WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 47: 047
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Right after I returned to reality, I opened my status window.
[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 19)]
[24,230 Points]
“24,230 Points... My daily Point income has finally shot well past 20,000.”
I saved 24,230 Korean citizens!
Hehe. This feels rewarding.
That is an excellent Point income, worthy of an Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter.
All right, let's keep this momentum going!
Let's wipe every last thing in the Tower out!
Anyway, today had been another productive clear.
I earned plenty of Points.
I got plenty of loot.
On top of that, I tested several new spells.
Had I been working a little too hard lately?
I felt proud of myself.
“I hope people recognize my diligence and dedication.”
Even after reaching the supreme realm of Extreme Lunatic Hell Wizard Hunter, I refused to grow complacent and continued improving.
I suddenly felt sorry for the common masses who could learn from someone like me...
“Even an incredible person like me keeps working on self-improvement, yet these Hunters are so damn lazy!”
Even someone as great and noble as me was spending every day so productively.
Yet those Easy-rank commoners gathered on Hunter Gallery just to complain!
I would have to personally reform their rotten attitudes.
-Click!
I quickly photographed the loot and wrote a post.
[Post Title: Newbie Cleared Floor 18 Today...]
[Author: Blue Dot]
(A photo of ramen boxes full of loot piled high in the living room)
Newbie went to Floor 18 today.
It was a March Floor.
So I had to travel really far...
The map was so huge that it took about ten hours...
But I saw lots of Orc Villages while traveling.
So I just killed them all T_T
It felt boring to just kill the Orcs.
So I tested several combat arts while training my fighting ability.
So.
I became an electric rat that shot a million volts.
I became a Lurker.
I became Colonel Kilgore, who loved the smell of napalm.
I even became a Level 5 Railgun that flicked coins!
Thanks to that, I learned lots of new combat arts!
Hehe. It feels good to keep improving.
When you climb the Tower, don't just count on the physical boosts you get from higher Floors.
Why not train yourselves like this too?
They say every drop of sweat shed today is a drop of blood you will not have to shed later, right?
Today's me is stronger than yesterday's me!
Let's all train!
Anyway, today's earnings.
912 Orc axeheads!
97 pieces of Orc Warrior armor!
18 sets of Orc Shaman rings!
24,230 Points...
A total of 666.9 million won...!
I earned well over 600 million won!!!
A few more trips to the Tower and I can move.
Hunter Gallery regulars, follow my example and climb diligently.
Keep working on self-improvement too.
Earn lots of Points so you can save the people!
I'm so proud of myself today that I should grill some beef for the first time in a while hehe.
└Follow your example? Are you telling us to become crazy bastards?
└So today's combat art is million-volt Lurker napalm Railgun? You're mixing every damn thing together lol.
└What the hell is Academy City's third-ranked Level 5 esper, Electromaster Railgun Masaka Makoto, you fucking weeb?
└Let's get a perfect score on the college entrance exam with the Masaka Makoto study method!
└└What kind of meme is this now? My head is spinning...
└Isn't Floor 18 fucking huge? I heard you have to travel a distance as big as the Korean Peninsula. How did you cross it in just ten hours?
└└Blue Dot: I'm an attack helicopter, so I can travel fast. If I ignored all the Orcs, I could get there in five hours, but it took longer because I wiped every last Orc out...
└└Right, this bastard was crazy. That was so absurd I ended up leaving a comment without thinking.
└I do want to emulate your trolling skills. I'm jealous you became a popular regular in only two weeks, fuck.
└└There are things worth envying, and you envy this guy for becoming famous through an attention-seeking fake persona? Lmao.
└└Blue Dot: I said to emulate my diligence and will to improve, not my trolling?
└└So you knew you were a troll too.
└└All right, I'll work hard to become a popular Hunter Gallery regular like Blue Dot.
└└Blue Dot: You pathetic fools!
...
After looking through the comments, I muttered quietly.
“Not one of them is following my will to improve. These stupid fools! Don't they know that every drop of sweat shed today is one less drop of blood shed tomorrow...!”
“You're acting ridiculous again today. More importantly, Jiho, you need to look at this.”
“At what?”
“Look over there. Something's wrong with the living room floor.”
“?”
I got up and inspected the place Hyeji pointed to.
It was the familiar living room floor, covered with yellow vinyl flooring and piled high with ramen boxes full of loot.
Hyeji pointed to one corner of the floor.
“It makes a squishing sound every time I step on it. I think there might be a leak.”
“A leak?”
I stepped on the spot Hyeji had indicated.
-Squish.
Sure enough, I heard water.
A large amount of water had pooled beneath the flooring.
I frowned.
“What? Why is water suddenly pooling under the floor?”
I moved the stacked ramen boxes aside and lifted the flooring.
Then I saw...
“Uh.”
“...Ah.”
Water had soaked the floor beneath the vinyl.
No, pooled water was not the only problem.
Cracks ran across the floor, and the boiler pipes underneath had burst, spilling water everywhere!
I exploded in frustration.
“Did the floor get ruined because this house is so old? Ah! I hate being poor! This miserable life where an old house lets me open an indoor water park!”
“Um... No matter how I look at it, this doesn't seem like an age issue. I think it happened because of the loot's weight. We put tons of loot there every day. The floor probably sank, and the boiler pipes burst.”
“I hate being poor!”
“Excuse me...”
Hyeji's guess made sense.
We piled tons of stuff in one corner of the living room every day, so the floor eventually could not take it and sank.
There was no floor beneath us, and the house was semi-basement, so I thought the floor would not give out no matter how much we stacked there.
Who would have thought the boiler pipes would fail first...
Hyeji continued.
“Looking at it, I don't think this happened in just a day or two. There's water everywhere. Mold is growing too.”
“I thought the house had felt strangely humid lately. So the floor heating pipes had burst...”
The discovery came late because we always had things piled in that spot.
I clicked my tongue.
Now that I knew the house struggled to bear the loot's weight, I could not put it off any longer.
“I really need to move as soon as possible. I've saved up some money, and it's getting hard to store all the loot in the living room...”
“You're finally moving?”
“Yes. But I don't think I can move into Power Palace. The floor there would definitely collapse too if I put loot on it. I need a house with a yard.”
Originally, I wanted to move to Power Palace.
It was because of a dream of mine.
A top-floor penthouse in a skyscraper.
Gracefully sipping wine while looking down at commoners scurrying around on the ground!
How could anyone resist that!
But after seeing the floor get destroyed by the loot's weight, I would have to look for a detached house with a yard instead of a high-rise apartment.
At least if I had a yard, I would not have to worry about storing loot anymore...
It would make Hunter work easier too.
Then Hyeji suddenly asked me something.
“...Come to think of it, we have a Spatial Bag, so we didn't need to take the loot out and put it in boxes. We could have just taken it out of the Spatial Bag and handed it over when the buyers came. Why did you always take the loot out?”
Hyeji was right.
After we got the Spatial Bag, we no longer needed to transfer loot into ramen boxes.
When the loot buyers came with their truck, we could just dump everything into it.
Still, I had stubbornly filled ramen boxes with loot and piled them in the living room.
The reason was simple.
“I need to take pictures and post them on Hunter Gallery.”
“...”
I mean, how was I supposed to resist showing off?
Seeing the living room full of piled-up loot made me feel satisfied just by looking at it.
Hyeji looked at me like I was pathetic, but I ignored it.
I could never give up flex-posting.
Still...
‘How much will it cost to fix this floor? I should repair it before moving, right?’
It was fortunate that it was summer.
Since I did not need heating, I could deal with it for now by shutting off the pipes.
Anyway.
I cleared Floor 18.
There had been one minor mishap with the living room floor getting wrecked, but I earned lots of Points and money while learning several new spells.
Overall, it had been a satisfying day.
Tomorrow was Floor 19.
* * *
United States Climber Management Department.
Central Headquarters, Minister's Office.
“Minister, China has begun making moves.”
Flutter.
An official placed several documents on the desk.
They bore the symbol of China's Ministry of State Security.
The official continued.
“The Chinese side has learned of Baek Jiho's existence. A Hunter Special Task Force under China's Ministry of State Security has been assembled, and numerous covert operations artifacts have been taken out.”
“Hmm.”
“They intend to abduct Baek Jiho. They must be trying to snatch him up before we recruit him.”
China had started targeting Baek Jiho.
They had finally learned about Korea's sixth Hard-rank Hunter and were beginning serious operations.
Since Baek Jiho was only a Middle Floors Hunter without much credible combat power yet, they believed the Hunter Special Task Force could abduct Jiho without difficulty.
Tsk.
Minister Scott clicked his tongue.
“So the Reds caught on too. What about Russia?”
“Fortunately, Russia remains quiet. It is unlikely to intervene yet.”
“But they will catch on soon enough. We need to move as well. What happened to our agent stationed there? Have they made contact?”
“The National Intelligence Service's security is tight, so making contact has proven difficult.”
The United States wanted to recruit Baek Jiho.
Yet they had still been unable to make contact.
The National Intelligence Service agents protecting Jiho had built a tight security perimeter around Jiho.
Their intelligence tradecraft might have been less sophisticated, but the National Intelligence Service was known for thoroughly trained personnel.
Even American agents could not approach Baek Jiho while avoiding their watchful eyes.
Of course, that was only true before the Tower.
Now that artifacts had been discovered, there were countless ways to fool their eyes.
Minister Scott gave a quiet order.
“There isn't much time. I authorize the release of a Grade 1 covert operations artifact. Make contact with Baek Jiho and attempt recruitment.”
“Yes, Minister.”
The Tower often yielded many artifacts.
There were common Hunter weapons and equipment, as well as various potions coveted by the wealthy.
There were also artifacts an operative could use for disguises, invisibility, and illusions.
They intended to use covert operations artifacts to approach Baek Jiho.
Minister Scott asked another question.
“What happened to the recruitment budget?”
“Approval has been secured for up to 100 million dollars for now.”
“That is not bad.”
The United States had set aside 100 million dollars to recruit Baek Jiho.
It was an enormous sum, equivalent to 240 billion won.
In fact... even that was cheap for recruiting a Hard-rank Hunter.
“Baek Jiho is still a Middle Floors Hunter, correct? That helped us get a bargain. If Jiho had reached the Upper Floors or the Highest Floors, we would have had to spend several times more.”
The United States spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Hard-rank Hunters who reached the Upper Floors or the Highest Floors.
In David's case, the world's number one Hunter, the United States had paid a recruitment cost of one billion dollars.
In contrast, Baek Jiho belonged to a country on the brink of destruction and had only reached the Middle Floors.
That was why they planned to recruit Jiho with a budget of just 100 million dollars.
Clink.
Minister Scott opened a Zippo lighter and spoke.
“Before those Chinese bastards snatch Baek Jiho, we make contact and recruit Jiho quickly. This must succeed. Our country's national interest is at stake.”
“I will keep that in mind, Minister.”
China dispatched a Hunter Special Task Force.
The United States sent agents.
With ten weeks remaining before the Republic of Korea's destruction, the great powers' covert struggle had begun in earnest.
Footnotes:
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