“Check if you’re curious.”

“I was planning on doing so.”

As he said so, he took out a short sword. Seeing how it looked, it was a level 3 no name short sword. It was just right for testing defensive ability.

An Gyu-bum stabbed the short sword into the van’s wheel.

Instead of the wheel ripping or exploding, the short sword was deflected. He had a satisfied expression.

“Good. Let’s say the trade is over with this.”

He held out his hand and I shook that hand. Putting aside the fact that I didn’t like this guy, I was being truly thankful about allowing me to get this kind of item.

“Contact me if you have a good item next time as well. I’ll give you a good price for it.”

“I’m honestly quite curious. What’s your reason for trying to gain so many rare items? Is it really just for collection?”

“Yeah. There’s a collection in the house.”

“Well, whatever. Whatever you do with that.”

It was too obvious that it was a lie but there was no point in forcefully getting it out of him.

I came back to the ward and handed the suitcase to Jong Sa-won. He who had taken the suit out had an doubting look and opened his mouth.

“I’ll get better if I wear this?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if the effect is immediate but at the very least it won’t worsen.”

“I see.”

He silently looked at the suit. It was an extremely luxurious cloth and design just looking at it. Thinking about it, there was almost no difference in design between this and the suit An Gyu-bum was wearing. Was he wearing this as well? I belatedly thought that I should have checked with the manual.

“What are you doing? Are you not going to wear it?”

Soo-ah urged Jong Sa-won. He silently looked and the clothes and opened his mouth.

“This was probably expensive right?”

“I got it cheaply. It’s almost like getting it for free really.”

It was something I got with a 10 EP vehicle. In terms of money, about 1b. Thinking about how this is a level 10 item, it’s basically the same thing as getting it for free. It was a profit for me so there was nothing bad for me.

“…… Thank you.”

He seemed to have more to say but I could see that he kept it in. It seems he didn’t just want to say his thanks. I could feel an emotion that was more complicated, a feeling that was difficult for me to understand right now.

Due to the death of his brother and the revenge for it, he had been hunting monsters like crazy. Even while the party members were having run in between hunting, he would often stay alone at the side. I tried not to care too much even if on purpose.

I didn’t have any wish to drag him in and make get more intimate with the others. I knew he didn’t have much time left after all. I had left him to do as he want, to live as he want.

He who had been fighting a battle of his own had suddenly gotten a long period of time to live. As someone who didn’t understand his pain, I didn’t think I had the qualification to say this and that to him.

However, it was different from now on. There was a lot of time left for him. There had to be no cases of him throwing himself out for meaningless revenge from now on. The time had come for him to now live his own life.

Even if the conclusion was him leaving our party, I was going to respect his decision.

Jong Sa-won who properly wore the suit slowly moved his body.

Slight excitement appeared on his face.

“This…… My body properly moves.”

“It seems to be more effective than I thought.”

It seems a level 10 was a level 10. Jong Sa-won’s face that seemed like he would die any minute had liveliness in it now. His thin body was the same but I could feel power from his every movement.

For now, Jong Sa-won’s procedure to leave the hospital was put into motion. Hearing that he was moving to a sanitarium, the doctor silently accepted his discharge. It was because further treatment had no meaning for him from a professional examination’s judgement.

I was curious as to what kind of expression he would make if he knew that his body was completely fine but there was no need to say unnecessary words.

While we were returning on the van, Jong Sa-won opened his mouth.

“Where is the next hunting area?”

“For now, I am planning on deciding between a level 9 dungeon and New Alaska.”

“I see. Anywhere is fine so I would like to go soon.”

“There is no need to move in such a rush. We can just go after your body is healed to some degree.”

“I’m not sure what I should do in the remaining time.”

“By any chance, your house is……?”

“I don’t have a separate place I live in.”

I found out that during the resting period after hunting, he always went to the hospital to get treatment. Thinking about it, when he first came holding the Rubicon Sword, he had said that he sold the house on top of his younger brother’s insurance after all. It seems he had constantly been in the hospital after he had gotten money while living in a small one person room.

“Then please stay at my house for the time being.”

“I don’t have any thoughts on bothering you.”

“Not really…… I bought a new house so it’s quite wide. There quite a few place you can train as well so I think it would be helpful if you help out with training team 2 instead.”

Jong Sa-won thought for a short while and nodded his head.

He was alone after losing his family anyway. It would be more comfortable for both of us to stay at my house. I was also alone and there were a couple of weird people but as Soo-ah and Yeon-gyeong had said it was better the more people there were in a large house so there was no need to think that he would be a bother.

Since the house was so large, I hired some people to clean. A person to manage the gymnasium and guard the property and a housekeeper in charge of domestic affiars.

The land was quite large but they said that they were people that would work hard as long as their monthly salary had a good pay so I gave them the first month’s salary immediately.

The next thing to do was to change all the money I got from the market into items. Money close to 2t disappeared instantly.

An individual getting rid of this much fortune at once would be impossible if it was in the past but thinking about the money the market moves, it wasn’t much.

In the first place, the amount of money that moves around in this small country is said to be comparable to that of a financial giant like China after all.

China got that much by selling rice but our country’s main export was none other than items. Equipment that all have a price tag of 100m were being exported in the hundreds of thousands every year.

The population had decreased so the economical scale had shrunk so the money was pouring out.

If there was a problem it would be that the normal people are not feeling that at all.

The top class hunters were living a life of luxury but the lives of normal people were getting tougher as time went on. The capitalism trap where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer was happening to the extreme on this land.

It was not an exaggeration that there was no method to solve this. In a situation where the market was monopolizing almost all the wealth, a fraction of the large companies and large raid groups were living off of the remainder after all.

The government was also getting a tremendous amount of money off of the market’s taxes every year. The problem was that most of that money was being used to make things convenient for the large raid teams or companies.

It meant that welfare for normal people is meaningless for the most part since the money was all from that area.

Soo-ah who heard me opened her mouth.

“Either way, it means our country is really rich right?”

“Well, the country is like that but normal people aren’t. That money is all used to make roads and to control dungeons and monsters after all. It’s said that it’s to the point that they’re causing a fuss that there’s not enough even after taking so much money from the market through tax.”

“Hm. I see.”

“That’s what’s said but who knows. It might be leaking through the back.”

I was currently sitting in the first floor living room waiting for people. I had called the others to discuss where to make our next hunting area.

The difference from before was that I could call people without worrying too much since the house is large. I started thinking that I should have gotten a house earlier.

I called team 2 for now as well. I had temporarily blocked them from working as a group of hunters besides Delta activities. If they did something similar to someone else like they did to us while hunting on their own and caused a conflict, it would just make it difficult for me after all.

But that didn’t mean that they could move with team 1. The difference in level is huge in the first place you see. Even so, it would be difficult to lend them level 10 items.

That’s why, I was planning on electing a new leader of team 2 and make them go around separately.

I had already decided internally.

Soo-ah opened her mouth.

“So you’re planning on putting Mr. Jong Sa-won into Jang Moon-bok’s team? Would the directing go well when that mister doesn’t talk much?”

“Then will you do it? They seemed to listen to you very well.”

“Hehe. Why are you saying something so saddening. You know that I can’t even use half my strength if I’m not next to seonbae oppa don’t you.”

The Necklace of Confinement that she had did not function if she got a certain distance away from me. That’s why I couldn’t leave her with team 2. But that didn’t mean that I could send Han Joon-suk who was the brain and sending Cho Young-gu with him would be bad too.

The two are close friends so they will try not to be separated as much as possible after all. I tried probing Yeon-gyeong’s opinion but as expected she felt like she would be burdened. In the end the only person left was Jong Sa-won. Also, I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea for him to try out being in charge of a team.

He had been active alone for far too long after all.